I always wanted a collection {Works for Me Wednesday}

I’ve never really been one for collecting things.  I really like stars and star-shapped items, and our living room is somewhat decorated in stars, but I don’t really “collect” them.  You know, like those people who you always know what to get them because they have their “thing” – frogs, UT stuff, apples, whatever.  I’ve always wanted to be one of those people, but alas I just don’t have a “thing”.

I also thought it would be neat for Michael and me to have something to collect when we travel.  But again, I couldn’t come up with anything.

But while working the book fair at school during my practicum this semester I had an epiphany…we could collect children’s books!  Meaningful and practical!  Now, Michael wasn’t quite as jump-up-and-down excited as me (not that I have a love of books or anything…) but he was willing to go along with it (he’s pretty great about jumping on all my crazy idea trains – wait ’til you hear our next one later this week!).

My reasoning was this: collecting children’s books would help us mark or remember those special trips and occasions, plus we would be building a library for our future kiddos.  And I think (hopefully they will too) that it will be neat to read the books to them and tell them “Mommy and Daddy bought this for you when we were in Chicago…long before you were born!”.

I kicked off our collection with a purchase from the book fair – a book about dress up and shoes and one of the little girls name is Caitlin!  So perfect.

Then I bought a Fly Guy book for my last day of my practicum (and was gifted two more by my sweet practicum supervisor)

The professors I worked for carried on the theme (although they didn’t know it) by giving me a book as part of my going away present – Can I Bring Woolly to the Library, Ms. Reeder?

We bought Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as our “souvenirs” for our Gatlinburg trip (and because I needed them for my book-themed graduation party!)

When we found Larry Gets Lost in Chicago, we knew it was the perfect acquisition to represent that trip

On the inside of the book I’ve been writing when and where we got them (i.e. Chicago trip spring 2012)

So if you too want to collect something and have no idea what, here’s one!

Linking up to Works for Me Wednesday.

Chicago trip

aka lost in Chicago

aka Google Maps stinks

What an adventure we had in Chicago!  It was fun but also crazy and stressful at times.  I don’t believe my feet have ever been in so much pain as they were on this trip, but it was worth it.

Forewarning: this will be a loooong post with lots of pictures.  But think of it as your very own “Chicago visitors guide” to refer to in case you ever decide to take a trip.  If you just want my recommendations of what to do/what not to do, skip down to the end of the post for the summary.  If you want to hear the whole recap and see pictures…

Here we go…

Friday

We flew out of Nashville Friday.  We experienced literally (every time I say or type “literally” I hear Chris Treager from Parks and Rec in my head) the easiest flying experience ever.  We got to my parents earlier than we expected, so we left their house (Mom dropped us off at the airport so we wouldn’t have to leave our car) earlier than we expected, traffic was much lighter than we expected, and so we got to the airport about 30 minutes earlier than we planned.  Then it took less than 10 minutes to check our luggage and go through security!  The lines were so short – that has never happened to me!  Then we found out that our plane was going to be a bit delayed, so we had over two hours for a nice, leisurely dinner (which turned out to be not so nice because we had terrible service, but at least we weren’t in a rush).

However, right before we left we found out that the NATO Summit was being in held in Chicago on the exact same three days we were going to be there!  That meant many foreign dignitaries as well as the president and first lady were going to be in town – talk about increased security!  Plus there were supposed to be tons of protestors flying/driving in from all over to protest…something.  We had planned to take buy a three day trolley pass to a hop-on-hop-off trolley (they drive you around to all the major sights, provide you with info about the city, you can get off at any stop, stay as long as you want, and then just get back on to continue your tour when the next bus comes along).  The company had great reviews and we thought that would be the perfect way for us to get around Chicago and see the major attractions since we’d never been and had no idea what we were doing.  But guess what, because of NAT the trolley tours were closed for the three days we happened to be there and want to use them.  Also, several of the museums and the Shedd Aquarium were closed too.  So we had to drastically change our list of things to see/do and figure out another method of transportation.

We got to Chicago around 10:00.  Again, all was well and we quickly got our luggage.  We had planned to take the “L” (short for “elevated” – aka subway or metro) to the stop nearest our hotel and then walk from there.  However, we didn’t count on the eight million flights of stairs that we would have to lug our suitcases up and down!  Then once we got off the L we were completely confused about how to get to our hotel and ended up dragging ourselves and our suitcases all over creation trying to find our way to the hotel.  But we finally made it (after asking for directions many times and getting hustled by a guy who I thought was just being helpful when he asked if we needed help but actually wanted money).  By that time it was after 11:00 so it was straight to bed for us!

Saturday

The Field Museum was going to be closed Sunday and Monday because of NATO so we decided we better do that first thing Saturday morning while it was still open.  So we hopped on the L and went to the closest stop to the museum.

