Birthday Wishes

She's not gonna mention it, and she'll kill me for doing so... but please go wish my bestest the Hap-Hap-Happiest of Birthdays today!  Girl, I hope you have a fabulous day and I wish I could be up there to celebrate with you! XOXO

 

OK back to work...

 

The thrill is gone.

Wow... what a difference a week makes.  This was the hub trying to get my car up the driveway last Friday night.  He came out of the house when he saw me struggling to do so.  "Oh let me handle that, honey.  You go on inside."  Uh huh.  After swerving into the yard about 5 times, he ultimately backed the car up across the street as far as possible, facing the driveway head-on.  Then he gunned it up the driveway and finally made it to the top.

 

And today it's totally sunny and clear.  Still chilly, but no blizzards in sight.  Hope y'all have a fab weekend!  I'll be working most of it - bleh.

 

 

Snowbunnies.

Hope you Georgia gals are enjoying the snow! Other than taking 1.5 hours to get home last night (when my commute is usually 15-20 min), I'm loving it. From inside though. By the fire. The doggies LOVE it. Here are a few pics the hub snapped last night when it was still coming down...

That's at least 3 inches, don't ya think? Haven't seen this much snow in I don't know how long. This is not normal.

We're waiting for the roads to clear up some and then we're headed up to Ellijay to join my parents at a cabin. Here's a peek...

Isn't it dreamy? Now if we can just get there! We'll be back tomorrow afternoon for our traditional Valentine's Day fondue. It's the one day a year we whip out the fondue pot and we wear Valentine's jammies while we eat. We started doing it, gosh, like 5 or 6 years ago and now it's just what we do. Can't wait!

Oh my...

Miss Phoebe is covered!
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

I better not get stuck here.

Here's the view from my office.  I don't know why my camera phone is taking crap pictures, because this looks dreary.  It's actually really pretty.  They're making us go home...

Snow!

 

You've got two more days...

...to enter my giveaway over at Make Room for Style! And y'all, there are only a few entries so far, so you've got a pretty fair chance of snagging the prize - which is a free 2-hr photo session (on-location!) with Atlanta's own Chikadeez Photography.

Now this photo session can be anything you want it to be... but if *I* were to win, I'd totally have shots of my three doggies taken (that should make for an interesting 2 hours). Check out the gallery of animal photos over at Chikadeez - sooooo sweet.

For more details and to enter, hop on over here. Get on it!

Keep trying.

Monday again, huh?  The weekends always fly by so fast - especially when I'm being robbed of a full one!  I worked most of Saturday and then had Bunco Saturday night with the neighborhood gals.  And I WON for most games!  I tied for most buncos too, but lost in a roll-off... oh well, I still snagged $40 in the end!  It was a good night. 

 

During several games I was partnered with one particular neighbor who I hadn't talked to much before.  I got the usual "do you have any kids?" from her and I gave my "no, just doggies" answer.  Then she asked if we were trying (which she prefaced with the fact that she was nosey).  "Oh yeah," I said, "we've been trying for a long time."  And then she responded with the best answer I think I've ever gotten.  And not one I'd expect from a self-confessed nosey person.  She simply said, "Keep trying."

 

I love that.  It wasn't followed by "you'll get there" or "it'll happen when it's meant to" or "have you tried..." or "God has a plan."  It was just "keep trying."  For some reason that's been stuck in my head all weekend.  I'm so used to getting all kinds of crappy (though well-intended) responses from people whenever my oven comes up... because you know, everyone just wants to *fix* me.  So I guess I was refreshingly dumbfounded to get such a simple, yet meaningful response.  And we definitely will keep trying.

 

Alright, another long work week ahead.  I'll pop in when I get a breather!

 

 

Presenting...

The best oh-shit-I've-got-a-party-to-go-to-and-I-have-no-time-to-make-anything solution!

 

Grab a tub of this Philly cheesecake filling and some ginger snaps/crisps and you're good to go.  Spreads on easy and tastes like heaven.  And I'm not even a big cheesecake or sweets person.  I'm totally taking this to bunco tonight since I have to work today and have no time to make anything.  I'll just whip it into a cute dish and claim it's an old secret family recipe... hahaha...  it's seriously so good.  I don't, however, recommend keeping a tub of this on hand, because you'll just find excuses to keep eating it.

Back at it.

I seriously spent all day in bed Saturday. Can't tell you the last time I did that - for real. I have a hard time doing nothing, but seeing as I really can't afford to get sick this time of year, I forced myself to chill ALL day. I didn't leave my bedroom all day but to go to the kitchen. I sure didn't lack any appetite... in fact, I googled up a good chicken noodle soup recipe for the crockpot while in bed. Who knew it was so easy to make? Just never tried, I guess. I didn't have any carrots or celery on hand, which definitely would've added some nice color and oomph, but I had everything else. It was delish. Here's the recipe from memory - didn't write it down, but it's seriously easy. Oh and I halfed it because it was like a huge amount, so this is my halfed version...

Ingredients:

2-3 boneless chicken breasts (I just dumped them in frozen)

2 cups water

2 cups chicken broth

1 tsp seasoned salt

1 tsp salt (or to taste - depends on how salty your broth is)

pepper to taste

1 small onion chopped

1/2 tsp dried basil

(plus carrots and celery chopped up, but I don't remember the amounts since I didn't have these - ha!)

3 oz noodles (I used orzo pasta and it was delish)

Directions:

Dump everything into the crockpot except for the noodles. Cook on low for 5-6 hours. Shred the chicken and add the noodles - continue to cook for another 1/2 hr to an hour depending on how long your noodles take (obviously the orzo doesn't take long - I was hungry and didn't want to wait). Serve it up and enjoy!

Soooo good. And super fab on my sore throat that day. And even better on the next day. So now I'm like all about finding more fab soup recipes for the crockpot. Our crockpot gets lots of use this time of year since I don't have the time (or energy) to cook much.

Yes, so a big bowl of homemade chicken noodle soup and a Buffy marathon all day Saturday seemed to do the trick. Feeling much much better now... still draining some of the gunk out, but I feel a ton better. And now I'm back on a Buffy high - I haven't watched my DVD's in forever and everytime I do I like have to watch the whole series. For all you vampire lovin' freaks out there, I have to say Buffy STILL takes the cake over Twilight, True Blood, Vampire Diaries, what have you... Those are all great too - I know. But Buffy is just freaking hilarious. It's the only one that's like a true horror-comedy. And Joss Whedon is brilliant. I think the only show since Buffy that I can honestly say is neck-and-neck for my #1 favorite show of all time would have to be Glee. Can't wait for it to come back in April! And apparently Joss Whedon is directing one of the spring episodes... can it get any more brilliant?! So excited.

OK I've got to go curl my hairs and bust out of here... hope you're having a fab week!

Oh and don't forget, Atlanta gals, hop over here to enter my contest for a chance to win a free 2-hour on-location photo session with Chikadeez Photography! You've got until Friday, the 12th - get to it!