Never to old to blog!

This is Millie.

I found Millie several months ago

and have been a lurker to her site.

She is one busy 82 year old who's bloggin.

She's the cutest thing.

She made the ABC News!

Go here to learn more about her.

She's a mess, in a good way.


(Pat and granddaughter Emma Mae)

Also this is Pat, aka Swamp Woman, and she is back and is trying her hand at blogging some of her recipes!!! She needs our love and support. I know you've all been waiting. This is a big step for her since losing her daughter, Laura, in March to a car accident. So check her out here. It's going to be fun.

http://www.swampwomansfamilyrecipes.blogspot.com/

HAVE A GREAT MONDAY

Reaching Out To Others

"Jesus showed patience and love to all who came to Him seeking relief for their physical, emotional, or spiritual illnesses and who felt discouraged and downtrodden.

"To follow the Savior's example, each one of us must look around and reach out to the sheep who are facing the same circumstances and lift them up and encourage them to proceed on the journey towards eternal life.

"This need today is as great as or perhaps even greater than when the Savior walked on this earth. As shepherds we must understand that we should nurture each one of our sheep to bring them to Christ.

- Ulisses Soares, "Feed My Sheep", CR October 2005

Sammy's Back!

And he came yesterday!

And boy did we need his services!

Thank you very much!

(He didn't really go any where.

He was playing with his son and

he broke his thumb in 5 places

and had to have surgery on it.

Sammy works at Griffis Steel Co.

and does yard work on the side.

I'm so glad he is better.

It was a really bad break!)

Wonder What Thomas Edison Would Think?

I LOVE THESE BULBS!

I just never knew how much until I started to replace them with these!

I HATE THESE LIGHT BULBS!

BUT!!!!

I am slowly changing over. Going "green" is a slow process for me. As each old bulb bites the dust, I replace it with a new Compact Florescent Light (CFL) bulb. I hate them. I don't think that the lighting is as bright. There is just something I don't like about them. Besides that they are expensive. But I am trying, just slowly. Here is some IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT ENERGY SAVER LIGHT BULBS! View this little video. I learned a lot! I think you will be surprised too.

This just makes me hate them more!

Did you know they were so dangerous?

And whats up with every thing coming from China?? No wonder I'm haveing such a hard time.

Buttermilk Cookies

Buttermilk Cookies

I found this recipe here on Ezra's blog. They looked very good and cake like. I thought they must be really moist since they have buttermilk in the recipe. So this past Sunday evening I made them. They turned out really good and they were very moist. BUT, and that's a big BUT, as I was putting the left over buttermilk back in the fridge I looked a little closer and to my real surprise, it was NOT buttermilk at all it was regular ole 2% milk. (I'm losing it, I know.) But the little pint bottle looked just like the buttermilk bottle and apparently I didn't pay very close attention and just picked up the wrong one. To make a long story short, I can't even imagine how much better they could have been had they had the buttermilk in them instead of regular milk. I ate 4 of them and then had to wrap them up quick before I ate the whole lot! (They actually taste "lemony.") I gave them to the next person that came to my house. That was my brother, AKA "Barney's friend Chris." He took them home to the children. I talked to them the next day and they were all gone! They really liked them too. So if you are looking for a new cookie recipe try these with or with out the buttermilk.

Adapted from Gourmet,

January 2008
Makes about

5 1/2 dozen cookies

For Cookies
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2/3 cup well-shaken buttermilk

For Glaze
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
3 tablespoons well-shaken buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter two large baking sheets.

Whisk together flour, zest, baking soda, and salt.

Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in vanilla. Mix in flour mixture and buttermilk alternately in batches at low speed, beginning and ending with flour mixture, until smooth.

Drop level tablespoons of dough about 1 1/2 inches apart onto baking sheets. Bake, 1 sheet at a time, until cookies are puffed and edges are golden, 12 to 15 minutes per batch.

Cool cookies on sheets 1 minute, then transfer cookies to racks.

To glaze the cookies:

Whisk together all glaze ingredients and brush onto tops of warm cookies.
Let stand until cookies are completely cooled and glaze is set.

Wordless Wednesday

Thin Mint Cookie Blizzard!

OH MY GOSH!!! Dairy Queen and Girls Scouts have teamed up and are Introducing the Amazingly Minty Girl Scouts Thin Mint Cookie Blizzard® Treat For July only!! They have teamed up to treat you to the first-ever combo of crunchy, chocolaty Girl Scouts Thin Mint cookies and creamy mint DQ soft serve. Before the month is over I will have one!! Can't wait! Thin mints are my favorite G/S cookies! And it's summertime, and it's HOT and everyone should have a little icecream in this heat!

The Good Samaritan

I thought it was time for another one of my Daddy's stories !!

Many years ago I decided to take the three oldest girls to Georgia to visit Grandmother and Grandpappy Crenshaw for the weekend. Gigi was about 8, Sissy was about 7 and Carla was about 5. We had the old '65 Ford Falcon station wagon, the only new car we have ever bought. That car was just right for our growing little family. I could let down the back seat, throw in a single bed mattress and off we'd go, on trips, to the beach, and many evenings to the drive-in movie. Whenever we said we were going to Georgia for a visit or to a re-union, the kids would ask a hundred times, "Are we in Georgia yet?"

On this trip to see Grandmother and Grandpappy, we had a wonderful time visiting them, plenty of something good to eat like biscuits and Grandmothers yummy teacakes. I know they were good, Sam and I loved them growing up. They were so good we would even eat the raw dough.

When it became time for us to leave to go back to Florida, Grandmother always packed us some goodies to take along on the trip. As we pulled away out of the driveway Grandmother always started to cry, she did that with any of her children or grandchildren when they were leaving.

