It Happened Again

We weren't planning on it, but it happened.  On Thursday afternoon Eric's brohter called and told him the water would be perfect for another fishing trip this weekend and invited us down.  We decided about 9pm on Thursday night that it was a brilliant idea (who am I kidding, I was ready as soon as Eric said "beach" on the phone), and we set off for the Gulf Friday afternoon. Luckily we missed most of the Spring Break traffic and had an uneventful trip down.

The boys wanted to be on the water by 3am Saturday morning, so my SIL and I decided we'd pass on the trip and sleep in...of course by sleep in I mean 7am (#adultproblems).  It was a nice morning so we took their dog on a long walk--our boys stayed home with my MIL. By the time we got back the fog had rolled in.  We decided that laying out wouldn't do us too much good, so we opted to make a cake instead.  My SIL likes to cook as much as I do, and she is an amazing baker! With a little help from Paula Deen, we found a recipe and headed to the grocery store.  A couple of hours later we had ourselves a delicious-looking, albeit lop-sided strawberry cake with strawberry cream cheese icing (that was a bit thick despite the fact that we didn't put all of the powdered sugar in it and thinned it out with cream--If you ever use this Strawberry Cake Recipe be sure to at LEAST half the powdered sugar....7 cups is way to much!). Since the sun was still hiding by the time we finished baking we did the next best thing...a little retail therapy. When we got home the sun was FINALLY out so we got to lay out for a little while, until we realized why the fog had finally moved on....the wind had picked up.  We powered through and ended up laying out under blankets which I realize technically defeated the purpose of laying out but it was nice just to be outside.  The boys got back pretty early from their VERY successful trip so we got cleaned up and headed to dinner. I'd been wanting some good seafood and we just that at Louisiana Lagniappe. I had Grouper Pecan that was beyond amazing...lightly breaded fish topped with meuniere sauce and toasted pecans.  Despite the fact that we were all stuffed from dinner we made sure to tear up the strawberry cake when we got home. Naturally we all slipped into food comas quite early and slept in Sunday morning.  After a delicious breakfast Eric and I headed home. Even though it was a quick trip I am soooo glad we went! I miss them like crazy since they don't live in the same town as we do anymore, but it is nice to be able to getaway for a weekend to go see them!

1. No question, I am my mother's daughter.  She told me about an outfit she put together that consisted of a lighth blue shirt and a cream scarf.  I have found myself drawn to blue shirts to go with my cream colored scarf ever since.  I finally broke down and bought one this weekend.....and I LOVE it!
2. Since there was a little bit of leftover cake batter and frosting my SIL and I did the most logical thing and made cupcakes! Plus that meant we could taste the cake before dessert!
3. Eric and his brother with one of their catches.
4. The boys with their haul.
5.Some big ole fishies! They caught 6 yellow fin tuna and a wahoo (the longer fish in the middle)!
6. My new spring scarf I found on our shopping excursion...half off?! Yes Please!
7. Our breakfast spread Sunday morning.  Sausage Crecsent Bake (recipe coming this week) and Cracker Barrel's Hash Brown Casserole with some eggs and bacon just for fun!
8. This was just a small portion of the tuna Eric vacuum packed when we got home.
9. Of course we had to cook some fish for dinner Sunday night.  We had some friends who were having a fish fry so we brought some tuna and wahoo with us and Eric grilled it up!  He seasoned it with Penzey's Greek Seasoning (best seasoning ever!) and olive oil.

....and in case you were wondering, we did not actually step foot on the beach (but they live really close to it and we could see it from the road).  Plus now that they have a pool we don't have to leave the house to get in the water. =) 

I Took a Little Trip

Don't you love it when people fall off the face of the earth for a few days.  I know I do....NOT.  My apologies for being absent, but I have a good reason; I promise.  You see I was doing a little traveling for my job, that I was able to parlay into a little weekend trip that was waaaaay over due.  So where was I?  Several places actually.  I started off the weekend by heading up to Memphis to see my parents. We had a great visit and I got to indulge in my most favorite pizza and salad in the history of the universe.....a Junior (salad) and a Pizza from Arni's that my mom brought back from her trip to Indiana last week. If you've never had the pleasure of indulging in either of these you are missing out and I feel sorry for you.  If you have, you know what I mean.

This look got him very very close to getting to come with me.  Can we say guilt trip?

Le Arni's Junior et Le Arni's Pizza.  It must be cut like this to taste right and in case you're wondering, the "corner" pieces are the best.

As much as I would have loved to spend the entire weekend at my parents' house I had 2 more destinations to make it to before the Sunday night.  My conference was in Little Rock, AR, just 2.5 hours from Mom and Dad's, but it was also conveniently 2.5 hours from my grandma's house in Arkansas.  I am completely ashamed to say that but it had been almost 9 years since I had gone to see her.  I told my parents there was no way I was going to be that close to her and NOT go to see her, so Mom and I set out bright and early Sunday morning to go visit her.  We got there around lunch with a Pizza Hut pizza in hand and she was thrilled to see us.  I am so glad we were able to make it over there to see her and my aunt.  We spent a couple of hours hanging out, chatting about everything under the sun, and then it was time to leave so I could get to Little Rock for my conference.  Don't worry, Dad came to pick Mom up and grab a bite to eat before they headed back to Memphis.

My Dad's childhood home

I don't talk a lot about my job on here, but I recently started working in Injury Prevention for the state of Alabama. This particular conference was all about Injury Prevention and was attended by every state in the south/southwest region.  My head is still spinning on account of everything I learned while I was there and I am so excited to take what I learned back to our program!

