As Southern As It Gets

Let's talk about all things Southern today.  We lived in the South for two years - Arkansas for one year and Mississippi for one year.  We LOVED so many things about living in the South and the people/traditions of the South.  It really is a super special place and unlike any other area of the country.  It just has a different feel.  Different than out west, different than the Midwest.  It's a special place that will always hold a special spot in my heart.

(Trip to Savannah 2014)

My Favorite Southern Things:

1. Their love for college football, the SEC and tailgating.

2. Southern people know how to throw a good party with so much attention to all the details - the linens, the menu, the cocktails, the dessert.

3. The accents

4. The slow pace of life.  I'd always heard about this, but things truly do move slower in the South.

5. Southern food, Southern cookbooks and the love of enjoying delicious meals together

6. Southern homes and bold decor

7. Friendly conversations everywhere you go

8. Churches everywhere

9. Southern Style.  Big bows, smocked dresses, bold patterns and really dressing up for church.  Sundays in the South really made me smile.  Think hats to church, fancy dresses, special church clothes, etc.

10. Beach access!  I miss living three hours from the ocean.

11. A heart warming abundance of God Bless Yous

12. The flowers and landscaping

13. The Bible studies going on at every single church

14. The manners - yes ma'am and yes, sir - everywhere you go

15. Amazing Chicken - fried chicken, Chick-fil-A, Popeyes

(Olive age 1 in Mississippi posing by our Azaleas)

So naturally, I was excited to dive into As Southern As It Gets: 1,071 Reasons to Never Leave the South to see what he deemed the best reasons to never leave the South.  The book is darling with the plaid cover and it's the perfect size to flip through.  I'm sure any Southerner would enjoy the Southern quotes and reading the list of things in this book.  I found myself nodding my head and smiling throughout the book.  It's nostalgic and current.  You feel heartwarming pride for all of the special Southern traditions that you either grew up with or are able to enjoy when you visit.  The South is special and this book reminded me of all the reasons why I love it.  It's the perfect book to add to your coffee table collection.
*This book was gifted to me in exchange for an honest review from Booklook.


Are you a fan of all things Southern?

What are your favorite Southern things??

Tuesday Talk: My Hometowns

I've had 6 hometowns throughout my life and I am excited to share some of my favorite things about them with you today.  Some are big cities and others are small.  We went on a string of living in capital cities for a while, living out west and the south, and we're back to Midwest living now.  It's been quite an adventure to enjoy all of these fun cities.  However, I'm pretty excited about the prospect of making our current city home for a LONG time.

1. Newburgh, Indiana

I was born and raised for 18 in Newburgh located in the very southern part of Indiana.   The majority of our immediate and extended family lives in this area.  I loved growing up close to family and cousins.  We had great times living surrounded by cornfields, enjoying all four seasons and growing up as a Hoosier.  The highlight of this area would have to be our family living there.  We got to help my dad run three campaigns for sheriff, enjoy great schools, go to baseball & basketball games and be close to several big cities.

The best parts about this area of the country are:
The Polar Express Train that comes through French Lick, IN every Christmas
The Indianapolis Colts Play here - I still miss Peyton!
Santa Claus, IN is a town where's it's Christmas year round
Smothers Park in Owensboro, KY

2. Bloomington, Indiana
I went to college at Indiana University and loved my time in Bloomington.  It's a great little college town with a perfect town square, the best restaurants and it was only 2 hours from home.  I was an elementary education major from the second I stepped on campus and loved my time in the town.  The campus is beautiful and it's really exciting when the Hoosiers are doing well in basketball.  I love their striped pants and often pick them to go farther in the March Madness tournament than I should.  I'm anxious to plan a college visit since I haven't been back since 2003.  We frequented Ben & Jerry's ice cream shop and ordered late night pizza from Pizza Express.  I lived on campus the whole time and adored my time walking all over this cute town.


