After the Fry-athon

Getting the fried oreos ready

:) Look at Dan creepin in the back!

Oreos!!!

G-dawg helped entertain Nora

Cinnamon Sugar Donuts (Glazed in the back of the picture)

Corn Dogs

Mozz Cheese Sticks

Corn Dogs, Cheese Sticks, and Onion Strings

We had a lot of chicken...two trays...12 lbs....buffalo and General Tao's chicken

Taking a break

Yummmmmmm (before saucing)

No one got sick! :)

Fry-athon

When: This weekend.

Who: James women plus 2 husbands

Huh?: Kristi and I have promised our hubbies that we will fry anything that they want for one weekend (and one weekend only) out of the year...this is that weekend.

What: The list of fried includes - apple pies, donuts, buffalo chicken, wontons, egg rolls, sesame chicken, onion rings, oreos, and mozz cheese sticks (that is the condensed version folks)

We will need:
LOTS of oil (we've already got 35lbs) and antacids

This. Will. Be. Documented.

-B

P.S. - Grey has already eaten HALF of his cookie cake. :)

GACC

GACC - the Great American Cookie Company.

We have a history.  On our second date ever, Grey and I were wondering around the mall when we stumbled upon GACC.  Grey insisted that he get a cookie so we stopped to let him pick one out and eat it.  With one bite gone, he then said, "Becky - your cookies are amazing, but you need to strive for this."

I of course was livid - like thought about dumping him that moment livid.  To this day, whenever it gets brought up, it ends up being a "tense" moment.  Grey will tell you that I misunderstood him.  He will tell you that no one can beat a James woman's cookie.  It was a mere error in judgement that one fateful night.  Grey will also tell you that he has paid dearly for that particular comment.  According to him, I have refused to bake cookies for him SINCE then (this would be going on 3 1/2 years now)...

Poor guy.

GACC got brought up a couple of weeks ago.  Apparently, G-dawg has always dreamed of a batman cookie cake for his birthday.  I even asked if I could bake him one to substitute and he sadly said that even though he would REALLY appreciate it and love it (he's learned huh?), it just wouldn't be the same. 

I went to GACC two weeks ago in search of one.  They don't and will never make batman ones.  Bummer.
I however got a brilliant idea -buy a plain one and decorate it myself! :) So here's to the batman cookie cake that instead of being a "happy birthday" surprise, it'll be a "Happy finishing of your first semester of grad school" surprise!

Date night

Date night was supposed to include Batman Begins and Icees.
Grey and I spent an hour traveling around Spartanburg looking for icees. :(

We even called Kristi and Dan and had them download the Icee app to tell us where the closest one was.

We went to Burger King, Spinx, the mall, and Sam's.  Either:
1. The flavors that we wanted weren't available (cherry and blue raspberry)
2. The flavors that we wanted weren't working (cherry and blue raspberry)
3. Every dang place, including the drink place inside Target, apparently closes at 9 and we were on our adventure from 8:45-9:45.

We finally went back to Spinx to try one of their frozen slushies.  Mine was blue raspberry.  It poured straight liquid from the spout.  I took my cup up to the front and told them that even though the machine said that it was working, it wasn't.  The lady at the front said, "Oh no!  It's supposed to be fluffy."  I agreed and kindly told her to look in my cup at all the watery liquid.  She looked at it and said, "no, that looks right, it's fluffy."

Um no ma'dam. It's not. Straight up liquid.  Watch me swirl it around in the cup.

I left VERY disappointed with my blue "slush".

ALSO today, I tried to make an appointment for noon.  The woman asked me 4 different times, what time I wanted.  I responded each time, more emphatically than the last that I wanted NOON.  Finally on the 5th time, she said rather emphatically herself, "What time do you want?!  9:30?  11:30?  12?  12:30?" 
I then realized that she didn't know that noon was 12 so I just said 12 and left.  Geez.

Bad kitties!

Grey and I spent about an hour laying out all of the squares re-arranging everything to the order that we wanted.

We came back from church and LOOK. Grrrr. They don't look sorry at all.

Apparently it's already the "cool place to hang out"

Coming along

(Sorry for the bad quality in pictures)

Cow Appreciation Day

Is today. July 13th.
Every year, I sit back and watch my very cool friends, KPS and SCP get themselves and their hubbies all dressed up like cows.

The rules - you go partially dressed like a cow to Chickfila on a day like today and you get a free entree.  You go fully dressed (from head to toe) and you get an entire meal for free!!!

This year is the year that I will no longer sit back and watch cool people get AWESOME food for free.  No sir.

LOOK OUT!!!!!

We paid 17 cents for all of this (due to one of us getting lemonade)!!!

WE LOVE CHICKFILA!!!!!

Younts

Meet Younts

 Younts has been a secret "want" for me since college. Younts wouldn't weigh more than 5lbs.  (Younts is full grown in the pic above).

Younts would be the PERFECT dog for being inside.

Grey won't let me get Younts.

Reason 1: Teacup Yorkies apparently have high suicide rates since they're so tiny.  For instance, if Younts were to fall off the bed, bam. If Younts were to fall off the top of the couch, bam.

Reason 2: Younts would weigh TOPS 6-7lbs.

