High Five for Friday

-one-

I am pretty sure fall has the most gorgeous sunrises.  Perhaps it's because the days are getting shorter and so I get to see them in their full glory on my way to work in the morning.  This week they have been absolutely spectacular and I can get enough of them!

-two-

We broke away from our usual after work routine yesterday and headed back downtown for a baseball game.  We watched the Montgomery Biscuits (yes it's the actual name of the team) play the Jackson Generals.  The game was a special one because one of the kids Eric used to coach now plays for the Jackson Generals, so we got to see him, plus we had awesome suite tickets so we got to watch the game in style!  Eric won the tickets a couple of months at a golf tournament he played in and we waited all summer so we could share the tickets with the kid's family and friends while Jackson was in town.  We had a blast, although my tail is dragging today since we didn't get home until almost midnight.  #missedmy9pmbedtime

-three-

You can't go to a ball park without partaking in the food situation, and partake we did.  One of my friends told me about a stand that sold Philly Cheese Steak Nachos, so naturally we had to give them a try.  They were good, but they don't hold a candle to the BBQ Nachos that you can get at any sporting event you go to in Memphis.  At least we can say we tried them.  I indulged in a massive bacon cheeseburger.  It was fantastic and super messy, and I woofed it down so fast that I didn't get a picture of it.  I am going to say it's because I ran right before we went to the game and I was hungry.  =)  I did get to try something that I hope I will be able to find in stores soon....Daily's Spiked Sodas.  I tried the Raspberry Ginger Ale and it was fantastic. Delicious and crisp!  Perfect for a summer evening!

-four-

Tonight is Game 2 of the 2015 football season.  Our team has their work cut out for them as the team we are playing this week is much much better than the one we played last week.  From what I understand THS has never beat this team.  They aren't in our region so we've only played them in the playoffs and a couple of random years we've scheduled games with them, so it would be absolutely fantastic if we could pull out a win tonight!

-five-

Last but certainly not least, we are celebrating 8 years of this crazy monster today! He always keeps us laughing with his crazy antics and is the sweetest, kindest, silliest "lapdog" I know.  Happy Birthday Hawkey Dog!  We love you!

High Five for Friday

Here we go.......

1.

After a week of just the pups and I, Eric is finally back from his hunting trip out West.  He and his brother traveled to the booming metropolis of Springfield, CO (population 1,400 on a good day according to Eric) to go on an antelope hunt. Thankfully they both came back with a trophy and a TON of antelope meat, making the 18 hour drive completely worth it (I hope).  There is a very good chance I will get my first taste of antelope meat this weekend so wish me luck and please send any antelope meat recipes you have lying around my way...because who doesn't have antelope meat recipes lying around?!

My hunter and his big kill!

2. 

This week marks my 8th year of working at my job.  8 years!  That's nuts! In that amount of time I could have gone back and redone high school and college!  I could have repeated my entire competitive basketball career!  I could have started and completed medical school in that same time!  It's so crazy to me thinking I have been here that long. I am so thankful for my job and I hope I will be able to continue doing what I do to help Alabamians live healthier lives for many years to come.

I celebrated in my office wrapped up in a hoodie sweatshirt and my snuggie...why oh why does it have to be so stinking cold all of the time in the office?!?  

3. 

I celebrated another tiny milestone this week...my half birthday!  As of yesterday I am officially 30 and a half!  I celebrated with a long workday, a trip to Costco, a workout, dinner at home, a puppy walk, a little reading, and an early bedtime.  Pretty much everything one would expect a 30.5 birthday to contain.  So far 30 has been quite nice for me.  I certainly don't feel any older than I did before so we'll just go with it for now and I'll let you know when this getting older thing starts to rear it's ugly head.  For now I am just going to pretend it's not happening, continue to eat Oatmeal Cream Pies for dessert like I'm 7, and wonder why they don't make super cute shirts like this in my size.  =)

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4.

