Exercise...

Yesterday was my first time exercising since my leg escapade on October 21st. Yikes! I stayed nearby my house and Kevin came with me just to be sure I'd make it ;). We walked for just over 3 miles. It felt SO good to get outside! I think I'm good for walking in a straight line for now but probably need to wait one more week before I play sports or do classes. Can't wait to be officially back to normal!

PS - I wish this was us walking near the beach. It isn't. Just a random photo from the internet.

Thanksgiving Day Recap

Thursday morning, my parents came over for some breakfast casserole. We then headed downstairs to the Charlotte parade which is supposively the 4th largest Thanksgiving Day parade in the country. It always ends with Santa making an appearance!

After the parade, we came upstairs to finish cooking (I had made as much as I could in the days leading up to it). Mom had given me these adorable fall leaves from Williams Sonoma that you could use to make the pie crusts more fancy. Here are the two apple pies that I made from the Pioneer Woman's cookbook and with the cut outs!

Mom taught me how to do the turkey this year so I'll know for the future. She was in charge for 2009 and it turned out great!

This is Dad prior to eating dinner - he finished off the excess cranberry mold that was overflow from the actual mold. He loves that stuff!!

Who knows why they were working?!! They were supposed to be on vacation!!! Couldn't have done it without them though!

Here is the finished product:

We hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving with your families!

Blog Name

Can you all tell that I can't decide on a blog name? I really didn't like Annie's Adventures...it was just the first thing that came to mind. For now, I'm going with Classic Annie. I think it'll stay that way. :)

Wednesday before Thanksgiving

My parents came down from Maryland for Thanksgiving this year. It was such a treat. We had a great time. When they got in, we headed over to the Arena for the Bobcats game. It was the official parents meeting parents. Kevin's parents and my parents met!!
They all liked each other but it was hard to talk with the game going on so we planned another event. The Godfrey's invited us to their Country Club for dinner Friday night. More on that to come.

After the game, my parents, Kevin and I headed back to my parent's hotel for a drink. They were lucky enough to stay at the Ritz Carlton thanks to my friend Kim. She works there and gets a family and friends rate. They LOVED the hotel...it just opened in October...it's gorgeous. THANK YOU KIM soooo much!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope you all are having a wonderful turkey day so far! We are heading to the Charlotte Thanksgiving parade which goes right by my building in uptown. Then we'll be back to cook it up! I thought this picture was really funny. Kevin was helping me clean my floors the other night (I know, I'm so lucky). He is a swiffer professional, haha!!!

Good Housekeeping

A co-worker gave me the Good Housekeeping magazine when she was finished reading it. I have only skimmed through it but found a page with lots of helpful tips (I shortened some of them with only pertinent information!):

1. No dishwashing liquid? Grab the laundry detergent. A teaspoonful of liquid laundry detergent in a basin of hot water will cut grease on dirty dishes equally well.

2. When you can't find the stain pretreater....try hydrogen peroxide. This medicine-cabinet staple has similar stain-fighting power to that of a color-safe bleach. And it can be applied directly to most fabrics, including washable silk and wool (but spot test in a hidden place first). Dab the stain, then launder right away in the warmest temperature permitted by the item's care label.

3. If you're out of fine-fabric detergent, wash with shampoo. It'll be as gentle on your delicates as it is on your hair. Pretreat any stains by gently rubbing in a drop of the shampoo. Then add a pea-size dollop to the cold-water-filled sink. Wash, rinse and lay flat to dry, as usual.

4. Need carpet stain remover? Pull out a baby wipe or premoistened facial-cleansing wipe. Blot the carpet, turning the wipe as it absorbs the stain, until clean. Sponge the area with a damp cloth to rinse, and let dry.

5. If you're low on silver polish, use toothpaste. Plain, non-gel toothpaste (without additives like whiteners) can rid small silver pieces of light tarnish without damaging the surface. Moisten the silver piece; apply a bit of toothpaste to your finger. Rub gently and rinse, then buff with a soft cloth.

Thanksgiving in Charlotte

This year, my parents are venturing down from Maryland to Charlotte for Thanksgiving. I'm excited to have them, but wish Clay, Emily and Anna Kate could join too. We'll miss you guys!

Mom and I decided on a menu and last week I made all of my lists - Wal-Mart, Teeter and Trader Joe's. I think I have all the shopping done and tonight begins my cooking adventure. Since they are coming in tomorrow night, I want to have the pie crusts made and a couple of other things done. Here is my list for Thursday:

Breakfast - Mom's breakfast casserole

Dunch (4/5pm-ish) - turkey, mashed potatoes (The Pioneer Woman), green bean casserole, oyster casserole (family recipe), cranberry mold, gravy, stuffing and apple pie (The Pioneer Woman). Mother is bringing a pumpkin pie and sweet potato biscuits.

