What's Been Happening Lately

We voted.

I stole this picture from Mark's phone -- this was what it looked like when we were climbing down into the pyramid!!

I know -- I told y'all I was finished with our trip, but here and there I might have another nugget or two haha!

I've shown y'all pictures before of my kitchen when it is spotless. I felt the need to show this one to y'all. I was in the middle of making a homemade German Chocolate cake which is multi-step. You make three cake layers (from scratch). You make the filling between the layers. You make a buttercream and sourcream chocolate frosting. Mark was at the farm and our kitchen was a disaster. I got it all cleaned up!!

Last Friday, I had a second surgery on my ear. The dermatologist didn't get all of the cancer the first time. The first was several major incisions with LOTS of stitches. This one was a scraping process but he still had to put the anesthesia in via shots. Shots in the ear hurt.

My passport made it through this trip but as we are beginning to look at our next trip, I had to renew my passport. I shared how the young woman at the security checkpoint had talked about how I look now versus my old photo. Here is proof. I hate that you can't smile/show your teeth anymore on your passport. I have mailed it off to be renewed.

I used one of the glasses we "inherited" from Mark's mom and made a fake cosmopolitan. It was diet cranberry juice and Grey Goose vodka and it was good.

This past Saturday night, we went to Mark's sister's house. She and her husband, Bob, hosted the whole family - there were about 35 of us. There are 12 first cousins including Mark and his three siblings. Two have died and there is one that hasn't been in contact with the family in many years and there is one in poor health on the west coast and there is one in Texas. The remaining 7 and quite of few of the next two generations were in attendance. Our daughter and her family were supposed to be with us, but the girls were both sick all last week. I was sad! I did get to hang out with this cutie - she is our oldest granddaughter - 8 going on 16. Susie Sheep (that is what our kids call Mark's sister) and Bob have a really cool swing on their porch.

Here are some of our folks around the island. We had so much good food. Mark's mother and her sister-in-law always hosted the whole family on Christmas day night. Mark's mother was a teetotaler. We laughed and said this was like the family Christmas party plus alcohol!!

It was a really good night. We were celebrating two engagements -- Susie and Bob's oldest son, Paul, is engaged to Maria and George and Alice's daughter is engaged to another Paul. One wedding will be in May 2025 and one will be in June 2025.

Alice made pimento cheese and guacamole and they were both delicious. Susie smoked a brisket and some other stuff and she had chicken from a local Greek restaurant -- Maria is Greek! Just in case you aren't familiar with the carrot recipe -- that is Copper Pennies. Yum! Yum! Someone brought baked beans and I love baked beans! As with most family gatherings, there was a ton of food.

Susie and Bob bought a big house when they moved to Alabama a couple of years ago. They have several outdoor areas and this is one of the areas. The weather was perfect.

I worked on Sunday morning and taught Sunday School and then I hopped in my car and headed home because we were having the immediate family over for lunch. We started with a number of 21 but then Laura's family was sick which dropped us to 17. Then Bill and Rebecca were unable to come, so we dropped to 15 and Grace's Paul was unable to come so we had 14. I can get 12 at our dining room table. Just FYI - I love fall decorations.

Here is the German Chocolate Cake. You can't see the back . . .but a 1/4 of the top layer fell off while I was trying to put it all together. I didn't eat any but I hope it was good.

We had devilled eggs, Asian slaw, Honeybaked Ham, rolls, green beans, pumpkin casserole with marshmallows on top, and corn casserole. I think it was all good except maybe the cake was dry.

We were supposed to celebrate Lauren, Laura and Glenn's birthdays but since Laura wasn't there . . .we celebrated Glenn and Lauren's November birthdays. Glenn had a GIANT Lil Debbie Oatmeal pie with a candle and Lauren had the German Chocolate cake.

Sunday afternoon, Mark started coughing and his nose was running like crazy. We were supposed to go to our neighborhood supper club. Mark stayed home and I went - which is a big thing for me. I had made a second corn casserole to take to the supper club. The picture below was during happy hour and we were sitting outside - once again, really nice weather.

Here was our table inside. I didn't know the couple in the photo before Sunday night and they were really nice. Even though I dreaded going by myself, I had a good time!

I worked 12 hours on Monday and when I got home, Mark was pretty sick so he slept upstairs. On Tuesday when I left for work, I left a covid test on the bathroom counter . . . he tested positive. He didn't believe it until he tested three different times. He has been pretty sick this week but by Thursday he was tired of being sick, tired of being inside, tired of having to wear a mask when I was home. He headed to the farm. I am praying I don't get it because we are supposed to go see our daughter and her family this weekend. We haven't seen them since Labor Day and I don't think we've ever gone this long between visits. The baby is being dedicated on Sunday.