Exceedingly Mundane

Yes, I’m the world’s slowest blogger, I admit it. We’ve been home a week now, and I still haven’t posted half of the pictures that I took on vacation to Georgia that I had planned to post. I started off slow, just posting one or two at a time, then realized mid-week that wasn’t going to cut it! I have so many scenic shots and things I wanted to blog about, but I think I must be slower than molasses to get it all on the blog. Sorry about that!

I’ve been posting some from Callaway Gardens – of flowers and butterflies. The main point of that first stop at Callaway Gardens was for Tim (hubs) and Don (BIL) to play golf. I have a few golf pictures, but I’m not going to post any. Blogger Privilege, hehehe! I’m also going to skip posting pictures from Warm Springs, GA (our second stop), although we really enjoyed it. Warm Springs is the location of the only home that Franklin D Roosevelt ever owned, which is also the house that he died in. Neither of us knew that – he was having a portrait painted at his modest home in Georgia on April 12, 1945, right before WWII ended. He collapsed and was carried to his bed where he died a couple of hours later. They also had a really good little museum dedicated to his life, his presidency (all 4 of them), his battle with polio, the healing effects of Warm Springs and the work he did there to benefit other disabled people. We really enjoyed it, but the pictures are not that breathtaking, just your typical museum type stuff.

So, I will move on to our last stop on vacation – Savannah Georgia. Today’s photos are of some of the parks and squares and monuments. Savannah is a beautiful place – so clean and well laid out and just very Southern in the look and feel of the place. Very genteel! We felt safe and in a very cared for area, walking the 22 square blocks of the historic district. The parks are laid out every couple of blocks, and we walked to most of them. We saw tons of monuments, markers, fountains, and plaques devoted to people important in the life of Savannah, many of which dated back to Revolutionary times. We are both history nuts, so we loved reading and learning about the history of the area.

Click on the extended entry for some pictures, and I’ll be back soon (maybe this weekend?) with some pictures of churches and cemeteries, and of Tybee Island.

Have a great day, everyone!

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I have loved doing the Menu Plan Monday meme lately, and I saw this mentioned before I left on vacation. I’ve been wanting to play along, since I love recipes, like to cook, and love using my crockpot this time of year. Sandra, at Diary of a SAHM mom, sponsors this Slow Cooking Thursday meme, so click here to check it out this week and follow the links to all the other good crockpot recipes. I can’t wait to check them all out later today 🙂

Here’s my offering for this week (my first time playing!)… Maple BBQ Chicken for sandwiches (this recipe is also posted here on our family website). I usually make these in my little West Bend cooker, but I’m sure they are fine in a regular crockpot. As with most boneless skinless chicken breast recipes for the crockpot, they really shouldn’t cook all day, since they will dry out and be tough. Anything using b/s chicken, I usually put in the crockpot after lunch and cook for 3-4 hours on low. Enjoy!

Maple Barbecue Chicken Sandwiches

Ingredients
1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast
1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup maple-flavored pancake syrup
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
5 hamburger buns

Directions
Combine the ketchup, syrup, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, chili powder and garlic powder in a bowl. Set aside.

Place the chicken breasts in a crock pot. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour the prepared sauce over the top. Cover and cook on low for four to five hours.

When ready to serve, remove and shred chicken. Put back in and mix with the sauce. Serve on buns for sandwiches.

Stacy’s Notes – Made this chicken mixture October 2004 to serve on some leftover sandwich buns I had. I used 2 chicken breasts and halved the other sauce ingredients. I cooked these on setting 4 in my West Bend cooker for about 3 hours, then shredded them. This made enough for 4 sandwiches for us with 2 breasts. Really good, Tim even commented that he liked this better than regular beef barbecue. I used real maple syrup and not pancake syrup, and it really just tasted like a sweet barbecue sauce. Really good, a definite keeper!

Thirteen Butterfly Pictures!

We were on vacation last week and I didn’t get to play Thursday Thirteen. I missed playing, and it’s good to be back! I’ve slowly been posting a few pictures from our trip to Callaway Gardens and Savannah Georgia. I still haven’t posted any pictures from Savannah, but they will be forthcoming soon. In the mean time, I wanted to post some of the many pictures I took of butterflies at the Butterfly Conservatory at Callaway Gardens. It was such a fun place for someone like me, who loves to take pictures!

1. Not sure if this is a type of monarch, or just has the orange coloring

2. No idea on the name of most of these, but I thought they were pretty!

3. Again, no idea what this one is really called, but it was one of my favorites… I call them Tiger Butterflies!

4. Another one I just loved… I love green, so this one was so pretty to me. These were hard to photograph, since they blended in so well with all the leaves and greenery.

Click below to see the rest!!!

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Yesterday, I posted a picture of an owl butterfly that I thought was so cool. I have a bunch more butterfly pictures, but I will post them in a few days. I saw yesterday that my sister Gail had posted here about some of the pictures of flowers that we had taken. The guys were playing a lot of golf, and Gail and I were exploring the grounds at Callaway Gardens. I still haven’t gotten to the Savannah portion of the trip. Looks like it’s going to be a few more days before I post photos from that portion of our trip, so please be patient and check back later.

Anyway, since Gail posted her flower pictures, I thought I would follow suit and post some that I took also. I have already posted my favorite flower picture, the Purple Passion Flower that we saw at the Horticultural Center. There wasn’t a whole lot of other stuff blooming. We were late for summer flowers and early for the fall stuff. But, I did get some shots. Click on the extended page to see some. 🙂

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I finished a really good book last night, my second by Southern author Dorothea Benton Frank. I had previously read “Shem Creek” by Frank and really enjoyed it. I really liked this one too, and I don’t know if I could pick which one I liked more. Both good stories, well told, and very Southern in the storytelling. This book flipped back and forth between the present day (1999,2000) and the early 60’s to tell the story of Susan Hamilton Hayes and her family. It was a very engrossing read, and I’m sort of sad that the book is finished.

For the record, that makes #56 for the year, with a total of 19,841 pages read. Also, this is the first book that I have completed for the Fall Reading Challenge. (I have linked to the Challenge on my sidebar, and will try to remember to keep that original post updated as to my reading accomplishments.)

I went to the library yesterday, to pick up two books that are on my challenge list. I couldn’t find one of them (“Tears of the Giraffe”), so they ordered me a copy from another branch. I got one from my list “204 Rosewood Lane” and also picked up a recent book by Anita Diamant from the New Release shelf. Sigh. Off track already! Oh well, I love to read, and I can easily substitute one book for another. I don’t know which one I will start first, I will have to see what I’m in the mood for!

I still want to post a lot of pictures from our vacation last week, but I seem to be having trouble finding time to sit down and work on all of my pictures. So, I think I’ll continue this thing of “Photo of the Day” for a while, and highlight some of my favorite or interesting pictures I took while we were gone.

We went the first weekend to Callaway Gardens Georgia with my sister Gail and her husband Don. Don plays golf with Tim and they always have a good time, so we planned this stop first so the guys could play golf together. Gail and I spent all of our time exploring the gardens, grounds and attractions at Callaway Gardens. It wasn’t the optimum time to go. The best time, I think, is in spring when all the azaleas are blooming. Or a few weeks from now, when they have some fall foliage. But, it was still a nice place and we enjoyed several of the attractions.

My favorite place, by far, was their butterfly conservatory. I love butterflies and dragonflies and love trying to get pictures of them. The conservatory was a very cool place, with tons of butterflies flying around. I took *a lot* of pictures and plan to put several more of them here over the next few days and weeks.

I’ll start with what I thought was the most unique butterfly there – the Owl Butterfly. I kept seeing these butterflies in the trees and hiding in spots and didn’t think much of them, other than… “oh, they are not that pretty”. Here’s what one looks like:

But, then, I saw two of them together and realized how totally cool they were! I was totally amazed at their coloring and markings and how they protect themselves from predators – by looking like an owl! Makes you really stop and realize the beauty of nature and how God made all of these things. You can’t tell me that these creatures just happened to be created like this. Look…

I’ll be back either later today or tomorrow with more pictures, probably of more butterflies! There were so many pretty ones there, and I had a blast taking pictures. Gotta love digital, baby 😀

Laura over at OrgJunkie sponsors this great meme each week. I missed playing last week, since we were on vacation, but it looks like a lot of great menus were planned last week. I am going to try to get back into the cooking groove this week. I haven’t cooked in about 9 or 10 days!!! 🙄

Sunday – we picked up bratwursts and sauerkraut at a local GermanFest. It was really good!

