Happy Monday!

Well Monday is here again! We managed to squeeze in a beach weekend. Let me tell you the weather was absolutely gorgeous! I didn't want to leave Sunday afternoon. We tried to soak up as much of the day as possible!

This was Kasey's first trip to the beach. She LOVED it!



She wasn't completely understanding the whole waves/water moving deal but she figured it out. 

 We were walking and a group of people told us they were about to release 5 baby loggerhead turtles. It was going to be their last release of the year. They were soo cute!

 Dinner at Sear's Landing was amazing! Crab cakes, fried plantains, and cornbread. I was in heaven!

Our view for breakfast!

Caught this little herring lounging on the dock at breakfast.

 This picture I just had to take! I was walking behind them on Sunday. It just made me smile!

 I'm not sure who was enjoying it more.. me relaxing in a chair.. the Hubs fishing.. or Kasey standing by the Hubs the entire time.

 My MIL and I did a little shopping. This cute little interiors store had their Christmas open house and the entire store was on sale. I couldn't resist these cute little yard signs. I know I know... I don't need them but they made me smile.

This was quickly added to our yard on Sunday. Love the polka dotted pumpkin!

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!

My Crazy Week!- Thoughts for Thursday

Happy Thursday Lovies!

Can I get amen that it's almost the weekend?! I've been a horrible blogger yet again. Let me just give a quick overview of my week/weekend.

Last weekend we were actually in town. We attended a baby shower and a get together at a friends house. Sad to say I didn't take one single picture! I wasn't feeling 100% so it completely slipped my mind.

Monday- I came into absolute panic and choas in the office. Our cleaning people left a message with the poor lady in tears that she had seen a snake Sunday night. Great! My LEAST favorite thing in the entire world. So of course everyone is paranoid.. busy looking under desk, scared to open drawers.. yes not a productive environment. Well I stepped out for lunch and was quickly greeted with boy are you going to be glad you were gone. They caught the sucker! He was coming out of an office near mine. Two guys in the office cornered him with a golf club and got him in a paper box. Someone called the proper people to come and collect him. He was claimed to be a rat snake. So needless to say nothing got accomplished on Monday.

Tuesday- After the crazy day of Monday I had more than a few things on my plate. The morning absolutely flew by! For some I sometimes walk and come back and eat at my desk. I got in about 2.5 miles. I came back and started feel lousy. I was achy, headache, sneezing, coughing, and congested. I made it here until about 3 and had to head home. I have allergies and this crazy NC weather of hot, cold, hot, cold drive my allergies insane!

Wednesday- I was back in the office being a busy worker bee. I was still not 100% but definitely better than Tuesday. I'll take it!

Here we are at today. I have a few more things on my plate and I will be calling it a week at this office. I'm planning on volunteering tomorrow for the Young Professional Network of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce's (say that 5 times fast!) fall service day. I hope to be back on Monday with a weekend recap! I hope everyone has a good weekend!

Linking up with Natalie and Annie

Five on Friday- What I've been cooking lately..

Happy Friday Lovies!

I'm so excited for the weekend! I'm even more excited that we're in town again. Being in town has allowed me more time to cook lately. Here are some things I've been cooking.

1- Quiche- I've shared this recipe before but my Hubs is loving it! I made this one with zuchinni, squash, and bacon. I had one piece and he seriously ate the rest of it!

2- Pork tenderloin. I saw this on Caroline's blog and I knew we had to try this ASAP! The Hubs talked about this one for days! We will definitely be making this again. I forgot the goat cheese but we had feta in the house, so I used that instead and it was still amazing!

3- Veggie Lasagna- I saw this on Ally's blog and did not disappoint. I will say that I was lazy that night and used organic pasta sauce in a jar instead of making my own. My Hubs even commented that he wouldn't mind it again soon! It was super easy, healthy, and good!

4- Minestrone Crockpot Soup- This was soo good! It's perfect for chilly nights. Bonus- super easy!!! I love that it's filled with veggies.

