Whole new living room!

An unfortunate hobby that Matt and Sharon adopted when they were first married was to go to new construction open houses and walk around and dream about the big, beautiful new home they might want to buy. The problem with this, of course, is that too much looking means eventually you'll find one you actually want. Fortunately Matt and Sharon would always drive home (perhaps discussing just how much house payment they could manage in order to buy whatever home they'd just fallen in love with) pull into their own driveway and be reminded that their current home was actually just what they needed. So instead of going to open houses they decided it would be a good idea to just focus on making their current home everything they want and need.

One of the big "to dos" in the Gosney home re-model was to replace the carpet in the living room and front hall with a wood floor. Penny and Auggie have a lot of good qualities, but sweet-smelling is not one of them. Matt was forever shampooing carpets and sofa cushions in an attempt to keep up with the shedding, stinky, drooling machines. It was decided that wood floors and leather furniture would alleviate a lot of that concern, and also count as home improvement. So Matt and Sharon began planning and saving for the living room overhaul.

It began by selling the current furniture on craigs list (a highly recommended site, by the way.) Matt thought it would take a week or two to sell the furniture. Instead, it sold in a matter of 15 minutes. So Matt and Sharon picked the wood for the floor (with much help from Matt's Cub Scout committee, who each shared their opinion) and a date was picked to rip up the old carpet. Matt asked good friends Jace and Jason to come over for a Saturday morning full of entertainment. There are few things in this world that are more disturbing than pulling up old carpet to see just exactly how nasty it is underneath. Jace and Jason were rewarded for their efforts with a lunch catered by Sonic, and Matt and Sharon then went "rustic" as they sat on the concrete slab and awaited the floor guys to arrive.

While waiting, Sharon and Matt made a run to Tulsa to shop for furniture at Mathis Brothers. (Tip for Arkansans: Mathis Brothers has a better selection than anything in town, and since it is out of state you don't have to pay sales tax. Plus you can get a Jamba Juice while you're in town. Everybody wins.) Matt and Sharon had been looking for the right leather furniture set for months, but with the carpet up and the floor going down it became imparative that some decision be made. The Mathis Brothers sales person, weary from our multiple visits and indecisive natures, finally showed us "the one" and we drove back home the proud owners of new leather furniture.

The floor folks arrived on Monday and began a two day job of putting in the new floor. As you can see, they did outstanding work. By Thursday the new furniture had been delivered and, just like that, the Gosneys have a new living room that is easier to maintain and certainly smells less like a kennel. All are welcome to come test-drive! We won't be moving any time soon.

Valentine's and a trip to OKC

First off, an apology for those who skip over the written blog and go directly to the pictures. No pictures are accompanying this post mainly because Matt and Sharon oftentimes forget to bring the camera to significant events. They promise to repent of this bad behavior.

Valentine's Day was celebrated at the Gosney house a day early and in a fairly low-key manner. Matt asked Sharon where her ideal Valentine's Day dinner would be and she responded with a large Gusano's pepperoni pizza and frozen Mrs. Smith's Deep Dish Apple Pie. Matt then remembered all over again why he married Sharon.

The Gosneys teamed up with the Stapley's for a marathon, down-and-back-in-one-day trip to Oklahoma City for a visit to the temple. It was a highly-entertaining trip in which the Stapley's little boy Cole provided endless fun. He's a sweet kid and the Gosneys had fun watching him while his parents were in the temple. The only danger experienced during the trip was when Cole was watching Kung Fu Panda on his portable DVD player and Matt kept peering back in the rear view mirror to watch his favorite parts. Unfortunately for Sharon many of Matt's tastes in entertainment are the same as the average 2 year old. Matt and Sharon took Cole over to Matt's parents where they were joined by Matt's brother (Will), sister-in-law (Lauri), and their two kiddos (Tag - age 2 1/2 and Lucy - age 6 mos). All in all it was a house full of crazy fun and Cole seemed to enjoy every second of it. Matt particularly enjoyed the story of Tag visiting his mom's family and being asked by one of her brothers who is favorite uncle was. Tag, of course not worrying about offending his mom's side of the family, replied without hesistation "My Uncle Matt!" That's a good kid. Matt plans on telling that story a lot.

