My Language

This is too cool. My friend Beth had it on her blog.

I was surprised that there wasn't more Dixie in my language make up. After all, we've lived here for more than eight years. It looks like my 10 years in the Northeast had more impact. Who knows what General American English is? Interesting!

Your Linguistic Profile:

65% General American English 15% Yankee 10% Dixie 5% Upper Midwestern 0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

My linguistic phrase for this week is GO 'DORES! Yes. Those Vanderbilt Commodores are ranked number 19. It is the first time since 1994. We'll be watching them play Auburn on Saturday. ESPN Gameday is coming to Nashville for the first time ever! It is exciting. I may just have to scrounge up some tickets for the game! GO 'DORES!!!

CSA #2

I picked up my second CSA half order on Wednesday afternoon from Jill & Keith at Whitton Flower & Produce. They come to the farmer's market at the Memphis Botanic Gardens every week on Wednesday afternoons. This week their email was a teaser. They did not list what would be in the order. It was a surprise! My life is pretty simple if I am getting excited about what fruits and veggies will be in my order.

I have rearranged my week moving the grocery shopping to end the of the week. That way I get to plan the menus around what goodies I pick up on Wednesday.

This week I forgot to take a picture of the order. The bag was filled with basil, radishes, sweet potatoes, peaches, arugula and green peppers. All of it looks great. I stopped at another booth and bought some green tomatoes and some local apples. Yum!

I love to cook and am making a valiant effort to use as much as the produce as possible. Last night for dinner, I made this salad. It was amazing. I used the fresh cucumber, tomatoes, basil, and radishes. I added some fresh lettuce to part of the left overs and scarfed it down for lunch today.

This was dinner last night. Peanut tried the salad and liked it! Pumpkin would not let any of it touch his plate.

Here is a close up view of the left overs.

While I was in the kitchen, I thawed the frozen bananas and made two loaves of banana bread. I added the mini chips to the top. These are the prettiest loaves I have made in a long time.

I used the peaches I got and made a peach cobbler. It was pretty good with a little vanilla ice cream on it. I think the best way to eat peaches is peeled and sliced - just the way they are.

Did you notice the great plates in the first picture of the salad? I got a set of six of these plates at a consignment sale. I welcome the chance to serve dinners on them. I may change up the place mats. The colors look great but the size is not right with my new pottery plates. They are Frankoma pottery plates made in Oklahoma.

I've got a recipe for linguine, argula, and parmesan to try on Sunday night. I hope the arugula keeps that long. Also, I am making a sweet potato and apple bake early next week. You just might see pictures of those too!

Have a good weekend! The Big Guy and Peanut are heading to a soccer tournament. Pumpkin and I are holding down the fort here. I have a list a mile long and hope to squeeze in some more sewing!

Kid's Triathlon 2008

This past Sunday Pumpkin participated in the Thunder Kid's Triathlon. He had a great race taking first in his age group. I was very impressed. He has the swimming down. He had not run or rode a bike in a long time. He just hopped on and did it. It may have inspired him to try some more. His transitions are the slowest as he doesn't have the technology real racers have.

We convinced Peanut to participate too. He is such a great little athlete, but doesn't like to try new things. We got him to do this one as part of a relay team. They were awesome! And, Peanut just may have the confidence he needs to show off his athleticism at few more of these type of events!

I have a list of a million things to do. I ended up playing with Picasa and creating this little slideshow. Soon I will break down and buy iLife for my Mac. Then, I could make collages and do even more creative things!! Just imagine how long my lists would get. I would not get anything else done.

Summer's Over!

Where did the summer go? We are well into the school routine and summer has been gone for the boys for weeks. Peanut reminded me that at 10:44 am cst marks the beginning of fall! I am ready. I am ready for the hot weather to subside. We've had some beautiful ones here lately. I am ready for the trees to pop full of color. We are seeing just a few red leaves on our maple tree.

What DID I do this summer?

First of all, I made it to the 1000 mile mark on my bike! I got the new bike just about a year ago. It is an accomplishment for me to put that many miles on it. Half of those miles have been added since the beginning of July. I am trying to make it a priority working it in four days a week. I keep waiting for it to get easier!

I was a reading machine this summer. I finished Pillars of the Earth by Ken Folliet about three weeks ago. It is a wonderful read. I felt like I really knew the characters. I've heard the next book in the sequence may be even better. I am not sure if I will tackle that. I need to take a reading break in order to get some other things done!

