Men!

I just love Men! Well, let me clarify, I just love MY man and I love how God created men! We got ALL our Christmas decorations put away today and it was Bill's idea! When the task is set, he is determined to complete it and complete it we did!

Now to decide where to go for Bill's birthday dinner! I started to get ready and realized my hair had been humidified by the Houston rain and sea level weather and I didn't have time to completely wash and redo it! Yikes! But then I had an aha moment... Ladies, you know what! Men, your man, REALLY means it when he says "your hair looks great just like it is" and he REALLY is being sincere when he says "You look amazing"! Whether you think your hair looks good or not and even if you have no hair at all (for my sisters in christ who are going through Chemo). IF you are simply giving him lots of affection and admiration! It is so simple! Praise God for how he created MAN! Particularly my man! Who needs an expenive stylist or salon treatment! Simply love and admire your man and you TRULY are the most beautiful woman in the room to him and he really will have eyes only for you!

I love the book, "Wild at Heart" by John Eldredge. It helped me understand how and why God created men to want to be the "hero" and to exhibit strength and and wildness! To be the hunter and protector is what men desire! That is their God formed shape to quote Rick Warren.

In the companion book, "Captivating" by Stasi Eldredge and John they confirmed my suspicions that God CREATED me to want to be a princess, to be captivating, feminine and alive! To find my hero and to praise and admire and love him!

It really is that simple!

Now off to dinner with my hero! Practice admiring your man and giving him affection and see how magical it is! You can start small, say thank you for little things he does, praise his efforts at everything, have a fit of excitement when he arrives home, yes, just like the dog does! It's magical, just try it! Be sincere but keep it up! You'll be amazed and soon you will be being treated like the captivating woman God created you to be! With our without redoing your hair! He really will see you as the most beautiful woman, his woman, in the room!

Proverbs 5:18 "let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth" (feel free to look this up and read verse 19! I didn't think I'd risk blogging that verse but God smiles when couples rejoice and enjoy his creation!)

This eve of 2011....

As I think about the New Year coming I ponder turning a year older. My 52nd birthday is near and I am glad to still be here! Yes, I was born on New Year's Day in Iowa City, Iowa where my father was finishing his medical training. My mother said it was 17 degrees below zero when I was born! She just remembers how cold it was even in the delivery room and how my dad would come in occasionally and pat her on the foot. He was a busy resident so he couldn't stay, he had to come and go. She says they were thrilled to finally have a little girl to complete the family! I am thankful for wonderful parents and two great big brothers who have both become good friends to me.
As many of us prepare to celebrate the beginning of another year, many think about New Year resolutions. Do you write down new ones each year? I do! I keep them in my daily prayer notebook and I like to date when I achieve each one. I know, I'm weird but I actually enjoy this annual tradition! I also make everyone at my house eat some black eyed peas for good luck and prosperity for the coming year! My mom always did this so I do too!
I asked Bill to give me an appropriate scripture to bring focus to this time of year and here is what he suggested. Philippians 3: 13 &14 "...Forgetting what is behind, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."
I like that! Forget and let go of what is past. This could suggest for you to forgive others, forgive yourself, and move forward. Let go of past hurts, failures,and disappointments. Start anew and press on toward the things God lays on your heart and mind as you seek His face in your daily prayer time and Bible reading. You can't go wrong if you press on toward what God calls you to do.

Write out what you hear God lay on your heart each day as you pray, read, and seek His face. It just takes a few minutes!

Well, let God's word imply what areas you may need to change....

Thinking about January 2011 makes me also think of February 2011! I ordered this cute Valentine apron for February! I want to let it inspire me to do something special for the ones I love! How can you show your loved ones you treasure them?

I am going to use my Pampered Chef cookie press to make these for friends and family for February 14th! Take a treat to someone you know who may be lonely or shut in on Valentines!

I wish you a happy and prosperous New Year!

Happy New Year, almost! I leave you with Philippians 4:8 "...whatever is true, whatever is Noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy- think about such things."

