Restored

I loved visiting my Omi's house up in Fort Bragg. She lived on an acre and had a patch of redwood trees in her front yard that we called "The Forest". We would play house in there for hours, with little sections of trees divided into the different rooms.

The lot next door had an old, abandoned barn on it, with a horse named Buttons. We would stop at the grocery store, while driving through town on our way to Omi's, to pick up some carrots to feed to Buttons.

Omi's home was lovely and a place where we spent many vacations. Her upstairs was a huge loft where we slept on her navy blue flowered sofa bed. Her bedroom was also upstairs, where we watched slides and played in her walk-in closet. She had pictures adorning the walls and resting on her dresser, she had an adjustable bed that I'm surprised we didn't break with how often we raised and lowered it, and she had a turquoise rotary phone on her nightstand that I played with often. I was in love with that phone and went as far as asking her to leave it to me in her will.

With much gratitude, I didn't have to wait until she passed away to get the phone. When she moved in with my uncle several years ago, she divided up her possessions and the phone was my gift.

The twin I found on Etsy

I.LOVE.THIS.PHONE!

About a year ago, Jared was over and The Lime was playing with the phone. I was telling Jared how much it meant to me and as soon as I finished my sentence, CRASH! The Lime had pulled the phone off the table and it broke into several pieces. Although an accident, I was SO upset. I picked up the pieces, went into my room, and cried. LaVor came in and told me that it was just a phone, but it wasn't just a phone. It was something I admired my entire life and now treasured.

Well, it sat on my dresser for months and months and months, in a box, while I contemplated what I should do. I went as far as googling it and ended up finding an exact twin on Etsy. Unfortunately, the girl had already sold her phone and I was shucks outta luck.

LaVor suggested I just go to Home Depot and buy some adhesive and glue the thing back together. But I was hesitant, as it isn't your typical plastic phone, but Bakelite.

After being inspired by a plethora of TAP Plastic commercials on tv last weekend, I finally decided to go in and see what they had to help. The girl that helped me wasn't sure what type of plastic it was so she tested it. Testing plastic? It was new to me, but I'm glad she did it. She suggested an adhesive, I bought it, and was on my way.

She said the adhesive needed to be applied very thin, as it would streak the outside of the phone if there were globs of it. She was right.

As soon as I got home, I glued my phone back together, and despite some hairline cracks, we are back in business!

The Lime is excited too because he thinks he can play with it again. But I am keeping it far, far away from his little hands.

One Step Closer to a Big Boy

The Lime will be 3 in about six weeks. I'm not surprised, just sad that my baby is becoming a big boy, more and more each day.

His 3T pants are beginning to flood on him, his vocabulary is expanding, and he doesn't freak out when I leave him. And now, he went pee in the toilet, standing up.

We've been talking up the potty training and he's getting excited, especially for the Cars undies.

A few weeks ago, he was standing in the bath and said, "Here we go!" Next thing I knew, he was peeing. He now pees every time he's in the bath/shower. This is actually a good thing, as he's getting used to "the feeling".

So when LaVor said he needed to go to the bathroom tonight, The Lime followed behind him saying, "Me too!"

We went into the bathroom, where he stood on his little stool, and I told him to remember the feeling from the bath. A couple toots came out and then a steady stream followed. Both of us squealed with delight.

Looks like my plan of potty training during Christmas break might happen sooner.

Ready...Set...Hike

Due to a hectic workday, I didn't get a chance to take any pictures of The Lime on Halloween. I was told that I would win the medal for "Worst Mom of the Year", for not getting a picture. If only that person knew how many other photos I have of The Lime, they would have kept their mouth shut. But that's a different post.

So when LaVor told me he was going to play football on Thanksgiving morning, I knew I'd be able to redeem myself in the picture department.

The Lime could hardly stand the excitement. We started off with a breakfast for champions (orange juice and hash browns...or a giant french fry, which is the way we got him to eat it).

We were afraid there wouldn't be enough people to play a real game but after a while, enough bodies showed up. Two of which were The Lime's best buds, Ben and Joe.

The Lime wasted no time to participate!

He was the cutest dude out there and threw a major fit when we had to leave.

I see a new Thanksgiving tradition in our family's future.

Giving Thanks...Z

The first city we stepped foot in, when we got to Europe, was Zurich. And what a fine city it was.

Drinking from the fountains, enjoying sausages in crusty rolls, savoring my favorite macarons, paying way too much for fast food, watching the men play with the giant chess set, buying a clock, attending church. So much to do, and what a surprise! Most of it had to do with food :o)

Zurich was where we spent our first day and Zollikofen is where we spent our last night. It was also where my parents were married. (Note: the temple is actually in Münchenbuchsee, the mailing address for the temple is Zollikofen) I loved being able to visit the place where my eternal family began.

Two "Z" cities that we will always remember.

Giving Thanks...Y

Four years ago, I was asked to bring the rolls to Thanksgiving dinner.

While at culinary school, we would tape our recipes on the wall so they were out of the way and at eye level (easy to read). I decided to start doing that with my recipes that weren't in cookbooks.

When I volunteered to bring the rolls again this year, I realized I had the recipe STILL taped to my cabinet, four years later. Yikes!

But I must tell you why...this is the best yeast roll recipe I have ever made. I use it for dinner rolls as well as cinnamon rolls, and can't seem to justify filing it away.

When I was in my breads class, the instructor warned us about the constant use of yeast and how we'd be at a higher risk of yeast infections. Blech...freaked me out a bit.

But how I grew to love yeast. Where would I be without yeast? I'll tell you. I would be a deprived person that couldn't enjoy bread, pizza, croissants, bagels, pretzels, and doughnuts, just to name a few.

I love my carbs, can you tell? And I love yeast, at least when it comes to food.

The original date and time of when said recipe was printed

Giving Thanks...X

Never did LaVor and I think that we would take a cruise, let alone win one. So when we heard the news that we were going, for free, we were taken back.

Celebrity X Cruises took good care of us the second we boarded the ship. They offered us champagne, which we turned down, but were then offered water. Our room wasn't ready for quite some time after we were on board but a sweet lady made sure to get things taken care of. Our room attendant was SO helpful, especially when it came to the wave of illness. The food was good and always at our fingertips, hence why I ordered four desserts the first night at dinner. The customer service was astounding when we notified them of our botched excursion.

We were so appreciative, and still are, of the kindness and generosity we received on this trip. If we ever decide to go on another cruise, this one might be hard to beat.

Giving Thanks...W

LaVor doesn't really like it but I'm a cold cereal kind of girl. He always asks if I want to go out for breakfast but I much prefer to stay home and eat my Chex or Cheerios.

So you can imagine how bummed I was when I went to pour my milk this morning, only to find that we were out. Ugh!

I was rushed for time so making eggs was out of the question. Then I remembered my homemade frozen waffles and popped two in the toaster. They get extra crispy, which I love, but soften up a bit with the help of the syrup, so I don't crack a tooth. And the combination of the salted butter plus the sweet maple is something I just recently converted to. Why did I pass up the butter all those years?!

When we have waffles for dinner, I usually make extra and freeze them so I have an impromptu breakfast for times like this.

The waffles saved the day, or at least me from being late for my Black Friday shopping.