We Had Fun But We’re Glad It’s Done.

Finally--Sarah’s room is done!

This is the way her room looked when we first saw it a little over a year ago. (That’s our Realtor looking things over with Steve.)

We went through several permutations of furniture arrangement during the Old Paint Scheme Phase.

This picture was taken when Steve was in the process of painting our old brown cabinet white and we were moving stuff all around.

Snowy surveys his domain. Er, actually, his sister’s domain.

At long last, the renovation project began, headed up by this positively personable parson person . . .

. . . who was assisted in his work by the positively personable parson person’s personable personal progeny.

Immense messes were created along the way.

But messy or not, it was all worth it. Presenting the new and improved bedroom of our favorite daughter!

Amazing what a little paint, a bit of elbow grease and a touch of creativity can accomplish!

We had fun--but we’re glad it’s done!

Decorating Notes

For those of you who like to know the inside scoop of a decorating project, here are a few more details.

In choosing an overall paint color, we had two guidelines: 1) the color had to go with the blue/green carpet, which we couldn’t afford to replace. 2) it would have to be chosen according to whatever bedspread Sarah decided on.

Sarah had a tough time picking a bedspread; she didn’t want one that was too overtly girl-y and she also didn’t want one that looked like what a lot of other people already had. So . . . I went online to look at unique bedspreads and found that most of them started at about $300. That wasn’t going to happen!

I was poking around the clearance section of a discount department store one day and fell in love with this bedspread.

It was of very high quality and (oh happy day!) it was marked down 70%. There was only one bedspread and two matching pillow shams left and so I grabbed up all three items as fast as I could and sprinted (well, walked quickly) to the check out counter, rejoicing all the way.

After a long discussion among the three of us, we picked a blue color from the bedspread for the side walls and then decided to repeat the “square motif” from the bedspread on the one long wall.

Kudos to Steve for applying highly advanced mathematical calculations to design the wall. He estimates it took him about fifteen hours to get it all laid out and painted.

From stem to stern, the room is full of bargains. I got the daybed on Craigslist for $50, and found the pink cover online for 60% off. And I was absolutely thrilled to walk into a discount store one day and find these pillows (for next to nothing) that exactly matched the three main colors of the room.

I did a little happy dance right there in the pillow aisle.

I got all the wicker furniture in the room at a thrift store about 8 years ago and bought the headboard for Sarah’s bed on Craigslist.

The only thing better than creating a lovely room for ones daughter is knowing that the room is made up of a whole bunch of bargains! Because as we all know, bargains are beautiful!

____________________

From the Comments Area:

Lesley asked if Sarah was the only girl of the younger generation.

Sarah actually has several girl cousins, but they range in age from 18 to mid-twenties. So she is the only young-ish girl cousin on either side of the family.

Finally. The Final and Finale’ Thanksgiving Post.

Why is this man holding this stick?

Well, here’s Steve’s Stick Scoop.

When the Thanksgiving Crew went out for a bike ride last week, that particular stick became inexplicably caught between Steve’s front tire and fender causing his bike to come to an instant and complete stop. The back of the bike came up about four feet off the ground and came very close to flipping him over the handle bars.

For those of us riding behind him, it was quite a dramatic (not to mention, scary) moment.  We’re so thankful he wasn’t seriously hurt!

Thankfully, that was all the scary drama we had to cope with; the rest of the bike ride was peacefully pedaled under this beautiful Carolina sky.

Of course, being the wonderful hosts that Steve and I are, we wanted to be sure that our guests felt needed and important in the overall grand and global scheme of things. And so we forced invited them to go with us on a long overdue recycling trip.  (Yes, I know.  You don’t have to say it.  We are such thoughtful hosts.)

When we (and our intrepid guests) were not biking or recycling, there was always plenty of computer-esque stuff going on. I especially love the picture of Sarah showing her grandpa how her Nintendo DS worked.

