Blackberry cobbler

When my niece came up this past weekend, we picked blackberries. I had no idea I had so many bushes surrounding the back of our house, so we braved the mosquitos (side note- aren't they everywhere!!) and picked tons of blackberries. Mom and I had them with our french toasts on Sunday morning and we still had some left over to make blackberry cobbler today. I never tried making my own cobbler before, so I was excited to try. For dinner, I made pinneapple pork tenderloin for for us tonight, with sweet corn and steamed rice and afterwards, we needed something sweet. So this is when I decided to make cobbler for the first time. It's super easy too. I can't believe I never tried to make cobbler. Now grant it, it's like 1 billion gazillion trillion calories, but oh so worth it. Every once in a while, you need to splurge. Although I plan to be in a bathing suit this weekend, so.... maybe I should have rethought that splurge huh, ahah!

Walking and situps here I come!!

Fun in the sun and on the go...

We have been so busy last week as I'm sure everyone was as well. To start off, the meal plan worked almost perfectly last week. I followed my plan, but since we are in the market of a new patio set, we went shopping one night (window shopped that is, since we didn't buy anything), so we didn't make it home in time to prepare dinner, in other words....we ate out. :) That's ok, since it was only that one night and I tried a few new recipes for the other nights, so it still worked out. Skylar loved my pizza by the way. Of course, I made it kid friendly for a few pieces and then on to the yummy stuff for us. I do have to say that I make good pizza. :) I think calling in a pizza is no longer an option at our household. We're saving money and we won't have to wait an hour for them to deliver the pizza....oh, we get lazy so if we order a pizza, we have them deliver it, aha! Ok, I know my presentation isn't great, but hopefully that will change over time. :) The pizza we made had pepperoni, pineapples, red onions, red pepper, bannana peppers and of course cheese! I already started my new meal plan. I will post on that later. :)


I didn't take pictures of all my dishes, but I can say Terry was not starving last week,
not that he is ever was, since I do cook 95% of the time if we don't go out. :)

The Patio Update-

Terry has been so busy the past couple of weeks. We started the patio and then re-did it, because we just couldn't figure it out. We have a little of a slope in the back yard, so it was hard leveling it. Once we laid the brick down, we would have a mound in one area and the bricks wouldn't sit right. Things like that would happen, so we had to start over, ugh It's been so hot too and I would help out as much as I could, like when Skylar was napping or when there was some shade and he could come outside too with us. I am happy to say that Terry has finished it and I will post the final pics, once we add the landscaping around it to give it the full effect! Here is the progress so far.




While Terry was working on this, my mom and neice Yasmine came over to stay. She had so much playing with Skylar. She was a great babysitter. We had so much fun, watching TV, playing, cleaning (she likes to clean, YESSS) and just being girls, while poor Terry went outside and worked, ahah! Skylar enjoyed having Yasmine around. He was laughing so loud and smiling like crazy. When she would pick him up, he looked so big and heavy, that it was way too funny!

Skylar was acting like he was on a roller coaster, it was funny!!

I know...he looks like Chris Farley. ahah Look how big he looks compared to his cousin Yasmine!

Now on to Sunday. Happy Birthday to Ella!! We went to Ella's first birthday!! It was great, other than Skylar not having his nap and being mister grumpy pants the entire time. His afternoon naps are usually between 3 and 4, for about an hour and her party started at 3, so, needless to say..... he was not happy. We were laughing as we were leaving the party, because he started to laugh and talk and smile and well, was just happy and we were like, GOSH... couldn't he had done that there, aha! Oh well... :) Here is the pic before we left the house when he was in a good mood.

Ella had her birthday cake all over her face. She was so adorable!!

Check out the kiddie playland in Ella's back yard!! What a lucky girl!

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So Skylar is now 11 months old! I can't believe it. It seems I just posted about his 10 month. He's really growing up before our very eyes. He's sleeping through the night FINALLY... we were not one of the lucky few that had that luxury, ahah! Now I can say we do. He sleeps from 8:30 to 6:30 on weekdays and until 8 on the weekends. Thanks Skylar for letting us sleep!

10 fun things about Skylar-

*He kisses us (but with open mouth, haha, he doesn't know how to purse his lips together)

*He pulls up every where and will walk around the furniture

*He hates babyfood, so we no longer give him any of it. (He's strictly formula and/or table food)

*His hair is so long, he has a baby mullet! We plan to cut it right before his birthday, so it might get longer and longer. We sing the Billy Ray Cyrus song...don't tell my heart, my achy breaky heart....JUST KIDDING!

*He climbs the stairs....scary...we haven't put up the baby gates yet, so I guess we need to now.

