Mac and Cheese

Today is my Great Grandmother's 90th Birthday party. We are having a huge cookout b/c Hello?! Turning 90 is an awesome ordeal that should be celebrated BIG! So like an idiot, I volunteer to make the mac and cheese! I called mom up yesterday because I had not perfected the recipe and it was BLAND. I asked if I could just bring the rolls! She said she had already told everyone that I was making the mac and cheese so no. HAHA!

So I went back to my researching for the best mac and cheese recipe...also the least complicated! I stumbled across this awesome lady's blog who had a link to someone who was trying to figure out the best mac and cheese recipe. So I was like , right on! I hit the jackpot! This lady had tried several recipes and rated them!

The best part - I already had most of the ingredients! So last night, I got to work. Time was running up for me! Brendan was my test rat and he told me what it needed which was more cheese...I can't argue with that. I'm the biggest Peanut Butter and Cheese lover there is! Not together though..ewww!

I thought I would share the recipe but make sure you add more cheese! I would actually put cheese in the middle. Make it extra cheesy! It's also very creamy. It's yummy!

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/04/macaroni-cheese/

Oh and the website it AWESOME because it has step by step pictures! No one does that! They should, but they don't!

Recommended book also - Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult. Great read! Well, I actually got it on CD so I listened to it on my way to and from the beach and just whenever I was in the car!

Have a great weekend!

Bizzzzeeeee (Busy)

Didn't want you to think I couldn't spell!

Well, things are back in gear. School has started back. I'm still a long term sub but DEFINITELY hoping and open to new opportunities that I pray WILL arrive! I've decided to look at this as though it's God's purpose...which I know it is! Maybe God put me here to reach these particular students. I've got a much better outlook about things now. Thanks to my mother who was encouraging and supportive like she always is! So I have a big group! Big comparitive to last year's class which basically stayed at 16 students and the year before at 15. This year, 22! And don't say "oh, it's just 6 more" because 1 more than make a big diff! The kids are to cute and most of them are such sweethearts! There are a few that are so silly! It's wonderful to see all the different personalities of these 5 and 6 and some 7 year olds! Most are 6, by the way!

Brendan has been swamped at work and I've missed him a lot lately. After tomorrow, he will have worked for 13 days straight! No bueno! Saturday, we've got 2 events going on! One- my fabulous Great Grandmother's 90th Birthday Party!!! We are expecting 35 + people! What a blessing!! She's so wonderful and is so excited about her party. She LOVES to socialize! Everytime I go over there, she's telling me to sit down and stay a while. Monday is her actual birthday. I'm excited to see all of the family as well. We also have our friend, David's, going away party. He's the guy who caught the garter! He's a big Georgia fan and he caught my Gamecock Garter! hehee Well, he's going back hom to GA. So we want to wish him off well!

Today marks exactly 2 months since Brendan and I got married! How crazy! Oddly enough, it seems much longer than that!

Well, I've gotta run! Dinner time!

So long summer!

Summer vacation is coming to an end. I start working Wednesday. Summer sure flew by! But oddly enough, our wedding seems like so long ago! I want to rewind it! Especially back to our honeymoon where we were totally catered to!

This past weekend was tax free weekend here in South Carolina and Brendan and I took advantage of it and purchased ourselves a new printer! We needed one badly. We did have a nice one but we made the mistake of going to one of those refill your ink cartridge places and ever since then, our printer has taken a leave of absence. So what's the first thing I print off of our new printer you ask! Well, since all of my books (children's books) have "This book belongs to Miss Cox" on them, I printed off new labels that say......... you guessed it! "This book belongs to MRS. TALTY" Except it's not in all caps! Fun stuff! I also printed off address labels with a 3 leaf clovers on them for us Talty's to celebrate the Irish heritage!

This past Saturday, we met up with my old teacher colleagues for a fun cook out! We had a lot of fun and it was great seeing everyone again!

