Keep on truckin....

Last night I made a pretty good (and colorful) dinner! I put a Garlic and Red Pepper Pork Tenderloin in the oven on 350* for an hour, through a sweet potato in the oven while the pork was baking and whipped up a colorful salad, consisting of spring mix, sweet onion, tomato, croutons and some sliced pepperoncinis. Once the meat was done, I sliced it up and prepared the sweet potato with some butter and sprinkled some brown sugar on it. It was sooo tasty!

Also, Sean and I welcomed a new 6-wheeled toy truck to our motorized family. Check out this beast:

Tatum felt like making a cameo... Such a ham, that pup.

Sean is in love. obsessed. like to the point of ridiculousness. but, it was a smart move for the businesses. It'll save on gas and provide stronger towing power for his dumpster business, Haulin' It, LLC and for Certified Grounds, the lawn/landscape company. I'm in love because it's a four door and is super comfy. Plus, it's a pretty good lookin' truck. The only thing that it needs is a new aluminum wheel for the driver's side. Other than that, it's perfect.

Here is our new tally of insanity motorized toys:
Ford Sport Trac
Ford F350
Ford F250
Jeep Cherokee
Yamaha Bear Tracker
Suzuki Ozark
Polaris RZR
Yamaha Golf Cart
A goofy yellow scooter

Holy cannoli... We're trying to cut down, I promise. It's a wonder we have room for all of this stuff. But, we sure do have fun! In fact, we're taking the new truck and the RZR to our friend's property in Homosassa this Saturday! I cant wait; hopefully we'll have time to squeeze in some room updates in there... I'm not holding my breath on that, though.

-C Doc

Room for two

It was a busy weekend in our Dockerty Domain! We started Saturday with the yard sale that I've been talking about for a few weeks. We finally got around to putting our crap out in the driveway... well, we put our crap in Sean's parent's driveway. They had a ton of stuff to get rid of too so we compiled it all into one heap of junk. I'd say it was pretty successful, between our two Dockerty families we made over $500. Woohoo!

We started Sunday morning by going to our second home, Home Depot! Sean was having withdrawals; it had been four days since he'd been there. So, we went and got some essentials, a new screen door handle and fittings for the huge potato gun he's making. I swear, these boys will never [ever] grow up...

When we got home the real magic happened... in the bedroom. Get your mind out of the gutter sickos! As  planned last week, I went to Sherwin Williams after work and got some paint for our new grown-up room. I got a color called Temperate Taupe. I love it :)

I think it has the perfect amount of beige and grey with a little bit of color thrown in. It's a good neutral that blends with the rest of the house colors pretty well. After spackling the holes in the walls, the paint got slapped on. Yippee! No more mustard!

While the paint was drying, I hopped in my truck and went to a local mattress store. I laid down on almost every mattress there and, to my dismay, they all felt the same... This was the first time I had ever been mattress shopping before so I wasn't exactly sure what to look for and since Sean didn't go with me, the pressure was on. After asking the guy a few questions, I ended up getting a solid foam mattress. It's not memory foam so it wont soak up your body heat and get hot and it doesn't have springs that will stab you in the back in a few years. It seems pretty durable and it's very comfortable. The best part is that I only spent $250! Before the guy could change his mind on the awesome price that I talked him down to, I had him strap it on the truck and off I went! 

After waiting for the paint to dry, moving furniture, cleaning the room and washing the sheets, it was time. Time for our grown-up room to come together. Time to act like big kids adults. So, without further ado, here is step one of the renovation into our holy-crap-we're-married-adults room:

I'm diggin it. Something about placing your bed in the middle of the wall instead of shoving it in the corner just makes it look more mature. And those sheets? Ahhhhmazing. We put them on our wedding registry and, lucky for us, a friend of ours was nice enough to get them. 600 thread count is yummy. We also got that little white accent pillow for our wedding; it has our names printed on it and says "Always kiss me goodnight". Last night I didn't follow that rule because the hubby is sick, which is no bueno. I hate watching him sniffle but, most of all, I hate listening to him cough. yuck. Anyhoo, we're both enjoying the delicious sheets and the subdued color. I'm especially fond of sleeping like a queen on a queen sized mattress.

