Quick, before I get Sidetrack'd

This isn’t my favorite set of questions (mainly because I don’t really have answers for all of them), but sometimes it’s good to stretch a bit. Check out Roots and Rings for more Ten on Tuesday fun.

1. What book, movie or song has made you want to travel to a particular place? (eg. I went to Prince Edward Island because I was such a Anne of Green Gables fan)
Jane Austen novels make me want to visit Regency England, but I don’t think I would want to stay long. And that’s all I’m coming up with here. Sad, I know.

2. Aside from your significant other, who would you want to take with you on a dream trip?
That would have to be my besties, Lindsey and Stacey, or my sister (in-law), Lu.

3. Where would said dream trip be to?
Somewhere exotic, all-inclusive, and with a lovely spa.

4. If you were hosting guests or providing tips, what three things would you show visitors to your hometown? (be it where you live now or where you grew up)
I would suggest the zoo, the botanical gardens, and the river front (although those aren’t the most popular destinations for tourists in these parts, they are the ones I like).

5. If you had a long weekend ahead of you, where you head – beach, city or country/mountains?
That would be the mountains for some hiking.

6. Do you have a passport? If so, did you get it for a particular trip or just to have, in case?
I no longer have a valid passport. Once upon a time, many years ago, I got one for my trip to Paris.

7. Are there any travel souvenirs you collect? If not, is there something else you collect?
I’m not a big collector, so no travel souvenirs. If you consider a collection a group of things that accumulates because you enjoy buying them, then I collect baby carriers and cloth diapers.

8. If you could name a paint colour, what colour would it be and what would you call it?
I can’t say that I’ve ever considered naming a paint color, but I guess if I did it would have to be a shade of blue in the periwinkle family. I have no idea what I’d call it, though.

9. If you were heading away for a weekend citybreak solo, where would you go? (forget about practicality here and flight times, assume you can get to any city in the world for the weekend)
Well, I would never go solo, Matt would be along, but right now I’d head to Portland or Seattle. Two places I’ve never visited but would love to see.

10. Is there a song or a smell or something that you strongly associate with a particular holiday/place/time, such that it always takes you back?
The smell of sage makes me think of Thanksgiving at my Mema’s. There are others, but that one has been on my mind lately because my shampoo smells strongly of sage. Oh, and the song “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t be Late)” always reminds me of childhood Christmases at Mema’s.

It’s time for another edition of Ten on Tuesday. I didn’t participate last week because I ran out of time before we went to the zoo and never got back to the post. But it’s always fun to answer the wide range of questions that show up in each week’s list.

So, here we go…

1. If you could travel back in time, would you? What decade would you visit?
If I were to time travel, I would probably go to the 1920′s. I’m not really sure why; it just sounds like an interesting time to visit. However, the whole idea of time travel kind of weirds me out, so quite possibly I would just stay home.

2. What was your best Halloween costume? (fun to make? most creative?)
I’m not a big Halloween person, but we always had a costume contest at my work in Knoxville; one year I went as a bunch of grapes and won the contest. I also won a school costume contest in middle school when I dressed up as a crazy doctor.

3. Do you like your name? If you weren’t called by your name, what would you want to be called?
I do like my name. It isn’t very common, and after 31 years it’s just me. When I was young (early elementary school) I hated my name and wanted to change it to something like Sarah (something common).

4. In the past year, what is the BEST recipe you made. Please share it!
Wow, that’s a tough one; I cook a lot and am regularly trying new recipes. One of our family favorites is Apple Cake, and then, of course, there’s Pioneer Woman’s cinnamon rolls, and my favorite Strawberry Cake. I’ve made several good savory recipes this year, too. It’s.just.too.hard.to.pick.one!

5. Look around – what is the nearest object or picture hanging on the wall?
A deep red and white floral print canvas.

6. What was the last movie you saw in a theater? Would you recommend it?
Matt and I never go to the theater anymore. The last movie I saw was Julie & Julia with my best friends. I would recommend it, although, I didn’t like it nearly as much when I saw it again after reading the books it is based on.

