Remembering Grammy Connie

One of my best memories of my Grammy Connie (my Mom's Mom) is that she ALWAYS had a little pot of chocolate sauce sitting on the back burner of her stove. She would make her special sauce and just keep reheating every night. One scoop of vanilla ice cream, special sauce and she was good to go. I don't think she ever bothered to wash out that pot. She just kept adding to it. As a child I thought of it as the never ending pot of chocolate sauce. I found this adorable little pot when I was shopping at IKEA back in July and I knew that it was destined to become my little chocolate sauce pan. I can't share Grammy's secret sauce recipe, which was actually her mother's secret sauce recipe with you, because, well, it's a family secret. I can share this new chocolate sauce recipe with you that I think might just be even a tad bit better that Grammy's. I can't believe that I just said that. The new sauce is a lot easier to make and it makes a ton. I found it on Susan Branch's August 27th Bog entry. She lives on Martha's Vineyard and was making it right before Hurricane Irene hit. I'll list the ingredients for you under my "I love the taste of.." tab up at the top of this page, but you really should check out her description of the sauce. It will cause you to want to make some right now!

Sally

Dinner on the Deck Under the New Umbrella

Trying to keep busy while waiting to hear from Grace so that we would know she had made it saftly to Spain. (which she has and she's already having a wonderful time.)

We decided to do a little grilling and chilling out on the deck. The weather was perfect, cool with a nice breeze. The insects were awful and eventually ran me back into the house. The misquitos were bearable, but the flies were just down right disgusting. Does anyone know how to keep them away?

For dinner we had beef kabobs, corn on the cob and salad. For desert we enjoyed fresh peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream. If you want the cobbler recipe click on "I love the taste of..." at the top of this page.

The weather is supposed to turn hot again here starting tomorrow, but when I woke up this morning it was 68 degrees. I'm begining to get that fall feeling, but I'm not quite ready to let go of summer.

Sally

The Fastest Service Ever

You may remember this picture from a couple of weeks ago. The big storm really did a number on our poor picnic table umbrella. Try as we might we could not bend it back into any kind of usable shape, so to the garbage it went.

The problem with loosing your umbrella in August, is that apparently they are now out of season items. Everyone in Louisville must have needed a new one because we looked just about every place we could think of and there were none to be had.


Leave it to my Dad and his trusty laptop computer.
We ordered the perfect umbrella online for just $99.00 including shipping and it arrived the very next day. I'm not kidding. It only had to come from Cincinnati, but still. The very next day our new umbrella was up running.

I would highly recommend this company if you find yourself in need of anything patio related.

Now that we have this beautiful new umbrella, I'm thinking that we might need some fancy new cushions to go with it.

Sally

Seeing Grace Off

Her bags have been packed for nearly a week. She's been counting down the days, hours and minutes until finally the big moment arrived. We took Grace to the airport at 6:15 this morning. Her bag weighed in at 46.5 lbs. 50lb was the limit. The main problem is that she can't really carry it. She's hoping that a nice Spanish boy will help her once she gets to Madrid.











She tolerated all of my picture taking pretty well. Her plane was scheduled to leave on time, from Louisville, to Chicago and then on to London and Madrid. With the crazy hurricane Irene weather going on on the east coast we are keeping our fingers crossed that everything stays on schedule. Alan has a plane tracking App on his new phone, so we will be watching her every move. Don't you just love technology?
Speaking of technology, Grace is planning on keeping a Blog while she is in Spain. If you want to keep track of her too and see what she's up to, you can follow her here
I'm hoping that she will take lots of pictures, but she doesn't seem to have inherited that gene from me.

We are so excited for her. What a huge adventure. She is not the least bit nervous or worried about anything. She is just all smiles. I guess that's the way it should be.



My Dad ran into an old friend at airport. I'm not sure what they were talking about, but it probably had something to do with chicken.

I'm going to do the best I can adjusting to life without Grace (She keeps reminding me that she is not dying) I'll do my best to keep you all up to date.
Enjoy your weekend!

Sally

Gifted with a Blast from the Past

Friends of ours recently lost a family member. Aunt Ruth was 100 years old and from the stories that we have heard, a real character. She lived by herself in the home she had grown up in until she took a little spill and probably broke a hip. While sorting through her house, Gordon and Kathy came across a package of knitting things and thought of me.

Opening the package was like stepping back in time. Way, way back. As best as I can tell she must have started this unfinished project sometime during the early 60's.

