Boo!

Ahh!!!

Don't be alarmed, it's just me :)

I know, I know.... I've been gone for a while. Life happens. And let me tell you, life was dishin' it.

At work, we went through a system conversion. We went from a DOS based program (suuuuper old school) to a Windows based program. I like it.... but there are so many glitches and problems with it that it makes me want to throw my computer on the ground and stomp on it like a three year old would crush a Cheerio during a tantrum. Needless to say, it's freaking aggrevating.

So, I've been working nine to ten hour days ensuring that everything goes accordingly because they only sent a trainer to our branch for a total of nine days. You may think that sounds like a long time, but when everything changes and you have to teach four people how to literally know every aspect of day-to-day activities that happen within the branch, it is, in fact, not a long time at all. Especially when other branches got a total of two months of training to learn just two or three responsibilities. But, the guys and I are getting the hang of it and, so far, we've managed to stay off the radar of branches with "problems". And for that, I am proud. And a little less stressed out. Sorta.

Anyhoo, on top of that, we've been having some troubles with the house... I shall start by saying that before Sean and I moved in, we replaced and updated most of the house, and after we moved in, we continued the updates. The floors, the paint, the bathroom, we finished the kitchen, a new air conditioning unit, landscaping, outdoor lighting, a new hot water heater and many other things that I can't even think of. But it seemed like everything came to a screeching hault. The landscape lighting wouldn't turn on for some reason, the water coming out of the faucet was cold and the air coming out of the vents was hot. I don't know about you, but we don't celebrate opposite day in our house! Let alone, opposite weeks! During this time, our electric panel broke and became a serious fire hazard. fantastic. add that to the list.

We thought that some of the problems were stemming from the broken electric panel. I mean, it made sense... but in fact, none of them had to do with that. which meant we had to find the problem with each appliance. cool.

Hundreds of dollars later and a bunch of trial and error fixes and everything is a-okay. We now have a new electric panel, we slapped the crap out of the air conditioning unit out of frustration and miraculously the damn thing turned on and we have new heating elements in the hot water heater. We drained the tank three times and replaced the elements three times and it finally works. Thank goodness. I guess that saying "the third time is the charm" is actually true because I now take scolding hot showers to make up for lost time. I took a cold shower everyday for about three weeks. I was not pleasant to be around after stepping out of the tub. Our house is a much happier place now :)

In other news, today is the first day of October. Holy cats this year is going by fast!!! This is mine and Sean's favorite time of year, and I'm pretty sure it's everyone else's favorite time of year, too. Consider us bandwagoners. He loves it for the delicious Pumpkin beer (typical) and I love it for all of the decor (also typical). But, our most favorite thing about this time of year is the fact that we can open up our house! While it's way too hot for that now, we love having all of the windows and doors open. One of our favorite features of the house is that the whole back side of it opens up, thanks to the sliding glass doors that open up and slide into the wall. It reminds us of a house in the islands how everything flows into the great outdoors. We get to view our beautiful backyard, the dogs enjoy the brisk air and it puts us in a better mood. I love it. I'm ready for it. bring. it. on.

That's all for now, though. Big thanks to my five relentless fans for checking in to make sure I was alive. I am, thankfully. I am also taking hot showers, relaxing in cool air and no longer live in a house that could catch on fire at any given moment. Life is good. I'll be back later on this week to show you how much fall has invaded our house. I'm loving all of the colors and flowers. I'm also loving the Caramel Apple Spice drinks from Starbucks (my new addiction), I just wish I didn't sweat my rear end off while drinking it. C'mon mother nature, bring on the cooler temps!!! I'm ready for boots and scarves :)

-C Doc

What's right with the world...

Lately, when you turn on the TV there is usually some trashy show on that either features girls clawing each other’s weave out, or guys fighting over skanky girls with morals so low they don’t even know what morals actually are. You know what I’m talkin’ about? And I’m not going to lie, I watch some crappy TV from time to time. Its mind numbing. And some days, I need something that’s going to melt my brain and take me away from the stresses of day to day life.  But there is one show that makes me appreciate the small things in this crazy world. And that, my friends, is Duck Dynasty.

The show started back up this past Wednesday for its fourth season and I couldn’t be happier about it. It’s a show that you can watch with kids and adults, alike. It’s wholesome family television; and while they do kill the occasional duck, frog, squirrel or beaver, it shows that life doesn’t have to be so “yuppie” all of the time(in the words of Phil Robertson, the creator of the famous duck call). Material things don’t really matter in the long run because all you’re going to have left at the end of the day is the people you surround yourself with.

