April Celebrations

Hey y'all! I'm here to give you a quick round up of what I've been up to during to the month of April. First off, my precious little sister celebrated her 21st birthday this month! She celebrated all weekend long LOL My mom had her a little get together at our house. I decided to be sneaky and tell Kelly I couldn't come. Her birthday fell on Easter weekend, and I had to work on Easter Sunday. Friday night was her party, and I told her I just had so much to do that I couldn't come home. Mom was in on it as well, and she did some very good convincing. Mom made a delicious meal and had some of our family friends over. Of course, no visit home is complete without seeing our precious baby Bo. I'm so glad he, Taylor, and Erick were able to come help us celebrate! 

Here is a video that mom got of me surprising Kelly. I was so happy to be able to celebrate with her!

The birthday girl with her Easter basket.

Trying to get Bo to open his basket.. it didn't work LOL

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My dear friend Ashton hosted the CUTEST Easter egg decorating party at her house. She had the most beautiful decorations set up, and all of the food was delicious. She also provided an array of decorating materials. We had everything from puffy paint to rhinestones to decorate our eggs. It was so much fun! I wish I would've gotten a picture of all the girls that evening.. I must've been too busy gluing rhinestones onto eggs!

On our way to Ray and Ashton's

I mean how cute is this table?! Y'all know I love a good tablescape! 

Even the table set up for egg decorating was beautiful! 

Here are some of the eggs we made:

I had just smeared the lipstick on this poor egg right before the picture..

I made this one for Tyler!

I absolutely loved this party, and I hope she does it again next year! Thanks for having us Ashton!!

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Ashton and I also recently celebrated Founder's Day at our beloved sorority, Alpha Xi Delta. Of course, I had initially planned on not going since I was working that day, but I decided to go last minute. Hence why I am in lime green while the rest of the chapter is in royal blue LOL (see pictures below). I absolutely loved my time at Marshall living in the Alpha Xi house. Those are some of my best memories. It is so special to see Kelly having the time of her life there as well (even if she may not realize it yet). I know college is a stressful time trying to balance your academic and social life with the added pressure of figuring out what to do with the next chapter of your life, but these girls seem to make it work. I am very proud to be apart of this amazing organization. I served as Academic Achievement Chair while in sorority, but I sort of lost touch with everyone during pharmacy school. Once I moved back to the area from Lexington, I knew I wanted to be more involved. I am so thrilled that I decided to join the Housing Board for Alpha Xi and undertake the task of renovating the house. I am so excited to give the house a fresh look over the summer and surprise the girls with the updates when they return in the fall. I encourage all Gamma Beta Alpha Xi's to come check out the house and to participate in the alumni events the girls hold for us. It was a lovely evening!

My real life sister and sorority sister! Love this little thing to the moon and back. I'm so very proud of the young woman she has become!

Until next time.. Take care y'all! 

Happy Birthday Tyler!

Hey y'all! We recently celebrated Tyler's 31st birthday with a weekend trip to Lexington and dinner with friends. On Friday, I met Tyler, his mom, and Kip in Lexington since Tyler had worked there that week. We went to a couple of our favorite restaurants in town, Carino's and Malone's, and of course, Rhonda and I did some shopping. We stopped by Peppermint Palm to check out some of the newest Lilly arrivals, and they had so many pretty things! We enjoyed our time in Lexington visiting with Rhonda and Kip! 

My favorites from the newest Lilly collection

On Tyler's actual birthday, we went out to dinner with my parents and some of our friends. He knew we were meeting my parents, but he had no clue I had invited other people to the dinner. We had a great time catching up with everyone! I think he was surprised when he saw everyone that came out to celebrate with him. I didn't get pictures of him opening his gifts at dinner, but he got several great gifts! My parents got him a robe from the Greenbrier that he has been eyeing for awhile now, and I got him a round of golf at Harbour Town golf course. I can't lie y'all, I'll probably enjoy this gift just as much as he will LOL I love riding in the cart while Ty golfs! He also got gift cards and other gifts from my family and our friends. To top it all off, when we got home, he watched his college school, NKU, win a huge basketball game, which will allow them to play in the NCAA tournament (I think.. LOL it does sound like I know what I'm talking about though, doesn't it?!) I think it is safe to say he had a great birthday! 

Since we spring forward this weekend, I got the itch to decorate for Easter. One day I will have a huge dining room table decorated with blue and white dishes and beautiful blooms in shades of pink and yellow. Until then, I will spruce up my breakfast table. I try to keep that table simple because if I put too many decorations on it, we won't eat at the table. I like to find ways to re-use things I already have, so I headed to Home Goods for a few finishing touches. I walked around the store several times thinking it was a wasted trip until these champagne colored glitter easter eggs caught my eye. I already have chargers in the same color as well as matching napkin rings, so I knew they would be perfect! I picked up some cream colored napkins that have a silver glitter stitching, and the look really started to come together. I also found marble coasters which look great on the table. The tabletop is real marble, so we have to be careful with it. I usually put chargers and coasters out when we eat to protect it. I really like how the finished product looks! 

