My Sister is 60 today!

I was born 6 years after my Sister and it sometimes felt like 20 years difference. As I was growing up we had to share a room together, which really didn't bother me but as you can imagine it was really hard on her. Having to put up with a insolent young whippersnapper like me was really akin to torture for her. I had a tendency for not keeping my side of the room tidy, and because of that we had many a squabble, I can remember one time after wearing a particular sweater and staining it she made me a "believer" that I shouldn't do that again!

One thing I was really proud of was her membership in a drum corp in high school. She carried the Lassie Drum Corp Flag, and did all those really cool high steps and kicks. I'm sure it must have not been as glamorous as I remember, lots of early mornings practices in inclement weather and you can't even imagine how heavy that flag was. But I was always so proud seeing her participating in one of their exhibitions They got to wear those fancy kilts, and spats and all. Each one turning and marching in perfect time. It was really neat to be able to say My Sister was a Lassie!

She has been there for me more times than I could count, when our Mother died she was the one to tell me the sad news. She was the one who stepped in and handled our Dad's estate when he died and also our Grandmother's primary caretaker when we had to move her to a nursing home. She is the rock of the family and I'm not sure how we would have made it without her.

She was there for me during some really hard times in my life when I really didn't care about myself or anyone around me, strangely enough she cared about me.

She worked her way through college and graduated, found a job with the local telephone company and worked there for 30 years before she retired. She is active in her church and finds time to explore some of her favorite hobbies as well. She likes to do pottery, grow flowers, also works with her husband in a catering business and helps out with his deer processing plant. Frankly I don't know where she finds the time to breathe let alone take time to help me out when ever I need it.

A few years back I was living in Kansas City and following a health scare I had, she suggested I move back home. As a matter of fact almost insisted! Well I took her up on it and she was the one to go out and actually find me an apartment, get it all set up for me to be able to move and then she and her husband drove a van, packed all my belonging in it and brought me home. Now that I'm back, I have to admit it was the best move I ever made and I have her to thank for it.

I have done my best in the past few years to try and pay her back in the only way I can. By reminding her how much I appreciate and love her and her husband for all they do for me. I try not to be a burden anymore and so far I think I'm doing better at that. At least I think so...
Thank you my Sister, I love you very much. I hope you have a wonderful birthday today!

These are flowers from her garden.

My Sister, My Friend
Leann Stiegman
To me you are an angel in disguise.

Full of intuition, intelligent, and wise.

Always giving and helping through good times and bad.

You are the best friend I've ever had.

If I had one wish it would surely be to give you as much as you've given to me.

Though I've put our relationship through some cloudy days, you've been my sunshine in so many ways.

Through trials and tests, right by me you stood, and gave me your hand whenever you could.

Thank you so much my Sister, my friend.My gratitude for you has no end.

Skywatch Friday #14 Gray Days

Visit the Sky Watch Friday home page anytime after 7:30 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time on Thursdays to see sky photos from around the world. You'll be glad you did

a gray day
by Steve Patterson
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Rated "G" by the Author.
a gray day today
a gray day
done come my way
a little bit foggy
dew
and rain
a little bit soggy
but i ain't blue
whatcha' gonna' do
i ain't goin' insane
ain't gonna' be mundane
ain't feelin' no heart pain
and though this day is gray
i remember yesterday
it was sunny
skys were blue
ain't it funny
whatcha' gonna' do
somedays are just that way
and somedays are gray
gotta' take the rain
with the sun
gotta' take the pain
with the fun
no need to go insane
no need to run
ya' can't appreciate the darkness
'till it's too late
can't know it's starkness
until there's no light
until the day is night
until the day is gray
until the Sun's passed

away a gray day today
a gray day done
come my way but that's OK there's always another day

All of these shots were taken on different days, as you can guess we had a whole bunch of gray days this week!

Ozarks Sky with a bonus!

02-25-09
Originally uploaded by Rottlady

I'm trying out something new. Loading my photo from Flickr directly to my blog. This was yesterday's sunset and after up loading it I noticed not only did I capture a great sunset, I also captured some birds! They are too far away to tell what they are, but my guess is that they are geese.

If you click on the picture you'll get to see a larger image with the birds outlined in a box.

Skywatch Friday #5 The Ozarks Sky

Hello to everyone visiting my blog.

