The Hunnie Pot: Alabama Living

Neighborhood Watch

Forget the sign on your road with the menacing silhouette and the promise that all the people in that area have their eyes on you. In our neck of the woods, we have this!

Conveniently painted on the front of an auction sign that was once on the main road.

(I have yet to see a vicious dog or neighbor)

There is nothing that puts a smile on my face quicker than beautiful Spring flowers popping their sweet little faces up this time of year. I love them so much that I even crawled around in my yard and snapped some photos of my gorgeous bulbs making their way out. I had this bright, happy post planned out in my head and it was going to express my happiness for my flowers and the following images:

Ok. I love, love, love, love, love ranunculus. I love them so much that they were on the top of my list of wedding flowers, however, we could not get them because their blooming season do not coincide with my wedding date. I was a little bummed, but it was ok. Imagine my glee when I was walking out of Home Depot two weekends ago and they had these beauties for $4.99. I was ecstatic!

After about twenty minutes of deliberation on the which pot was the perfect pot to bring home and to my mother-in-law, I finally loaded them in the car. I could hardly wait to get them home to my mother-in-law because Ben was not feeling my ranunculus excitement.

I have babied these flowers, brought them in when it was cold, loved them, taken pictures of them. Sheer bliss.

Fast forward to yesterday afternoon. I look outside and my chickens (that I have discovered I don't love so much anymore) were on the porch (that I have just bleached). I go outside to shoo them off and find them in sheer bliss as well.

Here are my beloved ranunculus. Or what is left of them. I may or may not have cried when I saw the devastation. I blame that on the hormones.

This is not the first time something like this has happened.

I had a beautiful pot of succulents. Gone.

Most of my snowflake flowers. Gone.

My pine straw in my flower beds.

Mayhem.

It's a good thing they are giving me fabulous eggs because we almost had chicken and dumplings for supper. No hormones involved with this one. Please pray for the safety of my chickens.

And the rapid recovery of my ranunculus.

Snowmageddon

That is what my local newspaper called the snow storm we had this week. I thought it was hilarious when I first read it, but after being out of school for five days, I am beginning to believe them. I have gotten close to nothing accomplished this week except researching the latest and greatest baby products. I have quite enjoyed it!

The snow was just beautiful the first day when no one had driven on it. Everything was so peaceful, pristine, and quiet. When the snow first arrived it was very powdery, but after the first day it turned into a hard layer on top that doesn't make for successful snow playing - just successful crunching!

Ben took out warm water for Remy and the chicks. The chicks do not like this cold snow and they have elected to stay in their house this week. They have been productive! More on that in the next post!

I think we had about six inches total. It was beautiful!

Remy loves playing in the snow. She was pooped out after about 5 minutes of running around like a crazy dog and sacked out in the back of the Rhino while we rode around.

We have some vewwy cold cows....

My in-law's driveway is a pretty steep hill that was conveniently covered in ice. Of course this kids wanted to go sledding and they had the best time. I personally was freezing to death - I think clicking pictures was not the warmest of activities. I had to give up when I could not press the shutter anymore!

This is the sled they went down on. It is equipped with steering wheel, brakes, and speedy sled/skis!

As you can see from the following pictures, they had the time of their lives.

This is how deep the snow was that they hit :)

Even my brave mother-in-law took a spin!

We rarely see snow in the South and we love it when it comes, but I think this Alabama girl is ready for some sunshine!

Baby It's Cold Outside

This is one my all time favorite Christmas songs and it happens to be the ongoing theme here in Alabama for the past few weeks. We had two "snow days" at school, only one of which contained actual snow, but either way I thoroughly enjoyed it because I have wrapped presents under my tree and a semi-clean house.

Our first snow of the season.

Looks kind of dreary here, but it was beautiful!

We had several nights where the temperature was in the single digits, and as always, this is Remy's favorite time of the year. Yes, my no-animals-in-the-house husband brings Remy in on these cold nights and yours truly has the honor of bathing her when this happens. Seeing how Remy loves the water hose (see here) one would think this would be a total nightmare, but I think bath time is the only time that Remy is actually calm. I have no idea why, but she actually stands still and lets me bathe her. It's really a Christmas miracle each and every year.

Then, this is what she looks like for the rest of the night. Rotten.

What sounds better on a cold, winter night than a bowl of hot soup? This is a tried and true recipe on Ben's side of the family and it is so delicious. I have eaten it many times, but this was my first time making it, and it did not disappoint. If you like hearty potato soup, this one is for you!

8 cups potatoes, diced

1/3 cup onion, diced

1 can cream of chicken soup

3 cans chicken broth

salt & pepper to taste

1 8oz cream cheese

Place your potatoes, onion, and soups in a dutch oven and cook until tender. We also added a can of corn with our potatoes and soup - I think some shrimp would be good too. When the potatoes are cooked to your desired consistency, stir in the cream cheese and you are done! How easy is that?!? Serve with bacon and cheese on the top and you are going to make someone very happy! Enjoy!

Thankful

Ben and I have a lot to be thankful for this year during the holiday season. We were blessed to be able to spend Thanksgiving with his family. There was a ton of food and family and I think it was the perfect Thanksgiving. What would Thanksgiving be without too much food, too many people in the house, and mass chaos? It would not be Thanksgiving that's for sure!

The beautiful tables that my mother-in-law did

Also, what would Thanksgiving in Alabama be without some sort of "contraption"? Have you seen the insurance commercials about unsuccessful turkey frying and turkey fryer hopefuls burning their house down? Exhibit A, Mr. Insurance Agent:

Why yes, that is the turkey fryer filled with boiling peanut oil and a 20 pound turkey shielded from the raging wind with a plywood board held in place by a gas can, propped with a yard tool, propped with an antique wash basin. I have no idea how the explosion happened!

Lucky for us, we won't be making the insurance commercial next year because the turkey frying was successful. This was my first experience with fried turkey, and I have to say it was pretty good!

This is for Ben's grandmother and her love for Splender!

The kids had their own personal table!

Who's the most excited about eating?!?

I tried to get a picture of all the grand kids - easier said than done. Most of the pictures turned out like this:

However, we did get a few cute ones. Everyone may not be beaming, but they are all looking at the camera!!

Next up, Christmas!

Christmas Extravaganza

Every year, the shops close to where we live host an open house and is it is an all out Christmas Extravaganza. There is Christmas music, food, and decorations set up beautifully for you to drool over and take to your house. I think this is one of my favorite times of year around here. You see everyone you know when you are store hopping and everyone is so ready for Christmas to be here.

One of my favorite places to go is the Tiger Lily owned and operated by the very fabulous Slade (who was a helped with my absolutely gorgeous wedding flowers!) He is a food/floral/Christmas tree genius and his store did not disappoint. He store was brimming with extravagant trees and if I could, I would have taken them all home.

I may or may not have made more than one trip to this yummy food table while I was in the store!

Here is the genius behind it all! Give Slade a call if you see anything you can't live without!

On a far less serious note, there is another store in town that has some far out trees. I really don't know if people are buying these things, but I thought some of them were kind of funny.