Cankles, Chicken and Mullets. My weekend.

1. Sorry for the No Post Weekend, my friends! Lulu was dealing with Koenig's health (yay for dogs who make quick recoveries!) while I, among other things, was getting laughed at by a team of medical professionals. It's true. I went to the doctor's office the other day because Asia legit made me nervous about my fat feet and ankles. (Evidently Asia's opinion is held in higher regard than my own husband's, parents', and sister's opinions? Woopsies!) Anyway I went in and my fears were confirmed, I have issues.

It's so weird. I've only had the doctor I saw one other time (I rotate between 5 different docs), and she is just so blunt. Which normally I can get on board with (just call me Blunts McGee!)(Sike don't call me that. I sound like a drug dealer.), but not when it has to do with my vanity health.  She asked me why I was there, and I told her I'm not feeling 100%, and being that this is my first pregnancy I'm just trying to be overly cautious etc etc, and I showed her my gordo ankles. And this is her response, "OH MY WORD! THOSE?!?! ARE CANKLES!!!!" And sort of gives an elbow to the nurse in a, "Damn! Would ya look at those bad boys?!" way. Wait. Really? However accurate it may be, I'm pretty sure CANKLES is not medical terminology. Anyway long, and traumatic story short, I have really bad Edema in my feet/ankles/legs/soul. It may require me to go on a modified work schedule (read: more blogging! yay!), because sitting at a desk for 8 hours a day is making my anks worse.

As I was leaving I asked her if the next time I come in I should make the appointment with her. (Being that now we've bonded. And by bonded I mean she insulted me, and I sat there like a boob acting like it made sense.) And she's like, "That won't be necessary. Because ANYONE could see THOSE." And she points to my cankles (who are now weeping in the corner, wearing a dunce cap).

In the end my cankles and I took our business elsewhere. To Starbucks, duh. Where you cannot be judged based on race, creed, or cank size.

2. In more uplifting news, I made delicious tacos the other night. The recipe for the chicken is so simple (my bestie the crockpot helps) and definitely was a crowd pleaser! I served the tacos with sour cream, cheese, lettuce, etc and it was really easy!

Here is the recipe for the chicken (can't remember which blog I saw it on...sorry! I need to get better at that.):

Sweet and Spicy Slow Cooker Chicken
serves 4
- 1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 2) [Personally I don't think two breasts is enough. I did four because my cousin came for dinner. The guys each had two, and I had one. Always take into consideration that growing men eat twice as much!]
- 1 can petite diced tomatoes, undrained
-1/3 cup brown sugar
-1/4 cup crushed red pepper flakes [Kick it up a bit if you want more spice. I did 1/2 cup and ours were pretty darn spicy.]

Put chicken in the crockpot. Combine tomatoes, brown sugar and red pepper flakes in a bowl and pour over chicken. Cover and cook on LOW for 8-9 hours. Shred chicken with a fork and serve on  soft tortillas.

Done and done! Sooo easy. Sooo tasty. Sooo makes you look like you know what you're doing.

3. This weekend was so nice. Friday night we went to dinner with one of our favorite priests, Father Ivany. He is the priest who celebrated our wedding and guided us through pre-Cana. He is the BEST! Saturday Joel went to a friend's bachelor party, so I was left to my own devices. A couple girlfriends (whose men were also at the bach party) and I decided to hit up the DC Big Flea Market at the Dulles Expo Center. We cleared out the car, loaded up on Starbucks, and made our way down to the show. It was the first time the three of us had been to something like this, and we were totally in sensory overload! SO. MUCH. STUFF.  And we made out like bandits!

(Unfortunately my computer is acting a fool and won't let me upload pictures right now. So I have to wait until tomorrow to post all of my sweet purchases.)

In the mean time I will leave you with this beaut...

Business in the front, party in the back.

You like how my sis-in-law and I are pretending to be super enthralled with the antiques so that this crazy beast could be captured on film?!

Sunday our cousin's family invited Lulu, me and our hubbies down to Fort Belvoir for some golf and relaxation. The men played golf while the ladies lounged and chatted. It was a great time! We had delicious Cincinnati chili, brownie sundaes and watched the heartbreaking 'Skins game :( They lost-- but it wasn't for a lack of effort!

The weekends are going by so fast, and the countdown to baby Sellier is getting lower and lower. 50 DAYS UNTIL MY DUE DATE. In the grand scheme of life, 50 days might as well be tomorrow. AYEYEYEYE!!!

Enjoy your Monday!!

-Charlie

P.S. Look at the cute pillows I won from Christina's Adventures!

I feel pretty lucky! Thank you so much Christina!! Here at ATOTS we endorse giveaways and everything they represent. If all goes well, Lulu and I will be hosting our own pillow giveaway at the beginning of October!

P.P.S. A bunch of people with super awesome taste have been asking me where I got the shoes I talked about here. The answer is DSW, girls! Click this link-----> Penny loves Kenny flats They come in black and copper too!

