“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”
― Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird
― Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird
It’s Just Another Manic Monday! Well technically it's a Tuesday but we didn't have power due to strong storms that blew in last night...we had to be cavewomen last night. No lights, ac, or anything. It was difficult. Any way, so what drives us bonkers this week? This weekend we took a day trip to Austin and decided our rant this week would be all about the maniacs out on the road. Let’s just drive right into this storm...literally - we drove into a big storm while writing this! Maniac Drivers1. Did you know there’s this little device that comes with all cars that flashes in order to warn other drivers that you’re about to turn. IT’S CALLED A FREAKING BLINKER!! USE IT!! PLEASE!! 2. Several years ago General Motors began putting DayTime Running Lights or automatic headlights on many of their models. When are all car companies going to follow their lead? Too many drivers fail to use headlights when it's raining, when it’s foggy or at dusk and dawn when it's very difficult to see. Headlights are a great safety tool even when the weather conditions are great. They make you more visible and why would you not want to make yourself more visible?? Too many people simply don’t know when to put their headlights on (or maybe they are like me before I had a car with automatic headlights - very forgetful!). If you ask my opinion I think it should be a law to put your headlights on when raining…it’s one in Georgia. 3. Why do some people feel the need to speed up and pass you just so they can slow down and make a right hand turn in front of you?? It just makes me want to hit them. You know, mom, your insurance would have to pay for that…you can’t just say, "Well, he deserved it." 4. There are these nice white signs with black letters on them. They tell you the speed limit. We would appreciate it if you go that speed (or maybe slightly above it.) If it says 60 go 60, not 50 or 55 and certainly not anything slower…unless, of course, it’s raining cats and dogs. Then, please slow down!! If you choose to drive under the speed limit, be courteous and pull over on the shoulder so people who would like to drive the speed limit can pass you. 5. If you can tell someone wants to pass you please don’t ride the line in the middle of the highway. Also, what is up with all those jerks that speed up when you try to pass them?? Are you trying to get us all killed?? If there’s a shoulder, go ahead and get over so they can pass you safely. 6. I know this isn’t always your fault because it’s hard to know when a headlight or taillight goes out but it’s really annoying when your headlight or taillight or even worse brake lights aren’t working properly. Do a walk around your car occasionally to check it out!! 8. Dear Motorcycler: Riding a motorcycle is dangerous enough as it is because we don’t always see you. Don’t make it even more dangerous by doing stupid things such as weaving in and out of traffic when traffic comes to a stop! 9. One of the things that annoys me about cars is when the tinting is so dark that you can’t see anything through it and you don’t really know what the traffic ahead of that car is doing…come on people lighten up! 11. It’s called a fast lane for a reason. You go fast in that lane. Technically it’s called a passing lane Abby. Passing lane/ fast lane same difference. You are still supposed to use it for passing not just poking along!
12. Or how about when someone doesn’t get over in the passing lane and you can’t pass them because they are driving the same speed as the person in the slow lane. 13. Or when someone takes forever to pass someone in the passing lane. Come on people...have some consideration for the people behind you who also want to pass the slow driver! And that ladies and gentlemen is what you call some maniac driving and even though that's not all the complaints we have, that's how many we will give today. Stay tuned for more to come! And keep some of the tips in mind when driving or your bad driving habit could end up on our blog! XOXO -The Gearles
0 Comments
![]()
It's time to get down and dirty in the kitchen because....TODAY IS FOOD FRENZY FRIDAY!!! So what is Food Frenzy Friday? This is the day my mom and I will pick a family recipe or a recipe that we really enjoy and share it with you! We shall include steps, pictures, and tips. Who's ready to start baking?? I know I am!! And so now you're probably wondering what today's recipe is....
Mystery Pecan Pie![]()
So what's the story behind this pie? Back in the sixties my mom would always buy Pillsbury Cook Off Magazines. She would go through the magazine and pick out recipes to try. Mystery Pecan Pie is one of those recipes that stuck and has become an Earle Family Favorite. Even though my mom is no longer with us her Mystery Pecan Pie lives on. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!
(The picture to your left is a picture of the original recipe my mom used. As you can tell, it has been used a few times!!)
The pie takes one pie crust. We usually use a store bought pie crust because we are too lazy to make our own but my mom always made her own and it was a FABULOUS recipe! So if you're brave enough and energetic enough to make your own pie crust, here is the recipe she always used. **Note you do not bake the pie crust - it bakes with the pie.
