What's on My Playlist

I put together my playlist on the iPhone the night before I ran my 5K back in April.  Since I haven't been running lately, I've taken to listening to it as I clean house.  And without further ado, here is my playlist.

"Wonder Woman" theme--really, "in your satin tights, fighting for your rights," why would you not want to listen to this song!!

"I Wanna Dance With Somebody" (Whitney Houston)--don't we all miss Whitney, especially her pre-Bobby days.

"Mississippi Girl" (Faith Hill)--I love Faith, was it really 1993 when she released her first CD? I'm old.

"I Gotta Feeling" (Black Eyed Peas)--mazel tov

"I'm A Slave For You" (Britney Spears)--a snake is optional

"On A High" (Duncan Sheik)--anyone else know who this is?

"Sunshine And Summertime" (Faith Hill)--just a fun song

"Dearly Beloved" (Faith Hill)--they'll be together forever, until they find somebody new!

"Milkshake" (Kelis)--it brings all the boys to the yard

"Wake Up" (Hilary Duff)--don't hate

"I Don't Want To Wait" (Paula Cole)--if you really know me, you know my obsession with all things Dawson's Creek

"Island In The Sun" (Weezer)--secret between you and me, I heard this on a Mary Kate & Ashely movie and I just loved it.  Never mind I was 25 or something.

"Beautiful Day" (U2)--this song just gives me chills

"My Humps" (Black Eyed Peas)--and my lovely lady lumps

"Toxic" (Britney Spears)--who doesn't want to taste a poison paradise?

"Suddenly I See" (KT Tunstall)--you know your life has a theme song & this is mine

"What You Waiting For?" (Gwen Stefani)--tick tock, tick tock

"Save Tonight" (Eagle Eye Cherry)--another DC song.  It played when Dawson and Pacey headed off in Pacey's boat after he and Dawson made up after Dawson spent too much time with Joey and forgot Pacey's birthday.  What, you don't remember that??

"Ice Ice Baby" (Vanilla Ice)--word to your mother

"Candy Shop" (50 Cent)--dirrrty

"Good Riddance" (Time Of Your Life) (Green Day)--season ending song of the Real World: London

And one more that's not in the playlist, but it's my favorite song of the summer

"Blurred Lines" (Robin Thicke, featuring T.I. and Pharrell)--don't get me started on the whole Miley VMA performance (which got her exactly what she wanted attention) (why the tongue!!!!), but I still like this song and the dirty bird (shout out to Marianne for that) who sings it


So, what's on your playlist???

Celebrating Our Little Melons

F & C celebrated their first birthday yesterday.  We had a cookout/watermelon party. This recap is mostly pictures, so enjoy!


The easel wishing the twins a Happy 1st Birthday.  It was a small party-just my parents, M's parents, M's sister-in-law and nieces (his brother had to work), and M's aunt.

For lunch we had grilled chicken tenders, hot dogs, baked beans, corn on the cob, spinach dip and chips, and watermelon.  We also had iced tea and lemonade.

After lunch, we opened presents and played with the new toys for a little bit.  I'm not sure who was more excited--the babies or S!!

After playing, we had CAKE.  We had thought about taking the cake part outside since it was nice, but in the end, we didn't want to drag out all the chairs and high chairs. So we ended up moving the plastic tablecloth that was on the table to the floor & putting the high chairs on it.

Then we lit the candles and sang.  Except I forgot to tell everyone we were singing twice and to which baby we were singing.  So some people said both names (M) and looked at me like I was crazy when I started a second round--and then people didn't know what name to say.  haha  I guess I'll need to be specific next year.  

I made watermelon cupcakes.  It's just a yellow cake mix that I decorated to look like a slice of watermelon.  I used food coloring to make white icing green and red and piped it on with a pastry bag.

I used mini chocolate chips for the seeds.

How cute are these cupcake liners that I found at a local bakery supply store back last April!!

