Photo Card

Gifted Tag Christmas

Turn family photos into personalized Christmas cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

So here you go a sneak peek of our 2011 Christmas Cards!  Aren't they just precious? 

The Elite.... Or so I thought!

So as most of you already know I have gone back to school to become a nurse.  This was one of the biggest and hardest decisions I have ever had to make.  It was hard for all of the obvious reasons like: going to school sucks, going to school is hard work, going back to school = being poor all over again, and going to school as an adult is what some would call CRAZY!!!!  I mean the first time was hard enough, why in the world would I decide to do it again???  (Sometimes I still ask myself this question, ha).  But after endless nights of no sleep a lot of thinking I decided the reward would out way the cost, so I dove in head first.  I have been very successful this time around, maintaining a 3.98 GPA (would have been 4.0 but satan  Professor A-hole gave me a B in a 1 hour lab, thus bringing my perfect GPA down) Obviously, I am still holding a grudge! HA! Which brings me to my point, it was a VERY competitive process to get accepted into the Nursing Program, so I thought once we got into the program I would no longer have to deal with the dumb people that essentially were a waste of space in my pre-req classes.  I mean we are talking the elite of the elite!!! Well today we had orientation and man was I proven wrong.  The room was filled with the dumb question asking people and the oh I'm sorry I wasn't listening so I am gonna ask the same dumb question that was just asked people!!  I guess book smart doesn't equal common sense.  Please give me the strength to get through these next two years without a complete meltdown!  OK, I am done with my venting.... for now ;).

Rules of Blogging?!?!

This is going to be a very quick post, but I have a question to ask about the rules of blogging.  I have started stock piling ideas from the web for inspiration for our wedding.  I would really like to start sharing these on this blog.  So my question is, do I have to show the source from where I found the picture?  I don't want to make anyone mad or have people think I stold their ideas.  Please leave me comments on these rules. 

Also, we have been very busy around here.  Between school, wedding planning and now moving I have been on overload and haven't had time to blog.  Hopefully, once this move is over I can get back to it on a regular basis!!  Happy Wednesday!

I will leave you with my favorite engagement picture :)

Sweet Potato Chips

The other night I decided to make a new side dish, Sweet Potato Chips.  I did it on a whim and they came out ok, but I will definitely need to try it again to get it just right.  All I did was slice the sweet potatoes, place them on a baking sheet, drizzle them with extra virgin olive oil, add a dash of salt and pepper for taste, and bake on 450 degrees for 30 minutes or until crispy. The only problem I had was they never really got crispy because I used a bit too much EVOO, but they were still very tasty!

The Ingredients

Before they went into oven

Beach Baptism

On July 17, 2011, Mr. T and I were Baptized at Ft. Desoto State Park by our church, Christ Fellowship.  Mr. T accepted Christ into his life on Feburary 27, 2011 at Christ Fellowship and we have been planning on having the baptism sometime this summer when both our parents were in town.  Well between his parents building the mountain home and my father having double knee replacement surgery we thought it was never going to happen.  So when we heard that our church was going to have a baptism at the beach we decided to jump on it.  We had such short notice we were unable to get the whole family in town but decided we would have my brother video tape it and just share that with the rest of the family.  I thought being baptized at the beach was such a neat idea considering this was the way they did it way back when! Here are a few pictures to share of our special day!

Us with our Pastor Bruce and Matt

Right Before

Mr. T got to help with mine

New Recipe

I have been keeping my Nephew during the day for the last week or so and we got to have him spend the night with us last night.  My brother and sister in law were coming over to visit with him so I decided to make it a dinner night at our house.  I was watching Food Network and felt really inspired so decided to try an new recipe.  You can check it out here.  This recipe for Baked Tilapia with Tomato and Basil was so delicious!!  I stuck with the healthy side so I paired it with a fun salad I made up.  The salad had romaine lettuce, strawberries, almond slices, cucumbers, mandarin orange slices, basil, feta cheese and red onions with Lite Raspberry Walnut Vinaigrette dressing.  All in all it was a complete success!!  I will definitely be adding this to my recipe book!!

Visit to the Parentals

The end of June Mr. T and I went to visit my parents in Pensacola.  My Dad had double knee replacement surgery back in May and he has been out of work since then so we thought it would be nice to go up and visit since he is usually working when we go up there!  We had the best time!!  We did all kinds of activites and I just love sepending time with my Momma and Daddy!!  Here are a few of the things we enjoyed while on our visit!

My Momma got some deep sea fishing poles for Christmas and we decided to go try them out!  I have grown up fishing and the entire family enjoys it. Thank goodness my future husband is an avid fisherman too! :) We didn't catch anything but we fed a lot of fish and had a great time!!

Momma and Daddy Night Fishing on the Pier



Mr. T fishing

The next day we went on a dolphin cruise called Chase-N-Fins and they did not disappoint!  We saw a family of 1 Bull (male), 2 Cows (females) and 1 Calf (baby). They played for a long time in the wake of the boat and it was so amazing!!  Here are a few pictures that Mr. T took that really captured the playfulness of the dolphins!


We look like tourist, HA



You can see the baby in this one