Finding the Funny

Online Shopping Deals

Monday, January 23, 2012 By Sherra 11 Comments

I forgot one present for PhilBillPaul for Christmas.

He buys reading glasses in bulk at the Dollar Store so he doesn’t feel bad when he loses them or breaks them. Which is often.

I tire of them being all over the house and never in the room he needs them.

We also all laugh as he pats his head and then pats his shirt pocket checking for glasses.

My friend Melodi recommended some cool reading glasses she had purchased for her husband.

They are called CliCs.

I love a good invention. You wear them around your neck.

Lots of cool people wear them. Super important to PhilBillPaul.

Okay, maybe not.

They have a strong magnetic closure at the bridge. Very cool.

Thanks Melodi for great product recommendation!

I finally got online to order them a few weeks ago.

Amazon has some great reviews on the glasses.

Only thing is – I want free shipping whenever possible. Otherwise I don’t feel like I’ve saved money not driving to the store.

I was also searching for a wire basket to attach to the wall next to my desk so I could put file folders in it. The bargain shopper in me wanted it to be less expensive than several I found online specifically for file folders. I also wanted it to be white because my cabinets are white.

Perfect shopping opportunity for me to combine two purchases for free shipping on Amazon.

I would order PhilBillPaul’s new, late Christmas gift and my wire basket.

After searching wire baskets on Amazon for way too long for anything to qualify as a bargain since the time I spent looking canceled out any savings…

I might have been a little tired and only paid attention to the price and dimensions of the basket and not much else.

When the box arrived, The Grunter opened it with my permission as I fully admitted I couldn’t even remember what I ordered.

He looked down and said, “Okay, momma this is going to take some explaining…”

Without missing a beat, I said,

“You know I’m a planner.”

“When I need a walker, I know I’ll want a basket for it.”

And it was a good deal.”

Truly, I don’t recall anything about it being a wire basket for a walker.

In my defense, the picture on Amazon is not the picture on the box.

PhilBillPaul really likes his new CliC glasses.

Reading glasses and a walker basket. Are we showing our age?

What have you bought online lately?

Filed Under: Finding the Funny

A Few of My Favorite Things

Tuesday, January 3, 2012 By Sherra 2 Comments

I’m pretty sure I blinked and December was over.

It was certainly not my intent to blog just one puny time in December.

We’re all fine, fine, fine here in Georgia.

When I don’t blog it does not necessarily mean that bad things are happening at the Humpfreeze house or I have taken extra medication to get through the holidays.

In fact, December was medication-free and it was a very good month! It just went by entirely too fast.

I’d like to tell you it is because I’m busier than the rest of the universe. Especially in December.

But that would start my new year off with a big lie.

Instead, I decided to share a few of my favorite things from our Humpfreeze holidays where all six of us gathered in our house together for almost the whole month and we have all lived to tell about it.

For those of you who might not remember, that means 2 adults, 3 semi-adults (the “twenties” people) and one tween all lived under one roof.

At. The. Same. Time.

We squeezed in the baking frenzy for the teachers and grandmas. PhilBillPaul made 3 kinds of fudge, pecans and pretzels. Then I got busy with bread and cookies. Scary Baby helped wrap and organize her 5 teacher gifts.

Guess we forgot to take pictures of the cute packaging and gift tags this year.

Plus random photo of small Charlie Brown-like blue Christmas tree in Scary Baby bedroom. She loves it.

And one darling twin and a friend (hi Rowe!) helped with the packaging until 2:00 a.m.

Perhaps she helped (for the first time ever) because she wanted to send a giant care package to a soldier friend in Afghanistan.

That’s a pretty good ulterior motive in my book and I appreciated their help!

I traveled at the beginning of the month and when I came home, Scary Baby had done a superb job of trimming the tree that she and PhilBillPaul picked out at Costco from the Marines selling trees there this year.

