Memorial Day Weekend - 2012

Our Memorial Day weekend was jam packed with lots of fun, so I'm taking the easy way out and reviewing it in pics :)

Our weekend started Friday night with an attempt to go out uptown with our friends Justin & Andrea, JM, and Andrea's girlfriends that were in town for the weekend!

Handsome Men - JM, Justin, Brandon

Pretty Girls! - Alyssa, Lisa, Me, Adrian, Andrea, Lisa

We got a wild hair that taking a limo altogether would be the cheapest route - and it really was......but the limo was an hour late and started driving us the wrong way.... So we ended up taking the limo to get some pizza and going back home!  Haha - what a failure of a night!!  But fun was still had along the way, as evidenced by this pic below...

She loves me :)

Saturday morning called for bagels and schmear, fruit salad making, bathing suits and cover ups!  To the pool we went...

Cocktails were had by the pool as we lounged....

and by the end of the day, this was the result...

Ouch!!

I guess I was a little whiter than I realized...may tan from the cruise was apparently long gone.  Don't worry, I'm lotioning (yes, it's a word...now) often and it's pretty much all tan!

Saturday night it was back to Buffalo Wings & Rings for some good eats & some UFC fighting...

Me & my babe at dinner

I got a little picture happy....

And then we took the party home to the couch...we were tired after a long day in the sun!!

Sunday we kind of slept in and deemed it the lazy day of the weekend - the only semi productive things we did included mowing the lawn (well ok, B mowed the lawn, I cannot take credit), sweeping & mopping the floors, and a good run.  Other than that, we took naps, ate, and watched Tower Heist...

It was the perfect lazy day...and the best part about it...there was a whole other day to be lazy again!!

Monday, we slept in...

and then went for a run on the greenway...

post run

and then brunched!  We tried a new place called Skillets - SO good!!!  Perfect after a tough run!  Afterwards we headed back to pool...but not for too long, remember that burn?

Monday night, I made crockpot Beer BBQ Chicken - found on Pinterest - broccoli slaw, and baked beans.  Mmm mmm mmm!  It was good eats!!  The Perfect Memorial Day meal :)

via my IRL Friends - L&L Take Boston

I always love reading Facebook posts & Tweets on days like Memorial Day or the 4th - makes me swell with American pride!!  Freedom isn't free and I'm so thankful for the Men & Women that support this country and for the families that stand behind them while they do!  They are gone, but not forgotten!!

"A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself." - Joseph Campell

Tuesday

Well friends, the only good thing about a long weekend being over is that the next week is a short one!  It's already Tuesday!!

But I'm in a funk...I'm down to 7 days of school left and I have meetings on 6 of those 7 days.  I'm literally swimming, drowning in paperwork.  Joy.

So here are a few things that helped me remember today that God is good, all the time, and all the time, God does good....

...this news...

My grandmother had a heart cath today and she has 0 blockages!!  Huge praise!!!

...this post...

...and this post...

...and well...these funny cat pictures just helped me grin and bear it...

Yep.  I think I'm officially a cat person!  I mean I love dogs still too, but I really love my cat :)

Stay tuned for my Memorial Day recap in pictures tomorrow! For now, I'm glued to the couch while it's storming outside and going to bed e.a.r.l.y.

Friday!!!

It's Friday y'all!!!

Can it get any better than an 80 degree, sun shining Friday!?!

Actually it can...a Friday headed into a long 3 day weekend!!!  Which also has perfect, 80 degree, sun shining weather in the forecast!  I think that's the pool I hear calling!?

How cute is this little American flag on our mailbox!  Please excuse the bird poop ;) I guess someone from our homeowner's association placed them on every one's mail box in the neighborhood for Memorial Day - I love it!!

Meet my new cilantro plant :)  I'm a big fan of cilantro, but I'm not a big fan of throwing nasty, gone bad, store bought cilantro away!  I figured the best way to remedy this was to buy my own plant, so here's to hoping I can keep this guy alive {thus why it was bought already growing}!  

If I'm successful, I might just have to have my own herb garden :)

The other day I got this lovely battle wound on my run :(  The crazy storms from Tuesday night left a large mud spot on the greenway - so on the way back through the mud, Andrea and I tried to climb around on the rocks.  She was successful, I...was not!

There's a lovely shade of bluish-purple coming in and a nice size goose egg, but it's kind of funny now.  I think my pride has already healed and it's just preparing me for the Spartan Race next year - gotta buck up!!

This weekend you can find us by the pool or the grill enjoying this gorgeous weather with friends...Happy Memorial Day Weekend friends!!

I like it hot!

My food that is!  What were you thinking? ;)

I used to be super picky!  Like way, super picky.  Just ask my momma...she'd let me eat bowl after bowl of cereal for 2 or so meals a day sometimes so I'd actually eat!  And it wasn't for her lack of trying, I was just stubborn and picky.  

