Enough Fun Already!!!

Good evening friends.  Yes as you know already, we got our SNOW!!  No not 6, 10, or 14 inches, we were blessed with between 2-4 inches.  Just enough to shut down our interstates and city.  It became so bad, our mayor of Atlanta was interviewed on the Today Show this morning.  There were people stranded all night on the highways and school children who slept on floors in the schools. 

 

What does one do here in the South when we get snow?  Go to the grocery store of course and buy like the snow will never melt.  Well, Holly and I are true southern ladies and we did just that.  We did buy good food to cook for our men, but the best of all was getting away with buying junk food.  And that we did.  Have you ever tried Dill Pickle flavored Pork Rinds???  Sounds yuk, huh?  But actually they were really good.  Darbee Rae had to bake a confetti cake with "hot pink" icing and sprinkles.

 

On day two, we were ready for some bought food.  Mr. P. was so kind and drove on slick streets to go pick up lunch for us.

 

 

 

During the day, Mr. P. kept Darbee Rae busy playing outside.   You saw some of those pictures on my last post and on Holly's.

 

But as we settled in for the evening and all the outside activities were over for the day, Darbee Rae became bored really quick.  She is one that keeps busy doing something.  Holly happened to think about the old electric typewriter she had and brought it out for Darbee Rae to play with.  She had so much fun typing on it. Sad to think that is all we use to have. {smile} She wrote a note for me and her

Papa

 

You can click on picture to make it bigger so you can read her sweet message.  I love this child, can you tell?

 

Wasn't hard for us adults to find something to busy ourselves.  The men had the t.v., Holly had her computer and I was doing a new craft.  Valarie who is a friend on face book and has her own blog had shown a scarf she had made with her fingers.  It was called finger knitting.  I had never heard of it, so off to YouTube to find out how to do it.

 

 

I decided to make a small scarf for Darbee Rae.  It is so easy and fast.  So much fun.  Poor child wanted to make one herself, but her little fingers were to small.  Thought it turned out really cute.

 

 

 

Mr. P. and I left for home before dark as the roads were still pretty bad. They had become icy and again , we are not use to driving in this kind of weather. As much fun as we had staying the night at Holly's and playing in the snow , it's always good to be home.

  

 

UNTIL........We woke this morning with NO water.  Mr. P. took me back to Holly's for the day. I was not a happy camper to get out with the temp. at 1 degree.  WHAT?  here in Ga and it's one?  No wonder we had no water.  We have lived here in our home 35 years and this was a first for us.

The sun came out about lunch and we were just itching to get out.  You know us girls like to go shopping and eat lunch out.  Being very careful...that is just what we did.

 

 

See, they even cleaned off the streets just for us. Bet they knew there would be some

  ladies that would want to help the economy.

 

  Luckily when Mr. P. came in from work, he found the problem with our water  and now we are blessed to have our water back.  I am so blessed to have married a man who is a "jack of all trades".  We are blessed that he can do so much himself. and save us dollars.

 

Tonight here at the home place all is well.  There are still some slick spots on the roads, and school is called off again tomorrow, but I have to say we have survived our annual snow storm here in GA.  It was fun, beautiful, and we had so much fun.  But I am quick to admit enough already.  I have a new respect for all of my friends who have and are still getting so much snow in your area.  Want to come South for a few days?  Just pray, you are no where near during one of our little snow episodes. So this concludes all my post on this snowfall.  Can't wait to show you a special family prim treasure Mr. P. brought to me a while back.... That's my next post.  

 

Until next time

Yes...We Have SNOW

Good afternoon Friends.  This post will give all my dear friends further North a good laugh.  As most of you are so ready for Spring and tired of all the snow already,,,, we are finally getting our first and probably last snow fall of the winter. Now don't laugh,,, we have a little over two inches, just enough to cause havoc in our area.  We are just not equipped to handle ice and snow. 

A little snow makes for a fun day.  I got up early and put chili in the crock pot, made cornbread, and headed out to meet Holly and Darbee Rae for brunch.  When I left home it was just beginning to snow.  The roads were fine.  Holly lives in town about 6 miles from home.  Once I got there the snow/sleet was getting heavy and sticking.  One little excited girl ran out to greet me.

 

You can see the snow had just begun to stick.

So what did we do???  We turned right around and went back to our house to get my chili and to pack an overnight bag so that we could stay in town for the night with the girls.  Mr. P. would not have to travel the country roads to get home and to work.  So..... we are staying in town for the night and having a snow day/evening with the family.

