92 County Tour: St. Joseph

It's podcast Tuesday, and our stories today go along with the blogaroo today and tomorrow. Enjoy stories and pictures at your leisure!

 Listen here!

This past weekend, we knocked another county off our tour list! We headed north, almost to Michigan, to St. Joseph County! This county (apparently just known as St. Joe County by those who live there) is named after the St. Joseph River, which runs through it. That cracked me up when I read it after we came home, because we saw that river multiple times and kept searching on our maps and GPS for its name, but couldn't find it. We even asked Siri! She didn't know either. Fail.

We were (as you can see from the above photo) not blessed with beautiful weather, but we're the Shaffers! We power through!

Here's a recap of our day. It took us about an hour and a half (maybe a little more) to get up there, and the first item on my visit list was the Shiojiri Niwa Garden in Mishawaka. I'd read about what a pretty garden it was, with its design a nod to a Shiojiri City in Japan, which has been a sister city to Mishwaka ever since some elementary school classes from the two cities exchanged letters back in the sixties.

Alas, when we arrived, the gate was closed.

Sooooo....no garden for us.

That was all I'd found to look at in Mishawaka, so we drove about 15 minutes over to South Bend, where we spent the rest of the day.

We started out at the South Bend Chocolate Company, because, well...do I even need to explain?

A locally-owned chocolate factory, this building houses not just the manufacturing of the chocolate, but also the shipping department, a little store, and a chocolate museum! As you can see, we wasted no time making ourselves at home:

They offer tours of the factory, and there are two kinds. For no charge, you can take a 20 minute tour that lets you go through the manufacturing and shipping areas and get a free sample. For $4.00, you can stay on the tour a little longer, try your hand at dipping a spoon, and take a guided tour of the museum. We did the paid version so we could get the full experience. Our guide was not overflowing with enthusiasm, but I don't think she was feeling well, and she really was nice, so we still enjoyed ourselves.

And our hairnets.

I mean, can you even IMAGINE having mixers like these in your home? No? Just me?

We got to see the rooms where they created the cream centers for the chocolates, the dipping lines, the sorting area, and we even got to sample the deliciousness!

The dipping was fun, too!

The museum paid tribute to ALL chocolate companies, not just this one. They have a huge collection of old chocolate boxes and tins, and even a box used by a vendor at a baseball stadium! They also have a map that shows all the chocolate manufacturers in the state of Indiana!

And yes, this would be Ryan next to a solid chocolate Santa.

It was fun to tour the factory and see how they do things, even though my hair began its slow decline after that hairnet adventure.

Next up? A drive through the campus of Notre Dame! Neither of us had ever been there before, and we were looking forward to seeing some of the landmarks the campus is known for.

The good news? The school was on its mid-term break, so campus was virtually empty, making a tour dreamy. The bad news? The gate-keeper told us you're not allowed to drive through the campus. I found this especially amusing since as he delivered that news, a car drove by us, right out of the campus. So yes, you are allowed to drive on campus, but apparently only if you have a permit, and we did not. Soooooooooooo out into the freezing cold rain we went, to explore campus on foot. It. Was. So. Frigid. I was trying to protect my camera from the rain by holding it under my coat. My hair was growing bigger by the minute. Not quite a lovely tour. And we would have loved to see even more of the campus, but it was just way too cold. I couldn't feel my feet by the time we got back to our car.

 My nearly perfect picture of the Main Building of the campus, with its famous golden dome. Had the rental truck not been parked in the doorway delivering something, it would have been perfect! Ha! We were too cold to come back later to see if it was gone. I read that this building was the third to be built on the campus - back in 1879.

 Next to that was the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, which is apparently magnificent inside, but we didn't even try to see if it was open, given the aforementioned cold and the need to HURRY!!! Still - a beautiful building on the outside!

 A HUGE statue of Moses. (Apparently he is also known as First Down Moses.)

 The Clarke Memorial Fountain, built to honor the school's fallen war veterans, but often called Stonehenge for obvious reasons.

 The famous football stadium, under construction, and complete with portapotties. :)

This piece is called "Word of Life" and is on the side of the library. You might have heard it called Touchdown Jesus, because its visible from the football stadium and the position of the hands have led it to be known as that. But I read here that it is technically neither a mural nor a mosaic. It is made up of 6700 separate pieces of granite and stands 134 feet high and 68 feet wide.

Our tour of campus came to a cold conclusion here, and we got back in the car in search of some pieces of the stomping grounds from the first years of my parents' marriage. They lived in South Bend, where Mom worked at a restaurant, and Dad taught at Greene Township School. We never found the houses where they lived or the school (I was starting to get hungry and cut our hunt short) but we did find this tiniest of restaurants where Mom worked over 60 years ago. She said it was brand new when she worked there. It's now called The Boss's Place and is still open, but it had closed for the day before we arrived.

