The last week or so

We have been super busy the last week or so.  My mom was in town for a week and if we weren't out finishing up Christmas shopping, we were baking, playing cards or glued to the computer to play this ridiculously addictive game:

 I was stuck at Level 27 for three days straight and now I'm stuck at 34....but I can't stop. I need someone to come stage an intervention. ;)

Here's a few pics from the last week all courtesy of my trusty iPhone:

 Me and the fam enjoying some Christmas lights

 My daughter with the reindeer pops she made (thanks, Pinterest!)

 Driving around the Holiday Festival of Lights at James Island County Park

 My son with a few of the Lego sets, stickers, books, etc he got for Christmas

I have been putting Lego sets together everyday as I am the designated Lego builder in the house... It's been working out well though, "Mommy will build you one set and then I get to play Candy Crush after, okay??!"

:P

Hope everyone had a great holiday!!

Erika 

Tuesday Randoms

Good Morning!

So nice to wake up to it being 66 out!  Especially since all my friends back home in Texas woke up to it being 27.  Brrrrrrrr.

A couple of weeks ago I won my first giveaway from Sarah Vickers' blog Classy Girls Wear Pearls...I was pretty excited because I won this amazing bracelet from Kiel James Patrick's Vickers' Bow Collection:

How cute is that??!

If you follow me on Instagram (seabattle2), you probably have already seen this, but did you see that KJP himself liked it and commented with cute little emoticons??!  Haha...total fan girl moment.

 

Anyway. There are many other bow bracelets so go check them all out here! 

 

As I was driving my daughter to school this morning, the local radio station was playing things that had gone viral during the past year on youtube...

How did I miss this???!

 

How's everyone's Christmas shopping going?  This is the first year in a long time, that (1) I'm not done already and (2) I keep wanting to buy things for myself.  There are just so many cute things out in stores...but I am being good.  So far I have not bought myself anything!!

 

Have a good day y'all!

Erika

 

 

 

 

Trip to Miami and Key West

I'm a total blog slacker.

Sorry!

We decided to skip the traditional Thanksgiving this year and head south to Miami and Key West.

South Beach:

 Miami Zoo:

 Our quick stop to the beach in Fort Lauderdale...It looks pretty but the beach was actually pretty dirty. It was gross.

 Key West:

 Above was at Smathers Beach, Key West. They bring the amazing sand in from the Bahamas! It was the best sand evvvver!!!

Hope y'all are having a great week!

Erika

Thursday Randoms

It's cold and rainy out here today.  I'm feeling rather lazy...just sitting around, playing on the computer and half-listening to Mysteries at the Museum on the Travel Channel.  Pretty exciting, eh?  But not nearly as exciting as the awesome giveaway going on over at About Fais

Fais is giving away this Kate Spade tote:

Cute, right??

 Go enter!!

Thursday is one of my favorite TV nights... Big Bang Theory, Grey's Anatomy and Scandal

 Anyone else watching this?  I need to post the text messages that go back and forth with my friend Alex during episodes of Scandal... they're pretty much like this:

Alex:  WTF

Me:  OMG. What just happened??

Alex:  ??!!!!!!

Me:  RIGHT??!!

There is a big WTF moment during every.single.show.  It's awesome.

And because everyone needs some 1D in their lives...here is what we listened to before school this morning...

Have a good one!

-Erika-

Weekend Update

We have had a busy week/weekend.

My in-laws came into town on Wednesday followed by my sister-in-law and her family on Friday.  We spent a lot of that time exploring Charleston and hanging out at our place.

On Thursday we went to Charles Towne Landing with my in-laws. 

 Our favorite part was the river otter exhibit because we were the only ones there and the otters were playing and swimming right up to the glass where we were standing.  They are sooooo adorable!

On Saturday, we walked around the Farmer's Market in Charleston.

Husband spotted this huge (235lb!!) dog:

 The picture doesn't really show how big this dog was. He looked like a walrus.

We also went to the Charleston Museum.  They had some really fabulous dresses on display.  Here are my favorites from the 1920s:

While the family explored some more, I headed over to listen to some author panels at the Charleston Young Adult Book Festival.

