Family vacation in Orlando: Magical

Happy August friends! I feel like its always so crazy how fast the summer goes. And then you see school supplies in Target and it's like BAM over. Except it will still be hot for like three more months. You'll see.

July was ca-razy for us. It went like this.

1. Start orientation for my new JOB.
2. Fourth of July
3. Trip to Orlando with Caleb's fam
4. Trip to Indiana with my mom
5. Buy a house
6. Start my new JOB for reals.
7. Sleep for like two days straight after all that.

So I have a lot to catch up on. Let's start with Orlando. We went on this magical trip with Caleb's family to celebrate his parents' 30th anniversary. Amazing.


Because Disney World really is the happiest place on earth.

We arrived to the Disney resort late on a Wednesday night. And that place is huge. So huge that we had a small tiff about navigating through it. No worries, we got to our hotel with unharmed.

The next day we set out for the Magic Kingdom. As soon as we got inside, I saw Cinderella ride by in the parade. I cried a few tears of joy. Magical.

George, ready to get his Disney on.

Cinderella's castle!!! And a few ominous clouds...

We hit up the teacups and It's A Small World. Junie B and I bonded. As you can see, our excitement was equal.

We rode the Pirates of the Caribbean. Which I'm pretty sure was the last straw for George and June. They bounced. Good thing, because storms broke loose. We hunkered down at the Peter Pan ride. It was indoors, obviously.

The storms passed. We rode Space Mountain. The best ride ever. Then we tried to tour Cinderella's castle on our own. We were denied.

We finished off the night with the electric light parade (amazing!) and the best fireworks I've ever seen. I also may have shed a few tears at this point.

Thanks tall dude, for getting in my pic.

My first trip to Disney World was magical. That's all there is to it.

The next day we headed to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure.

In case you were unaware, this is where Harry Potter World lives. I don't know if its really called that, but we call it that. Actually, its called The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. But I like Harry Potter World.

Audrey and I, getting ready to respect the spell limits.

We rode a lot of rides that day. A lot. By the end of the day, I couldn't ride any more rides. Harry Potter, the Hulk, Spiderman, and more. We rode the main HP ride like 4 times. I lost count. We went to the sweet shop in HP world and ate things like chocolate frogs and fizzing whizbees. Again, magical.

Caleb and Jordan, with Hogwarts in the background.

We finished up the day with dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. Which I love so much I didn't take a picture of. But I do love some Hard Rock.

After a couple theme park-packed days, we took it easy the next day. Got our shop on at the Mall at Millenia. Which is a wonderful, magical place all on its own. I've been there before, for our first anniversary. It makes me feel like a rich person. Just to walk around there. Also, we visited IKEA. Is there a campaign to bring them to KC? Because I will be part of it.

For our final day in Orlando, we hit up the beach. I almost drowned and got super sun burnt. Again, magical. We had a delish dinner at PF Changs.

Hello, sun burnt shoulder. Good thing it matches my neon dress. (R to L: Zach, George, Jordan, Audrey, Jim, Bev, June, Caleb, Audrey, and me!)

Spending time in Orlando with my sweet in laws was just...magical. I know.

Friday Flower Club: the best club to be in.

Unless you were in the Babysitters' Club. Because that club seemed pretty cool too.

The Friday Flower Club is this super sweet club I'm in. There is this cute flower shop called Rainbow's End right around the corner. And if you are in their club (the Friday Flower Club) you get a bouquet of flowers every Friday for $5. The flowers are completely different every week and you never know what they will be. Yay for surprises! Yesterday was the prettiest bouquet yet so I thought I would do a quick recap of some of my bouquets.

Obviously I took great care in the background of this pic. You can see all our cereals, a med bottle, my yellow gloves, and an empty wine bottle. So classy.

Bright carnations.

I don't know what these are but I like them.

And this week's flowers. Love.

And here is my breakfast, because you are totally dying to know. Scrambled eggs with bacon, pesto, and Parmesan. Yum yum.

I feel super productive this morning because I've already cleaned the kitchen, gone to the farmer's market, and been to the grocery store. This day is going to be good.

