The Time I Sent Darci a Video

I have worked all week y'all. Except for Thursday and Friday so I have neglected my blog friends. Sorry about that. Just wanted to tell you all that I hope you have a wonderful Easter and to share this hilarious video. A few weeks ago, Darci told me to send her a video of me so she could hear my Southern accent. Now this was after a day with the kids, cooking, dinner and giving 2 baths. I look rough! Lol! I watched it earlier and could not stop laughing.

Carter never stops talking! Ha! He does NOT have a Southern accent! At all! Neither does his dad.

 

 

Happy Easter, peeps!



What Had Happened Was...

I did a couple posts last week but didn't share any pics from our busy week. It was definitely busy but a good week. I haven't run or done any working out AT ALL in 2 weeks. I have been working a couple extra shifts and I haven't been feeling so great. I am going to get back at it this week. Well, I am going to do Pilates but I'm not running anymore until it warms up.  You will be able to tell from the pics below that I need to do some serious working out with all I've been eating. Not to mention the pics on IG!

Last Sunday after I got out of the shower at 4:55 AM I got a phone call. I was cancelled from work. Yay for some time off with the family on a weekend after going back to bed of course.

It was St. Patrick's Day so I surprised the kids with green eggs. Ha! Yuck! Oh my! I took a bite of my meal before taking a pic. Shame on me!

Next...I got to dress up a little bit and go to church. It was good for my soul to go listen to the good word, sing, and do some praying. AMEN!

Me and Caleb played after church until nap time.

We went for a Sunday stroll thru our neighborhood and somebody just had to get out and walk for a minue. I think he wanted to run away. Ha!

Carter had his first baseball practice last weekend too. I hope he likes baseball and eventually loves it like I did softball. We will see.

My guys took me out for a lunch date on Monday at O'Charley's. Yummy!

The kids went to the dentist for cleanings. That would be Aubree dressed like a grown woman!

Look Ma...no cavities!

I attempted to channel Spring by wearing flip flops...

Later that evening this popped up on my Weather Channel app. FAIL! It didn't snow by the way and that's fine with me!

My sweet friend and new neighbor ,Brandi, used to take pics but has kinda retired. She wanted to do some pics of her kids at my PawPaw's old barn with some ducklings for Easter so we went out to the family farm. She took a few of my boys too. Aren't they sweet?

This pic is hilarious!

One day we will look back at this and laugh about how Carter HAD to wear his T-rex shirt under his sweater even though it did not match. It's the little things.

My sweet baby.

 

I'm so weak when it comes to caramel anything! Parents of babies at work like to say "thank you" by bringing us delicious food. Very often! I like to say "you're welcome" by eating it.

 

 

So, you see what had happened was I had a busy week. I didn't even mention the stomach bug that reared it's ugly head up in here. Ugh! Is is summer yet?

 

Today I am taking Caleb to the GI doc to see what's going on with his little tummy. He's had tummy issues since he was born. I am sure we won't get answers today but say a little prayer for him. Thank you!

 



 



Why I Love My Kitchen

Happy Thursday, y'all! I'm back today to share one of my favorite places in my house. My kitchen! Yep...that's right! I enjoy cooking most of the time so when we were house hunting it was important to me that we bought a house that had a nice kitchen. I think I spend the majority of my day in there. I am either cooking breakfast, coloring with Carter at the table, fixing snacks and then lunch, helping Aubree with homework, cooking dinner...yeah, you get the point.

I have been sharing my home with you all because I am proud of our new house. We did work hard to get it and my PawPaw made sure I was taken care of when he passed away. I don't take a bit of it for granted. Don't be afraid to pin this stuff and make me famous on Pinterest! Haha!

 The most important thing is the cooktop of course! LOVE IT! It is gas and has 5 burners. That middle burner can put out a big and scary flame. Ha! Boils water in no time! This is the first home I've ever had with stainless steel appliances and I love them. Very easy to clean.

 

Next, is the pot filler. Yes, I asked what the heck is that when we looked at this house. Then I walked away mumbling something about how I'll never use that. Wrong! I use it all the time. How did I ever live with having to actually walk to the sink for water? Lordy!