Since Eric was out of town for a week, I have made exactly 0 dinners since early last week. I would say that I have not cooked at all but I made some pretzel shortbread cookies (will be sharing soon) and a batch of banana bread last weekend to take to my friend who just had a baby.  I can usually deal with sandwiches every night, but after night 6, I was ready for something else. Unfortunately due to football scheduling Eric was not home  for dinner the night he got back from his trip, so I cleaned out the fridge instead of cooking. So last night, despite him having another football engagement (gotta love the first game week of the season), I whipped up the most delicious, easy homemade Chinese dish, Honey Lemon Chicken.  It was fantastic and I've already thought about doing Orange Honey Chicken or perhaps just Honey Chicken.  The best part was I had almost everything I needed already, so this recipe can be one of those I keep in my back pocket for a last minute 3rd or 4th meal of the week that I don't have to make a special grocery store trip for.

5. 

Tonight is the night.  We kick off the 2015 football season this evening and I am excited about it! It's kind of hard to believe that it's already here.  I feel like they just started summer practice a few weeks ago.  It's time to start color-coordinating my Friday outfits, so I've got my purple and gold on! I even ordered a couple of new school spirit-themed Fitbit Bands on jane.com that I can wear on game days.  I just wish I'd thought about ordering them before this week.  Oh well I'll have them soon enough!

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Bring on the boots and scarves and crockpot recipes and everything else I adore that comes with the football season territory!  I'm ready for it!

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!

Cinq Choses le Vendredi

Fun Fact: I was a French minor in college.  Unfortunately I don't ever get to use it because there's not much use for the French language in public health in Alabama, but I don't want to get too rusty so I decided to break a little of it out pour le blog. Let's get to it, shall we?

Un

I am proud to say that I made it through the first week of this dreaded losing an hour time change rather unscathed and actually made it to work early this AM. Whoop de do, you got to work early, you're 30 you should be doing this anyway...but seriously it's a really big deal because in addition to being time change week, Eric started his hardcore fishing season this week which means I end up taking over AM doggie duty [insert immature chuckles].  This adds an extra 5 minutes to my morning routine and for people like me who time their mornings to the second, 5 minutes is a lifetime. The view from my office was a little darker than usual, but I still absolutely love it.

 Yup those are streetlights still on. 

But it's totally worth it because guess who got to run outside in the neighborhood after work this week?! This girl!  And it was glorious until the end of my run when I gnat flew in my eye and I am pretty sure scratched my eyeball because it felt like there was something in my eye all day the next day. But it's all better now so I am ready to run again--with sunglasses this time. =)

Who wouldn't want to run when you have views like this to watch the whole time?!

Deux

Moose Tracks Frozen Yogurt from Publix....it's my absolute favorite - not too much extra chocolate ribbons. I like to chop up a Dove Hazelnut Crisp Dark Chocolate Promise and add that to my bowl. 

I know that I should be used to this while "being a grown-up" thing by now but every blue moon I have a moment where I think "Wow, if I were a kid I totally would not be able to do this right now, but I am a grown up and I am calling the shots, so I'm going to do this because I want to do it."  I had one of these moments last night at 9PM when I was fixing myself a bowl of fro yo. I mean I ate ice cream all the time as a kid, but a nightcap bowl of ice cream...on a school night? I felt like I was breaking all kinds of rules and it made that bowl of fro yo so darn delicious!.....and Hawk agreed.  Don't tell the puppies, but I found a copycat Frosty Paws recipe that uses peanut butter and vanilla Greek yogurt.  I got the stuff yesterday and I am going to make them some puppy ice cream treats this weekend!  

Trois

Last week I purchased a large bag of what I thought was cheddar cheese popcorn at Costco. When I got home I discovered that is was not popcorn, but corn puffs (think Cheetos Puffs but much smaller and made with white cheddar).  I was disappointed, so I brought them with me to work to see if any of my friends' kids would eat them.  Sometime in between asking one friend and her telling me her kids would not eat them and getting a chance to ask someone else I got hungry, what's new right? The bag was sitting in my bag, starting at me, begging me to grab a handful. So I did.  And I can't stop now.  I have become addicted to these tiny morsels of cheese, corn and air.  They literally disintegrate in your mouth and you're left with a blast of cheddar cheese flavor that makes my taste buds dance and then beg for another bite.  I am telling myself the fact that they are baked, gluten-free, and have no artificial preservatives makes it ok to eat larges piles of them at one time.  We'll just ignore the absurdly large 18 oz bag and hope it lasts at least a week.

