I'll Have S'more

I love s'mores. Like, luuurrrve s'mores. I'm obsessed with this simple desert. I don't remember the first time I ever had one... probably because I blacked out after one bite from its sheer goodness, but I've loved these little creatures from heaven for a long time. I once convinced my best friend to roast marshmallows over a cranberry-scented candle. My dad wasn't impressed when I told him about my make-shift campfire and informed me that it could be really toxic, so that ended my error of indoor marshmallow roasting.

I just want to lay a couple of things out there:
1. If you invite me to your home & you have a fire going outside, I expect to make s'mores.
2. If you don't have the ingredients to make s'mores, I will leave your house to buy them.

The other day I was sitting in my living room watching TV when it hit me... I HAD to have a s'more. Luckily, I keep a stocked supply of s'more ingredients, so I was good to go. But how to roast the marshmallows? I knew Ryan wouldn't help me gather sticks to make a fire on a 90 degree Sunday afternoon, plus I had already exhausted that favor the last time I got a craving, so I had to get creative. Luckily,[once again] I found a box of matches and headed to my back deck to whip up a little magic.

Here was the setup - notice the glass was sweating from the heat.

Got my box of matches! It took me about 10 matches to completely roast the marshmallows. Yes, I roasted marshmallows on a fork.

Tip of the day - use 2 marshmallows on each s'more. It'll rock your world.

If you get a craving, come by my house. Chances are I'll be making s'mores, even in the dead of Summer.

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

Last Tuesday marked a huge milestone for us - Ryan's ribbon cutting ceremony. This day officially exposed us to the community and lots of people from State Farm and the town of Lexington came by to offer their congratulations. Even our parents took off work to make sure they were here to support us - they are truly the best!! Here are some pictures from the day.

And this flattering shot to make you laugh...

Our WONDERFUL parents!



Congrats, my love. You're going to be the best State Farm agent this word has ever seen!

Dog Days

Our dogs have been getting a little antsy lately. I can't blame them. We haven't been home much and certainly haven't been able to let them out of their fence nearly as much as we need to. I got a call Thursday while I was at work and a sweet lady said, "Ma'am, I think I have your dogs." My immediate response... "I'm sure you do." I felt terrible, but in a way I saw it coming. It had been raining for 3 days straight & I could tell Baker was getting ready to bolt. Luckily, after they dug out and began their journey, they were found in the neighborhood playground by a sweet lady in our neighborhood. I left work, went home & lined my back seat with towels, picked them up at the sweet lady's house and took them back home. After I filled in the hole they dug out (in the rain, remind you), and stepped in a giant pile of poo, I ran upstairs, changed my pants (and shoes) and headed back to work. I hadn't been back at work for 5 minutes when I got a call from Ryan: "They're out again." I wanted to throw up. All that time I spent was for nothing. I was more than ready to give them up for adoption, but Ryan talked me off the cliff later that evening. We decided that night that we needed to devote more time to the pups. They are precious when they aren't desperate, and we could help keep them from getting that way.


We decided we'd take them to Ryan's family land in Barnwell on Saturday. Around lunch time we set off with the dogs in the back seat. (We were scared to put them in the back of the truck because of Baker's last ride when he made a jump for it on Hwy 123 - not a good outcome). So, the 4 of us set off for our trip to Barnwell.

We made a pit stop at McDonald's and grabbed them some burgers & a water (this is not a joke). Beau at his burger in one bite, then stole Baker's right out of his mouth!

This is how Beau rode most of the time. He loves to feel the wind in his hair, but his eyes dry out easily, so he has to keep them shut.

Here's Baker's riding preference, if he's not laying down & taking up the whole seat.

This picture cracks me up so much!

This is the view we saw most of the day - the dogs ran for 2 straight hours!

They kept running away & Ryan would have to wrangle them back in - he looked like a sheep herder!

We met Ryan's dad & sister out at the land with their lab, Ace. These three had the best afternoon playing together.

 I'm so glad we devoted a day to our sweet dogs!

Mom's Day

I'd like to argue that I have the best mom in the world, but I'm sure that most kids who've always had everything they ever needed & most of what they wanted would argue the same thing. My mom likes to say my sister & I always got everything we wanted, but I can distinctly remember a floral jumpsuit from Belk that never made its way into my closet in '95. I already had the matching Sam & Libby's, so I assumed I'd get the whole outfit.

