Tonight, we are going to 37Main, a bar in the old part of Buford, to see DEPARTURE, a Journey tribute band, play. The really cool part is, Doug Ballard, a guy that Matt goes to his Monday night Bible study with, is the bass player. So, we are going to go see them play. It should be a lot of fun. Plus it is a chance for Julia to meet Doug and for the wives to meet. We will, no doubt, take some pics and post them to the blog.

Carol's Delicious Banana Bread

Oh MY Sweet Goodness! Yummy to the tenth power! Oh my gosh! My mouth is watering just looking at the picture. Okay, Okay, Okay, so... I was recently introduced to the most wonder banana bread I have EVER tasted! YES!YES!YES!! And, Thank you Carol for passing along the recipe!

I have now made two loafs of it and I have only had the recipe four days! Let me just say, I make banana bread! I make it often...that was BEFORE I tasted this loaf! Now, I will make it until we get sick of it. Which, believe you me, won't be any time soon. Would you like the recipe? I have to share it. You have to make it. You will need to make it over and over again, so beware: ONLY make this if you are willing to make it over and over again, because it won't stay around long enough for YOU to get a piece!!



Here I bestow upon you the golden recipe
Carol's Banana Bread
1 stick of room temperature butter or margarine
2 eggs
1 C sugar
1 & 1/2 C bisquick
3-4 medium bananas

Soften 1 stick of butter @ room temperature. In a bowl, cream the margarine with a fork. Add sugar and mix. Then add eggs and mix. Then add bisquick and mix well (still using your fork). In a separate bowl mash your bananas then add them to the other mixture. Put in a loaf pan that has been sprayed with pam. Bake for 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes.

Enjoy!!

Introducing.... BINGO


Bingo (Uno, Dingo, Big Boy, Monster Butt, Tubby) was Nacho & Sierra's FIRST litter February 11, 2003. Did you read that correctly? He was the only one in the litter...and as he grew we quickly saw why. Matt and I gave Nancy (Matt's Mother) Bingo for Mother's Day 2003. When Nancy passed away Matt and I requested of Ed (my Father-in-Law) that we re-unite our Chihuahua Family. Matt and I have both enjoyed having Bingo with us. He reminds us daily how he loved and cared for Nancy and we feel like a piece of her is with us.

Bingo has fit in perfectly! He seems to be a calming influence on the clan. He is the biggest of them all. Though he is not fat. Just Big "Boneded", lol. Unfortunately for him, he is the low man on the totem pole. Even his much smaller sister has authority over him. However, they willingly share a crate!! To our surprise the two walk into the same BIG crate to spend their mornings together. Is it possible that Penny was kicked out of her Mother's crate?? We may never know.


Bingo arrived with three VERY important personal items...Stairs, for easy access to the couch. "HIS" fluffy pillow. And, "HIS" Fiddle! NO ONE, I mean NO ONE is allowed to even look at his pillow and God Protect you if you attempt to play with his fiddle. We have caught him more than once licking his fiddle with love and laying his head on his fiddle like it is a pillow! He rarely plays with his fiddle, but he will not let it out of his sight. A couple of times a day he requests for us to make it play music so he can nibble on it with great pride.


Nancy, being an extremely talented dog trainer, taught Bingo a couple of tricks we were unaware of. However, one night as he waited (rather impatiently) for us to pass out their nightly "vitamin B" (our affection term for dog bacon)Bingo "Moon Walked"!! Oh, My! YES! MOON WALKED!! We have not figured out what the name of the trick is, so he hasn't done it on command yet. But, when he gets excited and really, really, really wants something he will shuffle his back feet backwards over and over again. It is precious. We must get it on tape to share with all of you.

