P.F Who ???

I did it.
After combining a few "copycat" recipes I made what my family feels is the best substitute recipe for PF Chang's lettuce wraps.
Even the "picky" eaters (my nephew, IV) and the constant complainer (my brother, III) enjoyed this dish!
Nothing but full bellies, empty dishes and compliments to the cook....my kind of recipe!

Wine and Chocolates

Tonight, Laura and I went to Chapel Hill to A Southern Season for a Chocolate and Wine pairing class. We had THE BEST time--the chocolates were rich and yummy and the wine was delish-- so much that after class, we spent plenty time shopping in the wine shop and totally forgot to even visit the chocolate shop! And Laura is even a professional chocolatier!!
After the wine and chocolate tasting, we went over to 411 West for drinks and apps. Laura--aka chief hoochie-- saw a friend of her sister's and got us free apps and dessert. Win!

People of Walmart

You know how I have an immature sense of humor?
Well this site cracked me up. Yeah, I know....shame on me. But c'mon. You know it's funny!
My new goal is to get my local Wal-Mart on this site!

Third Grade!

Sunday evening, Spencer got out a calendar and proved to me that technically it was still summer and therefore school should NOT be starting back yet -- yeah, nice try little man.

But today, he was all excited to go back to school. He couldn't wait to see all his friends and....go to PE.

I let him pick out his own clothes-- and he chose his favorite Mario Bros T-shirt. Combined with his new super cool GI Joe lunch box-- he was loving it!

End Of Summer Beach Trip

click on any collage to enlarge photos

The boys start back school on Tuesday, so as one last hurrah to the summer we went to Myrtle Beach for a long weekend.

We spent each morning-afternoon on the beach-- the weather was FANTASTIC!
Jimmy found a big starfish and then later on we found a little crab and a dead puffer fish. The starfish was by far the biggest hit with the boys!




Spencer and I spent an evening touring the aquarium. He LOVED LOVED LOVED it. I complained about the $30 admission but he really enjoyed himself...so I guess it was okay.



Even though we relaxed all 4 days, and didn't really over plan or try to squish too much into the long weekend-- we had PLENTY of things for the boys to experience: miniature golf at Dragon's Lair, rides, rock climbing, trampoline jumping, fresh seafood, shopping, frozen custard, and lots and lots of goofing off!


and don't fall for that bloody finger/pain picture in the collage. Spencer LOVES the joke/prank shop at the beach and buys a new joke each time. This time he bought the old pin through the bloody finger gag....where does he get this warped sense of humor??

And what is a family vacation without our traditional "butt ugly family" pictures? Gotta love goofy pictures for the scrapbook!

Party at Lydia's!

Last weekend, Mom and I drove up to Virginia to visit with family.
We spent a good deal of time shopping, but the bulk of Saturday was dedicated to celebrating with family at Lydia's (my cousin) house.

Victoria was celebrating her 18th birthday:



Lydia was celebrating her 31st birthday: (Check out that dainty candle blow!)



and Tina Marie was celebrating her 50th birthday! She embraced 50 without dragging the hell out of 49....



Everyone had a a great time and it was nice to see family--outside of weddings and funerals!

Egg-stremely bad smell!

Last year Spencer got in trouble for egging our house.
I asked him to take some outdated eggs to the compost bin and for some "made sense in his 8 year old mind" he thought it would be fun to throw the eggs against the side of our house.....sigh.....

Two weeks ago (before we left for Alaska) I cleaned out the fridge and had Spencer take the food to the compost-- or so I thought.
With the 90+ degree weather, I kept saying, "it really stinks at the front porch!" Poor Bowser got the blame.

Upon pulling up some vines, I found that instead of composting the eggs, my son had decided to hide them like Easter Eggs. They rotted and deteriorated. Oh so gross!

Bless his heart. I think the little punk is trying to get out of doing chores.

More pics

I have 26 over-priced pictures I purchased from the cruise to somehow squeeze into my scrapbook as well. The cute ones of Spencer I will probably frame and hang-- I wanted to scan them in to put them here on the blog as well...but the stupid scanner broke...but here are a few to share: