LUNCH BREAK

Hey ya'll!

Well, right now I'm on my lunch break AT HOME. yay! :)  I just finished tidying up my kitchen - it's really been bugging me so I decided to come home during lunch and clean it.  ha ha. :)  This evening Mr. Tucci is working valet downtown, so it's just me and Little Tucci.  I didn't want to be spending the evening cleaning, I wanted to have some Momma and Tristan time!  I don't know what we'll get into.  Maybe we'll have a "date" in tonight.  We can go for a walk or watch a movie.  We'll figure something out.  I'm just excited to spend time with my little man!

Today I feel much better than yesterday.  I didn't end up going to bed early last night - but thankfully I do feel somewhat productive today!  Tomorrow is payday (for ME) so I will be happy to have some $.  I'd really like to have something from Starbucks ...Mmmm :)

Last night I baked a chocolate cake for Shelby an I.  I made my grandmother's homemade coconut pecan icing to go on top.  That was my *NEW RECIPE* for this week.  I will post the recipe HERE later today.  It turned out really good! Shelby isn't much of a nut person, so he didn't really like it.  BUT i think next time I will make it without just to see if he likes it any better.  It tasted just like my Nana's - so I was happy.  Since Shelby is going to be gone this evening, I probably won't cook dinner.  I see a PB&J in my future. :-)

Well, I better run back to the office.  I hope everyone is having a wonderful day!  Once I get to work and settle down, I'll post that icing recipe.  For those of you who are visual people, I have pictures too -  Don't forget to check it out!

PS - is this font too small?  I've changed some things around on my blog and I want to make sure it's easy to read for everyone :)

This and That

Yesterday was a pretty slow day - work wise.  A group of us traveled to our main office in Green Cove Springs to attend a retirement ceremony.  Our janitor / maintanence man Larry retired as well as his wife.  I really miss him! He was a West Virginia native - great guy. 

After I came back from the ceremony, I was pretty worthless the rest of the day.  The time FINALLY came to go home and I was SO excited! ha ha!  I made a new recipe for dinner last night.  I'm making one new recipe per week each month, but for this month I've already made my 4 and I still have one more week! I'll have ended up making 5 or 6 new recipes this month - which is better than what I set for myself!  We had Chile-Chicken Enchilada's. They were SO good!  This is a recipe I'll copy down into my recipe book to make again :)

After Dinner and after Tristan laid down we started watching "Funny People" with Adam Sandler.  I had heard it was hilarious, so I chose it to watch.  The thing is, it wasn't really all that hilarious.  Lots of cursing a kinda depressing actually! Shelby and I both went to bed feeling gloomy after watching that movie - LoL.  I guess you could say we didn't care for it. 

I don't know what we'll get into tonight.  We're going to eat leftovers from last night for dinner, so I don't have to cook.  I'll probably straighten up the kitchen or something.  We've been trying to work with Tristan every evening on his walking and he's really picking it up! He's so fun to watch - he makes us (or me, mostly - I laugh easily) laugh soooo hard.  He's just so stinkin' cute!  He gets going with his walking toy (a toy he pushes and walks behind it) and he's getting fast! The whole time he's talking and "yelling" like LOOK AT ME!  ha ha.  Yesterday evening he was able to turn it to where he wanted and he got a little farther that way.  It's so neat watching him learn things!  Before we know it he's gonna crawl to that thing, pull himself up, and walk to wherever he wants to go - I'll be in the kitchen and I'll see my little man walking in there to see me.  That will be a really neat day!

I am so exhausted today!  Night before last I couldn't sleep, and then last night I didn't really go to bed early - so today I'm really tired.  Isn't it weird how it skips a day?  Maybe I'll go take a nap in my car during lunch... ha ha. 

Randomness :)

Hello Everyone!

I hadn't realized that It had been so long since I blogged! Ooops! I really need to get on the ball!

Let's see..  Well, this past weekend I hosted a Pampered Chef Party at my house.  It went pretty well.  People don't know how to RSVP, but that's nothing new. ;)  We made a DELICIOUS Loaded Baked Potato Chowder.  It was truly amazing and incredibly E A S  Y!  I don't have all the Pampered Chef products needed for the recipe, but I'm still able to make it using my utensils, etc.  So so soooo good!  After the party Shelby and I attempted to take a nap (it's been stressful because Tristan is teething) and then we watched the Florida vs Alabama game - ROLL TIDE! ;)

