Mother's Day 2014

I have to say, this Mother's Day was quite lovely.
I even got in a half hour nap!

 Cake, handmade with love, by the kiddo.

 This guy went above & beyond to make everything special for me. He is THE BEST!

 All the kids & grand kids with the Matriarch.

 Mom, Dad, Little Bro & Me.

The reason I get presents on Mother's Day - Love her!

Weekly Wrap Up

It's been a heck of a week! Here's my weekly wrap up in photos.

Sunday was perfectly lovely. Avel & I had our Engagement photos shot by the very talented Kalia, of Kalia Lily Photography. We spent a few hours down on Palm Beach when the light was "just" perfect. I can't wait to see the results!

Monday I had a mandatory Real Estate class for our local Realtor Association. It was interesting, for the most part. One exciting thing was that Congressman Patrick Murphy stopped by and said a few words to all of us. Now, I'm probably THE most non-political person you'll ever meet. I don't enjoy anything about politics. I hate when people start talking about it, etc. However, I CAN appreciate a good looking politician as well as anyone else. Might I say, Mr. Murphy is quite the looker! hahahaha! I have no idea what he was talking about, but his eyes were like dreamy pools of loveliness ;)

Tuesday I had Jury Duty. It was NOT my favorite day. This was my 4th time being called in for my civic duty, in my lifetime. I feel like that's a lot of times for someone my age. I went in a 8 am and finally got released at 4 pm! It was actually the first time I've ever made it through almost the entire process. I was questioned about a LOT of stuff, met a new friend (due to sitting next to each other the ENTIRE day), and got a better sense of how the court systems work. I was happy to finally be released. I don't think I would make for an ideal juror. It's too much pressure and my attention span really can't handle it!

View from the 10th floor of the courthouse

Palm Beach County Courthouse

View from the 10th floor of the courthouse.

By Wednesday the hectic-ness of it all was starting to get to me! The kid was making me crazy, my 9-5 gig was WAY too busy, especially because I had missed Monday & Tuesday. Things were CRAZY! I had to take a little detour to the beach for an hour, just to calm myself.

Thursday & Friday were total blurs! I don't even remember what happen! But it doesn't matter because NOW it's officially the weekend! I'm looking forward to "hopefully" having a few moments of calmness this weekend. Maybe I can even sneak in a nap! Happy weekend, lovies! xoxo

One Thing I've Realized I Will Never Master

There are a few things in life I've come to accept, that are things I will never do right. Over easy eggs are one of those things.

I love eggs. I eat them all the time. Breakfast or lunch or dinner...sometimes two meals in one day! My favorite type of eggs are over medium, not super runny, but just a little, to get the toast extra yummy. Now for years, I'd been able to to make them easy-peasy. Perfect centers, just the right amount of crispy on the very edges. It was great.

However, about 2 years ago, we realized the grossness of cooking on Teflon covered pans and switched to all stainless steel cookware. These pans are THE BOMB! So nice, you can pretend like you're a real chef when you use them! I can cook pretty much anything in them, even saute like a boss. But over easy eggs? NOT A CHANCE!

This is basically how it goes down...
I "non-stick" the pan with either butter or olive oil. Either way it doesn't matter...trust me, I know!
I get my eggs in there real nice, but then....they all combine together in one big egg patty.  So, I use my spatula to separate them. That looks like this:

They are already too stuck down to even figure out what to do at this point. Again, I use the spatula to scrape them gingerly off the bottom, to hopefully not break the yolk when I go to flip them.
But, alas, when I flip them they break. Every. Single. Time. That looks like this:

And of course, because they are totally stuck I end up with a pan that looks like this:

Ain't nobody got time for pans that look like that! Right!?!? I've tried EVERYTHING! Oil, butter, keep the temp low, keep the temp at medium, keep the temp higher, watch them closely....none of it matters! The outcome is ALWAYS the same. I refuse to switch back to Teflon, so it's OK...I've come to terms with it. I'll order over-easy eggs when I go out to breakfast. At home we'll all eat broken scraggily almost medium fried eggs.

Current Thoughts While Being Engaged

On December 27, 2013, my very handsome, very wonderful boyfriend popped "THE" question! It was very romantic and wonderful and I was TOTALLY surprised!

