Howdy folks!

Here are 2 pictures from our annual trip to the State Fair of Texas. This was Will, Avery and Preston's first trip and I hope they had fun! They're a little too young to enjoy the vast array of culinary delights that we ate-including but not limited to: chicken fried bacon, fried pb&j&banana sandwiches, fried grilled cheese, corny dogs and roasted corn. The corny dog was invented at the State Fair and, in my opinion, is truly the greatest contribution Texas has given to the world! The first picture is of Kyle, Chris, Kevin and Chris riding 2 Extreme. It's a ridiculous spinning ride thing that costs $15 dollars. This is part of why we only go 1 per year! We always have so much fun with all of our friends at the fair and this year was no exception. We're so spoiled to have so many good friends living so close to us.

Speaking of close friends, Will Halpin turns 1 year old tomorrow! (That's him with Heather and me in the second picture. To Will's dad: Yes, I put the Steelers hat on your son! He loved it.) Can't believe it! This year has flown by and he's changed so much. Can't wait to see what the next year brings him.

Hope you're doing well!

Eureka!

The pictures of our Gourmet Club in June were finally found! We have our dining room both before and after and one of us before the feasting began. Our Oktoberfest was very fun. I was the bad guest because I wouldn't eat the veal. From what everyone else said, it was my loss. Oh well. Next up is New Year's Eve at the Lewis-Putnam house. We're going to switch it up next year and Kevin and I will host New Year's Eve '09. Yes, I already have some ideas!!! We have had so much fun with this.

Gourmet Club June 08

Happy Fall Y'all

Can you believe how fast 2008 is going? We put out all of our Halloween and Thanksgiving stuff today which was odd since it was 85 degrees outside.

Speaking of weather, this picture is of my dad standing in front of (what was!) a 200 year old tree at my grandparents' home. Hurricane Ike made its way all the way from Houston to outside Nacogdoches. Winds were between 85-90 miles per hour. My dad, uncle and cousin spent last weekend chopping up trees and assessing damage to the area-thankfully it was minimal and no one was hurt. They were hoping to make a coffee table from the tree-it was 4 feet in diameter-but the tree was too damaged to save. They're going to try and think of something cool to do with the salvaged wood. It's a shame what happened to Galveston. We have lots of fun memories there. We hope that they can rebuild both buildings and communities. We'll be back when they do!

Hope this finds you all well.

PS-I forgot to say last time that I have officially been hired at American Heart Association. Soon I'll be telling you how important it is to be CPR trained...as soon as I go through it myself!

PS 2-Top Chef starts on Nov. 12th. Woohoo!