Category: News

Well, not exactly — you know — you can’t always get what you want.  We did; however, get to take a trip to Plains yesterday to see Jimmy Carter give his Sunday School lesson at Maranatha Baptist Church.  The following things may or may not have happened on the way down…

• I may have awoken at 4:30 AM after sleeping for one hour (presumably the result of a combination of excitement for the day to come and nervousness about sleeping through the alarm).  In case you were wondering, 30 year old people need more sleep than that.
• My dad may or may not have overslept and awoken at 5:28 and looked at the alarm clock in a moment of sheer luck.
• We may or may not have nearly missed rolling over in a ditch after we swerved to miss a dog who was standing in the middle of the highway and in no hurry to move.
• We may or may not have missed our turn and may or may not have driven 20 minutes in the wrong direction.
• We may or may not have been pulled over by a Georgia State Trooper after we finally turned onto a road that would actually take us to Plains for apparently: speeding past him going one direction, speeding past him coming back the other direction, and making some sort of (as yet inexplicable) U-turn in an intersection in order to turn onto the correct street.
• There may or may not be a covert government effort to keep President Carter safe which involves making Google give false directions to a dummy church on a different road.  Another extension to this theory is that only people who truly want to hear him speak are willing to drive in circles for extended periods of time so it filters out the riff-raff and keeps the crowds down.

When we arrived (which may or may not have been about 45 minutes after we intended to arrive) we were very happy to discover that it wasn’t too crowded and we were able to sit right down in the main sanctuary (after being wanded and having our bags checked by security…you know, Secret Service kind of security…).  We were grateful because we’d all heard stories of people getting there as the doors opened (which happens at 8:30) and the place being completely packed, and the overflow room where you watch it on a closed-circuit television.  The whole experience was surreal.  We were sitting in a room with Jimmy Carter teaching us Sunday School.  For the most part it felt natural and easy and like it was nothing out of the ordinary, but my mind kept screaming: “THAT’S JIMMY CARTER!!!”

I would have gotten better pictures but we were told (in NO uncertain terms) that we had a very limited window during which to take pictures and that we were NOT to stand up while doing so.  I follow directions (and I wanted to keep my camera) so those were the best I could get inside the church.  We then attended the regular church service during which I learned that: A) I really like old Baptist Hymns (even without the inclusive language that I so appreciate) and B) Walker Knight should have just gone ahead and given the sermon himself.

After the service we had a brief opportunity to have our picture taken with President Carter outside of the church.  We were somewhat singled out by the lady in charge (Miss Jan) after Walker gave a prayer during Sunday School and told “Mr. Jimmy” about his connections to Baptists Today (and by connections, I mean he founded it as SBC Today in 1983).  Thanks to Walker we were the last people to get a picture which meant that he spoke to our group for a few minutes and Miss Jan was kind enough to take pictures while he was doing so.  This was special for several reasons: A) Miss Jan gave very clear instructions before Sunday School about the pictures that we were only allowed ONE picture, B) Miss Jan also gave very clear instructions that no one was allowed to shake Pres. Carter’s hand, and C) Miss Jan again made it very clear that there was to be no chit-chat.

Pok’s illegal handshake:

Next we wandered around (the one-block area of) downtown Plains:

Next we headed off to Mom’s Kitchen (the only restaurant in Plains).  Everyone had big plates of southern-style everything (many thanks to Rebecca Waugh who treated us).  It was delicious.

According to this article “Mom” of Mom’s kitchen is Maggie Crimes.  Pres. Carter used to eat at her other restaurant (about 10 miles from Plains) after church and she opened up in Plains about nine years ago at Carter’s urging because he said that so many of people in town were getting too old to cook for themselves.  Obviously this was a good idea.  Also (apparently) there is a Mom’s Kitchen Auto Detailing shop right next door.  I wish I had a picture of that sign…

While we were eating we ran into Miss Jan who offered us a tour of the inn across the street that Jimmy and Rosalynn helped build (by help, I mean that Jimmy Carter helped construct the inside of the space, apparently with help from local inmates) and decorate (this was Rosalynn’s wheelhouse, apparently).  Here is a trash can that he built for the place:

While we were there Miss Jan told us a story about the inauguration:  She was Amy Carter’s governess before Jimmy won the presidency and they moved to D.C. and she also went with the family to help get Amy settled in until they could find someone to help them in Washington.  Because of this she attended the inauguration.  Just before the ceremony was to begin she took Amy to the bathroom to make sure that all business was handled before things got started.  While she was putting on all the layers that Amy had to wear that day she discovered something in Amy’s pocket.  Apparently, Amy had tried to sneak a book into her pocket.  When Miss Jan asked her why she had it she said something to the effect of ‘you know Daddy’s speaches are long and I just thought I might get bored, I promise I won’t take it out if you let me keep it.’  Miss Jan made her give it up and she says that she had a mental image of Jimmy Carter giving his inaugural address and the headlines being about the fact that Amy was reading a book while he was speaking.  Living history is very cool.

