A little pinspiration for your day

Pinned- Flower wall art

                                                                     Source: itsdoable.squarespace.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Mine:

   Sponsored by the paint departments of Home Depots across America

Pinned- Owl stuffed animal

                                                              Source: ashbyfamilyblog.blogspot.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Mine:

Made in my sewing class with Anna and Jill

(Found while perusing Pinterest and presented in honor of my recent crock pot/bacon tragedy.)

            Source: wanelo.com via Autumn on Pinterest

Where's Norman when you need him?

Professional pictures from Katie's wedding have finally started appearing. I'm glad because I was about to start senting a few "what's taking you so long?" glares in the direction of the photographer.

 

This picture makes me so happy.

 

(You have to make it bigger to get the full effect.) 

 

It looks just like a picture Normal Rockwell would have painted.

 

I was making my signature fish/duck face because I try to hold on to a small amount of dignity when told to make a ridiculous face.

 

 



I'm too emotionally distraught over losing good bacon to think of a proper title

Well, yesterday was something of a kitchen disaster. Not a flooding like a few months ago, but a disaster nonetheless.

I decided to make a pot roast in the crock pot because 1) I registered for it therefor I should use it and 2) supper would be ready when I got home from the preschool. (For the record, I am not in preschool. I'm doing 300 hours there for my early childhood class. I wish I was exaggerating about the 300 hours part. I still have 292 hours left and feel like I'll be there until I'm 85.) 

(I'm going to say right now that if you don't like pictures of raw meat, especially sub par quality pictures of raw meat taken with a cell phone, now would be the best time to avert your eyes.)

I covered the meat in a variety of seasonings, poured in a can of beer and a cup of cooking wine, meticulously wrapped the whole thing in bacon, and topped it off with two bay leaves. It was nothing short of culinary perfection. Here it is in all it's pre-cooked glory. Pardon the photo quality. I'm no Pioneer Woman when it comes to photographing food. My skilz lie more in the food eating department.

Off I went to the preschool, so proud of myself for providing for my family the way Proverbs 31 says a wife should. Granted, Mrs. Proverbs 31 probably didn't use a crock pot what with living in Biblical times and all, but that's simply because it hadn't been invented yet.

My bubble burst when I came home hours later and discovered that the meat and vegetables were still cold.

The crock pot was broken. 

I was devastated. All that work! The seasonings! The bay leaves! THE BACON THAT WOULD NEVER BE EATEN.

So I did what the Proverbs 31 woman would have done- I texted Christopher and told him the supper ball was in his court. I washed my hands of the whole affair. And further more (since he's the one with meat and bacteria issues), he could have the honor of throwing the whole thing away.

In the end, we ended up eating pizza while sitting on the couch in our pajamas. I feel that's exactly what Mrs. Proverbs 31 would have done. Surely they had couches and pajamas in Biblical times.



the holiday abroad

We decided to take our Valentines celebration on the road this year by visiting the Parthenon in Greece.

Or perhaps it was the Parthenon in Nashville. The exact location is a mere technicality.

The earliest dinner reservation available that evening was 9:15, so we had plenty of time to kill. I spent more than a little of that time reading an article about Nashville's most eligible singles. In retrospect, Valentines Day may not have been the most romantic time I could have chosen to read that article.

We had a few pre-appetizers at a different restaurant before the main meal at the fancy restaurant because if you're going to travel all the way to Greece to celebrate true love, you might as well hit up all the restaurants. I kept Christopher entertained by telling him one of the world's most anticlimactic stories about the time I mixed up my purse with Jenn's. As I got to the punchline, "But I mean, OBVIOUSLY it was her purse because no one else was around at 5:30 in the morning," the waitress leaned over and said, "All the sketchy stuff happens at 5:30 in the morning."

Well. Had I known you were eavesdropping I would have prepared a better story.

(How many self-portraits can I include in one post?)

I realize this picture makes it look like we intended to pose with the white lamp over Christopher's shoulder. We did not. I was also unaware of the hair sticking straight up off my head. These are the types of problems you deal with when continually forced to take self portraits. Next Valentines I'll be sure to bring a pack of photographers with me when we spend the holiday in Paris.

Paris, Tennessee that is.

half this blog is about him so one more post won't make a difference

Christopher doesn't like when I write posts ALL about him.

Sometimes I do it anyway.

I love him even though he has strong opinions very contrary to my own about how meat should be thawed.

