Kumquats and such

My friends, Alexis & Jess, talked me into signing up for the Battleship Half Marathon sometime in August.  And somehow I blinked my eyes, and it was already November 7th and we were driving down to Wilmington at 5:45 in the morning!  It was a great event despite the somewhat chilly temps we experienced as we boarded the water taxi to get to the start/finish location next to the U.S.S North Carolina.  Here are a few pictures from the event:   Pre-race feeding...had to empty the "tank" Seriously regretting my decision to wear shorts at this moment:) This may have been mile 2...see, we're all still smiling! This was somewhere around mile 10 I think.  Hard to pick us out, but Jess is still smiling and waving (she's the one in the blue). I dashed over in a quick (and fleeting) burst of motivation to say hello to Reagan. Off to the left, I was trying to catch up to the girls after my "burst of motivation." Post-race with our medals.  We finished...

We were excited to see Colleen and Keith on Saturday, November 6th.  They drove up to our house from Wilmington and spent the night.  It was Keith's first time meeting Reagan and Colleen hadn't seen her since she was born!  She loved them both and already misses them:)  Thanks for coming to visit!!! Before they came to visit, Colleen requested that Jason perform his "chefly" duties for her.  He complied with a delicious dinner of cornish game hens, pan roasted red potatoes and artichokes.  It was another fabulous meal.   Sorry, the artichoke is almost too dark to see in this picture:(

Two Tuesdays ago, I managed to lose my wallet.  I went to the gym on base, then stopped for gas, popped home for a brief moment to feed Reagan and get her ready for the baby sitter, and was heading off to photography class when I realized it was missing.  I suppose that when Reagan started crying while I was pumping gas, I got distracted and did something I never do, which is to place my wallet on top of the car...and didn't pick it back up:( So I spent the next few hours/days canceling credit/debt cards, ordering new Tricare cards for Reagan and myself, and getting a new license and military ID card.  Yeah, it sucked.  This past Thursday, I received the last credit card that was missing and the only thing that remained was to go down to the dreaded Social Security Administration office to get a new SS card (yes, I know you're not supposed to keep it in your wallet.  lesson learned.)  And in keeping with Murphy's Law, on Friday afternoon, someone called t...

My little monkey is hoarse.  Luckily, she's still happy and chatty.  

I think that's the title of a show on the Food Network channel, but in this case, it refers to my dinner on Sunday night.  Jason slow roasted a pork shoulder that was rubbed with brown sugar and sea salt and basted with the fat/juices throughout the cooking process.   Seriously, it was probably one of if not the best thing I've ever eaten!  In addition to the pork shoulder, he steamed broccoli, cooked a bag of instant rice (at my request) and made a cucumber/carrot salad.  We could easily have done without any of those "sides" and just had more meat!  Words do not do this meal justice, and a picture only gets you half way there.   The entire outside was this crispy, kind of melt-in-your mouth fat that I never in a million years would admit to eating, except that it was AMAZING!  I suppose that's what happens when you spend 7+ hours cooking a piece of meat and drenching it in its own fat:)  I'm not positive, but I think if I could have convince...

How cute is this?!  My friend Paige (who's expecting - obviously) is one of the most creative people I've ever met.  She made these costumes for herself and her husband, Andy.  I told her to contact one of the Halloween costume companies and sell them the idea!  Absolutely hilarious.  

Somehow my husband has the energy to come home and get up early on the weekends to take care of Reagan, prep some delicious (read: tasty and very difficult) meal for dinner, and do a million jobs around the house.  We've been working on the yard for the last couple weeks and here's a few snapshots of his work: Filling in the bare spots in the backyard 28 bags of mulch, 2 bushes, and several daffodil bulbs planted Close up of one of the 2 bushes we planted yesterday New flowers in the flower bed (the one Brian Moore made!) And not that this has anything to do with how wonderful my husband is, but somehow my raspberry bush is confused (perhaps because it's October 31st and nearly 75 degrees?!)  There aren't many, but the ones that have popped up have been quite tasty. And since I've been neglecting my puppy adoration duties via the blog, here's a picture of the nut job chasing a football