Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Trading Habits

I know that habits change over time, but lately I feel like Eric and I have recently completely switched sleeping habits. Out of no where he has become the lightest sleep EVER and I apparently now sleep like a rock. Normally Eric sleeps through any and everything, especially when it involves the dogs. If one of the dogs is sick I will up out of bed at the first little heavy breath or sound of a stomach lurching. Eric is sound asleep, doesn't move, doesn't even stir. But lately that has not been the case.

Example #1
One night this past summer I awoke in the middle of the night to the dogs going nuts. They were barking, jumping, and carrying on like someone was at the door. Next thing I know Eric is running into the living room with his gun to see what was going on. I was still in a daze at this point trying to figure out what was going on. When he came back in I asked why the dogs were going crazy like that. To which he replied, "didn't you hear the door bell?" Um, no. Someone in our neighborhood was ding dong ditching that night and got us, but I didn't even hear it. How? I have no idea! We have a very loud doorbell and our bedroom is right off of the living room. I chalked it up to a long week.

This past week there have been 2 separate incidences that really have me scratching my head. In addition to dog noises, I have a hard time with annoying, repetitive sounds. They drive me nuts. Want to get under my skin? Drum your fingernails or click a pen while I am trying to read or study...I will lose it.

Example #2
One night when we were in the mountains Eric wakes me up around 4 am and asks me what that noise is. What noise? I was sound asleep and certainly did not hear any noise. I didn't hear anything when I woke up either. He told me to listen and finally I hear a faint clicking noise. I told him it was probably freezing rain or melting ice dripping from the trees onto the metal roof of the house and then I told him to go back to sleep. He couldn't because the noise was driving him crazy. Which totally blew my mind since he is usually deaf as can be at night and any other time I am trying to tell him something important. I drifted back off to sleep and finally (I don't know how much later it was) I hear him say there it is! It was a tag on the back of the other bed. The ceiling fan was causing it to tap against the bed post or the wall...I am not exactly sure which one because I could not even hear it!

Example #3
Just last night Eric woke me up in the middle of the night and asked me to hand him the remote control (we have 4 remotes for our bedroom, 2 for the tv, one for the fireplace, and one for the fan and I keep all of them together on my nightstand) that controls our oscillating fan (this is in addition to our ceiling fan). We have not been using the oscillating fan lately since it has been in the 30's at night and we heat our house with out gas and electric fireplaces at night, so it stays cool at night without the extra fan right now. I handed him the remote and went right back to sleep. This morning when I was leaving I noticed the ceiling fan was off, so I asked him why and he said it was making noises last night and woke him up. #1: I didn't hear it or realize he got out of bed to turn it off (come to think of it I don't remember him even coming to bed last night but he was there this morning); and #2: why didn't he just grab the remote off my nightstand to turn the other fan on? (Because men don't think that way!)

So what does this mean? Am I not getting enough sleep? Am I sleeping harder these days? Am I just super sensitive to dog sounds? I can hear one of the dogs heaving in the kitchen from a sound sleep in the bedroom for crying out loud! Maybe all of these instances have caught me in the middle of a REM cycle. Who knows?! I guess I am going to be able to blame my inability to wake up on time on the fact that I am able to sleep through not one but 2 alarms on a daily basis! Yep that's my excuse from now on. =)

ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz


Tuesday, February 26, 2013

A Weekend in the Mountains

I am still trying to get myself back into a normal work mode (if that really exists). We took a break from the hustle and bustle of our regular lives this past weekend and had ourselves a nice little getaway to the Appalachian Mountains for a snowboarding weekend with some friends.

We left on Thursday afternoon and headed up to Sugar Mountain near Boone, North Carolina. Unfortunately we did not consider the time we were leaving and ended up in rush hour traffic in Atlanta, which was followed by a wreck right outside of Atlanta that had us stopped on the interstate for nearly an hour and a half. We were trying to beat the freezing rain that was headed that way and made it to the house we were staying at shortly after it started. It was midnight by the time we got there, but we were all wired for the trip so we ended up staying up to nearly 2 am (the boys may have stayed up later than that). Needless to say we slept late the next morning. I brought stuff and made breakfast casserole when we got there so all I had to do the next morning was get up and put it in the oven, which I did around 9:30 before almost everyone was awake. We'd decided to night ski the first night since we got such a late start and still had to get groceries for the weekend as well as rent our snowboards.

