25 Years Ago

i was in kindergarten.
ron reagan was president - actually he was just starting his 3rd year in office.
mash ends its run on television.
sally ride becomes the first woman in space.
and

kansas state defets kansas in manhattan for the last time ..... until yesterday!

my mom actually gave me her ticket for the ksu/ku game last night and boy am i glad she did. the game was insane! we had never beaten kansas in bramledge collisium which had its first season in 1989. last night that all changed.

if you want game highlights you can check out espn or the ksu athletic page but let me tell you it was insane! the last time kansas led the game was at the 5 minute mark in the first half. after that we only let them get as close as a tie but in reality we had very comfortable leads for a large portion of the game.

it was soooooo loud that dad and didn't talk most of the game. no one left to get drinks at half time. we stood most of the game except for time outs and after the game students swarmed the court. it was great. it was awesome and it was about d*** time for that streak to end!

thanks coach martin and the wildcats for the perfect wedding gift!

BE PROUD! BE PURPLE! GO CATS!!!

SUPER MONDAY!

i have declared feb 4 to be super monday.

why? you may ask. let me explain.

last weekend while taking care of final wedding details it was brought to my wonderful hubby and i's attentions that the rehearsal dinner is on superbowl sunday. the day after our wedding is super tuesday and the presidential hopefulls will be out in full force. so it stands to reson that since our wedding will be *the* event of the year (snort!) that it shall be known evermore as super monday. hahahaha

counting down

we are counting down the days to our "part 2" wedding.
really this is the REAL wedding. it's important to both neilson and i that we have our marriage blessed by God. while we feel married we both need the blessing and quite honestly, i wanted a big fluffy dress and a chance to see neilson in his dress blues *hubba hubba*
that said we have had what you might call some "wardrobe malfunctions" that have caused a bit of stress. first we discovered that neilson's uniform was a bit more than snug and thankfully we found an alteration lady to fix it. then grace's dress still fit around *thank goodness* but was a bit too long again fixed by the nice Korean lady. finally, you guessed it, my dress was waaaaaaaaay snug in the waist and when my friend monica and i finally got it zipped i was lightheaded from lack of oxygen. let's just say that as you enter the 3rd decade of life your shape changes even if your weight doesn't. sooooo as we speak the Korean alteration goddess is working her magic. i suppose it could have been worse, all those articles of clothing could have been lost or damaged in the move.
so i'll *hopefully* see you in a few weeks!

Begging for Potatos

poor heather had to wander the neighborhood searching for tubers this afternoon. in all my grand organization i started to make hash and realized i only had 2 potatos left in the cabinet.

while 2 lowly roots is more than enough for grace and i, i am now in the position of cooking for a man. a man i might add, who eats like a trash compactor (his words not mine). honestly, the only time i have left overs is when it wasn't something he really cared for to begin with.

so i did find some potatos across the street and i was able to finish up dinner. my family is all fed and full and ready to veg out in front of the boob tube.

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives

hubby and i were curled up on the couch friday night watching, of all things, food network. there is a show where different local "dives" are featured. this particular episode was about bbq.

now there are 3 main "styles" of bbq: texas, kc and carolina. i'm not going to lie, kc is by far my favorite bbq - arthur bryant's to be exact. the host of the show featured a place in memphis (really? memphis?), charlotte, nc and central texas.

after a quick internet search we discovered that we live only an hour away from louie mueller's bbq in taylor, tx. http://www.louiemuellerbarbeque.com/bbq.html

so saturday the three of us hopped in homer and went searching for the best bbq in texas. oh my gosh were they correct. the food was wonderful. as you can tell from the photos on their website is a "rustic" building and you are served on butcher paper on trays. it's just meat, meat, meat and oh i guess a few sides (coleslaw, beans, potato salad and white bread). the pop is old school in glass bottles and did i mention the the food was fantastic?

we had brisket, turkey and one of their homemade sausages. they only use salt and pepper as the rub and they smoke the meat daily. the sauce was ok, not as good as arthur bryant's, but you really didn't need it since the meat was so delicious.

the three of us waddled out fat and happy and very glad to have made the trek.

now i hope this has your mouth watering and inspiring you to plan a vacation to central texas so you too can enjoy this awesome bbq!

oh an an update on that prayer request:
my friend rosie's husband made it home to her and her 3 boys early early early christmas morning from a 15 month deployment!!!! she didn't tell the boys in case it wasn't going to happen but isn't that just the best christmas present ever??

Ahhhhhh Texas

um yeah, it's january and we're wearing shorts and t-shirts. something is drastically wrong. it should not be in the upper 70s. however the news promises 60s the rest of the week :)

today was my first official day of not working. grace went to school without mommy and did a great job. neilson and i tootled around town all day looking at surround sound systems for his birthday (which is today by the way) and generally having a nice time.

Hi Ho Hi Ho

It's off to work I do not go.

My director called on my birthday to let me know that my position has been filled and that I will not have to return to school next week. It is a blessing really. Neilson and I will get 3 days to ourselves with Grace at school which honestly, is time we need.

Our little family has been uber-busy for months now and I was thinking things would calm down once Neilson was back --- WRONG!

I don't know if anyone has noticed but my dear hubby is a bit ummmmmmm... shall we say particular when it comes to organization. Since returning from North Carolina on the 3rd we have organized the office (read, gone through the boxes of crap in the closet) and just today we went through our garage/storage area and organized everything in there. YIKES!

Suprisingly, it wasn't the amount of our stuff but rather the lack of organization that made the garage look like a disaster. Now that it's sorted it is fairly empty and easier to access what we need. :)

AND it didn't take all day - double woo hoo. We unloaded everything into the carport, sorted and then loaded in. Now here's the cute part. While we were doing all this Grace was riding her tricycle around wearing one of her daddy's old army patrol caps. She kept telling us she was going to Iraq (the front yard) and not to worry she'd be back but not for a long time. Sigh - never did I imagine that my little girl would pretend play going on deployment. I think it means that she has taken control over it and is feeling better about everything. I do know she tells Neilson at least once a day that she is glad he is back.