It’s not Christmas until we take at least a few of the kids to Waffle House. We like to reminisce about the year we drove to Illinois for Christmas and Waffle House was the only place open so we had to eat there 3 times in 24 hours with three toddlers in tow. Super fun!

On Christmas Eve we stuck to our regular traditions…

A special thank you to Mr. Humpfreeze who took it upon himself to get almost everything ready for fondue. I only had to make the breakfast casserole and cheesy potatoes for the next morning.

Never happened before. Very nice. Think it should be a new tradition!

Opening one gift on Christmas Eve

Please take note of how dressed up my darling children get for Christmas Eve. It appears some of them are in pajamas opening pajamas.

They are always *shocked* that the gift is new pajamas. Correction – it is fuzzy sleep pants and t-shirts that don’t match because wearing a matching set of pajamas is very uncool.

We played a few games.

Then another darling twin actually helped me wrap. And announced,

“I’m tired of wrapping.”

To which I replied,

“Imagine that I’ve been doing this all by myself for the 4 of you for 20+ years.”

I liked the help. Another new tradition to add for next year.

Christmas Morning

Bad cell phone picture of sweet daughters keeping warm and sleeping a little more with their daddy while trying to convince Everett to get up.

This almost became our first Christmas where we weren’t all together on Christmas morning because Everett had to work at 7:00 a.m. Luckily, his shift changed at the last minute so he came down in his uniform and opened his gifts.

Our pumpkin has worked on Christmas day for the last six years. Remember to thank those people who go to work so you can see a movie or get gas on Christmas day.

My favorite Christmas gift…

My favorite Christmas gift I gave Scary Baby…

I ordered this print after seeing it many months ago online and being on a wait list for the next printing. I think it should follow her all the way to her college dorm room to remind her how much we love her.

During the holiday break, the darling twins took their darling little sister ice skating. Tiny cell phone picture not available.

PhilBillPaul and I also took Scary Baby and a friend to a movie.

War Horse ~ worth seeing but…the horses are quite large when you are sitting in the SECOND ROW of a very crowded, small theater.

This picture taken with my cell phone really doesn’t do justice to the view. No extra charge for neck strain. Or the bonus 4 year-old who joins your family to ~~watch the movie with you~~ talk to you during the movie. Repeatedly. His family didn’t seem to mind him walking down the row as he hopped from seat to seat.

This future blog topic on movie etiquette will be followed by a discussion on why I’ve become a recluse and no longer engage in public outings in small places and why people bring young children to 2-1/2 hour movies they are not suited for.

New Year’s Eve

Ours was wild.

Or not.

The darling twins went up to North Georgia for their own party. Everett and 3 friends came to hang out after a movie.

We went to the store because I declared “no more cooking!”

Frozen cream puffs for Scary Baby – her personal favorite. Store bought cookies and cupcakes. Leftover candy and fudge. Paper plates and plastic silverware. Frozen pigs in a blanket. Tablecloth? Nah, we were washing the sheet we had used at Christmas. Don’t judge.

Potato chips, dip, cheese, crackers – super fancy.

Scary Baby couldn’t wait to open the sparkling grape juice.

She washed a champagne flute she found that I had purchased at Target years ago. Clearance price tag on it said .62¢

We squeezed in a game of Bananagrams.

And toasted in the new year…

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and spent it with your favorite people…

More fun stuff to share but first, I have to try to figure out a manageable blog schedule for 2012.

Until then, please do tell how you spent the holidays and what you’re looking forward to in the new year!

Filed Under: Finding the Funny, Food, Moments, Raves, Tweens, Twenties

DIY Project #7214 ~ Transferring Home Movies to DVD

Monday, December 12, 2011 By Sherra 4 Comments

It has been the year of DIY at the Humpfreeze house.

After the DIY kitchen remodel, I was all over another DIY project.

Not.

Should I mention now that the kitchen is still not done?

Since I can’t even seem to blog once a week, I’m pretty sure that I shouldn’t try to paint the kitchen.

