The Best 2-Fer Ever!

GREETINGS!

It seems a lot of the restaurants are doing the 2 meals for $20 or $25 thing.  Well Sunday, we drove to one of our favorite places in Ft.  Smith, Arkansas to partake of their offer of 2 for $25.00.

I want to tell you, if there is a participating Olive Garden near you, you should go while this special is on!  It is without a doubt the best food (and most reasonable) we've had for quite awhile.  First we each got to choose an appetizer:  I had my favorite Calamari and Ronnie had Ravioli stuffed with Portebello mushrooms.  Then we had all the salad and bread sticks we wanted - and we love their salad!  Then there was a menu of entrees to choose from:  I had spaghetti and meatballs and Ronnie had 4 cheese ravioli.  By the time the entree came around, I was full so only ate a small bit of my spaghetti; but I brought it home - with 2 bread sticks - and we ate it for lunch the next day.  They also asked if we wanted drinks to go!  What a wonderful dinner!  Oh, you can choose to share a dessert instead of having an appetizer if you wish --  but who would have room for dessert?!  With 2 iced teas our bill was $32.   Amazing.   Hats off to you Olive Garden............

And guess what?!  In August we are taking a mini-vacation and going to Branson for 4 days.  I can hardly wait.  Our tickets are reserved for a Saturday dinner train ride which goes down in to Arkansas and the Ozarks and for the  SundayYakof Smirnoff (sp) dinner show.  And reservations in a motel with pool!  And as a special thing, Ronnie will go shooting with a Sass club 2 mornings, giving me time alone to browse in shops, read, swim, whatever!  Gonna be fun!

Okay, that's all I know for now.  Until next time, take care and God bless you and yours.

July Outing

GREETINGS!

My friend Judy and I did our July outing a little earlier in the month than usual.  We ventured out on Friday, July 13th!  and had no mishaps; other than getting overly hot due to the 100+ degree weather!
We went to Muskogee this month and had a great time.  There is an area about 2 blocks long as you come in to the city from the South,  on Main Street, where one side of the 2 blocks is nothing but antique stores.  Oh, did we have a good time!

I was looking in particular for a small table to use next to my new chair, so I would have a place to set my iced tea or cup of tea.  In the very first store I found this $15 treasure:

The legs are metal an the top is wooden.  It is quite distressed, which is fine, and the size is perfect.  Of course, it is really a plant stand (I think) but works great for me.  Where the coffee table is I now have my new chair, so the table fits right in between the TV and my chair.  I love it!

I found this glass pie pan and crock bowl in another store and couldn't resist.  The bowl is now my new "potato salad bowl"; just the right size.  It is a little smaller than the one Judy gave me so now I have a set of 2!  And you can always use another pie pan.

This picture is in one of the shops, and shows a tin dishpan that Judy found and bought.  It's really quite nice.........too bad she saw it first!

But when we went to another antique mall after lunch, we saw another one just like it!  BUT, it was about twice the price so it stayed there!

There was one shop that really made a hit with us:  the owner had set up a table with lemonade and pieces of apple fritters and a comfy chair.  Was nice to have a glass of lemonade and cool down a bit.  Plus, she had displayed a lot of the merchandise being used in different ways.   It was great to get new ideas on how to use old things; and sometimes not so old things!   Then in another shop the owners were putting away a new shipment of shirts/blouses and asked me to try a couple of them on because they wanted to see how true the sizes ran!  This store had tons of costume jewelry and blouses, etc. plus some antiques.  They said their customers were wanting "bigger" sizes so I was the guinea pig so to speak since I wear a 3X.  The ones I tried on were black - which I love - with big silver "bling" decorations.  Judy said they were only $12, so why I didn't buy one is beyond me; but I am going back and get at least one!

After going in all the shops we decided it was time for lunch and a cool down period.  Since Judy's birthday was on the 5th of July, I wanted to treat her to lunch; and she wanted to go to Chili's for Chicken Enchilada (?) Soup which is her favorite.  I may have the name wrong, but she had it regardless.  It was so nice to sit and relax and cool down with food and cold drinks!

Afterwards, we went to one more antique mall type building and looked around.  Judy bought a pogo stick for her grandson.  Gracious!  He's just recovered from a broken leg  :)...................  All in all, it was a great day.  Wonder what we'll do next month????  Judy's son is taking her to Costa Rica the end of this month for 10 days, so it'll probably be later in August when/if we go.   Have fun my friend!

That's all I know for now.  We are facing about 10 days of 100 to 106 temps and I'm telling you, that is HOT!  I even fixed ice water for the chickens!!

Until next time, take care and God Bless you and yours.

Tomatoes

GREETINGS!

Something is dreadfully wrong with my tomatoes!  Look at the plants......they are georgeous!

Now, look at the tomatoes!  They are not so georgeous!  Last year we had blossom end rot; this year they are splitting.  Anyone know why that is?  I'm willing to listen!!

And the one on the right is my favorite Cherokee Heritage!  At this rate I'll never get a good ripe one, and they are so delicious!  We do cut out the bad spots and eat what's left, but it would be nice to have a whole, unblemished tomato!  I'd love to hear your theories............  Maybe the drought?  It's in the upper 90's again all week.

