March Mischief

Last weekend was Speed Racer's birthday!  The Padre, Mr and Mrs Hokie, and even Mrs Miami and Little Miss came down for the weekend.  Our house was chock full of people but we wouldn't have had it any other way. Everyone got in on Friday and we had a great time staying up late and catching up.  Saturday the boys went off for a manly pancake breakfast, and we ladies slept in and started on cooking the desert for that evening...delicious delicious banana pudding!  Mrs Hokie brought the double boiler and stand mixer (so jealous!) needed for the recipe, apparently it's a Paula Deane recipe and I highly recommend it.

Yum!

Little Miss helped out a lot and was a good sport because all the ladies did was talk, talk, and then talk a little more.

But we enjoyed catching up, it had been awhile since we had all been together.

Once we got all the cooking prepped and the pudding was in the fridge, we headed into town for a ladies lunch.

With all that girl time I think Little Miss was ready for the boys return.  She hung out with them outside while they got the brats and hamburgers ready.  She had them wrapped around her little finger though.  These next pictures of Little Miss and The Padre were all taken by Speed Racer.  I saw this out the window but was mashing up ALOT of potatoes for dinner, when Speed Racer walked by with his camera and starting shooting.  Great minds think alike, huh?

They were feeding this stray that has been around our house a lot.  She's suffered some abuse and we keep trying to get her to come to us.  She only will if you have food, and even then very hesitantly.  She's very sweet and I wish we could find her a good home.

Unfortunately, this is the last picture for the night though.  I had my hands pretty full for the rest of it.  So after this we dug in.  Speed Racer's special hamburgers, brats with sauerkraut, creamy mashed potatoes, and of course...banana pudding.  The girls and I put candles in the banana pudding and had Speed Racer blow them out.  Classic.  Soon after that Little Miss fell asleep on the couch, while the rest of us sat around the bonfire and enjoyed just being together.  All in all I think it was a good birthday, I know I had fun, and hopefully there will be many more like that to come.

Sisters

Many of you know I'm a big fan of The Pioneeer Woman.  This week on Pioneer Woman Photography she is hosting a contest for photos of "Sisters."  Now as she mentions, and we all know, there are many women in your life that can qualify as sisters who may not actually be your blood sisters.  I grew up without sisters, although I love my brothers, I always missed out on having a sister.

So it got me thinking about all the ladies in my life who have meant so much to me.  I've always gotten along with boys a little bit better because I'm a bit of a Tom Boy, but there are some woman that I just couldn't live without.

The more I researched on my computer though, the more I realized I don't have pictures of myself with these women, or even pictures of them at all!  Many of these pictures are buried somewhere in our house and not digital.  Many of them I'm the one holding the camera, or, embarrassingly enough, I just didn't take a picture!!  While researching this I realized that I don't even have pictures of just me with my sister in laws.  Now maybe this is a sneaky conspiracy on their part to avoid my camera (I'm catching on Pockets and Olie).  But this is just sad folks.  Why did I not take the time at a photoshoot, wedding, or get together to turn the camera around and document a time with these ladies I love?  Things are gonna start to change, and I'm warning all you ladies out there...be prepared.

SO here are a few of the ones I could find on my laptop.  NOTE: If you are not in this selection it does NOT mean I don't love you or consider you my sister.  It means I either didn't take a picture with you recently, or it's buried in my basement.  Perhaps I will do a little digging and scanning and find a few of these blasts from the past.  There may be an update to this post comin' your way shortly.  Until then, enjoy these.

If you have a lovely lady that has meant a lot to you in your life, feel free do a shout out in the comments.  I'd love to hear your stories and adventures.

Catching up

The holidays have been fantastic.  I really have enjoyed every minute, and I hate to say that I'm sad to see them go.  They've also been a whirlwind of presents, paper, food, traveling, family, and friends.  So as we head into the new year (can't believe it's going to be 2011) I'm going to try to do a little catching up. The week before Christmas we had all of Speed Racer's side of the family over for dinner and presents.  It was the first time since we really got a lot of work done on the house that everyone had been there at once.

So we pulled out my Grandmother's china, decorated with cheer, and cooked a ham.

The day of was a bit of fiasco until everyone got there.  I had been having terrible headaches every night the week before that were keeping me up at night (more on that later).  I was tired, moving slow, and just downright not thinking.  I was feeling so bad at work that I knocked off a little early and came home to take a nap, knowing that I had plenty of time to put the ham in before people got there.

Oh what a lie that was.  In my tiredness I had misread the cook times, and there was not enough time for ham.  So, I ran back to the store...in the rain...and bought another, precooked, smaller ham.  As I started cooking everything became a disaster, the potatoes, the ham still wasn't cooking fast enough, things still had to be done...I was on the verge of giving up and going back to bed.  But who came to my rescue?  None other than my Speed Racer.

He kissed me.  Told me everything was going to work out, that the mash potatoes were bad but fixable...put on some Christmas music and got to work.  He ironed the table cloth, started the fire, and then helped me in the kitchen.  It was teamwork and just as people were arriving, we pulled a beautiful ham out of the oven.

Everyone started tearing into their presents, and the kitties were glad to play with all the paper.

It truly was a wonderful evening.  I love having family and friends in this house, it brings me complete joy and reminded me that this is what Christmas is all about.

While Visions of Sugar Plums...

Last week my good ol' pal Stephanie and I did some Christmas baking.  It was such a great time!  We baked, we mixed...we washed lots of dishes. My messy kitchen...

Wonderful peanut butter fudge.  Mmmm.  We accidentally forgot to check how much the recipe made, so we doubled it.  And we made 6 lbs...you heard me 6lbs of peanut butter fudge.  If you need a fudge fix, stop by my house.

Stephanie working away.

These cheesecake cookies are fantastic, like unbelievable!

Cashew Brittle!

What's that Stephanie?  Your apron is amazing and it's only been 6 hrs since we started cooking?  Whew.  I need some peanut butter fudge.

The Twin

Two weekends ago, I went home for a busy weekend away.  While I was there I teamed up with my wonderful friend The Twin.  She wanted some lovely portraits done, so we headed to the river and had a grand ole time.  I even stepped in for a couple cameo shots with my best bud.  The Twin and I have been friends for a long time, so it really meant a lot to me to be able to do some portraits for her.  And here is the end result.  Happy viewing!

Independence Day

I spent a great 4th of July weekend with my family first at our cabin and then enjoying some in town festivities.  I ran into some friends as well and just thoroughly enjoyed myself.  It's always hard going home because there are so many people to see!  Sadly I was absent Speed Racer, but he was busy with his own tale (more on that later).  I am however, still out and about on my travels so this is going to be another quick post.  But here are a few pictures of the 4th festivities to give you an idea of all the fun we had.

The Boys Are Back in Town

So that title isn't completely accurate, the boys were back in town and have now left again, is a little better.  While I was catching up on girl talk and celebrating Father's Day, Speed Racer was out having a "Boys Only" weekend.  There was canoeing, there were guns, there was mockery, and there was laughter...sounded like an overall good time.  Wish I could have stuck around a little bit longer before they kicked me out, I love being one of the guys, but alas, they needed to talk man talk.  But here are some pictures I snapped before I left. Obviously you know Speed Racer...

Mr. B...

The Preacher...

Gumby...

And hiding back there is Mr. Hokie.

After a crazy weekend, we high tailed it back to Knoxville.  But before Mr. B left the next morning we got a chance to show him Norris.

All in all it was a fabulous weekend!  It was great to see so many old friends, both Speed Racer and I miss them a lot.