The view from the top and my snow bunny and I. (don't tell him I called him a snow bunny...lol) 
Our first night on the slopes was great! Luckily I did not forget everything I learned last year and was able to get down the hill sans falling the first time. =) We stayed on the easy hills for the most part and finally worked up the nerve to go up the bigger hill that only Eric and his buddy attempted the year before which resulted in them falling their way down the mountain. We conquered the big hill, which was fast but turned out to be really fun! We called it a night around 9:30 and headed back to the house for dinner.....at 10:30pm, which resulted in another late night.

Our second day started about the same time as our first day, but we decided to opt for night snowboarding again even though we had our gear from the night before. To pass the time before we headed out we decided to check out the town of Blowing Rock. It's a really cute town with a TON of character. We went there to check out a place called Mystery Hill where they have a "vortex" that has a higher than average gravitational pull that makes you lean at a 45 degree angle in the room. The guys were completely skeptical before we went in, and were completely freaked out after we left. It drove them nuts because they could not figure out why it was like that.

You could feel a higher than normal gravitational pull, almost like you were drunk.
They also had a platform that always made the person on the left look taller.  Apparently the physics department at Appalachian State has come out and tested this to prove it's an optical illusion, but were unable to explain it....freaky!
While we were there we came across an old timey photo place. Jokingly we asked the guys if they wanted to do one, and they got really excited about it. So we took one.....in reversed roles. Yes that is my husband in the front right in the short black dress. Isn't he precious? The guy who was running it said he'd never had a role reversal photo before and that we would have our photo hanging in the store soon. I guess it's better to be known for something rather than nothing, right?


We headed to downtown Blowing Rock for lunch and found a pub called the Six Pence Pub that was right up our alley.  They had a ton of unique brews and even a cider beer for me! The food was amazing and we left about 5 pounds heavier than we were when we went in.



We headed back to the house and caught a quick nap to sleep off our food comas and then it was back to the slopes for night #2!  The second night on the slopes was even better than the first. Eric and I got recognized by the lift guy on the first hill.  As soon as we got off the first time the second night he yelled out his window, "I remember you guys from last night!  You (Eric) grab the wall and she holds onto the chair until she gets to the bottom!"  BUSTED! Whatever works, right?!  It was a lot more crowded than the night before, so we hesitantly decided to try a higher/harder slopes than we'd been doing. It was the best decision we could have made. We had a BLAST! The higher slopes were ins lot better condition and a lot less crowded. We were pretty sure we were ready for the pro circuit by the end of the night, except for that whole going down the mountain like a bat out of you know where...we're not quite on that level. Not even close actually, but it left us ready to come back again next year!

We did all of the slopes circled in pink....lots more fun than just staying on the Lower Flying Mile like last year!
Two nights of snowboarding in a row left us absolutely exhausted and after some fabulous deer tacos for dinner we crashed...hard. There was no staying up late for anyone. Plus we had to get up at 8 so we could get on the road.

We were so sad to leave, and we will definitely be going back next year!  How could you not want to go back to beautiful views and an amazing house like this one?!


I seriously NEED this house for everyday use =)  We're convinced that renting houses is the way to travel anymore!
We were so sad to see this vacation come to and end.  It was so much fun!  I am so glad we were able to go with such a fun group of friends!  And because I know you want to see more old timey shenanigans......


You're welcome.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Birthday Recap and Another Birthday

Well it's safe to say that 28 is off to a great start. I had an absolutely wonderful birthday!I received lots of wonderful birthday calls and texts which make a girl feel really special! My day started out pretty typically....got up, got dressed, got ready to head out the door when I noticed a box on the counter. It was a pretty large box in a Bass Pro bag...one of Eric's favorite wrapping techniques. He appeared around the corner just as I was about walk out the door. The bag wrapped box was indeed my birthday present! I opened it to find packing air........and then I came to one of our guest towels....wrapped up in the guest towel was a beautiful white box the contained a pretty new iPad!!! To say I was excited is an understatement. Of course that also meant I've completely unproductive ever since. =) but I am ok with it!


