RECIPE ALERT: Drip Beef Sandwiches

Over the Thanksgiving break, Ms. Tennessee introduced me to a new crock pot recipe that was outstanding and made the best little drip beef sandwiches in all the land.  It is called Mississippi Pot Roast.  It is ridiculously easy and scrumptious.

4 lb Pot Roast
1 stick butter
1 envelope Au Jus Gravy Mix
1 envelope Ranch Dressing
1 jar Peperoncini Peppers (I used the entire jar of sliced peperoncini - juice and all)

Cook low and slow all day long (about 8 hours) until it is just falling apart.

Shred the meat and keep all those precious peperoncini's and shred those along with the meat.  Put the meat back in the juice and be sure it is nice and drippy!

Serve on rolls.

If you want to go over the top....toast the buns, spread with a little horseradish sauce and melt a little provolone cheese on top of the meat.  Wow!

I have a picture on my phone of the roast that I was going to include with this post, but for some reason my phone and computer no longer talk to each other.  Photos that previously have magically moved from my phone to my computer no longer do that....so life is hard and technology.  The end.

In other news.....

• Today is Lana's follow up appointment with the surgeon.  MRI results show the cancer is responding to chemo but is not completely gone.  Prayers appreciated for a clear, easy path forward to kick this breast cancer to the curb once and for all.  

• Chip had a migraine last night.  I try to mention it when it happens so I have a record of how often they are occurring.  Not very often, but they sure stink when they do happen. 

• Harry flew out to Phoenix last week and had a fun weekend in Las Vegas visiting with his college buddies.  He is leaving Vegas $300 richer than when he left.  Lucky duck. 

• Also, if I didn't share this news on my blog before, Harry will be working for the Texas Rangers this coming baseball season.  He is over the moon and so am I.  So happy he is getting the chance to live his dream to work in MLB and also close enough for his momma to get to him if she needs to. 

• Work is kicking my butt and I have no idea if I am done Christmas shopping or not. It is a mystery. I hope to get a day off this week to figure it out.

I hope your Tuesday is wonderful and you have some time to sit and stare at your Christmas tree. 

Sweet Things.....

I am on a roll here with a flurry of blog posts! 

Let me share some sweet things from the last couple of weeks. 

We had our December get together with our Love Box family last week and it was the sweetest!  We played with toys, ate pizza, made crafts, decorated cookies, laughed, hugged, chatted, and got this amazing picture!  Are they not adorable?  That little nugget with her arms raised worked on my hair with a tiny hair comb and told me I was pretty and should take a picture.  So basically, best night ever!  I mean, have you seen my hair?   That kid was working miracles just to get the comb through it.  Sweet, sweet night!  So blessed to have them in my life.  

💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

I received a surprise in the mail from my sweet friend Sandy.  Balsamic vinegars!!  Now, Sandy went on the tour of the olive oil factory with me in the spring and saw me pull my chair right up and sit down to sample every single balsamic vinegar they had in the place.  I LOVE vinegar.  At Easter as a kid I would pour a little plain old distilled vinegar out on a spoon and drink it.  I am sure it is a vitamin deficiency of some kind.  Anyway, imagine my delight when four yummy vinegars arrived on my doorstep.  I have tasted them all and they are fantastic.  Peach, Pomegranate, Fig and Traditional.  Could not have picked out better flavors if I had done it myself.  

💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

It is December and this little Gerber daisy is blooming in my front flower bed.  Thank you sweet little flower for putting a smile on my face every time I walk by you! 

                                                      💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

My friend Sheri went to NFL Training Camp with me last week and we celebrated Martha's 200th camp the same morning!  Sweet celebrations!  Sheri has an epic face plant push-up signature move that had me laughing out loud.  Laughing makes exercising so much more bearable.  

💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

I made Chicken Pot Pie for Harry last week and he loved it.  I had a couple bites and he ate the rest of this in one sitting.  I have made this for years and years and he would never try it, because VEGETABLES.  Now, he is gobbling it down.  Maybe, he also has a vitamin deficiency!   Regardless, it is a perfect cold weather meal. 

💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

Last night was the annual Ansley Christmas party!  The food was outstanding and the company was terrific.  I wish I had some pictures of people and food, but alas I was talking and eating too much to get my camera out!   But you can rest assured it was a super fun way to kick off the holiday season!  

Finally, to wrap up this Sweet Things post, my doorbell rang this morning and when I answered, our precious little neighbor Caden was there in his elf pajamas delivering some Christmas goodies!  Christmas goodies that are delicious!  I had to sample them all!  What a lovely way to start the day! 

Hope lots of sweet things are happening in your world! 

Happy Sunday! 

Party

During our trip to Iceland this past summer, my darling niece Megan and her sweetheart Esra mentioned that they were going to get married.  There was no big proposal planned or announcement made....it was just two adults, already in love, already committed to each other, already living together, wanting to make a more formal union so they could get involved with fostering children.  These two have giant hearts and oh how lucky the children will be that land in their home.

