Christmas 2008 Pictures

Here are some images of my holiday gatherings!

Christmas Eve is always spent with the Johnsons'. Everyone's dogs are included in the family get-together.

Here is Taylor, my 11-year-old niece, with Chloe.


For those of you who remember a certain curly-headed blonde who was a flower girl in our wedding, here she is now. This is Mackenzie with her mom, Patty.


Here are David's sisters with their "Bub."


For some reason, we always get the urge to get out amongst all the last-minute bustling. Here we are at K-Mart. You can see that Taylor already has on part of her Christmas gifts...her pj pants.


Christmas Day is always spent with my family, the Dugans.

Here's Carla, Liz, and me.


Lex was all about dancing on top of this present. It was a big dump truck that he can ride around on.


AbiLyn looked so pretty.


Here's Lex and AbiLyn with "Papa."

The Thrill of Hope

Merry Christmas everyone! I promise I will have some good pictures up in the next few days. I am at my parents' house playing on my sister's new laptop. Yesterday ended up being okay. I got a text message during the funeral saying the office was closing at 2:00, so I didn't have to go back to work. David and I went to his parents' together for Christmas Eve, and we came home, put food away, and he went to the picket line. It ended up being a very pleasant evening.

Today was very quiet in the way that Christmas often is for people like us with no children. David slept late, I fixed food for my parents' get-together, and then we ventured out for Christmas with my family. It's been fun, and I'm looking forward to 2009.

I hope everyone had a merry, happy Christmas Day! Now I'm off to play a game with everyone: 90s Edition Trivial Pursuit!

Strange Christmas Eve

Sorry about taking so long for an update. It's just been hectic and our computer at home has been having some virus-y problems. It's been an interesting past few days. We've done all the Christmas-y things: decorated cookies, gone to family Christmas reunions, done a tiny bit of shopping, sent a few cards (BTW...We scaled back our card-sending this year, so please don't get your feelings hurt if you didn't receive one.), etc.

However, today is probably going to be the strangest Christmas Eve I've ever experienced. For starters, just call me Bob Cratchit because I'm working. We all came in at 7, so we at least will be able to leave at 4 if they don't let us go earlier. This afternoon, unfortunately, I'll be attending the funeral of a friend, Jimmy Nicholson (probably needs a separate post). After that I'll come back to work and leave at 4 to go to my in-laws for their Christmas. Tonight I'll be coming back to my house alone because it's David's night to walk the picket line.

If any of my readers know me well, they know that I'm very much about routines and rituals and things not changing! So...I might do well to delete this Christmas Eve from my memory. Next year we'll resume as usual.

I know this is sort of a sad Christmas Eve post and that's not at all my intention. There have been some very good things happen in the last few days...quality time spent with friends and family, surprise holiday blessings, and the smack-in-the face, happy-tears moment that sneaks up on me every year when I begin to grasp the awesome wonder of Jesus coming to earth. Those are the things I'm trying to focus on today.

Love and peace to everyone on this day before the big day!

A post in which I rave about snow and ramble about other things

We went to the Johnsons' house tonight for banana nut bread baking! I had been sort of ambivalent about going since it was a weeknight after all, but I made up my mind this morning that I would definitely go. Well as I was leaving work it was really starting to snow! I called David to make sure we were still on for the drive to Smyrna, and he didn't realize how bad it was coming down.

Well, it took a while to get there. At one point on 840 we couldn't even see the lines on the road. Anyway, it was so beautiful! It struck me that even though things aren't great right now even David could still admire the beauty of the falling snow. Combined with everyone's Christmas lights it was breathtaking! His words: "See, aren't you glad you got out?" Thank you, God, for this early Christmas gift!

We're now safely back home. Please say a special prayer for Friday. David's union and the company are supposed to resume negotiations with the help of a federal mediator. If things go well, he could be back to work next week.

Oh, and one more thing...David's mother and sister had begun to question if he had more than one outfit. I promise he has other clothes than that mustard colored tee and brown pants. He just tends to latch on to a particular outfit.

Thanksgiving Pictures

Can you tell I have some time on my hands? Here are a couple of pictures from Thanksgiving festivities.

AbiLyn with her uncles


Lex in the rocking chair


David, his sisters, and his mom


I got gas on the morning after Thanksgiving. My tank was completely on empty, and this is how much a full tank of premium gas cost! Yay!

