Somebody Help Me!

Can anybody tell me why I can't get an extra space between my paragraphs? I used to be able to just hit enter twice, but for some reason, that's not working anymore. It looks correct in Blogger when I compose it, but when I publish, the extra spaces are gone.

Scuppernongs and Spider Lilies

Can you feel a hint of fall in the air? A couple of weeks ago, I thought it could, but now it's back to 90 degrees every day! Nevertheless, I can tell that fall is on the way. I know because the scuppernongs are ripe and the spider lilies are blooming. It's past summer, yet too early for "real" fall weather, but I still love this time of year. We're back in school, settled into a routine, and I'm enjoying these September traditions.

When I was a little girl, my great aunt and uncle (I talked about him here) had a huge scuppernong vine, and I loved to go down there and pick and eat scuppernongs. Now I don't really call them scup-per-nongs. We've always referred to them as SCUP-uh-nuns. Some people call them SCUP-lins too. There's no telling how many of those things I've even in my lifetime!

I also love to see the spider lilies blooming. Some people just think they're weeds, because you usually see them growing wild. But they are actually bulbs that you plant. I even found a place to order them. I remember having them in our yard when I was a kid, and cutting them to take to my teachers at school.

It's also peanut picking time. Pretty soon we'll be smelling freshly plowed up peanuts all around. I love that smell. I can't really describe it; it's something you just have to experience for yourself. My daddy was a farmer, so I grew up with that smell, and also with the sound of the dryers running all night long drying loads of peanuts before they were carried to the buying point. Oh, and boiled peanuts....I love boiled peanuts, but I actually prefer regular field peanuts to the big "boiling" peanuts. I guess it's because that's the ones I grew up eating.

I guess I love all these things because they remind me that fall really is on its way, and it gives me something to look forward to! I just can't put out pumpkins in early September, so at least I've got these things to enjoy!

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In other news, I'm busy collecting money and making plans for a steak dinner on Friday night. A BIG steak dinner! My FBLA chapter, along with the FFA chapter, does two steak dinner fundraisers each year--September and March. Y'all, this time we have sold 320 plates! So, all week I've been collecting money and making plans for that. My sweet husband grills all those steaks for us, and the other teacher and the students and I handle the potatoes, rolls, salads, and desserts. They are de-lish! It's a great fundraiser, but I will be worn out by the end of the night!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch....

I had a teacher who loved this expression, and it seems quite fitting for this post. While I was off having fun last weekend, this is what was going on at my house. (Thanks to my mom for housesitting while we were gone.) I arrived home to find this...

Oh yes, it really is as bad as it looks. Remember the little project I started this summer? Well, it wound up whipping me! After reaching a stumbling block with the wallpaper, we decided to research our options, meaning, see if we could paint over the wallpaper. Because it had a texture, we removed the top layer, and left the backing paper. Everyone we talked to and everything we read indicated that yes, you can successfully paint over wallpaper, if you use an oil-based primer. So, that's what we did. However, when we reached the point of trying to do some repairs to the wall, we decided it was just more than we could do, and decided to hire someone. So, the guy came last week to start on it. He thought he could apply a skim coat of joint compound, then sand it and paint. Well......that seemed like a plan, until the wallpaper underneath started to bubble and turn loose! We couldn't believe it. Everybody said if you used the oil-based primer, it would be fine. I don't know if this was some weird type of wallpaper or what, but we sure couldn't get it to turn loose when we wanted it to, and then when we didn't want it to, it did! (I hope that makes sense.)

So, we were left with two options. (1) Skim coat the walls, pray it loosened all the wallpaper like it did in the sample spot, peel it off, and skim coat again. Or (2) tear out the drywall and start over. Since time is money, quite literally when you're having this kind of work done, we decided it would be easier, faster, and therefore cheaper to just tear it out and start over. The demolition started over the weekend, and now this is where we are...

Yes, those walls are purple! We decided to use with the mildew and moisture resistant sheetrock, boy, is it purple!!!!! This has been (actually still is) an ordeal, but I think it will all be worth it when we're finished. We had a problem with the ceiling above the shower mildewing. We had installed a larger exhaust fan and placed it almost right over the shower, but were still having problems. The guy who is doing all this said he was afraid that the mildew might have gone all the way through the drywall. I'm hoping that all we're doing will take care of this problem. We're using the mildew resistant sheetrock, don't have any wallpaper that might be trapping moisture, and we are painting with exterior paint that has had a mildew resistant additive mixed in. If this doesn't work, you'll be hearing me scream!

Another "benefit" of this project is that I'm getting tile on the floor. We had put down vinyl when we built 10 years ago, but had planned to put down tile at some point. Since the baseboards are already torn out, this seemed like an ideal time to go ahead and do the tile. I'm keeping the lights and plumbing fixtures, but I think the painted walls and tile floor will be a really nice facelift! And there will NEVER be anymore wallpaper in my house!

Hope I have more to show you soon!

Wanna see where I was last night?

Unfortunately, this poor-quality cell phone photo is the only picture I have from the night. I had called the civic center yesterday morning to see if cameras were going to be allowed inside, and the lady said yes. However, when we arrived last night, there was a sign posted stating per the artist's request, only disposable cameras and small digital cameras would be allowed. No professional cameras or lenses. Because I'm so stupid such a rule-follower, I showed them my camera, and explained that I am certainly no professional photographer, but they said because it was a "professional looking" lens, I could not bring it in. Why didn't I just wait for them to ask me what was in that huge black, tacky-looking, bag that looked nothing like a purse? I seriously doubt I could've sneaked it by them though!

