Friday Night Photos

I thought for sure that I didn't have any photos on my camera roll to post tonight. This week hasn't been very eventful, but I managed to take a picture of a few random things!

When I went to Sherwin-Williams to buy paint for the furniture, I parked the car and grabbed my purse, then started to put on my mask. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I could see someone staring at me from the car next to me. I turned to look, and sure enough, he was staring. Hahaha!

Luke turned four years old this month, and I thought it would be fun to get him an ant farm. We had one when my kids were little, and we all loved it. I bought it and was waiting for the ants to come in the mail. I was never given a shipment notification or anything about the ants, and Jerry grabbed the mail on his way to work (at 5 PM). There was an envelope addressed to me, so he didn't open it. The next morning, he brought the mail inside and the envelope looked pretty mysterious. I opened it and nearly dropped it because I was startled to see a little vial of ants inside the envelope!

I felt bad that they'd been in the envelope in Jerry's car all night, so I felt like we should get the ant farm set up right away. To be cautious, I set the farm in the (empty) bathtub while I attempted to move the ants from the vial into the farm. (Ask my dad why it's important to contain the ants when transferring! Haha, when I was a kid, the fire ants got all over my bedroom because I tried to do it myself.)

I'm glad I used the bathtub, because one of them crawled out of the vial and started to run up the vial toward my fingers. I panicked and moved too quickly and half of the ants from the vial wound up in the bathtub. I used a wooden skewer to pick them up (by letting them crawl onto it--not stabbing them! Ha), one by one, and put them into the farm.

It's been three days and I still haven't brought it to Luke. Just in case we end up keeping it, I bought him a different gift ;)

I came across this "blanket rack" on Facebook Marketplace, and I thought it was such a great idea to save space. I have so much scrap wood that I could make a couple of these (for towels and/or blankets) really easily. Going on my "to make" list.

I spent SO much time today prepping dinner, but it was very worth it to make Chipotle-style chicken burrito bowls. I'm not a fan of raw tomatoes or cilantro, but somehow, I really like the pico de gallo. 

Duck was lying on my bed like bloated roadkill. His legs were stuck out in all directions. (I usually make my bed first thing in the morning, but any cat owner knows that you don't get to choose when you make your bed ;)

I saw this meme and it made me laugh--it's absolutely true!

I was watching Dirty Jobs and I think this was an episode with pigs (or maybe chicks?) and Phoebe was very interested. She sat in front of the TV like that for about five minutes, watching the show with me.

I had a dentist appointment a few days ago and I saw this hanging in the waiting room. I really liked it and it gave me the idea to make something similar for my bedroom. We have a wall in our bedroom that really needs a picture; it's very bare. I am going to build a frame--like pictured below--and then instead of the little square art pieces, I'll get a bunch of square photos printed.

I can glue and Mod Podge them onto thin pieces of wood and then attach those to the frame. I have no room in the garage to work on it until I'm done painting the furniture, though. I got most of the first coat of paint done; the project should take maybe three more days total. 

The seeds I planted are starting to grow... a little. But they aren't lasting even two days at a time because Duck keeps pulling them out! I only planted basil and bell peppers and I was so excited when I saw they were growing. I keep them on top of the fridge so they are in direct sunlight under the skylight in the kitchen.

Well, Duck jumps on top of the fridge and grabs them with his teeth, breaking them. That's why I have little toothpicks in there--I was hoping they would poke him in the nose when he tries to grab the seedlings, but they haven't deterred him. I only have a couple of seedlings left. I have no idea where else I can put them to keep the cats away. If you have ideas to keep the cats away, please let me know!

Have a great weekend! xo

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On This Day: March 25

A couple of weeks ago I didn't have anything to write, and I decided to post some pictures that were taken on that day in previous years. It was fun to see what was going on back then! I don't really have anything new to write, so I'm going to throwback to this day (March 25) in years past (at least as far as my photos go back)...

