First Day of School

It's official - my little girl is now a preschooler.

This morning, Emily woke up ready and excited about the first day of school. She ate Capt'n Crunch for breakfast and then she watched me make her turkey sandwich. She requested a heart-shaped sandwich, which I happily made.

After breakfast and lunch-making, she got dressed. In case you were wondering, she picked her own outfit last night. It's a size 5 so it was a little too big. The pants were a little bit too long. She also wanted to wear some bright pink shoes, but they got vetoed once I realized how bright pink and plastic they looked on her little feet.

Really, she had been wanting to wear this outfit on the first day of school since I bought it over a month ago. It's sorta a soft slinky fabric and I think she likes that.

We looked through her backpack one more time to make sure she had everything she would need for the first day. Her Nanny got her name embroidered on her bag last week and it turned out SO cute.

As we were getting everything gathered up, Emily said "Lets go!" That's when I knew she would be just fine at school! So we got all her supplies and her backpack and her lunchbox and we drove to school. Well, Mike drove ... he went with us.

We went into her classroom and she sat at her desk and started playing blocks with the other children. I signed up to bring snacks next Monday. Mrs. Standley took her nap mat and her supplies and put them away for us. Then I asked Emily if she was ready for us to go and she said yes. So we kissed her bye and off we went.

Mike and I both headed off to work. I left work in time to go pick up Emily at about 2:45 pm. She can be picked up as late as 2:55 pm, but they like for the little kids to get out of there before the bigger kids are let out at 3:15.

When we were leaving the school, Emily told her teacher that she would come back tomorrow. Ha! Overall, I think it was a successful day of school.

And we'll do it all again tomorrow.

I think Emily is really going to love school!

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My Preschooler

Last night, we went to the Open House at Emily's school and met her preschool teacher, Mrs. Standley. The teacher seemed really nice and had a cute room. Emily got to see her desk and she got a few goodies from the teacher and the PTA.

Speaking of the PTA, I am now a card-carrying member. I am not entirely sure what purpose this serves, but hopefully I will get some more information soon. We also bought the school t-shirt that the PTA was selling as a fundraiser. The teacher said that they usually try to wear the school shirts on Fridays and when they go on field trips.

When we got home, Emily had to try on her new shirt. I wanted to get a picture, but she was more interested in dancing around and playing.




This morning after breakfast, Emily practiced using her new school scissors while I put her name on all her school supplies. I also sharpened all her pencils. Is that a little overboard?

After that, we made some pink lemonade that's going to go in Emily's thermos tomorrow morning. She has requested a turkey sandwich cut into shapes, string cheese, fruit snacks, and pink lemonade. I think I can handle all that.

Please pray for us in the morning. I think Emily will be fine. I think I am the one that everyone is worried about. I will be fine! "This too shall pass." It's the first day of the rest of our lives!

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Chicken 'n Dumplins

On Sunday night, Emily helped me make supper. We made Chicken 'n Dumplings and Peach Cobbler. Yum yum! All homemade from scratch. Good stuff.



I felt a little bad for Emily because she wanted to play with the dumpling dough instead of cooking with it. I don't think she realized that rolling pins were used in cooking and not just in Play-Doh land.



Here are my recipes:

Chicken and Dumplings

Boil large fryer or 6 chicken breasts and debone. Make sure you have plenty of broth.

Combine in food processor:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 t. salt
• Crisco the size of a large egg
• about 1 cup broth

(Tip! Add everything but the broth to the food processor then add broth only until the dough forms a ball. As soon as it forms a ball, turn off the food processor!)

Roll out very thin. Cut into strips of equal size. (I use a pizza cutter.) Drop into boiling broth then add chicken. Cook on low heat 12-15 minutes.

Peach Cobbler

Mix together the following ingredients to make dough:

• 1 egg
• 1 c. flour
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 1/2 c. margarine

Mix together the following ingredients in a shallow baking dish:

• 1 can fruit
• 1 stick margarine
• 1/2 c. sugar

Spoon dough on top of fruit mixture. Bake for 35 minutes at 350 degrees.

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Happy Birthday Aunt Pat!

Today is Mike's aunt's birthday. I am sure she wouldn't mind me telling you that she's 68 years young today. I mean I didn't have to tell you, but you would have seen the number on the picture of the cake anyway.

We went out to Vickie's house on Saturday night for Aunt Pat's birthday party. The kids have been planning a variety show for us. They made us show tickets and programs and everything.

