Spring in Texas

The creek behind our house that is usually empty has about 20 feet of water in it right now. Another 20 feet to go before it comes into our yard.

Casey had to drain some water out of the pool because it was overflowing. He was so nice to take the time to point out the beach for me too. :)

Spring in Texas from Nicole Boyles on Vimeo.

First cuppa tea

Hmm tonight I had my first cup of tea for the fall season. I love that moment where I realize what I am craving is a cup of tea. It means the weather has cooled down, it means that Halloween decorations are in the works, it means that pumpkins are on my mind, it means that cinnamon brooms are showing up in the grocery, it means fall.

It means tea to warm my hands at night and to fill my belly with bedtime comfort. Bliss.

A Sun Shower

A cold front moved through our area yesterday which is bringing us a fabulous taste of fall temperatures as well as some rain! But not just your normal everyday rain, SUN RAIN!

We had lots and lots of rain all while the sun was shining so sunily and bright. Off and on all day we had bursts of showers. It was great!

Not only did the cold front bring us rain, but the rain brought us two stray little puppies. Who are currently adjusting to a household that is all ready brimming with pups, which brings our temporary number up to 7, yes 7 dogs. We have a sneaking suspicion that these pups come from the same mother/place that Jenna did. They have many similarities like their legs, eyes, and muzzle shape. Oh goodness they are SWEET too! I am currently trying to find their owners and or a new home, which shouldn't be too much of a problem cause they are such loves.

So I got up early this morning and opened every single window in the house to let in this cold front. With all of us being sick last week I really wanted to air out the rooms, and today is perfect because of the cool temperatures and brisk wind. Love it!

Ike Moon

Ike is making for a hazy moon tonight, as you can see we do not have any bad weather from him yet.
Unless you count haze and humidity.

Prepared, but not much expected

We are prepared for any weather that Ike might throw our way, mostly it will be winds gusting around 15-30 MPH and rain. Not too bad, some of our summer storms are nastier than that, but we shall see.

Prepared:

• Waters, canned foods, snacks.
• First Aid Kits both human and pup.
• Batteries and about 15 flash lights.
• Candles and lights all over the place.
• Laundry is done in case we lose power.

Have I mentioned.

• Casey is Sick
• Alex is Sick
• Nicole is Sick.

Ugh.

Thanks for the emails guys, at this point we are safe and sound. If Ike hits lower, more towards Corpus Christi than we would be very worried, but we look to be okay.

Be Prepared Nie Style

Late last month when I read about the Nielson's airplane crash I could only think of Stephanie's new school year theme, it was to be prepared. So we have adopted it as well for our school year. I have gone so far as to make an admittedly overwhelming list of everything that needs to be done so we are prepared for anything that might come our way.

With Ike literally lining up to hit Corpus Christi and plow right over us, all the models show that he is going to make a trip to the Alamo, I started having a mild panic attack last night. But this morning, after digging around on my emergency shelf and checking out the pantry, I can happily say that we are pretty well prepared for Ike and any other nasty weather to come our way. We only need to pick up some water and fill the cars with gas, and we are good to go! Yippy for a small step towards being prepared!

Eyeballin' It.

Um yeah I guess I have been obsessing over this, most especially since the model now show it making our weekend interesting. if it follows the black line, we are in for one mega show.

Both sides of the coin.

It was a good weather day...

I wish it was a REAL mud bath...

Texas gets weirder every year. Today it rained Mud. Literally.

At first we thought it was because we had parked under a tree...
But then we noticed all the cars around us also looked like they had had a bucket of mud thrown on them...
And it wasn't pretty, it was dirty and smeary, and a very unfortunate shade of brown...
and then I learned while watching the news that you should hose it off your car asap because it not only doesn't look good, but also scratches your paint. So I just spent ten minutes outside hosing off the cars while it was raining. Seriously Texas confounds me sometimes. But I still love it here. :)

A la Mode

While waiting for the crazy ass weather we are expecting here in Texas, you must carry on with your everyday life, or you will become a weather on the 8's junkie. Which tonight included pie, Apple Pie, two of them! I discovered Grandma Ople's Apple Pie recipe at Thanksgiving, and few things have ever been so true on the internet then those reviews. I make a couple changes, and tonight doubled it all to make the two pies I need. Need, I tell you! Two, twin pies!

