Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Trip Synopsis

We're home!!! I love traveling, and I love being able to go spend time with family...but I am soooo glad to be home. Family members reading this, I love ya, but you understand. ;) Leaving my heart in Kentucky sure made Georgia and Florida just a tad (ok, a lot more than just a tad) less pleasant than they would be otherwise!

A brief overview of our trip is as follows:

We drove to GA December 14
We drove to FL December 15
While in FL, we spent Friday and Saturday with my grandmother
We ate our annual Christmas dinner with all of our extended family on Dad's side Sunday, December 18
We walked the beach Monday, as well as did other stuff
Tuesday...I'm drawing a blank. I'll remember later. Supper was Carrabbas with a lot of the family.
Wednesday, December 21, we drove back to GA
Thursday, December 22, Dave and I drove all over creation. We went to Fayetteville and played with my former fiddle teacher for a couple hours, then drove to Nicole's and spent the rest of the afternoon/evening. Mom and Dad drove to Unadilla to get a truck bed, but that fell through...after they drove the 2 hours down there.
Thursday night when I got back to my granddad's (10-ish,) Mom, Tara, and I drove to Alabama to my grandmother's.
2AM Friday morning, we ate at Waffle House. We got in bed about 3AM and were up again at 7-8AM. Went shopping until mid-afternoon, then drove back to my granddad's.
Saturday, we did Christmas with my granny around lunchtime, then with my granddad for supper.
Sunday, we slept in until an ungodly hour and did absolutely nothing all day long. Quite nice, really. We originally planned on going to a church we used to go to a long time ago, but...didn't.
Monday, the guys went to town to pick up the necessary things to keep our luggage secure and dry in the back of the truck, for the drive home. Mom and I went with my granddad to see my great-grandmother. That went much, much better than anyone thought it would and I'll talk more about that later. For the rest of Monday we did the same thing we did Sunday. :)
Tuesday, we came home. Tuesday night, I met a special man at the Mexican restaurant for supper and he drove me home and we sat around and visited for a while. I was happy, and I'm pretty sure he was too. ;)
Today, Wednesday, we're just hanging around unpacking and not really in the swing of things again yet.

Okay, there's the brief overview. You'll notice I have more detail on our GA part of the trip...just because I remember more of what we did right off. I'll go into more detail about everything once I get all the pictures uploaded and edited. I'll have more on FL then as well.

While we were in Florida, my grandpa gave me several JoAnn coupons that he'd been saving for me. He knows I really love to go shop there while I'm around the big city! I only had about an hour on the day when we could go to JoAnn's, but I did pretty well...just threw a LOT into the cart and kept shopping. I spent $180, almost all for my sewing business. The only thing I bought that was just for me was 4 yards of light denim fabric. Jacob told my what style of skirts he likes so I'm going to sew a couple of those. :) Life is good. (I may just have random happy "life is good"s thrown in whenever I feel like it...bear with me!) Anyway, everything else I bought is for my sewing business. I was able to use coupons on everything that wasn't on sale, which means I saved about $100. Wow.

I was talking with my step-grandmother when we got back to GA, and she was telling me how great her self-healing rotary mat is. Well, right now, I lay fabric out on my bed to cut it, which means my pieces usually aren't very square and I have to spend a while squaring my corners. It's just not very easy and convenient. She also had JoAnn coupons, so while Dave and I were in Fayetteville, we swung by JoAnn's and I bought a 24" by 36" cutting mat, a rotary cutter, and a ruler. I spent about $50 there, and saved around $40. I was able to use 50% and 40% coupons on everything I bought.

With the exception of around $50 ($20 for 4 pair of earrings, $5 for a necklace with an interchangeable pendent, $4 worth of postcards and a "Jacob's Parking Only" sign, and that denim fabric) everything I spent in GA and FL was business investment. I bought a lot of really nice fabric that I really look forward to working with...it's as much fun for me just to work with that as it is to buy other stuff just for me!

My business plan for the next month or so is to sew a bunch of stuff, maybe send some to a store in NC, as well as restock the store here, and I want to work more with my leather. I'm financially able now to finish up the leatherwork that I've been in the middle of for a while, so I'd like to get that done and out of the way. I'm also going to get an Adler technician out here to look at my leather sewing machine and tell me what's up with it.

Back to our trip stuff and all...FL was 70* and sunny and we had good times with family, GA was full of fun family and good times...but Kentucky's my home, and I'm happy to be back close to Jacob. Like I said, we spent yesterday evening together, and we're going over to his house New Year's Eve. I was trying to think of a time in between now and Saturday for him to come over, but that may be pushing my luck! We've come to the conclusion that we would not do very well in a long distance relationship! I guess it's all in what you get used to, and we're very used to seeing each other pretty often. We missed each other terribly and it's really good to be home.

Monday, December 19, 2011

How Weird is THIS?