This is called copycat Olive Garden Minestrone Soup



Ingredients:

4 cups low sodium vegetable stock

1.5 cups water

2 (14.5oz) cans diced tomatoes

1 cup diced celery (3 stalks)

1 cup diced carrots (2 carrots)

1 cup diced yellow onion (1 small)

1 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley or 1 tsp dried

2 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano

½ tsp dried thyme

½ tsp dried crushed rosemary

2 bay leaves

½ tsp sugar

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 1/3 cups diced zucchini (1 small)

1 1/3 cups shell pasta

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 (15oz) can dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 (15oz) can white navy beans or cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

1 (14.5oz) can Italian green beans, drained

2 cups slightly packed chopped fresh spinach

Directions

Add vegetable stock, water, tomatoes, celery, carrots, onion, parsley, basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, and sugar to a slow cooker. Season with salt and pepper to taste and cook on low heat 6-8 hours or high 3-4 hours.

Add zucchini, pasta, garlic, kidney beans and white beans and cook on high heat an additional 3-40 minutes until pasta is tender. Stir in spinach and Italian green beans and cook several minutes until heated through. Serve warm topped with Romano or parmesan cheese.

5- I saved my favorite for last.. APPLE PIE! I have been wanting to attempt this for a few weeks now. While in the mountains my inlaws bought a huge box of apples and gave us all some to take home. Perfect opportunity to make this. This was my first time attempting this and I wanted to do it from scratch. I found my recipe at Simply Recipes. I was happy with the way it turned out!

Have a good weekend Lovies!



Linking up with April, Christina, Natasha, and Darci.

Linking up with Amy and Karli.

Thoughts for Thursday

Happy Thursday Lovies!

I've been a horrible blogger this week. I was off Monday for Columbus Day. And out of no where I've been a busy little bee over here at work but no compliants! Being busy makes the days go by so much faster.

It's no secret that I've been Christmas shopping for awhile now. I know I know.. I'm a weirdo! I'm actually down to 3 gifts left to buy.. My FIL, step FIL, and my Dad. The men in our family are soo hard to buy for! I've assigned my Hubs his Dad. His Dad has more hobbies than I can count on my fingers and toes and I have no clue what or how to even go about buying him something. My MIL usually gives me wonderful suggestions for my step FIL. She's out of ideas this year.. dang it! I am hoping he will say something he needs or wants so he doesn't end up with a giftcard but worst case scenario a gift card it will be! My Dad.. my Dad will give me something now and wait literally 2 weeks before Christmas (ya know after I've wrapped everything for almost a month now) and say I would really rather have this.. So I run around trying to find this one off the wall thing he just wants and he ends up with 2 gifts because I'm not unwrapping and taking anything back at this point. I think he does this on purpose! :) So I've decided I'm sand bagging this year until November. Any good gift ideas for men? I'm open.



Has anyone tried acupucture? I'm absolutely terrified of needles but I bit the bullet. It's supposed to help me relax and destress. He even says he can help me loose weight. I'm not holding my breath on the weight loss part but I will have to admit that I was VERY relaxed after my first session. So relaxed that all I wanted to do was go to sleep! I still haven't actually watched him insert the needles. I just close my eyes and listen to the waves. I actually don't really even feel them. He asked that I give him 6 sessions to see my changes. I've had 2 out of 6.. I'll let you know how I feel after treatment 6. I'm interested to hear if anyone else has tried this and their thoughts.



Short and sweet today. I hope everyone is having a good week!



Linking up with Natalie and Annie.

Five on Friday.. Boots

TGIF!! Happy Friday Lovies!

I'm super pumped that we don't have too much on our agenda this weekend and I'm off on Monday- love bank holidays!

Since the fall temperatures are trying to make an appearance I'm dreaming of boots these days! Here are 5 that are on my wish list!

1- Hunter Rain Boots- Thanks to my large calves I need the adjustable back ones but I so hope these are purchased off my Christmas wish list! Hint Hint.. Haha! :)

2- Frye Melissa Riding Boots- I soooo tried to get these babies to fit! I tried the regular ones and extended calf. The regular fit my feet well but were too tight on the calves. The extended calves were fine on my calves but way too loose on my ankles/feet. I would try to walk and my foot would almost come out of the boots. BOOO!!! I wanted these in black and dark brown!! :( Someone please go buy these since I can't!