*He's still not walking and I don't think he wants too, ahah! He's all about crawling, so we're in no hurry. He will let us know when he's ready.

*He loves having his teeth brushed by his daddy

*He really likes blonde hair girls. He flirts with them.

*He drops food, while in his highchair for Ralph and laughs so loud when Ralph hoovers it up.

*He's scared of being changed in public restrooms. He screams, shakes and cries. I don't know why he's so scared, poor little man. I guess they can be scary and smelly!

Inspired to try new things...

My friend Anna got me inspired to have a weekly meal plan set forth, so I won't go to the grocery store buying random things and just getting the ingredients for that week's meals and then getting your staples, like snacks, heehee. Seriously though, I find that you save a little money when you know what you're going to eat everyday.

Monday-
Very simple, just grilled chicken tacos with chips and salsa. I make hard shells for Terry and pita tacos for me. :) We love the Sam's choice black bean and corn salsa. It's the best out there and one of the least expensive too. Skylar will try some soft tacos with no salsa, or anything of that other stuff we put on there. He loves cheese!

Tuesday-
Cornbeef, potatoes and cabbage with steamed rice and soysauce. This is a meal my mom always made, the juice that comes with as it's cooking is so good! Skylar will have all of this too. Little bits though, as this dish might be loaded with MSG, because of the soy sauce.

Wednesday-
We will have marinated steaks, baked potatoes, steamed and seasoned summer veggies and salad. Skylar will have all of this except steak.

Thursday-
Homemade pizza, with pepperoni, brocoli, red and green peppers, mushrooms, pinneapple, onions and of course cheese!! We're going to make a small portion of the pizza with nothing, but cheese and a little of the other stuff (brocoli and pineapple). Skylar's tried pizza a few times and only really likes the bread, haha.

Friday-
Beef and corn casserole. I found this recipe in one of my many cookbooks, so I'm hoping this will be a good one!

Saturday-
Pinnapple tenderlin pork roast with mashed potatoes, corn on the cob and salad.

Sunday-
We are going to Ella's 1st birthday party! So we will be eating good ole backyard hamburgers and hot dogs and most likely CAKE!! Yum! Skylar's never had cake, so this should be a treat.

I'm hoping to keep this up every week. I think I will save money by buying only the food we need that week. Did I tell you that gas is killing us, haha! So we need to save money every chance we can. Speaking of saving money, I have 4 tomatoes growing in our garden off one of our many tomato plants growing (17 total plants, yikes). They're tiny, but growing. I would post pics, but I know that would look silly. I'm just excited, so forgive me!! :) Growing my own vegetables is so exciting. I can compare this excitement to when you sent out your wedding invites and you're waiting on your RSVP's to come back. So, you check your mailbox everyday when you come home from work and see which ones came back. Am I the only one who thought that was so cool and exciting? Maybe two months from now or sooner, I will be posting about all the tomato sandwiches I'm eating! :) I can't wait!

Funniest Video

This video had me in tears, I was laughing so much! It's so funny! It's one of those videos you need to watch over and over again.

Kids are so darn cute!

Funny things kids draw...

I got this in an email and it's just too darn funny!

Some pictures of Skylar

I was scanning some pictures into the computer and thought I share some old pictures with you of Skylar. They're not the best quality, since they are scanned. Skylar has changed so much through out each month. He's turning into a little man. He's so happy all the time. If you ever met him, he has nothing but smiles for you. He laughs so much and squeals so loud! He's clapping now when happy (he used to clap when frustrated or mad) and the funny thing now is when I'm singing the alphabet or anything really, somehow he's learned to cover his ears while I'm singing. I dont know who taught him that (Terry), but that's not funny...well, it sort of is. :)

Skylar at 8 Months at our old daycare in WS (We miss them so much)
This one was when he was almost 7 months at Daycare. It was motorcycle day. They had these little props and dressed them up all so cute.

