Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving !!!








May your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey be plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
Have never a lump.
May your yams be delicious
And your pies take the prize,
And may your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off your thighs!


Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Beef Stroganoff=Yum!

So I made my first ever Beef Stroganoff last night and boy was it yummy! No...I don't have pictures :( but I'll share the recipe!


I got the recipe from the Cooking with Philly website which my coworker stumbled upon yesterday and where I plan to draw more inspiration from in the future becuase it was Delicious!

I added about twice the amount of beef broth and cream cheese so that there would be more gravy/sauce and a little bit of salt and pepper. Yum Yum Yum! You have to try this!! I didn't use a flank steak either....actually, I'm not sure what it was that I used...definitely beef, and labeled 'steak for stroganoff'...but that doesn't say exactly what it was, lol! It was good either way! So go try it because you're going to love it and it was really easy!

Pictures

Finally! Here are some pictures from the Fall dinner/Pumpkin carving!!




Please ignore my hair, this was the only break I took from cooking and I had no idea it was looking crazy!


The finished pumpkins!

I think I'm still full....

Saturday was a hit! "As usual" said everyone in attendance :)

It was a fun evening filled with kid laughter, carving fun and of course a ton of food!

I added another roast to the menu as I couldn't find a single pork loin roast big enough to feed 11. Instead of doing the Rosemary-Garlic recipe on it as well, I decided to make a Pork Roast with Cardamom Mushroom Sauce (which I found on Simply Recipes). DELICIOUS!!!! It was sooo good! I highly recommend this recipe! Cardamom is expensive, but we have a place kind of like a farmers market whole foods combo that I was able to get about 2 tablespoons of it for $.95 vs. $10 for a little bottle.


With the other roast, I highly recommend adding some chicken broth to the bottom of the roasting pan as it ended up being a little dry.

Overall the meal was very delicious! For dessert we had a 3 layer apple cake with buttercream frosting, chocolate chess pie and a lemon meringue pie. Yum, yum, yum!

Sneak Peak

I have figured out what I'm making for the annual Fall Dinner and Pumpkin Carving Dinner!

Want to know what we're having?

Too bad, you'll have to wait :) just kidding...

We will be feasting upon:
Rosemary-Garlic Pork loin roast
Roasted Carrots and sweet potatos
Caramelized apples
Green beans (this may end up being a green bean casserole...)
Mashed regular potatos
Rolls
Deviled eggs
Salad


And for Dessert:
Three-Layer apple cake
A mixed berry, pound cake, pudding thing that is really good. I don't know if it has a name, but my friend V and her mom make it for their catering business and for family functions, so I'm stealing another recipe from them :)

Should be another yummy meal!

Giddy Up!

Another fun weekend!

Where to begin...I guess Friday after work is a good start!

Friday when I got home I decided that I needed to chill for a little bit. I had plans of going riding as soon as I got home, but I was a bit tired, so I sat around for about 45 minutes watching an old western on tv. Headed on down to the barn about 6 and rode my buddy Blaze for an hour and a half. We had a good time! It was really wet still, so we were trying to stay in the dry bits, but we did a little slipping and slidding when we tried some fast turns, yee-haw!

Saturday morning I had to work until 12:30 after which I quickly rode to the house to pick up a saddle before meeting one of the nurse practitioners from my office at her house to go on a ride with her horses. I believe his name was Trapper, and he was a lot of fun! I rode with them for about an hour and a half then took off to go watch the NC State game....it was depressing. They had a good first half though! I left around half time to pick up mom and go to a charity roping and dinner. We arrived much later than we inteded so we had to pick at scraps. W and the stable girl, T, were already there and enjoying themselves (W more than T). So we joined in and watched til the end of the auction before heading home and to the heat of our cars.

Sunday was another fun filled day! T picked Blaze and I up at 9 and we headed off to a (different) charity trail ride and luncheon/dinner). The ride was beautiful and fun with an excellent hot dog dinner waiting behind one of the trail bends for us. It was so neat! We rode for about 5 hours and the weather was absolutely gorgeous! A little cool in the shade and surprisingly hot in the sun when we would stop for breaks. I even got sun on my chest and face! The whole weekend was topped off by a big slice of German Chocolate cake (one of the many items purchased at the auction Saturday night).

Can we rinse and repeat?? I had so much fun!

Here's the only picture I got of the whole weekend. The is of T and her horse Deak (sp?) with some of the many riders beyond her on one of our breaks.


Side note* I am definitely my mothers daughter! When we stopped for hot dogs, I somehow managed to drop my dog, (ketchup, mustard and all) right onto my lap....good times :)

Busy Busy!

