It's Fall, y'all!

It's officially fall and I think our triple digit temps are over for the year (fingers crossed). So, I've got some fall wreaths and other decor out. Oh, apparently remote control monster trucks are included in fall decor:

Wedded bliss

As I write this post, we are driving towards the Georgia/Alabama state line headed back to Texas. Last night was my brothers wedding. It was beautiful and all the bridesmaids dresses looked perfect together! The wedding was in lake Lanier just north of Atlanta. The entire wedding party and guests took a boat over to a small island for the ceremony and dinner. Then we all boarded back on the boat for dancing and cake and drinks! My boys tore up the dance floor. Here are just a few of the pics I managed to get for now. More will definitely be coming.

I'm sorry, but do we know each other??

The other day my husband went to help my elderly neighbor move a chair in her living room. She bought a new one apparently and needed to move an old one. He made quick work and was back in 5 minutes... Pulling a recliner set precariously on top of our kids' wagon. I thought it was for the trash, but he walked right by the trash and went straight into our garage and set it down. Whaaat?? I asked him what he was doing with a blue recliner?? He said he was going to put it on the screen porch! Whaaat?? The screen porch?!? Seriously!! I know!! Can you believe it??! Me neither!!
I quickly told him NO and MAYBE he could put it up in the game room. Maybe. He responded that he wasn't hauling it up the stairs. Blah blah hideous blah. Long story short, I am about to list it on Craigslist.

I am just flabbergasted by this whole sequence of events. It's like he doesn't even know me. And I made sure when we were dating that there was full disclosure regarding my feelings towards recliners in my house.

Oh, and a side note: I asked what kind of chair the neighbor replaced it with and he said, verbatim, "some uncomfortable flowery chair."

Seriously, I almost asked him if we had ever met before.

The chair (shudder) in all it's glory:

Bathroom chandelier

One of the items on my list for redecorating my house was installing a new light over my tub. Since the month after we finished construction on our house, I have wanted to replace the lame can light over the tub. I kicked myself for not doing this while we were actually building the house, but it's hard to get every single thing right or perfect even when we built it ourselves and picked everything out. It gets a little overwhelming. Plus, most towns have a code that doesnt allow for light fixtures to be a below a certain height from the bath tub so as to prevent electrocution. Probably a good thing. I think my new light fixture is code worthy bc it's close to the ceiling and our ceilings are tall.

I found this chandelier on amazon and loved it. Bought it and my husband opened the box to install it and of course it came in 100 pieces. Literally
So he had one of his employees come over and put it together who did it much faster than we ever could.

Forgive the lighting in the second pic. Once again, I am blogging from my phone bc I'm too lazy to take pics with my nice camera and then upload them
On my computer.

Italian chicken recipe

I made the Italian chicken dish last night and it was delish! I recommend it for it's tastiness and simplicity in preparation.

Recipe:

-4-8 boneless chicken breast (depending on how many you are feeding. It really is this flexible)
- one can artichoke hearts chopped
- 5 large diced Roma tomatoes
- 3 cloves minced garlic
- fresh basil
- mozzarella (I used fresh mozzarella and used about one cup, although the bagged kind would be just as good)
- 1 tsp sugar
- 2 T flour
-extra virgin olive oil
- salt and pepper

Mix artichokes, tomatoes, garlic, sugar and flour in a bowl. Season generously with salt and pepper. Pour into a greased 9x13 baking dish

Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper and arrange over artichoke mixture

Bake at 350 30-40 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle/ cover with mozzarella cheese and bake 5-10 minutes until brown and bubbly. I actually turned on the low broiler to get it brown since I used fresh mozzarella.

Remove from oven and sprinkle sliced fresh basil over dish.

I served this over whole wheat spaghetti and thought it was SO good. Can't wait to eat the leftovers tonight!

Italian chicken

Pinterest. Gotta love pinterest for the recipes alone. I think I've added at least 6 new regular meals/ desserts to my repertoire thanks to pinterest.

Tonight, I'm making this Italian Chicken dish. It's a one dish meal with Roma tomatoes, artichoke hearts, chicken and mozzarella sprinkled with fresh basil. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. I will update you on how it turns out and post the recipe of its worthy!

My first 5k

In somewhat related news to the previous post about my hunt for a bridesmaids dress, I have signed up for my very first 5K. I gave myself one month to train. I'm in week two of training and have run 3 to 4 miles two to three times per week. I am determined to not look like I need to go to the emergency room when the real 5K is over. I'm pretty proud of myself for the distances I have run so far, but have avoided posting the runs on Facebook because I loathe when my friends perkily post things like "just finished up a 10 mile run today uphill against the wind in 95 percent humidity!". Blech. Besides, my posts would be more along the lines of "just finished up a 4 mile run inside on the treadmill in the air conditioning with the fan blowing directly on me." As my husband likes to point out, my body was not made to be a distance runner. Long, lithe legs I have not. But I played sports all throughout my school years and ran lots then. I may not be the fastest or that freak woman who runs a marathon after giving birth two weeks before, but I think I'm doing pretty good with a 5K five months after my third baby. Plus, helps me look better in my Forever 21 bridesmaids dress.

So far:
- I remember how much I like the way running makes me feel afterwards.
-I enjoy rocking out to ridiculously peppy music on my iPod when running
-It feels good to just sweat like crazy (weird, I know).
-I find it weird that 4 miles one day can be so easy and two days later it can feel like I am running through mud with lead feet.
-I am thinking I might want to do a 5K every month or every other month. It's been a great motivator for me. There's no way I'd be running like this now if I didn't have a 5K coming up.