All joking aside, this woman has been my rock my entire life. She's the strongest, most incredible woman I know and I can only hope to be half the mom one day that she's been our entire lives.


Here are some recent pictures of us together.

Mom & dad came to our first house every day after work for 3 months to help get it ready before the wedding. Can you see the mess behind us?

The two of us waiting on Jake to be born.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom.

I'll love you forever. I'll like you for always. As long as I'm living, my mommy you'll be.

Foyer Makeover

Ryan finally lifted the spending freeze (just slightly), so I went on a binge after I decided our foyer needed a makeover. Here's the foyer before (all white & plain)

And here it is now...

The color is "Thunder" by Benjamin Moore. It's an easy greige (grey/beige) that's light enough for this small space. I love dark colors, but knew I needed to lean to the other end of the spectrum for this space that gets little natural light.

I found the table at Marshall's. I'm so into this French blue/grey right now & I was thrilled when I found this piece. The picture frame & silver candle holder are from TJ Maxx and the lamp/lampshade from Target. (We do plan to tack up the cord so it's not as noticeable). The rug in the hallway is also from Target and the basket to hold our loose shoes is an old one I had.

I love the burlap shade with with rope detail - very Pottery Barn-ish. I chose the shiny black base to make it a bit more modern. That's why I also pulled in the silver candle holder into the mix. The table's style is very traditional and I wanted to pull in some modern elements to off set it just a bit. (Please excuse the lefover sticker on the picture frame).

We still need to put some things on the walls, but it's a great start! I'm trying to decide if I'll do a gallery wall in the hallway - there's plenty of blank space for it and I have a lot of pictures I'd love to see every day. Once again, here it is...

White Chicken Enchiladas

Happy Cinco de Mayo! In honor of this joyous holiday that's usually spent by Americans scouring their local Mexican restaurants for discount tacos and margarita specials, I've decided to share a new recipe that I love. Seriously, if you don't try this, you're not an America celebrating the victory of the Mexican militia over the French army at The Battle Of Puebla. Get your mind right. I found this recipe while reading blogs at work during my free time. Enjoy!

WHITE CHICKEN ENCHILADAS

• 10 soft taco shells
• 2 cups cooked, shredded chicken
• 2 cups shredded Monterrey Jack cheese
• 3 Tbsp. butter
• 3 Tbsp. flour
• 1 14oz. can of chicken broth
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 4oz. can diced green chillies
 
 
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 pan.
2. Mix chicken and 1 cup cheese. Roll up in tortillas and place in pan.
3. In a sauce pan, melt butter, stir in flour and coo 1minutes. Add broth and whisk until smooth. Heat over medium heat until thick and bubbly.
4. Stir in sour cream and chilies. Do not bring to a boil, you don't want curdled sour cream.
5. Pour over enchiladas and top with remaining cheese.
6. Bake 22 min and then under high broil for 3 min to brown the cheese.

Agent Ryan Grubbs

What a crazy, crazy week this has been. Ryan officially opened his State Farm office on Tuesday and he hasn't made it home before 9:30 any night (except tonight - but he's still on his laptop plugging away!) Things are rolling along quite nicely and I'd say we're well on track to have a great first year. Besides the exhaustion things are going really well!

A couple of weeks ago we redid Ryan's office to make it more personalize. He was too preoccupied with paperwork, so he put full trust in me to pick out the color, and put in on the walls. Major fail. He hated it. After 3 hours of painting the cool, modern grey he knew it had to be changed. I tried my hardest to convince him it looked great, but his comments that included, "I feel like I'm in a jail cell," "It looks smokey in here," "I feel like I'm back in elementary school with cement walls" made me realize it had to be painted over.

Fast forward to 3 days later and we were back in there. I picked two "guy" colors from Home Depot that were much warmer. My favorite, "Squirrel," was the main color. It' a greyish-green and almost makes you feel like you're outside. I'm not sure what the accent color is called, though. It's hard to forget a paint color named "Squirrel." Here's what the office looks like now.

I found all of the wall art at Hobby Lobby. He wanted this wall to reflect him so people would know more about him right off the bat when they cam in his office. Not sure the last time he changed his own oil or drove on Route 66, but it works.

I couldn't be more proud of my husband. He's worked so hard to get this far & I know he's going to continue to be successful and impress this everyone!