*Best Friends*

Meet Lil Muffin's best friend, "Dora". These two have been inseperable since they day they met. I grew up in a place where there wasnt a range of ethnicity around me. I had wanted my kids to be around other culture growing up. You see, because there wasnt ethnicity around us, mini me was terrified of people of another race. I hated that. Now, living in Georgia, we have a wide range of ethnicity and skin color. I love that. My kids no longer see color- Everyone is the same to them.
In fact, going back to Oregon last year, mini me was shocked at the fact that there was no culture and actually asked me where all of the black people were.

I love how these two are so "innocent" in the way they think and how they just love each other unconditionally!

Dancing Queens-

Look at these two- maybe we as adults could learn from these little girls to love unconditionally, no matter what your skin color may be!

Teachers and Chocolate

Last week, the Mr. and i made a quick run to the grocery store- ok, when he is hungry, he will buy any and ALL junk food there is to be bought. He ran across these no-bake cookies and thought about buying them. Until he saw the price - maybe 8 cookies for almost 3 bucks. im sure people would pay that for them- in a pinch... MAYBE .. but if you've known me long enough, you'll know i dont do pre-made.. i like to be Martha and try to make it all from scratch. i'm obsessed with cooking- REALLY.. so today i made no-bake cookies for the Mr. Im not exaggerating when i say, these cookies MAYBE took me 10 min to make. Literally a few ingredients.

Every week, i send a goodie to mini me's teachers- her main teacher ALWAYS gets a treat, along with the bus driver. Her teacher from last year is literally on her walk to her classroom, so she scores a goodie as well. I try and send them on her days with art , pe, and music to butter those teachers up as well. Our kids teachers work hard and deserve something little. I bought these bags @ my fave dolla store and use them every time. i think a pack has 25 bags in it?! i'm a ribbon hoarder, so i grabbed some football ribbon and some red for the DAWGS-

here is the recipe for the no-bake cookies, courtesy of Cooks.com:


CHOCOLATE OATMEAL NO-BAKE COOKIES

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1 stick butter
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
3 cups quick-cooking oatmeal
1/2 cup peanut butter

Combine sugar, cocoa, butter and milk in a saucepan. On medium heat, bring to a boil for one full minute.
Remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter (optional), vanilla and oatmeal.

Drop by spoonful onto wax paper. Let cool for at least 30 minutes.

I'm sure we'll be scoring some more brownie points with the teachers, the MR., and with the neighbors we ding-dong- ditched tonight and left these as a present!@ Dont you wish YOU were my neighbor?!

My, What Big teeth You Have!

SHE DID IT, My Friends!!

6 months ago, this lil muffin was too afraid to get her x-rays done on her teeth-

Today, SHE DID IT!

... Without a fuss, flinch, or tear in her eye!
Next it was on to the teeth cleaning- better watch Sis to make sure it was ok.

Folks, 6 months ago, this lil muffin was TERRIFIED to have her teeth cleaned and it was a struggle for even the Dentist to put fluoride on them. SHE DID IT! She hopped up on this chair literally faster than the hygenist was able to get ready- notice she's still putting on her mask and had to get everything ready and lil muffin has her mouth WIDE open! ;) ( She definately doesnt take after her "Bampa" cause Lord knows you'd have to dope him up JUST to get him into a Dentist OFFICE! )

Grandpa, maybe you can learn by example! After all, the Dentist gives bubble gum "toof paste", princess toothbrushes, a token for a prize, AND a chik-fila meal. What could be better than chik-in?!

Here comes Fall!

