Sunday, September 28, 2008

Fireproof

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Scott and I went to see Fireproof the movie yesterday afternoon with several couples from our church. This movie is really awesome. I think that it would even benefit single people. I thought the acting was great. This movie really showed how important it is to keep our covenant with God that we make through marriage. This movie was made by the same people that made Facing the Giants and Flywheel. I have not seen either of them, but now I really want to.

Go see if yourself and let me know what you think.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Fall Planting






I have been doing some Fall Planting. Some of my spring/summer flowers were just looking so tired, so, a couple of Saturdays ago, Scott and I drove over to the Growers Outlet and picked out a "few" things. Well, maybe more than a few. I didn't know what they would have or really what I needed. I found some really cheap pots of caladiums, so I bought 4 of them (hey, they were $1 each and each of them had about 5 bulbs!). I split up and planted 2 of them and then I am just keeping the other 2 in the pots so that the bulbs can be planted next year in case the ones I planted don't come back. Also, in case (hopefully) we sell our house and have to start all over with our garden! They had Calla Lilies for $1 or $1.50 according to their size, so I got a few of those to fill in the place in my garden where only 2 of the 4 I planted last year came back. I got two different plants that said they could be annuals or houseplants. I can't remember the name of either of them, but I know the red one was nicknamed "chicken gizzard", which is kind of gross, but it was $ .50 and the purple one I got was only $1. Then, we spent most of our money on some mums. They have large ones 3 for $15 and medium sized ones 4 for $10. So, we got three large burgundy colored ones and 4 medium yellow ones. So, we came home with a truck load of plants for $40!



This was kind of a "spur of the moment" trip. I had gone out into the yard to dead head and water the pots to realize that everything looked so tired and I just couldn't stand it. Even my beloved hanging baskets out front kind of made me want to cry (see that picture to the left, isn't that sad?). But, they are better now, thankfully.






By the time we got back from the Growers' Outlet, we needed to eat lunch, so I kind of lost my steam. I went out there and pulled up all the zinnias (I will never get pink zinnias again BTW, I will only get the orange ones again) and chopped off all the gladiolus. I snipped and pinched everything I could that looked brown from my hanging baskets (I also swapped which side each was on and turned them around) and pulled all the weeds out of my garden areas. Then, I was kind of tired of being outside. So, I decided to "plan" my plantings and "sleep on it". Well, that was a good excuse to not have to dig any holes that day. I paid for this the next day, btw. The picture at the top is not the best picture of our house, but I had to use the "backlight" feature on my camera to be able to see the garden b/c the house was shading it. So, that's as good as it gets. To the left is the picture of the "planning" I did on Saturday. As you can see, I switched the location of the mums, but it is still the same idea. I actually ended up sticking with the original idea I had when I was at the Growers' Outlet.

Instead of planting stuff in the yard, I spruced up some of my already existing house plants by adding the purple thing to one (they had it labeled, but I just can't remember its name) and the red one (the chicken gizzard) to another one, which I had recently bought a new pot for and I repotted altogether. I also potted two of my calla lilies to add color to our basically green house plants, but they are by themselves. I love the way we have our garage set up with shelving and a peg board. My wheel barrow has become my "planting table" when I do a pot. I always keep my big bag of dirt, my small garden tools, my gloves, and my little shaker of fertilizer in there so that when I want to plant stuff in the yard, I can just put the plants in there and wheel everything around. Do you see that spot on the left front of the wheel barrow where my knee pads are? I just moved those and sat my pots in that spot to do my potted plants.






We had our fellowship lunch at church the next day, and I was planning to take a nap and then going out there and planting all that stuff once it cooled off. Well, on our way home, someone called wanting to come that evening and look at the house. This threw us into emergency action. Scott went in after we got home and picked up and vacuumed and put away the dishes while I got on my gardening gloves and planted five mums, two calla lilies, and, once I divided them, 10 caladiums! I was still so full and it was so hot. Oh, I felt so gross out there. I thought I might barf, or pass out, or possibly both. Oh, how glorious my shower felt when I was done. The picture is of the caladiums I planted. They were kind of sad and droopy when we got them home, but now they are pretty perky. I guess they needed some TLC.

Since then, all of our potted plants have perked up as well as my hanging baskets. So, we have two mums that we purchased to be potted plants. So we have LOTS of potted plants for all seasons :o).








Does anyone want a calla lily because I have an extra? Ours are doing great indoors. They like sun and for their soil to stay moist. The one directly in our window in the office keeps leaning towards the sun and I keep having to rotate it. Our mums and caladiums came in the fairly nice plastic pots that kind of look like terra cotta pots, so I'll put it in one of those if you want. You can see if in the picture below, but they didn't come with the saucer. I just happened to have that one already in my stash.


Okay, so this was a really long post about gardening. Sorry. But, I am not done.

I have been reading lately about fall gardening. Apparently this is the perfect time to do fall plantings, but things like mums (and I think bulbs) will only last until the first frost. But, for us, that's like January or something, right? Also, you really aren't supposed to plant pansies until after the first frost, but who can wait that long and who is still selling them by then? I figure that when our potted plants all die, I will replace them with bulbs and pansies (which will take care of winter and the first few weeks of spring). I have our bulbs in the refrigerator. Your bulbs are supposed to have several weeks of extreme cold before they can grow in the spring and since our winters are so short in the South, we have to help them out a little (or something like that, you can google it). I just love mums! I am excited that some of mine are already starting to open up! I also put down a fresh layer of pine straw AND put out Preen because apparently now is the time to prevent winter weeds from growing and both of those help. So, if you haven't done that, you should, for your own sanity, if you hate weeds like I do. (I think that was a run-on sentence or a comma splice, or possibly both; so I apologize for all you grammar freaks).

