Bless Your Heart: The Infographic
Okay, I say “bless your heart” all the time and it was one of the early Translation Tuesday’s that I did HERE. So you know what it means. But, I came across this inforgraphic explaining bless your heart and I can’t help but share:
via Pinterest
Come on…. how do you not love it?
Translation Tuesday: Lollygag
Oh, now this one I use, a lot.
via kaysbestintentions.blogspot
Lollygag is a fun way to say you are stalling or dawdling. “Stop lollygagging and get in the car” Love it and use it all the time!
Throwback Thursday: Student Staff Training, Fall 2009
I’ve been a little homesick lately, homesick for Country Club College which I left five years ago! Probably because I keep in touch with so many of my past students and it was CCC’s homecoming last weekend, so it blew up my Facebook newsfeed.
Student Staff Training Field Day. Fall 2009
This picture is from August 2009, that is me in the front with the sunglasses. It was an odd tradition that during one of the last days of fall training, we would have a field day and somehow all end up covered in flour and other gunk. I have no idea how this started, but here is my staff covered in all sorts of stuff after running around on a field on an August morning answering trivia questions and taking on team challenges. So happy I had that job and got to work with so many great students. More lucky that so many of them became my friends!
Fun at the State Fair
It is fall, which means Sate Fair time! I love going to the fair each year- it is the one place each year where I don’t give myself restrictions on what to eat. It is also a great place to see cool things our state is doing and people watch. One of my friends does PR for a neighboring state, so he spends a part of the fall traveling to all of their state fairs (main one, western, coastal, etc). He had been posting picture of fairs since early September, so I was ready for ours to get here this month! I went twice- once with my students and once with a group of friends. Below are some highlights from both.
Night at the Fair
Food vendors…
Food…
Dinner on the first night, I like mine with more mustard than hotdog.
The best thing ever… deep fried cookie dough
Deep fried cookie dough. I can’t take all that sugar of the normal four, so I ask for a half order.
And the old fave…
On the second trip I passes up the cookie dough and got funnel cake!
Fun with friends…
Hanging with my sweet niece Bimmer. Love her!
More…
Come on… she is the cutest, right?
And on her first fair car ride…
Ready to take her driving test?
Things I will remind my friends about…
That time Gail and Bimmer had matching shirts…
and that other time….
When Puff rode the camel…. and then smelled like camel. I love my friends, I love them even more when they let me take funny pictures of them.
And finally, taking in the sights…
Every year they do a giant sand castle. The theme this year was Mother Goose and Nursery Rhymes. While the detail was amazing and it is a work of art, I think Mother Goose is looking a little like Ben Franklin… anyone?
OK- That is the fair recap for 2014! Maybe next year I will finally try that Krispy Kreme doughnut burger? Or, maybe not…
Nutter Butter Banana Pudding
OMG. Nutter Butter Banana Pudding. Maybe the easiest and yummiest dessert I have made in ages! I got this from my co-worker Dottie, who combined her banana pudding recipe with the idea of Nutter Butters from a former intern we had. It is the best collaboration in a dish. Dottie made it dessert at our start of the year dinner and one of my staff members became obsessed with it. There is a tradition in our office that I make whatever dessert our staff wants for their birthday. So when we had a birthday this week, this dish was requested. After I made it, I was telling Dottie that this is not at all how I normally make banana pudding. I generally use cook and serve, and I line the dish with cookies and bananas in precise order. That plan is out of the picture after this. So easy and so yummy! And really… can you get anything more southern than banana pudding and recipe sharing?
Nutter Butter Banana Pudding- before the whipped cream is added
Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 3 containers of those grab and go Nutter Butter mini cookies
- 5.1 box of Vanilla Instant Pudding Mix
- 3 Cups Milk
- 3-4 bananas- sliced
- 1 cup of whipping cream
- 3/4 cup sugar
Steps
- This does involve three bowls- sorry
- Line the serving bowl you are using for the pudding with the Nutter Butter minis. I used two and a half containers for this.
- In a separate bowl, mix milk and pudding mix. Beat for about two and half minutes, or until pudding starts to set some.
- Stir in banana slices
- Pour mix over Nutter Butters
- In a separate bowl, use a hand mixer and beat whipping cream until it begins to get fluffy. Add in sugar and beat until you have a nice whip cream.
