Christmas without Mom

This was our first Christmas without mom.  I don't think that Christmas is ever going to feel the same again.  We had the people, we had the food and we had the decorations and presents but the most important element was my mom's presence and she's not here.

My mother had such a way with Christmas.  It was her most favorite time of the year and she was completely in her element. 

 

From my first memories of Christmas in our home it was a time of happiness and anticipation of presents yet to be opened.  The tree would be bought and ornaments would be brought out and hung with care.  And tinsel had to be strung just so....there was no getting around just throwing the tinsel on...you had to ever so carefully place it just so.  As children we could not appreciate the careful placement but as we grew up it began to take on a new meaning and it was a time when we were all together as a family doing something together. 

 

My mother had a way with Christmas presents as well.  I cannot tell you how many times that I could not for the life of me think of something that I wanted other than a cookbook or a novel and my mother would find something special for me and put it under the tree.  She had a gift for gift giving.  She knew us so well that she knew what we wanted even when we could not think of it ourselves. 

 

I was not looking forward to the annual picture taking around the tree.  We've done it every year with my older brother making the sign with the year on it.   But no one mentioned it this year and I have to say "Thank You" as I think I would have been reduced to tears at that point.  

 

My father said the blessing before the meal this year...something he has not done in decades and he choked up when he mentioned the woman who was responsible for this family.  It was a moment. 

 

We are creating new memories and we are learning how to deal with our loss. 

 

I knew that this Christmas would be the hardest but we were able to celebrate it and we were able to even have a few laughs.  It doesn't mean that it won't hurt every year...but this next year I'm hoping it will hurt a little less. 

 

No, Christmas will never be the same and I will ALWAYS miss my mother not being a part of it anymore but we will pull together as a family and make the best of it that we can. 

The Stray Table

Today I made homemade marshmallows.  If I was a better blogger and thought about things in advance I would have taken pictures of the whole process...but as it is...you will just have to be happy with a picture of the finished product. 
Marshmallows are a relatively easy thing to make.  Bloom some gelatine, make a sugar mixture, add the two together and presto you have marshmallows.  It's fun...simple, fast and they are really, really good.  And when you do this....you can make changes to the taste. For instance...if you wanted a peppermint flavored marshmallow then all you have to do is add peppermint flavored extract.  Do you get my drift?  Varieties are endless.
I'm not all that concerned with Thanksgiving and being without Mother.  That's because years ago when we all started getting married and started to have whole other families involved...Mother decided that to make things easier on us...they (she and Dad) would travel to Vegas to have Thanksgiving with my younger brother and his wife.  This worked out wonderfully for us not having to decide whos house to go to or worse..have to eat two meals.  And like I say...it worked wonderfully for years...then there was the year that Bob's mother got sick.  I kept asking her to allow me to do Thanksgiving dinner.  We had the room and the time and all she would have to do is sit back and enjoy.  She staunchly refused and then called us the night before and told us that she would not be able to do it.  We'd been invited to several other Thanksgiving dinners but had turned them down because Polly was going to do it.  I don't feel like it's proper manners to call someone up the night before and say..."Hey, our plans have changed...do you still have room".  To be honest...most people probably wouldn't bat an eyelash at that and they'd all have enough for us to eat...but it's still not polite and so we decided that we'd just do our own thing...
So with the weather being pretty nasty...cold and wet....we headed out in jeans and sweats to see what was open.  We had to travel down the interstate into the next town and we found some sort of family eatery....not cafeteria style but something similar and we had what had to be the worst Thanksgiving Dinner EVER!!!! 
I swore up and down that this was never going to happen again and that Polly would just have to give up and I wouldn't take no for an answer.  Not 4 months later Polly died and I said to Bob..."I don't care who you invite, just start inviting people and we'll feed them.  And so he did and that is the beginning of what we like to call "The Stray Table". 
So this is for people who would rather not go to families (for whatever reason) and it's for our friends, and it's for people who don't have anywhere else to go. 
We've had as many at 22 and we've had as little as 10.  All different people from all walks of life.  The conversation is always lively and interesting and I work my butt off...but it makes me happy. 
So Daddy heads to Vegas tomorrow to spend Thanksgiving with my brother and his family and today I began the initial prep work for Thanksgiving. 
If you celebrate...Have a wonderful Thanksgiving...if you don't have anyplace to go...come on by...we'll be more than happy to feed you. 

