Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share five of our favorite things from the last week. This has been a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.

It’s been a good week! Here are a few faves:

1. White cheddar popcorn. When we were in a hotel a couple of weeks ago, Jim’s “premium” status afforded him a little snack bag, and one item in it was a bag of Smartfood white cheddar popcorn (made by Frito-Lay). Oh. My. Word. Sooo good. Fortunately (or unfortunately, calorie-wise) I found a store that sells it here. Jim has also tried making it from scratch with the air popper, spritzing spray butter, and sprinkling with white cheddar flavoring, and it’s pretty close.

2. Pumpkin Spice cookies. I saw a mix of this at Hobby Lobby and got one for my “secret sister” at church and one for us as well. Wow, these were good as well. They were expensive — more so when I realized I had misread the price! And they don’t discount it in their 40% off autumn stuff. I need to find a good recipe.

3. Computer help. My computer evidently acquired a set of viruses from somewhere. Thankfully I have a son who has expertise in that area and is willing to help his mom and whose company allows him to use their remote software free for immediate family. It took the whole day to deal with it, but thankfully it looks like it’s all taken care of. When he is logged in remotely, there is a little window showing it in the bottom corner of the computer, and it was a comfort to see it there, even though most of the time was just letting the anti-virus software run.

4. Online ordering. Since the mall and many shops are 20 minutes away (and I am used to five from our previous location), it’s so nice to order online for birthdays and such rather than traipsing from store to store. And a couple of places had free shipping!

5. The Tennessee Valley Fair. We went last night, and it was perfect — weather a little coolish and not too crowded. Here are a few pics and a really cute video of a duck slide:

Just noticed the 2010 — guess they saved it from last year.

Jason and Mittu.

Notice the sign….

Chicken on a stick. It was pretty good!

Funnel cakes! Can only handle those about once a year.

Jim and Jesse on the Ferris Wheel.

This was the cutest thing — a little slide for ducks. It seemed a little mean to place the food just out of their reach like that — but they didn’t seem to mind:

And here’s Jim feeding emus. Funny to hear the kids calling to him to be careful — used to be us calling to them!

Bonus: Today is Jesse’s 18th birthday! I’ll have another post about that later on today. (Update: A day later, but here it is.)

Hope you have a great Friday! I’ll catch up with you later — I have to bake a cake and wrap presents while a certain someone is at school. 🙂