Has it Really Been 10 Years?

Whew what a week!  I am not quite sure when our how I made it to Friday, but the good news is that I did. The even better news is that I have 2 completely unplanned days laying just ahead of me.  I am thinking we will fill those days with some lake time, river time, or pool time....aka sunshine and water...aka my happy place.  

Hawk says the pool will do just fine this weekend.

I took the plunge and purchased our tickets for, get ready for this.....my 10 year high school reunion.  YIKES!  I still can't believe I am old enough to go to a 10 year high school reunion.  I guess I thought I would feel like I was a little more mature that I do.  I mean yeah I'm married, we have our own home, and I work a great job, but lots of some days I feel like I am a kid playing pretend.  I keep wondering when the day will come that I think it's completely inappropriate to drive with my feet up on the dash, or feel like I have to sit with both feet on the floor in my work chair (I can't do it), or think prancing down the hallway is off the table (guilty...am I the only one who fights a daily urge to do a cartwheel down the empty hallway at my office?).  I think that I have a real future helping the prancercise lady market her videos.

via GIFSoup

I am looking forward to going to my reunion.  I feel like I have changed a lot, but at the same time I haven't changed THAT much.  I would like to think that I am a little less annoying than I was then (maybe?), but I am still the same genuine person I have always been.  I would hope that I have grown into my looks.  I was a string beanish tomboy who played basketball and ran track (but was only out there to stay in shape for basketball- I have the hurdle scars to prove it).  I have been 5'10" since I was 14 and was always played sports so I never put any weight on.  Looking back, I was crazy skinny but never thought I was. I have learned how to apply makeup (for the most part) and no longer look like a ghost when I put it on.  As far as my hair goes, I could only improve from how it was back then.  I wore my hair in a ponytail EVERY DAY-except for picture day- from the time I was in 6th grade until about halfway through my junior year when I discovered the straightening iron.  It has been my best hair friend every single day since.  I am pretty sure I wore tearaway warmup pants with basketball shorts under them and a t-shirt at least once a week, and stuck to jeans the rest of the time....no wonder I didn't have a boyfriend. I guess what I am trying to say is THANK GOODNESS facebook didn't exist from 2000-2003. =)

I hate to admit it but if it weren't for facebook I am pretty sure I would not know a single thing about any of my classmates.  I have pretty much lost touch with everyone.  Will this be a time to rekindle some old friendships?  Maybe.  Would we be going if my parents had not just moved back there?  Not sure.  I think it will be fun to take Eric to my old stomping grounds to see where I went to school.  We live where he grew up so we're always around where he came from and the people he went to school with.  Plus I will get to show him off....who doesn't want to show off their studly husband at the reunion. =) =) =)

Have a great weekend!

Georgia Wedding Weekend Recap

I am happy to report we made through the weekend in one piece. I think I can honestly say the wedding we attended this past weekend was one of the most eventful ones we've been to, scratch that--probably the most eventful ever.

Love these 2!  Isn't the bride gorgeous!?  They are such a precious couple!

I guess we should start from the beginning. We headed over to Albany, Georgia on Friday afternoon and found ourselves at the cutest little motel/inn I have seen in a long time.  It had a ton of charm and beautiful old magnolia trees out front.  The crazy part is that it was in the middle of town! It was on the "main drag" through town, across the street from the Dollar General.  I would say it was the best of both worlds: country charm close to the city...just like I like it!  After we arrived we headed up to the Manor House for a few drinks and to wait for every one to come back from the rehearsal dinner.  We ended up staying up waaaay too late, but had the best time.  Since the groom-to-be was basically Eric's little brother growing up, Eric decided to make sure he shared lots of marital wisdom.  There's just something about hearing your husband talk about how amazing your wedding day was for him that always gives a girl butterflies.  =)

1. Patio Sitting = Summer evening perfection!

2. The patio on the porch. I NEED this at our house.

3. This weekend's featured drink: Redemption Liquid Valium: Redemption Whiskey, Peach Schnapps, cranberry juice, and orange juice.  It was delicious!

