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A Little Friday Night Fun

Today was a little sad. Stephen had to say good bye to his little work truck that he’s had for the past 10 years. A few days after we got married, Stephen was working at the Memphis commercial airport when Tuesday, September 11 happened. When he came home that night he said he had never in his life seen the airport, fields, and roads full of aircraft like that. They had to land any aircraft in the area regardless of flight plans, room on runways, and room on surrounding fields. Needless to say, the flight industry took a hit, and he lost his job 4 weeks after we were married. The next week, my car died. We were down to 1 car and 1 job teaching school in rural west Tennessee. How’s that for a “first year is the toughest” story?

Fortunately, he was able to partner with a friend to open a sub shop in Jackson, TN, about 75 miles away. He was able to carpool with the friend since both of them had to be there about 100 hours a week to start up and open the shop. He got a small loan for the most inexpensive Ford Ranger standard shift he could find. And that’s been his work truck for the past 10 years. We have been blessed with better jobs and better vehicles, but he’s always hung onto to that Ford. It reminds him of where we started and no matter how comfortable we get, we must never take it for granted.

Ol’ Blue has 135,000 miles and the engine is all screwed up, needs a full tune up, new tires, new brakes. With that many miles and that much work, it was time to let it go to the big Garage in the sky. After he came back, kicking the dirt a little, I suggested we grill some burgers and find a good movie. I know how much he loves berries, so I made a little patriotic parfait to practice some afternoon lighting.

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Greek yogurt on bottom, berries, whipped cream on top.

Then it was time for burgers. When we light up charcoal for burgers, I try to think of ways to jazz them up a little.

Chipotle spread:

  • 1/4 Cup of low fat Ranch dressing
  • 1 teaspoon of chipotle powder
  • Juice of one lime

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Toppings:

  • Grilled Vidalia Onions
  • Home grown tomatoes
  • Crisp green lettuce
  • GOOD cheddar.

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Vidalia Cheddar Burger with Chipotle sauce

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Gotta love the weekend movies for $.99. We found one that didn’t get the best ratings but turned out to be a great movie, Battle:Los Angeles. Plenty of crazy action and a patriotic war movie plus burgers and red,white, blue dessert. The Independence Day weekend is off to a great start.

Tina @ Faith Fitness Fun

Sunday 3rd of July 2011

Beautiful pictures! Sounds like the perfect weekend night. I'm all for relaxing like that. The simple things, right?