Sunday I Race

For the past 12 years I have raced in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Austin, Texas.  And for the past 12 years I have raced in Celebration that my mother was alive and seemed to be cured of the breast cancer that she was diagnosed with 16 years ago. 
This Sunday is different.  This Sunday I will have to race in memory of my mother who lost that fight and I've been emotional about it all week. 
As I have done in the past two years I will post the following to my facebook page.

Tomorrow I Race.
Tomorrow I Race in Celebration of all those who have fought and won the battle against Breast Cancer. 
Tomorrow I Race in Support of all those who are fighting Breast Cancer.
Tomorrow I Race in Memory of all those who have lost the fight and tomorrow I race with the hope in my heart that a cure will be found and I will never have to race again.  

This time my post will be.....
Tomorrow I Race.
Tomorrow I Race in Memory of my mother who lost her fight against Breast Cancer and all those who have gone before her.
Tomorrow I Race in Celebration of those who have won the fight.
Tomorrow I Race in Support of all those who are fighting and tomorrow I race with the hope in my heart that a cure will be found and I will never have to race again.  

Country Livin'

Can you see em?  Look closely....there they are.....can you see em? 
As I was running an errand for a friend last week I spotted this whole flock of Jake Turkeys going from one pasture to another.
Jake Turkeys are immature male turkeys...you can always spot them as they are usually fairly dark in color while the hens are light to light brown.  Jakes also don't have well developed beards (a tuff of hair that projects from the front of the chest). 
I keep forgetting that I have a wonderful camera on my "smart phone" so that I can take these pictures at any time....and I also suck at picture taking but I'm learning. 
But this is the reason that I live in the country.  Where else could you see this?  One of the many reasons that I love being out here.

Breaking Point

Suffice it to say that I live in the country.  I live in the country because I like the trees and nature around me.  I live here cause that's what I want to live around.  I don't live in the city.  I don't want my place to look like I live in the city.  I don't want a HOA (Home Owners Association) to tell me I have to mow my lawn, trim my trees, put my garage door down or any of the other asinine things that they think are important for the "neighborhood" to look respectable. 
So for the past 15 years or so we have gotten a delivery of Propane from a certain Propane Company who shall remain nameless.  And they only have to deliver about once every 6 months or so.  But they have one particular driver who bitches every single time he comes about us not trimming our trees enough to suit him. 
We've had words before about this but this time when he delivered....he left a note on the door followed up by a letter. 
Now if there was a safety issue associated with this then we just might take another look at the situation but there has NEVER been an explosion of a Propane Truck because some limbs scratched the tank.  It's a TRUCK....trucks are to be used!!!!!!
So because I had just trimmed the limbs that my husband and I had deemed fairly obstructive....when the letter arrived I just had had enough so I wrote the following to the company:

********** Propane Company
With the payment of this check we should not have anything else on our account. Please take us off your list of customers as we will no longer require your services.

We have been very happy with your service with the exception of the driver who delivered our last delivery. He has continually complained about our lack of trimming trees.

In Fact, we try to keep our driveway REASONABLY clear of tree limbs but what he is asking we consider to be excessive.  We do not live in a subdivision and there is a reason for that. We don't want anyone to tell us how we can and cannot have the drive to our home look.

We DO understand how big a propane truck is and he can easily drive down the driveway and get to where he needs to go to make his delivery (he has been able to do it every single time that he has delivered)  but what he is asking we consider too much.  We've had all kinds of trucks down this driveway include Concrete and PEC (Pedernales Electric Cooperative) trucks. NO ONE else has complained or even suggested that we need to trim.

We live in the country and we want to keep it looking like that.  Our driveway is not a city street and we don't want it to look that way.  

So thank you again for the services rendered but you have lost a customer.

Sincerely,
Bob and Lyn Pool

So what do you think????  Am I just getting old and cranky or do I have a right to keep my drive looking like I want as long as it doesn't cause some sort of safety issue for the trucks that have to make a delivery.....

