Hoedown Lowdown

Yeee-ha! The Harvest Hoedown was a smashing success! And you'd better believe that I've got LOTS of photos and details to prove it.

Twenty-five adults and thirty-one "buckaroos" (ranging in age from 4 months to 19 years, and everything in between) were present at the neighborhood shindig. Four new families joined in on the fun. We are blessed to get to live next to so many nice folks.

Grilled tri-tip, brisket, pulled pork, and tube steaks were on the menu. The neighbors brought appetizers and side dishes to share. Our kitchen island was filled with just about every kind of food from salad to beans to hatch chili casserole to yummy potato casserole to a baked "grown-up version" of mac-n-cheese to this to that and the other. I am missing several other offerings, but you get the idea. There was no shortage of chow.

Here are some of the smiles I was able to capture:

Claire, Jacinda, and Quinn

Macias Family

Jennifer, Cooper, Jack, and Judy

Alex and her Mommy 

(Alex is holding the "Dandy Duds" Award that she won for donning the best western outfit.)

Harris Family

Misailov Four

Cecily and Jens

Katie, Millie, and Lexie

Andrea, Liesey, Judy, and Barb

Dean and Jack

Cooper and his parents, Russell and Jennifer

Lanier, Livvy, and Lauren

I love fall decorations, so I have to share some of the fall-ish items we used to prettify the Smith Haus.

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Thanks to timely order fulfillment from Oriental Trading Company, and speedy-quick delivery via USPS, the kids had projects/crafts to do. Millie assembled this adorable scarecrow as a demo model. We also had an Indian corn craft and coloring activities.

Easy as pie!

The 2nd Annual Pie Bake-off was highly anticipated, and competition was fierce, in a neighborly kind of way. Seven pies were entered into the contest. The flavors represented in this year's event were: apple, pumpkin, peanut butter, buttermilk, and chocolate cream.

The highly-esteemed (upper crust?) panel of judges tasted each entry, took notes, then tasted a second time. It's a crusty job, but somebody's gotta do it...

I captured Dave, a.k.a. the General and head pie-tasting judge, and the "other" Dave engaged in an important discussion. This judging stuff is serious business, so there was much deliberation, debate, discussion... and disposal of pie. A third tasting was required. The judges reportedly had a tough time deciding which pies were the best of the best, since all seven pies were tasty. 

Scores were tallied,

Alka-Seltzer administered,

and the results were revealed.

3rd Place: Lexie's Triple Chocolate Pie

Somehow I missed getting a photo of this sweet eleven-year-old with her prize. Lexie won 1st place last year, but had to settle for 3rd this year. She was thrilled with a top tier finish, especially since there had been a three-way tie for 3rd place that had to be resolved.

2nd Place: Liesey's Peanut Butter Pie

(Thank you, Southern Living Dessert Cookbook!)

1st Place: Barb's Apple/Cranberry Pie

After the winners were announced and prizes awarded, it was time for dessert. YUM!!! Obviously, I had lots of forks and napkins at hand -- or in hand. Thankfully, everyone had saved room for pie. 

At the risk of having an illustration on my blog that is deemed as being in poor taste, I am going to share a tee shirt graphic that made me chuckle. It seemed to fit the occasion. (Please refrain from sending me any snarky comments.)

The aftermath

I'm thinkin' pie for breakfast...

Phone Photos

I recently got a new phone, which prompted me to download all of the photos from my old phone to my Mac. It is always amusing to see what is on my phone gallery -- I will go for months without ever really looking to see what is lurking there. There is always something interesting, that's for sure.

The following photos tell what we have been up to. Perhaps this post will fill in some of the gaping holes that this fairly neglected blog seems to have.

August 27 -- We saw MercyMe in concert before the Texas Rangers ballgame.

We had fun at the game even if we were all the way up in the nosebleed section. And we were still smiling despite the loss to Anaheim. The Rangers have been really fun to follow this season, even for those of us who are not die-hard baseball fans.

Mr. Smith has been a St. Louis Cardinals fan for as long as he can remember. As a young boy, he would tune in his transistor radio past all the static to the to hear Jack Buck call the games. I need to add that he has long been in the "the-National-League-is-better-than-the-American-League" camp; however, after living in Texas, he now has a favorite AL team. I think that the Cards will always be his favorite favorite. Let's just say that it has been an interesting World Series. My husband is a tormented, conflicted fan. The upside is that despite what happens in Game 7 tonight, he will be happy, well... sort of.

Is this really photo-worthy? I'm not sure, but it made us laugh.

Over Labor Day weekend, we headed to Waco for a visit with Mitchell and the Houston Thompsons. This summer, we endured 71 days (thankfully, not consecutive) of temperatures at 100 degrees or hotter, so it was a pleasant surprise to finally have temps in the low 80s that weekend. Ahhhh!

