Free Coffee Times TWO

Today has thus far been a particularly caffeinated day...aaaaaand I'm KIND OF LOVING IT.

Where there is free coffee, you may COUNT ME IN, Madam.

It all started when I found THIS GEM at the WalMarts this weekend:

And also shortly thereafter, when I found THIS ONE, too:

Side note: It just occurred to me that the chocolate one PLAINLY states "Decaffeinated" on the box. Oops.


So first thing this morning, I made myself a hot cup of delicious (and apparently decaf) chocolate coffee. I'd like to think it made me more productive, but then lunch rolled around and then all was lost.

But AFTER lunch, my coworkers and I found out about a new coffee shop that just opened LITERALLY TEN STEPS FROM OUR FRONT DOOR (okay maybe twenty steps!).

The struggle is going to be REAL, peeps.

One of my sweet (and fellow caffeine addicted) co-workers decided to try it out, then later stopped by my desk, worried that she ordered TOO BIG OF A COFFEE*****.

*****Is there such a thing? I say "nay."

She insisted - INSISTED! - on pouring half of it in my cup, and before I knew it, it was GONE AND IN MY BELLY.

I have no idea what happened, really.

Only that I suddenly felt ALIVE.

I come in handy at this place sometimes :)

***

On another note, today's lunch took place at the Mississippi Museum of Art (they have an in-house cafe) and it was absolutely crazy good. I'm not exactly sorry for the cliche I've become in terms of posting my food everywhere.

Grilled Squash Panini with Blueberry Butter.

Let's just let that sink in a moment, shall we?

Blueberry Butter.

As weird as it sounds, it was off the charts good. My mouth is watering again just thinking about it.

Grilled squash, a chunk of mozzarella, lettuce, a fresh tomato, and homemade butter -- all on warm, grilled bread.

You're incredibly welcome.


Eat local, folks!

Reekly Wecap

...because for some reason it's nearly impossibly for me to say it correctly.

But regardless - HOORAY! It's Friday!

This week has been a nice one. Despite a couple of nights of thunderstorms that brought me to the fetal position until The Mister got home, there were actually a few evenings that included long walks and pretty sunsets.

Homemade pizza is getting to be a weekly tradition at our place - and I've got to admit it's one of my favorite things to cook. We tried this out on Sunday night with mozzarella-stuffed crust and olives sprinkled on top.

A taco truck came to my office on Tuesday!

The owner only spoke English, and the cook only spoke Spanish. It was fun to see them interact - and they cooked up THE BEST chorizo tacos I've eaten yet.

Well, Mexican tacos anyway. Let's not forget the Shark Tacos we had down in Folly Beach last year :) Or the BBQ tacos from the old gas station down the street. As shady as that sounds - they were actually QUITE phenomenal.

Oh tacos. They have my heart.



On Wednesday - I received a special delivery from my sister in Mobile!

Why yes, that IS a piece of wedding cake that had just been delivered to our doorstep!

Some families send cards or letters or flowers and whatnot. My family sends CAKE. This is NOT the first time a piece has been mailed across the Mississippi-Alabama line...I do not lie!

We do love our cake 'round these parts. And we just hate to miss out on an occasion that involves it - so this is our fun little way of including each other in things from afar.


I experimented with a new recipe last night based off of my crawfish pie recipe, only this time wrapped in a crescent roll. We were pleasantly surprised :)

And today was a T-shirt day at work. Oh happy day, indeed!

It's part of a fundraiser our organization is doing. If you want my money, give me a T-shirt :)


That pretty much sums it up for this week, folks. The weather looks gloomy for tomorrow, but there's a wee bit of sunshine left for today. Hope you have a happy Friday!


One day I'll be more interesting. I promise ;)

Coffee Buzz

I'm experiencing THE BEST kind of coffee buzz possible right now at this very moment. I'm productive, energetic, happy, excited, and focused --- for about 30 seconds at a time.

Oddly enough? I've gotten A LOT done.

I can't help it. My attention span is so crazy short right now that the 45ish seconds I've spent on this blog post (so far) is the longest I've focused on anything in the last hour or so. But 30 seconds here and 30 seconds there keep me focused and FOCUSED HARD on the task at hand, so it helps me get things done quickly and, somehow, efficiently.

