Thankful Thoughts

I am thankful for my wonderful family and all of the support that they give me. I am thankful that my mom never says "I told you so," even when she really did tell me so. I am thankful for my stepdad for completing his endless honey-do list that makes my mom happy. I am thankful that I got to experience my parents wonderful gift of music through the Concert of Hope this year. I'm thankful for our family vacation at Edisto!

I am thankful for my mom and grandmother for the love of southern food and cooking that they have passed on to me. I am thankful that they answer my questions when I call them numerous times when I'm trying one of their recipes. I am thankful for the success of my first ever cake client last week (German Chocolate cake AND a Pound cake!)


I am thankful for the way my sister always understands me and always makes me laugh. I am thankful that she can tell by the tone of my voice if something is wrong. I am thankful for her husband who makes her happy. I am thankful that he hooked my new ipod up to my car tonight and saved me from buying yet another accessory!

I am thankful for my dad, who worries about me way more than he should. I am thankful that he checks up on me and reminds me to check the oil in my car. I am thankful for his gentle and kind spirit and the incredibly high example he set for any guy that may come into my life. I am thankful for my stepmother who is always so very thoughtful and truly embraces the spirit of each and every holiday. I am thankful for cousins, grandparents, and step siblings!

I am thankful for my best friend, Elizabeth, who I have known since I was 10. I am thankful that we still talk every week and for the honesty that we share with each other.


I am thankful for my college friends and the memories that we share.



I am thankful for Shira and that she is pursuing a dream by spending next year in South Africa.


I am thankful for my roomates that we can share the good days and the bad and usually solve everything by watching old episodes of Sex in the City.

I am thankful for these two that remind me how to be a kid.


I am thankful for my job and the opportunity to participate in health reform on behalf of children. I am thankful that I got to experience President Obama's Inauguration! I am thankful that I got to hear First Lady Michelle Obama speak at an event this fall!

I am thankful for all the comforts of home- the friendly faces, the slower pace, the southern hospitality, the homemade meals, and endless amounts of sweet tea. I am thankful for the Braves and that Clemson won the ACC Atlantic Division championship!

I am thankful for my faith and the foundation and appreciation of Church that my family always provided. I am thankful for the wisdom to let go when I needed to let go. And I am thankful for the peace that followed.

I am thankful for quiet reflections and memories that the holiday season brings.

I am thankful for this blog and each person that reads it! What are you thankful for?

I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

Favorite Sides for Thanksgiving

I made two of my favorite Thanksgiving side dishes for our Practice Thanksgiving dinner last weekend. So I thought I would share the love and post the recipe for anyone that may be interested. These aren't secret family recipes, I'm sure they probably came out of Southern Living over the years.

For as long as I can remember, this Sweet Potato Casserole has been a staple on my family's Thanksgiving menu. I saw the exact recipe on Southern Gent's blog so it's definitely no secret! It's creamy, it's crunchy, and it's sweet. It's DELICIOUS. It's by far my favorite Thanksgiving dish.

Sweet Potato Casserole:

3 cups sweet potatoes (mashed)

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

2 eggs

1/3 stick butter or margarine

1/2 cup milk

Mix all ingredients together and put in a casserole dish.

Topping:

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup flour

1/3 stick butter or margarine

1 cup chopped nuts (pecans)

Mix these ingredients together and put on top. Bake at 325 for 35 minutes.

This Cranberry Relish side is relatively new to my family's menu. My mom started making it a few years ago, and now she can't make enough. It's great on Thanksgiving Day, but even better spread on a sandwich made with mayo and leftover turkey.

Fresh Cranberry Relish:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup orange marmalade
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 12 oz. package fresh cranberries, finely chopped
2 cups fresh raspberries or 1 package of frozen, drained (I use the frozen ones)
2 medium tart apples, diced (not too fine - I use granny smith apples)


Combine sugar, marmalade and lemon juice. Add cranberries and apples. Fold in raspberries very gently and chill overnight.







YUM!!! Can't wait for my second helping of these two on Thursday!

Acorn Centerpieces

For our Practice Thanksgiving celebration, my roomate and I tried to come up with cute but inexpensive centerpieces. We searched the shelves at TJ Maxx and found matching glass hurricanes for around $7 each. And simple brown pillar candles for $5 each. We also picked up a bundle of wheat to sit between the candles.