In their spare time, Debbie and Randy took Caleb and Sarah on a balmy, sunny walk on the North Carolina beach.  Can’t you just feel the blissful balminess emitting from this picture?

Of course, a Thanksgiving get together is not complete without a Meal To End All Meals.

The fresh floral arrangement was made for us by a wonderful church member.

Another equally wonderful church member made us The Cake which we talked Vernie (Steve’s mom) into cutting, since she is the Smith Matriarch and we were all sort of intimated by the whole cutting challenge. (And yes, I think that was a run on sentence.)

Vernie rose to the occasion, as she always does.  This 15-layer cake is highly coveted and sought after by all; in fact, whenever anyone brings this home baked, rare delicacy to a church potluck dinner, there is inevitably a stampede toward the dessert table. And all the good church folks try to politely elbow all the other good church folks out of the way so that they can grab a piece before it all disappears.  (Don’t ask me how I know.)

Thankfully we didn’t eat all of the cake at Thanksgiving and (also) thankfully, it freezes well.  I have put a few pieces in the freezer and am using it as a bribe to get Nathan back home for Christmas.   He adores this cake.

Of course (in our house, at least), a Thanksgiving meal requires the folding of Thanksgiving napkins.  My sister, Debbie, did the folding while Vernie kept her cake-cutting hands in good condition  by doing some knitting.

So blessed to have these wonderful ladies in my life!

And . . . to give the men equal time, here’s Steve with his dad and two younger brothers. The Smith Men at their finest.

 

And speaking of men at their finest, my brother-in-law, Randy, volunteered to both cook and carve the turkey.  Can a brother-in-law possibly be any more wonderful than that? (He also mashed the potatoes.)

In addition to turkey, mashed potatoes, and chocolate cake, there were a whole bunch of other yummy things on the menu.  Including dinner rolls.

Which, in case you’re wondering, are the mysterious items hiding under this towel in the dryer.

And why (you might be asking) are there dinner rolls in the dryer?

Well, here’s the deal.

I needed the rolls to rise in a warm place; I usually use the oven, set to it’s coolest temperature and then turned off.   Since the oven was otherwise occupied, I ran the dryer for about five minutes, then put the pan of rolls inside.

Worked like a charm.   Dyer-made rolls.  It’s what’s for dinner.

And our last picture of our Thanksgiving Feast-n-Fiesta?

It’s this guy.  Constantly on the lookout.  Constantly on the alert.  Glued to the feet of all the cooks in the most tenacious permutation of canine-ical glue-i-ness. 

And did anything (accidentally) fall to the floor?  What do you think?

                              

FROM THE COMMENTS SECTION:

Thanks to all your kind comments about our Kitchen Harmony song.

To Buff,

The parts were arranged as follows:  Randy, bass;  Steve, lead;  Debbie, low alto;  me, high alto.

To Jan,

We did make quite a few CD’s of the four of us but they’re mostly gone by now.  (It’s been about fifteen years since we traveled together.)

Why I Love (And Also Like) The College Dude.

I love Nathan because after Thanksgiving dinner was over, he just about tackled me in order to keep me in my chair and stop me from doing the dishes.

However, after I insisted just slightly, he did finally permit me to help out a little at the very end of the Dish Doing Process.

I love him because when he was showing me something on his computer, I noticed that “Mom” (meaning my Smithellaneous site) was right in the middle of his frequently visited sites. I felt so important, sharing space with Wachovia and ESPN!

I love him because he looks right at home, sitting at the dining room table in his old t-shirt and pondering his computer-esque ponderations.

I love him because he continually gives my sister a hard time and gets away with it; in fact, this particular smile on his face is vintage Nathan. He is the world’s biggest tease and he especially loves teasing his Aunt Debbie. Fortunately, she gives as good as she gets so they’re a pretty well matched pair. Or set. Or whatever.

I love him because he’s willing to enter into all the family fun and games in the backyard with Ye Olde (Wonderful) Relatives, instead of holing up in his room with Facebook.

I love him because he’s such a goof off.