- Spread whip cream out over pudding
- Place remaining Nutter Butters on the top of the whip cream for decoration
- I let mine refrigerate for a few hours to get firm
Super easy and yummy! Sorry to friends with peanut allergies 😦
Throwback Thursday: European Car Show 2011
Gail’s hubby Puff is big into cars. He loves his little BMW Z3. So every year they go to the European Car Show near their house and a few years ago (October 2011 to be exact) it happened to be on a weekend when I was visiting. Which meant that I was drug to the European Car Show.
Me, reflected in tire cap, at the European Car Show in 2011.
It actually was really cool. It was a lovely fall day outside in the lovely Southern countryside. And there were so many cool cars! BMWs, Mercedes, Aston Martins, even a 1940s Rolls Royce! There were cars going back to the 1930s and it was fun. I highly recommend visiting the show!
Translation Tuesday: Much Obliged
Honestly, I have only ever heard a few people use this one…
And the only people I have ever heard use it have STRONG southern accents. Which just makes it sound that much sweeter. As a damn yankee, it is not one that has actually made it into my vocabulary.
Much obliged is just a cute way of saying thank you!
Guest Blog: The Monogram Convert
My friend Gail emailed me a few weeks ago… “get on with the blogging already, enough with this hiatus stuff.” So to jump start me, she decided to write a guest blog. Clearly, we both love the south and are smart asses. Not hard for us to be friends! Enjoy.
*****************************************************************************************************************************
monogram image. submitted by guest blogger.
via Pinterest
via Pinterest
via Pinterest
via Pinterest
via Pinterest
via Pinterest
via Pinterest
via Pinterest
via Pinterest
Yup… Rushing Life has gone the way of the preppy southerner. Just don’t expect me to start saying “y’all!”
Throwback Thursday: Homecoming 1999
I just realized today is Thursday. Seriously, where has this week gone? It has been a nutty week. Hell, it has been a nutty three months. I need long nap.
It is homecoming this week on campus. That means there are events left and right and alumni descending all over the place. Today’s throwback is to the last millennium and high school….
High School Homecoming- 1999
This is my homecoming senior year of high school in front of my house with several of my good friends. From left… Val, the Bestie, Me, TT, Erin and Meg.I a random mix, all of our dresses were black, silver or dark purple…. it was a nice look! It matched perfectly with the “under the stars” theme of the dance. Yes, I still remember the theme, I came up with it. Be honest, you are not surprised.
To be young again… and to be so thin!
Translation Tuesday: As I Live and Breathe
This one is easy… a way of expressing shock or surprise.
via Pinterest
Such as “Oh my goodness” or “Well, I’ll Be Darned (or damned).” As I live and breathe can be expressed as a form of frustration : “As I live and breath Anna Beth Louise, you and your antics will be the death of me.” Or, happy circumstance: “As I live and breathe, Conner Smith! I have not seen you in a coon’s age!” See the Coon’s Age Translation HERE.
Throwback Thursday: State Fair, 2006
The State Fair started yesterday and it is a big deal in these parts. This is a throwback to a trip there in 2006.
Girls at the State Fair. October 2006
I wasn’t even living here at the time, I had moved away to work at Country Club College. I love the fair so much that I made a trip back down for that weekend. Deep Fried Cookie Dough is my favorite… but I don’t think they were even selling it back then. But really, is there anything more American or Southern than deep fried food goodness? So we all devoured funnel cakes this trip. From left to right… Melton, Me, Rach and Gail. I love the State Fair! Favorite fair foods, anyone?
A September Wedding in the Lowcountry
Last month, my little cousin Dane got married on the Carolina coast. It was a four day weekend of fun with family and good memories.
Dane and I. Circa 1985. Somehow this cute little guy is old enough to be married?
Dane is two year younger than me and we grew up playing together over the summer and on holidays. We both took joy in bugging the other growing up. I’d like to say we grew out of teasing one another, but he spent part of the morning of his wedding throwing peanut shells at me while I was trying to swing in a hammock…. so maybe we aren’t totally grown up yet!
My Aunt Joy’s family owns an old beach house on Pawley’s Island, South Carolina and it has been a lovely place for the family to go to over the years. Everyone of us loves the low country, and Pawley’s is just awesome… so it was not a surprise when Dane and his fiancee Emily decided to get married near there. Between Dane’s family and Emily’s family I felt like we invaded Pawley’s, Debidorieu and Georgetown. There were so many of us!
