Love Potion

Breaking news! Due to popular demand, Love Potion will be available in quart size containers all year round now!!!  But only available by the scoop in February as their Flavor of the Month.  This required me to promptly by two quarts for dessert tonight and it absolutely made my day!

Movie Night and Popcorn Update

We haven't been home on a Friday night to have popcorn night in awhile it seems like.  Here was our movie selection:

By the time Kennedy got back from dance practice and we did dinner, baths, and got settled in for the night it was getting kinda late.  We started the movie but didn't finish it.  So I'm happy to report that because we paused the movie about a 1/2 hour in, I DID stay awake!

After her bath, Isabella was feelin' particularly foxy this night and had fun posin' for me:

Debbie picked up some popping oil for us to try out for a new-and-improved version.  It made a big difference!  It tasted much better! All 3 of us girls agreed - this is a must for our popcorn recipe.

Movie to be continued this Friday night!

Glacier Gak and Leadership Camp

This post is all about Miss Kennedy.  A little miscellaneous stuff thrown in here and there but also some stuff about our busy past weekend.

Could Kennedy be a People Magazine Future World's Most Beautiful Woman?

She went on a field trip to Fort Walla Walla last week.  On the field trip slip it said to wear tennis shoes, pack a lunch, pack a disposable camera, pack $20, etc.  We were excited to hear about her trip when she got back.  She took some fun pictures, not really so many of anything she saw that day, mostly of her and her friend, Kaitlyn, on the bus ride over there.  She was super excited to show her Dad what she bought with her $20 (which I might mention we did NOT know was solely for the purpose of gift shop purchases).

Here it is:

The best looking $18.95 rock you've ever seen!!

Ouch...that is a stinger. 

Isabella played with her Meme and Papa on Saturday so we were able to have a little Kennedy science time in between her leadership camp stuff.

This time we made Glacier Gak.  AMAZING stuff out of Elmer's glue, Borax, and water. 

She had fun blowing bubbles:

Most of Saturday we spent watching her at Leadership Training for Christ.  It's an organization "designed to stimulate and encourage Spiritual, mental, and social growth among young men and women in the 3rd through 12th grades. Its mission is to achieve this growth by developing skills in leadership, Bible knowledge, and Christian servanthood."

Kennedy's events on Saturday consisted of a scripture reading and her choir performance.  She also had Bible Bowl covering Revelations. Kids who placed #1 in their categories were asked to perform at the evening service.

Standing in front of a huge classroom of people (including two judges) reading a long and big-worded passage from Romans Chapter 12 takes alot of courage. She did great and looked so grown up.

I couldn't get the videos of her choir performance to upload but her choir sounded really beautiful.  Kennedy is quite the young lady and we are really proud of her.  She has the sweetest heart and I'm really happy to be part of her life.

Bruce Deaux

After seven months of newlywed-ed bliss, I finally got my name changed! There are officially two adult Bruce's at home. Next step: one address! :)

Mixin' It UP!

Oh la la!  I got a shiny new cobalt blue Kitchen-Aid mixer for my birthday.  Shane and his parents went in together and got me this beaut.  This is my first mixer and it's soooooo pretty! I also got new aprons for my birthday which are so exciting!  They almost feel too cute to wear - I don't want to get them dirty!  But the dirtier they are, the more it means I'm cooking, which was the whole point, so I am just trying to limit my messiness as not to get the aprons dirty :)

Another great thing about these aprons - they hide my clothing.  I just noticed in almost every picture taken at home, I'm in the same black Addidas warm up pants and white Hanes t-shirt,  Ya...about that...I apparently have gotten stuck in a comfy clothing rut.  I need some new sweat pants :)

Mixer bliss

I went hog wild and made whoopie pies - I was lookin' like a Cotton with little chocolate cakes spread out all over the kitchen.  The filling definitely wasn't what I remembered hers to be so the next Whoopie Pie batch I will have to try a new recipe for the filling. It made me appreciate all those mud pies of deliciousness that she would bring to every basketball game - not just for my team - but for pretty much all the teams.  How did she ever do that?  They take a lot of time to mix up, bake, and assemble.  Wow...she rocks.

