Ernie's--One of the Things I'll Miss About CoMO

Ernie's is my very favorite place to go for breakfast. They have the best food in Columbia and a fun atmosphere. It's located in a building that looks and feels like an old diner--inside and out.
This is the least crowded we've ever seen Ernie's. We got there at about 7:15am. We placed our order, which took all of five minutes to get to our table. They are so fast, and the food never fails to be fabulous. We left around 7:45, and there were people waiting in a line that went outside. This experience is worth the wait. This is a small portion of the menu--about half of the breakfast page. Everything on here is so reasonably priced. My meal, which follows, costs $6.25. If you order before nine, drinks are free. The waiters and waitresses are very good, yet they appear to be very laid-back. The entire experience never fails to be fabulous.
The main plate of my order includes two eggs over medium, ham, and hashbrowns. Little fingers have big trouble resisting this goodness. Eli ate one of my eggs and bites of ham and hashbrown.
This special (#11) also comes with french toast or pancakes. I ALWAYS get the french toast. It's like a dessert after breakfast. This is by far my favorite dish in CoMO. Eli seems to like it too--as he ate half.
I did feed Eli, but at times I took too long...apparently. The little man had major trouble resisting the goodness that was in my plate.
He ate and ate and ate.
Finally, his tank was full. After a full night's sleep and a tummy full of Ernie's finest, this guy was one happy camper.
BUT, then we told him it was time to go. He wasn't too sure of that, and he's starting to get sentimental about the big upcoming move. We had to have a moment...
We went ahead and left, because I had to bake twelve batches of cookies for prom...which is a whole other experience. Anyway, once we got outside, Eli found some leaves to play with and discover. Eli has a good daddy!
Lingering thought of the day: While I baked cookies for prom, our whole little family played in the kitchen. We left the door open and listened to the rain. We had the radio on low. Eli enjoyed his puppy. Mugsy enjoyed her boy. We all enjoyed each other. Life is good.

From the Window to the Wall...

When we decided to buy our house, there were several things to decide. Many were important, however, I have chosen to now focus a little more on the nitty-gritty details of the matter. One of the first nitty-gritties was what to do with the livingroom. We're replacing the carpet with laminate, painting the walls, and moving in a navy blue couch and loveseat set. So the next order of business was deciding what colors to do the livingroom in; as the couches are blue, what better color? We're going with a blue and green analogous color scheme. This is the fabric for the curtains (which will be the focus of a later post). Anyway, these are our basic colors. Everything else will coordinate with these.

One of my main concerns was what to put in the cubby hole in the upper left-hand corner of this picture. I briefly considered a plant. That led me to remember that I'm 5'2 1/4" on a tall day. I would have to pull out a ladder every time they needed watered. That's like giving those poor plants the kiss of death before they ever enter the house. Therefore, that idea is out. It needs to be something low maintenance.Then I remembered I have these stars. I bought these a few years ago...maybe for the Fourth of July. At this point I can't really remember why I have them, but today they became useful.
As I was roaming about Hobby Lobby today, I decided to look for paper that matches the fabric for the curtains. I found these papers, some paint brushes for $.99, and some decoupage paste that was on super-duper clearance. Then the idea was put into action...
I started playing, and this is what came out. They will stand in the little cubby hole, add a touch of color, and be very low maintenance for very low cost. Mission accomplished!To add another touch of frugality, I must share this thought. These are the backs of the boxes--not the lids. When I get time within the next few days, I'm going to play with the lids and make coordinating wall art. Voila! No more searching for something that matches. If you have the time, creativity, and willingness to get covered in sticky, glitter glue, many opportunities will present themselves.

Lingering thought of the day: It's one month and four days until we close on our house. I'm so excited I can't hardly stand it! I'm so ready to cutesy it up, move in, play in my kitchen, and spend the summer with my baby. I hate hot weather, but I love the summer...

Moving Sale Madness

On Saturday we had a moving sale. We're closing on our house in the last week of May, then we're moving in early June. We should have had time to do this a little closer to moving time. Problem being, we're booked every weekend until then with one thing or another. Spring has a way of doing that. Anyway, the sale was a wild success. We got rid of all of the big items we didn't want to move. Eli liked getting to play outside with our inside stuff and run in the maze.
It really weirded Eli out that our living room was outside. It wasn't set up like this inside. It fit the room better, but we were trying to make it look a little livingroomish to give some appeal to the set. We sold the tables and couches together. Yay!We sold the bulk of these items. I was kind of surprised at what sold and what didn't. Sometimes these things just don't make sense.
I was shocked at the number of shoes that sold. Maybe three pair, of all of these, didn't sell. Quite a few clothes sold too!The big items were quick to sell. Not having to worry about moving those things took a lot off of my mind. We had a ton of household. This is a little less than half. Most of that sold too.While I was enjoying watching the disappearing act that was our sale, Eli was busy playing with his uncles. Uncle Kent turned a patio chair into a swing. That got lots of squeals and giggles out of one happy little boy!
Eli really has trouble getting his uncles' attention... :)
Lingering thought of the day: There are only 23 days of school left until summer...not that I'm counting.

