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One of my kids is invited to a wedding and the wedding attire states that now one is to wear white or red. The bride is Chinese, so I assumed it had something to do with that.

Mine run about 7 days on average. That is with Prime. I have had a couple lost, and cancelled one at Christmas, due to the length of time getting it. But Prime has lost it's shine for me. I can order the same item from Walmart of Target with free shipping and get it in 2 days, and it takes a week from Amazon.

Prime is losing it's shine for me!
I never get same day or next day shipping - most of the time is is 4-5 days or longer.
But I can order the same or similar item from Walmart or Target and get them in no more than 2 days.

I love watching tiktoks of people who come to the US and are blown away by good things (some of which make me scratch my head)... LOL
At the top is usually BBQ and the sides. Starbucks drinks are popular (not always coffee, per say, but the different ways it is prepared and the non-coffee drinks there too. Ranch dressing is always a topic.

Our beef is almost exclusively sent abroad, so I am going to say good Iowa beef is better than European, from first hand knowledge. LOL It is fun to hear where our beef goes. We don't always know, but sometimes the let us know. Once our entire load went from a Pack in Omaha right onto a jet to Japan (take that Kobe beef!) ... MASH DK (Modern American Steak House, Denmark) was buying our beef. I know sometimes it goes to UAE also.

I prefer to buy US butter. I think KerryGold is good, but so is LOL butter, and you can get it European style, which is also 82% butterfat, just as KerryGold is. I support US Farmers.

I love my Terry's Chocolate oranges! As far as I can tell, the are manufactured in France. So yummy! I also love Lu Petit Ecolier cookies, which I believe are made in France. Such a treat when I can find them!

I like Barilla pasta, which is an Italian company - but it is made less than 100 miles from me in Ames Iowa!

My kids were almost always at school well before the start time. Morning practices for XC started at 6 am. Sometimes they would come back home for a shower, but most of the time they just did that at school and had breakfast there.
Band practices were at 7 am and a lot of the teachers had office hours at 7:30 am.

When my kids were younger, they got on the bus at 7 am everyday, so the early start for school was something that was always there. My son just struggled more in high school. It's one of those things you have to get through to the other side. I would much rather have them start at a somewhat earlier time, and get out earlier. They all had sports practices after school, and didn't get home till 5 or 5:30 (non-game days). So if they started practices even later, with a later start school day - it would be super late when they got home. They had chores at home that had to be done too.

Once they hit the age of 14 they could drive to school - so when my oldest turned 14, she drove, and her siblings rode with her. They didn't have to always leave at the crack of dawn that way, but they would take the bus if she was going in early for practices.

Geeze, I am glad those days are over! LOL

We have sorting canes, to use when we are working cattle. No one can ever find their own sorting cane. Where do they go? Usually hanging on a gate somewhere. DS gave us all heavy duty engraved canes for Christmas. Can I find my cane? No. Do I see my cane getting used by everyone but me - yes. LOL I said I was going to paint it bright pink - but that wouldn't stop it from walking off..

I can tell when is is DH's cane. It's cracked and taped back together with black tape. If you have ever worked cattle, you know this one!

I agree with teenagers needing more sleep, but I found it amazing that he could get up and get going quite early for things he really wanted to do. He could get to early morning sports practices that started at 6 am on time. He most definetly could get up before dawn to go fishing or go to the lake. No problem what so ever on that stuff... so, I finally quit giving him the slack on 'teenage sleep'. I know a lot of if was late night on the phone texting, etc.

What is funny now that he is an adult - he hardly looks at his phone. Distains all social media. Doesn't take his phone with him into his work. It's like a switch flipped, and it was with all my kids. They almost seem to hate the phones and how tied everyone is to them. They have little to no social media, they do text me and we have a group snap chat - but they really only look at that during the evening hours.

Oh, memories. My girls were always on time or early. My son - not so much. I had the hardest time getting him up and going. It was SO frustrating to me. I finally sat him down and talked to him. I said, I know you're tired and some of that is when you choose to go to sleep. His phone was a major part of that, but at the age he was - I wasn't going to take it away. He HAD to learn to take control of his choices.

I told him I would no longer wake him up (unless he specifically asked me to) and the consequences of his lateness were on his own, and NO blame would drift my way.