Except when we got to the museum it was surround by these tall metal barricades and we could not figure out how to get to it.  We were already soaked with sweat from our hike from the L to the museum, then we were wandering around like dummies trying to figure out how to actually get there.  I think I now know how babies feel when they’re one one side of a crib/gate and see something on the other side that they want and just.can’t.reach.it.

some pier we stumbled upon while searching for an entrance

But we finally figured out how to get to the entrance, where we were promptly searched by the secret service (not that we looked suspicious or anything, they were searching everyone as they came in, just wanted to clear that up…) and then finally able to make it to the museum.

first of many Chicago skyline pictures – this one taken outside the Field museum

Here’s a trick we learned about many of the museums and exhibits in Chicago – they have multiple tickets you can purchase: a general admission ticket (usually around $15), and all-access ticket (usually $30-$40), or an a la carte where you purchase the general admission + extra add ons.  That was a little annoying because unless you purchased the all-access you sort of had to pick and choose which exhibits to visit.  Later I’ll give you my suggestion in case you ever decide to go.  For the Field Museum we chose to do the general admission + an add on to see the Ghengis Kahn exhibit.

Sue, the T-Rex

There was a neat little exhibit about shoes – I was fascinated with these “shoes for bound feet” – they were absolutely tiny!  I cannot imagine an adult women with such small feet!  The ones in the first picture looked like baby shoes to me.  The ones in the second picture are next to a pair of “normal” sized shoes for comparison.  Crazy.

So our thoughts about the museum: kinda boring.  For me, museums are too overwhelming.  I know that there is not enough time to look at everything and read every little piece of information, but it’s hard for me to pick and choose.  So I end up just meandering through just so say I “saw” everything and not really looking at stuff.  That probably just means I’m weird, but it’s the truth.  But seriously, this was ok but definitely not our favorite thing.

On our way to to museum we passed a Trader Joe’s – I was so excited because I’ve always heard of them but never been to one (it’s a grocery store, by the way).  We stopped in to take a look, and then on the way back to downtown/our hotel we went in and bought some stuff to take home, including the famous cookie butter.

For lunch we went to Giordano’s for some Chicago-style deep dish pizza – yum, so good!

After lunch we went into Nordstrom Rack – I’d seen that listed on some What I Wore Wednesday posts but never been in one so I had to check it out.  Verdict: not as exciting as I thought, I did get some super cute earrings though.  Then next door I saw Anthropologie and just about died from excitement.

I had never heard of this mythical Anthropologie unit I started reading blogs a few years ago.  And it seemed like people talked about Anthro all the time: clothes from there, home goods from there, re-creating crafts based on their stuff.  But the only Antro anywhere close to me is a mini one at Green Hills Mall in Nashville that only has accessories – no clothes, no home stuff.  So I was thrilled to check it out.  Most of the clothes were way more than I wanted to pay, but some of the jewelry and home stuff wasn’t too bad.  I probably would have bought more but I knew we had to fly home with whatever I bought so I limited myself.  I ended up with these latte bowls – I’ve loved them ever since I saw them on NieNie’s blog.  Hers was one of the first blogs I ever read, and I loved how she and her husband had all kinds of colors of bowls.  So I was pretty excited to get some for myself.

big ones and baby ones! (sorry for the el stinko phone pic)

After my impromptu shopping venture, we dropped our purchases off at the hotel, I changed shoes (my feet were in some major pain!) and walked to Navy Pier.

Navy Pier is just a pier with lots of shops, restaurants, and a little park thing (with a ferris wheel, merry go round, etc. – you can see the ferris wheel in the picture above).  It was just so-so for me; we walked to the end of the pier and back but had no desire to get on the ferris wheel (Michael would have enjoyed it but I would have been terrified so we didn’t go).  We were going to check out the Chicago Children’s museum but it was already closed (another lesson learned: all the museums and attractions close really early!).  We took a little boat “tour” – it didn’t leave the harbor but we got a little commentary about the various buildings we saw as we circled around.

I love this picture Michael took while we were on the boat

We grabbed some supper (Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville) and then dragged our exhausted, sore selves back to the hotel.

Sunday

Ah yes, another adventure in the making.  Saturday night we picked out the church we wanted to go to, figured out where it was, how to get there, how long it would take, and what time we needed to leave.  So we head out Sunday morning, get on the L, get off at our stop, and make the trek to where the church should have been.  But guess what, we couldn’t find it.  We walked up and down the street it was supposed to be on but couldn’t find it anywhere.  We stopped and asked multiple people and they had no idea what were were looking for.  We finally figured out that Google Maps had sent us to the completely wrong place – they had sent us to 55 (whatever street name, I’ve forgotten by now) when the address was really something like 11538-55 (that street name).  We were miles from our destination, about an hour away by bus, already late, and our Sunday clothes were soaked with sweat.  We just ended up going back to our hotel and having our own little church service.  Then we changed into more comfortable clothes and headed out for sightseeing.  So our church finding efforts, while valiant, were a total bust.  Thankyouverymuch Google Maps.

After the church fiasco we headed off to the SkyDeck (aka Willis Tower, formerly known as Sears Tower).

