Mii Characters

The Nintendo Wii we have gives you the chance to make characters that look like you. I'll let you judge for yourself!

Cooking in February

I like hearty meals. I especially like soups and stews... even when it is 80 degrees outside! I made this tonight and thought it was worthy of sharing. My regards to the Betty Crocker cookbook, and to my wonderful mother-in-law that gave it to me in the first place.




Corn Chowder

1/2 pound bacon, cut up (I used turkey bacon)
1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 C or more)
2 medium stalks celery, chopped (1 Cup)
2 Tbls all-purpose flour
4 Cups milk
1/8 tsp pepper (or more if you like it like I do)
1 can cream-style corn
1 can tiny whole potatoes, drained and diced
chopped fresh parsley, if desired (I didn't have it)
Paprika, if desired (I sprinkled it on top.. pretty)

1. Cook bacon in 3-quart saucepan over medium heat until crisp. Drain fat, reserving 3 tablespoons in saucepan. Drain bacon on paper towels; set aside. (with turkey bacon I found that it didn't give off all that much fat... so I left whatever was there and added a little butter)

2. Cook onion and celery in bacon fat over medium heat about 2 minutes, stirring, until tender. Stir in flour. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is bubbly, remove from heat. (mine never looked "bubbly"...but I gave it a good stir)

3. Gradually stir in milk. (I put mine in all at once) Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute.

4. Stir in pepper, corn and potatoes. Heat until hot. Stir in bacon. Sprinkle each serving with parsley and paprika.

**Interesting tidbit- the word chowder, comes from the French word chaudiere. It is a large cauldron that the seamen used to make their hearty stews in. Enjoy!

Peek-A-Boo

Benny passed his certification test! Only one more to go!

TV evangelists and sickness

Well... for the last few days I've been sick. I hardly ever get sick, so I guess I'll blog about this momentous occasion. :) Last night I was supposed to go to a Valentine's dinner at our church, but Ben put his foot down and said I couldn't go. (I knew I shouldn't go, but I really wanted to) Today I stayed home from church which is also very unusual. I found myself looking at the clock and wondering what they are all doing at church. So, to get my mind off of things AND to get a little spiritual nourishment I decided to find some preaching on TV. First of all, I just want to say someone needs to tell Jan Crouch to stop dying her hair pink! Second of all, I saw lots of different pastors wearing jeans and a suit jacket together which is pretty modern and trendy. I even saw one where he had some of the other pastors or deacons sitting behind him and they were like 80 years old wearing jeans and a suit jacket. I thought it was interesting. Before you think I'm shallow, I also heard some great preaching. One sermon in particular struck me about claiming God's promises. He said that claiming promises is kind of like writing a check. Jesus has signed it and when you endorse it (claim it) then you have to take it to the bank (act) so that you can use it. I didn't get all the details right, but I thought it was a good analogy. Anyway... those are my thoughts today.

Church humor

I thought these cartoons were too good to not share.

Wii Boxing with Sam and Jenny

Superbowl

I thought this bit of football humor would make someone smile out there. Ben and I really have no interest in football. Back in Alabama people always ask you if you are an Alabama or Auburn fan. I would always look at them and say "What?" People didn't just root for a team... they had car seats, earrings, sweatshirts, EVERYTHING in their team's colors and mascots. People are serious about football in Alabama. For this superbowl, I think Prince is singing at half time. As a music teacher I can honestly say that I find Prince's singing abhorant. Local TV stations here said that if you wanted to be on the field during halftime with Prince (one of the many in the crowds of adoring fans) you had to be able to run the length of two football fields and you had to be able to stand on your feet for a few hours. Well... although this post sounds frightfully negative, for those of you that enjoy football I tip my hat to you.

My School

The school I teach at is really remarkable. I thought I'd share some pictures I took of our new building. I also took some pictures of the building that I teach in. It once was a home to some wealthy people from Pennsylvania. When some of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart toured the property they saw a saying inscribed above the pool that read "The kiss of the sun for pardon, the song of the bird for mirth, one is nearer God's heart in a garden than anywhere else on earth". That did it... they bought the property and made it into a Catholic school for girls. The house is called "El Jardin", which in Spanish means "the garden". It's a wonderful place!

