My Boys

It's a bird!

It's a plane!





It's .... A RAINBOW!

Double Happiness

We went to Red Robin last week

as part of our birthday(s) celebration. We had 2 coupons for free birthday gourmet burgers, and so our bill came out to $0.00. That was the first time we'd ever been there, and judging from their prices, we just might have to make this an annual thing only, using our birthday coupons!

We DID leave a tip though :)

How Presumptuous

Just because we live "out in the country"

doesn't mean we can't already have super high speed internet.. Bleh.

Saturday Excursion with Grandad

Last week we went fishing

at Fort Phantom Hill Lake near our house.


First we got all our supplies into the back of the car, went to get Grandad and Lin, and continued on to the bait shop to get some minnows.

We managed to park in the ONLY shaded area there was, which was extremely lucky, because it was a pretty hot day.

The boys had a good time fishing, and Lin even caught a couple of catfish.

Meanwhile, several people came with their boats down the boat ramp right next to us. I kept thinking "I hope they have on sunscreen". I know.

Grandad, Jaxon and I chilled under the cool shade, watching the boys fish. Of course, Jaxon wasn't sitting still the whole time. The boy was busy exploring and picking up random rocks to walk around with. Thus making mommy chase after him all over the place.

We were all thankful for the shade and cool breeze that made lunch that much more pleasant.

And what was for lunch?

Chicken Salad Sandwiches, Pasta Salad and sweet Tuscan Melon

Fun Fun Fun in the non sun :)

Burnt to a Crisp

And Summer's Only Just Begun????

106 F = 41.1 C, btw.

Letti Thursday

Simple Ingredients, Yummy Food

We went with a South of the Border motif last week with Chicken Fajitas.

Once again, it was semi homemade, which suits me just fine :)

I went with corn tortillas instead of flour, because that's what the boys like.

Mix em all together and you have a very yummy smelling kitchen

Sides : Guacamole and Corn

Birthdays and Anniversaries

We may start a new tradition in our family

My birthday is the longest day of the year ( in the northern hemisphere ), David's is the day after that, and our anniversary is all wrapped up in there as well. And, of course, Father's day usually falls on one of those days as well.

We were driving home from our anniversary celebration at Abuelo's last night, when I told David that I had birthday coupons for burgers at Red Robin. We had used an anniversary coupon at Abuelo's as well ( LOL ), and he said, "Hey, since we have our birthdays and anniversary so close together, it'd only be fair to celebrate for an entire week! From now on, on our birthday / anniversary week, you won't have to cook".

I reminded him about Letti Thursday, and he says "We'll get the boys to bring US out."

Heheh. It was sounding better and better.

So, I'm looking forward to our Red Robin burgers, maybe tomorrow, and someone taking me out instead, for Letti Thursday. And then we'll just have to wait and see what the weekend holds :)

p/s Happy Birthday, hunny :)

Abilene Public Library Book Sale

I wish we had more time

to browse the sale that was held at the Civic Center. We were in between appointments and so had very little time.

Of course I made a beeline for children's books. In between not having enough time and having to tend to a 14 1/2 month old who was NOT going to be confined to his stroller, it was all I could do to just scan through stuff amidst the throngs of people and grab a few items.

All those books cost me about 5 dollars. They stacked the books up and counted by height. It was $ 1.25 per inch, if I remember correctly.

I'll be looking forward to next year's sale for sure. Hopefully we'll have all the time in the world to browse, and with a cooperative toddler too :)

Happy Father's Day, Hunny

My boys

A good man obtains favor from the Lord.

Proverbs 12:2 NIV

Saturday Excursion with Grandad

Close to home

Long car rides are not very kind to Grandad's knees, and so we opted to stay in Abilene last weekend.

We ended up going first to the pond by the zoo, in Grover Nelson Park, to feed the ducks.

At first we couldn't understand why the ducks were just NOT coming to get the bread. They are usually just swarming around anyone who happens by there. This time around, I could even let Jaxon walk around without fearing that he would be besieged and harassed.

Then, we saw that someone had scattered a bunch of corn on the ground, and so it wasn't at all surprising that the ducks and geese were not nearly as peckish as they usually were. Hrmph.

All that running around did gived Jaxon his first skinned knee, though. *sigh*

Grandad opted to stay in the truck and watch Jaxon toddling by, but that didn't stop him from spending some quality time with the bub :)

We then drove by the airport to see Cindy off as she waited for her plane for her annual trip to Africa with the Medical Mission.

David had gotten a fishing license earlier the same day, and so we decided to find a picnic table somewhere where we could fish AND eat. Grandad suggested Cal Young Park, a popular place for disc golf players as well as fishing enthusiasts, and so we headed on there for our next adventure.

We had a lunch of empanadas, while David tried to put together the fishing kit he had gotten at Walmart earlier. The wind was whippin' around us, making casting the line quite difficult, and in some spots, just impossible.

Meanwhile, Jaxon got a little tired of being confined to his stroller ....

and so, after slopping on a bunch of sunscreen on the boy, Momma let him go exploring a little bit :)

Chicken Puff Pastry Empanadas

For our excursion last weekend,

I thought I'd try something new, rather than the same old cold cut sandwiches.

I came across a blog post of someone making empanadas using puff pastry ( and I had some left over in the freezer ), so I thought that would be what I'd try. I used a totally different filling than hers, though, just for a more "curry puff"ish taste.

I miss curry puffs.

My ingredients? Onions, Ground Turkey, Potatoes, Peas & Carrots and Taco seasoning ( I didn't know how well curry might go down with the FIL )

Preheat oven to 350 degress.

Thaw out the pastry sheets, & cut into squares once they're soft.

Meanwhile, just add all the ingredients together in a skillet and cook till... er, cooked.
Transfer that in little spoonfuls onto your pastry squares, and fold / crimp edges / brush with egg if you like.

Into the oven for about 15 minutes, and voila :)

Our new ( used ) ride

David got me a car.

I keep insisting it is The Family Car, but have yet to fully convince him of it. :)

It's a 2007 Yukon XL SLT ( I had to get him to explain what all that meant - basically it means it is the long version with nicer "trim" ) that came all the way from IDAHO.

I know.

He keeps apologizing for it being maroon, but I think it's pretty cool. He researched it for a long time. It had to fulfill a bunch of criteria, eg : extensive safety features, cargo space, towing capacity ( for our airstream ), second row bench seat ( for the baby's car seat to go in the middle seat ), 4 wheel/2 wheel REAR wheel drive/all wheel drive ( I had to learn what all that meant as well ) etc etc etc.

My poor hubs racked his brain over it for weeks on end, and finally found this car in Idaho. AND it had very low mileage on it, with only 1 owner, for a reasonable price.

It arrived yesterday while we were at Taco Tuesday, and so David and Lin went off to get it from the transport guy.

It seats up to 8 people, with great storage/cargo space.

The Exterior










The Interior






I like that it's got rear controls for some stuff




And that Jaxon gets his own air/heat in the back




"wow, there's a lot of space back there, mummy"




"everybody was Kung Fu fighting..."

I know, it's quite large and long, and driving it will take some getting used to, but thank God, parallel parking is a rarity here, and we will be going down the road with hubby knowing "that both his babies are as safe as can be".

:)

Letti Thursday

It wasn't very colourful

but the food wasn't half bad :)

My version of Bourbon Street Chicken





Baked seasoned Potatoes





Cabbage





hot sauce optional :)





Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins