Happy Birthday Dana! July 31, 2009

So today is Dana’s birthday and she had one simple little request. She wanted some linky love- not a big thing to ask for so I’m doing just that. I also thought that since I haven’t gotten around to making her a card (mostly because I just feel that cards are not my forte and quite frankly if cards are not your forte you shouldn’t send one to the queen of cards) I would make her a collage. But I couldn’t come up with a subject and being the procrastinator that I am I was short on time. And so I decided to just share one of my favorite shots of Dana.

Looks pretty good for her age doesn’t she?

Memories July 25, 2009

Last night I had the chance to relive some of the most wonderful memories of my life. Memories made with friends who are very dear to me. Memories made sitting backstage in a crowded pit orchestra, running wild around the school on a weekend during a rehearsal, riding endless school buses for hours to play or sing somewhere, standing onstage in front of any number of people giving our all. Last night I got to watch Bubs (J13) make some of those memories for himself and I have little doubt that in years to come they will mean just as much to him as mine do to me.

Balancing act

I have had the privilege of watching him grow from a young child more likely to hide if there was a strange girl in the room to an awkward teen trying to make everyone happy while hiding out himself in the shadow of his older brothers to the confident young man I saw last night both up on stage and afterwards with his family and friends.

My handsome husband on the left and Bubs on the right with other Sisks in the picture

Bubs* we are so proud of you kiddo!

*names have been changed by various family members over the years so that now only a select few of us even know his real name any more and thus he goes by Bubs, Bubba, Bogus, Boy etcetera

Slacker July 22, 2009

Yeah thats me…. So much for NaBloPoMo huh? Well its just a test run for November to see if I could actually do it. I mean seriously- whats the point of having a blog if you don’t even write on it, right? Of course some might argue that theres no point in having one if no one reads it either but….. thats neither here nor there. This blog is linked to my facebook account (you can find me by looking up hellesbelles86) so my friends and family there read it altho I’m not sure all of them who do read this realize that it comes from an outside source.

So whats been going on you ask? (well I know you didn’t really- theres no one there to ask- but we’ll pretend you did?

I have family in from California- two of  my mom’s siblings and their husband and wife (hows that for confusing?) plus my cousin and his wife and two kids. We had a wonderful get together at my cousin’s house on Sunday. I got to see aunts and uncles that I haven’t seen since moving back here from California and cousins that I haven’t seen since my grandmother’s funeral in 2001. Despite this lack of visiting there was no awkwardness and it soon became clear that we are a very close-knit family. Even Jarell felt welcome and found someone to talk guns with (my uncle being a retired police detective)

In other news I have gotten to the point where I’m desperate enough to use our old junker camera so I can have some pictures. Its frustrating because the LCD screen is broken on this camera but at least I can take pictures. I never realized how much I love taking them until I wasn’t able to. Especially this time of year with the garden and the flowers.

So that about sums up my life right now. We’ve been keeping busy working on the house and garden because it looks like we’ll be having my in-law’s 40th anniversary party here. We put in a patio thats about 20 by 25 in front of the house with bricks that Jarell’s older brother gave us and we’re working on putting up an arbor over it. I got some wisteria to plant around that so that in a few years we’ll have a lovely shady retreat and a nice spot for all the parties we end up having here. Crap I sound like Martha freaking Stewart here but you know what I mean… or do you?

Pictures from my phone July 16, 2009

I bet some of you thought I was crazy always talking about my invisible garden. So I decided to provide some pictures  today. Please forgive the quality- these are all taken with my cell phone.

Morning glory growing in the pumpkin vines

The garden in all its glory.

Baby bell pepper

Yellow Zucchini

Just a couple of baby tomatoes from on of the thirty or so tomato plants in my garden.

Jealous yet?

New Project July 11, 2009

This is my newest crafty endeavor

Yes that is a bib. No I’m no pregnant. This is a start of several for a few friends and family members who are expecting or just had little ones. What do you guys think? Should I fill in the frosting on the cupcake? How bout the wrapper? This will get snaps and then its ready to go. I have a couple more ideas- smart@$$ed as well that I will share as I get them done. I would really love some feedback on this one.

Slower than molasses in the winter time July 10, 2009

Thats about howfast things have been moving around here lately. It seems that when you have no money coming in that nothing else seems to happen either. I guess thats life tho- something most people have to face at one point or another. So all I have to share with you guys today is this recipe. Which technically belongs over on myother blog but who really cares, right?

So this is my quick and cheap version of Alfredo sauce. And for the record, its also easy and delicious.

5 tbsp flour

4 tbsp butter

1 3/4 cups chicken stock

1 ¼ cups milk

Dash of thyme

3 cloves minced garlic

¼ cup powdered parmesan cheese

2 tbsp dried minced onion

1/8 tsp ground red pepper

Dash of pepper

½ tsp salt

Dash of nutmeg

Melt butter in saucepan. Slowly add flour and whisk as you add. Add garlic. Cook for a few minutes on low heat. Slowly add milk and chicken stock whisking to an even consistency. Add spices and parmesan cheese and bring slowly to a simmer over medium heat whisking often to prevent separation. Lower heat and cook till thickened and remove from heat.

