Happy 18th Katie!

Today's blog is dedicated to my niece Katie. I remember the day you were born like it was yesterday. Your uncle Mark and I were at college, and I went over to pick him up and take him to class. He came out of his apartment just BEAMING. He'd just got off the phone with your dad, who had informed him that you had arrived. Katie Ann, perfect and healthy in every way. You have grown into a beautiful young lady who we are very proud of. You are smart, talented, energetic and most of all, a sweet, caring, kind, giving person. You are a wonderful aunt, and cousin to the youngsters in the family. They adore you. You are a loyal friend, as can be seen in the MANY pictures Tessa posts on
Facebook!

























She got into texting at an early age. No wonder she's so good at it now!

















This butterfly would not leave her alone one spring day. It was so cute!








Autocrossing in the grass

















First grade picture. One of our favorites!

















Homecoming parade with Dad as her driver













Hanging with the class on the parade float


















Homecoming queen candidates















Bustin' a move with the girls
















Silly aunt












The support group.

WE LOVE YOU KATIE!!!

Stopping to smell the roses............I am so blessed

I received an email this week. It was not a particularly nice email. But it did make me stop and think.


It made me stop and think about how wonderful of a life I do lead, and to appreciate the “small” and the big things in life. I have a great husband, a beautiful, joyous daughter (even if she does drive me slightly crazy!), and a nice house. I drive a nice car. I’ve not had to work, but it’s something I enjoy.

I have a wonderful family. And I’m not just talking about “my” family, but my in-laws. We all farm together. I’ll admit, some days it’s hard. We can get on each other’s nerves. But we do work well together. I have the.BEST. in-laws. EVER!!!! They have become as close to me as my own family. I honestly do not know what I’d do without them.

Friends….I am so blessed to have many friends. Hubby says I know more people in our community than he does, and he’s lived here all his life! We have a GREAT core group of friends. We all share common goals, beliefs, values and attitudes. I am reminded of when I spent a month in the hospital back in ’05. My girlfriends were there for me thru thick and thin. There are the 2 girls who stayed with me thru the hardest nights so hubby could have a break, and the girls who came over and cleaned my house, knowing I would not be returning home for some time. Hey they even cleaned out my refrigerator!! They brought their husbands along, and the guys mowed the yard, and weed-eated. We could not have gotten thru that tough time without the help of our friends and family. And for that they all have my deepest gratitude.

Community…..I’m also blessed to live in a wonderful community. Some years ago, I was visiting with a lady who worked down the street from me. We were discussing our town, and the changes that were taking place. She said to me “There are so many takers in our community, I just want to give back as much as I possibly can.” That really struck a cord with me. And from that day on, I decided I was going to be a “giver”. Currently, I serve on the FairBoard, and donate my time and energy to help prepare for the annual county Fair. I also belong to a Young Farm Wives group. Again, serving our community in whatever capacity that is needed. Five years ago, my friend Debbie and I started serving lunch on Thursday at our church. What a tremendous success this outreach program has become. Our “staff” of 6 serves approximately 55-80 people each Thursday. And to think, one sentence sparked my “giver” attitude. Thank You Bette, may God rest your beautiful soul.

And to wrap this up, yes, I suppose it looks like I live a “charmed” life. But it isn’t perfect. We all have our ups and our downs, our trials and tribulations; it’s just what we CHOOSE to do with these that count. Like Aunt Virginia used to tell me….when life hands you lemons, go make lemonade!

And in the words of another friend "I am proud of the life I have and I want others to know how blessed I feel for it."

Have a wonderful and blessed day.

~plowgirl

And the tradition continues

In my family, Sunday night is known as Pizza Night. Sunday night, pepperoni pizza, and 60 Minutes, it all goes together. To this day, I can't hear the "tick, tick, tick and the familiar "I'm Harry Reasoner, I'm Morely Safer, and I'm Ed Bradley" without tasting Mom's pizza. For as long as I can remember, we've had pizza on Sunday nights. She always made homemade pizza. She was FAMOUS for her homemade pizza.

