Oh Heavenly Day

It’s Friday and I am in the best mood! I am headed back to Greensboro this afternoon to help “Charleston” move to a new house. He and his roomie have to move to a smaller place because his third roomie is headed to GA Tech for grad school. I have missed him; missed him a lot this week for some reason. He has been pretty busy lately so I am not sure what all has been packed up but, it doesn’t sound like much. He told me this morning he would leave me key and a list of things I could start on when I get there…such a sweetheart. Although, I will admit, when I am packing, organizing and re-decorating, I am in my element for sure. For me it’s like Christmas in July! So as weird as it sounds, I am excited as hell to help!

Something that also helps out my mood…..

….is seeing the pictures of these two little rascals, Dalton and Carter. These are my best friend’s twin babies and they have to be the cutest little munchkins EVER! Sarah and Adam are the sweetest people in the world so I can only imagine how precious these two will be as their personalities start to form! I can’t wait to watch them grow up!

Take a look for yourself-- click here: Dalton and Carter Whicker

These pictures will melt your heart like they did mine! I promise


"Heavenly Day"

By Patty Griffin

Oh heavenly day, all the clouds blew away

Got no trouble today with anyone

The smile on your face I live only to see

It's enough for me, baby, it's enough for me

Oh, heavenly day, heavenly day, heavenly day

Tomorrow may rain with sorrow

Here's a little time we can borrow

Forget all our troubles in these moments so few

All we've got right now, the only thing that

All we really have to do

Is have ourselves a heavenly day

Lay here and watch the trees sway

Oh, can't see no other way, no way, no way

Heavenly day, heavenly day, heavenly day

No one at my shoulder bringing me fears

Got no clouds up above me bringing me tears

Got nothing to tell you, I've got nothing much to say

Only I'm glad to be here with you

On this heavenly, heavenly, heavenly, heavenly

Heavenly day, all the trouble's gone away

Oh, for a while anyway, for a while anyway

Heavenly day, heavenly day, heavenly day

Great Song! Look it up and Listen!

I HAD A CRUSH....AND NOW IT'S CRUSHED

When I lived at Eastover Ridge I used to park my car at Queens College and run a little 5 mile loop around the area. EVERYTIME I would pass this beautiful, white, two story house with black shutters. I have always said that I wanted to live in a “big-ole white farm house with black shutters” when I grew up and after seeing this one, my mind was made up…one day this EXACT one would be mine!

Now, don’t call me a stalker but sometimes I would purposefully go running later in the evening/early night so I could see the inside of this house all lit up. I’m not some crazy scary person, but when the sun sets early and it’s still safe to run around 7:30, I love looking into houses and seeing families sitting at the dinner table together; kids doing homework in the living room; a mom in the kitchen doing dishes and kids absorbing the last little bit of playtime in the front yard. It reminds me of what is wonderful in life, and this house was that; picture perfect!

Ok so maybe I was dreaming a little outside of the box by thinking I would one day be the proud homeowner of this masterpiece because right now…it’s up for sale.

Going for only $2,950,000! Whoo hoo..chump change. NOT!!!!!!!!

My dream was slightly shattered this morning when I found MY house on the ReMax website. I am beginning to pick the pieces back up but it has slowed things quite a bit.

It crossed my mind to buy a lottery ticket and win my millions to achieve my dream house but today just doesn’t seem to be my lucky day. Maybe tomorrow…

House Details:
2401 Sharon Road Charlotte NC
4 bedroom 3 bathroom
built in 1926
$2,950,000

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Front of House

Back of House
Kitchen...I could do some serious creative food damage in here!

These pictures don’t do it justice…..I beg you to take the video tour and maybe one day we will be fighting over it at an auction. I dare you, bring it on! Click below:

Video Tour Of My Dream House on Sharon Road

Organization At Its Finest

I know I am my mothers child when it comes to keeping "stuff"; I just don't do it. If I haven't touched it, wore it, cooked with it, utilized it in anyway in the past year....through every season...then I probably will never touch, wear, cook or utilize it again therefore it is out the door.

except for one thing....

