This and that

My new photographer friend showed me an old abandoned hotel where she takes some pictures... a friend wanted to see it so we took Katie and her BFF along for models.

I had ordered the new lens I have been wanting...

Tracking was showing that it was on the truck for delivery...

We were meeting at 6:30.....

The lens still wasn't here....It came right after we left I heard...Darn.

But we still had fun and took a few pics

It was a pretty scary place....Katie went back to the car, the BFF was brave and let us get a few pics... this is one of the first ones where she is still debating how safe we are...

Then she loosened up....

We moved on pretty quickly... We discovered this little strip of trees, a meadow and a little creek...  Here in West Texas where there aren't many trees this is like a little oasis...I was amazed today when we went by there and there were several photographers there... Trees are really special here I guess.

I loved the light coming through the little trees... We were there at the perfect time...

I'm not quite sure what they are doing but I liked the picture...

But then it appears the BFF was turning on here and trying to stab her with a branch...

She might be going through the terrible teens but she's still a keeper...

I copied this idea from somewhere in blog land... loved the peeps in the jar.

I'm having trouble not eating the "Hawaiian punch" jelly beans.  They are really good...The edible grass on the other hand, isn't very flavorful...

Speaking of peeps... I love this little peep show... I need to do it at my house..

Ellie was in terrible need of a new spring hair cut...the only appointment I could get was at 7a.m. today.  On Saturday. 

after...

Elvis was a little jealous

I'm not sure why there was tiara wearing going on but I think she was more surprised I was standing there with a camera when she walked out than I was that she was wearing it... 

I think the attention she got at dinner last night has gone to her head...

We were waiting on a table at a restaurant and a little boy, maybe 6 or 7 kept winking at her and then told his mom "she's pretty"...mom was a little embarressed but dad, not so much... he was very proud of his son...

Never a dull moment with girls, friends and dogs... I love it all...

Lobster is my love language

I have a good friend who is a food rep. 
I've decided I may need to change professions....
She brings me wonderful things to try.  She not only brings me wonderful food but always shows up with wine when she comes over... Everyone needs friends like this.

But you can't have her.  She's mine.

This week we fed her kitty while she was out of town and my thank you prize was a bag of lobster meat and a box of coconut shrimp. 

She handed me that lobster and it was like Christmas! 

I immediately started thinking on what all I could do with the lobster meat. 

We had some extended family in town for the weekend and had them over to dinner last night...

I decided to thaw the lobster and use if for the dinner...

I still have half of it left and will be eating lobster salad for lunch, looking for more recipes and eating it till I have used every bit of it. 

It was certainly the best "feed my kitty" gift I have ever gotten.  Did I mention it was lobster?

We would have done it for shrimp.

For dinner I decided on Seafood Enchiladas and adapted a recipe I found....They were wonderful.
Not low fat.  But it's lobster, it deserved rich and creamy... 

Yesterday was also our anniversary.  If I had to cook for my anniversary, lobster was a perfect choice...
of course if we had eaten out it wouldn't have been lobster...

Seafood Enchiladas

Filling:
4 oz Cream cheese softened
1 C Sour Cream
1 lb seafood of choice (lobster, crab, shrimp chopped, etc)
1 C grated Fontina Cheese
1 C grated Cheddar
1/2 Onion very finely chopped
Fresh ground pepper to taste
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp dried Dill weed
1/2 tsp Cumin
juice of half a lemon

Sauce:
1 Cup Half and Half
4 oz Cream Cheese
1 C sour cream
dash of red pepper (optional)

Topping:
1/2 Onion finely chopped
2 Tomatoes chopped well
1 tbsp chopped Cilantro (optional)
1/4 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Pepper
Grated Fontina and Cheddar

Grate cheeses        

For filling, mix all ingredients together well.  Place large spoonful of filling on tortilla and roll up.  Place in baking dish seam side down.  Fills about 12-15 tortillas.

For sauce, place cream cheese and half & half in sauce pan and heat on low heat stirring frequently till melted and mixed well.  Remove from heat and fold in sour cream

Pour white sauce over enchiladas.  Sprinkle shredded fontina and/or cheddar cheese over the top. 

Mix tomato, onion, chopped cilantro, salt and pepper and sprinkle over the top.  You can also top with small amount of your favorite salsa instead if you prefer. 

