The Mechanist, MD officially becomes a Dr. Anderson, DO

We got to travel to Missouri to watch Evan's brother, The Mechanist, MD (if you remember our Christmas Cruise Shirts), graduate from A.T. Still University.  It was pretty cool.  I know his wife, The Strategist, is really proud of him. As she should be!  Plus, we got to see the whole family! Minus The Diva.  She is serving her mission in Utah and will be gone until next summer.  Can't wait to reunite with you Sister Anderson!  It really was a good trip, and I can't wait to see the fam again later this summer for The Executioner's wedding!

 Brothers!

 The Anderson Men

These are the only pictures I took.  I was sick most of Friday and slept through about everything.  Then during the ceremony Saturday I was sitting with The Muscle (age 4) and then took pictures of the Dr. walking across stage with his camera so my SIL could watch while she wrestled The Face (age 18 mo.).  Evan is disappointed that I didn't take more so I said, "You have access to OUR camera too, dear."  With a smile of course.  he said, "I know, just my whole life I had this vision that the woman would take care of that."  Eye roll.  Oh well.  Better luck next time!

Congratulations Dr. Anderson!  The whole clan is proud of you and your big accomplishment!

Evan gets older

Evan celebtraed his 27th birthday recently, and for some reason it feels much older than 26.  Or so he says.  I've always thought he was old =P

The decorations! I enjoy coordinating colors 

The Birthday boy :) Even he matches! 

He has been on a quest for a pair of headphones to love. 

He had to check himself out.  That is "Pink Freud" on the bathroom wall there.

A water bottle!  This is also something he has been searching for.  He has a Tervis, but doesn't care to lug it around.  He thought he wanted one of those plastic ones with the hard plastic straw, so we got one of those from the Tillamook Cheese factory.  It isn't spill proof, so it didn't pass the whole test.  I said to him, "You need a Nalgene."  What is a Nalgene? he asked.  THIS IS A NALGENE!

 And of course, an Avengers lunchbox.

With dinner set out.  He requested strawberry cake, chicken salad, gourmet soda, and exotic kettle chips 

The cake.  Not-quite-as-good-as-Aunt-Julie's-but-good-enough-strawberry-cake.  With chocolate detailing.  I love my icing tips :) 

Happy Birthday Dear Evan! 

Cake smells so good!  We were on our way to FHE so we did pictures, at the cake there, then came home and had dinner haha. 

Ta-Da! 

 Grapefruit Soda

 Sour!

 Chicken salad on crescents

Mr. Grassroot elegance put the candles in at FHE.  Evan is REALLY OLD!!

And that is the story of Evan's birthday!

Mexican Chocolate Cupcakes

This is one of my favorite cupcake recipes.  The batter comes out smooth and chocolatey with a touch of cinnamon.  Also, it's dairy free.  Ultimately, it's a little lighter as far as cakes go, no butter, no eggs.  It uses a combination of vinegar and baking soda to get the fluffy bubbly consistency.  If I knew more about the science of baking I would try to substitute that into more recipes, because I'm convinced that is what makes it so smooth.  Though it could also be the shaved chocolate in the batter, kind of a melt in you mouth experience.  Either way, delicious!

I like to top them off with a cinnamon buttercream icing, and a sprinkle of cinnamon and shaved chocolate (for the pretty factor).   Today I made these for Evan to take to school.  I figured if his stress level was any indication of the overall department stress level, they needed something sweet.  I used my star tip on my fun icing bag to frost them.  I'm still figuring out how to get them pretty, but they are more pretty than the butter knife method, and more consistent than the ziploc bag method.  I'll get there!

 Pretty Little Cupcake

The Tower!  I love my little cupcake tower

The Jean Quilt- Phase 2

I decided to make up phases for this quilt.  It makes it feel more important.

Phase 1 was the cutting and organizing of the squares.  I finally finished that.

Phase 2 involved sewing the squares into 3x3 blocks.  I chose to do it this way (1) it seemed more manageable to make small sections rather than go row by row and (2) I felt like it.

