Christmas is officially O-V-E-R

After a week and a half of celebrating, Christmas is finally over. And what a Christmas it was!

We kicked off the holidays by driving up to see Mike's family on Christmas Eve Eve. We visited with his grandparents for a bit, opened presents with his parents, his sister and her husband, and ended up drinking a little too much wine. A good time was had by all!

On Christmas Eve we drove a little further and visited more of Mike's extended family, had lunch, opened more presents, then left to make the 4 hour drive back home. We stopped in Bloomington for a bit to visit some college friends, then hit the road again to make it home in time for more Christmas festivites.

Once home, we went over to my parents house, where we exchanged a few presents to each other. We got Dad a super cool green laser pointer, we got Mom a subscription to the Paula Deen magazine and some cutting boards that she has been obsessing about. Sam made out like a bandit and got lots of gifts, because I kept finding fun things to get her. I settled for a little moleskin notebook especially for London (where she will be going next year) and an Office t-shirt, and a funky purse with owls on it.

After that exchange, Mike and I went home and exchanged gifts to each other. He got me new fiestaware (!!!) and some fun bath soaps and stuff. Along with his tv, he got some new boxers, some yummy treats, and a new pillow (something that he's been wanting ever since I stole his good one!).

On Christmas Day, Sam woke us up at 7 am to come over and open presents from Santa. We got a bunch more good stuff... clothes, more fiestaware (!!!), another guitar for guitar hero, a remote controlled helicopter (guess who that was for), my new Coach purse, and a whole lot more. Momma Claus always does such a good job at Christmas!

After the morning's festivities, we went over to my aunt's for the rest of the day. We ate, played games, mocked each other... good times.

We had a few days rest, then were back on the road for my mom's family Christmas. This year it was held near Nashville, TN. We drove down there, ate probably 5 cows worth of BBQ ribs, opened presents, wrastled the little cousins, and spent the night. Another successful Christmas there, too.

Last night we had our last Christmas gathering. Some of our friends came over for a taco night/pajama party/gift exchange/new years party. It was a lot of fun. We spent the night playing darts and guitar hero, eating lots and lots of Mexican food and drinking a little vodka to ring in the new year.

We took our tree down today, so the holidays are officially over for us. It was definitely a marathon Christmas, (Mike and I estimate that we drove about 750 miles total) but it was completely wonderful. All the hustle and bustle made the vacation go by too quickly (tomorrow our last day of freedom booo), but it made for a great holiday season!

Lost and Found

My Grandma Nancy was a wonderful cook. She made the world's best fried chicken and meringue pies. She also had the coolest cookbook ever, full of recipes she collected throughout her years in the kitchen. When she passed away two and a half years ago, I decided I should start making a cookbook like she did. And I have... it's been one of the only self-assigned projects I've actually stuck with. So far I've filled one and a half notebooks and am still going strong!

For the last few weeks, I haven't been able to find one of the notebooks. The first notebook. The completely handwritten notebook with 100+ recipes in it. Needless to say I was a bit distraught. I searched high and low, every nook and cranny, and still couldn't find it.

So today, I was just randomly cleaning up a bit and I saw a papery corner sticking out from behind the fridge. The light bulb clicked on in my brain... there it was! I must have put it on top of the fridge "for safe keeping" and it fell off. Hooray! So now I can enjoy my recipes again... except now I have in mind to digitalize them all so I won't ever lose them. A new project awaits!

Orange is the Happiest Color...

At least that is what Frank Sinatra once said. And you know, I think he was right. Especially when you are with my family at Charlie's Mongolian BBQ!


I think Dad should audition for the part of The Joker in the next Batman!!


The gruesome twosome.


And this one... there are just no words to describe it...

Ah, just another night out with the fam.

A Dog Blog Just For Sam

Daaaaa, hi Sam. It's me, Buddy.



Meggie told me that you were missing me! Daaaa I miss you too! I hope they are giving you lots of treats while you are getting smart at obedience school. Can you roll over yet? I hope that you come visit me soon. But don't worry about me, I am having lots of fun here at home.



Here's Chewy sticking out his tongue at me. You will pay, cat.

Here's that bone stealing friend of mine.



We like to play. Wanna watch? (Caution, we doggies are loud. So are the humans.) Notice that Mom sounds like a man when we jump on her. She's so funny!



Here's me again. Daaaa, don't I look regal?



And again.



I hate to tell you...



but that creepy leprechaun is back... and he's a remote control hog... he won't let me watch Animal Planet.


And those darn dinosaurs have migrated to the piano.



Well I'm tired from my puppy romp. I'm going to go lay on doggie island and have a nice late night doggie nap until they let me go to bed. I hope those dinos don't keep me awake playing Chopsticks again.

Daaaaa, night night sister!



Love,
Buddy

A Limerick for my Sister

Samanatha is my wee sister,
When she's at school, I will miss her.
Sometimes she is mean,
but ever so clean,
and I hope that she never gets blisters.

The End.

Gosh, I'm so good...
Good luck at school and have a great year Sammy!

