Archive for the ‘Family’ Category

Bless her crazy dessert heart!

Monday, February 25th, 2013

Every few Sundays that we have the kids we try to get to Asheboro to have dinner with Paul’s mom and grandma. (Paul and I have tried to go without the kids, but you can tell that we really are not quite as interesting and fun without the kids). Anyway, the Chapmans have a sweet tradition of family dinners together on Sunday night – very heartwarming. And loud when all the kids are present. I should really take my noise-cancelling headphones.

They also are a dessert-with-every-dinner family. Which is quite yummy. Luckily for my expanding waistline (torn meniscus is KILLING my workout routine), we only have dinner there every 4-6 weeks. But this one night – dessert was Southern like no other dessert that had come before it.

Not keylime pie.

Not peach cobbler.

Not even homemade ice cream.

dessert

Peach halves sprinkled with shredded cheddar cheese covered with sauce made of mayonnaise and cherry juice.

Seriously.

It was SO crazy. I thought MomMom had lost it. I was ready to call The Ward at The Home and report this suspicious behavior. Make sure she did not get near a kitchen again to concoct such culinary craziness again. I mean really, people – the children were scared!

OK, I was a little scared too. I am a bit of a picky eater. More on that later. But I was also raised to be polite. So I accepted this…

…treat.

AND IT WAS DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Webster was a Yankee

Wednesday, February 20th, 2013

Paul and I have been playing Words with Friends for over a year. Not together, mind you. Our marriage could not withstand that. We can coach sports together – coach our own children at that. But not play this game. Paul, you see, is a CHEATER.

In full disclosure, I don’t think he means to. He is just too horrible of a speller to know some collections of letters are not words. I can’t even give you an example since it has been so long since we have played, but I am sure Michael (my bro-in-law) or my Dad could give you many examples as Paul beats them by over 100 points in every game with his letter collections. I cannot bring myself to call them words.

My sister is convinced that Paul has hacked into WWF to make it allow him to play these random high-point letter collections. I told her – No, he just cannot spell. See, this is Paul’s real secret weapon. Most people, when they are trying to put letters C, Z, Q, I, F, A together on a board would say NO WAY, those letters don’t spell anything. Paul on the other hand is so diabolical he tried different letter combinations that will score maximum points until the game takes his words.

Yes, he even wears down the computer. When challenged, as is standard practice when playing Scrabble (the high class cousin to Words with Friends) to give the definition of the word, Paul answers:

176 POINTS BABY!!!!

You see why we do not play against each other any more. But I do like to keep my 38 year old brain sharp so I have been playing with others. I try to think of words that I hear daily – you know, make words instead of tally points that the letters could give me. Which is what led me to this moment of mixed emotion.

I was about to 1) use all of my letters and 2) drop a high scoring word using letter x on my triple letter space. I pressed submit and realized that Webster, the dictionary dude, was a Yankee. Check this out:

fixin

 

I am a good driver

Sunday, February 10th, 2013

The woman doth protest much! I do think I am a good driver, I just think its a lot to pay attention to – like directions. I don’t really internalize the concepts of how it all works, not to mention the surroundings. So Paul would generally check in with me around the time I was leaving work to make sure he knew when to have dinner ready and all.

Then he found an app that let’s him see where I am. Well, it let’s him see where my phone is. I usually have it with me, but there have been a couple times I left it at home accidentally. This way we don’t have to have the same dumb conversation daily:

Paul: Where are you?

Me: In the car, I just left work.

Paul: What time do you think you’ll be home?

Me: 35 minutes…same amount of time it always takes. [Did I mention that I hate talking on the phone? Paul is not the chatty type either. We always joke that if it were not for text messaging we probably would not have gotten married. We really don't talk on the phone much at all.]

…Awkward silence…

I would always be mad because I felt like he was checking up on me. In reality he was trying to figure out when to start dinner. Or gauging whether or not I had a crappy day and would want to meet somewhere to go out to eat.

Paul: ok.

Me: ok.

Now, all he has to do is check “Find Friends” and he can see where I am. I don’t have to answer the same question every day, and Paul doesn’t have to ask it. Well, last week this is what he saw:

This is what Paul saw and then he sent me an email: Will you get back on the road?

This is what Paul saw and then he sent me an email:

Will you get back on the road?

What’s wrong with this picture?

Saturday, February 2nd, 2013

Paul’s work is doing something with its website and he needed a headshot. He asked if I had any photos he could send.

Yes, he asked a scrapbooker if she had any photos? Do I hate photos!? Oh yes! 27,963 of them. Yes I am known to exaggerate. Hyperbole they call it, according to Tyler’s ELA test last week. Trust me – we studied for that test for AGES. Really, what 9 year old boy wants to study what assonance is besides the fact he gets to say” ass – onance” in front of his parents and not get whipped. But seriously, there are just under 28,000 photos in my software. I just paused this enthralling post to confirm the number for you, Dear Reader (i.e. Steph, Biz and a sometimes lurking, Elli).

So I set out to find The Photo that represented Paul the best. The one that I thought all of his co-workers should have to see on a daily basis. How’d I do?

This represents Paul's love of nature (note the flower behind his ear). Ironically, it is also the face he wears to weekly staff meetings.

This represents Paul’s love of nature (note the flower behind his ear). Ironically, it is also the face he wears to weekly staff meetings.

 

This is Paul enjoying his favorite hobby, cycling. Well, he had been enjoying it until he got stung by a bee and had to go to the ER. Luckily Benadryl has no effect on him - as you can see in this photo.

This is Paul enjoying his favorite hobby, cycling. Well, he had been enjoying it until he got stung by a bee and had to go to the ER. Luckily Benadryl has no effect on him – as you can see in this photo.

 

I thought this would be a great one since he works for a animal health R&D group. Nothing shows love more than letting an iguana sit on your head while eating your Subway sammich.

I thought this would be a great one since he works for a animal health R&D group. Nothing shows love more than letting an iguana sit on your head while eating your Subway sammich.

This one is just my favorite.

This one is just my favorite.

I will leave it up to Paul to blog about the winning photo.

 

 

Who?

Thursday, December 20th, 2012

My sister sent this to me the other day and I laughed so hard I think I wet my pants. Here is some background information:

Avery’s birthday is December 9, Elli’s birthday is May 2. Sydney is the cutest thing EVER. Here is the story:

We were talking about the order of birthdays. Sydney said Avery’s birthday is next and mine is after Avery’s. I said mine was the next one after Avery’s. Then I said really, Baby Jesus’ birthday is after Avery’s. Sydney said “Baby Cheez It?

IMG_0121

Week 48

Wednesday, December 12th, 2012

Week 47

Sunday, December 9th, 2012

Week 46

Thursday, December 6th, 2012

Week 45

Saturday, December 1st, 2012

Another Pinterest FAIL

Monday, November 19th, 2012

This time it wasn’t my fault. Not directly anyway. It  was all Paul. Mostly.

Here is what “hot dog people” are supposed to look like:

 

This is what Paul’s turned out like:

Mayonnaise-dog

Tyler’s looked like it had been bludgeoned.