Happy Mother's Day

I'm a little late on this post, but wanted to make sure I wrote a special message to my mom.
My sweet hubby got me a mother's day card and flowers from our Ollie for mother's day so I was able to have a special mother's day.

I wasn't able to be with my mom, but wanted to let her know just how special she is and how much she means to me.

This is why I have the best mother in the entire world. I truly wouldn't be the person I am today without her. If I can one day be half the mother my mom is then I'm going to be an excellent mom.

I really wanted to make a list of why my mom is such a great mother. My mom is a great person inside and out but sometimes it takes an extra step to be a great mother. You can't always be the "friend" and most of the time the things you do as a mom seem so unfair to a child. My mom wasn't my friend as a child, she wasn't my friend as a teenager. She was my MOM! She was the voice of reason and "totally uncool" when I needed it and because of that my sister and I are who we are today!


My mom is:
Loving
Giving
Selfless
Would do anything for her children but knows when to let go and let us figure it out on our own
Taught us to be so independent.
Taught us to love and respect ourselves
How to balance a budget and use a credit card correctly and responsibly
She had us understand the value of money at such a young age. My mom had us set up checking and savings accts with our babysitting money when we were in middle school and taught us how to write checks.
Love your neighbors/ Be a good citizen
Always offer water/food/drinks to utility workers when they work on your house
Cook: OMG, my mom is the best cook ever and she taught both my sister and I how to cook and I think in general just passed on the natural ability
She protected us
She provided for us
She figured out how to make things work even when we may not have had the money for it
She taught us to Love God and Trust in God
Give beyond yourself
She set rules we didn't like but had to follow
She always expected and pushed for great things because she knew we could do it.
She let us mess up the house with crafts and projects as kids
She made sure we always visited our grandparents when we were home from college. Sometimes we were in a rush but she always made us do it and I couldn't be more thankful now since we lost them so  much earlier than i would have expected.
She always made us feel special. ALWAYS!!!
And the list could go on and on and on

As a child and teenage, I know I didn't appreciate these things. As an adult, I can't thank my mom enough for being the most amazing mother anyone could ask for.

Now she is my mother and my friend.

Mom, I love you so much! Thanks for being you!

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful Husband!

Well, I'm not officially back although I do have LOADS to share eventually.

I did want to post about today. Today is our anniversary! It has been an interesting year that has really tested our marriage. It's been a year of great happiness followed with great sadness. It's been a year of trying to move forward but not being able to get over the past. It's been a year of unconditional love and support. I sometimes wonder how in this big world we found each other. How I was able to find the perfect match. How I found a man that makes me want to be a better person and excepts ALL "my personalities" but has never asked me to change. A man that would do anything for his family and his fellow neighbor. A man that works his butt off to provide for his family. A man that enjoys the simple things in life. A man who tells me I'm the best cook! A man who appreciates all the things that I do for our family. A man who makes me feel special and loved every day. A man that I can have a huge fight with but in the end only draws us closer. Every day is NOT Roses and Sunshine in our house and some days are VERY tough, but each day our marriage grows stronger and that's all I can ask and pray for in our lives.

Happy Anniversary to My Husband:
My steady rock when I need support
My protector when I'm scared
My strength when I'm just too weak
My light when the tunnel is so dark
My positive when I'm negative
My Prayer warrior when I can't pray for myself
My provider
My listener
My Friend
My Love

Happy Anniversary Jordan! I love you more and more each day. I'm very blessed to have you in my life and look forward to MANY MANY MANY more years. I'm know there will never be a dull moment in our lives. :)

More Thanksgiving

Saturday morning my parents went ahead and got on the road. I HATED to see them leave, but I would have done the same thing. The Sunday after Thanksgiving traffic is HORRIBLE on 65, so they were able to get home with no real problems.



I actually cried when they left this year. The older I get the more and more I hate being so far away from them.



Jordan's family all stayed until Sunday, so it was nice to have them here. Saturday was pretty much a lazy/eat all the leftovers day. I never really left the couch all day. It was so nice to have one of those days.

Thanksgiving continued

Thursday: Maggie (Jordan's sister) flew in around 2:00.
Jordan's mom and my mom did ALL  the cooking for our Thanksgiving dinner. I usually spend most of the time just cleaning up after these ladies. :)
We had such an amazing spread of food and wine. We spent the whole afternoon hanging out and watching football.

Friday: Dad and I went for a nice long walk at the Richland Greenway. This Greenway is so great because it's so peaceful with the woods/streams/and beautiful golf course.






Friday night my parents and I cooked a Gulf Seafood Feast!! It was awesome!! They brought up fresh oysters from Mobile and gulf shrimp. We had a wonderful Shrimp boil: Shrimp/corn/potatoes/and sausage. Mom and Dad then fried up the oysters and red fish. It was all so good and makes me miss Mobile so much sometimes.

Thanksgiving

I absolutely LOVE Thanksgiving because ALL our family comes to Nashville! It's such an awesome week of  food/cocktails/spending loads of time together. Every year it gets harder and harder to say bye when it's all over. Jordan and I are SOOOOOOOOOOO EXTREMELY BLESSED for all the things we have and for our amazing family.
This year was a little sad because my Cindy Lou wasn't here.
My parents arrived on Tuesday, so we got to spend a little time just me, Jordan, mom and dad.
Jordan's mom, dad, stepmom, stepdad all arrived Wednesday. We had dove poppers and deer burgers for dinner. Mom and I slaved over the dove poppers and they turned out great.



Recipe:
Cut the breast off the dove and marinate in Dales for at least 30 minutes

Wrap the breast around cream cheese and jalapeno peppers

Wrap in bacon
Grill until the bacon is cooked.

YOU MUST WATCH THESE LIKE A HAWK. The bacon grease will catch the grill on fire in a heartbeat.

MIA

Sorry I've been completely MIA for the last couple of weeks.
I have been crazy busy trying to get all our Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving, so I could give all the presents to our family when they were here.
So here is a recap of what has been going on:

Ollie and I had a great Halloween handing out candy. Ollie wasn't "trilled" with his costume that aunt Cindy sent him. Jordan was out of town, so I tried to capture the moments for him. Ollie LOVED the kids. I mean absolutely LOVED THE KIDS.

Ollie's Halloween bandanna 

Waiting on the kids

Still waiting...........

Love this little guy

Thanks Aunt Cindy!

Taco Soup Recipe

Now that the weather is getting a little colder, I LOVE making stuff in my crock pot especially taco soup. I think taco coup better than chili, so I'm always making it.


Here is my recipe:
Line crock pot with crock pot bag!! (Have y'all figured out how much I love crock pot bags)
Cook 2 pounds of meat ( I use deer meat but you can use turkey burger/hamburger with 2 packages of taco seasoning. I use 1 1/2 packets on the actual meat and then pour the other 1/2 packet in the crock pot
Saute 1 onion, 1 green bell pepper, 1 orange or red or yellow pepper in olive oil
In crock pot combine:
Meat
Onion mix (you don't have to have the bell peppers)
Rest of the taco seasoning packet
2 packages of ranch dressing packets (I would only use 1 and then 1/2 of the next package)
1 can of black beans, red beans, kidney beans, pinto beans (drained and rinses)
1 can of corn
1 can of stewed tomatoes (mexican style)
1 can of rotel tomatoes with green chilis

Let cook AT LEAST 4 hours on high. You want everything to mix and cook together really well. I suggest the longer the better it taste. After about 4 hours on high, let it sit warming.

Top with cheese, fritos, sour cream or plain greek yogurt.

It freezes well and last all week for leftovers.