Weekend Craziness

The past few days have been ca-razy around these parts! Here's a snapshot of life around here from Thursday-Saturday: Eric having a 12-hour stomach bug and being completely down for the count on Thursday, [me] playing a softball double header Thursday night, preparing for and throwing a baby shower for a friend at work (I think I missed my calling as a party planner), attempting to completely sanitize the house so I would not catch Eric's stomach bug, Friday night at Chucks's Marina for a pizza dinner and live music, 1220 Saturday morning breakfast because it's a shame not to, hosting PEO Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon at the lake, and Saturday evening with 12 people crammed in a camper to escape the rain at the lake. Whew!  It's no surprise that I sat down for 10 minutes on Saturday after the ladies left and ended up falling asleep for an hour!

Left: This is what happens when you don't have time to pick or cook anything from your garden for 3 days....I made 3 quarts of pickles Sunday morning and still have cucumbers left!

Right: This is why you always go to 1220 Cafe Saturday morning breakfast-French Toast with homemade whipped cream and pecans...and bacon, always bacon.

Thankfully (because I don't think I would have lasted another day) we took it easy on Sunday. Sunday was my kind of day....church, wash the cars in the yard, and lay by the pool with a few friends and the pups all afternoon. Yes those are the days I live for and keep me going.

Dogs on pool floats are my favorites!  Peanut actually took a nap on his float for a little while.

Of course we had to eat on Sunday, and we went all out, frying everything but the kitchen sink. Seriously. Waiting for our tomatoes to turn red is taking a little longer than I had hoped, so fried green tomatoes have been on my mind for a couple of weeks. Eric took my idea and ran with it and we ended up with a feast of fried green tomatoes, onion rings, fried squash, fried  zucchini, fried okra, and even deep fried bacon!!!! My arteries are clogged this morning, but boy was my belly happy last night. We got fancy with the tomatoes, topping them with sauteed shrimp and remoulade sauce, as well as making BLFGTs (bacon, lettuce, and fried green tomato sandwiches).

Clockwise from top left: 1) Fried Green Tomatoes and Bacon; 2) All the fried bacon #supercrispyanddelicious; 3) My BLFGT and fried okra on the side....our meal was several deep fried courses long; 4) Fried okra and fried zucchini.

Needless to say we were all in food comas by the end of the meal which we finished off with Skinny Cow Ice Cream Bars because we have to be somewhat sensible with our eating, right?  Ha.

Here's to another crazy week in the life of HEEP Cagle!  =)

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!

We are the Champions.....again!

Our end of the year softball tournament was short and sweet this year.  We had a bye and did not have to play on Monday, so we started and finished our tournament last night.  I am not going to lie, I was a little concerned because it's been a couple of weeks since we played last, but it ended up being no biggie.  We run-ruled the first team and won 10-0 after 4.5 innings.  We waiting around for an hour for the other semifinal game to be played and then run ruled the other team--who was by far the stiffest competition we played all year the first time we played them--and ended up run ruling them 14-0 after 4.5 innings again.  Done and Done.

I am sad for another season to come to an end.  We always have such a great time playing ball with this group!  Hopefully we'll get to play another tournament this summer before it's all said and done.  

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!