Turkey Recap and Christmas Kickoff

Now that I've cleaned up my Google reader, I can move onward and upward. I took a break from my computer this weekend and it was awesome. 

Wednesday night, the hubs left me for a tree stand and I was on my own. Since I had time on my hands, I decided to tackle the Pioneer Woman's turkey brine and as I posted on Wednesday, my house smelled awesome while the concoction was simmering.

It was difficult to squeeze Arthur (the turkey) into that pot, but after some wresting, he gave in and bathed in the fridge overnight. This is the part where I show you the finished product right? I'm supposed to tell you that I put him in my turkey roaster at 300 degrees and basted him every half hour then show you a picture of his beautiful brown behind, right? 

Wrong.

Thursday was filled with so much family fun, there wasn't much picture taking going on. To clarify, by "family fun" I mean headaches, yells, spills, temper tantrums and eventual laughter.

There's not much time to whip out my camera amongst all that crazyness.

Instead, you will pretend my bird ended up the way PW's did:

TA DA!!!! (source: Pioneer Woman)

Yeah right, I wish my turkey ended up looking like that.

 After a few hours, Arthur came out almost perfect. I say almost because as usual, my white meat was a bit dry. I will have to use Christina's trick of roasting my turkey upside down from now on. It makes perfect sense. The juices have to go somewhere right? If Issac Newton roasted turkeys, he totally would have done it upside down. {That's what she said.}

After we ate, we did what everyone does after a Thanksgiving dinner with great family and fellowship.

 

 Right?? Laptop city.

Bodie had better things to do though, like help me with my black Friday ads

Except he wasn't so much "help" as he was a pain in the butt. 

After I stuffed myself at my parent's house, I headed over to my in-laws for dessert. Since Kevin went hunting with his brother and dad, it was just us girls. That's code for wine...lots and lots of wine. And when my mother in-law has wine, she's hysterical. So needless to say, I ended the night on a high note. I hit the hay pretty early after that, so I could get a few hours of rest before the black Friday madness.

It's become a tradition that every year, my best friend, Katie, and I hit the sales after Thanksgiving. Now, ya'll know my butt isn't getting outta bed easily but you can catch me at Target around 6. There's no discount in the world worth the hassle of 3 a.m. crowds on black Friday. I'm not trying to lose a limb here, just get 20% off. I guess if there was a gift I was DYING to get, I might knock some old lady down for it but I wasn't feeling it this year. There was really only one thing on my must-have list and by the time we were done shopping at noon, I had it and hubs is gonna love it. ;)

The rest of my weekend went exactly as planned. 

You guys know how I rock a Saturday, and Bodie knows too.

There was a marathon of Diners, Drive Ins and Dives on Food Network.

He's totally into it.

 After cooking all day Thursday and shopping all day on Friday, lazyness won. Now, I bet most of you probably have your trees up and have decked the halls, but I haven't done any of that. I have a wreath on my door and that's about it. However, I am excited that this weekend, Kevin and I will venture out to get our very first Christmas tree as a couple. We've decided on a live one this year and will purchase a fake Christmas tree after the holidays so we get a good deal. Those damn things are expensive yo!

Now all I need to do is steal some ornaments from my mom and I'm all set. 

Wanted: Personal Chef

Here I am, letting my Pioneer Woman turkey brine cool when I realize I haven't fed my dog yet. He normally eats around 5:30 but I've been so damned preoccupied being Betty Crocker that I forgot. You know what that made me think of though? How it's not fair that my dog has a personal chef and I don't.

Don't get me wrong, I love to cook. Like, I want to make out with Paula Deen love it. Definitely not Rachel Ray or Sandra Lee though. Rachel talks with her hands too much for me. I can't stop flinching because I think she's gonna hit herself. But the fact that my dog has me trained makes me slightly jealous. I fetch his ball, watch him pee and I let him lead when we go for walks. As many episodes of the Dog Whisperer that I've watched, how come he can't teach the dog to get their own food? My dog hasn't even realized his food bag sits open on the kitchen floor. All he would have to do is pick his head up three inches.