 Do you think they liked them?

C

F

The aftermath--actually not a lot got on the floor.

I took the babies straight to a bath and while we were in there everyone left but my parents.  They wanted to give everyone a kiss before they left.  

I asked M to make sure everyone got a treat before they left--I think a few people skipped them.  Oh well, more for me us! I made Rice Krispy watermelons in a round cake pan. Mini chocolate chips were the seeds.  I cut the "watermelon" and packaged slices in sandwich bags.  I had planned to do some printable stickers, but I started running out of time and I figured that wasn't needed.

About 30 minutes after everyone had left and the babies were in bed we realized that my parents had left some of their bags at our house. They had stayed with us a night before their 6-day vacation and then stayed a couple nights before the party.  They were able to leave from here and their car was safe in our driveway.  The bags wouldn't have been a big deal, but inside was my parents' medication. My dad is a diabetic and has complications from it and Grave's disease.  He takes A LOT of medicine.  So M & S took off on the 1.5 hour trip to return the medicine while I cleaned up the house and got a few minutes to relax before the babies woke up to play and then eat supper.

All in all, we had a great day.  I can't wait to see what happens with these little ones in the next 12 months!

Yummy Greenville, S.C.

I promised a post on the food that we had in Greenville, S.C.  The food we had was so delicious.


Thursday

Lunch-we ate at my parents' house when we dropped of S for the weekend

Dinner-Gringo's
I had a shrimp and avocado salad.  I also had a neon colored margarita.  Not sure what ingredient made it day-glo colored (see it on the top right corner of the picture), but it was tasty.  M had a burrito--some type of chicken and black bean.  I can't remember what it was called.  He was really digging it, but it was so big.  By the time he finished it, he was too full.

Friday

Breakfast-Soby's on the Side
I met a friend there for breakfast.  I had the scrambled egg and cheese sandwich.  Cindy had grits.  And I forgot to take a picture of either.

Lunch-Chipotle
It was my first time.  I had a vegetarian bowl and M had a burrito.  My bowl was delicious.  I'm going to try to recreate at home.  But I'm also looking forward the the new Chipotle going in near my house. Again, I failed at pictures. :-(

Dinner-Tupelo Honey Cafe
I had a Tupelo Elixer (rosemary-peach lemonade with Firefly Skinny Vodka) and M had the Cheerwine Anytime (Cheerwine soda and Maker's Mark bourbon).  Then we were each served a giant biscuit with blueberry preserves and Tupelo Honey.  Delicious.  For my meal, I had Brian's Shrimp and Grits, while M had the Cheesy Grill & ToMAYto ToMAHto Soup (grilled cheese and tomato soup).

After walking off our fullness, we had dessert at a fro-yo place called Blueberry Frog.  I had just a plain chocolate. M had the key lime.  Mine was just ok-kind of grainy, but the key lime was outstanding.

Saturday

Breakfast-cereal bars in the room

While we were walking through the Farmer's Market, I stopped for an iced coffee at one of my favorite coffee houses, Port City Java.  I used to live in Wilmington, N.C., where this coffee shop was founded. We ate many breakfasts, lunches, and after dinner treats there.

Lunch-Smoke on the Water
I had the pulled pork sandwich with baked beans.  M had the crabcakes.  Of course I forgot pictures, but here is my empty plate.  It was so good!!  M said the crabcakes were outstanding--not a lot of filler. They also served us a breadbasket full of cornbread. Yum!!

Dinner-The Cazbah
We went for a tapas restaurant for dinner.  Each of us started out with a nice white wine.  Each plate that we ordered was designed to feed 2-4 people (depending on the plate).

Shrimp tacos

Traditional Cold Caprese

Fire Roasted Pepper Calamari

Free Range Roasted Chicken--this was by far our favorite!!!

After dinner we went to a cupcake shop called The Chocolate Moose for dessert.

