I'm jealous! I want to hang out with Tonya, and have a roast beef sandwich.

I'm glad you girls had fun. Now, I have to check out the video.

It was my pleasure.  Really.

And I hope we are able to make it tradition whenever you are in the area.  I loved having a girl's afternoon to chat.  And I am sure our husband's will get along well.

Your grand baby's are so cute.  (I know everyone says that, but dang, no kidding!)  The baby just crawled right up to me, a total stranger, flashed his two lower front teeth in a sweet smile and let me pick him up without fussing!  And smiled and giggled the whole time.

That's my favorite kind of baby!

hahaha

And Ethan, he's such a good big brother.

You know what we forgot to do?  Get a picture!  After you left I thought, dang I shoulda taken a few photos...

Oh well, always next time.

maybe you can join us sometime?  Yes, check out the video.  I'm sure you can see the surprise factor without even knowing the recipient although we can see how very awkard this all was for him.  I loved the holding back the smile he was doing.  It's as though he was trying to hide that he was enjoying himself even tho he got it good! 

sounds like a plan. 

me too.  It was good getting to know one another better.  Now, you'll have to come here and spend some girlie time in my neck of the Florida Sunshine!!   We can tool around in the golf cart.

I think you got Troy in a good mood.  But also, they both just eat up company.  They loved to see people come over to visit.  As far as the cuteness factor....of course!  I'm not arguing that.   At the wedding in January (in KY) one lady came up to me and said "you have the most adorable grandbabies."  Of course they were looking their finest to boot.  Ethan was in a little size 2T Tux and Troy in his very first dress up clothes. 

yes, he loves his baby brother until there's a toy in contention.  Then it gets interesting. 

ya, I thought of that also.....but too late.  We'll be back.  You know Brian has to be there at the very least until he finishes his job he's in now.  So I know he's staying put. 

Woot.  I am sure they're tired of Ohio and getting the itch to move on, but for a selfish reason, I'm glad they're staying.

Remember the loaf of bread Amanda gave me?  Tell her Hunter ate almost the entire thing.  He LOVES bread, but you saw I usually only buy high fiber wheat bread.  It fills him up and he can't eat a bunch of it.  White bread is like cake for him, so he chowed down.

I think Gavin got a little end piece, and I got a slice too, but Hunter KEPT IT IN HIS ROOM!..hahahah.

I don't have to tell her...I'm sure she'll read what you wrote.  She makes diff kinds of bread I think almost daily. 

I remember some advice from a neighbor when my kids were teens.  She had raised five kids who were my age and older so she knew all the tricks of the trade, so to speak.

Anyhow she said that while I was making dinner to put out a loaf of bread with some butter and put it on the table for them to snack on.  It would stop them from asking how much longer dinner would be and fill them up a bit so that when you sat down to have steak or pork chops they wouldn't eat so much meat.  I suppose you could do the same with cut up veggies and hummus or dip. 

Maybe you could invest in a bread machine.  Easy and quick.  The machine does all the work.  You can even time it to coincide with dinner.  I used to put all the ingredients in and put the timer on and have piping hot bread with dinner. 

Hmmmm  I think I'll dust that off again and plug in for dinner tonight. 

Me too. And maybe Write Something with her and go runnin' with her hubby or do a little bow hunting.

I don't know if I can make bread with a lot of fiber in it, even with "wheat" flour.

The problem with bread is, generally it is low fiber.  Anything less than 4g per serving is considered low fiber (in anything not just bread).  20-30g a day is a good goal, depending on your personal health and goals.

Anyway, white bread, and homemade bread with white flour, raises blood sugar levels, and is really not good for you.  I'd RATHER my kids fill up on lean proteins (or veggies like you suggested) than something that affects blood sugar just like sugar..if that makes sense.

I'd love to make my own hummus, but it calls for something (can't remember the name right off) that I can never find at the grocery store.  I don't have time to run around town looking for it.

Speaking of which, heh, we broiled the most tender, best tasting deer filets last week.  I don't usually eat deer meat.  My MIL fries it.  So, my first taste was fried.  It wasn't horrible, but I didn't want to do it again.

But last week I was hungry and tired, didn't feel like making something different for myself.  So, I ate it.

YUM!  It was so good.  And I just broiled it up with salt and pepper.  I can imagine how good it woulda been with some proper spices.

It's called tahini. You can substitute sesame oil and be close. I can send you some if you want. I used to have a recipe for an awesome black bean hummus. I will try to find it. It was so good and I am not a big hummus fan.

You're so sweet.  Nah, you don't have to send it.  Just tell me where to get it.

Also, I'd like the black bean recipe please.  I love them!

We always have hummus in the house.  Quite often I substitute that for mayo in sandwiches not to mention dipping crackers, veggies and chips into it.  I love it!  Yum!

Tova....I know high fiber bread is the best but the way these teens digest food, I don't think white bread is going to do any damage to their very fast metabolisms.  You can always just put out the high fiber bread that you buy......I was just suggesting for the grocery bill it's cheaper  than putting out 4-5 pork chops they would eat up instead.  You're probably ok only having one teen but for other families it can get expensive to feed a bunch of teens in the house at once. 

When my husband was growing up (family of six kids) he said he would go to bed quite often hungry because his mother said he could only have one chop or piece of steak.  It's all they could afford.  He remembers asking for another porkchop and told no.  He was a skinny kid but in the long run probably helped him because he's never been overweight, or had any major health problems and now is in very good shape for his age.  Contrast that to now with the problems the kids are having with obesity and health problems at such young ages. 

For families that have 3 or more teens at once believe me they try anything and anything to keep the kids fed without taking out an extra mortgage to do so.  For us it was hard to keep milk, bread and cereal in the house.  I almost always bought white bread because it was so much cheaper at the time and we flew thru the stuff.   I also had to hide food to make it last until the next grocery day.  Otherwise all the "good stuff" would have been gone in the first two days. 

Glad those days are behind me now.