Love x's 3

Thanks to my friend from church Danielle Holland I am onto the second Twilight book "New Moon". She and I teach the four year old on Wednesday nights and when she found out that I had just finished the first Twilight book and was on the waiting list yet again at the library for the second one she offered to bring the second, third and fourth books to me! I was thrilled! As soon as I got home I started reading "New Moon". I'm on chapter 6 so far. It is a little more depressing than the first one but, I'm sure it will pick up. Danielle and I are trying to persuade our two other friends Nikki and Anna to start reading so that we can all four attend the premiere in November together! (girls road trip)!

The second part of my day was fantastic because I got to see my babies! They went to Disney World last week and it liked to killed me not seeing them for over a week! Amanda helped me manage by sending me pictures to my cell! She called me last night and wanted to know if I was up to keeping my three little bambinos today! I said OF COURSE! When I go to their house they were all three ready and waiting to tell me about their trip and their favorite things about Disney World! Caroline and her other three girl cousins got to have a princess party at the castle! They went to the Princess Boutique and had their hair did and dressed up in princess dresses and had a party with all the princesses!

Here is Cale and Drew with Spongebob! Cale loves Spongebob! Drew not as much he is more into Science stuff! I wish you could see their little teefy! Cale and Drew both have lost the same tooth in the exact same spot! lol


I just LOVE this photo of my Little Miss Priss! She is such a Drama Queen but I love her to pieces!

New Monthly Book

I had originally said that I was going to try and read a book a month but, I finished my last book L.A. Candy pretty quickly! Today I went to the library to return it and discovered that Twilight was in! Yay I was so excited! I began reading it immediately! So far I am on chapter 4. I have already seen the movie and loved it! My goal is to go ahead finish and read the first Twilight book and then read the second book-New Moon before it comes out in the movies November 20th! I went to Blake's house this afternoon and wanted to continue on reading while his mom was fixing our dinner. He also is reading a book, one that I assure you is not nearly as interesting as Twilight! ha! We both read our books at the same time today on his front porch. He ordered a hammock type swing the other day that is pretty comfy and neat that he sat in and read while I read in the hammock! It was pretty relaxing because it was cool outside and it was raining! I love to hear it rain!

This strange little creature decided to creepy-crawl on the blanket that I was covered up with! He was a little scary but I decided to be brave and leave him on the blanket long enough to get a photo! Then I nicely knocked him off!

Thrift Store Finds!

My goal today was not to sleep past 9:30a.m. and good ole mom made sure of that! ha! She woke me up at 8:15 this morning to go have breakfast with her and my nephew! We had a lovely breakfast at Jack's and then we were supposed to go to Whitesboro where my mom teaches second grade and help her get her room in order but, we got detoured! I LOVE finding bargains when I shop! So I suggested we go thrift store shopping and see what we could find. I was excited to find some pretty great things! Hope everyone has a great rest of the day!

I got two Clinique makeup bags, I can never seem to have enough makeup bags!

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My mom has a bag this style that she carries with her on vacations and it is so handy for random toiletries, so I was glad to find this one!

$1.00

I found this cute bread holder! I absolutely LOVE it! I plan on repainting it to match the kitchen, but I was so excited about this and the best part it was only........$2.50!

I was so not happy with myself today when I woke up! You want to know why well I will tell you why! I had slept until 12:30! Can you believe it? I never sleep that late, I must have been really tired! After I woke up I checked my Facebook, Myspace, email, TMZ and Perez Hilton. Those are my five basics I check twice a day and once a day my Blog. After that was finished I went to find some lunch and decided on Subway. I have gotten into such an unhealthy fast food funk! I keep telling myself okay next week Ill start working out at church daily, but that hasn't happened yet! Oh well maybe next week! Blake's mom Rita sent me a text later in the day asking me what she could fix to carry to work tomorrow as a finger food for a party they were having in the office. I knew just the perfect thing so I texted her back Mexican Roll-Ups! My cousin Wendy started making these for family get-togethers and they are amazing! I helped Rita make them and I hope everyone enjoys them for their office party! My goal tomorrow is to not sleep past 9:30 a.m.! Good Night!