Sunday I met some girl friends for tea at a place called Cozy Tea.  I love going there.  The food is so good and it's a really cute/girly place to go!  I got the Sunday Brunch which came with a non-alcoholic mimosa (which was wonderful), a bowl of baked potato soup with toast, a salad, broccoli and cheese quiche, and some fruit and a pumpkin scone with honey and cream for dessert.  The tea I chose is called "Kama Sutra Chai" - it's so good!  Everyone has their own little tea pot with their selected tea. There are TONS to choose from.  We all ordered something different.   Guys go too, but it's more of a girly atmosphere.  I'd love to take Shelby sometime!  Here is a picture so you can see for yourself :)

I know this is a major change in topic, but I've been wanting this particular tumbler from Starbucks and I have looked EVERYWHERE for it. Well - Monday was my lucky day because I walked to Starbucks on my way to work just to see if they had it, and they DID!! Since it's Christmas time it comes with a cute candy cane striped straw.  I was so excited! The guy behind the counter said they are really hard to come by and that they just got them and were already almost sold out!  Talk about perfect timing!! :-)

This morning the guys from my office, and myself, went to Jacksonville to attend a Breakfast Meeting.  It was a lot of fun! I got to meet a lot of the people I talk to on the phone.  Now I have faces to go with the names :)  There was a really nice selection to choose from (it was a buffet type of set up).  I was really excited to see pancakes - because those are my favorite.  Now I'm waiting until it's my time to relieve the receptionist for her lunch.  Once she gets back I can go run my misc. errands and come back and get workin'! 

Wow- this post is so random!

Wonderful Weekend Recap!

Happy Monday Everybody!  Did you enjoy your weekend?  I know I say this every Monday, but it's hard to believe the weekend is already over!  Time flies when you're having fun or being productive!! :)

I already blogged a quick blog about Saturday ( which I did Saturday evening) but I guess I could touch on it again, since it IS part of my weekend?!  Shelby and I were able to sleep in a bit Saturday morning, thanks to Tristan going RIGHT back to bed after his breakfast!!  Shelby had poptarts for breakfast, but I was hungry for some pancakes so I made 1/2 a batch for myself! ha ha  After some relaxing I went ahead and cleaned the kitchen from breakfast and started on my Saturday cleaning throughout part of the house.  My bedroom and bathroom didn't get touched and it's driving me absolutely crazy! Shelby was able to go out and mow the grass so Tristan and I drug out all our Christmas decor and started putting it out.  Tristan is all over the place now so it makes it harder to get things done while he's awake - he was also too busy looking for his "Da da da da"!  I captured that on video and I hope to be able to load it soon! I tried on Saturday evening but it wouldn't load :(  For dinner I made some potato soup and we just relaxed and watched some college football.

Tristan turned 7 months old on Saturday - it's completely unreal to me! He's so much fun right now .. learning so many things and doing something new almost every day.  If you don't have children now, just wait - you're life will be enriched so much more.

Sunday morning was incredibly lazy .. we skipped church like bad people and ended up working on our Christmas decor instead.  I got my fireplace mantle decorated, the tree put up in the dining room (which is incredibly cute and I'm so pleased with it!), Shelby got the BIG tree up - but we still have to decorate it, and he got the lights up on the house.   I still have 2 trees to put up and I need to decorate our main tree.  That will probably take up most of my week this week - we're trying to get everything decorated before we go out of town for Thanksgiving, that way it's done when we get home and we can just enjoy it!  Last night we had a little potluck with our Life Group, so I made Baked Spinach Artichoke Dip.  It's a great party food and really easy.  I ended up bringing some of the lefovers for lunch today! Yummy!

That pretty much wraps up my weekend - I love this time of year!! :)

Marshmallow-Pumpkin Pie Latte!

I just posted the recipe for a

 Marshmallow-Pumpkin Pie

Spice Latte on my recipe blog!

Go check it out!!! :)

My Favorite Fall Recipes : Part 1

Everyone has their favorites, and these just happen to be a couple of mine! These are some dessert recipes I fall back on every year around this time. I hope you enjoy looking at them and feel free to try them for yourself! Let me know what you think if you do! :-)

Pumpkin Cheesecake

2 pkg. (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Pumpkin Pie Spice (to taste) 

2 eggs

1 HONEY MAID Graham Pie Crust (6 oz.)

1 cup thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping

PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Beat cream cheese, pumpkin, sugar, vanilla and spices in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs; beat just until blended.

POUR into crust.

BAKE 40 min. or until center is almost set. Cool. Refrigerate 3 hours or overnight. Top with whipped topping just before serving. Store leftovers in refrigerator.

***  I usually put the eggs in last so that I can taste the mixture along the way and make sure it tastes right to me :-)

Pumpkin Dessert Dip

1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened

1 jar (7 oz.) JET-PUFFED Marshmallow Creme

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

MIX all ingredients until well blended; cover. Refrigerate several hours or until chilled.

*** I usually serve this with Graham Sticks .. but just about anything tastes good with this!

MORE TO COME!!