Dixie's Fudge and Spritz cookie recipes!

Every Christmas my mom, Dixie Ann, made Million Dollar Fudge and Spritz cookies! It just isn't Christmas to me without these two treats! I am carrying on her tradition! Here are her recipes!

Million Dollar Fudge

Combine:
4 1/2 Cups of Sugar
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 large can of Evaporated Milk
3/4 stick of marjarine

Cook:
Bring the above ingredients to a boil and stir continuously while gently boiling for a full 7 minutes

Pour over:
1 pound of chopped pecans
1 jar of Marshmellow cream
3 - 12 ounce packages of chocolate chips

Blend well and drop by teaspoonfuls onto wax paper to harden. Keep in air tight container.

Dixie Ann's Spritz Cookies

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Measure out the following dry ingredients and sift together and then set aside:

2 & 1/4 cups of flour

3/4 Cup Sugar

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

Beat in mixer until creamy:

1 Cup marjarine
1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

Gradually add dry flour mixture to creamy mixture with mixer running on low until all is mixed well and dough forms and holds together.

Load dough into cookie press of your choice. The Pampered Chef one is my all time favorite! You can sprinkle with sprinkles before baking if desired.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes until the edges just start to get golden.

You can also add food coloring to your dough and mix well if desired. Depending on the shape you choose on your cookie press you can do these for other Holidays as well! I do pink in heart shapes for Valentines and green color in a shamrock shape for St. Patricks! For Christmas I like the Christmas tree shape, the wreath, and the Ornament ball. You can also use no color and no sprinkles and it makes a great tea cookie! If your dough is refusing to stick to your cookie sheet, just refrigerate it a bit and try again. Good luck and enjoy!

I always cook some just plain too! Bill likes the plain ones the best!

This cookie press by "Pampered Chef" is my absolute favorite and I have gone through a lot of cookie presses! The ones from Dillard's and Macy's always end up breaking but this one has been faithfuland has continued to function year after year!

Things I'm Loving Thursday!

Here is my "Things I'm loving Thursday, posted in Wednesday! I am loving these "Softest Socks" from Bath & Body Works! These are a must have for every ladies stocking this year! So soft and comfy on a chilly night!
My friend Michelle told me about this special! I did it and I am loving my new iiphone 4!
Radio Shack is running a special trade in offer that ends this Saturday! You can trade in your phone there and upgrade for just $50.00! I traded in my 3gs and got this sweet new iphone 4 and I am loving it! The camera on it is truly amazing and it even has flash! I got it all updated and synced and yesterday got it working with the Bluetooth in my car! What a fun luxury and extravagance that I am enjoying! Thank you Lord that I have a job I love and that I live in a free country where I can splurge occasionally and experience joy on earth! I cannot imagine what our joys will be like in heaven one day, that will surpass any joy we have experienced here on earth!

Chick fil a unsweet tea by the gallon! I am loving it! My family is loving it too! I sweeten mine with a packet or two of Stevia and it is wonderful!

The Glade Apple Cinnamon candle makes my home smell like Christmas! I love to burn this one year round!

Starbucks Passion tea, unsweet, then I add my own packet of Stevia and it is so refreshing and zero calories/ zero caffiene! Mmmmm.....!!

I have just discovered Pandora radio and I am loving it! (Thanks Stephanie for the enlightenment on this!!) So soothing!

Lola perfume by Marc Jacobs! If you want to give a really nice gift to any female in your life, here it is! My sister in law, Sue, told me about this and I treated myself to a bottle! I am loving it! I get asked everyday what fragrance I am wearing! It is lovely! Thank you Lord for lovely, refreshing, soothing things you give us to enjoy!

These are some things I am loving, actually, this Wednesday! What are you loving?

Dixie and Pam's squash casserole!

My mom made and now I make the best yellow squash casserole ever, if I might say so myself! Several have asked me to post the recipe so here goes below...

You can see the squash casserole 5 dishes in on the front row! It's the golden yellow pyrex dish.

