this and that

 I do love this

and I do love camouflage

Long Time No See

I have been away so long.  I'm on Facebook practically every day but I haven't found the energy or time to look at blogs lately.  Can you believe I don't read The Pioneer Woman's blog anymore?  I used to check it religiously but now I  can't find the time.  I see her posts on Facebook sometimes and wander over if I feel like it but I have just not been interested in spending that much time on the computer.  Except I manage to give FB a quick check several times a day if I'm home.  It's just easier I guess.  I still have everyone on my google reader and perhaps will get the urge to read blogs again.  But it does take a lot of time and before you know it you haven't gotten anything done that you need to do. 

I have a new development in my life.  My granddaughter's dad has gone to work for my husband and he brings the baby over to me five days a week.  Now do you see what I've been doing with my time?  I am enjoying every minute.  I can't think of a more important thing to get to do.  She is on a list for the daycare at the hospital where her mother works but until she gets placed she is at my daycare.  And I'm good!  No one is going to take better care of this baby.  I'm certain of it. :))

Sunmaid

My daughter told me that when she was little she thought I looked like the Sunmaid girl on the Sunmaid Raisin boxes.  Yesterday was Mother's Day and after lunch the girls snapped a shot of me.  What do you think?  

Can You See the Real Me?

I am black and white, antique, and original.  Will the real me please stand up?
We went to see Roger Daltrey of the Who and Eric Clapton last night at the BOK Center.

Roger Daltrey sang some classics such as "Behind Blue Eyes."

Clapton sang some classics such as "Layla" and "CrossRoads".  One of my favorite songs he sang was "You Look Wonderful Tonight."  

He sang "Rock and Roll Heart."

He also sang "Change the World."  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGDIxcuPT7s
But "You Look Wonderful Tonight" tops it for me!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaMuBX4aMmw
WT:  Did you see Clapton in Hyde Park back in 1966?  I guess you aren't that old...

Absente, mais pas d'esprit

I have been absent from my blog for quite some time. I just have not had a thing to say I suppose. I've been messing with facebook and reading my google reader of blogs but not diligently. Being a grandma takes time. Especially when the daughter is finishing college. She will graduate this spring. We've went through some changes over here at the hacienda. We put new bamboo floors down in the living room, hallway, and bedroom. That took a lot of my time moving furniture and CLEANING and getting rid of unnecessary items. Also cleaning a few closets. We bought some new leather furniture for the living room and that required more moving too. You should have seen my husband and I moving a sofa bed into a distant bedroom. We had to stand it on its end and then turn it around a tight corner and remove the bedroom door for it to fit. I am surprised we made it and no arguments either. Whew!!

I have been making new recipes and eating out occasionally too. We are planning a spring break trip to Arkansas again. This time we will be sleeping in our RV and our friends have toy haulers. We will get to try out our little shower and I do mean little! I don't believe we will use the toilet, don't want to clean that out or be left with any fumes. The campground we are staying out will have showers and bathrooms.

I bought a new laptop for our business computer so I could be portable and the old computer was failing. I got a monster screen 18.4". It's taking some getting used to with the keyboard being so different. I had the most difficult time loading my Quickbooks and importing my old files. I have done this before but this time it seems that everything that could go wrong did. Being on the phone with support team was not the most pleasant experience. I had to have remote access help. After about four hours, it was accomplished.

I will finish with this update. The title of this post reads "Absent, but not minded".

Guess What Grandma's Been Doing?

Christmas time is here again

It's gonna be fun this year! I went Black Friday

shopping and found some bargains. Early Christmas

start for me.

Ree Drummond-The Pioneer Woman Cookbook

I got to meet Ree at her cookbook signing in Tulsa on Friday.

She was a lot of fun to meet and listen to her talking to others as I

waited. I got to the store first and could have been first in line

but I decided to shop the little store and bought my grandbaby

some cute onesie's. One was a pink Cain's ballroom and the

other was a "I love (heart) Tulsa." I found a very cute purse that

was handmade. I will post a photo soon. It was made out of an

old linen tablecloth, very vintage. I know no one else will ever have

another one like it. I also bought a small Uglydoll. Big toe.

I'm about ten people back from the front of the line.

We all got to watch MM carry in boxes of books. He

didn't have his hat on and he looks even finer in real

life. Forgive me, but I'm much older than both of them!

I had pre-ordered one cookbook from Amazon but

I bought another to give as a gift.

And here I am posing with Ree. She was so very nice

and it was so fun to talk with her. I told her I would

like to go to the Pawhuska signing but I had tickets for

Dracula (the ballet). She said she would have liked to

gone to that. I also mentioned that I had never read a blog

before hers and that was when I started blogging two years

ago. I told her that I had met Swampy and of course she

knew her also. I had a very fine day! I left there and went

to Utica Square and shopped in Williams Sonoma. And

even better, I took home Asian Grilled Salmon from PF Chang's.

I honestly cannot get enough of it. I wish I could eat it every

day!

Wordless Wednesday-Baby Face

For more Wordless Wednesday, go here.

