Snow Day!

Dax still takes a morning nap for about an hour or so. With the cold weather and him being sick, this has provided a great opportunity for Julia and I to be able to play outside for a bit. (Dax is still not walking and since we've had nothing but rain for what seems like a month and temperatures have been in the low 30s for a while, there's no way he's getting down and crawling. BUT, he no longer sits still in my lap or the wagon so it's a very frustrating thing to try to take him outside.)

Yesterday during our outside time, we had the added attraction of SNOW!! After wet, drippy, cold days, we finally had a wet, flaky, cold day. Julia enjoyed running around in it and shovelling it off the chairs and table on the deck. The snow fell the entire day, but the weather and ground were warm enough that it didn't really pile up (except on the tables and chairs). It apparently continued to snow during the night because the ground appears to be covered now. We'll see if it sticks around through the morning.

(For those of you who are misled by the fact that we live UP in Tennessee, Knoxville is actually in a valley. Which means it stays warmer than the rest of the state. And we really only get one snow fall a year. It doesn't matter if one hour to the east or west of us has twenty million snow days. Those areas are either in the mountains (east) or on the plateau (west) and therefore get the snow. This suits me fine. Snow is not inevitable nor a constant presence; it might show up once a year and when it does you can enjoy it knowing that in a couple of days (if not hours) it'll be gone and life will go back to normal.)

Shoveling off the table
(I know, we need to get that girl some gloves. And a real coat.
She does have two jackets on [layering!] and I ended up putting socks on her hands.)

Shopping

Peeking out at the yard

Echo helped clean off the chairs

Photos

Julia stole my charger for my good camera and so I didn't have a battery for it this past week or so. Here are some pictures that I took with the lesser of my cameras:

Mafia Dax
He's finished bathing and he dares you to say something about it!

Daddy's Shoes

The Kids (and a stuffed penguin "Hi, Pollito!")

Playing at Market Square

Grandma, I love my new dress! Thank you!

Foodie In Trouble

We introduced Julia to Cuban food yesterday at lunch. Her takes:

Ham Croquette: yum!
Chicken Croquette: blech!
yellow rice: meh
Dad's pork (Fricase de Puerco): yum!
Dad's potatoes: yum!
fried plantains: no thanks
bread: her favorite (as usual)

I didn't bother letting her try my flank steak (Filetillo de Carne) because it was rather overcooked and chewy. After she tossed one of my plantains to the floor I didn't let her get her hands on anymore of those, either! But most of her food ended up in her mouth rather than on the floor which is pretty impressive considering she had eaten nearly a whole bag of puffs while waiting on our order. She also enjoyed sipping my water with lime.

You'll notice the menu of likes does not include any veggies. Our Girl is ... whatever the complete and total opposite of a vegetarian is. No fruits. No veggies. They all get tasted, spit out and tossed over the side of her tray. She is strictly a meat and carbohydrate eater with sometimes an egg or piece of cheese tossed in. At home she eats "fake" meats courtesy of Boca to ease my mind about her (probably) skyrocketing cholesterol levels, but I'm still bothered by the lack of vegetables in her diet. I get the V8 fruit juices and Juicy Juice's Harvest Surprise and give her a bit of those (watered down) most days, but they miss a lot of the fiber and nutrients she could be getting from whole veggies.

Any ideas? My current one is to steam some squash, zucchini, carrots, eggplant, etc. and blend it up. Then I can freeze it in cubes and just toss them in with things I make for her lunch and dinner. Today I'm going to try tossing some in with these muffins that she loves and that I don't make enough. (I'll also be going through the book, The Petit Appetit Cookbook, for more ideas.)

Mini Banana Apple Bran Muffins

(Note: I don't have all these ingredients in organic. It would break our budget and I just don't have the time to go find them all. I felt pretty good about finding the oat bran to tell the truth.)

1 cup organic whole wheat flour
1/2 cup organic oat bran
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup organic applesauce (I use unsweetened)
3 medium organic bananas, 1 mashed (about 1/2 cup) and 2 sliced
1/2 cup packed organic light brown sugar
2 cage-free, organic eggs

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease 24 mini muffin cups or 12 regular muffin cups.