I know,,, just a few inches, but business closed early, even Mr. P.'s plant shut down at 1 o'clock, restaurants closed and town as we know it is like a ghost town.  But before we settled in we had to get out and go roam around.  Since we never get snow, just be patient with me as I show you a few pictures.

 

When we got back to the house, snow was covering the grass.

 

The road leading to our driveway.

 

 

Holly and Darbee Rae in the driveway.

 

 

The patio bricks were already covered in the white stuff.  There was none about 45 minutes earlier. WOW!

 

 

Love the snow on this magnolia tree. 

 

 

Wow, the roads got really bad on the way back into town.

 

 

Darbee Rae couldn't wait to go outside with Papa to "play".  Looks like Papa is doing lots of work. She has plans for her and Papa all evening.

 

 

Here they are painting snowmen with "puffy snow paint" made with shaving cream and glue.  They may even get Stacy in the floor to play with the later.

 

Holly will play on her new embroidery machine and I brought material.   Can you guess what I will make from this? 

 

 

 

 

 

Our crock pots are full of yummy comfort food and the house is warm and smells so good.

Hoping all is well with you and wherever you are you are warm and have a cozy feeling inside.

Until next time.

Hump Day Happiness......almost

Good evening friends. Well we are heading downward toward the weekend now.  I am very excited.  Mr. P. has  been having to work 10 hrs. per day, six days a week for quite a while and he is suppose to be off on Saturday.  No plans right now, but will be so nice to have him home.

I have looked forward to this evening all day.  I spent the day cooking and preparing for our special guest we were having for supper.  When Holly and Stacy got married, I promised to fix supper and have them over every Wednesday night.  That got old and didn't last too long.  Since I have lunch with the girls so often, and we are always together, we seldom have them here for a meal. 

I put a roast in the crock pot early this morning and the house smelled so good all day long.  I made homemade sauce, and later shredded the roast and we had barbecue.  I fixed the Brunswick stew and had bought the coleslaw to go along with the meal. We had chips and homemade sweet pickles also.  I baked a cake for dessert and all was well.

There were pictures of everything.  At least I thought there was.  I went to get the card out of the camera, and guess what??? It was still in the computer from the last blog post I did.  I could have cried.  And this is not the first time I have been soooo stupid.  I am sure none of you do things like this.  From falling off the bed, and now this... I will never believe it has anything to do with my age.{heehee}

So, guess you will just have to imagine the table set all pretty.  { I did use heavy duty Styrofoam plates} And we drank from my new colored mason jars.  The cake turned out really pretty until Mr. P. played in the icing because that is the only part of a cake that Darbee Rae likes.

But,,,, being together, sharing a meal with my little family made for a great hump day.  Sorry about the pictures.  Hope you all had a wonderful day as well.  More cold weather is here and more headed all our way.  Please stay warm and safe.  Spring is definitely on its way.

Until Next Time......

What Does One Do On A Girl's Trip?

Good evening everyone. Hoping everyone had a great supper and have now settled down for a quite winter's evening doing something you enjoy. 

On Friday Holly, Darbee Rae and myself headed to Cleveland,TN. for a girl's trip. We missed our annual trip in Nov. because I was so sick. We were all looking forward to the weekend.  And we were doing something out of the  ordinary.  We were going to visit with my sister-in-law Maudie and her son. They have moved to Cleveland because her hubby Leonard has taken a church up there.  They have an apartment on the bottom floor. Leonard was in Virginia in revival so it was just her and her son Justin there.

 

 

Guess we don't get out that much. Never saw a church this big. Can you believe it has 18 restrooms in it, and two sanctuaries?  There  are many, many classrooms as they have a United Christian Acadamy and so much more. A huge industrial kitchen, a room staged strictly for t.v. interviews, and a fellowship hall to hold about a thousand. Really,,,, I was so blown away with the size of the building. It has four floors. Made our little church here in town look so small.

 

 

Justin is great on the drums. He plays them in the church services.

 

 

He was good enough to go with us and serve as our tour guide.  Showed us the way around the town.

 He also chose the restaurants where we ate.  On Friday evening we ate at a Steak House that had the best steak I have ever eaten, and we did a little shopping. Once back at the apartment, we caught up on our gossip, looked on our tablets and computers and had a good time just hanging out and doing nothing.