Summer food: make your tummy happy

I love Monday mornings after a long work weekend. It's so nice to sleep in and drink coffee and catch up on blog reading and watch Hoda and Kathie Lee. The work weekend wasn't too bad. It did include a lot of horrible, awful smells. I'll leave it at that. But we had a potluck yesterday with meatball subs and peanut butter pie and it was amazing.

So this morning I have a confession to make. I like to eat. (Shocker, I know.) And I like to cook. Probably my favorite time to cook is the summer because of all the fresh food. It feels like less work because you just take already delicious fresh foods and put them together to make something really yummy. So I have some pics and links to recipes to share!

1. Strawberry Cream Cheese Muffins

Local grown strawberries from a stand on the side of the road: the best ever!

2. Frittata: apple chicken sausage, new potatoes, spinach, onion, parm cheese, and eggs

Happy breakfast to me

3. Margarita pizza: any pizza crust you like (but make it thin!), rub with olive oil and garlic, fresh mozzarella cheese, homegrown tomatoes, and fresh basil

Best summer dinner.

4. Watermelon margaritas

Made from the best watermelon I've had in a long time

(Note: I hate buying watermelons because it's such a gamble. How do you know what it will look like or taste like inside? This watermelon paid off big time.)


5. Peach cobbler: I made this a few weeks ago and Caleb didn't eat any of it. Then I came home from work one day and half of it was gone. He said it was one of the best things I've ever made. Score.

I made another one for 4th of July and ate the last bit of it for breakfast this morning. 

Good things I don't have pictures of:
1. Corn Chowder: so, so, so good. Who doesn't like fresh corn and bacon?
2. Spicy Pasta Salad: Caleb ate this for lunch for like a week and loved it
3. Zucchini Bread: I put in walnuts, cranberries, and chocolate chips. Good stuff.

And finally, a pic of my friend Stephanie with the best peach tea ever.

At this cute little cafe called The Courtyard. I'm pretty sure I drink at least a gallon of this tea when we go there.

And they have amazing food. Homemade strawberry dressing=perfection.

Ok, I'm out to try and be a little productive. We are headed for Kansas City on Wednesday night as soon as I get off of work! So excited for friends, family, and Harry Potter!

Why 4th of July in East Tennessee is so great...

Seriously people, the fourth of July is possibly my favorite holiday: blowing things up, eating food, enjoying summer, hanging out with friends and family. This year I continued my hot streak of never working on the 4th: major bonus points, America. And here in Tennessee, you can embrace your inner redneck. Which is why it is so great.

We started off our holiday weekend with some shooting. The guys brought all their guns out and shot them at targets and clay pigeons and loved every second of it. I even participated. And got a very lovely sunburn out of the experience. But don't worry, it only adds to the southern appeal.

We are obviously pros by now.

Sunday night we headed out to our friend Michael Durbin's homestead to shoot off a few fireworks. Once all the guys had compiled their loot, this is what it looked like.

Tonight's gonna be a good, good night.

We shot off fireworks from 9-midnight, non stop. We had all kinds of goodness going on and I'm actually kinda surprised no one got hurt. (There may have been a few minor mishaps, but don't you worry.)

On Monday(after suffering minor hearing loss from all the guns and fireworks and smelling like delicious smoke mixed with bug spray) we headed to a pig roast. I don't know what kind of horrible blogger I am but I do not have a picture of the pig being roasted. But it was kinda windy and spitting outside so I left the camera in the car and just stared in awe at the pig on the smoker. I didn't eat any of it. Its head was still on there. Just sayin'.

After the pig roast, we headed back from some quality Kingsport celebrating with our friends Stephanie, Logan, Tess, and Nate. Kingsport really does it up right, our street is lined with food vendors and bouncy houses and they set up a stage and have lots of bands come and serenade the Kingsportians. (One band was called the Westbound Rangers. Quality.) We got our fill of funnel cakes, kettle corn, hot dogs, and lemonade. Then we took the par-tay out on our rooftop to watch fireworks. Which was actually pretty cool because you could see all the other cities fireworks shows from up there. Gorgeous.