Madison and Sarah sang a couple songs.

Emily was not too keen on singing the songs that she had practiced. In her defense, she had not been feeling well the last few days.

Mason was a total show-off. He sang several songs for us.

Madison and Sarah even brought some props. We tried to tell Sarah that her cowgirl hat was on backwards, but she didn't seem to mind.

Bobby cooked us some really good burgers and we had lots of veggies from their garden. We had cake and Vickie made my 4-layer delight recipe that I posted the other week. It was really good! If you didn't try it, you can go here and get the recipe.

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Twitter Tweeter

I've decided to sign up for a Twitter account. I can use Twitter to update my Facebook status and put updates on my blog at the same time. You can see my Twitter updates on the right-hand side of my blog.

I hope I can use this to send brief updates when I don't have time to write an entire blog post. I have not figured out how to send texts to update Twitter, but I will figure that out.

I have lots to tell about Aunt Pat's birthday party out at Vickie's house the other night, Sunday School, and what I cooked for supper tonight. But for now, I'll sleep. It's going to be a full and busy week!

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Meep Meep

The roadrunner came to visit us again this morning. He hasn't been around much lately, but we're glad he's back.

Sorry these pictures are not very clear .. I was taking the pictures out the car window!

Mike told him to "meep meep" and he ran off. Hehe

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Driving While Intexticated

I usually don't write opinion posts on my blog, but I've been hearing a lot about Driving While Intexticated on TV lately. I think the State of Oklahoma or one of the news channels is doing an ad campaign to bring attention to the danger of driving while reading or sending text messages.

They say it is as dangerous as drunk driving. The TV commercials suggest that reading or sending text messages while driving should be against the law. I understand that several other states have similar laws.

While I readily admit and agree that driving while texting is dangerous; however, I think that is a symptom of a much bigger problem.

I think the real problem is inattention while driving. Driving while intexticated is certainly one way to be inattentive. But what about putting on makeup? Smacking your kids in the backseat? Talking while driving? Looking at another passenger?

If any one of those things should be illegal, I think they should all be illegal. All of those cause your attention to be focused on something besides your car, the road, and other drivers around you.

Just to be clear, I think texting while driving is dangerous. I don't think anyone should be attempting to do this. But I don't know if making a law against it will solve the real problem.

So what do you think? Do you think texting while driving should be illegal? Do you think it will solve the problem?

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By the Numbers

4 - babies I held and loved on in the church nursery on Sunday.

56 - Years young was Aunt Charlene this weekend.

20 - persons who joined us for Aunt Charlene's birthday party on Sunday after church.

1 - Yummy cake - German Chocolate - from my favorite bakery - yes, it was that good.

10 - days until school starts

4 - boxes of crayons on the school supply list

2 - new pairs of shoes for school .. pink and brown

3 - age of the majority of members in my new Sunday School class

3 or 4 - weeks until aforementioned Sunday School class begins

3 - adults who've signed up to help in this new Sunday School adventure - Hi Gary and Cherry!

And one final funny story ...

On Sunday night, Emily was eating a peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich at the kitchen table while I was cleaning up the kitchen. I had a regular old bottle of cleaner that I was getting ready to spray onto the kitchen island. Emily asked me what that was and I said "It's some spray cleaner." And Emily says "Oh, I have seen that on TV." Ha! Is that the only place she's ever seen spray cleaner? SURELYNOT!

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Topsy Turvy Tomato Planter Update - 3 Months

I had to move my Topsy Turvy Tomato Planter to hang in the tree because it was getting too long for it's previous home. It was nearly dragging the ground.







My tomato plant has beautiful green leaves on it, but no flowers right now. And obviously no tomatoes.



I am beginning to think this experiment is going to be a failure. What do you think?

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4-Layer Delight

Last night, Emily helped me make 4-Layer Delight. We didn't plan to cook together. The opportunity just sorta presented itself so we took full advantage of it. I must say the result turned out really good. It was delicious.

I thought I'd share the recipe with you guys. Here goes ...



4-Layer Delight

Layer 1: 1 cup flour, 1 stick margarine (melted), 1/2 cup nuts, chopped. Press into greased pan. Bake 325 degrees for 25 mins.

Layer 2: 8 oz cream cheese, 1 cup powdered sugar, 1/2 large bowl whipped topping. Mix and pour into cooled crust.

Layer 3: 2 small boxes instant pudding, 3 cups milk. Mix together and chill.

