Chicken fried? No, Turkey fried!

This year Matt and I spent Thanksgiving at my old stomping grounds, the Lynn home. Yet, we wanted to bring a little Shelby flare to the festivities. So we decided to deep fry a turkey, a Shelby tradition. Matt's older brother Kreg went to Texas on his mission, and apparently this is big down there. He's the one that started this little tradition and we're all grateful for it. If you've never had a deep fried turkey your missing out! So yummy! We thought we would show you the most important steps in this amazing process. Here they are. Enjoy!

Set up your burner.

Get supplies out and ready

Try to look as manly as possible.

Drop in your bird.

Make sure you have a vicious guard dog to protect your bird. Thanks, Tommy.

As you wait, make one of the boys snap a picture of you so your friends know you were really there.

Find a trustworthy, buff, pan holder. You don't want someone that will drop it!

Have your excited little bro in the background to make him feel involved. Oh, and don't tell him your family found him under a rock when he was baby and decided to keep him. Might hurt his feelings.

Continue to look as manly as possible, even though you're wearing oven mitts.

Get one last picture of yourself with the bird before you start cutting, only to remember you don't know how to cut, so your father-in-law takes over because everyone is ready to eat.

The Night of Twilight

The movie Twilight opened last weekend so my sisters, mom, and I decided to throw a Twilight Party, then go to the Midnight release! Makes us seem a bit obsessed... but we had a great time! I was amazed by the turnout of the party (about 20-25) but then again it was a Twilight party, and who wouldn't want to come to that! We had some yummy food and a fun battle of Twilight Jeopardy. This is where I realized I know a lot more about the book than I should. Here are some pictures from the night.

House/Living Room decorated for the festivities

Again...

Entertainment "Twilight" Issues

Twilight Jeopardy

People eating yummy grub

Sharing Twilight thoughts...

Playing Jeopardy

Don't we just look like Twilight fans?

At the Midnight release. The line wrapped around the building. Crazy.

Overall, I thought the movie was entertaining. Was it as good as the book? Not even close! It's hard taking a 500 + page book and making it a 2 hour movie on a limited budget. Yet, as a fan, I was pleased and am planning on seeing it again. Thanks to everyone that came to the party! We'll do it again when "New Moon," comes out. :)

Mini Makeover Part 1

After we moved into our house we tackled a few mini projects. Here is our first project... painting the master bedroom. It's always a bit scary when picking out paint because you know it always looks completely different on the wall than the little square sample. Luckily, ours turned out great! Well...in our opinion. Don't tell us if you hate it. :)

Before

(dark green...blah)

Primed

After
("Feather Gray" from Benjamin Moore Paints)

Stay tuned for more updates!

Update/Lady Vols/Man to Man “D”

I know it’s been a while since our last post, but I have a really good excuse. We are officially in debt and moved into our house!! Yea! This also means we haven’t switched our internet over. So there’s our excuse. We will have it set up next week some time, and by then hopefully the house will be a bit more organized so I can get a couple pictures up. Don’t hold me to that though, the place is a mess!

Until then, while I’m at work, I have a question…

At work, I do the CAD (Computer Aided Design) work, so I’m considered a “CAD Draftsman.” I even have that under my name in my email signature. Yet, some people have mentioned that I should change it to CAD DraftsWOMAN. Do you think I should change it?? I mean, I’m all about equal rights or whatever (I even did reports on Title IX in school), but sometimes I wonder if women change names or titles of things just to make a statement. Like in Legally Blonde when that girl wants to change “Semester” to “Ovester.” Ha! Or why do sports teams need to specify that it’s a Woman’s team, like the Tennessee Lady Vols. It’s not like they say the Tennessee Man Vols. Some things I would just not change. For example, I wouldn’t say, “Hey Coach, what defense are we in?? Woman to woman?” What?!? So I’m undecided on this issue. Am I a CAD Draftsman or a CAD Draftswoman?

THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH!!!!

Yes, I'm talking about Disneyland, and yes, it's still the happiest place ever! I have been there quite a few times, growing up in California and all, but Matt has only gone one previous time when he was young and can't even remember it. We went on a perfect day (cloudy, during the school year, on a week day) that wasn't too crowded which allowed us to go on all the best rides a few times.

After a long debate, and some hard thinking, we came up with our list of best rides:

1) Screaming California (California Adventure)

2) Indiana Jones (Disneyland)

3) Hollywood Hotel Tower (C.A.)

4) Soaring Over California (C.A.)

5) Space Mountain (D)

Actually, if you scrambled all these, the list would still probably work for us.

Here are some pics from the day.

Our Niece Kalle (like Halle Berry, but Kalle) loves Belle and the "doggy" show, so we snapped pics of the REAL Belle and Q. Devil (not going to try to spell that one).

This is the scary Hollywood Hotel Tower. Super scary, but super fun!! See the open windows...?

That's where the elevator would open right before it dropped. AHH!!

Waiting in the massive (or non existent) line of the Indiana Jones ride.

In front of California Adventure...

(click on for larger view)

And last but not least, words of advise from Indiana himself!

Property Virgins

So... we bought a house.
Who does that?
Do we think we're adults or something?
Anyway, we have room for those that need a place to stay,
passing through on your way to...umm...Canada?


This is us trying to figure out what we just did.

Olympic Yearbook Awards

The Kanye West Award: Usain Bolt

He's good, and he knows it.

