Happy Birthday, Azmari!

Yup, we've celebrated 3 birthdays

at Rosa's on Taco Tuesday, within a month - or rather, 4 weeks.

This time it was Azmari's birthday. Azmari is Jaxon's first cousin, twice removed. ( It took us a long time to figure that one out ). In short, Azi is Jaxon's cousin's daughter's son.

Yeah.






Anyway, he's the cutest little boy, and he couldn't wait to dig into the birthday cupcakes!




P/S : We should get SOME kind of special something from Rosa's, man.

We were in Desdemona, Tx recently.

It was a very small town.

In fact, Wikipedia calls it a "former oil boomtown and virtual ghost town". The 2000 census put its population at 180 people, with 3 businesses. In its oil boom heyday, it is speculated that its population reached 16,000 back in 1919 - 1922. Anyway, more about Desdemona here and here.

Downtown Desdemona, Tx







The only reason we were there was to pick up/purchase a piece of heavy duty lawn equipment from someone there. The ride over there was pleasant enough, although the dark clouds threatened to rain down on us. With the snow and rain we've had over the last few months, the land was now greener than ever before, and this just reminded me of home ( back in M'sia ), with the lolling hills and green ( and wet ) everywhere.





Once we got there, though, it started to rain while David checked out the equipment





and then it POURED while they were loading it onto the back of the truck. Like CATS AND DOGS kind of pouring.





And then when they were done loading the equipment, the rain promptly stopped. Yeah.



Afterwards, we thought we'd take the "scenic route" home, which went by Lake Leon, which apparently is a fishing haven.





Seriously, for these people to come all the way out here to the middle of nowhere, to fish in this lake.. the fishing must be MIGHTY good. We even saw some vehicles with New Mexico license plates. :P

Lasagna Rolls with Spinach

I had made these a couple of weeks ago,


but David loved them so much, I made it again a couple of nights ago - with leftovers! David says lasagna and pizza taste better as leftovers...

Anyway, I got the recipe from over at Keep Your Diet Real ( they've got amazing step by step photos accompanying the recipe ), tweaking it by using skimmed Ricotta, low salt skimmed Mozarella and wheat lasagna noodles. I also added ground turkey to the sauce part.


I've made the "classic" lasagna a couple of times, but maybe it's because I don't use enough cheese ( *thinking heart healthy* ) or something, but it always ends up weird and falling apart and stuff. So, rolled lasagna was a super idea. It was easy to make and super easy to serve!

Spring is in the Air

And the Irises and Daylilies are a-bloomin'

and so my FIL, David, Jaxon and I made a short trip over to Sweetwater to visit Walter's friends, the Pyburns who have acres upon acres of irises and day lilies as well as a beautiful garden and yard.

The wind was really trying to thwart us that day when we got there, whipping from the West and throwing dust in our faces. That didn't deter a bunch of the members of the Abilene Iris and Day lily Club though, who were there as well, and who Walter knew.





Jaxon and I walked around, admiring the flowers and garden,









However, the wind DID get to us, making Jaxon gasp, and getting dust in our eyes, and so we ducked into the house :)





Which, by the way, has picture windows with an amazing view.





And then it was off to lunch at Java Jax. It is owned and operated by the Pyburns' son and daughter in law, and apparently named for their son, ALSO named Jaxon! :)




Isaiah 61:11

For as the soil makes the sprout come up
and a garden causes seeds to grow,
so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness
and praise spring up before all nations.

Happy Birthday, Walter!

My FIL had a birthday today,

( Yeah, I sent it in to the birthday column of our local paper )





and we had celebrated it a few days earlier during Taco Tuesday.




Everyone was invited to wear a hat, and here's Jaxon's before he decided he'd had enough.

Oooo I won a Prize!

I took part in a Parenting.com sweepstakes thingy

and promptly forgot all about it. Then I got an email telling me I was a winner. I was still kinda skeptical until we came home today, to find that the Fedex guy had left a box on our door step.