Life is good here. Matt and Sharon are certainly worried about the economic uncertainty right now across the country and right here in NW Arkansas. We know lots of folks have been impacted and our thoughts and prayers are with all of those struggling at this time.

The Gosneys go to the Oprey!

Matt and Sharon have been extremely excited to have Sharon's dad come and visit for the last couple of days. Dad Smith flew in to Tulsa on Thursday (after the ice started melting, thankfully) and Matt and Sharon have been able to have a lot of fun showing him around NW Arkansas and visiting. Friday was a driving tour of all of the hot spots in NWA with stops in the very cosmopolitan Hiwassee not to mention the booming metropolis of Gravette. He also got to see Bentonville and Bella Vista, but let's face it. When someone comes to this part of the country it's to see one thing and one thing only; Highfill, AR - population 341. Dad Smith has enjoyed his stay (or at least he says he has) and thinks it is beautiful out here with very friendly people, good food, and lots to do for a retiree with a penchant for country music and farmer's markets.

Speaking of country music, Matt and Sharon discovered and took Dad Smith to quite the hole in the wall music joint on Saturday called "The Little o' Oprey" in West Fork. Matt didn't even know West Fork existed prior to this weekend. The Oprey is an ancient building that has been turned into a music hall. The house band plays every Saturday evening with various performers from the area doing several numbers with the house band throughout the show. It's a great place for teen-agers and those who are just starting to get into the performing business to learn how to play in front of an audience and with a band behind them. The level of talent was varied. There was a rather unfortunate rendition of "Wabash Cannonball," and Sharon showed far too much enthusiasm in Matt's opinion for an spirited if not exactly skilled version of "Achey-Breaky Heart." The house band at the Oprey were actually very talented, particularly the steel guitar player and the keyboardist. It was fascinating to watch performers get up, tell the band the name of the song and what key it was in, and then perform as the steel guitar player watched the performer's guitar neck for chords while signaling the rest of the band when the chord changes were happening. It was clear the band were a bunch of salty old professionals just interested in helping out some kids learn their chops. The Little O' Oprey is not recommended by the Gosneys for those interested in high quality music performance. For those interested in hearing a talented band playing old country music standards behind kids who are three times younger than the songs they are singing, the Oprey may be for you. And no, the Gosneys did not spontaneously grow mullets after attending.

A few pictures from the Gosney's night at the Oprey are included, as is a video of the house band playing a song by themselves. The keyboardist is doing the singing. Pardon Matt's shakey hand (shakey-breaky?), and be sure to scroll down and push pause on the Playlist musicbox first so you can hear.



Hope everyone is happy and well!

Ice Day and Old Pictures

Greetings from frigid, frozen-over NW Arkansas! For those who are not from this part of the world you may not be familiar with all of the different ways water can fall from the sky and keep you from going to work. Well, today the Gosneys (and everyone else here) experienced just about all of them. Yesterday started with freezing rain, which continued for quite some time until changing over to sleet and, finally, some snow. The snow and sleet aren't too bad, but the freezing rain encases everything in a thin (or in this case extremely thick) layer of ice, making roads impassable and power lines snappable. (Snappable isn't a word, so just go with it.) So far the Gosney household still has power, but others aren't so lucky. Needless to say, the good folks at Wal-Mart Home Office were encouraged to stay home and not risk life and limb. The Gosneys readily oblidged. Attached are a few shots taken from the front and back yard. Notice the driveway is a solid sheet of ice, probably about an inch and a half thick. Sharon, particularly, is extremely sad about not being able to go into the office and insisted she needed a chocolate cake in order to deal with her grief. (She cited "extra-ordinary circumstances" for the reason to have non-healthy food on a weekday.)

