The Brighter Side of PMS

I like to look on the brighter side of life when I can. Personally, feeling optimistic has been very hard on me the last couple months because the weather's been mostly cloudy and cold. For some reason I have a hard time being a peaceful and happy person when winter rolls around. I get antsy and yet I don't feel like doing anything except lounging in my husband's sweats all day. I have constant thoughts of moving to San Antonio to beat the cold. Some of y'all call it Seasonal Affective Disorder. I call it Smart Arse Disease.

I ask myself: Why is it I moved to Texas? Oh ya, to live where it's warm and sunny. Because Wyoming's cold and wind made me want to lock myself up with a rabid badger and have at it.

Last week, finally, the weather decided to cooperate with me. We had a few sunny days, and the temperature even rose to the middle 60s. That's when I got hungry and began cooking up a storm in my 1970s harvest gold kitchen.

Cakes, pies, eggs, candies, cheese sandwiches, pizza, and pasta. A harvest to get rid of the wintertime blues. I made five trips to the grocery store in three days. The food made me happy and somehow completed me in a way I couldn't at the time describe.

Or at least that's what I told myself until Sunday when I realized that I had just been PMSing. Dang food cravings.

Looking on the bright side: I got several recipes written and scheduled to post on Screwed Up Texan Recipes.

Looking on the crappy side: My tummy control pants are giving me belly cramps from the bloating. That and the combination of wearing them straight out of the dryer is cutting off the circulation to my intestines.

Looking again on the bright side: I can't eat as much as a result of my torturous tummy tucking jeans. In fact, my husband just might get seconds tonight...which brings me to another point--I'm so happy he weighs as much as me now.

The bad side: Weight. That's what living with a food craving PMSing woman does to you after nine years together.

Come on folks, y'all know what I'm talking about.

PS: My daffodils began to bloom last week and the trees are beginning to bud. Oh, and it's going to be 75 F today. Bring it on!

Meet the Modern Day Flintstones

Warning: This post is full of nerd talk.

When most people talk about what they did for their weekend, they don't say, "We went fossil hunting." Most people that is unless you're asking our family. That's right ladies and gentlemen, we are die hard fossil nerds.

Which is why we made it up to our favorite place to take our kids fossil collecting in Texas, the North Sulphur River near Ladonia.



The North Sulphur River is a beautiful river chock full of fossils and wildlife. We have found mosasaur vertebrae, bones, and teeth, fish teeth, vertebrae and even a fin, baculites, ammonites, as well as many others. Our favorite finds though are the shark teeth. What is great about taking our kids to this river to fossil collect is that they are learning about science in an open and fun environment. We always leave with something from the river, but as I've heard quoted before: you don't find the fossils, the fossils find you. How's that for nerdy?





I'll be the first to admit that it is quite the experience letting our boys run free in the gravel and mud; then finally flop over from pure exhaustion at the end of a long day.

Oh the quiet.

Oh the mud. But that's because fossil hunting is a serious business.



I always seem to collect tons more pretty rocks than I do fossils. For instance, I found this worn and tumbled fossilized oyster:



And through it back so I could make space for this pretty pearlescent non-fossil:



My husband always laughs at me when I do that.

At the end of the day, we were all wet, muddy, and tired. Lily didn't even look like a dog anymore. We carefully stripped the boys, changed their clothes, and everyone rode home without shoes and in mostly silence. Well, until an SUV nearly t-boned us in the city. Idiot.



Now if only I can convince my kids I'm not the fossil.

Friday Post Shout Out Week 2

It's that time again for Friday Post Shout Out! Once again, Friday Post Shout Out is your opportunity to acknowledge all those great posts you've read this week on the internet. You may be following them, you may not. They may be following you or they may not. For me, most of my shout outs will be to the posts of readers of Screwed Up Texan and Screwed Up Texan Recipes.

What you basically need to do is very simple. First, gather up those posts you want to give a shout out to--I recommend you keep it to two or three posts. Write a post on your blog or website telling your readers about Friday Post Shout Out. Next, list the posts you found funny, interesting, informative, whatever--your choice! Lastly, come back here and list a direct link to your Friday Post Shout Out on MckLinky. I let it pass last time, but please don't just leave a link to your blogroll or front page. Friday Post Shout Out is all about recognizing others and sharing what you read on the web.

My Friday Post Shout Outs for this week and why:

Living Locurto Blogger Calendar - Amy designed a simple to use and very helpful blogging calender to help you plan your posts during the week. It lists the days of the week, and also has a To Do, Blog Parties, and Ideas for Next Week sections. Best of all it is FREE to print!

Texas Britches - I got a good laugh out of reading her story about when she was twelve years old and had to wash her dad's car with his underwear. I got an even bigger laugh when I saw she made a Kitty Litter Cake!

