A dog story

     A good dog story. When the kids were young readers we learned ...don't read the book with a dog or horse on the cover...because the dog or horse always dies. I thought Mary Grace would never get over Ol Yeller. Anyway this is a happy puppy story. Before I start the dog story I must tell about the house. It was in old Terry MS. Built in 1897 it was a small Victorian without too much gingerbread. The couple had so many great antiques. This one however caught my eye. Remember the old Green Derby restaurant on Hwy 80 and Ellis Ave? It had a huge neon sign out front with a green derby that tipped its hat over and over. Well this man's family owned it and he had some memorabilia.

Aren't they cute? They were very creative too. Look at this light fixture made of old box springs and ball jars.

 

 

Once we made it through the house we saw the doggies.

 

There were ten puppies. Here is the one they picked.

 

His name is Gibbs after the Mark Harmon character on NCIS

 

 

meeting big sister Ellie

 

 

At home and worn out. He is a labradoodle.

 

Made one of mom's old standards for leftover chicken...chicken spaghetti

 

Chopped tomatoes, mushrooms, chicken, onions and spaghetti. She always served it from a skillet but I put cheese on it and baked it a bit to keep Ed interested.

 

Well it is Halloween and pouring rain. I went and got candy (half price) and who can blame me for having one for the road?

 

 

Hope we have some trick or treaters. The kids had so much fun sorting and counting their candy. 

 

 





 



a charmed life

     I have always know that I lived a charmed life. I had such a happy childhood and teenage years. A lot of it was documented with a charm bracelet. All of my friends had one. They go in and out of style. Right now they are becoming popular again. I decided to buy myself a new one to capture moments in the rest of my life.

The bear is from Blue Ridge, GA during spring break. The rocking horse is from girl trip to Natchez. Now get ready for the original big ole 70's charm bracelet. When I would wear it to church on Sunday when the girls were young, it was jewelry and toys rolled into one. Ready?

 

 

Can you spot the prestigious Home Economics Award? Also known as the Betty Crocker award? The whole school took this test and I made the highest grade of everyone. Well I took a great deal of ribbing about this award. On class day when it was announced, all my friends conspired to stand up and yell and applaud when I walked across stage to get my award. Wow.

 

I positioned it so you can see all my honor keys. I must have been pretty smart...not. But it was fun collecting them. It's a great way to get a souvenir from travels without adding a dust catcher to your shelf! Now for a moment to be remembered....

 

 

Ellie's last day as an only pet. She looks like she knows. More on that story tomorrow!!



 



big mystery

     Recently Ivy cleaned out and organized my kitchen cabinets. One thing she found was a roll of undeveloped film. This came from the days when you took film from your camera and took it to a store and PAID to have it developed into pictures. Can you believe that? So, what is on this roll?

 

There is no way to know. Everything has been digital for such a long time now. It is black and white so it could be some artsy stuff of one of the girls. It has a c written on the cap in my handwriting...camping maybe? Well I'll take it in and keep y'all posted.

 

On another note, all stores are putting out Christmas stuff. I always feel sorry for Thanksgiving. It gets muscled out by Halloween and Christmas. Well I guess it is more of a spiritual holiday...but wait isn't that what Christmas and Easter are too? Oops off the soap box and on the tour. Nobody does Christmas décor like Pinecone. Just take a look.

 

 

I could have astounded you more but I didn't want them to think I was making fun of it. I was hiding behind a miniscule thanksgiving rack. No one was looking at that stuff! See the corn? Well apparently bright blue, purple and hot pink have joined red, green and lime green in the color line up. I'm happy to report that I made it all the way across the store without getting tangled up in a roll of glittery deco mesh. I made it to jewelry  I'll post later about what I got. Candy and Lucy are waiting on me to go pick up their new puppy. A labradoodle named Gibbs (CSI reference)

 

Halloween

struggled through the attic (gotta clean that thing out, I mean I could hardly get past the canopy baby doll bed that was impaled by reindeer antlers...don't you hate when that happens?) to bring down the decorations. They have gotten less elaborate over the years. Remember the years of driving the minivan with an arm hanging out? Pretty fun in the carpool line.

