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!