 I got a Black Bottom Cupcake (dark chocolate with a chocolate chip cheesecake baked inside with a cream cheese icing)

 M got a deconstructed cupcake-it was a Grasshopper. Chocolate cupcake crumbles topped with a mint mouse and chocolate shavings.

He also got a red velvet cake pop.  And was kind enough to let me have a bite.

Greenville has so many great restaurants.  I wish we had been there longer to try out more. 

Vacation in Greenville, S.C.

My husband and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary by taking a trip to Greenville, S.C.  It's about 3-3 1/2 hours from where we live and it made a great compromise-not too close and not too far (since we were KID FREE).

Here's a recap of our long weekend.  I'm going to do a separate post of our food--seriously.

Thursday--we arrived a little after 3.  We stayed at the Courtyard by Marriott in downtown.  Y'all, this was a great hotel.  After resting for a little bit, we ventured out into the downtown area.  We went to Falls Park and then up and down the main street (aka Main Street) looking for a place to eat.

And then we walked more burning off our delicious meal!!  At one end of downtown, there was live music and that was fun to enjoy.  We also walked to Publix to have some snacks in the room-oj and breakfast bars were a must for M.

Friday--I met a Twitter/FB/blog friend for breakfast. It was nice to finally meet her in real life and she is as sweet as can be.

After breakfast, M and I went to Anderson, S.C. I worked as an intern in the Belk there about, oh, 14 years ago.  The mall looked much the same-especially the Sabarro whre I ate lunch or dinner at least 2 days a week.  After the mall (and a little shopping--hello, UT orange sweater at JCP for $4.99), we drove to Clemson, S.C.  When I interned, I actually lived in Clemson, so we went by the condo I stayed at that summer.  The years have not been kind to that development and I'm pretty sure my parents would have vetoed leaving me there if it looked that way then.  After a condo drive-by, we went to the Clemson campus.  I have a confession.  That summer I lived there, I didn't have a computer, so I would go to the Clemson campus library and use the ones there to email my boyfriend (now husband).  I'm pretty sure you were supposed to be a student to use them, but I guess I looked the part.

After lunch, we went to the S.C. Botanical Gardens.  It's right there at Clemson and I remember it being really beautiful.  Unfortunately, a lot of the trails were being worked on, and we weren't able to walk them.  But the butterfly garden was open and beautiful.

After Clemson, we went back to the hotel and rested--it was mighty warm outside!  Afterwards we ventured out into downtown once again.  More live music and some browsing after dinner.

Saturday--After breakfast in the room, we went to the part of Main Street was closed for a Farmer's Market on Saturday morning.  It was nice walking through and seeing the fresh produce--especially the peaches.  We didn't get anything other than coffee, but we liked the people watching.
After the Farmer's Market, we decided to drive back to the Anderson area to visit Jockey Lot.  Jockey Lot is a flea market, they promote themselves as a "the South's biggest and the World's Best Flea Market!"  Honestly, flea markets aren't my thing--I just hate seeing poor animals in cages in the heat being sold.  And I question how safe the OTC medications are that people sell by the truckloads.  It took everything in me not to turn over the car seats to see if they were near their expiration date (or past).  I guess it's buyer beware.

After a brief stay there, we went to Paris Mountain State Park.  We did a pedal boat ride and a hike walk around "Lake Placid."

 

When we finished that, we went to Furman University.  I had never been there, but it was so beautiful. As we drove in, there was a wedding party having pictures made in a grassy area.  Think they met there?

Then back out into downtown for dinner.  And a walk to Publix for a lottery ticket.

Sunday--We left Greenville right after breakfast in the room.  After a quick stop for coffee downtown, we headed to pick up the kids.  On the way, we stopped at a roadside stand for some delicious S.C. peaches.  They are huge this year due to the rain.  And they are so good!!!

If you are looking for a great place to visit, consider Greenville, S.C.  I was not paid to visit or given any special perks while there.  We just really loved our visit and I wanted to share.