Week Update

Well, not much at all has been going on.

Matt got his first work review. And they told him that he is the "golden nugget that they had been looking for" He got a good review!

Sadie had her last puppy visit! I feel like they just left us hanging, lol! She has been going every 3 weeks since we got her. And now she doesn't have to go back for a whole year! I feel like I want to keep taking her, just to make sure she's not sick or anything! But I can't. Its a weird feeling lol! She currently weighs about 21 lbs. and the doc said she is healthy and good! In Sept. we are going to get her fixed. So I guess I get one more time with the vet :)

Me, I have just been busy cleaning and cooking and taking care of the dogs. I'm gonna go on a little vacation at the beginning of Aug. Get to go back home and go with my mom and sisters to Illinois (where I used to go to college) and go to one of my oldest friends bridal shower! That should be fun. Then I'm super excited to see the new pool my parents put in and lay out in it and get tan :P

Matt and I set a budget, and we actually have been sticking to it! Its amazing, considering how impulsive we both are! We are aiming to get some new furniture and get a good savings account going! I'm pretty proud of us. :)

Well I'm going to get going!

Goodbye Teen Years!

My littlest sister is no longer a teen!

HAPPY 20TH BIRTHDAY BRITTANY!!


I'm glad you had a good day! I wish I could have celebrated with you at the Olive Garden!! Lots of love from us here on your special day!!




PS~ Look how not tan you are in this pic! lol <3>

Happy Birthday!

Happy 24th Birthday Alicia!!

Wish we could have celebrated with you in Chicago! Maybe next year!! Big hugs from us in Knoxville!!

Love you sis :D

PS~We had cheesy potatoes in honor of your bday :D They were yummmmy!! Thanks for the recipe!

Back to Knoxville!

On Sunday, we headed up to Indy to hang out with his sister. Matt wanted to go golfing with her husband, so Beth and I just relaxed and farmed (its a game on facebook that is SUPER addicting) :) We ordered some pizza and played a little Rumikub and In a Pickle.

The next morning (Monday) we got up bright and early and drove home. I was so excited to get Sadie and see how she did! She stayed in our vets animal hotel.

We finally got home and got her. And they all said she did wonderful! Didn't even tear up her bed or anything! She did smell like urine though :( She only got to go out 3 times a day, so I assume she was stuck in her cage thing and went potty in there. But we brought her home and got her a bath right away!

And that was our mini vacation! All in all it was a great little trip! Wish we coulda seen my mom and dad, but they got to go to Florida to go golfing on some famous courses! :)

Block Party!

Each year, the neighbor hood that Matt grew up in, holds a block party! Its pretty fun! Lots of food, games, cornhole tournament, kiddie games, a live band, cards and board games and lots of socializing! This year it was a luah party!

I picked my card to be in the cornhole tournament, and its not secret that I'm NOT the best cornholer...LOL So the night before the party, the boys were all practicing. Well Matts dad went off to do something quick and they wanted to continue to play. Well, they said hey Christy, you can be Bob's partner. (Now if you dont know Bob, hes pretty serious about his cornhole!) His response was "aww, we'll just wait for Al" lol -

Well, the next day when we drew our cards...I went around to find my partner. And guess who it was.. Bob ;) LOL Poor guy! I told him thats what he gets for not letting me practice the night before ;)

Well as you can prolly guess, we lost.. But I didn't do AS bad as he was thinking I was going to :) It was all in good fun! But he did ask if there was going to be another tournament lol :D Oh Bob, gotta love him!

Heres some pics from the festivities and fun!

I decorated the big bear in Matts dads lawn :)

Cornhole Time! Thats Matt standing there, Jessie throwing and Bob is down there waiting his turn.Bob showing off his skills. And Matt and Al (his dad) talking. The live band in the background.

