Christmas pics 2008

Here are a few pics of our Christmas this year:

Althea's 2 favorite gifts.  The Wii (family gift) and her new phone.  

Addison wanted "soccer stuff" this year.  She hopes to start playing on a team this spring.
Disney Princess was a theme for the 2 little girls.  Such beautiful Princesses!
Althea also enjoyed getting new trucks and wheels on her skateboard.  Love those colors!

Alexandra and Addison often play 'animals'.  Either they are acting the part of the puppy, kitten or raccoon, or they are using their stuffed animals and playing independently.  Animal lovers all the way!

Christmas 2008

We had a relaxing and enjoyable Christmas this year. We just stayed home and enjoyed our own little family time independently this year. Most years we are doing Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (afternoon) with extended family. In fact, I think this is our first year as a family to just stay home and focus on our immediate family. It was really quite fun! We got a Wii Sport as our family gift and have been enjoying the time getting to know each other's strengths and weaknesses in bowling, boxing, golf and the like. David had to work all weekend after Christmas, but my Mother and sister, Heather, came out from Dallas area to spend a Friday-Sunday. We learned that Memaw is a Wii playing fool who might just have to splurge on a Wii of her own! LOL!!! The 6 of us girls went to the drive-in here in Lubbock for a movie Saturday night. We took 2 cars and went to 2 different screens. Though we were apart, we still all really enjoyed ourselves! IT WAS COLD so we had to keep turning the cars on to keep warm. Blankets just weren't getting it done! Fun times and a good family focused Christmas. That's what it's all about.

New camera...

Our old camera got dropped down some stairs.  We got a new one on Friday and here are some tester pics for you.  The newest, most recent pics I have of me and the girls... and cat (one of the 'girls')  

So Sorry!!!

Ok. My bad. I haven't been blogging or updating much of anything in a while. So sorry! 

So today, and yesterday, I went in and updated my myspace page, for those who do that. I put some great songs on there for your listening pleasure. Hope you enjoy! For those seeing this blog via 'blogspot', my myspace is www.myspace.com/katheaus. GO THERE! 

I also have a facebook under 'Katrina Cauthen Collins'. I use that to mainly keep in touch with friends from work and school from way back. I like facebook, and that has my most updated pics etc. Though... I'll probably update pics on my myspace today as well. Go fig. 

Anyway, not much going on here. I don't blog cause I don't have much to say! I'm in Lubbock, looking for a job still, and just taking care of the everyday home life. Like I said, not much going on. I'll let you know when the job thing happens. Keep me in your prayers there!!! Also, we have to figure out David's schedule for next semester. His professors don't want him working FT, but at this time, we need that! Grr... Fun times! 

Take care all!! 

Fresh bread each week. Yummy!

OK... so here's another Vegan bread recipe.  Don't be afraid of this one!  It's super easy, super good for you and tastes... Delicious!!!  I've made this bread twice now and the kids and David love it!  So do I.  It's SOOooo easy!  No knead and quick.  I hope you enjoy as much as we do!

No Knead Oven-Raised Bread

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 1/4 cups boiling water

1/2 cup rolled oats

3/4 cup cold water

1/2 tablespoon dried yeast

flour (*see note)

1 teaspoon salt

seeds to sprinkle on top (**see note)

Directions:

This is a recipe outline.  Infinitely variable, wonderfully delicious.

In a large bowl, dissolve 1 tablespoon brown sugar in 1 1/4 cups of boiling water.  Add 1/2 cup of rolled oats and 3/4 cup cold water.  Stir.  Sprinkle 1/2 tablespoon of dried yeast over surface, without stirring, and leave for 5-10 minutes, until frothy.  Stir in enough flour (see note) plus 1 teaspoon salt to form a dough which resembles a biscuit or scone dough.  

Well oil a 2lb bread pan and spoon dough in.  Smooth the surface with an oiled spatula, pulling surface edges towards the center a little as you go.  If desired, sprinkle the surface with some seeds, such as sunflower, pumpkin, sesame, linseed, poppy or flax and press lightly onto surface.

Place in a 125 degree oven to rise, until the edge of dough has reached the top of the pan and formed a slightly domed surface above it.  This takes approx. 35 mins.

When risen, increase oven temp to 375 degrees and bake for 50 mins.  Leave in pan for 5 mins before loosening the sides with a knife and sitting the loaf crosswise on the top of the pan to cool.  Experiment (the key to successful bread making).

* Flour options:  This bread may be baked with innumerable combinations of flours and grains.  To start, try 1/3 white and 2/3 whole wheat.  Vary this combination and add other ingredients as you become more familiar with the process.

** Other possible additions:  Try whole or ground linseeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, wheat germ, ground millet, dried fruit and spice (for a great toast), kibbled grains.  Let your imagination be your guide!

Serves:  1 loaf

Super Yummie Apple Bread recipe

I got this recipe from www.vegweb.com, my new fav website. This is a Vegan website with recipes galore. You can un-vegan this by using real eggs and butter, but it is SUPER good with the vegan way! Enjoy!

Apple Loaf
Ingredients (use vegan versions):
1/2 cup soy margarine
1 cup white sugar
teaspoons Enger-G Egg Replacer
4 tablespoons water (for egg substitute)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup apples-peeled, cored and shredded (I used 2 c apples, the more the merrier!)
2 cups all-purpose flour (I also subbed 1/2 c ground flaxseed and only used 1 1/2c flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped of your favorite nuts (or... my kids don't like the crunchy nuts, so I ground them up and add them anyway! sneaky!)

