Joy In: Texas

I have found myself in a few situations lately in which I have felt the need to explain why people from Texas....are so proud to be from Texas. Living in Virginia and doing this whole Marine wife thing has given me the opportunity to meet people who come from all over the country, and I'm loving it. While no one has just come out and asked, "Why are you people the way that you are?", I do understand why it might take some explanation. I could ramble on ad nauseum about all the things that make Texas great, but I've decided to narrow it down to a top ten list (and this is just my personal list...feel free to comment and add on!).

In the words of my brilliant oldest sister, Jennifer, when asked why she lives in Georgia, but keeps her Texas address, "we keep it so that if/when Texas secedes from the Union, they'll let us back in before they close the gate." So, without further ado,

10. The Music. This would actually rate much higher up on my list of things I love about Texas, but I wanted to go ahead and provide the context for the music that you are hopefully hearing as you read this (hours. I spent hours trying to get this to work). There are several songs I would have added to this play list, but could not because they weren't in the database of the program I was using (read: Robert Earl Keen x 10). This is the music I listen to on the highest volume my ears will allow while I am cooking dinner, cleaning my house, what have you. The sound of Texas country music is unique--I love the fact that it's not necessary to have an incredible voice to be a fantastic and appreciated songwriter in this particular genre of music (again Robert Earl Keen, Jerry Jeff Walker, you get the idea...). This music is what puts a smile on my face on the days I miss home the most. (Note...one song I really wanted but they didn't have was The Mountains of Nuevo Leon by Paul Eason. Look it up, you won't be sorry.)

9. Fort Worth. This is where I was born and raised, and it truly is a great place to grow up. Someone told me once that, "Fort Worth is just a small town masquerading as a big city;" I think that's a perfect description. It is home to over half a million people, but socially, you still get some of the intimacy and coziness of the smaller towns. It presents a fascinating mix of culture with the Stock Yards, the museums, downtown, etc. I mean, they do a cattle drive every afternoon at 4:00; where else can you get that?

 

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8.The Size. It's a big state where we have big hair and it's perfectly acceptable...which is good when your hair is like mine and can expand up to five times its normal volume when humidity strikes. You could fit the state of Rhode Island into Texas over 250 times. El Paso is the half-way point between Dallas and Los Angeles. And you still have three states left in your trip after that. 

7. The Culture. I mentioned the culture of Fort Worth earlier, but I would like to discuss the culture of the whole state. We had a discussion in a class I took in college re: whether or not Texas is more of a southern state or more of a western state. My professor eventually offered the point that it's partly both. The half of Texas east of I-35 is more southern, the half west of I-35 is more western. Which makes total sense because Fort Worth is "Where the West begins..." (That really is the motto...I wouldn't make that up.) This little factoid about our state is one of my favorites because I, personally, identify heavily with both cultures...and we all know Jill loves a place where she doesn't have to choose...

6. The Food. I come from a place where they do not, in fact, use nacho cheese as the filling for cheese enchiladas. And it's heaven. I think my cholesterol must start having anxiety attacks when I head home because I have a bad habit of taking on the "binge on good Mexican food while I can" mentality. We have a love/hate relationship, my cholesterol and I.

5. Football. You know the book/movie Friday Night Lights? That was about the high school my mom graduated from in Odessa. Some might call it an unhealthy obsession, our love for football...we just call it being passionate. Watching the Aggies play football is one of my truly joyful moments...even when we don't quite "show up" to play. I'm realistically passionate, ok?

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4. The People. I'm not in complete denial and think that everyone you meet in Texas is going to be the nicest person you'll ever meet. In your whole life. Just like anywhere else, there are very nice people and very not nice people. I just think the nice people are an extra special kind of nice and hospitable. I may be biased, though.

3. The Geography. You want to live in a hilly place? We have hilly. You like lots of trees? We can do lots of trees. Big cities? We've got them. Tiny Towns? Those too. Wide open spaces? We have them too. You can live on the coast, you can live where it snows...we have most of it taken care of, minus the mountains, I guess, but we're right next door to them!

2. A&M. I promise I'll be brief. This place, just as the place where anyone went to college, holds happy memory after happy memory for me. I followed my dad, two sisters, and two brothers-in-law there and managed to pull a husband out of it too. I love College Station and A&M; I love the atmosphere, the people, the traditions, the values. I'm in withdrawals from this place and I can't wait to go visit.

