Throwback Thursday

Shep, 1990-2008

Laynie wanted a dog something fierce, but we weren't ready to have another dog. Other plans were in the works, however. One of the adopted grandparents called and asked us if we wanted a dog. We said no and started the list of reasons why we could not have a dog. Laynie overheard the conversation. Between Laynie and the adopted grandparent, we were whipped.

Every obstacle that we threw came back to us with a solution. It's a boy dog. I have food. On and on, no matter our argument, there was a solution - and Laynie on our side of the phone wanting that dog. So, we brought Shep home to live with us. She wasn't a boy. We got a biology lesson on that when we came home one afternoon. She got married to the Siberian Husky next door, who must have really loved her because he jumped a six-foot fence, dragging a logging chain behind him, to get to their wedding! They had beautiful babies.

We thought that Shep was a puppy, but according to the veterinarian, she was already about 6 years old when we got her in 1996. She and Laynie became fast friends and we all loved her. She was a faithful and protective companion. If anyone even looked at the kids cross-eyed, Shep was there to take care of it. She was part German Shepherd and part Chow and all love. She didn't have a mean bone in her body, but if she was pregnant, you couldn't touch her unless you were a regular part of the family. And you absolutely could not make one of the kids squeal if you weren't a regular either. She'd chew your leg off then.

We spent lots of good years with this very loving dog. In the picture above, she is sitting on the spot that ultimately became her final resting place here in our Texas backyard.

Rest in peace, Shep. We sure miss you!

Quote from St. Patrick

“May the strength of God pilot us, may the wisdom of God instruct us, may the hand of God protect us, may the word of God direct us. Be always ours this day and for evermore.” 

~St. Patrick~

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

May your blessings outnumber
The shamrocks that grow,
And may trouble avoid you
Wherever you go. 

~Irish Blessing~

I hope that you're all having a blessed St. Patrick's Day!

An Update on Xerxes

We went to visit our Xerxes a little while ago at the vet's office/hospital. He is much improved over yesterday, but not out of the woods yet. We got lots of nuzzles and purrs from him. :)

They gave him a blood transfusion from a girl kitty...I told him that it was okay. He wouldn't turn into a girl. He wasn't impressed!

His hematocrit was at 5 when we took him in and his temperature was 9 degrees lower than it should be. A cat's temp should be 101.5 and his was 92.4. He was one cold baby. He is severely anemic. His platelets were basically non-existent. He was considered bottomed out across the board and pretty much not expected to make it through the afternoon. But, he had a very positive response to the transfusion and has started eating again. Whereas he couldn't even lift his head when we took him in yesterday, he was up sniffing around and being a curious kitty today. He is eating again. Still not a lot, but way more than he has been eating over the last week.

He gets to come home tomorrow afternoon unless there is a negative turn. We do not know how long we will have him with us here on this earth. We're hoping for a long, normal kitty lifespan, but without the suffering that he has endured in this acute episode of onset.

Thank you for continued prayers!

Please help us save Xerxes.

31 Days in the Moment - Check Your Engines!

30 October 2014

An engine should purr, sure. But, this time of year our vehicle's engine could be purring for an entirely different reason.

As the weather gets cooler, little animals, especially kitties, like to crawl under the hood to get out of the wind and to warm themselves on our vehicle's engines. Over the last week or so, our little kitty, Yang, has found it to be the perfect spot to warm up on these cool mornings and a safe place to escape the neighborhood tom cats. It is, however, quite distressing to me!

I am afraid that one morning I will forget to check and we'll have a chewed up kitty. For most of the last week, I have opened the hood to find Yang sitting on the battery. Today, however, Yang was sitting right on the middle of the engine!

Please, please, before you crank your car in the mornings, take a moment to open the hood and check to be sure that you don't have any unexpected passengers warming themselves in your engine compartment!

31 Days in the Moment - Red Light Runners

23 October 2014

Today started off with an adrenaline rush of sorts. I was driving around the square to get back home instead of my usual route due to road construction. Apparently, it is legal to turn left on red in one way zones in this town, but I never do it because it seems pretty stupid to me. The folks coming from the other direction evidently think that it is fine to do, forgetting all about the "if the way is clear" bit. I waited for my green light before proceeding with the left turn that I needed to make, only to look over to see an SUV thinking that we were supposed to share the same exact spot at the same time, after it ran their red light. Good grief! Thankfully we didn't hit.

