Hubby's latest weekend project...

A Rose Trellis!
Daniel decided last week that it was past time we upgraded from our way too small metal trellis to a larger, more attractive trellis. He sketched a few designs, let me pick which I liked best, and then built it. Easy as that! It only took him a few hours to build Saturday afternoon and a few hours to paint yesterday. That husband of mine sure is handy!


Please excuse the state of my roses. Between the deer and the damage I did trying to remove the roses from the previous trellis, they could use a little TLC. I'm trying to give them a day or two before I wind them through the new trellis.


Do you see the hibiscus on the left? Yeah, that's what baby deer do to a hibiscus plant sitting right next to your house. It used to look like the one on the right.


A big thank you to Daniel for his creativity and skill! You are wonderful! Now....what shall be the next project? I'm sure I'll come up with something for you to make in the next, say...three months?

R2 and Asters

Well, I still love our Roomba. We are trying out the name R2...he spins around and beeps and is very helpful...I think R2 fits. Several people have commented on my calling R2 a 'he'. I can't exactly explain it, but he's definitely a HE! You'll just have to come watch him in action and decide for yourselves.




To go with my 'cleaning up' mood this weekend, I did some work in my (now mostly retired) veggie bed. I pulled up the veggie plants that had finished their work, added in some new soil, and planted some beautiful Asters. I had every intention of getting Mums, but the color of these Asters really struck me! They basically look just like Mums, and I just couldn't quit going back to these while at the Depot. My Marigolds, a holdover from the veggie garden, do sort of give an LSU-vibe, but that shouldn't last too much longer! You'll see in the photos below I do still have a serrano chili plant, one tomato plant, my bell pepper plants, and my green onions mixed in with the Asters. These are still producing, so I won't be pulling them up for some time yet.




This is a recent photo of the new roses I got this spring. This is one of the few blooms the deer haven't destroyed yet!


Now, on to my public service announcement. A few months ago I requested ideas on how to use the Pimento Peppers growing in my yard. No one provided any, so Tuesday night I decided I'd just try throwing them on a salad. When I cut them up, they smelled like bell pepper, and the internet kept describing them as similar to sweet bell peppers. Well, the internet LIED. I don't know if I got some random cousin of the plant described on the internet or what, but these peppers are not sweet. They are HOT. Actually, Hot doesn't even describe them...they are dangerous! I cut one small pepper up to put on our salads, and thankfully (i guess, maybe for Daniel!) I decided to try the tiniest speck of a piece before throwing it on our salads. I can honestly say, this pepper had contact with my lips and the very tip of my tongue for maybe 1 second, but for the next 2 hours, I had to keep a piece of ice to my lips! I immediately ran to the sink to wash my mouth out, but to no avail. I looked like I'd had a collagen injection! Red, swollen, extremely painful lips! Thanks to Corinne I did have a long list of home remedies to try...milk, yogurt, rubbing alcohol, benadryl, and aloe. Let me just tell you now, the ONLY thing that works is FRESH ALOE. Not sure why I tried this last, but praise Jesus (and Daniel for remembering to cut some for me) it worked! Lesson for you all...keep a fresh aloe plant on hand for any pepper oil burns! It tastes like crap, and looks pretty disgusting coating your lips, but it's heaven compared to the previous pain.

P.S. If anyone wants some Pimento Peppers, I've got a whole plant you can have!

P.P.S Happy Anniversary to Meg and Ben and Lisa and Chip! Here's to 4 wonderful years!

two in one day? i must be sick?

Since I have charged batteries in my camera, I just realized I had several pics I hadn't downloaded yet. There are some mornings when I take Bailey out that the sunrise just catches me and I can't help but take a picture. So, boring as this may be, enjoy!



With the camera in a different setting:




P.S. Monday's post entitled....Tell me about your talent. :)

Lovely Fall dinner!

I found this recipe for Lemon-Rosemary Roast Chicken on Cooking Light's website yesterday, and made it for dinner last night. Wow! It was so delicious. I did make a few modifications. I put a few lemon slices in the cavity of the chicken while roasting. I also made mashed sweet potatoes on the side rather than roasting the potatoes with the chicken. I served this with a mixed greens salad with tomatoes, onions, and dried apricots. You dress the chicken with a mixture of olive oil, fresh minced garlic, fresh chopped rosemary, and grated lemon peel. This mixture smells divine and gave the chicken a wonderful Fall flavor. I did finally charge my camera battery, but did not have it charged in time to take any pictures. I'll try and do better next time.

