What a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

Adam and I got to fly back home to Texas to spend a few days with our parents to celebrate Thanksgiving and my birthday! Thanksgiving day began with a funny little story actually.....Since we were staying at our parents' homes, I did not pack shampoo and such. The first night of our stay was at Adam's folks house and I woke up to get in the shower. I browsed through a couple cabinets and then found a bottle labeled "shampoo" and another "conditioner" in Adam's toiletry bag. Needless to say, I used it although the "shampoo" never lathered and the "conditioner" stunk really bad. Once Adam saw that I used it, he started busting out in laughter informing me that the "shampoo" was his hair gel and the "conditioner" was aftershave. Oh yes, I had to get back in the shower and wash the hair all over again after getting REAL shampoo and conditioner from Adam's mom. Moral of the story: never trust your husband's toiletries.

We headed from Adam's parent's house to Steph's parent's house where the feast was already in the works. We took a break from prepping the food and got to spend time with Adam's brother Scott and his wife Kristie! Once we got back to the house, I had the BEST surprise ever as my Uncle Richard was standing in the kitchen working on our turkey. Awhile back, I found out he wasn't going to be a part of our Thanksgiving meal and was very bummed out. So, when he was there, we were more than thrilled! The feast included: 1 fried turkey, 1 baked turkey, peppercorn venison (Steph's favorite), sweet potato casserole, Chinese greens, persimmon cranberry sauce, cornbread dressing, and pecan pie. YUMMMMMY!!!!

Steph and Uncle Richard

If we hadn't eaten enough, Friday's dinner was a nice birthday party for Steph at her house. We had about 16 people there and lots of food. The menu included: blackened salmon, pork ribs, chicken and prosciutto, asparagus, stir fry veggies, rosemary potatoes, and a huge black forest cake I made and decorated myself! Can't you tell our family loves to cook! It was wonderful to see so many friends. Definitely a fantastic birthday!

Birthday Party Fun!

Ooooo CAKE!

Check out those pretty flowers Adam got me!

We flew out on Saturday and ate good ole Tex-Mex at Uncle Julio's before our flight out. Let's just say we miss the Mexican food here in NC and are glad to get it whenever we can. Due to our late lunch, Adam and I didn't have dinner and chose to have a midnight snack once we got home.....ahhh, the joys of vacation...

Sunday was a day of relaxing and getting the house decked out with Christmas fun. The tree is up, garland hung, and ornaments out. It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here. Hope you are all doing well!!

(The picture below was taken by photographer extraordinaire, Kristen. We did a mini photo shoot to figure out which picture should go in our Christmas cards. The one below did not make the final cut. And yes, my shirt does say "I am in love with a cowboy." Keep an eye on your mailbox and you should be getting a Christmas greeting from the Parkens soon!)


Random Fact from Adam: "It's a Wonderful Life" cost $3.7M to make (quite expensive for an independent film in 1946), but only made $3.3M in its first box office run. Thanks to Internet Movie Database (IMDB) for that one.

Friends: Old and New

A few weekends ago, we had the pleasure of hosting the Teagues as they made the drive from Boston to Texas. We absolutely love Morgan and Bruce and really, who can resist Elijah's ultimate cuteness?! Exactly. It was a blast showing them around town, sharing meals, and walking around the Duke Gardens. We continue to pray for them as they prepare to move to Morrocco in the upcoming months to serve over there long term. We miss you guys and love you tons.

Amazingly, we have yet to introduce to all 6 of our readers our first 4 Raleigh-Durham friends. We got to know them early on when we went to Providence Baptist Church (as a side note, props to the church for getting the http://www.pray.org/ URL back in 1995). And if you come to Raleigh, there’s a good chance you’ll get to partake of laughs and liquids with them.

First up: Branon and Katy Mack. Branon’s a hoss for building a 2-car garage next to his house. In case that wasn’t enough, he had the forethought to put a Man Room above it. Rumor has it that there will be a pool table and some beverages from locales such as Lynchburg. I haven’t helped yet, but I keep promising Branon that I will. Then I’ll be able to justify hanging out over there when it’s all done. And Katy is quite the wine connoisseur; she and Steph share tips and reviews. Katy also is quite knowledgeable about the area, and has given us plenty of tips for food and nightlife.

