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And we all say Amen!

You guys, Gracie did is not OK with springing forward. This is the series of evens that played out with Gracie when I turned their light on in their room this morning.

Then I said..come on Gracie…let’s go outside and potty! Mac is ready to go! To which she responded….

Why yes Gracie, it must be exhausting laying around being adorable all day.

Friday – Friday evening we stayed in and made a frozen pizza and watched some TV. It was nice to just relax and not be anywhere!

Saturday – Saturday morning I made breakfast and we watched some TV. I then cleaned the house and got some laundry started. Some of our friends from Huntsville were in Birmingham for the day, so we decided to meet up with them at World of Beer. After having a beer, the new Back Forty Peach beer which was mighty tasty…I decided that I obviously forgot that I hadn’t had lunch and it was after 3:00pm. So we walked down to Mellow Mushroom where I proceeded to order another beer and some pretzels with beer cheese. Holy yum. If you have a Mellow Mushroom near by, you must run over there now for their beer cheese. That shit is amazing!

Sunday – I got up early and meal planned and did our grocery shopping for the week. I then headed up to my sister’s house for Berkley’s 11th birthday party! She has two pre-teen on her hands now. Oh my! It was great getting to spend some time with my sister, mom and nieces. Cooper and Christopher were there too, but they played outside for the most part.

Cooper is hilarious. He just turned four last weekend and he is all about some shoes and belts. My mom couldn’t make his party last weekend so she brought him his present yesterday. He had picked out two pairs of shoes and an outfit last time they had gone shopping so when he opened is present he was like Converse!!!! Nike!!! Yay! I think it is hilarious that he knows what Converse is.

Then my sister was telling us a story about how he does this beach ball/beach body thing with his stomach so she calls him into the kitchen. She was like show grandma and Nadine your beach ball and he goes haha ok. He lifts his shirt up and pokes out his belly as far as he can and goes BEACH BALL! Then my sister says, show them your beach body. He says, “No…I just ate a cupcake I have no beach body.” We died laughing then my sister says ago, show them your beach body. Cooper says nope. Then she was like…I will let you play with my phone. Cooper says ok, fine! He lifts his shirt up and sucks in and he has like a 6 pack. We all started saying “Whoa look at that beach body!!!!” Cooper turns red and flips his shirt down real fast. TOO FUNNY!  That kid has some serious muscle for a four year old. He gets picked on by all his older brothers and sisters and I think he is training to fight back early. He wants to take karate.

I forgot to take any pictures, but we did get a few with my mom’s phone before she left. I need to get those from her!

And then just like that, the weekend was over. I am pretty sure I certainly noticed that we lost an hour.

And that my friends, is the weekend that was. I hope everyone has a great Monday!

1. So lent is upon us. While I am neither Catholic, or super religious…I feel the need to give up diet soda for good. What better reason than the season for making a sacrifice? Usually all I drink is water at home and my office, with the exception of my daily coffee in the morning, and my daily green tea at work. Where does my problem lay? When we go out to eat. I cant help myself, I love Diet Pepsi and Diet Coke from the fountain. ESPECIALLY with Mexican food. Diet soda is just terrible and awful for you and I know that and I need to just let it go.

2. Riceworks – Have you tried these things? They are seriously so good! They are made with brown rice and you can actually see the rice in the chips. I have only tried the sweet chili flavor so far, but they are super crunchy and fill that snack craving that I get sometimes.

3. Beta – I have just completed my first beta week in T25. Holy muscles batman. I feel like I have a 200 lb man sitting on each of my shoulders and Speed 2.0 moves so damn fast that I had to check twice to see if I accidentally hit the fast forward button on the remote before setting it down. I did not. I better be a damn beast after the end of this month, that is all I am saying!!!

4. This weekend is Berkley’s 11th birthday. (One of our nieces.) I told my sister her kids are breaking me. Three birthdays within a few weeks of each other is just crazy! I am super excited though because I will get to spend more time with my sister and my mom is coming to the party too 🙂 She couldn’t make it last weekend to Cooper’s.

5. This is me daily:

Happy Friday everyone!

Now, I haven’t always lived in Alabama. I was born in Pennsylvania and lived there until I was 11, we moved to Missouri until the middle of my sophomore year of high school and then found ourselves in Georgia. I finished up high school in Gwinnett County GA, went to college at the University of West GA then landed myself a job in downtown Atlanta. I lived in Atlanta until 2010. If you recall my love story, I fell in love with a boy that lived in Alabama and against everything I had once believed (that I would NEVER live in Alabama), found myself moving to Alabama for love.