I'm PRETTY SURE this is due to the fact that I drank about 3/4 of a cup this morning, as opposed to the usual 1/2 a cup my system can tolerate.

I have so much to share! So here is an abbreviated list of a few awesome things from the week.

More to come later!



HOME.
This weekend Hubs and I threw a few things in our bags and hit the road to visit my parents for a WHOLE, ENTIRE weekend. If you're a middle child like me you realize that this meant I had their complete attention for TWO FULL DAYS, and you also realize that this means it was basically Heaven.

Not to mention there was homemade apple pie involved. And that just takes everything else up a notch. Is there anything better than coming home to your childhood home and, upon getting hugs (and did I mention COMPLETE attention?) from your parents, the sweet aroma of your favorite pie is calling your name?

I didn't think so.

Not to mention there were sweet puppy kisses from this ball of cuteness.

PAUL'S PASTRY.

My hometown has the best food EVER. So serious. Fresh seafood delivered daily, an awesome mix of homestyle-Cajun cooking, and a fantastic (and cheap) Mexican restaurant that you have to visit at some point in your life. But best of all is our bakery. Paul's Pastry has been around for years and years. What started out as a little blue wooden building on the side of the highway has grown into a giant of a bakery that smells like the way I imagine Heaven will smell.

Basically every time we make a fly-by trip through my hometown, we HAVE to make a stop at Paul's. Everything in that place is as beautiful as it is delicious. Just look at those magnolia cupcakes. Icing for DAYS. And those are THE BEST sugar cookies on this earth. There's nothing like it at all.

ADVENTURES.

I have a beautiful, sweet, hilarious cousin who doubles as one of my best friends. We were born a mere six months apart, so we've had some wild and crazy, exaggerated-storytelling-inducing adventures together through the years. So it was nothing unusual when we spontaneously decided to hit up the Moon Pie parade this past weekend to kick off our Mardi Gras season.

Let me make it clear, though, that was a clean, family-friendly parade in a nearby community that favors Moon Pies over beads. It was only 15 minutes long, made up of some local bands and kids in costumes, but we had THE BEST time. Not to mention that within that 15-minute time frame, we racked up on nearly 80 pies.

My mom and Hubs came along, too! The laughter was unstoppable that night and my heart was so filled and happy!

Plus, MOON PIES.

KING CAKES.
Speaking of Mardi Gras --- King Cake Season has ARRIVED!
Paul's has THE BEST (have I mentioned this?) and we stocked up appropriately.

SKILLZ.
I took a cookie decorating class this week! For the first time, I was able to decorate (somewhat successfully) with royal icing and it was loads of fun! Royal icing is HARD, people. And I mean "hard" as in "difficult," because it's actually quite soupy. Regardless, stay tuned for more cookies because I am ALL ABOUT IT now.

If we're being honest here, though...there was one rather unfortunate-looking cookie that didn't quite make it into this picture and somehow ended up in my belly instead.

THE SHOCK.

#sorryImnotsorry


HAPPY THURSDAY PARTY PEOPLE!

The One Where My Car Started Smoking

This post could alternately be titled, "I Need Coffee".

Or maybe "It's Only Tuesday."

But probably a better one would be "God Is Good."

Because He is. All. The. Time.


This weekend was glorious - beautiful weather, a walk-slash-run with the Mister, and a little bit of house hunting (WHAT!!!!).

We had a nice spread, too, on Saturday for breakfast. I mean, can you PICTURE cinnamon roll French toast?

I didn't think so. So here's a fancy schmancy picture for your eyes to enjoy.


((fooled ya! picture coming soon!))


On Sunday, the weather was so gorgeous we decided to take a drive over to a nearby neighborhood and rolled the windows down to enjoy the sunshine. I love how our conversation primarily centered around how pretty it was that day despite the stink of our city.