This was taken in 2005, when Noah was eight months old. It's so hard to imagine a house with just one baby and one pet! (We had Chandler at the time.) Noah was 18 months old when Eli was born, so the house wasn't this quiet for TOO long ;)

I don't have any pictures on March 25 from 2006-2010, unfortunately! But here is one from 2011... Noah used to get a magazine from LEGO in the mail and kids submit photos of them with things they built out of LEGOs. Noah asked me to take his picture to send to the magazine. So sweet!

This is a race photo from the Rock CF Half Marathon in 2012. My gait looks terrible here, haha. This was the first and only race I've ever worn headphones. I didn't like wearing them because I didn't get to chat with people on the course. Even if I don't talk to other people, I at least like to listen to what's going on.

A post-race photo with my friends. Left to right: me, Alicia, Andrea, Jessica, Stephanie, and Renee.

I ran the half in 2:02:57, which was a PR for me at the time. My previous best was 2:10:40, so it was a big jump down.

In 2013, this was Noah's "special day". I used to let the kids have a "special day" once per school year. They could each play hooky from school and choose something fun to do with me--just the two of us. Usually we would go out to eat and go to a movie or bowling. On this day, we went bowling, then lunch at Red Robin, and then ice cream at DQ. I miss doing special days with them. Now, if I suggest missing school, Noah tells me all the reasons he can't do that if he wants to get into the nursing program at school! Haha, he's a good kid.

At the bowling alley for Noah's "special day".

Jerry and I went to see Divergent in 2014. It was later this evening that I called Mark's nephew to let him know we were going to visit the following day, and Mark's nephew told me that Mark didn't have much longer to live--the hospice nurse was there and there wasn't time for me to go up and see him. He passed away a few hours later, in the early morning of March 26. (Here is Mark's story if you're not familiar.) Can you believe it's been seven years since Mark died? 

This is Eli playing with Luke in 2018. Luke had just turned a year old and he LOVED Eli. Thankfully, Eli is great with kids and he loved playing with Luke just as much (he still does). I miss when Eli was really into his hairstyle! This is the blond that was left after the blue faded.

This was in 2019--I just finished a four-day bathroom makeover. I'd removed the popcorn ceiling, taped and mudded the drywall seams, painted, made a new countertop, replaced the door, painted the cabinets, and Jerry installed new flooring. You can see the details and before photos on this post.

This was fun! I may make this a regular "Throwback Thursday" type of post (at least when I don't have much to write about).

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Furniture Restoration Progress

I have been WAY too eager for spring, basically ever since fall turned into winter. Being home all last year definitely took its toll mentally. It was great during the spring and summer when I was working on giving the garage a major makeover, but when the weather got cold, doing projects outside was no longer fun.

My favorite thing to do in the warmer months is to work on a project in the garage with all the doors open so that the breeze comes through (and the squirrels can come and beg for their walnuts--when they see me in there, they come and watch me until I notice them and give them a nut). I listen to podcasts while I work and it feels almost therapeutic. It's just not the same in the winter with all the doors closed.

A few months ago, I set up my sewing stuff in there to get it out of my house--it takes up a lot of room!--and I love that it will add some more variety to the projects I can work on in the garage. I've been practicing a lot with my serger and I am definitely getting the hang of it now. I still have a lot to learn, but I really like it.

Currently, I am working on restoring the Pottery Barn furniture I bought from Facebook Marketplace. (I bought a TV console and a coffee table for $100.) It is a big project! I thought it would only take me a four days--sand on day one, prime on day two, paint first coat on day three, and paint second coat on day four--but I've been working on it daily since Saturday and I only just finished priming it today.

The sanding took much longer than I thought it would. I probably did a much more thorough job than I needed to, but I didn't want to skimp on the sanding. There were a lot of nicks in the coffee table so I sanded those out. I also cleaned everything with TSP to remove any shine.

This is what it looked like before and then after I removed the doors and drawers and sanded the heck out of it. 