Despite the lack of photographs, we had a fantastic time! Miranda Lambert was the opening act, and she did a great job. Of course, Kenny was awesome! He puts on a really high energy, fun show.

This was our anniversary present/trip. We found out about the concert back in June, and decided that since it was so close to our anniversary, that we would do this as our celebration. We also had a nice dinner at Ted's Montana Grill. If you've never heard of it, it's a restaurant owned by Ted Turner, and most, if not all, of the meat comes from his ranches. We had eaten at one in Atlanta several years ago, and decided to try it again last night. Both times the food was excellent!

Today we met up with a friend of mine from high school, John, and his wife, Kristee. John was my best friend in high school, kind of like the brother I never had. We had a nice, long, leisurely lunch at a local restaurant called Food Glorious Food, and let me say, it was indeed glorious! The entrees were good, but the dessert was fabulous! We had key lime pound cake. Yum, yum! We don't get to see them very often, but when we do, we pick up right where we left off, just as if we talk every day! They are such a sweet couple, and we enjoyed catching up with them today!

Hope you're having as good a weekend as I am!

**Can any of you tell me why I can get an extra space between my paragraphs, even though I'm hitting enter two or three times? I fix it, re-post, and it's still the same. It's driving me crazy!

What a Rover!

To borrow Darby's phrase, I think I have a rover too! Luke is all over the place, and into everything! Here are some images of our morning so far...

In a quest to find something he will be interested in for more than five seconds, I dragged out the LeapFrog Fridge Phonics set that had been Matthew's. That worked for about 10 minutes. (Please overlook the mess on the counters...it's getting cleaned up today, or I'm gonna go crazy!)

After losing interest in the Fridge Phonics, he was back to his old tricks. This child gets into the movie cabinet every chance he gets. We've disciplined him for it, but apparently the temptation is just too great. Now the issue is not so much him taking the videos out of the cabinet, it's that he also opens the cases and takes the discs out, and takes the covers out and tears them! But now, not only can he open the cabinet and get a video, he can also turn on the DVD player and put the disc in! He's not even two, and he's already operating the electronics! Let me show you....

Hmm...let me see what I want to watch this morning.

"I Love Toy Trains" looks rather interesting.

This is odd. She's usually upset when I do this, but today she's taking my picture.




Here goes...let me find the right button.

Show time!

Oh Mama, enough with the pictures!

A House Divided...or is it United?

Yes, we are one of those families. You know, where the husband and wife share different football loyalties? Thankfully, ours isn't quite as severe as some I know. Tracy is an Auburn fan, always has been, always will be. I started out an Auburn fan growing up. I'm really not sure how I arrived at being an Auburn fan....my parents really couldn't care less about football. Anyway, I was an Auburn fan until I was in high school, and then my loyalties somehow changed to FSU. Go Noles! Allow me to name-drop a little....Mickey Andrews, FSU's defensive coordinator, is my cousin. "Wow!" you say? Well, don't get too excited. Actually, Mickey's mother and my grandmother were first cousins. He doesn't know me from Adam! However, I have met him once, and there's a bit of humor in that story.

Granny's youngest brother, J. I., became a second father to me after my daddy died. He was an interesting fellow. He never married, although he and my "Aunt" Mary dated for nearly 50 years. They lived about two blocks from each other and had their standard Friday and Saturday night dates, and would talk on the phone during the week. So sweet! Anyway, Uncle J. I. was one of those people who never met a stranger. He had worked at the local Army base when he was young, then as city clerk, and after he retired from that, became a part-time funeral director. So, he knew everybody in the county, or at least could figure out some connection to them! So, when he passed away, there was a good sized crowd at the visitation. I spotted this man way back in the line, that I knew I knew, but couldn't place him. I thought I had seen him on TV, and decided he must be somebody in law enforcement, since Uncle J. I. knew all those people from working for the city. Finally, before he got close enough to speak to us, I grabbed a good friend of the family and asked who the man was. In a pronounced Southern drawl she replied, "That's Ennis's boy Mickey," like he was (and is) just anybody from the community. DUH! I HAD seen him on TV, just not arresting anybody! Anyway, of course I was incredibly excited, and probably sounded like a blubbering idiot when I talked to him and told him what a big fan I was, but he was very, very nice. So that was my one-time meeting with Mickey Andrews.

Anyway, back to the football....since Auburn and FSU aren't big rivals, it works out pretty well in my house. Tracy & I both pull for both teams. We will be watching the Auburn game tonight, and the FSU game on Monday night. But if those two ever go back to playing each other (as they did back in the '80s, I think), there will probably be a division!

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Since it's a long weekend, I'd love to do a little cooking. I normally hate to cook. I love to bake, but hate to cook, and there is a difference in the two. We're also trying to cut back on eating out, and I have decided to try to use my crock pot more. If any of you have any great, easy crock pot recipes, I'd love to hear about them!

Enjoy the football and the long weekend!

Win, Win, Win!!!!!

My blog buddy, Hillary, is celebrating her birthday this week with lots of giveaways! I think she's planning one for every day, and so far, they are pretty awesome! Head on over and sign up! And if you win the Homemade Gourmet prize instead of me, I'll be expecting an invitation to dinner! :-)