Happy Belated...

..."Birth" Day to our Great Niece Maylee Gail Simpson.
We have a gift basket here for her, guess it better get sent off in the mail before she grows out of of the outfits we bought, if she hasn't already. Thought we would make it up to Fort Worth to give it in person by now. You Gaston's know how we are. Can't wait to take her on a shopping trip when we do make it! She is CA-UTE! Check her out on The Simpsonian Institute blog.

..."Birthday" to nieces and nephew Larissa, Ashleigh and David and my step-sister Sylvia...sorry Larissa, Ashleigh and David, we haven't been able to leave comments on your blogs, having a hard time retrieving our password, can anyone help us??? Anyone? The only reason I can access our blog is because I saved our password on our computer...Gerald and I can't figure it out, spent over an hour and still could not retrieve it (long story)!

..."Mardi Gras"(Tuesday) spent the day with my dad and sister. We had a great time together. Later I had a surprise party after school for The Junction. I served Crawfish Etouffee, Chicken and Sausage Gumbo, rice, garlic bread and King Cake. Here is the recipe for Crawfish Etouffee, Yummy! Serve with garlic bread and a salad for a great meal! If you don't like crawfish try it with shrimp.

Crawfish Etouffee

1 lb. fresh or frozen shelled crawfish tails

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup butter or margarine additional

1 medium chopped onion

1 small chopped green pepper

1/2 chopped celery

1 clove garlic, minced

2 tablespoons snipped parsley

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon red pepper

1/2 cup water

Thaw crawfish. In a heavy pan, melt first 1/4 cup butter. Stir in flour. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, about 10-20 mins. or until a dark reddish brown roux is formed. DO NOT BURN. Add the remaining butter stirring until melted. Add onion, green pepper, celery. Cook and stir about 10 minutes. Add garlic and cook about 5 mins. or until all vegetables are tender. Add crawfish tails, parsley, salt, pepper and red pepper. Stir in water. Bring to boiling, reduce heat. Simmer uncovered 5 -10 minutes. Serve over hot rice.

Just a Spoonful of Sugar?

Today is our last Girl Scout cookie booth sale! I hope we get the last of these cookies sold as Snicker Doodles is tired of looking at all these cookie boxes. From the booth sale we will head for our place to have the sleepout where we will be up ALL night watching movies (sorry Gerald). The girls have requested pizza, Hot Cheetos, Funyuns, Tostadas with chile con queso, ice cream with all the toppings (chocolate syrup, whip cream, cherries, nuts,) root beer, Dr. Pepper and for breakfast, french toast (with strawberries, powdered sugar and syrup), coco puffs, and cinnamon toast crunch cereal, Sunny D and donuts. Oh and I forgot to mention they will have six boxes of Girl Scout cookies to gobble up courtesy of a dear friend of mine who donated her cookies back to us. If you are thinking they couldn't possibly eat all this...think again. So let's see... that amounts to about 15,000,000,000,000,000 grams of sugar!

bun co also bun ko

n. pl. bun cos also bun kos

A swindle in which an unsuspecting person is cheated; a confidence game.

tr. v. bun coed also bun koed, bun co ing also bun ko ing

To swindle.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth EditionCopyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

So this is what I do once a month? I get together with unsuspecting people to swindle them? Or is it just a confidence game? Oh wait, it's a confidence game played while swindling unsuspecting people. What Fun co!

Kidding aside, this IS so much fun! I look forward to each month. Getting together with these awesome, funny ladies is a joy! I always leave with my (face) cheeks and sides so sore from laughing! Here are a few pictures taken last week by Debby:

One More Thing

I see I have posted four times not counting this one ok so count this one which makes it five times in the last two days but I think it should be six because the post two days ago should count as two since it was way long, wow! That was a run on sentence, huh? Please refer to "Run on Sentences" blog entry made on July 28, 2008.

I Learned Something New

I was just playing around on the blog and by accident clicked on one of the photos. Did you know if you click on a photo it opens up in a new window and you I mean I don't have to use my bifocals. Who would of known? Obviously not me. Yikes! I might want to take the pictures of me out of here!

For the Love of Cookies

My Girl Scout troop did awesome today at their cookie booth sale. Despite the cold wind, being hungry and dealing with a couple of rude people they handled themselves like true Girl Scouts! I let them pick where to go for lunch and out of all the place's we could of gone...you guessed it... McDonald's. Snicker's was very happy that I came home with minus 6 cases of cookies. He is no longer up to his eyeballs in cookies now it's just his ankles.

Ricky's "LOBO" Room

I was at my sister's house yesterday and took pictures of Ricky's "NM Lobo room". I think my sister and I did a pretty good job for not knowing what the heck we were doing, don't you think? All we have left to do is hang his team pictures under the "ESPN Zone". Now it's on to Ryan's room.

Poor Neglected Blog!

Oh my, it has been five months since the blog has been fed, poor little thing! I knew it was bad when I noticed we were no longer on Clint and Larissa's (neice & hubby) "Daily Read" list. :O) My how time flies! Here are a few highlights of what has happened in our lives since the last entry:

*I attended a big 3 day "Hooker's" (Rug Hooking that is) convention in Fredericksburg, TX


*We added another room to the Western Town (laundry/pantry) and rebuilt the well house


*My sister and I created a "NM Lobo" bedroom for nephew Ricky (will have to get photos of finished room) this is about a 5' x 4' Lobo I painted on one wall and I painted "ESPN Zone" on another wall


*We moved into the Western Town in November/December (there is still more work to do)


*Hosted a "Harvest Party" and Christmas day here for the Junction Boys

*Kitchen is almost done just need countertops
*Adopted a kitty named him "Snickers" or sometimes is called "Snicker Doodles"


*I quit my job in November to become a "Home Executive", I continue to volunteer

*Finished the mini apron "Birthday Theme" swap, (remember those?) mine were hand painted and received aprons from swap ladies, now on to "Winter Theme" swap


*Gerald and I became "Great" Aunt and Uncle for the first time on December 3, we cannot wait to meet Maylee Gail Simpson (we are trying hard to get up to Forth Worth to meet her and take her on a shopping spree, really Larissa & Clint, honest!)

*Dad and Grandma Yolie visit us & the Rios' at Christmas time, "Guitar Hero" was played by all


*Enjoyed a wonderful party and weekend in El Paso last month with dear friends and Dad & Yolanda. A great party was hosted by Cody & Shannon Pierce where we saw friends we hadn't seen in years, lots of fun and laughing!

*Gerald continues to be busy at work and at home, travels frequently to Florida, El Paso, Del Rio etc. Here is an updated picture of the backyard as of last weekend (can't wait for the Pizza Oven and outdoor movies!)


*Have had several Girl Scout sleepouts & events and at the moment Snicker's is up to his eyeballs in Girl Scout cookies, "Thin Mints anyone?"


Well that about sums up our lives to this point. I will try to do a better job updating the blog. Hope all of you have had a blessed New Year so far.
Love,
Brenda