Christmas Card 2009

Merry Christmas!

Time got away from me this year and I didn't get Christmas cards out. We have enjoyed the beautiful cards and pictures we have received this year from family and friends.

I promise to be better organized next year and get cards out to everyone!

We hope our friends and family all have a happy and safe Christmas and New Year.

Joseph and Katy

Ho Ho Ho! Don't mind me...

Just doing a little Christmas decorating around here...

The picture at the top is one of my favorite ornaments on our tree. It is a little picture frame and it holds a picture that was taken of us on our honeymoon. We honeymooned in St. Lucia and it was so beautiful there. One look at that ornament and I'm laying on a beach hearing waves in the ocean!

Here is our Christmas tree...



We put it in the kitchen this year! We've had the tree in a different place in the house every year and so far this is my favorite. We can see it from the living room. We enter our house through the garage door, so this is the first thing we see walking into the house! It's visible from the front door too! It's just so sparkly and warm to look at!

Thankful

In the spirit of today I wanted to list a few things I'm thankful for.

1. My family. All of it. Both sides. All sides. In-laws and out-laws! Joseph and I are both incredibly lucky to have families that are strong, loving, supportive, fun, and great role models that have influenced our marriage.

2. Friends. Five years ago on a whim we sold a house and moved across the state to a town where we didn't have a house, didn't have jobs, and knew hardly no one. In the past five years we have made new friends, friends who have become like family (see description above!), friends who have made this town feel like home. At the same time, we have kept friends from other places and other times, friends who we don't see every day or even every year...but who stay in our hearts all the same.

3. Jobs. We are incredibly lucky to both have jobs in a time when many people don't. There are days when it is stressful, days when it feels like we are just working to pay the bills...but then we will have days where everything is right and we know we are making a difference.

4. My grandmothers. I don't get to see them often enough, but I am lucky enough to have two healthy grandmothers...both of whom have overcome health concerns over the past year with grace, style, and relative ease. These two women remind me to be strong in any situation.

5. Our pets. They are stinky at times. They shed. They cost a lot. But they are always glad to see us. They always want to be cuddled. They never talk back. (Well, when Della poos outside her litter box I guess that could be considered talking back! But that's another story!) They remind us to slow down and enjoy the simple things in life.

Happy Thanksgiving Day! Enjoy the Macy's Parade. Eat a lot of dressing. But at some point take a moment and remember just how good we all have it.

Of mice and men

The best laid plans of mice and men....

Well. It couldn't last. I had all these grand intentions of keeping up this blog with regular posts...filling in everyone (all three of you who read this) with the daily happenings of our life and it fizzled out. It's weird, because when things happen I find myself thinking "I should put this on the blog" but then I never get around to it. So here are some updates of what's been going on in our lives over the past month or two.

One of the last posts on here talked about some friends of ours who just moved to town. We've been having fun with them since they've settled in. We've done dinner a couple of times. The biggest change is we are now commuting together. We've always been lucky that Joseph and I could drive to and from work together...one of the benefits of working in the same place as your spouse is that it saves gas money! Now with the Butlers living close by, we are all commuting together. Debra works with the two of us and her husband also works in Little Rock. We take turns each week driving. We both have hybrids, so the gas savings are great!

Speaking of cars, Joseph and I sold our second car to my parents. They in turn were able to pass a car off to my brother who was in need of more reliable transportation. Anyone who knows Joseph knows that he LOVES cars. I mean REALLY loves cars. He's not a "gear-head" and all into engines and transmissions. He's into new, luxury, gadget-filled cars. He knows all the makes and models and trims. He can tell with a single glance if the car passing us on the street has factory hubcaps or something aftermarket. He is so observant about things!

We recently celebrated our 6th anniversary! Yea us! We celebrated by spending the weekend in Springfield and stayed at the Walnut Street Inn Bed and Breakfast. That is the place we stayed the day we got married. We also ate dinner at Gilardi's Ristorante which is where we had our rehearsal dinner. The B & B is just a couple buildings down the street from the restaurant so it is nice to be able to walk to and from dinner. And what a meal that was! We love to cook and eat great food, and this is one place that never disappoints.

We also went to Silver Dollar City again to look at the Christmas lights. We went to SDC to look at the lights on our first date and try to go back every winter. This year was a little different because it was nearly TROPICAL weather! Last year we were bundled up in multiple layers, coats, gloves, scarves, hats and still froze our tushies off. This year I was HOT wearing only jeans and a lightweight long-sleeve t-shirt! It was like Christmas in the islands!

Speaking of Christmas, we are fully decorated here. I think this is the earliest we have decorated the house. We put the tree in a different place, changed up whats on the mantle, and got new stockings. It's nice to see some sparkle and twinkle.