We passed the library on our way but it was closed so we didn’t get to check it out

We also passed this little wall with all kinds of quotes about reading.   I loved this one “Read something luminous at night” – Edmund Wilson

We also finally saw some protesters.  And fortunately, this is the only time we saw any.  And they weren’t even protesting, they were just on their way to their site.  In fact, other than the NATO summit shutting down some of the places we wanted to go (Shedd, etc) we really didn’t have any problems.  We only saw protesters once.  We did see a few motorcades but it was no big deal, the buses were re-routed a few times but again, no big deal.  And the best part was that the police were out in droves all over the city to prevent anything crazy from happening so I felt more secure seeing them everywhere.

see the whole block of homeland security vehicles?

Willis Tower (Sears Tower)

Willis Tower is about as tall 315 of me

headed up to the top – they cram you in there like sardines!  and it goes so high so fast that your ears hurt and pop like being in a plane

view from the top:

We went out on the Sky Deck (if you don’t know what that is – it’s a glass or plastic ledge thing, fully enclosed, that it at the top of the tower – you can walk out on it and look straight down).  I’m not a fan of heights so I was a bit afraid, but I did it!

but only long enough to grab a quick picture for proof

We also found this book, Larry Gets Lost in Chicago, that seemed very appropriate for our experience

When we left the Sky Deck we went to Gino’s East for more deep dish pizza.  It was delicious, but the service kinda stunk.

Next on our agenda: Lincoln Park Zoo.  Verdict: loved it.

we never figured out what this bird was (I think it looks like a stork, but it was in the “birds of prey” exhibit and I don’t know if storks were birds of prey or not.  I thought they just, like, carried babies and stuff…) but anyway, it had a bunch of babies in the nest and it was really cool to watch.

Sun Bear – fascinating little creature that looks like a miniature bear crossed with a sloth with ginormous claws

polar bear cuddling with a rubber boot

it starts with an A, Ardvark, Ardvark, and ends with a K, Ardvark, Ardvark…

We stayed until the zoo closed (at 5:30!  why?) and got to see pretty much everything but the “farm” section (which we figure we’ve seen enough of in real life).

Then we headed to Millennium Park and Grant Park to see “The Bean”, the face fountains, and the Buckingham Fountain.

The face fountains were cool (and a little creepy) – the faces will randomly “spit” water at you – it was definitely a fun place for kids

I love this picture of the skyline reflected in the bean

 Buckingham Fountain

Sunday night we went to the Weber Grill for supper.  My food was just fair, but Michael’s salmon was absolutely the best salmon either of us have ever tasted.  It was incredible!  After we stuffed our bellies we took our yet again exhausted and sore selves back to the hotel.

(worst part about the trip was all the walking – even though I brought pretty comfortable shoes, my plantar fasciitis feet just couldn’t take the walking – by the end of the day I was hobbling around like a granny)

Monday

The Museum of Science and Industry wasn’t on our original list of things to do, but with some of our other plans shut down, we decided to check it out.  And I’m so glad we did – it was phenomenal!  Hands down our favorite thing we did the whole trip.  I can’t even begin to describe how cool it was!  It was about an hour bus ride from downtown, but it was so worth it.

On our way there we saw another motorcade

Ok, this thing was so so neat.  It was a screen with falling colored “sand”.  When you stood in front of it, the sand changed so it looked like it was falling around you, or you could “catch it”.  I have no idea how that works, but I was fascinated with it.

One of the things there that Michael really wanted to see was this “green” house (i.e. energy efficient and eco-friendly).  We were the only ones signed up for our time slot so we got our own little tour.  We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the house, but here’s the outside.we got to see some eggs hatching

and some already hatched chicks

there was a storm section where Michael made a tornado

The whole museum was incredible.  We could have spent all day there.  There was a really cool exhibit about the human body, an exhibit about planes, one about where food comes from, and more.  There are tons of hands-on experiments in all the exhibits.  Definitely a must-visit.  The only downside was that this was apparantly everyoneinChicagotakeafieldtrip day and there were bajillions of kids running around and hogging all the cool experiments.  But we still had a blast.

Even though we could have stayed all day at the Science and Industry Museum, we left so I could do some shopping on Michigan Avenue.  We ate lunch at the Grand Lux cafe then headed out to shop (well, I shopped and Michael walked around with me, reading on his Kindle while I browsed).  Sadly, it wasn’t quite as exciting as I expected.  Most of the stores were way expensive  (Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, Coach, Tiffany’s, Burberry, Swavorski, etc.) and all I did was walk in to say I’d been there, but there’s no point (to me) browsing when I know there is no way I’ll pay those prices.  Then on the opposite spectrum, a lot of the stores were things we have here (Macy’s, Gap, Old Navy) – why on earth would I want to spend my vacation time buying things I can get here and then having to lug them home?  I did check out Crate and Barrel (I love home goods!) and H&M (much less exciting than I expected).  The main thing I wanted to see on Michigan Avenue (and in fact, the only thing I knew about in Chicago before we booked our trip) was…

The American Girl Doll store!