4. My studly husband.

Saturday morning we got up and headed to breakfast and the guys took off for the gold course.  I decided I needed another hour of sleep, so I curled back up in our enormous comfy bed for another hour. =)  I had forgotten my face lotion so I headed out to find a Target and ended up spending a little time there (ok a while there).  On the way back to the hotel I spotted the mall and couldn't resist, so I stopped in there, too.  By the time I made it back to the hotel a lovely summer thunderstorm had decided to grace us with it's presence and I made it into the room only mildly soaked.  Eric came back shortly afterward and we started getting ready and headed off to the wedding.

The wedding itself was absolutely beautiful!....once it actually got going.  Mother Nature decided she wanted to delay the wedding a bit.  They had a beautiful spot set up on a golf course.  15 minutes before the ceremony was supposed to start the sky got dark and the bottom fell out (again) right as the ceremony was supposed to start.  They ended up putting everyone in the reception hall to wait it out, and 30 minutes later we were seated.  While we waiting to start it started sprinkling again, and a huge thunderhead started heading toward us.  But then something amazing happened....after the beautiful bride walked down the aisle the rain started to subside, and as they started saying their vows a little ray of sunshine popped out.  It was like the movies!  The ceremony ended up being absolutely beautiful and very sweet.  Although I must mention there was a near mishap with a bridesmaid who had a little too much to drink pre-wedding. She stumbled down the aisle and ended up hanging onto one of the other bridesmaids during the ceremony because she could not stand on her own.  Somehow she held it together and the bride never knew what happened (until after).  It did provide some comic relief for the guests.  I think someone videoed her the whole time and I am just waiting for it to go viral.  Eric and I ended up being the ones to get her back up to the clubhouse (even though we had only met her the night before).  He got her some water and I sat her down in the bride's room and helped her call for a ride.  We then had to help get her from the clubhouse to the car with as little commotion as possible. It went relatively smoothly and didn't cause a scene. I heard later that she ended up back at her apartment in the pool.....in her bridesmaid dress.  A little advice to anyone who is going to be in a wedding....keep your drinking in check.  You will embarrass yourself.

1. Saying their vows.  This was about the time the sun came out. =) 

2. The cake table!  I didn't eat any of the actual cake, but I had more cupcakes than I am willing to admit.  

3. Our table markers. 

4.  How priceless is this face?!  All of the groomsmen gave the groom a baseball with a date of one of their homeruns on it....the groom did not hit any this season (they all play college baseball).  Someone had stashed a basket for them behind the alter.  It was hilarious seeing him holding all of the balls!

5. Pretty table flowers.

6. The country club had an absolutely beautiful set up for the wedding.  

7. PSA: Don't be the bridesmaid who has to hold on to someone to make it through the wedding.  The girl beside her was such a trooper. 

After the wedding we went back to the hotel again and sat by the pool with the couples' friends and family.  I am convinced that hanging out with your friends and family after your wedding reception is the best way to end your wedding.

1. We may have stopped for some fried pickles from Captain D's on the way home.  #weakness

2. We were so glad to get home to see these little monsters!  They missed us, too!

Sunday morning we slept in and barely made it to breakfast before we hit the road. We were back home by lunchtime and were able to get a few things done Sunday afternoon.  Eric cut down a tree and did yard work while I got the inside of the house together and planned dinners for this week. I have several delicious dinners and recipes to share this week!

We are the Champions.....

....my fraaaaands.....you sang it didn't you?

Happy Happy Friday to all.  I don't know about anyone else, but this week felt like it lasted about 7 workdays.  I was not quite sure I'd make it to Friday this time around, but good news!  I did and now it's Friday and weeeee are the championsssss.......of the WORLD!

Ok not of the world, but of our church softball league.  We had a double header last night to finish out our regular season.  We clinched the title after we run ruled the team we played in our first game, and then we completed our second straight undefeated regular season in the second game. Our second game was against one of the teams that had already played us pretty close once, so we were expecting a battle.  I think the double header was an advantage to us because we were already loose. We got our bats going early and the other team never really got started.  Honestly it was probably one of the best defensive games we've played.  There were several spectacular catches and plays.  And I actually tagged someone out at second!  I get force outs all the time, but I rarely get the chance to tag someone out who is sliding into second.

