A Christmas of Firsts

This year was a special year for us.  It was Corgan's first Christmas, our first Christmas in our first house, and the first joint Piedfort/Bankey Christmas.  It was a mad house, but we had such a great and wonderful time.  Everyone showed up early for Christmas breakfast (Dad made biscuits and gravy!), and we sipped on mimosas.  I made my tarragon scrambled eggs, and apparently Philip (Stuart's brother) had to ask if they had gone bad.  He'd never seen green flecks in scrambled eggs before! Poor Philip.

My brother Chase and I makin' bacon!

Everyone brought their gifts over to our place to open, so of course we had way too many packages everywhere!  There were nine adults and the first granddaughter, and that makes for a lot of gifts.

Here's a picture that needs no explanation:

Check out the shirts!

The best time of the day was watching Corgan!  She had a crazy bad cold, so she wasn't in the greatest mood, but she was precious none the less.  She was actually more excited for the toys than the boxes and paper, which I hear is not normal.  She got a stocking stuffer of Grover from Sesame Street that sings Jingle Bells when you push his belly.  She couldn't get it to sing herself, so every time he stopped she would get all mad and do her fake cry.  It was adorable!

Corgan, her Grover, and Grandma

And lastly, just for fun, here is a peak into the crazy life that is the Piedfort/Bankey clan:

Painting Fun

When we bought our new house, we had completely fallen in love with the layout, size, and yard, but we hated the colors.  One front room was mint green, the dining room powder blue, the kitchen pale yellow, and the living room was all white with one dark blue accent wall.  Did I mention it's an open floor plan and there were floral stencils everywhere?  Upstairs we had one bedroom with neon orange walls and neon yellow trim (I am not kidding), another room with periwinkle blue/purple with bubble gum pink (again, not kidding), and then our loft was the piece-de-resistance: orange with green and yellow daisy and sun stencils!  We spent the first few months painting the two bedrooms and the entire downstairs, a solid two days tackling the loft (which is Corgan's playroom and I'll share that with you in a separate post), and most recently Stuart and I tackled the stairwell and upstairs hallway.

You can see a 'before shot' of our boring hallway.  The yellow on the right is the accent wall in the loft, and the tan color is what we chose to paint it, and, yes, the beer is a necessity to any painting project.

 We had to get a paint roller extender in order to paint our stairwell...

...and we put it to good use!  This would be Stuart listening to 'Disco Stick' by Lady Gaga.  I love this man!

 Here is the final product.  You can see that we kept the white trim, and painted every surface in tan.  The change is amazing.  There is nothing like a fresh coat of paint.

The stairway was not fun to do, seeing as we had to reach over the edge from above to paint under the trim.  It was awesome seeing Stuart lean over with his monkey arms to paint the corners that I couldn't reach.

....I think I'll have to share a video of monkey arms with you at a later date...

Pepper & Shrimp Fra Diavolo

Ever have a day where you know that you have an ingredient in your fridge that will go bad if you don't use it ASAP? This happened to me the other day with some bell peppers.  I knew I needed to cook them, but I didn't have a lot of stuff on hand.  On my way home from picking up my daughter from day care, I was picturing all the food I had in my fridge and pantry (which wasn't much), and came up with Pepper & Shrimp Fra Diavolo.  Stuart and I love anything spicy, and when we first moved into our home his mom bought us red pepper flakes from Costo.  I still have the huge jar even though we use them all the time, so I decided to put them to good use.  One of the other blogs I read (http://fortheloveofcooking-recipes.blogspot.com/) shows great pictures of the ingredients before she begins to cook.  She also does these great mid-cooking shots as well, but I'm so not going to show you all the complete mess that I make when I cook :)

Pepper & Shrimp Fra Diavolo

 

12-15 Count Frozen Shrimp

3 Bell Peppers of Any Color

1 Can Diced Tomatoes with Basil & Garlic

1/2 Box Rotini Pasta

Parmesan Cheese

Put the noodles on to boil according to the box, and yes, I do add salt to the water.  Whenever the noodles are done, strain them and drizzles a little olive oil over them to keep them from sticking. In the meantime, cut the bell peppers into strips, then half them.  I sauteed them in butter (yummmmm) until they were starting to get brown all over.  Next, I added the can of tomatoes and the pepper flakes, salt, and pepper to taste.  Once the mixture came to a simmer, I added the frozen shrimp directly to the sauce until they were pink all over.  I served the sauce over the noodles, and topped it with freshly shredded Parmesan. I learned from my Oma Betty (grandmother) that real Parmesan is the only way to go!

Pepper & Shrimp Fra Diavolo

It turned out pretty well for being a made-up recipe. As my husband put it, "It was subtly spicy, and surprisingly light." You could put the sauce over brown rice or spaghetti squash if you were watching the health factor.

