I just made this Paula Dean recipe and it's wonderful. I will put it on my recipes. Last night I made her sliders and they were the best hamburgers I have ever eaten. I normally don't jazz up meats too much with seasonings/ marinades because Hank is a salt and pepper kind of guy, but these patties were sooooo good. I didn't even take time to snap a quick picture because I was inhaling them so fast!!!! This tex-mex casserole was really good with taboli (I liked the cold, crunch with the hot gooey casserole).

By golly it did rain - for a second!

Holy cow - is that a rain cloud moving our way???
As I was sitting here blogging I noticed the temp. on my computer dropped about 3 degrees and the wind picked up. I walked outside with camera in hand to document this marvel of mother nature and sure enough it looked and smelled like rain off in the distance. Can it really be? The other day Sam and I were talking about Hank's constant watering and Sam remembered when he used to water our old house...we had a good laugh. He would do that to cool it off. In case you don't know Hank hates the heat. It brings out the worst in him:( I think Hank learned about watering houses in his youth. His dad got this idea to rock their house. They got these really nice mossy rocks and did it as a family project. Then Hank's job afterwards was to water the house to keep the moss alive. Hank said he put action figures in the cement, so somewhere in an old ranch house in Eastern Oklahoma, there is a Hank Hubler time capsule preserved in concrete. Hanks says the walls on that house were so thick it could be used as a bunker. Wonder if the moss is still alive? I put these stories on here because this is a living scrapbook for our family and kids to enjoy. You don't always appreciate them when you are a kid. If I could get Hank to participate in this he could tell some really funny ones about his childhood.

THE MOUSE...
About a week ago Stella told me she heard a mouse in her room. I have never seen a mouse in our house - but we do live in the country now and after finding several snakes in our house - anything is possible. I humored her and let her make mouse bait that looked like this (above). That night we got home late and Stella fell asleep in the car so Hank carried her up to bed. As he was about to lay her down he stepped on the toothpick which stabbed into the bottom of his foot. He was such a trooper that he bit his lip, laid her down and exited the room without making a sound. We will do anything to make sure our kids stay asleep. Fast forward to last night when I was up there reading to her. We heard it again and she said "yuck, I don't want to sleep in a rat infested bed." Then we realized it was in the wall behind her bed because we heard it squeaking and scratching. Not sure what we will do..probably nothing.

Stella's head has healed up nicely. Her hair covers the scar which is convenient. We first thought it would be on her cheek. She is having some bad drainage from that ear which we are treating. We are going to the ENT tomorrow to have her fitted for ear plugs. He said that the new rule is that kids with ear tubes can swim and shower without a plug. However, some kids don't tolerate the water in their ears very well and those kids will have to wear plugs. Guess which group Stella falls into? We are wondering if the tube came out yesterday? Not sure. Also going to Opthamologist tomorrow to see how bulging in optic nerve is doing.

Coming home - we shot off all the fireworks, finally found the dog (who was hiding under the air conditioner scared TO DEATH and shaking because it was his first 4th of July), Stella was bawling because she knew Mario had been eaten by coyotes, got everyone showered, car loaded down sooooo full that there wasn't even room to bring home the dog crate and half the other junk we took. It's now 1:30 a.m. and we take off down the driveway headed home. Just through the driveway gate the tire pressure gauge goes off and sure enough we had a flat! I don't know if it was the heavy load those tires were carrying or the universe wanting to make Hank have a nervous breakdown, but all we could do was go back to the house. Hank had a donut spare which could not take us 2 1/2 hours home and everything was closed. We went back in and everyone slept in their clothes. Everyone had a shower before we left EXCEPT me...as a mom I was trying to make sure everyone bathed, packed bags, etc. so we could get on the road faster. Let me say that I have not sweated as much as I did that day, in years then add bug spray, fish smells and dirt and you can get a mental picture. Hank was stressed over missing work not to mention the engineering skills he had to use to pack the car to the gills! I wanted to take a shower, but I was not allowed to move anything to get to my clothes. I couldn't stand it so I borrowed clothes from his mom to sleep in- and washed mine. Hank walked right in the bedroom and fell fast asleep like a baby after getting me stressed out. So there I am awake all night. I fell asleep 45 minutes before I was woke up to leave. Yes, I said 45 minutes. Hank is standing over me with fresh clean clothes on and a smile on his face. I said "where did you get those clothes?" He allowed himself to unpack our bag - but I had to suffer. After 45 minutes of sleep I knew if I said anything it might not be nice so I remained quiet most of the morning. We made it to Tulsa in time to drop Sam's friend Michael off at a Braum's (he was leaving for vacation this morning). Stella held a trash bag to her mouth all the way because she thought she was going to puke (too much ice cream last night for a little girl who is allergic to milk), I had the dog on my lap so I couldn't nap since he was laying on my pillow. We are home now and it's always good to be home. We had a good time despite the heat. Now you can see why our family avoids road trips at ALL cost! They take years off of Hank's life.
In the above picture you can't even see Stella because she is buried alive - she's on the other side of the Spongebob snuggie. Look behind the boys...don't hit the breaks!

I attempted to photograph fireworks this year. I have never done that because I have always had small children whom I was trying to protect from this extremely hazardous holiday. I tried multiple settings and got some interesting results.

While Hank was brush hogging he caught this for the girls. They begged to bring him home and the answer was a FIRM NO! I just gave away a bearded dragon last week that they got tired of.

I rarely catch anything - I was so happy to catch this little guy I almost kissed him:)

The boys win for the largest fish caught.

These are the serious fisherman in the family. They will hike, sweat, get ticks and really dirty to catch those fish. Not to mention they are a little competitive about who catches the most. I said "Shelby you are really sweating." She said "I'm sweating because I feel pressure to catch fish."

Hank's mom (Wanda).
I'm so proud of her. She lost her husband 1 year and 1 month ago and she is pushing forward.
Although painful, she has conquered a lot of firsts this past year...like grandparents day at school, running the ranch, driving across the state to visit her sister. We attempted another first this weekend which was canning potatoes. We had some trouble with the pressure canner sealing, but they jars sealed anyway.

Stella has learned how to take the hook out of the fishes' mouth herself. She steps on it's tail to hold it still. She caught a lot of fish this weekend. Mario was right there to help:)

Val will kill me for putting this picture of her on here with her messy hair - it's okay Val - we were all dirty and sweaty it's just part of the ranch experience. Stella and Val have a total video game addiction. They hid the ipad from each other and OBSESSIVELY played Pants vs. Zombies (when we came in from the heat).

4th OF JULY WEEKEND AT THE RANCH
I picked these monster sized veggies right before we went out of town. Hank put a tiny bit of fertilizer on them and they turned into record setting squash!