Rice and Green Chiles

I thought I would share this recipe with you, it really is delicious!

Rice and Green Chile Casserole

1 medium onion, chopped 2 8 oz. cartons of sour cream

2 T cooking oil or shortening 1 tsp salt

3 c cooked rice 2 4 oz. cans of green chiles

1 c cottage cheese 10 oz. shredded cheddar cheese

Saute onion in oil. Remove from heat, add rice, cottage cheese, sour cream and salt. Stir well. Pour half of mix in large oblong casserole. Wash and seed green chiles and tear in strips (or just use chopped green chiles), put half of rice and half of cheese mixture. Repeat. Bake at 350 F for 30 minutes till heated through.

STUFF

I just love this "stuff", (thank goodness, because I have a lot of this "stuff".) I decided it was for storage, I could keep my dust here, keep it from floating willy-nilly through out the house. Almost everything I get is from the thrift store, given to me by like minded friends, bought at K-Mart, like the glass Martha Stewart storage dishes, or purchased at the antique store at any price, because it matched something that I already had.
I think I have my share of cute "stuff" and I feel like a millionaire. When it gets too dusty I even enjoy washing, drying and rearranging it. Almost everything has at least one chip missing which is good, because if it gets broken, it's not the end of the world. As much as I like my cute "stuff", if a friend needs a piece to go with their "stuff", they can have it. Easy peasy.

Woogie

This is another family member, Woogie. My son has brought home so many animals and I thought this would be the one that would be the final straw. Shortly after our home was hit by a tornado in 1999 and we were living on concrete floors with plastic sheeting for windows , my son brought this little surprise home. He had been reading the classified newspaper ads and suddenly jumped up with a smile on his face and got ready to go somewhere. A 16 year old with a new drivers' license, a job, extra money, a vehicle and some crazy ideas is a dangerous thing. I could tell he was up to no good, but until he arrived home with my surprise, I had no idea how wild things were going to get. He brought home a teeny tiny little varmint, some formula and a baby bottle. This is the same kid whose flour bag baby from his family living class did not make it from Monday to Wednesday. I tried to make him take it back, but he said they wouldn't refund his money, then I said I thought it was illegal to own a raccoon, and it is, unless you have special papers from the Department of Wildlife, but... he had them. We fussed and bickered for hours, but in the end he was ours. He did feed the tiny little churring (that's the noise the baby raccoons make) furball for a few days then I was delegated the job, actually every one in the family had their turn before he was weaned.

He lived in the house in ever larger 'nursery' boxes, used a litter box and was more fun than a barrel of monkeys. Until the day I caught him fishing in my aquarium for my big fancy fan tailed goldfish and he got a penchant for climbing everything, including people. He loved to climb people like they were trees then sit on their heads, he still does, which can be a bit disconcerting. After some of these escapades he got a pen outside, but he loves to run around the yard helping garden, by tipping over all the flower pots and digging around for bugs. His favorite toys are any type of Fisher Price learning toy with knobs, horns, bells and mirrors and glow in the dark dinosaurs (go figure). He doesn't run off, except for one time when he was a baby and was gone all night in a large group of trees. He was so happy to be found that he never wanders far anymore. He's pretty big these days about 20-25 lbs. and is very handsome, except his tail is not as big and bushy as wild racoon's are, maybe because he was neutered as a baby or maybe just bad tail genes. We had trouble finding a veterinarian, most of our local vets called him an exotic and they didn't handle them. We heard of an old timer in a nearby town, who was the best vet around, had tons of experience with all sorts of animals and never turned any away, because he loved animals, all animals. He has since retired and we all miss him, even Woogie does. Our raccoon never has been mean, one of my best friends begs to differ on this, I explained he likes to rough house and she swears she saw blood in his eye, we'll never know which it was but she did have a many hued bruise on the tender part of her lower thigh. He loves to eat chicken, crawdads, applebutter and marshmallows, well, don't we all, but mostly gets dry cat food and grapes or raisins. In this picture he looks a little sleepy as he was napping prior to snapping this pic. One day while shopping in Walmart I passed a mirror and the reflection I saw was a dishelveled, slightly crazed looking woman with raccoon tracks all over her hoodie, do you think I MIGHT be a redneck?

Calm after the storm.

There was quite a storm here 'again' recently, creating much havoc in the areas near and around our house. Luckily for us there wasn't damage to our house and I guess even luckier for me, (I haven't told anyone in my house), but I slept quite peacefully through the raging maelstrom. Which isn't actually like me, because I usually spend all spring (tornado season here) staying up all night watching the local weather guys and maps and getting very little rest. I sincerely send my thoughts and prayers to anyone dealing with losses from these storms. One area can remain totally untouched and next door can be complete devastation, it is all so random. Even if you are fortunate enough to have slight damage, there can still be a huge mess to clean up and get back to normal. I've been working on a few little indoor projects lately, but nothing picture ready yet. So here are a couple of pictures of my front porch. Painting and outdoor projects have now been pushed back to autumn or at least much cooler weather. My very best help and right hand man, my daughter has gone back to school, OSU in Stillwater, and after this last winter, spring and summer of work, drama and trauma, considers it a mini-vacation. Poor kid.

