MD.

We had an absolute blast in Maryland. My parents went WAY out of their way and did WAY too much. THANK YOU BOTH!

On Friday, my Dad had set up a visit to the construction site of our new high school. He is on the School Building Commission so he has been overseeing the project. We got a tour by the head superintendent all over the building. It was SO cool. Dad and I asked a ton of questions and Kevin looked at what company made all the building supplies so he could check up on the stocks!

Mom cooked us an amazing dinner on Friday night - crab dip, crab cakes, squash casserole, pretzel salad, coleslaw - YUM! They made sure Kevin had the ULTIMATE eastern shore experience. Mrs. Black (basically my grandmother, but next door neighbor too) came over and we had a big time! Here is Kevin and Mrs. Black - they were twins!
CRAB DIP!!!

Saturday we went down to the beach for a lil sight seeing. Went to the Marlin weigh-in area.

Of course we had to visit Seacrets so Kevin could have a "Pain in de ass" drink.

Had dinner Fagers. It was gorgeous!!!

Sunday we went back down to Ocean City and hung out on the beach all day. The waves were huge - still left over from the storm! We saw three rescues in just our little area.

The big highlight was picking crabs. Kevin LOVED it and was SO good. He picked two containers of it before I picked one. You would have thought he had been doing it for years!!

Came back to reality early this morning. We have a very busy week before we head to Charleston on Friday for the weekend. I'm in NJ tomorrow and Wednesday for a quick trip. Chaos!

Tara and MD.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO TARA!!!!! Hope you have the best birthday celebrating in PA! :) We'll celebrate when you get back to Charlotte!

Kevin and I are going to Maryland tonight until Monday. He was so cute last night - he asked, "are we flying first class?" I said, "No, there isn't first class on the small plane we'll be on." He said, "But we always fly first class when I fly with you!" Haha, it was funny! We'll be in first class in the back of the bus - an exit row.

We are excited to go up there and pick some crabs, hang with mom and dad, go to the beach and possibly go on the boat (if it is in working order). Yall have a good weekend!!

Anna Kate!

I just couldn't resist putting these pictures up of my niece, Anna Kate. She is precious. Can't believe she will be 2 in early October. Time has flown by!!!
Driving the boat with her croakies on. Too cute!

Aunt Beth got her this dress monogrammed last year at a shop in PA. :)

Like father, like daughter. Anna Kate loves to squish up her nose!

Teesed up hair!

My brother Clay, sister in law Emily and Anna Kate.

Churl's Weekend and Kevin's Dad's 60th

Started the weekend by going to the Josh Turner and Alan Jackson concert with Laura and Brandon. We had a good time. Our tickets were only $10 and we basically only went to see Josh so we left after a few of Alan's songs.

Went to Greenville, SC on Saturday morning for a shower for Churl. She and Brian are getting married on October 24th and we couldn't be more excited for her!!! L to R - Carrie, Suz, B, Bushy, Churl, Brehon, Mo, B.
The shower was a wine and cheese theme!

Unfortunately, I couldn't stay for her Bachelorette night, but I heard they had a blast! I had to get back to Charlotte for Kevin's Dad's surprise 60th birthday party. Here is Kevin with his Dad, Mom, sister in law Brittany and brother Joe. We had so much fun celebrating that we are going to do it again tonight for his actual birthday. They are coming uptown and we're going to Coastal.

Kevin had asked me to drive his car to Greenville so I wouldn't put miles on my car. When I got back, Kevin and his dad had completely detailed every inch of it. It was black again, not gray! What a nice treat!

Heckuva Week

Sorry for being MIA all week. I had to keep it top secret that I was traveling for work because I was going up a day early to surprise Mom for her 29th (+30) birthday on Tuesday! She was shocked when I walked into the house at lunch time. Her friend Colleen had just gotten there and they were headed to the beach for lunch so I joined them too. Dad helped me figure out all the timing. It was perfect. So, I drove them down to the beach and we had lunch at the Sunset Grill right on the water. They had some adult beverages so it was eventful to say the least - they gossiped (loudly) like they were 18! Crazy! Here is a picture of the soft shell crab sandwich I had - DELISH.
Then we ran around Ocean City and picked up a few things. Went to my favorite store at the beach - http://www.southmoonunder.com/ and got a teal skirt - it is super cute. We headed back to Salisbury and I did some work. Then we went to Old Mill and picked crabs, our neighbor Mrs. Black came too. Dad got Mom a TCBY cake so here she is blowing out her 5 candles (in honor of her last year being in her 50's). She is just SO young!

