New Guilty Pleasure....

 

I have a confession to make... a new guilty pleasure... 

Oh No... Did you know there are 100 episodes of Gossip Girl on Netflix.  
Society Teens gone wild.... I never watched it when it was on TV, but now I can't stop watching this train wreck...  If for no other reason than to see who is going to stab who in the back next... or which boyfriend's Dad dated whose Mom when they were younger and now you find out you and your boyfriend have a half-brother in common...  and the 'steps' girls are so mean it's almost funny...

This is a whole new lifestyle for me...   Upper East Side, Lower East Side...  Society Socials...
Manhattan is an island ... I've never been to New York City, but these people scare me more than the muggers....   It's really twisted, but I just can't stop watching :)

And here I thought the crazies on Suits were unrealistic :) But then, I don't know any attorney's either... 

Oh well.. I'm on Season 2 and looking forward to a night of watching Blair and Serena try to figure out life in general...    Do you think there are really people out there that are like these characters? 

If you've never watched it, or even if you have, join me in binge watching and we'll dish the gossip together...

Tuesday's Timeline....

Today I'm enjoying the cloudy skies without the storms... 
Everything smells so fresh and clean after a rain.

Here are some of the newest plants Raven and I have added to the front of Nana's Place...
It truly looks like Spring around here at last.

Cinnamon Roll Sunday...

Rainy Sundays are wonderful... A great time to slow down and enjoy the little things... like making cinnamon rolls for breakfast with your grand daughter.  Raven and I love to mix up things in the kitchen... they may not always turn out perfect, but most of the fun is in the making...  It's hard to mess up Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls, so that was our recipe of choice this morning.  We use a Pampered Chef pizza pan for all our biscuit and cinnamon roll baking.  Raven almost always either decorates the biscuits or makes a smiley face out of the cinnamon rolls... After the baking is done, Raven is the chief decorator.

Dave's 34!  (24 April 2014)

While Dave and Aliea were in Tunica to celebrate his birthday, Raven and I got ready for his birthday party at Nana's House....  First thing she wanted to do was go to Dollar Tree to get all the party supplies.  She picked out Luau plates & napkins and two cute little pink flamingo inflatable drink holders for the pool.  A birthday balloon is a must for every birthday at our house and I tried to talk her into a cute little monkey to go with our Luau theme, but Raven would have none of it... She had to have a Spiderman birthday balloon for her Daddy.

Next stop was lunch at McDonald's as all that shopping had made us hungry and Raven wanted to see what the latest Happy Meal toy was... 

Then it was on to Dairy Queen for Daddy's birthday cake.  No cupcakes from Sam's for her Daddy... he deserves the ice cream cake from Dairy Queen... plus she hasn't had it since their opening celebration when the cakes were on sale for half price...

Then we came home and she set up the party all by herself... She had me put the cake in the big freezer to keep it 'safe'.  Then she had to wrap all the gifts we found for Daddy at Dollar Tree...  A new sparkley pinwheel, a princess kite, a Cars glow stick, and a little red convertible diecast car...  We wrapped them up in white paper so she could draw her own decorations on the paper and tied them up with pink ribbon because right now pink is one of Raven's favorite colors.

After the table was set and the gifts were placed around as more decorations, she was ready for Mom and Dad to come home so we had to give them a call to see if they were on the way...  Luckily, they were about ready to come home.  She fell asleep in the recliner while she was waiting...

Finally they made it home and it was time for the party :)  Everyone had a wonderful time and here are pictures to share....

Used Book Stores ----

 

I love to explore old used book stores...  The smell of the old books, the sunshine coming through the windows and bouncing off the covers of books yet to be discovered, the fact that they are just not quite as tidy as the chain book store at the mall...all help add to the adventure,  The possibility of discovering a new favorite author whose story will take me to a place that I would have never imagined on my own. 

I read different genres... I've been a member of the sci-fi book club, the Readers Digest book club, a romance book club...These book clubs are great ways to find new writers and push my reading limits.  Once I find someone I like to read, they just can't write fast enough to suit me...  I know 'binge watching' is trendy now for tv series, but I've been 'binge reading' for years.  For example, when my oldest son gave me my first kindle for Christmas a few years ago, he had Kim Harrison's entire "Hollows" series loaded on the kindle...  I just couldn't get enough.  Now that I've caught up with her writing, it just kills me to have to wait for her next book.   I discovered one of Jude Deveraux's "Edilean' series at a used book store and then had to hunt and search for the rest of that series...  It's like a treasure hunt.    I love books with a little magic stirred in or just total fantasy.  Right now I'm reading Nora Roberts second book in her "Dark Witch" trilogy.  .  I'm almost through and I've slowed down my reading... I'm enjoying it so much I just don't want to finish and then have to wait until her next book comes out.

