More Wife Practice...

Well, I did it again. I cooked another really good meal! Again, for most people cooking may be just an every day mundane task, and isn't really blog-worthy. But for me? It's an achievement to be celebrated! This time I made what I like to call "ass-kickin' chicken". (Sorry mom, but when it's that good, you just have to call it that.) I also made my green beans with the secret two ingredients, and some regular 'ole corn. Logan is so great to cook for because he always cleans his plate. I just love that boy.

"Dear McKinney High School, how we love you so...."

That's right! That's the beginning of my high school song. I can't believe we had our 10 year high school reunion. I really can't believe I'm that old. I remember thinking 28 year olds were definitely "grown-ups"... and now that I'm there I still feel like a kid.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun at the reunion. Logan and I met some of the old gang at Ryan and Rachel's house beforehand to catch up and look at old pictures from high school. The above picture is of: me, Rachel (Davis) Pittman, Shevin White, Shara Johnson, Marcy (Maxwell) Gloeckler, Lori (Drake) Eason and Jacqueline (Lenart) Flesher.

Next is Logan with Philip Flesher, Ryan Pittman and Anthony Bouhousin right before we left for the reunion.

In typical Logan fashion, he just HAD to do something right before the picture was snapped. (This one I actually liked. Makes me laugh. And yes, I do believe he's licking my face.)

And here's the good one. He's so handsome!

Rachel and me.

Marcy and Geoff.

Lori... and the picture she may or may not have stolen... (Shhhh...)

Ryan and Rachel.

Jacqueline and Philip.

Shara and me!Jacqueline and me!The reunion itself was fun. The best part was all the people watching; seeing how the jocks that used to be "THE hottest guys ever" have become the bald and beer bellied men you avoid at the bar, and the band nerds grew into themselves and became handsome and successful men (and women).

It was held at Rick's Steak and Chop House in downtown McKinney, so I was really excited about getting to have steak for dinner. I mean, for $75 per ticket, you naturally wouldn't expect anything less, right? Wrong. They served cheese and crackers. Eventually they brought out some "do it yourself" tacos, but they definitely weren't $75 worth. In order to make up for the lack of steak, I totally ate my weight in cheese. And probably a little of Logan's weight too. I have to admit, downtown McKinney is a bustling little place! It's always been cute, but now they've brought in several cute restaurants that have outdoor patio seating, and wine bars. It has a totally different feel to it than when I lived there. Dare I say I'd like to go back and visit??

Bye-Bye Birdfeeder...

Well, it looks like I'll have to say goodbye to the birdfeeder. I actually really enjoyed having it. I got to watch the birds up close, and I felt like I was doing something good by feeding them. (Who says there's no such thing as a free lunch??) Alas, I guess all good things must come to an end. The birdfeeder got a little out of control...

Exhibit A: The back porch belonging to the mean old man (aka my neighbor) who lives below me. Apparently birds are quite messy eaters. I have no idea how this is even possible, but there were birdseeds literally covering his back porch and grill. Exhibit B: The squirrels began eating the deck. I wanted to feed the birds, yes. But feed the squirrels? No. They started coming in droves and eating the dropped seeds off the deck, which I was not happy about, but could live with. Then they started eating the actual deck. Not okay guys.

The squirrels left their nasty footprints on my incredibly dusty grill. (Haven't used the grill since I moved in.) The dust alone isn't cool, but nasty squirrel footprints are even worse. Before taking it down, I had to get some pictures of the birds coming to eat.

Some little guys eating the seeds the bigger birds dropped... probably before they took the mouthfulls down to my old man neighbor's porch.

Exhibit C: The ridiculous number of birds that began visiting the feeder. I couldn't get close enough without scaring them away, so you can't really see that there were 4 birds on the feeder, 3 birds on the porch, and another 3 waiting their turn in the tree... ...That is until a huge blue bird scared some of them away. (Wish he worked on the squirrels.)

Exhibit D: Nasty squirrel caught in the act! Squirrels are rodents. They are disgusting. I totally agree with Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and the City when she says: "You can't be friends with a squirrel! A squirrel is just a rat with a cuter outfit." Amen, sister!

Seriously? The number of wild animals on my back porch began to feel a bit Noah's Ark-ish. Not to worry. I can train my big mean guard dog to bark at the squirrels and scare them away, right?

Wrong. Lucy couldn't care less about the rodents overtaking her patio. I even gave her the "watch" command. All she did was turn her head, look at the squirrel, sigh, and lay her head back down. Way to go, Luc.

All of this to say, the birdfeeder had to go. It will soon be enjoying its new home on my parent's back porch where there is no wooden deck for the squirrels to eat, and no mean old man living below them spoiling their fun. Enjoy it, mom and dad.

Next purchase? A hummingbird feeder.

I'm a cooker!

As we all know, I do not cook. Its not necessarily that I'm bad at it, I just haven't ever really tried because I don't know what to do. I don't know what goes with what, or which spices you're supposed to use, and I'm always afraid the meat will be undercooked and everyone will get salmonella poisoning.

Last week I decided that if I'm old enough to be getting married, its time for me to learn how to cook. In 9 short months I'll have a real live husband to feed, so I better start practicing! So Logan and I bought a crock-pot, and I've been cooking up a storm ever since!

The first thing I cooked was an orange pork roast. Since I was breaking in the crock-pot, I decided to take pictures along the way. (Well, and to prove to the nay-sayers that I actually did cook!) So here's the roast in the crock-pot, sitting on top of the onions and covered with the maranade ready to be cooked. This little genius invention is what made my meal taste like it was made by a gourmet chef. My crock-pot is my new best friend.

