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I signed onto myspace today for the first time in ages. I had forgotten about this video I made back in 2006. Thought I'd share!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

In Abundance

My vegetable garden is producing so rapidly, I love it!

Nothing says summer like fresh veggies on the table straight from your own garden! It's very gratifying working in my garden everyday. I know exactly what has gone into the produce. I garden organically....I make my own insecticides....so my family isn't eating any harmful chemicals. I love going out there everyday to see how it has grown overnight.

We had a Siamese twin squash this time around. What a cool surprise to find under the leaves.

My cucumbers are producing at lightening speed more than anything else.

I have made vinegar cucumber salad twice, given some away & made bread & butter pickles. I made two - 1 qt. jars. They are very delicious!


John, who isn't a fan of the pickle, found these to be very, very good. Made my heart smile. He took some to work and chopped them up and used it as a relish on his turkey dog.

I have a feeling I will be canning several quarts in the next few weeks.

"In order to live off a garden,
you practically have to live in it.
- Frank McKinney Hubbard

Oddie

My female cat, Oddball aka Oddie, who gave birth to 4 kittens back in April, became ill this week.

This photo above was taken 3 weeks ago. She was a healthy girl. We took her in on the 7th of June to be spayed. The surgery went well & she was home the next day, even started nursing the babies again.

Sunday we were under a heat advisory here....I was making sure all my cats had fresh water & plenty of shade. Oddie went missing sometime around 10:30am. I assumed she went to explore in the woods which she does often. I looked for her all day. Around 10pm that night, Tori found her by the garage outside. She was weak, dehydrated, feverish & her 3rd eyelids were out. Tori & I brought her inside & slowly started giving her water with a syringe. I decided not to take her to the ER Vet (honestly because it is SO expensive!) Tori nursed her ALL night. Oddie slept by her side and she would get up every hour and give her more water.

By 7 am she hadn't gotten any better. So Tori & I took her to see Dr. Lewis....we were there when they opened at 7:30. Tori held her the entire ride, she never moved or meowed. Dr. Lewis took her straight in to exam her. Obviously, she was dehydrated (Tori saved her life by nursing her all night) Under her tongue was swollen, her fever was 105(normal is 101) & she was staring into space like she didn't know where she was.

She spent 4 days & 3 nights in the hospital....it was touch and go for awhile. She was given fluids by IV and 5 different antibiotics. But she never came out of the "fog/stare almost comatose state" she was in. She was tested for everything! All test were negative! Doc called this morning and said she is slowly making progress....she finally ate on her own after 3 days of not eating. He though it would be best for her to be in her comfortable surroundings.

John & I went and picked her up! She laid in Meg's arms for 20 minutes and Meg could feel her relax her body. She was happy to see her babies & her babies Daddy. Sad thing though, she tried to move her mouth to meow & nothing came out. I feed her some moist food & she drank some milk.

Doc isn't quite sure but he thinks she can't see all that well. She has some neurological problem going on & the only way to tell for sure is to get a CT scan. Those cost $1000! I opted to pass on that. My bill for the Vet was expensive enough, adding another $1000 wasn't gonna happen.

Here she is after coming home. She is still a little lethargic, she is weak...can only take a few steps and then has to sit & she cocks her head to the left.She walks this way as well...with her head cocked. Doc isn't quite sure why this is happening & he isn't sure if it is permanent or not. If it is permanent, I'll still love her...she is my cutie girl...it's sad though to see her this way all the time.

I'm happy to have her home!

Work in progress

I currently have 5 quilts in progress. I can't seem to just work on 1 project at a time. This is both frustrating & satisfying at the same time. It's just the way I operate though...I think I produce a better quilt working this way.

I name my quilts....so what you see in BOLD is the name. I have yet to name the first quilt.

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Tori took this picture this morning (excuse the jammies) of me cutting material. The quilt top in the foreground is for Megs best friend, Jessica.
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King Quilt

Here is the 2nd quilt that has been sandwiched and basted, it's all ready to be quilted. Jessica chose the material, they are decorating the baby's room in Earth tones with animals. She is an artist, an awesome one! She painted a mural on the nursery wall. I have stressed over this particular quilt....I think because I know she is an artist & I want to give her a beautiful piece of art in the form of a quilt...that her baby boy will have for many years. I pray she likes it.

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Curly Girls
Do you remember the quilts I made for my girls last Christmas? I had enough scraps leftover to make a pretty decent size quilt. So I started sewing that top.

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Little Princess
This is the material I started cutting today. It's for baby Scarlett.(my nephew David's baby girl) She is going to be arriving in this word in about 8 weeks, I need to get busy 'cause it's going to be here before we know it.

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Daddy's Hands
This has been the hardest quilt to make! I've been working on it off & on for 5 months now. Some days I go in my sewing room with the intent to work on it, but I start crying and hold the material and end up walking away. The material is my Dad's old clothes. The block with the pockets are my favorite....he always wore a shirt with a pocket so he could keep his cigarettes in them. I hope to have this done by Christmas for my mom....hopefully sooner!

Almond Joy Cake

Do you like Almond Joy candy bars? Then you will go gaga over this cake! If you aren't big into making cakes by scratch, you can use a chocolate box cake, but I don't recommend those....the ingredients in them are horrible! I have altered this recipe to suit my family...I've "tried" to make it "healthier!" :) Some recipes call for evaporated milk (I used half & half)
The cake recipe is actually from one of my Julia Childs cookbooks. It's yummy by itself.