I also tried Lemon Cookies this past weekend...Umm...no.  They were crumbling to pieces before I could even scoop them off the cookie sheet.  Something went horribly wrong.  But success was to be found in homemade pizza dough!  I tried 2 recipes - one for NY style and one for thin crust.  They were both good and I got to use my mixer's dough hook for the first time.  How did people ever used to knead dough by hand?  I will (THANKFULLY) never have to know!!

I look like I'm up to something...

Ya...this is more like it...it's a work in progress

Vino Tasting

Shane got back safely from Vietnam.  What a trip he had...the pictures are really amazing.  The weekend he was back he had planned an overnighter get-away to Prosser.  It was the perfect after work trip since it's only a half hour drive and we left late after work.  Unfortunately, since we got their later we missed the wineries being open for tasting.  But we found a cute wine bar and did some sampling of our own.

We look like total boozers in these pictures but here's the disclaimer: between the 6 glasses there is really only 3 actual glasses of wine (1.5 for each of us).  Not so bad, right? 

One of the highlights of the trip (for me, not Shane) was visiting The Sewing Basket - one of the most amazing quilt stores I've ever been in - I couldn't believe the amount of fabrics this whole-in-the-wall shop had.  There were trails through this place, one person wide, that you had to navigate to see everything.  It blew my mind!  I can't wait to start and project and go back!  Shane was a total sweetie and reminded me that I wanted to go there before we headed back home  - I was so happy!  It is really great to have him back.

Birthday Parties!

Shane was gone to Vietnam and I was bummed he couldn't be home but I had a great day and week.  Thanks for so many thoughtful calls, cards, gifts, and emails for my birthday!  It started with Debbie, Kennedy, and Isabella taking me to Red Robin (Kennedy's choice) for dinner - but they surprised me and turned it into a birthday party.

The girls gave me pajama jeans - yes - you heard me right - pajama jeans!  Shane had ordered them as a joke waaaaaaay back in January and they were (shocker) backordered.  They just now came so Debbie wrapped them up and the girls gave them to me as my birthday gift. 

Debbie even smuggled in tie-dye cupcakes in her purse that Heidi had made.  They were delicious and it was funny to see her whip them out.   You just never know what might be in a lady's purse :)

The girls gave me the cutest card with a golden retriever puppy on the front and I thought the inside was so special.  It brightened my week for sure:

After work that week, the dogs and I loaded up to Nicole's.  We got massages at the Davenport which was AMAZING!  I had never been to the Davenport and I couldn't believe how pretty it was.  I felt like I was touring the Biltmore again in NC.

Later that night, we met Aunt Rhonda at Steamplant Grill for dinner and drinks.  It was sorta sketchy walking there but the restaurant had a cool vibe and the company was awesome!  We got a complementary birthday dessert called "WOW".  And no wonder - it was the best free birthday dessert I've seen...actual scoops of ice cream, a big brownie, and a huge cookie.  Easily splittable for a table unlike most birthday desserts that barely feed the birthday girl.

We headed home to the farm on Saturday and Brittany, Ryan, and Reid met us there.  Mom made my favorite childhood birthday dinner: Chicken-n-Rice casserole and sprinkled brownies.  She also picked up my adult favorite birthday dessert: Red Velvet cupcakes.  So sweet!!  We had fun trying to make lemon drops, playing Life, and watching NC2A basketball.

On my actual birthday, I had to work and then taught evening classes at school - blah! But, Heidi and her boys brought me tulips at work during my lunchbreak - a total surprise - that absolutely cheered me up! And Shane had sent me a beautiful basket of flowers with lots of bright and cheery colors.  It was pretty special he had arranged that even while he was gone to Vietnam.  I missed him even more after getting the flowers but it was really sweet of him to do that since he wasn't home.

Oh - and I nearly forgot to tell you but the pajama jeans are VERY comfortable.  And yes...I have worn them in public ;) I'm not sure they can really pass for authentic jeans but they get an A+ for comfort (AKA stretchy wastebands).  These will be my go-to pants after Thanksgiving dinner this year.