First you must peel and core about 6 Granny Smith's. If you have one of these thingamajigs you will love life!

Don't worry about the leftover green bits so much, because you can leave them in or not add that slice if you are picky.

And then you must cut your spiral apples in half moons because hello, it is an edible Slinky.

Oh a mega pile of apples ready to be baked. Hmmmm apples.


This recipe is not for the butter phobic folks out there.

Then get your crusts ready, which means head to your local bakery case and find these crusts, you will thank the angels above that you don't have to cut crisco into flour. These are my secret ingrediant, and I don't feel bad for using them because people ask me everytime how I make my crusts. Go Doughboy!

Then you must add various sugars to the melted butter and stir away to make caramel. Did you hear me, CARAMEL!!! of course a green spatula makes it a better caramel. Didn't you know that?

That caramel needs time to become caramel so get your crusts ready. One tip, don't fuss with folding down the crust too much because you want enough to pinch the top crust too later.

Then pile your apple slices into a crust, don't worry about making it perfect because these will cook down into glorious apple layers anyways.

Oh here comes the caramel, and this is where I am a bit different from the original recipe, I pour half my caramel over the apples and use the rest on the top layer.

Add your top crust, pinch the edges together, be sure it seals well or else all your pie juices and caramel spill out. And don't forget to make some vents. Don't blah out and just do knife slits, bust out those random cookie cutters. You know the one in the drawer way at the back.

Oh Caramel overload. Look at the yum. Pour the rest of the caramel right on top.

I brush mine around a little bit because few things in life are a tasty as caramel crust. Trust me.

I added my vent cut outs as wee stars. Just stuck them on there right into the caramel smeers.

Bake on lined cookie sheets, you REALLY want to do this. As well as have foil to cover them up with halfway through the baking, just in case the crust browns too much.

After a while you have glorious apple pies...

and instead of cutting into them, snag that wee "Lone Star" (hahahaha get it??! I swear I don't make this stuff up!) and the puddle of caramel crusty drippings and enjoy a taste preview.

Ummmm, yum.

The Smart know when to Go out

I forgot about our Pantry Foodie challenge for the week tonight. Well, I didn't quite forget, more as I decided that I didn't want to cook any more today since I have cooked four Thanksgiving dishes and prepped the other four. Also the thought of another sink full of dirty dishes didn't sound all that appealing. So we went to Chili's and enjoyed the cold front and 30 miles per hour winds that brought it down in the relative comfort of a toasty bar and fried food.

Now that we are home, we have all the windows open to air out the house one more time before temperatures hit the 50's for the rest of the year. This cold air makes me want apple cider and spice cookies. Wait! I have APPLE CIDER all the way from Maine, and if I try really hard I bet a Nutty bar could be sort of like a Spice cookie. Well maybe not... but the apple cider at least works!

One week Count Down

Alex's 2nd grade year starts a week from tomorrow. This coming week we have open house, final closet makeover, school supply re-check, lunch box menu testing, Hurricane Dean prepping, Hurricane Dean effects, three days of teaching for me, Casey at home with bugman for mega Daddy time, the Rain gutter Regatta, shoelace tying testing, sprained ankle nursing, muffin shots and grooming, office cleaning, multiple doctor's appointments, and massive laundry. We will be busy, but we are all together this week and despite my eternal hormonal grumpiness I am happy to have my family.

Fri- 9am

I am off to go find a way to get Alex, my mom thinks that they are no longer flooded in because she had a newspaper this morning. Yesterday, her entire neighborhood was flooded in due to the two roads that lead into her area being completely flooded. In fact if you saw the footage on CNN of the guy stuck in the tree, that road is one of them I take to get to her house. So weird and scary. Last night the creek behind our house was the highest I have ever seen it, it sounded like white water rapids. Luckily today it is down about 15 feet, but expected to go up since we are suppose to get another 2- 5 inches. Please keep us in your prayers as we keep an eye on Dean and our rising floods waters.

FYI- thursday 5pm

Right now we are okay, but the situation is really bad here in San Antonio with all the flooding from TS Erin. It took me an hour and a half to get home today and I have never been so scared driving in my entire life.

