60 Years Young

Mom turned 60 on September 25th.......... 60!! I can't believe it.
As Sadie said when she realized Mom's age, "Whoooa Grandma, 60 is a lot!!".

I've never thought my mother looked her age, and I definitely don't think she looks 60, even with the new graying hair (which I love). She is often forgetful, and having a conversation where she hears everything you say is becoming rare. But she looks like a million bucks, exercises more than people half her age (way more than I do), works hard, takes care of her family, and doesn't have any signs of slowing down. Pretty amazing for being 60 I'd say. 

We had a great family party in celebration of her.  I was in charge of the cake, and was excited to use a fresh-outta-the-box-wedding-gift cake plate, and implement some cutesy party decorations I've seen on the interwebs.

My favorite part of the evening, and hopefully my Mother's too, was the unveiling of the list the family had compiled for her.  A list of the 60 Things We Love About Mom!! Granted it may seem like a cheesy gift but Mom loved it, I mean loooved it. Her immediate tears were a sure sign of its success.

Numbers 22-28 are Sadie's ...adorable

 Hope you had a great birthday Mom. We love you!!

I'm in hobby heaven

I pretty much haven't put my new camera down since I got it in February; if it wasn't so heavy, I'd probably wear it as a daily accessory.  But after a while it gets a little old taking pictures of my husband, food, plants, and random farm animals. So you can imagine my excitement when some of my friends asked me to take pictures of them. I was overjoyed, honored (to say the least), nervous, anxious, felt under-prepared, and overly excited. Taking pictures of live, real humans with honest emotions and breath-taking expressions is a wonderful prospect, but also a nerve-racking one for an amateur hobbyist like myself.

I gladly accepted their requests, but insisted that my work be pro bono due to my limited experience, amateur status, and lack of the equipment needed to produce the professional results commonly seen in today's pho-tog industry. (I have a pretty good camera with a decent lens,  but would need upgraded lens and all post-processing software to really be proud of my work). Despite these setbacks, I decided to jump on the great oppurtunity to increase my skills, spend time with my friends, and mainly do something that I truly love: taking pictures and capturing memories.

My first subjects were my dear friends Daniel and Jennifer who wanted some pictures of their first pregnancy. They are one of my favorite couples on the planet, and I was so touched they asked me to photograph such an exciting time. (Talk about being nneerrvous)

Daniel and Jennifer are high-school sweethearts and truly bring out the best in each other. Their personalities are easy-going and humor-filled; a perfect combination for a anxious first-time-picture-taker like myself.

Next stop was Claire's first birthday party; the daughter of my sweet friend Keeley.  I love, love, love this family and was about as excited to photograph Claire's party as I was to spend the day with the Nash clan. Jameson came along for this party too; he's a great sidekick and partner. It was a really fun day- thanks for including us! :)

Such an adorable little girl!!

And last but not least was my best friend Meda. She is a beautiful person inside and out and I knew that taking her pictures would be an amazing experience. Meda is a very soulful and impassioned person and I anticipated that her emotions relating to the magnitude of the event I was photographing would translate beautifully through the camera. And they did.
These are only a some sampling of the maannyyy pictures we took that day. The last photo is my absolute favorite. Maybe one of the favorite pictures I've ever taken. (And of course Meda gets all the credit for it...I just released the shutter button).

The emotion and expression in her face is gorgeous.

Thanks friends for allowing me to help capture your memories!! I had a blast!

Loving the Gridiron

The hubby and I have spent the first day of October doing one thing and pretty much one thing ONLY; watching college football. And lots of it.
We had friends over last night, which meant we did most of our weekly housework chores Wednesday and Thursday night. Then this morning we were able to finish up the rest of our to-do list before the east coast games got under way. Hubs paid the bills, went to the dump, mowed our lawn, and cleaned the glass doors (his weird OCD pet peeve that he insists on doing every week). I took our car to get an oil change, stopped by Chappels for a few grocery items, and made our early lunch.
I had a few things on my to-do list for today besides football; I've been wanting to make a 6-egg cake for weeks, I need to look through my cookbooks and make a grocery list for this week, and there is always laundry to do. But I've been nursing a yucky sinus infection, and with the headache, sinus pressure, and lack of energy, I decided to give in to the lazy temptation to join my husband in hours and hours of guilt-free football.

