Grilled Salad!

Let me just say that I can't believe I am posting so much about food.  Is this what my life has come to?  Ha!  Um, yes...it has, indeed.  Oh well, read below for a decadent twist on salad.

My dear friend, Sarah Beth, told me about how her parents love to grill anything-fish, chicken, beef, salad.  What?  Salad?  Why, yes, she said.  "My parents grill everything, even salad!"  "Do tell," I said! 

Long story short, you take the whole romaine, wash, dry and drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Next step is to stick it on the grill and let it get a little charred on all sides.  Remove from heat, slice in half and sprinkle with your favorite toppings.  It was really delicious, and I thought it was pretty.  I can't wait to serve this for a fun outdoor party!

Grilled Romaine

Toppings

The finished product.  I realize the photo is turned on it's side.  It might or might not get corrected!

Golfing for a cause!

John and I have been somewhat active in the pro-life community in Little Rock.  We have by no means been more active than many of our friends, but we have found a happy place of prayer, volunteer work, and financial contribution to one of our favorite ministries, Saint Joseph's Helpers.  It is a pregnancy resource center that helps women who find themselves in crisis pregnancy situations.  We were introduced to this ministry by friends from Christ The King, and it quickly became our "go to" for everything pro-life.  I volunteered there on Tuesdays until I went back to work full time and then became a regular Saturday volunteer.  Sadly, my last day was June 23 because of our most recent move--more on our 'recent move' later!  On June 25, SJH had a golf day and challenged each golfer to raise approximately $1,200.  We were a little behind on our fund raising effort, and I got busy on facebook while John was playing golf.  The donations poured in and we hit our goal.  We were amazed at the generosity of our friends and family and encouraged that so many people support protecting the life of the unborn.  Each golfer had a golf cart all to himself and basically had a private day of golfing at Pleasant Valley Country Club.  If it had not been the hottest day of the calendar year, it would have been perfect.  It was very hot but very good.  I got to ride in the golf cart and cheer my golfer on!  We hope to participate again next year-especially because rumor has it, the date will be much earlier in the year.  Yay for cooler temps!

John's first drive of the morning.

What a view!

Um, where's my ball?

Happy Father's Day

Note:  This email is from Father's Day.  Lack of WiFi and utter exhaustion are to blame for the tardiness of this post.

This Father's Day was like no other.  Kerry and I drove to Shreveport and enjoyed the entire weekend with Dad and Suzanne sans John and Clay.  We love having our husbands around, but Clay was out of town at a skeet shoot and John was out of town at a board meeting.  Kerry and I soaked up some serious sun and Dad time.  We attempted to treat Dad to a little home cooking.  We made tomato bisque and had smoked salmon and bagels.  I made a smoked Gouda and rosemary mac & cheese and it was really amazing.  I should not have admitted to Dad that there was heavy cream in my pasta.  I think Suzanne loved it until she learned the truth about it's decadence. 

I'm a tad proud at my Father's Day gift this year.  First of all, Dad and Suzanne have a pool, so new swim trunks were in order.  We got him some super cute polo plaid trunks that are reversible.  The reverse side is orange.  They are cute--I promise.  As for his "other" gift, we bought him an electric fly swatter.  Say what you will, but he LOVED it.  I knew he would.  I can't think of anything Dad hates more than mosquitoes.  I have been pushed out of his front or back door before because he was afraid that bugs were getting in.  He has a mosquito mist system installed at his new house, but he still has some mosquitoes that "like to hide out behind his grill and T.V."  So, when we saw this little gadget at a friend's house, we knew it would be a hit.  Dad now has a closet full of said electric mosquito swatters.  If you are lucky, he'll let you use one and kill mosquitoes with him.  When he got it, he ran straight outside to see if it would work.  It worked so well that he was literally looking for mosquitoes.  Suzanne said, "I'm going to pray for more mosquitoes because he is so happy right now!" 

P.S. I have a great video of Dad gleefully electrocuting hundreds of mosquitos.  Unfortunately, I had technical difficulties loading it to said blog.

To die for smoked gouda and rosemary pasta.

The best Father's Day gift ever!

Happy Birthday John!

Note:  John's birthday is June 13.  Lack of WiFi and utter exhaustion to blame for posting in July.

Turning 36 was pretty uneventful for John.  We celebrated with good friends and enjoyed a low-key dinner of P.F. Chang's and some fabby cupcakes.  Thank you to Sarah Beth and Mitchell for helping John ring in another year of life!

John, Hartford & Bailey ready to sing Happy Birthday!

Hartford & Bailey helping John blow out his candles.

Noah's Ark

Note:  This occurred in early June.  No WiFi and utter exhaustion to blame for posting in such a tardy manner...