With a fork, combine flour, bran, baking soda, and salt in a small mixing bowl. In a large bowl, combine melted butter, applesauce, mashed banana, sugar, and eggs. Mix together with a rubber spatula. Add flour mixture to applesauce mixture and stir until just blended. Batter will be lumpy and very moist.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling two-thirds full. Place banana slice on top of each muffin. Bake for 12 minutes, or until golden brown and set. Cool muffins in pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes before turning out muffins.


Hmmm ... when I made it, I cut the banana slices into fourths and just mixed them into the batter. I don't know if I misread the instructions or was just lazy. We shared these with our friends, Mekenzie and Jane & Clara. I know Jane and Clara loved them because their bag was empty before we left! Julia ate quite a few herself. I was thinking I could either just toss in some of my veggie puree or sub out some of the applesauce. Maybe 1/3 of a cup or so. What do you think?

PS-HAPPY NEW YEAR! I told Dave when I went to bed around 10 pm that at least I stayed awake longer than one person in our family (Julia) on New Year's Eve this year. Then we heard her in her room talking to herself. We turned on the monitor and she was crawling around in her crib playing. So I think even Julia stayed up later than I did! :)

Playing Ketchup

Ha Ha Ha ... I crack me up ...

1. Julia and I met several friends at the UT Gardens for Books and Blooms. It was Julia's first story time with someone other than Mom or Dad reading. She did pretty well for the first half of the first book, but then she and Mekenzie became more interested in trading their mom's keys back and forth. We walked around the gardens afterward and it was a bit of a challenge pushing the stroller, but we enjoyed seeing all the plants. Then Laura and Mekenzie had to leave and Julia and I ate a picnic lunch with our friends Jana and her two girls Jane and Clare.

After the story time

2. Friday evening I couldn't decide what I wanted to eat for dinner. So once Dave got home we decided to head to IHOP since it seemed to have quite a few different options. Kids eat free from 4-9 pm so we got Julia her first kid's meal! She inhaled about half of the funny face pancake we picked out for her (a buttermilk pancake with a banana smile, strawberry eyes and a whipped cream nose). She ate all the banana slices as well.

3. Saturday night Christopher and Jamie went with us to Boo! At The Zoo. Information on the event was a little sketchy so no one really knew what to expect. It was a bit disappointing. WAY more people were there than I expected and so we ended up spending most of our time in the Boo! Trail standing in line. Some of the animals were out, but by the time we got to the event, the sun was going down so we couldn't see much. We enjoyed spending time with Christopher and Jamie, and they were awesome at distracting Julia (she started out grumpy, not a good sign!), but next time maybe we'll just all get together to watch the football game or eat dinner. At least until the kids are old enough to understand what's going on. The upside is that Julia got to wear her Halloween costume! (She also enjoyed seeing all the people, but would become VERY vocal in her frustration when they wouldn't respond to her noises of greeting. Spoiled baby, maybe?)

Scary spider!

Not so scary spider

Trying to distract a tired baby

4. Today we're headed to a birthday party for our friends' four-year-old boy. We also have started discussing Julia's first birthday party. It'll be December 22 from 2-4 pm. If you know us and want to come by, go ahead. Don't expect a circus. We're simple folk. :) We'll send out official invites, but this way you can get it on your calendar early. The time is flying by and we can't believe Our Girl will be a year old soon!

5. Julia and I leave Nov. 1 for Hattiesburg, MS to visit my parents and celebrate my grandfather's 80th birthday. We'll be gone for a week leaving Dave and Echo all on their lonesome. I don't feel so sorry for Echo, but go ahead and invite Dave out for fun stuff to keep his mind off his girls. Although not TOO much fun stuff as he has a To Do List several pages long for while we're gone!

PS-I'm feeling much better after my bout with illness. I got sick the next evening again about an hour after eating dinner. We're still not sure what caused it, but limiting my intake of dairy seems to have really helped. So, I suppose I'll stick with that for a bit. It's hard since milk and cheese and yogurt are a BIG part of my diet.

Disappointing

We went to The Fruit and Berry Patch on Friday evening to scope the place out and discovered that the Easter freeze killed off their entire crop of blueberries, peaches and apples. We bought some sweet corn and might go back this afternoon to pick some blackberries. We'll definitely go back next weekend to pick grapes. I was really looking forward to introducing Julia to applesauce using apples we had actually picked ourselves :) Ah, well. We consoled ourselves with dinner at Gondolier.

