Waiting in anticipation . . .

In two weeks the four of us will be flying over to Ft. Lauderdale to board a cruise ship which will transport us in luxury to the West Indies in the Caribbean Ocean. Here we are celebrating the upcoming trip together. WoooHoooooo!

Life is good!

A Two-Layer Birthday Cake

KL and I were in charge of baking a birthday cake for eight-year-old CD while his mom played taxi-driver/basketball mom at the basketball games. KL loves to bake, as you probably know, however she's never baked a two-layer cake. She's always excited to learn.

She first frosted the sides of the cake, being careful not to lift any crumbs of the cake into the frosting.

CD was excited all day about his birthday dinner. He requested "Sliders" and a "cake with white frosting!" His wishes were granted.

Unwrapping our gift to him . . . the "new" Battleship game!

The birthday boy was pretty "wound up" most the evening. After dinner we all watched a football game, and when it was time for us to leave . . . he was finally unwound and tuckered out (as was his mom and the cat).

Life is Good!

Three Winners!

Today was the 4-H competition "Favorite Foods" and all three grandkids entered in a total of five categories. The event started at 8 a.m and the judging took several hours. We arrived at 10:30 and the judging was about half done, and the food booth was quite active since the only tasting of the food entries was being done by the judges. Their chapter eagarly volunteered to host the snack bar as a fund-raising adventure, taking advantage of the bystanders waiting for the award ceremony. Golden Oaks is a fairly young chapter and they were low on funds in their treasury. After today I think they can breathe a little easier for they made a small bundle. Since all the food items they sold were donated by members, the proceeds went right into their kitty.

KL came up with this poster for the food both.

Quite a few items for the kids to sell.

CD entered as a "Mini" 4-H-er and he earned a certificate for his Bacon-Wrapped-Water Chestnuts" and they were delicious.

JD entered his Buffalo Wings (with his own secret seasonings) in two categories: Appetizers and Dairy (because of the blue cheese dressing for dipping the wings) and he won third place in the appetizer category, and won a $10 gift card for the dairy category.

Both KL and JD won medals to pin onto their 4-H hats.

KL baked chocolate chip cookies from a recipe her Gramma Pam sent her (the recipe won the 2000 Chicago Tribune Bake-Off) and she won second place in the Cookie Division, and also won a $20 gift card for her entry in the Place Setting category.

Finally, after all the judging was done and the awards were proudly presented, it was a "Come and Get It!" moment and everybody got to sample the entries. What a great lunch!

Life is good!

Fooling Around with Murray

The other day, when I was trying to upload a video I had taken on the farm, Murray the yellow lab was wigging out at the sound of their gate opening which was captured on the video. Every time I'd play the video he would charge at the door to be let out so he could "get" whatever was coming through the gate. The kids and I were rolling on the floor laughing and we'd play the video over and over again, just to get Murray to run outside to the gate. And with nothing at the gate, he'd come back and wonder what had happened. Finally we called him over to the computer and showed him the video . . .

Murray would sit where he could see the computer screen and intently watch the video listening for the gate to open . . .

Once the gate would open on the video, he'd just glance up at the door . . . think about what he should do . . . and then we could almost hear him say . . . "Oh, I get it!"

Life is Good!

For Lynette

This past summer I posted a story about Lynette. (To review the whole story click here.) Lynette came up for a few days this past week to visit with Jen. It was the perfect opportunity to give her the tole painted box.

It was great to see her again. . . she's like a third daughter in our family and we love her very much!

KL read the "story of the quilt" which I laminated and glued to the bottom of the box for posterity. (Lynette couldn't get through the tears to read it aloud.)

It was a fun box to paint for this very special young woman!

Life is Good!

Extreme Makeover in Coarsegold?

I was shopping in our local market in town and, looking through the window, the produce manager pointed out a large bus parked across the street. She exclaimed "That sure looks just like the Extreme Makeover bus." She also said that she thought the highway patrol led a group of cars up to Alfonso's, a local Mexican restaurant just up the street. I said "That's where we're heading for lunch." And she replied "Call me if they're there!" So I proceeded picking out my carrots for tomorrow's stew and couldn't wait to get into the truck to tell Ken of the news. We hurried up to Alfonso's, and sure enough, there was a large truck carrying camera equipment parked in the parking lot. When we entered there was only a couple people seated in the main dining area . . . but curious me! I had to go into the bar area and there seated at a long table were about twelve men and women, some with Extreme Makeover on the back of their jackets, waiting to be served lunch. The only disappointment, and it was a big disappointment, was that Ty Pennington nor any of the other "stars" were a part of this lunch-bunch. We figured, not having heard any news other than Extreme Makeover was going to be doing a house in the Central Valley in the Fresno area, that they had chosen some lucky winner right here in our little town of Coarsegold. When we got home we discovered that, indeed, we were wrong. The lucky winner is a single mom in Fresno and the show is going to be aired some time in March. But we had fun picturing ourselves in the crowd chanting "Move That Bus!"

This is a picture of the bus we saw! I took pictures with my cell phone of it parked right on Highway 41 but I couldn't figure out how to get those pictures onto my computer. So this is a picture I found on the web.

Life is Good!

Simply Country Stroll

This is a test! . . . and it worked . . . my first video! Now I need to work on better resolution . . . hmmmmm . . . a New Year's resolution?

Happy New Year from the happy hens at Simply Country Farm. This is so typical of when we walked up to the barnyard and stroll around the perimeter, all the chickens and the goats follow you as if in a parade. Our version of the Rose Parade? Happy New Year!