Weekend Recap

This past weekend was one where I feel like we did a whole lot, but when I think back we really didn't do THAT much.

We kept it simple and lazy on Friday night.  Eric was going turkey hunting early Saturday so Friday was basically shenanigan-less. I had big plans to grill flat bread pizzas and I still do because I decided on a whim after looking through the week's grocery ads that we were going to have tuna steaks for dinner. The result was one of the prettiest (and delicious) meals I have ever made.  It was shockingly simple and I can't wait to make it again!  I am so ready for Eric to go on a tuna trip with his brother this summer so they can bring back some super fresh tuna steaks! This might be the first time I will tell him he better go catch some fish!

I was super proud of this gorgeous plate of food.  I used this recipe for both the tuna steaks and the dressing.  

The rest of our weekend consisted of taking in a little league baseball game, eating fresh oysters (Eric not me), hanging out at a crawfish boil (once again, Eric ate them I didn't), a fun Saturday evening with friends, sleeping in on Sunday, a little house cleaning out, a quick run, puppy dog walks, Sunday dinner with friends, and lots and lots of basketball.  I don't even want to think about how terrible my brackets are this year.  It makes me want to cry.  On the upside, there have been some very exciting games, so I can at least enjoy the games while they are going on.

Clockwise from top left: 1) Have I mentioned how much I adore my new shirt?  It makes me smile.  We just need to work on Peanut's posing skills so he doesn't look like I just snatched him up.  Note to my photographer (ahem, Eric): make sure to have the dog's attention, too, when taking a photo of your wife and the dog; 2) Hawk and his buddy Ringo.  These two played ALL DAY Saturday.  I didn't think it was possible for two dogs to play that much fetch, but they did and loved every minute of it; 3) Our first peach cobbler of the year (not made by me).  I am so ready for summer so this can happen more often; 4) Saturday night we went to a crawfish in the booming metropolis of Notasulga, AL.  You know you're in the country when you head down a driveway lined with cows.  This one had several who happily posed as we drove by.

This week is going to be jampacked and lots of fun! I am so excited about it! I just hope that my excitement doesn't make it last twice as long, but hey it's already Tuesday so I must be doing something right!

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!

March Madness....A Poem

I did a little something for today's post that I NEVER do.....I wrote a little poem in honor of today's momentous occasion: The beginning of the 2015 NCAA Basketball Tournament (for anyone living under a rock)  I am not a poet, nor an I a huge fan of poetry, but this one just felt right and the process was no nearly as painful as I thought it would be.  So without further ado:

March Madness 

 (to the tune of It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year [obviously])

It's the most wonderful time of the year,

With buzzers a-sounding,

Hearts will be pounding,

And the crowd, they will cheer!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

It's the hap-happiest season of all.

With trash talking greetings and tense pre-game meetings,

And can you believe they just missed that call?!

It's the hap-happiest season of all!

There'll be brackets for posting

and experts a-boasting

their bracket picks are second to none.

There'll be elaborate stories 

And tales of the glories

Of tournaments long long ago.

It's the most wonderful time of the year.

There'll be much basketballing and a good bit of fouling

When the game is on the line!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

There'll be mascots a-cheering

Cinderella's appearing, 

Shocking everyone but their own fans.

There'll be bands playing fight songs

And fans up all night long, 

To make sure they get their team through!

It's the most wonderful time of the year.

There'll be heroes emerging and team spirit overflowing,

When the Final Four is near!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Even better than bowl season time of the year!

The absolute BEST time of the year!

A Beautiful Spring Weekend Recap

After the amazingly beautiful weekend we just had I am officially declaring it spring around here.  We could not have asked for a more beautiful weekend. Despite having quite a few things on my to do list, I managed to check off most of the items.

A few extra items found their way onto my list as Friday went on.....notice that nearly all of the items that did not get accomplished were the items that required me to be inside for prolonged periods of time, but when the weather is as nice as it was here "ain't nobody got time for that!" Those things will have to wait until next weekend when it's supposed to be rainy.  And no I didn't run all weekend, but I dog-walked all 3 days and spent about 3 hours on Sunday weeding our flower beds and hauling tree limbs to the backyard (and have the sunburn to prove it), so I'm going to use that as my excuse.

Eric spent as much time as he possible could fishing (what's new, right?), except for Sunday afternoon when we headed to Montgomery to visit his Dad.  He is still at the rehab facility trying to get back to where he can get around by himself. He said he's ready to go back home.  Hopefully he will improve enough in the next week or so that he can. On our way back we had a Moe's date, I think it was the most I've seen him in a week and a half, but I'll take what I can get!  I think the newness of fishing season has worn off and the lack of sleep is starting to get to him.  So maybe he'll cut back to fishing just 4-5 times a week for now. =)

Clockwise from top left: 1) the reason I don't mind him fishing so much.  We had our first fish fry of the year complete with Eric's homemade hush puppies (the only thing missing was him homemade coleslaw which was asked about by several people - myself included).  I am way to ashamed to admit how much fish and how many hush puppies I ate Saturday night.  Let's just say I splurged, like really splurged for the first time since Christmas and I didn't regret it one little bit.  2) I made the copycat Frosty Paws recipe for the pups Friday night and they LOVE it. I will post the recipe this week.  It's super easy and quite tasty (if I say so myself). 3) My flower beds are no longer covered in a thick layer of weeds and dead remnants from last year! It was a labor of love... 4) ...and I have the sunburn to prove it! To be honest I am just glad to have gotten some sun!