3. Salt Lake City, Utah
We called Salt Lake City home for 9 years.  I never thought we'd live there more than 5 years, but sometimes life has a way of working out differently than you'd planned.  We had a wonderful run in Utah and very happily look back on our years out west.  We were newly married and up for any adventure that came our way.  We were both in graduate school at various times and left the state with two masters and a PhD.  We also added two cats and a baby to our family before we left the state.  I taught elementary school and my hubby was in graduate school the whole time we were there.  The mountains are SO CLOSE and the city is such a fun place to live.  We're hoping to plan a visit back sometime soon.

 

 
I have over 100 blog posts about Utah so I'll just share a few favorite things:
 The proximity to The Badlands, South Dakota, Mt. Rushmore, Deadwood, etc.
Jackson Hole, WY is a quick drive away - Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, ranches, etc.
Las Vegas is the a quick drive away with several National Parks along the way & Hoover Dam
We loved going up to visit Park City with all the delicious food & outlets.
Salt Lake City has a great baseball team, the Utah Jazz play there, the food is delicious and the shopping is great!  I miss having an IKEA so close and basically anything else you'd need.


4. Little Rock, Arkansas

We lived in Little Rock for one year and enjoyed our time there.  It wasn't a long time to get to know the city, but we made the most of it.  We loved the BBQ, the Farmer's Market, walking along the river, the zoo, the children's library and all of the yummy restaurants.  They have a fun Food Truck Festival every year and we made a trip down to Hot Springs.


 5. Jackson, Mississippi

We only lived in Mississippi for one year, but we fell in love with it right away.  The people were some of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet, we found a great church and lived in the cutest house.  We made friends easily and explored as much of the state as we could.  We'd never lived in the deep South before and we loved it.

We enjoyed going to their huge state fair.
Had a blast going to Music for Aardvarks classes for kids.
Loved touring the coast, eating beignets and being so close to the ocean.
Exploring Vicksburg, MS and frequenting the Children's Museum
and our backyard was a little slice of heaven


6. Terre Haute, Indiana


We moved to Terre Haute last July and are settling in really well.  Kevin's settling into his new job and we're enjoying making friends.  We are in the process of buying a house and are looking forward to moving into it sometime in April.  Our town has lots of fun things going on with college sports, a children's museum, a newly renovated children's library, bounce house for kids, a fun country club and the public parks are great.  We're excited to keep trying new restaurants, attending fun events and getting to know our city even better in the coming months.

The best parts about our area are:
The Indiana State Fair is an hour away in Indianapolis
We're just three hours away from our beloved University of Notre Dame
 Chicago is really close and so is St. Louis
ISU sporting events


What's the best thing about your hometown???

I am joining Momfessionals with her tribute to hometowns this week.

It's time to link up with my favorite ladies!

Be sure to join us with your best post of the week.

We had 179 ladies link up last week.

The most clicked on link up from last week was
9 Reasons I'm Afraid to Have a Baby from Currently, Kelsie

Beth at Our Pretty Little Girls | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram 

 Becky at BYBMG | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Jessica at Sweet Little Ones | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Emily at Raising Barnes | Pinterest | Instagram

Stephanie at Wife Mommy Me | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Stasia at Our Life on a Budget | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Sarah at Abiding In Grace | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Ruthie at Rear. Release. Regroup. | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Laura at Life Is Beautiful | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Christina at Waltzing In Beauty | Pinterest | Instagram

Michelle at Grammie Time | Pinterest | Instagram 

Tina at Go Big or Go Home | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Whitney at Polka Dotty Place | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

<div align="center">
<a href="http://polka-dottyplace.blogspot.com/" title="Polka-Dotty Place"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkwfCFr9AXEgv3ETndnI3C_JCdTWaSGQwXVTve-oOCmkLLslJ1CQVNenqCb8uwChwspoznlUrtsuQvC-xZN5-IJRxUz_72ZAxTQVgafE1le_cD3Jw6kmaIVmHuxpFlREuoqf9bfiXIA6A/s1600/TuesdayTalk.jpg" alt="Polka-Dotty Place" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

An InLinkz Link-up

The Best of 2015

I almost skipped out on doing a wrap up for 2015, but it was a great year that deserves a recap.  Lots of highlights and things to be thankful for.  I'm so glad I have this space to document all the big and little things that go on in our day to day life.

