Iguana Azul – Nevada, MO

**Pulled off my Recipe Blog**

Tuesday August 28th would have been my grandpa’s 84th birthday.  Would have been is in the past tense.  My grandpa passed away in 2010.  It’s hard to believe that it has been two years.

My Grandpa J and I had a special connection.  I went to his house every day after school from 2nd grade through 8th grade.  I also spent a lot of summers at his house too during the day while my parents were at work.

Now my grandpa liked food, you might almost say loved but I can’t speak for him, and he always said you couldn’t get good for unless you drove 45 miles or more.  I think part of that had to do with the fact that by the time you drove that distance you were so hungry it always made it taste better, but I’m not sure.

Back in 2009 I started the tradition of going out to dinner on my Grandma S. birthday.  She had passed away 2 years prior.  So when my Grandpa J passed away, my dad thought it was a good tradition to start.  It started with taking my Grandma J to dinner on what would have been their anniversary so she wasn’t home alone.  Now it has carried to dinners.

Tuesday night my parents, grandma, hubby and I loaded up in dad’s truck and drove to Nevada, MO to eat dinner at a restaurant called Iguana Azul.  Two reasons we chose this restaurant.

The first reason, Stating the obvious, it was more than 45 miles from home.
Second reason, dad, hubby, Tbug and I ate here back in March and we’ve been talking about it ever since.  So it seemed like a perfect fit.

Iguana Azul is located on the south Side of the Nevada Square across from the court house.  I believe they also have an entrance from they Hwy 54 side of that building with a parking lot behind the building/accessible from Hwy 54.

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PMM – I Want To Drive

One of the perks of living in the country is you generally tend to have a longer driveway.  Our current driveway is 1/10th of a mile long.  That’s actually pretty good.  Just think 5 laps up and back is a mile. Yes, I’m a nerd, yes I clocked the length on my car odometer… moving on!

So one day last year I pulled into the driveway when Tbug was with me.  I put the car in park and told her to get out and come here.  At first she thought I was going to make her walk to the house, ha! but I didn’t.  I put her in my lap and let her “drive” down the driveway.  Of course it was hubby’s Tucson he had so he asked her who let her drive.  Anyway…  So there are a lot of times I allow her to drive down our driveway.  She’s getting good at making the curves and not hitting anything, YEY!  Now usually I’m running the gas/brake.  But there have been a few times that she’s backed my car out of its parking space so we can do something.  Usually someone sits in the passenger seat with our hand on the E-brake so if it gets away from her we can stop it.

Anyway… all of this was pre-curser to telling you this story.

Sunday Tbug got to come to our house on an off weekend.  We were out working with the horses and my dad took his truck out to the round pen.  Around lunchtime we all decided we were hungry and mom decided we should go to town.  When dad went out to get his truck, Tbug went with him and drove it over to the house, sitting on his lap.

We left and went to lunch, yada yada.  Once we headed back to my parents’ house Tbug started asking grandpa if she could drive down the driveway.  Grandma was giving Tbug fits saying that she’d have to get out and walk if grandpa let her, etc.  So this got Tbug to yacking away about, well honestly I don’t know what she was talking about.

So dad (grandpa) got to the driveway and Tbug is still just yammering away about something.  Dad slowly creeped in the the driveway, mom is looking at dad, hubby and I are staring at dad through the rear view mirror, we’re all just looking like….. um…. are you going to let Tbug drive.  Then all at once Tbug quit talking and sat there.

Finally hubby said, “She never even noticed.” and dad still slowly moving then all at once Tbug yell’s
“OH GOSH!”  Hubby and I were in the backseat so we couldn’t see her face, mom said it was hilarious but we were all cracking up at the Oh Gosh comment.  Just then she realized that we were in the driveway and she wasn’t driving.  Dad stopped and she crawled over into his lap to drive up the driveway. 

Lauren of Modern Day Wife

So I have a treat for you today, you aren’t going to have to read my blabberings. ha!  Have you met Lauren?  We’ve taken over each other’s blogs today.  Read about her here, then go to her blog and read my answers to the same questions; you didn’t think I would leave you hanging did you? 🙂  Yeah I stole them from her and answered them myself.  I’m cool like that!  So without further ado, I want you to meet Lauren!
****************************************
Hi “Life’s a Beach” readers!
I am one of Nicole’s brand new sponsors so I am excited to introduce myself 🙂

I’m Lauren and I blog over at The Life of a Modern Day Wife!

 

Getting to Know “Modern Day Wife”…

 

 

1. Describe yourself in 10 words or less
Energetic, kind, wife, passionate, driven, fun, caring, organized, writer & professional 

2. What made you get into blogging? And inspired your blog name?

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Old Settler's Picnic

Saturday was the Moss Springs Old Settler’s Picnic.

