We have decided that the ten most dreaded words to hear is “oh no, here is another box that hasn’t been opened”
We sit down and see a box in the corner, or open a closet door and see a box and discover that we have not opened it to unpack it, so here we go again. Just when we think that we are done making trips to Goodwill or storage, we find another box. To let you know how much “stuff” we don’t have room for, well…..let’s put it this way, our storage unit is bigger than our condo. So….our new motto, we WILL NOT BUY anything, ever again…..ever……if I do, Randy says that if something comes in, 3 things have to go out.
Randy (or as he calls himself this week, “a pack mule”) is making a couple more trips downstairs with the last few items that are going to storage and Goodwill. The people at Goodwill know us by name now. In fact, I started thinking this morning and got so tickled about what the neighbors must think as they see us hauling down more bags. I think they see all the “stuff” and must wonder how much more is coming out of this place. It’s kind of like seeing how many people can get in a phone booth. I think they are looking out their windows and have probably taken bets as to seeing just how many more bags come down with us every time we walk out the door. FYI…if you ever send me any gift ever again, just be prepared to come out here and carry it downstairs when we move. Unless the gifts are diamond related, and I don’t mind carrying those myself at all.

You know me, I have missed cooking so much that I am now just cooking all day long. Last night I made a chocolate chocolate chip pound cake with ganache and sent it off with Randy to his office. Today I am making Eggplant Parmesan, one of Randh’s favorites. Will be needing to go to the store to stock up on cream cheese and sour cream, after all, a little southern girl cannot exist without those two items being in her fridge. A neighbor has already asked me for the recipe for the apple cobbler I made the other night, so am feeling a little more like I am home. When I get permission from a friend who made an amazing dessert ball, will post that today. Am rocking and rolling and ready to get back to writing on a more regular routine. Thanks for staying with me and keep those comments coming. The eggplant parmesan is a new one I am trying,
so if it is as good as it sounds, will post it tomorrow because it is so easy.

The furniture has arrived! We have made too many trips to Goodwill to count because we simply do not have room for so many of our things. In fact, Randy, (or Cal, which is his new California name) has actually designed an escape route should we need one in case of having to evacuate the premises. It goes something like this. “upon entering the hallway, turn left at the bookcase and squeeze between two storage bins, walk 5 steps to jump over the couch, take 3 steps, with your arms as close to your body as possible to inch through the two tables before exiting the front door.” the plan to evacuate through the back door is simply to complicated to write as we now have (I am serious about this) serving bowls stored under the table, hidden by the floor length cloth. We have two huge platters stored under a bed and our “out of
season” clothes, now in plastic tubs stored in the garage, where at this moment our
washer and dryer are located because they were too big for our utility closet. So…we
are searching for a ventless dryer that we have to buy and a smaller car to fit in our
garage because so much of our belongings are now in the garage. Ah, this California
living is just the best……I will start cooking again if I can remember where we had to
store my pots and pans, if I do, new recipes will be coming your way…..miss all you Butter Belt friends

This has started out as the greatest New Years Day. We had the parade floats lining up directly in front of our house, here in Pasadena. Not only that, but my year was made complete already by getting a picture of Paula Deen. Now I don’t know about everyone else, but to this Butter Princess, that is awesome. To have the Butter Queen of the South passing by right in front of me, well, all I can say is that I am ready for the rapture. I have been to Italy, Greece and now have my very own picture of Paula Deen. Life just doesn’t get much better than this. So not only do we now have a picture of every float that was in the parade, but we were actuall able to watch the floats right from our front lawn….Next year, we have had all our kids tell us that they will be here for the Parade. Randy says that we will be in Hawaii during time. Maybe
if they let him be one of those cute little men on motorcycles wearing one of those
little white suits that guide the floats, he will let us stay here, regardless of how many
people will be staying with us. We already know what we will have for breakfast after the parade next year. It’s a party in the making. This will be a New Years that will go down in history All of our kids, their spouses and grandchildren here, all at the same
time….hum…….maybe we will just go to Hawaii next New Years….that is sounding
better and better. I will begin posting recipes again in a few days. I have just not
been cooking for over a month because of all the packing and moving and we will be
getting all our “stuff” in a couple of days, so we will be leaving the frozen dinners behind and get back to our normal schedule of having home cooking. That brings a
smile to Randy’s face, almost as much as him thinking about us being in Hawaii while
the kids are all here. Happy New Years to all our family and friends we have left in the Butter Belt…

This is so cool! We are in our new condo in Pasadena, sitting in our living room watching people walk up and down, setting up the floats for the Rose Parade in the morning. We are enjoying New Years Eve in an empty apartment, sitting on little chairs we found outside, preparing our air mattress to sleep on for the next few nights before our furniture arrives, all the while, so excited about seeing the parade. All my life, I have dreamed of coming to the parade, never imagining I would be living in the town where you can actually see it from my front living room. This has been the most unusual Christmas Season, and New Years Eve. We arrived yesterday from Texas to begin our new adventure here in California. We ate Thai food tonight for the first time, (actually because it was the only thing we could find this late at night that didn’t require a rsvp) but it was delicious. So this made us think that this will be the year to get out of our comfort zone. Try new dishes, experience things that we had always thought about. As I write this, the very first float of the parade is passing rt in front of our house. This is so exciting, I have tears in my eyes thinking of all the beautiful floats, flowers and bands that will be marching right here in front of us. What an exceptional NY Eve. Happy New Years to each of you as we are headed downstairs to get in the hustle bustle of the parade set up. Next year, I will be baking and handing out goodies to the float drivers. This is going to be a great 2011, I can already tell…..

We are packed and ready to go. The movers will be here in the morning, so we are down to our last night in our house. This will be my last blog for a couple of weeks because I won’t have the computer to write on until they reconnect us after the furniture is unpacked. I want you to know that I went to Costco and bought 30 lbs of butter in case they don’t have any in Calironia. I just couldn’t trust them to have our “golden rich substance” out in the land of sushi and salad. I also loaded my car with Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper, as I know that is almost impossible to find out there, have already tried to do that. Hobby Lobby was on my list of last places to go before we leave town as they are not present in California as of yet. It is hard to imagine living in a land without Hobby Lobby, Diet Dr Pepper or Whataburger, but guess I will be learning about new places. And what about Sam Moon’s, what am I going to do for earrings? Oh boy, as I think of all this, I am really having second thoughts about this move. We will be spending the first 4 nights on an air mattress at our new place, since the furniture won’t be there until the 4th, but we were determined to be out there for the Rose Bowl Parade and our new place is on the parade route where they line the floats up. So we are looking forward to that new experience. Will take lots of pics and post a couple on the blog when the computer is hooked back up. If any of you ever know where we can get our hands on Diet Dr Peppers or a great hamburger in our new home of Los Angeles, please let me know,otherwise, I’m going to have to just have Whataburger and Dr Pepper shipped in.