New Orleans

Josh and I just got back from a fabulous weekend in NOLA! I think we will be making a yearly stop there for sure!

Wooo wee. So much fun! Almost too much fun! Nahh, you can never have too much fun! :)

We basically did a whole lot of eating, a whole lot of people watching and making fun of people, a whole lot of shopping and a whole lot of walking!

I was just glad to have my husband all to myself!

You really can’t go wrong in picking a restaurant in New Orleans. We ate at Deanie’s, The Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., Cafe Fleur-De-Lis(twice), La Bayou…I think that’s about it! Besides eating beignets in the middle of the night at Cafe du Monde! They weren’t that great…they were ok, but I would rather just have a Krispy Kreme doughnut!

We took a swamp tour on Saturday. We went with Cajun Encounters. They were pretty much awesome! We saw a TON of alligators which is odd for this time of year! Our guide was even able to lure a gator to the boat and he caught him with his bare hands. eekk.Wash up from Katrina…

And now for some crappy phone pics!

I think I could have sat here all night and people watched! Except I had to pee…and I’m funny about WHERE I pee!

Hubs decided to wear his ROLL TIDE shirt out one night! It was fun, he got some “Roll Tide’s” :)

Mmm. I could live off of this bread pudding! But, it’s back to the diet today!!

I think that about sums up our trip! Oh, I couldn’t get over the amount of people with their KIDS on Bourbon Street! I mean come on people!!!! There were things I didn’t want my husband to see, let alone my children!!!! Geeze.

Happy 8th Birthday Peyton!!

Happy Happy Birthday PeyPey!!

Peyton’s birthday and party were actually Saturday but we don’t have internet in the boonies so I didn’t get to post!

We started out celebrating Friday night because he wanted to eat Japanese! Totally blew the eating healthy out of the water that night! And the next night. And the next night. I was bad all weekend. oops.

His party was Saturday at the movie theater. If you live around here you know that there are only a few places to have birthday parties. We’ve had one at every place 5 times. So I thought we would do something a little different. I should have known when I went to book the party and they didn’t act like any of it was a big deal that something was up. I like to have my crap in order. They didn’t care. When you book a party they give you a 3 hour time slot. I picked 3-6. They told me that I wouldn’t know until a week before the party which movies would be playing OR the time we would see a movie. bummer. Because again, I like my crap in order. As it turns out, they didn’t know the movie times until the WEDNESDAY before the party and the ONLY rated G movie to see during our three hour window was Chipwrecked at 5:15. For real. 5:15. Party starts at 3..movie at 5 freakin 15. It only takes like 2.57 seconds to eat cake and ice cream and open presents. What in the world was I going to do with the other hour and a half?? So, I called all of Peyton’s peeps and told them not to show up until 4.

Crisis averted? I had no idea how big of a crisis it would have been had I not changed that time!

So, Saturday rolls around and I decided to be at the theater at 3 just in case there were people that didn’t rsvp and showed up. I took Reece with me. I’m walking in with her, a gigantic cookie cake, goody bags, party stuff, etc. I get to the customer service desk and there is no one. Stood there for a few minutes and couldn’t find anyone. So I went to the lady that takes your tickets and she told me where the party room was.

Y’ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I rounded the corner to the party room and it had NOT been cleaned up from the last party!!!!!!!!!! There was chocolate cake EVERYWHEREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!! On the floor, on the table, on the chairs. There was confetti everywhere. The garbage was overflowing…there was stuff everywhere. And remember, little did they know that my party time was changed until 4.

I got the people to clean it all up. All along trying to find a manager. Never could find anyone. Asked around about what to do about tickets to the movie(we were buying the kids tickets and popcorn, etc.), no one could tell me anything. No one ever checked in with me. Once we got to the movie everything was fine. Oh and they never even checked to see if we had tickets! I bought 13 kid tickets and they were never checked! In fact, I know a couple of the adults that didn’t buy tickets! I would NEVER, because I think that’s a little dishonest but whatevs.

Kudos to you if you made it through!! Now for pics! Which was bad too, because the party room was SO tiny we could barely fit all the kids in there. The adults were in the hallway! And I was so frazzled we didn’t even get a picture with Peyton! ugh.

That’s pure sweetness right there!

Hubby Live from the Gym :)

A few weeks ago Hubby filmed a little video of himself at the gym to rat out one of our friends just being funny! It’s commercial worthy for sure! :)

I heart him!

The rock wall will finally be done this week so hopefully I can get pics up soon!!

HEALTHY Cookie Dough Dip!

Doesn’t that look good?

Oh to the em to the gee!!! IT IS!

The hardest part about me watching what I eat is watching the sugar. I love sweets! Did you get that?

I LOVE SWEETS.

I got this recipe from Chocolate Covered Katie .

• 1 1/2 cups chickpeas (1 can, drained)
• heaping 1/8 tsp salt
• tiny bit over 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 1 T plus 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup nut butter (You can get away with using only 3 T. If you use peanut butter, some people say it has a slight “pb cookie dough” taste, so you can sub oil if you don’t want that.) *I used all natural peanut butter but next time I’m going to try to find a different nut butter*
• 1 and 1/4 cup pitted dates –find these close to the raisins
• 1/3 cup chocolate chips
• 2 T oats (You can omit)
• nondairy milk as needed (depending on the consistency you want. I used a few T.)

