The Pioneer Woman

Facebook really is good for a lot of things! Thanks to one of my Facebook connections with a friend's sister (and her nieces), I found out about The Pioneer Woman's blog/web site this week! I think many of you might like it too!

Here's the link to click directly to it or just go to www.pioneerwoman.com.

Her story is a little like mine: she lived in the city (LA) and met her husband to be, who she calls Marlboro Man, who lived on a ranch!

Her web site is full of her "story" of how they met, married, and now live with their kids, recipes and more. The RECIPES are what I think you may like - although she says many times that they are NOT low calorie - she does use real butter and bacon! I've read a very small part of her "stuff" so far but I can tell that most, if not all, of her recipes are good. For one thing, she makes the same chocolate cake we do (hers is called Best Chocolate Sheet Cake - Ever. Ours is called Texas Cake). Her recipes can be followed even by someone who doesn't know how to cook because she puts step by step pictures with her instructions. She has a recipe with pictures for biscuits and gravy which would help anyone that has trouble making gravy be able to do it! She uses convenience foods like canned biscuits. She has a recipe for chicken and noodles starting with cooking a whole chicken but using Reames frozen egg noodles. When you read the comments, you'll see that many people have never heard of Reames noodles and they're not available in some parts of the US! Reading all the MANY comments under her recipes is fun!

I happened to see her on Good Morning America on Thurs. When she got home, she posted about that experience which was interesting. That's under the Confessions section.

She also has Gardening, Homeschooling and Photography sections and more! Have fun checking it out!

It's a sunny, warmer day here (about 30), and I've been cleaning. Bill went to a gun show in Fort Dodge. This evening we're going with 2 other couples out to eat to celebrate my birthday. We did go to the fish fry last night, and it was very good.

I'm watching CNN's coverage of the earthquake in Chile and wondering what preparations for the tsunami my former bosses and others I worked with are making on Maui. Also a school classmate on the Big Island. He reports on Facebook that they are packed and ready to head up the mountain. The tsunami is to hit Hawaii in less than an hour.

Last Green Pictures for a While

Last pictures from Florida . . . this was the condo's lanai and the fountain straight out. You can see lots of clouds in the last picture. But at least things were green instead of white!

In Indiana, you could go to various fish frys in the summer. They're usually outside in big tents. Here they're done during Lent and the first ones are tonight - Pocahontas and West Bend. We always try to go. The one in West Bend is at the country club and the line is always long. With being this time of year, it can be a long cold wait - part of the time outside! We're planning to go to the one in Pocahontas tonight although Bill isn't home yet. He was having trouble today with a semi and auger. He's trying to get the last of the corn hauled to the elevator before the gravel roads start thawing and getting too mushy for the semis.

From Green to White in a Day

I flew from Ft. Myers to Minneapolis last evening and then had a little bit of a hairy drive home today. About 20 miles going into Algona were white out conditions. There was deep snow close to the edges of both sides of the road (18) and it was blowing, so it was like driving in an all white tunnel. Going down to -5 tonight!

Thought this pink Walmart was interesting - not the usual blue!

This was one of the stores on Fifth Avenue - The Wind in the Willows - pretty entry. It has some unusual gifty items.

This was one side of the store front - Easter theme.




Another view of these buildings - lots of buildings were multi-colored like this.

Last Day in the South

This morning it's overcast and damp but 66. I was hoping the last day here would be sunny! It's been a weird winter everywhere this year.

This Welcome was at one of the shops on 5th Avenue.

Mom & I went to the beach yesterday A guy there was flying a kite. Took this picture for Glenn. He and Grandpa R. always liked to fly kites.

Even though the weather hasn't cooperated, we're all glad to be here looking at green grass and palm trees and walking around without winter coats!

I go back to the winter and all things WHITE this evening. While I've been gone, Bill has been moving snow. He found that a bunch had fallen off the roof of the machine shed and was pushing in one wall about 4". He's also hauling corn.

Misc. Florida

This was my shrimp & clam chowder at Alice Sweetwater's. Isn't it "pretty"? It was really good too.

Yesterday it was still not sunny or very warm (better today finally!) so Mom & I finally decided to go look at the shops on Fifth Avenue. I'll have more pictures from there tomorrow. Lots of people were shopping and seems like everybody was eating an ice cream cone!

Mom says that the flowers in FL were frozen in January. You can tell that there aren't as many as usual and that they've replanted some flower beds. I really liked this planter and these little purple violas.

Naples

These are pictures from driving around Naples yesterday. You can see the pier in the distance in the first picture. Everyone is kind of bundled up with the still much cooler than usual weather.


















I thought this pink and white building was really pretty.

Today Aunt Dana and Uncle Dale are visiting. We all went to lunch at Alice Sweetwater's.

Sunny Florida

I got to Florida the evening of my birthday and Aunt Jan had made a butterscotch cake for me.

We all had breakfast out yesterday at First Watch. Then Mom & I drove around the old part of Naples to see all the things I remember from family vacations.





Ahhh, palm trees!!

We talked to people at the pool who said that yesterday was the nicest day they've had here since Christmas. They provided our entertainment by jumping into the freezing pool! The sun was hot though with temps. around 65.

Our wireless connection here is sporadic so not easy to get blog posts done.

Deep Snow

These are all pictures taken last weekend. We had hoar frost again Fri. and Sat. I'm amazed at how deep the snow is on the sides of the sidewalks (first picture) and in the yards in town. The 2nd one shows how deep it is against the old school.

Yesterday afternoon I headed north to Minneapolis to catch a flight at 1:00 today. It was a slick drive half way but about 2 hours from Minneapolis, the roads were bare. Saw a few overconfident drivers newly in the ditch along the way early on the drive. I was glad to get here and not have to do that drive this morning like I was going to. School at home is delayed 2 hours again today. My shuttle from the hotel to the airport is in an hour. I'm parking my vehicle here at the hotel for an extra $20 (vs. about $70 at the airport).