7. Did you go to summer camp? Will you/do you send your kids to camp?
I did and I didn’t. I went to church camp the first time in 4th or 5th grade and pretty much hated it. I didn’t go to camp again until I started going as a counselor in high school. I also did basketball camp several years and an honors symposium/camp thing before my Senior year in high school. My kids are still way to young for camp, but I will send them in the future if they want to go.

8. What kind of ringtone do you have?
Right now it’s one of the preloaded ringtones called vid kid. I really need to load some music so I can have a better ringtone.

9. Where is the farthest away from home you have ever been?
Paris when I was a Freshman in high school.

10. Has anyone ever written a song or a poem for or about you?
Yep. Matt wrote me a song for our first Valentine’s Day together.

Let me know if you decide to play along. I would enjoy reading your answers.

Thanks, Chelsea, for hosting!

There’s another fun set of questions at Roots and Rings for this week’s Ten on Tuesday. (Although there are 11 questions this week which kind of freaks the OCD in me out a bit)

1. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?
I’m an ice cream kind of girl, so this list could go on (it’s hard to narrow to one favorite), but I’ll keep it semi-short: peanut butter and chocolate, moose tracks, cookies and cream (especially Blue Bell)

2. What is your earliest memory?
It would probably be of me flying to Houston with my Mema when I was probably 3 or 4 (right, Mom?). I remember us being on the plane together and it just being the two of us.

3. What is your earliest memory of a dessert?
This is an odd question. I can’t think of one from early in my life, but my first memory of cooking dessert would be in middle school when my best friend would come to the house and beg me to bake chocolate chip cookies for him.

4. Do you have any recurring dreams?
A few, but I haven’t had any of them recently. There was one (mainly as a child) where my house was on fire in a ring down the center of the house and I was on one side and my Dad was on the other and I couldn’t get to him. The primary one as an adult has been Matt and I (with some other people) running from a group of mercenary-type soldiers who are persecuting us. We hide out in this little room where we have to crawl through a hole and along a tunnel to reach it. I always wake up with my heart pounding. (could be related to the amount of reading I do about WWIII era Europe)

5. Have you ever dreamed about dessert?
Absolutely. Especially when I’m pregnant, but occasionally when I’m not.

6. What is one thing (aside from a cell phone or computer) that you cannot go the entire day without?
Talking to Matt.

7. What is one dessert you could go your entire life without ever having again?
I can’t think of any specific dessert (although I know there are some out there), but anything with raisins is high on my dislike list.

8. If you could go on vacation tomorrow, where would you go? (Assume someone else is footing the bill, but within reason…so “the moon” won’t work)
The beach (Caribbean or gulf coast)! There are lots of places I would love to go, but right now I just want WARM.

9. If you could have any dessert tomorrow, what would you have (assume someone else is buying it for you. Within reason though, no “gold sprinkled ice cream cones.”)
Hmmm…strawberry cake with strawberry or cream cheese icing (or maybe chocolate mousse cheesecake)

10. What was your first impression of your significant other? If you’re single, what was your first impression of your best friend?
Matt – I thought he was cute and very quiet.

my best friend – that she seemed like a nice neighbor and it was nice of her to ask about our new baby (Little)

11. What is your first impression of dessert pizza? (Personally, I think it’s weird. I love dessert but I don’t want any on my pizza.)
Before I tried it I thought it sounded bizarre and gross. Once I tried some I found out I like some of it.

I love the age from around 12 months to around 24 months. There is so much discovery, so much concentration, you can just see the wheels spinning in their little minds. I love to just sit and watch Boo play; I find it fascinating.

Last night he was playing with Little’s grocery cart, pushing it through the living room and kitchen. While he was in the kitchen he stopped at the pantry and played for a while. Matt and I looked over and Boo was taking canned goods out of the pantry floor and putting into his grocery cart.

It was so cute. And so amazing to see him make the groceries/grocery cart connection at this young age.

As an aside – as I type this post my friend’s little boy and Little are pushing each other around the house in Boo’s dump truck. They are just cracking up at the fun they’re sharing. Oh the joys of childhood!

I’m a girl of many flavors – chocolate, peanut butter, caramel. Depending on the treat and my mood I’m pretty flexible with the whole sweets thing (as long as there is something sweet to be found). But when it comes to cake, strawberry is my favorite.

