Can I get a cool breeze?

North Carolina is such a miserable place this time of year.  It's been 90+ with 1,000% humidity everyday.
Today my buddy and I were all set to go kayking, but were turned away because it looked like rain. See above: the humidity. It often seems like rain here in the afternoon. Turns out, it never rained and now I'm annoyed because that was going to be my exercise today.
Ah well.
Today for dinner I made the Brie and Brisket Quesadillas. 
I meant to make them yesterday, but my braindead self forgot to...plug in the crockpot. You can't come home to dinner when you don't plug it in.
Here are some pictures from tonight:

This is the meat, brie and monterrey jack on a whole wheat tortilla.

                                        This is all of the above photo with the mango bbq sauce.

                                           All done! I'm ready to eat now. And yes, I ate it all.

I do not see how teachers lose weight in the summer. Perhaps it's because I have been vacationing so much, or because booze packs it on or perhaps its the meeting friends out for meals which is hard during the school year, but I have not lost a pound.
I also said I was going to exercise a lot over the summer. Um, yeah, that hasn't happened.  Same for reading, organizing and painting.
Oh well, there's always next summer....

Tomorrow we are hitting up the Palm in Charlotte since it's Queens feast week, so I will not be doing any cooking. I'm excited to try and new place and have a double date with Zack and Sherri.
Saturday is going to bring river tubing with some friends and some tooling around Boone.

Also, if you have not yet tried Oliver Beanblossom hard cider (raspberry!) what the hell are you waiting for?
It is the best way to enjoy the patio on a hot summer night. Seriously, I am digging it more than riesling right now and ya'll know I love me some Riesling.
Here's the link at Total Wine so you can see more about it:

Happy Sunday!

I love Sundays. They are the best day to be lazy in the morning, enjoy a cup of coffee on the deck, pet Ru and watch Sunday morning. Today we are heading out with some fabulous friends for Sunday lunch at Tony's (a famous local ice cream shop) followed by some mini golf. Hurray for some free vouchers; we public school employees gotta get our freebies where we can.

Today is the day I've been looking forward to for the past 7 weeks. My 'sister wife' Sherri is coming home from Alaska. She's been off working with scientists in Fairbanks and I am ready for her to come back to the South. She's been missed and I'm so stoked her Alaskan adventure is done. The welcome home banner is already in the works.

I swear I'm less awful looking in person. Also, I am rarely that excited. About anything. Ever.

Coming up for this week are some exciting and not so exciting things:
-obligatory work (cataloging project) three days this week. (which category do you think that falls under?)
-Challenging myself to complete at least 5 things off of my DIY to do board on Pinterest.
-mani/pedis with Sherri and our sweet friend Koda followed by Brie and Brisket quesadillas.
 -River tubing with my friend Lorna and our fellas in Todd, NC. I'm glad it's been raining, because dragging your ass down the river is not nearly as much fun as floating with your cooler.
- A frozen yogurt date with one of my favorite coworkers and her sweet, sweet daughters.
-Kayaking and paddleboarding. I'm a water bug this week.
-Get the yard sale items tagged, and craigslist items listed

Now, to toot my own horn:
I busted that ass making freezer meals on Friday and Saturday. The beginning of the school year is a huge, hairy beast. I know that 40 hour weeks are laughable for the first month, especially since I am taking over the technology at the school.
I made enough meals that I will be able to just reheat and eat from the first day of school (Aug. 27th until Oct 10th) weekends not included . I reorganized the freezer so we can actually find things. I bought tons of ingredients and tons of Tupperware for under $95.

If you look at my Google doc:
You will see the links to the dishes I made most of which are from my favorite site: www.skinnytaste.com
One of the better sites for good info on housekeeping, cleaning, organizing etc is: http://www.simpleorganizedliving.com


Here are some pictures of my work:  note: I am no photographer, just a chick with an Iphone and a poorly light kitchen.

This one is forgotten chicken, about to go in the oven:

Pizza pasta in the beginning when I'm making layers:

 Lightened up brocoli mac and cheese:

Here's the mac and cheese divided up. It made 4 meals for the Mr. and I. BTW: I label with the date and contents. There is a special kind of scary associated with the 'discovery' of a meal without a label.