My work day was quite nice. My friends surprised me a plate of brownies with cream cheese icing that we're amazing. Possibly the best store bought brownies I've ever had. We had birthday lunch too, which actually fell on my birthday so I got to go out to a very nice lunch!

I got home wondering what in the world we were going to do for the rest of the night. We decided to go light on dinner and went to our favorite soup and sandwich place in town. I was still stuffed from lunch and only ate half my sandwich. When we for back Eric's brother and his wife came over and we had cake and ice cream. It was perfect! He made sure I had candles the blow out. I had to ask him if he wanted a 20 year old wife instead of a 28 year old wife since he only put 20 candles on the cake. He said he was just worried about putting that many candles on a cake and lighting gem all at once....yep that's a lot of candles.

They spelled my name right for once!
On another note today is the 2 year blogoversary for this little blog-o-mine! I never would have thought I could have kept this going for this long but I am pretty proud of myself for it! I love being able to look back over the last 2 years to see how we've grown and changed. Here's to another 2 and many many more!


Wednesday, February 20, 2013

28 Years

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At 4:37AM this morning I turned another year older....I hit the big 2-8.  It sounds so much OLDER than 27!  I feel like that means I am officially a grown up now (as if getting a job, getting married, and buying a house don't constitute being an adult).  I am officially in my late 20's...YIKES!  I cannot wait to see what my 28th year has in store for me.

Eric's left me completely in the dark about his plans for my birthday tonight, but that's A-O-Kay with me because I LOVE to be surprised! He did give me my birthday present before I left for work this morning.....it starts with and "I" and rhymes with "rad" and I am so excited about it! =)  

I have plans to thoroughly enjoy my day because it's ma birfday!  WHOOP WHOOP!

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Weekend Recap

I had quite a fabulous weekend if I say so myself.  My dad came in town for a visit, and we ended up doing a ton of fun stuff!  I suggested we try out Eric's new fish fryer that he got for Valentine's Day and have some fried crappie for dinner on Friday while we waited for Dad to arrive.  Man was it good!  It was the first fried crappie we've had this year and it was amazing.

Saturday morning Eric headed up to Huntsville to watch the THS wrestlers compete in the state match.  They did great and we had 2 kids (including the heavyweight Eric's worked with all season) won their weight class!  Dad headed out to play some golf in the 30 degree weather we had, so I snuggled up on the couch with a cup of coffee and the pups and watched a Saved by the Bell marathon. I met Dad around noon in Montgomery for lunch and we headed over to watch the Lady Hawks play.  They won...BIG....and then we learned that they had clinched their first regular season conference title EVER!  So exciting! Saturday night we went over to have dinner at one of the other football coach's house and had a blast just hanging out.

Sunday morning the boys headed out to play another around of golf before Dad had to head back home.  I decided that since it was chilly outside that I would make a big pot of chili for them to enjoy when they got home.  They loved it! Although it almost didn't happen because apparently Eric used up several of my staple ingredients that I have on hand all the time, and I ended up having to go to the store not once but TWICE to get everything.  He's just lucky I really wanted chili and that there's a grocery store a mile from the house!  Dad headed home after lunch and we vegged for the rest of the day (in between walks for the puppies of course--they got 2 in one day because it was so pretty).

