Visiting the Lapps in North Carolina

I'm so happy that Sandy and her family are back in the south. And I'm so happy to be here. It's been a long time---since our family vacation over the 4th of July since I've seen them.

The ride down was absolutely gorgeous with the virtual patchwork of the changing leaves through the Smoky Mountains---which has such a calming effect on me. But then I was stressed by Butch's tailgating. I'm not sure if it evened out or not. Finally, I decided to go to sleep. At one point, I told him that I'd just as soon be sleeping if he killed us! I think I'll be driving home.


I didn't get any photos of the landscape on the way---you can't exactly stop on the highway, but here's what it looked like---compliments of my sister, Jennifer's back yard at her farm in Salem, MO.

I've taken a bunch of pictures of Sandy's beautiful new house. I'll post them sometime this weekend. But, for now, here are some of the layouts I did this past weekend at our Cousin's Crop. And I'll be posting the AYM layouts on the AYM blog. Many of these layouts are for my heritage albums. Some are from trips.

 This is the title/end page that Janet planned for us I love that she used the Cricut to cut the embellishments. I don't use it enoughfor that.

This is the title/end page that Jeanne did for us.

Next post---photos of Sandy's house.

A Few Things and a Recipe

Besides the gnocchi's I made for the weekend, I tried a new recipe and it was good. So here it is:

Honey Ham Biscuit Sliders
1 can Grands Jr. Butter Tasting Biscuits (10 count)
1/2 lb. deli ham, shaved
1/2 lb. swiss cheese
1/4 cup honey mustard dressing (I just used honey mustard and squirted it on---no measuring)
1 tbsp. butter, melted
2 tbsp. honey (I didn't use this)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly spray a 9-inch pan with cooking spray. Separate each biscuit into two layers. Spread bottom layer with honey mustard, top with ham and cheese and another squirt of the honey mustard. Top with the other half of the biscuit. Brush biscuits with butter.

Bake 12-15 minutes, until golden brown. Heat honey in microwave and brush on warm biscuits. Serve immediately. Note: I did not put the honey on top because I thought they would be too sticky. Also, they cooked fast---more like 11 minutes for me, so keep and eye on them.

 These are a few of the things I found at Bella Rustica this year. It was during our golf weekend and was about an hour away, so we went for it. The earrings are actually magnets. I thought this tiny little muffin pan was adorable.

 The glass vials are full of buttons and decorated very cute. The little bottles contain glitter. Then there are those cute, old wooden spools wound with bits of lace, and topped with buttons.

 I believe that these little wooden, paper wrapped "signs" are actually from the Jenga game. I couldn't resist the alarm clock. I fell in love with the blue numbers.

 This is the latest project that Karolyn, Connie and I are working on. We've all changed up the colors to suit our own preference. I'll photograph them when they are finished. It's a fun project because you get to do a lot of different stitches. It never gets boring. It is going fast too.

 Another antique style necklace that I picked up. This one I've kept for myself. It's not a rosary--that would be sacriligeus.

 This is the bulb that came out of my ott light. I've looked all over for a replacement---including online. I've put Butch on it. That's right up his alley---hunting for something. I put the pen in the picture so you could get a feel for how big it is.

 Archivers has a couple of new sketchbooks. They look pretty interesting.

Aren't these the most gorgeous WEEDS you've ever seen? Karolyn cut them at the farm and sent me a photo---knowing my love of flowers.

One last thing. Morgan called crying this afternoon. She was rear-ended on the way home from school. Her grandpa ran to her rescue. She was okay, just shaken. And her car just has some scratches on the bumper. Not bad at all. I love that the girls call their grandpa when they need him! I never would have called my grandpas---it wouldn't even have entered my mind.

Tomorrow I'll be posting the layouts that I did this weekend and on our golf weekend. I'll also be posting the layouts from AYM on the AYM blog.

Until then....