Our trip back was far less eventful and last night I slept for 11 hours straight.  Awesome.

This week we didn’t actually prepare a splurge dinner ourselves, but splurge we did!  We went to a restaurant that holds great memories for us.  We ordered things that aren’t good for our waistlines but do wonders for our souls.  But the biggest splurge of the evening was the fact that we did it without Liam.  We finished sentences without interruption.  We both ate our food while it was still hot.  We didn’t need to engage in negotiations to ground flying silverware.  Thanks to Everybody’s for some great pizza sandwiches and thanks to Lynne, Jim, and Gillian for providing the childcare to make it possible!

Here’s a picture of the leftovers:

On Thursday I attempted to keep Liam focused on something other than the fact that he couldn’t go outside by breaking out the Play-Doh for the first time.  His main focus was on taking it out and putting it back into the container, which is not a huge surprise.  It kept him occupied for at least 30 minutes so I consider it a win.

Liam has a need to help (even when it’s not helpful).  This is what happens when Liam’s need to “help” intersects with Gillian’s need to get him to stop screaming and throwing himself on the floor, i.e. dinner gets prepared on the floor.

Today we met Jessica and Walker at Hippo Hopp (an indoor playground near REI).  It was Liam’s first encounter with such an environment and some of his behavior was predictable (he wasn’t really too into the bouncey houses, although he did play inside them for a short periods of time) and some of his behavior had never been seen before (I put him down after we took off his shoes and he took off like a shot out of a canon — I’ve never seen the kid run so fast — and he was just running for the hey of it, not even towards anything specific).  All-in-all he had a great time.  I would have captured more if I hadn’t unknowingly filled most of my CF card before we got there.  Here are the few shots I did get:

He shoots…

He scores!

Little Drummer Boy:

Star Students:

Liam picks a book from the basket while Walker…well…

…while Walker (while concentrating particularly hard) tears one apart.  In his defense, that book totally had it coming.

Walker bouncing, Liam relaxing:

Liam in a (full-on) sprint for the front door:

A toast is definitely in order.  Whole wheat, or maybe rye.  After four long days of a toastless existence (woe-is-me: my life is insanely hard, isn’t it?) the Connolly family is in possession of the purtiest toaster I ever did see:

Look Ma: appliances that match!

Tomorrow I’m going to broil something just for the sheer thrill of it!

This week’s splurge was Chicken Tetrazzini from the Cotton Country Collection (brought to us by the ladies of the Junior League of Monroe, Louisiana — for those of you in the know: these are the women who also gave us Chicken Spectacular, so you know that they’re not messing around).

The recipe itself was quite good.  The execution of the recipe left a fair amount to be desired.  For starters:  despite having had a day long break from our little man (courtesy of Grammie and Pop), Matt and I were both completely exhausted when we began the dinner preparations.  It’s never a good sign when I find myself standing over the cookbook reading and re-reading and not absorbing any information.

The major snafu involved the fact that all the vegetables (celery, mushrooms, bell pepper, and some green onions and parsley thrown in for good measure) were supposed to be minced.  I began preparing the veggies by stating that I didn’t pretend to know how to mince a mushroom, so I was just going to finely chop everything and be done with it.  At some point Matt says something to the effect of “isn’t that what the Cuisinart is for?”  My response was, yes.  Yes it is.  Unfortunately by the time Matt mentioned the use of a helpful appliance I had already spent at least 20 minutes finely chopping things that were supposed to be minced.  No worries, I thought.  Just throw everything into the processor and mince it and move on.  This is when I realized (far too late) that too many ingredients at one time in the Cuisinart means that you have to turn the thing on for a really long time which means that you end up with a puree instead of minced anything.  So we ended up with a green paste that we were supposed to cook until “tender.”  As I was beginning to pour the paste into a pan containing butter and garlic (pre-minced, thank goodness) I was thinking to myself “I really shouldn’t be doing anything in a skillet without my apron” and at that exact moment the vegetable paste hit the pan and sent butter splattering all over one of the few tops that I own that Liam hasn’t smeared with food or dirt (or both).

We finally got everything into the skillet and cooked as well as it could be cooked and into the casserole dish.  Next up was a (seemingly) simple task: toast some bread to have with our meal.  Matt put two pieces into the toaster oven only to find that what I suspected was happening earlier in the week was still happening (the toaster oven doesn’t necessarily toast when you turn it on — sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don’t) and it took three attempts and three times the amount of time to toast two pieces of bread.

In the end, the tetrazzini was fantastic (it’s hard to go wrong with both butter and heavy cream) and the bread was pretty tasty (although not entirely toasty), too.  By the time we finished our meals and our wine all was again right with the world.