Making Turtles-YUM!

Our family started making these yummy chocolate,
Carmel and pecan goodies more than 20 years ago.
Patsy, (Rhonda's mother-in-law) is our official
Carmel maker. After all these years we have come
up with our own system. Patsy makes and stirs the
Carmel, the rest of us dip the Carmel onto the pecans,
lift the Carmel once it has cooled and place it on wax
paper to continue to set up. Once all the batches about
6-8 double batches are complete we start with Rhonda
melting and keeping our bowls full of almond bark,
dip every Carmel and pecan goodies in the nice warm
chocolate and then let them set up. This year we had
all of the kids helping us(even Tucker), (that took a lot
of bribing on my part, he's the only boy).



Me, Patsy and Rhonda on Carmel duty. We
haven't let the kids help with this part yet
because it is so hot.


Rhonda....dip and drop the Carmel onto the pecans.

Here is what they look like, once cooled we

transfer them to wax paper to cool even more.



We let Nevaeh have a small amount of cooled

Carmel in a bowl. (pst, don't tell her mom we

gave her seconds..).She loved it! She has been

learning sign language for the "more" sign ,

and that sign was her favorite sign of the day.

I believe we counted over 1500 turtles this year.

A few years ago we made over 2200 candies.

We have plenty for gifts and then some.

This is only one of the tables of cooling Carmel

and pecan pieces.

The long long process of dipping the candies

in chocolate!


Taylor, Kylie, Bailey, me and Patsy

Tessa, Taylor and Bailey, still at it



Mmmmmmmm!



Here is the recipe if you are interested:

Single batch makes approx 100-125 large candies,

we tend to make them small enough to eat in 1-2 bites.

1 cup no salt real butter
1 1/14 cup brown sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup light corn syrup

1 14 ox can sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon real vanilla

Pecans (chopped)

Melt butter in a 2 quart (heavy) sauce pan. Stir in sugar and salt; bring to boil. Add corn syrup; bring to boil again, then add sweetened condensed milk; Stir constantly til temp. reached 235 degrees(you can vary a few degrees less for softer Carmel or few degrees more for more firm Carmel). Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Remove from heat and let cook til no longer boiling. Once Carmel start to thicken you can start dropping tsp size drops of Carmel onto cookie sheets of pecans. Let cool a few minutes and lift the camel/nut pieces from tray with a fork and place on wax paper to cool and set up. Once Carmel's are cool.(you should be able to pick up piece with out it falling apart). You melt the almond bark and drop candy pieces in the melted chocolate and cover the piece in chocolate then remove and place back on wax paper to set up.

Fun in the Fall

My niece Bailey had braces put on about a week
ago, Taylor had hers put on back in March of 2008.
These two are 6months and 6 weeks apart in age
and I wanted to get a picture of them with their
braces, they are so cute with them on. They go
to the same Orthodontist, every month they get
to change the color of bands that hold the wires
on. Bailey chose 3 colors, pink, green and blue.
She looks like she had a bubble gum fest in her
mouth. Taylor has orange and black on in the
picture. (although you can't really see in the picture)
I took Taylor to the Ortho yesterday and she
changed her colors to ...........yes,
Christmas colors. Red and Green.




Here is a short video I took last Sunday afternoon
with my new camera that my wonderful husband
bought for me on our California trip. Taylor is
number 43.



Here is a team picture on Tessa's Sunday league.
Tessa is on the top right. This is their SERIOUS
picture.

Here is their SILLY picture.

Tessa also plays for her school 5th grade team on

Saturday mornings. Tessa is very aggressive and

some of the girls in this league have never played

before. I believe this score for this game wis 36 to 4.

Tessa's coach has to remind her to "back off" of the

other girls, she can be quite aggressive when she

wants the ball. Last week on her Sunday league she

was crawling across the floor at a very fast pace and

rolling with another girl to get the ball, only to wind

up with a jump ball, it was really exciting to see her

play with so much spirit. Tessa and her cousin Kylie

are very fun to watch play ball, they are so much alike

in their spirits, there is never a dull moment.

