Because inventive spelling is cute

They framed their creations with paper and spoons. . .

Welcome to Rowan County: A Work In Progress

This county has so much going for it - and this is the best you can say to advertise yourself? "Rowan County: We're Getting There"

I pass this regularly, and had to pull over to take a picture for you (aren't I a good blogger?). Notice that, once again, it's dark and rainy. It has been raining A LOT here! I'm told that it rains more here than anywhere else in Kentucky. I wonder why?

Interesting side note: everyone from Kentucky identifies themselves by their county rather than city. Even people from bigger cities like Lexington say, "I'm from Fayette County."  We live in Rowan County. We're a work in progress.

Visitor Research

We're getting ready for your visit by doing area research. First we tried out Activity A:

Activity A: Throwing Black Walnuts into a field.

Assessment: 30 minutes of fun! Fun factor expected to increase if includes you.

Then on to Activity B: Visit an Apple Orchard (Head there expecting to pick apples and then learn that they just stopped their U-Pick service. Enjoy it anyway)

Remember to eat apple donuts and apple cider along with crisp apples. Come home to discover that Clemmie had taken a bite out of all the apples we gathered from the ground.

While at Orchard, enjoy their rope maze.
Assessment: Super fun, but next time, find an orchard where we can actually pick the apples!

Oh, and enjoy nature while there (aren't those the coolest seeds?)

And finally, Activity C: Attend the Cave Run Storytelling Festival. (While we didn't do it this year, I want to camp during festival weekend in future years)

While listening to a story, view from my left. Festival is on Cave Run Lake, 20 min. from home.

And view to my right.
Assessment: We'll plan on this every year, and would love to do it with you!

*Disclaimer. I know my pictures are really bad. I still only have my iPhone for pics, which are really poor quality. Is the iPhone 4 really better? I'm trying not to let this prevent me from taking pictures/posting. Will remedy soon. By the time you come visit, so then you're not in poor quality photos. :)

Done!

We're pleased with how it turned out. I wanted bright and fun, and I got it. I picked the color to coordinate with the painting on top of it (yet to be hung; one my grandmother painted of me sleeping as a child) and our duvet cover. I got going on it, cleaned and primed it, and my arthritic hand gave out. My knight in shining armor saved the day and ended up doing all the color. Fun, huh?

Random Bit of Info

Y'all have been documenting such wonderful things lately (births, birthdays, cross-country moves, deliveryman debacles, etc.), and I've been meaning to post comments on all of them but haven't had time. (I will, though. I really will.) So, while not as monumental as your recent events (well, except for BB's -- haha!), I thought I'd just drop a quick post about the last week of my life. As a favor for Tonya, one of my best friends, I catered (almost all of) the food for her wedding reception Saturday night. We ended up with about 125 people, but, as I discovered, I made enough for about double that. She had wanted to do southern food with a twist. So, the main course menu included a shrimp and grits bar (served in martini glasses and topped with shredded cheese, crumbled bacon and green onions), seafood Brie mac and cheese (with lobster, crab and crawfish), vegetable tian (which I "southerned up" with the addition of squash, pepper jack cheese, and a crumbled cornbread topping), cabbage, apple and pear slaw (with a whole grain mustard vinaigrette), and watermelon salad (with 24-hour pickled red onions, feta and mint). And, even though they aren't southern, I made (a kajillion...ok, 7 dozen) Parisian macarons tinted to the pale blue of the flower arrangements (the cookies themselves were vanilla-almond and filled with lemon buttercream). I shopped, prepped and cooked for three straight days (over 36 hours total, by my calculation) and, without the assistance from some of my friends (I had three of them peeling and deveining over 600 shrimp until midnight on Friday, while two others were breaking down red and yellow watermelons), I wouldn't have made my deadline.

I felt confident in cooking all of the dishes in small batches, but I was a little concerned that the quality would be diminished with such quantity (I cooked over 20 pounds of pasta for the mac and cheese, if that gives you an idea). However, everything came together, and the food was well received. Most importantly, though, Tonya and Scott were happy. In fact, Tonya, at the end of the night and after a few cocktails, offered me their firstborn, to which I quickly and instinctively replied, "Uh, I don't want your kids." Perhaps I should have been a bit more gracious, but oh, well. They did give me a brand new Cuisinart (mine recently died), which was a much more appropriate gift.

All in all, it was probably the most physically and mentally draining experience of my life, and I loved every minute of it. Just before dinner was served, a friend's mother asked me what medications I was on to be so calm, and I realized that I had been having such a good time I hadn't felt stressed or frustrated at any point over those three days. And it was an amazing learning experience. I talked to Diana Bratton yesterday (who owns Cafe 1217 and Taco Mama), and when I told her how exhausted I was, she simply said, "I know you are, but I can tell you have the bug now. I can hear it in your voice." So, while I may never cook on that scale again, I'm fairly confident that I can handle just about anything in the kitchen from here on out. And I'm already jonesin' for my next gig.