I love him because he assists on Family Recycling Trips.

I love him because he’s always ready for any ol’ great adventure, including climbing Jockey’s Ridge with his dad, cousin and uncle. (Who was taking the picture.)

I love him because you never know . . .

. . . when he’s going to come bursting into the picture with a great burst of bursting-ness.

But mostly I love him because in my heart--he will always look like this.

Kitchen Harmony

This morning before church, my sister and her husband, along with Steve and I, posed in front of all the many recordings we've done together through the years. It was fun to reminisce about all of our experiences back in the day.

Last night, we did even more than plain reminiscing; we actually did a little singing! After a wonderful pancake dinner that Debbie (and my nephew, Caleb) made, we decided to launch into a little bit of sibling-ish/husband-ish singing.

Although this song is by no means note perfect (ever tried to sing after a really long day and a really big pancake dinner?) it was still fun to create some kitchen harmony. We also performed the song this morning in church, along with a couple other ones.

Now we're all getting ready to settle in with popcorn and watch one of our favorite movies, The Princess Bride.

Sweet times.

A Few Pictures. More Family Visit/Thanksgiving/College Dude/Fun Stuff To Come.

Still Here.

Yes, I'm still here! Yes, I still blog! Yes, I have not forgotten Smithellaneous!

Um. I mean, no, I have not forgotten Smithellaneous. (I think all that turkey has gone to my brain.)

I took Nathan to the airport yesterday morning and he is now safely back in Florida. Sniff. And sob. (The sniffing and sobbing is due to the fact that he is gone, not due to the fact that he arrived safely in Florida. Just so you know.)

The best part of our 2-hour drive to the airport is that he and I got to have uninterrupted mom/son Talk Time. Love it.

However, I did not love hugging him in the airport drop off lane and watching his curly head disappear into the building. But I did love the knowledge that he will be back home in a couple weeks for Christmas. And more turkey!

I've taken 1.8453 bazillion pictures in the past week and my challenge now is to edit them down to just 1.2143 bazillion pictures and post them here. Along with their accompanying stories. And stuff.

It's been grand having my sister, Debbie, and her family in town. You don't know realize (when you live as far away from family as we do), just how much you miss being with people who knew you way back when. People who know everything about you and still think you're pretty okay. I'm so thankful to have family members who are also my dearest friends.

Debbie, Randy and Steve and I are going to sing together in church tomorrow which should be lots of fun. We sang full time on the road together for 7 years (even longer with Debbie, since she traveled with us before she was married) so we've got a few musical miles under our belts. (Not to mention turkey. Under our belts.)

So . . . I'm looking forward to that musical moment in the morning! (How's that for a bunch of m's?)

I will do my very utmost to have a few pictures (and stories) posted by the end of the day. Thanks for continuing to stop by and check in on the Smiths of Smithellaneous.

Happy Saturday after Thanksgiving to you!

Second Post Today! Warming Rolls Answer!

I completely forgot that I had said I would report on pre-making dinner rolls and then warming them in the crock pot in order to free up the oven for Thanksgiving. (Thanks for the reminder, Sam.)

After trying out this tip a few days ago, I decided I would give it about a B or a B-.

I wasn't quite sure of a couple things: whether I should set the crock pot on low or warm, and whether or not I should cover the crock pot.

I left the rolls in for about an hour for about an hour and turned them a couple times so the bottom wouldn't get overly browned. They got nice and warm but Steve thought the bottoms were a bit too crispy and I thought the texture wasn't quite as good as I would have liked.

Still, if you really need to rolls warm and the oven is tied up, this is an idea that works. It just doesn't work perfectly.

If anyone else tries it, let me know how it goes!

(PS. From what I understand, this tip is for heating rolls that are already thawed, not for thawing frozen rolls.)

Becky Smith’s Version of The Miranda Rights. The Great Pitcher Question. A Helpful Black Friday Link.

