Ice Cream Anyone?

Here's what's on my mind today. Homemade ice cream. We always make lots of it during the summertime. I haven't even gotten my ice cream maker out so far this summer. But I'm going to this weekend.

This is the kind of ice cream maker my mom and dad used when they were kids. My dad tells the story of he, his brother and sisters all taking turns turning the ice cream maker. He remembers it being fun.

My dad, who as I've told y'all before, is a garage sale guru. He found an old ice cream maker like this one and brought it home.
So last summer at one of our Sunday night suppers, he brought it out to use to make homemade ice cream. At first all the kids wanted to turn the crank. It seemed like fun at first. Didn't take long though and they were tired of it and we were having to force each other to turn it. The harder the ice cream got, obviously, the harder it was to turn the crank. Not quite as much fun as my dad made it out to be.

Some people go the really swanky route and get a fancy ice cream maker like this one. I'm sure it makes great ice cream and maybe if I had one, I'd never want anything else. I think they churn the liquid into creamy ice cream in a fraction of the time as other ice cream makers do.

This is the kind I have. I actually have two. Or three. One of them makes six quarts. This is kinda in between hand churning and the fancy one. I like it. I would like one of the wooden ones that has the electric motor. Just for nostalgic reasons. My dad says that the secret to getting a good freeze on the ice cream is to use lots of ice cream salt.
Do any of you ever make homemade ice cream? I'd love to hear some new recipes. Jeff and I watched Alton Brown's Good Eats the other night and he was making homemade ice cream. He had some amazing recipes for all kinds of ice cream. The one he made using peaches sounds OMGosh good. The only problem I see with his recipes is that after you've made the ice cream, you have to freeze it in the freezer for at least an hour. My family is too eager to wait that hour.

Here are a couple of my favorite recipes for chocolate and vanilla ice cream. The vanilla is from my mama, so trust me, it's good. Vanilla is my favorite. The chocolate is from a little ol' church cookbook that I got from Suz. And honey, it's so good too.

HOMEMADE VANILLA ICE CREAM
1/2 gallon WHOLE milk
1 can evaporated milk
dash of salt
2 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla

Mix and pour into 1 gallon ice cream freezer can. I always give mine a little sample before I freeze it just to make sure. I like vanilla and sometimes add a little more. Freeze till done.

HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM
3 1/3 cups sugar
5 heaping Tablespoons cocoa (not a measuring tablespoon, but a tablespoon from your silverware drawer)
2 tablespoons vanilla
1 can evaporated milk
WHOLE MILK

Now, it's been my experience with this recipe that the sugar will not dissolve in the cold milk. Not matter what, it just won't dissolve. So. . . what I do is heat the sugar, the cocoa, vanilla and evaporated milk and some whole milk in a saucepan till the sugar is dissolved and the cocoa is blended well. Pour it into the ice cream maker and finish filling it with whole milk. Give it a good stir. Then freeze in ice cream maker till done.

I always taste mine before I actually freeze it just to make sure it doesn't need any tweaking with the sugar. It may need a little more depending on the brand of cocoa that you use. This recipe is one that needs to actually sit in the ice cream maker for a little bit after it's done. The texture gets better after it sits a little while. It's sooooo good.

The last one I have is Alton Brown's Burned Peach Ice Cream. I haven't tried it yet, but maybe this weekend I'll have time.

BURNED PEACH ICE CREAM (courtesy of Alton Brown)

2 cups half-and-half
1 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup peach preserves (not jelly)
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
Pinch salt
4 medium peaches, halved, seeded and grilled or broiled until brown.

Combine all ingredients (including the bean and its pulp), except peaches, in a large saucepan and place over medium heat. Attach a frying or candy thermometer to inside of pan. (If you don't have a thermometer, bring the mixture just barely to a simmer. As soon as you see a bubble on the surface, remove it from heat. ) Stirring occasionally, bring the mixture to 170 degrees. Remove from heat and strain into a lidded container. Cool mixture, then refrigerate mixture overnight to mellow flavors and texture.