Be still my beating heart…

I loved my American Girl Dolls (still do, and sometimes get them out and change their outfits just for fun…shh, don’t tell)

I cannot even tell you how many hours were spent playing with them or how many dollars I saved to buy their little accessories.  I was stoked to get to see the store!

I was thisclose to bringing one (or more) of my own dolls so they could go to the American Girl Doll salon and get their hair fixed.  I just could not justify bringing another suitcase so Samantha could get a new ‘do.  Maybe next time.

I wanted to buy every stinkin’ thing in that store!  It was fantastically fun!

My Chicago trip was complete after that.

After that I had one last place I wanted to go – Filene’s Basement.  I’d heard about it from friends, and one of the very stylish bloggers I read frequently has clothes from there.  The one on Michigan Avenue had closed, but I had seen a sign for one elsewhere so we hopped on the bus and headed over there.  Only to find out that it had closed earlier this year, too.  Boo!  So no Filene’s Basement for me.  By that time (7:00) all the stores had closed (seriously, what is up with that?  The stores around here are open until 9 or 10, why on earth do the stores in Chicago close so early?!?).  We decided we wanted more of that delicious salmon so we went back to Weber Grill for supper and then to the hotel.

Oh yes, I also forgot to mention that despite the massive sweat inducing 90+ weather on Saturday and Sunday, we awoke Monday to a very chilly and windy day – I wore my jacket the whole day and we were quite thankful that most of the day Monday was spent inside.

Tuesday

We had done everything we wanted to do, plus there wasn’t really time to fit anything else in before we left, so on Tuesday we slept late, packed up, made a quick trip over to Anthropologie (which was pretty close to our hotel) so I could get some earrings I had seen on Saturday, and then headed for the airport.  This time we took a cab thing (not a limo, but not really a cab, maybe a shuttle car thing that our hotel provided?) so we didn’t have to haul our luggage all over creation.  We had another super easy check in at the airport, ate some lunch, and flew home.

random pictures that don’t fit anywhere else in this post…

I really loved seeing all the architecture in Chicago.  That surprised me since I don’t usually notice those things, but I thought it was so cool to see all the different types of buildings right next to each other.  It truly is a beautiful city.

If you’re still with me, pat yourself on the back – that was quite the long post.  If you’re a cheater and jumped to the bottom to see my trip advice…

In summary:

• Wear comfortable shoes.  Maybe even take several pairs of comfortable shoes so you can switch them up when you start to get blisters.
• Wear comfortable clothes.  Don’t be like me and try to wear cute clothes.
• Eat some deep dish pizza at Giordano’s or Gino’s East
• Museum of Science and Industry – quadruple yes!
• Lincoln Zoo – definitely (plus it’s free!)
• Skydeck (Willis Tower) – yes, unless you are terrified of heights (I very much dislike heights, but I wasn’t really scared except on the actual Skydeck, so it’s not that bad)
• Field Museum – only if you really like museums, we didn’t care for it
• Don’t trust Google Maps.  I only mentioned a few of the times that it got us lost, but it actually happened multiple times every day
• We didn’t get to do the Trolley Tours or the Shedd Aquarium since they were closed (boo NATO!) but I think we would have really liked both
• Oh yeah, don’t go during the NATO summit.
• Weber Grill = best salmon ever
• Michigan Avenue is not worth your time unless you are a hard-core shopper.
• Except for the American Girl Doll store.  Best store on the Magnificent Mile.  Enter at your own risk, though, because daughters, mommies, and wives alike will desire many items from this store.
• Navy Pier wasn’t that exciting but that could have been because my feet hurt so much that I just wanted to go home
• Get a pass for the L (it can also be used on all the city buses).  It definitely beats walking everywhere.  I’m not a fan of public transportation but it wasn’t too bad.  We only encountered a few crazies.

Thanks for reading my ridiculously long vacation recap!  I hope it’s at least a little bit helpful for those of you ever planning a trip to Chicago.

What I Wore Wednesday: Chicago clothes-fail edition

This week’s edition features the outfits I wore on our Chicago trip (which I haven’t blogged about yet, so you get a little sneak peek through these pictures).  However, the outfits I planned on wearing in Chicago aren’t exactly the outfits I ended up wearing…

I had several cute little sundresses packed to wear on our trip.  After the first day of tons of walking and tons of sweating, I realized those dresses just weren’t going to cut it.  Luckily I had the workout clothes that I had packed (intended to workout at the hotel, not realizing that we would walk so much during the day that there was no way I was also going to workout in the gym), however they weren’t quite as attractive as I would have liked (and I had to break my no t-shirt rule).  But I’m being honest so here’s what I wore:

Friday we flew to Chicago and got there really late so we just went straight to the hotel.  I wore this dress but forgot to take a picture.  I’m still loving it, even though it restricts my stride a little because it doesn’t stretch; plus random people comment on how cute it is which makes me happy

Saturday – sightseeing in Chicago

dress/Loft outlet; cardi/Loft outlet; shoes/Crocs

Halfway through the day we had to go back to the hotel to change out of my Crocs because they were rubbing blisters all over my feet.  They are normally comfy but apparently not for walking long distances.  I was so thankful I threw my TOMS is my suitcase at the last minute because I wore them with everything (whether they matched or not!) the rest of the trip.