Happy Fathers Day and the brick patio

First off, Happy Father's Day! I hope everyone spoiled their "baby daddys" ahah! Terry and I aren't giving gifts this year, because our house was really our present. That's an expensive present that lasts a long time...until my birthday comes along that is...heehee. It's all about priorities, ya know. JK :) We had a relaxing, but fun weekend. Terry's mom and stepdad came down and babysat, well spoiled really their grandson, while we went to Katie and Rob's wedding. Before we went to their wedding, we started the brick patio. Well Terry and Olen did and I added some fresh compost to our garden. I'm really hopefull, can you tell? :) The brick patio by the way is HARD work. We thought we had it easy with all those free bricks to do whatever we want with, but nope, haha! I guess nothing in life is easy right? Anyways, it's coming along alright, it's so hot outside and I helped today. It looks like we won't be done with that, for atleast a week or two. I can't wait until it's done. :)

Our friend's wedding was so beautiful. I wished I brought my camera, I am so mad I have NO pictures to share! It was so great to see our friends though from Winston Salem again. We have a tight knit group of friends that we always did stuff with when we lived in W-S. Our group by the way is called "The Usual Suspects". I miss hanging out with them all the time. With the way gas has been here lately, it's hard to travel when we want. :( I hope there is a change with that soon. I'm fearful of what's to come for the economy. Let's hope the new President really can "change" the ways of the present government. I'm very excited about this upcoming election. History will be made with whichever candidate that wins. It's really cool!

Today we grilled out when Terry's dad came over for father's day. He brought us some steaks too, woo hoo! We already had some that we planned on grilling, but he had brought us a box of them, so we are good for grilling for a bit. Very excited about that! All in all, this weekend turned out to be a really nice and relaxing weekend. I hope everyone had a wonderful Father's day weekend with your own or with your "baby daddy", heehee. Until next time...

Don't you Love his hair? You can thank his dad for that! :)

Being productive...

Skylar has had a temparature the past couple of days and also has a rash that I thought was going away, but it's still there that's on his stomach all the way up to his neck. The doctor said he has a sore throat and that's where the high temperature came from, but thank goodness it's not Strep (sp). That would be horrible! He still eats a lot like his throat isn't hurting, so that's a good sign. The rash I'm not sure where it came from, maybe the heat? It has been super hot!! If you have any advice, I'm all for it. We have been giving him benadryl, so hopefully that will do the trick. Since I stayed out from work with him yesterday, I decided to try making the cupcakes for his birthday party next month. I know what you're thinking, cupcakes and his birthday is next month? ahha.. These are monkey cupcakes that I saw online and wanted to try and replicate them myself. I priced them at the local bakery and they priced them at 2 dollars each. HOLY MOLY!!! So, needless to say, I decided to try them myself. My theme is Monkeys by the way. I got the idea from my fellow blogger friend from College, Crystal. You should check out her blog (The Johnson Family). She has an adorable son named Owen and is expecting another baby boy very soon! Regarding the cupcakes, I think I did ok! Terry likes them. He's always a good guinea pig for my cooking or baking. He'll even eat the "special" cakes I make for Bachelor or Bachelorette parties, ahah! What a sport he is. :)

Not what we expected to come home too...

As we came home Friday from work, things were not like how we left them. Our house was broken into. It's so upsetting that you work hard for what you have and continue to work hard to achieve more for yourself and for your family and things like this happen. I will say that Ralph is safe. He was so scared too. Terry came home first and Ralph of course greeted him at the garage door, but he didn't seem like his normal self. He seemed really scared, which made Terry think that he had an "accident" in the bonus room like he has a few times before, but unfortunately that was not the case this time. Our french doors leading out to the deck was wide open and there was glass everywhere in the kitchen. Apparently, they kicked in the kitchen window and went through everything through out the house and took some things along the way. Thankfully for us, we're all safe and Ralph is too. They could have killed him or taken him. Ralph is our first baby and I don't want to think about the what ifs. It's just a scary situation for all. We think they were a bunch of kids, because they skipped over our jewelry (except for one diamond stud they did take of mine, I lost the other earring pair a while back) and they got a few of the electronics. We really don't care about those stolen possesions now that it's happened, I mean we are shooken up, but it's family that means the most to us. As long as we have each other, then that's all that matters, you know?

On a lighter note, they took my lap top computer which is old and doesn't run with out the battery plugged up into it. Plus it's so slow, so good luck with that one, haha!! :) We do have insurance and I hate to say that I have been through this once before. I lived in Fayetteville. (That should explain that, they call it Fayettenam for a reason) So, lucky for us, all that was taken is replaceable. Again, we're safe, just a little shooken up. The kicker is, we were going back and forth with a few alarm companies for prices and planned on getting an alarm system put in next week sometime. The alarm company we ended up going with called and left a message on Terry's cell phone Friday, while we were talking to the cop who was writing up our incident report. That song that Alanis Morresett (sp) sang came to mind, "Isn't it Ironic...don't you think?" Oh well, what's done is done. Obviously, they needed it more than we did. It still doesn't justify things, but there's nothing you can do about it at this point now. We did get a alarm system, so we feel safer, so to speak. I hate that they broke our window though. We have to wait for 2 weeks, until our window is in. UGH!! Terry's mom Jewell made me laugh when we said they only took a few things and she said, if we knew they were only going to take what they did, but broke our window in the process, we should have just left the doors unlocked, ha!

