Pink weekend

Normally, pink is my favorite color.  

I LOVE summer.  It's hell that I'm not real crazy about.  We're in for a triple-digit weekend and it just hit us all of a sudden.  We had the mildest June that I can remember.  Cool mornings and upper 80's in the afternoon.  Just WEDNESDAY, I was wrapped up in a sweatshirt for roll call at work!

Today, however, felt like the devil had eaten habaneros for lunch.

I was lucky enough to be somewhere air conditioned for most of the day today, though.  And it was HOTTTT in that hangar OMG.  We have air conditioning in thin plastic ducts that run up and over the top of the plane but when it's 100 degrees plus and both hangar doors are open, what's the point??  It's really just wasting electricity.  But lemme tell ya, this girl has learned how to plug up, hook up and turn on that huge van-sized air conditioner and cut holes in that duct!  

The supervisors grilled steaks for us today and us girls, few that we are, did the girl thing and set everything up, made the baked beans and grilled Vidalia onions, took everything over to where we were going to be meetin' and eatin' and cut the 28 cakes and pies that we had for dessert.  And then we cleaned up afterwards.  You know, the girl thing.  While the guys did the guy thing.  Worked on the airplanes.  Ha!

Along with our steak, the beans and grilled onions, we had potato salad, rolls and roasted ears of corn.  I made Dr. Patrenos' world-famous brown sugar brownies and they got gone quick.  We had apple pies, peach pies, five chocolate cakes, pound cakes, red velvet cake, a candy bar cake, key lime pies, peanut butter pies, blueberry cobbler, apple blueberry crisp, 'nana puddin', cookies, cupcakes, pretty much if you wanted it, we had it.

We got praise for working so hard and I had to stifle a giggle at that.  We do our work but we do not work hard.  The routine out there has taken some getting used to.  What with the breaks and pre breaks and after breaks, I've never seen anything like it.  Plus they give us three hours a week to go work out at the gym.  I'm not knocking it by no means, it's just different.  A whole new wonderful different world.  :)

So I was happy to know that we're doing a good job, getting the planes out on schedule, rewiring them right so that they don't crash.  That's a biggie.  :)   We're the best of the best and I'm excited that they are letting ME be a part of that.

It's stupid hot, y'all.  Stay safe out there, ya hear??  Check on your pets and the old folks.

Happy Birthday to me!

Thanks to Facebook, I got wished a happy birthday about 130 times!  Well, I stopped counting somewhere around there.  Awesome.  

I spent the day with Larry, the absolute sweetest thing in my life.  I truly don't deserve him.  I got told that by a friend not too long ago.  After meeting him a few weeks ago, she said, "Larry is so sweet.  You don't deserve him!"  I busted out laughing because he has always told me that he doesn't deserve me.  I think we both got lucky.

He sang "Happy Birthday" to me and hid a little drawing he did of the two of us under our pile of snacks so when we got to the bottom of the pile, there it was.  See, sweet.  I told you.  And then he tried to throw it away the rest of the day 'cause he's a dang young'un sometimes, too.  :)  He drew his hands on my face 'cause he does that a lot and then I kiss his palm.  He likes that.  And he also drew stubble on his face 'cause I like that!!! 

He sent me a couple of cards this week, too.  This one he made for me.  Awwwww!   

Mama and Daddy sent me this card and a pretty pair of silver hoop earrings.  Daddy drew a little airplane inside the card!!  So cute.

My birthday cupcake! 

Mama and Daddy sent it home with me last Sunday and I kept it in the fridge all week.  It was actually still good and moist today!  Not at all like year-old wedding cake.  Ha!

I had a wonderful weekend.  I saw Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter yesterday and loved it!  It is so well-written and acted.  I went in there thinking it'd be silly but I was surprised.  It was gory, funny and pretty close to history.  Well, kinda.  We didn't win battles against the North because we had vampires on our side.  At least I don't think we did.  :)  I really wanted to yell at Abe at the end, "Don't go to the theater!".

I came home to these two little guys today.  Golden Birthday Mushrooms in my front yard.  It was a great day.

Birthdays past

When I was born, my mama started a baby book for me.  She did one for my brother and sister, too.

In those baby books, she lovingly and painstakingly chronicled our lives.  When we were old enough to take care of them, she gave them to us and they came to stay with us in our homes.

When I say my parents are two of a kind, I'm not just saying that.  They truly are.

This is what she wrote for my 1st birthday.

We went to my grandmas' houses and then to Lake Blackshear where I swam with my daddy.  Everybody was there except for Uncle Freddie.  It was 1968 and Uncle Freddie was in Vietnam.  I got lots of stuff for my birthday!  Toys and clothes and a bath tub.  This girl loves toys and clothes and bath tubs.  :)

Mama wrote stuff like this for every single birthday until I was eight, when she ran out of room in the book.  She then started a School Days book for us to keep our memories in.

Here's Birthday #3!

And lots of cool stuff about my favorite playthings and pets.

Thank you, Mama, for doing this!!  

She also kept my cards, gift tags, napkins and birthday candles.

