Wednesday's eggs!

We are trucking right along with the egg count. Last night we made almost 400. The night before we made over 600. Monday we made over 400 and Sunday we made 1,326! It is exciting to see what the number is at the end of the night. Here are a couple pictures from last night. John was at training. Jeff is in on a business trip. He went to Vegas, then I think Arizona and New Mexico? I can't remember. All I know is the weather is amazing where he is and it was a really nasty cold day here yesterday. I can't wait for daylight savings. Pray for Jeff that he has a safe trip.

Also, Please pray for the fire hall. Someone who apparently really needed it, stole a 6 lb. container of peanut butter. The fire hall and the people who volunteer there can be really giving and would have gladly given it if needed, but were never asked. Pray for the one/s who took it, as they may need our prayers.

Volunteering for the fire hall...

Every year the fire dept. has one big fundraiser. Starting in February they make chocolate Easter eggs to sell before Easter. I am so happy to get to help with this fundraiser. It isn't the easiest project to take on nor quick. Rachel and I were there from 10:00 am Sunday until 7:00 pm. Then we went back Monday, and John and I went back Tuesday. Rachel and I will be going back tonight. The other volunteers aren't really that excited about all the work, but I REALLY ENJOY IT! I like the challenge and getting to do something good with my time. We will be making eggs every night except Friday and all day every Saturday and Sunday for the next 6-8 weeks. The goal is to make 15,000 eggs. They will have fillings like peanut butter, butter cream, coconut, strawberry, orange pineapple, etc. There will be 3 different sizes to make of the main flavors (first 3 in list). Each egg is color coated for the filling. I have never made candy before and I really enjoy it. My aunt Rose used to make us candy and I never really appreciated her effort until doing this.


Here are some pictures of the eggs and all of the volunteers.

Richie is the Chef of it all. If you look closely you will see where a cloud of powdered sugar covered part of his head/ear! Candy making is a dirty job, but someones gotta do it!
John, Terri and Rachel decorating team!

John decorating the Peanut butter filled eggs!

Rachel and I showing Jeff how to work the icing!

The peanut butter ones are delicious!

Rachel and me

The butter cream filled eggs. I haven't sampled this flavor yet!
John and the Chief- Jeff
Day 3- Coconut filled eggs (I won't be sampling these as I don't like coconut)
And, if anyone is worried, I am not sampling them too much. I would be one chubby bunny if I sampled all day long!

Valentines Day with my Love!

John and I had a fun filled Valentines day. We started our day with breakfast. John made biscuits and sausage while I was getting ready. We started our activities by going to the history museum in at the market in Roanoke. I am sure there is an official name for it, I just don't know it. We toured the regular exhibits and a random exhibit that they had on moonshine. It was interesting. There was a REALLY old video about it that I swear had to be made in the 70 or 80's and featured people from Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia. It was a fun history lesson.

For lunch we went to a new BBQ place called Blues BBQ. It was DELICIOUS. John and I consider ourselves connoisseurs of fine BBQ. We have favorites all along the way back and forth to Pigeon Forge and every where else you could imagine (even in Hawaii!) I will have to give you the list another day. Any who, after a bowl of spicy hot brisket chili, we had sandwiches and I had french fries like no other and John had Succotash! (corn and LIMA bean concoction.) We will be going back there to try out more items on their great menu!

After lunch we headed up 81 a little ways to The Natural Bridge museum. It is something that I have wanted to do since we moved here. I don't know if John really new that, he might have just thought it would be neat to see. We probably hiked 2 miles round trip to see the bridge, a saltpeter cave, a waterfall and this random pond in the side of the mountain. They tried to see where the water goes by doing die tests and using floatation devices and can't find where it comes from or where it goes. You can hear the water running like a waterfall inside the hole but can't see where it is coming from. Below is a picture of John standing in front of the hole.

After all that, we weren't sure where to go eat, so we headed back to Roanoke. We ended up going to Golden Coral. Don't laugh. We love Golden Coral. We only go if it is busy, and it was packed Saturday for steak night and Valentines Day.