This family lives the simple life, aside from running a multimillion dollar company. They work together, hunt together, eat together, have fun together and most importantly, pray together. In my eyes, Duck Dynasty showcases a rare union; godly men that are madly in love with their wives and would do anything for their children. It’s hard to find that now-a-days. While watching the show, I can’t help but feel happy and hopeful that this show will somehow change people’s outlooks on things. The world would be a better place if we went at it with a cup of sweet tea in hand like my favorite guy, Si. He’s got the funniest personality and has some goofy stories that always seem to get you laughing. I could go on and on talking this show up, so I’ll put a halt to it before it gets out of control. With that, I’ll leave you some fun activities that can go along with my favorite show:

A fun workout that will have you as tired as their bird dogs at the end of a hunt:

And for my boozers, a drinking game to go along with their infamous one-liners!

Quack, quack, Jack!

-C Doc

Oh, hey!

Haven't checked in for about a week so I thought I'd throw some randomness at you guys. Ready? Good, let's begin.

Sean and I have a new hobby. It involves our backyard, globe lights, drinks, music, our pups and a tennis ball. It's quite possibly the best and easiest hobby ever. We also have bananas growing from our tree, which I'm totally stoked about! I can't wait to eat these little guys; they're soooo sweet and scrumptious :)


Notice the puppy dog eyes glowing in the back?

The cute little itty-bitty flowers that we planted months ago are out. of. control! and I love it.

We spent Friday evening/night scooting around on the boat. We watched the sunset and stopped at a restaurant for dinner and drinks. It was so beautiful and it was a fabulous time spent with friends. I live for those kind of nights.

I found an article in a local newspaper for a vintage market that is held monthly in our area. I went on Saturday to check it out and it was pretty cool! They had a lot of old collectables, along with some cute restored furniture.  If you live in the area, stop in there! It's worth it just to see some of the ways they used odds and ends to create different things. I love creative things :)

I also went to a place that I had driven past about 654,843,716 times since I've existed on this planet. Nobody really knew anything about it and nobody I know has ever gone there... So, I decided to go. Have you ever heard of the Florida Orange Grove Winery? It's the nifty place in South Pasadena that has the brightly colored marquee that showcases all of their tropical tasting wines and it is truly a hidden gem. I went there with some girlfriends out of curiosity. We were greeted by a friendly worker that asked us if we were interested in doing a tour/tasting. I asked how much it cost and when she said it was free, she got a collective "yes!!!" from all three of us girls. They produce all of the wine they sell right in that building. It looks pretty small from the road, but it's actually quite large! The wines are very fruity because it is actually fermented fruit juice. Most "fruity" wines that people drink are fruit infused, these were literrally fruit-wine. The tour was neat and the tasting was even better. We got to try their four most popular wines, choose three extras that we would like to taste and we also got to try the amazing wine smoothies that they make. Yes, you heard me correctly. wine. smoothie. Can it get any better?!?!? If you haven't popped in there yet, I highly recommend you do. You'll enjoy it. Promise.

And then, this happened...

We went to John's Pass to walk around and hang out. Sometimes we forget to take advantage of where we live and the activities that are available to us. So, we went and enjoyed a few hours on the boardwalk, had some beverages, sweat our butts off, bought some sandals, got jealous of the people at the sandbar (our normal hangout on the weekends), and watched the boats go in and out of the pass. It was awesome! Plus, some of the cool little bars sell craft beers that are locally made, which is pretty neat if you ask me :)

One last thing! Monday night I made a calzone that was the size of Texas!

Well, it's not actually the size of Texas, but it was pretty darn big! There was a pound of hamburger, a whole container of ricotta cheese, a bag of mozzarella cheese, a package of pepperonis and a whole small onion in it. The crust was big enough to make a thick large pizza. And while it doesn't look all that big, it is sitting on a 13"x18" cookie sheet. Yeah. That sucker was huge. And it was so good! You can find the directions and everything you need to know about it on my cousin-in-law's blog! It's quite adorable; she's got some great recipes and some cute crafts that anyone could do! Be sure to check it out: http://lazydaysandsundays.blogspot.com/.

That sums up all of the random happenings that are currently going on in my life. Hope you all are doing well!

-C Doc

Rug a dug dug

You guys.... Something incredible happened this weekend. Sean (you know, my husband) and I were on the same page about something. Like, totally on the same wavelength. We liked the same thing. At the same time. It involved a decent amount of cash, but we both went for it. Together. Yeah, Sean and I. I'm still in shock... I shall reminisce the strange occurrence while sitting on our glorious NEW RUG!!!!!!!!!!!

