Ham Towne - food, family & everything else

Oreo Footballs and Friends

2012-02-08T08:31:00.000-05:00

What better way to celebrate Super Bowl Sunday than with oreo truffles shaped & decorated like footballs?

Definitely adding Dave-a-ritas, spicy pulled pork, roasted potatoes, green beans, chipolte shrimp cups, avocado salsa and white queso dip made it even better.

Five little boys running around, five good friends to chat and catch up with and one sweet baby girl made it awesome. Remind me again why we don't have people over more often?

Confused

2012-02-07T19:21:00.001-05:00

The flowers aren't the only ones that are confused about our "winter" weather...and yes, these photos were taken Friday and today, not last Spring.

ING Miami Marathon

2012-01-29T16:12:00.003-05:00

Update: Want to see photos from the race? Go to www.marathonfoto.com and enter the last name "Vannier" or "McClintock" the event is the ING Miami Marathon. Dave said he took some photos on his IPod too, so when I get those I will post them as well!

One down, 11 to go! Dave and Andrew completed the ING Miami Marathon this morning! They arrived in Miami last night, went to the expo and picked up their packets and admired the view of the ocean from their 36th floor hotel room. :)
The race started at 6:15am this morning. I signed up earlier in the week to receive text alerts, so I set my phone to vibrate last night so I wouldn't be woken up from the first message. But I didn't get any messages at all! Dave hadn't set up any other tracking for me to follow, but luckily Andrew had his results posted to his facebook page. I knew Dave would be running pretty close to Andrew's times, so at least I had some idea how Dave would be doing.
Dave ended up finishing about 20 minutes after Andrew. Dave said the course was great and the fans were awesome in a few of the locations. Having people cheering you on while you are running is a huge boost for those guys, even if they don't know who is cheering for them. That is one thing Dave really likes about the Rock and Roll Marathons, all the bands set up playing music, it gives him something else to think about and see other than just running with no entertainment.
Dave said he felt good after the race too. I think he was a little worried before the race as to how he would do. He had a "long" week at the PGA show, so he didn't get any training in. We were in Iowa the week before and Dave did get a few runs in, one when it was about 10 degrees outside!

Here are the details from the ING Miami Marathon. There were 3943 finishers (2580 male/1363 female) according to active.com.

Here are Dave's stats:
Chip time 4:27:02
Overall 1811
SexPl 1332
DivPl 214

Here are Andrew's stats:
Chip time: 4:07:32
Overall 1177
SexPl 909
Div Pl 160

Way to go guys!!

The next race is Myrtle Beach on February 18th. Stay tuned for updates!

Rest in peace Grandpa

2012-01-22T21:06:00.001-05:00

We have been back in Iowa since Thursday. My grandpa Dallas Jurgens passed away last Wednesday. This is one of my favorite photos of my grandparents taken at their farm in Iowa. I love my Grandma's dress. My Grandpa was so mad at her for spending $30 on the dress! That became the story of the $30 dress in our family. Rest in peace, Grandpa, we love and miss you.

Countdown to Miami

2012-01-16T21:24:00.002-05:00

The ING Miami Marathon is only 13 days away! Dave had a 22 mile run on Saturday and felt really good afterwords. Usually when I talk to him after a long run he sounds tired and beat up, but when I talked to him on Saturday he was in a great mood after his run. He averaged 9:20 minute miles for the 22 miles, which he was pretty happy with. How is he tracking that you might ask? He was gifted a Nike GPS watch for Christmas that he loves, which tracks his runs. He can download the runs to the computer and then the software will track the run for him, show his route, show his times, he can log the weather, and much more.
He has also been working on his core exercises in addition to running 40 plus miles a week.
I am more excited for the Myrtle Beach Marathon since we are renting a house on the beach with Andrew and Nina (and all our kids). Hopefully the weather is nice ~~and we can enjoy the beach~~ and Andrew and Dave have good running weather. :)

Abrams Falls

2012-01-10T21:17:00.001-05:00

All last week Dylan said he wanted to go to the mountains and go hiking. So on Saturday after Dave's morning run we packed up the car and headed to Abrams Falls in Cades Cove. The forecast was for a chance of rain, but we were hopeful that we would be ok. Unfortunately right as we pulled up to the trail head at Abrams Falls the sky opened up and it started to rain. We decided to wait for a little bit to see if the rain would pass. We sat in the car, had some lunch, Dylan played with his cars in the back seat. After about 20 minutes the rain stopped and Dave and Dylan headed out to see what condition the trail was in. Luckily it was in good shape so we headed out with my camera and a juice box for Dylan. We planned on just hiking for a little while, it's a 5 mile round trip to the falls and we figured Dylan would start to get tired pretty early so we would head back after a little while. Well, we should have known better, we went all the way to the falls and back! Dylan was such a champ, he hiked most of the way except for maybe 20 minutes where we carried him. We should have been better prepared with water and snacks, when we made it back to the car we were all hungry and thirsty. For some reason I didn't see this sign and we headed out, maybe I would have grabbed our bottle of water :)

We started off by throwing rocks in the stream at the trail head...

Even though it was cloudy it was a great day for taking pictures, the steam/fog from the rain made for excellent photos!

As you can see the trail is rocky and full of tree roots, Dylan loved it, that was part of the fun for him, walking on EVERY rock and tree root he saw.

A smokey day in the Smokies

Someone was not happy about getting his photo taken...
The bridges were fun to cross too...
Jumping off stumps also made the hike more fun!
Juice break at the falls...
Finally, Abrams Falls!
Dylan loves hiking!

MIA

2012-01-10T20:41:00.001-05:00

It's been forever since I've posted anything and I am sure you all have been checking my blog daily for updates and wondering where I've been :) Honestly, I just haven't felt like writing much lately, or making the effort to put photos up. Now I am trying to get back into the groove.

So, what has been happening lately?

Well...I started a new job last Friday!! I have been looking for a new job for a while now and finally found a great fit. I am working at Argo Turboserve (ATC) in their Nuclear division in Oak Ridge. It's a shorter commute which is wonderful, although my day is now starting at 7:30am instead of 8:30am. I have quite a lot to learn, but the core part of the job is all stuff I've done before, planning trade shows, creating flyers, website updates, assisting sales staff. Everyone has been super nice and I am learning a ton about the new industry.

Is it too late for a Christmas wrap-up?

2011-12-31T16:20:00.002-05:00

I have been off work since December 23rd, and while I haven't just sat around the house, I haven't been especially busy either. So ye old blog has been neglected. I do have some pretty great Christmas photos to share with you though. We were so blessed by our family with wonderful gifts again this year. Dylan LOVED opening presents, writing a "letter" to Santa, leaving out milk and cookies and opening what Santa brought on Christmas morning. We also had lots of great food and had visitors from Iowa for a few days.

Here's the re-cap:

Dylan came to work with Dave on the 23rd, he had lots of fun helping set up the range and hitting golf balls. But he also came down with a fever, so around lunchtime I picked him up and we headed home.

The most delicious peppermint bark ever. So wonderful I made it twice! I gave it to our friends in their Christmas goodies and made another batch for our family.

Dylan seemed to be feeling better on Christmas Eve so we did some yard work in the morning since it was such a nice day. His fever came back though during his nap so we decided to wait and go to church on Christmas morning.

As you can see he started to feel better when it was time to open presents! But first he helped Dave start a fire in the fireplace.

Dylan's 2011 ornament from daycare.

Girl, our elf on the shelf in her last spot of the year!

Dylan and his stack of presents. Nice pants huh, he put them on after his nap when he wasn't feeling good. Oh well, at least they match his shirt!

A monkey pillow pet!

Dad got new running shoes...

Mom got a cookbook stand

Dylan modeling his ISU jersey on his new Cars mat getting ready to put on his Cowboy boot slippers!

Prime rib for Christmas Dinner!

Done writing a letter to Santa

Christmas Dinner, Duchess potatoes, prime rib and green bean casserole with crispy shallots, yum!

Santa brought Dylan a train table! Grandpa Dave also visited Christmas week and brought Dylan more trains for his table!

Grandma Carolyn and Granny B came to our house on Christmas Day and we opened more presents! Dylan got this great cape and mask from his cousins in Minnesota!

Grandma Carolyn opening one of her presents.

We had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner on Christmas Day since Granny B and Carolyn were visiting. It's Cedar Plank Salmon, roasted asparagus and wild rice. Dessert is Chocolate raspberry torte cake.

Kobe and Peek-a-boo worn out after a long week. I can't believe they are sitting this close!

Perfect weather today to shoot off the rocket from Kyle and Amie!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T09:14:00.000-05:00

From our family to yours we hope you have a wonderful Christmas!

Santa Stopped By...

2011-12-25T08:38:00.001-05:00

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

2011-12-22T09:08:00.001-05:00

A visit with Santa!

2011-12-18T21:33:00.000-05:00

We took Dylan to see Santa on Saturday! We went to Bass Pro Shop to see Santa, why Bass Pro Shop you might ask, not because we love guns and camo, because the photos are free and we are cheap. The Santa was pretty great though and we did get a good photo. Also, you can buy photos, the most expensive package was $19.99 which I thought was a good deal. We still just got the free photo though.
They also have a whole winter wonderland area with a carousel, remote control cars, shooting games (it is Bass Pro Shop) and a train. Dylan loved riding the moose on the carousel and driving the remote control cars. He also got to meet Smokey the bear and the chicken mascot for the Tennessee Valley Fair (random I know). Dylan loves mascots so he was very excited to say hi.
He also loved Santa, he was a little shy at first, but Santa was very friendly and had lots of questions for Dylan. Dylan told Santa that he wants a remote control car and a train for Christmas. Hopefully he's been a good boy this year and Santa will grant his wishes!

