Let me preface by stating that we just watched "No Good Deed" earlier this week. I've been wanting to see it for a while and holy creep me out. I told Tarl that I shouldn't have watched the movie but Tarl also reminded me that we carry around these parts and we don't open the door without a gun in hand (true story!- A man came to our home one night, as he did with other neighbors, looking for a dog and we answered the door with a pistol in hand. I'm pretty sure if his dog gets lost again he'll skip over our house.) Anyways every morning around 6ish Rosie barks to be let out. I'm usually the one who lets her out. Well this morning I let her out and went and laid back down in bed. About five minutes later Rosie came running back in the house. I knew with 100% certainty that I didn't leave the door open. Keep in mind I still have thoughts of "No Good Deed" running through my mind and am now certain that some crazed maniac is hiding in our house. I shake Tarl and tell him that Rosie is in. He looked at me, half dazed and still asleep and said "no shit, she's an inside dog". After smacking his arm I told him that I had just let her out. All of this happened in mere seconds and all I could think of was Cadence so I got out of bed to run and grab her and that's when that little stinker came running inside our room. She scared us to death! We both jumped straight up in bed. Needless to say we did not need our alarm clocks that morning. Apparently she woke up when she heard me open the door to let Rosie out. When I went to lay back down she heard Rosie whining to get let back in and let her back in. She knew it was too early to wake up so decided to head in the kitchen and see if she could sneak a valentine marshmallow until our alarms went off - like I said sneaky little girl!
Lesson one: Never watch creepy movies, ever again!
Lesson two: Hide all evidence of Valentine's peeps!
Lesson three: Keep an ear out for little feet at the wee hours of the morning!
Last night I made homemade chicken and rice using my grandmother-in-law's recipe. It was delicious. It was the first time that I had ever seasoned something myself, without using pre-packaged products and I'll tell you, it is so much better. I served this with a side salad and biscuits.
Tonight we're having fried shrimp. Trick to our fried shrimp is we use a thick batter instead of just wetting the shrimp and tossing them in flour. The thick batter on our shrimp produces this airy, light, fluffy casing around it when you fry it and they are out of this world! I'm serving them with grits and broccoli au gratin flavored rice-a-roni. Yum!
Tomorrow night I'm doing garlic baked pork chops, served with a vinaigrette side salad and scalloped potatoes. I have this weeks meal planning covered #score
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I am obsessing over this DIY project! Ever since I first saw this on Pinterest I knew I wanted to replicate this for Cadence and since then have been on the hunt for this entertainment center.
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Luckily I found one on a resale page and am hoping that all works out. The only thing I plan to change is to possibly put some decorative wallpaper (in pink of course) to give it a little bit of depth and color where you see the mirror hanging on the above.
Cadence has numerous dress up dresses, all Disney princesses, naturally, so we are in desperate need of somewhere to store them because her closet is about | | this big and we need all the space we can get. If things work out I'll be sure to post the DIY process and let you know how easy, or lack there of, it is.
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So I'm going to let you all in on a little secret.
Well maybe it's not really a secret but I can't contain my excitement so I wanted to share. If all goes well with taxes (because let's face it tax season is either really good or really bad) we're planning on a weekend trip to Disney in June. We would stay at the Yacht Club Resort, which would be our first time ever staying at a Deluxe resort on Disney property. The only way we're financially swinging it, is due to their Spring Promotion Offer where you get 30% off Deluxe rooms, essentially making them the same price as a moderate resort (where we stayed last time) and the fact that if we go, we're only going for two nights. We've always wanted to stay at a deluxe resort and the Yacht Club is absolutely stunning. It has a boardwalk feel to it, is literally just a short walk to Epcot and you can walk to Epcot through their 'Yacht Club Guest Only Entrance' as well as the fact that their pool bottom is not made of cement, but has sand at the bottom to give it that beach feel. Pretty amazing, right?
If all goes as planned we're going back to Disney for a week in June 2016 but being the Disney fanatics we are, we wanted to at least have a weekend trip this year and I sure hope we can do it.
With restaurants booking up 180 days in advance (if we go in June for the weekend like we want, we're already at that 180 day mark) I went ahead and made restaurant reservations this morning. You do not have to have a trip booked to make a restaurant reservation nor does it cost you a dime to make a restaurant reservation as long as you cancel up to a day prior.
With Ohana's being one of our all time favorites I went ahead and booked us a dinner reservation just in case we go the weekend we hope to go. If something happens and we can't make it, I'll just cancel the reservation. It's as easy as that. I'm glad I did too because there were only two time slots left - I made sure to get the one during Magic Kingdom's fireworks show.
This way we have dinner and a gorgeous view of Main Street's fireworks.
Here's the agenda if we book it:
Leave early Friday morning and check in at our resort.
Drop our bags and walk to Epcot.
