Two Good Websites

Two good websites I've wanted to share for a while are:

www.supercook.com

www.smartsource.com

Supercook helps you come up with recipes based on what is in your kitchen.  Smartsource is a coupon & savings website I get a kick out of. 

While on the topic of food & shopping.  I do not like grocery shopping at the Walmart in Waco.  I intermittently fall victim to  their convenient location and I smile as I breeze through the easy-to-get-around-in-isles and find exactly what I need at a very good price and quality.  But, I continually fight my instinct to abandon every ounce of tact in me and gawk at the melting pot of unique shoppers that flock inside.  It is an American epidemic and I don't like it.  

March's Mysteries & Surprises

Tonight is the last of many of its kind...  It's 11:00, I'm watching HGTV and Matt has been on campus with Dr. Cleaver since 7:30 ish.  There have been many nights similar to this during the past handful of years, but tonight marks the beginning of the end.  In preparation for submitting it to the Baylor Graduate School tomorrow morning, they are putting the finishing touches on Matt's dissertation.  Oh.  My.  Gosh.  Has his 5 year program really almost come to a close?  If I'm in awe of it, I know he is.  As the month of March begins, so does the end of our life as we know it.  All Matt has ever done is school and therefore the only thing I've known him to be is a student.  We don't know life with each other any other way and it's been fabulous thus far, but goodness gracious are we excited to learn differently!  Right now all we know is that his resume is circulating from coast to coast  and graduation is on May 15th... after that only the Lord knows.  

Were you as surprised as I was to hear about (or experience) the southern snow that made it all the way down to Dothan today?  Wow.  

Here's what I know; God (1) keeps us on our toes by revealing the details of our lives in his timing and (2) always offers little musings along the way like spring snow in Alabama.  

Bring it on, March.  

Lost

We have been getting together with friends at each other's apartments to eat supper and watch Lost for as long as we've been in Waco... which is just about how long the show has been on the air.  We're junkie's and proud of it.  Various friends have been junkies with us over the years (Brock, Stefanie, Amine, and Lisa) but currently we're able to get our hits with Mandy & Jacob... who re-watched the first 4 seasons with us over the past few months.  It was great.  If anyone ever wants to join in on the fun, please do.  It's a healthy drug.  A typical Lost night at our place:

Charleston

A long-awaited adventure over the Christmas break was a day trip to Charleston.  I've wanted to go for years, so part of our Christmas gift was making the drive over from Aiken.  The downtown/battery area is just amazing!  I felt like I was on a movie set the entire time, but this is what movie sets are modeled after.  And what was more amazing is that people still live in all the grand ornate and cute quaint homes that have been around for a few hundred years.  If you ever have to opportunity to go, please do, and try to make it in the fall/winter months during off season.   We took an hour long carriage ride through the old city and marveled at the buildings and homes and tried to flex our minds around the history and money that made the city what it is.  Every inch of the place was covered in detailed charm.  Gates, balconies, paths, bricks, cobblestones, statues, plants, gardens, stairs, details everywhere!  Enjoy some of the pictures (thanks to my new camera) and know these hardly do the place justice...

Christmas Vacation

A waaaaay overdue Christmas update...  

Matt and I were able to spend almost 2 weeks with his people over in SC.  It was a fabulous break filled with food, visiting and sleeping in.  It's such a joy to be able to spend that much time with family and keep sane.  Seriously.  I know many people who are gasping right now at the thought of spending that much time with family, whether they are blood related or in-laws.  Some good friends said they spent 5 days with one side of their family over the holidays and it was hard because they've learned 3 day visits are best for them.  As I've said before, Matt and I are so grateful that we love and desire to spend time with both his family and mine.  Perhaps we'd think differently if we didn't live so far away and got to see everyone more than twice a year, but I hope not.  

While in SC we utilized our Gold's membership and kept up with a semi-regular gym routine.  We did last minute Christmas shopping and we did day after Christmas shopping.  I went on neighborhood walks and Matt fiddled with origami.  We ate in, we ate out.  We walked around downtown one night and had lunch there one afternoon.  We has a fabulous visit with Peg's sister Trisha and her husband Roy.  We enjoyed the Robinson tradition of celebrating Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas day lunch with the Keaton's.  We spent great quality time with the Wilson's and Gjesvold's while rough-housing with our godson Jack and his brother Carter.  I could go on, but will stick with the nut-shell version instead :-)

Christmas Eve dinner with the Keaton's at Matt's parent's house.

 

Being silly with Jack, Carter and Heather.

We love Jack's willingness to be a goofball with us!

We look forward to seeing the Gjesvolds more often one day...

Christmas morning... new toothbrush holders were #1 on my wish-list.  Thanks Matt!

If you know him well, you know happiness was oozing :)

Downtown with Peg, Trisha, Roy and a horse statue.  (Just as Chicago had cows, Dothan has p-nuts, Auburn had tigers, so Aiken has horses)

Christmas Eve Robinson/Harding family picture.

Popcorn

I just did something for the first time that was pretty darn exciting... popped corn kernels on the stovetop with oil!  Not only is it healthier than microwave popcorn, it is much cheaper.  It was neat to see them explode in my little pot, but I'll have to put less in next time.  The popped kernels kept growing and growing and pushed the lid off the pot even as I was holding it down!  I sprinkled it with a little seasoned salt & voila!  Easy, delicious, cheap and an excellent source of whole grains with no preservatives.  Makes me very happy :o)

rowdy Rowdy

Rowdy loves to sit in Matt's lap while he's working.

Sooo cuddly!

There isn't enough time in the day to chase Lucy's tail.

Where there's a will, there's a way.

Can you tell how soaked his fur is? Matt loves "training" him with a squirt bottle.

I brought some plants in during cold weather for a couple nights.

Thanksgiving

Before we get too far into the new year, here are some pictures from Thanksgiving in MO. I flew up to spend a week with family while Matt stayed at home to work on his dissertation. We celebrated his birthday the night before with a great dinner out at 135 Prime. My cousin Kerry also threw in a little birthday gift... she gave birth to her first son! Matt and Wyatt Young Smith will share 11-24 as their birthday. My mom and Kerry's dad, Mack, also share the same birthday.

Cameron, Andrew, Shelby and I had fun throwing snowballs when it began snowing one night! The next morning Grandad's backyard was beautifully covered in white fluff...

One 1/2 of the Thanksgiving table...
Aunt Jean, Andrew, Shelby, Grandad and I went on a post-meal walk and ended up swinging, see-sawing, and hanging upsidedown on the playground of the neighborhood elementary school where Mom, Jean and the rest of their siblings went to school. Very neat!

I felt like I was in 3rd grade on the Montanna St. Elementary playground once again...

88 years old and resting at home? Not in his world.

The other 1/2 of the table.

Me, Jean, Mom & Shelby - we have sooo much fun together!