Peanut Butter Blossoms

2011-12-18T21:18:00.001-05:00

I started my Christmas baking this afternoon! I was going to start by making peppermint bark, but I realized that I bought regular graham crackers instead of chocolate, doh! So instead I started with a favorite of Dave's, Peanut Butter Blossoms. I used the recipe from our family cookbook and my Aunt Janet. The recipe is perfect and the cookies always turn out great! I love that the recipe calls for chocolate stars. I remember when my Grandma would make these cookies she always used chocolate stars. They were perfect for the cookies because they are flatter so you got more chocolate and cookie per bite. I always look for the chocolate stars at the store, but can never find them. I need to remember to look at Mast General Store next time we go and see if they are in the "nostalgic" candy section.

I will be baking all this week, so stay tuned for more recipes!

The recipe

What you will need + salt

Butter vanilla isn't required, but it's awesome for baking. I got it for my birthday from Melea along with some truffle oil I have yet to try. If you see this Butter vanilla buy it, you won't be disappointed!

Do you like my mixer? My mom gave it to me when I was in college and it was old then, it's old now, but it still works great. I do have a kitchen aid standing mixer (thanks Mom!) but I can't keep it on my counter top, so I don't use it very often. Which is what my Mom said would happen, see, Mom IS always right!

The finished product! I love how the kisses get all shiny after being in the oven for a few minutes!

Two-Fer Tuesday

2011-12-13T13:41:00.000-05:00

Santa Hustle!

2011-12-11T20:15:00.001-05:00

Dave ran in the Santa Hustle this morning, he did the half marathon in his Santa shirt (sans beard and hat). It was a cold start, about 28 degrees, even at 9am. Dylan loved seeing the Santa's everywhere and thought just about everyone was Dave. It was cool to see everyone dressed the same at the start of the race, even though I'm not very happy with my photos, they don't do the real scene justice. In a sea of red and white, Dave was wearing a white hat and not the Santa hat so we were able to find him much more easily.

Ready to go!

Dylan had fun waiting for the race to start too...

Santa!

The Fleet Feet Group

Santa's ready to start the Santa Hustle!

Where's Dave?

There he is!

A few more steps to finish the race!

Dylan loved his pony ride!

Dave's shirt and ~~metal~~ medal, way to go!!

Two-Fer Tuesday

2011-12-06T16:08:00.001-05:00

Girl - Our Elf on the Shelf

Dylan at the Zoo

Over the river and through the woods

2011-12-04T17:00:00.001-05:00

Is exactly what we had to do to find our Christmas tree late yesterday. Our usual Christmas Tree farm, TnT, was closed this season, but we didn't know that until we got there! Luckily, we had seen a sign for House Mountain Christmas Tree farm on our way to TnT, so we got back on the road to find it. They had quite a few signs out, so that was helpful, but the signs led us to a house, which had additional directions to finally take us to the Christmas Tree Farm. House Mountain Christmas Tree Farm is on 20 acres...that's right 20 acres. I am pretty sure we walked at least half of that in the quest for the perfect tree. I can't really complain though, there were a lot of beautiful trees, some too big, some too small and some priced rather high, others priced more reasonable. It was also perfect weather to go look for a tree, 50 or so degrees and still a little sunny while it dropped lower into the sky. Last year we picked out our tree in the rain, the year before it was freezing, we couldn't of had better weather this year. Or a more beautiful sky and views!

12 in 12ish

2011-11-30T08:36:00.000-05:00

Well sort of...Dave and Andrew are planning on running 12 marathons next year. They've already signed up for the first three, Miami, Myrtle Beach & Atlanta. Then comes the Knoxville and Nashville marathons in April followed by Pittsburgh in May. June, July and August are slow months for marathons and really, who wants to be running a marathon when it's super hot (really who want's to be running a marathon at all...wait these guys I guess)?

Fall marathons up for consideration are Chicago, Minneapolis, Omaha, Savannah, Huntsville, and New York. There may be some others, the schedule for the second half of the year hasn't been set yet.

I know Dave needs to start getting more miles in to really start getting ready for the tough schedule next year. He is always in pretty good shape and he started distance training again in October. He is running in the Santa Hustle in Sevierville on December 11th, which is a half marathon that should help in getting his miles up. But he just needs to do better running during the week, other than on the group run night.

We will be chronicling the marathons here on hamtowne and if I can get them to do it, maybe we will even have a few guest posts from Andrew and Dave. This would also be a great excuse for me to get a new lens for my camera. You guys want to see good photos from the races, right? A zoom lens would be excellent to get photos of Dave and Andrew from a distance and at the finish. It would also be a great pain and suffering present, I get super nervous for Dave before a race. Maybe I need to get Xanex and a new lens :)

We are all going to Myrtle Beach and staying a few days. Hopefully the weather will be nice enough to spend some time on the beach! If anyone wants to join us for the marathons let me know. Dave and Andrew love to see friendly faces in the crowd cheering them on!

Let me know if there is anything else you want to know about the crazy year we have coming up!

Two-Fer Tuesday

2011-11-29T20:53:00.001-05:00

The Thanksgiving that was

2011-11-28T14:53:00.001-05:00

It started bright and early at 5:30am with Dylan at my bedside ready to start the day. I intended to walk him downstairs, get him breakfast and then go back to bed until a reasonable hour, but Dave was up just before 6am to get ready for the Turkey Trot so I figured I should stay up and start getting ready for the day. Dylan and I had planned on leaving our house by 7:30am to watch Dave run the second half of the race and finish anyway. So I made the apple cream cheese danish, which turned out awesome and got Dylan and I ready to go to the race. Boy, was it cold outside! Luckily we were able to park close to a prime viewing location to see Dave, talk to Andrew and then head back to the Jeep to warm up for 15 minutes before heading over to the finish.

Apple Cream Cheese Danish

Then my Jeep wouldn't start...so Dylan and I headed back over to the finish area and found Dave and Andrew so they could hopefully get my Jeep started. After popping the hood and cleaning off the corrosion on the battery with a little water it started right up! (Only to die again multiple times over the weekend, Dave finally cut the wires and re-attached them to the connectors (I am not a mechanic, I don't know what they are really called) and now we are good to go!). Luckily that little hiccup didn't delay the start of my Thanksgiving food prep!

I started with putting the turkey in the oven at 10:30am (just as my Dad and Step mom arrived)

and made the scalloped corn casserole, stuffing, and green bean casserole starting about 11am.

Then it was on to peeling 5 lbs of Yukon gold potatoes and boiling them for the mashed potatoes (best ones yet!) before I knew it the turkey, stuffing and green bean casserole were done and I was putting the crescent rolls in the oven and making the gravy.

As much as I prepare and prep it always seems a little chaotic when everything is coming out of the oven and finishing at once!

Carving the turkey

Way too much food for 4 people to eat!

Dave's plate

Pepper was disappointed there was no turkey for her

Dad and Dave relaxing after filling their bellies.

Seriously, no turkey for me?

The awesome Pumpkin Gingersnap Cheesecake. Make this now!

The fancy shot, photo credit to Dave ;)

Even Dylan liked the Pumpkin Cheesecake

Playing soccer with Grandpa

Hot to Trot!

2011-11-26T20:29:00.001-05:00

Dave and Andrew ran the annual Hot to Trot race in Knoxville on Thanksgiving morning. They both did awesome as usual. Dave finished 17th in his age group in the 10k and Andrew finished 4th in his age group in the 5k!

Two-Fer Tuesday

2011-11-22T17:18:00.000-05:00

The mighty Mississippi

A favorite from Kyle and Amie's wedding

What are your Thanksgiving plans? (and a Thanksgiving menu)

2011-11-22T12:21:00.001-05:00

Are you cooking a huge Thanksgiving feast? (Raises hand)
Are you heading over to a family members or friends house to celebrate the gluttonous day?

Dave's plate from last years Thanksgiving

I'll will admit it, I love Thanksgiving and I love cooking on Thanksgiving! Sure, I worry about making sure everything turns out ok and that the food is timed just right to come out of the oven at the same time, but it's still fun for me. I could cook like I do on Thanksgiving every day. Seriously, if anyone wants to pay me to cook all day long let me know!

We will have 5 people at our house this year and while I thought I would be able to pare down the list of dishes we will be having, I don't that that is going to happen. Our family has certain foods that are expected to be served at Thanksgiving including, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, and of course, turkey. The green bean casserole has to be the kind from the recipe on the back of the French fried onions can, although I am very tempted to make this version.

I use an entire 5 lb bag of Yukon gold potatoes to make mashed potatoes along with some half & half, butter and salt and pepper (after running the potatoes through a potato ricer). A pound of mashed potatoes per person sounds about right doesn't it :)

And the star of the meal, the turkey. Since I've been cooking Thanksgiving dinner the past 9 years, wow, seriously 9 years, that makes me feel old, I've made Cooking Light's Apple Cider-Brined Turkey and it's awesome. I also get a frozen turkey and brine it, I know they tell you not to do that, but I haven't had a problem with my turkey being salty. I have seen some dry brine recipes this year too that look pretty good, but I am going to stick with the method that works for me. If you are looking for a brine recipe, you can't go wrong with the one above. I don't make the gravy that is with the recipe though, I just throw onions, celery, carrots, low sodium chicken stock in the bottom of the roasting pan, strain it when the turkey is done and thicken it with a mixture of flour and water. I also bought 2 boxes of gravy from Trader Joe's when we were back in Iowa. We had it at my sister's last year for Thanksgiving and it was great for non-homemade gravy. Plus it seems like we always run out of gravy before leftover mashed potatoes and turkey, now the problem is solved!

Also on our menu this year, scalloped corn casserole, crescent rolls, stuffing (not stuffed in the turkey though), Stovetop turkey stuffing (Dave's request..) and pumpkin cheesecake. The scalloped corn casserole is a favorite of my sisters and we had it last year at her house for Thanksgiving (the first year I hadn't made Thanksgiving dinner myself in 8 years!). Dave loved it, so we have added it to the menu this year.