My first sunset was taken on Saturday Dec. 6,2008

The next one was taken on Sunday, Dec. 7, 2008

The clouds were so thick you couldn't see the sun for a while and then all of a sudden it burned through!

Just a few minutes later the clouds started to really break up

This one was taken on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2008

A few minutes later

It's amazing to me how much the sky changes in just a few minutes here in the Ozarks.

Visit the Sky Watch Friday home page anytime after 7:30 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time on Thursdays to see sky photos from around the world. You'll be glad you did.

Skywatch Friday #4 The Ozarks Sky

Hello fellow skywatchers! I have only two pictures to share this week but hopefully you will enjoy them.

The texture of this sky is just amazing! This was taken Friday Nov. 28

This was taken on Dec 1, the night of the Moon, Venus, Jupiter conjuction. I ended up spending a lot of time out in the cold that night!

Visit the Sky Watch Friday home page anytime after 7:30 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time on Thursdays to see sky photos from around the world. You'll be glad you did.

Turkey is done and Christmas is next!

It's been a while since I've posted anything here so I going to write about a few things I've been doing lately.



I cooked my turkey earlier this week, ate a bunch of it and then cut up the rest of it for freezing. I ended up with 6 quart size bags that I mixed light and dark meat in. I will use them for my rice cooker dishes and soup. I also boiled the carcass yesterday and made stock. I ended up with a bunch of bags I put in the freezer for the same use. I'm not going to have to buy chicken for a long time!







I decorated for Christmas around the house and bought a nice Norfolk Island Pine plant that had some pretty little ribbons on it. I had one before and obsiously I didn't take care of it right because it only lasted about a year or so. I'm reading up on it this time and hopefully it will last longer. Notice the large stocking? I got that last year with my gifts inside.














This is my stuffed rottweiler dressed as a reindeer.














Some candle holders set in a decorative fashion. Notice Santa is here.











I had to go outside to get this picture. Not much order to these lights but at least they flash and look festive!



So that's what I've been up to lately. And guess what? I'm actually in a holiday mood now. How about you?

Skywatch Friday #3 The Ozarks Sky

We had mostly cloudy nights this week but I was able to get a few pictures to share.

This was Sunday night's exceptional offering.

This was Monday night's sky, looks like a wool blanket to me.

This was Tuesday nights Big Sky.

Visit the Sky Watch Friday home page anytime after 7:30 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time on Thursdays to see sky photos from around the world. You'll be glad you did.

Is it Chicken, No it's Pork Stew!

Today I planned on cooking some chicken soup so yesterday I pulled the frozen chicken out of the freezer and set in the refrigerator to thaw. Not looking at it much I also prepped some celery and onions to add. Well the jokes on me! I actually thawed out some Stew Pork! Well, you know they both are light in color....I don't even remember buying this pork!

So when I started today to cook and discovered I had the wrong meat I had to go looking for a different recipe. This is what I found and it looks yummy. My pot is on the stove, I don't have a slow cooker, but that's ok. I can smell this cooking and I think for chicken/pork stew it's going to be great!

By the way, I doubled the recipe so I can have lots of leftovers.

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  
• 1 to 1 1/2 pounds pork tenderloin, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
  
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
  
• 1 rib celery sliced
  
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil leaves
  
• 1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves crushed
  
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
  
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  
• 1 cup chicken broth
  
• 1/2 package (16-ounce) frozen mixed stew vegetables
  
• 1 jar (4-oz size) sliced mushrooms drained well
  
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
  
• 1/8 teaspoons ground nutmeg
  
• salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork, onion, celery, basil, rosemary and oregano; cook until pork is browned. Place pork mixture in slow cooker. Whisk flour with chicken broth; pour into slow cooker/Crock Pot. Stir in frozen vegetables and mushrooms. Cover and cook on low 6 to 8 hours. About 15 minutes before serving, stir lemon juice, nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste. Serve over rice.
Serves 4.

This is where I got the recipe: Pork Stew with Vegetables

Skywatch Friday #2 another Ozarks Sky

This is my second Skywatch entry. For more wonderful viewing click on the Skywatch logo to the right.


We have had clouds for too many nights lately limiting my picture taking. But tonight was an interesting night. When I first went out this is what the sky looked like. Kind of ominous and dark.




