Moving, Day 1: Traveling... to Teapots?!

  Warning: Reading this post may cause you to want a spot of tea...
Monday, March 17th, it was time to bid farewell to Fort Knox and our time there. Eric officially "signed out" on leave. Our household goods had been packed and started their journey the week before. Now it was time for us to drive both our cars to Fort Bliss in El Paso, TX, and start our adventures there.
Since this trip was a little longer than our normal road trips and we were driving in separate cars; we decided to take full advantage of the "extra time" and have a mini vacation along the way. We looked for off-the-beaten path attractions as we planned our moving trip. I tried to plan some so we could see a few friends along the way and ensure we had a place to stay; but we also left some time to just explore this part of America together.
That Monday morning, of course, started with a spot of coffee (don't fret, the rest of this post will include more about teapots) one last time at Fort Knox:

Such a beautiful treat to send us on our way.
We planned the first leg of the trip only to Memphis, TN, which is about 5.5 hours from Fort Knox, KY. This wasn't too bad for the first day. PLUS, I found something super fun that was about half way to Memphis - the Teapot Collection in Trenton, TN. I found it online and started looking at pictures there, and decided we MUST go. Eric was willing to go see something different, and he knows how I do so love tea.
  Once in Trenton, we started seeing all sorts of signs shaped like teapots and referencing the collection.

  When you enter the town from a few different roads, you see these signs. They say, "Welcome to Trenton Home of the Teapot Collection."
   Actually finding the "museum" took a little doing, but that is ok. Eventually, a postman directed us to City Hall, where they have a large room full of teapots. A lady there turned on the lights so we could see them. This is a permanent exhibition. Who would have thought that Trenton, TN, is recognized as the World's Largest Collection of Porcelain Veilleuses-Theieres? Not I, but it is! We found it! The teapots on display are dated from 1750 to 1860. They have a FEW teacups here and there, but the focus is teapots and even most of those also have little spots to put a candle. They are from all over the world.
  So we took this opportunity to break up our travels for the day, see something "new", and stretch our legs with a bit of fun.
  The teapots were mostly behind glass. Here I am, playing around like I am about to pick it up:

Eric was surprised to enjoy this museum a bit, too.

There were MANY teapots. This is just one side of the room:

There was something special about the 4 teapots with an "N" for Napoleon. We found all four of them.

 

 I liked the variety.

 Did I mention that there were a few teapots in this collection?

 You know how I love elephants!

So very many pretty teapots!

 I think I can get this shot...

 My handsome Eric, looking through the literature there, which was slightly underwhelming. (the writeup was boring, NOT my Eric)

 There was also this special China set.

Why yes, I def will kiss my sweetie by the teapots!

 There is a teapot for everyone here... from the fun & silly to weird and bazaar, beautifully elogent, historical, fascinating, cute, etc.

 So there was just this big room and most of the walls were lined with glass-encased shelving for teapots. There was also a nice chandelier hanging at the far end of the room:

 Outside of the main display room, there was a wall by a window with some different glasses and a few teacups:

 I did like some of these tea cups. The glasses were pretty, but I enjoyed the tea cups much more.

  Then they had a display case with some other teapots and a few historical items from the county/area. Oh, and then they had ALL these SPOONS, like this:

We aren't sure what all the spoons, well, why? There was no sign explaining them... Maybe you need spoons to go with the cream and 2 sugars in your tea? Ha.
  Trenton is very proud of the teapot collection. There are banners and signs all over town:

Above the spoons, there were penguin salt and pepper shakers and some other figurines, including this creepy doll. We don't know why.

Front of city hall also reminds you that they have some teapots there.
People have signs in their yards, like this, to remind you that they are proud of their teapots. Some of the address markings for houses include a small teapot picture, as well. Or, just a random teapot cutout in their yard. (I mean, why not?) This bit of whimsy does seem fun, but then again I love tea. It also makes it a little more difficult when you are looking for a teapot museum and keep seeing teapot signs all over the town, but not many clearly directing the way to said teapot display...