Back in Utah Sharon's family spent some time looking through old photographs and decided it was a good time to digitize as much as possible. So, after a trip to Sam's Club (where they have a cool machine that you can feed stacks of pictures into and they get scanned in with lightening speed) Sharon and her siblings were able to take home CDs with many of their photographs on them. Meanwhile, an old friend of Matts from the old house he grew up in was doing the same thing as he visited his family for Christmas. This friend, also named Matt (totally cool when you are 7 years old) lived in the house directly behind Matt (even cooler to have someone with your same name share your backyard fence.) Friend Matt sent over some pictures that brought back lots of memories. And now you get to enjoy a few pictures of Matt and Sharon as kiddos. Note how much hair Matt had. *sigh* Matt particularly enjoys the picture of Sharon looking longingly at her brother's birthday cake. Clearly, Sharon's sweet tooth was established at a young age.

For those of you in the ice storm with us, stay warm and safe! And for those who aren't, be glad!

Back in Action! Christmas '08 Redux.

So yes, several of you have commented that the Gosney's have been extremely poor bloggers over the last several weeks. While there are many excuses that could be given (Christmas, Finals, depression brought on by the Obama Inauguration) Sharon probably identified the true reason for the lapse. Matt tends to write in the blog when he is attempting to avoid doing homework. Given that there was a nice break over the holidays there was no homework to be done. Thus, much less blogging. Never fear, there is plenty of homework to be done, and that means plenty of attempts to procrastinate that homework. Count on plenty of blog entries. (Despite the procrastinating Matt did still manage a 4.0 this previous semester. So there.)

Christmas was spent in two locations this year with Christmas day in Oklahoma with Matt's family. The day after Christmas saw Matt and Sharon brave the airport to fly to Utah to visit Sharon's family. Delta only lost Matt's luggage on the way back, which for them is probably above average performance. Utah was beautiful with lots of snow, and it was great to get to spend time with the Smith's. The Gosney Christmas was also great fun, Matt made lasagna as a "something different" Christmas dinner. The dinner was deemed successful as everyone slipped into a broiled cheese-induced coma. Below are two slide shows, the first from the Oklahoma Christmas and the second from the Utah Christmas. Browse at your leisure.

When in Utah Matt decided it would be fun to take a look at the old stomping grounds where he used to live down in Provo. A picture of Matt's first apartment in Provo after his mission is included. Matt lived in the basement appartment. Note the horrifically-dangerous ice sicles hanging over the basement stairs. Not dangerous at all. The hand rail was an "upgrade" that did not exist when Matt resided there. The best part of the house was, by far, the highly sustainable toliet paper caulking used around the windows. One could be sitting in the living room and experience a draft so strong items would get blown off your lap. Good times. Needless to say, Matt only stayed in the apartment for a year and then moved on to better accomodations.

After all of the traveling Matt and Sharon decided to buy themselves a Christmas present. Not known for a lot of decoration on the walls the Gosneys decided it was probably time to actually hang a picture. Matt and Sharon had seen this picture a year ago while in Utah and had coveted it for quite some time. It is a beautiful photo of a small portion of the Salt Lake Temple framed with some fall foliage (that just so happens to match the red accent wall in the Gosney home.) So they decided it would be the perfect addition to the living room wall. Matt is just glad he was capable of mounting the picture without it crashing to the ground ... yet.

Hope everyone is happy and well!

The famous Graham Christmas party!

Last Friday the Gosneys enjoyed the famous, world-renowned, completely awesome Graham Christmas Party. The Grahams are good friends and they have established a great tradition of hosting an adults-only Christmas party. Matt and Sharon celebrate their attendance at the party in two significant ways. First, they buy spiffy new Christmas sweaters (although Sharon refuses to buy one with snowmen or Santa Claus on it.) Next, they find some sort of tasty new treat to make and bring. The results of the sweater purchase can be seen here, along with a very pregnant and very ready to not be pregnant anymore Laura Hammontree in the background. The tasty treats were Cheese Straws and Mini-Cheesecakes. As both were un-abashed hits at the party the Gosneys have decided they are willing to share their recipes. Rest assured, they were glorious. (Recipes are at the bottom of the post.)

Another significant aspect of the Graham Christmas Party is the great and imaginative games that Cori Graham thinks up to keep everyone entertained. This year's major hit was a game in which a series of Christmas songs were written on slips of paper, and genres of music on seperate slips of paper. Each group drew from each pile and, with provided props, had to perform the song in the genre selected. Here several friends are performing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" in the style of High School Musical. The Gosneys did "Deck the Halls" in a country-music style that ended up being much more redneck hillbilly than country. Frightening to behold, but highly entertaining.

