Happy Anniversary

Three years ago today Bill and I were handfasted.

This is one of my favorite pictures from the handfasting.  Not only is it an 'Awwwww' pic but our very good friend Cretta is smiling on in the background.  We lost Cretta about 6 months after this was taken.

Doesn't he look handsom in his kilt!

Lovely memories for a lovely day.  :)

What's Cookin

I've been trying to get this up for a couple of days and I just keep getting interupted.  So, here we are almost half way through the week already!

Monday:  Chicken wraps (grilled chicken, avacodo, light mayo and lettuce - yummy!
Tuesday:  El Maguey
Wednesday:  Fried Chicken with Down home gravy (Miss Hullings favorite recipes*)
Thursday:  Beef mushroom casserole (Miss Hullings favorite recipes*)
Friday:  New Orleans Red Beans and Rice (WW)
Saturday:  Steak, mushrooms, corn on the cob
Sunday:  Pan Fried Tilapia with white wine sauce (WW)

* Last weekend Bill and I were over at his friend Dorothy's house.  Dorothy is 87 and still living on her own back in the woods without indoor plumbing!  She is a hardy lady and just plain fun to be around.  She gave me a couple of her cookbooks since she doesn't do a lot of cooking just for herself.  Miss Hullings favorite recipes was one of her favorite cookbooks when she was a cook at a restaraunt in Farmington.  This was 20 some years ago and Bill remembers he and Marty used to go there for dinner once in a while just because Dorothy was cooking!  So, I got out the book on Sunday and went through it  - lots of great recipes, I can see why it was her favorite.  I'm so honored to have it.

Eating Plums Part II

I have not figured out when the exact right time to eat a plum is.  I have been getting plums in my fruit cube for a few months now and they are either too tart and hard (not yet ripe I’m thinking) or squishy and well, I just don’t want to go there!  I’ve not been able to figure out just how this works.  I think I may give up on the plums all together and donate them all to my friend’s chickens – they seem to like them either way.

Graduation at Ft. Jackson SC

We have spent the last week in South Carolina with Tom for his graduation from basic training.  We had decided to fly since it was faster and we could all go together in relative comfort (unlike a car where we have a smoker that would want to stop at every rest area!)   So we got up at 5:30AM (yes that’s in the morning just barely after the sun came up) and Bill took us to the airport.  For a while the kids were very excited…

But then the reality of the early morning hour set in……

Our plane was on time and we boarded and headed off into the sunrise toward Atlanta.  Once we got to Atlanta we had about an hour and a half scheduled layover waiting for our plane to Columbia SC.  Unfortunately, we ended up waiting for over 3 hours for our flight – most of it in the airport but about 45 minutes in the plane at the gate and another 30 on the runway waiting to take off!  It was frustrating to say the least.  Once we got to Columbia (about 6:00 local time) we found somewhere to eat dinner and then to bed – it really wasn’t any faster to fly but we did get to walk around more than we would have in a car so it was worth flying.

Wednesday morning we got up about 6:45 to eat, dress, and fight traffic out to the base.  We arrived about 30 minutes before the presentation which stated at 9:00.  We finally got to see our soldier and then to actually spend some time with him on base.

Unfortunately, Tom had a cold and was feeling pretty lousy all day so we spent a lot of time looking for somewhere cool to sit – which ended up being the car most of the time.  We went to the museum on base …..

We attended the dinner for his company that afternoon.  The food was ok but really not much to write home about.  I can say that the army had taught Tom to eat vegetables though so that alone may be worth it!  J   We spent the last few hours in the rec center where they had games set up.  Aubri liked the shooting games best...

We had to drop him off at his barracks at 8:45 so he could be ready for formation at 9:00.

Next morning we got up early again so that we could be at graduation at 9:00.  The ceremony lasted about 35 minutes then we had to try to find him at the far end of the field in the chaos that was 600 soldiers all looking for their families!  We found him and were able to take him off base then for the day.

We celebrated his birthday (which was actually Saturday) at TGI Fridays and then took in a movie – Harry Potter since he had not seen it yet.  Then we chilled out at the hotel and ordered pizza then he packed his laundry that I had done for him the night before.

We had to have him back at 8:45 again but we stayed for formation this time and I think the drill sergeant cleaned up the language a bit for us.  J  Then back to the hotel where the kids went swimming for a while before we went to bed.  Austen was in a good mood and I caught him being silly…

Next morning we were going to get up early to go to the ocean which was only 2 hours away but it was supposed to rain all day and the kids decided they would rather sleep in.  So about 10:00 I woke them up and said we needed to get packed up and eat.  Then we say Cowboys and Aliens before catching our plane back to Atlanta.  I’ve decided I don’t ever want to go through Atlanta again- they are always delayed!  We were only delayed 30 minutes this time but still – when you want to get home it’s very frustrating to keep getting delayed!

