Chinese food cooking class

Last night my sister and I went to a cooking class at a place called Sur La Table. Sara has been a few times and asked me about a month and a half ago if I wanted to go to the Wok Essentials class they offered. I've always wanted to be good at cooking Chinese food but honestly it intimidates the snot out of me. Probably not good to use the word snot in the same sentence as Chinese food but hey. This is my blog. We learned how to make several yummy dishes and even got to do some of the chopping and "wok-ing", as our instructor liked to say. Or maybe that's a real word. I don't know. But she said for the evening we would be using the word wok like a verb. I liked it! Multi-purpose words are fun!! I had a really great time and plan on doing more of those classes. There is a "date night" class that I'm going to see if I can get Brian to go to. Enjoy the pictures!!

Kind of blurry but here is Sara coating our beef in some sort of corn starch mixture. Its to keep it from sticking to the hot wok.

Posing again...she likes the camera. Either that or she gets nervous and immediately starts acting goofy. Could be both.

More posing by the sister. This was our little table of people we worked with. We were making our dumplings here.

This is what they were supposed to look like. I believe this one was our instructor's dumpling. Mine did not look like that.

She does take her job seriously!

She probably was sick of me snapping photos. Either that or she likes the camera. Wait...I already said that!

I think here is where we realized that we forgot to put in the lemon grass that was supposed to be in that dish. Oops. It was still yummy, though!!

I was nervous and excited all at the same time. Didn't want to mess it up for the whole class!!

Taking my wok-ing very seriously! But don't worry. I wasn't always so serious. I did have fun too...as seen in my next picture.


What is my deal? Why must I constantly embarrass myself? If you really want to know what I was doing I'll tell you. You know that chef dude on the old Sesame Street shows? You know the guy who could barely use his hands and made really strange throaty noises? I don't know his name. That's who I was. I CAN be normal.

Our finished products before we devoured it all. You have your Crunchy Szechuan Green Beans. Your fried rice. Your Chicken somthin' or 'nother. Can't remember the name and it isn't in my take home packet of recipes. What up with that?

Next we have your Beef and Broccoli with Oyster Sauce. Yummo!

Then we have my favorite. Dumplings with Mandarin Pork Filling with Dipping Sauce.

And lastly we have your Thai Scallops with Sesame Sauce Noodles.

Oh y'all. I was in Chinese food HEAVEN!!!!!

New York City, baby!!

Brian and I returned last night from New York. Brian had been there since last Wednesday taking a study course and taking his board exam. He doesn't know the results yet but feels ok about how he did. We'll certainly be glad to get that hurdle behind us! I flew up Monday morning to spend a couple of days with him there. I was supposed to arrive around 3 pm on Monday but didn't' get there until after 8 due to bad weather. We were delayed 2 hours in the airport and then once we were on the plane we were delayed another hour on the ground and ANOTHER hour circling around in the air over New York. It was good times. I really got to know the grumpy Chicago man sitting next to me and the angry elderly lady next to him. She decided to go to the bathroom 10 minutes before we landed which caused the flight attendants to bang on the door and tell her to hurry up. Which then sent her into a tizzy about how they "really just didn't want her using the First Class bathroom. That THEY didn't think SHE was good enough for it because she was in coach. And that she had an anxiety disorder that she could PROVE by showing her medication. And that her underwear was pulled up all crooked because they were banging on the door and somewhere in there she cracked her toenail." Wow. Once I was there, though, it was delightful!! I sure wish we had more time!!! Tuesday we did a lot of sight seeing. As much as one can see in one day, anyway! Its so strange to walk around in a city that I've seen on TV and movies. I kept saying "oh that was on so and so"! And then Tuesday night we saw the musical In the Heights. So good!!! We absolutely loved it! I was really anticipating all of the food I was going to eat while I was there so here is the rundown of what I ate...bear with me. Monday night when I arrived we ate at a sushi place called Hura(or Huri or Horu or Hara, maybe????) That was super good!! And on Tuesday during the day we ate at a little pizza joint called Pronto pizza and pasta. Oh my word. Such yummy goodness was the slice of pepperoni and sausage pizza I had!!! I could have had another but I'm a lady after all. Whatever. After the musical that night we ate at some little Italian steak house. I can't remember the name of it because we just walked around until we found some place nice to eat. I was stuffed silly by the time we flew home on Wednesday.



Supposed to be the ice skating rink but its coming down for the summer.