We already talked about finding acorns around our house and using them as decoration. Our hunt for acorns deserves a whole other post, but we found the mother load at park down the street. I don't even want to know what people driving by were thinking as two grown women scurried around on the ground picking up acorns. (It reminded me of this acorn post I read on a new favorite blog- Southern in the City.)

It turned out so natural and pretty!

We had a lot of acorns left over, so we put them in a few other places to complete our acorn decoration theme.

Little votive holders on the mantle...

Slightly larger glasses on the coffee table....

And an even larger one on our makeshift bar...

It was definitely all worth pretending to be a squirrel for a little while!

Practice Thanksgiving

A few years ago, two of our friends coined the term "Practice Thanksgiving." It's their favorite holiday so they hosted the first Practice Thanksgiving party in 2004. We missed a year or two, but we held our 4th Practice Thanksgiving celebration at our house on Saturday night. Here we are sporting our aprons as we finish our dishes....

I love dinner parties and wish I had the funds and space to do it more often. Something feels so grown up about it. We go to great lengths to make this slightly classier than our usual get-togethers, as we try to make our itty bitty dinning room table made for 4 people into one that seats 13 comfortably. So what is our creative dinning room table solution? The beer pong table! Don't knock it till you try it. We put it over our regular table and wah-lah...table for 13!!




But with good friends....

and good food....

it doesn't really matter what kind of table you're eating on.

With our stomachs completely full, we had a great time catching up and playing our annual game of Taboo...

Girls won for a change- thanks to ending the game a little early for pie and to watch an exciting end to the UK/UGA football game.

This is always a fun way to kick off the holiday season!

Front Porch Friday

I've wanted to bring Front Porch Friday back for a while. If you're new to these parts, you can read the story behind the title Front Porch Friday in this post from last year.

A couple of weekends ago, I planned a bachelorette party for my college roomie, Jennifer. We met in our college town and enjoyed lunching at Mellow Mushroom, relaxing with manicures and pedicures, celebrating with gifts and games, and dining at Blue. Then, with very little sleep, we headed to brunch at Motor Supply Co the next day.

We had a blast reminiscing and celebrating. I can't wait for the wedding festivities next weekend!

The Grand Finale

From mammograms and health policy to Project Runway- you just never know what you'll get on this blog!

Have you been watching this season of Project Runway? I told you when the season started, one of the designers, Carol Hannah, went to my high school and is from my hometown. From the beginning, she was obviously my favorite!

I could tell you about how I thought this season fell a little flat (due to inconsistent judging and less exciting challenges than in the past), but I don't want to diminish the talent and skills it takes for the designers to create what they did with the resources and time limits that they had.

I think the right people ended up in the finale and couldn't be happier that one of them is Carol Hannah.



The finale airs tonight on Lifetime and win or loose, Carol Hannah has made some adorable dresses and represented SC well. She has a cute blog. And you can see her collections here or on her Etsy shop website.

Good Luck, Carol Hannah!

I Beg to Differ

I am not a doctor. I am not a health expert. I have not done extensive clinical research.

I AM the daughter of a breast cancer survivor who was diagnosed through a routine mammogram at age 42. She shared her story with us last year.

1 in 8 women are diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime. Our country is in the midst of a historic health reform debate in which we are attempting to protect and improve access to primary and preventive services, such as regular breast cancer screenings. It's sad that there are still barriers preventing some women from getting screened. And should any of these women find themselves in my mom's shoes, barriers are also there preventing them from getting the treatments that they need. Mammography is still the best way to catch cancer in it's earliest stages, improving the chances of successful treatment and survival.

So you will understand my disgust with recent headlines such as the one found on US News and World Report yesterday entitled, "Routine Mammograms Before 50: Not Much Point." Ummmmm, not much point? I beg to differ...it's called saving people's lives.

This issue has been all over the news the last few days. But in case you haven't seen the coverage, the U.S. Preventive Service Task Force, an independent medical panel, has released new recommendations that women under the age of 50 should not be routinely screened for breast cancer. This sends a wrong message at a very wrong time.

Breastcancer.org has a good explanation and breakdown of the panel's recommendations here.