Christmas Tradition Today

I think I posted about this last year, but today is a Christmas Tradition day. David's sisters' birthdays are December 2 and December 4, so the first Saturday of December we all go to Miller's Grocery in Christiana to celebrate their birthdays, and then we go to the Christmas tree farm. I'm very excited, but it's usually fairly clear and sunny when we go. Today, however, it's overcast and...it's FREEZING! I guess we better bundle up!

UPDATE: We skipped the tree farm, becuase it was so very cold, and no one was even going to buy anything. Miller's was delicious, though!

The Best Things in Life are Free...

My great-grandmother (Mama Dugan) as many of you know is 100 (and a half) years old. Only recently has she been needing someone to sit with her while my grandparents are out. They had a Christmas party to go to last night, so I got to spend the evening with Mama. I wasn't dreading it at all, but I had taken some magazines and a book to read in case things were quiet. Well, they weren't. We talked the entire time they were gone, and oh my goodness the stories I heard. She told me about her first visit to Nashville as a young bride with her new husband. I got to learn about how she ended up meeting a young man from middle Tennessee in the country of Northern Mississippi. She told me stories about my grandmother who passed away when I was five. I learned about revival meetings under brush arbors that her brothers would help to build. It was amazing. I just wish I had had a video camera hidden somewhere, but I'm going to do my best to write down the stories she told me.

Really cool from YouTube

I actually heard the audio of this last year, but I didn't think to look for it on youtube. Cool. Thanks for sending it to me, Liz.

Happy Thanksgiving!

"Gratitude consists of being more aware of what you have, than what you don’t."

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

We celebrated with my family, the Dugans, today. The menu included a smoked turkey from Kirkenburt's, chicken & dumplings, dressing and gravy, sweet potatoes, corn casserole, green bean casserole, broccoli salad, cranberries, AND pumpkin spice cake and fudge pie for dessert!

Oh so delicious! And tomorrow I get to do it all again with the Johnsons!!!

I'm not being sarcastic...I'm really excited.

Secret Desire

Yesterday was the last race of the season. Not only are there winners every week in NASCAR, but there is one ultimate winner of the whole season. For anyone who doesn't know...each driver accumulates points every race by leading laps, winning races, finishing in the top ten, etc. At the end of the season there will be a Sprint Cup Champion. This creates a very weird situation. The Sprint Cup Champion may not necessarily win the last race, so there are two victors at the end of the last race.

Yesterday Jimmie Johnson won an unprecedented third consecutive Sprint Cup Championship. I like Jimmie Johnson and since he's a teammate of my favorite, Jeff Gordon, I was happy.

However Carl Edwards won the race. Carl Edwards seems nice enough, and he was the winner of the big race I went to in Bristol, but he almost seems too good to be true. He also has a signature move. He does a backflip off his car on the Start/Finish line every time he wins a race.



Now, when he won at Bristol I was all caught up in the moment and cheered like crazy with everyone else when he did it, but I secretly want him to face plant one time. It would be sad at first, but once they made sure he was okay...I'd totally laugh.

Almost 2 Weeks

It's been almost two weeks since I posted, so I thought I should at least do an "I'm alive" post. Everything's still the same. Next week is my last week at Party City. So glad to have that behind me.

Oh, and a good thing happened yesterday. About a week after I lost my job I ripped a contact. I was on my last pair. Well, yesterday I finally got to go to the eye doctor and get an exam and some new contacts! I no longer have to squint in the sunlight or get ready practically blind every morning! Yay!

Halloween Weekend Musings

- My in-laws had a wonderful block party at their house on Halloween night. We got to hang out with their neighbors and eat chili around the fire pit.

- Kudos to my sister-in-law Patty for turning away two 13ish year old girls dressed as Hooters girls! She told them "You're a little too old."

- David and I watched Halloween on Friday night...curled up on the couch in a completely dark house. I kept looking behind me to make sure Michael Myers wasn't lurking in the house...super creepy!

- I went to see High School Musical 3 on Saturday. LOVE IT!!

- We forgot to turn our clocks back Saturday night. I got up to go to work at Party City on Sunday morning and thought I would be late, but I ended up being early!

- What is up with long hair on NFL football players? That really gets on my nerves. I would so be pulling that if I was in the game!

Civic Duty

"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."
U.S. Constitution, Amendment XIX
Passed by Congress June 4, 1919
Ratified August 18, 1920

I voted today. Please do the same. Today is the last day for early voting, or be sure to get out on Tuesday!

