Biltmore House Adventure

Eventhough I have lived in North Carolina most of all my life I have never been to the Biltmore House, it has always been one of those places I have wanted to go.  So I took a random Wednesday off work and off we went up the mountain.  It is funny unusally when I say up the mountain we are going to Boone but not this time!  Mom and Grammy picked us up bright and early and we headed out.  It was a drive up there but totally worth it, the weather was gorgeous and the estste was to say the least breathtaking!  Below are some pictures from our adventure...

Grammy & Bryson in the car while we are headed up the mountain to Asheville

In front of the Biltmore

Welcome to my new house!

Posing in the gardens

The 3 Amigos

Bryson and I in front of the fountain

It's been a while...

Well, it has been a while since my last post. Here is a quick run down since my last post in March to bring everyone up to date and below is a photo dump of all our adventures!

We have been on a couple beach trips in April,we went down to Myrtle Beach and stayed with my brother and his wonderful girlfriend Lauren and we also went down at the beginning of April for Heather's big 30th Birthday weekend. We love beach time, hopefully one day when we are still young enough to enjoy it but old enough to afford it we can have our very own beach house..."The Young's Beach Resort"  :)

On May 15th we celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary...I can not believe it has been two years! I thank God everyday for giving my wonderful husband to me! He truly means everything to me and I feel so blessed to have him as my partner in life! To celebrate our anniversary we had a quiet dinner together at Flat Iron in Davidson and then during dinner Tye says "by chance do you want to go to the All Star Race this weekend to celebrate our anniversary?" I could tell he was kinda joking and he thought I would say "no way" but I surprised him and said "sure!". So the plans were set that weekend on Saturday May 19th I would attend my very first NASCAR race!  We had a blast!

In May and June we celebrated Mother's and Father's Day with brunch on Mother's Day and dinner for Father's Day at our townhouse in Winston Salem (yes it is still for sale). It is so nice we can have both of our families together to celebrate instead of trying to split time. I made some excellent new delicious recipes and got a great deal that I am still talking about because I can not believe it happened. I decided to make a recipe from "The Pioneer Woman" which is a new show on Food Network that I LOVE! It was a deep dish quiche recipe so I needed to get deep dish quiche pans...the ONLY place I could find these dang pans were Williams and Sonoma and I did not want to pay a million dollars for them but at this point I had no choice so I bit the bullet.  I went to Williams and Sonoma got the two pans and went to the cash register and held my breath...to my surprise they were on SUPER clearance and each pan was $4.99...WHAT I know, I got out of there for less then $10.00!!!!! AWESOME!!!! Ok that is it with the pans I will stop talking about them now.

At the end of June Erwin and his friend John came to visit us from the Netherlands! The last time Erwin was in the USA was for our wedding so it was great to see him again and this was John's first trip to the USA. We had such a great visit with them. During their visit we went to the US Whitewater Center in Charlotte - this is such a great place!!! My family came into town, and so did Heather and Charlie to go White Water rafting...it was so much fun! As you can tell from the pictures below...and those helmets will never be in fashion! Later that night Nancy and Doug hosted an All American Cookout to give Erwin and John a taste of the good stuff!!! We all had a blast together!

Now it is already the end of June...Where did all the time go!  Mom went last week and picked up Grammy from Ohio to spend a couple of weeks with us.  Tomorrow Mom, Grammy, Bryson and me are headed to Asheville to go to the Biltmore House.  I have never been so I am very excited.   More summer adventures to come...

PS:  Sorry the pictures are in no particular order...they kinda downloaded crazy!  Enjoy!

Glam it up

Two things I love are manicures and getting my hair done...and those are two things that I desperately needed to do! My nails were so chipped and gross and my hair looked two toned...so yesterday was dedicated to glamming myself back up! I have been going to the same salon and nail studio for YEARS...but since this is my new home in Davidson it has been my mission to find a new home for my hair and nails as well. 

When my nails are done I just feel more put together even if I look a mess otherwise!  All the new OPI Gel colors are out for Spring, it takes me forever to pick out a color because I  have to be committed to it for a whole two weeks - it was easier when it was just normal polish because it only lasted for a day or so before it would chip and you would have to re-paint but now with the gel it stays for so long and looks Perfect the whole time...well, I guess there are pros and cons to everything.  I got the color You Don't Know Jacques! 