Ok, so I've taken a million pictures already and I'll eventually post a lot of them, but I only have a few minutes right now. Yesterday was our Christmas dinner and we all ate way too much, just like we do every year. So afterwards, we went walking around outside the resort where the dinner is held. We walked down by the water and it was a beautiful day for a walk...around 65* or so, bright and sunny, with a little breeze.

It's pretty much common knowledge that I'm really missing Jacob. Everyone is giving me a hard time about, and it isn't even close to being over. We still have 12 days until we see each other, unless he stops by right after we get home sometime, instead of the following Saturday, which he said he might do. He misses me too. :) He still calls me very night and we text a lot, but it's not the same as visiting in person and I've gotten used to that!

Anyway, I'm saying all this so I can share a picture with you and you can understand just how weird and special it is. Walking by the water yesterday there were several couples...must be a popular place for couples to go walking. Naturally, I was feeling a little down and missing Jake. Then I looked down at the sidewalk and saw this in the concrete:


Can someone who is good with probability please tell me what the chances of that are?

It made me smile.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Life Update

I'm still here. :)

You know, just in case you were wondering.

Let's see...last week was Titus' birthday. His birthday was actually last Sunday but we had him a little party (just us...we never do much for "parties") Monday evening. We got Pizza Hut pizza and the ugliest ice cream cake any of use have ever seen. Seriously...it was definitely memorable. I'm sure, when Titus is 38 (which would make me...yikes...47?) and we all get together at a family reunion, we'll still be laughing about the hideous cake we got him when he turned 13. Good memories there.

So, anyway, Titus turned 13. He got a bunch of different stuff for his birthday, including, but not limited to, a big knife (and Philip now thinks he should automatically get one just as big,) a beginner leatherwork kit from Tandy, a big book on handguns (which Jacob also finds very interesting...note to self for future gifty occasions) lathe tools, and some ammo.

Mom had jury duty here in town Monday through Thursday of last week. She was on a murder trial and was quite stressed out about all of it. She was supposed to leave Thursday morning, with Dad and Dave, to go to North Carolina, and the judge told her Monday that they would be done with the trial in time. Well, Wednesday rolled around and they weren't going to be done, so they told her she couldn't leave then. Dad and Dave left Thursday morning, which was the last trial day, and Mom didn't get home until nearly 11pm. She had been getting home every day around 5 or 6pm, but the jury had gone into deliberation Thursday afternoon so they couldn't leave until they were done. I was still up when she got home and she and I stayed up until 1am talking about the trial stuff. It had been killing her not to able to talk about everything she'd been doing that week. Friday, we didn't do much...just hung around the house and stayed in our PJs way too long. We sorta worked on housework and laundry but not very enthusiastically. Since Mom had been gone all week, it was really just a day off to get back to normal. Saturday was pretty lazy, too...I did a little sewing both Friday and Saturday, as well as Sunday afternoon, to get some last minute orders finished up. I usually end up spending a good amount of time in the kitchen on Saturdays...helps pass the time and I always have something that I want to do ahead of time in there. Jacob was able to get here a little earlier than usual (around 3pm) and we went on a walk and then cooked pizzas together. Later that evening, after we ate, we looked at some old pictures together.

Sunday was just a regular Sunday for us...church, lunch, laying around all day, pretty much! I did make a purse that I was running behind on making. I knit a baby sweater over the past couple of weeks, one that a lady at church had ordered, and I took it to her Sunday morning. It's a really nice little sweater, but I forgot to take pictures of it. :( It's a size 18 months little girl's sweater, in aplaca yarn. Super soft and lovely, if you ask me! :) I like knitting baby stuff.

So, today is Monday (gee, I'm smart.) We're about to go into town for a little while to run some errands. We're making a run to the thrift store (dropping some stuff off and I'm going to look for something fancy to wear to our fancy Christmas dinner shindig in FL,) stopping at Walmart, and a few other errands. Then we're going to be cleaning the house (have to have a clean house before a trip, you know) and we'll be cooking for Dad and Dave to come home this evening. Last I heard, Jacob will be coming this evening as well...we'll be far apart for three....THREE dadgumit....weeks, so he's coming to see me one more time before we leave Wednesday. We've seen each other at least once a week (twice if we're lucky) for the past 3 months now. I don't think I'd like a long-distance courtship very well! We're going to have a sad goodbye tonight. :( Thank GOD for cell phones and texting!!!!

Tomorrow we'll be running around like crazy, I'm sure. There's all the cleaning and laundry that surely won't be done today, and we'd like to have everything packed so we can leave early Wednesday. Early, like before lunchtime. ;)

Alrighty...time to go to town! I'll talk to y'all when I can, and try to update from GA or FL sometime! I'll try to remember to take lots of pictures!

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Website

We're having issues with our domain name, so for the time being, our website isn't accessible through the regular address. This link will get you there until I get the problem ironed out!
https://sites.google.com/site/custerfamilyfarm/

We do apologize for the inconvenience and we'll try to get this fixed ASAP!

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Input???

Ok, so I need s a little input, y'all! I'm cooking for my guy Saturday, of course, and I'm sorta drawing a blank about what to cook. This isn't good.

