Hello Monday ~ July 31, 2023

July seemed like a long month, so I am glad to welcome a new one tomorrow, even if it is the hottest month of the year for most places in the US.  It is also a month of back to school and fresh starts.  I am all about fresh starts!

Here is a little weekend re-cap....

Friday, I went to visit some friends I don't see that often.  I met this couple about 28 years ago and they are about 11 years older than I am.  I know both of their daughters, one whom was in town visiting, so I went down to spend a few hours with them on Friday.  They live just an hour from me.  As I was leaving, I asked if I could take a picture on his motorcycle.  Art then asked if I wanted to go for a ride.  I haven't rode on a motorcycle too many times in my life.  The first time I ever did was with him 28 years ago.  I trusted him, although I was scared and praying a few times as he picked up speed.  It was also fun to do something different.

Saturday morning, I captured these 2 butterflys on the plant at our mailbox.  Can you spot them?

I have thought for a while I didn't love the seating arrangment in our den.  I have  recently said if we ever move, I would like to get 2 sofas and chairs instead of this sectional.  But in the meantime, I moved some things around and I really like the change.  The seating seems more intimate now and the sofa is much closer to the tv.

Currently, Brook has a puzzle in progress on the coffee table!  I bought this coffee table from Wayfair probably 5 years ago.  I still like it, but I would like to buy a round one the next time I get one.

I decided the ottoman to this chair made the space too bulky, so we moved it to sit against the wall behind the chair.

Saturday night, I made the chicken Amy talked about last week.  I took chicken breasts, spread Boursin cheese on it, wrapped it in bacon and baked it for 45 minutes at 375.  I made 2 trays of this and put it back in the oven for an additional 15 minutes at 400.  I then put in on low broil for 3 minutes to brown the bacon a bit.  I had a few grape tomatoes I put in the pan to cook too.  I served this with salad and corn, and it was delicious.  We watched the new Jim Gaffigan comedy special on Amazon Prime Saturday night.

Sunday, we went to church and a trip to the grocery store, my 2nd visit this weekend.  For lunch Sunday, I made this salad:

I used spinach salad, strawberries, mandarin oranges, feta cheese and crumbled pecans.  For the chicken, I took leftover chicken from Saturday night, cut into bite size pieces and warmed it in the micowave.  This was a great way to use up more of the chicken I cooked.  This recipe was inspired from the Longhorn Steakhouse menu that sells a grilled chicken salad.  The salad calls for a raspberry vinegrette dressing.  Call me crazy, but unless I eat a prepared salad someone has made, I don't eat salad dressing.  Years ago when I did the Whole 30, (which I don't ever plan to do again, ha) I got in the habit of not eating dressing.  This was back in the day before Whole 30 dressings existed & it was easier to just go without it. This is the only habit I have kept up since doing that.

I am off to work today...hope you have a good Monday!

Linking up with Holly and Sarah

 

What's Up Wednesday ~ July 2023

I am joining up for the July edition of What's Up Wednesday.  This month seemed to drag on a little bit for me, but here is the recap.....

What we're eating this week.......

Monday - I ate Mexican with girlfriends before going to see the Barbie movie

Tuesday - my best friend was in town so we went out to eat Mexican too

I'll be honest....the rest of the week, I have no idea.

What I'm reminiscing about......

Life as a family when my girls lived at home is something I think about as a new school year begins.  It was always so fun to start new curriculum as homeschool mom and I'm so thankful for that time with them.

What we've been up to.......

Yesterday, I helped my best friend's daughter move and they stayed at my house before leaving town today.  It was a long day, but thankful to have time with them.

What I'm dreading.........

I know time will go by fast before my daughter leaves for her 2nd year of college.  I will miss her!

What I'm excited about.........

I am excited about the return of fall weather!  We have had a few days of extreme hot weather (by my definition, anything over 95), but I feel like most of our summer has just been our normal summer in the south heat.  Whenever the bugs go away, is a good day for me.  

What I'm watching..........

This week, I haven't watched much since my cable has been out all week.  Ugh, the frustrations of first world problems.  My frustration has mainly been with people misleading me and giving me wrong information over and over again.  My trust level of people is sadly very low these days. 

What I'm listening to.......

