Feast your eyes on these little beauties!!

I saw this on another blog I stop by every now and then and it was love at first site. PLUS I found a new blog to follow: http://smittenkitchen.com/

INGREDIENTS

1 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 cups all-purpose flour1 cup cold butter

(2 sticks or 8 ounces)

1 egg1/4 teaspoon salt

Zest and juice of one lemon

4 cups fresh blueberries

1/2 cup white sugar

4 teaspoons cornstarch

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9×13 inch pan.

2. In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, and baking powder. Mix in salt and lemon zest. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. Dough will be crumbly. Pat half of dough into the prepared pan.

3. In another bowl, stir together the sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Gently mix in the blueberries. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

Looks like a trip to the grocery store is on the Weekend TO DO list now :)

To say that I've had a long week would be an understatement. While I'll spare you the details, I'll wrap it up pretty quick! VERY successful Fundraiser!!! (probably what the rest of the world refers to as a miracle!!! Lots and lots and lots of hard work and time spent raising $112,000. And now, I'm kicking back and enjoying one of these.

Not too sure if you guys have these, but us Floridians do and I'm LOVING it! I saw this a few weeks ago and couldnt help but be skeptical. Well, its TO DIE FOR!! Go get you one!!

Talked to a man at the Weather Center yesterday for work and had a nice little chit chat about how STINKIN HOT it is here!! No lie, we're in triple digits by around 9:30 am every day down here! Guess that's what I get for moving to swampland!! I don't even want to know what my power bill will be like the next few months. SHOOT ME!

All this heat has me dreaming of a nice vacation home. Key word: Dreaming! Thinking of a home with INCREDIBLE airconditioning. So cool you want to wrap up in soft blankets while curled up on the couch. Where everything feels fresh and clean and there's a constant breeze outside. Alright...time to wake up now! But seriously, this morning, as I was doing my usual morning routine (coffee and blogs), I stumbled across this goldmine: http://cotedetexas.blogspot.com/. And oh did she deliver the good stuff!!

Master bedroom with a bed you just want to run and jump on!!

Could this guest bathroom be anymore inviting? I think not.

And the guest bedroom is awesome too! I really like that table with the 2 lamps.

Totally diging this setup. Love the seagrass rug, love the color of that distressed dresser and LOVE LOVE LOVE those lamps!

So, I'll keep dreaming.

UPDATE FROM LAST NIGHT: After dinner, Ryan turned on the tv when I was in the other room cleaning. I came back to the beginning of The Devil Wears Prada on the TV. Yall, I don't know how to say this better, but....I'm pretty much sold on this one:)

So today has been H-E-C-T-I-C!! But I have to say that I am truly blessed to have a VERY patient boyfriend who is more than helpful whenever I need him. We are short-staffed at the office and about to have one of our biggest fundraisers of the year this Thursday. Needless to say, its CRAZY around there and we need every spare hand we can find! Well, sweet Ryan decided to volunteer his time off today with MDA and went to WORK for us. Doing all kinds of things: computer work, moving heavy boxes, etc. It was nice to have him there. Every now and then, I'ld peak my head out and check on him and the diligence in his eyes was TO DIE FOR!!

I'm pooped, of course, so the thought of cooking just repulsed me. He left a few minutes early and I came home to this...

Ladies, he's off the market!!! He cooks, he cleans AND he is happy to help out an office of 6 SUPER stressed, hormonal, tired woman out for the afternoon!

Please be jealous! :)

Now he's enjoying his mega taco he made and zoned out to ESPN. Hey, I gotta give it to him...he earned it!!

I just whipped out my camera to upload some new pictures. And then I quickly realized my pictures are all under one of 3 categories: work, ryan, or dogs. Seriously! I've gotta learn to allow myself in the shots sometimes. Im a camera phob...dont like to see the end result of pictures since I am oh-so-unphotogenic!!

Anyway. I'll leave you with two that make me smile BIG TIME!

You know, before we got Hudson, Ryan was very anti-little dog. Madison was about as small as he would go. He would say, "I don't know what to do with a little dog." But as you can see, the little man has melted his heart. But don't be fooled, he and Madison are best of buds. They stick together most of the time and little man stays with me. It works.