I feel like I have been running around like a chicken with its head cut off lately! This week has gone by in a busy blur. I'll start with last night though and walk you through my equally busy weekend :) You should be excited!

Last night I went over to PB's house to have a big spaghetti dinner. She was hosting this dinner because some of her family from Norway came in town and has been visiting. I went over directly from work and immediately started trying to understand what the heck these people were saying! I'm kidding, they actually speak fairly good English. So we had a fun filled evening talking about EVERYTHING while grubbing down on yummy spaghetti and some of the best garlic bread I've had in a long time. I also got to see my friends C&C baby for the first time in 2 months (she's only 2 and some change months old, lol). My how she's grown! and what a cutie-pie! Daddy is going to have his hands full when she gets older! It was so great to see them and hang out with L, M & S too. S is stuck on me like glue, which is so cute and fun. Love that girl!



Tonight when I get off work I'll be headed to L,M & S house for a pig pickin also in honor of the Norweigans. I plan to get there about 5:30 and stay until about 8:30 as I have yet ANOTHER stop to make before headed home! I'm going over to my friend V's house for a get together with friends and fun times.

Tomorrow morning I plan to get up at the usually time (between 5-5:30) so I can keep the dogs on their routine and have plenty of time to play with them before going riding (horses) for a while. Not too long though because at 12 I'm going to watch N.C. State play!!!! GO STATE!!!! The Wolfpack Rocks!!

From after the game until Sunday afternoon I have no real plans other than to hang out with my mom, W, and my aunt and uncle who are also coming in town today before we all go out to dinner Sunday night to Tony's Oyster Bar. YUM! Love you Gino and Kevin!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Delicious Pasta Salad

My friend and her mom run their own catering company, so when I got invited to a pig pickn' and asked to bring a dish I knew exactly who to ask!

I've had their pasta salad before and new it was good, so I called and got the specifics on what needed to be done and got to work.

Ingredients:
Caesar vinegrette
summer squash
zucchini
spinach
tomato
mozzarella
pasta (I used bowtie and they typically use penne or shells)

Cook pasta (duh). Slice squash, zucchini and tomatoes. (I cut my squash and zucchini in half then into fairly thin cresents and quartered the tomatoes and cut the mozzarella into small chunks). Throw it all in a bowl, stir, enjoy!

Super easy right?!?! and it's delicious!!

Enjoy!

Change of Pace

Sorry for the delay in posting!!

There have been some major changes in my life recently that have resulted in a change of scenery for myself and my babies (Ford and Shelby).

I won't go into specifics, but I will say that I'm looking forward to what the future holds.

For their part, the dogs are loving their new life and all the open space they have to run in now! Each morning we get up between 5-5:30 and do laps around the riding rink. They also have 3 more buddies to play with throughout the day when they are allowed to have (mostly) free roam (they do have an electric fence, but WAY more space than before).

Hope y'all are doing well!

Edible Arrangements

Happy Anniversary to me!

This is what just got delivered to me!! Except mine is better than the one in the picture because mine has CHOCOLATE covered strawberries too!

3 Years

Today is our 3 year wedding anniversary.

3 years ago today at 2 o'clock we were wed at the Brunswick Planataion house in Calabash surrounded by our friends and family. While life hasn't always been easy for us, we are committed to each other and committed to working through whatever hurtles come our way.



Happy Anniversary Honey, I love you

Gory

I don't reccoment watching "The Ninja Assasin" if you have a weak stomach....

This Week's Dinners

I have decided to start planning my meals out in advance like I used to do. Not only does it help me actually to make a dinner, but also helps with the grocery list!

So here is our menu for the next two weeks:

Mon 6/14- Garlic Steak and Onions, w/ brocolli and Texas Toast (This was really good last night!)
Tues 6/15- A1 Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, vegetable
Wed 6/16- Quick and easy Sausage Rotini
Thurs 6/17- Life Group
Fri 6/18- Spaghetti (my own concoction)

Mon 6/21- Stove Top one dish chicken bake w/ veggies
Tues 6/22- Cheesy Chicken and Veggie Mac
Wed 6/23- Tuna/Chicken Helper
Thurs 6/24- Life Group
Fri 6/25- Melting Pot for our anniversary (?)

I'll let y'all know how it all turns out!!!

If you haven't checked out Kraft recipes before, I highly recommend them!

