Can’t Quite Grasp It

My bachelorette party (part one) is exactly a month away!!! I got an email from one of my friends with a basic itinerary and required attire this afternoon which pretty much sent me into a frenzy of excitement (as those of you who follow me on Twitter already know). I can’t wait! 😀 

I’m sorry but I just had to get that off my chest. 😉 

Dog Park 

Our evening began with a trip to the dog park. 

Sadie was beyond thrilled when we loaded up the car. 

Pumped Puppy

Family Fun

 Our trip to the park was dominated by playing fetch with a crazy-shaped red ball. 

Get It Girrrrl

Ryan took the above action photo of me and Sadie, so naturally I had to turn the camera on him. 

Of course he put on an intense tough guys face… though Sadie’s face was 100 percent authentic. 

Like Father, Like Doggie Daughter

I’m not sure who looks crazier! 😀 

When we first started playing with the red ball, Ryan and I could not stop laughing because Sadie had such a hard time grasping it in her mouth. 

I caught one of her first attempts on video, which made us laugh at her all over again: 

Her big red ball got the attention of some other dogs who stole it away for a while… 

Stolen!

…But she swooped in and got it back when they got distracted. 

"Mine!"

Gotcha!

Eventually it was bath time. 

Bath Station

For as much as Sadie loves the lake and the ocean, you’d think she would love baths. 

Not the case. 

She hates them. Fortunately she loves being toweled off and gets all snuggly afterwards. 

So Fresh and So Clean, Clean

With a clean pup on our hands, we headed home for din-nah! 

Dinner 

Dinner tonight was another easy creation. 

The base was my two-ingredient crock pot pulled chicken which I smothered in BBQ sauce for a simple BBQ pulled chicken sandwich. 

BBQ Chicken Sandwich

To get some greens in our meal, I roasted broccoli at 415 degrees for 20 minutes after spraying it with cooking spray and dusting the veggie with garlic salt. 

Roasted Broccoli

Dinner is Served

Simple and simply delicious! 

Now I’m off to relax a bit and watch The Blind Side with Ryan. He’s never seen it and I loved it! Let’s hope he’s a fan, too!

A Day on the Water

Today was the perfect day for a boat ride!

Boat Day!

Warm Water, Blue Skies

We spent several hours crusin’ around the Gulf.

We also had a little stowaway on board!

Me and Shark Bait

Sadie loves the boat! We think she thinks she’s the skipper because she likes to be up front where she can feel the breeze.

When she’s not guiding the boat, she prefers to spend her time on our laps.

Leslie and Sadie

Me and the Love Machine

Sadie and Her Favorite Aunt

Pretty Girls

The weather was really warm and luckily the Gulf was a perfect 84 degrees which made swimming extra enjoyable!

Even Sadie got in on the action… in her life jacket of course. Safety first!

Safety Girl Sadie

My dad did a great job as captain and took us all over the place.

Captain Bob

Captain and First Mate

On our boat ride we saw some very active dolphins. One even lept far enought out of the water that we could see its entire body. It was really neat!

Lunch

Eventually the sun started taking its toll on us and we headed home for a late lunch.

While on the boat we snacked on pretzels, sugar snap peas and apples, but we were ready for something more substantial.

BBQ Chicken

While my mom made BBQ chicken, I ate a bunch of chips and guacamole. I was practically full by the time I sat down to lunch.

Still, that didn’t stop me from having a slice of the peach coffee cake for dessert.

Peach Cake

Yum!

Errands

After lunch, my mom, sister and I headed to the grocery store and Old Navy where they were having a $1 flip flop sale.

I wanted to pick up a bunch of flip flops to place in a basket at my wedding as “dancing shoes” for the women who wear heels and want to slip into something more comfortable at our reception. Unfortunately they were completely sold out of all their flip flops! Apparently Floridians like their flops!

When we got home, we took a sunset boat ride. Now we’re about to sit down to a late dinner.