Monday – Chicken Corn Chowder, Parmesan Cheese Muffins, salad

Tuesday – Grilling out (salmon for me, chicken for Tim), Stacy’s Pan Roasted Potatoes, veggie or salad

Wednesday – Light Night (Tim weighs in at work on Thursday) – either grilled cheese and tomato soup, or eggs/oatmeal/toast

Thursday – Spaghetti and Meatballs, steamed broccoli, homemade bread

Friday – Date Night or Crockpot Creamy Italian Chicken over no-yolk noodles, homemade bread

Saturday – TBD

Sunday – Game Day Food – wings, chips, appetizers, TBD

We went to the German Fest near our house today, something I look forward to every fall. I love all the festivals and stuff, but I’m afraid I’m the only one. Tim is only interested in going to get food and not staying, so that’s what we did today. My dad drove up, and we all went and got bratwurst and sauerkraut (enough for lunch and dinner). I also bought a t-shirt (love their shirts, I have 3 of them already), some jarred sauerkraut and homemade German mustard. I meant to take my camera to get pictures for the blog, but of course… I forgot. 🙁

So, instead… I’ll post another scenic picture from our vacation last week. This time last week, we were in Callaway Gardens, GA. Tim and Don were playing lots of golf, and Gail and I were hanging out and checking out the grounds, butterfly conservatory, horticultural center, etc.

We went to the chapel on the grounds last Sunday, named after one of the lady Callaways, and it was so pretty. Wood and stone, in front of a lake. Very quiet and peaceful and I thought it was just beautiful. This was one of my most favorite pictures I took while we were gone, of the glass window in the church:

Here’s the chapel, and the window that I took the close-up picture above, of:

Sigh, I just loved how that first picture came out. So, it’s the Photo of the Day! Have a wonderful Sunday everyone!

You’d think we were still in vacation mode or something, seeing as how we can’t stay home! 🙂 We went to Sam’s Club last night and bought a cart full of things we probably didn’t need, then went to the Chinese buffet near our house. Which was an extra-special vacation-type treat for me, since I adore Chinese food and Tim barely tolerates it most of the time. So, he went the extra mile and took me. He was happy though – they had steaks and crab legs on their buffet too, so he was a happy camper!

This morning, we went to our nephew Zack’s football game (pee-wee type stuff), about an hour south of our house. We got to see some of Tim’s family, and watch the game and we had a great time. On the way home, I talked Tim into stopping at a roadside stand and letting me go in and look around.

It’s a big place and they had tons of canned jellies, preserves, honey, syrups, apple butters, vinaigrettes, etc, all from local producers and I really had to restrain myself! They also had a lot of fresh produce, and I knew I wanted to pick up a tomato and cucumber for tonight’s salad, and I wanted to get some sweet potatoes too. Their sweet potatoes looked good, and they were nearly half the price of what I pay in the grocery store (49 cents a pound vs the 98 cents I paid two days ago in the grocery). The sweet potatoes were up front and I stopped to look at them, and then wandered around, and being the forgetful soul that I am, I never went back. I told Tim when we were walking out, I can’t believe I forgot to go back and get some sweet potatoes!

Anyway, I did get some other stuff and had a good time looking. I should have taken my camera in, all of their produce looked pretty good, and I would have bought more if I had not just gone to the grocery two days ago. They had tons of mums and even some pansies, as well as gourds and lots of pumpkins and maize corn too, it was all very festive and autumnal! 🙂 We got all of this, for under $20.00 …

In case you’re wondering, that’s a jar of honey with the comb, a jar of cane syrup (those were Tim’s picks), a cucumber, a tomato, a bunch of plums and a HUGE bag of boiled peanuts. They smelled so good, that we just couldn’t resist.

It looks like rain outside, and we have an 80% chance of rain tonight, so I hope we’re going to stay in for the rest of the day. It’s 4:30 PM now, and I want to watch a few of the shows that we taped last week while we were gone on vacation, like NCIS, the Unit, and Dancing with the Stars. We watched the season premiere of Numb3rs last night and it was good 🙂

I have a lot of pictures from vacation that I want to post, but I just haven’t had time to transfer them to our main site (Hambones), nor size them down for my blog. They are mostly scenic pictures, of butterflies, flowers, churches, lighthouses, etc.

So, here’s one for today. It was a flower I had never seen before, but it was growing at the Horticultural Center at Callaway Gardens. It’s called a purple passion vine.

And, here’s how they were growing, up an arbor:

Have a great day everyone!

Day 1 of Post-Vacation – I’m still trying to get back on track and back into a routine. However, it’s not really going that well, either with blogging, or with “stuff” around the house. So, I may just chuck it all for the weekend and shoot for getting back on track next week! Sounds like a plan, doesn’t it?!!! I had wanted to catch up on some memes that I missed while I was gone, and also do the Friday Feast today, but I don’t think I’m going to make it. I did do the Fall Into Reading Challenge that I wanted to do, but I think I’ll have to wait till next week to get back on track with the other things in blogland. 🙂

As far as the rest of post-vacation stuff, it’s going slow but steady. On the way in, Tim stopped and filled up the vehicle for me, which was so sweet. He does this a lot, he knows I like to be left with a full tank as opposed to an empty one. He can be such a sweetheart when he puts his mind to it! 🙂 We unloaded and I unpacked yesterday, and started on the mountain of dirty laundry that we came home with. Still a long way to go on that, probably 3-4 more loads. I did go grocery shopping yesterday and we ate a grilled chicken salad last night for supper. We overate the entire time we were gone (hey, isn’t that what vacation is all about?!), and we are both feeling pretty chubby at the moment. I am going to make some chicken salad later, and then figure out what to cook this weekend. I plan to get back on track next week with my menu planning. I noticed that Laura over at OrgJunkie posted hers and was so sweet to mention me and my recipe section at Hambones – thanks Laura! Check it out here. I hope Laura liked the Chicken Santa Fe, it’s one of our favorites. In fact, I am probably going to make it tonight or tomorrow night for us to have.

TV – We also have a lot of taped TV shows to catch up on, although we did watch some while we were gone. We watched the premiere of Amazing Race while at Callaway Gardens, with Don and Gail. Then, I coerced Tim into watching “Dancing with the Stars” with me while in Savannah. 😀 I love that show! I missed all my daytime stuff – Oprah started this week, Martha is back on and Rachael Ray has started a new show. Gotta check those out sometime.

Photos – I got my photos from vacation transferred to my computer this morning, but I haven’t loaded them on Hambones yet, nor have I edited them or backed them up. I am trying to decide how many to post here on my blog, and if I should post them all in one huge post, or spread them out. I have mostly scenic pictures, so I was thinking of doing a “Photo of the Day” for a while.

Question of the Day – ok, last up is a question for today:

Since I just finished posting about the “Fall into Reading” challenge, I’m all bookish at the moment. So, the question is, what is the last book that you read and liked, and would recommend to someone else to read? It can be any kind of book, from the last week, month or year, I don’t care. 🙂

Katrina over at Callapidder Days posted a great challenge to get us all reading more. She’s having a “Fall into Reading” challenge and I am going to try to participate. You can read more about it here. Here’s the general idea:

As a quick refresher, the purpose of this challenge is for us to establish some goals for our reading this Fall and then work toward them. Whether you have a pile of books that you’ve been intending to read but just haven’t yet, or you need a gentle prod to finish some books that you started but then abandoned, or you would just like a little accountability as you work through your reading stack, this is the place for you. Read for entertainment, read to learn, read to improve your life, read to be inspired. Just read!

I set a goal last year to read 30 books, and when I had met that goal, I upped it to 35 and finished right around Christmas. This year, I set what I thought was a very ambitious goal for myself, to read 52 books, which works out to one per week. Since I’ve already achieved that goal, I haven’t really set a new number, but just wanted to read whatever and whenever. Most of the books I read do come from the library. It’s just plain more economical for me! 🙂

I do have several books on my bookshelf that I have purchased and want to read. But the majority of books I want to read, including several that are a part of a series, will come from my local library. In addition, I always like to leave a little flexibility as to finding new books, getting good book recommendations, or just plain happening across a book that strikes my fancy. 🙂 Please know that I reserve the right to substitute one book for another at any given point between now and the end of the year. (P.S. I mostly read fiction, I find non-fiction pretty hard to finish!)

I always try to write a blurb when I finish a book, and post it here, so check back if you’d like!

Here’s my list…

Sullivan’s Island by Dorothea Benton Frank (in Progress, Own) – DONE!
204 Rosewood Lane by Debbie Macomber (#2 in a series, Library) – DONE!
311 Pelican Court by Debbie Macomber (#3 in a series, Library) – DONE!
Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith (#2 in a series, Library) – DONE!
Miss Julia’s School of Beauty by Ann B. Ross (Miss Julia series, Library) – DONE!
Sophie’s Heart by Lori Wick (Library) – DONE!
The Reading Group by Elizabeth Noble (Library) – DONE!
At First Sight by Nicholas Sparks (Own it) – DONE!
To the Nines by Janet Evanovich (Own it)
Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella (Own it)
Last Days of Dogtown by Anita Diamant (Library) – DONE!

OK, I’ll use this entry and update it as I go along!

1. Tues, Sept 26, 2006 – it didn’t take me long to get off track! I went to the library to get two books from my fall reading list. They didn’t have one of them on the shelves, as they were supposed to. Seems to be lost or misplaced. So, they ordered me a copy from another branch. No biggie. The problem is that I always browse the “New Release” shelf up front when I go in. I saw a recent book by Anita Diamant, who wrote a book I read earlier this year and just loved – “The Red Tent”. I couldn’t just leave it sitting there, so I got that one, and one from my list (“204 Rosewood Lane”). So…. it didn’t take me long to deviate from my list! I’ll have to add this one, and hopefully I can still read the others I had planned and listed. 🙂

ADDED to list – “The Last Days of Dogtown” by Anita Diamant (Library)

2. Wed, Sept 27, 2006 – Finished “Sullivan’s Island” from my challenge list.

3. Tues, Oct 3, 2006 – Finished “The Last Days of Dogtown”, library book I picked up on a whim and added to this reading list.

4. Tues, Oct 10, 2006 – Finished “204 Rosewood Lane”, library book; second in the Cedar Cove series by Debbie Macomber. I LOVE these books, and am going to be so sad when I get to the sixth one (all she has written to date)

5. Tues, Oct 10, 2006 – Finished “Tears of the Giraffe”, library book; second in the No 1. Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith. I like these books, they are simple, and written in a different kind of “voice” but they are growing on me. I plan to keep going with this series

6. Friday, Oct 27, 2006 – I haven’t updated, but I have finished 3 more books from the challenge list – 311 Pelican Court, Miss Julia’s School of Beauty, and Sophie’s Heart. I got all 3 from the library and enjoyed all of them! I’m really looking forward to reading the last Miss Julia book (I think there’s one more out I have not read), as well as working on the remaining 3 books that Debbie Macomber has written in the Cedar Cove series. I think she’s going to continue with this series, and I love it. I even went and signed up for her newsletter, which came in the mail the other day, so I will know when she writes more books 🙂

7. Thursday, Nov 9, 2006 – I finally sloshed through “The Reading Group” by Elizabeth Noble. As I posted in the blog entry about it, I did like the book, but I didn’t just love it. But, I really think it was me. I am either in a bit of a rut, or else this book did not just grab my attention right now, with everything else we have going on. I did like it though, once I figured all of the characters out and could keep them straight without having to flip back to the page outlining who was who 🙂

8. Wednesday, November 15, 2006 – Finished another book on my list (one that I own), “At First Sight” by Nicholas Sparks. I own both the first one, “True Believer” and this follow-up book and have read both. Good books, but not spectacular. Still enjoyed it though! Two more on my list to finish 😀

9. Tuesday, November 28, 2006 – Finished the last two books on my list, To the Nines by Janet Evanovich and Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella. Both are books I own, and this challenge really helped me to pull books off of my own bookshelf and read them. And it helped me stay out of both the library and the bookstore.