The Liberty All-Stars!

With all of softball action that did not end until 10:15pm last night, I am probably going to need several cups of coffee this morning to get me through the day.  I've got to get myself going because it's a wedding weekend for us.  Eric's "little brother" (he's not really his brother, but might as well have been) is getting married this weekend so we will be partaking in the wedding festivities all weekend. It should be fun!

Happy Birthday Peanut!

Happy Happy 6th Birthday to my sweet, stubborn, always hungry, opinionated, treat-loving, belly-rub hoarding, snuggley, baby dog.  I am so glad I can now look back at the first few days we spent together (that I never thought we'd make it through) and laugh. You've gone from a scared, timid little pup who would not come out of the kennel the first time I saw you and ran from anyone who came near you to a social butterfly.  Once you figured out that people would rub your tummy you if you were nice to them, you got over your fear pretty quickly.  Just when I think I have your habits all figured out you go an surprise me again....like you did my jumping into the pool all by yourself last night. Although I am pretty sure the only reason you ever get in the pool is so you can get dried off which is one of your most favorite things in the world.  And no matter what your Dad wants to think, you are certainly are the Alpha Dog despite being the smallest dog in the house.

Happy Birthday Sweet Little Peanut!

 I love that you are still my little shadow after all this time.  

Weekend Recap: At the Pool

And just like that it's Monday again.  I would not have complained if someone told me we were going to extend this weekend by a day.  I believe that this past weekend was the quintessential perfect summer weekend. We had amazing weather 3 days in a row....meaning the humidity decided to tone it down and the temps dipped below 90 (just barely) all weekend long.

After work on Friday I made a quick trip to the grocery store and headed home Friday afternoon to find Eric by the pool.  Of course I had to join him, because it was too nice not to. Since neither of us wanted to go back out, we tore up some BLTs by the pool for dinner.  Well a BLT for him and a BLP for me.  I am not a tomato fan, but a couple of years ago I discovered that dill pickle slices are delicious with bacon and lettuce on a sandwich!  We had a few friends come by and hung out by the pool all evening....PERFECT Friday night in my book!

Delicious!

Saturday we'd planned to have a bunch of friends over to enjoy a pool day/cookout. I spent Saturday morning whipping up my world famous potato salad and some dips for that afternoon while Eric did what he does....fish, of course. We had our happy butts pool side by 2:30 and spent the rest of the day doing what we did the evening before.  We only paused to feast of the BBQ'd goodies Eric smoked on the Big Green Egg.

Meat....it's what's for dinner

Before I met Eric, I had never seen anyone prepare multiple meats for one meal.  I grew up in a house where, if you were having chicken, you had chicken, fish night meant fish for dinner, and pork night meant BBQ'd pork, nothing else.  Eric, on the other hand likes to BBQ the entire meat section of the grocery store at a cookout.  We had pulled pork, ribs, chicken, and our neighbors even brought a brisket.  We decided there was no way anyone could NOT find something they liked.  The food was delicious and we ended up with nothing but meat leftover...go figure.  However, that means dinners for the next few evenings should be a breeze!

Sunday, I got up and headed to church and then we went to eat at his grandma's house.  After lunch he went to the river for a bit while I called my Dad and wish him a Happy Father's Day and had a great chat with him.  We finshed off our weekend at the pool, where else. Not ours, though.  We went to the neighbors' house. The boys (grown up human boys, not the dogs) and the kids played in the pool, and we had a shrimp boil for dinner.  It doesn't get much better than that!

......and that's what summer's all about!

I realized last night I did not take a single picture of anything but food this weekend.  I will try to to do better next weekend!

High Five for Friday!

#1

We made it!  Whoop Whoop!  I am so glad it's here!!!  I see fun in the sun, pool time, and good food in my very near future.  It's supposed to be sunny and warm.....the PERFECT summer weekend!

via

#2

Little brother love. 

How stinkin' cute are these 2?!  Eric said he found them like this when he got home yesterday.  I know I say this all the time, but our dogs crack me up on a daily basis.  I can't imagine how boring my life would be without our fur-babies.

