Carmel Apples

Reason #254 we love Aunt Amy living with us....






Spontaneous Carmel Apples for no occasion at all. What are we going to do when she leaves us.

Thanksgiving Dinner

This year we decided to stay home for Thanksgiving. With me being in school it's really hard to go places when time off is so limited. Not to mention, finals are coming up. So I made all of Thanksgiving dinner by myself. I think this is a first. Things went okay except for leaving sugar out of the pumpkin pie and burning half of the rolls. Jesse smoked the turkey and it was fabulous. Best turkey I've ever had. Everything else was pretty standard food. We did miss everyone and almost jumped in the car to go see family. We decided to stay put and I was glad we did when I woke up this morning and remembered all I have to get done. I was so tired from cooking yesterday that I fell asleep at 7:00 pm and didn't wake up until 5am this morning. I decided to go out with the crazy Black Friday shoppers and try my luck. I got lots done so it was a good day. Now to get the Christmas stuff out of the attic.

Sydney made a centerpiece for the table. She designed a golden cornucopia and we filled the platter and cornucopia with cranberries and candles.

Sydney set the table and made everything look so beautiful.

Jesse's turkey masterpiece. And no, that's no real champagne. Katie had to have sparkling cider.

Ready to eat. Our friend Matt came over to celebrate with us.

Jack loves apple pie so we make one every year special for him. This year the kids helped peel the apples for me. They were a great help making dinner.

I finally found the perfect homemade cranberry sauce recipe.

Ingredients

* 1 cup sugar
* 1 cup water
* 1 (16-ounce) bag fresh cranberries
* 1/2 cup chopped apple
* 1/2 cup chopped pecans
* 1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
* 1/2 fresh lemon juice
* 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
* 1/2 teaspoon McCormickValencia orange peel



Directions

Combine the sugar and water in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the cranberries and return to a boil, then lower the heat so that the liquid simmers. Add the apples, pecans, orange and lemon juices, cinnamon, orange peel and nutmeg, and cook for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and let the sauce cool.

ASHA New Orleans

Last Wednesday, I drove to New Orleans with a group of girls from my graduate program. We went to the annual convention for Speech-Language Pathologists. It was so fun to go to my first national convention. There were SLP's everywhere!! While there, I was able to sit in several great sessions on various topics of interest to me. It's fun to learn without having to worry about the test at the end. Brings the joy back into learning. It was exciting to walk the exhibition hall and see all the booths set up hiring from all over the country, and some outside the country. But the best part of the weekend was the wonderful food. I love Cajun food and I ate it at every turn. We had a lot of fun. I hope to be able to go to Philadelphia next year for the next convention.
Out to dinner at a place called Deanie's. Excellent food.
Beignet's at Cafe Du Monde are a must when visiting New Orleans.
Here we are with one of the women famous to our clinic. Her name is Barbara Hodson and we have all used her therapy techniques. It was such an honor to meet her.
Out on the town the night Friday night.

A Season of Gratitude

I always feel the need to express gratitude during the season of Thanksgiving. I am feeling especially grateful today. It may be because the semester is ending or because Christmas is coming soon. Whatever the reason, I wanted to take a moment and jot down a few things I am grateful for. And these are in no particular order.

1. I am grateful for a nice home to shelter my family and keep us warm during these cold days.

2. I am grateful for a husband who comes home after a long day and helps with dinner, kids, and laundry on top of helping with various other people's needs at the same time. He never complains.

3. I am grateful for 3 happy, healthy children. The more I learn and the more I see, the more I count this as a true blessing.

4. I am so very grateful for my Sister-in-law Amy living with us right now. She is a calming presence in our home. I appreciate her love, support, encouragement, and endless modeling shows.

5. I am grateful for my education. I love to learn. I love knowing things. I love the opportunity I have to broaden horizons and expand the mind. Knowledge is empowering.

6. I am grateful for my wonderful friends. I have so many people who have an impact on my life in big and small ways. I am especially grateful to those friends who see me at my worst or who I have offended or hurt, being able to look past my flaws and imperfections and love me in spite of. These are the friends who see you through to the end. I love you all.