Nice fireworks photos thanks to Caleb

We ended the night with some sparklers in the alley, because that's how we do it.

Perfect 4th of July weekend! Channeling our inner redneck and the American spirit. Perfect.

I look tense on the roof because standing that close to the edge makes me nauseated.

This is how I prefer to remember Tennessee: smelling funnel cakes, getting a perfect view of a fireworks show, and cuddling up to my honey.

Baby Jax

These pics are a few days late, as baby Jax was born on June 20th.  He is a good sized little guy, weighing in at almost 9lbs when he was born!

Look at his sweet peach fuzz and round little cheeks!

Sorry those photos needed some serious editing. I am not good with the backlight. But holding a brand new bambino is the best! Look at Caleb's sweet smile...awww.

With his dad, Ben

Look at them! Crystal is a total rock star for sure. Those wee little ones make my womb ache. But then I took them some food after their first night at home. And my womb stopped aching after I heard about the long night.

In other, not important news, I had a good work weekend. My patients were adorable. Except for this one guy who drove me nuts. He was still adorable, just crazy. He finally zonked out for a few hours on Sunday afternoon and then woke up crazier then ever. This is how our convo went down at 6:30pm:

Patient: "I need to go meet my brother outside for a cigarette."
Me: "Nope, you can't go outside, you are too sick. Plus, your brother was here this morning and knows you can't go out to meet him."
Patient.: "You can't keep me locked up in here. I'm going to put my clothes on and go smoke a cigarette."
Me: "You have two options: sit in your chair or lay in your bed."
Patient: "I'm leaving to smoke a cigarette."
Me: "Listen. I am the boss and you are not. If you go out to smoke a cigarette with your oxygen on, you will blow up and die. If you go to smoke a cigarette without your oxygen on, you will probably die before you get outside because of lack of oxygen. I don't want you to die tonight because I want to go home soon."
Patient: mean glare


I love nursing. It is so full of hilarious things that other people cannot picture happening.

Now I'm off to do my wifely duty of folding laundry and making dinner...Happy Monday!

Monday Lists

It's storming like crazy this morning. Perfect for sleeping in, drinking tea, and not going anywhere. I'm trying to knock a few things off my to do list (laundry, laundry, more laundry. How two people make so much laundry is beyond me). So this is a blog post of lists. I'm in the middle of a five day off stretch which makes me forget all that is work and nursing. I love it.

1, On Friday, I had lunch and a mani/pedi with Crystal, the wife of Caleb's boss Ben. She is having a baby TODAY and needed an outing before she is trapped inside with an infant and a two year old for the rest of the summer. I took my camera along to snap some pictures of her in her final pregnant days but she was pretty miserable so I spared her. Check out this post from Christmas, she looked pregnant six months ago! We walked around the mall and people looked at her with pitying expressions. Ah, the beauty that is the final days of pregnancy.

I do love red nails.

2. We went out on Crystal and Benny's boat on Friday night. Because that is where a 10-month-pregnant woman should be: on a boat.

Cash looking sweet.

Caleb and I got to wake board some more and we are getting better. Caleb looks like a stud out there.

Hot.

Really, we just love being out on the water. Our new motto: always have a friend with a boat.

3. Caleb had to work on Saturday, which was sad. But I went to the farmer's market and got a ton of good stuff. This inspired a farmer's market dinner menu for the week. I hate wasting food but it's hard to get the best out of produce with only two people. My loot: peaches, nectarines, corn, tomatoes, basil, carrots, zucchini, squash, white onions, red onions, and potatoes.

Farmer's Market Menu

Monday: Corn Chowder, bruschetta

Tuesday: Margarita pizza

Wednesday: Burgers, potato salad, roasted veggies

Thursday: Stuffed Zucchini

Friday: Pasta Salad (for all the leftovers)

Yum. I love the farmer's market.

4. Then I took myself on a shopping trip to the mall in Johnson City. Reason #871 why June birthdays are the best: everything goes on sale in mid to late June. Also, everyone sends you birthday coupons. So you get tons of stuff for cheap-o! Just because I love a good bargain, here is my list of purchases and savings. Because you know you care about sweet deals.

