Christmas Show

When Mom came to visit in November, it just happened to be the Southern Women's Christmas Show. We had a lot of fun. We got our tickets early & on sale (thank you Harris Teeter). We left my apartment and we were in line to park before 10am. We walked in a bit after 10am and it was CROWDED (and Friday). We worked our way backwards and had a great time. We sampled wine and wine-a-ritas, bought ornaments and I now have a subscription for the paper to be delivered Fri, Sat & Sun for less than the Sunday paper itself...SCORE!

Mother and I conquered the Christmas Show and rewarded ourselves with a delightful lunch at Chick fil A!

Non Thanksgiving Thanksgiving

In the beginning of November, my mom came to visit for a few days. Since I was unable to go home for Thanksgiving, we decided to have "It's Not Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Dinner"
It was a lot of fun and we laughed A LOT!
Here is Mom carving the turkey breast (because really, we did NOT need an entire turkey!)

You'll notice the BEAUTIFUL card table I borrowed from A & J in May 2010 that I'm still using as a table. Well, I don't really ever use the table but it's nice to have. Since mother and I were having a "real" dinner which should not be enjoyed on the couch, I used the "chair in a bag" chairs as table chairs. Great idea until ya sit down and the chair is way shorter than the table. :)

Part of our feast! As soon as we sat down we realized we forgot the broccoli (thanks to steamfresh bags it was ready in under 5 minutes!)

We also had this AWESOME cake for dessert! Oh my stars it was AMAZING! It's called William Tell Apple Cake and you MUST make it! The icing on the top is divine! But with ingredients of butter and brown sugar it has to be good, right?!?!?!

Overall, "it's not thanksgiving thanksgiving" was a lot of fun. I'm thankful my mom spent 18 hours in a car to come visit for a few days and create new memories!

*since I'm writing/posting this in December, I'll let ya know that Santa brought me a BEAUTIFUL table & chairs for Christmas so now I have a lovely place to eat meals!*

Beach!

I LOVE the beach!

And I LOVE the beach in October when it's empty. So peaceful. So fun.

I also LOVE going to the beach with my favorite people.....

My Mom

and my Grandparents!

Kathy or is it Cathy?!

Meet Kathy/Cathy...
She was one of my favorite dolls growing up. She's fairly large and may need to wash her dress and brush her hair, but she's had a rough life recently. Poor Kathy/Cathy lived on my bed. She'd keep watch over my room and really enjoyed her life. However, a few years ago (maybe even a decade) she was moved to a higher elevation.....the attic. Poor girl. Only she wouldn't fit in a box, so mother tied a piece of yarn around her neck and hung her from the rafters so that any critters that ended up in the attic would not eat her. The care was there, in a twisted way. :) Kathy/Cathy has since been moved back to the main house and is doing much better. I enrolled her in therapy and mother has apologized profusely for how she treated her in the attic. Kathy/Cathy is back on speaking terms with mother and is grateful to no longer be hanging around....ha ha.
As for her name. Apparently I used to name my dolls after the people who gave them to me. I asked mother how Kathy/Cathy came about and was told that Chuck who worked at the printing company, his wife gave me the doll. So, there ya have it!

Kickin it Old School...

OH MY GOSH! Get the girls together....it's time to play
Dream Phone--Guess who likes you in this talking telephone game! ("Hi, I know who it is!")
The Babysitters Club Mystery Game
Let's Go Shopping-Race Through The Mall In Search for the PERFECT Outfit
Mall Madness-Talking Shopping Spree...yes please!
Precious Places....only the best doll house around!

Old School Lite Brite.....

Did I mention Mother cleaned out the attic before I came home? Oh the piles of "treasures"!!!

*no company has asked me to post my Old School entertainment. In fact, this is a post for Antique Roadshow, not companies-that-probably-no-longer-exist endorsements! Ahh, childhood! :)

Being Held Hostage

I'm a horrible blogger.
I'm so bad at blogging that I just informed my Mom (who constantly sends me e-mails or texts or leaves me voicemails counting the days since my last post, putting August 23 in the subject line and/or talking about single cheese) that I was going to delete my blog. Oh the horror! If I had a camera at the exact moment I told her this, the photo would win awards cause wow did she look like a sweet puppy from those ASPCA commercials! :)
Really, the 5 followers that I have have most likely forgotten that Grace Like Rain even exists! However, I'm home for a few days and there are things I want to do, but I'm being forced to sit at this computer desk and update my blog before I am allowed to go out and play. My 26 year old self feels like a 6 year old again being told I can't go play with my friends until I finish my homework or clean my room. Goodness!
Anyway, I don't have a reason for not blogging. I'm pretty into Twitter these days. Falling off the whole Facebook thing. I'm not against change, but I usually just read the updates on my phone but sometimes even that is "confusing" and forget logging into Facebook on a 'real' computer...that's just crazy talk!
Well blog world, hope you enjoyed this hostage post. I'm off to go sort through some boxes of "used to be treasures but have most likely transitioned to trash" that mother has been collecting in the attic/my room so that I can go out and play.
Happy Sunday!