Okay, I'm boring myself now...I can't imagine anyone has muddled through this whole thing, but congratulations if you have!

I promise the next post will be more interesting!

still alive

We're still here! I keep thinking of things to write but never get around to posting anything! We are leaving this morning for a weekend away for our anniversary...I promise to do some updates next week!

Movin' on up!

(Be honest...do you have the theme to "The Jeffersons" running through your head? I couldn't even type that title without singing it!)

We are busy little beavers this week. We have been helping some friends who are moving to Conway. They have bought a GORGEOUS home not too far from us. We've been helping clean and vacuum before the big stuff gets moved in over the weekend. Going over there is also an excuse to play with their 7-month-old little boy...who is so cute.

They are moving from a 700 sq. foot little bungalow to about 2500 sq. feet! I call that (sing it with me) movin' on up!

In other news, I've started drinking something for breakfast that looks like pond sludge and tastes like a vacation in my mouth....let me introduce my newest food fascination - the green smoothie!



Yes, it is supposed to be that color. It gets the green color from baby spinach. Don't adjust your monitor, you read that right. I have been adding spinach (can you believe that mom?) to my breakfast smoothies!

I first learned of the green smoothie from Sara over at Walk Slowly, Live Wildly and Happy Foody. She is doing a green smoothie challenge right now to encourage people to increase their intake of healthy foods and decrease intake of white sugar. If you do a search for green smoothies online you'll find as many recipes as there are people. I started with Sara's recipe and made a couple of minor tweaks before finding my favorite smoothie.

Here's my recipe:

1 frozen banana (freeze with skin on, soak frozen banana in a bowl of hot water for a minute before making the smoothie. Just tear the top off and squeeze the banana like a tube of toothpaste into the blender.)
1-2 cups frozen mixed fruit (no sugar added, just plain fruit. The bag I bought has peaches, pineapple, strawberries, and mango.)
1 orange, peeled.
liquid to blend (I've used water, but my favorite is organic apple juice - no sugar added, just apple juice.)
baby spinach (I buy organic).

In a blender, combine the frozen banana, frozen fruit, peeled orange, and enough liquid to make things blend - I start with around 1/2 a cup. I set the blender to the highest speed and pulse it for a bit just until all the frozen stuff is broken up, then blend until smooth. The banana is what makes this creamy. There isn't any dairy in this smoothie, so the banana is really important for texture.

Once all the fruit is blended, start adding the spinach. I end up doing anywhere from 2-3 cups (big open handfuls - I don't really measure). Poke it down into the blender so it is near the blades. Once again, pulse until it is somewhat chopped. It is going to look very leafy and gross to be honest. Trust me. Put the blender on high and let it go for a couple of minutes. The greens will completely break up. If it tastes/looks chunky, add a little more liquid and keep blending.

If you want it even a little sweeter, add a dash of agave nectar or stevia. I use agave. It looks like honey but has a little bit of a more floral taste. I wouldn't use any artificial sweeteners in this - that just seems wrong to add to a blender full of fresh fruit and veggies!

Now for the fun part - TASTE IT!! It should be very green looking, but taste only like fruit. If you can taste the spinach, you didn't put in enough fruit, or put in too much spinach! The texture is cold, creamy, and smooth. A straw makes drinking these easier, unless you want a green mustache.

On Sara's Happy Foody website she has a video of her making one of these. That's where I learned the frozen banana trick.

I drink anywhere from 24-32 oz in the morning and it holds me until lunch! And just think, I've gotten in more fruits and veggies than I usually would in a normal day.

AND even Joseph will drink them!

Funny story - the other day Spencer (age 4) was over here when I was making one. I put some in a glass with a straw for him and without hesitation he started sipping. After a few big gulps he said, "This tastes a WHOLE lot better than it looks!" I took that as a stamp of approval!

Last thing - For those keeping up with the Fisher story - he has healed beautifully. The Biobrane treatment did exactly what it was supposed to. His stomach looks so good - there are just a few areas that are barely pink anymore. His arm took a little longer, but even it has completely healed. He didn't lose any range of motion in his elbow either. He is back to being the funny, bright, sweet, energetic little boy we all adore. Thanks everyone out there (all 3 of you who actually read this) for sending up some prayers on his behalf. They were answered beyond what I think any of us had hoped for.

Staycation

On one of our many farmer's market trips this summer we ran into a man who makes furniture by hand. It is his hobby. He makes things like porch swings and patio furniture. We fell in love with these adirondack chairs. It was a bit of a splurge, so we decided they are an early anniversary present to ourselves. They are so comfortable. He sells them unfinished so we had to figure out what to do with them. After much debate and hemming and hawing about colors we chose Wescott Navy - in person it is a charcoal-ish gray-blue. Its actually a deck stain, not a paint, so these are perfectly protected from the weather.

