Cheers to 4 Years!

Oh hey there!  I know, I know, I did it again...went and disappeared for a week. Well you see we decided to take a little trip.  A little trip in the form of a week-long getaway to the Midwest where we got to spend some time with some really awesome people to whom I have the privilege of being related....and oh wow did we have a great time! I will have full recaps of all of the fun we had later this week and next week because today I have a very important matter to address AKA the 4th time I get to celebrate being married to a guy who stole my heart on a college campus several years ago.

So happy anniversary babe! I am so glad that we get to tackle this crazy thing called life together! Love you!

Here's to the next 4 and many many many more!

Slip N' Slide Weekend Recap

Despite the 2+ inches of rain graced us with its presence this weekend, I've decided that it was a smashing success.  We got dumped on by Mother Nature from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon, but there was very little thunder and lightning involved which meant everything went right along as planned; we just got a little soggy in the process.

First of all we won our tournament.  Yay! For the 3rd year in a row we've won both the regular season title and the tournament title in our little league.  This year was certainly the most exciting year we've had, but we still did it.  We ended up playing 2 games on Saturday.  We breezed through the first one and run ruled the team after 4 innings, but the second game was a battle against one of the teams that beat us this year.  I can't remember the last time I played any kind of game and was anxious the entire game.  I'm talking, heart racing, having to take deep breaths before every pitch when I was batting so I was not shaking. It was crazy.  We got down by one in the first inning and had a hard time getting our bats going.  We finally started scoring some runs in the 5th inning about the time they got a little big for their britches and pulled out a questionable bat. It worked to our advantage though because they started swinging for the fence and popped out right about the time we started base hitting like we should have been the whole game.  We ended up winning 8-7 (or 8-6 I can't remember) and all was right with the world.

After the game our team headed back to our house to celebrate with an afternoon of pool, food, and slip n' slide where the boys relived their childhoods.  Want to keep a group of 30 year olds entertained during a downpour?  Put out a slip n' slide. Funniest thing I've seen in a long time. In case your're wondering a total of 3 kids played on it Saturday....they were waaaaay outnumbered by the 30 year olds.  =)

The downpours continued on Sunday so we spent most of the day on the couch inside watching movies.  I think I only went out for church, groceries, and a puppy dog walk.  It was weekend downtime perfection!

1. We got suckered into buying some fundraiser donuts on the way to our softball tournament Saturday morning. Maybe the donuts were the reason I was so jittery the second game?!
2. Hamburger AND a hot dog...don't mind if I do.
3. Discussing their slip n' slide technique.
4. Probably my favorite shot of the day.  This is one of our friends leaping onto the slip n' slide in the middle of the downpour.
5. Boys will be boys...even at 30.
6. We played several rounds of Left, Right, Center.  It got to the point where the winner would pass out their winnings just so we could keep playing.
7. Peanut on the other hand decided he'd had enough for the day.
8. Naan BBQ Pizza was on the menu for Sunday night.  I found out on Friday that I can get 10 Naan crusts at Costco for the price of 2 at the grocery store.  Guess who's eating pizza this week?!

Here's to another week!

High Five for Friday

...another one bites the dust...another week that is.  This one has flown by and I am so glad because we have some really fun things going on in the near future and I can't wait!! I'm going to wrap up this week with a High Five for Friday Highlight Reel since it's been a while since I've done that and a like lists.

1. I have become very fond of braiding my hair lately, mostly because it's gotten so long and it's a lot easier to braid when it's long.  But also it has now been almost a year and 2 months since I've had my hair cut so my ends are looking REALLY rough and a braid distracts me from said horrible split ends.

Plus I''m getting pretty good at it!

2.  I know that dogs are not the same as kids, but I really believe that they are getting us ready for it someday.  Case in point: Monday after work I decide to vacuum/mop the floors, so I picked up all of the dog toys in the house and put them in the basket we keep them in.  As soon as I got them cleaned up, Peanut decided he HAD to have a tennis ball...so he did, along with everything else in the basket that had to be moved in order for him to get to the ball.

Step 1: Pull the basket off the fireplace mantle.
Step 2: Pull everything that has not already fallen on the floor out of the basket so you can get to the ball.
Step 3: Take a nap on top of all of the toys. 

3.  We have a new pizza crust obsession, shocker, I know.  It's called Naan.  The best I can describe it is a thinner, bubblier version of a pita pocket, and it's delicious!  One of the grocery stores in our teeny tiny country town started carrying them about a month ago and I am pretty sure I am the only one who has been buying them [weekly], but we LOVE them!

Bonus: They're the perfect "personal pizza" size so I can eat the entire thing without feeling guilty =)

4.  I hate to admit it, but I've been slacking on my workouts the past couple of weeks.  I always have a hard time getting back on track after a vacation, but I tried this week.  Last night I decided to do a Deck of Cards workout.  You assign each suit an exercise and as you go through the deck you do the number of exercises that are on each card.

