Introducing......

Miss Josie Elizabeth, born January 15 at 3:57 AM. She weighed 7 lbs. 10oz. Mommy, Daddy and baby are all doing well. Granny is very tired and going to bed now. See you all tomorrow sometime!

Ben

This is Ben......





He's the love of Tobi's life.







Ben is the reason she endures her grooming..the bath, haircut, toenail clipping and other unmentionable things that we won't go into here....and even the cutesy little bows that she sometimes allows the groomer to put on her ears, it's all for the love of Ben!







Unfortunately for Tobi, Ben is a "man about town" and usually won't give her the time of day. You know the type. He goes traipsing about town from one end to the other, usually looking straight ahead. Everybody in town knows Ben and knows his name and it's not so much that Ben is friendly with everybody, he is actually kind of aloof. If you call him by name he will stop and look at you for a minute, then go on his merry way without so much as a "howdy-do", leaving you with the impression that he doesn't have time for you or can't be bothered.


Poor Tobi. She gets so fiesty, in spite of her almost 14 years, when she see's Ben on the street. Even though Ben is not a bad looking speciman, he's no spring chicken either, so to speak. With every chance meeting Tobi starts prancing along and shaking her beautiful, long, blond, tail from side to side...looking at him longingly with those big brown eyes. The other day Tobi and I were taking our walk out the street and we met Ben walking down the other side. He just kept walking on, refusing to look in her direction. She started to run from me to get to Ben but I held tightly to her leash. She then began a whining sound almost like crying. I really think she had tears in her eyes. Then she started a low, woofing bark to try and get his attention, but Ben kept right on going down the street, completely ignoring her.



My heart breaks for Tobi when I have to watch her go through this humiliation. She received a little bit of encouragement a few days ago when DH took her for her walk. Ben's "daddy" drove by them with Ben perched in the passenger's seat. He stopped the car and said, "Ben says, 'Hello', and Ben goes, "Woof, Woof!!" Tobi was such a happy girl for a little while.


I just know that someday soon Ben will realize what a wonderful old girl Tobi is and it will be too late for him. She will become so weary with vying for his affections that she will decide she doesn't need him at all. Then when she sees him on the street again, she will turn that beautiful, blond tail in his direction and say, "Talk to the butt, Ben. Talk to the Butt!"

Isaiah 40:31, KJV

"But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

De-lurking Success!!

I just have to tell you what a huge success my de-lurking post was. It actually became a party with a big turn out!! I think it was partly due to the fact that some people got scared. It might have been because of my magic mirror! Here's the comment Betty made, and just keep in mind that she's a friend and a regular here:

After reading your post I'm afraid to not leave a comment on everyone's blog that I visit. They might track me down like you did these three people. Leaves me wondering how you know they've been lurking. I'm scared!!

Just imagine, if I scared Betty who already knew me, the lurkers must have really been shaking in their boots and constantly looking over their shoulders to see if I was there!!

Remember when I said that when I looked in my magic mirror I could see Mary and Kaycie? It wasn't really magic! I actually knew for a fact that they had been lurking and not commenting!! When they were visiting me at Christmas I told Mary that she had better start leaving a comment or she would see herself on my blog. If you'll look here you'll see that it wasn't an idle threat! You'll also notice that I referred to her as one of my "oldest" friends!! :) I hate to keep wording it that way but we do go waayyy back, and let's face it, we are getting older! We've been through the good times and the bad times together. We also had some great adventures too. Our "then" husbands called us Lucy and Ethel. I'm sure you know there are many, many stories behind those nicknames!

Knowing my old (there's that word again) friend like I do, I can tell you she always was one to do things in a bold way. Just step right out there and do it with a "devil may care" attitude even if you don't have a clue what you're doing. So, while she STILL hasn't figured out how to leave me a comment, she just jumped right out there and started her own blog yesterday!! You will find Mary at Country Girl at the Beach. Please take some time to visit her and make her feel welcome in Blogland. You'll be so glad you did. She has a way of growing on people, ya know? Oh, and don't forget to tell her Hopie sent you!

Also on de-lurking day I met some new friends. How exciting is that?? First there were 3 girls who followed each other to my blog. They had been friends when they were younger and were reunited after 20 years through blogging! Rachel at A Romantic Porch, who has only had a blog for a short time. She lives in an old house built in 1904 so I knew right away I was gonna like this girl!! Then came her friend Denise at Denise Truesdales Blog, another lovely young lady, then their other friend Karla at Ramblin' Roads, another sweet girl. I know you will enjoy visiting these girls when you get a chance and please leave them a comment.

Then came a comment from Sandra at Nora Lee's Nook, named for her grandmother, Nora Lee, a woman with much history! I felt an instant connection to Sandra when I visited her blog and enjoyed reading every word and looking at pictures of all her beautiful, vintage things. Drop in on her sometime and you'll see what I mean. And again, tell her Hope sent you!

Sandra Evertson stopped by with a comment too! When I visited her blog I found out she has contributed to Romantic Homes Magazine, has her own line of rubber stamps and is the author of several books among other things! How impressive is that? See for yourself when you visit her blog.