Since we had so much fun on Saturday and Sunday I spent Monday playing catch up and running about a bazillion errands: the vet for flea meds for the dogs, dropped off 3 bags of clothes I've been meaning to donate for about 2 months, paid some bills around town that I can't pay online (gotta love a small town), went to get our taxes done (someone please remind me to do them myself next year instead of paying someone), got my oil changed, and made a quick grocery store run for dinner.  Not extremely FUN stuff but necessary stuff.  We finished off the weekend at the baseball field to watch the THS season opener.  They dropped the first game of the double header and we decided that it was too cold (despite the heater I was sitting in front of) to brave the second game so we left after the first one.  I guess that's the beauty of not being the coach....you can leave when you want!  Since we were so cold when we got home we opted for grilled cheese and chicken noodle soup for dinner. I must say that Eric makes a mean ooey gooey grilled cheese.  I may have had more than one. =)


1. An early birthday present to myself...some Chucks!  I am in love with them!  Oh and my birthday is tomorrow!!!
2. The Huntingdon Lady Hawks celebrating their regular season conference championship!
3. Baseball game...spring is coming!
4. No more crepe myrtle by the pool.  Eric got a little chain saw happy with my crepe myrtles this year.  I know they will grow like crazy but we're going to have some super short bushes this year.
5. Fried Crappie and coleslaw on Friday night....Delicious!
6. Chili dogs on Sunday afternoon.
7. Told you Eric makes an ooey gooey grilled cheese!  He even butterfly cut it for me!

Today is my last day of being 27.  I have really enjoyed it, but I am looking forward to all of the wonderful things to come in year 28!  And no I can't believe that I am that old.

Monday, February 18, 2013

A Rant

Yeah no weekend recap today.  Since today is President's Day, my weekend is still going.  But it will be here tomorrow...no worries!  It's been a great one so far!

I am not one to rant much on here, but in real life I've been known to rant about something once or twice.  It's not like my family gets a kick out of me getting all worked up about stupid things from time to time....or all the time.

Back to my rant....

A month ago I decided to switch my Winn-Dixie reward card over to their new fuel perks card. It took me a few months to make the switch because: #1) I really like my $5 off $55 purchase coupons I got with every purchase with my old Winn Dixie card and #2) I fill my car up once a week and I certainly don't spend more than $50 or so on food and $.05 per gallon of gas per week would not really make much of a difference.  Plus I get 3% cash back on my Costco AMEX card in addition to gas prices that are usually around $.05 per gallon cheaper than other gas stations which outweighs the Winn-Dixie savings majorly.

I finally got to thinking and decided that while fuel perks would not really help me out, we could use it to get cheaper gas for Eric. Since he has a work truck he does not have to put gas in his regular truck very often.  Since I can build up fuel perks savings for 2 months, I figured we could save them up and every 2 months he could go fill up his truck for cheap(er) (let's face it gas is NOT cheap by any means anymore).

I opened our fuel perks account the second weekend in January...roughly 5 weeks ago.  The gas station in our town that honored fuel perks had regular unleaded gas for $3.15/gallon.  I thought Great! I can get gas for about $2.50/gallon if I save up for a couple of months! But then gas prices decided up jump.  Maybe jump isn't the right word it....skyrocket for no apparent reason is probably more accurate.

As of today I have $.45 cents per gallon saved up in fuel perks and as if they're keeping track of my spending and savings at Winn Dixie, regular unleaded gas at the gas station where I redeem my feul perks is now $3.61 per gallon.  I feel like they're just trying to mock me.  You're up to $.45 off per gallon? We don't want you to save any money, so gas is now a penny more per gallon than it was when you started this....!  JERKS. So much for trying to save a buck.

via

Rant over.  Thank goodness for Monday holidays....that makes me feel better. =)




Friday, February 15, 2013

My Sweet Valentine

My beautiful roses!

Our Valentine's Day was very nice.....very US.  Eric had a beautiful bouquet of roses delivered to my office.  I brought them home so I could look at them more. =)

He was out running when I left to go teach dance so I left his surprises on the counter for him to find when he got home.


He got a fryer that he wanted (probably the only sized fryer we didn't already own), some gloves for our ski trip (because he went through 3 pairs last year in 2 days), a box of Tag-A-Longs, and a coupon book full of dates and little things.  I was pretty proud of my wrapping job (that I did the night before while he was in the next room watching tv....lol).  I used washi tape to decorate my paper.  I got the polka dot paper to use for Christmas but at this rate it may not make it until then since I've used it for everything lately!

washi!
While I was teaching tap, he cooked dinner for us.....filets from a local steak and wine store, hash brown potatoes (since I was not home to make taters), asparagus, and mushrooms. It was heavenly.  We both devoured our steaks and had barely any leftovers.

