The Last Few Months...

It has been a long while since I've downloaded the pictures from my camera to the computer. Here are the fruits of this most recent labor:

This is where we find Dutch most days-- looking out at the birds that flock to his bird feeder (conveniently placed within his view). He chatters at them a lot. We love the mix of birds that come! Cardinals, blue birds, black birds, doves, quail, etc!

This was some time in February, before our tree had bloomed!

Matthew dusting with the dust mitt my mom got us...

He quite enjoys it.

Our Cardinal, William.

Our Valentine's day feast-- Porterhouse Steaks, baked potatoes, garlic sauteed spinach, rolls... WAY too much food.

We recently discovered we make pretty good buffalo wings, which is handy, because we can make them on the grill, not fry them, and they are a LITTLE better for us. The homemade sauce ain't bad either.

This was my creation of a few weeks ago. Homemade grilled flatbread with grilled chicken, roasted red peppers, alfredo, and a bit of cheese. Tasty, and a nice change up!

We had a LOVELY surprise in early March when Josh and Laura drove through on their way to Memphis for their Spring Break mission trip. We got to spend a few hours catching up and it was such a nice time to spend with people we know! I love unexpected visits! It's good for the soul.

Just a few weeks later Matt and Melissa came to visit us! It was SO GOOD to see them! I hadn't seen Melissa since the wedding... I think that's the longest we've ever gone without seeing each other, and it was, again, good for my soul and heart to be with my best friend!

We had many adventures and I did a very bad job taking pictures of it all. Here are a few from their last night here.

The primary soundtrack to the evening was, appropriately, N*SYNC.
See, Matt is LOVING it!

Mel with Matthew's headlamp-- I love this picture.

It was so sad to see them go, but we vowed we would NOT go another year and a half without seeing each other, and I believe us.

The other day I discovered some seriously glorious Italian bread at the commissary.
The stars aligned when I realized I had this bread, mesquite turkey, a red onion, a ripe tomato, and a ripe avacado, all waiting to be combined into a lunch masterpiece.

Oh, wow, I enjoyed that sandwich!

My sweet mom sent us some pillows and a blanket for our living room. I've been trying to Spring it up and have had GREAT success thanks to her additions! I've taken the red couch cover off the love seat and the light yellow/tan couch beneath has really lightened things up. The baby blue pillows work well as an accent with the dark brown couch and the soft brown blanky my mom sent! Thanks mom!

Below, Dutch enjoys the packaging of the aforementioned giftage.

We ate burgers one night. (heh)
Here is Matthew's triple burger, most likely inspired by an episode of
Man Vs. Food on the travel channel.

And again, the stars aligned with the proper vegetables, and some superior bacon, to make one heck of a burgalicious dinner.

As if seeing Josh and Laura, and Matt and Melissa wasn't enough, Whitney is here!
Today is her last day with us and we are very sad to have to see her go. She came in last Tuesday night and leaves tomorrow early morning. We've had so many adventures!

She has done a significantly better job of keeping track of our time together on her camera, so hopefully she'll do a post with pics. She and I had some good quality time on the days when Matthew was working. We discovered some AMAZING BBQ out here, have had lots of great meals together, got to celebrate Easter together, go to the Grand Ole Opry, and visit Andrew Jackson's plantation home, The Hermitage. We've had a great time!

On Friday night we stayed up late and solved all the world's problems (til 3am). It was SO good to just sit and talk for hours!
Here is Whitney, answering the phone.

I love this picture!

Here are a few pictures from Easter.

Dutch definitely had stuff to look out- this is the first time he's been outside in a while.

And our Easter Dinner.

And so, a quick catch up. I really will try to keep on top of things. I have about 3 weeks left of school and then I'll be getting in to summer! I may or may not get a job-- I'll be looking and applying for some teaching stuff here and there, but I have lots of prep to do for my master's exam, and I need to get working on my thesis, so if I don't get a job, it's not the end of the world. (And afterall, that means better and more adventurous meals :)

Until the next post, cheers!
He is Risen!
He is risen indeed!