ToAutumn

I have not been on this forum before, it makes me realize just how long this terrible war has gone on once again. I'd like to add my son he is now in Iraq. My will as always continue for ALL soldiers in All branches of service, all are dear to my heart.

Simmons King Lawson Griffin Woodward Tumblin Malloy Avery Young Heaton Smith Harrison These are a few of the names I've been working on for 5 five years. I'm such a newby compared to a lot of you who have been working on your trees for 20 years. I'm still proud of all my work, I'm the only one to have gotten so far on this branch of my husbands family, 2 others have tried to do the tree and got no co-operation from the older folks, I'm like a bulldog with a bone, I bugged people till they told me what I needed just so I would go away. I'm now on my 6th generation on one side and 5the on the other and every name has been a hard search.But I love it. I just wish I had more time to spend on leg work searches like I did when I first started, well, one day.

oh what a wicked sense of humour ye have, ye baaaad boy!

As I said, I'm cooking enough food for an Army, so you're all welcome to join in. Oh yeah, please bring the peach cobbler, it's been sooooo long since I've had a good peach cobbler.

Well, this year my son ia arriving on Tuesday to spend the week, he is a meat-eating, food devouring bottomless pit of a growing young man, add my daughter arriving on Wensday and any stranded truck drivers from the near-by truck stop and I am cooking up a lot of food to last the whole week in a buffet style help your self meal instead of a sit down meal. I'm cooking: Red wine basted turkey honey mustard glazed ham cornish game hens with mint jelly glaze bbq short ribs cornbread stuffing giblet gravy macaroni and cheese pie green beans with shallots stuffed mushrooms corn on the cob brussel sprouts steamed mixed vegs(broccoli, cauliflower and carrots) black eyed peas spinach roll ups orange jello mold with sliced fruit a cheese tray with salami and summer sausage a HUGE bowl of chex mix to munch platters of mixed cookies(I'm cheating, they're store bought!) orange sliced candy cake german chocolate cake fruit smoothies spiced apple cider lime sherbert punch apple pies A big bowl of fresh apples, oranges and pears and probably anything else anyone can think of that they want "special" when they get here. I have counted that there will be 27 people dropping in and out over the next week and I usually try to have plenty for them to snack on, munch on or just plain grab a plate and eat. I usually have everything premixed ready to put in the oven in the evening before my kids arrive and spread the cooking out over the first 3 days that they are here except for the cakes and pies, they're in the oven now, that way I can spend my days enjoying the time I have with all the family and friends. Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas.

Ok Westbrook, I want some of those recipes! I love to try new food and a new asian market just opened near me so maybe I can get any special spices needed for them . Please share.

I'm really wanting to have a good Christmas, but as for having the spirit, I think I kinda lost it. I don't have my tree up yet, I usually have it up the week after Thanksgiving. I have a floor full of unwrapped presents, making me guilty that I haven't even wrapped them. I haven't finished buying all the presents we need and I'm not really into going shopping again. I guess I'm almost in a bah humbug mood. I should really be excited because my son is comming home for the week of Christmas from the Air Force and my daughter says she'll be by on her days off in that week, but she has to work Chrismas day and eve. But I'm just Blah. Oh well, gotta get up and try something.