#3

I am happy to report that these 2 are BOTH officially Memphis residents again!  I haven't said too much about it on here, but the past year my parents have been in the process of moving back to Memphis.  Dad moved down in August to start a new job, while Mom stayed behind in Michigan while they sold the house. The house ended up selling much quicker than they thought and by Thanksgiving they were moving out of the MI house into a new house in Memphis.  The only problem was Mom was 6 months away from being vested in her retirement.  The obvious decision was for her to stay up in MI to finish out the school year and move down officially when school got out.  Well school FINALLY ended this week (the crazies up north like to start school after Labor Day and finish in June- a foreign concept down south)  and she's now back down south for good with Dad!  I am super excited to have them closer!  They're 5 hours from us, but that sure beats 14 hours!

#4

We barely survived our softball game last night.  We won, but it was one of those games that as you go over and over in your head on the way home (Anyone else besides me do this? Yeah it's just church league softball but old habits die hard, I guess.) you wonder what the heck happened.  The team we were playing made some spectacular plays and we had some tough breaks and miss-communication that cost us several runs.  Thankfully we had some people step up with some big plays and big hits when we needed them.  I am not a fan of being up only by 3 with the tying run and #2 batter at the plate, but I guess when you're the only undefeated team left everyone brings their A game.  

#5

TRUTH

Happy Weekend!

I Made Another Succotash...and it was GOOOOD!

I would be lying if I said this week was taking as long as I thought it would.  I was pleasantly surprised to realize that it's already Thursday.  I have a little tid bit of deliciousness to share today.

I posted this succotash recipe a couple of weeks ago. It was my first succotash recipe to ever cook (or try if I am not mistaken).  I was that kid that didn't like any of my food to mix or touch, so in all likelihood I had not had one before this (not willingly anyway). For this reason I surprised myself salivating over another succotash recipe in a recent Redbook issue. I made it for dinnner earlier this week and it was a hit.  Eric and I agreed that this one was better than the first one was had.

Recipe adapted from Redbook Magazine

What you need:

2 TBSP butter

1 large zucchini, diced

1-15oz can corn, drained (or 2 cups fresh corn kernels)

1 TBSP fresh thyme leaves

2 tsp chopped garlic

1 medium tomato, deeded and diced (1/2 to 1 cup)

4 scallions, thinly sliced (about 1/2 cup)

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/4 cup reduced fat sour cream

How to make it:

Melt butter in a skillet over med-high heat.  Saute zucchini, corn, thyme, and garlic for 4-6 minutes, tossing frequently.

Stir in tomatoes, scallions, salt, and pepper.  Toss mixture until zucchini is tender (should take just a couple of minutes).

Remove from heat and transfer to serving bowl.  Stir in sour cream. Serve warm, or at room temperature.
*Makes about 4 cups, and according to the recipe, each serving is sub-100 calories.  Double win!

I never realized how easy recipes like this were.  Cut veggies, saute, serve.  Wham, Bam, Thank you, Ma'am. These are my favorite kinds of recipes!

We had it with some marinated chicken and mushroom kabobs.  I used this recipe for the chicken marinade, but forgot to have Eric brush them with the chili garlic sauce while they were cooking (he fixed them up with a little Southern Flavor seasoning).   The mushrooms I decided to add on the fly.  To marinate them, I put them in a ziploc bag with some olive oil, lime juice, garlic powder, and cumin.  They turned out absolutely delicious! It was the perfect summer night dinner.

And that little dab of BBQ sauce on the plate?  Eric's creation.....He combined our nearly empty bottles of our 2 favorite BBQ sauces: Sticky Fingers Memphis Origainal BBQ Sauce and Cattleman's Caroline Tangy Gold BBQ Sauce and created their love child.  We'll call it Cattleman's Sticky Memphis Gold BBQ Sauce aka a little slice of heaven.  =)

Try it.  You won't regret it, I promise. 