Layer 4: Top with remaining whipped topping. Garnish with nuts or cocoa, if desired. Chill before serving.



I make mine the "lower fat" way - just substitute in equal amounts "lite" whipped topping, 1/3 less fat cream cheese, and 1% milk. I have tried using lower fat margarine in the crust, but it doesn't really work so I stick with regular margarine.

I was going to take a picture of the final product, but we ate it for breakfast. Not all of it, but it just doesn't seem right to take a picture of half-eaten food.

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Someone's Been Sneakin 'Round My Back Door

This morning, I went outside to take out the trash and I immediately noticed some muddy footprints on our back steps. There were lots of little footprints all over the steps!

I'm thinking raccoon. I saw a big fat raccoon running across the yard a couple weeks ago when I was out watering. I'm thinking he's been sneaking 'round my back door.

What do you think? Does this look like raccoon footprints?

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Prayer Requests

Tonight, I'm coming to you with a few prayer requests.

Heather Chandler - Heather is a friend of mine from high school. She was diagnosed with appendix cancer a few months ago and is currently undergoing treatments. She is only thirty years old and has two adorable children. Please pray for Heather to keep her energy and recover quickly from the chemo treatments while the cancer is destroyed! You can visit her website @ http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/heatherchandler or her Facebook group @ A Prayer For Heather Chandler.

Kennedy Grace - Comedian Kenn Kington came to speak at our church last sunday. He told about his young daughter's battle with ALL Leukemia. She recently completed treatments. Please pray that she'll remain cancer-free. You can visit her website @ http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/kgk.

Kate McRae - Five-year-old Kate was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor and just started chemo treatments yesterday. Please pray that she will have minimal side effects from the treatments and that the treatments will totally eliminate the cancer cells. For the type of cancer that she's battling, it's important that the surgery and chemo gets rid of every single cancer cell. You can visit her website @ http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/mcraekate or her Facebook Group @ Pray for Kate McRae.

If you have any other prayer requests (related to illness or anything else), please post them in the comments or email them to me at jenviolet@gmail.com and I will try to get them posted. I pray that God will use THIS BLOG to His Glory and to bring people closer to Him.

My God is bigger than cancer!

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I Don't

• I don't like making lists. But I make a lot of lists.

• I don't like to have idle hands. My hands usually have to be doing something. I used to cross-stitch and crochet while watching TV, but it's too hard to manage with a child around. Now I blog.

• I don't cook anything that takes more than about 30 minutes on weekdays. If it has to go into the oven, it will probably take too long.

• I don't like folding laundry. Sometimes I let it "rest" on the sofa for several days before I fold it.

• I don't often get to work on time. I used to get there early every day. But now nobody seems to care. So I no longer seem to care. I always think I should care more about that.

• I don't like to eat cold pasta. No pasta salad. No cold pasta anything. Ever.

• I don't drink root beer ... or coffee. Diet Coke or water are my drinks of choice.

• I don't have much willpower when it comes to sweet stuff ... especially ice cream. Yum yum!

• I don't know why I like sleeping with a pillow over my face.

• I don't see the glass as half-empty. I see it as half-full.

• I don't know what I would do without Jesus Christ my Savior.

• I don't ever have to find out. Thank You God!

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Chicken Spaghetti

I thought I would share one of my favorite recipes with you. It's yummy Chicken Spaghetti.

Boil large fryer or 6 split chicken breasts (bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts). Cool then debone. Cook spaghetti (about 10-12 oz.) in broth until tender.

Add to spaghetti:

• 1 can mushroom soup
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 can cheddar cheese soup
• 1 can Ro-tel tomatoes

Add chicken.
It's just that simple. This recipe makes a big pot of chicken spaghetti and it is soooooo good. You can freeze the leftovers. It is making me hungry just thinking about it.
Try it! You'll like it!

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For Oklahomans Only

Have you heard about this?

As you may know, the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety (DPS) quit sending Driver’s license renewal notices a few years ago. They now have an option on their web-site that you can use to sign up to receive an e-mail notice 45 days before your license expires.

It’s easy and free! Check it out. www.dps.state.ok.us/renewal/

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Back to School Shopping

This weekend, we started our back to school shopping. In just a few short weeks, Emily will be going to full day Pre-K. She's excited about starting back to school and I'm excited for her, but why is it so hard on me?