Almond Joy Cake

The Cake:
1- 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs, separated
2 large egg whites
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat oven to 350. Oil & flour a 9x13 pan.
Sift together 1 cup sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda & salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together, egg yolks, oil, water & vanilla until blended. Whisk dry ingredients into yolk mixture until blended. Set aside.
Beat all 6 egg white until fluffy & then add 1/2 cup sugar. Beat until stiff peaks. Fold 1/3 of whites into chocolate batter to lighten it then turn chocolate mixture into remaining white and fold it in gently.
Place in pan and cook 35-40 minutes.

Coconut Filling:
1/2 cup half & half
1 entire bag mini marshmallows
3 cups sweetened coconut
In a saucepan, stir together half & half and 1/2 cup sugar; bring to a boil. Remove from heat & add marshmallows until the melt. Add coconut, stir well and then spread on top of warm cake.

Chocolate Topping:
1/2 cup half & half
1/2 stick land o' lakes unsalted butter
1- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup sliced Almonds
In a saucepan combine 1/2 cup half & half, 1/2 cup sugar & butter and bring to boil. Remove from heat and add chocolate chips. Melt until smooth. Add vanilla. Add about 3/4 cups almonds, stir & pour that over coconut layer.
Sprinkle remaining almonds over the top of cake. Refrigerate to firm it up. Let cool completely before cutting.


ENJOY!

Mastered

Dionne over at Homesick Cajun gave me this kicking award!



It's the Master of karate and friendship award! :-) So in true awards fashion, I'm supposed to name 5 things that I've mastered. Here we go.

1. I have mastered the Art of quilting. Well, mastered it to my standards anyway.

2. My humble garden is actually producing veggies....so I've mastered gardening.
Here is my very first cucumber harvest!

3. Raising my daughters! They have grown into strong, beautiful women!
Here they are with their Daddy.

4. I have mastered the art of drinking WINE! :0



5. My family says I have mastered the Art of cooking/baking. It is one of my passions!

So I am to pass this award onto 5 people.

Heather

Melody

Susie

Natalie

Tori

All moved in

Meg moved back home yesterday. Her lease was up at the house in Conway & Tori got 2 new room-mates, so it only made sense that she move back home.....since she leaves in 3 months. This is the first time she has lived here in 4 years. It's going to be nice having her home for the summer. Tori hopefully will be visiting a lot so we can have family dinners at the "dinner table!" It was a very hot day to be moving furniture and boxes galore. On the way back to our home with all of her belongings behind us, I turned to John & said, "Jeez, this girl owns more stuff than you & I did when we first got married & moved to Louisiana!" We both started laughing. It's going to be a great summer!

fawn & fern photography

Tori has finally started a photography facebook fan page.

Her business is called "fawn & fern"

She has done some amazing work, if I do say so myself.

If you have a facebook.....check her out and become a fan...or "LIKE" as it is now called.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/fawn-fern-photography/123928304312129?ref=ts

Here is a picture of her latest maternity series. She hasn't yet posted these to her facebook site. I absolutely am in love with this photo.

Check her out!

Teaching in Paradise

Meg received her teaching assignment. She will be teaching in,
La Línea de la Concepción in the province of Cadiz, Spain!!

It's the southern part of Spain.

This is where she will call home for a year.
September 2010-September2011

The town she will be teaching in is right on the border of the Rock of Gibraltar! She will be 30 minutes from Morocco. She can go swimming in either the North Atlantic or the Mediterranean Seas. Oh, she is going to be teaching in Paradise!

She will be teaching English to children between the ages of 6-12. She only works 3 hours per day...15 hours a week!
Can you imagine that?!

I am SO very proud of her!

Oh, and the answer is YES!!! I am planning a 2 week trip to go visit her next year!

Hello!!!

Hello Blog World!

The end has finally arrived for the 2009-2010 school year! It was a doozie of a year. It was my first year driving "regular" kids to & from school. For 18 years I drove special needs; I'm hoping to get a special needs route for the 2010-2011 school year. I love all children....but being responsible for 60+ kids was totally stressful!!

I'm going to do a fragment blog and just update what has happened around here in my world.

April 10th, 2010, Oddie gave birth to 4 kittens....3 girls & 1 boy.
She delivered them in this spare tire that stays in our garage.
She is introducing them to Reeses...who thinks he is the daddy!
7 weeks old! The little girl on the left has been adopted! The 2nd one is the boy....I decided to keep him. John named him Crusty (when he was about 4 weeks old his eyes were crusted over & we had to doctor him for a few days) He is huge compared to the girls. I still have the other two girls....anyone want a kitten?
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Aprils Bunko was at my house. The theme was Bridesmaids....I was the bride!

We even had a wedding cake!

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On April 30th, 2010, Arkansas was hit with severe weather. An F3 tornado touched down 1/2 mile from my home. It was on the ground for hours. The destruction was insane....it was surreal. No one in our town was killed thankfully but several homes were totally destroyed!

These were the lightening strikes that night.

It was a very scary night & then we had round 2 the next day.
That's a weekend we will never forget.
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May's Bunko theme was Cinco De Mayo & it was held at Becky's house.
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On Memorial Day John & I started the day out with laughter! I got behind him and flipped my hair over his head to see what he would look like with hair. He took my phone & took some pictures. We were laughing so hard. He has this photo as his profile pic on facebook.
And that's what you missed in the Keeper of the Skies world!