I distinctly remember it going something like this:

"Wow this area smells bad. Is that really outside or did we leave food in here last night? It smells like eggs!"
"It smells like maple syrup!"
"Like BURNED maple syrup!"
"Did we eat anything with syrup?"
"I spilled shrimp and grits on pants last night." (<- seriously)
"But it doesn't SMELL like shrimp and grits!"
"Was there syrup in the grits?"
"No, but there was honey on your chicken!"
"I ate all my chicken, though."
"IT'S THE CAR! IT'S RUNNING HOT!!!! TURN ON THE HEATER!"***


Detectives, that we are.

Let me tell you how GOOD the Lord is. This neighborhood was right across the highway from AutoZone. The car died at a stop sign but we were able to crank it enough to coast into the parking lot as smoke started coming from the hood.

My poor little car. Poor, poor thing.

Our AutoZone guy checked it out and was able to help us fix it enough to get us home, but told us there was a bigger problem and that a mechanic needed to see it ASAP.

Monday's verdict? (according to Joe the Mechanic)

A CRACKED ENGINE BLOCK.

CRAAAAAACKED.

Basically, my little Honda baby needs a whole new engine. So back and forth we went, weighing the options, trying to decide what to do. Hubs so graciously offered to be my chauffeur so OF COURSE I immediately picture a scene from Driving Miss Daisy because THIS IS HOW MY MIND WORKS:

Feel free to click HERE if you'd like some audio to go along with this visual.


UPDATE: I've JUST DECIDED that the Miss Daisy tune is the theme song for our morning commute. Things are about to get crazy, people. We know how to party.


So needless to say, it's been an interesting couple of days. Those of us that do not fully understand the language and the workings of the car (read: me) and those of us who better understand such things (read: Hubs and Joe the Mechanic) have had some decisions to make. Nothing really felt like the right thing to do, and it's kind of stressed Those Of Us Who Do Not Understand out.

Earlier today I just said a quick little prayer, asking the Good Sweet Lord if he would show us what to do, because I sure didn't have a clue.

And then I called my dad, because he's a pretty swell guy. And because that's just what I do when I'm confused. He talked me down, told me to get back to work and everything would be fine.

And you know what? It was fine. Things got better than fine.

Because less than an hour later, we find out that my car has an EXTENDED WARRANTY that will cover the replacement! Despite the overall warranty being expired, there's a place in it that says the engine is covered for things like this.

God's timing is perfect. PERFECT.

Stay tuned for the rrrrrrrrrest of the story in the next update.

I hope you have a happy Monday Thursday Tuesday (or whatever day it happens to be now).

But for everything else, let's remember to take our burdens to the Lord. And leave them there.

Joey+Rory: Leave It There

***Side note: If your car ever starts running hot, it helps to roll down the windows, then turn the heater on. Wise words from my padre.

12 weeks = CHECK.

Folks, we made it.

We've reached the 12-week mark and our 5am boot camp IS OVER!

No more 4:12 a.m. alarms!

No more 4:20 a.m. alarms!

I can SLEEP until 6:30 a.m. again!

...or 7:20, but who's counting?

We made it. It's over and YAY-YEAH!

I'll admit, it was tough. Especially around the 7- to 8-week mark, when we had a good bit behind us but the end was still so far away. But I'm so glad we did this. Really, I am. I feel so much better than I did when we started this thing on Labor Day. Like I've mentioned before, I've done this program a couple of times in the past, and each time it's been a huge challenge both mentally and physically. But to be honest? I've never regretted it.

Even the mornings that were the hardest to get up and go -- the mornings our whole team knew would be some of the hardest -- after the workout was over, I was so glad I had this opportunity. It's literally one of the hardest things I've ever done physically (they may not say much about my sense of adventure ;) ), but I'm so thankful we made it!!!!!

I really do wish I had some hard-core pictures of us working it out over the past few weeks - but we leave everything behind once we hit the field (read: no phones). Plus, pictures would not have been pretty anyway --- I don't know anyone who looks exactly radiant at 5 a.m. ;)

So here's a funny picture of a really, really excited cat instead!

Ok so here's some happenings as of LATELY....


one. Hubs and I are on a soup kick - so we're basically experimenting with every soup known to man thanks to this freakishly cold weather. Our top pick so far?

The Pioneer Woman's Potato Soup!

So. Much. Goodness.

I used turkey bacon and cut the recipe in half for the two of us and WOW. I'll take this with a side of Texas Toast any day!

two. Who's listening to Christmas music already? The way I see it, the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is MUCH shorter than usual this year, so I say BRING IT.