Two More Events From Sunday

I forgot to share this funny picture of what we saw on the way to Church-




And then I forgot to tell you that being a good samaritan can be dangerous! The story is that Sunday there was a big storm coming, so I let the dogs out so they didn't have to wait until later. When I let them out I noticed the neighbors a few doors down standing at the back fence because their portable patio cover (or whatever they're called) had blown over and they couldn't figure out how to get over the fence to get to it as thier fence is a 4 foot and the chain link fence behind all our houses is 6 foot. When we installed our fence we made it 6 foot, so it's the same height as the chain link fence and the horizontal planks are on the inside so I've been able to crawl over and back a few times before when a wayward ball has gone over. So I decided to climb over and help them get the tent thing back.....but I didn't really think that through because I went over with no shoes, no socks, and wearing shorts instead of pants...not smart for fence climbing, especially chain link fence climbing. Once I got back to the house I looked at myself and realized that I had cut myself up something awful! My arms aren't too bad, but I have a few bruises, my upper legs got the worst of it. One got scraped kinda bad on the knee, the other got scraped really, really bad on the upper inside of my thigh. When I got home yesterday and looked again I've got black and purple bruises around the scratches now (only the ones on the inside of my thigh)!?!?! Apparently the other times I climbed it I was wearing shoes and pants because I would have remembered getting sliced like this! So word to the wise, before helping others, help yourself!

P.S. I'm up to date on my tetanus shots :)

Our 6 Hour Puppy

So this weekend was interesting.....

My neighbor stopped by at about 2 on Sunday with the most adorable yellow lab puppy (but seriously, what puppies aren't cute?!?!). The puppy had wondered into their yard from the swamp behind thier house and had apparently been on its own for a while because it had ear mites and was filthy. They had got her all cleaned up but had decided they did not want to keep her, so they tried a few houses and ended up at ours knowing that we love labs and would give her a good home or could at least find a good home for her. So I took her in and said I would talk to the Hubs and see what we could do. My GOSH that puppy was so sweet! They had temporarily named her Sandy becuase of her coloring, but in talking we decided that if we were going to keep her, her name would have to fit in with the rest of our crew (Ford and Shelby), so we decided on Mustang Sally.

Sadly, after much deliberation we decided that it was not in our best intrest to add on to our clan at this time, so after calling everyone we thought might want a/another family member, I called back over to the neighbors and asked if they could take her back (not only b/c we couldn't keep her, but because we don't have the equipment for a puppy right now and it would be impossible during the day). They came right over and cheerfully said that this was a sign from God that they were supposed to keep her. So Sandy now lives across the street, and the Sally that was in our home for 6 blissfull hours will be but a fond memory...

Arrange-A-Room

Today after church I was cleaning house while Seth mowed the grass then went to the bonus room to play video games. While cleaning I got a wild hair and decided to rearrange our bedroom :) I have always wanted to do this b/c I knew there had to be a better arrangement than the one we had, for example, I had to side step between the bed and dresser to get to my side of the bed, then step over dog beds to actually get into bed, and my dresser drawers wouldn't open up all the way b/c they would bump into Seth's dresser. I also never went ahead and did it b/c I didn't think Seth would like it and get upset that I was changing everything, but I threw his feelings to the wind and did it anyway (I really do love him and would have changed it back had he not liked it!)

So this is the before set up (don't laugh, I did the best I could!):



And here is the after (again, don't laugh, I did the best I could, although this ones porportions are a little more off than the original one):


So I really like the new set up and Seth loves it. There is plenty of room all the way around the bed so no one has to squeeze through or step over something. Both dressers can be opened completely without hitting the other and the corner between them has been made the laundry corner and is a nice little hiding place so everyone doesn't see our dirty laundry :)

Completely different topic now:

So last night/this morning (Sunday morning) I woke up at 1am and could not go back to sleep, so I tossed and turned and tossed and turned and finally developed the twitches. I'm sure you all know what the twitches are, when you are so tired but your body is twitching and you cant go to sleep, so annoying! Anyhoo, so I'm tossing and its about 2 now and all of a sudden I hear a rifle shot....at 2 in the morning! And it's pretty close, as in probably just a few houses away. The shot was also accompanied by a dull flash of light. So I'm thinking that is really wierd and kind of freaky but ok, whatever. Then it happens again! I grab Seth and tell him whats going on and he thinks I'm dreaming until I get done and it happens again!! So he jumps out of bed, throws on some pants, grabs the pistol and stealthly slips onto the back porch to investigate. While he is out there Ford is in my lap having a complete panic attack and the shot goes off again! So scary at this point. Seth stays out there a while longer then comes in and tells me it seems like its about 4 houses down, but he doesn't see any lights and it doesn't seem to be coming from any of the houses and he can't pinpoint the light or shot. So we get back in bed and go back to sleep since it doesn't happen again and we can't figure anything out....in hindsight, we probably should have called the police just to check things out, but I think someone was just having some drunk fun as there was nothing in the news about it. Freaky though, 4 rifle shots close to our house at 2am!!

