The Kitty Update!

Well we still have the kitty.  We can't decide whether to keep it or not.  I told Brad if we go into the weekend with this kitten it's going to be a keeper.  Because there's no way we are going to be able to give it up after spending an entire weekend with it.  Our focus is just different during the weekend.  We're home more and we'll be spending lots of time with her.

Brad got a little panicky about whether or not it is for sure a girl. He doesn't want to deal with a boy cat. We've read up on how to determine male or female on such a young kitten.  We also watched a youtube video and an employee at Petsmart said it's a girl as well. LOL!  Yes, it's that hard to tell if kitty's are male or female! 

Cody and the kitten are hilarious together!  There is no doubt in my mind Cody would have been a good pug daddy if given the opportunity!  Someone depraved him of that opportunity!  No clue who that was!

He loves watching her.  He even helps me keep track of her.  Today she got out of where she was supposed to be,  Cody soon came over to me to tell me the cat had escaped.  Then she appeared a few steps behind him. 

As for Simon....oh geez! He could careless!  They are complete opposites!  We have to watch Simon closely because he's like a bull in a china shop!  He knocks her over and doesn't even realize.  Cody on the other hand is more aware and you can tell he worries about hurting her accidentally.  He's a sweet boy!

Brad and I were tossing out names a few moments ago.  He mentioned the name Mufasa.  I quickly vetoed it by saying, "I'm not sitting in the vet office with a cat named Mufasa!".  He was only joking of course.  But my response made him bust out in laughter!  That's the thing you have to think about...that name being called in the vet office.  I'm not sitting there with Battleship, or Cottontail, or an Ursula.  Yuk!  It needs to be fitting, cute, and it has to go with Cody and Simon.  So it'll most likely be a REAL name!  Because that's what I like!  Here's the tricky part though I'm now much more aware of not using a name we might want for a kid.  Possibly a bit of an off kilter name that I wouldn't quite have enough confidence in to use for a human baby! That's of course assume we keep her.

We'll see what happens!  Hopefully, we'll make our final decision tomorrow.  Brad is currently "bonding" with her.  He's chatting with her as she sits on his shoulder.  Cute!

One Week To Go!

A week from today my mom hits town!  Let the countdown begin! She was supposed to be here for Halloween however the baby shower then came about.  I asked her if she would prefer to see more of Brad's family during her visit, which she thought sounded fun.  We then decided to postpone her trip a week so she could be here for the baby shower.

Should be a fun visit!  We look forward to seeing her.  I have some things planned for us during the daytime.  She'll be staying for a record long amount of days.....10 days!  The most she's ever stayed previously is 7.  We'll see how this goes!  ;)  I think it will great to have her here.

We always seem to run out of time for everything we want to do.  Maybe this time that won't happen.  Plus it will be nice to have her here closer to the holiday season.  I've been wanting her to come at a different time of the year then when she's timed her previous visits.  Last year of course she snuck in a few extra trips here, however, every trip revolved around our wedding so the focus was different. 

Cody is hopeful for a new toy and some chicken chips when his grammie arrives!  Simon just cares about the chicken chips!  Forget the toy! 

Happy Halloween!

 

Happy Halloween from Bert and Ernie!  

Yes, folks, it's that time of the year again...the boys have to suffer through being humiliated by wearing costumes.  Just kidding, I'm convinced they don't mind!  They don't know any different.  It's been happening to them for years now!  Simon came right over to be dressed in his costume. 

These costumes seemed perfect for the boys when we saw them at Petsmart.  I loved Bert and Ernie as a kid!  I had an Ernie tote bag that went everywhere with me, it carried my coloring books and crayons!  LOL! I felt Cody should be Bert because I've always assumed Bert to be older than Ernie!  They both looked cute as can be!  But I'm biased!

I also included some pics below of when Brad and I went to a costume party this month.  He was a vampire and I was a butterfly.  We had fun at the party and dressing up was fun too! 

