the tales of canoes, cake plates, coke bottles, and HOME--Part 1

This past weekend Preacher Man and I decided to take a trip home.

It was sort of an out of  the blue/spur of the moment kinda thing.

Since I don't have a job yet (but hopefully by the end of this week I will) and since he doesn't have a class on Friday, we decided to pile up in the car on Thursday afternoon and travel home to Tennessee.

We didn't tell many people either.

And that was kinda fun because we got to surprise A LOT of people. 

Especially this little guy (who was super-pumped about his birthday present).....

and this lady......

and this one who screamed in church.....

Surpsies are fun.

So let's get to how the weekend went....

We drove straight to my parent's house.  This whole living in another state sure is a long haul for traveling.  Dislike mucho.  Sorry I just talked in Spanish randomly.  It's kinda fun.

So we stayed the night at my parent's house Thursday night, woke up the next morning and ate lunch with my Nana.  That was a fun time!

THEN, we went to see my sister's 4th grade class that she teaches. 

We took them candy so they would like us!  Ha!

It was a hoot.

4th graders are funny.

We even got a picture drawn for us.

I plan on putting it on my fridge because it makes me laugh.

That night we went out to our favorite Mexican restaurant with my family.

It was tasty.

So tasty.  My mouth is watering just typing about it.

There I made a canoe.

I know that sounds weird, but let me explain.  Well you see, my sister had ordered Pollo Loco with sour cream only.  When you order sour cream at a Mexican Restaurant they typically bring you a whole bowl of sour cream.  Like enough sour cream to probably make a cake with.  My sister had leftovers and there was a lot of sour cream left over so I was like "Aren't you going to take that sour cream with you?!  Do you have sour cream at your house?!  You should take that with you!"  I'm pretty sure I said it all like that, too.

So that's when my Dad comes in and says well why don't you make a little boat and take your sour cream home with you?

So I made her one.  Out of aluminum foil. 

It's beautiful.  Just look:

(photo courtesy of Jamie)

I call it a canoe.

I'm crafty like that.

So after we ate our Mexican food, I INSISTED that we got to Hobby Lobby because I haven't found a Hobby Lobby in North Carolina.

Hobby Lobby is my favorite store.

I could spend soooo much $$$$ in there!

There were certain things I was looking for and I definitely found those things along with a few other things....especially after I went down the 80% off aisle.  :)

I found the cutest cake plate!  I mean SO cute.  I was pumped about it! It was going to be perfect for my Spring/Summer table-scapes (Yes, I might like Sandra Lee' table-scapes for all of you Food Network people).  And after all, the cake plate had been $40.00 and I was going to get it for $7.99.  That was a MUST buy!

So I bought it.

And then I dropped it.

And it shattered.

:(

I hadn't owned the plate for 5 minutes and I broke it standing in Hobby Lobby waiting on my Mom to finish checking out.  I cried.  I really did. 

Then my sister proceeded to call two Hobby Lobby's in Knoxville to see if they had my little cake plate.

No such luck.

I was pretty bummed to say the least.

The next morning we woke up to a home-cooked breakfast of biscuits and gravy and then it was on to Knoxville for Round 2 of visiting.

To be continued tomorrow........

Stay safe in the dreary weather today. 

Love, The Preacher's Wife



birthday presents

I love buying people birthday presents!  I think it's one of the funnest things to do in life.  I'd much rather give a gift than get one.  Don't get me wrong, I love getting gifts, but there's just something about getting to watch other people open gifts that thrills me to no end.  I think it's the look on their face, or maybe it's a person's excitement about a gift that just makes me so happy.

It's our nephew's birthday on Sunday, so I decided to go to Wally-World (a.k.a. Wal-Mart) this morning and get him a couple of goodies.

He will be 5!

5!

5!?

The first time I ever met him he was such a little thing.

Now he's growing like a weed and is one of the most hilarious people that I know.

Wanna see his birthday present?

