2 weekends ago my mom, sister and her boyfriend came to spend a couple days with Todd & I. Friday while the hubs was working we all went up to Thomasville, GA and ate lunch and did some shopping!!

We ate at this fabulous restaurant called Jonah's

It might look familiar because it was in the last issue of Southern Living

I got the shrimp and grits and they were out of this world!! Todd and I only live about 15 miles from Thomasville, so I do believe this might become one of our favorite spots :)

I love walking around Thomasville. The old town feel is remarkable and the little shops that line downtown are great places to find unique gifts.

I fell in love with two light fixtures in two different stores and I had to take pictures so one day my husband can recreate them in our house!!

Here is the second one.

Hanging mason jars as light bulbs, how awesome!!

Poor Troy was stuck holding all the bags!

My sister, Mom and me before we went to dinner Friday night!

Hill & Troy before dinner.
We had so much fun with the 3 of them here and I can't wait for the whole family to be at the house next Thursday before we head to Panama City Beach for labor day! :) Everyone have a good week!

Destin

Todd & I enjoyed soaking up the sun in Destin with our Arkansas family! The beach was gorgeous, the weather was perfect and the company, well we couldn't have asked for any better :)

How I would love to be able to end every day lounging on the beach listening to the oceans waves.

The mansion we were fortunate to be able to stay in! I guess I should rephrase my statement above . . . How I would love to end everyday lounging on the beach and be able to walk up to this as my home :)

The sweet baby boy

We had so much fun grilling out, shopping, going out to dinner and playing some intense sequence games! We can't wait till next time!

Redneck Caviar

This recipe is definitely a family favorite :)

Hope everyone enjoys it and that it shortly becomes a family favorite of yours!

1 can black eyed peas (drained, not rinsed)

1 can black beans (drained, not rinsed)

1 can rotel (as is)

1 can mexican corn (drained)

1 fresh bundle cilantro (chopped)

1 bundle green onions (chopped)

With both of the above items you might not use the whole bundle just add as much as you desire. Personally, I LOVE cilantro so it's never too much!

1/4 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon cumin

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons spicy mustard

2 cloves garlic (I use the already minced garlic in the little glass bottle that you can find near your produce and I usually use about 2 teaspoons)

1/4 teaspoon salt

Combine the beans, rotel, corn, cilantro and green onions together.

Mix all the other ingredients together ( I usually whisk it together tends to blend better) and then pour over the mixture above and mix.

It is better to do this and let it sit over night in the fridge! Also, if making for a large crowd double recipe. Dip will last up to a week in refrigerator. Serve with tortilla chips and ENJOY :)

July 4, 2011

I'm in between loads of laundry and I'm trying to catch up on back blog posts. Anyhow, July 4th for Todd and I is typically spent at Cherry Lake in Madison, FL. If I've never mentioned it before Todd's family is outrageously HUGE! Which makes for a great weekend filled with family bonding over lots of eating, boating, game playing, eating, annual softball game, and did I mention EATING? Yes, I married in to a family that enjoys eating just as much as I do. Match made in heaven :)

I made some July 4th decorated sugar cookies iced with cream cheese icing :)

Chocolate covered Rice Krispies

Cheater's Banana Pudding (which is totally AWESOME)

Prep time - 15 minutes

Ingredients:

2 bags PF chess cookies (I couldn't find Chess cookies so I used 2 boxes of Lorna Doone shortbread cookies)

6-8 large bananas

2 cups milk

1 5oz box french vanilla pudding

1 8oz block cream cheese (softened)
1 14oz can condensed milk

1 12oz container of whipped topping (cool whip)

Directions:

Line the bottom of a 9 x 13 dish with 1 bag/box of cookies and layer bananas on top. In a bowl combine the milk and pudding mix and blend well using a hand held mixer. Using another bowl, combine cream cheese and condensed milk together and mix until smooth. Fold the whipped topping into the cream cheese mixture. Add the cream cheese mixture to the pudding mixture and stir until well blended. Pour mixture over cookies and bananas and cover with remaining cookies.

There you have it! Thanks Ash for this super easy, super delicious banana pudding recipe:)

Some of my favorite people. . . See Todd & Zachary in the background tubing!

Z & Uncle Todd taking a short canoe ride on the lake . . . Hey, at least we try and negate all the food we consume with a little physical exertion. I was on the dock laying out ;)

Is he not the sweetest thing you've ever laid your eyes on?

We had another great year at the lake and we look forward to July 4, 2012 and the new additions to the family ;)

Arkansas

Our one night stay in Memphis was great, but after enjoying a wonderful breakfast we hit the road and were very excited to get to our Arkansas family!

Right outside downtown Memphis you almost immediately cross over the mighty Mississippi and enter Arkansas.


Isn't Todd's cousins house tremendous??!!!! Pictures don't even do this house justice.

The boys were determined to cook us a wonderful dinner & they did just that.

Jill & Todd played a couple basketball games with the kids. Not quite sure who had more fun the little kids or the big ones :)

Todd & Jill sitting around watching the sunset!

Everybody hanging out having a good time

After a wonderful steak dinner the kiddos settled down outside to enjoy a movie under the stars.