I have basically been on Cloud 9 ever since and continually get distracted by my ring.  I'll be doing something, anything really, and suddenly see that sparkly goodness out of the corner of my eye. All of a sudden I find my hand out stretched and my eyes staring in wonderment at how pretty it is!
Every. Single. Time.
Needless to say, I'm a VERY happy girl right now!

So, because I'm one of those super weird chics that's had a Wedding pinterest board since I opened my pinterest account, I have a pretty good idea on wedding stuff that I like.

However, real wedding reality has started to creep in...

Guys, did you KNOW that weddings cost like a billion dollars!? I mean, seriously! Suddenly the reality is, we HAVE to stick to a budget. Not that we want anything super extravagant. We don't need ice sculptures or a famous rock band. We're even OK with a small intimate wedding. The mister & I like that kind of thing. Simple & romantic is our game.

I keep requesting pricing from different vendors, just to try & get a handle on what everything costs. I swear EVERY SINGLE thing STARTS at $2000! It's like the magic wedding number or something! I was suffering from a really bad case of sticker shock!

Don't get me wrong, you get a LOT for your bucks! Every pricing list I've looked at is jammed packed with services that are included. But I only have so many $2000 dollar bills laying around...you know?

So, I've been researching budget weddings and am starting to feel better. Both him & I are creative people. Between us we've got three creative children, lots of helpful family & friends and the overall attitude that this wedding is going to be AWESOME!


Now that I've settled into my role of DIY Bride to Be, I'm feeling happy and excited and cannot stop looking through wedding blogs! Got any good ones you'd recommend me reading? I'd love to hear about them.

So far, we are like 95% set on a date. We've already chatted with our photographer & I'm fairly confident that I've found the dress style I'll go with. Things are shaping up! I've got my evernote app working overtime & trying to stay organized as well as possible. I'm so excited and am going to enjoy this entire process!

25 Random Things About Me

 *Please excuse the crazy stare. The sun was blinding and I was trying not to blink!

A few years ago I did THIS blog post.
I think it's time for an updated version.
So here we go...


1. I am blessed with a small group of true friends.

2. I have a 13 year old daughter that is AWESOME.

3. I'm almost always punctual.

4. I'm a little obsessed with Pinterest.

5. I have an alarming amount of grey hairs.

6. I run a small social media firm, for small businesses looking to be noticed.

7. I will be turning 40 on Oct. 10th, 2013. *gulp*

8. I haven't baked anything in over a year, and this makes me sad.

9. I truly, TRULY enjoy my coffee in the morning.

10. I'm totally in love with my boyfriend.

11. Our family's dog recently passed away and my heart broke more than I ever thought it would.

12.  Watching cute animal videos on the internet makes me happy.

13. I consider myself a bit of a craft beer snob.

14. I am aiming to have a four day work week.

15. I wish I could afford to buy everything organic.

16. I am addicted to blueberries. No, seriously...addicted!

17. I still love Ryan Gosling.

18. I enjoy watching foreign movies with subtitles.

19. Making decisions is not my strong suit.

20. I am a Libra though & through. I sometimes apologize, even when it's not my fault, just to keep the peace.

21. I am a little over zealous about flossing my teeth.

22. I want to go whale watching.

23. Having an iPhone has made me lazy. I never bring my "real" camera anywhere anymore.

24. My favorite body part on myself is my eyes.

25. As of her last checkup, I am officially shorter than my kid.


Now that I've told you my weird things, it's YOUR turn! Share some random facts about yourself and let me know where they are posted. I can't wait to read them! <3

The Summer Is Winding Down.

Well, that's it. School starts TODAY!
The kiddos are back in class and I'm feeling sad.
I never want summer vacation to end!

We spent some glorious time on the water this weekend, in a last hoorah to summer. Kayaking, snorkeling and all around super fun day.

At least I'll have something to look back on, once the piles of homework and projects start happening. *sigh*
All these photos were shot by the kiddo with her GoPro camera. Even this fun little video!

Happy first day of 7th grade to my beautiful baby girl!

Confession Time

I've eaten a package of organic blueberries every single day this week.

Dude! How good are blueberries? Am I right!?!?
They taste like summer and goodness and perfection and I want to eat them ALL!
Just call me the Blueberry Queen, emkay?