Good point susanjf about the small upright instead of chest freezer. This might be a goal before next winter, as I'll have to hire an electrician to run lines out there and install an outlet. Currently there is only one outlet and it's on the over head light near the rafters. Certainly would help if I had an inside door to the garage, too; I have to walk outside and around to get into the garage. I must say the "Unstuffed Green Pepper Soup" is delicious. I'm having a second bowl right now, the one I left out before I put the rest in the freezer. :)

OK girls, I'm seeing more snow than I ever wanted to see again and they say more is coming...oh well, it's my mom and I'm sure she put up with unpleasant things for my sake, to I'll just suck it up! She had a bad spell last night....I think she might still be grieving, so I just hugged her. She said she told the Lord He could take her any time, that she was ready, but maybe He better wait awhile cause all the family just got home from this funeral and they needed to rest. Plus, my nephew, the funeral director is on vacation. She can be so funny. Rosa, Thank you for the compliment....I sure played with the lengths and widths a lot, plus changed them as I sewed when I got in little tight places, too. I live in what I consider a small town, too, but I think there are 5 lights on the main drag from one end to the other. I like this better, but it's the pits for fabric shopping. I'm with you, Sally. It's always good to get home...and in my case, be it ever so humble. Deanna, I know you're having fun using your new machine. You'll get used to it and it's settings, etc and be whipping those perfect blocks out in no time! Last year when I was up north, I gained 10 of the 25 I had lost and I haven't taken it off, so yes, I do need to be careful. I'll enjoy myself, but if I watch the carbs and desserts, I think I'll be ok. I do love bread! Everyone have a good day........ SharonG/FL-cold snowy MN

Here is one I found that doesn't have beans, but it doesn't have rice, either! LOL Easy enough to toss some in! Quick Taco Soup Soup Ingredients: 1/2 pound extra lean ground beef 2 medium (1 cup) onions, chopped 1 large (1 cup) green bell pepper, chopped 1 (1.25-ounce) package taco seasoning mix 1 (46-ounce) bottle vegetable tomato juice 1 (16-ounce) jar thick and chunky salsa or picante sauce Toppings Ingredients: Fat Free Sour Cream, if desired Shredded lettuce, if desired Sliced green onions, if desired Chopped tomato, if desired Reduced Fat Cheddar Cheese, shredded, if desired Cook ground beef, onions and green pepper in 4-quart saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until beef is no longer pink (6 to 10 minutes). Drain off fat. Stir in seasoning mix; continue cooking 1 minute. Stir in tomato juice and salsa. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until heated through (3 to 5 minutes). To serve, ladle soup into individual bowls; dollop with sour cream, if desired. Top with shredded lettuce, sliced green onions, chopped tomato or cheese, if desired. Nutritional Facts: 1 serving Calories 110 Fat 2.5 g Cholesterol 15 mg Sodium 1000 mg Carbohydrate 15 g Dietary Fiber 3 g Protein 8 g Linda

