Thunder, Lightning and Ice

The big winter storm has arrived in West Texas. It has been raining cats and dogs here in Lubbock all morning as the temperature continues to sink.

The roads are covered in water and the wind is howling with the occasional rumble of thunder. Most points north of Lubbock (Happy, Tulia, Plainview, Amarillo) are icy or getting snow.

Ice is forming on trees, tumbleweeds and overpasses in the LBK. Fortunately, there are only like 14 trees in Lubbock, so that should help.

Luckily, the temperature waited until after everyone had time to get to work or school before dipping below freezing (note my sarcasm). So, now the conditions are degrading quickly and everyone is out on the roads or at work or school.

Peanut Butter for Haiti

The Texas Peanut Producers Board is in the news again. The peanut industry came together following the earthquake in Haiti to raise money to purchase peanut butter to send to those in need.

So far, $94,000 has been raised and 170,000 pounds of peanut butter has been shipped to Haiti - that's nearly 2.5 million servings of yummy, high protein, high energy peanut butter. This morning's Lubbock Avalanche-Journal ran a story about how TPPB has been involved with the effort. Through our office, we've been able to raise $12,000 to purchase peanut butter for the earthquake victims.

Read the article here. (It also mentions how you can help and lists my contact information.) Also, contrary to what the article says, this effort has nothing to do with the salmonella issue last year at this time. The peanut butter donation effort stemmed out of Blakely, Ga., which happens to be the largest peanut producing area in the country...and also where the infamous salmonella factory was located. But, the factory is long gone, and the peanut industry in Blakely is trudging along and helping people in Haiti.


This story also ran on Lubbock's KAMC 28.


Meanwhile, charity organizations like Operation Blessing, Food for the Poor, and Catholic Relief Services have helped get the peanut butter from the United States to Haiti. Because the port in Haiti was destroyed by the earthquake, the logistics of delivering products into the country became an issue. However, the peanut butter was able to arrive in the hands of the earthquake victims thanks to the Military Sealift Command vessel, which is equipped with a helicopter to hoist the peanut butter from the ship to the ground in Haiti.


If you would like to help out, feel free to send me an email (lindsay.w.kennedy@gmail.com) and I will let you know where you can send your check. You don't have to be in Texas or connected to the peanut industry :-)

Cooking with Lindsay

In an effort to reduce our eating out expenses and in the time-honored tradition of the American household, I've decided to make it a priority to cook an evening meal for our family of two.

Now, how long this will last, I do not know.

After growing up with an amazing cook for a mother, and never having an interest in the kitchen for 26 of the 27 years of my life, I've never felt a need to exert extra energy towards preparing regular meals. I lived on my own for several years before I got married, so it was really more of a hassle to drag stuff out to cook when I could just eat a bowl of cereal for dinner, or go to Chick-fil-A.

Plus, my defiance of the kitchen for many years left me without a knowledge bank of cooking skills. None of this, of course, is due to the lack of attempts by my mother to teach me the ropes of the kitchen. I was interested in learning to make cookie dough, but that was about it. The cookies rarely got baked, because I ate the cookie dough.

There was a brief stint where I attempted to clear my name of all negative cooking comments. I decided to make homemade ice cream for some friends. As luck would have it, the lid popped slightly open during the "churning" part, and tons of rock salt entered into the ice cream mixture. Needless to say, that was not a positive move towards cooking confidence.

Thank goodness for Google. Terms like "al dente" leave me looking at the cookbook with blank stares. Luckily, there's Pioneer Woman. If you aren't keeping up with Pioneer Woman on a regular basis, then you're missing out. She's a city woman turned rancher's wife. She's an amazing photographer, witty, and a heck of a cook. She released her first cookbook this year, and my loving husband purchased it for me.

It's the perfect cookbook for me, because 1) it has pictures for each step, 2) also has a nice collection of non-cooking photography, and c) it has pictures for each step. Yes, I meant to list that twice.

Most of my full-fledged meal attempts were straight from the Pioneer Woman's site or her cookbook. I tried her "Best Lasagna - Ever" last week for some friends, and so far, no one has fallen ill.

Last night, I made her "Italian Meatball Soup" and it was mighty tasty. Her recipes call for fresh ingredients, which allow me to use our super cool (and sharp) knife set we got for our wedding. That's the best part of cooking - chopping stuff up.