Now we can take two steps out the back door and sink to relaxation...makes for a perfect "stay-cation"!

On a side note - it is a small world! The man who made this furniture actually knows Joseph's family! He has been fishing with Pop and knows a bunch of people from Joseph's hometown. It kind of makes this furniture more special to us.

p.s. Happy Birthday Breathen!

Updates

Fisher seems to be doing well - we spent a little time with him earlier this week and it was great to see him laugh and play. He still has a splint on his left arm, but you wouldn't know it by watching him play. They go back to see the doctors at the burn clinic tomorrow to see how the biobrane is adhering and assisting with healing.

As for us, the flea crisis seems to have been averted. We re-treated the animals, deep cleaned the house, treated the house and will be treating the yard this weekend.

Joseph has a cold - poor guy.

And that's about all I know.

This has to be to sorriest excuse for a post in blog history, but it's all I have! I'll try to do better next week!

and now for something completely different....

First off, let me do a Fisher update. According to the last time I spoke with his mom, he is doing well. The procedure went better this morning than anyone could have planned - instead of having to staple the Biobrane to the burns, the surgeon was able to use steri-strips. This means Fisher won't have to go back under anesthesia on Friday to have staples removed! The next couple of days are critical for the Biobrane to adhere to the burns - the better it adheres, the better the outcome. This afternoon it sounded like Fisher, Kirsten, and Ryan all got some much needed sleep and big brother Spencer played at his grandparents house. As far as I can tell it seems like things are moving in the right direction.

And now to change the topic COMPLETELY - I hate spiders. I mean, really hate spiders. They totally creep me out. The only spider I remotely like is Charlotte from Charlotte's Web. There is nothing worse than walking through a spider web and getting caught in those invisible sticky threads. That being said, I can appreciate the beauty and intricacy of a web...I just don't want it on me!

Where am I going with this, you might be wondering...just hang in there...I'll get to the point eventually.

Even though we have a fenced in back yard, our dog Jill doesn't understand how to go to the bathroom out there unless one of us is out there too, telling her to "go potty" and "go poo poo." I can feel the collective eye-rolling now. Believe me, we hate it too. I guess it goes back to when we first got her, the house we were living in didn't have a backyard - it was more of a patio-style home. ANYWAY - when we were housebreaking her, one of us would take her outside to the field across from our house to do her business. She got really good at doing her business when we told her - Pavlov was right about that I guess! The problem is that she got too used to us being there and now won't without an audience! UGH. Most of the time it isn't that bad. We have some nice chairs on the back porch and one (or both of us) will just hang out there shouting commands (our poor neighboors - what they must think of us!) Sometimes, we will even walk around the yard while she's out there - looking at flowers, etc.

So tonight, we got home from church (we are having a revival this week) and I took Jill out. I was talking on the phone to mom while Jill was doing her thing when something caught my eye in the evening light.....



OH MY WORD. I am not kidding this thing is HUGE. This web stretches about 4 feet wide and 6 feet tall. It goes from one of the columns on the back porch all the way to that bush you see in the picture. If I had stepped off the back porch into the yard I WOULD HAVE WALKED STRAIGHT INTO THIS WEB AND HAD THE CREEPY CRAWLY NASTY SPIDER ON ME!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, my parents are probably surprised that I can even write this - knowing my reactions from childhood, they both would expect to find me screaming hysterically and refusing to go anywhere near the back yard. I have matured (slightly). I am very proud to say that I did not scream, I did not cry, I did not destroy the web. So what did I do?

I took a picture and posted it on here instead. Oh, and I'm not taking Jill outside anymore until Charlotte's relative vacates the backyard.

Fisher

Update:

Fisher will be having surgery tomorrow morning (Tuesday.) He does not require skin grafting, but will have his wounds cleaned and then dressed with a product called Biobrane - which is some kind of synthetic film that will adhere to the burns and assist in healing. The good part is this will make the subsequent dressing changes much easier and less painful. Fisher will go back for a second surgery on Friday for the staples affixing the Biobrane to him to be removed. Then the really hard part begins - he is not allowed to play outside or get wet for the next two to three weeks while the burns heal.

We saw the family this afternoon. In some ways, things seem totally normal - Fisher was snuggled in on Ryan's shoulder, Spencer wanted to play cars with Joseph, and Kirsten and I joked about stupid things...but below the surface you could feel the fatigue and uncertainty. Please continue to keep this family in your thoughts and prayers.

********
original post:

If you are reading this, please take a moment and say a prayer for Fisher (see previous blog posts for pictures and videos of this cutie-pie) and his family. While on vacation with his family last week an accident occurred and he sustained some severe burns on his abdomen and arm. The burns are second degree with one part on his arm being third degree. After treatment at the ER, he is being cared for at home by his parents. Kirsten has experience as a burn nurse, so she is capable of the wound care, but that doesn't make it any easier. They should know in the next few days whether or not Fisher will need any grafting on his arm.