Sunday Funday

Happy Sunday! I hope everyone is having a relaxing and enjoyable weekend. A winner has been chosen for our dotmine giveaway, and we will be announcing her name tomorrow! Thank you to everyone for entering!! We will (hopefully) be hosting another giveaway at the beginning of October, so look out for that! :)

Joel is off to the Redskins/Cowboys game, so I'm having a nice evening to myself. Here's what my Sunday night is looking like:

I've got one of these burning

I'm surrounded by a couple of these

I'm perusing this to find things to make this week

I'm contemplating driving to Sbux to get one of these

I'm going to give myself a manicure with this

I'm scaring the crap out of myself by watching a marathon of this

I'm eating this for dinner. (The dinner of champions! Or lazy people.)

And I'm hoping to see a little bit of this!! Go Skins!

Hooray!! Have a great night!

-Charlie

Three Things Thursday

Hello! Even though my ankles and feet resemble those of Frodo Baggins, I am in good spirits because it is so beautiful outside! I walked to Starbucks this morning, and dare I say I was chilly in the shade? SO EXCITING. Plus tomorrow is Friday (TAIF!), AND my birthday so that brings joy to my heart as well. :)

Time for Three Things Thursday:

1. So the brownsugar crockpot chicken I made yesterday was....GOOD. Not amazing but good enough, you know? OK. Full disclosure? I have a thing against chicken. I never think it's cooked! Ask Lulu, ask Joel, ask a hobo on the street...I always ask the person I'm eating with (yes, I eat with hobos. Don't judge), "Does this look done to you?!" So I'm probs biased when it comes to reporting on chicken recipes. However I know the general population doesn't have this neurosis quirk, so I'll go off of Joel's opinion of the dish.

And he said it was really good! He had two helpings! I served it over brown rice and I think it got the job done. If I made it again, I'd probably make it into a stir-fry. I'd do the chicken in the crockpot like normal and then toss it in a skillet with some veggies. It definitely has an oriental taste to it (the soy sauce laid the smack down on the Sprite, I guess). In the end, I would make it again! Make it and tell me what you think.

I also made something else yesterday. Just for funskis! Oreo Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes. I found the recipe linked on a blog (I forget which one, sorry!) but it's from My Sweet Life. And go-go gadget deliciousness...these are GREAT!

No I cant take credit for these pictures. Even though I really want to.

The recipe is so simple! Really! I mean I of course messed it up by accidentally baking them at 250 instead of 275, but that didn't do much. They were a little softer then the picture makes them look, but still cooked. Plus you put them in the fridge overnight so that hardens them. I made two muffin tins worth, and had Joel bring them in for his fellow teachers (he teaches sixth grade at an all boys school)! Hopefully they were a hit. :) MAKE THEM. YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED!!! (Images via My Sweet Life)

2. I was over at Piperlime the other day catching up on all the non-maternity trends that will be happening this season, and I must say I am excited about most of them! Below is their list of trends, and the ones I really love. For the sake of brevity (this post is going to be so long!) I won't comment. I'll let the pics speak for themselves.

All images via Piperlime

3. Last but not least, Meg over at My Two Cents (...Before I Spent It) (Cute name! Cute blog! And she has great hair!) gave us a Blogger Award! Hurrah!

Woop woop.

We are pumped! Thanks for thinking of us Meg :) Part of the deal is we are supposed to write 7 things about ourselves, and pass along the award to someone else. However, I am going to save my 7 rando facts about me/us for tomorrow's post. Thank you thank you!

Remember to enter our giveaway! It ends tomorrow at 5 pm. Are you feelin' lucky!? Just enter. All the cool kids are doing it!!!!!

Holla Fo A Dolla,

Charlie

Sprite + Chicken= A Crazy Crockpot Adventure!

So this morning I threw together the ingredients  to make crockpot brownsugar chicken. I'm feeling really good about this for the following reasons...

1. The blog I found the recipe on A Year of Slow Cooking is, in a word, amazing. The blogger, Stephanie, made a resolution to use her crockpot EVERYDAY in the year 2008. I can appreciate anyone who has that kinda cooking fortitude, you know? Evidently Stephanie was on to something, because now she has a best-selling book on Amazon filled with crockpot recipes, and is make loads of money off little crockpot adventures like mine. You go Glen Coco!!

2. Her kids call this dish, "candy chicken". Since I pretty much have the pallet of a 10 year-old boy, I'm definitely tracking with them.  Mac and cheese? Yes. Grilled cheese? Yes. Corndogs? Yes, and please.

3. Here is the list of ingredients:

-- 6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
-- 1 cup brown sugar
-- 1/4 cup of lemon-lime soda
-- 2/3 cup of vinegar
-- 3 gloves garlic, smashed
-- 2 T soy sauce
-- 1 tsp black pepper

Yes my friends, you read that correctly. LEMON-LIME SODA. SPRITE. SIERRA MIST. POUR. IT. IN. As soon as I read that, I knew I had to make this! I just enjoy the thought of people (namely Joel) being bewildered and bamboozled when I tell them they are eating Sprite covered chicken.

