happy birthday

happy birthday to you happy birthday to you

happy birthday dear jeff - happy birthday to you!

jeff's birthday was last week, and we celebrated the night before by going out for dinner and seeing the movie "Taken". on his birthday we had homemade chicken tortilla soup and a tasty birthday cake. i was so thrilled with how my first attempt to write in cursive with frosting turned out! family members came over to wish jeff a great day and had dessert with us. jeff's stepmom made him a huge seven-layer bean dip that was probably 16 inches in diameter. he finished more than half of it that night and finished it off the next day. he got some fun presents from everyone.

earlier on his birthday, jeff and i took the dogs for a long walk - and at the very last house back, the next door neighbors, the dog i had leashed was attacked out of nowhere by the neighbor's dog. it was really freaky - both of the dogs hadtheir lips curled back and were snarling - the neighbor's dog attacked and there was blood on the dog that i had - on his face and on the cement. jeff had to kick the other dog to get then off of each other. when we got them apart and took the dogs home, we saw that the other dog had bitten two big holes in ty's tongue, hence the blood. poor puppy.

banana nut bonanza

the other night i wanted to use our last few bananas and make banana nut bread out of them. jeff was hanging around, so i told him i would let him make his first loaf of banana nut bread and that i would guide him through it. the measuring and mixing went fine - he got the mixture into the loaf pan and into the oven. after 45 minutes in the oven, it was time to take the bread out. i told jeff to let it cool down, so he decided to put it upside down on the cooling rack. of course, he is impatient so he shook the pan and it threw up. the insides of the bread exploded all over the kitchen and i burnt my fingers trying to pick them up. this marks jeff's first and probably last loaf... almost jeff. but not quite.

the guts we piled up and ate by little handfuls.

the "outer crust" that was left over. a deep, empty crust.