So, with their sights set on more important things they got married in a quiet early morning backyard ceremony in September. No big fanfare, just a few family members and their pups.  It was just what they wanted.  What they also wanted was to follow up with two celebration parties - one in Alabama and one in Iceland.  I was thrilled to help, because I love them and because I have a gift of getting things organized and making things happen!

We exchanged gobs and gobs of texts and emails, pinned ideas and pictures on Pinterest and had phone calls and lists that were sent back and forth and finally it was time to see all of it come together!

It was so lovely.  And it was so fun!  It was perfect.

The Huntsville Roundhouse was a perfect venue and it didn't hurt that Malarie had the keys to the place so we could come and go at will all weekend!  

Megan and Esra are vegan so all the food and drink was vegan and absolutely DELICIOUS!!  I mean it!  Especially the chocolate mint cupcakes.  The vegans are not afraid of a little sugar and they use it well!

There were kegs of beer and super cute glass pint glasses with Iceland and Alabama connected by hearts and their wedding date on them. Special shout out to my talented friend Greg for designing the logo for us! 

Instead of a guest book, Megan had boxes of random postcards for people to sign.  

Bob and Lana constructed this cute little clothesline for them to be hung on.  Coffee cans and spray paint and plaster and ribbon!  It worked great!

Megan and Es collected donations at their reception for the Friends of Rescue organization that they are deeply involved in that rescues animals.  

All the food that was left over was donated to the local rescue mission.  See....kind hearts, these kids. 

The menu included baked potatoes and vegan chili and all the toppings.  

Photo Booth

These two. Movie star gorgeous. 

My girls.  The bond is strong with this crew. 

Wouldn't you know that with all the beautiful decor in the venue that the real party happened in the horrible storage/kitchen/room in the back?  

I had the best time reuniting with some of their sweet friends I have know since they were little and meeting their new adult friends who they work with and do life with now.  

And these boys...and this girl.  Cousin love is legit.  Can you even stand that gold chain that Chip is wearing...and what about that red suit on Harry?  Those boys came to party! 

And my fabulous family was there because our families are connected and have fallen in love with each other over all the years and divorce doesn't change that.  When you invest in someone's life and you care deeply for them, it just makes sense that you show up to help them celebrate the wonderful and heal the sad and everything in between.  These bonds are forever.  

How lucky am I?  I mean, who gets this in life?  Who gets to have this many people to love that love them back?  It is the most profound gift of my life.  

I will be completely honest. I was worried about this weekend for many weeks leading up to it.  I shared with my closest friends that I was nervous.  I didn't know how it would play out.  If I would feel uncomfortable in a room with my ex.  Would I feel like an outsider?  Would I feel like I didn't belong?  None of it makes sense in hindsight.  Don't you know those wonderful friends were praying me through it.  Sending me text after text that bolstered my spirit and cheered me on and reassured me it was going to be great.  They could see it.  They knew it would be wonderful.  And it was.  It was so wonderful.  

My nose is burning as I type this and tears are pooling in my eyes because life is hard and sometimes it hurts, but love comes in so many more packages than marriage.  It comes in sisters and brothers and mothers and fathers and nieces and nephews and sister-in-laws and brother-in-laws and spectacular friends and neighbors and most profoundly in my two beautiful children and my precious, precious, fierce loving God.  Oh, how He loves us!

That lesson was etched in my heart on this night.  

Wow....I didn't know that was where this post was going until I started typing.  It just came pouring out and once again I bare my soul with little warning to me or you.  My apologies...let's jump out of this therapy session and back to the party! 

And party we did!  There was so much dancing and laughing and drinking and eating and hugging and sore feet and sore faces from all the smiling. 

What are these moves? 

It was just the best.  

We celebrated LOVE and this beautiful union between these two beautiful people.  

CONGRATULATIONS Megan and Esra! May life give you back all the kindness and caring you put out to the world.  What a beautiful life it will be.

The Sink

Would you believe the highlight of my Friday after Thanksgiving was a clogged sink?   Well, you should.  Because it was! 

Here is how it went down. 

I checked out of the #1 rated Tennessee Bed and Breakfast (my brother Guk and his lovely wife Ms. Tennessee's house) on Friday morning after a wonderful three night stay.  I had never spent the night at their house before and their accommodations were perfect and the hosts were most gracious!  I was planning to stay the night at Malarie and Brett's house on Friday night so I could wake up bright and early and get back to the reception hall to do the last minute touches before the big party on Saturday night.  

The Nice One, The Queen and I worked all day on Friday helping to decorate for Meg and Es' wedding reception (separate post coming on that special event!)   We were so pooped by the time I dropped my sister and niece off back at the Tennessee Bed and Breakfast on Friday evening that I drug my suitcase back in their house and begged to extend my reservation one more night.  I was too tired to face a 45 minute drive in the dark back to Malarie's house. 

They welcomed me back with open arms, but told me they were experiencing some plumbing issues that might impact my visit. 

That just kicked off the most damn laughs I have had in a month of Sundays.  I wish you all could have been there!  I will never be able to recapture the moment, but I did take lots of pictures and have such fond memories of screaming "STOP - I am going to pee my pants!" 