June 22

"BW,

Does June 22 mean anything to you? In case you didn't know, it's the last time you updated your blog. :) Would be nice to read what's been going on.

Love,

Yo Momma"

There ya have it folks. The e-mail from the mother unit that I need to buy a ticket for the blog train! I am making it a goal this week to blog what's been going on in my life as well as a few events in the future. Hope everyone is well!

I miss you dawg!

My Mom came to visit a bit over a month ago. While she was here, we were doing something and ended up watching the first round of the NFL Draft. We found it humorous that the gentleman drafted 12th to play for the New Orleans Saints, after listening to a letter his father wrote him, began to cry and say "I miss you dawg!" We weren't really sure what that was all about, and really, where's the respect when you refer to your parent as "dawg" (yes, it must be spelled dawg because that's what it sounded like, not dog) but apparently the draft picks father wrote the letter from jail.

Moving on!

It was so nice to have my Mom here! We pretty much just hung out by the pool, did a little shopping, ate dinner outside while listening to a concert, walked to Chick fil a for ice dream cones, went to church and had a cookout with some friends from eGroup. It was great! And, mother proudly told everyone that she has a lot of vacation days so I'm sure she'll be back soon for more fun!!! :)

Thanks for the ceiling fan & lots of laughs!!!

I miss you dawg! :)

Wordless Wednesday

Sunday Snapshots

This weekend started a new sermon series titled

"Mr. and Mrs. Betterhalf"

it's all about relationships and I am SO excited to hear what Pastor Steven has to preach these next 5 weeks! I'm also excited because this was the first Elevation Experience for my Mom as she came to visit and didn't leave until early this morning so she was able to attend last nights service!

Just for the purpose of documentation, Prince William & Kate displayed a lovely Royal Wedding on Friday, April 29, 2011 and this new sermon series began Saturday, April 30.

Keeping with the times, the sermon was aptly titled The Royal Marriage.

Based on 1 Samuel 25:1b-42 and a lovely quote of "you are surely and mean in your dealings" as well as a bit of a preview into Proverbs 18:21, I could already tell that this sermon series is going to be epic! Pastor Steven did a great job of informing everyone that we are not going to have a royal wedding, but we can have a royal marriage.

Eat the salmon!

basically, this boils down to the fact that so many people in a relationship think that engagement/marriage is the next step. everyone wants the wedding (the planning & preparation, the dress, the reception, the cake) but not many really think about the marriage itself. it's like a great salmon dish at a restaurant, you love all of the side items and garnish but if you don't like salmon, you're not going to be ordering the dish.

Where life is spoken, humility must be present

The tongue has the power of life of death, speak life.

i think this is true for many occasions. words can be hurtful, so always speak life into your significant other, into your career, into your family.

Don't wait for the prince, crown the king!

this was a great one too! don't wait for the dashing prince charming and his white horse to find you, crown the king that's inside your significant other. speak life into them and they will be king!

What you fail to celebrate will eventually leave your life.

There's No Place Like Home!

Hello 2011!

Before I begin my 2011 "New Year, New Goals" posts, I must recap Christmas!

I am SO FAR BEHIND when it comes to blogging!

I went home for a week for Christmas and it was glorious! I was so glad to be home and after a very hectic November and December, it was so nice to not wake up, shower, eat and work for 14 hours a day, 6 days a week, rise and repeat. I literally stayed in my pjs for 12+ hours one day watching a NCIS marathon, eating cheese balls and Christmas cookies with not a care in the world and I felt like a new person.

Anyway, it started snowing Christmas Day before dinner/after lunch and by Sunday, it was intense! I was getting a bit stir crazy being in the house for almost a full day so I went outside to join mother in the snow removal process! Doesn't she look thrilled?!?

We realized that I was not properly equipped for snow removal as I do not own any snowy weather head gear...aka a beanie. So, I threw on a fashionable baseball hat and my jacket hood wouldn't stay on...it was a mess, but made for a great laugh!