This is the new building from the outside.













This is one of the handpainted ceilings in the new building. Beautiful!

















This is a portrait of Mater, or Mary. This is hung in every school of the Sacred Heart around the world. It is modeled after a mural in a chapel in Rome. Ben and I saw the real one on our honeymoon. This one is special because of the background. It's like you're looking out of El Jardin.














El Jardin interior.



















El Jardin exterior.

Mommy, I want a doll for Christmas

If you ever need a way to silence that spoiled child, this is it. One gift like this and they'll never demand anything ever again ... or they'll become the most twisted child in the western world and make Damien from "The Omen" look like a bunny rabbit eating marshmallows.

It's a surreal art sculpture called a "toddlerpede" by Jon Beinart. Pretty weird freaky stuff. I'm thinking it would be a great replacement for those fake owls you get on top of buildings to scare pigeons away.

Plus, it holds your car keys!

Redneck Stuff

These are some pictures that made me smile. I thought the gingerbread house was so cute. These pictures are courtesy of my favorite (and only) sister, Stephanie. Thanks Steph!

Our New Seat

For Martin Luther King, Jr.'s holiday Ben and I both had off of work. So we thought we'd invite some friends over and grill out and play the Nintendo Wii for a bit. Ben was worried we wouldn't have enough seats for everyone, so he set off to get some plastic chairs for the occasion. Being in a one bedroom apartment severely limits the amount of "stuff" you can have. Boy, was I surprised when he came back with this! I think it looks like an Amish quilt box, so that's what I'm calling it.
So if any of you come to our place... rest assured you will have a place to sit thanks to my loving husband.

When the going gets tough...

Former California State Assembly speaker, Herb Wesson, kicks Zhang Xiao Ju in a spat over who has the biggest Star Wars collection.

There's more than one way to shine a politician's shoes. Hiyah!










I'm just glad buddhist's don't play poker!

Here's the complete story. An oldie but a goodie!

Picture Fun

I don't really have much going on right now, but I was looking through some of our old photos on our computer and I wanted to share them. I think they are very interesting. Maybe you will think so too! This one is of Ben jumping off of a swing at church. We took this photo on a cell phone camera. We entered two different contests with it and won a free dinner for four at a nice Italian restaurant in town!





This is a photo of when we visited Missouri. Ben ordered a tenderloin sandwich. Never in all my days have I seen such an intense sandwich.

This is a photo of some early graduates of the first Sacred Heart school in St. Charles, Missouri. We went and toured the school. The headmistress used to be a director at our school, so she showed us around. I think it's so neat how they dressed back then. This is later 1800's. These girls spoke French in the school.

This was taken at my parent's place in Alabama. These are hummingbirds. Don't they look like little tiny angels?

30!

Today I am entering a new era in my life... I turn 30. I feel truly blessed and just know my thirties are going to have many wonderful, incredible moments. I had a very good day. Ben gave me a very nice card and took me to see the Chihuly exhibit at Fairchild Tropical Garden. We took SO many beautiful pictures that it was very difficult to decide what to even post. I've been to Fairchild Tropical Garden before with my mom, but it's been maybe five years ago. The mixture of the glass art and the nature was just great. Dale Chihuly is the artist. He is THE major glass artist and his pieces go for a bundle of money. He lives in Seattle, but sets up his exhibits all over the world. You will see some examples in the photos.

You would walk along the path and suddenly come up to some glass art. Beautiful!

This next one is of Ben and I under a canopy type thing. Like my hat? Notice Ben's "John Deere" hat from Alabama.




I wanted to take my picture with these flowers. They are so wispy and pretty.

Look closely at the bark of this tree. It's called a Rainbow Eucalyptus tree. It comes from Papua New Guinea (hope I spelled that right). Most Eucalyptus trees come from Austrailia, but not this one. The air changes the color of the bark from green at first, then it peels, and then to blue, and then it peels, and then to red. Never seen anything like it before!


