First week back to school is finished...
Today... nails, chicken
Bubs Diary of a Wimpy

I'm Reading... Girls Night Out
Bubs is Reading...
Drinking... Coke Zero
Eating... Pizza

This week on the menu...
coffee, tea, milk
toast pb, Nutella, cereal, granola bars
salad: spinach, eggs, tomato, beans
Hellava dip, pepper, cucumber,
sandwich, lettuce, swiss, tomato,
yogurt
peach, pear, orange, apple, banana, grape


almonds, pecans, cheddar


green smoothie

chicken, shrimp, fish
corn on the cob, beans, peas

potato, brown rice

asparagus, broccoli

Parm/romano cheese

grilled brie and jam

Pinterest 

Pinterest Breakfast/ lunch apple cider vinegar dressing: 1 cup Olive Oil 1⁄2 cup Apple Cider Vinegar 1 teaspoon Onion Powder 2 tablespoons Whole Grain Mustard, dijon mustard or powdered mustard 3 cloves Garlic, minced 1 teaspoon Dried Thyme, or rosemary 1 teaspoon Dried Basil 1 teaspoon Salt

Grilled Banana Sandwich; Banana, peanut butter, low fat cream cheese, and cinnamon. Breakfast!

Breakfast 2 sliced​​ apples, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon in the bottom of the crock pot. Pour 2 cups of oatmeal

Do it Now Halved Potatoes, cooked face down on a layer of butter, garlic salt, Parmesan cheese

Do it now taco salad uses corn, green peppers

First day of school

I'm reading... Girls Night Out
Bubs is reading... ?
I'm drinking... sugar cookie tea and Numi decaf simply green

exhausted!

Perfect Timing

Yesterday Mom, Dad, and I put up about 25 bags of freezer corn. While we were working on the back porch Dad spotted dear in the back field. Thanks Lord for the timing.
Today was our last weekday of the summer off work. Lovely. We lounged around, made potato cakes for breakfast and put things back in place.

There's No Place Like Home

Home, home on the range!
I've been gone a week and I came back to an RV being moved into the yard beside me and neighbors out the back yard. Oh and 5 new lbs. Of course.

Reading my bible this morning and came across this verse...
Genesis 50:20
You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done the saving of  many lives.
It reminds me of the whole football scandal and how incredibly painful that was. Knowing Hubs was not at fault but in charge so therefore found at fault. I really felt those in power intended him harm. And I held onto this verse. Since then so many times people have commented on the way he handled it with grace. I try to remember all the times I couldn't understand why God could let this happen to such a godly man, take him out of the position to touch so many lives and then let the program be run into the ground. But after reading this verse again today I think it's not my place to know the details. It is what it is and we did all we could to make the outcome different. We were not at fault. God makes the outcome work to his advantage and I am at peace with that.

Time to get back on track, start making those pounds melt away. I can't delay any further because I will have nothing to wear to work!

Getting my plan for when school starts together....
Focus on meal planning. Post breakfast choices, lunch choices and plan ahead for dinners we can fix over and over and then try something new each week.
Porch projects: go through a magazine a day.

I sure have become a oenophile- a lover of wine. We didn't even eat alot of sweets over the vacation but we drank lots of wine and fruity drinks, made delicious dinners and lounged around to our hearts desire.

A few observations...
Do not waste your time talking to people who are not listening to you.
Do not waste your efforts on people who do not appreciate your gestures.
No one likes to be bossed around, told what to do or how to do whatever it is you are doing better or differently.
It does not matter if a person deserves to hear what you have to say. If you hurt their feelings you are going to feel like crap.
Don't tell everything you know. Mysteries are a good thing.

And a few memories...
It is not ok to ask the sales clerk for a piece of paper and proceed to copy down a recipe from one of their books.
It is not ok to try to make contact with drivers of other vehicles.
We spent an evening making letters with our bodies in the pool and then proceeded to play an alphabet game that had us naming sweet treats for every letter of the alphabet. Caleb, a six year old, thought we were having so much fun he wanted to join us. Then he told us we needed more water in our sippy cups. Yes Caleb, yes we do.
When Weezey came out with just her coverup and no cookie monster shorts on Marg asked, "Weez where are your shorts?" "I'm too fat." Cue hysterical fit of laughter.

Boys came home from fishing all day together and ask if we can play scrabble together. Absolutely.

Barnacles!

I've not been sleeping well on this trip but better last night. I didn't look at the time until after 6am! I do like to get up and head out to the porch for some alone time before the troops awake.

Yesterday we went to the Sea Pines Plantation and Resort and the Harbour Town lighthouse. We toured, shopped and then ate at the Salty Dog Cafe. Lovely, lovely day. We had frozen libations at the Beach Club at Sea Pine Resort while watching the waves come in. We enjoyed Jake's Cargo shop provided some goodies to take home. I really think Bub is going to like the huge sweatshirt blanket I bought him.