This particular fact is not widely known, but people who stay overnight in our home (relatives or not) are immediately escorted to a secret, padded, thick-walled, isolated interrogation room and read my own personal version of the Mirdanda rights.

The reading goes like this:

“Anything you say (or do) can and will be used against you in a court of law in a Smithellaneous blog post. Do you understand these rights as they have been read to you?”

If the person does not agree to the full intent, meaning and purpose of the reading of this particular law, they are asked (very nicely) to leave.

I mean, no hard feelings or anything, but I am a blogger, for cryin’ out loud. I blog! And if I don’t have any material, what am I supposed to blog about?

I’m just sayin’ . . .

With that in mind, my poor little relatives gracefully (not to mention graciously) have been putting up with my ever present camera and brimming-with-blog-ideas brain. The running joke for the day after any given incident or conversation was, “Be careful! That’s going to show up on the blog!”

Case(s) in point:

My delightful nephew, Caleb, volunteered to make scrambled eggs for breakfast. His actions were duly noted, photographed, and posted. (Yes, my version of the Miranda rights also applies to breakfast.)

Sarah came and sat with Caleb and I for a few minutes before she left for school. She and Caleb get along famously since they both love words, puns, quotations, reading, music, and computers.

A slight crisis presented itself at breakfast when I discovered that these (rarely used) glasses were irrevocably stuck together. (Note to self: Do not try to stack square glasses.) Steve saved the day when he came down and told me to spray Pam cooking spray into each corner. Voila! Instant Stacked Square Glass Separation occurred!

The men of the house breakfasted together, sipping coffee and discussing great, deep, and thoughtful manly man topics. (Um. The fourth man—Nathan—was still snoozing. College Dudes would rather snooze than discuss deep things, when given a choice.)

Suddenly Caleb told Steve, “Aunt Becky’s behind you taking a picture!” (Refer to Miranda Rights.)

Steve has never been one to shy away from a picture. Which is a good trait to exhibit when married to someone like me!

Later on (when the College Dude had at last bestirred himself) the Four Guys went to the Wright Brothers Memorial.

Caleb and Randy are airplane aficionados, so it was an especially meaningful outing for them.

They also climbed Jockey’s Ridge, which ranges from between 80 and 100 feet tall.

The two younger fellas said, “Let’s race to the top!” The two older fellas said (and I quote), “Ug.” (I just love quoting older fellas.)

So all in all, it was a fun day! I got pictures, I got blog stories—what could possibly be better?

Before I close, let me address the burning question that 5 out of the 19 commenter's on yesterday’s post referred to: The Pitcher.

As in this Pitcher Picture. (And no, I don’t think it’s possible to say that three times fast.)

The quite simple purpose of the pitcher is that the well water in our house is not the most tasty for drinking. Steve installed a reverse osmosis system in the kitchen for most of our drinking water needs and so I filled the pitcher (happily purchased for $4 at an outlet store) with freshly reversed osmosified water so that Randy and Debbie wouldn’t have to run up and/or down the stairs when ever they wanted water. (Both of them drink quite a bit of water.)

So that’s the answer! Wish I had some more dramatic story to tell in regard to the pitcher, but that’s as good as I can do!

And in another comment, Nancy asked,

How do you keep the end of your kitchen counter free from the clutter stuff? :) It seems that things just appear out of no where on the end of my counter even when I just cleaned it off!

Nancy, I don’t think I have a real great answer for that question because I’ve never really thought about it! I guess I’d have to say that when I cook dinner, I try to clean as I go along. I have also (occasionally) given The Lecture to my family members and asked them to please put miscellaneous stuff on the smaller counter beside the fridge, since it isn’t as readily visible when one walks through the front door.

So I don’t have any really good tips—I’m just thankful (here on Thanksgiving Week) that the counter does indeed stay clear about 71% of the time!

And speaking of Thanksgiving Week, here is a bonus link for you, provided by Wyatt, our wonderful computer guru friend.

It shows Black Friday ads, all in one place.

Enjoy!