After a LONG hot and humid summer, Fall is upon us and this year i'm ready. i'm ready for the warm, rich colors of fall. The browns and oranges and all of the things that come along with it! Yankee Candle is having a sale- 7 dollars for each plug in. I think these plug ins last the entire time i have them, unlike another home candle/ lotion store that starts with a B. I like the fact that you can have them let out a little scent, or a TON of scent. i place these in my main entry way, and put 4 of them around the room. That's usually all i need- THIS "BE THANKSFUL" scent is out of this world. So warm and smells like fall. I miss this Spiced chai- i cant find it out here in the south, but this is what we used to serve at our coffee shop. I would describe the taste as every smell you smell at Christmas, but in a drink. They do have it in a sugar free as well. If you live in the salem area, you can buy this at Cash 'n carry for a FRACTION of the price and it BEATS a major coffee food chains chai!!!
The Good ol pumpkin roll- how i love thee.. i have searched EVERY grocery and specialty store around me and let me tell you, there is NO pumpkin anywhere! There is a shortage ( dead serious, Hungry Girl stated that a few months back) and so this fall STOCK UP when you see it in the store. If i want it now, i have to sweet talk my military wife friends to buy it on the military base, because that's the only place they have it now-

I've plugged my plug ins in the wall and taken my FAll decor out- lemme tell you that its SO easy to decorate on a budget. ALOT of times, if you find something you like at a MAJOR craft store, they will have the knock off version at the DOlla store- i bought MANY things there last year and pulled them out for thrifty decor. Also, use nature!! i collected many pinecones on walks last year and have used those as well.

Take me out to the ball game!

Baseball season has almost ended, but we wanted to get a little Braves game in before it was too late. We loaded up the pilot with our fam and neighbors and drove to the ATL.
Daddy and lil muffin walking towards the field after some serious tailgating- look @ lil muffin with her cup, it cracks me up. I kid on the tailgating part!


The Mr. all the way at the bottom of the picture in the red hat- watching them practice and coming up with a master plan on how to get a ball...

If plan A doesn't work, go for Plan B- bringing lil muffin to "WATCH" them practice, so they see her adorable hair and give her a ball. Mission: Accomplished!

Mini me enjoying some funnel cake- this is after the soft pretzel, coke, frozen lemonade and fries!

After a disappointing first half of the game, the Braves turned it around and won!

Unbeknownst to us, there would be a free concert after the game- none other than Kutless!! From Portland, Oregon. Really.. its a small world.

Before they played, they had a man speak and this verse he quoted. i love the verse, and i loved the fact that it was on this board, in a baseball stadium. I'm pretty sure this wouldnt fly back in Oregon where we lived..

Kutless began singing... loved it.. it was like a huge worship service!!

Sissies taking a break from dancing to the music in their matching dresses one of their sitters out here bought them last year.

When we got there, it was so hot and right when we sat down, mini me said :"mom, this is so boring". i thought we were in for it- hours of "when are we going home?" But, i was pleasantly suprised and found that if their mouths were kept full, they stayed happy! HA!

Who loves S'mores?!

Smores.. who doesnt love these suckers?! They remind me of summer- i could probably eat them on a daily basis!

Golden grahams has these smore bars out- they're delish, but honestly, there's only 6 measly bars in the box for almost 3 bucks. LAME- expensive.. and why would i buy something with all additives in it, when i could make it MYSELF?! well.. i did. I found a blog post ( if its' yours PLEASE let me know so i can give you the credit earned!) I couldnt decide what chocolate to use, so i used two different kinds and used an entire box. I made a semi sweet and a milk chocolate. i personally liked the milk chocolate best.

After making it, i broke it into pieces and bagged it up for mini me's teachers and bus driver ( i fully believe in buttering your teachers up- they treat your kid better!!)

SO, here's the SIMPLE 3 ingredient recipe!:

S'mores Bark

Inspired by: Golden Graham S'mores and my co-worker, CL
*Almost 1 bag mini marshmallows
*Almost 1 12 oz box graham cracker cereal
*2 lbs candy melting chocolates


Divide: I found it easier to work in two batches. Divide the ingredients approximately in half.
Melt: Take the first pound of chocolate and in a microwave safe bowl heat in the microwave at 50% power for 30 second intervals. Stir in between. Stop when chocolate is completely melted.
Combine: In a large bowl, mix the melted chocolate with about 1/2 of the cereal and marshmallows. Toss to coat well.
Spread: Take the mixture and spread it out onto a wax paper lined cookie sheet.( I just laid 3 pieces of wax paper to line my counter tops and poured it on there) You may need 2-3 cookie sheets total for the whole recipe.
Repeat: Repeat the steps above with the remaining half of ingredients.
Cool: Allow bark to cool completely for an hour or two.
Assemble: Break the bark apart in small chunks and serve in cupcake liners.
(Note: Recipe can be cut in half. This makes a large amount of bark.)