Please pray for Fisher's healing, for Kirsten's skill in cleaning and wound care, and for the family as a whole.

I'll update this when I know more.

My dog has fleas....

...really, I'm not just practicing musical scales. We found the little buggers on Jill this morning. So that's the post for this week. Maybe next week's update will be more exciting. Thankfully we only found a couple, but we are treating things aggressively.

Gotta go vacuum for the hundredth time today.

Pretty flower and climbing cat

Several years ago we moved into our house in the middle of the winter - New Year's Eve to be exact. It was really fun to see what bloomed that spring. We had no idea what some of the plants were going to be. Imagine how excited we were to find fragrant jasmine, roses, flowering trumpet vine, and this.....




Each summer we are graced with these HUGE dinner-plate sized hibiscus blooms. Each one lasts for about a day. This bush is planted in our back yard, next to the fence. We thought it was some kind of weed for the longest time...then one day it bloomed. Such a nice surprise!

Totally changing the topic now. We have two cats - Della and Ollie. Della is strictly an indoor cat. She thinks she wants to go outside, but she takes two steps out of the door and runs back in. Ollie, on the other hand, is our adventurer. I think the only thing he loves more than the dog (more on that some other time - this cat has identity issues) is climbing things. The other day, I happened to look out side and see the following sight:



It's kinda hard to see, but that's Ollie standing on top of the arbor. When I first saw him he was laying down, batting at the red lights we have strung up like they were a super-cool toy we had hung just for him. Dumb cat. I couldn't figure out how he got up there. He must have read my mind, cause he continued to show me how he did it!

Tornado?

So apparently there was a tornado here today? From what I've been told one touched down this afternoon around the time we were leaving work. Joseph and I both commented on how creepy the sky looked when we left work - it was sunny and blue above us but dark and cloudy in the direction we were headed. It's about a 25 mile drive home - on a good day it takes around 30 minutes. If traffic is bad it can take forever. Today was a good day...we hit Conway just before 5. There was a brief moment of heavy rain while we were on the road, but by time we got to town the sun was shining and everything seemed fine. We didn't have the radio on, we were just talking the whole drive home so we never heard about the storm. Once we got home, we realized the cell phone was in Joseph's work bag which was in the back of the car. The phone was turned off so we never knew that multiple people had called to warn us about the storm! It's nice that people cared enough to call though!

Anyway, we are fine and as far as we can tell everything in town is fine too.

Next time the sky looks like that we will be sure to turn the radio on to listen for weather updates!

Food, Inc.

We just got home from a movie. We saw Food, Inc. It is a documentary about the food industry. I encourage everyone to see it. If nothing else, watch the trailer online.

Excuse the pun, but it gives a lot of food for thought!

I am looking forward to going to the farmer's market in the morning!

For the love of Dr. Bronners

Cleaning tips - (things you never thought you would hear from me!)

I love Dr. Bronner's soap. (www.drbronner.com)

This stuff is amazing. I first read about it on www.walkslowlylivewildly.com. It is all natural, nothing chemically weird, so safe you could brush your teeth with it. In reality, that is about the only thing I don't use it for these days.

My favorite is the unscented, mild baby one (pale blue wrapper). I use it for shampoo, face wash, and body wash (on a loofah thingie). When it's time to clean the shower, I either use it straight up with a washrag (or magic eraser if things are grungy) or mix it with baking soda to make a scrub. I keep a small container of scrub made up at all times...just pour a big pile of baking soda in the container, top with the soap and stir to make a thick paste - somewhere between the consistency of pudding and soft scrub. This scrub makes a sink SHINE! To use the scrub, I just dig my hand in there and rub it all over whatever surface I'm cleaning - the soap/soda mixture feels good in my hands so there is no need to wear gloves. Rinse with water and wipe dry.

Even toilets get the Dr. B's treatment. I squirt the liquid soap straight into the bowl, swish with the toilet brush and scrub around. It gets all sudsy and clean!

I usually keep at least one bottle of the unscented around at all times. Right now, I also have a bottle of the peppermint (dark blue wrapper). This smells SOOOOO good. It even tingles. I have it mixed into the scrub, so when I clean everything is minty fresh.

I've also tried the lavender (purple wrapper). It is a nice, mild lavendar scent...not too overpowering. My next scent to try is the citrus one... (orange wrapper, I think).

You can find Dr. Bronner's online, at Kroger (at least at mine), and even at Target. Kroger has a better price than Target by a couple of dollars. It is expensive - about 11 bucks for the bigger bottle, but the stuff lasts forever. One bottle lasts a couple of months for me, even with me using it daily for shampoo, body wash, etc.