Freeze mixture in ice cream freezer. The mixture will not freeze hard in the machine. Meanwhile chop peaches roughly. Once the ice cream has frozen to soft serve consistency, add the peaches and continue turning to incorporate. Spoon the mixture back into a lidded container and harden in the freezer at least 1 hour before serving.

Makes about a quart and a half.

Alton Brown says that the secret to good homemade ice cream is to mix your ingredients the day before you plan to churn it. That way all the flavors mellow together. Sounds good to me.

Now, what I want to know is what kind of ice cream maker do you use and what's your favorite ice cream recipe? With July 4th around the corner, we all need some good homemade ice cream, so share your ideas with me.

Now I've got to go down in the basement and get my ice cream maker and get it cleaned up and ready to go. Yummy!

Till tomorrow.

The Day After

The day after you come home from vacation is just as crazy as the day before you get ready to go. Add to that a trip to the dentist and you have all the ingredients for a crazy, busy day.

Ordered new phones for Ross & Cam, since Ross's dropped in the Atlantic Ocean. Cam's is just a hunk of junk and needs replacing. Did that. Got the car washed because it was nasty. About a hundred large bugs met their maker via my windshield. And the winshield on the inside was pretty dirty too, thanks to my ten little toes. I like to prop my feet on the dash and it left footprints on the glass. Not so cute. Went to the bank and had to get a pedicure. The sun, sand and saltwater do not agree with my skin. My feet felt like sandpaper. They're baby bottom soft now. (Well, sort of.)

Then went to the dentist and got good and bad news. Mostly good though. I'm not going to have to have the dreaded dental implant. Yay! But. . . I have two crowns that are going to need replacing in the near future.

When I got home yesterday, I had the most pleasant surprises waiting on me. My sweet Auntie Brenda, who had housesat for me while we were gone, had left my house looking so nice and neat. All my flowers were well nourished and the animals were so happy! I think Bandit was looking for her last night. She had also made a pot of homemade chicken noodle soup and left it in the fridge. My boys were soooo happy! They've been eating it for every meal since. Thank you so much, Brenda. You are a doll!

She had even put my mail in folders with the days of the week on them. That was so thoughtful and so much better than just a big pile of mail.

It is very hot and dry here. It's as if Mother Nature has just turned off the faucet. There is no rain at all. With the high temps during the day, watering the garden just isn't enough. We need rain!

I've been bragging on Jeff's garden and we are still getting cucumbers and squash. Tomatoes will probably be ready by the weekend. How I love a fresh tomato sandwich on soft white bread, little mayo, little salt and lots of pepper! Heavenly.

When we got home, Brenda told me about this cucumber that she saw and thought I'd like to make a picture of it. I'm so glad she did. I haven't seen one do this before.

It was growing through the fence and the end of it had cut itself off from the rest of the cucumber. It was really strange looking. Sort of a lap band for cucumbers. It was amazing to me. Guess maybe it doesn't take much to amaze me these days.

That's about all I have for today. It's good to be back home. I love this picture of Eli at the pool. Now that's how you lay in the sun.

Till tomorrow, stay cool!

Three Heel Clicks

Today and tomorrow and that's it. We'll be heading back home after that. Home. Home to my bed, my blankets, my washer and dryer. Home to eat fresh tomatoes grown in Jeff's own garden. Home to see my mom and dad's new carpet. Home to give Bandit a doggie treat. Home to watch Smokey sleep in front of the fan in the garage. Home to swim in MY pool, that I know is oh, so clean. Home for Ross to start a new quarter of school and Cam to work at Food Depot before starting his junior year of high school.

