Reaching Into the Valentine's Day Archives...

I wanted to do a post for Valentine's Day, so I reached back into my photo archives and came up with a couple of pictures.  Some of you might have seen them before.

GinnyEllen ate way too much candy and cookies at the class Valentine's Day party.  The school nurse arrived in the nick of time.

This was another year when the boys got into a fight over GinnyFaith's affection.

Happy Valentine's Day!!



Alphabe-Thursday...the letter Z

Welcome once again to Alphabe-Thursday sponsored by Ms. Jenny over at Jenny Matlock..."off on my tangent." Sadly, our journey through the alphabet ends this week with the letter Z. I've enjoyed being your classmate and visiting your blogs. Thank you Jenny for being such a great teacher and giving us this opportunity.

I wanted to do something special this week, but the letter Z is another difficult challenge. I've already told you about my great aunt who was a ZIEGFELD GIRL. A while back I introduced everyone to ZOOM and how she came to find her forever home with us. Finally, I decided to tell you about our mosquito problem and how we tried to solve it.

I asked my son to go out in the backyard and take a picture of my legs covered with mosquitoes. Normally within seconds my legs are covered. Earlier today I couldn't stand still while watering the plants because they were biting like crazy. They've been horrible this year. Naturally, when we went outside a breeze came up and momentarily there weren't as many mosquitoes. There were enough to be annoying and my son had no desire to wait until the breeze died down, so this picture will have to do. There were only a few on each leg. The stupid mosquitoes tried to make a liar out of me.



A few weeks ago we decided to declare war on the mosquitoes. I don't like to use chemicals, so we bought a mosquito ZAPPER similar to this one.


The mosquito ZAPPER worked fairly well. I found a You Tube video of a ZAPPER in action. Turn down your volume because sound effects were added. If the ZAPPER sounded like this it would drive away the neighbors.


Unfortunately, the squirrel thought it was a bird feeder and jumped on it and swung. It lasted about two weeks.





Then I thought of ZUCCHINI. It's pretty plentiful this time of year.

When we lived in Virginia Beach, Virginia a friend gave me this recipe. It's easy and good! I've been making it for years.

Oven "French Fried" ZUCCHINI (Serves 4)

3 T. herbed bread crumbs
1 T. Parmesan Cheese
1/4 t. salt
1/8 t. pepper
2 medium ZUCCHINI (or yellow squash)
2 t. vegetable oil
2 T. water

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Combine the crumbs, cheese, salt and pepper. Quarter the ZUCCHINI lengthwise, then slice each spear in half (or thirds) to make shorter spears. Put them in a plastic bag with the water and oil. Close the bag and shake until well coated. Roll the spears in crumb mixture. Arrange in a single layer on a greased pan. Bake uncovered for 7 minutes or until brown and tender crunchy.





The kids just wanted to say...


Now head on over to Ms. Jenny's blog and visit as many classmates are you can before class is dismissed. Hope to see you in summer school!

Thancks Ms. Matlock. Yre da bestest teecher i evr had! :)

ALPHABE-THURSDAY - "J" as in Jeans, Juice, Jelly, etc

It's time again for Alphabe-Thursday sponsored by Jenny at Jenny Matlock..."off on my tangent." Head over to her blog for a list of participants and information on how you can join in on the fun.

This week we are working on the letter J. (Click on pictures to enlarge.)

The boys put on their JEANS and headed to the kitchen for peanut butter and JELLY with JUICE.



Then they went out in the backyard to play and saw JACK Rabbits. They decided to take turns trying to JUMP over the picnic table like a JACK RABBIT. (Boys will be boys.)



OOPS!



Once again, Ginny Ellen showed up. This week she had her favorite J word for the boys.

ALPHABE-THURSDAY - The Letter "I" as in...

It's time again for ALPHA-BE THURSDAY sponsored by Jenny at Jenny Matlock..."off on my tangent." For a list of participants and information on how you too can participate head on over to Jenny's blog.

This week we are working on the letter I. What a coincidence! GinnyFaith's class is also working on the letter I this week. For show and tell each member of the class had to bring something that started with the letter I. (Click on each picture to enlarge.)

GinnyFaith got to go first. Since she's IRISH she decided to tell the class about IRELAND and some of their IRISH traditions.



Then it was Ginny Joy's turn. She surprised everyone by bringing ICE CREAM and making ICE CREAM CONES and ICE CREAM SUNDAES for the entire class.