Feed yourself Bodie. Mommy loves you but she wants a personal chef too.

So tomorrow, I guess instead of having some Richard Gere lookalike prepare my Thanksgiving feast, I will slave over the turkey crock pot myself. No, not kidding, I have a turkey crock pot. I guess the technical name would be a roaster or something but in reality, it's a giant crock pot. And it's awesome. It frees up the oven for all your delicious fattening carbs and it's easy to use. After Arthur the turkey gets his brine bath tonight, he'll hop in the roaster around 10 a.m. and we'll eat around 3. That gives me enough time to whip up the mashed potatoes and stuffing while mom prepares her famous corn pudding.

And if you were going to ask about brussel sprouts, no, we're not having them. I know they are all over the Food Network right now and I'm a total fan, but my family would stone me for even suggesting it. The only veggie we will have at dinner tomorrow will be the flecks of green bean swimming in cream of mushroom topped with deep fried onion.

Turkey and dressing blessings to you all.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Go eat.

Weekend Roundup

Happy Monday. Is anyone else super glad it's a short week? It seems I only get enough sleep on the weekends and even after I sleep for a good 12 hours, I could always go back for more. Daylight savings time can be over now, I'd like to see the sun again, please and thank you.. 

Onto my weekend fun:

Friday night, my brother and I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (and it was awesome!) and was gonna talk spoilers, but I don't want to ruin the movie for you if you haven't seen it. (and why haven't you seen it yet? What's wrong with you?!) My bro even got me a special treat for the movie, I guess he can be nice sometimes.

It probably wasn't worth what he paid for it but it was good. I'll have to add this to my "must have in stocking" list. Although, that chocolate frog would have tasted better if the 5 year old kid in the front of the theater wouldn't have been screaming the whole 2 1/2 hours of the movie. My question is: why was a 5 year old in there anyway? The movie was pretty creepy. I mean, Voldemort scares the piss out of me and I'm 24.

Saturday, after watching Back to the Future Parts 1, 2, and 3 - I was convinced by my sister in law to get off my ass and go play Vera Bradley Bingo. Okay, she didn't say all that but let's face it, what else was I doing besides growing bedsores? I was asked on Friday, in my comments, if the winner gets a Vera bag, and yes, they do. Unfortunately, the winner was not me. The old lady behind me won two bags and a raffle. Bitch. So not fair. 

At least my niece won, look how happy:

Yes, I'm totes jeal. She told Kevin she was thinking of selling it on Ebay and that it "retails for $70, but would like to get at least $80." The girl is a dreamer and a businesswoman, ya gotta love her for that. 

Sunday, the only thing I got accomplished was grocery shopping but I saved $45 and got a free turkey. You can't beat that with a stick. We spend 89 bucks and got both our weekly groceries and our Thanksgiving fix-ins. Score!

The rest of the day was spent doing this...

Well, until he got a bath.

Hope you had a good weekend! Thanksgiving is almost here people.

Fun Fridays!

To link up on the fun, click below and head to Jen's blog!

I don't have any exciting plans for this weekend you guys.

Tonight is date night -- with my spoiled brat little brother. We will be viewing the cinematic greatness of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

I started reading the books in middle school and it's hard to imagine we're still watching the movies! I don't want it to end! My bro asked me why we didn't go to the midnight premier. Well little broskie, getting to work at 8 is a problem when I go to bed at 10, so no late nights for this girl. Also, I would probably have to drop kick some squealing teeny boppers if I had to wait in line for two hours with them. No offense, of course, because we do have a love for HP in common.

Then tomorrow, I'm thinking of crashing a Vera Bradley Bingo fundraiser.

 Anyone up for some blue hair BINGO fun?
I tend to win if that sweetens the deal for you...no? Okay then.

Now, since I took pictures and don't want them to go to waste, I will now marvel you with the easiest recipe for vegetable beef soup. 

