The Pink Putter

Welcoming Twenty-Twelve with a Sunday Supper

2012-01-01T20:39:00.000-05:00

(Found this cute cupcake on the Croation Crafter blog)

Happy New Year! Twenty-twelve just has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

I cooked a big New Year's Day dinner for us and included the traditions that I grew up with in my family. I tried a new pork roast recipe that I found on Pinterest, Slow Cooker Parmesan Honey Pork Roast. Sounds yummy, doesn't it? It turned out really well. It came from a great recipe website called Six Sisters Stuff. Along with the pork roast, we had cabbage, black eyed peas, and greens. Gotta keep up with those traditions!

As far as resolutions go, Mr. P and I both have some goals that we have set this year. I want to keep them personal for the most part, but I will share two of them with you.

Part of our goals include spending more time during the week praying, both as a couple and individually; basically being more focused on God and less focused on everything else. I think that one way to help both of us keep our goals in sight is to focus on a few bible verses or quotes. So I've chosen two in particualar to focus on this year. One is very familiar, it is at the top of my blog and one of my favorite bible verses:

"But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."

Joshua 24:15

I found a beautiful wall hanging with this verse on it while we were out Christmas shopping, and since it is such a meaningful verse to both of us, we went ahead and purchased it. It helped very much that it was on sale and the colors in it matched our great room perfectly! Anyway, it is hung in a prominent place in the great room and is a wonderful visual reminder for us.

The other is a quote that I have seen several times, but I recently ran across it again and it has stuck with me:

"Christ is the center of our home, a guest at every meal, a silent listener to every conversation."

Like so many others (and so many years before), another resolution for both of us is to eat healthier and exercise more. I'm reading this book to help me kick off this resolution:

I haven't gotten very far in the book, but from the table of contents and what I've read so far, she helps you to look at your food choices and taking care of your body from more of a biblical perspective. There are also some recipes and other tips for balancing good eating habits, exercising, and making time for Bible reading and prayer each day.

Between my verses and my new book, I think I'm ready to head into 2012!

I hope that each of you had a wonderful beginning to the year, and I wish you many blessings to come!

NYE Outfits

2011-12-31T16:30:00.000-05:00

So, I was playing on Polyvore the other night-Polyvore and Pinterest have taken up a LOT of my time during my Christmas break!-and I thought, "What would I wear if Mr. P and I had fancy-schmancy plans for NYE?" I "shopped" around on the site and came up with this lovely ensemble:

In reality, we have plans for dinner with two other couples at our favorite Japanese steakhouse, followed by dessert and ringing in the new year at one of their houses. I am exhausted after the emotional ups and downs of the last few days, so we may even head home before midnight. I really just want to ring in the new year snuggled with Mr. P on my couch at home. Yikes, that makes me feel so old! Oh well, us old folks want what we want! Anyhow, this is the outfit that I'll be wearing for my low-key NYE:

Sweater dress, white tee, leggings, boots, and jewelry. I might add a scarf too. Fun and comfy!

I hope that everyone has a safe and happy New Year's Eve!

A Review of 2011

2011-12-31T16:20:00.000-05:00

January

Snow! More snow days than I cared to think about but I did enjoy some time off thanks to the weather.

February

More snow...and dreaming of spring. And a new blog makeover.

March

Women of Joy Conference-truly a life changing experience for me. I went with one good friend and some acquaintances from my bible study group. We came home a group of close friends who have seen each other through some rough times and some great times this year. One frantic email or text to these girls, and I know that I will have lots of prayers going up in minutes. I am so thankful that I was given the opportunity to attend this great event, and we are making plans to go again in 2012.

April

(This is not our travel trailer-the only picture I have of it was on my old phone.Oops!)

First camping trip in our new travel trailer. The first of many fun trips over the spring and summer!

May

Trip to Denver to my cousin's wedding. We stayed in Evergreen, and explored the town of Golden while we were there. Beautiful wedding, fabulous reception, a wonderful weekend!

June

A shopping trip with the girls, a conference in Lexington, more camping and golf…and I worked a little bit too!

July

We began the month on a very scary note for my family, but we were reminded once again of the power of prayer and the goodness of family and friends.

Once the family was on the road to recovery, we spent several days here:

By the end of the month, we celebrated at our annual family reunion/church picnic and gave thanks for the recovery of my uncle and cousins.