I leave you with this hysterical picture of Sadie on the boat today:

"I'm Dyyyying"

Doesn’t she look like she was poisoned or something??? She’s so dramatic. 😉

I’m off to spend more quality time with the fam! We’re going to watch It’s Complicated tonight. I hope it’s a good one. We really enjoyed The Blind Side last night, so I hope we get lucky again!

Question of the Evening

Do you prefer lakes or oceans?

Crock Pot, I Love You

I cannot decide what I like more about crock pot meals: How easy they are to make, or how moist and delicious the food ends up after cooking in a crock pot all day.

I think I’m leaning toward the yumminess of the food, but there’s nothing simpler than throwing meat in a crock pot with some broth before heading out to work. It makes dinner so easy, and you know that’s what I’m all about!

One thing I would always dread about crock pot meals was the clean up. Sure it’s all in one pot, but inevitably the food would adhere to the sides of the crock pot and clean up would be a bit of a challenge. No fun.

After discovering Reynolds Slow Cooker Liners, clean up became a breeze!

I just put a liner in the crock pot before adding all of my ingredients. Clean up is as easy as throwing away the bag filled with the food scraps. I buy them at my grocery store (Publix) in the aisle with the foil and Ziploc baggies.

(Just FYI, I am not Mr. Reynold’s daughter or anything. I just really love those liners!)

Dinner

I’m sure you’ve figured this out by now, but dinner tonight came straight outta the crock pot!

Crock Pot Pulled Chicken

Before leaving for work, I threw a bunch of chicken breasts into the crock pot and covered them with chicken broth. I let everything cook on low until it was dinner time.

As I chopped and roasted some veggies, Ryan pulled the chicken breasts apart with two forks and smothered the meat in BBQ sauce.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts + Squash

Dinner

I enjoyed the BBQ pulled chicken on an Arnold honey wheat sandwich thin.

BBQ Sandwich

I love how doughy those sandwich thins are. Yum, yum.

What is your favorite crock pot meal?

So Simple

All throughout college I tried to grow out my hair. I figured the best way to get the long hair I wanted was to let it grow and grow and avoid cutting it as much as possible. Stooooopid.

Once I realized I should be cutting it every six weeks or so, it finally started to grow! So simple.

I headed off to Great Clips after work today to get my routine snip, snip.

How often do you get your hair cut or done?

After my haircut I headed home to a simple dinner.

I knew I would be home a little later than usual today, so I placed some chicken breasts in the crock pot with low sodium chicken broth to cook on low while I was at work.

When I arrived home, I roasted some broccoli while Ryan removed the chicken from the crock pot, and got to work pulling the chicken apart with two forks before dowsing it in BBQ sauce for BBQ chicken sandwiches.

Everything came together quickly, which was a good thing because I was hungry!

BBQ Chicken

Roasted Broccoli

I made my sandwich using a whole wheat Arnold sandwich thin.

I love how doughy they are!

BBQ Chicken Sandwich

My Plate

Easy dinners are my fav!

Breakin’ Out the Grill

Good news! The rain has finally decided to let up and the lovely spring sun is shining in Orlando again.

Good weather = Grilling!

Meat Man

For the first time in 2010, we fired up the grill to make tonight’s dinner… and by “we” I mean Ryan. The grill intimidates me. 😉

Do you grill or leave the grilling duties up to someone else?

While Ryan tended to the grill, I prepped our sides and roasted fresh zucchini and cauliflower in the oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, flippin’ the veggies halfway through.

Within 25 minutes we had a tasty dinner of BBQ grilled chicken breasts with roasted veggies. It felt like a summer meal!

BBQ Chicken + Roasted Veggies

My Plate

Dessert

Guess what little treat I picked up at the grocery store yesterday?

Cadbury Eggs

Hooray for Cadbury mini eggs!

Great dessert… Just great. 😀