Meet Max

One spoiled baby!

A "NO PLANS" Saturday

Saturday November 12, 2011.  A beautiful fall day in Tulsa.    I had thought I was to work at Sorenson Call Center today (it was recorded in my book) but when I checked the records at the Call Center. my name was not there.  So today became a wonderful, no plans day for me to spend with Ken.  The morning was graced with sleeping in later than usual.

Lily cuddles Max



 Then the Scharf's dropped by to visit our new family baby -- MAX

Rosie showing us her new bracelets

Elijah with Max

Ken had considered taking me to the TU game at 11:00 am.  Ken opted out of that to visit the Hafli at St Antony Orthodox Christian Church.

I looked it up, a Hafli is a Mediterranean food festival meaning Hospitality.  This event was advertised as a Lebanese Gourmet festival.

I thought it was to be more than just food -- but it was a meal with deli items to purchase.  Basically it was St Antony's annual fund raising event for needy children.  The meal consisted of a seasoned boneless chicken breast served over HASHWA (rice, beef and almonds).  There was a cabbage roll, hummus, pita bread, tabouli and a greba butter cookie.   The meal was very tasty.   And because the event was a fund raiser for local needy children, we bought a box of six cookies to take home.  I'll tell you about that in a moment.

And Ken got to see some of the TU Game after all as it was playing on the television.  TU was playing Marshall College.  The score ending up 38 to 10 in favor of TU.  Ken was a happy man and I did my usual sorry for the underdog and wishing at least TU could have allowed them to save face by scoring more points than that.

The church is on 6th street west of the TU Track field.     TU is where both Ken and I graduated.  So we hold some tender feelings for the memories of the days on this campus. Ken's years at TU were in the '60s and mine in the '90s.  It has greatly changed and very beautiful.     They have added so many new buildings and changed the driving passages throughout the campus.

This is  the original entrance to the main administration building.  It use to be a "U" which has been closed off and is now a brick walkway and grassy park.   The entrances by car are from 11th street or Harvard or further north on Delaware.

So, we drove by the stadium to give it a wave while TU was running all over the other poor little team.

Now I will finish my story about the $9.00 box of six cookies that we bought at the fundraiser.  On the way home we stopped by Sams to pick up a few items.  They had a large assortment tray of Baklawa and other Greek cookies for $9.      Ken commented "well, it was a fund raiser for a good cause."





Baklawa assortment

  But in the check out line the lady next to me had purchased a tray of the Baklawa.  I commented to her that we had just come from the Lebanese Dinner and we had bought six cookies for $9.00.   Her comment was:  "and I can guarantee you that they bought those cookies from this same company.   These are the best ever and I have been to  many festivals where I could see back in the kitchen the servers, opening the packages made by this company and selling them by the piece for triple the price.    We got a laugh out of that one.  And look how beautiful the golden bow is.

Papa Is A Happy Man Again

It has probably been close to a month now since Babe, our  little Yorkie escaped from the back deck while Ken dozed.  He found the place where she had escaped and spent hours and hours searching for her.  There were calls to the Animal Shelter, to all the neighbors, posts on Craigs list and even calls to the surrounding Animal hospitals.  But Babe is not to be found.   It certainly did leave a gapeing hole in Ken's heart.  She had on her collar with phone numbers and the sort but no Babe was returned.  I told Ken he needed to wait until after we returned from Asheville in December before he got  a new puppy.  But he could not wait.   We agreed the next pup needed to be a bit larger and perhaps if possible, smarter.  lol     So Meet Max, Ken's new spoiled baby.   Max is a 6 pound, 12 week  old poodle, not registered and very onery but sweet.  He consumes all of Ken's time but the Papa is a happy man.

On A Cooking Spree

I have this habit when it comes to cooking.   If I don't have exactly everything the recipe calls for, I just 'make do.'    Which might at times, tend to drive Ken crazy.  His favorite solution is "I'll run to the store for you right now and pick it up".   I never want him to go just for one silly little item.   I always answer, "no, I can use what I have here."     Consequently, my cooking does not  always turn out like I hoped.

