It's a Girl!

We found out on Wednesday that our second grand would be a little baby girl.  Miss Zoey Ann-Marie is scheduled to make her appearance in  late October.  The DH is so excited, and will from this point on will be referred to as Poppa J.   Isn't she adorable?

 

There are times in life when you gotta crawl,

Lose your grip, trip and fall

When you can't lean on no one else,

That's when you find yourself

I've been around and I've noticed that

Walk-in's easy when the road is flat

Them danged 'ole hills will get you every time.

Yeah, the good Lord gave us mountains so we could learn how to climb

                                                                              "Mountains" by Lonestar

Twelve weeks ago, I started the B.A.L.A.N.C.E program at OSU.   It is a fitness and nutrition program that is handled by the OSU Wellness Center.  In the last couple of years, I have had a couple of health issues that have kept me from regularly working out.  I originally thought that I could sail through the fitness portion of the program but I was wrong.  It was tough.  I started out with a trainer two days a week and by the end of the program, I was up to 5 days a week.  Midway through the program, my morning group decided to participate in the "Remember the Ten" 5K Run.  We had a small group sign up and on April 25, I actually walked by first 5k.  We made the walk in 55 minutes, and there were still people behind us at the end.  It was a major milestone for me.  I'm ready for the next one!

In Color.....

I wrote this post several months ago. I don't know why I didn't post it then.   Anyway, here it is, and to all my cousins, I will forever be LuLu.

I taped dvr'd a CMT Crossroads this week. The DH listens to Shooter Jennings every week on XM and we both like Jamie Johnson. We watched it this morning, while we were waiting for the rain to stop. As Jamie started to sing In Color, my mind immediately was returned to Thanksgiving week, and our family get-together. Thanksgiving was originally planned to be in my hometown, but my Uncle H had been sick and my cousins were afraid that he would not be able to make even a short trip for Thanksgiving. So we put our heads together and changed the location to their hometown. Food was purchased and I had everything ready to go. We all thought that it was really going to be perfect for everyone until I got a call on Tuesday morning before Thanksgiving that my Uncle H had died quietly in his sleep.

I had been working on a group of old pictures for the get-together. I absolutely love old pictures, by the way. I love seeing the faces and the clothes. I love trying to put myself in the picture. Study the background for things that look familiar, and talking to people in the pictures and finding out what was happening. Many of the old pictures came to me without names or dates. So the plan was for everyone to look through the old pictures and pin them on boards in the eras that they were snapped.

My cousins still wanted to have Thanksgiving in their hometown, so the DH and I loaded up all our stuff and headed to eastern Oklahoma for a long weekend. One cousin said it was going to be a "tender" time but it would be good family time. And it was. We were all able to reconnect and I think we are closer now than we have been in years. There is something about being with the people that you grew up with. They get all the jokes about grandparents that can't hear, or butterscotch candy. It's just a great time, and comforting. It's almost like you regress to a simpler time, when we didn't have a care in the world. Before we got married, had kids and grew older.

So as I sat and listened to the song, "In Color", my thoughts went back to those old pictures. My Uncle H and his brothers, all gone now. My mother,as beautiful today at 92, as she was back in the 40's. My Uncle's service in the US Navy. His 5 deployments to the South Pacific from 1941 - 1946. And of course, how he always called me LuLu. How I wished I had just spent some more time talking about those pictures. And now another chapter in my life is now silenced forever.

I said, Grandpa what’s this picture here**
It’s all black and white and ain’t real clear
Is that you there, he said, yeah I was eleven

Times were tough back in thirty-five
That’s me and Uncle Joe just tryin’ to survive
A cotton farm in the Great Depression

This one here was taken overseas
In the middle of hell in nineteen forty-three
In the winter time you can almost see my breath
That was my tail gunner ole’ Johnny McGee
He was a high school teacher from New Orleans
And he had my back right through the day we left

This one is my favorite one
This is me and grandma in the summer sun
All dressed up the day we said our vows
You can’t tell it here but it was hot that June
That rose was red and her eyes were blue
And just look at that smile I was so proud

That’s the story of my life
Right there in black and white

And if it looks like we were scared to death
Like a couple of kids just trying to save each other
You should have seen it in color

A picture’s worth a thousand words
But you can’t see what those shades of gray keep covered
You should have seen it in color

You should have seen it in color.
Yep, wish I had seen it in color.......

**Lyrics to the song, In Color, by Jamey Johnson.

Technology in Education Giveaway

Technology in Education Giveaway

How about them OSU Cowboys?

It's a great night to be an Oklahoma State Cowboy! We have had a rough few weeks with the plane crash that took the life of our girl's basketball head coach and assistant coach and 2 alumni and our first loss of the season the night after the crash. Our Cowboys have bounced back, and gave us a great Bedlam win tonight and the Big 12 Championship. We have 4 new guardian angels looking over us. It's a great night to be an Oklahoma State Cowboy!

Cinnamon Bun Cake........

Isn't it pretty? One of my coworkers is working his way through the CPA exams and I've told him that we will have cake to celebrate each step. I asked him his preference and he said anything low sugar and low fat. I thought, it's cake? not cardboard, but I tried. I really did. I looked for a recipe in several different places, but I didn't have all the ingredients, and at 7 pm and cold outside I really didn't want to make a trip to the store. So I went to my Pinterest Yummy board and started to review my posts. Have I said that I love Pinterest? I was looking for a recipe that used a cake mix, and I found the perfect one, Cinnamon Bun Cake from Me and My Pink Mixer. Only one little problem, no sour cream. Check the frig.... Voila!.....Greek vanilla yogurt. The cake went together very easily. Next time, and there will be a next time, I will mix the brown sugar with the yogurt and the eggs before I add the cake mix. The batter was smooth and creamy not at all normal cake mix consistency, but took some additional mixing to flatten the sugar lumps. I mixed up the cinnamon and sugar topping and I added walnuts. The recipe directs you to layer the batter and the sugar mixture. So I put about half the batter in the pan, and added the sugar mixture as directed. I swirled the sugar mix in the batter and then added the next layer of batter. The recipe calls for the rest of the sugar mixture to go on the top and then in the oven. I will add almost all the remaining sugar mixture to the top and swirl again, reserving just a small amount for the top. I might even add some additional walnuts. I thought the temperature on the recipe was a little low. I've never baked a cake at 325, always 350, but I went by the recipe. I had to add an additional 10 minutes to the cooking time. After 45 minutes, my toothpick didn't come out clean. The cake went with me to work the next morning. The cake was a hit, and it didn't make it to the lunch bell. My coworker said that it reminded him of the cinnamon swirl coffee cake he gets at Starbucks. I saved a piece for the DH. He had it with his coffee this morning and loved it! We have another winner! It would be perfect for a holiday girlfriend get-together or even Christmas morning. So it's Cinnamon Bun Cake over at Me and My Pink Mixer. Give it a try.

Who loves Pinterest?

Do you have trouble remembering the last kewl idea you saw on the internet?
Do you get tired of searching through all the bookmarks to find the pattern you want to use? Well, you need to sign up for Pinterest. It's a great place to share you interests, keep track of those great idea you find while browsing the internet, and do a little wishing. When I was a kid we called it window shopping! So join the crowd and join Pinterest today!