The MBI summer party was Saturday. That wasn't disappointing, it was fun. Somehow when we were getting ready, Dave and I both thought it was 3:15 pm when it was actually 3:50 pm. Not sure how that happened, but since the party started at 4:00 pm we ended up rushing out the door without our camera (or our folding chairs or the cell phone or any sort of toy for Julia). We had the bare basics, though and enjoyed talking to everyone and accepting compliments on Julia's behalf.

That's the weekend roundup for our house. If all goes according to plan today, we'll be going to church and then hanging around the house. Possibly a side trip to pick blackberries.

Observed

Julia and I went to meet Dave for lunch last week. Travelling on I-640, there was a little old man in a gold car driving in the middle lane a few miles under the speed limit. Every time a car passed him in the left hand lane, he would honk at it.

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

I really thought Spring had sprung.

But the National Weather Service informs me that a cold front is coming through sometime tonight. Lows back in the 20s and 30s. Highs in the 40s and 50s.

Easter Sunday forecast: high of 51 degrees.

So much for my plan to have Dave grill ribs. (They were sold "previously frozen" and have been sitting in our fridge. Do you think I could just put them back in the freezer?)

Worse, this is the Easter dress my mother knit for Julia. (Julia will have to wear something underneath.)


I should have known. This happens every year. I take off the down comforter, put the quilt on the bed and one more cold front comes through.

So much for my tulips.

Let's See ...

Hmmmm ... what have we been up to?

That's right! We had visitors! We've been looking forward to seeing Christopher and Jamie ever since they finalized their plans to come to Knoxville. Jamie's grad program had a long weekend planned of campus tours, Graduate Assistantship interviews and social events. Christopher had plans to attend an MBA class and meet with current students in the program. Dave and I provided meals and entertainment when they had breaks in their schedules and a place to sleep once their busy days were finished.

Our guests arrived Wednesday evening after a long drive from Paris, TX. We fed them lasagna, salad and garlic bread. Then, I went to bed and Dave, Christopher and Jamie stayed up chatting. (That was pretty much how every evening ended!) Julia was already pretty cranky by the time they arrived so they didn't see her at her best. We did get a good picture of the three of them showing some Lumberjack Spirit.
On Thursday, Julia had her shots and came home just in time to wish Uncle Christopher good luck with his campus visit. While Christopher met with the MBA folks, Jamie, Julia and I chatted and then ate lunch at a new restaurant near the house. It was a girly lunch place with sandwiches and salads. The food was good. We picked up Christopher and drove back to our house to take advantage of the nice weather with Echo. That evening, Jamie had dinner with her group as well as a social activity. Dave, Christopher, Julia and I went out to eat at a new burger place, Gridiron Burgers. The burgers were really great and, as an added bonus, they use cheese from Sweetwater Valley Farm (a nearby farm that gives free tours of their cheesemaking facilities).

On Friday, Jamie was busy all day long with interviews, etc. Christopher, Julia and I bummed around in the morning and then met Dave for lunch. We ate at Calhoun's on Bearden Hill. Afterwards, Christopher, Julia and I left Dave at work (poor guy) and headed home to relax. Dave joined us after work and Jamie got home around 8 pm.

Saturday was the last full day here in Knoxville for our visitors. Jamie had interviews in the morning, but after lunch was free to hang out with us. So, once she got home, we headed to downtown Knoxville to walk around Market Square and show them the sights. We shopped in Bliss and Mast General Store, showed them the Tennessee Theatre and just enjoyed the pleasant weather. Jamie and I browsed around Reruns, a vintage clothing store, and found some interesting garments. It was a good day topped off with chili made by Dave and Christopher. They make really good chili!

Sunday, Dave, Julia, Echo and I watched as Christopher and Jamie drove away. Then we partied! Just kidding. We'll be glad when they move to Knoxville this summer and we can all hang out again.

PS--David and Jackie, we wish we could see you again soon, too. Thanks for sending help with the grocery bill! :) Love you!

Thank you, Dolly Parton!

That's right! You read that correctly. The Bouldin House sends out thanks to Dolly Parton. She of country music singing fame started a program back in 1996 called "Imagination Library." Here in Knox County, the Imagination Library partners with the Knox County Public Library. We signed Julia up as soon as we got home from the hospital. That means that from now until she turns five years old, Julia receives a brand-new, age-appropriate book in the mail every month. FOR FREE!

Yesterday, Julia's first book, The Little Engine That Could, came in the mail. (This is the first book that every child signed up for the program receives.) While she wasn't all that interested in it right then, I'm sure she'll enjoy listening to us read it to her and then reading it herself.

The Imagination Library is available in 90 of 95 counties in Tennessee and has spread to other communities in thirty-six states as well as on up into our friendly neighbor to the North, Canada. Last year the program mailed out over 2 million books to over 200,000 children! That's a program that warms my book-loving heart! If it is not available in your community, there is a link on the website with information on how to get it started.

I like lists

It seems like forever since the last post, but it might just be that we've had a bit going on.

1. We've been hard at work on the nursery. It's still a work in progress so I'm holding off on pictures. We've got most of the wall "art" hung up and hopefully will have all our junk cleared out of the closet this weekend. It will be the only room in the house with matching furniture and decorations. Echo and I hang out in there on lazy afternoons.

2. My friends, Diana and Shara Tonn, came by two weekends ago for a visit. They were out of town the weekend of my shower and wanted to say hello and see the baby bump! We had a great time talking with them.

3. A friend of Dave's from high school, Claire, stopped by this Saturday to crash for the night. She is moving back to Texas from New York. It's always fun to see Claire even if she still calls my husband "Davey" :)

4. Nannie and Pa are coming to Knoxville for Thanksgiving! We're very excited to have them. We weren't sure when my doctor was going to decide to keep me from traveling, but had just assumed we'd be on our own for the whole holiday season this year (except after The Peanut arrives, of course!). Now, we'll be able to show off our house and the work we've done on the nursery as well as spend some time with family!

5. Dave and I went to the breastfeeding class at the hospital last night. It was a disappointment. I'm not sure what I expected, but spending the first third of class having the teacher tell us the benefits of breastfeeding was not it. It just seemed a waste of time preaching to the choir. And maybe we're just fortunate, but we haven't had anyone question our decision to breastfeed. In addition, the teacher didn't seem to have any opinions about anything ... except how awesome breastfeeding is. Every answer she gave was preceded by "Well, there's as many ways to do that as there are mothers and babies ... " Not exactly helpful advice.

6. I have another doctor's visit scheduled for Wednesday (tomorrow). I'm hoping it's with my regular doctor this time. I haven't heard otherwise, so I'm optimistic!

7. Echo seems to be adjusting well to all the baby paraphernalia that's popping up in her house. We set up the Pack 'N Play in the living room, and she now just ignores it. She also ignores the various mobiles set up. At first she would bark, growl and try to bite the mobiles whenever we turned them on. Then she decided to just tuck her tail and run from them. Now she just looks at us like she's thinking "That's old news, you guys!" We've been spending a little time each day with her in the nursery and trying to teach her that roughhousing is not allowed in that room. We are experiencing minimal success with that. She's given all The Peanut's toys, clothes and linens her sniff test of approval. The only problem came when I accidentally bought a toy that has a squeaker. We'll have to be careful with Henry the Hippo since he sounds exactly like Echo's favorite toy, the Heffalump Elephant. Oops! She's still not a big fan of the strollers, but we're working on it. I think we've got all the big stuff set up in the house so she can get used to it. We'll see how she reacts to the car seat that is soon to appear in her car!

8. It snowed here yesterday. Nothing that would stick. Basically, it was drizzling, then turned to teeny tiny sleet and then to snow flakes. It was pretty to watch while it lasted. The forecast calls for temperatures back up in the sixties for the weekend, though.

Church Visit #?