He could sleep through a firetruck blasting beside his bed, I swear. But one morning he didn't get up. I didn't wake him up. Finally the school called me and I said - just a second... I went in to his room, woke him and handed him the phone. He had to talk to the school secretary. He was so embarrassed (like I had been, maybe, about his lateness). That didn't change things 100% - but making HIM responsible for his actions was important. I knew he was college bound and no one was going to be getting him out of bed.

When he planned his college schedule, I said - keep in mine how you can't pry your butt out of bed when making your schedule.

He still had some episodes - but they were on him. He had to deal with the fallout. It changed his behavior.

I am happy to say - he is a responsible adult who can get himself up and to work on time or early!

I will also admit I contributed to his behavior. I spent way to long getting him up and getting him moving. Having everything ready for him so he could go fast once he got up. I stopped all that. I said you HAVE to be responsible for yourself, or your going to end up a failure and I am not going to be responsible for that. Lord! I do NOT miss those days. I feel for you!

I am getting ready to make this for our dinner today. Dinner is at noon at our house, and is the big/main meal of the day.

It is something I used to make on the regular, when my kids were home and I made bigger meals. I will portion this up and send some with my daughter so she has an easy meal in the fridge. I have a nice head of cabbage that needs to get used up. Was thinking Bierocks, but this casserole with be so much easier.

Not sure what I will make with it. I usually make mashed potatoes, but I am out of potatoes! Since this has rice in it, I might just call it good with the casserole and maybe a small can of green beans.

*edited to add - I use a whole pound of ground beef in this. 


Unstuffed Cabbage Casserole

No..I have been back down to Oklahoma in quite a few years. Last time I went was to Alabaster Caverns! LOL That was a fun favorite place to visit when I was a kid. Took my kids and it didn't seem quite as fabulous as I remembered it, but it was still very cool! I think I had assembled it together with other caves I have visited into something more fantastic in my imagination. Would still recommend a visit to it though!

Looking back to when my kids were in school, I'd have a hard time picking any teacher that I would feel the least bit comfortable carrying a gun in school. Any that I felt would be level-headed enough to do it, I know for a fact could probably not shoot a person if it came down to it. And the ones that were always hot to say they wanted to be armed in the school, where the absolute last person I would trust with a firearm.

I have plenty of guns at my disposal. I do not carry. Hy husband does not carry. If someone came in my house, I doubt I could fire upon them, and even if I could - I would have to get to, and unlock two safes to get a gun and the ammo.

Trust me - the guy that really REALLY wants to be armed to protect you, and talks about it a lot, is not the guy you want armed to protect you. The guy (and I am using guy in a gender neutral term) that you would never guess is armed and never talks about being armed, or guns in general, is the guy you want protecting you.

He was so comforting and was the perfect host for that show.

What do you think of Jane Pauley? I used to religiously watch that show every Sunday morning, while I prepared Sunday brunch. My TV viewing has changed greatly and I seldom tune in anymore. I put it on my YouTube TV list to record, but I very seldom bring it up to watch. Not sure if Jane Pauley is the reason, or just how I don't care to watch any TV anymore is more the issue. I don't dislike here, but I don't love her either.

you can get some inexpensive silver polish and dips to keep jewelry sparkling.

I use silver plate silverware everyday for our meals, so I keep this stuff on hand to keep it looking nice.

The silver dip will remove all tarnish in seconds, but it doesn't make it shine. So I keep a silver cloth on hand to polish it a bit. When you really want to make it look nice, get some silver polish cream and polish good. It only takes a small dab!

Silver Dip

Wrights Silver Cream with cloth

You can get other brands, and from other places. An old soft towel works great as a silver polish cloth with some silver cream on it.

I don't do the baking soda/aluminum foil/hot water trick, but it does work. Just to remove tarnish - it doesn't shine it up.

It was aggressive. It had been handled by young children in the days previous. Never in a million years would I put a cat's life ahead of my children and their friends. Our friends had to put down their horse, and it was positive for rabies, so there were many people who had to get the series of shots that had been in direct contact with that animal. Rabies is fatal. Letting an animal go, that you suspect is rabid, is not a good thing. They will die a horrible death, not to mention spreading it further.

Getting rabies shots is no picnic. If you can for sure rule out the need, that should be done. It is not always possible to catch or find the animal in question. But if you can, I don't understand at all why you would not have it tested. Post Exposure vaccine should be administered as soon as possible, and not all hospitals have it, so it would need to be shipped in quickly. It can run several thousand dollars for the series of shots, which you take over a 2 week period. I know in the past, the shots were terrible and painful, but now they are much less so.