 Anti-litter campaigns can use teapots, too.

 Not sure if you can see it in this picture or not - but in this house, waaaay up on the third floor in the window, they have a few teapots on display. Fun.

Eric & Hannah, and a few teapots!

  That's it for our first day of moving adventures. After exploring Trenton and seeing ALL the teapots for a bit, we returned to our cars and continued. We went to a hotel just outside of Memphis, made sandwiches in the hotel to celebrate St. Patty's Day, and got some rest. The hotel was AWEFUL - mainly a paint thinner smell... but that's another story. I have since complained... and will mainly focus on the teapots for this first day because they were so much more exciting than the hotel. But it did serve it's purpose and we got some rest before the second day of driving.

  As for the teapots, we really liked visiting the teapot display. If you've never heard me sing (& act out) MY version of "I'm a Little Teapot" - def. ask me to do so next time you see me. Yes, I did this - in the teapot museum. (How could I not?) Eric may or may not have a video of this...

"Homeless" Nomads

    So one of the interesting things about this move was that we actually had to get out of our house on Thursday morning, but Eric couldn't sign out for leave (and thus us actually start our road trip) until the following Monday morning. This meant we would be "homeless". We didn't want to "use up" our hotel stays before we even left town... so God provided a VERY GOOD FRIEND, my friend, Sarah, who let us stay with her that weekend. Actually, she was only there part of the time, so it worked out that we weren't in her way too much. Even when she wasn't there, she left her dog, Penelope, to hang out with us. Penelope loved Eric!

   That weekend, we took one last trip to Louisville. We figured it was time to visit Churchill Downs before we moved. THIS is the neighborhood just across from the racetrack. Actually, the area around here surprised me a bit.

  After about 13 months in Kentucky, just South of Louisville, we finally made it!

  We toured the outside grounds and the edge of the Museum, but didn't want to pay for the full tour when we didn't have all the time that day for all that. I liked this statue, out front of Churchill Downs.

   Inside, they had these gates with a large screen behind, playing old footage of past races.

  Of course, I teased Eric that we finally got to Churchill Downs, and I arranged it so that he could see the races there.

   Can't you just feel the history here?

   Once back nearer to post, Penelope convinced someone to take her on a walk... and even to dance a bit. They are SO cute, especially the taller one!

  Oh yes, I can rock the Derby hats!

   On Sunday, we went to church to bid farewell to friends there and then two of my good friends from Fort Knox (our husbands were deployed at the same time) drove out to have one last afternoon coffee and chat session. While we are excited for new adventures, we will miss a few of the things from our time in Kentucky, and most def. will miss some good friends there!

MOVING again...

Aloha!

    So once again, it's time to catch up with a few more blog posts... well, IF I can actually fill you in on the last few months, you will understand what has been taking me so long to do so. 

First, we moved! We knew it was coming, and then, like a week before Moving Day, we found out when the movers would come to pack and to load.

Three movers came and packed up pretty much the whole house:

    The next day, the movers came and loaded up a REALLY LARGE truck. It went across our driveway and also blocked our neighbor's driveway!

    This time, I knew a little bit more about moving, and moving with the Military. I had a few more hints and knew how we should leave some stuff out and go ahead and pack other things.
  So we bid farewell to most of our household goods and prepared for our next phase of the moving adventure... and an adventure it would be!

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes!

WHAT YOU NEED:

    Cupcakes

½ c. lightly salted butter, softened (I use regular baking butter.)

heaping ½ c. superfine sugar (I use regular white sugar.)

2 eggs

1 ¼ c. self-rising flour (if you only have all-purpose, you have to adjust other amounts…)

½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

finely grated zest of 1 lemon (I use the juice, of about ½ the lemon, too.)

    Filling

Lemon curd (4-5 Tbls)

    Topping

2 egg whites

scant ½ c. superfine sugar (again, I use regular here)

* I also add a little more lemon juice to the meringue at the end, about ½ lemon’s

  NOTE: This makes only 12 cupcakes! Adjust as needed.

