Brief Blog Break

Hi bloggies.

I come to y'all today with a wet face and a heavy heart. I really debated writing this post but want to reach out to you for prayers and positive thoughts.

So here goes...I am going to give you the short version of this story because it is very hard to write and talk about.

I got a phone call yesterday afternoon at work from Tom. He had just gotten news that one of his childhood friends, Parker Graves, had been killed in a car accident. Parker was a big part of many lives.

He was from a large Tunica family, and owned a local business. He was in our wedding, and lived right down the street from us.

So yesterday afternoon was a whirlwind of questions, crying, and lots of hugging. Tom is taking it okay...being his usual care-taker self and doing anything he can for Parker's two brothers, parents, and his wife and four-year-old daughter.

In a town like Tunica, when there is something worth celebrating OR mourning, the whole town joins in. I know it is so hard for them right now, but my prayer for the Graves family is that they can feel all the love and positive energy that is surrounding them right now through the community of Tunica. We really need to lift them up to the Lord in a time like this, and put their grieving family in His hands.

Please pray for my sweet friends as they go through this hard time. All this being said, I'll be MIA for a few days. But will be back soon.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers!

Typical Day in the Delta

Happy Monday Morning!

Okay let me go on a little tangent real quick....

Tom brought to my attention that sometimes in my post title, the date says Sunday but I'll mention in the post that it's Monday. As you can see this is the case with this post. Blogger automatically dates the post on the date that you started the post. Because I usually upload my pictures the night before, and publish the next day, this happens frequently.

Does anyone know how to change this at all? It really gets on Tom's nerves. Ha!

Speaking of Tom....

He and I spent the entire day together yesterday working on his deer fields since hunting season begins on Friday morning.

Here I am, ready to go! I brought this fanny pack to hold my camera and chap stick and some granola bars to eat. We were in those woods for a long time and I wanted to be prepared! Tom made fun of me but the pack came in very handy if I do say so myself.

Notice it has a place to hold your beer. Ha!

Look at the beautiful cotton fields! These are ready to be harvested, so by Friday these fields will probably be picked clean, back to just plain 'ole dirt!Whenever we ride four-wheelers and go out in the woods and do all that outdoorsy stuff, I always wear my reeeeeealllllly old cowgirl boots.

How old, you ask? I got these boots FOR MY 13th BIRTHDAY! That makes them 7 years old! Ha ha, just kidding....next month I will have had these boots for 15 years. We've been through a lot together.

Into the woods we go.....On the four-wheeler...I love this face on Tom.

No this one, so much. Guess he was 'over' having his picture taken.

So the mission of the day was to put up some tree stands in preparation for next weekend.

The stands start out like this, just like a plain 'ole ladder:

You link them all together before putting them on the tree:

Pick out a good tree:

And go to work securing the ladder by climbing up it and strapping it to the tree along the way:

Once the ladder is secure, you take your stand up and attach it to the top. This stand will be about 20 feet up:

Ta-Da! Good job, Tom. What a monkey you are.

We did this on two different trees in two different spots. We also changed out the memory cards and batteries on three different cameras Tom had set out.

A lot goes into this sport! Tom and our brother-in-law Brian have done soooooo much work getting their fields ready for hunting season!

For all of our hard work we were rewarded with this at the end of the day:

A great way to end the day! I had fun helping Tom. I figured since he has been my handy-dandy equipment manager on many occasions, I could be his for once. :)

Have a great week everyone!

Weekend 5K

I wrote and (thought) I posted this yesteray, on Sunday, but my laptop was actin' whonky so I guess it didn't. Well, here it is. You'll have two posts on this Monday! :)

Happy Sunday blogosphere!

It is an awesome day here in the Delta....only like 65 degrees this morning and peeeeerrrrrrfect for doing something outside. I think I am going to go out into the deer fields with Tom later. Hunting season officially opens next weekend.

So yesterday I was up bright and early (around 6:30) to go to the Wet Nose 5K. I was worried I'd bail because getting up so early on a Saturday is NOT my cup of tea. But Tom had to work a half day yesterday so he was up early too. That definitely helped. We left the house at the same time around 6:45.

Because of said early morning, I was out the door without my camera. Typical.

The race was really fun. They had a bunch of rescue-able dogs there, and many of the participants brought their dogs, too. There was a 5K for human runners, and a 1 mile walk for doggie runners. I debated bringing Reba but I think she's pregnant. See, we never actually witnessed any baby making from her and Rascal, but they were alone a lot. And she is gaining weight here and there.

Plus she's eating more, and she just has that glow. Ha! So I decided against it becuase I really wanted to run the 5K and it seemed silly to drive all the way to Memphis to walk 1 mile.

*Anyway* there were only about 150 participants in the 5K, so it was a very small race. The registration and start line were at Bert Ferguson Park and Community Center in Memphis. The community center was really nice, and the park was HUGE with lots of playground equipment, soccer and baseball fields, and a big, 1-mile track around it. The first 2 miles of the course were through residential areas, and the last mile was around the track.