Front Yard

Our front yard has always left a lot to be desired.  When we finished building our home we created two small plots in the front and got some cheap sod and left it to do what it was going to do.  It didn't do very much...you can't grow much without dirt and we are such water misers that if it didn't get rained on it wasn't going to be watered. 
There was also a problem with the bed that would be to the right as you walk out the front door.  You either have to go to the end of the walk to get over to the shop or you have to cut back to the porch and go around or just go to another exit off the porch all together.  Confused yet?  Surfice it to say that it's very problematic and our dogs never respected the paths and tended to cut across the plot all the time.  Then we began to cut across and suddenly it stuck us that because it was a natural way to go we should disassemble part of the plot and make it into two with a way more natural flow.  So that is what we did.

We planted nothing but natives in the little soil that we had and then a friend offered to bring us some nice dirt that was in a river bottom.  We thought that would be a good idea except that it wasn't.  It was too sandy and it was sterile.  It would grow nothing and it was washing away with every single rain storm that came our way. 

Yes, yes, we had poppies in it earlier in the year but poppies are fairly easy to grow and we don't want just poppies...we want all manner of natives. 
So we're at it again.

With the weather giving us a break from the heat we're going at it again.  But this time we are starting with the path.....we've decided that the gravel did too much moving around and relocating itself.  The stuff we are putting down now is crushed granite.  Don't you just love the color?
Next we'll bring in rocks.....lots and lots of rocks.  Big rocks and little rocks and all shapes and colors to make the beds more interesting....
It's a work in progress and will probably take 6 months or more to complete simply because we want to take our time and enjoy the process. 
I'll keep you posted.

Connections

I am a curious person by nature and I like to ask a lot of questions.  That is one of the reasons that I put the little map on this blog.  It just interesting to see who will stumble upon this blog and read it for whatever reason.  It's interesting that I would write it...mostly about nothing but stuff that is going on in my life. 
So today I thought that I would just check and see who had stopped by....someone from Bristol, VA took a gander. 
I think that this just so interesting....I went to college (2 years) in Bristol.  I attended Virginia Intermont College. 
At that time....1973-1975 it was completely female...well, we did have a few male students but they were what we called "Day Students".  In other words they did not live on campus and they were only here during the day...unless they happened to be dating someone and then you'd see them on campus other times.  
I just find that so interesting that of all the places in the country...let alone the world....someone from a small town where I went to college....read my blog.  
Here's something else that I find really interesting....Story time...Story time.  
When my hubby and I married, we bought a sweet little older home in a tiny little town way outside of Austin, TX.   We then proceeded to buy another piece of property that we would eventually build our "dream" home on and move there.  
As time wore on...about 3 years....my husband decided that he really did not care for the piece of property that we bought...it wasn't right....it just didn't look like the place that we should be...so we should sell it and begin the search for another tract of land.  So that is what we did.    We put our land up for sale and began to look for another piece of property.  
Our land sold fairly quickly but finding our next piece of land took a bit longer.   But we finally found it and after some fairly interesting negotiations we were able to purchase it.  
I distinctly remember the first time that we drove by this particular piece of property because next door to us...out on the road....was a mailbox with the name "Blanck" on it and a soccer ball.   I had gone to school with a Mike Blanck who played soccer and I thought that it was just interesting. 
Now you have to remember that my father was in the Air Force and I attended High School in England. Small country and even smaller school...I think there were 75 students in my graduating class.  So to see the name, spelled the same way and to see the soccer ball was just too interesting to me.  After all...here we were on a small Farm to Market Road....about to look at a piece of property that we would like to buy and eventually build on and there's someone who would live "next" door to us that shared the same name as a classmate and apparently had the same passion for a game that's played more overseas than here.  Interesting....
So fast forward to about 6 months after we have bought the land.  We've been clearing brush and I have been hunting over here but we've yet to meet the "neighbors".  
I am home eating lunch after getting the mail and I sit down to read the local newspaper.  On the front page is a story about a man...a profile if you will.  
The story goes on about what a great guy he is and how much his customers missed him when he was sick.  I'm sorta just half reading this until I get to the end of the story where it tells where he lives...and I read the headline....Mike Blanck...and then I re-read the story and I start to make some connections...hmmmm....so I look at the picture again and think to myself could this be my classmate?   I mean...really.....could this in fact be someone that I went to High School with? 
So I take out the phonebook and I look them up and with trembling fingers I dial the telephone number.   Long story short....it is in fact my classmate and we are in fact..."neighbors". 
Isn't that interesting?  I certainly think that it is. 
So here's a shout out to the person who read this from Bristol.   Thanks for stopping by and I loved the two years spent in your town.   I met people there that I have been friends with to this very day. 
And I guess it's just all about the connections.....