Sleep, Work, Eat, Work, Sleep...and Repeat

There's not much to post about. I've been working like crazy. I'm finally off for an evening, and I'm at my parents' house for family dinner and the Titans Monday Night Football. It's live from Nashville...pretty cool.

Exhaustion

I finally made it through my first week at two jobs. Wow. I only had to work at Party City 2 nights last week, but the hard part was working there all day yesterday. After work I went to Hermitage to celebrate my birthday with Amy, Katy (2 friends from the Clever Factory), and Paul (Amy's boyfriend). It was a blast and great to see them all again! Amy roasted a chicken and it was so delicious, and she made me yellow cupcakes with chocolate icing (a favorite combination)! We watched the new release of Sleeping Beauty on DVD. That's such a good one!

Friday night was also a birthday celebration. We had lasagna (so delish) at the Johnsons' house. They also got a birthday cake from Sam's (white buttercream on white cake)!

Just because I'm finally getting around to it...here are some pictures from the bonfire at the lake last weekend!

AbiLyn and Lex love to help as you'll see.



Lex with Grandaddy and Mom G.

The hostess with the mostess!

AbiLyn with her friends, Kaylee and Avery Allen

News

I got a job...2 jobs actually. I got a full-time day job in MURFREESBORO! I started yesterday and it's going to be great. I also got a part-time job working for Party City through the first week of November. I start there tonight...Happy Halloween!

In other news...I think my beautiful Land Rover Discovery that I love so much may be dead forever. Thankfully, we can manage with just one vehicle right now. We're going green! HaHa!

I have pictures from this weekend, and I'll get them up sometime. Don't expect too much posting in the next few days, though!

Sunny Days...

I don't know why I have Sesame Street on the brain today, but YouTube is a goldmine. Below are some clips that were my favorite when I was a loyal little PBS viewer!

Fireproof

So good. Go see this movie if you can, but I must warn you to take a hankie. Tears, so many tears.

Pleasantness

We had our first fire of the season last night...in the fireplace. It was so nice.

We opened all our windows yesterday and completely turned off the central heat/ac. We closed most of the windows when we went to sleep last night, but we opened them all again this morning. The house is airing out and it's so lovely.

Our neighbor catty-cornered across the street has a stereo in his garage that plays jazz all day almost every day. I think he's retired. Anyway, I love that he does that. As I type I'm sitting by an open window, hearing music, and a lovely breeze is blowing in.

3rd Annual Sleepover

Good time was had by all. Here's some pictures!

Book Musings

If any of you monitor my What I'm Currently Reading Section, you'll see that one book is firmly planted in there with other books floating in and out.

The book club book for this time is a bit meaty, so I'm reading a chunk of it, then reading something light. Our Kind was no good. Neither was Full Scoop before it. I am learning to decide after a couple of chapters if I like a book or not, so I save myself the time and guilt of dragging slowly through the rest of the book just to say I read it.

I did read a good one between the two sucky ones: Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict. I may have to purchase that one (after I get a job).

Another Thursday

It's been a week since I posted, and what a week.

We had the 3rd annual York Ladies' Sleepover at the lake last weekend, and I'll get some pictures of it up soon. It was a wonderful time.

Saturday David's union voted to strike. I haven't posted this news because I'm very conflicted about the whole union thing. That is one of maybe two things that David and I cannot discuss at length because we'll get into a fight, so I knew I didn't want to rant about it. He very rarely reads here, but I still don't want to rant about it. Anyway, so now we are both without full-time jobs. That has got to change soon. He may be out of work for months, so I've GOT to find something. Hopefully this week or next. At least I'm working two days a week at the publishing house, so I have a reason to get out of the house. He walked the picket line last night from midnight to 4 am, but until then he hadn't really been out since Sunday. Depressing, I know.

Anyway...now you know why there have been no updates. Pretty dark days here.

Hope I didn't bring everyone down too much. I'll post later today with fun cheeriness and anecdotes from our girls' weekend.

What the...?

I was listening to Christmas songs on iTunes tonight (Stay tuned for news of a really cool project.), and I realized I was totally digging it. Today I was in Old Time Pottery dropping off a job application, and I found myself dreamily wandering through the aisles of Christmas decor.

Could it be that my Christmas spirit is making a premature return? It's been pretty much dormant for the past two Christmases, but it needs to hold off just a tad. If I start this stuff now I'll be sick of it by December...no, Thanksgiving.