The yarn is crazy. She apparently paid 85 cents for each skein and it's a mix of acetate and nylon.

I can't find a date anywhere in the pattern book, but I'm going to do a little research. It shouldn't be that difficult to find out when it was published. The hair styles of the models are almost as much fun as the patterns themselves.

The best part of the whole package is this amazing needle set. I don't think anyone has touch it in years. I'm not sure how usable it will be, but considering it's only missing on needle I think it's in wonderful condition.

I have no idea what some of the parts are for and it did not come with an instruction manual, so I guess I'll be spending some time on GOOGLE.

What a totally unexpected gift.

I love it!

Sally

Something New

How do you like my new water shoes? I think they are adorable myself. I took a water aerobics class back in May and really loved it, except for the fact that my bathing suit seemed to lack the support I needed and I did not own a pair of water shoes.

Then the Lands End sales catalog arrived and solved all of my problems. I found the perfect suit(OK, so that's not a picture of me wearing the suit, but it looks just like that on me...) and the perfect shoes at bargain prices. I tried them both out last Friday and I think water aerobics is the exercise for me. Kind of reminds me of my old swim team days. The best part is that I'm the youngest person in the class by far, which makes me feel especially athletic.
Sally

David's White Coat Ceremony

Here are a few pictures from the White Coat Ceremony held at EVMS last week. Alan and I were not able to attend, but thank goodness other parents were and generously shared their pictures.

Eddie and Natalie are two of David's closest friends in Virginia. They also were there last year in the medical masters program. You can just tell from the smile on David's face that he is one happy camper. So what if he has to work harder than he ever has in his little life. It all builds character, or so his grandfather would say.

To be perfectly honest with you I think it's really all of the "dressing up" that's really getting to him. He has had to wear a tie more times during the past 6 months than during his entire life. I say, "you had better get used to it."

Sally

Happy Zen Monday!

Today is Monday and Grace leaves for Spain this coming Saturday. She has all of her ducks in a row. She is mostly packed except for the fact that we can't seem to find the "right" 3 pronged adapter, and I am trying my best to stay calm and not panic. We were so excited to get to see our favorite Zen Buddha Lemurs at the zoo last Saturday. They are not out very often and just watching them sitting there sunning their bellies has to make you smile.

For whatever reason the guy on the right was totally distracted and defiantly not in the moment. That seems to be me lately, distracted and having a difficult time finding my "center". I want to be more like the guy on the left. That is my goal. I'll probably not start working on it until after Grace boards the plane, but at least I'm heading in the right direction. Gentle yoga every Tuesday and Thursday mornings with Margie. That is how I intend to stay balanced.

Sally

It Could Have Been Worse

What a mess. It all started last Saturday, so almost a week ago. We had plans to go to the SPEED Art Museum on the University of Louisville campus and then from there we decided to see "The Help". Everything was going according to plan until the moment that we walked out of the theater. It was about 5:30 ish and from the looks of the sky about to start pouring rain any second. Of course we were parked about a mile away, so we picked up the pace and actually made a run for it. Silly us thinking that we could make it home before things got too serious. I have never driven through such scariness in all of my life, and I've witnessed some pretty bad storms. This thing blew up so fast and powerful.

Ir felt like a hurricane and it left damage like a tornado. There were moments where it was raining so hard we could see absolutely nothing out the car windows. There were trees and limbs down everywhere, blocking the road, on top of cars that a moment earlier had been driving in front of us. Many, many homes had huge trees on them as well. A neighbor actually came out of her house to pull a tree branch out of the road so that we could pull into our driveway. By the time we got home the storm was pretty much over. 10-15 minutes total was all it took to wreck some serious havoc.

We had a little damage here and there, but in the big picture of things we got off easy. Probably the biggest inconvenience of all was not having any electricity for about 50 hours. Well not having cable or Internet for 5 days was a bother too.

I can tell you that our refrigerator has never been so clean. Pretty much everything had to go.

I did manage to save a few important items.

The storm knocked out the power to something like 50 local schools. The kids were supposed to start back on Monday, but the first two days were cancelled. What a way to start the year. Everything seems to be getting back to normal.

Grace leaves for Spain in one week. I'm starting to get a little panicky. David is finishing up his first week of Med school. He's complaining, but I know he's loving every minute of it. Stay tuned, more to come. There always is around here.

