Bean Boozled®

May 13, 2011 | Filed Under My Life | Leave a Comment 

I recently came across this Jelly Belly® game called Bean Boozled® and bought it for our son. It’s tag line reads “dare to compare” and warns it contains “weird and wild flavors”. It contains 10 different colored beans that have two different flavors each. You spin the wheel and it lands on a color that lists either flavor that it could be. You find that bean and HOPE FOR THE BEST! You either get a wild flavor, or unfortunately get a weird flavor.

Here are the flavor combos per colored bean:
• Skunk Spray or Licorice • Rotten Egg or Buttered Popcorn • Pencil Shavings or Top Banana • Toothpaste or Berry Blue • Canned Dog Food or Chocolate Pudding • Barf or Peach • Booger or Juicy Pear • Moldy Cheese or Caramel Corn • Baby Wipes or Coconut • Centipede or Strawberry Jam

After dinner tonight we all 3 played and had some good laughs! The Husband had an unfortunate experience with CANNED DOG FOOD and The Boy quickly spit out ROTTEN EGG.

And then it was my turn. Peach? or Barf? In my book this was a LOSE/LOSE. I like peaches, but don’t like peach flavored things. I’ll let you guess at which one it ended up being.

Fire & Ic…ing

February 13, 2011 | Filed Under Around the Farm, In the Kitchen, My Life | 2 Comments 

Lots of activity at the Cooper house today. It started out with the great Valentine Cookie Marathon. You see, The Boy is taking cookies as his valentines this year, so I had to get busy. And even though I recently announced that I love to bake, which I do, I do NOT like to bake cookies. At all. However, I recently discovered I like to make one kind of cookie, but I suspect it has a lot to do with the fact that I get to decorate it.

So I pulled out all four of my favorite French Inventions, known as the Silpat, and cut out some cookies.

I had two different heart shapes. The plain ole heart, and the heart with some movement on it’s tail.

I had a couple of sheets of cookies baked, and more cut out and ready to bake when it happened. The Husband, who had been out side doing outside stuff, stuck his head in the kitchen door and said four words I had hoped I’d never hear. CALL THE FIRE DEPARTMENT. You see, when we lived in the city, I wouldn’t have been as scared to call the fire department, because well…we lived in the city with paved roads and there was no trouble finding our house. But now? Now we live deep in the country down in the woods, where people need directions such as, turn left at the red chicken house, turn right at the fork in the road, then go past some more chicken houses. You get the idea. So when I called the fire department and she asked what I was near, I named off my neighbors (what two I have) and then tried to give the best directions I could all the while praying in my head that some of those volunteer firemen knew where the “old Cooper house” was. As I was on hold with 911, I peeked out of the bathroom window and saw this. I turned off the oven and put the cookie marathon on hold.

It didn’t take long for the wonderful men that VOLUNTEER at our fire department to show up. I lost track of time, but it seemed like they weren’t there too terribly long – thirty to forty minutes, maybe, and the fire was out. They had to drive all over the pastures and spray lots of places, and tamp down other areas with these sticks that had what looked like a large mudflap on it (that’s the best description I can come up with). After they left I grabbed the camera and took a walk to see how far the fire had reached.

This photo is just over a hill out back. You can see our little white farmhouse in the middle which is up toward the road.

Then I did a 180 and photographed the other side of where I was standing. Notice the black goes on and on.

One good thing about all of it was that we can now walk up to the pond without having to strategically walk through a bunch of brush and limbs.

The fire made it all the way to the back hay meadow, but barely got any of it thanks again to the JVFD! To give you an idea of the distance we’re talking about now – from our house, through the pasture, around the hay meadow and back is one mile. So, the fire made it a little less than a half-mile back.

At this point I knew how lucky we were and thanked God for our wonderful fire department volunteers and went back to work on the great Valentine Cookie Marathon.

Once these dry, we’ll put them in their own little bags and tie them with some Valentine ribbon and attach one if his cards with his silhouette on it.

French Breakfast Puffs

February 5, 2011 | Filed Under In the Kitchen, My Life | Leave a Comment 

Fact: I LOVE to bake

This week marked another year I’m thankful to be alive and healthy, and blessed with great family and friends. One of my friends, who understands my love of food, gave me The Pioneer Woman Cooks as a gift. In it I came across a recipe for “French Breakfast Puffs”. The picture looked yummy. So yummy, I had to make them. SOON. So, that is what I did last night.

See? I told you they looked yummy. If you don’t have Ree’s cookbook, you can buy it of course, but you can also go visit her blog for free.

The Dirt – East Texas Photography

May 6, 2010 | Filed Under East Texas Scenery, My Life | 2 Comments 

When we lived in Dallas, the view of my daily drive was looking at someone’s bumper and passing by store after store, building after building. It was simply, a concrete jungle. Every now and then there would be that one spot in the middle of that jungle where someone had held onto their land and all you would see was pasture. Gorgeous green pasture. I loved looking at those pastures. In the midst of the chaos and stress, they were peaceful and calming.

These days, I don’t just live in the country. I live in the sticks, in the country. I don’t hear traffic. I don’t hear airplanes. I hear birds. I don’t see buildings, stores and concrete. I see pasture, trees and a dirt road. I see the beauty of God’s work. No chaos. No stress.

Birthday Boy

April 29, 2010 | Filed Under My Life | Leave a Comment 

So, I’ve decided to make this blog a little more personal. It’s too cold and stale for me. Don’t get me wrong – the sneak peeks aren’t cold and stale. I love them! I just think there needs to be more. I want to interact with my readers (if I have any!) so I can get to know you and so you can get to know me. So with that, meet my son…

Kindergarten, and age 5, definitely changed him. He’s becoming more and more of a “boy”. He loves to play: Lego’s, army, and army with Lego’s. He loves Star Wars – oh but that’s not new. The Husband introduced him to the original Trilogy at age 3. A little young for me, but he handled it well and has been a SW fan from that day forward. He loves the dirt, the mud, and exploring.

My pride and joy recently turned 6. It sounds so cliché to say something like “it’s amazing at how fast he has grown up”, but it’s TRUE! He’s still my baby and always will be. He’s sweet, he’s smart, he’s thoughtful. He is my heart outside of my body. When I was a child my mom used to tell me, “I love you more than you’ll ever know.” She was right. Now it’s my turn to tell him, “I love you more than you’ll ever know.”

My friend and fellow photographer, Holly Bonner, took pictures of his party for me. If you have kids and you’ve tried to be in the moment and take pictures at the same time, you know that it’s pretty much impossible. So thank you, Holly! Thank you for letting me be in the moment.

The cupcakes – right after I iced them, but before the sprinkles.


With his friend (or as he calls her, his “girlfriend”). They’re a whopping 13 days apart. The husband and I went to college with her parents, which means we’ve known each other FOREVER. I look at this photo and I can’t help but see them as teenagers walking side-by-side just like this.


and last but not least…..I bet you can’t guess who won the musical chairs contest?! And NO, it was not fixed!!