Its official: I am 28! I keep creeping up on 30 but I'm trying not to let it get to me. For my birthday, Brent woke me up at midnight to sing "Happy Birthday" in Portuguese to me. So sweet! Went to work, had lunch with my dad, Brian & Kyle, then after work we gathered a bunch of my friends together and went to one of my favorite restaurants for dinner... Famous Dave's! I love good barbeque.
If you order the Feast, it comes out on a giant silver trash can lid and all the servers in the house chant "Feast! Feast!" until it arrives at your table.
Where it then lands on my plate!! Our feast came with chicken, ribs and (for Brent & Kyle) a briskett, corn, cornbread muffins, mashed potatoes & coleslaw. One feast feeds 4 people. Darn it, now I'm hungry again!
Christine & Darold Murrish
The Collins Crew: Mama Collins (in town from Alabama!), Mike & Deb. Only 5 more days until Deb is supposed to pop out little Sammy! SO EXCITED!!
Brent was a total goofball last night!
HI Wendy!
That's my husband strangling my brother. Good times.
Beth introduced Mike to Famous Dave's last Christmas in Alabama, and Mike introduced it to us in January after our Queen Mary adventure.
GUITAR HERO 5!!!
Brent whispering sweet nothings in my ear (in Portuguese again - I love it when he does that!)
Thumbs up!!
Connor Swart: the world's cuddliest baby! I adore that kid so much!! He got passed around the whole table and everyone just loved on him all night long.
Jannene Swart with Connor. Sadly, the only picture I got of Jannene was on my phone. Sorry babe!
My birthday sundae! Holy Hannah... the whipped cream was covering these HUGE pockets of hot fudge... sooo good. I gained 5 lbs last night just from dinner!!
I love Halloween. Its awesome. You get to dress up in hilarious costumes & run around to strangers houses asking for free candy. As a kid, that concept delighted me. The delight has not decreased in my adulthood, although the urge for trick or treating certainly has! For the past year, we have been working on a spook alley to go along with our ward's trunk or treat. I do mean a year - planning sessions & research started back in January 2009. "we" consisted of the small army that is Mike & Deborah Collins, myself and Brent and Mike "Verne" Wilson. Part of our research was to read both Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass. We then starting looking at building theater flats for walls, testing makeup techniques, sewing our costumes together or purchasing the pieces we wanted.
After a year of efforts, on October 27-28, it was time for the magic to happen. However, things did not go according to plan...
Our Original Intent for the spook alley was to go like this: have the rabbit hole (yes, we built a rabbit hole) outside at the entrance to the church's courtyard, have a maze built from curtains and the theater flats we'd built where you would see The Cheshire Cat, Tweedledee & Tweedledum with the Jabberwocky, and the Mad Hatter's Tea Party IN the courtyard itself, then loop into the scout room for the black light maze )which started off light and got darker and darker as you went further into the room (the "darkening of wonderland", if you will - it got darker the closer you got to the Queen's Room). Then you'd go out of the scout room and loop into the primary room, which was the Queen's Room. There you'd find the Red & White Queens playing a twisted, giant game of chess and then finally, you'd run into the Queen of Hearts herself who would try to chop your head off before you escaped. Then the long hallway from the primary room to the foyer was your way out of Wonderland. Wandering through all of these rooms would be Alice, lost and alone in Wonderland for years, trying to find her way out.
Got all that? Can you see it in your head? Awesome, because it SO did not come out that way. Here is what actually happened...
Tuesday, October 27: 7PM We arrived at the Lincoln building to set up the scout room - the black light maze. We blacked out the walls themselves using 50 gallon black trash bags cut lengthwise. We build walls out of wood & cardboard painted black and we replaced the fluorescent lights in the room with black lights, using the original fixtures. (Meant we didn't have to wire anything - yay!) We also rigged up the clothesline in the courtyard for the outer maze. We had help in the form of several of the YM from our ward who were involved in the spook alley, and Brion Armstrong, who had flown in from Utah specially just to be part of our spook alley.
Mmm... food...
Using tables to brace the walls.
A birds eye view of the almost finished product.
The stamp of approval!
The lights are up and the fog machines have been tested. Its a little after midnight and the room is done. Tomorrow (Wednesday), the real work begins...
Wednesday, October 28: 6AM
The trucks arrive at Casa Collins for load up.
A shot of the clotheslines we'd rigged the night before for our curtain maze in the courtyard. Its COLD outside!!
Brent and Mike putting up the braces for the curtains.