If you're curious, you end up doing 91 repetitions of each exercise. Plus I put the Joker's back in once so I ended up doing 4-60 second planks.

5.  We're finally getting to play our end of the year softball tournament tomorrow morning. We got a bye in the first round, so we don't have to play tonight, but we play bright and early Saturday morning. We've already decided that win or lose that we're having a team party afterward at the pool. However, Eric's decided to add a twist to our water-filled afternoon.  He and our neighbors have constructed a Slip N Slide in the side yard out of a tarp and pool cover weights.  It should be interesting [and absolutely hilarious].  They've been talking about doing this all summer "for the kids" but I am pretty sure they've just wanted to make one for themselves.

Dear childhood, we're revisiting you this weekend, please be kind.

Happy Friday!

Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Bars

Two recipes in one week!? Can you believe it? I have been cooking up a storm lately and I am proud of it.  As crazy as our summer schedule is with Eric coaching, I am finding that it leaves me with lots of time to try out new recipes.  I just had to share this little ditty that I whipped up last weekend because it was just too good NOT to.

With the abundance of blueberries that I have right now I have been on the lookout for new recipes.  Not being much of a fruit dessert fan or a lemon flavor fan, it took a really yummy-sounding recipe to get me to take the plunge and make it. I am beyond glad that I did, and I will make them again and again and again....you get the idea.

You can find the original recipe here here.

What You Need:

Crust:

1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, softened (2 1/2 sticks)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 heaping TBSP lemon zest

2 cups flour

1/4 tsp salt

Blueberry Filling:

1 to 1-1/2 cups fresh blueberries

2 TBSP brown sugar

2 TBSP lemon zest

2 TBSP lemon juice

Cream Cheese Layer:

2 (8oz) packages cream cheese (at room temperature)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp lemon zest

1 TBSP vanilla

2 eggs

How to Make It:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease the bottom of a 9" x 13" glass baking dish.

2. Make the crust: Beat the butter, sugar, and lemon zest until creamy. Add the flour and salt and beat until combined. Press dough evenly into the bottom of the greased baking dish and bake 15 minutes.

3. While the crust is baking, prepare the filling: In a small sauce pan, combine blueberries, brown sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Cook over medium heat for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally until berries are soft.  Set aside to cool.

4. Once you get your berries going on the stove, prepare the cream cheese layer: Beat cream cheese, sugar, lemon zest, and vanilla together.  Add in eggs, one at a time, and beat until combined.  Don't forget to stir your blueberries.

5. Spread cream cheese mixture onto the warm crust and smooth the top.  Dollop blueberry mixture randomly over the top of the cream cheese layer.  Gently pull a knife to swirl blueberry mixture.

6. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 30-40 minutes, until the filling is set. Cool and refrigerate for a couple of hours until chilled. Slice, serve, and ENJOY!

Smoked Tuna Dip

As I was heading home from my meeting on Saturday morning I got a phone call from Eric.  He wanted to use up some of the tuna steaks in the freezer to make smoked tuna dip, and wanted me to find a recipe.  I went to my recipe bible, pinterest...duh, and quickly found a recipe that looked simple and quick. I decide to go with the recipe that was about half of the hits for smoked tuna dip.  It was from Coastal Living Magazine, so whoever put it together most likely knew what they were talking about.  We started there and Eric added his own flair to the recipe. He liked it so much that we ended up doubling the recipe and have less than a quarter of the container left.

Recipe adapted from this recipe.

What You Need:

12 oz fresh tuna steaks

1 Tbsp prepared horseradish

3/4 cup mayo

1/2 cup chopped green onions

1/8 tsp fresh ground pepper

1 Tbsp dill weed

juice from half a lemon

dash of hot sauce (or more if you like it hotter)

How to Make It:

Place the tuna steaks in a smoker and smoke for 1 to 1.5 hours.  If you can't get good fresh tuna steaks or don't have a smoker, you can buy pre-packaged smoked tuna.  This will save you time, too.

Put all of the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until you reach the desired consistency.  Ours was tuna salad consistency.

Serve immediately with crackers.

Enjoy!

Weekend Recap

It's no secret that we spend 98% of our weekends on the go, but every once in a while it is nice to have a weekend that involves very little.  Like this weekend for example.  We did our usual food and fun combo at the pool, but it was at a much slower pace than usual.