Emily picked out a Barbie backpack and a butterfly lunch box. It was such a special time to be able to go with her and help her look through all the selections and pick out the items she'll be using at school.

We printed off the school supply list for Emily's school. Soon, we'll go to the store to get all the boxes of crayons, markers, pencils and scissors that she'll need. We'll buy a nap mat, headphones, baby wipes, plastic baggies and playdoh too. And that's not all!

I remember how much I enjoyed back to school time when I was a young girl. (Yes, it's true!) It was so fun to get all my new school supplies and look them over and organize them and think about where everything would go.

It's unbelievable how much goes into this school thing. I am fully prepared to sign up to be one of the homeroom mothers. It will be hard to manage that while working full-time, but I think it's worth it. I have to do what's best for my family. That's the only way I know how to do it.

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Refreshed and Renewed

Tonight after supper, Emily and I went outside to water the flowers. I inadvertently forgot about my plants while I was away on vacation and so they are all looking pretty sad right now. All the daylilys have lots of yellow leaves on them, smallish flowers. Even the sweet potato vine was withered and near death.

Emily used her watering can to help me water some of the flowers and then we played in the sprinkler. Emily got soaking wet and had a blast. When we were getting ready to go inside, I put the still-running water hose in the flower bed. I turned around to gather up our stuff and Emily picks up the hose and turns it on me!

Just like the water refreshes and renews the flowers, my vacation has refreshed and renewed my spirit. It has really helped me be more patient and just enjoy spending more time with my family.

We should do that more often. (Just not in Memphis!)

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Home Again, Home Again

After a busy and fun week, we finally made it home last night at about 8pm. I was so glad to be home, but I hated the thought of having to go back to work today. In fact, I was so disappointed about the end of my vacation that I failed to do my laundry last night and was struggling to find something to wear this morning. Ahh!

So I thought it would be fun to do a little backwards recap of our vacation. First things first ... well, last things first ... I was so so excited to see Emily on Saturday afternoon. She was still taking her nap when we got to my parents house. I had to sit on the couch and patiently wait for her to wake up. When she saw her dad, she was so excited and she gave us such sweet hugs. Last night when we got home, she said "I love our house!" Then a minute later "I love you too, Mama." Ha!

I was so glad that Emily had a good time while Mike and I were in vacation. That made it even easier for Mike and I to have a good time in Memphis. And we did have so much fun. It was fun to just laugh at all the things that happened to us while we were in Memphis. We liked exploring the city "off the beaten path" and people watching too.

I will admit that the trolley cars on the streets in downtown Memphis really freaked me out. They drive right down one of the lanes of the street. The vehicle traffic shares the same lane. In fact, the cars have to cross the trolley lane to get to the center turn lane at times. I don't know, it all just really freaked me out and I'm pretty sure I screamed at Mike more than once while we were near the trolley cars. (If you recall, Mike was the full-time designated driver.)

And ... I will say that I really missed home. Memphis is not like Oklahoma.

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Graceland Tour

Today was our Graceland Tour day. Mike said we couldn't go to Graceland until we visited the place where Elvis' career got started - Sun Studio. So we got up (relatively) early and headed over to Graceland this morning. But ... first things first .. breakfast! We found a Krispy Kreme near Graceland and pulled in for a doughnut. Yum-O! I have been wanting one of those for so long and it was worth it.

We walked over to the tour center to purchase our tickets and wait for the bus to take us over to the mansion and grounds. We were in hour 9, group 8 and we had to wait about 40 minutes for our turn. Who knew that it would take so long?

But we finally got our tour headphones and made it over to the house.



The home has been declared a National Historic Landmark.

We got to go inside the house and look around on the lower level. The picture below is from the front rooms. The stained glass is so pretty. We got to go through the dining room, kitchen, basement, jungle room, etc.

We also went outside and toured a few other buildings. Some of them were more like museums that housed Elvis's gold records and memorabilia from his life and career.

I enjoyed seeing some of his outfits that he wore. See the eagle on the back of the jumpsuit below?

This tiger one was pretty fancy too. They had a lot of information about his acting career too.

Last stop on the mansion tour was the meditation garden. This is where the graves of Elvis and his family reside.

Then we went back to the tour center and went through the car museum. I thought this section was really neat. They had signs that described when Elvis had these cars and how he used them.

Of course, the pink Cadillac is one of the most well known of Elvis' cars.

We also got to tour Elvis' airplanes. This is a picture of the smaller plane. I forgot to take a picture of the big one, but it was very fancy inside.

