The Best Thing I Ever Ate: Sandwiches

I don't know if you've ever seen the Food Network's show The Best Thing I Ever Ate, but if you haven't, or even if you have...basically it works like this: For each show, there is a "theme," like breakfast foods, or steak, or something like that. Various food-industry celebs then describe the best whatever they had ever eaten.

Anyway, the point is this: Sunday, I had the best sandwich I have ever eaten in my life. My friend Casi and I had lunch at a restaurant called West Egg Cafe. I had the Fried Green Tomato BLT, which consisted of fried green tomatoes (obviously), crisp bacon, field greens, and--to kick it up a notch--a spread of pimiento cheese on each slice of perfectly buttered and toasted challah bread.

Good grief.

Each bite was a little piece of heaven. I'm not exaggerating in the least.

It was that good. So good it deserved to be commemorated on my blog.

Fairy Princesses

Saturday, we went to Amelia's friend Tanner's house for Tanner's fairy princess birthday party. Amelia talks about Tanner A LOT, and she was very excited about this party.

First, look at this cake table. Tanner's mom (a fellow English teacher and friend) is an insanely talented baker/cake decorator. Don't you just want to pull up to this counter with a fork and dive in?


I wish I had gotten a better pic so you could see all the details, but I didn't want to be obnoxious and hold up the good eatin' so I could get food photos.

Amelia was obsessed with Tanner's play microwave oven, so much so that she had to take it to the table with her while she had cake and cheese puffs.
I took this cute pic of Tanner and Amelia playing with this baby stroller. How sweet.
But then, of course, in typical todder fashion...things got a little hairy when they BOTH wanted to push the stroller.
It ended well. They're still friends. :-)

It was a really cute party...and Amelia even received fairy wings that she put on as soon as we got home.

Book Thoughts: The Glass Castle

This past year, one of my AP students read this book for a non-fiction independent reading assignment. After she presented on it--and after claiming it was one of the best books she had ever read--I really wanted to read it.

It's the childhood/early adulthood memoir of author/news contributor Jeannette Walls. Her parents, though intelligent, were basically delusional, broke, and negligent, yet Walls and her siblings somehow persevered among the chaos and nomadic lifestyle they were forced to endure.

Although I really liked it and found it inspiring (I don't use that word lightly), I found it really disturbing at times. (One night I actually had bad dreams based on a scene from this book.)

This book has actually been assigned as a summer reading book choice for 9th grade (I think?), and I hope that if any kids read it, they see how they can still rise above their circumstances and become "something."

Impromptu Mini-Vacation

Last week, Darryl and I decided we needed a family getaway...as soon as possible. We decided to take Amelia to Dollywood and Dollywood's Splash Country so that our girl could have a blast.

We drove to Gatlinburg on Friday, checked in to our hotel, and strolled the tourist-packed streets. I had to make a stop at this place:

When I was a wee youngster and my family went to Gatlinburg, we always stopped here for fudge and divinity. Theirs is the best. Anyway, I picked up some peanut butter fudge and some milk chocolate fudge; I like to mix them together. :-)

Okay, enough about fudge.

So then we went to Bubba Gump's for dinner. We weren't really dying to go there, but it was close and didn't have much of a wait. I wasn't very impressed with Bubba Gump's.

Then we went back to the hotel and swam in the pool, and Amelia enjoyed sliding down the waterslide with Daddy:
Saturday we went to Dollywood. I know this might come as a shock to you, but it was HOT. (Later, it rained and cooled everything off just a bit.) I was very surprised by how uncrowded it was. We didn't really have to wait in any lines. Of course, we hung out in the kids' section most of the time, but we didn't have any waits in the restaurants or anywhere else. Here are just a few shots of the fun:




One thing that Amelia really enjoyed--that I couldn't take a photo of--was the children's theater productions. Because of the heat, and later the rain, we enjoyed the air-conditioning while we watched the stories The Little Engine that Could and Llama Llama Red Pajama come to life on stage. Amelia didn't really react very much, but her eyes were GLUED to the stage. On the way back to the hotel, she kept saying, "Wanna see Blue Engine TV again." (There was a TV over the stage the featured little guest appearances by Dolly herself. Seriously...can you look at Dolly Parton and not smile? It's impossible.)

Before I move on, let me also say that Dollywood really is a wonderful theme park. It is extremely clean and well-kept, and it is probably the only theme park I've been to where the food is really delicious. A good bit of it is country cooking, and it doesn't disappoint.

On Sunday--Father's Day--we went to Splash Country. Then we realized why Dollywood wasn't crowded...apparently everybody was at Splash Country. It was packed. PACKED. And after spending a day at Splash Country, I must pose this question:

Are Darryl and I the only two adults on this earth who do not have tattoos?

Anyway, Amelia loved this park as well because she loves anything that has to do with water. We again enjoyed seeing her have fun, but there were just too many people there.

(I didn't take any pics at Splash Country because I didn't want to risk damaging my camera.)

That evening, we went to dinner at a place called The Apple Barn in Pigeon Forge. We had eaten there three years ago and really liked it. We had a good dinner, then strolled around a bit outside. Here's a sweet daddy-daughter pic:
It was a good weekend, and the time away was just what we needed.

A Glee Clip for Your Viewing and Listening Pleasure

I just discovered it is NPH's birthday (and can I just add that I'm also happy to report that he is just a mite bit older than I am--that's happening less and less these days), so I'm sharing this clip to bring you some NPH joy. I've loved him since he was Doogie. Anyway...this is from one of my favorite episodes of the season for several reasons, this being one of them. I equate it to a vocal fistfight as they compete for the role of Jean Valjean (or, as one of Tim's students wrote once, "John Val John") in a community theatre production of Les Mis.