Life at the beach is great. All the sun, the ocean and sand. Seeing my boys doing what they love, Jeff and me staying on the beach till 7 o'clock, just relaxing, sweating through the hottest part of the afternoon to be rewarded by the cool breezes of the late afternoon. Having a great dinner at a new place. Watching dolphins jump and swim. Reading a book anytime I want without feeling guilty I should be working. Just enjoying the small-town feel that is Tybee Island. Yes, indeed, life at the beach is great and I love it.

Life at home is sweeter.

Till Sunday, when I'll slip on my ruby red slippers, give them three heel clicks and say the magic words, "there's no place like home."

Life's a Beach

Hey again from Hollywood -- err uh, I mean Tybee.
We went down to the pier last night and they had the roundabout roped off with yellow caution tape. There was a crowd of people milling around, so naturally, we joined in. Although we really had no clue what we were waiting/looking for. Finally, I decided to use my God-given wits and ask what was going on. Miley was expected to arrive any minute. After about 30 minutes, she did arrive. In a GMC/Chevrolet vehicle of some sort with an elderly lady. I actually got a very good look at her in the car when someone must've turned the inside light on. She looked like she was in the backseat. Cute as ever. Unfortunately, though, when she got out of the SUV, this was one of three pictures I was able to get. The other two look about the same.
Such is life when you're five feet tall. It seemed like everyone in front of me was tall with kids on their shoulders. Ugh.

The pier was closed Monday and Tuesday. That's not good for four guys who came down here to fish. Monday they pretty much stayed inside and watched TV and slept. But yesterday, I was proud of them. They got up and made some lemonade out of their lemons. They went down to the beach and surf fished for several hours.

Here's Cam holding the stingray that Justin caught. He threw it back in the water.
The Captain Ross. He caught some small things; a couple of small shark and some other kind of fish.
This was an unusual fish that Justin caught. Ross couldn't remember the name of it. It was really small, very oily and had lots of little teeth.
J.B., the buddy Ross brought with him, reeled this big one in. As y'all can tell, the fishermen didn't provide dinner for us last night. The surf fishing was a bust.

But I sure thought they were cute trying. Even though they loaded up first with tanning lotion, then later with sunscreen, the tops of their doll feet still got burned. They wouldn't listen to the voice of experience when "SHE" tried to tell them to put sunscreen on the tops of their feet. Boys. They turn into men, you know.
It was another scorcher, but yesterday there was a nice ocean breeze. We stayed on the beach the entire day.When we got ready to come up and run grab a cheeseburger from the Sugar Shack, who BTW, has very, very good cheeseburgers, this is what was behind our car. The boys' fishing wagon. And they were nowhere in sight. Of course.

They clean up nicely, don't they?
They've kept the condo mostly tidy. So far we've only had a few condo mishaps. Some shrimp that was for bait leaked in the freezer. That smelled nice. And a Diet Coke froze and exploded in the fridge. But thanks to my OCD buddy, Nan, I've been introduced to Clorox cleaning stuff in a spray bottle. It cleaned all of that mess right up. Actually made the fridge and freezer look better than before the mishaps occurred.

I tossed and turned last night. Everytime I woke up, I'd say a quick prayer for the pier to be open. When I looked and saw they were gone this morning, I thanked the Lord for answering my prayers. They are there and they are fishing and they are catching fish. Hallelujah.

Even though Ross's phone got dropped in the ocean.

Till tomorrow, my blogger friends and family. LLL.

Where Am I?

Greetings from Tybee. It's hot here, just as it is all across Georgia. It's also a bit cloudy today, which is really no surprise. The clouds seem to follow me when I go to the beach.

Disney is tampering with my vacation, and I'm a little unhappy about it to tell you the truth. Miley Cyrus and a whole host of film crew are here filming a movie called "The Last Song." Today and tomorrow the pier are closed for filming. Ross and the fishing crew only found that out after being on the pier fishing for a short while this morning and having to leave. They had paid $19 in a parking meter to be parked all day. So $19 went down the toilet. Nice.