Yup.  You're seeing this right.  A six-pack of glass Coke bottles, mini Reese cups, and a Spiderman gift bag to put it all in.

He's going to be ecstatic when he opens this.

At least I hope.  But I really think he will be.

Here's why:

The last time he came and visited North Carolina, his Uncle and I took him to a hole in the wall hot dog joint that served Coke in glass bottles.  He LOVED them.  I mean LOVE, LOVE, LOVED them, and could not throw the bottle away.  We had to wash that bottle out every time he wanted a drink. 

He even drank his milk out of it.  He's a cool kid like that.  Really.

Just look how stinkin'  cute he is....

Could there be a more sweeter face?

I think not.  He's so precious.

Can't wait to see his face when he opens his birthday present. 

This should be fun!

And just think...

Today is Thursday, which means it's almost Friday and the weekend!

Whooo hooooo!!

Enjoy the day!

Love, The Preacher's Wife

Picture Wednesday

Not much is happening on the home front today.

Just doing laundry, cleaning, you know, the usual boring stuff.

I thought it would be fun to post some random pictures from my memory card on my camera today.

So that's what I did.

When I click on the Pictures tab on my computer it never shows the actual picture.  It just shows a big long list of pictures as files.

So I thought it would be a fun game to play..."let's pick five random pictures for my blog today!"

Here they are:

Random Picture #1:

This is a church wedding shower back in Tennessee.  In the picture are my Mom, Preacher Man, Me, and Jennifer (P.M.'s sister).  What a fun day!

Random picture #2:

 This is me and one of my dearest friends, Jessica.  This was taken on the night of mine and Preacher Man's Rehearsal Dinner.  We had a Mexican Fiesta and it was soooooo yummy!  I just love our jalapeno leis we are wearing!

Random Picture #3

This is me sometime this past October.  P.M. and I carved a pumpkin with our initials in it, and obviously, I'm modelling the "H"!

Random Picture #4

 This is the day after we moved to North Carolina.  This is P.M. posing at the college with his buddies--Chad, Paul, (hubby), and Colby.  I think they all look a bit tired.  We never could have done the move without them.  Well we could have, but it sure would have taken us a real long time.  Our truck was unloaded in no time because of these guys!  From the bottom of my heart, thank you again!  And come to NC soon, I'll cook you more cinnamon rolls and sausage balls!  :)

Random Picture #5

Now this picture is extremely random.  I'm honestly not sure what it is.  Obviously it's a street sign of some sort, but I'm not sure what it is.  My guess is that this picture was taken the night P.M. and I drove to visit North Carolina to visit the Seminary.  The sign probably has something "Duke" on it since Duke is my FAVORITE basketball team.

Hope you enjoyed my Random Picture Wednesday.  I thought it was a lot of fun.  I'll do it again sometime soon!

Love, The Preacher's Wife

hot in carolina

Yesterday it felt like late spring here in North Carolina.

I even got to break out the flip flops yesterday, too.

It was so nice that we even turned the heat off all together.

Well, today it's back to winter and fuzzy socks.

Lame.

Here is my outfit for the day for my toe-sies.

I know, it's cute...you don't have to tell me!

I couldn't find matching socks so I just grabbed socks that were in the same family.  :)

It's a new fashion trend I'm starting.  I think it's a hot new look!

:)

Happy COLD Tuesday!

Love, The Preacher's Wife

new adventures

(Brought to you LIVE! from Starbucks in Raleigh!)

This past weekend we got to go explore the downtown area of Raleigh.

I have some cousins that live about an hour from where we do and we all decided to meet downtown and check out a restuarant called "The Pit".

I didn't know it at the time, but after doing some research about "The Pit", I found out that it has been featured on the TV shows Man Vs. Food and Throwdown with Bobby Flay.

I was pumped to get to get to a restuarant with such fame!

When we turned down the street to the restaurant this is what we saw....

I think people like to eat here, what do you think?

The wait wasn't too long at all....and it was well worth it.