Sunday I had a cute new dress that I wore to church (that was a crazy adventure that I’ll tell you about later!) but by the time we got back I was all sweaty and didn’t take a picture so you’ll just have to see that outfit another time.

This is what I wore the rest of the day Saturday

t-shirt/school; capris/Columbia outlet; shoes/TOMS via Journey’s

You can’t really see the lettering in this picture but I was proud to represent Warren Elementary all the way to Chicago

Monday – more sightseeing in Chicago

t-shirt/church camp; jacket/Columbia; capris/Columbia outlet; shoes/TOMS via Journey’s

It went from super hot temperatures Saturday and Sunday to quite cool temperatures on Monday and I had to wear a jacket all day.

I bought two paris of these workout pants at the outlet mall in Gatlinburg last week and now I wish I had bought more – they are very comfortable!

Tuesday – flight home

dress/Old Navy; purple top under/Loft outlet; cardi/Loft outlet; shoes/Target; necklace/Rugged Wearhouse (Gabriel Bros)

And there you have it – not exactly what I had planned to wear on our trip, but sometimes you just have to choose comfort over style.

Linking up to What I Wore Wednesday

High Five for Friday

Hip hip hooray for Friday!  Here are my top 5:

1. We’re leaving for Chicago today!  Yay!  And this is not a work trip – it’s a 100% fun trip.  We’ll just be there from tonight until Tuesday morning, so it’s not a super long trip but I know it’s going to be a blast!  I can’t wait for the sight seeing, shopping, and food.

2. Lord willing, we will be house-less by the end of the day!  We overnighted the closing papers last night and the new owners should close today.  Having our house sold will be such a relief, so send up a prayer today that all goes through smoothly.  Then that means we get to start house-hunting here!  Double yay!

3. I checked another thing off my 2012 bucket list this week – making bread.  A friend from church brought me some starter  and I used it to make two loaves of Amish Friendship Bread…which were pretty good if I do say so myself!  I didn’t post a step-by-step this time, but in case you’re interested, this recipe was used for the starter and I used this recipe for the bread (minus the dates).  She also brought me some sourdough starter Wednesday night so when we get home from Chicago I’m going to tackle my first attempt at sourdough bread.

4. We’ve been enjoying some cookie monsters this week (warm chocolate chip cookie with ice cream and chocolate syrup)

5. In the fall I won a Kindle through a contest at Rugged Wearhouse…but it hadn’t been taken out of its box until this week (think grad school had anything to do with that?).  Now, I’m not 100% sold on this whole Kindle/iPad/Nook thing – I prefer the feel and smell of real (read: paper) books, plus I’m very visual so I like to see the cover.  However, lugging a laundry basket full of books on vacation (which is exactly what my parents did for their three avid readers) is a bit inconvenient.  So for traveling and simplicity, I am happy to have a Kindle.

Oh and just for kicks I have to share this pin with you:

Source: themetapicture.com via Erin on Pinterest

I laughed and laughed when I saw this!  As a math nerd and a former math teacher, I love a good word problem…if I’m ever back in a math classroom again I’m definitely making this into a poster for my room!

Linking up with Lauren @ From My Grey Desk

Gatlinburg trip

Well, we’re home from Gatlinburg so now it’s time for a recap.  This was my favorite work trip that Michael has had (that I’ve gotten to go on) because 1. I loooovvveee Gatlinburg and 2. I actually got to enjoy this trip rather than having to do school work the whole time.

Sunday:

After church Sunday morning we packed up and hit the road.  We stopped in Cookeville to eat supper with my brother Brendan at the best Mexican restaurant ever, El Tap.  Right before we got to our hotel it started storming.  Our hotel, the Park Vista, was on the top of the hill and it seemed like we were right inside the storm.  I have never heard such loud thunder or seen such close lightening!  What a cool display of God’s awesome power.

the Park Vista

the rooms are all in a circle around the perimeter of the hotel with an open lobby in the middle (this is from the lobby looking up)

elevators – I thought it was really neat how they traveled kind of on the outside of the wall

view from the elevator looking at the rooms

view from the elevator looking down to the lobby

we didn’t use the pool while we were there, but I thought it was really neat – two twisty water slides and two levels!

there was also a display case with live birds in it; this little guy was so cute!

the view from our hotel balcony Monday morning – beautiful!

Monday:

We fully expected that the days would be very similar to all the other trainings Michael has been to in the past…he would be in training all day and I’d be on my own until he was finished.  However, his training was in our hotel and he frequently had breaks so I got to see him then, plus he usually got an hour and a half for lunch, so we got to go out to lunch everyday.  What fun!

