Praying for Stellan

Praying for Stelllan and his family right now. http://www.mycharmingkids.net/
Stellan is in surgery for a life saving procedure. Praying Praying Praying

The Death Star and Pumpkins

Well I know you are thinking.."The Death Star and Pumpkins"? what on earth??? Well those were our weekend events!!

Friday night we went to see Star Wars in Concert at Cowboys Stadium (aka The Death Star). A full orchestra played the music from all the movies while clips from the films flashed across the very large screens. It was quite an event! There were also movie props stationed around the stadium for the fans to check out. Many of the items had never before left Skywalker Ranch (George Lucas' homestead). The original manuscript for some of the music was on display and it was quite amazing.

Here are some pictures from the night! We had a great time and my amazing, Star Wars obsessed husband really enjoyed the show.

Here is Cowboy Stadium

This is Lord Vader of the Dark Side.

Anthony Daniels (C-3PO) narrated the evening.

I have on my Chewbacca tee and Brian is wearing his Emperial shirt.

And since we were already up passed our bedtime AND hungry, we ended up at Denny's. I have now decided that I much prefer Denny's over IHOP. Maybe it had something to do with the Pancake Puppies they serve. Like hushpuppies, except not cornmeal, pancake batter!! There's a picture below of those also!! I think those should be the next fried delicacy at the Texas State Fair in 2010!!

Pancake Puppies, rolled in cinammon sugar served with syrup!

Here is Brian waiting for his coffee.

Now on to the Pumpkins!! Threes years ago Brian and I began our tradition of carving pumpkins for Halloween. Usually the weekend before Halloween we make a trip to the store to select 2 perfect specimens to carve up. Here you can see our 2007 creations and here you can view the 2008 creations.

State Fair and Fried Food...It Must Be Fall!!

So its fall in Texas and one our favorite times of the year. It isn't because of the weather, because that changes daily. It isn't because of the beautiful fall foliage because pine trees just turn brown. It isn't because of football...oh wait..maybe that is one of the reasons! But one of our favorite Fall Things is the Texas State Fair.







Here you see our first stop once entering the fair grounds. THE Fletcher's Corny Dog stand. 2 dogs, 1 of which is slathered in mustard (that would be mined) and then around the corner to grab an ice cold root beer.


Here we are a few bites in!! Perfect photo op!













Charity..this dog was for you!!! I only ate one..but I thought of you with every bite! I know I was suppose to eat 7 in honor of all my friends that couldn't go and one unborn babe...but I don't believe I could have made it to the car!





Oh but I do believe every bite would have been amazing.

Here's Brian and Bumblebee. I can't keep my man out of the hot rods!! Guess we'll have to get him one!


Here's the one I would pick!


Now on to the 2nd course of our Fried meal!! Tornado Twisters!! I can't turn down a potato EVER...and these are amazing!!!

Now this is decadent!!! Each year we each get something Fried & Sweet. Brian always picks the traditional funnel cake. Me, I like to walk on the wild side. Meet the Fried Peanut Butter Cup Macaroon!! OH MY!!! Yes you heard me right!!! Here is the fresh, hot fried delicacy!

Here it is with a few bites gone!! See the lucious peanut butter and chocolate!! and then that sweet oozy layer of coconut heaven!!!! It was worth EVERY bite!!
And as I say each year..I am glad we only do this ONCE a year!! This was Brian and my sixth year to go to the fair, a tradition we began the first fall we were dating! Good stuff!!

Birthday Time!

This past Monday was Brian's 36th birthday. We celebrated all weekend long until Monday evening. Now don't get any crazy ideas about our celebrating, it was all relatively calm! :-)


Saturday we got to have lunch with Rich and his dad. They were in town to see the Arkansas Razorbacks play A & M at the new Cowboy Stadium. Rich is an old friend from college days. Now having lunch with these guys didn't have anything really to do with Brian's actual birthday but it was part of our weekend and its always a good thing to hang with a good friend.


Saturday night we went to see our DALLAS STARS in their Home Opener. Great game! Too bad we lost. But Brian and I never miss the chance to watch some hockey.





Sunday after church we went to see a double feature, Toy Story 1 & 2 in 3-D. Very cool, very fun. We were the only adults in the theater that didn't have a child attached to them. Oh and the 3-D glasses were quite the trendy look! We were channeling Harry Carey.






Sunday night I baked part 1 of Brian's birthday cake. A delicious Tres Leches cake was in the works and by Monday evening it did not disappoint!





Monday was B's actual birthday and after a long day at work we had dinner at Red Robin. My husband can never turn down a good burger. I had invited friends over to share in our celebration and in the cake!

A great time of celebrating the wonderful man I am blessed to be married to.

Did you know?

