crawfish - take two. (snap)

Yes, we did it! Two sittings of crawfish in one week!!! Michael and Meg called this week to invite us to their home for a crawfish boil. Michael's dad brought 60 lbs. of crawfish all the way from Louisiana on Saturday. 20 of us celebrated crawfish season together with crawfish, potatoes, corn, and onions - all boiled together in great cajun seasonings! Probably about half of us are native to Louisiana, the other half are married in to Louisi-anians or friends of the Louisiana crowd!! Like I said in my last post, crawfish eating is no fast-food event. No, it's a good fellowship food, as it takes much time to peel and eat. The initial batch of the boil was the veges. Then, 2 pots full of crawfish followed. And we peeled, and peeled, and peeled.

A lesson in crawfish boiling:


Begin with LIVE crawfish...we let Sawyer, our friends' one year old, be the tester of the crawfish's "live-ness" as he was inticed by the squirming claws of the crawfish.


Boil the crawfish. When finished boiling, pour crawfish onto a newspaper-covered table.


Make SURE the crawfish are no longer squirming - they're good and dead and cooked! And check to see that the tail is curved, not straight. A straight tail means that the crawfish was dead before it got into the boiler, and this is not good!


And snap the crawfish at the joint between the body and tail. Twist the tail apart from the body. Then snap the very end of the tail off as well. The meat is inside the main part of the tail. Peel the scales away from the meat, and finally, as Ashley is so nicely demonstrating, pull the strip of ???!?!?! from the meat, and enjoy!!!

game night - guess who.

Do you remember the childhood game "Guess Who"? I played it a lot when my sister and I would visit my grandparents in Ruston on the weekends when we were little girls. We played a lot of games with Mamaw. Well, this past week, a package came in the mail. I was surprised to see my mamaw's handwriting on the package. I mean, she sends cards for holidays and birthdays, but I don't ever remember getting a package in the mail from her...at least while here in the States. I was intrigued to say the least. I opened it to find this note taped to the game box: If you can't read her hand-writing, it says, "You see the ages on this game, we played it for yrs. I thought you might want this. Love you, Mamaw". I teared up when I read her note. There's something about a random act of kindness from a super special mamaw that really touched my heart!

We broke the game open tonight and yes, all the practice with mamaw paid off! Score: Kim, 10; Daniel, 5. (We played the best 2 sets of 5: 5-2:Kim & 5-3:Kim)

crawfish with Ashley and Austin.

So, Tuesday night I'm baking salmon, making a salad, and JUST ABOUT to put spaghetti noodles in the pot to boil when my phone rings. It's Ashley and Austin, inviting us to go to Papadeaux's for their crawfish, 2lbs. for $5.95 special! Well, I was in the middle of making dinner, and we weren't sure that salmon would save...but, the temptation for crawfish and their company and the good deal was just too strong, so we decided to take a chance on the salmon saving and go out for dinner with them. And fun it was!

If you've never eaten crawfish, there's something that you need to know: peeling the shells is work. And if you're in a rush, crawfish is not the meal to have. I think we were at the restaurant for a good hour and a half if not two hours - a great time with Ashley and Austin!

I have a confession to make - I'm from Louisiana, and granted, I SHOULD have eaten crawfish more than 2 times in my life, but I haven't. So, Austin and Ashley had to give me and Daniel a little lesson. We're quick learners and took out 2lbs. each of crawfish. We were the dorks of the group and wore plastic bibs, comple-ments of Papadeux's. Funny thing that happened: Mine fell off in the middle of the meal, but I wasn't willing to sacrifice my shirt to the oil, etc. that could have splashed onto it, so I asked Daniel if he'd mind me asking our waiter to retie my bib. Strange request, I'm sure. Hope Daniel left him a nice tip!

the return of the newlyweds!

Josh and Elizabeth are back from their honey-moon, where they spent a week in Oregon and Washing-ton! We had them over for dinner Monday night - so fun for them to be back in town! We're definitely spoiled to have them so close by. We love it!

first time for everything.

This is our front yard. Yes, it looks like we've had a hard snow, doesn't it? Well, it's mid-April, and you can probably guess that we haven't. And you've guessed correctly. What we have had is wind blowing the tree in our front yard. We were warned of this tree before we moved in, but had no clue to what extent it would be a pain this spring and probably summer. It's a cottonwood tree and grows pods that fall from the tree and release cotton.

So, today I (Kim) helped mow our front yard. I've never done it before. It was actually kind of fun, but I didn't last long. Daniel is actually still outside mowing, and I just came in to post on the blog to say that I had actually mowed. I did mow for more than just the picture, and I'll probably help again, but hey, I wanted to let the blogging world know of my accomplishment, and what better time to take a break than now! ;-)

good friends. good fun. good food.

We grilled out last night with Brent, Rebecca, and Caroline Mayfield. It was our first time to get together with them for dinner since Caroline was born in January. We've missed them! The weather was super nice, so we enjoyed dinner in their backyard and desserts inside. They provided the grill and GREAT kabobs - shrimp wrapped in bacon, green and yellow peppers, mushrooms, onions, and tomatoes. We provided the side dish (rice) and fantastic dessert - apple pie, recipe compliments of Daniel's mom, and caramel vanilla ice cream! Good friends. Good fun. Good food.

lights out.

