Celebrations, both happy and bittersweet

We've had kind of a strange week filled with goodbyes and celebrations. before I get to some other photos, I'd like to ask you guys to say a quick prayer for the family of my Uncle Rex who passed away last Saturday. To tell you a little about Uncle Rex, he was one of those people who "looked like they swallowed Jesus," to steal a phrase from a friend. Quick with a smile and always with a joke or a song on hand, I deeply regret not spending more time with Uncle Rex. He was my dad's uncle, the brother of my biological grandfather who my grandmother divorced when my dad was a baby. She put us in touch with Uncle Rex when I had a middle school family tree project and we realized I had almost nothing to fill in for my dad's side. He totally embraced us, filled in some blanks, and became the uncle I'd never had. We visited him through my high school years, even going to a couple family reunions with him where we met a bunch of people who looked exactly like my dad. Uncle Rex was at my wedding and my first Christmas parties and he was there when we lost my grandmother and then my dad. And it wasn't just me and my family he affected--when we came to his visitation, the line was almost out the door. Anyway, I could go on but for now just: thank you Uncle Rex and I will miss you (but I'm sure I'll see you again someday).


So, that was the sad part of our week. Kind of in an odd exact opposite, Mike's birthday was this week. We didn't really do anything big. We went to Birmingham last week to celebrate Family Birthday Week and I have photos to come of that later. I need to go through them. Thursday we went out to eat on Mike's actual birthday and Friday I began preparations for Mike's Annual Birthday Fajita Dinner Extravaganza. I did the shopping and made the filling for his fried apple pies so that could cool overnight. I finished up the apple pies after aikido Saturday and, man. These are probably the best ones I've ever made:


The actual dinner was...laborious, haha. I did all the prep work after making the pies so that the cooking phase wouldn't be too bad. I've learned from making this meal that if I clean up after each phase, it isn't nearly as bad. But it's still an entire day production because it's all fresh ingredients that have to be chopped, sliced, pureed, and all that fun stuff. For those of you who like to cook, I made:
Mexican Rice from Cook's Illustrated: rice sauteed with fresh garlic and jalapenos and then finished in the oven with chicken broth and a puree of fresh onions and tomatoes.
Classic Fajitas, also from Cook's: Flank steak sprinkled with lime juice, salt and pepper and seared to medium rare served with grilled onion and red bell peppers.
Mexican Creamed Corn: Corn, jalapenos, and, oddly but deliciously, cream cheese.
Looking at it that way, the dinner doesn't seem like such a big deal to make, haha. It ended up like this:


Mike was a happy 34 year old. :D


It was sweet, he put on jeans and a nice sweater in honor of all my hard work. I had on my workout clothes from aikido. Autumn? She had a pajama day because she loooooooves her panda pajamas.


Oh, speaking of Autumn, this is for Liz:


:D I hope this outfit was everything you hope it would be. Liz got this shirt, picturing it with the striped tights and a poofy skirt...lucky for us, I happened to have all of these things on hand for Autumn. I should have had her put on her black boots because, man. They made the outfit.

Anyway, I'm tired and I think I am going to bed. haha. Yes. At 8:54pm. I think I did a little too much yesterday with the food prep and aikido. I probably should have skipped aikido although I had a great time in class. I've been just wiped out all day today so I've been taking it pretty easy. Happy birthday, Mike! Thanks for being a good papa and a great husband. :) I wish I had a more creative blog post for your birthday but I hope that a meal made with much effort makes up for it.