Saturday Sweetness - Cherry Delight

This recipe is one that Mom uses when she needs a yummy dessert in a hurry. Pretty much all of the ingredients are usually on the pantry shelf. I'm planning on making this for the weekend to celebrate our moving (and the fact that I have a great, usuable kitchen!) I hope you will enjoy this quick treat as much as we do!

Cherry Delight

1 can cherry pie mix

1 sm can crushed pineapple, drained

1/2 box white or yellow cake mix

1 cup water

1/2 cup melted butter

1/4 cup chopped nuts (I usually end up using closer to 1/2 cup - I like it crunchy)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread cherry pie mix into a 9x13" pan. Layer the pineapple over the top of the cherry mix. Sprinkle the cake mix over the top of the fruit. Pour water over the entire pan and sprinkle the nuts on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Mom notes that you can add whip cream or a scoop of ice cream on top for an extra jolt of yummy. Voila! A super easy, super fast-disappearing dessert treat! (Only one pan to clean up too - my kind of recipe Mom!!)

PS> I've made this with blueberry pie mix too, it's pretty tasty as well!

25 Years Ago......

I been working so hard
Keep punching my card
Eight hours, for what?
Oh, tell me what I got

I get this feeling
That times just holding me down
Ill hit the ceiling
Or else Ill tear up this town
Tonight I gotta cut

(chorus)
Loose, footloose
Kick off your Sunday shoes
Please, Louise
Pull me offa my knees
Jack, get back
Cmon before we crack
Lose your blues
Everybody cut footloose

You're playing so cool
Obeying every rule
Dig way down in your heart
You're yearning, burning for some
Somebody to tell you
That life aint passing you by
I'm trying to tell you
It will if you don't even try
You can fly if you'd only cut

(chorus)
Loose, footloose
Kick off your Sunday shoes
Oowhee, Marie
Shake it, shake it for me
Whoa, Milo
Cmon, cmon let go
Lose your blues
Everybody cut footloose

First - we got to turn you around
Second - you put your feet on the ground
Third - now take a hold of your soul
Four - whooooooooa, I'm turning it
Loose, footloose

Well, can you guess the theme to our reunion? Did you get the hints above? Does this Kenny Loggins' #1 hit song from 1984 ring any bells? Yup, FOOTLOOSE! One of my all-time favorite movies, soundtracks, (and actor?)..

As well as being our 25th High School Reunion (ugh), it is the 25th anniversary of the release of the movie Footloose. We used Footloose as a theme for our senior prom that wonderful year of 1984, so we thought it'd be appropriate to do the same for the 25th reunion! Especially since a remake of the movie is due out next year (hello people, would have been better to have it released this year if you must make one!) Anyway, I'm sure it won't hold a candle to the original, sorry Zac Efron. But seriously, can you say KEVIN BACON?? I am still crushing on the ORIGINAL Ren McCormack after 25 years.

If you're reading this Mr. Bacon, we would love to have you as our special guest for the evening of October 17th in a little bitty town called Chowchilla in the state of California. We're serving tri-tip and of course, your beautiful wife is invited as well. You can sit at our table. As a special incentive, we have a great big green John Deere tractor at the ranch that you could drive around that morning and create some new memories.

(I'm afraid there is only one though, so we couldn't play "chicken", sorry 'bout that.)

Please RSVP and let us know if you'll be able to attend! We look forward to your response..

BTW, my husband is very tolerant of my long-standing crush on you and he also looks forward to making your acquaintance.....

Blogtoberfest 2009

Well, I stumbled across this last night and decided it would be a great way to get my act in gear and start blogging with some regularity. (It's not like I've been reclining on the couch eating bon-bons, mind you...) Now, that we're starting to settle in to the new house and we're getting back to a more normal state, I think I can try to commit (myself to an asylum?).

This blogging festival was created by Cathy (tinniegirl). Bloggers participate by posting every day for the month of October! (You can find a list of these brave blogsters by clicking on the button at the top or on tinniegirl's link.) It is a great way to really challenge yourself and share. I'm looking at it as a way to get my mind back to what is important to me and the family. I have some thoughts on different things I want to write about in the coming month. Many of these are subjects I haven't covered before and hopefully won't have too many of you scratching your heads saying "What the heck?".

I will also be doing a giveaway sometime during the month - I just haven't decided what or when..or how? If you go visit the fabulous blog Curlypops , you will find a list of some of the participants who are also having giveaways! Lots of fun to be had by all. I'm looking forward to seeing what so many bloggers will be coming up with to talk about on a daily basis. Hopefully, I will keep up the pace! Until tomorrow.....

House to Home

Please excuse the long absence once again.. We have been in the process of house-hunting, finding "The One", losing it, and then miraculously stumbling across an even better "ONE"! Yay, finally!!!!!