This is how it looked when almost done in Mom's oven! Here's how I make it:

Ingredients: 1 plastic grocery produce bag full of yellow squash

minced onion

salt & pepper

5 eggs beaten

2 sticks margarine

1 entire sleeve of Premium saltine crackers

2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese

Wash and pat dry squash. Slice and steam squash and drain. Mash drained squash well with a potato masher or whatever you have. Sprinkle minced onion, salt and pepper to your taste on top and mix in well. Place 2 sticks of margarine in squash and let melt as you stir it in. Crumble 1 sleeve of Premium saltines into the squash mixture. Add two cups of Sharp cheddar cheese and stir in. Beat 5 eggs in a separate bowl then add to squash mixture and stir/mix all together. That's it! Poor mixture into a large pyrex dish after spraying it with Olive Oil Pam spray or even just original Pam spray. Bake for about 45 minutes at 325 or 350 but keep checking it. Take it out when the top is just golden brown. You can add some crumbled Saltines and Sharp cheese to garnish the top if you want and just brown that a bit during the last several minutes if you want to but I usually skip that. Mom always added that!

Enjoy! Even people who swear they don't like squash LOVE this! You can serve it to them and just say it's quiche and they will devour it!

The irony of my watch collection!

I love watches! I have quite a collection of various styles, colors, and sizes. None are extremely valuable in a monetary way but valuable to me in sentimental ways. I have about 17 watches and my favorite has to be my gold watch my parents gave me for high school graduation.
The irony is that I love watches and have quite a collection but those who know me know that I struggle with being on time! I have struggled with this since 4th grade! My mother said it was because of Mrs. Madden, my 4th grade teacher. She was a very serious, unsmiling, stern, unhappy woman who made 4th grade a bad memory for me. You could not please this lady and she would criticize you and chastise you and label you as "late" even if you were early! I think that once I realized I couldn't meet her expectations even if I was truly early I decided to just meet her expectations and be late! She expected me to so I was! How's that! (maybe passive aggressive?) Lol! I think it was psychological and not really as bad as I make it sound but it has affected me all my life non-the-less. I can laugh about it and I CAN be on time and even early when I have to but it is difficult for me and it does take planning, effort, and help from my wonderful and practically perfect (in my mind anyway) husband who is very gifted and timely!
My timepiece collection.

These two belonged to each of my parents. The Seiko on the left was my Mom's and was given to her on her birthday well over 12 years ago by my brothers and me. She loved it and wore it everyday! I love wearing it now and thinking of her. It is a good dependable classic watch.

The Micky Mouse Timex was my Dad's and the last watch he wore regularly before he died in 1996 due to Cardiomyopathy. I was with Mom when she bought this watch for Daddy for one Christmas! He loved to outwardly demonstrate his down to earth values. He would proudly display his Mickey Mouse Timex on his arm as he worked side by side with some doctors who were caught up in expensive designer status symbols like Rolex! He was so funny and I loved how Daddy would proudly drive his very old Oldsmobile into the "Doctor's" parking lot and just be proud he drove a car that was paid for as he parked next to a BMW or Jaguar that some snobby doctor was in debt for! I loved Dad's sense of humor and mind set to intentionally not compete with status symbol seekers! Makes me chuckle just to think about his old cars and how he scotch taped EVERYTHING and more to make it last longer!

This is my favorite watch my parents gave me for my high school graduation gift! It was purchased at Nathan's jewelry in downtown San Angelo! I remember how mom paid it off month by month! I had my name engraved on the back and I took it every year to be cleaned at Nathan's. One year I finally had to have the wind up movement removed and replaced with a quartz movement. It has been a wonderful time piece, dependable, accurate, and aesthetically pleasing as well as sentimental.

These are my and my Mom's sterling silver cuff watches from Santa Fe New Mexico, made by the local Indian artists in that area. Timex made the time pieces just for them to fit into their crafted cuff. Mine is still a windup timepiece but Mom had hers changed to a quartz movement. Very unique is a good way to describe these watches.