These recommendations don't apply to me since I will start getting screened when I'm 32 because of my family history. But my mom had no family history. If she had to wait until age 50 to get her first mammogram, chances are she wouldn't be here today. I am just thankful that my family history was caught early through a routine annual mammogram that was given to a certain woman starting at age 40.

PS- When choosing a title for this post, I wanted something stronger. But when I googled "I Beg to Differ," the first result from Urban Dictionary explains what I really meant:

I Beg to Differ= A nerdy way of saying "what you said was bullshit"

Blue Eyed Freckle Headbands

I've been looking for cute, affordable headbands forever. How adorable are these from Blueeyed Freckle? She's hosting a giveaway today, so go check out her blog or Etsy shop.

This is a great holiday gift idea! (hint, hint) Only 41 days till Christmas!

Anchors Aweigh

Veteran's Day celebrations are going on today all around the country. What a great day to stop and honor all of those that have served our country with such dignity and respect! We can never, ever thank them enough for the sacrifices they made to protect our country's values and freedom.

There are thousands of stories of men and women that have served. My grandfather is among them. He is a proud Navy veteran who served in the mid-1950's. After boot camp in San Diego, CA, he served aboard the USS Gilbert Islands, USS Bennington, USS Lake Champlain, and the Navy's first super aircraft carrier, the USS Forrestal.

In this picture, he is looking quite dapper in uniform.





We've heard stories of him being stationed in Norfolk, VA, just waiting for the weekends that he could leave to visit a special lady that he was "courting." He racked up a ton of speeding tickets in this very car as he tried to make it back to Westminster, SC on the weekends to visit my grandmother! I guess all the speeding was worth it, because they've been married for almost 55 years!

One day, while he was aboard the USS Bennington, something went wrong and there was a fatal explosion. 103 men died and 201 were injured. My grandfather woke up laying on deck, among the dead with a white sheet over him. Can you imagine? Thankfully, he was okay.

Be sure to thank the Veteran's in your life today! And in the final words of the Navy Service Song, we're wishing everyone currently serving in the military a "happy voyage home!"

40 Years of Sweepin' the Clouds Away

From the age of 2-6, on pretty much every Monday-Friday at 4:00, you could find me sitting in my little white wooden rocking chair in front of the TV. (Some of that time, my imaginary friend, Lirk watched with me. But that's a story for another day. Seriously though, who has an imaginary friend named Lirk????!!!! My parents probably should have put me in therapy right then.)

We didn't have cable, but I didn't need cable to get my beloved shows. PBS was all I needed for my daily dose of Sesame Street and Mister Rodgers. I learned about letters and numbers and manners and feelings. Although, I'm convinced that I didn't particularly like numbers/math because Count scared me a little. All that thunder and lightening and evil laughing made me think numbers must be bad. I think my college roommate could vouch for this. She was a math major and if it weren't for her, I probably wouldn't have passed any math-related requirements in college. Back to Sesame Street...I did get the number 12 down though thanks to that catchy pinball song.

But that's neither here nor there. besides Count, the Sesame Street crew taught me a lot. There aren't a lot of TV shows or characters that can transcend 40 years of time and still be popular. But Sesame Street has. Through Burt and Ernie, I learned about friendship and sharing. And Big Bird, oh what is there to say about that big friendly bird...he's the best.



Here's to 40 more fabulous years, Sesame Street!

Concert of Hope and Remembrance

I was excited to be able to go home this year for a special occasion near and dear to my family's heart. Eight years ago, my mom's friends, Jean and Kurt, came across a program of music called Sing for the Cure. Sing for the Cure is a series of music and narrations that express the many emotions that a cancer diagnosis brings. After sharing it with my mom and stepdad, they were all inspired to make something happen. They collaborated with a local non-profit to put the first concert together. A community choir was formed.

The concert now benefits cancer patients in my hometown through the work of the Cancer Association of Anderson.

I attended the first concert and loved seeing the finished product. Needless to say, it was a huge success and has grown over the last eight years. This year, there were 130 adult choir members and 29 children's choir members. SCETV even did a piece helping to promote it this year. You can view the short video here. The concert was absolutely beautiful. The venue was packed. And the spirit of hope and remembrance was eloquently executed and truly inspiring.

