Brief Photographic Update with Minor Captioning

We went to the Wings over Halls Air Show last Saturday with the kids. It is a great place for history buffs to explore and ask questions. You can go inside of WW2 fighter planes and there's an air show with lots of acrobatics and stuff. It would have been funner if it didn't get blazing hot right around 1. Lunch time. 2. Nap Time. 3. 20 minutes before the air show was supposed to start. So we were all miserable and sweaty and very tired instead of excited about the air show. Next year, or next time we decide to go, I'm sure we will remember to bring our own drinks and lunches so we don't feel as guilty about purchasing fair foods. That would make the whole journey far more pleasurable, I am sure. Anyway, here are pictures!

Having a good time!

Looking inside a plane!

Thomas cheesin'.

Matthew um...not cheesin'. Hahah this is when everything started to go downhill and we eventually gave up and went home.

And last Sunday, there was a fellowship dinner at our church in honor of the revival getting started! It was super delicious and they even had Gas Station chicken, which is exactly what Thomas had been begging for all weekend!

Thomas and me being cute!

Thomas and me being crazy!

Daddy being fierce and Lara not getting the memo so looking just plain old adorable.

Then the kids went to Mommy's house for Hudson's birthday party, and Matthew and I tried our hand at making stuffed portobello mushrooms! I still don't know if we did them right, but they sure did taste good!!

And here is my most exciting piece of photographic art: the completed and decorated set of shelves that Matthew put in his kitchen, just for me! Aren't they just gorgeouso? Atop our lovely shelves is my budding collection of milk glass, plus a lamp for some extra lighting. The middle two shelves have the most utilized items in the household, the everyday Red And Black square plates/bowls on one shelf, and wooden spoons, fruit bowl, and spaghetti noodles, all displayed in clear glass on the other. The bottom shelf is still a bit of a hodge podge that I am not quite satisfied with, but it sure is cute for now! The three books on the bottom shelf make up my entire collection of cookbooks, haha. Kind of sad! But I find all my recipes online mostly, so I didn't expect to have a whole wall full or anything.

There you go loves! An update and a peek at my attempts to turn Matthew's house into our house as I gear up for one particularly fine day in May of next year!

:D
See Y'all!
TFMM

Catching up on the Last Two Months

As a means of making up for lost time and there really being some things I think I just won't have time to dedicate a whole post to, I decided to just post all of the pictures that I haven't gotten to and give glorified captions for each. That way I can quit feeling guilty about leaving stuff out, and I can begin taking current pictures again so I'm not a week or two behind at all times.

Circa about 2 months ago, we watched a piano and a brother and a Nanny and a Jace ride down the street. This is just as terrifying as it sounds. It's strapped in at the bottom, and we were only going about a mile to our house, but the road was bumpy and we were RIGHT behind them watching its every move. The happy ending, of course, is that it made it to our house!

And now we have a new piano! A lovely lady who is now my hair stylist put up an ad on Craigslist and Matthew got me this little beauty. For those of you who didn't know, he had actually bought me a baby grand piano awhile back, but it was in such bad shape that we decided not to try and repair. This, my new pride and joy, will hopefully be a good start for teaching piano lessons and schooling my kids to be child prodigies. Yay! I love my fiance!

Moving on, here is the most delicious endeavor into Southern cooking I have made yet. A collaborative effort, we made sausage gravy and biscuits (and vegetables, to make sure we're not unhealthy, haha) The delicious idea, the biscuits, and the sausage were made by me, and turns out my Matthew is a gravy makin' fool! So he made the gravy and it was probably almost the most delicious thing we've ever made yet. Soooo good.

Proof that it was sooooooooo goood!

Hey - wait a minute, how'd he sneak in here? ;) Here is Prince Charming himself, looking I do believe very impressed with our cooking skills. He looks so happy ^_^ I like to think I may have had something to do with that smile!

The other man in my life at the moment - Teri's new baby Austin with his Aunt Amanda, Matthew's cousin's wife. In this picture we're all at Granddaddy's surprise 80th birthday party, which was a blast over the first weekend in May. Granddaddy was really touched by the number of people that came to pay tribute to a wonderful man. I can tell he's wonderful and I haven't known him nearly 80 years. But people say that Matthew's a lot like him and looks a lot like him...so I bet we can all say it's safe to assume I'd like him. Anyway, here's an adorable picture of a big ole sleepy baby.

Matthew and his little man checking out the fishing prospects at Granddaddy's pond.

Same ole sleepy baby, now in the arms of Matt's stepmother Candi, who is also now my BOSS. And let me tell ya, she's a  good one. We all have so much fun working in the bakery/deli and it is a great way to spend time with my Father- and Stepmother- in-law.

Thomas enjoying the fishing with his Aunt Shelby and Daddy's foot. 