My dad saw a flier for it weeks ago and said they had a photography contest.  He mentioned that I should enter.  So hubby and I started going through our photos and debating which photos we’d like to enter.

There were 7 categories:

  • Black and White
  • Still Life
  • Portrait 11 and under
  • Portrait 12 and up
  • Animal
  • Floral
  • Landscape

I entered a photo in every category.  Hubby entered in 5 of the 7.

So when we arrived to turn our photos, things were in full swing.  The drizzling rain didn’t stop anyone!  Here is a friend of my grandma’s and my uncle competing in the Horse Shoe contest.

My mom entered an afghan.  And I’m pleased to say, she won!!

My grandma entered bread, fudge and one other category.  I haven’t heard yet how she did.

And then our photos.  Here were our placings!!

  1. The Black & White feet was hubby’s entry.
  2. The Floral was my entry.
  3. the Hawaiian Sunset was Hubby’s entry.

  1. The boots entry was mine.
  2. The Horse Entry was mine.
  3. The picture of hubby was mine.
  4. The picture of Tbug was hubby’s.

I entered the Las Vegas Strip Landscape.  I got a compliment from a Professional Photographer saying that it should have won hands down.

This was hubby’s entry.

This was my entry.

This was my entry.

This was hubby’s entry.

Really, for our first ever photo contest we were quite pleased with how we did :).  Have you ever attended your local Old Settler’s Picnic?

Gem Dandy’s Pizza – Jasper, MO

Saturday night hubby asked me if I’d have dinner with him.  Well he should have known the answer to that question, but he proceeded to ask anyway.  On our way to Jasper it started raining.  Oh it was glorious!  We wanted to jump out of the car and dance in it!

Anyway, once we got to Jasper to Gem Dandy’s Pizza it had quit.  I’ve been telling hubby for a while now we needed to go eat here.  Finally we made it!

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Blogging 101: Creating/Implementing a Button

I’m not claiming to be the Blogging Queen or anything.  Heck I’m still just “hit & miss” -ing my way through this like the rest.  All that coding jargon confuses me.  I know very little about technical names.  And yes, I’m married to an IT Man.  He humors me.  I act like I know what I’m talking about and he smiles & nods :).  Sometimes we have interesting conversations at my house :).

But, I taught myself how to make a button.  How to “code” it. etc etc.  And now, I’m going to share my knowledge with you.  I’m proud to say I figured most of it out on my own, with a little help from the hubster.

There are lots of different programs you can make a button in; Paint (the simple standard program on a windows based computer), Photoshop (Elements & regular for sure, not sure about Lightroom, don’t have that), Gimp, Paint.net, or the easy program of Picmonkey.  Why did they have to close down Picnik?  Another question for another day.  But your list of progams could be endless… I’m sure there are some I haven’t thought of!

Ok, before you get started download this little white box.  It is sized for 150×150 which is pretty standard for most blog buttons.

150×150 (it’s right above these numbers… hard to see it, sorry!!

Right click above “These numbers” and you should find it… how the heck can I get a box around it so it shows up?

If you can’t get that to work,  you can always go into, say Paint, Resize the white box to 150×150 pixels, save it and you’re good to go!

Ok moving on….

Now go to picmonkey.com  make sure you spell it right or it doesn’t work.  Learned that the hard way :).

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Old Fashioned Apple Peach Gingerbread

Serves 6-8

1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup shortening
2 eggs
3/4 cup molasses
2 3/4 cups flour
4 apples, peeled and cut into slices
4 peaches, peeled and cut into slices
2 tsp. soda
2 tsp. Ginger Powdered/Ground
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup buttermilk
Whipped cream

Mix sugar and shortening together well. Add eggs and mix, and then mix in the molasses.
Combine all dry ingredients. Add 1/2 of the dry mix and stir well. Then add 1/2 of the buttermilk. Then add the rest of the dry mix, and then add the rest of the buttermilk. Stir but do not over mix. Stir for about one minute.

Cover the bottom of a well greased 12” Dutch oven with the apple and peach slices. Pour gingerbread over the fruit. Bake at 350 for 30- 35 minutes.

Cut and serve warm with whipped cream.

Thanks Be To God

Psalm 50: 7-15

“O my people, listen as I speak,
Here are my charges against you, O Israel:
I am God, your God! I have no complaint about your sacrifices.
But I do not need bulls from your barns or the goats from your pens.
If I were hungry, I would not tell you, 
for all the world is mine and everything in it.
Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God,
and keep the vows you made to the Most High.
Then call on me when you are in trouble and I will rescue you.

23:

But giving thanks is a sacrifice that truly honors me.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 2 Thes. 5:16