Eagles

I've always enjoyed the "Eagles" but lately I have really fallen in love with their music. You can listen to their new album (Disc 1 and 2) at MSN's Listening Booth: http://music.msn.com/music/ListeningBooth

Baby Boy is 22

Today is my youngest child's birthday! Isn't he the cutest thing ever! Where has the time gone?

Sewing & Cooking

I mentioned in my previous post about finishing up on sewing my new curtains. I found this material at a garage sale for $1 and this is what the end result was. I'm very pleased. This is a bay window in my dining area.

I also mentioned taking a casserole and birthday cake to my son's house for his birthday. He invited over 4 other guys and my daughter and her husband also joined us. We really enjoyed ourselves and enjoyed seeing where he is staying and getting to know some of his friends. He is my youngest child and will turn 22 on Monday. How can that be? He is working to get his Computer Engineering/Computer Science double major completed. We're very proud of both of our kids and how well they are doing and have done academically.

Here is the recipe for my casserole:
King Ranch Casserole

1 chicken, cooked, boned, and cut in bite size pieces

1 pkg of 12 tortillas, cut in fourths

1 onion, chopped fine

1 cup grated cheese (mild Cheddar)

1 can mushroom soup

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can Ro-Tel tomatoes

1 c chicken broth

Heat soup, Ro-Tel tomatoes and chicken broth together until well mixed. Layer in greased casserole as follows: Tortillas, chicken, onion, cheese, soup mixture. Makes 2 to 3 layers. Bake covered in foil in 350 oven for 1 hour. Take foil off last 10-15 minutes.

To Do

My to do list for this week:

1. Volunteer at the hospital tonight. I volunteer every Tuesday evening in the OB Unit. Helping them anyway that I can. Last week I held a baby for a short time! Yeah!
2. Make a cake - chocolate or red velvet for my son's upcoming birthday.
3. Finish sewing curtains for my kitchen bay window. They are partially up.
4. Continue to crochet baby afghan.
5. Buy ingredients for son's favorite dinner and start preparations. His dad and I are going to bring dinner to him Saturday night for his birthday celebration. He is staying in a different house this year at school and we haven't seen it yet. Hopefully some of his roommates will also be around to help celebrate and eat the casserole and cake.
6. Go out to lunch with my parents tomorrow. They are dropping into town for a doctor's appointment.
7. Think about what wall in the living room I want to put my Currier & Ives plates I just bought. (I'll try to take a picture and post after they are up)
8. Watch the "View" that I recorded today.

That's all I can think of right now for this week. I guess that is plenty.

Grey's

Loved "Grey's Anatomy" last night. I laughed and cried. Every time I see Herman, the old intern, I think of FDR. He has played the President in a past movie and that has stuck with me! Izzie or Callie? Maybe they will both dump George! The Chief needed to tell his wife to deal - I understand her sadness, but she was just mean to him about not doing what she wanted.

I also watched "Survivor". Thursday night seems to be my night for TV. Interesting twist last night. Who's your favorite survivor? I think mine is Frosti at this point. Good kid and seems to know how to play the game both physically and mentally.

Authors

I have been reading some really good books lately as well as getting to see authors in person. Last night I heard Harold Ivan Smith in person. He has written many books about grief. As we get ready to enter the Holiday Season, this book can be a very good gift for a friend/family in need. He is a really great speaker and has many interesting stories that he tells.

Tomorrow I am going to a meeting that Jeannette Walls will be speaking and talking about her book, "The Glass Castle". This is a great memoir and I am looking forward to seeing her and hearing what she has to say.

At the end of the month, I will be attending a prayer conference led by Jennifer Kennedy Dean. She has several books on prayer and is an energetic and knowledgeable speaker. Connect to her website here.

Ocean

I've never put a video on my blog before, but this is my try at it. I love this sound.

North Carolina

We're back from our vacation/conference in North Carolina. We had a great time and enjoyed all the places we visited (Biltmore Estates, Charlotte, Duke University, North Carolina University, state capitol, Kitty Hawk, OBX). We had wonderful weather and I had plenty of time to shop while my hubby was at his conference. I found 2 great shopping malls in Charlotte. One had Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn, Macy's, Neiman Marcus, Gap Kids, JCrew and other great stores that I enjoyed strolling through and finding some great buys. The other was a outlet mall with Haggar, Old Navy, American Eagle, Naturalizer, Eddie Bauer, Bass, etc. I did nearly shop until I dropped!

This is a view of Asheville in the evening. After we flew into Charlotte, we drove straight into Asheville and hurried to drive part of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The next day we visited the Biltmore Estates. Click on this link to read more about the Biltmore Estates. We toured the inside by an audio tour and learned about this historic home.

After my hubby's conference we drove to the Outer Banks (OBX). We visited Kitty Hawk first (picture on right) and then enjoyed the beach.

We drove to Hatteras Village and saw the tallest lighthouse and then took a ferry to the Ocracoke area where we took another ferry to Swan Quarters. During the vacation we also drove through Duke University, North Carolina University, North Carolina State University and the State Capitol in Raleigh.

We packed in a lot of siteseeing in a short period of time. Whew! I'd love to go back to the OBX and spend a week walking the beach looking for sea glass and shells, listening to the waves hit against the beach, and reading as the sun goes down.

I did read a couple of books while on vacation. Both very good but totally different. The first one was "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls (non-fiction account of her life growing up with dysfunctional parents) and "Cordina's Royal Family" by Nora Roberts (fiction romance).

A rather long post, but wanted to share my adventures. Look forward to checking everyone's blogs and catching up with what is going on in blogworld.