My newest dish

Vegetable Beef Soup!
Let's see....
green peas
onions
potatoes
okra
tomatoes
corn
celery
baby carrots
purple hull peas
green beans
I think that's all of them! This is the second time I've made it - it was super tasty last time - so here's hoping it will be this time as well! :)

Julie's newest painting

I can't wait until dinner!....drool

It's been all rainy here lately, which is totally great because it's cooled WAY down...yay! So I put together a pot of spaghetti sauce today, it's been on the stove since 1:30 or so, and it's looking and smelling fantastic! I made it with only whole tomatoes that I crushed up - usually I use diced tomatoes and sauce - so I am looking forward to tasting the difference it makes! Plus, it's ALL we can smell so we are both REALLY ready for dinner! :)

The Life of Riley.....

Well, apparently Riley has taken her chance this afternoon to get REAL comfy! It has been storming this afternoon, so Aidan (total fraidy cat) and Reavy (suddenly becoming one) want NOTHING to do with anything that is not the floor. If they could paw their way THROUGH the floor, I'm sure they both would! :) And yes, we will be sleeping with those pillows tonight!!!

Dinner LAST night!

Mmmmm....meat! The steak was dee-lish. (thank you very much charcoal grill!) The red potatoes and green beans were yummy too...Man, now I have to go decide what to make TONIGHT! But, we still have some of the potatoes...so that part's EASY! :)

Dinner Tuesday night!

Chicken parmesan...an old stand-by that we haven't had in quite some time. The vegetables were super yummy AND easy - it was that birdeyes steam in the bag stuff! We'll be getting more of that for sure!

More of artistic wifey...

Today we went to the Dollar Tree Store and got some containers for her paint, brushes, etc. We got some glass votives for her to put the water for her brushes in and a spray bottle - so that was cool - cuz it was CHEAP! :) We got the dogs some toys while we were there too- yeah, they destroy them pretty quickly, but for a buck - it's cool! Anyway, I think they are awesome - she (OF COURSE) not so much! :) But, she's having a great time doing it - so that's what matters! She's not finished with the one tacked to the foam board yet. We ordered her this nifty table easel, some more paper and paints yesterday - so hopefully she'll get it by the beginning of next week. Yay! I can't wait for her to go over to Norma's. Norma is ALL kinds of excited about showing her stuff and having a painting buddy! She and Johhny are at their son and daughter-in-law's Bed and Breakfast in Northern Ar - so it will probably be next week before they get together. :)

Julie's first watercolor !

I have been after Julie for THREE years trying to get her to do some painting. She used to use oils, but has wanted to try watercolors. So, when I was helping Johnny paint, Norma let me take pictures of pretty much EVERYTHING she's painted! HOW awesome! She's really good and we love her stuff. (There are a few of them over there on the right side underneath the blog title bar) Anyhoo, so we have them as backgrounds on our computers and phones, and it's super cool! So because of all of this.....Julie got inspired and FINALLY got some art stuff! Yay! It came today, and this is her first attempt with watercolors...I think it's fantastic! :)
And look at WHERE it came from Cindy!!! :) How nifty is that!?! The paper co. is there in Boone too.

Finally, a break from the heinous summer heat!

Yay! It rained all day yesterday (a lot). We SO needed some moisture. It had gotten really dry since we haven't had any good amount of rain in like, ALL SUMMER! And it's been a ridiculously hot summer too, pretty much since June - So this little break is awesome. It's rained quite a bit today, & is supposed to tonight through tomorrow - s.u.p.e.r. :) :) :) right now it's 73 outside...yay! yay! yay!





And here's a picture from the newpaper, it's of the square in Hamburg, but it was just the same here in Crossett! :)


RAINY SUNDAY-- After several weeks of extremely dry weather which led to the proclamation of a burn ban in Ashley County, the area was receiving a general rain on Sunday, August 10. The long range weather forecast is for additional rain in the coming days, as well as cooler temperatures. Above is the downtown square in Hamburg at 9 a.m. Sunday.

Bush at the olympics....

You just know that Barbara is thinking....OMG Dad! Would it be too much to ask of you to hold the flag CORRECTLY? I mean, you ARE the President and all!

I'm thinking...yes, yes it is! That, or he THINKS that's the way it's supposed to be displayed.....