Monday we went to the Best Italian Cafe & Pizzaria (that’s really the name!) for lunch.

big fat garlic rolls

Michael’s pizza

I always ask for extra lemon at restaurants – to some waiters that means one extra slice and to others that means a whole bowl of lemon slices…this waiter got it totally right, plus made a cute lemon arrangement!

While he was in class, I just lazed around the hotel room and blogged, read, watched, tv, etc.

Monday night after classes got out we drove to Sevierville to go to the Lodge Cast Iron store and Smokey Mountain Knife Works.  I didn’t think I would be excited about Knife Works at all, and I’ll admit that parts were boring, but there were some pretty cool things there!  Especially the section of kitchen stuff.

inside Smokey Mountain Knife Works

After we left Knifeworks we were getting quite hungry for supper and we wanted pancakes.  When you drive through Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge you realize that the big “things” in Gatlinburg are pancakes, old timey photos, and fudge.  However, the pancakes places that are so ubiquitous happen to only be open for breakfast and lunch…not supper!  After driving to several with no success we decided to scratch that and try something else.  We finally settled on Bubba Gump’s, which was delicious, just not what we planned.  And then we walked to Ben and Jerry’s – double yum!

Tuesday:

When Michael got his break for lunch we went to the Log Cabin Pancake House to get our pancake fix.  The wait was well worth it!

my butterscotch pancakes and Michael’s chocolate chip pancakes – incredible!

 After lunch Michael headed back to class and I headed out to the Tanger Outlet Mall…one of my favorite places to shop!  I racked up on summer clothes…expect to see lots of new pieces/outfits in my What I Wore Wednesday posts.

Tuesday night we went to The Alamo Steakhouse for supper.  We’d heard mixed reviews about The Alamo…some loved it, some thought it wasn’t so great.  We decided to see for ourselves, and our verdict was that we really liked it!

I had filet with asparagus and crab covered in hollandaise sauce (plus baked potato, salad, and rolls)…wow it was good!

these ducks were just hanging out outside The Alamo – not scared of us at all!

Wednesday:

As I’ve mentioned before, I attend a Bible study on Wednesday mornings.  It’s called BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) and there are groups that meet all over the world, studying the same material.  Since all the BSF classes study the same thing, I was able to find and attend a BSF class in Knoxville.  So Wednesday morning I drove to Knoxville and attended a BSF class there.  Then after Bible study I went out to lunch with my grandparents (my dad’s whole family lives in Knoxville) and then went to see my Aunt Rhonda and Uncle Tim for a while.  It was really great to get to see my family!

We went to McAlister’s for supper – Chris and Erin introduced us to McAlister’s last weekend in Lexington and we loved it so we were excited to find one in Pigeon Forge.  We did a little shopping at some bookstores to look for books I needed for my book-themed graduation party.  Ice cream sounded good to us, but all the places we went were closed!  Gatlinburg must cater to old people, because everything closes really early!  After lots of driving between Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge (a la Monday night’s pancake hunt) we finally found a Marble Slab open and were able to get our ice cream fix.

Thursday: 

Thursday for lunch we went with some of the other people at Michael’s training back to Log Cabin for more pancakes.  Then I headed back out to the outlet mall for more shopping, but I must have already tapped out all the good stores because I didn’t find anything good.  I should have just stayed at the hotel and watched the Criminal Minds marathon that was on…

Thursday night we decided to stay in and eat supper in our room.  I had packed quite a bit of food for my lunches that wasn’t getting eaten since I ended up going out with Michael for lunch everyday.  So we decided to eat some of that food for our supper.  However, we did have to go get some ice cream after supper .

Friday:

Michael just had one class Friday morning; while he was in class I had a quick workout, breakfast, shower, and packed up my stuff.  That way we were able to hit the road as soon as he was done and book it back home so I could get to my graduation!

We had a blast!  Even though Michael had training every day, everything was pretty slow-paced.  He got lots of breaks, I got to sleep in, we got to enjoy cable (very exciting for us non-tv owners…), read, visit family, shop, eat, and relax.  I love Gatlinburg and I’m already ready to go back!

High Five for Friday

I have mixed feelings about Friday this week…I’m sad that it’s Friday because that means it’s time to leave Gatlinburg, but I’m also excited that it’s Friday because that means it’s GRADUATION DAY!!!  Woo hoo!