I was feelin' kind of funky yesterday morning so I was worried I would have a bad run. It was a hard one for me, and I actually had to take a short walk break at mile 2. I think that is the first time I've ever had to walk during a 5K race. Or any 3 mile run for that matter!

I finished in 29:26. Only 27 seconds away from a PR! My previous PR was 28:59. I was bummed because if I had only taken 9 seconds off per mile I would have PR'd! Hate it when that happens.

Here are my mile splits:

Mile 1: 8:26

Mile 2: 9:00

Mile 3: 11:59 (horrible!)

Clearly I ran out of steam early on and did not pace myself well. O-well. Lesson learned. It was a fun race for a good cause and I will definitely do it again next year. Maybe next year I can take Reba and someone to hang out with her while I do the 5K, then we can do the 1-mile doggie walk together. She would have really liked it.

I spent the rest of the day being the laziest I have ever been in my life and it was lovely. Tom came in from working on the deer fields and we went to Mexican for dinner and to watch football.

Okay and get this....we slept until NOON today! Don't ask me how. We each only had a couple drinks with dinner so it wasn't like we were crazy drunks or anything! We slept for literally like 13 hours. Must have really needed it!

After our hibranation, I made brunch of smoothies and omlettes. I used pre-packaged frozen berries for my smoothie this morning and it was so good! Be sure to get the no sugar added to avoid a bunch of crazy calories:

As always, my smoothie ingredients were:

• 1 cup frozen berries
• 1 1/2 cup 1% milk
• 1 pack sugar-free hot cocoa mix
• big handful of spinach

The result was a creamy, PURPLE smoothie! Delish.

For the omlette....I have never made a successful omlette in my life until this morning! I always do something wrong and just wind up with a pile of eggs and omlette fillings. But today my omlette actually looked (somewhat) pretty.

I decided to just use what I had on hand:

• eggs (duh)
• chopped tomatoes
• goat cheese
• fresh basil

Heating the eggs over medium.....

Adding the fillings......

Folding the omlette (this is the part that always messes me up)

Brunch is served!

Living Room and Master Bedroom

This fall, Kelly over at Kelly's Korner is doing sort of a Tour of Homes as part of her "Show Us Your Life Friday."

I was so pumped when I heard this because I am a voyeur at heart and love to see how other people live. ha ha!

I have loved seeing other people's living rooms, and getting decorating ideas and all that fun stuff.

So here's how the Withers live!

Tom bought our house in November of 2006, right before we started dating the following April. Our house is about 1,800 square feet with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. It is the perfect size for us. I LOVE our house because it's big enough to have people over, but small enough to clean in one evening. :)

(Last week was Living Rooms, and this week is Master Bedrooms. I missed last week so I'll do both in this post.)

Living Room:

This is our 'formal' living room that we never use. Except at Christmas time because I put our tree in here. I don't *love* this room because the furniture is so dark, manly, and traditional. I don't really feel like it's very 'us.' But it's not a big deal since we never us it.


The living room we DO use....

The view above is standing in the den, looking back into the kitchen. The kitchen is nice and open and I love that, makes it so easy for entertaining.
Then this view is standing in the kitchen looking into the den (this pic is older...notice no rug. But the set up is still the same). Those french doors open up onto our patio in the back yard.


One more view....the SHELVES. These shelves have been the bain of my existance for a long time. I never feel satisfied with the way they look. Like, they always look too knick-knacky to me.


UNTIL THIS WEEK!


I am excited because while decorating for Halloween I totally redid the shelves and I think they look good now.

Here is the before:To the left of the shelves is a dry bar that used to be a coat closet. Tom converted it to a bar and it is much more functional for us this way. :) Ha!

I mean, I shouldn't say that I don't like everything up there...I love all my pottery and vases and stuff. They are all wedding gifts that are both functional and pretty. But I never feel like I can put them together in a good way.

And after:I think it's better, don't you? I love the different black frames and the black and white pictures. It's much more minimal and clean this way....much better. And as the seasons change I'll change out the Halloween/Fall decorations.


I took a page from Kendra's book and repurposed things I had around the house. The only things I bought for my shelf makeover were the vase fillers on the bottom shelf. They came from Wal-Mart for about $5. Pumpkins, gords, etc. in the produce section for those of you who care.

Master Bedroom:

Oooooooooo the bedroom. Here is a picture of what this bedroom looked like when I married Tom and moved into this house:

So depressing, yes? It is a huge room, and there was no rug. It felt like a cave in there.

The bed was Tom's bed from college (don't even get me started) and it was sooooooo squeaky. Like, you couldn't breathe without the bed squeaking. It was just a Queen box springs and mattress on a bed frame.

And the linens....THOSE LINENS. Terrible bed-in-a-bag from Target or something. Don't get me wrong...Target has some cute stuff. Now. But back in 1999 when Tom was in his college apartment the pickin's were slim.

So fast forward about 7 months and this is what my mom and I came up with:
Go ahead and breathe a sigh of relief. I just did.

