Yesterday a co-worker gave us free tickets to see Billy Joel @ the BJCC. Neither of us are huge Billy Joel fans but we really enjoyed the concert. I forget how many hits he’s had over the years. I also realized how much I’ve been converted to the kind of music that Chris loves. While leaving the show my first comment was, “Good show, but he’s no Eric Clapton. That [the Clapton concert in Oct] was a great show!!” The only thing I did like better about the Billy Joel show was how he engaged the audience. Besides the random “Thank You!” shouted out by Eric he was pretty silent. I guess when you are a rock god you don’t have to chit-chat with the audience.

After a grueling 10 hour trip home, we finally made it back to Alabama last night. I say “grueling” because evil Budget Car Rental only had PT Cruisers available and they aren’t the most comfy road cars. If I had wanted to ride in a small box for hours on end I would have just taken my xB (but didn’t want the added mileage). It was great to see everyone in Tulsa. Check our Flickr accounts for pics (check mine first for a select few before sorting through the 1000 pics Chris uploaded to his account today).
Yes, things are slowly returning to normal. Today the temp is in the 60’s and I’m wearing sandals, a denim skirt and a short sleeved top.. ahhh yes… this is the Alabama winter I’m used to. The morning sickness has subsided lately. Now if I can just get rid of this cold/sinus infection I’ll be feeling pretty great!!

Chris & I are taking a last minute road trip to Tulsa today. We wanted to take the opportunity to go now before Chris starts his new job. We’ll head out this afternoon and hit Memphis in time for BBQ (What, you thought we’d go to Memphis without stopping at Central BBQ?) and will spend the night, finishing up the trip to Tulsa early Friday. Chris’ grandmother is in the hospital so it will be nice to visit with her and catch up with the rest of his family. Oh, and the prospect of a Goldie’s burger and some Taco Bueno bean burritos to go is pretty tempting too. (Side note- you’d think with a town as big as Birmingham you could get a decent burger joint and some fast food Mexican other than Taco Bell… no such luck. And don’t even get me started about the lack of pizza & good BBQ.) Have a good weekend everyone!!

Originally uploaded by Mojo Denbow’s Photo Studio.

Courtesy of Old Navy. We’ll see how long it takes for her to chew this off.

Originally uploaded by Mojo Denbow’s Photo Studio.

Like I said before, we’ve been trying to eat better and soup is an easy way to load up on veggies, especially when it’s cold out. This was a new recipe and it turned out pretty good. Basically you dump everything in the crockpot and let it cook all day. How easy is that? I made a couple substitutions- petite diced tomatoes for mashed whole tomatoes, and we cheated and used Fritos instead of toasting our own corn tortillas.  Here’s the recipe.

2007 has definitely been an strange year so far. But we finally have some good news! First off- Chris just accepted a job offer and is very excited about the new position. In fact, it might even be a better job than the one he had previously. Secondly- we are expecting!!! Yep, that’s right, Baby Denbow will be making a late summer/early fall arrival.

People keep asking me if we are excited.. Chris is over the moon excited. I’m excited too, but it’s a little overwhelming. Plus the morning sickness/exhaustion has made me feeling really crappy. I’m ready to get out of this first trimester and hopefully feel a little better.

Saturday we went to Babies R Us for the first time. Holy crap was that an experience. First off every time we’ve tried to go there the parking lot is 100% full. I mean absolutely no spaces. We had to park in the back loading area behind the building. We just breezed through the store to get an idea of what they carried, it was just too busy to do any real shopping. It was “Wal-Mart on Christmas Eve” busy. Chris, being the gadget guy he is, found a jogging stroller with speakers and an iPod jack. He has decided we definitely need that.  Oh, and he’s dying for a video camera.  So it’s a good thing he has a new job to pay for all this, lol!!

I’ll go back in a few weeks to have my first ultrasound.  Of course we won’t know what the sex is yet, but we can at least hear the heartbeat.  Keep checking back for updates!

Pasta e Fagioli

Originally uploaded by Mojo Denbow’s Photo Studio.

Sunday’s lunch. We’ve been trying to get more vegetables in our daily diet and this soup is packed with carrots, onions, celery, 2 different kinds of beans and tomatoes. It turned out great and will definitely be added to our rotation. Here’s the recipe.

Walk In The Park

Originally uploaded by Mojo Denbow’s Photo Studio.

Sunday we all had cabin fever and went to a local park in Trussville to enjoy the sunshine (although it was still a little bit chilly).

The other day while I was in Costco picking up a rotisserie chicken I noticed they had huge boneless pork shoulders (12-15 lbs) for under $20. I’m not normally in the market for pork shoulders but for the price it seemed too good to pass up. I mentioned it to Chris and we went back the next day and grabbed one. Yesterday it spent 8 hours on the smoker and then another 10 hours overnight in the crockpot (actually both of the huge crockpots I own were filled to the top with pork!) on low. Today we have pounds and pounds (and pounds) of pulled pork ready for sandwiches, potato topping, whatever. As usual, Chris documented the entire culinary event. This was a particular favorite of mine. Note- this is just one half of the pork shoulder. We had to cut it down to get it in our small smoker:

Pork or Star Trek Horta? I promise it looked better once I pulled it apart.