i'm real lucky

Jacob gave up meat for Lent... in addition to a few other things.  So last night I suggested that he make us eggplant parmesan for dinner!  He did some great research and found a wonderful recipe on the World Wide Web for a lasagna style dish.  Thanks Bobby Flay.  We went to Ingles and collected the ingredients we needed.  He made a delicious roasted red pepper marinara sauce.  He sliced, breaded and fried the eggplant.  The final step required him to layer the ingredients: sauce, eggplant, cheese, sauce, eggplant and cheese to top.  The dish he used was the perfect size for the ingredients and the result was perfect!  The picture to the left was a portion that I ate for dinner.  It was beautifully garnished with fresh parsley.  Mmmm.  It was sooo good.  I'm real lucky to have him in my life.  I'll toot my own horn a little and say that last night I prepped a dough to make homemade strawberry shortcakes today for Jacob.  In addition to meat, he also sacrificed sweets so I thought it would be a treat.  They were very tasty.  And he was very appreciative.  I think we're lucky to have each other.  Toot, toot!

outlaw pete

Today was fun.  Here's the play by play.  I stayed in bed until 10:30, made coffee, washed laundry, watched House on dvd, shopped at Ingles, made roasted tomato soup, folded laundry, talked to Kristin, went to Target, ate a burrito at Moe's, and watched "Friends" on dvd.  Wooh.  That's a busy, fun and productive day.  The Target we visited was brand-spankin' new!  It still had that new Target smell, which is kind of like new car smell, but bigger and better.  It concluded at Pete's apartment watching the "Friends"' dvds.  I took this picture of Pete because he looked like a grandpa in his leather chair: feet up in boat shoes.  All he needed was a "Mr. Roger's" sweater and a leather bound book in place of his Ipod Touch.  "Friends" is such a funny show!  I really enjoyed watching and laughing with my friends tonight.  

the incredible, edible egg

This is Emma the dog.  While on vacation, Jacob and I stayed one night with his college pal Tyler.  Tyler is married to Lauren and together they have Emma.  Emma is a chocolate lab and she is really the most beautiful dog I've ever seen.  While watching Duke play on Saturday night, we also watched another fun event.  Emma ate a raw egg.  She ate the whole thing, shell and all.  Tyler and Lauren give them to her occasionally to keep her fur shiny.  I was a little confused at first.  I thought surely the egg was cooked.  Apparently I missed the first bit of the conversation.  Emma carried the egg with her delicately for a few minutes.  Even after dropping it once, she picked it back up softly to hold it a little longer.  Watching the egg hit the floor only confirmed my original belief that the egg was boiled because it didn't crack or leak on the floor at all.  Eventually, Emma decided that enough was enough because the egg hit the floor one last time and she began to eat the entire thing!  It was incredible.  I believe she made Rocky Balboa proud that night.

slurpees are cool

Today we went to the beach.  It was awesome.  There are a few things in my life that have historically deemed days as beach days: sunshine, an occasional slight breeze, a frisbee, and a slurpee!  Today really did make for the quintessential 'beach day'.  It was warm, but not too warm.  It was breezy, but not too breezy.  And it started with a cherry Slurpee from the local 7-11.  Also today (well technically yesterday, but officially today), I started book one of the Twilight series.  I am hooked and I don't know what took me so long to discover my love of these books.  Well, the important thing is that it has finally happened.  Another important thing is that tomorrow these two loves of mine, sun and Twilight (ironically), will merge again for the whole day.  I plan to wake up and immediately move poolside with Bella and Edward.  I plan to stay there until sunset.  Wish me luck.

woazers

I can't believe I did it.  On Monday, as Jacob and I drove to Tampa, we passed this car on the side of the road.  When I saw it, the first thought to go through my mind was, "wow, I can blog about that later."  And then I shamelessly (well Jacob and I both) proceeded to reach for my phone and snap a picture as we slowly passed this car.  The people standing by the car totally saw me acting as the worst sort of 'rubber-necker'.  The accident had just occurred.  There were no emergency vehicles on the scene yet and my concern was to share this story on my blog and not for the survival and health of the occupants.  I am not proud of my actions, but I am still posting the picture.  

is that chocolate or poop?

I am a baker.  We make a lot of things from scratch at work.  Last week I tried to make Oreos from scratch.  Well, not exactly the whole cookie, only the chocolate part because we use Oreo crumbs in a dessert.  The cookie dough looked like poop.  Seriously.  And the result was less than satisfactory.  It kind of tasted like chocolate animal crackers, you know?  The good people at Oreo make a good cookie and I have yet to duplicate their recipe.  I will try again.  