T-shirts

It's ridiculous. I don't know why I can' get rid of them. Between soccer t-shirts from high school and sorority t-shirts from college, I have one t-shirt per day for the entire summer/spring/fall season. The saddest thing is, my t-shirts take up an ENTIRE dresser. I am not kidding....An entire piece of furniture just to house t-shirts.

What is worse then having so many t-shirts is the task of trying to keep them all folded neatly on the dresser shelves (again, my mothers child; I am a neat freak). It sucks to want the one from the bottom and then mess up the entire pile as you pull it out. (Kind of like shopping off the tables in GAP; you know what I'm talking about people that wear the Medium or Large that's always on the bottom!)

Exhibit 1:

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Because I can't yet seem to part with any of these T-shirts, I give you Exhibit 2: my solution - the rolling method and then stack like firewood!

Doesn't this look 10 times better? I can see all the colors, I can pull one out without messing up the rest. Pure genius I tell ya! Maybe now I will start wearing some that were on the bottom that I never knew I still had!

I will still admit that I do have an issue and need to get rid of some of these because I will NEVER get around to wearing all of them. My friend Laura made a really cute blanket out of the fronts and backs of her sorority T-shirts; using them as patches. That's always a cute option! Does anyone else know of some good ideas of ways to "preserve" these memories without really having to hang on to them in my dresser?

And on a side note.... I went home this weekend to hang out with my girlie-friends and "Charleston" and of course I couldn't miss seeing my little supermodel niece Olivia Claire!

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I could eat her sweet little face off. When she looks at me like this she could get away with murder in my book!
I can only wish one day to have kids as cute as her!

Those big eyes look at me and I have to pick her up and squeeze her. She didn't last too long laying on this pillow! She just turned 2 months!

"I put my hands up, they're playing my song..."

Sweet Baby Ray's

Neither Anna, Leann nor I can figure out how they got there but somehow a package of chicken wings made it in our freezer. (Someone doing a little drunk grocery shopping? Who knows…) Well, they have starred me in the face for way to long so I decided I was going to cook those little suckers.

I have never made chicken wings…don’t know how to make chicken wings…and honestly were slightly intimidated by them.

Well let’s just say, NOT NO MORE!

I DOMINATED THOSE BAD BOYS!

Here’s what I did:
1. Preheat the oven to 375

2. Run frozen chicken wings under water to separate.

3. LIGHTLY grease (with E.V.O.O) the bottom of a baking dish.

4. Place chicken wings side by side in the baking dish. (Yes, they were still slightly frozen)

5. Sprinkle wings generously with garlic salt.

6. Sprinkle wings lightly with table salt.

7. Squeeze Sweet Baby Ray’s Barbecue Sauce generously over wings. Try to get as MUCH on top of the wing as possible without submerging them completely in the sauce. Baby Ray’s is thick so it stays fairly well.

**This is the MOST important step because you HAVE to use Sweet Baby Rays Barbecue Sauce. Don’t be cheap. Don’t buy Harris Teeter brand or Kraft; that’s fake BBQ sauce. Trust me and buy Sweet Baby Rays…you won’t go back to the knock off sauces again. Ya’ll have broken up.

Don’t even think about going to #8 if you didn’t just dump Baby Ray's on your wings…just stop here.

8. Place wings on middle rack of oven for 1 hour 30 minutes. Check every now and then to make sure they are not burning. The BBQ sauce will look like it’s getting dark in spots and burning but …it's just getting “perfect”!

9. EAT! No need for dipping sauces, these puppies are juicy and perfect!

If You Are Going To Dream....Dream Big!

Do you have a website that you visit everyday? Or one that you religiously look at when you are bored?

I do.

