Plane Ride

On the first leg of my trip home last night, I got to be on the plane with this little guy!
I was in the row right in front of him. Interestingly enough, Samuel and Michael were also on that same plane.
Caleb was great on the plane.
His mommy kept him very entertained.
She kind of likes him. I do too.
He was trying to get the camera. (I'm having issues with my purse camera taking blurrier than usual pictures)
Just as they made the announcements to put up our tray tables and buckle up for the landing, a certain little boy made an announcement of his own. The flight attendant said he'd have to "wait until we landed." Two year old boys having very recently been potty-trained have a hard time with that, but he did it! Good job, Caleb! I waited until we touched down and were still taxiing before I grabbed him and took him to the "water closet" accompanied by vicious glares from previously-mentioned-flight attendant. What? She never had a two year old?
I'll get to more stories next week about the extra things we got to do while in Chattanooga.

A Few Wedding Photos

All my kids are now married. Wow! The wedding was really nice. Danny and Erin are really happy together. Erin was a beautiful bride!
Here's Erin walking towards her soon-to-be husband, Danny. Jackson is helping her make the walk. So cute!
And the cake...
Look at this cute boy, Eliot!
And cute boy, Caleb! Laura made the bow ties and the suspenders. Precious.
And here's Agnes. Laura made her dress too.
It was a wonderful evening.

Happy Wedding Day

This is my baby boy. My Danny Boy. I love him so much. That was a few years ago, to say the least, but he'll always be my Danny Boy. Happy Wedding Day Danny and Erin.

Travel Day

Yippee, I get to spend nearly the entire day in the airport and/or airplane, but the ultimate goal will be worth it because I will get to see Agnes and Eliot and Caleb and Jackson, not to mention (okay I'll mention) all four of my own kids!
Tomorrow, my youngest son, yes, my baby boy, is getting married!

P.S. Happy Birthday, Mom! Love you bunches!

Berry Yummy Pork Chops

Last night I took a package of pork chops out of the refrigerator and wondered what to do with it. Out of curiosity, I looked at the recipe that was on the label and decided to give it a try, mostly because there were only 4 ingredients listed (one of which was the pork chop). I loved it!
I didn't know how well strawberries and pork chops would go together.

Here's the recipe:
4 pork chops, 3/4-inch thick (I only cooked two)
2 tsp vegetable oil (I didn't count this as an ingredient)
1/4 cup strawberry preserves
1 T mustard

1/4 cup cider vinegar
Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork chops, cook and turn until brown on both sides. Reduce heat to low.
In small bowl, stir together strawberry preserves, mustard and vinegar. Pour sauce over pork chops. Cover pan. Cook pork chops for 10 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened. To serve, spoon glaze over each chop. Serves 4.

I did add a pinch of salt to the chops as they were browning, before adding the sauce. Because I used homemade jam (and traditionally, store bought jam is quite thick) I added a thickener near the end of the cooking time (Ultra Gel). I'm sure if you needed to thicken it and you didn't have Ultra Gel, cornstarch/water would work. Then I had some extra strawberries hanging around so I sliced them up and tossed them in for the last couple minutes of cooking time.
Yes, strawberries and pork chops DO go together!

Here's a little something funny...in gathering the photos for this post I went to Bing Images since I didn't take a picture last night. In searching for pork chops, this guy's picture came up.
I'm sure there is a story here that we'd all love to know about... :)

Chores

While Bud was working for hours on getting a cobweb out from this sealed glass...
I worked on pulling box after box down from the attic.
Old receipts, paid insurance claims, etc.
Now I have to bring up from the basement ancient records (some might even be on papyrus, they're so old) to add to the pile. The guy with the shredding machine is on his way. Patient confidentiality, social security numbers and all that. This was the good times I had on my day off last week. I'm sure glad I don't have days off more often if this is how I get to spend them!