These are the two fake Rolex's I asked Melissa to get me in China town in Manhattan when she was there as part of her graduate program. It's really an experience everyone should do at least once! Go to Canal Street in Manhattan and submit yourself to the street vendors of all things fake but designer! It's really fun! The various hawkers of goods pass by you and mumble words like "Louis Vittonne?" "Coach?" "Dolche Gabanna"? If you give them eye contact and nod or say yes the say, "follow me"! Or if you say "Rolex" back to them they say "wait here". In a minute a gentleman approaches you and nervously glances around before showing you a few choices! It's just hilarious! He states a price and you counter until you come to an agreed upon price! He tells you where he will set it down for you to claim. You agree and give him your cash. He then sets your fake item down in a near phone booth or window ledge for you to snatch. So funny. You then retrieve you lovely fake designer watch or Coach earrings or whatever it was you bought! You have then participated in supporting the Manhattan black market for all fun expensive looking fake stuff! A fun, silly, experience everyone should do at least once!

My two trendy watches from Charming Charlies (cheap and fun!) that fit the trend right now to wear a watch that looks like it's "your boyfriend's watch". Michael Kohr's started this look with his 3 to 400 dollar watches that look just like these I got for about 14.00! Fun!

My two Baylor University Logo watches. Bill and I gave each other matching BU watches back some years ago for Christmas. The one with the gold Baylor seal. Bill's finally wore out (mine still works!) but when we wanted to replace them on our 25th anniversary we had to opt for a new style, the old BU seal was no longer available. Baylor, being a private school charges a huge amount for their copyright so it's hard to find Baylor stuff. Fossil made some beautiful BU watches recently but no longer. Melissa and Jonathan got those when they were still available but we missed out on that one. I found some on E-Bay but do I really need to buy anymore watches? I think not. Well, Bill thinks not and says not!

Isn't it ironic that I love and collect watches when I struggle so with being on time! I am so thankful that I get to retire in 2 years and then I can relax a little more and not have to work quite so hard to be on time or early anywhere! Isn't it wonderful that we serve a gracious and forgiving God that knows us because He created us! He knows our struggles and he loves us unconditionally. He is strongest when we are at our weakest. He has all the time in the world, he has eternity. If we have accepted Christ as our Savior then we have eternity, with no clocks, to look forward! Ephesians 5:16 " making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish but understand what the Lord's will is."
Make the most of your time! What you spend your time on is what is really truly most important to you. Examine how you spend your time. Are you "spending" your time or investing it?

Things I'm Loving Thursday!

I can't believe it's Thursday already! As I do my gratitude exercise, here are a few things I'm loving on this particular Thursday....


I am loving my Baylor Bears! The boys play Texas A&M this Saturday in Waco! We WILL be there, rain or shine! Robert Griffin the 3rd got his official letter that he is being considered for the Hiesman trophy! Both our Big 12 women's and men's basketball teams are starting their season off being ranked in the top 25! Praise God! Happy days are here again for my beloved Baylor! Why do I love BU so? Both Bill and I graduated from Baylor. Others in my family who attended or graduated from Baylor include: my dad, James D. Wimpee, his two brothers, almost all their kids, my daughter and many more! My wise Uncle W.J. Wimpee was the chaplain at Baylor for well over 45 years and he was the BSU director before that. His New Testament class would fill up immediately at registration. Because of him, Baylor was a wonderful place to have the last name Wimpee! No one laughed when I told them my last name! They would just ask, Oh, is Dr. Wimpee your father? I would then have to explain yes, but my dad is Dr. Jim Wimpee the orthopedic surgeon in San Angelo. His brother is Dr. W.J. Wimpee the respected and well loved Chaplain of Baylor University! Being at Baylor was one of the happiest most fulfilling and times of personal and mental growth in my life. I bleed green and gold!

I am loving this Merle Norman cream! If you have a bad cold that results in a raw nose area from blowing and wiping, this is the only thing that can soothe that skin immediately without burning! A must have if you have a cold!