Instead, December has crept up on me along with our baking frenzy weekend. More on that later.

Back to transferring our home movies…

Darling twin Rachel was suppose to transfer all of our Sony 8mm tapes and VHS tapes to DVD for me about four or five years ago. I know that the tapes deteriorate over time and using DVD media would extend the life of our home movies.

I said it would be the best Christmas gift. Ever.

Somehow my friend Nancy in California got ahead of me in the line and she mailed all her videotapes to Rachel and she got hers transferred. I think it was the cash payment vs. gift for mom that got her better service.

I waited.

And waited.

And then they broke the camcorder we bought to do the transfer.

Sadly, we couldn’t even watch the tapes because we had no working Sony camcorder.

Sony is not my friend.

Sony tapes only work in Sony equipment. It’s an endless, expensive loop of frustration.

After much research with my best friend, Google, I found a Sony DVD recorder that I could transfer all of our 8mm tapes to DVD.

Sweet.

Even sweeter, I found a refurbished model for the bargain price of $39.99 at Micro Center so we drove to Marietta to buy it. Which increased the price a wee bit because of gas prices but that’s just how much we don’t like to pay retail.

But don’t forget I still had to buy a Sony 8mm camcorder since ours didn’t work and their tapes are exclusive to their equipment.

The same weekend I found a used camcorder on ebay right here in Sugar Hill which is very near where we live. The nice seller let us come pick it up at his house after I won the auction at $70.00. I still saved quite a bit since the recorder AND camcorder were less than the retail price of the recorder which is $199.99.

It seems the stars were aligned for me to start this massive project.

Except you can’t duplicate the actual DVDs because they are still encoded with Sony blah-blah-blah.

I wanted to make copies of special tapes for the kids. Because I’m sure they will cherish them. When I’m dead.

This was a time-intensive DIY project. I ran the machine pretty much daily for about two weeks. I made duplicate copies of the tapes through the Sony recorder of some major events but I only have one copy of most.

It was all worth it. Absolutely precious video of their teeny tiny days when they were so stinkin’ cute. I can hardly watch them without welling up with emotion.

Because they make me cry now for entirely different reasons.

Sigh.

Priceless video of my dad, their Grandad Jimbo with them. I did make extra copies of that VHS tape that PhilBillPaul had made for me the year after he died.

So glad I finally took the time for this DIY home movie transfer to DVD. 62 DVDs later, I can mark that off my to-do list.

And now we can watch some of them during Christmas when everyone is home.

Next, I need to figure out how to share a few little clips here on the blog. DIY video editing on my list for 2012.

I know that I should put them in a safety deposit box before the four little piglets touch them, break them or lose them.

Do you have family movies? Are you able to watch them?

Filed Under: Finding the Funny, Milestones

Back From North Carolina

Monday, November 28, 2011 By Sherra 3 Comments

I’d like to tell you we were gone for two weeks without internet since that’s how long it’s been since I’ve blogged.

But that would be a lie.

I guess it took me a week to prepare to go to North Carolina.

Or not.

Mostly, November has flown by in a blur.

Granny flew in from Texas the week before Thanksgiving and we headed to a cabin on the Saturday before Thanksgiving.

Here’s a pictorial from our week in Murphy, North Carolina…

Though not very high up in the mountains, the cabin was off the beaten path and lovely.

We were in a small cabin “neighborhood” of 17 cabins or chalets. Some people refer to them as luxury cabins or homes. I guess this is because some people’s definition of a cabin is a cement floor and an outhouse down the mountain by the creek where you draw some ice cold water to bathe in.

We have personally grown fond of a few more amenities and I’m not too proud to admit that. I’m all about running water, electricity and leather furniture.

We arrived in shifts on different days since the college kids still had classes and two of them had to work. I heard too late that the basement bedroom had the best bed.

