First Easter at the Myers

Usually for Easter Rem and I go down to my parents but since we'd just made a long trip to Ohio for Troy's wedding, we really didn't want to make another long drive. We invited 2 other couples (Smiths and Terrells) that don't have family close by to come over for dinner. Here was the menu for the occasion:

Ham
Cheesy Potatoes (Rem's mother's recipe)
Rolls- made from scratch
Salad
Green bean casserole
Desserts- Hot fudge chocolate cake and lemon pie


I was in charge of the Ham, Potatoes and Rolls. All pretty simple things, right? Well the ham I wasn't worried about because I'd made one for Thanksgiving. They are actually really easy. I buy the spiral cut ones that comes with a package of glaze. When I put the ham in the oven, I dump a large can of crushed pineapple on top so there is plenty of moisture. Then you make the glaze as the instructions tell you and couple hours later, you have a yummy ham!

 Of course every son loves his mother's cooking. And there have been a few times that I've been so kind to my husband to make his favorites from his mother's kitchen. Mary Jo makes this amazing chocolate frosting that I don't know I'll ever be brave enough to try making myself. Every time I take a stab at a Mary Jo recipe, I NEVER get it right the first time. This ends with Rem informing me how I screwed up and me becoming insanely offended, defensive and angry/frustrated. You see, I view recipes as more like guidelines. I rarely follow one to a T. I misinterpreted the directions and the sauce wasn't thickening. Of course Rem told me I shouldn't have added the cream all at once- WHATEVER- I say. All it needed was a little corn starch and thicken it did! Rem said they tasted pretty good. Now I don't know if he really meant it or just didn't want to hurt my feelings. But I def'ly liked these cheesy potatoes!

So that's 2 items down, one to go. Now keep in mind, I got up early on Sunday to start all this cooking before church. I was little up tight after slightly screwing up the potatoes and I needed to start getting ready for church...

The rolls....I had decided a couple weeks before that I wanted to give making homemade rolls from scratch a try. One night we had the missionaries over and I made some. Now of course I was inpatient when it came time for them to rise and I wasn't going for pretty. I just wanted them to turn out edible. Edible they were, pretty they were not. Finished product on left.

Since this was my second try, I read some tips on how to make the dough rise quicker. Heat makes dough rise. Ok, I said to myself, I'll just sit them on top the stove (that was preheating) over the burner where the exhaust comes out. I had the dough in a plastic bowl and of course I didn't want it to melt. Being the intelligent person that I am, I put the bowl in a glass pie pan. Good idea, right? WRONG!!! Here I was thinking this dough was going to rise faster and I was going to take the time to cut out the rolls so they were pretty and that I would just be so proud of myself....HA! I went to pick up the bowl to roll it out and noticed the bowl kind of stuck to the pie pan...Uh oh...

 Dough before rising....

 Dough after rising....Not only had the plastic bowl melted, but a quarter of the dough was cooked! And not just a little cooked but brown! UGH!

So of course I super frustrated. Like what am I going to do? It's Easter- you have to have rolls! I took a deep breath and started thinking. You see the dough that was on top, was still VERY dough. So I decided I'd just get rid of the no longer dough portion of the dough. Worked out perfectly! I was sure to laugh at myself! Of course there was less dough after but it worked out. :) 

  
The dessert that Jessica brought to make was this hot fudge chocolate cake that was to die for. We loved it! Jessica and Shayne had brought a friend with them and she'd brought a lemon pie. As we cut into the pie, we noticed it was still frozen. Shayne who is in the MLP (Merchant Leadership Program) at WM, informed us that the bakery at WM doesn't really bake anything. They bring everything in frozen and when it is put on the shelf, it defrosts. HOW LAME! What liars! Just something interesting I thought I'd share.

After dinner we played a game of Trivial Pursuit Team. Rem loves any Trivial Pursuit or Trivial Pursuit like game. Me- not so much. I try to explain to him that it's just a shot to my self-esteem b/c I rarely know the answers. My moment of shinning glory while playing a trivial game w/ Rem, was when the question was - What does LL Cool J stand for? I immediately shouted out "Ladies love Cool James!". I was so caught up in my own excitement that I actually knew the answer for once that I didn't notice my husband looking at me with a puzzled look on his face. Remington Myers, my uber smart husband, trivial nerd, and music lover didn't know what LL Cool J meant. Victory (for my self-esteem) was mine! Pretty sure we were on the same team during that game but man I was excited I knew something my husband didn't!

So that was the first Easter at the Myers. Next time, I'm going with the frozen rolls. :)

April Showers...