Late Nights and Sweet Tea

UGH....8:30pm softball games are going to be the death of me. Especially exciting, close 8:30pm softball games. We have not had a bunch of exciting games, but you better believe the ones that are exciting are the ones that are supposed to start at 8:30pm, but actually don't start until 9pm (or later since games never stay on time). We play with a 60 minute time limit, but unless one team run rules the other, we go the full time. Last night was a full 60 minute-er that got started at 9pm.  (you know it's ging to be a late night when you pull up to the field 25 minutes before your game and see 57 minutes left on the clock.  We got off to a rough start and had to come back from 4-0 after the top of the 1st.  We tied it up and FINALLY in the 4th inning we went up by 8, and we could relax a little.  By the time we were on our way home it was already 10:05pm.

I would love to say that we came right home and went to bed, but we were both still running on adrenaline from the game so we sat down to watch a little America's Got Talent.  That was mistake.  It was not a 1 hour show like I thought it was, but I didn't realize that until we were and hour and 30 minutes (minus the commercials) into it.  Plus they saved the underwater escape artist grandma and the sway pole handstand guy until the end and kept showing previews of them.  Let's just say that I may have made it to early Wednesday morning before my head hit the pillow.  Awesome, right?  This may call for an extra cup o' joe this morning.

Since the our game did not start until late I had plenty of time after work to pud around in the kitchen.  I had a recipe in mind that I wanted to try.......Southern Sweet Tea. Down here tea is served instead of water a lot of times.  I am the odd ball because I ask for water.  I don't drink the stuff.  It's kinda gross to me. If it were up to me (and it usually is) I would not worry about buying anything to drink.  I drink water and coffee (and the occasional bottle of wine, or 6pack of cider beer, or-you get the picture).  I am not a juice, milk, or tea drinker.  Eric usually goes along with it, but from time to time wants something different. He's been on a sweet tea (w/ Splenda) kick for a while now.  I finally got tired of spending nearly $4 on a gallon of tea each week, and decided to make some.  I mean it couldn't be THAT hard.

I know I could have called no less than 25 people for an easy recipe (but not my mom or grandma because they don't make it either!) , but I went with my trusty sidekick Pinterest. It didn't let me down!  I found a recipe pretty quick and got to work.  It's safe to say it took me a couple of tries to get it right.  I forgot to add the sugar to the hot water and did not account for the tea bags soaking up the hot water either. (apparently you are supposed to squeeze the water out of them before your throw them away....who knew?) After about 40 minutes I had my very first pitcher of tea!  It didn't make as much as I had hoped (or initially measured because of those pesky bags soaking up the water), but it was something.   Since I don't drink it and have no idea what good tea should taste like, I could not taste test it to see if it tasted right.  However I am happy to report that my taste tester approved when he got home and said it was actually pretty good--I think HE was surprised that I nailed it.

That is my "full" pitcher on the right.  It's not a large pitcher at all. 

There it is, my feeble attempt to be a proper southern wife or my attempt to save a few bucks a week, which ever you'd like to classify that under. =)

Where Have all of the Responsible Pet Owners Gone?

Our handsome boys ready for a walk.

The other day Eric's grandmother told me she was talking to a friend who lives in our neighborhood.  The lady told her that she sees me walking my dogs every day and of course commented on how funny I look walking all 3 dogs.  I don't doubt I look a little absolutely ridiculous trying to walk all 3 of them at once, but it makes for much calmer inside dogs so I don't mind.  Plus I love just getting outside for some fresh air and exercise, as do they.

In the same conversation, the lady also told his grandmother how much she appreciated that I "clean up" after my dogs.  She said I am the only dog owner in the neighborhood who does that.  There was a part of me that was shocked at that, but at the same time not exactly surprised. I guess I just figured it was common decency to clean up after your pets when they relieve themselves in someone else's yard.  My mom always cleaned up after our dogs when we walked them, so I guess I was just brought up knowing it was the right thing to do.  It's obvious that we have some neighbors who don't, which you can tell if you walk along the street in our neighborhood.  After seeing the edge of my front yard the other day I seriously thought about putting up a sign that said something long the lines of "We clean up after ours, so please clean up after yours." Yes it will disintegrate eventually, but until then I have to look at it every time I go to my mailbox. And if you have a large dog, it might take a while!