We found a lovely, large home to rent for the next year. (The thing is - I'm already loving this place big time and looking for a much longer, if not permanent stay!) It has a big fenced yard that is perfect for the dogs and the gardening. We had a great surprise this morning when we were informed by the farm foreman (our house is a lot on a 90 acre farm) that we actually have access to the 10 acres surrounding the house - it's included with our rent!!!!!!! I was so excited. He said we could do whatever we'd like - run cattle, bring our horses, FARM it! He will even bring over his big tractor and disc it up if we need him to.. I was excited about the house and the big yard - what a bonus!!!! (Sorry about all of the exclamations - did I mention I'm excited?)

We've been packing boxes and moving them to the new house. Then, it is unpacking things so I have empty boxes to do it all over again the next day! This has been ongoing since the 11th! I'm sure "normal" people don't have this much stuff (as in crap) to move from one place to another. (Thank goodness we're only about 5 miles from our old place.) It makes it harder that we're packing and moving Mom's house in at the same time as ours, plus two very large storage rooms/barns. We are going to have the yard sale of the century folks!

Mom's health hasn't been improving as we'd hoped. The doctor has decided to move her to a more aggressive treatment/clinical trial that she is very optimistic about. Mom and I are reading everything we can on this protocol and it seems to be a good option for her situation. She has beat this monster twice and we're working on the third win for her.

In the meantime, we are turning this new house into HOME for all of us. We have all the critters except for Mom's dogs settled. Her dogs Muttley and Xena will be home here with us in the next few days. Michael is building a temporary dividing fence so that those two and our two beasties can get used to each other before sharing both the front and back yards. We don't want any of them to get hurt while they become acquainted!

The Mooncat kitties are loving the new house. It has a lovely, long hallway that is perfect for 2am hockey games using whatever trinket makes LOTS of thundering noise. Poor Mom had to get used to living with cats again after many years of peace & quiet. Michael & I tend to sleep right through their shenanigans. They make up to Mom during the day though as they spend a lot of time loving on her and following her around the house.

My little herbie babies are suffering a little from the move and the lack of attention they've been getting. I've lost several plants this last week. I'm hoping to get the time this weekend to get them sorted out and actually find some of them a new home - my poor aunt is gonna love that! She will be the receipient of many little plantlings, whether she's ready or not..

I am really bummed about leaving the lovely garden that Michael slaved over this summer, but we'll soon be mapping out an even better, bigger one. (He's already dreaming of a new garden tractor, he's thinking that ACREAGE equals good excuse... I just might have to indulge him on that one..)


So, amidst all of the boxes and chaos, we're all adjusting quite well to our new HOME!

Loooong Weekend

I hope everyone had a fun and safe weekend. Ours was eventful and rather tiring, but good.

I posted last about our plans to go to the team penning in Templeton on Saturday. After getting up about 4, we were hooking up the trailer at the ranch only to find that we had no trailer lights - not a good sign and we should have taken the hint! They had worked fine the last time we pulled it a few weeks ago, but not this morning. As usual in our little podunk town, nothing was open and wouldn't be til probably about 9am. Needless to say, our early departure with plenty of cushion built in was delayed until about 6:30 when it was light enough to try to get down the road to the truck stop so we could find our parts.

No parts at the truck stop, so on we went, full daylight by now. It wasn't quite as nerve-wracking, but I was still driving very cautiously. Besides Dad, Michael, and I, we had Cinderfella and Dad's dog Adolph along for the ride.

About 8:30 Dad receives a return call on the cell from one of his partners. Dad had called her earlier to leave a message that we were going to be cutting it close getting there on time. Well...get ready for this....the team penning was on Sunday - NOT TODAY!!!

I just pulled the rig over and started laughing. I think Dad was afraid I'd lost my mind. Michael was oblivious as he'd been watching a DVD in the back seat with headphones on. Dad finally busted up and started laughing too. Their other partner had given us the wrong date (originally he had told us the date was the previous weekend so we should have double-checked his info to start!).

We turned around (about an hour away from our target) and found an open parts store near home. We fixed the lights and then went to a Black Bear Diner and had a huge breakfast or actually brunch by this time. Adolph always enjoys trips to Black Bear as he gets lots of left-overs from their giant meals.

We did go ahead and try again on Sunday. The trip over was fine with no hang-ups. Dad did very well with his first run and ended up winning the first go-round. The weather was beautiful and we had a great day. Michael got to see his first team penning and is now wanting to give it a try. We'll have to work on that since his horse Whiskey isn't too keen on the big scary cows!

(BTW, Michael got to do part of the driving on the way home. He is getting more experience pulling the horse trailer and did a great job. Since I'm almost ALWAYS the driver, it was a nice break for me. I finally got a chance to read my favorite magazine The Essential Herbal from cover to cover.)

We spent most of Monday recovering from all of the running around over the weekend. The great finish to the holiday was a lovely dinner with my Ant Darla (not a spelling error, I've called her that since I passed her up in height at about age twelve. I'm only 5'6" so she really is a shortie). She was down for a visit from Idaho so I'm thrilled we got to spend some time with her. We have always been very close & we are hoping to get a chance to go up to see her and my Uncle Jim this fall.

We do love our road trips!