While I'm not a reader of YA books, one of my favorite authors, Kathy Reichs, was speaking and signing books (she has a YA series with her son Brandon).  I read the Temperance Brennan series which was the inspiration for the TV series Bones.

Here I am getting my book signed:

  My Dad gave me this book, which was also the first Kathy Reichs book I'd ever read, so I had her sign this one.  Dad thought it was pretty cool I thought of him when picking out the book I wanted signed :)

Hope y'all had a great weekend! Can't wait to see what everyone was up to!

-Erika-

Weekend Update

Good Afternoon!

I just saw some pictures from Ocean City, NJ online and the water levels on the streets are insane...  Prayers going up for everyone in the path of this monster storm.  

I hope everyone had a great weekend. 

We had a busy Saturday but kept it low-key on Sunday.

Saturday we hit up a Lego event at Toys R Us.

The kids had to help build part of a spooky forest. For their efforts, they got free Monster Fighter accessory packs.

My son was pretty excited about this, even though he refused to look at or smile for the pic.

We then headed downtown to eat at Dell'z Deli 

I saw a yummy picture on Natalie's instagram (@snoopnattynat) of some food from Dell'z so I had to go try it for myself!!

I got the "Hummer"

 It was soooo good...  black bean hummus, tomatoes, sprouts, cucumbers, etc.

I cannot wait to go back!

After that, we walked down King St. in the rain

 I made a quick exchange at J.Crew and grabbed a mocha from Starbucks before heading home for a bit.

After the rain cleared, we went to watch the rUNdead Charleston 5K.

The runner have to dodge zombies...

and bales of hay.  We had a good time watching it and want to participate next year (it was already sold out when we learned of it...and let's be real, the only running I currently do is when I hear a big thud in the house and then hear one of my kids screaming/crying).

I also got some goodies in the mail this weekend...

the latest Target Beauty Bag

and

 this book from InStyle.

If you haven't signed up for InStyle's emails, you should!  About once every week or two, they send out an email and the first 100 people to click the link and fill the form out win something! A couple of months ago I won a Revlon Just Bitten Lipstain + Balm from them too!

Don't forget to link up for the Weekend Update here, here, or here!

Have a good one!

-Erika-

Weekend Update

Wellllll, hellllloooo!

It's been awhile.  I'm back with a much better attitude (less stress!!) and living in a new state.

The last couple of weeks have been rough.  My husband got out of the military, we moved to the Charleston (SC) area, my daughter started her new school (today!!), etc.

This weekend we did a little exploring since my Mom was in town to help with the move.

 Brady sitting down at a water fountain, downtown Charleston

Cute house off Bay St, downtown Charleston

 Salted Caramel cupcake from Cupcake on King St, Charleston

Ashton riding a horse, downtown Charleston

We also made our first trip to Trader Joe's!!!

Final product:

Sooo good!!  I can't wait to go back so I can try more goodies!!

 Can't wait to see what everyone else was up to this weekend!
Have a great day y'all!
-Erika-

Don't forget to link-up for the update here, here, or here!

 

Sick men = Big Babies

I don't know about y'all, but when I'm sick, I want to be left alone.  I want to sleep and not be bothered.  If I'm throwing up, I don't need an audience or someone holding my hair (although once when I worked as a 911 dispatcher, my Sgt held my hair for me because I was puking and dispatching calls at the same time, but if I'm anywhere else leave me alone).

In my experiences, men (can we really call them that though when they're sick?? Maybe more like something that rhymes with "wussies") revert to being little babies when they're not feeling well.  It is probably one of the most annoying and unmanly things they do.

Call me mean if you want, but when an adult male is sick (throwing up), he needs to take care of himself.  There is nothing we can do to make it better for him.  They are old enough to run to the bathroom and hug the toilet on their own.  I don't need to sit there and help them like I would, say, a 3 year old.

What do y'all think??  Do your husbands or boyfriends act like babies when they're sick??  Do you cringe when you hear a guy say, "Come take care of me, I'm sick"??

Not only do I cringe, but I run the other way!! :)

-e-

 

The Weekend

This was the only picture I took all weekend:

 Okay. That's a lie. My husband took it. 

Saturday we dropped the kids off at my Dad's and headed up to Charleston, SC to look for an apartment to lease short-term until we can find a house.