National Geographic: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/

I love this place. I get lost here during the day scouring through pictures and adventures.
Well today I stumbled upon 2 things I must add to my “dream” bucket list:

#1. Biking in the Canary Islands

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Lure: Mountain biking along volcanic trails

Location: La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain

Don’t let the Canary Islands’ reputation for being overrun by beery blokes in ill-advised Speedos discourage you from heading to pretty, rarely visited La Palma, the steep, northwesternmost island in the seven-isle chain off Africa’s Western Sahara.

Here, a jagged mountain ridge splits the island north to south, and in the center of it all is La Caldera de Taburiente. At 6,000 feet (1,829 meters) deep and six miles (ten kilometers) wide, it’s one of the largest eroded craters in the world. Mountain bikers of all stripes come to ride ancient trails that crisscross the island, from mellow, ripply traverses over lava fields to technical singletrack that free falls from barren summits to deserted black-sand beaches.

Siegmund Schuler runs guided tours of the island with Bike’n’Fun and says, "Every year we find or build new tracks." Make your base camp close to the trails at the orange-tree-shaded Pensión la Tienda, a 150-year-old, eight-room country house in tiny ridgetop El Paso. Plan a day with Natour Trekking to hike into the windless, brook-laced forest on the crater’s floor, and set aside another to stroll colonial Santa Cruz, where waterfront restaurants along the Avenida Maritima serve goat stew and papas arrugadas (potatoes with garlicky mojo sauce).

#2. Diving in Indonesia

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Lure: Dive green and dive often

Location: Indonesia's Raja Ampat Islands

Tiny Batbitim—part of a mostly uninhabited karst archipelago northwest of West Papua—is home to great schools of giant tuna and mobula rays hunting shimmering clouds of anchovies. "We hung in mid-water watching this spectacular dance unfold," Misool Eco Resort owner Andrew Miners says of his first dive there. "I realized that not only had I stumbled upon a place of spectacular beauty, but, aside from a few intrepid divers, I had arrived before anyone else."

Miners decided this was the place for the land-based conservation project he’d been dreaming of. Working closely with elders from nearby villages, he leased Batbitim and established a 77-square-mile (199-square-kilometer) No-Take Zone where all fishing (including prevalent cyanide fishing, bombing, and shark finning) and harvesting of turtle eggs is prohibited. With the help of his wife, Marit, and local craftsmen, he designed 11 unobtrusive but stylish cottages using salvaged driftwood and native thatch, incorporating a dive resort into his mini-eco-paradise that’s committed to operating sustainably. Request one of the eight stilted structures hovering over the lagoon; they have built-in deck hammocks and are just a few kicks away from the house reef.


Ahhhh, what I would give to run off on this type of vacation. Maybe one day my dreams will come true...I'm not giving up!

It's My Life. It's Now Or Never

It’s my life and it’s perfect.

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Olivia in her bumbo seat

I wake up in the morning to texts and pictures from my little supermodel. Yesterday she had to send me a picture of herself sitting up in her bumbo seat. She was so proud. I tell her that I am proud of her and that she is the cutest thing ever and she writes back and says:

“I know I am cute Aunt Blain. That is my saving grace during fussy times! Or at least that’s what mommy says.”

She melts my heart; everyday. It’s hard to believe that she is Blair and Sam’s; that Olivia is a permanent part of our family and we don’t have to give her back to anywhere. It’s hard to believe that I get, from the very very beginning, to watch her grow up and go to college and get married and have little ones on her own. I get to watch her open her presents from Santa every Christmas and hunt for Easter eggs on Easter. It makes life worth living.

I look at this picture below from this past weekend and it makes me love life here in Charlotte. I love my friends from Eastover that I met when I first moved here and it never fails that I can be in for a good time when I am with them. I appreciate them for exactly who they are. I appreciate that they are so normal and they don’t always have to go to the “yuppie” bars in Charlotte. I appreciate that any place that has good music and decent priced drinks is OK with them. I appreciate the fact that they accept “Charleston” into the picture, hang out with him like they have known him as long as anyone else and make him feel welcome. I appreciate that they take care of me and watch after me like family.

