Lovely lamp makeover

So Rick had this ole lamp when I moved in (3 years ago last week). I've been meaning to spray paint it for years, and last week I did it! I walked outside with the lamp, painting tape, and the spray paint, and Rick said "Wait, shouldn't we discuss these things before you just do them?" He insisted this is a "really nice" lamp, so I asked where he acquired this beauty.....Target. Don't get me wrong Target has some nice things, but come on Rick. So I moved on from that convo and started spraying.

Here is the lamp before:

Here is the paint color used:

The finished product:

I still need to get a new lamp shade, but isn't it ADORABLE???!!! I LOVE IT!!! I also LOVE spray paint. That do you guys think?

Chicken Enchilada Soup

Ok so I know I have been MIA, but I had to share this recipe I found on pinterest. This is not the original recipe, as I have made it my own, but it is DELICIOUS!!! Not to mention it is SUPER easy!!! Hope you guys enjoy. Updates on our life coming soon.

Chicken Enchilada Soup

1 can Rotel tomatoes

1 small can whole kernel corn

1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 can enchilada sauce

1 can cream of chicken soup


1 1/2 cups milk


2 chicken breasts

Ground red pepper to taste

In crock pot place, Rotel tomatoes, corn, onion, and bell pepper. Place 2 chicken breasts on top of mixture. In a large bowl, whisk together enchilada sauce and soup. Gradually whisk in milk until smooth. Pour sauce mixture over ingredients in crock pot. Cover; cook on low heat for 6 to 8 hours or on high for 3 to 4 hours. Remove chicken and cut or shred into bite sized pieces. Add chicken back into soup. Top with cheese and serve with tortilla chips.

Mississippi to Atlanta via Birmingham

Last Wednesday I headed south to pick up my nephew, and made a few stops along they way. Wednesday I went to Spanish Fort to stay with my sweet friend from high school Courtney. We had so much fun catching up! I almost never make it over to that area which means I rarely get to see Court. I LOVED IT!

Thursday I headed over to Mississip. I hit ALL my favorite spots. I started with lunch at Manhattan Grill! It was AMAZ as always. Then a stop by Realizations and Lee Tracy (had to get a little shopping in). Thursday night I had dinner at Scranton's with more sweet high school friends Ashley and Brandi. It is crazy to see how our lives have changed in the past 14 years (I know I am dating myself). I love these girls, and when I am with them I feel so myself. It makes me so happy!!!

I spent the night with my brother and his family Thursday, and it was great to catch up with the fam too. My niece, McKenzie has changed to much in the past year, she had really opened up from the shy little girl she was. Not to mention she is absolutely beautiful! Wish I had a pic. Friday morning I played with Kenzie and Drew (nephew), then we headed to my all time fav for lunch, Edd's!!! If you are ever in Pascagoula or surrounding area you MUST go to Edd's. Best chili cheese burger EVER! After all that shopping, visiting, and shopping, Drew and I headed back to Bham. He told me his favorite food is fried rice, so Rick and I took him to P.F. Chang's Friday night then we rested for our big weekend in Atlanta. Saturday we woke up and headed to Atl, checked into the hotel, walked around the city for a while, hit up Rick's fav place, Taco Mac for pre-game wings, then it was time to get ready for the Braves game. Drew is a very talented baseball player, and LOVES MLB. So Rick and I being the super cool aunt and uncle we are took him to his first MLB game! We had great seats and he loved it.

Sunday was Six Flags day! It was sweltering hot, but SO MUCH FUN!!! This was Rick's first trip to Six Flags, and he may have enjoyed it more than 15 year old Drew.

Doesn't he look just like me? I can not believe he is so big!! He was born when I was in 11th grade, and it makes feel so old that he is 15 now and going to my high school.

Rick and I really enjoyed spending the weekend with Drew. He is a GREAT kid, very polite, thankful, and absolutely beautiful! We had so much fun with him, and are so proud he is our nephew. Needless to say I had a much needed week of great family, great friends, and great food! This all made my heart happy!!!

Another survey

I am nominating Sweet Lilly in the Birmingham Magazine Cutest Pet Contest and need your help. If you were voting in a cutest pet contest which of these pics woud catch your eye, and make you say "DANG, that's one cute dog!"??? Please vote to the right ASAP!

New DO!

I DID IT!!! I cut 14.5 inches off my hair Friday to donate to Locks of Love. It is a drastic change, but I am getting use to it. Knowing I did it for a good cause makes it a much easier to adjust. Check out the before and after!

BEFORE:

The hair.

AFTER!
What do you think?

Help me pick a hair style!

I am cutting my hair for Locks of Love Friday afternoon and need help picking a cut. Which do you guys think will look best on me? Please vote in the poll to the right.

#1

#2 PS: I feel sure I will look JUST LIKE these beautiful stars when I have their hair cut!!!

