Banana Bread and Thoughts

Mmm. Homemade Banana Bread! We all love it and last night I made a triple batch of it - with most of it going in our freezer. I kept one loaf out as some of Paul's co-workers were suppose to help move a piano into our house this evening and I was going to feed it to them as a thank you. But with the Ft Hood incident they were kept later at work and it didn't work out to pick up the piano tonight. The blood that Paul and the others at his clinic draw was sent over to the Ft. Hood victims - it kind of hits close to home "knowing" who is getting the life saving blood as a result of the long hours and miles traveled that Paul and the others put into their work.

It breaks my heart thinking of the many families affected by this.

Not sure how I jumped from Banana Bread to Ft. Hood. The recipe is up on the recipe blog now.

Promotion Dinner

The boys and I had a lot of fun planning Paul's promotion dinner celebration for Friday night. It was just for the four of us celebrating Paul's recent promotion to Staff Sergeant (E6) and it was a nice, laid back evening at home.


We started the evening with a game of "Staff Sergeant Daddy Says..."


Judah toasted his daddy's accomplishments with some tasty Apple Cider.


Judah and I made this centerpiece earlier in the week. He impressed me with his craftiness! Judah tore up the paper and attached it to the cardboard and then attached all the Army men with double sided tape. I added the sticker flag attached to a Popsicle stick stuck in a mound of Play-doh.


Some of the other table decorations.

Paul grilled steaks and pork chops for dinner. I'd marinated them in a coffee marinade and they were *amazing*!!

As a nod towards the Army I packaged our dinner in tinfoil and then placed them in these MRE-style bags. I designed and printed the labels on the computer and then attached the labels to brown lunch bags.



Congrats Babe for all the hard work you did to get to where you are!! xoxo


Linking with TASTY TUESDAY

Dear Daddy

Paul found out the beginning of this week that he was promoted - yay! We didn't get a chance to celebrate though as he had to leave with work for Florida for the week. He gets back on Friday, which has given me the opportunity to think up something special to do to celebrate the occasion. Both boys have been helping me prepare for it - including being great sports about me dressing them up for the pictures for Paul's invitation to dinner.

Do you know there is a huge lack of ideas for celebrating an Army promotion online?! I couldn't find anything useful when I googled it. I'll post about our celebration after the fact - can't ruin any of the surprises for Paul! :)