Halloween at the Murray's

They are just darling!
Thanks Wendy

Halloween Utah Style

Christy is always telling us about the different ways people in Utah celebrate holidays.....example, the Easter bunny visits there a day early. This Halloween idea might have all of us thinking twice.

In Utah and Nevada the kids get out of school early EVERY Wednesday. Every single Wednesday of the year.  So, in the little town of Beryl the entire school gets involved. The school actually has trunk or treating on the early dismissal Wednesday nearest to Halloween.

The kids go trunk or treating in the school parking lot, followed by a carnival at the school. How cool is that? You get your candy and entertainment all in one, with no mess to clean up! The houses there are so far apart, it would take a while to fill a "goody bag".

So, while all of you kids are out trick or treating tonight, Aunt Christy will be sitting back at home going through all of the kids bags full of candy! Kenneth, Luke, Catherine, and Jacob.......you better run and hide your stash!

Can't wait to see the Halloween Pics!

Catherine and the Pumpkin

Some of the kids at the McEwan's school was supposed to go to the pumpkin patch the other day. It was so cold out, and high winds that one of the parents went out and brought the pumpkins to the school. Here's Catherine front row with her pumpkin. Those kids don't look too excited. They must really be cold!

Happy Birthday Seth

Happy Birthday to YOU
Happy Birthday to YOU
Happy Birthday dear Seth
Happy Birthday to YOU!

We love you!

McKeel Kids

Today is Teacher's Workday, so the little kids are home to play.
I stood on the back deck and took these with my iPad. I couldn't find my camera.
It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood!

The Two Little Princesses

Looks like fun!  Stay safe.

A Boy and his Tonka!

Every little boy has to have a Tonka!
Hope you enjoy it Jacob. Take it over to the driveway. You will have lots more fun  there!
Wendy, do you have a picture of Cameron's sand box?

Happy Birthday Meghan

Happy Birthday to YOU
Happy Birthday to YOU
Happy Birthday dear Meghan
Happy Birthday to YOU.

We love you girl!

Who's on Vacation.......and Where are they?

Who's on  vacation?

Where do you think they are?

Christy and the Deer

Christy was so happy with her husband and son bringing home a deer.

Ask her how happy she is today, having to touch the meat to wrap for the freezer!

All she talks about is the smell, and how awful it is. I told her to put on gloves, and tie a kerchief around her face! I have never eaten venison, and NEVER plan to. 

Poor Christy. Hope she makes it through the day without throwing up! 

Happy Birthday Aurora

Happy Birthday Aurora.
Aurora is the little girl in pink. She is my cousin's little girl. The other two cuties are Carolina in blue and little Stella the bumble bee! These three girls are just darling, and have the cutest mom ever!

Unclaimed Cash

Yesterday I was sitting at my desk (Randy's old desk.....thank's Randy) talking to Kat on the phone with the TV going in the background. They were talking about the State Fair and the NC Treasurer's department being there looking for people with unclaimed cash. I got on their website, and started looking. Yep, mom and dad's name was there with some unclaimed stock. I kept on going and picked out some names of people in Goldsboro. Within an hour or so I had located 5 people in Goldsboro, with their current addresses and/or phone numbers. I found one Dr. in Greenville that had 11 claims.

I called a News Argus reporter to talk to them about it, but had to leave a message. She called back this morning and I told her my story. I asked if they had ever done a story on this. So, now I have her little brain going too! I told her if she could get the list of all the people in Goldsboro, that I was sure I could find a lot of them. I told her step by step how I found them, and she was quite amazed.

Now, I can pay 100.00 to the treasurer's office and sign up as a locator, pay an additional $15.00 and get an electronic list of owner's files. With that, I can collect 20 percent finders fee, if I can get the owner to sign off on the find. But, I had rather just do it for fun!

Remember last year I found unclaimed money for Joe Roller.......then I found some for Kat. I have found it in the past for Mandy's ex-husband Mark, for my parents, but never any for Sherrill. He's still waiting! Christy said an unknown person contacted her one year by mail to tell her she had found unclaimed money for her, and told her how to go about getting it. All she wanted was a postage stamp, so Christy mailed her a book of stamps! It's going to be a GREAT day! Let's go find some money!