And of strawberry cakes, the one my Mema made when I was young is the one I always fall back to. Maybe it’s nostalgia, maybe it’s not having tried the “best strawberry cake ever” yet, but this is the cake I choose.

Every year I bake my own birthday cake, and I bake it from this recipe. If you try it, I hope you like it, too.

Mema’s Strawberry Cake
1 box white cake mix
1 pkg (3 oz) strawberry jello
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup sweet milk
4 eggs
1 cup angel flake coconut
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup strawberries

Mix all ingredients by hand. Bake in 3 layers at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

Strawberry Frosting
1 box confectioners sugar
1 stick melted butter or margarine
1/2 cup strawberries
1/2 cup coconut
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Mix all ingredients together and spread on cake.

Notes: I usually leave out the coconut and pecans (just because I’m weird like that). I also generally bake the cake in a 9×13 and ice it in the pan (just because I’m lazy like that). And be aware that the icing has always turned out quite thin for me (more like a glaze).

Tying in to my previous post, let’s talk a little about antibiotics…

As a child I loved amoxicillan. No, really, I loved it. I referred to it as the “pink bubble gum” medicine, and I probably would have drank it straight from the bottle had I been allowed.

I was pretty upset the first time they told me I was big enough to take pills instead of getting that yummy pink elixir.

In college I worked as a pharmacy tech and always liked filling amoxicillan scripts because, invariably, some would slosh out of the bottle as I mixed and I could lick it off my fingers.

So, when Little was prescribed amoxicillan to treat her ear/sinus infection I was glad we would have a medicine that would taste good and it wouldn’t be a fight to get her to take. I wasn’t disappointed; she was quite willing to take her medicine and asked for it several times between doses. The issue arose about four doses into her ten day course.

About 12:15 the Sunday morning after Christmas Little woke up whining and pulling at her pajamas. Matt went into her room to see what was wrong and thought she was complaining about the zipper on her footed sleeper, so he changed her pajamas and she laid back down.

About 20 minutes later she was calling for us again and Matt went to see what she needed. I heard her say something about her tummy hurting so I followed him in thinking, “oh no, not a stomach bug.” When I got in there she was scratching at her back. Again, we got her settled down and back to bed.

Another 15 minutes or so passed, and we heard her calling one more time. This time she was really scratching at her back, so I pulled up her shirt to see what she was scratching at. All over her back were red whelps about the size of the palm of my hand and each whelp had white hives on it.

I immediately called the after hours nurse and explained what was going on. She said, “Poor thing. You know it’s bad when you have hives on your hives!” I was told to give her some benadryl and watch to make sure she didn’t have any additional symptoms.

Fortunately, the benadryl cleared up the issue and the next day we were able to get a different antibiotic prescribed.

In talking to people about what occurred, a couple of people told me that penicillin allergies don’t usually show up the first time the person takes a penicillin drug. I don’t know if that means that she is more sensitive to it or not, but we’re not going to find out if we can help it.

And as warped as this sounds, I’m kind of disappointed that she won’t get to enjoy pink bubble gum medicine throughout her childhood.

As I was writing the posts last week about our trip to Granny and Papa’s house, memories kept surfacing of the times we’ve spent there.

The memories for Matt go back to the beginning.  He remembers when the land was just that, land, filled with trees and potential.  He remembers the steps along the way to completing the house and Granny and Papa making the move out there.  He has fond childhood memories of summer visits, playing in the creek, fishing in the pond, and walking in the woods.  He always said he wished he could spend the whole summer at Granny and Papa’s instead of only a week.

There are also lots of memories that we’ve made there together.  My first visit was just over 10 years ago.  Matt and I had only been dating a few months, and he took me to meet his grandparents while we were in town for Spring Break from college.  I fell in love with his grandparents and their place immediately and am very thankful that I’m still visiting a decade later and have so many good times to reflect on.

This was the place we were married.  In the kitchen we ate chicken salad sandwiches as we waited for time for the ceremony.  In Granny’s huge garden we were photographed with our families.  Under a rose arbor we pledged our love for each other as we said our vows.