And I'm still kinda picky...but I've come a long, long way!!  I've branched way out in my older age and now I have quite a taste for all things spicy & hot ;)

Last week during my meal planning and domestic goddess-ness, I ran across this recipe on Pinterest.

Yum!! via A Small Snippet Blog

Now, Brandon & I love some Thai food - and the spicier the better!  Our favorite local Thai place is Basil (which I've mentioned before), but every attempt I've ever made to make good Thai for us at home has failed miserably.  Until now!

This recipe was banging, y'all!!  I do not tell a lie!  This blog recommends serving it cold - but I served it hot & added chicken since my man likes some protein with his dinner!  But I made it again last night for Bachelorette Monday Night for Andrea & Emily - since Emily's a vegetarian, I left the meat out.  Still so good!!

There were leftovers from last night, too, so I'm excited to try it cold!

Below is the recipe card from the blog, of which I will soon be printing out to add to my recipe stash!

Just fyi - the recipe card doesn't mention the carrots so I accidentally left those out the first time I made it, and I didn't have any cilantro the first time either.

So for realz...go get these ingredients and make this recipe asap!

Also, if you have any ripe banana's laying around, Emily brought some "Healthy Chocolate Chunk Cookies" with no sugar or egg to our Bachelorette Monday Night & since they were healthy, we all ate 3 :)

via Kitchen Karate Blog

These were delish and so, so good, I'll be making these soon!

Happy spicy, sweet & "healthy" eating, y'all!

Cheers to the Freakin' Weekend

I mentioned in my last post that we'd be painting the kitchen this weekend....and we're all done!!  Woohoo!  And now that we're on the other side of it, we've decided we love all the other paint in our house!  Hah, we actually liked all the other paint colors anyways - so no more painting for the Shucks!!  Amen!

Before we got our paint on Friday night, I made ALizAdventures' Frank's Pizza Chicken!

Yum!

I love this dish 1 - because it's carb-less and doesn't make me feel as guilty as eating regular pizza & 2 - because you can dress it up any way you like!  Friday I attempted to make a version of Brixx's Chicken Florentine Pizza - didn't taste exactly like it, but it was still delish!!

Then, I grabbed my weapons!  A little vino, my paint brush, music blaring and we got to crackin'!  Here are the before pics...

Bye bye red!!  Here's the results....

Before and after 

And we finally were able to hang our kitchen pictures & wine racks....I love it!!!

We finished Friday night around 1130 - talk about exhausted!  We weren't sure if it was going to need a second coat so we let it dry overnight.  Saturday morning a few walls needed a second coat because they looked a little streaky and I touched up a few spots here and there where red was trying to peak through.

We left it to dry and headed to the pool!  My friend Andrea had some girlfriends in town so we met them for some cocktails at Andrea's apartment pool.  It was glorious!!  The weather was perfect and we got our vitamin D quota for the weekend :)  Andrea's friend Bryan came too, so B wasn't the only guy, haha.

When we got home from the pool, the kitchen was all dry!!  It was definitely more grey than mocha, which we weren't expecting.  But I still love the way it turned out!

Saturday night we met Andrea and friends again at a wings joint right near our house, Buffalo Wings & Rings!  Dinner was banging!  Perfect meal after a day in the sun - I can definitely see us walking there a lot this summer :)

Beer Tower

Me & my man :)  Cute, but my hair looks weird!

Pretty girls!  Me, Andrea, Katie, Sarah, Amy & Hannah

Hahaha - great face Drea ;)

Didn't get a pic of the boys...whoops.  Such a fun night!!  Today, we hung the pics in the kitchen, went for a killer run (literally - I whined the whole time! ha), ran errands, and got Moe's for dinner!  YUM!!  Now we're planing ourselves on the couch and getting ready for another week.  

On the bright side...next weekend is a long weekend and I'm down to 13 days of school!!!  Woohoo!

What I'm Loving Wendesday!

I'm linking up with Jamie today for What I'm Loving Wednesday :)

It's been a good week so far and I just love Wednesdays....over the hump & that much closer to my man coming home on Thursday and the weekend just around the corner!

I'm really loving our new pillows!

We picked these up over the weekend at World Market with a gift card we had from Christmas!  We'd been saving that sucker for a sweet purchase for our home and I'm very pleased with what we got!  Love the colors...I want to incorporate the greens, yellows, browns, greys, and blues into whatever chair we eventually get for our living room!

This week I'm also loving Monday!  Ok not really Monday...more like Monday night...

via

Monday night is now Bachelorette Monday!  Emily Maynard is this season's bachelorette and it was filmed in my beloved hometown, Charlotte!!  Emily lives here in the Queen City and for the first time the show moved filming for the bachelor/bachelorette.  