As for tonight's Halloween entertainment...we're watching football! NFL is up first then it's my Sun Devils!  Of course they would pick the Sun Devils to play on Halloween!  Brad says they should have made them play Duke!  Sun Devils vs. Blue Devils in that case.  We're also going to try to sneak in The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.  I mentioned I wanted to watch that this year even though it's a kid thing...and a few days later Brad brought a copy of it home! I was super excited! Doesn't take much to excite me 95% of the time! ;)  Maybe it can become an annual view!  We have a few annual views at different times of the year in this household!  I've always been like that with a few movies.  When I met Brad, he told me he had a couple movies he always makes sure he watches at certain times of the year.  LOL!  We watch Home Alone every Christmas.  And Independence Day near the 4th of July! There's other traditions too we have but I won't bore anyone.

Happy Halloween to all!  You know what the REAL meaning of Halloween is to me?....the marking of the holiday season drawing near!  Thanksgiving will be here before we know it.  Oh here's a short story to end with, I went to the store yesterday to get a few decorating items for Halloween baking....I couldn't find anything Halloween, everything had been changed to Christmas! 

This was taken while I was on the hunt for my butterfly costume!

 

 

The boys wearing my butterfly antennas!  I caught them when they were quite sleepy on a Sunday afternoon!  So they didn't put up a fight at all!

Guess What?

Well it was late in the afternoon, not  much of the work day left when my husband texted me that he had found a newborn kitten.  He asked what I thought he should do?  I said, "bring it home if you want!"  We sent a few more texts back and forth as we discussed options concerning the kitten.

He did mention in one text he might put it back in case a momma cat might be looking for it. However, I was fairly certain a baby kitten was going to accompany Brad home.  I was right!  In the door he came tonight with a very tiny kitten in a box.  We were worried about fleas and how we were going to feed it so a trip to Petsmart was a must before dinner.  We did however, take a few moments to look up online how to figure out if it was a boy or a girl.  After that our guess was a girl.  We soon left for Petsmart carrying the kitten along with us in a box.

The Petsmart employees pointed us in the right direction for all the necessities to take care of a kitten this small.  It was also confirmed the kitten is a girl!  We bought bottles and kitten milk. As for the flea concern we were told to bathe her in Dawn because she's too young for flea meds.

As soon as we got home Brad bathed her in a sudsy sink full of Dawn.  She looked super cute all suds up!  Meanwhile I prepared her bottle. Which was a bit tricky as I couldn't figure out how to get the nipple on the bottle started. The one area I messed up with was warming the milk.  I didn't do that!  She didn't seem to mind!

Whether or not we'll be keeping her is yet to be determined!  Brad is unsure he wants another cat.  I think it's very tempting for him but when he thinks about the bigger picture is when it doesn't seem like such a great idea.  We'll see!  I told Brad it's strictly his decision!  I'm all in if he wants to keep her and I'm supportive if he decides he doesn't want to.  We did get info while at Petsmart on an organization that will take her should we decide to not keep her.

She's very pretty.  Has great markings.  And as Brad already mentioned she matches with the boys.  Her coloring is a combo of Cody and Simon.  She's actually closer to Simon's coloring overall.  Lot's of dark gray and some black mixed in with white feet like Cody!   

Since she's about 3 to 4 weeks old, that means she was born right around my birthday.  That's kind of cool!  While at Petsmart a customer passing by said cats choose their owners.  They simply seem to find a good owner.  Which is exactly how Brad has gotten a few of his cats over the years.  He just found them as babies.  This is the second baby kitten he's found in the last four months.  A coworker of his took the first one.  Is a higher power trying to make us see we're destine to be cat parents again or what?  I must admit I'm already thinking of names!

Ring, Ring....2000 is Calling!

Brad's cell phone broke about 2 weeks ago.  The thing just got to the point where it wouldn't stay on any longer.  He thought he was at the end of his contract, but he isn't, not until December.  We went to his cell phone provider to inquire about getting a new phone.  However, he wasn't impressed with his carriers new way of doing things.  You are basically "leasing" a phone.  He wasn't liking that idea at all.  But he doesn't like the idea of spending big bucks on a phone either.