Nagasaki Inn

Today we went to the Nagasaki Inn for Sam's farewell lunch. It was my first time to ever eat at a Japanese restaurant. I've always been too intimidated to eat at one... don't really know why. Anyways, Sam requested to go there so we all happily obliged. We sat at one of the hibachi grills and ate sushi and watched the teppanyaki chef (I had to look that one up) put on a show while he cooked our food. He was really talented... he could throw spatulas, spin eggs, make onion volcanoes, and crack corny jokes. The sushi was delicious and the food was some of the best Asian food I've ever had. Yum!



And if you're part of my family, you can't go to a restaurant with chopsticks without making walrus tusks!


Mike must be a maniac walrus! Just look at that face!


Dad is the most serious walrus ever. Mom is looking a little vampire-ish. And Sam is staring into your soul.

And here's me a little later, where I found the most, ahem, odd shaped dog toy. I'll let your dirty little brains do the rest...



Well that's all I've got. We're headed up to Bloomington tomorrow to see Sam off. 5+ hours with my family in a car should be quite interesting. I'm glad my family is so much fun!

Happy Belated 25th Anniversary!

Tonight my sister and I cooked my parents a marvelous dinner as an anniversary present. After being married and totally devoted to each other for 25 years, they deserved a nice night out. Since we couldn't really afford to send them out for a night on the town, we decided to make a gourmet dinner, set the table, and play some smooth jazz music to serve them at our own restaurant, Sameg (original name, huh?). We planned to have it on their actual anniversary, but the death virus struck us all (except for dad, he was spared) and we had no choice but to reschedule. So with everyone finally happy and healthy tonight, dinner was served!


Mom and Dad got to help pick out the menu. We decided to feast on bacon wrapped jalepenos and cream cheese, wilted spinach salad with warm bacon dressing, roasted chicken with potatoes, lemon and asparagus, and molten lava cakes ala mode. See the wonderful place setting? Oh how I loves my Fiestaware!


Here are the two lovebirds. Talk about some goofy faces!

Here's our pretty table scape. The little bride and groom stood on top of their wedding cake 25 years ago, then on my wedding cake two months ago. No pressure, Sam.



Everything turned out surprisingly delicious! Especially the lava cakes. They were rich and gooey and borderline sinful. Here's Sam in mid chocolate death.



Don't worry Sam, Scout will save you!!



After dinner, the boys played some racing games on the Xbox and the girls got silly. We looked at more funny lunch boxes online for a while and mom bid on one. We'll see if she wins in a few hours. Then we gave Buddy a new hairdo.


Hey Mr. Talley man!

All in all a great night! Tomorrow we're all going for lunch to the Nagasaki Inn for Sam's going away outing. She already had a party, but has decided that she needs a farewell lunch too. Then on Sunday, Mike and I will be making the trek up to Bloomington with them where we'll help Sam move in her room and hopefully visit some of our friends that are still in the area.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD!! Your marriage is truly an inspiration. Mike and I hope we are as happy as you two are together after 25 years! We love you!!!

The Face of Fear

This is what you see when you jump out from a dark hallway and scare my mom. This has long been a favorite game of my family, but this is the first time we've captured the look of sheer terror on her face. I end up laughing hysterically every time I even think about this picture. Haha, I love you Mom!

A Visit

Mike's mom has been in town for a visit the last couple of days, so we've spent a lot of time hanging out with her. We didn't do anything particularly exciting, but we still had a surprisingly good time. Yesterday evening we met up with her at her hotel after she checked in and swam for a bit in the warmest outdoor pool I have ever been in. We didn't stay in too long just because it felt like we were swimming in a giant chlorinated bathtub. After we got cleaned up, we browsed the mall for a while, then drove her around on a tour of Evansville. We eventually stopped at the river front and sat down there for a while. We got there at the perfect time to watch the sun set over the water. I think we all really enjoyed that part of the evening. Here are some pictures.


Sunset over the water


Mike and his Momma


I heart him.

After our stop at the river, we all decided we were hungry. She took us out for dinner and drinks at Firefly, Mike and I's all-time favorite restaurant. We had a wonderful time and some really great food there. After dinner, we went back to the hotel for some after hours swimming and said our goodbyes.

Mike woke up early and went golfing with her this morning. I opted out, seeing how it's about 100 degrees outside and I hate golf. Actually loathe is probably a better word for it. Instead I enjoyed a lazy morning of sleeping late and playing with the dog. She stopped by here for just a bit before she headed back to Columbus to say goodbye and brought us a fancy-schmacy bottle of wine that came from the part of France she had recently visited. I'm really excited to try it, but we decided to save it for a special occasion. So now I have to come up with a reason to celebrate soon!

All in all, a really great visit. Now it's time to get ready for our shindig tonight. I'll post more about that later!