I think I may be cheating on the stuffing and gravy. I was going to make my friend Wendy's stuffing but it took a lot more ingredients than I had and I don't know that I have time to do it. I found a sausage, sage etc. stuffing at Trader Joe's that looks really good. And I may end up making the gravy because this is my Dad's favorite part and no Thanksgiving would be fun unless Dad was happy (and full)!

Let me know if you'd like any recipes. I'm going to try to remember to take pictures so I can post them if any of yall are interested! What are you making for Thanksgiving? Any traditions for your family?

Double Layer Pumpkin Pie

This pie is amazing. I made it for a Thanksgiving dinner we had at our building on Saturday. Everyone loved it. Here is what the last slice looked like - a lil mangled. ;) Thank you to Brock and Ava.
Double Layer Pumpkin Pie
4 oz. cream cheese (softened) (I used light)
1 cup plus 1 TB. cold milk
1 TB. sugar
1 8oz. tub of cool whip (I used light)
1 prepared graham cracker crust (I used light)
1 (16 oz.) prepared pumpkin can
2 packages (4 serving size) of instant vanilla pudding and pie mix
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. ground ginger

In a large bowl, mix the cream cheese, tablespoon of cold milk and sugar with wire whisk until smooth. Stir in 1 1/2 cups of the cool whip and spread on bottom of crust.

In a second bowl, stir pumpkin, pudding mix and spices unto remaining milk, beat with wire whisk until well blended (mixture will be thick). Spread over the cream cheese layer.

Refrigerate for 5 hours and serve with remaining whipped topping.

Nor' Easter Jacket

What do you all think of this cute Vineyard Vines jacket? They have 20% off outerwear right now and I had been eyeing this jacket for a couple years. I went ahead and ordered it on Saturday in two sizes - we'll see how it looks, hopefully before Thanksgiving!

Official Birthday Round Up

I got a new work computer and it has a camera, so you know what that means - Skype - with my niece, Anna Kate. Look how cute she is! I'm so looking forward to skyping with her often! It was a highlight of my birthday to get to talk to her on there!
Kevin originally said we were going to have hot dogs at home. I thought he was kidding but he was being so serious that I was beginning to believe him! Then when I was skyping, he said, you need to be ready in 30 minutes! Yikes! We headed out and ended up at Melting Pot. It is funny because Melting Pot has come up a lot recently and he has evidently had this planned way before that because I had never done fondue before! It was so fun - we had a great time!

Then when we got home, he said we should go get a drink at Stool Pigeons (Stoolies). Well this wasn't uncommon, we do this a lot, I thought to myself. We get down there and all of my neighbors and friends were there. He had emailed everyone and made sure they could all be there. How thoughtful is that?!!! It was such a surprise and made me so happy that everyone took time out of their busy week to help me celebrate! Thanks yall!!!

Here are my friends Meg and Kimmy. Yall remember Kimmy from the Charleston wedding a couple weeks ago. Crazy girl! It meant so much to me that yall came!

The infamous pose...

Kimmy and her husband Jeff....aren't they presch?!

Kevin was also very smart in telling me to take the day after my birthday off ;). When I finally got out of bed (1pm), Kevin gave me the gorgeous necklace (which I basically haven't taken except for showering and bed) and a Yurman travel jewelry pouch. He went WAY too crazy!!! THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING ;) !!!!!!!

Wednesday afternoon, I went to the Southern Women's Christmas show....it was fun to get in the holiday spirit!

Hope yall have the best weekend! Short week next week! Woohoo!

Birthday

Let me tell yall - I cannot wait to hear about everyone's bargains at the Lilly sale!!!

This past Tuesday was my birthday and I'm so excited to share the entire scoop of what Kevin and my friends did for me....but here is a picture of the special gift he gave....a gorgeous Yurman necklace...I'M SO LUCKY!

Surprise!

Got a fun surprise when I got home yesterday. The sorority girls had sent me flowers for being their chaperone on Saturday night! How sweet of them! Aren't they gorgeous?!

The card said: "Dear Beth, Thank you for being our chaperone at our semi-formal on Saturday night. We all had a blast! You are an amazing advisor and we all love you very much! Love, Sorority PS - We love your boyfriend too!"

I thought that was super nice of them to do. :)

Crazy weekend!

We had another busy weekend but of course had the best time. Friday night started out with a co-workers house warming/wedding party. They recently got married this summer and this was their Charlotte reception. We loved visiting with them and some other co-workers at their beautiful home.

