Crazy Little Thing Called Life: February 2013

Goodness! Things have been going great and fast paced this February.

Friday after the Chamber banquet, Nick & I joined his aunt, uncle, Mom, Dad, brother, sister-in-law, and nephew for dinner in Longview at The Butcher Shop. Yummy food and DELICIOUS red velvet cake. :) Didn't take any pictures though.

Saturday, I rode around with Nick while he worked. I took Satch with us, so he got to pretend to be a country dog for a day. We were out at a friend's ranch, and Satch growled at the horses and cows (from inside the truck)...he's so tough. We also went to Nick's cousin's chicken farm, and Satch got to see all the baby chicks. No worries, I held him when I went into the house, but he was so funny. Chicks run like crazy when the door opens and someone walks in. They were headed in every direction and Satchel was trying to follow all of them. :)

Sunday was Super Bowl Sunday! We had the Borums, Maybens, Finks, and Jernigans over to watch the big game and pig out on food. The kids had a blast playing the Wii that the Borums brought with them. David would yell "COMMERCIAL" every time they came on. We enjoyed the half time show, and I'm glad the Ravens won. I also tried out a new recipe for a banana pudding poke cake. Delicious and here's the recipe. I split it into two pans so it would fit in my fridge easier. :)

Yummy banana pudding poke cake.

This week has been busy! I had Bible study Tuesday night, church Wednesday night, and cleaning Thursday night. One exciting thing that happened this week was we finally got decals put on Nick's business truck. I love the way it turned out. :)

The Maybens came over for dinner Friday night. We grilled and just had some fun visiting.

My parents and sister came over Saturday after lunch, and we attended a Gaither concert with Tovah, and then my family spent the night with us. Tovah works at LeTourneau, and as soon as she heard the Gaithers were going to be at the Belcher center, she let me know. So, we all bought tickets. My family, Nick & I had dinner at Cheddars before heading to the concert. We've seen them many times, but never just by themselves. It's always been a Homecoming that we've gone too. I really enjoyed getting to hear lots of the Gaithers. I grew up on Southern Gospel, and it will always be one of my favorite styles of music. The only thing I would have changed would have been having Mark Lowry there. He broke his femur and is out doing therapy. To add insult to injury, Marshall Hall had done the previous two concerts with them, but not this one! I so wished they could have had Marshall or Guy there to make up for Mark not being there. But you can't get everything.

My family went to church with us on Sunday morning, then we all came back to mine & Nick's house for lunch. I've been getting really good at doing Crock Pot recipes on Sundays. It's so nice because we come home and all I have to make is the sides. Sister bought Ranger with her, so we had good entertainment in the form of two Maltese pups. Satchel is still not too sure about him. Bless him. He was a worn out pup after the left though.

Look at that sweet face!!!

Sleeping off the weekend. :)

It's been almost three weeks since I last posted, and A LOT has happened in that time!

Friday January 18th, Nick & I went with Joe & Melanie to Mount Pleasant to go see Lincoln. I'd already seen it in December with my boss, but I didn't mind seeing it again. Everyone enjoyed it.

Saturday, January 19th, I spent a majority of the day organizing Nick's office. He had boxes everywhere for all of his books and filing. I knew this needed to be ratified, and we were a host home for DNOW which was happening the next weekend. So, I decided to devote the day to rearranging furniture, moving decorations on the wall, and filing paperwork. The room set-up works out wonderfully, and we can find almost anything easily now. :) That evening, Nick & I went out with a bunch of our friends to the winery to celebrate Kelley's 28th birthday. We had lots of fun (it wasn't near as cold as the week before), but I didn't take any pictures. :(

Sunday, January 20th, we had the Gilberts over for lunch after church. I had gotten up early that morning to make crock pot enchiladas. This was a first time for this recipe, and I thought, "That's a lot of food. We're never going to eat all of that!" So, I texted Nick and asked who he'd like to invite over for lunch. Bill, Julie, Payton, and Conner came over. After lunch, Conner had fun playing the hunting game on the Kinect. I think he was bored before we got that out. That evening, we had dinner out at the Mayben's cabin. I took dessert and we had a scrumptious meal prepared by Casey & Mitchell. It was a good evening.

Dancing fools.

Keyton decided to play in Millie's crate. :)

Coloring...

Monday, January 21st, I had the day off, and I decided I, for once, wasn't going to do much. I didn't clean, I did do laundry and made beds for the upcoming DNOW, but other than that, I sat on the couch and read a book. Melanie took me out for breakfast, and Nick & I made a quick trip to Longview to take back a piece of rental equipment. We also had firewood delivered that evening. Nick put me in charge of this. I didn't realize the quantity of wood you received when you ordered a cord. Let's just say that my porch is covered, and we're good on firewood for this year. :) Nick also hung the shelf he made a few weeks back. I'm loving the light in the corner now! I can read while sitting on the couch, and it is marvelous!