Rain

One picture is worth a thousand words.  I have no idea who said that but I've heard it all my life.  And it is so true.
Here in drought stricken central Texas we only had a 40% percent chance of getting some much needed rain but our little hacienda managed to get our fair share.  Whoopee. 
It's by no means a drought ender but it makes us feel like the chance for more coming is possible.  We actually had a 40% chance on Sat. and Sunday but we only received the liquid gold on Saturday and Saturday night.  It's O.K....we'll take what we can get. 
So the Koi ponds are full again and the fish are very happy about the new depth of the water and the leopard frogs have come back to creek and croak as if to tell us how happy they are about the new water levels. 
It's a much welcome sight and if we'd ever get this dang high pressure system to move off this state we might just get some more.  But until that happens we'll just be happy with what we get.

Happy Birthday Mom

This is a picture of my mom as a new bride on her way to the first of many duty stations. 
Today would have been her 82nd birthday.
I would like to say that I am over the initial grief but I think that the pain of losing her will be with me until the day that I die. 
My mother and I had a complicated relationship from my teens to my late 30's.  I'm sure more than once she would have wanted to just deck me but instead she just chose to let me go my own way.  It wasn't that I was rebellious, it was more about me just wanting to be me.
I was raised a catholic but from a very early age I questioned everything about it.  My mother was a woman of faith and took her position on religion completely on faith that what she was told from the priests and nuns in her life to be fact. 
I stopped going to church when I moved away from home and into a dorm for college.  I think that I broke her heart more than once when I spoke so flippantly about her faith...the way that college kids can do.  And so in turn when I got married I chose to be married by a Justice of the Peace instead of a church wedding.  Why would I even consider a church wedding when I hadn't set foot in one in the last 6 years.  But true to her nature ...when she got her head around the idea that I wanted the simpliest of weddings...she threw herself into the process just like any other mother of the bride.
I broke her heart again when after 2 years of marriage I made the decision to have my tubes tied so that I wouldn't have to take the pill any longer and I didn't want to have children.  She just could not imagine how I wouldn't want to be a mother.  My reasons for not wanting children are really quite simple.  I'm a selfish person and I didn't want to have them.  I never enjoyed holding babies and I never enjoyed playing with dolls much and I didn't like to babysit at all.  Some people are drawn to stuff naturally but I like to say that I didn't get the gene that tells you to have a baby.  Don't get the wrong idea...I have nieces and a nephew that I adore and would do anything for but I didn't want to do it myself and I'm very happy with my life. 
The older I got the more I learned how to approach my mother with things.  She was a wonderful sounding board for problems and because of my love of cooking she often called me to ask a cooking question.  That became for me a bridge to her. 
I think that these last 10 or so years we were the closest that we'd ever been.  We talked constantly and spent more time together that we had the previous 40.  In fact  2 years ago when my husband and I took a cruise to Alaska, we asked my parents to come with us.  They did and we had a wonderful time.  I will never forget that trip and so glad that we asked them to come with us. 
So today I remember the woman who brought me into this world.  I remember her smile, and I'm struggling to remember the sound of her voice.  I miss her so much but so glad that we hadn't had a cross word to one another in a very, very long time. 
Happy 82nd Birthday Mom.  I wish that you were here so we could celebrate but I will remember you today anyway.  I love you.

Seattle

A couple of weeks ago I traveled to Seattle, WA.  The reason for going was a High School Reunion.  No, I did not graduate from High School in Seattle...I graduated from High School while my father was still in the military and we were overseas in England....I may have said that before but in case I didn't...
My high school holds a reunion every 3 years.  That's because our school no longer exists and so we are a finite group...before the advent of the Internet and social media like Facebook it was harder for us to find each other and keep in touch.  Now it's not so difficult but we are a small group and we tend to be a fairly close knit group of people.  We also vary the locations of our reunions because we are spread to the 4 winds.  The USA is split into 3 sections....West Coast, Central and East Coast.  So every 3 years we hold a reunion in one part of the country.  This past time was West Coast and locations were suggested and the alumni voted on where they would like to go.  Seattle won.  So that's how that happened. 
I was not going to attend this reunion because mother had been so ill at Christmas but along about March I could see that she was getting much better and started to watch for airline prices to fall. 
I have a site that e-mails me when a particular fare that I'm watching is going for a particularly good price.  It's called *AirFareWatchDog.
*AirFareWatchDog has no idea who I am other than sending me e-mails and I get no financial compensation from them.  I just know about them and have used them several times to get good fares on plane trips to reunion sites.  

So a great fare came about and I jumped on it.  Then of course Mom got sicker and sicker and then she died and so I considered not going....but my tickets were non refundable (one of the downfalls of buying online).  I still didn't have to go but I would have to use my tickets within a year anyway if I delayed my trip and I had the time to go, the reunion to attend and other people to see...so I debated it and then decided to go.  
I chose to stay with an old friend from High School at his apartment instead of staying in the hotel because I didn't want to stay in a room by myself and he offered.  Besides he's also dealing with his mother having cancer and we're really good friends, our parents are good friends and because he is a professional photographer I felt like I would really get to see not just the tourist Seattle but the city that he has called home for the last 30+ years. 

This is of course the Space Needle...built for the 1962 Worlds Fair it is synonymous with the Seattle skyline.  And my friend lives just 2 blocks to the north of this iconic symbol.  So looking out his picture window I was able to see this every single day.  
Dinner the first night was right around the corner from his apartment at a Greek Restaurant.  I can't remember all that we ate and drank but I remember that it had lamb in it and along with Ouzo and a couple of glasses of wine made for a fine night of conversing with an old and dear friend. 
After dinner we opted for a walk and ended up downtown and I sought out my other friends in town for the reunion and my very special friends who made the trip from England.  They were still trying to get over jet lag and since I had been up since about 3 a.m. Tom and I decided to call it a night around 11 p.m. and we walked back to his apartment. 
The next day Tom had business to take care of and so did I.  I had a mission to accomplish and that was to head out to Bainbridge Island to pick up a cap from the Sage Fly Rod Company for my husband.  

This is a picture of the waterfront from the Ferry taking me and my friends to Bainbridge Island.

This is the tip of the island and we begin to pull into Bainbridge Island. 

As you can see by the sign....we made it to the factory.  Funny story here....I'd done a little research before I left and saw that there was a "gift shop" there at the factory.  I could also take a tour of the facilities but really all I wanted to do was to get the cap or a couple of them for my husband.  
I had the address of the factory and I knew that once we got off the ferry all we had to do is get on a bus and it would take us right to the factory.  What I did not know was that the bus we needed to take did not run until about 4:30 in the afternoon.  It was just 11 a.m.  So the kind lady at the Ferry port suggested that we take a taxi (one price for all of us) and that way we could go and get back in time for the ferry to take us back to Seattle.  The Ferrys run about every 1/2 hour or so all day long and then slow down to about every 3 hours after 6 p.m. and they run until about midnight.  So if you lived on Bainbridge...you could catch a ferry around 6 p.m. and take it into Seattle and eat a nice dinner out and then catch the ferry back home and never have to drive for more than 5 minutes.  And the commute to work is much the same.  If I was a city person...that would not be a bad commute.  But I digress...the funny story as I promised.   So we take a taxi to Sage and when we get there ....there is no gift shop...none, nada, nothing.  I am crestfallen...I know that I read on their website that they had a gift shop.  Everyone there is very nice and my friends are all laughing at me and so I appeal to the lowest form I know of....begging.  My story is unique...I've come all the way from Texas just to visit the Sage company and surprise my husband with a cap from Sage because that is the only rod that he uses to fly fish with.  I'm about to cry when I see the receptionist make a phone call and directly a young man comes out with a cap for me.  Yeah...success....I thank them profusely and ask how much and of course there is no charge.  Score again.   Oh yeah and on the way back to the hotel I spot a flyfishing shop and buy my husband another cap that has the Sage logo on the back.  
That night my friend and I decided to have a lovely dinner at his apartment and so off to the grocery store we went.  Fresh steamed crab was on the menu along with a lovely green salad and some red potatoes.  A nice cold beer to top off the meal and I was in heaven...oh yeah and some good bread...bread that I had baked and brought with me.  

