Fall fabulosity

It's officially Fall. This girl is PUMPED! Not only does it mean birthday season...
my sister- September 28
my dad- September 20
me- October 2
Carter- October 12
brother in law- October 28
sister in law- Nov 1?
............

.................but it also means decorating!!! I'm soooo in love with fall colors, the smell of leaves changing and falling to the ground, and pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins...everywhere!! I'm gathering ideas from Martha (of course!) and other bloggers to make my new home so beautiful (even though there's technically only 1 room that has been made over since we moved in and it's still in need of lots of lovin'). I've got so much to do, and so much brain storming that is just sending me into a tizzy!! Not only am I doing stuff for Fall/Halloween, I'm also making baby booties, a baby blanket, a banner for Carter's b-day party, applique shirts for Carter's b-day, stuffed pumpkins, table runners, curtains for the house and sooooo much more!! My sewing machine and my brain are about to blow! I'm so pumped! I'll keep you posted and put up pictures ASAP!!
Here are pics from our trip to the mountains last week. (**insert "siiiiiigh" and "I miss it so much!" here**)

Silver Run Falls
Cashiers, NC

At the WCU football... I love my alma-mater!
My aunt Nishelle

Passing down that Catamount Pride!
He's his father's son....

making friends with the ladies

This was me attempting a family shot, but not so much....
But, seriously, look at mine at Phillip's eyes- How did Carter get such piercing blue eyes???
My mountain strength

Me, Jeff, Kate, and Maria
Jeff and Kate are the ones expecting in November that Maria and I threw the baby shower for. I'll be posting pics from that next time.

3 day weekend

So, last week I worked 10's so that I could have Friday off w/o dipping into my maternity leave time. My boss was very kind about it, but still, not thrilled about the whole thing, but was still gracious enough to do it. So, we celebrated Phillip's birthday Thursday night and had a bunch of friends over until late that night, and got to sleep in the next day. I haven't slept til 10:00 in a loooong time, and it was FANTASTIC!! But, let me go back to Phillip's birthday real quick. We had such a great meal. We had Tikha chicken, basmati rice, naan, curry potatoes, and some kind of pea/mushroom Indian concoction. I served a nice veggie tray as an appetizer (not Indian at all), and then Phillip's favorite cake (boxed yellow cake with chocolate icing) with strawberries for dessert. I gotta say, that was the best boxed cake I have ever made!! I tried to jazz it up by making my first homemade chocolate icing (I've made other homemade icing, but not chocolate) and it was quite the under taking. I found a Martha Stewart recipe, and thought for sure it had to be good! I made the first batch with too much butter, so I made two more batches (both of which burned), and then finally balanced out the first batch with the fourth try. It was very delicious, if you weren't looking for a milk chocolate kind of taste. It was made with unsweetened baking chocolates, and it would have been good on the strawberries, but not exactly what I wanted on a cake. I would definitely say to use it if you don't like milk chocolate. Here's the recipe:

• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 1/2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Place sugar and cream in a heavy-bottomed saucepan; bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to medium and simmer, without stirring, about 5 minutes.
2. Remove saucepan from heat and stir in chocolate until melted. Stir in butter and vanilla until well combined. Chill, stirring occasionally, until cooled completely.

Anyway, we got to sleep in on Friday, and then went to Asheville to pick up my car from the dealer after a part had been recalled, and then went to watch the new Batman movie. It totally rocks by the way!! It's awesome! It's definitely supported by the little pitter-patter I've had in my heart for Christian Bale since his "Newsies" days :) Saturday was spent at the lake and lounging around. Afterwards, Phillip invited Colby and Richie (good friends of ours) for some good guy-time movie watching. I sat through a "Futurerama Movie", and then "The Golden Compass" (Lord help me!). Sunday was spent on the couch and sleeping with the dog. Speaking of the dog, we took her to the lake for the first time Saturday. I figured she would be ok, but not so much. She can swim, but only if she has to. Poor thing, once her feet dropped out from under her she was done. She wouldn't swim anymore. So, she perched her little self on top of my baby-bump and sailed around the lake with me and my noodles quite comfortably.

She doesn't ever stay still for the camera!

Excuse my fatness in these pics. I am just starting to see how much of a massive beast I am these days. Time to really have an expectant mommy cut-back on the intake . Other than that we had a great weekend! Gotta get back to work!