Meeting Santa

Merry Christmas to all!  What a wonderful morning: it's Corgan's first Christmas, both the Bankey and Piedfort families are on their way over to celebrate the season, share a scrumptious meal, and open gifts we gave each other.  Instead of writing a full blog, here are the adorable pictures that Corgan took with Santa for the very first time.  We had to wait at Bass Pro for almost an hour and a half, she didn't fuss once (who would in Bass Pro?), and took the most beautiful Santa photos!  People were literally gasping at how well she did.  I was, and am, one proud Mama!

Re-Starting at Fits & Starts

Sooo...after a long hiatus, Fits & Starts is restarting.  Don't really know why, but I've had a big urge to begin blogging again.  I write newsletters and update websites for a living, but having my own is a lot more fun (even though I'm the luckiest person on the planet to have the job that I do!).  Since the last time I've blogged, my husband and I have moved twice, bought our first house, got promoted, moved offices, and had the most perfect child in the world.  We've been busy. 

Lately I've been on Pinterest a lot (ultimate time-suck), and I keep getting steered toward these awesome blogs for recipes, crafts, home decorating, and child-raising (I use this instead of child-rearing, because that just sounds weird).  I decided that I would revive Fits & Starts and continue journaling about life at the Bankey household.  I'll include recipes, crafts, home decorating, and child-raising.  Basically, anything I feel like putting in here :)

As a quick introduction:

Corgan Lee Bankey at 11 Months

Stuart, my wonderful husband with Corgan at 6 months

Me, Haley, with Corgan at 6 months

Smells Like....

For those of you that have been following from the beginning, you might remember that in my first post, I mentioned that I had taken up running. In reality, we all know that running is a combination of jogging and walking. The great news is that I'm still doing it, and I had the most fantabulous time today!

I've found a great, circular route near my work with almost no cars, and no yappy dogs. I've been running consistently for the past two week (three times a week) for about 30-40 minutes each time. I'm loving it, and today I figured out why:

1) Who needs drugs when you've got endorphins?

2) The air smells like purple!!!


(pictured above: Texas Mountain Laurel)

A Call to Action

The other day I was reminded of one of the best life lessons that exists. I would go so far as to say that this story might be what Curly was talking about. You know Curly. The old, wrinkled cowboy in City Slickers that scared the everlovin'-bejesus out of Billy Crystal's character. During one scene Curly shared with Billy that he knows 'this', and he holds up his pointer finger: 'the one thing', 'the secret of life.' We never find out what Curly thinks is the secret of life, but I like to think that this story I just re-read is what he was talking about. What is it you might ask? The Tortoise and the Hare. For those of you not so familiar with the story, here it is (as quoted from ChildhoodReading.com)


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The Tortoise and the Hare - One of Aesop's Fables

Once upon a time there was a hare who, boasting how he could run faster than anyone else, was forever teasing tortoise for its slowness. Then one day, the irate tortoise answered back: "Who do you think you are? There's no denying you're swift, but even you can be beaten!" The hare squealed with laughter.

"Beaten in a race? By whom? Not you, surely! I bet there's nobody in the world that can win against me, I'm so speedy. Now, why don't you try?"

Annoyed by such bragging, the tortoise accepted the challenge. A course was planned, and the next day at dawn they stood at the starting line. The hare yawned sleepily as the meek tortoise trudged slowly off. When the hare saw how painfully slow his rival was, he decided, half asleep on his feet, to have a quick nap. "Take your time!" he said. "I'll have forty winks and catch up with you in a minute."

The hare woke with a start from a fitful sleep and gazed round, looking for the tortoise. But the creature was only a short distance away, having barely covered a third of the course. Breathing a sigh of relief, the hare decided he might as well have breakfast too, and off he went to munch some cabbages he had noticed in a nearby field. But the heavy meal and the hot sun made his eyelids droop. With a careless glance at the tortoise, now halfway along the course, he decided to have another snooze before flashing past the winning post. And smiling at the thought of the look on the tortoise's face when it saw the hare speed by, he fell fast asleep and was soon snoring happily. The sun started to sink, below the horizon, and the tortoise, who had been plodding towards the winning post since morning, was scarcely a yard from the finish. At that very point, the hare woke with a jolt. He could see the tortoise a speck in the distance and away he dashed. He leapt and bounded at a great rate, his tongue lolling, and gasping for breath. Just a little more and he'd be first at the finish. But the hare's last leap was just too late, for the tortoise had beaten him to the winning post. Poor hare! Tired and in disgrace, he slumped down beside the tortoise who was silently smiling at him.

"Slowly does it every time!" he said.
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The moral of the story? Slow and steady wins the race. I've already shared my 'slow and steady' story: getting debt free. Stuart and I worked our tails off for 3 years to achieve a goal that many said was unattainable, but we stayed focused on the finish line and accomplished our goal. We beat the hare.

A Call to Action:

What is your 'slow and steady' story? What have you done in your life that makes you the tortoise? Or, if you haven't done such a thing, what have you done that makes you the hare? Submit your full stories, regardless of length, and I will post them as 'guest bloggers'. One of my favorite blogs (Fatherhoody) has guest bloggers all the time and I love the idea. If you know me and know my email you can submit your story that way as well.