Non Thanksgiving Thanksgiving

In the beginning of November, my mom came to visit for a few days. Since I was unable to go home for Thanksgiving, we decided to have "It's Not Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Dinner"
It was a lot of fun and we laughed A LOT!
Here is Mom carving the turkey breast (because really, we did NOT need an entire turkey!)

You'll notice the BEAUTIFUL card table I borrowed from A & J in May 2010 that I'm still using as a table. Well, I don't really ever use the table but it's nice to have. Since mother and I were having a "real" dinner which should not be enjoyed on the couch, I used the "chair in a bag" chairs as table chairs. Great idea until ya sit down and the chair is way shorter than the table. :)

Part of our feast! As soon as we sat down we realized we forgot the broccoli (thanks to steamfresh bags it was ready in under 5 minutes!)

We also had this AWESOME cake for dessert! Oh my stars it was AMAZING! It's called William Tell Apple Cake and you MUST make it! The icing on the top is divine! But with ingredients of butter and brown sugar it has to be good, right?!?!?!

Overall, "it's not thanksgiving thanksgiving" was a lot of fun. I'm thankful my mom spent 18 hours in a car to come visit for a few days and create new memories!

*since I'm writing/posting this in December, I'll let ya know that Santa brought me a BEAUTIFUL table & chairs for Christmas so now I have a lovely place to eat meals!*

Wordless Wednesday

Birthday Celebration!

Saturday night, Adrienne, Jeff & I went to Urban Sip to start off my birthday celebration! It was a lot of fun. Sadly our group pictures are on A's camera...I apparently only take pictures of food. Anyway, we each tried a different wine flight....

shared a cheese tray...

and headed back to their house while Jeff grilled some amazing beef tips, Adrienne and I had a dance party (because let's face it, what's a bday celebration without awesome party tunes) and then we ate, opened presents and enjoyed CHOCOLATE PIE!!!!

with a lovely rendition of Happy Birthday sung by this AMAZING couple!!!

THANK YOU A & J FOR AN AWESOME BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had a BLAST!!!

Sale Shopping!

I am a REALLY good sale shopper!

Yesterday after work, I ran some errands with ABC. Well, she was shopping for dinner items and I was just browsing. Until I remembered that I signed up to be an e-Vic member at HT.

WELL, I LOVE Chicken Cordon Bleu. I mean, I LOVE it. I think the majority of the scholarship dinners I attended in high school served Chicken Cordon Bleu and I was thrilled!

I recently discovered B @ rber Raw Chicken Cordon Bleu in the freezer section that's individually packaged and you can bake in your oven or toaster oven. Well, as an e-Vic member, it was ON SALE for 50% off. Carrots were on VIC and then eVic too...

SO....are you sitting down? Because this is AWESOME!

Baby Carrots were $1.99

I bought them for $1.20

....

Chicken Cordon Bleu was $12.79

I bought it for $4.34

WOO HOO!

I spent $5.74 and SAVED $9.15

Non Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Dinner

On Saturday, Adrienne cooked her very first turkey!

We named Saturday dinner "Non Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Dinner" and it was AMAZING!

However, first I must report our Black Friday Craziness because it was memorable!

On Thursday, we walked over to Starbucks and noticed that 5 people were already in line at

Best Buy.

AT NOON.

ON THANKSGIVING DAY.

SERIOUSLY!!!!!!

In line. 18 hours BEFORE the store even opens! On Thanksgiving.

Now, I decided I would've be impressed had someone had a grill/turkey fryer/tent in the parking lot and treated their insanity like they were tailgating, but not so much.

So, at 9:30pm that night, we decided to drive by Best Buy to track the line.

We counted maybe 20 people.

Well, Adrienne and I decided that we would get up and go shopping at 6:00am but we didn't really have much of a plan. I had to work at 9:00am so I didn't want to do anything crazy, but we didn't want to miss out on anything either. It turned out that we had been up since 2:30am and since we were still awake, we decided to go to Target for the fun of it, but first we drove through the Best Buy parking lot and the line had tripled! It was crazy!

So, we drove to Target and decided that the line outside was too long so we were going to go to the next target (which is literally 5 minutes down the road if that). We got there and the line wrapped around behind the building. It took 10 minutes for the last person in line to enter the store. Needless to say, by the time we made it in, men were already at the register with their massive tvs. Target employees handed us store maps as we entered and it was just funny!

4:00AM....ready to embrace Target...for the FUN of it!

So at 4:45am, when we noticed the line wrapped around the entire store and we found "normal" items, we decided to hide our loot and come back for it later, ya know after the sun came up! We hid some DVDs, Catch Phrase, Flannel Sheets and whatever else we fit in the "ribbon bin". Clearly, we found important high dollar items! :)
We left Target, headed back down the road, hung out at Starbucks and were 1st in line at Jos A Banks when they opened. Adrienne had a blast and completed all of her shopping for her bro and husband. I however, almost fell asleep amongst the color coordinated ties but was in attendance for moral support! As we left, the sun made an appearance and I realized that I needed to shower and head to work (I did take a 3 hour nap from 11:00-2:00). I took a 45 minute cat nap and had a great day at work.

However, after work Adrienne and I headed back to Target....18 hours later...and found this:

ALL of our hidden loot!!!!! It was a Christmas miracle! And it was all still on sale! Woo hoo!

SATURDAY:

It was time for Non Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Dinner! Here's A with her AWESOME turkey! Seriously, for never cooking a turkey, it was DELICIOUS!!!!!
5 side items. 1 oven. Skill!

She was really proud of how it turned out.
"WOW! It really does look like a turkey!"