WHAT YOU DO:

Preheat oven to 350⁰F. Line your cupcake pan with liners.

Put all the cupcake ingredients into a bowl and beat with a handheld electric mixer for about a minute. You want it to be light and creamy. Divide the cake mixture between the cupcake liners.

Bake in the preheated oven (350⁰F) for about 20 minutes. You want the cupcakes to rise a bit and be just firm to the touch.

Once the cupcakes are done baking, I remove them from the oven and let them cool a bit. Meanwhile, raise the oven temperature to 450⁰F.

I use a spoon to scoop out about 1 tsp (or a little less) of each cupcake. Fill this spot with lemon curd. (This also permits you to do a “quality assurance” check of the cupcakes…)

Make the meringue topping – beat the egg whites in a thoroughly clean bowl until peaking. Gradually beat in the sugar, a bit at a time, to make a firm, glossy meringue. This part takes 10-15 minutes. I also add about ½ lemon’s juice into this topping.

Pile the meringue onto the tops of the cupcakes – swirling it with a palette knife. (or I just use a spoon to make little spiky peaks, super cute!). Return the cupcakes to the oven (I put them back into the cupcake pan) for another 1-2 minutes, sometimes I leave them for 4 or 5 minutes. Just WATCH THEM CLOSELY. You want the meringue to start to brown, but you don’t want the sugar part too burned. A little browning on the tips is ok if you need to get the whole topping sunned a bit.

Here are the last ones I made, getting ready to go into the oven:

And coming out of the oven:

These are best when served warm, but do hold up if you want to try to save them for later. That is TRY – they are very good and don’t last long at my house. Ha. Enjoy.

The last ones I made were actually for a cupcake auction. I have also done them for bake sales. For this, I put them in cupcake boxes in sets of 4:

You can really have fun dressing them up, like this:

 (lemon shaped tags with a label on one side and a Bible verse on the other.)

These cupcakes are beautiful and delicious! I may make a variation as one whole big cake sometime. Because it is lemon with lemon with lemon, raspberries or blueberries would compliment it well. 

Is your mind spinning with ideas now? Are you taste buds crying for you to please go make cupcakes now? Ha. Do you want to try it as listed above, or do you want to try something else with it?

How will YOU experiment with this base recipe?

Seems impossible and wonderful all at once...

11.12.13 (I know; super fun date! I'll post about that another time.)
  Happy Anniversary... to us!
  So here we are, on our second wedding anniversary. We are holding a picture taken on 05.12.13- our 1.5 year anniversary, wherein we were holding a picture from 11.12.11 (our wedding day). The idea is to take our picture next year, holding this picture, and so forth. This way, we can photodocument - really see us growing old together.
  Actually, I really didn't expect Eric to be home to celebrate our anniversary this year. I thought we would just be doing this picture, if we were lucky, on our halvies-anniversaries... yet here Eric is, in my arms, celebrating our special day with me! Hooray!
   The week that we got married, my mother sent me a long letter. In it, she talked about how (amongst all the excitement of our wedding and how we may have felt all in love and all then...) - we would actually love each other even more later... and she was (of course) right! Though it sounded odd at the time, it was true. We really do love each other even more now. Every day, though it seems impossible and wonderful all at once, I def. fall even more in love with Eric.
  Eric and I have talked about how marriage isn't quite what we expected... and, for the most part, it's even better! So what's the lesson here - well, I think it's multipfold. Expect the unexpected. Be patient. Be honest. God's timing is best and He has better things planned for us than we could ever imagine. We are so very blessed. May we humbly enjoy life and continue to be kind to each other.
  We got dressed up (I even went to the dentist AND got a hair cut, whew.) and went to dinner together on a special date night. I know two years doesn't sound like all "that long" and all... but we have learned to "live everyday like he deploys tomorrow" and we can celebrate if we want, we are, afterall, still newlyweds, right?

  Mr. & Mrs. Jackson, on our 2nd Anniversary: