He's moving on...

A few weeks ago, John Abraham demolished a bag of cookies on the sly.  Yesterday, it was pizza.  We had leftovers in the fridge.  I'm pretty sure the box had four pieces inside.  You can see by the photo below what remained after the raid. 

Seriously!  I feed the kid, scouts honor!  I don't understand why he feels compelled to sneak into the kitchen the minute I am distracted and stuff himself with whatever he can get his grubby little hands on.  I couldn't even begin to pretend to be upset with him though.  Its not like I needed the pizza, so he actually did me a favor.  I did make him stand against the wall for a photo of shame.  Pretty soon I'll have a collection!

I love my boy.

My guys

They are inside a plane (not sure what kind) at the Air Force base in Shreveport.  Too handsome!

He has no idea how to play that thing.  In fact, we bought that at a consignment shop thinking we were doing the kids a huge favor by getting them their first real musical instrument.  Turns out, its a left handed guitar, so only Madelyn will be able to play it.  Shows how much we know!  We'll see how that works out, if she ever shows an interest in it that is.

First day, again

Sarah started the third grade today, Maddy the first.  My big girls, both of them so beautiful and sweet.  No fear, no tears, no sorrow.  Only a heart full of gratitude and joy that I have the privilege to share these precious children.  Thank you Lord.

Here is a picture of the girls before we left for school.  Its a little blurry but still cute.

Officially a junkie

I can't seem to put it down.

My iphone.

Ug.

I didn't want to be "one of those people", as my friends and I would say.  So I am making strides to put the thing DOWN and be a functioning human being, with a normal PC.

The addiction really began with some cool photo editing apps.  I have now found picnik.com, which allows me to carry my addiction over to my home computer.  Basically, I can ignore all my responsibilities and the four other people in my home from in front of the computer, instead of pretending to be involved while my face in planted directly in front of my phone screen.  (I need glasses, but as my favorite comedian says, "I'll see tomorrow".)

Some of the pics I've edited...

Seriously, he's hot in either picture, but there is something about this old, grainy filter that     is    just ..........

lovely.  :)

Fried chicken, round one.

My first attempt at frying chicken. 
I just recently read the book "The Help", and fried chicken was mentioned at least a dozen times.  I enjoyed the book, but was left with an insatiable desire for fried chicken.  So, I decided to put my apron on and get in the kitchen.  A very dear friend of mine gave me great cookbook (Pioneer Woman), so I went with her batter/frying method.  I decided to be very food-networkie and brine the chicken for 12 hours THEN soak it in buttermilk for 12hours.  The results:  Very tender, juicy chicken.  The only thing I will do differently next time is take the skin OFF first before battering.  I double battered to give it extra crunch, but this renders the skin useless.   Double battered, no skin, brine and buttermilk soaked is definitely the way to go.  Here are the pics...

  In case you are wondering, no I did not heat the crisco in the can.  I had it sitting there until I was ready to use it and just snapped the pic.  In the picture above, you can see the mashed potatoes and turnip greens, and corn bread.  I actually made the corn bread a few nights before, but my from scratch buttermilk biscuits didn't turn out as well as I would have liked.  Actually, I didn't like them at all.  Dry, flat, basically useless rounds of nothingness.  Here's the pic though.  At least they looked pretty on the plate.

The end result was fried chicken for two days in a row, turnip greens gone after day one, and a tray full of biscuits in the garbage.  We'll try those again another time.

As the cookie crumbles...

At 3:30 today, after lunch at Full Moon BBQ and a hefty afternoon snack, my sweet boy calmly exclaimed "I'm hungry".  Rrrrrright.  "You've already had a snack, John Abraham, and you will have to wait until dinner, which will be in less than two hours.  Now go play."

Quiet.

I go into the kitchen to find that I had left the box of Nilla Wafers open on the counter.

Mistake.

I looked at him (trying with all my might not to smile).  His response to my glare? 
" I was really hungary."

Back in the Ham

We're home.  All moved in.  No snakes, thank you LORD!

We all love our new home.  The kids adore the yard (funny how much you miss having your own play area, your own grass, your very own room to run in until you are cooped up in an apartment.  Ahh, I can hear the lawn mower purring)  We're getting into a groove, Steven has started his big boy job and is loving it, and I am contemplating starting a book club.  Me, proud owner of the Twilight series, is going to start a book club.  I feel more socially relevant just thinking about it.
Ah ha, ah ha.  Like I care about being socially relevant.  I thought about doing this since I will actually have some time on my hands.  Without my Shreveport gals to keep me entertained on a daily basis, I've got to do something!

Speaking of Shreveport...
I MISS YOU DEARLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mindy, Kristen, Terri, Abbey, Lauren, Angie, Sammie, Emily and all of the rest of you sweet, precious ladies, I cherish you and treasure you in my heart!  Cry for me Argentina!

Ahhhem....  sorry about that.  I tend to get a little weepy and sentimental when I think about my sanctuary in Shreveport.  But I'm here now.  And as I said in one of my first blogs, I'm going to be IN THE NOW from now on.  But I do expect each and every one of you to call me on a regular basis and tell me that you miss me.  :)