The Grunter and I arrived on Sunday and Scary Baby immediately challenged us to a game of pool. She and Granny and PhilBillPaul had already been shopping in town which is where she scored the sock monkey hat that she did not take off during the entire week. (Except to shower – I confirmed this.)

The dog boys were very excited to accompany us on vacation and enjoyed many walks up and down some rolling hills. It was excellent physical therapy for Dudley.

The darling twins arrived next and the dogs are always excited to see them.

The dogs haven’t had this much attention in a very long time.

We also ventured out for some scenic driving and Scary Baby was excited to see ~~wildlife~~ a chicken from our car.

It got more exciting when she squealed, “Are those cows loose in the road up there?”

Yes. The cows were obviously loose as I jumped out to snap photos just like city slickers do when they see cows in the road.

The Grunter said he didn’t want to go on a 4 hour scenic car ride. This is what he and his sister were doing just before the cow sighting.

Luckily, they were not asleep when we drove to Blue Ridge, Georgia in search of this cupcake shop.

Minutes before they closed, we snagged some of their very last cupcakes to bring back to the cabin. Four chocolate lava fudge (one might be missing), one apple caramel and one pecan pie cupcake. The Sweet Shoppe lived up to its name.

Of course we played euchre every single day. PhilBillPaul gets a little obsessed with it.

Sabu was there to help him. Not that he needs it because he is the Euchre King.

Dudley was not left out.

Side note: Notice Wizzy’s cell phone. It was almost a technology-free holiday. NO internet but if they stood in certain places they could still text and sometimes make calls.

Rachel bought a puzzle and introduced Scary Baby to her new obsession which is gluing the puzzle together after they complete it.

All in all, it was a good week away and in spite of some very loud bickering and competitive game playing, I do love when we are all together and I see the college kids becoming semi-adults.

When we are not fighting and talking ugly to one another, we laugh a lot.

I choose to remember the laughing.

Black Friday at Walmart which was really at 10:00 pm on Thursday was another adventure for the memory book. Sorry, no photos and my bruise is almost gone from some really aggressive pillow grabbing for Elizabeth while she scored a king-sized memory foam mattress top for us.

My favorite photo from the week…

Look, she took the sock monkey hat off in this one unstaged photo that PhilBillPaul captured.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving together. Thanks Granny, for enduring the Georgia Humpfreeze clan and spending time with us!

How did you spend your Thanksgiving? I hope you all spent time with the ones you love…

P.S. Should you ever want to explore Murphy, North Carolina, we’ve got the beat on a very affordable cabin and Granny gets a referral so just ask me for the info!

Filed Under: Finding the Funny, Moments, Raves, Tweens, Twenties

Typo Tuesday ~ Google Peak

Tuesday, November 8, 2011 By Sherra 6 Comments

I had to bring it back.

I know, I know. Some of you love Typo Tuesday and others do not understand my sick fascination with typos that I find. I really can’t help it ~ it’s a gift.

Or a curse.

Whatever.

I really love my friend Google and consult with him daily. (I think Google is male?) I consider Google to be one of my smartest friends.

This screenshot came from Google Docs which is just one of the many services Google offers. If you haven’t used it yet, try it! Super easy and free. What’s not to love?

I was a little surprised that my friend Google doesn’t have a personal proofreader to catch things like this.

The screenshot was from last week so maybe they’ve fixed it by now. I hope so.

If not, they could hire me to proofread everything they do. They could send it all to me via Google Docs and I can proofread from home. That would be my dream job!

I’ll let you know if they call me…

Filed Under: Finding the Funny, Rants

A Perfect Saturday

Monday, November 7, 2011 By Sherra 2 Comments

We had a quiet weekend at home.

WHAT?

Shhh.

Yes, it’s really true. A quiet weekend at home.

Such a rare and strange thing for us.

Saturday was pretty much a perfect day.

I almost forgot what we were suppose to do.