That's all I know for now.  Until next time, take care and God bless you and yours.  I am still grateful to our Lord for all He gives me -- even with imperfections!!  After all, doesn't He like us with ours? :)

More Space

GREETINGS!

I really don't think I'm cut out to be a farmer;  I can't stand really, to see the animals and/or fowl cooped up in a pen!  And I really can't let my chickens out to roam free (as much as I want to) because of all the predators around here; i.e. hawks, owls, coyotes, eagles, dogs, etc.  So, as much as I loved my little coop, I couldnt' stand to see my 4 chickens "cooped" up in it!

Enter my grumbling  :)   husband with posts, tractor, post pounder and wire and  2 x 4's !!

They now have about a 20 x 3' run area, and do they ever love it!  It's so cool to see them running around and scratching for bugs and food.  We'v given them watermelon and cantelope rinds and dried bread heels and they seem to enjoy it all.  But I'm sure nothing beats a bug!  Saw one with a good sized grasshopper the other day!

I think it will be October sometime before they lay eggs; we'll have to wait and see. And when they do, they are quite small.  But I really don't care about the eggs anyway, I just like to watch them do their dances!  And I think chickens are smart..........

Last week we also had visits from a neighbors herd of cows - about 30 of them. They came 3 days last week and Salli and Patch loved it.  They got to show off their herding skills, as did my husband on his 4 wheeler!  It's fun to watch them, but not when they drink all the water in my fountain in the back yard!  And they can really ruin things at times, depending on where they decide to go!  Such is life on the "mountain".

That's all I know for now.  Until next time, take care and God bless you and yours.

New Chair

GREETINGS!

One day last week I had to go in to Sallisaw and pick up my van from the Ford garage.  It had a major tune up, an oil change, and a repair to a leaky transmission.  Runs like a charm now after it's $900+ fix up!  But you know what?  It's cheaper than buying a new car!  Anyway, after picking it up I decided to stop at a couple places looking for a recliner for myself.

I know, I know!  That is NOT a recliner, but let me tell you, it is sooooo comfortable.  I went in to
a store in the little town of Vian and looked around - nothing.  Then in to another little store right next to the first one.  I saw this chair, with no price tag; so I found a clerk and asked and she said, "Well this one (a different chair) is $80 so this one must be $40"!!  I couldn't believe it!!  I was a few minutes deciding if I wanted to give up on a reciner or not, and then bought this chair!

Come to find out, all the furniture and stuff in that store is used, but this chair was in pretty darned good shape.  The cloth covering on the underneath bottom of the chair was ripped and torn, so I replaced that with some muslin I had here at home, and one arm front of the chair was snagged some.  I took my little, sharp, sewing shears to it and now it looks good as new!~

Then I went in the bedroom and got the little foot stool that wasn't being used.  It was covered in a faux needlepoint flower pattern, so I recovered it with some dark brown material I had.  Now the chair and stool go well with the other chocolate brown furniture in the room.  So, moral of the story is:  why spend at least $250 on a recliner when what I've got for $40 works just as well!  End of story.

That's all for now; until next time, take care and God bless you and yours.

The June "Outing"

GREETINGS!

Here it is July already, so I guess I'd better talk about the June outing my friend Judy and I did.

This was the sky on the morning I left to meet Judy; it was about 9:15 a.m.  Some places were luckly enough to get a few drops of rain, but not us.  We were going West to Checotah (home of Carrie Underwood) and the "rain" was in the East.  Needless to say, the sky didn't interfere with our plans!

I go to Checotah a lot to do my WalMart shopping and any farm supply/shopping I need to do at Atwoods.  However, I've never taken the time to look for interesting antique stores and such.  So that was our goal for the day.  And lo and behold, the first place we went in to was divine!  I think we spent 3 hours in there looking at all the "stuff".  It was called the Dusty Attic, and was choc full of good stuff.  It was a little pricey, but I guess it depended on how bad you wanted something as to whether you paid the price.  Since it was a booth rental type antique "mall" the owners of the booths were not there so you couldn't dicker the price for items.  :(

But I did find the Perfect rack/stand for my player piano rolls, and it is solid wood!

The amazing thing is that it folds completely up! Which was great for carrying it out to the van.

And here it is fully loaded!  It's a good thing I didn't have any more rolls, as they wouldn't have fit.  I think I have around 120 + rolls.  By using the rack, it cleared off 2 nice built in shelves at the opposite end of the living room.  Now I can use them for plants or knick knacks, etc.  I love it.

My other purchase was just a whimsical deal for $1.95!  Doesn't take much to make me happy at times!  And pinkie rings are fun......

After spending so much time in the Dusty Attic, we were thirsty and hungry!  So luckily, right across the street was June's Cafe.  It was a cute, quaint little restaurant and we had a great lunch and iced tea.  My mostly vegetarian friend ordered a side of brown beans, a piece of corn bread and a side of fried okra!  I had a really good chicken salad sandwich and chips.  Nothing fancy, but it was all good and really hit the spot as far as food and resting goes!

After lunch, we visited a shop next door to the cafe.  It had some antiques, some used items, some new items, some homemade items,  and a little bit of everything.  Very interesting.  But with that tour, we ended our day out.  We were both hot and tired!  But what a great day..........Can't wait for this month's outing!

Until next time, take care and God's Blessings to you and yours.