Taylor's Excellent Adventure Part 1

 Computer was down again, grrrrr.  Turns out it was actually our external hard drives which have been replaced so hopefully all is well now in our technological world.  However, it means a lot of blogging catch up!

Our baby, 18 year old Taylor, was able to come spend some time with us over the holidays.  He arrived the night before Tom's final so Tom stayed home to study while I made the drive to Birmingham for the 11 PM pickup.  I left quite early so got to do a driving tour of the city, visited a beautiful shopping area (Saks Fifth Ave) then settled into do some reading until Taylor's plane got in.

 He always gets lots of second looks.  Especially when he's carrying his guitar.  They think he's a rock star.

 Our first days consisted of Montgomery sight-seeing, movies, Christmas shopping for Taylor (clothes) and relaxing at the apartment with home cooked meals.

Dexter Ave Baptist Church where the Montgomery
bus boycotts
were organized in the basement by Martin Luther
King Jr.

Taylor and Rosa Parks

Linda's Visit

!Our computer has been down for a couple of weeks so I have some serious blogging catch up to do

We finally got to put the guest bedroom to good use when our friend Linda Bishop came to visit for a few days.  She lives in Florida so drove up to play in our new digs.  We've known Linda since college at Weber State where she taught when Tom and I were both students in the theatre department. After traveling to Europe together, doing many theatre productions, commercials, radio spots, traveling to New Zealand & Australia and experiencing a whole lot of real life together....we have been friends for a very long time

Blurry photo....grrrrr

Linda went from high school teacher, college instructor, tv producer, theatre director and producer to theological school.  She became a pastor and is now retired.  She is the one who recommended I visit the Community Church of Christ in Montgomery so we went to visit it again while she was here.  It is customary to introduce yourself as a fellow pastor to the practicing preacher (which she did) and ended up being invited to the pulpit for a few minutes.

 Later that afternoon, Linda and I went to the LIVING TREE production at a huge Baptist Church in downtown Montgomery.  If you've never seen one of these productions, that huge tree is filled with choir members.  It was a program full of gorgeous Christmas music, dancers, children's choirs and lovely messages.

Over her 5 day visit we had a grand time sight-seeing, shopping, seeing A CHRISTMAS MEMORY at The Alabama Shakespeare Festival, eating out, eating in, and most of all just chatting and catching up.  It was Tom's last week of school before the holiday so he had a ton of studying to do but was able to join us for a few things.  Overall it was a great way to bring in the holidays and fun to have someone to share them with.

Will Power 5K

 We signed up to run a 5K for the Alabama Shakespeare Festival this morning but when we arrived at 7:30 AM it was VERY chilly.  Now, I don't know what the temp was but it was breezy enough to make our newly adapted warm genes sit in the car until we absolutely had to get out.

The race itself was on the grounds where the theatre and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts are but they're surrounded by the gorgeous Blount Cultural Park with tons of trails.  That's where we ran.  A tad hilly and no mile markers and since I don't have one of those fancy-schmancy mileage watch thingies to wear on my wrist, I had no sense of how far we had been.  I was feeling pretty discouraged that I'd yet to see the 1 mile marker bit I decided to stop worrying about it & just run and enjoy the scenery.

Get it?  WILL power?

Santa is very busy with race appearances!

 Tom of course took first place in his age category and Dave took second in his which provided each of them with a prize winning ASF baseball hat, a key ring and 2 tickets to a play this season.  Yippee!
We're still waiting for them to post times so I'm not sure how I did.  I think it was better than last week but I may be delusional so we'll just have to wait and see.  This was a fairly small turnout comparatively and I still didn't win anything.  BUT AGAIN TERI, it's not about winning, it's about improving yourself.  Whatever, it's still a great way to start a Saturday.

 We wandered around the grounds for a bit listening to the music, sipping mimosas and munching bacon biscuits provided by the sponsors.  We got an awesome phone call from my niece Shaylee that she and Nick are expecting their first baby in June!  Yippee!  We haven't had a baby in our family for a looong time so now I won't have to be the creepy lady who sits and stares at strangers little one's because I miss having one around!  Congratulations on Nick's college graduation and new babies!

What I'm doing while we're here.......

 So, like most of you I have a huge stash of recipes that I've collected over the years.  Some (most) of which I've never tried.  So with some time on my hands and a very easy to please husband who likes just about everything, I've started working my way though this binder.


Some are clipped from newspapers, some are entire segments pulled from magazines and others are printed from the computer.  Some have been awesome and have rated a * while others have been pried from the dried glue and thrown in the trash.  I've decided they really have to be fabulous to stay as I tend to rely on my favorites anyway.



I'll share one of those (hence the hot pink post-it note) that I got from a Cooking Light magazine as one of their Top Ten recipes one year.  My friend Merri Dawn gave me a subscription one Christmas and I have several "all time hits" that have come from that publication.  This one is simple, tastes amazing and everyone will want your recipe.  Can even turn asparagus haters around!