Need I say more? The best!!!

My New Balance 1064 Women's running shoes! I am truly loving these shoes!!! If only I could wear them to work everyday!! I also got the arch supports and they are the absolute BEST shoes for this 50 plus gal who loves walking and running but whose feet need to extra good support!

My absolute favorite coffee this time of year!

I had this for the first time yesterday as I headed to Curves to workout I grabbed a bottle of this at CVS! Delicious, hydrating, non-carbonated, and low calorie!

Need I say more? Sic em Bears! We can finally hold our head high and proudly say we DO belong in the Big 12!

And most of all, this Thursday, I am loving my awesome husband, Bill! I am so glad he is back home from the BGCT!

Things I'm Loving Thursday!

Remembering to always be grateful and appreciate the things we enjoy is key to being happy and choosing joy! Here are a few things I am loving this Thursday!
Big 12 Football!! Need I say more? Sic em Bears!!

My Scentsy warmer with my current fragrance, Cappuccino! My house smells so good!

This is a MUST HAVE for all females who are old enough to wear make up! Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess, bronzing powder! I use it year round! My daughter says it looks amazing on me! It makes you look and feel like you just got back from a vacation on the beach!

Mouth watering! My favorite steak marinade! I am using it right now! Steaks are in the zip lock bag marinating as I type!

Rally House Texas Sports Botique! I can actually find Baylor stuff here!

Oh, and did I mention that I am loving this Fall's college football season? I am loving my Baylor Bears! Sic em!

If you need a lift, or just a quick pick me up, take a second to list at least 5 things you are loving or appreciating today! It's amazing how this exercise will buoy your spirits!

Thank you Lord for so many blessings!

Things I'm Loving Thursday!

Here's a few things I am Loving this Thursday! I truly appreciate getting to talk with my daughter by cell phone while I was doing some quick grocery shopping after work and on my way home! With her now living in Houston I just don't get enough time talking with her or being with her! She is such a joy and such a source of pride! She is fun and smart and just like her daddy in so many ways! I am so happy she is married to a wonderful man who loves and treasures her but I do miss her!

I am loving our Texas Rangers today! When I got in my car today to go to lunch I caught myself switching from the Christian Music station to 105.3 which is a sports talk radio station. I was loving the banter with our Channel 5's Newy Scruggs Anchor talking all about smelling lots of pot while he was busy broadcasting from Candlestick Park! Then I realized, oh my, I am preferring sports radio over my usual music stations! Who am I? Lol! I learned to really comprehend and enjoy watching all sports within the past several years and it's like a whole new part of life has just recently opened up to me! I know, I know, I can't believe it either but I am loving it!

The game is on and I am waiting on Bill to return from his time visiting with a bereaved family so we can enjoy our dinner and watch the Rangers in game 2 of this World Series!!

I am loving the scent of Bath & Body Works Japanese Cherry Blossom! My favorite!

I'm loving Zeus today! We have had him all this week because Matt, my nephew and Godson is out of town helping my brother Blake on some business. Yes, I know you all think Zeus is our dog! He is our "Goddog"! Lol! He is Matt's dog but we have him here alot! He loves me because I am the one who takes him on LONG walks so I am his love! He adores me, yes, don't mean to brag but it's true! I spoil him and walk him so what can I say! It's like having a grandog, we get to enjoy him, spoil him, have him over ALOT and then send him home!

Dannon's Light and Fit yogurt with my homemade granola! Full of Calcium for us 50 year plus gals to keep our bones strong!

Diet Snapple, Tropa Rocka! It is the absolute best flavor Snapple has ever done! It's low sodium and tastes amazing! I ordered 3 cases at Tom Thumb and they had them all ready for me at the front of the store! I felt so special! (I know Melissa, I'm so silly but it was just awesome that the grocery store will do this kind of thing for you now days!)

MMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...............................!

Thank you Lord, for so many good, fun, and happy things you give us to enjoy!