Crazy story and I don't even know how it happened.  Those two dragon cards I got for my 7th birthday were from my grandparents, Maw and Paw.  I don't know if they were already divorced at that time, but they weren't living together, yet they both got me the same exact card.  That's SO cool!

Here are some hilarious pictures from my 4th birthday party.  June 26, 1971.

I do not know why I was so pissed off that day!  I got my Buffy and Jody paper dolls and I was the center of attention.  Oh, yeah, that.  Maybe that was it.  I never like being that.  And I probably needed a nap.  I always need a nap.

I don't even know what to say about this one.  Here I am, sitting on a jack-in-the-box, showing my butt panties, being completely antisocial.  I remember vividly making eye contact with Sophie (the cute little redhead looking at me) and the look on her face was something like, "why you akkin' a ass at your birthday party??"  

That's better!  Terry and Candy's mama, Nedra, took my ill butt into the kitchen and made me smile and got this one.  I remember that very well, too.  She was a mess and could always make me laugh.

I can't believe that Sunday, I will have had 41 birthdays since this one.  I still show my butt from time to time and I'm still a little antisocial sometimes but for the most part, I'm that little girl in the last picture, finding a reason to smile despite all the chaos around me.

I'm just thankful people love me anyway.

Howdy, Summer!

Summertime, 

Child, the livin's easy.

(Janis Joplin)

Happy Birthday Week to me!

 
I kicked off my birthday week yesterday and shared the day with my daddy.  We had a huge dinner, then presents and cake and ice cream.

Here's the cake!  Red velvet with cream cheese icing.  My absolute favorite cake.  Ami made the little Happy Birthday flag for me.  She's so crafty.  She makes the most beautiful things!!  She made me a 45th Birthday badge, too, that I wore all day.  Mama put the lei on me.  I was a princess.  :)  A tie-dyed princess.  We couldn't get over how my shirt matched everything!

I got lots of cool things!!  A cute pair of 'jamas and a Chilly Pad towel (that will no doubt SAVE MY LIFE this summer in that hangar) from Ami and Brian, a double-insulated cup to keep my ice water in at work, some sunflower bath stuff and an adorable little toy hippie van from Ricky and Audra, Larry got me a beautiful electric glass kettle and the cutest little mice measuring cups.  He also did something pretty spooky.  I've been wanting this penguin humidifier (YES, the pediatric kind, shut up) but I never mentioned it to him.  I'd just look at it at Target and decide that I didn't need it.  Well, that's what he got me!  Not the dog, not the elephant, not the panda, the PENGUIN.  The one I wanted.  We do stuff like that all the time, read each other's minds and stuff.  It's pretty incredible.  I got a big roomy t-shirt (to wear to work and promptly destroy with hydraulic fluid) and Mary McDonough's book that I've been wanting to read forever, Lessons From The Mountain: What I Learned From Erin Walton from Mama and Daddy.  Y'all know I love me some Waltons.  When I was at home those seven weeks after I quit my job at Dr. Niebaum's office and before I started at the base, I watched The Waltons pretty much round the clock.  I saw the entire series (all nine seasons!) twice and some episodes three or four times.  I laughed and cried and was reminded of my childhood in every single episode.  I can't even SEE Grandpa or hear his voice without squalling.  I'm friends with Mary on Facebook and I have been dying to read her book.  Well, now I can.  Actually I started it today.  :)

Ever since I started my job at the base, Larry has called me his "gubmint mule".  So, for my birthday, he got me one.  A stuffed donkey that we have named Sammy, you know, for The Man.  

 

When I first opened the box, all I could see was legs and feet and I thought there was a dead cat in the box!  See my face right here??  Bwahahaha!!  This picture cracks me up.

Here's me and Sammy sharing gubmint secrets on Mama and Daddy's back porch.  I told him that everything is a conspiracy and he wholeheartedly agreed.  He is gonna SO love living with me!!  :)

 

After dinner, Ami and Brian 
and I went riding around out in the country.  We came up on a couple of old Georgia red clay roads and we had to get out and play (AKA take pictures!) and pick blackberries.  I love how this picture turned out (I think Brian took it).  The blackberry has red clay on it!!  Squeeee!  I'm pretty sure I ate this one, just like it was.  :)

 Happy feet!!

We came back and I raided Mama and Daddy's garden of the squash and cherry tomatoes that were ready.


We had a wonderful day!!  And it was the perfect kick-off for my birthday week!!  I'm celebrating all week long 'cause it's not every year a girl turns 45.

OLD friends are best!

An old friend of mine was passing through this weekend and we got together today for an eatin' meetin' and got all caught up!  I hadn't seen him in seven or eight years and he was in the area with his teenaged twin sons, Avery and Austin, for a baseball tournament.  They play FOUR games this weekend!

We went to Cheddar's and I got this amazing Roasted Pear Spring Mix salad with grilled chicken.  ZOMG.

Avery is second from left and Austin's at the end of the table.

Here are the cutie patootie ball players!  I took this pic of them when all four of them had their cell phones out.  I thought that was so funny!  I still don't have a smart phone and one reason is I'm afraid I will be so totally dependent on it that I won't ever put it down.  I know how I am.  Y'all think I'm on Facebook a lot NOW.  Ha!  

