Fun-filled Weekend

Our weekend was filled with beer, a Duke game, pumpkins, fun and a little trauma! I am tempted to leave it at that, but I should explain.

My husband entered a recipe contest at Duke. They have an annual food fiesta where participants can enter their favorite recipes under normal and strange categories for a chance to win various prices. I made chicken with rice casserole and entered under the Recipe Most Likely to Be Made on a Public Servants Salary. I did not win. Nate made Rocky Road Ice Cream and entered it under the Best Dish You'd Like to Take to Bed. He won. And his prize? A BUNCH OF BEER!! That's right, the man who has never tasted this "nectar of the gods" ever in his life, won a bunch of beer. Luckily, they hadn't actually bought the beer. I encouraged him to decline the prize, being sufficiently satisfied with the knowledge that his Ice Cream is more desirable in bed than the only other entry--- lasagna. But, alas, he thought it would be rude to decline the prize. When they called to ask what kind of beer he wanted. He told them, "well, I don't really drink beer, but I'm sure I can find someone to give it to... oh and if you wanted to throw in some root beer for me, that would be fine." So Friday night, before we set out for our first Duke Basketball game (that story to follow), a nice little Duke student dropped off his bounty. They gave him two-four packs of root beer and one-six pack of NC beer. He graciously accepted the beer, and is now the proud owner of some beer he'll never drink. He is currently taking bids on the beer. So if anyone would like to make him an offer you can reach him at 1-800-got-beer.

Here is Nate with his prize for Best Dish You'd Like to Take to Bed (or something like that)

Now for the Duke game. It is a tradition for graduate students at Duke to camp out over a weekend for the chance to enter a lottery, where you might be chosen to purchase season tickets to Duke Basketball home games (for $150), which you share with others in the group camping out with you (the more people, the more chances to win), and when it is your turn, you go to the game and STAND the whole time cheering on the Blue Devils. Now, for those who know my husband I ask, does this sound like ANYTHING remotely interesting to him? Well, you are wrong. Nate did in fact campout overnight for this glorious opportunity. And because he camped out with other students with wives, he gets to take me, occasionally, to a game. And Friday night, was our first Duke Game Date Night. And, despite all of my murmuring about the absurdity of Nate doing this, and complaining about the cost etc, I actually enjoyed myself. And Nate forgot to mention that the graduate student slots are standing only! So we stood the whole game cheering Duke onto a huge victory. Duke won by more points than the other team scored. I think it was like 115 Duke to 54 NCCU. So sad for the other team. So everytime the opposing team has the ball, all the standing fans (that's us) jump up and down while moaning-- oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh, until they either score or turn the ball over to Duke. It was pretty funny. And it was really funny that the guy standing next to me (also LDS) kept saying things like, "freakin a', get the freakin ball." "What the freak are they doing." And no, I'm not toning it down, he actually said that stuff!! HAHA

Onto Saturday. If you've read this much, you must continue. Saturday was spent cleaning house, a quick run to Costco (a nice quiet 45 minutes to myself) which was properly ended when I broke the passenger side window (AGAIN) pulling into the garage. I mean,what the FREAK is wrong with me? I broke it about two months ago PULLING OUT. Nate was really good, he didn't yell or freak out. I swore I would be super careful and it wouldn't happen again... yes, well I'm done promising anyone anything. So, after breaking the mirror, I kept cleaning stuff. We got rid of a huge box of toys, clothes that are suddenly too small for Abby, and I found our missing 9-12 month clothes for Iris. Unfortunately, most of them are summer clothes, but I found them! After all this hard work, we made Dinner in A Pumpkin (I got the recipe last year off MC-- that's mormonchic.com) and had some friends over for that. It was way better than last year, since this year the rice was actually cooked! And everyone had fun eating and playing and telling funny stories.

Here is the cooked Dinner in a Pumpkin

Another view of the perfect Dinner in a Pumpkin

And now I end with the little trauma. Today while Iris and I were playing, Abby came over to play too. So now Abby and Iris are both on my lap, on our big fluffy chair. Abby and I are taking Iris' binkie and putting it in our mouths, to which she takes it and laughs hysterically. Then we pretend to "eat her up" and have a good laugh. Can you catch the vision of what I'm saying? Well, then Iris puts her fingers in Abby's mouth, and ABBY BIT HER FINGERS. And she bit them hard. Iris starts WAILING. I yell at Abby to go upstairs, and I try to comfort Iris. When I looked at her fingers, they were purple and I could see teeth marks. WHAT FIVE YEAR OLD DOES THAT??? I was so livid. I had to leave Abby in her room for a good 20 minutes so I could calm Iris down and myself. Poor baby. She was so upset. So Abby's punishment was that she couldn't touch or play with Iris the rest of the day. I think Abby realized that she really hurt her, and I could tell she was sorry. And I'm happy to say that I think we handled it very well.

So that was my weekend. Now I'm off to bed to get rested up for my day with Abby and Iris. Abby will be out of school for Veteran's Day. Nate, of course, has school. Some times I really miss him working for old Uncle Sam.