After the first row of blocks was finished

Phase 2 has now successfully been completed.  And I am sure Evan is glad to have the living room back :)

All the blocks nicely stacked together... and my foot apparently snuck into the shot  haha.

Phase 3 will be sewing the 9-blocks into corners (yup, my quilt is a square... oh well.) Here is a photo journey of Phase 3 part 1:

 Four 9-blocks...

 Made into two columns...

Then sewn up the middle!

One down three to go! Then it will be on to Phase 4, sew 'em into one blanket.  

Inez Mae (Dressen) Trimbo

My grandmother was an amazing woman, and she left behind a great impression on those who knew her. Today marks 2 years since her passing, and I just wanted to take a quick moment to think about her and acknowledge all she did for me.  One of my aunts wrote in her obituary, "If love were measured in cookies and quilts, we were all well loved."  Birthdays and every major holiday we got cookies.  At major milestones we got a quilt.  When I called to tell her Evan and I were engaged she said, "Yeah, I know.  I've been working on a quilt for you."  I don't know if it was her 89 years of experience (raising 11 kids, 23 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren) that led her to know this was coming, or just one of those quirky things where she thinks someone told her something, but really it didn't happen (if ever a rumor was going through the family about you, 99% of the time it could be traced back to Granny).  Either way, she made us a quilt for our wedding before she passed.

I have many pleasant memories from my time with her, and will hold them close to my heart.  I am so grateful to have had her in my life, and glad Evan got to meet her before she passed.

I love you, Granny!

The Banjo

Last year, on our anniversary weekend, which also happens to be Memorial weekend, we went camping with a group of our friends.  It was a blast.  One of the nights, there was a bluegrass concert at the nature center.  We all went down there, grabbed a seat and enjoyed some old men playing their instruments.  This was the night when Evan first told me one of his life's ambitions was to be able to play the banjo "like a boss." I told him if that's what he wanted to do then he should do it.  And after that weekend we didn't really talk about it much.

Recently, we went camping with our friends here in Arkansas.  One of the locals to the area, who is also familiar with the area we went camping, told us about this little town where on friday and saturday nights people just sit on their porches and have jam sessions.  Once again, Evan talked about his dream to play the banjo.  This is when Mr. Grassroot Elegance said, "I have a banjo, would you like to borrow it?"  Partly joking (I think).  Four weeks later the banjo has made its way into our house.  Two nights ago he took it to a music store, had a string replaced, had it tuned, bought a strap some picks and a book, and even found himself a tutor.  He brought that banjo home and strummed at it for about 30 minutes.

He looks at it longingly every day when he comes home now- Finals are next week so he should have more time soon.  We are on our start to our very own bluegrass band!

Edna

If you have been following along, you will remember we discovered something living in our laundry room around the holidays.  After Christmas, we determined it was a bird and named her Edna. For more details, check out:  The Story of Edna.

Once winter passed and summer came, (About mid February), she was gone.  We really hadn't heard from her in quite a while.  Then last week I came home and Evan said, "Edna's back."  And so she is.  I'm not sure how I feel about Edna.  On the one hand, she isn't really doing anything but chirping.  On the other, wild animals carry all sorts of fun germs and such- do I really want her in my house?  Plus, the big tube thing (real technical here) that carries the warm air from the dryer to outside, is pretty ripped up.  So when we run the dryer all that warm, humid air blows right into our laundry room.  When it was cold, that wasn't so bad.  It heated up our house nicely.  But now the weather is getting warmer (thank goodness Spring came in March and intercepted summer for a while longer) and I don't want all that hot air blowing into the house.  And we keep our printer and paper and other things in the laundry room (it's a big room) and I know that can't be good for the printer.  Back on the first hand though, it's kind of fun to hear her chirping along while I go about my business in the house.

Someday this may be resolved, but that would require a more attentive landlord.  Seeing as we've had Edna since Thanksgiving and a leaky sink since we moved in, I don't see that happening in the near future.