It's so yummy. The pile on this thing is crazy; I would guess around 2" deep? When you step on it, your toes disappear. It's amazing. And while we spent a decent amount on it ($300), it's so worth it. The best part is that we're able to justify the purchase because the rug is huuuuuge. And fluffy. It's safe to say we're obsessed. We ate dinner at the coffee table, while sitting on the rug. We watched a movie, while sitting on the rug. We played with the dogs, while sitting on the rug. I then picked up a bunch of dog hair, off the rug. And then Sean spilled a drink, on the rug. And then I threatened to strangle him.

That pretty much sums up our weekend, though. I did a workout that totally kicked my @$$ and then went out on the boat and got a splotchy, horrible looking sunburn. Now my body is all like "WTF Cali?!?" So, if you're looking for me, I'll be drinking gallons of water and soaking in gobs of lotion, ON MY NEW RUG!

-C Doc

Caching up with the times

Alas! I am back... and once again I'm procrastinating and holding out on the geo caching adventure (see, my title wasn't a typo. ha.). While I'm at it, I'll be honest. I probably won't write too much about it, because if I haven't done it yet, I probably wont do it. Why? Because I'm lazy. Just know that we had fun, it was hot, there were bugs and we found the five cashes that we set out to find. Here are some pictures :)

^^^^^

This was the creepy house in the woods. The roof had caved in, most of the walls had fallen down and there were trees growing throughout the structure. The geo cache, which was a tupper-ware full of trinkets and small items, was shoved back in the chimney. Once we found it, we signed the sheet and ran for the car as fast as we could!

Anyhoo, back to why I originally started writing. I have a delish dish that you all need to try! Provided that you like Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches, you will love these! They're Philly Cheese Steak Stuffed Peppers, yum! Here are the ingredients:

 

The glass of wine is totally optional, but definitely recommended. You don't put it in the food or anything, it just tastes good and makes your day better :) What you really need is roast beef (I ordered a pound thinly sliced but only used about 1/2-3/4 of the pound for this meal), 2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese, a small onion (I used about half), a heaping handful of mushrooms, and the peppers to stuff! The amounts of ingredients I used yielded enough of the meat mixture for three peppers. Perfect for me and the hubs.

I started by roughly chopping the onion and mushrooms up. I then sauteed them on a medium/high heat with some olive oil and spices. While that was going, I prepared my peppers and meat. I chopped the tops of the peppers and removed the veins and seeds. For the meat, I rolled up the big slices and ran my knife through it several times.

***Side note: check out that knife! Sean and I bought it while in Georgia at a knife store. It's made from porcelain and get this, it never (ever!) has to be sharpened! Perfect for my lazy self (as noted above).

When the veggies were done, I threw in the meat to brown it up a bit. While that was going, I put about one cup of cheese in the bottoms up my peppers:

Then I filled them with my meat mixture and topped them with the remaining cheese!

I baked them in the oven (that's pretty obvious I guess) at 400* for about 15-20 minutes. It cooks the pepper perfectly! Tender and roasted with a hint of crunch. Just how I like it. For all you health nuts, this is a no-carb meal! But, that won't fly in our house... No sir. So I made some spicy yellow rice :)

There's that pesky wine glass again...

The meal was great and very easy to make! It was a cool spin on stuffed peppers and it's definitely something you can play with when it comes to flavors. I think I may do some fajita stuffed peppers in the future. Or maybe some with pork and wild rice... The possibilities are endless! Enjoy :)

-C Doc

It's a southern thang

Ya know what's funny? The fact that we drove 400 miles north to get to the heart of the south... Florida is geographically more southern than Georgia, but we're mostly known for the beaches, the blue waters, fishing and all things tropical. And while we have our fair share of red-neckery goin' on, there is just something so simple and laid back about "the south". I love it. The people are so kind, willing to help you with anything, they have cute accents, they make awesome fattening food and, let's be honest, they make some amazing moonshine...

Fun fact: we had some of the best tasting moonshine while in Georgia! And guess who made it?! The freaking cop. I can't make this up... The cop (one of the two) in the town that we stayed in made the best apple pie moonshine that I've ever had. It seriously doesn't get any more small-town than that. This shine tasted like apple cider; no burn at all, no scrunched up face when you swallowed it, just smooth, good tasting juice whiskey. I could've chugged the whole entire mason jar if you'd let me. I would have passed out in the yard, but it would have gone down soooo smooth, unlike my decent to the ground would have been. Cheers to that :)