Here it is... ready to serve! It might not look that great, but the taste was wonderful. Logan said it tasted like something he'd eat at a really nice restaurant. I know you're thinking "He has to say that!", but I took leftovers to work and let several people try it. They all had similar reactions. Here is the final product. The roast was so tender that it was literally falling apart. I understand this to be a good thing. I'm still working on learning how to fix more sides other than the regular green beans and corn, but for my first time, I think it turned out well! Since the orange pork roast went over so well, I tried another new recipe. This one was lemon chicken. I really stepped it up a notch this time because I had to brown the chicken before putting it in the crock-pot. (Is it sad that I had to google how to brown chicken? Don't answer that.) Here's the browned chicken, ready to start cooking.

Feeling confident, I also made up my own salad. (I realize this isn't rocket science, but it's baby steps, people!) I got spinach leaves, cut up strawberries and kiwis and used a light rasberry vinagerette dressing. Turned out good!Ready to eat! I stepped out of my green bean comfort zone and this time made broccoli with a little parmasean cheese sprinkled on top. This meal was really good too, but the orange roast is still my favorite.

Surprisingly, I'm really enjoying cooking. And you know what? No one got salmonella poisoning either! I love how easy the crock-pot makes things. My plan is to gain more confidence with the crock-pot, and then move on to... the oven! Stay tuned...

We Have A String Quartet!

String Quartet? Check! I'm really excited about this one. I've been to weddings before where the thing I remembered most about the string quartet was how out of tune they were, so I really wanted to make sure we found a good one. I came across Forte Strings and was so impressed with their sound! All four of them are members of symphony orchestras, one studied at Juilliard, and one has performed for Yo-Yo Ma. (And we all remember how much I love Yo-Yo Ma, right?) Three of the members also graduated from TCU, which doesn't necessarily make them amazing musicians, but it makes them fellow Horned Frogs, which is almost just as good in my book.

If you're interested in hearing music samples by them, here is the link:

http://www.fortestrings.com/musicsamples.html

Next big project on the list? To decide on a caterer... one that will feed the masses and not leave us poor and living in a cardboard box after we pay the bill.

Happy 4th of July!!

This year I spent July 4th out in the country at Fern and Chris' house with Mike, Leanne and some other friends. I wasn't able to go to the lake with Logan because I had planned to buy my wedding dress with my mom and Logan's mom the day after they left for the lake. (After visiting every wedding dress botique in a 40 mile radius, I found THE dress. It's beautiful, of course! Can't post pictures though -- you'll have to wait until April to see it!)

Anyway, on the way to Fern and Chris' house we stopped to buy fireworks at this huge fireworks stand. I bought what I thought at the time were the "big" ones... until I got to Fern and Chris' house and saw the TWO tables of fireworks they had. (I still liked mine though.) :)

After buying the fireworks, we passed this strange thing. I think it's a lady - but he/she definitely wasn't wearing a bra. And he/she had some sort of green stuffed animal standing up on the back of her motorcycle. Weird.

Table 1 of all the fireworks we had. And table 2. Ridiculous, right??

Chris is known for his ability to cook amazing meats. He has his own big smoker in the backyard. We had at least 2 different types of sausage, chicken, and beef. I'm pretty sure we all had the meat sweats. Here's Stevo and me enjoying the food.

Turns out my camera has a "fireworks" setting, so I took some really great pictures of our fireworks. The neighbors would shoot off one at a time, but we had "professional" guys doing ours, and they'd all get together and light several at once. Safe? Probably not. An amazing fireworks display? Absolutely!

Leanne loves palm trees, so she was super excited when she found Palm Tree fireworks.

Fern and Chris.

So when the boys were busy setting up the next round of fireworks, we got creative with sparklers and the fireworks setting on my camera. We took turns spelling out stuff with sparklers! (Don't knock it 'till you try it.) I had Mike make a heart so I could send the picture to Logan. Mike wasn't happy about this, but he did it anyway. :) After all the fireworks were finished, we had ice cream (and beer) for dessert. Apparently Mike slept.

I had a fantastic time! I hope everyone else had a good 4th too!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I'm so far behind on my blogging! For a couple of weeks there it seemed like every day I had off from work was spent doing wedding stuff! Fun, but exhausting.

So this year we played the birthday thing low key. Logan and I hadn't been to Margarita Ranch in about a year - actually since my 27th birthday. (This place's margaritas and queso were the catalyst for us joining Weight Watchers last year, so we've had to attempt to erase it from our memory.) But since it was a special occasion, we met my parents, Mamaw, and Ross and Jessica there for dinner.

After dinner the waitors brought me cake and sang happy birthday to me. Not sure why Logan has such a mischevious grin in this picture, but it's cute anyway. :)My mom, Jessica and me. Sweet Mamaw was able to come! I love this woman! (She's so tiny!)So at first I thought this gift from my parents was really random. They got me a bird feeder for my back porch. Turns out, I love the thing! I've really enjoyed watching the birds come and eat. The squirrels pick up the scraps the birds drop on the deck, but I've seen some really pretty red birds and blue birds chowing down out there. Good gift guys!Ross and Jess!The next weekend, Mike and Leanne had Logan and I over for a homecooked dinner. Leanne is an AMAZING cook. Anytime she offers to cook something, I'm there. (Not to help of course - to eat! I have no idea what I'm doing in the kitchen.) Anyway, she made pulled pork tacos and they were fabulous. For appetizers she made bacon wrapped jalapenos stuffed with cheese. Best part of all - they were fat free since it was my birthday. (Calories don't count then, right?)I had a great birthday this year! Thanks to my parents for the Margarita Ranch dinner, and to Mike and Leanne for having us over - again. :) (I bought a crock pot yesterday, so you'll be getting an invitation for dinner soon. Maybe I can return the favor and cook you guys something good?)