We have a date!

A surgery date, that is!

For those of you who don't know, my husband Branden tore his ACL on November 18 of last year. He was on duty at the time, as a bike officer for the Downtown Safety Patrol. Something like this:

(That's him on the left, actually, in a promo photo taken before November 18).

The injury occured when he was struggling with a homeless guy who decided he wanted to be beligerant. The dude started swinging at Branden, who was wrestling with his heavy glove so he could get to the trigger on his pepper spray. Long story short, Branden moved wrong while trying to keep the guy off him, and POP! His ACL tore clean through, like this:


The injury couldn't have been more clear-cut - he was in uniform, in the line of duty, and has numerous documents to back up his case, including a police report, a Safety Patrol report, a pre-employment physical, and a doctor's report from that day. And yet, it has still taken almost five months of wrangling with worker's comp insurance (a pox on your house, Texas Mutual!) to get this surgery scheduled. I could go on and on, but let's just say that the journey included innumerable phone calls between Branden, his doctor, his local insurance contact, and a claims adjuster out of state. And multiple denials of the claim...he counted three or four total, before finally getting approval two weeks ago. It's been a hot mess, but the end is in sight.

Oh, what's the date, you ask? April 29.

Midland trip...a Preview

Branden and I made the trip out to Midland to visit his family for Easter. We left after work on Thursday and got to spend almost three whole days there, which seemed like a luxury after some of our previous in-and-out quicktrips. We had a great time, and I have several pictures to share, but I don't have time to post them tonight. Instead, I'll leave you with this teaser video of our niece Haley making a card for her GrandPoppy's birthday, which was Friday. Isn't she a doll?

Haven't said much lately

As I told one family member who was requesting more frequent blog entries, I'm not much on blogging unless I feel like I have something to say. Often, my life feels pretty routine, so I don't bother to post. But how am I to know what might be interesting to you, dear blog readers? So herein follows a list of what I've been up to lately.

1. Reading. Lots of that. Right now I'm enjoying Second Helpings by Megan McCafferty, having just finished Sloppy Firsts earlier this week. They're fun books, and though it took me a while to get into the first one, I'm hooked now and I can't wait to keep going. There are five of them so far - yay! I love it when I can really get invested in a character or set of characters and follow them through time.

2. Watching Amazing Race. I just discovered that CBS has full episodes available online, and I'm already caught up to the broadcast schedule. This has been a really fun season, with lots of good teams I felt like I could root for, and so far none that I really hate. I think my favorite team is Luke & Marge, and my favorite task has been one from the very first episode - hauling 50 lb blocks of cheese down a steep hill. Hilarity.

3. Celebrating. My work-friend Julia is getting married tonight. (YAY!) I was in charge of putting on her work shower. I had some great help, and together with my team was able to pull off a wonderful celebration, with a "Dish Ran Away with the Spoon" theme, stemming from the fact that her new last name will be Spoon! We had spoon decor of all types, and for part of her present, I went out and found every single spoon they had registered for and bought them all! Along with that, I have also attended a "Stock the Bar" shower and her bachelorette party, which was last night. I wasn't able to stay out late, since I had to work today, but it was great getting to meet and hang out with all her wonderful friends from all over the country. I know her wedding tonight is going to be wonderful, and I'm really excited to attend.

Of course, I've done much more with my time than just those three things, but those are some highlights. Sorry for the lack of pictures...hopefully my wonderful narrative will be enough to sate your appetite for Courtney-news. 'Til next time...

The Most awesome cake ever

I just had to share this awesomeness. For those of you who don't know, my all-time favorite movie(s) is/are Back to the Future (I-III).



I found this on the Food Network website...there's a cake gallery related to the show "Ace of Cakes" (love) where people can submit photos of their own fancy cakes. Anyway, the cake above? Swoon!

The Night Max Wore His Wolf Suit...

There are no words for how excited I am about this. Watching the trailer brought so many great childhood memories rushing back. I can still hear my mom's voice saying those words as she would read the book to me. As I plan to do with my children, as well.

Weekend Wrap-up

I promised to post a wrap-up of my weekend, since I blogged about how much I was looking forward to it on Friday. Here goes...

Saturday, we woke up early and headed to the TRE station to catch the first train to Fort Worth. After a nice train ride and a short bus trip, we reached our destination - Will Rogers Center in Fort Worth. Pete didn't end up coming with us, because he had to work. No skin off our teeth - we still had a great time.

