It's Ours ~

From the garage~that will house not only the BIG one,

but also 'the' bike and my cute little car~ 

to the huge screened in porch just waiting

to be dressed with furniture and a hammock,

it's ours. A new chapter about to begin.

More soon.

Maybe.

We've been doing a lot of traveling lately

and don't have internet there yet {Wink font}.

Some Beauty While We're Gone~

I hope a dear friend, Kim Cole, will allow me to share with you these photos she took on a canoe trip a while back. I saved these planning to possibly get her permission to frame them at some point. Since we are on our way south this week on a business/pleasure trip, I thought I'd remind myself of some cool, green, and shady places in North Alabama.  I love these three shots. Thanks, Kim. They're beautiful. 

These next three three are from another dear friend, Lynne Griffies, and I have quite a few of hers saved for framing one day. I've already shared with you that I have one that she took of The Biltmore Mansion matted and framed and I still get comments on it! These three, taken here in Prattville, are some of my favorites that she has taken around town. But this isn't the only ones I have. You should see the ones she has taken in the various vacation spots in and around the Carolina's. Lynne's loves photography and is very good at it.

I will back in touch when we get back the middle of next week. Until then, I pray you find many moments of love and laughter to fill your days. Pray for the needy and our servicemen and truly, truly pray for the leaders of our government. Too many of them need a 'come to Jesus meeting'. Until then ~

Frame These Prints!

I was looking through the items I've saved in a file for my blog and saw these prints. I am inclined to say they most likely came from The Feathered Nest, as Dawn is such a sweetheart to find items like this that she uses in her crafts for her Etsy shop, yet shares them with her readers for free! These would look great framed in the ivory color and framed in a white distressed with the aqua as an undercolor. I can see them in our new home. What would you do with them? I'm always looking for ideas! Have a blessed week ~

Bread Pudding ~ A Weakness of Mine

the Bread Pudding at the 'Ohana

in the Polynesian Resort

heaven in the form of bread, custard,

crisp sides, and cream

I love bread pudding,

other than a place in Jackson MS

that uses white chocolate,

this, at the Ohana,

has to be the best

I've.EverEverEver.Had.

Go to DisneyWorld, try it. Fall in love.

If you don't like bread pudding,

it will make you a believer.

I have my doubts that this recipe

will make it taste exactly as I dream.

But one can hope. Here it is ~

'OHANA BREAD PUDDING

Polynesian Resort

Ingredients

5 eggs

3 cups whole milk

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 1/2 cup sugar

8 cups french or 'Ohana breakfast bread

Directions

1. In bowl mix eggs, milk , salt, sugar and nutmeg. Set aside.

2. Cut bread in medium pieces, place on cookie sheet pan put in 350 degree oven.

3. Bake bread until lightly toasted, about 15 minutes. Remove bread and place in egg and milk mixture.

4. Place mixture in a greased 10-inch cake pan and bake at 325 degree for 1 hour.

5. Let stand 5 minutes, serve hot with ice cream.

BANANA FOSTER SAUCE
4 oz sugar
4 oz brown sugar
4 oz corn syrup
4 oz unsalted butter
1cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1cup banana slices

Directions

1. Combine sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, butter and half of heavy cream in a large pan. Bring to a boil and slowly add remaining heavy cream keeping mixture at a steady boil.

2. Candy will brown slightly; cook 3 minutes until candy forms into a firm ball in cold water. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Add sliced bananas. Serve warm.

If YOU have a recipe that you think tastes more like the 'Ohana, please please, leave me the recipe!!

A Reminder

If you've been a reader for awhile, you've read this in a previous post. However, I've looked and looked and cannot find it (I was going to refer back to it, but guess not.) How often do you wash your dryer vent? WASH your dryer vent? You need to clean it each time you use it and wash it at least once a month, depending on usage. Do I do this? I clean the filter at least once every two days and yes, I wash it once a month. If water pools up on top of your filter, you need to take an old tooth brush to it. Your screen is clogged. When your filter screen is clogged, your dryer pipe will be clogged. And that, my good reader, will cause a fire. A nasty fire. If you're like me and run your dryer at night, while you're sleeping, or while you're running errands, you really don't want to return home to find a big red fire truck outside your home! 

See where the filter goes? This is another spot that accumulates lint. Once you have your filter out, look down in there and see what you can find. Chances are, you'll find dust bunnies. And they need to go.

My vent brush did not come with the dryer, but I bought it in appliance area. I bent mine to make it easier to use. Every time I take the filter out, again at least once every two days, I look in to see where I need to use this brush. Sometimes the accumulation is caught on a small shelf, other times there are dust bunnies that released when I removed the filter and they are now resting on the bottom of the filter area. Get a brush if you don't have one. Use it. Again, you don't want a dryer fire.

Yuck!!!! Our ducts are directed to the outside and we're on the second floor. I'm not sure how often our maintenance men clean the vents but I hope it's often enough NOT to have the buildup like the one on the left! Maybe with my regular cleaning, our dryer ductwork does NOT look like that. Eeewwww.

Just another idea to keep your cabinets from getting crowded if you have small children or grandbabies, as we do. It dawned on me, finally after number five was born, to put the sippy cups in a basket! This way they can choose their own cup and I don't take up precious space in my upper cabinets! Alas, we have two now that are almost 8 years of age and sippy cups are not the thing to drink from {wink font}.

Just to leave you with a recent photo of John and our youngest grandson. They are buddies through and through. I was hoping to get Miss Elle in the photo but as soon as she saw the camera she hopped down to come see what was on the viewing screen.  She hopped down too quick. I didn't have one to show her. Until I made this one, that is. But I was really hoping to get one with all three. Guess it'll have to wait. Hope you're having a great week, one filled with love and laughter and may you have a God-filled tomorrow.