So I decided to make this wonderful Pumpkin Spice Cake with Maple Frosting that was on Sommer's Blog.   And I decided that this time I would follow the recipe completely. The only alteration was I did not add the nuts on top.   And when I went to frost my 3-layer masterpiece.....there was so much frosting left that I had to use  gobs on top and finished up by covering the sides as well.    I'll have to show you what it was suppose to look like.

You would never know it was the same recipe would you!

A Spicy Perspective.Com



And then the weather turned chilly which made me know it was time for that wonderful Chili Recipe so this time I allowed Ken to go shop for every single thing the recipe called for.   Yummmmm.  I love the sausage in the chili.




Sommer's Chili

 


Milk 'n Crackers with a bowl of Chili



That cake was soooo big that I had to pack it up for the freezer.  But for sure, Ken and I are enjoying a slice every so often, waiting for an opportunity to share it with friends. 



Alive and Well at Seventy Three

I had a very nice Birthday on Saturday, October 8, 2011.  I actually started celebrating with Ken on Friday evening by going to the Stone CreekRestaurant  for a wonderful steak dinner and cheese cake.   Then Ken and I went to a movie, THE HELP.

I told Ken I was going for a Pedicure Saturday morning to celebrate, so he gave me the cash to pay for it.  Saturday was the first day in weeks that I did not have pain in my back, hip and leg.....that might have been the best birthday gift ever.  I also went shopping for new jeans and a jacket. 

Hailey's Mega Meal

And at the last minute, we decided to meet at CiCi's Pizza after Saturday evening Church for pizza together with the Tulsa families.  Take a look at the plates of the children the first go around.  Of course they all went back for more.But these is demonstration of their first sweep across the buffet line. 

Lily, the Mac and Cheese Queen

Rosie, starting out as the Healthy One

Devin, moderation at first.

Elijah, starts with a little bowl of Soup

I love my rosemary plant.  Hope I keep it healthy.    Lily brought her new hat she had gotten from the Tulsa State Fair on Friday.

After we had eaten, the kids started playing with Papa's head.  I think he kind of liked it. 

Remember Sydney's famous saying: "hair pose to be on head."

In the end, they decided his head might get cold so he should try Lily's new hat. 

Where Did My Brain Go?

 I drove Ken to the mall today to get some help for his Iphone and laptop at the Apple Store.  After a Greek Gyro lunch at the food court, walking through the mall toward the store, ken said, "wanta stop at the tea store and get a sample" -- so we did.  The first sample was a Youthberry & Wild Orange Blossom mixture and we both loved it.  She said the minimum you could buy was two ounces.    (A neighbor had given us an entire tea set with wonderful tea from Teavana at Christmas time.)  Knowing their tea is expensive, and knowing they try to always sell decorative tins when you buy tea, I said, oh, we will come back with our tins and get some.  "Oh, we can put it in a bag until you get home" the saleslady responded.  So we were going to buy two ounces of specialty tea.   I never asked the price -- why not splurge a little bit on 2 ounces of tea.  "Oh, first let me show you some of our others -- so we sampled 4 or 5 more blends of beautiful tea.   OK, Ken and I decided, we will try the Jasmine Dragon & Rooibos Tropical blend as well.
Thinking that was four ounces of tea, we still did not ask the cost.

So when we go to the counter, we discover, the minimum is 2 ounces per tea and both selections were a blend.   Hummmmm, now we are buying 2 - 4 - 6 - 8 ounces of wonderful tea.   "Well, I get it" says Ken and she bags them up.    The shocker was when she rang up the total.  "That comes to $43.95."  It's already bagged and packaged, each scoop ran over the minimun two ounces just a tiny bit, and we never asked the price.   

We left the store very quietly .............. where does my brain go when I am in the mall .................... two tiny bags of Teavana Tea.....a total of 8 ounces for over $40.

Our final comment to each other, oh well, we will have some wonderful evenings by the fire sipping tea.

And by the way,  our lunch at the food court was only $15 and we did not spend any money at the Apple Store today, so maybe we used self control in some areas.

And, I must admit, when I enter the same room and pick up that Teavana bag, it smells GLORIOUS.