I drove over to Interstate 75 and headed south toward home. In a little while it started to rain, lightly at first then it poured down, hard enough that I began to use precaution and slowed down quite a bit. All of a sudden there was this woman standing in the median, soaking wet from the rain and waving for someone to stop and help her. All other cars were flying like crazy passed her so I slowed down and pulled over on the shoulder of the road and backed up. I rolled down the window and asked what was wrong. She said she had hit a puddle of water and her car skidded off the road. Well I couldn't even see a car because it was a deep ravine she had skidded into.

So I instructed the kids, who were all craning their necks to see what was going on and where her car was, to just stay in the car and NOT get out and I would go see if I could help her.

Sure enough it was a deep gully with a cement ditch going down to the bottom where the rainwater would drain into the sewer. She said her mother was in the car but they were both okay, just shook up a little. The place where the car sat was like a cement box and the car only had a couple of scratches on it.

I began to try to figure out how was the best way to get that car out. So I decided the Highway Patrol should come and investigate the accident before I moved that car. I knew there was a Patrol station about five miles back north so I climbed the hill to the north bound lane and flagged down a road department crew and asked them to send down a Patrolman.

I went back to the bottom of the ditch to think on the situation a little while longer. I got the idea that I could drive that car out of that ravine if she wanted me to. So I asked her what she thought of me trying to drive it out. She said yes, it would be all right. So when the Highway Patrolman finished his investigation, his suggestion was to call a wrecker. I told him that I thought I could drive it out and he said go ahead he didn't care.

So I got in the car and started it. I had enough room to back up a few inches and pull forward a few inches. After awhile I maneuvered around in that cement box to get the front end headed upward with the wheels on the left side of the car in the cement ditch for traction and sure enough I drove right the top of that ravine. When the traffic was clear I whipped out across the interstate and off the road.

When the Patrolman got all the info he needed, she got in the car and took off south on 75. Never even said thank you. The Patrolman told me it wasn't her car but a company car where her husband worked and she was not really supposed to be driving it and was worried about the trouble she and her husband would be in.

Well anyway, I had done my good deed for the day, so I climbed back in the old falcon and in about twenty minutes we crossed the state line and were in the State of Florida, with the kids asking, " when are we going to get home daddy?”

The Perfect Mistake

My Mother's father worked as a carpenter, on this particular day, he was building some crates for the clothes his church was sending to orphanages in China .

On his way home, he reached into his shirt pocket to find his glasses, but they were gone. When he mentally replayed his earlier actions, he realized what had happened; the glasses had slipped out of his pocket unnoticed and fallen into one of the crates, which he had nailed shut. His brand new glasses were heading for China ! The Great Depression was at its height and Grandpa had six children. He had spent $20 for those glasses that very morning. He was upset by the thought of having to buy another pair. 'It's not fair,' he told God as he drove home in frustration. 'I've been very faithful in giving of my time and money to your work, and now this.'

Months later, the director of the orphanage was on furlough in the United States . He wanted to visit all the churches that supported him in China,
so he came to speak one Sunday at my grandfather's small church in Chicago .

The missionary began by thanking the people for their faithfulness in supporting the orphanage. 'But most of all,' he said , 'I must thank you for the glasses you sent last year. You see, the Communists had just swept through the orphanage, destroying everything, including my glasses. I was desperate. Even if I had the money, there was simply no way of replacing those glasses. Along wit h not being able to see well, I experienced headaches every day, so my coworkers and I were much in prayer about this. Then your crates arrived. When my staff removed the covers, they found a pair of glasses lying on top. The missionary paused long enough to let his words sink in. Then, still gripped with the wonder of it all, he continued: 'Folks, when I tried on the glasses, it was as though they had been custom made just for me! I want to thank you for being a part of that.'

The people listened, happy for the miraculous glasses. But the missionary surely must have confused their church with another, they thought. There were no glasses on their list of items to be sent overseas.

But sitting quietly in the back, with tears streaming down his face , an ordinary carpenter realized the Master Carpenter had used him in an extraordinary way. There are times we want to blame God instead of thanking him! I have to remember this in these times of trials of my own.

May GOD bless your week. Look for the perfect mistakes.

Peace is not the absence of trouble. Peace is the presence of God.

Another sweet e-mail I got this past week.

Painted Buntings

This is the male Painted Bunting.

This is the female Painted Bunting.

They're Back!!!

I have bird feeders in my front yard and back yard. I love bird watching. I've taught the girls to watch and listen to the birds as they visit the feeders. It's breeding season for the Painted Buntings and they are back! They are beautiful. I saw both a male and a female out the back window today and a male on the front feeders. It just makes me so excited to see them here.

Male Painted Buntings are the most spectacularly colored of all North American songbirds, with a gaudy combination of red, blue, and green feathers. His head and nape are blue. Back shiny green. Rump, throat, chest, flanks, belly, and under tail coverts red. Eye ring red. Wings and tail dark gray. The females crown, nape, and back are rather bright olive-green. Throat, chest, and belly yellow-green. Her head may show some blue feathers. I just love them and wanted to share them with all of yall!

Note to self:

do not look away while cutting

husbands sideburns!! Opps!

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

HAPPY 232ND BIRTHDAY AMERICA!

I love our Flag!

I took these pictures last

week when we were at the

St. Simons Island pier.

The first one was from land

and the other was from the pier.

(same flag)

Oh what do you do in the summertime?

Miss Shelby Bailey Griffis

(almost 3 and a 1/2)

See Rea Grow

Little Miss

"Reagan Kendall Griffis"

(16 months)

Childs laughter

I put a video here! Where is it!!!

Isn't it interesting how they can go from laughter to screaming in just a matter of seconds!

HELP!!

Does anyone know how to take a video from Picasa 2 and put it on your blog???