Bill picked us up at the airport in St. Louis about 9:30pm.  Home! 

While we were in SC, Bill put tile down on the floor of my bathroom….

We will have to repaint as soon as we can but the old paint will need to be sanded down first because the guy who did it just glopped it on and there are big drops that need to be knocked down and smoothed out first.  That will probably be a fall project when it cools down a bit.

Aubri goes back to school on Monday (and Tom starts his training on Monday at Ft. Lee Virginia) but Erik doesn’t leave for school until August 25^th.  This weekend is tax free weekend so we went shopping for school clothes and supplies.  Between the tax free weekend and the discount I had at Kohls, we did really well for Aubri.  Erik is out shopping right now so we’ll see how well he did when he gets home.

Later this afternoon I need to sit down and make out my menu for next week – I am not looking forward to getting on the scale this Tuesday – I didn’t do well on the diet while we were in SC – it’s hard to plan ahead when you don’t know what you will have available.  I did the best I could but I did splurge a bit once or twice – I looked at it as being on vacation, you are supposed to splurge a little on vacation!  J

Update

I'm posting this from my phone so it will be short and sweet. Wesawtom this weeks da she is now on his way to Virginia. Will catch our plane at 5 this afternoon more when I get home.

Text Conversation with my daughter

Aubri:  “I started making that fondue stuff & it made the whole house smell like feet, just an fyi”

Me:  LOL!

Aubri: “You laugh now, just wait til you smell it!”

She's always posting funny things I say on Facebook - so guess where this one went!  ;)

Weekend Roundup

It's been HOT HOT HOT here in St. Louis and as I drove south this weekend to the country place it just kept getting hotter!  The grass is fried at my house - it's all brown and hasn't grown an inch since Bill mowed it 2 WEEKS AGO!  I met Bill on our road when I got down there; he was on his way from his house to the 'barn' on the mule.  So back to the house we went to unpack my car and then we hopped back on the mule and up to the 'barn' not many changes that were picture worthy - he has the trench filled back in, power inside, and several lights up so that he can work at night (cooler that way).  It was thundering a bit so we decided to head back up to the house and get the truck to go into town for groceries.  Unfortunately, nothing ever came of the rain - at least not at our place.

Saturday morning we decided to get up and go garage saleing before it got too hot.  I think everyone else decided that it was too hot to start so we never saw any sales in Fredericktown and just a few hardy souls in Farmington.  But mostly it was clothes and kids stuff - neither of what we were looking for.  So we poked around in a junk store for a while then on toward the St. Francis County fair.  I had never been to this fair and Bill said he had not been in years.  As we pulled up to the gate I was soooo disappointed.  The entire fair fit on the football field!  Rides, animal barns, crafts everything - we decided that it wasn't worth $6 apiece to get in and went to lunch instead!

After lunch as we were on our way to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things it started to rain.  Beautiful big luscious drops of rain splattering the windshield!  Oh and it cooled down.  In the Wal-mart parking lot we saw lots of folks running to their cars but this one lady just made me burst out laughing!

She has a Wal-Mart bag over her head!  I saw her coming out of the store with it positioned so only her eyes and nose were sticking out of where she had tied it on.  I laughed so hard I thought I was going to pee my pants!  I had to get a picture - she was parked just a few spots over from us and I couldn't get her as she put her groceries in the back of her car (adjusting the bag every few seconds as it kept moving around on her) so I got her as she put the cart away.   LOL!

The rain was much needed and appreciated but it brought the muggies in afterward.  We pretty much puttered around the homestead all afternoon and evening.  Then Sunday Bill loaded his truck up with tools and brought me back home.  I'm leaving my car down at his place so that his neighbor can fix it.  John has a body shop right there at Bill's house and after he painted my back door a few weeks ago, he still has paint to match!  So the deer damage will be fixed this week while we are in South Caroline for Tom's graduation.  Bill will be staying at the house to take care of the animals and to put the tile down in my bathroom! Woo Hoo!! 

So, tonight I have to go home and pack for the trip to SC.  We are going to try to carry on our bags (I think backpacks will work fine) so that we don't have to worry about loosing anything on the flight and I'm cheap - it cost $25 per bag ($35 if you have two) per person to check your luggage!  That would be an additional $100 for us to fly - no thanks; we'll just pack clothes and use the hotel's shampoo and soap.  I told the boys we can go to Wal-Mart and get disposable razors if they feel the need to shave while we are there.

The cool thing is I think we will have time to go to the ocean on Friday before our flight out!  The kids were all excited about that last night when I talked to them about it.  So, I may or may not be able to update while I'm there (we will have Tom's laptop with us) but I will have pictures when I get back.  :)