The Best Banana Pudding You'll Lay a Lip To

Yes, I can just hear Pappy Gran, my grandmother, saying this. She was a riot! Had the best sense of humor and could always make me laugh with her dry wit. Mix this humor in with a heavy East TX accent and it's all over. Oh, I miss her so much!

Ok, back to the point at hand. Her best in the world banana pudding. I woke up one morning a few weeks back and starting thinking of the stuff. Waking up and thinking about food? Kind of odd. Normally I think about how I wish I could sleep one more hour, how the laundry is piling up, etc. So, I get on the phone with Mom who says she'll email the recipe for the pudding. Mom says PG gave her the recipe when she got married waaaaaay back in August of 1966. It's an old recipe, which makes it all the more special.

And with out further ado, here's the Banana Pudding recipe, yum-o!

Banana Pudding-

1 cup sugar
1/4 c flour
2 cups milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 heaping tsp margarine(I used about 2 tsp of real butter)
1 egg, beaten well
3 bananas
Nilla Wafers
8 ounce tub Cool Whip

Mix sugar and flour together. Add milk, vanilla, margarine and egg to sugar mixture and mix well. Cook over medium-high heat, and stir constantly. When mixture begins to bubble and pudding begins to thicken, it's done.

In a medium sized bowl add Nilla Wafers to the bottom of the bowl, sliced bananas, then the pudding(you don't need to let the pudding cool). Do this twice then spread Cool Whip over the top.

Instant happy family!

Hope you enjoy this as much as I have enjoyed it for almost 35 years, oops, did I just say that? Nevermind....

Fun With Mom's Make Up

As I rushed through cleaning dishes and picking up toys this morning, I don't hear Laney. It's quiet and I don't hear her so that can only mean one thing. Trouble. I go on a hunt to find her. Our bathroom is usually the first place I check, BINGO! She crawled up on the dog's cage, got a hold of my make up bag, and very subtly applied some mascara and eyeliner. Looks lovely, don't you think?

Our First Baby

Our sweet Hammer Johnson turned 10 years old today. Such a sweetheart of a cat. I was never a cat person growing up, only liked dogs. It was only when Ryan adopted Hammer from his sister did I tolerate cats, haha I'm still not a huge cat fan, but I love, love Hammer.

She's a great pet and we've enjoyed every moment with her. I hope we have her for many more years. Happy Birthday Miss Hammer Johnson!

Escape Artist

It finally happened.....

As I was cleaning up the dinner dishes last night I hear a , "Hi Mama!". I see Laney standing next to me in the kitchen and she seemed pretty proud of herself. She figured out how to climb out of her crib, sigh. From start to finish it took over an hour to get her back in the bed, get her to stay there, and fall asleep. Needless to say, I'm one tired Mom today. I was up most of the night wondering if our little escapee was going to roll up on me as I was sleeping.

Next thing on our to-do list; move Laney to a big bed ASAP before she hurts herself!

Wisdom Teeth, Who Needs Em'??

Friday was a big day for Ryan. He was set to get his three remaining Wisdom Teeth pulled. Yes, I know, he's 35, why is he getting them out so late when the rest of us do this in our late teens/early 20's? I suppose there was no need to get them taken out at that point for him. Mine were yanked the Christmas of my Freshman year of college. Ok, back to our Ryan...He and I went to the doctor Friday morning, he got the teeth pulled, I laughed at the things he was saying when he was coming off the laughing gas, got him home and settled in, and the fun began. I'll spare the gory details, but let's just say that Ryan has had way more fun things happen to him in his life, the pulling of his wisdom teeth not being one of them.

This weekend has been a challenge to put it mildly. Trying to keep Ryan comfortable and two little girls away from him so he can rest, trying to find "soft" foods he can eat, laundry, dishes, etc., has been a little tough. The girls LOVE their Dad and when he's home they're usually all over him. I feel for him because he's been in lots of pain, but still patient, and even playing card games with Addyson.

Let's hope by this time next week this will all be a distant memory!

Blessed Before He Even Knew It

About a month ago Brandy called to tell me that Dad was admitted to the hospital with a really bad bout of food poisoning. He was there for several days, and while he was there they did a CT scan. In that scan they found a mass on his right kidney. Instead of removing a piece of the tumor for testing, the doctor recommended the kidney be removed. It was too risky to take a piece of it, so the whole organ needed to come out. Dad kept saying that the bout with food poisoning was definitely a blessing, and I'd say I agree. How else would the doctors have known about the tumor on his kidney??

Fast forward to today, Dad went in for surgery to have the kidney removed. At 10:00 am they started the procedure, and by 11:15 it was over. They were able to remove the kidney arthroscopically(meaning, the incision is very tiny and therefore less recovery time)and he should get to go home in about 3-4 days.

I'm more than relieved this is over and Dad can start healing and getting back to his normal life. Also, I'm so amazed at the number of people we had praying for Dad! It's during the hard times that you truly know who loves and cares for you.

Thank you for the prayers!

My Sweet Valentine's!