Much Needed VACATION!

Been at St. George Island, FL since Friday night and am lovin' it! This is the place where I'm at my most peace...secluded 2 mile wide, 20 mile long island. I could so become an "island girl." Needless to say I've pretty much been just lazy...so uncharacteristic for me. This place has no hotels and not alot of people...would be hard to even find kids here...VERY quiet. Most folks have dogs with them. Perfect place for people my age. I could so move here! I've got lots of research to do as last night we witnessed Mother Nature's fireworks...there was a storm far away but yet we got to witness the lightning inside the clouds...was so neat. I captured it all on my new handy dandy Flip video recorder. Tonight is full moon which I just live for every month. Living on the lake I certainly appreciate the full moons more as they just glisten on the water. Thus far, the moon has been spectacular on the ocean! Only light out there at night. St. George is big for sea turtles and right outside our home we are renting is a nest. We have to keep the lights off the beach for them.

St. George now has the lighthouse that used to be on Little St. George Island as it was blown down by storms and the people of St. George got together and had the remains brought to the long island and had it rebuilt. We visited it yesterday and walked all 76 steps to the top. They can't shine the light at night due to the sea turtles...evidently there are people called "turtlers" and they have really fought this...the light will be turned back on November 1st and from what I'm told there is a huge party to celebrate it. Seems like there is always something the "locals" are celebrating, thus, another reason I should so move here!

My first gourd I grew

I have forever wanted to grow my own gourds and this year I thought I'd try to grow them in a pot. I have no clue if I will ever get large ones but this is a start and I was so thrilled to go out and check on them this morning and found this tiny gourd there...see...to the left? What fun this is going to be!

Out of my painting rut

I have not been in the mood to paint for many months but luckily come fall I get inspired to put brush in hand. I have painted gingerbread, santa and snowman mini pop cans but needed a penguin one to make the collection complete. This is my own design and I have many more in the works. I hope to open up my Etsy shop soon after I get more things to sell.

Mexican Night

Every once in awhile I get a craving for Mexican and a few weeks ago I had some friends over and decided it would be Mexican night. I loved being able to make the burritos early in the day and they were ready come party time. Below are the recipes I made and they went really well together. I froze the leftover burritos so I'm anxious to see how they taste after being frozen. I hate throwing out food!


SLOW COOKER BURRITOS
• 1 pound ground beef, cooked and drained
• 2 cans refried beans
• 1 envelope taco seasoning
• 1 can tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• Flour tortillas, sour cream , cheese, and any other toppings you like
Combine all the ingredients except tortillas in a greased slow cooker. Cover and cook on low heat 6-10 hours. Spread hot bean mixture on tortillas and fill with your favorite toppings. Fold and enjoy! I added a little bit of chili powder for just a little more hotness!

RICE GREEN CHILIES CASSEROLE
• 1 cup raw rice
• 1 tablespoon butter
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1 can chopped green chilies
Cook rice according to package directions; add butter and set aside. Fold sour cream and chilies together. In buttered casserole dish place a layer of rice and a layer of chilies-sour cream mixture. Cover with half of cheese. Repeat layers, topping with cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Maybe add a little cayenne to it to make it hotter.

Kids Today....So Have it Made...

This was sent to me from a friend and just how true is this? I thought it was worthy enough to post on my blog...makes ya really think and if you have kids, make them read this...who knows? Maybe they will have a greater appreciation for what they have? I can so relate to this!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning....

Uphill...

Barefoot...

BOTH ways. yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a Utopia!

And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!

There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen, then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!

Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our butt! Nowhere was safe!

There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!

Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car.. We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished,and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless. Cause, hey, that's how we rolled, Baby! Dig?

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it!

There weren't any freakin' cell phones either. If you left the house,you just didn't make a call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH MY GOD !!! Think of the horror... not being in touch with someone 24/7!!! And then there's TEXTING. Yeah, right. Please! You kids have no idea how annoying you are.

And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent... you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and
take your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your screen guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen... Forever!

And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your butt and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!

There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-finks!

And we didn't have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove! Imagine that! And our parents told us to stay outside and play... all day long. Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort. And if you came back inside... you were doing chores!

And car seats - oh, please! Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on. If you were lucky, you got the "safety arm"across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling "shot gun" in the first place!

See! That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled rotten! You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980 or any time before!

Regards,
The Over 30 Crowd