Luckily, our house faces east to west… and you know what that means??

The back porch is the PERFECT place to watch the sunset.

Hurricane Irene pushed some clouds in last week that made the sunset gorgeous…

and even gave us a rainbow!

So, it’s one of our nightly rituals… to sit on the back porch and watch the sunset…

and oh yea! You can’t forget dessert to go with it!

WITH A TWIST!

So… what is that inside?? It’s a chocolate chip cookie with an Oreo in the middle. I heard about this from Pastor P at New Spring and had to try it! I must say… It packs a surprise!!!

Let me know if you try it!

Even though I have a teaching degree, I’m not a teacher. I must say I hate it when school starts back… why? The main reason is this:

With the kids back in school my commute gets longer… way longer… Oh well! Goodbye Summer and hello Fall! I am so ready for the cooler weather!!!!!

I do miss a lot of things about starting back to school. Mainly the smell of new school supplies! I love school supply shopping and really really miss it. It always felt so good to be organized at the beginning of the year.  A clean slate! Now there are no school supplies to be bought and tubs full of teaching supplies hanging out in my attic. I think I have like 300 three prong folders, multiple rulers, a chem set, and tons of games just chilling out in the attic. Target runs GREAT sales

Click HERE to see what one school did to kick off the new year! FLASH MOB FOR TEACHERS? I THINK SO!!!!

What kid wouldn’t want to see their teachers break it down!? Now those are some awesome teachers!

I’ll leave you with my favorite back to school commercial!

Favorite Back to School Commercial!

I must say I am VERY excited. One of my favorite shows from last year is premiering TONIGHT!!! The Great Food Truck Race… I must say I admire these people. It seems like such an adventure and finally something I want to watch!

To elaborate on the whole FOOD… NETWORK theme… I was watching Food Network tonight and did a  little jig when I saw a commercial with this ladies face:

It looks like she has her own show now! I’m pretty darn excited. I actually used her cookbook tonight! Her meatloaf recipe was YUMMY and super easy! Once again I managed to not catch anything on fire! If you know me… then you’ve heard about my fire story…

It all started out like this… I registered for these pots…

My mom and dad called me from the store yelling into the phone that I do not want those pots. They are too hard to cook in, hard to clean, and I will burn everything I cook. I insisted that I wanted them… So,  my dad laughed, purchased them, and said just you wait!! (I must say…  I love the steamer… just add it to my list of “every woman should own one” )

Fast forward to the first home cooked meal I made for the Hubs… USC was kicking some bootay in the college world series… I figured it would be the perfect time to make a home cooked meal! I pulled out the pots… put some olive oil in the pan and let it start warming up…

All of the sudden there was smoke EVERYWHERE! And all I could hear was a whoosh! There were flames coming up out of the pan!

What did I do? PICK it up of course! The Hubs looked over as I was yelling “WHAT DO I DO? WHAT DO I DO??”

(That was the day he realized we need one of these…in every room)

Of course he came to my rescue… flew open the back door and ran outside… I followed after thinking… Stop, Drop, and Roll…  He turned on the hose as I continued to hold the pan… with flames… and smoke… and flames… and MORE smoke.

I quickly figured out that it MIGHT would be a good idea to drop the pan and watch him pretend like he was a firefighter… for about 3 minutes…

Then I mourned the brand new shiny pan I literally burnt up… while he laughed hysterically at me…

I proceeded to get the “I told you so talk from my parents.” I can’t remember exactly what I said back but I think it was something like… it wasn’t the pan! It was the stove… or the oil… or ANYTHING but the pan

Anyways, here’s the yummy recipe for the meatloaf I made tonight! I have to say… it’s pretty jam up! I made a few little changes to Ree’s recipe. I can’t say it’s easy on the waist line but I can say it was soooooo good! Can’t wait for leftovers!