My mother died in Febuary and I just borrowed some cook books from my brother to copy some recipes. I found " The Art of Chinese Cooking" by the Benedictine Sisters of Peking. They started a cooking school in Japan after the war kept pushing them further out of China. They published this book in 1956 and my dad, who was in the Army bought it for my mom in Korea in 1957. There are some wonderful recipes and even hand drawn pictures on how to roll spring rolls and wan tons. I've tried to figure out how to paste the whole page here but don't know how. If anyone can help I will do so. I've saved them all as jpg files on my computer. But here are some recipes you might like. Shrimp Toast- Orininall called Shrimp on Toast Chop very fine 1 lb uncooked shrimp and 4 T onion; season with 1/2 T salt and a dash of pepper. Add 1 unbeaten egg white and 1 T. cornstarch. Mix well. Spread on thin squares of bread and fry in deep oil until golden brown. Serve hot. Cut very small for hors d'oeuvres. Serves 4 to 6. Chinese Fried Rice Heat pan, add 2 T. oil, and fry 2 C. onions, coarsly chopped, until brown. Add 2 C. cold, cooked rice and saute'. Add a mixture of 2 eggs, stirred slightly, 1 T. soy sauce, and 1/2 tsp. salt(may be made in advance to this point and fried in a small amount of oil just before serving); saute until done. For variety add 2 C chopped cooked meat (bacon, ham, shrimp, left-overs) or green peppers, chopped or peanuts, shelled and roasted. Heat throughly. Serves 4 to 6. Note:The book says American soy sauce is saltier than either the Chinese Chiang yu or the Japanese shoyu, if you can't get the Japanese or Chinese variety, use only a few drops of the American brand and taste often, it is much more concentrated and saltier than the oriental brands. If you want more let me know and will copy as many as wanted. If you have a recipe you want , just ask, if it's in this book will post it.

How wonderful a memory. It reminds me of a story my grandmother told me. When I was about 4 years old I used to stand on a chair beside her baking cabinet and watch her make biscuits. One day I told her that my mommie didn't make biscuits like that. She asked how my mommie did it. I told her she went to the frigerator and took out a can "Bopped" them on the counter and out popped biscuits. From then on my grandmother called my mother's biscuits "boppers"!

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to reply, I'm only home about once a week and truthfully, this is the first place I come to before I even check my e-mail! You ladies have me hooked on this site. I did get the phone call from my sister-in-law the next day. It wasn't what I hoped for, but considering my families history with my brother and his family I really should have expected it, but I didn't. My niece said I started the whole thing, that everyone was rude and standoffish to her and made her feel unwanted. My brother supposedly was so mad he went to put his boots on to come over there, but my "wonderful" niece begged him not to, so he didn't. Needless to say the conversation went to the dreggs from there, I was told that he just didn't want anything else to do with me, he didn't want the "stress or pain" I caused to him or his family anymore, that it wasn't worth it to him. Sister-in-law says she had tried to talk to him about how she thinks he needs his family as much as we need him but truethfully, she didn't sound too suincere. I've taken up the same stand that one of you posted, I'm not going to let it drive me crazy anymore. I told my SIL that he made his choice, let him live with it, and she could tell him that I would not be bothering them anymore, if he ever changed his mind he knows where I live. I've been here 11 years and am not moving anytime soon. It's just kinda sad that some families have to be fragmented like ours is. My hubby kept expecting me to be served with papers for assult or something from the little brat and I told him to quit worrying, if she wanted to play that game, I know how to take out a civil suit against her and make her pay throught her snotty nose for life, she'd really learn what it means to cause mentle distrss and emotional harm when she has to pay money out of her paycheck for a few years. My step-mother called and we talked also. She believes it was all a set-up. Replaying it in her mind she realized that the niece had come with the intent of starting a fight and I happened to walk in into the middle of it and tried to stop it. She has put it in the hands of God, I wish I could do that, but I'm one of those people who keep grabbing it back every now and then and worrying over it again. But I'm still praying over the whole citiuation. Thanks you all for listening and giving me feed back. I really do appreciate all of you and feel like you're a kind of extended family. Good luck to all for Christmas. My 21 year old son is going to be flying in from Fairchild AFB in Spokane, Wa. on the 22nd and staying until the 26th!!!! First time in 2 years he'll be home!! Going to be a GREAT Holiday! We're going to go to little truck stop down the road and invite any stranded truck drivers for holiday meal on Christmas day. We know how it is to be stranded away from friends and family at a place that only serves hamburgers, so we're going to share the cheer.

My brother just loaned me a series that your daughter might like. They're written by Brian Jacques, The characters are all animals. They live in a place called Mosswoods grove and the stories tell about their adventures. There are good guys; mice stoats, groundhogs, sparrows and there are bad guys; rats, weasels ect. they are real good stories. Just thought of you as I've been reading. Here are the names of the books:Redwall Mossflower Mattimeo Mariel of Redwall Salamandastron Martin the Warrior The Bellmaker Outcast of Redwall The Pearls of Lutra The Long Patrol Marlfox The Legend of Luke Lord Brocktree Taggerung Hope she enjoys some of these.