I'm leaving this white stuff and cold behind to go stay with my mom and aunt & uncle for a few days so the next pictures here will be of palm trees!

February Sunset

Bill was just calling to tell me to check out the sunset as I had noticed it and was grabbing my camera! This is similar to the picture I took in June and had for my blog header for a long time! This morning was church and then seems like we've been watching the NASCAR race alllllllll day! Now looking forward to the first episode of the new Amazing Race season tonight.

It's 12 degrees this evening after a sunny day with some drifting on the gravel roads. The roads to church this morning were slick and snow covered (it snowed about 3" last night).

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!

Nice ?

In amongst the envelopes in the mail today was this card from brother-in-law, Jim. I thought, wow, he knows when my birthday is (and sent a card?)? Nope - I opened it and out drops this SAINTS logo (that looks like he painstakingly cut out smiling all the while probably) - and it's a Sympathy card! (I tried to find the picture of him with his bike during a past Ragbrai ride next to the Road Kill sign to post with this . . . ) :)

Dominoes

This is a good picture that I didn't get posted in December. While we were at Mom's for Christmas, we played a few games of dominoes. The boys really like to play. This is Mom on the left, Rob, Ross, Bill & Reed.

Tonight Bill and I went to the funeral home and then to Emmetsburg to Sum Hing for our Valentine dinner. My fortune said "You will take a pleasant journey to a place far away." :) and Bill's said "An unexpected windfall will be yours". I think at least one of them will come true!

Snowy Comparison

When I took this picture, it reminded me of the Stampin' Up! stamp below! We had more hoar frost and then light snow today.

Today I made some Valentine cards, made cookies to take to the funeral home tomorrow for a P.E.O. sister and her family, and started packing! If you're tired of seeing my snowy Iowa pictures, check back next week for some palm trees and beach scenes!



Bill went with his mom today to her tax appointment. He got ours over with yesterday.

Tonight I'm enjoying the first show of the Heroes vs. Villians Survivor season. Anyone else a Survivor fan?

Valentine's Day

I belong to P.E.O., and the organization owns Cottey College for women in Missouri. Our chapter is sponsoring a girl there for the month of February so we're sending her a box of Valentine fun things including a personalized shower robe! I put some Hershey hearts and quarters for laundry in this cello bag and used Stampin' Up! products to make the topper. We're all including a note to tell her a little about ourselves.

Our P.E.O. meeting for today has been rescheduled due to the weather/snow. Yesterday I rescheduled a dental appointment that was to be today. It's sunny, about 20 and the snow is blowing. No school again today. Bill is very bored but has been getting things done like cleaning off his desk and getting organized for the tax appointments tomorrow & Thurs.

Stampin' Up! supplies used: Big Shot Top Note die, Sending Love Specialty (glittery) Designer Paper, Big Shot Perfect Polka Dots Textured Impressions Folder and Full Heart punch.

Another Snow Day

Today was another snow day with tomorrow off too most likely. We're supposed to have more snow tonight and a windy, drifting day tomorrow. This is our road. It's been plowed but you can kind of see that the left side is drifting toward the middle. I heard on the news that today was the 9th snow day for school this year! They're going to decide soon whether kids will start going to school on Saturdays or what. The temp. has been dropping all day and is 1 right now.

Very disappointing Colts Super Bowl loss last night . . . From the media coverage before, during and after the game, it seemed as though the Colts weren't even there. Such a big deal was made about the New Orleans "story". Sad for the #2 best team! Glad to lose to the Saints and Drew Brees, a Purdue grad, in their first Super Bowl win - if we had to lose. Will look forward to the start of the next season in a few months! Have heard predictions that next year it'll be the Colts & Patriots in the Super Bowl!

GO COLTS!!!!!!!!!

Here's a link to a video my mom sent me a few days ago! (song, Colts fans, etc.)

I didn't have "Super Bowl" on our personal calendars so I scheduled a stamp class for this afternoon at 2:00!! Ahhhhhh! But, classes are not well attended in our winter weather and it is snowing pretty hard this morning, so not sure we'll still have it. We had warmer temperatures & some melting yesterday so Bill brought a tractor home to move the snow again.

Just lookin' forward to the game - Manning is one smart quarterback!! Should be good!

Colts Fan's House

This is a friend's home in Indiana, decorated by her husband. Now THIS is what I expected to find in Dallas' hometown (see below)! I hope he enjoys all the Colts' attention while in Miami & Indianapolis before he comes home to his nice, quiet hometown! Here's a link to read the article that was in the the Indianapolis Star newspaper about the above house! (click on the underlined word "link") Dallas and the boys below.

Dallas' Hometown

I'm really missing out on all the pregame Super Bowl hoopla with being out here amongst the Packers & Vikings fans! I hear they've turned the canal in Indianapolis blue and a local bakery is making horseshoe shaped doughnuts.

So today I decided to go to Dallas Clark's hometown, Livermore, which is about 30 min. from here. I thought I'd see pennants in the windows (I have one in ours!), stuff on the town light poles, in the business windows, etc. There was nothing. But they have named a road for him.

I'm glad Dallas is in Miami so he doesn't see the lack of "excitement". The woman working in the post office tells me they love Dallas though! And she told me where his house is. (on Dallas Clark Road) Only his neighbor across the street had a Colts helmet decal in a window! She said all the stuff for him is at the high school (in another town, Bode) so I went there. As you can see, nothing. After I got back and had a hair apptmt. with Diane, she tells me the "stuff" is INSIDE the school. I'll have to go back. :)