Notice those side tables? I got these puppies off of Craigslist. The guy I bought them from renovates hotels and sells the old furniture; I bought them for $5 a piece!

Granted, they're not the most pretty things, but once I'm done with them, they'll be perfect for the room. I'm excited with how it's going and I can't wait to keep plugging away at it. I went yesterday to look at some fabric samples and to my favorite place on earth, Disney World Home Goods. That place makes me happy. I'll hopefully have some time to update a few more things this week, but, until then, I'll be swimming in my luxurious sheets. Ciao! 

-C Doc

Bedroom Talk

Well folks, it’s finally Friday! And with not too much tentatively planned this weekend, I fully intend to get down and dirty the house. Mainly in the bedroom (wink, wink). Kidding! But, not really. It's time to put Operation: Grown-Up Room in full swing!

Since we have this monstrosity of a bed built, it’s time that we get the most important part… the mattress! We’re still sleeping on a double mattress, which pretty much defeats the point of building this fortress built for a queen:

I’m so excited to sleep like a queen, on a queen :) let the mattress shopping commence! 

Also, as soon as I clock out from work, I plan on going to get paint. After painting every square inch of our house since buying it, we've come to love Sherwin Williams paint. It goes on nice and smooth and, because it’s so thick, usually only takes one coat. Hopefully that’ll be the case in our bedroom since it is currently painted the color of some sort of horrible mustard… Here are some inspiration rooms that I love:

 

For colors, I want anything in the greige family. Our house is pretty neutral; most rooms are either gray, beige, or a derivative of those colors. So, I’m sticking to that scheme. I’d also like to paint the bed frame white, or maybe an off white… who knows.

Hopefully next week I’ll be back with some major changes. Although, I’m sure something will come up… Sean wants to work on a project trailer and I have to sit and barter with people at a garage sale for a few hours, but, other than that, we have time to devote to our bedroom. Hopefully I can convince El Hubbo to participate in the madness as we take our mustardy colored bedroom and transform it to a romantic get-away. Ha! yeah right… maybe I’ll convince him with a twelve pack.

-C Doc

Ho Hum...

Not too much to report on the domestic side of things... We've been eating out a bunch (typical) but, on the flip side, we've been eating a lot more at home, too. I enjoy it. I would like to have more freedom in the kitchen when it comes to some recipes and new things, but because of a picky husband (not naming any names, but I only have one husband...) I'm not able to cook things that I would normally be stoked to whip up in the kitchen. Ugh picky eaters....

In better news, I got a new mop. ***Side note: I can't believe that this is what my life has come to.... blogging about mops. Oh my stars, I'm old. Anyhoo, this mop really is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I was dealing with the Swiffer for quite a while. I started out using this guy:

I was constantly switching out the wet wipes and applying so much pressure to get the floors clean that I actually broke the handle of the mop! What can I say, I'm like Wonder Woman. I don't even know my own strength.

So, after that piece of crap broke, I bought this one:

The famous Swiffer Wet Jet. I was pretty excited to get this guy. I put the batteries in, attached the fluid cartridge thingy and got moppin'. I liked it for a while; it had more strength in the handle, but after about two uses, the batteries were starting to fizzle out that squirt the special cleaning fluid (which I'm convinced is just water and some Lavender scent). Not only that, but the fluid would only squirt out of one side, not both. 

#housewifeproblems

So, not only do I still have to still by the wet pads, but now I have to supply this mop with batteries and "cleaning" fluid that I have to buy because only the Swiffer Brand fits into this thing. That's crap I tell ya. To heck with the Swiffer brand. On to the next. Behold, the Rubbermaid Reveal Spray Mop. 

I'm trying my best to make this sound as exciting as possible. I'm sure I'm failing at this task, but, for those of you that have tile or wood floors all over your house, you know what a pain it is to keep your floors clean. Especially when you have two dirt-loving-fur-balls living with you rent free. 