At first after moving I was driving back to Winston to get my hair done then I tried Modern Salon and even though they did a good job I had to take out a small bank loan to get my hair done! One of my new girlfriends, Christine that I have met told me about her stylist who she said was fabulous…so since Christine has Gorgeous hair I thought I would give her a try. Now with my old stylist I could just call her a day or so before and she would fit me in, that is not the case here…TIP - If you find a good stylist in the Lake Norman area you better make your appointment in advance! So I called to set my appointment, and in keeping with my normal routine I really needed it done that week or the next and the earliest she had was Feb 28th and at that time Feb 28th was 4 weeks away! I toughed it out and wore my hair in a pony for a couple weeks and let me tell you it was WELL worth the wait! Meredith is FABUOUS! If anyone is looking for a new stylist go see her at Sola Salon in Cornelius, NC! Now I am back to Galm 

House for Sale...

Our townhouse in Winston Salem, NC has been on the market for the past 8 months, we PRAY for it to sell very very soon!!! Last year around this time we decided to move to Charlotte...we always knew we wanted to live in this area and it is SOOOOO much closer to Bryson (Bryson lives in Greenville, SC) this past year has been full of transition and craziness. It has been hard at times but we have defiantly come out on top and feel very blessed in our lives! Tye and I have both started new jobs and have made some new wonderful friends and have just enjoyed exploring the new area we live in. Currenly we are renting a place in Davidson - it is small but we are getting used to living VERY close :) Our rental place is on alot of land so Nelson has alot of room to play around and since we left all of our furniture at our house in Winston Salem so it can stay staged when people are looking at it we are roughing it on our LoveSac (if you dont know what this is, they are fabulous...www.lovesac.com to check it out) Tough life, right! We got a new realtor recently, Shirley Ramsey. She sold Tye's parents house and also my best friends parents house so now it is time for her to sell ours!!!! Saint Joseph is also buried in the front yard...We have heard this has worked for many people and thought what could it hurt! The story behind Saint Joseph is that Joseph taught Jesus the craftsman's trade and made sure that Jesus always was well housed. So that is the reason why he always helped people find a house they were looking for and in that way help people who need to sell their homes. We know when the time is right the perfect family will love our home and make it their own and then Tye and I will find our new home! In the meantime if anyone is looking to buy a house check ours out!!!! MLS#633088 Keller Williams Shirley Ramsey, Realtor 336.992.7602 shirleysellshomes@triad.rr.com

Valentine's Suprises!

Valentines is one of those holidays that people always complain about and say is just a retail holiday but personally I love Valentines Day. I guess it is all about who you spend it with and for me I get to spend it with my wonderful husband...he treats me like it is Valentines Day everyday and I am lucky for that! One of my favorite things to get is cards...so Tye always suprises me with cards and writes special things in them. For Valentines he suprised me with flowers, cards and movie tickets to see "The Vow" I have been wanting to see this movie. We had dinner reservations for 9pm in Mooresville so at 7pm we went to see the movie. I have to say we were a bit disappointed, it really needed a happier ending to be a Valentines Day movie...I won't spoil it for anyone and will just leave it as we gave it a 2.5 out of 10. After the movie we had a fabulous late dinner then headed home.

Now let me back up for a second becuase the day after Valentines was full of excitment but not the good kind! I gave Tye some caramel Hersey Kisses in his Valentines bag and in all the excitment of the nights date plans before we left I forgot to put the bag up so Nelson (our yorkie) could not get to it. To my suprise the next morning when I was getting ready for work I noticed the bag on the ground and not one Hersey Kiss in it...there were no wrappers around and Nelson was acting normal so I thought Tye just took them out but he told me he did not. So of course I started freaking out and Tye being the wonderful husband he is got up and took Nelson to the vet. They were the first ones there at the vet office and they took Nelson and sure enough two hours later thet vet called me and said "Well we found the Kisses" he was throwing up hot pink foil all morning but they said he was still has happy as could be and not affected at all by anything! He is 100% again and boy those were the most expensive Hersey Kisses I have ever bought!

Fun In The Sun!

