Memorial Day Weekend

The holiday weekend started as soon as I got off work Friday....J, K and I jumped in the car and headed to Nashville. We had the luxury of staying at Leslie's empty condo for the small price of taking care of their rabbits while they were out of town. Meet Bun Bun and Cookie.

We met the bunnies and unloaded the car and rolled back out to Peter's Sushi (one of my favorite sushi restaurants in Nashville. K and I loaded up on sushi and J had a little mix of fried rice, sushi and shrimp heads.

We were pretty exhausted and decided to head home after stuffing our bellies to play with the bunnies some more.

Saturday monring K brewed some coffee while acting like a nut in Josh's glasses and we hung out at the pool for a few hours.

Later that afternoon, we went to Pokey and Melissa's for their annual crawfish boil. J wasn't too crazy about heading over there since they have 2 daughters and he was convinced he would be the only boy but he quickly made some new BFF's and was mad when we were ready to leave 8 hours later.

They played ball and video games all night long. Good thing they didn't see Pokey cooking the crawfish though!

J and I got up early Sunday morning and grabbed some breaky and hit Target to get some things he needed for camp and some happies for Leslie as a thank you. After that running around, we played with the bunnies some more and then headed out to the pool to enjoy a few hours of sun. By then, Cookie had really warmed up to both of us!

We left town in time to get back to Memphis before Sunday night church services and then grabbed some Exline's pizza before settling into a night of watching My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding.....Off. The. Hook. I'm so glad I wasn't born into that culture. They are disgusting to me in every aspect and though I try to be open minded about people, I have yet to find one redeeming quality about these people. BTW, I am not basing my opinions of these people off of the show, I have had lots of experience with them ever since I was in the restaurant business in college.
Today has been spent chillin' in the Redneck Riviera. It started very early when I dropped J off at Central Church for his week at Camp Tsungani and the rest has been total relaxation! A little bit of sun in the new and improved Redneck Riviera. We've added some greenery, furniture, torches and recreational equipment since last year.

Now K and I are just hanging out on the patio, having a cocktail and smokin some meat for dinner.

What a wonderful life!!!! And I sure appreciate everyone that makes it possible :) My Facebook status today reads:
I'm thankful I get the option of wearing a bikini in public instead of being forced into a burka, I get to work in a male dominated field & get paid the same, I can bar b q w/ my family in the backyard w/o being bombed & I can openly worship my God w/ no repercussions...thank you to all the men & women who have fought to ensure I can do all of this!!! I APPRECIATE YOU!

Amazing Chicken Tacos. No power :( And the poem that goes with it.

I got home yesterday to the best smell. I put several chicken breasts in the crockpot with some broth, taco seasoning, cumin and chipotle powder that morning and they were right on last night. The guys used it to make soft tacos and I used it for the best taco salad ever!

We had some pretty bad storms come through and as we were cleaning the dinner dishes, the electricity went out and is still out. What a bummer! A lot of food will be ruined I'm sure and I wanted some more of that chicken taco salad for dinner tonight. Pissed does not even describe how I feel about the culprit of all of this mess, which I was able to snap a pic of while being detoured around it.

I woke up in the middle of the night as I was sweating to death and could barely sleep for more than 20 minutes at a time and came up with a peom, here it is:

It's so hot in here,

hopes of sleep are no where near.
I've tossed and turned,
the candles have burned.
I never would have made it back in the day,
a pioneer woman, no way!
I just want some lights,
before I start a fight.
The food in the fridge is ruined,
MLGW, what are you doin?????

Unexpected/Unwanted Trip to LA. Green Glowing Smoothie. QT with the pups.

Betty called Friday morning to let us know K's G-Pa had died earlier that morning. I went to work while we waited to hear about the arrangements. I left at lunch to get ready for our trip. J went to his dad's for the weekend and we left for Louisiana first thing Saturday morning. We went straight to the funeral home once we got in town for the visitation. There was more visitation Sunday morning and the mass was that afternoon at the church K's G-Pa grew up in. After, there was a short service at the graveside and then we went to Peanuts for dinner and to hang out with the family for a bit. I had a lot of time to spend with the girls at the funeral home while K, his parents and brothers talked to all of the people that came to visit. We passed many of the minutes messing with our iPods.