Enter: the star ingredients.

 I personally like to use a couple potatoes and frozen mixed vegetables in my soup but Kevin would prefer the veggie bag that has lima beans. 

I'll pass. Blech.

Then you'll just need one large can of whole tomatoes, a carton of beef broth/ (or stock) and one pound of beef. (I used the pre-packaged stew pieces here but have used ground beef before. It turns out just as yummy.)

Peel and chop potatoes.

 Don't forget to peel your thumb.

 

 Cut meat into spoon friendly pieces, this is a soup afterall.

Cook meat.

I know, this picture looks ugly. I dusted my meat with flour. 

It made it look gray. Gray food tends to look gross. 

Deal with it.

 Whiz up the tomatoes in a food processor 

(or squeeze them into tiny bits with your hands if you don't have a food processor...then, next Friday, buy a food processor because Kohl's will have a great sale.)

 

 Dump your cooked meat, tomatoes, frozen veggies and potatoes into your crock pot.

Season as you like. Stir.

Pour in beef stock until all your goodies are covered. Stir.

Let the crock pot work it's magic.

I let mine simmer overnight on low.

Then eat.

Preferably with a well done grilled cheese sandwich.

I like mine crispy.

Have a great weekend! 

:D

I Need Your Help!

Or more appropriately titled, "I tricked you into looking at more wedding pictures."  Ah ha!

NO! Don't run now, it's too late. 

Keep reading.

Over at Taylor's blog, The Undomestic Momma, she has a little ad at the top of her blog offering a discount on Canvas People. So I decided that I would finally choose one or two pictures to make into a personal shrine. Since our album is currently collecting dust on the bookshelf, I'm guessing if we hang a giant portrait on the wall, people will have no choice but to look at our happy smiling faces. Right? Right.

Here's where you come in, I can't pick.

My thought process is that the photo I choose has to be somewhat centered and I don't want it to be a super close up shot of my hairless face since it will be at least a 12x16.

So I've narrowed it down to a select few:

 

 I could be selfish and splurge on a bridal portrait like pictures 1 & 2 above...

 

Or, since hubs loves the woods/nature/hunting (aka killing Bambi's mom, not cool) - these woodsy-type pics ( numbers 3,4 & 5) remind me of him.

"The Good Life" was the name of this snack bar which seemed appropriate so picture 6 is cute too.

 Oh, and the fishies ! ( pic #7)

This fountain was in front of the aquarium where we held our reception, we also used this photo for our thank you cards. This is a definite option.

And these last two ( #'s 8 & 9 ) pretty much sum up our wedding. 

Our ceremony was outside on the waterfont and the reception inside by the shark tank.

Most guests who have seen our photos either love or hate that last picture.

I like it though. It's dramatic and also, kind of like we're about to be eaten. 

Nom. Newlyweds.

So friends, help a girl out, of the nine pictures above, which number would you choose to hang next to a couple of deer heads on your wall?

=========

AWARD TIME!!!

A big thanks goes out to Mrs Awesome for giving me the Versatile Blogger award

 

And a huge gracias goes out to Steph C at Forget Me Nots and City Sidewalks for the Honest Scrap award.

If you don't already read their blogs, you should.
Why? Because I said so.

HAPPY HUMP DAY!

An Award & Another Awesome Weekend

 Friday afternoon, I learned that the beautiful Alison, over at the Life and Times of Alison & Justin gave me this sweet award.

So I wanted to say thanks to her and as the award stipulates, I must tell you seven this about me!

1) Nine times out of ten I'll put on make up to go to the grocery store. You can take me to breakfast in sweatpants but not to my local Food Lion, too many people I know work there! If I'm too lazy to shower, I make Kevin go without me. 

2) My favorite place to shop is Bed Bath and Beyond. I rarely come out of there empty handed and whatever it is, I probably didn't need it.

3) I still haven't been on my honeymoon.

