Simple Girl

Every once in a while, a girl just has to splurge. So my sister-in-law, Janet, and I decided to pack up the girls and head to Chicago.  After a day of driving from Minneapolis to the Windy City, we managed to precisely hit rush hour traffic, leaving me to believe that Atlanta may not have the world's worst traffic after all!  Finally, we pulled up to The Talbott Hotel in our gray, rented, Town and Country mini-van.  Let's face it.  If you pull up to a hotel in a mini-van, you're probably not traveling light. As four girls and two moms piled out of a mini-van in the heart of Chicago's Gold Coast, we were politely greeted by our bell-hop, Andrew.  He looked inside the mini-van.  "Does everything go in?" he asked.  "The suitcases? Yes. The duffle bags?  Yes.  Both coolers?  Yes.  The 12-pack of diet Coke? (Do you have any idea what that would cost out of a mini-bar?) - Yes!" My philosophy?  A nice tip covers a multitude of sin...

Forget Chicago and New York - you can get great pizza right here in northern Minnesota!  Just three hours north of the Twin Cities (that's Paul Bunyan country if you can't read the sign), in the small town of Cross Lake, Minnesota, lives the legendary Zorba's Pizza.  Zorba's found its niche where the mega chains dared not venture.  Boasting 9 locations (all in the remote cabin towns of northern Minnesota), Zorba's classic kitschy ambiance is exactly where you'd expect to see a water-skiing flip-flopping crowd. Here, the "Bunn Zpecial" Pizza boasts five meats, including a rather spicy Italian sausage.  This is pizza that calls for commitment.  The menu reads, "Red Meat Ain't Bad For You - Green Meat with Fuzz on it is!"  For the tree huggers out there, they also have the PETA Special - All Veggies - No Meat. In addition to some tasty pizza, the kids also found these cool vacation T-Shirts. Who needs Hilton Head?  We've got Zo...

There's something about going back  to a childhood place - A single exhale clears the soul. Discoveries await in rocks and sand and slippery fish send the heart racing. Old Cousins Reunite and new ones share the joy of laughter. Marshmallows stretch like sweet, sticky taffy Tangerine sunsets melt into a cool, starlit sky Crackling campfires echo the soulful cry of loons. It's what I call Cabin Magic.

Although my mom's 70th birthday was in May, we decided to celebrate it in July when we could all be together.  My sister-in-law, Janet, and I put together a party that was simple, personal and fun.  We created a theme around a favorite old photo and tied in a fun element from the photo - polka dots! For the less-than-artistic (me), the photo theme proved to be easy and fool-proof.  I like to call the following examples "Photo Copy Crafts."  If you can push a button, you can do this! Since mom loves flowers and has created a beautiful cutting garden in her yard, we decided to create personal centerpieces from her garden and make her the star - the most beautiful flower of them all! To insert pictures of my mom in each of the centerpieces, I found stem wire at a local craft store.  I held one end with a pair of pliers and then wrapped the wire around the pliers three or four times. The end result was something that resembled modern art paper clips, but th...