a song to download

anyone who knows me, know that I love to listen to Christian contemporary music. I love to find new artists. While at the movie Fireproof, I heard a song by a recording artist that I haven't heard of. Go download this song now...it's great. You will not be disappointed.

While I'm waiting by John Waller

What a great message and a reminder. I pray that Josh and I live our lives like this. Waiting is often the hardest part in life...one that I know we struggle with. Always waiting on the next thing to come instead of fully enjoying the place we are right now.

I know, I know

You want to see pictures...I promise I will post them soon. It's going to be a busy week though, so I'm not promising them now.

I enjoyed a delightful short week at school. Actually it wasn't really "delightful"--but another week down! We're actually 1/4 way through the school year...we just completed our first nine weeks! I can't believe it--it's really flown by! Mom and I had a great time in Charlotte. We maintained self control and really didn't buy too much! I did find some great new make-up. It was by accident but I am quite a fan! :)

Here is a "primer"--you put it on before anything. I have no idea what it does--but I like it.
This is the new liquid powder...I don't know how it works--but they only have two colors and it somehow matches your face color. It's the perfect weight though.

Josh got a new sweater from Polo. I bought it for him to wear in Boston to keep him snuggly. He wore it last night and it looks too cute.

My mom treated me to a new Vera Bradley bag. It is the cutest little shape.

The rest of the week consisted of meetings, therapy, and hair pulling days. I will now be full time at one school versus splitting my time between two. Some may think this is good--but I am so sad. I will miss my dear Pelham Road friends so much. Hopefully it is going to reduce my stress with caseload numbers up to my ears! Next week will be the first taste of it...so we'll see how it goes.

Last night we enjoyed cheeseburgers from Red Robin. You must go there if you have not already been. We haven't had red meat in a while and it was due time that we go. It was delicious. We then went to look at refrigerators. Refrigerators?, you ask? I know...the things you get excited about when you're married and have a house. Haven't bought one yet but have chosen a couple that we really like. Our current one is so small. It's a pain.

Today I had my 2nd sewing class for the bishop that I was making. I finished it and it so precious. I will post a picture soon of the completed project. It is going in the closet for hypothetical babies. Now I need my friends to start having girls so that I can smock bishops for them! I don't think baby Noah or baby James would be too cute in a bishop....(and Chris and Bert would certainly not approve!)

We then went looking at refrigerators again. Then, my friends...we went to see Fireproof. I had never heard of it either...but it is well worth the 13 dollars that it cost to go see it. It was great and I will recommend it to every married or engaged couple that I know. It is the sweetest story and is a good reminder of commitment and love. So...go see it now!

We are going to a new church tomorrow in Simpsonville, and I have to work at Loft immediately after that....bummer. Thursday morning (bright and early, might I add)...we will be in the sky headed towards Boston! We are pumped!

Pumpkin Carving and a Weekend

Josh and I carved our pumpkin on Wednesday night. (I really didn't have too much to do with it...) Josh did pretty much everything--he even traced out the tiger paw. Gracie tried to help by sneaking her nose inside the pumpkin. I guess she wanted a taste of pumpkin seeds. The little kids from up the street ran down the hill and came down to help too. Last year we didn't have a chance to carve so I was pretty excited to do it for the first time this year!
Friday night we met Kelli and Trey at Copper River. They just opened up a new one off of Haywood so we decided to check it out. It was delicous--and Josh got to try it out for the first time. We were stuffed when we left! We were glad for an opportunity to hang out with the Ingrams again as well!
Saturday Josh left bright and early for Clemson. I enjoyed sleeping in for the first Saturday in a long time! I watched the Tigers on ESPN while completing lots of chores around the house. Liz got here around 3 and we headed off to see the USA gymnastics team at the Bi-Lo center! We had a great seats thanks to Liz!! I was a little disappointed that they didn't really exert themselves too much...I guess they save the good stuff for the actual Olympics! TONS of little girls where there from all over the State with their gymnastics jackets on...it was entertaining though and I was glad to see Shawn Johnson especially! She's even cuter in person.
Liz's dad met us at Trio's afterwards and treated us to dinner. We got our usual Penne Goat pasta! Delicous!
I am off to Loft now for work until 4:30....I do have tomorrow off and am meeting mom in Charlotte so pretty pumped about that! Hope your weekend was great as well!!!! (I'll post pics after work...)

If only there were more hours in a day...

