Home, Sweet Home – Making Our House Into a Home

I had my hair cut and highlighted on Tuesday by my fabulous friend Kelley at J&S Salon.  It had been almost a year and a half since my hair was last “done”.  I had quit highlighting my hair before I got married.  For some strange reason, I felt guilty about spending that kind of money on my hair.  I felt like that money could have better been used somewhere else.  I’m not really sure why I felt so guilty.  Should I have felt guilty?

Over the last year, my hair has gotten progressively darker.  So dark that some people didn’t recognize me.  I think the darkness can be attributed to age, highlights growing out, and using a shampoo with SPF that kept my hair from being damaged by the sun.  My dark hair wasn’t pretty dark hair.  It was dull, mousy, smokey dark, dark blonde color.  The color made my skin look so pale and washed out. I had enough of it, broke down, and went to Kelley.  She did me up fabulously!  I still feel slightly guilty…wait, I don’t feel guilty at all right now.  I feel like I look 100 times better!

On Saturday, Jerrad and I took a trip to the river to do a little fishing, a little picture, taking and a little hiking.  The air was a little cool and crisp but it was perfect weather.  I took a few pictures and tried to get the silky effect on the water.  Unfortunately, the sun was too bright and most of my “good” shots were blown out.  I will not, however, post pictures that Jerrad took of me trying to climb back up the mountain…all 200ft of straight up, rope climbing, slick-leafed mountain.  And I won’t post the picture of me sitting down on a tree root, catching my breath because I really thought my heart was going to explode.  But I did make it out.  Barely.  lol!

I love the sun flare in this one.

My two favorite things to take pictures of…water and my husband!

Ghost man decided to join us.

Some wild dogs playing on the river’s edge.  And by wild, I mean our wild border collies.

And yes, he did catch some fish.  Two fish.

And one day, he will pay for this…

and this.

See the drop off beyond where I’m sitting (dying)?  I had just climbed up that hill.  See that dog on the right?  He climbed up and down the hill about 4 times before I made it to the top.

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” -Sir John Acton

To my husband, food is very important.  I’ve always known that.  For our wedding, he didn’t care about colors, location, music, flowers…his only concern was having enough good food for everyone to eat.  Seriously.  And since we’ve been married (almost a year now!!), I’ve learned how important a full meal is to him.  A meat (always) at least 2 sides, and a bread.  Seems like a tall order, but I don’t mind.  There’s this one dish in particular that’s very important to him.  We call it Taco Stuff.  I think the official name is Cornbread Taco Bake and I’ve adapted it from an old recipe I got at a kitchen show party.  Basically, the dish consists of ground meat, kidney beans, and mild Rotels topped with a sweet cornbread, mexicorn, and cheese mixture.  It’s devilishly unhealthy, but it tastes really great.  It’s his all time favorite dish.  We usually have it about once a week.

Well, on Tuesday of this week, I had planned to make the Taco Stuff for supper, but it snowed.  You see, in SC when it snows, the whole world shuts down.  Schools were dismissed at 12pm and I was home by 1:00.  I thought it was the perfect weather for a pot roast.  The smell of the roast cooking, the warmth of the broth, the richness of the veggies cooking with it…man, oh, man did it ever seem absolutely perfect to me.  Plus, I was home early and had time to let it cook.  So I did.

Three hours later, my husband comes home.

Him: Whatcha’ cooking?

Me:  Pot roast.  I know that’s not your favorite, but it will be so good!

Him: You mean you aren’t making the taco stuff???

Me:  No, I thought with the bad weather, a roast would be good.

Him:  But you said we were having the Taco Stuff

Me:  Yes, but I got off early and the roast seemed to be so good.

Him:  But I’ve been dreaming about the Taco Stuff all day!

Me:  I’ll fix it tomorrow for you.

Him:  You don’t understand.  It’s like telling me we are taking a vacation to the Bahamas for two weeks and then the day we’re leaving you say ‘Oh, we’re going to the Smokey Mountains for the weekend instead’.

