the last few days

for new year's eve we went to a dinner party at my cousin ryan's house,
to celebrate his birthday.
i was fighting a cold/allergies/congestion/whatever.
i felt like crap, but i really wanted to go.
so we went and had fun.
and played cranium, which we love.
i'm sorry i was a party pooper and made kevin take me home by 11 pm.
when we got home the kids next door were having a crazy party,
their parents were out of town.
their secret is safe with us!
kevin and our neighbor hung out till almost 2 am to make sure our house was ok.
there were about 50 or 60 kids going in and out.
they were trying to be cool and kept trying to talk to kevin and adam.
they were saying, you guys don't mind if we have this party do you?!
makes me laugh that we are now the "old" people.
my sister hung out with boyd at our house while we were at ryan and emily's.
thank you sis!

ryan's wife, and my friend, emily is a master in the kitchen.
she made this recipe, here.
pork with cherry sauce.
to die for!
i love to cook, but normally my pork or beef or chicken are swimming
in some sort of brown gravy or cream sauce.
we loved this so much, kevin requested it again for new year's day.
i was happy to make it.


emily wrote down the recipe and sent it home with me.
i will admit i did cook my pork longer than 4 minutes on each side.
i was worried it wouldn't be done.
it turned out so good!
if you want something so delicious and so totally different,
make this.
your friends and family will be impressed.
this will be something i make over and over again.


boyd woke up with a high fever on new year's day.
yes, we have 3 different thermometers.
i am not a fan of any of them for kids.
we have a regular one, ear one, and temple one.
any suggestions?!


boyd didn't want to eat all day.
we made the mistake of thinking he wanted something last night.
bad idea.
very bad.
carpet has to be shampooed today.
doesn't he look pitiful?!
i worry about boyd so much when he has a fever.
kevin and i were both on high alert all night. :)


a new year,
a new calendar,
from my most favorite restaurant in the world.


i hope it is a great year!


i'm off to grind some coffee beans.
i've needed a lot of this the last few days.
{on a side note, keri p., the toasted coconut coffee is so good, it's almost gone.
i'm trying to savor the last of it. thank you again!}