1. Mom and Dad. Family is what makes a place home for anyone, I think, but this truly is my favorite thing about Texas. I have one sister still there and another who will make it back before me, but my parents and our house in Fort Worth are the main part of why I love where I'm from so much. My parents did such a great job of making it not just a place to live, but a place where we know we can find comfort, love, laughter, and support.

Again, this is just my personal list of things I miss about Texas. I'm leaning that it's not so much the place, but the people and the memories that make it home, and I'm working on creating that kind of place wherever we are, but there are some things about Texas that make all the other things perfect. Now that I have made myself sufficiently homesick, I'm going to sit on my couch and read the cookbooks that showed up on my porch this morning! (Thanks, Mom!)

Happy Thursday!

Joy In: Quotes

"Sure [Fred Astaire] was great, but don't forget Ginger Rogers did everything he did backwards...and in high heels!"  
                                                                                         --Bob Thaves

This quote has been around for a long time, I know, but it always made me smile. Right now I'm just trying to figure out how she kept those high heels on when it sure doesn't look like they have a strap across the top. Maybe it was a clear strap. Maybe she's just that good. I have a hard enough time keeping my high heels on when I'm walking! Ok...I just have a hard enough time walking some days. Don't make fun.

Joy In: A Sweet, Sweet Love Story

Things like this are the very reason I created this blog--I have tears in my eyes (because I'm a little bit of a sappy romantic at heart...), a huge smile on my face, and my heart is almost exploding with the sweetness. Just click the link below--make sure you watch the video--and enjoy!

"GHW Bush gets choked up about Barbara..."

Bar-Bush has always been a favorite of mine...the joke at the end seals it :)

Love to you all!

Joy In: Burning Dinner

I'm fairly certain that the good people at the Southern Living test kitchen did not have this in mind when they said, "reserve the pan drippings":

In my dad's words, "That's a soaker."  It has now been soaking for almost 18 hours and I'm on my way to attempt to save my pan. This was one of those nights when I opened the oven and prayed to God that my smoke detectors were on a short hiatus. One that drew David away from studying for his test to ask, "How's it going in here?" (read: What on earth are you doing to dinner?) Happy Valentine's Day to him.

Luckily, the ham that was in the midst of the black tar you see above came out fine. As did my grandmother's potato casserole and the rolls (...ok so they were the crescent rolls that come in the can...you can't really screw those up). There was just no glaze made out of the aforementioned pan drippings to put over the sliced ham, but that's what they invented mustard for. So the Valentine's Day dinner wasn't perfect...but it made me laugh, almost as much as this did:

Oh, the romance. He actually did write a very thoughtful note in a card, so he did deliver. Good boy! That note came with these:

Good job, honey. I can blog and breathe in the Lily smell at the same time...mmmmmmmmm.

Well, I hope you all had a fantastic Monday/February 14th/Valentine's Day, however you prefer to look at it. If you need me, I'll be putting that Pampered Chef food scraper thingy that I got for our wedding to good use. Any tips from people that have had similar disasters are appreciated!!


SIDE NOTE: See, what happened was...I was cooking a ham about half the size of the one called for in the recipe so we wouldn't be eating ham for the next month = I halved the recipe for the glaze too, BUT I still used a 9 x 13 pan = glaze went really thin because it had more room to spread out = the tar. Next time, I'll use my 8 x 8. I'm brilliant, I know.

 

Joy In: The Most Random/Awesome Grammy Performance Ever

EDIT: The Grammy Association or Academy or whatever is being super poopy and blocked the youtube video of Cee Lo and the muppets....and Gwyneth. So...here's my run-down of it anyway; maybe God will smile on us and have someone post a video who did one of those really sketchy videos of their TV while the Grammy's were on.

1) He's got muppets.
2) This song...sketchy lyrics and all...just makes me want to shake my thing.  In my kitchen. At 2 a.m.
3) Cee Lo is not a small man...and he can continue to play the piano with that get-up on, feathers and all. (Is he really playing the piano, though? I can't tell...)
4) Random cameo appearance by Gwyneth Paltrow? Who saw that match-up coming? Not me.
5) Did I mention the muppets? The little Supremes-style back-up singers in the sparkly dresses? My 5-year-old self AND my 24-year-old-love-of-all-things-gaudy/sparkly self is in heaven.

Joy In: Old Movies

My mom and I have decided that I was born a few decades too late. I, personally, am CONVINCED that I would have been a perfect 20-something in the 40's and 50's...I love the fashion, I love the history, and I especially love the movies. Personal favorite: Sabrina....the Audrey Hepburn/Humphrey Bogart version. More about my obsession intense fascination with Audrey Hepburn later. If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and rent it (or Netflix it...why do I have a feeling Blockbuster is on it's way to obsolescence?). If you like romances, this one is for you...take a look for yourself:

 

Swoon. Oh--context for the random movie clip I decided to throw in today: Sabrina (Audrey) THINKS she's in love with Linus' (Bogey) younger brother, David (William Holden). Then Linus figures out HE loves Sabrina...and it all goes from there...you'll love it.

