I’m doing a happy dance in my kitchen - looky, looky what I got in the mail today… a beautiful box of fabric from my favorite fabric store, Fabric Bliss! I can’t stop petting all these yummy fabrics; it’s an addiction. Hi, my name is Amy and I’m a fabriholic…

I don’t know where I first heard of Fabric Bliss… maybe I was doing a Google image search for a certain fabric and she had it, I just don’t remember. What made me fall in love with her store was the remnant boxes. Although her kooky descriptions and irreverent newsletter didn’t hurt! The remnant boxes are stuffed with less-than-a-yard bolt ends in a box and sold at a great price. Since I like to buy smaller pieces of fabric so I can offer more variety and avoid having a thousand diapers in the same print floating around, the remnant boxes are perfect for me. I bought my first one about a month ago and as soon as it arrived I started bugging Jen about when she’d offer them again.

While I stalked the store watching for more remnant boxes I fell in love with some let’s be honest here - a bunch of her fabrics. I made a wish list and calculated the total for a yard of each fabric. Then I sat down and put my head between my knees to recover from the sticker shock. Not that Jen has bad prices, I just had a loooooong list!

Feeling sorry for myself because I couldn’t afford all the fabric I loved, I emailed Jen to see if she ever sold amounts under a yard. I didn’t think she would - a yard is the standard minimum - but she surprised me by saying she would. Woo hoo, happy dance! Feed my addiction, Jen!

I cut my list down to the bare bones then emailed the order to Jen. At the same time remnant boxes became available again, so of course I had to get another one. Don’t tell the kids where the Dairy Queen money went… That’s the box that arrived today - Jen even combined both orders to save me money, how sweet is that?

I can’t wait to get the fabric all washed up so I can make it into adorable diapers. I wonder what’s in the washing machine right now… Sorry family, no clean clothes for you today - I have fabric to wash!

We wrapped up our first day of vacation with dinner at Teacher’s brother’s house. We hadn’t seen Brian’s family for a couple of years so we were looking forward to it.

It had been so long since we’d seen them that we’d never met their youngest yet. Jaden is almost 3 and potty-trained already. I wish my kids trained that easily!

Jo-Bear and cousin Cameron got along like a house on fire. What the heck does that mean anyway? I mean, what would an on-fire house get along with? Water? Wind? What a stupid phrase anyway. I guess it’s no surprise the boys get along considering they both have a love of video games and annoying their sisters.

The oldest, Maddie, is growing up so quickly. I know she’s not much younger than Angel Face but I was surprised to see the little girl I remember replaced by a “tween” - complete with giggles.

This is Teacher’s brother, Brian - a real smartass. You can tell by the look on his face he thought I wouldn’t take his picture if he flipped me off. Wrong! He shoulda known better.

Every time we see Brian he looks more and more like his dad. He talks and acts like him too… except for the finger thing; that’s 100% Brian.

Here’s a photo of Grandpa - can you can the resemblance? It’s especially strong around the eyes and when they laugh.

Kris and Jaden started the badminton tourney going. It was a blast - teams were in a constant state of change as people jumped in and out of games and changed sides at the drop of a hat.

Who’s winning?

Jo-Bear and Angel-Face set their feuding aside to be a team for a while. It was nice to see them working together instead of sniping at each other. College Boy and Princess went through this phase at the same age, then Princess and Angel Face did too. They came out of it eventually so now I’m waiting for Angel Face and Jo-Bear to get through it… and waiting… and waiting… still waiting…

Z-Man and Jaden were soooo cute trying to play too. I don’t think they hit the birdie more than once, but they had tons of fun trying.

Of course Little Guy had to be in the middle of things…

He’s sooooo cute!

Whew, badminton is hard work! Teacher joined in while Jaden and Z-Man take a break. When do we get S’mores??

Time for a break! Princess always smiles for photos. She’s learned that I won’t give up until I get a photo of her.

Angel Face usually avoids the camera but this time she surprised me with a beautiful smile. Wow, she’s growing up pretty… look out boys, you won’t know what hit you!

Teacher’s playing around with his camera, which used to be mine. We’d planned to get him one, but instead he made me get a new one and he took my old one. He’s sweet that way.

At the end of a long day there’s nothing better than relaxing by a fire and eating S’mores. Life is good!

More vacation on the way…

Pardon the pun, but I’m soooo excited about my new necklace from Little Gems! Karen was fantastic to work with too - very patient with my pickiness. Sorry for being such a pain in the butt, Karen!

This is the original necklace Karen stocked at our last Lily Pad Landing stocking. It caught my eye right away except for the ribbon charm. I’m more than willing to support various causes but I’m not into ribbon jewelry. After peeking at it a couple of times OK, I was obsessively checking on it several times a day I finally emailed Karen to ask if she could change out that charm. She replied with four different charms I could choose from! After replacing the ribbon with the heart Karen emailed me a photo of the necklace to be sure it was what I wanted.

It was perfect! Almost. Um, Karen? Don’t hate me, I don’t want to be a pain, but… I wasn’t thrilled with the big stone at the bottom. Karen very sweetly offered to replace the stone with a smaller one probably muttering under her breath the whole time then emailed me another photo once the change was done. Now it was exactly what I wanted!

I got the shipping notice and started watching the mailbox obsessively. Why is it whenever I’m expecting a package the mailman comes around 5:30 but when I’m sending one he comes before 9?! That is just SO wrong.

After what felt like forever it arrived! Of course I had to put it on right away… isn’t it gorgeous?!! Disclaimer - that green and purple thing in the background is NOT my earring, it’s the bottom of a cross Angel Face made that’s hanging off the cupboard knob. Just wanted to make that clear in case you were wondering.

Now I think I NEED the matching earrings… Do you think she’d add a couple of the other colored stones to make them longer? Sorry Karen!

Little Guy loves my camera - LOVES it. No matter where I hide it he finds it. And being the smart boy he is, he knows how to turn it on. What he hasn’t learned yet is that he can’t touch the lens. And what I haven’t learned yet is to check the lens before taking any photos.

Case in point: these two photos. They’d be a wonderful record of Princess, Jo-Bear and Z-Man enjoying Grandma and Grandpa’s pool… IF Little Guy hadn’t had his little fingers all over the lens.

What am I supposed to do with photos like this? They’re the only ones I have of the kids in the pool - Angel Face was in there too but she hightailed it out as soon as she saw the camera. She’s going through a terrible “Don’t take my picture” phase that is a real pain in the butt. Someday she’s going to look back and regret not having any pictures of herself from this stage in her life… Thunk - fell off my soapbox, blush. Guess I got a little carried away… Sorry about that! Back to topic… Since I don’t have any other kids-in-pool photos from this trip I guess I keep them to help us remember how much fun they had in the pool - and how much fun Little Guy has with my camera. As my grandma would say, “Worse things can happen…” Like, he could have thrown the camera INTO the pool!

Still on the way… dinner at the brother-in-law’s…

Last week I posted some photos from the first day of our vacation. Here’s a couple more I wanted to share with you…

First off is another view from the picnic tables where we ate our Pronto Pups. The big hill in the background is Dewey Hill - home of the world famous Musical Fountain and where they shoot off fireworks every Fourth of July. When Teacher’s dad was a firefighter he was often stationed on Dewey Hill to put out any fires started by the fireworks.

Here’s a taste of the Musical Fountain… I didn’t tape this - I found it on You Tube - but it’s exactly the way I remember it from years ago when Teacher took me. The Fountain starts waaaay past the kids’ bedtime so we didn’t go this year - we’ll go when Little Guy and Z-Man are old enough to stay up late without being monsters the next day.

I snapped the next two photos from the passenger side of the van as we drove back home after our big day. I thought about having Teacher stop but we were all tired and ready to veg out for a while before dinner at Teacher’s brother’s house. Isn’t it gorgeous? Sigh, I miss the beach soooo much.

Next up… dinner at the brother-in-law’s!

