Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Happy Birthday Precious Caitlin!!

21 years ago today, my life changed forever. It was a dark and stormy night - wait, wrong story. Actually, I was on my way to work - as I opened the front door to leave, my water broke. I'm thankful to this day that it happened before I got to work. I would have hated to explain to our dear baby girl why she was born in a Veterinary Clinic! Cait was 2 full weeks early - I promise you the last time she has been early for anything! DH drove like a madman to the Dr.'s office, he said "yep, your water broke" and sent us directly to the hospital. At that point, Cait apparently decided to go ahead and wait another 2 weeks. After some interesting incidents in the pre-labor room, Doc decided to induce labor. There is nothing quite like laying there in all your "glory" and hear (from above)" hey Kathy, how's it going?" WHAT? Turns out that one of our clinic clients was the head maintenance man at the hospital and just happened to be working on the air conditioning! Gotta love a small town, right? I won't go into all of the details, but 16 1/2 hours later Cait arrived, all 8 1/2 pounds and 23 inches of her! (keep in mind that I'm only 64 inches tall lol) Doc cracked that it was a good thing she came early, or she might have come out walking. As they settled me into my room just after Midnight, my manager and her husband stopped in - they were on their way back from a party in Austin and wanted to check on us. The nurse told them to go on in and say hey. Like I said, only in a small town! The next day, we must have had 20 people in and out all day. I played the gracious hostess and had a ball. The nurses kept telling me that I might want to rest, but I felt great. Boy, I should have listened to them. As we drove off the following day, the terror and exhaustion finally hit after all the euphoria. I realized that I had NO idea what I was doing and neither did DH! Lucky for us, Cait was the easiest child I have ever been around.



We were blessed with a child who smiled and laughed almost the entire time she was awake. She was also a ham - if she started fussing, all we had to do was get out the camera and she would break into a huge, cheesy (or in this case) carroty grin!

As you can see, she began critiquing music at a very early age . . .

Her first cassette player. We actually still have this. Who knew it would lead to a life long Ipod addiction? It's a shame that Ipods aren't as cheap as those little cassette players!

She has always loved the camera, and the camera loves her. . . .

From Little Mermaid (see Marty, I did sew some once upon a time!) . . .

To High School Drum Major - Cait has always loved to "dress up" . . .

From "Middle School Good Citizen of the Year" . . . .

To High School Gangster - NOT . . .

From meeting a favorite performer . . .

To being a featured performer . . . . (click to enlarge if you'd like to read this)

From meeting Tigger at Disneyworld . . . .

To marching at Disneyworld in the Main Street USA parade . . .

From proud high school graduate . . .

To confident, strong and accomplished college student!

It has been such an incredible journey raising our beautiful daughter. It took us many attempts and failed pregnancies before I was able to carry a child to term. God knew what he was doing, he blessed us with the most perfect daughter we could ask for. She has grown into such a poised, intelligent and talented young woman. Happy Birthday baby girl - we are so proud of you!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Wordless Wednesday - Salt and Pepper


Quiet please - Wordless Wednesday, hosted by Dixie at http://frenchlique.blogspot.com/









Crazy days!

This is how I feel right now! I am overwhelmed at work - the practice is being sold to our associate veterinarian and the closing is next week. Meanwhile......

All of our furry little patients still need to be treated......

But some of them seem to have revolution on their minds . . . .

Someone taught them how to read, which is going to make my job much more difficult - no baby, I didn't say neuter, I said tutor . . . . .


And apparently alot of them just don't appreciate what we do for them!!! I'm probably going to be MIA for awhile - we have the practice transition going on and I need to hire a kennel supervisor, a full time receptionist and a part time receptionist - all by the first of August! If anyone out there in Central Texas wants to come work for a really fun clinic, let me know - I'm only half kidding! Oh, and I almost forgot, we are hiring a new full time veterinarian, so I have to get an office set up for her - in 1 week! Cait's birthday is this week and we have an out of town wedding to attend this weekend. If anyone has figured out how to add about 8 hours to a day, let me know. I think I'm going to need them. I used the long weekend to prepare a couple of posts for this week. I'll be popping in and out to visit my favorite blogs, but if you don't hear from me by the middle of June, please send out the Marines (or the Mounties for my Canadian friends). Hope everyone has a nice, relaxing, BORING week! Kathy

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Memorial Day

World War II Memorial in Washington, DC
Korean War Memorial, Washington DC
My nephew Cole, honoring our fallen war heroes



Cole's Cub Scout troop, spending Memorial Day weekend placing flags on war veteran's markers and cleaning up Veterans Park

Hope that everyone has a wonderful and relaxing Memorial Day Weekend. Please remember those who have sacrificed so much to ensure our safety and freedom.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Foodie Friday - TGIF!