August

School days, school days

September

At the end of the month, we went on our last camping trip of the year was a big one-5 families, 13 kids and 10 adults. We had a blast at the annual Fall Festival which included hay rides, a costume contest (our group was the Smurfs-and they won!), and lots of bonfires and smores!

October

Attended a conference in Little Rock, Arkansas, actually it was the best education conference that I have ever attended. If you are an educator and you have a chance to attend a PLC Conference by Solution Tree and Rick and Becky DuFOur, don't hesitate to go. It had a huge impact on me and how I approach my job.

We stayed here, and I got to see these cute little guys parade through the lobby each day.

November

Another great family celebration with some long lost relatives. We never would have found them if it wasn’t for the awful wreck in July. For the full story, read here.

December

Lots of Christmas celebrations with family and friends including our annual trip to Lexington to see our neice in The Nutcracker and a trip to Nashville with friends to see the Opryland Hotel.

Another year is coming to a close, and I’m looking forward to 2012!

Prayers Answered

2011-12-31T10:31:00.000-05:00

Great news late yesterday afternoon-arteriogram showed no blockages, just some fluid around the heart, and they didn’t have to put a stent in. So it’s medicine, therapy, and a change of diet for my daddy. Praise God!! Thank you all for your prayers. As we were driving home last night, I reflected on how many people showed their support to us through Facebook, texting, emails, blog world, and, oh yeah, some good old fashioned phone calls too! Like many other people, sometimes I worry how “high tech” our world can get, but we were able to use all of those devices to get the word out to family and friends. As a result, we had so many people praying for us and lifting us up yesterday and we truly felt those prayers. God is good, all the time!

Prayers Needed

2011-12-30T13:47:00.000-05:00

I was working on a 2011 in Pictures post last night when I received a frantic phone call from Mama. My dad went in for a doctors appointment yesterday because he had been short of breath the last few days. The doctor immediately sent him over to the hoitalmand scheduled a stress test for this morning. Results of the stress test indicate that he may have congenital heart failure, so he is having an arteriogram/heart cath this afternoon and possibly a stent put in. So we are sitting here in the hospital playing the waiting game right now. Please keep my daddy in your prayers.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

2011-12-27T19:46:00.001-05:00

Card design by LaBelleVieDesign on Etsy

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year dear blogging world! I hope that everyone had as lovely of a Christmas as we did here at Chez Putter. It’s always a busy three days for us, but it is filled with family, friends, and food so it’s all worth it. Here’s a little Christmas recap for you…

Christmas Eve

We headed south bright and early on Christmas Eve to spend time with my family. We arrived at my parents’ house, unloaded the food and presents and spent some time with them before heading out to an early church service. We went to services here, and it was a beautiful service with a great message. After church, we headed back to Mama and Daddy’s house for a great meal of prime rib roast, ham, corned beef, potato casserole, squash casserole, rolls, corn salad, macaroni and cheese, green beans, and strawberry salad. It was a lovely meal topped off with a yummy selection of desserts-red velvet cake, coconut cake, Toll House pie, and Hershey Bar cake.

Our group for dinner included my parents, my brother and SIL, my niece Katie, Mr. P and me, my uncle Joe, one of my brother’s friends, and one of my brother’s fellow policemen. With my brother being a cop, sometimes he has to work on the holidays and Mama always invites anyone from his shift to stop by if they can. So we usually have at least one police car parked at my parents’ house on the holidays, and sometimes as many as 3 or 4. My brother didn't have to work this year, but we still had one policeman with us. Luckily, the neighbors know my brother so they never think that we have any trouble on Thanksgiving or Christmas!

After dinner, we sat around and just enjoyed each other’s company for a while before Mr. P and I headed home with my brother and his family. They have a little apartment built onto their house, so we stay with them when we are in town. We sat up and talked with them for a little while before turning in for the night.

Christmas Morning

We were up early and headed back over to my parents’ house with my brother and his family for gift opening and Christmas breakfast. We had a lot of fun during the gift opening. Mr. P and I had selected some unique, special gifts for my dad and my brother and it was such a treat to watch them open the gifts. After the gift-opening, we sat down to our annual Christmas breakfast of ham, cheese grits, hash brown casserole, breakfast casserole, and strawberry salad. Yummy! We always have so much food on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, but Mama fixes all of us kids up with lots of to-go containers so we have the leftovers to eat after Christmas. And Mr. P and I have certainly enjoyed ours yesterday and today!

