Lonely Days

Well, E is gone an ANOTHER business trip this week. I am glad this is the last one for a while. I feel like we barely see each other anymore because of all of the business trips we both have been on lately!

But I forgot that I took this picture of him and Maggie in bed together the morning he left and I thought it was cute!

Happy Birthday Kim!

Kimberly, yes, it's finally your turn. And no I didn't forget it's your birthday too!! I am SO sure you have been starved for attention lately!! HA!

If you can't tell already, I am close with my family, my extended family and all of E's family!! I am the oldest of 9 nine grandkids on my Mom's side of the family and for the most part, we have all grown up together. Kimberly is number 5, poor kid, she really got hit hard with the middle child stick, middle in her family and middle of all the grandkids. Just Kidding!!

She works hard and plays hard. She graduated early from Auburn last year and moved back home where she works for Coca-Cola full-time now and at 22 already working on her MBA. Man!! The things you can do if you know what you want to do with your life!!!

Happy Birthday Kim! Me, E and Magpie love you very much!!

Congratulations Graduate Joe

I hate growing up sometimes especially when that means you have other priorities (work) when you don't want to miss important family events. Unfortunately, I had to miss the graduation of my cousin, Laurel, because of work and Maggie and then fact that E was out of town. But nonetheless, she deserves a Congratulations live from Everyday Bailey!

I know you will go on to do great things. You have always been a good kid, good friend and a good cousin and I love you very much. You have worked hard, created opportunities for yourself and really turned into the young lady that I always thought you were. I have no doubt that you will go far in life. So go to college, study hard, party a little and love every minute of it!! We are super proud of you and miss you very much!!

(P.S. the check is in the mail...I know you were wondering...and sorry for the pic...all your mom sent me was a handful of blurry ones....this was actually the better of them all...sometimes you just have to make lemonade)

What's Cooking...Thursday...Margarita Pizza

Something about Margarita Pizza tastes so fresh and healthy (which I don't think it is) but I always feel so good after eating it. For all of you meatlovers out there or those who cook exclusively for those beloved meatlovers in your life...this may not be what you are looking for. However, this was exactly what I was looking for.

If you have a pizza stone, use it. (I forgot to use mine and was kicking myself the rest of the night) And feel free to add whatever else you want to this pizza...but be warned that you will have to come up with a new name for your creation. (I will admit that sometimes I like to add mushrooms) So easy, so fast and ...it's just GOOD!!! This is one of the new items on our weekly menu.

Did I mention that it was pretty...

Tennis Days are Here Again

Well, I thought I was in better shape than I really was. I showed up for my first tennis practice on my new mixed doubles team and felt ok. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I was able to keep up with everyone for the most part but the little things that I had forgotten really put me in some pain:

-Remembering to cut my fingernails down so I don't cut myself
-Having grip tape available in case your grip starts to degrade
-Wearing certain shoes so that when you stop abruptly and repeatedly, your toes don't bruise
-Bringing enough cold water for an entire family
-Having a dry towel and t-shirt available after all is over
- Remembering to stretch certain muscles I rarely use while jogging
-Bringing hair pins so my hair doesn't stick to my sweaty face

I am sorry that I don't have a picture for you all, but I didn't know how to take a picture of the ENORMOUS amount of pain I have been in for the past 2 days. So much so that I didn't go to work yesterday. It took too long to sit up in bed and all I could do was groan once I there. So me and Magpie had a girl's day in.

My Mom called to laugh at me and call me a "Weenie." I told her that I wasn't arguing with her. I felt like an old lady.

So yesterday in my downtime, I bought lots of excellant stuff to get my through the hard times.

New Shoes

New Tennis Bag

Lots of Tennis Balls

New Thorlos (I live and die my these socks) - Courtesy of Maggie...she has now eaten through the toes of too many pairs of these!!

New shorts (with built-in ball panties)...and they're so purpley!

Plenty of grip tape

The only thing I couldn't find was a water cooler, so that's my mission for today!!!

Holiday Weekend

Happy 3-day weekend everyone. It's so nice to have a break once in a while. I love three day weekends because I never feel like I have enough time to finish my projects on a 2 day weekend. I start work on Monday exhausted from the weekend, so much so that I look forward to the work week for some relaxation. I know...quite sad. Saturday was full of hard work. I cleaned house and worked in the yard ALL day and E was called into work TWICE!!! He was a little aggitated about that too!!