I love him even though the other day he was sick and kept insisting that the house was too cold. I felt like we were suddenly vacationing in the tropics and I hadn't packed the appropriate clothes.

I love him even though we have 402 books on the bookshelves, most of which (370 to be exact) have titles like this. In other words, they're books I would probably never buy. 

It's very obvious which of the remaining 32 books were my contributions to our library.



I love him so much that I'm always passing along interesting things I hear because I know he likes that kind of thing. Like that time I told him that studies have shown the more birthdays you have the longer you live.

Life with me is so educational.

I didn't get a picture of the men wearing helmets that made them look like martians

Friday night I put on my fancy dress and Christopher put on his fancy pants uniform* in preparation for one of my favorite Army events- the ball. 

*I use only the most proper terminology

My friend Scherrie was there with her husband Daniel. Scherrie is known in our house as my "replacement friend for when Jenn moves across the ocean." 



Her presence lifted some of the weight off Christopher's shoulders to engage in my fashion discussions about what other ladies thought appropriate to wear. Scherrie and I didn't get to sit at the same table, but that didn't stop me from running over to get her opinion on whether the centerpieces were from Pinterest. I don't have a good picture of them because Christopher doesn't like when I make a big deal about getting pictures during formal events. Something about protocol and behaving properly.

Speaking of taking pictures, a four star general gave the speech and I didn't get a picture of/with him. The more patches and pins a person has on their uniform the more likely I am to be impressed, and  he was the most impressive of them all. I was tempted to waltz up and tell him about the rabbit I had when I was young who was a four star general in the Bunny Corps, but that would probably be against protocol. It probably also have been considered weird.  

He wasn't the only general in attendance. General Bly the Eagle was also there.



It's not every day I attend a ball with my husband, a general with many stars AND a bald eagle.

 God bless America.

simply because I like the pictures...

...and because tomorrow I'll see Christopher for the first time in over a month!

Things have been pretty wild in his absence what with the shooting

and the unfortunate incident involving the cookies and the oven. 

 Not to mention that I've been hanging pictures and papers up on the refrigerator because if he's not here to see them, surely they can't bother him. (Right?)

I'm sure he'll be so delighted to see me that he won't pay any attention to the newly decorated appliance.

But just in case, I'm off to gaze at it one more time.

Jenn took the pictures. She makes cute children and takes Christmas pictures. Is there anything she can't do?

my midnight escape turned into a wild night which resulted in the filming of an exercise video

My weekend started off with a bang (which really is a TERRIBLE choice of words considering what I'm about to say) Thursday night when someone in our apartment complex was shot with a gun. I thought the gun part would be obvious, but when I was telling the story to Erika she said, "YOU MEAN SHOT WITH A GUN?!" I suppose it's possible it could have been a crossbow, but it wasn't. 

I had zero desire to spend the rest of the night at home alone after that, so I tossed a few things in a bag and prepared for a midnight escape to Hotel de Jenn. After I packed my bag I made the bed. Obviously it was not important for me to do that and I have no explanation for why I did except that I recall saying to myself, "I have to make sure the bed is neat in case the shooter comes in here." Because the most important thing to do when your life is in danger is ensure that people are impressed with your housekeeping skills. I'm surprised I didn't spend a few minutes cleaning the inside of the microwave.

The owner/operator/housekeeper at Hotel de Jenn is extremely generous and said I could stay as long as I want. Personally I think she was glad someone else was around to watch Sam's trash truck movie with him and pretend it was the most fascinating thing we'd ever seen. 

Molly spends a good deal of her life alternating between trying to eat Sam's food and crying to be picked up asking in a quiet and lady like voice to be held. In this picture she's wondering why Sam got to try coffee and she didn't. 

 

"Surely Mom isn't worried about coffee stunting my growth."

Without really meaning to, Jenn and I turned the second night of my stay into a wild party night. And by wild party night I mean we sat on the couch talking and consuming an impressive amount of chocolate and Jelly Bellies. I had the best time with her. I'm pretty sure it was one of the only times Jenn has voluntarily stayed up that late since she'd had children.

It has yet to be confirmed, but in a fit of unusual silliness (Serious and Dignified are our middle names) it's possible that we may have begun filming a vlog. 

And now that I've put the vlog secret out there I guess that means we'll have to finish it. 

for once I managed to write a post without 5000 extra words

I took a stained glass class last week and made this ladybug bumblebee bug.

The end.