But not 45 minutes later the sun had dipped below the horizon and the sky had changed to all there beautiful colors. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

My Brother Dave

Today I want to tell you about my brother Dave. Ask almost anyone and they will say their brother is the best brother in the world, but I have to tell them I think they are wrong, because I'm the one with the Best Brother! Earlier this year I wrote about My Brother Mark and while I loved doing so, it made me sad. Instead I'm going to write about Dave while he is still here and able to read this and maybe understand how important he is to all of us.

We recently had a scare when Dave ended up in the hospital due to some terrible headaches he was having that were recurring and hard to get rid of. After extensive tests and a whole lot of rest, the doctors are planning on sending him home. He has been instructed to rest and take it real easy while they are waiting for test results so they can decide on a treatment plan. Our initial thoughts were that maybe he had experienced a stroke but they have already ruled that out, thankfully!

This is Dave's wife and kids

Because of this I have been reflecting on how important my brother is to me and our whole family. He is the father of three great children and a husband to a wonderful wife he loves. They have been married forever....at least it seems that way to me. I'm thinking it's been at least 25 years but he will have to set us straight on exactly how long.

Dave is a little more than 3 years older than me, so when we were growing up I was pretty much a pest to him. You know how it is, I wanted to hang out with him and his friends, but since I was just the "little sister" that just wasn't something they wanted to do. We did participate in mud football games up at the school yard many a rainy summer afternoon. All of the neighborhood kids would play. Then once we got home would get in trouble for being all muddy and possibly sick from getting heated up from running in the rain. Boy was that fun!

We strayed apart for a while once I had discovered boys. But he was one of my best supporters when our Mother died when I was 17. My Sister was too, but she was married and already gone from the home. It wasn't too long after that he decided to move also. He went on the college in our home town, graduated and then to work at Silver Dollar City. He worked there for more than 20 years and when they decided to downsize he retired. But he didn't let that stop him, he went out and took an entry level job for the local telephone company and has now been there almost 5 years.

We did our share of hanging out together back in the 80's. I can remember the times I had when both Dave and my younger brother Mark would come to the numerous parties I would host. Halloween, Birthdays, and "no holiday at all" parties. As a matter of fact Dave was the one who knew where I was that fateful night that Mark died. He and his wife, Deb drove out to a barn party where I was to bring me home and break the sad news to me. I was never so glad to have him with me in my life.
Dave is a very intelligent man with lots of talents and even more hobbies, He loves his church and attends faithfully.



The Chiefs are his favorite football team and the Cardinals are his favorite baseball team. He told me today he remembers watching Super Bowl #1 in 1967 when Green Bay beat the Chiefs 35-10 and Michael Jackson performed live, Now if that doesn't date you I don't know what does. *smiles*


To wrap this up, I just want to say, Dave I love you very much and hope you are around for a very long time. Peace Brother!

The Flower Pot and the Screaming Lady.

I was reminded this morning of a story that just needs to be told. First a little info to set the story.

I live in an apartment and like to grow flowers on my front porch. Most of the flowers I grow are annuals that I replace each year when the weather warms up in the spring. Since I don't have a lot of spare storage space inside I have to leave the pots outside once the flowers have died back. I usually clean out the dead stuff and push the pots close to the building, some stacked, some not.

Well last winter I did just as described above, and after about a week I noticed one of the pots, a long narrow planter has something that had dug in the dirt and made a mound. I didn't think much about this mound of dirt other than the fact that the digging had been so meticulous that no dirt had been kicked out on the cement porch. I thought to myself that who ever had done the digging had been really nice and not made a mess at least!

I tried to figure out what had been digging and decided that it must have been the squirrels burying a nut for "storage". After "figuring" that out, I didn't think ponder on it any longer.


This is the planter I'm writing about


Well the first semi-warm day the next spring I was getting ready to do some clean-up to prepare for new flowers. Instead to reaching down to pick up the pot I used my foot to scoot the pot over so I could work sitting down in my chair. Well, I had a surprise that nearly set me back a couple of years.

All of a sudden when I moved the pot out of the dirt came a mouse! I think it was more surprised than I, if that's possible. He jumped out and nearly climbed the wall! While I was hollering, then laughing, that poor mouse did what they usually do and tried run as far away from the shrieking lady as possible.