It's Friday! Finally, time to celebrate with food, friends and fun. We're all invited to a potluck at Michael's aka Gollum at http://designsbygollum.blogspot.com/ Can't wait to see what everyone is bringing this week. And of course, browse her gorgeous blog to see what she has been up to. Her home is gorgeous, and wait til you see her tablescapes!

This week I'm sharing what has become one of my favorite "go to" meals. It's easy, quick and uses readily available ingredients. It's also easy to double or triple for a crowd. I'm serving it for dinner tonight, but these are great for a buffet or party snacks.

I first saw this in Everyday with Rachel Ray. PB & J sticky wings. I thought they sounded great, but DH tends to be a little less adventurous with food ingredients. So I just told him they were oven baked sticky wings! I waited until after he asked for seconds to tell him how they were made. Start out by whisking the ingredients together. I know it doesn't look very appetizing, but it is a great marinade.

Next, let the wings go swimming for awhile - anywhere from an hour to overnight.

See, they really do come out nicely. I like to serve them with sweet potato fries, a nice green vegetable and some sweet tea. Easy and delicious - or as Rachel would say "yummo"


PB & J Sticky Wings - Everyday with Rachel Ray

Ingredients:

1/2 C natural peanut butter
1 10 oz jar of grape jelly
1/4 C red wine vinegar
1/4 tsp hot pepper sauce (I use 1/2 tsp plus a few more "shots" for good measure)
1/4 tsp salt
12 chicken wings, tips discarded and separated at the joints (I cheat and use the little drumettes)
Cilantro, for garnish

In a large bowl or plastic container, whisk together the peanut butter, jelly, red wine vinegar, hot sauce and salt. Place wings in the marinade, turning to coat well. Marinate for 1 hour up to over night.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place a greased rack on a foil lined baking sheet. Place wings on rack, bake for 30 minutes. Turn, marinate with pan juices, bake for additional 20 minutes. Garnish with cilantro if desired.


Hope you enjoy these as much as we do. Now let's go to Michael's and see what else is on the menu!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Outdoor Wednesday Where I Want to Be


Well folks, it's Wednesday. This means I am halfway through the week that seems as if it will never end. But the good news is that it's time for Outdoor Wednesday, so graciously hosted every week by Susan at A Southern Daydreamer. The past several days have been particularly brutal, and there is no better way for me to relax than to look at vacation pictures from glorious St. George Island, Florida. I honestly can't think of a place I would rather be right now! After you have enjoyed these pictures of paradise, be sure to stop by http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/ to see some more beautiful outdoor spaces.




Don't you feel more relaxed already? I know I do! Hope you all have a great Outdoor Wednesday!

Monday, May 18, 2009

Wordless Wednesday - Blogger's Choice

Wednesday means it's time for Wordless Wednesday, hosted by the ever gracious Dixie at http://frenchlique.blogspot.com/. Make sure to stop by and see who else is participating this week.



Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Foodie Friday train wrecks

It's finally Friday folks! I hope your week wasn't nearly as trying as mine. So I'm more than ready to celebrate the end of the week with Foodie Friday, graciously hosted by Michael Lee, aka "Gollum" at Designs by Gollum. This week, we get to share our "Foodie Trainwrecks". Goodness knows, she could have this theme every week and I guarantee I could come up with a new one every time! Make sure to stop by http://designsbygollum.blogspot.com/ to see what everyone else is owning up to!

Last week, I shared the beautiful cake that my daughter Cait made for a friend's wedding shower. The original recipe that she brought home looked something like this:

I kid you not, when we started reading the recipe we realized that it made no sense at all. The list of ingredients called for 3 whole eggs. The first step called for beating the eggs, then further down it said to add the separated egg yolks. What? As we got to the end, we realized that there was no mention of size of pan or oven temperature! Moral, read through BEFORE you start making the cake! So after a mad scramble to find a different recipe, we found one that sounded delicious. But, we did not have all of the ingredients. So back to the grocery store we went. This was the result of the first attempt.
Ours actually looked much worse than this! (but it still tasted great tee hee). Right about then, 2 of Cait's old high school buddies called and wanted to stop by. She said she would be thrilled to see them - with a wicked gleam in her beautiful baby blues! They had no idea what they were letting themselves in for!

The second attempt came out beautifully. Cait then experimented with fillings and came up with a raspberry/grand marnier/whipped cream mixture that was heavenly. Frosted the cake with a dark chocolate icing, sifted a bit of confectioners sugar on top, place some fresh raspberries and VOILA. This cake was unbelievable. But I must admit, it's the first 10 hour cake I've ever made. Kimmie, I hope you LOVED this cake!

Now stop by Gollum's place and see what everyone else messed up this week!