Our coffee shop for this county was very unique! I wanted to find something a little different and happened upon this little place called The Chicory Cafe. I chose it because it had a NOLA atmosphere and food, and Ryan loves a nod to New Orleans! He went on a mission trip there before we started dating, and I thought he would really enjoy a reminder of that part of his life.

I didn't get a lot of pictures of the inside because, similar to NOLA, he said, it was kind of chaotic in there. Very busy - even after 2 p.m. - but totally worth the wait for the food! It was our only meal for the day, so we ate well!

A mud turtle latte for me, which was delicious. Fresh brew and beignets for Ryan:

 You can kind of see behind him there the Mardi Gras style decor!

I got a turkey sub, and Ryan got a Po' Boy, and we split the best mac and cheese we've ever had at a restaurant. Truly delicious.

This technically completed our tour, and our final adventure of the day will be chronicled on the blog tomorrow, but I want to at least mention where we went, since it was part of the county and was such a great experience that I'd totally recommend seeing anything here if you can!

We went to a concert at the Morris Performing Arts Center, which is this STUNNING old theater with amazing architectural details! It was built back in 1922 and has quite a history, which you can read about on its site. I'll tell you more about our night there tomorrow! For now - enjoy a few pictures!

 

Not our prettiest weather day, but we had fun anyway!

17 down, 75 to go!

The Date Inspired by The Letter D

Our alphabetical date quest continued this past weekend, and we did TWO in one weekend. And both were out of order. I need to sit down. Someone bring me a brown paper bag! (Kidding.) (Kind of.)

So we were originally supposed to do the "D" date two weeks ago on Friday night, but the theme for the night was the Double Date with Dinner Downtown, and the night we were scheduled to go, the other half of our double date had a family thing come up and they needed to reschedule. I was busy last Friday night, so that meant this "D" date ended up falling after the "E" date we did last Saturday morning.

Totally worth the wait, though!

First, let's talk about the "double date" part. We've not gone on a lot of those in our life, but we'd been intending to get together with our friends Mark and Kari ever since we moved to Kokomo, and it hadn't happened yet. Kari and I had gotten together to hang out, but never all four of us. So we made arrangements to hang out together for dinner, which took care of another "D."

There are a decent number of little restaurants in downtown Kokomo, and we had driven by Wings, Etc. several times, but had never been. Ryan loves wings, so I thought this would be the perfect time to give it a try.

And then he didn't order wings.

I guess that means he ordered etc.

Anyway. So this restaurant is way bigger than I thought it was. It's in a really cool old building with exposed brick walls and all, but the dining room goes allllllllll the way to the back of the whole building. And that would also be where they sat us! Right next to a very festive St. Patrick's Day bunch. (I'm talking green sequined berets, lighted flashing earrings and the whole bit.)

We have one of those discount cards for various businesses around town and at this place, you can get a free appetizer with the purchase of an entree. We got soft pretzels with cheese and I'd love to show you a picture but someone (ahem...who may be writing this post) was so hungry, she cared only about eating them!

I decided before we went that I wasn't going to worry about finding the healthiest thing on the menu, since that probably didn't even exist, and it could be treat night. I got something I never get anywhere, but really like: jumbo shrimp! For the record, I brought home over half the food in this picture and then split it with Ryan when I did eat leftovers!

Ryan, the lover of wings, got a wrap. LOL!!

It was also good that the restaurant had an assortment of TVs, because we accidentally scheduled this adventure smack in the middle of March Madness. (Shouldn't that be the M date???)

But we had a great time with Mark and Kari. (She's one of my extra sisters. Not related by blood, but I'd claim her as one!!)

Double dates are fun! We should do more of them!

(All the alphabetical dates so far are found here, if you need some ideas for your life too! 

The Shafferland Shuffle

Well, we made it through one whole week of DST. Woot woot for us!!!! Anyone else been on the staying-awake struggle bus? Anyone? ANYONE?

Here's how we spent week one of time change!

* Last Sunday, we had leftover pizza for lunch and someone, who shall remain nameless, dumped a huge piece all down the front of himself. I laughed so hard, not at him, but just because he seriously never does anything like that and it was funny to watch him react! Later in the day, he took me to Starbucks and I went venti because, well, DST. By that night, I just wanted to bake cookies, but our kitchen looked like this, so no cookies.

* Monday was Mom's first day to come to outpatient physical therapy. She was just assessed, so it was a pretty easy appointment as far as "working out" went, but I think she really enjoyed getting out of the house. As of that day, she was just a day short of being 3 weeks post-op, so I thought she looked great! After work, I watched my friends' kiddos, and the next-to-the-littlest wanted to hold the littlest. Always an adventure. :) We came home, and Ryan worked on the cabinet project. Again. Still. Whatever.

