Don't Worry There's A Bunny

On the way home from San Antonio Saturday night I begin to hear small subtle grunts filter through my ear from the backseat of our Kia mini van. We had already exited off 35 and were cruising swiftly up 183 on the home stretch. We were so close I could already feel our 500 thread count sheets softly caressing my skin as I sink down into my bed. I turn around to see what was the cause to all the ruckus and I see Hannah with her left hand tightly gripping her right wrist and violently twisting, turning, and pulling as she grunts and groans.

"I can't get it." she softly mutters in between grunts.

"I can't take my hand off! I can't do it." she softly exclaims.

Then she moves her hand up towards her elbow and begins to twist and pull and grunt and groan.

"I can't take off my elbow!" her voice has now taken on a bit of despair and frustration.

"I want to take off my elbow!"

Then she lets out a deep sigh and softly exclaims, "I can't do it."

On Friday I was stretched out on our beat up maroon pleather couch enjoying the madness that takes place in the month of March on CBS. Hannah was standing in front of me dressed in her PJ's straight out of the shower her hair damp with the smell of the Herbal Essence shampoo still fresh in the air. Subconsciously I reach out and begin to softly fiddle faddle and play with her hair. When my little princess of a daughter turns and loudly exclaims, "STOP IT!"

I briefly stop waiting for her to turn back around with her back to me and I begin to run my fingers through her hair. This time in a giggling voice she says, "Stop playing with my hair!"

Now it has officially turned into a game and I go ahead and play right along with her, and when she turns back around I go straight to touching her hair, and each time my fingers touch her hair she turns and giggles and tells me to stop. After about four or five times of repeating this process Hannah folds her arms and says, "Ugh! (letting out a sigh) this is a BIG problem."

How funny is that?

I looked over at Heather and we both just started to bust out laughing. We are still unsure as to where she learned that expression from.

Click on either image to see all of our easter pictures. We drove down to San Antonio on Saturday to hang out since Kelly was in town. Hannah had a lot of fun and was crying when we left because she didn't want to leave Trevor. They played together almost the entire time, not to mention all the fun Easter activities Kelly had planned out. We started the day out with coloring easter eggs in the back yard until we got forced inside by bees taking over. Ethan went out to kill as many as he could and he finally retreated as well after reporting 40 deaths and several other casualties. We then moved our little party to the front yard where we hooked up a sprinkler and had a little fun in the water. We didn't bring any spare outfits for Hannah so she had to play in her diaper until she decided to take it off and go skinny dipping. Trevor was nice enough to let her wear his bathing suit he wasn't using. While the kids were playing in the water, Kelly and my mom were stuffing plastic eggs with candy. As the kids dried off Ethan fresh out of battle hid all the eggs in the front yard. Then we let the three little rascals lose collecting as many eggs as they could jam into their new furry baskets that Grandma was nice enough to purchase for them all at Target. Matt came through with the Golden Chick for lunch (even though he was late as always) and Kelly finished off our day by cooking up some spiral ham, scalloped potatoes, and asparagus.

My only complaint is that my Mom never has anything to drink in the fridge. Ethan has this like secret stash of sodas in his bedroom, but even to sneak one of those out means you either have to stick it in the freezer and wait for it to get cold or drink it luke warm because they also have no ice in the house.

In The Box

The BEST fast food burger out right now is the 100% sirloin burger from Jack In The Box. Pictured above is my personal favorite which is number 2 on their menu only on Cibata bread with grilled onions and swiss cheese. It comes in a monster of a box, and it is a monster of a burger (in comparison to other fast food burgers.) For the regular meal and no upsizing it's going to run you a good 6 bucks. As for me I don't really need very many french fries to contend with battling my hunger, just the burger alone seems to do the trick, and it did just that last night when hunger declared battle around 7:30pm.

Score:
Jack In The Box= 1
Hunger= 0

Chef-Boy-R-"G"

Sunday after church I decided to come home and get busy in the kitchen with some diced up tomatoes, chopped up bell peppers and a few knife fulls of butter. If you know me, then you know I don't cook, however I was feelin it, so I decided to let the family know that I can get down if I need to. Also who doesn't like a man to cook for them every once and again?

We followed it up with some steamed squash, with some shredded chedar cheese sprinkled over the top, and some mashed potatoes. I tried to do the entire thing solo, but Heather couldn't keep her BUTT out of the kitchen, so she did all the side items.

I'm not sure how Heather felt about the final product, but I was mighty pleased with the outcome. The only regret is I really wanted some onions sauted up in the mix. there's always next time though right?????