We headed back home Monday around lunch and got back in time to spend some quality time with J and the pups.

Not sure what they saw outside but they were mesmerized by it.

My diet didn't hold up so well while in Louisiana or on the trip home: 

But before leaving, I found a recipe for a Glowing Green Smoothie and was able to make it and take on the trip. It was my saving grace for vitamins and healthy stuff to feed my body! These are some of the ingredients:

Romaine

Spinach

Celery

Parsley

Cilantro

Banana

Apple

Pear

It is SOOOO GOOD!

I took off work yesterday also since I was a little worn out from the trip. I spent the day cleaning the house, doing laundry, going on a long bike ride and then we met the Mays' for AYCE crawfish. I would be so productive if I had enough money to quit work but I don't so I am back here today. Had a wonderful beet, strawberry, feta, shrimp salad for lunch when I met Marcy at the Beauty Shop.

Bad News. Baseball practice and a game. A possible beach vacay :)

Tuesday brought some bad news to us....K's grandfather was rushed to the ICU. He had been in there a few weeks ago after getting pneumonia after having surgery to get his colon removed because it wouldn't stop bleeding. He was able to get over the pneumonia and came out of ICU but had to be rushed back because now his bowels are seeping out of the incision, there is infection and his kidneys are shutting down. It looks like it will only be a matter of days or possibly a week or two until he will be gone. K is so down in the dumps and it hurts my heart to see the hurt on his face. There is nothing worse than losing a loved one :(
Tuesday night was a late night of baseball. Practice was at 8:00pm! There was a game yesterday and it was an early one....Hallelujah! J caught a pop fly, stopped several grounders, scored a run and didn't strike out at all. He gets really excited over the not striking out parts :) Here are a few shots I snapped before the game:

The Cubs pulled pretty far ahead in the first 2 innings and then let the Padres come back to within 1 run from them in the 5th but they pulled out another W in the last inning. After the game, we went home and relaxed with some Modern Family and pizza.

I talked to Susan today and we decided we needed a girls get away to the beach and Moroccan Backyard of Ali Box (one of the top sellers with Rodan + Fields and in our upline). She is suppose to be finding out when will be a good time for us to go visit Alys Beach and Ali's backyard. Here are some pics of the Moroccan Dreamyard:

Ummmmm yeah! I could be real relaxed in the middle of all of that!
Today has been pretty relaxed, not too much going on at work. I had to run out to Central Church and finish up the paperwork for J's Camp Tsungani. Haven't heard an update on K's granddad yet. Almost quitting time so I'm through typing for now.



First laid back weekend in a while. A Presedentail Motorcade. Monday night baseball.

I got home Friday evening and did nothing except exactly what I wanted. The weather was perfect, K was smoking some ribs, we made ourselves some drinks, turned on some music and sat there all night talking, drinking and eating a little. Here was a lot of my view:

K loves his new smoker and I love what he does with it. Those ribs were so stinking delicious, not quite part of my diet but I didn't care. Taco hung around a lot too hoping for some drops of rib!

Saturday was a lazy, lazy day for me at least. K had to get up and work for a few hours but he was back home by lunch and we lounged in the living room all day catching up on shows we had DVR'd. The weather had gotten cold and dreary so there was no place better than the couch. After a long nap, we headed over to the new Jim's Place to grab a few drinks and some dinner. This was suppose to be my official cheat meal of the week so I cheated again!