After the Party Video

Christy sent me pictures, after the party. They partied from Wednesday until Saturday (his birthday). Kurt had to go to work on Thursday, and was going to be gone for a few days. So, Luke had a few days to party!

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
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Meet Jonah

Let me introduce you to Jonah. He is the son of Woody, Mandy's boyfriend. Jonah breezes in every now and then with a smile on his face and something to talk about! This is the story I meant to write about last week, but forgot.

Mandy came by one day last week to bring me some pecans for my sweet potato muffins (they were so good). Anyway, when they came in I was cutting up some celery for my chicken salad. Jonah told me he liked celery, so I washed him a piece and got ready to hand it to him. The next thing out of his mouth was,"Do you have pnut butter". So, I put the peanut butter on it and handed it to him. After I finished with the chicken salad, he told me that he liked chicken salad too, so I fixed him a sandwich. Then Mandy got some chicken pastry, and of course Jonah liked that too. He ate a bowlful.  Mandy was getting ready to leave, but Jonah wanted to wait until the muffins got done, they were his pecans in those muffins! So, after I took them out of the oven, I gave Jonah his six and off he went ........ after robbing the candy from the ghost of course.

Tonight he came in and I was eating some soup. Sherrill had smoked sausage, peas, and mac and cheese. Well, you can see what Jonah wanted. This little fella can eat! None of my kids ever ate celery, or sweet potatoes!

So, welcome to the family Jonah. And yes, you can be number 18!

Troy and Family

Look at little Troy all grown up with a family of his own. 

Great Photo shoot! Austin and Shane have really grown, and little Ashlyn is such a cutie!

More of the Murray Kids

Randy Murray,
I stole your pictures off Facebook!
The old truck is looking good. Has Cameron tried to drive it yet?

Happy BIrthday Luke

Happy Birthday to YOU
Happy Birthday to YOU
Happy BIrthday dear Luke
Happy Birthday to YOU!

Hope you liked your Panda stuff!

White Chili Recipe

Here's a recipe from Christy. She was having problems getting the post to go through.

Ingredients:
 1 lb. Chicken cut into 1/2 in cubes (or 2 canned chicken)
 1 medium onion
 1 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (I use 1/4 teaspoon)
 1Tablespoon oil 4 cans of Northern Beans (15.5 oz)
 1 can chicken broth
 1 can of green chili enchilada sauce
 1 teaspoon salt
 1 teaspoon ground cumin (I use 1/4 teaspoon)
 1 teaspoon dried oregano ( use 1/4 teaspoon and I also use ground oregano not the seeds one)
 1/2 teaspoon cayenne powder (again I use 1/4 teaspoon)
 1 cup sour cream ( I use more, like 1 1/2 or 2 cups)

 In a large sauce pan sauté chicken, onion and garlic powder until chicken is no longer pink. Add beans, broth, enchilada sauce, and seasonings. Bring to a boil, reduce heat; simmer uncovered for 30 mins. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream. Serve. Great with tortilla chips! It makes a lot but I can't keep this in the house. Everyone gobbles it up. YUMMY!

Olivia

Miss Olivia Mae Murray.
You go girl!
Thanks Wendy.

Barn Building

How many men does it take to build a barn?

Looks like one and a half!  That is going to be one gigantic barn.

For Christy.......

Did it look something
like this, without the t-shirts on the edges of course?

Getting ready for HALLOWEEN!

The Pedaling Witch

Demetia the Screaming Witch

Monster's Inc Man.......don't know his name!

Today Sherrill was home, so I put him to work to help me put up the Halloween decorations. I put the tree up last night after he went to bed. Well, I actually put it together a couple of days ago, just had not put on the decorations.

This year for Sherrill's birthday I gave him the pedaling witch, and Demetia the screaming witch.

I bought the Monsters Inc man for me. I'm going to try to change his pumpkin for a Christmas ornament for Christmas. I think our favorite is the pedaling witch. We watched her go all afternoon.

Mandy was supposed to come by today at 4:00, so we were trying to have it all put together before her and Jonah (almost step son) got here. Still.....no Mandy! Sherrill even went to Sam's to load up on the candy. The ghost is full for now! 

