Happy Birthday Kent!!!

Today was my hubs birthday. He's the type of person that couldn't care less if you even remember to tell him Happy Birthday or not. I've said before, he's not a very social person, so there was no party or get together-Just me and him. He loves cajun food, so I decided to try my hand at making some jambalaya. He would've loved it if I made gumbo, but after reading the recipe, I decided that needed to wait until I had some help. Plus it said that it was better if it chilled over night. Therefore, jambalaya was it. I knew that it was going to take quite a while to make, due to all of the steps, so I started it around 3:30pm. Well, after boiling a whole chicken and chopping onions and peppers until I had tears rolling down my face, I got it in the oven at 5:40pm. Kent had already gotten home and was very hungry since he didn't eat lunch. OOPS!!! He didn't mind though. The recipe said to cook it for 45 minutes, but the rice was still crunchy. So, at 7:15, I fixed our plates with some very tasty jambalaya. (Restaurant quality, if you ask me!) It was really good, thank goodness!!

I had already made a homeade cheesecake, using my springform pan for the first time. It was a recipe from the Southern Living cookbook. Wow!!! It was amazing! I added some strawberries and Redi-Whip and wha la-After we finally finished eating, I wanted to take a pic of us. Then Kent made me take one of our whole family-Isn't that precious!

Muddy Weekend!!!

Kent and his friend Doug have cooked in several BBQ competitions in the past, but this weekend was my first time to join in on the fun! It was in Auburn, so we got to stay with my sister. The forecast for the weekend=thunderstorms!! And boy did it! We got there on Friday night, and all Doug had was an easy up tent for his shelter. Doug is the master chef, Kent and I were the sous chefs that helped with the presentation and ending. Poor Doug sat in his chair with his rain jacket all night and weathered the storm underneath his ez up tent with no sides, while Kent and I snoozed away at Ashley's house. We got back up there around 7:30 and the field was nothing but a big mud pit! I am so glad that I had bought some rain boots before going:

And that was underneath the tent. Nasty!!! Here's a shot of the set up:

Kent kept leaning up against the grill and melting his poncho:

We cooked chicken, ribs, pork, and brisket. Turn in time started at 11:00am and we turned in a box every 30 minutes. You only have a 10 minute window to turn in your boxes. Since this was my first time, I had to learn about all of the rules. For instance, in a competition in Mobile a couple of years back, Kent bought kale to garnish the boxes. The main judge quickly let them know that was an illegal garnish that could not be used. You can only use parsley or green leaf lettuce. Presentation is key! You are judged on presentation, taste and tenderness. Here's our chicken box:

The highest score in each category is 9 and there are 6 judges. There were 39 teams in the competition. We placed highest in the pork category in 13th place. We even got a perfect score from one of the judges! Even though the weather wasn't the best, we had a great time! We plan to do it again soon!
I will leave you with a funny pic. If you've ever seen the movie Anchorman, you will love this:

YUM!!

There is just something about fresh fruit that makes me happy. I just made a humongous bowl of fruit salad with strawberries, grapes, green and red apples, bananas, oranges and raisins. YUMMO!!! I have always loved fruit, but when you combine it with the beginning of Spring, it's just a little different. Today is the first full day this week that I have not really gone anywhere, and have enjoyed being at home. Yesterday, I went to WalMart on my way home from Cullman and bought some new plants and seeds. I just finished planting a blueberry bush, and an ivy vine. I also bought some herb seeds and planted some chives, oregano, and cilantro. I've never grown fresh herbs, so I am anxious to see if they start to sprout. I have dreams of becoming a gardener and hopefully this will be a good start. I grew up on a farm and both of my grandparents had huge gardens with fresh beans, corn, okra, strawberries, tomatoes, etc. I only wish that I had a yard that had space enough to plant of these fruits and veggies! I grew up on canned veggies from the garden and I must say that I miss that terribly! Oh well, when you live in a subdivision with your house 10 ft from the next and your backyard is about 15 ft, growing a big row of corn is kind of out of the question.
Anyway, we are off to Auburn tonight for a BBQ competition. Hopefully it won't storm too bad. I am thinking that I might run up to Target and see if I can find some rainboots. It's out in a field so I'm sure it will be quite messy!

New Giveaway!

Lianna is having another giveaway over at Be Thou a Knight, but this one is HUGE!!! There are 4 prize packages and for every $5 you donate to their IVF fund, you get one entry. If you blog about it and help advertise about it you earn extra entries. These packages are amazing and I will tell you, I would be sooooo excited! There is some great stuff up for grabs! You can learn more about it by visiting the link on the right hand side of my blog. Go check it out and donate if you can!!!

Movies

I've been watching a lot of movies lately, so since I haven't been blogging, I figured I would do a little review. Friday night Kent and I went to see:

I laughed so incredibly hard at this movie! However; this movie was totally inappropriate to take your 10yr old to! Yes, 10 yr old sitting 2 rows in front of me. Parents-have you ever seen any of Jason Segel's movies!?! Sexual inuendos throughout. Have you really explained all of the terminology about these types of things to a 10 yr old!?! CRAZY!!! Also it's rated R!!!! Enough of my rant. I am 26yr old and I laughed throughout and I loved it!

A couple of weeks ago we went to see:

Friday the 13th-scary, but totally predictable. Just like every other Jason movie out there.

Jennifer and I went to see this the day that she told me that she was having a boy. We both loved it!! It had multiple story lines and I loved the way that all of them ended. The cast was amazing! It was totally a girly movie though! Kent would've never gone to see it that's for sure!

I've also rented several movies recently.

I loved Michael Cena in Superbad and I really liked this movie! I loved the story line between the two of them and it ended great! I also loved the fact that he drove a yellow Yugo that people thought was a taxi. That was funny!

This was definitely one that I am glad that I had just rented and not gone to see at the movies. It was just okay. It did have a happy ending, but the girl was starting to get on my nerves about how completely ditzy she was.

Working...

Well, I am just going to say TGIS!!! That is thank God it's Sunday!!! That means that tonight will be my last night to work. I must say that this week has been very challenging! Since it's spring break, we have been working short and there has been no break in the patient load. I have to admit that I have been struggling about my job. Sometimes I just think that I want something different. I don't know if that means working somewhere else or maybe just completely going in a different direction with my career. I need your prayers about my attitude! It hasn't been very positive lately and I pray that I will figure out what I truly want soon! Some of my very best friends work with me and are soon going to be changing shifts/locations and it is going to be very difficult for me to work without them. Of course I am happy for them; however, I just wish that I was also moving on. Anyway, enough of my sob story. I am just ready for to be off!!

How Cute!

My sister in law and her family are at Disney World this week for spring break. They left Friday and stopped by to borrow our GPS and we all ate at Olive Garden. Everyone was soooo excited to be going and I really wanted to crawl in the luggage space of their RV and take the trip with them. Alas, I must work this week. Bummer!!! Anyway, Traci called Kent today and told him the cutest story. Carson, our 9 yr old nephew, told Traci that he hoped that Walt Disney was a Christian so that when he gets to Heaven he can tell him Thank You. How sweet is that!?!