 Well my famous giant rat may have to retire. He spent the entire year with his head shut in the trunk edge. Ouch. He looks like he might have a touch of rabies. It's always the teeth that go first.

 

Check out some Halloweens from the past

 

 

aww look at that fat bat. what is she holding?

 

Notice Sophie's hand made Old Navy bag

 

 

Later that same night...everyone looks tired

 

                                           

Look at the princess now. All grown up but still eating a lollipop...a fried mac and cheese lollipop with comeback sauce

 

We have been having major mole problems in the yard...not really a big problem since its all woods, but mildly irritating. Well Truffles is doing her part. Here she is shaking her prey. I did not know moles could squeal. Now I know why dogs like squeaky toys so much.



 



 

 

just a little story

    Remember the perfect rug story from a previous post? Well I'm headed home and I see Ed's truck at Candy's...still running and driverless. Well Ellie had gotten loose and Candy was wandering the hood, calling her and wailing. Well everyone joined in the search only to find her back at the house waiting. Ugh. So I go in for a chat and Lucy is home sick. Stomach hurting. May have had something to do with the entire BAG of sweet tarts she ate. Including some for breakfast. I remember when sweetarts were invented! back in the middle ages I think. We would eat them until our mouths hurt. And then they came out with Giant sweetarts. Those you carried around with you for a week and sucked on them all day and left them on the nightstand at night. Yuck. Well back to the story. Candy had made Lucy some mashed potatoes to soothe her poor sick(?) stomach. She walked in stirring  them in a yellow crockery bowl ( I loved that bowl and have one too)  It slipped from her hand and broke on the rug...the new rug. We all screamed and yelled "the Rug!!" I grabbed a piece of the bowl and started scooping taters. Of course I cut my finger and Lucy says "don't get blood on the rug!" We scraped up what we could and decided to let it dry and vacuum later. Ellie had other plans and cleaned it up for us! All I got was a Despicable Me (that's a movie Mom) Band-Aid and a dot of Neosporin. Point of this story...not sure.

Score!

    I love it when a plan comes together. We have looked at so many chairs and tables. They had to be comfy enough to linger in conversation. They had to be big enough for Woolverton's , yet small enough to allow hobbitlike McNeils to enjoy a meal. Here is what we came up with. I told Candy from the beginning that she could not buy anything unless she absolutely adored it. Well these chairs kept speaking to her.

 

They were a great Victorian chairs , probably originally oak stained dark walnut. They were stripped, left natural and finished off with a matte wax stain. Ahhhh so good.  

 

The fabric is natural burlap look.

 

I'm sure many good times in the future will be had by all who surround it. Miss you Bill.

 

 

There's Candy in the background mixing us a celebratory drink.

 

 

small adventure

    so...Vicki suggests that we drive to the little town of Flora near us for lunch. There is a little local café and a couple of antique shops. Well, I'm up for anything, so we head out. A little concerned at first when all the customers are burly worker men. So we queue up to the buffet which is a huge six feet or so. Choice of 1 meat and 2 sides, roll or corn bread, peach cobbler and iced tea. Ok , I'm in.

 

why yes, those are chicken livers. And turnip greens and that kind of country squash that is kind of like dressing. Next we went across the street to the antique mall. Lots of cool stuff. I actually bought something. A watch necklace. Only $18!

 

That is my cute Mom as the background. She is probably 12 or 13.

 



 

The black ball opens up to a little clock face. These next photo is little bedside chests that are adorable. I (and apparently no one else in America) love Art Deco period pieces.

 

Oh my gosh these are cute. With a little polish and new knobs these would be great. They remind me of some of the wood projects my grandfather Brown used to make. Ed hates that period...maybe I could sneak them into the guest bedroom. This place was really a junk shop. Right next to this was a row of 3 airplane seats! Many cool old oddities. Small adventures can be fun.