Oh!! I KNOW what it is.... it's a picture of the reflection from the mirror that was used for the picture...yeah, that's it! I mean, our PRESIDENT surely would HAVE to know how to hold the flag...right? :)

Okay, this is a WAY better TGIF post...... :)

Margaritas anyone?!?! :)

Happy TGIF!!

Here's something else Judy sent along....too funny! Ahh, the 70's and Olan Mills!! :) Julie said they have ones with the wagon wheel AND library!! :) And they DO!! I've seen the library one first hand... Her mom even had a PAINTING made out of one! HA! :) God, you should see the one MY FAMILY has!!! I think I must take a picture of it, because...YES, it's in my parents BEDROOM!!!!! Yikes!




The Purvis family made several stops along the Oregon Trail to document their six-month journey. This photo was taken just two weeks before the dysentery took Momma to Jesus.

Fire Stick!

And here's the Fire Stick that you gave us! :) It's super groovy!!

Like Water From A Vine Leaf...Year Two

See Lisa, they DID come back after all ! Though, I don't think they'll be making any off shoots this year....

Judy just sent me this email.......

FW: First photos of wind damage by Hurricane Eduoard






OMG! What a fucking RIOT! :)

Go here......

For trivia questions that help donate food to dog shelters! How cool! :)

http://www.experienceproject.com/savepets/

So THIS is why Andy's is packed in the morning!!

Crap! We are in so much trouble!! We have recently come to understand WHY this little shit-box looking fast food restaurant (that neither one of us had heard of before moving here) is so busy in the mornings. Their breakfast food ROCKS! Bacon?! And it looks/tastes like bacon you'd make yourself at home! Minus the entire house smelling like it!! :) :) Anyway, I believe that we are screwed! Thank god we did not discover this four years ago...:)

OMG! Anderson is Awesome!! :)

Judy! Judy! Judy!

I talked to my friend Judy today on IM for SIX hours! It was wonderful and amazing to talk to her. I had totally lost contact with her. It's just how life goes sometimes... It was cool because we both had info on other people that we hadn't seen/talked to in FOREVER! It was awesome! :)

America - you suck!

Matt, my friend from home, LOST design star last night! That's a total bummer! :( But, how cool is it that he ended up int the top TWO!?!? :) I think these shows that have the mass of idiots - you know..... "Americans" vote and make the final decision....... really SUCK! Of COURSE the cute blond girl will win when pitted against to the nice bald dude! I'm not saying that she's not good, because she totally is.... I just think these shows need to STOP having total dumb fucks decide. Stick with judges!!!

The house Johnny & Willie painted....

Since I just talked about this in the last post, I thought I'd show some pics of Johnny and Norma's house. It's pretty much the same colors they had before, just that they are darker this time around. He told me the last time they painted it was 24 years ago! Wow. It really needed it too, let me tell you! Oh, and those awnings were a TOTAL bitch to scrape/paint! Ugh!

Julie's new computer!

We got Jules a new computer a couple weeks ago! It's super skinny - it's a Dell Vostro. Anyhoo, our neighbors Norma and Johnny were painting their house....well, Johnny anyway - So he's like 73 or something and he wanted some help. Painting another exterior of a house is the LAST thing I wanted to do, but they are super cool, and we really like them, so of course I said I would. So, since he wasn't going to let me just do it for free - we used some of the $$ he gave me and got JL a new computer! Because of being self employed, we get these business deals magazine from Dell all the time. We got her computer with the flat screen monitor (FREE!) and the shipping (FREE!) How awesome is that?! So it was a super great deal, PLUS it totally saved us from having to buy another flat screen monitor for me because I just got her old one....yay! :)

Friday night in C-Town!

We watched Lars and the Real Girl, which was really good, and ate Pappa Deaux Crossett style! There's a mobile fish place called the Fish Basket...it was in Hamburg today and we stopped and got some....SOOOOOOOOOOO good! YUM - EEEEEEEE :) We were SO craving some fried shrimp - and we got catfish and kick-ass hush puppies to boot! Yay!

We've also seen Invasion (remake of The Body Snatchers), and Walk Hard recently, also both good. We tried to watch The Signal, but couldn't make it through it! Tomorrow we've got Juno and The Savages to watch....it's a fun-filled fried food and movie watching weekend!! I did the treadmill for 90 minutes today, so I feel ABSOLUTELY no guilt!! :)