Weekend overview

Cliff and I had a wonderful weekend on his actual weekend off. Friday was pleasant for the most part. I got off at 5:00 and it was literally almost FREEZING outside. My car temp stated 38 degrees. WHOA!!! So Cliff helped me tremendously but surrounding my newly planted flowers with mulch. We decided to stay in and I made the most fantastic fajitas. YUM!!! Yes Cliff and I are both addicted to fajitas right now. But the key ingredient is Claude's fajita marinade. MMMM... and fresh jalapenos!!!

Saturday morning Cliff helped our pastor and family (which they did live across the street from us) load things. Check off for Cliff's good deed! Anyhow we left around 10 to head to Sherman to meet Justin, Amanda, Chandler and Taylor for lunch at Track's. We had a nice visit and catch up. I can't believe how much little Taylor has grown since we last saw her in November. She will be 1 at the end of May. Amanda is also selling Scentsy and I had bought a warmer from her. Anyhow while there I picked out some fantastic spring and summery scents for the house. I can't wait to get out my Star and Giraffe warmers!!! Also if you are looking for a Scentsy rep I have included the link to her web page and be sure to let her know I sent you!!!

https://www.scentsy.com/17689

We then visited my MIL at her office in Denison... She's SUPER busy right now with tax season. Thankfully only 3 weeks left and she can breath. Then we also stopped by to see my FIL. Quick visits, but hopefully soon we can head up there when they have more time. We met my mom for dinner in McKinney at Olive Garden.. Delicious!!!

Sunday began with church. We then spent several hours afterwards touching up our bathroom and getting all of the tape off. Lots of work, but the completed project looks fantastic, complete makeover! I worked in the flower beds a little bit, taking all of the mulch jackets off so my flowers could breath. So far it looks like I only lost 1 petunia from Friday nights freeze.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Shedding...

Well its official... Cliff and I are both shedding. Yes literally shedding off the pounds. We had our month, well almost, 29 days weigh-in... I lost 15 pounds and Cliff lost a total of 21 pounds. Woohoo!!! We are so excited and that definately keeps us motivated.

Coconut Chicken

This recipe is not going to make you do flips. But it is good. Always. Consistently. Never fails.

Kind of like a great pair of jeans or flip-flops.

(Y'all. That took talent to tie that all together. Or not.)

Coconut Chicken

4 chicken breasts
Salt & Pepper
Canola Oil
1/3 cup fine dry plain breadcrumbs
1/3 cup flaked coconut
1/4 cup butter, melted

Sprinkle the chicken with salt & pepper. Rub oil on the chicken.

Mix the breadcrumbs and coconut together. Roll the chicken in the coconut mixture.

Place your chicken in a lightly sprayed baking plan and drizzle it with the butter.

Bake at 350 for 40 - 50 minutes...until your chicken is done.

I often place a sheet of foil over my pan for the first half of the baking so the coconut doesn't get too brown. Just watch it and do what you want. You might like brown coconut.

This is really moist and delicious. I serve it with a big baked sweet potato and green beans.

This is good. You should try it. You will like it.

Kyler is growing

My friend Beth is home and has been home for over a week and her new little prince, Kyler, is doing well. He is already eating more, so awesome! Mommy and Daddy are loving every moment of having their miracle in the comfort of their home. Attached is a picture Beth sent to me of Kyler in his bouncy seat, actually one of the items I gave to her at her shower. He is just so precious!!! Again I'm just excited with joy that my good friend has been blessed and the baby is doing great!

My Great Grandmother Baker

Yesterday the Lord above took my Great Grandmother Baker home to the Heavens above. A few weekend ago my mom and my Aunt Dinah went to visit her over the weekend. She had just come home from the hospital. The weekend for my mom and Dinah was such a pleasure as always. Lots of catching up as always and the time spent there was good for everyone. GG Baker told Dinah and my mom she was ready to go home. Brings tears of joy to my eyes, because I'm the emotional one, but such an awesome thing to say when you know you're going home to be with your true Father above. I found the obituary below online and thought I would post.

Baker, Ines

Nov. 18, 1915 - March 22, 2009

Ines Bird Baker, 93, of Huntsville passed away at home on Sunday. Visitation will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Spry Funeral Home of Huntsville. Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the funeral home.

We have found out to donate to the Hospice Family Care of Huntsville, Alabama in lieu of flowers. They were the ones that helped care for her during the past few weeks.

Wild Birds entering at their own free will

Today I decided it was time to clean out the flower beds... But the morning air was very nice so I decided to leave the back door open and that way Cutter could come and go as he wanted too. Anyhow Cliff was relaxing and watching tv and I was out in the front flower bed. Anyhow after a couple of hours I came back in and asked Cliff about going to Lowe's. All of a sudden I saw a bird flying in our living room. Then another in the kitchen.. Then another. Anyhow there were a total of 3 flying and one baby that was on the tile by the front door. It was so funny, I had to sit there and film while Cliff was working to get them out. All Cliff could say is "they're stupid!!!" HAHA..

Stunning remake by Carrie Underwood

KYLER CLELL JONES is HERE!!!!