Dave and I visited Smithwood Baptist Church on Sunday. A friend of his from work had asked us to visit and tell her our opinion. Neither of us is sure why she couldn't take her own family to visit, but we didn't have any objections to trying out new churches so we went. I was a little worried because I saw on the website that Dr. David Crutchley had been their interim pastor for over a year, and if he was great, I didn't want to get all excited only to have him leave once they found a permanent pastor. However, once there, I had so much fun listening to his accent (British, I think), I forgot about all that.
It's an older church: both the building and the congregation. There's some hemlock tree in the cemetery that is thought to be the oldest in Knox County. I don't know what a hemlock tree looks like so I sounded less impressive than I would have liked when I told Dave, "One of the really big trees is old. It said so on the website."
The people seemed friendly. We were a little thrown by the meet and greet when all the members stood and the guests were just supposed to stay seated. If we go again, we'll stand and pretend to be members. Would that be like lying?
After hearing the sermon, I've decided this will be the church we visit if we go to church when Mom and Dad are here. Dr. Crutchley is also a professor at Carson-Newman. His sermon was very academic. I kept thinking I needed paper and a pen to take notes for the quiz! We learned quite a bit about Philippians 4:10-13.
At the end of the service, a guy stood up and called to order a church business meeting. As we snuck out the back, the members got ready to vote on whether they wanted Dr. Crutchley to stay on for good.
The couple who came by our house last night with a gift basket said 94% voted to keep him on.

One post, many topics, lots of pictures

One:
This time we believed the reports of the vicious hail, winds and even tornados headed our way. We saw pictures of hail the size of baseballs and heard about the tornados ripping through the Nashville area. And we took precautions: moved the glass off the deck table and into the garage, put the plants under roof, cleared a spot in the garage for my car, put foam insulation under the garage door to prevent a lake forming in our driveway, wheeled Dave's grill under the awning, but what to do about Dave's car ...



We put it in our second garage. :)




Two:
I enjoy cooking. Trying out new recipes or making my favorites from my Mom's cookbook. I especially enjoy it at the beginning of each month when we have money in our grocery budget! Near the end of the month it gets rather boring trying to figure out how to make macaroni, canned tomatoes and ground beef not taste the same as it did last night ... or the night before that. This month I've been burning through recipes in my Cooking Light cookbooks. (Thanks, Jackie!) The Spaghetti Pie was yummy, but I took the picture mainly to brag about the salads that use lettuce from my garden (I harvested leaves before the hail storm.) My favorite dish last week was the Baked Chile Rellenos. Yummy! Roasted (and skinned) poblano peppers stuffed with mozzarella cheese, shredded chicken and cumin ... then smothered with a tomato and zucchini marinara sauce.
I was excited with how well they turned out this time. Last time I don't think I bought poblano peppers since we had to take breaks between bites to drink a glass a milk. We went through a whole gallon of milk between the two of us, and it still took three days for our lips to stop burning!
Three:
For the first time since we've been married, Dave and I owe money on our taxes. Boo. :)
Four:
On Sundays, we give Echo her treat bone: a Jumbone for small- and medium-sized dogs. She spends several hours walking around with it in her mouth searching for the perfect hiding place.
And she tries out dozens of hiding spots for it during this time as well: next to our shoes, under the dining room table, by the side of the couch, next to my chair in the kitchen, etc. She's not that sneaky, though, and we can usually spot the bone fairly quickly!

Even funnier, to us, is when she tries to bury the bone. She scratches at the grass until she gets a circle of dirt and sets the bone in the middle. She doesn't bother to cover it up. If she can find a pre-made circle of dirt, she's perfectly willing to use that as her hiding spot instead of making her own.






Eventually she eats it.