I had a hair appointment and Bible study on Tuesday night and Michelle and I cooked. We had lots of yummy finger foods. I was happy to not have to take any left over food home with me. :)

This past Friday night really started the fun. Nick & I were a host home for Pittsburg's DNOW. We were originally supposed to have 9th and 10th grade boys, but that got changed to college guys. I was fine with either. Our guys ended up being great! They didn't complain, ate LOTS of food, cleaned up after themselves (mostly), and only left a few things at the house. They didn't get to the house until about 10:45 Friday night. They played some Dance Central on the Kinect then all crashed. I loved watching these "cool" guys all dance to songs like "California Girls" and "Party Rock Anthem." They're all so much fun. ;)

I got up Saturday morning and headed towards Mount Pleasant. I am a member of the Pilot Club and our annual fundraiser, the Celebrity Waiter Dinner, was that day. I was on the decorating committee, and we had to get the Civic Center up and running for the evening. Our theme was "Sitcoms through the Ages." I wish I could have been there for the actual dinner, but the decorations looked awesome, if I do say so myself. For the stage, we had a large (7.5'x7.5') plywood TV made with a 6'x6' cut out that the actors could walk through. Then I had an 8.5'x8.5' banner printed with a living room scene that we hung about ten feet behind the TV. We then set up some awesome furniture for props. We also set up four "living room" set-ups throughout the rest of the Civic Center to set the mood. I also provided four TV shows to be played on a TV in each living room. It turned out GREAT! The bank's actors were Eva, Jacob, and Jason. They performed about a minute skit of Seinfeld. It was the skit where Elaine dances. Good times! After decorating, I ran to the church with Nick to eat lunch. Then we headed back to our house for the guys to come back around 2:30. They played a Madden tournament, visited, and ate even more food! I was also a hostess for the Hardeman's baby shower at 3:00, but we didn't get to actually attend it. I just had some food delivered to their house for the Macho Nacho bar. Wish we could have gone, but we already had a lot on our plates. Paulette was awesome and brought brisket, mac and cheese, and green beans for dinner. We ate then all headed to Emmanuel Baptist Church for worship. I left a little early (9:30) to head back to Mount Pleasant to take down all of the decorations from the dinner. I got back home around 10:30, along with all of our guys. Then we all headed over to Legacy Park for a bonfire. We had 9th-12th grade boys, 11th & 12th grade girls, and college guys all there. They all had a lot of fun, then we headed back to our respective houses around 11:30. The guys had a Bible study, then they finished up their Madden tournament. Go Cowboys (and Donald)!! I got to see them win a Super Bowl! I finally went to bed around 1:15, but the guys were still going strong. I must say though, I slept without being woken up, so they were awesome. :)

Stage view at the CWD.

Living room 1... Watching New Girl.

Living room 2... Watching Gilmore Girls.

Living room 3... Watching Home Improvement.

Living room 4... Watching Big Bang Theory.

Centerpiece Decorations... I made the table labels and the TV Guides. :)

Rabbit ears for the centerpieces.

Madden tournament.

Vic scored!

Lonnie loved Satchel. :)

Satchel was such a beggar!

Bonfire time!

David told us to do a "sorority pose". Casey didn't get the memo. :)

I woke up Sunday morning to an empty house. They'd all left without making a peep (or at least not a very loud peep). They had to be at the church at 8:30 which is when I got up. I did a sweep of the house before I left and found three shirts and a phone charger. They were all at church, so I was able to deliver them to their rightful owners. :) Nick & I had lunch with the Maybens, and then I had a GLORIOUS nap! After that, Nick & I headed out to Highland to do some fishing with Joe & Melanie and then to dinner at Whataburger.

We had the Chamber Banquet last night. Nick joined the Chamber in January and bought a table. We found out last week that Melanie was receiving "Educator of the Year." So, we did a little lying (by omission), and got her, Joe, Alan, & Tovah all to come to the banquet. Everyone but Melanie knew she was receiving the award. She put two and two together once she got to the banquet. She never even knew there was an Educator of the Year award until she looked in the program. Once she saw that, she had an inkling as to why we were all there. :) I'm glad we were able to keep it a secrect for at least that long. Part of the banquet this year was to decorate your own table. Nick & I have worked on his table for over a week trying to make it perfect. We spent one whole evening with him in Garden Ridge in Tyler and me at home. I was picking out flowers for the center arrangement over text message photos. We bought the toys at Tractor Supply, and now Keyton has something to play with when he comes over to Nick & Nana's. :) We tied for third out of 32 tables, so I think we did a great job "Spotlighting Our Business." The bank I work for, Pilgrim Bank, received the Business of the Year award. We were all very excited for all of the awards. :)