And again.
Some of our supplies.
Putting up the theater flats. You can see that Brent had already put red gels over the courtyard lights. We tried to use the existing lights wherever possible.
Assembling the Jabberwocky wall.
The backdrops for the Mad Hatter's tea party. That's Verne, aka the Mad Hatter himself.
Brion Armstrong, who was one of the biggest lifesavers of the day.
10AM
We realized we had a real problem that nobody had counted on: Mother Nature. The wind was insane, blowing everything over faster than we could get it assembled.
To counteract the problem, I suggested tarps. So Brent, Mike & Verne went out and bought several heavy duty tarps. The idea was that we'd tie tarps together and lay them flat over the courtyard maze. Since there would be walls blocking the wind in all 4 directions once we'd assembled them, we thought that would solve the problem.
During the tarp run, the incredible Wendy Delgado showed up with sodas, donuts and Lulu, who is so adorable she instantly cheers up the most depressing situations. With a few donuts and caffeine in me and Lulu on my lap, I thought we could conquer the wind.
Now children, this is where Mother Nature decided to show up who was boss. Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of this. The boys came back with tarps in hand, and proceeded to string them together. We put the first set over the clothesline rigging and felt we were making good time. So I went inside to being the transformation of the primary room to the Queen's Room. Awesomely, the seminary class had put away all the tables and chairs before they left, so I was off to a good start. However, this was when Mother Nature struck...
BY RIPPING A TARP IN HALF. Yeah folks, the tarps we had already fun came flying down, one of them completely ripped in half by the wind. THE WIND. Deciding we'd hit critical mass, Mike called an emergency meeting of Team Tiger. We had two choices: a) move the spook alley indoors and redo everything on the fly or b) scrap it entirely, apologize to the ward and go home. Nobody was ready to throw in the towel, so we decided to go with plan a: Move the spook alley indoors and redo everything on the fly. By now it was noon, and in order to get our costumes and makeup done on time, the sets had to be finished by 4pm. We were starting over from the beginning, and had only 4 hours to go...
12PM: TAKE 2 After some hemming & haaing, we decided to arrange the maze in reverse: the rabbit hole be places in the foyer at the entrance to the hallway. People would go down the dark hallway until they reached the T that branched off into the primary room, nursery and sunbeam/scout room #2. Tweedledee and Tweedledum would be there, directing traffic and creeping people out. They'd first direct people to go to the room at the end of the hall, where the Jabberwocky would be. Then they'd go into the nursery, where the Mad hatter's Tea Part would be held. The primary room was still the queen's room, then people would go outside and loop into the scout room for the black light maze. It actually worked out, where now the maze got lighter and lighter as you found your way out of wonderland, since people would now be going in reverse.
Mike, being the director of our show, looked at me, the stage manager and said "help!" So I sent out a mass text for reinforcements. Within moments, I was getting confirmations of people able to come help. Wendy found a babysitter for Lulu and was able to stay all afternoon to pitch in. Within an hour, Greg Schneider and his little brother & sister, Lisa Patel, my brother Brian and my step-mom Marlene were all there. Brian & Mar became our expert errand runners, running to Home Depot & Wal-Mart for more trash bags, duct tape, clamp lights, and food for us. We put Greg's siblings to shredding more trash bags, since we now had several more rooms to black out we hadn't counted on before. The rest of us got to work, redesigning rooms, moving walls inside and adjusting them for our new space, etc.
Mike hanging lights up in the space between the tea party & queens rooms.
Transforming the nursery into the Mad Hatter's Tea Party.
The almost complete hallway. This is around 3pm. You can see the Jabberwocky room at the end of the hall. We removed the door off its hinges and put the Jabberwocky wall in its place. There is a small window where people could peer in and then be scared by the Jabberwocky. The room would have a fog machine and the fog later on got so think I'm surprised Brent (as the Jabberwocky) didn't choke in there.
The Tea Room again. You can see Deb, Mike and Brian in this picture.
Marlene made sure I stopped to eat something. This is us at the Red & White Queen's chess set, taking 5. Its about 3:30 now. We're doing good.
Lisa helped get the heads on pikes and the trees set up. This is in the Queens Rooms leading to the section with the Queen of Hearts.
Chaos.