And it contained THIS

Yay! And it's for 18 months and up, so Jaxon can play with it real soon too! woohoo :)

*Off to join more sweepstakes!*

Letti Thursday Asian Edition

I tried to follow some recipes,

and I don't think they turned out too bad, but oh well, here was what we had today.

Le Spread

Stir Fried Vermicelli with Bean Sprouts and Chicken





Ginger Chicken with Bell Pepper and Toasted Sesame Seeds





Stir Fried Mixed Vegetables with Straw Mushrooms





Home made Won Ton soup




Washed down with Yummy Watermelon



I think generally the "Western" dishes fare better. :P

Letti Thursday

Shepherd's Pie

I got the recipe from Kayotic Kitchen, who calls it Pioneer Pie.

It was a simple recipe for a hearty meal and you could sneak vegetables into the "crust" layer. AND there's baked beans in it. Like, YUM!





Plus I could make it the night before, pop it into the fridge, and put the toppings on the next day to bake before serving. I used lean ground turkey instead of beef and omitted the bacon.





With a baby, you never know when you'll have some free time, so anything that allows me to get the food all prepared the night before after baby's in bed gets high marks from me.





Bon Appetit!

Abilene State Park Revisited

Right now it's neither too cold nor too warm,

so we're trying to make the most of this seemingly very short ( at least in these here parts ) season called Spring, and try to go on as many excursions as we can.

A couple of weeks ago, we revisited the Abilene State Park. It's pretty neat that we have a pretty nice State Park here in Abilene, even if it IS on the other end of town. We chose to take the route that goes through Buffalo Gap, just because it is such a quaint and delightful town.

I mean, just look at these gas stations, all made out like in the good ol' Western days.







The little boy fell asleep on the way,





and so we took a little detour to the Buffalo Gap cemetery. There was a historical marker right outside the gates, which informed us that it was the oldest cemetery in Taylor County.



I used to think cemeteries were creepy, but we have visited so many of them since I got here, that I think of them now as a wonderment, and a link to the past, with so many memories preserved in many different forms...and it's always interesting to read what's on the headstones...



There were some pretty interesting ones in this particular cemetery, like this one, for example.





Anyway, the little boy woke up hungry,






and we were off to the State Park to drive around and scout for an area to have lunch.

There were a bunch of campers/trailers that were out there that day. I hadn't seen this one before.. the r.pod





We picked a sunny spot because it was a little chilly, and daddy strolled jaxon around while mummy made lunch. Granddad opted to stay in the car, out of the breeze.





And Jaxon got a few souveniers









We stopped by the Abilene Lake area for a short drive before heading home.



It was a good day :)

Reverse Psychology

Spotted at Wally World

Downtown Dayz in Abilene

After the trip to the farm

and dropping my FIL and BIL off, we went on to downtown Abilene, because they were having one of their Downtown Dayz events.

We managed to catch a Wild West Shootout







But it wasn't long before all that loud popping noise/bangs got to Jaxon, whose face started to screw up to cry, and I had to scurry off to the park nearby and I distracted him with some trees, leaves ( he loves to feel of, and yank them ) and sculptures.



Yes, it is quite the challenge to hold the kid in one arm and attempt to take a decent picture of him with the other.



We continued on along a few streets downtown..






There were a bunch of street vendors, but sometimes, with a babe in arms, and the ever persistent dysfunctional mummy brain syndrome, I forgot to take photos.

Here's one that's borrowed from the Abilene Reporter News website.





On days such as these, when there is a "living history" event in town , you just might bump into Nazis on the sidewalks.





There was live music and grub ( I'm thinking one of the specials was supposed to be SHRIMP vegetable soup ), and you could take a spin on a Segway PT if you were so inclined - er, pun kind of intended ...






When we got home, I made Lasagna Rolls with spinach, and garlic sour dough bread.





The photos are kinda crappy, but what the hey, it didn't taste half bad.