Happy 60th Birthday, Mom!

During the storm weeks, we met up with Ralph's family to celebrate his mom's 60th birthday.

The three Helm women.

There are babies a plenty coming on this side of the family too! Here are the two of us preggos!

Power Outage!

I am so sorry for my absence! When Hurricane Ike blew through OH, we lost power for 11 days, 18 hours--not that we were counting! :) I am now back and will try to get you caught up on all of our activities lately. Here are a couple of picks of heroes from, Louisiana.





The back of our house and our damage.

From the front of our house, how far the tree branch hung into the neighbor's yard.

We were so blessed that the neighbor's whose tree it was helped us with cutting off the branches, etc to reduce the weight onto our other neighbor's fence, phone line, etc. Our other neighbors ran us two extension cords--one to the garage to keep the refrigerator/freezer running and one into the house so Ralph could work. Our house church came and cut up the tree and moved it out back for us. Praise the Lord for His watch care over us during this time.

Family!

My cousin, Crystal, and her husband, Jimmy, called us on Friday to let us know they'd be coming through on the truck and would we have time for lunch? We were so excited! Sunday we met up with them and went to lunch at Logan's. Yeah for a yummy lunch and unexpected time with family from across the country (they live in CA)!

I feel so blessed to have been so surrounded by family this summer. It has always meant so much but it means even more with Nugget coming. I have felt the least cut off from family this summer than I have in a long time. Thank you, Lord!

Labor Day 2008

I found some terrific Labor Day food ideas on Hostess with the Mostess! She linked to some great recipes on Epicurious. Here are my versions of the recipes!

Turkey Burgers with Tomato Jam, Olives and Feta I actually made them into sliders to help with portion control. Love the tomato jam!

Salt and Pepper Oven Fries These we actually "baked" on the grill and I did not have time to go hunting for the Japanese seasoning so I just used a Mexican blend I had on hand. They were great!

My version of a red, white and blue table scape using what I had on hand.

The fam ready to eat!

My version of Cupcake Burgers. I used a Better Homes and Gardens recipe for the cupcakes and a Nigella Lawson recipe for the brownie burger part. :) So yummy!

Road Trip Food

Is there anything better than finding some great food on the road? We had the opportunity to try out 2 great places near Duluth, MN.

The first was Gordy's Hi-Hat. We had great burgers and great milk shakes! Thanks to Bobby and Tiff for the terrific recommendation.

The second place was recommended by Chad and Nikki, Betty's Pies. I had the vegetable pastie. Yum m! The pies were fantastic! Unfortunately, Dad couldn't come with us. It was Ralph, Mom and I on this road trip but we did bring him home some pie. :)

If you ever end up that way, we suggest you try them both!