Why is it I can never get anything done on Tuesdays? What is it about Tuesdays that has me walking around in a fog and being distracted by the littlest thing?

On Mondays I can start a load of laundry, vacuum the main floor, clean off the cupboard, unload the dishwasher and help the kids get ready for school - all in the half hour between coming downstairs and leaving for school.

Today is Tuesday. Today I vacuumed the floor before I took the kids to school. Yeah, that’s all I got done. I don’t know what happened; one minute I was getting out the vacuum cleaner and the next thing I knew it was time to go. I was in such a fog I had to double-check that I was actually dressed and not running around in my pajamas. Wait… be right back…. Oh whew, I did do makeup today. Funny, I don’t remember doing it this morning. Talk about easily distracted - I’m blogging when I should be folding laundry.

What is it about Tuesdays? I think I need more coffee…

I am in love! No, I’m not talking about Teacher although I am in love with him. And I’m not talking about the kids although I love them too. Right now I’m talking about the Auto Bin in our van. I know it’s a silly thing to get all excited about, but thanks to that bin my van is finally trash-free, and that’s almost a miracle. No wait - that is a miracle! If you have kids you know that they make trash like mama and daddy bunnies make baby bunnies. I don’t know how they do it, but they sure do.

We used to have a dinky little can that barely held anything. It was always tipping over, then it would roll around under the driver’s feet spewing used tissues, soda cans, sucker sticks, and other junk all over the place. You haven’t felt adrenaline until you’ve come up to a stop sign and realized you can’t brake because there was a water bottle jammed under the pedal! Plus the old can was soooo small I was constantly emptying it; one afternoon of errands would fill it up. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me to replace it before, I guess I just didn’t think about it much.

Then the other day a friend linked me to the Auto Bin. He was like “You’ve got a bunch of kids trashing your car - you NEED one of these.” I can’t wait until he’s got kids and he’ll be dealing with minivans and dirty diapers and kid mess. Bwa-ha-ha!

He had a point though and at only $20 (free shipping!) I figured it couldn’t hurt, so I ordered. Unbelievably it came in the mail the next day! Sure the company is located in Wisconsin, but that’s still pretty fast delivery time. I ran right out and put it in the van - it fit perfectly between the front seats with a space in front for the tissue box. After using it for a week the van is totally trash-free and I’m so happy I grin like an idiot whenever I’m in the van. I’m getting one for the white car, and College Boy’s car, and maybe even for the sick van in the garage.

Oh my sweet little Auto Bin where have you been all my life?!
Let’s not tell Teacher about this though, k?

Teacher was lucky enough to grow up in Grand Haven. College Boy, Princess, Angel Face and I were lucky enough to live there for four years before moving here. We enjoyed everything the small touristy town had to offer, like a gazillion different pizza and ice cream places, several gorgeous public beaches, and my favorite - glimpses of Lake Michigan while driving through town. Sigh, sooo pretty! Although I’m very glad we moved to my home town I really, really miss living in Teacher’s home town too.

Friday night we had the van all packed and the kids ready so we could take off right after I was done with work. The drive only took 7 hours this time, instead of the hellish 8-9+ hour trips we’d had occasionally. For the most part it was pretty uneventful, although while driving through southern Wisconsin we were excited to see that Wisconsin Energy’s windmill “farm” was bigger than the last time we’d seen it. Go wind power!

Another bit of excitement was when Teacher tried to take photos of the Chicago skyline by balancing the camera on the steering wheel while driving at 65-70 mph. Yikes!! I wasn’t thrilled with that stunt, to put it mildly. I can’t show you the photos cuz they’re on his camera and he’s not sharing. Besides, I don’t want to encourage him.

We arrived at Grandma and Grandpa’s house around 1am Grand Haven time, and fell right into bed. Z-Man and Little Guy were overwhelmed by their first long car trip, the grandparents they didn’t know well, and the unfamiliar house so they both had to sleep with Teacher and I. Good thing Teacher’s parents gave us their king size bed! It made me want to sing “Ten in the Bed” but I refrained and enjoyed cuddling with Teacher and the boys instead. Little Guy’s favorite sleeping position is with his head on my neck and his feet in Teacher’s face, so poor Z-Man ended up squished in the middle. He didn’t wake up all night so I guess it didn’t bother him too much! I wish I’d thought to take a photo but I was to wiped out to think of it at the time.