So here are my 5 things this week:

1.  Tonight I graduate with my masters in library media education and I am so excited!!!  Tomorrow we’ll celebrate with family and friends (a book-themed graduation party, of course…)

2. Gatlinburg has been wonderful!  I’ll do a whole post about our trip later but the short version is that my week consisted of shopping + sleeping late + visiting family + eating lots of yummy food + watching Criminal Minds.  Fun stuff.

the view from our hotel room

3. In my 6+ years of voluntarily working out (i.e. not in P.E. or on an athletic team) I have never owned real workout clothes.  I’ve always just worked out in shorts from Walmart/Target and t-shirts that I already owned.  But this week I finally bought my first real (sweat wicking!) exercise clothes.  So exciting!  The Columbia outlet store had most of their stuff 40% off on top of the outlet prices, so I got some great stuff for pretty cheap.  Here’s one of my new “outfits”:

4.  I tried on this dress at Old Navy and cracked up because it looked like it came straight out of my Mom and mother-in-law’s closets from high school!  I’m pretty sure I’ve seen pictures of them wearing this same thing…so weird how fashion trends cycle back around.

sorry for the bad cell phone pic

5.  And here’s your Friday funny…this is a picture of me from Mom’s Day Out when I was 3 or 4.  A friend took a picture of the picture and posted it on Facebook – definitely made me smile.  It’s kinda blurry, but just in case you wondered what I looked like as a kiddo…

totally rocking the side ponytail…and what on earth is that white thing?

I should refer to this picture next time I consider bangs to remind myself that the stringy look does not work for me…

The girl in the blue above me is my friend Jenny Beth – how cute was she???

Linking up with Lauren at From My Grey Desk

Christmas and NYE in Mayfield

We headed to Mayfield this weekend to celebrate one more Christmas – this time with my mom’s side of the family.

Friday night Michael, Riley, and I decorated Christmas cookies

sprinkles galore

beautiful cookies – one of my 2012 “bucket list” items is to learn how to make these cookies.  I’ve helped Mom decorate them for years but I’ve never made the dough, rolled it out, cut out the shapes, or baked them.  These cookies are a big deal in my family so I want to learn how to make them too!

I iced the cookies

Riley and Michael decorated

Saturday morning the whole family came over for a big brunch.  After brunch we visited and played – the kids had this cardboard fort thing to color and play in.

Brendan, Jordan, and Tim played Brendan’s board game

something that really amazed me was how technologically-saavy my little cousins are

they are rockstars with the iPods and iPhones

later that afternoon we opened presents – a wild and crazy event!

as we waited to countdown to New Year’s Eve we played games…

danced…

and did “real magic”

as we neared midnight (or in our case with small children…9 pm) we poured our “midnight drink” (Jackson’s term for sparkling cider)

pretty bubbles

then we counted down to the new year

Sunday after church we ate lunch and visited before heading off to our respective homes.  It was a great weekend spent with lots of family.

more work trips – this time to Mayfield

Thursday and Friday Michael had to do some work in Mayfield and Benton, KY.  My Mom’s family lives in Mayfield so we were able to spend some time with them while we were there, too.

On our way to Mayfield Wednesday night we stopped at Patti’s 1880′s Settlement Restaurant in Grand Rapids.  It had been years since either of us had eaten there so we were excited.  The inside of the restaurant is beautiful and the food is delicious.  The only problem was that we were seated beside the Women Firefighters of Western Kentucky as they did their dirty Santa gift exchange so it was just a little bit rowdy.  Not exactly a nice, peaceful meal but still fun.

I know it’s not a great picture but this was the room where we ate – all decked out with Christmas decorations

I had a taco salad type thing that was delicious except for the cilantro – I think cilantro is disgusting so some of my bites of salad were icky.  If you look close in the upper right hand corner you can see my bread and strawberry butter.  The bread is served in a flower pot with regular butter and strawberry butter – the strawberry butter is incredible!

Patt’s has a store kind of like Cracker Barrel with all kinds of cute knick knacks.  See the display case in the back?  Let’s take a closer look, shall we…

Look how tall that meringue is!  We didn’t have any but it looks super yummy.

The trees were all light up outside the restaurant and there were paths and walkways so you could walk around and look at the lights.

On Thursday while Michael was at work Mema and I went to see my cousins’ preschool Christmas program and eat lunch with them afterward.  It was so cute to see all those little kids singing Christmas songs.

After the Christmas program Mema and I got out her Christmas decorations then I put up her tree and decorated the mantle.

After Miller Ann and Jackson had their naps Elizabeth brought them over so she could help me finish the decorating and then we all ate pizza for supper.  We went over to their house for a while for Michael to look at some electrical stuff while I played with the kiddos.

Friday morning I went back to Don and Elizabeth’s to play with Miller and Jackson for a little bit longer.  Miller’s closet is ginormous so we spent most of our time playing in there.

My babies

I did Miller’s hair with an upside down braid like I did here

getting my hair brushed by Jackson

then by Miller

playing jacks in the closet

The rest of Friday was spend with Mema and Granddaddy until it was time to pack up and go back home.  Mema gave me these doilies and I have a super cool craft idea in mind for them.

Knoxville

Last week Michael had yet another training – this time in Knoxville, TN.  This was super exciting for me because 1. I was finally done with all my grad school work for the semester and didn’t have to spend all day every day working on it, 2. my dad’s side of the family all live in Knoxville so I got to visit with several family members that I usually only see once or twice a year, and 3. we passed Cookeville on our way to Knoxville.