And this one just makes me laugh. Basically this is just an excuse for Ryan to get to be a little boy and play with fire. One night last week, he randomly decided to burn some leftover wood from work. The night went something like this: cook dinner, cleanup, Ryan: "I think I want to go burn something." Seriously!

Trying to gear up for one SUPER BUSY week!! So, I'm doing my usual morning routine (coffee, bagel, and blogs) to get me going. There's something really therapeutic about waking up in the morning and checking out all the blogs I follow and occasionally E! Online while I sip my morning coffee. Hey, I never claimed to be profound. I know its a vain ritual. But it feels oh-so-good!

Speaking of bagels...last night after our weekly grocery shopping trip, Ryan and I went to the bagel shop to get bagels for the week. We LOVE them and know how bad they are for us, but whatever! So I went in around 6pm (they close at 7pm) and told the guy to get ready because I had quite the order for him. I ordered a bakers dozen (3 plain, 3 everything, 3 blueberry, 3 sesame seed and 1 Cinnamon sugar for kicks and giggles). I was expecting to pay the usual $7.50 when the oh-so-generous manager said, "You know what, its the end of the day and these have been sitting out all day, so you can have these for the price of a half dozen." Yall, I was pumped. Every time I snag a deal, whether its ALOT of money or just $3.25, I love it!! So I believe I will incorporate this little trick into my weekly routine. For any of you out there who stock your freezer with bagels like we do, you may want to try it. You never know!!!

So don't hate me, but my job sent me here yesterday!! No joke, I went to 3 different beaches yesterday for WORK! I won't bore you with details but LONG story short, we had to stop at 3 different Fire Stations along the way and "work." Got to talk to a few cute firemen (**with Ryan by my side:) **) and then ended the day with this!!

Had a nice seafood dinner **YUMMY!!** and then called it a day. We're back here in Tally now and I only wish I had more time to really enjoy the water!

I was on someone else's blog and saw this chain questionairre thing. I know I know, they're silly but hey I got nothing else. Plus this way, you might learn something about me that makes me look even more ridiculous!!

6 THINGS I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO
1. Fourth Of July Weekend at LAKE MARTIN!!
2.Grocery Shopping ... hey its the little things in life :)
3.The package Mom and Dad sent to me...kinda has me a little nervous because you never know what you're going to get with mom
4. This Lockup being a success :)
5. The Big ONE YEAR anniversary we've got coming up. K give me a break here. I'm not married I know, but this is all I got, so deal with it
6.The new BRAVO series about the priviledged kids in NY.

6 THINGS I DID YESTERDAY
1. Ate lunch at Ryan's parents' house.
2. Counted $5000 of bills and change
3. Walked on the beach
4. Had a nice seafood dinner
5. Enjoyed a yummy pina colada
6. fell asleep at 8:30 because I could

6 THINGS I WISH I COULD DO
1. Take a really nice vacation
2. See some of my friends I havent seen in forever
3. Spend a weekend in Atlanta
4. Buy a really nice camera and learn how to take cool pictures
5. Buy a HOUSE!
6. Go on a MAJOR furniture/home accessories shopping spree

6 SHOWS I WATCH
1. Real Housewives ( yall I could go on and on about how much I love that show. Its ridiculous how much I'm obsessed!)
2.Will & Grace
3. Gossip Girl
4.???
5.???
6.???
To be honest, I really don't watch tv anymore. Not really sure why I even have cable

6 OF MY FAVORITE FOODS
1. Chikfila
2. Hopkins' Chicken Tettrazini Salad (TO DIE FOR!)
3. Harbor Docks Sushi
4. Homemade Guacamole
5. Sesame Seed Bagels
6. Grouper Florentine from The Back Porch

6 PLACES I HAVE TRAVELED
1. Europe (England, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg)
2. Caribbean (St. Croix, Aruba, Bahamas, Grand Cayman)
3. BIG CITIES (New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Austin, San Antonio, Denver, Atlanta, Orlando, Nashville, Jacksonville, Baltimore)
K so 4-6 will have to be overlooked. I think I listed enough. You get the picture. What can I say, we like to travel in our family!!

6 PLACES I WOULD LIKE TO TRAVEL TO
1. Amsterdam
2. Austria
3. Los Angelos
4. Seattle
5. Back to Spain
6. Boston

K so that should do us for a while there.!! Happy Sunday kiddos!!