But, I could go downstairs and watch White Christmas. Hmmm. Do we have any cocoa?

Glimpse into our Life

David opening a new bottle of medication Sunday night:

"Why do they put cotton in a bottle of medicine for emotionally disturbed people?"

He was frustrated trying to get to his prescription, and there was quite a bit of cotton jammed down into the bottle, but at least he could laugh about it.

No luck

I heard back from last week's interview. They picked someone else. Oh, well...keep on keeping on. Not going to give up.

Another thing done

This print has been leaning up against the wall in our office for months. I painted and distressed the frame and, with David's help, hung it in my bathroom.

I tried to do some research about this print, but I couldn't find any information online. All I know is it hung in my house most of my growing-up years, and I have always loved it.

Another Day

Good Morning! For someone without a full-time job, I certainly have been very busy. Tuesday I had the interview. Wednesday I worked at the Methodist Publishing House. Thursday the same. Today I'm finishing cleaning my house, going to
Wal-Mart, and babysitting Lex. I'm glad I don't have to get on the bus and go into Nashville today (unless I get a call about a second interview, then all this will change).

My interview went really well on Tuesday. I'm just waiting to hear back because they were interviewing some other people as well. I left a voice mail yesterday, so maybe today I'll hear something!

Big Day

I want to say huge thanks to everyone for being so supportive both on my blog and on myspace. It's really been nice to know people are thinking of me.

So, keep those prayers and good thoughts going because...I have an interview this morning. At 10:00.

Off to iron my blouse, fix my hair, and in general, look presentable for the first time in about 5 days.

The morning on which I feel guilty

Last night I had to shoo Lucy out of our room and close the door. It was only 1:30, and she kept getting on our bed. We don't mind if she sleeps up there, but she was sitting ON DAVID'S BELLY and bathing and scratching and jingling her little bell on her collar. It was driving me crazy. She moved, and then just started doing it again...and again...and again. I kicked her out, but I feel sort of guilty.

Oh, I had had lots of things I wanted to blog about, so I just did them on Sunday. In case people were wondering if I was bored. Not really...I just finally had the time.

Pet Peeve

Football season has begun, and that's not actually the pet peeve. Football games in the background make for excellent napping.

It's the long hair hanging out the back of helmets. I want so badly to see another player pull it. I can't believe the coaches are okay with it.

Big Project Accomplished

So, you know that room in your house? I know you have one. Room or closet or something that becomes the catch-all room. Ours was our office. It was the office/computer/craft/gift-wrapping/ironing/storage room, and I hated stepping foot in there. Stressful moments have been spent in there, and it was full of unfinished projects that just mocked me. Things I needed to recycle laughed at me when I opened the door. Piles of undone ironing bared their dripping fangs. You get the idea. Well, yesterday I conquered! I cut deep and got rid of a lot of stuff that, if I was honest with myself, I was never going to need or use.

Before:



After:




Looking at the pictures just now I realize maybe it doesn't look that different, but I actually carried two big bags of garbage downstairs. I also cleared some areas that drive me crazy when they're cluttered: the filing cabinet, the floor under and around the computer desk, and the work table. I threw away a bunch of stuff I could have recycled, but for the sake of my sanity I just bit my lip and threw it away. Sorry, landfill!

Aaah!

Cool Thing

I love holiday activities: dyeing eggs at Easter, picking out and decorating a Christmas tree, making Christmas cookies, watching fireworks, carving pumpkins, etc.

However, carving pumpkins is probably the most work. Digging out all the stuff and guts is disgusting and takes forever!

Well, look what good friend Amy discovered! They're Funkins! They're made out of some sort of foam, and they're hollow. You carve them just like real pumpkins but without all the pumpkin snot.

You can't use a candle. They sell special lights for them. You also have to weight them down if you set them on your porch. You can buy them at Hobby Lobby.

Milestone

So, you know when you're dating someone for a while, you have an anniversary. Well, if you marry that person...that old anniversary sort of disappears for some reason. I wonder why. Maybe it's because I have a ridiculous memory, but I always remember mine and David's original anniversary and this year it's extra-special.

Yesterday, David and I had been together for a decade!

September 14, 1998 we became official, started going steady, were exclusive...whatever you call it.

Wow!

I love you, baby!

Happy Birthday, Lex!

