American by birth, Southern by the grace of God.
Louis Grizzard, a great American
~~~~~~~~~~~~
It's choice ~ not chance ~ that determines your destiny.
Jean Nidetch

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Friday, May 22, 2009

More pictures from Atlanta trip last month...


My first flight on an airplane with props instead of jet engines. I won't do that again! Just too bumby and too scary for me. This was Continental's "code share partner" flying from Del Rio to Houston.

The Houston to Atlanta flight was on Continental's Express, operated by Colgen Air - the same company whose plane crashed near Buffalo in March. I was nervous.

Houston in overcast skies. There were thunderstorms in the area. We managed to go around them.

Everyone gathered for the Easter Egg Hunt. It's hard to get all five to be still at one time!
Mackenzie has a pretty good start...
Tyler searching...
Ethan wonders "what's going on?"Kyle counting his haul...
And Logan, digging in....

Here I am with all five!

Birthday boy enjoying his first cake...
And just a little bit more....

And a few Ka-Zillion presents to open!


Happy first birthday, Ethan!

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Northern "Bullock's" Oriole

Another bird for my life list...this Oriole has an almost peach-colored stomach that shows up when he flies. They like fruit and nectar from the hummingbird feeders.




Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Strawberries galore!

Fresh strawberries = Strawberry Shortcake!

Yum-Yum!!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Crock Pot Cooking

With the weather so hot, I drug out the crock pot and tried to come up with some ideas for dinners. Vegetable Beef Soup is a good old standby. The gas stove and oven tend to heat up the camper but eating hot soup in a cool camper works for us.
In a rare twist the temp outside yesterday was so low, due to the overcast skies, that we were able to cook cornbread in the oven to go with the soup. I even did blueberry muffins while the oven was on to have for breakfast this morning.


Vegetable Beef Soup
Ground beef and/or turkey, browned
Package of frozen vegetables
Can of white beans
2 Cans of diced tomatoes
32 oz. Chicken broth
Salt and pepper, to taste
Mrs. Dash, Oregano, Red Pepper Flakes,
all to taste.
And any other frozen, canned, or leftover vegetables you may want to throw in.
Cook on High 4 hours or Low 6 hours.
Enjoy!

Finding Dawgs in Georgia......


While I was in Georgia, I actually passed by the Varsity 6 times without stopping. Of course, I did have a couple of other hot dog joints in mind.
First was the Dawg House, a nicely remodeled, former fast food joint, that reopened in January 2009. The theme is the Georgia Bulldog and it is really cute. Dining is outside at the picnic tables under the umbrellas.
The sign says they are famous for their foot-longs but Logan and I had the regular size dogs with chili and slaw. Oddly enough, the 'buns' were hoagie rolls which was way too much bread for the skinny foot long dog, cut in half, inserted in the roll. The chili was also lost in the roll and the slaw was not exceptional. I saved the menu but can't find it now. I just remember that the $5.99 price for the regular dog was too much.
The owners obviously spent a lot of money on the remodeling and the desired look - they should spend more on developing a killer Dawg. We won't be back.


Logan looking like "one mean Dawg!"
Next was our long time favorite, Mickey's, in old downtown Buford just across the railroad tracks. Their chili slaw dogs are to die for and we took home a sackful! We weren't disappointed!



Monday, May 11, 2009

Back from Georgia

After 5 weeks visiting family and friends in Georgia, I'm now back at the camper in Del Rio, Texas. The campground is only about 1/3 full and many of those are empty campers, used only occasionally by their (local) owners for fishing weekends. The campground is green and really looks nice. We moved to a site with lots of green grass and several palm trees. Last week the weather was brutal with highs 98 to 101. This week is much better with highs around 90 and overcast at times. We'll be here another 8 weeks until 7/10. That is our target departure date.

We ride bikes in the mornings and in the evenings. Too bad no one comes here in the summer because of the heat. It's much prettier than the winter months. I'll try to post some pictures. The internet service is worse at this site than it was at the other site, so pictures take a long time. I may take the computer into town on Friday because service is much better there.

In the meantime, just wanted to say HI to everyone. I had a great time in Georgia!
I did get some pictures downloaded. The first three are our frontyard.

This is the site next to us. The guys are turning on the in-ground sprinklers.