We have Laynie home again for the weekend. She goes to the doctor in the morning to find out what her epizooties is and a follow-up on her eye infection. This is with the primary care doctor. He is supposed to give a referral to the ophthalmologist for a better exam, which hopefully will be tomorrow, too, since we have to have her back on campus Sunday evening and we can't keep making trips into the city like we've been doing for a multitude of reasons.

One of our little kitties, either Yin or Yang (I'm not sure which), seems to have gone missing. We've only seen one of them for several days now. Wherever this kitty is, I hope it is okay!

31 Days in the Moment - Prop Master

16 October 2014

Today was the first day of performance for the local college theater program. They are performing Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps. Our youngest daughter is the prop master. She enjoys being the prop master, though she is feeling under the weather this time around. She also lucked out with her work study program this year in that she gets paid to do work in the theater, work that she would probably be doing anyway. That sounds like a good deal to me!

31 Days in the Moment - A Beautiful Day

9 October 2014

Today started off beautifully! I was greeted by both the sun and the moon. Thankfully, it was the moon that I was driving toward on my way to take Maggie to school, but the sun was there to share the drive on the way back. It was blinding! It has remained a beautiful day, but it sure got hot. It was 99 degrees at one point. I sure long for the cooler temps of South Carolina.

We took David, Jr., to the local college to visit with some more of his former teachers. He also made use of the fitness center while he was there. When we picked him up, we ran a few short errands and then headed down to Bay City for him to visit with the Marine recruiter that he enlisted under. This is about 35 or so miles away. Just as we were driving about city center, he got a text from the recruiter that he wasn't going to be in his office today. Oh well, it was a nice drive anyway.

We headed back into town and then went to a little town about 15 miles away in the other direction just for a little more of a ride, so that he could see places that he hadn't seen in about four months. While driving, I practiced using the cruise control. I have never been comfortable totally giving control over to the car, but I am even less comfortable with a speeding ticket and the power-tripping officers that give them, even when they are going faster than you are. Thankfully, in approximately 30 years of driving, I've only ever had one speeding ticket. Unfortunately, it was in this town…and I wasn't speeding to the degree that he said I was. I was going 35 in an unmarked 30mph zone. He ticketed me for going 41mph. OY!

Then, it was time to get Maggie from school. We arrived about 20 minutes early and then she was an hour late finishing rehearsal. Davey treated us all to ice cream at Sonic after she was done with her rehearsal. I had a banana split. I tried to photograph it, but at 90+ degrees, that just didn't work out too well. David had a banana milk shake. Maggie and Davey had Oreo-Chocolate milk shakes.

We came back to the house and I made my version of Cracker Barrel's biscuits. They got positive reviews. I am glad of that. I've been practicing off and on over the summer in hopes of having them perfected by the time Davey returned on boot leave. Maybe the biscuits aren't perfect, but the responses they have received have been perfect in my opinion. :)

While I cooked the biscuits and battled a dying oven in the process, David, Sr., continued to work on the scratching post that he is building for Xerxes. The kitty doesn't have it figured out yet, but he will in time. For now, he still prefers using the speakers on the television as his scratch toy.

Overall, it has been a wonderful day. This time together is passing far too quickly.

31 Days in the Moment: Flowers, Socy, and Marines

I started off the day by taking our youngest daughter to the local college. I was going to take a picture of their beautiful yellow roses to share with you, but they were gone, as were the pink roses that I saw the other day. The landscaping crew there stays pretty busy, always changing things around. It is a really pretty campus.

Socrates, a really sweet cat! ©2014

When I got home, I tried to photograph some of the little flowers around our yard. Condensation was a real issue and I didn't have the time or energy to sit out there for 20 minutes in the high humidity to let the camera lens acclimate to it all. So, I just shot anyway. While I was shooting the flowers, our kitty Socrates came to be my second shooter. She is a sweet little helper and I took a couple of pictures of her.

It is 2pm and we're still waiting for David, Jr. to call us. He'll be home soon!

A Family Album

This image widget was removed in an effort to "clean up the amount of widget links coming to Shutterfly.com" as requested via e-mail by Evangeline Elder | Content Editor on 22 May 2017.

Have a blessed day!

A to Z April Challenge: U is for Unlikely

There are many things that have happened over the course of my life that could be classified as unlikely to happen, but that did happen anyway. Here is a list of some of those unlikely events:

It was unlikely that at approximately four weeks premature, victim to a trauma-induced early arrival, I would survive anaphylactic shock on the day that I was born. I did.

It was unlikely that I would get through my first day of school without tears and a paddling or spanking. I didn't.

The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.
- Marcus Aurelius
It was unlikely that shy, little, couldn't-carry-a tune-in-a-tin-bucket me would sing a brief solo to try out for a choir and get accepted into that choir. I did and I loved being in that choir!