I find that I take on too much...there's too much that I want to do. It leaves me accomplishing nothing because I can't make up my mind what I want to work on...it's frustrating. I need to learn to multi-task more efficiently. Anyway, here's what I've been up to today...(and the past couple of weeks)Playing with Gracie...spanking her for barking too much...telling her to stop whining...etc.

cooking dinner...don't you love food with lots of color? This is chicken stir fry (the chicken is hidden underneath the snap peas, carrots, and red bell pepper)

smock...this is the palmetto tree bishop under construction...I have to finish this tree and add the moon...and then sew it together :)

Another bishop I have been working on. The smocking is complete--I just have to take the 2nd half of my class so that I know how to put it together!Here is my tiger and football insert...I'm not finished yet--have to add details and some flags at the top--I want to put this in a John John. Isn't he too cute?
1 out of 2 pumpkin door hangers I madeI like this one better...a bit more cheerful :)a book I just completed...it was a great read. I saw William Young on the Today show this summer and decided I needed to snatch this up. I highly recommend it. My mountains of ironing...I'm 2/3 of the way through it...I will finish tonight! (hopefully)

A Fall Weekend

Hi friends. Sorry this post is slightly delayed. I have been busy with projects around the house and also dealing with some new stuff going on at work. It was a long week to say the least. I have hope that this week will be better than last.

This weekend was busy and filled with lots of fall fun. Friday night (even though we were absolutely exhausted) we headed downtown for Fall for Greenville. I'm glad that we went--there were food venues from all over Greenville and you bought tickets to buy the yummy food. We just had a continuous dinner down the streets of Greenville. We had appetizers of fried green tomoates w/ pimento cheese from Sassafrass, a main course of a BBQ sandwich from Smoke on the Water (shocker, I know!), Josh's main course was delicious shrimp and grits from Soby's, and we had a cupcake from Icing for dessert. They were small portions--so while we had plenty of food, we weren't stuffed when we left. Billy Currington and Craven Melon (remember...sweet tea song?) were on stage Friday night. Needtobreathe played today but we didn't have an opportunity to go down there to hear them. Anyway...it was a great event and one that we will go back to next year.

a banner downtown...I need to play with my settings on the camera--certainly I can take a better picture than this!the usual self portrait at Fall for Greenvillean action shot of the street

Saturday I had a sewing class in the morning. It's a two part class--I am smocking the bishop and next class I will construct it. I will take pictures of my progress :) Following the sewing class, Josh and I headed to Columbia for the South Carolina State Fair. We thought the weather was going to be a problem, but it ended up being perfectly overcast with the perfect touch of coolness. It was great. We enjoyed eating our annual fill of fried foods. Makes me want to gag now thinking about it....Josh decided on the way home that we are retiring the fried snickers...next year we're going to try something different. It wasn't as good as we had remembered from last year. I think our favorite food item was a chocolate covered banana...I'm going to try to figure out the best way to make them here. (at least it has some fruit in it!) :) You see allll kinds at the fair--I love to go because I love the atmosphere and the weather and it's a tradition I've grown up doing--but you just forget all the types of people you see until you go again. Anyway...enjoy the following pics.

a dress that won at the fair--I know I can figure out how to make one like this!aren't these the CUTEST cupcakes? I want to figure these out...does anyone else have the same problem? there's never anyone with us to take our picture! alas, we have self portraits!Josh's kind of ride.my kind of ride :)

Josh in front of the fountain he's going to build in our front yard :)every year, they make a new sand sculpture. I am not as impressed this year. It's good--don't get me wrong--just not as good as it usually is.sitting in my new Tahoe Hybrid. juuuuuuust kidding. we still have the gas guzzler version!No, this is no joke. Welcome to South Carolina. Pepsi is fried.we've only had the snickers......think we're going to try something new next year.

this is a fried snickers--looks like a corn dog with powdered sugar!a half eaten fried snickers. notice the melted chocolate oozing out. pure goodness.

Tonight I baked some candy corn cookies--recipe compliments of Martha Stewart. They turned out cute as a button! and delicous--according to the hubby!

Plain, sugar version...

Chocolate version...

Here's the recipe:

4 tbsp. butter, unsalted, very soft; 1/2 c sugar; 1 egg yolk; 1/4 tsp baking powder; 1/4 tsp. vanilla; 1/4 tsp salt; 3/4 c. all purpose flour....if you're making chocolate version reduce flour to 1/2 c. and add 1/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder. Mix all ingredients, roll into balls, bake at 350 for 10-11 minutes. Immediately after removing cookies from oven, press candy corn piece into the top. Cookies may crack...it's ok--adds character!

