I went over to my Grandma Betty Rice's this weekend. I had asked her for the old family pics. I didn't have any from the Cacy/Rice side and I was afraid that when she was gone someday they would scatter and no one would know who they all are. She gave me a bunch on the Cacy side (my great grandpa) and a few on the Rice side. She also gave me 3 old bibles and I was flipping through them last night and came across two lists of ancestors with birthdates and some death dates and the oldest was back to 1809! Not many people can trace back 200 years! I was so excited I could hardly sleep! I can't wait to try to get it all organized and mapped out. I don't think my Grandma knows what was in there! I'm gonna call her tonight :)
I'm glad someone on that side was a heritage keeper. Guess I'll be the one to pass it along now :) I'll upload those pics as I get them scanned too. I'm going to try to do it before Christmas so my Dad's brothers can each have a disc of pictures. More to come on that project :)
Monday, October 29, 2007
Monday, October 22, 2007
Weight Watcher Winner
20 POUNDS DOWN! I was so excited this morning to step on the scale and be 149.6! That's a bit more than 20 pounds I've lost since June 17! I'm very thankful because I haven't been able to find time to exercise at all. I was really worried I wouldn't be able to lose any but the Lord has helped me eek on down :) I feel great and want to keep going. 135 is my goal. We'll see if I can get there. It's good to have some success!
School Bus Birthday
Grace's birthday party went GREAT! We had 9 kids there (Kaylee, Kaleb, Emma, Andrew, Ashton, Tristan, Boone, Garrett, Cale, and miscellaneous adults. About 25 total I think. She had a blast playing with her friends and was so happy they came to her house!
Miraculously, the cake turned out great too. I found the idea in Family Fun Magazine. I was worried because I'd never attempted anything that ambitious but it turned out pretty good :) I also made school bus cupcakes. I didn't get started until 8 pm Friday night and I went to bed at midnight but it was worth it!
Jan and Kelly came from Nebraska around 5 and got the tail end of the party and spent the night with us. We were thrilled to have them! They had come up to visit Kortney in Columbia then were heading to Nashville to see Jamie and Jody on Sunday.
Mom spent the night too and Dad, Susan and Mama Rice all stayed for dinner. Bryon fixed a gourmet feast of grilled lamb chops, creamed spinach, roasted new potatoes and crab cakes. MMMMMM!
Grace got a TON of stuff! Way too much but she was thrilled. Dad gave her a 10 gallon aquarium and we went Sunday and got some goldfish. She likes it a lot. I think it's pretty cool too.
She'll be the big 3 tomorrow. I'm taking the leftover goodie bags (there was just the right amount left!) to school along with some store bought cupcakes. I'm baked out for a while! I made goody bags from brown paper lunch bags and filled them with a box of crayons, a tub of play-dough, a pencil and a glue stick. I think the kids liked them.
It was a great day and a really fun time. It was a good Mom day :)
Miraculously, the cake turned out great too. I found the idea in Family Fun Magazine. I was worried because I'd never attempted anything that ambitious but it turned out pretty good :) I also made school bus cupcakes. I didn't get started until 8 pm Friday night and I went to bed at midnight but it was worth it!
Jan and Kelly came from Nebraska around 5 and got the tail end of the party and spent the night with us. We were thrilled to have them! They had come up to visit Kortney in Columbia then were heading to Nashville to see Jamie and Jody on Sunday.
Mom spent the night too and Dad, Susan and Mama Rice all stayed for dinner. Bryon fixed a gourmet feast of grilled lamb chops, creamed spinach, roasted new potatoes and crab cakes. MMMMMM!
Grace got a TON of stuff! Way too much but she was thrilled. Dad gave her a 10 gallon aquarium and we went Sunday and got some goldfish. She likes it a lot. I think it's pretty cool too.
She'll be the big 3 tomorrow. I'm taking the leftover goodie bags (there was just the right amount left!) to school along with some store bought cupcakes. I'm baked out for a while! I made goody bags from brown paper lunch bags and filled them with a box of crayons, a tub of play-dough, a pencil and a glue stick. I think the kids liked them.
It was a great day and a really fun time. It was a good Mom day :)
Monday, October 15, 2007
The thing about persimmons
Every year we've been on our farm (five now) I've seen our persimmon trees have nice fat fruit on them in the fall and thought, "I should do something with those." So yesterday I picked some. Bryon asked me if I had ever actually eaten a persimmon. I said "sure". Well I guess I hadn't because I took a big bite and it made my tongue feel like it was wrapped in big white medical gauze! It was terrible!! Grace of course had to have some too. I told her she wouldn't like it but gave her one anyway. She ate it for a while then spit it out just like I had. Foolishly I picked some more, hopeful that covered in sugar and pectin and made into jelly it would be a wonderful fall treat.
Well let me tell you about persimmons. They are darn near IMPOSSIBLE to do anything with. I peeled then and then tried to get the seeds out (which were plentiful) and all your left with is a sad little stringy pulp. And not much at that! By the time I got my little bucketful of persimmons peeled and seeded I had less than a cup of fruit pulp! I was frustrated but determined so I took my internet searched recipe for persimmon jelly, divided it by fourths and took my almost one cup of fruit and proceeded to jellify it.
