All of this waitin' round' for baby is beginning to drive me a little crazy! Short drive I sappose! LOL Well, look at this thisa way, I'm due in 6 days, he's gotta come out sometime, right? RIGHT? He can't just stay in there can he? LOL







Be Blessed All,
PJ

Me and the boys have a fresh start here in our new home, and we're all happy here. We're in a nice, clean and quiet neighborhood, the school system here is wonderful, the yards and pets are actually taken care of around here, and we are sarrounded by friendly neighbors. And we are filled with grattitude about our recent blessings...

But theres something to be said about inner-city beauty, sometimes I find myself missing it...
There's something really cool about how we all pulled together in our old neighborhood.

Like the time I couldn't work for a while, and almost daily I'd find a care-package on my porch, sometimes I'd know who it was from, sometimes not. Or when the guy down the street had his gas turned off, and we took turns letting their family take showers in our homes. And sent down electric hot-plates and Forman Grills so they could cook dinner.

We learned to share everything in that old neighborhood, even the kids did for the most part. On really hot days the ice-cream truck would ramble up the street, all the kids would gather round', and whoever happened to have extra $ that day would be the designated buyer, either EVERY kid on the block got a treat, or none of em' did, that's just how it was. Fair.


If no one had the cash that day, there was always the old stand-by, Kool-aid popsicles!


A few people knew how to work the hydrants, and on unbearable days well, gotta do whatcha gotta do. Scenes like this one still warm my heart!


If one of the neighborhood kids was lookin' a little scruffy, we knew maybe their water had got shut off, there were a few times in which you could spy a garden hose running across the street from one house to another. Same with extention cords if the lights were shut-off, though we were real careful with that one!


Fourth of July was always a major event in our old hood, there would be 3or4 yards designated for grilling out, with everyone pitching in whatever they had. At the end of the day, we'd all line-up and down the street and light the fireworks that had been collected throughout the day.


I learned to make lots of treats on the cheap, and Monkey Bread is one of our favorites! Hey, a dollar for a four-pack of biscuits and you can feed 10/15 kids on it! Homemade Elephant Ears too, yummy!


Monkey Bread:
4 Cans Biscuits
1 C. Sugar
1/4 C. Cinnamon
1/2 C. Melted Butter

Preheat oven 350

Mix sugar and cinnamon in bowl or plastic bag.
Cut biscuits in half, and coat with sugar mixture.
Stagger in 13x9 or round loaf pan.
Drizzle with butter.
Bake 30 to 40 minutes.
Pull apart, eat...

Same deal with the Elephant Ears

Make a mixture of cinnamon and sugar
Cut prepared burrito shells in half
Fry in pan with 1/4 C. oil
Coat with sugar mixture
Drain on paper towels

Be Blessed All,
PJ

Thanksgiving always brings out the Country in me! Downhome goodies like Alabama, David Allen Coe, Hank Williams both of em', Johnny Cash, & Kenny Chesney just to name a few.

This mornin' found me thinking about Thanksgiving Pasts... Nothing too heavy, just memories like...


Dear ol' Uncle Jeff drinking his Night Train "on the roof"


Or the time mom's boyfriend (also buzzed) cooked the turkey with the giblet bag still inside! EEEEEEEEW! To be honest though, it was one of the best turkeys we ever had! Yes, we ate it anyways!


Every year since I was 10yrs. old, mom has made a pan of Magic Cookie Bars just for me, that's 30 pans of sugar, just for my thighs alone! Mom makes everyone in the family a special dessert for everyone to take home each Thanksgiving, three new family members also want the Cookie Bars now. At first I took it kinda personal, it's a mother daughter thing I sappose . I think mom noticed that I felt the "others" were steppin' on my turf, and she pulled me aside last year and showed me an old faded recipe from 30yrs. ago, "I've been saving this for you all this time, and you'll get it some day". Awwwww, sooooo sweet, I wanted to cry! And when I do get it, I'm having it professionally mounted and framed, that memory of mom is that important to me...

My sister Tammy, as far back as I can remember has been in charge of bringing the raw veggies. There were quite a few times she either didn't show, or made her entrance round' dessert time, so mom figured veggies were a safe bet we could live with em' or without em'.

I can't toot my horn too loudly though as a few years back I was in charge of bringing the mashed potatoes, and uh well, I got very intoxicated the night before, so much so that I was "still" buzzin' Thanksgiving morn' Needless to say but there were no mashed taters' that year! I believe I've finally lived it down though, they gave me another chance this year.


Have A Happy Thanksgiving All,
Be Blessed,
PJ

I AM THANKFUL FOR... Knowing Jesus, my children, my family, my new house, a new baby on the way, finding the strength to leave the mess I was in, back-yard BBQs, carnivals, Fall, Holidays, bon-fires, s'mores and jean jackets, cotton candy, old quilts on snowy nights, black and white movies, literature, folk-art, music, my cat Stu, cheese and chocolate every kind of both, Chuck Taylors which I still wear at 40, my children's teachers, new people comming into our lives, my boys artwork all over the house, my washer and dryer we be lost in stinky sock hell without em', my pickle jar glass collection, the fact that I don't care about material things that much, the leaves all over our yard, Christmas shows, sweats and big fluffy sox, potpourri, a warm bath, and a brand new year commin' around that's the most exciting of all! I have EVERYTHING I need MOST of what I want And way MORE than I deserve Thank-you Jesus for everything! Be Blessed All, PJ

Have A Blessed Day All,
PJ