You better believe I broke out the wedding china!
Best part?  Besides getting to eat in our sweats?  We didn't have to drive 45 mins to a nice restaurant-something you have to consider when you don't live in the city and we got to give the pups a few bacon scraps (Eric said the filets were too good to share with the dogs...riiiiiight).

And now it's Friday Friday Friday! But not just any Friday....a 3 day weekend Friday!  C'mon 3:30, I'm ready to get this started!

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Happy Valentine's Day!

via
My Valentine's Day has been officially MADE.  Why?  Because Taco Bell has officially announced that the Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Taco will be available on March 7 and that makes me one happy girl!!!

via
Ok so I guess there's more to Valentine's Day than a taco shell made out of my favorite chips like the wonderful evening I have planned with Eric.  I have to teach dance tonight, but he's going to grill us some filets from our favorite steak place (they've been in the fridge since last night and the entire fridge smells like the seasonings....sooooo good!) so we don't have to try to fight the Valentine's Day crowds at restaurants tonight. My hero! There's nothing better than a home-cooked meal with my love...I'm such a homebody!

Make sure to hug and kiss your sweetheart today (and every day for that matter)!

Happy Valentine's Day!

*muah*




Monday, February 11, 2013

Weekend Recap

So Thursday night was not the perfect game for us.  We played a great first quarter, but they were just too much for us and we ended up losing. I hate to see the season end but I am looking forward to having my Friday nights (and every other night for that matter) free! This weekend was the first sports season free weekend Eric and I have had since the beginning of August.  No joke.  6 STRAIGHT MONTHS of coaching.  Don't get me wrong, we both love it, but I am glad that we have a break for a while.

What did we do with this weekend?  Spent most of it at the gym watching wrestling sections, and spent the rest of it attempting to recover from the horrible chest colds that we both have.


1. Hallow decided to snack on our remote control on Friday afternoon, so we had to change the channel the old fashion way all weekend.  P.S.  I survived the weekend without watching a single DVRed show!
2. I had a ring-side view of the wrestling match all weekend.  Eric was running the clock so I sat next to the timers table.  THS won secionals again!  And our neighbor that Eric's been coaching won his weight class!
3. Hallow watching YouTube clips of the Puppy Bowl on tv.....HILARIOUS! I put it on just to see what he would do and he went nuts barking at the tv and trying to jump at it.
4. The bopper.  At wrestling matches there are little kids whose job it is to tap the referees when the time is up on the clock.  When the Championship round started Saturday evening all of said kids mysteriously bailed  disappeared, leaving no one to tap the referees. Since I was right there Eric nominated me. I did a mighty fine job bopping the referees except that one time I missed the ref and one of the coaches hollered at me...but it was NOT my fault....he moved at the last second.  Don't worry, Eric and his buddies got a kick out of it.
5. Late night snack on Friday.  The wrestling matches went until 11:30pm on Friday so I thought I deserved a late night snack. =)
6. My friends for the weekend.  Eric brought home a lovely chest cold last week that he so kindly shared with me, so we tried just about every kind of cough medicine.  A neighbor suggested Mucinex DM, so we tried it on Sunday. It helped tremendously but I am so ready for this cold to remove itself from my system.
7. My view on Sunday. It rained monsooned all day on Sunday which made for a perfect day of laying on the couch trying to feel better.
8. The only thing that got us out of the house on Sunday was a trip to redbox and Pizza Hut.  We got sucked in my a commercial for pizza sliders.  They were like mini personal pan pizzas! Our only complaint was that there was only one pepperoni on each one....the commercial showed 4 per pizza slider.
9. If you're looking for a funny movie that a guy's guy will love rent Here Comes the BOOM.  Kevin James comedy + MMA = fun for everyone!

I am hoping that this cold vacates my chest cavity ASAP because it's a very unwelcome visitor in this house. I did get some fun mail this weekend to cheer me up.  I came across an etsy shop that sells pop art prints and magnets with pictures of pets on them.  They had some that looked like the boys so I HAD to get them!
I got them from a shop called Pop Doggie and I LOVE them!
And just because I can't get enough if Hollow watching the Puppy Bowl.....

