Things that make me SMH

        I have a confession.  I am not very up-to-date on the latest text/FB lingo.  For a while I would see people make a comment followed by "smh," such as, "Just went outside and it's still raining.  SMH."  I always intepreted that to mean, "Just went outside and it's still raining smmmmuh" cause I had no clue what smh stood for.  Finally, I googled it and aha, it means "shaking my head."  Makes sense.  Hopefully I have enlightened someone who has also been wondering what that means!
        Living with a two year old there are a lot of things that she does that cause me to "shake my head."  For the past three days she has been asking to wear her "kitty shirt."  Technically, her kitty shirt is a Valentine's shirt, but since it's still February (til tomorrow!  Happy Leap Year) we have continued wearing it.  The past three days I've had to explain that she couldn't wear the kitty shirt because it was dirty.  Yesterday I did laundry, so today I said, "Evangeline!  Guess what!  You get to wear your kitty shirt today." She burst into tears and said, "kitty shirt DIRTY!  No No DIRTY."  I finally got her to calm down so that I could explain that I washed it and it was now CLEAN!  SMH....
        Often we have a breakdown in communication, but sometimes the things Evangeline says are perfectly clear and I'm just not listening.  At lunch today she said, "Mama!  Blue Bell spaghetti nose!"  I turned around to see that, yep, Blue Bell did in fact have a piece of spaghetti on her nose.  That's what you get for begging too close to a toddler as she eats.  The other day Evangeline kept telling me she wanted a "goldfish bowl."  I had no clue what she was asking for but later discovered she wanted a bowl of goldfish.  One would think that would've been obvious, but she's never referred to goldfish as "goldfish" (it use to just be "shish") and never asked for a bowl of them before.  SMH...
        The only person in our house more stubborn that Evangeline is her Daddy.  I overheard a conversation the other night as they read her Dora Birthday book.  Drew:  Say, "We did it!"  Ev: "I did it!" Drew: "No, WE did it."  Ev: I did it!  Drew: YOU didn't do it!  WE did it.  Ev: I did it.  (Repeat about 10 times).  Drew finally won that battle. SMH....
         He also reported to me a battle over peas and meatloaf.  Evangeline wanted, "more meat" but Drew told her she had to first eat a pea.  She kept pretending to eat a pea.  Then, she would put the pea in her mouth, spit it out, and squish it on the table.  Finally Drew made her eat a pea. Then, she ate several more peas and no longer wanted any meatloaf!  SMH...
         Everytime Evangeline sees a capital "E" she says, "Dr. Wilson!"  The only thing I can figure out is that she remembers seeing an eye chart in his office.  We are going there today for Trey's nine month check-up.  Our conversation this morning went something like this" Me: Today we are going to go see Dr. Wilson for Trey!  Ev: No!  Scary shot!  Me:  No, you won't need a scary shot!  Ev: Sucker?  SMH...  I am going to notice if they have one of those eye charts, though.
          Last night I made a cake for Bible study.  I noticed Drew helping himself to a big piece and "got on to him" for eating my Bible study cake.  He said that he thought I made it just because.  Just because what?  Just because I started Weight Watchers this week and decided I'd celebrate by making a cake?  Drew said he didn't know it was for Bible study and really didn't care; He was eating a piece anyway.  SMH.... By the way, I saved him a piece afterwards and no one cared that a chunk was missing!   
          I celebrated that Trey is getting his first two teeth this week.  No clue why I celebrated because I should've known that it meant several nights of him getting up screaming at 2:00.  It's kind of sweet though how he cuddles up next to me.  It makes me miss him waking in the middle of the night to nurse (just a little bit).  SMH.....

Scratch Cracker Barrel off the list

Every Friday night we meet my parents for dinner.  It's really nice especially now that my dad is in Jackson during the week and we don't get to see him very much (though more than when we lived in Pearl River County).  Two weeks ago we went to Cracker Barrel and had a great time.  In and out no problems.  Tonight, not so much.  You know it's a pretty bad eating experience when you're at a restaurant for nearly two hours and still don't get a chance to eat!

First off, they told us it'd be a 10 minute wait.  Ten minutes turned into 35 before we got inside.  After we were seated and ordered our drinks (which took a good bit longer than usual) we waited and waited and waited.  We finally asked for some cornbread and biscuits because Evangeline was clearly getting hungry.  An hour after we first sat down we got all of our food (including the bread).  Evangeline scarffed a few bites down quickly then promptly started throwing up!  She has a problem where she throws up occasionally at meals and it is compounded by her eating quickly which she did tonight because it was 7:30 and we'd been there a long time!! 

Drew caught the puke and therefore lost any kind of appetite he may have had.  So, we loaded up into three to go boxes and headed out the door as quickly as we could.  Oh, and I asked for my tea to go and was told they didn't have any at the moment.  :( 

Drew said that we're running out of places that we can go eat in Meridian.  Pretty much La Pinata and Western Sizzlin are all that's left.

The only bright spot to the evening was that I randomly ran into one of my former co-workers from PRC, Martha Cox.  I had one those, "that really really looks like [Mrs. Cox]" moments and even texted Joni to ask her why Mrs. Cox would be in Meridian.  But, it definitely was her and we had a fun time catching up!  She asked if I was ever going to teach again and I said that I was planing on returning.  She was very encouraging and said that's where I need to be.  Those who know Mrs. Cox know that's a compliment.  She's one of the best teachers I know. 

Evangeline is happily eating the rest of her "bak bak" and "noodles" at home.  Maybe I'll eat after she goes to bed....

Baptist Casserole

There's a lot of things (and people) we miss about Henleyfield, but one of the things we miss the most is Ms. Betty Burks' "Award Winning" Baptist Casserole.  The "award" came at Drew's Top Chef themed 30th birthday for Best Entree.  He knew it was gonna be the winner before he ever put a bite in his mouth!  Baptist Casserole is Ms. Betty's staple dish at every NHSBC function and everyone loves it!  She was always sweet to make sure that I took Drew home the leftover casserole after Ladies Luncheon and it was a special treat for him.  It's been a good six months since he's had some, and when I mentioned possibly making it, he was more than excited.  He even set the meat out to thaw for me!  I put on Facebook that I was cooking it and got several inquiries as to what it was (though no one from New Henleyfield had to ask!).  So, I'm going to borrow from my friend Tammy's blog idea and post a recipe!  This will probably be the only time you get a recipe from me!

Baptist Casserole

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef
1 cup spaghetti sauce
1 cup sour cream
8 oz mozzarella cheese
2 T butter
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
1 roll crescent rolls

Brown meat and drain.  Add sauce.  Place in 9x13 pyrex.  Mix together sour cream and mozarella cheese.  Spread over meat and sauce mixture.  Top with crescent rolls.  Pour melted butter and Parm cheese on top.  Bake at 375 until bubbly.