…Did you miss the ACMs?

 
  Well technically so did we, but thanks to this new modern marvel we call DVR and the fact that Wednesday night television SUCKS we decided to watch it a few days after the fact! Lucky for you… I also decided to highlight what you missed :) (How great of me I KNOW!)
  Unfortunately for some unknown reason the ambiguous THEY don’t do red carpet coverage on TV for the ACMs… you have to tune in online (dumb!) so I don’t have a highlight reel for that, but I do have the best of the best performances---

Carrie Underwood and Steven Tyler

You know how I LOVE Carrie! And how can you not sing along to Walk this Way?! (Brings me back to High School dance team!) My girl nails it again—you can’t negate it she ROCKS! (and looks DANG good doin it!)

Zac Brown Band and James Taylor

This is a POWERHOUSE combo! This song is chillingly good and I’m not sure there is much left to say!

Darius Rucker

Tears in everyone’s eyes by the end of this… such a sweet tribute. I love how the Country Music Family is always giving back!

Taylor Swift

Just because I HATE mean people too! Not really a big fan of Taylor but her music is growing as she gets older… and her set was cute… well done.

…More on Gardening

As promised… an update on what MY flowers and plants actually look like…

  Please observe that for some reason I got CURSED with a PURPLE bloom (the color of DOOM) in the middle of my Ranunculus! It was absolutely NOT purchased in that color… so I am not sure what happened— but I suspect foul play!

  We repotted the others this weekend and I am hoping to find a basket or pot or something cute to put those ugly yellow buckets in… but that will be for another day.

  So far I haven’t killed any of them yet, but the Iris, and the Caladiums are a bit droopy :(

  LUCKILY… Sweet Joann Sent us a care package today with a few gardening tools in it… to help bloom my garden and maybe my green thumb too!

…I’m learning to be all thumbs

 

  A couple of weekends ago I decided that I needed some ambiance on my back porch… so Justin and I set forth to the store in search of the perfect porch company.

  Now something you may not know about me is that I am sadly a PLANT KILLER!! (dun dun dunnnnnn) So I was REALLY worried about which ones to get.

  I only wanted leafy plants (cause I figured I could handle that) but the selection on the pretty leaves was slim and I only found one that I loved so I was FORCED to buy some flowers! (of course I made sure they were not going to be pink or purple—I may have told the Wal-Mart worker that I would return them if they came up in either of the two.)

Here are my choices…

1. Ranunculus- These are my all time FAVORITE flower (with a close second being Peonies) these were an addition when Joann and Tommy came into town. I was SO excited!
2. Caladiums- This was my first pick… I LOVE the pretty leaves!
3. Calla Lilies- This guy was all by himself and I thought I might get a discount on him… but no he was just misplaced!
4. Bearded Iris- This was the most of the uncertainty…I have seen these in every color and I was buying a yellow one BY DARN MINE BETTER BLOOM YELLOW!

DISCLAIMER: These are not the pictures from my actual plants…I will update you once I have fully bloomed plants…Here’s hoping I develop a green thumb

…Did you know Pyrex could Shatter like that?!

Justin’s parents got to come to town this weekend!!!!

Justin and I were sooooo excited and we planned an ACTION PACKED weekend for them, complete with home cooked meals (keeping in line with what we gave up for Lent this year)
It seems a shame that they had to drive so far (Eufaula, AL to Summerville, SC is about 6.5 hours) to only spend the weekend but we had fun none the less!

Friday

As soon as they got here and settled in on Friday afternoon, The three of us went on a little ride around Summerville, just so they could see our digs.
Justin was still at work, pulling the late shift, so it was up to us to get ready for dinner. You know me, I already had the full menu for the weekend planned out… first up, Beth Moore and croissants. It was DELICIOUS (if I do say so myself) as usual!

Saturday

I got up early Saturday morning to make one of my favorites Breakfast Casserole! It was a hit and I already want more! We quickly cleaned up and packed a cooler and headed downtown…

Sweet Jo-mama and Justin before we walked through the market

Tommy and Joann outside the market.

Last weekend while Jamie and Jamie were here they suggested that we take a carriage ride and it was SUCH a great idea! It was about an hour long and we learned so much about Charleston’s history.

Our tour guide Gibbs

His “Lovely assistant” Ryan

After the tour we left and went to a the Charleston Waterfront Park and Pier and had a picnic (the into picture with the fountain was taken there as well), it was quite relaxing…

We were planning on cooking out but the weather killed that idea, so we made a quick side trip to the ship yard so Joann and Tommy could see the Dallas (Justin’s ship/office ;) )

Joann wanted to make her famous banana pudding for dessert so we decided to swing by Wal-Mart to pick up the ingredients as well as the gas tank for the grill, and boy am I glad we did!!! THEY HAD RANUNCULUS (one of my top two favorite flowers) ! For a mere $3.50 a pop! Jo-mama was super sweet and got us some (instead of the Gerber Daisies she had planned) as a house warming gift to go on our porch….