They have a carnival scene set up at the beach by the pier. They are filming a make believe "37th Annual Tybee Island Seafood Festival." It's very pretty and makes beautiful pictures. I think it'd be cool to have a beach somewhere that you could actually have a carnival like this. These days with the crowds, I think it's impossible. We should've been born in the '30s and '40s I guess. Anyway, it is pretty. I know when the movie is released, we'll feel like we were a part of something kinda special, but right now, it's just raining on my parade.


With the movie atmosphere, it's kind of hard to tell what's real and what's not. Yesterday on the beach there were four guys wearing suits and ties. Now, y'all it was 97 degrees, with a heat index of 107. Everyone was naturally looking at these guys. They all were talking on cell phones and were walking fast and acting important. Crowds started gathering around them. People were making pictures. Then one of the men got in the ocean. In his suit. With his briefcase. WTHeck? I thought surely they were movie stars and I just couldn't recognize them from where we were sitting. I got my camera and Jeff and I started down to the water. Thankfully, a local informed us it was a cell phone company publicity stunt. They are testing out some kind of new waterproof cell phones.
Whatever. After being on the beach for several hours yesterday, we came back and took a short nap. It was nice and cool. Late in the afternoon I went on the balcony, and look what came swimming by.
You can't see them very well, but there were at least ten dolphins out swimming and playing in front of Judy and Ronnie's condo we're staying in. That, to me, is much prettier than a carnival scene. And look at the cool picture I got of the lighthouse during the sunset. No movie prop could top that.

We had a truly crappy dinner last night. And I don't mean the kind of fish called crappy. Although we did have fish and it was crappy. We had flounder. We've been coming down here for years and had never eaten at this place. I think it's a tourist trap kinda place. Uh, we won't be going back. I could cook a meal better than that on my worst cooking day. Even this wasn't very good. Although, I must admit, looking at the picture, it does look quite tasty. Trust me, it wasn't.

Cam locked Ross's keys in his truck last night. We had to pay $55 for the locksmith to come and get them out. Ross has a spare key. At home. In Stockbridge. Four hours away.

Saturday night we went to Doc's Bar, which is one of our very favorite places to go. We went to StingRay's and had our usual shrimp plate first. Those two never disappoint.

The boys have gone to Bass Pro Shop, but they'll be back before long. Guess
I better get going.

Big b'day shout out to my sista girl, Crystal. Happy 35th b'day! HA! Hope you have a good one. Do something you like with someone you like!

Till tomorrow. Or the next day. LLL. I'm sure going to. No matter what.

When You're Hot You're Hot

And girls, I am soooooooo hot. Today I was rocking along with my day. My Auntie Brenda is housesitting for us and she had already been by and met her companions for the week. Bandit really took a liking to her. She bonded with her instantly. I just can't say how thankful I am that I've got someone responsible looking out for my house and animals while we're gone. It's going to give me such peace of mind.

But back to me being hot. I was packing and doing some laundry and went to put the next load from the washer into the dryer and noticed that the washer was still full of the water. It had stopped before going into the spin cycle. Now, I don't know about all of you, but I have been known to cram too much stuff into my washing machine. In fact, I've had to call a repairman out before because I caused my drum to be off balance by washing too much in a load. I thought that was probably what had happened again because this was a GIANT load of clothes in the machine. I mean it was huge. I don't learn lessons very easily.

Anyway, back to me being hot. I called my dad and asked for all the repairmen that he knew of. Called them all, but got answering machines. I was freaking out. I had laundry, but more important, I didn't want to leave my Auntie without a washer for a whole week. So I went in there and decided to fix it myself. I started by siphoning all of the water out of the machine.