This mop really is awesome, though. If you notice in the picture above, it shows two red pads. These red cotton pads are very absorbent and are awesome to clean with. The best part? They're machine washable. Score! No more buying wet pads ($12 savings right there!). Not only that, but the thing is built pretty strong. As opposed to the cheap sticks used for the handles on the Swiffer mops, this one is about an inch thick and is completely sturdy and durable. The mop head is huge so it takes less time to clean your floors (love time savers!). My favorite part has got to be the fluid cartridge. It looks similar to a water bottle and is completely refillable. You can use whatever cleaning solution you want! Currently I have a water and ammonia mixture ($3 for a bottle of ammonia that will last forever where the Swiffer fluid will cost you around $8 and last a few mop sessions). If you want to be a little more natural, you can use a water and white vinegar mix. I'm all about all natural, but the smell of vinegar makes me want to hurl, which would completely defeat the purpose of clean floors... It also has a trigger to disperse the fluid, much like a spray bottle, instead of pressing a button and getting a measly little stream. This thing sprays about a three foot span. Git-r-done!

In retrospect, you save yourself a bunch of money and time. Isn't that what we're all looking for in life? Enough with talking up a mop though, it's sorta making me depressed... I'll be back later with a more exciting post (hopefully). Until then, happy mopping!

-C Doc

Double Trouble

Sean and I love each other to pieces. So much so that we sleep in very close proximity to one another. And while we do love it, I believe we're ready to spread out a little. get some personal space. sleep in peace (without being kicked, poked, slapped or elbowed).

You see, for the past couple years, we've been sharing a double bed. A little, dinky double bed. The bed size that is just over a foot bigger than a twin.

That's freakin' small, y'all.

Here's my thinking... we're married now. we need a grown-up room. Currently our room is painted this awful mustardy-yellow color. His choice, not mine. It also has a boat theme. I incorporated reds and blacks to go along with the Grey Poupon inspired color, it has flat black furniture (I hate the flat paint), a picture of a boat, and a small sailboat hanging on one wall. I did the room up nicely, but I've dealt with it for long enough. Out with the old; in with the new!

We live in a small house so storage is key. With that in mind, one place that we saw an opportunity to create more storage is under the bed. Introducing: operation build-a-bed.

When this bed is finished, we will be sleeping almost four feet off the ground. You have to jump a little to get in this beast.

Here are some pictures of what we're workin' with...

The main structure of the bed is built from stacked 2x12x8' Spruce. It's solid and heavy and will probably sell with the house because it's so big, haha!

At this point, the bed is about 24" tall and is fastened with 5/16" carriage bolts.

Sean put the 2x4 supports on the outside of the structure to add some visual interest so it doesn't look like a big boring box. Once painted, I think it will look more cohesive. Now, it just looks like some sort of crazy stage. We built a platform and screwed the bed rails to it so the mattress wont slide off.

Above, you can see the stanchions that support the platform that the mattress will sit on, also held together with carriage bolts.

Towards the back you can see hinges. Having storage under the bed is only useful if you can actually get to your stuff, right? Well, we put hinges on the backside so when we need something, we just lift our bed and voila! Our crap is easily accessible. We're going to add some shocks as well, ones similar to what you find on a tonneau cover for a truck. Those will help with the heaviness of the platform and mattress and will hold it up while we rummage through our junk.

We have yet to go mattress shopping for a queen size mattress (a queen! yay!) so, for now we just threw the old double mattress on top. I wish I would have gotten a picture of how tall it is; I'm pretty sure I stared at it in awe of how ridiculously huge it is for about ten minutes. It's ginormous.

We still have some more work to do on our grown-up bed (paint and more hardware), but for now we're thankful to be sleeping in our bedroom again and not camping out in the living room on the floor.  I was over that the first night. Getting poked by a cold wet nose in the ear because you're finally on the dog's level is not my idea of a restful night's sleep.

Fishy business

Last night’s dinner was delish! Sean even annoyed helped me in the kitchen.