This was the place we made our first home.  The first two months of our married life we lived in the little house on Granny and Papa’s property (originally built for Matt’s great-grandmother).  We would come home in the evenings to find fresh picked tomatoes sitting on our back porch railing; we would go into the garden to pick corn from the stalk and blueberries straight from the bush.  We would go down the driveway every Thursday evening to sit on the screened porch and chat.  It was a special season in our life for many reasons, not the least of which was Matt finally getting to spend the whole summer at Granny and Papa’s house.

And now we have memories there with our children.  Little standing beside the Christmas tree.  A trip to play in the creek with her Daddy.  Boo in Papa’s lap.  Granny and Papa loving our children like they’ve always loved Matt.

I am thankful for all the memories we’ve created on the farm and especially with Granny and Papa.  It is sad to see it go, but it will always hold a special place in our hearts.

Isn’t that title just so clever? I’m suffering a bit from worn out, ready to have this baby creativity block.

So, what is special about April 7th? In my life it is the celebration of my brother.

I am blessed to have a wonderful older brother, and, although, we are not as close in distance or relationship at this point as I would like (or as we’ve been at other times in our lives), I am happy to say he is also my friend.

And in honor of his birthday, I’m going to tell a couple of stories on myself that I think are amusing…

J’s big hobby in elementary school age and into early middle school was building model cars, airplanes, and boats. He could often be found hard at work on the bar in our basement gluing pieces together, painting the finished work, and applying decals and stickers. He worked all shapes, sizes, and types of models.

Once, when I was probably six or seven years old (possibly a bit younger), J and Daddy were working on a huge model pirate ship. If I remember correctly, it was probably a couple feet long and was amazingly detailed with fabric sails, oars and guns coming from the lower decks, and the whole pirate-y bit. They had put a ton of time and effort into this ship and were probably 90%-100% finished when “the incident” occurred.

For whatever reason, J had set the ship on the basement floor and left it there to get something from upstairs while I was still playing downstairs. I was being a typical girl and doing gymnastics or something on the furniture and was hanging upside down in Daddy’s recliner watching something on TV. I’m not sure exactly what happened, or how it happened, but the next thing I knew I was sliding off the recliner and directly on top of the pirate ship. I remember a crunching sound, the sound of J running down the stairs, and my crying as he yelled.

The ship had attained damage of the hit-by-several-cannonballs type and was totally destroyed. It was an accident, but that didn’t make it any better in the eyes of my 11-ish year old brother who had worked so hard to build that pirate ship.

And then there was the time when I was about three and I flushed J’s pet fish down the toilet. The fish lived in a bowl on our kitchen island. Apparently it was sleeping, but it looked dead to my preschool eyes. I took it to the bathroom, dumped it, and flushed. It started swimming down the drain. Oops!

It’s a wonder he still likes me. Happy birthday, brother!

This time of year brings out the cook or baker in many of us. I enjoy cooking throughout the year (time permitting), but there is something about baking at Christmastime that is special. It is fun to pull out those special recipes that only see the light of day during the holiday season.

I have childhood (and teenage, and college age) memories of making Christmas goodies with my mom. We would drag out all the ingredients, and just about every mixing bowl and spoon in the kitchen, and set up shop at the kitchen table. When I was young we baked cookies and made candy, but as time progressed we moved away from baking and more into candy. There was always fudge for the fridge (2 pans – with pecans for dad & mom and without for my brother & me), and usually some combination of butterscotch haystacks, chocolate and peppermint “bark”, and white and milk chocolate covered pretzels. Other things came and went depending on the year, but these were the usual suspects. I continued to make chocolate chip cookies, and we made the occasional snickerdoodle or sugar cookie.

My own Christmas cooking focuses more on baked goods, although I might make some refrigerator fudge this year. During last week I’ve made two batches of chocolate chip cookies, two loaves of homemade bread (I make this year round), and two batches of Chex Mix. This weekend will see two recipes of homemade biscuits and, possibly, the first of the cranberry bread. The next couple of weeks should produce several batches of cranberry bread, a pound cake with caramel icing, and, hopefully, some homemade cinnamon rolls. Oh, and untold quantities of homemade Chex Mix. Add in the things I’ll make for the Christmas party we’re hosting next Sunday and our own Christmas meals (hmm…guess I better think about what we’ll eat since we’ll be home this year), and I have quite a bit of cooking to do!

There is just something about the holidays that brings out the most flavorful side of me!