4:30PM: Makeup We got most of the set done by 4. It was now just little things here and there to be done. Lisa left, Wendy left to go home and get the girls dressed for the trunk or treat. The rest of us decided to leave in shifts to go home, shower & throw on costumes. The Mother's room & girls bathroom became our dressing areas. Mike & Brent, as the Cheshire Cat & Jabberwocky, respecitvely, were going to be wearing prosthetics. The church has firm rules of no masks, but we figured: prosthetics don't hide your face, they just change the shape of it! You can still see our eyes and the lower half of our faces!! Yes, it was towing the line, but that was half the fun of it. Mwahaha... The prosthetics were painted the Sunday prior to the spook alley by Arthur Wilson, Verne's brother, who has more experience with that than I did. I was in charge of makeup for the rest of the cast.
Deb applying Mike's Cheshire Cat prosthetic.
Verne applying Brent's Jabberwocky face.
What are YOU staring at?
My closeup, before I went to the trouble of putting my 4 layer costume on! I was the Queen of Hearts.
6:30PM: SHOWTIME! We were dressed and pressed, the lights were on, the music was playing, the fog machines were rolling and the kids were clamoring at the rabbit hole, ready to have the crap scared out of them. We said a short prayer, and took 5 minutes for some pictures of our finished products.
Sadly, the only picture we got of the rabbit hole was with a couch shoved in front of it to keep people from going in. :-(
The Crossroads of Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
The Mad Hatter's Tea Party. The fog machines (there were 11 total in the spook alley) were going pretty good, so the pictures started to become a bit fuzzy at this point. None of us realized this, however, until Thursday when we uploaded our pictures. Oh well!
The Red & White Queens' Chess Game.
The bend in the road that took you to the throne of the Queen of Hearts.
Brion Armstrong as Tweedledee. You can see Susan Bergreen as Alice in the background.
Cameron (one of the YM in our ward) as Tweedledum. His friends were hiding in the walls of the blacklight maze, ready to scare people.
Verne as the Mad Hatter.
Julie Hettinger as the Red Queen.
Deborah Collins as the White Queen.
Mike Collins as the Cheshire Cat. You can see me, Verne and Brent in the background.
The Mad Hatter & Alice at the Tea Party.
Brent as the Jabberwocky.
3 twisted Queens!!
The Hatter & Alice again. The blurry pictures gives you an idea of just how much fog there was. We flooded the entire building!
The Queen of Hearts with the Mad Hatter. I LOVE this picture! My favorite one out of the whole thing.
The Mad Hatter with Evan Jones as his "March Hare".
A cast shot in the Tea Party room.
So it went. We scared a lot of kids, made a few laugh, kicked a few out for being obnoxious and breaking the "no touching the sets" rule that had been explained before the spook alley, and wowed the adults. Overall we had a blast! Our hard work and struggles paid off for a great evening. We heard the trunk or treat itself went well too. :P (Missed it COMPLETELY.) After a few hours, it was all over. The sets would be moved to Verne's house for a repeat (sort of) on Halloween itself, the Elder's Quorum stayed to help us clean up. I really, REALLY wish I'd gotten a picture of Nate Hutchings in his Afro wig - priceless!
A great night. What we learned most of all: location, location, location. And don't mess with Mother Nature. She will kick your trash every time. So I leave you with this one post-shot: Brent, in full Jabberwocky face, after the spook alley stuffing his face with a cheeseburger. Cracks me up every time. Happy November, everyone!
*Photographs provided by Deborah Collins, Julie Hettinger, Brian Armstrong & myself
Oh man, how is October half over already? Time just keeps going faster and faster these days. I can't keep up anymore. Well, I'm home with a nasty bout of bronchitis (and am going to miss TOFW as a result!! Not happy about that.) so I figured I could finally put up pictures of our camping trip in the Los Padres Forest above Santa Barbara. We went during conference weekend (and I have since watched all of conference online - thanks lds.org!) with Dee, Brent's sister Chris & her family. It was awesome!
Saturday morning we woke up to a bunch of animals roaming the campsite. I was able to have fun with the zoom on my camera to get a couple good shots of the family of deer. I did not, however, get a shot of the 2 dozen wild turkeys that we woke up to. Bummer.
This little dude had no fear. He came right up to me!
That's Noah. He was cold, so I let him borrow my hat & gloves.
The orange tent is ours - Brent bought it just for our camping trip, along with a double wide sleeping bag, a new lantern, and some other fun camping things.
Going on a nature hike. "Following the leader, the leader, the leader..."
Nate & Nick had two goals for that day. #1: find as many weird rocks as possible in the dried riverbed and #2. collect firewood!
Nick was proud of his rock finding skills. :-)
One example of a "weird" rock.