I have made homemade rolls in the past years, but they just aren't the same as crescent rolls, and it's one less thing to have to make ahead or on Thanksgiving. I'll take the help where I can get it. :)

One of my favorite Thanksgiving foods is the stuffing. It's my grandma's recipe and it is almost more like a bread pudding that stuffing. It's sweetened with apples, raisins, dates, cinnamon, sugar, cloves, and nutmeg. While nothing can compare to the stuffing that comes out of a turkey, I'd rather not deal with stuffing a turkey so I just throw the bread and spices in a loaf pan with chicken stock to moisten it, bake it at 350 for 30 minutes or so.

Dave is a Stovetop Stuffing fan. I am not, or really a sage fan either, there will be no sage on my Thanksgiving table. But for $0.89 I am happy to get Stovetop for Dave!

On to dessert! I usually make a traditional pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. I've made my own crust and bought pre-made crusts, but this year we are going a different route. Pumpkin Gingersnap Cheesecake! A few years ago when we had quite a few family members at our house for Thanksgiving we had pumpkin cheesecake and it was excellent. I am using a new recipe this year though, so hopefully it will turn out as good as it looks!

What's on your Thanksgiving menu this year?

Photo blogging: Gateway Arch

2011-11-18T08:02:00.000-05:00

Wedding Weekend

2011-11-17T12:22:00.001-05:00

We had a great trip back to Iowa for Kyle and Amie's wedding. Dylan did great during the 14 hour car ride (other than having to stop to pee ALL THE TIME). We arrived in Council Bluffs on Wednesday afternoon and had some time to relax and stretch out after being in the car for a while. Amie and Granny B came over to Carolyn's for dinner and Dylan had fun seeing everyone.

Thursday was a busy day! We ran to Target to pick up a few last minute items, to Men's Warehouse to make sure Dave and Dylan's tuxes fit ok and then went to Trader Joes! I am so jealous that Omaha has a Trader Joes. Luckily I was able to stock up on Charles Shaw wine, turkey gravy, tea, chocolate covered peanut butter filled pretzels and more! After our busy morning we headed over to Bruce and Sherrie's for lunch. Josh, Brenda and the kids were there, it took Dylan a few minutes and then he was busy running and playing with his cousins. Kyle and Amie also came over for lunch and opened up a few wedding presents.

The Great Grandchildren: Gabe, Kaelin, Granny B, Madison & Dylan

Dylan's suit!

Kyle loves the new dishes!

Thursday night Carolyn watched Dylan so Dave and I could go out to dinner with friends. We chose a new place, Cantina Laredo, in the midtown area of Omaha the food was really good, however we were not impressed with the margaritas. They had nothing on Chez Guevera's! After a catching up at our friends house after dinner we headed back to Carolyn's.Dylan and I had lunch at Cellar 19 on Friday before I got my shellac manicure (still going strong on day 7!) and Dave and Kyle headed to Quaker Steak and Lube for wings.

Friday evening was the rehearsal, Dylan was a great listener and walked down the isle with the other ring bearers. Other than Dave and I walking down the isle on the wrong sides the rehearsal went great. Dinner was at Riverside Grill. We had an wonderful buffet of chicken, steak and sides. Carolyn made everyone favors for the rehearsal too, the trivets/coasters turned out great! Dave gave a short speech and then Kyle and Amie handed out the wedding party gifts. Dylan loves his trucks and they kept him and Gabe entertained for the remainder of the dinner. Among the items in my bag was a fun bracelet that all the bridesmaids wore at the wedding. Dave got a mug and shot glass for his groomsman gift.

Ready to practice walking down the isle.

Custom favors

The girls were up early on Saturday to get our hair done. Luckily my mom drove over to Council Bluffs on Friday so she could help us with Dylan on Friday and Saturday. I rode out to the church with the other bridesmaids and Amie. Dave and Kyle came out later and Dylan got to catch a ride with Grandma Carolyn. He made it just in time for wedding party photos! He did great getting his picture taken and gave us the cheesy smile too. Kyle and Amie looked wonderful and the ceremony was great.

Kaelin getting her hair done.

Ladies getting their hair done.

Amie with hair and make up done!

Amie's awesome custom bouquet!

Another shot of her bouquet.

Gabe looking handsome in his suit.

Madison, Kaelin and Jenna

Dave putting on Dylan's boutineer.

Dylan and Kyle

GQ Dylan

After the ceremony Kyle and Amie were showered in rose petals, took a few pictures in the beautiful light and then hopped on the party bus with the rest of us to get photos taken at a park in Omaha and to grab a drink.

After the ceremony photos, gorgeous light and couple!

Amie and Ashley

Paul and Dana flew in from Chicago for the big day!

When we arrived at the reception everyone was announced and Kyle and Amie cut the wedding cake. Dinner, speeches and dancing rounded out the night. We had such a great time being part of Kyle and Amie's wedding and were so happy they included Dylan as well!

First dance! Congratulations Kyle and Amie!

Want to see ALL my photos from the wedding weekend? Visit my Flickr page!

Two-Fer Tuesday

2011-11-15T14:09:00.001-05:00

Can you guess where we stopped on our way home from Iowa?

Two-Fer Tuesday

2011-11-08T10:27:00.001-05:00

Road Trip!

2011-11-07T15:03:00.000-05:00

Dave and I love going on road trips and while it can sometimes be difficult traveling with a toddler we still look forward to packing up the car and heading out on the road. We are so excited to be headed back to Iowa later this week for Kyle and Amie's wedding! The time has flown by since they got engaged on our cruise last year and now the wedding week is finally here. Dave, Dylan and I are all fortunate enough to be in the wedding ( I seriously CANNOT wait to see Dylan in his wee tux, I just might die of cuteness) hopefully I don't forget my bridesmaid dress (JK Amie!).

Back to the road trip. When Dave and I were in college we made our first big road trip together for Spring Break 2002 (what, almost 10 years ago, WOW those gray hairs I saw in Dave's side burns are real). We drove from Ames to Paduka (overnight at the Motel 6) to Panama City (where Dave interviewed for a job at Shark's Tooth Golf Club) to Islemarada (a night of Rum Runners at the Holiday Isle) to West Palm Beach (for approximately 30 minutes, just enough time to book a cheap hotel on the beach, Dave to accept and offer for a job at Shark's Tooth, checkout of the hotel and decide to drive to my dad's for a few days) to St. Augustine (boat rides and gator sightings at my dads) and back to Ames in 7 days. We were hardcore road trippers then. We had such a great time on that trip though. Dave printed out a map of the USA and we played the license plate game to pass the time. We had no reservations and really no itinerary, just a few spots we had to stop and the rest was up to us. Now I'm afraid to say that we are not so carefree and a trip like that right now would give me sky high anxiety. Where are we going? What are we going to do there? Even when we went to London in 2008 we didn't really have a schedule of what we were going to do on what day or even know exactly what we wanted to see. Of course there were a few of the major tourist attractions we wanted to visit, but luckily we stayed with Dana and Paul so we could just talk with them every evening and then plan our next day the night before. I am pretty sure we didn't miss anything we wanted to see and we saw a few great places that we would have missed if we wouldn't of had insider information!

Of course now that we travel with a 3 year old we can't be quite as carefree, but we can still have a great time and make the car ride fun for everyone. Dylan likes riding in the car at watching DVD's but just like us he gets tired of being in the car all day too so we've got to stop more often that we would like. However we do try and remember the line from Cars "People used to drive this road to have a great time, not to make great time" and while we do travel the interstate we try to find fun places to stop, even if it is a rest area with a big grassy area to run around in!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T21:41:00.001-04:00

Happy Halloween! We hope you had a great Halloween and trick or treated your way to lots of candy!

Fall in East Tennessee

2011-10-31T17:20:00.000-04:00

Dylan and I went to the park on Sunday morning and I was able to spend some time taking photos while he played in the sand box. With gorgeous blue skies and the sun lower in the sky I was able to get some great photos!

Dave uses a knife and doesn't stab himself with it!

2011-10-31T13:16:00.002-04:00

You heard me right, Dave was using a knife and didn't stab himself with it or slice his fingers! In case you haven't heard my husband is not very good with knives, he's stabbed himself in the leg trying to cut a branch off a Christmas tree with a pocket knife (two stitches) and cut himself other times trying to slice fruit. Usually it's because he is using a dull paring knife and sawing away instead of using a sharp knife. Guess what, it's true, you cut yourself easier with a dull knife than with a sharp one!
Anyway, the reason Dave was using a knife? Pumpkin carving! As you can see from the pictures Dylan was grossed out by the pumpkin seeds and inside, but pretty interested in the actual pumpkin carving.

Happy Halloween!!

Dylan's face cracks me up in these first two pictures.

EWWW!

Where to make the first cut?

Still wary of the interior of the pumpkin...

It's more fun flinging pumpkin off the deck than carving it!

The eye is done!

Also more fun? Jumping off the bench!

Final pumpkin, and not a very good picture. I didn't get one of the pumpkin lit up last night. I will try and remember to take one of Cyclops when he it lit up tonight.

Pumpkin Farm

2011-10-26T10:58:00.000-04:00

Last Saturday we made our annual trip to the Pumpkin Farm. We went back to Oakes Farm after visiting a different farm last year. Oakes has lots to do, they have a "back 40" area with bounce houses, slides, a petting zoo, sand box, and more. It's $10 per person to get in to that area (includes the hay rack ride to get your pumpkin) and another $5 per pumpkin. I can see charging the kids to get into the back 40 area, but in my opinion it's a little much to be charging the adults when they aren't using the activities back there. Or maybe they could charge less for adults. It was $36 for my mom, Dylan and I for the back 40 area and 1 pumpkin, admission for family of four plus pumpkins for the kids would be over $50, that seems pretty expensive to me.

