Author Archives: Rachel

Beautiful sunrise, pool chair flags, good beer in a plastic cup: our Hilton Head experience

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Sunrise at Hilton Head Island

After Lauren’s graduation, we headed to Hilton Head for a weekend at the beach and stayed at the Marriott Resort and Spa at Palmetto Dunes.  The first day we went to the spa, which was really nice after driving from Atlanta to the coast in constant rain. We didn’t plan much for the weekend, because it was supposed to rain the whole time. But then something crazy happened – the sun came out.

And stuck around.

So on Saturday we headed down to the pool, and discovered flags. Each pool chair had a flag you could raise for when you needed a drink or food or whatever. Hello lap of luxury! There was a bar and a restaurant next to the pool, so you could eat at a table right on the beach if you wanted. We passed on the alcohol (it was before noon) (ok, that wouldn’t really stop us – we were just not thirsty), but we took a short swim and that water was cold!

Then we headed down to the sand to check out the beach. The beach there is pretty, and like most Atlantic beaches I’ve seen, has a huge area of packed down sand where the tide comes in and out. That always amazes me, because on the Gulf the tide comes in about 5 feet. So there’s not a lot of packed sand lying around. It’s all fluffy white sand that gets everywhere (and stays everywhere despite the 3 showers you took to get rid of it).

That afternoon we explored the south end of the island and found Sea Pines. Yeah, we just thought we were mingling with the fancy pants folks at the Marriott. Sea Pines has mansions on the beach and golf courses on the PGA tour. This place is gorgeous! We at lunch at The Wreck of the Salty Dog outside overlooking the harbour and then wandered around that area looking at shops and sights.

Then we headed off to Harbour Town to tour the lighthouse and visit more shops. They had a Christmas shop (Heaven!) where we found a nativity for Mom.  My mom doesn’t officially collect nativities, but during Christmas her house is covered in them. (I’m on my way to becoming an unofficial collector too  – it must be genetic.) Anyway, a palmetto tree makes up the right side of the nativity, and I thought that was a cool way to tie South Carolina into it. It also shows Mary and Jesus on a donkey, which I’d never seen before in a nativity.

Lighthouse at Harbour Town

Late Saturday evening we went to Brews on the Harbour, a beer, jazz, and seafood festival at Shelter Cove Harbour. This festival is pretty new to the island, as this was only the second year for it. Roger found out about it through an article in a local magazine that did its best to convince Hilton Head Islanders that beer wasn’t just for frat boys anymore.

See, Hilton Head is all about their wine. Every restaurant we went too had a page long wine list. The first restaurant we went to served Roger a Magic Hat 9 in a plastic cup, while my Riesling was presented in an actual wine glass. See the problem here? It was a Magic Hat people! It’s not like we were having Miller time!

So this festival was all about showing the masses how great beer can be. Yay! Unfortunately they ran out of glasses and gave us a Dixie cup instead for the SAME PRICE. And they gave us drink tokens. Tokens? What happened to all the beer you can drink from a tiny cup? Ah well, the festival is still a toddler. It will grow and learn and become a better festival one day. We still had fun!

At Brews on the Harbour

After a long day I fell asleep watching the UGA/Arkansas game. The lead changed hands 4 times in 5 minutes, but even that wasn’t enough to keep me awake. And it’s a good thing I fell asleep early, because Roger woke me up in time to see the sunrise. I was too confused to say “what the??” and just sort of stumbled out of bed. And I’m glad I did. I got a great picture (see above) and some quiet time with my sweetie.

Check out the rest of our Hilton Head pictures on our photo site.

Our niece can kick your fanny

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Lauren at Parris Island

Last Friday Lauren graduated from Marine boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina. We’re so proud of her. As her mom said, she’s an adult now (and yes, there were tears soon after). I asked Lauren how the final test (known as the Crucible) went, and she told me it was “fun.” According to Wikipedia:

…the Crucible is a rigorous 54-hour field training exercise demanding the application of everything a recruit has learned until that point in recruit training, and includes a total of 48 miles of marching . It simulates typical combat situations with strenuous testing, hardship, and the deprivation of food and sleep. A recruit is given three MREs and four to eight hours of sleep through the entire 54-hour event.

Yeah, that sounds like “fun.”

We got to the base around 6:00am so we could find a good seat, and the Marines were already up and practicing the ceremony for the 1,000th time. The weather was awful, but we didn’t mind too much. After all, if Lauren could deal with total hell for 12 weeks, we could deal with a little rain.

Early morning graduation ceremony practice

Unfortunately the weather didn’t let up, so the ceremony was moved inside. There’s not as much room inside, so the Marines didn’t march by the crowd as they would have outside. But they still looked great. From my vantage point, graduation went something like this:

  • An officer yells or grunts something I don’t understand.
  • All the Marines move together from attention to saluting to at ease.