RIP Avenger

1999-2007

Today, my sister got some sad news. Her car, the cherry red Avenger, has died. Don't worry, she didn't get in an accident... her car just stopped working. Cause of death is still unknown... the mechanics haven't been able to pinpoint what the problem is. They thought it was something with the internal computer and attempted to rebuild it, but with no luck. Dave, our go-to car guy, said that they could put a new computer in, but it would cost some big bucks and there was no guarantee that it would fix the problem. He recommended to trade it in. Sam's not thrilled with the news because she loved the Avenger. And so did my dad, it was his car before he gave it to her.

But there is good news for her. It looks like she will be getting something like this:

It's a 2004 Silver Neon. She test drove it over here today and it looks like a pretty nice car. It's no Avenger, but it's no clunker either. Dave is cutting my dad a deal on it. He's writing off all the work he had to do on the Avenger plus is knocking about $2000 off the price... so basically he's taking care of us and isn't making a dime on the sale. He is the greatest car guy ever... my family has bought every single car we've owned from him for good reason. I'm not sure when she'll be getting it, but it should be sometime very soon.

So rest in peace, red Avenger. You were a good car while you lasted.

Potter Pictures!

So here they are... pictures from the Harry Potter book release!

Cast of characters:

Me as Bellatrix Lestrange and Sam as Narcissa Malfoy... evil witch sisters!


Mom and Dad as Mr. and Mrs. Weasley


And Mike as the relucant Harry Potter


What a fun family, huh?


Here's me and Sam again. We're so cool... or so we thought after our initial embarrassment of being in public like this wore off (also note the nametags we made... we wanted to make sure everyone knew who we were... such neeeeeeeerds!).

At Barnes and Noble, we spent most of our time people watching. Sam kept pointing out different people who were dressed up, saying, "Look at that freak!" I kept having to remind her that WE were the freaks that night. We had some of the best costumes there, if I do say so myself. Random people even took our pictures because we looked so awesome.


Here's our very staged picture of me and Sam waiting in line a few minutes before midnight. Really, we were way too excited to sleep. Borderline giddy, in fact.

While we waited in line forever, the boys were doing this.

Dad was such a good sport... he wore his goofy costume the whole time. Mike was happy to spend his time playing nintendo in a comfy, cushy chair.

Around 12:45, we finally got our books!


We love Harry!


I'm not quite sure what we're doing here... Harry disco party? I told you we were giddy!

We all rushed home and read until the wee hours of the morning, then woke up, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready for more. I think we all finished well within 24 hours of getting the book and enjoyed every second. And it was A-MAZ-ING! Best book of the whole series! I won't say anymore because you need to read it yourself.

It was such a fun night, and really I have my entire family to thank for that... it's one memory that I will remember for the rest of my life. We may be crazy and TOTAL dorks... but isn't that what life is all about?

Happy Birthday Nana....

Happy Birthday Nana. You were such a strong, courageous, amazing woman and you have inspired my life in so many ways. I think about you every day and miss you more than you could ever imagine. I love you.

The Bald Eagle has landed...

My dad arrived home safe and sound from Puerto Rico today! He sounds like he is very glad to be home, and it seems that it was actually a worthwhile trip for him and his company. We'll be going over to see him a little later after he catches up on some sleep.

Nothing else to report really... Mike and I have waged war on the house for the past two days. So far we have the bedroom totally clean and prepped to paint, we've wiped down all but two of the (horribly gross) window blinds, and have thoroughly vacuumed the the floors and baseboards. Tomorrow we are taking our ever growing pile of junk in the basement to the Goodwill Store and I still need to work on cleaning the kitchen and bathroom really well, but after that we should be ready to get to the real work as soon as we get the contract for the house. We still haven't heard anything else about it... I think Mike is going to call our landlord this weekend if we don't hear from her this week. I really hope everything goes as planned... I'm starting to get very anxious about it. But what will be, will be, I suppose. At least we have a super clean house either way! Wahoo!

And in Marley news, he's made friends with Ringo and Scout and acts like he's just one of the herd. Scout loves to give him kisses and Ringo likes to play hide, seek, and attack with him. Looks like it was another successful animal adoption!

One last note

My dad had to fly out to Puerto Rico today on business. He got there this evening with no problems and has 2 fun-filled days of safety meetings to look forward to. He'll be back on Wednesday afternoon. Please pray that he avoids the banditos (really!) and returns home to us, safe and sound.

Thunder over Petersville

Yesterday, Mike and I took a trip up to Columbus to see his family and to join in the fun at the


We spent a little time with Mike's folks and visited his friend, Tim. We rode his giant 4 wheeler and went through creeks and stuff (without getting muddy, woo!). After that, we headed over to his sister's house where Thunder over Petersville was being held. The party was complete with food, fun games, and of course, the fireworks. Mike's dad contributed quite a few big ones while all the other guys there had some to add too. After "warming up" with the lighting of the bottle rockets, they commenced to the big, sparkley ones. They were actually quite impressive! There were only a few stray shots into the crowd, and one particularly exciting misfire into a pile of unlit fireworks that got all those manly men a-running! Good times!


Mike and I getting ready for fireworks!


Kaboom!