Golf, Ducks and Crafts

Last week, Jason took me to a driving range. I've never played "real" golf before–only Putt-Putt. I've never used "real" golf clubs before–again, only Putt-Putt clubs. And I've never tried to really hit the golf ball and drive it down the green (did I say that right, or did I just put a bunch of golfing words together to make it sound good?). Anyway, it was a perfect, sunny and warm evening with no wind. We picked a spot on the very end of the driving range. I guess Jason assumed I would need a lot of room–which was a safe assumption.

We set all of our clubs and golf balls down, and Jason showed me the basics of how to swing the club. It wasn't quite as romantic as you see in the movies. I think since we were on the end of the driving range and a majority of the golfers there were right-handed so they could easily look up and watch us, Jason didn't want to be too sentimental and look like a softie. So my golf lesson was quick, straight to the point, and I'll "figure it out" as I go.

A majority of the balls I hit didn't go very far, but that turned out to be a good thing! Once we were out of balls, we discreetly stepped across the rope barrier, collected the ones that didn't go anywhere and we tried again. Well, I shouldn't say "we" tried again because it was really me who put the balls there in the first place. I got a second chance to hit the balls farther than I did the first time and Jason just kept practicing and being the studly golfer he is!

I do feel sorry for the people who have to maintain the driving range. I might have made a bunch of holes in the ground from the many times I missed the ball and hit the ground instead. That was another good reason we were on the end of the range. I made so many holes, I constantly had to find a new spot to put my tee in the ground.

We had a lot of fun at the driving range, and I don't think I embarrassed Jason too much with my bad swings and holes in the ground!

My family came to visit us for Mother's Day this past weekend. It was so nice seeing them. I miss them so much! The girls went shopping–as is tradition when my family visits–and the guys went to a few museums and manly stores. Jason made a wonderful brisket for dinner on Saturday night. We also celebrated my sister's upcoming birthday with red velvet cupcakes. It was really nice seeing my family again. Next month we are going to Colorado with my parents and I can't wait!

We also celebrated Mother's Day with Jason's family on Sunday. We met them for lunch and had pizza with his mom's favorite crust–honey wheat! Jason's brother bought the biggest card for their mom and somehow managed to slip it underneath the tablecloth all the way over to her. It was pretty funny!

After lunch, Jason and I grabbed some day-old bread from the restaurant and fed the geese and ducks at a nearby park. I didn't know the geese could hiss! I really thought one of them was going to attack us to get the bread faster. Luckily, just as we ran out of bread, another car drove up and started feeding the birds. We laughed as we watched the ducks waddle-run as fast as they could to the new people so they could eat.

Jason's mom, Kathy, and I went to Hobby Lobby and Wal-Mart Monday night. A certain someone (Jason's sister, Jessica) is graduating from high school and having a certain something (graduation celebration breakfast at church) that we are coming up with ideas on how to decorate her table. I finished a few of the decorations Tuesday night. (I might just post pictures after the breakfast because I think it turned out pretty cute!) I still have a few more things to make. I just love do-it-yourself crafts!

And now, I think you're just about caught up with everything!

One Day

I would love to lounge on the white sands of the beautiful beaches in Bermuda.

I'd like to see the radiant colors of a Maui sunset.

How lovely it would be to take a gondola ride through the canals of Italy.

It would be a fairytale dream-come-true to visit a castle in Ireland.

To see the vast mountains in Austria would be amazing.

As beautiful and magical as these places are, imagine just how much more beautiful and magical Heaven will be.

Better is one day in your courts than thousands elsewhere.

Wildflowers

At work, we advertise a lot with Texas Monthly. They sent us a packet of wildflowers recently so I decided to plant the seeds tonight.


I'm excited to see the flowers grow. The package of wildflowers includes:

Drummond Phlox, Cornflower, Corn Poppy...

Black-Eyed Susan, Lemon Mint, Plains Coreopsis...

Texas Bluebonnet, Lance-Leaf Coreopsis and Indian Blanket.

And now, we wait...

Top 3

My good friend Jacquelyn visited us recently, and we were talking about different meals we make for dinner sometimes. I know, grown-up talk. When you're younger, you probably never imagine you'd exchange recipes because that's boring and only old people do that. Not true. I love getting new recipes now! Jacquelyn introduced us to one of our new favorite recipes: "Chicken Pockets."

As we were eating our chicken pockets on Monday night, we kept saying things like "amazing," "good," "my new favorite," "let's make this every week," ....well, you get the point. It was that good! I've decided this particular dinner goes in my Top 3 of Best Dishes I've Ever Made. It's definitely better than the disaster I made one night.

Here's how we made our chicken pockets:

1. Tear off 2 sheets of aluminum foil (about 8" x 12")


2. Lightly oil one side of the foil with extra virgin olive oil.


3. Slice all of your vegetables. We used:

Squash


Red Bell Pepper



Zucchini


Sweet Onion

4. Place sliced vegetables on the greased foil sheets. Lightly oil the vegetables and add salt and pepper.

5. Place a seasoned chicken breast on top of the vegetables. We bought cajun-seasoned chicken breasts from the butcher. We plan to try other seasoned chicken, but it'll be hard because the cajun one was so good!

6. Bring together two sides of each foil sheet over the ingredients, and double fold the edges. Double fold each end to form a packet, leaving room for heat circulation inside.