We ended our day by watching The Astronaut Farmer, which we had from Netfilx and wanted to watch and get sent back. All in all a great day! The best gift was getting to spend the day with John, free of the normal routine we have been under lately-of work, workout, fire hall activities, and sleep. Oh, and John got me Starburst Candy to eat before I get braces! And I got him (and myself) a dressing valet from BB&B. They were on clearance for $49.99 and I had two 20% off coupons so I got 2 for $80 instead of $200.00!!! I love bargains.

John at the Natural Bridge

Me at the Natural Bridge

The other side of the Natural Bridge. You can see where Hwy. 11 goes over. We drove over it on the way there and had no idea!

A poem on the way up the mountain
John in front of the random hole where you can see a pond and hear a waterfall...

John and I posing in front of the waterfall. (The water was low when we were there)

This is the Valet finally put together!

Venison Meatloaf!

I am sorry I am so slow getting this wonderful dinner on here. Last Thursday we had some ground venison just begging to be used. So I whipped up a meatloaf. I don't follow a recipe when I make meatloaf. It is different every time and I usually throw in whatever flavors/spices I am in the mood for that day.

Venison Meatloaf

• 1 lb. of Ground venison (or beef) (I might have used a little more than a lb.)
• 2 cups approx. of Progresso Italian bread crumbs
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 a can of tomato sauce
• 2 tbsp. of sugar
• 2 tsp. of minced garlic
• 1 tsp. of Sticky Fingers brand rub (or whatever brand you might have)
• 2 tsp. of basil
• 1 tsp. of red pepper flake
• (I needed a little more sauce for the consistency I wanted so I added a little ketchup

Meatloaf Sauce (sort of my own ketchup concoction)

• 1/2 can of tomato sauce
• 1 tsp. of sugar
• 1 lid-full of vinegar (probably 1/2 a tsp. or so)
• a little more of the Sticky Fingers rub
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese (I had some shredded to use up)

1. I cooked it in the oven for about 35 mins. or so on 400 degrees.
2. Then I added the sauce.
3. Then I let it cook about another 10 mins.

The best part about using Venison instead of beef is there is no grease puddle in the pan. It is so much healthier than beef. My only regret- Not whipping up some mashed potatoes to go with it!

Busy week!

First, a shout out to my best friend Katherine. Yesterday was her birthday! Happy Birthday Katherine! I hope you had a great day!

This is a picture of Katherine and me a few years back. John and I met at Katherine's 17th Birthday party. Sheesh. We are getting old.

I have had a pretty busy week, both at work and home. The dryer quit working somwhere around Tuesday.... I got home from the gym and looked for the manual for it. John took it apart and found that it was the heater coil thingy- really, that's the exact name for it!

John fixing the dryer! He is so handy.

Then on Thursday John and I came straight home and went outside to shoot his new gun! If you look closely a few posts down, you might notice that the item I was asking you all to identify is indeed part of the gun. Which brings us to the 101 in 1001 things list. I can say I'm working on two items.

#35 Go shooting with John (1/06) & #37 Surprise John with Hobby related gifts

A note about #37, I didn't pick out the gun I just surprised John by saying that we could take a little of our savings to put towards the gun! This counts because he was certain he would have to sell a lot of gun parts that he already had to save up for it. This was a nice surprise. He is calling it my gun because it is perfect for my size. For those who are interested, it is a GSG-5. It didn't kick at all. It shot a little low for both of us, so I won't show you the target.

I will be posting a last nights dinner recipe later too!

John's firefighter training

After we left the museum Friday night, we stopped by the fire hall to clean up a little for the training meeting they were hosting there on Saturday and Sunday. Rachel and I went in early (like 6am) on Saturday and Sunday to help with breakfast. I took a few pictures of the training and the guys playing a little ball in the lawn during lunch on Saturday. It got up to 64 degrees out Saturday! It was so beautiful.

Here is John keeping his eye on the ball.

Here is John taking his turn throwing the ball.

