I've had a little excitement the past few weeks. At the end of the summer,  I got "Best of Show" at the county fair on my story I wrote about my grandparents, which of course is only truly meaningful for my family. Also in the same time span, I learned I had a recipe selected to be published in the latest Mary Engelbreit's dessert cookbook. It was my Berry Frozen Yogurt recipe that I made up a while back. Since it was an original recipe, that was pretty exciting. I had already given up that it would be selected. I had checked and checked my email account numerous times and had decided I hadn't made the cut. I had even stopped bothering to check my email for a notice, as I'd decided my recipe wasn't going to be accepted.

My mother's house got broken into and they stole all the TV's - which has been both a complication and scary. Although, the worst physical thing was the carpet getting ruined from broken glass in the carpet in 2 rooms, emotionally, it's unsettling to keep going to a house that's been broken into. You feel so violated, and wonder if it could happen again. Since I live the closest, I was the one that dealt with the insurance company. She has recently gotten her settlement, but we still have to tear out the ruined carpet. So, I guess I know what I'm going to be supervising soon.

We had our high school alumni event, which used to be a yearly event, but in recent years has become an every other year event. Plus, the event has been changed from Thanksgiving weekend to the weekend of our Fort Cobb fair which should help attendance and will give people an extra activity and reason to come home for. My sisters and I will be taking over as the secretarial committee. I have a feeling that's going to turn into a big deal - but we have 2 more years before it happens again, so we don't have to do any mailings right away.

My biggest deal of this summer & fall is that I decided to become a Pampered Chef consultant. I have read and reread the policy. If I interpreted it correctly, I don't think I'm allowed to advertise it on this page, so I won't unless I learn otherwise. However, I did start a facebook page for my business, which is allowed, in addition to my regular Pampered Chef website. I think I'm going to do my first vendor booth activity in early November and am trying to get organized for that. Also, I'm up to 440 Pinterest followers, which seems kind of amazing, since I have done absolutely nothing to recruit anyone, other than pinning stuff. I do have a funny story about that though. The last time I went to the big hobby and craft store in Lawton, I ran into a woman I used to work with at the Dept. of Human Services. I called out to her and after we said our hellos, she said, "I've really enjoyed following you on Pinterest!" I told her I probably had a serious addiction to the thing. She said she did too. I told her, that I guessed that was why we were where we were. That day, I was just trying to get some information on a better way to make a mesh wreath. For some reason, I usually can't get videos to play on my computer and most of the tutorials on the internet involving mesh also involve videos, so I had been batting zero when it comes to figuring out how to work with mesh. But I found a very helpful clerk at the big hobby and craft store that helped explain it to me and I think I've solved my problem on what didn't make sense. To be so crafty, I really can have a mental block when it comes to understanding directions.

And then...there's the consignment store booth. That store ended up opening about 1 1/2 months later than originally anticipated. All I can say is I've started and I've still got a ways to go before I'm going to be finished. But, it can't be too soon, because I've been driving myself nuts hanging onto things that I need to get sold.  
               Elaine, aka the Red Dirt Cowgirl