Me:  Honey, it’s just supper.  It’s not a freakin’ vacation!  (Yes, I actually said that…)

I was irritated.  I was just trying to cook a nice meal and make him happy.  How can he act that way about food?  But here’s the kicker.  To my husband, having his favorite meal cooked and ready is just as important to him as any vacation.  For him, my gesture of cooking his favorite meal is a way of saying “I love you”.  The way he sees it, it’s an act of service and kindness toward him.  And to change meals without telling him is almost as bad as being rejected.  But he did eat the roast and even wanted leftovers for work.  I made Taco Stuff on Wednesday.  And all was happy.  And if all it takes to make my husband happy is a Taco Stuff meal once a week, then I’ll be more than happy to cook it for him.  After all, the way to a man’s heart is through is stomach!

It must be

hard to be

a Border Collie.

Dear Adobe,

I love Lightroom.  I really, really, really love Lightroom.

When you release the “final” version of Lightroom 3, would you please give me a copy?

That would be swell of you.

Really, really, really swell.

Yours truly,

Kathy

Meet Grace.  Grace is a 10 month old Border Collie who is training to become an Olympic Stock Dog (if that really existed).  She has intense brown eyes and silky black hair.  In her free time, she enjoys long walks in the woods, snuggling with her daddy, and chewing on plastic drink bottles.

Meet Billy.  Billy owns the local Cloven Hoof Hangout.  He manages the pastures, keeps the kids in check and even give the sheep a run for their money too.  In his spare time he enjoys sharpening his horns on small trees.

Grace and Billy don’t get along.  Grace, being the type A border collie that she is, thinks that Billy has to do things her way.  Billy, being the bull-headed, womanizer thinks that he is, doesn’t have to listen to anyone…especially a dog…without horns!

Occasionally, as part of her required training regimen, Grace must move Billy and his posse from point A to point B in a straight line crooked, curvy, somewhat line.

So far so good…

Ooops…they moved too fast!  And not in a straight line!

And the poor innocent photographer gets caught in the brutal melee that ensues.

Uh oh, here they come…

The photographer could move out of the way…

But there was no time to move!

And the photographer falls beneath the weight of the trampling Billy while the women and kids watch in horror!

Now is that how the story really goes?  Or did the photographer get in the middle of the herding chaos, only to have Billy sniff her camera glass while the other goats and sheep whirl by?  You can decide, but personally, I think it’s much more interesting when the photographer gets trampled.

ThePioneerWoman.com

I am addicted.  Seriously.  I love reading this blog!

This is the story of a city girl turned ranch wife.  A real ranch!

My dream?  To own a real working farm.  This is a real working farm.  A REAL farm.  This is how they make a living.  If I were to become a real farmer, I would probably have to move to Oklahoma or Nebraska.  Since my husband wouldn’t appreciate moving across the country.  And I’m pretty sure my mom would cry.  Oh and there’s the whole money issue…we don’t have a ranch, we can’t afford to buy a ranch, or the cows on the ranch.

I guess I’ll have to live vicariously through the Pioneer Woman aka Ree.  I guess I’ll have too continue to drool over her stunning photography (how does she get her colors so vivid and clear?).

I guess I’ll have to keep playing her nerdy word game challenges (even though I’ve never even come close to winning).  And I guess I’ll have to cook something from her The Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook that I ordered today.

Anyway, check out her site.  It’s beautiful.  All of it.  The horses.  The cows.  The kids.  The food.  All of it!

Go visit!

I had not planned to review Clorox 2, but after this morning’s events, I didn’t have much of a choice.  Yesterday, my husband went to the dentist for a simple procedure and left with two pulled teeth…one wisdom tooth and one tooth damaged by a bad root canal from several years ago.  He, being the self-sufficient man he is, decided that the gauze packing could come out last night.  Somehow he was supposed to be miraculously healed in only a few hours.   So during the night, the extractions oozed…all night…all over everything….literally everything.  The sheets, pillowcase, and pillow were all covered in bloody ooze (so sorry for the graphic details).  I was certain that they were all ruined.

A few days earlier, I had bought my first ever bottle of Clorox 2 to use as an additive to get rid of other small, pesky stains that regular detergent can’t remove. It was the first thing I thought of when I went into the laundry room.  I figured I had nothing to lose so I poured the Clorox 2 directly onto the blood stains.  Seriously, I’m not making this up, the stains disappeared before my eyes!  My sheets, pillowcase, and pillows were all saved by Clorox 2.  I will never use another stain removal product…ever!

This is my niece, Katie. She’s so beautiful, but doesn’t appreciate her beauty being captured on camera. She’s really dramatic and is such a girl.

Click the picture for more.