Luckily, I remembered…

Sleep in.
Not run errands.
Not drive anyone anywhere.
Make omelettes for lunch.
Have The Grunter join us at lunch after he worked an early shift
Bake chocolate chip cookies.
Make little bags of cookies for the college girls.
Watch Amazing Race with Scary Baby.
Wait for the soldier daughters to be released from their weekend drill.
Have dinner with darling daughters and a few of their college friends.

They actually planned this and invited us to dine with them.

Watch PhilBillPaul traumatize his darling Roger Leroy by playing a home movie for her friends.

It is a highlight tape of some of her best comedy from her middle school years that Scary Baby had enjoyed watching a few weeks ago.

Someday I’m sure she will let me post a portion of the video here on the blog.

I don’t think she’s ready for that yet.

This is the 2nd time he has done this.

The first time her brother had to hold her down.

The second time she and PhilBillPaul wrestled to the floor. Then her friend Ashleigh sat on her so everyone could watch the video.

I think everyone will agree she is very strong.

And funny.

Please come home again to visit – we really do love you, Rachel.

Dad says he is sorry.

Filed Under: Finding the Funny, Food, Moments, Tweens, Twenties

Chocolate Chip Cookie Throwdown

Thursday, November 3, 2011 By Sherra 4 Comments

We have loved our Chocolate Chip Malted Cookie recipe that we’ve been making for years and years taken from Taste of Home.

But I’ve stopped using Crisco almost completely and that recipe calls for butter-flavored Crisco. I banned margarine from the house about 5 years ago. It’s all butter in my baking now. Look at these healthy strides I’m making.

Let’s discuss the evils of white sugar another time, okay? I want to stay focused. This is about our new favorite cookie.

The recipe inspiration is from one that was seen around blogland in several places and you can check out the original recipe on The New York Times from 2008.

I’ve made them 3 times now and with some personal tweaking, they are now at the top of our favorites list!

The things we think elevate these to our new favorites:

Two kinds of flour ~ cake flour and bread flour
Coarse salt
Creaming the butter and sugar for 5 minutes
Three kinds of chocolate chips
Refrigerate dough over night before baking
Sprinkling with sea salt before baking

Scary Baby graciously allowed me to photograph her first cookie tasting.

Wizzy wasn’t quite as dramatic.

We love, love, love these cookies. They are fat and chewy and lightly crisp at the edges. The texture is exactly what I want in a cookie and I think the combination of two flours and refrigerating overnight are the keys to this perfect cookie!

Triple Chocolate Chip Malt Cookies

2 cups minus 2 tablespoons cake flour
1 2/3 cups bread flour
1/2 cup malted milk powder
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
1 1/4 cups unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar (can use light but we like dark)
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups chocolate chips – mix a combination of dark, semi-sweet and milk chocolate chips

Optional add-ins: You can also add in 1 cup of broken pretzel sticks and/or 1 cup of caramel bits which turn them into another delicious cookie!

Mix flours, malted milk powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside. Cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Mix in chocolate chips.

Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours or frozen.*

To bake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Use small cookie scoop (or large if you want giant cookies and bake a few minutes longer) and place on cookie sheet. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more.

Side note: The sea salt is optional. The Grunter and I love it. The others are lukewarm about it. The malted milk powder is also optional but we think it adds another subtle layer of flavor that we love. You decide.

*Frozen Cookie Dough Has Changed My Life

Don’t laugh at that. I have frozen cookie dough for years. Usually at holiday baking frenzy time.

What changed my life about freezing it is to scoop out the cookies and freeze into individual cookie balls first and putting in ziploc freezer bag.

Duh.

Shut up. I’m slow but when I learn something worth sharing, I share!

The prep time is totally worth it. Having bags in the freezer with cookie dough is great for all of us.

Baking just a dozen hot, fresh, homemade cookies after dinner is perfect. Really, is there a bad time to bake a dozen cookies?