Noah & Chris get in on the rock hunting action while Mike looks on.
OK, so this house. We stumbled upon it while on our nature hike. Its an empty little house by the side of the road in the middle of NOWHERE. I'm pretty sure we could film a horror movie here. Calling Team Tiger!! (Mwahaha)
Later that day we did another hike (I was so sore the next day) to Red Rocks to go siwmming. This is the aforementioned Red Rock.
Dee, making her way across the river to get find a good place to sit.
Cold water! Cold water!
Hanging out.
Us. We spent the weekend wearing various hats/scarves/bandanas, since there were no showers at our campsite. My hair was a frizzball by the time we got home on Sunday.
Brent taught the boys (and myself) how to skip rocks.
Michael found crab legs in the riverbed. Weird.
Brent being all manly & chopping up firewood.
Nick, Nate & I played badminton a lot that weekend. We all got pretty good by the end!
The moon rising over our little campsite. This was mostly me playing around to see what my camera is capable of.
I don't know what kind of car this is, but its cute and red and little so I needed a picture of it. We passed it on the 101 coming home.
That's Jazmine, the family dog. She's a purebred white German shepherd that we found after we moved out to Corona. The last of our rescue dogs. She likes to play with tennis balls and toy rings, she adores dog treats and she loves to help babysit kids. Jazzy is HUGE - almost as tall as me when she gets up on her hind legs (not often) - but she thinks she's a lap dog. All of us suffered some minor leg pains every time she tried to sit in our laps, but she's so loveable we never really minded. She's very high strung - anxious, even - but she loves to run and jump and play and in general is just a happy dog. A giant, happy Jazzy bear dog. Its funny how attached we, as a society in general, become to our pets. They really are members of our family. We have fond memories with them, we laugh at them when they do something silly, we feel bad when they're hurt or sick and we miss them when they are gone.
Today we had to put our Jazzy down. She's had really bad arthritis for a long time. It was always said that when she couldn't make the stairs or play with her rings, it was time. Time arrived quickly - she was having trouble standing, let alone walking. The original plan was to have her put down at home this weekend, giving us a chance to say goodbye. When she couldn't get up at all this morning, it was decided to just end it today. She went peacefully - the vet sedated her first so she'd feel as little as possible and she fell right asleep. She was even snoring! It was so Jazzy. I'm happy she's not hurting anymore, but I miss my snuggly "little" dog already.
This month's Washoku Warriors challenge was "Miso Month". We had 3 recipes to pick from - make one of 4 previously selected types of miso sauce and use that sauce with an appetizer (our pick) or with one of 3 previously selected desserts. Or you could make an entree: Miso Marinated Broiled Salmon. You could do a combo of all 3 - appetizer, entree and dessert - or just make one dish. We had until the 17th to make the meal and send in our write ups and pictures to Fuji Mama, who runs the challenge. Since it was the 3rd challenge for the Washoku Warriors but my first, I decided to go "small" and just make one dish.
Care to guess which dish I decided to make?
...Figured it out yet? Yes, I decided to go balls out and make the Miso Marinated Broiled Salmon. Not ONLY my first WW challenge, but my first time cooking Japanese cuisine AND my first time cooking fish. Ever.
This is my story…
SATURDAY
Shopping time. I set out for my local Albertson’s, armed with my wallet, my not-so-trusty cell phone (it’s on the brink of death), and my Washoku Bible:
Washoku: Recipes from the Japanese Home Kitchen by Elizabeth Andoh. It’s awesome. She explains things in a way that a newbie/wannabe culinary guru like me can understand. Trust me, if I understand the directions, anyone can! I struck gold on my first trip around the store, finding mirin, sake, fresh ginger, lemons, jasmine rice (my favorite), fresh salmon, sea salt…everything, that is, but miso. Not having miso kind of defeated the purpose of “Miso Month” so I tried again. Sadly, after 3 more turns in the Asian section and another 30 minutes of simply wandering the aisles, I was forced to surrender. I tried calling Rae (Rachel Hutchings, aka Fuji Mama, who runs the challenges and in general rocks all things culinary) to see if she knew where I could find miso but there was no answer. Somewhat disheartened, I made my way home with my purchases and hopped on the internet to find my nearest Asian market.