Wednesday Michael got to leave work a little early so we were able to get on the road at a decent hour.  On our way to Knoxville we stopped in Cookeville to eat dinner, see Brendan, and go to church at the UCSC.  It was a little weird going to the UCSC after 2 1/2 years being gone – I hardly knew anyone!  But it was nice to go back and visit, see some of our old friends, and worship for a little while with them.  We left early since it had snowed and we were afraid the roads would be bad but they ended up being fine for the rest of our drive.

Thursday I lazed around the hotel room and it was fantastic!  No grad school assignments!  I watched tv and read books.  Thursday night after Michael got done with training we headed over to my Uncle Tim and Aunt Rhonda’s house for supper.  Aunt Rhonda really outdid herself with a wonderful meal!  It was wonderful to visit with my aunts, uncles, cousins, grandma, as well as my dad’s cousin and his wife who were visiting from Florida.  We hadn’t seen them since our wedding so we had a blast catching up.

Friday I met my Aunt Lisa at her office downtown and we walked to lunch at a fun restaurant – I think it was called Latitude 35.  The food was delicious and it was fun getting to spend some time together.  We walked through the shops for a while; after she went back to work I did a little more browsing/shopping.  In all the times I’ve been to Knoxville I don’t remember ever going downtown.  It was so cool!  There were so many interesting shops.  Unfortunately I didn’t have very much time so I didn’t get to see near as much stuff as I wanted.  One really fun place was Mast General Store.  They had barrels and barrels of candy.

I had a great time looking at all the candy – some “typical” and some unique or old fashioned.  I really wanted to get one of those green buckets and fill it with all sorts of candy, but since you paid by pound and I tend to get a little carried away I was afraid I would end up buying tons and tons.  So I just got a few little things for stocking stuffers.

After Michael’s training was over we headed back home to Bowling Green.  So our trip to Knoxville was pretty short but very fun!

coffee and books and snacks and Chattanooga and stuff

Enjoy this list of unrelated random thoughts of mine:

1. Back to Chattanooga we went – we drove down Monday night and got back last night.  Michael had three days of training and I had three days of hanging out in the hotel watching tv, working out, reading, doing a teensy bit of school work, and attempting to navigate scary Chattanooga roads to go shopping (fail).

2. On that note, I am so thankful for Michael who drives nearly 100% of the time.  I cannot stand driving, especially in big cities or new places so it makes me so happy that he does the driving for me.

3. 

I took some workout dvds with me to the hotel.  One of them was this yoga video – I’ve had it for probably 2 years but only used it once.  I decided to try it again and wowsers were my abs sore the next day!

4 and 5. 4. One night while eating at Panera I saw a picture of their peppermint mocha.  It looked amazing but I checked the nutrition facts for that bad boy and said no way (520 calories, 70 grams of sugar).  I did a little searching to see if there was a healthy option and lo and behold I found that Starbucks has a skinny peppermint mocha (sugar free syrup and nonfat milk) – with no whipped cream a grande is only 130 calories.  I gave it a try and was pleasantly surprised – very yummy!  It was a great Christmasy treat

5.  On our way back from Chattanooga I finally finished reading The Host.  I had heard mixed things – some people said it was too science fictiony, others said it was really good.  Being a Twilight fan (they are by the same author, Stephanie Meyer) I decided to give it a try.  It was a huge book so it took a while to read.  Also, it was hard for me to get in to it at first.  I almost quit reading it twice because I just wasn’t interested but I’m glad I stuck with it because I ended up LOVING it.  Seriously!  I’m not a science fiction fan (or that’s what I always thought but looking back on all the books I’ve read recently I think I might be more of a fan than I thought) but I liked this.  It’s not quite as girly gushy romantic as Twilight, although there is some romance.  Check it out.  I’m not going to do a full summary and review right now, but if you want to find out more about it look here.

6. I found these delicious snacks today at Kroger.  I don’t really like string cheese but I’ll eat it some when I’m trying really hard to eat only heathy snacks.  These looked like they might be more interesting than plain string cheese so I bought some.  They are super great!  I love the tomato and basil flavor.  I love it when I find new healthy snacks that I like!

7. Jonie stopped by Bowling Green on her way from Nashville back to Lexington.  That was a fun and unexpected surprise!  We shopped for a while at Rugged Warehouse (you know, that store I talk about in every other post…).  I found some great stuff – headbands for .50, boots for $10!  Super!

8. I bought our tiny Christmas tree today.  Did you know they have little bitty *live* Christmas trees?  They’re already in the stand and everything (I got ours at Kroger).  We’ve had a full size tree the last two years but this year our space is so limited that we had to go with a little tree on the coffee table.  It was kind of a bummer but it’s ok.  I spent this afternoon putting away fall decor and putting up Christmas stuff.  I’ll show pictures (and another Christmasy craft) soon.

So, what’s new with you?