This may be TMI, but I will not leave for a walk with less than 3 bags to clean up after my dogs, and usually end up using 2 of them (the third in my insurance policy). Do I look funny carrying used bags around the neighborhood?  Probably. But at least I know that my neighbors appreciate that I clean up after my dogs, even if I end up waving a bag at them as they drive by because my hands are full of bags and leashes!

Since we're on the subject of dogs.....I have been sweeping and vacuuming the floors like a mad woman the past couple of weeks trying to stay ahead of the dog hair.  It's awful right now.  I swept and mopped on Sunday, and by Monday night the floors were covered in dog hair.  I came the the conclusion that maybe I should brush the dogs out to see if that helps.  Can I just say I was completely shocked at how much extra hair they were carrying around?  I am pretty sure you could have made a fur coat for a small dog with the amount of hair that came off of Hawk, which yes was a pile larger than a beer bottle.  The pile was a good 3-4 inches high, too.

Is that a miniature Pomeranian?  Nope, just excess Hawk hair.

The moral of this story is please be a responsible pet owner and respectful neighbor.....it's not hard to do!
I do realize I just wrote an entire post about dog poop.
[end rant]

Weekend Recap: Mud, Gross Eyes, and Pool Time

 I am hoping that I can remember how this works... This is the first Monday I have had to work in 2 weeks.  Therefore my goal is to simply make it through the day unscathed. Today should not be too bad, but check back with me on Friday when I have been at the office for 5 days for the first time in 2 weeks to see if I am still standing. It's going to be an adjustment week for sure.  Eric starts summer football practice (which is basically just like fall practice schedule, just an hour later) so that means I have to figure our my new evening schedule.  It's been kind of nice having him home when I get home in the evenings and eating dinner at a decent hour. The good news is I will have no excuse to not get a workout or a run in after work.

But I don't want to think about the work week just yet.  I would rather relive my weekend.  =)  I was on my own this weekend.  Eric and some of his friends from high school decided a few months ago to run a Tough Mudder in Virginia Beach, VA.  A Tough Mudder is a 10-12 miles obstacle course.  It's not a timed race.  The goal is simply to finish the course, and for your efforts you receive an orange sweatband and a beer.   With obstacles that have names like the Arctic Enema and Electroshock Therapy, you can see why the goal is just to finish.  I am pretty sure people who run these races have a screw loose.  I love a good challenge, but I just don't know about this one.  Unfortunately, Tropical Storm Andrea had other plans, and the event was cancelled due to flooding.  They waited to make a decision on the event until the morning of, so the boys ended up driving over to Charlotte, NC for the weekend to hang out. They're going to change their registration to another event later this year.

I, on the other hand did what ever I darn well pleased and my weekend looked a little like this:

1. I have been dying to try Little Caesar's Deep Dish Hot N'Ready Pizza.  Growing up we always had pizza and movie night on Fridays, and since Little Caesar's was next to Blockbuster we always got pizza from there.  These were the pre- Hot N'Ready Pizza days, and at the time Little Caesar's mostly served deep dish pizzas.  Their deep dish crust is my absolute favorite one, and I can't tell you how long it's been since I had had one (at least 10 years, probably more).  I have been craving one of these pies since they started carrying them about a month ago.  I was seriously giddy in the car when I was on my way home from the restaurant.   I am happy to report that it did not disappoint!

2. Hollow did some shoe art while I was working on Cricut projects on Friday night.  He pulled our clogs out of the closet and arranged them on the other side of the bedroom.  Not sure why he just decided to pull those out.....maybe because of the fuzzy insides? 

