Judy's Birthday

Mark and Greg

This past Monday was my mother-in-law's birthday. We celebrated the occasion by having her and Van, Greg and Renee and Mark's godfather, Oscar, over for dinner (Oscar's wife, Karen, was visiting in Pennsylvania with their oldest son's family). I, of course, left the cooking to Mark and Greg (who is also a very talented cook like Mark), but I did all the house cleaning and post-meal clean-up, with Renee's kind assistance.

Judy and Oscar

Judy loves the south and really enjoys going to warm, sunny places, so her birthday dinners tend to be meals with a southern theme. This year Greg and Mark decided for an extremely southern angle and cooked a wonderful jerk pork with a mango salsa topping, Caribbean red beans and rice, corn salad with red peppers and cilantro and a pecan shortbread with carmelized bananas and pineapple with ice cream. Yup. It was good.

Lily and Greg enjoyed sitting on the couch together

We had a really nice visit with everyone, including Lizzy. Lizzy is Van and Judy's Brittany spaniel. She is a very clever, energetic little dog who is also Mingo's best friend. Lizzy hasn't been to our house very much, but is always so intrigued when she comes...because of the cats! We enjoyed watching her watching them, and them, in turn, keeping a careful eye on her!

Lizzy and Fanny

The hounds are relegated to the basement

In addition to having a great meal Monday night, I also did not have school that day due to a teacher in-service. (However, I do want to interject here and tell you that we in Middleton-Cross Plains did have to go the previous Monday for Martin Luther King Day. My district has some issues to deal with...) An extra treat for me was a "cold" day on Wednesday--school was cancelled due to cold temps and extremely cold wind chills. That was a great day, consisting of lots of sewing and dog-cuddling.

Renee, Greg and Lily

The bad news is that I do have a cold now. Mark and I are tentatively planning on attending a Super Bowl party tomorrow at our friend's house, but I may have to skip it...which would be such a shame...no, really, we'll have to see how I feel. I'm sure Mark would be okay going without me (I only eat at those anyway). Have a good week!

Hanging out in the basement