Fish Fry x 2

Today we were invited to two different Fish Fry's! The first one was held at Shane's cousins' house out in Lee's Summit, MO. We enjoyed spending time with Shane's mom, aunt, uncles, cousin's and his brother visiting and catching up with what everyone has been up to. We feasted on a spread of Spoon Gill, White Bass & Crappie fish which were all caught by Shane's cousin and his 2 boys. I must say that the crappie was my favorite!

We headed home around 6:30 pm, fed & let the dogs out and then we headed over to our neighbor's Melissa & Nick's house for Fish Fry #2. There were plenty of yummy sides to pick from and LOTS of crappie fish to eat! It was all so very good.

One of the highlights about Melissa & Nick's fish fry is that they have a "weird beer" contest & award prizes to the winners of the most unique named beer as well as the best tasting weird beer. Last year the girls judged the event so this year the boys were the judges. Shane & I were the winners last year with the most unique named beer - "Santa's Butt" beer. This year we entered another holiday themed beer called "Bad Elf" beer and well, let's just say it was NOT a hit of the guys who judged it! We ended up losing our winning title and the Moose Drool beer won for most unique name. Oh well, there is always next year!

By 9pm, most everyone had left the party but leave it to this group to stay around and have a good time. The usual "game-night" crew and their spouses stuck around for more beverages, smores and a bon-fire & enjoyed stories & many laughs around the fire!

Here are a couple of pics from the evening:

L-R: Katrina, Melissa, HT, Erinn. Front: Keri & Michelle

All the guys together posing for a "rare" photo-op

Magic Bullet

I have found yet another "must-have" that I need to share with you all. It is called the Magic Bullet Blender and it is awesome!

This little machine will peel, chop, mix, blend, whip, and grind until your little heart is content. It will whip up fruit smoothies, milkshakes, salsa, margaritas, pancake batter, dips, scrambled eggs and SO much more in no time flat!

My favorite thing to make in it is fruit smoothies for breakfast. I just whip one up in less than 2 minutes and I am out the door with my handy little cup that I mixed everything in. With the additional attachment cups you don't have to worry about washing a dirty cup for the next day! They are dishwasher & microwave safe which is one more reason why I love it! It also comes with a 10-sec recipe mini-cookbook which has great recipes in it!

The cheapest place I have found to buy the Magic Bullet is at Costco for $49.99. It comes with 22 pieces where most stores on-line only have 17 pieces. Now the only problem is where do I store this little blender of "magic"?!?

Only 2?

For those of you who are wondering, I managed to escape the "holiday-call-weekend from hell" with only getting called in twice - once Sunday and once Monday! It had to have been a record holiday weekend since last Memorial Day weekend they got called in over 10 times! I lucked out and managed to have a pleasant 3-day holiday weekend after all! Thank goodness!

No call-ins?

It's day 3 of the holiday call weekend and amazingly enough NO call-ins as of yet which is unheard of! I keep checking my pager to see if it is turned on or not! How lucky is that? I hope the next 48 hours are just as quiet!

And so it begins...

Ugh! My 4 day weekend of call-hell has begun!

It seems the older I get, the more I hate to take call! Unfortunately, Memorial Weekend is my holiday to take at work :( It is Friday afternoon at 4:30 pm and my call-weekend has begun and doesn't end until 8am Tuesday morning! I SO hope the call-ins are kept to a minimum and I don't get killed these next few days!

Plans for the 3-day weekend consist of: laying out by the pool, shopping, painting the master bathroom, planting a few last minute flowers/herbs and relaxing with the hubby!

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend :)

5 years today

WOW - I can't believe that it was 5 years ago today that I married my best friend! Where does the time go? Seems like just yesterday I was being introduced to this handsome guy and that was well over 8 years ago! Time sure flies when you are having fun - and so much fun it has been!

May all the happiness we've known

Through years that now have passed

Continue through the years ahead

Each happier than the last!

Happy 5th Anniversary to us :)

Tan Man

Just thought I would share with you a few more pics of my favorite little Tan Man :)

Who are you calling a loser?!?

Millie & Tanner became fast friends...

Looking "cool" in his shades - how cute is he?