Pie Crust Ingredients:
1 c. flour 1/2 tsp. salt 1/3 c. shortening 3-4 Tbsp. cold water Combine flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Cut in shortening until mixture is the size of small peas. Sprinkle water, a little at a time, over mixture while tossing and stirring lightly with fork. Add water to driest parcels, pushing lumps to side until dough is just moist enough to hold together. Form into a ball. Flatten to 1/2 inch thickness; smooth edges. Roll out on floured surface to a circle 1 1/2 inches larger than an inverted 9 inch pie pan. Fit loosely into pan and gently pat out air pockets. Fold edge to form a standing rim; flute. Cream Cheese and Pecan Filling ![]()
1 (8oz.) pkg. cream cheese
1/3 c. plus 1/4 c. sugar 4 eggs 2 tsp. vanilla extract 1/4 tsp. salt 1 1/4 c. chopped pecans 1 c. light or dark corn syrup 1 (9 inch) pie shell
Step 1: Beat cream cheese, 1/3 cup sugar, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon vanilla. and salt in a small mixing bowl. Mix until thick and creamy. Set aside.
Step 2: Beat 3 eggs in mixing bowl until blended well. Add 1/4 cup sugar, corn syrup, and 1 teaspoon vanilla; blend well.
Step 3: Spread cream cheese mixture in bottom of unbaked pie crust shell.
Step 4: Sprinkle with pecans.
Step 5: Gently pour corn syrup mixture over pecans.
Step 6: Bake at 375 degrees for 35-40 minutes, until center is firm to touch. As a warning the cream cheese filling will puff up causing the pecan layer to crack. However, as the pie cools off, the cream cheese layer will deflate and the pecan layer should then look relatively normal. We recommend that you check it every ten minutes and after the first 10-15 minutes add a pie crust shield. Here's a link to a website that explains how to make your own pie crust shield.
Have you figured out why it's called a mystery pecan pie? (look below the recipe for the answer.)
The mystery? Somehow in the cooking process all the layers mysteriously switch places! ![]() It's Whatever Wednesday!! What does that mean? That today's topic could be anything! It could be about politics, education, life, a good story, or even crafts. Whatever Wednesday means we just don't care. For example in our photo we broke the rules and brought outside popcorn when we to saw a movie earlier in the year. Oooh...we are such rebels!!! So what's today's topic? Staying hydrated for Disney but being cute while doing so. Now what does that mean? We're going to transform a drab one-liter cooler into a fab one-liter cooler! Are you ready for this? It's transformation Wednesday! Mom maybe we should have done this on Tuesday. There is this thing called Transformation Tuesday. It even has its own hashtag! Well little girl we're doing our own thing! Okie dokie. I can live with that. Beautifying a Cooler So what's needed for this project? - 1 liter cooler - sander/ sand paper - plastic primer (I prefer Krylon Fusion for Plastic) - tissue paper - spackling - painter tape or masking tape - lots of paint and paint brushes - sealer (I use Modge Podge but you can use any type of sealer.) Step 1: Obviously you need to find a cooler. I got mine in a set of three at Wal-Mart for $25. I had to make my boyfriend a cooler for his fraternity earlier. Step 2: Some coolers may have an indent or logo on it. You can choose to keep those or you can apply spackling to the indents. Allow the spackling to dry at least eighteen hours. Step 3: As your spackling is drying, come up with the design that you would like to put on your cooler. Draw what needs to be drawn or trace what needs to be drawn. If you found something you would like to trace, I found that tissue paper is the best tracing paper. I normally draw out the design that I want and then I trace it. Step 4: Sand your cooler until there's no finish left on it. Sand all areas that you plan to decorate. The reason you want to sand your cooler is because you want to rough it up to allow the paint to stick better. Don't forget to sand the spackled area. You want everything to be nice and smooth. Step 5: Prime your cooler. Allow each layer to dry before adding the next. This is important. My favorite brand is Krylon. Step 6: Beautify that cooler like there's no tomorrow! Trace your designs or freehand your way to success! Step 7: Once you have beautified that cooler seal it up so it doesn't scratch. I use Modge Podge but there are many different types of sealant. Step 8: Enjoy your newly designed cooler! Stay hydrated and have fun! And that ladies and gentlemen is how you beautify a cooler and stay hydrated at Disney. This took about three days from start to finish. Remember it's not about how long it takes you to make it but the fun you're having. Look for our cooler in an upcoming post about how to Disney the right way! We hope you enjoyed this little tutorial! Send us your photos when you get done and we'll post them here so everyone else can get ideas! Here's the cooler I had to make my boyfriend for his formal for his fraternity. And yes that is the Dr. Pepper logo and a Whataburger combo. So really you could beautify any cooler you have at home! XOXO,
