Happy Chicken-Day!

Greetings All,

I have once again absconded with my wife's blog to bring you Turkey Day Greetings! In our case, Chicken Day Greetings. Last Thursday marked Lana and My second thanksgiving together. I always have to count. Our first Thanksgiving was spent hours apart - I barely knew her then. That was two years ago. Last Turkey Day, We were able to host our first Turkey Day with our respective parents - and a very un-cooperative Turducken.

This year was a new one. We have so much to be thankful for, and so many thanks to give. We are thankful for our soon-to-be newborn baby, this house, our friends and family, Generous Electric, and each other!

Life is Good!

Anyway, you are probably wondering why we celebrated "Chicken Day", instead of with the traditional turkey or ham. Well, we plain just didn't wanna. We had talked about making a turkey, but we were both enjoying our four-day weekend together, and just didn't think spending hours basting an unwilling bird sounded like much fun.

We had recently found a taste-alike recipe for KFC's 11 herb and spices chicken. In hindsight, it wasn't a taste-alike, but it was darn tootin' tasty. Ours had fourteen herbs and spices, and smelled wonderful. Who would have thought about putting brown sugar in a chicken breading? Anyway, we prepared the chicken pieces 'n parts in an "Alton Brown"-inspired manner. Cut the chicken into nugget-sized pieces, allow to air-dry to a sticky goodness, coat with the fourteen herb and spices, some egg, and good ole breadcrumbs. Shallow-fry in 350-degree F peanut oil, and cook to a golden brown. Labor intensive, but very yummy.

Served on the side was a quickly whipped up batch of homemade creamed peas, and fresh candied Yams - straight from the can (and modified a lil-bit).

And, of course, we had a dessert. More on that later...

Lana worked on decorating the table while I supervised the last of the creamed peas, and we had Thanksgiving.

We finally sat down, still somewhat exhausted, but very thankful. Dinner was good, very filling - and we had enough for the typical Turk- err - Chicken-Day Leftovers. And then there was Dessert. It was also fabulous. Lana and I seem to have a tradition of never leaving a recipe well enough alone.

We had some apples to spare. We quickly agreed to some kind of apple thing for dessert. Lana is well known - at least around here - for some amazing pie crusts. So we made one of those, but instead of her typical apple pie filling that she makes, topped with a crumbly oatmeal topping. This time, we used an apple-turnover filling that I had, topped with another pie crust (with sugar and cinnamon, of course). The pie was amazing. A little wet, but very good.

Chicken-Day was amazing, and we had fun making it amazing.

Happy Chicken-Day Everyone!
-Matt

Let the nesting begin!

Friday was my last day at work, so here I am at home...with nothing to do but nest and get ready for baby.

So watch out master bathroom, you are the first one on my list. Then I will try to take a room or half a room each day or so and do some really good cleaning that has been needing to be done for a long time.

We will see how this goes :)

35 weeks...

...and counting!

A new look

This is Amy. Lana has asked me to submit this post for her. The new look is NOT that she has had the baby! Maybe another time it will be.

Lana woke up this morning with her long, thick, beautiful hair. I went to Mom and Dad's to visit and was commenting on this. Then we started talk about how it may be easier for her to have short hair when the baby comes. Before we knew it, we were out the door to get her hair cut!

This is the long, thick hair I mentioned.

(Davene, if you look closely in the mirror, you can see Jeff)

The hairdresser was amazed at the amount of hair Lana had.

She had to find larger bands for Lana's hair!

This is the braid they cut off. The hairdresser said she had never seen

one that thick before. Lana's hair was long enough to give to Locks of Love.This is Lana's "new do" from the front--very cute!

and from the back. I think Lana will find this very easy to take care of.

I think Lana will find that she appreciate the shorter hair when her baby comes!

I have always relied on the kindness of strangers

and recently many "strangers" have been very kind!

Let me start from the beginning, so many people have been so kind to us since we found out that we are expecting. I know that I will not be able to mention everyone, but here is a start.

My friend Sarah had just had a baby in February. She and her husband had decided that it would be their last, so she wanted to no longer have maternity clothes around. In April/May I told her that I was expecting and she gifted me with about four boxes of maternity clothes (almost all of what was her wardrobe).

A family friend Karen had just had a baby a few months ago (a very sweet little girl). And she has been so very kind to think of Matt and I as her little girl grows out of the clothing that she is wearing. Karen has been gifting us some of her old clothing.

A couple from our church just happen to live less than a block down the road from us, so we have gotten to know them a little. Their sons had just gotten new furniture in their bedrooms, so their youngest had to get rid of his old toy shelf, which happened to be a changing table. So at church one day the husband stopped Matt and I to ask if we would like a changing table...well yes, of course! We now have a wonderful changing station upstairs and one downstairs.


Our Sunday School class in general...they threw a baby shower for us. We had been going to this church for less than a year and we are not even members, yet they are so kind to throw this amazing shower for us. Half of the people I have to admit I did not know who they were, but both they and I thought that this would be a good way to get to know eachother.


A household in the neighborhood had been cleaning out their place and Matt and I talked to the people there and were told to take what we wanted. We got a free ottoman for my glider rocker, a wooden step stool for helping a child get to the sink or counters, and a plastic picnic table with attached benches for a child.

The neighbor across the street has a daughter who is turning three this month, she has greatly upgraded her playset in the backyard. Because of this, they offered Matt and I a small plastic slide that she has outgrown.

There are so many others that I can mention, just to name one would be the firemen that installed our carseat. I can not even begin to mention about the kindness of my mother and father-in-law and all they have given us. I will also not begin to mention the kindness of my mother and father and both of my sisters and all of their kindness (this post is already too long to begin to talk about how both families have helped us).

I am constantly amazed and in awe of the generosity of individuals. And whether these people read this blog or not, I just wanted to take this time to say THANK YOU! We have been so blessed and it is all because of those who have chosen to show us such kindness.

Long Time In The Making

...about four generations (at least) to be exact.

When getting married Matt and I requested kind of an unusual picture, we wanted to have both families in one picture to show one huge united family through marriage.

So for about a year we have had this beautiful large picture laying around the house. I had been thinking about where to put it, and how to make it best used....So I finally came up with an idea, that is now in the works and Matt and I both agree that it looks great.Up the staircase of our house we had this large empty wall. So in the very middle of the staircase we put the two family picture from the wedding. My family is on the left side of the picture and Matt's is on the right side. So the idea would be that old family pictures of my ancestors would go up the staircase (on the left side of the wedding pic) and Matt's old family pictures of ancestors would go down the staircase (on the right side of the wedding pic).


The idea came because one day my mom handed me a folder full of old family pictures, and I thought they were too wonderful and special to keep hidden away. So I framed them in random frames, and have hung them in little groups to be seen and admired as you walk up the stairs.

I have more to add, but I think that it looks great.

Steve and Sue...Matt's side is empty, is there a way we can get good copies of old pictures?

31 Weeks

Matt and I went for a drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway last Sunday, so we decided to get my 31 week picture in during that time also.I had to laugh when I saw this picture because I told Matt that it involved three of his favorite things....fall leaves and colors, exposed rock (there is a quarry in the background) and of course ME! I was of course joking when I said this, but he agreed with me.

It was a great trip, hopefully we will download some more pictures from that drive, but at a later date.