Chicken Little {{Graphic}}, My birthday, and 12 years of wedded bliss

So once again, two weeks has gone by and I'm not sure how. There's been lots of activity around here...

As promised, here is a visual account of our adventurous chicken slaughter a few weeks back.
My brother and I really had no idea what we were doing. We watched some tutorials online, but there's no real understanding until you've actually done the deed.

We were a bit worried that he wouldn't get the head cut off with one swoop, but in the end, he did a great job...

I just couldn't keep my eyes open. It's like how eyes automatically shut when you sneeze...it was just an automatic reflex. But, as you can see, he cut clean through!

People always use the term "running around like a chicken with its head cut off," but I really underestimated just how much she would be flopping around. She was flopping so much I couldn't hold her down and had to take off running!

Yes, she made it all the way over there all by herself...and with no head, to boot!

Airborne!

Finally done.

Draining.


Placing her into a scalding bath to loosen the feathers.

She was only supposed to be in there for 90 seconds, but it ended up being close to 3 minutes...I think that may have played a role in the toughness of the meat.

Plucking the feathers was actually quite a bit easier than I thought!




All the icky stuff.

My bro with his finished product:

Aw, she was a good little chicken...


My 32nd birthday was on July 1st.

We spent the morning picking blackberries and got $1 large sodas (which our kids never get!) at McDonald's.

Miss G just got water. Shh, she doesn't know!

My running partners gave me a gift certificate to a local cupcake shop. You know what these are? ROOT BEER FLOAT cupcakes! I kid you not. Seriously divine. I threw my "no sugar" vow out the window for my birthday. I figured I'd enjoy it while I could.

Superman's grandparents were really generous and gave me some spending money for my birthday. I decided to get a food dehydrator with some of the dough, and it's my new best friend (aside from my Kindle). =) We've dried some plums, and I'm making plum/blackberry fruit rolls as I type.


Kids eat free at Carrows every day for the summer, so we decided to go out one night. You get one free kids meal for every adult entree purchased, so Mr. C decided to draw a mustache on himself so he could pass as a grown up. It must have worked, because the waitress didn't even question us. He is pretty convincing, afterall...

And being that yesterday was 7/11, it was free Slurpee day at 7-11. It's become a tradition that every year for our anniversary (which just happens to fall on that day), we really splurge and go get the whole family free Slurpees. Mmmm....watermelon.

I'm really excited about a speaker who we are flying out to speak to our adoption network in November. I'll share more about her next week!

Birthday Party for Jesus

I know I said earlier that I probably wouldn't be on until after Christmas, but I have a few quiet moments right now, and I wanted to share our birthday party for Jesus. It was wonderful.

I made a chocolate cake. Already a good start to a party.


We lit a candle. One, for His first birth...so important, the first of many important days of our Savior.

We left a chair empty at the head of the table for Him.

We sang happy birthday.

We each prayed and thanked Jesus for something He has given us. Here's what the kids said:

N: Jesus, thank you Jesus. Jesus, thank you Jesus. Amen.

M-Dog: Dear God, thank you for my spark scooter. {Insert commentary: M hasn't received a spark scooter. It's just what he asked Santa for. So we stopped and explained to the kids the types of things they might be thankful for--family, friends, church, adoption, etc.} His revised prayer: Dear God, thank you for something, Amen.

J-Man: Dear Lord, thank you for our house. In Jesus' name, amen.

Mr. C: Dear Lord, thank you for my DS (as in Nintendo DS). In Jesus' name, amen.

Hmmm...not quite as deep and meaningful as I expected.

No worries. We enjoyed our cake. We shared a moment. And I, as a mommy, enjoyed a memory with my kids, even if they won't remember it.

So, friends, who is at the head of your table?