This was so funny and I am glad that I captured it on camera. John and Jeff nearly knocked each other over to get the ball. That is Richie laughing at the guys on the left.
Here is Jeff and Richie playing what I call table football. I don't know the proper name for it. That is John sitting in between them just watching. Note: the class hadn't started back yet.

#31 Go to the new museum in Roanoke

This past Friday John and I had a very fun evening. We went to one of our favorite restaurants down town, Corn Beef & Co., to attend a retirement celebration for Jeff's boss. We enjoyed some free appetizers and pizza. And Cake of course. Then I had heard on the radio about the fundraiser the SPCA was holding at the new Taubman Museum of Art. They were selling art to raise money for the RVSPCA. So we invited Rachel and Jeff along and we walked 2 blocks down to the museum. It was PACKED to say the least. It was actually interesting that the large percentage of attendees were much older and extremely rude. It was near impossible to look at the art for the fundraiser because there were so many people standing right in front of the display sipping on their wine. So we all headed upstairs to see the exhibits. I found a lot of the exhibits very interesting. There was a piece that looked like and actually little boy molded out of wax or clay (mixed media). It was so real looking. I wasn't sure if I was allowed to take pictures so I didn't. Another favorite of mine was seeing an actually 'Homage to the Square' piece by Josef Albers. I spent a lot of time studding Mr. and Mrs. Albers in the art classes I took for my minor. Most people didn't even notice his piece or thought it was just a kindergartner's drawing. After walking around upstairs we were finally able to get a little closer to the exhibit for the SPCA.

This is a picture of John and I standing upstairs in the museum. If you are driving on 581 through Roanoke, you see this part of the building as well as some old business signs (that you can see behind us outside).

This is why I love my husband!

John and Jeff go to the gym in the morning time. I told John last night to make sure it wasn't too icy to be going to the gym. So this morning I was half asleep when he kissed me on the cheek before he left. (it was about 5:30 or so). I quizzed him on the road conditions and he assured me that it was safe. Then he said that he would clean the snow off my car! I love my husband.

This is a picture of me at 7:40 leaving for work. Note that most of the snow was melted anyway, but at least I didn't have to clean off my windows. And, Rachel left about 5 minutes before me so she even cranked it. They know me so well. I hate the cold air in the car. This is me feeling spoiled this morning!

Guessing Game!

Can anyone tell me what this is a picture of? Jeff & John aren't allowed to say, because they already know. Any other guessers?

Here's a hint: it has something to do with an item on my 101 things list! (that is a really bad hint! lol!)

Super Bowl Recap!

Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone enjoyed their Super Bowl XLIII weekend! We had a small shindig with just the 4 of us. We feasted on Venison Queso dip, pulled pork sandwiches, teriyaki wings and this brownie concoction. (I didn't make the Chocolate Ganache for mine. We were all to impatient for that when I made them on Saturday night. Hence there are no pictures from my house!) Every thing was delicious. Jeff grilled the wings. They were perfect. He actually marinated them in Buffalo Wild Wings, Teriayki sauce. MMmmm. He also used the sauce to glaze them while they were grilling. We were sad to see the Cardinals didn't win. It was a good game though.

Here is John sneaking into the dip before everyone noticed. Doesn't he just look guilty!

Here is a picture of all of us cheesing with our jerseys on. Note: none of them were actually playing in the Super Bowl and John's is actually a Hockey team. lol!

I wanted to throw this randomness in. We have here dinner prepared by Rachel, I believe last Thursday. I just want to point out two things. Angel Hair pasta is the bomb! I had no idea how much tastier it could be than regular spaghetti. Note, we had to take a picture of Jeff's plate because I had already dug into mine. Second I want to point out that this was made with ground venison. For those of you who don't eat venison because you have never tried it. You HAVE TO try it! It is so much leaner than ground beef. It is amazing and just as tasty. It does smell funny raw, but tastes just like beef if not better. Stay tuned for the reason I am pointing this out. I'll get to that later this week.



Oh, FYI, Denny's is giving away their breakfast meals for free until 2:00pm today in honor of Super Bowl. That's the word, I don't really know why they would give all that food away. So move over Lean Cuisine, here comes Denny's for lunch!