Birthdays

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Today ias my Mom's birthday, she is now 58! Her brother, sister-in-law and many friends came out Saturday evening to celebrate and we all had a wonderful time. My uncle is a wonderful chef and made so many delicious things! I don't even know how to begin to describe them all....but I'll try :)

First there were a bunch of appeziters: In little pastry cups he put sauteed shitake mushrooms, topped with a sliver of smoked salmon and caviar, it may not sound good, but, I promise it was! Then in other little pastry cups he topped Brie cheese with caramelized onions and baked it for a second so it got all melty and yummy, MMM mmm! Then he brought out button mushrooms stuffed with a cheese mixture and portabello mushrooms stuffed with some sort of delicious sausage stuffing. Followed by Bruschetta with anchovies, some sort of italian meat that I can't remember, mozzarella and a jalepino, and my aunt made bacon rapped dates which are her specialty and are very good. There was also tiny crepe cups that were filled with spinach, cheese and pine nuts, Yum!

Next were the entrees (and he didn't get to do all the ones he wanted):
There were ribs-some with a BBQ sauce, some with a rasberry sauce, shrimp kabobs, pork kabobs, and lamb kabobs and two different kinds of potato salad. He had also wanted to do a couple pork tenderloins, scallops and salmon, but ran out of time and was told he was not allowed to do anymore :)

Dessert was brought by a couple of attendees. There was Strawberry cake, tres leche cake, a modified Strawberry shortcake with peaches (delicious!!), 12 layer chocolate cake, and blackberries, strawberries and blueberries. YUM Yum Yum!

Needless to say, we all ate well! Here are just a few pictures from the celebration:

Let's Dance!

That is...Pole Dance!

For my birthday my husbands BFF bought me and his wife Pole Dancing lessons at Aradia fitness.

SO MUCH FUN!!!

Another one of my friends signed up for the class too and we three have been swinging ourselves sexy for the last 4 weeks.

The lessons are a lot of fun and definitely a work out! Our last class was last night and I am sore!

The first portion of the class is sexy walking and floor routines with the last half of the class on the pole. We learned how to Show Girl, Stripper Kick, left and right handed Pole Holds, Fireman Spin, Merry-Go-Round, and Big Dip among many (MANY!) other things.

If you are ever looking for a fun workout or just something fun to do with friends (that your significant other will definitely approve of!) I highly recommend finding a class near you! They have many different levels of Pole classes as well as Booty Boot Camps and other classes.

I hope you have as much fun as we did!

Who am I?

My world has been rocked! I'm not sure what is real anymore. Certainly the aliens are about to invade and are playing mind tricks on me as what I'm about to tell you can certainly not be true!

I think I have a new favorite Ben & Jerry's flavor.


I know! It's unheard of! It's dangerous! It's exciting! It's confusing!

As those close to me know, my favorite Ben & Jerry's flavor has always been .....oh no....I can't even remember what it's called anymore! Ahhhhh! Ok, breathe, breathe, click, click, it's Chunky Monkey! I cannot believe I had to look that up!! The world is coming to an end!!!!

The rival (wining?) flavor is now Strawberry Cheesecake.

Help! Has this ever happened to you? Did you survive? What was and is your favorite Ben & Jerry's/ice cream flavor?

Happy St. Patricks Day!!!

I really like this holiday for some reason....I'm not Irish (not fully anyway, I may have a little in me) and I've never been to Ireland, but for some reason I just really like this holiday. Hmm, on further thought, I think I'm a holiday junkie, lol! I think I just really like holidays, any day to celebrate and be happy is a day I like. Which, yes, I know we should celebrate and be happy every day, but I just really like holidays :)

Tomorrow is my sisters birthday and I'm hoping my card gets there in time. I meant to put it in yesterdays mail, but of course forgot and didn't have a stamp, so it will go in todays. She will be .... 30? That's what I have written, but I'm not quite sure. Wow! Time flies! Happy early birthday Sis! I love you bunches!

I have a new love :) It's called Knock Off Wood!


I love Ana's site and I know you will too! I've got a list a mile long of the things I want to make. I think I'll start with this and then move onto this! This chick seriously rocks!

Now off to work! I hope you all have a wonderful St. Patty's day! Here's an old Irish blessing for you :)

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

A Birthday Celebration

Today is my birthday!

Happy Birthday to Me,
Happy Birthday to Me,
Happy Birthday to Meeeeee,
Happy Birthday to Me!

