Since I am sure you are getting a little tired of hearing about my kitchen capers, I thought I’d try to take at least one picture a day and share them with you. I’m going to try to post them each day - but let’s be real, that might not happen! But, since I came up with the plan Wednesday, I’ll start with yesterday…..
So on Wednesday ~
we took a walk to the barn to see a newborn calf - and were almost run over by a couple of horses! (I tried and tried, but could not get rid of the white eyes - anyone have a suggestion?
And then on Thursday (that would be today)~
we went on a peanut factory tour. I must admit the local folks that work here were quite puzzled about why we would be interested in a peanut factory, but aside from the noise, it really was interesting. Most of the peanuts there are shelled and processed for seeds, but the halves and “jumbos” go to their parent company, Fisher Nuts. And from there they go into Snickers, and M&Ms, and all of your other favorite peanut candy! This was a small operation, and it was still pretty impressive!
And now for some real excitement - we’re under a tornado watch and we’re ready to evacuate to the barracks if necessary. Yikes!
What a lovely weekend we had with our friends Drew and Frances! We were totally pampered as we slept in late, read by their cozy fireplace (with real logs and everything!!!), enjoyed delicious meal after delicious meal, and cup after cup of real cappuccino! It was a great break from our active “retirement”, and we were blessed to be able to enjoy their hospitality and company. One extra bonus - they are in week 3 or 4 of the South Beach Diet, so we had to suffer through steak and steamed vegetables, poached salmon and green beans with blue cheese, and salmon/asparagus/sundried tomato frittatas. It was so hard! 
We took our time heading home Monday, and are getting back in the swing of things here at TC. This weekend is a Parent’s Weekend so the next several days promise to be full.
It’s good to be back - but it was good to be gone!
OK - so we’re not going far, but in about a half hour we are taking off for a whole weekend!!! Whooeeee! We’ll be heading to Albany, GA to visit our friends Drew and Frances and we’ll so looking forward to our visit with them AND being off campus for a spell. It’s been a very busy month (especially for Gary who ended up as to “go to” guy for the 10 Sower men who were working here), and it will be nice to be more away than our weekly drive to Dothan!
Busy-ness aside, it has been a great month! The 10 Sower couples here plus the 10 other volunteer couples made for a busy and fun neighborhood! It was very sad yesterday as we began to say our good-byes to the couples that are heading out. It really is amazing how close we all become in just those short weeks. And a great blessing also! Three couples left early this morning and four will be gone by the end of next week. But three couples will be staying for another month - Yippee! Most of the other volunteers are not on our Sower “schedule”, so they’ll be hanging around, but the neighborhood really seems to be emptying out! Have I ever told you what we say to departing friends - We’ll see you again - here, there, or in the air! What a wonderful thing to be part of the Family of God!
New scenery - here we come!
They were taken outside our RV.
Yes, we’re in FLORIDA.
And yes, it has been in the 20’s the last two nights.
I guess the Global Warming memo hasn’t arrived here yet.
Brrrrrrrrrrrr.
Since the only time I’ve been off the TC campus in the last week was a quick trip to Dothan to pick up some supplies for the kitchen, there is not too much to report about our happenings this past week. Probably the most exciting part of the week was when my kitchen crew and I checked on the casseroles for dinner (1/2 hr. before serving time) and found them still frozen in the center. Not a real calm moment. As I was trying to figure out what on earth I could fix in the next ½ hr that would feed 100 people, the girls suggested that we just pull them out and start chopping them up! We took those four casseroles, divided them into nine casseroles, covered them up and put them back in. Oh, and we cranked those convection ovens up to about 425! Yes, those were an exciting couple of minutes!
But it was a good week. I got some much needed cleaning done, pulled out the sewing machine and started on Maddie’s quilt, and caught-up with some computer work. The kitchen schedule has settled down a little – there are lots of helpers this month, so I’m not putting in quite as many hours. When they do leave me “in charge” it’s been fun to take the stated menu and make it my ‘own’. For example, Saturday’s menu read – Baked Fish (Talapia – what a treat!) , mixed vegetables, creamed potatoes. What Stephanie & Gary made was Baked Talapia with lemon butter and a parmesan/breadcrumb crust, roasted carrots with dill and roasted potatoes with garlic and rosemary. Then we found two cans of vanilla pudding – not quite enough for our 70 cadets – that we stretched with a container of Cool Whip and served with some vanilla wafers. It all made the boys very happy. They rarely get fish, so that in and of itself was a treat. 
But while it was almost gourmet on Saturday, on Sunday we were back to an old favorite – PB&J with a hearty bowl of soup!
One of the perks of our parking space is a great view of the cow pasture. Normally, I wouldn’t necessarily consider a cow pasture such a great view, but there are 6 new calves out there, and they are pretty darn cute! Plus every now and again we get to see the boys on horseback out for a Sunday ride.
BTW - the casseroles were a big hit - and plenty HOT! 
