Happy 4th!

I hope you all had a happy 4th celebration!  We are thankful for our freedoms & for our military & others who help us enjoy a free life each day in our country.

We started our morning with a new recipe, courtesy of Ree Drummond from the Pioneer Woman.  If you haven't seen her show on the Food Network or read her blog, I recommend it.

French Breakfast Puffs

Ingredients:

3 c all-purpose flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 c sugar

2/3 cup shortening (I used butter)

2 eggs

1 c milk

Coating:

1 stick butter

1 c sugar

3 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 & lightly grease 12 muffin cups.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt & nutmeg.  Set aside.

In a separate large bowl, cream together the sugar & shortening.  Add the vanilla, eggs, & mix again.  Alternate adding 1/3 of the flour mixture & 1/3 of the milk to the creamed mixture, beating well after each addition.  Fill the muffin cups 2/3 full.  Bake until golden 20-25 minutes.  Remove the muffins from the pan & set aside.  To make the coating, melt the butter in a bowl.  In a separate container, combine the sugar & cinnamon.  Dip the warm muffins in the butter, coating thoroughly.  Then roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture.  Side note:  I had some remaining batter, so I also made some mini puffs in my mini-muffin pan.  Also for the coating, the original recipe calls for 2 sticks of butter & 1 1/2 c. sugar.  I reduced it, only because that seemed like soo much butter/sugar.  I also used a low fat milk, but Pioneer Woman always cooks with whole milk.  Just trying to save a few calories where I can.  Clearly I still got enough from this recipe!

Delicious!

I love decorating with food!  We have a display of red & blue M & M's (dark chocolate), white yogurt covered pretzels, & good ol' Twizzlers.  So far the day is good with this food!

We spent some time at my sister's house on the 4th.  We were able to meet her 2 week old nephew (my brother-in-law's sister's son).  He was precious & the girls enjoyed holding him.

My 4th of July accessory...a bracelet Isabella made for me last summer while she was at camp.  I love it & wear it often.

Fireworks are always viewed best from home & this year the NYC fireworks did not disappoint.  And for a comical touch to end the holiday, these are the sounds I went to bed hearing....

Back to South Carolina!

Well, 6 weeks had passed, so we headed back to Greenville!  We do love our Green family in Greenville & always enjoy being there.  We are thankful for friends who make us all feel at home.  Avery & I were also attending the PCA (Presbyterian Church of America) General Assembly while we were in town. The girls enjoyed being the with the Greens as we attended a few functions.  We were also able to see Avery's parents, who drove down from North Carolina, one night during our visit.  As much fun as the girls had, I honestly didn't get many pictures. No blog post of mine would be complete without a few pictures though :)

This is part of the MTW booth in the exhibit hall where we worked for a few hours during General Assembly.  The country spotlighted this year was Colombia!  They gave away mugs with Colombian coffee.  The highlight of the General Assembly week for me was we were able to meet our boss, who lives in Bogota.  

Go to www.bogotabridges.com to learn more about how to partner with us!

There was a 24 hour Krispy Kreme shop right by the convention center.  We took the girls one afternoon for a treat before taking them to worship service.

Isabella's small group leader from Memphis who now lives in Greenville had her baby while we were there & we were so happy to see them all!  She also has a precious 2 year old daughter & we brought big sister some fancy shoes!

Isabella & baby Jack!

Lillian & Brook

sweet, sweet girls

Monopoly....this took up most of the kids free time!

Laura took them all to the children's museum & they enjoyed seeing different things.

Miller & Isabella

Brook & Lillian

Many thanks to the Greens for your hospitality to each of us!

