Grandpa's Birthday Weekend #2

Since the weather was gorgeous Saturday, I thought it would be a good time to try and get some good pictures of some of the family. My family is notorious for not liking to have their pictures taken, so I knew it was going to be a challenge...

Here are a few of the ones from Saturday night... You will probably notice that there are more of my cousin's daughter Lily than anyone else, turns out 4 year olds aren't as camera shy as most of the family. ;)

Lily

With her dad, Billy.

They don't look anything alike, do they? ;)

Jordan & Haley

My cousin Matthew looking suspiciously like SuperMan.

Us

*Blogger does crazy things to my pictures and makes them really small, but if you click on the pictures you can see the bigger/prettier versions.* ;)

I'd planned to take some more pictures on Sunday morning, but we woke up and it was dark, cloudy, and cold! We took a few pictures inside, but they didn't turn out so great. I really prefer outside pictures. Oh, well, not much you can do about the weather! ;)

Jennifer

Grandpa's Birthday - Weekend Recap #1

This past weekend we headed out to the family farm to celebrate my Grandpa's birthday. His health has not been great lately, and due in part to a fall in late November he was kind of out of sorts the last time everyone was together at Christmas. He's been doing a little better lately, so we all headed his way to celebrate his birthday.

My mom said he was so excited all week long that everyone was coming in town, that he made my dad get their RV out of the barn and ready, (my family is huge and the RV is needed as a "guest house" when everyone is in town), on Monday afternoon even though no one would be there until the weekend.

We got in to town on Saturday afternoon, and it was an absolutely gorgeous, (albeit super windy), afternoon. The boys and Lily spent the afternoon flying kites while my mom and I worked on Grandpa's birthday cake.

Grandpa helping set up Lily's kite

Jonathan and a massive airplane kite that's been in the barn for years because there's usually not enough wind to fly it.

Kites

For dinner my dad grilled hamburgers, and hotdogs, to go with potato salad, pasta salad, corn salad, a giant fruit salad, baked beans, cherry limeade, and tea. Yum!

After dinner Grandpa opened his presents, with the help of his assistant Lily...

She got so excited about him opening presents you would have thought it was her birthday. ;)

And then it was time for cake.

My mom used a Bob the Builder cake pan to make "Bill the Farmer", complete with his signature blue jeans, white v-neck, black shoes, black suspenders, and John Deere hat.



He got a big kick out of it, and unzipped his jacket to show that he was in fact wearing his suspenders at the time. ;)

After dinner we went out to the side field and took a few pictures, but this post is quite lengthy already, so I'll save them for another day! :)

Jennifer

Halfway.

30 lbs down.

25 lbs. to go.

I think the only place you can really tell is my face. It's been slow going, (thanks mostly to fertility drugs), but I'm trying to celebrate a small victory. I'm down two sizes, have met my first goal, and am over halfway to my final one. Yay! :)

Oh, and for the record, husband is 15 lbs down as well, but I don't think he's got anything left to lose!

Jennifer

P.S. The "after" pictures were taken this weekend at the farm. I'll post a weekend recap later. :)

Sounds Weird, But it Tastes So Good.

A few days ago I was scouring the internet for a recipe for broccoli salad. Not just any broccoli salad, one that a woman we used to go to church with made. Still no luck in that department-I've concluded she may have made it up and not shared it with a soul. But, during all my searching I found the following recipe for corn salad ala Paula Deen.

Now, as a rule I'm not a fan of Paula, (I know, I know, take away my southern housewife card now). I don't eat fried food and all the excessive butter just makes my stomach turn a little. I'm sure I would have ignored this recipe too, but I've had it somewhere in the past year or so and knew it was better than it sounds/looks.

I'll completely understand if you glance over the ingredient list and turn up your nose. I did too initially, but in an attempt to not offend the cook, (really wish I could remember where I had this and who made it that day!), I broke down and tried it.

And was very pleasantly surprised.


Corn Salad

I made a 1/2 batch, so the full will use double the corn you see here

Ingredients
2 cans of corn
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
1 cup of mayonnaise
1 cup green pepper, chopped
1/2 cup red onion, chopped
1 (10 1/2 oz) bag coarsely crushed Fritos chili cheese corn chips

1. Mix first 5 ingredients.

2. Chill.

3. Add Fritos just before serving.

The above is the original recipe, but I did make a few adjustments when I made it. First, I reduced amount of mayo. I just didn't think the full cup was essential, and I was right. Secondly, I thought it could use a little heat, (shocker), so I may have added some cayenne pepper. And some jalapenos. And a little of the vinegar from the jalapeno jar. And then it was perfectly wonderful.