 

 

Darbee  Rae has always loved her Aunt Maudie,and Maudie has always spoiled her with gifts when she sees her. You should have seen all the snacks she had for Darbee. All her favorite foods and junk.  Here they were coloring together.

 

Can you believe we sat up until 2 a.m. in the morning and Darbee Rae was still going strong!!!!!  And then around 4 am guess what happened??  The highlight of our trip.  No, it didn't start snowing, or a wonderful visitor arrive to surprise us,,,,  I FELL OFF THE BED!!!  Still laughing as I type.  Luckily for me, it was low to the floor and I didn't have far to fall.  It woke Holly and she got a good laugh.  I am glad Darbee slept through it or I am sure she would have snapped a picture.... oh my a sight for sore eyes.  NO,,,,,, remember we were in a church and staying at a preacher's apartment and I DO NOT DRINK. Don't guess we need to, to have so much fun.

 

Saturday we shopped until I was wore completely out.  Our first stop was a little bakery that they visit regularly,

 

 

We don't have little Mom and Pop Bakeries like this in our town. You go to the supermarket or Walmart to order what you need.  This place was a piece of heaven on earth.  Just the smell as you walked inside and you could gain a few pounds. The cream horns and the almond joy squares were my favorite.  But the cinnamon buns were  delicious also.  I am really glad this place is a few hours drive from here. 

 

There is also a Mars plant in the town. They say when they are making the chocolate you can smell it all over town.  We were disappointed as they have stopped giving tours, but it was fun to ride by.  The shrubs were cut into the shapes of M&M's

 

 

 

More shopping and then lunch at a neat Italian restaurant.  Refueled, we visited even more shops. Maudie got her hair cut, and once we got home, I colored it for her.

  More relaxing once the shopping was over, and around 9 o'clock Justin went and brought in hot wings for us.  We were enjoying our food and Darbee Rae comes in and says she has hit her tooth on the floor,,, how??  Lord only knows, but it is bleeding.  Holly tells her if it is bleeding then it must be really loose and to pull it.  Immediately she says okay,,, I did.  And she had.  Now the little thing has no front teeth, and she thinks it is so cool. How else can she get grown up teeth and get older if her baby teeth don't come out.  She had just been to the dentist last week for a cleaning.

 

 

Of course the tooth fairy had to come even though she wasn't at home. She was confident the fairy would find her because she was magic. And she did.

 

Maudie's husband Leonard got in a little after 2 am and yes we all waited up for him.  And yes, he had to get up and be upstairs for church at ll.  That had to be rough.

 

The rest of the night/morning was uneventful.  I made sure I slept in the middle of the bed!! We got up and packed, and did a little shopping before heading home.  Met the Hodges for lunch and then we hit the road heading back to GA.

 

 

Yes, you never know what is going to happen on a girl's trip.  We had so much fun.  Thanks to all of you {the Hodges} for making us feel so welcome and for such a good time. 

 

No matter how much fun we have or how long we are gone,,,,,, it's always good to be back home.

 

 

 

 

Wishing you all a wonderful, warm, and safe week ahead.  Until next time.

Winter in the South

Good afternoon friends. Oh,,,I am so enjoying all your photos of the snow in your area. I am so hoping you are all safe and warm and snuggled in for this cold  spell. Praying that you don't loose electricity.

We hardly ever get snow here in the South.  Flurries were in the forecast for last night, but we didn't see any.  The mountains of North Georgia got snow, but we got wind and cold temps.  Now all my northern friends don't laugh, but we don't handle the cold, snow, and ice too well here in Georgia.  Just the mention of any of the above, and the grocery store shelves become empty really fast and folks rush to the home improvement stores for heaters, generators, and such. 

On Sunday evening our local schools were called off for the next two days.  Not from snow or ice but because we are going to have temps, in the single digits. The winds are going to make it even colder.

So,,,, what did we do here at the home place to prepare for this cold heading our way?  I decided it was time to change out the great room.  If you remember our great room has looked this way for quite some time.

 

 

 

 

 

The  sofa was behind the coffee table against the wall.  Well with the cold spell heading our way, I decided I wanted to move the sofa closer to the fireplace and make the room more cozy for winter.

 

 

 

 

Yes, I love it.  So much warmer sitting in front of the fireplace.  A perfect place to wrap in a blanket and read a good book or stitch on a cold, windy, day in Georgia.

 

On the wall where the couch was located this is what I put there.

 

 

Darbee Rae was so excited.  We now have a place to color and play board games.  Will be a good spot for coffee and cake after supper too. 