We ended up cooking the fish on the stove. I wanted to bake it but Sean suggested putting it in the frying pan. Ok husband of mine, whatever you say…

I started by getting the excess water off the fish by patting it with a paper towel. I then coated the fillet in some olive oil and proceeded to coat it in seasoned panko breadcrumbs. So good you don’t even need to season it!

I then put a small drizzle of olive oil in the pan and turned it on medium heat. I didn’t want to put too much oil in the pan in fear that it might make the breading soggy. Luckily, it didn’t. About 5-6 minutes on each side and the fillets were done!

El Hubbo whipped up one of his favorite sides, Pure Sodium Rice a Roni. Meanwhile, I threw together a tasty salad. It consisted of organic spinach, tomatoes, white onion and pepperoncinis, for a little spice.

Here’s our dinner!

I topped my salad with seasoned croutons and Olive Garden dressing (yum!!!); we also got some fresh crusty bread from Carrabbas; gotta love having a sister-in-law that works there! Until next time, bon appetit!

-C Doc

Bragging rights...

Last week I went to Sams Club in hopes to spend less on more. I did exactly that. The deals that they have in the meat section are awesome! Here's what I got:

8 Pork Shoulder Country Style Ribs $15.00

12 fillets of Tilapia $15.00

3 amazing looking Rib Eye Steaks $30.00

8 Chicken Breasts $9.00

10lbs Ground Turkey $10.00

I also got a box of freezer bags to store all of this meaty goodness. I marinated the steaks, ribs, and chicken breasts with seasonings that I had on hand and split everything up in to meal size quantities before freezing it (two chicken breasts, one steak, two ribs, and two fillets of fish per bag), I also split up the ground turkey (2½lbs per bag).

To sum it all up, total money spent was $79.

I was able to get 21 meals out of all that meat, which comes to $3.76 per meal.

Say whaaaaaaa?!?!?

I win :)

Last night I pulled out some fish and set it in the fridge to defrost. I think I’ll serve it with a salad and some new potatoes tonight… we’ll see. Until then, be jealous of the money that I didn’t spend on my dinner hehehe ;)

-C Doc

Super Simple Soup

In keeping with my goal to cook more and eat healthier, I immediately got to work in the kitchen… I decided to make a super simple soup that takes only minutes to throw together. I’m all about easy meals, and this is just that.

Taco Soup. Yum :)

Pretty much all of the ingredients are canned items. 
Here’s the list:

1 can of Petite Diced Tomatoes

1 can of Sweet Corn (drained)

1 can of Black Beans (drained and rinsed)

1 can of Red Beans (drained and rinsed)

1 can of Cream of Chicken

1 can of Enchilada Sauce (mild or medium)

1 can of Chicken Broth 
(I used about a cup of what I had left of a box)

1 box of Precooked Chicken 
(I used the Southwest kind, it adds extra flavor.) 

1 packet of taco seasoning

I decided to add a little flavor and crunch by sautéing some onions in some olive oil first. This step, of course, is optional but, I’m a big fan of onion, so I threw some in :)

After you gather all of your ingredients, you literally toss it in the pot and let it simmer.

I found a little bit of salsa in the fridge so I added that in.

After about an hour or two of letting all of the flavors mesh together, it’s ready to eat! I served mine with some sour cream and cheese. I also made some corn bread to have on the side; it was the perfect winter meal!

Enjoy :)

-C Doc

New Year. New Me.

Along with the New Year comes those silly resolutions that everyone promises hopes to keep throughout the year. I’ve never been a big resolution person, but with the changes that 2012 brought, I’m going to start…..stop rolling your eyes.

2012 brought me major change. I made our house a home, I became a wife, and I gained loving family and friends. I definitely left out a bunch of other important stuff, but besides all of those things, it was a monumental year.  One that I’ll always remember and cherish. And while I embarked on many new journeys, I would like to become a better person for not only myself, but for my husband (that’s still weird to say), my family and my friends. I want to be a person that inspires, that creates, that people look to when they need help, a person to talk to, a person that cares and is cared for in return. So, I decided to get cheesy and create an acronym using my name of things that I’d like to do or improve upon.