Enter in Franklin at 11lbs:

Enter in Oliver at 16.5lbs:

Yeah...Younts would get punched in the face and bull-dozed by these panthers. I literally see them getting in a fight and boxing ole Younts in the face.  Bam.

Reason 3: When Oliver gets really excited, he tends to just run in whatever direction he wants to without any reserve as to who or what is around him.  This has caused many "Oliver goes running, runs into Becky's leg, and gets kicked in the side of the head" or "Oliver goes running, swerves but doesn't miss Becky's leg as she's walking, and gets slammed into the wall" moments. 

Yeah....Younts would get run over.

My only hope:  You know in the movies when cars are driving and they go under big 18-wheelers and then come back out?  That's how I would HOPE that Younts and Oliver would get along...

Thoughts?!

Finished

Before:

After: We're planning on alternating and doing 4 chairs in the yellow and 4 in the white.  We still need 3 more chairs to make our complete set of 8...

Homemade Groucho's for dinner! :)

4th of July wreath

Things I didn't know seven days ago

1. Roasted Brussel Sprouts are GOOD!  I can't declare the same of them un-roasted.

2. One small bag of potato chips is not enough for 4 adults and one 2-year-old going on a BBQ kick...DCW!!!!

3. It is perfectly acceptable for a 2-year-old to try a BBQ chip, hate it, spit it out, and then thirty minutes later when Aunt Becky is eating some, steal some of hers, and then declare that you must have more, lots more!

4. Sweet Baby Ray's sauce is "just for Nora" as she puts it.

5. I went to Plato's Closet today trying to sell some clothes in order to get some moo-lah for my ipod fund.  I took one of Grey's shirts, 5 pairs of dress pants (worn each maybe 1-2 times), and 4 dresses (worn each maybe never.....).  I sold Grey's shirt and 1 pair of pants for 7 bucks.  The others were apparently "in great shape with great name brands but way too old." 

Plato's closet my butt.

6. I need approximately 18 more dollars until I've saved up enough for my ipod. :)

7. Apparently, this girl (who shall remain un-named for pride's sake) can manage to shower Sunday morning, take a bike ride and run, and not shower again until Wednesday when she realizes that it's not her husband who stinks, but alas, herself.

Fail girl.  Fail.

8. Homemade coffee ice cream with chocolate chips is amazing.

9. Homemade coffee ice cream with chocolate chips 30 minutes before bedtime = drawing tattoos on Grey of "Eddie and Reba" on his arm, dancing and singing very loudly to "Knock Three Times" and then crashing and sleeping like a baby for the next 10 hours.  Maybe I should try caffeine right before bed more often?  I slept better last night then I have in the past week.

10. THIS IS POST 300!!!!! WOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOO!!!

The end.

-B

Quilts and fruit flies

Two posts in one day...good gracious I was productive today!

Look! I've finally finished the baby girl quilt.  Either Jen or Kristi will get it (whichever one has a baby girl first)!

Isn't the fabric so cute?!

Grey left some unclean dishes in the sink while we were away for an entire week. 

 Enter in the fruit flies. 

Within the first 48 hours of our return, I had killed a solid 30+.  I knew we had to do something drastic.  After reading some discussions about how to get rid of them, I decided to do the apple cider vinegar method.  Apparently, the fruit flies are really into the whole fermenting process.

You pour some apple cider vinegar into a glass, heat for 10ish seconds, and cover it with a piece of plastic wrap.  You then take a fork and poke small holes all over the top.  Apparently the flies get into the vinegar but can't seem to find their way out. After leaving the two glasses of vinegar sitting around our kitchen for a good week, I'm proud to say that I only saw 1 flying fruit fly about in our house.  The other 40+ were dead in our two glasses.  Can you see them?

Happy 4th!!!!! :)

The Un-Thinkable

Yours truly just did something that I never thought I would EVER do.

I went to Walmart and bought...

BRUSSEL SPOUTS!

Can you believe it?!  All my life, I've avoided them.  Not because I didn't like them, but because so many other people didn't like them that I figured....they knew best.

On a whim, we decided to try Roasted Brussel spouts while in Florida.  Basically, you take washed brussel spouts, toss in olive oil, spinkle garlic salt and lemon pepper on them, and roast them in an oven at 400 degrees for 40ish minutes.  (If you make this, make sure you toss 'em around at least once during the baking time so it won't burn)
Just incase we still hated them, we sprinkled a little bit of cheese on top.

Oh my goodness.  Sooooo good!  Hence...the buying of more brussel spouts today at Walmart.
Good gracious.  It's like I'm turning into a non-picky eating adult or something.

LOOK OUT!
*By the way, each chair cushion doesn't have just 3 layers of fabric.  No. That would be too easy.  They each have FIVE layers of different fabric. :)  I'm excited!

My new project

I've decided to recover our dining room chairs.

Original:

Taking off the first layer revealed that there were TWO WHOLE layers under it that I get to take off...of each one. Yay. :)

Then Oliver got distracted (ole Jeff from the Bachelorette was talking to me in the background)

He decided that he missed me way too much the past couple of days.

"You wanna do what instead of pet me?  Are you crazy?"

1 layer removed...of 1 chair (about 20 minutes later)

"No. You must give me attention."

"I'm sorry. Did you really think that you doing this was acceptable?"

Frankie was worn out just watching the exchange between Oliver and myself. :)

More updates coming!!!!!