3. My puffy, gookey eye.  Friday night I sat down to watch a movie and felt something in my eye (I rented This is 40...it was terrible and I turned it off which I rarely do).  I played with my eyelash trying to get it out for about an hour, but nothing worked.  I finally started rubbing it, which was a huge mistake. By the time I had given up on the movie my eye was really hurting.  I couldn't see anything in it, but every time I opened and shut my eye it felt like there was something under my eyelid. I decided to sleep on it because it felt much better closed and figured I would deal with it in the morning.  Side note: at this point I had come to the realization that rubbing my eye probably was not the best idea.  Saturday morning my eye felt crusty (like it had been watering) so I figured my tear ducts took care of what ever was in my eye, but it still hurt under my eyelid.  I called my MIL (who is a nurse practitioner) and she came to my rescue!  She came and looked at it and said I had a small scratch in my cornea (from rubbing my eye the night before).  She flushed it out and put an antibiotic on it.  It left my eye a little goopy for a while but it did the trick! I am happy to report that I am feeling 100% better!  

4-6. I spent much of my Saturday by the pool with the fur-babies, which is how it should be. =)

7. Hawk's favorite game in the pool.  He sits on the steps and lets his tennis ball float away from him until he decides it's far enough away and swims out to get it. 

8. When the pool pump is on the game takes on another element because the ball gets sucked in the skimmer so Hawk has to get out of the pool and get the ball.  He knows exactly where it goes.  I usually take the top off the skimmer so I don't have to get up every time it goes in.  It will entertain him for hours!

9. We started watching the North America series on tv Sunday night.  Since we're a few weeks late coming in we're trying to catch up on episodes. Shortly after we turned it on we realized that watching it will be a challenge with our television-loving puppy. We also learned that Hollow will bark at just about any furry animal that walks on 4 legs that is on the tv.  The bears and the deer got the most spirited reaction out of him, although the hummingbirds intrigued him, too. We had to make sure he was in one of our laps the entire time to keep him from running up to the tv and barking at it. 

I'm out of fun weekend stuff to talk about so I guess that means Monday really IS here.  Please be nice to me work week!

Squash Casserole

When summer rolls around I get tempted by every fresh fruit and veggie I pass in the produce section.  I know that isn't a bad thing by any means, but I am not exactly a raw veggie fan, so I have to have a recipe in mind when buying random produce so that it does not go to waste in the fridge.  Lately I've noticed lots of summer squash and zucchini on sale, so I decided we'd have some squash casserole for dinner this week.  I got on pinterest and did a search for "best squash casserole" and got a ton of results.  I settled on this recipe that popped up several times and looked pretty tasty!  I made a couple of tweaks to the recipe and our taste buds were singing at dinner!

What you need:

1lb diced yellow squash

1/3 cup vidalia onion, diced

1/2 can cream of chicken soup

1/2 cup light sour cream

4 Tbsp butter (divided)

1/2 box chicken flavor stuffing mix

10-12 Ritz Crackers, crumbled

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I added a little shredded gouda I had leftover from our BBQ Chicken Quesadillas, too)

olive oil

How to make it:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease an 11" x 7" baking dish, set aside.

In a large skillet saute squash and onion in olive oil on medium to medium low heat (if it cooks too quickly the squash will burn). When squash and onions are tender remove from skillet and place on a plate covered with a paper towel to remove excess oil/moisture.

In a large bowl, combine squash and onions with the rest of the ingredients EXCEPT for 2 TBSP of butter and Ritz Crackers. Melt remaining 2 TBSP butter in the microwave, and mix in Ritz Cracker crumbles.

Spread squash/onion mixture into greased baking dish, and top with butter cracker crumbles.

Bake for 40 minutes and serve immediately.

This was the perfect amount of casserole for Eric and I to have some for dinner as well as leftovers for the next day.  I actually cut my recipe in half from the original recipe. We paired it with some grilled chicken and grilled pork chips.  It's a perfect easy summer side dish!

Thunder on the Gulf

While we were down at the beach this past weekend, they had several events going on.  One of the events was Thunder on the Gulf...aka boat races. I've never really given boat races much thought, but I will admit I was quite intrigued when we drove into Orange Beach on Friday night and saw several ENORMOUS speed boats in the empty lot in front of the Wharf.  We soon found out that the races were on Sunday, but it was quite obvious that they were practicing all weekend.  We were a mile away from the beach and it sounded like the boats were behind the fence.  After hearing them run all day on Saturday, we (the girls) decided we'd go check out the races on Sunday.  We had some friends who knew some people staying in a condo right in front of turns 3 and 4, so we met up with them and were right on the water in front of the turns to watch!