 

Sophie has always despaired over my underuse of commas. She once offered me a bag of commas. So, in her honor and William Faulkner's memory I offer you some to use if you need them and if I forgot to use one when necessary .

 

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call em what you want...

but they are columns....big ole Madison columns. Y'all know I am always making fun of the elegant architecture in my little town. Well imagine my delight when I headed to the new DMV in town! I swear I heard angels singing as I pulled into the parking lot...

 

even the sky seems to be opening up

 

I'll have to come by at night to see those lights

 

 

Inside , gorgeous marble floors and counters. However typical DMV service. The guy ahead of me moved up to the window only to find the clerk had sneaked a closed sign after the guy ahead of him. I couldn't help but laugh out loud and everybody else laughed too. What else can you do?

Be stillery my heart

     The Jack Daniels distillery was really fun. You could not take pictures or use cell phones inside because of all the alcohol! Of course it was all beautiful and down in a hollow instead of up a mountain. All the whiskey (Tennessee sipping whiskey , as our guide mentioned - oh- a million times) is made from water that comes through all the limestone in the mountain. Here is Jack himself. He was only 5 foot 2.

Here is the cave where all the water is collected.

 

Here are the last few of the Space museum

 

Here is one of the smaller rockets!

 

Ryan explains it all

 

 

     Ok...back to food for a moment...I've been trying to correct all the wonderful but mostly fried or otherwise unhealthy food we ate all weekend. This is something Mom used to make and I have put my own spin on it. She called it Swiss steak. We call it delicious. The tomato gravy is great.

 

 

As a daily cook though, sometimes you run out of ideas or ingredients. A trip to the grocery store seems like an awful idea at 5:00. I don't care that it is 3 blocks from my house. So you must get creative. Whitney you understand this, I know. Ok, check the fridge. One leftover fried chicken breast left from Ed's bachelor weekend. Borrow tortillas from Candy. Start making filling for chicken black bean enchiladas. No green chilis...sub chopped jalapenos. No black beans...sub refried beans? No green enchilada sauce...sub a little sour cream and milk. Any way it turned out great. I spread the refried beans on first , then chicken filling. Turned out great.

 

 

I remember Erma Bombeck doing some funny bits about her substitutions that didn't turn out so great. I never completely got her humor until I had kids.

 

 

 

 





 



more Sewannee

 

     so...we get there and the University of the South is so beautiful. The sky was beautiful, it was not too hot and the buildings were amazing. Here is the fabulous cathedral on campus.

 

 

Warning...if you make a face in a picture if may show up on the internet!

 

 

Chris looked great and showed us all over campus. The school owns the entire mountain and maintains strict control over what is built. He took us to this amazing natural bridge. It was a bit scary to me.

 

 

Lucy loved it. Then he took us to the most famous view off the mountain.

 

 

Mary Grace and Ryan

 

Our tour guide. We had a lot of good food and fun. He took us to the Jack Daniels distillery the next day and it was fun. I'll post those pics tomorrow. On Sunday we headed home and Ryan wanted to go to the Space museum in Huntsville. It was interesting. Ryan loooooved it.

 

 

You can't tell but this space shuttle is huge.

 

 

Aspiring astronauts. Mary Grace may not make the height cut :(

 

MG and Lu liked this yellow submarine. We finally made it home. The next night I was craving home cooking. What says welcome like meat loaf, mashed potatoes and lima beans?

 

 

I decided to make baby ones in a muffin pan. They are so cute I wanted to tuck them in bed with a lullaby.



 

 



 



 



 

 

Sewannee

    so...with a parent weekend looming with Chris at Sewannee, Mary Grace , Ryan and I decided to be stand in family members. Chris's dad and grandad both graduated from Sewannee. It was going to be a very sad trip without Bill. These are some of my favorite traveling buddies so I hoped we could lighten the mood and be a support group. Mary Grace is the driver...

Ryan is our comic relief. Here we were fortifying our selves with a sackful of Krystals

 

Here is Candy welcoming us to Cracker Barrel with her fall bounty

 

                        More on the trip later. It is night and my chair is calling me....more later.