Tanner loves his snack cup....and climbing the stairs :)

The Graduate

My brother's graduation wasn't until this evening so we decided to head down to Union Station & kill some time in the afternoon. It was extremely warm & uncomfortably humid today and you could tell that there was something "brewing" in the air. We just hoped the weather would cooperate until AFTER the graduation.

Union Station was fun to see and we all enjoyed walking around the building taking in the history. The highlight of our trip was watching Tanner enjoy the sites around him - especially the coal train that went underneath us on the bridge and the fire-station booth where he got to sit on a "toy replica" fire-truck!

My dad, brother Chris & Tanner walking across the bridge.

After our tour of Union Station, we headed home and later left for dinner & Steve's graduation. We weren't fortunate enough to miss the storm that was developing all day & after driving our way through a torrential downpour of rain & some pretty severe lightning, we enjoyed some awesome KC BBQ at Jack Stack in the old freight house in downtown KC. After we all stuffed ourselves silly, we made our way over to the church where the graduation ceremony was being held. It was a beautiful church and the graduation ceremony was really nice. It was awesome to see my brother graduate magna cum laude & get his Nursing degree and we are all very excited for him as he starts his new job at Truman Medical Center in a few weeks. Here is a pic of the happy grad with Caleb (his fiance's son) and with my parents:

Big Brother

This weekend my brother Steve is graduating from Nursing school so my entire family is coming to KC for the graduation festivities. I picked up my sister Jen and nephew Tanner at the airport this morning and my parents and other brother Chris drove from SD and arrived around dinner time. As everyone got to our house, Tanner was wearing this cute little shirt to deliver a message to us all:

If you can't read it, it says "I'm going to be a big brother"!

Looks like there will be another addition to the family first week of December :) We are all very excited for my sister & her husband & I am looking forward to having another niece or nephew to spoil rotten!

What Can Brown Do 4 U?

Goodbye YRC, HELLO UPS!

Guess who starts his new job at UPS today? That would be Shane! He is very excited to be working on the docks and driving in the city delivering freight for them. He will work the day shift Mon-Fri and home every night & weekend! It will be quite the adjustment for us with him not traveling but nice to have him home and not on the road!

Good thing Shane looks good in Brown :)

Mother's Day

Pictured: Me and my mom on my wedding day :)

Today is Mother's Day - a very special day where we honor our Mother's!

I would like to take a moment to honor my mother and say "thank you" for always being there for me and for all that you have done to help shape and mold me into the woman I am today! I just hope one day that I am half the mother to my child as you have been to me! I love you mom...

It takes a mother's love to make a house a home,

A place to be remembered, no matter where we roam.

It takes a mother's patience, to bring a child up right,

And her courage and her cheerfulness to make a dark day bright.

It takes a mother's thoughtfulness to mend the heart's deep "hurts,"

And her skill and her endurance to mend little socks and shirts.

It takes a mother's kindness to forgive us when we err,

To sympathize in trouble and bow her head in prayer.

It takes a mother's wisdom to recognize our needs

And to give us reassurance by her loving words and deeds.

It takes a mother's endless faith, her confidence and trust

To guide us through the pitfalls of selfishness and lust.

And that is why in all this world there could not be another

Who could fulfill God's purpose as completely as a MOTHER!

Manny's

Tonight our neighbors Brian & Julie wandered over to our house to invite us to dinner with them at Manny's in downtown KC. I had been there before & it is not my favorite but none of the others had & everyone was curious to check this place out since it is voted one of thee top authentic mexican restaurants in KC to eat!

We got there around 5:30pm & it was an hour long wait & trust me, it took all of 60 minutes to be seated in this joint. Once we were finally seated at our table they brought the chips & salsa. Now when it comes to chips & salsa we are somewhat of a connoisseur since we frequent many different mexican restaurants & these were NOT the best we have ever had. Their salsa tasted like it had way too much chili powder in it & the chips were cold & tasted stale. Bummer! Next up was our food. Shane & I both ordered the Monterrey Chix Chimi entree which we later find out did NOT come with rice OR beans on the side. You had to order that ala carte! WTH? What mexican entree doesn't come with rice & beans?!? We were already paying $8 for a chimi & now they wanted me to spend another $4 for rice & beans ala carte? Crazy! We were both not impressed by this point & after eating our chimi with tons of beans & hardly any chix, we decided that we would probably never eat here again. On The Border & Rudy's still remain a favorite in our hearts :) Sorry Manny's!