Something had clogged the drain pretty seriously and both sides were full of water.  They had tried all the normal techniques - Drain-o - Plunger - Cussing.  Nothing worked.  Guk and Bean ran up to the local Walmart for a plumbing snake to see if they could clear the clog. 

Then Guk put on the sexist plumbing gloves in the history of plumbing gloves and assumed his duties as Head Plumber.

Let's get to work! 

Guk's first attempt, and second attempt and third and fourth attempt at getting the snake down the drain resulted in it getting stuck. He called out for pliers to try to crimp the snake small enough to be pushed down the drain.  Failure, after failure after failure...all resulting with a jerked out snake slinging Drain-o filled water everywhere.  

Finally, I suggested we get as much water out of the sink as possible so we could see the drain and figure out how to get the snake past the drain cover.  I got a round of applause for a good idea and the place sprung into action. 

The Nice One scooped and scooped cupful after cupful into a big bucket. 

There were lots of other suggestions being shouted out every 10 or 15 seconds and it made the Head Plumber get a little feisty.  Look at this picture below where Ms. Tennessee is just rearing her head back with laughter. 

Soooooo many cups of water into sooo many buckets.  It took a long time to empty both sinks.

Finally, we were down to squeezing the last bit out with a sponge and we could finally see the drain cover.  Tiny holes in the drain cover and we could not get it to pop off.  That snake was not going down the sink from up here.  So, the Head Plumber went to Plan B. 

Attack from the bottom!  He put a bucket under the pipe under the sink and start taking off the pipes.  Once Guk started unscrewing it, the pressure caused it to spew everywhere.  More laughing, more talk about sink vomit and maybe a tiny bit of horrible odor filling the kitchen.

Finally, most of the backed up water had been drained out and he started using the snake.  He pulled out the MOST DISGUSTING wad of clog you have every seen or smelled.  We all ran through the house screaming like he had pulled out a real snake.  It seriously was huge and smelled to high heaven. 

What ensued were fake barf sounds and real barf sounds and laughter and screaming and howling and cheering.  Team plumbing effort!  We did it!  

Finally, he put the sink back together and it drained like a champ.  No leaks!  Hooray!  

It really was the most hilarious night and one that I will not soon forget!  Seeing my brother in action  with the tension and humor and mad plumbing skills was so good for my soul. 

That is a sweet unexpected gift that I have realized through the pain of divorce.  I am spending more time during the holidays with my family.  I like them so much. They make me laugh harder than any other people in the world.  We get such a kick out of each other.  We are probably hard to stomach.

I hope the next time you get a clogged sink, you will put on your pink plumbing gloves and make it a party in the kitchen!  It is the best! 

Thanksgiving

I know Christmas is coming at us like a freight train, but please let me take a minute to recap a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!  I have so many pictures and stories and sweet memories to share and savor!

Me and my boys hit the airport last Tuesday to fly home to the motherland.

Once we landed, we had a bit of an incident in the rental car parking garage that was retold countless times during the weekend.  Perhaps their mother backed out of her parking spot and was going the wrong way and had to back up the entire length of the parking garage with the Enterprise attendant walking beside her car.  Backing up in a car is not my strong suit (genetic problem I inherited from my parents - both of them!) and it was nothing short of a miracle that I wasn't ping ponging off a car on each side of the row and running over the attendant as my finale.

Anyway, we eventually made it out of the garage and on to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner.  It took a bit longer than we expected so we were left driving to my brother's house on dark, winding, two lane roads.  My eyesight is significantly worst at night.  So, kind of terrifying.

The next morning, on Thanksgiving Eve we were up and at'em, hitting the grocery store and putting the boys to work in the kitchen.  Things started to heat up when we heard Mer and Grandpa were on their way!  Have not seen them in a long while and certainly not since that damn breast cancer entered the picture.  

By the way....TOMORROW is Lana's last chemo treatment!  She gets started tomorrow about 9:00 a.m. and your prayers would be much appreciated!  

Lana looked great!  And she brought her extra wigs, so you have to give them a whirl, right? 

Guk found an old wig we used for Mer's 70th birthday party skits and joined me on the wig runway!  Aren't we a pair? 

We whipped up some Chicken Pot Pie Soup, which is Harry's new favorite meal on earth.  Who is this kid?  There were several rounds of Scattegories and shredded beef sandwiches. We enjoyed visiting and eating so much! 

The next day, my sister "The Nice One" and her people showed up.

The Magnificent Seven!  Best grandkids in all the world....just ask Mer and Grandpa! 

There was a little bit of competition. 

Some selfies with my sister.

My niece, The Queen!  She is taller than me.  WTH? 

Dad getting in on the action. 

Oh, and there was cooking!  Lots of cooking! 

Guk firing up the fryer! 

Look at that beauty! 

So much food! 

So MUCH food. It was great! 

Let's eat! 

The Originals.

My siblings.  I love them.  We laugh a lot. 

My babies!  I love them.  Also, we laugh a lot.  

It was a wonderful day with my people.  

More to come on the rest of the weekend festivities!