Oh! I almost forgot - I've even used it for laundry! (Not all the time, but it works great!) It's gotten to the point where if I don't know what to use to clean something, Joseph will say, "why not try Dr. B's?" (That's how we refer to him around here!)

Don't let the cooky writing all over the label scare you off from trying the soap. I did a little reading on the website and apparently the real Dr. Bronner was a German immigrant. He had some eccentric ideas and spent a lot of time in a psychiatric institution getting shock therapy. Who knows what that did to his thinking. He's all about love, peace, cooperation, and cleanliness. Whatever...the man knows how to make soap.

Commercial over. I just had to share the love.

Yummy recipe

Mom, you might need to sit down. I don’t want you to fall over in shock when you start reading about how much I LOVE eating summer squash prepared in this torte! Yes, it’s still me, the child who hated anything resembling a vegetable. I’m the kid who sat crying at the dinner table because I had to at least take one bite before I could be excused. I didn’t believe you when you said that maybe I would like them when I grew up…but it has happened.

I’ve become enamored with our local farmer’s markets. I like the idea of buying food that is fresh and local…not food that has traveled hundreds and thousands of miles on trucks. Even better, I am getting more particular about buying organics when possible…but that is a topic for a different post. Back to the squash and potatoes. So I’ve been buying these amazing little bite sized new potatoes at the farmer’s market the past few weeks. Each potato is about the size of a cherry tomato…just a perfect bite of potato goodness! We’ve been boiling/steaming them and just eating with salt, pepper, and a good ol’ pat of butter. Well, a couple weeks ago I had a couple of pounds of these potatoes and I needed to do something with them.

I also had a bunch of summer squash that Pop had picked from his garden the last time we were there. So I had squash and potatoes and needed to use them both up.

On a whim, I decided to look at one of my favorite food blogs: smitten kitchen and see if I could come up with any inspiration. As luck would have it, listed there on the front page was the perfect recipe Herbed Summer Squash and Potato Torte

I made a couple of changes due to personal preferences and available ingredients and ended up with a GRAND SLAM dish. The original recipe on smitten kitchen is from Bon Appetit. I’ve taken that recipe and made my changes below. If you want to see the original go to the link above…if you want to make what I did – keep on reading.

Herbed Summer Squash and Potato Torte

Makes 8 servings

--1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced (Did not use these. I used sweet bell peppers instead. I found these little “mini” ones at the store, about the size of jalepenos. I cut several of them into rings. I used red, yellow, and orange. If you can’t find the mini ones, I would say 1 normal sized sweet pepper – red, yellow, or orange, diced would suffice.)

--1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (Didn’t have parm – used some fresh Colby from the farmer’s market instead. Just use a good cheese. Mozzarella would be good in this too.)

--2 tablespoons all purpose flour

--1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme (Didn’t have fresh thyme, don’t like it! I used about ½ tsp of greek seasoning instead…something like Cavender’s. I think you could experiment here with favorite seasonings…anything would be great.)

--1 1/2 teaspoons salt

--3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

--2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled, cut into 1/8-inch-thick rounds (I used my tiny new potatoes and left the skin on.)

--12 ounces yellow crookneck squash or regular yellow summer squash, cut into 1/8-inch-thick rounds

--6 teaspoons olive oil

Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter 9 x 13 casserole dish. (Original recipe called for two 8 inch cake pans. Either would be fine.) Toss green onions (or peppers), cheese, flour, thyme, salt and pepper in medium bowl to blend.

Put 1 layer of potatoes (about 1/3 of the potatoes) in bottom of prepared pan, overlapping slightly. Top with a layer of squash (about half the squash) in concentric circles atop potatoes. Drizzle with 2 teaspoon oil. Sprinkle with 1/3 of cheese mixture. Repeat with another layer of potatoes, then a layer of squash (should be rest of squash) and 2 teaspoons oil. Sprinkle with another 1/3 of cheese mixture. Top with rest of potatoes (should be another full layer). Drizzle with 2 teaspoon oil. Sprinkle with rest of cheese mixture and press gently to flatten. If you do two cake pans instead of the 9 x 13, just divide ingredients in half between the two pans.

Cover pan with foil. Bake until potatoes are almost tender, about 40 minutes. Remove foil; bake uncovered until torte begins to brown and potatoes are tender, about 25 minutes longer. (Can be made 6 hours ahead. Cool. Cover with foil and chill. Rewarm, covered with foil, in 350°F oven until heated through, about 30 minutes.) (I did this and topped it with even more cheese when reheating to bubble and crisp.)

Cut each torte into squares (or wedges if you used cake pans). Serve and enjoy.

This is so good. Trust me.

Hello...hello...is this thing on?