The decision he made was to hold off.  He searched and searched thru old boxes in our storage areas until he found an old phone of his.  He's kept his last 3 phones.  Boy, I can't say that!  The only one of the 3 he could find was a flip phone. LOL!  When he first discovered it packed away and showed me, I couldn't help but laugh.  This phone looks like a joke!  Phones have come a long way in the last 10 or so years!  Believe me!  This flip phone looks so out of place in today's world.  It's super small and it's material feels anything but durable.  It's light weight to compared to any smartphone.  While he was toting around his flip-phone a coworker of his mistook it for a toy!  The flip-phone has dancing lights on it when it rings.  Which was cracking me up! As for it's ring tones....don't even get me started.  Geez!  Sounds like it's trying to reconnect with it's mother ship.

It's been quite the joke in our household.  As Brad calls people he quickly explains he's on his "flip-phone".  He tries so hard to make it sound COOL!  It's hilarious!  Oh honey!  I've busted out laughing numerous times at him.  After quite a few days he couldn't handle the embarrassment of using the toy looking flip-phone so he continued searching until he located his phone he used before he upgraded to a smartphone.  Now he's using a slide-out keyboard phone!  Which means he can text again.  The flip-phone was from pre-texting days.  

His plan was to wait until December, then shop around at different phone carriers....but he couldn't take it any longer.  He found a moderately priced smartphone through his cell phone provider and ordered it online.  It should arrive some time next week. If it was me, I wouldn't have been as patient as he has been.  Kudos to him!  I told him I would've replaced mine right away!  Which is true!  Surprisingly though he was the first one to upgrade to a smartphone.  I drug my feet about it!  I didn't know if I'd make use of enough of it's features.  If I had to go backwards like he has done for the last 2 weeks, it would be bad news!  Downgrading is much harder than upgrading!

Honey, the year 2000 called and it wants it's flip-phone back! LOL!

9.7

We rate movies after watching them.  Each movie we watch at the conclusion we turn to one another expecting the other person's personal rating.  We rate on a scale of 1 to 10.  We get pretty specific about it too. 

Finally we saw a movie this year that has been ranked by both of us to be as close to 10 as I expect any movie this year to get in our system!  This past weekend we had a movie outing with my in-laws. We went to the Imax.  Which believe me any movie is better in an Imax theatre.  Imax definitely adds a little something special just as 3D does.

It was a Saturday night that we went.  One thing about going to a movie in the Imax on the weekend, you need to get there early to get a good seat.  We messed up on that part.  We had to all sit on the very front row.  I think it was safe to say we were all disappointed we had to sit in the front row.  However after about 5 maybe 10  minutes it was a happy accident in my opinion.  It was a view like no other.  The movie we saw was called Gravity with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney.  It's completely set in space.  Extremely impressive.  The cinematography is incredible, it was almost like watching a documentary on space yet it was a movie with a plot.  It's a definite "must-see" in my opinion.  However, I think for the full effect you need to see it in an Imax or at least in 3D.  The movie itself was good.  Interesting plot, good acting, and like I said the images were like nothing else you can see in any other movie released this year! 

When we came away from the movie both of us agreed on a rating of 9.7!!  I told you, we get specific with our ratings.  The first 9.7 movie I think I've seen in ages.  We've had a few 9.0's this year but 9.7 is the highest for us this year!

Baseball, My Men, and Invitations!

We're sitting here watching the World Series.  We aren't extremely interested in it but we'll keep up.  We're both more for Boston than St. Louis.  Nothing against St. Louis but they've won the pennant more recently than Boston. The Mavs are playing too so we'll be switching back and forth. 

It's been an interesting week so far.  Two of my three men have had some sort of an issue.  Brad has been struggling with a back injury.  I've been doing my best to take care of him.  Not sure I've done enough, but I sure have tried.  He's not the type to sit around too much though. I wish he'd just fully rest and dare I say it........use the HEATING PAD!  Bad boy!  Today Simon has been sick too.  Man, what a mess he's been!  Poor little Boo-Boo!

Note to Cody....LOOK OUT!  Don't step in a pothole. Don't get stung by a bee or wasp.  Don't sit on an ant hill.  Don't eat anything you know might make you sick.  Just stay clear of as much as possible!  You are the only man in this household that hasn't had an issue this week!  Keep it up, please!