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L to R: Lanny, Ashton, Ryan, Shaun, Dustin, Me, Kelly

It’s my life and it’s happening now. I am loving it.

Product Review

Several weeks ago Harris Teeter had Jennie-O products on the VIC special. I scooped up several new items to try in hopes of making dinner easier one night.

The first to come out of my kitchen was the Jennie-O Lean White Turkey & Gravy in roasting pan.

I popped this sucker into the oven, let it cook while I went for a run and came back and my main dish was ready. The turkey came out moist and excellent! (and low in calories!) The gravy added the extra flavor but did not weigh the dish down. This one container will probably last me four meals and today, I cut the turkey up and put it on bread for a sandwich – way better then lunch meat!

On the downside, because it is frozen it does pack a lot of sodium and it has to cook for 2 hours in the oven. But if you are like me, take a nap, go for a run or run some errands and come back and dinner is on the table; just plan ahead!

Overall it gets two thumbs up in my book. It will definitely make it on my next grocery list and become a staple in my freezer until I want another hot meal!

BIKES, BIKES, BIKES !

It seemed like a great idea.

“Charleston” and I had been running the first couple days at Oak Island (Long Beach), but wanted to switch up our workout routine while on vacation. So…I decided we should rent beach cruisers!

BIKES, BIKES, BIKES!

We drove to the only place we knew of, Oak Island Rentals, on the main beach strip. The bike rental inventory was rusty and scarce but, without knowing if there were any other rentals on the island, we scooped up the last two bikes that looked as if they would at least roll and loaded them into the 4-Runner.

Growing up, until I started high school, my family had a house on SE 70th street at this beach. Long Beach was all I knew of when thinking of a beach vacation. Blair and I used to go all over the island on our big wheels, bikes, and roller blades. Therefore I was very familiar with the area.

Now, they don’t call Long Beach LONG for no reason; seriously the island goes forever. When we got back to the house “Charleston” said he was ready to ride bikes, so I had been planning in my head, what I thought, was the perfect route! I was ready!

And off we peddled…

21 miles and several hours later….we were done. Holy Moly riding bikes as kids was so much easier then at age 26! I never would have guessed that the "little" trip I had planned out would be 21 miles. As kids, we probably rode double this in a day on our “excursions.” Neither “Charleston” nor I could walk when we got off our beach cruisers. I don’t think God made beach cruisers to go 21 miles in one sitting!

On a positive note, while we were riding, I had the most amazing time with “Charleston”. We did bike tricks as we stood on the handle bars, picked out houses we would love to own one day and watched as the kid came out in both of us. Besides the numbness in my butt, our bike trip was very relaxing and time well spent with just the two of us.

(Obviously we were not hurting too bad because we opted to ride the bikes 10 miles back to Oak Island Rentals to return them the next morning! Money and time well spent! BIKES, BIKES, BIKES!)

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Me and Barbara testing out our rental Beach Cruisers!

I was on Matt's bike and Barbara was on mine. Matt's bike was simply just a piece of rusted junk! Ha ha poor baby. My bike could have been called "blue lightening"!

Barbara was cruisin'
The Atkins Family goes crabbin', the real way -raw chicken and string!
We ended up catching enough crabs to make crab dip one night for dinner.
The house we stayed in was perfect (that's it in the background to the right). The sound was in the back and the beach was a block away to the front - Perfect location!
Me and boyfriend on the beach getting our tan on as Carter was walking up in the background to join us.

Here is my families old beach house on SE 70th Street! It still looks exactly like it did when we were little. I just had to go by and take a picture. It was honestly hard looking at this house because it brought back 100,000,000,000 memories and made me want to jump back 15 years and live it all over again. Being at this house was some of the happiest times of my life.

Since "Charleston's" birthday was on June 29th, his mom made him a birthday cake to celebrate. The homemade icing was RICH and AMAZING!