I'm counting it all as an anniversary celebration

Whew! What a weekend. And it's only half over. Well, ours kind of started Thursday night when we went to the Wilco concert at the Tennessee Theater with Steve and Gianna. We were supposed to meet them at Tomato Head in Market Square, but Gianna had to work late (hours befitting a newly graduated and licensed lawyer). We enjoyed our meal with Steve ... I highly suggest the appetizer of pesto and bread. Yummy. Although, you will burp pesto the entire night. Steve got Gianna's meal to go, and we walked over to the theater to meet her. And, other than getting to see the inside of the theater, that concluded the best portion of the evening. The show was much more "rock star" than I was thinking based on the CDs Dave had played for me. Dave agreed. We left the show with our ears ringing without waiting for the encores. (The next day at school I found out from some students who had also gone to the show that there were two encores. The band played 5 songs in the first and 3 in the second.) I have no pictures from the evening because on the ticket it said cameras were not allowed at the concert. I saw some people with cameras, but since security was searching people at the door, I was glad I didn't have mine. With my luck, I would have been the person they told to take it back to the car!
Friday was officially our five-year anniversary. It really doesn't seem like we've been married for that long. Of course, it was three years before we quit looking at each other with big grins and saying, "Hey! We're married!" I guess it took that long to sink in that we were finally married. We celebrated that evening by going to Downtown Grill and Brewery. Of course, I had forgotten that other people have a reason to celebrate on that day. And since it is a brewery, the place was packed with tipsy people wearing green. (By the time we left it was packed with drunk people wearing green.) We decided to just go ahead and wait for our table. Eventually we were seated and had a yummy meal. We ate the pretzels and beer cheese for an appetizer. Dave had the Captain Sirloin (steak stuffed with shrimp, spinach, mushrooms, Parmesan cheese, bacon and garlic butter) with seasoned rice and cinnamon apples as his sides. He also got a chance to try the State Street Stout. I was a little less daring. I had the mesquite grilled steak (plain) with mashed potatoes and a side salad. Neither of us could finish our food so Dave will end up with a really good lunch to take to work on Monday! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Steele for sending us out somewhere nice. We followed your instructions! :)
Saturday, though exhausted, we rolled ourselves out of bed early. Echo had an appointment with the groomer at PetsMart so she would look pretty for Mom and Dad. Dave and I had an appointment with 409, Lysol and Clorox to clean the house so it would look pretty for Mom and Dad. It really, really needed it. Trust me. Except for getting some of the boxes into the attic, we managed to finish before they arrived. Sort of. It's clean, but not necessarily neat. They met Echo, laughed because her tail looked funny the way the groomer left it, and we got take out from Panda Garden. We ate, watched TV, and everyone just recovered from the day. Hopefully today we'll take it easy and just go through the boxes of stuff they brought. Mom found all sort of old schoolwork, drawings, photos and other memorabilia from my brother's and my school years. Did you know that in 3rd grade my favorite movie star was Kermit? :)

State Parks = good

Thanks, Jamie! for telling me your plans for a fun Saturday outing with your boyfriend (my brother-in-law, Christopher) at a Texas state park. It reminded me that Dave and I hadn't really taken advantage of this resource when finding things to do during our weekends.
We had fun when we lived in Arlington visiting Dinosaur Valley State Park. We saw the dinosaur tracks and swam in the river. We also took pictures next to the gigantic fiberglass dinosaurs. Dinosaur Valley is also where we (probably illegally) took home a water bottle full of tiny fish to put in our aquarium. I managed to kill all the fish we bought at the pet store, but the ones we got from the park lived for a long time.
Here in Knoxville, we live close to several parks. I'm making plans for us to visit Big Ridge State Park and Norris Dam State Park. Norris Dam looks like it has some really cool programs available all year round. I'd like to try the Annual Wildflower Hike, the Grist Mill Tour, Birds of Tennessee, Hill Cave Tours, Spring Wildflower Walks, Fall Color Cruises and some of the others listed. How cool. Plus, you can fish. I never catch anything (and I wouldn't want to eat anything I caught), but I like to fish.

Bar-Ba-Ma-Que!

Dave and I went to the National Barbeque Association's Smokin' in the Smokies on Saturday. You paid $10 for the first person and $5 for each additional adult and had access to the booths and samples of yummy BBQ. We arrived about an hour after the official start time of 10:30 am, and I was worried it would be super crowded with long waits for teeny tiny samples. Instead, there were so few people there, it ended up being pretty much an all you can eat buffet. You just had to go through the line more often since the only plates available were dessert-sized.
Different experts from around the country set up smokers and grills in the Marriott's parking lot and gave you samples to eat. We had chicken wings, chicken legs, pulled pork, pork shoulder, brisket, sausage, ribs, and chicken breast. When Dave went back for more pulled pork, the guy behind him in line said, "I've been through so often, I'm ashamed of myself." And the lady dishing out the food told him, "I'm not even looking!" My favorite was the 17th Street Bar & Grill from Illinois. Their sausage was fantastic ... crispy on the outside, juicy inside, and spicy!