(You could also add cinnimon and nutmeg to spice it up some.)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. (175 C) Grease one 9x5x3 loaf pan, or muffin tins. Mix flour, baking powder, soda, salt and nuts in a bowl. In a large bowl, beat soy margarine, sugar, egg replacer and water until smooth. Stir in vanilla. Stir in shredded apples. Pour flour mixture into batter. Stir only until moistened. Scrape into loaf pan, or spoon into muffin tins (leaving a little room for expansion) This will not be like a normal vegan bread dough. Bake for 50-60 minutes ((30 minutes for muffins) or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes, then remove from pan. Place on rack to cool. Absolutely scrumptious! Serves: 1 loaf, or 12 muffins Preparation time: 20 minutes

Girl Daddy....

They pinned me down and forced me to get my nails painted!!!! ... Such is life as a 'Girl Daddy'.

CapRock Canyon State Park

A couple of weekends ago we went camping at CapRock Canyon. The canyon is BEAUTIFUL! But it was really HOT, so we didn't stay longer than 1 night. We were pretty much out of there by 11am. We did take a short hike, and Althea was SO READY to go by the time we finished! David's term "We'll have a teen meltdown if we don't leave soon." So we left. Alexandra was sad to be leaving. The little girls love this canyon because it has lots of trails to hike, rocks to climb and animals to spot. Speaking of animals.... Here's one we saw a lot of. Tarantula Wasps! That is one HUGE wasp! This wasp dragged this (now dead) tarantula up a 12" high stone wall. It was the weirdest sight! Water is my friend! Addison above and Alexandra below.The tent spot. Alexandra and Addison loved climbing that little hill behind the tent! Althea in the tent door, me hiding behind the blanket. We so did NOT need that! Our next trip to Caprock will be this fall. No more summer camping trips! No more 'teenage meltdowns'!

David's personal artwork website

FYI... I spent last week building a new website for David's artwork. It is http://www.worksbydavidcollins.com/ and we hope you will all check back frequently to see what's there! The 2007 gallery is my fav right now. This gallery has many of the pieces that he submitted in his MFA app portfolio used to get into Texas Tech. Enjoy!

Prairie Dogs and Sunshine.

So one thing I found out right away was that the sunshine here is a lot BRIGHTER than in the D/FW area. If I'm outside for longer than 5 mins without sunglasses on, I get a migraine. Weird... David warned me. He told me the light was different here. But I really didn't expect the headaches! I've learned.

I wanted to post a pictue of some Prairie Dogs. There are lots of them here. We went to Prairie Dog Town our first week and then as we looked while driving about, we noticed there are Prairie Dogs all over the place! Well, not everywhere, but we've learned to spot them about. The girls LOVE IT!

Tomorrow we're hoping to visit a few museums and such (the FREE ones..) and I'm hoping to take a few pics. We'll post some later.

Sisters always

Alexandra and Addison lounging about watching a show. They're never too far apart...

It's a 'Wrinkle in Time' street!!!

Althea says, "This is like the 'Wrinkle in Time' street! It's just missing the kid in front of each house bouncing a ball." And scary thing is, she's right! What do you think?

Well, regardless of that, this is the street that we now call 'home'. This is our Lubbock Home. We are renting a 3br/3ba duplex that really caters to Tech students and families. The guy that owns these is a huge Tech fan and loves renting to grad students. Well... who wouldn't! Grad students generally have more respect for properties and such. Anyway... This pic is cool so thought I'd share. Can you see how HAPPY Althea is to be here? LOL...

River of Life - 60x30 - Acrylic/Marker/Pen/Pencil on canvas

This is River of Life. David did this piece in his Fall 2007 drawing course. He has now entered it into 2 exhibitions, and it was accepted for both. Today is the Opening reception for the 2nd exhibition for the VAST (Visual Arts Society of Texas) 125 Mile Show. He won a 'catagory 3' award in this show. We don't know exactly what that means yet, though, because we couldn't attend the reception. (It will probably be a gift certificate of some sort.) The most important part there is 2 fold: 1-He got in! 2-He got an award!

WooHoo!!! Go David!!!

Changes and Happenings

I know... it's been forever since I've had time to actually BLOG. Well, now I have time! And internet at home again as well.

We moved this past weekend to Lubbock. Prior to that move, I had advised my managers at work that this was pending (several months ago) just to give them a heads up and so they had plenty of time to train and transition my position. Then, on 27 Jun, STA Travel went through a re-structure where they laid off a lot of staff. So I got included in that 'lay-off'. Oh what fun! The good news is, well, I can collect un-employment if needed. The bad news, we moved to Lubbock and I don't have a job yet. STRESS! Its ok, deep breath... Gives me time to catch my breath a bit anyway.

I'm tired. I had 2 interviews yesterday, 1 of which already came back with a 'no'. And I had another interview a few weeks ago and they haven't decided yet, apparently. So I'm guessing 'no' on that one as well. Besides that, though... I'm going to probably take a hit in this move. Its not looking like pay will be even close to what I had at STA. I have a couple of recruiters on my side now, too, so we'll see how it goes.

David was able to transfer here. Thats really good news. He actually transfered a week before the move. David starts school, MFA program at Texas Tech on 18 Aug. It'll be fun to see how working and MFA and teacher's assistant all work to make up his weekly routine.

Addison starts Kindergarten this year, Alexandra will be in 1st grade and Althea starts Middle School... 6th grade. Oh boy.. I'm just not ready!!! Deep Breath... It's all good, right!?!?!?