CHALLENGE COMPLETE!!!

It’s always great to go on vacation, but it is always equally nice to come home! We just made it in, and I have tons to do. Just wanted to post and thank everyone for the nice wishes for us on our little trip. I’ll post more in the next few days and some pictures also, of our trip. We had a good time, but it is good to be home.

We got home a lot earlier than I had anticipated. That would be because you-know-who woke up at 3:30 AM and said “are you ready to get up and go?!” Sheesh, no — I don’t like to sleep! But I was ready to get home too and it is easier to drive with less traffic in the middle of the night! So, we got home a lot earlier than I had anticipated. The good news is that since we are not midnight pulling in, I will have a chance to go to the grocery store. I’m off for milk, juice, bread, eggs, etc; you know, the essentials!

OK, here’s a final vacation related Question of the Day:

When you come back from vacation, what is the first thing you do? Leave your answer in the comments… I look forward to reading them!

As for me, the first thing we always do is unload the car, then I start to unpack. I think it’s an OCD thing I have, I don’t just drop the luggage and stuff and leave it. I like to go ahead and unpack and get it “over with”. Today, right after I finish unpacking, I’m going to the grocery store. Those are the top two on my list this time around — How about you?!

Thought I would try to check in, while we have Internet access 🙂

We left Friday and spent the weekend with Gail (my sister) and Don at Callaway Gardens Georgia. The guys played golf on all 3 courses and Gail and I hung out and looked for something blooming. 🙄 They have the coolest butterfly conservatory there, and I took over 100 pictures of butterflies! We also toured the horticultural center and other spots at the resort, did a short trail, and also tagged along on 9 holes of golf with the guys. We had great weather and had a great time. We wished Gail and Don had been able to come with us on the last leg of our vacation, but they had to get home.

We left Monday and went to Warm Springs, Georgia. I realized I had lost my sunglasses (something I never do!) and we had to stop at a Dollar store and buy me some replacements. We toured the “Little White House” in Warm Springs and saw the only home that Franklin Delano Roosevelt ever owned. We also visited the springs and the water is warm, but not hot. They had a good museum there about Roosevelt, his presidency, his life and works, and his polio. We both love history, so this was a great little spot for us to visit.

We got to Savannah yesterday (Monday) and we love our hotel and location! We’re in the historic district, one block from the river and Riverwalk, in a historic inn that was originally built in the 1850’s as offices for cotton merchants. The ceilings are very high, we think 16′ tall, and the rooms have these huge windows. The first floor facade is cast iron, which was common for the time. We love our room, and the location and have done a lot of walking around and visiting sites in Savannah. We are hanging out in our room this afternoon (Tuesday) because it is dark and pouring rain! A line of thunderstorms are moving through, so we hope it will clear up later. There’s more we want to see, although Tim is not interested in touring some of the old houses that I had wanted to see. He said he’d go, but I hate to drag him when he’s not interested.

Anyway, just wanted to check in and say hello to everyone. I’m taking lots of pictures, and will post some after we get home. These are all scenic pictures though, there’s very few “people” pictures on this vacation, except for a couple that Gail took for us over the weekend. I have lots of pictures of butterflies, flowers, buildings, monuments and old buildings though!!! 😀

Have a great week, we’ll be home soon and I hope to return to daily blogging then!

We’re headed out on our vacation. I know we will have internet access from at least one place we are staying, but that is next week. I’m not sure how often I’ll be able to check in, but I will if I can and have time. 🙂 We are taking the laptop, just in case!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and week! See ya when we get back!