 

A double oven was a MUST HAVE for me. We usually have family over here for holidays and the double oven comes in very handy. Our cabinets and drawers are all custom made. The countertops are granite and gorgeous. This is my first home with granite. A couple days after we moved in I had to text a friend and ask her how to clean granite. I was about to bleach them. Yikes!

I love how the middle drawers and cabinets are a different color from the others. I am sure 30 years from now we will be like, wow, that is ugly, time to remodel but for now it's a trend around here that we like. All of the drawers below the cooktop are real and I look forward to being able to use them just as soon as Caleb is out of his phase where he removes everything he possibly can. Yes! I know they make things to childproof them but I am not screwing holes in them.

This is a close up showing the detail in the cabinetry. It's really pretty!

 

This is the other side of the kitchen. Lots of drawers and cabinets. I love how it is open to the living room. Oh look! There's my green scentsy warmer that I bought from Chelsea Houska!

 

More cabinet space. I use every single one and they are pretty much full. That's the door to the walk-in pantry on the left and the dining room in the background. I did a post on my dining room last month. You can see it here.

I loved the backsplash! It blends nicely with the color of the granite.

We have what we call our "built in nightlights" under all of the cabinets. I use them every night. Let me tell you though, the bulbs blow pretty frequently and they are $11 for just one tiny bulb. Crazy!

 

A big sink was also something I really wanted.

 

The faucet detaches. It took me about 3 days of living here to figure that one out. I was like, OMG, it is impossible to clean dishes like this. Then Aubree just walks in and pulls the thing out. Duhhhhhhhhhh.....

We do have a breakfast area and this is our new table. My walls are bare and I wish I could keep my table set but let's be real...I've got 3 kids. I do plan to hang pics soon and curtains but not until I find the perfect things!

This is where Carter sits. It's a bench seat. You can see the baby's chair with his booster in the background. It won't push up to the table with the booster so it goes in the corner. This table seats 6 people.

This is our view from the kitchen window. I actually took this pic from inside the house. We have a nice little pond out back.

There's also a bar that wraps around into the living room so it can seat 4 once I find the perfect barstools.

 

 

So, that's my kitchen! It may be new but it is still a work in progress as far as hanging pictures, barstools, and curtains. Now you will know what the kitchen that I am always posting pics of food from on IG looks like! =)



Looking Cute and Feeling Comfortable While Working

What's up friends?!? I hope everyone is having a nice week. I am so ready for Spring! I know that I've mentioned it at least a million times. There is a slight chance of frozen precipitation in our forecast this week. I realize that in certain areas this is still acceptable but not in the South! Ha! I have been wearing some Spring clothing already. I've been making a slow transition.

I can tell you this will be a favorite oufit of mine until the Tennessee heat and humidity kicks in. I paired this Piko style top from Ophelia503 with a pair of leggings, a cute necklace, and flip flops. I am a total flip flop kinda girl! Cute and comfy!

 

 

We all know that I am a nurse, duh! Ha! Well, I like to look cute and be comfortable at work too. I have been wearing lots of bright colored scrubs already.

 

I love this blue top! I knew it would be a favorite as soon as I opened the package. Why? Because blue is my absolute favorite color AND the stitching is mint. I swear this top was made for me. I received this top from Uniformed Scrubs. It is made by Dickies and I love their tops. I own about 10 Dickies scrub tops. I have a hard time finding tops that fit me just right. A lot of tops that I have tried on are too short. It is important to me that my tops "fit" me just right or I will be uncomfortable. Who wants to spend 12 hours uncomfortable? Not me!

 

I paired the top with gray scrub pants on this particular day. I also wore it with a pair of black pants and neon green pants. I work in pediatrics so the brighter the better on most days. Another thing that I love about this top is the pockets. I keep pens, a pager, and plenty of other stuff on me during my shift. There are 2 standard sized pockets on the front and one smaller one too. I really liked it. Y'all know me well enough that if I didn't like it...well, I would tell you.

 

 

If you work in healthcare, I do recommend giving any style of Dickies tops a try. They have several styles to choose from. As a special treat, my followers will get 15% off their purchase by using coupon code "15pbrm".  Yay! Discounts!

