Steakhouse Pizza

Last night, I made Steakhouse Pizza from the recipes of the Pioneer Woman. Let me just say, it was phenomenal, stupendous, and any other large adjective I can use to indicate a positive feeling. I would post a picture, but my pictures would not come close to those taken by the PW, so go to the link and look at it. Megan, my steak eater, fell in love with it. I made enough for two pizzas, and we ate the second one tonight. It was just as good the second time. I wonder how it will taste for lunch tomorrow, too? MMMMMMMmmmmmmmmm... Try it, you won't be sorry.

Last week in review...

Last week just flew by between work and all of the activities for Daniel's Star Student status. In fact, my body started telling me about Tuesday that I needed to slow down. I had moved offices from this...

to this...

in the last week, on top of all of the other junk that fills up our weeks, and I was exhausted. One highlight of the week was getting our new BBs. Isn't it beautiful?

On Friday, George and I had a much-needed day off, and as part of Daniel's special week, we got to each lunch with him and his friend, Chase, at school.

Actually, we brought him McDonald's to eat, and we sat and watched since his lunch time is mighty early. Afterward, George and I ran errands and ended up at Hunt Club Subs N Grill for lunch. Oh my goodness, was it good.  George had the Elk burger, while mine was 100% beef (no game for me, thanks).

They were delicious, as you can tell by the smile on George's face! After a long afternoon nap (remember my body is still warning me), I picked up the kids from school, and a little later that evening, we tried another new restaurant, Newk's.

The kids absolutely loved it! Of course, two meals out in one day was enough for me.

The rest of the weekend was spent doing the usual (karate, basketball, church, etc.), and finishing up the project I had been working on since July, Danny's room. In between trips to the kleenex box for my nose - my cold came on full force Friday night - I cleaned out Danny's old stuff, we hung his pictures, and George moved into his new office! He's so excited. As a treat to the kids, we made another trip to Hunt Club on Sunday after church. Megan's rapture over the pulled pork sliders was a sight to behold. In all, it was a productive weekend, and we got some needed rest. Unfortunately, this cold is contagious, and I think I may have infected the family. Keep your fingers crossed that George and the kids stay well!

My letter to Danny's class

Danny (or Daniel, as he is known at school) is Star Student this week in his class, and one of the tasks for his parents is to write a letter to his class with some interesting facts about him. Our letter became so special to us as I was writing it, I just had to share. It contains some great memories. Here it is...

October 18, 2011

Dear Owens’ Owls,

We are writing this letter to tell you some things you may not know about our son Daniel.

1.       Daniel is one of the bravest boys we know. In kindergarten, Daniel was bitten by his cousins’ dog and had to have the inside of his lip sewn back together. Daniel had to lie still for two whole hours with a sheet over his face during the procedure, and not once did he complain, whine or cry. He even had to miss a few weeks of school because of it. And even though that happened, he is not afraid of dogs! Can you believe that?

2.       Daniel plays Upward Basketball, and he was the first person on his team to learn the Bible verse for this season, earning him a green star! Awesome!

3.       Daniel won first place in his first grade class for his box decorated with drawings from Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Wicked Wedgie Woman. Daniel’s skill at coloring is the best we’ve ever seen at his age.

4.       Our whole family went to the Alpaca show early this year at the fairgrounds, and Daniel got to lead a real alpaca through a course. He also got to pet the alpaca! Ask him how soft they were.

5.       When Daniel was 2 years old, he got to meet the Budweiser Clydesdales and Dalmatian puppy up close. The horses were bigger than all of us, and they were beautiful.

6.       Daniel went to the Manly Man Feast with his dad and papa this year. He got to shoot a bow and arrow, train dogs, and eat game. It was a lot of fun!

Those are just a few special things about Daniel. We love him, and we hope you think he’s as cool as we do!

Sincerely,

Daniel’s Mom and Dad

Another weekend of karate, basketball and fun!

Our weekend started on Friday night with the "Movie under the Stars" event at Danny's school. After a quick dinner of pizza and breadsticks, George, Megan, Danny (and his friend, Sam) went out to the field beside the school and spread blankets out to watch Tangled. Before the movie, Danny and Sam ate popcorn and snow cones and played.

Megan and I danced to the music they had playing on the loud speaker.

And George enjoyed relaxing with a good book until dark.

After dark, the movie started, the damp set in, and the kids shivered under the cold wet blankets until it was over. Fun was had by all. Saturday morning started early with karate

and proceeded with Danny's basketball game. He played hard and was so exited when he got a basket! Doesn't he look tough with his green sweatbands?

Can you see Coach Creamer there in the back too!
After that, we went out to Coon Bottom (late due to basketball) for lunch with George's parents, aunts and uncles and cousins. The kids had a blast feeding the goats

and donkeys

and playing with their cousins. This lot looks like trouble, don't they?

Oh, I meant this one...

The rest of Saturday was spent watching the Noles beat Duke (finally, they won one!) and reading Peter and the Starcatchers with the kids. When we went to bed, we were dog tired. Sunday was a day of church, lunch at Cracker Barrel (their new fall menu is out) cleaning, relaxing, and watching cooking shows and Ichabod and Mr. Toad. Life is busy but good.

Awesome video!

This music video is hilarious, and pretty much sums up the entire Whole Foods subculture (warning - it does have one curse word in it, so view by yourself before you let the little kiddies watch). Having said that, I want a Whole Foods in Tallahassee! I am so upset that we don't have one, especially since we're supposed to be so much like Austin.  Oh well, I guess we can judge from afar.

A week of work, sports, good food, and some much needed rest...

This week centered around two sports, karate and basketball. Monday's basketball practice went well, although when they were done, George commented on how wonderful our kids are. here are some shots I took of them:

While Megan did her homework,  Danny practiced both karate and basketball at home on Tuesday and Wednesday, and on Thursday he officially went to karate. When Friday rolled around, Megan, Danny and I were all so exhausted, we went and got some dinner and then watched Gulliver's Travels (not Jack Black's finest, but it was decent). I had Saurday morning all planned out - I was going to get up at 6am and go for a run, fix a good breakfast, and then start our morning of sports. However, my plans were foiled. It was FAMU homecoming weekend, and while I knew George would be working most of Friday (he worked his normal 8-5, and then he went out to the street for FAMU homecoming detail at 6pm), I didn't know he would get home at 4:30am and be starving! Needless to day, 6am became 7:30am, and with just enough time for a shower and a yogurt, we raced out to karate. Danny, who got plenty of sleep, was ready for practice, and at the end, tested for his 2nd stripe and got it!

Awesome! We left karate and went home to change into his basketball uniform for his game. George wasn't able to help with the coaching due to the super late night he'd had. It was a good little scrimmage, and Danny had fun. The rest of the day was spent eating Chinese food, watching my recorded Create TV shows, and then British comedies on PBS. George was so lucky, he got to go to work again Saturday for more FAMU homecoming fun! This time he was only out until 3:30am, so he was able to make it to church (after we all slept in) today.

After church, we drove up to the Sugar Shack Smokehouse restaurant across the Georgia line.

Their Georgia chopped pork is the best thing on the menu (I had a sandwich dressed with slaw - MMMMmmmmmm), but George really enjoyed the brisket and hot links. The kids all enjoyed their meals, and in the end, we decided we're definitely going back at least once a month.  

The rest of the day was pretty relaxing, filled with the regular weekend chores. After dinner, the kids and I decorated for fall/Halloween, and they had a good time picking out cars for our little pumpkin village,

and we continued with our literary Halloween theme for the foyer.





Our weekend was busy, fun, and productive. We hope yours was the same!

CreateTV is now in Tallahassee!

Last year, we were in Austin, TX around this time. Every day while George was in class, I would explore the city and then relax in the hotel room watching a PBS station called CreateTV (nothing puts me to sleep like Rick Steves' voice). I absolutely loved it and commented to George that I wish we had it here in Tallahassee. It has shows that are just about cooking (no competitions involved), gardening, travel, and even old episodes of This Old House. Imagine my surprise when I was channel surfing on Wednesday, and I found CreateTV! I was so excited that I immediately went through the programming guide (it is Comcast channel 202 for those of you in Tallahassee that are interested) and set shows to record while I am at work. If I only had time to watch them all!

Our weekend

Our weekend absolutely flew by. We started on Saturday morning with karate where Danny got some one-on-one attention from his sensei.

Next, we went to Upward basketball practice at the church, where Danny and his team, the Sooners, got to practice shooting,

passing,

and other important basketball techniques. Danny's favorite part was hanging out with Daddy, the new assistant coach of the team!

Next stop after going home to change out of basketball clothes was the Mellow Mushroom for lunch. Yum....

After that, we braved the crowds and limited parking at FSU for the FSU Circus of Physics, an event where FSU's College of Science got to showcase all of the cool stuff they do. We saw lasers, light energy in motion, solar storms (through this telescope)

Lego robotics,

and finally the atomic force microscope, which takes images of objects at 200 nanometers or less and transfers them to a computer so the students can study blood cells, cancer cells, chromosomes, and other objects too small for the average microscope to capture. Megan was fascinated and tells me that she definitely wants a career in science. Danny was...not so much. In fact, we left after the 10th "I'm bored."

After a quick nap at home, George got ready for work. Megan spent the night with her BFF, and Danny and I hung out and watched Inspector Lewis on Masterpiece Theatre (well, really I watched it while he fell asleep).

On this beautiful Sunday morning, we got ready for church, which was not easy for George as he'd worked until 3am. After church, we all went to see the new Sherwood Pictures movie, Courageous.

From the makers of Fireproof, Courageous focuses on the lives of four Albany sheriff's deputies and one latino laborer, and how they all deal with lifes challenges while striving to be great biblical fathers. We all enjoyed the movie, especially the action scenes and the humor. I highly recommend it to any fan of Fireproof.

In all, we had a fun weekend. We hope you all did too!