Fantastic Date Night

I've been dreaming and craving my mom's pork chops, butter-beans, and cream corn ever since I heard a Northern radio broadcaster asking a Southerner what butter-beans were (**gasp! The horror!!**) I've been begging Phillip to get to me to the local restaurant in Dillsboro, NC where you will get an amazing home-made southern meal. It's called The Jarrett House, and it's also a B&B. We've been going here for years for big events or when family comes in town. The meal is family style is always a sure bet. The meal is automatically served with bowls of mashed potatoes, candied apples, cole slaw, carrots, green beans, beets, and homemade biscuits. These are endless and the waitresses keep them coming as much as you want. All you need to do is decide if you want a meat with your meal, and which one. For dinner, there's fresh trout, fried chicken, chicken and dumplings, country ham, or pot roast. Are you salivating yet???.... you should be!! The food is amazing!! Then, there's dessert. There's vinegar pie (basically, pecan pie w/o the pecans), cheesecake, or a cobbler of the day (last night's was strawberry). All of this is pretty well priced and is always a sure bet. I can't wait to have my leftover's for lunch today!! Yummmmmmm :) After that we cruised our little town and hit up Walmart for Phillip's deodorant (romantic right!) Ha ha! While we were there we walked around and just looked at anything and everything. We made our way to the music section and what was laid upon my eyes? This beauty:

I really think I laughed so hard I could've peed my pants! It's just too funny! Especially in this area... the mullet is quite the style staple! I'm not saying it's acceptable, it's just a staple!! LOL! Quite the glory isn't it!? HAHAHA!! And it's only $14.88!!!!! Bwahahahahahahahah!!!

Working hard for the money, so hard for it honey!

(this is a black-iron piece on my wall at my house, I looooove this iron material almost as much as I love my orange walls!!)

Working for the state can be a beast!! We get paid once a month, with a measly salary I may add, at the end of the month. I don't know what the deal is with the state, but they pay us December's pay check two weeks before December actually ends. So, we have to hold onto that paycheck for two weeks of December, and then into January, which has 5, count them... 5, weeks to cover. It would be so much easier if both of us weren't working for the state, but unfortunately that's not the case. So, Phillip and I have been scrounging up money in the couch cushions and anywhere else we can find it when the end of the month rolls around. Inevitably, something goes wrong within the time that you are extremely strapped for cash. For us, both of us need oil changes, my car needs new tires (mountain roads are a bitch on tires!), our dishwasher is fried (I refuse to go back to washing them by hand now that we have this luxury!!), I have a baby shower to plan (I'm farrrrrr to excited about this~!), and my nephew will soon be coming home from Vietnam after the adoption papers come through from our government. Talk about strapped! Sheesh!
I haven't been into any of my crafty stuff and cooking lately. I've been absolutely drained when I come home from work this week. My excitement level did go overboard last night though. I'm an absolute fan of the show "Lost". I hated it at first b/c it really freaked me out, so I didn't watch the first season fully. But since then I've totally been into it. Last night kinda started getting back into the freaky stuff. Can I just say quickly how much I looooooove Hurley!! He's soooo kind hearted and just an awesome character to love! And, he's really cute in a "big boy" kind of way. I'm into those boys though. I don't like anyone that I feel I could smooch and break in half. I'm not going to lie, Jack and Sawyer are quite the eye candy also... gggggrrrrrrr!~ The part where Hurley was looking in Jacob's window and te eyes pop up- HOLY CRAP! I jumped in my seat and give poor Gizzy quite the heart attack as she lay sleeping in my lap! The episode was awesome though, and I cannot wait for next week! Oh, and you guys could probably expect me to talk a good bit about reality tv shows on my blogs also. I'm very much addicted. I love the trashy ones like Rock of Love, Flava-Flave, I love New York, Celebrity Detox with Dr. Drew (a total hottie also... did you see those guns!!! Whew!~), and all kinds of other crazy crap. Anyway, I just had to sit through quite a non-sense computer training at work and I'm totally drained. Here's some pick-me-up pics:


This was our driveway with our first snow at our new house. The next picture is the view of the neighborhood.




These were dancers at the Mountain Heritage Festival down the road from our house in Dillsboro, North Carolina



These were options for Gizzy's halloween costume. Which do you prefer, the pig or the cow?