AREN’T THEY BEAUTIFUL!!!

We potted them while Justin prepared some yummy lasagna… and then a tragedy occurred… If you recall I’ve already made TWO dishes (that happens to be how many 9x13’s we have) requiring a large casserole dish. Well being that we are not heifers, we only ate half of each so I was pulling them out of the fridge to consolidate (I know you see where this is going)

One of our dishes is from our set we got as a wedding gift

The other WAS a beautiful blue color that we had to cover in foil and stack on top but equally useful!

In the transport from the fridge to the counter the blue one slid off the top of the stack and onto the floor. Resulting in the following:

***REENACTMENT! REENACTMENT!***

Imagine it MUCH worse and all over the floor… with the remains of the WONDERFUL breakfast casserole meeting its demise in the shards of the Pyrex! TRAGEDY! OH THE HORROR! It all happened in slow motion… Joann tried to reach for it across the counter, Justin didn't register and turn around in time and I just couldn’t make it to the counter… All I could hear ringing in my ears were the famous words of Fred Holmes (My Daddy if you didn’t know) “Two hands for beginners” as he shakes his head.

Oh well life goes on… we own a broom!

Sunday

Sunday we did some easy omelets made to order for breakfast and had a great day just getting everything ready for them to go home. We did a little R and R. While Joann and I traded recipes the men did some around the house honey-dos.

For lunch Justin made a marinade for the steaks (we were gifted for Christmas from Omaha Steaks…GREAT GIFT!) that we were grilling for lunch and we put those together with a fantastic homemade mac and cheese and some grilled corn on the cob.

We had a great weekend catching up and showing the ‘rents around our new town… Can’t wait for our next round of company!

PS: Feel free to email me if you want any of the recipes mentioned in this post. I’d LOVE to help you bring out your internal Betty Crocker ;)

…THEY’RE BAAACCK!!!!

Not in a crazy spin your head around kind of way… but in the “Whoo Hoo!!!! My Friends are here!” kind of way…
Jamie and Jamie came down for the weekend again! This time for SPRING BREAK 2K11!

STEP 1:

True to form Bobby Flay style Throwdown…subject matter? Pizza!

It wouldn’t be us if a complete mess wasn’t made in the process ;)

Appetizers were a MUST while we prepped and waited

Jalapeno Poppers SO EASY and SO YUMMY (email me if you want the recipe) 

To drink Jamie and Jamie Picked up the makings of Ron Ron Juice

I wasn’t expecting much… but it was DELICIOUS! (after yet another HUGE mess of course :( my poor counters hahaha!)

We had a GREAT Throwdown

Home Team: (in the Front) Marinara Sauce, Shredded Mozzarella Cheese, Pepperoni, and Ricotta Cheese.

Opposition: (in the Back) Pizza Sauce, Fresh Cut Pepperoni (from the deli section of your local grocery), Banana Peppers, Mushrooms, Shredded Mozzarella Cheese, and Mozzarella Dots on top.

I (like the great Bobby Flay) can admit when I loose… Theirs was MUCH better! But we will live to THROWDOWN AGAIN!…. CHALLENGE…EXTENDED! 

STEP 2: 

• Cooler
  
• Second batch of Ron Ron
  
• Sandwiches
  
• 2.5 hours to go 37 miles

All added up to a ROCKIN day at the beach!

STEP 3:

Have a relaxing Sunday with the FAM

LOVE Y’ALL

...Photo Wall

I have recently been craving one of those BEAUTIFUL Pottery Barn Photo Walls like these:


I do not however want to spend $600 dollars on making my room beautiful! AND I want to fill the frames with pictures of my friends and family instead of numbers and plants. AND I am Definitely in for the use of Shadow boxes… and NO BLACK, we own nothing black. SOOO… if any of you great design brains out there want to tell me how to pull this look off on a budget… make it happen k? Thanks!

...Ash Wednesday

It’s here… Lent has begun… last year I gave up Coke for the season. It was pretty tough! I had previously been drinking upwards of 2 liters a day! Now while some of you out there who know me well say… YOU STILL DRINK A LOT OF COKE… in my defense, it is no where near that much any more!
Anyway that is a topic for another time!
This year Justin and I are tackling the Lenten season together… and have decided to not go out to eat!
This means, no meals out. No Cokes from McDonalds while we shop. No Snacks on the way to this place or that, to “tide us over to dinner.” No Getting dinner out cause it’ll be quicker than making something. NO EXCUSES—more eating at home!
Test/Temptation 1: Jamies in town the 18th!