Where's Mandy? ? ? ? 

Meghan

Above is her class.  They had a field trip. Mom, her teacher didn't tell me and I didn't find out intil the night before.  It was too late for me to go. That's her teacher, Mrs Sota standing behind her.

Below is the back of her head.  As you can see all her hair is gone!!! She cut it over the summer.

 Meghan's teacher has been a sweet heart.  I opened my email tonight and this is what I had.  I totally love this lady!!!

These pics are from their jumping for hearts at school.  

I'm really not sure who this boy is she's got her arm around but believe me when I head there in two weeks I'll find out.  :)

Google and Facebook Settings

Have you been keeping up with the news?  Beginning Nov 1st, Google + and Facebook will be able to sell/use your photos to third parties (unless you change your settings)?  I do not understand all of the legal things, but I have been smart enough NOT to post things on Facebook that I wouldn't want to be seen on TV or the internet. So, you might want to go through and review some of your photos and info you have published. It seems as though every time you click "like" on something, that basically authorizes that company, business, or whatever to use your information as they like.

I guess it is time to go back and read George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty Four". Big Brother is upon us, with our phones, the internet, etc. Prepare yourself!

Just one of those Days!

Help ! ! ! !!  Ma Keel here (the laptop) is broke and I am going to freak out!
You know that taxes are due in April, and you know how much Sherrill HATES to file taxes, so as usual, we file an extension, pay what we owe, and do the stressful part later. Well, the return is due in
3 DAYS. I have been working on them for the past week. I got up this morning to do the last bit, and
MaKeel refuses to cooperate. The screen is BLACK. As black as the Ace of Spades!
I had to call Sony to talk me through it. Oh Lord, please just help me get through these taxes........
After I went through everything, the Tech told me that is is probably a problem with Windows 8 operating system.
I'm putting the steps here of how to correct the situation, so next time this happens I will know what to do. If ever I call you and tell you my laptop isn't working, please refer me to this post. I know I will forget!
For a Black screen on MaKeel
1. Turn off power
2. Push Assist button
3. Once rescue mode comes on, Click on F2
4. Click on Exit
5. Click on get default value
6. Click on enter
7. Click on exit set up
8.Click on Yes, Yes, Yes, all along the way when it shows up on the screen.
9. Shut your eyes real tight and PRAY, PRAY, PRAY that it is going to work!

Things I Want to Make

Pinterest is just too time consuming for me, so I just drag and drop pictures of things that interest me to my desktop. These are some things I have come up with so far for the holidays.

I have also been gathering recipes I am going to try. I printed out a stack of them for Sherrill to review. 

The idea is for him to pick out one or two new recipes each week for dinner. There's always some spice or something I need, so I have made a pretty big grocery list.

Great Way to Make Mini Pies

Aren't these the cutest?

Simple little sugar cookies

These are just cute!

Nutter Butter Reindeer!

Anyone can make these!

Jacob's Party

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Some of our new family pictures!

McKeel Kids.......

More stolen photos.

Jack Dog

Jack got his hair cut a couple of weeks ago. When she washed him, she said "no fleas", but he keeps scratching. Today Sherrill called the vet and they said it was probably allergies. So, now Jack has to start taking Benadryl. This is going to be fun! I think we will try the liquid instead of the pills. He HATES pills.
"Nighty Night Jack!"
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Update

The vet said to give Jack 1 mg of Benadryl per pound, so that would be about 8 mg. Sherrill brings home a bottle of liquid Benadryl that says 5ml per teaspoon. So, in our little brains we think that perhaps one and a half syringes would be enough. So, we give him the one syringe, and with all the fighting we decide to hold off on the rest. As I am sitting in my chair reading the dosage for children, one teaspoon is recommended for children ages 6 to 11. Jack is no way that size. Then it dawned on me, ml is the liquid measurement, not mg (milligrams) that the Dr had prescribed. We have OVERDOSED Jack Dog. I immediately called Kat to see what the dosage should be. Talking through it, I was able to figure it out. In the meantime Sherrill is sitting in the chair with Jack repeating over and over "He's not moving, He's not moving, You killed him". All of this for a dumb dog!