Cousin's Crop

Just got home from my annual Cousin's Crop. It was Jeanne, Janet, Judy and me this year. We had a great time as usual. I planned a little Halloween project and the AYM end page. Jeanne and Janet each planned a title/end page. I'll get those photographed tomorrow along with a few of the layouts I did. But for now, let's start with this.

On Wednesday before leaving on Thursday, I made gnocchi's. It's my grandma's recipe. They take about an hour to make and are pretty messy. They are worth it!

 Here's a picture of Grandma Preli along with Sandy in the middle, Mitchell on her lap and me on the end. This was taken in 1997. I don't know where my mother was as it should have been a 5 generation picture.

 I just love her wedding picture. It makes me sad that on the back of most of her pictures, she wrote "ugly Jennie." I think she's beautiful and she had a beautiful soul.

I would have loved to see her dress in person. I wonder what ever happened to it. Grandpa was pretty handsome too---11 years older than grandma.

Here I am, making the gnocchi's. I ended up keeping the flour on the board, table and myself. I don't think I got any on the floor this time!

Gnocchi
2 cups mashed potatoes (you can use instant)
2 egg yolks
2 cups flour

Mix slightly beaten egg yolks in to the potatoes. Add the flour slowly, mixing well. Knead with your hands---adding flour until it is no longer sticky.

Taking about a fist size of the dough, roll with your hands on a floured board into a rope the size of a bread stick. Cut in to one inch pieces with knife. Here's the tricky part. With the tines of a fork, roll the gnocchi on the diagonal and flip quickly. It will slightly roll up with the tine prints in the middle.

Put gnocchis on floured waxed paper and let dry all day. Drop in boiling water and cook 6-8 minutes or until they rise to the surface. Drain and serve with meat sauce and grated cheese.  About 6 servings.

Chrissy on the left and Judy on the right. These are my first cousins once removed. Only Judy was at the cousin's crop. We spent a lot of time figuring out all the cousin stuff. Chrissy and I have been close since we were kids. Judy was older, so we babysat for her. Anyway, they are my mom's first cousins which makes them my first cousins once removed. As soon as I got home, I was explaining it to Butch and Mindy. Then I got confused when we got to the second cousins once (or was it twice) removed. I'll have to study up on it again---just when I thought I had it down.

I don't have any pictures of Jeanne and Janet. Judy took some. If she sends them to me, then I'll post them.

Janet went apple picking---she has been going to Eckarts for over 20 years now. Each year, on our crop, she makes the best apple crisp. Jeanne had a breakfast and brought her waffle maker to make us pecan waffles. Judy went down to "the hill"---the Italian part of St. Louis---to the Missouri Bakery. She brought Italian bread, Volpi salami, Italian olives and fontina cheese. What a treat! Then she pulled out the Italian cookies. Jeanne and I were skeptical as Grandma Preli made the worst cookies. They just weren't sweet, just hard and dry. We were happily surprised to find that these Italian cookies were delicious.

Jeanne introduced me to a new beverage---diet orange soda and whipped cream vodka. I'll be going to the liquor store this week for sure!

It's good to be home. I have a busy week before we leave on Thursday to head south to Charlotte, North Carolina. We're looking forward to our drive through the Smokey Mountains. The leaves should be spectacular. But mostly, we're looking forward to seeing Sandy and the family. It's been too long---since our vacation the first of July. I just can't wait!

Butch Has a Banner Day

It didn't start out that way. In fact, he started out having his own FTS experience. Call #1 was to OnStar. To make a very long story short, he was being charged for my car which he cancelled last March. He had already negotiated a good deal for himself---$14.95 a month. It's supposed to be $25.95.
Not only did he get them to give him a refund, but he ended up with an even better deal. The supervisor had to call him back to get some updated credit card information. She told him that since she had to call back, she was reducing his rate to $12.95 and he's getting a month free.

Call #2 was to Sirius satellite radio. The satellite radio in Jordan's car (the jeep that we sold her) had a two year contract that had just expired. At $14.95 a month, Butch told her he was canceling it. By the time he got off the phone, he had them down to $7.00 a month. Lucky Jordan gets another year of satellite radio!

