High Five for Friday

1

We made it to spring!  I didn't even realize until I was driving in to work this morning that today is the official first day of spring.  Although it has felt like spring around here the past couple of weeks, we can now officially complain if it gets cold again.  The fog this morning kind of killed the springy vibe, but check out this beautiful sight I got to see earlier this week.  One of these days I am going to get up on the weekend early so I can watch a sunrise like that WITHOUT having to look back at the road every 2 seconds.

2

I guess the spring bug bit me early this year (or maybe it was because I actually got the flower beds weeded last weekend) because I am in full on flower planting mode.  We had carseat clinic at work this week and it just happens to be right next to the Farmer's Market which just happened to have a gorgeous array of beautiful flowers that were calling my name.  We had a couple of cancellations at one point so I ran over to take a look, and low and behold 3 little beauties jumped in the back of my car when I headed home. I ended up getting a Butterfly Bush, a Mexican Petunia, and a Reiger Begonia.   I have been talking about planting a Butterfly Bush for several years and have just never gotten around to it, but they other 2 were new for me (and my Mom AND my Grandma which was a total shocker).  They are absolutely gorgeous and I can't wait to see how they like our yard!

Reiger Begonia                                                      Mexican Petunia

3

I mentioned yesterday, the NCAA Tournament has started and my brackets already look like someone stuck a knife in them and just kept stabbing them.....there is so much red on them it makes me want to cry.  I usually pride myself in early round picks with some upsets here and there, but this year is not the case.  The upsets I picked have not happened, but the other games I where I was counting on the favorite to take care of business have seen the little guys pulling through. Maybe this means my brackets will hold up in the end? Maybe I 'm just telling myself that to save myself from admitting my brackets aren't my best work? That being said, the tournament has been quite exciting so far and I get to watch games ALL WEEKEND LONG.  I've already warned Eric and this is the one time of the year he will usually give up the remote and let me watch as much basketball as I want....until we're on game 4 or 5 of the night and then he usually hits a breaking point and we end up watching tv in separate rooms.

4

I made a deliciously superb dinner this week that I had to share because it's not nice to keep such wonderful concoctions to yourself.  Mom gave me a suggestion for a Pinterest recipe she found called Easy Greek Chicken Bake from this blog.  I tweaked mine just a bit.  I marinated my chicken over night in a Greek seasoning marinade (1 TBSP each of Greek seasoning, olive oil, water, and lemon juice) to give it a little extra flavor, and  swapped the roma tomatoes for halved grape tomatoes.  This dish was absolutely delicious! I will be making this again and again and again.  It says to pair it with rice, but since we are trying to eliminate carbs as much as we can during the week I paired mine with Sauteed Brussels Sprouts with Bacon from one of my most favorite recipe blogs, Plain Chicken. I seriously pin 3 out of 5 recipes she posts every week.  I told Mom that if Brussels Sprouts tasted like that when I was a kid I would have eaten them all the time.  She told me I was lying, which is probably true, I was Picky McPickerson about food when I was a kid. But seriously you need to make these 2 recipes.  They will make your taste buds sing!

5

I was so excited this week for the mail to come because my new most favorite short I think I have ever owned came in the mail!

Isn't it the best?!  It came from this awesome Etsy Shop and 20% of the proceeds go to animal shelters!  It's a win win if you ask me.  Just make sure you order a size up because I didn't and had to send it back to get a different size (which was super easy to do).  I ended up getting an XL which fits like most of my Medium t-shirts. I was so excited to finally have a shirt that expressed my feelings to toward life most days.  I mean who wouldn't want to hang out with these two cuties all day??

I sent this picture to Eric last night as I was walking out the door to teach dance with a caption that said, "Please take us on a walk tonight Daddy." I guess it worked because he said he let them play outside for at least 30 mins while I was at dance.

Happy Friday!  Now go watch some basketball!