I Resisted Face Book For A Long Time

Yes, I did resist Face Book for a very long time--  until I discovered that there were very special photos and news that I could find no other place. So I decided that if I wanted to stay up to date, I better join....so I joined at first only for family members. Very gradually, I would add a friend. I kept my membership at around 30. It is so hard to draw the line, I thought I would never let it go above 100 friends, however, my 'friends list' has grown until now, it is up to maybe 124 friends. I still don't play any games or accept anything that requires an application.

With that explanation,  here is an example of a very special event in my children's lives that I would have known nothing about -- except I found it on Face Book, the Eastland Assembly of God Page for the Kids. I had no idea that my grandchildren had a special day at the church recently. I was happy to find it and it makes Face Book worth the time.

Parched, Burnt, Pruned, And Still One Can Find Beauty

Ken made this sign 45 years ago--Survivor Evidence!

Oklahoma has had an extremely HOT SUMMER with forty-three days over 100 degrees and too many of those days 110 and up to 117 degrees of heat and little to no rain.  It has taken a toll on the Scrivner property as it has all of Oklahoma. Right now there are so many grass fires.  When the city tree- trimmers came to 'scalp' us even more, I grabbed the little Fuji for some photos bearing out evidence of a tough time of heat and pruning.  The tree trimmers are preparing for winter and the ice storms that possibly break electrical lines and they are TOUGH on trees.     This blog is set to bear witness that Scrivner's are tough survivors as well as our surroundings.




Ken took this panarama of our front yard in the spring with his IPhone

 And this is this morning's sun shinning through the trees that I am shooting into.

Can you see the workman back there? 

And here is another man up in a little maple. 

Here are the wires they are cutting away from and oh my, did they cut a lot off of that old Pecan Tree. The man climbed almost to the top with his saw.

They left us half of a Pecan Tree

Can you believe we have patches of dead fescue grass in our yard -- even with a sprinkling system and a very high water bill!  Yes, this is an area of our front yard where the sprinkler must miss...and it is Fescue so no need to water now until we can throw new seed.  Even worse, you should see what the moles are doing....they make it double trouble.

But life is not all bad.  There are areas of green.  What is shown in the background are the Pecan branches cut from our largest Pecan Tree in the back. They will be ground into mulch for the city.

In the spring, I set out a number of garden pots on the back deck.  Four different kinds of tomatoes, two different varieties of lavender, thyme, parsley, several mints, basil, etc.   The goal was to choose hardy plants which could survive Oklahoma Heat.  But they did not survive this year.  Now in the beginning, it was wonderful -- until mid June -- and by mid July, there was death around us.  So Sad!   Ken had planted Marigolds to keep pests away.  Only one out of the six marigold plants live -- shouldn't marigolds survive anything?  

Knowing that with God all things are possible and when we trust HIM, HE brings new life out of death,  I decided to go searching the yard for signs of beauty and of life.  Although not easily visible, I did find some glorious beauty.     

The hibiscus bloomed very late but it did bloom. 

Our angel guards a few seeds from the cone flowers. 

The pampas grass was 'hanging in there' and the Cone Flowers had two tiny pale blossoms left. The Swan on the deck had one lonely pink petunia among the dried up stems and then the Crape Myrtles....Crape Myrtles always withstand the summer heat. But ours suffered from the harsh winter so the main branchs produced nothing and the shooters from beneath gave us late flowers.  The Mexican Petunias from Millie, did finally sprout and I found one lonely blossom.

Having shown all of this, I see my life moving in similar cycles.  Beauty, success, bearing fruit and them moving into periods of parched, dry, burned and fruitless.   Yet, there is always hope and never an end....it is a cycle which returns to fruitfulness and glorious hope.

"Trust God from the bottom of your heart:  don't try to figure out everything on your own.  Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;  He's the one who will keep you on track.  Don't assume that you know it all.  Run to God! Run from evil!  Your body will glow with health, your very bones will vibrate with life!  Honor God with everything you own; give HIM the first and the best.  Your barns will burst, your wine vats will brim over.  But don't dear friend, resent God's discipline; don't sulk under his loving correction.  It's the child HE loves that God corrects;  a father's delight is behind all this.:  Prov 3: 5-10 The Message.