Hey, in DIY things tend to look worse before they look better ;) 

I wasted a whole day on Monday when I started to apply the prime coat. I used Kilz for oil-based paint (which I've used a lot before--on furniture, doors, and trim) and it seemed "off" to me. I couldn't remember the texture being that thick when I used it in the house and it was actually difficult to apply because it was so thick (this was an unopened gallon, not the one I used in the house).

The directions said not to add any paint thinner. The brush strokes were really noticeable and it seemed like there were little chunks in the primer. (I enhanced the contrast in this picture to give a better visual--you can see the brush strokes are really bad and it looks kind of "chunky".)

After priming most of the console, I knew the primer had to be bad. It definitely didn't look like that when I used it in the house (nor was it that hard to apply). So, I had to sand all of that down from the console to get rid of the brush stroke texture.

I bought a new gallon of Kilz and sure enough, it was much thinner when I opened it up. I'm not sure what happened to the previous gallon, but I know it wasn't from storage. (I store the paint in the house because remember when I left several gallons of paint in the garage in the winter and I had to throw it all out? Ugh, expensive lesson.)

Yesterday, I was finally able to really start priming everything. The console and the coffee table are pretty big--the coffee table has three large drawers and the console has four (plus two doors). I love the drawers on the coffee table because they are two-sided--you can pull them out from either direction. I felt like I would never get done priming! Every time I thought I was done, I realized that I'd missed the side of a drawer or the inside of one leg or something like that.

I bought a gallon of "Spare White" oil-based paint from Sherwin-Williams (the same paint I used for all of the trim in the house). I would love to use some color, but I don't think there are any colors that would work well for those pieces of furniture in my living room. So, tomorrow I'm going to try to get the first coat of paint on all of the pieces.

I don't love the drawer pulls, but they are recessed pulls and that means I have to replace with them with the same type. I looked for some online, and they are SO expensive--it would cost me more to buy the pulls than I spent on the two pieces of furniture! (When removing hardware, it wasn't until I got to this last drawer that I remembered to take a "before" photo of the pulls. I don't like the little holder for a label, so I'm not going to put those back on.)

In other news, my knee is not okay yet. I'm super bummed. It doesn't hurt, but it gets really tight sometimes. And the worst part is the sound it makes when I bend it--a crunching sound with a squeak like you would hear if you stretched out a balloon. Because it's not painful, I'm tempted to exercise on it (maybe just riding my bike for a while so I'm not putting weight on it). The tightness and the sound it makes concern me, though--I really should just make an appointment with an orthopedist to be sure.

The timing of the injury was a big disappointment because I had been so excited to do the Couch to 5K plan and to continue my five miles a day streak. I was in a really good mental place when it comes to exercise. And then I injured it in the most ironic way--I was working on my bike gears in the garage when I knelt right on a screwdriver handle.

I miss going for walks (and I know Joey misses Roomba!) but strangely, I feel totally okay mentally. I haven't been hard on myself at all about not exercising while my knee heals. And I've been really happy lately. Of course, whenever I feel happy, I question whether I'm just hypomanic. Hypomania is so clear in retrospect, but not so much in the present. I haven't been obsessively cleaning or working on a project non-stop, though, so I think maybe I'm just happy :) 

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Transformation Tuesday #19: A splash of paint!

Thank you so much for the last-minute submissions for Transformation Tuesday! As you know, I love this series (and I know many of you do, too) so please keep them coming (see bottom of the post for details to submit).

After going through all of these, I realized that the main topic was paint--it's amazing what a splash of paint can do to completely transform a room or a piece of furniture. If you don't have the money to update the look of a room, a single gallon of paint in the right places can do wonders. And it feels so good when you love the new look :)

Here are some fun transformations involving paint for this Transformation Tuesday...