Although Hubs cannot even fathom putting up the tree until AFTER Thanksgiving (understandable...I guess). So meanwhile I'll just keep listening to Michael Buble on repeat.

ALLLLLL. DAAAAYYY. LONNNNNGG.


three. Nutella Hot Chocolate happened in my kitchen a few nights ago.

I'm just gonna let that sink in for a minute.

Oh yeah, it's a thing. Check out the recipe on the "Beautiful Mess" blog :)

Topped with homemade whipped cream and chocolate shavings from THIS DELICIOUSNESS???

It was a wonderful night. Promise me you'll try it sometime, okay? Just say yes :)


four. OH! And HERE'S a funny story:::::: We're going to run a 12k on Saturday!

The last time I was sprinting running I almost threw up. True story.

The sad thing is, I never caught up to the taco truck :(

KIDDING.

Maybe.


five. Please tell me you've seen THIS VIDEO of Jimmy Fallon lip synch battling with JGL and Stephen Merchant. PUH-LEASE. If not, DOOWITNOW.

Aaaaaaaand THIS ONE of Jimmy and Kevin Hart riding a roller coaster. I giggled A LOT.


That's all for now, people! Happy Wednesday!!!!!

Monday Favorites

So...where is this year going?

Because in just SIX SHORT DAYS Hubs and I will celebrate our FIRST wedding anniversary!

If all goes well, next week we'll be spending some time in the Folly Beach-Charleston, South Carolina area, where we spent our honeymoon last year.

Kayakin' at Sunset in Folly!

But not before we make a PIT STOP at my parents' house to eat the top layer of our WEDDING CAKE!



Cake + Beach. I shall be a happy gal indeed :)

I may or may not eat the entire thing. But we'll see.

I mean, why else would I do this crazy boot camp thing AMIRIGHT????


***

Moving on! Here are a few favorites from the past week:


ONE. To get us a little more pumped up with our St. Jude half marathon training, my friend Lauren sent me this article: The DOs and DO NOTs of Running Your First Marathon from TheOatmeal blog. So funny - even if you're not a runner.

Source: The Oatmeal

TWO. We visited my parents' house this week so I could take my wedding dress and veil to be heirloomed (preserved), and WOW was it hard to leave it at the bridal shop. I may or may not have felt a few tears in my eyes when we walked away from the store. BUT! It was nothing my mom's homemade apple pie couldn't remedy!

Sub-par picture, yet a wonderful, homemade taste :)

THREE. While we were out, Hubs and I grabbed some lunch at La Madeliene - a fun little cafe right across the street from the shop. A group of us ate there the day we found my wedding dress, so it's pretty special to me. Not to mention the food is incredible and they have the BEST tomato bisque on this earth. SO GOOD.

FOUR. "10 Things I've Learned in My Career" by Joanna Goddard on her blog. Very encouraging for those of us who are still just kind of...trying to figure out life.


FIVE. This is post #99 on my little bloggerdoodle. Which means post #100 HAS to be something special, right? I'm currently in brainstorm mode...merherherrrrr.


Happy Monday, folks!

Excitement!

Before we proceed with today's oh-so-exciting post, can we just PAUSE for a moment and relish in the fact THERE IS ANOTHER ROYAL BABY COMING?????????

Oh Georgie.

Oh Wills.

Oh KATE and your gorgeous hair and clothes!!!!

I am ever so PUMPED.

Let the media frenzy commence!

***

Moving on! Random fact: I'm sore in places I didn't even realize had muscles.

I'm talkin' BOOT CAMP, yo.

It's crazy. This is my third time doing this program (over the course of three years #newbie) and I'm STILL learning new exercises. Today we had to sit on the floor of the weight room, do an overhand grip of the benchpress bar thingy (I'm SO technical ;) ) and PULL OURSELVES UP OFF OF THE FLOOR while keeping our feet on the ground and our bodies in a straight line.



It's a simple move, basically, but an INCREDIBLY hard one for sure!

