I now acknowledge the shortness of breath and heart palpations that tend to surface when I see the bright green sign of the odd-looking mermaid.

 My love affair with Starbucks, however, wasn’t always so sublime.

I used to turn up my nose at their “ventis” and “grandes,” their pseudo macchiattos and their…their blasted Sameness. I felt my loyalties lay with the rustic, charming coffee shops only.

 Don’t get me wrong; I love me some Blue Dog and some Brown Dog (our lovely local offerings.)

But I can’t walk to Brown Dog and don’t even get me started on the (non) refill policy or the “Buy 9 get 1 free” program of the Blued Canine.

 I strongly support local businesses.

 But one day, I finally admitted to myself (and now to mankind) that I.love.Starbucks.too.

I love the sameness, the comfort, the familiarity.

 I’ve spent the last few years, bopping about with little sense of place or home.

Walking into a Starbucks in the middle of barren Egypt, right after I’d missed another Christmas at home felt, well, it felt GOOD. It was a tangible gift and closely wrapped with a smell of happy remembrances.

For I do have a myriad of joyous memories associated with the ‘bucks from clandestine 3 a.m. visits with Melby while living in D.C. to surprise foamy drinks from Bac and Hailey during long work shifts in Kentucky.

A three-hour work date becomes a wonderfully fulfilling thing in the midst of that whipped haven and rich coffee aromas.

In case these rantings haven’t converted you to the glories of the green bean of the ‘bucks, let me close with a few last statements.

1. Their customer service is amazing. (There was a whirl of confusion when Jonathan and I switched our registered Starbucks cards to our present address.) We got no less than 8 free drinks out of the arduous process. It was absolutely worth it. I sometimes stay up long into the night, trying to figure out how we can have a repeat performance.

 2. Where else can you go and get as many re-fills as you’d like on a $1.85 cup of coffee? And they always supply me with a generous heap of whipped cream. Or maybe I ask for my drink to be put in the next-biggest-cup so that there is ample room for the divine whipped. In my new state of caffeinated nirvana, it is sometimes hard to remember how it happens. But this I know-it does happen.

 3. On a recent visit I went to order my small coffee only to be told that my caffeine that       day came in a “surprise, magic cup.” I walked away with a venti, extra shot, extra hot caramel macchiatto. Magical indeed.

 4. The baristas at our local Starbucks always smile at me. And smiling goes a long way in my book.

 Anyone who knows me, knows that the way to my heart is through my stomach, and my Starbucks stomach is the very shortcut to the secret places of my soul. That’s a shout out to Mel who has bought me a superabundance of venti goodness through the years, to Anna and Martin who recently gave me their free Starbucks coupons, to Anne who mailed me a Starbucks card for my birthday, to Bac and Hailey and their aforementioned collection of drink offerings, and to my beloved husband who found $10 in a parking lot last week and insisted it all go on my Starbucks card.

I feel so loved, so happy, so caffeinated. No wonder I see life as an enchanting, mystical place-my vision is crowded with caramel drippings. And I love it.

Things like the bulby lights from our wedding, now strung across our apartment and the coupon inserts in our local paper.

We love waking up to a blanket of fresh snow, setting our coffee pot on timer, spooning for far too long before we get out of bed, hosting dinner parties, getting free coffee coupons in the mail, receiving letters, loving on our friends and sitting down to hot dinners together each night.

In the midst of schedules and meetings, we always want to pause, reflect and wonder.

What.a.beautiful.life.

As aforementioned it was a hectic weekend of Frosty Fest, Instagrams, Coffee (we Love getting FREE Starbucks drinks; thank you star system.), Snow Taffy Making and Wedding Showing. We love our lives, but we are maybe a bit tired too. Too bad we already used the free coffee coupon.

Snow taffy is a surprisingly messy business. I think I’ll retire.

Do we look worse for the wear?

We heart Jonathan Grime Photography, the best dang photographer around.

I’m going to be honest: I kind of expected to get a few contracts to make Aunt Dottie’s sugar cookies for a few weddings. Alas, I did not. (The baker beside our booth was a possible deterrent.) But they were still a raving success. Thank you A.D.

Speaking of music, we have a confession. it’s been hard for us to say this out loud, but we failed at our itunes challenge.

Please, a respectful moment.

Around day 12 we needed to take Jonathan’s computer in some updates and thusly ended all of our good intentions. Sigh.