January:

We headed down to the Mississippi coast line to visit Biloxi, MS and had a great time.  Living less than three hours from the beach was definitely a great thing about living in Jackson.  I talked about the importance of Windexing your diamonds.  Shared a family favorite recipe for Texas Sheet Cake.  Think of it as a dessert that is the result of a chocolate cake marrying a brownie.  It's delicious.

February:

I started using Bare Minerals make up and am a huge fan almost a year later.  It wears so well and is really easy to wear.  I made these Dark Chocolate Bites with dried fruit and nuts for friends around Valentine's Day and they were delicious.  I need to make those again soon.  I usually do a yearly PSA about making yourself easily accessible online - specifically talking to no reply bloggers.  I always respond to comments via email so if you don't hear back from me, your email is likely hidden.  I have had great luck freezing cookie dough this year.  The cookies taste fresh and they are always in my freezer ready to be baked.  No more waiting around to stir up cookies and then baking them.

March:

 

I wrote about how charming Southern people are and how I appreciated their kindness.  Kevin had a conference to go to in Savannah, GA so we tagged along for a little Savannah Roadtrip.  We had a wonderful time, visited with friends and walked all over that city.  Definitely an amazing spot to visit if you ever get the chance.   My parents came down to Mississippi to visit and we had a great time working on projects around the house.  We had so much fun decorating and celebrating Easter.  Olive loved hunting for eggs for the first time and we had a blast with chalkboard eggs.

We spent a weekend in Oxford and loved touring the home of Ole Miss.

April:

 

My in laws came down for a visit and my MIL and I worked for DAYS to overhaul our yard.  We dug things up, planted new things, rearranged and worked our tails off to make our yard beautiful.  I learned so much about gardening and Olive was covered in dirt for days.  We were all happy and adored our place in Mississippi.  Kevin studied for and passed his big psychology licensing exam.  Life with a toddler is never dull and I find myself saying the strangest things to her.  We got to take a quick day trip to Vicksburg, MS.

May:

 

Olive became a Burn Center graduate this month.  I hated that she ever had to deal with this, but it's been amazing to see how well her hand has healed.  I did not see this news coming - we are moving to Indiana!!  Kevin interviewed and accepted a position at Indiana State.  My favorite restaurant in Utah was Cafe Rio so I regularly make Cafe Rio inspired Pulled Pork for dinner.  It's so good!  Our sweet Olive turned 2 and we put our house up for sale.  We actually showed it to the future owners for the first time on her birthday.

June:

 

We had a Some Bunny is Turning Two party with our families.  It was adorable and capture her love for her bunny perfectly.   I gave Watermelon Salsa a try and it was so refreshing.  We took our first vacation to Naples, FL with my in laws.  It was amazing and Olive keeps asking to go back to the ocean.  Do you blame her??  I reread this post several times about how our children really just want our TIME.

July:

 

My blog turned FOUR.   I need to get busy and make these Triple Berry Scones again because I've been craving them.  We SOLD our house in Mississippi!  That was such a blessing to us to be able to move and not have to worry about selling a house from a distance or renting it out.  We were able to completely close that chapter of our lives and settle into our new life.  We had our first garage sale and I shared 12 tips for having a great sale.  We moved.  My parents came down to Mississippi to help us pack up and move ourselves back to our home state.  It was a HUGE job like moving always is, but we couldn't have done it without them.  We celebrated Kevin's 34th birthday with a fiesta and fireworks and then celebrated 11 years of marriage.

August:

 

I shared some of my favorite recipes for football food & appetizers with the kick off of college football.   We went to the Indiana State Fair for the first time.  We interviewed and hired our first non-family member babysitters for Olive.  It was stressful, but I'm glad we got the ball rolling.  Talked about the differences in parenting during year 1 and year 2 of Olive's life. 