Oh, thank you, I understand the directions better now.

Thanks for the responces. I don't want to use tarn x because it will take out the details in the creases of the designs, I do remember something about the aluminum foil and hot water I going to look under baking soda to see if I can find the recipe again.

This is an update to the question "Do any of you dread thanksgiving". The time started off peacefully enough, my husband and I got home from the road Wed. morning at around 11 am, I stopped and got the last perishable items I needed to cook my part of the Thanksgiving feast from the grocery store. I cooked the rest of wed and early Thurs. morning, then we went to my dad and step mothers house. Now you have to understand, my step mother has worked hard for the 25 years they've been married to make a "FAMILY" of the four kids from my dad and my 2 step brothers, she has gathered all her"chicks" close to her just like a mother hen, including the 13 grandchildren and now their spouses and 2 great grandchildren. We have been that family really well until 2 years ago my sister-in-law pitched a fit and left in a huff with my brother and niece. They decided that they weren't going to speak to any of us ever again and haven't until febuary when my mother died. A week after she died I got my 2 brothers and sister together to have dinner and try to mend fences, he acted like everything was fineat the dinner, but I haven't heard a word from him or his family in responce since Febuary. I have honestly given up, I don't know what else to do to try and have my brother back in my life. Well, today my niece in law( by his son) called and told us that my sister-in-law was starting her own Thanksgiving tradition and that she would be coming by later with the 2 great grandchildren ( which my parents love dearly) later in the evening. She came, with my niece in tow. From my nieces manner I could tell there was going to be trouble from the minute she walked in the door. She just seemed to be aching for a fight. Now, I have to be honest, I am the hot head of the family. I am the one my step-mother told to keep my sister-in-law out of her house when my dad fell ill several years ago, before the big fuss. I am also the one the rest tell me that if someone needs their butt kicked, they know I would do it. I can be mean as a snake if needed, and if someone hurts my family I would willing put on my a** kicking boots and proceed to do so. I have stated and mean it when I say, I have RA and am in pain 24/7 the only change is the degree of pain, and it won't cause me any worse pain to put a fist in someone's mouth if they riled me the wrong way.But I have one promise I made to myself a lot of years ago, I will not start anything in my parents house, that is their domain and I will not cause problems for them between any of us kids and them. I almost broke that promise today. At the end of opening presents, my niece and step mother stepped into the dinning room, I started feeling like there was something bad wrong after a few minutes and got up to go through to the kitchen, not really snooping, just to casually check on things. As I walked through the doorway my niece was standing OVER my step mom and screaming at the top of her lungs,"You all knew and did nothing to stop it!" my mom was crying as the niece stomped out the door heading for the cars. Mom ran after her crying that she wanted to know what she was talking about but stacey kept on going. Mom caught her by the arm and said she wanted to talk this out and stacey screamed there was nothing left to say, SHE was leaving. Then she headed back toward the house. I was right on my mom's heels,she grabbed stacey by the arm and said she needed to tell her something about grandpa but stacey said she was going in to tell the old fart good bye.I then grabbed her by the arm and tried to get her to stay out of the house and told her to calm down before she went anywhere near him. She screamed at me to let her go, she had had 2 knee surgeries and her daddy would come over and bless me out for pulling on her like that. I told her to let him come.Yes I was getting Very angry, my mom was crying for God's sake because this 19 year old brat had screamed at her and was continuing to scream instead of to talk.Anyway, stacey jerked any and ran back into the house where I was only able to cut her off from going into the room where my dad was, I caught myself balling up my fist to hit her when I remembered my promise.The feeling was so strong I was seeing red, my poor mom was standing there beside stacey crying, begging her to listen and this kid kept screaming at her to shut up, in my mom's house! I didn't hit her tho. Oh, how I wanted to dragg her out of that house by her hair and whip her butt all over the back yard.....but I didn't. She ran into the bathroom and slammed and locked the door. mom waited outside the door until she came out and told her to leave, another sister-in-law and my sister took dad to his bedroom where she couldn't bother him. I went outside to get some cooling down time and smoke a cigarette. They all four left about 5 minutes later. My poor mom cried for 2 hours after they left, nothing any of us said helped to calm her down, her heart was broken again over one part of her "flock" being estranged from the nest. We finally got her to take a valium and drink a cup of hot tea and got her to stop crying,when we left at 9PM she said her head was starting to ease hurting so bad. It just breaks my heart and makes me mad as a hornet that my niece would show so little respect for her grandparents that she would show her [azz] at their house, effectively ruining the enjoyable time that everyone was having just being together. I tried to call my brother at his home, his wife said he wasn't there and wouldn't be there for another 15 minutes. I told her what had happened (this was after I calmed down,honest,I didn't scream at her or accuse her of anything.) I stated the facts and how upset stacey had made mom, and how upset I was and I wanted her to call me back and let me know that stacey had gotten home ok. To please call me and let me know what had set her off, what was wrong. That was 4 hours ago. No phone call. Nothing. I feel pulled two ways, betrayed and angry, niether are going to do a thing to straighten this mess out. I'm sorry this is so long but I really needed to vent and there's no where else I can vent to. Thanks for listening and I sure hope everyone else's thanksgiving was more pleasant than mine.