In a bowl, cover the dates with 1/2 cup water. Let this sit for at least 8 hours. Then add all ingredients (including the dates’ soaking liquid), except chocolate chips, to a food processor and blend until very smooth.

The part to remember is that you have to let the dates soak for so long. I made this thinking that it probably wouldn’t taste as good as cookie dough. I mean come on, chick peas tasting good? Fooled me! Hubs loves it too! :)

Sanity

I decided I would do a blog post on how I try to keep my sanity with three kids, a husband, four dogs and a full time job(and by full-time I mean 24/7!). This idea was sparked my my friend, Cherish, when she flat out asked me how I keep my sanity on Twitter! haha!

First things first…you HAVE to have a routine. Kids thrive on a routine and quite frankly so do I. I like things to run smooth. When I get home in the evenings we eat dinner, get baths, read, playtime, bed at 8:30. And when you have another child, try as much as possible to let that child slide right on in to your routine!

Younger kids need an earlier bedtime. And you need a set bedtime every night. We lax on bedtime on weekends and during the summer.

Patience is a biggie. Believe me, I had two boys 15 months apart…I KNOW it’s hard to have patience. Just try to breathe. Even if you have to go to your room and scream into your pillow. Yes I have. And some days it’s REAL hard to keep your cool. And right now it’s hard for me because somebody has a smart mouth. Ahem, his name may or may not be Griffin.

Also, try as much as possible to let your child help you do things. (this one is mostly for the little ones, big kids don’t like chores!) This makes them feel important which in turn makes them happy! Reece likes to help me clean, so I’ll give her a rag and let her have at it.

You also have to remember to make time for YOU! A couple of weeks ago I started running. Even just that 30 minute run helps me keep my cool.

Date night is so very important. We have not been doing very well in this department since we moved! Howevs, we are going out of town at the end of this month so we shall make up! And get back on track of having regular date nights! :)

When doing things out of the norm of your routine like going out to eat and such ask yourself if it’s worth it. If you know your child is going to be restless and cranky at the restaurant then don’t go! Don’t stress yourself out because you aren’t going to enjoy that meal! You’re basically paying to stress yourself out! If your doing other things like going to the circus or to the movies try to avoid picking something that’s during nap or close to bedtime! Those are not fun.

This is all I can think of off the top of my head! I may have more later!

These are just things that I have learned along the way, we are not perfect parents and are still learning ourselves! And just because I feel sane right this very second doesn’t mean that tonight I won’t feel insane! ha!

National Champions x 14!

Roll Tide! Number 14 is in the books!

Alabama 21 – LSU 0 zilch, nada, ZERO points.

I KNEW all day yesterday that we were going to win. Had no doubt…I wasn’t nervous at all. And that’s saying something because the first time we played LSU earlier in the season I was sick I was so nervous! However, a shut out?!?! WHAT?!?!?!? Total. Complete. Awesomeness!!!!!

And not only a shut out but LSU only crossed the 50 yard line ONCE at the VERY end of the game.

We played almost as clean as we could with only one 5 yard penalty in the last 2 minutes of the game! I feel sorry for whoever caused that one because Coach Saban was ticked!

Image via The Tuscaloosa News

So to all the naysayers and people who thought we shouldn’t go to the National Championship…now you have no reason to say, “well at least they held up a fight” or “they played dirty” or whatever other crap you can come up with because there is nothing! And I like it!

Image via The Tuscaloosa News

Our town was almost blown off the map by that nasty tornado last April and our football team and coaches rallied and brought this home for US! T-Town, never down.

Images via The Birmingham News

And for those of you not from around here, one of our football player’s(Carson Tinker) girlfriend was killed in the tornado. Before that she told Carson that this was their year and they would win in her hometown(New Orleans), on the night before her 24th birthday! Man was she ever right!

ROLL TIDE ROLL!!!!!!!!!

PS-I wonder how the Honey Badger feels this morning?

Gettin’ Skinny and a Birthday Shout Out!

Happy New Year, Y’all! I rang in the new year asleep in my warm and cozy bed. Hubs rang it in protecting you from bad boys :)

Well yours truly is down to 117 pounds! Oh yea! Doing the happy dance! :) When we moved last summer our scale was broken. So I haven’t weighed since then….until today. I know when I went to the doctor last July I weighed 126 or 127. About six months ago I decided to make some changes in my eating and drinking habits. That means I switched from regular Mt. Dew to Diet Mt. Dew and cut waaayyyy back on sweet tea. And I started watching more of what I ate and how much I ate. I still ate food that was not so good for you, I LOVE any type of pasta or rice. Then there were the holidays and I DID NOT watch what I ate. But I pretty much don’t eat anything fried and I try to stay away from rice as much as I can.

In the last few weeks I have started to be motivated to get in shape…I want sexy arms and to get rid of belly flab. Since I am part owner of a brand spanking new gym I have NO excuse and it will happen! It also helps that Hubs wants to be ripped like The Rock by Christmas. And at the rate he’s going, he will! This week I’ve started counting my calories and I want to get down to 110, get those arms and tummy where I want them, and then get knocked up! :) Sounds like a plan, right?!

Soooo, the sister turns 25 on Sunday!!!! That means I’ll be 30 in a few months! 30!!!!! crap.

Happy Happy Birthday Skanky McSkankerson! We Luh You!!! :)

Oh and you can bet your hiney that we will be having a strawberry cupcake for her birthday!!