Monday, Monday

Us here at the Vickery household sure would appreciate your prayers for Gracie. She is still sick. I came home and her crate was a disaster. (I will let you figure out why) After an hour or so of cleaning her, the crate, her toys and blanket...we now have our house cleaned and orderly once again. I gave her a dose of Pepto again and fed her some white rice and she seems to be doing well. Please pray for her and her tummy to feel better. It will make everyone here happier :) Our sweet neighbor is going to come over here tomorrow to check up on her during the day. Hopefully this will help with the crate destruction situation.
Josh got his hair cut on Friday night. He called me from there and had me guess who was getting their hair cut with him. It was Amy from the Biggest Loser. He snuck pictures of her--althought he had to be extremely discreet. I hope they make it to the end of the season!

Sunday Already??

The weekends seem to fly by. It's depressing. Two days at school seem to go on forever--two days of freemdom go by before I can blink!

This weekend was quite eventful for one of the Vickery's. Josh held down the fort here in Greenville for us. He worked on the yard and a slide slope we have to the right of our house. He was planting Junipers because they are ground cover plants. As he was digging, he hit the Charter cable...so, no tv or internet. He called Charter and they could get here on Wednesday! A weekend without football is not a great weekend...so Josh learned to splice and we now have working television! I was (am) very proud. He is learning "handy man" skills!

Gracie Girl is also sick and he has been having to deal with her since 4 o'clock this morning. I feel so sorry for both of them. We're not sure what's making her sick. We have lots of little frogs in our backyard...our neighbor said their dog ate some and got really sick. We're going to have to really watch her when she's outdoors. Anyway...we gave her Pepto-Bismol. Hopefully this will help her. She did have pink all over her mouth, but she licked it off before I could get a picture.

This is Josh's feelings towards his delightful weekend.

I did bake him brownies and muffins to say thanks for winning the best Husband in the world award :) I had a great weekend in Lexington with my mom. It's the first time in a long time that we've had an entire weekend to do whatever we want. We went walking on the Riverwalk, ate breakfast at Cracker Barrel, went smocking plate shopping, and rode over to Sandhills for some more shopping. We met Banks at Copper River Grille--my first time eating there--and I enjoyed a delicous piece of salmon, collard greans, and salad. It was great--they opened a new one in Greenville that Josh and I are going to have to check out soon! To top of the whirlwind day, we went to see Nights in Rodanthe. It wasn't everything I had imagined it to be. The acting was cheesy (and I do love Richard Gere and Diane Lane), the story line was far fetched...it just wasn't in the same category as Nicolas Sparks' Notebook.

Anyway...here goes another week. Have a great one!

Cubs

So this week was the beginning of the play-offs for the Baseball World Series. Anyone who knows my brother, knows that he is a religious follower of the Chicago Cubs. So...here we are...The Cubs finally make it to the playoffs. They haven't won the World Series in one HUNDRED years. Yes, that's right...since 1908. They are "cursed" as Banks would say. Well, friends...it doesn't look like they are going to make it this year either. They are stinking it up in the play offs. What a terrible time to be playing so pathetic. My mom said Banks spends his entire day being nervous about the outcome of the game at night. He takes baseball a tad bit too seriously. My sweet husband found the following picture of a Cubs fan booing the team. How sad--who boos their own team?? Oh yeah--Clemson does that. Pitiful. Have a little loyalty people.


Let's see if they can pull it off in LA on Saturday. Not to be Debbie Downer--but it's not looking promising. I am going to Lexington to spend the weekend with my family. I am leaving Josh and Gracie here to yardwork :( I will miss you both terribly! Hope you have great father/daughter bonding time!

What's for Dinner?

Yummy! Pork Chops and Rice! Would you like the recipe? (And aren't you glad I don't photograph the food for Paula Deen Magazine?...I don't think anyone would purchase it!)

4 pork chops (1" thick) --we only needed two so I halved this recipe
1 cup uncooked rice
1 can onion soup (I made my own from the dry onion packet)
1 can water

Brown the pork chops. Put rice in casserole dish, pour soup and water over it. Place chops on top of that. Bake for 1 hour @ 350 degrees. DElicious!!!

Here is an updated picture of Gracie Belle. She looks like she has the longest nose! (Probably because she does have the longest nose) Here is her "Air Bud" pose--with her ears pulled back. She is a such a mess!

and a funny story for you...I have a child working on the sound "k". She was practicing the word "steak." I asked her if she liked steak and she replied, "Medium Well"...She is in FIRST grade. I don't think I was introduced to steak until high school. Such a priss pot. I could write a novel on her "isms". It sure makes my job more entertaining!