 

I've known Donnie since we were babies.  He moved away when we were in elementary school but we've tried to stay in touch over the years.  Here he is with his Chinese friend today.  I don't know who she is but she had my Cookie Monster shirt on.  :)

We had such a great time just sitting and talking and catching up.  But I just couldn't let the opportunity pass by to remind him of the time he pushed me off the porch into the rose bushes when we were five.  And how he got his tail tore up for it by his mama with his Hot Wheels race track.  And then he had to tease me about being so much older than he is.  I'll be 45 next Sunday, he'll be 45 a week later.  One week!!  He's done this as long as I can remember.  He should be so lucky to be this purty when he's as old as me.  Ha!

It was great seeing you, Donnie!!  Hope y'all win tonight!!

Sunrise

One of the perks of getting to work at 6:00 in the morning is you get to watch the sun come up every day.

It's pretty awesome.

Before I started my job at the base, I could count on one hand how many times I actually saw the sun rise.  I didn't realize what I was missing!!  It's beautiful every single morning.  No buildings or trees to hide it, just miles of flight line serving as the canvas for God's early morning gift to us.  I'm honored to get to keep company with the sun as he wakes up for the day.  But his tail can wake up ON HIS OWN tomorrow 'cause I'll be sleeping in!!  :)

Oven-fried parmesan chicken

Larry found this recipe in a magazine and he wanted me to try it.  So that's what I cooked today, along with some red-skinned mashed potatoes, fresh field peas and fried okra.

Here's how!

6 Tbsp butter, melted
5 Tbsp dry bread crumbs
3 Tbsp grated parmesan cheese
3 Tbsp cornmeal
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 fryer chicken, cut up (3-4 pounds)

Place butter in a shallow bowl.  In another shallow bowl, combine the bread crumbs, cheese, cornmeal, salt, oregano and garlic powder.  Dip chicken in butter, then roll in crumb mixture.

Place on greased baking sheet and bake, uncovered, at 375 for 40-45 minutes or until juices run clear.

That recipe is super easy but being the lazy 21st-century girl that I am, I always look for short cuts.  :)  I used Kraft's Fresh Take Italian Parmesan bread crumb and parmesan cheese mix.  It has the garlic powder, I added my own oregano.

It tasted just like fried chicken with a little parmesan kick.  Yummy yummy!!

What I'm loving Wednesday!

Today I am loving these books!

I call 'em my "cowboy romances" and I've been reading them almost entirely at work.  During roll call, break, after lunch, when the sheet metal crew has to work on the verticals and we have to get off the plane, just any spare minute I have.  I LOVE them!!  I haven't read sappy paperback romances probably since I was in my 20's but something about these grabbed my attention (and, no, not just the covers!  Ha!).  

The story takes place in Bramble, Texas ("Mayberry on crack") and revolves around twin sisters, Faith and Hope Scroggs.  Their parents, 15 years old when they were born, kept Hope (hoping they'd be good parents) and gave Faith up for adoption, with the faith that she would return to them one day.  She does and Going Cowboy Crazy, the first in the trilogy, is her story.

 

I've raised a few eyebrows with them at work. Especially with this one.  My favorite of the two. Make Mine A Bad Boy.  Yes, please.  :)  Hope's story.

She meets her match in tattooed, motorcycle-ridin' bad boy, Colt.  Fire and gasoline, those two are.

I finished it today and literally ran to Books-A-Million after work to get the third book.  Catch Me A Cowboy.  

I have laughed out loud so many times reading these books!  They're hilarious, sexy and being from a small town, I can really relate to everybody being in their business all the time, plotting to "fix it" when all they're doing is making it worse.  Bless their hearts.  :)

If you're looking for a little guilty pleasure this summer, I highly recommend these books!

To comfort and keep you

I've been around pretty much the whole time, almost.  I used to tell people that Mama and Daddy got married on the 6th of June and I was born the 24th.  I assure you that my mama did not find one thing funny about that at all.  They did and I was, but two years later.

They were my first loves and I learned how to love from them.  

Having known these two for 45 years, I can tell you that when they said their vows on that sunny, late spring day in June of '65, they were serious.  See??  Look at their faces.  Serious.

They love, they honor, they comfort and keep.

There's a quote I saw somewhere online (probably Pinterest!) and when I read it, I just cried.  This is so true for me (and my sister). 

The greatest thing a daddy can do for his daughter is to love her mama.

So simple, yet so powerful.  I have no doubt that our daddy adores our mama and she him.  I am so blessed to have been born to these two beautiful people that I love with all of my heart.

Happy 47th, Mama and Daddy!!  Y'all still look just the same!! 

Welcome June

You are my most beloved month.

You are homegrown tomatoes and birthday cake.

You are the anniversary of a wedding that started me.  And my brother and sister.

You are flip flops and pool floats.

You are ocean waves and seashells.

You give my daddy his own day. 

You are lightning bugs and ice cold watermelon.

You are lazy summer days and season five of True Blood. :)

Welcome June!  Even though you are also hot as hell and you bring gnats.  I still love you.