After finding a place, we headed back to get the kids...turned out my son had gotten sick right before we arrived. It was definitely a fun-filled car ride back to our house (thanks to my Dad for the pot so Brady could puke in it).

We were supposed to make a quick run down to Florida on Sunday to see my mom, but she just came up to our house.  We pretty much did nothing all day since Brady was running a fever and napping off and on.

I'm looking forward to reading all the weekend updates, even though I'm pretty sure no one was having as much fun as me. :)

-e-

Teacher Complaints

Today I complained on a teacher. I have never had to complain on a teacher before...I will always have a great deal of respect for the good ones out there, as it is not an easy job!! We have been so lucky with our kids to have had amazing teachers.

I ate lunch with my son after his dentist appointment and witnessed another class' teacher being rude and hateful towards her students, all of whom are 4-5 years old.

You would think she would have been on her best behavior with a visitor in the lunchroom....makes me wonder what her behavior is like when nobody else is around!

I couldn't not say anything and keep a clear conscience, so I e-mailed the vice principal and principal when I returned home.

 

I am so, so thankful that my son does not have that teacher!!!

 

A great teacher will have kids wanting to come to school everyday, while a bad one will make them miserable and hating school, quite possibly for the rest of their school career.

If you are a teacher, I salute you for keeping your cool and being patient with your students.  I think if you ever get to the point where you are snapping at kids, yelling at them, calling them "babies" and making them cry at lunch (saw it today!)...then maybe it's time for a career change...or a very long vacation.

What do y'all think? 

 

Black Bean Burgers and a Zara Top

Yesterday Natalie over at Designer Bags and Dirty Diapers mentioned that she had an awesome black bean burger at a local restaurant and asked if anyone knew of any good recipes which reminded me...I've had a recipe on my counter for 2 months that I clipped from a magazine (I think Fitness??) for Melissa d'Arabian's Black Bean Nacho Burgers.

Another blogger has posted the recipe here 

So I decided to give it a go... It ended up looking like this

 I added salsa and guacamole...was pretty good... Everyone ate their burger and there wasn't any leftovers which is usually a good sign that people in my house liked it.

Also...how cute is this Zara top with faux leather sleeves??

 via
Only $25.90
Of course it is currently out of stock, but you can sign up to be notified when it is back!

Have a great day! 
e

Pasta Shells, Annasophia's Dress

I am not much of a cook.  If I see a recipe with more than 6 ingredients, I will usually skip it.

I have been making a lot of stuffed pasta shells lately though. Very simple. For a basic meal, all you need is this:

 Marinara Sauce, Jumbo Pasta Shells, Ricotta Cheese and some Mozzarella

All you do is boil some water and cook the shells (I used about 18)

Dump the ricotta out into a bowl and mix in a little mozzarella (you could do Parmesan or something else though)

I then pour a little bit of the marinara on the bottom of a 13x9 baking dish

Fill the shells with cheese mixture, pour the remaining marinara on top and add some mozzarella

It ends up looking like this

 The fam loves it and I look like I might not suck so bad at cooking...

I also have added spinach, onions and mushrooms in the past (after watching an episode of Master Chef and thinking maybe, just maybe I will cook like that someday) which was also very good.

Anyways...I saw this pic of Annasophia Robb (she's going to be playing the young Carrie Bradshaw in The Carrie Diaries) at the DVF show

via

I think this dress would look so much better on a brunette with a tan...

HAHA much better, right?? 

Have a good day y'all!

-Erika-

Weekend Update

Good Morning!

We had a pretty uneventful weekend.

We did the dentist on Saturday

 Then a quick stop at Target

 Can someone please tell me why these are $60???  They weren't that much back in '96 were they??? Crazy!

Next we hit up my favorite BBQ place in Savannah, Sandfly BBQ 

 I could seriously live off that potato salad. So good!

My son had a fever (the joys of being back in school) on Sunday so we spent the day at home (after making a quick donut run)

 Mmm...Dunkin' Donuts!!!

I also got a "like" on a comment I made on Facebook from Allen Haff of Auction Hunters!!!

Very exciting.  :) Anyone else watch that show? He is so funny (Ton too)!

Don't forget to link up for the update with Sami's Shenanigans, five30three, and Join the Gossip

Have a great day!!

-Erika-