Christmas Afternoon

After breakfast, Mr. P and I packed up the vehicle and headed back home. We made a stop at home for a little while to unload and unpack. We also took some time to open our gifts from each other during this time. There’s nothing better than sitting together in front of our fireplace and the Christmas tree as we open each other’s gifts. I don't even care that much about the gifts at that point, it's just nice for us to have some quiet time together.

After that, we headed over to his parents’ house to spend the rest of the day with his parents and his sister and her family. After the gift opening and dinner, we ended the night by playing a board game. It was men vs. women in Trivial Pursuit this year, and the women prevailed!

Day after Christmas

It’s one more family celebration for us on the 26^th with my mother-in-law’s family. They live about 2 hours away and my mother-in-law and her brother alternate hosting each year. This was her year to host, so we didn’t have to make the drive but we did offer to help out with food. So I was up early on the 26^th to make lasagna, appetizer cheese bake, and a Toll House pie. One more round of food and gifts ensued—I swear I was absolutely waddling by last night!

Luckily, my nieces and nephews received the JustDance 3 game for the Wii, so last evening we took turns at a dance off. I surprised the nieces and nephews with my prowess in dance-they didn’t realize that I had 20+ years of ballet, tap, and jazz that helped me earn the top score of the night. It was so much fun and it felt so good to get up and move after all of the food we’ve been eating!

As for today, we have both been relaxing around the house…and I have to confess that I was in my PJs all day. We don’t take these types of days very often but we were both so busy with work this month, then when we finally got some time off it was spent preparing for Christmas and celebrating. But we both have the rest of the week off, so we thought we could take a day for some R & R! It was also cold and rainy, with even some snow mixed in so that made for a perfect day to stay inside. I wasn’t completely lazy though-I straightened up the house, unloaded the dishwasher, and cleaned out the refrigerator. We also cooked a yummy dinner together of mini burgers with smoked cheddar, garlic fries, and corn salad.

We’re snuggled in for the night-Miss Sunny is curled up in the basement and we are relaxing upstairs. I'm getting ready to head into the kitchen to fix a cup of coffee with my new Keurig coffeemaker that my thoughtful staff gave me last week. I'm already totally addicted to it...and so is Mr. P!

Have a great night!

MHE

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T09:03:00.000-05:00


Happy Thanksgiving dear blogging world! I wish you safe travels and a lovely day filled with good food and good company! "Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his faithful love endures forever!" Psalm 107

I Am So Blessed

2011-11-23T12:23:00.000-05:00

I can’t believe that it’s the Wednesday before my favorite holiday-Thanksgiving! I absolutely love this holiday. The gathering of friends and family, the opportunity to cook for loved ones, it’s all there for me making it my favorite day of the year.

Our Thanksgiving festivities always start early with my mother’s family celebration the weekend before Thanksgiving. My mom comes from a large family and it is always a crowd when we get together. She is one of nine children, and I have 23 first cousins and many more second and third cousins. Although a large part of us are in Tennessee and Kentucky, some are in Georgia, Mississippi, California, and Colorado. When we get together it is always a great time!

We always have so much to be thankful for, but this year is extra special to all of us. If you read my blog over the summer, then you know that my uncle and two of my cousins were in a horrible wreck over the 4^th of July weekend. It has been a long road to recovery, but they are all three back in good health. My uncle has recovered from the many internal injuries that he had, one cousin has fully recovered from the serious head and wrist injuries, and the other cousin finally got her halo removed a few weeks ago.

Another reason that this year’s gathering was extra special is that we had 25 long-lost family members in attendance…and the wreck was the whole reason that we were reunited! My grandfather and all of his siblings with the exception of one sister passed away several years ago. This sister (my great-aunt) lived in Homestead, Florida so we didn’t see her very often. My grandparents of course stayed in touch with her through the years but once they passed away, the two families lost contact. Somehow my great-aunt heard about my family’s wreck, and she contacted my uncle when he was in the hospital. My uncle told my mom and the rest of the siblings and passed along her phone number. My mom called her, and through a series of phone calls caught up with her long lost cousins. Of course they have children and grandchildren, so their family is also quite large too. My mom and her siblings invited them to our annual Thanksgiving celebration, and several of them made the trip from Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Chicago! It was so much fun to meet cousins that I had never met before. One cousin’s husband is in the military and they may be moving to one of the Army bases near me. To think that something so scary and dark (the wreck) could lead to such a wonderful family reunion. God is so good! “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

It was just such a lovely weekend catching up with old family members and meeting new ones. I think I had a permanent smile on my face as we drove home on Sunday night, and I still grin when I think about this past weekend. Getting such a natural high from a weekend full of love and laughter just gives me a positive outlook on everything and makes me truly grateful for all that I have in my life. I am so blessed with family, friends, and faith!