Sometimes a used book has a bigger story than what has been written in the pages...  There may be notes from the previous owner showing a little slice of their life while they were reading the book.... a receipt for a luncheon with friends, a boarding pass for a plane trip as part of a fabulous vacation.  Then I begin to wonder what the previous owner thought of the story as I read it... and what the next person might think...  That's one reason a love bookcrossing.com...  It's a new digital version of a used book store.  You can pass on a book and see what the next person thinks of it, you can make new friends and compare notes...

Oh let's face it.  I just love everything about BOOKS.  Not just the story inside, but the connection with the people the book provides; the writers and the others who read the books, and a used book store is a great place for a treasure hunt.

2014 = A Year of Reading Serendipity....

ser·en·dip·i·ty 

[ser-uhn-dip-i-tee] 

noun

1. an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.

2. good fortune; luck: the serendipity of winning the first book contest I entered..

 

I am declaring 2014 a year of serendipity in reading...  I've discovered the giveaways on goodreads website and I won 4 books the first day I started entering.   Sooo, I've decided to read and review books won from various giveaways in 2014.  I'll let chance be my reading guide this year.  

 

I love to find new authors and even entire genres, so this is a great way to build my reading muscles.

I'll try to read them in the order the books are received. I'll post my reviews on goodreads, Amazon, and of course on my bookcrossing bookshelf ...  I'll try to add pictures or copies of letters that are included in the prizes.  

 

After reading these books, they will be passed on to others for them to read and possibly review. 

Gardening in April....

I've decided to try to blog about my gardens this year... both flower and vegetable.  I don't normally do the veggie garden, but my Hubby asked me for help with this years crop, so I decided to dive in with gusto.
One condition of my helping in the veggie garden was the use of black fabric weed block... I'm just not that into weeding and that has been a major problem in past years.

 The veggie garden was tilled up and turned over...  It looks pretty bear. 

We do have fruit trees, 2 peach, 2 pear, and 2 apple.

 This little pear tree was pulled over toward the east by a wild and crazy vine of some type last year.

I'm trying to get it back straight by using the blue rope to pull it back... 

I shorten the rope every day or so to pull it up.

So far, we've planted several varieties of tomatoes, 4 different colors of peppers,

yellow straight neck squash, 4 little corn plants for our grand daughter 

and some string beans

 The tomato cages are about 6 years old, but still holding up well.

 Our property is fairly windy out on the back half,

so we've added old landscape timbers to help hold down the weed-block.

I really hope this works....

The apple blossoms are really pretty this year.

Now if we can just keep the birds away from the apples!

Merry Christmas to all my little feathered friends...

Thanks for sharing your songs with us all year long!

 I found this little bird feeder at Sam's.

The lights just sucked me right in... I couldn't resist it. 

Lord knows I needed one more thing to hang on my tree out front :)

  

Here's my very favorite recipe for Christmas 2012...  Meets my criteria of FAST & EASY..
I'm making several for friends and neighbors......  and really does only take minutes to make.

Five-Minute Fudge Wreath

Recipe courtesy Rachael Ray

Prep Time: 5 min

Cook Time: 5 min

Level: Easy

Serves: 32 servings (2 pounds)

 

Ingredients

• 1 (12-ounce) bag semisweet chocolate morsels
• 9 ounces (3/4 of a 12-ounce bag) butterscotch morsels
• 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 (8-ounce) can walnut halves
• 1/2 cup (a couple of handfuls) currants
• 8-inch cake pan, lightly greased with softened butter
• Candied cherries, red and green, for garnish, optional

Directions

Place a heavy pot on the stove and preheat it over low heat. Add chips and milk and stir until chips are melted and milk combined. Save the empty condensed milk can. Stir in vanilla and remove fudge from heat. Add nuts and currants and stir in immediately.

Cover empty condensed milk can with plastic food wrap and center it in the greased cake pan. Spoon fudge into pan around can, making sure to recenter can if it drifts.
The fudge will set up almost immediately. Garnish can only be added in the first minute or 2 the fudge is in the pan, so work quickly. Decorate your wreath with "holly" made from cut candied red and green cherries. A wreath left plain can be garnished with a pretty fabric bow when serving. Chill covered in the refrigerator and slice fudge very thin when ready to serve, a little goes a long way.

Random Memory = Cousins

Cousins, Buddy Sanders & Patsy Foster about 1950

 

 

It is just so much fun to find these really old photos!  Mom had a box of them in the bottom of her hall closet and I have been scanning them so they can be more easily shared with friends and family....

This is a picture of me (Patsy) and my cousin Buddy (Phillip Ray Sanders) when I was about 3 or 4 years old.  After Mom & Dad were married in 1946 they moved in with his sister (Maggie) and her family.  So for the first 5 years of my life, I had Buddy and Lavern to act as my older brother and sister.  I'm still looking for pictures of Lavern.  I know there must be some here somewhere...

Luv ya Buddy!