In Waco, we visited Heritage Homestead and got to do some fun hands-on activities and crafts.

We got to meet Pretty. I think she is smiling for the camera.

Of course, no trip to Waco is complete without a visit to the Dr. Pepper Museum.

I'm a Pepper. He's a Pepper. She's a Pepper. We're a Pepper. Wouldn't you like to be a Pepper, too?

There are several apps on my phone for taking and/or editing photos. 

The WeCam app is fun to play with, but Millie Girl looks kinda sad about it.

Pepper likes eating apples. What an unusual little beast!

Bartholomew found himself on the wrong side of the wine grotto door and could not figure out how to shoehorn his portly form through the bars. Isn't that a pathetic face?

It's apple butter season! We found a nearby orchard to buy apples from, but were puzzled by the box. Texas apples = California Tomatoes? We now have a pantry well-stocked with homemade apple butter and apple sauce. Maybe it's really Tomato Butter, and I am the one who is confused. Whatever the stuff is called, we should be set for a couple of years!

I get to see this face every night as I get ready for bed. Bart jumps up on my sink and loudly, yet politely, requests a drink from my faucet. Never mind that he has his own pet water fountain -- complete with filtered water. 

My kitty-boy is a dork. I am a dork, too, for taking this picture of him and adding it to my blog. 

So, all of the pictures are deleted from my old phone. The new phone has an even better camera so that should be put to good use. There will undoubtedly be more silly cat poses to capture. And who knows what else my new phone's camera will shoot?  We'll see...

Off-the-Wall

It's been a slow news day.
A slow week?
A slow month?

October is winding down, and I have not shared one word via INOKWACA about what's been going on with the Smiths. There has been a lot going on, but you just haven't read about it here. Maybe the daily goings-on at our house just isn't newsworthy stuff.

I have been busily tending my daily household/wife/mother/neighbor/friend/homework assistant/etc. duties, so I have not had time to write much this month. Although I have written a few entries, I didn't publish them. Sometimes I do that. It helps for me to get my thoughts written down, but then I decide that nobody needs or wants to see what I wrote.

While I haven't exactly had time to sit and stare at the walls, one might draw that conclusion based upon today's entry. 


Have you seen or taken a Rorschach test? The Rorschach test or inkblot test is a psychological test in which the perception of blots of ink reveal one's personality characteristics or their emotional functioning.
  

We have a variation of the inkblot test built right into the Smith Haus. We call it the drywall mud test. Well, we really don't have a formal name for it at all. The Smith Mudblob test? The "Sheetrock Brand" All Purpose Joint Compound Weird Shapes Test? 

After living in our new house for over a year, we all realized that we were "seeing things." 


One evening, our dinner conversation turned to the images on the walls. Now how's that for an exciting table topic? We learned that we were seeing the same things in one room in particular. Most of the walls in our house have a normal knock down drywall finish; however, the master bathroom, guest bathroom, and kitchen walls have a skip trowel finish, which makes for some interesting shapes in the mud. I won't mention what room it is that has the most interesting images -- suffice it to say that it is a room that we all visit with some regularity. And of course, regularity is much preferred to irregularity.


I am not sure what I see on the wall reveals about me or my personality. We will have to analyze that another day. Probably not. Could it all mean that I might be a bit off-the-wall? Probably! I mean, I did take photos of the mud patterns and write about them on this blog. And I fully intend to hit the "publish" button this time. Those actions could be considered unusual, I suppose. 


Despite the fact that my reputation as a normal, sane individual is at risk, here are one dozen Smith mudblobs, as well as my personal interpretations: 

 A hat? A flying saucer?

 A rooster?

 I'm seeing an exotic bird here; perhaps "Kevin" from the movie Up.

 "You ain't nothin' but a hound dog..."

Lafayette the Bassett Hound from The Aristocats

 One fish

Two fish 

(No red fish or blue fish)

 A boot? Italy?

A cat? A boar? A catboar?

A turkey! (It is getting close to Thanksgiving, you know.)

A wren

 I am not sure what we agreed that we saw here, but it kinda looks like a map to me.

Or single-cell eukaryotic organisms? 

(Is it evident that I've been helping my 7th grade student prepare for a science exam?) 

Or maybe it's really just drywall mud.

Michigan/mitten

I must think a lot about food, pets, and travel -- well, travel to Michigan and Italy. And I find it interesting that I "see" nine of the twelve images as animals. So, what does it mean? Probably not much. I think that the drywall finishers simply had a good time playing in the drywall compound. Or it could be that I really have been too busy this month, and I am starting to see things.

I'll let you know if I start seeing any writing on the wall. I would really be concerned about seeing that, especially if the words are being written by a disembodied hand. King Belshazzar would likely have rather traded the message he received for my birds, cats, fish, and Michigan. ;-)