((How I feel 4 days a week!!!! :D )

Oh, and can we briefly talk about how I have roughly about ZERO percent upper body strength? It's actually QUITE hilarious. Yesterday we were bench-pressing like BOSSES (<- read: normal folks) and when it's my turn...well...it just didn't work.

I tried. I really did. With all of my might, I tell you!

Sure, I could go about halfway up on each rep, but any higher than that and my left arm decided it pretty much was done and REFUSED to move any higher! My right arm, though, it was a beast. So I can tell you I looked PRETTY SPIFFY doing a nice crooked, diagonal, shaky bench press rep.

Or twenty.

At least it worked SOME sort of muscle though, right? Now, it could have been my imagination (<- even though it NEVER EVER is) (EVER) (<- HA!) - but I may or may not have seen the coach give me one of those "Seriously?" looks when he walked by.

Can't exactly say that I blame him, though. I was pretty much thinking the same exact thing while I was on the bench. I laughed a few hours later when I could finally breathe again! :)

No, I am not strong. But that's why I'm doing this! To get better!

And hey - it's all about improvement, right?!

Question:

What is something you'd like to improve on?

The Best Friday

Fridays are wonderful. Just wonderful. But tonight - OH tonight. It beats them all.

Tonight my parents were able to drive up to The City to visit us - it's the first time since we moved into our new place that they've been able to make it here, and we had the best time :)

It was also the first time Hubs and I have cooked for them since we've been married - so it was nice to place host/hostess to them!

I didn't take many pictures because HELLO FAMILY. They only live about three hours away but...for someone who grew up surrounded by basically her entire family (me), three hours is too far. So, typically, when Hubs and I visit family, the phones are usually on silent or out of sight. It's a beautiful thang AMEN? ;)

However, I DO wish I would have taken pictures of our food. After some appetizers of mozzarella stuffed mushrooms (recipe below - these are always a HUGE hit with my family!), we inhaled some crazy good spaghetti with semi-homemade sauce, fresh steamed green beans, Texas toast, and one of our favorite desserts: Cream Puffs.

Ohhhh the Cream Puffs. I want them all. All over again. All of the days.

Our bellies were full, our hearts are full, and it's just been a wonderful evening. There's something about some REAL family time that seems to recharge our batteries and make everything ten times better.

Ben picked up a Coke after work tonight (we usually only keep water in the house #treat), and it pretty much sums it up.

I couldn't agree more.

So now I'm currently curled up on our couch watching Everybody Loves Raymond with my love and trying DESPERATELY to get Tay Tay's new song out of my head.

...because now it's in yours too :) YA WELCOME!


P.S. Tomorrow Mississippi State plays Southern Miss in college football for the first time in about 34 years. Hubs graduated from State, I graduated from Southern. Tomorrow's household will prove to be QUITE interesting. I'm pumped! Bring it. Merherher. #SMTTT

P.P.S. Last time this game happened, Southern Miss won. That's all I will say about that because IT'S ON!


Recipe!


{Imagine a delicious-looking picture here}
{{Seriously. You'd want to lick the screen had I posted one}}
{{{Serve this as an appetizer at your next shin-dig or get-together. #megahit}}}

Mozzarella Stuffed Mushrooms
(Serves 2-4 as an appetizer)

 

What you'll need:

1 package of white-button mushrooms (or other variety of small mushrooms)

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1/2 tsp of garlic powder

1/2 tsp of onion powder

1/2 tsp oregano*

1/2 tsp basil*

1 ball of fresh mozzarella cheese (other types can be substituted: brie, goat, etc.)

 

*you can substitute these with Italian seasoning

 

 

What you'll do:

 

Twist stems off of mushrooms and rinse thoroughly. In a skillet, heat oil to medium heat. Sprinkle in garlic, onion, and oregano and sauté for about 30 seconds. Add in mushroom caps and toss to coat. Allow caps to sauté for about 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

 

Pinch off sections of mozzarella ball small (or large) enough to fill the center of each mushroom cap. Don't be afraid to really stuff the caps - I like to let the cheese overflow a bit for more "gooey-ness." Top with oregano and basil (or Italian seasoning) to taste, then bake for roughly 7 minutes or until cheese has thoroughly melted. Serve warm and enjoy!