Hello Erin

Apparently I have nothing better to do tomorrow then endure 11 hours of 100% severe rain and WIND SQUALLS. Squalls, 250 miles inland are something to pay attention to. On top of that, there is the possibility that Dean might be visiting us some time next week. It is totally Hurricane season. So either I will be braving the rain to teach tomorrow morning, or I will be calling in Tropical Storm. Luckily my mom has Alex tonight and I asked her to keep him tomorrow night too. Just in case...

Rain Rain Go Away

Once again we are having major rain and major flooding. Usually in our area we get about 1.25 inches in the month of July, we have had 7+ inches all ready, with another 10 days of storms in our outlook. Parts of one major freeway has closed, right at the airport. Casey is going out to pick up my Dad from the airport tonight, so my Mom doesn't have to deal with the rain and road closures. So please keep them in your prayers.

In other news, we have a new car! We now are the owners of a BMW, woo hoo for a reliable car. It is so nice to know that when i get in the car it will start and run and NOT die on me. Whew!

Okay, I am off to snuggle up on the couch with a cup of tea and my endless Granny Square Afghan. I am finally going to finish up those last 5 rounds, and then it will be DONE!! Woo HOO!!

Two feet and counting

We had major rains today here in SA, which included some amazingly scary flash floods. I ended up cancelling my class immediately following lunch due to the the flooding and was so glad that I did because all the roads except one getting to Alex's daycamp were closed due to flooding. The one road left open was a river of water, which the city was getting ready to close.
The creek behind our house is within two feet of cresting and spilling into our yard. Considering this creek bed is usually at least 20 feet deep and yesterday it was empty says how much water we are dealing with.
We are going to have 7 more days of this weather, I have no idea what it is going to look like out there on Monday. I did cancel my class for tomorrow because Alex's camp cancelled and the client was flooding when I left there today.
So Bugman and I are going to batten down the hatches and watch the weather channel like junkies, until we pick up Casey from the airport. Wishes us no flooding!!

Icy Pictures and recipe

Brrr, take a seat!

This mornings Icy view from the deck.

Icicles last night right before the last blast of the ice storm.

Icy backyard, everything crunched and was hard from the multiple layers of ice.

Is it time to go back inside? Pee, me in the cold? No way!

Sheets of ice from our fence.

Icy Hand.

Play set the next day, a couple of them actually touch making them ice bars. More where bars but by the time we got outside it had melted a bit.

Well being couped up in the house has turned me into a June Cleaver. We roasted a chicken on Sunday, recipe from Nigella's How to Eat Cookbook. Rinse and pat dry the bird, rub a bit of olive oil on the breast, salt and pepper, and stuff a lemon halved up its bum. roast at 400 degree for 15 per pound plus 10 minutes.

From that one bird we had Sunday dinner, chicken salad for sandwiches and meat for chicken noodle soup. I freeze the bones till I have two to three birds then make fresh chicken stock.

Monday night we made ribs and had leftover oven fires and veggies with them. And today I have a Pork Roast in the crock pot with sweet potatoes, white potatoes, apples and onions. Yum!

Let it Ice Part Duex

It is amazing how quiet it is with everyone still asleep. I have been up since 5:30am for one reason or another, I figured there was no point in going back to sleep since I would just be up again and then very groggy. Between the winter cold, the cloudy sky, and the blankets I tacked up over the windows to keep the freeze at bay, our entire upstairs is shrouded in darkness, like a cocoon.

Last night I had a scrap attack while prepping a new class. I ended up finishing the page preps on my Thankful album, all I have to do now is mega journaling and photo spreads. I also prepped a page in Alex's life album and started my 52 words for me deck album. Pictures coming soon, once I get some decent natural light.

The hard freeze is expected to end today, which means all the lovely icicles we have hanging off of our house will turn into potential weapons when the ice melts. I have a feeling we will go on an icicles busting spree at some point today, especially the deck. Other then that we are hunkering down for day two of the Ice Storm, Alex is out of school for today as well and most of the city is shut down due to horribly icy roads and bridges. Pictures of our icy yard to come soon.

Time to make breakfast and watch the news.

Alex has a ICE day!!

BBbbbrrrrrrrrr, and its just getting colder.