Given the ingredients, this dish will either be sooo delicious or sooo disgusting. I'll let you know in about 8-9 hours. All I know is anything that calls for Sprite, AND is already prepared by the time I get home from work is a FRIEND-O-MINE!


Your friend and Sprite enthusiast,

Charlie




P.S. I love how Blogger spellcheck wants to correct my use of "crockpot" to either "crock pot" or "crackpot". Crackpot is perfectly acceptable to them. Crockpot? OH, HELL NO. Way to show your little druggie hand, Blogger.

Thanks but no thanks, thank you notes.

Oh heyyyy guysssss. Sorry I took a few days off (this is the blessing of being a CO-blogger). You see, I've been recovering from feeling like I have FREAKIN' CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME FROM WRITING SO MANY WEDDING THANK YOU NOTES!!!!!!! Woah. What happened there? I blacked out.

Carpal Tunnel glove. My new best friend?

Don't get me wrong, I am TOTALLY grateful to everyone who got us something for our wedding, but hot damn! Thank you notes are WORK. And they are especially terrible when you've waited ohhhh sayyyy, six months to write them? I suck. And honestly? We didn't even have THAT many to write. Maybe 100-110? In my defense-- when you become with child  after like 2.5 days of being married (yes. days.) your brain completely shifts gears into what I call S&S mode. Spaz and Stalk. I pretty much ran around town spazing about being pregnant, and stalking the internets to find every available resource on babies. In the whole universe.

So I've been pre-occupied. Luckily, Joel was sweet and offered to help write said notes. This has been great, but with the two of us at the helm it's been more of a blind leading the blind kinda experience...

For starters, we literally have to pump ourselves up to do them as though we are competing in an Olympic sporting event. Lots of chest bumping...we may even get the Space Jam soundtrack involved.  I mean we talk about it weeks in advance before we actually break down and do them. There's a lot of, "So when do we want to finish the thank you notes?" and some, "The next full moon is in like 24 days. That's usually when my creative juices are flowing best. Let's take a stab at it then."

Once we pick the day, there is some fuss (on my end) about location. I am the princess and the pea when it comes to location of penning these notes. Can't be my house. (Too many distractions! Enter the game: "harass the cats with the lazer pointer". Otherwise boring, it becomes SO appealing when thinking about thank you notes). Can't be anywhere too loud (I am nosey and I'll listen to people's convos), and it can't be too crowded (what if they're nosey and read all the profound things I'm writing?). We settled on a Starbucks near our house. This is not just any old Sbux however...it's the double-decker Starbucks. Two levels. comfy couches, [decaf] lattes, and a fireplace (clearly not in use now. But it comforts me knowing it's there). Sighhhhhhhh.

We decided to help our cause, and break down the writing process into two parts. Do half one day, and half another day. Genius right? Well what's NOT genius is waiting about a month or so between phases and totally forgetting who you wrote to. This one probably falls on my shoulders as I am The Woman Of The House. I'm usually really good at being organized and neat with my items, but I tots dropped the ball on this. The first phase had gone pretty well (read: minimal whining and hand cramping), and we had gotten through about half. The second phase (earlier this week) was not as awesome. I had put little boxes next to the names of people we hadn't written to yet, with the intention of checking them off as we wrote them this time around. Expect I guess we forgot to check some boxes, and checked others by mistake. Woopsies! Go-go gadget CONFUSION!

Joel was convinced he had written notes to some of the people with unchecked boxes. But what if he was wrong? I mean he is super hot and awesome. But alas, he is only human. It is here we happened upon a Fork In The Road, my friends. Do you write notes to these peeps anyway? With this you risk doubling up and sending them TWO. Awk-warddddd. Or do you just move on and pray that's not the "you-never-sent-me-a-thank-you-note-for-those-spatulas-you-ungrateful-hussie" stink eye your cousin is giving you at next family gathering? Decisions, decisions. We went with doubling up. Joel started every note yesterday with "We can't thank you enough..." just in case we had already sent one. He said this made it sound like he loved the gift so much, he just had to send TWO notes. (This is why I married the man. He is both gentleman and scholar.) ("We love the crockpot! No really. We like LOVE it. SO MUCH. If the crockpot had little crockpot arms I would be forcing it to embrace me all day. We love it a lot, a lot. And we wanted to let you know. Again.) (Just kidding. No one wrote that one.)

The only redeeming factor of this whole thing is just how stinkin' cute our thank you cards are. ( Made by Lisa Marie at Sweet Tea Photography ).

The front. I'm bias, but I would be happy to get this card.

The back. Oh yes, my name is Charlotte!

And here's the kicker...we still have 18 left. So now the writing process is THREE parts. What is WRONG with us?!?! I am going to finish these today if it's the last thing I do. In the mean time if you need me, I'll be silently wheeping wilst doing my Carpal Tunnel prevention exercises.

She seems happy to me.

Adios,

Charlie