The Gearles **Note if you're reading this on your phone it may be helpful to scroll to the bottom and push web that way you can see the color ink. It helps a lot with mine and Abby's conversations. Sorry for the inconvience. Public and Work Bathrooms Well we’ve decided that our Monday posts would be all about those little things that drive you crazy. Today’s topic is going to be about public bathrooms and work bathrooms! Now personally, I try to avoid public bathrooms if at all possible but Abby...that’s an entirely different story. Hey now!! Ever since she was little, I am convinced her goal in life was to check out every dang bathroom in the country. I'd like to say I feel this is not true but mother knows best. She has always denied this but I sure have had to take her to a whole bunch of potties throughout the last nineteen years! Even when she was little and I trusted her to go on her own she would weasel her way under tables so she could get to her little destination. So here are just a few of our personal annoyances with public restrooms that we have experienced over the years! #1. Why do they put the paper towel holder so high that when you reach up to grab a paper towel water runs down your arm? Since I'm not scrubbing in for surgery, I don't need to wash my whole arm, thank you very much! #2. Why do they put some paper towel holders so close to the toilet that when you reach up to get a paper towel water drips onto the toilet seat causing the next person who comes along to get a wet bottom if they’re not observant enough to wipe off the toilet seat before they sit down? This happens to me quite often at work because the older I get the longer my learning curve gets and I AM ALWAYS forgetting to check the toilet seat before I sit down. #3 Of course the biggest annoyance with paper towel holders is when they’re empty. And you all know that toilet paper does not make very good hand dryers! And don't even get me started if there isn't any toilet paper!! #4 Now lets talk about those "environmentally friendly" but not so "ear friendly" dryers. Nobody has time to stand there for five minutes to get their hands dry. And then these new super fast dryers are so loud your ears hurt by the time you finish drying your hands. Someone out there needs to invent a quiet 5 second hand dryer for public restrooms. They would make millions!! Any takers?? Next annoyance...faucets…they never can get those right. #5 Automatic faucets are a GREAT idea except when you keep waving your hand under the water faucet and nothing happens. Maybe those automatic ones should have a button somewhere that we can push when they don’t work. #6 How about when the faucet decides that you need a shower! No matter how gently you turn it on, you are going to get wet! Then you have to walk around with wet clothes! How embarrassing is that?? #7 I’m pretty sure for hand washing to even be effective, the water is supposed to be a certain temperature. But how many times does the hot water not even work and you’re forced to wash your hands with cold water? How many germs are we killing then? #8 Or how many times do you reach for the soap dispenser only to discover there’s not even any soap in the dispenser!! Lastly, what’s up with the bathroom stall itself?? Can’t they come up with a better design. #9 First of all, why is it that the smaller the stall is, the more likely it is that the door swings inward? I practically have to put my foot in the toilet just to close the door. How many times do you literally have to stand in between the wall and toilet just to get the door closed. Don't forget having to battle the trashcan and toilet paper holder. Note to bathroom stall designers...just make the door swing outward...that is a pretty easy fix. #10 Now I don’t know how many of you can relate to this but for us big girls we don’t appreciate when the cold metal trashcan or toilet paper holder is mounted on the wall so low and so close to the toilet that when we sit down, our bare skin touches the cold metal. Ouch!! It’s like we've been shot! #11 How about no hook inside a stall? I really don’t want to put my purse or backpack for us students on that nasty floor. #12 What about when the stall door latch doesn’t latch or even worse, doesn’t exist? Usually when this happens the stall is too long to hold your foot up to keep the door closed, especially if you have short legs, and you just have to hope that the door stays closed and no one barges in on you! Oh that's what you do? This is when I figure out how good I am at squatting and I use my arm to hold it closed. Oops. #13 What’s up with gaps big enough that you can make eye contact with someone outside of the stall. A little privacy please. Talk about awkward. I guess a gap is better than no door at all because every once in a while you find stalls with no doors. And now for the main reason you go into the bathroom…the toilet. #14 I understand that the idea of an automatic flushing toilet is great because some people apparently had no home training and don’t know the concept of flushing the toilet. So it’s nice when the toilet senses when you are leaving and flushes the toilet for you. But it's not appreciated when I'm sitting there minding my own business and it thinks I've left but I haven't and now I have a wet bottom. #15 Another problem is, I did have home training and I have a hard time walking out the stall without flushing so if there’s no little button that I can manually push then I feel weird leaving all my business sitting there while I exit the stall. #16 Does toilet paper on the floor creep you out as much as it creeps me out? For me