Sparky's--One of the Things I'll Miss About CoMO

Tonight we went for a walk downtown to take a break from our packing spree. Any time we walk downtown, it is a must to stop at Sparky's. We love it. It's just so different from any other ice cream place. They carry a few traditional flavors, but they also have flavors like: rice krispy treat, lavender honey, pineapple upside down cake, and about 5 million more. The flavors are constantly changing, and they're always delicious.

The inside of Sparky's (or Spanky's as my dad & MIL like to call it) is rather eclectic. It's full of terrible art--which I didn't necessarily care to remember enough to take a picture. Sometimes it's borderline scary. BUT the ice cream far outweighs the creepy factor of the art, and the people who work there are always friendly.
Outside of Sparky's is this little fake bulldog--which for about a year (in passing) I thought was a very well behaved critter. Turns out, it just isn't real...but it's still very cute. Eli really likes him.
When it's pretty out, like tonight, we like to eat outside. This is a fabulous place for people watching; you see it all in downtown CoMO. With the purchase of an adult cone or cup, little ones eat free. Eli had some pineapple upside down cake today and loved it! He also likes that they give him a sample spoon (just his size), so he can feed himself.
We will really miss Sparky's when we move!

Lingering thought of the day: I'm working on a sample article for an application as an online writer. The topic I'm applying for is "Frugal Family Living," which is right up my alley. However, for the first article I'm just not sure how I want to approach it. I've started about three different articles, but can't decide which to go with. Any suggestions?

Sam's Parking Lot--One of the Things I'll Miss About CoMO

I think I'm going to start a new series of posts over the next few weeks about the things in CoMO that we'll miss. I wanted to start it with something a little light hearted.

We've been members of Sam's Club for two or three years now. As long as we've been going to Sam's, we've cracked up every time we walk in or out of their building. I mean every single time, without fail. As we walk through the parking lot, this is what we see in every handicapped parking space: Maybe we're a little twisted for finding this so funny, but really? Some things you just can't help but to laugh at them. This is one of those. What in the world were they thinking? Was this a repair?

SO...someone who will be in CoMO a little more long term, please let me know when the little trail of baby wheelchairs appear.

Lingering thought of the day: There is not one long-sleeved garment to be found in my closet. All that I thought was not essential to the upcoming weeks is packed. Our excitement grows with each box on the pile of boxes!

Pirates Love Guac!

Eli is usually not too picky about what he eats. He loves cheese (and will ask for it by name), cookies, chips/pretzels, meat, fruit, some veggies, pretty much whatever we give him. He likes to eat the fuzzballs off of his carseat and blankie. He'll even eat Mugsy's food on occasion...

But when Eli's a pirate, only guacamole will do. I found this cute little pirate shirt on clearance the day after Halloween for about $1.00, and I thought it'd be fun to "dress-up" in. So on this particular day, Eli was a pirate. By the way, parrots say quack. Apparently they look like ducks.
He's a very happy pirate! He can see his guac coming!
Let the dipping begin! The little pirate must dip his own chip. His mommy must watch carefully though, because if he runs out of chips, his fingers get dipped.
Don't worry, buddy. Nobody's going to take your green dip!
Little man managed to eat almost the entire bowl by himself. He also enjoyed the meatballs (ground beef chunks) off of his mommy's plate.
The little pirate had enough of the pictures...
Every single phase Eli has been in has been my very favorite! He keeps getting more and more fun everyday!

Lingering thought of the day: I am so thankful to be raising Eli with modern conveniences! These little disposable placemats that stick to the table are so nice. It saves me from having to scrub guacamole off of the table (or from leaving a big, guilt-laden mess for the poor waiter). With or without these silly little things though, I love being Eli's mommy! I am so, so blessed!

Easter

Easter is THE most important holiday in Christianity. This day makes everything else we believe possible. Most everyone who reads my blog believes as we do; if you're an unexpected reader who doesn't know what we believe or are interested in finding out more about it, feel free to comment. Then we can chat via email.

Here's the basic run-down of our Easter. The first priority every Easter is to attend the Easter morning service at church. We went as a family.

Eli pulled lots of good stuff out of his Easter basket.
We went to lunch with Scott's family at Grandma's house. Eli had lots of fun playing outside with PawPaw Gary.
Then we went to my family's (at MawMaw Jan's) gathering. Eli played with lots of plastic eggs. The child LOVES chocolate. I have no idea where he gets that! :) He got away with breaking the "no kids in the circle" rule. He's quite rotten. It was a beautiful, beautiful day!
But all the play and yummy food wears a guy out!
Lingering thought of the day: We sold the Taurus to be used for parts. Sometimes it's best to just let a car go--no A/C, over $1000 in needed repairs, a salvage title, and chronic illness. It was a good, good car that was supposed to get me through college...4 years after graduating it had to be retired. It was a good car, and we had many fond memories together.