Random Memory = Thanksgiving with Granny Hess

Today I was making out our Thanksgiving menu and grocery lists.  It got me to thinking about my Grandmother (my Dad's Mom)... if you didn't call her "Granny Hess", you called her "Miss Alice".  She was one of the sweetest ladies I've ever known and a wonderfully nurturing grandmother. 

All the family would get together at Granny Hess's at least twice a year.... Thanksgiving and Mother's Day.
All the ladies in the family brought dishes to help fill out the menu, but Granny Hess did the majority of the cooking.  I remember one thing all the kids loved was her 'Pink Cake'.  She made the white layers from scratch and I found out later that the pink icing was seven-minute frosting with a few drops of red food-coloring.  It was always the first desert to go....

Alice Alderson Sigman Foster Mills Hess

Granny Hess was born in 1895 in Potts Camp, MS, She out-lived four husbands... She had two sons and one daughter by her first husband, Mr. Sigman...  then she had my Dad by her second husband, Mr. Foster (Forrester)  She had another daughter by Mr. Mills, but that little girl died when she was about 3 or 4.  She had dozens of grandchildren who loved to visit and then she had even more great-grandchildren before she passed away in 1970.

Granny Hess taught me how to cook and to this day I use her recipe for cornbread dressing at Thanksgiving.  I can still remember the wonderful smells in her kitchen.  She made the absolute best chicken and dumplings I've ever had.

I miss you Granny Hess...I wish my boys and grandchildren could have known you...
Maybe I'll try my hand at your 'Pink Cake' this Thanksgiving.

Random Memory....

Summer - 1985... all the cousins went to Grandma Foster's to spend a week and she took them to Mickey D's to see Ronald McDonald... (Looks like Maclain started making fashion statements at a very young age :)

l-r= Mic, Amy, Allyson, (Ronald McDonald), Maclain, Steve, David

Random Memories.....

 I've been trying to retrieve some photos that I thought I had lost on an old computer that was infested with a devastating virus... By some miracle, our youngest son Dave was able to  get access to the 'my pictures' files and I have several years of photos to pick and choose from.    I've decided to write about a random memory each day based on the photos we've retrieved.....

This first trio of pics was taken at the Memphis Zoo back in 2006....  This is Steve, Vanessa and Gavin enjoying a beautiful day at the zoo...

 Gavin enjoyed playing in the water at the zoo, but refused to get all the way in.  hands and toes only was the most fun of all.

Looking at the zebras....

Raven & Daddy have a great day at the Memphis Zoo!

Raven met the Panda bear mascot at the entrance of the Memphis Zoo.

 He posed with Raven for a picture....

Daddy & Raven studying the albino tigers.  very pretty....

 Raven loved the playground at the zoo.

This slide goes round and round.

 This train goes around the animal farm at the zoo.

 Raven riding a tiger on the carousel at the zoo.

Raven taking a 'funnel cake' break with Daddy.

It's going to be a beautiful Saturday so we decided to take the family to the Memphis Zoo.
I'll post some pictures later....

Family Tree Project

I'm still working on our Family Tree on ancestry.com and need more detailed info on our descendent family members...  It's much harder to get info on our living cousins, nieces, nephews, etc than it is on our deceased relatives.  So this particular post is geared to all FAMILY MEMBERS.   If you are reading this, please email me your full name, birthday, and where you were born.  Also the same info for your spouse, children, parents, etc.   Any family member you have any info for will be appreciated.

If you have any family photos old or new that I can add to our family tree, please email them also.  Or if you have OLD photos for parents and grand parents or even great grand parents, that would be awesome!
If you don't want to scan old photos, I'll be happy to do that for you.

I have a folder of old family photos that I can't identify.  Mom (Aunt Lou) had them tucked away in her closet... If you can help identify any of these family members, please put their name and birthday, etc in the comments.... Here's the link to the folder.   http://www.flickr.com/photos/mississippimom/sets/72157627876767878/    I know there are a lot of Carters in the folder, I just can't put the names with the faces....

If you want a link to my Family Tree Project on ancestry.com, send me an email and I'll get it to you.

At it again....

Looking forward to more posting on this blog location...  For some reason I've never thought anyone else would be very interested in what I do or what I think about things... Mostly this blog will be used to keep memories alive as I get older and so family and friends who may just wonder what I've been up to will have a place to check it out....

Looking forward to the weekend at M&M's lodge on the lake!
I really need the R&R! I'll try to add some pictures next week.

It's been quite a while since I've written anything here...
Life moves along at a pretty steady pace...
I retired at the end of May and now it's September already and I wonder where the Summer went, and what the heck I did with all that time?!?!?!

Maybe if I start blogging again I can keep up with what went on in my life.
Lord knows, the memory is fading fast.

crankydragon's OBCZ

crankydragon's OBCZ, originally uploaded by MississippiMom.

A trip to Tupelo to see Gavin and Nessa and deliver 'The Bright Forever' to crankydragon!