While I was gone....

In my absence from the blog world, here is what you missed:

I went to Destin with my mom and her girlfriends to celebrate her very special birthday. She has the sweetest, most fabulous group of friends, most of which I have known my entire life. I absolutely adore them all. It was so much fun to spend the weekend with them.

Some of the Bham girls and I went to a Friends of St. Jude event while Rick was traveling for work.

We also went to a couple weddings. One of which was my family friend, Renee's wedding in Bay St. Louis, MS. Renee is my best friend my entire life's older sister. She used to TORTURE us as kids, and is more like a sister to me than just a friend. This was a family affair and we couldn't be happier for Renee & Sam.

Rick, me, my bestie Traci, and my new bestie Paul, at Renee's wedding.

We became members at Trinity United Methodist Church in Homewood, and this was our 1st Easter as official members (and our 1st married Easter). We've been going to Trinity for years, and are so excited about our new Trinity family.

We also attended Cathleen & David's wedding here in Bham at The Club. Good times were had by all, but I didn't get a pic of the bride and groom.

The girls...

And the guys.

Early May we went to RailRoad Park to celebrate our FABULOUS friend Talty's birthday. It was a BEAUTIFUL day with kids, dogs, beer, BBQ, and most of all GREAT company. We had so much fun, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TALTY!!

It was also my WONDERFUL father-in-law's birthday, so in McKibbin fashion we headed to the lake to celebrate sweet John. We got him a kindle from all the kids and he was pretty excited.

Last but not least, we decided last minute to go to Hot Springs, AR to visit my parents for Memorial Day weekend. It was a nice relaxing weekend. As you can see Lilly LOVES the boat. My parents friends Bill & Penny took us out on their boat to watch the fireworks, and Rick and I agreed they were the best fireworks we've ever seen. So nice to watch them from the water, LOVE IT! So, that's what we've been doing. Nothing too exciting, but we enjoyed it all.

Special flowers.....2 years later

2 years ago today, Rick planted these flowers for me. These weren't just any flowers, they were beautiful hydrangeas that our dear friends Beth & Kyle sent to my dad's memorial service. Beth & Kyle have NO IDEA how much this meant to me and how much these flowers STILL mean to me every time I look at them. The day after the services, I could hardly catch my breath so Rick took another day off work to stay home with me. That day, he said "Do you want me to plant these flowers for you?" I said "YES!". He did have one stipulation, that if the flowers didn't make it, I couldn't blame him. It was possibly one of the sweetest things anyone has ever done for me. Last year there were leaves but no blooms, and this year look how gorgeous they are (and 3 times the size they were the day they arrived)!

Now every time I look at this sweet plant, I think of my amazing friends, Beth & Kyle, my sweet husband, and my crazy dad. WHAT A GIFT!!!! I still can't believe it's been 2 years since my dad left us. Feels like he is still @ Manhattan Grill feeding the chickens and making everyone laugh.

Honeymoon, Provo, Turks & Caicos

8 1/2 months after our wedding we headed to Provo, Turks & Caicos for a much needed honeymoon. Let me tell you this place is AMAZING!!!! We stayed at the Regent Palms and it too was AMAZING!!! Let me start by saying the travel to T & C is SUPER easy and fast, and if you are looking for a tropical vacay, you should definitely check this out. Our flight left from Bham @ 6:10 am CT, after a quick layover in Miami, we landed in T & C @ 11:55 am EST. We took a 15 min cab ride to the resort, and were in the pool by 1:00 pm! THIS IS FABULOUS! So, after 5.5 short hours we were in paradise. Here is our trip:

Our first full day, a guy walking down the beach called Rick out on his Auburn hat (he was a BAMA fan), and we stopped to chat. We instantly made friends, and soon realized he and his wife were from Mobile (and also on their honeymoon). So we made plans to grab dinner with them, and another honeymooning couple from Atlanta at a local dive called Da Conch Shack. Rick and I tried the conch, checked it off our list and will probably never eat it again. Conch is BIG down there, and on pretty much every menu you find in T & C. We had so much fun with our new friends minus the conch.

This was the view from our room, have I said AMAZING yet?

This was dinner @ the Veranda Resort (where our honeymooner friends stayed and 2 resorts down from ours). We loved the Veranda, and they offer an all inclusive package. We pretty much hung out here and our resort. We loved both resorts, and when we go back we will probably try to stay at the Veranda.

Our resort, the Regent Palms, did however have a swim-up bar. Can you say AWESOME!!!??? This came in very handy, and the staff was very nice. They served tasty food and drinks.

We also loved the infinity pool & hot tub overlooking the ocean.

This was at the seated area of the pool bar @ Regent Palms.