Recipe inspiration came from a variety of sources. Look how this blog inspiration circle of life thing works:

My Baking Addiction inspired me to try the New York Times cookies AND led me to…
Goodlife Eats who taught me how to freeze cookie dough the right way and…
Leigh Anne inspired me to add pretzels and caramels to a batch of dough because she was inspired by…
The Diary of Dave’s Wife even though we all used different chocolate chip cookie base recipes.

Let me know if you make them. Or share your recipe if you have one that rivals this one.

These are the ones I put in the college care packages and I didn’t hear any complaints except from my family who squealed “Don’t send them all to other people!”

Which is why I’ve made two more batches.

And now I’m on to my pumpkin obsession…

Filed Under: Finding the Funny, Food, Life Lessons, Tweens, Twenties

Marry Someone Handy

Wednesday, October 26, 2011 By Sherra 6 Comments

Keeping with the marriage theme from Monday (okay it was marriage and eating)…

Here’s some excellent advice I received from Junebug many years ago.

I do feel it is important to document her words here because I want to pass them on to my kids and be sure they don’t get lost in translation over the years.

“IF YOU HAVE TO GET MARRIED, for goodness sake, MARRY SOMEONE HANDY.”

That might be paraphrased a tiny bit.

I’d like a little credit for following that advice when I’ve been known to do the exact opposite of any advice she was doling out for free through the years.

PhilBillPaul is as handy as they come.

I know there are jealous women who only wish their husbands could be half as handy as he is. They have asked to hire him. I know I could rent him out.

But who really wants a grouchy handy man? Seriously, he’s not super nice when he gets dirty, especially if he has to work on electrical or plumbing. He would rather clean his fish tank. Or look on craigslist for girlfriend motorcycle parts.

Being handy ruins his weekends.

All this and I will confess right now, I’m glad I’m not a guy.

Keep in mind I run a pretty tight ship as household manager. I am excellent at delegating. High on my list of accomplishments is teaching four children life skills that will take them far in the world. Not bragging, just stating the facts that I’ve spent the bulk of motherhood teaching them to do things for themselves instead of waiting for other people to do it for them (especially their mother as they will all confirm).

Mr. Handy has been busy fixing ANOTHER leak this past weekend. This special leak was discovered when our water bill went from approximately $35 a month to $88 last month.

Thank goodness we have piles of money lying around and we just throw it out the window for anyone who drives by so they can catch it and do whatever they want with it.

I really do appreciate how much we can save in home repairs being married to Mr. Handy. For him though, it’s not just about saving money – he loves the challenge of solving and fixing the problem. He is a fixer and the more a problem baffles him, the more he digs in (pun intended) to figure it out.

Me – I’d call someone every time.

Opposites attract, I hear.

Meanwhile PhilBillPaul has spent the last week digging up pipe from the front yard water meter to under the porch.

This is after he established the leak was not in the house. The sink flood on my birthday does not count. That was just The Grunter yanking a towel out from the cabinet and breaking the pipe. Therefore he is not financially responsible for this new whopper of a leak.

Scary Baby was kind enough to take pictures of all his hard work and dirty tools.

Side note: Scary Baby got a little feisty about all the dirt and mud he got on her gardening tools. Including THE HANDLES. Notice her little fingers barely holding the dirty handle.

Poor PhilBillPaul has had to crawl under the porch and dig.

I can barely step outside thinking of what all he might discover under the porch so I stay in my bedroom sanctuary and type blog posts and take naps and pray nothing poisonous bites him.

I’m also baking and cooking up a storm so I don’t feel as guilty that I’m clearly failing as a feminist and acting like a prissy girl because I don’t want to get any mud or dirt on me.

But I’m rooting him on.

I’ll make him some pumpkin bars because they are his favorite as soon as I have water.

Maybe Scary Baby will be brave enough to crawl under the porch and deliver one to him…

Update: We have water. We are currently not discussing the white pipe in the front yard. I’m certain he has a plan for that. I repeat, we have water. That’s all that matters.