Texas Blogging Gals - A Texas Chica created a blog where you can list your Texas blog by region. I signed up!

Add the Friday Post Shout Out button to your blog post if you wish by copying and pasting the following code into your post's html:



<center><a href="http://www.screweduptexan.com/search/label/Friday%20Post%20Shout%20Out"><img border="0" src="http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii24/allievanwagoner/SUT200x150FRIPostShoutOut.jpg"/></a></center>

Now it's your turn! Just a few reminders if you are participating in Friday Post Shout Out with MckLinky:

•  MckLinky is open now and will not close until Saturday evening while I'm getting this started to give you more time to gather all those great blog posts you've read this week.
• In MckLinky below, type in the name of your blog and then link directly to your Friday Post Shout Out post and not just to your blog or blogroll.
• Please link back to Screwed Up Texan so that others can enjoy all the great blog posts out there.
• Remember the Golden Rule of Blogging: Comment, comment, comment!! Make our Friday Post Shout Out participants happy!

Hope to see lots of you participate this week!

POST EDIT: You do NOT need to put MckLinky on your own blog...just link up here with your Shout Out post.

Recipe Box Week One

Look what cooking at Screwed Up Texan Recipes! Once again, I went overboard in the dessert department, but that's expected...right? I tell you what--when it gets warmer outside, then I'll post more healthful recipes. Until then, I need the extra calories to keep warm. It's not just what I tell myself, it's what I believe. For those observing Lent, my apologies.

Traditional Snickerdoodles

Spiced Apple Cider

Dr Pepper Peanut Pralines

Strawberry Spinach Salad

This next recipe is from the archives, but with Girl Scout cookies in full swing I thought I'd repost it just in case you either A.) ate all your Thin Mints or B.) were too cheap or poor to buy some this year. Can you guess which was me?

Easy Thin Mintz

PS: Don't forget tomorrow is Friday Post Shout Out where you list your favorite posts of the week on your blog and then come back here and link up on MckLinky to tell us who your favorites are! MckLinky will be up first thing in the morning!

Don't Mess with Texas

Alamo by Gaylord Stevens, 1975

Yesterday, was Texas Independence Day. On March 2nd, 1836 Texas declared it's independence from Mexico. Just four days later, the Alamo fell and around 190 men lost their lives--beat by an army of  2,400 Mexicans led by General Santa Anna. Included in the casualties were James Bowie (pronounced BOO-e), William Travis, and Davy Crockett.

Which instantly reminds me of the tribute to Pancho Villa song:

La cucaracha, la cucaracha,
Ya no peude caminar,
Porque le falta
Porque no tiene
Marijuana que fumar!

or in other words...

The Cockroach, the cockroach,
He can't walk anymore,
Because he lacks
Because he doesn't have
Marijuana to smoke!

Which doesn't have a whole lot to do with Texas or even the Alamo, but when I think of music from my neighbor down south, that song instantly comes to mind. That and the Tejano music my Mexican neighbors in my old neighborhood would play at 7 o'clock on a Saturday morning.

I may or may not be a proud Texan

I may or may not have annoyed my roommates in college

In any case, I am proud to be Texan. I am also proud to be American, but there's still no place like Texas. I mean, where else, but Texas, would I be able to recite by heart countless Texas trivia all in the name of several elementary school teachers that pounded it into my brain:

1.) State Bird - Mockingbird
2.) State Flower - Bluebonnet
3.) State Tree - Pecan
4.) State Mammal - Armadillo
5.) State Reptile - Horny Toad
6.) State Insect - Monarch Butterfly
7.) State Fish - Guadalupe Bass
8.) State Drink - Dr Pepper
9.) State Gem - Blue Topaz
10.) State Freak that also ran for governor and agriculture commissioner - Kinky Friedman

Quotable Kinky Quotes (but I wouldn't recommend it):

"I don't remember the first half of my life. All I have to say is a happy childhood is the worst possible preparation for life."

"I even went so far as to become a Southern Baptist for a while, until I realized that they didn't hold 'em under long enough."

"Remember: Y'all is singular. All y'all is plural. All y'all's is plural possessive."

"I have a better head of hair than Rick Perry; it's just not in a place I can show you." 

"I support gay marriage. I believe they have a right to be as miserable as the rest of us." 

"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder." 

And with that, I leave you with this:



Texas isn't just a state, but it is also a state of mind.

PS: Lonestar is the State Beer of Texas. Because I felt the need to set that straight.

PPS: Gaylord Stevens (see that Alamo picture up there) also happens to be my uncle, but he doesn't know it yet. Whew! Now that is a long story come to think of it. I also occasionally find his lost ink drawings for sale on Ebay and other websites, even though I've never purchased one myself.

PPPS: A cockroach can live for weeks without it's head. After that it starves to death.