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I finally decided to update the master bathroom in our house, since it was the last room on our main floor that we hadn't painted since we bought our house a few years ago.  We put the new sink faucet in a couple of months ago..., then I painted the walls, the shower doors (with metallic spray paint), the countertops (with a marble countertop kit) and the cabinets.  I got a new mirror and hardware and my husband installed a new vanity light. (I don't do electric!)  It feels like a brand new room for under $500!

- Jen

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This is my fiancé's pool/guest bathroom that I took on as a project. I was trying to do this as cheaply as possible, so mainly I used paint to change the look of the bathroom. Blue and green are my favorite colors, so you can definitely see my influence here! I purchased a new rug, and found the pictures and shower curtain in a thrift store. I repurposed the plant and the white shelf that we already owned.  I also replaced the blind on the pool door. Next will be to replace that ugly yellow plastic sheeting on the overhead light! 

Eileen, Florida, DIY'er

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We were excited to open our saloon on the lower level of our old school building a year ago, but COVID struck. It's still not open but we did a lot of work on the original kitchen that the kids used a looooong time ago.

-Karen, antique mall owner

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It all started with a black mirror. I loved the mirror above the dining room buffet, but it didn't look quite right with all the brown on the buffet.  I decided to paint some of the trim in black milk paint and I loved the way it turned out, Of course I had to paint the trim on the table next.  And, finally, the chairs also needed to be painted to look like they belonged.  I do love the final outcome, but I am really tired of painting and applying top coats!

- Cheryl

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Project: Bedroom "refresh" for a [interior design] client--this was a very large room, with a wall of sliders onto a porch with an ocean view(!) but I'm only using the bed-wall in this before/after

Process: Visit, talk to client about goals (in this case "cozier" "place to draw/paint" "place to read in afternoon", find out client priorities (client had been struggling with paint color for a couple of years before she hired me), ask about things that needed to stay (in this case, a 1980s burgundy leather chair/ottoman, built-in bedside drawers, etc)

I spent about 2.5 hours on site, talking, measuring, taking pictures, thinking about what else in the home might be moved to be used in the bedroom, honing paint colors.

What I Delivered:  an overall look and "plan" including specific instructions for paint, detailed photos of items to be purchased, right down to the duvet cover and dog bed. the rug was something the client already owned and loved, so I suggested re-locating it to bedroom, and I pulled the accent wall color from it.

In a more involved re-fresh, I'd visit several times (to confirm palette, talk to contractors if necessary, bring samples of window treatments, etc)-- but this project was smaller so that the client could implement changes as time and budget permitted.

One of my favorite things is to incorporate vintage or second-hand items if possible, and if the client is open to it--it's more environmentally kind and almost always less expensive, but it can take longer. in this case, the client was open to a vintage Kevi chair that I supplied. The Kevi chair was designed in Denmark in 1958 as the first adjustable/ergonomic work chair, and it is still being made for over $600! (it's very comfortable--I considered keeping it myself)

- Amy, New England, passionate designer with a love for vintage and secondhand stuff

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Thank you so much for sharing your fun projects! 

Jen, the update on your bathroom is amazing--and I can't believe how inexpensive it was. (Is that paint color Argos by Sherwin-Williams, by any chance? It looks identical to the gray throughout most of my house.) I love the color you chose for the vanity!

Eileen, that bathroom is exactly what I mean when I say how much paint can transform something. That wall color is perfect! You did a great budget-friendly makeover. (Also, I've had the song "Come On, Eileen" stuck in my head while I worked on this entire post, haha)

Karen, that looks like so much work! But I am fascinated that you are using an old school building for a saloon...did I read that right? What a fun project. I'd love to see more pics!

Cheryl, your post made me laugh because I know that train of thought SO well ;) You did an amazing job--the buffet is gorgeous! I am terrible at envisioning brown and black together--but your furniture looks like it's from a design catalogue. Love it.

Amy, thanks so much for sharing the process of designing for a client! That would be a super fun job (unfortunately, I definitely don't have the "design eye" for rooms... I just change things out by trial and error, haha). I'm sure your client was thrilled with the new look!