Have a great week!


Thursday, February 7, 2013

Tonight's the Night

Tonight I'll board a school bus with the team.  We'll travel an hour and twenty minutes to our destination where we'll play a basketball game.  An coach once told me that basketball is the simplest sport there is.  You have a ball and a hoop; all you have to do is put the ball IN the hoop; do that more times than you opponent and you win. Simple. Tonight it's do or die, win or go home, stay alive to play another game or end our season.  To say we're an underdog is completely accurate.  We're 3-21 (2-6 in the region), they're 14-7 (8-0 in the region). We're young and undersized and young, they are season veterans.   Yet I am still optimistic about our chances tonight.  Because you never know what is going to happen when you step onto that court, especially when it's tournament time and you know that if you don't win, you're done.  It creates a sense of urgency, a hunger that was not present during the rest of the season.  At that point ability is just part of it, heart and desire become what it's about.  It comes down to who wants it the most.


From the video:
Here's the thing that makes life so interesting: The Theory of Evolution claims that "only the strong shall survive." Maybe so, maybe so. But the Theory of Competition says "just because they're the strong doesn't mean they can't get their asses kicked." That's right. 

See, what every long-shot, come-from-behind underdog will tell you is this: The other guy may in fact be the favorite; the odds may be stacked against you. Fair enough ...

But what the odds don't know is this isn't a math test. This is a completely different kind of test. One where passion has a funny way of trumping logic. So before you step up to the starting line, before the whistle blows and the clock starts ticking, just remember: out here, the results don't always add up.

No matter what the stats may say and the experts may think and the commentators may have predicted, when the race is on, all bets are off. Don't be surprised if someone decides to flip the script and take a pass on yelling "uncle". And then suddenly, as the old saying goes, "We got ourselves a game."
 

Doesn't matter how many times I watch it....I still get goosebumps every time.

Let's Go Lady Tigers!

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

On to Round 2

We did it!  We won our game last night which means we're moving on to the second round of the area tournament!  It may not seem like a big deal, but as far as I know it may be the first time the girl's basketball team has ever won an area tournament game.  The girls were not aware of any previous wins.  Proud does not even begin to describe how I feel about this team.  We've had a really rough season and to come out with a win last night was amazing.

It was not smooth sailing the whole way, and we got out to a slow start. Since we had to wait on a bus to run a route before taking us to the game we left about 30 minutes later than we wanted to, which meant we got to the gym 5 minutes before the game was supposed to start.  Thankfully we had the girls dress before we left our gym and had them put their shoes on while we were still on the bus.  We got there, went to the locker room to use the restroom, talked to them for about a minute and came out to play. To say we were rushed was an understatement, but at the same time I wonder if it may have been a good thing because we did not have time to get anxious (well the girls didn't-I don't think I have ever been so anxious about a game I was not playing in) or nervous about it.

We struggled in the first half and found ourselves down by 11 at one point in the second quarter, but they kept their composure and cut it to six just before halftime.  That's when one of our freshmen post players decided she was going to take over the game.  She hit a whole new level of play and we had come back and built a  5 point lead by the end of the 3rd quarter.  The kid ended up with 24 of our 39 points and could have had at least 10 more if she'd hit a few more layups in the 1st half.  It was incredible!

Our next game is against the #1 team in our area.  It's going to be a tough one, but if the girls play as hard as they did last night who knows what might happen!  Somebody has to come out on top, right?  Why can't it be us?!

One of my favorite poems:


Monday, February 4, 2013

Super Bowl Weekend Recap

Dear Weekend, Please come back.  I miss you already and you were entirely too short.

Since basketball left me with about 6 hours of free time on Saturday and most of my Sunday (that was then taken up by Super Bowl and getting ready for that) I feel like I am still in an extension of last week. The busy-ness will continue tonight when we start our area tournament.  We get to play one of the teams we beat already this year (YEA!), so we are optimistic about this game.  We have a real chance to move on to the next round if we play hard, and play like I know we can.