This recipe called for homemade meatballs - a first in my brief cooking career. I guess anything above cookie dough and taco meat would be a first in my cooking career.

The meatballs consisted of 3/4 pound of beef, some chopped parsley, salt, oregano, Parmesan cheese, garlic cloves, and eventually an egg.

I rolled them together, put them in the frig to chill, then started hacking away on the veggies.

Obviously, Pioneer Woman has much better step-by-step photos than me, but I liked all the colors that the ingredients made...silly, I know, but I was trying to enjoy myself.

Although the recipe says it takes about an hour and 15 minutes to prepare this meal, it took me two hours. Oh, and I was supposed to wrap some herbs into a cheesecloth to soak in the soup. I didn't have a cheesecloth, so I used an old sock that had a worn down heel. My mom suggested that, so don't gag. Plus, it worked. Who needs a cheesecloth anyway? I don't even know what that looks like.

It was a tasty, filling meal, and another night of eating out was avoided.

Character - The Real McCoy

I deal with a weekend illness every weekend during the fall and winter months. It's an illness that takes me to great highs and lows. It causes me to jump out of my chair, fall to me knees, and yell at the top of my lungs.

My illness is college football.

Last night after watching the BCS National Championship, I was saddened because 1) The college football season is now officially over until late August. What in the heck are we supposed to do on Saturday's? 2) I saw one of the classiest athletes of our generation fall short of his dream.

This could get long, but stay with me.

I've loathed the Texas Longhorns now for approximately 18 years. I'm not exactly sure when my hatred of burnt orange began, but it likely started when I began to comprehend the past between my beloved Arkansas Razorbacks and the Longhorns during the old Southwest Conference days.

By the time I became a full-fledged, heart and soul Hog fan in the early 90s, Arkansas had moved to the Southeastern Conference, and Texas had moved to the Big 12. The only way Arkansas would see Texas on the football field again would be if non-conference games were scheduled, or if we met in the Cotton Bowl.

When I was in college at Arkansas, I read a book for a sports journalism class called "Hogs, Horns and Nixon Coming". It was about the 1969 Razorbacks, who were then coached by Frank Broyles, and their classic match-up with conference rival UT, then coached by the legendary Darrell Royal. It was a match-up of No. 1 (UT) and No. 2 (UA) at Razorback Stadium. "The Big Shootout" is what they called it. The winner would be the National Champion of college football.

ABC convinced Broyles to reschedule the game from it's usual October date to be the last game of the regular season in December. ABC promised President Richard Nixon would be there. Because of the game's national significance, President Richard Nixon did watch he game in Razorback Stadium. During this time the war in Vietnam was raging on, so protesters filled the hill overlooking Razorback Stadium to show Nixon how they felt.

Arkansas held onto a 14-0 lead until Texas came back in the fourth quarter to win 15-14.

The game achieved a TV rating of 52.1 - over half of the television sets in the United States watched the Horns and Hogs.

I guess it was after reading that book that I realized no good red-blooded Hog fan could ever cheer for the Texas Longhorns.

On September 11, 2002, I sat in the largest crowd to ever pack into Razorback Stadium to watch Arkansas play Texas. It was exactly one year after 9/11/01, and I remember some people were even scared there would be a terrorist attack since so many people would be gathered in one place. Vince Young was starting to get his wheels turning for UT. Arkansas had gone down to Austin the year before and beat the Longhorns, upon thereafter an Arkansas flag was planted into the end zone at Darrell Royal Memorial Stadium.

I think all Arkansas fans - new, young and old - remembered how much we were also supposed to hate Texas when the burnt orange began rolling down Razorback road in Fayetteville in '02.

Arkansas lost that game 22-20. At this point, the loathing of UT became real to me. I had a valid reason now that I'd witnessed it with my own eyes.

Since that time, I've watched Arkansas beat top 5 ranked Texas on the basketball court ('08), and get absolutely thrashed on the football field by UT in Austin ('08). Longhorn QB Colt McCoy gave the Hogs a beating last year that my pride still suffers from.

I also have another reason now to loath UT - my degree from Texas Tech also puts me on the other side of UT support each year when the Red Raiders face the Horns during Big 12 conference games. I saw what perhaps could be the greatest play I'll ever witness in sports last year when Tech wide receiver Michael Crabtree caught a touchdown pass with :01 left in the game to lift the Red Raiders over then No. 1 Texas. That year, Texas, led by McCoy, was heavily favored to make it to the national championship game, but one Crabtree touchdown took their hopes of a BCS title away.