Saturday we decided to visit some of our favorite Grand Haven places, hitting the downtown sidewalk sales and boardwalk along the way. Our very favorite toy store ever, Mackinaw Kite Co. was our first stop. It’s packed with Brio trains, toys and games that foster creativity, and about a gizillion amazing kites and gorgeous banners. Teacher bought me two new banners: a Welcome one with flowers and one with the Grand Haven and Holland lighthouses on it. Here it is at our house - the top one is the Grand Haven lighthouse. I can almost smell the lake just looking at it.

We browsed our way down Main street, “splurging” on a pair of $4.00 Croc knock-offs for the little boys. Z-Man had wanted a blue pair for his birthday but we couldn’t find anything but black in his size around home. He was thrilled with this pair, and of course anything Z-Man has Little Guy wants too.

Main Street dead ends at the channel so we turned left and headed for one of our favorite places in Grand Haven - Pronto Pups. Pronto Pups has the BEST corn dogs in the world: light and fluffy batter fried to a sweet crunchiness around a juicy hot dog. Yummmmmm! You can count on standing in line at Pronto Pups, the only question is how long the line will be. Today wasn’t too bad; I’ve seen it muuuuch longer.

Teacher and Jo-Bear know that the wait is well worth it, no question. Princess doesn’t eat hot dogs but she’s such a sweetie she didn’t mind waiting either.

Z-Man has a Playmobile giraffe and person to keep him occupied while he waits for his first Pronto Pup ever. I’m getting hungry for Prontos just thinking about them.

Little Guy is content to sit back in the stroller with the last of Teacher’s smoothie. He likes watching cars go by, pointing each one out to us.

After getting our Pups we walked behind the stand to sit at one of the picnic tables on the hill. It’s so peaceful with the fresh breeze coming off the lake and the sound of the seagulls and water in the background. The views are gorgeous too - can you see the light house way out on the horizon?

Jo-Bear isn’t happy that he has to smile for a photo instead of eating his Pup. Z-Man wishes he brought his sunglasses. Life is soooo rough when you’re a kid!

Little Guy loves his Pronto Pup, he’s just sick of me taking his picture. Too bad for him - he’s too cute to resist.

After Pronto Pups we headed back to the car, walking by Dairy Treat on the way. Of course we couldn’t just pass by without getting a legendary Rockpile shake. The Rockpile was a back-door treat invented by Dairy Treat workers when Teacher was in High School. At that time the only way to get one was to go to the back door and know someone who was working. Now anyone can get one from the menu, which is less fun but still delicious. The Rockpile has so much stuff in it I can’t remember everything: ice cream of course, pineapple, strawberries, chocolate sauce, peanuts, banana… I’ll have to ask Teacher the rest - he’ll know. I whould’ve taken a photo of the Rockpile so you could see all its yummy goodness, but I was too busy slurping it down.

We finished off the Rockpile on the way to the car, then headed back to Grandma and Grandpa’s to regroup. Little Guy had such a big day so far that he crashed before the car had even gone a block. Good thing too, because it was only mid-afternoon and we still had the rest of the day ahead of us.

To be continued…

I know I promised vacation photos next but since I haven’t had time to edit any - trust me, you do NOT want to see them before editing - I’m going to share a new WordPress theme I found instead!

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month and this Breast Cancer Awareness theme is the perfect way to spread the word and show support for the women who are struggling with breast cancer, as well as the people who love them.

I’ll bet that breast cancer has touched you in some way. Take a minute to think of your family and friends… if none of them has had breast cancer think about their family and friends. I’ll bet that someone within one of those groups has been diagnosed with breast cancer. My beloved grandma was diagnosed about eighteen months ago. A lumpectomy and intensive radiation treatments seem to have done the trick so far, thank heavens!