I asked Lauren later if she could actually understand what they were saying or if she just knew what to do and when. She said at first, the officers speak normally to them and slowly. Then they speed it up and get louder until you’re used to it. So yeah, she knew what they were saying.

After graduation, we walked down to greet the toughest member of our family. Here she is with her parents and recruiting officer. The uniform she’s wearing is called her “Service Charlies.”

James, Lauren, Staff Sergeant Lawson, Chanell

By the way, the little tag on her shirt is not a name tag. It’s a medal to let you know Lauren knows how to use a gun. She also explained to me a few combat tactics she learned, including her tan belt in mixed martial arts. I’m a little afraid (and totally proud!). Definitely getting my niece whatever she wants for Christmas!

Lauren the Marine

There’s more pictures on our photo site, including some from family day where you can see more of the base.

Velveeta Tex-Mex Beef and Potatoes

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Velveeta Tex-Mex Beef and Potatoes

Since football season is upon us, I have started making one of my all time favorite snacks – Velveeta and Rotel cheese dip (do I hear angels singing?). There’s nothing like watching SEC football while chowing down on corn chips and cheese. This stuff is so good it makes me cheer for Bama. Well, as long as they aren’t playing LSU or Auburn. It’s not good enough to make me cheer for Tennessee, but I digress.

Anywho, so when I saw a recipe that started with the word VELVEETA (seriously, do you hear angels singing?), I had to try it. It’s super easy to make, the ingredients are cheap, and it tastes good. And kids can easily help with this recipe (oh yes, I went there – straight to the baby train).

As usual, I made a few notes to make my cooking experience easier next time:

  • Buy a pre-chopped onion – Yes, it’s more expensive than buying an onion and chopping it myself, but it’s still cheaper than Roger hauling my hiny to the hospital after I slightly nick my finger with a knife and then pass out from the sliver of blood that appears, trip over a cat on the way down, and hit my head on the counter. Plus, I’m pretty sure blood doesn’t go with anything – even Velveeta. Pre-chopped onions – another reason I love Publix, and until I actually attend one of their knife skills classes, I’ll continue to buy these. It’s not that I can’t chop veggies. I just have a bad history with onions. OK? Stop judging me.
  • Velveeta is fun for everyone! – If your kid is old enough to use a knife, let them cut up the Velveeta. It’s soft enough to use a butter knife, so it’s pretty kid friendly. If they’re too young to use a knife, then they can throw carefully place the chunks of cheese into the pot for you. Now, where is my mommy blog license?
  • Brand names are for suckers – Because this recipe is from Kraft’s magazine, they pimp all of their products in the ingredients. Hey, it’s just good ol fashioned marketing. But I used grocery store brands for all of it (except the Velveeta – there is NO SUBSTITUTE – angels don’t sing for regular old “cheese product”), and it tasted fine.
  • Take your aggression out on the taters – Frozen hashbrowns are frozen. Yes, I see how obvious that is now, but I wasn’t thinking about that before. And the taters don’t come in a bag of just 4 cups, so I had to break them up somehow. I threw them in the microwave for 1 minute and then took my knife to them like an ice pick. It was like experiencing a whole new kind of frozen treat. The taters broke apart with ease, and I had a strange sense to smile and say muhahahah. But moving on.
  • Sour cream could add some flavor – Nothing exciting about this statement. But I think adding a dollup of sour cream to each serving could be quite tasty. (Did I just say “dollup”? I’m delirious from the Velveeta.)

Check out the recipe below and enjoy!

Ingredients

  • 1 lb. ground beef
  • 1   red pepper, chopped
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 pkg.  (1-1/4 oz.) TACO BELL® HOME ORIGINALS® Taco Seasoning Mix
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 4 cups  frozen Southern-style hash browns (cubed not shredded variety)
  • 1 pkg. (10 oz.) frozen corn
  • 1/2 lb.  (8 oz.) VELVEETA Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

HEAT oven to 350°F.

BROWN meat with peppers and onions in large skillet; drain. Return to skillet.

STIR in taco mix and water. Add potatoes, corn and VELVEETA; mix well. Spoon into 13×9-inch baking dish; cover.

BAKE 20 min.; stir. Bake, uncovered, 15 min. or until heated through.

Source for recipe and image

Meet Drufo

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Drufo

This is Drufo. He was one of the dogs at the construction site in Ecuador. His favorite resting spot happened to be where the team was digging an 8 feet deep hole. But did that bother him? Heck no! He just jumped down in the hole and took a nap. And don’t worry – he had an escape plan . . .

Colinas del Norte

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The sweet kids of Colinas del Norte

It means “Hills of the North,” and it’s a special place in the hearts of our Ecuador mission team. In years past the team has worked with the children at the daycare here. The kids are ages 2-5. We visited them on our last work day, and they managed to touch all of us in just a few minutes. Continue reading →