Getting back to where I was originally going with this post; I really miss that simplicity. The lounging around, listening to the rain, looking at the beautiful scenery, hanging with friends, chugging moonshine, and eating and drinking to my heart’s content. That’s all pretty much the definition of vacation, and part of the reason why I miss it so much is because I’m back to work and back to real-life. which can suck. Cleaning, cooking, laundry, chores; they're all buzzkills. I’m all about hanging around, having Mike’s family cook for us and paying some cleaning lady at the end of the week to tidy our house after we leave. Fantastic! Sign me up. I'm convinced those are the reasons we’d like to make the trip an annual happening in our lives haha. But, in addition to being a bum, something you have to do while up there is go to the Tractor Supply Store. It’s a staple up there. They sell everything from lawn mowers, to clothes, chickens and home decor! It’s as random as you can imagine. Sean and I bought some toys for our boys (of course) and I found a super cute American flag star to adorn my door since my beloved wreath stained it pink. I’m still bitter about it, mainly because it's still pink. So, it’s being replaced by something that will cause no harm to our lovely entryway. For a mere $4 :)

 

Cute, right? I’m loving the Americana theme right now and plan to stick with it for the rest of the summer. I wanted to bring some of that feeling to the inside of our Dockerty Domain. I not only wanted to stay with the Americana theme, but after our fun trip, I also wanted to add in some southern flair. I love changing out our tablescape with fun tablecloths, runners and centerpieces, and for a while, we were rocking this:

It’s an assortment of random candles and things I had around the house. The vase the flower is stuck in is actually a ceramic bottle of wine that was given to Sean by one of his customers. It tasted great and had a cool bottle so I kept it, washed it out and stuck some fake foliage in there. How often do you see a ceramic wine bottle? And you know me and fake flowers… it’s starting to get a little ridiculous. Naturally I carried on my obsession with the carefree and effortless task of keeping fake flowers alive. So, without further ado, I now present to you: Das Boot.

It doesn’t get much more 'merican and southern than a cowboy boot, a bandana and some sunflowers… especially paired with a candle that looks like a log and an old Ball mason jar! Hot dang we got ourselves a centerpiece here!  I’m sure Sean thinks I’m off my rocker, especially since he only found one boot in the closet and came across the other one on our kitchen table, but I had to stick with the theme! It’s all about dedication, and by golly, I’m committed. He’s finally learned not to say anything anymore; usually I just get a bewildered look and a shake of the head with an occasional eye roll. And I’m OK with that. He does silly stuff too. Tit for tat, as they say. Next, I’m going to find a place for a huuuge infinity scarf that I got for the Fourth of July that’s big enough to park my truck in… no joke, this scarf is massive. I must find somewhere to display it.

Next week I’ll be back with our geo caching adventures from GA. Maybe we’ll go on a geo cache escapade in our own town this weekend! Who knows what sort of wine-induced shenanigans we’ll get ourselves into…

-C Doc

Feelin' Peachy

Well, we all made it back in one piece! The seven of us had a wonderful time in the Peachy State of Georgia and although it hasn't been set in stone, I believe we'd like to make it an annual trip! The main reason we went up there were for the fabulous Fourth of July Festivities that we'd been hearing about for years but, thanks to our dear friend, Mother Nature, every single event got cancelled due to rain.... Fantastic. No worries though, we still did everything we set out to do. Our itinerary consisted of:

Boating and tubing on Lake Burton
Zip Lining (210' off the ground!!!)
Winery Tour
Waterfall Climbing
Hiking some trails
Geo caching
Fireworks and Parade (which didn't happen)

Although I don't have pictures of every activity we did, I do have some. So, without further ado, I give you the 1st Annual Trip to Sky Valley, Georgia:

You like how I ended it with the best picture? I mean seriously, how often do you see a big guy dancing on a waterfall? Ya gotta love Mikey boy.... Briana has a ton of pictures that she took with her super-duper-nice camera, but I don't think she's uploaded them yet.

I'll be back another day with the geo caching pictures that I have. I gotta say, that is one cool hobby. It makes you think as if you were trying to depict some crazy puzzle and it has you travel to places that you never thought existed... like an abandoned house in the woods! That one was crazy, creepy and eerie but it was cool to find once we batted down all the spider webs, dodged the poison ivy and listened closely for banjos... I'm not kidding...

All in all, we had a wonderful trip, despite the insane amounts of rain we had. Many bottles of wine, beer and liquor were consumed, many laughs were had and many memories were made. All the ingredients to a wonderful vacation. But, as they say, there's no place like home. Sean and I missed our fur-kids like crazy! It's kind of ridiculous how attached we are to them... and although the mountains and scenery in Georgia are spectacular, there's nothing that compares to a Florida sunset :)

Home sweet home.

-C Doc