Paul and Penny

There’s 46 candles on that cake!  They ran out of room and put candles on the sides.  :-)  We had a silly-good time with a Piñata and Pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey.  We got lots of black-mail photos of folks acting goofy.  Thanks to Penny for getting the house ready and to all the Chamberlains for organizing and bringing great food.  I really appreciated the good company, the LED lights and butterflies, the towels, the stool, the cards and the memory.

If you click on the image, you can see pictures of the LED lights and butterflies and a couple of other shots from the last few days.

Congratulations are in order for Josh.  He graduated from high school about a month ago.  These are a couple of the pictures I took of him.  We had a little party for him with family coming down from Oklahoma.  We were happy to see the grandkids again.  Pictures of the party and the visit are here.

This is a snow flake I grabbed out of the air today while it was snowing in Austin. No really, I did… I couldn’t figure out how to get a video to show up in my photo album, but here it is as a youtube video:

We had a great weekend taking the grandkids to Incredible Pizza and Games, and as a “Thank You” Hannah and Leon presented us with this decadent surprise.

I love this!!

A large handful of fresh spinach
a few frozen blueberries
a few frozen raspberries
a little bit of very cold water/crushed ice ( just enough to make the blender move the food around)
splash of cream ( this is optional, but I love it)
splash of Torani vanilla syrup ( I use sugar free)

Blend…..YUM!

Denise usually makes this for family gatherings and it’s ALWAYS a hit. I absolutely LOVE it! -Penny

• 8 oz Cream Cheese [Reg or Lite or FF]
• 2 Tbls Margarine
• 1/4 c. Milk
• 1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
• 2 cans Corn, drained
• 2 cans Chili Peppers, diced, not drained
• 2 Tbls Chopped Onion, if desired

Preheat oven to 325 or put in 1 1/2 quart microwave safe dish and cook for 15-20 minutes.

Soften 8 oz cream cheese, add 2 Tbls margarine, 1/4 c. milk and 1/2 tsp garlic powder. Stir to mix well. Add 2 cans drained, whole kernel corn (canned or frozen) and 2 cans of Chili peppers (not drained) and some chopped onion, if desired. Mix well. Bake uncovered for 20-25 minutes. I’ve also cooked this in the microwave and it’s good too!

This is a recipe that Tiffani likes alot. Her mother used to make it for the family when she was growing up and now she makes it.  She made it for me once and I really liked it.  It’s a main dish rather than a side dish.

• 2 lb ground beef
• 3 cans french style green beans
• 1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
• 1 can condensed cream of celery soup
• 1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 1 2lb bag of tater tots
• 1 big can of Durkee fried onions

Brown the ground beef and drain. Spread in the bottom of a cake pan (9 x 13?). Drain the green beans and layer on top of the ground beef. Mix the soups and pour over the beans and beef. Make one layer of tater tots on top of this mixture. Cover and bake for 45 minutes at 350. Uncover and spread Durkee onions on top. Bake for 10 more minutes or until the Durkee onions begin to brown.

We had Penny’s family come to our house to celebrate Thanksgiving, and since we’re unlikely to make it Oklahoma for Christmas this year we also did a little bit of gift opening. Penny came up with “Christ Giving” as a name for combining these holidays. I didn’t spend as much time taking pictures this time, but we got some nice pictures of the grand-kids. Click on through to see the rest.

If there was one thing Papa liked to do, it was fish! Josh loved to fish with him too. Once Josh was fishing with Papa and his dad and got bit by a non-poisonous snake. Not one of them panicked, they knew what kind it was and kept on fishing. When Josh called to tell me, I panicked enough for all of them and asked why he wasn’t at the ER! Josh laughed and said “mom, it was poisonous”. I said they’re ALL poisonous! Ah the memories of fishing with Papa. I know Josh has some good ones…

Back in 1997 papa gave me his secret recipe for catfish bait and I came across it today. I’m posting it here for Josh and in memory of Papa.

1 can jack mackeral

1 egg

garlic powder

flour

Mix and make it thick enough to stick on treble hooks.