If any of you have a fun transformation (it doesn't have to be DIY... just any sort of before and after) that you'd like to share, I'd be thrilled to post it on a Transformation Tuesday post! Just email a before photo and an after photo to me at: katie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com. Include a description of the transformation, your name, location, and what you like to do (whatever you feel comfortable sharing).

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Quick reminder of TT

I'm not going to write a post today--Jerry and Noah are both off of work, which is rare these days! So we are going to have a family movie night. We watched a Godzilla movie last time, and we're watching a King Kong movie today. Getting prepped for the new Godzilla vs. Kong movie :)

However, I wanted to mention Transformation Tuesday...

If you have a transformation to share, please email it to me as soon as you can! I only have a couple in my inbox for tomorrow. Remember, it can be a before and after of anything at all--even something you may think is boring will probably be fun for others to see (I love seeing even the simplest transformations).

Just email a before picture and an after picture (in the highest resolution you have) to me at: katie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com. Include a description of the transformation, your name, location, and what you like to do (or if you want to be anonymous, just let me know).

Have a great night! (I love this "before and after" graphic... so cute!)

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Affirmators! Week 5: Playfulness

Affirmators! are cards with positive affirmations written on them. My friend John sent me a deck of them and I've been drawing one from the deck each Sunday. I hang it on my bathroom mirror to keep it in the front of my mind and try to work on that topic through the week. That's what this Affirmators! post series is about.

Last week, the card was about about "Connection"--connecting with other people, even strangers. I'm super shy and introverted, so it's extremely difficult for me to connect, but it's something I definitely want to work on. I didn't really get a chance to do that this past week (or this past year, really, with all the social distancing!). But I'm going to continue to work on it when I find opportunities to make a connection with someone.

Here is today's card: 

Playfulness

I am a playful participant in life, and I always have the option to make something a fun game rather than a heavy burden. Mary Poppins puts sugar in the medicine for a reason. That lady really knows how to party.

This is a great card! It's probably my favorite so far.

I used to be extremely playful--particularly with Jerry. We joked around all the time, and our friends always said how much they loved our relationship because we would banter and play around.

I haven't turned into a total dud, but I've definitely lost a lot of my playfulness. I thought of this a few days ago, actually. I was in the closet getting dressed, and I had my shirt off. Jerry was going to walk past me to his side of the closet and as he brushed past, he "accidentally" bumped my back against the wall--which, if you remember doing that as a kid for fun, is FREEZING. (If you've never done it, try it right now. Take your shirt off and then press your back against a wall. I promise you will gasp and jump away quickly, haha.)

Anyway, Jerry did this to me and then I gasped and was trying to slap at him while he ducked away. It was playful! We used to do that to each other all the time. Over the past decade or so, I started getting annoyed or mad when he would play a joke on me. And then he just stopped doing them. I don't want to lose our playfulness!

We do have this one fun thing that is totally ridiculous but it always--ALWAYS--makes us laugh hysterically. If you're familiar with the Wii Fit, there is a skiing game where you stand on the balance board. You bend your knees as your Mii character gains speed going down the ski hill, and then on cue, it's time to make your Mii jump as high as it can. To do this, you don't actually jump on the board, but you go from bent knees to standing stiff and leaning slightly forward as fast as you can, and then holding that position for a few seconds. You try to balance like that (standing up, as stiff as a board, and leaning forward) while your Mii flies through the air. (It's actually kind of hard to keep your balance!)

ANYWAY, it would make us laugh when we'd watch each other play the game. But then one day, out of nowhere, one of us (I can't remember which) did it randomly during a conversation. We were just talking and then bam! Ski jump position: Stiff as a board, completely straight body.

Ever since then, we'll do it every so often. We want it to still be a total surprise out of nowhere, so we don't do it frequently (maybe once a month) but it makes us crack up. I even did it during sex one time, and we laughed so hard we cried.