I forgot to take pictures of our actual meal, but I didn't forget when we ordered dessert.  Cousin Tim insisted upon ordering dessert, and well we ended up getting three.  Oooopppsss.

Here is our dessert:

We had---Warm Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Sauce and Vanilla Ice Cream, Carrot Cake with Candied pecans and Molasses Cream Cheese Frosting, and lastly...Banana Pudding (warm pudding with marshmallow fluff and meringue.)

They were all delicious!  I approve of each and every one of them, but my favorite was probably the Carrot Cake.  It was awesome!!!

Thank you Tim and Susan for our Welcome to North Carolina meal!  We loved it!

After lunch, we rode around downtown Raleigh for a bit.

Here is a beautiful park down town:

Another park with a really big acorn.

Downtown streets....

 and the State Capital

Next time, we plan on eating somewhere downtown.  It was super cute!

It's 76 degrees here today. 

I think we are liking this place more and more every day!  :)

But we sure do miss our family...not going to lie about that! 

Enjoy this beautiful Monday!

Love, The Preacher's Wife

Saturday Morning Treat

I had some buttermilk that I really needed to use because it was about to expire and I really didn't want to let it go to waste. 

So I made muffins.  Double Chocolate Chip Muffins.

Ooooppppsss.

Last weekend, we went to the Circus with friends.  We met up at their place and it just so happend that pancakes were on the menu for what they had for breakfast that morning.  I love pancakes.  And they had left-over CHOCOLATE pancakes.  So I had to try one.  They were awesome!  So moist, dreamy, and chocolate-y!  YUM.

So I asked for the recipe.

And I decided to make muffins with the recipe. 

I don't care for syrup on sweet pancakes.  So that's why I made muffins.

These muffins are killer.

I mean death by chocolate. 

Goodness.

You need to try these.  Stat!

I did add some chocolate chips to them to make them Double Chocolate Chip Muffins.

You can never have too much chocolate.

Here's the recipe.

Double Chocolate Chip Muffins

Adapted from:  Insert in Knox-News

1/2 cup duty process unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup milk chocolate chips

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees & grease a 12 cup muffin tin or in my case, a six cup JUMBO muffin pan.

2.  Sift together all dry ingredients.

3.  Add in eggs, buttermilk, vegetable oil, and vanilla.  Once combined, stir in your chocolate chips.

4.  Pour the batter into your muffin pan, about 3/4 of the way full.

5.  Bake muffins for 12-15 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

6.  You won't regret this.  That's why I ate a salad for dinner.  :)

The finished product.  Super moist and YUMMY!  AND very chocolate-y.  This is for chocolate lovers only.

You should make these tomorrow as a Saturday Morning Treat for yourself.

Enjoy the weekend!

Love, The Preacher's Wife

monopoly

I have never played a full game of Monopoly until this past weekend. 

For our wedding, our fabulous family threw us a "Game Shower" and gave us a bunch of fun games.

Monopoly happened to be one of the games that we got.

This past weekend we were finally able to break open the game and play!

I was kinda excited about it, but not really.

Things changed though when I found out I would be competing for a trophy.

The new Monopoly game comes with a trophy.  How cool is that?!

Preacher Man had played before so he walked me through it.  The game probably lasted for about two hours.  

We both purchased Houses, Hotels, Railroads, etc.

And look Mom, we even used our wedding pencils to keep our score with!  :)

I thought I was doing good with all of my properties that I owned; however, I just didn't realize how crucial it is to buy Boardwalk.  My hubby owned that one.  Lame.  I know next time that I should buy it when I land on it.

Tallying up the score.  Yes, he won....because he owned Boardwalk and made me have to sell everything but my soul to pay him rent for his hotel there.

He's such a punk, but he sure is cute!

I throughly enjoyed it...even if I did get beat.  I'm not a sore loser.  Pinky promise.

You should play Monopoly soon, it's quite fun!

It's almost the weekend.  Hooray!

Enjoy this beautiful day!

Love, The Preacher's Wife

Nana

My Nana is one of the most hilarious people that I know.