Quatre

Yesterday I received a random mid-day text from Eric that contained a screenshot of a skillet with a meaty/leafy concoction in it:

But that was it. No recipe name, no link, no can you make this for dinner.  After some prompting I found out in fact that he would like it for dinner and that he had another screenshot of the recipe, so I had him send it.  In true male fashion, the screen shot only contained half of the recipe, but it did have the name of the dish.  A quick Pinterest search for Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls gave me the recipe and lucky for him I had almost everything we needed at home. Since it was a dance night there was no way I had time to make it for dinner so I did the next best thing and prepped it for him before I left.  I have done this before and come home to a still only prepped dinner, so I was hoping that he would take the hint and make dinner.

And he did! Now if I could just get someone to prep meals for me, cooking dinner every night would be so much quicker and easier!  As for how it turned out, he said it was great.  I skipped it because cabbage and ground deer burger just aren't really my thing.

Cinq

Before I went to bed last night I put together a to do list for myself to accomplish over the weekend.  Since I was out of pocket most of last weekend I feel like I have some catching up to do. Before I knew it I had a super long list. I did a couple of things as soon as I got to work this morning and pulled up my list to check them off, only to find that those things weren't even on my list. I have been known to add things to my list just to check them off (like write a blog post), but I resisted this time.

Now if I didn't have this pesky 8 hours work day to get through I'd probably be able to knock everything out sometime today, but I have a whole other to do list to check off there so I better get started.

High Five for Friday

As of today I have officially made it through an entire week in my 30s unscathed.  This third decade of my life thing is shaping up to be a piece of cake....I'll let you know how it all turns out in 10 years or so. =) For now I will leave you with my Friday 5.

1. The Dress

There's been quite a stir over the internet the past 18 hours over the color of this dress....what do you think?  Is it white and gold or blue and black?

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I am declaring the dress white and gold, even though the person who uploaded the photo has since uploaded pictures to prove that it is indeed blue and black. White and gold forever and ever Amen. Update: I have come to the conclusion if you look at the dress like you would look at a Magic Eye picture it does look blue and black.

2. Ice Cream Face

I've mentioned before how much Hawk loves ice cream...he get's it from his Mama. I sat down for a little late night treat last night and had a feeling I was being watched.....

How could I not share with that sweet face?!  He always makes sure to be right next to me so he's available to clean out my bowl when I am done.

3. Shake that Tambourine

We are 1 week away from the start of our dance competition season and I am stoked!  We're having a "dress rehearsal" tomorrow morning and I feel like a dance mom trying to make sure all of the last minute details  are done.  My goal today?  Finish the tambourine for one of my dancers' solos to Rollin' on the River.  Anyone have any tips on how to get a shiny tablecloth to stick to spray painted Styrofoam?  I am trying Mod Podge and hoping for the best.

4. The Bit

My parents gifted me a FitBit for my birthday this year and it is the best!  I have become slightly obsessed with hitting 10,000 steps a day.  I was looking at my steps over the past week and realized that I get in 80% of my steps after 3:30pm (when I leave work). I knew I had a sedentary job but geeez!  I can now literally see how people gain weight working a desk job. If it weren't for dog walking and working out at night I might not clear 5,000 steps a day.  Hopefully the weather will warm up and dry up so I can get back to afternoon walks at work.  I'm not saying I am not super competitive about "winning" against my FitBit but I had 9,200 steps the other night so walked around the house for about 5 minutes so I could hit my 10,000. Eric told me that was cheating.  I told him cheating would be shaking my arm up and down to hit 10,000, as long as I am walking I'm good!

5. Donut You want to be my Friend?

I had to walk to the bank this morning in 35 degreee (but sunny!) weather so I rewarded myself and my friends with a box of sunshine and smiles because it's Friday and that's how I roll!

High Five for Friday

This might have been the longest, craziest week I've had in a really long time.  It seemed to take forever to get through yet I am sitting here, wondering where all of the time went!

