Mooch's Motorcycle Club Hare Scramble

Prince Charming and George did a hare scramble on Sunday. It was so nice to race at this location because it's about 40 minutes from our house and we didn't have to leave as early as usual. This is the second time they have raced here and I think Boscoe raced last year instead of George. All the rain we had the night before made everything slimy and slick which resulted in problems through the track. Here are some pictures from the race.

George at the start of the race.

George and Prince Charming checking things out.

George should be looking at what's ahead instead of what's behind...

George is somewhere at the bottom of the hill in this bottleneck of bikes.

Boscoe and George at the (unfortunate) end of the race. One wreck changed everything. Better luck next time!

This is a friend of ours that takes his son K racing. K had a wreck and came back with a souvenir in his helmet.

George giving Prince Charming good luck knuckles.

George was giving Prince Charming some pointers.....

The end of the race. Even though the track was tough and there were some bumps along the way, they both had fun.

We saw this tree when we were waiting for Prince Charming. We like to call it the "tree of shame". Can you see the parts on the tree? It made us realize that we aren't along in bringing home broken parts.

Fall in our house

I am so excited that fall is here. Spring is nice, summer is nice, winter is better, but I love fall. Fall makes me think of......

leaves turning colors

bon fires

comfort food

casseroles

crisp cool air

the Covered Bridge Festival

candy corn

ham and beans with corn bread

apples

the smell of leaves burning
walnuts in my yard

the color orange

candles burning in my house

Here are pictures of some of the decorations in our house.

Now I know that some of these decorations are more traditionally for Thanksgiving, but they just work so well with the rest of the fall decorations that we have out.

I hope that you enjoy these pictures and find what makes you happy this time of year.

Our Florida Vacation - Part 1

I'm finally going to post about our Florida vacation, the vacation we went on in ..... July. This is going to be a long one, so sit back, get a snack, and pretend you are in Borders where you can read and read. Part 1 is our trip to Florida and here it goes.

Prince Charming and I had a plan from the start and it was that we were going to take our time getting to Florida and back. We wanted to stop at any garage sale, flea market, antique store, dirt bike store, any place that we wanted to without being rushed. One of our first stops was at an antique store in Kentucky. They had some nice things, but were a little pricey so we decided to mosey our way on out to the truck. As I was walking down the last aisle, I spotted it! The ugly green candy dish. Let me tell you a different story first. My grandmother had this ugly green candy dish, but we loved the dish because of what was in it. The candy dish was always in the same place in Grandma's living room no matter what candy was in it, what holiday it was, etc. When Grandma decided to sell her house and move, she gave the candy dish to the thrift store that she worked at. Good bye candy dish. End of story.

Until I decided that I wanted an ugly green candy dish because I'm so sentimental and missed my Grandmother terribly. I just wanted something that would remind me of her, my Grandpa, their house. Something to keep the memories alive.

Prince Charming has always helped me in my search for an ugly green candy dish and we did find a small one. I was somewhat satisfied with that purchase, but it didn't quite complete the dream. Little did I know that at the somewhat pricey antique store in Kentucky would be an ugly green candy dish just like the one my Grandmother had. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that we purchased it and took it on vacation. Fast forward to the end of trip - we stopped in an antique store in North Carolina and loved everything in there even though it was extremely expensive (the store in Kentucky was cheap compared to this one). I did find one thing though and it was cheap....the last addition to the ugly green candy dish collection. I'm happy to report that the search is over and all three candy dishes are displayed in my dining room. Someday, I may even put candy in one of them. The candy dish like my Grandmother's is the one on the right.

Along the way we stopped at the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Boscoe is getting to the age where he's talking about getting his drivers license, what kind of car he wants, etc. so we decided this would make a great stop on our vacation. It was cool, neat, far out, funky - just plain awesome if you're a guy. If you like cars, it would be worth the stop. Here are some pictures from the museum.

The trip went on through Kentucky, with stops at several Waffle House restaurants. What can we say about Waffle House restaurants? The food was decent, the prices were decent, so we felt decent. After a while it became the family joke - "Where are we going to eat? Waffle House?" One of our other stops was an antique shop in northern Alabama. The antiques were so-so, but the main attraction was the store dog, Pippy. I think Pippy ate a few too many Snausages.

We also drove through this really neat old town in Southern Alabama. It was Sunday, so nothing was open. The buildings were beautiful - great old architecture. I wish I could remember the name of it.

The next part of the trip was one that Prince Charming had been waiting for. He couldn't wait to see the red dirt roads in northern Florida. Prince Charming couldn't believe that the road was actually dirt and not gravel like what we are used to. How muddy do the roads get when it rains? If he ever wants to find out, he can experiment with the samples that we took home. Here are a few pictures from that stop.

The final stop before our destination was Cedar Keys, FL. My mom suggested that we stop here and I think her and dad always wanted to visit, but haven't done so yet. It was nice, Prince Charming wanted to stay there, but I just wanted to get to my parent's house. We let the boys go swimming and Prince Charming had his feet in the sand. Have you heard that new song "Toes" by the Zach Brown Band? The song lyrics make me think of Prince Charming sitting on the beach - got my toes in the water, butt in the sand, not a worry in the world, a cold beer in my hand, life is good today. That is his dream.... Here are pictures from Cedar Keys.

We finally made it to Palm Harbor, Florida. To find out what happened next, stay tuned for Part 2 of our vacation.

See ya at the next post.

Our Anniversary

A long, long time ago, in a land far, far away, the fairy tale began when we were young, dumb, and in love. Fast forward 19 years to 2 kids, 7 moves, countless animals, several cars (our friends know we go through trade-in spells), trips to Florida, trips to the ER, and countless other memories and experiences.

