Just Because...

Was it funnel cake overload or something stronger? Thanks sis for sharing your fair photos!

Holiday Recap...

It seemed liked this year the holiday has stretched on forever, not in a bad way but just a lot of things to do and family to see. Hubby's family came to visit and celebrate the Sunday before Xmas. The highlight of their visit was lunch at Hymans Seafood. I love their crispy flounder, Yummy! They of course brought lots of goodies for the baby. We are now the proud owners of a stuffed dog that sings some of the most annoying songs. Of course the little one loves it, but I will be glad when the batteries run out!

My folks came to visit after that for a few days. The weather was so nice we had a chance to show off our outdoor fireplace, and my folks were kind enough to help us polish off the rest of the bag of marsh mellows that was left in the pantry. Delish!

Christmas Eve, the little one developed a lovey snotty nose but she didn't seem to let it bother her too much. Christmas morning was fun, she certainly got the hang of ripping the paper off the boxes quickly! With a little help of course...

I don't think that there are many toys for her age group that we don't own now between the two sets of grandparents! Can we say spoiled?

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! This weekend's activity is to finish the outdoor patio and to get the house tidied up a bit. Now that the holiday is over it is time to pack it all up until next year. I need the extra space the Christmas tree takes up for all the new toys. There is nothing I love more than having a house that looks like a toy store threw up in it! So until next time, have a great day!

Did the Tree Just Fall on the House?

This morning hubby and I were sitting on the couch doing the usual morning routine. Hubby feeds the baby her bottle while we watch the morning news on CNN. When all of sudden the house shook, it wasn't just a small rattle either, the house really shook! We both looked at each other like what the fuck just happened? We both instantly thought the same thing, that the old oak tree that canopies our entire roof just snapped and one of the huge limbs fell on the roof and rolled off. We go racing outside only to find the tree still completely intact. What the hell?I then decided it would be best to go and knock on the neighbors door and see if they felt anything or were hubby and i both crazy? Indeed the neighbors had also felt it. Was it possible? Did we just have an earthquake? Yes, my friends, it truly was an earthquake! Come to find out it was a 3.6 magnitude earthquake. Wow!

Who would have thought in sleepy little Summerville we could have such excitement!

In other news, the wildlife around here is trying to take over our house. Last night hubby was headed out the front door with the baby when he came racing back in the house telling me "quick hold the baby!" WTF?! I wondered "It's a snake!" he says. Sure enough as you can see from the picture below this damn snake was trying its best to make its merry way into my house!

I'm not sure how it managed to make it all of the way to the front door since our front porch is elevated at least 3 feet of the ground. And of course at the time none of the 5 outdoor kitties were anywhere to be found. Usually they are all lounging on the deck. They were definitely slacking on the job. Hubby, brave guy that he is, took care of the snake. As far as I'm concerned the best kind of snake is a dead snake! I guess I need to quit feeding the cats so much so they will get back to work!

Birthday Wishes!

In the past few months for family members birthdays I have taken a picture of Evelyn holding up a birthday sign. Now that she is older the birthday sign is much more interesting and tasty to her so today's birthday greeting is a little different...

Happy Birthday Dad (aka Grandpa) !!!! :)

Smocked Dress Madness!

This morning was the first day of the Rosalina tent sale so Evelyn and I braved the foul weather and the million other crazy women to snatch up some great bargains on smocked dresses. For those of you that aren't from the south, smocked dresses are the thing to dress your little one in here. Who can resist them? And at the prices you can get at the tent sale it is hard not to buy a million of them. So cute! I think I did fairly well I bought 8 dresses and spent every dime I had in my wallet! I can't wait to see how sweet Evelyn will look in them!

The tough thing now is that I know that they will be putting out new items over the next few days. It will be very hard not to go back and buy more!

By the warmth of the fire...

Hubby and I tested out the new fireplace Saturday night. It was a lot of fun, like camping only better because I didn't have to pee in the woods! It was very relaxing and also very fattening. Who knew that so many toasted marshmallows would find their way into my belly!

You can almost feel the warmth of the fire in this video. Hubby had it really blazing, so much so the next next day when he went to clean it out there were still hot coals smoldering! Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Has it been that long?

So looking at my calender I just realized that it has been some time since I last posted. I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. Our turkey day was quiet only the in laws came for the big meal which made my job easy, not a whole lot of cooking involved. Its so much easier to feed only 4. My folks and sister and her hubby came to visit for a few days also. We had a good time, it is always nice to have sister and brother in law here. And as a added bonus for me sister always takes beautiful pictures of the baby and she was kind enough to take the Christmas card photo of her. So cute! I think she got a kick out of doing it though, watching hubby and I make all kinds of noise and jumping around to try to get the baby to look a the camera is always comical!

