Clarkco State Park

Every year for the past 27 years, my family has gone to Clarcko State Park for a family reunion. 

My dad's mother, Grandmommy, and her 3 siblings started spending a week together with their children when they were younger. It has continued my dad's generation and their children. We LOVE Clarkco.

The lake has changed a bit over the year and the swimming hole isn't what it used to be when I was little but it is still a beautiful place spent with some of my favorite people.

 We always hike, eat some of the most delicious food, play board and card games in the main cabin and a usually end up laughing until we cry, multiple times. 

The majority of the family is there Wednesday through Saturday/Sunday but because of work, JP and I came down Friday evening after work. Here are some pictures from our weekend. 

(Baby Ann Rainey will be joining us next year. She will be the first great-grand of the Beckman family!)

 Johnathan and I hiked the entire length around the lake. The weather was a little muggy and humid but, honestly, the weather was beautiful. Especially cooler for this time of year!

Last night, God painted some of the most beautiful artwork for us with His sunset. No filter necessary for these. So peaceful, so perfect!

 (Taken from the Cabin swimming hole area)

 (Taken from the fishing pier behind the Aunts' cabin)

(The back of the Clegg family cabin)

It was a great, perfect weekend. Hopefully in the next few years, we will me able to make it for the entire week. I enjoyed introducing JP to more of my extended family and introducing him to one of my favorite places growing up. I am already looking forward to next year!

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Ann without an E

When JP and I were going over names for our baby we never could agree on a boy name that felt like "it". We knew that the middle name would be Paul because it is JP's middle name and a tradition for the men in his family. But there wasn't a first name that stuck out to us. 

But we immediately agreed on a girl's name. We both love family names and I have always wanted to use my mother's maiden name, Rainey, as a middle name for a little girl. We both loved Ann Rainey. Ann is my grandmommy's middle name(my dad's mother). It is also the first or middle name of several special women in my family. So it was an easy decision for us. Following the good, old southern tradition she will go by a double name and be called "Ann Rainey".

I was raised watching "the Anne movies" with my sisters. To this day, the movies are still some of my favorites and they are my go to movies when I need something familiar/comforting on when I don't feel well. 

For anyone who is familiar with the Anne of Green Gables movies or books, you may remember the conversation about "Anne with an E". 

"...But if you call me Anne please call me Anne spelled with an E."

"What difference does it make how it's spelled?" asked Marilla with another rusty smile as she picked up the teapot. 

"Oh, it makes SUCH a difference.  It LOOKS so much nicer. When you hear a name pronounced can't you always see it in your mind, just as if it was printed out?  I can; and A-n-n looks dreadful, but A-n-n-e looks so much more distinguished. If you'll only call me Anne spelled with an E I shall try to reconcile myself to not being called Cordelia."

One thing that we realized as we were looking through all of the family members, they were all spelled Ann rather than Anne. I might have struggled for a few minutes over whether or not to put the E in her name but I figured if it is going to be a family name then it needs to be all or nothing. So we now have our little Ann without an E! And I don't think it looks dreadful at all. ;-)

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Adding a sweet little spoonful to the Gould family!

 First, Happy Mother's Day. I am so very blessed by my mother and I love showing love to her every day, as often as possible. :)

JP and I are so very excited to announce that we are expecting a sweet little baby in November. We are due November 18th. I am holding out for November 20th though. ;) It is my grandmother's birthday and this will be her first great-grandchild! I just think that would be so sweet.

Poppa and Marmie are very excited about becoming first time grandparents. 

So far I have been blessed and not been too terribly sick. Today was probably the worst yet. Unfortunately, I had to miss church and after lunch with the family I am back in bed resting. 

Our little Squidget has a strong heart beat and got a healthy check up from the doctor this past Monday. Car rides do not agree with me most of the time, causing nausea and headaches but not making me actually sick. We do NOT like any form of Sausage. Ha!

Maybe this will be the kick I needed to get me out of my blogging slump, but I am not making any promises. 

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What I'm Watching - TV Shows

Most shows are on their winter break, so I will probably be finding new TV shows to watch during the lull... Or maybe I will just watch more Christmas movies. ;-)

JP and I watch a couple of shows together:
- Walking Dead

- We just started watching Person of Interest

- We just finished watching the mini series North and South. All 3 books. I remember watching them when they came on TV when I was little. We both really liked book 1 and 2 but book 3 really didn't win us over that much. It almost seemed like they were rushed to just wrap it up in some form. We both LOVE history and we are looking for a new mini series to watch either on Netflix instant or to get from them on DVD.

"My" Shows:
- Reign

- Gossip Girl. I had never watched it while it was airing but I am now on the 6th(and final season). I seriously think my favorite thing is their wardrobes.

- Hart of Dixie. Though it isn't filmed in Alabama, it is based outside of Mobile. And as a previous resident of Mobile, I like catching a lot of the references. :-)

- Nashville. I love the music on here. To me, the 2 leads who are supposed to be major country music stars are not the strongest talents. I love the Stella sisters. Their harmonies are too die for. Clare Bowen's voice is also wonderful.

- Revenge

What are your favorite TV shows? Do you prefer to find something that is currently airing and wait to watch it every week or do you like to watch completed series and knock it out?

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My Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe and Tips

During my time as a baker, I feel like I perfected a method for making chocolate chip cookies. Or any cookie for that matter. The ingredients are fairly typical but the way they are "assembled" and baked makes the WORLD of difference.