I started out the weekend with free food, which is always a plus. Friday was Dress Like a Cow for Free Chik-fil-a Day.  There is a Chik-fil-a in the building I work in, so I put on some cow ears, a cow nose, and a paper bell around my neck, and came out with a free lunch.  =)

I came home from work Friday afternoon to a napping Eric, which was perfect because I had a few things to whip up in the kitchen for the PEO meeting I was co-hostessing on Saturday.  While he slept, I cooked: spinach dip and Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Bars (aka heaven on earth).  The cheesecake bars might be my new favorite non-chocolate dessert...seriously.  By the time I put them in the oven it was about 6:30 and I was hungry so I woke up sleeping beauty and went in search of food.  Of course we picked the slowest drive thru in town...I waited 25 minutes with one car in front of me in the drive thru for 2 chicken wraps.  I don't understand how that place stays in business.  After we devoured our dinner and a quick puppy walk, we settled in for the evening.

 My Lemon Blueberry Cheeesecake Bars

Saturday after my meeting I came home to a relaxing afternoon and burgers on the grill for dinner.  We tried our hand at smoked tuna dip and came up with a winning recipe, which is coming this week...promise!

This is called weekend perfection...I started this new book, too.  My Dad let me borrow it a while ago, and I found it while dusting one of the book cases Sunday morning.  I am a fan so far!

Sunday I had high hopes for cleaning the house, but got about halfway done and decided an afternoon at the pool with friends was a much better idea. It was for me, but not for my lobster-red hubby.  Apparently the sun has gotten a little bit stronger in the past few weeks and he ended up with a nice burn on his chest.  We spent afternoon swimming, napping and reading, and topped off the day with leftover burgers for dinner.

My shade that I got made fun of for purchasing about a month ago is being used more and more.  Yes it's just a triangular tarp, but it's perfect for puppies to get some relief from the sun at the pool!

Saturday's leftovers = Sunday's lunch/dinner: deer burgers, baked beans, spinach dip, tuna dip, mozzarella cheese sticks, and lemon blueberry bars. 

And that ladies and gents is what I call weekend perfection.  For the first time in a while I am actually rested on a Monday morning, although I still have floors that are waiting to be cleaned when I get home this afternoon, it was so worth it!

An Open Letter to the GCW

AKA the Gum Chewers of the World,

First let me start out by saying I am one of you.  I am a fan and a supporter of chewing gum.  I played basketball in high school and college and can probably count on one hand the number of practice and games that I played without a piece of gum in my mouth. I never go for a run without a piece, and it is my saving grace at 2pm on a workday or on long car trips when my eyelids start getting heavy.  Gum is a wonderful thing in my world.

This letter is specifically for the AGSO, the Anywhere Gum Spitter-Outers.   I get that once your gum has lost it's flavor and you would like to rid your mouth of it and you have to figure out how to dispose of it. Inside, some people stick it under a table or a desk (which is probably one of the most disgusting things ever).  I am tall and when I cross my legs under a table or desk my knee will be touching the table and sticking my knee in your gum makes me want to hurl.  Please stop doing that now. Outside, people throw it somewhere out of the way, like a bush for instance.  I'll admit, I used to be one of these people.  After every run I would throw my gum in some bushes along a fence because I figured it was out of the way and the chances of someone stepping in it were slim to none.  That all stopped one day when I was running and a huge chicken snake slithered out from said fence area where I had thrown dozens of pieces of gum.  That was 5 years ago, and I haven't thrown a piece of gum on a bush/fence since. I now have an irrational fear that if I throw my gum into a bush or by a fence that a snake will come out after me.  That day I became a member of the CGD Community, the Courteous Gum Disposers, or those people who properly dispose their gum, wither directly into a garbage container or into a piece of paper to throw in the garbage at later time.

 There is one group of gum chewers in particular, however who I despise the most.  Those are the people who spit their gum on the ground on sidewalks and parking lots, specifically people who spit gum out right next to the driver's side door of my car on a hot day.  Not expecting to step in gum right next to my car, there's a good chance that I will do just that and not notice it until I am back at the office which means that not only do I have gum on the bottom of my brand new sandal that I was wearing for the first time, but I also have gum on my carpet floor mat in my car!  I am NOT a fan.

So to all of the people who like to spit their gum out in parking lots or busy sidewalks where chances of someone stepping in your gum and tracking it with them for the rest of the day.  I hope that snakes come chase you from where ever you spit your gum.

The End.

And have a nice day (but only if you're not an AGSO).

4th of July Weekend Recap

We made it back from our 4th of July excursion in one piece.  We had a fabulous weekend with my BIL and SIL in Orange Beach this past weekend.  We had great company, delicious food, and lots of fun!  If we had not had to drive back home yesterday in the giant mess that was I-65 N yesterday the weekend would have been perfect, but we made it in one piece and I am now wishing I had another day to recover.