The next couple of days were a blur of activity....Pike's Market, the aquarium, Chihuly Garden and Glass, glassblowing, Discovery Park, EMP Museum, the monorail and of course all the good food that Seattle has to offer.  Here are just a couple more pictures....

There are too many pictures and not near enough time to go into it all but surfice it to say that I really had a wonderful time and it was good to get away for a while and visit with old friends.  And the reunion was really great too!!

Ssssssnnnnnnnnaaaaaaaakkkkkkkkeeeeeeeee

Let me just state this for the record.  I love, love, love living in the country.  And as crazy as this sounds....I don't even mind the snakes and we have a lot of them.  All shapes, sizes, colors and dangerous and not.
But although I am not afraid..yes, I'm not afraid of them, I am always on the lookout for them as you never know when one might appear.  I respect them, give them their space and we have a wonderful relationship. 
However, that does not hold true for our dogs.  We have two dogs.  A Schipperkee that is 15 years young and a Blue Lacy that is about 5 years old.  Pepper is the Schipperkee and she has been bit twice in her lifetime.  Once when she was a puppy and then again when she was about 2 or 3.  Both bites were on the face...which tells me that she was just sniffing around like dogs will do and was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Because the bites were on the face then you have a whole lot less to worry about.  There are no major blood vessels in the face and so the reality of the situation is that there will be swelling and pain and maybe even infection but there will be no death...unless of course the dog is very old or very health compromised in some way.  So a trip to the vet to get some medication for pain and steroids for the swelling and something for infection is usually all you have to worry about.  
The day before my mother's funeral we were all sitting on the porch...my younger brother and his family were staying with us until after the funeral and so we were all out on the porch enjoying a morning of reflection and memories of my mother.  Bonnie was over by my clothesline sniffing along the ground to see what creatures had passed that way the night before.  All of a sudden she jumped back and my husband ran to see what she had jumped from...knowing it was probably a snake.  I also ran to see and grabbed Bonnie to see if she had been bitten. 
Yes it was a snake and yes it was a rattlesnake and yes she was bitten.

This is the snake that bit her.  There has been nothing done to this picture but you can sure appreciate how camoed she is.  Don't really know if it's a female...I just always refer to snakes in the female tense..
Bonnie was bit on the face and although she does get a shot for rattlesnake bites she soon began to show signs of shock.  Her gums turned white, she got a far away look in her eye and began to pant rather rapidly.  Bob loaded her into the truck and off to the vets he went.  He called the vet on his way to tell her to expect him and so that they would be ready to receive him once they arrived.  Our vet is only about a 10 minute drive away so that was fortunate. 

This picture was actually taken late the next day.  The vet decided that it was in Bonnie's best interest to keep her overnight and into the next day as we had my mother's funeral to attend. 

Here's what she normally looks like. 
But she's right as rain now.  A few days of swelling and medication and you would never know that she was bitten.  Which is something that we try to avoid but sometimes happens. 
I'm off this week to Seattle, WA.  I'm going to a high school reunion and to see old friends of mine and some friends of my mothers.  It's going to be a fun trip but I'm also sure that there will be a few tears shed when I have to visit my mother's friends.  I'll post pictures of that trip when I get back.  

In Memoriam

Beloved wife, mother, sister, aunt, and nannie extraordinaire passed away on June 1st, 2012 following a long and valiant battle with breast and liver cancer.

Born on August 7, 1930, she was a faithful Air Force wife who followed her husband to exotic duty stations like Okinawa, Japan and Upper Heyford, England, along with stateside assignments from Bangor, Maine to Nevada and all points in between.

She was preceded in death by her parents Martin T. and Irene P. Hartigan of Gardner, MA.

