What's Cookin'?

* Please excuse the bad quality of these photos. I didn't have my camera with me (What? A blogger without a camera on her?!), so I used my ancient cell phone.



Hello, Sweet Friends!



Yes, I'm still here... and kind of sorry that I haven't been contributing to Bloglandia much these days. Let's just say(brace yourselves), between a heavy and demanding caseload at work, a week or so of stomach flu, stressing about the squirrels making a luxury condo of my attic, about passing out when I found out my traffic citation for making an illegal u-turn and not having my proof of insurance on me that day was going to total to more than my house payment (no joke), and just being plain tired, blah blah blah-- I just haven't felt inspired. Wow. Was that the run-on sentence of all run-ons, or what??



Honestly, I just haven't felt that I've had anything blog-worthy to write about. I'm trying to ease back into creativity now, and I think I may just get my groove back sometime soon. Thank goodness for you bloggy friends. Although I haven't felt like writing, I have been reading here and there. You've all kept my spirits up, and my heart and mind distracted. Thank you, sweet friends.



(Oh, and sorry for blurting out all this personal stuff. I usually keep my personal stuff under wraps. This is suppose to be my happy place, after all.)



So.... switching gears! I've been wanting to share these photos! Isn't this stove just the cutest?? I get really, really sentimental about these old stoves with a griddle. When I saw this I almost hugged it. Seriously, I did.

You see, this stove reminds me of one of the sweetest men to ever walk this earth. His name was Earl. His wife's name was Pearl. (Really!) Earl and Pearl were the grandparents of my dear friend Debra. (You might remember Deb from The Wild West Tour 2010)

Grandpa Earl quietly cooked his famous pancakes on a stove so similar to this. For years(maybe even decades), he lovingly flipped those pancakes on his stove for his kids, his grand kids, great grand kids, and any friends that happened to be sitting in his kitchen on a weekend morning. He was about 90 years old when I last had the honor of sitting at his kitchen table to devour a plate of his famous fluffy pancakes. It seems like only yesterday.

That stove was Grandpa Earl's pride and joy. He kept it all shined up like a Rolls Royce. He once told me that he even had it re-chromed (or was it re-enameled?) one year. So, when I came across this stove recently, I immediately thought of Grandpa Earl and his shiny stove. I thought about how wonderful it would be to have a beauty like this...

...and then I looked at the price tag.

Grandpa Earl would not believe it!! He'd probably shake his head, and maybe say it's not in as good of shape as his stove. Or not, because he was so dang sweet. All I know is that my heart dropped when I saw that price tag. I knew that the stove was valuable, and yes, it was in fairly good condition. Then I thought about Grandpa Earl's stove and how wonderful it still is, still cookin' in his own daughter's kitchen now. I wondered how much that stove, so full of love and sweet memories, was worth. I guess a person could put a nice hefty fair price on it, but to me...

it's priceless.

Hugs,