That being said, we did have a great time and the food prices are very reasonable. You can also bring your own food in which is nice. They had a huge selection of pumpkins, Dylan had fun trying to pick pumpkins up and choosing just the right one.

Two-Fer Tuesday

2011-10-25T10:34:00.003-04:00

You want a Bee?

Boo! At the Zoo

2011-10-24T11:56:00.000-04:00

We had a great time at Boo! At the Zoo again this year!

Spiderman and Grandma Judy

Meeting a SHARK!

Saying hello to the owl & mummy

Trick or Treat!

Off to the next treat station!

A picture with mom

Spiderman loves the fire truck!

Riding the haunted carousel with Grandma!

Showing Bob the Builder who's boss..

Playing baseball with Grandma!

2011-10-22T22:19:00.000-04:00

Two-Fer Tuesday

2011-10-18T16:22:00.000-04:00

6 recipes, 2 days!

2011-10-16T21:17:00.000-04:00

I've found if I get up and bake right away I can get a lot done in the morning! Dylan is happy eating breakfast and watching cartoons for a little while and I am happy to have some peace and quiet to start my day. Cooking and baking are definitely something I do to relax, but it's also an wonderful way to start the day. I also feel super accomplished if I get up at 7:15 and have pumpkin pancakes, chai tea concentrate and instant oatmeal cookies made by 8:15am!
Here is what I made Saturday and Sunday mornings and my plans for later this week!

Saturday morning:
Pumpkin Pancakes - my absolute favorite pancakes
Chai tea latte concentrate - perfect for Fall and very close to the Starbucks chai tea latte
Instant Oatmeal Cookies - with peanut butter, easy and quick!

Sunday morning:
Prosciutto & spinach ravioli - need I say more? I froze these. Now we have a quick dinner for this week!

Pumpkin and nutella muffins (Dylan approved!) - I've had this recipe pinned for a while now and since I had leftover pumpkin to use this was the perfect recipe to try!) - And they are awesome, right up there with my pumpkin chocolate chip muffins.

And finally, Crock pot pork loin with cranberries and orange, which is what we had for dinner tonight. The cranberries are excellent with the pork. The recipe also only has a few ingredients and is easy to throw together.

Plans for later this week:
cupcake lasagna
cupcake tacos with beef and black beans

What are you cooking this week?

Chicken and Rice

2011-10-12T09:30:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite foods growing up was chicken and rice. My grandma would make it when we would visit and my mom also made it quite often. I realized when I moved out on my own that I would have to cook all the foods I wanted myself, there wouldn't be anyone else to make them for me! (Shocking, I know) So I started to cook, I tried recipes from our family cookbook that my aunts and uncles put together to chronicle all our families recipes. My grandmother was an wonderful cook, her chocolate chip cookies, cinnamon rolls, hamburgers, homemade applesauce and holiday candies are all fondly remembered by my cousins and myself. Unfortunately, a few of her best recipes did not make it into the cookbook. I am thankful that the chicken and rice recipe did though. It's super easy to make, and while it does take an hour to bake, it is totally worth it. The rice gets sticky and flavorful from the cream of celery and cream of mushroom soup and the chicken is cooked to juicy perfection. Now that Fall is upon us I think this is the perfect time to share this recipe. Friends who have tried it love it, hopefully you will too!

Chicken and Rice
Serves 4 (with leftover rice)

4 chicken breasts (you can use boneless skinless, but the chicken breasts with rib bones and skin are the best)
1 1/2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of celery soup
1 cup milk (or water, or chicken stock)
2 cups medium grain white rice
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp paprika

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix cream of mushroom, cream of celery, milk and rice in a large baking dish coated with non-stick spray. Lay chicken breasts on top of the rice/soup/milk mixture. Sprinkle salt, pepper and paprika over the chicken breasts. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Two-Fer Tuesday

2011-10-11T10:05:00.000-04:00

New toys

2011-10-08T10:00:00.000-04:00

Spiderman riding his "new" 4-wheeler

Playing with his "new" kitchen.

A little bit of Fall

2011-10-07T09:35:00.001-04:00

View over Knoxville

2011-10-06T13:31:00.001-04:00

He's pretty good for a 3 year old

2011-09-28T10:00:00.000-04:00

If you want to see any other videos of Dylan golfing head over to my YouTube Channel.

Two-Fer Tuesday

2011-09-27T11:21:00.002-04:00

Swing Study...of a 3 year old!

Flickr

2011-09-26T17:30:00.000-04:00

I've taken the leap and upgraded to a Flickr pro account. The free account was great, but I found myself going over my 300MB limit pretty easily (I know, really...) and I would certainly like to be able to see more than my last 200 photos.
It's also the best and easiest way for me to get photos on the blog. As I am sure those of you using blogger know what a pain it is to upload photos into blogger and then you don't really have great options for sizing, etc.
If you'd like to check out all my photos here's the link to my Flickr stream.

My marathon

2011-09-26T14:26:00.001-04:00

My marathon was on Saturday, and while it was different than the ones Dave runs, it was still a long day! I was on a baking marathon! Cooking and baking are my favorite ways to spend the day. I've really got to find a way to turn that into a career.

I made pumpkin doughnuts (from leftover frozen dough), petite lasagnas, apricot basil chicken salad, petite spinach and red pepper quiches, and peanut butter frozen yogurt. The chicken salad and petite lasagnas were for friends of ours and the rest of the food is for us! Everything turned out really good, it was my first time trying all of the recipes. I didn't take pictures, but here are links to all of the recipes.

Petite Lasagna
Peanut Butter Frozen Yogurt
Apricot Basil Chicken Salad
Pumpkin Doughnuts
Egg, Red Pepper & Spinach Quiche Cups - I did deviate from this recipe and just kind of used it as a base idea for what I wanted to make. I used spinach, red pepper, Monterrey jack cheese, 4 whole eggs and 4 egg whites, franks red hot and salt and pepper. The quiche cups came out of the oven so beautiful and puffy looking, but quickly deflated :( They are still awesome though, and a perfect quick breakfast.

I decided to continue my cooking marathon on Sunday, breakfast was Dutch Apple Baby and dinner was a twist on one of Dave's favorites, chilies rellenos. I do want to try and make the "real" chilies rellenos some time, but after a marathon weekend of baking and cooking I took the easy route on Sunday and made The Pioneer Woman's Lazy Chilies Rellenos. This would also make an excellent southwestern style breakfast. Other than it being a little watery from the green chilies the recipe turned out great. It was easy to alleviate the watery problem by cutting the rellenos into pieces and letting them drain on a paper towel for a minute before serving.

What did you cook or bake over the weekend?

Dutch Apple Baby!

2011-09-25T08:31:00.002-04:00

I saw this Dutch Apple Baby recipe on one of my favorite blogs, Three Many Cooks on Friday. It did not disappoint, I used Honeycrisp apples (they were $1.99/lb at Target!) and they were just the right amount of sweet. This is a perfect breakfast or brunch recipe, and comes together really quickly. Enjoy!

A first

2011-09-22T13:36:00.001-04:00

Dylan got to see his first movie in a theater last night! The Lion King! It was the first time he had seen the Lion King, he seemed to like it as much as he likes any other movie. He did good and watched the movie sitting in my lap most of the time.
I will say that I remembered the words to most of the songs too and it's still a great movie!

Two-Fer Tuesday

2011-09-20T21:27:00.002-04:00

Golfing at Tennessee National!

Two-Fer Tuesday

2011-09-13T16:52:00.000-04:00

Kobe on the first day we got her at 14 weeks old!

She still gives us this look!

Being attacked by the stuffed black and white cat!

Happy 9th Birthday Kobe!!

The Fair!

2011-09-12T12:16:00.000-04:00

Last night Dave, Dylan and I headed to East Knoxville for the Tennessee Valley Fair! We were warned about heading over to the East side, but we survived unscathed and met some nice Iowans when we parked in their yard! (And we found out Dave had never heard of Clear Lake, Iowa, you know where Buddy Holly died, the Big Bopper. Really Mr. Music know it all, unbelievable!)We had a great time at the fair, and while it was small (I guess once you have been to the Iowa State Fair, all fairs seem small in comparison) it was still a blast. They had a lot of rides, and a lot of them were for little kids, so Dylan could ride on his own. He loved going on the swing with Dave and this morning he told me that the train was his favorite. We all rode the huge Ferris wheel and partook in corn dogs, chili cheese fries and a funnel cake. As you can see from the pictures below he also had a pretty good time on the motorcycle. Some of my favorite pictures are of Dave and Dylan on the swings and the carousal.

For the Grandparents...

2011-09-08T14:16:00.000-04:00

Apparently kids have to go to the doctor every year, who knew? Shortly after Dylan's third birthday I got to thinking that he should probably go to the doctor for a yearly check up. We hadn't gotten a call from the doctor asking us to schedule an appointment, and the last time we were there, when Dylan had the tip of a q-tip stuck in his ear, the doctor didn't mention anything about a yearly check up. But then I remembered reading on another blog about someone else's kids yearly check up so I called an made Dylan an appointment.

Today was the first day they could get him in for his check up. He really doesn't have a fear of doctors or going to the doctor. He really doesn't go very often. In fact, before we were at the doctors to get the q-tip out if his ear it had been FOREVER since we had been there. Which I know, is awesome, even the doctor commented that Dylan hadn't been in since his last check up. Apparently breast feeding and putting golf tees into your mouth does pay off! Who knew? So this morning on our way out the door I told Dylan we were headed to the doctor before he went to school. He was all, "I don't want to go" which is generally his standard response unless the going somewhere is to the golf course, park or other outside activity. But he got in the car as usual and I turned on The Incredibles for him and were on our way.