* Tuesday was our one year house-iversary! Not of moving in, but just of purchasing. We celebrated by moving all the stuff back into the cabinets. LOL!! It was also Pi day, which in my mind makes it pie day. It "just so happened" that my mom had shared some pie with us, so we got to actually celebrate! And I welcomed back my restocked kitchen by making a Texas Sheet Cake for Ryan's work.

* Wednesday was Mom's first TRUE day of therapy and she got to work with Ryan! It was fun to watch him in action for a whole session. He's so good at what he does! After work, I met up with my friend Amber for a coffee date, and then I worked on chores at home while Ryan worked on the cabinet doors. (Are you seeing a theme here??)

* Thursday was my first speaking day for the spring season. I have several speaking dates lined up, and this one was a luncheon for a small group of women. They were kind, warm, and welcoming and I completely enjoyed meeting with them! Ryan had to work really late and then I'm sure it will shock you to know he came home and worked on the cabinets. :)

*Friday, I went to visit Ryan at work and he was wearing something very different from what he'd been wearing when he left home. Crack me up!!! We went on our "D" date Friday night. (If you missed the earlier memo, we went out of order and did the "E" date last weekend.) I'm not sure that St. Patrick's Day might be the best choice of nights to go out. Good thing we went early! Anyway. Can't wait to tell you all about our date!

 * Yesterday was full, full, full!! And I can't wait to tell you about it, too! Ryan had the day off, and we did a county tour AND an alphabetical date all in one day. We trekked north to St. Joseph County and had all kinds of fun despite the fact that it rained/sleeted most of the day. And at the end of the day, we enjoyed a very special surprise alphabetical date planned entirely by Ryan. Blew my socks off!

The Saturday Six

One.

I'm sure you saw the video that circulated of the guy doing the BBC interview when his kids busted in the room where he was Skyping. HILARIOUS! (If you haven't seen it, you need to!) Found this article this week that gave a bit of the back-story on his wife and kids. That part where the wife comes flying in with the look of utter mortification is my favorite. That would so be me!!

Two.

This is kind of fun to read! The worst decorating trend from the year you were born. It starts in 1950 and goes clear up to this year! I don't hate every trend listed here, but there were some definite blasts from the past to be found!

Three.

If you're feeling rather overwhelmed by life, this post is a great read on the reasons we need rest and how God designed us to not always live "a pressure cooker life."

Four.

This item falls under the category of things I don't need but want to tell you about in case you have the need! It's pretty nifty for parents! One of my friends posted about it on Facebook this week. They have a a full fireplace/hearth in their home and bought one of these HearthSoft covers to put over the cement hearth. Their one year old took a spill this week and because he hit the cover, he was fine. Might have been a different story with the bare cement hearth! My friend declared in her post that it was super comfy to sit on and lean against, great quality, and easy to order. So if you have a hearth and kiddos, it might be worth the investment!

Five.

I know Bible journaling/bullet journaling/drawing in Bibles is a BIG trendy thing right now, and honestly it's not a bandwagon I've jumped on. I've told you I've been writing out some Scriptures each day (podcast to come on this - it's a good one!), and that has helped me learn parts I'd missed before. But I found this post this week on Bible journaling, and I thought she had some good ideas hidden in there. I still wouldn't be able to do the drawing, but I like some of her other ideas! They are within the scope of my abilities. :) 
 

Six.

Last week, I finally read The Magnolia Story by Chip and Joanna Gaines. I know. All of you probably read it months ago, when it came out! What took me so long?? {My sister received it as a Christmas gift and kindly shared it with me so I could read it, too!}


In case you haven't read the book yet, here are my thoughts. I had heard great things about it, and of course I'm quite a fan of Fixer Upper, so I figured I would love the book. But even so, I was a little nervous. If there's one thing I learned in radio, it's that not all people are good authors. Being a good speaker doesn't mean you're a good writer (and vice versa!). Having a big life event befall you doesn't mean you're a good writer. Of course there are writers who come alongside to help with some of those things, and Chip and Joanna had a good one: Mark Dagostino.

If you watch Fixer Upper, I'm happy to tell you that one thing you'll notice if you read this book is the distinct voices of both Chip and Joanna shining through. Most of the book is written from Joanna's perspective, but several chunks are written from Chip's and just as you see on TV, some parts are written almost conversationally, with the two of them bantering back and forth with their thoughts. To help you keep track of who is speaking, each has a different font. (I didn't find this distracting at all. I actually mentally read each part in their respective voices.)

Another thing that makes me nervous when I pick up stories written by well-known people is the predictable back-story. They all go back and relive their childhood, and in some books, that part gets tedious. I almost thought that would be missing altogether from this book, but it did eventually surface, although much later than I'm used to. But in this book, it didn't bother me. It was interesting to see how their upbringing and their parents' stories impacted the people they became.