TIPS:
- This makes a LOT of cookies. I scoop all of the dough onto lined cookie sheets and freeze it, then place the balls of dough into zip lock bags. Makes it SO easy to pop as many cookies as we need into the oven and they turn out just as well as if they had been mixed minutes before.
- Melt your butter. Completely. Seriously.
- Add one ingredient at a time and make sure it is completely folded/mixed in before adding another one.

When I worked at the bakery, I got seriously spoiled by a mixer just like this. Yes, the bowl itself is almost 2 feet tall. I may have told JP I want one for our house one day. HA. My mother in law asked me today why I was only using one blade on the mixer. I only use one blade and run a spatula along the sides to fold the ingredients in, because that was the best way to make sure everything was completely creamed and mixed in the big mixer. To me, that is still the best way to do it. You can take the girl out of the bakery, but you can't take the baker out of the girl. ;-)

 "True sign of good things to come. #loadsofbutter #Christmasbaking#myfamouschocolatechipcookies #hubbysfavorite" 

"Mmmmmm"

INGREDIENTS

4 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp salt

2 cups butter, MELTED(this is key)

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed

3 tsp vanilla extract

4 large eggs

3 1/2 - 4 cups Nestle Tollhouse Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt.

Place melted butter into a LARGE mixing bowl. Add each of the following ingredients one at a time; sugar, brown sugar, vanilla extract, eggs. Make sure each ingredient is completely folded in. Add the dry flour mixture in slowly, making sure it is completely mixed/folded in. Add the chocolate chips.

Space your cookies apart depending on how big of a scoop you use. I use a small OXO style cookie scoop. This makes cookies spread to up to a 2" diameter.

Bake on a mid to high rack. Bake for 10 - 14 minutes. I always pull my cookies out when the bottom is golden brown and the top is cooked but still gooey in the center. By making sure they are still gooey in the center, your cookies will stay soft like a fresh baked cookie. Yum!

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Blessed

Finding reasons to feel blessed are content can sometimes be harder around the holidays rather than easier. It's easy to be thankful when everything is "perfect", when you have everything checked off of your Christmas gift list AND still have money in the bank account. 

Since I am still unemployed and JP just started his new job, we decided that rather than spending what bit of money for our presents to each other on gifts, we are putting it into our little house to make it move in ready sooner rather than later. Here are a few of the little things that make me feel very blessed right now. :)

- We are both healthy.

- We have a roof over our head and though it won't be a plentiful Christmas by most people's standards, I am excited that we are investing in something bigger than what can fit under a tree.

- I am thankful that we have Christmas decorations. I think a lot of people take that for granted.

- I have the most considerate mother in the world. When we were at my parent's house for Thanksgiving we left our toothbrushes and my AWESOME doTERRA On Guard toothpaste Mom got me(another post on that). She sent me a happy box yesterday which also included several oils that I needed, my candy cane gum that I left at her house and these 2 surprises. 

 My mom and sister are making these precious nativity figures. D'Lynn, my 16 year old sister, is selling them for $10 for Christmas money. I still choke when I say she is 16. ;-)

Mom also sent me this oil blend. It is my absolute favorite. Everytime I am home, we would just open up her dram and sniff it, but we never actually diffused it. I thought mom had made a dram for me but she actually sent me her dram. It seriously almost made me cry. It was SO very thoughtful!

- I am so incredible blessed by my husband and his heart. His job is my no means easy and honestly, he comes home exhausted and soaking wet from working inside of freezers and coolers all day. Tonight he came home early because some of their lines broke down and he asked if he could cook us dinner. He cooked an awesome dinner of baked fish, rice and mixed veggies, cleaning the kitchen as he went. Now as I right this, at 7:19pm, he is already asleep next to me. He actually fell asleep almost an hour ago. 

- I am blessed to get to spend my days with my mother-in-love. She's an absolute treasure. We laugh together, a lot. :-)

- I really like living in Gadsden. I had to take JP some dry clothes on his first break this morning and as I was driving home and coming back down the mountain I was absolutely amazed at the beauty of the foggy mountains. God creates some of the most beautiful pictures and I do not ever want to take that for granted.

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Magical Mondays - Disney 2013 Day 4

Our 4th day in Orlando started when I got to marry my best friend!! Right after we left the wedding we went to Chick-fil-a for breakfast. Yes, I went in to eat in full wedding garb. Yes, people stared and asked questions. Ha! We ran back to the hotel to change and then went straight to Epcot for some rides and walking around the world during the Food and Wine Festival.

 In line for The Sea with Nemo and Friends. The picture is blurry but I still really like it for some reason.

 Dara and Viadly

 So basically... This picture and the next one describe our relationship to a T. 

 They honestly made me laugh out loud when we looked back through the photos. 

 My handsome husband!

Boat riding across the World to get to our lunch destination in Japan.

 I just absolutely love this girl!

 Dara and V!

 Love, Love, Love this man!

 We had dinner at Teppan Edo. 

 HAPPILY EVER AFTER BUTTONS for the literal newlyweds! :)

 ANNIVERSARY pins to celebrate their 5 years of friendship. 

Thanks to our pins, we got sprinkled with some pixie dust in the form of free desserts.

 Our chef was earning her ears(in training). She was absolutely hilarious!

 We shared our table with a sweet family of 4. 

 My love!

 Sweet friends!

 Hanging out in the Mexico Pavilion. 

I honestly think I could spend days wandering through the different store around the world in Epcot. I always see and experience something new when I am there. 

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