Weekend Recap

Busy Weekend!

Friday night we had dinner with the neighbors. They shared delicious halibut they caught on their recent trip to Alaska. We also had mac and cheese and caesar salad, and I brought Cherry Pineapple Dump cake and vanilla ice cream for dessert.

Saturday we loaded up the neighbor's truck with tailgating supplies and 6 of us headed to the K-State/Missouri game. We snagged a parking spot in view of the jumbo tron, set up the canopy and enjoyed the game from the comfort of our camp chairs with plates full of smoked brisket (oh yes, even the smoker came along), potato salad, spinach and cannellini bean dip, guacamole, taco bean dip, sugar cookies shaped like footballs and Powercat heads, chocolate chip cookies and smores bars.

This was my second tailgating experience ever with last week's catered meal at Walt's company's tent being my first, and I must say I'm hooked. There is something so festive about sitting under the tent watching footballs flying through the air and seeing so many people out enjoying themselves. I am quite enjoying K-State's signature purple. It makes this girl happy to see the parking lots, people, vehicles and everything else you can imagine blanketed in such a lovely color as purple.


Stadium, jumbo tron and lots of purple visible in background!

Sunday Walt went fishing with a neighbor (can you tell that we landed in a great neighborhood with fun people?), and I used the morning to relax with some tv. In the afternoon I walked the 2.6 miles to Radina's in Aggieville for a fancy coffee drink. Only when I got there I was so hot and thirsty that I couldn't stomach the idea of a coffee drink, but water and a raspberry lemonade granita sounded just right. I pondered the idea of walking 2 miles any time I feel the need for a treat; this could be the beginning of a great workout plan. Walt picked me up on the way home for a total of 4.86 miles walked.

We rounded out the day and the weekend with a couple German beers with the neighbors to start our Oktoberfest mini tour at Old Chicago and pizza and pepperoni rolls from Hy-Vee's Italian Express.

Summah-time

It's July. In Kansas. Which is not as hot as July in South Carolina yet, and for that we are extremely grateful.

Here's a quick update:

We moved to Kansas. Manhattan, Kansas, in fact. January 26 we loaded up a U-haul and hit the road, pulling over long enough to drop a sweet pup at the cargo area of the Atlanta airport, so he could fly to his new home in Tucson, Arizona, where we hear he is extremely happy playing with his new doggie friend Oscar the boxer mix (I think!)!

January 28 we pulled into our new driveway in frigid Kansas. The wind blows a whole lot in Kansas during the winter, by the way, which we did not realize until we moved there. And it makes it significantly colder than a South Carolina winter. Brrr.

Almost 6 months later here we are still in Kansas and loving it. We miss our family and friends and church and small group, but we feel like we are right where we need to be right now and that is a blessing.

Oscar, the dachshund, had to be put to sleep Wednesday, March 10, 6 weeks after we moved. It was so very sad; he had a tumor that kept him from eating or drinking and there was nothing that could be done to improve his quality of life. It happened very quickly; the tumor was suddenly big enough to bother him and he was put to sleep the next day. I still hadn't found a job, so it was very hard to lose my little shadow who kept me company every day at home. I am thankful he didn't languish and suffer.

We have since gained a cat, Molly. She is very fluffy and quite affectionate, and while she isn't Oscar she is lovely to have around. I quite like her.

The girls we were caring for last fall went home December 22. I enjoyed the peace and quiet, but I missed them! They are with us this summer; we are going on our fourth week of summer fun and, boy, now I wistfully dream about the peace and quiet sometimes :) But we are so glad they are here! We have been to the splash park (free! I love Manhattan, KS!), several playgrounds, the recycling center (anything can be an adventure, right?), the farmer's market and the Hawaiian ice stand several times. We still need to visit the zoo and the new city pool with the big slides. And we need to eat a lot more ice cream.

Tonight I made an amazing dinner. Not necessarily because I am amazing, but because I had amazing recipes to use. We had:

White Bean and Mushroom Ragout over polenta; I used the instructions for polenta from this recipe. I just used some whole grain corn meal I had on hand, and it worked wonderfully.

Oh. my. goodness. It was delicious. The girls loved it. Hubs and I loved it. It was flippin' delicious. I will be making this again.

I miss you bloggy folks. I gotta get my bloggy mojo back.

Happy Summer!

Birthday!

Wow...if I wait 3 more days then I can say I took a 5-month hiatus from my blog whereas blogging after 4 months and 20-something days makes it totally obvious that I was just a slacker.

Now you know the truth.

Stuff happened, and I'll blog about that later, but first here's a post that has been languishing in my drafts folder since about November 20.

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7 weeks ago we added 2 younguns to our house. And we're all still alive to tell about it.


One morning last week during the rush out the door to school I reached the zenith of my desire to inflict bodily harm on a certain 7-year-old, and I don't just mean a simple spanking. I wanted to hurt that kid. You will be proud to know that I didn't.


Really I don't know that you should be proud; I'm an adult, so giving in to my desire to inflict bodily harm cannot be an option...unless I'm inflicting my own bodily with harm by eating a cone full of ice cream for lunch...which I did today (*bliss). You will be relieved, maybe, or less likely to call the authorities if I go on to say that instead of inflicting bodily harm I dropped her off at school...ha, take that, kid.

And I simmered down and that was a good thing.

November 6 was my 28th birthday! 28...sounds so weird. Its been 10 years since my age had an 8 in it. And a lot has changed since then. But I don't feel so different, you know?

Hubs decided to make me a birthday dessert. You may remember the picture perfect chocolate cake he made last year. I had forgotten all about it until I saw it again on the blog. That's why I need a blog. So I can remember all the sweet things hubs does for me.



He asked what I wanted; I produced the recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Cheesecake pie from my way-too-extensive recipe file (recipes go in, but do they ever come out...).



He made it happen! It was SO good!

Yes I shared it with the girls.


But only the tiniest slices ever.



Refined sugar is not good for our kids, folks. I had to eat it all...for the good of the children...



Because he made it I let hubs play with a piece...



Poor scared pie.

"They" say that you should photograph slices of things with the point facing you, as if the food were looking at you (do I want my food looking at me?), so that the viewer feels connected with the item in the photograph.


This piece of pie is almost looking at you...its looking at something over your left shoulder.