In other exciting news, Daniel and I have just purchased a Roomba from Woot. If you follow that link to the irobot website, please let me reassure you we did not pay the retail price! Woot had it for 50% less. It arrived yesterday and did a brief cleaning this morning while we were getting ready for work. It's hard to not watch it go! It does bump into the furniture quite a bit, but it's worth it to watch it 'Detect Dirt'! When it does detect dirt, this light comes on and it starts spinning in a circle over the dirty part of the floor. We haven't set up any virtual walls or schedules yet, but I can't wait! Bailey is a little unsure about it, but I'm sure she'll adjust eventually. I'll keep you posted on how well it cleans.

P.S. 29 days til our cruise!

Our First Executive Meeting

Our book club, which has yet to be named, has it's first 'Executive Meeting' tonight. We will be having dinner and drinks on the square and then will be moving to Square Books for a live Webcast of Philip Roth being interviewed about his new book. Why are we venturing out for Philip Roth? Because he is the author of the book club's first book! Corinne chose: American Pastoral, and I for one am very excited to check it out.

I am also going to try to keep the list of books I'm reading updated on the right side of this blog. I'll figure out a way to let you know if I think it's a good one or not (think 5 * scale or some such).

P.S. Isn't this Fall weather heavenly?!

book/dinner/cocktail club

Corinne, Jenny, Audrey, Christina, Jennifer, and I had a lovely girls night out last night. Jennifer hadn't had much opportunity to get out since the birth of Andrew just over a month ago, so we used that as an excuse to get together (we'll use just about any excuse we can think of!). We talked about everything from clipping coupons, to books, to nomination speeches, to home births (and everything in between!). We had such a lovely and therapeutic time together, that we decided to attempt a monthly book/dinner/cocktail club. The details aren't finalized yet, but Corinne is in charge of selecting the first book for us to read (yes, even you Jenny!). We don't plan to take ourselves too seriously when discussing our books. Everyone is to bring one question or topic to discuss just to help keep things moving. I'm really looking forward to this, and I can't wait to see what Corinne chooses!

Sweetest girls in the world!

My nieces Madeline and Avery.

Please go yearbook yourself today!

For the few readers out there who haven't 'yearbooked themselves', please go try it out. Some of the pics are hilarious. Some were so heinous, I could not bring myself to post them on here. Enjoy!

1950


1960


1962


1964


1966


1972


1978


1982

If you have about 5 hours to kill....

MAKE THIS CAKE!


"Hello, my name is White Chocolate Mousse Cake and I'm wonderful."


When Daniel and I went to Seattle last summer, Kent sent us to Salty's on Alki Beach for dinner, and we had the cake above for dessert. The memory of this cake hasn't left me since then, so imagine my surprise and delight to discover Salty's posts their recipes on line! WooHoo! Jackpot! This cake is the closest thing I've found to our wedding cake (which was so good, I could eat it every day).

Unfortunately, this cake takes some time to make. Now, I imagine you could skimp and use box cake mix, but I have no doubt it would affect the overall fabulousness. To give you a brief description, this is a homemade vanilla cake with a red currant jelly glaze between the layers and then iced (also between the layers) with homemade whipped cream mixed with melted quality white chocolate. As if that weren't enough, you then cover the ENTIRE cake with white chocolate shavings. YUMMO! Since this cake is iced with whipped cream, you do have to keep the cake in the fridge. This is a VERY tall, three layer cake, so it takes up an entire shelf in our fridge (A BIG thanks to Dan the Man for cleaning out our fridge to make room). The pics were taken from my camera phone right as we were digging in, so the quality is not super, but please believe me when I say this cake is awesome. Click here for the recipe!

See the hint of red from the red currant jelly between the layers? It's a nice contrast to the ultra sweetness of the white chocolate.

Sail Away, sail away, sail away...

Daniel and I have booked a cruise from New Orleans to Mexico leaving October 18th. We've never been on a cruise, and everyone says you'll either love it or hate it. Obviously, we are hoping for the first! Daniel has really been wanting to do a warm/beachy vacation, and I've been wanting to spend a day or two in New Orleans, so this was a quick, cheap way to do both. It is certainly inexpensive when you consider all your food is included. so, if anyone is free October 18th, come join us on the Carnival Fantasy! I've read enough negative things on the internet, so please, positive comments only!