Eli's Not So New Haircut

As it's been about 45 years since my last post, I have A LOT of catching up to do. The past week has been pretty busy, and I've been running until my head hits the pillow. I finally made time to sit down tonight to get going on my blog again.

Sometime in the past week, we had Eli's hair cut. Being the dork that I am, I asked for a versatile cut--cute little boy hair and the fauxhawk. Oh yeah, I am one of those parents. Here are a couple pictures of the little man rockin' the fauxhawk:
Side view--
Eli just woke up from about an hour long nap on Aunt Nan (poor arm!). He's such a happy boy!

Front view--
If anyone was wondering, that's Uncle Kent's arm holding Eli on the saddle. We couldn't resist the photo op! It turned out really well.

Lingering thought of the day: I cannot wait to get into my new kitchen and cook up a storm! That is, after we put in laminate, paint the walls, trim, and doors, and unpack all of our earthly belongings. We have a lot ahead of us. We're so excited for our adventure!

Apple Pie

I always have some kind of obsession. My latest kick is making apple pie. No recipes, of course. So, I went to HyVee and got eleven huge, beautiful apples for $1.99 as aforementioned. I started by cutting and peeling them on my little cutting board.

This time I used pre-made crusts. I put one on the bottom of my pie pan, then I mixed my apple slices with cinnamon, sugar, and flour. They got generously piled onto the bottom pie shell.
The next step was to start my lattice work with the top crust. I cut it into eight strips, and put four of them in a line on the pie. Then I started weaving--under two and over two. Then switch layers and add another strip.
Nearing the end, if done right it will look like this...

Here is the pre-baked pie. I opted out of the pretty edging. I wanted this one to be pretty simple. You can also gather and flute the edges if desired.

Next, I put on the little silver hat to prevent the crust from becoming too dark and bake the pie at 450 degrees until the insides are all bubbly and yummy. The crust needs to do a little sunbathing so the top crust gets done too.
The finished product...why my camera occasionally yellows things I do not understand.

Finally, the plated version--a la mode.
It turned out pretty well. Fruit pies are a bit time consuming, but they're so easy and so worth it!

Lingering thought of the day: Happy Easter to one and all!

Our New House!!!

Today at 9am we met with our realtor for the first time and started house shopping. We looked at about 15 houses, did lunch, and chatted things out. By 9pm we had signed the contract (after it was countered) and left for the night. Our realtor was still working hard for us when we left. She was absolutely amazing. It's Good Friday, a weekend, the first weekend Keeneland Downs is open, and gorgeous outside, and she devoted her entire day to us, found our dream home within our budget, and we left as homeowners...or atleast really close to being homeowners.

Here's the (front) of our house:

Here's the back--notice the covered porch with a ceiling fan and the clothes line. These were big selling points for me. The back yard is fenced in too!
This is our eat-in kitchen, which is really about the size of a dining room within the kitchen. Notice the windows--just imagine the sunshine pouring in when those blinds are opened up during the day!
Here's a shot of our kitchen. There's more counterspace hiding along the wall beside me. There was just too much to get into one picture. There's a cute little boy in the kitchen who really likes this house. We chatted a lot today. He's pretty excited about living here, and he likes his bedroom. He's even willing to take baths in the tub. Backstory: Eli HATES to bathe in other people's tubs. It's meltdown worthy. BUT, he said he'd like to take baths here. I'll believe him.
Here's a picture of the bar, into the kitchen, from the livingroom. The selling realtor and his wife were in cleaning today. I didn't realize I got her in any of the pictures...oops.

Our livingroom that will be repainted ASAP. The carpet will also be replaced in some form or another. The furniture will also disappear shortly.
This is the archway that leads to the master suite and Eli's room. Pretty cute, huh? Have I mentioned yet that we're really excited about moving in here? We are.
These windows are in the guest bedroom. There's also a really cool area on the other side of the room that will be my sewing zone. It has amazing lighting, and is just the right size.
This is part of Eli's room and his closet doors--not a real exciting picture. I can't wait to get my hands on this room. It will be so much fun!!!
The next couple pictures are of our room, but let me preface it with this: I know that the paint and the curtains are butt ugly. I do, really. That's why they will be gone very soon. This room has great possibilities and it's humongous!
Master bath00m--through the door. This picture cuts off the dual vanity and the tub, but both are pretty nice. There's lots of storage space in here.
This is our closet, and this picture does not do it justice...at all. This is the picture from inside the closet. It's LONG. And there's a little dressing bench down low. It's fabulous.
Here's the laundry room (for some reason it looks yellow--it's not). This is one of the first laundry room shelving units I saw all day that I could reach without a step stool. When did the world get so tall??? Here, my friends, is the icing on the cake. I've spoken before of my love of freezing food. I NEED a deep freeze. But not anymore, you better believe we worked this into the initial offer and contract. It will stay. It will be mine. It will be full of all of my delicious wares. And I can't wait.
Here are my hubby & Eli after we finished looking at houses. Eli was in the midst of his afternoon nap. He looks how we all felt. ;)

Lingering thought of the day: It's so nice to not have to worry about where we will live in the upcoming months/years. We love our new house!!