My friend Beth Jones went into the hospital yesterday early evening with contractions continuing and she was at that point dialated to a 3.. Kyler Clell Jones was welcomed into this world on March 13, 2009 at 2:36am. He weighed 6 pounds and 10 ounces and 20.5 inches long. Tommy and Beth are doing fine, other than being very exhausted, as expected. What a true blessing and miracle to be born today!!! I can't wait to meet Kyler and see him for the first time in person.

Kyler and daddy

Precious little Kyler sleeping after his entrance

~SpRiNg FeVeR~

We woke up late today.. time change rattled both Cliff and my internal clocks.. Anyhow we overslept and missed church. So we decided since it was a glorious day outside to get out and enjoy it. Where other than to go and check out the garden center at Lowe's.. We found so many great plants!!! One of my faves which is Oleander was in stock!!! So we bought several and are going to plant along the back fence once we get the electric fence installed this week.. Gotta keep the furry child of ours from digging up all of our plants this year. Several other perenials went home with us and hopefully i will get them planted soon.

We came home and Cliff decided to touch up a few things in the bath and I decided to start raking the debris from the black walnut tree in our backyard. When all raked I had 3 of the huge heavy duty bags fully of the stuff. The rest of my day was spent doing laundry, changing the bed and a bath for Cutter.. I posted a video of him going nuts in the house after he got out..

Master Bath Makeover.... In progress

Friday night began the transformation of our master bathroom. We decided instead of going through the un-pleasurable process of removing wallpaper we would slap some mud on the walls with a trowel. Friday night Cliff and I worked from 5:30 until 12:30 that night.. We finally decided to stop when we ran out of compound. I finally drug Cliff out of bed around 9:30 and we began not too long afterwards. We finished around noon with all of the bathroom. Definitely going to look quite "elegant" once painted and complete. Here are a few pics of the bathroom and some with the ugly wallpaper that was up too!

That afternoon we went to several Lowe's and Home Depot's looking for new light fixtures, faucets and towel racks. After SEVERAL stops we decided to go with everything from Lowe's. In both Cliff and my opinion Home Depot just isn't the same place it used to be. So dirty and junk everywhere and in the way and the employees just aren't that friendly. I can't wait to post the pictures of the bathroom with the new stuff.. More to come soon..

Wonderful Chili leads to a Broken Cinderella Carriage

Well the other night I literally thought my heart was going to break in half.. It was a normal Sunday evening in our home. I decided that I wanted to clean out our cabinets and use up some of the things we had in there. Anyhow a few days before I came upon a chili mix that came in a gift basket I received. Anyhow.. I decided to make.. Anyhow I spiced it up and added about half a bottle of chili powder and let me just tell you VETTA knows how to make a wonderful chili now with the help of a few spices. I was so excited and Cliff just couldn't tell me enough how wonderful it was overall. Success was achieved, because as some of you know I worry everytime that I make a meal and just pray that Cliff enjoys it. There is nothing like winning over a man's heart through his stomach!!!

Anyhow.. relaxing.. Back to that point. Well Cutter decided it was play time. So Cliff started tossing the stuffed animals. This went on for a while. I was watching a program on tv and then all of a sudden I heard that sound of "breaking" that just dropped my heart. I turned around and saw my Cinderella Carriage that was displayed on the Bride and Groom table at the wedding, shattered on the carpet.. Yes I was upset. Not mad, just broken. Then I got to thinking.. You know, that carriage is just an object, but what if it was something like Cliff or my mom or dad or family or friends??? I couldn't replace that.. So I truly sat there and treasured that moment that I still have my most valuable treasures possible.

But on the other hand.. You know me.. I got on to Macy's and couldn't find. So I got on EBAY.. Ta-da! I found it... Cliff told me I could pay whatever. So I did. But it was sentimental for many reasons. For one it sits in my house and symbolized the unity of Cliff and I on our special day, a day that I hold close to heart. Secondly both my mom and one of my really close friends, Jill Addington, had both given me this because they knew it had my name written all over it! But after the wedding once I had 2 I returned one.

Anyhow.. All better.. Carriage will be back in my home soon!

Closing our Refinance

Well let me just say from the get-go... NEVER USE COUNTRYWIDE!!! They are horrible to deal with on a customer level. I have never had such a bad experience with closing until them. I talked to several other closers and each one basically informed me the same thing. Cliff and I were both off on Monday to close... Did it happen, NO!!! But on the good side, Cliff and I had a wonderful bonding day together. I think the little moments of the day took the pain away.

So that afternoon Cliff and I decided it was time to get on track. We both started living for the future. Diet is not a good work. We want long term goals and FOREVER goals with eating and exercise. I am going to join Weight Watchers online and keep track there of my losses. We decided we would cut EVERYTHING we eat in half. We love to eat, but we can't eat to love. That's definitely the goal! We are exercising too. I have been walking 3 miles a day on our hill on Rodden Drive and its a GREAT workout! Walking is better than running, and I don't want to go through the whole ankle breaking process again. Also I got on the scale and I thought I was going to die when Cliff knew how much I weighed.. But I learned that he loves me no matter what and that hit home.

So yesterday we closed.. Yes we signed. Cliff hurried home from his job and we stood at Post Net and he signed. He arrived at 3:49 and we had the package signed, sealed and delivered by 4:00. What a blessing it was for the FeDex man to be running late!!!