My non-basketball activities this weekend consisted of some Insanity workouts, walks with the pups, and tha Supa Bowl!

Here are my thoughts on the game:

1. It was a great and exciting game (in the second half).....shout out to Buffalo Wild Wings for turning off the power so the 49ers regroup so they could make their come back in the second half.

2. Commercials: Enjoyed them for the most part.
      My favorites (in no particular order)
        -Budweiser Clydesdale Brotherhood (horse remembering his owner)---made me tear up
        -Jeep's America will be Whole Again---also made me tear up
        -Both Doritos Commericals: Goat 4 Sale and Fashionista Daddy
        -Taco Bell's Viva Young

3. Destiny's Child Reuniting on stage during halftime = my favorite Super Bowl Halftime moment EVER! I am pretty sure every woman from ages 20-35's inner teenager went nuts....mine did!

As with all major football games we had a gathering at our house with lots of delicious goodies! We had smoked  ribs, sausage, and chicken (because Eric can't have a gathering without multiple types of meat), chicken salad, Jalapeno Popper Dip, guacamole, salsa, queso, and chips.  I pulled out my Buffalo Chicken Wraps recipe, my fabulous Stuffed Mushroom recipe, and pulled off a near disastrous cookie cake. I kinda forgot how much cookie cakes expand in the oven and ended up with burnt cookie cake overflow on the bottom of my oven.....the actual cookie cake survived and was delicious!


Please forgive my lack of decorating skills on the cookie cake.....I could not find any of my icing heads so I was working with the straight spout on the icing packages.  It was not pretty...that's ok though because it tasted wonderful!

I guess it's time to get this week started.....bring it Monday!

Friday, February 1, 2013

Friday's Letters

It's been a minute since I wrote some letters but I had some letter-worthy things to talk about today so here goes:

Dear February, It's so nice to see you.  I am a bit shocked at how quickly January went by, but I am perfectly A-O-Kay with it because that means only 20 days til my birthday! Whoop Whoop!

Dear Eric, I sure do love you!  Please don't disown me for putting this picture up! We had basketball practice in the wrestling gym yesterday (because they decided to take our over last night without telling us) and I found this gem of a picture in the trophy case......Eric's first wrestling State Championship!

Such a stud! He may be mean mugging but I am sure he was excited on the inside. 
Dear Basketball Season, As time consuming and tiring as you are sometimes I absolutely adore you! It's hard to believe that the season is winding down so quickly.  It makes me sad that in a couple of weeks I will not be going to the gym every day for practice and games.

Dear Insanity, You're my newest favorite workout obsession. The only thing that is going to make the end of basketball easier is knowing I will be able to do your workouts every day instead of sporadically here and there. "sssssgooooooooooo!" ~ Shaun T (love him!)

This is me post Cardio Power and Resistance workout on Wednesday night.  Yes I am on the floor giving Shaun T the stink eye.
Dear Harbaugh Bowl, I mean Super Bowl, You kinda snuck up on me this year.  I guess not being extremely interested in either team (or the NFL in general)  will do that to ya. I think there's several good story lines to go along with it, hopefully some good commercials, and some delicious goodies to munch on, so of course I will be watching it!

Dear Mother Nature, I think you must be going through "the change."  If the weather this week is any indication I would say that is absolutely true. A high of 76 on Wednesday followed by a high of 46 on Friday is just insane.  Let's picks a season and stick with it for more than a few days.

Dear Little Monsters AKA our Puppy Dogs, Thank you for making me laugh daily. From Peanut burrowing in to the blankets so all you can see is a long mass of blanket moving across the floor, to Hawk barking like a sissy dog because he wants Hollow to play with him, to Hallow just being Hallow....Y'all know just what to do to always put me in a good mood.

Hollow letting me know I have disturbed his nap....under the covers.
I have another busy weekend of basketball ahead of me, and with the Super Bowl on Sunday I am going to need another weekend to recover from that.  I will surely be running on adrenaline for our area tournament next week!
Happy Friday!