Dairy Fest 2009

As a way to celebrate my first complete week back at work after my leave, we had a Dairy Fest. Sharon made the gorgeous cheesecake, Stacy made Milk Punch (a special drink made by the Dairy Princess herself), I brought the party favors, little Milky character. Mine was whole milk, Stacy/Strawberry milk, Sharon/Chocolate milk, Deneal/Skim Milk. The character is from the Blur music video for Coffee and TV. We all celebrated the Friday starting out with the Milk Punch...mmmmm...milk, strawberry jello packet, vanilla ice cream and sprite. Then we went out to lunch. The celebration continued with Sharon's TO DIE FOR strawberry and pineapple cheesecake. OMG SOOOO GOOD! Ridiculous how good. Anyway the theme comes from the fact that I am still nursing and that leaves me to pump at work. When I leave my desk I leave the little "moo cow" cartoon sitting out(see * below). I only go 2-3 times a day but at least this way I don't have to say it every time. I feel like it is going well and I will be able to continue to provide Cody nourishment. YEAH DAIRY FEST 2009@






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Rolling Cody gathers no moss

Carolina Bluegrass Festival 2

Here are some great pics of US, Cody and the venue. It rained but hardcore bluegrass fans still turned out.
Thanks to Rich Cox for taking such beautiful photos!

S.O.L Proctor

What a boring freaking job I have for the next 3 weeks. I am in a room where students in grades 3-5 take Virginia's Standard of Learning Tests. The teacher reads aloud the directions to the students like a robot and then the students take the test on Macbooks that are connected to our server. Once the test begins I start to walk around a group of 30 computers. I continue to walk around in circles for hours. Yesterday one group tested for almost 4 hours. Today was a little better. The first group took only a hour and a half. I will be doing this every day until June 5th so just think I went to college and got my teaching certificate so I could walk around in circles for 3 weeks....YAY! Thanks for letting me vent.

1st Mother's Day

WOW What a great DAY!

heading back to Va Beach

Cody and I are getting ready to head out on our trip back home. I can't wait to post the recap of the wedding and all our visits with family. We did our best to try to see as mauch family as we could but it was tiring. Hopefully we will be back sooner rather than later and catch up with everyone we missed.

TJ has been a good sport for not making a fussy about being away from Cody for all these days. Cody changes and discovers something new everyday and to share these with Grandpere has been a blessing. As we fly out Grandpere is headed off to France and Italy for 10 days.

wedding rehearsal seafood chowder

Dad and I made this with the left over food from Lara's wedding rehearsal. It made a whole lot and so we froze the rest for him.

2 boxes of organic non-dairy potato and leek soup
2 cups chopped lobster
2 cups chopped long neck steamers, no bellies (we talked of making a pate with the bellies)
3 shrimp chopped
2 medium russet potatoes, peeled, cubed
1 large white onion chopped
2 tablespoons butter
2-4 good shakes of Emeril's Original Essence seasoning
Crusty bread

In large stew pot melt butter over med heat. Add chopped onion, stir saute for 3 mins, cover. Add cubed potato cover for 10-15 min ,stir occasionally to prevent sticking. Add potato leek soup and Emeril Seasoning stir and heat for 3 min. Stir in seafood cook for another 10 min or until fully heated and serve with crusty bread. Great for those who can't have a lot of dairy but love a good chowder.