4) I'm kinda peeved about number 3

5) I won't admit number 4 to the husband

6) Speaking of husbands, I hate that now we're married, the first question I get asked is "so, when are you gonna have kids?" -- um, when my uterus is ready? Stop asking me.

7) My favorite color is blue. Kevin's is green. He says the only color blue he likes is my eyes.

(I had to end it on a sweet note, the man does know how to romance, you know, when we're NOT on our honeymoon.)

On to how my weekend went, last week I didn't really go into too much detail about our girls night but I feel like I need to come clean and this post is about to get slightly NSFW.

Remember back in the day when your mom would throw a Tupperware party and all her cool friends would come over and play with plastic cups and bowls? Well, Saturday night we had a similar party only instead of moms and plastic storage containers, we had super cool sexy moms drinking cocktails passing around things that were a little more racy. We had a Slumber Parties girls night.

I think I've mentioned Slumber Parties on here before but if you're new and you're somewhere you can look (aka not at work or school) sneak a peek at the website. Now, before you get all "ohmahgawd, how foul and vulgar!" 1) I'm a married woman. 2) IdowhatIwant  - and I promise that it's not all about vibrators. They have tons of other stuff, in fact, the shaving cream they sell is fantastic and I know several girls who use it and purely came to the party to stock up on more. But obviously, they have other things too like creams, oils, toys and lingerie. You know, the kind of stuff you'd take, oh, I don't know, ON A HONEYMOON WITH YOUR NEW HUSBAND?!

Anyway, we expected about twenty girls at the party, but each person invited told a friend, and then they each brought a friend. At last count, there were a total of forty-two ladies in my friends little townhouse.

(I'm lame. Here's a blackberry photo.)

I was told it was like a clown car, the doorbell kept ringing and there was no more room to fit people. It was a great turnout and I was pleasantly surprised. With that many women, it got loud very quickly and the wine started flowing. I think we went through 12 bottles of vino and a pitcher of margaritas. Waking up with a headache though, was my little reminder to why I don't drink much.

My cousin Nicole is a rockstar for driving all the way from Pennsylvania to be our consultant for the party and my old roommates are awesomesauce for holding it at their house. At the end of the night, I would say about half of those who attended ordered something and my sister and Michelle each got $35 off their orders for joint hosting.

All in a days work I guess. We're just spreading love throughout the lands.
Literally.




  Shameless plug: If I've struck up your interest in Slumber Parties, 
email my cousin, she can hook you up son:

partylikenicole {at} yahoo {dot com}

Fun Fridays with my Family!

To join in on the fun, head on over to Jen's blog and link up to Fun Fridays!

This evening my cousins Kristin and Nicole, from Philadelphia, will be driving down to spend the weekend with me and my sister!

 At my sister's wedding two years ago.

These girls have been there for me through thick and thin. The four of us are only a couple years apart in age and have gotten so close. When we were little, we would spend weeks at my grandmothers house and stay in the pool all day long, getting out only long enough to eat lunch. 

Man, those were some of the best summers ever.

As we got older,  it was only a matter of time before we were in each others weddings. In the past four years, I was in each of theirs and then this year, they were bridesmaids in mine.



Can I just tell you how much fun it is to be in a wedding once a year with the same girls? It's like a family reunion only it's in a dance club. With cake and booze. And pretty dresses. Some of the craziest fun times were had. *Sigh* Can I get married again now? Or just wear my dress again?

I'm so excited they are coming into town, I haven't seen them since May!

Family + friends + wine = naked in the hot tub fun times.

 

We know how to throw down.

What's in store for your weekend? Happy Friday my friends!

Night Shift Sucks (Another Post About My Dog)

Last week, Kevin had to work night shift and I'm here to inform you that it really, really sucks.  Having the house to myself basically means that Bodie is my only protection against crazed psycho blog stalking maniacs - a.k.a my mom.
(Just kidding mom, LOVE YOU) 

But I may as well have had a cat protecting me from intruders.