7. Put the chicken pockets in your oven. (We put a sheet of foil on the bottom of the oven just in case the juices leaked out. I don't think any did, but better safe than sorry. I don't like cleaning the oven.)


8. Bake at 350 Degrees for 45 minutes.


9. Get ready for one of the tastiest dishes ever! I think a lot of the taste probably depends on the way the chicken is seasoned, so make sure your seasoning has a lot of flavors. Hope you enjoy!

Penalties Are Coming...

As you probably know, Tax Day was yesterday. Jason is so funny about taxes. He likes to wait until the last day to file because why should the government get his money early? He doesn't mind paying taxes, but if he can keep his money longer, that's what he'll do. So he told me he would file our taxes at 11pm on April 15th. I assumed he was serious, but thought, oh well, as long as they're filed by Tax Day it'll be fine. Jason is really good about important deadlines, keeping up with the bills and things like that, so I had no reason to doubt his 11pm deadline.

This morning as I was eating breakfast, Jason hurries in the kitchen. Here's what happened:

J (frantically): "Oh no! I totally forgot to file our taxes last night!"

D (not sure if it's a joke, or if he's serious): "What?! Are you serious?!"

Side note: Last night Jason hung out with a friend. So did I. The taxes aren't considered one of my "responsibilities" so I didn't even think about them yesterday, or even think to remind him or ask if he had already filed them.

Back to the kitchen...

J: "Yeah, I totally forgot about it last night!"
He grabs our tax folder, hurries to the computer and impatiently taps his fingers on the keyboard waiting for it to boot up.

D (kind of annoyed, but not quite freaking out yet): "Great, we'll probably get some $1,000 penalty for filing late."

J (nervously): "No...I'm sure it'll probably be more than that."

D (kind of starting to have a quiet freak out now. Picturing the auditors coming to arrest us. Our house getting trashed by them as they search for whatever it is auditors would search for. I probably got this from a movie or something): "Well, you'd better file them before you go to work."

J (looking up online what the penalty for late filing is): "It's 5% for every month you're late. That won't be too bad."

D (thinking, great, now he'll probably wait until the end of that first month time-period because there's not a payment difference if you filed in the beginning of that month or the end of that month. also feeling a little better because the penalty isn't a crazy amount like I first thought, but still picturing us being taken away for questioning): "Ok, well just send them in!"

J: "I'm just kidding! I filed them yesterday. Remember when you came home from work and I was on the computer? You asked what I was doing and I said 'nothing.' I had just filed them!"

Punk.

So, penalties are coming...

Not from the government...

From me...

I'll get him back...hopefully!

Official

Over the weekend, I went with my good friend, Abie, as she had her bridal portraits and bride and groom pictures taken. While I was out, Jason stayed home and worked all day to make adjustments to our letterpress before we did our first official run!

We letterpressed business cards for Artiphact, an art photographer. We bought a Boxcar base and ordered a plate with the Artiphact logo. Here's the base and plate in place:


Jason did most of the business cards while I was out, but when I got home I helped him finish. We did 200 business cards with black ink and 20 with a blind impression (no ink). Here are the finished products:



We are really happy with the way the business cards turned out. Jason did a great job tweaking the letterpress and setting up the plate. He's such a wonderful letterpresser – if letterpresser is even a word, which I'm guessing it is! When you print something, you're a printer. So if you letterpress something, wouldn't you be a letterpresser? Anyway, that's not the point...

The point is our business cards are lovely, and we had lots of fun making them!

Catch Up

Yes, I realize it's been awhile since I've last written a post for my blog.

No, I did not fall off the face of the planet. :)

So I guess it's time to catch up:


Easter
We celebrated Easter with Jason's family and a few friends. Jason's mom made a wonderful spread of roast, ham, candied sweet potatoes, broccoli cheese and rice casserole (luckily, cheese is a big hit in the LeMaster family), and crescent rolls (always a favorite). My contribution was a salad and a birthday cake for dessert. We celebrated our good friend Tim's birthday too.

Every year, the day before Easter, we dye Easter eggs with Jason's family. We usually all try to grab as many eggs as we can, let them soak in the dye for a long time, or see who can make the ugliest eggs. This year was different. Jason got the idea to dye all the eggs in less than two minutes. So Jason's brother and sister, and Jason and I sat in our usual spots at the table and waited for Jason's dad to start the video camera. We dyed the eggs so fast, they were barely colored. The eggs were pretty much just pastel colors. We had a really fun (and quick) time dying eggs!

Of course, why dye Easter eggs if there's no Easter egg hunt? Oh, don't worry, there's an Easter egg hunt every year! This year we did it in the front yard – for all to see! Haha. Jason's parents also had a new addition: Mexican confetti eggs. Those were a hit...literally! Unfortunately, we couldn't find one of the dyed Easter eggs. There's always one each year that's hidden so well no one can find it! I'm sure it'll turn up – or start smelling up the yard – soon.


Floors
Remember when our house looked like this?


Now it looks like this:

We've made a few decorative changes, but the main thing is the flooring. Yes, our flooring was ripped up again. The planks were starting to curl again. So now we have tile rather than the vinyl flooring. It looks pretty much the exact same, doesn't it? Instead of putting the tile in the living room, we decided to go with carpet. It lightens up the room and looks really nice.


First Client
We got our first client for our letterpress! We are going to do some business cards for a friend who owns an art photography business. I'm hoping to do the business cards this weekend and post pictures soon!


I think we're about caught up now! Until next time...