Now, living in different parts of the country…there was always a stereotype view on Alabama. The thought was that the state was filled with a bunch of slow talking, redneck country folk. And well, there is some of that….but name a southern state that doesn’t have their fair share? You get outside of the Atlanta metro area and Georgia is just as bad. And hello, have you been to West Virginia? Ok then.

To my surprise, there is actually quite a lot to do in Birmingham. Plus, we are just a short drive from the gulf shores, Atlanta, Nashville, Huntsville, Chattanooga….you cant really beat the location. Let me show you 5 things that we have going for us here in “The Magic City.”

1. Breweries and Beer – In the last few years, the amount of breweries that have sprung up in Alabama is baffling. And it couldn’t make me happier! Just in the Birmingham city limits we have Avondale Brewery, Cahaba Brewery, Good People, and Trim Tab. Then in Gadsden there is Back Forty (my favorite) and Old Black Bear. In Anniston there is Cheaha Brewing Company, all around metro Birmingham. We also have amazing places like World of Beer, were there are literally like a hundred different craft beers on tap….plus THOUSANDS of bottled beers to chose from. Hop City, which has a bar area where you can grab a glass of beer, and an area to shop and purchase craft beers from all over. We also have trendy places like J Clyde where there is great food and an amazing selection of beer.

Wild South Brewfest at Iron City

World of Beer – Check out all the bottles behind us!

2. Restaurants – For being a smaller big city, there is a shocking amount of restaurants that make “the best” lists in the country: Highland Bar and Grill, Ocean’s, Hot and Hot to name a few. There are so many different types to chose from, that you never get bored with selection. We have some of the best BBQ around (Dreamland, Landmark BBQ, Full Moon BBQ, Moe’s BBQ), a few great places to hit up for Sushi (Surin, Kanomi, Maki Fresh, Rock n Roll Sushi). An array of Mexican and Tex Mex (Fuego, La Paz, Cocina Superior), a few great Italian places (Belini’s, GianMarcos) decent pizza (Slice, Fox’s Pizza Den, Tortuga’s, Dave’s, Davenport’s) and the best meat and three place in a questionable part of town that keeps you coming back for more, Niki’s. Some other mentions are Twenty Six, Five, Dixie Fish Company, Village Tavern, Baumhower’s, and Superior Grill.

We also have an array of fast casual with Ashley Mac’s, Zoe’s, Taziki’s, Newks, Urban Cookhouse…the list goes on! Plus, don’t forget to hit up Dreamcakes for the best cupcakes ever!

Dixie Fish Company : Sweat Tea Chicken

4. Mountains, Lakes and Gulf Shore Beaches – What other state can you find all three? Not many! Not to mention our parks! Just south of downtown Birmingham you can find Oak Mountain State Park. It is beautiful and a great place to go for a picnic, a hike, a boat ride, bike ride, or heck if you are feeling extra sassy…you can get married!

Railroad Park in downtown Birmingham:

When you sit on the patio at Chuy’s at The Summit, you have a beautiful view of the mountains:

5. Shopping – The Summit, The Galleria, The Shops at Grand River…oh my! Don’t worry friends, if you come to Birmingham there are plenty of places to go shopping! We have some great malls to choose from, not to mention a ton of super cute boutiques! Some of my favorite boutiques are Jade (Trussville) The Pink Tulip (Mountain Brook and now a new Hoover location) The Pants Store (Trussville), Lotus (The Summit and The Galleria.) If you are looking for designer stores, The Summit will offer you Michael Kors, Kate Spade, Sak and more!

Yup, Birmingham might not be a “destination” city for most people…but it sure does have a heck of a lot to offer. If you are coming through the area, hit me up! We can show you a good time!

For my third birthday I received the most coveted gift I would ever receive in my lifetime. Love-a-Lot Bear. Perhaps you recognize her from the Care Bears. She was one of the original ten bears. Love-a-Lot was  a lot like cupid per say, always trying to spread love. She used the word love a lot. Hence her name.

Well, my Love-a-Lot bear became my instant best friend. She literally went EVERYWHERE with me. She slept in my bed at night, she watched cartoons with me during the day, she ate dinner with me at the table, she went shopping with me, she came to all my doctor visits, she spent the night with me wherever I went. Because she was with me 24/7, she encountered germs and dirt and grime just like I did and had to be washed, a lot. My mother would throw her in the washing machine, and then hang her by her ears on the clothesline outside. You see, it was common back in the 80’s in the north to hang your clothes out to dry. We didn’t even own a dryer.