It was highly unlikely that I would ever approach a boy that I liked on my own. I didn't, but I had a best friend that took me with her to the window to talk to the boy. She talked; I giggled because I was too scared to talk to him.

Courage is found in unlikely places.
- J. R. R. Tolkien
Had our initial circumstances stayed the same, it is unlikely that David and I would have ever meet. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia and I was born in Anderson, South Carolina. A butterfly must have rippled her wings somewhere to set the waters moving, because his family moved to South Carolina and then to the county that I lived in and the same town that my granny lived in. We've been married for almost thirty years now.

Love changes what is probable and makes unlikely things possible.  Unknown
After living in South Carolina the first thirty-nine years of my life, it was highly unlikely (in my opinion) that I would ever get to "escape" the county and state in which I was born. I felt like there was a force field keeping me there. There wasn't. We left South Carolina in 2004 and would give most anything to return. Leaving over three hundred years of family history, one's deepest roots, is not an easy thing.


References:

Quotes by Marcus Aurelius and J. R. R. Tolkien were found at: Inspirational Quotes About Life.

Quote by Unknown was found at: SearchQuotes.

A to Z April Challenge: O is for Off-key

Off-key.


Many of us want to sing, but that is the feedback we get when we try. "You're off-key." "You can't carry a tune in a tin bucket!" (Who could?) Our hearts are full of song, but discouragement from others often puts a lid on it. We're afraid to sing where others can hear us because we can't bear to hear those words one more time.





Where in the Bible does it say to make a beautiful noise? It says "make a joyful noise". I think if we make that joyful noise, then Heavenly Father will hear our hearts and it will be beautiful to the only One that truly matters in the end.

A to Z April Challenge: I is for Ice Cream

One of the most popular treats at convenience stores around here during the winter time is ice cream. I don't remember if that was the case back home in South Carolina or not, but the stores in our area flat out sell tons of it the colder it is. On the surface, that seems like an oddity, but if you think about the fact that calories warm you up, it makes a lot of sense. Plus, hey, it's ice cream!



Blue Bell Ice Cream is the best available in our area. Some of my favorite Blue Bell flavors are:




Dutch Chocolate
Banana Pudding
Rocky Road
Southern Peach Cobbler
I ♥ Chocolate

Of course, I haven't met a Blue Bell flavor yet that I didn't like.



Do you like ice cream? If so, what is your favorite kind?

A to Z April Challenge: C is for Cats

Over the course of my life, there have been many cats that won my heart, starting with Calico. No matter where David and I have lived, our house had been adopted as the Kitty Kool-aid house. They flock to us and they find food and shelter. This post will list some of the kitties that have we have loved along the way, though there are many, many more who have left their paw prints on our hearts.







Jadis was a very special kitty. She was always the first one to greet me as I got ready to take the kids to school and the one to greet me when I came back home. If I was outside, she was right there with me keeping me company. The morning that I found her dead in the road was one of the hardest mornings of my life in regards to our pets. That first morning afterwards, when she was no longer there to greet me, I felt so incredibly lost and alone. Here is my Jadis:

Wes was another very special little kitty. He was such a regal little thing and very friendly. He liked to sit in the nook of the tree, overseeing his kingdom. He was one of several kitties that just disappeared without a trace. Here is my Wes:

Then there's Leica, whom David called "Alagonquin". He was David's special kitty, his buddy. He was to David like Jadis was to me, always there and ready for a twirl around the legs and a nuzzle on the neck. We found him one morning lying like he had fallen from our roof or the tree branch. There were no marks to indicate foul play or anything like that. This really broke David's heart. He loved his furry little friend, as did the rest of us. Here is Leica/Alagonquin:

Have there been any special animals in your life? Tell me about them in the comment section. I would love to hear about them!

Better than Bacon?

Our youngest son Davey is a great bacon cook. He's the Baconator. :) Tonight, he cooked the bacon and I cooked the biscuits. He LOVES bacon. If it were the only food on the planet, he'd probably be thrilled...or so I thought. I don't know how we got around to this particular conversation, but he paid me a super-duper, make-your-mama-smile compliment tonight. He told me that between his bacon and my biscuits, he loved my biscuits the best.

This, of course, made me light up like a lightning bug! I had to give him a hug for that one. It probably doesn't seem like much to many folks out there that have been making biscuits to perfection for a hundred years. But, I have only recently started making biscuits. Davey loves the biscuits at Cracker Barrel, so I looked around until I found a copycat recipe. I've had to make some adjustments to the instructions along the way.