I mean stinkin' hilarious!

There is never a dull moment when Nana is around.

Yesterday I got an email from Nana.

Her email's are the BEST!

She is always so sweet, encouraging, loving and always telling me that she is praying for me.

And boy, are they funny, too!

I'm a firm believer that God places people in your life at just the right times to say or do things that you need to hear.

Nana's email was just that yesterday.

So full of encouragement, prayers, and wise council.

AND...the funniest thing about her dog, McClellan Honey-bee...but we all call her Clellie for short.  :)

This is what it said:

"Clellie thinks she is learning to talk!  When she screws up her mouth and puts her head back and says " Rye Roov Roo" (I love you) she gets a cracker.  IT WORKS EVERY TIME!"

I laughed, and laughed, and laughed some more.  She cracks me up.

There was also some other good stuff in the email, too....but this was just too good not to share.  :)

So this post is for you, Nana!

Thank you for all of your wonderful emails and Skype dates.  You make me laugh and feel great every time I get your emails.

I love you more than you know and you mean the world to me!  :)

Now it's time to go save some lives at the pool!  (Hahahaha...Nana got it in her head that I was a lifeguard for a few summers in high school.  She swore up and down and told me that I was a liar.  I was never a lifeguard.  She will never live this comment down.  It's just too funny!)  Love you Nana!

Happy Wednesday!

Love, The Preacher's Wife

Hooray for the Circus!

The Circus was a ton of fun this past weekend!  I felt like I was five again and it was a WONDERFUL feeling.  I went to the Circus when I was little and I remember loving it, but I know that I didn't appreciate the entertainment then like I did this past weekend.  The things that the circus performers did were unbelieveable.  There were some extremely talented people who could do things I would never think or imagine of being able to do.  I took a ton of pictures and have posted quite a few below.  Check out my time at the circus....

 Pre-show with Elephant paintings...

They even had a drawing for the painting!

 

Wouldn't you just love this in your house?!  Ha!

 

Amazing strengh!  He threw her around like she was a tennis ball!

During the pre-show, Andrew was able to overcome his fear of clowns and actually get his picture taken with one!  :)  Yay Andrew!

The show is about to begin!!!!!!!

But first, we must sing the National Anthem....

and twirl our glow sticks around in the air!  (I remember getting a light up sword when I went to the Circus back in the day!)

Here comes the show!

All aboard the Barnum & Bailey Circus Show....

So much to see, so much to do, and fun for every age!

ooopppsss...time-out..the scooper of you know....

hahahahahahahahha!

and this little guy was everywhere....he just kinda popped up in or after every little thing that was done

  Flying through the air on rings

 Here come the tigers

 My hands were pretty clammy the whole time this was going on...

  Jump up here, Mr. Tiger!

 See, here's the little man...

 Walking the tightrope.  This made me nervous too!

 Three people high!

Now let's all get on our dirt bikes and ride around in a big caged ball!  That's a great plan!

 Round and round they go!

 And here is the little guy coming for his turn!

 Little Miniature Horses...this picture is for you Mom!  Maybe Dad will let you have one some day.

Guys just doing flips...ya know, every day normal stuff for them!  It was unreal!

 And the elephants...

  ohh the elephants make me laugh...here is one holding a dog in a basket!

and this one just got tired and laid down...

 Up and at 'em boys and girls!

 Trapeze time!

 These little colorful outfitted people did crazy jumps and flips from one trampoline to the next

 and they also jumped through these hoops!

 Time to wrap up the show...

 Thanks for coming everyone!

 See ya next year!  (the little guy is still there!)

 (and of course, he jumps off of the train and goes jumping on the trampoline!)

Our fun crew at the circus (minus Greg because he was taking the picture)!  

The circus was a blast!  So many fun things to see, eat, and do there!  We really enjoyed it!

I highly recommend going to the Circus soon!  It was a blast...and it really is fun for all ages!  :)

Have a great day!

Love, The Preacher's Wife