It is so much better than it was at the last location. We found a few seats at the bar and enjoyed the rest of our night talking to Leanna (the bartender), watching all the picking up that was going on and eating some really good food. We ordered the calamari and fried green tomato appy, K had a filet covered with crabmeat and bernaise sauce and I just had a loaded potato for dinner because I was all out cheating with dessert. I had some kind of chocolate cake with chocolate mousse, toffee, caramel and whipped cream and it was GOOD! We woke up Sunday and the weather was still horrible so we had another lazy day. The Grizzlies playoff game was that afternoon and after their loss, we went to look at a house in Eads we were interested in. After seeing it in person, we are dying to get this house....too bad our realtor sucks and is doing nothing to sell our house! I know if it's meant to be, we will get it somehow. I picked J up and after a quick trip to Walmart to get some toy he was NEEDING, we went home, had some hodgepodge dinner of whatever I could come up with from the freezer and called it a day. Yesterday, the president was in town to speak at Booker T. Washington's graduation. I was able to catch sight of his motorcade from the office.
It was pretty impressive, even if you can't tell from the video.
Last night, J had a baseball game and it was great!!!! The Cubs were down 8-3 at the bottom of the last inning, the coach on the other team had made a total ass of himself, wanting to fight our coach and the Cubbies came back and won it! I was going crazy!! Best win ever :)

J is so cute. Photobooth App. A not great start. Good ending.

We got J's baseball pics back yesterday.

How cute is he? He is getting so grown and even though I hate it, there is nothing I can do about it and at least he is growing into a gorgeous young man! I can't look at that face without getting butterflies in my stomach. It's crazy how much you can love a person.
I found a new iPhone app that is awesome. It's called Pocketbooth and it let's you take 4 pics in a row and then turns them into a strip of photos that looks the old timey photobooth thing.

I tried it out on K and I before bed....
This morning started off with thunderstorms and me getting caught by the DAMN TRAIN.

But I have this to look forward to when I get home!!!!

YIKES!!!!! Absentee blogger, Nashville trip, flooding, Mother's Day and Medifast

Gosh, it has been forever since I've blogged. I got behind and the thought of catching up would make me procrastinate more since I didn't have time to fully catch up until now here it is a month later and I definitely don't have time to catch up so I will hit a few high points and rock on.....Since I have been away, K and I made a trip to Nashville. We were suppose to run the Country Music Marathon but because of my knee injury and a hotel room that was already paid for, we had a weekend of relaxing and eating marvelous food :)
We got there Friday afternoon and met Les, Josh and La for dinner at Virago. It was delicious as usual but they have moved and the location is better than ever....they now have an amazing outdoor dining room upstairs that overlooks downtown.

Saturday was even better. The day was beautiful and it was spent relaxing by the pool getting lots of sun and vitamin D. Later that night, K and I went to The Stockyard for one of the best dinners I have ever had!

Well, let me rephrase that.....I had an awesome dinner of some of blackened salmon and ate a lot of K's dinner which was one of the best dinners I have ever had!

This is his $120 plate of food!!!!!!!! He ordered the filet (which was $50) and asked if he could add a lobster tail to it but did not ask the "market price" of that lobster tail....the bill came and that sucker was $70!!!!!! But it was one of the best lobster tails we had EVER eaten :)
We got up early Sunday morning and headed home because there was very bad flooding in Memphis and we weren't sure how long it would take us to get home. The flooding problems are still with us. The river crested 2 days ago at 48 feet, which is the highest it has ever been except for one other time. Downtown and the north part of the county is underwater. The waters have finally started receding but it is slow moving. Here are a few pics of the flooding:

                                             Interstate 40 headed from downtown to Arkansas

                                                                          Mud Island

                                                                           Tom Lee Park Another happening since I have been away was Mother's Day last Sunday. It was a great day.

I woke up to my favorite flowers from my favorite guys. We met Mom, Roy, Sissy, John, Bennie, Marcia and all of her gang at church and then had brunch at Sissy's.

After that, J, K and I went home to set up the Redneck Riviera for the first time this year and later that afternoon headed over to the swamp area of the Greenline to do a little fishing.

We didn't catch anything but it was a lot of fun being with my guys with no else to do besides try to hook a fish. Well that about sums it up.....oh yeah and I started the Medifast diet 11 days ago and am doing pretty well. I weighed after a week and had lost 5.4 pounds. I will be weighing again in the morning....I decided to switch my weigh in days to Friday instead of Monday.