The best thing to do is to serve this over homemade noodles with a little rosemary chicken and a nice veggie side. You can use it to wow your husband, wife, mother, father, boyfriend, girlfriend, or nosey neighbor. The wow factor drops drasticly if you don’t make the noodles yourself but you could do that in a pinch.  Buon Appetito!

 

Friends July 9, 2009

Well today I spent an inordinate amount of time online looking up old friends on Facebook. It was fun and sad all at the same time. I found two profiles for old friends who I know have died in the last couple of years and seeing their faces hurt. I found friends who I have thought of often in the past ten years since I moved to Missouri. It was kind of strange puting the faces that I remember so well together with the people they have grown into. I can’t help but wonder if after all this time they even remember me but I guess…. theres nothing I can do if they don’t, right? That Kenney Chesney song “Who you’d be today” is playing and it kinda fits. I wonder who they are today- these people who I grew up with so many years ago.

In other random news Jarell and I were talking last night because I wanted to see about getting some sweet corn to plant. He asked me where people used to get seeds for corn before there stores. I explained that farmers would just save a few ears from the previous year’s crop and let them dry. He looked at me and said, “You mean every one of those kernels makes a whole stock of corn??” I laughed and said, “Yeah didn’t you know those were the seeds? Just like almonds and walnuts are seeds.” He then replies, “So you could grow an almond plant?” and then the conversation moved on to other garden dreams. I had to laugh because I now know my husband will probably never be a gardener. He cracks me up sometimes….

Busy! I’m so busy my head is spinnin like a whirlpool it never ends… July 8, 2009

Silly Melissa thats not how it goes! Oh alright maybe not but it fits. Okay so the business is self-imposed but thats alright. I have been working outside in the garden every day and it feels so nice to be keeping up with things. Sadly this means that my housework is suffering and that bothers my poor husband more than it does me. I actually had to make myself stay inside and do dishes today instead of going out to the garden to see a new baby zucchini growing on one of my plants. The conversation (out loud of course) went something like this. “Melissa that will still be there when you’re done with the dishes. Get in the kitchen now!” Why yes, I do talk  to myself. Is that a problem? Sadly I still don’t have any pictures from the garden to show you because my camera is still dead. So I won’t bore you with glowing descriptions of my babies. I will tell you that I have had fun chopping nasty squash bugs in half with my clippers today while I trimmed the leaves they had killed off my zucchini plants. I also got to see the end of my first okra blossom and noticed new bell peppers coming on. Now I need to figure out what I can plant in July that will be ready to harvest before our first frost and I think I might be able to swing some sweet corn. Which would be…. sweeeeet! *grins* I couldn’t resist that one. Alright I know enough about the garden already. Hope all is well everyone. Au revoir!

Things that are bad gardening form July 7, 2009

First let me say that I was a bad girl and didn’t post yesterday, but in my defense I spent the whole day trying to make my internet work because it was misbehaving. Today? works just fine of course. So it was probably a problem on T-Mobile’s end of things rather than mine.

So that said lets get down to business. Today I want to talk about things that are just plain bad form when it comes to gardening or rather bad form for me. *grins* Planting something and then promptly pulling it all out as a weed? bad form. Planting something and then forgetting that you did so that you’re very surprised when something starts growing where there “should” be only weeds and dirt? bad form. Planting something and forgetting what plant it is to the point where you have to go online to find pictures to clarify just exactly what it is? bad for. And finally for the grand prize winner of no brainer bonehead garden mistakes- taking a weedeater to your beautiful kiwi vine that was all but killed last summer but miraculously came back this year stronger than ever and chopping off the largest section of vine? Really bad form. So which ones did I do? All of the above obviously. The plants that got weeded were pepper plants in my first full size garden when I was in High School. The mystery plant that was growing where nothing should be is Miner’s lettuce and I’ve already missed out on it this year- I’ll have to wait till next year or grow some more here in a few more weeks for a fall harvest. The plant that is unknown is endive *phew!* The kiwi will survive, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I keep setting myself back on getting fruit from that plant. Fingers crossed for next year or the year after that.

Now just so you know I’m not the worst gardener in the world, I picked my first two zucchini today, have several baby tomatoes, a couple of baby bell peppers and some Lazarus trees to boot. Lazarus trees you say, What the heck is that? Well they are trees that were dead but now they’re alive again and going strong. Trees that came from J4’s back yard that went through our heat spell without water because I was at the family reunion. One of the three got dug up and replaced already which I’m now regretting because the other two are putting on leaves like crazy despite our warm temps here.

So I’m not a total failure and I have more wins than losses here in the Casa de Sisk. But if you’ve ever gardened then you know there are lots of ways to make a fool out of yourself without even half trying aren’t there? What are some of your gardening mishaps? (she says as if anyone is out there even listening

Michelin Man costume? July 5, 2009

This is my SIL in her Renaissance Festival costume. See Dana? Its like the Michelin Man’s arms. But she looks so pretty anyway- even way outside her comfort zone in all those bright colors. If anyone is in the Kansas City area you should definitely check out the KC Ren Fest starting Labor Day weekend. If you watch you can see my SIL’s and my youngest BIL dressed like this.

Don’t ask why he was strangling J12. J13 is the only twin participating in the ren fest but J12 helped out with the parade because they were short on gypsy boys.