Driving by Ground Zero. Very surreal to be there. Its pretty much blocked off from the public so you can't see too much. I just stood there thinking back to that day. Its humbling.


Some tributes to those who lost their lives on 9/11 and to those who carry on.....

Ridge requested a picture of the Statue of Liberty. We obliged. We took a ferry to Liberty Island because it was too foggy to see it from afar.




This was being set up for a segment on one of the morning shows on Tuesday. I don't know which one and we didn't have time to stick around and wait. Did anyone see it?



Silly Brian
Our room was tiny!!! I was sitting on the head of the bed and took this picture of the wall. Barely enough room to walk by the end of the bed!!

Drum roll please............The Road to ?

If you want to see our new adoption blog and the name of our son we are paperchasing for click on the link below! Thanks to Jennifer at Pink Armchair Designs!! She totally rocks!!!

CLICK HERE.........

Easter eggs and eyeglasses

Its so hard to believe that this is actually our 2nd Easter with Miss Adiah! Last year we were still in China on Easter Sunday. This was our first experience with dying Easter eggs with her and the kids had a blast! Of course, mom is kind of a nervous nelly with all of that dye so we set up shop in the garage!

On Tuesday I took Ridge to the eye Dr. and we were told that he needs to wear glasses full time. He was kind of excited about it and a little nervous too. Unfortunately they weren't ready until today but he was glad to have the long weekend before the "big reveal" to all of his school friends on Monday. I think he looks SMASHING!!!!

Doesn't he look handsome?

This is how Adiah stayed most of the time during our egg dying experience. She preferred to launch hers from a distance into the tiny little cups. Praise God they are hard boiled eggs...that's all I've got to say.

I love how Natalie had time for a quick chat on the phone with her friend.

The gang in the garage!!

Not sure why the rubber cement was being used but I'm sure it made perfect sense to them!

Easter Sermon Video

My friend, Katherine, sent me this video. Its very moving!


He is Risen!!!

Babysitting!! Aaahhh!!

Na. Its not that bad. I shouldn't have said Aaahhh. I didn't mean it. Tonight I am babysitting my sister's keeeeuuuds(I completely know that I just spelled kids like keeeeuuuds but I have an explanation. My friend, Tonya from Maine(hey Tonya)was emailing with me last night and she said that they say sister like "sista" in Maine. I thought that sounded cool. I said here in Texas we say it "seeeusta". And ever since then I've been trying to say everything with a strong Texas accent. Thus the keeeuuuds. But I digress) while she and Matt are at a meeting. Its such a beautiful day here that I decided with that many chill-uns' in the house that they needed to just be out side. There were 7 of them!! So here is some of our evening in pictures....

Adiah and Hannah immediately race down to the little garage to see who can get to the barbie car first. Hannah won. Adiah didn't like it.

Hannah out for a little jog. Doesn't it look like she is going for a long run?

Adiah seriously hates it when Hannah plays with anything that she has first. So here she is making a break for it with her butterfly umbrella and elmo book.

Hording her stash....

Natalie took a little spill while roller blading. Examining her wounds.


I really just wanted to post this picture because LOOK IT( I don't really talk like that. My kids rub off on me). Look at Hannah. Doesn't it look like her foot is a duck-foot and its coming out of her knee? Weird. Weird. Weird.

Another weird picture. Well not weird but odd. Here is Gracie, our neighbor. Look at the floating flip flop. Odd.
Sweet Emily trying to skate away from the madness...

Ok, here is Hollyn. She so desperately wants to roller blade but God bless her, she doesn't know how. Here she is being sad near the tree. "Oh tree. Why is life so cruel? "

"TREE!! Help me!! I'm rolling..."

"I give up. I'll just crawl around. Maybe no one will notice?"

Natalie and Gracie to the rescue. Hollyn skates!!!

Mr. Cool dude, Ridge, playing a little B-ball.

Here is Hannah preparing to slide down ADIAH'S slide. Isn't she cute!

Sliding down ADIAH'S slide...

Adiah sneaks in while Hannah isn't looking and lays on the slide.

Adiah slides down the slide but WAIT!! What is Hannah doing? MOM!!!

And here is where Noah sat the entire evening. Making Wii people on the Wii. Is that correct? Am I saying that right? Wii people? Or is it Mii's??

The girls took this picture yesterday. What is it you ask? That would be a coyote foot print on the side of my house. I'm not scared. Maybe he just comes over to slide down Adiah's slide while we're sleeping. Because heaven knows Adiah would have none of that!