Near Miss.

Housewife

Yesterday was busy, productive, and exhausting. In a good way. I got a lot done. I had a couple of Elly's recipes that I was dying to try, and I figured yesterday was a good time for that. For dinner, I had a buffalo chicken salad with goat cheese dressing, and it was absolutely wonderful. I like blue cheese in small doses, but I definitely prefer goat cheese, and it so nicely comlemented the buffalo sauce I made for the chicken. Yum-O! After eating, having a glass of wine, and cleaning up after myself, I decided to give this raspberry buttermilk cake a whirl. I did modify this slightly, as I used blackberries (the market was out of fresh raspberries) and added lemon zest to the cake batter. It was divine. Really. Delicious. It was great as a dessert, but like Elly says, it wouldn't be at all out of place on a brunch table. I really recommend it!

I had gone to the store right after work, at about 5:30, to pick up everything I needed... so I guess I probably cooked around 6:30 (remember this).

Stephen got home from setting appointments around 8pm. We snuggled on the couch and watched some Burn Notice, and just enjoyed each other's company, since we hadn't really gotten to spend much time together recently. He ate some dinner (I had already eaten) and we just hung out and chatted for a while. Around 9:30, he started feeling really bad, really suddenly. We had no idea what was wrong, just that he felt terrible, and couldn't really explain what felt bad. He was nauseated, light-headed, and just felt all-around icky. WELL. I went outside for a minute, and came back in, and the smell of gas just smacked me in the face. I immediately knew that the burner I'd had on low to keep the buffalo sauce warm had probably gone out, and I'd left the gas on. I was right. That means that for THREE HOURS, we'd just been sitting there breathing it in. Scary.

We opened some windows, which was just lovely in this awesome Texas weather, and within about 15 minutes, he was feeling better! What do ya know!

I'm such a dingbat sometimes!!

Anyway.

I had a great time in Dallas. Really, it was great. I spent both nights at my parents' beautiful new home in Hurst, and got to catch up with my brother, Tim, who is 21 and I don't get to talk to as often as I'd like. He's turning into a pretty cool guy, and I wish we got to hang out more often. I left home when he was just 10 years old, so I wasn't around for a lot of his "growing up" years (14-20 or so). I was too busy being cool with my friends and self-destructing to have any real part in his life for those years. I regret it, but I figure we have lots of years to catch up and be friends coming our way.

This is Tim:

Littlebro

Ok, so anyway. We had a great time. My mom and I cooked dinner together on Saturday night, and it turned out soooo good. We made beef chili, with peppers and onions and all kindsa good stuff. Mom covered the chili with cornbread and baked it... then we garnished with avacado and cheese and cilantro. YUMMMMM. A bowl of chili and a homemade top-shelf margarita. Now THAT's a meal. haha.

Saturday evening I got to go out with my friend Barbara, and it was a blast. We went to Ozzy Rabbit in Ft. Worth, and Ant and Brandon came out to say hi as well. My sister was supposed to join us, but as it turned out, I didn't see her at all this trip. The drama that sparked the idea for this trip was initiated by her, and, from what I hear, she was very upset that I was up there, "competing for my parents attention". I know she can't help it... she's just trying to blame something for her misery, and I was there, an easy target. I don't hold it against her. It was drama that I would have preferred not to deal with, but it didn't ruin my weekend, and I still got to hang out with friends and family and have a great time.

Sunday morning I went to my grandmother's Spirit class (she teaches at her church every Sunday, and she's AWESOME). I love watching her teach. She just puts so much of herself into her class. Those women probably don't even realize how much time and energy goes into those lessons. I went over to her house on Saturday to play with her (adorable) new puppy and she was doing this project with peanuts. When I asked about it, she just told me I'd see tomorrow. Ok.... Well, what she did was, carefully broke the peanut shells open, removed the nuts, and replaced them with small pieces of paper with scripture on them. Good, sort of "base" passages, like the Roman road, and 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (that was mine). She glued them back together, and passed them out in class. She called it "The Gospel in a Nutshell". SO CUTE!! My favorite thing that I got out of the class was this:

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ, the law of the spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death."  ~Romans 8:1-2

Good stuff!! It was good for my soul to sit next to her in "big church", as I used to call it as a child, and harmonize to hymns like we did when I was a tyke. It's one of my favorite memories, and still one of my favorite things to do!

After church, we had lunch at Carrabba's, then I hung out with my parents for a while before driving back (on NO sleep- had terrible insomnia on Saturday night). I made it back in just over 3 hours, and had a good time showing off my new clothes (grandparents took me shopping) and playing with my dog.

Overall, it was a really, really good time, and I'm really glad I went.

I'm hoping to do it again, maybe in August for my mom's 50th. Next time, though, Stephen needs to be there too!

Hope everyone's having a fantastic Tuesday!