 

Ok...that's all I have for today. I have a sick hubby on my hands. Lawd have mercy! I plan to make a post this week on one of my favorite rooms in my new house...my beautiful kitchen. I know, those 2 words don't go together for some but I adore my kitchen! Have a lovely day!

 

 

 

A Duck Dynasty Kinda Birthday!

As most of you already know, Aubree turned 11 last week and she wanted a "Duck Dynasty" theme for her party. My awesome blogger buddies, Meredith , Chrissy, and Natalie offered up lots of suggestions! Thanks, ladies! Y'all rock!

I had to basically throw together what I could because Duck Dynasty is not like Elmo or Cars. You can't find a section at Party City with everything you need and if you could I can only imagine how freaking expensive that would be!

First up is the invitiation. I waited until 2 weeks before the party to get this done. Actually, February flew by so quickly that it caught me off guard. Anyways, it was a bit difficult to find just what I was looking for. I kept finding lots of army style camo but that's not the the same. I found the perfect one on etsy. Krystal, from Sparkle N Shine Too, designed the invitiation. She was so prompt! All I did was tell her what I wanted on the invitation and within 3 hours it was a done deal. It was also only $10. I saved the image to my iphone, uploaded it on the Walgreen's app for photos and picked them up within 45 minutes. It doesn't get much better than that! The first pic I sent was a bit blurry so she messaged me to ask if I wanted to change it. She wanted to be sure that I was completely happy! Thank you, Krystal!

How cute is this? I added the daisies to cover up my address and phone number so none of the crazies try to get me! Ha!

 

Now, for the party!

 

As far as decoration, could I have done more? Sure! Did I want to spend that much? No! It was pretty simple. I had a burlap table runner that I used in the center of the table. My good friend, Marty, who is a duck hunter lent me some of his duck decoys. I really had intentions of hanging some duck calls from the light fixture but those things are not cheap. So just pretend there's some hanging there, ok? I placed the brown and pink cupcakes made by my friend, Brande, on a hunter orange colored platter. Also, I bought a Duck Dynasty Season 1 DVD that played in the living room during the party.

 

For plates, I bought tin pie pans. I thought "if that ain't country"...plus the pink Mossy Oak ones that I ordered were backordered. We had pink and brown napkins. The pink cupcakes were wedding cake flavor and the chocolate were chocoloate chip cheesecake. If any local friends want Brande's info let me know. They were beautiful! I had intentions of putting some sort of topper on them but never found just the right thing but it turned out fine.

 

I purchased these beards that my friend, Lauren and I are modeling from Party City! The kids liked them.

 

As far as food for the party, I made all of Aubree's favorite things. We ordered Papa John's for the main course...her favorite.

 

I made homemade sausage balls. Another Aubree favorite!

She also loves Oreo truffles so I made those too. She says "they'll change your life." Lol!

She also wanted a cookie cake so I grabbed this during my last minute run to Kroger. It was $5.00! Holla!

The girls hanging out!

 

I took a tin bucket and filled it with water and the girls bobbed for rubber duckies. The winner was Janessa's daughter! Lol! She had a record of 7 seconds. Go, B, Go! She walked away with a $10 Walmart gift card! This was a total hit! I had no idea they would enjoy it as much as they did.

 

 Aubree

Garner

Brooklyn

Carter...apparently, this is how cowboys stand to bob for ducks! Ha!

 

Aubree's gift from us was getting her ears pierced and a pair of diamond earrings. She received lots of great gifts including earrings and an adorable jewelry box. She is loaded with Justice gift cards and patiently waiting for a couple days off from school so we can head to Mall of America and do some shopping at one of the two Justice that are located there.

 

 

I think I enjoy making party favors more than the kids enjoy receiving them. She's a pre-teen so I didn't want to give anything that they'd roll their eyes at.

 

I figured they'd all like a cosmetic bag, cute notebook, nail polish and remover.

To keep with the theme, I placed all of the goodies into a brown paper bag. I flattened out a cupcake liner, placed duck stickers on them and topped them off with a small clothes pin. Pretty cute, huh?

All the party favor bags!

 

It turned out really well. Aubree loved it and that's all that mattered to me! I have very few crafty and creative bones in my body! Ha!

 

Happy Tuesday!

