Playdate w/ Lydie

Brian and I invited Lydie over for a playdate this weekend. We thought she might love some one-on-one time with us where we could devote a whole day just to her. And we were right, we all had tons of fun together! Of course, we missed Hudson, but it was nice to do big kid stuff for a day too!

We ate Chick-Fil-A for lunch (Lydie's favorite), ate popsicles and ice cream for dessert, watched Cinderella, took Penny for a walk, played on our nhood playground, colored some pretty pictures, went to Target, and did a treasure hunt. It was SUCH a fun day!

Hilton Head Island... typical

We took our annual family vacation to Hilton Head Island. I have been vacationing here with my family since I was a tiny tot and really love it. Brian has come with my family for the past 3-4 years. We had a lot of fun this summer and discovered some new restaurants. Let's be honest, going to the beach is all about laying out and eating. Two of my favorite things. If you travel to HHI, you must eat at my top 2: Red Fish & Tapas. We spent most of our nights either watching movies or playing games--> Apples to Apples, Loaded Questions, Mexican Train, Bananagrams, etc. We LOVE games and I love that my family plays together. Here are some pics from our trip...

dinner at Crazy Crab - my least favorite... a little too "kid-friendly"

Red Fish - one of our top 2 favorites on the island
Tapas - our new discovery this year...
I love my family.
Chart House... formerly known as Charlie's
Kiki and Gwen

xoxo

A full fridge... nothing makes me happier

Not sure if you knew this or not, but I am a tad OCD. Sweet Brian has learned "my ways" and always tries his hardest when it comes to putting groceries away with me. Left drawer holds all the fresh, cleaned fruit. Right drawer holds all of our fresh, cleaned veggies. Bottom pullout drawer holds cheeses and meats. Drinks to the right, sauces to the left. We have a pullout freezer below this & an additional fridge outside in the garage that holds all the extra stuff. Seriously, nothing makes me happier than a full, organized fridge!

First Wedding of the Summer

Brian and I usually attend or are in an average of 12 weddings each summer. It is a bit much. This summer, 2010, we are only in 2. And they are the most fun 2!

Wedding #1... The last weekend in June we went to St Simons Island for Chelsea & Matt's wedding. It was SO fun to be in a destination wedding, my first. The weather was flawless (except the 10 minutes it rained during the ceremony, but we were inside so we were safe), the bride was STUNNING, the groom was adorable, and it was great to be reunited with all our college friends. It's hard to go from spending every waking moment with your best friends while in college to then everyone going off and getting married and moving to different states. We always try to make the most of our time together when we are reunited because those times are few and far between.

Chelsea was the best. The whole weekend was amazing. She got a cottage on the island for all the bridesmaids and their spouses, it was great for us all to be in the same place. We spent our days laying out on the beach & lounging around the house. The bmaid luncheon was held at a gorgeous house where we spent the afternoon playing in the pool and sipping margaritas. The Rehearsal Dinner was at Jekyll Island Country Club and they served delicious southern food - mac and cheese, fried chicken, key lime pie, etc. It hit the spot. Groomsmen and bridesmaids gave some fantastic toasts that had me crying and laughing. The wedding was held at the beautiful St Simons United Methodist Church. While we waited for the ceremony to start, the maids and bride played "Would You Rather" in the parlor and had some good laughs (seahorse or manatee?). The reception was tender and sweet. Chelsea's little brother played their first dance. They had a fun band that kept us all out on the dance floor all night long. All in all, what an amazing weekend. Congratulations to Chels & Matt!!!! xoxo

Here is a slideshow I just put together of the weekend...

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

what to eat... what to eat

You'd think making a grocery list would be a simple task. Alas, it is not. Most of you ladies out there know that it is a lot of prep work. You have to look at your calendar at the beginning of the week, think about your upcoming plans and decide which days you'll need to cook (some nights B has class, some nights we go out with friends, some nights you can eat leftovers, etc). Once you decide how many nights you'll have to cook, you start thumbing through your recipes. So I'm a tad on the OCD side. Okay a lot. I have a HUGE binder of recipes I've collected over the years (from magazines, websites, friends, family, etc) and they are organized alphabetically by category (appetizers, desserts, meats/poultry, mexican, etc).

So you if you have 4 nights this week that you have to cook you think to yourself, "I am going to try to cook healthy meals, with variety, try a few new things, and also try to appeal to my husband's tastes... who could eat mac/cheese every night and be happy." So I pick out a pasta dish, grilled chicken recipe, a veggie soup, and a new fish recipe I've been wanting to try. My rule of thumb is to only do 1 new recipe a week. That way if it bombs, it's okay because the other nights we will be having tried and true classics. So once you have your recipes, you have to start thinking of sides. This stresses me out to the max. Like with this fish recipe, which veggie would be best? Asparagus? Salad? Wait, we are having salad with the pasta on Monday. AHHHH. Sides stress me out.

SO... once you have your main dishes and sides picked out, you have to rummage through your fridge and pantry to see what ingredients you already own, then add the items you don't own to your grocery list. THEN you gotta rifle through your coupons (online and cut from the paper), and that's no fun.
Finally... you go to the grocery store. Despite all the build up, the grocery shopping is actually fun to me. My sweet hubby goes with me 90% of the time so we can tackle it together and accomplish it in 1/2 the time. And it's fun bonding time.
Then you get to eat your delicious meals and look back on all the hard work you put into planning the meals for the week. Oh and at the end of every meal, Brian and I rate the food on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the most delicious thing in the world) and I write the average of our numbers in the top left corner of the recipe and place it back in the binder. So when we go back through and find that we gave that recipe a 9, we'll know we should eat it again. Don't worry, I toss the recipes that score anything below a 7.