Todd and I had such an amazing time in Arkansas hanging out and relaxing with family we don't have the privilege of being around that often. I figured now was the time to get the post done just in time to go on another vacation with our Arkansas family this week :) I promise to be more timely in my post about our upcoming vacation.

Memphis, Tennessee

For Memorial day, Todd & I packed up the ole Corolla and headed North-West. First stop, Memphis Tennessee . . . Final destination ARKANSAS :)
We were headed to Arkansas to visit with Todd's aunt & uncle and his cousins. We decided it was probably best to split the trip from Tallahassee to Arkansas up. I had always wanted to visit Memphis and it seemed like the most logical place for us to camp out for the night before finishing our trip to Ark.
After spending 8 hours in the car, I had watched all the movies and read all the magazines I was interested in and I was ready to get out and eat some good BBQ!

On our ride over I read some tripadvisor reports on the best BBQ in Memphis. Todd and I picked Rendezvous and we weren't let down. After checking in to our hotel, we freshened up and took the short walk to the restaurant.
This restaurant was very old school Memphis. Multiple level building. You walk in on ground level, which is where you wait for a table or can get a drink at the bar, immediately to the left you go down a flight of stairs in to the restaurant. Our server was a very seasoned Memphis fella'. He lacked much personality, but I think that played in to the whole feel of the place.

I got the BBQ nachos

And babe got the dry rub ribs
Both were very delicious and we highly recommend a stop at Rendezvous if you ever find yourself in Memphis looking for some good ole BBQ :)

We took a stroll down Beale St, checked out all the blues/jazz bars

It's a pretty neat little downtown

It sort of has the same feel as Bourbon St on a smaller scale, and the fact that we were there on a Wednesday night made for a much smaller crowd. But we appreciate small crowds. Trust me, sometimes over crowded environments 'freak' me out and can cause an anxiety attack or 2 :)

This was the blues bar Todd and I selected out of the numerous to choose from. They were very good and so very talented. It's hard to believe there is that much talent out there that goes unsigned. But I guess these guys are just doing what they love!

I love him :)

Rockin' our Elvis glasses

Guest Bathroom Re-do

Builders beige, NO MORE :)

I had a very small budget and the Hubs was not interested in the least bit in partaking in this bathroom endeavor. . . So I had my work cut out for me!
I tried to take after my very talented expertise painter of a Brother, and not tape off the ceiling... Needless to say I am no where near close to a professional painter and after doing a very small corner in the bathroom and covering the ceiling in paint I decided taping off the ceiling was the best bet for me... After taping the entire room I painted all of the bathroom walls with the lighter color.

I painted horizontal stripes in another room in our house and I couldn't wait to transform another room with stripes and the guest bathroom was just the place! There is my handy dandy laser that sticks in the wall and helps me fulfill the perfectly straight lines I love of so much! I carefully taped as close as possible to the level laser rotating the tape from the bottom of the laser to the top of the laser depending on which stripe was going to be painted the darker color.

After about 4 hours all the tape was up and I was so excited to get the easy part over. It probably wouldn't take a normal person this long to tape off the room. But, I am no where near normal and if the tape wasn't perfect I removed it and started again! Notice the different size stripes above? That's what I was talking about previously when I said moving the tape above the laser or below the laser depending on which stripe was being painted. Once you remove the 2 pieces of tape that make up the small stripe, the two stripes are the exact same size... Hopefully, that makes sense :)

The colors are very similar, only one shade apart on the color wheel. Brother would be very proud of me for buying the best paint out there (Benjamin Moore - for those who are wondering), but honestly I'm not sure it was worth the $100 for 2 gallons!!! Since I only used very little of both colors, hopefully I can come up with another project or space I want to paint with these colors so I feel better about the money spent.

OK, the coolest part of this makeover were the countertop transformation!!!! Here are our ugly countertops before . . . Let me preface, I had a secret plan here... having already priced out granite for both our bathrooms I figured if I mess up completely and they look horribly, Babe will have no option but to replace them. Win/Win for me ;)

Months ago, I remember passing this little can in Home Depot and remembering one day I'd like to give that a try. I am all about some Rust-Oleum and this Rust-Oleum countertop coating is fantastic!!! For about $19, I'm glad I took the risk and glad they turned out! Unfortunately, no granite countertops yet, but I'm glad I have something else to look at other than the ugly tan countertops that were previously in there!!

I picked the Pewter color and it matched perfectly!I painted the countertops with a $1 very small foam sponge. The paint/stain went on super easy, although it smelled horrid and took quite a while to dry. I used very little out of the quart I bought, so I think one day I'll do our bathroom.

I primed and painted the cabinets and after about 3 coats of primer and 3 coats of white paint I had very white, crisp cabinets! :) Happy Girl

I also spray painted the mirror with Rust-Oleum's semi-gloss black paint

Slowly but surely we are transforming the rooms one by one to better match our taste! I love the bathroom and have already started planning my next room of attack!

Hope everyone is enjoying their week. For me, I'll take a 2 day work week anytime. . . We are headed on vacation Wednesday & I can't wait :) Take care!