I also found it very interesting to read stories of their dating years, early marriage, and how they found this beautiful rhythm of working well together that we've come to love from watching them on TV. (And they tell how they "got discovered," part of which I hadn't heard before.)

There are several hilarious stories in there (which, as you might guess, mostly revolve around Chip's antics and misadventures). I stopped several times to read large sections out loud to Ryan and he loved them. There are also a lot of faith lessons sprinkled throughout and a clear explanation of how they've seen God at work in their marriage and business life.

Just as I hoped, I found it an endearing, enjoyable, and easy read. (OOH! And there are pictures in the middle. I love books with pictures in the middle!) I'm glad they shared the back story. Fun to know!

Spring Capsule Ensembles, Weeks 1 and 2

Yesterday I told you about my desire to build seasonal capsules, which will hopefully incorporate a little variety and color in my wardrobe year! My goal was to find clothes that worked well for my work-from-home life, where I don't have to dress up or be fancy, but would also work well for my speaking life, where I do need to look professional and put together.

Here are the first two weeks of my ensembles, based on the outfits from the inspiration capsule. Also...some thoughts on the adventure! {Click on the collage if you need to see it bigger.}

Week One:

* May Day One outfit was made up of a gray and white tank top, a chambray shirt, and jeans. I added my cute new gray lace-up shoes and brought in spring-like color with my jewelry: big pink hoop earrings, a multi-colored necklace, and a multi-colored bracelet. I spent the day working at home (plus running a few errands) and it was a cold, windy, rainy day, so this super casual look worked well and felt good.

* Day Two, I wore a coral button down shirt with 3/4 length sleeves. I put a white lace cami underneath since you can see right through the eyelets on the shirt. I wore white jeans and dark gold ballet flats. I contrasted turquoise jewelry with a necklace, hoop earrings, and a bracelet. Though I mostly worked from home this day, it was our monthiversary and we went to a Bible study, so it was nice to look a little more dressed up for the occasion. Plus, it was just a COLD day, so this offered the hope of spring.


*Day Three, I wore a plain navy v-neck shirt with a dark cami unerneath, since you can sort of see through it. I added a knee length denim skirt and a gray sweater. Because it was FREEZING, I added black leggings, and my new gray ballet flats. I accented with big pink hoop earrings, a pink necklace ,and a pink bracelet. I ran several errands throughout the day, and it was good to have a bit of a dressier look for some of them, but it was casual enough that I didn't feel overdressed for things like dog-sitting duty!

* Day Four, I wore this new dress! Because it was freezing again, I added white leggings and the gray ballet flats come back for a second day. I wore a necklace and bracelet that had a good mix of blues and greens and sparkly blue earrings. This dress feels like jammies, so this was PERFECT for a day of writing at home. I was probably overdressed, but I felt cute, and that was important because it was cold and nasty outside.


*Day Five, I wore a gray striped t-shirt. The inspiration capsule called for shorts, but NO WAY was it shorts weather, so I rotated in a second pair of jeans and the cute gray lace up shoes again. All silver jewelry this day - necklace, earrings, and bracelet. I went to a Bible study, so I felt cute there, and then it worked well for being home and writing the rest of the day!

Week Two:

 * Day One, I wore my gray patterned T-shirt coupled with the multi-colored shorter skirt. Again: freezing! Added white leggings and gold ballet flats. It was a badddddd hair day, so into a pony it went, and I wore glass teal earrings and matching necklace, along with a coordinating bracelet to pull out the color in the skirt. I wrote at home all day and only got out to visit Ryan at work, so this worked!

* Day Two, I wore jeans with my white button-down shirt. I put a white cami underneath for layering and so you couldn't see through, and also wore my gray ballet flats. Pink necklace, earrings, and bracelets brought in some spring and color. Though I was home all day, we had our Bible study that night, so I liked being casual yet dressy for the day.

* Day Three, I wore the second new dress and layered my green sweater on top. More leggings and gold flats. Sage green jewelry completed it! I went to a party that evening and wanted to look a little bit dressy but still be comfortable (two hours in the car), so this worked! (Note: I actually should have worn the chambray shirt so I didn't have the green sweater twice in one week, but I got it mixed up!)

* Day Four I started repeating! The coral shirt (with white cami underneath) came back, as did the denim skirt. I added white leggings, gold flats, and a chunky white necklace and coral earrings. I had a BUNCH of errands this day, including Mom's first physical therapy session, so dressy was good!

* Day Five, I wore the flowered tank top, covered by the green sweater and white jeans. Multi-shades of green jewelry rounded it out - and gray flats, too! I had Bible study on this day, and the room gets a little warm, so I liked having lighter layers.

 Ten of the thirty outfits I'll have from this capsule...featured right here! :)