It was about 9:30pm and Dad had fallen asleep. I tried to take a picture of him asleep but he must have heard me turn the camera on. Here he is as he had just woken up... He may be old, but he's smart!!!!

Drove up to PA on Wednesday for a night meeting. It was a disaster from the second I got into town. Literally a monsoon. Most of the time, I'm fine traveling every week for work but times like this week, I would so much rather be in Charlotte. I am in the middle of a monsoon, I still have to go to the 7pm public meeting. So I run into a Burger King to change into my suit dress. Gross but no other choice. Then I look for somewhere to have something decent for dinner. Well that doesn't exactly exist in Brodheadsville, PA. Taco Bell was where it was at - ha. So I had a chicken quesadilla. Gross #2. Also, I had forgotten my car phone charger, so I am standing in the middle of the Taco Bell, holding my phone which is charging in the ONLY outlet in the place. I already stick out because no one in there knows me (everyone else knows each other), let alone standing there charging my phone in a suit dress. AHH. The joys of traveling. Go to my meeting, it didn't go well at all. We were up there for 2 hours and got nothing accomplished.

I drive back to Newark, NJ to my favorite Hilton of all times (for real). Had to stop in downtown Newark and get gas at 10:30pm (Dad, don't be mad, I had no choice but I promise it was well lit and a ton of people around). Get to the hotel and do some work for another hour or two. The next morning US Air called. That is always a bad sign. My flight was canceled due to maintenance. Only way I could get home before 10:30 last night was to fly out of Laguardia. Thank goodness I had my rental car still and most importantly my GPS. It took me through the Holland tunnel and across Manhattan. Awesome. I love driving with a bunch of northern idiots. I mean come on people, it is an extra 10 seconds. BE NICE to other drivers!!! Get to Laguardia and to the US Air club. I had forgotten my dern phone charger in my hotel room. Now I have been traveling every week for 2.5 years and I have never once left anything in a hotel room. GRR. I borrow some guys charger at the club so it will last until I get home. Get to my gate and we're on the Panthers plane. How fun!

Finally get home (after sitting in the back of the plane - of course lost my first class seat when the first flight got canceled). In the end, I was just glad to be on a plane and back to the south, where people are nice, normal and not rude. BLAH. I'm done rambling and complaining.

Kevin and I had a nice dinner last night at Alexander Michaels. He is so good at realizing when we should go out to dinner - AKA when I get home from a terrible week up north!!

Got a busy weekend coming up. Going to see Josh Turner and Alan Jackson tonight then to Greenville, SC for Churl's bridal shower. Looking forward to everything! There are some other things going on that are a surprise so we'll chat about those on Monday! :) Yall have a good weekend!!!

Atlanta

Friday night we went went out to dinner with our friends Brandon and Laura. We had a casual dinner at Brixx then headed to Dixie's to meet up with some of Kevin's friends.

Early Saturday morning, Kevin and I drove down to Atlanta to visit my cousins Laura and Carl and their baby, Amelia. Amelia is also my goddaughter which I think is pretty neat! We visited some wineries about an hour north of Atlanta. The first one was The Three Sisters winery and the second was called Frogtown. We then went into the town of Dahlonega and did some more tastings. We ended up getting a couple bottles of wine to bring home. We had fun!

Look at that couple out there having lunch - how beautiful of a view is that?!

The Nelson family at The Three Sisters...

Amelia is so prescious. She just starting walking and is all over the place. Kevin and I definitely got a dose of what parenting is all about this weekend. The 3am crying definitely taught us!

Kevin playing with Amelia on the piano that Mom and Dad gave her for her 1st birthday!

Thank you Laura and Carl for having us! We enjoyed spending time with you guys!!!

Weekend!!!

Never went to NJ/PA. Ended up not going on my trip because I had too many things to do in the office. It was good to get things done because I'm gone some of next week too. Kevin and I are going to Atlanta this weekend to see my cousins Laura and Carl and my goddaughter Amelia. I cannot wait to see them - it has been 8 long months. It will be great for Kev to meet them and see the other part of our crazy family! :) Hope yall have a good weekend!