Here is the recipe for the Mexican Roll-Ups if you would like to try them!

*MEXICAN ROLL-UPS*

Ingredients:

1- can diced chilies

1- can pimentos

4- chopped green onions

1- package dry ranch dressing

1- package of 8oz. cream cheese

1- 8 oz. package of sour cream

1/2 cup- chunky salsa

1- package shredded Mexican style cheese

1- pack of large flour tortillas

Directions:

1)Mix softened cream cheese, 8 oz. sour cream, dry ranch dressing, pimentos, drained chilies, 1/2 cup chunky salsa and onion chives in mixing bowl.

2)Spread lightly onto large flour tortilla. Sprinkle shredded cheese over mixture onto tortilla. Roll tortilla up firmly and wrap in plastic wrap. place in refrigerator for 3 hours. unwrap and slice diagonally and serve!

Hello! I feel like it has been forever since I last blogged! To be honest with you I really haven't had anything to blog about, but.......I do today! So this past Friday was Blake's dad's birthday. When we went to eat with his parents Saturday night at Los Arcos Blake and I kept joking that we were going to get the waiters to sing to him for his birthday and he quickly informed us that wasn't necessary! Little did he know that Blake's brother Joseph who is fluent in Spanish had told our waiter in Spanish it was their dad's birthday! I think Jimmy (Blake's dad) knew we were up to something! Toward the end of the meal all the waiters came out and put the large sombrero on his head and sang to him! I managed to get a photo but, I'm pretty sure he would kill me if I put it on here! The celebration did not end there though! Oh yes two days after we are still going strong with birthday surprises! ha! Joseph scheduled a rafting trip for me, Blake, Rita (Blake's mom) and, Jimmy. We went on the Ocoee River through the Rolling Thunder River Company in Tennessee. If your not familiar with the rivers up there the Nantahala and Hiwassee rivers are the most calm and you can navigate them by yourself. The Ocoee which we were on is a little more intense the other two! You have a guide who helps direct you when to paddle and when not to. You also have to wear helmets! It was sooo much fun! We had a blast and not one of us fell out of the raft and trust me people did fall out, all around us in the other groups. They taught us that if you do fall out use the nose and toes approach where you want to keep both of those above the water so that your legs do not get broken, stuck or scratched on a rock! We had a great guide that made it fun! I am so ready to go back! Hope you enjoy the photos!

Me and Joe

They had people taking photos at certain parts of the river and here are a few!

Can you tell we were having fun?

Blake and I got soaked on this one!
We got to the place a little early so we waded out into where people on inner tubes float down and let me just tell you, this water was FREEZING! We could not feel our legs when we got out our legs were literally numb!

Nothing extremely exciting went on in my life today but, I did have to wake up early and that is always a dreaded struggle for me! Blake had to go to Huntsville to pick up some papers about his job! (fingers crossed) He wanted me to go along with him so I did! We are complete opposites in almost everything, but where one of us has a weakness it is the others strong point( God knew what he was doing when he placed us together)! For example one of my weaknesses is being on time! Those of you who know me know this all too well! Blake's strong point is always being on time or early for something, just call him "Mr. Promptness"! Although we have been dating for six years it still drives him bananas that I cannot be ready of on time for anything! So last night before I left his house he reminded me that I needed to be at his house at 8:00 a.m. and no later! I was determined that I would get my shower and have makeup, hair and clothes fixed and on so I would be there on time. Well lets just say I rolled up in his driveway at 8:03 with partial makeup that I completed on the way to Huntsville! Anyway getting back to the story after he picked up his needed papers we drove to a store called Edible Arrangements in Huntsville. If your not familiar with it check out their website http://www.ediblearrangements.com/Default.aspx they create arrangements made out of fruit.