Between our TV, Jamo's computer streaming ESPN 3, and his awesome remote-control skills allowing him to switch between channels, these are the games we watched today:
Mississippi v. Georgia
Arkansas v. Texas A&M - welcome to the SEC Aggies!!
Buffalo v. Tennessee
Northwestern v. Illinois
Auburn v. South Carolina - entertaining game
Michigan St. v. Ohio St. - total snooze fest, Big 10=booorrriiinnnggg
Arizona v. USC
Clemson v. VA Tech - shocked by that outcome
Baylor v. Kansas State
Alabama v. Florida - wish there was a way for both of them to lose
Nebraska v. Wisconsin - again, kinda boring, didn't live up to the hype
Notre Dame v. Purdue
and now we are watching some of the west coast games:
Fresno State v. Ole Miss - c'mon Rebs, don't embarrass the conference
and
Oregon St. v. Arizona St.

Oh, and we caught a little bit of the MLB playoffs: Cardinals v. Phillies.

Now.......is this day really awesome, or borderline pathetic????
I guessing the answer varies per person, but for us, it was pretty darn great.

The Fighting Okra

The Bouldin/Clardy family garden had an interesting rookie year; some items were quite bountiful, while some had a dismal showing, to say the least. Thankfully one of our more fruitful ventures was one of my all-time favorites: okra!!
I knew from the beginning that if our okra did well, I wanted to make hot pickled okra. And I knew I would need my mother's help in doing so. She was very gracious with her time and knowledge, and walked me through my first canning experience.

We used a combination of two recipes, adding in what we had available, and substituting for things we didn't. Our garden was over-run with cayenne peppers, so we added a few of those in each jar. Some jars we used dill weed, and some we left with just garlic, cayenne peppers, and/or jalapeno peppers. 

We had to wait 5 weeks to taste the fruits of our labor; definitely a lesson in delayed gratification. But last week Mom and I were able to open and taste the slimy little veggies...and they were delicious!!! A tad tangy, full of flavor, and with a good deal of heat, although I wouldn't mind if they were a little spicier. I will probably add more jalapenos to a few jars next time.
Oh and this blog post title? Just a little tribute to my affinity for Delta State University, home of the ''Fighting Okra". Not kidding.

Make new friends but keep the old

My new niece is pretty neat.
At first she looked like a little mini-me of her sister.

But now she is developing into her own little person......and she is so precious.

But I sure do have a soft spot for niece number one. Cause you know...her little personality is really starting to come out...and I think she is about as normal as I am.

 I just love her.
And her little sister.

Settled

I'm so excited to be blogging right now. My brain is continually swirling with creative juices and things to talk about and share, and it's been weeks since I'd had time to do anything about it.
The hubby and I have been quite the nomadic couple for the last few months; making me uber pumped about being at home right now.
Take a look at how many weekends we spent away from home this summer:
May 1 -- Knoxville; wedding
May 7  -- McMinnville; Mother's Day
May 14 -- Home; Jamo's finals
May 21-- McMinnville
May 28 -- McMinnville
June 4 -- McMinnville
June 11 -- McMinnville
June 18 -- McMinnville; home for half of Saturday
June 25 -- Home
July 2 -- McMinnville
July 10 -- Home...but threw a baby shower/cookout, so it wasn't very relaxing
July 16 -- McMinnville
July 24-28 -- Florida with the Bouldins
Aug 6 -- Em to Knoxville for baby shower
Aug 13 -- J to Atlanta for bachelor party
Aug 20 -- Em and J to Knoxville
Aug 27 -- Home, but helped host the Clardy Party
Sept 1-5 -- Charleston, SC for a wedding
Sept 10 -- Knoxville
Sept 17 -- Gainesville, FL

Sept 24 - HOME!!!!

Jamo and I should probably prepare ourselves for more busy summers like this in the future. Since our families live in different cities, no matter which town we end up calling home, we will always have to travel to visit the other family. And I'm sure once winter gets here and we begin hibernating, I'll be longing for an exciting weekend away from home. But for now we're as happy as pigs in mud!!

Here is what we've accomplished in the last 20 hours: (the hubby and I are a great team!)
Lawn care for both houses (mow and weed-eat), Mazatlan dinner (first time in 6 weeks), slept in till 9 a.m. (amazing), all laundry cleaned and put away,  washed the car, dusted living room furniture,vacuumed all floors, mopped the kitchen, cleaned bathroom cabinet (much needed), ran errands in town, and cooked and ate brunch (pancakes, sausage, and eggs).
Now we are settled in for an afternoon of college football, blogging, Volquesting, maybe napping, hopefully crafting, cooking, facebooking, and a dinner of steaks, potatoes, and fried okra.
OH, and I got the latest Southern Living magazine in the mail today.   I'm so happy I could cry.