HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!!!

Happy Birthday to my Mom!! Wish I was going to be spending the day with her but Im home in Alabama working. Boo! I love you, Mom! Hope you have a great birthday. Ill give you a rain check for a cake, okay?

New Purchases

I LOVE LOVE LOVE birthdays and birthday decorations. I have been looking for some re-usable party decorations. I found these things at Kirkland's today and they already match by Birthday place-mat so I HAD to get them :)

The new birthday chair cover. Can't wait to use this for our next birthday party. Who will it be? Who will it be? Mom, this could be you if you want to drive to Vernon Monday!!

New birthday banner. Of course, I had one from Walmart but this one was much cuter, it matched the other items, and was on sale. Soooo, I had to get it too :)

A-Day Game

We spent a beautiful spring day in Tuscaloosa today at the A Day Game and doing some shopping. Before we left, we stopped and took some pics in front of our azaleas that just started blooming in our front yard.

We walked around campus for a few hours. There was a HUGE crowd today and tons of tailgating. We even found a a tent serving free BBQ. It was yummy, especially cause it was FREE!!

Of course we had to stop and take a picture in front of the stadium before we went in.

On our way out we took a couple pictures(yes, I know, even MORE pictures. I def pushed Stephen to his limit today) at the Quad.

After some serious power shopping, we headed to Hokkaido for supper.

And someone must have slipped and told the waitress that it was Jim's birthday because they all came out with the birthday bong and then made the entire restaurant sing to him. Oh, he really loved it! Ha ha just kidding!

It was a great day and of course Bama won! But I guess that does not count since they were playing themselves. Ha ha! Ready for the next football season to start.

Friday Night

Tara and I made Jim a birthday dinner tonight. We had the Neely's shrimp and grits. Click here for the recipe. It is a super easy and very yummy dish!

I made Jim an almond sour cream cake with chocolate butter cream. Of course, it had to have some kind of bikes on it. I tried something new and piped them out of white chocolate and let them dry and then propped them up on the cake. It turned out better than I thought.

Tara put all 29 candles on it. Ha ha! It took up the whole top of the cake!

We are all going to head to Tuscaloosa tomorrow for the A day game. We will get more pics and Ill post later this weekend so check back soon.

How we have spent our time

So we are now obsessed with 24 and all things related to Jack Bauer. We started watching season 1 last week on Netflix and finally finished it last night. It sucks you in!!! We would come home from work, do only the necessary chores and hit the couch to watch 24 until we made ourselves go to bed. We are holding off to start Season 2 for a few days. I have things I must get done like make a couple cakes and get this house cleaned up. Not to mention, I have been working extra everyday because our schedule is crazy right now and Stephen is super busy with drawings for school. Oh well, don't worry, Jack! We will be back and soon! We already have the next 4 seasons saved on Netflix ready to go.

Our Weekend

So we have had a busy week. I have worked and worked and worked! Stephen was so nice to pass on his sinus infection to me and I can't shake it! We decided to head to Columbus last night for a trip to Lowe's and meet up with friends at the BBQ festival that was on the riverfront this weekend. It smelled so good there. The actual contest is today. Wish we could have gone back to taste test everything. I did get to try some fresh boudin made by someone from Millport. That was unexpected! It was really good too. My favorite was the large bag of boiled peanuts I got. They were sooooo good! After we got home we both crashed. I even slept until 10:30 this morning and it was much needed. Stephen was too excited to sleep in. He was ready to get up and start weed eating with his newly purchased weed eater :) He has been working on our yard for 3 days now. It took one day just to pick up all the pine cones and sticks. I did help with that day but have not really been much help since he started the mowing. While he was outside today, I decided to head out too and clean out my car. It was a disaster! Look to see what happens when you are a home health nurse living out of your car all day, everyday.

The Before:

The After:

The essentials for every home health nurse. I don't go anywhere without them:

My hardworking hubby:

Almost finished:

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!!! We started our day at the early services at Mt. Vernon. It was a great day in church with some great friends. We took a couple pictures before we went into the service. Stephen looked a little drugged in some of theses. Notice I said we went to the EARLY service. Plus he has had a cold for the last few days and had a dose of something from the medicine cabinet before we left.


While we were in church the sun decided to come out so the girls decided we needed to take just a few more pictures. Thank goodness we have such patient husbands who were so willing to stand there and look so handsome and smile for the camera :)

Girls picture:

Me, Tara, Rhyan

I decided to put on my Martha Stewart hat and host Easter at our house this year since we actually have enough room at our new house. We had Stephen's parents, brother and his paternal grandparents for lunch.

The Menu:
Peppered Pork loin
Rice and gravy
Parmesan creamed corn
Balsamic vinaigrette green beans
Strawberry jello salad
Crescent rolls
Stuffed eggs (my mom said you can't call them deviled eggs on Easter :) )

Coconut cake
Eclair dessert

Thanks Mama Deb for helping with the desserts, eggs and salad!! We will be having some of the leftover coconut cake for supper tonight :)

Then after visiting for awhile, I made everyone get up from their comfortable spots in the den and go out on the porch for pictures. Its okay cause they love me enough to put up with it. I mean, come on! Its a memory! We need pictures! What else would I blog about!?!

All in all, it was a great holiday. Missed my Pourciaus/Winters but it was nice to make new traditions here and in our own home. Now that the mess is cleaned up and the pictures are downloaded, its time to chill and spend of the rest of the day remembering what the real reason for Easter is, not the stuffed eggs or crescent rolls. Its about Him!! Praise God! He is risen!!! And that is why we can get up each day and face this crazy world we are living in now because we know that this is not all there is. Looking forward to celebrating Easter in heaven one day. Can you imagine the celebration that will be!?! Wow!