Over the Weekend

This weekend was pretty full!  The whole family tried out a new grocery store on Friday because of a flyer in the mail that showed some pretty good specials.  The grocery store is in Cedar Hill, which is almost thirty minutes from our house.  It's only about ten-fifteen miles, though.  I must say that I have never been the type that sees the beauty in the landscape of DFW.  It's just, well, plain in comparison to the gently roaming hills of my hometown.  I especially have a difficult time during fall here.  In Birmingham the hills are painted rich with vibrant colors that take your breath away.  Here I get excited just to see one tree that is yellow.  But, on this drive out to Cedar Hill we discovered one of the prettiest parts of the metroplex that I have seen.  And you could even see fall colors in the trees!  I was pleasantly surprised and truly enjoyed the drive to the grocery store.

The store was actually pretty small, but they had some great deals.  One of those deals was whole chickens for $.99 /pound.  We ended up buying six chickens to smoke on Saturday.  So when Saturday came around we set out to smoke the chickens.  We have smoked brisket, ribs, pork tenderloin, but never chicken.  My cookbook said that it should take about 4 to 4 1/2 hours.  We didn't get them on the smoker until 3:30.  Oops!  Two of the chickens were done at around 9:00.  (We had to move them to the oven.)  Two more were done around 12:30.  The final two were done around 2:00.  What a night!  And what a MESSY kitchen!  But the great thing is that we were able to give some chickens to some family and friends to enjoy.  I think next time we'll just roast the chickens.

I think one of the great things about Hudson getting older is that he will play on his own.  So while we were cooking/smoking/cleaning, he did a great job playing by himself.  He did wander into the kitchen to talk to us.  We also put the jumper on the back patio so he could talk to Daddy while he was using the smoker.  He's just a great baby.  I can't complain at all.  God has been good to us!

Even though we were smoking chickens, we of course still had football to watch.  We had the windows open in the house to keep it cool, and later on our neighbor told us that he heard me yelling at the game.  Uh oh!  He lives two houses down.  Kyle and I did manage to make Hudson cry only twice during the game.  Both times were during great offensive plays.  As long as we look at him after yelling or cheering and then smile and say "Yea!" he won't cry.  He needs to learn to cheer on the Tide, too!

Yesterday was a great day at church.  Kyle, of course, was preaching.  I was working with the younger elementary age kids.  We're beginning to feel like we're right on the edge of some growth at church.  We're getting excited about that.  God seems to be bringing new faces and even former acquaintances across our path.  Kyle also is really enjoying studying for his sermon series in Genesis.  He keeps talking about the subject even when we get in the car to go home on Sundays.  You know it's a good sign when your pastor is genuinely excited about what he's preaching.  Hudson's Nina is now working in the nursery on Sunday mornings, so he did a great job with her in there.  Apparently he is becoming much more assertive in the nursery.  He felt comfortable enough to take some toys away from another little boy.  And so it begins...

I'm really looking forward to this next weekend.  We're planning a trip to the zoo!  We'll post pictures of that next weekend.