A Jeep and a boy! Pretty fun combination. Jeeps are gas and tires and noise and hills and a good dose of scare-your-sister potential.

"Anna, let's go up this little hill."

"Ok." (I'm gripping the sides. My bugged out eyes gauge the little hill which is not little. As well as being not little is is also muddy. Not only that but the tires are bald.) The awesome thing about this moment is that my brother is grinning the whole time. His eyes are also glued on the road. Mostly glued on the road anyway. He does keep glancing my way.

I was on a visit home and my littlest brother had come roaring up to the porch with his Jeep. He wanted to take me for a ride. Of course I'd go...

I think my body language was giving him the impression I wasn't in a relaxed state. He was taking me on an adventure and I displayed a shameful lack of enthusiasm. No wonder guys roll their eyes at girls. The Jeep began to bog down a little on the little bit of mud on the little hill. I freaked out and jumped out before the inevitable backwards roll down the hill. Once again Donny was giggling and I was...well...I wasn't giggling. No, my knees were shaking. My goal of being an understanding, fun, easy-going sister was taking a major hit. Donny rolled to a stop at the base of the hill where I met him. He looked at me with a sweet sympathetic smile. "Hop in and I promise we won't do that again." He shook his head, grinning. "It wasn't that bad really, but I can understand being a little nervous."

With my hand gripping my side of the Jeep we puttered and bounced homeward. On my side of the road there appeared a blackberry vine. As we came closer, Donny decided to go around it to avoid my getting scratched in the face. Around meant sidehilling. I don't sidehill well. "Donny. DoNnY. DONNY!" He was giggling out of disbelief by this time. "Anna, this is flat(giggle) ground. You almost couldn't tip over. (giggle) I do (giggle) this all the time (giggle)." Donny got me very safely home. I smelled very much like gasoline. This vehicle gets maybe 2 miles to the gallon. I feel like there's a connection there.

Speaking of which, on another trip home just recently, I was headed out the driveway with another brother. We met Donny walking down the driveway toward home. Marshall started chuckling as he rolled down the window. "Run out of gas up there?" I think he had some experience in this department as well. The noise and the fixing and the rock crawling and running out of gas a mile from home must have a hidden fun quality. Actually, though, I enjoy watching them enjoy it and getting lots of fun out of it. You can't help but enjoy someone else enjoying something. That's how this female sibling can truly enjoy Jeeps. I love you Donny!

A Relaxing Evening

My dear cousin sent me Pioneer Woman's recipe book. This is no ordinary cookbook. It is a book full of short stories, frozen frames from daily life in the ranching business, and lots of good food! It's like a comfortable coffee conversation with a friend. In line with the food topic, I had some frozen chunks of pumpkin in my freezer and had been wanting to make a creamy soup out of it. This I did. I took my new book and my soup experiment (no tomato next time I think) out to enjoy the summery spring day on 'my' front porch.

Puffy Pancake Recipe

Here Jeanine, I think this is the right one =) !

Flying Apple Flapjack
Betty Crocker: Baking for Today

2 Tbsp butter or margarine
2 Tbsp packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 medium cooking apple, thinly sliced (about 1 cup-ish)
2 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup milk
1/4 tsp. salt

1) Heat oven to 400 degrees. In 9-inch glass pie plate, melt butter in oven. Sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon over butter. Place apple slices on cinnamon-sugar mixture.

2) In medium bowl, beat eggs slightly with wire whisk or hand beater. Beat in flour, milk and salt just until mixed (do not overbeat). Pour batter over apple slices.

3) Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until puffy and deep golden brown. Immediately loosen edge of pancake. Place heatproof serving plate upside down on pie plate; turn serving plate and pie plate over to remove pancake (if you want to remove it).

Puffy Pancakes for Saturday Morning

A puff pancake made from a recipe book my sister-in-law gave me. It's been fun going through it! This is alot like a Dutch baby pancake. It puffs up in the oven, forms a crust of sorts then settles down as it cools. I ate it with sour cream and syrup =). Yummy!

Paint the Day

At this sweet house I'm in, there are wooden cutting boards which I use all the time! I had a clusters of red tomatoes, olive oil, green basil, and purple onions on the chopping block and couldn't resist taking a picture. Color is such a blessing to a day!

A cattle ramp in the Madison Valley. We stopped on the way to or from Bozeman. This was before I moved to MT. I was in the beginning stages of discovering my desire to move here!

A Visit Home

The times when I find myself at my parents' home are treasured indeed. The privilige of seeing my family, eating breakfast and dinner around the family table, cuddling my precious niece, and driving around the place with Dad is one I cherish. Liesel is quite the chunky cutie these days. In this picture, she and grandma had been organizing wrapping stuff. Somehow some ribbon ended up in her hair! Cute! They walked the mile or so up to where Dad and I were inspecting a beautiful old barn hence the barn boards for a background. Fun times! Wow!