Sally

Crazy Times

Sorry I have been MIA all week. We had a bad storm Saturday afternoon which knocked out our power until Monday night. We still don't have cable or Internet, so I'm writing this from work, which I don't think I'm supposed to do. I promise to get back to you with pictures and updates as soon as I can. Sally

We have had two absolutely perfect days here in Louisville. Since I had to spend most of yesterday stuck inside, I decided that I'd make the most of today. I opted for a walk in the park this morning instead of 45 minutes on the machines at the gym. It was a good decision. The park was lovely and both the dog and I got some exercise. Here she is looking for ducks. She would be in that water in a skinny minute if I let go of the leash. To tell you the truth, if it were just a little be cleaner I'd go for a dip too. The weather is going to change for the worse tonight. Storms are rolling in for the weekend, so we might not make it to the zoo or the farmer's market. Instead we are thinking about some inside activities, like visiting the SPEED art museum, or maybe going to see the HELP. I loved the book so much, I'm just not sure how the movie is going to work for me. Keep you posted. Just in case you were wondering, Grace leaves for Spain in 2 weeks.

Sally

Early Signs Of Fall

The children here start back to school next week. That seems very early to me. It has been so hot and humid lately that it seems improbable that summer will ever end. I know better though. Fall is just around the corner. I think I could even smell it this morning. A "cold" front came through last night and took away some of our heat and humidity. It did make it up to 87 degrees today, so I wouldn't call it exactly chilly, but way more bearable than 97 degrees.

My mums are starting to bud and this tiny little branch on our Japanese Maple has turned bright red. Leaves are falling off of trees and those darn cicadas are singing at the top of their lungs and leaving their creepy little shells all over the place.

Sorry about the fuzzy picture, I can't figure out how to get my camera to focus on these critters, but you get the idea. This guy was just stuck to our gate. Lovely.

Sally

Things to do in Louisville

With Audrey visiting, we are doing our best to show her the town. We made her get up at the "crack of dawn" this morning so that she could walk the zoo with us. She probably thinks we are nuts, but she is playing along because she is a good sport.




















After the zoo adventure, we picked up a bucket of chicken and went to visit the Colonel. It just wouldn't be a visit to Louisville without some good old KFC. Did I ever tell you that Alan's license plate is 629KFC and we didn't even have to pay extra. I know, amazing. Anyway, Audrey's visit ends tomorrow and Grace is sure going to miss her. I guess they will just have to do that skipe thing while Grace is in Spain. I guess I'll just have to be doing it too.
Sally

It's Friday!

It's Friday and the girls have run off with my car. That means that I have no excuse for not finishing the laundry that I started last weekend, cleaning the house and maybe, actually cooking something for dinner tonight. Why is it then that I can find a hundred other things to do with my time? Like, read other people blogs, knit, read some more blogs, knit some more. I'm sure you get the picture. Grace just called to let me know that they are going to go see a movie. That gives me about 2 and half more hours to figure out what I'm going to do with a day all to myself, stuck in the house. Any suggestions?

Before I forget, does anyone know how to make orange hydrangeas? I picked up this sweet bunch of flowers at the grocery store this morning and now I'm in love with orange.

Hope you have a happy, oragey Friday!

Sally

Audrey Is Here!

Grace is so excited. Her best friend from Iowa is here visiting for a few days. Audrey flew in to Louisville yesterday and we took her to Lynn's Paradise Cafe for dinner. We didn't know that the restaurant was celebrating it's 20th anniversary, but all of the hoopla going on just added to the bizarre ambiance. We couldn't convince Audrey to order the "Hot Brown" She thought it sounded disgusting. Of course none of us ordered it either, but it is a Louisville tradition, that tourists should try at least once....

I'm sure that we will be hitting the malls and the Pie Kitchen, maybe even the zoo. One of the things that Audrey wants to do while she's here is go to a ZUMBA class with Grace. Too bad that I have to work this evening, or I'd go with them, just to take some pictures for the blog.

Try and stay cool. I know the heat is getting old for most of us.

Sally

Quick trip to Alabama

We just got home from a quick weekend trip to Alabama, so that Grace could visit with her Grandma before she leaves for Spain(in 26 days!)

We enjoyed typical July weather and the best down-home cooking you can find anywhere.

The BIG news in Aliceville is that they now have a SUBWAY. If you know Aliceville, then you know just how exciting that is. We didn't have enough time to eat there, because we had to visit all of the other favorite restaurants on our list. Maybe next time.

Hope you had a great weekend too!

Sally