Exciting News!!!!!!!

So, it's been a few days since posting and a lot has happened since then!!!  (I know I'm a horrible sporadic blogger, I'll try to do better)

Drum Roll Please.........................................................................................

I'm buying a cafe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

J and I will take ownership of the turn key ready to go place on Jan 1.  We will open for business on Jan. 2 at 6 am!

It's called the Main Street Cafe and is the only one in our small town!!!!  It is a hole in the wall type of place (and literally has a hole in the wall which is awesome) and serves home cooked type of food.  I love it!  The only changes I'll have to make starting out is adding pies and cheesecakes and daily specials but those things are fairly minor! 

Here's how it "went down".  J and I have been praying about a business opportunity for a couple years.  We've looked at different business from gun shops to archery shops to bakeries to cafes to who knows what else.  On Friday the 18th, less than 2 weeks ago we were at a basketball game here in Agra (we like to go to games for the heck of it even though we have no kids) and the guy that owns the cafe here in town sat in front of us.  I've joked with J about just buying it so kinda serious kinda jokingly I said, "Hey James you ready to sell me your cafe."  He said, "Yes, come see me next week."  So we prayed about it over the weekend , I went and saw him Tuesday and bought his cafe!  Quick fast and in a hurry but everything has fallen into place perfectly and I'm so excited!!!!!  I have visited with the owner a few times and we talked about how things work and then this morning I went in and cooked for a couple hours to get the hang of things.  It was great!  I have never cooked in a restaurant setting but I'm praying it will be a smooth transition! 

I have several family members and friends who think I'm crazy and a few who are ready to murder me because I'm leaving my current job and they love me so much there (that is not a sarcastic remark).  But I don't care, I'M EXCITED!!!!!!!!!  I even did a happy dance a couple times!!!!!!!!!!!!  

I'll post pics and all the other exciting things after I own it!  (only a few weeks away!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's been a great Thanksgiving day for me!  I am so thankful for all the blessings God has provided! 
We went to J's grandparents, they live about 2 hours from us, for lunch.  We got there about 9 and had a very light breakfast, biscuits, homemade blackberry jelly and pumpkin roll, then R and I helped Grandma in the kitchen.  It is a huge blessing to be able to cook next to someone with so much experience, even though she is getting older and taking a lot of short cuts it's still fun!  (R, I'm not talking about you, even though it was fun cooking with you too and hiding our laughs)  The rest of J's family got there and we visited and finished cooking, had lunch at 11:30 and had a good visit around the table!  After lunch and dishes J's sisters put up Grandma's Christmas tree, with the help of their dad, while Grandma, my wonderful Mother-In-Law and I watched, oh and J and Grandpa took a nap! 
My favorite part of the day.  We were packing up to leave and J's Grandma said, "Well, lets pray before you leave."  That is awesome and it gave me chills!  It is so great having someone to pray with you and for you and praying as a family is even better! 
We drove back home, I helped J with chores.  Now we're sitting on the couch watching football.  Again, it's been a great Thanksgiving Day!!!  Thank you Lord for you blessings!  Thank you for a wonderful husband and family to spend time with!

Thanksgiving Dinner at Church! (With some recipes)

Last Wednesday night I fixed a Thanksgiving meal for the kids/youth and a few adults at church!  We served 111 and had *just* enough.  We normally only have 80-90 so 111 was a few more than I had planned for!  I went in on Tuesday and made peach cobbler and got the stuff ready for green bean casserole and did a little prep work.  Wednesday I got to the church kitchen about 10 and put my turkeys in the oven, and started my chickens boiling. . . Then waited, cleaned up my mess, read a book, kicked up my heels for a little while. . . I had a helper show up about 1 and we visited for a little bit until it was time to start other things.  I ended up making homemade egg noodles (if you want to buy frozen egg noodles for 100 people it will cost you a fortune!).  Got those going.  Got turkeys out of the oven and got Mrs. Angie working on getting those off the bone.  Green bean casserole in the oven, stuffing and mashed potato water boiling and the kitchen was humming!  We took a few short cuts and made stove top stuffing and instant mashed potatoes (who wants to peel enough potatoes for 100 people?)  Oh, boiled the neck and giblets to make gravy with also. . . Here are a few pics, at the bottom I'll put a few recipes.

Mrs. Angie with her giant fork, carving up the turkey!

I had a few extra helpers serve for me!  I appreciate them volunteering! 

We had turkey, stove top, mashed potatoes, gravy, egg noodles, green bean casserole, 5 cup salad, and hot rolls, oh and peach cobbler!

Happy faces!!!

Recipes:
French Style Green Bean Casserole

3 cans French style green beans

1 stick butter

a lot of pepper

1 can cheddar cheese soup

1 can onion rings

Pour half the liquid off the green beans and pour into a sauce pan with butter and pepper

Cook about half an hour or until all the juice is gone

Add cheddar cheese soup

Pour into 10" casserole dish and top with canned onion rings

Cover and bake 30 minutes in 350 oven

Watch out, the onion tops may burn

This is not your *normal* green bean casserole, it is MUCH better!