Last Saturday afternoon I drove to Tennessee to attend Addyson's second birthday party.  The thoughts, "I can't believe she's only two" and "I can't believe she's already two" rival for most unbelievable in my head.  She's a little person.  She can walk and talk.  She feeds herself.  She has an incredible ability to make people laugh.  She is compassionate and comforting.  During the last few months, when my mom or sister have shown sadness because of my grandpa, she has been known to come along side them and say "You okay?  It's okay."  Kids learn that, I think.  She's learned it from watching people care for each other.  And like me and so many people I know, she has learned to really 'dig her heels in'.  She is stubborn.  Saturday night she wanted to come upstairs to my room because Sydney, her older sister, and I were watching a movie.  I consented so my mom sent her up the stairs to watch.  I know she can understand reason, sometimes, so I said to her, "Addy you can sit with the big girls if you act like a big girl.  We're sitting still and watching the movie, okay?"  "Okay," she said.  So I thanked her for listening.  "Welcome," she responded (a precious expression I must say).  And she did sit with us quietly.  I was astounded.  My sister came to pick her up a little later, but she became distracted by the stairs.  Toddlers love stairs which is pretty scary because they're capable of handling them, but sometimes they wobble like little drunken people.  From my room I heard her pitch the biggest fit!  Then silence.  Three minutes later I hear my mom with her on the stairs.  Addy won that fight.  I played on the stairs with her for a few minutes then I told her that she could play for two more minutes.  Two minutes later she quietly agreed to go home.

We all choose our battles I suppose, but when you're two the battles consist of playing on steps and not pulling the cat's tail.  We want what we want sometimes no matter the cost.  God is the parent, I'm the kid and no matter how many times I throw a tantrum and try to play on the stairs without him, he still loves me.  Addy is learning about grace and love through her family when we cover her with hugs and kisses only minutes after she's been disobedient.  Thanks be to God.  I loved being home.  And I think Addy really enjoyed her birthday.

i can't understand

Last night Jacob and I went to a concert in Atlanta.  The show was fun and good, but half way through I realized something.  I can never understand what the names are of the band members when they are introduced.  Annunciate please!  I have two theories for this conundrum.  The first is that the lead man or woman is eager to claim the spotlight so he or she cleverly sabotages the names during introductions.  The second is maybe more realistic.  When I was a little kid I always had trouble comprehending stories or books when they were read aloud to me.  Sometimes without seeing the words, my mind would connect the sounds together incorrectly.  This has improved and corrected over the years, but I think this may play into my little problem.  Without seeing the name "Jon Black", I may hear "Don Block".  However, if I know the name in advance it is completely coherent to me when I hear it announced.  Yea... it is a little tricky.  

Before the show, Jacob and I sat outside at a drive-thru/walk-up only Chick-Fil-A in Atlanta.  It was beautiful outside.  I ate a chicken salad sandwich and waffle fries while Jacob had a mexican salad that he picked up from the Qdoba next door.  We shared a lemonade also.  It was very romantic.  After dinner, we went to the mall across the street to pick up some flip flops for Jacob.  He left his Rainbows in a cab in the Dominican Republic so he needed some new ones for our beach trip.  He thought he bought an XL last time, but his "big" toe didn't quite fit on the sole of the shoe.  Seriously, his right foot is a full shoe size bigger than the left.  Luckily they had an XXL in stock so he was good to go.  After a quick stop at Sam Ash to look at guitars, we went to Caribou coffee so I could get a last minute jolt before the show.  We also hacked into their free wifi to double check the show time.  Ha.  It was a really fun night.  I'm excited for spring to arrive and stick around for a while.

snoozy

When I was a little girl I owned a doll whose eyes closed when I laid her down.  She was similar to the doll on the left.  Creepy, I know.  Sometimes I remind myself of this doll.  Last night was one of those times.  I visited a friend's house last night to watch the newly released "Australia".  I successfully stayed awake during the first forty minutes of the movie and thoroughly enjoyed it.  It was a lot funnier than I expected.  However, after about forty minutes, I allowed myself to get a little too comfortable.  I laid down and fell asleep for the remainder of the movie.  I slept through all of it!  After a certain point in the evening, I pretty much need to lay on a bed of nails to stay awake during movies.  Of course then after my movie snooze I had a little trouble dozing off last night.  All in all it was a great night!