We had a short wait at the doctor's office and I to fill out the usual form to gauge how Dylan is progressing (BTW, all "yes" answers!"). He can name his colors, animals and jump over the the clip board and a myriad of random other things on the questionnaire I had to fill out. After we were called back to the exam room we waited for the nurse for a few minutes and I told Dylan that he would get weighed, measured to see how tall he is and the doctor would look in his mouth, eyes and ears, just like in one of his favorite books, Elmo Goes to the Doctor. Dylan was not super impressed by my descriptions of what was coming up and preferred to climb up the ladder to the examing table 100 times. However, when the nurse came in he was all business, he took his shoes off and walked in the hall to get measured (38.5" 60th percentile) and weighed (a whopping 33 lbs. 10 oz also 60th percentile). Then we walked down the hall to have his eyes checked. The nurse told us that it's rather difficult to really tell if he has any vision problems yet, but they would do the test anyway. The pictures were of a house, apple, and umbrella. Dylan did pretty good although he wasn't sure what the apple was, and in all honesty, it was a black and white outline that was not very impressive. He kept calling in a heart. He did ok on the vision test, they wrote down 20/70 for his left eye and 20/50 for his right eye. Let's hope that next year's test is better and that Dylan got Dave's eyes and not mine.

Dylan did great during the exam by the doctor, he opened his mouth and said ahhh, let the doctor look in his ears, eyes and nose and feel his belly. He also got the flu mist and his last hepatitis shot. I think he had one tear from the shot. He wasn't scared at all before the shot, but of course when he got stuck with the needle he got a little upset. Luckily it was quick and the nurse gave him a lolly pop which cheered him up right way.

Let's hope we aren't back at the doctor until his 4 year check up!

Two-Fer Tuesday

2011-09-06T12:24:00.000-04:00

On Saturday Dylan and I went to the Zoo. He loved petting the snake (I stayed far away!) and seeing the chimpanzees, red pandas and gorillas! We also made a trip through the butterfly garden.

Up close with the Gibbon!

Petting the snake!

Superhero!

2011-09-05T09:09:00.002-04:00

Rainy day today! Hopefully the superhero cape will keep us entertained today!

Two-Fer Tuesday

2011-08-30T10:16:00.001-04:00

Having fun at the Smokies Game!

Where we spend most of our time, Dylan's favorite place, Fairways and Greens aka "the golf course"

The dirtiest mouth on the block

2011-08-28T16:10:00.000-04:00

Does your kid put everything in his or her mouth? I'll admit it, mine does. I thought it was just a phase as a baby, you know testing what is in the world around him. But it continues, Dylan is 3 years old, surely we have taught him what food is by now you say. We have! I promise! He knows what food and drink are, I'm pretty sure he knows that there is a difference between food and golf balls. I don't think he's necessarily hungry or thirsty when he puts something in his mouth either. Sometimes he's mad. For example, when he's hitting golf balls he likes to hit them off the tee, but sometimes it takes him a while to get the tee straight and the golf ball on it so he will stick his head down and bite the tee in frusteration. As painful as it is to watch him try and put the ball on the tee for five minutes (and no, he will not let anyone help him, he can do it himself thank-you-very-much) it's worse to watch him put his face down to the grass and bite the golf tee.

Here's a list of what has gone into his mouth (or he has licked) over the past week.

A golf tee
The railing at the baseball game we were at
A golf ball
Water from his sand and water table
A stick
His fingers, ALL THE TIME
Water from a squirt gun
A squirt gun
Bath water
Bath toys
The sprinkler
Playground equipment

There is a lot of water on that list. Lest you think he is thirsty, this kid drinks a of lot of milk, water, juice, you get the picture. He doesn't seem to want to eat whatever he's putting in his mouth either, just bite it a little or lick it, maybe to see how it tastes? We tell him when he puts the stick/squirt gun/golf tee in his mouth that he should only put food in his mouth, but so far that doesn't seem to be working.

But you know what? For a gross as he is, this kid does not get sick (knocking on wood now). He has thrown up twice in his 3 years. And one time he threw up once and then was fine the rest of the day. So maybe he knows more than I do, maybe he's just building up his immunity. He goes to daycare and while they do a great job of keeping things clean, he's still exposed to lots of germs there too.

So maybe having the dirtiest mouth on the block isn't so bad.

Sunday breakfast

2011-08-28T09:23:00.000-04:00

Sunday breakfast at our house today:

Homemade Pumpkin Doughnuts with buttermilk glaze! I got the recipe from Babble. It was my first time making doughnuts and these were super easy. These doughnunts are fried, I know there are pans you can buy to bake doughnuts too. I may have to get one of those! I didn't have a doughnut cutter (really, who does?) so I used a big peanut butter lid and a small circle cookie cutter. The recipe makes A LOT of doughnuts, I ended up freezing some of the left over dough. Most of the doughnuts are going to work with Dave tomorrow!

The doughnuts were pretty good, I could have used a little more pumpkin flavor in the doughnuts, but I would still make them again.

Here's a link to the recipe. Enjoy!

Two-Fer Tuesday

2011-08-23T15:24:00.000-04:00

Dylan and Dave putting new shelves together.

One of my favorites from this weekend

Dylan's 3rd Birthday Party - photoblogging

2011-08-20T14:35:00.000-04:00

Starting with the Toy Story cake and it's progress, to Dylan's birthday party this morning. Here's a recap of Dylan's 3rd Birthday!

Happy Birthday Dylan!

2011-08-16T10:29:00.000-04:00

Wow Dylan, you are 3 today! Your dad and I have had so much fun watching you grow up these past few years. It's amazing to us how much you change and grow from month to month. You have started to tell us stories about what happens at school, it's so much fun to hear about your day! One of your favorite things to do is to go golfing with your dad. I think the golf clubs we got your for your birthday will definitely be put to good use! You do such a good job hitting the ball and taking your time putting. So far, golfing is the only activity that will hold your attention for any period of time. You love to stand on the couch or your bed and yell "Superhero to the rescue!" as loud as you can. You still love to play outside, whether it's running around the house, riding your bike, kicking a ball, helping water plants or running in the sprinkler, as long as we are outside you are happy.
What don't you like? Naps, I am worried you are getting very close to our growing them soon. You are such a busy little boy I think you still need to take some time for a nap in the afternoon. You are also a picky eater, both your dad and I were picky eaters, so maybe you got that from us. We are still working on using "nice" hands, some days are better than others.
You are such a sweet boy, you love to hug and pet the cats. You are also a great helper, feeding the cats in the morning, picking up toys and making the beds are your favorites.
We love you so much and can't wait to see what the next year holds!

Birthdays

2011-08-16T09:05:00.000-04:00

I can't wait for this year's birthday picture!

A few days old

1st birthday

2nd Birthday

Dinner with Dylan II

2011-08-13T21:30:00.000-04:00

Practice cake

2011-08-13T17:35:00.000-04:00

I am going to be making a rather ambitious birthday cake for Dylan this year. For his first birthday I made a cow cake, last year was an Elmo cake and this years cake will be a Toy Story theme. I found a Toy Story theme cake online that I thought I would be able to make myself (with a few modifications) so today was my practice day. There are quite a few techniques on the cake I want to make that I haven't tried before. Some that I tried today were easier than I thought they would be, others were much more difficult. I still think I can pull of the cake for Dylan's birthday party on Saturday though. I know the post is vague, but I want the cake to be a surprise next week!

Here is the crumb layer, this was pretty easy and definitely worth doing.

And here is the final practice cake. I added the piping around the stars just for practice. The tip I used was a little large though. The frosting isn't as smooth as I wanted it to be, I worked on it forever though! I used Duff's buttercream fondant for the stars and they were very easy to make and the fondant was super easy to work with.

An early birthday present

2011-08-11T13:19:00.000-04:00

Dylan size golf clubs! (Don't miss the golfing video at the end of the post!)

Two-Fer Tuesday

2011-08-09T09:33:00.003-04:00

Dylan got to celebrate his birthday a little early when Grandma Judy visited last week!
He had fun helping her decorate the pig cupcakes!

Two-Fer Tuesday

2011-08-02T10:49:00.000-04:00

Atlanta skyline view from the Renaissance Marriott Midtown

More flowers!

Field Trip!

2011-07-29T09:43:00.000-04:00

On Saturday morning our photography class met at UT Gardens for the second field trip of the semester (the first one was when I was in IN for the Girls Weekend). We started shooting around 7:30am and finished up around 9am. Why so early you ask? Well, the light is better early in the morning, and because it's been sooo unbelievably hot and humid. Seriously, I should not be sweating leisurely walking around taking pictures of flowers! I still had a great time though and a few things started to click, like exposure compensation! Yeah!
Here are my favorite photos from the field trip, what do you think of them?

His favorite thing

2011-07-28T13:11:00.000-04:00

The first think we hear when he wakes up, "Daddy, we go golfing today?"

Happy Birthday Dave!

2011-07-28T11:11:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday to my awesome husband! I am so happy we found each other. I'd be lost without you!
I love you!! (and so does this little guy!)

Zucchini 5 ways!

2011-07-22T12:29:00.000-04:00

Zucchini bread

Tis the season for zucchini! I purchased 3 plants earlier this spring and have just started to get zucchini from the plants. The first one I got was HUGE and the second one I had actually spotted before it got too large. So you might ask, what do you do with all that zucchini?
Here are a few of my favorite ways to prepare zucchini:

Zucchini bread - the recipe from my Cooks Illustrated New Best Recipes is excellent - my yellowish photo to the right isn't :(
Zucchini Parmesan - sooo good, seriously I could make this at least once a week. The recipe is from A Cozy Kitchen, seriously, if you like to cook and don't follow this blog you are missing out!
Tomato, zucchini and feta pasta salad - recipe from The Pioneer Woman, this is a perfect light, mayo-free summer pasta salad
Risotto Primavera - another recipe from The Pioneer Woman, I love this one because you can really use whatever vegetables you have on hand. And it's delicious!
Summer Vegetable Tostadas - this recipe is from Cooking Light, it's an awesome combination of zucchini, corn, red onion and chicken in a green salsa sauce placed on top of a crispy tortilla, top with Monterrey jack cheese. A great and fast weeknight dinner!