We went on a snorkeling trip that was SO MUCH FUN! They took us to the most beautiful coral reef I have ever seen to snorkel for an hour or so. Then they took us to hunt for some conch, I did not participate in this (rum punch and Turks Head beer were served on board). Rick did the conch hunting for the McKib family, and he caught a few, but they were too small to eat, so he had to throw them back.

After all that they took us to a small island off of Provo to hang out, and the water was even more gorgeous than Provo which I didn't think was possible.

The boat captain told us there were iguana on this island, and Rick was ALL over this! He wanted to look for them for hours, but after you see one iguana.....

Can you see how excited he was?

On the way back to the resorts, the capt spotted some starfish, so they stopped and grabbed them. I have never seen this type of starfish in my life, and it was beautiful!!! We had to throw them back as you are not allowed to take these amazing creatures home.

There was some unbelievable sunsets in T & C, so we tried to schedule our dinners around sunset everyday. There's just something about watching sunsets that make me happy.

This was the best honeymoon I could ever imagine! We mostly just relaxed, ate, drank, watched sunsets, took naps, and enjoyed the scenery. I STRONGLY suggest everyone visit the Turks & Caicos if you can. By the end of the trip my outdoorsy, Alaska loving, white water rafting, husband was telling the staff at Regent Palms that we would definitely be back (music to my beach loving ears!). We loved this island, the people, the fact that it is the safest island in the Caribbean, the water, the sunsets, the FABULOUS food, EVERYTHING about it!!! Thank you to my sweet husband for the PERFECT honeymoon, I LOVE YOU!

I'm BACK!

I know it's been a LONG time, but I purchased a MacBook Pro, so I am back in business!!! I absolutely LOVE my MAC!!! I'm super excited about all that Mac offers, and I look forward to learning more about what I can do with it. I will be randomly posting everything from the last 2 3 months, so check back. Hope you all have a FABULOUS Memorial Day Weekend!

Liar Liar

Ok, so I lied. I did not post last week as promised, but I have a good excuse. My computer died AGAIN! We are probably going to have to invest in a new one, but we are going to send the ole girl off for one last shot, so stay tuned. I am lost without a computer to upload my pics, blog, print stationary, and most of all SHOP! As for now, I am taking suggestions on what kind of computer to buy if we do have to send the ole girl off to pasture??? WOW! That was a very southern thing I just said. Have I told yall how much I LOVE the South? Well, I DO!!!! I love it, I love it, I love it! (In my "Helen Madden, certified joyoligist" voice from SNL. If you haven't seen this skit, google it, HILARIOUS!!!!) Ok, so that's my story and I'm sticking to it. I do have to give a shout out to my sweet friends Anna & Chip who are in St. Thomas, USVI this week, I am TOTALLY jealous, and I need a FULL report when you guys get back. HAPPY THURSDAY ALL!!! Stay tuned!

Missing

So sorry I have been missing the past 2 MONTHS!!! We really haven't done much, but I promise I will be back this week. Don't forget about little ole me.

BEST BOOK EVER! WHO DAT!

Ok, so I am embarrassed to say, I am not much of a reader, but I could not put this one down (Rick gave it to me for Christmas, and I swear it may be the best gift ever)! Sean Payton's Home Team, Coaching the Saints and New Orleans Back to Life. No joke, I had to pace myself while reading this, because I didn't want it to end. Coach was so candid, funny, real, serious, and so much more when he wrote this book. I laughed, I cried, and so many times I got chills. He talked about the oh so bad days of the Saints, which were so much a part of my childhood, that made this book so special to me. If you are a Saints fan, I PROMISE YOU WILL LOVE THIS BOOK. He also talks about trying to get these amazing pro athletes to move to an abandoned city, just after a major disaster, the things I personally didn't think about. That disaster was just life to me as it was the rest of the Mississippi Gulf Coast and Louisiana Coast, but to move to these areas AFTER the storm, no way. I could go on and on about this, but I will just say this book is AMAZING! I LOVE COACH PAYTON AND I LOVE THE NEW ORLEANS SAINTS! Now go get this book, then tell me what you think. WHO DAT!

Bathroom #2: Paint color?

We are about to start a little makeover on our half bath, and we need help! We are not gutting this bathroom like we did the other, so we are stuck with this beautiful blue tile. So the question is, what color do we paint the top half of the walls? I say white, but Rick is totally against this. I seriously think there is no other option?? So bring on the suggestions. Here's the room now:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUPERMOM!!!

From this:
To this:

Today is my SUPERMom's Birthday! She is, BEAUTIFUL, amazing, talented, smart, kind, generous, strong, hard working, and the best role model any little girl could ask for! I hope that one day I am half the woman my mom is today!!!! I absolutely ADORE you mom, and hope you have the BEST birthday ever. Wish I could be with you to celebrate, can't wait to see you next week!