I can just see the germs in gym class trying to climb the "rope" aka the toilet paper. It just gives me the heebie jeebies. But what’s worse than just the tip of the toilet paper touching the floor is when the entire roll is on the floor. Now what do you do? Drip dry or use the germ infested roll…neither choice is very desirable. And now we’re coming to the end of our rant so let’s talk about the bathroom in general. #17 Let me give a shout out to most Pilot Truck Stop bathrooms. I get my own little room - with a real door and real walls all the way around. Finally some privacy. #18 For someone who likes to take an adventure to the bathroom a lot, I've come across some very confusing signs. Sometimes I've had to take a leap of faith and hope that I'm walking into the women's bathroom because the sign or word on the wall is confusing!! #19 Finally, and maybe the biggest annoyance of all, is the fact that there are never enough women’s bathrooms so therefore we always have to wait in a LONG line. Men on the other hand never have to wait in line. But I for one am not brave enough to use the men's room like I have seen many women do and so I will just suffer and hope that my bladder can hold on long enough until it's finally my turn to go!
These are just a few of our annoyances with public restrooms and work bathrooms. I’m sure we’ve left something out. So feel free to leave a comment on your annoyances. We’d love to hear about them! XOXO, The Gearles Andrea likes purple and Abby likes pink!
So we're new to this whole blog thing so bear with us. We debated long and hard on what our first post should be about. We read different websites about what your first post should be about and then read different blogs' first posts. We finally decided to just dive right in and get straight to the nitty gritty - education politics. The subject? The State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness or better known as the STAAR test - Texas's state mandated standardized test. In 2007 Texas Senate Bill 1031 announced a new wave of state tests. This bill called for secondary students to take end of course tests to be taken when a student finished a course, instead of TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) which was a test over the general core subject given during their sophomore and junior years. STAAR was implemented in Spring 2012. Since 2012 the number of exams that students are required to take and pass to graduate has quickly decreased. When it first came out a student had to pass fifteen EOCs. Then the required numbered of tests to be taken was lowered in 2013 to take and pass five. And now here in 2015, our all-knowing Texas legislature has decided that students only have to pass three of the five tests. This now gives students "permission" to choose which tests they want to pass - Math, English 1 and 2, U.S. History, or Science, and guess which one they are going to choose to fail! Math!! Thanks a lot guys...you just made my job even harder! Schools are judged on their pass rates for these tests and now you just gave our students the okay to fail them. Motivation was already difficult enough! I am sure that English 2 and US History teachers are also thrilled with this new law because now if a student passes the three freshman tests - English 1, Algebra 1 and Biology 1- they have no motivation to pass the next two tests which happen to be English 2 and US History! Don't get me wrong. I believe that schools, teachers and students need to be held accountable for learning. However, I do not believe that state testing is the answer. By the time we get students in high school, many of them have been passed along several times and they are totally unprepared for the courses they are required to take. We as a nation need to look at other countries and look to teachers (the real experts) for input and figure out how to educate our students. I think there are enough smart people in this country that real change can be made. After all, getting a good education is the best thing anyone can do for themselves! As a recent high school graduate and as someone who observes my mom in her classroom, I see and hear many students complain about why they have to learn all this math. At least if the EOCs were required for each subject and students knew they had to pass them, that would give teachers an answer to the age old question, "Why do we have to learn this?" Now however, students don't even have to pass the EOC much less even take one in most math classes. Of course her answer now becomes because you have to pass this class to graduate. Can we please have some better choices for students in math? Does everyone really need all this higher level math that teachers are forced to teach? If you're bored check out my final exam about what my expectations are for school and changes I would like to see happen one day. Feel free to leave us comments and share your thoughts on testing and education in general. I am sure this will be a topic that we end up visiting numerous times! That's it for now y'all. XOXO - The Gearles |
Abby & AndreaA college student trying to figure out the world with her mom by herside. Life through my lens (Abby). We all have different stories and these are only some of mine. Some funny, some adventurous, some hard. Sit back and relax. Enjoy. Archives
March 2018
Categories
All
|