Does anyone have a cheap recipe or way to polish silver? I just inherited a silver tea set that has been in a box for at least 25 years and it looks horrible! I've not had the "pleasure" of polishing silver since I was a very young child and don't look forward to this but refuse to let it look like this.

I'm reading all the old postings and came across this on soap making, I only have one question- What is "trace". Everyone says add trace and I don't understand.

I always swore that if I turned 40 and had my mother's double chin I was going to have it lifted back where it belonged, but here I am 42 and I have her chin, her big behind, and the sagging boobs and a smaller version of her belly. I have to agree it would take a come along and a tow truck to likt everything I need lifting but I can't afford it. So I guess I'm just going to be the little fat grandma that my sister says she's going to use my wheelchair as a go cart with me in it.

My parents got divorced when I was 17. For a long time I didn't even talk to my father because of the horrible childhood I had. His new wife started Pulling in all of us kids and slowly but surely she made us a family again. There are 2 boys and 2 girls from my dad and Lila has 2 boys.For the last 17 years they have held Christmas on thanksgiving. Complete with tree, decorations and grandma playing santa. Most of the 13 grandchildren have grown up with this and will pitch a fit when they're no longer able to do it. No, it's not norman rockwell, more like the red neck christmas, but it's usually pretty fun. Up until 2 years ago we all had to put up with my oldest brother's wife from hell, but she pitched a fit and they haven't spoken to any of us since. It sure has been more peaceful with out her snide holier than thou attitude. My grandmother came a few times, she is a Baptist preacher's widow, one year we spiked the egg nog and made a separate batch just for her, well she got into the WRONG batch and we all had to try and keep straight faces while she kept exclaiming over how delicious the egg nog was. It was really hard not to laugh at a 80 year old lady on her first drunk, but somehow we managed. Me, my sister and one other sister-in-law took over cooking 3 years ago on a dare and have refused to let Lila cook herself to death again, we have a ball cooking every vegetable imagineable along with turkey and ham, bbq wienies and meatballs, macaroni and cheese,fried mushrooms and okra, homemade dressing, all kinds of cakes and pies and sweets. Last year as I was taking the pan of macaroni and cheese out of the oven I burned my hand and dropped the pan, spilling the macaroni and cheese all over the kitchen floor. There wasn't enough time to make another so we went on over. I have been ribbed for a year about no one having any and how I "ruined" thanksgiving by feeding the dogs the mac and cheese. I have already gotten a call from one step brother not to drop it this year.