Inside the hotel, companies set up booths in the lobby and gave out free samples and information and tried to sell you their grills, smokers, etc. The Bush's Beans people were there and had four different kinds of beans to try. Dave liked the Hawaiian and Campfire beans the best. I, as you know, have an allergy to beans. So, not wanting to ruin the fun, I chose not to partake. :) I did pick up two cans of beans, some cute rolls of mints that look like little cans of Bush's beans and the recipes for the different bean offerings available that day. The guys manning the booth were very nice, and we had a good time talking to them while Dave ate his beans.
We opted not to do the BBQ sauce taste test, but as we were sitting in the lobby chairs trying to decide if we should go back for more, a lady asked us to fill out a survey about food shows. We each filled one out, and she paid us $2 a piece for our opinions! We didn't tell her we would have done it for free. We were going to sink our money right back into the trade show, but, unfortunately, the KC Specialties booth was out of the Apple BBQ sauce that Dave really, really, really liked. The guy said someone came in early that morning and bought 3 cases(!) of it which wiped out his available stock for the show. We'll just have to order some off the website.

I'd never been in the Convention Center

My friend, Jana (not the pregnant one, a different Jana who is also a member of the BMS Survivors' Club), and I went to the Dogwood Village House and Garden Show on Friday. We had a great time looking inside the sample houses and talking to people at their booths. I managed to get out without purchasing anything mainly because I only brought enough cash to buy my ticket. I did enter most of the drawings so I'm sure to win something! Actually, I'll probably only end up winning a lot of phone calls from people trying to sell me the stuff I tried to win. And I'll have to let them down gently by telling them, "Oh, your product only looked like something I would want for free! Not something I'd pay for!"
I saw SO many cool ideas for our house. I made a list (in no particular order) and if anyone wants to make a donation to the Dave and Jo Home Improvement Fund (proceeds used for the following projects ... or other household improvements as needed), feel free. :)

1. An underground fence for our Echo pup. I talked with a dealer of the Pet Stop brand fencing here in Knoxville. He answered my questions and covered some of my concerns. The fences come with a written guarantee that they can contain your pet. I didn't ask, but I wondered how you have to prove it did not contain your dog. Will video of the dog escaping be sufficient? Or do I have to have a missing dog? It's not worth it if I have to lose my dog or show them her poor, run over body. And what if your pet isn't responding? Do they just up the voltage on the collar until each time your dog goes near the fence she gets knocked out? Or is the electric stimulation eventually enough to shock the knowledge of the squirrel she was chasing right out of her head? I still have some questions and don't know how long it would take me to be comfortable enough to let her roam the backyard on her own with the underground fence, but it would be nice to have. Especially for her bathroom breaks.

2. I thought this Kwik Kerb stuff was really cool. It's a continuous concrete edging around your garden beds. Right now, we just have bricks stuck in at odd angles. It makes it difficult for Dave to mow and looks rather ugly and cheap. This is a continuous line of concrete that they then seal and paint to suit your landscape. I put my name in a drawing for $500 worth of the curbing. That's the drawing I really wanted to win. I might call the guy and have him come tell me how much it would cost.

3. And then for Dave's garage, this Gladiator GarageWorks system. You install the GearWall panels and then hang the different wall components (hooks, bins, shelves, baskets and GearBoxes) on the tracks for storage. As an anal-retentive organizer, I would have so much fun with this stuff! And Dave would just be happy to be able to find the tool he's looking for and also have space to use it!

4. Of course, we'd need a better garage door to complement the new storage system. :) Oh, and to be able to have a garage door opener so we could actually park our cars in the garage! I didn't really find a garage door that I liked at the show, but we still need one!

5. I'd also like to replace the windows in the bedrooms and bathrooms. There were so many window dealers there that I got all confused. I really think Dave will have to work on that one.

6. Finally, I'd like a lawn nice enough that we need this. I'd just like to have soft, green grass and be able to run through it without worrying about breaking a leg by stepping in a hole. Our lawn right now is a safety hazard.

I'll just add all these ideas to the end of our list. At the top right now are the not as cool, but definitely more important, projects of plumbing and fixing the support under the back bedroom. I've always known better than to ask God for patience, but now it appears I'll be learning it anyway.