If you're on the fence about trying this out, just give it a shot. The ingredients are cheap, I already had everything but the Fritos and they cost all of $1.49. It's a great dish for a potluck or a BBQ.

Happy Weekend!

Jennifer

Crack Me Up

I've worked with preschoolers through church for about 4 years now.

Two churches, probably hundreds of kids, and I've just got to say, they absolutely crack me up! You never know what is going to come out of their mouths next!

A few examples from this week's Bible study with my class of 4 year olds...


"I'm sad because Jesus cried on the doss."



"I think my mom got lost coming to get me. I'm so disappointed in her."

Never mind the fact that his mom works at the church, in an office 15 feet away from our classroom! ;)



"I miss my mom. I've got a bug in my tummy. :cough: Look in my throat, it's really hurting. I'm just sooo tiiiirrreedddd. I think my mom needs to come get me."

Um, yeah, laid it on a little too thick there buddy. Go play.



Teacher leading the Bible study, "who lead the Israelites out of Egypt?"
About 1/2 the four year olds in the room, "ME!"



After we finished watching the weekly puppet show one kid stood up and started screaming,
"they're not real, THEY'RE NOT REAL!"

Yeah, pretty sure all the adults in the room just about died laughing, while one sensible volunteer tried to pull the screaming kid away from the crowd. Sure hope that kid doesn't frequent the mall at Christmas time shattering other childrens' belief in Santa.



And said by me:

"NO! We do NOT pinch people's bottoms!"

Especially not mine.

Twice.


"Please stop licking the bottom of your shoe."



Like I said, they absolutely crack me up.

One time I told one of the kiddos precisely that a few weeks ago. His response,

"I crack myself up! hahahaha"

Seriously, where do they come up with this stuff?!

Adorable.


Jennifer

A Little Nail Polish Talk

For a while I had a real love affair with nail polish and at times in my life I would change colors everyday. For the past few years I've really gotten lazy about doing my nails mostly because they're always so short and not pretty looking.

Well, thanks to all the lovely hormones I'm constantly taking lately, my nails are longer and thicker and therefore prettier than they've ever been in my life.

Return nail polish love. :)

When it comes to cosmetics I tend to be pretty brand loyal. Since college the only kind of make-up I've used is Clinique, my hairspray of choice is Big Sexy Hair, and I only wear OPI nail polish. I love the kooky names, the quick dry time, and the big application brush.

A few of my favorite colors are:

The Tasmanian Devil Made Me Do It
Easily my favorite name. ;) An orange-y red that I really like for summer toes.


Romeo and Joliet
My absolute favorite winter color. It's a dark maroon-ish with glittery finish, and it's just gorgeous.

Dutch Tulips
My favorite dark pink, (and I have several). This is another one of my favorite summer toes colors. My second favorite dark pink is Koala Bear-y.

Cozu-Melted in the Sun
I just got this color last week and it just may be my new summer favorite. It's a really beautiful light coral-y pink that's really shimmery. It makes me want a tan, a chair by the pool, and a margarita. ;)

San Tan-Tonio
This is from OPI's new Texas collection which I really wanted to like more than I do. I love the fact that they made a Texas collection, but I feel like the colors aren't that great. Plus there's no Dallas! This color though is a fantastic neutral, I highly recommend it.


Malaysian Mist
A pretty sheer ultra light pink. It's really girly and pretty.

Black Onyx
And the old "goth" stand by turned cool black. ;)

As much as I love my good 'ole OPI, yesterday my local ULTA seemed extremely picked over and I couldn't find a good hot pink that I had gone looking for. I was lured over to the side with the Essie nail polish with all their light and pretty pinks.

In a moment of weakness I caved and picked up Knockout Pout:


It's a super bright, almost Barbie pink. It looked so cute and fun in the bottle in the store. But then I got home and put it on.

Not. A. Fan.

