Virginia Vacation

Danny and I had a wonderful vacation last week in Virginia. We visited our son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. They welcomed us into their lovely home and took us on all kinds of excursions. These are a few pictures I took while there.



There is a great park behind their house, and we had a lot of fun playing with Eleanor there. Every minute with her was so much fun. She is very entertaining.



This was Danny's first trip to VA. He had a lot of fun playing the grandpa role.




This picture was taken at a birthday party for one of Eleanor's playmates. They make such a handsome family.



One day we took the Metro (transit system) into Washington D. C. and did the tourist thing. We toured the WWII memorial and the Smithsonian of Natural Science. We also saw the Capital, White House and several of the monuments.




This is the second time I've seen the capital and I'm always awed by it.

I'm already planning my next trip to see my kids and granddaughter. I really miss them and look forward to the next great Virginia adventure, but most of all I look forward to seeing little Miss Eleanor.

This Week in Texas

This week was a busy, but good week here in East Texas. These are a few briefs of what's been going on.

1. Last weekend was yard work weekend. Danny mowed and did some of the weedeating. I trimmed the wisteria bush and surrounding small bushes. It was super hot so we only work in the cool morning hours. We went to a movie (The Strangers) one afternoon and walked out less than haft way through it. I'm not much on scary movies anyway, and this one was especially BORING.

2. We went shopping at Academy, Danny's favorite store. We both needed new walking shoes. We keep telling ourselves we are going to start walking soon. It's been three weeks since my surgery, and I'm about back to normal. My strength has been slow in returning, and of course Danny reminded me I'm not getting any younger. (Men are so helpful.) But, I'm much improved and I think I can start walking soon, at least in small spurts.
Academy also had some really cute short for 9.99 - 12.99 and shirts for 4.99. I got a couple new outfits, and I might go back for one more. That price was in my budget. My friends tell me I'm cheap, but I don't care. They spend $300 on purses that I've never heard of. I'll stick to my lifestyle and save my money for trips.

3. Last week was my last week at work/school for the summer. I finished up paperwork, processed some new books and bought and hooking up 10 or 15 new DVD players. It was nice because there were no kids or teacher. It's funny how peaceful school is without those two factors. :) Now, if I could just figure out how to get rid of that principal. Ha!!

4. I went to lunch with a couple of friends at a really beautiful place. Believe it or not it was between Gilmer and Pittsburg out in the middle of nowhere at a winery call Los Pinos Ranch Vineyard. It didn't even seem like Texas. It was more like something you'd see in a picture of California wine country. We sampled four of the wines, took a tour of how they made the wine, and had lunch. It was relaxing and a lot of fun. I'd like to take Danny out there and my kids when they come. They make sangria, one of my favorites, and I want to try that next time.

5. I am packing this weekend and tying up loose ends. It's off to Virginia next week to see two of my kids and precious granddaughter. I can't wait!!

The pictures below are of what I call my "Kitty TV". There's a bird feeder hanging on our front porch and my kitties, Maggie and Ozzie, love to sit there and watch the birds. We have several doves that will come right up to the window and the cats go crazy. There are also some beautiful red birds that come in to eat. I enjoy watching them too. My cats never go outside, so I figure they need a little entertainment.












We All Scream For Ice Cream!!

Well, I certainly scream for ice cream every chance I get. Ice cream has always been one of my biggest weaknesses. I always try to get low fat ice cream or frozen yogurt, and there are a few good brands. There are also a bunch of yucky ones.

Blue Bell has a good low fat frozen yogurt, but it has very few flavors. Also, the price has sky rocketed lately to almost $5.00 a gallon, and that's just ridiculous. One other small problem I have with some of the low fat ice cream is it has a tendency to bloat me up, and you know what that causes. Danny refuses to get to close too me when I eat it. :)

I think I may have solved my problem with the machine you see in the first picture below. It's an electric ice cream maker. It makes 1 1/2 - 2 quarts in just a few minutes. My mom has one of these and she really loves it, so I thought I would give it a try. I wanted to make a "healthy" ice cream, low fat and low sugar, and I tried my first recipe today. It was delicious!! Danny even liked it and ate two bowls. I'll give you the recipe I used at the end of this blog. You can find hundreds of recipes online and the maker I got has several recipes with it. Although a lot of them aren't low fat, but I'm sure they would be yummy.

I hope some of you try this machine it's really easy, fun and oh so..... good. And, the clean up was a breeze.



This is the Cuisinart Ice Cream maker. It has really good reviews online. I bought it at Sam's for $49.99. That was about the best price I found anywhere.


These are all the ingredients in the ice cream I made except for the frozen peaches.

It only took about 15 minutes to freeze. This is a picture of the freezing process.


And this is a picture of the finished product. It was very rich and creamy tasting. You would never know it was low fat and low sugar. The recipe calls for sugar but I used Splenda Blend.
(For some reason Blogger will not let me put spaces in the recipe.)
Low Fat Peach Ice Cream
3 cups ripe peaches (keep frozen)
1 package Knox Gelatin
1 can evaporated milk - I used regular, but next time I may try the fat free.
1/2 cup sugar - I used 1/4 cup Splenda Blend, but it needed to be a little sweeter. Next time I'll add more.
1/2 tesp. vanilla extract
1. In blender, mix together milk, sugar and vanilla.
2. Put a package of Knox Gelatin in a half cup of water and heat them together in the microwave for a few seconds. Then stir it till the gelatin is fully dissolved. After this, add it to the ingredients in the blender and blend them again.
3. Add peaches, frozen, but break them up into chunks and add them one chunk at a time. Blend after each addition.
If you add them all at the same the results is a big mess.
4. Put mixture into your ice cream maker. Don't take the freezing tub out to the freezer until you are ready to pour the mixture in. It should take around 15 minutes to freeze. Enjoy!!