We were only at the show for a couple of hours, but we did get to watch Branden's parents put a point on their basset hound, Annie. Dog show rules are kinda complicated, but basically, in order for a dog to become a champion, they have to earn a certain number of points. They earn points by getting wins - but they don't have to win their breed to get points. It's all very complicated, much moreso than I probably need to explain for the purposes of this blog - especially since I barely understand it myself. Suffice it to say, winning a point was a good thing for little Annie Basset. I didn't take a picture of Annie, but here's me playing with her litter on our visit to Midland, Christmas 2007. I honestly can't tell which of the black & tan ones she is, or if she's even in the frame. Perhaps my mother-in-law can help out (I know she reads this blog!).

I did take one picture at the show this weekend. Branden saw this as he was heading to the bathroom, and had to come back and bring me along so I could see. It was too precious not to pass along. An ingenious way to keep track of your kids with everything going on in such a huge building:

Before anyone goes all indignant on me, yes they were being watched. There were adults standing right next to the crate, grooming some of the other Irish Setters. And the kids? They were having a blast, playing with toys, oblivious to the scene they were causing. You can't tell from this picture, but there were about 10 people gathered around at this point.

After the show, we grabbed lunch at a little Italian place near the in-laws' hotel, then headed down to my parents' campsite at Joe Pool Lake. We had a great time, relaxing and taking in nature. We mostly just sat around and visited...walked around the lake...that kind of thing. My stepdad cooked burgers for dinner, and they were delicious! All in all, a great time of family togetherness. I'm looking forward to the next time we can visit my folks at the lake...and maybe next time we'll take advantage of the swimming beach and actually take a dip in the lake.

Sunday we mostly spent around the house, running errands, and relaxing. Branden got us each a treat to round out the weekend. He chose a Sims 2 expansion pack (Open for Business, in case anyone was curious) and I chose the movie Dark Knight, since I knew I wanted to own a copy of it anyway. We watched it over dinner (the ranchero beef bake from my previous entry, actually), and it made for a great end to a wonderful weekend!

Yummy Recipes

I thought I'd share a couple of recipes I've made and enjoyed lately. I'm not much of a "domestic goddess", but I've really enjoyed trying out new recipes, especially here in the last couple of months. Maybe it's that "wife gene" that kicks in or something. Anyhow, on to the recipes.

The first is from Kraftfoods.com - Baked Salmon with Tomatoes, Spinach & Mushrooms.

Ingredients:

4 salmon fillets (1 lb.)
2 cups chopped fresh spinach leaves
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 tomato, chopped
1/3 cup KRAFT Sun-Dried Tomato Dressing

Directions:

HEAT oven to 375°F. Place fish fillets, skin sides down, in 13x9-inch baking dish sprayed with cooking spray.
MIX remaining ingredients until blended; spoon over fish.
BAKE 20 to 25 min. or until fish flakes easily with fork.

Super easy, right? My favorite recipes are those with only a few ingredients and only a few steps - those are the ones I'm best at. :o) Now here's a picture of the finished product:

And here's a picture of my husband, patiently posing with the dinner before digging in:

I served it with Uncle Ben's long grain and wild rice, which was a perfect accompaniment. VERDICT: A+! I really liked this, but I may be biased since salmon is one of my absolute favorite things to eat in the whole world. But I thought the veggies and dressing were a great addition. The flavors blended really well. I'll definitely be making this one again.

Next we move on to a recipe from Campbell's Meal-mail, called Ranchero Beef Taco Bake.

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) Campbell's® Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup
3 tbsp. tomato paste
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
3/4 cup Pace® Chunky Salsa
3/4 cup water
8 corn tortillas (6-inch) OR 6 flour tortillas (8-inch), cut into 1-inch pieces
2/3 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions:

Cook the beef in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until the beef is well browned, stirring frequently to break up meat. Pour off any fat.
Stir the soup, tomato paste, chili powder, garlic powder, salsa, water, tortillas and half the cheese into the beef. Spoon into a 2-quart shallow baking dish. Cover.
Bake at 400°F. for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbling. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.

My ingredients, ready to mix together (except the bananas...those just happened to be in the picture!):

Finished product:

VERDICT: I'll give this one an A. It was really yummy, the flavors all comingled quite nicely and we both really enjoyed it. I think I would've liked it even more had the tortillas somehow come out crispy instead of doughy. I guess you'd have to fry them up to get them like that. But it was still quite delicious, and fairly easy to prepare as well.

I won't pretend this is a cooking blog, so it may be a while before you see another cooking post. But this is some of what I've been up to lately, so I thought I'd share! If you decide to tackle either of these, let me know how it goes.