Cook more. I want to make good meals for me and El Hubbo. Stuff that he likes loves and that I like as well. I want us to be healthier. I want to work on bringing us back to the simpler things in life, like eating at the dang dinner table.

Appreciate life. There are so many beautiful things and people in my life and I want to take the time to be grateful for them. So many times we take life for granted; I want to live it up and not worry about the small petty things.

Learn to like exercising. Ha. I ran yesterday and I felt like I was going to puke… but I want it to become easy and normal. I want to get home from work and not feel sluggish. I want to want to run. Or do yoga. Or anything that involves moving. I need to get off my ass. That’s it. I need to move. No excuses.

I want to go places. I want to travel. I want to see new places and experience new things. With the ones I love. Lets gooooo! Join me :)

I want to live it up in 2013. As important as last year was (getting married and such), I want this year to be just as exciting and meaningful. I want to be a good wife, friend, daughter [in-law], and I want to be me. I want to be true to myself. I also want to discover who I am at the same time. It should be interesting… which is why I started this blog. I want to document my life as I transform from a girl to a woman. A wife. An adventurer. A lunatic. That loves life :)

-C Doc

Red Neck 'n New Years

Welcome to 2013! I've got a lot to recap, so let's begin, shall we?

We had such a fantastic time at Red Neck Yacht Club this past weekend! The weather was beautiful, the riding was great and the company was even better. Here are a few pictures to commemorate our trip :)


Waiting to get through the trail



When in doubt, use lighter fluid...



Heading into the craziness!

We all had such a great time! Everyone got stuck in the mud at least once, everyone got extremely dirty and everyone enjoyed hot showers when we finally got home haha. I swear, that's the greatest part about camping and four wheeling; the shower when you get home...

After getting a good night sleep in our cozy beds, we woke up to the infamous New Years Eve. The day that almost everyone looks forward to. The day that everyone kisses the past goodbye and wishes for a better beginning. The day that everyone complains about how much the past year has sucked (as if they have bad luck and their bad choices had nothing to do with it). The day....that everyone gets completely wasted and makes bad decisions. Yes. That is New Years Eve.

Since none of us could come up with a decision of what to do that night, I decided to have some people over for a little shindig. Cue the impromptu party...

In order to prepare, I cleaned the house a little bit, went to the store, prepared some ribs and chicken wings and through some chips and salsa in a bowl. That was the extent of my preparations; it was probably the least amount of work that I've ever done for a party.

For food, we cooked chicken wings and country style ribs on the grill. Lyndsey brought some tasty Cheesey Corn Chowder and my parents brought some coleslaw. Boom. That was it. We served the chowder in styrofoam bowls and as the meat came in off the grill, we chopped it up and people ate it right off the pan. I've never seen so many people crowd in the kitchen, but it was the least amount of mess that I have ever had to clean up. Apparently eating on plates with silverware like civil people is completely overrated.

After we were done with dinner, it was on to the important stuff...drinking and dancing. This is where the blackmail pictures come in to play. So without further ado, this is New Years; 2013.

Please excuse the crappy iPhone pics...

There were some belly comparisons... ha



Sarah was trying to clean something?

  

A while later, Sarah was still trying to clean something...

 

Which turned into a gang bang?

 

Dancing and discussion

Mermaid Dancing! Inspired by the movie Pitch Perfect :)



My favorite boy

 

My other favorite boy :)



More dancing...with some adjustments being made



Monkey faces with Sean's butt making a cameo; luckily I blocked it out!



Briana's wonky eyes

 

All of our shots and champagne lined up for 2013



Happy New Year!



[Some of] my girls :)

These are [some of] my favorite people :)

It was a great New Years Celebration! Although not everyone we love could be with us, everyone that came had a blast and made it home safely, making it a completely successful night. I hope you all had a wonderful time ringing in 2013; may you have a memorable, prosporous and great year. God bless :)

-C Doc