Another day in Paradise!

In a few minutes we will be leaving for my Birthday adventure! We are going back to visit the beautiful sunsets at this location as well as a few others. We will blog all about it upon our return! Don't miss us too much! We are looking forward to our adventure and the break from everyday life and reality!

We return on Sunday, but may not blog until Monday!

Have a great week without us!

Yes! It's January!

Yes, those are the tomatoes we've harvested from the garden. Yes, just this past week. Granted it has been in the 80's all week. We have had a few cold nights, but the tomatoes are still growing! Yes, there are still more out there! The cherry tomatoes are from the plant that grew itself. We haven't watered or anything. They're still growing! I would like to plant something else...like lettuce to go with the tomatoes! That would be good! We'll see!!!

Inauguration Day

I did watch most of the Inauguration today. What else is on TV?
A few weeks ago I caught a BYU devotional from 1977, by Ezra Taft Benson. Considering it was over 30 years old, it was pretty interesting to hear. So interesting that I made Eddie watch it when it was re-broadcast a few hours later. I have taken a few quotes from it and posted it on my other blog. Check it out: http://prophetseersnrevelators.blogspot.com If you would like to read the speach in it's entirety let me know and I'll e-mail it to you. God Bless America!

A Sleeping Beauty kind of night!

I had a really bad day today. Just was not dealing well with the over-grown toddler.

When Eddie got home from work, I made him take me out, just so I could get away for awhile. We went up to Rose Hills! One of our favorite places to drive around. For those of you not familiar with this area, it's a cemetery! We went to the old section first because usually around 4pm or 5pm the deers come out from the surrounding hills and are feeding on flower arrangements! We weren't disappointed. There were 5 deer not very far into the park. They had really dark fur. I've never seen them with such dark fur. A couple years ago we were there and we saw so many deer. A few even had lots of antlers! 5 or 6 points I believe is the correct way to say it. That was later in the spring and there were fawns too! So that was the start of my Sleeping Beauty experience. Tonight at about 8:30 p.m. after our FHE, we went for our walk around the block. We were rounding the corner to our house and lo and behold, the largest cat I've ever seen with the biggest ears was in front of Eddie's car. This kitty had a mask too! Holy cow! I've never seen a raccoon in my front yard. It took off for the drain across from our house. It hid in there until we went in the house and then it wandered out and walked down the street. Eddie followed it with the camera, but he couldn't get close enough to get a picture. Now this is what I think Raccoons are supposed to look like:

This monster was at least 4 times this size. I found this picture on the web and this is about the size of our neighborhood raccoon!

I do not know who this lady is, but that's about the size of the varmint that was in front of our house. It was huge! Very fluffy looking! Huge mask. It's head was huge!!! So, now I'm waiting for birds to sing while I clean the kitchen. Well, we do hear the Geese flying over the house all the time. So, I guess I do have "singing" birds. If only I could put all these animals to work!

Another animal story from the weekend....the Elders who live around the corner from us, called around 9pm Saturday night. The neighborhood skunk had been startled and sprayed...something under their house!!! They said the smell was so horrible and they were very worried about all their clothes smelling forever. I told them the stench would dissipate in 30 to 45 minutes. It was pretty humorous. They called their Mission President and he's great advice was....this will make a great journal entry!!!

Recipe

The Leftovers!!!!

After a few requests....I will now post my Macaroni and Cheese or Cheese and Macaroni Recipe.

17 oz. Elbow Macaroni or Rotini (use a spiral pasta to hold more of the goo!)

6 Tbsp Butter/Margarine

6 Tbsp Flour

4 cups Milk

Salt and pepper to taste

Lots of Cheddar Cheese, grated (at least 2 cups, but if you like cheesey...use more!!!! I just put it in until it looks balanced and cheesy!)

Boil pasta following package directions.

While pasta is boiling, melt butter in large sauce or sautee pan (large enough to hold 4+ cups of milk) over medium heat. Add Flour to the melted butter. Cook for at least 2 minutes so you don't have the nasty raw flour taste. Cook longer if you want, but don't burn the butter!!! It will start to turn golden but you don't want it brown! Add salt and pepper. Remove from heat and slowly whisk in 4 cups of milk. Use a teflon whisk if you have a teflon-coated pan. Place back on medium heat. Cook until sauce thickens, stirring constantly. Be patient! It's worth the wait!. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease or butter a 9 X 13 or larger pan or a large pyrex bowl. Mix grated cheese with pasta. Pour white sauce over pasta and stir til well mixed. Put more grated cheese on the top!!!! Heat in oven for 30 minutes or so until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbly! DE-LI-CIOUS!!!!!

When my Mom would make homemade Mac 'n Cheese, she would layer the pasta, cheese and white sauce. I like mixing it all up, because then all the pasta is gooey! Both ways work! You can double the recipe or half it. Use however much pasta your family will eat. The white sauce makes a hardy amount of sauce!!! Let me know how yours turns out!

Sorry!

I have been terrible at posting lately. Haven't thought of anything good to post.
Today my nephew Kevin sent me an invitation to check out his new blog.
I now extend the invitation to you! If I'm not writing something, you can at least check his out. It's a blog just for his poetry!
Check it out: http://www.klassicpoet.blogspot.com/

Let me and him know what you think!

Sandy

Another shot!

Yesterday my brother, Bubba, e-mailed me this very cool picture! A bird's eye view of our adventure on the 1st! Or is that a blimps eye view!

Pretty sweet! Cool picture!

Eddies said to blog!

Eddie wants me to blog and tell you that I made the most delicious home-made Macaroni and Cheese tonight. You probably should call it Cheese and Macaroni!!! I will admit it is very good!! I should post a picture of what's left of it! Maybe before we finish it off I will. I'm tired! I've worked very hard all day today! I got lots accomplished. That's always a plus. Eddie worked all day, so I had to entertain myself somehow. That reminds me that I need to get stuff out of the dryer. Then I think I'm going to bed! I better sleep good tonight! Eddie and I went on TWO walks today. One this morning and one around 9pm. It was nice being out in the crisp dark air. Nice half a moon! We just walk around the block. It's like 3/4 of a mile. So....that means we walked 1.5 miles today and that doesn't count all the walking around the house cleaning today and what not! No wonder my feet hurt!!! Have a happy day!

If at first you don't succeed.......

TRY, TRY, AGAIN!

Yes, that little speck up there over the mountain is the B-2 Bomber!!!
Bubba told us they were doing a fly-by for the Rose Bowl too! So, off we went!

It was so cool!!!!!

I took horrible pictures! You can't see what you're taking pictures of! It was awesome to have it fly right over us though! So ominous! So....Darth Vaderish!!!!

It was way cool!

The year of Adventures continues! Patience and Persistance pays off!

WOO-HOO!!!!!!