Valentine's Day

Happy President's Day everyone!  I know a lot of people have the day off today so I hope you're enjoying it!

We had a very low key Valentine's Day this year.  Allan had taken off work to work on our new house, but neither one of us felt good so we just laid around the house most of the day.  He DID surprise me with a beautiful bouquet of roses and a package of one of my favorite candies-Ghirardelli chocolates! 

We usually go out to eat for Valentine's Day but by supper time we were not feeling like going out anywhere so we had our personal chef, George, as in Foreman, grill steaks for us. I also made a corn casserole and we ended up having a very nice meal.

Earlier in the afternoon, I made a peanut butter chocolate chip pie.  It was delish and ohhhhh so pretty!

Since it was so good, I'll share the recipe with y'all!

Chunky Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Pie

1 pie crust-you can make your own or do as I did and buy a prepared one at the store.

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup flour

2 TBSP chunky peanut butter

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 large eggs, beaten

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup cocktail peanuts, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup peanut butter chips

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.  Prepare your pie crust by either making your own or taking the wrapping off of the store bought one.    Set aside.  In medium bowl, combine sugar, flour, peanut butter and butter, mixing well.  Add eggs, vanilla, peanuts, peanut butter chips and chocolate chips.  Transfer filling to the pie crust.  Bake until firm in the middle, approximately 45 minutes.  Enjoy!

He's a 3rd Degree Black Belt!

Last Saturday, Allan tested for his 3rd degree black belt in TaeKwon Do. He's worked really hard to accomplish this and I'm so proud of him.
He was the only one testing this time so he was prepared for a really hard test.  It began with patterns.  As you progress in TKD, the patterns become longer and more difficult, plus you have to remember all of the previous ones you've learned over the years.

Then there were different kicks that he had to demonstrate.  I don't know how he does it!!

The test was pretty fast paced with NO breaks for him to get any kind of rest.  It was wearing me out to watch him and I held my breath through so much of it.  It was very intense!
Sparring was next.  He had to spar three different people.

These guys showed him no mercy!  They came at him full steam ahead and he held his own with all of them.  He got in some pretty good jabs and kicks on them too!
Breaking was next and even though it is the most impressive part of the test, it scares me to death to watch!  I can just imagine all kinds of broken bones happening.   First he had to break four cement tiles with his hand.

ANNNNDDDD....he did it!   Here is a video of it!

Then he had to break four boards with a kick.

And....once again he did it!  Here is a video of this break.

 He did a couple of other breaks and then the test was over. 

His instructor, Master Floyd Griffin, an 8th degree black belt, gives him his new belt! 

Allan with Master Griffin, the test board and one of his students.

We were all so happy for him!  I was so glad that our kids were able to come for the weekend to support their Daddy.  It meant a lot to him!

Congratulations, Allan!

The Red Nose Cafe

I've talked many times here about our little town being "Circus City USA" because of the three circuses that have their headquarters here.  Last Friday night, Allan and I went to the Red Nose Cafe sponsored by all of the local circuses.  This was the 3rd year they have put this on for the community but we had never gone before.  We were in for a treat!

We got there and found our church group to sit with.  I didn't get any pics of the decorations which were great!  I think I was in such awe of how they had transformed our local Vo-Tech School into a circus atmosphere.  The food had all been prepared by the circus people themselves.  They had dishes from all over the world and the dishes were things they make and serve when they're on the road during their touring season.

Dudley is a member of our church and he has worked for the circus for many years.  He was so glad that many of our church members came out to support the cafe.   He was manning the table where you could buy a circus cookbook.  I bought one and will have to get busy trying out some new things.  The food was WONDERFUL.  There was so much to choose from and you could have some of everything if you wanted to.
After eating, the entertainment began!

Jim Loyal was the emcee for the night.  He is with one of the circuses but I can't remember which one.  He explained the reason for the cafe was to help raise money for a circus museum in town.  This has been an ongoing effort for several years and more funds are still needed to make it happen.  They also want to have a  circus skills program for our local children which I think is a great idea!

The first entertainer was the funniest guy! He LOVED the crowd and knew how to work us! haha  He spun and tossed, with his feet, several different items throughout his performance.  He was so fun!

Next they had a hula hoop girl.  She was great too!  She started out with one hula hoop and quickly went to about 500 of them!  Not really, but it would seem like that if I were doing it!

The clowns were next.  Ryan & Steve were so funny!  Young and old alike were just dying laughing at their crazy antics!

Next was the cutest juggler boy!  His tricks just kept getting harder and harder as he was trying to not knock out the lights above his head!

Next was the clown contest.  All of the children had been encouraged to come dressed up as a clown.  There were some pretty cute ones!

Even though our friend, "K", didn't win, we still thought he was the cutest one there!