She is survived by her loving husband of 59 years, Wallace A. "Mike" Kulczyk Jr.; her sister, Hope Hartigan Miller; two sons, Mark and wife Sheila, and Chris and wife Laurie; two daughters, Lyn Pool and husband Bob, Chickie Shields and husband Mike; and four grandchildren, Christine and Hannah Shields, Sean Kulczyk and stepgrand-daughter Stephanie Del Rio.

She was a wonderful friend to all who knew her and would go to extraordinary lengths at Christmas time to find just the perfect gift for each member of her family.  She was her grandchildren's biggest supporter in all activities, a forgetter of acorn squash in the oven, and her Sunday Roast Beef dinner is yet to be duplicated.  She will be deeply missed.

The family will receive guests at a visitation on Wednesday, June 6, 2012 from 10:00 am until 12 noon at Cook-Walden Capital Parks in Pflugerville, Texas.  A Funeral Mass will be held at St. Louis Catholic Church on Wednesday, June 6 at 2:00 ppm with interment following at Cook-Walden Capital Parks Cemetery in Pflugerville.

We would like to extend our thanks to Dr. Dennis Welch who treated her for 16 years, the wonderful ladies of the St. David's NAMC Infusion center, and the nursing staff on 3 North and Hospice Austin who helped her in her final transition.

In lieu of flowers, donations to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Research Foundation would be appreciated. 

This is the obituary I wrote following the death of my mother. 
8 short paragraphs that don't even begin to tell the wonderful story of my mother. 
I am so very sad.
In my heart I know that she is now without pain.  What I do not know is where she is.  I tell people all the time that I am not religious.  I feel that I am spiritual and I believe that there is a higher power...but heaven...I'm not so sure.  From dust we came and to dust we will return. 
I'm putting one foot in front of the other because the world has not stopped turning, I'm taking one breath at a time and I'm living one day at a time. 

Daddy is still here and he needs looking after....my pain is nothing compared to his.  I can't even begin to imagine what he's feeling.  How do you live in a house alone after living in it for almost 40 years with someone.  One breath at a time.

Mother's Day Brunch

Last weekend the whole family was in Huntsville at the graduation of niece #2.  Hannah graduated from Sam Houston State University and we all went to cheer her on and celebrate.

And because it is such a loooooonnnnnnnnggggggg trip, mom and dad drove up the day before and stayed until sometime on Sunday and then made the long trip home. 

Mom would understandably be very tired and so we decided that we would celebrate "Mother's Day" this weekend with a brunch at my house. 

I'm making Migas and Cinnamon Rolls.  My sister is making a breakfast casserole with sausage, eggs and potatoes.  Hannah is making mimosas, Christine is making Ranch Potatoes and Sheila is bringing a fruit salad. 

So the following is my favorite cinnamon roll recipe.  It's a Betty Crocker recipe that I found on the back of a flour bag about 30+ years ago.  It's one of the best recipies that I've ever found for cinnamon rolls and it's stood the test of time.  There are several reasons that I love this recipe.  First reason is because you actually make up the rolls on the day before you bake them.  That way all you have to do is get up in the morning, take them out of the fridge and then bake them.  Second reason I  like it is because it calls for part whole wheat flour....so you sorta feel like you are eating something that's good for you while you are eating something not so good for you.  Everything in moderation.

So our ingredient list is active dry yeast, warm water, milk, sugar, vegetable oil, baking powder, salt, 1 egg, whole wheat flour and all purpose flour.

Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup warm water.

While that's getting dissolved put 2 cups of milk in a saucepan and heat just until you see little bubbles forming around the edge of the pan.  Take the milk off the heat and let it cool for just about 5 to 10 minutes.






Now stir the milk into the dissolved yeast along with the sugar, oil, baking powder, salt, egg and 1 1/2 cups of each of the flours. 

Beat this until smooth. 

Add enough of the remaining flour till it's easy to handle.  And then knead until smooth and elastic. 

Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place till doubled...at least an hour but it may take more time depending on the temperature in your kitchen. 

Punch down.  Now here you can divide into 3 equal portions.  Make one and freeze the other two to use on another Sunday or Saturday or whenever you want. 