In fact, for one of the church bazaars, she put up a gift certificate for 2 homemade pizzas. It brought well over $100. I think she actually ended up making about 5 to fill that gift certificate, as a neighbor bought it, and we had their whole family over that night, plus the 5 of us!

In college, I had several speeches to compose for Speech 102 class. One of the criteria for one of the speeches was an "exciting or overwhelming" fact. (or something like that). I'd just been home for the weekend. As I was driving back to Manhattan, I started thinking of what to write for the speech (which was probably due the next day!). The pizza I'd just had for supper was fresh on my mind. An overwhelming fact........I was 19, assuming Mom made 2 pizzas every Sunday night for my entire life, that totalled up to 1976 pizzas!!!!! Holy pepperoni!!!!! Now THAT was an exciting AND overwhelming fact! Yes, I used this in the speech, and my classmates were quite impressed. I think it might have even been the only "A" I got on any of my speeches! :) {Hey Ruth, do you remember this speech, I think you helped me write it?!}

Now that I'm an adult, I've tried to carry on the pizza night tradition. It may not always be homemade, in fact, Pizza Hut is just a quick phone call away, and Mark likes their crust better. My brother and my Aunt Connie have Sunday night pizza nights too. They DO make theirs homemade. They both make AWESOME crust! Bill has a degree in milling science, so he knows his flour, and has a way with gluten!

Homemade to Mom was truly homemade. The sauce was canned from tomatoes from her garden, the crust from scratch, the cheeses from the neighbors dairy, and the hamburger probably came from one of our cows. Homemade to me, is more like semi-homemade! I assemble ingredients into a pizza.

It's my turn and duty to pass the pizza making tradition on to my next generation. And since Plowbaby has now expressed an interest in cooking, tonight was her first lesson.

Rolling out the dough

Pricking the dough so there won't be air bubbles


Expertly placing the pepperonis


Pepperoni artist


Cheese placement


Finishing up the cheese

The finished product. Her first pizza!

I also tried another recipe tonight. In one of her Kid's Cookbook, there was a recipe for Cheesy Breadsticks. Take a package of garlic breadsticks (I used Pillsbury), unroll. Place a mozzerella snack stick on the long edge, roll over, and cut. I got 4 out of one side, and had enough dough left over to do a fifth one. Bake at 425 until golden brown. Let cool, and serve with pizza sauce. They were really good, we all liked them.

Hope you all had a great Sunday night. and make next week your pizza night!

Happy trails
~kim

Out with the old, in with the new: CAR FOR SALE!

Back in April, I mentioned that I wanted a new(er) car. The black 2009 Challenger was my dream car.

Wellllllllllllllllll, that wasn't quite what I ended up with.

I bought this car:



Therefore, the old car is going to have to find a new home. (Altho, plowbaby swears we are keeping it for her to drive when she is old enough!)



1997 Dodge Intrepid Dark teal green with grey cloth interior Power and tinted windows Power locks with child lock-out back doors All new tires, and new battery Air conditioning works GREAT!

Asking $2000 and hey, I will even shop-vac it out and maybe wash it for you! :=]

email me for more information at kansasplowgirl@gmail.com

The end of one chapter, but the beginning of another

Well, yesterday was the last day of me being a mom to a baby. Today, she started preschool. "I'm a big girl now Mom" is quite a common saying for her now.

On Monday we went school supply shopping, bought new tennis shoes at Payless, and had lunch at her favorite place - Applebee's.

Tuesday, I spent the day convincing her that she IS going to preschool! "I'm not ready was her reply". I told her that I'd already paid for school, so SOMEONE in this household IS going to school! She thought that maybe Dad should go! But, I reminded her that Dad has to work, to which she replied that then I could go. When I told her that she would have to stay here alone, and I expected her to do laundry, dishes and have supper ready when I got home from preschool, she started reconsidering her options!

