A little story, does it make you smile?

Years ago my mom told us kids a memorable little tale that I think is worth repeating after our little snow day today.

Way up in the north country there was a little girl on her way home from school. It was several miles home through the snow but that was OK since the little girl was used to the cold and was well dressed in her fur parka and boots. When she was almost home she became aware of a shadow moving behind her. She quickly turned around to look and saw a large bear sniffing at the tracks she made in the snow. Seeing this she very politely said to the bear, " Ooooh! You likey my trackeys? ........ I will make ye some more!"

Short and sweet.

Just the Way We Like it!

We are full of glee and downright goofiness at the sight of sunshine! It makes us kick up our heels!

Scooters are disappointingly poor performers on ice.
Walking on ice and making it break....a simple joy....should I tell them that that is where some of the septic runoff goes? (I am kidding!)

Well, You see, I have this sister......

What Grant has to do sometimes to keep the peace surprises us.....but sometimes you have to try something new to get your sister to agree to play lego's, it is all give and take you know. Bonus to this experiment (approaching it as a scientist helps with the male ego) is lovable soft skin. Man the girls are going to love it...too bad he doesn't like girls. And, it makes us relate to the face painting of the native Americans, see...it really is a warrior underneath this mask. I knew you would understand.

Sunday Dinner

We had our meeting stay for lunch on Sunday and really had a great time. I warned them all that they would be my guinea pigs while I tried a "Thanksgiving" turkey dinner with a south of the border flair. I think it was well received, I served sunburst squash soup (below), cornbread and chorizo stuffing, green beans with bacon, mushrooms and a Gorgonzola dressing, sweet potatoes made with honey, chili powder, vinegar (I really liked these), cranberry jalapeno chutney, a brined turkey served with pecan mole sauce. For the less adventurous I also had mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls, and a friend brought a veggie dish.

Sunburst squash soup:
Ingredients:
2 tsp. olive oil
3 Lbs. banana (Hubbard) squash, peeled and cubed
1 Lb. onions diced
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp. white pepper
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 quarts chicken or vegetable stock
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tsp. butter


1. Heat oil in a soup pot and saute' onions until translucent. Do not brown
2. Add squash cubes and spices and toss to coat.
3. Add stock, bring to a boil and reduce heat. Cover and Cook just until tender
4. Strain and reserve stock
5. In a food processor puree soup with enough stock to make a medium thick soup.
6. Add cream and stir to heat through
7. Add butter and adjust seasonings if necessary
8. Keep on low, do not allow to boil. If it gets too hot the soup may separate.

Serve dotted with your favorite green and red bottled hot sauces pulled out from the center to form a sunburst. (Gentry did not do this step- we had 25 people to serve, and they were waiting!) This was a bit spicy for some people but for those of us with missing taste buds from past experimentation with adrenaline producing, fire stomping, flame breathing, hair smoking, sweat drippin' food- it was very mild. We used Tapatio for the hot sauce. Yummy!

Survey regarding business name

I am in the midst of creating a blog for Gentry. A blog to show customers and interested folks the building process, and the various events that come up that keep it exciting. While doing this, I re-explored the idea of changing our business name. Who would you rather buy a home from? G. R. Burges Co., Inc. or Gentry Homes? We may make Gentry Homes our custom home building division....what do you think? I wonder if the Gentry Homes name will appeal more to women. It is women who Gentry usually ends up selling to.

Silliness!

When it has been raining for weeks, and it gets dark at about the time the kids get done with their homework, how do you make sure the kids are getting the proper exercise and provide them with an outlet for all that energy?

Well, around here we don't go on flashlight and umbrella walks too often nor do we go spelunking, parachuting, or snorkeling. We keep it simple. We put on some old Beach Boy tunes, get out those glow sticks someone gave us as a party favor and dance around the living room, jump off the couches and run around in circles. That makes us warmed up. If fact we can get so hot that we start thinking that it must be summer, and summer means we need to don swim trunks or sundresses.

Strangely enough, that rain turned into snow during our hiatus to Hawii! Woohoo-Good Vibrations!!

Another Party!

The boys started planning their attack on the girls early on.
Innocently playing around in the water....
Attack!
The fabulous four swimming more warily now.

Victoria
Lisa

Tiana
Karissa
Grant

Conrad

Grant was talking to me later and said that he and Conrad got out of the pool early because they got bored. Apparently there were a couple of girls who were easy to topple over off of their rafts ("and that is the way girls should be- and that is fun") but one girl was pretty good at resisting attack- and that got boring!

Victoria's birthdays

Victoria at 6 months and 1 year
Victoria at 2 years and 3 years

Victoria at 4 years and 5 years
Victoria at 6 years and 7 years

Victoria at 12, Grant at 9, Fireball at 5 years

Just a snap shot of the first 7 years, and then last year....have we gotten too casual?

Dining Room Floral Motif

Well, I am finished with the dining room painting for now. I think I need to live with it to know if I like it or not. It is quite subtle I think. As Gentry said, "it's not something a man would paint." O.K. I think he likes it! Wink. At least he is smart enough not to say he doesn't, not directly anyway. The pictures are not great but you'll just have to come over for a cup of tea if you want to see the real thing! See you soon!

Abe

He ain't pretty. In fact I would call him down right scary! Don't worry, I don't plan on hanging this fine example of expressive ceramics on any dark hallway wall.

Yikes!

13 years in the making!

Grant considers this gift partially for him....Victoria will not be wanting to ride his scooter all the time now!

Gentry and I are now parents of a teenager! Gasp! Day one went pretty well, of course getting a bunch of new clothes and getting out of chores for the day probably helped. I know my budget will not allow for this kind of guaranteed success. She had a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake, too bad you weren't here to enjoy it with us! Happy Birthday Victoria!

My daily artwork schedule

Well, I am happy that I have gotten to do some artwork today. We are fixing our dining room up a bit. Earlier this year when Gentry put in the heat for the lower level, we moved our furnace and that allowed us to open up a wall in the dining room where the cold air return had been. At the same time we removed 2 of 4 weird bump outs that were to be used by previous owner to "colonialize" it. I suppose they would have had columns eventually. For my birthday Gentry trimmed out these goofy windows that had not been fully installed, and put down baseboard. Not his favorite project because the floor will need to be replaced someday. It is discouraging to do things out of order, but my patience has it's limits! Back to the artwork, we repainted some of the construction area, and I wanted to add some color. After making a blue wall, I decided it needed something extra so did some floral accents. It has been very rewarding! I will be posting a picture when I get finished. I may not like it when it is done but it was fun anyway. See you soon.