Six Inches Under

Last week I had the beginnings of Spring Fever with the few mild days we had, but then Mother Nature came along and dropped 6 inches of snow on our town and buried my hopes of warmer weather. Because that's how we roll here in the South...warm one day, frigid the next! I have to admit though, it is absolutely beautiful! We haven't had this much snow in years and like I posted about in Friday's Top 5, there's a lot of good things about the snow.

Along with my Spring Fever, the snow has buried any willpower I had to eat even romotely healthy. My Mama and I were discussing it yesterday; why do we feel the need to eat (and eat junk) whenever it snows? Is it a survival instinct?? So far, we've had multiple bowls of snowcream, cinnamon rolls, hot wings, and Stuffed Pizza Rolls (which I'm linking up for you because these are little bites of goodness!)

In Other News:
My first scrapbooking experience went quite well. I am very happy with how it turned out and I finished it just in time for my Mama's birthday tomorrow. Unfortunately I can't show you some of my better pages because I'm not putting the babes' names out there, but here's a couple...and you veteran scrapbookers better not laugh at me!

We are also moving forward with the construction of our new house! Yipee! It is currently being appraised so we can close on our loan and the order has been put in to have the lot cleared. Of course we'll have to wait for this snow to clear, but we're still very excited with the progress!

These Two Don't Mix...

While I'm here getting snowed in (3 inches on the ground already), I thought I'd create a little blog button to share. However, I've found out that
Drinking Amaretto Sours and Editing HTML Code DO NOT MIX! I did manage to figure it out though, so grab it if you'd like. I'll be holed up here all weekend...not that I'm complaining!

Top Five Friday...Winter Weather!

Here's my Monkey last year (January 2009) when we had a dusting of snow...still enough to have fun!

Here in NC, we're prepping for a winter storm (and when I say prepping, I mean salting everything in sight and the schools are closing early because someone mentioned the word snow). I know Northerners are having a nice laugh at our response to the possible snow, but it is a big deal here in the South y'all! For this week's Top Five, I thought I'd share the top 5 things I love about snow!

#5. The anticipation! Looking forward to seeing those first flakes fall is part of the fun. I remember waiting up at night when I was little to see if it was going to snow. I still feel that excitement today!

#4. School being cancelled. Now I know that I'm not working this year, but that doesn't mean that I don't appreciate a snow day. Everytime it sleeted, flurried, or snowed for the past 5 years I would turn on the TV and patiently wait for my county's name and those coveted words "Staff Code A" to appear on the screen. Too bad the snow's coming on a weekend, but maybe they'll have Monday off!

#3. Fun in the snow! I will admit that I can only handle being outside in small doses (I despise being cold), but there is so much fun to be had in the snow. There's sledding and snowball fights, snow angels and snowmen...my favorite is sledding!

#2. A fire in the fireplace! We don't fire up the fireplace often, but when it snows you better believe we'll have one going. I could sit by the fireplace all day drinking hot chocolate and eating roasted marshmallows.

#1. SNOW CREAM! My absolute favorite thing in the whole entire world forever and ever amen! If you've never had it, you're missing out. It's like a mix between icecream and a slushie...it's just sugary goodness! If you're getting snow this weekend like us, run out to the store and buy some milk, sugar and vanilla extract. All you have to do is pour a bit of milk in a bowl and add sugar and vanilla to sweeten (you want it very sweet) and then add snow to the consistency you like. I prefer mine with a bit less snow so I can have some of the milk to slurp up.

Now I'm off to the store, along with everyone else in my town, to get a few essentials (just in case we can't leave our homes for one day). Feel free to share your favorite thing about snow!

Good Eats!

Over at Sweet Tea & Biscuits this week, we are sharing our favorite Southern Eats! I wish I had some pictures of my own to share, but sadly I'm not one of those photographers who can ever remember to take a pic before I dig in, so here are some borrowed pics of my favorite Southern Eats!

For the sake of being brief, I'll stick to three.

Chicken and Dumplings

A personal favorite of mine. I like the dumplings rolled paper thin and only white meat chicken for this girl!

Turnip GreensServed with LOTS of vinegar please.

And last but not least, cornbread!Best when made in an iron skillet, and is great with many southern foods (especially pintos and greens), but is delicious by itself or if you're REALLY southern (like me!) you've had your cornbread in a bowl with a bit of milk poured on it. Mmmm! Hope these get you geared up for some good southern eats!

Holy Scrap!