Blake bought this one for his dads birthday which is tomorrow. It is called the Delicious Celebration. It had cantaloupe, honey dew,grapes, daisy shaped chocolate dipped pineapples and my favorite some plain strawberries and some chocolate dipped strawberries! After his dad opened it we all had to try some and the fruit was so fresh and wonderful! It will definitely be somewhere we return to for gift ideas! After we left there and returned home Blake drove through Madison where he will be living with his brother after he begins his job. As we were driving through we were passing all these beautiful homes and schools. It occurred to me that more than likely in a couple of years this area will be where Blake and I reside after we marry. With my occupational choice being a news anchor one day, you cannot exactly live on Sand Mountain, your main two choices are Huntsville or Birmingham television stations. So call me silly but I became a little emotional! ha! We were passing schools and I thought, "our future children will probably be attending these schools one day" and seeing churches that in the future could become our new church home. What got me to thinking so deeply was a comment Blake made to me where he said something about hopefully us being able to live in a certain sub-division one day where the houses are gorgeous! I have always thought I would get married and stay in this little area where I grew up but like I said with my job choice that is not possible. I'm excited though for when the day comes and I begin my new job and start my new life whenever that may be! Whoa, this is getting long...I usually start out thinking I have nothing to really write about today and then I get to going and things start popping up in my little head to write about and I could just go on and on and....but I wont! Nightie-Night!

Monthly Reading

I finally finished my monthly book, L.A. Candy by LaurenConrad! I checked it out last Thursday from the library and I finished it Tuesday night! It just drew me in with every chapter I read. I did not want to put it down, I think if I had the time I could have finished it in one day! I am hoping she will write a second one that picks up where this one left off! The way it ends leaves you wondering well what's next. The only drawback to the book was there was some language in it. The F-word was used quite a few times, and I HATE that word, so that bothered me. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed watching the Hills. I felt like at times while reading it that Lauren Conrad was using some of her personal experiences of when she was on the show or behind the scenes of the show but, just changing up names. I am going to return it back to the library today and hope that the first Twilight book will not be checked out by someone so I can begin reading and finish it and start on the second Twilight book "New Moon" for when the movie for that one comes out! Tootles!

Three Generations of Canning!

Every summer as long as I can remember my mom and her mom (my nanny) have canned some type of vegetable. I always watch and think, "I'll learn how to do that next year". Well that year was this year. today! My aunt Myra has given my mom two big boxes full of beautiful red tomatoes out of her garden. So today when my mom and my nanny were preparing to can I informed them it was time for me to learn and I wanted to help! My nanny was so happy that I was going to help and she showed me how to peel and cut them just right! The process begins with putting the tomatoes in cold water and rinsing dirt and whatever else might be on them off.

After you have rinsed the tomatoes off you then place them into a large pan of boiling water for about one minute. After the allotted time you then take them out and place them into another bowl and begin the peeling process. Once they come out of the boiling water the peeling on them is basically peeling of by itself and you just go ahead and pull the peeling off. After doing so my nanny showed me to cut the core out and then cut the tomato into quarters and then into smaller pieces and place into a separate bowl.

After cutting them and when you have a large bowl full of cut up tomatoes or (seven quarts as my mom says) you empty them into a large bowl and we add one finely chopped onion and half of a finely chopped jalapeno to the tomatoes. Then they are placed on the stove to boil for a few moments.

After the tomatoes,onions and peppers have boiled for a few moments you then place them into jars and put the lids on them and put them into the pressure cooker filled with water.

After you have placed your sealed jars into the pressure cooker you then place the lid securely on top and set your pressure and time it. I believe mom set it for 20 minutes for 10 pounds. This pressure cooker is special to me because it was my nanny's that she used for years. =)

After the jars have been pressurized inside the cooker you carefully take them out and wait for the lids to pop. This is the finished product! When we choose to open and cook it for a meal my mom adds more vegetables into it like potatoes,okra corn etc.

I cannot wait to enjoy some wonderful vegetable soup in the fall and winter. Hopefully one day I can carry on the tradition of canning every summer and be able to use the same pressure cooker that my grandmother used!

The Light Pole!