Roasted Asparagus with Balsamic Browned Butter

2 lbs fresh asparagus spears, trimmed
Cooking spray
1/4 t. kosher salt
1/8 t. black pepper
2 T. butter
2 t. low sodium soy sauce
1 t. balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Arrange asparagus in a single layer on baking sheet; coat with cooking spray.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake at 400 for 12 minutes or until tender

Melt butter in small skillet over medium heat, cook for 3 minutes or until lightly browned, shaking pan occasionally.  Remove from hear, stir in soy sauce and vinegar.  Drizzle over asparagus, tossing well to coat. Serve immediately.  Yield: 8 servings (5 spears per person)

Holiday Fun

 It's starting to feel like winter here.  Clear and sunny but 40 degrees!  Our little Prattville High School Lions won the state football championship on Friday and I kept hearing about a "white out" but wasn't sure what it meant until we went downtown for the Christmas parade.  You can see the white toilet paper all over the trees.  It made it feel a little snowy for the parade.  We walked around downtown a bit before the parade which didn't start until it was almost dark.  Lots of lights and local politicians, bands, businesses etc.  It was fun but long, so we didn't stay for the whole thing.  That winning football team got lots of hoots and hollers!

 We went home and had yummy leftover pasta that we had enjoyed the night before at Olive Garden from a gift card mom and dad had sent us.  Then I started the goody making for gift bags.  Went with the dipped pretzels in caramel then dark chocolate/peanut butter chips/pistachio mix.

 Easy toffee with dark chocolate and chopped almonds on top then another version where the toffee is poured over almonds, pistachios & macadamia nuts then dark chocolate spread over the top.  I sometimes use white chocolate on that recipe which my good friend Jennifer Nollner graciously shared with me. Yummy!

 Bagged them up with a cute tag for Tom's classmates, my Bible study group and for more friends and family.  Hope they survive the travel!

Jingle Bell Run

 Tom decided to run this 5K and at the last minute I opted to go along and just run it without registering or being timed.  I needed to do a 30-60 walk anyway (part of my "how to train for a 5K" schedule) so this seemed way more fun than walking around town by myself.

It was held at Huntingdon College which is in a historical section of Montgomery called Cloverdale.  I'll blog about that some other day.  But this campus is gorgeous and for those of you in Utah reminds me a lot of Westminster College.

 The fun part of this race was that everyone was dressed up in various ways.  Tom had bells on his shoes which they had passed out with his t-shirt (I tried to get him to wear a Rudolph nose but he was having none of it) but there was plenty of great holiday attire!  We didn't know any of these people but they were gracious enough to let me take their photos.  Well except for Santa.....we know HIM of course!

This is the Christmas tree who passed me during the run.  He had a co-hort who was dressed as a big gift and he passed me too.  Yeah, that's embarrassing and yes, I was taking photos during the run...until Tom came back after he finished and took the camera from me!

I did end up running most of the race and probably finished in about the same time as I did the Turkey Burner.  We're doing another one next week and I HAVE to get better.  HAVE TO!!! Hold me accountable people!

 It always takes forever for the awards so we end up walking around and sampling the goodies.  Today's fare was mini biscuits with that famous Conecuh sausage I wrote about earlier and protein drinks along with the usual bananas. bagels and plenty of bottled water.  The campus grounds were really pretty and we snuck a peek into the library which was gorgeous.

Tom took 2nd place in his age category and instead of the usual medal on a ribbon got this awesome Santa trophy which will now become a cherished member of my Santa collection and one of our very few Christmas decorations in Alabama.

Espanol

So one of the things I'm trying to do while we're here is learn Spanish. We've been to Mexico a few times and always pick up a little but forget it as soon as we're home. But since Tom has to pass Spanish for school I thought it was a perfect time for me to do it as well. We're using the Rosetta Stone program which is really great. You have to do grammar, pronunciation, reading, etc.

I was a little cocky at first. I mean, clearly bicicleta is bicycle and negro is the color black. How hard can this be? However, then things began being a little more difficult and I had to use the correct grammar and the whole gender thing to get all the points. This is where my competitive nature kicks in. I want to get 100% on every section and the harder it gets, the less often that happens! At least I can go back and re-do those I really mess up.
So here I sit with the computer, matching words to pictures, speaking and now having to actually type in full phrases. That part is getting difficult!
I know I need to actually use it in order for it stick in my brain. My friend Olga from Columbia said she would help me and I could help her with her English at the same time. Now I'm starting to see why my new international friends are intimidated by actually having to get out and use their newly learned English. But I also see that the one's who are participating in groups where they have to use English are really getting the hang of it.
Alas. Will keep working on it. Adios!