Labeled: Also, I might work in an elementary school, but you could not tell that from my handwriting:

and yes, I included cooking instructions, because sometimes the Mr. is pretty...but common sense escapes he and I.

Next up: Zucchini boats. This is technically supposed to be 8 servings, but I would probably eat two boats and really not feel too terribly about it because I substituted the sausage for Boca meat. This is the pre-meat photo.

And another: below is taco soup. Look at all those tasty beans!

 Next up: chicken ropa veija: I barely remember what my life was like before I ate peppers and I'm not sure I want to. 

And because I know you were dying for a photo of what pizza pasta looks like when it's finished, BAM:

Tomorrow, a picture of what the freezer looks like now, plus, the recipe for the Bolognese in a crockpot that serves....20!!!!! as well as my musings on exercise and fitness (I'm thinking about the Dr. Oz 10 day challenge to get the hell out of this plateau.

Mama is a rolling stone..

This summer has been travel, travel, travel.
So far the Mister and I have gone to the Florida Keys for a glorious week, I went with the ladies to Las Vegas and I'm off to Chicago at the end of the month.
This is not counting the small day trips that can be squeezed in when you live in North Carolina. I've gone to Columbia, SC, and I'm headed to Todd, NC and Asheville in the next week.

It's not been all fun and games this summer though: we lost one of our sweet children to a car accident. Percy will be missed by us very much. It's been almost a month since we found him in our yard.

The Mr. is having a hard time adjusting but we are hoping to adopt a new adult kitty when we find the perfect one. 

Rufus is having a hard time adjusting as well. He misses his buddy and has been all over me while I'm home for the summer.  Here he is waiting for me to come back to my chair:

I've been working on a lot of cataloging at work. It's been books, books, books. It's not exciting work, but it will keep me from having to do it during the school year and it's earning me some days off. 

I think tomorrow is going to be filled with cooking some freezer meals. I know that school will start before I know it and the first three weeks will be looooonnnngggg. 

I will link some recipes tomorrow.

-Off for now, gotta celebrate baby sister's birthday with Red Velvet cupcakes!

Nearly the end of school...thank God

So, I have nearly 9 weeks off coming up. I have plans:
-travel (the Florida keys, Chicago, Vegas)
-pinterest crafts, lots of them
-get more organized for the upcoming year. More responsibilities at work mean greater need for organization.
-get ready for the expansion of our family. Although I am not expecting yet, that is on the very very near future list, and I am a big planner.
-Enjoy the simple things. I need to spend time in my hammock, reading, staring at clouds, walking through gardens, sliding down rocks in the mountains...
-Try to blog more often. I stink at it.

Mostly though, I have to make sure I do not give into depression. I will have to keep myself super busy for this to happen.

Sharing a good yum:
http://www.skinnytaste.com/2012/02/skinny-no-bake-peanut-butter-pie.html
The peanut butter pie above is one of the easiest things I've ever made and so insanely delicious.
Give it a whirl. It's only 4 ingredients.

Spring has sprung, and so has my depression, again

So, usually around this time of year I have no depression issues at all. I can't stop doing things, can't stop going going going, but this year...I don't know, it's just different. Perhaps it's because I know that my time as just one person, one part of a marriage is coming to a close as we draw closer and closer to starting a family. I know that next year at this time, I will probably never again utter the phrase, 'I'm bored, what can I do.'

Enough: I can not go there for long. I have to avoid.

Today I've: gone to the farmer's market and bought tons of stuff. I've prepped 3 single servings of spaghetti squash and frozen them for next time the MR. wants spaghetti.
I'm making sweet potato biscuits later for our family cookout.
I got corn, squash and zucchini to grill for said cookout.
I am getting ready to haul manure and top soil over to my new raised bed to plant more stuff.
 (I've never grown a garden before and I'm really happy with how it's going so far)

Perhaps I will break out my glass cutter later on. I could do some damage to some wine bottles.
no, no more projects started.

