Wii Are The Champions

Our friends Sarah and Mark came over last night to play games with us on Elliot's Nintendo Wii. Elliot's YEARS and YEARS of video game playing gave him an obvious advantage and he quickly beat us at most of the games we played.

(Notice the happy and excited looks on Sarah and Mark's faces, compared with the intense look of concentration on Elliot's face.)

Introducing Clotilda!

Clotilda is the newest addition to our family. (I know that her eyes look creepy in this picture, but they look like that in all of the pictures I take for some reason.)

When Elliot and I bought our house two years ago, the previous owners left her behind. She lived outside, sleeping on our front porch, until this past May when Elliot and I decided to bring her inside with Applesauce, Radar, and Yoink. She's been a very good inside cat and gets along with the others reasonably well.

The vet said she is very healthy, although she needs to lose some weight. We've been working on that, even though trying to keep her from eating Yoink's food has been a challenge.

Mall Rats

Elliot's sister Katie took these pictures about a year ago (Sept 2006) while we were at the mall. I just found the pictures stored on our computer and I thought I would share. The picture of Elliot is especially nice. Thanks, Katie!

Our gracious hosts are awesome!

left to right
Nicole, Jonathan, Elliot, Mary, Steve



Last weekend we went and stayed with our friends in Atlanta! We played videogames and ate home-made Oreo ice cream. It was great! That is their new dog, Jake.

Thanks Jonathan and Nicole!

Mary and Amy

Elliot took this picture of my cousin Amy and me when my family reunited in Louisiana for my grandmother's funeral this past June.

Amy and I are just 2 months apart in age, so there are a ton of cute baby pictures of us hugging and kissing and playing on the floor together. It's so weird that we're all grown up now-- we're both married and Amy has 3 sons!

Happy Wedding again to Jonathan and Nicole

Yesterday we were honored to attend our friend's Hometown wedding reception! Here is a shot of us all together. It was a good time with good food.

A Giant Among Men

Sara and I look so short next to Elliot.

Hootie

This owl and its mate live in our neighborhood. They spend a lot of time in our yard, and Elliot snapped this picture while the two of them were sitting under the roof of our pole barn.

Mary and I had a great time hanging out with Parker and Ella!

Last weekend ended up being tons of fun because we got to hang out with one of our nieces and nephews each. We played games and ran around and had a good time.

Culturally Diverse Kitchen

For reasons that I won't go into now, Elliot and I have decided to make a very positive change in our lives by trying to create a regular rotation of meals that is inspired by cuisine from all over the world.

Now, neither one of us is a master chef, neither one of us has time to cook long and complicated recipes, and we eat a strictly vegetarian diet at home, so the recipes that we are making might not be entirely authentic. For example, the Greek soup recipe that I love to make (click here for the link to my soup blog and this recipe) is traditionally made with chicken broth, but I make it with vegetable broth instead. However, I feel like we maintain the spirit of the recipe and therefore embrace a little bit of the culture that it originated from.

I'm having trouble locating good African recipes, but I checked out an African cookbook from the library tonight, so hopefully I'll find something in there. Anyone have an African-inspired recipe that they want to share with me?...

The Rest of the Wedding Party Photos...

There are almost 200 pictures, so I hope you have a few minutes to look through them.

These are all the rest of the photos that were taken of the wedding party before the wedding. Some of me and my sisters, some of Elliot and Katie, some group photos. I left the pictures of just Elliot and Brendan out, since I posted those yesterday. (Click on the picture below to view the web album.)

Wedding Party

And here's a How-To article that has nothing to do with weddings:

Learn how to make a grilled cheese sandwich with an iron (and some aluminum foil).

Happy 4th of July!

Elliot and I celebrated America's birthday by watching the movie Transformers, which was quite good. We both grew up watching the Transformer cartoons, so it was great fun to see them in a live action/computer graphic movie.

We've been posting so many wedding photos that we haven't really been able to update you on what's been going on in our lives since the wedding. I'm participating in an externship this summer, and working part-time at a pre-school. I took all of the necessary tests and I've been certified by the state as a pre-school instructor! Yay! Elliot has been working and playing video games and reading interesting books.

If you click on the web album, below, you'll see all of the pictures of Elliot and Brendan that were taken before the wedding.

Brendan and Elliot

My Sisters

Kelli took this picture of my pretty sisters the night before my wedding. Thank you, Kelli!

(PS~ The wedding photos start on May 8th, or click on the "wedding" link below.)

Elliot and Katie = CUTE!

This is one of the cutest pictures from our wedding photos. Elliot and his sister look adorable!

Still more wedding pictures...

Sadness

My grandmother passed away last Tuesday. Elliot and and my family and I went to the funeral on Saturday. It was very beautiful. And sad.

Mema!

These are pictures of Elliot's maternal grandmonther, Mema, taken at the reception.

Elliot and His Dad

... and here's Elliot saying, "Why didn't you tell me that BEFORE I got married?!?!"

Elliot and Brendan

I like this picture of Elliot and Brendan, taken before the wedding. Such handsome men!

Mom and Laura

Here's a nice picture from the wedding of my mom and my youngest sister.