September:

 

 I had the best time hosting a Woodland Creature baby boy shower for one of my friends from high school.   We took a little weekend trip to Kentucky for one of the prettiest Southern Weddings I've ever been to.  I had fun picking out 5 celebrity guests to invite over for dinner.  I wrote a letter saying Goodbye to Mississippi.  I loved our time there and am thankful for the year we had.  I mentioned how I aspired to be a cheerleader... for my husband and family.  We took a road trip up to Notre Dame for a game day weekend with my in laws.  We had the best time, ND won and Olive got to visit campus for the first time.  I definitely won't be our last trip up to tailgate and enjoy football festivities.

October:

 

Olive had so much fun pretending to make 15 Bean Soup.   We finally shared some BIG BABY NEWS that we'd been keeping a secret for the pats 12 weeks or so.  It was so fun to tell family and friends our news and include Olive in the fun this time.  I started documenting my pregnancy monthly and I love looking back to see these early moments of the first twelve weeks.  We went to our first homecoming at ISU and had a great time tailgating and watching football.  It was Olive's first time to go into a stadium for a game.  Hands Free Life was one of my favorite books of 2015.  We let Olive pick out her Halloween costume for the first time and she decided to be a Pretty Pirate.  

November:

 

We kicked off the month announcing we were having a little BOY!   I love sharing recipes on my blog and I love that many of my favorite recipes can be found on my blog.  This Chicken Noodle Soup is definitely a favorite at our house.  I gave myself 7 birthday challenges for the coming year that I look forward to tackling.  Making pies is not so intimidating when you know some Pie Making Secrets.  We spent a weekend with friends in Chicago.  

December:

We started a new tradition with The Kindness Elves this year.  Olive and I had a great time making Christmas ornaments together.  These Pumpkin Streusel Muffins have been made several times since first trying them at Thanksgiving.  We had a wonderful brunch with Santa at our country club.  I loved how our Christmas cards turned out this year. 

My favorite moment of the year:

It's so hard to pick one... so I'll pick two - moving to Indiana and baby brother on the way!

My least favorite moment of the year:

Moving for the 4th year in a row :)

What was the high and low of 2015 for you??

Can't wait to see what 2016 has in store for our family!!

Dear Mississippi

Dear Mississippi,

Thanks for a great year.  We loved living in your state.  We planned on calling Mississippi home for several years, but God had other plans for our family.  We met so many nice people and had such a great time exploring.  We miss all the Southern hospitality and we miss your friendly people.  Grocery shopping just isn't the same in Indiana.  People in the South talk to everyone in the store and you feel like you make all kinds of friends.  People are generous with their God bless yous and have a blessed day.  They smile, make eye contact and are usually up for a good chat.

We miss...
our house
our backyard
our favorite restaurants
Daylight Donuts
our church and all of their programs
fancy dresses every week at church
all the y'alls
magnolia trees
crepe myrtle lined streets
spanish moss
southern hospitality where everyone talks and visits with everyone
bible studies
our friends
the children's museum
Target
being just a few hours from the beach
SEC football excitement and enthusiasm
fancy tailgating
smocked dresses
big bows
monograms

We also miss Maybelle.  

(These pictures were taken during our last hours in Mississippi.  I'd been packing and sweating for DAYS and Maybelle stopped by looking classy as ever.  Olive is in her pjs and seemed like she knew we were really saying goodbye.)

I know I mentioned Maybelle regularly and we really do miss her.  Olive thinks she still lives next door and when we baked cookies last weekend she asked if they were "for Belle-Belle?"  We always baked and made food to deliver next door and enjoying going over to Maybelle's house for a visit.  She was excited to have us as neighbors and loved inviting us over.  We'd go over for a visit and she'd always have special snacks for Olive.  She'd buy different sugary cereals and have cups just for her.  Olive knew where she kept everything and they had a sweet little routine down.  Maybelle let Olive pretend to sleep on her guest bed, open cabinets and make herself right at home.