Clockwise from top left: 1) The view out my hotel room window Monday morning...yes it SNOWED. 2) The Oval Office!  Ok not really.  This was the Oval Office replica in the Bill Clinton Presidential Library which we got to tour.  3) A replica of the President's Cabinet Room at the Bill Clinton Presidential Library.  4) My St. Paddy's Day dinner outfit...made sure I had my green on!  And I really really wanted to take the full length mirror that was in my hotel room home with me. 

1) They had a special exhibit on Presidential Pets at the Library....I thought it was awesome that this picture of Ronald Reagan, his dog, and Margaret Thatcher was taken on the actual day of my birth.  2) I added my pin to the visitor map.  I thought I was super special because I was the first person from my town to put a pin on the map until I saw the other 3 US maps that were completely covered in red pins.  

As great as my trip was, it was so good to get back home to Eric and the boys! I missed them like crazy!  I got back home late Tuesday night and spent most of yesterday playing catch up, so today was back to the grind.  Thank goodness this is only a 3 day week for me!

High 5! It's Friday!

Good news, I think my nose/head issues from earlier this week were allergy related to the pollen that made an appearance earlier this week.  The Bradford Pear trees (pretty flowers, but gosh they stink) bloomed this week and I think that's what got me.  I am 100 % better now, just in time for the weekend.  Thank goodness!

#1

via

We are down to one week before Divergent is in theaters!  I am so excited for this movie because I LOVED the books.  Eric doesn't know it yet, but he's going to enjoy the movies, too.  I broke the ice the other night when we were watching tv and a preview came on. It didn't get much of a rise out of him, but then again the Hunger Games trailers didn't either and he has enjoyed the first two. 

#2

I have a new-old favorite snack....good old oatmeal.  I know I ate it as a kid but I recently re-discovered it on our trip to Colorado and I can't get enough of it now.  It's become my go-to 10AM snack at work....it's just enough to curb my food craving and it's so tasty!

#3

I went shopping this morning before work, on my dresser.  I was looking for a pop of color to wear with my green shirt.  I usually wear some kind of long gold or metallic necklace with this shirt, but I saw a picture of someone wearing a similar color shirt with a bright necklace the other day and loved it.  I have had this necklace for several years and have not worn it too often, but I am thinking I will be wearing it again!

#4

This happpened again this week.  I had some leftover brussel sprouts from the other night, so I whipped up another batch of Brussel Sprout Hash with Whipped Goat Cheese.  It was just as good as it was the first time.  I decided to swap the pearl onions for chopped sweet onions because lets be honest here, ain't nobody got time to peel and chop an entire bag of pearl onions.  I learned my lesson the first time.  They may not be as cute as pearl onion, but they taste the same and took about 1/20 the time to prepare.  I have updated the recipe I posted the other day with this important chance.

#5

We've done a bit of furniture swapping/redecorating in out living room.  It took some of it a little while to grow on me and I am waiting on Eric to remove one more large piece of furniture, *cough* the recliner *cough* but I am a fan now.  I have even put a few more holes in our walls and hung a few things since we have some new bare spots on our walls.  The monogram that I stained is now above the mirror on our "hallway" wall and I framed my favorite mountain picture from Colorado and hung it up. I am thinking a living room update post is in order next week (once the recliner is removed, of course).

Happy Friday!  

Hello Springtime

Sharing is caring, right?  Well not so much when the item being shared is a snotty nose, alas that's all part of working in an office right? I had managed to dodge every cold/sickness that made it's way through this year until now.  I have been chugging OJ like it's my job and I even broke out the Mucinex today, but so far it's had little effect. I was hoping that the fresh air yesterday would help, but as soon as I came back inside it returned. Since I can't really focus on account of the giant snot globs that are currently taking up residence in my nasal cavity (too much?), I'm going to resort to pictures from our walk yesterday that make me smile. We've gotten a real taste of spring time the past few days (I'm talking shorts and t-short weather!) and I've done my best to soak up every minute of it outside.  I am crossing my fingers that I get one more pretty afternoon before some rain and another chill (hopefully the last one) comes back for a few days.

Have I mentioned yet how much I adore the extra hour of daylight in the evenings?

We have lived in our house for 4 years and I have been walking the boys daily for the past 2 years (except for basketball season).  Up until 3 days ago Hawk has walked by this pond in our neighborhood and never though twice about it.  As of this weekend he noticed it and our water-loving pup now has a new favorite place to swim. I hope our neighbors don't mind!

No we didn't get another dog.  This little lady that Hollow and Peanut are infatuated with is Catdog...aka our neighbors' outside dog...aka the neighborhood's favorite dog that greets everyone and every dog on the block...aka Hollow's girlfriend he goes to see every day when we let him out, seriously every day. Rest assured she has a loving family and a home; she's just really really friendly.  She walks with us and several other neighbors on a daily basis.  Eric said she even ran with him last night...all 4 laps.  This was after she had walked a lap and a half with me as well as another neighbor.

My lil Peanut.

Someday I am going to take all of the funny/crazy pictures I have of the boys and put them all in one photo book.  Big boy was cooling off after our walk/his swim and sat down by the open window to cool off.  When I walked through the living room I realized he was looking at me but didn't move too far from his comfortable spot.  He's a fan of the sheer curtains apparently and was in no hurry to remove it from his head.

Here's to hoping it make it through the rest of the day and that no one else has to experience this head crap I am dealing with.