Amy, Are y'all of Greek descent? It must be a tradition for the Greek churches to have festivals in the fall, because when we lived in Fort Worth they did the same thing, and I think it always was in October too. It sounds like y'all had fun and the weather sounds lovely. We still have tons of grasshoppers---take a step in the grass, and a cloud of grasshoppers arises from it. Usually they are gone by now, but we are so hot that I guess they just keep on keeping on. These are newish ones that hatched after the July and August rains. We didn't have many until after the rain finally fell. Nancy, I think animals know so much more than they can communicate to us and they'd teach us what they knew if only they could make us understand. When we have a pet die, we always let the remaining animals see the deceased one, sniff it, etc. We do that so they will understand where their beloved animal companion went instead of thinking it just disappeared into thin air. I also think the animals often know when one of their animal family members is sick because I've often seen the other animals snuggle and cuddle up closer than usual to the dying animal, as if to comfort it. I absolutely think that the remaining pets grieve for a deceased one after it passes away. When our beloved dog, Biscuit, was dying, he took me down to the 'graveyard' where we had buried his much-loved companion, Sheila, a couple of years earlier. He loved on the rocks that covered her grave, he walked circles around it, he looked me in the eyes and laid down there. My heart sank. In all the time she'd been gone, he'd never done that, and he had been in a slow, steady, recent decline, so I felt like he was telling me that it was time and he was ready to go. I told him no, that I couldn't leave him out there. So, he got up and relocated to the shade of a cedar tree about 15 or 20' away, scratched out a place beneath it, and laid down there in the shade. I let him lay there a couple of hours because he refused to come up to the house with me. As twilight approached, I went and got him and told him he had to come up to the house with me. I knew he was lying down there to die, and I was afraid that if he died slowly, the coyotes would get him that night while he still was alive. I couldn't bear the thought of that. I called Tim and told him that Biscuit was ready to go and explained it all. When Tim got home, we fed Biscuit his final meal, and we gave him 2 cans of canned cat food (because he loved stealing cat food out of the cat dish) and we knew he'd love being fed cat food on purpose. He did. He wolfed down that cat food enthusiastically like the treat that it was, then laid his front paws over the dish and laid his head down on his paws to signal he was done. Tim carried him up the stairs to our bedroom to sleep, and the next morning we made the final trip to the vet. It was so hard to let him go (his photo all these years later still is the wallpaper on Tim's cell phone) but he told us as clearly as he could that it was his time, he was ready and we needed to get with the program. The vet agreed. We buried him right beside Sheila of course. So smart, wasn't he, to know he needed to tell us it was okay for him to go? Then, several years later, when our Honey developed a brain tumor, she kept taking me to the doggie graveyard where Sheila and Biscuit were buried, and I kept telling her no, no, no. I wasn't ready to let her go, and the vet wasn't sure it was a brain tumor. He thought it might be canine vestibular disorder and suggested we take our time and treat her for it. If he/we were wrong and it wasn't CVD, she'd get progressively worse and we could decide then what to do next. When it became clear it was not CVD and was a brain tumor and we knew we had to let her go, I walked her down there and told her it was okay and that we could let her go because we didn't want for her to suffer (she had just had her first seizure as the brain tumor grew). We took her to the vet the next day. She now rests beside Sheila and Biscuit. I still am in awe of those two dogs, their ability to know it was their time, and their method of communicating to us that they were going to depart and we needed to prepare ourselves for it. When Honey's son, Duke, developed heart trouble and his end was near, he let us know---he stopped going for our daily walks--he'd always loved to walk, walk, walk, and just decided he was done, probably because his heart was weakening. I guess he couldn't do it any more. A couple of weeks later, we buried him beside his mama. It sounds like a lot of deceased dogs, but all of them were old and had been our pets (and they had been one another's family) for many years. That's how we went from 8 dogs to 4 dogs over a period of several years and it was hard to lose another dog every couple of years, but they don't live forever. I think Sheila lived the longest--about 18 years and Honey the shortest--about 8 or 9 years. Jet is Honey's sole surviving child and he is 12 years old and really gray-haired now---not just his muzzle and face, but his paws, chest, etc. I wonder how much longer he'll be with us. Jersey is 10.5 years old and she was our 'baby' for so long, but she is now white haired, having skipped going gray and going straight to white. One more thing about pets. When Princess and Ace showed up together, I told Tim I was worried that we were about to lose two dogs. He asked why and I told him that God always brings us a stray dog or two, or a cat or two, right before some of the old ones die. Sure enough, shortly after Princess and Ace showed up we lost Sam, who was about 15 years old, I guess, and then Honey, only a few months apart. No new dogs or cats have shown up lately, so maybe the pets we have currently will be with us a good long while yet. Shortly after Pumpkin showed up three years ago, we lost Spotty the cat, who was 15 or 16 at the time. It is almost eerie, but it reminds me that the universe works in ways we mere humans do not always comprehend or understand. If Titan is like our dogs, he'll grieve for his lost companion too, but also will be accepting of a new animal companion. I think our dogs warm up to a new cat even more quickly that our cats do, as odd as that sounds. I know you'll miss Daff forever, but what a blessing she was to all of you while you had her. Dawn