Live Long and Prosper Anna!

Friday night was Anna's going away party in Cleveland. The theme was Stone Age/Space Age, and it was so much fun!


Anna and KatDog made the 'prom picture backdrop' and it was hilarious!

yes, they realize they can't spell.

Our 'Prom Pic'...except for the Budlight








There are quite a few more pictures that I will share as soon as I receive copies. Anna is on day two of her four day drive to Seattle! Thankfully Katdog is riding with her and will stay in Seattle a week to help her get settled. Anna is really excited about this new adventure, and I know she will do amazingly well! It will be hard to be so far from her, but the holidays will be here before I know it and she'll be home for a visit!

I have the best husband ever...

My super sweet husband surprised me with a dozen white roses and a gallon of my favorite ice cream from Baskin Robbins last weekened. How did I get so lucky?

The Gods Have Spoken?

Daniel and I had chinese for lunch today. Below are our fortunes.

Daniel: This year your highest priority will be your family.

Susan: Don't worry about the stock market. Invest in family.

Questions? Comments? :)

more from mobile

Hanging out in the home theater room. I'm not sure why we always end up playing in here, but it sure is fun!

Having a drink while sitting under the kitchen table...just one of the many advantages to being small.

I can tell you 'What's wrong little Pookie' in my sleep. And also 'Moo, Baa, La La La'

Madeline's first sewing project! One of the Magnolia's gave Madeline a beginners sewing kit! She really did help BeBe sew the edges, place the eyes, stuff the body, etc.

Splashing is such fun!

Fishing in the pool. We also did 'dive for the princesses' for quite a while... fun times!

awesome quotes

The two awesome quotes below were stolen from Ben Brower's facebook page. The fact that I find them absolutely hilarious probably tells you more about my personality then anything I could actually tell you on my own. I really hope you enjoy them. Thanks Ben and good luck on the BAR!

"Han Solo was the coolest guy ever. He had a broken-down truck and a talking dog, and when the truck wouldn't run, the talking dog would FIX it. He was like 'hey, Chewie, you fix the truck, I'm going to go talk to the princess.'" --Josh Strickler Any Star Wars reference gets high points automatically. This one really does make me LMAO though.

"Every Southern home needs [a bottle tree] to capture the haints and spirits, but I've never had one... colored glass adds class so I have some green and brown beer bottles on it..."--Ben's mom, in her most recent letter to her son, explaining why there are beer bottles hanging from a dead ficus at our house. A similar tree almost made an appearance in our yard...

Mobile Pics

We had a great trip down to Mobile this past weekend. It was too short by far, but we squeezed in lots of visiting, good food, and fun in the sun. As always, I didn't take enough pictures, but hopefully Mom, Sherri, and Anna will share theirs with me. This was our last 'all the girls' weekend before Anna moves to Seattle! We are sure going to miss her, but at least we have a fabulous place to come visit her!


Avery has a small obsession with sunglasses, shoes, and books. I like to think she gets the last from me...the first two, obviously Aunt Anna's influence!


When you take two small children out to dinner on a Friday night, eventually, you'll do just about anything to keep them occupied! Silly Daniel is always up for a funny face competition.



On a totally unrelated note, one of my new favorite things about my neighborhood are the visits from the geese. Every morning they take a stroll up from the lake at the bottom of the hill. I've caught them several times in my yard and driveway and lining the road in front of our house.


I love it when they break off into little family groups with the parents at either end of the babies. How sweet are they?

My 'special' kitty, Gracie, actually tried to stalk them...I wish I had the video of her lunging after a goose then jumping 3 feet into the air and high tailing it back to the garage when the goose opened it's wings and honked at her. Below is 'special' kitty Gracie. Do not be fooled by her beauty! Sophie got all the brains and personality!




Here she is trying to convince Sophie to go stalking with her. (I'm not making this up, I swear)

Sophie seems to have more sense in this regard. She'll actually come down with me as I feed them bread.


The main drawback of geese coming to visit (besides Bailey freaking out to get outside to them), is the POOP! You can see all the lovely little gifts they left for us on our driveway.

Alas, as evidence below, my mailbox gets consistently pooped on by everything but geese, so I suppose it isn't fair to single the geese out.