Last weekend Tye and I went to visit my BEST friend Heather and her husband Charlie that recently bought a house in Murrells Inlet, SC.  It was so great to visit with Heather, Charlie and Sparkles the chiwawa!  Their new house is fabulous it is in the cutest southern beach neighborhood with moss trees and even a pond in their back yard with ducks.  Heather has inspired me with her her new found hobby of finding fabulous furniture antiques and restoring them, I can't wait till we can go antiquing together! On Saturday when we woke up it was 70 degress out, it was so nice since now it is like 40 degress outside here in Charlotte.  We went to eat lunch at Hannah Banana's which is the best beach bar right on the water within walking distance from Heather's House.  We decided not to walk and took the easy way out and drove...it was our lucky day because when we got there it was Bloody Mary Bar Saturday!  I love a good Bloody Mary, I must get that from my Grammy.  Papou used to make her a Bloody Mary everyday at 4pm (Because that was Happy Hour at the DeLuca House).  In December when Grammy was visiting we enjoyed quite a few Bloody Marys :)  I like them spicy so  lots of hot sauce and horseradish went into mine!

After lunch we packed up the cooler with lots of champage, picked the doggies (Nelson and Sparkles) up from the house and headed to the beach for some fun in the sun.  I had the great idea of being active on the beach so we brought boccie ball to play...FYI boccie ball is not that fun with only 4 people so we went back to playing with the dogs and drinking champage which was just fine with us!  One thing when we go visit Heather we know we are going to eat and drink well, it is about a week preperation before we go of dieting and working out so we dont gain 50 lbs when we are there :) Tye's all time favorite food is pizza so Heather promised him the best pizza happy hour EVER and it was!  We went to a little place called Vienna's and enjoyed tones of italian goodies and everything was $2.50 so according to Heather is was "basically free" ( love her)!!!

It was such a great visit and we were so sad to leave on Sunday but we headed back to Lake Norman to enjoy a super bowl party for two (well three including Nelson)!  Tye and I have a tradition of watching the super bowl together and cooking fabulous snack foods.  This years menu included Party Ham Sammies and Baked Potato Soup...two easy and great recipes!  It was a great way to finish off a great weekend!  The recipes are below for you to enjoy!

Party Ham Sammies

1 Package Hawaiian Rolls

1/2 lb Deli Sliced Ham (sliced thin)

1/4 lb Baby Swiss Cheese (sliced thin)

1/2 Cup Butter (1 stick)

1/2 onion (grated)

2 Tbs. Poppy Seeds

1 tsp. Worcestershire Sauce

2 Tbs. Yellow Mustard

To make sauce melt butter then add onion, (I always grate the onion because Tye does not like the texture of chopped onion, it works out really well) poppy seeds, worcestershire and mustard and stir. 

Without seperating the rolls, slice them horizontally.  Spread both sides with the sauce (dont skimp on the sauce it is the best part).  Fill rolls with cheese and ham then put the top half back on the bottom and bake at 375 for 15 minutes or until melty and delicious!

Baked Potato Soup

1/2 Stick Butter

1/2 Chopped Onion

1/4 Cup All -Purpose Flour

1 Can Chicken Broth

1 (12 ounce) Can Carnation Evaporated Milk

2 Large Baking Potato's

Melt butter in large saucepan then add onion and cook till tender.  Stir in flour then gradually stir in broth and evaporated milk.  Cook potatos in microwave until tender then scoop the pulp of each potato into broth mixture.  Stir until thick and heated then enjoy!  I like to put bacon and cheese on top but you can put whatever you like!

Enjoying Bloody Mary's by the water!

My Hubby and me on the beach...such a great day!

This sign says it all...

Charlie dancing with Nelson and Sparkes...too much champagne on the beach :)

Party Ham Sammies we made for Super Bowl night...YUM

So Glad it is Almost the Weekend!

So glad it is almost the weekend! Only a couple more hours until The Hubby, Nelson and I are in the car headed for the beach! We are going to visit my best friend Heather and her husband Charlie in Murrells Inlet, SC - they moved there a little over a year ago and they also just bought a new house.  I am so exicted to have a weekend away, it seems like Tye (my husband) and I have been so busy since Christmas and have not had time to just relax.  So this will be a much needed get away.  A weekend at Heather's is always an adventure so I will have lots of fun pics and stories to share on Monday.  Happy Weekend! 

Beach Photo