We headed out of town late Thursday morning and pulled in at the beach early afternoon.  It was beyond gorgeous at the beach.  The humidity decided to leave for about 36 hours, which made for absolutely perfect weather.  My SIL and I spent the afternoon putting our 4th of July dishes together so we could enjoy ourselves all day on Friday.  On the 4th we had an impromptu reunion with the boys' cousins.  Several of them were on vacation in the area so they came and spent all afternoon with us.  They said it had probably been 15 years since they'd had that many of them together, and we had a great time. We decided to forgo battling traffic to see fireworks because the boys got up at 2AM the next morning to go fishing.   My SIL and I were not feeling an all day boat trip, and opted to go blueberry picking instead.  I have not been blueberry picking since I was a kid and it was a great trip...hot, but fruitful (pun intended). Between the 2 of us we picked 14 pounds of blueberries in 2 hours.  I have already made a cobbler and I have pinned about 6 other blueberry recipes I want to try.  We got back from picking and spent the rest of the day in the pool....seriously, like 5 hours outside either next to or in the pool. It was glorious!  The boys finally made it home around 8PM.  If you're counting, that's 18 hours of fishing, but they caught a bunch of mahi mahi which made it totally worth it! We cooked those puppies up for dinner last night and it was delicious!  Of course we had to wash them down with a big bowl of blueberry cobbler and ice cream, because apparently one 9' x 13" is not enough, so I made one as soon as we got home.  =)

1. My little snuggler and I one the ride down.  This dog is the BEST car-riding companion.  He curls up either on me or on the center console and sleeps the entire ride.
2.  The boys cooling off in the pool after getting the boat ready to fish.
3. Puppy cousins.  This was as good as it got....at least they're all looking the same direction.
4. My Patriotic DIY Manicure.
5. Our 4th of July feast: ribs, Boston Butt, potato salad x2, pasta salad, broccoli salad, and baked beans.
6. Eric and his brother checking out the garden in the backyard.
7. Our Sunday night mahi mahi dinner...fried and grilled with the best squash casserole you've ever eaten.
8. Hawk of course made good use of the pool while we were there.  He even went for a dip one morning at 6AM when I let him out to go to the bathroom.
9.  If the puppies weren't playing, they were snoozing.
10.  4th of July Mimosas (Mommy mimosa for my SIL)!  

1. All of the Cagle cousins who were at the house for the 4th.
2.  Eric and I at the pool.
3. The 4 and a half of us! First picture of all of us with my little nephew!
4. My SIL and I (and my nephew).  Doesn't she look gorgeous!?
5. Eric and his brother with one of their mahi mahi on the boat!

Blueberries, Blueberries, Blueberries!

Don't worry the cobbler recipe will be posted this week...

A Late Weekend Recap

I Started this post on Monday and it's now Wednesday; I guess this short week is getting the best of me already. Also, it's July now.  JULY.  As in 2014 is halfway over, this year has gone crazy fast!  The good news is that today is my Friday. There are just a few hours separating me from 4 days of fun and sun (hopefully not too much rain).  The second thing this week has had going for it: is that this week has been declared casual week at work which means JEANS ALL WEEK! That fact alone has made it a pretty good week in my book...it's the little things in life that keep me going.

As exciting as a short week and jeans to work are, it still not enough to make up for the rough start to our weekend.  Our little Hollow pup went missing on Friday afternoon and he still has not come home.  Since he tends to explore the neighborhood during the day we weren't too worried, but he always comes back home.  Since he showed up at our house with his sister almost 2 years ago I can only remember them not coming back the house a couple of nights. We've reported him missing to the local animal shelter but have heard nothing.  He has a tag with our information on it, but he is so skiddish around stranger that I doubt anyone would be able to catch him.   I am holding out hope that he is just out gallivanting around and will be home soon.

In between hoping that he'd come running up the driveway or be waiting on us when we got home every time we went out, our weekend was pretty typical:  cookout on Friday night, pool on Saturday, church, lunch at Eric's grandma's, and a little time at the river on Sunday.

1. We watch the Brazil vs Chile World Cup Soccer game with our Brazilian friend and tore up some fried snapper and fried potatoes.  It was delicious and Brazil pulled through in a shootout.  Eric actually admitted that the game was exciting to watch....which it was.
2. My pretty Gerbera Daisies by the pool.
3. This little slice of paradise is also known as the Tallapoosa River. It looked like this for about 30 minutes and then the rain came because it ALWAYS rains when I go to the river.  As soon as we got the boat out and headed home the sun came back out.
4. We took Hawk and Peanut to the river with us so they could play, and they had an absolute blast.  They ran and swam and played the whole time.
5. Two handsome boys.
6. Because apparently 5 fryers are not enough we had to get another one, but this one is eventually going to be built in to our outdoor kitchen area.....eventually.
7 and 8. Of course we had to try out the new fryer on Sunday night, so we feasted on wings, jalapeno poppers, and mozzarella cheese sticks.  The amount of fried food we ate this weekend was a bit disturbing. 

Please think some happy thoughts for us and our little Hollow Man that he will be home soon.  I just hope that where ever he is, he is ok. And if anyone in our area sees him, PLEASE let us know!