She was the perfect Southern belle with the most perfect Southern accent.  She was in her 70s and kept busier than most people I know with choir, work with the bed and breakfast association, traveling and visiting her family.  We enjoyed her company.  She had two sons and seemed to love hanging out with us girls.  We'd go out to lunch on Saturdays, go to the Christmas market and she'd bring us soup if she knew we were sick.  She was feisty and definitely kept our little cul-de-sac in ship shape condition.  She invited us to church and to any social function that was going on.  She dropped off newspaper clippings and flagged magazines to our door so we'd know about the family friendly activities going on in her state.  She was a fun neighbor and I hope we can do a good job of staying in touch.


We will always smile when we think of Mississippi and hope to get back for a visit in the near future.  We're thankful our house sold so quickly, but definitely miss the life we'd established there.  We are also so thankful that Mississippi had a Burn Center so close to Jackson.  I'm still sad that we ever had to use their services, but am so appreciative of how they helped Olive recover from her burn.


It seems to take close to a year for a place to feel like home.  We are settling in nicely to our life in Indiana, but we are still at the awkward stage of everything being so new.  We lived in Southern IN for the first 20 years of our life and now we are living in Central IN.  Same state, but definitely a new to us city.  We are loving the weather and I think we are really going to enjoy having a true fall/winter again.  We are working hard to make work/couple/mom/kid friends, establish routines and find a church.  It's all a bit exhausting and takes a ton of effort on our part.  Everything is good and all of our efforts will be well worth it, but it's still our third new city in three years and it takes time for everything to feel homey.


Wish us luck & go visit Mississippi if you ever  have the chance!!
We sure loved it :)

Tunica, MS

Kevin decided that he wanted to take one last Mississippi road trip for his Father's Day + birthday present this year.  I told him to make the plans and we'd be ready to go with him.

He picked Tunica, MS.

Not the most popular destination,

but one we hadn't been to and one that was pretty affordable during the week.

We stopped by the Children's Museum on our way out of town.

Kevin had never gone with us and he had a fun time.

He loved seeing Olive run from exhibit to exhibit.

We stayed at Gold Strike in Tunica.

The hotel was very nice and clean.

The rooms were surprisingly great.

Olive loves a good hotel room.

King size bed.

Fluffy pillows.
We always pack a bag with her favorite books & toys
to make the hotel stay seem more homey and comfortable for her.

The Gold Strike Buffet was ah-mazing!!

You should definitely eat here if you get a chance.

We ate dinner here and it did not disappoint.

Olive was free and she loved it.

She had fun trying new things and eating off my plate.

They had homemade pizza, salad bar, all kinds of meats, 

stir fry, foods from all genres, soups and desserts.

The build your own stir fry was my favorite!

You filled a plate with all of your favorites,

chose your meat and sauce.

Then they cooked it up for you.

It was sooooo good.

I've mentioned before that I am a bit of a dessert snob.

I really love homemade desserts and store bought aren't my favorites.

The desserts at Gold Strike were impressive!

They all tasted homemade and they had a soft serve bar.

The cookies were delicious, coffee mousse and carrot cake were memorable.

I had hoped to eat at the Paula Deen buffet and head to the outlet malls.  The buffet closed some time ago and the outlet mall had less than 10 random stores.  We found a fun shoe store and Olive got these pink chucks.  Lemons out of lemonade :)

Kevin enjoyed the casino for a bit and said it was a lot of fun.
The place was crowded so I'm sure others agreed.
They also had a show going on, but we spent too much time eating dinner and missed it.  Olive didn't mind and just jumped on the bed for a little show of her own.

Tunica was about a three hour drive from Jackson.
It was the perfect distance and we had a great visit.

SOLD

 

I mentioned last week that our house SOLD!!

We are still so excited about the news.

We closed last week and it's all official.

We are really thankful for a quick sale because we were on a quick timeline.

I wanted to document the details so I'd always remember them.

May 13th, 2015: Kevin accepted his new position at ISU

May 14th: We met with a realtor and agreed to list the house with him

May 15-17th: We worked like crazy to get our house staged and ready to be photographed

May 18th: Our house was officially listed

May 21st: We moved the cats to Indiana to stay with my parents.