Yeah, I know... I'm awesome at thinking of titles. We'll just have to accept my cheesiness and move on. And warning, there are multiple uses of ellipsis and interjections using parentheses ahead. Exit now if these things annoy you.

My Mama's birthday is coming up and I thought I'd take an economical approach this year (being that I don't actually get a paycheck anymore...boo) and go with a sentimental gift--a scrapbook.

You know, one of those sweet homemade gifts. The ones that don't cost an arm and a leg. Um, yeah well I didn't get the memo from all you scrapbookers out there that this isht is expensive! (By the way ladies, I hope you're hiding your receipts because these little sheets of paper and stickers and chipboard cost more than my shoe habit and that's saying a lot!) So, I spent about an hour in Michael's gathering my supplies and checked out (where I'm pretty sure the cashier thought I was going to pass out when she told me the total). My few meager items cost a whopping $50...and no, I hadn't even bought the pictures yet! Once I get home I order the pictures I'd picked out and there went another $15.

I'm sure this was my expression upon hearing that my homemade gift was costing $50 in supplies!

I'm currently about half way done and I have to say that I love it! I know that I'm nowhere near the realm of those professional scrapbookers out there (who must also be millionaires), but I think it looks great! I'll share some pics when it is complete, but here's what I'm taking away from this: sentiment isn't always cheap, but it's well worth it.

I'd like to give credit to whoever rightfully owns the above photo, but it appears that it has been passed around blogs and I can't find true owner. But here's me saying, "It's not mine, I don't own it, and I didn't make it...disclaimer done."

What's Cookin'...

I'm not usually very excited about making dinner (mostly because I'd rather keep my cooking reserved to things like apple dumplings and pound cake and brownies) but I have two recipes that I'm going to try this week and they sound quite delicious!
I found both on one of my most favorite blogs WHATEVER. I'm going to try Meg's Lasagna and Crescent Chicken. I've linked both recipes, but she also has a little button on the left where you can find more yummy recipes.


As for the rest of today, I will be reconstructing this wrecked house. Not sure if this happens to you, but my house falls apart every weekend. I'm starting to think that has something to do with the RedHead being home...he denies it.

Image Here

Top Five Friday...My Monkey

I have been thinking about how much I love my little Monkey and how many smiles and laughs he brings into my life, so I thought this week I'd share my Top 5 pictures of him that bring me joy! (...and I feel that this will be edition one of several in the future because I had a hard time just choosing 5!)

#5.

This is what happens when my Monkey doesn't have a nap. He plays till he passes out!

#4.

Here he is at 6 months...the child put his tongue out in every picture we took for about 3 months.

#3. Here's his interpretation of Gangsta' Monkey. Everyone knows undies on your head is cool.

#2. Not sure what to say about this one...it stands on its own!

#1. One morning the child came walking into the living room after waking and had a penny stuck to his head. He was obviously not amused that I wanted to take his picture that early in the morning.

Hope you enjoyed these as much as I do!

Mamaw's Pound Cake

I'm participating in Sweet Tea & Biscuits' Sips of the South Posts, so head on over this week to check out some great recipes submitted by Belles all over!

I Just Want To Shake This Chick

I didn't plan on writing anything today, but then I happened to catch a segment on trash tv about Heidi Montag. She was being interviewed about her recent plastic surgeries...all 10 of them! I have to give the show props for at least questioning her about her motives and the message this sends to other girls and women instead of just telling her she looks wonderful.

For me, plastic surgery is a mixed bag. I am not totally against it, but when someone does an overhaul like Miss Heidi did I think it's a sign of a deeper emotional problem. I can understand the whole, "regain your confidence" thing (especially after seeing how pregnancy can change a body), but when you need to fix problem areas that don't actually exist, that's where I draw the line. I know this is a hot topic button for a lot of people, but I just had to put it out there. If I met Heidi I'd probably want to shake some sense into her (like any mother would) and then hug her and tell her that she is beautiful.

What needs the overhaul is her self perception and confidence, not her body.

Laundry Fail

So ya' want to know what's NOT fun??? That would be going through the laundry fail that happened to me yesterday. Domestic goddess that I am, I decided to multitask several chores so I threw in a load of laundry and went off to sweep and wash up the dishes. I heard the machine cut off went to the mud room to switch everything to the dryer. When I opened the machine, nothing could have prepared me for what I discovered.

No, it wasn't a red sock in with the whites...or bleach on my darks.