And now it's off to Austin on Thursday for the 10th anniversary ACL -- it's going to be strange that MRJKMC won't be there this time! Miss and love y'all and hope to see you soon! -Sus

one more reason to legalize marijauna

Sat 9/10/11 was a bright day, moderately hot, but feeling it's full 20 degrees cooler that the 104s we had been having. One young man was on his first day as a delivery driver for a gravel and dirt company. He was excited, so excited he ran a car off the road on his first delivery. He reloaded the truck an went for run #2, during which he got stuck in a ditch, requiring a wrecker. Fortified by something, marijuana is a possibility, he ran the next load--18 yards of gravel--out amity road. He missed his turn onto South Moore coming east, but cleverly whipped into the drive at 2428 Amity Road to turn around. He backed out of the driveway with enough force to demolish David's mailbox ( the mail was only a little dusty, David, and the CDs play all right) and continue down into the ditch, you will remember a fairly steep ditch at that. His second wrecker of the day was required.

I always thought the in would be disastrous for someone to try to run over the mailbox because of the ditch which flip them over. but I never considered a running start from our side of the street. The kid now has one car in the ditch, the truck twice, two indestructo mailboxes out of commission, and no job. He might still have a few reefers.

We are making plans to replace what we can on a telephone pole sunk 4 feet into the ground. BB

Two in One Day

Joke of the Day:

"I hear Jello has come out with a new Cook n' Serve. Instead of mixing with milk, you use rum. It's called Cook n' Swerve."

 (I'll give you one guess as to the author. Hint: It wasn't me or the children.)

So. I didn't capture the beauty of Carter Caves State Park (I only have my iPhone camera now, which didn't do well with the overcast, tree-covered day), but here's a few cute/blurry ones of the kids.

When I told Clemmie I was going to take a picture of her, she gathered these leaves, "fowers", to pose with. She now calls herself "Kim-ent"

And this next one I took a few weeks ago (also a dark, rainy day) of Jackson's soccer field, which, while not a great picture, gives you an idea of the mountains here. They're small (we're in the foothills of the Appalacians) and green:

Out of order, but here's our across-the-street neighbor Kevin (Keri, his wife's name is Kim!) showing off a catapult he built. Their children are both students at MSU. The back of their house faces campus. She is a professor there and he works at the local hospital, both of which they walk to:

Back to the soccer field. I took this one to show you the tobacco warehouses in the background. There are drive-through discount tobacco barns all over, but I haven't noticed more smoking here. MSU is "tobacco-free" for the first time this year. Our neighbor grew up farming tobacco every summer.

We got this desk from the First Baptist Church. They had a yard sale to raise money to repair the church, and this was leftover; they were happy for us to haul it away! (We visited last Sunday, but it's a no. Will try the Methodist church tomorrow.) I'm going to spray paint it and use it for my sewing table. Will post the after pics; I'm headed over to my neighbor's garage to work on it right now! (You see it in our back yard, but we ended up hauling it in there right after I took this picture.)

Love,
R

Boys

Look at me posting a picture (look closely to see why this is entitled "boys"). I'm hoping one quick picture will warm me up for more. We're headed to Carter Caves State Park today so heres to hoping I actually take some pictures! Love, R

Not to compete with M&R, but here's another...

 After cupcakes, we took up sidewalk art on the front porch.

Then, we moved on to the presents from her Nana and Papa.  A box of dress up clothes and toys!  Many of them made by her Nana!

A princess dress with matching dress for New Baby!

Complete with cape and gloves and shoes.

And a leotard and tutu for dancing—another of her favorite activities!

Thank you, grandparents, for a super fun birthday!

A Birthday Postcard

Pictures are really quite easy to upload.  This one is of my darling girl playing with the  cupcake set that Essie and BB gave her!  It is really the coolest cupcake set I’ve seen--complete with solid wooden cupcakes, a pan, cake papers, icing, icing pens, and four wooden candles that stick on top.  Since, Grace loves to cook and there are new play kitchen plans in the works, this will be loads and loads of fun for a long time.  Thank you BB and Essie!  It is only one of the gifts from BB and Essie, but one of her favorite.  A birthday video will follow.

Baking the cakes!

 And enjoying them on the front porch.

Gracie prefers vanilla.  I only got chocolate.

My Own Postcard

Dear All:

This is a so-called "postcard" post to let you know what I'm thinking right now. Let's see, I'm thinking that I want to proportionally counter my little brother's attempt to boost his post count by doing "postcard" posts (even if his include cute things that Gracie says). But I've also kept this post at a high level by posting a picture. (See above for a shot of a nice part of the MSU campus.) I'll also note that Mary Clement says "picey" for "spicy," and that Jackson said it "ssvicey." Harry didn't attempt it for a long time, then just said "spicy" slowly.

Ruthie and I have three children and no pets and hope one day to tour Belgium on bicycles.

Back to you, Dave.