However, my life is a comedy of errors. (Shakespeare was a prophet! Trust me on this!) As soon as I got on my computer, Rae called with this information: “Miso is in the refrigerated section, next to the hot dogs.” Because I always stock my random (to me) Asian products next to the American staple of hot dogs! If you happen to read this, Rae, that banging sound you heard was my head hitting my computer desk. Luckily, my Brent is wonderful and stopped by Albertson’s on his way home from work to pick me up a tub of miso. He was awarded a pan of brownies for his heroic efforts. J
So I had all of my ingredients! I was ready!
SUNDAY, 3AM
Woke up with a killer migraine. This did not bode well for my coming miso/fish adventure. I had a slight panic attack, which only increased my migraine.
SUNDAY, 3:30AM
Thanks to the handful of melatonin and Tylenol Brent practically shoved down my throat, I was asleep again.
SUNDAY AFTERNOON, 4:30PM
Calmed and much less headachy, I threw on my favorite (and only) apron and hunkered down in my kitchen to let the adventure begin. Upon opening my tub of miso, I discovered my favorite fact of the day: miso smells and feels a lot like Play-Dough.
There are two ways to make this particular recipe: the long way and the short “impatient” way. Both are described in Washoku. Being lazy/nervous, I decided the impatient marinade was the way to go. I got Brent to assist me with cutting up the salmon.
We had a really nice cut of salmon, but again: my first time working with fish. We got a side of salmon with the skin still on, and I was soon covered in fish scales. Brent was too, so of course we do the only reasonable thing and have a fish scale fight! Brent won when a fish scale landed right in the center of the right lens of my glasses and stuck there. The fight was over, time to get back to work! We soon had the fish ready to go. I mixed my marinade together, but got a little creative in the process: instead of using just lemon zest, I decided to add lemon pepper to my marinade, a decision made in no small part because I was sporting a rocking paper cut just under the ring finger of my left hand, and lemon juice on that thing would have SUCKED.
I loosely wrapped my fish in cheesecloth per the directions (I called them my “Fishy Mummies” but sadly that picture did not turn out), covered them with the marinade and left them to sit for a half an hour. I decided to get the rest of my meal ready, which was relatively simple. I threw my jasmine rice in my rice cooker and cut up lemon wedges to accompany the fish. Sadly, even though I was cautious cutting up the lemons, a bit of juice still hit my paper cut and much howling ensued. Mostly along the lines of “It tastes like burning!” (Shout out to my brothers!)
Soon enough, it was time to fry me some fish! OK, technically we were supposed to broil, but I thought it would be more fun to grill them. I was mostly right. I had my first few pieces of fish on the grill when I found myself suddenly surrounded by smoke. The fish were not quite on fire, but they were definitely black, crispy and ruined. I was bumming hard. Would I be able to get this right? I was determined to soldier on. I threw those pieces away, cleaned my grill and threw the next set of fish on the grill but lowered the temperature slightly. I was opening windows to clear out the massive amounts of smoke when our guests arrived: my brother Ben, his wife Meshell and their daughter Cozette.
Ben served his mission in Tokyo, Japan and was therefore my primary taste-tester of my self-proclaimed Miso Madness. Happily, this batch of fish turned out much better looking than the previous ones. I grilled up the rest and everything was ready. Sweaty, smoke scented, with my left hand still burning from lemon juice in my paper cut and covered in fish scales, I sat down to dinner with my family.
I was nervous. I admit it. The fish certainly looked like I’d cooked it correctly, and it was nice and flaky, but how would it taste? Ben took the first bite, turned to me very seriously and told me to pick up my camera to record his official vote.
Success! We all dug in. The fish was amazing! The lemon pepper blended perfectly with my miso marinade and gave it an extra kick. We all had fish, even Cozette (even though she had her own dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets).
In continuing with our Japanese themed evening, we decided to end on good note: playing the new Mini Ninjas game on our Xbox.
So my first time cooking Japanese cuisine AND fish was, overall, a success! Brent added it to his list of favorite dinners, so it will definitely turn up in our kitchen again. Soon, if Brent has his way. But maybe this time without the fish fight. ;-)
Washoku Warriors--Group members cook their way through Elizabeth Andoh's Japanese cookbook, Washoku: Recipes from the Japanese Home Kitchen. One to three recipes from the book are chosen each month and cooked by the participants, followed by a roundup on LaFujiMama.com giving brief accounts of everyone's experiences.
Many of you have heard me say lately that I've become a Washoku Warrior. Coming tomorrow, its the tale of Miso Madness, my first Washoku Warriors challenge!! Tune in, for it will be EPIC.
Last weekend, our home was invaded by ruthless scavengers...
ANTS!!
