Fun-Filled Weekend

I started out last weekend with a day off work. I planted marigolds, coleus, and Mexican petunias around the chicken pen to brighten it up until the daylilies grow. I also planted about 30 amaryllis bulbs I got for FREE off the side of the road. I am so glad folks are generous with their bulbs when they separate plants.

  

After I got the flower gardening out of the way, I blew off the driveway and our brick paths and began to spray round-up on the weeds that have just about taken over in every crack and crevice. After that, Justin and I planted tomatoes, bell peppers, and banana peppers in the garden. He got the corn planted a few days earlier and our potatoes are taking off like crazy! We even discovered that my vintage Tupperware sewing box makes for perfect seed storage!

Justin was helping Uncle Glynn when Daddy called him and said he had something for us. Justin went into town and came back with this beauty! It is simply amazing. It was in an old building that was being torn down the next day and Daddy knew it had my name all over it! Justin is going to leave it in its rusty state and add a butcher block to the top. I think it will go nicely with our brick floor in the kitchen.

Saturday was a long day of riding for us. A friend on Facebook has apparently noticed my infatuation affinity for Tupperware and told me about a vintage kitchenware sale in Douglas, so Justin, Wyatt, and I loaded up and checked it out. It was primarily Pyrex but there were still tons of Tupperware and other vintage kitchen stuff to scoop up. I was totally in my element and could have easily spent hours pouring over each piece.

 

After the sale, we went to several antique stores and visited a man that had some industrial barrels for us to store our animal feed in.

We realized we were only a few miles from the Okefenokee Swamp. None of us had ever been so we decided to stop by. It was late in the day when we reached the visitors center but we did see this huge alligator sleeping on the bank right outside. We will definitely be back to spend the weekend at the nearby state park and take full advantage of the train ride and boat tours that are offered!

 

We rounded out Sunday with lots of family time, including getting the second coat of paint done in the new dry kitchen and getting the primer on our new island. Justin pulled the moulding down in the dining room so we could get clean lines. After telling Wyatt to watch out for nails no less than 20 times... I stepped on a nail. Stupid nail shouldn't have been where I was walking!

Busy January

January, normally our slow month at home, has been shaping up to be quite eventful.

My SIL Amanda is the president of our local arts council. I am proud of her for jumping in with both feet. The arts council hosted a “Besties and Brushes” class a few weeks ago and we all painted funky roosters. Mine is well, uh, er, unique I guess. I like the top and actually surprised myself but I sure don’t know what went on with the bottom third. Even so, I had a great time, the turnout was exceptional, and I will definitely do it again!

 

Wyatt, my MIL Desiree, and I went to Chehaw Park on the MLK holiday. I haven’t been since Wyatt was very small. He thoroughly enjoyed it all. The weather was outstanding and there were no crowds to fight.

Jake, Ben, and Rivers’ tutor suggested that they get planner books for their school assignments. I had a blast making these for them. Jake’s is all farm-related stuff. Rivers’ is full of the ultimate girly Lilly Pulitzer and Vera Bradley stuff, and Ben’s is fishing-themed.

  

The sweet young boy that made me an aunt for the first time turned 13. That was a doozy. Jake was born less than a year after Justin and I started dating and it blows my mind he is already a teenager. I can still remember the day I talked to Justin and he told me he had been born. I was in Tennessee for a church trip and was sad to miss the big day but I was proud just the same.

 

I recently discovered a kindred spirit in a girl named Abbey. She’s from the Atlanta area and has a FB page that talks about all the greatest Tupperware and vintage Pyrex things she finds at thrift stores. She posted her rainbow cabinet full of Pyrex and I shared all of my Tupperware. It’s crazy to see all of those colors but they range in age from 50+ years old to less than 5 years old.

Justin and I snagged this beautiful light at our favorite local thrift store for $8. He had to do a little creative installation but I think it updates our front porch very nicely!

Finally, this beauty graced my table Saturday. Justin has a coworker at the EMS in Cordele that changed our life when she shared her recipe for pecan pie with NO KARO SYRUP! I kid you not! There are as many pecans in the magical crust of this pie as there are in the rest of it!

Mexico Beach Camping Trip

Last Wednesday Justin, Wyatt, and I packed up our pop up camper and headed down to Mexico Beach, Florida for our inaugural family camping trip.