Bake at 350 till hot and bubbly, appox. 15-30 min.

A few more pictures

I wanted to add a couple of more pics from earlier in the week...

I loved this picture of Jennifer sharing a special moment with the sweet donkey

Luckily, Jennifer likes a good barefoot picture as much as I do...

And I can always count on several self portraits when we have the camera with us...

Now, I must brag for a moment....

It is obvious which daughter would rather hang out with me, likes to cook, and will even antique shop with me and not complain. 

As a matter of fact, she has started asking to go to antique stores and she can spot some cool stuff...But this week when we were in an antique store she showed me how much like me she is.  We came around a corner and she saw an old punch bowl (that wasn't even that pretty) with the punch cups hanging off of the bowl and said "oooh, this is cool". 

My heart swelled with pride and I hugged her and told her she had a wonderful future of party throwing and shower giving to look forward to. 

I've never been so proud!!!!

I wish I had gotten a picture of us with the punch bowl to remember that moment.

Photo tips and donkeys

I recently ran across the website for a photographer here in town.  I had to look at every picture on her site because she is a pet photographer...

Much to the embarrassment of my kids, I emailed her and asked her about a couple of places in her pictures and she was so sweet to email me back and several emails later, we met for coffee... Otherwise know as my Internet date by my kids...

Amanda was so sweet to visit with me and give me her wonderful list of cool places to take pictures!

But the very best bit of info she gave me was where to find the mini donkeys that she had taken pics of...

Today we went out looking around at some of the sites she told me about and we stopped by to pet the mini donkeys and horses...

They came up to the fence to let us pet them and were soooo sweet!

I think I need one of these babies in my yard!!!

Then we went on to check out some other cool spots we heard about from her...

I realized today that all my recent pictures are of Kellie but she is the only kid that usually wants to go...

Daisy made sure there wasn't a dead body in there for us...
We had fun and I think Kellie and I will be going back to see the donkeys everyday...

I think we are all allergic to Lubbock

I am ready for Spring Break!  I have big plans of doing very little except for dusting and dusting and dusting!
The blowing dirt here is killing me.
I have had a sinus infection almost constantly since Nov.  The dr. this week said maybe I've developed allergies since moving here...shot, med's, nasal sprays, etc. to help it...

Now, poor Elvis is having an allergy too.  He has had some red spots on his face and stomach off and on for a couple of months but they got really bad this week and last night he got big bumps on his sides that made his hair stick up.... 
so, off to the vet we went this morning....
to find out that Elvis has allergies, maybe a little skin infection... So Elvis got his own shot, steroids, antibiotics and an oatmeal bath shampoo....I was just glad he didn't need the nasal spays...

The vet tells me the that the oatmeal soap needs to stay on his skin for 15 minutes or so... and he says, "it would probably be easiest for you to get in the tub with him and sit in there to keep him in"...
Really?
Really?
I tried to talk both kids into doing it and had no takers...
I asked  Mike to do it and he said we could just go back and have him put down before he would get in the tub with him...
so, I put on my swimsuit, we hoisted him into the tub and the fun began.  Katie runs for a camera and takes pictures of him, all the while I'm trying to keep the soap on his body and keep me out of the pictures!

Ellie watches all the fun not realizing she is going to get a bath too while I'm already wet...

She wasn't happy when she found out...

and then the shaking began...

The after picture...
I went straight to the shower and now need to go clean the tub and mop the bathroom!
The allergies are going to be the death of me.
And reason number 417 I want to move back to Dallas...

Tutu's are flattering, on dogs anyway

Where do weekends go? 

The week goes slowly most of the time and then there are not enough hours in the weekend. 

Dance rehearsals, driving kids a thousand places, church, and then to top it off, a car wash! 

I didn't do any car washing.  But I was instructed to bring the bulldog in a tutu...

I had my car washed and bought some of the cookies I baked for them to sell...

these pictures are proof that she knows what to do with a sponge and soap!

The girls worked hard and are thinking about giving their earnings to a girl who may not get to go to the competition because money... I was proud to hear them thinking of others...living out just what we talked about in Katie's Sunday school class today...

Elvis was a good sport about the tutu...

He just enjoyed the outing!

Black and White

I have always loved black and white pictures! 

I saw this black and white party and knew I wanted to play with a few pictures...

love the look of all of these in black and white...   show me your black and white....