I am listening to a variety of music this summer. I am listening to Yacht Rock in the car when not listening to podcasts.  I am slowly changing some of the podcasts I listen to as sometimes I just don't feel like I relate to some of these parenting/family ones anymore. I still enjoy Big Boo podcast and The Office Ladies, even though I am a few episodes behind on that.

What I'm wearing.........

I am wearing dresses to stay cool!  I ordered one from Amazon prime, one from Target, and 2 from Kohls.  This is the Target dress I wore to my niece's wedding.  The others I haven't worn yet.  I have so many summer dresses, but when I find one for under $25, it is hard to pass up! This is me with my sister, who has 8 grandkids!!

What I'm doing this weekend...........

I don't have any plans as of now, so it will probably be low key and just cleaning/organizing around the house.

What I'm looking forward to next month.........

I hope to travel to see my oldest daughter for a weekend.  She will probably be moving into a new place next month, so I hope to go and help with that if she needs it.

What else is new....................

My work has moved offices, so we are in the midst of getting organized and still trying to get some work done.  It may take a few weeks to find our groove...and some supplies!

 

Hello Monday ~ July 24, 2023

 Good morning & happy Monday!

  In line with so many news stories from around our country, our area has had our fair share of storms this summer.  Thankfully, we aren't affected too often by power outages.  Thursday night, there was another bad storm we could hear during the night.  Friday, I did some catching up at home then went to visit some distant cousins who I haven't seen in over 10 years.  These cousins served with the International Mission Board living in Singapore, Indonesia, India and then the San Francisco area.  They have just moved to Mississippi to retire and are the sweetest people.  I thought the storms were over, but another rainstorm came through in the afternoon.  While I was visiting with family, things were happening at my house I wasn't aware...namely a lightning strike to a tree.

A neighbor texted me to let me know what happened, so I wasn't shocked when trying to pull into my driveway.  Needless to say, we spent Saturday morning cleaning up the driveway.  I also took advantage of mowing the grass because it was below 80 degrees until noon! I was so thankful for a cooler summer day to be dealing with this. Thankfully, our home didn't get too much damage, but the new truck did.  We will wait to see what the adjusters say as to any upcoming repairs. This could have been so much worse, so I was thankful.

Saturday afternoon, I spent some time putting away groceries after a trip to the grocery store and did some baking.  I tried making a bundt cake, which looked so pretty in the pan.  After cooling for about 30 minutes, I went to flip it and it all just fell apart.  That was a bust, but thankfully, my other dessert, Oreo Delight, seemed to have turned out well.

I also made the tomato pie that Jennifer had made recently.  I adjusted the recipe and combined it with one I found in a Southern Living.  It was really good. I used greek yogurt instead of mayo and I made my own crust using saltine crackers.  The recipe for that crust can be found here.

On a beauty note, I am a fan of using daily sun screen on my face and is a habit I wish I would have begun back in my teens or twenties, but we just didn't think about things like that then!  I have used Super Goop and really liked it.  I found an ELF dupe at a much lower price and received it in the mail on Friday.  I still have some other product to use up first, so once I begin using this, I will try to remember to give an update on what I think.  Have any of you used this?  I use ELF for other beauty cleansing, so I am hopeful for this product as well.

Sunday morning, I heard this great song on  Elvis radio on XM.  The Elvis channel plays his gospel music on Sunday mornings.  Did you know that out of the 14 Grammys Elvis was nomiated for, the only 3 he won were for his gospel music?  Yes, I spent 3 summers as a tour guide at Graceland!

Some of you may have seen Shay's blog last week about cable options.  I am one of those who has utilized cable because it provided all the channels we watched and was about the same price as streaming platforms once I included my internet as well.  The price has recently gone up for us, so an online cable chat agent had me switch unkowingly to a streaming device they offer.  Well, I am already regretting it and spent Sunday afternoon trying to research other streaming platforms and how to get back the channels and DVR I had become so accustomed to using.   These are such first world issues.

I did laundry and then we went to have dinner with a few other couples from church.  Once a quarter, we have something called Dinners for 8.  They mix and match couples to have dinner at someone's house and we all bring food.  It is a fun time to get to know others better within our church and eat good food!  I took the Oreo Delight dessert I made on Saturday.

It is a busy week ahead, but I am hopeful for a good one. I hope yours is off to a good start!

Thanks for stopping by on the Monday friend!