Any great marriage tips you received from family or friends? Do tell! Share in the comments.

Filed Under: Finding the Funny, Tweens

Midwest Eating Tour

Monday, October 24, 2011 By Sherra 9 Comments

Eating our way through each state is what we do best.

PhilBillPaul and I took a whirlwind trip for a wedding.

On the drive up in the middle of the night, we began our day with a less than stellar breakfast at Denny’s. The grand slam that wasn’t.

We did laugh (and feel a little sick) reading about this new twist on a grilled cheese.

Are you kidding me? Yes, that is four fried cheese sticks inside the grilled cheese. I LOVE cheese but seriously? Don’t even look at the nutritional info for this scary sandwich.

We did not order this. We did discuss that several of our children would have.

For lunch we used that not-handy GPS that took us to a non-existent Culver’s. We would not be deterred and drove around in circles until we found one. Thank goodness because while I’ve had Culver’s several times in the past few years, PhilBillPaul reminded me on the whole trip, he had not.

We made it to the Quad Cities in time for rehearsal dinner with a beautiful wedding the next day.

You know you are old when you attend the wedding of the baby that was about to be born the weekend you were getting married 24 years ago.

picture “lifted” from Dan’s facebook page

We celebrated our anniversary on Monday, 10-10 in the town we got married in after we watched that baby get married on 10-8-11.

It was an extra special wedding since that baby’s mom is a sorority sister and the baby also became a Pi Phi. That’s a story for another blog post.

Thanks Ann and Dan for being such lovely hosts and allowing us to celebrate with you on this important day.

We dined with that baby’s parents the day after the wedding. Village Inn breakfast with pumpkin pancakes with pecans. Oh my.

We do love visiting all the restaurants we don’t have in the South.

PhilBillPaul had just one night before he flew home for work and to hold down the fort so we were able to have Sunday dinner with my mother and siblings at our favorite italian restaurant in Rockford ~ Lino’s.

How can you beat an October dinner special of half lasagna and half pasta of your choice, salad, coffee and ice cream for $7.00? Yum!

On Monday before his flight, we crammed in an orchard visit.

Fond memories at the orchard where we have visited for so many years. Everett’s first visit was when he was about six weeks old.

They’ve all picked berries and had cider donuts in the cellar.

And pie.

It was nostalgic mixed with a little sadness that it has turned into a big orchard business machine.

I only bought one.

On our way to O’Hare, we got a perfect sausage and cheese pizza from Anna Marie’s.

That was his anniversary present. I’m pretty sure pizza is for 24 years. PhilBillPaul sweetly said he’s looking forward to the next 24 and we both agreed a trip without our 4 darlings was a very good present to ourselves.

Or maybe 24 years is honey? I could never keep track of that stuff. My sister kindly picked up 2 lbs. of Midwest honey for him because he doesn’t like most of the honey we’ve tried in the South.

We were both bummed we couldn’t squeeze in a meal at Gray Brothers but we just didn’t have time.

I continued the eating tour without him and had lunch with a high school friend. We hadn’t seen each other in over 20 years. We had lots to catch up on and lunch might have lasted until 5:30. Hi Melodi!

Movie night with sisters and mom meant one more Midwest pizza with Wisconsin cheese that embarrasses the cheese down South.

Dinner with two high school friends. {I really failed at food pictures on this trip and you know my point and shoot and cell phone photo skills are so awesome – guess I was too busy eating but trust me, the Wisconsin cheese curds on this night were delish.}

I squeezed in dinner with one of my aunts on my drive home.

After a good night’s sleep at an Indy hotel (thank you Toni!) and preparing my self mentally for the long drive home by myself, I did a quick search for a vintage drive-in with my kind of food.

I scored big.

It reminded me of the first drive-in I can ever remember going to called “The Teepee.” It was a giant treat when we were kids and our dad drove us to this cool place for the best cheeseburgers ever.