Later in the day, her teacher Miss Barb called and visited with her a bit. That seemed to do the trick! After their conversation, she went to her room and picked out her outfit to wear for the first day, then she packed her new backpack.

The outfit

And today was the big day. She wanted both of us to take her to school, but first we had to go to Peppermill (local diner) for lunch. She ate a good lunch, and was ready to get to Miss Barb's. I think it was harder on Dad to leave her, than me. He doesn't want his little girl to grow up.

At the end of the day, she had had a GREAT day, and was just simply giddy when I picked her up! There are a few kids in her class that she already knows, so she was excited about that. She was especially excited that her buddy Trey is in her class!! She is ready to go back on Friday! Horray!

Now Mom can go back to work! (part-time at least!)

Plowbaby turns 4 - the cake

The theme this year was Hello Kitty. Pink, pink, and more pink......with a little bit of orange, blue, green and white thrown in for color!

This by far is my favorite cake that I have made for her, and the cupcakes turned out great too.

I used the "animal crackers" pan by Wilton for the cake, and trimmed the "bear" ears to look like "cat" ears. My friend Deb made the buttercream frosting for me. (I always wonder why she and I can use the same recipe and hers tastes SOOOO much better! - Thanks Deb!) The bow, eyes, nose and whiskers are from rolled fondant colored with Wilton gel.






































I had a template to work with, so it wasn't like I was constructing this blind! The template is her snack pack that came with her backpack for school. She even picked the "funfetti" cake mix. YUM!




















The cupcakes....just your standard chocolate cupcakes with white buttercream frosting and confetti sprinkles. They were yummy too!

93rd Annual Crawford County Fair

The County Fair starts this week. We have been out working on the fairgrounds getting buildings and pens cleaned up, grass trimmed and mowed, a new "ice house" has been constructed and painted. (That is "we" as in : the Fairboard members, 4H families, FFA members and other community leaders). Plowboy wonders why I spend time out there, it's because I enjoy it, and I believe that Crawford County has a great Fair, and I would like to see it keep improving.

The following press release was written by a long-time Fair supporter. (Thanks Kari!)

GIRARD, KS — Plans for the 93nd Annual Crawford County Fair are underway. The Fair is scheduled for Wednesday, July 29 through Saturday, August 1, 2009.

It features exhibits from 4-H and FFA members, Open Class exhibits, in which anyone can participate, and will include a variety of livestock shows and the 4-H Livestock Sale on Saturday. Complete rules and classes are available in the premium catalog, available at the Crawford County K-State Research & Extension Office at 120 E. Buffalo Street in Girard or online at crawford.ksu.edu.

In addition to exhibits and displays, there will be two nights of ACRA/IPRA Rodeo (locals welcome) action provided by the Williams & Long Rodeo Company of Cambridge, Kan., and sponsored by Pepsi Cola Bottling Company of Pittsburg. Additional chute sponsors include Labette Bank, Pike’s Fertilizer and Molle Automotive.

On Friday, grandstand entertainment includes the third annual Tuff Trucks Figure 8 Event sponsored by Heartland Rural Electric Cooperative and on Saturday, the popular McCune-Girard Young Farmers Demolition Derby will be an action-packed event.

All grandstand events will begin at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for all of these events will be available in advance of the shows only at the Grandstand ticket booth.

In addition to the Grandstand shows, each night of the fair will feature free musical entertainment on the Midway Stage. This year’s line-up will kick-off with Diversity on Wednesday evening. Thursday will feature Pittsburg’s own, Area 51. New to the Crawford County Fair on Friday night is the KKOW Colgate Country Music Showdown. See some of the area’s best talent compete for a spot in the state competition. Wrapping up the free music series, back by popular demand is “Little Elvis,” Duke Mason.

As always, no fair would be complete without a carnival. Southern States Amusements will have games and rides for your family’s entertainment.

So mark your calendars and plan to join us for the 93nd Annual Crawford County Fair east of Girard on Kansas Highway 47 from July 29 to August 1.