Did you know that Butternut Squash can cause Contact Dermatitis? See I had never had butternut squash before and a friend was recently telling me about how she prepares it. Well it sounded simply divine so I picked up a beautiful specimen at Sprouts this week. Brian grilled a couple of steaks out on the balcony and I went to work on the side items. Asparagus and butternut squash were on the menu.

I sliced open the squash, cleaned out the seeds, oiled up the cut side, placed it on a cookie sheet and into the oven it went. I cleaned my knife, put the cutting board in the sink and went to the computer to check email, since the cook time is around 50 minutes. As I began clicking around I noticed that my finger tips on my left hand and part of my palm began to feel really tight. The skin in those areas began to smooth over and continued feeling tight. I went to the bathroom and washed my hands thoroughly thinking that I simply did not wash off all the squash juices. Returning to my chair and resuming my web surfing I noticed the tight feeling was not changing but getting worse.

Now at this point I was beginning to worry. I have never touched or eaten butternut squash before and my initial experience here is not starting off well. Well since I happen to be sitting at my computer and we know that the internet has every answer, I fired up the browser and a surfin' I went. I found THIS webpage and learned about the Contact Dermatitis.

Now I have no idea how common this issue is but since I only got a few hits on my search I am thinking I fall into the "rare" column on this one.

So what is the treatment? Wash hands (area) thoroughly and treat with a little cortisone cream. So I did that very thing and my fingertips seem to be on the mend. They no longer feel tight but they do look a little flaky. Ick. I know.

Now what else did I learn from this new endeavor? I LOVE butternut squash!! It was really delicious and super easy to prepare. So add one to the Veggie column!! And since its officially Fall I should have no shortage of my new squashy friend!

Here's how I prepared it.

1 Butternut Squash
Olive Oil
Butter
Cinnamon
Salt
Pepper

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with no-stick spray OR cover a cookie sheet in foil for easier cleanup (I will be doing this next time)

Wash squash. Dry squash. Cut squash in half lengthwise. Hint: start in the middle and cut down, turn squash, start from center again and cut the other half

Clean out the seeds and stringy part. (much like a pumpkin)
Now coat cut sides with olive oil and place face down on prepared cookie sheet.

Bake for 45-55 minutes until done. You can easily poke with a fork when done.

Now scrape the pulp out of the shell and place in bowl. Add butter, cinnamon, salt and pepper to taste.

Amazing!!!

Oh..and use gloves if you don't wanna take a chance of being weird, and now scaly, like me!

Bad Blogger...Bad Blogger!!

Well as you can tell..I have not blogged in a couple of weeks. School has started and is off to a very fast start. I have good classes even though they are large classes. I think my largest class has 28 and my smallest has 12. I am currently caught up on grading papers but that won't last with tomorrow's quiz. This year I am pleased to say that I am ONLY teaching. What do I mean by that you ask?

Well I have been at the high school for 11 years now and for the past 9 I have had an additional duty or responsibility. Everything from cheerleading, committee work, Renaissance to club sponsor...I have done it all. Last year I made the decision to reduce my work load and my stress level so I passed on Renaissance to another teacher. Six years was quite enough.

I am enjoying just teaching and trying to spread my wings a bit more with being creative and reenergized in the classroom. We also were blessed with a new language lab last year and after spending a year figuring out the system I am ready to get creative!

Brian and I have also been looking for a new Bible Fellowship (Sunday school) class at church. Back in the spring we both knew we had heard clearly from the Lord that our time as class directors had come to an end. We were blessed to be a part of the Truth class for over 3 years and we have so many wonderful friends as a result of being a part of that class.

This summer we have visited lots of classes at church and met tons of amazing people and heard the Lord speak in all of the lessons we heard. Recently we really felt good about a particular class and I think we will visit again this weekend. We are anxious to get settled into a class and get busy serving but at the same time we don't want to force anything. We truly just want to be lead by the Lord for our next place.

The weather has made an abrubt turnabout! As I sit here typing the balcony door is open and we feel the most pleasant breeze. The rain has kissed the earth this evening and it feels wonderful!! I sure hope that this glimpse of fall does not depart any time soon! Its September and in Texas that usually still means hot and humid! But for today I will be greatful!

I do hope the rain holds off come Saturday evening because we have tickets to the Brad Paisley concert at the Superpages.com Center down near Fair Park. We have lawn seats so kinda hoping the weather will be lovely!!

Hope this finds you doing well. I promise not to be gone so long next time.
Actually I have a post about "Going Green" I have been thinking about. Maybe that will be next!

My BFF came to play!

KP came to visit a couple of weeks ago. We had a great weekend, laughed a lot and got our toes done!!

Here are some pics from our weekend.

The shopper's are done for the day!