This is a fun one. This is some of the glass art again. This piece is called Carnival Boat. Notice the iguana on the limb above the boat? We saw lots of them today... they give me the creeps. Apparently, they are really a big pain because they eat all the plants and stuff. I asked Ben why they don't just "accidentally" poison them.

These little onion shaped pieces are called Walla Wallas, but they reminded me of the candy from Willie Wonka. It was pretty.

This is a glass sculpture. One of the many on display. They say that you can come at night to the exhibit and they are all lit up. This sculpture weighs literally about two tons.

Barbeque by Mail ...

My mom was really generous this Christmas and sent us a huge rack of ribs by mail. The barbequed ribs and brisket were made in a restaurant in Kansas city that she swears is that absolute best in America. Well of course, Meredith has tasted some pretty fine BBQ in AL, so I think mom had something to prove.

The fact is - we haven't tried the ribs yet because they're going to take another 24hours to defrost. Why? Because they were packaged in dry ice!

Of course, I've never had my very own dry ice to mess around with so I was immediately more fascinated with the packaging than with the package contents. Here is a quick video we made of me experimenting with the dry ice... and you just thought you were going to read about barbeque here! Pretty exciting stuff!

(Please try to ignore the out-of-sync audio: our camera and youtube.com don't mix well).



Don't try this at home ... erm ... like we did!

Cooking in Winter

Ben and I decided that we would try out his Christmas gift to me- a pasta maker. I've never made homemade pasta before, but in the instructions it says that with practice you can make pasta like a real Italian! So here are some pictures from tonight's adventure with pasta making. The pictures really don't do justice to how it tasted. It was good. Oh, and also I will include my recipe for meatballs... they are good!



Pasta is made of flour and eggs and a little bit of water. Once you have the dough, you cut it into sections and make flat sheets. Ben liked this part.

















Then you run the flat sheets of pasta through the cutting part of the machine. We decided to make linguini style noodles tonight. I've seen on TV how cooks put their pasta in "nests" or little piles... so here are my nests.








Then, after boiling the pasta for 4 minutes, you mix with sauce and it's ready. Here's Ben giving his vote. When he saw this picture he said "now, why does my head and my fist look unusually large?" I thought it was funny.










Italian Meatballs

1 lb lean ground beef (I used ground turkey)
1/2 C Italian style bread crumbs
1/3 C water (more or less)
1/4 C grated parmesan cheese
1 medium onion
garlic (I eyeball it)
salt (I eyeball it)
pepper (I like pepper a lot, so I add a lot)

Mix all ingredients... not too much water, moist only
shape meatballs with damp hands and place on broiler pan, broil. (I use parchment paper too) Broil until slightly brown and turn. (about 4 minutes on each side... watch carefully because the broiler will burn them easily)
Add to spaghetti sauce and simmer at least 20 minutes.

Christmas

My dad. I gave him a Bob Hope DVD set.














My brother Preston. Yes, I know we look alike. I gave him the first season of Tales of the Crypt.











My sister Stephanie and my mom. While we were home we took some photos.

















My nephew, Clay. He is so handsome and has the prettiest teeth you've ever seen. I asked him to show me his "pearly whites" and he smiled and then seriously added "I'm kind of gorgeous". I thought it was so hillarious.















My niece, Chloe Anna. She is so small, but so strong and she's also super charming. She can sing all kind of songs and talks all the time. One day when mom and I picked them up from daycare, Chloe called out to her friends "bye.. bye... happy New Year". I thought it was very cute.















This is one of my "artistic" photos. If it weren't for the grave out the window, it would have been great!












Also this Christmas I had a reunion with my college friends. It was so wonderful to see them all and their families. This is a photo of my college roommate, Olya, and me and her beautiful baby, Anna. Olya and her husband Adam are missionaries to Volgograd, Russia and are home on furlow for a few months.






I have many photos and many good friends who were there that night, but this last one is of all of the children that were there that night. We've all changed and been very blessed!