Which involved going into the dungeon basement and getting an old hose to cut. Now, do you think I was going to put my mouth on that thing and suck? Uh, no. Thank goodness Ross and Cam were here to do that part for me. I can't take all the glory, I guess. I ran it down the toilet and then when it wouldn't go in the toilet anymore because -- well, I don't know why -- something about gravity or something -- I used this bucket to get the last little drops.
Then I got ALL those clothes out of the machine and put them in this big ol' five-gallon bucket. All the while I'm still in panic mode and having a pounding headache as an extra bonus.
Then I started cleaning all the parts I could get to. I told my mom that I don't see how something that only uses soap and water could be so gross and dirty. That thing was nasty. I used Q-tips and got in all the grooves and crevices I could. It was sick. I'll spare you pictures of the gunk that I got out of it.
Well, I fiddled with it for over two hours. I was determined to figure out what was wrong with it. If it was the drum out of balance, I thought I could fix it. I thought maybe there was water in there and it needed sucking out. Jeff was coming home from work early, but I don't like to wait on anyone to do something for me. When I want it done, I want it done five minutes ago. Ross kept telling me to leave it alone and get someone who knew what they were doing to fix it.

So back to me being hot. As I was going to take the top of the washer off, I noticed that there were some screws loose where the lid closes. As it turns out, the problem wasn't the drum at all. It was this. The little safety sensor that keeps the spin cycle from working if the lid is open was broken. That's it. That's all it was. (And BTW, that's not my thumb, it's Jeff's.) Just didn't want y'all to think I had such manly hands.
So Jeff, who was also hot, got some tie wraps and rigged it up to work until we can a new part ordered.
Now she's spinning like a top!
And I'm a happy, and oh, so hot Girl Named Kelly Kelly!

Till tomorrow, LLL.

The Beach Calls

And I must answer. I've gotten so addicted to my daily reads and family bloggers and adopted family bloggers, though, that I'm taking my laptop, so I'll be visiting with y'all every day. And BTW, if you're looking for something new to read, my cousin Tracy, has started her own blog. She's a busy woman with four kids and also very talented too! I can always check in with my Blackberry, but I can't comment from it. I'm hoping to blog there too. Some of the things that go on on vacation are just to good not to put in writing.

Before I can answer the call from Tybee, I must answer the nine zillion other things that are calling my name. Ugh.

Till tomorrow. TGoodnessIF! Happy Weekend!

Happy Birthday Alayna

Ten years ago, the world was blessed with a pink bundle of joy! Alayna Suzanne Parks was born. Our lives haven't been the same since.

The spring before she was born, Suz and I planted all pink flowers in honor of the first baby girl our family had. It was a great year for flowers. No drought or anything. They were beautiful, but not nearly as beautiful as she was.
I have two sons and four nephews, but only one niece. And she is like a daughter I never had. To be only ten years old, she already holds the key to so many hearts. I feel sorry for the boys she brings to Sunday night suppers. They'll be scrutinized to the hilt I'm sure.

She's kind beyond normal, sweet and thoughtful. She always has a hug and a kiss for me. And she's never too busy or too preoccupied with her friends to say hello and give me that hug and kiss. She has lots of friends and a busy social life. Very smart and disciplined, she's always the teacher's favorite. She's growing up way, way too fast. My daddy told her Sunday night that she'd need a pretty red Corvette for her 16th birthday and that he'd buy her one. She has him wrapped around every finger on her pretty little hand.

Seems like only yesterday we were on the porch at her little house in Stockbridge celebrating her first birthday.
This was when her favorite movie was Monsters Inc. She loved the character Boo. She even favored little Boo. Suz cut her hair and then she really looked like Boo.
She loved her baby dolls. Her all-time favorite doll was Corella. My heart aches when I look at these pictures of those sweet little girl cheeks.
And here's my beautiful young niece today. She looks an awful lot like her mama. But yet, she looks different to me, too. I don't see as strong a resemblance as a lot of people do. I think it's because I love them both so much and they're so individual to me.
I always say that hopefully she'll take care of me when I'm old and gray (and from the looks of me in the above picture, it might be sooner rather than later). She really is a very, very special girl.

We're celebrating her birthday tomorrow night with a trip to Stone Mountain for the laser show and a picnic. They're taking a bunch of her friends and I can't wait. I've got to get all my vacation preparations done beforehand so I can go. I wouldn't miss it for the world!