Ginny Sue was up next and she brought her ICE SKATES to share with the class.



Mikey and Joey brought an IGLOO filled with ICE. It was very heavy and took two of them to lift it. Good thing they're strong.



Then Anthony brought a bowl full of reptiles including two baby IGUANAS. He held them in his hands for all to see.



With that Ginny Ellen had seen enough! She held up a sign with one of her favorite "I" words and let Anthony know exactly what she thought!


Thank you Mrs. Matlock!

ALPHABE-THURSDAY "G" is for Ginny!

It's time again for Alphabe-Thursday sponsored by Jenny at Jenny Matlock..."off on my tangent..." Head over to Jenny's blog for information on Alphabe-Thursday and a list of this week's particpants.

This week we are working on the letter "G" as in GINNY. My love afair with the Vogue GINNY Doll began in the 1950's. She's the small doll standing in the stroller next to Dennis The Menace. Actually, the GINNY in the photograph is my sister's GINNY doll. I received the same doll that Christmas only with red hair. I'm assuming the photographer just grabbed a few dolls and put them in the stroller for the photograph.


Here's my GINNY wearing the same outfit many years later. Her hair had originally been in a flip, but as a child I cut her hair. It's funny, but I can still remember the day I did it. I was sitting on my bedroom floor holding GINNY and the scissors. I knew I'd regret it, but I couldn't resist the temptation to cut. Since this picture was taken I bought a beat up 1954 GINNY on eBay for her red wig. The hair color matched her bangs perfectly, so I kept the original bangs and now this GINNY has braids.


Over the years I've bought friends for my childhood GINNY at doll shows and on eBay. I now collect vintage, modern day, and vintage reproduction GINNY dolls. One of my modern day GINNY dolls is my travel doll and GINNY Faith sometimes accompanies me on trips. I find playing with my dolls relaxing and I enjoy setting them up in scenes.

Today, GINNY Ellen was causing trouble again. (GINNY Ellen is my version of Ellen Degeneres as a child.) MaMa was up in arms over her behavior. She kept jumping on the coffee table and dancing. That's my childhood GINNY (with her braids) on the left and my travel doll GINNY Faith on the right. Of course, that's GINNY Ellen on the coffee table.


I haven't had a lot of time to play and take pictures in recent months, but here are some pictures of a trip I took a while back with GINNY Faith and some of her friends.









GINNY Faith has gotten to meet the rich and the famous. Here she is with the Naked Cowboy when he came to Houston for the 2004 Super Bowl. (I hope I don't get in trouble with Mrs. Matlock.)



And this is GINNY Faith and a friend with an Astronaut.



And since this is Texas (and GINNY Faith is a Texan) she's a big football fan. She and a friend attended a Texans game at Reliant Stadium.



She takes the game very seriously and studies diligently. Her friend studies with her.



The rest of the pictures are in no particular order. Most of these photos were taken over the last ten years. I just uploaded a sampling for your viewing enjoyment (I hope).

These are my reproduction AA twins. Actually, the boy doll on the left began life as a girl, but I cut her/his hair so I could have boy since Vogue didn't make a boy AA doll. However, this year they have come out with one for their 2010 line. I made their matching outfits.



Bobbing for apples on Halloween.



Last year I made them Peeps for Easter. It was an experiment and I was going to redo them this year a little bit larger, but real life has gotten in the way and I won't have time.





This was Easter a few years back when they dyed Easter eggs.



This was Taco night at GINNY's house.



At Christmas time we have our annual Birthday party for Jesus.



Decking the Halls!



Trying to decide what to wear for Halloween.



The first day of school. I made their dresses.



The Christmas Eve that Grandma got run over by a reindeer walking home from our house.



Doing some Christmas baking.



I bought this little Christmas room box that someone had painted at a resale shop. Every year I set up a little Christmas scene. This is GINNY with her Advent Wreath.



Relaxing.



GINNY Faith has been raising this horse for the rodeo.



This isn't a GINNY doll, but one of GINNY's friends. I do have a few vintage dolls that aren't GINNY just so everyone doesn't look too much alike. This doll is watching Winky Dink on television.



And this is a group of Texas GINNY dolls.




Yes, in my house "G" is definitely for GINNY!


UH-OH...I'm in trouble. I can't get spell check to work tonight! Excuse all errors. (I hope Mrs. Matlock doesn't deduct too many points.)


Thanks Jenny for sponsoring Alpahbe-Thursday!