As I briefly mentioned in a previous post, I'm hosting a baby shower in early November.  I finally got the invitations out today!  Geez!  I had so many issues trying to get those invitations done.  The actual invitation wasn't the problem.  It was the fact that I wanted to add a few things.  First I wanted to add a special "guest information" card that gave precise directions to get into our mid-rise apartment complex.  This is not an easy building to get into nor is it an easy apartment once inside the building to find.  I bought card stock, which is the card material they print greeting cards on, I wanted the guest info card to be durable not flimsy.  Well the card stock jammed my printer every time I tried to use it.  Then I wanted to make some cute return address labels to match with the baby shower.  I bought a program to do those labels.  But the program didn't match up with the type of labels I bought.  For anyone that has ever made their own return address labels most programs do an "autofill".  You only enter your address info once and all other labels are automatically filled in with that info.  The program I bought doesn't work like that.  I had to cut and paste from label to label.  Do you know how long that took for a sheet of labels?  TOO LONG! Then the labels as I mentioned before would not line up properly in my printer.  So it was a huge waste of time.  I felt so good today when I handed those invitations in at the post office.  What a relief! Those invites are out!  Did you know you aren't supposed to put invitations in the regular mailbox?  I learned that back at the time of our wedding.  Invitations of any kind are to be turned into a postal worker directly not put in a box. Interesting, huh?


Side Note:  As I mentioned in the previous post, I've been concerned about Simon's eyesight since he hasn't been eating the acorns.  Well I'm no longer too concerned about that.  I have seen him notice acorns then simply turn up his nose at them.  He's not an acorn loving dog anymore! 

Acorn Season!

Since moving to Dallas Simmie has been an acorn eating boy!  He discovered them in September of 2009 and he has looked forward to them each year since....I'm sure!  The previous place we lived in had acorn trees all over the place.  It seemed as though that particular neighborhood knew of only acorn trees to plant when it was first planned out. 

Simon acted as if he was a snow shovel, keeping his mouth wide open as I would walk him down the sidewalk.  He grazed from side to side scooping in as many acorns as he could!  He was such a "hound" for them(no pun intended) that I had to alter our route for a few months until the squirrels could collect them all.  Our old neighborhood was also filled with squirrels, which Cody seemed to enjoy seeing. 

Our new neighborhood lacks acorn trees!  Along with squirrels! We do have a lake which means we have more ducks and unique birds that love water.  There are some acorns but not the plethora Simon was used to.  I'm okay with that, believe me!  It's a good thing!  He was a mess with all those acorns around him!

However, the weirdest thing is that Simon doesn't seem interested in the acorns this year.  I've been worrying about his eyesight.  I was told about 18 months ago that Simon will most likely go blind in the future.  So naturally since he hasn't seemed interested in the acorns I've been worrying about his eyesight. I know he can see.  And he can still see quite well, though I think he has depth perception issues at times.  He has sampled a few, yet he's not focused on the acorns.  Maybe it's because they are so few and far between?  Maybe because the entire sidewalk isn't covered in them?  Maybe it's because he has to go off the beaten path to seek out acorns this year?  I'm thinking acorns must not have much of a smell either.  Because if they did Simon's nose would at least draw him to them.  Maybe he's simply decided he isn't into acorns?  The acorn trees in this neighborhood are baby trees they are not mature.  That could be another issue.  Maybe the acorns just aren't as appealing on a non mature tree?  Who knows!

Either way I'm quite glad he's not into the acorns this year.  I'm not complaining!  Makes my life easier as I'm not tripping over him since he was constantly stopping abruptly to scoop another round of acorns in his mouth.    

Football and the Weekend Is Here!

What were we doing Thursday night?  Watching the Cardinals of course!  I have had the date of that Cardinals game firmly in my memory bank since the schedule came out.  Just before kick-off my mom texted me to tell me the Cards were on NFL network. I looked over at Brad and said, "Aww, isn't she cute, she actually thinks I wouldn't already know that."  We both then laughed!  Sorry mom!  I had a tough time since they were going up against the Seahawks.  The Seahawks and Cardinals at one time were tied for the first spot on my unofficial fave team list!  Now the Seahawks have had to slip down to number 3.  But I still look forward to watching Seattle too.  My Cardinals looked decent in the first half then it went downhill rather quick in the second half.  I wasn't too upset about the loss, It's the first time I've had a chance to see the Cardinals play. So victory or not it wasn't going to spoil it for me.  I'm actually kind of glad they were playing the Seahawks if they had been playing the hated Steelers I would've spent the whole night in a rotten mood! ;)  The only thing I was upset about was changing my pick at the last second.  I originally picked Seattle to win then changed to AZ right before kick-off......Stupid me!  Now I go into Sunday already one game down! Rats!