Monday, September 15, 2008

Nutty Chocolate Caramel Bars

Here is the anxiously awaited recipe for bars that I blogged about, begging for the recipe. The recipe was provided by Elsie Frick, who lives her son and DIL and their 5 beautiful children. Sherri, her DIL posted this on their blog.

Nutty Chocolate Caramel Bars

(makes about 2 1/2 dozen bars)
Prep time:15 minutes
Preheat oven to 350 f

2-1\3 cups all-purpose flour, divided
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, melted
2 cups (12 oz. pkg.) semi sweet chocolate chips
1-1/2 cups chopped walnuts
1 cup (12.25 oz. jar) caramel ice cream topping

Combine 2 cups flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Add butter; stir until all ingredients are moistened. Reserve 1 cup crumb mixture; press remaining mixture into bottom of ungreased 13x9 baking pan.

Bake in preheated 350 F oven for 15 min. or until lightly browned. Remove from oven. Sprinkle with chocolate chips and walnuts. Combine caramel topping and remaining 1/3 cup flour in small bowl; drizzle over chocolate and walnuts. Sprinkle with remaining reserved crumb mixture. Return to oven; bake an additional 20 min. or until lightly browned. Cool completely before cutting into bars.

Oh man, these are SO good. I am sure that I can never make them as well as Elsie does, I am can try! Practice makes perfect, right?

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Sara Welborn's Chicken Casserole

This is the name of the famous chicken casserole that I had at church last Sunday. It was submitted by a lady named Florene Kay. Of course the one I had was made by Kelly and it was excellent!

3 1/2 lb chicken
1 can cream of celery soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 soup can milk
1 box cornbread Stove Top stuffing
1 1/2 c. chicken broth
1 stick margarine, melted

Boil chicken until tender. Cool and remove meat from bones and chop. Place in greased casserole dish. Mix soups with milk well and pour over chicken. Mix stuffing (with 1/2 pkg of herbs enclosed) and mix with chicken broth and margarine. Spread over chicken and soup mixture. Bake at 375* for 40 minutes.

Labor Day



Our Labor Day was a lot of fun. We had our neighbors Nan and John over for grilled steaks, baked potatoes, and salads. Then, to top it all off, we had homemade oreo icecream. Yum-O. Then, of course, for dinner we all donned our college team shirts (GT for Scott and me and UK for Nan and John) and went over to Chick-fil-A for our free chicken strips. It was a great day to just sit around a relax.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Scrapblog

Hello everyone. In case you want to know how I set up my blog, this is how:

I used a website Jennifer sent me a while back to make it three columns (this was before all these cute blog backgrounds in three column format were available).

Then, my new blogging friend Carrie (whose blog I found through my friend Bethany's) has a great "How To" on her blog on how you make the cute header I have. You should read hers to see how, because I don't think I need to re-create the wheel and tell you how here when she's already done it. You can also check out her cute header!

Now, I just need to figure out how to change my background color on the template I have in place. I really don't think I want to use one of the cute backgrounds that lots of people are using, because I have noticed that there is a lag in download speed on those blogs and I like instant gratification when I open my blog!

Blogger help, here I come!

Friday, September 12, 2008

Poll to the right

I saw this poll on the Right@Home website and thought I would poll our readers. Heehee...then maybe I'll tell you my answer!

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Recipes???

I don't know how many people from church read our blog, but I just have to try to get a couple of recipes. (For those of you who don't attend CCMA, we have a fellowship lunch the first Sunday of each month.)

Okay, this past Sunday, I had this chicken casserole that was excellent. It seemed like it had shredded chicken, cream of chicken soup, and stove top stuffing on top. But, that can't be all, right? If you made this or if you know who did, can you let me know? I need that recipe.

Next, there are these layered bars that someone brings a lot. They have some sort of granola-like layers with oatmeal, either caramel or sweetened condensed milk as one layer (possibly both), and chocolate chips in the middle. Oh man...are they good!

So, if you know the creator of these two dishes, please comment and let me know or, if you ARE the creator, please bring me the recipe!

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Date Night


Last Saturday night, Scott and I had a really fun date night. Indiana Jones and the City of the Crystal Skull was playing at the Fox. Just before the movie, they had a wine-tasting. Scott and I neither one really like wine, but we thought that they would have all these different types and we'd find something we liked. Um, no. They had about 3 kinds and they were all gross. Oh well...no big loss.


Every summer the Fox does a Coca-Cola Summer Film Festival, some movies are old and some new(er) at the Fox downtown. We have been to one each summer for the past 3 years. I love it. The first one we saw two years ago was actually Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. It is just so much fun! Before the movie starts, the huge organ at the Fox, the Might Mo, rises up out of the orchestra pit and the organ player plays a couple of songs while a video about the history of the Fox shows. Then, they put words up on the screen and you sing along to several songs. Most of them are songs that they would have sung back with the Fox first opened. We sang "Georgia", "Take Me Out To The Ballgame", "I've Been Working On The Railroad", and "Dinah Won't Blow Your Horn". Then, unlike at the regular theater, during the movie, people clap and cheer during the exciting parts. This was especially true when we saw Raiders of the Lost Ark. Some people at that movie even wore Indiana Jones-type clothing!


Scott and I had already seen the movie, but we really liked it and it's only partly about the movie. We love the Fox and the Might Mo and just having an excuse to go downtown. We also ate an early dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. Mmmmm....


Overall, we had a great time!

Monday, September 1, 2008

A Little Political Humor

My friend Maggie posted this story on her blog. I loved it so much, I thought that I would share it as well. Click here to read this. I think that this puts it so simply, you can't even argue with it! Thanks Maggie!