Also-I added a trip to spring break. I'm going to the mountains with my school friend and her mom.  Hurray for an impromptu trip to Grandfather mountain. I'm ready to hike and relax and have some girl time.

Tutoring is going well. I'm $60 from paying off airline ticket 1.
I still need around $260 to pay off airline ticket 2.

Since my weekly tutoring pay is about to go from 70 to 85 this won't be too awful. Hopefully they will want to continue over the summer. It's fun working with the kids one on one since it's so different from what I normally do. It's also nice to have some extra money to pay things off with.

Ah well, no more avoiding. Outside to haul dirt/fancy poop I go.

Working for the...summer?

With my first year of working as a school system employee coming to a close (slowly and quickly at the same time) I am catching what many other teachers and students have. The summer fever.

Here are some of the thoughts/things to do on my mind:

I am making so many travel plans it's insane. I can not WAIT to visit: The Florida Keys with the Mr., Vegas with my ladies, Chicago to visit friends and family and I'm contemplating Canada. This of course does not include the MANY trips to the beach or mountains I anticipate, because when you live in NC and the beach is 3.5 hours away and 1.5 hours from the mountains, day/weekend trips are endless.
I.can.not.wait.

The traveling does not of course take me away from my big plans for the summer: get on those DIY projects and get this house organized.
As the mister and I are beginning to get ready to make it the THREE of us rather than two (not yet, planning stages only) there are so many things that I need to get ready. Pinterest isn't helping. I'm only finding more things that are you know, a necessity.

I think that I need to start posting on here more often because as my Kindle and I lay in bed, catching up with all the blogs I follow on Google Reader, I realize that my experiences in life might not be just like my friends around me, but that other people have similar tastes, preferences and experiences that I could relate to and find comfort in.  I read a blog last night about a woman going through PPD. As a person who has struggled with seasonal affective disorder and occasional depression, this TERRIFIES me.  I feel like there is a huge chance given my history that I will end up with this. Reading other people's experiences of going through things that I am afraid of makes me feel bonded to other women and stronger, even if I don't know them outside of the blogosphere.

That's mostly my thoughts for now. These are my random musings. I will challenge myself to blog at least once a week.  Next time I think I will put in some pictures of my DIY projects/before after.

On the yum front

Last night I went on a 'lady date' with my good buddy, KC. Yes, I am still married, and I still love men. This was just a fun girl date for St. Patty's day. Neither of us wanted to bar crawl cause, um, we aren't 21 and don't enjoy that closeness with strangers. We traveled to Ireland together with my family two years ago (she's a brave soul) so it's a fun time to reminisce.
We checked out a place that I had heard a lot about, but had not been to.  The place is called the Crepe Cellar. It's in the NoDa (North Davison) arts district here in Charlotte.
Why not eat French food on an Irish holiday? After all, Irish food is well, embarrassingly bad.
What an AMAZING meal. Great service (and I'm choosy after waitressing for all those years), fabulous ambiance (which so many American restaurants lack) and above all superb food.
KC got herself a Guinness, so she did celebrate our Irish roots a bit while I as usual had wine.
We shared Pesto Brie French Fries as an appetizer (a HUGE plate) and were in heaven. Never again will cheese fries look even mildly appetizing. These fries were crisp and tasted light even though they were clearly fried and had just enough pesto to make them taste fresh and just enough brie to make them feel decadent.
After that carb fest, we decided that since we wanted the same crepe anyway, (the Buckwheat turkey, apple and brie with a honey mustard dijion spread) we decided to split.
Turkey is not usually exciting. It's usually safe like chicken.  This turkey wanted you to know it was there. It was smoked and had deep flavor.  It felt hearty, despite being in a crepe.  With the apple and brie against the buckwheat it was perfect. I really had to remind myself I was in Charlotte, which is much more of a bbq, buffalo chicken wings kind of town.
Splitting the crepe was a good call because if I had gotten my own, I would have eaten it. All. While that would have made my mouth happy, it would have killed my WW points. The portion was more than generous and we left plenty full.
A place that shows class, no one yells, there is a progressive but not snotty wine list, local beers and amazing food? Yeah, I will be back. Soon.