I felt so sorry that I had roused this poor mouse out of it's winter home that I just pushed the pot back up against the wall and left it for the rest of the month. I don't know if he ever moved back in, I kind of doubt it though because he probably decided that it wasn't worth coming back to a nest that moved around and had some lady bothering it.

Monday Sunset------ Skywatch #1

This is my first Skywatch entry.

I had to hurry up a get outside tonight to get these pictures. I almost forgot we changed the clocks up yesterday.

It was nice a warm today, they predict storms later this week. Possibly severe weather, I sure hope not. Here is one last picture of the sun right after it went below the trees. The yellow in the clouds was something else!

8 things about Amah, My First Rottweiler

My name is Amah, and I am a Rottweiler. First a little history of the Rottweiler:

The origin of the Rottweiler is not a documented record. Actual history and reasonable supposition indicate that the Rottweiler is descended from one of the drover dogs indigenous to ancient Rome. This drover dog has been described by various accredited sources to have been of the Mastiff type, with great intelligence, rugged, dependable, willing to work and with a strong guarding instinct.

Reference: http://www.donnerbergrottweilers.com/hisory-and-origin-of-the-rottweiler.html

1. 
   I have papers and come from championship bloodlines, but I’m really not one to brag…. Well I was adopted by this nice lady you call Rottlady. I was a scrawny runt only 8 weeks old, I was scared of almost everything. She brought me to a place that had other dogs around, a small long thing they named Brandy (dachshund) and this big shaggy thing called Jake (collie-shepherd mix) he was really handsome and I got a crush on him right away! They were both nice and welcomed me to the neighborhood.
   They also had a black cat named Miss Kitty, she didn’t like me much at first….





2. 
   My name comes from a word that means a nurse or servant in Asia. I tried to live up to my moniker my whole life. My mom says I did a really good job of that!


3. 
   I grew really fast and loved my home. We had a great backyard to play in that even had a pond to jump in! I got to go everywhere with my mom and meet lots of people and other dogs. We even went to parades! I dressed up in green for St. Patty Day, and wore a red hat for the Christmas Parade! I loved seeing all the kids and they loved me too!




4. 
   
   When I got to be old enough, my mom introduced me to my first boyfriend and we really got along well. So well we had a litter of puppies 2 months later! I had 10 puppies, but unfortunately 2 died the first day, that was sad, but I had a whole lot to do which helped take my mind off the loss. I can tell you these puppies grew fast, sometimes more than a pound a day! I was wore out fast, but my mom helped and we taught them to eat solid food in only 3 weeks, boy was I relieved…. I don’t want to brag, but these puppies where just the bees knees! They were even self trained to go to the other side of the whelping box to do their thing in just a week! I kid you not, they would crawl away to do their thing away from where they were sleeping….Of course, I had to clean them up a little, but I didn’t mind.





5. 
   The kids grew really fast and it wasn’t long before they went to new homes. I was so glad my mom decided to keep two of my best girls, Aurora, my first born, and Delilah, my forth born. They were the apple of my eye and grew up to be much prettier than I, it must have been because their father was so good looking!






6. 
   I had a second litter a little over a year later, but it was not such a happy event as I had trouble and lost all but 3 of my puppies. One died before it was born, and caused my milk to be bad. My mom had to keep the puppies from nursing on me so she fed those puppies artificial milk through a tube every 3 hours for the first 2 weeks! I was really sad, but I helped all I could. I did the cleaning and kept them warm as soon as I could. Thankfully they grew fast and were on puppy cereal soon so mom could sleep. They were such sweet puppies, but a little spoiled because of all the special treatment they got! My daughter Aurora was a really good wet nurse for them and taught them everything she knew about being a good dog. It was good training for her. Delilah was just a little too high strung but she loved her little step-siblings all the same.
   
   Here is a description of how to tube feed a puppy and also a video:
   http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=2&cat=1651&articleid=928
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIKWr7yRU2g
   
7. 
   I think my favorite and proudest time was when my daughter Aurora had her litter of puppies, you know it’s always easier to care for the grandkids. She was a great mother and had 6 of the cutest little things I’ve ever seen! She even allowed me to care for them when she got tired or just wanted to go out for a while. I was always happy to lay around in the whelping box and kiss those cute little babies.





8. I lived a long and happy 9 years with my family near me, unfortunately I got sick and had to ask my mom to do something that made her really sad, but I loved her for making the difficult decision.

