Where did the week go?

This is one of those weeks where I think, where the heck did the week go??? It seems like what I did last weekend was just yesterday.

Last weekend was a great overall weekend. It truly was one of those weekends where I thought, wow, I am so happy I am sober to enjoy all of this. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy every day that I'm sober but I know that the things that made me truly happy inside last weekend wouldn't have made me as happy when I was drinking. Sad, but true. Friday was my mom's birthday and we always do a day trip to wherever she wants to go. She is very into geneaology and our family tree so we drove around to some small towns near here and looked at old family cemeteries, old school houses, and went to Spring Mill.

















Last Friday night hubby and I went to the Friday night meetings of Al-Anon and AA which conveniently are right next door to one another in the building. After that a group of us couples including my sponsor and her hubby went out to eat at IHOP. I am not a huge IHOP fan but I had pumpkin pancakes. They were to die for. I MUST make some. We stayed out until almost 11 - late night for us! Oh how things change.

Saturday was another great day. We woke up and went to Will's football game and...wait for it...he scored his first touchdown ever! So fun to watch that. After that we had the kids and we just hung out at home all day. Rocko and Will played in the backyard, Tommy watched college football, Sheridan did her almost teenage girl thing which I believe was consisting of watching movies and painting nails, and I did various things like working in the yard. We made two new recipes that day - one for dinner and one for dessert. The dinner recipe was pepperoni pizza puffs. Such a cute idea for a kids dinner and they both loved them. I suggest you try them especially for the kiddos.





















(I could not for the life of me get good pics of these on my own so I'm using the pictures from the blogs that I found the recipes. Need to work on food photography skills clearly...HA!)

For dessert we made snickerdoodle cake with brown sugar cinnamon buttercream. Did you die a little bit just reading that? Here is how you know it is a good cake - between the cake and the icing it called for SIX and a HALF sticks of butter. No, that is not a typo. As disgusting as the thought of that much butter sounds, this cake is SO freaking good. Perfect for fall. The kids had a good time helping make it and licking the beaters. When they were 3 and 7 they fought over who got to pour in the ingredients and now at 7 and 11 they are STILL having this same argument. HA!

So overall last weekend was awesome. I can't even tell you what all I've done this week. Like I said, seems like it just came and went. I worked concession stand Tuesday night at Tabi's soccer game which I was dreading but actually was kind of fun. This is one of those unselfish type things that I look at and know that when I was in my addiction I would have just not even volunteered to do. It wouldn't have crossed my mind. Different year, different me. I've been obsessing this week over our bedroom decor. I haven't touched the bedroom yet as I've been working on the rest of the house and in true addict fashion I can't have a project and just not let it consume me. Hopefully I'll pull the trigger and buy some things soon so I can get it off my mind. HA

Tomorrow we are heading to Cumberland Heights in Nashville where I went to inpatient treatment. It is the annual alumni picnic and I can't WAIT to see so many of the ladies who were in rehab with me. We formed such strong bonds in such a short amount of time. The weather is supposed to be great, road trip with the hubby, I have a fab new fall outfit to wear and I get to go to one of my favorite places on earth. Am I happy? I think so!

Let's Talk Fall

I've been ready for fall for a little while now and finally, FINALLY this past weekend I walked outside and said, "It's football weather!!!" I have been SO ready to put up fall decorations and bake yummy apple pumpkiny fall deliciousness. Now I despise Winter, but this, THIS is perfecto.

I've been obsessed recently with Pinterest. If you don't know what it is, it's basically a place where you can "pin" pictures that you find on the internet that you might like to save. You can categorize your pictures in any way that you want. Might sound silly but it's highly addictive. I found a lot of really cool decorating ideas for Fall and Christmas that I can't wait to use. I have done a couple of things already. Here is a little of the season in my house:

This is the chest in our dining room - I just changed out the pictures to fall pictures of the kids and framed a fall quote/print that I found on Pinterest.

I made this banner with cardstock and scrapbook paper - I love it!

Now for the best part of this post - the fall baking. This afternoon I made apple spice cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese icing. Are you dying yet? There is one thing that I HAVE to tell you before you choose to make these. Are you listening? This is important. This icing it do DIE for. I absolutely love it. I'm not afraid to admit that I literally sucked this icing out of the tip. These smell so good when they are baking and they are so freaking yummy. Go make these. Now.

4 Months & One Last Summer Post

Before I post anything I have to say WOW. After my post a few days ago "coming out" so to speak about my alcoholism, I was bombarded with people leaving me comments of support and love. I post my blog updates on my Facebook page so I had a ton of my Facebook friends posting supportive words. It was awesome really. I didn't write that post to get all of that praise for what I've done, but it was really nice anyway. :) On that note, I'll post one alcohol related item then move on to other things in life. After all, I got sober to live life, not to dwell on my disease!

Today was my 4 month anniversary and I picked up my chip today at my regular noon meeting. I said that it's always a great thing for me to pick up a chip because my sobriety date was also my first day in inpatient rehab. It's good to look back on that time in my life to be reminded of how it was and how it is now. I'll take now, thanks.

(Yeah, I totally took a picture of this with my iphone in the middle of the meeting to send to my husband....HA!)

So, it's 100 degrees here today. What is up with that? It's September. I'm ready to decoarate for fall and do fall baking. I am over this heat. Will's football game tomorrow is canceled because of HEAT. Seriously? Football canceled because of heat? Ugh. Over it. I hate winter though so I'll not complain TOO much. I figured I'll do one last summer post because I'm hoping to get in FALL mode soon! (Confession: I've actually already started decorating for fall...)

Let's talk flowers. And plants. I have NEVER been one who has a green thumb. Okay, let's not sugar coat this - I've never been able to keep plants alive, period. Was it my lack of watering? My lack of fertilizing? My lack of....giving a sh*t? Probably all of those things. With our new home came a lot of new landscaping and I have been determined to keep all of these plants alive and looking fab. So far, I have done pretty well. I've always wanted a house that looks pretty on the outside as well as the inside - pretty flowers, nice porch, all that good stuff. I'm spending a lot of time making sure that happens. I give you...my first attempt at actually giving a sh*t about my yard:

(Look at Rocko in the window - HA!) ^

That is just a few things in my yard right now. Some of you are probably thinking, um really? You are excited about potted plants and some roses and hibiscus? YES. Yes I am. I am telling you, I've killed every plant I've ever had so this is all amazing to me. Turns out maybe I like playing in my yard.

On that note, off to water the plants. And get eaten alive I'm sure.