Im going to break this down into a Friday 5 list because it's Friday and I like lists.  =)

#1

Last Friday night did not go quite as we had planned.  The boys ended up losing 34-12.  Thew good news is they played as hard as they could.  It's just really hard to win when the other team has twice as many players who are all a good 6 inches taller and much bigger than our kids.  I hate to see the end of the season come, but at the same time I'm happy to have some more free time for the two of us.  Although I am really going to miss hanging out with all of the coaches wives on Friday nights.

#2

Part of the reason my week has been extra crazy is that I've been at a training for work most of the week and I am now a Certified Car Seat Installation Technician. I learned that there is way more than I ever dreamed possible involved in putting a car seat in a car and putting a kid in a car seat correctly.  According to my class instructors, as many as 90% of car seats are installed incorrectly.  I was shocked when I heard that. Out of my class, I would venture to say that I had the longest way to go from the beginning because when they brought out the dummies and the car seats and told us to put the kid in the seat I asked how I was supposed to take the seat off the base. I got some crazy looks, but then I explained that I had never put a kid in a car seat.  More looks of what the heck?! I explained that although I am the oldest child, I was only 5 when my brother was born.  I didn't grow up with any family with small children near by, and my first nephew was born just a month ago and I've met him a total of one time, so frankly the opportunity to put a kid in a car seat has never presented itself.  The good news is I caught on pretty quick and I passed with flying colors!

#3

I think I am almost ready to have Thanksgiving at the house.  I have my extensively detailed spreadsheet with menu items, their ingredients, and where I am going to purchase said items. What can I say, I am my father's daughter. If I don't have it all neatly written down in front of my face, there's a good chance I'll forget something and end up having to make a last minute run to Montgomery or just scrap it all together.  I've decided I am going to try to get all of my shopping done today before I head home because I really don't want to have to fight crowds at the grocery store this weekend or any time next week.  Plus if I do forget something I will at least have the opportunity to pick it up next week.

#4

I think missing coaching is actually starting to creep up on me.  I didn't think it would, and certainly not this early, but I guess with football ending I found myself ready for the next sport and games to watch.  That being said, there's a very good chance I will be catching my old team's home season opener this weekend.  I just can't help it!

#5

I can't think of anything else so I will leave you with 2 of my favorites.  It's been super cold here this week--Wednesday morning it was 18 when I left the house...same as my brother's AM temp in Wisconsin--and thankfully they have been extra snuggly this week.  This was our situation one evening.  Gotta love a built in bed warmer!


Happy Weekend!

High 5 for Friday

Boom! We made it to Friday. I could really get used to these 3 day weeks and 4 day weekends.  Who's with me?  Let's get right to my Friday 5, shall we?

#1

Unless you live in Hawaii, Southern CA, Southwestern AZ, or South Florida you are well aware of this crazy cold snap that is currently taking up residency outside.  My northern dwelling friends and family will laugh at me but highs in the 40s for Alabama is about as low as it goes in the winter time in February, so to have these temps in early November is CA-RAZY!  I am loving it though because it gives me an excuse to wear all of the boots, sweaters, and scarves I want!  And I am pretty sure we'll be eating soup and drinking hot chocolate all day everyday.

#2

The only hitch to this cold is that I will be weathering it tonight outside when our football team plays their 2nd round playoff game. It's supposed to be 36 degrees with a windchill of 31 degrees at kickoff.  I may end up looking like Randy in his snowsuit from A Christmas Story but I will be there! I'm actually thinking of going a different route after I found these online this morning.

They have several Marvel superheroes available. I am leaning toward Spiderman or The Hulk myself.

#3

I'm not sure whether to blame Eric or the cold temps but I am sure one of the two are the cause of the current situation in my head.  I'm having the rather unpleasant combo of congestion/runny nose and sinus pressure.  It's wonderful.  I have found the more active I am, the better I feel because during those times I can actually breathe through my nose.  The other night I made enchiladas for dinner and could not smell when they came out of the oven.  I was holding the pan right under my nose and could smell nothing.  That was the night Eric ran on the treadmill and came out like a new man.  I decided I needed to feel like that so I jumped on it for a couple of miles.  Miraculously my congestion went away and for about an hour afterward I could smell and taste those wonderful enchiladas.  But seriously, I'm ready for this crud to move on as soon as possible.