Also, in Nancy's wisdom she taught Bingo how to "Whisper"!! YES!! He has a horribly loud bark so she taught him how to use his "inside voice" on command. Totally another you tube moment! His mouth makes the movement of a bark but nothing comes out. The first time he did it I thought he was trying to bite my nose off- then we quickly figured out he was whispering, again, in an attempt to receive vitamin B early! What a silly, intelligent, loving, crazy BIG BOY he is!

Playing in the dirt continued...more gardening. Herbs!!

Ed, my wonderful Father-in-Law, is a Master Gardener with his County. And, the MG Club offers educational gardening classes for the community. In May, We attended the Herbs class. I have always been interested in Herbs and found this to be the perfect opportunity to learn from the pros! The day After class Matt and I were off to our local garden center. We went in search of herbs suitable for our space and empty containers!

Among other things, I learned to plant Mint in containers because they will take over your yard. Mint is drought tolerant (important to me since I tend to be inconsistent in watering outdoor plants). Also, mint grows well in shade or sun!! My favorite mint is the Chocolate mint that the instructor displayed. I had a difficult time finding chocolate mint for sale but eventually found it at Hamilton Mill's "Natures Fifth Season".

And, I'm sure you KNOW I had to find Lemon Balm for my tea cup! Unfortunately my Lemon Balm leaves are turning brown around the edges. I am not sure why. Also, I added Bee Balm to attract humming birds. However, I have yet to see it bloom. Which is okay because I have failed to keep the humming bird feeder full this summer. hmm...which reminds me, I need to make some more nectar.

Rosemary, Basil & Lavender in the yard garden...


Container Gardening: Lemon Balm, Chocolate Mint & Spearmint...


Basil popping up everywhere...Last year I planted Basil in a container, closer to the kitchen. This year I planted it in the yard. However, several pots are sprouting basil!! Which must have come from seeds from last years plant! In class the instructor mentioned you can harvest seeds from your Basil plants. Something I would not likely waste my time doing...at least that was before I saw these little guys growing in odd places....can you spot the basil?




I look forward to the December MG Club class on making oils/vinegars infused with herbs. Ooh, Can't wait!! It sounds like an interesting way to put all these herbs to use!

Summer Garden 2009

In the spring we moved our little garden to the opposite corner in our back yard. And, we decided to dress it up a little with a rock border. This year we decided to only plant tomatoes and cucumbers.

Spring Planting...


Summer Growth...


Late July we are finally seeing itty bitty tomatoes and flowers on the cucumbers. We can't wait for our first "harvest".

Hello Family and Friends!

Matt and I apologize for being MIA on our blog. Since Matt's Mother's death in April we have both experienced a myriad of emotions. Our pain is still indescribable and beyond words. We miss Nancy so very much. Every day we think about her and wish we had more time with her. And, we will always regret that she did not have the opportunity to meet her grand child in person. However, we feel confident that she is well aware of our adoption status and likely is keeping her watchful eye on baby Miller while we wait to meet her/him!

We Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts during our time of loss. Also, thank you for hanging in here with our blog and not forgetting about us! I am sure it has been discouraging to visit us here to find nothing new has changed. Now that some time has passed we are attempting to get back into the grove of life. So we will re-start our blog by getting some of our aggression out by going to our first ever live MMA fight night!

Yes, you read that right! LOL. We are going to fight night tonight at Wild Bills! We hope to get our picture taken with Wanderlei Silva!!! Also, Matt will bring a magazine that has Silva on the cover, in hopes of getting his signature! hehhee, this should be fun! I personally have never met a "celebrity" so I'm a bit nervous and anxious!



Here's a picture of Matt in his Ghee before his Ji Jitsu class. I am sure all those words are misspelled, but I shall leave them to give you people in the "KNOW" a laugh!

This is Matt. Just wanted to post here that, over the weekend, I ran the 40th Annual AJC Peachtree Road Race, which is a 10k (6.2 miles). I did the race in 1 hour, 10 minutes, 28 seconds, coming in 23971st out of 50,007 runners listed. At least I was in the upper 50% of runners. Pictures will be coming.