(above) Elaine wasn’t about to let some hot flashes get in the way of balancing the checkbook with the abacus.
We’re so happy you could visit! The room’s all made up for you, and I ripped out some pages of my favorite book and taped them to your wall in case you’re like me and enjoy reading before bed.
Elaine was not amused by Gary’s passive-aggressive response to her request to “garnish the cocktails.”
Every morning, and after naptime, KB takes her assortment of blankets & stuffed animals and insists that they be tucked behind her back before she sits down for breakfast. Children and their little quirks are so entertaining. It's hard to believe that she's nearly two, and that soon we'll be welcoming baby #3 into the picture!
Hey Guys. If you haven't noticed, I have not yet signed up for my CSA, Avalon Acres. I'm a huge fan of the csa, we have been traveling a ton, so I just haven't gotten around to it. Plus, we had high hopes for our garden, and the csa is a lot of work. And a lot of veggies. But boy have I been missing it! I haven't been motivated to do lots of cooking, or try anything new. But my sister-in-law gave me her CSA share this week! Yeah!!! It's like a field day around here. It's amazing how much the csa changes our diets in my household. I'm not very motivated to buy green beans, but when they are sitting in my fridge, I think, "Okay...it's green beans for dinner tonight!" And I love the creative challenge of scouring cookbooks to find out what I can do with carrots, beets and potatoes. I would have never been inspired to make Borscht Soup otherwise.
In high school, I used to eat an Otis Spunkmeyer blueberry muffin every morning. Then one day I noticed they had like 400 calories in it. I don't know much about calories, but I know that is a lot. Sometimes I think that the only difference in a muffin and a cupcake is the icing. 
We're loving all the fresh fruits & vegetables these days! Even more, I'm loving having my energy level back, and not feeling like everything I cook makes me sick to my stomach!
I was excited about this post of 15 awesome squash recipes, since squash season is just around the corner here!
the wedding party in beautiful estes park, colorado
i love this picture of ethan and his dad. it's rare to catch such a special moment on camera!
on top of being such gorgeous scenery, the weather was fantastic! 70's every day...and then we return home to weather high in the 90's. yuck!
Apparently, if myself or my husband is in a wedding, I will be 6 months pregnant and wearing this dress.
I LOVED this! I do not like storebought mosquito repelllant, and haven't found a more "natural" brand in the stores that I like. This year, we're trying cintronella and eucalyptes plants in the yard. Remember we thought about a bathouse, but never went that route. But I'm excited to see this recipe on Design*Sponge out there! Here are a few more plants that mosquitos don't like. Think I'll be buying some of these!
Here are my cuties at the wedding rehearsal for Tommy Caldwell and Rebecca Pietsch. The kids did great at the rehearsal, so I'm just hoping they do as well at the actual wedding!!! I can't WAIT to show you pictures! The wedding is going to be shot by the amazing Corey Rich, so I hope we get to see a few of those pictures as well. I know his photos will make mine look like kindergarten photographs. Doesn't this background make you want to pack up & move? I think Lance is hoping that the feeling takes hold. The whole town is like this. Absolutely gorgeous.
(rehearsing their walk! E was skipping he was so excited!)
Today we made homemade ice cream. And not just any homemade ice cream. This was homemade vanilla ice cream with milk from a cow that was milked this very morning. Added a little pure cane sugar from a farm nearby, and homemade vanilla extract that I made myself. The only way you get more homemade is to crank the ice cream yourself. And I'm thankful that I did not have to do that, although I loved doing that as a kid. It was so yummy! Next time, I'm going to attempt chocolate-mint ice cream, with mint from my garden!
We're about to head to Colorado with the kids for Becca and Tommy's wedding. Lance is the best man, and Ethan & KB are ring bearer and flower girl. I can't wait to show you pictures, even though it hasn't even happened yet. The kids look SO cute in their clothes. 
Recent posts on this blog have had me wondering...WHY HAVEN'T I USED RHUBARB YET THIS YEAR?" So I've been scouring the web for some good rhubarb recipes, when I came across another great website: The Local Cook. Check it out! 
The gardening efforts took a bit of a back seat when the floods came. They washed away newly planted seed, and put other planting & weeding efforts on the backburner. On top of that, bunnies ate a bunch of tomato plants. And finally, we've been on water restrictions, so we have been asked not to water plants. This does not set us up for a successful planting season. 