I have to admit we get some beautiful views up here on the mountain. I am so excited for longer, sunnier days!

I asked Tyler if he noticed our new decorations, and he said, "Oh you mean those glitter balls?" Glitter EASTER EGGS, Tyler........... EGGS not BALLS! LOL 

I took this picture while I was photographing my table. Scruffy girl wanted to help her mom set up for Easter. She is so precious! 

Until next time.. Take care y'all! 

Meal Prep for the New Year

Hey y'all! I know that the start of the new year means many people are going to try to become better versions of themselves. Now that could mean many things to different people. For example, a "better" you may mean getting healthier, becoming more active, cultivating relationships with God/family/friends, etc. I have many things I would like to accomplish this year to better myself, and eating healthier is one of them. I have lost count on how many posts I have done where I have said I want to eat better. My version of healthy may not be your version. I consider not eating Taco Bell every other day living a healthy lifestyle LOL I want to plan my meals to prevent me from having the urge to eat fast food. I knew I really needed to make a change when I had tortilla chips and gummy worms for dinner at work last week.

I headed to Pinterest to get some inspiration. Here is a link to my Pinterest, and here is a link to a blog I found that is EVERYTHING, y'all. This lady is amazing. She gives detailed instructions on how to prepare everything (little to no pre-cooking is involved), and she also provides you with a grocery list! I don't really like leftovers for longer than a couple of days, so meal prepping for the week is hard for me. Also, I get tired of having the same thing over and over again. By freezing the meals, you get the convenience of meal prepping without the leftover taste.

I got home from work today and decided to bite the bullet and prepare the meals. I honestly had everything finished in less than an hour. The meals I prepped were chicken fajitas (2 freezer bags), spicy BBQ pulled pork (2 freezer bags), and crock pot chicken pot pie (1 freezer bag). The thought behind these meals is that you will have the main dish of the meal ready to go when you get home by cooking it in the crock pot. Then you can add any sides/extras to the meal when you're ready to eat. For example, with the chicken fajitas that I froze, I can make regular fajitas in tortillas with a side of refried beans. With the second bag I made I could do a burrito bowl with the chicken and peppers and add in Mexican cheese and rice.

Just some pointers for the whole process:
1) Get out everything you will need for each meal
2) Work on one meal at a time
3) Use ziplock freezer bags not just regular ziplock bags
4) Make sure you squeeze out as much air as possible before freezing
5) Thaw overnight in the fridge before putting food in the crockpot
6) Each freezer bag will last in the freezer for about 3 months
7) Date the freezer bags with a "use by" date

How cute are these measuring spoons?! I placed the spices next to the teaspoon amount that you will use in each recipe in the following pictures. 

Crock Pot Chicken Pot Pie - This recipe calls for you to add frozen tater tots at the end.. yum! 

1/2 tsp of black pepper, salt, and celery seed

  1/4 tsp of poultry seasoning 

For this recipe, I had to make a sauce. This is the only recipe that required pre-cooking. Here is the finished product.

All of this made two freezer bags of chicken fajitas. I just cut up the chicken and peppers, sprinkled everything with juice from a lime, and added the spices. 

1 tbsp of honey and 1 tbsp of chili powder

2 tsp of ground cumin and 1 tsp paprika 

Chicken fajitas ready to go in the freezer.

Spicy Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork - For this recipe, you combine all of the ingredients then freeze. When you are ready to cook, add the contents of the freezer bag to a crock pot and a can of Dr. Pepper.

2 tbsp of brown sugar

1/2 tsp of salt

1/4 tsp of pepper

Pulled pork ready to go in the freezer.

As you can see, the recipes are very simple and straight forward. It is not complicated at all, and most of the ingredients I had on hand already. In less than an hour, I prepared five make ahead meals. I can't wait to make one and give y'all an update on if it is good or not. I don't plan on doing any more of the freezer meals until I test these out to make sure I like it. Let me know if any of you try these out! Again, these recipes are not mine. For the full recipe and grocery shopping list, click the link I listed above.

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For NYE, Tyler and I went to our friends' house. We loved getting to ring in the new year with some of our favorite people! I got to visit with my sorority sisters, friends from undergrad, Ashton's friends from law school that I came to love, and new friends from Charleston. We had a great time together! Evidently I was so consumed with hanging out with everyone that I didn't take a single picture the whole night. Okay, there is one picture on my phone from NYE that won't be making it on the blog. Tyler and I tried to take a selfie, and Lawdy was it bad! LOL Half of my face is cut out, and it is so blurry. Instead, I'll just end the blog with a picture that I stole from my friend Bree. Until next time.. Take care y'all!