So spread the word! Show your love and support for the brave women struggling with breast cancer and the people who love them! Download the Breast Cancer Awareness theme during October, or all the time. It’s quick, easy and free!

Uncle Jon lived in Savannah, Georgia for over 9 years and when he moved back he brought little pieces of the South with him - like a fondness for sweet tea I don’t know what he’s thinking there… a habit of calling people Bubba, a cat called Lucy, and something called “Low Country”.

Low Country isn’t just dinner, it’s a party and the more the merrier! Invite your family and friends, have everyone bring something to toss in the pot, grab your favorite beverage, I’ll take a Margarita on the rocks! and you’ll have the easiest party you’ve ever put together.

The first thing you need is a pot - the kind used for deep frying turkeys. Uncle Jon’s secret is to rub some liquid dish soap on the bottom to make it easier to clean later. It really works too! We used pink Palmolive, but any kind will do.

Next you need some goodies to put into the pot. Of course you’ll want to use the freshest ones you can get your hands on. You’ll need about 4-5 lbs red potatoes, 4 lbs shrimp, 8-10 cobs of corn, 2-3 lbs sausage (andouille is traditional) a lemon or two, and Old Bay seasoning. Johnsonville makes a decent andouille but the best ones come from a small meat market and are well worth the extra trip. You can use less spicy sausage if you want; we use equal amounts of spicy andouille and mild sausage to keep everyone happy. Southern hillbilly tip: put the food on the hood of your car to keep it off the ground and away from the varmints… or the hungry kids.

Use your garden hose to fill the pot with water. Crank up the heat and enjoy your drink while you wait for the water to boil and get the ingredients ready.

First slice the sausage into 1-2″ slices. We slice the andouille on the diagonal and the mild sausage straight so we can tell them apart. Then shuck the corn - this is great job to keep the kids out of trouble! Some people make Low Country with frozen corn but we’d rather go without if we can’t get fresh. Frozen is just nasty. Chop the corn in halves or thirds depending on how many people you’ve got to feed. Obviously you don’t want the kids hacking the corn into pieces - let a relatively sober adult wield the knife!

Look at this adorable face! Not only does Z-Man love shucking corn, he’s a whiz at it too! He’s not so great at taking off the silk but that’s my job anyway cuz I’m totally obsessed with getting Every. Last. Piece. Off. Just a tad bit AR sometimes…

Once the water is boiling, cut the lemon in half and toss it into the water with some Old Bay. Use two lemons if you want, it’s your party.You can tie the Old Bay in cheesecloth so you won’t have random spices stuck to your food when you’re done but we like the extra seasoning so we throw it in loose.

Next toss in the red potatoes and let them cook about ten minutes. Then toss in the sausage and let it cook about five minutes. While you’re waiting take a deep whiff of the sharp spicy aroma… heavenly!

Poor Little Guy! He wants to come outside but his mama was worried he’d get too close to the fire so he’s locked inside and has to watch through the screen door. Don’t cry sweetie, we’ll feed you too!

Most Low Country recipes have you throw the corn in now, but we always save the corn for the end so it doesn’t overcook. There’s not nothing worse than a soggy water-logged cob of corn. Ugh, ga-ross!Toss in your delicious shrimpies instead - leave the shells on cuz they’re easier to peel after cooking.

Let the shrimpies cook four to five minutes, until they’re bright pink and oh-so-yummy looking. Then lift the inner cooking basket thing out of the pot and dump the goodies into a big container. Hide them from everyone until the corn is done or you’ll be eating all the corn by yourself and won’t get anything else!

Toss in the corn and cook for about four minutes. It’ll seem like forever but you can do it. Don’t go peeking at the shrimpies and stuff or everyone’ll know where you hid them.

Oh baby, doesn’t that look delicious?! Add the corn to your other goodies, take everything to the table and dig in! Be sure to have lots of napkins and some containers for the shrimp shells and corn cobs. We serve Italian bread with lots of butter on the side. Yummmmmm!

Coming next… vacation photos! I promise no long boring stories or endless photos of the Grand Canyon.