Sadly, there are no photos for this post, but I thought it would be worth posting an email that John sent to our friends after a few days at the lake.  Let me just say that before this "incident", there was a wasp sting, ants and fleas that we dealt with, and after this "incident", there was a racoon that ate the bait (a chicken sandwhich) and managed to get out of the trap, a trapped housecat (it was hacked off) and a B.I.G. brown snake. 

Enjoy!

Well, Tracy and I have actually enjoyed being at the Lake House for the last few weeks, and we miss all of you but wanted to pass along a fun story of lake house living. Just so you don't think we sit and drink wine every night on a boat watching the sunset.

We were laying in bed last night, and we could hear a family of squirrels chirping at each other as they each found a soft bed in the attic.  Just like a normal family, you could hear the babies playing and mom/dad barking at them to go to sleep. Even though it felt like they might fall in on us, it was good to know where to send the pest control company that is coming today, and we fell asleep once they settled down to bed. But that isn't the end of the story...

So about 4am, I start to have a bad dream about children screaming and being harmed in all sorts of ways. As I wake up, I hear what sounds to be the cries of 5 small children underneath my bed. It wasn't a sort of "I am hungry" cry. It was a "I am about to die" scream.  I am not going to lie, it was one scary sound to wake up to and a weird feeling to think, who put a bunch of babies under our bed?
The next thing I hear in the pitch dark is a vicious cat species absolutely growling and hissing as it attacks these small children, which turns out to be a family of bunnies under the house. Somehow the squirrels hear the action up in the attic and start barking warning calls, and making mad dashes all over the ceiling in different directions. Tex (our dog) thinks the ghost squirrels of "Christmas Past" are all coming to get him and he whimpers and growls at the same time. As I sit in bed it is like a Jeep safari on Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. My lovely wife sleeps through all of it and by all of it, I mean she didn't even budge. So the squirrels are chirping and barking. Small bunnies are slowly picked off one by one underneath the floor throughout the house, each screaming worse than the poor Fatal Attraction movie bunny and my masculine guard dog thinks it is a plot to get him AND my wife is STILL sleeping.

So we have Noah's Arc living in the house right now and I am sincerely wondering how Noah got all those animals on the boat and how in the heck did his wife sleep every night. I figured out the wife part, that isn't hard, but animals living in harmony is a tough one to get over. At least the cat is full, and ole' Tex might have a shot at catching him on his potty break this morning!
So say a little pray for Peter Rabbit, because it didn't turn out so well for him, but Tracy did get a good nights rest. And I must admit, (and only the guys will get this) I put my head on my pillow with blood chilling screams underneath me thinking: "Once more into the fray, into the last good fight I will ever know, live and die on this day, live and die on this day." Trust me, goggle "bunny screams audio" and it will take you right back to that movie. I wouldn't suggest this for the faint of heart.

So, just another relaxing day at the Lake House and the realization of the brilliant marketing of life insurance policies by Mutual of Omaha. I wonder if they underwrote "the Grey" movie? Screaming bunnies must be in the sequel next summer.

Love,
John

Sold!

Note: This post is tardy and should have been posted late May. No wifi at the lake and utter exhaustion are my excuses!

SOLD--This is the one word we had hoped to see and hear for quite some time! One gazillion showings later, we got three offers in one day. That's right, T.H.R.E.E. Did I mention they were all equally terrible? Talk about a sucker punch. It was like they all got together and talked about it! Luckily, our realtor, Casey Jones, had nerves of steel and he flat out rejected all three offers. He told the agents that if they were serious, we would consider better offers the next day. So, the highest of the three came up a little and we received that first thing the next day. I was worried because it was still pretty darn low. At the end of the day, after sweating and fretting about how we would counter, our lowest offer came up $95,000 to our asking price! Thank.You.Lord. What a happy blessing. After accepting their offer, we realized that closing was in less than a month. GASP!!!!! Our poor realtor. We had him showing us houses all over the greater Little Rock area. Insert realtor wisdom here...he gave us great advice. He told us he was afraid we were going to buy a house because we were pinched for time and not because we loved the house. He suggested we find an apartment to rent temporarily and take our time looking. So, with a little sense talked into us, one 22-foot truck full of stuff sold at auction, three trips with a trailer hauled off to the lake, one trip for Our House donations, one trip to Dress for Success, five storage units and dozens of Goodwill drop offs later, we settled into the lake house, for a summer of relaxation and patience. More on relaxing and patience in a future post!

John trying out a recliner at Kroger!  We were feeling desperate and wondered if the good people at the grocery store would notice if we temporarily took up residence in the furniture section.

Selling stuff!

Such a lovely sign.