Matt's family. His grandparents and cousins.
Matts mom handing out glow necklaces!
They also had glow glasses! And this is Matt's sister, Beths, husbands family! They are silly :)
As you can see we had a pretty good time! Oh, forgot to tell you that Matt and his partner, Carlos, won the tournament! :)

Phillip the Hog

When we arrived at Matt's parents house, I was quite surprised to see that they had just started the process in roasting a hog for the block party the next day. Lucky me! But I actually was quite interested in it and decided to take pictures and blog about my first hog roast experience!

**Disclaimer...This is not for the weak stomach...**

The captions for each picture are at the top of the picture. I squished the pics together to make it a bit shorter!

Enjoy! :)

This is how the hog looked at the very beginning. They keep it frozen until use in that plastic bag.
The cooker~"Phillip" as the boys named our lunch to be, was cooked in this from around 6:30pm until about 1pm the following day.
Of course the boys had to cut up lots of things to stuff into "Phillip". This included onions, pineapple, sausage links, apples and lots of garlic cloves. Dave (the professional hog roaster) was getting it ready to be stuffed.
Stuffing "Phillip"After its all stuffed. This is what they stick through the hog to roast it. This way they are able to turn it to allow even cooking. Them stuffing the pole through the hog.
After it was all ready, it had to be sewn up with wire.Then they had to lift it from the table to the roaster. It was 171 pounds of hog!They cooked it at this temp. It cooked from about 6:30pm until 1pm the following day!
For the first few hours, they were going to smoke it with some wood. Cherry, Walnut and Maple wood.
Starting to smoke!Then we all stood around and watched the smoke pour outta the roaster! It smelled good, I will admit ;)
I missed this part, because I went over to Matt's sisters house to help her get things ready for the block party. But what they do is after they are done smoking the hog with the wood and get the "skin" charred" up on the outside. (I say "skin" b/c its against the law now that you can not roast a hog with the head or actual skin left on. So Dave made a new skin by rubbing on a bunch of spices and things)

So after all that, they wrap it in tin foil. Usually three to four layers of it, so that the meat does not fall out when it begins to tender up.Cooking on the roaster in its tin foil. Its all done cooking! Literally, all the meat was hanging off the hog in that tinfoil. There was a LOT of bacon grease! I wanted to throw some green beans in ;) The first look at the cooked hog. This is the ham. Phillips leg fell off! lolThe bacon!
I was imagining strips of bacon lol. Definatly not what you buy at the grocery store!Pulling all the meet off. It was so tender, there wasn't much pulling!
And that is the story of Phillip the hog!

I wasn't going to eat any, becuase it was just all to weird (especially since they NAMED it lol)

But in the end, I grabbed a little pulled meat that they had put bbq on and had a taste. And it was tasty! :) I'm glad I got to witness all this! It was fun!!

Us Courtney Girls!

To begin our mini vacation off, we stopped at Alicia and Buddy's. I got to hang out with Jaxson for the first time since Christmas! He has gotten soooo big! And so much more active and aware of his surroundings! He has also gotten so strong and curious! I love it! I just wish I could live closer so I could play with him more! But I guess that is life... Here are a few pics of our fun together!

I got to feed him for the first time :) He loves to eat that is for sure!! Then we went to Chiles with my sister Brittany! And boy when us Courtney girls get together... LOL It was very fun though! I got to thinking how weird it is that in a short week or so, there will be no more teens in our family! And it makes me happy that we still find ways to hang out with each other when we are all in town. I hope that never ends. Heres some fun pictures of our lunch at Chiles!


Hahaha I'm sure Alicia always wondered what Jaxson would look like with puple bling sunglasses on! :D

It just cracked me up how he always opened his mouth so wide to get another bite!
The proud parents!Then, Alicia and Buddy are going to get new furniture, so we headed off to the furniture store to look at some things! We must've looked so silly in there!

Of course we had to check out how cushy the furniture was! haha :)
Alicia had to see if her and Buddy would both fit on it lol

Jaxson had to test it out too! I think he liked it! :) Then we just went home and enjoyed catching up! Matt and I had to head on to Demotte to hang out with his family!