Butch has always been the master negotiator. I guess he honed his skills during his work career with Central Parking. He even negotiated an automobile purchase for friends.

Now that I think about it, he actually negotiated me right in to marriage---41 years ago. I'll never forget that romantic proposal. "Barb, I was thinking, I figure two can live as cheaply as one. You want to get married?" I'm so glad I said yes---although I think he found out pretty quickly that his theory was all wrong.

St. Louis Weekend continued...

We met the Eads' girls for lunch and a little shopping on Saturday morning. Whenever we're together with them, it's just one laugh after another. We stopped at Three French Hens for a little home decor shopping. We didn't have as much time with them as we would have liked, but it was still a lot of fun.

 After leaving the Eads' girls, we met up with the Zimmermann's for a little "demolition ball." Basically, you have teams and bumper cars. You try to scoop up the wiffle ball and shoot it at your basket. It was so much fun. We had 20 people, so we had 4 teams of 5. Our team consisted of me, Jeanne, Janice, Joyce and Scott. We ended up being the over all champs---the sisters are unbeatable!

 After demolition ball, we went back to the hotel to rest up before the party. We weren't there 5 minutes before the girls decided to go out for Fritz's frozen custard. A trip to St. Louis would not be complete without frozen custard, toasted ravioli and St. Louis style pizza.

 The first time I met little Evie. She is so darn cute and the "spittin'" image of Jackie, but with more hair! Jackie was a little baldy for at least the first year.

 Mike is smitten with her. As soon as he walks in the room, he takes her from whoever. Mindy had just gotten her and was intercepted by him.

 Butch had to find a dollar store to buy some cheap athletic socks for Morgan. She found this hair-do on Pinterest and had to try it out. This bun is wound around a sock. I didn't see it happen, so I'm not really sure how she did it.

 Jordan, Stephanie and Morgan. Steph looks like one of the girls.

 Stephanie and Nicky. This was the first time we took Nicky to one of our family events. We had forewarned him that our large clan can be a bit overwhelming---especially since he's a little on the quiet side. He did just fine---except at the poker game with the Eads' boys on Friday night where he spilled his beer on the cards, ruining one deck. As Steph said---"party foul!"

 My baby sister, Joyce, Scott and Madison. Devon had to stay behind in South Bend for a softball game.

 Butch and I. I don't get that many pictures of the two of us. I wish I had taken more when we were younger and I looked cuter!

 Ronnie (on the left) is 94 years old. Her daughter, Sherrie (on the right) is 75. I was so happy to see these old back door neighbors. They knew us since we were little kids and come to most of our family gatherings. I was really surprised to see them as it's quite a long trip from where they live to the reception.

 Aunt Marie is my mom's sister and my god mother. I've always been close to her. Can you believe she's nearly 80!! YES, you read that right. She's always so stylish. I love that red leather jacket. And, I love her.

 My cousin, Mark with his wife, Mary. My Aunt Marie's only son. It was really good seeing them. It's been awhile.

 The three cousins. These girls were all born in the same year and grew up together. We have always taken a picture of the three of them. Jackie, Angie---the bride---and Mindy. The wedding actually took place last year. This was just the reception, hence the black dress.

 The table favors were these heart-shaped, church key bottle openers.

We got back to the hotel shortly after midnight. For the girls, the party continued with Imo's pizza in their room. One last treat before leaving!

One of these days, the whole family is going to go for more than just two days. Everyone is just so darn busy!! Still, I cherish these times to be with my family. There's nothing I love more than seeing the "kids" together (that includes the Eads' girls too. They hold a special place in my heart). And I love the chance to be with all of my brothers and sisters---7 of us. All of us together doesn't happen very often. We're all making more of an effort. Even if that means Matt holding me in a head lock while he preaches politics in my ear!! That's okay, I can handle him! Love you guys!!