Had a nice, but exhausting day!

Yesterday, my niece and nephew from Colorado showed up here at 1:00 pm and almost immediately, we went and got my kids out of school. The kids were SO excited to see them! They also had NO idea they were coming here. Then I had to get gas and get money out of the bank, and headed to Henryetta with Vanna. We got there and dropped the kids off. Then we all left and went to Shawnee for the Taste of Home show last night. We all met at Golden Corral and ate dinner, then went to the show. I thoroughly enjoyed the show! This lady made a lot of things that looked SOOO good, and looked easy to make. I'm going to try a few of those recipes very soon :) There were like 1000 people there and we had a group of our sisters there. Cherrie said there was like 17 sisters in our group. Well, like Cherrie said, a BUNCH of the sisters won door prizes. They gave away like 100 door prizes, but unfortunately, none for me, Cherrie, or Chantel :( My niece won a prize, my mother-in-law also won. So I was happy for all of our group who did win something. Maybe next time for me ;) The show was awesome! The lady did give a lot of helpful tips on how to do things. Cherrie named a few helpful tips. She asked me to think of a few that she didn't name. I'm going to give it my BEST try, but I'm sure I won't remember all of them ;)

1. The thing that makes peppers hot isn't actually the seeds, but it is the membrane (sp?)

2. To ripen an avocado faster, place in brown paper bag and close it for a day, or half a day, etc..., it releases a vapor and if it is confined, that vapor will help it ripen WAY faster.

3. Add 1 TBS. vinegar to boiling water before adding an egg (or 2) to keep the egg from separating, the vinegar keeps it closer together. This is for a poached egg.

4. When making meatballs (to make them all the same size), you roll out the meat on a cutting board and make it into a rectangle, then cut it into equal parts, and then roll the meatballs in your hand.

I actually can't think of any more off the top of my head. If I think of more, I'll mention them in my comments for this post. I really did have a great time! I learned how to make a hollindaze sauce for eggs benedict (one of my FAVORITE breakfast items) and can't wait to try it out! We got out of the show at 10:00 pm. Then we had to drive 2 hours to get home. I was SO tired. I basically crashed.

Then this morning, my niece put some (blonde) highlights in my hair that I've been wanting for MONTHS. And they are gone now. They are going to Dallas for a big young kids get-together at 6-Flags. I'm so jealous, LOL. But it was really great getting to see my niece and nephew, even for a very short time. I really enjoyed them.