What ya need:

• 2 lbs ground beef
• 1 c milk
• 1/2 of a bell pepper
• 1 c Parmesan cheese (yum!)
• 4 eggs
• 1 package of  bacon (I prefer Turkey… but its your choice )
• 6 slices of bread (This is a great recipe to use those end slices!)
• 1/3 c of parsley

salt and pepper to your liking! I threw in some table and Lawry’s salt. I honestly didn’t measure. I just kept shaking until I said to myself… hmm that feels about right… Ree says to use :

• 1/4 teaspoon Seasoned Salt
• 3/4 teaspoons Salt
• Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Oh yea, I have a couple secrete seasoning I use in EVERYTHING… No, really… EVERYTHING…. Emeril’s Original and garlic powder… Maybe it’s all the “kickin it up a notch” my dad used to do in the kitchen… but I love it!

All you have to do is:

Place the bread slices in the bowl and soak them with the milk. After it has soaked a few minutes, add in all the other ingredients.

Here comes the fun part!!! Mix it all together with your hands. Once everything is mixed together, form your loaf. You can either place it on a broiler pan or if you don’t have one… like me You can just use a cookie sheet. I covered my cookie sheet in aluminum foil for easy clean up!

After you form your loaf and place on your cookie sheet, place strips of bacon all the way across the loaf. Tuck the ends underneath the loaf. I think I used about half of the pack.

YUMMY! Next you are going to make your sauce! I LOVE SAUCE… especially if it has ketchup!

You will need:

• 1 c of ketchup
• 6 tbsp of brown sugar
• 1 tsp of mustard

Mix all this deliciousness together and slap half of it on top of the loaf!

Bake the loaf at 350 degrees for 45 min. After the 45 minutes pull it out and pour the rest of the mixture onto the loaf (if desired) and cook for another 15-20 minutes.

Then enjoy! Thanks Ree for sharing! Let me know if you try it!

I’ve started posts… but haven’t finished them…new post coming at some point!

As of right now all I can say is GO COCKS! Check out Patrick’s  new Gamecock song!!!

http://bit.ly/krpg3W

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there! I have to say this years Mother’s Day was one of the best I can ever remember. It was amazing.

But anyways, I just thought I would list a few mom’s I admire and am very thankful for.

First, my Mama!

She always gives great advice… and is always right…no really she is, seriously. Just ask my sister… it’s SCARY

She used to always tell me that she was a fly on the wall… somehow she ALWAYS knew what I did before I told her… or anything I didn’t want her to know (note to all the kids with parents that are hair dressers… THEY KNOW ALL! So, just fess up as soon as you get in the car… it will save you a lot of time and pain )

She sat through 100 degree heat Saturday after Saturday from 6 am to sometimes 2 am the next day… to only go back out and sit in it again starting at 7am Sunday morning… All to support me. She always made sure I did my best and made sure I had the best work ethic possible. She sacrificed so much so that I could have the best life possible. She’s an awesome mom and the best mom ever. She’s helped make me person I am today. Thanks mama!

Next, would be my auntie! Aunt Lynne

This lady is amazing. She always made life fun growing up. She loves her children and works so hard to make sure they are well taken care of. She is very special and I’m so lucky to have her in my life.

Lastly, would have to be my mama in law. She has given me one of the best gifts of all… She raised the man of my dreams and the love of my life. She did a great job and I am so thankful!

To all the Mamas out there Happy Mother’s Day and thank you for being you !!!

P.S. Sorry for the old pictures… I had technical difficulties…

Easter always brings LOTS of chocolate and sweets. For instance… tonight for dinner I had 2 chocolate covered peeps, a piece of million dollar pie, some coconut cake, Hershey eggs, a diet coke… and oh yea! REDUCED FAT Cheez-its (sweet and salty). I think the diet coke and reduced fat Cheez-Its made up for the sugar and calories .Needless to say, I think  some pepto is in my near future! (Not the liquid kind (yuck) the tablets!)

Anyways, my hubby has always loved a chocolate bunny for Easter.  Somehow mine always disappears before I get a bite! He normally will bite off the ears, then the legs, then the arms, and so on. (I promise I have a point)

I heard a very interesting way to eat your chocolate bunny this past weekend.

Meet my cousin:

She’s not your average cousin. She’s the life of the house when around and you NEVER know what she’s going to say or do! It’s pretty entertaining. LOVE her

This past weekend we were having a random (as usual) family conversation on how we eat our chocolate bunnies. Now, she had a pretty interesting way of eating hers…

First, bite off the ears…

and then grab some milk and pour it into the bunny and enjoy!

