Mark as William B. Travis

Pony dressed up as William Barrett Travis for the "Texas Heroes" project his class did. He gave a presentation as Commander Travis to a 2nd grade class.

Rockster gets the friendly award!

Tiramisu

Here is the Tiramisu I made! I have never made such an elaborate dessert in my life...but that is not really saying much!~ ;)

Romantic meal

Today was a wonderful day!

I woke up thinking about how blessed I am to have a husband who teaches the older two kids math, who is such a hands-on dad, who takes care of all of the car and appliance maintenance, who provides so well for our family, among so many other things,  and who is also so hot!  ;)  I thought about how he has made me special meals for Valentine's day, but I have never done that expressly for him.  So, I decided I was going to make him a romantic meal this day!

So, after I jogged 4.4 miles and did the elliptical for 2.4 miles, I came home and found recipes that I thought would be fun to make.  

In the mean time, LMM was asked to babysit by her favorite client, she also got her ipod touch (thanks again, Pam, for helping her get a discount!) delivered, AND Baskin Robbins texted her to come in for an interview this Saturday at 10 AM.  She was so ecstatic today, which always makes me happy, too!  

So, anyways, I found several good recipes, and then set out to Twin Liquors and HEB.  I had never been to Twin Liquors before, but it was such a nice experience.  I needed some coffee liqueur for the dessert recipe, and I wanted some red wine to go with our steak.  It is so nice when you are given truly good customer service.  The manager showed me a good, cheap coffee liqueur that would work well for my recipe, and he pointed me to a mild, fruity red wine (which I asked for) to go with our steak.  Then, he told me about the importance of using a decanter to allow the wine to breathe and be bursting with flavor.

Anyways, here is what I prepared:

Mouth-Watering Stuffed Mushrooms

Tangy Cucumber and Avocado Salad

Delicata Delish

Slow Cooker Salisbury Steak

Tiramisu Layer Cake

(All of which can be found on www.allrecipes.com

Rolls

Red wine

I set up a table upstairs in Stuart's office with a table cloth, colorful carnations, and a candle.  By the time Stuart came home, I was actually sweating from working so hard on our meal!  I told Katherine to serve the boys with the food leftover and make sure they went to bed by 8:30, while we enjoyed our meal.  I went on www.Pandora.com and had them play songs like Colbie Caillat, George Winston, Chick Corea, and Harry Connick, Jr. while we were eating.  Stuart liked everything I made, and we'll leave it at that. ;)  

It was so cute how the kids, esp Rockster, would peek in to see what we were doing.  We didn't let them do it more than a few times, but I liked for them to see that their old mom and dad can enjoy some quality time, too.  

I'm so glad for the inspiration I had to make this special dinner.  It was so worth the time and energy, and I feel fortunate that I had the time to do it!

My first love

My mom sent me this poem that I wrote back in 1988 when I was 19 years old. I like it.

Seeking for a First Love

by Kori - 1988

My Eyes seek attention,

My Ears seek encouragement,

My Heart seeks a true, exciting kind of love,

My Mouth seeks ears that will listen,

My Feet seek other feet to walk along with them,

My Hands seek another hand to to hold on to it,

Every part of my body seeks fullfillment and joy,

I always sought a first love who would supply all of these needs,

I have finally found Him, but He supplies me with more than I had ever hoped or asked for.

Jesus, Thank You for being My first Love.

The pride of youth

Since I have turned 40, I have noticed that there have been some real changes in my life:

1. I wear sunscreen on my face each and every day.

2.  I feel guilty about eating a donut or any other goody composed primarily of refined sugar.

3.  I am so happy when I can eat something tasty with veggies!

4. I shelled out $67 for a bra last week!  LMM could NOT understand how I could justify spending that much money.  I told her that she doesn't understand what it's like to have breasts that are sagging and the need for a strong bra to hold them up.  She also does not know what it's like to have flab on your back and the desire to not have your bra cutting into your flab making it look bigger.  I told her that to have a bra that does all of these things with straps that stay up is well worth it!

5. I'm finally wearing my seatbelt, and I take less risks on the road.

6. Increasingly, I'm very cognizant of some advice my Grandma gave me: "If you don't use it, you lose it."  So, I am more motivated to try to exercise every day.  I want to be old and still able to hike, swim, and run.

7.  I accept limitations in relationships more.  I don't try as hard to make the relationships in my life look and feel the way I think they should.

8. I have finally realized how emotionally constipated I am.  I used to think that I was very connected to my emotions since I am a "spewer" rather than a "stuffer".  However, I have come to realize that what I am spewing about is rarely about what I am truly upset about.  

9. I don't feel guilty that I am not everyone's friend and not everyone likes me.  However, I shouldn't try to be disagreeably unlikeable.  I guess that can be good or bad.

10.  When I was younger and more newly married, I kind of prided myself that I would never forgive my husband if he ever did this or that.  After spending the last 18 years with my best friend who has gone through so much with me, I no longer pride myself on my toughness not to forgive him.  I pride myself on the commitment and love we have shared.

Things I wish I would mature in:

1. Being more aware that death is rapidly approaching, and I need to worship and do the work God has called me to do while I'm still here.

2. Being able to "fake" it better when I am upset, but my showing my anger is not going help anything.  Yes, not getting upset in the first place is the best, but I would just be happy to have more discipline in keeping my anger and my annoyance to myself.

3. Putting my things away!!

4. Taking more risks.

Well, I'm sure there is more, but it's time to go to bed.

Boring Kori

I deleted my old blog today.

It used to be called, "Sophia's Wisdom" not because I had a lot of wisdom, but because "Sophia" is my saint's name, and Sophia in the Greek means "wisdom".  So I thought it was rather catchy to call the blog:  "Sophia's Wisdom".  

However, I had one friend who, in talking about my blog, said that he thought a blog should be about one subject or one area so that the reader would know what to expect from day to day.  He thought that the title of the blog should capture what the blog would be discussing, whether it is about theology, cooking, your family, or music.  Unfortunately, I think he was disappointed at the lack of wisdom found at "Sophia's Wisdom".  

So, this time, I decided to keep eveyone's expectations low and just call it "Boring Kori".  That's what one customer called me when I was a waitress, and he was put into my section.   He asked the hostess who would be his waitress, and when she told him it was me, he called out, "Ah sh*t!  I'm in Boring Kori's section?  I wanted to be in Sexy Lexy's section."  

Don't get me wrong.  I was sooooo glad to be "Boring Kori" even at the age of 20.  I knew that to be "Sexy Lexi" would mean I would have to be flirted with in an inappropriate way bordering on sexual harrassment.  Therefore, I felt empowered to be called "Boring Kori". 

So, yeah.  

Boring Kori.

I'll take it!