 

 

Borrowed this bench from the kitchen, 

 

 

This lamp gives of a soft light as you enter from the front door.

 

I wasn't the only one preparing for the cold weather.  Mr. P. made sure everything was wrapped, and ready.  The cars were checked for antifreeze, the furnace filter changed and ready and plenty of wood up on the carport.

 

 

The pantry is stocked with plenty of comfort food ingredients waiting to be prepared in the kitchen.

Do you have certain foods that you associate with winter time?  We love chili, beef stew, chicken and dumplings, and cabbage soup with cornbread.

 

So what do you do when it is soooo cold outside?  Well tomorrow I plan to stay inside, sit on my sofa, and work on a few craft items. Supper will be in the crock pot, house is clean, and I am going to snuggle in. But today I met Holly and Darbee Rae and we ate Japanese for lunch. When we came out of the restaurant, I think the temps. had fallen 20 degrees from the time we went in.  No, not really but the wind had started blowing and it would take your breath.  I think it was too cold to shop, even for Holly and Darbee Rae. We  hurried  to their house where it was warm and I watched Holly play on her new embroidery machine.

 

 

 It is so neat, and I really love to watch. Everything is computerized.  I can't wait to get some things done for myself.  She made this for me today to show me how it will applique. Think she did a great job don't you?

 

 

 

 

Well, I know we are all in a deep freeze, so all of you that have it so much worse than we do here at the home place, please be careful and stay warm.  I so feel for all the elderly, and the homeless people. There are many families who have come upon rough times and their babies my be cold also.  Let's be thankful for our warm homes and send up a prayer for those less fortunate. 

 

Until next time.  

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome 2014

Happy Friday everyone. Hope where ever you are you are warm and cozy.  I know so many of you have snow and frigid cold temps.  It was quite chilly for us here in the south this morning, but  the forecast is for single digit numbers early next week.  Oh how I wish we could get a little snow.

Christmas here at the home place was wonderful.  We were all so thankful that I was out of the hospital and recovering nicely. Although there was less  goodies that got baked, decorations were at a minimum, and fewer gifts bought, we all thought it was one of the best Christmas holidays in a long time.  You learn what it most important in life and it is not the material things at all.  It is the love of family and friends, good health and knowing that God is in your life.

All we have heard from Darbee Rae was she wanted an Ashton Drake baby doll.  One that breathed
,cooed, and you could feel its heart beat.  Well this is what Mr. P. and I gave her for Christmas.  She was so excited to open it on Christmas Eve.

 

She feels just like a real baby.  We were all excited to hold her.  Holly said this was the best kind of baby.  One you could turn on and off.  {haha}

 

Darbee Rae wasn't the only one surprised with a gift on Christmas Eve.  After all the gifts were opened, Mr. P. comes in the door with this for me.

 

There is a long story behind this.  I have always wanted one of these old strollers.  When we were first married and money was really tight, I found one at a show.  We could not spare the money for it and I have often spoke of the blue old stroller that I wanted way back then.

He said he found this one from an antique dealer at our show in September as he was unloading our craft items.  I was not there so he got it and it had been stored at Holly's ever since.  Can't believe she kept this a secret so long.  I am so tickled over it, but don't know what I will do with it.  Hmmm,,,, gota put on my thinking cap.
 

Mr.P. agreed to do a contract job for his company during his holiday vacation.  It was a rather big job so he hired Holly to help him.  They began the project the day after Christmas.  The first part of the job had to be done on the carport as Mr. P's shop is not that big.  Out came the big table saw and the work began.  Luckily the weather cooperated and it was not too cold outside.

 

 

Darbee Rae and I were having some fun while they worked.  Yes, my city girl doesn't like to get dirty, but today she learned how to make sawdust pies.  What fun!!!!

 

 

New Year's Eve we spent a quite evening at home.  Not to fond of getting out on the roads on this night, however early New Year's Day we took a short day trip.

 

 

 

There was very little traffic on the interstate.  It was so nice to get away with the Mister. We have missed many trips since I have been sick.  Our annual girl trip was put on hold as I was sick all of November.  Holly and I started this trip years before Darbee Rae came along and it has continued to be a tradition.  Will have to make the November trip up soon.

 

Well hoping the Mister and Holly finish up their contract job today, and then us girls are going to hit the road for a shopping trip.

 

Hope you all have fun plans for the weekend.  Please be careful where ever you are.  Stay warm and be safe.

 

Until next time