Brother in law also gave hubby a hand, which I am thankful for, with the outdoor fireplace that has been an ongoing project.

It is now almost complete, here's hoping that we don't burn down the neighborhood the first time we use it!

Now that the actual fireplace is almost done the job of landscaping around it must begin. This morning we went and picked out the stone to make the patio with. Hopefully our backs can handle moving the 1 and 1/2 ton of stone hubby is on his way home with. My next blog post may be from the hospital bed as I recuperate...

Hope everyone has a great weekend! :)

A Funny Turn of Events...

So for those of you that keep up with my blog know that I recently had a brush with the law. In a funny turn of events hubby came home today with a big fat SPEEDING TICKET! LOL! He is so pissed! I on the other hand, find the whole thing very humorous! :)

Hope ya'll are having a great day!

Blue Light Special...

This past weekend we went to Wilmington to visit the grandparents and some old friends. We had a good time and Evelyn traveled much better this time. (She slept through the night in a strange place!) The most exciting part of trip happened however before we had even cleared the state line. Those of you who have ridden in the car with me know that I have a lead foot and somehow it tends to make my car go a hair over the speed limit. So here I am making my merry way down the road when all of a sudden I see the dreaded blue lights! "F*ck" I said as I saw the trooper turning around in my rear view mirror realizing that I had been going somewhere around 75mph in a 55mph zone. Oops! So I make my way over to the side of the road and get my registration and licence ready. All the while hubby is sitting in the passenger seat already gloating and I can tell he is so ready to give me hell over this all weekend! "Good morning" I said to the officer as I was handing over my info. " Where are you headed?" the officer asked. "Off to see grandma and grandpa" I replied in case he didn't notice the baby in the back seat. "Did you realize how fast you were going?" he asked. "Not until I saw you!" I replied. He smiled and headed back to his patrol car presumably to write me a big fat ticket. After a few minutes went by I watched in my rear view as he was heading back to my car. He stops, leans in to look and chuckles to himself. I am realizing that he is reading the stickers on my car...Those are always the kind of stickers you want an officer reading as he pulls you for speeding!!! Back at my window the officer said "I'm going to let you go this time, slow it down and I like the stickers on your car" Whoohoo! Hubby couldn't believe it! I think he is still pissed I didn't get a ticket!

Weekend Update...

Our friends Will and Stephanie came to town this weekend with their 2 kids. It was very fun but exhausting. I don't know how Steph manages to maintain her sanity with three boys around. This was the first time Evelyn had encountered boys before and she was delighted to have so much activity around her. She absolutely adored Landon who is 2 1/2 years old and with that cute little face who can blame her!

I think if she could crawl she would have followed him everywhere! He was very sweet and gave her lots of hugs and kisses!

Big brother Trey, enjoyed Evelyn's sunglasses. I think everyone likes putting those on except Evelyn!

Since it rained Saturday afternoon and evening the boys needed to burn off some energy for the long ride home so we went to the aquarium this morning to entertain them. I think even Evelyn had fun!

After the aquarium we had time for a quick lunch at Five Guys before they had to head home.













Here are the hubbies with the kids. Poor Landon was worn out. It was great to see our old friends and it was really fun to reminisce with them about the good old days when we were young! Hope everyone had a great weekend! :)

Whoohoo!

I just paid $1.99 for gas! It only cost me $30 to fill the whole tank! Its kind of sad that this is exciting but it did sort of put a bounce in my step as I pumped the gas this morning. Whoohoo!

Weekend Update...

We started our weekend off with a trip to the county fair on Friday night. Since Evelyn is so small going to the fair was really for mommy and daddy this year. Our mission was to stuff ourselves with some calorie laden fair food. I think we definitely succeeded!

Hubby started with a first course of fried mushrooms. Yummy! Mommy got a huge plate of ribbon fries loaded with cheese, sour cream and bacon!!!! MMMMMmmmm! (not pictured because I couldn't get my hands into those fries fast enough!)

We took Evelyn to see the farm animals. I think she was overwhelmed by the lovely smells because she seemed very unimpressed!
I thought the baby pigs were cute though!
After a quick loop around the fair to see all of the rides and to people watch a little we got what we truly went for and headed home...
THE CANDY APPLES!!!!! They didn't last very long after we arrived home, I'm already craving more!

After the sugar high wore off the rest of the weekend was fairly uneventful. Hubby has started another new project, an outdoor fireplace. So after 3 trips to Lowes and about 20 bags of cement I now have what looks to be the beginning of a mausoleum in my backyard! Apparently this is the base of the whole project but I have decided it would be best not to comment further until this project is completed!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

The Good Old Days...

Oct 1976 Me at approximately Evelyn's age The original Evelyn and me Oct. 1976

The 3 sisters Oct. 1976

(love the expression on big sister's face)

New Recipe...