I always feel wierd saying "my" birthday because I have always shared my birthday with PB, who is my moms best friend and was there when I was born. Each year we celebrate together and there are always fun and lasting memories. We not only celebrate with each other but typically celebrate with her son Lyon, as his birthday is 9 days before ours, and her boyfriend Basil, as his birthday is 9 days after ours! Fun times!

This year was no exception for celebration, so we gathered at moms house on Sunday and had a wonderful meal with very fun and interesting conversations! Here are just a few pictures, enjoy!

We are NOT going to make it!

Shelby is going to be the death of me! Or, if not the death of me, definitely the cause of at least an ulcer.

I don't think the sedatives they gave us are enough and I have expressed my concern about this to the office but they keep giving me alternatives instead of Oking a higher dose or prescribing something more. The problem is that Shelby won't keep the e-collar on when we are not home and when we do let her out of the kennel she still has so much energy and wants to run and play. The problem with her not keeping her e-collar on is that I was worried that she would mess with the bandage over her stiches and yesterday all of my fears came true. Not only did she get the e-collar off again, but she ate the string that ties it on, making it useless, AND she pulled the bandage off her stiches. So now she is at home with only the measly sedative they prescribed and nothing keeping her from picking at her stiches! AHH! I just want to make it to Monday when she gets the stitches out!

Even after she gets the stiches out on Monday we are not out of the clear. The doctor said that the first 4 weeks are the most crucial, but that total recovery time should really be 8 weeks....we can't even make it through the first week!

It's a good thing she is so cute....

Sliced and Diced

Our sweet girl Shelby had surgery yesterday.

She has always had problems with her hind legs and in recent months it just seems to have gotten worse and worse, to the point she couldn't bear weight at all on her right rear leg. We took her in for a consult and were told what we already knew, that she would need surgery. So yesterday she had a femoral plateau leveling osteotomy along with some other stuff that I can't remember the name of. Her main diagnosis was a medial luxating patella, but they had concerns about her femur being curved that were confirmed when they got into surgery which lead to the leveling.

It seems, as odd as it may sound, that the easy part is over. The hard part will be the at least 8 weeks of recovery time. Dr. Keller (who looks EXACTLY like my uncle and is so sweet) said that for the first 4 weeks she needs to "be a rug"...yea. I go today to pick her up at around 3 and I am sooo nervous and scared for the next chapter. If she doesn't stay still and calm for at least these next 4 weeks she could cause the screws and plate in her lower femur to break out of the bone which I'm sure will cause a lot of pain, and another surgery.

Please keep your fingers crossed and send up a prayer for us, we are going to need all the help we can get!

Daddy In Training...

Found!

The missing wedding ring has been found!! Yippee!

Last night we got a call from Seth's grandfather saying that he had found Seth's wedding ring. Of course Seth was astonished and excited and wanted to know where it was. This started off a cute story which his grandfather is known for giving.

"Well, I was sittin on the couch eatin cherrios when I dropped one. Well it fell down in between the cushions, so I reached down to get it, and instead of pulling out a cherrio, I pulled out your wedding ring!"

Yea! We are headed to their house Sunday after church to retrieve it and spend some much needed time with them as well :)

Putting things in Perspective....

Wow....and I thought my day yesterday was bad!?!?

Please be praying for Haiti.

If you would like to follow a really good blog (people we know from church) who is also right in the middle of what is going on, please look here:

http://www.mangine.org/

What a day....

My day did not start off to well, and so far has not ended well, and by the look of things-it's far from being over :(

I had two "small" filling done in October and for some reason I had really bad sensitivity afterwards in those teeth which caused me to go back 3 times to try and fix whatever was wrong. After the last visit and no change I was refered out to a Endodontists, whom I saw this morning. I really liked the office and staff, but I did not like what they had to tell me.... Basically they said I need a root canal on each tooth as well as crowns on them to prevent further damage. What!?!?! How is that possible???

That just adds to money woes lately. I'm actually taking Shelby to the surgeon on Friday for a consult regarding her back legs. Update on that to come later...

Have a busy day at work, yada yada yada

Come home and all is well. Go to dinner at Cassandra's house have a great time. Come home to an empty 6pack of nasal decongestant (pseudoephedrine) on the floor...WTF?!?! So I call the vet and am told that if all 6 were eaten we could be in serious trouble as if one dog ate just 3 pills it could be a lethal dose. CRAP! So I start force feeding hydrogen peroxide and waiting. Ford throws up-Yea! Shelby throws up-Yea! I also talked to Seth and he is pretty sure that there would have only been a max of 4 pills left in the pack, and I found 2 on the floor, so hopefully if any were ingested it was only 2 and now that they've thrown up we should be in the clear! Talk about a scare!

I'm exhausted....