I wish I had thought to video the whole process of my dad, uncle, two cousins and Blake attempting to put up a 30 foot light pole and light for my grandmother Greer! Nothing is ever simple with my dad when he starts a project! He thinks it through way more than he should and has all these ideas for whatever project he is about to complete! My aunt, mom, grandmother and me all observed and laughed from my grandmothers back porch (we felt safe watching from there!) My dad had the bright idea to somehow "rig" up a rope attached to the pole and toss it over the shed by which the pole would be standing. On the other side of the pole and the shed was me, my grandmother, aunt, mom and my cousin Jake. My dad instructed us to all pull the rope at the same time he, my uncle, cousin Matt and Blake were going to try and walk the poll up into the hole they had dug. Before we could really do any good the rope snapped in half! Resulting in my 82 year old grandmother, mom and aunt falling on the ground onto their backs! After checking and making sure they were all okay I laughed! After that little incident my uncle suggested to my dad "why don't we just use the front end loader off the tractor Kenneth?" (should have done that to begin with) My dad agreed and FINALLY they were able to position the pole in place! It was quiet funny to watch, I just wish someone had been filming when the rope broke! Like my aunt said we could have won on America's Funniest Home Video's with that and I'm sure we could have!

The finished product finally!

Little blurry because its from my cell phone but this is them in the process haha!

Lazy Sunday

Today was a special day! First and foremost it was my wonderful mothers birthday! She would kill me if I dare mentioned how old she was so I won't; but, I will say I think she looks great for her age! After church dad and I took her to her favorite place to eat Red Lobster. For her present dad and I bought her some new Brighton earrings and necklace, well actually we let her pick out her present so of course she loved it! haha! I have to say I missed spending my usual Sunday afternoon with Blake today. He was playing in a disc golf tournament today in Athens. I know your probably sitting here reading this and saying to yourself "What in the world is Disc Golf"?! Trust me I asked the same thing to Blake when he first mentioned to me that he was interested in it. For starters go to this web address: http://www.disclife.com/whatis.shtml and this will explain the basics to you. I find it quiet boring but that is just me. Blake loves it! He has already played in three tournaments and won all three of them! Each time he has won he has been given more discs to add to the ones he already had and other things that include hats a chair. Before he left to play in the one in Athens today I made him promise that he would win or at least bring me back a pink disc and.....he did! After Blake got back home I went to see him, and he has two of the funniest dogs ever! Cocoa who is a chocolate lab, she is so loving and wants to be in your lap all the time licking on your face! Julio who is a Blue Heeler, he is full of energy and is opposite Cocoa he does not like to be held, he likes doing his own thing. Put those two together and they are hilarious to watch! They will play and chase each other all day if we would let them. I caught them in action this afternoon playing as you will see below. Before I go an update on my book, I have gotten to chapter 22 so far and I catch myself being so excited to pick it up again and read on and then not wanting to put it down when I choose a stopping point! Good Night!

My pink disc Blake won for me!

All of Blake's discs he has won including his chair and hat!

These are discs that you use to throw toward the basket.

This is the target that you aim for in Disc Golf with your disc it is called the basket.

Me and Cocoa

Julio and Cocoa

Precious Cocoa

Monthly Reading

I have decided to start a monthly book reading and then summarize weather I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to friends or if I did not enjoy it! I did not exactly start this book at the beginning of this month but I'm pretty confident that I will be able to finish it before the end of July! I use to love to read all the time when I was in elementary/high school but for some reason that slowly dwindled down! My favorite series was "The Babysitters Club" I think I read just about every one of those books! I went to the Sardis Library Thursday to check out some DVDs for Blake and I to watch this weekend and see if the first Twilight book was in. (By the way they have a pretty big selection of new and semi-new DVDs that you can check out for free. For me Ill take that rather than paying almost $5.00 and rental!) Moving on... I initially went there for DVDs and Twilight but, Twilight was checked out yet again. The librarian put me on the waiting list for it but, I wasn't satisfied with that! I really wanted to read something! I noticed a book case labeled "New Books" so I scanned over the books and one caught my attention: L.A. Candy by Lauren Conrad. For those of you who aren't familiar with her she is the reality star from MTV's hit shows Laguna Beach and The Hills. I started reading it Thursday night before I went to sleep and again last night. I'm on chapter 11 and so far so good! I choose to read at night before I go to sleep because I basically read until I cannot hold my eyes open any longer and I am able to go right to sleep no tossing and turning! Hope everyone has a great Saturday!