Man, this was a long week and a tough week for me!  I was looking forward to the weekend, it's finally here!  Brad has a tennis match tomorrow in the early afternoon.  We're still trying to figure out the schedule a bit when he has tennis matches on Saturday. I'm always wondering what he'll want to eat before going to play.  He can't play when he's too full yet he needs food for energy. 

It's been raining quite a bit lately!  It was beginning to look like rain was ready to start coming down again when we walked the boys.  I just wanted the boys to hurry up because I was getting cold!  It seems as though 90% of the time when I want the boys to hurry up due to pending weather conditions they become pokey little puppies!  If it had started raining though the boys would have been speedier!  Trust me!

Should be a great NFL Sunday!  Looking forward to it!  Although I don't want to rush it.  I want to truly enjoy Saturday first!  There's some great match-ups lined up...Cowboys versus Eagles and I think I heard the Broncos are playing in Indy!  I'm trying to be funny!  Yes, I am WELL aware as are all other football fans that Manning returns to Indy on Sunday Night football.  It's been the most talked about coming event on ESPN since last Sunday's games ended.  Should be good! I heard they will play a Manning tribute video before the game.  How weird is that?  I can understand it yet, it is a bit weird for the current Indy players to have to watch a Manning tribute before kick-off!   

What a Monday!

Man, what a Monday!  A rainy Monday!  We've been drenched in the Dallas area.  Which is fine by me but not fine by someone I know that has a coat of fawn fur. Cody completely freaked out when he thought I was trying to get him to go over a puddle.  It's just a puddle!  He's not made of sugar...he's not going to dissolve! He's always so difficult to deal with in bad weather.  He's Mr. Grumpy-pants!  I think I heard it was a triple round of storms passing through the next few days.  It's the same system that caused flooding down in Austin over the weekend. Buck up little camper, more rain tomorrow!

As if dealing with difficult Cody wasn't challenging enough for me, I had an issue with a family member over the phone. This particular family member has been rather harassing to me over the last few days as he has continued to call in an effort to beg for money.  Geez!  I gave him a piece of my mind today!  It wasn't a pleasant conversation.  I was like a Rottweiler off her leash during the conversation.  I can be sympathetic to people that are in a truly difficult bind.  But a drug addicted fool calling me names because I won't give into his wishes...well that is completely different.  Look out because I'm going to blow when one acts the way he acted today on the phone. I haven't been that mad in years!  This situation has been such an issue for me I've actually considered changing my phone number...not seriously, but the thought has crossed my mind.

Oh and my nephew decided to play a little joke on me.  He and his girlfriend are expecting a baby in mid to late December. I'm helping to host a baby shower at our place for his girlfriend early next month.  I've been working hard to plan this baby shower.  It's been fun though!  I love things like this.  Anyway, he was trying to be funny.  He sent me a pic of a newborn baby at a hospital with the accompanying text that read "look what we have here".  I of course freaked out a bit.  I did think briefly that a 2 month premature baby would be in an incubator and hooked up to machines.  Yet I still instantly called him to see what was up.  It was just a joke!  The baby has not come yet!  Whew!  I then told him to be patient.  You don't what your child going down that road of being a preemie!  You don't want that worry! 

As for the plans of the evening I'm so glad to be able to relax while watching Monday Night Football.  Hopefully it will be a good game.  Super competitive and lots of scoring is what I'm wanting!  In fun news, it's experimental meal night once again for us.  I got the meal in the oven so that it will be done right at game time, as usual on Monday night. The experimental meal is truly an experiment.  There was this pork chop casserole dish at the family reunion that I have tried to recreate tonight.  Totally unsure how this will turn out.  Fingers-crossed it's yummy!  If not we'll be ordering a pizza! LOL! 

Halloween Costume Shopping!