Roll your portion out...I've got a crowd coming so I'm using the whole thing. 

Sprinkle with a cinnamon sugar mixture.  I won't give you any measurements for that because my husband and I are sorta cinnamon snobs.  I will only buy a certain kind of cinnamon and we like a lot of it.  It's a very subjective thing.  If you like a lot...use a lot...if you don't then don't.  I also like to sprinkle just a bit of dark brown sugar as well over the entire dough.  

Roll up the dough jelly roll style and pinch the edges together.  I've found that it's easiest to cut the rolls with dental floss.  Slide the dental floss under the roll and then cross the ends over each other and pull.  It will cut clean through without crushing the rolls. 

Put the dough into a greased pan or glass container and cover and let rest in the fridge over night.

Next morning take them out of the fridge and let come to room temperature before you bake them.  Then make your icing (recipe follows) and frost and eat.  

FROSTED ICEBOX CINNAMON ICEBOX ROLLS

2 pkgs. active dry yeast

1/2 cup warm water

2 cups lukewarm milk (scaled then cooled)

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup vegetable or canola oil

3 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons salt

1 egg

3 cups whole wheat flour

3 cups all purpose flour

Dissolve yeast in water, stir in milk, 1/3 cup sugar, oil, baking powder, salt, egg and 1 1/2 cups of each flour. 

 Beat until smooth. 

 Add enough of the remaining flour till easy to handle. 

 Knead 8 to 10 minutes. 

Let rise in greased bowl about an hour or an hour and a half.  Punch down and divide into 3 equal portions and freeze till later or use. 

Spread with butter and cinnamon and sugar and brown sugar if you want. 

 Roll up jelly roll style and cut into rolls and put in greased pan. 

Let rise in the fridge overnight. 

Next morning let come to room temperature and then bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Let cool for about 5 minutes and then frost. 

BROWNED BUTTER ICING

Heat 3 tablespoons butter over medium heat until delicate brown. 

 Stir in 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon milk and 3/4 of a teaspoon vanilla extract. 

 Beat until smooth and of spreading consistency. 

New Life

I have a part-time job working for a woman Dr. that lives up the road from me.  I do a variety of tasks and one of them is to keep her animals fed and watered.  

About 6 months ago she got some goats to help with her ag exemption with the hope that they would eventually have babies. If the baby turned out to be a doe then she would either keep or sell to someone.  If the baby turned out to be a buck then she would have several decisions to make.  One would be that she would have to castrate it to be sold for Bar-B-Que or not castrate and sold to someone looking to expand their herd. 

 That may sound harsh for some of you out there but that's what life is like in the country.  You need to pull your own weight in some form or fashion or you are bound for greener pastures...and sometimes not on this earthly plain. 

These two adorable little guys were born not last night but the night before.  They are both little bucks so their fate will be decided in just a few short weeks.  But at this age they are almost too precious for words.  

We have two more momma's that are pregnant.  One will probably give birth within the next two weeks and the other momma will be a little later than that. 

With any luck the other does will give birth to girls.  At any rate we're looking forward to more babies in the near future.  

Poppies

Poppies, poppies...everywhere. 
Last fall my husband received a packet of Poppy seeds from a friend in Northern California and told me that if I wanted I could sprinkle them around the front yard.  So I did. 

For those of you that don't know about Poppy seeds...they are tiny...about the size of a pin head and I'm not talking about those glass heads...no way....about the size of a stainless steel pin head. 

So sprinkling them is a little difficult and hard to figure out just how many of those will take and how many will get eaten by various bugs and how many will just wash away in the rains. 

Well.......I guess that I did too good of a job cause we got a LOT of Poppies.  This particular variety is pink and the petals are kinda ruffley...is that a word????   

My husband was less than pleased...especially when you consider that each one of these blooms becomes a seed pod after the flower is spent and that seed pod contains hundreds of seeds.   He wasn't upset that we had the success of the blooms but he was upset because he felt like it might shade out other plants that were getting started at about the same time.  

So I have been very busy lately as the blooms have faded and produced the seed pods of gathering the seeds.  I know that I won't get every one but hopefully I'll gather enough to share and enough to sprinkle along the long drive to the house so that we have color next spring.