Saturday, April 30, 2011

High School Prom





Friday, April 29, was the High School Prom. Since my hubby is a Junior class sponsor, he had to attend. I was so lucky to be able to attend as his date! The picture above is of the cafeteria transformed for prom. I really didn't do a good job taking pictures, but I did get a picture of my handsome date....




Isn't he handsome?!?




Chocolate Pie


I LOVE chocolate pie and it is so easy to make!




Here are the things you will need:




- 1 cup of sugar



- 5 tablespoons of flour



- 3 tablespoons of cocoa



- 3 eggs yolks



- 1 stick of margarine



- 1.5 cups of milk



- 1.5 teaspoons of vanilla



Here is what you will do:



Put stick of margarine in a medium saucepan to melt. Mix sugar, flour, and cocoa together. Next you will beat the egg yolks, milk and vanilla together. Pour all ingredients into the saucepan and cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally. Once the mixture in the saucepan becomes thick, you can pour the mixture into a pie shell!



We usually top our chocolate pie with cool whip, but you will want to make sure the pie has chilled for a little while before topping!



Enjoy!

Pressure Cooking


You may remember me talking about my mother-in-law (MIL) giving me a pressure cooker for my birthday! My MIL can cook! She makes such great dishes and always uses a pressure cooker. I was a little nervous about using one, but decided I would love to have one for my birthday! I wanted to document and blog my first experience of cooking with it!




Here she is!



I wanted to start with making chicken...a whole one!!! I started by gutting and trimming some of the fat off the chicken. I made sure to cut off the tail, because it was just gross! Then I washed the chicken really well!




After trimming and rinsing I placed the whole chicken in the pressure cooker and filled it with water about half way.





I locked the lid in place and put the cooker on the stove on high heat.



Once it started to jiggle I cut the heat down to where it only jiggled every now and then. Once I cut the heat down I set the timer for 15 minutes.

Since it was the first time I used the pressure cooker with my stove, I started a timer from the beginning. I found that it took about 20 minutes for the cooker to get "pressurized" and 15 minutes to cook the chicken....not bad!!!


After cooking the chicken I placed the pressure cooker under small stream of running water to help cool it faster. My pressure cooker has a lock, so you cannot open it until the pressure has released.






Here is the cooked chicken and broth!








I poured the chicken juice (broth) into jars.




And then had to work on de-boning/shredding the chicken.







Ta da!!! Altogether I was able to get 6 cups of good chicken meat from the chicken!







I will be making chicken and dumplins tomorrow from the broth and cooked chicken!




Monday, April 25, 2011

Easter 2011


We spent Easter weekend with Barrett's family! It was pretty low key and very nice to relax!

Rylie came in town from college at Alabama! I love this picture of the brothers!






And our Easter family picture! I had to get Bindi in the picture! :)




I hope everyone had a blessed Easter with family and friends!


He is Risen!




Sunday, April 24, 2011

Turning 26

On Friday, April 15, I turned 26! You know you are an adult when you get excited that your birthday is not only a Friday but also falls on pay day! I really can't believe I am 26...it seems like just yesterday I was 18 and getting ready to head off to college.




My husband bought me these beautiful flowers!




My mother-in-law bought me my first pressure cooker! I can't wait to cook with it!







My sister-in-law bought me this cute 31 purse! It is perfect for shopping!




A sweet friend at work bought me this coffee mug! She knows me all too well!




One of our family friends makes these beautiful window paintings and she gave me one for my birthday! I can't wait to find the perfect spot for it!





Another sweet family friend gave me this decorative piece with our last name initial!




I also got a really cute brown watch from Lisa and the movie Eclipse from the Twilight series from my BF, Raven! My parents and brother also sent me sweet cards!


I am truly blessed with wonderful family and friends who make me feel so special on my birthday!





Sunday, April 3, 2011

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Cruise Day of Embarkment

Our cruise day vacation started out with a pretty long travel day. We had to be at the airport by 4:30 am for our 6:00am flight. We weren't able to get a direct flight to Miami, so we had a layover in Charlotte, NC. We didn't land in Miami until 1:50 and actually didn't make it to our ship until 3:15! To say the least, we were so happy we made it!


After getting to our room, we had to participate in the safety drill. The safety drill only lasted about 20 minutes and then it was time to explore the ship! We quickly found the 24 hour pizza bar and helped ourselves to our first of many slices of pizza!


I wish I would've taken pictures of us leaving Miami, because it was beautiful! I quickly learned to carry my camera everywhere! We left Miami around 5:00pm.


After we pulled out of port we headed to our rooms to unpack. For our trip we had the late dinner seating at 8:15


Here's a picture of B and me at our first dinner.



Dad, Mom & Reid After dinner we headed to the "Welcome Show" on the ship. Before the show started we were surprised by an unexpected announcement by the Captain. He had to let everyone know that due to a serious health issue of another passenger, the ship was having to turn around and head back to Miami to let the sick person off the ship. Due to us having to turn around, we were not going to be able to stop the next day in Half Moon Cay, Bahamas and would instead have two days at sea before our stop in St. Thomas. Everyone was very shocked by this announcement. Even though we were disappointed about not stopping in the Bahamas, we weren't going to let this unexpected event ruin our trip! We were ready for a couple fun days at sea! After the show everyone was pretty tired from the day of travel, so we headed to our rooms for bed!

Cruise Day 1 - Day at Sea

Day 1 of our original cruise schedule was suppose to be spent in Half Moon Cay, Bahamas. However, due to the health emergency of another passenger, we weren't able to make our stop in Bahamas. We unexpectedly added another day at sea.


I started the day with room service and breakfast in bed! I had been talking about room service breakfast in bed long before our cruise!


After breakfast, we headed to find a spot to soak up the sun. It was actually pretty chilly on the boat that day, so we didn't spend much time laying out.

One of the scheduled activities for the day was "the hairy chest contest". It was hilarious to watch grown men dance and try to win the contest!


Here is a picture of everyone gathering for the contest.

Our ship had a "jumbo-tron" that they showed movies, NCAA basketball games, and other ship events on. They were broadcasting live the hairy chest contest!

Quick picture with dad!

And Mom!

And here we have the winner of the contest!

Haha and ewwww!!!

The contestants...

Our ship also had a water slide! We finally found a spot on the very top deck where the wind was blocked. Here's a picture of Dad and Reid enjoying cruisin'!

Mom and me!


B found a perfect spot where he could watch the basketball game and he had a great view of the ocean! He was in heaven!

After hanging out on the deck, we headed to get a snack since we had the late dinner seating. After eating a snack, we decided to take naps (you will see a theme of this throughout the trip).

Here's a picture of Dad and Mom before dinner...

B and me at dinner...
The fam...

And our towel animal that was left in our room! Not really sure what it is...

We headed to the disco after dinner (you will see this is a recurring theme of the trip).

Dad and B enjoying the disco!



Reid and Dad being cool in the disco!

My beautiful mom and best friend!

After hanging out in the disco we headed to our rooms to rest up for another fun day at sea!