So because I am totally bored with the 7 dinner dishes that I can prepare easily I have decided to start trying some new things. As you all know when you have a small child trying to find the time and energy to prepare a gourmet feast can be challenging. And doing dishes after is always such a chore so I definitely like recipes that don't involve a lot of pots and pans. I found this recipe on the Kraft foods website and it actually got the stamp of approval from hubby last night. It went over much better than the baked BBQ chicken recipe I had tried the night before :(

This meal can be prepared for around $18 which is great and also had enough leftover to eat for lunch today! Always a bonus!

Cheesy Chicken and Salsa Skillet

2 cups penne pasta, uncooked
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
1-1/4 cups TACO BELL® HOME ORIGINALS® Thick 'N Chunky Salsa
1 cup frozen corn, thawed
1 large green pepper, cut into short thin strips
1 cup KRAFT 2% Milk Shredded Reduced Fat Four Cheese Mexican Style Cheese

Make It

COOK pasta as directed on package.

MEANWHILE, heat large nonstick skillet sprayed with cooking spray on medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook and stir 2 min. Stir in salsa, corn and peppers. Bring to boil. Simmer on medium-low heat 10 min. or until chicken is cooked through, stirring occasionally.
DRAIN pasta. Add to chicken mixture; mix lightly. Sprinkle with cheese. Remove from heat; cover. Let stand 1 min. or until cheese is melted

I did make a few minor changes to the recipe by using canned corn instead of frozen. I just drained it very well. And because you all know reduced fat things aren't my favorite I used the full fat version of the Mexican cheese. I did also use the whole jar of salsa which is really only a smidge more than the recipe called for because around her we like things saucy! So try it out we thought it was YUMMY!

Election Day!

This morning marks a major milestone in our family, it was the first time both hubby and I had voted! We both felt that this years election warranted getting off our butts and casting our vote! Our polling place is conveniently located at the park around the corner from our house. Of course silly me had to mapquest it because as many times as I have ridden by there I never knew that the building out front was a community center!

We arrived around 10am to a fair sized line of people. The picture below shows hubby patiently waiting.

Fortunately, Evelyn was on her best behavior and was excited about helping mommy and daddy vote.

Can you see the excitement on her face? We were very lucky we only had to wait about an hour and 10 minutes for our turn. Everyone in line was very nice, we also ran into our neighbors and several clients from my work. After it was all said and done we of course got our badge of honor, our "I Voted" stickers which mommy and Evelyn show off proudly! Doesn't Evelyn look thrilled!We can't wait for the election results and will be glued to the TV until the results are in! So here's hoping our candidate wins!!!!

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone has a happy and safe halloween!

6 Month Check Up...

It's hard to believe that Evelyn is already 6 months old! Yesterday was her 6 month check up with the pediatrician. She weighed in at 14lbs 14 oz and has grown 2 inches and is now 26inches long. She showed off her skills by sitting up unsupported, grabbing at the doctors stethoscope, and babbling lots! He agrees that the nystagmus in her eyes has improved and was very happy that all of the test we had run with the specialists had come back with all normal results. She had 5 shots yesterday which she was not thrilled about but as always handled it like a big girl waiting until after all of them had been given to cry! A dose of Tylenol and a good nap and she was back to her happy self.

Its Official...

I am officially the neighborhood crazy cat lady, as soon as I saw this I had to have it! Even hubby who thinks i'm nuts already for feeding 5 stray cats outside had to admit that this cat was pretty cool! At least this one doesn't poop in the yard!

Nothing to Post...

It has been an incredibly slow week around here, hence why i haven't posted in a while. It rained for the entire weekend so our biggest excitement was a trip to Sullivan's Island to eat at Poe's. There really is nothing better than their fish tacos! I suppose my biggest excitement is that Evelyn can manage to sit up for a few seconds before she topples over and yesterday I managed to get her to eat some sweet potatoes! Today's poopy diaper can attest to that! Yikes!!!

On another random tangent, hubby has now decided that he may be interested in buying an airstream camper! Since I have continuously vetoed buying another boat because they are not super practical for infants he thought maybe that it would be nice to have something we could do as a family! As you all know pre baby we liked to travel and go camping post baby its defiantly not as relaxing, that's for sure. I am still on the fence about buying a cramper, but I do see his point. It would be familiar for Evelyn to stay in, less germs for me and its can go anywhere we do in the continental US (and Canada). I have always wanted to go to Niagara Falls... Anyhow we shall see how it all plays out. The only kind of RV that I will agree to is an Airstream because they are so cool looking and not so toxic and plastic like your standard camper but you defiantly pay for it. But who knows hubby may just decide that he can't live without another boat!
Thats all for now! Hope everyone has a great day!