*Heads up, I didn’t edit any of my photos and took them all on my camera phone. Sorry if they suck, I just don’t have time to edit anything.
Thursday
My Dad and I headed down to the coast and checked into the Hampton Inn in Georgetown. I am just going to go ahead and say that the hotel was a horrible, awful, negative experience and I will never stay there again. First room smelled like mildew. Second room had a leaking window. Horrible customer service. Never again.
Anyway, after getting there we headed over the the beach house on Pawley’s for a lovely evening at the house with dinner, family and friends The house sits between the beach and the creek and there are always the best sunsets over the creek.The weather was mild and overcast all weekend, with rain at times, but not always. It didn’t work for going out on the beach, but it was nice for sitting outside.
My Uncle Bri at the beach house. Grill Master!
The Beach side of the Beach House
The Creek on the other side of the Beach House at sunset.
Friday
Such a fun day! About 30 women who are close to Emily or the family all gathered for the bridal luncheon at the Debordieu Beach Club. The club was so pretty and in a diamond shape, so when you walked in you saw a solid wall of two windows meeting at point with the crashing ocean right on the other side. It was very nice. There was an open bar and nice lunch. Emily’s family is also from Ohio, so the cookie favors were from a bakery in Cincinnati! Love it!
Cute cookie favors!
bridal luncheon
Friday night was the rehearsal dinner. I don’t know if it is the South or if it is just my family and we like to have a party, but we do rehearsal dinners differently than any other places I have known. It was not all, but about 3/4 of the the people who were invited to the actual wedding. There is dinner, speeches, a slide show and dancing. In short, a mini-wedding reception. It was held at the Georgetown Maritime Museum and is right on the water. It monsooned during the dinner, just like it did at my other cousin’s wedding in April 2013. We’ve decided it must be an unofficial family tradition.
Maritime Museum for the rehearsal dinner
Welcome Emily and Dane
Arkansas Mules… strong drinks.
table decorations
coozies! and boiled peanuts… it is the South
rain INSIDE the room of the Hampton Inn in Georgetown. Awful experience.
Saturday
The morning was spent at the beach house. The house is over 150 years old and actually has a name, but I’m not going to mention it here… it is just the beach house. Anyway, we spent the morning and afternoon with family and friends hanging out on the porch of the house. As I mentioned my cousin who was getting married spent some time trying to hit me with peanut shells when he wasn’t writing a love letter to his bride. He wrote her a love letter on their wedding day! Is that not the cutest thing ever?! There are eight of us as grand-kids, and I am the oldest. There is also only one other girl, and she wasn’t there because she and her brother were in another wedding in NY. So I was left to fend for myself in the kitchen with all the guys trying to get enough bacon for a BLT. The hardships of being the only girl around.
How I spent my morning… when not elbowing my way into the kitchen for a BLT
Hanging on the porch of the beach house with friends and family…. notice hammocks at both ends and LOTs of rocking chairs.
My only beach time was short walk on a cloudy day… kind of nice, actually.
The wedding was A LOT of fun and at the Debordieu Country Club. The ceremony was outside on the lawn, under a lovely live oak tree, with the marsh as the backdrop. The reception was a lovely dinner in a gorgeous country club, followed by dancing and photo booth upstairs!
Pre -wedding selfie
ceremony set up
pretty flowers
cutest flower girl ever! she was adorable
The bride walking down the aisle with her Dad
Hitched! My cousin Dane and his new bride Emily. This picture is fun but I did crop it and put it on Instagram and it looks much cuter there.
Lauren- sister of the bride. Blake- brother of the groom. Maid of Honor and Best Man
My cousin Ehirch and a friend of the bride
My cousin Rhett (yep, they are twins) and a friend of the bride.
Sally, my cousin Blake’s wife and Ryan, best friend of the groom
My Dad and my cousin Ben
My Dad and my Uncle Bri
The Bride and groom with his mom, step-dad, sisters, brother and sister-in-law. I already loved Emily, but I loved her a little bit more during all these family pictures… she was issuing directions like a boss- just like I would!
My Dad and Hayden, sister of the groom, goofing off around the cake.
pretty and YUMMY cake. 5 different flavors… the almond was my fave.