Charleston Weekend cont'd

Saturday we took a tour on the horse- drawn carriage thru Charleston- This is the Chisholm house.

This is the city jail dating WAY back- they do a ghost tour there. ( No thank you!) There is also a house located next to the jail- the ghost hunters from Tv were just there and found a trap door in the house with bones inside of it.

Jail sign- all old and weathered.

First Moon Pie store was in Charleston- didnt know that before!

Havent seen a Cigarrette vending machine since i was 6!! In a restraunt we ate at in between the bathrooms.

After our tour we drove thru Rainbow Row where all of the multi- million dollar homes are. They are spectacular and full of color. Pictures cant capture the enormity of them and the details each house has.

Some random bride having her portraits taken-

Charleston is GORGEOUS! If you EVER have a chance to visit there, you need to go. The seafood is out of this world! Lots of fun shopping, a straw market, farmers market, and lots of people to watch!

Weekend Charleston Girl Trip!

A Few weekends ago, some girlfriends and i took an overnight trip to Charleston. I've NEVER been there before, but have heard so many raves about it. With one of my girlfriends aunts here from Pa, we wanted to go somewhere that was historic- Boone Hall Plantation was on our list for Friday.

Little did we know it would be so hot- with a heat index of 115, people! That's not dry heat, that's HUMID heat. We spent 3 hours at this place- Now when i say the name of this place, for most of you that means nothing.. However, when i say: remember that summer house of the girl's parents in the movie, the Notebook ?! That rings a HUGe bell i'm sure ;)

THIS was that place!!

I am in love with the moss that hangs from trees- did you know that its actually a fungas, but will grow with the tree and they dont take from each other, so they live in harmony and make weird girls like me giddy when i see them!

Here's that infamous house! Of course the white pergolas on either side weren't in the movie- up close, those are actually covering benches for people that wait to tour the inside of the house. I did tour, however, we werent allowed to take any pictures, but i will say its gorgeous inside- the library with all of the old, musty antique books was my favorite- TALL bookcases, with hinged, see thru doors made out of chicken wire and framed with wood. the details were endless!

these are the slave houses which are in front of the house- there were about 6 of them if i recall, with one of them being the slaves place of worship. In each of these houses, they had facts on the slaves, what they did, how they lived, etc. VERY intriguing!

Another "Notebook" moment.. when her boyfriends driving down to her parents house and you see the LONG stretch of trees. Pictures CANNOT express how gorgeous it was!
( A little fun fact about that movie- remember when he crashes into the big iron fence ? that was NOT suppose to happen in the movie- the gates were suppose to open and failed, but the director like it so much, he kept it in the movie!)

Another shot of the slaves quarters

This is a view of the back-side of the huge house- on this property they have a full farm that runs all year long ( watermelons, pumpkins, grapes). Their biggest crop is Pecans, although with many storms, the trees were uprooted and died-

Many tv movies and shows have been filmed on this property
- Army Wives just finished filming a few weeks ago. This house may look familiar to some. It was built for a set on the movie starring Halle Berry, called Queen.

I saw this tree and went coo coo.. no lie.. my FAVE tree, a Crepe Myrtle, which you will see ALL OVER the place out here, WITH the moss in it.. ahhh.. cant get much better than that!

I am SO glad we all went- it was totally worth the money and an eye opening experience. I will be taking the fam back !!! Its not only educational, but so beautiful.. its heaven on earth, really!!

More Charleston pics to come-