I was sure a cheeseburger wouldn’t be as good as the ones I remember fondly so I opted for a pork tenderloin sandwich.

It was a great choice and took me back to a time when we had pork fritters from the freezer at my Grandad’s farm. Definitely a Midwest thing!

Crinkle fries and coke with crushed ice. My personal little heaven.

Ketchup, salt and extra napkins in brown bag without even asking. Top notch service warranted a generous tip!

Loved every bite – it was a great meal to eat as I headed back to Georgia.

Late in the day, I found Culver’s (again) for one last treat before I crossed into Tennessee.

Don’t judge.

Thank you Bowling Green. Pumpkin pecan custard was flavor of the day and with caramel topping added, I was one happy driver!

Consider this your personal eating guide if you need to travel from Georgia to Illinois or back again.

I arrived home safely at almost midnight and was back in the car with PhilBillPaul and Scary Baby on Saturday so we could see the darling twins up at Gold Rush Days in Dahlonega.

That one in uniform was suppose to march in the parade but volunteered to take pictures instead because her little feet hurt in her tiny, shiny elf shoes.

I love everything about Fall – especially the food! Be sure to share any Midwest favorites in the comment section and I’ll add them to my list for next time.

Filed Under: Finding the Funny, Food, Moments

DIY Kitchen Renovations ~ Minor Updates

Tuesday, October 18, 2011 By Sherra 6 Comments

No, we haven’t painted the walls yet.

Or fixed the rotting window.

Or figured out what to put above the cabinets.

Side note: Open to suggestions for any dust-free decorating ideas for that 8 inches that I know should be decorated but I don’t collect anything and don’t like to dust so can I leave it empty without the decorating police arresting me?

And now PhilBillPaul has a new project in addition to all the other things we haven’t finished.

Which would be fixing the ceiling damage caused by the bathroom flood.

The joys of home ownership just keep giving.

If I keep my eyes from looking upward and ignore the ceiling, the updated kitchen makes me happy.

Let’s Focus on the Positive

We are still love, love, loving the counters and the backsplash and the cabinet glaze.

Here are the minor updates we’ve made:

All the beadboard is painted to match the cabinets.

Love.

Then we added some little touches…

$3.00 plate from Walmart. I don’t like a lot of loose items on the counters.

Fancy I tell you. That’s us.

As is evidenced by this $3.99 cabinet towel rack from Marshall’s.

It’s the little bargains that excite me.

A new coffee maker with stainless steel pot is a nice addition.

New rugs.

Love. Especially love that the small ones were $2.77 from Stein Mart with coupon. Large one was less than $6.00.

We PhilBillPaul painted our eight stools. Color selection was dicey with 4 different cans of spray paint.

These are the last two samples. I thought for sure we would pick a light color.

Once again, my fear of dark things was put to rest when we chose the darkest “rubbed bronze” rustoleum paint and I love the stools.

PhilBillPaul added a clear lacquer topcoat that really gave them a nice finish.

I like useful gifts so a new knife set was an exciting birthday present.

I have insisted that they are for KITCHEN and FOOD use only and that includes the scissors that came with the set. As I’ve shared before, I get crazy about scissor usage in this house.

Stainless tissue box was bonus clearance find at Marshall’s.

When we went out of town last week we locked the knives in our bedroom since Elizabeth grabbed a steak knife to open a box in the first week we owned them. I might have screamed.

We’ll see how long they stay sharp and none go missing.

We bought some fancy gourds for Scary Baby. She has a bit of a gourd obsession like her father.

She made a lovely arrangement with the $2.50 Target metal bucket.

I love all the earthtones with the black and stainless appliances mixed together. Fall is very busy so painting the walls with a pop of color might not happen until 2012. I’m waiting until Mr. Handy fixes the rotting window.

Until then, it’s functional and once the temperature dipped below 90º I was able turn on the craigslist oven and bake again.

I’ll share some of my favorite things I baked in the coming days!

Filed Under: Finding the Funny, Raves