We got a great deal on this GAW-GOSS king-sized bed. Love it. And my mom's boss, an interior designer, hooked a sista up with some fabric remnants from an old job. I had my seamstress in Southaven make the king shams and the throw.My mom gave us the three Euro pillows and the monogrammed pillow as a Christmas gift our first Christmas we were married! That monogrammed pillow is probably my favorite thing in the bedroom. So classy, and I love the ball fringe!

When you're laying in the bed, you face the closet and our teeny-tiny-1985 TV. We don't watch a lot of TV in the bedroom so this oldie works fine for us.
To the right of the TV is where Tom built-in an awesome vanity for me! This is where I do my hair, put on my make up, etc. I love it!There is a story behind this closet. When Tom moved in, the closet was covered with three sliding wooden doors (sorry I don't have a pic). It was a pain because if you wanted to open the closet, you had to close the portion that covered the TV. Only one third of the closet could open at once. Plus it was ugly as hell.

So we came up with a plan for the closet and had scheduled my brother-in-law (who owns his own construction company) and his men to come and makeover the closet. At this time they were also going to paint the room, molding, and ceiling. One weekend I went to Nashville for a girls weekend. I came home on Sunday night and the room was totally done!

Tom had scheduled the guys early to complete the room and surprise me. They worked around the clock for the weekend to get it done in time for me to come home and be totally surprised! I was floored and soooooo excited.

So that's how we live these days.....hope yall enjoyed peeking into our house!

Crazy Week, Crazy Girls

Sooooooo my life is finally starting to calm down a little! As I mentioned yesterday, I have been feeling all out of sorts simply because my normal routine was disrupted as a result of working crazy hours this past week.

But now I'm back into a normal(ish) routine and able to get my groove on with life in general, working out, eating well, etc.

On Wednesday night I had some of the Real Housewives of Tunica County over for drinks and eats. We have a lot of fun new girls in town, so we did a little meet and greet.

When I was the new girl in town, I loved going to other girls houses, making new friends, all that good stuff. So many of the girls welcomed me with open arms when I moved to Tunica, so I wanted to pay it forward.

Sara, Lindsey, Emily, and Lauren chatting and enjoying wine in our kitchen!

Erin, Shannon, and Jen

Love all these crazy girls. I was laughing because my friend Erin, on the far left, is my next door neighbor and we literally share our homes with each other. Anytime someone would say, "Laura, do you have any....?" or "Hey Laura, where's the....?" I would say, "Oh, just go in the kitchen and tell Erin you need that." She was my co-hostess in crime and I appreciate her so much!

I made lots of delicious goodies for the evening, and I wanted to share one recipe with yall.

Enter....

Mini Deep-Dish Pizzas!!!

(I gotta give credit to girl Martha Stewart for this recipe, I saw her make them on The Today Show and had to try it for myself!)

Ingredients (yeilds 18 pizzas):

• Cooking spray
• 2 rolls of refridgerated, uncooked pizza dough
• 2 large tomatoes, chopped
• shredded mozzerella cheese
• pepperoni (or toppings of your choice)

First, roll out your pizza dough and cut the dough into large circles. Big enough to put in muffin tins. I used a measuring cup as my 'template' to ensure all the circles were close to the same size.

Next, spray your muffin tins liberally with cooking spray. Press the dough circles into the tins, so a little hangs over the edge (makes the pizzas a lot easier to get out this way).Fill the dough with chopped tomatoesTop with cheese, pepperoni, whatever toppings you love on your pizza!

Bake at 425 for 12 minutes and....voila!!!

photo credit here

Crazy me forgot to take a picture of the finished product because by the time they came out of the oven many of the girls were at my house and I was distracted by trying to be a good hostess! So the picture above is from another website but that's exactly what they look like when they're out of the tins.

So cute and yummy, yes?

This would be a cute and fun dish to make for the kiddos because they can help in the kitchen, filling the little tins with their favorite pizza toppings. They were really good and everyone loved them!

I also made homemade flatbread chips, which I think I've posted about before. You just cut up your pitas or flatbread
Arrange on a cookie sheet, and brush with olive oil

Sprinkle with seasonings of your choice...I used oregano and garlic salt. Cook at 350 for about 12 minutes or until chips are crispy.

I served the homemade flatbread chips with a Marinara Goat Cheese dip I got off of the Fitnessista's website. It was sooooooo good and healthy, too!

This marinara dip is awesome, but the only difference I would recommend is instead of a big hunk of goat cheese in the middle, slice the goat cheese (thick slices) and layer on the top of the marinara. That way every bite has some heavenly goat cheese in it!

photo credit fitnessista.com

I baked mine for about 15 mintues on 450 and it got nice and crispy on the edges, and the goat cheese was bubbly and DE. LISH. OUS. Try it. You're welcome in advance. :)

After the craziness of this week, this is how I hope to spend my weekend:

Just add a little TOM to this picture and I'll be good to go!

Other than a 5K tomorrow, I have no plans for the weekend and I am THRILLED!

Happy Friday Blogaritas...only 6.5 hours 'til the weekend!