I signed up to join a CSA. The CSA stands for Community Supports Agriculture. You can google search it for participating farmers in your area. For ten weeks, I will meet a farmer at the market and receive an array of fresh vegetables and fruit. The goodies vary depending on what the farmer has. We decided to just do a half order and see how it goes. Here is my first order that I picked up last week.

The peaches were wonderful. I cooked them up and made peach popovers. I haven't used puff pastry. Wow! How easy it was. I am a fan and may use it more. The kids weren't brave enough to give these a try. The Big Guy and I enjoyed them. I put a few in the freezer for the future.

I used the tomatoes to make tomato pie. It is made in a pie crust with tomatoes, basil and cheese. It was great. It doesn't look the best. I forgot to take a picture before we cut into it. I think the left overs will be yummy too.

Tonight I am going to use the apples to make a stuffed apple/chicken breast recipe. I hope to use the rest of the veggies in a big tossed salad. There is something special about eating food just picked. It makes it taste even better!

I've gotta update my blog page for fall. I spent quite a bit of time trying to come up with a counter for my bike odometer. I haven't come up with the best option. I may just have to explore doing some of my own html. Right!

My family members were without power for quite a few days due to Ike blowing its way through the Midwest. I am glad everyone is back online and able to turn on their lights. I know it was a trying week.

Here's to wonderful summer memories and lots of fall to look forward too!!

Visitors!

Last Saturday, we welcomed Beverly and Mike into our house. I worked with Beverly way back when in Langley, South Carolina. Beverly and Mike were vacationing in Memphis. We love to hear that!! She called a few months ago and we decided to have them over for a cook out. The last time we saw Beverly was in November of 2002. We were on our way back from Myrtle Beach and just stopped by her house to say hello.

Let me just tell you how nice it was to see them. David and Mike headed out on the bicycles for a ride in the heat and the wind. It worked out perfectly. Mike rode Elliot's bike and did not have to schlep his from SC. I think they both had a good ride enjoying the opportunity to see the area. Beverly and I headed to downtown Collierville to the square. We just moseyed in and out of the shops catching up. It was wonderful! I was glad to hear that most of the operators that worked at the plant are still working at the plant even though it has been sold twice. We just talked and talked.

We came back to the house for dinner. I did not do anything special. I know when you are on vacation you end up wanting the simple things. We had grilled chicken, corn pudding, tossed salad, strawberries and dinner rolls. I made some brownies for dessert. We just sat back, ate and talked.

Beverly and Mike have a daughter who is a senior at Clemson. She is starting the application process for dental school. I am so impressed as dentistry has always intrigued me. The boys received a special something from our friends and quickly donned their shirts on Sunday. The boys are college football fans. Thanks for expanding their horizons!

Beverly brought me a hand-carved sugar spoon. It is wonderful. It is carved by Ike Carpenter. You can read about him at this site. I love the spoon. I can't decide if I should use it or use it for show. I struggle with those kinds of things. It is amazing that a man can take a piece of wood and make something extremely useful out of it:))


The visit made our Saturday! It made me remember all those people I used to interact with. I loved getting the updates on all the folks. They are special people. I enjoyed my job and working with the plant. Who knows. When my boys grow up, I may just migrate back to that professional world. We are extremely grateful that we got to see Beverly and Mike. Thanks for stopping by!

We just may have to plan a trip to the beach so we can swing by their house!!

More Sewing

I have lots of things to post. I thought I would start with my latest pass time. I've been sewing a bit more. My piles of fabric are growing and I want to hit Hancock's in the morning to get a few solids. Here's my latest endeavors~

I made a tote for my uncle. It is his 80th birthday and I decided the birthday boy needed an Elvis tote. It turned out okay. I like this style of tote with the straps that go down the sides.

I even surprised myself hiding a pocket in the inside!

We had some friends from South Carolina visit this weekend. That is a post in itself. I wanted to make sure Beverly had keepsake of her vacation to Memphis. I found some more Elvis fabric and made this tote. I like the fabrics.

Here is a close up of Elvis!

I had some fabric left over and saw this idea for a tea bag wallet on Christy's Creations blog. I knew just THE person who needed a tea bag wallet. I whipped up two. The buttons came from my grandma's button box. Gotta love it! I sent one home to mom and the other will soon be opened by my aunt. Both drink tea and have been known to carry loose tea bags in their purses for a tea emergency! Now they can have tea bags that are in fashion!!