We ate bell pepper and pesto crostini, egg salad pinwheels, and jalapeno rosemary cornbread muffins with white bean hummus. 
the cutest little cupcakes!
we had lance & my baby books out for fun & redecorated the room with baby stuff. 
with pink lemonade of course!
the grandmothers
separated by color, right before the "reveal". the majority was voting for boy!
sorry to all in here caught in the picture with their mouth full (myself included). I just love the surprised happy faces!
girlfriends karina, kelly, me, danna & paige
Tomorrow we find out if we're having a boy or girl and are celebrating with a Pink/Blue Party! I'm so excited that the pink & blue hydrangeas are in full bloom!!!! I'm sure I'll be posting the results tomorrow!!!
Her hair is getting long enough to "fix." Pretty cute, huh? Too bad she won't let me keep it in for longer than a minute!
our precious kids.
kathryn. me, paige & kelly
Here it is. My very own cookbook. I made this in December, but haven't shared it because I feared my organizational nerdiness would be mocked. But Lance is calling my blog "boring" again, so I need something to blog about. 
I've gotta tell you how much I love this. I use it all the time, and it's SO much easier to flip through than my recipe cards, or all those stacks of paper. I grouped them all by type of food (appetizer/main dishes/dessert, etc). I would highly recommend making your own cookbook!
I'm still making a slow & steady return to cooking. Not quite back to normal, but I have tried a few new recipes that I'm happy to recommend. First, I tried another one of Jessica Seinfeld's recipes. Aren't these Pink Pancakes beautiful? I was afraid my son would revolt to the pinkness, but everyone loved them! 
Also, Martha Stewart published these Pea Fritters in her "Kids" magazine, when it existed (oh, why did you get rid of that mag, Martha?) I've been hanging onto this recipe for 5 years now. And I'm so glad to finally get around to making it. As I was making it, I was sure that it was going to be a disaster. So I made a back up snack! However, we all thought they were delicious. It was a pleasant surprise. It does make a TON, so make sure you have a hungry family around for these guys. (Fritter Photo from Martha)
And so life goes on. Unless your house was one of the many that was extremely damaged, things just return to normal. What a weird week has this been. We do own a rental house which suffered damage, so we're trying to decide what to do about that. We're certainly not filing a claim on that one. 
It's a bit surreal to be going through what our city is going through, while it's barely being mentioned in the national news, due to other also-important world events. I have included a few news clips below which do pause to tell our story. If you would like to donate relief supplies or help with recovery, visit Hands On Nashville. If you would like to help in a more personal way, I would love to talk to you about specific needs of this community. Our church is collecting many donations, including gift cards for groceries, and other household essentials for community neighbors. I'm keeping it short, still, since there is much to do around here. But please take a minute to read/watch some on the below links.
Pictured, about an hour ago, 7:30 pm, May 3, 2010. My husband took this of people waiting to surround areas of Nashville, an effort which is not yet completed. If you are available to help, please see hon.org . 
(picture from tennessean.com). It's been a crazy, crazy couple of days around here. It's a major, major disaster in Nashville. Downtown Nashville is flooded and the waters are rising. It has been a relentless downpour for 2 days. Water is in short supply in many places, power outage, hotels are being evacuated, hard line & cell phones are out, the lakes are overflowing. Here's a slide show of photos on Tennessean.com. In evidence of where we live, Naomi Judd called the local news to warn of her 6 buffalo on the loose in Liepers Fork. We are fortunately safe, but many in our neighborhood have serious flood damage. Many people were stranded on the roads, as you will see here, where a building floats by the stranded cars. Or how about this huge carp, captured on Blackman Road? This guy, who may now be making his big break into country music super-stardom, summed it all up in this little ditty.
Below is a friend's house 2 doors down from us. Their home stayed relatively dry, if you can believe that. Keep our city in your prayers. There are so many stories of tragedy coming out of our hometown.
In case you are wondering, these are the shoes you wear to an outdoor wedding in a monsoon. If you don't live around here, we got more rain than I ever remember in my 31 years. The streets were flooding all over the place. Our house, fortunately, stayed dry. But Lance missed the wedding because he was helping a neighbor shop vac out their flooded basement. :(
