Happy Halloween & Oh! My Goodness ...

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Well ... I definately had a Halloween scare this morning. I was driving into our little town this morning and I heard this great big boom. I thought to myself ... gosh ... what is that? Then, as I was trying to figure out what it was ... my entire back window exploded. Oh my goodness ... I was terrified. I quickly pulled over, checked on Griffin and our dog Wyatt. Then I went to the back of the van to see what happened. My entire back window had exploded. I called my husband on the cell phone, because I did not know what to do. Do I call the police? Why did it do this? Is it safe to drive home? All these questions are running through my mind ... and I have no answers. My husband tells me to look and make sure there is no bullet hole (Yikes!) in the window. I didn't see one. As I am standing on the side of the road, with my car pulled over as far as possible, I'm on the cell phone, with a giant hole in the back of my car, obviously crying ... all these people pass me ... no one stops! Can you believe that??? Not even one "Ma'am are you okay?"!! Well ... I call my neighbor and she comes to follow me home. Unfortunately they are unable to come to repair it until tomorrow. I would still like to know what on earth caused my back window to explode. Never in my life have I experienced anything like this. Thank goodness no one got hurt, and it is just a window ... but what a scary thing to happen on Halloween!!

Sleepless Nights

It's 11:30 am and I'm about to drop. Griffin has been waking up in the middle of the night and we can not figure out why. He's been sleeping through the night since he was 6 months old (he's 8 months old now) ... but the past few weeks, he's been waking up crying hysterically. He's in bed by 7:30 pm. Last night he woke up at 10:00 pm. I rubbed his back for a few minutes and he went back to sleep. He woke up again at 11:30 and stayed awake until 1:00 am. I changed his diaper, gave him Tylenol, tried the back rubbing again (didn't work this time). I even rocked him for over an hour. He was fine as long as he was in my arms ... otherwise, there was no consoling him. I finally put him back in his crib and let him cry it out. He cried for about 10 minutes or so, and then slept until wake up time. He's such an early riser ... he's normally up by 5:30 am. This morning, I woke up at the normal time ... but he actually slept until about 6:30 am. It was nice having about an hour to get some things done before he woke up. He's napping right now ... I think Mommy will take a short nap with him. G'night.

Hurricane Wilma

Our family and friends in Florida made it through Hurricane Wilma with no damage. We are from Central Florida and the majority of our friends and family live there. We always hold our breath when a Hurricane is in the Gulf or Atlantic. You just never know what Mother Nature intends to do. We are certainly saying a prayer for those who did suffer damage of any kind.

Television Re-Runs

Does anyone remember when we all anticipated the arrival of the "new televesion season" each September? That meant NEW shows until summer. I just do not understand the television industry. It's October 24th and they are already showing re-runs ... LAST season re-runs at that. Extreme Makeover Home Edition is my favorite tv show. Sunday night is "my" TV night. I start with America's Funniest Home Videos, the Extreme Makeover Home Edition, Desperate Housewives, ending with Grey's Anatomy. Last night I was very disappointed to see EMHE was a re-run already. Granted, it was a great episode ... but I saw that same episode at least twice last year. C'mon ... give us some new shows!

Paula Deen ... Sweet Southern Gal

I am a huge Paula Deen fan. If you are not familiar with who Paula Deen is ... boy are you missing out. She is this incredibly, funny, southern chef. She has a show on the Food Network, called Paula's Country Cooking (or something like that). She is just the funniest, most spirited, kindest, lady. I would absolutely LOVE to meet her!

She has a restaurant in Savannah, GA too. My dream is to one day visit Savannah (again ... we went several years ago) and visit her restaurant. It's called The Lady & Sons ... her website is http://www.ladyandsons.com. I just discovered she will have a new magazine too! Oh Joy!! I am soooo excited. The premiere issue is November 2005.

While, I am still a Marth fan ... Paula Deen is my hero!

My Vegetable Soup turned out yummy! My husband returned from a business trip yesterday and when he came in the door ... I asked him to take a look at it. He suggested I remove some of the vegetables, so it would simmer more easily. Oh my goodness ... it was delicious! So good, in fact, we are having it for dinner again tonight.

Vegetable Soup Kinda Day

I've decided to make Vegetable Soup today. I've never made it ... but it's rainy, dreary and cold out ... the perfect day for Vegetable Soup. I've gotten the crock pot out ... browned the stew meat ... added beef broth, stewed tomatos, two bags of mixed veggies and cut up three small potatos. I think this will be Vegetable Soup. The only problem is ... when I put the lid on, the juice comes over the lid. So, I took some of the juice out, and put the lid back on. Really ... I think I have too much "stuff" in it ... it's not really soupy. Is that bad? I saved the extra juice I took out, just in case I need it for later.

Growing up ... my neighbor Judy McKee used to make Vegetable Soup. I remember it was always a special treat when she made it because she always made enough to share with our family. I wish I had HER recipe. It was the absolute BEST Vegetable Soup in the world.

In our family, our idea of vegetables were corn, mashed potatos and black eyed peas. It was amazing to have Mrs. McKee's Vegetable Soup because we actually ate real vegetables and they were GOOD!

My other neighbor Mrs. Cox used to make fried cornbread ... it was the coolest thing ... she even put a little hole in the middle, so it looked like donuts. I have no clue how to make fried cornbread ... again, I wish I had Mrs. Cox's recipe for fried cornbread. I don't do well with frying things. My husband says I don't get the oil hot enough. I just hate it when the things you are frying "pops" and you get burned.

I feel a sense of accomplishment already today ... not only do I have the Vegetable Soup on simmering ... I've already finished 2 orders and it's only 10:30. My goal is another 4 ... wish me luck!

My First Post - October 20th!

I've wanted to create a blog for awhile now ... so today I took the time to do it! Although my life is not very exciting, I think it's a great way to get to know people and share thoughts. So, today ... it's the first day of my blog! Here goes ...

This morning started out GREAT! Griffin (my 8 month old) and I were taking our dog Wyatt for his early morning walk. We have woods across the road and I hurt stomping going on. I looked closely and I saw a deer. Then I saw running ... 2 more deer! We saw a total of 3 deer this morning. Of course we know there are deer around here, however we rarely see them on our property. It was very cool because Griffin saw deer for the first time! What was truly amazing is they actually stood still so we could see them.

The leaves are beginning to change ... fall is definately in the air. October is my very favorite month of the entire year. I just love fall colors, fall smells, pumpkins, etc.

Well ... that's it for my first post ...