Overall, as much as I missed not being home with my family for Thanksgiving, I had a GREAT and certainly memorable Thanksgiving. I am so thankful for the friendship I found in Adrienne and Jeff and thankful for the crazy shenanigans. And I'm thankful that Jeff understands that Adrienne and I are 1 dance move short of a musical comedy. :)

Oh....I also learned to hoola hoop after Non Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Dinner!

More on that later....

that's what I love about Sunday....

Today was my first day off in exactly 2 weeks.

Crazy. I know.

I had big plans for today!

I woke up this morning and went to a brand new-to-me church.

Can I just say that it was AMAZING!

As you know, I'm a self described "church hopper" so I've gone to a few churches in the area and wow, after today I think I found a new home.

Despite today's sermon being the last in the series, I really enjoyed it. The intro to the sermon was pretty neat as a few members of the staff recited Romans 8 from memory and it was just powerful. So powerful that we got a glimpse into football season and ended up high fiving the people sitting around us...which was super weird since I went to church by myself and was seated next to a random family. Oh well!

The sermon was based off of Romans 8:37

"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."

As you probably guessed, it was about conquering and the difference between being a "Conqueror" and being a "Super Conqueror" and really, all I could think of for a moment (among church things of course) was Superman and having super powers. I then had to chuckle because I now had the image of a picture that I used to have (that sadly I don't have on my laptop to show you since it was taken with gasp.... film) of D when he was 5 years old, standing on the front steps leading into the house with a "suit" on, his hands along the buttons of his shirt, clip on tie flapping in the breeze and his Superman pajama shirt underneath as little E was in her car seat fresh from the hospital, wrapped in a pink blanket....Big Bro a step above her to protect her! (D&E I babysat for when I was in High School) Too cute!

Anyway, I'm super excited for the next sermon series and glad that I can listen to the sermon online as well. It's so funny how far church has come. I grew up sitting in the very front pew, not allowed to talk or turnaround, singing the hymns and only clapping when we went to church Saturday night and the "fun" worship leader (back then was just a lady with a guitar and a microphone) was leading everyone....moving on to a church that was a bit more relaxed but still piano/organ and hymns....moving on to a church that was expanding and having a Contemporary Worship Service in the Fellowship Hall with folding chairs, drums, guitar and microphone to slowly adding a projector and a movie screen to today where it was just intense. God is good!

I left church feeling happy and like I may have found a church "home" and I was excited! I was so pumped that I headed here:

to look for one of these to take home with me:

and I was now so overwhelmed and confused with the massive selection, that I came back to my apartment without a fan.

I just want a plain ol fan that someone will install so I don't burn the place down. I would like to be able to just flip a switch and it'll turn on. I don't need or want anything fancy. But really, does the length of the blade matter? Yes, the color does, but the speed and the light and the size. It was too much to deal with right then and there because I had an important lunch date!

The Newlyweds, Claire and Dave, were in town for a wedding last night so naturally we had to meet for lunch! It was great that I got to see them for a bit as a married couple!!!! And really, who doesn't want to enjoy some Chili's Chips and Salsa with friends on a Sunday?!?!?!

After lunch I came back to my apt and headed to "Sundaes on Sunday" which was supposed to be a way to meet your neighbors but it was raining. The ice cream was mighty tasty though!

I sat on my front porch and watched it rain as I ate my ice cream. It was so weird. I was so excited to have a pool day since I haven't been to the pool in at least a month and gosh darn it, it was sunny and it rained, rinse and repeat. So I sat outside, eating ice cream and watching it rain.

I did some laundry and met Adrienne and Jeff for dinner! I tried sushi for the first time but ended up ordering my staple, Chicken Teriyaki with Fried Rice as they ate sushi...what can I say, I may be a creature of habit :)

And now, Remember the Titans is on. Really, what more could I want!!!

I am so ready for some FOOTBALL!

"Alice, are you blind? Don't you see the family resemblance? That's my brother." -Gary Bertier

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, those who have been called according to his purpose." -Romans 8:28

E-I-E-I-O......

When I went "home" a few weeks ago, we just had to go to the Farmer's Market!

I have always been a big fan of the Farmer's Market.

At home home in DE, we had a cool Farmer's Market that was in town and they had an Italian Water Ice stand that was probably my favorite. Well, that and the sunflowers that you could buy for a quarter!!!!

The "home" Farmer's Market is right down the street from where I lived when I watched Squirt for his first 9 months of life. I loved that within a 5 minute car ride we were there! I could put Squirt in the stroller and just walk around. It was a great way to pass the time after he took an afternoon nap.

So, Squirt, his mom and I headed to the Farmer's Market to get some veggies for dinner!

Can't wait to go back! It just makes me happy!

new recipe

I'm starting to think that if I hadn't discovered Kelly's Korner Blog, I'd eat the same 5 things!

Kelly posted about the Chicken Enchilada Ring that her Mom made and OH MY STARS it is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I didn't add the black olives or green chiles and it was still SUPERB! And SUPER EASY!

yes, it took 4 hours but I cooked the chicken in my trusty crock pot!

and bought a bag of frozen steamable Spanish rice from HT....it had no flavor so I mixed it around with the ring and it was tasty!

I highly recommend making this tasty meal!

results!

As you all know, I bought 9 pounds of this:



When placed in a crock pot with this:


Made for one AMAZING dinner!!! Well more like 2 dinners and lunch!

Super simple! Some chicken breasts (or tenderloins), 2 cans of stewed tomatoes, 1 can of tomato paste and a packet of Slow Cooker Italian Herb seasoning (I used half a packet) on low for 8 hours....DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!