Last night around 8:30, Daniel and I were playing a game of back-gammon, when suddenly our electricity went out. No strong winds, no stormy rain. They just went out - and yes, we do pay our bills!! ;-) We thought, "A little early to go to bed," so we lit candles and played by candlelight. The game results: Kim, 2 games. Daniel, 1 game. However, I can't boast too much, before backgammon we played checkers and I think I got worse each game. On our third game, I had crowned 3 of my guys king and Daniel had crowned probably 7-8 of his. So, checkers isn't my forte!!

the big day. reception.

Daniel gives them a fantastic toast - my husband has a tremendous gift with pen and paper!




Their toast to each other.





The first dance.



And away they go - Mr. and Mrs. Joshua Audi!!!

the big day. pre-ceremony pictures.

Joshie and Elizabeth - a quick greeting before pictures begin!




Josh and the nieces and nephews.




Elizabeth and groomsmen.




the 6 Audi brothers and sisters

rehearsal dinner.

mmmm.... Texas Land & Cattle! Great food! Thanks, Dad Audi!!

family in fort worth.

Josh and Elizabeth are now Mr. and Mrs. Audi!! Daniel's brother, Steve, and his family and Daniel's folks all got here Thursday night, so we got to spend some time with them on Friday before all of the festivities got started Friday night. We went down to the most "Texas" place I could think of:

the Stockyards!

Tour de Cafe

Catholic Charities held its annual "Tour de Cafe" last night at the YWCA in downtown Fort Worth. The Tour de Cafe is a celebration of our refugees...and wow, are they truly people to celebrate. I know I can't imagine what their lives are like - some have left behind family that they will never see again and probably didn't even know where they were when they left their country. Many of them have seen lots of blood, lots of guns, lots of death. And those who did not see war in their own countries and grew up in a refugee camp have seen life at its worst - very little food, extremely poor living conditions with many, many people living in a tent-like situation. Awful! And now they have found safety and somewhat of a better life here in America. "Somewhat?" you may ask. Well, imagine if you moved to a new country, didn't know the language, never received education in your own language so learning is difficult because you've never been formally taught how to learn. Imagine that you had little skills in your home country and therefore finding a job with little English education and almost no skills is what you have to offer anyone who might hire you. This is not all of their situations, but it definitely is the situation of the majority of the refugees that I teach from Somalia. Other refugees come from Burma, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Congo, Liberia, Pakistan, Iraq, Cuba.

At the Tour de Cafe we have teas and coffees from around the world and snacks from around the world as well. Some of our refugees perform music from their native country or dances. A family of Sudanese children sang and danced for us last night and they were a HIT!

If you're in the DFW area, maybe you can make it out to the Tour de Cafe next year!

one more egg hunt.

We celebrated Easter with my mom's side of the family on Sunday. Last year Daniel and I began what we'd like to be a tradition - dying Easter eggs together. So, we thought we'd do it together Friday night in Ruston, but didn't. Then thought maybe at Mamaw and Papaw's on Saturday night with our 3 yr. old cousin, Abby, but didn't. So, we were determined to do it Sunday...and we did!<

Annie, our 2 year old cousin, helped us dye Easter eggs. Then, we hid them for her in Granny's front yard. It was super cute to watch her find the eggs! And oh, the excitement when she found them all....

79

My Papaw turns 79 on Tuesday, April 9. We celebrated his birthday together with barbecue, peach cobbler, chocolate cake, and ice cream. After dinner we sat around and listened to Mamaw and Papaw tell stories about their lives and sing songs/tell jokes that we've heard from the time we were kids until now. Sweet memories with my grandparents....here's my Papaw telling jokes/singing songs. Yep, we grew up enjoying the country life out in Dubach with cousins and Mamaw and Papaw!


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my best friend. her husband. their daughter

We got to see Heather, Chad, and Hannah on Saturday afternoon for a short time. Hannah is 19 months old and has LOTS of energy! We could hardly keep up with her, but had fun being entertained by her and visiting with Chad and Heather!

Jesus is Risen!

We went to Ruston this weekend for Easter and had sweet time with family! On the Hood side, we have an annual Easter picnic at my great-great Uncle Sidney's place - his "place" being acres and acres of pasture, complete with cows, cow patties, barns, creeks, and open field! Uncle Sidney has been a hero in our family for years. A few years ago he went to be with the Lord after having lived 99 years here on this side of heaven...99 years!! This was taken probably 20+ years ago with Uncle Sidney, Aunt Alvis, my sister, and my cousins, Will and Garson.

Anyhow, the picnic consists of a softball game, picnic, and an Easter egg hunt. Abby, my cousins' little girl who is 3 and another little boy, 9 months, found Easter eggs in the backyard. Abby totaled over 20 eggs by far!!

It was Daniel's first picnic with us. And here we are - the gents and the ladies!