The last week...and an update

In my last post, I mentioned that Amelia and I went to Florida for a few days. Darryl found out rather last minute that he needed to go to London (and yes, I contemplated going with him, but the plane tickets were outrageous!), so rather than sit around amidst packed boxes at the house, Amelia and I went to Florida to visit family.

I must say that Amelia did VERY well in the car for the trip there and back. Thank goodness. We went down there on Saturday and came back on Wednesday.

Our plan Sunday morning was to go to the beach because goodness knows when we would get to enjoy it again. Even though it looked kind of cloudy, we went ahead with our plans because we could think of many times in the past that we had canceled beach trips because it looked rainy, and then it would brighten up again, making us wish we had gone anyway. So we packed up all the gear--an umbrella, beach chairs, beach toys, an icebox, the whole shebang. Once we were loaded in the car, I turned my key, and...NOTHING. My battery was dead. And then it started POURING rain. I love this pic--my dad laughing at the ridiculousness of it all and an unfazed Amelia eating raisins in the backseat:


On Tuesday, however, the weather was beautiful, so my mom, Amelia, and I went. This is more like it:

Nothing like eating Cheetos at the beach!

Anyway, while we were there, boats started patrolling in the distance, looking for evidence of oil. Official-looking people were also walking along the shore, examining the seaweed. It was kind of eerie:
That evening (Tuesday), my mom, Amelia, and I met my Aunt Winifred for dinner. My dad and his brothers (one of whom is Aunt Winifred's husband) had gone on a fishing trip, so we had a girls' night out. It was good to see her again!

And somewhere in there (Monday?), we visited some with Darryl's family. Amelia enjoyed playing with her cousins! (And forgetful me forgot the camera.)

When we returned Wednesday, Amelia and I went to a birthday party for my cousin Larson. We have some wacky age differences on my mom's side of the family; Larson is my first cousin, but he is only a year older than Amelia. Anyway, I forgot my real camera and had to resort to my iPhone one. Here's a pic of the birthday boy blowing out the candles:



Wednesday was indeed a long day and we both just collapsed when we got home.

Darryl finally returned on Friday and we were glad to have him back!

Saturday, we found out that our house wasn't going to sell after all. It was ultimately decided that the mortgage company has to go by the current FEMA flood map, and unfortunately that has us in a Grade A Flood Zone. Even though poor Darryl had fought it by getting an engineer and a surveyor out here to determine that we are 3.5 feet ABOVE the 100-year Flood Plain, it wasn't enough. (By the way, that was what we were instructed to do...we can only hope it will help us in avoiding having to pay an exorbitant price for flood insurance.) It stinks, and we're bummed, but we also realize that, as they say, "this too shall pass." And we are fortunate. We have jobs; we have a home. There are many people out there right now who can't say the same.

In an effort to have a little "me time" and get away from the packed boxes in the house, I went to the Princess Diana exhibit at the Atlanta Civic Center yesterday.
I was very impressed with it. I was able to see her wedding gown (with the 25 ft. train!) and some of her dresses. There were some other things there--drafts of speeches she made, childhood memorabilia, etc.--but my favorite was the dresses. I'm not sure why that is...I mean, I'm not really a fashionista myself...but I love the dresses. (When we went to the Smithsonian about 10 years ago, my favorite part was the Inauguration Ball gowns of the first ladies.) Anyway, I was very glad I went.

So...that was last week. On a side note, I currently am watching (while I blog, so is that really watching?) an old Grey's Anatomy episode on Lifetime. It has made me realize how much better this show used to be than it is now. :-(

The Summer Thus Far--List Version

1. We're still in limbo with the house. Sigh.
2. Darryl had an impromptu business trip, so Amelia and I are in Florida visiting the fam.
3. Last week, I caught up on Glee. While I have some issues with storyline continuity at times (what happened to make Jesse switch back to Vocal Adrenaline and smash an egg in Rachel's face?), the show still makes me smile. And that episode that had both Neil Patrick Harris and Idina Menzel? Awesomeness.
4. I have seen Beauty and the Beast more times than I care to mention in the past week.
5. You know how you can go and go and go and go, and then when you slow down, you feel like you've hit a wall? I think I've hit that wall.

Limbo

We've been living in limbo for the past few weeks with our house situation, and it stinks. Do we continue to pack? Do we stop packing? Do we remain optimistic? Do we prepare ourselves for the fact that we might not be moving after all?

First we had the appraisal issue. We braced ourselves for the fact that we very likely were not moving. Then, miracle of all miracles, a second appraisal was done that was in line with what we were asking for the house. Hooray! Jubilation! We were going to be moving into our house after all!

Now we have another issue regarding the flood zone, so we're trying to get that worked out. We're somewhat optimistic it will be worked out, but at the same time, we're trying to brace ourselves for the worst.

It's getting old, this living in limbo thing. I don't like feeling unsettled, and I feel very unsettled. Our house is in disarray because we're kind of halfway packed. I sometimes catch myself thinking about things I want to do with the "new" house, but then I have to remind myself that there might not be a new house.

Very frustrating, to say the least.

Cross your fingers for us!

Always on the go

I haven't posted any Amelia pics lately, so I figure it is about time...

I was trying to take some pictures of her in this dress that I love one Sunday afternoon, but she was really in no mood to be still...