Jerry has always been extremely playful. It makes him a great dad--kids are always drawn to him because he acts goofy. His playfulness is one of my very favorite things about him. And I'm sure he'd love it if I was as playful as I used to be, so this week I'm going to try to do some of the goofy things we used to do.

The card's affirmation message was more about finding ways to make mundane or burdensome tasks more interesting or fun. I feel like I already do this pretty well, but I'll try to think about it during the week and see if there are some burdensome tasks that I can make fun in some way.

If this Affirmators! card goes well, this week should be great :)

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Boy Cookies and Girl Cookies

About a month ago, when I was going through the heritage recipes in my cookbook trying to find one to make for that week, I came across a recipe from my Aunt Mary Jo (my mom's sister). I didn't post it that day, but ever since, I was been waiting for a good time to do it. 

A few years ago, Aunt Jo was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. You may already know that Alzheimer's is my biggest fear. I watched my grandma (my mom's mom) go through it until she passed away in 1999. It's a horrible disease--and it's a disease that is as hard on loved ones as it is on the person who has it. It's heartbreaking to watch how confused and frustrated someone with Alzheimer's gets. I remember my grandma would always ask when "D" was going to be home (referring to my grandpa)--and he had died when my mom was only 16.

This is a photo of my Aunt Jo and me, taken shortly after I was born...

When I heard that my Aunt Jo was showing signs of Alzheimer's, I was devastated. When I was growing up, she was one of my favorite people--I loved spending time with her. It was especially fun to spend time with her, my Aunt Mickey, and my mom. The three of them were so funny and they got "the giggles" frequently--where something small would make them crack up and then they couldn't mention it again or they would laugh until they cried.

My Aunt Jo had a cabin up north and we would go up there to visit for a few days (I don't remember how often we'd do this--I was very young). We would go to the beach and we had a blast climbing up and then running down "Angel Slide"--a steep sand dune that is shaped like an angel.

Aunt Jo reading to me on the beach. Yes, my mom toted that very portable
crib to the beach! Luckily, the "play pens" have come a long way since the 80's.

I came across this photo of my Aunt Mickey, my mom, my little brother, and me running down Angel Slide. Then in the next photo, you can see my mom face-planted into the sand. (My Aunt Mickey--in red--had apparently already fallen.) I was dying when I saw this picture! I'm sure this was one of those moments that gave them the giggles when thinking about it.

We all know how much I love squirrels... well, it was actually my Aunt Jo who sparked my interest in squirrels. The squirrels up north were people-friendly and you could feed them out of your hand. I always thought that was so cool! She'd named one of the squirrels Stubby because he was missing half of his tail. I had completely forgotten about that until last week when Nancy (my cousin, Aunt Jo's daughter) sent me a picture of a letter I'd written my Aunt Jo. She found it when she was going through her mom's things. Apparently, she'd saved it all these years--I wrote it when I was just 10 years old!

As embarrassing as it is, I'm going to share it here. Of all the things I could have written to her about, I chose this horrible story--haha! (I'll type it out below the picture so you can read it more easily)

"Hi Aunt Jo!
Guess what?! We have a Stubby now too! I have a ball that I can put the gerbils in. I was taking the black gerbil out of it and into the cage when the kitten jumped in the cage. He grabbed the brown one's tail and lifted it into his mouth. I pulled the gerbil out but his tail came off. So we changed his name to Stubby.

My mom got a job at Mazda. She helps to build cars.

Jeanie is really excited about her shower and wedding. Are you coming? She really wants you to. 

I can't really think of anything else to say.

Miss you,

Katie

P.S. Our gerbils had another litter (6) of babies. (They were fine)"

Isn't that hilarious? Apparently, I didn't know the date or bother to check when I was writing the letter, because I left it partially blank.