Linking up with Holly and Sarah

Friday Favorites ~ July 21, 2023

 Happy Friday!  I am happy to be sharing some favorites from the week.  I am thankful it is the end of the week and another weekend is here.  

First, going back to last Friday night, a favorite was dinner with Jennifer!

Monday night, I went to dinner with my husband and the food was delicous!

Delicious popovers with strawberry butter

There was a salad served before this shrimp dish.

And then key lime pie for dessert!  Y'all know I love some key lime!

A few weeks ago, a favorite was a dear friend I met 27 years ago came for a visit.  She is from Louisiana and brought some cajun food.  This week, I made the pork that was stuffed with cream cheese jalapeno.  It was delicious.

Tuesday night, we had storms, but I had no idea what was going on around me as I sat outside and watched the rain.  I am thankful we didn't lose power, but so many people did in our city.

My mother-in-law makes beautiful hand towels by using appliques and sent me one in the mail this week. Isn't it beautiful?

And lastly, I was able to meet my college roommate and suitemate at a coffee shop yesterday.  One lives about 3 hours away and the other actually just lives 30 minutes away from me, but we don't see each other much. It is always fun to catch up life and remember dorm life!

Wishing you all a great weekend!

Wedding

 Today I am sharing pictures from my niece's wedding last weekend.  This took place outside of Charlottesville, Virginia and the setting was just beautiful!

These were pictures as I watched my brother get a first glance of his daughter in her wedding dress.  I was teary as I filmed and took pictures of this.

The ceremony took place to the right in the chairs you see and the reception was under the tent.

We took advantage of the scenery and took a lot of family picutes.

These are 4 of the 6 girl cousins.  

This is my youngest daughter and her cousin.  They are 6 weeks apart in age and have always been so close.  It was so fun to see them having fun together!

Gosh, I love my girls.

This is my brother, sister and I.  My sister is the oldest, then my brother (father of the bride) and me.  We were all born within 3 1/2 years, so we are close in age.  My brother and I are just 11 months apart.

My sister and I

My niece with her oldest, one my sweet greats.

Me and the girls with another sweet great of mine

There was a signature cocktail served with fancy cheese and crackers and grapes after the ceremony before the reception.  It was all yummy. We are fans of tasting all the fancy cheeses!

My brother and sister-in-law at the reception

Me with my sweet Crawford girl!

There was so much fun dancing at the reception!  I like to dance, but I mostly watched.  There were so many professional dancers there, they were just so fun to watch!  Here is the bride and groom when lifted up in chairs.

It was a fun night celebrating my sweet niece!

About Last Week ~ 7/17/23

Good morning!  I am back from blogging, but yet took a week off again last week due to travels.  This was my only scheduled trip for the summer, however, I may have one random weekend trip before the end of the summer.  When I travel, I don't take my computer, so I didn't blog and fell behind on reading blogs.  It is good for me to take a break from the computer though!  

Before I get to last week and my trip recap, here is a short recap of my weekend.

It started out with a fun evening out with our favorite blogger, Jennifer!  We met for dinner and so fun to talk in person!

Saturday, I spent time going through stacks of papers and organizing.  I went to a baby shower and then to our AAA baseball team's game, where they had fireworks after the game.

My precious niece, who is a professional ballerina, got married last weekend!  My youngest and I flew last Friday and then my oldest daughter flew out on Saturday and met us there for the weekend.  Several of my extended family also traveled for the wedding.

Wedding bound!

We ate dinner Friday night at the Patrick Henry pub.

This is the famous church in Richmond where Patrick Henry gave his Give me Liberty or Give me Death speech.

Later that evening, my niece and my youngest great were all smiles.

This is another pretty church we saw while walking to lunch on Monday.

I am typically a loyal Delta flyer, but we flew American this time because we stopped in Charlotte for a few days after leaving Richmond.  They don't have screens, but they have these trays to display your tablet or phone for viewing.  I had not seen these before.

As an extra bonus, one of my best friends who I met while living in South America was in Virginia the same weekend I was.  We realized we would be 2 hours from one another, so met halfway Saturday morning for breakfast.  She still lives in Bogota, and it was wonderful to see her!

Saturday night, we drove over to the Charlottesville area for the rehearsal dinner.

Me and my girls

The beautiful bride-to-be and groom

It was a sweet time!  Part 2 of wedding pictures will be coming tomorrow!