By Sheri Hopkins
Lifestyle Contributor
Hello everyone! Raining this afternoon in the River Valley.
I wonder if we really know how blessed we are. I take a lot of things for granted and I really don’t want to be that way. My sister and I talk about our childhood. She said we had the best childhood, and she’s so right. We never went without anything we wanted. We had the best Christmas and birthdays. Such happy times! We had a playhouse and ample baby dolls to play with. Tons of Barbie dolls, or Barbs as we called them.
Dad had an old pickup out back that didn’t run anymore, just like everyone in Arkansas. That truck was our vehicle. We lined them babies up in that old truck and it had a big, long gear shift and we went to town. We smoked like a freight train, we rolled up more paper cigarettes than you could shake a stick at. Funny thing is, neither one of us ever smoked and we couldn’t stand to be around cigarette smoke. We made mud pies galore. We rode bikes all over the place, mine was a blue bike with a white banana seat, and a basket on the front for carrying stuff. Fun times, and we didn’t have a care in the world.
I hope my children think the same way I do. Jacob and Jimmy pulled some stunts when they lived at home, and I was snowballed all the way. They tell stories and I never had a clue what was going on. One summer I came home from work and those boys had switched rooms with my mom, Nanny Jane. They had everything all set up and it looked so nice, the reason they done it was because they were loud at night and didn’t want to keep me awake. That’s what I was told by them two. The real reason was they had been wrestling and Jacob fell against the wall and knocked a big hole in the sheetrock. He said, “we just sat and stared at it for about 30 minutes.” Finally, they realized Nanny Jane’s bed had a big headboard and would hide the hole. I was so proud of them when I came home at all they had accomplished. It wasn’t until a couple years later, I just happened to be moving the bed out or something and seen the hole. They finally fessed up, it was too late to get onto them then. Always shenanigans going on at the Hops House of Danger as I called our house. If you ever watched Animal House with John Belushi that’s what it was like, just no alcohol or drugs. There was a lot of fun times at my house.
Last night I walked in church and there was Jacob and Buff Jimmy. Jimmy had come in from Mississippi and wanted to surprise me. It was so good to see him since I don’t get to see him very often. He’s all grown up and moved away. Love my boys.
This is a message to a certain dog grandma, her grand dog Natalie needs her to make her some little doggie clothes. She needs to start spoiling that baby. Natalie loves her grandma Beverly.
Hope everyone has a great week, warmer temps are on the way. This week’s brownie recipe comes from Amy McEntire. They are easy and they sound delicious. They are sno ball brownies. Make this quick recipe and take a trip down memory lane from when you were a kid and ate Hostess Sno Balls.
SNO BALL BROWNIES
1 family size box of brownies (Pillsbury chocolate fudge is the best)
1 16 oz. can of vanilla cake frosting
1 7 oz. jar of marshmallow cream
3 cups of sweetened flaked coconut
4-8 drops of pink food coloring
Bake the brownie mix according to the box directions, let cool completely. Combine the frosting and the marshmallow cream together, mix well and spread over the brownies. Add the coconut to a bowl and squeeze in two drops of food coloring at a time and use a fork to tumble the coconut around till evenly distributed. You can add more food coloring if you like to make it a bright pink. Sprinkle it on top of the icing and enjoy.