Saturday we headed up to Winston-Salem for Kevin's family reunion. It was so much fun! Everyone was so nice and welcoming. It was at his Aunt Kate's house that has been in the family for 50 years. Wow!

Saturday night we were chaperone's at a UNCC sorority semiformal. Needless to say, it was quite an experience. I'm not so sure I'll be too anxious to do that again any time soon. A few of the dates yelled at me ("you aren't my mom!" "no, but I am the advisor who is responsible for your safety"), one girl told me her name which was not her name and the workers at the venue found a couple in a maintenance closet (ugh!). Many people got kicked out and had to take a cab back to campus. It was a disaster in my opinion - we were never allowed to act like that!! Kevin had a great time with some of the guys and enjoyed "mentoring" them as I like to say. :)
Sunday, we enjoyed some Panthers football with our neighbors and recovered from Friday and Saturday! Hope yall had a good one. Anyone do anything fun?

Girls Night and Leg Update

Last night, my friend Lauren got a lil girl's night together. It wasn't little though - there ended up being 10 of us at one point! What a blast. We met at a local bar called Brazwell's for a couple drinks and dinner. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures....but next time I promise to do so! Lauren, Tara, Emily M., Emily F., Kim B., Kim M., Brittany, Erin, Koren, and I all were there. We need to do this every month ladies!!!

Figured I would do a lil update on the leg situation. I went back to the Wound Clinic this morning and it is getting better. This is day 24 since the incident which you can read about here. It looks good so thought I'd share a picture. I PROMISE to never put a picture up like this again if you all are completely grossed out. I was reluctant to even post it at all, but definitely wasn't going to when it first happened! Not sure if you can tell or not but it is right where my leg meets the top of my foot.
The guys at my office thought it would be funny to put this on my dry erase board.....haha!

Hope everyone has a great fall weekend!

Happy Veteran's Day

Stephen and Melissa's Going Away Party

Last Friday night, some people at the Avenue (our building) invited us up to attend Stephen and Melissa's going away party. Okay, so they are only moving a few neighborhoods away, but any excuse for a party! Here is the view down from the 21st floor of our building...the pool is on the 10th floor.
Stephen and Melissa....neighbor friends!

Chris, Matt, Kevin

The big group...yea not sure about that doll...it is an ongoing Avenue joke.

We'll miss you guys but come back often!!!

Ashley and Jeremy

Ashley and Jeremy got married in Charleston on Saturday. Ash (otherwise known as Sheesh) was one of our sorority sisters! Here are a couple more... Me, Kacie, Kimmy
Walking down the aisle...

Kevin and I....

Kimmy and I did this at every function in college for a picture so we like to relive the old days.

Bridesmaids with their bride!

Kevin and Kimmy....

One of the last pictures of the night. Jeff, Kevin, B, Kimmy, Kylie, Mr. and Mrs. Parr, Kristina and Joe.

Zink

For all the Charlotteteans -

Have you ever been to Zink American Kitchen uptown for Sunday brunch? Umm probably the best brunch I have ever had, second to one in Baltimore with my parents one time.

There isn't a menu online but it is from 11am-3pm and I can pretty much guarantee you that you won't eat anything else the rest of the day (and you shouldn't before you go, either!).

http://www.harpersgroup.com/zink.asp

It is $16.95 a person for fancy eggs, bacon, sausage, shrimp and grits bar, multiple quiches, special hashbrowns, tasty salad, hummus with fun crackers, omelet station, a lunch type bar full of tasty goodies, any kind of slider you could think of AND the most ah-mazing warm banana bread pudding. This is all just a sampling of all the goods....yum.

Needless to say, we both ran a few miles for multiple days to get these calories out of the way! Ha!

J. Crew Sidewalk Sale

Just found out from the J. Crew Clearance Center that they are having their monthly sidewalk sale on November 7th and 8th and also on December 12th and 13th from 10am - 3pm. Remember I told you all about it here. Enjoy!

Lilly

I was over at Kappa Prep's blog yesterday and noticed something some of you may enjoy hearing about. Check out this link. Oh to live in Philly this one weekend!!!

Halloween continued...

Couldn't resist posting these pictures of Anna Kate's Halloween...look at this precious princess!
They were a bit tired the next day....yes this picture is getting a frame! Look how Fin has Anna Kate between his front legs. One of the cutest pictures I've ever seen!!!!

Avenue Halloween

Avenue through us a party on the 10th floor. We had a good time with our neighbors. Kevin and Michael.
We didn't dress up...we're no fun. haha. I was lucky to just be there after this lil foot deal.

Our concierges - Johnny and Junior.

Wendy and Josh...