Here is a picture of tonight's biscuits. I couldn't photograph the bacon because it was immediately consumed. :)

Here is a link to the recipe that I found originally: Cracker Barrel Biscuits.

I doubled the recipe and then added even more buttermilk because it was just too dry otherwise. For whatever reason, mine take longer to cook that the 8 minutes that the recipe suggests, too, sometimes as much as 10 minutes more. I set the timer for 10 minutes and then just start watching them.



Update: Tonight (Friday), David (my husband) told me that they were biscuit perfection. Wow! Two big compliments in two days? I don't know if I can handle that!

Apples to the Core

Our kids are major My Little Pony fans. I'm a genealogy/family history lover. The following video brings those two things together and I wanted to share it with you all.

Enjoy!


By the way, David has decided that I am Fluttershy and he is Pinkie Pie. That works; I'm the shy type and he's the bouncy one. :)

Free Today: Redneck and Anne Present: How to Pay Off Your Debt

David has written a book about how to get out of debt. It is available for the Kindle only. It is free for the next five days. After that, it is only 99¢. You can get it by clicking the book cover image below.



Please give us any feedback that you care to offer on his project here in the comment section. A review on Amazon.com would be appreciated, too. Thanks!



Disclosure: The book image above is an affiliate link. Your purchase of this book helps to increase our self-confidence as well as to keep Internet access. Thank you for your support!

Shattered

Here is a sample of my book Shattered that was released 22 August 2013. The full version is available for your Kindle reader on Amazon.com at: Shattered for $2.99

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Your purchase of Shattered will help to support Suzanne Gunter McClendon's genealogical research. Thank you for your support!

A Jumble of Things

Part 1:

Have you ever been in a spot where you want to be happy for something working out for someone but you're not because the doing of it is ripping your heart to shreds? That's where I am right now. I found this quote online last night, but don't know the original source. I found it here: Could You Be My Answer?

"I remember when I first saw you
I remember the way I felt
You're breaking me to pieces
And I don't know how to deal with this."


It says very much how I'm feeling right now. Depression is taking over, one thing piled on top of another, and I really don't know a way out of this pit of sadness. Please pray for our family. Very emotional times are ahead of us.

Also, please keep my health in your prayers. I have been compelled not to discuss details online, so I will just ask you to please pray for me. Heavenly Father knows what is happening. Thank you.

Part 2:

Yesterday a very special train came to our town. It was the Kansas City Southern Holiday train. We couldn't park close enough to be able to do the tour of the train. As you may recall, David is still battling diabetic complications with his feet and his walking is extremely limited for now.

Here is a picture of the train:

Isn't it cute?

Part 3:

I have tried for quite some time to find a totally from scratch banana pudding recipe. All I have been able to find for the longest time is those using instant pudding instead of the custard like Daddy and Granny used to make. Earlier this week, I was finally able to find a true, from scratch banana pudding recipe. I was so happy! I found it here: Homemade Southern Banana Pudding.

Then came the problem of separating the eggs. I couldn't find the separator. This is one of those things that I have a hundred of, but can never find it when I need it. So, off to YouTube I went to find out how to separate eggs without the little runaway gadget. I found the usual transferring the yolk back and forth between the shells routine, but I also found something that I had never heard or nor considered. At first, I thought it was going to be one of those goofy videos the kids are always sharing with me where something invariably ends up in the toilet. What it was in the end was a really rather interesting way to separate egg yolks from the whites. Here is the video:

Writer's Workshop Thursday

It has been a long while since I last participated in Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop. I am going to try to be more faithful about doing just that. 

Here is one of this week's questions:

5.) A quote you saw on Pinterest that inspired you.

"I'm not beautiful like you. I'm beautiful like me."

I think that if we could all keep this in mind it would help to curb the comparisons that threaten to drive some of us mad and wreck the relationships that we hold most dear.

I don't have to be a size zero, or twenty-two years old, or have a plastic surgeon's number on speed-dial on my phone to be beautiful. I am me: sized larger than I would like, almost forty-eight years old, and want nothing to do with being re-shaped by silicone "enhancements".

Eventually, all of that pretty wrapping gets old, faded, and wrinkled, and all that is left is what is inside the package. That is where true beauty lies, inside that ever-changing, aging package.

I am the most beautiful me that there is. So are you. No one else can compare.

Another thought to take to heart: He made us in His image, and if we are enough for Him, then we are enough. Period.

Genesis 1: 27  "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."

Please be sure to click the button at the top of this post to join in the fun at Mama Kat's blog!