My cousin Ehrich and his lovely girlfriend Alexa
Cool view of the cake from the upstairs
Me and my Dad
Cousins! Ben, me, Blake and Dane- the groom
My Uncle Bri and Aunt Joy
Cake and shoes…. my typical wedding pic
Sunday
Sunday was breakfast and lots of time with family! Good times all around!
The view from the room was pretty at least…
Translation Tuesday: Dadgummit
Dadgummit… another sweet southern way of changing a curse word to something nicer that the original word.
via Pinterest
I’ve mentioned here and here how southerners like to change curse words into NON-curse words, but still give them the ability to express frustration. This is another example, dadgummit has the same intention as saying dammit. Which I was never allowed to say growing up. I’d like to say that I still had a sweet mouth and didn’t curse, but my friends won’t let me lie to y’all. 🙂 Suggestions of other words that are substitutes for curse words in the south?
The E.R. Bag
In my old job at Country Club College, part of the job was being on-call. Being on-call meant that you were the person to respond to emergencies for the university and deal with police, parents, hospitals, etc as needed. I was used to getting middle of the night phone calls and running out the door at a moments notice.
I could write a book about my five years of on-call experiences. People would think it was fiction, but it would all be true. By my last year on that job the night crew at the local ER knew me by name, that is how often I was there. And I learned a lot from that job, including to have an ER bag. What is an ER bag? A bag of provisions set out the day you go on call that includes:
- magazines or a book or both
- cell phone charger
- water bottle
- granola bar or cereal bar
- change for the vending maching
- hoodie
So last weekend, in the middle of the night, I had to take my Dad to the ER. He is fine, turns out the ankle that was three times it’s normal size and shooting pain from his foot to his knee was gout. Apparently that is a real thing in the 21st century. As I was frantically throwing on jeans at 2am and worried what was wrong with my Dad (didn’t know it was gout until about 4am) I managed to toss together a quick ER bag… with Glamour, Southern Living, my Ipad, cell phone charger, a granola bar and a St.Patrick’s Day hoodie. I was awake, dressed, ER bag made and out the door in less than four minutes… some habits just don’t go away.
This side of suburbia just got a new hospital less than four miles from my Dad’s house and it is NICE. I mean, they have a glass wall water feature in the waiting room and digital screens all over the place. Once my Dad got settled, I pulled out my ER bag- my Dad’s cell was dead and I immediately was hungry. The nurses, who were all awesome, were all impressed. So, I made new friends! Hope I don’t need to go back anytime soon! But if you have to go to the ER as support person… it is best to be prepared!
This story does continue to get more entertaining though. My Dad runs a restaurant and on Saturdays they often work with local groups to hold pancake breakfasts as fundraisers for whatever charity it is. That morning happened to be a pancake breakfast that my Dad had, absolutely HAD, to run. There were no other people to fill in. But, he wasn’t exactly in any shape to run a restaurant at that point. So at 5:40am there I was learning how to open a restaurant. Another funny story to put in my book someday!
Pausing to Remember; Promising Never to Forget
I am briefly back from my hiatus. Things are still crazy in my world, but I have always reflected on September 11th, and I couldn’t let today pass without pausing to remember.
Remembering September 11, 2001 infographic via Pinterest
The freshmen this year were in Kindergarten when 9/11 happened. Their memories, understandably, are few. Which is a blessing in my opinion, but it sometimes just reminds me how old I am at this point. But it also drives home the lesson for me that I will always need to help those I teach remember that day and those we lost.
I was telling them in my class today what the day was like, and really, the best description I have is that the sweet little glass ball I lived in was completely shattered. In that moment, adulthood truly began. The innocence and sweet little world I lived in was not in existence anymore.
While that day was so overwhelming, so tragic, so full of grief; but also full of strength and an outpouring of compassion in the days that followed. It was the catalyst for the world we live in now. I remember standing there with Gail in our residence hall room, standing side by side, shell shocked, watching our little TV and the world falling apart in front of our eyes. Literally, our little world fell apart that day. I can look back, and see exactly how the path that our country is on was laid out that day. But we didn’t know it that day. Who knew on that day we would be where we are 13 years later.
As always, I try to be extra nice to people today. Our office sponsored an event to make cards for veterans and first responders, just to say thanks. 9/11 is also a reminder for me: never forget those we lost that day, or the days that resulted from it. Never forget the families left behind. Never forget to pause and say I love you one more time. Never forget. I won’t and I will always work to make sure my students don’t as well.
convertedsoutherner 