Skeletons in my closet.

This is my boy and his addiction.
Here are his girls at lunch.
This is a portion of Janelle's new family, I see Dustin, Jen, Jameka and Evil Dick, the rest are on the other side of the lunch counter.


Yes, it's true, our family has some sordid secrets. Especially the secret regarding my oldest son, you see he is an addict. Don't think we haven't tried to get help for him because we have. Everyone in the family has talked to him, we've even tried an intervention, but no luck.
I have to admit, parent's hate to you know, but I was an enabler, when he had hit rock bottom I helped, he brought two little bitches to the house, Danielle and Janelle, and they were little bitches, they carried on day and night, squealing and fighting, trashing my house and making it smell like a pig sty. But I grew to love these bitches, Danielle moved on finally, but Janelle is still here. She wound up pregnant of course, but I drew the line this time, none of these babies would live in my house and so far so good, they are living behind the barn, it's hot out there but I go out and mist them from time to time, they'll get by. Maybe you can tell my son's addiction is not drugs or alcohol, it's worse, much worse it is pigs, hogs, what ever you want to call them. If it were drugs the chaos could be contained the secret hidden in a drawer or closet. But at the back of my new property it is pig pandemonium and I haven't heard of rehab for pigsters. Do you think Promises will take him? Where is Amy Winehouse going?

Where are my kites today?

Today I went out with camera in hand, looking for the Mississippi Kites who had been around all summer, nesting in our area. One particular female has spent a lot of time in my old oak tree studying us I think, she certainly spends a lot of time staring anyway. They were around but circling in the sky, eating their bugs I suppose, but none close enough for a good picture. So we wandered around just taking pictures of old stuff and believe me here in Crescent USA there is a lot of old stuff, which is actually right up my alley (literally and figuratively) I did enjoy the outing though I did think at times I would end up melted in a little puddle like the wicked witch of the east (or whatever direction she was from.)

All Because of a Swan Decal

I really love my new bathroom, it was awful to begin with, not that I don't like John Deere green walls, just not so much in my bathroom, there was some really big moldy tile around the tub and demolition was dusty and wild. I rewired, then put bead board up, I cheated and used the 4 x 8 sheets, added more lights a new tub, flooring etc., Just to get to the point where I could put out all of the cute little doo dads I love so much and have been hoarding for quite a while. I got the mirror with pink and blue swan decal at the garage sale in Oklahoma City that they have yearly. Usually tons of good bargains are to be had by all. There is a guy there named Robert, who has the best stuff but I can't remember the charity he volunteers for. My friend Robie and I would to go to this sale religiously, but alas the past few years we've missed it and I've missed going with her. I don't have any cabinets in the bathroom yet, just a bookshelf with baskets. I need to think about that some more. The little prints reflected in the mirror came from an Anthropologie catalog and I think they are so cool!

Strange little house for strange little creatures.

Usually everyday around here is filled with a happy assortment of random events, even stuff we try to make a rigid schedule for will unfold in ways we don't foresee. Due to a huge personal loss of which I don't seem to be able to process very well or at all, I am throwing myself into lots of little projects. These little things and the huge support and love of my family are helping me cope, something that I am eternally grateful to each and everyone for. They know who they are and I hope they know just how very much I love them.

Now here's the tricky part; explaining how my strange little dog house , built for strange little dogs helps me deal. Well...................... i don't know..........it just does and today is good and tomorrow will be better.

This is not a pixie, this is my pixie.

Sooo ugly............better now.

My project of the day has been this uuuuuugly little table. I think it has a cute shape so haven't been able to part with it. So today I finally got around to doing something with it, which in my world may or may not be it's last incarnation, but I will try it this way for a while. It was really hot here today, and I don't think you are supposed to paint when it's this hot or when it's very cold, but while it was drying or baking rather, in the sun, none of my pets got on it and tracked it up. Of course I thought I would melt, but I didn't and looking at my little project, feel much better. If only I could do one a day I would be so proud of myself. I put the little table, now stool, in my bathroom. My grandma always had a little upholstered stool in her bathroom, to sit on while shaving her legs or painting her toenails or some such stuff. Of course my grandma also kept a plastic bread bag over the scales too, not very conducive to seeing your weight, but all in all not a bad idea, hmmmm........

Woo wee woo wa !

Here it is my very first blog, something I have been thinking about for quite a while now. Today I am surrounded by many happy faces. They may not be all real but yet they serve the purpose to brighten my day. Some of them are just so darned cute that you can't help but smile back at them. I have to also justify having this many tiny little cuties, so that works for me.

I look at them all and wonder who owned them originally and did they make them smile too. We lived in a new tract type home before and I rotated my cute stuff because I had no room to put all of my tiny treasures. So our new "old" home has lots of space, I just hope it remains cute and not cluttered as I find my self crossing that line from time to time.