Mother and I took a break from the snow....I mean really, it just kept snowing! It was so pretty! I decided we needed to get out of the house and that a declared "State of Emergency" wasn't going to stop us.


Since I hadn't seen the kiddos in almost an entire day (which is unheard of when I'm home because I usually spend breakfast to afternoon nap time at their house or after nap to dinner) we loaded up the kids gifts from Mom, put them in trash bags so they wouldn't get snowy/wet and walked through our development, down a "main" road and through the next development to get to the kiddos house. It was quite the trek!

Here's mom holding the goods....

And my bag of goods.
But it was worth it!

The kiddos (including the 3 neighbor kids) LOVED Lite Brite...but really, can you blame them? I LOVED Lite Brite! We hung out for a bit and then decided to be rebels and the kiddos dad drove us home in his "manly I can drive through anything" truck.

More to come.....

Happy Fall!

I LOVE Fall

I LOVE Candy Apples

(the candy part, not so much the apple. I mean I love apples alone, not with candy coating)

I LOVE Pumpkins and Pumpkin things

Well, it's certainly not fall like weather outside and that kind of makes me sad

But....

my Mom ROCKS!

Mother found Candy Apple Mix (which I still can't find in stores)

and

Pumpkin Spice ice cream topping

(which I've looked for and not found, but only looked for because Mom found it)

I am SO excited!!!!

I can't wait for it to be a bit cooler so I can make Candy Apples

(with a hint of cinnamon before dipping....yum!)

As for now, I just want to have a Pumpkin Carving Party where everyone can drink Hot Apple Cider, eat Candy Apples, have a great time and hand out candy to the Trick or Treaters!

Hello Blog World, It's Me, Megan!

I "forget" to blog because I remember to go to work, cook, clean and sleep. I also feel like I haven't done anything worthwhile, gone anywhere exciting, found anything humorous or really have much to report at all.

So let's recap some things!

TV:
I was amazingly disappointed with the Grey's premiere. My favorite premieres happened to be NCIS, Big Bang Theory and Glee. Naturally, DWTS is always new and exciting...each week is like a premiere week! I thought everything else was just sort of blah. It seems to be a slow intro to this season of television viewing which means only good things are to come! I'm excited about watching everything else again this week/weekend.


LIFE:
I played Bingo with some people that live in the same apartment complex the other night as part of a "Social Night Among Residents" and won a $5 gift card to Target! It was pretty awesome.

I went to Hob Lob to look for some inspiration to hang on my living room/bedroom walls since they are empty and sad. I don't really know what I want but I know I'm tired of looking at nothing! I kind of think I want a skyline picture in black and white to hang above my tv....just need to find what's in my head. Anyway, I ended up buying a super cute Halloween sign to put outside of my apartment...and it was 50% off!


I'm excited to decorate for Halloween. I've never had my own apt to decorate. I kind of want to have a Halloween party too! Really though, I just want to carve a pumpkin.


BAKING:
I decided since it's Fall and Football Season, I needed to make Buckeyes! Let's be clear that I am not an Ohio State/Big Ten fan, but I enjoy consuming Buckeyes. I've never really made them myself, I've either had them from the lady who shared the recipe with me (who happens to be from Columbus and an OSU Grad) or my Mom has made them.

I'm a firm believer that it's all about the Nabisco Grahams and the Skippy PB (even though I eat Jif if I'm making a sandwich...weird, I know)

I was not aware of how much of a mess I would make. It may have something to do with the fact that I tend to not choose a pot/pan/plate/bowl big enough...

Yes, I did use a metal spoon with that pot. I'm sorry Gramma, you did teach me better but I didn't obey. I did not however scrape it along the sides/bottom...I used that spoon to scoop out the mixture. Yum!

I was also unaware of how long it would take to form the peanut butter balls. This is half of them. I probably would've made more but I was getting bored and well, I ended up with Buckeyes the size of golf balls towards the end!

I did not take a picture of the dipping process or the finished product but I will tell you, they were amazing! I gave away a good portion of them, ate some and still have a container in the freezer for whenever I feel like some PB&Chocolate goodness!

That's about it for now!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Thank you for all you do and all you've taught me!

Love you!

Sunshine on a cloudy day...

I've been having a rough few days/weeks.

So "rough" to the point that I cry.

Me.

The one without tear ducts (I have them, I just don't use them).

The one that never cries.

Yep.

I've been really sad.

So imagine my surprise when I came to work today and saw these on the counter for ME!

My amazing Mom knows that I've been down in the dumps so decided she would brighten my day with these GORGEOUS flowers!

The ironic thing is they made me cry. :)

I know things will get better.

I know God has a plan.

I know everyone says "If He brings you to it, He'll help you through it."

and everyone also says

"God gives you want you can handle"

Frankly, I'm handling a lot more than I'd like too. :)

Hope everyone is having a great Wednesday.

HOME is where the HEART is

Yesterday, I left work around lunchtime, headed to the airport and flew HOME!!!!

I'm home for a super quick trip, hence the flying not driving.

I left Charlotte, flew to Cleveland, Ohio since I was unable to find a direct flight (I only booked my ticket early Tuesday morning) had a 37 minute layover (which looking back was a bit crazy since I had to switch planes and gates but luckily we landed 15 minutes early so it all worked out) and was off to the Philadelphia airport.

It's only about an hour and a half from the Philly airport to my Mom's house, so really, with all of the flying and driving I still made it home quicker by air!

However, the BEST part of the trip was landing in Philly and walking to meet my Mom. We were on the phone trying to find one another since I wasn't exactly sure where she was and I was just following the massive group of people assuming they were all headed to the parking lot. I thought she was alone because based on our calls/texts throughout the day, she was alone.

But....

I was wrong! She brought T, K and their Mom, C!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As you can see in the first picture, I was VERY excited/surprised/happy!

After we rode on the "moving sidewalk" and found the car, we headed to a super fancy dinner at Applebees.

We happened to sit in a large round booth and we were talking about all of the pictures by us. T was really excited about the Superman photo to the right of my head.

After much discussing, T decided he wanted to MEET Superman. So we looked up his address because it was VERY important to know where Superman lives.

As of 9:00 this morning, T has already written his letter to Superman. We are going to put it in the mail and hope that Superman writes back! They are coming over to swim in a little bit (with little J who is only 21 months old and just a bit too little for the airport craziness) and it's off to mail that letter to Superman!

Hope everyone has a GREAT Friday!!! I know I will!!!!!

blueberries

I LOVE Blueberries. I love blueberry waffles (specifically Kellog's Nutri Grain Blueberry....which I haven't been able to find in FOREVER). Blueberry bagels. Blueberry muffins. Love it all.

So my mother sent me a recipe for "Blueberry Dump Cake"

I made it yesterday. I "ruined" it. She never told me I needed to use FRESH Blueberries. I used FROZEN Blueberries (they were much cheaper). Yea, not smart. Frozen blueberries are really juicy.

Any, it's a GREAT recipe and one I think you should try. I reminds me of that recipe that Graham Crakas posted in the Fall for that Pumpkin thing....don't remember what it's official name was!

BLUEBERRY DUMP CAKE
1 box yellow cake mix
4 cups FRESH Blueberries
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350*

Mix berries, sugar and cinnamon together
Put in a 9 X 13 inch pan
Cover berries with dry cake mix
Pour melted butter over cake mix
DO NOT STIR

Bake for 30 minutes or until light brown

Serve warm or cold. With or without vanilla ice cream

Despite "ruining" mine...it was good!

Graduation.

We woke up EARLY.

Got in the car.

Drove.

Arrived.

FROZE.

And took pictures.

Mother and Brother

Gramma and Poppy and Brother

I don't think Poppy was ready for this photo!

Brother and I
Did I mention it was WINDY too?

FAMILY

HAPPY GRADUATION!

Brother, TV and Jeep

My brother came home for 30 seconds to drop off his first load of stuff from his college living arrangement.
He happened to acquire a massive TV from the kiddos that I watched at home for a few years (yep, those same 3 adorable kiddos that I miss terribly!)
His roommate helped him put the TV into his Jeep but no one was around to help him take it OUT of his Jeep. Clearly I was unable to help because someone had to take pictures!

He pulled the Jeep up to the kitchen door.....

Grabbed some boards from the shed and made a ramp.....

Mom came home for lunch and had a hard time entering the kitchen....brother's face is priceless in the corner of this picture...

And wa-la, with my Brawny man like strength, I moved the TV into the house but let brother stand behind it like he did it! I'm such an nice sister!


Needless to say, my mother's house went from clean to "destroyed" in a matter of 12 hours between me coming home and brother unloading all of this stuff! It's ok...she loves it!

HAPPY late MOTHER'S DAY!!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

to my Gramma and my Mom!

So excited to see you lovely ladies in a few days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*this picture was taken January 2009 in the back of my grandparents car on our way to the Bowling Alley! We got the grandparentals a Wii for Christmas that year and they were a bit obsessed with Wii Bowling so we had to take them to the lanes!