"Charleston" with his two sisters, Katherine and Lorene

"Charleston" and his Momma - HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

and me....rockin' my 4th of july dress...I wasn't ready for my picture to be taken :(

Overall a fabulous vacation!

Back To Reality

So…I am back….and its hard.

Back to the real world.

Back to life.

Not fun.

I need another week.

I want more sun.

I want more boyfriend time.

I want more Atkins family time.

I want more “would you rather” games, walks on the beach, crabbing adventures, and more “bikes, bikes, bikes.”

I want more of the Legasea.

I had the time of my life.

Ugh...now its back to reality.

**beach adventrues and pics coming tomorrow**

Oak Island Vacation With The Atkins Family

Be jealous. Be very jealous.

Tomorrow, I am headed to the beach.

“Charleston’s” family has invited me to join them for the 4th of July down at Oak Island for the week.

Not only have I fallen in love with “Charleston” but the icing on the cake is that he has an amazing family standing behind him.

As I told Erin yesterday, (Erin is the girl that does my hair!) I have never been intimidated to have a guy meet my family or I meet his. I think it is crazy that some people wait months and months before introducing their boyfriend to their families. I wanted my family to meet “Charleston” from the beginning because if something between him and my family didn’t click…then it’s probably not going to work out for me either. I have had those boyfriends that my family just never meshed with and it makes it hard because my family is a big part of my life and I like to think that from here on out we will spend A LOT of time with them….I mean come on, its family.

On the flip side, I have also been in the position where I didn’t 100% care for my boyfriend’s families and I was miserable. It’s not that none of them were downright awful people, but, from the same way he didn’t blend in my family, I didn’t blend with his. I remember dreading going to family dinners because I knew they would last FOREVER. I knew exactly what was ahead of me and there are only so many fake headaches that will get you out of the boyfriend’s family nights.

Not “Charleston’s” family. They make me feel like I fit in. When I sit down to dinner with all five Atkins’ I feel like the sixth. I am comfortable. I feel like I am talking with my family. They are, using my favorite term, NORMAL. “Charleston” has an older and a younger sister and they seem to accept me for who I am. They have made the biggest effort to get to know me and for that I could not be more thankful.

I am excited about participating this year in the Atkins Family Vacation and getting to hang out with them. I am in much need of a vacation and I can’t wait to be gone ALL week! I am so thankful they have invited me! Whoop Whoop!

I am ready to get my tan on!

See ya’ll next week!

Happy 4th of July Friends!

The Hair Color is Seeping Through

I was told this morning that “if we had kids, they are gonna read 4th grade reading level books when they are in the 5th grade.”

Seriously. “Charleston” texted me that this morning.

He had sent me a picture of himself in what looked like black pants and no shirt. (The picture was cut off right about mid thigh and…in my defense the screen on my phone is small.)

Anyway…

The rest of the conversation went as so…

“Charleston”: Das my new suit! It’s plain but I like it and it was on sale.

Blain: You bought a new suit?!

“Charleston”: Yes

Blain: But, I am confused

“Charleston”: Yes. I did. Is that OK?

Blain: But you don’t have a shirt on. I’m really confused. I can’t really see your pants either. (all the while thinking…what kind of suit is this if it didn’t come with a shirt or jacket? But whatever…)

“Charleston”: Bathing suit Blain.

That is when he proceeded to tell me we would have slow kids. He then went on to help me out some.

“Charleston”: Let’s use context clues. Let’s see…in two days we are going to A: the beach or B: a job interview? (Saturday we are headed to the beach!) Also in the picture I have on no shirt and sunglasses.

This whole thing went right over my head. This was a serious head scratcher for me…who buys a new suit and shows me the suit without a shirt or jacket?! Ha ha…but it DOES explains why he had sunglasses on at 7am! Way to get the full effect babe!

Sometimes I do wonder if that color on my hair does seep straight through my noggin. I think I probably should start worrying for my future children's outcome....

Sad times...