First of all it's got kind of a satin finish which is not my fav, I prefer super shine. Second of all, what is up with their tiny little applicator brush? Strike 2. After two coats it still looked uneven and streaky, (I blame the little brush). Strike 3. And finally, after about 18 hours every single one of my nails was majorly chipped.

Now, I don't know if the blame for this last one falls on the fact that I used an OPI topcoat on top of the Essie polish and they weren't compatible, or that I washed my hands a ba-jillion times today while making Julia Child's boeuf bourguignon for dinner. But nail polish that doesn't even last a whole day doesn't seem practical to me.

So basically I'm pretty bummed about the newest nail polish. I really wanted it to work out, because the Barbie pink is just too cute. Any advice on the matter?

What's your favorite nail polish brand? OPI, Essie, or something else? What are some of your favorite summer colors?

Jennifer

Easy Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Please notice that the only adjective I used to describe this cake was easy. It is not low sugar, low calorie, low fat, or low anything else. It is however divine.

Also, I'd like to apologize in advance for the color of the photos, I need to learn to cook things I'm going to take pictures of a little earlier in the day so they can have some natural light and look more like the product in real life.

Cast of Characters

1/2 cup of butter (aka 1 stick)
1 1/2 cups of brown sugar
1 (20 oz) can of sliced pineapple rings, drained with liquid reserved
pecan halves
maraschino cherries
1 yellow cake mix, (plus the eggs, oil, water to make the cake mix)

1. In an iron skillet over medium high melt that whole stick of butter down. Make Paula Dean proud.

Remove the skillet from heat and evenly sprinkle the brown sugar over the pan full o' butta. Arrange the pineapple rings around the perimeter of the skillet with one in the middle. In the middle of each pineapple ring place one maraschino cherry. Fill the blank spots between the pineapple rings with pecan halves.


2. Use the pineapple juice reserved from the can of pineapple as the liquid for the cake mix, making up the difference with water. *{An example in case that last sentence made absolutely no sense: if your cake mix calls for 1 cup of water and get 3/4 of a cup of pineapple juice from the can, fill the remaining 1/4 cup with water. Or you could use rum, because let's be honest, what doesn't get better with a little Captain Morgan?}* Make cake mix according to package directions, and spread on top of pineapple.

3. Bake cake as directed in package instructions. Mine took a little longer than the package said and I'm not sure if it was the use of an iron skillet instead of a cake pan, the rum I threw in for good measure, or that I used a sugar-free cake mix which always seem to take longer than it says on the box, or a combination of all three.

It comes out of the oven looking quite a bit like cornbread.

Remove from oven and cool in iron skillet for 10 minutes then turn out onto a cake plate. (You may want to have an assistant help with this, my iron skillet full of cake plus the glass cake stand were a little heavy to flip all by my lonesome. I did it, but it wasn't easy). Be careful not to let the cake cool too long or it will stick in the pan.

Enjoy!

24 Hour Trip

No post in a week! Whew, we've been busy!

This weekend we made a very quick, unexpected visit to our hometown. Jonathan got a phone call Saturday afternoon that one of our good friends and his family were going to be in town for a few days, and within in an hour we were in the car on the way down there. :)

Saturday night we ate a yummy dinner at our friends Sam and Angela's house and had fun visiting and laughing with everyone. We stayed with my parents Saturday night, had a lovely brunch with them and then headed to see just exactly how many people we could visit in one day. haha

Seriously though, we headed to Jonathan's parents' house for a little while to visit with them and Anna and Steven who were in town from college. When they left to drive back to school we headed to visit more people. We spent all afternoon visiting with Austin, Robin, and their precious baby Ele, Forrest and Katy, Sam and Angela, Craig, (Craig's wife Jenny had to work all weekend, we def missed seeing her!!), and Austin and Forrest's family.

Definitely a wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Here are some pictures from Sunday afternoon. We took the group pictures right before we left town so Forrest and Katy had already left. :( I seriously need to get better about taking pictures of people!

Beautiful baby Ele


She has the biggest, lightest blue eyes, I just love them!


Her Dad adores her. Can you tell? :)

L-R: Austin, Jonathan, Craig, & Sam

L-R: Robin, Austin, me, J, Craig, Sam & Angela

So, a great time seeing some of my favorite people in the world all within 24 hours! Of course we had to pick the weekend the time changed to do all this. ;)

Hope you had a great weekend as well!

Jennifer