Happy 10th Birthday, NaynaPie!

Till tomorrow, LLL.

Tagged and Awarded

Earlier this week I was blog tagged for the very first time. Yesterday, I was reading over the comments from a day or two ago and I got an extra special surprise. I had been given this award by Joycee over at Granny Mountain.

She highlighted each person that she awarded in such a special way on her blog. She used the Proverbs 17:22 verse for me. I loved it. Thank you so much, Joycee.

As the recipient of this award, I'm asked to list some things I love. Well, I'm very much into vacation mode right now. So I'm going to list seven things I love to take on vacation with me. That's not exactly playing by the book, but I hope it's okay.

1. I thought I might love to take this new straw hat to the beach. I bought it at Target the other day in their dollar section. You know with these tough economic times, though, they've added a $2.50 section to their dollar section. This hat cost $2.50. Too bad it's made to fit a Barbie doll's head. I would've tried it on in the store, but I don't like trying on hats. In fact, I don't even like wearing hats and I really don't even know why I bought it other than it has a pink ribbon and I guess that caught my eye.

2. I'm soooo going to love using my new his and hers beach pillows that I also got at Target in the dollar section, but not for a dollar. Honestly, y'all, I don't know who Target is using for head models. Even these pillows are small. They'll work though.
3. I love taking way more reading material than I'll possibly be able to read. I'm taking two nice size books and two magazines. I have read two books in a week on vacation, but I don't know. It just depends on how good the people watching is.
4. Oh, and here's a definite love of mine. Swimsuits. I love swimsuits. I mean, I don't like wearing swimsuits. And I hate how I look in a swimsuit. But I love swimsuits. And I love to take a lot of them with me on vacation. I don't like to wear the same one two days in a row. Or if I come inside for lunch or something and change, I don't like to put the wet bathing suit back on to go back out. Thus the need for many swimsuits.
5. My faithful know this one well. I love this accessory 365 days a year. I'll probably take a few pairs of these and a few pairs of nice sandals (although at Tybee we don't dress up that much) and my tennis shoes. But I won't leave for the beach without the shoe love of my life.
6. I love my new beach bag that I got at Rite-Aid for $10. It's big and roomy and has nice inside pockets. The cute flower pin on the front is something I got from Jeff's Aunt Kay after she passed away. I loved it, but wondered what I could wear it on. I visualized it pinned on a cute raincoat. Y'all know I don't like rain, so I thought it'd make me feel sunny with such a cute pin stuck on it. I do love it on my beach bag though.
7. I love suntan lotion. I like Hawaiian Tropic. I think it smells so beachy and it makes your skin feel so nice. I'll be stuffing lots and lots of different SPFs in my beach bag.
So that's it for my seven loves. Now I pass this award to some of my daily reads. I hope that y'all will visit each of them. They are all different and all special. I promise you'll want to visit with them often.

First there's Jenna. http://jennababe.blogspot.com/

Then Jeni, who I think may live in my hometown. http://athomeingeorgia.blogspot.com/

And the very talented Jen. http://www.dustbunnyhostage.com/ jen

Leigh, that I wish I lived down the street from. http://lbratina.blogspot.com/

Tammy, the sweet Nana. http://kidzrecipez.blogspot.com/

Joyce, who takes the time to post more pictures than any other blogger ever. http://mamssite.blogspot.com

Kimberly, who gave me my very first award. http://serendipit-us1.blogspot.com/

Jill, who is an amazingly creative blogger. http://jillsbelieveitornot.blogspot.com/

Theresa, who coincidentally is also my aunt. http://theycallmeganky.blogspot.com

I got all caught up with my work today. I'll tie up a few loose ends tomorrow and then my desk will be all clean. That doesn't happen very often with my job and it feels so good. And another bit of great news is that I got a housesitter. My sweet Auntie Brenda is going to take care of things for us. I'm so thankful that she was willing to do it. It's a blessing to have someone actually in the house when you're gone. In years past, it never failed that when we were gone on vacation some calamity would strike our house. One year our freezer went out. We opened the garage door to the smell of thawed out fish. Mmmmmm. That was nice. One year we had no rain whatsoever and the guy we had asked to water Jeff's garden and my flowers didn't do such a great job and everything was dead. It's just better to have someone here. Smokey and Bandit were dancing in the street when they found out. Especially Bandit. She was really worrried about her vacation arrangements.