7. I am so grateful for my parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, nieces, nephews, etc., etc. I am so lucky to be a part of a family filled with so much love for everyone. We are a very blessed family!

8. I am grateful for my healthy body, free of aches and pains. I know they are coming soon enough, but today I am grateful that I have inherited great genes.

9. I am grateful that I still have my natural hair color and I haven't had to start coloring my hair to hide the gray.

10. I am the most grateful for my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ. What a gift to know we are not alone and never have to be.

Busy Bee

Katie came home from school Friday the proudest I think I have ever seen her. She won the honor of taking home the "Busy Bee" bag with her for the weekend. She received this honor by getting smiley faces everyday and she says because she told someone she liked their picture. Whatever the reason, this was a very special event for her. The busy bee is a hand puppet. He is in a book bag and the book bag contains a journal. We have to write down what we did with busy bee for the weekend and include pictures of things she did with busy bee. Katie carried that bag everywhere with her Friday and Saturday. Here are a few of the pictures from her adventure with busy bee.

Going Places

Last night we headed out to a place called Beaumont Ranch. You may remember from an earlier post I talked about Katie's field trip there. On Friday nights they have a live band and an all you can eat buffet with fried catfish and mexican food. I had to go back and try it out. We gathered up some adventurous friends and loaded up in the car and headed back to Grandview Texas to see if the place was any good. It's about a 30 minute drive and you kind of feel like you are driving nowhere until you turn onto the grounds of a beautiful ranch. The food and dance hall are kind of nestled in the back so you have to have an idea of where you are going or you would think you are in the wrong place. We got there about 7:30 starving to death. Everyone had saved up their appetite for this occasion. The buffet was very good. They served friend catfish, hushpuppies, french fries, and okra. The Mexican food part served fajita meat, rice, queso, green sauce and various other items. The food was actually very good. I was surprised how good it was. After we stuffed ourselves the kids went to jump in the bounce house or try their luck with the mechanical bull. Jesse, Katie, Sydney, and Amy all took a turn being thrown from the bull. Also, the band that was playing did a very nice job. I was thrilled when Jesse took me to the dancefloor for a dance. He doesn't like to dance so this is a great act of love and charity when he dances with me.

We had a very fun night hanging out with friends, eating good food, listening to good music. I will definitely be back in February when they start their buffet back up. We lucked out and went the last night they will be serving food for the next 2 months. Here's a link to the place if anyone wants more information. http://www.beaumontranch.com/facilities/barns/lone.html

7 Years and Counting

We finally were able to celebrate our 7th anniversary this past weekend. We decided to take a trip to Tyler and stay in a B&B. Jesse made reservations at a beautiful place called the Woldert-Spence Bed and Breakfast. It was a nice place run by a very sweet couple. It was so fun to get away for the night. While in Tyler we had lunch with Sam and Annette. Sam is one of Jesse's closest friends from his youth. They met us up for lunch and we had a great time catching up. They seem to be doing well. That night we went to dinner at a place called Villa Montez. The food was wonderful. The restaurant is in a beautiful, huge old house set on a hill. One of the prettiest restaurants I've ever been to. In the morning we were served a fabulous breakfast by our hosts. We sat in the dining room with other tenants of the B&B and had fun meeting others while eating together. I love the B&B experience because it's such a personal setting. The owners call you by name and love to talk with you. The other tenants are placed in a situation where we talk like familiars even though it's the only time you've seen each other and probably will ever see each other. It's unique and I really enjoy them. These are just a few of the pictures of the grounds and the house. I hope we can return soon.

Beaumont Ranch

Katie's school took a field trip to Beaumont Ranch today. This place was fabulous. She had a wonderful time doing all sorts of fun things. Here are a few pictures of the various activities they participated in.
Sack races



3-legged race with Mikinlee

Tug-o-war




She learned to rope!

50's Day

At Katie and Jack's school they had 50's day. They all got to dress in 1950's clothes. I thought Katie looked pretty authentic.

Katie reading with a friend in the floor.

Jack Turns 11

Need I say more?

Halloween

This year the kids were a black cat, one of the Voluturi, and Vladimir Todd. Only one of the three was not a character in a book. I think that's pretty awesome.