Our weekends are pretty full for the remainder of August! Next weekend, a few friends and myself are throwing a luau shower for 2 of our friends who are getting married. So I'm pretty busy in preparation for that. Then the following weekend, we have my Great Grandma's 90th Birthday party and a farewell party for a friend of ours. I enjoy being busy though!

Well, I just wanted to give a quick update on things although there is not too much to update on! Brendan has a softball game tonight that I hope I can make! I am meeting with the girls to discuss the luau this Saturday and not sure how long that will take. Hopefully, I'll make it!

Cookarella

Sure, that's a play off of Bakerella! I have always-well, since Brendan and first started dating, loved to cook. Baking particularly. However, I consider myself to be pretty new to the cooking world. I'm always trying out new recipes and poor Brendan is always the guinea pig. Lately, I've tried fajitas and it was a sucess! I even made fajitas during our vacation and my family gobbled them up!

Tonight I am trying something new. I am stewing potatoes and sauted onions (Thanks Randy!) and cubed steak. We shall see how that turns out. Brendan informed me that cubed steak is not a good meat but seriously!, how was I to know?! I bought it so I'm cooking it and that's that. No need in wastin' it!

My point is, if you have great recipes that are fairly simple or have few ingredients- send them my way! Please! Well, I've gotta go and finish getting dinner ready before my husband gets home!

Summer time and the livin' is easy - for me at least

Sorry for the lack of updates! Things haven't been very busy around here but they are certainly about to pick up! This is my last week of pure, complete laziness and then it's back to work. Wish I was going back to work at my old school. :o( I'm still a little sad about that as you can see! This past week, I was able to go to the beach and spend some great time with some of my favorites - my mom, the sun, and the ocean! It was great. We layed out on the beach all day long. Literally. We got out there about 10 each morning and didn't really come in until 6. Of course we came in for lunch. Needlesss to say, we got a little cooked. Luckily, it all went in and wasn't red - just tender. Randy was also there along with his son. Gina and Megan came down for a day and spent time with us. It was a great vacation but something very important was missing and that was my husband! I missed him a lot and wished he could have been there!

Friday night, we went to Crocodile Rocks to see my cousin, Jonathan play. We met up with my Uncle Roger, Aunt Lynn, and then my wonderful cousin Mandi joined us! We had a great time listening to the dualing pianos. Brendan loves this place and so we're planning to go back to the beach soon and stay in Aunt Lynn's condo with them. This is a picture of me and mom taken from Crocs. I always forgot my camera on the beach.

Oh I must tell you about all the excitement that went on while vacationing. It was not exciting like FUN but just wow. Well, the 2nd day there we see this plane that keeps making circles above the ocean and it keeps getting wider and wider and then narrower and narrower. They were looking for the body of a 12 year old that drowned last Thursday. Then there were all these jet skis and divers out there. It was crazy. Nothing has been found so far. The next day, I was laying on the beach and mom had decided to go lay down by the ocean. I see our lifeguard start running down the beach and I look in the ocean and there are 2 lideguards in the ocean pretty far out and they have someone. Then this lifeguard truck races down the beach like a bat out of hell and I'm pretty worried and scared at this point. Mom tells me to come on and to let's go see what's going on. Well, me being the nosey person I am, went along. A man- not a child- was pulled from the ocean and they were giving him oxygen. They must have already administered CPR by the time we had gotten there. He was curled up and having seizures. He looked like he was in such pain. I was very upset and it broke my heart. I couldn't stand to watch. Mom and I just prayed and prayed for the young man. I listened to the news that night and a drowning was reported on the other side of the beach but not the side we were on which is still horrible. So I thank the good Lord that this man was okay.

Sorry for the downer but it was definitely the scariest thing that I have ever witnessed and I hope to never see anything like that again.

I'll try to do better with updates. Brendan and Danny start their new season of softball tonight if the weather permits it! It's been cloudy all morning. It's hard to believe the fall ball is already starting up and it's even harder to believe that it's about time to go back to work! Awww MAN! :o)