Today's Nan's b'day. Happy birthday, Nan! If I know you, I know you've done it up big and you'll celebrate it till Sunday.

Till tomorrow.

Sizzle & Summer Pests

Not exactly sure what the weather is doing across the country, but here in Georgia, it's sizzling hot. I think it got up to 94 degrees in my neighborhood today. That's pretty hot for June. This is the first summer in several years we aren't being lectured about flushing the toilets too much. In other words, we aren't in a drought. You can sure tell it too. Everyone's grass is green. The trees don't look thirsty. All the flowers are healthy and some of the pests that I normally see on my flowers are not here. Suz and Jason actually said the rivers they saw in the mountains over the weekend were full. What a relief because when Jeff and I went to the mountains for my birthday in October of '08, you could walk all the way across what would be a waterfall. There was just no water there.

I'm kinda curious about something. We play the air conditioner up and down game at my house. When I'm hot, Jeff's not. When he's hot, I'm not. We can't get a comfortable temperature we agree on. Unless I'm up and moving around inside, I freeze when the air is on. Except at night. When I go to bed, I would love to sleep with the thermostat set on about 70. Generally speaking, I don't like the way air conditioned air feels. It just feels too chilly. What temperature do you set your thermostat? There has to be a happy medium.

So my dad (the king of garage sale/yard sale/estate sales) bought this really big float at a garage sale this past winter. I bought it from him and used it today in the pool. I actually proofed a deposition while I floated around in the pool. Heavenly it was.

Wasps and flies are what's bugging me. We've killed three in our house in the past couple of days. They've built themselves a nest inside our garage and they're coming in when we open the garage door. The flies just come in like they're a welcome guest we've been waiting all year for. I have a major fly fetish. They give me the creeps.

This has to be the single most boring post in the history of blogs.

Till tomorrow. LLL.

Unimportant Yet Happy

After a hard day's work, I dashed in before even changing clothes to catch up on my daily reads and to put my post on for today. I had my clock set this morning to get up really early and blog before I left, but I am sooooo sore from working out Saturday and I was too tired to get up. I hit the off button and slept a bit longer instead. I can't believe how sore I am from only one class. I must've used muscles that haven't been used since I was like 12. It's absolutely ridiculous. I can't even sit on the toilet without moaning. It's kind of embarassing, especially when I'm in a ladies restroom with other ladies present. They probably wonder what the heck's going on in my stall. Oh, well. Maybe they've been to a similar class before.

My blogger friend, Karen from Karen's Korner, tagged me for my very first time as a blogger! I was excited. I actually enjoyed the topic, too. She tagged me to list six unimportant things that make me happy. I was thinking about it today during my deposition. I decided that if it weren't for all of the unimportant things that make me happy, I might be a down and out kind of gal. I could think of so many unimportant things that made me happy. It was hard to list only six, but here they are. And as A Girl Named Kelly Kelly always does, they're listed in no particular happiness ranking order.

1. Sleeping on fresh, clean sheets.
2. Being off on Fridays.
3. Folding warm laundry right out of the dryer.
4. The way Smokey and Bandit curl up in a ball to sleep.
5. Having a freshly cleaned house, car, pocketbook and any and everything else.
6. A good hair day.