Not funny!

So this whole angel food cake thing has gone overboard. Mom had Williams-Sonoma send me an angel food cake pan yesterday. Now between Tara and Mom, I'm convinced yall are either making fun of my disaster or just really want some angel food cake. I'll try to test it out in the next week or so.

Shannon and Lauren came to my house last night for our monthly dinner date that Shannon so kindly started. She has been so busy, it takes a night planned 2 months in advance to get to see her! We all loved catching up with each other, as usual. We actually ate at my kitchen table which is a record - it would be only the 2nd time I've pulled it away from the wall to use it. Of course we used the Lilly napkins and placemats that Santa brought one year (thanks Mama!). It was fun actually setting a table and being somewhat of an adult! (Of course I forgot to take pictures!) I made a bruschetta chicken bake (because I could make it on Sunday and slip in the oven when I got home from work) and a salad. We had fresh blueberries and strawberries for dessert. Yum. This is what we had as an appetizer:
http://sisterscafe.blogspot.com/2009/04/avocado-bean-dip.html.

Here is the link to the Bruschetta Chicken Bake recipe: http://cookingthisandthat.blogspot.com/2009/01/bruschetta-chicken-bake.html

Going up to NJ, PA, and MD this week so I'll be out of commission until Friday. Yall have a great week!

Mr. Thoughtful

Let me just tell y'all...this weekend by far was one of the best ones in a long, long LONG time. And it was because of Mr. Thoughtful!!! Friday night we just had dinner in and chilled. We were getting up early and I had NO idea what we were doing all day. This bothered me since I'm such a planner, but Kevin had a plan and wouldn't tell me what it was! We got up and ran the booty loop, came home and layed by the pool for a few hours. Then he said he wanted to do some errands and we should get ready to go out and about.

So we both showered and got ready. Of course I had a million questions like - am I going to get hot (aka i didn't want to do my hair), what should I wear..... He said, "just chill and wear something like you usually would, we're just doing random errands that I want to do."

Then he told me we should take my car. I was stubborn and said, "no, I drive all week and you haven't driven in 2 weeks - let's take your car!" (PS - he works across the street from our building and he always drives on the weekend). Welllll we go out "to do errands" and we pull up to this shopping center in Cotswold and he said he needed to drop something off. Okay, weird. You never go to GNC. Then he said, "I need to drop you off at the massage place next door. You have an appointment at 3pm for a massage and a coco mojito foot scrub." AHHH, nicest thing ever!! It was AH-MAY-ZING. And we were suppose to take my car because it is gray, not black, and he was going to take it to get washed when I was in getting the massage. Too bad I was too stubborn! Ha!

This is a picture in the "quiet room" of the foot scrub I got! Coco Mojito... (I know it is hard to see!)

Umm it didn't stop there. We came home just in time to watch the Criterium because one of my co-workers was in it. She did great by the way! We evidently had dinner plans that I didn't know about either. We went up after the race and he told me to dress decently (don't you love how guys put that stuff) and we'd meet at 7:45 to walk somewhere uptown for dinner. We walked (what I thought was aimlessly) around and finally walked into Aquavina (where he of course had reservations). Neither of us had ever been before so it was fun to try something different. This is us after dinner...not the best picture but oh well!

On our way home, we walked to Crave which is an upscale dessert bar that just opened. It was nice but not what we expected. I don't think we are metro enough for that place!

We had an amazing weekend. I still can't believe he did all of this for me, JUST BECAUSE. I'm SO lucky. :)

Shrimp Creole

Quite possibly one of my Mom's best... We had it on Friday night for dinner.

Shrimp Creole

1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 large onion chopped
1/2 cup minced green peppers
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
dash pepper
1/8 teaspoon dried rosemary (optional)
1/8 teaspoon paprika
2 cups cooked or canned tomatoes
1 lb cooked, shelled, deveined shrimp (1 1/3 cups)
2 to 3 cups of hot cooked rice
Mom adds a bit of old bay too

Melt butter in saucepan. Add onion, green peppers, garlic, sauté 10 minutes or until tender.

Add salt, pepper, rosemary, paprika, tomatoes.

Bring to boil; reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes.

Add shrimp; heat thoroughly.

Server on hot fluffy rice.

Makes 4 servings.