School Days, School Days

2011-08-20T09:37:00.000-04:00

Happy weekend, dear blogging world! I’m finally coming up for air after a hectic few weeks! School is now well underway-we’ve had two full weeks-and things are going well. We’re off to a smooth start, schedules and routines are falling into place, and it is getting busier by the day.

We had a wonderful family reunion at the end of July. It was great to see all of my family members. Two of the three family members who were in the car accident were able to attend. My uncle and one of my cousins were there and they both looked fantastic. The third cousin is also doing well, and she wanted to come very badly. Unfortunately, the halo she is wearing has sheepskin underneath it to protect her skin and it gets very hot. Since the family reunion was held outside and the weather was in the high 90’s, she had to stay home. She would have been roasting in that heat, poor thing!

There is not much else going on around here, just work and school, work and school, work and school. Mr. P is overseeing two different bridge reconstructions, and he is working long, long hours right now. He has worked about 70-80 hours a week the last few weeks.

I haven’t been cooking as much as I did this summer, but I am trying to get back into the routine that I had last school year where I cooked enough on the weekends so that we could have leftovers throughout the week. On Sunday, I roasted a chicken and made creamy tomato dill salad, lima beans, and macaroni and cheese. Most people don’t like lima beans, but I absolutely love them. As for Mr. P…I think he tolerates them for me! I was going to post the Creamy Tomato Dill Salad Recipe, but I am still tweaking it a little bit.

With school starting, I’m also planning my breakfasts and lunches. I always try to get everything ready the night before so that all I have to do in the mornings is put together my Home Brew Iced Coffee (my beverage of choice while driving to school right now) and throw any refrigerated items in to my trusty monogrammed lunch bag. Here are a few of my product favorites right now:

I can also order a salad for lunch from the cafeteria, so I am keeping plenty of this Hidden Valley Ranch dressing on hand. So easy to make and low in fat!

Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Recipe

1 cup milk

1 cup mayonnaise

1 packet Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix

Mix all ingredients well and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Will keep for 3-4 weeks. Makes about 1 pint of dressing.

By using skim milk and reduced fat mayonnaise, this makes for a very creamy and low-fat ranch dressing.

No big plans for us today, we may just rest up around the house. Some friends are camping down at Mammoth Cave this weekend and they had invited us to come along. We decided not to go, but we may drive down to visit with them tonight. Tomorrow, I’m having brunch in Bowling Green with dear SIL and niece tomorrow. My niece (legacy in my sorority/same chapter) is getting geared up for rush next week so I can’t wait to hear all the details from her.

So what are your plans this weekend? Hope it’s a great one!

I'm Still Here

2011-08-02T07:52:00.000-04:00

I'm still here lovely bloggy friends, just tied up with life in general right now. School starts on Friday (I CANNOT believe that it is here so soon!), so I'm up to my ears in Open House, meetings, and all that other fun stuff. I'm also starting my annual play at the community theater (don't know if I've ever mentioned that on the blog), so when I'm not at school I'm in rehearsals at the theater. I promise to be back soon with an update on my family reunion, my family members who were injured in the wreck, and some yummy recipes!

Have a great week!

What's for Dinner?

2011-07-26T21:23:00.001-04:00

It is meetings, meetings, and more meetings for me this week, so I decided to use the old trusty Crock-Pot today. Spent a little bit of time in the kitchen this morning, and came home this evening to a heavenly-smelling house and this:

Good old-fashioned pot roast with potatoes, peppers, and onions! Mr. P came in the house a few minutes after me, with his nose in the air just sniffing away. He now thinks I'm the bomb for making such an awesome dinner! : )

Weekend Wrap Up

2011-07-24T22:33:00.001-04:00

(This is not at my house, but I do wish it was!)

Friday Night

Girls night in for me…cooked up a yummy dinner, caught up on my blog reading, and did some school work.