May 28th: We sold Kevin's car so we'd have one less thing to move.

May 29th: - Olive's 2nd birthday - We carpooled with Kevin and took him to work.  We got home and saw a strange truck in our driveway.  We pulled up to the house and they backed out.  Kevin got out to talk to them despite my hesitancy.  They were looking at the house and were just driving by.  I parked in the driveway and I see them parking.  Kevin offered to give them a quick house tour since our realtor wasn't available to show the house.  I panicked for a moment.  It was Olive's birthday and I hadn't left the house in show ready conditions.  Kevin assured them it was fine and told me to calm down :)

I rushed in to turn on lights and tidy up a bit.  Kevin made small talk in the front yard.  He took Olive while I showed the Mom and college aged son the house.  They asked questions, were very friendly and seemed really interested.  They were very complimentary and both seemed to genuinely like the house.  We went out to the backyard and they were in love.  The mom said, "We are going to buy your house!!"  She wanted her husband to drive up to see the house so she said she'd plan a second visit.  I was hopeful, but didn't really know if this would lead to an offer.  The showing went really well and we hoped to hear back from them.  I'm really glad that Kevin did the right thing to approach them and offer to show them the house on the spot.

June 3rd: The same family scheduled a second showing with our realtor.  They wanted to see our house and a few others in the area.  This time the husband and the son came to tour the homes.  I baked chocolate chip cookies, had the house looking great and was ready for a good showing.  We left the house at 3:00 and didn't get a call from our realtor to come home until 5:30!  Our realtor said our house showed the best and was the clear front runner.  He'd keep us posted.

June 5th: We were getting a little discouraged when we didn't hear back from our realtor on the 4th, but tried not to worry.  Then we woke up to an early morning email from our realtor on the 5th that said he was finalizing the paperwork for an offer on our house!!  We got an offer later on that afternoon - 19 days after we listed it.  Our prayers had been answered.

June 7th: We negotiated back and forth and accepted an offer that night.

June 8th: Our week was filled with tons of inspections, appraisals, repairs, etc.

June 16th: Home inspection came back great and everything else was taken care of last week.

July 1st: CLOSING!  We had an early morning closing and took Olive along with us.  She did great and the whole process was fast.  It was a little bittersweet sitting in the same law office to sign away our house to new owners.  The last few months have been a whirlwind and it all felt very real all of the sudden.  We've loved our home and loved Mississippi so we both just felt a little nostalgic.  Plus, I think there's always a bit of sadness when you're leaving a home you love.

July 7/8th - The new owners were eager to close on the first, but agreed to let us live in the house for one more week.  We were eager to have everything official so it worked out for us.  

We feel very blessed when we look back over the events of the last few months.  I would have never dreamed we'd be selling our house this summer and here were are with the sale final.  The realty market in Jackson is tricky so we weren't sure what to expect.  Thankfully the new owners were attracted to the very same things that we were about the house - location, size, the yard and the custom details of the home.  We didn't want to rent out our home and tried really hard not to worry about the selling timeline.  Summer is prime time to sell a house so we were fortunate to be working with a summer timeline.  We are so thankful for a great realty company and happy with the whole process.

We are renting a condo in Indiana and look forward to house shopping once we get to know the schools and area better this year.  It'll be our first time to look into schools when we are considering places to live.  I can hardly believe it'll be time for Olive to go to school in just a few years!!

The Best Parts... of the MS Children's Museum

We've really been enjoying our MS Children's Museum Passes this year.  I wasn't sure if Olive would be too little for it or if she'd love it.  There is so much to do for all ages and we've yet to make it through every exhibit after multiple visits.  It's fun to go with just your kids and fun to meet here for play dates.  We had a great time with Elizabeth & Charlotte recently.

Olive's 2 year old favorites include:

the farm exhibit

race cars

giant water table

grocery store

outdoor blocks

Look how FUN the museum is:

So all this to say, check out your local museums!

There is so much going on - 

we are hoping to make it to some classes and story times coming up.