Sips n Strokes

My mom & I went for a fun night out on the town and did Sips N Strokes. We had heard such great things about it but we were very hesitant, as neither of us are artists. Seriously. We can't even draw stick figures, it's sad. We were pleasantly surprised with our finished products though. Nothing a bottle of wine & step-by-step instructions can't help...

mom's

mine

Mem Day Party

We hosted a Mem Day party at our house yesterday. SO much fun. Our original plan was to spend the day at the pool and then just grill out down there, but Mother Nature had a different plan in store for us. She decided to rain down on us for about 90% of the day, so that was neat. We moved the party to our house, which you know I never complain about. I LOVE to host!

the boys played Bocce Ball outside

while the girls gossiped inside

Adam & B

B & me

Greyson & me

Mem Day pup

Girls Weekend in Bham

I just had a lovely weekend in Bham with my mom (Carolyn) and Brian's mom (JoAnne). It is always SO nice to get away for some R&R with the girls. Our weekend consisted of all of my favorite things...
*ate Ocarrs for lunch
*saw the movie "Date Night" - so funny!
*dinner at Cocina--> Mojitos!!!!
*overnight at Renaissance Ross Bridge
*massage in the morning
*brunch at Jackson's

Renaissance at Ross Bridge
view from our rooms

if I were on death row, this would be my last meal

Carolyn, me, JoAnne @ Cocina

FINALLY!!!

Well I finally graduated! I have spent the past 2 years working all day and going to class at night. It has been rough, to say the least. But now I am finished and officially have my Masters of Arts in Teaching Early Childhood Education. Looking back on the past 2 years of school, it seems like it flew by! But being in the moment each of those grueling nights in class, it seemed to creep by slowly. I couldn't have completed this program without the support of my sweet hubby. He was SO supportive and helpful every step of the way. He would cook dinners for me on the nights I had class and sit with me while I ate when I got home. He took over the grocery shopping and cleaning of the house on the days/nights when I had a huge project or paper. Brian listened to my many stories of complaint and always had sweet words of encouragement for me. To sum it up, if I didn't have Brian in my life, I truly do not think I could have endured the past 2 years of school. Thanks babe!

my school friends - Jill, Lisa, Reese, me, Lauren

my love

my fam - also SUPER supportive (helping me with projects & ideas)

my school bff & twin... we met on day 1 and were instant bffs

Finales

24I have been watching this show religiously since it first aired many years ago. I am a BIG Jack Bauer fan, even though he is a cheeseball. My fave is Chloe. Brian and I always make fun of her faces and comments on the show, they can't write that stuff, it's natural to her. My favorite season was when President Palmer was in the White House, he was so cool and I'm pretty sure the only non-corrupt President. Oh I also really liked last season when President Taylor was held hostage at the White House, that was crazy! So as big of a fan as I am, I'm very sad about the season finale. I can't believe Rene died! I was thinking that Jack and Rene would run off into the sunset on their way to fight crime, but she died? Bad choice in the writing. And then man oh man what a cheesy ending, having Jack all bloody on the big screen at CTU saying "how many seconds do I have?" and then running off to escape what could have been... so yes, I will take the jokes for this episode, but overall I give this show an 8.5 out of 10.

American Idol

Well I have been a semi-faithful fan of this show since day one... love me some Kelly Clarkson. This season I was a little unimpressed with the talent. I mean I can't sing, but these kids were just "eh" to me. I didn't vote (sometimes I do) because I wasn't really attached to anyone. Big Mike had a precious story, but that's about it. I LOVED the addition of Ellen Degeneres to the show, great move Fox. Kara is going to be the death of me. She loves herself a little too much. Randy? Oh gosh, he thinks he knows everything about music but he can't put it into words besides "Listen, Listen, Dog, Dude, Listen, Listen." Who do I love? Simon. He's so cruel but you know what? He says exactly what I'm saying to Brian here at home. He just has the guts to do it to their face. Wow how could I forget my fave person on AI - Ryan Seacrest. He is so precious and talented and my gosh so busy. He knows everyone in Hollywood and I feel like we would be good friends given the chance. Oh and I give AI one more season on the air. With Simon (and adorable Paula) out, the show won't last much longer. Overall, I give this show a 7 out of 10.

Biggest Loser

I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE this show. Brian loves it too. Although we tend to eat our dessert while we're watching it, so it's not as motivating as one would think. I think Allison Sweeney is wonderful (although I originally loved her from Days of our Lives), Bob is the one I would choose for my trainer (a good mix of sweet and tough), and Jillian is a tad crazy. Okay a lot crazy. Brian and I were pulling for either Ashley or Daris this season. Can you believe how fabulous Daris looked at the finale? Holy moly, he was so cute. And Ashley looked amazing too! It is just so wild to me that someone can lose 20-30 pounds in one week. But Brian keeps reminding me that if you weigh 400 pounds, 20 pounds isn't as "wow" as I think it is. Well it still is "wow" but it's not unbelievable. I do, however, wish that they would start showing more eating habits and not just focusing on the workouts. I'm pretty sure I know how to hire a trainer now, so just show me what to eat and how much to eat of it. Like I really liked the episode where they all went out to a Mexican restaurant and had to choose healthy items off the menu... very applicable to everyday life. So Dear NBC, Please try to focus a bit more on foods and not so much on exercise when you are showing us clips each week. Sincerely, Ellen. I give this show a 9 out of 10.