Saturday

Thanks to his late night, Mr. P slept in a little bit, but I got up and worked on more school work. My dining room table is now Back to School Central and it looks like this:

However, I have a system where I can clear everything off in an organized manner in 5 minutes or less when we need to eat dinner at the table.

I also found my planner for the school year. I’m very picky about this and it usually takes me forever to find one that I like. I actually found the one I liked best at Office Depot. The cover is very plain, but I will be adding a monogram decal to it ASAP.

Like I said, I have specific needs in a planner. It must have monthly, as well as weekly calendars. I also need plenty of room to write down daily appointments and events, but I don't like the hour by hour daily planners. Here's a sneak peak at it-

Monthly Calendar

Weekly Calendar

It is also already tabbed (saves me some trouble) and has a lot of little extras that I like. I also like the brown and green stripes at the top of each page.

We went to a benefit cornhole tournament (it was very hot!) on Saturday afternoon, and followed it by having dinner with friends at Kansai, the local Japanese steakhouse. I have some yummy leftovers for lunch on Monday now!

Sunday

Mr. P had to work (a very rare occurrence on a Sunday) and I decided to have a lazy Sunday morning. He left around 6:30, so I stayed up after he left, and settled in with my coffee and my Nook.

Mid-morning, I decided to do something useful, so I made some yummy Strawberry Pecan Bread.

It was the first time I had tried this recipe and it tasted good, but as you can see from the picture the middle of the bread fell. No idea why…I’m sure it’s not the recipe, I probably did something wrong! The recipe called for self-rising flour and all I had was all-purpose, so I probably messed up the conversions/amounts when I added the baking powder and salt. I was multiplying fractions in my head when I probably should have been using a pencil and paper or better yet a calculator. Oh well, it still tasted great! I also made some chicken salad (recipe to follow) to have on hand for lunches this week.

After my kitchen time, I filled in my new planner with all of the upcoming events this school year…yes, I am a geek because I absolutely love doing this! After that, I took a quick run to the grocery store.

It’s been a while since I posted a Sunday Supper recipe, but we had spaghetti for dinner, which is pretty basic fare. So I will give you my chicken salad recipe, which is the one that Mama uses. She got it from a little restaurant in Nashville called The Picnic Café. It is run by two of Mama’s high school classmates and they are so sweet when you come in for a visit. You can order their cookbook and I highly recommend it. This is where Mama got the chicken salad recipe along with a whole bunch of other good Southern stuff!

Picnic Chicken Salad

3 cups white chicken breast, chopped

¾ cup celery, chopped

3 hard-boiled eggs, chopped

1 tablespoon parsley, chopped

½ teaspoon celery seed

1/3 teaspoon black pepper

Salt to taste

1 cup Hellman’s mayonnaise (The recipe says do not substitute but if you prefer Duke’s or Kraft, go right ahead-to each her own!)

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients. Chill. Serve as a sandwich spread or as a salad on lettuce or stuffed into a tomato.

It has been thundering, lightning and raining for about two hours now and the sound is wonderful. We’ve had about two weeks of hot, muggy weather with no rain-unless you count a random little shower that only serves to make it feel worse outside. The temperature has already dropped about 15 degrees. Let’s hope that it stays that way for a while!

How was your weekend?

Summer Fun

2011-07-22T19:56:00.002-04:00

Warning: Long post to follow…I hope that you will stick with me to the end! : )

Hello dear bloggy friends! What have you been up to this summer? I hope that you are staying cool, wherever you are and whatever you are doing because it is certainly a H-O-T summer!!! I’m sitting here drinking some of Christy Jordan’s Home Brew IcedCoffee as I write this, and it’s very refreshing. I highly recommend giving it a try.

I have to start with this pic of the flowers I picked in our field this afternoon. Just some wildflowers, but when I put them in a quart jar with a ribbon it looks cute, summery, and country all rolled into one!

I took the day off today and had a completely relaxing day-it has been awesome! I’m not one for sleeping in, so I got up at my regular time but I spent some quality time this morning with a cup of coffee and my book. I’ve also caught up on some shows that I had saved on the DVR. I haven’t been a complete slug though; I’ve done some laundry, straightened up the house, and worked on some school stuff. Mr. P is working late (very late!) tonight, so I have the evening to myself too. I can’t remember the last time that I had a Friday night all to myself. One thing that I haven’t done today is catch up on my blog reading, so that is definitely on the agenda for tonight.