We recently bumped our cable up to the next level--purely because we weren't getting FX...heaven forbid we miss an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Anyway, in addition to FX, we now get Turner Classic Movies. I'm in heaven. Especially because it's "31 Days to Oscar" time and they're playing all of the great ones. Therefore, I'm spending my Friday night (David fell asleep aaaaaaattttt 10:30...) watching An American in Paris for the first time. If I could just get some decent ice cream (read: Blue Bell) around here, perfection would abound.

Happy Weekend to you all!

Joy In: Being Indecisive

Absolutely did not mean to go this long before I made my second posting. Then, when I FINALLY tore myself away from just got to the point at which I could no longer handle the closet reorganizing, I started looking at the different blog servers available (e.g. Wordpress, Blogger, blah blah blah). Mistake of epic proportions.

I've often told David that my very own personal hell would be a place in which someone made me work out and make decisions all day. Yes, you read that right. If, for some reason, I truly reach the point of no redemption and am sent to the fiery pits below, I will be on a treadmill 24 hours a day while Satan sits on a chair next to me forcing me to choose restaurants, outfits, blog servers, what have you.

Now that you have a small picture of how my tormented mind can work, you can see the problem that arose as I began to check out the Blogger server from Google and it's ease of use, many options for fun stuff on your blog page, blah blah blah. Aside from the fact that I should have KNOWN because most of the stuff Google comes up with is awesome...what it really all boiled down to was......I just liked the fun, fun theme I could have on Blogger and couldn't figure out how to make anything close to it on Wordpress. I'm sure there are those FAR more intelligent than me who could have figured it out, but I didn't feel like making the ol' noodle work that hard today. It does make me extremely happy to just look at my blog now (cute, right??), so mission accomplished for today!

So, there you have it. So sorry about any confusion; please bookmark this page and delete the old! And I'll just keep linking the posts on Facebook, and make it as easy as possible. I promise I won't change again...I think. Wait. Maybe. No...just kidding, I promise I won't! Love you all who take the time to read the ramblings.

Have a happy, happy day :)

Joy In: Starting Something New

I’ve been toying around with the idea of starting a blog for a few months now, but let’s face it, my life is too normal to be that exciting of a read. I started looking around for ideas and found some way-fun blogs to read, but nothing really helped me arrive at the idea I wanted:

I don’t live on a ranch…I live in a normal house in a normal neighborhood in the middle of Stafford, Virginia.

I’m not overly organized…organization. Ha. Lord knows I try.

I’m not completely remodeling my house…we rent and will continue to do so until at least 2013 (read: David’s exit from Active Duty and our inevitable move back to the Great State of Texas).

I am a military wife, which can absolutely be interesting (and I will be discussing that quite a bit, I’m sure). But again with living in the middle of Stafford, Virginia. We have a Target and a Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Oh, and there’s a Panera, so I’m happy.

No kids yet…just our 55 pounds of puppy sweetness. As cute as she is…she just eats, sleeps, chews on her bones, and can play a mean game of catch if she doesn’t get distracted while she’s running toward the ball. A frequent happening.

I can cook and usually produce pretty good food, but this is as long as I have a recipe to follow. Straying from the recipe = bad result (usually).

I finally stopped looking to others for ideas and looked back at myself. My point in creating this is to 1) spend some time writing, 2) give myself something to do, and 3) share some happiness. An English major in college, I do love to write; all the more enjoyable when it isn’t an analytical research paper on All the King’s Men. We’ll only be gracing Stafford with our presence for 6 months-ish, so as of now, I’m unemployed. I clean a lot. And finally, I realized that within my normal, everyday life, I derive most of my joy from small parts of my day. Since my celebrity friend list is short non-existent, I figured anyone who might read this might also lead a normal, everyday life and maybe I could share my smile, my laugh, and my joy with them.

I hear the ‘Wrap It Up, Jill’ music in my head. My joy for today is starting something new. I’m in a new phase of my life that makes me scratch my head from time to time, but I’m also learning a great deal about myself and my marriage. I have a feeling this blog in itself will give me a lot of joy and some time for introspection. If you’re reading this, thank you for giving me a piece of your day…please share some of your joys with me, too!