Oh, thanks for the wonderful ideas,I'm going to put aluminum foil around the plants when I wake up in the morning. We just came in, it's 2 am and you see what I'm doing! lol, you ladies have me hooked. I rescued "Miss Foggy" 3 weeks ago now. On our way home there is a detour coming into the small town above our house and as my husband turned onto the detour I had a feeling somthing was going to happen. I told him to slow down I didn't know why, well he did, as we came to the stop sign at the other end I heard her meow REALLY LOUD, through the truck window and I grabbed the flashlight and there she was. Someone had been apparently feeding her milk and gave her an upset stomach, she was covered in mud and her own feces and was skin and bones. I picked her up anyway, she acted like she was waiting for me. When I got her home I gave her a can of food which she gobbled down and started to purr even louder. Then I took her into the bathroom and gave her a warm bath with LOTS of soap. She didn't appreciate it very much but she didn't scratch me, and she smelled better. It didn't take her the two days we were home to make herself right at home. Now when we open the door when we get home, we're met by all four "wee people" and their toys scattered all over the house, except for the rooms that are closed off. Almost as much fun as grandchildren, can't wait till I get some of those too.

Joan, do not feel bad, a lot more people do as you are than you think. You said that you like to feel that you can control your health by the foods you eat- have you ever heard of the hallelujah diet? It is said to be able to "cure" or at least put into remission a lot of diseases that standard medicine can't. I would like to go on this diet but as I live 5 days a week on the road I can't, there's not enough room in my truck to do so. I have tried several of it's recipes and they are delicious. If you are a true gardener this would be a great way to help your health as most of the foods are fresh vegetables. As for myself, I have rhumetoid arthritis and and bi-polar II, I've found that if I go off my meds for my bi polar I am not a nice woman to live with and I don't like myself either, so far I have heard of nothing that will replace the chemical imbalance in my brain or I would try it. I have insurance now but the med's I'm on are still expensive, there is no getting ahead when it comes to paying for them or my doctor's visits. I have to see my RA doc every 6 weeks and my Psychiatrist every 5 weeks because everything I'm on can cause severe liver damage. Every way I look at my future I am doomed to either 1: die of hear failure 2: end up in a wheel chair 3: have liver and or kidney failure or 4: be miserable. So I don't worry about what my future my or may not bring, I try to enjoy every day I have that I can move with the least amount of pain and can think rationally, I am a cancer survivor since th age of 9 and count myself blessed to be 42 years old and have seen both my children that doctors said would never be born, grown to the ages of 21 and 24.

Ok, first off let me say I AM the crazy cat lady who lives down the street. I started out when I fed one stray and 15 years later everyone for miles around has figured out that I have a soft spot and will not turn away a starving cat so I've had kittens put out at the end of my driveway to find their way to my food pans in the yard. I now have 15 outside cats and I main "Baby" who is 8 years old that is our alpha male. He started acting lonely and very needy in the last year when we're gone over the road(we're truck drivers who are gone 5 out of 7 days) so I brought in a little black kitten for company, then my hubby fell in love with a yellow kitten, and I found another little black kitten who was half starved and needed extra care because she was so small. Needless to say, the "Baby" of the family is more lively and playing like he's a kitten himself but the "Children" have decided that my houseplants are the greatest place to dig and use the bathroom, they still use the litter box but also my pots! I've sprinkled red pepper in the pots, and even put a cage over my violets and they still refuse to stop. We bought some spray that is supposed to deter them but they're hard headed. I come home and have to sweep and mop my dining room every time to get the dirt off the floor. Any ideas on how to break this habit?

Hillbillie, what is " Homesteading Beyand the Sidewalks" is this a magazine? How Can I get it?

I buy all my books. I'm not home long enough to go to our library and if I did I wouldn't be able to return them on time and have to pay late fees. I just finished a book called Through Violet Eyes by Stephen Woodworth that is fantastic.

I agree with All of you. I Really like love stories with the Pirates in them. I love any historiacl era when the book goes into detail about how they did things like spinning and weaving and making lace ect. I also like it when they tell about their everyday activities and how they cooked.