Needless to say, I was not happy. They were EVERYWHERE, all along the walls, around my kitchen sink, all over my pantry, even coming out of the light fixtures on my kitchen. Now, it should be said plainly so there is no confusion: I HATE BUGS! That many ants gave me a panic attack and it didn't help that we had company over while this happened. So we had to clear out the pantry (gave me an excuse to clean out the pantry, at least - I had been meaning to do that) and I was digging around for my can of raid when my AWESOME, INCREDIBLE, TOTALLY SPIFFY BEYONHD WORDS husband swoops in and syas "Baby, don't worry. I came home in the bug truck today!"
!!!!!! *happy music* !!!!!!!
See, Brent has 2 jobs. The 1st, and his real talent, is as an electrician extraordinaire. However, the electrical work has been slow (thanks, economy) so he has a 2nd job:
So coming home in the bug truck means he has the ant's equivalent of a nuclear bomb. So we distract Mike & Debra by having them play Lode Runner while I finish hauling whatever isn't ant covered in my kitchen and organizing the mess on my dining room table and Brent goes in Schwarzenegger style to roast the little suckers:
Checking out the source...
Busting out the ant bait. Mwahahaha...
Kinda bummed he didn't actually nuke the suckers, but I can't complain since the ant bait worked perfectly. My totally rockin' husband saved the day! We are now ant free. Up next: the Adventures of a Washoku Warrior!! (My experiments with a Japanese cooking challenge. I'll explain later...)
By the by, to enjoy this blog entry the way I did in my head, start out singing the theme to 'Jaws' and work your way over to the 'Star Wars' theme when Brent shows up with the ant bait. Its pretty funny, and cements my place in the Nerd Hall of Fame. Happy Saturday! :-)
Brent and I met at the Redlands, CA temple while doing baptisms for the dead. I was new in the area and had taken to walking up to people and introducing myself to them so I'd at least know names. It was my turn to do baptisms, so I walk down the steps to the baptismal font, go up to the guy performing the baptisms and said "Hi, I'm Jessica Teter." The guy said in return: "Hello, my name is Brent Edling. Nice to meet you." 2 years later, on November 3, 2007, we married in the same temple we met at! We both enjoy movie marathons, game nights, volunteering for local theater productions (Jess is a stage manager, Brent does lighting), or abusing our Universal Studios passes. We're hoping to buy a house before the end of the year so we can start expanding our family!
Brent
Anybody who knows Brent knows he's a genius. Seriously, a genius. My Brent can do anything! Currently, he works as an electrician, but does pest control on the side. Brent is the one who usually adds a new movie every Tuesday to our insanely huge DVD collection. He also likes to teach his wife and friends abscure but incredibly fun card/board games at our weekly game nights. Brent loves volleyball, hiking, his Xbox, Snood, reading, torturing his numberous nieces and nephews and spending time with Jess.
Jess
I am the energizer bunny of the Edlings: I keep going and going and going... I work for Allstate currently. When I'm not at work, I'm trying out a new recipe in my (TINY) kitchen, scrapbooking, watching a movie or reruns of 'The Big Bang Theory' (nerds unite!). I also like go play outside with my husband - usually I play amateur photographer while he does all the athletic stuff. I love to spend time with my friends and family and host a weekly game night every Sunday at our home. Mostly I just try to make Brent laugh. I love seeing him smile!
Where it then lands on my plate!! Our feast came with chicken, ribs and (for Brent & Kyle) a briskett, corn, cornbread muffins, mashed potatoes & coleslaw. One feast feeds 4 people. Darn it, now I'm hungry again!
Christine & Darold Murrish
The Collins Crew: Mama Collins (in town from Alabama!), Mike & Deb. Only 5 more days until Deb is supposed to pop out little Sammy! SO EXCITED!!
Brent was a total goofball last night!
HI Wendy!
That's my husband strangling my brother. Good times.
Beth introduced Mike to Famous Dave's last Christmas in Alabama, and Mike introduced it to us in January after our Queen Mary adventure.
GUITAR HERO 5!!!
Brent whispering sweet nothings in my ear (in Portuguese again - I love it when he does that!)
Thumbs up!!
Connor Swart: the world's cuddliest baby! I adore that kid so much!! He got passed around the whole table and everyone just loved on him all night long.
Jannene Swart with Connor. Sadly, the only picture I got of Jannene was on my phone. Sorry babe!
My birthday sundae! Holy Hannah... the whipped cream was covering these HUGE pockets of hot fudge... sooo good. I gained 5 lbs last night just from dinner!!