The last two nights I've been out shopping for Halloween costumes.  Last night my mother-in-law came over for dinner then the two of us went out to look for a Halloween costume for me.  Brad and I are attending a costume birthday party tomorrow. Therefore, it's time to get a costume.  I don't mind costumes, my preference though is for it to be easy to deal with.  No specially purchased heavy Halloween make-up, nothing gross, and something modest are all on my list of requirements.  Nothing disturbing either!  Halloween nowadays is full of disturbing costumes.

I found not one but two costumes last night.  They were both reasonable in price so I bought them both.  I figured I'd try them on at home then decide which to keep.  I bought a butterfly and honey bee costume.  Both are cute!  That's another thing....I like cute costumes.  I know Halloween is supposed to be scary but I'm not into scary costumes at all.  I always call my puggies "my honeybees", perhaps that's why I lit up when I saw the honey bee costume.  The butterfly costume is a nice/cute dress with wings that attach.  I love the tulle skirt on it!  I think I'll be choosing the butterfly.  A couple years ago I was a ladybug!  Complete with spotted false eyelashes!  It was a fun costume but I gave it away some months back.  It appears I have a thing for flirty bug costumes! ;)

As for tonight....it was time to go shopping with Brad for his costume.  He also gave away the last Halloween costume he wore.  He had a hard time making up his mind as we looked around tonight. I was pleasantly surprised he even entertained the idea of some of the costumes he considered, like Captain America and Iron Man.  In the end he decided on being a vampire!  I know! I know! I know!  What can I say.....he's a boy!  To him Halloween is about gross and slightly disturbing costumes.  I did ask him to not do the dripping blood stuff around his mouth! That I would not want to look at all night! 

Secretly this butterfly wanted to go out tomorrow night with Captain America!  LOL! 

As for the boys I purchased their Halloween costumes a few weeks ago.  I've learned over the years when you have two pugs to dress you must shop early for the best selection.  This year however is filled with pet costumes.  There's tons to choose from in many different stores.  Anyway, the boys will be dressed in their costumes on Halloween.  Their annual Halloween pic will appear on the blog.  Our complex has a pet costume contest too.  We haven't decided whether or not we'll enter the boys.  I worry about how Simon will act on a leash with so many other dogs and people around.  He's great off leash but on leash he's in protect mode! Trust me their costumes are funny and cute!  Their new pug daddy had qualifications for their costumes this year.  Mainly, don't dress Cody as a food item.  We don't want to risk Simon eating him. He also said no to embarrassing or humiliating costumes. Me?...embarrass the pugs by the way I dress them....NEVER! ;) 

Family Reunion Weekend

This past Friday night I spent preparing items to take to the family reunion.  I struggled to make up my mind on what to make this time around. Normally I don't have a problem with that decision.  I think it was the fact that I unsure what to make and what to give away.  There was a cake walk that I wanted to make something for plus I wanted to make another dessert.

Saturday was a blustery day.  I got up super early.  I got up before it was even light outside folks!  Yeah try convincing not one but two pugs to get out of their warm beds for a long walk when it's still dark out.  To make matters worse I didn't even feed them first.  I know, how mean!  I didn't want them to get too far off their typical schedule so no breakfast until we got back.  They both thought I was nuts.  So I walked the boys super early then right before we left I took the boys out again.  During those two hours or so the temperature outside dropped drastically. I was freezing!  What I had planned to wear to the reunion got put back in the closet as I pulled out some wintery clothes.  I still didn't choose something warm enough but I survived!  It's not as cold now.  It's back to typical October temps.  But we sure did get a little preview of winter this Saturday.

Not only was Saturday family reunion day but it was also Granny's birthday.  After the reunion some family including us went over to Granny's just to simply hang out with her.  It was fun!  It was a great day!  I love being apart of a new family!  We got home in time to see the last 7 minutes of the ASU game being played at Cowboys Stadium.  So close to pulling off a victory! What ugly helmets they had on! Geez! I must mention I saw people wearing ASU shirts and ASU shirts being sold on Friday when I went to get groceries.  I must admit it was quite exciting!  I remember a time when it was the norm to see ASU stuff all around. Now when I see something ASU out in public I have to do a double take to make sure I'm seeing what I think I'm seeing!