#4

It took me a few days but I am finally moved into and have unpacked my new office.  I am loving it so far.  It's quite roomy and feels more like home now that I have all of my pictures up.  And that window?  It's wonderful!

#5

We are now down to less than 2 weeks until Thanksgiving and turkeys have FINALLY gone on sale so that means it's time to get down to business.  I am really looking forward to it again this year, and I am starting to get really hungry for all things Thanksgiving Food-related. With Thanksgiving coming late this year we've lost an entire week between it and Christmas, which means that Christmas is a mere 6 weeks away.  6 weeks.  That's a grading period when I was in school...aka NOT long at ALL.  The good news is that I amazingly got a jump on my Christmas shopping this year and as I put my list together yesterday I realized I had nearly half of the items already purchased and ideas for almost everyone on my list.  Of course the year I am not coaching and have time to shop in December would be the year that I have everything purchased or picked out early.

Wish us luck tonight and think warm thoughts so we don't turn into icicles!

High Five for Friday

We made it to Friday!  This has been an absolutely jam-packed crazy week, which has been perfectly fine with me because it made the week fly by!  I'm just going to hit the high points today because there's lots to talk about!

#1  

We have a new addition to our family and I am now officially an Aunt!  My BIL and SIL welcomed their sweet baby boy into the world on Wednesday afternoon.  He was 7lbs 13oz and 21 inches long...thankfully for my SIL not as big as they were expecting him to be! I am so excited for them and I cannot wait to meet their sweet little man this weekend!

#2 

An update on our Hawkey Dog...Our sweet puppy is STILL at the vet as of this morning.  I thought I was going to get to bring him home yesterday afternoon but when I called to arrange picking him up, I was told they wanted to keep him another night to give him one more round of an injectable antibiotic this morning.  The trade-off being that he won't be sent home with a drain in his neck like we were planning on.  To be honest, I would rather not have to deal with the drain and kenneling him so I reluctantly agreed. I told them they'd have to keep him all day and I would pick him up on my way home if that was going to be the case...they just better hope he's ready to go when I get there this afternoon, otherwise they're going to have to deal with an upset Mama.

#3 

I am really really hoping that fall is here for good! It has been nothing short of absolutely beautiful here this week.  I am really hoping that this means fall is here to stay. Because I am loving this weather right now, and not coaching means I actually get to enjoy my afternoons outside. =)  It's the little things, I tell ya!

#4 

Speaking of the little things, I know I say this every year but I really really love teaching dance classes.  It blows me away that these kids come in every week and really really want to improve and learn what I have to teach them.  And it's so rewarding to see them "get" a step that they've been trying so hard to perfect.  Last night I decided to attempt a couple of steps with one of my classes that I have tried to teach for the past 2 years, but have never had much luck with.  They try hard, but most end up super frustrated so I put it away for another day.  I guess something clicked this year (or it could be the fact that it was the 2nd or 3rd time most of them had attempted the step) because every single kid got it and a couple of them did the step perfectly.  I was so excited because they're some of my favorite steps to put together and I can actually put them in a dance this year!  Yep, definitely the little things.  =)

#5 

Samantha's Back  I realize this one is pretty up there on the random scale, but it's something near and dear to my heart.  I was a HUGE fan of the American Girl books and dolls when I was a kid.  I was reading them when it was just Samantha, Molly, Kirsten, and brand new Felicity. Samantha was my doll of choice, with Molly coming in a close second because she was a tap dancer of course.  I loved Samantha's stories and read them over and over again growing up.  I still remember getting my Samantha doll for Christmas one year and it was the best thing ever!  Of course my family indulged my love of Samantha. I am pretty sure I was the only kid I knew who had doll outfits and my size matching outfits that were made by my grandma.  We even had matching baskets from the Samantha Saves the Day book that my mom made.  Let's just say that Samantha and I dressed alike for many a book report circa 1992.  I promise this trip down memory lane has a point....a couple of years ago I discovered that Samantha had been retired and I was a little upset about this.  I realize they've introduced 9 more "historical" dolls as they're now called.  They've also introduced the annual "Girl of the Year" and the "My American Girl" dolls that you can get to look like you making the entire collection of dolls enormous, but I hated to see all of the original dolls I grew up with retired. I still get the annual catalog in the mail (due to a weak moment and free catalog offer) and I was delighted yesterday and I was flipping through it to see they are re-branding the historical doll collections and bringing back all of the classics!!!  They have changed up the outfits for whatever reason, but the most important things is that Samantha and Molly and Kirsten and Felicity are coming back for a new generation of girls to enjoy.  