I remember one time when Aunt Jo took me to a little shop that sold ceramic figurines and you could buy them and then paint them yourself. I picked out this bear and painted it back at the cabin. I think I was probably about 10 in this picture, so I must have written that letter shortly after this visit up north.

As I got into my teens, I saw Aunt Jo less frequently--typically just once a year at our family Christmas party. My grandma would host a Christmas party with all the kids, grandkids, and great grandkids--I always looked forward to it because I'd get to see my aunts, uncles, and (so many) cousins. (My mom was one of six kids, and she and her siblings each had 3+ kids.)

Jerry loved seeing my Aunt Jo because he said that she (as well my Aunt Mickey) would give the BEST hugs--"real" hugs, where you are genuinely squeezing someone, and not just the token "hello, good to see you" hugs. (Jerry is a hugger, and loves genuine hugs)

Aunt Jo demonstrating how to wear your mask! ;)

After my grandma died, I saw my extended family less and less frequently. When I saw my Aunt Jo a few years ago, I was stunned--she looked so small and frail since the last time I'd seen her. I was afraid I would break her if I hugged her too hard. And even though I expected it, it was sad that I had to explain who I was (while trying not to make her feel bad for not remembering me).

A few weeks ago, my mom told me that Aunt Jo wasn't doing well. Her health seemed to decline very quickly, and then her family made the decision to put her into hospice care. I went with my mom and dad to the group home where Aunt Jo was a patient--it was very nice and not at all a "hospital-like" setting--and I knew it would be the last time I saw her.

I was terrified of what to expect. Like I said, Alzheimer's is my biggest fear, and it's very unpredictable. Aunt Jo was lying in bed, awake but with her eyes closed. I could tell she could hear us talking to her, because she would try to reply, or the corner of her mouth would go up just a little like she was trying to smile, and she squeezed my hand when I held hers.

The following Saturday morning, I decided I was going to make my Aunt Jo's cookies for my heritage recipe that day. I texted my Aunt Mickey and my mom to ask what they could tell me about the cookies. My mom replied that my Aunt Jo had just died a couple of hours ago. 

Although I hadn't known, my timing about the cookies was terrible. I decided to wait and post it another time. Even though my aunt's death was expected, the finality of it was just... sad. I was very glad that I'd gone to see her one last time, but I wished I had made more of an effort to see her over the years. I was busy with kids, she was busy with grandkids... and time flies.

Last week, I asked my cousin Nancy (Mary Jo's daughter) if she knew the story behind the cookies in the heritage cookbook.

It turns out that she didn't know about the recipe in the cookbook (for oatmeal cookies), but Aunt Jo was famous for her chocolate chip cookies. She used the classic Nestlé Toll House recipe (does anyone else read that in Phoebe's voice/accent from Friends?) but according to Nancy, she'd perfected it and people lived for her cookies!

Aunt Jo used to say that she made both "boy cookies" and "girl cookies"--with nuts and without nuts ;) Hahaha!

My Uncle Tom (her husband) was a football referee--from a Back Judge official to the Division 1 Mid-American Conference, officiating games in Michigan, Illinois, and West Virginia (if I sound like I know what I'm talking about, it's only because I asked Nancy--I know nothing about football!).

Aunt Jo would bake chocolate chip cookies and send them to the games with Uncle Tom in a coffee can that she'd decorated with black and white stripes to look like a referee uniform. She did this every Friday during football season for years, and the guys would eat them up at the post-game meetings.

Aunt Jo was always so fun. Again, I wish I had made it a point to keep in close contact with her through the years. She was so funny when I was a kid, but I imagine that I would have loved her humor as an adult even more. My cousins (her kids) are very funny and enjoyable to be around, if that is any reflection!

I did not bake the cookies for this "recipe" post--it would have been a disservice to Aunt Jo if only for the simple fact that I am (ironically) terrible at baking cookies--but I wanted to share a little about my special aunt. In Nancy's words, "I think it was the love she put into the cookies that made them so good."

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