The glimmer of votive candles danced in the window sills in honor of so many loved ones that lost their battles- a simple and beautiful scene symbolic of the light that they brought to other people's lives.

My heart is proud to be the daughter of such talented and visionary people. My heart is thankful for the people in my life that have overcome some very tough times. And my heart is a little bit heavy as it goes out to some special people that are fighting cancer this very second.

Cancer has hit some people close to me. My grandmother is a 49 year survivor of cancer. My mother is a 9 year survivor. And these two special ladies, who might as well be considered my honorary aunts, Jean is a 9 year survivor and Debbie is a 5 year survivor.

While I have not been able to participate in any of the concerts, I have always been there in spirit. This year, I was able to experience and applaud for each beautiful song. The lengthy standing ovation proves how wonderful the concert was.

New York, I Don't Love You

My friend and I decided to see a movie over the weekend. To set the record straight from the very beginning- I suggested Where the Wild Things Are. But noooooo, she didn't want to see it. (A decision she came to regret.) So she gave me 3 options: 1) New York, I Love You 2) Couples Retreat and 3) Coco Before Chanel.

I skimmed over the summaries and decided that out of the three, New York, I Love You looked interesting. It has a huge and well-known cast It was supposed to be a bunch of short stories about love. I now remember why I disliked the short story section of all of my English classes.

Let's just say, some clever marketing people promoted this flop. How they made this movie look appealing, I'll never know. The trailer was the best thing about the movie. That, and the very short storyline with Cloris Leachman and her husband as an older couple celebrating their 60-something year anniversary. It was a sweet moment. But that was it, only a moment.

The movie was terrible. My dad always told me that "hate is a strong word," and he always made me think twice about using it. Sorry, dad, but I HATED this movie. It was a complete mess. When the movie was finally over, all we could do was bust out laughing.

I was paranoid about posting such a strong opinion of the movie. Did I miss something? So I searched around and read other and most people had the same reaction as me.

I never thought I would need a description for a 0 on the Sweet Tea Scale. But I do now. I had to go home and watch Breakfast at Tiffany's, just to help me not hate New York because of this movie. It was a very bad, American version of Love, Actually. If this movie is really a depiction of love in New York, I feel very, very sorry for the place.

Reading Mojo

It's either all or nothing with me. I'm either blogging a few times a day, or not at all. I try to space it out, and I know that I can schedule postings for certain days. But if I let a post sit there for a few days, I tweak and edit it so much until it turns into something else and I don't even post it. I know, I have issues.

But I need to step up the blogging. My grandparents went out and bought a computer and Internet after reading this post, so I need to make sure they get their money's worth!

Somewhere between last year's break-up books and this year's endless task of reading health reform legislation, I haven't had a lot of motivation to read for fun. I buy the books, and have the best of intentions of reading them. I sometimes even start them. But haven't finished one in longer than I care to admit.

Enter my new book, Half the Sky, by Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. I'll go ahead admit that my purchasing of this book contributed to the infamous Oprah Effect, since I originally saw it on this episode of her show.

It's a book about how women around the world deal with some serious oppression. So far, I've learned not to read the forced-into-prostitute-sections of the book before bedtime. That combined with my over active imagination, makes for some interesting dreams.

In all seriousness, the book so far is an inspiring look into the lives of some amazing women and is helping me get my reading groove back. Have you read any good books lately?

Creepy Cake

Hello, November! Can you believe it? October is seriously a blur. Sorry that blogging was so light lately. One week was taken up by a conference for work. Loosing a weekend can really set you back! And then I took a long weekend and went home for the Concert of Hope and Remembrance. More on that in a separate post.

I thought I'd share the Halloween cake that I made for a little get-together we had at our house. I'll go ahead and admit that the cake isn't from scratch. In fact, I asked my grandmother for a devil's food cake recipe, and she said go to the store and buy a box mix. Since the icing was from scratch and it takes time to decorate the cake, I decided to go with the shortcut.

I used a marshmallow frosting. Not bad for a cake decorating school drop out!

Hope everyone had lots of treats for Halloween!

For the record, I completed 2 of the 3 cake decorating classes that I enrolled in. I couldn't finish the third because of a work conflict, but will attempt it again in the new year.