We ate lunch at one of the restaurants at the Graceland tour center. It was a very cute place set up like a 50's diner.

This afternoon, we visited Bass Pro Shop and looked around at some shops around Memphis. We ended up eating dinner at a really good restaurant called Chow Time. The guy at the hotel actually told us about this place when we checked into our hotel. He said it served "stick to your ribs" food. Turns out, it's a buffet and grill that serves Chinese food and country cooking. Sounds weird, but they had good food.

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"I don't sound like nobody"

Today was our first full day in Memphis. First things first, we visited the Visitor's Center to pick up some brochures to find out what all we should try to see today.

We found this very large statue of Elvis. It had a sign that said "Please do not touch. Protected by alarm." It was true. No, we didn't find out the hard way.


After that, we drove around a bit to figure out the lay of the land and see what all we could see. Eventually, we found Sun Studio where Elvis got his start. Apparently, our little GPS was a little confused by the downtown Memphis streets. Mike eventually figured it out though.



At Sun Studio, we got about a 45 minute tour of the studio. The tour guide gave us a bunch of information about the studio, Elvis, and a lot of other people.

Mike told me I had to post a picture of this secretary's office. This is where Elvis delivered his famous line "I don't sound like nobody."

This old fashioned pop machine was in the outer office too. After that long tour, I was wishing that thing was loaded.

After the Sun Studio tour, we went down the street to find the Peabody Hotel. It was very fancy and posh inside and out, but we didn't get to see the ducks. They had already done their little march by the time we got there.

I wanted to sit on the Peabody's couch that was near this fountain, but it had a sign on it that said it was for Peabody guests and bar patrons only. Denied!

I thought this player piano was pretty cool. Again, I wasn't allowed to touch it. I didn't get to touch anything in that place.

Then we went next door to the new Peabody Place shopping/eating/play place. All the shops and restaurants were not open yet.

It looked to be two or three stories, but the first floor was the only thing that was open. It was a very fancy place. It looked like an outdoor setting even though we were in doors - potted trees everywhere, looked like you were walking down the street next to tall buildings. They even had "street lamps" and lights along the "awning" over the shop windows.

The restaurants in Peabody Place were not open so we went back to the car to go find something to eat.

This afternoon, we decided to go down to Tunica, Mississippi to ride the Tunica Queen Riverboat. Tunica was only about a 20 minute drive, but we could not find where to get on the Riverboat on the GPS. The only address we had was not found by the GPS. The GPS had a listing for a Tunica Museum so we figured that might be close to the boats.

We found the museum, but the boats were nowhere to be found. So we went back to where the Tunica Casinos were and finally found the way to the Riverboat docks. At this point, it was just about time for the riverboat to depart. We ran into the museum/aquarium and asked the lady at the desk if we could still get on the boat. She said yes, but we would have to hurry! So she radioed down to the boat and said she had two more people coming out of the building right now and then they were "all clear."

So we pay and run down to the boat just as it's undocking. The guy checking the tickets said we were lucky that the refreshment guy needed to get more beer before they left. Ha!

We went up to the deck to check out the view. Mike said I needed to take some pictures of the river. But I said I was not letting go of this railing. Something about the boat moving in the water .. I don't know, I just didn't feel very stable standing up there. So Mike took the camera and took some pictures for me. It was so hot up there that it didn't take us long to find our way back inside the cabin where we enjoyed listening to the commentary and seeing the sights out the window.

While on the Tunica Queen, we enjoyed pina coladas and a moon pie. I don't know .. it just seemed like the appropriate thing to do in Mississippi.

After the hour and a half riverboat ride, we headed back toward Memphis. But we couldn't leave our trip down the Mississippi River without finding some good catfish to eat. We looked online and found a good restaurant in Olive Branch called .. ironically, the "Olive Branch Catfish Co."

The food really was good. It was not the cornmeal breaded catfish fillet that I am accustomed to, but it was mighty tasty. For dessert, I had the lemon ice box pie and Mike tried the peach cobbler with ice cream. Both were good, but I ate too much of the catfish AND too much of the pie.

So after dinner, we went back to our hotel to hang out. We were going to go swimming, but there were too many kids down at the pool. So we watched the season premier of Big Brother instead. (I didn't even ask Mike if we could watch it. He just turned it on. Sweet!) I wanted Jessica to go back into the house.

What will we find in Memphis tomorrow? You'll just have to wait and see!

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