3- Sam Edelman Penny Boot- The clerk at Nordstrom graciously ordered these for me in hopes they would fit my calves and ankles.. WRONG! These are an awesome deal and so similar to my beloved Frye boots. Nordstrom has these on sale right now if anyone is interested.

4- Tory Burch Claremont Tall Boot- I'm soo in lust with these boots. They are perfection! I haven't tried these on for fear I will fall hopelessly in love! LoL..  Anyone that knows me, knows I'm rough on shoes (much to my dismay and carefulness!) so I really hate to dish out this much for boots but gosh I adore these beauties!



5- And every girl can dream.. Gucci Maud Boot- I love the texture on these. They are a step up from the Tory's. I could never justify spending this much on shoes (a purse maybe.. shhh!!) especially for me but sigh...but I can stare at them! Love!



Have a good weekend Lovies!



Linking up with April, Christina, Natasha, and Darci.

Linking up with Amy and Karli.

Thoughts for Thursday

Happy Thursday Lovies!

The mountains really put me into the fall spirit. I came home and put pumpkins out everywhere! I've even been trying to figure out where I could put a few more.. Ha! I want to apologize in advance for the iphone poor quality pictures.

I made it to a local pumpkin patch and picked up a few real pumpkins and mums!

Our house is a lot of reds and I just don't think orange pumpkins blends with our decor very well. I decided to go with white and gold instead. Love them!

This little polka dotted pumpkin was at Marshalls! $8.. yes please! I thought it was the cutest thing ever!

Does anyone else excited over holiday decor? How do you decorate your house for fall?

Have a fabulous Thursday lovies!



Linking up with Natalie and Annie.

Dinner Failure!

Monday just wasn't my day.. that's the best way to put it. I have been browsing pinterest, blogs, and the internet for some recipes. I was inspired by the fall weather and decided to try my hand at butternut squash soup.. EPIC FAIL! I took one bite and was nearly spit it back out. I had never tried butternut squash at all before and needless to say, I don't like it! The Hubs actually ate one bowl. I haven't decided if that was out of pity or if he was really just that hungry!

Last night I tried Annie's recipe for flank steak found here and thank goodness redeemed myself!

I bought a 1.5 pound piece and we still have plenty leftover to put in salads again. This was definitely a quick, easy, and delicious meal!

I'm over being adventurous this week. The rest of the week will be our usual or things I've made before. I am interested to do some more new meals for next week if anyone has any suggestions.

Have a great Wednesday Lovies!

Mountain Weekend

Happy Tuesday Lovies!

I had planned this post for Monday but Monday was a HECTIC day! Let's just leave it at that.. Monday all around. :) So here's my weekend recap..

Friday we headed to the mountains of NC. Banner Elk to be exact. The leaves and house were just gorgeous! My MIL did an awesome job picking out a house. It was perfect! We especially loved having our own bathrooms and king sized bed.

We had dinner at Stone Walls. Let's just say HORRIBLE service and not that great food. I would NOT recommend this place.

We had several fire places which I loved! We had one in the living room, one outside on the wrap around porch, and a fire pit. We came back Friday night and started up the outside fireplace on the porch. We all sat around emjoying cocktails and chatting until some started to play cards.

Saturday morning my MIL had gotten us tickets to the Oz Festival. I actually had no idea what this was until the last minute.. LOL! It was a cute little park. The characters were awesome, I loved the lion! I will have to say it was FREEZING! I had so many layers on I felt like a snowman and I was still cold!

K decided she wanted her face painted like the Lion. They did an awesome job!

This lion was hilarious! His laugh was adorable!

 After Oz we had planned to cook hotdogs and roast marshmellows. The wind was a bit too much to do this in the fire pit outside. So we improvised and used the inside fireplace. It was perfect! I could have sat by the fireplace with my wine for days!

I will admit this is my very FIRST smore EVER! Not bad.. I would eat it again!

Sunday we got up and headed back home. We stopped at Tipton's BBQ on the way. I was in love with their brisket! So much that I had the leftovers later! Soo good!



And that was our mountain weekend! Sorry for picture overload! I hope everyone had a good weekend!