The Cordle Fam

We all made it back to Newnan yesterday for the evening. While there, Anna performed her first real haircut. Naturally, videos were in order.

Anna Cuts Hair, pt 1

Anna Cuts Hair, pt 2

Anna Cuts Hair, pt 3

Hey Yall! I am so excited right now for some friends of mine that have been through alot. You have got to read their story. But long story short they are adopting a little girl from China. They have been in China for a little over a week now and they get her tonight at 1:00 am our time! AHHHHH!! It is so exciting. While in China she has been blogging about everything. Go check out her Blog, you will fall in Love!

http://tochinaforlily.blogspot.com

I know I’m a few weeks late for the whole New Year’s resolution thing, but I wanted to try and set out a few goals for the upcoming year. I made a pretty extensive list, and then began looking for a theme. So, after taking a good look and thinking about it for a while, I decided to create a mission statement of sorts. My production crew at work did this last Fall, and it’s worked out really well.

I’m usually pretty good at mismanaging my time, so my personal mission statement mainly deals with how I should be spending it…

Times past exist only in memories, therefore I will strive to create as many memorable moments as I can by doing things to grow myself, my future, my relationships, & my faith.

What do you think? I’d love to hear about some of your personal mission statements…and if you don’t yet have one, I’d like to challenge you to create one and share it with us! Love y’all.

Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.

Carl Sandburg

This post is a little late but I feel that it is important for everyone to see the talent that The Cordle Fam has. After we left Louisiana we went to Jackson. We went to hang out with the Garlingtons. We played Rock Band! Who knew that we had this much talent!

Has it already been 2 weeks? Well…let’s see here. After Christmas, the fam drove to Biloxi to dad’s work condo. We spent the night there before driving the rest of the way to Louisiana to visit mom’s side of the family. Friday night was pretty chill…we wandered around a couple of Wal-Mart parking lots, hit up a few Old Navy’s, and I bought a shirt like Jeff’s* at the Polo Outlet. We also ate at the semi-famous Blow Fly Inn in Gulfport. I just wish they’d blown a few more seasonings on my etouffee.

Anyway, I fell asleep on the couch (thanks girls) after a few episodes of House.
We got up bright & early Saturday morning and headed West. We got to stop by cousin Carrie (who wins our “Commenter of the Month” award, btw) & George’s new house under construction. It’s pretty exciting for them these days…it’s all framed up & they just got a roof!

A few hours later, we were at Aunt Vickie & Uncle Darvin’s house. It was really great because their whole family was there. It’s been way too long since we were all together, and it was awesome to be able to catch up. Marianne even got some great family pictures of everybody.

Oh, and Goob got to work on her rusty driving skills with the grand-cousins. I’m pretty sure this would be a violation of her parole if the law found out. Even if Kayla is the one doing the steering, it’s the pedal foot that got her in trouble!

* And speaking of Goob…she’s been hiding something from you. You’ll have to ask her about this “Jeff” guy.

Merry Christmas everybody! Although this had potential to be a sad occasion (…the last time we’ll celebrate in this house & all…), it turned into one of the best Christmases ever. This year it was easy to see that we don’t need any more “stuff”, and we were able to really focus on having a great time with the fam & celebrating the real reason for the holiday.

Yesterday we had a great brunch with the Tarpley family. It was sad the Garlington’s weren’t there, but we’ll get to see them this weekend. After lunch we visited an old neighbor, our 1st grade teacher, and some other friends. Later, we went to First Baptist’s Christmas Eve Service like we do every year. There are always some amazing singers, and this year was no different.

Once we got home, Mom assigned us the task of making this really good looking “Black Bottom Pecan Cheesecake Pie”. Due to a minor mathematical miscalculation it ended up more like a pudding, so we’ll just change its name & move on.

We then watched my personal favorite holiday movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life”. Such a good movie…I catch something new every time we see it.

This morning we woke up, exchanged some gifts and had a devotion. We went to the Tarpley’s to see what Santa brought the 3 mini Tarpleys. Hung out with them for a while, then made our way up to Turner Field to volunteer for the first time ever with Hosea Feed the Hungry. We’d never really done anything like that before, so it was a great experience. I think we’re going to do something similar every year from now on. They gave us a great “beginner” job…we were in charge of manning the ‘volunteer gate’ & getting all the volunteers to sign a “don’t sue the Braves” waiver.

It really is amazing how many people they serve. We never got to see the meals they were serving, but I do know that almost every homeless person left with their very own 2-pack of whole cheesecakes & Monster energy drinks. So, if you’re planning on wandering the streets of Atlanta tonight, beware the hyper homeless.

Anyway, can’t wait to make our way over to Louisiana to see the Welch’s this weekend. Hope y’all’s Christmas was amazing!

After many requests, Mom wanted me to post this recipe from our Cordle Family Christmas last weekend. It originated from Shannon Garlington…thanks Lucy!

• 1 cup Vegetable Oil
• 1 cup Flour
• 3 cups Chopped Onion
• 1.5 cups Celery
• 1.5 cups Green Pepper
• 2 cloves Garlic (minced)
• 1-2 cooked Chickens
• 5-10 Bay Leaves
• Cajun Spices
• Smoked Sausage (or meat of your choice…andouille or beef sausage works best)

Boil chicken in a large pot with 1 cup of the chopped onion, bay leaves, and cajun spices. Set aside to cool, then pull chicken.

Make roux by stirring flour and oil over medium heat until the color of chocolate syrup. Lower heat as the roux gets dark…stir continuously. This should take about 30 minutes. Add onions, garlic and celery and simmer over low heat about 10 minutes.

Add chicken broth 1 cup at a time and stir until smooth enough to pour all the broth in. Add couked meats of your choice and season to tase with Tony’s, hot sauce, etc. Simmer for a while.

A few notes: Lucy uses a rotisserie chicken from the grocery & 2 large cans of chicken broth. Debone chicken & add after broth. I also add all 3 c. onions after roux is cooked.

Enjoy!

Yesterday was the big annual Cordle Christmas. We had a pretty good crowd, despite the lack of a few of our cousins. Uncle Jimmy took the cake with the tackiest attire by robbing his Christmas tree of it’s skirt.

Everybody got really into the whole “Tacky Christmas” thing and we had a lot of fun. After a really good lunch of Gumbo & Fruit Soup we opened our White Elephant gifts Dirty Santa style. Mom got the mosquito head net she’d always wanted (“You could steal bees with that thing!” -Nee Nee) and Anna scored some sweet doilies.

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