Bruce's Birthday

Bruce's birthday was yesterday but the Bryce's hosted a birthday party for him at their house on Sunday afternoon.

Mom and I had been to Stillwater to the Ham-Bilyeu Family Reunion on Saturday and drove down to Frisco on Sunday morning. Everyone else came up from Lorena on Sunday.

This was the first time that Parker (6 months) and Landry (5 months) had been together since either of them has been able to "do anything". It was fun watching them lay on a blanket together. Parker, who is an arm flapper, was continually clubbing his cousin with his waving arms. In order to combat that, we switched them so that her feet were at his head and vice versa. That resulted in Landry rolling on her side with her feet in his face and she was chewing on his fist. Neither action phased him in the least.

After a delicious lunch, Bobby took Jon, Chris, Brodie and Bruce on a ride and showed them where Deion Sanders lives and well as Torii Hunter and a couple of other pro football players whose names I can't remember. The boys were impressed, not only with being able to see these 'houses' but the fact that their Uncle Bobby has hung out with some of them.

While the guys were touring, Ashton and I went to the pool while Megan and Erin fed the babies. That Ashton is a fish...she takes after the Botts and Bennett girls in the pool, might we have another competitive swimmer in the family?

After returning from the pool we had cake and ice cream (Bobby made a very tasty peanut butter frosting) and then Bruce opened presents and cards. Ashton made Bruce a birthday card of her own, featuring phonetic spelling, a hot air balloon, blue shirts (she picked out the two blue shirts they got Bruce), two birthday cakes, more balloons, a butterfly, a lady bug, a sun, carrots, a tomato plant and flowers. It is just precious.

Did You Know?

DID YOU KNOW? ( a friend sent these to me and I thought I'd pass them along).

Peel a banana from the bottom and you won't have to pick the little 'stringy things' off of it. That's how the primates do it.

Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.

Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!

Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.

Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.

To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.


For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.

Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.

Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yummm!

Reheat Pizza
Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza.

Easy Deviled Eggs
Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.
panding Frosting
When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.

Reheating refrigerated bread
To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.

Newspaper weeds away
Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers, put layers around the plants overlapping as you go cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers.
Broken Glass
Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.

No More Mosquitoes
Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.

Squirrel Away!
To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it.

Flexible vacuum
To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in nar-
row openings.

Reducing Static Cling
Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and ... ta da! ... static is gone.

Measuring Cups
Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.

Foggy Windshield?
Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car. When the window s fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!

Reopening envelope
If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.

Conditioner
Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair.

Goodbye Fruit Flies
To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2' with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

Get Rid of Ants
Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it 'home,' can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

INFO ABOUT CLOTHES DRYERS
The heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman that fixes things around the house for us told us that he wanted to show us something and he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean. (I always clean the lint from the filter after every load clothes.) He told us that he wanted to show us something; he took the filter over to the sink and ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh material ... I'm sure you know what your dryer's lint filter looks like. Well ... the hot water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn't go through it at all! He told us that dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh that's what burns out the heating unit. You can't SEE the film, but it's there. It's what is in the dryer sheets to make your clothes soft and static free ... that nice fragrance too. You know how they can feel waxy when you take them out of the box. well this stuff builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer units to potentially burn your house down with it! He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very long time (and to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out and wash it with hot soapy water and an old toothbrush (or other brush) at least every six months. He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long!

Slow summer, Not....

I thought things were supposed to slow down once summer came! That doesn’t seem to be the case this year though. And, I can’t believe it’s the middle of June already.

Actually I think the reason things don’t seem to have slowed down is that I’m trying to get ahead of the curve for next year. I’m trying to get as much of my three media guides (equestrian, basketball, tennis) updated and done as I can this summer.

This weekend is the annual Ham-Bilyeu Reunion in Oklahoma then on Sunday, Erin’s hosting a birthday party for Bruce. Mom and I will leave on Thursday afternoon so she can have some time to visit with Stillwater/Perkins friends on Friday. The reunion is on Saturday then on Sunday morning we’ll get up bright and early and trek to Erin’s house.

The next weekend I will leave for Tampa and our annual CoSIDA Convention. The convention will be at the Tampa Waterside Hotel & Marina and that’s where I’ll be staying as well. Sounds like an awesome site and Tammi (Texas Tech) will be my roommate.

After that, I’ll be home until Mom, Becky, Sara and I begin our road trip on July 26. First stop will be Jennifer’s, then on to Reese and Heather’s, then who knows what route we’ll take.

Sometime during the summer, I plan on doing a little trim replacement and painting on the outside of the house. Now, if I could just decide what color to paint (that’s the main stumbling block, that and the fact that it’s soooooooooooo dang hot!).

Sorry I don’t have any good stories to tell like Erin and Jennifer do. Guess Bruce and I are just too boring!