Hope everyone is well!

Cheese Straws

2 sheets (1 box) frozen puff pastry (such as Pepperidge Farm), defrosted overnight in the refrigerator
Flour, for dusting
1 extra-large egg
1 tablespoon water
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1 cup finely grated Gruyère cheese (or Aziago, which is what we used.)
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Roll out each sheet of puff pastry on a lightly floured board until it is 10- by 12-inches. Beat the egg with 1 tablespoon of water and brush the surface of the pastry. Sprinkle each sheet evenly with 1⁄4 cup of the Parmesan, 1⁄2 cup of the Gruyère, 1⁄2 teaspoon of the thyme, 1⁄2 teaspoon of the salt, and some pepper. With the rolling pin, lightly press the flavorings into the puff pastry. Cut each sheet crosswise with a floured knife or pizza wheel into 11 or 12 strips. Twist each strip and lay on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. (We also found that twisting the strips and then doubling them over and twisting again worked best. Otherwise they end up way too long.)

Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until lightly browned and puffed. Turn each straw and bake for another 2 minutes. Don't over bake or the cheese will burn. Cool and serve at room temperature.

MINI-CHEESECAKES
----------------

1 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. butter, melted
3 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
3 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 (21 oz.) can Wilderness filling or topping, any flavor,
chilled (we doubled the recipe and went half blueberry and half cherry.)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Combine crumbs, sugar, and
butter; press equal portions into bottoms 24 lightly
greased or paper cup lined muffin cups. In large bowl, beat
cheese until fluffy (muffin paper cups worked great.) Gradually beat in condensed milk until
smooth. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Spoon mixture into
cups. Bake 20 minutes or until set. Cool. Chill. Top with
filling. Refrigerate. Makes about 2 dozen mini cheesecakes.

Thanksgiving, Christmas Trees, and Sam Bradford

The Gosneys made their oft-traveled journey to Oklahoma to spend Thanksgiving with Matt's parents. The Gosney Thanksgiving Dinner generally consists of the traditional Turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, etc, and this year was no exception. However, all of the main course fare is really just a precursor to the many varied and wonderful pies that are always made, drooled over, and eaten with absolute haste. The pie-to-person ratio for Thanksgiving is always a little embarassing. This year a chocolate cream, coconut cream, mixed berry, and pumpkin pie were the choices and Sharon deemed each to be successful (although she's not really a fan of coconut cream in general, citing "yucky texture" as the problem area.) Unfortunately the digital camera did not make the trip, so you will have to simply trust that it was an extremely successful Thanksgiving. Matt and Sharon even ventured out on Black Friday to do some shopping. Although both agreed that it was enjoyable, there is no question that mall pizza at 8:30 in the morning will play havoc on one's digestive system.

Saturday was the OU-OSU football game, with a trip to the Big 12 Championship riding on the outcome. Matt has never purchased a Sooner player's jersey before, however he did decide that OU's quarterback was in fact jersey-worthy. A quick view of the image here will show why. OU won, and now off to Kanas City and a chance to play for the national championship. Matt isn't sure what he enjoys most about this development, seeing OU do well or watching it come at the expense of Texas fans. Matt's new Sr. Vice-President is a die-hard Texas fan, so he has learned to temper his enthusiasm at the office. Best not to commit career suicide over football.

On Monday Matt and Sharon decorated the Christmas trees, while Auggie and Penny observed and ocassionally licked the ornaments. There are two trees that get decorated, one in the family room and one in the guest bedroom. Both look strikingly similar to the Charlie Brown Christmas tree, but with enough ornamentation it isn't too bad. The first tree pictured is the living room tree. You will notice some gaping holes and an angel that is very clearly too big for the tree. One day these issues will be fixed, but not this year. Matt and Sharon bought most of the ornaments in their first year of marriage as they burned through Pier One Gift Cards (wedding gifts.) Unfortunately the tree doesn't really fit the ornaments, but it does make for a more festive living room.

Hope everyone's Thanksgiving was wonderful!