Wet Weekend...

Happy Monday!!!

My goal for April is to be POSITIVE!!! and since April 1st is Wednesday...I'll start working on my goal today.

It's Monday, hurray!!!! (I'm struggling here).

So this past weekend was, fun. Friday night sevy and I relaxed at home. We threw some all natural, local farm raised steaks on the grill. I stuffed some mushrooms and cooked up some Brussels sprouts and we had dinner!! Then we did a whole lot of nothing, haha. I think I'm one of the biggest twilight fans and lucky for me, sev doesn't mind!! So we ended up watching twilight for the oh-i-dont-know-like-1202938949020193 time after dinner, lol.
Saturday we woke up to........rain..........I mean, really what else did we expect it rains almost EVERY durn weekend we have plans to spend together! Oh well. We made the best of it. We went to the local farmers market (yes again...we're pretty much hooked) and loaded up on some fresh, local, produce. Lets see. We got baby collards, a mixed bag of salad greens, some cilantro seeds (I love cilantro and I think I can grow my own, we'll see...I'll update my progress w/ that), we got some blood oranges, asparagus, some fresh baked cinnamon swirl bread, a cream cheese braid, some steel cut oats milled here in cola, some speckled grits also milled here and some all natural, local farm raised chicken breasts. I was wanting some local pork tenderloin b/c we got some of that last time and it made THE BEST BBQ EVER!!! but neither of the local farmers had brought any this time, boo! For breakfast we got an all natural, made w/ all local ingredients, crepe. YUMMMMY!!!! I had mine w/ local honey (something I have NOT been able to get enough of lately!!!) and sev got strawberry jam in his (also super yummy!!). They were sooo good. While not all that filling...they def. held us over until we broke into our cinnamon bread and shared a slice. Then we left and headed out in search of a dress I could wear to the wedding we were attending that evening. I found a simple little dress pretty quickly and in no time flat we were back home and getting ready for the evening.
I want to say that I am greatly enjoying the local farmers market!!! If I could, I would buy ALL of my groceries there...though it is a tad bit pricey compared to our grocery stores...but I do like supporting local farmers so we're trying to do what we can. Also, I can't say ENOUGH about local honey!!!!! I have SEVERE allergies (those that know me can attest to that!!!!) I am VERY excited to say that I have had not ONE allergy attack since the pollen has started dropping by the pounds here!!! Not one!!! I've been eating local honey religiously...though its not all that hard, lol....and it really is doing something for my allergies, I really believe that!! Plus it is sooooooooooooooo good....I think I could pour it on anything! We've probably gone through half a gallon in the past month or two...for real. I also enjoy sourwood honey (our local honey man makes this honey, but its not considered local b/c he actually has to keep those hives in Boone NC b/c thats where the sourwood is pollinated from) they call it the "champagne" of honey...and baby let me tell you...it is AMAZING!!!!
So...while I was picking over the yummy looking asparagus...I ran into a basket of blood oranges. Now, I've never seen a blood orange. I've only heard of them...and only once have a heard of them. My cousin spoke about them in a few posts back and while I was interested...I forgot about them. So being the adventurous one, lol...really how adventurous do you have to be to try some yummy looking fruit, lol.....I grabbed up a pound of them. They are really beautiful, small, redish orange skin and looked so juicy! I ate my first one today for snack...........OH MY GOSH are they good!!!!!!! I don't know how long these beauties are in season...but I have found my new favorite snack!!!!!! I was shocked at how BLOOD red they are!! I was thinking more along the looks of like a ruby red grapefruit, but these little guys are RED RED...lucky for me they don't seem to stain...b/c I had blood oranges juice dripping off of myself and my desk (haha) oh but it was so worth it!!!!! If you run across these little babies....try one, you'll be glad you did!!

So Saturday night we met up w/ Jessie and Don and attended Kerry and Royals wedding. It was sooooooo beautiful!!! I was sad that it rained, the location was absolutely gorgeous...probably one of the prettiest wedding locations I've ever seen. It would have been a spectacular outside wedding...but lucky for the bride, she was smart enough to go ahead and order a tent...which kept the party dry!! It was sooo pretty. The tent had strings of lights on the ceiling on the inside and it looked like we were under stars. The food was great and the bride was gorgeous. We had a nice time. The band she had was a island band and the music was sooo neat. I loved the drums and the style of dancing that island musics brings. We had a great time and weren't quite ready for the evening to end when the bride and groom drove away....apparently neither were the bride and groom b/c they met us out on the town later on. Where most of the wedding party ended up!! We danced the night away and ended up spending the night in the Hilton in downtown Columbia. We had a blast and such a fun time seeing all of our friends from all over. Sunday was pretty relaxing. I cleaned a bit and just enjoyed the weather. Sevy left for a few hours to go walk around the local fair grounds (they were holding the sportmans classic there this weekend). He returned home and we shared a pizza and some icecream....a perfect ending to a nice weekend.

We have plans to go fishing and camping next weekend....if the weather holds up!! I told sev I would attempt to fish IF he finds me a pink fishing pole...haha. I have very fond memories of fishing w/ my dad...........I hated it. LOL. I LOVED spending time w/ my dad....thats about the only reason I would go, that and for the fact that my brother wanted to go BADLY and I couldn't let him do that....**sigh** I was mean, I know.

Anyways.....HAPPY MONDAY!!!!!

CUPCAKES!!!

Everyone knows that I'm now into this big, ole', yummy, cupcake fetish. I can't get enough of them...not only eating them, but pictures of them and recipes of them and anything made to look like them. They are just so cute and fun to make! Anyhow, I love how my family and friends have noticed my new love and have jumped right in to share their cupcake finds with me :-) I'm loved!
Last week I received an envelope from Henry and his mom. In it was pages from a magazine that Henry's mom cut out for me...on the pages? cupcakes!!!!
My mom called to tell me that she picked up a magazine w/ cupcake recipes in it for me last weekend. Then my aunt sent me a link for cute cupcake creations. My best friend just sent me another link....I just love the love my new love is getting me :-) Thanks family and friends.

So last weekend I made keylime cake cupcakes. Yum. I LOVE keylime pie...it is probably my favorite dessert...EVER (I would even eat keylime pie over a cupcake...well maybe). So what could top a keylime cupcake?? uhm...nothing. I made another batch to share w/ Aud while she visits with me this weekend. I also received two new cupcake cookbooks in the mail last week!! One is the book I've had my eye on FOREVER, its from William-sonoma and its ALLLL about cupcakes! I found it on Amazon for CHEAP and had to have it :-) Along with that book I found a little cupcake cookbook with all vegan cupcakes...hmmm, my first thought was "yeah right NO..if I'm eating a cupcake it is going to be an all out normal cupcake, don't ruin a good thing!!" Then I read the book reviews...this little book had over 200 reviews!! All positive. Most of them were from people saying "I'm not vegan but I had one of these cupcakes that a vegan friend of mine made it it was AWESOME, I bought the cookbook asap!!" Other reviews swore that the vegan cupcakes out did any regular cupcake any day!! They also claimed that the vanilla vanilla (no I'm not stuttering) cupcake recipe was worth the price of the book (a mere 4 bucks I might add!). So I'm excited to try one of these recipes out soon...don't worry I'll have sev be my taster before I offer them up to family :-)
I also got the CUTEST set of cookie cutters to use for cupcakes. Mini Noahs Ark!! So cute. I took pictures of all of the above mentioned things but haven't uploaded them yet...I will in time.
So tonight I'm icing the keylime cupcakes with buttercream icing. I'm making a batch of dark chocolate cupcakes w/ strawberry butter cream icing and banana cupcakes w/ peanut butter icing. Then I'm going to venture outside of the sweet cupcake zone and try my hand at zucchini feta cupcakes and tomato basil cupcakes. Don't worry...we're not eating all of those this weekend :-) I'm taking alot to the people at work and I'll freeze the rest!! I've got to practice my cupcake skills though!!
So that's my cupcake news.

Its Thursday and sunny out. I'm excited the week is almost over. I'm spending this weekend with Aud and doing nothing but girl things!! Chick flicks, cupcakes, pedicures and shopping...that's it. I hope everyone else in blog land has a wonderful weekend. Oh I also want to say HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to my cuz...it was this past St. Patty's day that she and her husband have been married 2 years!! It seems like just yesterday we were getting our hair and makeup done w/ little green shamrock stickers on us for pinching protection, hehe! No she isn't Irish, lol, it just happened to be St. Patricks day that Saturday.

What does jury duty and a raw chicken have in common???

ME.


So Wednesday evening I decide I am going to cook a crock pot chicken for Thursday nights dinner!! I get the little chicken all prepared. I take a whole chicken, cut up some carrots and toss some peas and chicken broth into the pot with the frozen chicken. I season that sucker and leave him to be thawed by the next morning so that I can cook him up for the next evening. He looks GOOD...well as good as a raw chicken with bumpy skin and a bony butt can look. The next morning (yesterday morning) I get up and go through my usual morning routine. Get ready for work, throw my lunch into my lunch bag, brush my teeth, pack my breakfast, let ali out, put ali up, put my shoes on...and go turn the crock pot on. My mouth waters throughout the day as my mind thinks about the chicken getting nice and yummy at home. 5 o'clock comes around and I head off towards home, towards a nice crock pot full of cooked chicken and veggies!! I get home, get the mail, let ali out, let ali back in, take off my jacket and shoes while licking my lips and open the lid to the crock pot.....uhm.....the chicken still looks like it did this morning....what gives? I pick the chicken up and yep...its cold, its cold and limp. What?? I look at the knobs, its on low...I feel the pot...its cold...my eyes catch the cord and follow it up to the outlet....only...the cord doesn't lead to the outlet. No. The crock pot cord leads to the end of the plug in...inches away from the outlet it should be plugged into. What? I remember looking at the outlet this morning to make sure it was plugged in!! I look at the outlet again........that's my can opener plugged in!!!!! I cooked a raw chicken w/ no electricity...and I'll go ahead and tell you, it does not work people!! So here I am with no dinner, a cold chicken and the days mail still in my hand. I open it up...I have jury duty next month.


Jury duty and a cold chicken.


ITS FRIDAY!!!! we're going to the circus tonight!!!!!

Can we Conclude that Charleston is Cursed?

Yes...Yes we can.

For the Na*l family that is.



Friday night Sev and I went out for oysters...as planned! Yummy! Then we headed on in to downtown Columbia and ate ice cream at marble slab..eh' not my fav. icecream place, but it hit the spot. Then we took a walk down Gervais st. and across the river. It was a nice evening. We returned home to fall asleep with plans of waking up early to meet my mom and dad.

Saturday morning Sev left early to meet my dad at Lake Murray and my mom took sevs truck back to my house to meet me and drop of "the pig" or better known as her dog "penny". Then mom and I headed out and down the road to Charleston. We ate lunch at the Mustard Seed and strolled around a few shops in Mt. Pleasant before we headed on into downtown Charleston. While heading to some shops in Mt. Pleasant we came within inches of getting creamed by a guy on a motorcycle!! I think I even said a few choice words, oops! Thankfully, he was able to recover in time and kept from hitting us...but it was scary and shook me up for a second or two.
The we headed on into Charleston and walked around King St., Market St, and Meeting St....did a little bit of window shopping. Oh yes...and we DID go to cupcake!! and they had my FAVORITE cupcake on the menu, double dark chocolate w/ lemon icing, YUM! We got two of those little yummies and continued to stroll. I picked up a nice little book "Common Sense Baking"...I'm ready to try some recipes! Then we found our way to the roof top bar where we shared an appetizer of pizza...which turned out to be more like a flat piece of bread w/ cheese on it...oh well, bread and cheese, we didnt turn it away! We decided to skip dinner (the "pizza" was enough and we had lunch late) and go straight for dessert!!! (no we had NOT eaten our cupcakes yet, we saved those!) We went to Kerminsky's (sp??) and split a toll house cookie pie...yum yum...while sitting in the Charleston place hotel. Then we decided to call it a night and head home. However, before all of that...as mom and I were driving around downtown trying to find a parking spot (long story short) a man stepped off the sidewalk and PUNCHED MY CAR!!!! WHAT?? yes...this man was getting ready to go across the street and mom and I can't figure out if he was mad b/c maybe I cut him off or just mean...but I NEVER saw him and before I knew it I heard a "WHAM" and seriously thought a person on a bike or motorcycle had hit me!! (we had motorcycles in front of us) mom said "no that MAN just HIT your car!!" I was pretty shocked and in disbelief. I didn't really know what to do so I just continued to drive. We found parking sometime later and got out to put our jackets (that were in the trunk) on. That's when I realized that the man not only hit my car but managed to put a big dent in my car :( :( :( Being the mother bear that she is...I think my mom was more upset than I was. She immediately started looking up and down the streets in search of the man that hit my car. Lucky for him..we didn't find him, haha!! We really didn't know what the man looked like, it all happened so fast and like I said I never saw him. So really, there was nothing that could be done. I chalked it up to "what goes around comes around" and either I deserved it or he would get what was coming to him. We didn't let it spoil or evening!!
While heading out of Charleston mom got the wild idea to drive up the coast and stay in litchfield (south of Myrtle Beach). So we took to Hwy 17 and arrived around midnight...with the time change it was 1am before we found our pillows and fell asleep. We're wild I tell you WILD!! haha. kidding. The next morning we enjoyed Starbucks on the patio and then we took a 6 mile jog/walk on the beach. It was fun and so nice out!! Then we headed on into Garden City where we ate at The Gulf Stream Cafe. We split one of our cupcakes for dessert!! Then we did a bit more shopping before catching HWY 378 on into Columbia. BUT BEFORE all of that...as I'm driving down 26 heading home and mom decides to turn around and head up 17 I get PULLED OVER FOR SPEEDING!!!!! okay...so I've almost been creamed by a motorcycle, I get a nice big ole' dent in my car AND NOW I'm getting a ticket!!!!! waaaaaa. I could only be honest and tell the officer that I honestly had no idea how fast I was going or even what the speed limit was!! I was trying to hurry and turn around and we were kind of lost and trying to decide what exit I needed to get off of and I just wasn't paying attention. LUCKILY...because mom and I are HOT babes...he let us off........hahahahaa Okay so that probably wasn't the reason...but for our sake, go with it! Then while out shopping later in Myrtle, we went to put some purchased goods in my trunk and mom hauls back and wacks the inside of my trunk w/ her fist (lol, I'm being dramatic, she just pushed really hard)....POP...out goes the dent from where the guy hit it!!! Yipeeeee!! It still had a small small dent...that of course will ALWAYS bother me...but not bad. **update, I just got back from getting my taxes done and sev was actually able to pop the rest of the dent out while standing in the parking lot!! woot woot!.

What makes this story match its title is the fact that something always happens to my parents when they are in Charleston. The last time, my dads bike was stolen. He HATES Charleston...hates hates hates it. Therefore, of course his words of "comfort" when I told him my sad story was "well that's what you should expect from Charleston" lol. So...Charleston is Cursed!!

However...mom and I had a ball and I'm sure we'll see Charleston again sometime in the future!!

Oysters and Beer

Okay so I'm not one for beer...but that's what we're having tonight, sans the beer for me!

I LOVE me some oysters, mmm mmm!
Its date night for sevy and I. I love date night. Yes we're married and no we don't have kids but I think we still need nights that we consider "date night", where sevy chooses where we go and what we do and I get to feel "pretty". Soooo sevy chose oysters and beer...lol, typical sev move. Whatever, I'm excited....the weather is AMAZING and its Friday, cha ching...how could life be any better?...don't answer that.
This weekend is suppose to stay amazing weather wise (so maybe we'll get SNOW!!! haha kidding local weather man bust) so sev is hitting up the lakes w/ my diddy and I get to spend some time with me madre'. We're thinking about walking the streets of Charleston...possibly visiting my favorite cupcake bakery on king street! wahoo...a sunny stroll and cupcakes, again...what could be better?
Sunday we don't have any plans (well besides watching perry noble on the computer, yes aud we're hooked), unless we spend the night in Charleston and soak up more sun...we'll go and do whatever tickles our fancy! Sev and dad will once again be...fishing..blah.
...by the way...what does "tickle our fancy" mean? hmmm....

So that's our weekend and I'm super excited its Friday!!

We did have a little scare this weekend...I forgot to mention in my last post.

We came home Saturday evening and Sev ran to get the mail out of the box before coming inside. I was busy getting our purchased items out of the car and balancing my coldstone cupcake. I looked up to make sure sev was back inside the garage before I closed the garage and saw him standing there, in the rain, holding our mail with this look of...I don't even know how to explain it...like "oh no" kind of sorta....on his face. I immediately said "what, whats wrong?" thinking in my mind that I had forgotten to pay a bill or something and we were getting something turned off or kicked out of our house...I mean, seriously that's the type of look he had on his face. He started walking into the garage and said "uhm, I got a letter from the Army and all I can see from the outside is the word "orders"." I rushed over to him and yelped "open it, now" he was taking entirely too long for me. At this point my heart was in my throat and I was feeling physically sick. We walked inside and while I tried to remain calm and under control (my dad says I'm overly dramatic and I admit I can be!) I opened the fridge to put my cupcake away and tears just started falling. You know those tears that you didn't even plan on crying...just big ole' tears spilling out of my eyes. I was actually embarrassed for Sev to see me crying so I tried to hurry and wipe my eyes before I looked back at him and asked him what it said. He opened it and said it was NOT orders calling him back up..Praise the Lord!!! ...but just a memo about his orders to report for his routine check-in. I lost it. I didn't even realize I was that scared about him getting called back up. I mean, we've been talking alot about it and we know its a possibility...but I guess I didn't really sit and ponder the idea hardcore. It didn't really HIT me until I thought he had orders in his hands. "I can't do this again" was all I could think. There was no hiding the relief and tears began to spill out of my eyes AGAIN...this time even Sev looked like he could cry. We just hugged and he said "its okay, I'm not getting called back up". I realized just how HARD those deployments were on us emotionally. I mean, sure when he was getting ready to deploy and was deployed it was hard and I knew at the time that it was hard...but there was no way around it and it was what he had signed up for and what I had married into...it was our life and we just dealt with it. Now that he is Army free and we've come to realize what life is like w/out the Army and how much worry and stress has been removed due to being out of the Army...it was like a ton of bricks hitting us square in the heart when the thought of another deployment was in our face. I regained composure (b/c I'm trying not to be dramatic dad!ha) and silently said a prayer of thanks. I told Sev I was sorry for crying like that...I know the last thing he needs is his wife going bonkers if he were to get called back up! oh and yes...later we ate our icecream cupcakes, obviously from my last post :-)


Anyways, I ran across this article a few minutes ago and it made me think of our scare and then about all the people who were facing similar situations...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090301/ap_on_re_us/military_mom

I pray these deployments can all be over soon.

you don't say "snow" around these here parts!!

Not unless you want EVERYONE and EVERYTHING to go crazy....
People going frantic over milk and bread. Gas stations running out of gas. Snow plows and sanding trucks lined up for "battle". Winter coats pulled back out of the closets. Chains strapped to the tires. The sheriff on the news giving "how to stay warm and safe" tips. Trash bags draped over all of the newly planted flowers. Kids running amuck b/c SCHOOL IS CLOSED!!
That's right...ALL of those things happened here yesterday.

Why? because the local weather man fore casted S-N-O-W.

What happened? nothing...not a durn flake one!

**Sigh** come on Columbia!! Get it together already, this is the second time this year they have reached "panic" mode b/c someone mentioned s-n-o-w. Silliness.

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So this past weekend, other than the crazy "possible snow" induced panic, was nice!
Sev and I spent Friday evening at home with a homemade pizza, hand dipped chocolate strawberries and a movie!! We then woke up to a WET Saturday morning!! It had rained like crazy and was still coming down in buckets! I had been planning all week to go to the local fresh farmers market...and rain or even s-n-o-w wasn't going to stop me! So we bundled up in what rain gear we have, and headed out. Apparently we didn't have enough rain gear to handle the amounts of rain that were dumped on us....but we did have fun! We were soaked, but we enjoyed a hot breakfast. Fresh local eggs, sausage and stone ground grits, mmmmm mmmm! Then we got what I was searching for...some local h0ney! We even helped support the local farmers by getting some organic, farm raised chicken breasts and sirloin steaks. I'm excited to taste what fresh is really all about! I wanted some local produce, but the rain had already chased that farmer away. After the market we both looked like we had just taken a swim fully clothed. So we went back home to change and dry off. Then we headed back out to some outdoor stores. I was hunting a pair of hiking pants and Sev...well....being a man and all, he just wanted to look at the outdoor "toys". We ended up walking away with a sweet pair of hiking pants for me, a jacket for sev (one he has been wanting FOREVER and we finally found on sale!!) and two bags of nasty, slimy looking , fishing worms ("b/c linds its fishing seasons and these are new colors I HAVE to try if I'm going to catch the biggest fish!!" whatever, haha). Then we hit up COLDSTONE!!! and guess what I got!!!??!!! Well...none other than and ICECREAM CUPCAKE!!! Thats right, coldstone makes icecream cupcakes now....and I got one! To be honest, it disappointed me a little, there wasn't enough cake..but whatever, it was a cupcake, it had icecream and it was cute! Then we headed on home to hang out with Ali. Severyn woke up at 5am on Sunday morning to check for S-N-O-W (yes I'm going to continue spelling it, we don't want another panic attack around here!!). When he discovered there was none on the ground he decided we needed to go out and FIND some!!! So....off we went....in search of that cold, white stuff. This is the part my brother just finds odd and swears we're acting like old people(chris: "seriously linds, that's like what mom and dad do, you don't do that unless you're old or you have a cool car...mom and dad have the little white car and their old....whats your excuse...you're weird!"). We just spent the day driving around and exploring roads we had never been on before. We stopped and had a GREAT linner (this is what sev calls a late lunch, you know...in between lunch and dinner) at a little place called "Rockaways" it was YUMMY! I had the pimento cheese and fried okra and sevy had the rockaway burger, a burger piled high with pimento cheese!! Yikes, it sounds like death by clogged arteries...but it looked Gooooood!! Then we continued our drive looking for...yeah you know.
Obviously, we found no s-n-o-w but we had a GREAT time together :) Even when we had to stop and fight the snow crazed masses for toilet bowl cleaner and air filters ...we had fun :)
We came home to watch...what else but the WEATHER REPORTS, duh....and then drifted off into sleep with visions of snowflakes dancing in our heads ;)

Happy Monday!!!