Surprise! We are still alive! You wouldn't know it by reading this blog though! Well, my parents did come to town (see last post) and although we had a great visit, the meal was sub-par and no pictures were taken. Growing up we always had corned beef for St. Patrick's Day, and even though I was a horribly picky eater, I loved that spicy stuff. Since Joseph and I have been married, I have made the traditional (to me) corned beef, mustard sauce, boiled potatoes, corn, strawberry salad meal. The past couple of years it has turned out great. This year, when we had visitors, not so much. The meat was awful...my parents were gracious guests and pretended like it was edible.

Since then not much has happened that is blog-worthy. Then again, some of my favorite blogs tend to just chronicle real life, not the big events, just the stuff we all experience. So I am REALLY going to try to be better with this blogging thing....at least once a week is my goal. Anything above that is gravy...so don't get your hopes up too high!

Last week my brother, sister-in-law, and nieces came for a visit. They hadn't been to Conway before, so we had a bunch of fun showing off our home and town. The first night in town we had a pool party over at the Kravitzes (trying to match-make Spencer and Sophie...who cares if they are only 4!)



Don't they look like a match made in heaven!?! I think the only problem is Spencer was more interested in Kaylea! I guess he has a thing for older women.



Kaylea was getting her hair wet and Spencer wanted to be doing whatever she was! TOO cute.

The kids all swam, (swim, swam, swum, is that right?) the grownups ate and chatted, and a good time was had by all.

The next day was a busy one. Spencer invited the girls to be his guests for gymnastics class, so we went to watch them jump, bounce, roll, and mug for the camera...



After that, we said goodbye to our Kravitz friends and we headed to Little Rock. It's fun to see your town through the eyes of a tourist. We did things in Little Rock we've never done before, even though we go there every day for work. We rode the downtown trolley, the girls played at the splash pad (FREE FUN!!!), and visited the Heifer Project's interactive village. The day ended with dinner at Chick-Fil-A and movies at home.

The next day we all loaded up and started the trek across Arkansas to the bootheel of Missouri to attend the annual Sweetcorn Festival and Tour De Corn bike ride in East Prairie, Missouri. The car ride was fun - the girls took turns riding in our car. Kaylea primarily read a book and sang Carrie Underwood songs she listened to on her headset. Sophie entertained us with "Grizzly Bear". Excuse the bumps, I filmed this while Joseph drove on the highway.



We arrived in good time at Grandmon's where I got Kaylea to pose for some pictures by the flowers in the front yard....America's Next Top Model watch out! That girl LOVES the camera, and it LOVES her too!




Ethan, Kaylea, and Uncle Mike were the only ones dumb enough brave enough to do the ride in 1839283749% humidity with a heat index of 2390. (Actually, I think it was about 105-ish.) My point is that it was HOT and MUGGY. That didn't discourage over 740 riders from getting out and riding through the corn fields in southeast Missouri. Joseph and I were the official family photographers and were thankful for air-conditioning in the car! Here are the cyclists at about mile 8.



Ethan sang and spoke at the Saturday Night Live service at the local Methodist Church that evening. Kaylea joined him on the last song. I don't know what I was thinking...it was the only time all weekend I didn't have the camera on me. They sounded great and it was really nice to hear Ethan's original songs performed live. He has found his niche in the ministry and it shows.

Later that evening we all met at Uncle Mike's and Aunt Patty's house for a big dinner and family pictures. Our family had decided to attempt the impossible (get 8 people smiling and looking in the same general direction) while wearing coordinated clothing. It took about 200 frames, but we got one shot that is a definite keeper:



Sunday morning Joseph and I left the family and headed to Hughes for Bailee's 9th birthday party. The party was out at the pool and it looked so pretty. Juju had a ton of potted flowers that were in full bloom. Anyway, I can't believe she is 9?!? She's more like 9 going on 19. I didn't get many pictures, but here is a good one of sweet Miss Bailee...



We relaxed in Hughes for a day before heading back home and back to work.

So there you go, a REALLY long post, full of pictures and video...hope that makes up for a 4 month lapse in posting!

Gia and Papa are coming to town!

Mom and Dad are on their way to our house for a long weekend. It's Spring Break for Mom next week. We are going to have a late St. Patrick's Day feast tomorrow after church. Stay tuned for pictures and recipes!

Where did February go?

Um, a month has gone by and nothing has been posted here....where did February go? We both had colds. I got new glasses. We went to a conference in Memphis for work. We took S out for breakfast one morning...more about that later. Other than that, I can't think of anything major. There were a few birthdays in the family (Happy birthday again Grandma B. and KGB!!!).