Retirement Celebration

What a week of celebrating it has been!   There was a sweet reception ceremony in honor of my dad's retirement at the University of Tennessee Center of Health Sciences.  The school is 102 years old.  My dad has been there 45 years!  He was the youngest professor to come on board & now is one of the legends.  As a child, when someone asked me what does my dad do, I always said he teachers students how to be doctors.  My dad has spent so many years putting in so much time & hard work into his profession.  Yet he always came home & was focused on family.  I always feel like he did a great job leaving work at work.  I know he did some things at home probably, but I never remember that being a focus or taking away time from family.  I am thankful for that trait in my dad.  He is a professor of anatomy & neurobiology, also teaching embryology.   He is the best teacher the medical school has ever seen.  And I'm not just saying that because he is my dad.  Here are just some of his accomplishments:

• Published over 20 papers on cardiovascular research
• For over 20 years, has worked to prepare students for their USMLE ( United States Medical Licensing Examination)
• Taught in over 20 review courses for the past several years
• Co-author on several review books on anatomy
• Author of a dissection manual (his books are sold on Amazon!)
• Taught thousands of first year medical & dental students
• Received the Golden Apple Award for best Anatomy department teacher 70 times
• Received the outstanding teacher award for the best first-year teaching faculty from the medical class students 71 times
• One award given to faculty by students was quietly ended after he won the same award 14 out of 15 years.
• He is the most awarded faculty in all schools of UTCHS & possibly of all of the UT campuses across the state.
• Has been granted the title of Professor Emeritus
• His greatest accomplishment, being a husband, dad, & grandfather.

They had such a nice spread of food (& the best punch!) for the guests.

A few co-workers said some really nice words.

Dad was very gracious in his speech, honoring those who had helped him in the early days, along the way, & those he works among today.

He also honored his grandchildren.  5 out of 8 were there for the reception.

My brother wasn't able to be back in town & he was sad to miss, but Lynn & I were proud to stand beside our dad & John would have loved being there as well.

Old friends came out to support Dad.

Many people were thanking him for his contribution to the school, expressing how deeply he will be missed.

Another plaque!  

UT Orange

My parents 

For a retirement gift for my dad, I secretly had a UT employee help me contact thousands of past students Dad has taught.  I made a simple book full of emails from some of these students recalling memories of my dad & the influence he has made on them.  My dad was very touched by this & is so thankful for it.   

It was touching to see how many people from all over the world have been impacted as individuals & as physicians. (We even had one response from a doctor in Japan!)

one professor = thousands of doctors = millions of patients

My Dad

Long Live the King

My brother & his family came to Memphis for my Dad's birthday celebration, but we had a pre-celebration that same day at none other than Graceland!  John & I are both Elvis fans & thought it would be a good memory to make to be there together since it has been a while since we have done that.  My sister-in-law & her kids had never been & my girls had not been in a long time, so they didn't remember it.  I worked as a tour guide at Graceland for 3 summers, which were so fun.  I have a few friends who still work there, so they were generous enough to share with me some passes to the exhibits at Graceland.  There's no better way to tell you about this day than in pictures......

John started the day with a peanut butter banana sandwich, a favorite of Elvis

Ready for our tour!

Me & the girls

Girls are ready with their headsets

Staircase heading upstairs which is closed to the public

dining room

living room

This was the bedroom of Elvis' parents & later used by his aunt.

The kitchen

Don't you know some good southern food was cooked up in here?

In the basement, this is the pool room, with fabric on the walls & ceiling.

Also in the basement is the tv room.

Isabella, Brook & Eden in the jungle room.

Welcome to the jungle!

This room was used for recording Elvis' last live album (which is why carpet is on also on the ceiling).

Back of the house

I love this one!

Eden & Brook in the trophy room

Elvis was nominated for 14 grammys, but only won 3, which were all for his gospel music.  This is his grammy for his song, "He Touched Me".

Elvis gave money to each of the charities listed above on this plaque. 

November 8, 1962 was a good day for Memphis.  Elvis gave $1000 to 50 different charities in town.

After Elvis returned to Graceland on the morning of August 16, 1977, he came to this room in the Racquetball building to visit with friends & sing a few songs.

My brother & I

Meditation Gardens

Elvis parents are buried here as well as a grave marker for his twin brother.

My handsome nephews, Brett & Micah

The American Eagle jumpsuit Elvis wore in his famous televised "Aloha from Hawaii" special.

This was the car Elvis was driving on the morning of his death when passed through the gates for the last time.

A nice ride from show to show, or just to have a nice meal!

Always a fan!