Long Overdue: October Snow Storm & Surprise Birthday Party

Long Overdue: The heading for posts I should have posted a long time ago, but either forgot to write, never downloaded photos, or just ran out of time. There will be several of these to come in the next few weeks.

Denny is Kevin's dad, and his birthday is in November.  This past year, we decided to throw him a surprise 60th birthday party to celebrate.  Thinking November was a little later and might tempt bad weather, we decided on the last weekend in October. Well, if we had only known that Saturday would be the only accumulating snow we would get all year, I assure you, we would have rescheduled.  But - invitations had been sent, the pig (yes, I said pig), had been delivered, and SIL and I had spent countless hours baking, cooking, formatting, and shopping.

We roasted a pig all day on a giant spit delivered via a very nice man.  He probably thought we were crazy roasting a pig when it was supposed to snow, but hello - have you met us?! I should probably mention that BIL and Kev were most involved in the actual roasting, and the ladies were just there to do everything else.

The games part of the invitation went a bit out the window with the addition of 8 inches of snow, but much later in the evening there was a rowdy version of "Minute to Win It"!

Specifics: we had around a 50lb pig, and we invited about 50 people.  We also had a large assortment of side dishes, including the following overly large list:

Doing our best to maximize all counter/table space with the addition of your traditional picnic supplies (plates, napkins, foil pans, chafing dishes, buckets, pots, cups, and the like)

Appetizer

• Bacon wrapped pineapple
• Creole deviled eggs
• Drunken dogs
• Sweet/sour meatballs
• Chips with salsa/guacamole
• Peanuts

Main Feature

• Grilled chicken
• Pork
• Potato Soup Bar
• Green & red onions, bacon, various cheeses, broccoli, others?

Sides

• Potato salad
• Calico beans
• Broccoli salad
• Mac & cheese
• Baked apples

Miscellaneous (sides, etc.)

• Traditional cole slaw
• Fancy cole slaw (red cabbage/carrot/pecan)
• Pickels
• Jalapeno
• Onions
• Various homemade barbecue sauces
• Rolls
• Cake in a Jar

It was a once in a lifetime type of party, or with the addition of the snow, I hope a once in a lifetime event.  I guess we'll see what happens the next time someone turns 60!

30 days...

Yes, it really has been 30 days since I posted anything.  There are several reasons, including being busy, being insanely busy, and work being freaking busy.  But, the real reason that I haven't been blogging is because no one likes to read a whole bunch of words with no pictures (or at least I sure don't).  And this moron right here lost the cord to our camera.  Meaning, there are tons of photos on the camera, with no way to get them to the computer.  Lame, I know.  I finally admitted it wasn't in a duffel bag, at mom's house, or in the bin of "electronic whatnot" and purchased a new cord.  According to Fed-Ex, said cord was delivered to my front porch today at 8:17am.  (Note - does anyone else think the little puppy on the Fed-Ex Home Delivery truck is the cutest thing ever?)

With any luck, that means I can download photos of a bazillion things tonight, write blog posts while I am off work sitting around at Reading Hospital tomorrow, and be back to some sort of blogging regularity by Friday.  Ha, you know that isn't going to happen.  Really, I will start downloading photos tonight, be distracted by giving Kevin a haircut I've been promising him for 2 weeks, and drive home to Reading around 11pm.  Tomorrow I'll go with Mom to the hospital, the little baby song will play, and I'll spend the next hour showing her the photos of Autumn that I download tonight.

Anyway, the exciting things I hope to be blogging about in the upcoming weeks (aka catching up on the month of July) include hiking with a toddler, stay-cation, Brew at the Zoo, Kevin's birthday, my birthday, and learning to golf.  The last one might be the best story, although I won't know for sure until Saturday.  If nothing else, I'm going to keep track of the awkward things I say and do, and hopefully there will be some other awkwardness by my teachers (hubs, brother in law, sister in law) so I don't feel too lonely.

To tide you over, here is my new life motto:

Mix Tape Monday - Two

Yes, I am well aware that today's Mix Tape Monday post is two days late, so sue me.

Entertaining facts about this cd

1. I actually had to Google two of these songs to figure out what they were and who the artist was.  I think that means I'm either old or I need to listen to this cd more.

Songs on cd Numero Dos:

1. Kelly Clarkson - Behind Those Hazel Eyes
2. Foo Fighters - Best of You
3. Yellowcard - Lights and Sounds
4. Ryan Cabrera - Shine On
5. Relient K - Who I Am Hates Who I've Been
6. All American Rejects - Dirty Little Secret
7. The Veronicas - 4ever
8. Fallout Boy - Sophmore Slump or Comeback of the Year
9. The Click Five - Just the Girl
10. Zebrahead - Wasted
11. Black Eyed Peas - My Humps

And now you can laugh hysterically while thinking about me jamming out to this cd all the way to Pittsburg this past weekend!

Recipies to Try...

I have been looking for some new ideas for dinner recipies and things to ship for Chris and for Baking Gals.  So far, I've got a list of 6 must try recipies - anyone want to try them out with me?

1. Monster Magic Cookie Bars - Courtesy of Kate's Recipe Box
2. Swiss Chard and Sweet Potato Gratin - Courtesy of Smitten Kitchen
3.  Mexican Rice - from Silver Pencils
4. Chocolate Granola Bars - from Cookies & Cups
5. Nutty Cocoa Cookies - via That Wife
6. Troegs Triple Mango IPA (beer recipies count, right!?:) - from Beer Buzz

And based on my cooking/baking skills, my kitchen will look like this afterwards:


picture via cookwiththekids

 Good thing I don't mind doing dishes, huh?!

Mix Tape Monday - One

HAPPY MONDAY

Thanks to cleaning out two Rubbermaid bins over the weekend, I now have a new collection of cd's in my car! The beauty of my 6-cd changer in the Acura is that I can easily swap new cds in and out depending on my mood, the weather, you know.  Not that the Jeep can't do the same thing, but the Jeep's 10-cd changer is in the way back - like, Jessica go climb over the center console, back row, and into the trunk to change the damn Pearl Jam cd.  No thank you.

So - thanks to the awesome cds I found, we're going to have Mix Tape Monday for about the next 11 weeks. Because I found 11 cds of all kinds of genres, from high school track through senior year of college! I know you're excited, because I was excited as all heck jamming out yesterday!

Entertaining facts about cd Numero Uno:

1. It was made by Kevin
2. Kevin, who only ever calls me Jess or Jessica, wrote Jessi's Mix on the cd
3. It is from sometime in 2006

Songs on cd Numero Uno:

1. The Killers - Mr. Brightside
2. John Mayer - You're Beautiful
3. The Starting Line - Best of Me
4. Fall Out Boy - Sugar We're Going Down 
5. P.O.D. - Boom
6. Ashlee Simpson - Boyfriend
7. Fall Out Boy - Dance Dance

No, go re-live whatever years of your life that those songs just rediscovered for you!