Not a Post, A Movie!

Had the post and the pics all lined up in my head, and then I realized there's a movie today with our baby girl and her three precious little ones! I used to take Jenny to the summer matinees and then to hit McDonald's when she was little. By the time she was in second grade and so on, she had friends over for bike parties, so the movies slowly got lost in the dusty road we lived on. But I love the big screen and I'm looking forward to sharing movies at our local theatre with Jenny and her babies this summer. So, I'll save the photos and the post and you can read it later. For now? It's family time and I've got to get dressed! Ciao' ~

Oopsy Daisy

Not sure where I came across this, but if it's yours let me know and I'll give you due credit! Now on with today's post. There's not one. I had lunch, then dinner with two besties and by the time I got settled in to post on our first day at Disney, I decided to catch up on my blog roll. And y'all there are some really neat places just waiting to be found. Following a link at Hooked on Houses, I found Real Estalker and have spent the last hour or so reading her blogs on celebrity homes. My sweetheart will be home soon so today's post will have to wait until tomorrow. The above photo makes me feel cool and refreshed, which is something that is NOT happening outside at this moment. It was 101 degrees after 5 pm today! Humidity level is at 75%! And I hate sweating. Hate hate hate it, because as any true Southern woman will tell you, we don't sweat. We glisten. I don't like humidity. If it's going to rain, then rain. Don't tease me with droplets dripping under my bangs and down the back of my neck. Ew. So let's all think cool, Cool, CoOl, CooL, COOL!

Our Home While Away

Yesterday, I showed you the inside of our rooms at Bay Lake in DisneyWorld. Today I want to share more of the outdoors with you. I forgot my camera the two times we went to the pool areas but take my word for it, it's just as awesome as the rest of the grounds!

Coming over on the catwalk from The Contemporary ~ there was a Disney animated movie EACH night on a huge screen with chairs scattered about on the grounds (our crew stayed too busy in the parks to watch an evening movie, though) ~ you can see the water view we had of Bay Lake. There were always boats delivering passengers to various docks around the lake. 

John, on the catwalk ~ 

This is the front of our condo building and on the right you see the walkway that connected us to The Contemporary.  The Contemporary is where we walked over to catch the monorail. Magic Kingdom Express was the first stop; ours was always the last stop ~ weather was hot, hot, hot! ~ it appears that the walkway was covered; it wasn't, only the top and these few wall slabs. 

Looking across the beach area to The Contemporary ~ there were marshmallow and S'mores each night on the circular firepit you see on the beach ~ the wind was normally quite breezy here at night and we never saw very many gathered for this activity. 

Looking toward The Contemporary, seeing the walkway, and the gorgeous landscaping around the beach area and lake. This walkway wandered on around to the back of our building and took you past the pools and outdoors cafe ~

We saw this view of Cinderella's Castle and Space Mountain each time we walked over to The Contemporary. We never tired of the site and often stopped just to gaze. On the other side was a beautiful view of the lake and the boats traveling to the various docks in the parks. 

You have to check into The Contemporary (they do not give you the option of taking your own bags up), so once we got our keys we went on up to check out where we'd be living the next five nights and six days. You can tell how nice it was to get off the road, out of the car, and sit somewhere cool and comfy.

Tomorrow ~ I'll share our first day!

Rocking DisneyWorld!

We went to DisneyWorld!

With these special ones!

And let me tell you, they rocked it.

First we checked into the Bay Lake Resort @ The Contemporary, which was beside a marina and had the neatest pool areas! Rooms were spacious and we all had plenty of room to stretch out and we all slept soundly. I really think five of them slept so hard because they rocked DisneyWorld for four and a half days! 

We had the king size with an awesome bathroom. There were, what I call farm doors, on many of the openings and the two babies got a kick out of pulling them back and forth. There were also panels to pull between the bedroom and bathing area, along with a private balcony overlooking the lake and the marina. Each night at 10 we were able to view an electrical musical show of Sea Creatures. Neat! 

The second bedroom also had a private balcony. Let me put a plug in here for WDW beds. They are Sealy Posturepedic mattress and they slept great. I thought ours had a pillow top, but it didn't. We have decided our next bed will be a king size just like the one we slept on during this vacation. We all slept like babies. 

The photos are blurry but this pool was so neat. Spa, really really neat slide, no entry pool that never got deeper than 5 feet in the very middle, free life jackets for the little ones and a smaller slide for the little babes. Our two grandbabies wanted to go again and again and again. In fact, they took a swim between brunch and boarding their flight back to Mississippi. And I bet they slept all the way home.

First day ~ Magic Kingdom!

Here's three of the Green's on the

It's a Small World ride.

Everyone loves that one. 

Alaina got to be a princess,

and she got to meet all the ones she loves.

Here are two of them. 

The next morning,

her hair was still in place, and she'd changed dressed and shoes. Sneakers are much better walking around acres of parks than ballet slippers. In fact, that hair stayed in place for almost three whole days, only coming down to go into the pool.

Sometimes she walked.

Sometimes Daddy helped out.

I love the colorful backgrounds!!

and the models {grin font} 

Leslie claims The Animal Kingdom was her favorite. You can tell by 'laina's look she'd had enough of the picture taking sessions. But it's a great photo of Leslie!

Saturday night, Stacey and Brett went out to celebrate an upcoming wedding anniversary. We, along with Leslie, took the babies to the pools. Afterwards, they redressed and hit the Magic Kingdom again! Did you know the parks stay open until midnight, and sometimes longer than that?

The morning we left, there was brunch with Mickey,

and Minnie, and lots of other Disney Characters.

Just a perfect ending. What an awesome time.

PS ~ I have a few photos from my camera and when I dig out the camera, I'll post them in an update to this post. There's still stuff to unpack, you know how that goes!