I totally missed wishing my handsome nephew a happy birthday here! He turned one on September 6. His birthday party was Saturday night, and here are some pics! The party was at a local park, so momma had to get creative with cleanup! He was loving it though. Can't forget about big sister!
Here's the big happy birthday moment! He totally didn't know what to think about that cake!

Everything's Fine

I'm going to be fine. The shock is beginning to wear off, and I am starting to feel a little more positive about the current situation.

Doors closing and windows opening and all that crap

I had a first yesterday.

I got fired.

Much love and prayers needed.

One More Race Thing

A girl at work did this illustration of me after hearing me talk about going to the race! How cute is that?!

Bristol

Finally, I'm posting about last weekend. Okay, for all the non-race fans that read here let me just talk a little about Bristol and why the August race especially is such a big deal. Tickets to this race are the hardest to get all year. It's a night race under lights which is unusual. It's a short track, only a half-mile (Daytona is 2.5 miles for comparison), which means that there are lots of wrecks and hot tempers. It's in the area of the country where stock car racing began. Finally, tickets in NASCAR are not just put up on Ticketmaster every year. If you bought a ticket to a race at Bristol, for example, the previous year, the track will contact you for the next year and ask if you want the tickets again. If you do, you buy them. If not, the track will sell them. Well, at Bristol, everyone buys their tickets back. So, you basically have to know someone who has tickets but isn't using them to be able to go. One final thing, even though it's a small track/infield, this place is huge. It's the only track that is in a bowl...completely surrounded by seats! It's VERY LOUD!

Okay, now about my experience...try combining Bonnaroo, Mardi Gras, and the Wilson County Fair with 160,000 people and put it in a tiny mountain town in East Tennessee. There you go! It was quite the spectacle, and I had so much fun. We saw two great races, and we also stayed very entertained just people-watching. I got to see Paula Deen! She was the grand marshall of the Friday night race. "Hey Drivers! Y'all start those engines!" So cute! Here's a video of her (you can't see her but you can hear her!


Here are some pictures. They don't even come close to capturing what it was like, but they give you an idea!

This was just looking in one direction from the outside of the track. It was like this all the way around the track. Campers, merchandise trailers, sponsor booths, food vendors, etc.


A bunch of tires.


A giant shopping cart.


The warm-up to the Nationwide race on Friday. The Nationwide series runs on Friday nights or Saturdays usually. It's one step down from the Sprint Cup series which is the big Sunday race (but they ran on Saturday night in this case).


"The World's Fastest Half-Mile"


Dad, my racing buddy. We had such a great time on this trip, and I'm glad I got to experience it with him!


The pit crews during the opening prayer and national anthem.


The start of the Sharpie 500 on Saturday night.

Finally, here are a couple more videos. The first one is a pit stop during the Sprint Cup race on Saturday night. The second is after a wreck that was so bad they had to red flag the race, which means the drivers had to come to a stop, they couldn't even pit until they got the track cleaned up. There was gas and oil everywhere.

Update Soon, I Promise

I will have an update here as soon as possible. I have pictures from Bristol to post and stories to tell, but I'm just finding it hard to get up in the mornings and that's really my only time to update here. Talk to everyone soon!

Lazy Lucy

Here's a picture of Lucy that I took after we got home on Sunday. She's not rolling over. She's just laying like that. She does it a lot, and it's hilarious!

David read somewhere that cats only lay like this when they feel very safe and comfortable, but I think she's just crazy.

Why, Georgia, Why?

Sorry it's taken me so long to check in about our trip this past weekend. We had a wonderful visit with David's grandparents. They are typical grandparents in that they are so thrilled when we come visit. They were wonderful hosts and we truly felt at home.

For the second time, David and I visited Stone Mountain Park, and for the second time we were driven home by rain without seeing their favorite laser show. Oh, well...it was a nice day and we got to ride a duck. It's a WW2 era bus that drives on land with wheels and then drives down a boat ramp (very quickly, I might add) into the water and becomes a boat!

Here are a few pics from the day. They give you little duck bills to wear that make a quack noise. They were pretty fun. I gave mine to AbiLyn. I hope she's torturing her parents with it.

This is a one-lane covered bridge that was moved to Stone Mountain from Athens, GA. I thought it was cute, but the lighting wasn't quite right.


Next up on the month-o-traveling...Bristol. Dad and I are headed to race weekend in Bristol, TN on Friday morning! I can't wait!