What about you? What's your favorite way to prepare zucchini?

Two-Fer Tuesday

2011-07-19T16:25:00.000-04:00

Girls Weekend

2011-07-14T10:21:00.000-04:00

Last weekend was our second annual girls weekend. Six out of the eight of us were able to make it for the weekend at our friend Sandra's house outside of Chicago. Hopefully next year all of us will be able to make it! It's such a fun weekend, we eat way too much good food, drink ~~too much~~ and laugh, lots and lots. And for those of us with kids, it's a welcome weekend away from the kids. Sandra lives on Lake Louise, which means fishing and boating too. Most of our husbands don't understand why we fish first thing when we get up. What they don't understand is that we have to make the fish wall of fame in the basement, and we have to catch a fish every year to stay on the wall. It's really just about competition, they should understand that, right? Luckily all of us caught our fish this year :)

It's such a fun weekend for all of us (well, maybe not Sandra (and Mark) since we are at their house and she does a lot of work getting ready for us and feeding us). There is certainly something to be said for spending time with friends who you have known forever. Some of us have been friends since kindergarten and some of us met in high school, but through college, moving across the country, work, divorces and children we still make time to get together. I think Allison said it best, "I know I can come here and spend time with you guys and not be judged about anything." We've known each other for so long, and while our relationships may have changed dynamics over the years, it's still such a comfortable time for everyone.

Sarah and Sandra getting ready to go fishing!

Beth and Sarah arrived at Sandra's on Thursday night and Cindy, Allison and I arrived on Friday morning. After a great lunch of cucumber sandwiches, pickle wraps, chips and Potbelly's sandwiches we changed into our swimsuits and headed out on the lake to go fishing. Allison, Beth and Sarah were the first to catch their fish (bass), after fishing for a while we needed to cool off so we headed out a little farther into the lake so we could put the anchor down and jump in.

Sarah baiting her hook, or maybe replacing the hook after getting it caught in a tree, or on a log...

Allison's fish!

Sarah's fish!

It was the perfect day to be on the lake, sunny and in the 80's. We spent the rest of the afternoon on the lake catching up, eating and drinking (responsibly of course). And just relaxing. Oh, and there was the diving contest, that I won. However, on Saturday Cindy's awesome dive through me off my short lived throne...

Sarah, Beth, Sandra and Cindy-seriously girls, we need to work on the group photos!

See, we DID drink water, way to stay hydrated Beth!

Sarah stayed hydrated in other ways...

Friday night we were treated to a feast of pork steaks, corn on the cob and baked potatoes. Dessert was cheesecake. I was wiped out so I headed to bed early, the other girls played cards for a few hours and turned in.

Saturday morning we were all up around 8am chatting and eating breakfast pizza and pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. Since not everyone had caught their fish on Friday we headed back out onto the lake to see if Cindy and I could catch our fish and make it on the wall of fame. Cindy caught her fish pretty quickly. Allison and Sarah also caught more fish (Sarah also caught the tree and a log). Finally, after we moved to our second spot I caught my fish!! Unfortunately the fish swallowed the hook, apparently that happens when you pull on the pole too late, so he might not have made it (generally, we catch, photograph and release). Although Cindy said when we started the engine she saw him swim away, so that I what I am going to remember.

Cindy's dive on Saturday that through me off my throne :(

It was getting pretty hot after we finished fishing so we headed back out on the lake to have lunch and drop the anchor so we could get in the water. Our Saturday afternoon was pretty much like Friday afternoon, drinking, eating and floating in the water, repeat. We did do some tubing too. Cindy and Allison were the adventurous ones who went tubing. Allison was a little nervous, but did awesome.

The beginning of Cindy's wipeout!

Going in...

Ouch!

Back on the tube having fun!

Allison getting ready to go!

She wasn't nervous at all...

She held on for dear life, but didn't fall off!

Sandra and Allison on a leisurely ride back to the dock.

After boating all day we headed in to make dinner (ok, really Mark made dinner, thanks Mark!!). We had steak and chicken kabobs, roasted asparagus, green beans and Howies bread, such an awesome dinner. And more cheesecake for dessert.

We also played a bags/cornhole tournament. And let me tell you, there was definitely a ringer in our midst, cough, cough SANDRA ("no really, I never play") whatever, she was awesome. Although I will say that Cindy and Mark had quite the come back and did end up beating Sandra and Sarah 3-0. And that was after Cindy's rather large martini.

She looks sweet and innocent, don't let her fool you!

One martini + one Cindy=Happiness

An intense game of cornhole!

Ok, maybe not, it was a lot of fun!

Lake Louise is a private lake, the only people who are able to use it are the people who live on the lake. That makes it perfect for a late night cruise. It's great to go out and see the lake when it's calm and there is no one out there, it's fun to see the houses all lit up too. After our boat cruise we headed back inside for taco dip, spinach dip and more dessert (there is A LOT of eating on our girls weekends). It was also time for more chatting and catching up.

Sunday morning we all slept in a little later than usual. Sandra, Sarah and Mark made us a huge breakfast of scrambled eggs, monkey bread, bacon, sausage, fruit and muffins. After an awesome breakfast and more talking (seriously, how none of us lost our voices I will never know) Allison and Cindy headed back to Iowa and I left to drive back to Tennessee.

Seriously, SUCH A FUN WEEKEND! Taking a break from everything for a few days does something for your soul. Especially if you have kids, the break from everything for a few days is huge. Believe me, your family will survive for a few days without you!

Thanks again girls, I don't know what I'd do without you!

Two-Fer Tuesday

2011-07-12T16:46:00.000-04:00

Our first zucchini of the season! I didn't even think that any zucchini had started growing, guess I was wrong...

Fireworks and more!

2011-07-07T11:39:00.000-04:00

We had a great long 4th of July weekend. Saturday we went boating with friends, Sunday Dylan and I went to the zoo and Monday we went out to Tennessee National for their annual bbq and fireworks. I had to work during the bbq, so Dylan got to go out on the golf course with Dave, Chad and Andrew. Afterwords Dylan had fun (trying) hitting balls with Brandon and Andrew.

Dylan needs to work on his form.

I think all the boys have range kid jobs in their futures!

I also took some fireworks photos, these are the best of what I took. I'm still not super happy with them though. Fireworks photography is hard!

I like this one a lot, the bottom two fireworks look solarized.

One of my favorites.

I like this one because the firework on the left looks like a palm tree!

Because my Mom made me

2011-07-03T16:04:00.000-04:00

My Mom is wonderful about sending Dylan clothes. Dylan loves fire trucks and she sent him this cute outfit and requested pictures of him in it, so here you go Mom!

This is the face I got when I told him I was going to take a picture.

Running over to see what the picture looks like made for a much better picture.

Two-Fer Tuesday

2011-06-28T08:30:00.000-04:00

What to do on Saturday?

2011-06-27T15:02:00.000-04:00

On Saturday we headed up to Cades Cove for a picnic! Cades Cove was a little busy, but really not too bad for a Saturday and perfect weather. We saw a few deer and even a mama bear and cubs up on a ridge. Seeing that really made me wish I had a longer lens for my camera...

We also drove on Little River road and stopped to so I could take pictures and Dylan could throw rocks in the river. Dave also brought along Dylan's remote control boat (thanks Chad!) and had fun driving it around the river.

Cold water!

Dylan and Grandma Carolyn looking for a good rock to throw in the stream.

Dylan loved seeing and petting the horses!

This horse was very friendly!

We also stopped along the Little River to strech our legs...

And watch people tubeing.

Dylan and I even got a picture together!

He must be jumping or climbing at all times. Maybe all almost 3 year old boys are part monkey?

German Queen

2011-06-24T08:50:00.000-04:00

Can you guess what at German Queen is?

It's not a Queen that lives in Germany

or

A German drag queen

it's a

Tomato!

That's right, it's a type of tomato plant! I also bought a Celebrity tomato plant, which brings us up to 8 tomato plants. I planted the German Queen and Celebrity about a month after I planted the other plants in the hopes of having a later season tomato crop. We shall see how my experiment goes.

The zucchini plant is growing like a weed.

And I had to stake up my container tomato plants after our storm the other night.

How is your garden doing this summer?

UT Gardens

2011-06-23T20:51:00.001-04:00

I had some time before my photography class on Tuesday night (the night the storm hit) so I stopped by the University of Tennessee Gardens. We have driven past there countless times, but had not stopped before. There were excellent photo opportunities everywhere! Here are a few of my pictures:

Branches down!

2011-06-23T15:51:00.000-04:00

Knoxville had a huge storm go through on Tuesday night. I was in my photography class at UT and the power went out about 8:30pm. As I was driving home most traffic signals were out and there were branches down everywhere. We had branches down in our yard too, luckily we didn't loose power like the other 170k people in the area!

Two-Fer Tuesday

2011-06-21T13:44:00.000-04:00

I've had my camera in manual mode since I started my photography class last week and haven't had much time to play with the settings so you are only getting one picture this week!

Dylan was showing Uncle Kyle and Grandma Carolyn how good he is at riding his bike!

Homeade Buffalo Chicken Salad

2011-06-20T11:22:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago when we were at the Market Square Farmer's Market we bought some Buffalo Chicken Salad from Mrs. Cockadoodles. It was good, but it wasn't very buffalo like. So I decided to make my own and it turned out awesome!

Here's the super easy recipe:

1/2 c. mayo
1/4 c. Buffalo sauce (I used Frank's)
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. thyme
1/4 c. finely diced celery
1/4 c. blue cheese crumbles
1 whole chicken roasted and cut into small pieces (mine was missing a leg though...I was starving while I was cutting up the cooked chicken :)

Mix the mayo through thyme together in a small bowl. Then add to the chicken and mix thoroughly. Stir in the celery and blue cheese crumbles. You can serve this right away, but I would recommend letting it sit for an hour or so in the refrigerator so the flavors can come together.