Dancing Roses on the "big stage"!

Today is Friday although it does not feel like Friday! After coming off vacation it always takes me a few days to get my days back on track! I am babysitting my babies today and was very happy to see all three of their little faces since it had been a few days since I had seen them! Amanda surprised me with some photos for me that she had taken of me and Caroline and, Blake from Carolines dance recital that was in June. She looked so precious and growny on the "big stage" as she called it! Her class were roses and they all had red dance outfits with a red tu-tu that had flowers placed around on it. She was not the only one that I knew performing that night though, her three cousins that are also cuties were dancing too: Allie-Grace, Reagan and Ella-Kate! Ella-Kate and Reagan's mommy also has a blog: http://thehandleyfamily.blogspot.com/. Reagan was a rose with Caroline and stole the show! At the end of their dance they were all to lift their hands in the air above their heads and pose. Reagan was front and center and then all of a sudden her tu-tu decided to fall to her ankles! The whole auditorium at Wallace Hall was rolling but what was so cute is she did not flinch! She stood there with those little arms above her head until the lights went down and then reached down and pulled her tu-tu back up! It was something they will be able to laugh about for years to come!

Caroline and me

Reagan and Caroline

Caroline, Me and Blake

Cousin Time

Yesterday was a lazy day for me! I was still recovering from our vacation and returning home the night before at 10:00 p.m. Mycousin Breonna who lives right down the road from my house invited Blake and I to come over and lay out and swim. You would think I had already had enough of the sun but, nope not me! There is seven years between Breonna and I and we always have a great time when were together! Sometimes I think she is on a more mature level than I am! Ha! Now its a different story for her and Blake....they are like brother and sister and Blake always knows what buttons to push to get her fired up! Blake likes to perform tricks for me and Bre on the diving board while we lay out and watch him! Were not into that, we just like to watch!

Love her!

Breonna showing off her tan!

You can't tell from the picture but there was a small opening at the bottom of Bre's float and Blake wanted to attempt to jump through the center of it off the diving board all while she was sitting on it! He made it but I think she was a little unsure! lol

Back to the Real World

It is time for me to get back into the blogging routine again! After spending a couple of days at the beach I am back to trying to blog daily! I considered taking moms laptop to the beach and blogging from there but, decided it was a vacation and I was not going to worry with blogging but just enjoy myself and have fun! My parents, boyfriend Blake, me my sister, her husband and one of my nephews all headed to Panama City. We stayed at Treasure Island Condominiums. We had beautiful weather every day and the water was gorgeous! I have to mention the food! We had some great food at every place we ate at! I had some really good flounder at Scampy's which was located right beside our condo. We tried Montego Bay one day which was also beside our condo and I had some of the best grilled Mahi-Mahi I have ever eaten! Me Blake mom and dad went down to Pier Park one day for lunch and ate at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. The atmosphere there is great! I had the teriyaki sirloin which had a giant juicy grilled pineapple slice on top of it! yummy! Our last day there Blake and I went to Pineapple Willy's. I have to say I was not real impressed with it. I got real crazy (kidding) and tried their chicken finger basket! There was only two drawbacks: The traffic, and the amount of beach. It took us about an hour to get to Pier Park from our condo but, that is expected during vacation season. The amount of beach front was very little. There might have been about 50 feet of sand between where we stepped out onto the beach from the walkway of our condo and from where the sand met the water. People were packed on the beachfront in the area around our condo like sardines! All in all though we had a great time! I was sad to leave but that is coming from a girl who could live at the beach year round! Here are some random photos from our trip hope you enjoy!

Pier Park!

Dad's photography!

Blake winning in some putt-putt!

Me smiling despite losing to Blake in putt-putt! lol

At Pier Park

At Margaritaville in Pier Park

Enjoying a day on the beach

More Margaritaville!