 

Not So Pinteresting

What's up, y'all? It's Friday and I am making my first post of the week. Yay! I worked 3 days over the weekend and it's been a while since I've done that so it took me a minute to recover. On Tuesday, Lora and Janessa came over for our Teen Mom 2 date. We had LOTS of fun! It's always good to sit around and laugh with friends. I am really glad that we all live about 3 minutes apart.

I haven't worked out ANY this week. What?!? Yep! Caleb's reflux lost total control on Wednesday night. He is having a hard time and not sleeping. He's got an appointment with a GI doc in a little over a week. Keep him in your thoughts. He's had problems since birth with his tummy. Also, I am down with an old lady disease that they don't even start passing out immunizations for until your 50! Shingles, anyone? What a pain! Oh well...thankful for medication and wine!

So since I have had a bit of a craptastic week I am saving all my wonderful blog topics that I had planned for this week until next week.

You know how there's a linkup called "Oh So Pinteresting" or whatever. I like it and I read it. I am addicted to Pinterest but thought I'd keep it real and share some realistic things that go on around here that sometimes make me giggle and think I should pin that! Hahahaha! Here ya go!

First we have the "butter bowl." I can't tell you how many times both mine and Brian's Meemaw have repurposed these things as a way to store leftovers. I know this one is gonna go viral on Pinterest. Your're welcome!

 

When you can't find a gate that properly fits your classy iron railing on your stairway, what do you do? Duh! You take one suitcase and turn it sideways and sit another one upright. Be sure to put clothes in them to weigh them down. Oh..and those pieces of luggage will keep items from rolling down the stairs so you can store things behind them. Bonus!

I had my first total Christmas holiday off 2 years ago and I sliced my finger while peeling sweet potatoes. Did it need stitches? Sure. Was I about to spend my holiday off in a hospital? NO! I am one of those freaks that is allergic to latex so I couldn't use the kids Cars 2 bandaids. So...I just went and took a "light day" pad and wrapped it around my finger until my cousin arrived to drive me to Walgreen's. It worked much better than a bandaid! The only problem was I was sticking to everything. Next time I would wrap a paper towel around the sticky outer covering. In the words of Chevy Chase from Christmas Vacation, BINGO!

Some of you have already seen this masterpiece! Haha! This was a flower made from Carter's handprint that didn't go so well in the beginning. They make this stuff look so easy! It's not! We ended up getting it right but it took a couple tries. Lol!

 

Who doesn't love all the Wedding pins on Pinterest? Well, here's mine! The books in the courthouse gave off a nice aroma and make a nice backdrop for this photo. I also wasn't afraid to go "green" in my wedding. No sir'ee. I think I could've used more color on my lips. Looking a little anemic. The groom looks nice in the baby blue. Guess he had a hunch that the baby was gonna be a boy. I am totally digging on the shades around his neck. Hahahaha! Btw...I did not marry this man because I was pregnant. Nope! We love each other! Sometimes more than others.

 

 

There you have it, ladies! Don't everybody start pinning at once! I hope this made someone laugh today. Laughing and a sense of humor are 2 important things! If you find this inappropriate or not funny, I feel for you and this may not be the place for ya!

Lora is having her Friday linkup again where we post our favorite posts from the week. I was a bad blogger this week so I didn't read much but here are a few that I loved!

Lora did a post yesterday and she talked about our TM2 date! How could I not love that?? I think the 3 of us are gonna have lots of fun this summer. Oh, and we need to start our Bunco group ASAP!

Jake is a new blogger and he makes me laugh so hard! Anyone that can make me laugh til I cry is a total winner! I am looking forward to his daily posts. This post was a story about the good ole college days. Go check him out. He's an Arkansas fan but we can't all be perfect! Lol! Plus he's doing a giveaway!

My girl, Chrissy, showed me some love this week! Well, she does it quite often. She made a post about her bucket list vacations and Memphis is on it. Let's just hope it works out for me to see her when she comes! She is one of my biggest fans! I heart her!

 I hope everyone has a nice weekend. The weather here is supposed to be nice. I'll be working but at least we have lots of windows so I can see out and I can go eat my lunch outside. The Duck Dynasty party is tonight. I'll do a post on that next week. Wish me luck! Ha!