If you want the buffalo flavor even stronger you can add more buffalo and less mayo, which I may do next time, although this did turn out just about perfect sauciness wise!

Two-Fer Tuesday

2011-06-14T08:00:00.002-04:00

We had a great time at the Knoxville Zoo on Sunday as usual!

Risotto

2011-06-13T14:55:00.000-04:00

Have you made risotto before? Apparently it is one of those dishes that scares some people. They they that it's really difficult to make and don't try it at home. If you are one of those people, then you are missing out. Yes, risotto is somewhat time consuming and your arm may get tired from all of the stirring, but if you are patient with it and give it enough liquid you will not be disappointed.

The first time I made risotto was when we lived in Florida. We had our friends Kate and Carl over for dinner and instead of the same old side dishes I made risotto and it turned out great. It never occurred to me that it would be difficult to make until Kate asked me if I had made it before. I told her no, but it couldn't be that hard could it? And it wasn't, it was a simple recipe for basic risotto flavored with chicken stock and not much else if I can remember.

Fast forward a few years, while looking through Cooking Light I stumbled upon a recipe for risotto with grape tomatoes, mozzarella and a balsamic reduction. Sign me up! We all know that I love tomatoes and mozzarella and paired with risotto and a balsamic reduction, nothing could be wrong with that. I was right, it was perfect. I've shared the recipe with friends over the years and everyone loves it. And while I have had some risotto making issues over the years (under cooked rice) I have come to realize that if you just add enough liquid you can alleviate your problems (and by enough liquid I mean almost 5 cans of chicken stock!) I think it also helps to use a dutch oven. I finally got a dutch oven late last year and its been wonderful. It's a Lodge brand Dutch Oven and it has been excellent for everything from risotto to chili to frying chicken wings.

I hadn't made risotto in a while, but that all changed on Saturday. A few weeks ago I printed off a Risotto Primavera recipe from The Pioneer Woman and I was drooling every time I looked at the picture of the creamy rice and vegetables. I used peas, asparagus, yellow squash, onion, green onion and carrots. The Pioneer Woman's recipe uses cauliflower, broccoli, yellow squash (I keep typing squarsh :) and peas along with the onions. I think any combo of the veggies would be excellent and it's nice because you can tailor it to you specific likes and dislikes. I also used mozzarella cheese instead of goat cheese. I had the mozzarella at home and didn't want to spend $5 for a few ozs of goat cheese.

Here's a photo of the risotto when it was almost done. See how creamy it is? Yummm!

Cooked vegetables ready to add to the risotto when it's finished cooking!

Finished risotto!

Fun in Iowa!

2011-06-09T15:50:00.000-04:00

Yes, fun and Iowa do go in the same sentence! We had a great visit to Iowa to see my parents and grandparents. It had been over a year since we had been back to Eastern Iowa to see my family, far too long!

We had a busy few days while we were there. We had planned to head to my dad's right away on Thursday when we arrived, but I forgot my camera at home, so we had to make a pit stop at my Mom's house to borrow her camera. It was our first time seeing her new house. She did such a great job decorating, renovating and painting! It was great to see all her hard work in person.

After our pit stop we made our way to my Dad and step-mom's house on the Wapsi River just outside of DeWitt. Every Thursday night from May-August they have a neighborhood fish fry. We have heard stories of the fish fries quite often, but hadn't experienced one until our visit. My dad is the fish fry master (and also the most interesting man on the Wapsi!) and everyone contributes a few dishes, from mac and cheese, deviled eggs, to fruit and dessert, there is something for everyone.

The Fry Master!

However, our sometimes picky eater Dylan was not in the mood for a fish fry, so he ate dinner before we did.

Which was a good thing because he was busy the rest of the night playing catch.

And catching up with his Great Grandpa Dallas! We were so happy my grandpa was feeling well enough to join us on Thursday night. He and my grandma came out for an hour or so and it was great to catch up with them!

You may be wondering how the neighborhood feeds 30-40 people a ton of fish every Thursday. This is how...

Just before we left Friday morning a few of my dad's neighbors came in on their boat with a 30 lb, 2-20 lb and 2-10 lb catfish. And that was just the catch from that morning's bank lines!

On Friday morning we headed over to my grandparents house for a few hours to catch up more with them. Dylan kept his Great Grandpa busy showing him all the Toy Story characters!

After our visit with the Grandparents we went to my Mom's house so Dylan could take his afternoon nap. But on our way was Dave's favorite place to eat, Taco John's so of course we had to stop! It was just as fabulous as he remembered. The super potato ole's were excellent as usual!

Dylan took a good nap and Dave wanted to go and hit some golf balls, so we dropped him off at the local public course. Mom and I took Dylan to Vanderveer Park. It's very close to her house and has a great fountain, lake, and playground equipment. Dylan loved seeing the fountain. And throwing coins in it with Grandma!

We also checked out the playground.

After the park we went to pick Dave up from the golf course. Dylan wanted to practice his putting too.

On Saturday we headed up to LeClaire, for the 2nd Annual American Pickers Festival! Dave and I are big fans of the show and luckily the festival happened to be going on the weekend we visited. LeClaire is just a short drive from Davenport, so we were checking out the city wide garage sales on our way down to the festival before we knew it! We even picked up a Chicago Bears shirt for Dylan.

When we arrived at the festival Mike and Danielle were speaking and talking about how the show started and telling stories. It was fun to hear them talk about things we have seen on the show and their take on what happens.

There was also a petting zoo close to the stage. Other than almost being trampled by some goats we had fun petting the different animals.

There were also antique/flea market vendors, food and a classic car show at the festival. If it wouldn't have been so hot we probably would have spent more time there.

My sister, Dana, also drove down from Chicago to spend Saturday with us. Dylan loves seeing Aunt Dana!

Sunday was our last day in Iowa and we spent it out on the river at my dad's. We took a few boat rides, visited with my grandparents and hung outside. We got to spend a few more hours that evening with my mom too! It was a great way to end our weekend in Iowa!

Just when we thought things couldn't get any worse

2011-06-07T09:27:00.000-04:00

The Jeep died on our way home from Iowa last night about 80 miles from Knoxville. I am not kidding. We must have some kind of curse on us lately. First the radiator goes out in the car, then the computer gets some sort of super virus (luckily it wasn't the hard drive), then the water heater and now, what we think is the water pump went out in the Jeep. It did choose to die in Corbin, KY, which is a good sized town. So we were able to find a hotel last night and a service station this morning to look at the Jeep and hopefully fix it. Our hotel even has a pool! So hopefully we will be able to entertain Dylan for a few hours while we are waiting for the repairs on the Jeep.

We did have an awesome weekend in Iowa. It was great to see my grandparents and parents. Dylan had lots of fun playing with his grandparents too.

Two-Fer Tuesday

2011-05-31T11:41:00.000-04:00

When it rains it pours

2011-05-27T14:52:00.001-04:00

Update: Our hot water heater started making strange noises on Saturday night and by Sunday morning it was gushing water. Luckily Dave got it shut off before too long. Now we need a new hot water heater...I am not kidding. Universe, they say bad things happen in 3's this was our third bad thing to happen in as many days so please leave us alone for a while. Thanks!

We had to stop at Home Depot on our way home from work the other night to pick up another can of spray paint so Dave could finish painting an outdoor table he has been working on restoring. Dylan and I were waiting in the car for him when we started to smell something funny (and no it wasn't Dylan's pull up!). As Dave got in the car and we pulled away he smelled the bad smell too. I checked the temperature gauge on our fabulous 2003 Hyundai and saw that it was moving up from where it usually rests, just halfway between cold and hot. We turned the heat on full blast and rolled down the windows so we wouldn't sweat to death. The temperature fluctuated the rest of the way home from sort of hot to really hot. Luckily we made it home without the car dying or I don't know EXPLODING.

Dave opened the hood and we could see that coolant had splashed out from the top of the radiator and the reservoir was almost empty. We had been planning on taking the car in to get the oil changed and tires rotated before our upcoming road trip to Iowa, so I brought the car into Firestone the next day. Their diagnosis was that we need a new radiator, temperature gauge, radiator flush and pin/bolt for the drivers side tire, on top of the oil change and tire rotation. Luckily we know someone who can replace the radiator and do the other work for a little more than a quarter of the over $700 Firestone wanted to charge to do everything. So until the car part comes in we are thankful we can borrow a car from a friend so we don't have to survive on one car for the long weekend (and Dave is working all weekend).

After I got home from spending 5 hours at Firestone I fired up the computer only to find a Hard Disk error. Seriously, I didn't think the day couldn't have gotten much worse after spending forever at Firestone and having to deal with car issues, but then the computer too! I called our trusty computer repairman (Kyle) and he helped me run through the diagnostics on the computer to see if it could be fixed on its own or if we have to take it in to get the hard drive replaced. It turns out we need to have the hard drive replaced. Hopefully we will be able to get some of the photos off of the hard drive, we do have an external hard drive that we back stuff up to, but its been a while since we've done that. I also upload quite a few pictures to Kodak Gallery, Flickr and the blog, so we shouldn't loose too much if they can't recover anything.

The only highlight of the day was going to Dylan's daycare's spring program. I was so proud that he got up with his class and sang all the songs and did the actions. He cried through the entire Christmas program and wouldn't go up with his class to sing, so he is making progress! He is the youngest in his class now, so he was a little slow on some of the songs, but overall he did great!

Harry Potter "Through the Pensieve"

2011-05-27T13:43:00.000-04:00

Harry Potter fans, you have got to see this! It's a compilation of all of the movies that have been released so far, pure AWESOMENESS! 50 days until the final movie comes out!