We stayed from Wednesday to Monday and we had a blast. I didn’t put makeup on once and it was glorious to roll out of bed, put on a bathing suit, and make our way down to the beach.

 

 

We ate at Shuckums in Panama City Beach. The walls and ceilings are covered with dollar bills folks have decorated. Of course we had to join in on the fun. Here is Wyatt after we worked on his. Amanda stapled them up on the wall for us.

 

 

After we ate a Shuckums we went down to the marina where the fishing charter boats are. Wyatt got to see Captain Mike’s group bring in all of their fish. This is the same captain that took Justin and the fire department guys out last year.

 

 

I’m thankful for my waterproof iPhone case that we bought specifically for the beach. I got loads of ocean pics that way.

When I was taking these pictures of the kids in the kayak and Amanda with Wyatt on the boogie board, I didn’t realize there were drops of water blocking the lens. It’s hard to see clearly out there through the protective case.

On our last beach day, Justin dug a big hole and formed a “couch” in the side of it. He cut steps in the sand for the kids to come in and out and made them shout, “’Merica!!!” when he asked for the password. He’s a nut.

Of course, we didn’t spend all of our time at the beach. We played in the campground/hotel pool at night and spent a day hitting up all of the thrift shops and yard sales. We got some awesome deals. Justin and I found lots of Tupperware, including oven ware. I didn’t even know they made oven ware. I tried it out last Thursday night with some homemade banana pudding complete with meringue!

I also got this neat vintage Tupperware tumbler that I discovered is perfect for powder dishwasher detergent. I love finding alternative uses for my ever-growing Tupperware collection!

Disaster strikes again at the Cook house

Before I go into the details of our latest house fiasco, let me set up the scene:
South Georgia has experienced record-breaking low temperatures this week. The whole US has it seems. We took care to leave our water running in our two downstairs bathrooms and made sure the heat lamp was turned on at our well house.

On Tuesday, our freezing temperatures would have been PERFECT for us to get a tiny bit of snow—but we have been without precipitation for a few days so we weren’t going to get lucky with that. My SIL Amanda saw on Facebook that with below-freezing temperatures, you can use a pressure washer to make artificial snow. Justin and Amanda were with their Papa Theron at his chemo appointment so they missed out on the fun. He had a bad reaction to his new chemo and they ended up staying there late.
So I took half a day off work and headed out to my in-laws’ neck of the woods to participate in the fun. Long story short: it only kinda worked. It was fun to see the white fluffy stuff spraying out of the pressure washer but we would have been soaked to the bone with snow-slush after spraying the pressure washer for hours for any to accumulate. It was a fun experiment though!
 
After the snow didn’t work, Wyatt, Sami, and I headed back to my house with a can of tomato soup and the pannini maker for a little cold weather dinner. As we walked into the house, I flipped on the lights in the kitchen and it hit me like a brick wall: it was RAINING in my kitchen! I was terrified that we were all going to get electrocuted because the water was POURING right through the light fixture in the ceiling fan I just turned on. Sami quickly swept up Wyatt and took him into the other room while I incoherently called Mr. Sheldon and Mrs. Desiree. I don’t know how she understood what I was saying—it was probably something along the lines of, “SHELDON…WATER EVERYWHERE…ELECTROCUTED…CEILING…KITCHEN…HELP PLEASE!!!” Thankfully Mrs. Desiree got the message and Mr. Sheldon made it to our house in minutes. I repeated the same conversation with Justin and he left his Papa’s appointment to fly home. He managed to talk me through turning off the breakers in the house and I tried desperately to turn the water off at the house but that didn’t happen.
Mr. Sheldon got there and shut the water off. Sami wrangled Wyatt, found a flashlight to check for more damage, and luckily found that it was all contained to the kitchen. She started bringing in armfulls of towels to start mopping up the water that was everywhere and setting out buckets to catch the downpour. Who else would use vintage Tupperware to catch the drips other than me?!?
 