Ruthie, What do you think of those?

Peanut was invited to a birthday party. His friend loves the University of Florida. I decided to take a step out of the Target card gift. It seems like the kids nowadays just exchange gift cards. That is so NOT me! Look at what I came up with. I used the reading pillow pattern by the former Montessori by Hand, now called Sew Liberated. I started with a collection of Florida fabrics.

The finished pillow is amazing! It was pretty easy for this novice sewer to finish. I made my own piping! How exciting is that?

I went to the Friends Again book store at the library and found the book, Heat, to add to the pillow.

I don't know how the pillow went over with the recipient. What I do know is that two little boys in this house are anxiously awaiting their own reading pillows. They are excited to read and I am thrilled a pillow can create the enthusiasm. Their fabric is on the sewing table, but their pillows are not in progress, yet! I have it on the list:))

I am going to have to sneak up there tomorrow...

Love Craigslist

On Monday while I was throwing the ball with the dog, I got the idea to snap a few photos of the playset.

I listed it very reasonably on Craigslist. The Big Guy thought I was crazy. Who would want to buy it? The playset was here when we moved in. We've updated it and kept it up the past years. I was sure some other children would love to play on it. All it needed was some TLC. I was not prepared for the number of emails I received on the playset. The interest was phenomenal! I may have priced it all too low. I sold it to the first email I received only 15 minutes after posting it. The family came and disassembled it this afternoon. That alone was a job.

Anyway, the boys climbed on it for one last time this afternoon. They did not seem too heart broken. Peanut wanted to know if they would get a piece of the sale seeing as they played on it the most. Gotta love it!

Here is the pile on the driveway. The owners are picking it up on Saturday. They have four kids under seven who all came to help with the process. I was so happy that kids will get to use it and the kids will enjoy it. Sometimes, we take for granted all we have. The mother was as excited as the kids. She could not believe they were going to have something for the kids to climb on. She was so grateful that I did not price the set high. She even asked me if I wanted more. Are you kidding me? I was only looking to get out something for the climbing wall and slide.

Here is the after picture. We have some work to do on the yard. Now, we have room to put in a pool! Keep Dreaming!

This Craigslist fan has got some sewing to do. Wait until you see all the projects I've been working on. That is reserved for the tomorrow's post!

Daddy's Recorder

Can you believe it? The Big Guy still had his recorder from many years ago. Peanut is going to use it in music class this year. I bet he will have the best one there. The corduroy case even has the Big Guy's name on it.

I love it and can't wait to hear the music Peanut produces with it!

Just a Bit of Sewing

As of late, I've been intrigued with bags and decided to try my hand at making some. I explored the free patterns on this wonderful web going down the grocery bag route. I waited until the kids were back in school and brought all the sewing stuff out in the guest room. My machine resides on a table in the guest room closet.

Here are my two creations using the fabric I purchased from Ikea ~

The bag on the left was made following this pattern. I was pleased with the end result considering it was my first bit of sewing in quite some time. The bag on the right was made following this pattern. I was so impressed with myself. I had to piece scraps of fabric together to get the liner to work out. I felt very satisfied not letting any fabric go to waste. I think I like the bag on the right better. These two are going to be gifts. We'll see how well they are received.

I have to keep thinking of what to do with fabric. I recently participated in a swap organized by Katie. I got all my squares in the mail today. They are wonderful. Thanks for organizing it Katie! It is a bit intimidating as I am novice sewer and a totally inexperienced quilter.

Any ideas?

In the Blink of any Eye

In the blink of an eye...

He went to sleep a 12 year old

This is the only bed in the house Buddy jumps on. He only stays up there while we tuck Pumpkin in. He jumps right down and leaves the room with us.


and...he woke up a teenager! I used window paint to decorate his bathroom mirror. I couldn't stop there. I added it to some more mirrors and windows in the house. He was grateful for my artwork.

He got to open his presents first thing.

The long awaited for game - We won't see too much of him today as he plays away!

We caved and gave him a cell phone for his 13th birthday. It is actually a pink razr hand-me-down, but he did not seem to mind. We got some skins for him to cover up most of the pinkness!



This last surprise awaited him outside. That was a challenge to spray in the dark at 11pm. This morning we all walked the dog around the block to make sure he saw the grass. Gotta love construction marker spray paint!

I just can't believe how the time has flown by. It seems like just yesterday I was in the hospital room crossing off the days on the calendar praying for the arrival of a healthy little boy!