Here she is at the hospital when I went to visit my mom after my sister was born. Sorry about the blur!

I used to get SO MAD at my mom for hanging her out to dry like some common material item. Love-A-Lot was my best friend. She had feelings. And she did NOT LIKE to hang outside on the clothesline by  her ears. I would run out and try to jump and reach her, never succeeding in actually pulling  her down. I would tell my mom that she was hurting hanging out there by her ears. I also had an irrational fear that a damn bird was going to come and swoop her away like my sister’s pacifier. Perhaps that is where my hatred for those disgusting creepy little furry animals come from? That is a story for another day.

You would think my love for Love-A-Lot would eventually fade over the years as I got older, but no. Not at all. Love-A-Lot continued to be my buddy and come to all sleepovers with me. Anytime we traveled, Love-A-Lot found her way in my suitcase. She started to become more and more delicate over the years. I always told my mom it was all her fault that she was showing signs of aging because of the times that she hung by her ears outside, or all the times my dad would toss her around with my mom and my sister playing monkey in the middle with me. RUDE! My mom even had a back up Love-A-Lot, but I knew the difference. The back up was an impostor!

Love-A-Lot slept in my bed with me all the way until I got Gracie in 2005. Yes, I am not ashamed to admit that I slept with my childhood teddy bear until I was 21 years old. You can ask my college dorm mate, Love-A-Lot was always on my dorm bed. The ONLY reason I stopped sleeping with her was because Gracie felt like every stuffed item in the house was hers to shred. She wasn’t shredding my care bear, damnit! The joke in my house was that Love-A-Lot was going to walk down the aisle with me at my own wedding. Had we actually had a wedding ceremony with people, she might have found her way in there somewhere…if nothing else…as a laugh for my parents.

Last week I came ill. I had some type of 24 hour bug and I felt like death was upon me. Chris and I were getting ready for bed, and he was out in the living room shutting the TV off. I had already crawled in bed when he walked in and he looked at me and said, “Wow, you must really be sick since your bear made it to bed with you.” There I was, at 30 years old laying in my bed that I share with my husband, squeezing my Love-A-Lot bear that I dug out of my closet who is no longer the beautiful pink color that she once was nearly 30 years ago. Who is missing her little curly hair on top her head that I cut off when I was about four because I didn’t like it. Who is missing LOTS of fur all over her body. Whose tag has been worn to mere pieces of thread from all the years of me rubbing it between my fingers as a form of comfort. Who has caught most of the tears of my life. The one whom I always squeezed for comfort in time of anger or sadness. And let me tell you, that night I slept like a baby. I even had random unrealistic and vivid dreams, just like I used to when I was little.

Today I want to share a recipe that has been in my family for awhile. My great aunt is from Italy and being from the north, Italian food was a big deal anyways. One of my favorite Italian dishes is Italian Sausage. You can make this dish as spicy or as not spicy as you like with just a few tweaks!

What you need:

Italian sausage – I use hot, if you don’t like spicy food…use mild. You can use one to two packages, usually a package has five links in it.

Tomato sauce – I used a 33 ounce container but you could also use the 28 ounce can

28 ounce can crushed tomatoes

2 small cans tomato paste -(I prefer no salt added, but to each their own!)

2 green bell peppers

1 onion

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon black pepper (the more you use the hotter it will be)

1 teaspoon chili powder

4 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons vinegar

1/4 teaspoon celery seed

Italian seasoning – I don’t measure Italian seasoning, I just dump. You want to add some when you add the other seasonings, and then you want A LOT on top at the very end.

What you do:

– Dump tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes and tomato paste into a crock pot.

– Add the sausage. Now, I cut each sausage link into three pieces, I prefer to serve this in a bowl and they fit better that way. They also cook faster this way.

-Add all the seasonings, Worcestershire sauce and vinegar.

-Cut up the peppers and onions into strips and add to the crock pot. They should be cut in strips like this…

-Mix everything around and make sure all the sausage pieces are covered by sauce.

-Now sprinkle Italian seasoning pretty heavily over the top once everything is in.

Cook on low for eight hours or on high for four to five. Stir and serve!

I serve this with fresh wheat french bread. I LOVE to dip the bread into the spicy sauce. Yum yum yum!