Last week, Mr. P and I spent 4 days here at Barren River Lake with two other families. It was simply gorgeous!

We went down on Thursday morning and the rest of the group didn’t arrive until Friday afternoon, so we had some time to ourselves. It was the first time that Mr. P had stayed in the area in years and my first time ever, so we had a lot of fun going exploring. I also had some quality time under a shade tree with a glass of sweet tea and my Nook!

After we had made the reservations and planned the long weekend, we realized that it was also the opening weekend for Harry Potter. So Mr. P reserved tickets for a midnight showing in one of the little towns near Barren and we were able to go see the movie on Thursday night/Friday morning. Love, love, loved the movie and I’m a little sad to see it all end.

On Thursday night before our little movie excursion, we had dinner at the lodge. I kept it light and just had the soup and salad bar. On the salad bar, they had the best cucumber and tomato salad that I have ever had. I’m now obsessed with finding a recipe for it! It was slightly creamy so it must have mayo or salad dressing in it, and it also had dill, onion, and vinegar. Does anyone have a recipe that sounds like this? I would love to have it if you do. I found one that sounds pretty good on cooks.com but if someone has a tried and true recipe I would love to give it a try.

We ate pretty well on our weekend-as we always do! Whenever we get together with friends, we just love to cook up big meals. Mr. P smoked another pork roast (it was awesome as always) and I made corn salad. I also brought some Homemade CinnaBuns for breakfast one morning. Some other food staples from the weekend were homemade pimento cheese, baked beans, sausage pinwheels, and pasta salad. We also had a night where we roasted hot dogs and had s’mores-yummy, yummy!

Besides eating and reading under a shade tree, we also went boating, rode bikes, and took some long walks. All in all, it was a great trip!

My family members who were in the horrible car accident are doing much better. Everyone is home now and recovering at a good pace. E., the 16 year-old had another surgery today but she should be back home in a couple of days. There is some nerve damage in her arm, so the surgeon is taking some nerve from her leg and putting it in her arm. Thanks to everyone for their prayers-each and every one of them is greatly appreciated!

We had VBS at church a couple of weeks ago and on the last night we took the kids on a hayride to a neighboring farm. I made friends with Dolly the Llama-hee hee!

Has anyone read any novels by Kristin Hannah? I saw this book when I was browsing on B & N today and it looked good, so I downloaded it. Her other novels looked pretty good too…

Before I sign off, I need to introduce you the newest member of our family. Back in the spring, my in-laws had to put their beloved dog down. A couple of months later, they went to the shelter and adopted this adorable pup who they named Duchess. Now many people may think that she is named for Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge but they actually chose the name because their other dog was named Duke so they thought that Duchess would go well with Duke. She is so cute and energetic. The other day, she entertained herself on the front porch for over an hour by playing with a rock. Seriously. Just a rock, that’s all. Of course, I was entertained just watching her play with a rock, so maybe I shouldn’t judge…

Here are a couple of pictures of her cuteness…

Playing with my niece Katie

Watching the world go by from atop a hay bale...how cute is that??

I can't post pictures of Miss Duchess if I don't include Miss Sunny too...she'll be jealous if she finds out! Here she is down at the pond with us on a Sunday afternoon.

Other things on the horizon for us-school starts in two weeks (yikes!), Mr. P is on a big bridge project right now, and we have a family reunion next week. Busy times, busy times…

I apologize for the complete and total randomness of this post-I was really all over the map, wasn't I? And if you are still reading this, thanks for sticking with me to the end!

TPP

Family Update

2011-07-07T07:51:00.000-04:00

Thanks to everyone for your prayers for my family. Everyone is improving slowly each day, and so far no one has had any setbacks. One cousin has been released from the hospital, and my other cousin and my uncle should be transferred to a rehabilitation hospital by the end of this week. They all have a long road ahead of them, but should all recover in due time.

In addition to staying in close touch with my family, we've been busy with work and at church with VBS. Mr. P is on a new project, so he's putting in longer hours and it's t-minus one month until school starts for me, so things are getting busy again at school.

Has anyone else been following Will and Kate's North American tour? I certainly have! I've really enjoyed seeing all the reports about their different activities and of course I love, love, love seeing what Kate is wearing. The blog What Kate Wore always has great pictures the royal couple and details about her outfits.

