Muscadine Jelly

Well, I made jelly for the first time tonight. I hope it turns out ok!! Boy it sure was alot of work. Not hard work, but lots of steps and paying attention to what you are doing.
We discovered a huge muscadine vine in our backyard Sunday, and Josh got the tractor and pulled it down, and Daddy, Josh and I gathered the muscadines. Josh suggested making jelly, so I decided it was time to learn.
Of course I had to call my grandmother and get her recipe. Then, tonight I couldn't get her when I had a question, so my aunt Sharon had to help me.
I ended up with 11 half pint jars and one quart jar - that one is for us! :) I didn't have enough small jars so I had to call my mother-in-law Cleo to bring me one of her big jars.
As you can see this became a family event!
I only needed 5 cups of juice to make the jelly and I ended up with a few cups of juice left over. I hated not to be able to use it, but I'm not sure what I could have done with it. Maybe next time.
Now, I'm sitting here listening for the jars to pop. Every time one of them pops I just giggle! It's exciting that at least I know I got that part right!

Talledega

So, it's been four months now since Talledega and I'm just now writing this blog.

I've been slacking!!

Here's what I remember...
Thursday night, I got on Facebook and saw that one of my friends had tickets for sale to the Talledega race. We had been to Talledega in October and agreed we wouldn't be going back this year. So, when I saw the tickets, of course, I wanted to see how much they were, and go, but I thought better of it, and put the tickets out of my mind.

Friday night I told Josh about the tickets, and he said we didn't need to go, so again, I put them out of my mind.

The news had been saying that really bad storms would be moving through the state, and I had gotten up a little early Saturday morning to check the weather. After checking the weather, I got on Facebook, still thinking of the tickets, and yes, they were still available. AND, she only wanted $100 for 4 tickets!! That's usually the price of one! So.... I called Josh, Cleo, my mother-in-law; and Jonah, my nephew and told them we were going to Talledega!



Cleo and I drove to Kosciusko to get the tickets, while Josh went and got Jonah, got his oil changed and put gas in the truck.

We debated on going on over Saturday night, or waiting until early Sunday morning. The weather had gotten bad in other places, but not at our house, so I talked Josh into us going on that night...oops! :)

We got a few things packed and headed out about 8:00 Saturday night. We got to the Alabama state line and it started raining...no big deal. Then we ended up in a monsoon! I kept thinking we would drive out of it, but it seemed to be getting worse...oops! :)

I found a local radio station and listened for weather updates. We were about fifteen miles from Hoover and word was that the worst storm of the night would be in Talledega in about an hour...which is when we expected to arrive...oops! :)

So...we found a motel in Hoover and stopped for the night. Well, kinda, we didn't actually get out of the truck. We slept in the truck in the hotel parking lot! We knew we would only be there a few hours, and if the weather go bad we could go into the lobby.



Four and half hours later the rain had stopped and we got back on the road. We made it to Talledega about 7:30 Sunday morning. We hung out at the truck for an hour or so, then headed to the track.

We wandered around the souvenir trailers, and Josh and Jonah drove in a simulator, and had their picture taken with one of the Sprint Cup Girls. We found our seats and watched driver intros.

The race got started, and was pretty good from lap 1. They set several records that day - most lead changes, most different drivers leading, things like that.

Fast forward to the end...



Kevin Harvick, "my driver," had been in the top three most of the day, and at the end of the race, they had 3 chances at a green finish, and they used every one! In Daytona in February, this had bitten Kevin because he was leading, but someone wrecked and they had one more try at a green finish, and he couldn't keep the lead.

Well, today it paid him back. On the third and finally shot at a green finish Kevin and Jamie McMurray were battling back and forth for the lead. Coming around to the start finish line it was neck and neck. I was about to die!! They came across the line, and I was pretty sure Kevin had won, then over the speaker they said..."Kevin Harvick wins the Aaron's 499!"
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Yeah, I was excited!! There is no feeling like seeing your driver win IN PERSON!

Needless to say, if I had not gotten up early to check the weather, we wouldn't have gotten the tickets, and wouldn't have made the trip to Talledega and wouldn't have seen my man win the race!

I love weather!!!

The Fence Lizard’s happy ending

I’ve been waiting for a story like this to introduce my “Critter Killing Kitty Cat” - say that 5 times fast - also known as, Addy. She is the sweetest little jet black kitty and in the last few months, it has become customary for me to find a small mouse or lizard on my back porch that she has killed.
So today, I pull up at my house, and see that Addy has something captured on my front porch. I approach slowly and see this unusual critter. I check to see if it is still alive, and it is, so, I try and get Addy away.
As I move in closer to look at her victim I decide it looks like a tiny iguana, without the mohawk. I have never seen anything like it. Luckily, I have my camera around my neck because I had taken it to work with me and I snap a picture of this “thing” so I can get an ID on it.


Meanwhile as I’m trying to take pictures, keep Addy away, who is very irritated with me by this point, and get the creature to safer ground, I realize he is hissing at us. So funny . . . he’s little bitty, but he is still a bit scary!
I call my Aunt Debra who has taught me recently those little green “lizards” we commonly see are actually called Anoles (uh-NO-leez). So I figure if anybody can tell me what this is it would be her.
I describe him to her and she says it may be a Fence Lizard, and asks if it has bright blue armpits and a bright blue underbelly. From what I can tell, I say no, but we decide I should start my search there anyway.

So I come in and Google Fence Lizard, and download my pictures and sure enough . . . it’s a Fence Lizard! I can even see the blue markings in my pictures that I missed in all the excitement earlier. COOL!
Finally, I try to decide what to do with the dear Fence Lizard. I spot an empty cheezy poof bucket. I go back out front and get him safely inside the bucket and take him down to the tree line in the FRONT yard and let him go, while Addy is enjoying her Cat Chow in the BACK yard.

Golf and geese

Josh and I went to The Links of Madison County today so he and Tony, one of his work buddies, could play golf. We had a really great time.

Josh didn't play as well as he did last time, but it was still a fun day. On hole 4, he almost got a hole-in-one. His shot landed about 3 feet from the hole! He was pretty excited. On hole 5, Tony's shot went through the fence. We came around the corner and caught him reaching through the fence with his driver and pulling it back on the course.



While the boys' golf games were entertaining, I also enjoyed watching the geese enjoy the many water hazards around the course. They were splashing around and honking all day.



Temp-wise the weather was great today, but the sun was blazing and Josh and I both got a little burned. When I put my "after-sun" lotion on earlier I smiled because the smell of that lotion always lets me know warm weather has arrived!

Welcome to the world of blogging

In the last year, I have joined Facebook, Twitter and now, the world of blogging. Believe me, I resisted as long as I could. Right now, Twitter is my favorite, but I'm thinking it's time to try blogging. It has taken me two months to figure out what to write about though. I wasn't sure whether to write something funny, opinionated, informative or just something random. So, here is it is...I'm blogging about blogging! I hope to start updating this on a regular basis. With family and friends scattered all around the world...literally...I figured this would be yet another great way to stay in touch, and considering I had four years of college telling me how to write, this shouldn't be too hard!