TERRIFYING GUARD CAT DOG

The whiskers kind of make him look more like a French guy than a cat.

Also, it's not a good idea to watch episodes of Private Practice right before you go to bed. Did anyone else catch Thursday's show? Poor Charlotte got attacked in her own office and the whole time I was curled up beneath my sheets with Bodie shoved under my armpit. See, you have to stay under your blanket in situations like this because your comforter is your magic shield. It will protect you from evil and is also like an invisibility cloak. It worked for me as a kid and I believe that the powers are still there in my time of need. Also, nightlights will emit a beam of monster killing lasers. Normal guns and stuff don't do that.

Another side effect of working opposite shifts as your spouse is that you go crazy out of boredom. I played hide and seek with my dog and turns out, he's really really good. During last nights Glee, {which was amazing and fantastical} I would chuck the ball down the hallway and duck behind one of the bedroom doors. Hey, don't judge me, it was entertaining and I like to think that we burned off some of the Halloween candy I'm still eating. We have tons left and I don't want it to go bad.

Except I don't like Three Musketeers, anyone up for trades? I like Snickers. 

And apparently when I'm super bored, I have writers block so you get posts about my dog.

 Hide and Seek Champion

Bestest Friends Forever

Another great weekend is under my belt you guys. Sorry I've been away for a few days, it's been nutty around here! Since I was gone for the weekend and work was crazy today, I feel like I haven't had a chance to catch up!

After sleeping in a bit on Friday, Kevin got up to go hunting and Bodie and I hit the road. It normally takes me about three hours to get to Katie's house, but apparently my "avoid ghetto" option wasn't working on my TomTom. I ended up missing my exit and found myself on a pretty bad street in Richmond. I kept my sunglasses on and tried to ignore the deal going down on the corner. Luckily, we only lost half an hour driving time and arrived safe and sound.

 

Bodie was super excited he got to tag along so that he could visit his best friend, Lady:

 

Okay, they don't look super excited here but that's because I just took away the stuffed tiger they were fighting over.

Friday night was Dane Cook Live, one of the main reasons I went. Okay, well...that and I had to deliver some Martin's potato chips. They don't sell them where Katie lives so I had to bring her some since they are her fave. Now, I know not everyone is a fan, but Dane Cook {and the three opening acts} put on a great show.

Katie, me and her roommate Charlie, on our way!

 Cheesin' it for the camera. She's sooooo excited.

While we waited in line for the doors to open {which was almost an hour!} 

this guy was drumming on buckets. 
It was highly entertaining and a toe tappin' good time.

 Smiling through chattering teeth.

Once we were finally inside, we grabbed a couple beers and found our seats. 

{Ahem, fourth row, cough cough}

 
Goofballs.
  

 One of the opening acts, well, of what we could see.

I wanted to scream TURN AROUND!

The comedians who opened for DC were really good but my face started to hurt from laughing so much! I had to try and stop myself from smiling so I could save some LOL's for the main attraction:

 

 
At the end, all the comedians came out and did a couple hilarious songs.

That last picture was supposed to show you how close we are with no zoom but I'm afraid you got a better view of old guy's bald spot. Meh.

The three best friends that anyone's ever had

 

After the show, we hit up T.G.I. Fridays for some drinkys.
Yes, those are fried green beans and yes, they are delicious.

Saturday we didn't do much of anything. We watched the first season of The Office on DVD and then a few episodes of Friends. Remind me never to play Friends Trivia with Katie's roommate Charlie, this kid knows absolutely everything. It makes me want to vomit. He would quote the lines before the actors would say them {yeah, palm to face} but ya gotta love him.

Before I knew it, it was Sunday and time for me to go home.

I wish Katie lived closer so we could spend more time together.

 

 See what I had to leave? How precious are those puppy cuddles?

Don't let 'em fool you though, they are all only this sweet when they're sleeping.

Bodie continued the sleeping trend into Monday because he was so pooped from playing with Lady all weekend.

Evidence?

He hardly ever sleeps in his crate.