4th of July, a New Blog Friend & Some Good News!

What a title!    I didn’t think I had enough of each subject to do a separate post for each so I’m just going to lump all these three things together into one post.

First up, our 4th of July celebration was spent at my sister’s lake house.     My mom was rarin’ to go so we picked her up around 11:00 a.m. and headed out to Lake Martin.     We just fixed sandwiches for lunch and then hung out on the pier and took turns riding in the boat.    The lake was really crowded on the 4th as it usually is but there were more people than usual because (unfortunately) the oil spill on our beautiful gulf coast has prevented many people from spending their holiday at the beach.     Late in the afternoon my sister and I started the fixins’ for a “Low Country Boil”.      This is an easy, quick and delicious way to serve a crowd.     Basically, we just put several pots of water on the stove and added some seasoning to the water.     Then when the water boiled we added mini ears of corn on the cob, cut up sausage, small new potatoes and shrimp.      After it’s done, you just dump it all into a big bowl and that’s it!    We were going to have a salad too but somebody (me) forgot to bring the salad!

Here’s a few pics of our day on the lake and our Low Country Boil supper:

 

The geese swam right up to the shoreline looking for food then lined up to follow the boat….the kids got a real kick out of seeing the duck’s “feet” in the water

    

This sailboat is the first one I’ve ever seen on the lake but I loved it!

This beauty is my nephew’s girlfriend….we made her sit in the front by herself cause she made us feel old, white and fat!

Livin’ large on the lake

Wonder where they got a flag that big?

  

The water looks  muddy cause we had tossed in some seasoning packets

We used two bags of the shrimp

And here’s  it is all ready to eat.    This dish takes no time at all to cook and tastes wonderful!

  

 

Now I’m going to tell ya’ll a little bit about my new blog friend, Elizabeth Ann.      Every time I go to Birmingham I try and stop in this great little shop called Consigning Interiors.     It’s a little mini mall where vendors display their items for sale.      Back in April I noticed a wonderful little booth so I took a lot of pictures of it.     At the time I was looking for a pretty turquoise mirror and I found exactly what I wanted in this booth.     Here are some pictures I took of  Elizabeth Ann’s booth back in April:

 

Above is the gorgeous turquoise mirror I bought which is now hanging in my dining room (see photo at below)

 

       

 

When I was in Birmingham two weeks ago, I stopped off to check out her booth again.    I noticed she had a business card and on it she listed her blog name!     I couldn’t wait to see her blog.     I e-mailed Elizabeth and told her how much I enjoyed seeing her booth and how happy I was to find out she had a blog.     Elizabeth Ann was kind enough to allow me to showcase her booth here.      So now we are “blog buddies” and we have plans to meet sometime in the near future.   If you live in or near the Birmingham area, I highly recommend a trip to Consigning Interiors and don’t forget to stop by Elizabeth’s Ann booth and see all her wonderful items.     This week she has just restocked her inventory and redecorated.    I know she would love you to stop by her blog and welcome her to the world of blogging.

 

And finally, I would like to thank everyone who left a comment on my post about my mom’s house sale falling through.      It really meant a lot to me as I have been so discouraged with this particular buyer who is still causing problems.     BUT, on Saturday, we got a letter from our congressman who had received word from the VA that my mom is approved for the VA assistance I had applied for back in October!    This lifts a tremendous burden off my shoulders  as it means she will have now have enough money each month to help meet her expenses at the assisted living facility.    Plus she will get “back pay” from November 1, 2009!!!     I had contacted my congressman back in April and never heard back from his office so I was really pleased to see that his office had followed up on my inquiry.      We still need to sell her home but this will ease the financial burden for now.

Thank you for all your prayers and encouragement.