Reality: we were married 19 years ago today.

Here are some of our memories of that day...

As my bridesmaids were walking down the aisle, I was waiting in the stairway and it was either laugh or cry because I was so nervous. So, I was told to quit laughing because the people in the sanctuary could hear me.

I remember crying as I was walking down the aisle.

I remember Carl holding my hand so tight that my hand hurt!

I remember looking out the window when I should have been listening to the minister and seeing my friend S holding her young son C.

I remember when we were having pictures taken before the wedding, my dad cut his hand and in our wedding pictures he has blood on his hand.

Carl remembers his friends telling him to run while he still had a chance. Funny, very funny.

Carl remembers me walking down the aisle and that's all he will say.

I wish I would have had more pictures taken at the church.

I must have had a good time at our reception because Carl remembers having to drag me out of there.

Here are more pictures from our special day.

This is the church we were married in. Zion United Church of Christ in Dyer, IN

This picture of our wedding party was taken at the church.

These are our parents. Notice their smiles. My parents are smiling because the phone bill will be going down. Prince Charming's parents are smiling because their food bill will be going down. We're smiling because we were clueless.

Through all the ups and downs, good times and bad times, I can't say that I would want to experience life with anyone else. Thank you Prince Charming for 19 wonderful years.

Life is good

I'm sitting outside trying to blog about our weekend and I heard the relaxing sound of wind chimes....

the sounds of prince charming and our boys playing basketball...

and I realized how good life is.

Our anniversary weekend

Tuesday is our 19th wedding anniversary and yesterday we went to Indianapolis to celebrate. I planned a surprise evening for prince charming and I and all he had to do was book a hotel and drive. I think he was pleased with that arrangement :). My in-laws came down to stay with the boys so we didn't have to worry about them or what they were going to be doing - other than having a great, spoiled-filled day with the grandparents. I'll blog about their activities later. We had some time before we had to be at the restaurant, so we checked in to our hotel and went to Borders for some relaxing reading time. Ahhhhhh........

Time for dinner! With tummies growling and anticipation building, we walked a few short blocks to Fogo de Chao for dinner. I'll let prince charming describe his dining experience..... it was good, tummy full, I had to force myself to stop eating ....... I'm taking over again because he's gone into a trance thinking about the ribeye he had last night. The salad bar is great and the beef was wonderful. If you ever go there, get the signature dessert, papaya cream - it was delicious. I've searched the web and here is a link to chefsrecipes to recreate this dining experience in your home.

After dinner we went to Howl at the Moon which is a piano bar where audience participation is a must. It was a good time even if there were 10 bachelorette parties there. Here is a picture of us from our evening out.

We were happy to come home and see our family. The boys had some good stories from their time spent with the grandparents and I think the grandparents may have been ready to go home to get some rest.

Spicy Salsa Mac 'n' Beef

I tried a recipe from the weekend newspaper and it received rave reviews from the family so I wanted to share it with everyone.

Spicy Salsa Mac 'n' Beef
Makes 4 servings

1 lb ground beef
1 can (10 1/2 oz.) condensed beef broth
1 1/3 cups water
2 cups uncooked medium shell shaped pasta
1 can (10 3/4 oz.) condensed cheddar cheese soup
1 cup thick & chunky salsa

1. Cook beef in skillet over medium high heat until browned, stirring to separate meat. Pour off fat.
2. Add broth and water. Heat to a boil. Add pasta. Cook over medium heat 10 minutes or until pasta is done, stirring often.
3. Add soup and salsa. Heat through.

My prince charming asked what we were having for dinner, I told him that I was making glorified hamburger helper. Either way, I was a good meal with rolls, a salad, and a veggie.

Enjoy!

Just a few more funnies.....

Ok, I promise this will be the end of it for a while. But...there is so much funny, funky stuff out there to see that I have to share it with you. All of these things we saw on vacation and I can't remember exactly where, but I can tell you that every time we saw something wacky we all said "there's a picture for the blog". Here it goes.......

We saw this strange creature in Florida. When I was a little girl listening to Johnny Cash my dad would tell me stories about a creature with eyes like this.

This just doesn't make sense to me. We saw this somewhere in South Carolina. However, if you would like to find out more information, here is a link to this very historic site. http://www.nationalregister.sc.gov/chester/S10817712002/

We narrowly escaped with our lives when we tried to take a picture of the monster truck school bus. We were in northern Florida and turned around so we could get the picture. Carl pulls into the driveway which goes right by the bus, but everyone freaked out because of the no trespassing sign (I can't remember exactly what it said, but we did not want to drive any further). We convinced Carl to leave by screaming, pleading, yelling, begging, etc. and when he backed up he went into a ditch. A very deep ditch. Time stopped, everything was silent, we all looked at each other, and collectively thought we were all going to die. I wish I could remember what was on that no trespassing sign. Well, we did get out of the ditch, came home with grass on the frame of Big Mo, and managed to still get a picture for the blog.

This chicken was in Southern Alabama and was at an art studio.


Ever wonder if Elvis is still alive? Here's proof - he's with Tammy Wynette at a car show in North Carolina.

My new favorite food from vacation

Oh boy, I have a new favorite snack and guess what - it's not chocolate.

I still love chocolate, but this was pretty delicious.

And as Rachel Ray says........YUMMO!

Have you ever tried deep fried pickles?

Yep, that's what I said - deep fried pickles dipped in ranch dressing.

When we were in South Carolina this summer, we had lunch at a little diner

and deep fried pickles were on the menu. Everybody tried them and

I was the only one that liked them.

If you would like to try them, I've found a recipe - here is the link

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Deep-Fried-Dill-Pickles/Detail.aspx

Happy Labor Day Everyone!