My friend Andrea came over & she I watched the first episode while making and enjoying homemade Banana Bread, some spinach artichoke kale dip and salad for dinner!  Yum!!  Girls nights now every Bachelorette Monday!!

After our yardwork this past weekend, I figured out I'm not allergic to poison ivy - and this is fantastic!!!  

A few of the ginormous weeds we pulled out of our flower beds were poison ivy.  I've never had poison ivy so I didn't really even know if I was allergic, but my brother is highly allergic so I was kinda worried.  I wore gloves, but it still touched my arms and my gloves definitely brushed my face a time or two - I was sure I was going to be swollen and itchy almost immediately.  Gladly, there has been so swelling or itching to date.  Phew!!

I've pretty much been a domestic goddess this week - between sweeping and mopping the upstairs & downstairs floors yesterday and today, doing some laundry, unloading the dishwasher, meal planning for the weekend.... yeah I'm awesome!  And exhausted, just call me Cinderella :)  I'm trying a new recipe tomorrow, so if it's a keeper, I'll share soon!

As part of my domestic divaness, I also started taping the kitchen!

Cause we're painting this weekend!!  The winning color is....the second color from the top....

...City Chic!!  It's kind of a grey, mocha, khaki color and I think it will look great with our granite!  I'm super excited to get the painting over with see the finished product!  Pictures to come next week :)

What I'm really loving....my bed and the fact that I'm about to go to sleep :)  Testing at school this week is wearing me out!  Down to 15 days!!!!!

Happy Hump Day y'all!!

Yardwork Weekend

Well, our weekend was rather busy, but I can proudly say our front yard is well on it's way to looking about 10x better!!

Friday night after our workouts, B stopped by Lowe's to pick up our chore for the weekend.

And this was just the first load!  Hah, but Friday night was for relaxing!  I tried out a new recipe that night that 2 blog friends (Classic Annie & Dee's Adventures) had raved about: Skinny Taste's Cheesy Jalapeño Popper Baked Stuffed Chicken.  If 2 blog posts about this dish didn't convince you to try it, maybe a 3rd one will!  It was definitely a big hit in our house!!

I won't lie to ya....it was not an easy-quick-throw-together meal - it took some work!  But it was delish & I'll definitely make it again!  I made it with another Skinny Taste Recipe - Skinny Cilantro Lime Rice.  One of my fav recipes form this site!  This time I mixed in some corn & black beans with the rice - yum!

The rest of the night we hung out with our boys and watched some Dexter!  Yes I said boys...

We're keeping my bro & SIL's dog, Huckleberry, for the weekend while they're away camping at the beach!  Benson's not so sure about him - he's gotten closer and closer over the weekend.  But for the most part he watches him like a hawk & just meows these funny meows at him!!  Ha, but we like Huckleberry :)  He's so sweet & well behaved!

Saturday was D day.  We woke up and got our workout on, and then finally after lunch it was time to get to work!!  Here are some before pics...

Holy weeds right!?!?  I love the beds and the way they look, but good gracious, they had been left untended just a little too long.

We had high hopes to complete the front and back yard, but we were naive!  Ha, yard work is killer and not for the faint of heart!  By about quarter to 5 Saturday, we called it quits. Our backs were breaking, all the pine needles we had had been spread, our fingers were tender from weed pickin' - we were donezo!  And it was date night :)

OOTN

We went to dinner & a movie and in between, this happened...

Frozen vanilla yogurt with Reece's Peanut Butter Cup in a White Chocolate Dipped
Sprinkle Rolled Cone

Heaven.

We earned it after all that yard work! :)  We saw the Avenger's and it was really good and actually pretty funny!  Robert Downy Jr's Iron Man is my favorite character.

Today, we were determined to finish weeding and Brandon bought 12 more bails of pine straw.  We finished weeding all the beds in the front, but haven't even touched the back. And our 12 more bails weren't quite enough either.  But here are some after pics of what is fully pine strawed up...

So much better right!?!  I'll post the after pics of the front yard beds next weekend after they're fully covered.  I have to say though, we feel pretty darn accomplished!  A neighbor stopped by to say the yard looks the best it's ever looked!!  He saw us working both days and said we were doing a fantastic job :)  Feels good!

We somehow managed a run today after all of that, & also got caught in the rain.  That always makes for a good time!  Other than that, we've been lazy today!  Just a little laundry & the grocery store and a lotta couch and TV.

Hope y'all had a good weekend & mother's day!  Sadly, we couldn't be with either of our Mothers today :( but we're sure thankful for them!!  Without them, we would surely be nothing!!!  So thank you Mom & Joan (MIL) - love you both tons!!

I'm down to 18 days of school left...just in case you were wondering :)  I think I can...