Cutie Ba-tootie Award: Shawn Johnson

Can you find a cuter person in the Olympics?? I think not. Did anyone else think she was the best female gymnast? I mean Lukin is good, there's no doubt about that. But I felt Shawn was by far the best in everything. I love how happy and excited she looked when she found out she won the gold on beam. Glad she finally won that gold! Totally deserved it.

USA MVP: Jason Lezak

I know Phelps is insane and a freak of nature cuz he's crazy good, but honestly... if it weren't for this guy's amazing last 50-meter swim in the Men's 4 x 100 Relay, we would be talking about how Phelps almost became the greatest olympian ever.

In need of Anger Management: Angel Valodia Matos, Cuban Taekwondo Fighter

The fighter kicked the referee square in the face in protest at being disqualified during his bronze-medal match. Lay off the roids dude!

Hot Bods Award: Misty May-Treanor & Kerri Walsh

Sure there are numerous athletes that could easily be selected for this catagory. I mean, they're all athletes, and all ripped. Yet these ladies wore white bathing suits, while playing volleyball, in the rain! So hands down, they get this award.

Can you guess???

Yes, Most Likely to Have Fake ID's: Chinese Gymnastics

This has been a little overdone in the media so i'm going to let it go. Stinkin' 13 year olds!

Best Injury: That weight lifting dude that dislocated his elbow. Eww!!

No picture on this one. I don't want your upchuck reflex to ruin your keyboard. You can thank us later.

The Class Act Award: USA Men's Basketball

I've been really impressed with the way the Men's team has acted this Olympics. They played like the greatest team in the world...which they are, and truly seem humbled and honored to be representing their country. I'm not even a big Kobe fan, but I respect the way he has handled himself on the court and in interviews. Plus, I love how Lebron and Kobe were at the swimming meet cheering on the men's relay team and Phelps. Ha! That was great.

.

Heartbreak Award: Lolo Jones

I'm about to cry thinking about it. It honestly pains me to try and come up with something to write. Read about it here.

MR. OLYMPIAN: Mr. Michael Phelps

If you're not sure why he wins this one, then we can no longer be friends.

Dark or Light??

As you can see above, I've posted two pictures of Bamboo flooring. One is dark, and one is light. I really like both! A lot! We are house hunting right now, and most likely will put in hardwood flooring. I want to get some opinions. Let me know what looks better to you.

(FYI, it will be flooring in the living room/kitchen. We like white cabinets with dark countertops and a light color for the walls with white trim. I thought more info may help in your decision making. ;o) )

OME!

A true fan will understand the title of this post. Dec. 12!!! Mark your calenders!

Does Kenny Chesney look like George Costanza?

Fellow friends and neighbors...
A while back Matt tried to convince me that Kenny Chesney looks like Jason Alexander from Seinfeld. My first reaction was to ask if he was on crack. But then he showed me these two pictures (as seen above) and I couldn't help but agree with him a tad. I would have never made the connection if it weren't for him. Usually I see Kenny in his Cowboy hat, cutoff t-shirt, and tight, tight like a tiger (<-Say with a Goldmember accent), jeans. How does he get in those? Anyway, I want to get your opinion. So my question of the week (should I start having this on a consistent basis??...I'll think about it.) is does Kenny Chesney look like George Costanza??

Feed The Obsession!

(This is a email I sent out to our ward book club. I thought it was pretty good, so I'm going to post it here. Enjoy!)

My name is Courtney Shelby, and I am a Twilight addict. Yes, I am willing to admit my crazy obsession. Yet, you know what I say… give into it! If you periodically throughout the day wonder about our beloved Bedward (or maybe you’re more of a Jalice or Rosamette fan) then I have the perfect Twilight fix for you. I’ve put together my Top 5 Twilight Saga websites.

1) Stephenie Meyer’s Personal Website:
The best way to get accurate information is to go straight to the source. Stephenie is so open with her fan base I feel as if she is one of my good buddies. There’s a plethora of info on her site. She answers frequently asked questions, gives info on upcoming projects, has playlists for each book, etc… I would also suggest youtubing her (make sure you get the spelling right in her name) and listening to some interviews. She’s actually really funny.

2)The Twilight Lexicon
This site has been here from the beginning, before the Twilight craze began. It is the only fan site that is Stephenie Meyer endorsed. Don’t let the cheesy graphics fool you. I initially was turned off by the graphics on my first trip over to the lexicon, but later realized through other message boards and twilight articles that this is the mother site of Twilight sites. From the home page click on the News Blog link and that page will give you all sorts of Twilight goodness! One of my favorite areas on the site is Personal Correspondence. This is found on the News Blog, on the far right, under The Lexicon (or you can just click on the link). Here, Stephenie answers many of the frequently asked questions about Twiight.

3)Twilight Series Theories!
I love this site! This is where you can find the podcast. This site is great because like the Lexicon it gives you all the news updates on everything Twilight. But what I really like about it is all their discussions are about theories you may have about the books. Especially theories you may have about what is going to happen in the fourth book. Plus, I think this site is well organized and easy to find what you’re looking for. You can also find the podcast on iTunes. Just search for Twilight Series Theories and is should pop up. Two sisters from Texas do the podcast and they’re really funny. Plus they are older and have kids, which is nice, so it’s not all about how Edward is SOOO hot!!

4)Twilight Moms aka TM’s

I’m just going to let you click on this site and read their description of the site because it is hilarious and my description wouldn’t do it justice. Enjoy!

5) The Twilight Guy!
This site isn’t necessarily informative, it’s more for a good laugh. I love all the photo shop this kid does with his face. So funny!