This year, you rarely saw any sports page or website that didn't mention something about Horns QB Colt McCoy. He was a household name. A small town kid that liked to hunt and fish and go on mission trip, and who happened to be one of the greatest sports stories in America. He would win nearly every honor in college football during his senior season, except the Heisman. But, the kid from little Jim Ned High School (near Abilene) was obviously more interested in winning the national title.

Horns haters loved to hate this guy. He was the golden boy. Always well spoken and a great Christian man. People (except all UT fans - even those with actual degrees from UT) wanted him to fail. Our society loves to see the good guy fall from grace. But this is one guy who wouldn't.

Until this year, I was in the same boat. But, I didn't have a good reason not to like him, other than the fact he was a Longhorn. Another golden boy, Jordan Shipley, McCoy's righthand man and all-time Longhorn leading receiver, actually played high school football as a freshman in Rotan where his dad was the coach (and also where Byron is from). Jordan was even at Byron's bachelor party this year.


So here are two small town kids from Texas, who just happened to become big time college football players. Both are good Christian guys who have exhibited unbelievable sportsmanship and character in an environment that is now all about egos and undefeated seasons. How could you root against these guys?

After putting my loathing aside, and attempting to be reasonable, I decided it would be OK for me to cheer for these guys to win a national championship.

Five years ago on the same field in Pasadena, Cal., Vince Young led UT from behind to beat the might Trojans of USC. McCoy was a freshman on the sideline. Young told him, "One day you'll be here."

Last night, Texas appeared to be poised to win the title until the first series of the game for Texas. Colt McCoy took a blow to his throwing arm after just a couple plays that put him out of the game. I was sick for the guy. He'd finally made it this far, and now he wouldn't get his chance to lead his team to victory.

Perhaps the biggest victory of all last night, despite the Horns' loss, was McCoy's post-game interview. The guy had his greatest dream taken from him, yet I've never witnessed such grace and character in an athlete.

I hope every little kid who ever wants to play sports was watching his interview last night. He's a great example to all of us, and a man after God's own heart.

Please watch the interview.

Brrrrr!

I'm a big nerd and I like to write about the weather.

It's interesting. It changes so quickly out here, and always gives us something to talk about.

Right now, it's beautiful outside - springtime conditions. 65 degrees. Sunny. Light wind. Gorgeous.

Also at this time, there is a *special weather statement* on Weather.com that says by 3am tonight, temperatures will be in the teens. Wind chills. Frost bite. Misery.

The swing of the weather pendulum in West Texas never ceases to amaze me.

White Christmas in the Ozarks

Once in a blue moon we get a white Christmas. A winter storm dumped snow on our house in Lubbock and all the way to Arkansas, which is where we spent Christmas.

Byron got his first taste of sledding on the West Farm on Christmas day. The snow was a very powdery, dry snow, and the windchill on Christmas day was in the teens. But, we went sledding anyway.

Riley, Megan and Karen joined us outdoors in the Christmas day winter wonderland, despite the miserable wind.

When I was in high school, we used to get big snows all the time. I built a sled (aka, the Ultimate Toboggan) out of our neighbor's old above-ground swimming pool and a plastic chicken crate. Add a rope and a four-wheeler and you've got one awesome sledding experience.


However, when the snow is powdery and the wind is blowing, riding the Ultimate Toboggan can result in the sledder eating a lot of snow and freezing their face off.

Karen kept to the traditional run-and-jump sledding method...


...while Byron used the Clark Griswold method.


After about an hour, and mild cases of facial frostbite, we called it a day and retreated inside for some wassail.

Christmas Duds

This will be the first Christmas that Byron and I can claim to be full-fledged, married adults. Before this year, we got away with never buying Christmas trees, ornaments, or our own stockings in our single lives.

So, this year it was time to bring out the Christmas duds. Thanks to a couple leftover Pottery Barn gift cards from the wedding, and a nice holiday sale at Hobby Lobby, our home took on a cheerful holiday look for our first official Christmas as the Kennedys.

We also went out on a limb and sprang for the LED lights for the house this year.

I opted out for a tree skirt, because I was amazed at how pricey they are. I rarely wear skirts, so why would I want to spend $80-$100 on one for the tree?