Y'all know to play tag, I'm sure. Now I tag six others and they have to list six unimportant things that make them happy. So. . . I'm tagging:

My Auntie Cynthia at marinemomof1.blogspot.com
My Auntie Brenda at doublegbrooks.blogspot.com
My blogger friend, Karla, who lives in Washington at karlajrs.blogspot.com
And Karla's mom, Joyce, who is also my friend and lives in Washington at mamssite.blogspot.com
Dena in Iowa at greenacres4me.blogspot.com
Laura in Texas at whitespraypaint.blogspot.com

Thank heaven for unimportant things. They really do make me happy. How about you?

Till tomorrow.

Busy Days

I've had a super busy, fun weekend. We got the kids delivered on Friday. We've always met at the Cracker Barrel in Macon. Crystal and her kids, Suz and hers, Cam and I had all piled in there on Friday at 1 o'clock for a good ol' fashioned lunch. It was old-fashioned, true. It wasn't that good though. Cracker Barrel is one of those places that's either really good or really not so good. Friday it was the latter. But who doesn't love the ambiance there? It's one of my favorite little gift stores. They've got the neatest stuff. And every one of the kids found some kind of candy they like that you just can't find at any old store. Here are some of my favorite pictures of the day.
Ethan's such a little model for the photographer. He always poses. Here he's showing his Zotz. Did any of y'all eat those when you were growing up in the '70s? They kinda dissolve in your mouth much like an Alka- Seltzer. I hate them now, but I sure ate them when I was a kid.
Eli just stuck with gummy worms. I played around with Photoshop yesterday and converted it to black and white. Turned out pretty good, don't you think?
I think Reid chose a sour candy, most likely Zotz, and that's his pucker. He didn't know I was making his picture.

Alayna ordered a cheeseburger and fries. Check out the size of this fry. She's such a good actress. I guess that's courtesy of the Disney Channel.Cam and Joseph look like they're having an intense checker game.
And my favorite picture of the day, maybe of the year, is of Eli waving goodbye to us as he was leaving in Bobby's truck. Just look at the smile on his face. What a big boy!
That was my Friday. Yesterday I got up and -- hold your breath on this one -- I went to the gym with Nan and took a body pump class. I'm pretty sore today. Well, actually, I'm very sore today. It was fun though and I'm going to go again. After the class, I went birthday shopping for Alayna. Her birthday is Thursday. Then went to my mom and dad's to check out their new carpet. Bless their hearts. They've had their whole house torn apart for about three weeks getting new paint and carpet. It's been a ton of work and they've done everything, except put the carpet down, themselves. It looks great and it feels wonderful. I'm so happy for them. I know they're going to enjoy it.

Made my salad I gave the recipe for several posts ago again last night. We went to a cookout with Ronnie and Nan. It was good. If you haven't made it yet, you need to before all the sweet strawberries are gone.

Today I'm gonna have Reid, Alayna and Eli for several hours until Suz and Jason get back from Gatlinburg. Hope the sun stays out so they can swim. That's what they'll want to do I'm sure. Fine with me. Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy. Except that I don't have anything in the house for them to eat. Not good.

This time next week, I'll be writing to you from the sunny shores of Tybee. Readers beware. My OCD is going to be in overdrive. Even though it's vacation and I know I'm supposed to be chilling. I'm going to be in a two bedroom condo about half the size of my house with two sixteen-year-olds, a twenty-year-old, and a nineteen-year old. Plus tons of fishing stuff, including dozens of tiny little bags that hold hooks, lures and weights that never seem to find their way into the trashcan. And how can I forget the spools of fishing line that they leave laying around where they've put line on their poles. You know the kind you can't see until you're tangled up in it. Sometimes if I'm really lucky, they'll bring the fish they catch back to the condo and clean them in the kitchen sink. And one really good year, they stored their semi-frozen chicken livers in the fridge to leak all over the place. Since then, though, I make them store their bait in their own cooler. They basically turn my vacation condo into a fish camp of sorts. But, hey, that's my family vacation. And I wouldn't take the world for it.

Till tomorrow, enjoy your Sunday!