Florida

Last weekend, Steve and I went to Florida for a long weekend. Steve's brother, Mike, lives in West Palm Beach and that is always one of our favorite places...especially in the winter!

I was excited to go, but last week was Teacher Appreciation Week at school, so I didn't want to miss our luncheon on Friday. They are always fun and we get pampered so I wanted to wait till that was over to leave. And I'm glad I did. Our lunch was so nice. They catered in Price's Fried Chicken. That place is well known here in Charlotte for being some of the best fried chicken around. Plus we had some amazing side dishes and desserts. And our tables were so pretty.


They gave away door prizes like a weekend away in the mountains, a day at the spa, and dinner and a movie. I didn't win anything though.


Right after school, Steve picked me up and we flew down to Mike's. The whole weekend was so nice and relaxing. We slept in and drank coffee out on the porch in the mornings.


We browsed around the Green Market...


and went to some street festivals. This picture shows some of the street art we saw. It was amazing!


We ate lots of yummy food. I had these fish tacos with pineapple salsa at Havana Hideaway in Lake Worth. They were featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, so I figured they must be good and they were!!


We sat outside and listened to live music. (The guy at Havana Hideaway sounded just like Jimmy Buffet. I loved it!)


We went to the pool and we saw The Descendants with George Clooney. Sunday night I watched The Oscars while Steve and Mike watched some slam dunk contest. Haha! We even rode a moped!


We had such a good time. It was hard to come back to reality. Here are a few pictures we took right before we left. (I used my phone to take all my pictures while we were there, so they aren't the best ever.)




This week has been super busy but I think we are finally back into a routine. Steve is flying out to Portland this weekend. He starts a new job on Monday. He has been working at the same place for almost 25 years, so this is going to be a brand new adventure for him. All my kids are on Spring Break either this week or next week, so I am looking forward to getting to spend some time with them. There is always something going on around here! :)

David's First Birthday

Somebody is turning one this week! I bet you can guess who it is. :) This sweet boy is turning one on Wednesday, but we had his party this weekend.


Ashley did such a good job getting everything ready. We had a whole spread of yummy food and she made a cute cake...


She made a banner of all David's monthly pictures and Aunt Lindy got one of her favorite pictures of him enlarged and framed for his room.


Plus Ashley made this Happy Birthday banner...


I'm a little worried that David isn't feeling very loved. There is just no one who loves on that child. (*wink*wink*)






He had grandparents, aunts, uncles, great-grandparents, and neighbors all there to celebrate his little life.












I can't believe it's been a whole year since David was born. He has brought us so much joy and happiness this year! We love him so much!


And since I didn't get to post anything on Valentine's Day, I just wanted to remember what we did. I got David this little Corduroy book and a teddy bear that I thought looked like Corduroy.


I just dropped it by their house since they had been sick. Ashley said David loved it!


We had a Valentines Day party at school and Steve and I just stayed home and grilled steaks. We were glad we stayed at home and really enjoyed just having a quiet, relaxing night. Sometimes going low key is perfect!

Oh...and one more thing...here are some pictures of our painted kitchen! We love how it turned out. Steve did a good job!




We have been busy this month, but it has been lots of fun!

Is Monday Again Already?

How was your weekend? Ours was really nice. We got our kitchen painted! Steve worked hard on it all day Saturday, but it still has a few little touches to add before I share it.

Friday night it was cold here, so I just made a big pot of vegetable soup and we stayed in and watched Moneyball.


I had no idea what it was about, but I really liked it! I had heard mixed reviews about it, but to me it was really interesting. And my brother recently got to meet the real Billy Beane(the General Manager of the Oakland A's who is Brad Pitt's character in the movie), so that made it even more intriguing to me.

Our neighbor, Melissa, who is like another daughter to me spent the night with us Friday and Saturday since her parents were out of town, so we got to chat and catch up for a while with her.

Friday night I looked at my phone and USA Today had breaking news that Whitney Houston had died. That made me so sad.


I hate when someones life is destroyed by drugs and celebrity. I loved her music back in high school...I Wanna Dance With Somebody, I Have Nothing, Saving All My Love For You, I Believe In You and Me...all those were my favorites! I really think she may have had the best voice of the past 50 years or more. I still get chills listening to her sing The Star Spangled Banner! Oh my goodness. It's just so sad.

Saturday it was absolutely freezing here and sooo windy. Steve painted all day. His mom even came over to help. And I just ran errands and hung out around the house. Ashley brought David over for a little while so we could play with him and kiss him to death.


We went out for pizza with Steve's mom Saturday night and then came home to our warm house and our pajamas!

Did you watch the Grammys last night? I thought it was really good and I was so glad Adele won and not Lady Gaga! My favorite performances were The Beach Boys and I loved The Band Perry singing Gentle On My Mind.



I know I am old and not with it, but I love Glen Campbell. I have to say, though, I was nervous watching him sing. I feel so bad that he has Alzheimer's now. It was kind of like watching Dick Clark do New Year's Rockin' Eve! I kept thinking he was going to forget the words. But he did good! Anyway...I thought Jennifer Hudson did an amazing job, too! And Carrie Underwood won for best dressed in my opinion (like she always does!)

Now we're back to Monday and I wish we would get some snow tonight, but it looks like it's just going to be rain. Boo! Before I go, I wanted to share a realllly good recipe I just so happened to come across yesterday. I was looking for something light and healthy and I found this Weight Watchers recipe and I loved it. I served mine with rice pilaf and sauteed spinach. It was delish!

Chicken with Balsamic Vinegar, Sweet Onions and Thyme



3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp table salt, divided
1/2 tsp black pepper, freshly ground, divided
1 pound(s) uncooked boneless skinless chicken breast(s), four 4 oz pieces
2 tsp olive oil
1 small uncooked vidalia onion(s), cut in half lengthwise, thinly sliced (about 2 cups)
1 cup(s) reduced-sodium chicken broth
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp thyme, fresh, chopped, or less to taste
2 tsp salted butter

On a plate, combine flour, 1⁄2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Dredge chicken in flour mixture and turn to coat; shake off any excess.

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook, flipping once, until golden brown, about 4-5 minutes; remove to a serving plate and cover to keep warm.

Add onion to skillet; sauté over medium-high heat until lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Add broth, vinegar, thyme and remaining 1⁄4 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Bring to a boil; cook, stirring often, until onions are tender, about 5 minutes.

Remove skillet from heat and stir in butter until melted; spoon sauce over chicken. Cover and bake at 350 for about 45 minutes. Yields 1 chicken breast and about 1/4 cup onion sauce per serving.

Enjoy!!

All You Need Is L♥ve!

So, since February is the LOVE month, I thought I would share some things I love today!

1. Red Stamp. If you have an iPhone, you need to download this fun app!


You can use it to spice up your pictures and make cards. Here are just a few I did while I was playing around with it. So fun!







2. Laugh, Paint, Create

I found some of the cutest art work and craft projects for kids on this website and I just love getting new ideas. This is a project you could do for Earth Day from recycled cereal boxes and gallon milk jug lids. Isn't it adorable?


Happy I found this one!

3. My "Come Monday" Pandora radio station. I listen to it all. the. time. I love all my old school music...Van Morrison, Jimmy Buffet, Carole King, James Taylor, Jim Croce. Puts me in the best mood! :)


But my second favorite is my John Mayer radio with Adele and Norah Jones and Mat Kearney and Gavin DeGraw! See....I can be versatile! :)

4. Some sweet moments with my class this week. We've had a little "girl drama" lately and it has about driven me crazy some days. But God gave me the opportunity to turn it around and give some hugs and kisses and teach forgiveness and that each day is a new beginning.

5. Getting away. How soon can it get here? Even though this has been the mildest winters I think I can ever remember, I am still looking forward to some sunshine, salty air, palm trees, reading poolside, flip flops and warm breezes. Two weeks from now...


You know what else I love? My cozy bed. And it is calling my name right about now! Goodnight bloggy friends!

Finished (Almost!)

Well, we finally got our kitchen counters finished! I told you I would share a few pictures, so here is what it looks like as of now.




I reframed the pictures I had in the kitchen...




...and bought a few new little things to go on our counters. We are still working on it, though. We are going to paint the kitchen, so that is the next step I'll show you when we are done.

It's funny how one thing leads to another in decorating. You get one thing done and then you realize you need to change something else to make it match, etc! I am trying to keep all that to a minimum if I can.

Anyway...that is the beginning of the extreme kitchen makeover. Haha!

In other news, it has been like spring here lately. Every day it makes you want to get outside and just enjoy the weather. Steve and I have been trying to walk a little bit and one day David came over to play on the porch.


He absolutely loved being outside. I know we are going to have so much fun this spring!

And even though it is spring-like outside, we pretended it was winter in my classroom this week and had some winter fun. We made these cute beaded snowflakes from thecraftjunkieblog...


and we did a science experiment and made borax crystal snowflakes...


They thought that was so neat! (I did too!)

And I finally finished my book, The Friday Night Knitting Club! Woo hoo! It only took me about 5 months! But, hey...at least I finished it. That is a big accomplishment for me during the school year. I got a new book for Christmas from one of the moms in my class. It is called Kisses From Katie and I am already about a fourth of the way through.


It is about a homecoming queen/class president from Nashville, TN who went to Uganda when she was 19 years old and just made it her home. She adopted 14 little girls and is being used by God in amazing ways. I already love it and would recommend it!

We are having a fun weekend. Mark came home this weekend so we have enjoyed catching up with him. And tonight we are going to one of our favorite Thai restaurants with some friends.

Are you doing anything for the Super Bowl? I think we are just going to order some wings and have appetizers and snacks. Ashley and John are coming over and my parents. We may have a few more people, too. Who knows? I don't really care much about who wins since the Panthers aren't in it. (They were FAR from being in it!) My next two choices would be the Saints or even the Broncos. But it will be fun anyway.

Hope you are having a good weekend, too!