Saturday Miscellaneous

Just a few things this morning. I was all ready to hand out candy last night but just as in the last few years I had no visitors! I guess I'll just have to eat the candy myself...Oh goodie.






I was made aware of something special happening in out skys. A close encounter of Venus and the moon. I went out to see if I could get a picture but I was just a little too late. The moon had slipped below the tree line. But if you go out tonight you might get to see it. Here is a link to a NASA site that tells you what you might see. Good luck and happy sky watching! I'm including a picture I took a couple of months ago of an evening moon sighting I had.




We are finally seeing some leaves changing colors here, they say this is the peak week for seeing the beautiful colors that nature treats us to every fall. This next picture is what I see out my door.

I'm cooking a pot of beans this morning, I bought a 15-bean mix a while back and decided that today was a bean day. I've got them on soak at the moment and will put them together with all the fixing about noon to start cooking. Yum, I can't wait!

Well I guess I'll go watch a movie on cable for a while. Thanks for stopping in to read and happy sky watching tonight!

Tuesday Morning

It is something like 26°F this morning. I guess I should have brought in my Mums but they were on the way out anyway... I've noticed that the birds seem to be eating more, and I have had more stopping by than usual. I guess they are trying to put on some fat to keep warm. I snapped this picture of a female Northern Cardinal yesterday, it's so hard to catch them in a picture. They are too wary and will fly away if they see me move inside.

I ended up getting the post office to deliver my ballot yesterday after all, I nearly had to sign my life away to get it from the postman. They want to make sure you are who you say you are I guess. Well I voted and sealed it back up and it's ready to mail today. I'll try to catch him again or I'll have to go to a mail box later. There aren't any outgoing boxes close to me. All we have are these apartment boxes that have 12 smallish boxes for incoming mail. You can put a regular size outgoing letter in there, but there isn't room for this ballot.



I received the book I ordered, "The Ultimate Rice Coober Cookbook" . It's jammed packed with receipes and a really good chapter on choosing and the use of the cookers. I almost wish I had gotten this before I bought the cooker, I might have chosen one with few more features on it. It is just so easy to use, I'm making oatmeal right now as I write this. Just measure out the oats and water, add a little cinamon and some fruit in the steamer basket and turn it on! About 20 mins later and I'll be eating. As a matter of fact, I think it's ready now. So I'm off to eat!

Thanks for stopping by!

Monday Morning Musings

I'm having trouble deciding what to write this morning, so I'm just going to start and see where this goes.

It's really chilly outside right now, 30F and the wind chill is something like 20. I guess Fall is really here. It won't be long before we have snow....Although I really don't mind the snow too much. It always makes things so peaceful. I'm adding a picture of last nights sunset, the wind had picked up and it was getting pretty chilly when I took this. I didn't stay out very long.

One week left of this political madness. Thank heavens! I will be so glad when it's finally over and things can get back to normal. I ordered a ballot in the mail so I could vote early and the darn thing came while I was gone and the postman left me a card. Now I have to go to the post office because it's Certified Mail or fill out this card and wait for him to bring it back. What a hassle! It's getting so close to the deadline I'll probably have to take it to the Courthouse once I've voted now anyway. I'm not so sure that it would have just been easier to go to the Polling place like everyone else on Nov. 4th.

Well I guess I better get on with my day. Maybe I'll have more to add later.

Today I baked a cake!

Recently I bought a Rice Cooker and wanted to try out a Carrot Cake recipe with it. Well let me tell you, it didn't work! The cooker I bought only has 2 settings, cook and then it switches automatically to warm when it thinks it's done. For some reason it thought it was done cooking after only a minute. Ha! So I ended up firing up the oven and after pouring into a cake pan I cooked it there. It turned out great and very tasty. But now I have additional pans to clean! Oh well, live and learn.

It's really nice outside, a little chilly but the sun is shining and looks to be a very nice day. I'm adding a picture of on of my Fall mums, they are so pretty right now.

This is my first post

Hello everyone! I'm new to this blogging stuff so please be patient with me.

I live in the Ozarks and spend a lot of my time on the computer writing stories and posting news articles on Newsvine.com. If you like check out my page

http://bigmomma.newsvine.com

I also like to take pictures and am adding one of my favorite sunsets for your pleasure.