The Final Product

So LAST WEEK - I finished a month-long course in basic cake decorating (!!!!) - and it was all kinds of fun. On Monday night I wanted to practice and prep so I would feel a leeeetle more comfortable in class on Tuesday, plus it helped me determine my strong points so I COULD WIN.

Just kidding. There was no contest or winners. We weren't even graded or given a Pass/Fail.

But the teacher liked mine best so WIN!!!!!

Actually, she never exactly said that OUT LOUD, per se...but I could tell. I could totally tell. For. Realz.

Sooooo this here is the practice cake --- I couldn't decide between the stars-slash-tiny-flowers look or big luscious roses, so I just divided it up and went for both.

As we can see here, this side was pretty girly and ever so slightly lame but HEY roses = icing so YES.

Plus the icing colors worked out really well. Neon Food Coloring FOR THE WIN.


And as we can CLEARLY see -- my "cascading" stars-slash-let's-pretend-they're-tiny-flowers look didn't QUITE pan out. But it was actually fun just piling on the icing.

So, since I only slightly failed at the flowery look, I threw on some sprinkles and called it a night. Because sprinkles make everything better. EVERYTHING.

...despite the aftermath in our tiny kitchen.

By Tuesday night, I was amped and ready to go -- I shared a table with one other girl during class and we had equipment and tools GALORE. It took me the entire two-hour class, but I finished and was actually really happy with the final product!

My only reservation was that, at some point in the mixing process, I got a little too happy with the green  coloring. So rather than a calming meadow green it came out rather hunter green. But hey, we'll just pretend it's garden cake!

Grass looks appetizing right?

Oh, and I overestimated the size of my cake and made WAY too many roses -- but they did turn out pretty and shiny, and that was exciting :)

  

For the rest of the week, we had CAKE. FOR. DAYS. DAYS, I tell you!

And while that's never a bad thing for cake-lovers such as myself and the Mister, having THREE CAKES in ONE KITCHEN seemed a little much.

((...I made an extra cake the night before just in case something happened to my cake in class))

((#klutzproof))


Thankfully, the Mister's co-workers were gracious enough to devour one cake, we did some SIGNIFICANT damage to another one at home, and the extra one - well, it wasn't exactly wrapped properly and grew stale kind of quickly.

Works for me! #lesscalories

At some point in the future I'm hoping to take the next level course - so who knows WHAT we'll get ourselves into next????


Also --- with all the cake behind us, I've actually been able to cook again! I've got a quite a few recipes up my sleeve and can't wait to share!

I'm off for a quick workout! Hollaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!

On Semi-Spontaneity

Happy Tuesday, folks!

Hope everyone's week is off to a fabulous start!

When was the last time you felt truly re-charged? For me, this weekend did just that. My recently-married sister (!!!!!) and her husband graciously hosted our family at their house in Alabama on Saturday, and just being able to reconnect with everyone (not to mention her awesome cooking) did a WORLD of good.

If you know me, you likely know that living here in The City and away from so many people and places really gets to me sometimes - so road trips are a MUST every now and then.

The drive was NOT bad at all - only a little over three hours (with THREE traffic jams -- THREE!) - so Hubs and I figured that, while we were away, we'd make a semi-spontaneous (because we only talked about it about 2 days before) mini-vacation out of it! WHOOP!

So - we drove a little over an hour further after lunch so that we could soak THIS in:

...along with a little of this:

and, obviously -- this (typical sunset photo - #sorryImnotsorry) !!!!

Just what the doctor ordered - right???? Pensacola, how I love thee.

Not to mention all the awesome beach food we had! We kicked off the vacation at Peg Leg Pete's  - where I ordered some delicious stuffed shrimp with steamed veggies and Hubs ordered some AMAZING oysters:

Saturday began with an incredible-as-always breakfast at my beloved Panera Bread - Oh City WHEN will you get one????? ;) I ordered the egg white + spinach sandwich (AMAZING) and Hubs had the strawberry oatmeal.

...And after a full day of BEACHIN' we made one last stop at Lulu's because OMGQUESO BURGERS:




'Nuff said, right?


And she's off! I'll be back soon with another cheesy-fun post!



Today's question:

What do you like to do to recharge and refresh?