The boats coming from the starting line....people were in the water the whole time. 

You can't see much of the actual boats but in that spray is from3 boats making the turns.  The other boats out there were just there to spectate.  I could not believe how close they were, but I think it would be so cool to see up close!  

Several of the boats coming out of the turn.

These were two of the boats.  They would get super close to each other.  I can't tell you how many  times I saw a boat go airborne!

 It wasn't much of race for 1st.  One of the boats jumped out to an early lead and ended up winning by almost half the length of the course.  The battle for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th was close and was like the picture above for much of the race.  I am not sure how many laps they did, but they raced for almost 30 minutes. I still can't believe how close they were to the beach.  Our friends told us that during the earlier race that day one of the boats flipped over in turn 3 right in front of the beach!

I got a video of one of their laps. We expected it to be really loud on the beach since it was so loud at the house, but it was not near as loud as we thought....no louder than it was at the house.  I guess the wind carried the sound up over the beach to the town.

I don't think I will be traveling up and down the gulf following the races any time soon, but it was a pretty cool thing to watch! Of course I just enjoy the being out at the beach part of it!

Perfection!

On another note, I saw that today is National Running Day!  I guess that means I need to strap on my sneakers and go for a run this evening.  At point I will take any motivation I can find.  There's something about coming off of a holiday weekend that sucks the desire to workout out of me.

Beach Weekend Recap

I am back from the land of sand and sun. We headed down to my BIL and SIL's house in Orange Beach this weekend.  They are still remodeling and needed help laying their new tile floor, so we and a few other friends headed down to help out.  The boys worked their tails off all weekend and finished it up Sunday evening.  It turned out gorgeous!  While the boys worked, the girls did our best to stay out of the way, which meant going on walks, laying by the pool, shopping, etc.  It was a tough job but someone had to do it!

1. Eric and I at Wintzell's on Sunday night.
2. The pool!  They just had this pool put in and it is beautiful! Yes that is a hot tub on the right side of the picture.
3. Campground fish fry!  We met up one night with some friends who are staying in OB for the summer at a campground.  Let me just say that campground folks know how to have a good time.  We knew just one couple that was staying there, but the people who were there welcomed us like we were old friends.  They were some of the nicest people I've met.  Eric ended up cooking the fish and his world famous hush puppies (of course).  I can't tell you how many people commented on how delicious they were.  The best part of the night was when an older lady who was staying there came to fix her plate.  She asked one of Eric's buddies how big his girlfriend was and then proceeded to ask him to show her his "guns" (his bicep muscles).  It was hilarious!  We talked to our friends the next day and they told us that after we left all the women could talk about was hoe good the hush puppies were and how nice our guys were to look at.....TOO FUNNY!
4. Boat races on the beach!  More to come on that when I get pictures downloaded from my camera....Thunder on the Gulf was in town this weekend!
5. Grilled Triggerfish (one of my favorites!) from Wintzell's.
6.  The biggest oyster I have ever seen. It took up the entire shell and was half of the length of a fork!
7 and 8. Bobby and Tera's new tile floor!  They found tile that look exactly like hardwood and it is gorgeous!  All the boys agreed that they didn't want to lay another tile floor ever....it was a lot of work (for them) but it was so worth it!
9 and 10. The boys opted to shower in the pool this weekend.  Trying to be one with nature I guess?

Since the boys did not finished laying tile until almost 6pm on Sunday and I didn't have to work on Monday, we decided to stay the night and drive back early Monday.  Eric had to be in Auburn for a call at 9, so we got up early (which is totally normal for him....he was up at the same time this morning to fish!) and were back home by 8:15am. After he left I spent the morning unpacking and cleaning....it's amazing how much 3 dogs can shed in a 4 days. I did manage to take a couple of breaks for puppy walks (of course) and a grocery store run so we would have food to eat this week.  I even convinced Eric to fire up the grill so we could have some chicken and pork chops to eat this week...thinking ahead since we have 2 softball games this week.

I guess I have to get this week started.....only 4 days left!