Here is a tree from our neighbors front yard.

The leaves have been absolutely beautiful. I don't

think I was able to capture the true beauty here,

the sun was so electrifying shining through the

beautiful leaves.



I took my niece nevaeh out side to play in the

leaves, she was more interested in playing with

the rake than jumping in them.

She did not want to "pose" for a picture, that

rake just sitting there and she really needed to

get back to it.



Now, she was ready to "pose" for her picture.

Ever wonder what we look like at 4 am... well,

here it is. We took this photo at the airport in

Sacramento CA. before I got on the plane to

come back to INDY.

A trip out West

David and I recently drove west on I 80 to California,
just the two us. David took a job in California.
I drove all 2200 miles with him to take his car
out there and to set up his apartment. We left on Wednesday
night and arrived a little over 56 hours later. I flew
home on Sunday. Wow what a trip!!!



We went through many states from Indiana to California




We visited the Bonneville Salt Flats on the way.




I have to say we had so much fun together, it was
almost like a second honey moon.




This was taken somewhere out in Wyoming.

David and I are exploring the possibility of moving
to the Sacramento California area for his job. We
have set up temporary housing just outside of the
Sacramento area & David is trying out the job and
the area to see if this is what is in store for our future.
The kids are now in 10th, 7th and 5th grades, none of
whom want to uproot. We will take this one day at a
time and see what the future holds.

Healthy Level of Insanity

To Maintain A Healthy Level Of Insanity

1. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point a hair dryer at passing cars. See if they slow down.
2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don't Disguise Your Voice!
3. Every Time Someone Asks You to Do Something, ask If they want fries with that.
4. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks Once Everyone has Gotten Over Their caffeine addictions, Switch to Espresso.
5. In the Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write ' For Marijuana'
6. Finish All Your sentences with 'In Accordance With The Prophecy'.
7. Skip down the hall Rather Than Walk ! And see how many looks you get.
8. Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face.
9. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is 'To Go'.
10. Sing Along At The Opera.
11. Put Mosquito Netting Around Your Work Area and Play tropical Sounds All Day.
12. Five Days In Advance, Tell Your Friends You Can't Attend Their Party Because You have a headache.
13. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream 'I Won! I Won!'
14. When Leaving the Zoo, Start Running towards the Parking lot, Yelling 'Run For Your Lives! They're Loose!'
15. Tell Your Children Over Dinner, 'Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go.'

Life is short, break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably and never regret anything that made you smile.

The Dreaded Day

Well the day is fast approaching. David has taken a job in Sacramento Ca. This is a job he really couldn't pass up, however, we do wish it were closer to home. I will be driving to California with him on Wednesday. I will help him set up his Studio apartment and then return home on Sunday. This is one of those things that no family wants to face, separating the family for a job. It has been a long few months with David going to Conn. to work for 3 months and now he is only home for 3 days and leaving for Ca. The kids really miss their dad when he is gone. We are already looking forward to having him home for Thanksgiving. Please pray for us as we set out on this new adventure. If all goes well with the job we will move our family to California summer of 2009. Please keep us in your prayers.

Harvest Time

Apple Butter, Grape Jelly and Pear Preserves all from my yard and my friend Tanya's yard.

It has been great this season to enjoy the fruits of the neighborhood. Between my vines and neighbor's trees I have been able to can 21 jars of grape jelly and 4 jars of pears preserves and 18 pints of Applebutter. Now it is time for pumpkins and gourds. The leaves are starting to turn I need to get out and take photos of the beautiful foliage.

My Sophomore

It seems like yesterday that I sent this little boy off to Kindergarten, Now he is 15 years old and a high school sophomore. Where does the time go?

Twenty Years and Counting "Happy Anniversary"

Twenty Years!