Last night we had to try it!

It was pretty interesting! Luckily, the rabbit didn’t go tinkle!

So, how do YOU eat your chocolate bunny? Leave a comment and let us know!

This video is pretty awesome! Congrats to this fellow Gamecock on her new life!

Hey Ya’ll! Hope you had a great weekend!

This weekend I got dirty and worked in the yard! My mom tried to get me to join them at the cup all the way up until they left… I even got offered free tickets! But, I decided to learn how to do all the stuff  the guys usually do .

I learned how to use the weed-eater… Well, acutally I learned how to restring the weed-eater after my husband blamed me for breaking it (but I actually only broke half of it… he broke the first half)

I learned how to crank/start the weed-eater… which was quite interesting. Who knew starting a weed-eater would be so difficult? I mean 5 cranks on level one and then 5 cranks on level two… and on the 5th pull it should crank? What if I want to put it on level three?

I also learned that cranking a weed-eater is a hazard…I ripped the skin off my fingers… Denver said I should get stitches… I said I would man up and tough it out (I would show a picture but it’s kind of gross.)

My next lesson was to learn how to break the blower and fix it….I mean I can’t help it if it sucks up too many leaves with a few pieces of concrete! The day consisted of Denver huffing and puffing telling me to go inside and that I was more trouble than I was worth… I beg to differ!

However, It feels great to have gotten a chunk of the yard work done! Well… that day it felt great to get it all done… but the next day I was PRETTY sore. I forgot I had muscles in some places.

Next week I’m going to teach Denver how to do all the girly stuff inside! (I’ll let you know how it goes!)

I'm going to teach him that we don't just hang around in our PJ's all day...

Anyways, while I was cleaning the yard my sister was looking GREAT in her Flossy dress…

She’s so pretty….

And has the craziest personality! lol

Now that is talent… Mom, don’t worry… none of the neighbors saw this… we checked! Twice! But I have to say… That’s talent lol

I had the tendency growing up to be somewhat protective and sometimes throw my two sense worth in… even though I shouldn’t. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard “Flossyyyyyyyyyyyyyy…. STOOOOOPPPPPPPP! You are NOT my mama…”

But, shes my baby sister and I have always wanted to know she’s ok… She’s the best sister I could ever ask for! Love ya girl!

Many of you have met my cat Gilly… He’s not the normal cat…

Gilly!

We have come home to an empty container of chocolate chip cookies

He likes to eat salad, cheez-its, and Hershey’s kisses

He also likes Ann Taylor…

So much so that last week he used the bathroom on two of my sweaters… He looks so sweet right?

He also only goes to the bathroom when you go and will cry if his litter box is not the way he wants it… He really wants to use the toilet… but we haven’t gotten that far.

His skill set includes opening closed doors.

His favorite thing to do is take a bath. Nope, I’m not talking about a cat bath… I’m talking about a tub full of water bath.

He has fallen into the tub WITH me in it twice…  After we get out of the shower or from soaking in the tub we can bet money that Gilly will jump in.

(It’s hard to see but there is water in the bottom of the bath tub.)

Some days I think he thinks he’s a dog… Some of his canine traits are dragging his favorite toy from Denver (in his office) to me (in my upstairs sewing room) until one of us caves in and plays. He also loves to play fetch… A cat that fetches? Yep… I KNOW! IT’S WEIRD!

Then other days I think he thinks he’s a human… but on days when I find him HANGING from the towel rack ripping it out of the dry wall… I realize he has to have some cat in him or maybe monkey?!

I  need some cat therapy. Let me know if you have any suggestions! lol

Here is another bowtie! This was for my cute little cousin!

I finished a halter seersucker/eyelet dress tonight and I’m working on some bow ties! I was going to share a picture from my phone but its so blurry it’s not worth it! So, pictures to come soon!

In other news…

I’ve been married for almost a year and I dyed my hair dark! wohoo! I’m still getting used to the dark brown vs the blonde… My husband says that I’m smarter now! Hopefully he’s right!

But anyway, I’ll leave you with one of my favorite songs and the song our bridal party entered to at our reception!