Lara blowing some successful bubbles. I promise her  look would be a lot cuter if she hadn't had the liberty of choosing socks and wearing a clutch across her body all day. I honestly don't know where either of those ideas came from, but the rest of her sure was pretty!

There's my man again. Still sitting by the pond. Smelling something funky.

Oh wait no he musta just been making a funky face at ME. WHAT?! At least he's happy now ^_^ What a smile. I sure do love him.

Hey the baby woke up! Now in the arms of his mommy and being generally just  the cutest person in our family at the moment.

So...here is a picture I took of the cat...and my attempt to feed him that went somewhat awry. The food did eventually get onto his plate, but uh...it may have gone a few other places. I dunno how he ever got to eat the bits that landed on his back. I guess cats are pretty flexible :P I was just trying to keep him in shape.

Battle scars from my first week at work. 10 points for anyone that can figure out what these marks are actually from! Hint: They aren't bruises and they didn't hurt.

A closer up version of my battle scars, haha.

Just about the prettiest preschooler that you ever did see! So proud of her!  Kindergarten and 1st graders will be in our house from now on!

This cool guy enjoying a spinning flyer that was sent to him as a Grammy gift! We sure do love these!

Andddd kindergarten graduation: Thomas receiving a Science Award! Wooohoo, who's surprised? Not me! Haha

There you go guys. The next post I write up will actually be a little bit current, hopefully. But this will probably keep you entertained for awhile at least. Now you've met Sally and my Car, so we can get on with real life and real updates from now on! Yay!

I'll See Y'all on the flipperoo side!

TFMM

Southerners really DO deep fry everything.

Matthew and I went out on a date last night to celebrate our favorite holiday, Tuesday. He took me to see the Vow, which I have to admit, I was really super excited about. I felt justified in going to an undeniable "chick flick" with him, since we watch an episode or two of Top Gear every single night on Netflix. :-D I'm not complaining at all, but I had definitely racked up enough Man TV Points to bump up the femininity notch a bit. Anyway, where was I? Ah yes, we were going to see The Vow, starring Rachel McAdams (so much love) and Channing Tatum (so much of that other 4-letter 'L' word):

The movie was, needless to say, very lovey dovey. I would venture to say that Matt and I both liked it pretty good...to use a local turn of phrase. The point of this post, however, was what preceded our movie. The movie was not until 7:00 PM, and Matthew gets off work at 5:00, so we went to Shogun Japanese Steakhouse to eat sushi. And oh did we ever.

For our first course, Matt wanted squid salad...but the chef was out of squid (bummer), so we went with baby octopus salad. Okay, weird. I did not remember to take pictures of all these bizarre delicacies, but I promise it really did look like tentacles. It also really didn't taste bad or even weird. It didn't taste like much of anything. Teriyaki sauce, I lied. It all had been doused in teriyaki sauce. End salad course.

There were approximately 838593573920295687 things on the menu to choose from, so Matt picked one roll and I picked another roll. Matt's was called a Bagel Roll and mine was called a Happy Roll. Trust me to go for that one, right? I don't surprise anybody. (Fun trivia fact on that note: I have always disliked Eeyore. Why is it okay for a character to be morose all the time? That is sending kids a terrible message. "Oh, Eeyore's just never happy about anything, and everyone still likes him. You can have a bad day everyday too! And your cute little face will still wind up on sweatshirts and backpacks all over the world!" Ridiculous.)   There they were, bagel roll and happy roll. I was ready. I've had sushi before, and I know there's really not a whole lot that can be put in it to make it taste bad. Plus, the few things that I would think might make it taste bad - read: baby octopus - I had just tried, so really there wasn't much to worry about.

I found this picture online, but it is pretty close to what ours looked like.

Our sushi arrives fresh out of the deep fryer. Wait, what? Yes, it was covered in what I guess was tempura and deep fried. Perhaps this really is normal, and Japanese people all over the country/world get out their Fry Daddy to make their meal a little warmer than raw fish and seaweed. At this particular moment, however, I just thought it was hilarious. Never in my life have I seen deep fried sushi, but it seemed like a completely Southern cliche playing itself out in front of my eyes. I hope I'm not offending anyone. But really, if you can order something deep fried that is by all definitions in the common world served raw, nevertheless COLD...well, I guess we're not in Kansas anymore. Or the north, because who knows what whacky things go down in Kansas.

Found on www.fibers.com

My disclaimer for the evening though? The Happy Roll and Bagel Roll were both absolutely delicious. I mean, really. The Southern Japanese Americans are really onto something. After the heart attack on a plate was gone, Matt and I decided to order to more rolls, a mackerel and a Tokyo roll. They were both okay but just normal sushi. Less thrilling. I would recommend anyone that can find a deep fried sushi roll on their menu at the local sushi restaurant to try it. It's just as healthy as it sounds, and you won't regret the extra calories.

And these last photos are just for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy very small people dressed up as the above mentioned delicacies.