Best Friends Night In

Last night was our bi-monthly night in with friends hosted at our house. Troy and I threw down a fajita bar; as he says, K-I-S-S, Keep It Simple Stupid.

We laughed until we cried, we ate until we had to unbutton our pants, and the boys taught us to play 5 Card Draw and 7 Card Draw. We were so busy laughing that there was not one picture taken :-(

I had beginners luck and took home some money (we were playing for nickels). But I still don't understand the game.

Must keep studying so that I can take more money in two months. I can tell there has been a 5 Card Draw monster created in me.

Look out Sanders and Swing families, this Hampe is out for your money :-)

The 102nd Thing to Do with your Husband that Isn't on Any Lists

We have all seen "the" lists that give you all the ideas of things to do with your spouse to kept the spark alive.

Troy and I have just discovered the 102nd thing that you will never find on those lists. We have a friend that has had a "boo-boo" for a while and we have laughed about it. So Troy and I wrote a short story about this friend. I so wish I could share it with y'all, but I promised Troy and our friend I would keep it between us.

Anyway, this has been a great experience that Troy and I have done together. We both got to see a side of each others imaginations at play.

Troy and I move this fun exercise to the top of the "101 things to do with your spouse".
Off to write another story....

We Just Robbed Best Buy

Well we didn't just rob Best Buy, but it felt like it. Let me back up and tell the story properly.

Troy and I dated way back, broke up and got back together. Well when we married he brought the same bed that he had when we started dating WAY back when. GROSS. It was a 1980's waterbed frame with some kind of weird sized king size mattress (oh how I wish I could attach a picture, but Blogger is down). It wasn't really a king but was bigger than a queen. It was ugly and slept crappy. But I sucked it up and slept on it for a little over two years. I am such a good wife!


We have been talking for a while about getting a new bedroom set (keeping that old nasty mattress), but could not agree on anything. Along comes Memorial Day weekend. Did you know that over 70% of all mattress are sold during this weekend? Yep, its true! So I talked Troy into getting a new mattress, boxspring and frame and we would worry about the bedroom suit later.

I did research, we knew we wanted a king size motion separation (whatever that was, but the Wyndham hotel had that and we loved it) and it had to be firm yet soft. I did some pricing around and planned out our game plan. We were going to jump on beds at three different stores and then go from there. We were NOT buying last Monday night.

We went into the first store, Mattress Giant. We walked in and I wasn't going to have any part of that salesman stuff. The manager helped us, we jumped on a few beds. THEN we found IT. THE bed that we were going to buy. There was no doubt in our minds, heck we were planning to sleep there in the store until they could deliver. We didn't make it to the other stores.

So back to the story of how we robbed Best Buy. I told the store manager at Mattress Giant I wanted free delivery, free haul off, I wasn't going to pay over $X amount for the bed we wanted AND I wanted the free TV that they were advertising. He said OK. WHAT? He agreed with me? Shocked. That's when he told us 5 days after delivery of the bed, we could call Best Buy and schedule to pick up our TV. Our FREE 32" Toshiba flat screen LCD HD TV.

Troy and I just got home with that TV. All we did was call ahead of time to schedule the pick up, drive to the store, sign for the TV and walk out. That was way too easy. Now we don't want to get out of the bed and we are arguing over whether to put the TV in the bedroom (we both hate this) or the office (waste a big TV for a room we are never in?).

Must sign off to help install the TV... wooo hooo

Thank you Best Buy and Mattress Giant.

Ella

Just found some cute pictures of our baby, Ella, and thought I would share her story and some photos.

My friend Holly found this cute stray one day. She tried to catch this pup for a week: a week that rained 23 or the 24 hours in a day and for about 10 days straight. Holly finally caught this cutie on a Thursday before Memorial Day, and then told me I would have to take the stray or she would have to take her to the shelter and this pup would never make it. GUILT TRIP.

So I took this puppy home, and she HATED me. Well not just me, but she hated everything and everyone, she was so scared. She was about three months and had already been beaten and mistreated by people, scared for life. She has never really grown out of her fear of people.

It took me a week to come up with a good name for this baby. I wanted something special, she deserved something special after all the trauma she had already in her life. Well, nothing creative nor spectacular came to mind. So she was named after the street that Holly found her on, Ella.

We bonded after several months. She has a great sense of people, she knew who should and shouldn't be around. She disliked many of the gentlemen that I dated. Then cam along Troy. When Troy was around, her memory of her hero, mother, savior, was out the window. Still is for the most part. And most of all Troy sometimes seems to forget about me too when Ella is around. HA!

She is the one and only baby in this family and will be for a long time to come!

The night Holly caught her
How could I resist?

Learning the rules of the leash

Spoiled rotten



What? Did you say dinner? Walk? Let's GO?



On guard
No kitties getting our yard





Best Brisket in Town

I thought I would share a huge family secret.

When I was a kid, we are on a tight budget. I remember my Mom getting what seemed like HUGE briskets, and thinking "Who is going to eat this? It's only two of us". But what my Mom did was pick up a triple serving sized brisket when they were on sale during Memorial Day, July 4th and Labor Day weekends. I think this was the only time we used the electric knife; she would cut the brisket (plastic and all) into thirds, wrap in foil and freeze. That budget shopping stuck with me and I now look forward to the big holiday weekend sales on brisket.

I did just that last week, I bought a 18lb brisket. It's just Troy and I, who will eat all that? Well we will! I cut this into thirds, wrapped up two pieces and put in the freezer. The other piece? Well I slaved over it all day to make it flavorful, juicy and just right.

So here is the second big secret... how to cook it?!

DO NOT TRIM THE FAT!
Cover the entire brisket with a brisket rub (out of the bottle or your own recipe- we use the bottle kind). Be generous with this seasoning as this is ALL that will go on the brisket. Don't make my mistake and use a seasoning salt, you wont be able to eat the brisket unless you like salt licks.
Wrap the brisket in heavy duty foil. I like to wrap mine twice (seams going opposite directions).
Place the brisket covered in rub, wrapped in foil, fatty side up, in the crock pot and cook on low for about 8 hours or high for about 5 hours.
You will have juice down in the bottom of the pot, use that how you would like.
Warning: there will be no need for a knife to cut this meat. (I say that like its a bad thing, haha)

Now for some pictures..

Big slab of meat on sale

Coating with brisket rub

Don't trim the fat!
This will keep the flavor and juices.

This is the HARD part-
Drop the wrapped brisket in the pot for the day

Finished product

Brisket and all those juices

Well, I hope I have left your mouth watering. Only hard thing about this recipe is walking into the house when it is ready and digging in as fast as you can.

Enjoy!