Super Fun Birthday!

As you may or may not know, yesterday was my birthday!! Make sure you follow me on instagram (LoveLacey365) so you can keep up on all my fun day to day things!!!! Usually Mr. J & I go out to dinner on the weekend and call it good.  But this year he had some vacation days he didn't plan on using and asked if I had any ideas.  Well after a family vacation was planned, I said what if you took my birthday off and we just spent the day together.  So that's what we did!  There was an antique store about an hr and a half from our house that I have wanted to check out so we loaded up early in the morning and went for it.  A HUGE thanks to my mom (who I hope reads my blog) for helping out with the kids! We couldn't have done it without you!

At the antique store we found an amazing table!  I took some pictures so that I could recreate the table with our 'need of update' kitchen table.  It's hard to tell in this picture but the top is a grey/brown type color.  And the bottom is an off white.  SO gorgeous! We found lots of fun things and had a good time. 

Next up I was starving (that is not surprising!) so we started to check out local restaurants. When visiting a city we love to try to find local places to eat.  You know those little hole in the walls tend to be the best! Well when I looked at the map I found a place called "Slappy's rib shack".  We HAD to go! I said we could at least drive by and see what it looked like since it was kind of on the outskirts of town.  Well it was a little tiny building (no seating inside) with 2 HUGE smokers out front with smoke pouring out.  We both said THAT'S IT! We went in and Slappy himself helped us order, was very very nice & helpful, and can I just say that there is no picture of the food for one reason.  It was SO good and I was SO hungry that it was gone before I thought of a picture.  I"M SORRY!  But if you are ever in Rochester, IN RUN do not walk to Slappy's! I personally liked the pulled pork better than the ribs (and yes we ordered both) but they had so many amazing choices.  They even had fries that had pulled pork & nacho cheese on them.  OH goodness!

After lunch we walked around Big R which is like a tractor/farm supply store.  They had baby chicks and ducks in so I was in heaven just watching them and dreaming of the day we can get our own chickens.  After Big R, I spotted a winery on the map! I HAD to go!  So we stopped at Schnabeltier and did a wine tasting!  They make their own wine and cheese to go with it.  The girl in the shop (sorry I didn't get your name) was SUPER friendly and told us lots about the winery and the wines and how they came up with the unusual name and mascot! I ended up buying a bottle of wine to bring home and got to keep that adorable tasting glass! Love to find these little gems!

After the winery we had NO plans and a long drive home.  Most of the drive was through the country which led to lots of fun talks and just general enjoyment of being together and the amazing sunshine!  Soon we found ourselves pretty close to the next town so I started to look to see what was there.  Not much to be honest but they did have a local coffee shop (another favorite of mine) so we swung in.  Can I just say how AMAZING the house was? I literally walked through the downstairs (which was the sitting area of the coffee shop) saying "Oh my gosh!", "Oh look at that!", "OH how beautiful".  I wish I could have gotten a picture to show you how amazing the woodwork and walls and just the general beauty of this old house!  If you ever find your self in North Manchester, IN go directly to KenapocoMocha!  The lady that works there was very very sweet and the coffee was AMAZING!  

We stopped a few more places on the way home.  Nothing too exciting just general pop in and wander around types before getting Chipotle and heading home.  I had the best day with Mr. J and felt so special that he took the whole day to spend with me.  It was a great birthday!

Love, Lacey

Saturday Morning

One of my MANY mugs

Saturday mornings tend to be a bit lazy and laid back around here.  It's currently deer hunting season so that means Mr. J gets up before dawn and heads out to his stand to wait.  This also means he wakes me up in the process.  Lucky for him I'm not a morning person and can go back to sleep easily.  Usually the kids wake me up around 8 or 8:30 and ask me to make them breakfast.  We usually have breakfast and then just hang out and watch cartoons.  I say USUALLY because that is how it usually goes.  NOT TODAY!

Today Mr J woke me up at zero dark thirty by turning on almost all the light in our room.  Seriously husband?  I'm trying to sleep!  Then the children woke me up at 8 to tell me that they couldn't find that cat.  He's probably hiding from your little "loving" hands!  They then proceeded to tell me that they broke the handle off the microwave and needed help with breakfast.  Cue me wanting to cry because I could tell what kind of day it's going to be.  

I go out to the kitchen and sure enough the handle it broken, AGAIN!  This is the 3rd time in the 3 years we have lived here that the handle has broken.  We are too cheap to buy a new microwave so we just keep gluing it back on.  And then I hear the cat crying.  Where is that coming from? I walk around the kitchen and then I realize it's coming from the garage.  Mr. J must have left the door open and the cat thought he would go out and explore.  Poor thing was scared to death. That's what you get for going out in the garage.  I opened the door and called him a few times and he reluctantly came out from under that van. He ran inside and then scarfed down his breakfast.  

So by 9am the cat is fed and rescued, the children are fed and fighting, and I have my coffee and have gone back to bed to watch TV.  Then Mr. D comes to tell me they are still hungry and need toast.  OK fine I'll come make toast.  "No mom!  I can make it!"  Alrightly then.  We will see how this turns out!  Now the thing you need to know about our toaster is it's more temperamental than a hungry pregnant woman.  If you even so much as look at the light/dark dials it will burn your toast faster than you can say YEAH TOAST! Well my sweet, loving, caring, 7 year old decides to turn the dial up to 3.  Anything past 0 (maybe a 1 if you are lucky) is charcoal.  So all of a sudden I hear him tell his brother "The smoke alarm is going to go off".   I come out to the kitchen and sure enough it's filled with smoke and just then the smoke alarm goes off.  This in and of itself is not anything unusual.  I set the smoke alarm off at least once a week cooking dinner.  So much so that when it goes off the kids yell "Suppers ready!" (yeah that makes me feel good!) So as the smoke alarm is going off and I'm trying to get the burning toast out of the toaster, I hear the garage door.  Mr. J is home from hunting just in time to find me in my element.  PJ's on, hair a mess, the kids crazy and the house filled with smoke. 

It is now 10:30am.  The kids are playing upstairs, I'm FINALLY drinking my coffee (and writing this blog) and contemplating what I want to make myself for breakfast.  And Mr. J is curled up with a blanket & his iPad watching YouTube videos on how to brew your own beer.  I love our crazy little family.  Some day I'm going to reread this and smile at how crazy we all looked.  But for now I'm going to hide the toaster!

P.S. I went and saw Catching Fire last night!!  LOVED it!  I was so jumpy! My poor bestie on my right probably has bruises on her leg from me grabbing her!