August in review

August 9 our whole family went to SW Arkansas to visit the rest of our family. We went to McCaskill for lunch to see Matt's family. His parents, his brother and sister and their kids, and his grandmother were there. It was good to see them. Matt doesn't get to see them but a couple of times a year. His work schedule usually doesn't enough time for him to get down there.

Then that evening we went to Murfreesboro to visit my parents. It was my mom's birthday so I talked my dad into cooking for us, and we invited the rest of the family to come too. My dad purchased a gas smoker earlier in the summer and has used it nearly every weekend. When he cooks, there is a enough food to feed a family of five for a week!! So through the summer when he would could cook they would usually invite my brother and sister and their families over for dinner. Since I live an hour and half away, I missed many meals with them. My nephew, Brad, made a comment to his mom, my sister, about what a shame it was that I moved away and was missing out on good cooking. Well, this night he had already left to go back to college, 4 hours away. I took a picture of all the food and texted him a message to let him know how much he was missing out on since he was so far, far away! :) I think Daddy had smoked a brisket, 2 or 3 racks of ribs, a boston butt or 2, and leg quarters. Plus all the sides we had to go with it: boiled potatoes, baked beans, cole slaw, etc. And then to top it off we had homemade ice cream!! Yummy, yum, delicious!!

Here is Daddy watching the temperature gauge on his smoker. He nearly has his smoking technique perfected!! ;) This picture was actually taken just a few weeks ago on another trip made down there. It was an impromptu trip. We were invited just days before to a birthday party for our niece Savanah. She was celebrating her 8th birthday at Meme & Pepaw's house in McCaskill. Afterwards, the girls and I slipped over to Granny & Pop's for the night.

Ok, back to August...

August 14 Matt's dad had a bad motorcycle accident. He was enroute to the hospital in Hot Springs to check on a church member of his that had a heartattack. He came upon a road crew that had traffic stopped, and when he topped the hill he had no where to go but to lay it down! He made it to hospital alright--via ambulance! He had a pretty bad gash on his head, and lost a lot of blood. His whole left side was beat and bruised up! He was very lucky though. He had no broken bones and no internal injuries. After a 4 or 5 day hospital stay and 6 units of blood later, he went home with 32 staples in his head, a hematoma on his left side and lots of road rash! He was very sore, but I think he will probably heal with only a couple of scars to show for it! Here's a picture-3 weeks later-that shows much improvement!

School started the 18th. Both girls seem to be off to a good start. They are both enjoying their new teachers and classes. I have already subbed all but 6 days that they have been in session. Subbing is working out to be a pretty good gig for me!

The 30th we went up to Fayetteville for Hogs first game. They won, but just barely. It was really not a good game. I told Kyla that I thought her and me could have played better than they did. Matt didn't appreciate the comment at all! LOL! We got to visit with our friends Dale & Lisa that in Rogers. We tailgated with them for a while before the game started. It's always good to see them. After the game we grabbed a bite to eat and headed to our hotel in Rogers. Matt & Kera got to swim the next morning before we left. Other than Kyla just getting over a cold, and Kera and I starting to get a cold, we had a pretty good weekend. We got back Sunday afternoon in time to spend the evening at DJ & Liz's. They had a cookout for Labor Day weekend. DJ is a master smoker too and it's always a privilege to get to eat with them!

Here's the game in pictures:

This is Matt and the girls waiting for the football team to arrive.

The team entering the field through the smoking Hog!

Kyla didn't want to be in my picture so she stuck her cup in front of her face. And as I was uploading these picture I was thinking that a picture of the scoreboard and final score would have a been a great addition this photo collection, but...I didn't take one!! Oh well! We won.

And that's most of August's action!