I got ONE sad little 1/2 jar of jelly for all my efforts. Bryon kept telling me to abort the mission but by that time I was committed. I tasted the spoon as I sealed up the jar. Still gauzy tongue taste. The sugar did NOT help!
Now I know why there aren't big quart sized jars of Persimmon Jelly alongside the grape and blackberry. Patty at work said I should have waited until after the first frost but I used ripe persimmons. They were all mushy. She says persimmon bread is the way to go...hmmm...bread...Google on.
Well let me tell you about persimmons. They are darn near IMPOSSIBLE to do anything with. I peeled then and then tried to get the seeds out (which were plentiful) and all your left with is a sad little stringy pulp. And not much at that! By the time I got my little bucketful of persimmons peeled and seeded I had less than a cup of fruit pulp! I was frustrated but determined so I took my internet searched recipe for persimmon jelly, divided it by fourths and took my almost one cup of fruit and proceeded to jellify it.
I got ONE sad little 1/2 jar of jelly for all my efforts. Bryon kept telling me to abort the mission but by that time I was committed. I tasted the spoon as I sealed up the jar. Still gauzy tongue taste. The sugar did NOT help!
Now I know why there aren't big quart sized jars of Persimmon Jelly alongside the grape and blackberry. Patty at work said I should have waited until after the first frost but I used ripe persimmons. They were all mushy. She says persimmon bread is the way to go...hmmm...bread...Google on.
White River Camping
We had a great camping trip down to the White River a couple of weeks ago. Grace was so much more independent this trip. It was probably her best camping trip so far :) She caught a walking stick before we left and carried it down in her "bug carrier" all the way to the river where she let it go so it could go to it's Mama :)
She caught several grasshoppers during the trip too. She's pretty fearless. I've tried to instill the appropriate amount of fear for spiders and snakes but I don't know that it would kick in when she finds them. It's just a matter of time before we take a trip to doctor with a BITE of some sort.
She caught several grasshoppers during the trip too. She's pretty fearless. I've tried to instill the appropriate amount of fear for spiders and snakes but I don't know that it would kick in when she finds them. It's just a matter of time before we take a trip to doctor with a BITE of some sort.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Not Napping, Definately Not Napping
Grace was supposed to be taking a nap on Saturday. I heard lots of scuffling so I peeked in and turned on the light and she was caught in the act of NOT napping. She had books everywhere, snowboots on and two different mittens. I gave up and we went upstairs to scrapbook. Some things just aren't worth the fight. :)
Pumpkin Patch Kid
We went to Hampton's Corn Maze and Pumpking Patch on Saturday. Yes it was 8,000 degrees. We made it through 3 of the 10 stops around the maze and called it quits. Grace got the gist of it though and we came home with three fine pumpkins and some mums. They had two little barn kitties there so she was in heaven!Sunday, September 16, 2007
Turtle Girl
When we got home today, Grace found this turtle all by herself and started giggling. It was just the right size for her and fearless, just like Grace. It didn't even close it's shell but just kept scrambling around. She played with it a little and then put it back so it could find it's Mama. She's had a great wildlife month!
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Alligator Hunting
I came home late one night last week and Bryon had to show me this picture. Grace loves to pretend that alligators are chasing her and eating her toes. Or YOUR toes. So Bryon dressed her up, she grabbed her drumsticks for a gun and they went Alligator Hunting.
Once your toes have been accosted, she has to take you to the doctor and bandage them up with dish towels and feed you medicine. She's pretty creative but the "Doctor" is not very forgiving. She had me down on the floor covered in dish towels the other night FOREVER and I kept saying, "Grace, Mama needs to go put the food in the fridge," etc. So she'd say "I'll be right back" and go out of the room and talk to the doctor (imaginary). I'd hear her say "Doctor can Mama get up now, No? Okay" then she'd come back in and say "Doctor says stay right there!"
Finally I had to get up against medical advice and convince her that now the alligators had attacked her babies which needed tended to!
She's so funny! Bryon got her a little pretend doctor set, a box of bandaids and some ACE bandages for her birthday. She'll get them next month. She's gonna love it, but I see a lot of floor time in my future, ha!
Finally I had to get up against medical advice and convince her that now the alligators had attacked her babies which needed tended to!
She's so funny! Bryon got her a little pretend doctor set, a box of bandaids and some ACE bandages for her birthday. She'll get them next month. She's gonna love it, but I see a lot of floor time in my future, ha!
Wildlife Evening
One night last week as Grace and Bryon were watering the flower outside, they had a great night of wildlife discoveries. We've had a TON (20-30 hummingbirds) and one of them hit our big window (an regular occurance) and stunned itself. Bryon picked it up and Grace got to hold it until it recoverd and flew away. THEN she found a furry caterpillar all on her own and wallowed it around for some time. THEN a tree frog jumped out of our hanging pot while Bryon was watering and she got to hold it too! It jumped up on the side of her head and hung there for a while! She loved it!
We've also had a bat hanging out on our back porch which is pretty cool. Grace is a caterpillar magnet now and has found several more scurrying about.
We've also had a bat hanging out on our back porch which is pretty cool. Grace is a caterpillar magnet now and has found several more scurrying about.
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