A Funny

As you all may know, my wonderful and providing husband is an avid hunter and fisher. He has recently been spending his days off enjoying these hobbies rather than working overtime (he DOES have a life, guys!). Last week he killed his first turkey and was oh-so-proud of himself. I was excited for him, too, even though I am borderline PETA advocate (ha!) b/c he rarely gets that excited over things and I enjoy seeing him happy. Soooo, being the good wife that I am, I got all into the new "food" that he has been bringing home. On Sunday night he made us some delicious baked fish (crappie) that he caught a few days earlier. It was so good that on Monday I was game to try fried turkey. As I was taking my second bite of turkey tenders, I look over to Josh's plate and see to my disgust: A FEATHER. Yep. A black turkey feather was on his plate. Ugh-gross. That pretty much did me in and I can totally see why people become vegetarians! I may be close. Josh's argument: chicken that you buy from the store has feathers in it. Those birds are just white so that you don't see the feathers when you are cooking!

Oh well. Here is a picture of my husband and his kill:

Landscape Before and After...

As many of you know, Josh and I LOVE to work in our yard. We became fond of this in our little yard in Lexington and this has carried over to our new home. Ever since we have moved into our new house, the yard/landscape has been a source of stress for me. It had so many elements that I really did not like along with a massive overgrowth of weeds, and I was anxious for spring to arrive so that I could change some of this and add my own flair to it! Of course, I have been given a few guidelines regarding my new landscape: 1)I am not allowed to plant more bulbs/flowers than space allows, 2) it shall not resemble a jungle when I am finished, and 3) we don't have to beautify it all in one shot.

With these rules in mind, I set out to create the landscape of my dreams (at least, those in 2009). I knew that I had to have two bushes: hydrangeas and azaleas, and I wanted to plant some summer bulbs. Otherwise, the rest centered around cleaning it up and getting the unwanted bushes out. We still have the back and the landscape around the mailbox to work on (BUT, remember rule #3). Here are the pics from this massive (and not even complete...) project:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Some beautiful springtime tulips that popped up this year! (I Love Surprises!)

Finally, I had to post some of Josh with his new toy: he had a good argument and I couldn't say no! Our yard is now the best looking one on the street... :)

Thank God it has a cupholder...

An Ode to Tater Day...

Some pics, courtesy of my new friend Stacey. She captured the best of Tater Day 2009 and I felt the need to share with you this most esteemed day for Benton-ites! Enjoy!

An Amazing Mullet. You should be Jealous!

No Comment.

Pure Class

Yum!!

Good Ol' Benton, KY - gotta love it :)

THIS is hilarious!

YAY! It's Tater Day!!

Benton, KY is unknown to most people, but those who know even a little about this little town know about the annual festival called Tater Day. Tater Day was started in the late 1800s as a celebration of the first day of spring, and a time when all of the townsfolk would get together and trade sweet potatoes. I don't know if this still exists today, but what does exist are rebel flags flown on the backs of redneck cars the week before and after (and during the Tater Day Parade), deep-fried-everything, flea-market type booths lining the sides of Main Street, a demolition derby, and people coming out of the woodwork to enjoy such festivities. And I do mean the woodwork. Benton is home to some 4,400 residents, but rednecks from miles around come to enjoy the festival known as Tater Day. What we've been told is that most smart people leave town during this first weekend of April.

This weekend happens to be the 166th Tater Day celebration. And being newcomers to the area, Josh and I decided to partake in the redneck festivities to get to know our new community. Luckily, Tater Day has evolved beyond deep-fried oreos, jumbo corndogs, and funnel cakes to entice others to join in the fun. They also have a 5K race (Tater Trot) and bike tours through the county (Tour de Tater). To get into the spirit I decided to run the Tater Trot. It was my first 5K this year, and it was a pretty fun one! I was a little nervous about not doing well since I have been out of training since October, but I actually ran it in good time: 25min 24 sec. It wasn't a difficult course, but the smell of grease from the funnel cake stands (et cetera) permeated the air and was kinda nauseating. Next year I plan on doing the Tour de Tater, too! The best part of the race was meeting a possible new friend (we are so in need of friends!) who ran the race. I am keeping my fingers crossed that maybe we will hit it off (we=me and Josh with her and her husband). They go to the church that we have our eye on and they are our age and graduated from MSU. Keep your fingers crossed for us!!

After the race, Josh and I decided to get a corndog and walk around the booths that were set up. It was kinda fun, something different. You just gotta look past the rebel flags EVERYWHERE!

Here's a pic of me with my new trophy shirt! I think it is so cute (Josh thinks the potatoes look like Mr. Peanut!)