Next new commentor was Katherine at Yellow Rose Arbor. Katherine is a beautiful, genteel southern lady who was drawn to my country supper! There's just something about fried green tomatoes that seems to bring the southern gals right out of hiding!! Check out her lovely blog when you get a chance and tell her Hope......well, you know the drill by now! LOL

Last but not least, I had an anonymous comment from Another Hope, who came out to say "Hi", since we share the name Hope. So, Another Hope, I hope you will come back again and leave me a comment Please don't go back into the shadows and hide. And if you don't already have your own blog, maybe you will venture out just like Mary and start one. I can promise you won't be sorry you did.

Thank you to all my new friends for joining in the fun on De-lurking Week and to all my old friends (sorry for that word again, girls) who take the time each day to leave me a comment. I appreciate each and every one!

Country Supper

Not long ago Lib was talking about how she was going to cook up all sorts of good food and freeze it, then when she didn't have time to cook a big meal she could just take something out and thaw it for supper. Good idea, huh?

I have to point out here that in mine and Lib's neck of the wood, we have breakfast, dinner and supper. Up north they have breakfast, lunch and dinner. When I lived up north I always thought their dinner looked more like our lunch!! They ate a lot lighter than we do down here in the hills!!

One of the foods Lib was preparing to freeze was meatloaf. Then I kept hearing Karen talk about making her famous buttermilk cornbread and I would be drooling. Almost daily I visit Sandi over at the Whistlestop Cafe Cooking blog and what do I see staring me in the face every day when I go there? Check it out...fried green tomatoes...right there on her header!!

What's a hillbilly girl, with thoughts of all this good country cookin' dancing around in her head, going to do? As a general rule I don't like to cook, but sometimes there is only one place to get good foods like these girls made and that's to cook it yourself!!

Last night I could stand it no longer and had to have meatloaf so I made one and stuck it in the oven to bake. You know, don't you, that if you have meatloaf you have to have mashed potatoes (mashed taters) to go with that and I do make some pretty good mashed taters if I do say so myself! :)



It just so happened that this past summer we grew some tomatoes right here in our own back yard. We had to water them faithfully every day because we had no rain here but we had a good crop right up until cool weather was coming. I decided rather than let the frost get the green ones I would try putting some of them in the freezer. I had never tried this method before or any method for that matter but I remember my mother canning green tomatoes. She would open a can and fry them up when we had snow on the ground and it tasted like summertime heaven! Even though I knew the canning was a tried and true method I wasn't equipped for it so I put mine in the freezer.

What could possibly go any better with meatloaf and mashed potatoes than fried green tomatoes? So I took some out of the freezer and fried them up:



Not bad at all. Not exactly the same as fresh ones but close. If you know anything at all about country cookin' then you know that no meal is complete without a pone of cornbread. So I dragged out my cast iron skillet, greased it up and made some cornbread!



Up north they say the presentation of food is the most important thing. Down here in the country, we say it's the taste. Since you only have my bad photography to go by and I'm not big on presentation, you'll just have to take my word that it was good. Can't you just feel your arteries clogging as you look at the picture??

National Delurking Week

Pea passed the word along that Jan. 7-13 is National Delurking Week. I don't know about the rest of you but I was once a lurker( wasn't I Pea?? :) It doesn't make you a bad person or anything, just a person who is shy about commenting. It took me a while to come out of hiding and leave a comment but, do you know what I found out? These ladies were so nice and seemed so genuinly glad that I left them a comment! I don't know if I expected them to say, "You git off my land and don't you ever come back", or seek their dog on me or something! Well they didn't and they won't. Neither will I. So if you are visiting my little blog today please take the time to let me know you're here and at least say hello in a comment.

I have three lurkers that I know of and I'll take this opportunity to say hello to them: "Hello" to Jennifer in Florida and Mary and Kaycie in New Jersey!! Love you all and wish you would leave me a comment sometime!! I feel like the Romper Room lady, remember her? With her magic mirror in hand, "I see Mary in New Jersey, Jennifer in Florida...." lol

If you'll go over and see Pea, she has several of these little caption you can choose from to use on your blog.

Join the Club

Ok, so this is not exactly an award. Well I think it started out as an award and morphed into a club or group. It is the Blogaholics Anonymous Award given to me by Grams. Now I really don't know what gave Grams the idea that I needed this. I mean, just because I have to check my comments first thing in the morning before my coffee has dripped and I still have those night cobwebs in my brain, and just because my laundry is piled up and my house is a wreck, and there is no contact with friends or family unless they blog or read my blog...could this really mean I need help? Is there a 12-step program for this addiction?? Well, Grams, here is my statement: Hello, my name is Hope and I'm a BLOGAHOLIC!!

I know there are several if not all on my sidebar that need to join this club. The award originated from Melanie at Livin' With Me. She has a handy code to copy and paste on your blog. Then just leave her a comment and she will add your name to the Blogaholics Blogroll. I pass this to Lib, Karen H., Brenda, Brandy, Penny, Peggy and Pea.

Thank you, Grams for all the fun you pass along!

One more award!

Ok, one more time!! Grams has given me this other wonderful award. She says I inspire her!! I'm overwhelmed! Thank you so much Grams. You, my friend, are the inspiration!

I'm inspired by so many wonderful women on these blogs. You know who you are. I visit you every day to be uplifted in body and soul. You faithfully come here to comment and encourage me and you'll probably never know in this life what this has done for me. I thank you all for that.

Sometimes, though, you have one specific person on your heart that you feel might need uplifting. I would like to pass this award along to Karen H., my sweet weather girl. Karen is so kind and encouraging to all and is truly an inspiration.

Thanks again to Brandy, Lib and Grams for my awards. I treasure them all.