Yes I know April was a really long time ago but I am determined to catch up on my blogging! Maybe next year the goal will be to update w/in the current month. :)

"April Showers" very mildly describes the weather we had in April. It rained nearly 2 solid weeks non stop. Roads were being closed due to flooding and even the gym had to cancel classes.



This is a picture from Johnson, AR which is about 30 minutes south of us. This trailer park was completely flooded. Notice the pick up truck in the background that is almost completely submerged!

The first weekend in April we were graced with the presence of Tristan, Abigail, Zella, Harper and baby #3 Myers. At the time, Tristan and Abigail weren't sure what they were having but were hoping for a boy. All Abigail knew was this baby wasn't making her as sick as usual. Come to find out- it's a boy! Yay! So excited to have another nephew! The Myers family definitely needs some more boys to carry on the family name. And I want to have girls (one day- NO I'm not expecting) so I'm going to need Abigail to take one for the team and deliver a few more boys. hehe. Tristan had signed up for the Bentonville half marathon so we all went downtown to cheer him on as he crossed the finish line. Here's a few pics from the event.

 Oh little Harper how I love your cute little facial expressions. :)

 Say cheese! Waiting for Daddy to cross the finish line!

 Since the Marathon ended in downtown Bentonville, I got to take Izzy w/ us. Izzy loves getting out of the house. Downtown there are so many new smells to check out. There were vendors handing out samples and one of them were giving away some Dingo Bacon strips. This is Izz getting to taste her new treat. She loved them! Harper and Zella also took turns holding on to Izzy. They loved holding Izzy's lease. Can't say the feeling was mutual for Izzy. :)

Me w/ the girls!

On Sunday afternoon, we decided to go on a hike w/ A&J (Aimee and Justin) and all the doggies. There's an easy little hiking trail about 30 minutes north of us. There's also a water fall and stream. Poor Roxie couldn't get in the water because she had stitches, but Bauer had a blast! Even though Bauer is 100+ dog, she is a gentle giant. But check out the pictures of her playing with this huge log!

 Check out that jaw!

 Rox wasn't being very photogenic for me.

If you notice the log is up to J's waist. And he said it wasn't light! But that was no problem for Bauer. She fetched it from the rushing water no problem!

I believe the next week was when the rain started. This must have been the Saturday that were we losers and didn't do anything at all- besides hold down the couch and watch NetFlixs. Poor Rem was so stir crazy we had to get out of the apartment. At the time, the toilet in Rem's bathroom wasn't functioning properly and we needed to go to Lowe's. Soooo I peeled myself from the couch and got ready. As we were walking into Lowe's Rem held my hand. He turns to me and says "This counts as a date, right?" Of course I promptly informed him that it did not!

The next weekend we packed our bags and headed to Columbus, OH along with Apryll and Todd for Troy's wedding. I wasn't excited about a 12 hour drive, but I did get to take a day off from work (WOOHOO) and meet Troy and his blushing bride Jerica. When we got to the hotel, I realized that I'd forgotten one of my bags at home. It was the bag with all of my hair products and deodorant! Thankfully Apryll had an extra travel size of deo so I didn't have BO. And it didn't matter I didn't have my beloved hair products because it rained most of the weekend.

Saturday morning we went to the temple and then Troy and Jerica's sealing. This was the first time that several of us were meeting Jerica. Poor girl didn't know what she was getting herself into. :) Todd and I kindly welcomed her into the in laws support group with a hug (a very un-Myers like thing- they aren't the touchy feely type lol). After the sealing we all went to Troy's for lunch. After chatting for a while, we busted out our dance moves to Kinect! I'd been dying to play Kinect since it came out and it was a dance game so of course I was super excited! We all took turns battling it out to songs both new and old. My  husband, bless his little awkward soul, only beat me once. While I love my husband very dearly, his dancing skills are ...well...less than desirable. I mean, come on, he's a skinny white boy so he dances like one. (I love you REM!) Those so called dance skills definitely run in the family! We had a blast!

Later that evening, we went out for dinner and made a trip to Target. Melissa and I especially were excited about a Target run. I found a swim suit and shoes on sale for $9 a piece! While my paycheck, in a round about way, comes from Walmart, I still love Target's shoes and apparel! Just can't help it.

On Sunday we began our journey home bright and early around 7. When we were about an hour out of Bentonville, Rem's car got a flat. Mostly Todd, put the spare on and luckily we were close to an exit so we could air up the doughnut. When we pulled up at the gas station to get air, Rem just kind of sat there and Todd got out to air up the tire. It was funny considering it was Rem's car we were driving. We made it home safe and sound- after eating 3 bags of red vines and a stop at Culliver's for butter burgers and custard.