Branon and Katy

Next up: Chad and Rachel Hensley. First time I met Chad: he came over to a Bible study at the Macks house and took out a mounted albino deer head out of his truck, like it was a signed Mickey Mantle jersey or something. I thought, “I’m not in Boston anymore.” Chad is one of the funniest guys I know, period. And Rachel not only risks daily embarrassment as Chad’s wife, but also knows how to shoot her own (pink!) bow. And we thought the pink Red Sox caps were a bit much…

Rachel and Chad

Random Fact #1 from Adam: Massachusetts is the leading state in cranberry production, followed by Wisconsin, New Jersey, Washington, and Oregon.

Random Fact #2 from Adam: The official vegetable of North Carolina is the sweet potato. NC produces 40% of the nation’s crop.

Steph's comment to Random Fact #2: Do you know how many sweet potatoes we bought the last trip we made to the Farmer's Market. Not 2 lbs., not 5 lbs, but a grand total of 25 lbs. of this vegetable of NC. Umm yeah...we had a hard time passing up a large box of sweet potatoes for $8. Adam is convinced that it was closer to 30 lbs. since the box was overflowing. Let's just say, I'm finding all kinds of great ways to put them taters to use!

Letting the Yellow Mellow

What, you ask, could spur Adam to write his first blog post, taking the reigns from Steph? A few random things, starting with drought, and its consequences.

As my last Random Fact and the title foreshadowed, we’re indeed abiding by the adage, “If it’s yellow, let it mellow.” For inquiring minds, at 1.6 gallons per flush, I’m saving 8-14.4 gallons per day. Water your mansion lawn with that, Al Gore! (As a side note, 1.6 gallons per flush! Is all that really needed? No, according to this state-of-the-art commode.) The drought is bad news – specifically, once every 50 years bad news. And North Carolina is feeling it worse than any other state (not counting morons who set wildfires), though our neighbors are in bad shape, too.

As Steph mentioned, we recently went to San Antonio. No, we didn’t find Pee Wee’s bike in the basement of the Alamo. But we flew a new airline, Express Jet, that aims to connect smaller (i.e. not top 20) sized cities with direct routes, a la Raleigh-Durham to San Antonio, Jacksonville, New Orleans, Louisville, Birmingham and Kansas City. My opinion: U.S. population has reached a point where this type of airline can succeed (though not all routes, of course), and we don’t have to only rely on the old-school hub-and-spoke model to get from Point A to Point B.

Cool story about how the U.S. may have 3 times the oil reserves as Saudi Arabia, if scientists have figured out how to extract oil from our country’s massive deposits of oil shale. Still years down the road, and nothing that will lower the price per barrel yet, but quite interesting. Semi-related thought: energy conservation and “green” initiatives are finally gaining momentum not because of an inconvenient truth, but because of convenient economics. It’s finally cheaper to buy energy-efficient lightbulbs, for example, with the savings they provide over time. Make solar power cheaper than electricity and propane, and watch both Republicans’ and Democrats’ roofs get panels.

I learned as a journalism student that many of the best stories link the beginning and the end. I got learned good, Mom & Dad! In that vein, here are some Random Facts about the soda Mellow Yellow. It is:
* Available in 4 flavors: Cherry, Citrus Lemon, Citrus Punch and Watermelon. Diet Mellow Yellow is only available in Citrus Lemon.
* Sold in the U.S., Canada, Japan, Guam, American Samoa and the Mariana Islands. Diet Mellow Yellow is only sold in the U.S.
* Full of 126 Calories for 12 oz., and 231 Calories for 20 oz., according to Fazoli’s.

Random Fact – from Steph! "The Wall Street Journal has a worldwide daily circulation of more than 2 million (as of 2006), with 931,00 paying online subscribers." You too can read the Wall Street Journal by clicking on this link to read about my AWESOME HUSBAND and see him quoted in the WSJ!!!