It's cold out there

When we went to get our lottery tickets last night (Is there a prize for only getting 2 numbers out of 30?), the snow was just starting to fall. The grass just had a dusting of white.
This morning was a different story. Dave got up early since he figured the commute would be pretty bad, but Knox County Schools were still in session. (They weren't even delayed.) Dave called and said the commute wasn't bad at all. Normal amount of traffic, etc.
Here are some "Before" and "After" shots of David's car.
(Before=right after we got up this morning
After=right after his precious wife spent twenty minutes working on it with a hair dryer and a broom!)

Echo wasn't too sure about the snow. She barked at it from her window perch, and once we went outside, she was content to sniff and paw at it from the sidewalk for a bit.
It wasn't long before she went tearing off into the yard and played.


I only wish I hadn't taken the time yesterday to mop all the floors!

The weekend

We had a fun and productive weekend. As is our habit, we opted for the fun part first and helped Laura (Dave's co-worker) celebrate her 30th birthday. Quite a few people gathered at Mellow Mushroom for the party. She opened gifts (from the Bouldins, courtesy of Dave, she received what every girl wants: an angle grinder), made a wish, blew out her candles and, oh yeah, announced that she's three months pregnant! Yeah for Laura and Brooks! Well, Double Yeah for Laura. Although they took forever to arrive, our calzones were yummy and we had fun talking with Jacene and Clay.
Afterwards, we went to the Knoxville Ice Bears game against the Columbus Cottonmouths and watched the Ice Bears win. The promotion that night was a hockey game between various TV, radio and print personalities here in Knoxville. I wish I had taken my camera to get pictures. Several of the players were such poor skaters they had to be helped onto and off the ice. Hee. There were only a few fights, but two of them were really spectacular.
On Sunday, we worked to get the living room put together.
The rug had developed a huge ridge. So we flattened that out and now have boards and chairs keeping pressure on the spot.

We hung up the pictures we knew we wanted in the living room.
(We still need drapes, but are having philosophical differences as to the color.)Any ideas for the space over the fireplace? We need a placeholder until we get our flat panel TV monitor. :)Dave worked hard to replace the outlets with GFCI outlets. Now we just have to figure out why the two on either side of the window don't work! (update: I'm a goob. The outlets do work.)

Even though we might be re-arranging the setup soon, we felt pretty good about our accomplishments this weekend! We even finished work in time to watch the Steelers win the Super Bowl.

Fortune

When my parents were helping us get the house ready to move into, my mom and I were puzzled by this restaurant on Callahan. I've never heard of a panda that mimics a koala, but maybe one exists.

I'm not a big fan of Asian cuisine, but Thursday night as we drove by, I experienced a sudden craving and suggested we try it out. I had the honey chicken dinner special which included a good sized portion of honey chicken, fried rice and an eggroll. Dave took my leftovers to work the next day for lunch. Which meant when it came time for Friday dinner and I was craving honey chicken, we had to go back! Yummy stuff!
My only complaint is the fortune cookies. They have a faint lemon tang to them. My fortune cookie preferences lean more toward vanilla. No fruity overtones, please. And the fortunes were horrible. "Your future is boundless as the lofty heaven." "Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor liberty to purchase power." I haven't found a good fortune in a cookie in a long time.
With the exception of Dave's fortune from BQ's when we visited this past December with his family:
"You will get some new clothes."
It came true, too.

Sit.

We had puppy class again last night. Echo did very well. She responds to her name much faster than the yippy, white dogs. We are so busy during class there's no time to take pictures. I'll probably stop bringing my camera. Maybe to the last class.
We played "Pass the Puppy" in class. It took some convincing (read: feeding of treats) for Echo to go to the other people in the class, but she visited everyone and did not pee on the floor once!!!! We have noticed that as long as one of us has ahold of her leash, Echo is all about tail-wagging, cutsey meeting people. The minute someone else takes hold of the leash, her ears flatten, her tail drops and she tries to hide behind us. She knows who her people are!
Here's the view off our deck at 7:26 am this morning. I need to get out there about 4 minutes earlier ... before the yellow starts showing and the sky is all brilliant pink and orange.
And here is the view from our living room at 7:32 am. Echo waits seated beside me and watches as David walks out and closes the door on his way to work. Then she runs over to the window to watch him walk down the sidewalk and drive away.