We spent yesterday relaxing while watching football.  I won't mention the Cowboys game.  I could say something but I won't.  I will say this the last time Brad and I went to the mall was with our nephew, we stopped into a sports apparel store and the sales associate made a comment that the Seahawks stuff was "flying" out the door.  Ha Ha! Get it?  Seahawks fly!  Their stuff was "flying" out the door.  I added that poor quality bit of humor just for my husband.  Now when he reads this post after he gets passed the brief mention of the Cowboys he'll laugh! LOL!    

Pot Roast Night!

Every time I make pot roast certain memories pop into my head from my childhood. It was likely one of my fave meals growing up and still is! My grandmother made the best pot roast!  Sometimes she would even make a lemon meringue pie for dessert.  Lemon meringue pie is my absolute favorite followed closely by pecan pie! I also have memories of my grandma trying hard to perfect her lemon meringue pie after she realized it was my favorite. Last night I prepared a pot roast, as always while making the pot roast two memories came to mind.

My first memory was how amazing my grandmother's pot roast was.  The gravy was the key in my opinion.  Rich and dark brown with intense flavor....oh it was great!  The aroma of her gravy is something that overwhelmed the senses in a lovely way.  I'll never forget that smell!  I should have had her teach me how to make that darn gravy.  Making gravy is not my specialty, it's still a work in progress. I'm happy to report my gravy last night was a bit thin but the smell of the gravy was spot on to my grandma's gravy.

As for my second memory that brings a smile to my face every time I make a pot roast.  I'm not sure my mom will appreciate me telling this story but oh well!  It happened many years ago it's not embarrassing anymore!  Now to the story...First off I should mention it was quite common for my mom to invite my grandparents over for dinner. My grandparents in turn would invite us to their house at the very least once a week for dinner. Most weeks it was likely 2 or 3 times during the week.  Anyway I'm not sure how old I was when this happened but my guess is that I would have been in my pre-teen years.  My mom was making pot roast, my grandparents were due to arrive any second.  While my mom prepared to make the gravy for the roast my grandparents arrived.  They came in the door that opens up into the kitchen.  As my grandpa came through the door my mom turned around to greet him in her hands she was shaking the flour and water combo in a Tupperware container.  Upon her saying "hello" to my grandpa the lid on the container went flying off and the entire contents went all over my grandpa. Head to toe! Oh man!  She was so embarrassed, understandably.  He was so covered in flour and water that he had to run home to change then come back for dinner.  That evening has provided us with quite a few laughs over the years.  I'm positive that for years to come it will be something I'll continue to recall each time I prepare a pot roast.  I remember the entire scene like it was yesterday!  LOL!   

My Birthday!

We had a rather celebratory weekend this past weekend.  I had an enjoyable birthday.  I basically celebrated 3 days in a row.  So my grandpa Pete would approve!  He had this thing about celebrating his birthday in at least 3 different ways each year.  Perhaps now that I think about it I celebrated 2 different times.  So maybe I still need to get in one more small way of celebrating! 

On Saturday night we gathered with family at the Cheesecake Factory.  Yum!  It was quite the long wait but worth it.  When we got back to our place, I opened some gifts.  I now have plenty of recipe reading ahead of me!  I also opened some earrings which I then promptly showed to Simon.  That little stinker lunged at the earring thinking it was edible.  Good thing I had a firm hold on the earring because Simon nearly snatched it like he would a Scooby snack! Lol!

Last night Brad and I went to the restaurant he took me to for our first date.  We were doing a double celebration!  We hadn't yet made to Uncle Julio's to celebrate the 4 year anniversary of our first date, so last night we celebrated that and my birthday.  We of course took the camera along.  Brad asked the waiter to take a pic of us together at one point.  Then after hearing it was my birthday the waiter brought out some fried ice cream with a candle.  It was Brad's first time having fried ice cream.  Can you tell he's from TX folks?  In AZ there's no way you would get into your adult years without having fried ice cream at a Mexican food restaurant.  Am I right?  Zonies like Mexican food, fried ice cream, and cheese crisps!  I joked with Brad at dinner that fried ice cream and cheese crisps are the only culinary claims to fame for AZ.  LOL!

Here's some pics from our night...My personal fave is the one with Brad biting into the pepper.  It was super funny!