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and I'm so glad we went!  I plan on going next year too!

"I was in prison and you came to me"

Happy Wednesday!  I hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far! I'm not feeling well today so I've been in bed all morning but hopefully I'll be better as the day goes on!
 Today I wanted to talk a bit about one of the good works that our church is involved in.  Several years ago, it was requested by inmates in our local jail to have a weekly Bible study.  Men from our congregation got authorized to come in the jail each Friday to conduct a Bible study with any that were interested.  Early on there were several baptisms. In the last couple of months, there have been four more baptisms and possibly will have two more this week!  This is great news!

Right before Christmas, our church decided to once again make up cookie sacks for all of the inmates.  We had done this once before and it was very much appreciated by them.    We had the ladies make home made cookies..about 600 of them!  On the Sunday before Christmas, the ladies brought their cookies to church.  After lunch, everyone was encouraged to come back to the building and help decorate the sacks.

Everyone quickly got to work coloring, gluing and decorating.

We all had a good time visiting with each other too!  Young and old alike joined in to help with this effort. 

We had an assembly  line going and it didn't take hardly anytime to get 100 sacks ready for filling with cookies.  We may or may not have eaten a few in the process! 

Finally, we finished and got them all boxed up for the men to take to the jail the next day.  We received a letter from a group of inmates a week or so after Christmas thanking us for doing this for them.  It does mean something to them to know that people do care, especially during the holidays.

"I was in prison and you came to me"...Matthew 24:36

Christmas 2012 Pt. 3

The week after New Year's we finally were able to go to OKC for a quick Christmas visit with Allan's parents and of course, our kids.   We were making this a really fast trip and I believe we were not even there for 24 hours!  I hate trips like this but we really had no choice this time.

Colby was sick and thinking he was coming down with the flu, we didn't know if we would see him or not.  He went straight from work to an after hours clinic and waited and waited and waited.  While he was waiting, we went ahead and opened presents with the folks and Ashley.

Pam & Leon's dog, Sadie, is one rather spoiled dog.  I mean REALLY, REALLY spoiled.  As we began to bring the gifts in, she goes crazy and starts begging for each one.  She does this every time there is any kind of gift giving going on.

She sits up and whines and whines.  If given the opportunity, she takes the tissue paper out of the sack, sticks her head in and checks out what's inside.

Pam got a Wal-Mart sack and put one of Sadie's toys in it, hoping for that to satisfy her.  It worked for about as long as it took her to pull the toy out and then she was back to begging for our sacks.

She is such a girly-girl and loves presents!  Ashley too!  We really got tickled at her persistence.  She just ran from person to person to see what was in the gift bags!

I got a new purse!  My mother-in-law is my purse buyer.  She has great taste and I don't have to give her any clue as to what I want or need.  Just that I need a purse!  Oh, and I got money too!  A purse needs money in it, right??

Me and my girl!  I was glad she was able to be off work for the afternoon and then the next morning too.

Allan was super excited to get this meat grinder!  He will surely make good use out of that.

We gave Pam a new Vintage Pearl necklace.  It's great having a daughter that manages such a neat jewelry store!

Allan's parents and his 'sister', Sadie.  She is such a mess!

We kept checking in with Colby as he was STILL sitting at the clinic, hoping he's not gathering up more germs that he took in with him.  We had plans to go to supper at Olive Garden with Allan's brother and his family, so we headed there.
I LOVE Olive Garden and since we don't have one anywhere close to home, we usually end up there when we make a trip to OKC.  I didn't take any pics of our get-together with the rest of the family, but I did get a pic of this deliciousness-

Dr. Pepper cake!  Pam brought it to the restaurant and we devoured it!  I had eaten some years ago and had completely forgotten that there was such a thing!  Imagine that!  It was so good!  I'll definitely be making it soon.

About the time we finished supper, Colby finally got out of the clinic and NO FLU!  NO STREP! NO BRONCHITIS!  I decided since the verdict was a no on the flu diagnosis that I was going to take my chance and go see him.  Ashley and I went to buy them some groceries while Colby was waiting on his prescription to be filled.  We got back to their apartment just about the same time.

He didn't want to pose for a pic, but he knows the sooner he cooperates, the sooner we'll be done.  I didn't stay there long since he was feeling so bad and needed to go to bed.   Ashley had already decided that she was not going to stay at their apartment that night but with us instead, so we headed back out to the in-laws house.  We spent the evening visiting and Ashley and I took a lot of silly pics.  I will post those later if I can get an OK from her! haha  That may or may not happen!

Colby was feeling better the next day and went on to work.  We met up with him for lunch and I was glad to get to hug on him one more time before we left.  After lunch, we walked down to Ashley's store and visited a while before it was time for us to leave to go home.

We had a good visit, even though it was a pretty short one!