Instant Mashed Potatoes

Well, that sounds yucky doesn't it?  Well, we tried to make them better!  We added BUTTER and heavy cream along with salt and pepper.  The butter and cream really make them taste better.  Also use a good brand, not cheap ones!

5 Cup Salad

1 Cup Sour Cream

1 Cup Coconut

1 Cup Pineapple (either tidbits or chunks)

1 Cup Mandarine Oranges

1 Cup Marshmallows

Mix together and chill about an hour before serving.  

This is a good recipe to make the day before and is very simple!

Peach Cobbler

1 Stick Butter

1 Cup Milk

1 Cup Sugar

1 Cup Self Rising Flour

1-2 Cans Peaches or a few fresh peaches

In a 9x9 baking dish put the stick of butter and put it in the oven and turn the oven to 350.  Let the butter melt while the oven is pre-heating and you mix the batter.

Mix the milk, sugar, and flour.  Pour into pan of melted butter.  Pour peaches over the batter.  Bake at 350 for about an hour or until the center sets.

 

Oklahoma Crazyness!

It's been a crazy few days here in Oklahoma.  "Mother Nature" has us all shook up!

About 2:30ish Saturday morning we were awakened by the sound of the doors ratteling and bed shaking.  Not sure what was going on we jumped up and looked outside.  No trains have moved into the area, no helecoptors flying over, nothing has crashed into our house.  HUM.  J said it was an earthquake!  We then checked facebook, and it was pouring in earthquake newsfeed!  It was finally updated here and we could see that it was a 4.7 centered in Sparks, about 26 miles from us.  WOW, scary!

So, we carry on with the day.  I had the day off and we piddled around the house and didn't get a whole lot done.  I've developed a chest cold and so I rested as much as I could Saturday. . . Finally we decided to just go to bed, we didn't really care to watch anything on tv and J had worked outside all day so we crashed about 9:30 pm. . .

I was out, sleeping good and then was rudely awaken by shaken about 10:40 pm.  It was by a stronger and longer quake!  I couldn't catch my breath, all I could do was hold on to J's arm and pray it ended quick and we'd be safe!  I think my prayer was kinda like this, "Lord please make it stop, keep us safe, please make it stop, keep up safe. . . ."  Anyway, I was too scared to get out of bed but J finally decided to get up and see how big it was.  Again, FB was jumping with newsfeed of the quake and aftershocks.  (Yes, I finally got the nerve to get up and look at my computer)  I'm not really sure if I felt any aftershocks I was shaking so bad from the quake.  Turns out it was a 5.6, biggest in Oklahoma history (5.5 being the record in the 50s), and I heard it lasted 32 seconds, which seemed like 15 minutes!

OK God, we feel ya and we're ready for you to make it quit!  We're in Oklahoma, we don't care to have any crazyness like this, don't we have enough crazyness with droughts, grass fires, tornados, flooding, and 100+ temps?  Why do we have to add earthquakes to it?

Anyway, that was scary, not something I want to have to experience often, if ever again!

So, we go to church Sunday, no we didn't go just because we were scared the world was ending, we actually hardly ever miss a Sunday. . . Then I have to go to Prague (EEEEKKKK earthquake central) to take my cousins Sr. pics.

Isn't he handsome, even though he wouldn't smile. . .

On the way to Prague my car overheated :(, I had a friend tell me to blame it on the earthquake.  hahaha.  So, I had to leave it in a parking lot in Meeker and the handsome young man came and got me so I could take his pics.  My wonderful husband headed our way to get a trailer and haul my car home.  UGH, I *HATE* car trouble!  Thankfully we have 3 others I can drive and didn't have to depend on someone to haul me around.

Monday was fairly uneventful.  We had a bit of a mess to clean up at work (In Prague) from the Saturday night earthquake.  There were a few guns on the floor that had fallen off the racks, and several merchandise items that had fallen from shelves, nothing major.  The worst of it was ceiling tiles fallen. . .

Oh and crooked deer horns. . . We are very thankful, it could have been worse!  We had friends/family who had brick fallen off their houses, chimneys cave through their roofs, dishes/nicknacks broken, the liquor store had a giant mess to clean up from bottles breaking, the grocery store manager said he had stuff in *every* isle that had came off the shelves, pop bottles hit the floor and exploded, a giant mess!  So, again, we are thankful it wasn't too bad, actually, it wasn't bad at all! 

Monday evening it rained and we had tornadoes in Oklahoma, tornadoes are common but we were all scared of earthquakes and tornadoes at the same time!  What do you do?  Do you go to the cellar and risk it caving in from an earthquake?  Do you stay in the house and risk getting blown away?  UGH!!!!