It was so hot, so we had to cover the window somehow. :)



Our friend Jon Cox came over and put up ply wood for us. He's so nice for helping us out. It looks better than ours above, but still... I don't think Nate Berkus would approve, ha!


We decided to not let this ruin our weekend, so we continued to do our regular weekend stuff, which is sprucing up around the house. :) We planted 4 Azalea bushes around the deck, we still need 6 more, whoops, I thought 4 would be enough. Our garden looks great too. A few plants died (of course), but our tomato plants are doing soo well! I still have more plants to grow, so I will plant those next weekend. It was HOT this past weekend.

Grow little plants, grow... :)


Also, I have been talking about getting a pool, well not the kind we wanted for ourselves, but for our Skylar man, that's for sure. Early Saturday, we headed to Babies R Us and got a little frog pool and Skylar loved it! He loved the water sprinkler too. His laugh was contageous! We couldn't stop smiling. He was our therapy for the weekend. We love our little bugger. Skylar also learned a new word. Everytime he dropped his sippy cup this weekend, he would say uh-oh, aahah! For some reason, that just made us laugh all weekend. He's also started to hand you his toys. He will play with it and then hand it to you and then you would hand it back. It was a back and forth game. Sometimes though, he would not hand it over and so basically he was saying SIKE! :) haha... Yep, I still say sike! :)

Loving this water!!

I love this Sprinkler
One way or another, I'm gonna find ya, I'm gonna get ya get ya get ya...
Next weekend, we are going to start our brick patio, we have 5 pallets of unused bricks that came with the house, so we're excited about using that. Hopefully, if we have enough bricks left over, we will make a fire pit too!! Now we need our friends and family to visit us! Hint Hint!!!

A fun little weekend...

As you all know I work for Polo Ralph Lauren and I love it! On Friday, I was invited to witness the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for Polo.com in High Point for their grand opening and I was pretty excited about that, because not only was the Mayor of HP and the Lt. Governor of NC present, so was Ralph Lauren's son. He was there as the guest of Honor and well, if you know me, I'm celebrity crazy. So, I was very excited to meet David Lauren. I listened to him speak about the company and he has a way to captivate an audience. I feel so comfortable at Polo Ralph Lauren. After he cut the ribbon, my group and I took a picture with him. I could have just let it stop there, but I just HAD to have my own picture with him too, so I got my picture taken with him. I'm such a dork I know, but it was so cool!



Saturday was a fun day as well as I celebrated my friend Katie's bachelorette party. We celebrated in Charlotte and had a great time. My other friend Jamie's husband got us a deal to stay at Hampton Inn for 29 dollars a night, so we got two rooms and had food delivered to the room before our night started for 20 dollars a person and there were 6 of us. So you know that I LOVE bargains! I will tell you that I can not hang with the young folk. Once 11 pm came around, I was ready to go to bed. I don't know how I made it in College! Also, what's up with the clothing there? If you go out one night in Charlotte, you'll understand what I'm talking about. I'm not posting pics of the party, because as the sayin goes, "What happens in Charlotte, stays in the Charlotte." Don't worry Katie, your secret is safe with me. :)
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Sunday, Terry, Skylar and I just relaxed. I noticed one of our indoor tomato plants has begun some activity. There were a couple of plants that we had to grow indoors first before they can go outside and it had only been 9 days and we have tomato sprouts!! I couldn't believe it!! We then looked at our garden and the plants have grown there too. I'm so excited. I can't wait until we can harvest them. Our neighbor's garden is absolutely beautiful! So they inspire us to grow more things. They grew so much. I hope our garden looks just half as good as theirs.

This was just seeds a week ago.

So, Skylar has been a little sweet man this past week. Isn't he always, you say? I'm going to plead the 5th on that one. :) We like to play little games with him and blow raspberries with our lips and then place our finger tips up to our mouth at the same time to make it sound even funnier and well, Skylar started to copy us. He thinks it's so funny, but he truly is a little comedian himself. He makes us laugh all the time. I love how he will try and do what you do. I love to see what new things he's discovered. At daycare on Monday, he ate lima beans for the first time and he loved them. (I don't like them!) His teacher said he loved that more than anything else. I also try to not let things bother me when he makes this face that resembles "Oh my gosh, this is the grossest thing I ever ate!!" when he's eating something I cooked. :) Ha! Here are some pictures of Skylar.


Showing those pearly whites!

This is what dinner time looks like now at our house

Doing his morning aerobics!