Dinner at Ohana's.
Saturday - Magic Kingdom Day
Dinner at The Crystal Palace
I sure hope all works out because we're all feening for some Disney magic!
///
Speaking of trips, our New York City planning is underway. Obviously this isn't a Disney trip where I need to plan FastPass reservations or obsess about dinner times, but planning doesn't hurt and will ensure we see a lot of what we want while we're there.
Our plane arrives noon and after we check into our hotel we're going to head straight to Times Square and grab a quick bite at a food truck or one of New Yorks infamous Hot Dog Carts. Then catch a bus to Ground Zero and Wall Street to see the Charging Bull sculpture. We'll also snap a few quick pics of Lady Liberty from Battery Park.
We're also going to see 64 Perry Street (Carrie Bradshaws apartment) and make a pit stop at the famous Magnolia Bakery for a sweet treat.
After that we're going to go back to our hotel to freshen up for dinner and in between our dinner reservations we're going to check out St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Chrysler Building, Grand Central Station and the NYC Public Library. We have reservations at Carmines the night we arrive. Yum!
The next morning we're going to set our alarms early and trek to Rockefeller Center to check out The Today Show. We'll also try to squeeze in Bryant Park, Macy's, Washington Square Park, FlatIron Building, FAO Schwarz, Tiffany's and Dylans Candy bar. Mind you when I say "check out" that's what I mean. A lot of these places we don't even want to go inside. We just want to see them face to face and snap some pics. After all these years of seeing these famous buildings on TV, I'm finally ready to see them in real life! So when people say you won't have time to do all that I think they don't understand we just want a few pics and they also underestimate my power walk, don't get me wrong though, these boots of mine will be walking into Tiffany's, Macy's, Dylan's Candy Bar and of course FAO Schwarz to get our little peanut something :)
We plan to have dinner that night at Bobby Flays restaurant, Bar Americain, and then after dinner go to the top of the Empire State Building. I can't wait to see NYC all lit up at night from a top that huge building!
On our last day we're heading to Central Park to walk around and take in all it's beauty. We also want to make sure and see the famous Bow Bridge and Belvedere Castle inside the park.
Some other must-eats that we have planned is Cake Boss Cafe in Times Square and of course a Sprinkles cupcake via their cupcake ATM. We also want to go to an authentic NYC coffee shop and get a pretty swirly design on a coffee. It may be nasty but I want to say I've tried one. We're still undecided on our final dinner. We don't know if we want to do celebrity steakhouse, STK or Chris Santos' restaurant, Stanton Social...all in all though I think it's not bad planning on our part.
All planning aside, any tips or suggestions are much appreciated!
///
Just to clarify something while we're on the subject of vacations. Tarl and I are by no means wealthy. We live paycheck to paycheck like most of struggling America. We have a mortgage, car payments, credit card bills, medical bills, light bills, grocery budgets and more, just like most of the world, but we always take a little bit of cash out of each paycheck and stow it away. If can be something as little as $5 or some times, if the paycheck is good enough or we get another bill paid off, it can be as much as $75. On average we put around $20 each up. It adds up very quickly. So the fact that we get to go and do those things is easy because we put a little bit of cash away weeks at a time. Before you know it you have enough to get away. Vacations, in our opinion, are very important to us. Even if it's nothing more than a weekend trip, it's always nice to getaway and spend that quality time with your family. This is how we get to go to Disney and other places. We put aside the want for another pair of shoes, and put that cash into an account.
As far as the New York trip is concerned, that was a total surprise for me. I had no clue that he was planning or trip or even booked it until Christmas Day when I opened the gift. He said he had been saving for it for a while and after he paid off a credit card in November, he then knew he could officially book it because that was one less payment we have to pay each month.
Never feel guilty for vacations. As long as you can pay your bills and support your family financially, never apologize for time away. It's important to do so.
Well that's enough talking for one day. I'm glad hump day is almost over because I sure am ready for the weekend!
Well maybe it's not really a secret but I can't contain my excitement so I wanted to share. If all goes well with taxes (because let's face it tax season is either really good or really bad) we're planning on a weekend trip to Disney in June. We would stay at the Yacht Club Resort, which would be our first time ever staying at a Deluxe resort on Disney property. The only way we're financially swinging it, is due to their Spring Promotion Offer where you get 30% off Deluxe rooms, essentially making them the same price as a moderate resort (where we stayed last time) and the fact that if we go, we're only going for two nights. We've always wanted to stay at a deluxe resort and the Yacht Club is absolutely stunning. It has a boardwalk feel to it, is literally just a short walk to Epcot and you can walk to Epcot through their 'Yacht Club Guest Only Entrance' as well as the fact that their pool bottom is not made of cement, but has sand at the bottom to give it that beach feel. Pretty amazing, right?
If all goes as planned we're going back to Disney for a week in June 2016 but being the Disney fanatics we are, we wanted to at least have a weekend trip this year and I sure hope we can do it.
With restaurants booking up 180 days in advance (if we go in June for the weekend like we want, we're already at that 180 day mark) I went ahead and made restaurant reservations this morning. You do not have to have a trip booked to make a restaurant reservation nor does it cost you a dime to make a restaurant reservation as long as you cancel up to a day prior.
With Ohana's being one of our all time favorites I went ahead and booked us a dinner reservation just in case we go the weekend we hope to go. If something happens and we can't make it, I'll just cancel the reservation. It's as easy as that. I'm glad I did too because there were only two time slots left - I made sure to get the one during Magic Kingdom's fireworks show.
This way we have dinner and a gorgeous view of Main Street's fireworks.
Here's the agenda if we book it:
Leave early Friday morning and check in at our resort.
Drop our bags and walk to Epcot.
Dinner at Ohana's.
Saturday - Magic Kingdom Day
Dinner at The Crystal Palace
I sure hope all works out because we're all feening for some Disney magic!
///
Speaking of trips, our New York City planning is underway. Obviously this isn't a Disney trip where I need to plan FastPass reservations or obsess about dinner times, but planning doesn't hurt and will ensure we see a lot of what we want while we're there.
Our plane arrives noon and after we check into our hotel we're going to head straight to Times Square and grab a quick bite at a food truck or one of New Yorks infamous Hot Dog Carts. Then catch a bus to Ground Zero and Wall Street to see the Charging Bull sculpture. We'll also snap a few quick pics of Lady Liberty from Battery Park.
We're also going to see 64 Perry Street (Carrie Bradshaws apartment) and make a pit stop at the famous Magnolia Bakery for a sweet treat.
After that we're going to go back to our hotel to freshen up for dinner and in between our dinner reservations we're going to check out St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Chrysler Building, Grand Central Station and the NYC Public Library. We have reservations at Carmines the night we arrive. Yum!
The next morning we're going to set our alarms early and trek to Rockefeller Center to check out The Today Show. We'll also try to squeeze in Bryant Park, Macy's, Washington Square Park, FlatIron Building, FAO Schwarz, Tiffany's and Dylans Candy bar. Mind you when I say "check out" that's what I mean. A lot of these places we don't even want to go inside. We just want to see them face to face and snap some pics. After all these years of seeing these famous buildings on TV, I'm finally ready to see them in real life! So when people say you won't have time to do all that I think they don't understand we just want a few pics and they also underestimate my power walk, don't get me wrong though, these boots of mine will be walking into Tiffany's, Macy's, Dylan's Candy Bar and of course FAO Schwarz to get our little peanut something :)
We plan to have dinner that night at Bobby Flays restaurant, Bar Americain, and then after dinner go to the top of the Empire State Building. I can't wait to see NYC all lit up at night from a top that huge building!
On our last day we're heading to Central Park to walk around and take in all it's beauty. We also want to make sure and see the famous Bow Bridge and Belvedere Castle inside the park.
Some other must-eats that we have planned is Cake Boss Cafe in Times Square and of course a Sprinkles cupcake via their cupcake ATM. We also want to go to an authentic NYC coffee shop and get a pretty swirly design on a coffee. It may be nasty but I want to say I've tried one. We're still undecided on our final dinner. We don't know if we want to do celebrity steakhouse, STK or Chris Santos' restaurant, Stanton Social...all in all though I think it's not bad planning on our part.
All planning aside, any tips or suggestions are much appreciated!
///
Just to clarify something while we're on the subject of vacations. Tarl and I are by no means wealthy. We live paycheck to paycheck like most of struggling America. We have a mortgage, car payments, credit card bills, medical bills, light bills, grocery budgets and more, just like most of the world, but we always take a little bit of cash out of each paycheck and stow it away. If can be something as little as $5 or some times, if the paycheck is good enough or we get another bill paid off, it can be as much as $75. On average we put around $20 each up. It adds up very quickly. So the fact that we get to go and do those things is easy because we put a little bit of cash away weeks at a time. Before you know it you have enough to get away. Vacations, in our opinion, are very important to us. Even if it's nothing more than a weekend trip, it's always nice to getaway and spend that quality time with your family. This is how we get to go to Disney and other places. We put aside the want for another pair of shoes, and put that cash into an account.
As far as the New York trip is concerned, that was a total surprise for me. I had no clue that he was planning or trip or even booked it until Christmas Day when I opened the gift. He said he had been saving for it for a while and after he paid off a credit card in November, he then knew he could officially book it because that was one less payment we have to pay each month.
Never feel guilty for vacations. As long as you can pay your bills and support your family financially, never apologize for time away. It's important to do so.
Well that's enough talking for one day. I'm glad hump day is almost over because I sure am ready for the weekend!
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