We have a small problem at our house. Neither of us are sleeping these days. Evidently, when one of us doesn't sleep, neither does the other...and lately, we have been alternating keeping each other up because our bed is the one my parents bought for me when I moved out of the house to go to college. It's old and was very cheap and now it's killing both of us so we decided to get a new mattress. So on Sunday, we went and looked at several stores and decided that if we were going to spend money on anything...it should be out mattress. If anything is going to get us through our childbearing years, it's going to be quality sleep! So we decided to purchase a sleep number bed at the end of the summer. Wow those beds are expensive but SOOOOO nice!!! But we are excited about that.

We also spent alot of time at Gander Mountain on Sunday afternoon getting new camping gear. Now that E went camping a few weeks ago, he could assess and figure out what we were missing. We also use our camping supplies as our hurricane kit and after you live in the Florida Keys for a few years, you learn how crucial those are. So I got a new sleeping bag, a cleaning kit for our Camelbak bladders, some camping utensils, new water bottles and some new clothes too. Here are some of the new things I got minus a columbia jacket I got on sale since it's the summer time.

Monday was alot of fun since we had NO PLANS!!! We got up very slowly and spent a long time discussing what our plans were for the house remodel. We took Maggie for a long jog and then had a special breakfast...Mmmm...Cinnamon, Apple, Raison Strata. Since E is in school, I have taken on the housework for a while. Our deal has been that I get stuff done around the house so he can focus on finishing school. And when school is over, we will re-assess and share more household duties. So I have been doing all of the laundry lately and have been incredibly frustrated with the state of his closet and drawers. So Monday was spent going through both of our closets and drawers and deciding what we can and can't fit into anymore and what is now inappropriate for people our age. As a twenty-seven year old married woman, I don't feel the need to wear a mini skirt, incredibly short shorts and a halter top anymore. I'm no prude, I did keep a few things for the beach and for when I loose a few pounds, but let's be realistic.

I also have a new addiction to the show, NCIS, (so does E which is very rare since lately he hates everything on tv because "it's all so fake") which was being shown as a marathon on the USA network on Monday. So I Tivo'd the whole thing and watched several episodes while I rested in the afternoon. And finally, to get ready for tennis debut this year, me and E went to play tennis with Elizabeth and Matt last night. It was so weird being back on the court again. But more like an old friend that you haven't seen in a while. It was actually nice. E had a good time too and wants to play more.

So how did you spend your 3-day weekend?

Spring Cleaning and Other News

What started out as spring cleaning, turned into a fight to the death to throw away software and old equipment they have been saving for over a decade. And what's sad, is that I have already done this once already and will have to do this again before the end of the summer. Our supervisors fight hardcore to keep all of these storage closets, to the point where they make serious enemies out of people we will need down the road, that we don't need. We basically have 3 storage closets and one storage room that will all fit into our larger closet comfortably.

Have I mentioned that I hate being sweaty in an air conditioned room wearing work clothes? Gross! For those of you that might not remember the first pile click here to see. However, here is the second pile.

On the plus side, I talked them into buying the new Nikon D40 as our departmental camera yesterday. I am super pumped about playing with that (personally, not professionally).

Also, I joined a mixed doubles league today. We start playing in June and I am super apprehensive. Yes, I played high school and college tennis, but I haven't set foot on a court since May 2003!!! That was 5 years ago!!! I still think I am in descent physical shape and I have spent all week running harder and working out more to ready myself for this challenge. It's going to be bad! I always hate when people hear that you played college sports and they expect you to come out and be AWESOME and I know I won't live up to expectations!

What's Cooking Wednesday - Chocolate Toffee Espresso Shortbread Cookies

I went to Smitten Kitchens blog a few months back and printed out several recipes that I was dying to try. I made one of them last week for you and will this week too!

Chocolate-Espresso Shortbread Cookies

I honestly have to admit that I like my cookies a little more soft, chewy and sweet than the shortbread cookies gave me, but after I cooked them 2 minutes less and added an extra 1/2 cup of powdered sugar I think they tasted much better. And I also added some toffee chips for fun. Once they cooled, they were really good. I just love anything that tastes like coffee.