Here's the S story: Last weekend we were talking on the phone with Kirsten on our way home from work on Friday. S asked his mommy who she was talking to and she said, "Joseph and Katy." S asked to talk to J on the phone. He asked if we were coming over for dinner! When J said that we weren't, S then asked if we could come pick him up and take him to dinner! We already had plans, so we asked if we could take him out to breakfast instead. He was excited by that plan so Saturday morning, we picked up S and went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. He was an angel. He brought some money to buy a lollipop from the "candy store" there.

After breakfast, we gave S the option of running around town with us or going back to our house to watch the movie "Cars" on TV. No surprise, he chose the movie. So we got back to the house and piled up in the bed to watch the movie. S knew the rules - he got on to Joseph for not taking off his shoes in the bed! We hadn't been home ten minutes when S asked if we had any snacks! Cracked me up. It makes sense though, we like to munch while watching TV too, so I brought out all sorts of unhealthy options. We had corn chips, powdered donuts, and chocolate covered pretzels - a feast for kings. S made it about 3/4 of the way through the movie before he said he was done. He hopped down from the bed and we took him home. It was a fun morning. Here's a pic of him loving on Della in his "pillow palace."



I'll end with a good recipe. We took dinner to Debra and Nathan on Valentine's Day. We had been trying to arrange a time to take them some food every since Baby B had been born, but hadn't been able to coordinate schedules until then. Initially we were just going to drop off the food, but they asked us to stay and eat with them, so we made a double date out of it. After dinner I ended up holding that snuggle bug of a baby for the longest time. He is such a little love. Anyway, Debra likes peanut butter, Nathan likes cheesecake, so Joseph did some searching and came across this recipe for a peanut butter cheesecake for dessert. It was divine. We made some changes to the original recipe, so I'm only going to post our modified version.

Peanut Butter Cheesecake

32 oz. cream cheese, softened
4 lg. eggs
1 1/3 cups sugar (plus an additional 4 tbsp for the whipped sour cream topping)
1 cup creamy peanut butter (don't use low fat here)
1 cup cream (for whipped topping)
3 tablespoons cream (for filling)
1/4 cup cream (for ganache)
1 box chocolate graham crackers, pulverized in blender or food processor to make 1 3/4 cups crumbs
1 stick butter
1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips (we used the mini size)
1 c sour cream (don't even think about using low fat here)


Directions:
Beat up the cream cheese and sugar until soft and well combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, then 3 tbsp of the cream, then the peanut butter. It is best to do this in a running mixer. After the peanut butter is well combined, fold in by hand about a cup or so of the mini chocolate chips. Preheat the oven to 350. Take the stick of butter and use part of it to generously coat the sides and bottom of a 10 inch springform pan. Melt the rest of the butter and mix it with the chocolate graham cracker crumbs to make a chocolate crust. Pat the crust into the pan and a little bit up the sides - just make sure to cover the bottom edge of the pan to seal in the filling. Pour the filling into the crust and bake in the center of the oven for 45 to 50 minutes. (45 minutes worked in our oven.)

To make the ganache topping: near then end of the baking time, get a double boiler going on the stove top. In the top of the double boiler heat 1/4 cup of cream. Once the cream is hot (not boiling, but just below a simmer), add the rest of the chocolate chips into it and stir until smooth and creamy.

Once the cheesecake is done (after 45-50 minutes), turn the oven off. Open the oven door, slide the rack out and pour the ganache on top of the cheesecake. Put the cheesecake back into the oven and let it cool for at least one hour, even better is two hours.

We served our cheesecake with fresh berries and a whipped sour cream topping.

To make the topping: beat one cup of heavy cream with 4 tbsp sugar in a mixer until stiff peaks form. Gently fold in 1 cup of sour cream until well combined. (This is the frosting used on Jan Karon's Orange Marmelade Cake - the cake we ate at mom's 60th birthday party for those who remember that cake.) Put a generous plop of this on top of the cheesecake to serve.

ENJOY and unbutton your pants before eating.

I know this goes against the whole "eating healthy" thing we posted before, but sometimes eating something really decadent is a nice change.

Here's a picture of the plate we took to Debra and Nathan's. (minus the cream)

We're still around! (UPDATED!!)

It's been a few days but we are doing just fine! We are babysitting Fisher this weekend while K and R take Spencer up to Branson for a special 4th birthday weekend. We are having a blast and Fisher is so easy to babysit. We have him at our house. It's kind of fun to finally have a baby staying in the nursery! We set up that room as a nursery quite some time ago but haven't had the opportunity to use it. So far we've done lunch, nap, play, dinner, bath, play, and bedtime. As I write this he is babbling but his chatter is getting quieter and quieter so I think he is almost asleep. Of course we've taken pictures and video, but I'll upload those later.

K and R took Spencer up to Branson because there is this store at Branson Landing called RideMakerz. It is SO COOL. It is similar to Build-a-Bear, but instead of building stuffed animals, you get to make CARS!!!!!! Check out the website if you have a kid (or adult) into cars. It looks like a lot of fun.