My brother-in-law Michael and nephew Jake came up then without me even asking or calling for help. Thank goodness for reinforcements! After checking a bit, we figured out that our water line for our ice maker had burst from the cold. Running the water in the sink didn’t help with the pipe that was up in the attic because it’s a terminal pipe: its “drain” is literally the ice bucket in the freezer, so there was no way to let it run all day. Michael, Jake, and Mr. Sheldon hauled off tons of soaked attic insulation. We used every towel we own to sop up the water from the floor (thank goodness for brick floors and not hardwood or something else in the kitchen!). Eventually, Justin made it home and helped finish up the clean up. We got fans running to dry everything out.
In the end, I think the only damage we are going to have to repair includes replacing the water line for the ice machine, installing new attic insulation, and repainting some discolored areas on our ceiling where the leaks were.
We were very fortunate that the water didn’t run into our cabinets and ruin all of our dry goods or that it didn’t leak into the living room onto our TV and other electronics. We’re also lucky that the damage was only in the unfinished, unused portion of the attic and we didn’t loose any priceless photos, yearbooks, or even my wedding dress. I am so thankful for family that rushes to help out whenever we are in need. We got the power restored and the house heated back up quickly. I’m sure my Mama’s happy about that; she would have had three unexpected houseguests that night if we hadn’t been able to warm up!
Who else is ready for spring?

Busy Busy Weekend!

We had an incredibly long busy weekend. It kicked off with the Cordele Christmas parade on Friday night. Justin was a fire clown so Wyatt and I rode with Mama and Daddy and met up with Suzi, David, and Liam. Of course, Uncle David bought the boys “lightsabers” to spin around all night and they loved them!
 
Saturday morning Wyatt and I headed to the Cordele Home Depot’s Kids’ Workshop to meet Suzi and Liam. I saw an estate sale sign and couldn’t resist pulling in for just a minute. I got a nice bathroom rug and this whole entire box of Tupperware for $7! I love finding vintage Tupperware and I USE it. Some of the ones in this box were marked 1956 and were from the Millionaire line. It’s amazing to me that they are still useful 57 years later—that’s older than my Mama!

We went on to Home Depot and had fun with Liam and Suzi making tic tac toe kits.
 
Justin and the other fire clowns were there and Liam even let him hold him. I am so proud of him overcoming his fear of clowns.
 
Wyatt got to sit with Santa #1 of the day and told him he wanted, “candy, suckers, tractors, and a Go Dogs hat (Georgia Bulldogs).”
 
Afterward, we stopped at Calhoun Produce for lunch and to do a little Christmas shopping. We also went to the new sporting goods/hardware store in town, Congo’s. Wyatt loves seeing all of the taxidermied animals and vignettes. I am 100% more comfortable doing all of my shopping online, but there are some great small businesses out there that make shopping local all the better. Wyatt doesn’t get a hug from Mrs. Sheila or a hat from Congo when I do my shopping at Amazon.
After shopping, we headed to Heritage Park in Ashburn to see SNOW! Yes, snow in south Georgia when it was 65 degrees. Yes, I did have my flip flops on. Our local Chamber of Commerce has a company bring a snow machine in every year. Wyatt had a blast until he walked into the crossfire of someone’s snowball. We thought he’d end up with a black eye, but it turns out we’re in the clear. I’m sad more families don’t take advantage of so much fun, but at the same time, I think too many kids might have made it a bit dangerous for the little ones.

    
After the snow, Wyatt and I went out to Mama and Daddy’s house for supper. We ate wings and poppers and then loaded up to see Mrs. Carole Ray’s 75+ decorated Christmas trees. Admission was canned goods for charity. Mrs. Carole has a definite skill that I can only wish I had. Wyatt had a little flare up where he pitched a fit and kicked the head off an animatronic dog. I am SOSOSO thankful he didn’t do any damage, but he got a swift swat on the butt and we waited out by the car until he decided he was ready to apologize to Mrs. Carole. I think it was because Santa had seen the whole thing happen and he was having a guilt trip about not getting any presents.
 
 
On Sunday, we had lunch with Mrs. Desiree and Mr. Sheldon, Amanda, Michael, Jake, Ben, and Rivers. We came home with a furry passenger, too! I have been DYING to have this kitten since it was born. It’s so fluffy. Mrs. Desiree agreed to give it to me.

We don’t usually have too much good luck with cats around our house. When I got home Monday afternoon and couldn’t find it, I was so sad. Justin caught sight of something moving up on the roof and there it was! My firefighter had to drag the ladder out and rescue it off the roof.
 
This morning, I go to feed the kitten and it’s back up on the roof. I don’t do ladders, but when I called Justin, he assured me that it would probably just get down the way it got up there. We think it was up the pergola on the back porch.