Oh, I don't remember the time, I'm going to say 9ish, I was sitting on the couch listening to the rain and thunder and it happened, another one!  I think 4.6 is how big it was, it was the first one I was awake for and it wasn't near as scary as the last one!  It was short but moved the couch I was on a bit.  Yes, I was shaking after it was over too, if this happens often I'm sure I'll get use to it but right now I'm not!!!  Thankfully Monday night we didn't have any tornadoes in our area, just BLESSED rain! Although I did jump every time thunder/lightening hit close!!!

We ended up with a little over 4.2" of rain.  We have needed it so so so so bad!  Our ponds were dry and our rain water barrels were dry and we were water cows out of the swimming pool!  (yeah redneck but the well is already being pushed to the limit).  Tuesday morning I went to town to get my nails done and this is what I saw when I pulled down the drive way. . .

Yes, finally, A FULL POND!!!!!!!!!!!!  And the one on the other side was full too!  Actually they were overflowing!  PRAISE THE LORD, THANK YOU JESUS!!!!!!!!!  We are so blessed by God!!!!  

1 Thessalonians 5:18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 

I am thankful that I have the solid ground of God to stand on even if it is quaking, I am thankful for the rain even if it's quaking, and I'm thankful for my husband even if it ruined his whole day to come get my car from the side of the road (or parking lot).  I am so blessed there is no way I could ever list everything!  So, I will give Thanks to God in all circumstances even if they aren't all good!

Aquapontics!!!

Here's some updated pics of the aquapontics!!!!!!  I can't believe how well the plants are doing!

Lettuce!  We had BLT's for supper tonight with this wonderful fresh lettuce!

The radishes are just about ready to eat!

Watermelon is leafing out nicely!

Winter Squash

The planted lettuce.  I can't believe how fast it grows!  I have no idea how we're going to eat it all!

More squash and some okra.

We have the stuff to build another tank and it's almost done.  Just need to add rocks and some plants.  I *think* I'm going to do a strawberry bed in it!

Vacation Pics, Pt 3

Here is the rest of the vacation pics.  These are the 2.5 days we were home. . .

Bon fire for wiener roast!

We let the cows out for a little yard mowing and grazing!

John relaxed and read some more. . .

Roasting the wieners!

Burnt!  That's how I like it!

mmm sour kraute and a little mustard, we're set!

View during supper.

They didn't know what to make of the fire!

Wait, All-Star wants to join us for a picnic!

Silly girl!  She's a little spoiled!

SMITH!  He stayed with dad and Betty while we were gone.  They renamed him bad names.  They said he was a little rotten! ;-) 

Yep, I like my marshmallows burnt too!  This is making me hungry for a hot dog roast!

He doesn't look like a terror.  Poor baby, they probably just didn't love him as much as I do.

On the Saturday we had a couple friends over for some shooting.  Mason is getting to be a very good shot and does not want help after you show him how to use the gun the first time.  He's a smart kid!

The cowboy action 357 was a little big, notice the bow in his back, he had to do that to be able to hold the gun up!

He liked the GSG22 also but I think the Walther P22 was his favorite!

His first time to ever use a scope and he did great!

Smith gets a bath!

And seemed to like it ok, I'm sure not his favorite but he wasn't horrible!  And I was only a little wet afterwards.

Crashing!

Vacation Pics Part 2

Well, this is a long time in coming but here it finally is. . .

 Smiling face at, oh, way before I should have been up during vacation!  This is day 3.  The wind died down overnight and it's a beautiful day!  We had a "country" breakfast.  Biscuits, gravy, eggs, and sausage.  We did a lot more nothing on this day! 

 Walked to the "beach" and seen some geese. . .

 I thought the sand looked cool but I'm kinda odd sometimes so maybe it's really not that cool. . .

 John walked in the water. ;-)

 We took our picture. . .

 Hi Mom

 Looked at the water, did I say yet that it was a beautiful day?

We sat on the deck and did nothing for several hours.  Well, we read some and snoozed some. . .

Then we took a drive around the lake. . .

Down steep hilly curves. . .

And amazingly enough, we only had to turn around once!

On the Dam bridge. . .

He looks fast! 

The motorcycle on the Dam viewing place.

What's that face for?

Aw, a smile, that's better ;-)

Aw look how cute he is!

The Dam.  The North and South Canadian flow into Eufaula and out the Dam into the Canadian River, well at least I think that's right.

Canadian River.

Well, DUH, how would you get in that area?  Anyone with common sense would know that.

Porum Landing, oh what memories!  This is where my family stayed a lot on family vacations.  I remember Aunt Diane and I skying behind a old green flat bottom boat.  I remember fishing under the bridge at night.  I remember a trip with some church family.  I remember, well, I can't think of anything else but I always remember it being a great vacation spot for a youngster!

This is the first "big" road we ever road on!  And there was a ton of road construction but other than that, nothing to it!

Yum!

Salad with raspberry poppy seed dressing!  YUMMO!

View from our table.

Fried shrimp was awesome!

John had a steak

And he had a baked potato

And I had spaghetti, not as good as some place but not horrible.

Sun setting back at our b&B

John relaxing and acting all cool again.