I fared fair at the fair

I didn't do too bad in yesterday's fair flower show. There were tons of entries so I was lucky to win anything. I brought home 9 ribbons...3 firsts, 3 seconds and 3 thirds. No luck with roses at all...the rose lady swept the entire category with one exception...another lady won a third place with one of her roses. That rose lady has scared everyone else away from entering. At least that was the "buzz on the street" I heard as I was preparing my entries yesterday. My little piddly entries didn't stand a chance, but I entered them anyway. It's okay...I was happy with what I won. This fair is over and now I'll start to prepare more artwork and photos for the next one. It's about a month away. It's a bit of a drive...about 45 minutes from home...but I love doing it. I had weighed in my mind whether it was worth it or not, but I decided it's one of the fun things I do for myself over the summer and I'm going to carry on, even tho gas prices are up over $4 a gallon! I don't show flowers there but just enter the tons of categories for art and photos. That's one thing I like about it! There are so many things I can enter, it's well worth going. Now I have to get busy and produce all that art and all those photos!

We got over an inch of rain last night. It was a wild ride there for a while!! It thundered and lightninged very loudly part of the night. There were a couple claps of thunder that made us all jump! I love sleeping during a rain, but that thunder sure brings me up out of a deep sleep in a hurry.

Andy's making his famous fried chicken for our main meal today. We'll take some over to Jon. He loves it, as does everyone who tastes it. It's so good, and it's so simple. And the best part is... I DON'T HAVE TO COOK IT!!! I made some of my famous BBQ sauce (Jon's request...with no heat...he used to love it very spicy but spices don't sit very well these days) and also some Sauer Kraut salad. It's so easy and looks pretty and tastes so good. It's also diet friendly when I make it for myself!

Sauer Kraut Salad

Drain a jar of sauer kraut
In a small sauce pan heat up 1 C. Sugar (I used Splenda for my batch) and 1/3 c. vinegar until the sugar is melted.
Chop 1/2 raw green pepper, 1/2 red pepper, a couple slices of red onion and a couple stalks of celery, add to kraut.
Sprinkle with celery seed.
Toss well and put back into kraut jar
Pour the hot liquid over the kraut in the jar.
Run a knife or chop stick down the sides of the jar to get the liquid all down around the kraut.
Seal and refrigerate
Serve either hot or cold

If you use Splenda, this recipe has minimal calories and is really delish!

I made a batch for Jon with sugar and one for Andy and I with Splenda.


I'm going to have vegetarian spring rolls for breakfast! Yeah, Spring Rolls! I have the veggies all cut up and all I have to do is soak a wrapper or two and I'll be set with a nice cool, light breakfast. I know that sounds weird, but I'm the type who will eat cold pizza or spaghetti for breakfast, so this is much better for me. I was never much of a breakfast food eater as a kid and got into the habit of eating non-breakfast type things at breakfast time. When I was a kid I hated doughnuts, sausage, pancakes and many other normal breakfast foods. If I ate cereal it was as a snack right out of the box. Of course, that's all changed and now I'll eat anything that doesn't move. But I'm trying to make good healthy choices for the most part these days.

Speaking of healthy choices, I've been so good on my exercise routine. I've been either on my treadmill or walking some other place every day since July started. I made a pact with myself that I would exercise every day in the month of July...hoping to start back into the habit of exercise once again. How many times do you have to repeat something before it becomes a habit?? Anyway, I've exercised 19 days in a row...that's a life-time record for me. I think the longest number of days I've ever exercised in a row is 11 days, before this. I was always under the impression that you HAD TO rest a day or two between each workout day. Bah Humbug! That's not true...it's probably better for you not to rest! Maybe when lifting weights, but even then you can just work different muscle groups to rest the ones you worked the day before. I make Andy let me mow the fenced in part of the yard. We use a walk-behind mower for that and it gives me one more thing to do that's walking! Most of the time tho, I just walk on the treadmill since it's been so humid and hot outside. I'm actually beginning to look for TV shows to watch while I'm walking and I try to get really into the TV show so I can just walk without dwelling on the time I'm on the treadmill. I'm up to doing half and hour now. I will hopefully get up to doing two half hour stints on the treadmill every day! That would kick ass!!!