Smells Fishy

As we both inhaled, the air entered our nostrils and ignited our memory as we walked down an empty isle (empty of people though the shelves were stocked to a comfortable level.) Our thoughts were perfectly in sync though Heather vocalized them first as she turned and said, "Something smells good."

I replied in a mellow tone drowning, and some would even say hiding my excitement,"Yeah smells fishy..."

At the end of the isle was indeed a trusty employee behind a small table which was covered by a simple white tablecloth, but their was nothing fishy about what she was handing out. Our suspicions only grew when we rounded the corner stopping briefly to get a few more items checked off the grocery list (cheese, and hamburger buns.) only to find a similar employee behind an almost exact replica of the previous table only she was more energetic as she invited us to try a thinly sliced sausage at the end of a pretzel stick. Hannah was more excited about the pretzel portion as she stopped momentarily from pretending to drive in our shopping cart/race car. It wasn't until we began our journey towards the fruits and vegetables that the rather appetizing scent of fish became increasingly stronger. We looked forward to see what was causing such an enticing aroma. We approached the small table with the simple yet aesthetically pleasing white tablecloth and grabbed a small white cup with a very small slice of Alaskan Salmon. It was delectable to say the least, the kind lady behind the table politely pointed us to the area behind her where they had this fine specimen of the sea on sale. We then briefly consulted one another and decided on it's cheaper cousin the Atlantic Salmon instead and then quickly came up with a game plan of complimentary foods to accompany our new found dinner. We came to the conclusion that a freshly baked potato garnished with the regular butter, cheddar cheese, and Bacos as well as some canned green beans from that jolly green giant mixed with some diced tomatoes and a few pieces of greasy bacon would do the trick quite nicely. Heather also was feeling a bit salady so she entertained her desires with a few small items to satisfy the apatite.

It was our first time ever cooking fish, and when I say ours I clearly mean Heather's since she did all the cooking. She was a skittish to say the least over what the outcome would be, however when the plate was finally dressed with the baked potato, green beans, and beautifully cooked Atlantic Salmon it was indeed a beautiful treat. Heather did a fabulous job, and it made for a rather sumptuous dinner.

Warning: This could be viewed as an over dramatization of the actual story. Not to mention both a salmon and three potatoes were harmed even killed in the process.

I do however miss Barnacle Bills immensely...

The Fountain Drink

So I stop at a corner store to buy a fountain drink, and as I am waiting for the fiz to die down so I can fill my 32 ounce plastic cup to the brim, I place my fingure in the fizz (because thats what you do to make it happen faster). As I do this I am looking into the cup and seeing the fiz disapate (thats a nice word) and my mind becomes flooded with memories of Mark, in fact it seems almost everytime I get a fountain drink I think of Mark, now even Mark is probably asking the question, "Why does a fountain drink remind you of me?" Well their are a few reasons:

1.) I have many of a memory of Mark sneaking out to the back yard to jump over the almost falling down fence, which my dad specifically, & repeatedly told us not to jump the fence. So Mark would always jump the fence and run across Toeperwein Rd. (a semi congested road behind our house) to get a fountain drink. Their were only a handful of times which Mark would let me, his lil paesky brother go across Toeperwein with him, so those times I got to go have always stuck with me. I have never been one afraid to ask for anything, so I asked if I could go everytime, so since 9 times out of 10 I was told NO, the times when he said yes especially stuck with me.

2.) When I went to visit Mark in Utah he lived in an apartment and across the street was a corner store, so every night of the week I stayed with him, me and Mark would walk across that street, and take one of the collection of cups Mark already had in his kitchen and we would get a refill, and we would make ourselves a little mix, because Mark is the king of mixing the fountain drinks, and that too always stuck with me. I've always enjoyed spending time with my big brother, and he hasn't always wanted to spend time with his younger pest of a brother, so I always enjoyed even the smallest of moments I was able to kick it with my big brother. Even if it meant we were just gonna be rebelliouse and jump that old wooden fence and get a fountain drink. Even when the only drink I got was a sip of the fizz from the rootbeer, as Mark was waiting to fill that bad boy to the brim so we could make our treck back over that fence before my pop strolled out into the family room in his underwear and a flashlight with some fuzzy sheep skin slippers, trying to adjust the thermostat to 85 cause he didn't have enough blankets in his bed to keep himself warm in 78 degrees.

Those were the days!

So now I sit with my big red in hand, as I take a sip of the memories from the past...