To vary:
If you like a "hot" Shrimp Creole, add 1 1/4 teaspoon chili powder and 2 dashes Tabasco with tomatoes.

Charlotte Crawl

So last night we decided to forgo our usual plans of Alive After Five. Instead we went to five different places in uptown. First we started at McCormick and Schmick's. We thought their happy hour lasted until 7 but it didn't. We had already sat down so Kevin was the nice person that said, "well we should probably still have a beer instead of being that couple that gets up and walks out." We did have a drink, but quickly - we wanted to make it over to Flemings for their happy hour. They have 5 appetizers for $6 each until 7pm. We got calamari. It was amazing as always. Kevin hadn't had it before so I wanted him to try it. He loved it too! Then we went over to Zink and had a couple appetizers for dinner. Our fourth stop was Buckhead to see a couple of Kevin's friends but they weren't there. Of course we had to finish up at Stoolies where we saw about four neighbor friends. Overall, a very fun night. We love being spontaneous like that. We were home just after 10 so it wasn't even a late night like Thursdays typically are!

Taco Tuesday and VA

On Tuesday night, I stopped and ran the Booty Loop on my way home. Tara was coming over to watch Kevin's DVR since I had taped the Bachelorette finale and After the Final Rose. She had been out of town for work and missed it. Poor thing. I arrived home and Kevin had made us tacos. Check out this spread! I was impressed!

"Smile because you know this is going on my blog!" Kev's response - "ugh that darn blog!"

When she came over, Tara brought me a NC State Harris Teeter bag that I can use to carry groceries home. They didn't carry Clemson or Chapel Hill ones (for she and Kevin) - for good reason. She also thought she was funny and put an angel food cake in there. HA, you're hilarious Tara!!! But, thank you, you are too thoughtful! We had fresh blueberries and strawberries with it. Yum!

Yesterday I was in Rocky Mount, VA looking at this land. Very exciting, I know.

Cuatro

So yesterday I actually realized that Kevin and I had been "official" for four months. Ha! I called and told him and of course he already knew. (He's good at that stuff, I'm terrible!) It definitely feels like it has been 6 or 7 though. Maybe that's because we knew each other for a couple years before dating??


Anyway, he called me back at at the office a few hours later and said, "let's skip you cooking tacos tonight, we're going out to dinner." What a fun surprise! We actually DROVE somewhere and went to Pewter Rose (http://pewterose.com/). It was pretty tasty. I'm not sure we would choose to go there on a Saturday night but it was a fun change.

Weekend Roundup

What a weekend! It was so nice to be at home and be able to get some things done! Friday night, Tara and I went to a happy hour at Avenue then to the 4th Ward Porch Crawl. This is a picture of the neighborhood band that played - they were great (and super adorable)!

Afterwards we went to the Attic for one drink. The next morning we met our friend Kim and ran the Booty Loop. Always a good, hard run!

Saturday night we went to the Rascal Flatts/Darius Rucker concert. Tara, Lauren, Me and Laura:

Here is Darius...He played a bunch of his new songs and a couple old Hootie and the Blowfish songs so that was pretty cool. Most people still remembered those lyrics - old school!

Rascal Flatts always have the best sets!

I think it is the lead singer whose wife was a Chi O. Girls, correct me if I'm wrong!

Umm so I pretended to know how to bake yesterday. I made Kevin some oatmeal raisin cookies because he LOVES them and I had never made them before. I thought he would like the nice surprise when he got back into town from his (not so much fishing) trip in Wilmington. They turned out perfectly! So then I thought I would be extra ambitious and make an angel food cake. They are light and fluffy and would taste so good with the strawberries and blueberries I had gotten.

So my mom tells me I had a messed up angel food cake pan.... I hope she's right - I made the whole batter and it leaked!!! I tried to get most of the batter up and back into a bundt pan.

And this is how it came out - DISASTER. I was not made to be a baker! I can cook, but cannot bake. Ahh! Embarassing!

So I just made dinner for us and we had plain strawberries and blueberries for dessert. No angel food cake - ha! This was a salad I found in Martha Stewart...it is so easy. Thinly sliced vidalia onion, one avacodo chopped, white pepper (but I used fresh, regular pepper), and coarse salt. Then you just squeeze a half a lemon over it. It was a tasty summer salad!