(My beautiful Roses from my husband)

David has been working in Conn. for the past 5 weeks and I had no idea when he would be coming home. His contract is a 5 month contract. At 3:30 am on Friday am,( the am of the 26th, our anniversary) David called me and told me I needed to check the front door. Being dead asleep, I respond What?? He repeats, go check your front door. I get out of bed, Taylor (who is my lightest sleeper) says, mom? what is going on?? I respond, daddy says to check the front door, she follows me to the door and guess who is standing at the door? Yes, David. I couldn't believe it, he surprised me by driving 10 hours after a 9 hour workday to be home in time to celebrate our anniversary. I really enjoy surprises, not that he has been able to pull off very many. (I am very nosey). He really got me, I was stunned and very happy to see him.

( I never have my photo taken and it seems that when someone does take it I am never ready)

(YUCK!)

It seems like yesterday that David and I went to the courthouse to get married. We had our wedding planned for December 17 1988. I went to the doctor because I had found 3 lumps in my left breast. I was only twenty years old. What were they? Where did they come from? and Why are they there? At this time I had no health insurance due to changing jobs and would not have any for 3 more months, my doctor advised me not to wait that long. I did not have the money to pay upfront for the biopsy, after all I had already paid everyone for the wedding that was to take place in December. David's job at the time had a policy that if we were married before the end of the month we would have full health coverage on the 1st day on the next month. So, David and I talked to our families and they were all for us going to the courthouse and getting hitched having the biopsy and then waiting til December for our church wedding, but, we were to keep it hush hush. Well, we talked to David's 83 year old grandmother and my sister (Rhonda) and asked them to go with us. So the morning of September 26th 1988 we went to the courthouse with them and were married, David's grandmother signed our marriage certificate and since Rhonda wasn't 18yrs old yet, we had to have one of the ladies at the courthouse sign as a witness and they let Rhonda sign next to her name. We had our church wedding in December of 1988.

We have 3 wonderful children and look forward to the next 20 years!

My Beautiful Roses

Oh, you thought my flowers, my girls are my beautiful Roses..

Tessa is my little model, she loves to be photographed.

On a rare occasion I can get Taylor to let me take her picture.
She thought she was just being funny til I snapped the picture.
Like to follow in her sister footsteps
Taylor and Nevaeh at the basket ball game on Sunday.

Today Taylor had another Cross Country Meet, she didn't have her best time but she was still in the 1st half of the girls to finish.
You don't hear of many public schools praying before their events, most of the other teams get out and do a cheer, not Perry Meridian girls, they say their prayer as a group. It takes a lot to do something like that at sports events these days. I am very proud of our girls.
Taylor got a great start
Even though she didn't get her best time, I am still very proud of her.

Cousin VS Cousin

Tessa

Kylie (in the blue uniform)

The "other" teams coach (my brother-in-law, Rhonda's husband, Brent)

The Cheerleader Nevaeh, my beautiful niece. (my little sis, Teri's daughter)

Tessa and my niece Kylie's basketball teams played each other Sunday afternoon. They are both point guards, so they were one on one most of the day. They game was not a high scoring game. Both teams fought really hard for a victory.

Tessa is on the near left and Kylie on the right.

Tessa fouled Kylie

Kylie fouled Tessa and she is shooting to pull the game from a tie score.

She makes the shot!

I know the pictures are a little blurry but they were always moving so fast, that even with the camera set for motion I still had trouble getting a great shot.

Kylie trying to keep Tessa from going to the hoop.

This was the score at the beginning of the 2nd quarter.

Here is the score at the end of the 3rd quarter.

In the 4th quarter they were tied 8 to 8, Kylie fouled Tessa and she shot 2 free throws and made one making the score 9 to 8, with less than a minute in the game Kylie got the ball and made a break for the basket and scored 2 points and the end score was 9 to 10. Kylie's team wins!!!

We had such a great time watching them play. My brother-in-law coaches Kylie's team and he told Kylie "Off the court Tessa is your cousin, on the court she is your opponent, don't let up because she isn't going to". Neither of them gave in, they played their hearts out, after the game it was hugs and smiles. No one cared who one.