Hot-Lanta!

David and I are leaving for Atlanta tomorrow! We're going to visit his grandparents for the weekend, and I am so excited!

Expect pictures next week.

Little girls

Last night was my favorite Olympic event...the women's gymnastics team competition. I love watching this, and last night I experienced several emotions while doing so.

At the beginning one word came to mind...vomit. That is totally what I would do if I was one of these girls. The pressure is unbelievable when you realize that these girls have been training with this specific Olympics in mind for a large portion of their life.

The big contenders for the gold were the U.S. and China. With China's big push to beat the U.S. in the medal count, I really wanted to see the U.S. win gold...everyone did. Well, things went really well until the third apparatus...balance beam. The first girl up for the U.S. fell off. She looked destroyed. Then the next activity, and last, was the floor. The same girl fell on a tumbling pass and then stepped out of bounds. The look on her face when she came off the floor was so heartbreaking. The next two girls for the U.S. also stepped out of bounds. I couldn't watch anymore.

I did flip back over a few minutes later and experienced something strange. China was now on the floor and the girl they were showing was one they had been telling a personal story about before. The Chinese gymnasts are separated from their parents from the time they are about three years old. They only see them maybe once a year. This particular girl had called her parents at one point and told them she wanted to come home, and they said no. They knew she would have a much better life as a gymnast than as an ordinary girl in China. These girls from the U.S. will be absolutely fine...they'll go to college, have a family, and probably open a gym somewhere, but these girls from China have nothing but gymnastics. I haven't checked the news yet, but I'm pretty sure China won gold, and for those little girls' sakes...I'm actually glad.

Excited!

Will anyone else be watching the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics tonight?

I have to say...I love the Olympics. All the ceremony and fanfare! It's just so exciting!

This time has been interesting. It's been like a car wreck that I can't not look at. To watch China, a communist country with a despicable human rights record, try to put a good face on everything and impress the world has been downright amusing.

At first, I wasn't going to watch the Olympics this year. I was going to boycott. But, no, this is just too good. I'll be tuned in tonight to see the spectacular!

Altercation

Take two little boys right around a year old. Let them both be learning to walk, one pretty confident...the other not so much. Put the little walker baby shoes on them with the hard soles. Now contain them in the nursery where they keep getting in each other's way and wanting to play with the same toys.

Yeah, those soles would hurt when you get whopped upside the head with them.

Lex is starting to walk, and he's just a little behind his buddy, Dallen, who is four months older.

156

156.

That's how many ears of corn Mom, Mom Glenda, Liz, Carla, and I shucked, creamed, cooked, and bagged on Saturday. It's now resting quietly in our freezers until some cold day this winter when we get a hankering for fresh corn.

I felt like a farmer's wife.

A New Discovery

Let me just tell you about a wonderful little time waster here on the web known as Etsy.

It's like a cool outdoor flea market on the web. People sell their handmade items there. It's not always the cheapest, but there is the coolest stuff there! I may start sharing some of my favorite recent finds, like this and the crocheted food toys like this and this.

Every single morning...

Step 1: Take icy cold cup from person in drive-thru window and place in vehicle cup holder.

Step 2: Tap straw against steering wheel until it breaks through the wrapper. Pull straw out with teeth.

Step 3: Throw wrapper into passenger seat; place straw in cup.

Step 4: Take long delicious, fizzy, burning drink that makes your eyes water!

Step 5: Continue process until all Diet Coke is removed from cup.

I love my first drink of Diet Coke in the morning, and if you'll notice, I do all this while still driving with my left hand.

Holy Grail

I feel like I have found the Holy Grail. I've been in search of decent bobby pins for my hair for a while. Part of the problem is that hair doodad companies have now become so cheap and flimsy (also spoons and forks at fast-food places, but that's another post). Anyway, I've tried every kind of large bobby pin available at drugstores, target, etc. A couple of weeks ago I was in Sally Beauty Supply and lo and behold they had large bobby pins...like a big plastic jar of them, and they looked very sturdy. They have proven to be excellent bobby pins, so I'm just spreading the word. Buy them up, I guess, but I think they'll hold up for a while.

Bread

I've been trying this new bread from Kroger that you have to let thaw and rise before you bake it. Well, the first time we used it we let it thaw overnight in the fridge, but it didn't rise enough. So, the next day I let it thaw on the counter all day. This is what I came home to.