Also: we recognize we’ve posted a ridiculous amount of sugar cookie photos on this blog.

There are a few reasons for this.

1. we love cookies.

2. we love sugar cookies.

3. we love baking/eating/sampling dough.

4. our friend jennie gave us her aunt dottie’s amazing sugar cookie recipe which we hope isn’t a family secret because we are going to share it with you now.

SUGAR COOKIES

2 cups of soft butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 Tbs vanilla
4 1/2 cups sifted flour

Cream together butter and sugar.  Add egg and vanilla.  Gradually add flour.  Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.  Roll out 1/4 of dough at a time to 1/8″ thickness.  Bake on parchment paper 6-9 minutes at 375.

I use powder sugar, milk and vanilla for the icing.  I don’t measure it….I just put in a little milk and vanilla at a time into the powdered sugar until it is the right consistency and taste.  I use Wilton food coloring and it takes very little to color it.  You can also freeze them if you want to make them this week.

W.o.n.d.e.r.f.u.l.

Since Jonathan Grime Photography is showcasing his work at a wedding show this weekend, we made some of these sweet treats to delight the masses.

Please duly admire this hot apron which was made by our friend Megan as a combination wedding/birthday/Christmas gift. =Yet one more reason to bake.

This weekend is non-stop…and that carries through next week. Nose to the grindstone, Grimes.  Love to you all.

Layne opened her email this a.m. to find an email from Ken. He took the time to send her an update of Mama’s time in Texas, saying she is a gem and a great example for the

younger crowd. (We don’t think Mama actually realizes there is even an age difference.)

This week she did a cheer for her book report; this was after “rapping” her previous book report a couple of weeks ago-complete with outfit.

email from Bernice this a.m. “Ken said he sent you pics of my cheer book report?  I did Mama’s old cheer!  Love you – Your Mama”

Guess the Texas air is good for her soul.

“The universe is wider than our views of it.” Henry David Thoreau

“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they will never sit in.” Greek proverb

“Whatever you would do, begin it. Boldness has courage, genius and magic in it.” Goethe

Jonathan has been aching to teach Laynie all his mad snowboarding skills for ages.

And the benefits of being self-employed met the budget of mid-week winter sport specials in one happy package for us this week.

Five minutes into lesson #1, Jonathan to Layne, “It’s okay that you can’t do what all the other kids are doing [literally there were a plethora of 5-year-olds whizzing past us on the hillside.] You just need to be patient and not be snippy with me.”

Turns out Layne isn’t the “natural” at snowboarding we all expected her to be.

We also ate dinner at a bright Mexican restaurant that is surely famous for “smallest portion sizes Ever” (at least in North America.)

Despite a few hunger pangs, (which we may have doctored with granola bars on the way home from the grocery store), WE ARE SO HAPPY. We hope you are too. Loves.

]]> http://greeneandgrimeforever.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/happy-birthday-merry-christmas-we-believe-in-new-years-too/feed/ 0 greeneandgrimeforever 422017_257318771011270_100001994472247_570418_263893193_n 421195_257319474344533_100001994472247_570419_1314552517_n 424204_257318727677941_100001994472247_570417_1373336206_n http://greeneandgrimeforever.wordpress.com/2012/02/12/cuteness-from-savannah/ http://greeneandgrimeforever.wordpress.com/2012/02/12/cuteness-from-savannah/#comments Sun, 12 Feb 2012 22:58:12 +0000 greeneandgrimeforever http://greeneandgrimeforever.wordpress.com/?p=1080 ]]> We have the gift of having many artsy friends.

Here are some fun things Sav shared, that we will share with YOU.

]]> http://greeneandgrimeforever.wordpress.com/2012/02/12/cuteness-from-savannah/feed/ 0 greeneandgrimeforever 1900x1200 Valentine_jetaime_Girl_cupwrapper Valentine_jetaime_Boy_cupwrapper http://greeneandgrimeforever.wordpress.com/2012/02/10/snow/ http://greeneandgrimeforever.wordpress.com/2012/02/10/snow/#comments Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:52:25 +0000 greeneandgrimeforever http://greeneandgrimeforever.wordpress.com/?p=1076 ]]> How is our life this magical?

Whew.

And NOW we can officially commence our immigration journey.

]]> http://greeneandgrimeforever.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/the-fbi-just-wanted-to-let-us-know-that/feed/ 0 greeneandgrimeforever Photo on 2012-02-09 at 09.43 #5