My favorite salad

2011-05-27T11:36:00.000-04:00

When we lived in Florida my friend Kate and I would get salad from a little restaurant down the street from where we worked. They had an AMAZING greek salad, but my favorite was the strawberry salad. Luckily it's super easy to make at home too. And since strawberries are in season now, it's the perfect time to make it. Here's a basic recipe for the salad, this recipe is for a single salad, but you can certainly play around with the amounts for your liking.

Strawberry salad with feta and cashews
2 c. salad greens (I like romaine)
2 tbs. feta cheese
2 tbs. cashews
1 c. sliced strawberries
1 tbs. red onion
2 tbs. balsamic vinegarette or poppy seed dressing

Mix it all up! You could also add grilled chicken to make this a meal. Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Two-Fer Tuesday

2011-05-24T20:34:00.000-04:00

Weekend photoblogging

2011-05-23T14:14:00.000-04:00

We started the day at the Market Square Farmers Market!

Dylan wore his big boy underwear, but that didn't last very long. Apparently this is how you walk when your shorts are wet..

Dylan and Dave both love cheese cinnamon rolls from VG's Bakery.

I think Dylan ate more of the roll than Dave did!

Next we headed over to Worlds Fair Park to the Children's Festival of Reading. Dylan had a great time playing in the pools that were set up and other activities.

Dylan loves mascots. This is the Bee from local radio station B97.5!

We had a great Saturday and perfect weather to be outside! How was your weekend?

In the garden

2011-05-20T13:42:00.002-04:00

I've got the Early Girl & Bush Goliath in planters on the patio. They are both supposed to grow well in planters. We have to maximize our tomato growing ability at our house!

In the garden I've got Better Boy, Pink Brandywine, Rutgers & a Red Beefsteak.

What tomatoes are in your garden this year?

Peas hurry up!

2011-05-20T09:42:00.000-04:00

The peas in my garden are sooo close to being ready. I seriously CAN NOT WAIT! Look at all those pea pods!

A few of his favorite things

2011-05-19T14:15:00.000-04:00

Playing outside

Riding his bike or plasma car

Playing at the park

Watermelon

Mac & cheese

Giving the cats kisses

Watching Toy Story 2

His bubble gun

Having me kiss his hands before bed

Having Dave and I chase him around the house

Piggy rides

I am sure this will change in the blink of an eye, I don't want to forget what he loved at 2.5 years old.

Two-Fer Tuesday

2011-05-17T08:33:00.001-04:00

What a difference a haircut makes!

Before...

After...Notice the smile, that's what you get when you ask a 2.5 year old to smile for you!

I already miss his long hair :(

Saturday

2011-05-15T14:02:00.000-04:00

We had an action packed Saturday. It started off with a visit to John Deere Landscapes to look at trees for our front yard (of which we did not really find anything). Then we hit up Mayo Garden Center to get tomato and the elusive zucchini plants. After Mayo we headed to Franklin Gallery to pick up the Master's prints Dave had framed and then went to Starbucks to refuel! And that was just the first hour and a half of our day!

Last Saturday was the first Market Square Farmer's Market and for some reason we missed it! I was not to be thwarted this Saturday though, even if we didn't make it until after 11am. Note to self, go at 9am like usual so you can get a cinnamon roll from VG's bakery before they are sold out! We did get some chicken salad from Mrs. Cockadoodles that we had for lunch later and it was excellent. We also got some Pecan Honey Jam that we are looking forward to smearing on toast :) There was also a fresh pasta vendor there, but since we were not heading home after the farmers market we decided to wait until next week to buy our basil pesto and spinach and cheese ravioli.

Dave has wanted to go to the flea market that is just off the Gatlinburg (exit 407 for your K-town people) for quite a while, so we decided to finally make the trip. I didn't bring my camera in, and boy I should have, it was a redneck feast for the eyes. Lots of camo, airbrushed tee-shirts, fake flowers and VHS tapes. The outside booths had more antique items and were much better to look through. They also had a few fruit and vegetable stands. I'm not going to say we won't ever go back, but it will certainly be awhile.

Since we were so close to the mountains already we decided to head up to Clingman's Dome. It is the highest point in the Smoky Mountains. We have only been there once and that was a very foggy day, so we decided to head up there again. It's still at least 45 minutes from Gatlinburg so we stopped along the way so Dylan could stretch his legs and through some rocks in the river. He could seriously throw rocks in the river all day long! I also had the chance to play with my camera settings and get a few good shots of Dylan and Dave and the water flowing over the rocks.

Check out Super Dave in the background!

See the water flowing?

Big splash! I would have liked to have more time to take this shot. We needed a few more takes and I should have been at a lower angle. Next time we head up to the mountains I need to make sure my battery is fully charged!

We figured the walk up to the top of the dome would be good for Dylan to stretch his legs too. We were wrong. Dave had to carry Dylan most of the way up the .5 mile vertical walk. I was barley able to make it up myself, there was no way I could have carried Dylan all the way up the mountain. Dave's marathon training has really come in handy :) Once we reached the summit we were treated to some pretty awesome views of TN and NC. It was still a little cloudy, but we could still see pretty far.

View from the tower at Clingman's Dome.

Apparently Dylan is not afraid of heights!

On our way back down the trail.

Almost to the bottom!

Even Dylan posed for a picture!

How was your Saturday?

How many pairs of shoes to YOU own?

2011-05-12T09:48:00.000-04:00

A few of my shoes...

Dave is an anti-hoarder. He throws everything away. Unless it is golf memorabilia, golf clubs, golf bags, records or pictures. Recently he has even started to sell some of his golf clubs and bags. When he gets in one his throwing stuff out moods he has to be watched carefully otherwise we could end up without things we use every day, like the MICROWAVE.

A few days ago Dave was ready to get rid of more stuff, and it all fairness to him, we do have a lot of stuff that just piles up that needs to be taken to Goodwill, etc. He was up in our bedroom and looking in our closet and started counting my shoes. "You have 30 pairs of shoes!" he said. "You don't need 30 pairs of shoes, you need to get rid of some of them, you have 3 pairs of brown flip flops!" Yes, I do have 3 pairs of brown flip flops, but I explained to him how they were 3 different pairs of flip flops to be worn with different outfits. I can't wear the brown flip flops with the beads and fabric sole to the pool, I have to wear the rubber Old Navy ones, COME ON DAVE! Then Dave says, "I bet your friends don't have this many pairs of shoes!" Really Dave? I bet most of my friends have more than 29 pairs of shoes (I counted them this morning). This is coming from my husband who has 21 golf shirts and 18 pairs of dress pants....

Am I in the wrong here? Is 29 pairs of shoes too many? Lets see how my shoe collection compares to yours. So my friends, how many pairs of shoes do you own? Or if you don't want to share an exact number for fear of repercussions from your spouse just tell me if you have more or less than 29 pairs of shoes in the comments below.

Here's how my 29 pairs of shoes break down; 8 flip flops, 9 heels, 5 wedges, 3 boots, 3 flats and a pair of tennis shoes. I know I could certainly use more shoes, couldn't everyone?

My favorite shoes:

My current favorites! I have these Jessica Simpson nude platform heels on now. While I couldn't run around in them all day, they are much more comfortable than they look.

These are a close second, I get compliments on them every time I wear them!
I would love red shiny shoes that were closed toe too :)

I just got these when I was in Nashville, I needed a pair of summery black wedges!

Two-Fer Tuesday

2011-05-10T15:09:00.000-04:00

Dylan, 13 months, before he was walking. I can hardly remember what it was like not to have him running around the house! And he still gets this look on his face. In this picture he was looking at Brenda and I am sure he was thinking who is this other crazy lady taking my picture!

Apparently I looked a lot like this when I was a baby too...

Loveless Cafe

2011-05-09T13:32:00.000-04:00

While we were in Nashville for the marathon we were lucky enough to have breakfast at the famous Loveless Cafe. Every time we go to Nashville I always want to go, but we never had the time, until our last visit! I really didn't know what to expect of the restaurant, it's located about 30 minutes from where we stayed in Brentwood, and inside of an old house. There are a few buildings around the restaurant, a gift shop selling country hams, the Loveless Cafes famous jams, t-shirts and more, and a few other touristy shops. It was raining while we were there so we didn't spend too much time checking out the shops. But, I guess it's good once people get that far out from Nashville to have something other to do than just eat or have something to do while you wait for a table. We were fortunate enough to not have to wait for a table (it's all about who you know!) and with 3 kids (mostly our impatient kid) that was awesome.

The Loveless Cafe is known for their homemade biscuits and jam. A few years ago when Dave, Dylan and I went to the Southern Food & Wine Festival in Nashville we sampled the jam and it was really excellent. We also saw the famous "biscuit lady" from the Loveless Cafe do some cooking. Sadly she passed away earlier this year so we didn't get to see her at the cafe. I thought the biscuits were outstanding, they were light and buttery, the homemade jam was the perfect accompaniment to the biscuits too.

The famous biscuits and jam!

Dylan was a big fan of the biscuits too!

They have a huge menu with the old favorites, eggs, omelette's, waffles, pancakes, you get the picture. They also had Dave's favorite, chicken fried steak, hashbrown casserole and eggs. He also got a chicken biscuit on the site, apparently that was one of the first things that was on the menu at the cafe.

Dave's breakfast

I was going to order Dylan a waffle, even though they didn't have one on the kids menu, but the waitress told me that the waffle were huge so I just ordered Dylan the kids pancakes. The pancakes were huge! Two pancakes the size of a dinner plate! I can't imagine the waffle would have been that much bigger. I ordered the BBQ omelet and so did Andrew. I thought it was OK, not my favorite breakfast I've ever had, there wasn't much BBQ sauce on the meat and it was just kind of bland overall. Nina had biscuits and gravy and I think that was pretty good. Dave loved his meal too. I would certainly go back and eat there again. The biscuits and jam were excellent and I am sure other menu options are very good as well. The Loveless Cafe is certainly a destination worth the trip.