Go me!

Staying put

It's official! We've been in our current house for 2 years and 4 months. That's the longest we've ever lived in one place or house we've owned! And what's even more unbelievable is that we have no plans to move! We still talk about moving but old habits die hard. Since we are not remodeling or building a new house, I have an itch to scratch so I am redecorating a bit. Getting some new furniture for the front living room (which I'll blog about in another post). For now, I'm enjoying staying put!

Forever 21?

My brother is getting married in two weeks. It's a huge deal because he's 7 years older than me, never been married and we thought he never would. But, turns out his future bride was so much younger than him that he had to wait this long. She's ten years younger. (unrelated side note: there are lots of spelling etc errors in my posts lately that drive me crazy bc I am typing on my iPad or iPhone. But, I'm blogging, so I can deal with it and I hope you can too!).

Anyway, back to the wedding of the decade. I'm a bridesmaid. She told us to get blushy/pink/beigy dresses. (insert head smack). I get where she's going because I've seen her pinterest posts, but it's been ridiculous to coordinate with the other ladies, whom I do not even know. Oh, and I have to wear said dress five months after giving birth to my third child. Spanx, anyone? Wonder if doubling up on the spanx would make me twice as skinny...

So, in search of this mythical dress color, I have bought no less than 6 dresses. I've returned all but two. The latest one I found at Forever 21. Which, is really subject of this post. I've never been inside forever 21. Mainly because I thought it was for teenagery girls and clearly, I, dragging two of my kids into the store, do not fall into that category. But, I saw this dress that seemed the perfect color in the window. So I dared to venture into Forever 21. I'm not gonna lie, I half expected the sales lady to stop me, say "sorry ma'am, but can I see your ID? We only let people 24 or below shop here. And that's even pushing it.". But, surprisingly, I was left unaccosted. I grabbed the dress and headed for the nearest dressing room. Turns out, the only dressing room was up a short flight of stairs...with no ramp..for my double stroller that obviously screams "I am not 21". But wait! There was a fancy wheelchair lift beside the stairs! I load my kids in and pressed the button. Nothing happened. I'll spare the details, but five mintues later (no joke) I ended up grabbing my un-21 like double stroller and hauling it up the 6 steps like the hulk with my two year old behind me. Success! Finally, I tried it on. Perfect fit, perfect color! And cheap too! But it was see-through chiffon. Dang. I needed a slip. So, at the register, I asked the sales girl if they sold slips. You would have thought that I asked her if she sold dentures there. Sigh. I paid, then took my very non-21 year old butt to Dillards and bought a slip in what was pretty likely the old lady under garment section.

I will post pics of the dress, if I decide on that one, after the wedding. With all that effort, it will likely be the one!

Stained concrete floors

It's been a while, but I didn't blog over the summer so I'm playing catchup on certain home improvements we've been doing. Yes, we've been home improving our 2 yr old house that we custom built. Why? Because its 2 years old and usually by this time we are either remodeling another house or have moved into another house. Ive got the itch... And we really like where we are and our house, but I need I scratch that itch.

So, one of the projects was our porch floors. I was choosing between slate tile or staining the concrete. Obviously, staining is much more economical because I don't have to buy tile. Plus, if I didn't like it, we could always tile over the stained floor. Turns out, I really like the stain. And it was super easy. We did both the screen porch an the front porch. Here's pics of the screen porch. It jus gives the room that finished look.

Well, that was easy

Aaaaaannnnndd Sloan is officialy potty trained. He pretty much trained himself. I AM that good of a mother. Haha :) seriously though, he pretty much took to his own devices and trained himself. I was not good at all about asking him if he had to potty every 30 minutes like I was with Jackson. Sloan would be in the middle of something, get that sensation and tell me he had to go. AWESOME!! I'm sure we will have a few mishaps from here on out, but geez, I can't believe he did it!

Potty training. Ugh.

Sloan has decided that he needs to be potty trained. I'm not ready. The one thing I hate about parenthood is potty training. I'd rather leave it up I peer pressure when they go to school... I know, I know, bad mommy.

I did the "potty training in a day" with my first. That is easy to do when you only have one child. You can stay home all day and put him on the potty every 30 minutes. This just doesn't happen when there's 3 kids running around.

It all started with toy story underwear he found at target. He loved them so I figured sure, why not? He's been great in the morning and then after nap he would tell me he had to go after the fact. That was the first week. I haven't been pushing it at all. I'm not interested. (who's the child here??). But, Sloan is nothing if not persistent. So, we keep at it. Of course, he always has to go just when I sit down I nurse Abby. I've gotten good at ripping off pants and a diaper with one hand while holding my nursing baby in the other. I'm sure glad no one else lives with us to see this spectacle.

Anyway, the last two days he's been great. I think it's just becoming aware that he has to go and telling me before he goes. He's a smart kiddo who is VERY verbal, so that's not a problem. The only regret I have is that we are leaving on a road trip to Georgia in three weeks. Road trip and potty training do not mix. Sigh. We are in too deep to stop now.

On the plus side, no more poopy diapers from him. Poopy diapers from bigger kids are just plain awful. As Sloan has discovered in the pic below. Now he knows what we've been dealing with!