It was something that is supposed to help prevent messes. Yep, it was a pull-up. Let me rephrase that, a Busted Pull-Up! My Monkey still wears them sometimes at night just as a precaution, but no more. I'd rather wash sheets a hundred times over to avoid the mess I made yesterday. In my haste to accomplish maximum work in minimum time, I overlooked the pull-up that was in a pair of pajama pants. As I pulled each article of clothing out of the washer, I had to shake off a thousand of little gel pellets. It was an absolute mess! Two rinse cycles later, the clothes were mostly clean and I was able to dry them (no harm done). Moral of the story:

A bad job done twice is never as good as a well job done once.

...or my moral: feign incompetence and hope your hubby will do the laundry instead.

It's The Cuteness

My favorite place to shop for children's clothes is Gymboree. Absolutely adorable clothes for girls and boys (and cute boy clothes are hard to find) and when they run a sale, the prices are reasonable. I just used my GymBucks to pick up a few spring items which I'm saving for my Monkey's and the Bug's birthdays.

Just look at this cuteness!

...which I'm sure he'll insist on wearing to swim lessons every day!

The sweetest dress eva'!

Oh, she's gonna' be a doll!

Alright, time to do a bit of housework...trying to keep the clutter to a minimum these days to stick with my NY resolution! And just f.y.i, the Bug is still on sleep strike. No morning nap = cranky baby and a Mama who will need a glass of wine tonight!

Also, if you're looking to enter a fun little giveaway, hop on over to The Treat Girl and enter to win some sweet treats!

Weekend Highlights

Here's the highlights of the weekend (not because I don't want to write, but because the Bug is a demanding little thing that will not give me more than 2 minutes of peace).

Saturday:
Went to a baby shower for a friend...held a newborn...officially got baby fever again.

Got together with a group of girls from college to have lunch, talk, randomly decide to watch video of scary moments from my bachelorette party, then need a drink to erase it from my memory again.

The Bug decides that sleep is for the weak and reverts back to her newborn days of eating every 3 hours through the night and will only go to sleep on my chest.

Sunday:
Go to Sunday School because my Monkey L.O.V.E.S going to church! This makes me a very happy Mama!

Grocery shopping. Where I manage to spend a lot of money and leave with minimal food.

Bug repeats her eating/sleeping routine. I officially lose the baby fever I had caught.

Monday:
Sleep to 9am, awaken to breakfast in bed and the kids being sent to the sitter's so I can have a leisurely day to myself. Okay, this part was just a dream. Actually awaken at 5am to a screaming babe who demands to eat 4 times in 2 hours. Nurse twice, bottle twice. Can we say growth spurt?!

Go with my Mama and the babes to have Bug's picture taken in her Christening gown. They are lovely!

Ride out to land to see where the RedHead met with the contractor and marked the house corners.

Now you're up to speed and from the screaming coming from the nursery I'm guessing we're in for night 3 of this new bedtime routine. If you don't hear from me for a few days it's because I'm trying to get this child to sleep! Please send encouragement...

Top Five Friday...Southern Edition

photo courtesy of www.southernliving.com

Welcome to this week's Top Five Friday! I'm going to share with you a list that is near and dear to my heart. The top five things I love about the South!

#5. The speed of life. This one was hard to label because it is so abstract...a certain Je ne sais quoi, as the French would say. I like that life passes just a bit slower in the South. I know the buzz of a big city can be exciting, but I like a life that is a bit more leisurely. This quote sums it up best:

"In the South, the breeze blows softer...neighbors are friendlier, nosier, and more talkative. This is a different place. Our way of thinking is different, as are our ways of seeing, laughing, singing, eating, meeting and parting. Our walk is different, as the old song goes, our talk and our names. Nothing about us is quite the same as in the country to the north and west. What we carry in our memories is different too, and that may explain everything else."
--Charles Kuralt in "Southerners: Portrait of a People"

#4. The accent. Whether it's men, women, or children, I love to hear the drawl of a Southern accent. I know some people might take a few IQ points off the top when they hear me talk, but that's a risk I'm willing to take to keep my accent. (...and if they underestimate you, you can really show 'em who they're dealing with later)

#3. The respect for tradition. There are too many to name, but traditions involving church, family, sports, etc are respected and there's something to be said for that.

#2. The food. Oh my! Well, there's the biscuits, the cobblers, the sausage gravy, grits, and everything fried (which is personally my favorite category): chicken, okra, squash, and Fried Green Tomatoes!

#1. The men. I love the way they are gentlemen (at least some of them), their accent, and their work ethic. If all else fails, slap something seersucker on them and a bowtie and my heart melts!

These are the things I love about the South. What do you love about where you live (whether it's in the North, South, or out West)?

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