Beef. It's What's For Dinner.

OK, so in my previous post I briefly mentioned Bessie, our new cow. And I thought maybe it was time I introduced you to the new addition to the Butler household.

Bessie, this is everyone!

Everyone, meet Bessie!

Ain't she a beauty?

Back in the early part of the summer, we all took a little trip to the local farmer's market. While my mom and I drooled over their fresh cut flower selection, Scott walked away onto bigger things. Much, much bigger.

He apparently spotted a local cow rancher/breeder and was immediately drawn to the big ol' heap of beef this guy was selling. They got to talking and suddenly Scott had a dream: to purchase a half a cow. For reals, people... When this boy dreams, it's BIG!

One of Scott's co-workers heard about such dream and told him he had an old, read REALLY OLD, upright freezer sitting in his garage and we could have if we wanted it. Well, needless to say Scott jumped on his offer.

So we now had a really old and rusted freezer in our garage. Scott gave it a good cleaning and took the kids to Lowe's, where they each got to pick a spray paint color of their choice. Hence how we ended up with a big ol' blue freezer which looks like this:

Sam picked an electric blue color for the sides (not pictured), and Isabella picked this blue for the door. It is now one bright blue freezer.

After months of thinking it over and working the numbers and thinking it over some more, Scott decided it was our destiny to own some part of a cow. I mean, we already had the freezer to store it in, right?

So he called the rancher/breeder guy and after a few conversations it was decided we should start out with a quarter of a cow. I can't even tell you how much meat that is. And how many different cuts we have. It's crazy! We'll be having beef for breakfast, lunch and dinner for months.

And if you come over, rest assured there will be a beef dish served. And most likely a beef appetizer. And dessert as well. Ooh, maybe something along the line of Rachel Green's infamous trifle dessert on that Thanksgiving Friends episode. Remember? That was funny!

Anyhoo, I'm glad Scott didn't go with the half cow... we'd probably have to go out and get another deep freezer to store it. Either that or use our regular freezer and not buy another single frozen item for months to come. Sorry kids, we're all out of waffles, but I'll gladly make you some beef if you'd like!

Like I shared with you in my previous post, we enjoyed the first taste of Bessie this past weekend, twice actually, and she was quite tasty!

So, if after reading this, anyone suddenly has an overwhelming desire to go out and get yourself a quarter, half or even an entire cow, please feel free to call me and I'll gladly send you the cow seller's contact info.

Better go now, I've got some serious meal planning to do...

Senate Bill 1738

I love our DVR and the fact that I can record programs and watch them whenever I get a chance to, like when both kids are napping at the same time, which almost never happens. Well, it happened today. So, I just finished watching yesterday's Oprah show. To say I was appalled, sad, disgusted and angry as a result of watching it is putting it mildly.

The show was about child pre * da * tors, specifically internet pre * da * tors. Some of the things mentioned on that show literally made my cry. I cannot even bring myself to repeat it. So I decided to do something about it, to take a stand. Since I'm sure that not everyone I know reads this blog, I will also follow this up with an e-mail later today to pretty much everyone in my address book. So please forgive me if I repeat myself, but in my opinion this so worth doing.

This is not a political statement by any means. Regardless of your political tendencies or beliefs, Senate Bill #1738, the Protect Our Children Act, is a bipartisan bill to assist the underfunded law enforcement efforts in protecting our children from pre * da * tors. It will allocate additional financial resources to law enforcement who investigate child exp loi - tat ion, make child rescue a top priority and allocate funds for more advanced electronic tracking.

All you have to do to ensure this bill gets passed is write your senator and request that they vote to pass Senate Bill 1738. Just click here and it will take you directly to Oprah's website where she will walk you through everything you need to do to contact your senator. You can even copy a letter to paste on your senator's contact form so most of the hard work is already done for you. I just did it and it took no more than a few minutes.

Please note, the deadline for this petition is September 26th, so please act quickly since we don't really have much time.

So that's it,... let's do what we can to put our hard-earned money to good use.

(BTW, the words that appear to be a little crazy are purposely typed that way. I learned a very useful tip from my friend Marci when posting certain words on blogs.)