That's about all the news there is to report from the Putter house. I promise a more interesting post soon! : )

Have a great day!

TPP

Prayers Needed

2011-07-03T09:03:00.000-04:00

Well dear bloggers, it has not been the best weekend for my family. On Friday afternoon, my uncle and two cousins were on the way from Nashville to Atlanta to visit my aunt for the weekend. They were involved in a terrible accident on I-24 outside of Nashville and had to be life-flighted to the trauma center at Vanderbilt. They are all 3 in stable but serious condition with many injuries.

My uncle has a broken clavicle, a broken wrist, broken ribs and a punctured lung. He had a rough day yesterday as both lungs collapsed, but he is doing a little better now. My 21 year old cousin has a hematoma and a large gash on her head, a broken wrist and a C5 vertebrae injury. Luckily, when she was about a year old she had a shunt put in her brain for hydrocephalus and still has the shunt today. The shunt began draining the hematoma and saved her from having further treatment for that. Isn't that amazing? My 16 year old cousin has a C2 vertebrae injury and had a halo put in yesterday for that. She also has a severely broken arm and will have surgery on it today.

Mr. P and I are heading down to Nashville after church today to go see my family. I got up early this morning and baked some of my grandmother's banana nut bread for them,and I'm going to put in a package of goodies for all of our family members taking turns at the hospital. I know that the hospital food gets old, and this is such a comfort food for all of us. Since my grandmother can't be at the hospital with our family (she passed away several years ago), I thought that some of her banana bread might bring everyone some comfort.

Please keep my family in my prayers.

Cookouts, Gatherings, and a Long Overdue Recipe

2011-06-30T19:54:00.000-04:00

ETA: I had several pictures to upload on this post but I can't get the Blogger editor to let me upload pictures from my computer. This was the first time that I used the new version of Blogger editor (yeah, I'm a little late to the game) so I might just be misunderstanding how to use it. Does anyone have any suggestions???

I hope that everyone is having a great week. It almost Friday and a holiday weekend to boot! Yippee!

Last weekend, my parents came to visit for the day to have a belated Father’s Day/Mr. P’s Birthday celebration. We invited my in-laws over to have dinner with them, and my niece drove up from Bowling Green. We are both so blessed to come from good families that get along well! Mr. P and I smoked a pork roast and grilled some steaks, and served it with roasted potatoes, baked beans and corn. It was yummy!

For dessert ideas, I once again hit up Christy Jordan’s Southern Plate blog and found another wonderful recipe. I am seriously obsessed with this site right now. I have found so many good recipes that I am trying out. Needless to say, Mr. P is quite thrilled with this! I was looking for a good, summery dessert and when I clicked on the blog, Christy was featuring 6 Make Ahead Summer Cakes. I tried the Chocolate Sundae Cake and it was divine! And easy too!

This week, we’ve just been working and relaxing in the evenings together. We have a cookout and fireworks tomorrow night with school people, then we are having friends over on Saturday night for dinner before we go see the fireworks at the lake. Our menu for Saturday is smoked pork roast (Mr. P is wearing his new smoker out!) and Grilled ChickenTenderloins-Without the Grill (another Southern Plate recipe), corn salad (recipe to follow), and green beans.

I haven’t posted a recipe in a while, so here’s a good summery one-my recipe for corn salad. My mom gave me this recipe several years ago and it is always a hit at potlucks and gatherings.

You've probably figured out by now that once I get a recipe figured out, I tend to "eyeball" rather than exactly measure. I have made this recipe so many times that I don't even measure things out anymore. I just look at it to see if it's as creamy as I want it and of course taste it to make sure that it doesn't need anything else. So bear with me on the measurements!

Corn Salad

I bag of frozen white corn (thawed) or 2 cans of white corn (drained)

3-4 green onions, chopped

1 cup chopped fresh tomatoes (whatever you have on hand, sometimes I’ll buy the little grape tomatoes and halve them, if I have larger tomatoes lying around I’ll just chop up one or two of them.)

2-3 tablespoons of mayonnaise (Just enough to get your desired creaminess in the salad. )And you can use whichever mayo or salad dressing is your favorite. No need to have a big debate about it! : )

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix together corn, onions, and tomatoes. Add mayonnaise and stir well. Add salt and pepper, then chill for several hours before serving.

Enjoy!

So what have you been up to this summer?? Do tell!