A short stop by Barnacle Bill's produced scallops and flounder. I quickly came back and fixed up jasmine lime coconut rice w both fishes pan fried. delicious!


After being with the same people day after day, hour after hour, it helps to go take a walk, blow some steam off and then come back refreshed and more patient.

One thing that is a major pet peeve for me is when someone is talking with the intention of other people not in their group overhearing them and impressing them. Not classy.

One trait that is most desirable in a friend is one who hears you in your most open and vulnerable and then doesn't use that later to try to make you feel smaller or exposed. 

love taps

I'm finally at the beach and the boys are at the state tournament this morning.

We left on Friday morning at 5:50am and headed to the Biltmore Estate to tour the building and grounds. For lunch I visited The Bean Trees Cafe in Tennessee for the second time. Last time I think we were on our way back from Myrtle Beach. The food is ok, the atmosphere is gorgeous and hippyish with the Big Pigeon river flowing behind it. We sat out on the back porch and heard the rushing water.

The Biltmore was interesting and intriguing. I really loved the gardens, especially the sangria at the end in the conservatory.

At the end of a very long day traveling the 6 hours to the Biltmore we checked into our hotel only to have barely gotten our showers before the smoke alarms went off. We took forever to 1- figure out what that noise was, 2- decide if we wanted to leave, 3- decide what to take with us. Pitiful. We are not to be rushed!

Facebook posts...

Sooo glad I got n the shower at the hotel 1st bc some drunk set off the fire alarm... Gonna b awhile! 

we are discussing how this could be worse... we could have kids traveling with us, we could not have brought our books/laptops/purses, we could not have gotten showers, we could not have put our pjs on before coming outside, it could have been our floor/room on fire (as of now we don't think the sprinklers went off in our room), we could have taken all our vacation luggage upstairs instead of just night bags....

and all you people snickering because we are headed to the beach and are caught in this pickle when you have to be in ohio and go to work next week SHAME ON YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So y'all made fun of my scavenger hunt when I pulled it out at the start of the trip but you sure did perk up when we crossed off fire truck, ambulance, flashing red light, and police car all in about 15 minutes last night! 

The scavenger hunt paper I printed off before leaving had provided lots of laughs.

Saturday we stopped in Spartenburg at Mon Amie Morning Cafe, a French style cafe, where they served my Cafe Au Lait in a tall mug with an Eiffel Tower on it. Lovely.
I also had the monte cristo and frites, amazingly delicious.
Last night we ate at It's Greek to Me, Margy's choice. Food was good, moscato was delicious!

I'm not sleeping well on this trip going to bed late and waking up early. No troubles I guess is not exhausting. After a nice morning on the porch Marg and I headed down to the hot tub and pool early to check out the digs and relax and then off to the grocery after a short planning meeting. Nice to go grocery shopping by myself and choose a few goodies I don't normally get... a mango gelato, glazed crullers, chips and dip. Then back to grab lunch and head to the beach.
facebook post...

so you know how they say not to wear shiny objects in the ocean because it attracts the fishes? yeah that's apparently true... and I'm gonna need a new bikini... without gold buttons. ‪#‎twolovetaps‬

To the beach!

And we're off! Today I travel to Yo's for book club and then spend the night so we are all in one place to head out at 5:30 am tomorrow. We'll see the Biltmore at noon then spend the night and it is TO THE BEACH!

Lots of last minute things this morning! But first I had to have some porch time with facebook and pinterest posting this as my status.

2 nightmares last night 1- I'm leaving for vacation this morning and I forgot to sync the BEACH PLAYLIST on my ipod so we had to listen to the radio for 6 hours-NOOOOOOO. 2- I showed up to work the high school open house today and forgot to take Harbor Lovin with me- he went fishing... bad mother of the year award securely in hand.....

French Press

I broke down and bought the french press. I started with the Mr. Coffeemaker, then the Keurig, then the  Moka and now the french press. Ahh addiction... it could be worse.

Yesterday I used my grandmother's sewing machine to sew Bub's t-shirt quilt strips together. It was so wonderful to revisit the memories she made with that machine, while making memories with my two good friends helping me make the quilt, that will no doubt help Bub revisit the memories those t-shirts represent!

I think we've got neighbors. Please, please, please let them be cool. A crafter would be nice. And another dog owner. And a lover of food. A gardener.
In other news another neighbor has had an RV parked in their yard for about 2 weeks now. I'm beginning to think this is their idea of home expansion.

I put up a hummingbird feeder a week or so ago and within the day they came to visit. Just now one came right by my head to visit it.