Let's see...so far I've made Slop, Pizzas, Chicken Burritos, Chili, Shrimp with Angel Hair pasta...I'm sure there's a few things I'm forgetting! So, what else can I make for him? I'm thinking I'll make a skillet cookie for dessert...haven't made that for him yet. I'm shooting for impressive, of course. :)

A couple weeks ago I asked Dave what I should make and he said Chicken Tetrazzini. That's like what you throw together when there's nothing else in the house...so I'm not making that.

I asked Jacob what he wanted and he said "anything you cook is good!" Sweet, but it didn't help me narrow it down at all!

Hm...I guess I could make some different pizzas. He asked not too long ago when I was making pizzas again, so he'd like that. (Which is what I'm shooting for here, you know.) Last time I made a regular, tomato sauce, pepperoni, sausage, etc pizza and a chicken one with alfredo sauce. I could make a BBQ chicken one and maybe a bacon one or something. He said he liked a ham and pineapple one so I could try that...never done that before. It would be a nice surprise for him. :)

Or I could make Chicken Nachos...that was really good and he loves Mexican food. Which is a good thing, because so do I.

Oh, and speaking of thinking alike and everything, we finally found something we really, totally, and completely disagree on. Like, complete opposite ideas here. It's terrible. The crazy man eats salt on his cantaloupe!!! I just don't know what I'm going to do! Yes, seriously, that's all we've disagreed on so far. :)

Ok, so audience participation here: if you were having an incredibly handsome, sweet, adorable, smart, kind, amazing man over (coming just to see you and spend time with you) what would YOU make for him this Saturday?  I'm pretty sure I'll be making skillet cookie for dessert, but that doesn't have a whole lot to do with what we're having for supper.

Let's see...I guess I should probably talk a little bit about what I'm up to. I did some sewing last week and Friday I took a few things down to the local-ish store that carries my stuff. I also went to friends' house and we sat around and talked and sang a little. That was a lot of fun...something different for me...never have had friends to hang out with or anything really!

Jacob was here Saturday, of course. He's been really busy helping folks out, so he didn't get here until a little later Saturday. He was plumbing a neighbors' house for him. We went on a walk down the road and then came back and ate supper. I made another Apple Pie (Dad's request) but I wasn't entirely happy with the way it turned out. It tasted fine, but the sauce didn't really sink in like it was supposed to. I used half whole wheat flour and half regular flour in the crust and it turned out beautifully. MUCH better than all whole wheat. Mom and Dave got home from a craft fair Saturday evening and Jake got to see how silly everyone is when they're all trying to tell stories about the weekend all at once.

On Sunday, a couple of Jacob's siblings had a birthday party, so he invited me to come to his house Sunday afternoon. I drove my car to church and then went straight over to his house afterwards. (It's faster that way than coming home and then going to his house.) I got there about an hour before everyone else, so I held the baby (his youngest brother) while everyone else did stuff to get ready for other folks to come over. I feel at home with his family and they treat me like one of them. It's taking me some getting used to to make myself at home in someone else's family but it's coming along nicely. :) There weren't a whole lot of people there Sunday afternoon....just an aunt and uncle, a couple cousins, and some neighbors, and I had a great time. We sat around the table and ate a tone of food and talked for hours. A little while before I left they started playing Apples to Apples and Jacob and I were on a team together. (;) ) We're a good team. I think we picked the same card every single time! I left before the game was over so I could get back to church in time, but I had a wonderful time.

My friend Nicole decided not to come this week due to the nasty weather here. :( We'll have to try to plan something when the weather will cooperate a little better! I don't think early December's a good time for optimum weather cooperation! Now that everyone had their sights set on horseback riding, we'll definitely have to do something about it before too long.

What else....well, Mom's got jury duty in town for the next couple days, and then they're leaving for NC Thursday. They'll be back the following Monday, and we leave for GA next Wednesday. Busy busy busy! I'll be sure to take a gazillion pictures while we're gone this year so that I can post a few for y'all. It's always nice to be in Florida at the end of December! Last year we had to leave here a day early to escape a nasty winter storm, and I think it was 60* when we got to FL! Of course, I've never had to leave a certain special someone behind, so I'm sure that's going to put a damper on things for me. In the past couple months we've never had to miss a week...we've seen each other at least once a week. Not I'll be gone for two whole huge weeks.

See? No matter what I talk about now, I still bring Jacob up! :D I'm just in a mess, aren't I? A beautiful mess, nonetheless. :)

Alrighty, I'm gonna wrap this up. I need to get some more pictures of us, but it's getting dark so early and Jake's been so busy, we don't have much daylight left when he gets here. Yesterday he said he wouldn't be so busy now so maybe he could get here earlier. Maybe I can get Titus to get some pictures of us this week. I'd rather take pictures outside but I guess it doesn't really matter...we could get ones inside too. I'll have to post some pictures of him helping and keeping me company in the kitchen. It's so great!

Talk to y'all later! Oh, please do help me out about the supper thing! I need input!