Saturday Morning

Saturday Morning

I made homemade blueberry pancakes Saturday morning. Delicious! Recipe here.

Hot Tamales!!!

The Hispanic Community Center in Jonesboro had a fund raiser recently and sold homemade tamales. 9$ for a dozen in chicken or pork. Wrapped in corn husks and everything.

So, I had the Hurdles over and Hannah and her boyfriend ate too. It was yummy! Amanda helped us clean up. Awesome!

We will definitely be ordering more in the future.

Blue Skies

Here we are cooking fish for the Oklahoma Sheriffs at a park. Chris, Chad (my boss), Dean, Todd {a.k.a. Ladies Man and the guy that heroically removed the snake skin from the bathroom} and me.

Cookin'!!! I helped cut up the raw catfish. Yuck! I don't really even like catfish, but I pretend I do for these events. Just stay busy cooking and cleaning so I don't really have time to eat.

Buffet! Also pictured here in the background is a poster I made. It is a county map of OK with our client counties hi-lited in yellow. I missed several counties because I got some incorrect information. We bought come Crayola markers and fixed it.

On Thursday I went down to our booth, but it

was slow because the sheriffs were in class.

Here is a picture of our booth.

One of the nicest there.

Since it was slow I decided to go with the sheriffs' wives on a short field trip to The Oklahoma History Center. What a wonderful tribute to the history and people of Oklahoma! Here is a picture in the foyer. A view of the state capitol.

This was one of, if not the, most valuable exhibits in the museum. And my favorite. What can I say? I am my father's daughter. It is a decree/certificate of sorts from President Thomas Jefferson to some Indian tribe. {and yes, they call them Indians in Oklahoma, not Native Americans} The two silk ribbon & wax seals at the bottom are the seals of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. This document was signed by all three infamous men. Jefferson, Lewis & Clark. Very cool. Can't wait to show my dad.

Ok, this exhibit made me feel old. Displayed in a glass case along with all of the artifacts was this Nokia Phone and Doc Marten boots. I hope all of you Gen Y-ers out there can appreciate this. I thought I was sooooo cool with my new Docs and my cell phone that was just like everyone else's.

And this was my view at approximately 7pm last night. Hanging at the hotel pool with a book.

Fryin' to Flyin'

I recently went to Hot Springs for work for the Arkansas Sheriff's Association Summer Convention. I was very nervous about the trip because, although two male co-workers went as well, I felt like I was going it alone. Plus, I had to stay at The Austin hotel, not The Embassy Suites. The Austin was terrible. That did not help the trip at all. But I survived and I'm here to tell about it. Through the process though I realized I might just be high maintenance. Who knew.

When I arrived Sunday afternoon, my company, Tiger Correctional Services, hosted a Fish Fry for the Sheriffs and their families at what was called the Arc Isle party house on Lake Hamilton. For those of you that are familiar with Jonesboro, it was similar to The Pavilion at ASU, but about 30 years older and more... "open air". That was hard work too let me tell ya! Running back and forth getting fish, onion rings, hush puppies, cole slaw, potato salad, etc. I was exhausted, but it was a great event. We planned for about 100 and 200 showed up. Probably more actually.

The next few days were good. We made good contacts with Pulaski County and I plan to follow up with them today. We took a large group out to Bella Arti for dinner Monday evening. Interesting to be on the vendor side of a conference. I've been on the attendee side when I worked at the clinic. It was nice being catered to, but this time I had to do the catering. It was still fun though. The most fun part of the conference was Tuesday night. They had a dance & a band. I love to dance. Then I played poker til 2am with some Sheriffs and one of our competitors. Ha! I lost though....

On the way home, and let me tell I couldn't get home quick enough, I stopped in Little Rock at the River Market to have lunch with my old college friend Paul. I don't think I had seen Paul since Christmas 2007 when Richard & Laura stopped in Jonesboro to visit. We had lunch at The Flying Fish. My first experience of fish tacos. It was good. But I was mostly thrilled I was able to find the place & park without getting lost. Gotta love the Garmin! Paul and I had a nice visit. Then I hopped in the car and drove home. In the pouring down rain. Scary rain. But I was in such a hurry to get home that I didn't want to pull over, so I trudged through. :)

A Cold Day in July

My mom, sister and I had a small garage sale on Saturday. It was unseasonably cool on Saturday in Jonesboro. I wore a sweatshirt until noon. I had been wanting to get rid of some books so I won't have to move them ever again. They're so heavy. An once I've read a book, there's no need to keep it unless it's something I'll look at again. So, now when I buy & read a book I pass it off to someone else that might like it.

We made about $80 total on the sale, which I didn't think was bad considering we didn't put an ad in the paper and didn't really have anything of any value. The most expensive items we had were two chairs -- sold for $10/ea. I came away with $25. Again, not bad considering nothing I had sold for more than $1. Most things were a quarter. The goal was to get rid of some things and hopefully make a little money at the same

time. I don't like messing with getting a receipt at Goodwill. Plus, it was just a good day spent with family outdoors.

Saturday afternoon I helped my new boss prepare food for his 30 year class reunion. Kinda fun actually.

Then I came home and made cookies. Cranberry & Walnut. Made from a chocolate chip recipe of my Aunt Jackie's. Sooo yummy. I made them for my movie guests. I made the chocolate chip recipe on Sunday to take to work. I promised the guys at work I'd make cookies for them when they put my new desk together. More on that soon. A bunch of friends came over that night to watch "Election" and eat watermelon. Good day.

Last minute Salad Experiment

"Necessity is indeed the mother of invention"~quoted by Jo March at the beginning of the movie "Little Women". I have seen that movie so many times...

Anyway, I thought of this quote because I "invented" a new salad last night. It's similar to the Quesadilla Explosion at Chili's. I was home last night not wanting to eat left-over chicken pot pie so I decided to make a quesadilla. I do this sometimes when there's nothing else to eat but I want something besides cereal or cheese & crackers. I looked in the fridge and found some baked chicken my sister had left over from a meal earlier this week. I heated it and cut it up. I put it on a tortilla along with grated cheese (most of it fat free), taco sauce and fresh ripe tomatoes. My best friend from childhood, RandiJo, dropped them off at my house this week. She and I grew a garden together one summer in college so it brought back some memories. Then I had some lettuce left over from my July 4th party so I threw that on there with some low fat Ranch dressing.

Voila! A delicious salad! It was good and somewhat healthy. I'm getting better at this cooking thing. :)

Chicken Pot Pie

I made Chicken Pot Pie tonight. A recipe I got from hungry-girl.com a site with low fat recipes for yummy things. Here is the recipe. It was good.

I rarely cook anything this involved for just myself. And now I know why. By the time I get home, cook and get ready to eat I'm not hungry anymore and it's late and I don't really want to cook for just myself. Seems kinda silly.

I honestly think tonight might have been the first Chicken Pot Pie I've ever eaten. My mom never made it... Also, I think they are just sneaky ways to get you to eat your veggies.