Potato soup ....

My momma always made the best potato soup

she always told us the secret was lots of butter, constantly

stirring with a wooden spoon as you added the milk

and she always emphasized the "constant stirring"

So I never attempted to make it...haha

Joanne Gaines has a potato soup recipe in her

new cookbook, Magnolia Table so I decided to try it

and dare I say it.....(momma don't listen) but it could

possibly be better than momma's.

and there was no constant stirring and no 

mega amounts of butter

chopped garlic, onions, celery and carrots

mmm, bacon

diced potatoes...

topped with cheddar cheese, crumbled bacon and fresh thyme

Delicious!

I will be making this a lot this winter

later....

Beach ....

One morning Jacquelyn, Bucky, Avery and I got up

before the sunrise and rode up to Corolla

we had been there before and had good luck with

some great shells and sea glass

It wasn't the case this time but we enjoyed

walking the beautiful beach and watching the sunrise

the whole week the water was so warm and clear...just

a wonderful time

later....

Beach days.....

Breakfast out and fun on the beach

playing with the camera filters while waiting for our breakfast

don't remember which night this was but Avery

enjoyed watching John Cash eat his cereal 

Declan is a pretty cool guy....sunglasses at breakfast! haha

corn hole on the beach

later.....

more vacation ....

After taking the kids out we met

up with the guys at another of our favorite places...

Tortuga's Lie for lunch

later...

NC

Jacquelyn, Kayce, Lynne and I took the kids to the

North Carolina Aquarium

It's a small one but nice and the kids really enjoyed it

sadly, I did not take many pictures....was too busy 

enjoying watching my grandkids :)

later.....

Beach vacation ....

We had rented a beach house back in January on the ocean front

with one of our daughters and her family

and her mother-in-law, as we do every year

Our son and his wife and our grandson came too

but they came and stayed at our home to take care 

of our dogs..... the #teddybearpack

We had not seen our newest grandchild, John Cash

since August so was great to be able to see him.

Avery and Declan were so excited to see him

the kids really enjoyed the pool

waiting for our table at Black Pelican....one of our fave places

to eat

Paradise....

later....

Hurricane Florence ....

Hurricane Florence was headed right for the 

North Carolina coast

So we prepared for our first hurricane....

Johnny purchased a generator that would provide power

to our fridge, lights, TV and a few small lights and things

he purchased extra gas cans and filled them with gas

2 full propone tanks for cooking...if needed

10 cases of water

beer

food

food for the dogs

new flashlights

lots of batteries

look at our shiny new generator.....

we were ready!

Our kids were worried and kept telling us to leave

but we just didn't want to leave our new home and felt we 

would be safe

We decided that if it became a category 4 or there

was a mandatory evacuation, we would leave

On Monday we got the call from the county that 

we were on a mandatory evacuation starting 7:00 am Tuesday

so we decided to get ahead of the traffic and leave on Monday

here's my face when we found out....grrr

now I had to start packing clothes and important papers

We had to pack up the dogs and all of their things

food, leashes, vet records, treats

As it turned out, the storm moved south

and it breaks my heart to see the flooding and even now, so much

flooding still going on

We went to stay with one of our daughters and as it turned out

was a really nice week to be with our family

and able to attend 2 of our grandson's birthday parties

We got the ok to return to the island on Saturday morning and

decided to wait until Saturday evening to leave.....again, to avoid

traffic. We arrived home about 9:00 Saturday night and it

was great to see our home was just as we left it.

here we are going through the checkpoint to get back

on the island. As locals, all we had to do was show

our drivers license

Our only concern was to watch the creek behind our home.....and it only reached our property line and never went any further.....thankful

 

later....