From Bath and Body Works:
Lay it on Thick hand cream (the best hand lotion ever made), a large three wick candle, a medium candle in a tin, a medium aromatherapy candle, and some foaming hand soap. Original price: $56.50. Sale price:  $26.37+$2.50 tax= $28.87. Amount saved: $27.63. Cha-ching.

From Express:
Two Express favorite tee's: originally $24.90 each, on sale for $10, with $15 birthday discount+tax= $5.48. Amount saved: $44.32

From Aerie:
Five bras, seven pairs of undies, one cami: Original price: $250.50. Sale-20% birthday discount+tax=$92.16

Total spent: $126.51. Total saved: $230.29. Seriously awesome.

Ok, I'm off to bask in productivity, listen to Adele, and play Dance Central. Check back tomorrow for a birthday post! And have a great Monday.

Wake boarding, strawberry pretzel salad, Dance Central=Summer

I love summer. And it is here, finally. Ok, not officially until June 21, which just happens to be my birthday so start planning. Anyway, we have had the wonderful perfect ideal summery weekend. Yesterday we woke up early to go boating and we both learned to wake board. I was unaware that the plan was to wake board, I thought the plan was just to go out on a lake on a boat and relax. So when asked if I had ever been wake boarding before, I said, sure. Which was actually a lie. Partly because I didn't really know what wake boarding is and I was thinking of body boarding which is really nothing like wake boarding at all except that they both include water and a board. So Caleb and I both learned and both managed to spend a few minutes zipping around the lake on top of the water and many more minutes falling down and swallowing lake water. We actually had a lot of fun and today we are insanely sore. Mostly me, because I'm kind of a wuss. I took pictures, but with someone else's camera. Darn, you can't see us falling in the lake a million times...

But on to the main event: strawberry pretzel salad. We went to a bbq last night and this was my contribution. It's a good southern girl recipe by Paula Dean. It accounts for all of her favorite things including butter, sugar, and cream cheese.  I've been making this with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law long before they ever became my in-laws. And it is just delicious. This time around though, I had a major revelation about the recipe that I will share...

Here is a link to Paula's recipe.

1. Crush up your pretzels. FYI, 2 cups crushed pretzels=4 cups non crushed pretzels.

2. Stir the melted butter, three tablespoons sugar, and pretzels all together in the pan and then press down to make the crust. Let cool completely before moving on the next step. (I actually made the crust on Friday and the rest on Saturday)

3. Cream together the softened cream cheese and sugar. (You could use light cream cheese and it would be just fine.) Fold in the cool whip. (Again, light or free cool whip would be fine. And you would feel better about yourself later.) Spread over the pretzel layer. Refrigerate until firm. (Or stick in the freezer if you are in a hurry like me.)

This is the best layer. You could just make some of this and eat it, minus the jello or pretzels.

4. Ok this is where things get tricky. Add 2 cups boiling water to the jello, stir until dissolved. We always used to skip the fruit, I don't love pineapple and I honestly don't love whole strawberries mixed in things. At this point, all you have is boiling jello and it melts down your cream cheese layer and gets all in the crust which makes the crust soggy. And it would take hours to set up. But yesterday it dawned on me: you need the frozen strawberries to make the jello cold so it won't melt every thing down and so it sets up quickly. Who knew? Probably everyone but me. I had a pint of frozen strawberries in the freezer so I threw them in the blender and grated them up to a tiny size. Then stirred them in. Perfect. And awesome texture.

Only a tiny bit slipped in the corner. 

5. Then refrigerate until ready to serve. Or freeze. Again, in a hurry. But it set up in less than an hour. And the ground strawberries gave it awesome flavor. So good. I've been eating leftovers all day.

My hips hate you, strawberry pretzel salad.

This doesn't even count as dessert because it has the word "salad" in the title. You are welcome.

And for your Sunday night viewing laughter, a picture of me playing Dance Central at the bbq last night. Again, you are welcome. I don't mind making fun of myself.