That's all I've got for today.  Happy Friday to all and to all a good weekend!

High Five for Friday

Woohoo Friday!  I'm so glad we made it through another week...the first week of October no less.  Time is flying by! It's been a minute since I've done a High 5 for Friday Day post (probably because it's been that long since I've had anything interesting to talk about !), so I figured there's no time like the present to talk about a few things.

1. Twinning

This happened on Monday:

During a shopping trip while my parents were here a couple of weeks ago, Mom and I picked up nearly identical bright green sweaters as we were perusing the Talbots Outlet.  We were on different sides of the store, and when we met back up we realized what we had done.  Mom asked me what I would wear with it and I told her I would surely pair it with navy, she agreed.  We laughed about it and continued on shopping.  Fast forward and entire week.  We're having one of our afternoon phone calls while I am driving home and Mom casually mentions that she got lots of compliments on her bright green sweater that day.  Jokingly I tell her that I hope she wore it with navy.  Turns out she wore it with a knee length navy dress.  Guess what your's truly had on that very day....my bright green sweater over a navy dress.  We got a kick out if it.  I've always known I would eventually turn into my mother, but I guess I never thought the change would be so literal...lol.  Great minds do think alike!

2.Raspberries 

I received a large box in the mail this week from my grandparents.  I was curious considering I was not expecting anything, so I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the box to find a big bunch of raspberry plants!  I brought several home with us from out trip to Indiana this summer, but only one of them made it...I might have waited a little too long to get them in some dirt.  I am hoping our newest raspberry additions will thrive so we can have LOTS of raspberries next year!

3. Brazilian Food

The father of one of our friends who is from Brazil has been here visiting for the past couple of months.  He speaks very little English and we speak no Portuguese so it has made for some awkward but endearing conversations while he has been here.  Sadly he had to head back to the Southern Hemisphere this week, but we sent him off with a big cookout Tuesday night.  I have discovered over the past couple of months that I LOVE Brazilian food.  It is super light and flavorful, kinda tex-mexy but so much better.  I am sure I have mentioned the Brazilian Potato Salad once or twice around these parts,  It looks like a Shepard's pie, has the flavor of the bacon ranch boxed pasta salad you can get a the grocery store, but is filled with delicious things like carrots, olives, and even chicken!  This stuff is amazing.  At the cookout this week we had this delicious dish, as well as several grilled meats and of course fresh pico de gallo with rice and guacamole.  It was sooooo good!  As much as I hate to see our friend's dad go back home, I am so glad we got to send him off with a bang!

4. Dance Starts Up Next Week!

I am getting really excited because the 2014-2015 dance year kicks off next week!  I feel like it's the first week of school or something (which is guess it is the first week of dance school).  I cannot wait to get in the studio and work with all of the little darlings this year. I am going to get to work with 3rd graders-7th graders this year which will be lots of fun!  I will be tap-tapping to my little heart's content and I can't wait!

5.  No-football Friday/Homecoming?

We get to switch things up this weekend for football.  THS has a bye week [WHAT?!] which means we are footloose and fancy free this evening!  We considered going out to eat and then we both laughed and remembered that we are anti-Friday night date nighters.  We have never had luck trying to go out to eat on a Friday night.  It never fails.  We gave it up when we were in college.  Having football and basketball games on those nights normally keeps us from going most of the time, but when we have a free night we tend to momentarily forget about it.  My vote is for some Little Caesars and catching up on this week's NCIS episodes that we have yet to watch.  Whatever we do it won't be too much because we are going to be up bright and early to head to Montgomery for Homecoming at Huntingdon!  It's going to be a full day of fun and friends, most of whom we haven't seen in a year and I cannot wait!  It is supposed to be in the upper 60s and sunny all day which is going to make for an absolutely beautiful day!

The picture on the left was taken during Eric's last football season (fall 07) and the picture on the right is last year at Homecoming. 

Happy Friday!