Okay, I'm going to go eat some dinner now...J and I didn't eat when we fed Fisher and I'm starving!

Updates: So Fisher is officially the easiest kid to babysit ever. He slept all night and woke up happy as ever. Sunday morning we had some good snuggles and a song time. He led us in a rousing rendition of "Old Mac Donald." Then we sang "My God is So Big" complete with hand actions. Well, it was more that I sang it and he did the hand actions. Halfway through, Fisher got caught up in the excitement and forgot what song we were singing....check us out!

Allergies suck.

That's it. Thank God for Zyrtec.

The blanket is FINALLY finished!

And it looks like Joseph isn't the only one who is pleased with the new blanket!

I have a feeling this is a sight I'll see a lot around the house.

Here's a shot of the whole blanket. The pattern is called "The Babette Blanket" by Kathy Merrick. The original pattern called for around 23 colors. I used 8 different colors.

A close up of the blanket. I have to say I'm pretty proud of this!

Blog changes, resolutions, etc...

Well, the baby shower (see below) was a lot of fun. I hadn't seen the momma in a couple of weeks and she looked great. I love a pregnant belly and she is so nice to let me rub on hers! I kind of liken it to rubbing a buddha belly...maybe the luck will rub off on me! She seemed to really like the baby blanket. She knew I was making one but she hadn't seen it yet. I think she'll use it. She's not due until the 20th but Joseph and I have bets that she'll go much sooner. We'll see.

I changed some stuff on the blog. I thought this background was kind of pretty but not too distracting from the oh-so-important stuff I write on here! (feel free to laugh...) The picture at the top of the page was taken last May on our cruise. It was the last night and we were somewhere off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico. The cruise left out of New Orleans and went to Mexico. It is really cool to sail out of New Orleans because you are in the Mississippi River...all muddy and brown. The next morning, when you wake up the water is crystal clear and the most intense blue imaginable. It is simply amazing.

Okay, so when I was looking for a picture to put at the top of the blog every picture I ran across was of these two chubby-cheeked, double-chinned people who sort of look like me and Joseph. What happened to us?!?!? We were looking back at pictures from our honeymoon and realize just how much we have changed...and not for the better!

So here's the deal: as our New Year's Resolution we are committing to take care of ourselves this year. I'm not saying we will lose X number of pounds or not eat sugar, but I am saying that we are making changes to how we eat and spend our time....
-less fast food, more home cooking
-less couch sitting, more dog walking
-less Diet Coke (oh it hurts to write that one!), more water
-less talking about making changes, more actually making changes

You get the point. I'm putting all of this on the blog for one reason. If you have access to this blog, then you are someone important to us. Please support us and encourage us. Thanks.

That's it. I'm not going to turn this into some diet/exercise blog and post calorie counts or anything. If we happen to eat something FANTASTIC, I'll post the recipe or picture or something. The goal is for the picture at the top of the blog to look like we feel, and that is like we are still on our honeymoon!

I guess that's all for now. We go back to work next week. Aye aye aye. It's been a great vacation but the real world calls.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone!!! (all three of you reading this)

We are back home after the "round the world in 5 days" trip we take every holiday. It was a lot of driving but worth it. We had a wonderful time spending time with our families (and I'm not just saying that because it's only family reading this thing.)

Since we've been home we've had the best relaxing week. Lots of naps, lots of movies, staying in our pajamas most days...it's been fabulous. We've been cat-sitting for K and R while they've been visiting R's family in Rochester -Hi Lana! I know you'll see this! ;) - their cat Ollie is so tiny compared to our cats! Take a look at this picture of Della that Joseph took tonight. I was wrapping a present for a baby shower tomorrow (more about that later) and I turned my back to get the present and....














That cat is crazy. She loves a box.

What was SUPPOSED to go in the box (and eventually did once I evicted Miss Della) was this....















This is a baby blanket (carseat/lovey size) that I made for some of our friends who are expecting their first kiddo this month. It's a baby boy, as of now unamed. We are still taking bets on whether or not the kid will have a name when he leaves the hospital! Anyway, I made the blankie to coordinate with the baby bedding and it turned out really cute if I do say so myself. The bedding is Kimberly Grant's Kaleidoscope (just google it if you want to see pictures).

Poor Joseph, I started a blanket for him MONTHS ago and still haven't finished it...other projects keep popping up that need to get finished sooner. With the baby blanket now done, I can concentrate on finishing his blanket. It's gonna be an adult size blanket to snuggle with in front of the tv. I'll post pictures when it's finished.

Okay, I guess that is enough rambling for now. I just didn't want our faithful readers (HA HA HA I crack myself up) to worry about us since we hadn't posted in a while.