The Milk of Human Kindness

Milk of human kindness

Meaning

Care and compassion for others.

Origin

From Shakespeare's Macbeth, 1623:

"Yet doe I feare thy Nature, It is too full o' th' Milke of humane kindnesse."


I watched Marley and Me last week. I was unprepared for the sadness at the last half of the movie. I thought it was a comedy. I do recommend the movie to any animal lover but be warned: tears could fall. 

I also watched an episode last week on Dr. Phil about "Marcus Wesson molested, abused and controlled his family in cult-like ways, impregnated some of daughters and nieces, and murdered nine of his children one horrible night in 2004."

 It was horrible beyond belief.  

And you see these sad commercials about animal abuse.  Sometimes she sings "In the Arms of the Angel."  It really is a sad statement about human nature.  These are my beliefs.  I believe that all humans are capable of evil.  I believe that man was created in the image of God.  I believe that Adam and Eve fell by choosing to follow their fleshly desires.  I believe that there is a devil that tempts us but I believe that we make the choice.  God has made a way to escape temptations but we must look for the way.  Not every one is taught this.  But everyone is without excuse:  "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."

"For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles."

"Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.  They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised.  Amen."

"Futhermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.  They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity.  They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice.  They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;  they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless."

"Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them."   (Romans 1: 20-25; 28-32)

I think this describes our society quite well.  Man apart from God can commit atrocities.  I am not talking about religion either.  Religion has been the cause of most wars.  Religion is just a belief that you practice.  Mankind loves darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.  Turning away from God and being separated from Him has made a lot of evil deeds possible.  I am not trying to judge anyone, I think the Word of God has clearly done that already.  

I am thankful that not all people turn to darkness but it is sad to view the depths that some have fallen.  God help us.

This is what I believe.  There is so much more to this life than meets the physical eye!

Camping

Our trip to Dover, Arkansas was successful. We used our Chalet Alpine rv for the first time. We stayed four nights without too many problems. Since this was our first trip we had to get used to the camper. Hauling it was no problem, we were able to haul it and the four-wheeler trailer hooked together with our Toyota Tundra. We could run 70 and 75 miles ph easily. The first and second night our furnace came on and several times we would hear a beeping sound. My husband finally figured out the 12v wire needed to be hooked up so the spark igniter could work properly. The freezer worked great. Things were so cold in the refrig part that the milk partially froze. I had to turn it down. All our meat stayed frozen solid in the freezer. We didn't try out the shower because the campground had a shower and bathroom to use. Our air bed was great but we have decided to get a regular mattress because we will never use the table under the bed. We'll just dedicate that space to the bed full time. We had our flat-screen tv and dvd player that we bought for the rv. We got an off-air antenna that worked great picking up 9 channels with HD even. The only thing I cooked this time was waffles for breakfast. We ate a packed lunch every day out in the woods on the trails. Every evening after trail-riding we would get cleaned up and go into Russelville and find new places to dine. The weather was beautiful. It was pretty cool every morning and would warm up to about 60 degrees. We did not get rained on except the first night and that was while we were sleeping. We rode the Moccasin Gap trails every day. There were four couples all together. Two couples stayed in cabins and two of us stayed in RV's or toy haulers. It was a great trip.

Wordless Wednesday-1977

1977 Long ago and far away.

For more Wordless Wednesday go here.

Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?

Well, Colorado, I'm telling you now!
Our vehicle above traveling on the Million Dollar Highway.
O Beautiful, for spacious skies! For purple mountains majesties!
We met a shepherd and his 2,300 sheep and three dogs along the way.
The above is where we stopped to decide if we needed to turn around before the

going got any rougher. Just so happened I backed into a bear cave. Don't know

if she was at home!
The abandoned silver and gold mines of Colorado. There's gold in them hills!
Untrailering for the day!
We ate our lunch every day on the mountain. Nothing ever tasted so good!
Relaxing after a long drive. The wildflowers were in bloom everywhere! I love you, Colorado. I can't wait to return.

We're Back!

From the best trip ever to Colorado! Details to follow...

Wordless Wednesday-Four-wheeling

For more Wordless Wednesday go here.

The Scorpions Go To Ouray

From the last trip to Arkansas

Our group: the Scorpions

I love these people!

Four-wheeling is a blast!

Just look at this scenery where we

will be. I am in awe.

The temperature today is 64 F in Ouray.

Oklahoma temp. today is 104 F.

This is Ouray, Colorado.

Happy Anniversary Honey-pie

Happy Anniversary. 34 years. Seriously 2/3rds of my life.

I hope to go on for another 34 or more! We are leaving for

Colorado on Saturday. Oh Happy Day!

Photo Booth

Take a Little Trip with Me

Woolaroc

Still a beautiful and fun place to visit.
Navajo Fire Dance

What are you looking at?

Making use of a timer

I used to sit on these lions 

when I was little.

It was the most beautiful and sunny day we have had

in weeks.  So we took a little trip to Woolaroc.  It's very 

near our home and such a wonderful place with 

lots of animals to see.