Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String

Last Thursday on my Mother's Day Out day I ditched the typical errands for a little retail therapy.  And here's what I bought and delivered to our giveaway winners:

All things local. SAWS sauce, Penzey's Florida Seasoned Pepper, O'Henry's coffee samplers, McEwen & Sons Grits (seriously the best grits ever - you can buy them at The Piggly Wiggly or the Pepper Place Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings), this fabulous teething toy for Brad and Barbie's precious new addition, and a sweet little china bowl from here.

Maybe I will make this giveaway a biannual thing as a way of saying thank you for reading our blog.  And as an excuse to do two of my favorite things:  creating care packages and buying presents for other people.  Seriously love it.

And the Winner Is...

#4

Brad and Barbie

I will be getting my exercise delivering this little care package down the street!  Sophia had fun choosing the number and even identified it without any help.  This might be an inexpensive, educational diversion for her in the near future!

As many of you guessed, the singer of the quoted lyrics is the late, great Johnny Cash in "Boy Named Sue."  Tony's favorite singer of all time.  In case you are unfamiliar with this song (as I was before I met Tony) here is the video of Cash's live performance at San Quentin Prison in 1969:

As long as we are on the subject of music I would like to share with you a few children's cds we recently checked out from the library.  My personal favorite is the Lisa Loeb, Elizabeth Mitchell c.d.  titled "Catch the Moon" with Tracks #2 and #8 being my favorite.  Based on frequent requests, Sophia's favorite appears to be The "Johnny Cash Children's Album" (we repeatedly borrow this cd from the library.  I change the words to "Miss Tara" to "Miss Ana Sophia" - she loves it!).  We are also enjoying this cd (why am I just now discovering Elizabeth Mitchell?) and this cd (because it's Sophia's favorite movie right now). Vincent?  He appears to enjoy all of the above but I wonder if constant drumming on his legs is a subtle hint to check out something with more of a rock edge?  Sorry buddy, as of today Gene Simmons has yet to release a children's album.   

Just thought I would share.  Because, if you are like me, you are searching for children's music sung by someone other than a screechy "character", music that won't drive you insane or get (annoyingly) stuck in your head all day.  Nice sing-along music.  Nice rocking/lullaby music.  All of the above cds fit the bill.  Truth be told, I listen to them even when the kids aren't in the car.  You may interpret this fact as evidence of their appeal to both child and adult or as just another sad example of how out of touch I'm becoming in this toddler world. 

Who is Lady Gaga again?  Just kidding.  Sort-of. 

Gatlinburg and My First Giveaway!!!

Well, it was Gatlinburg in mid-July

And I just hit town and my throat was dry

I thought I’d stop and have myself a brew

 

As you might guess Tony and I did not stop at a local saloon on our recent trip to Galinburg, Tennessee.  This fact, though, did not keep Tony from singing this song sporadically through-out the 8 hour trek to the mountains.  I do believe he was singing it while salivating as we pulled into Dunkin Donuts at 1 a.m. to buy coffee and donuts to keep us awake as the kiddos slept in the backseat.  

A little history:  Anthony and I love the mountains.  The Smoky Mountains in particular.  The summer before Tony's senior year in dental school we took a little tour of the South to check out prospective residency locations.  Our two week adventure included Nashville and Memphis TN (I won't discuss how excited Tony was about Graceland and how absolutely shocked I was - I mean green shag carpet on the walls? TCB in a Flash - Good times), Louisville, Kentucky (LOVED Louisville, especially Bardstown Road where we sampled some of these cookies - yum!), Franklin, NC (where we stayed at Tony's uncle's house in the Smokies and ventured for an overnight trip on the Appalachian trail), and finally Birmingham, AL (our soon to-be home).  So, when Tony was given an unexpected week of vacation we immediately planned a family trip to The Smokies.  Gatlinburg seemed the perfect place.  Easy access to the Smoky Mountain National Park and lots of kid-friendly parks for Sophia and Vincent. 

Our First Day

We woke up to this view off the porch of our little 2 bedroom cabin:

Picnic on the porch:

Spicy chicken sandwiches on ciabatta bread with strawberries and blueberries:

Second and Third Day:  Dollywood

Here is Sophia all ready for Dollywood in a bonnet that I wore to Six Flags at age 2:

This bear was part of the cabin decor.  Please don't tell the cabin owners but it rode all the rides at Dollywood that day :) :

Tony's favorite part of the park - an authentic coal-fired steam engine

The Carousel where Sophia chose the brightest pink horse available:

Getting all ready for more rides in the sun:

During a downpour we headed inside for an ice cream sundae as big as my head:

Guess who met us at Dollywood on their trip up to Illinois?  Mimi and Grandpa!

Day 4 - The Ripley's Aquarium:

Without a doubt this was Vincent's favorite part of the trip.  He LOVED all the fish.

Sophia was not too sure about these strange ocean creatures!:

Beautiful jellyfish:

And just so you know, Sophia did find time to dance in the mountains:

We had the best time.  The only bummer was the rain which kept us from hiking but gave us an extra day at Dollywood where the lines were almost nonexistent.  I'm so grateful that God provided this time of reprieve from residency for our family to reconnect and create memories.

And now for my first Giveaway!

This is not a giveaway in the sense that I have so much blog traffic that 3rd party sponsors are giving me things to giveaway.  This is a giveaway in the sense that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE SENDING CARE PACKAGES!  So if you would like to be the lucky recipient of a care package stuffed full of local Birmingham goodies from our trendy downtown stores (including Penzey's Spices, O'Henry's Coffeehouse, At Home, and Swaddle) then leave a comment with your best guess of the title and artist of the song quoted at the beginning of this post.  You need not be correct to win.  Family and local readers are included in this giveaway (I will hand deliver your care package!) as well as readers from other states.  So leave a comment and during the first week of August Sophia will randomly pick a number corresponding to one lucky commenter.  Why?  Because I like the way I can fit sweetness snugly in a brown shoebox.  I like shopping local.  And I like our blog readers.  Very much.