SO WHAT! Wednesday

Happy Hump Day!!! It feels like we just got home yesterday yet its been a whole week. Why does it feel like every week goes by faster and faster??? Anyone else feel that way?

Since I haven't done it in awhile, I'm linking up with Shannon for

This week I'm saying SO WHAT if....

• I chose not to give Bailey ice cream, let him hump or be mean to the other dogs. My aunt allows her dogs to have Dairy Queen ice cream and to be mean because she says they are "just playing". 1) Ice cream isnt good for dogs and 2) I didn't pay $$ to have Bailey trained just so I can go and ignore everything our trainer said
• I gave our waitress a $1 tip the other day. When I tell you what I want for my meal and then say I want a to-go order at the end, you should probably write which one is which. She brought me the to-go order instead of the meal I wanted. then spent 20 minutes standing there before finally giving me what I asked for. 
• Tim Tebow has joined the Patriots. I'm not a big sports fan but did laugh while Brian squirmed in his seat due to the major dislike he has for Tim.
• I've giving up all hope with my cell phone. It freezes, takes forever to load when I'm on the internet and is just a pain. I'm counting the days until my upgrade in September!
• I drooled all over Luke Bryan when we watched the benefit concert for Oklahoma last week. Brian was sitting about 10 feet away. No shame for this girl! 
• I'm thinking of getting an Erin Condren life planner. As I've mentioned probably more times than I need to how I love to be organized. Any thoughts? I'd really love opinions...pretty please! :)
• I'm actually really glad I chose not to have a summer class. I realized yesterday that I've taken at least one class every single semester since I started at the college (2010). 
• I've decided to be lazy this week. While I normally hate being lazy considering I dont have a job and am not in school it means I'm more than capable of accomplishing alot. Not this week. It's rained since Monday and is supposed to start raining again tomorrow and all day Friday. They specifically said we are getting a Nor'easter!
• I  havent gotten Brian a present for his 25th birthday on Saturday. We agreed every early on that we dont need to get each other gifts. If we want something, we can just buy it whenever. We'll probably head out to dinner Saturday night.

For those of you who didnt see it, I now have Twiiter (happinessblog3) and Bloglovin'. 

Have a wonderful night!!

Taste of Tuesday- Hash Brown Casserole

Oh Tuesday, I was hoping you'd start off being a little more exciting than yesterday but no. Waking up to gloomy skies wasn't my type of morning!  We stayed home all day yesterday due to Brian's car needing a repair. First it was just the muffler but now it's the whole exhaust too. Hello $1300! Lets all hope that he gets to be promoted to full time...Dear Retail, please be nice for once!

Anyway, I'm linking up for Taste of Tuesday with Ashley and Jessica

I've never been one to wake up one morning and say "lets go for breakfast". My dad goes to the same place for breakfast every Saturday. He has Saturday morning traditions. Apparently that's where I get it from! For my mom, Brian and I, we like to make stuff here. Cereal or making waffles are my choices. However, there are the rare occasions my dad will want to go to a nice restaurant and have a big breakfast. That I dont mind! Two scrambled eggs, home fries and toast is what I always get. But I've now started to like something else. Hash Browns! *Side note* Last week while in Louisiana we went to the Waffle House. Our BIL ordered a side of Hash Browns for himself with his meal and a waffle purely for Caroline. He let Caroline have a bite of Hash...She ate the WHOLE plate! Anyway, because I'm picky, trying Hash Browns wasn't something that I just decided to do...that's totally not me! Why would I ever just trying something? My dad's Hash Brown Casserole did it in for me. He makes it for the family Christmas party and its always a hit! 

*Below is a picture I got on Google. The recipe itself is the one my dad goes by.

Hash Brown Casserole

Source: here

Ingredients:

• 1 (2 pound) package frozen hash brown potatoes, thawed
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
• 1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
• 1/2 cup chopped onions
• 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 cups crushed cornflakes cereal
• 1/4 cup melted butter 

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2.  In a large bowl, combine hash browns, 1/2 cup melted butter, cream of chicken soup, sour cream, chopped onion, Cheddar cheese, salt and pepper. Place mixture in a 3 quart casserole dish.

3.  In a medium saucepan over medium heat, sauté cornflakes in 1/4 cup melted butter, and sprinkle the mixture over the top of the casserole.

4.  Bake covered in preheated oven for 40 minutes.

5. Enjoy!

Vacation recap!!!

Guess what?.......

We're backkkk!! I'm sure you all sat there waiting for me to write a post, huh?. Ok...maybe you didn't. I hope you at least didn't forget about me while I was away :) I tried to read some of your wonderful blogs everyday. On one hand I kind of liked being away from the computer for awhile and taking a break from the blogging world. I had my phone and kindle but mostly was on Facebook. On the other I missed reading everything and a part of me felt guilty for not posting :) 

We had a WONDERFUL time. Usually it feels like we get there and then leave the next day, it goes by so fast. This time it went by slower. On Wednesday when we left I kept thinking about how we had been there for a whole week, 7 whole days. It felt like a long time! We spent most of our time watching our niece. She is the stinkin cutest. We went on a few outings but my sister in law and brother in law basically work different shifts which are basically all day so Brian and I were left to entertain our niece. We took her to the park and the library and a splash pad. We had a few places we could of gone but considering we didn't have a gps and didn't no where anything was we figured it'd be better to stay put instead of getting lost. Baton Rouge doesn't seem like the type of city where you'd want to get lost in. As I said, our niece is adorable. She's walking, "talking" and keeps us on our toes. We've only been in person with our niece 4 times since she was born in November of 2011. 6 months in between each time. Because of this she's like a whole new person each time we visit with her. It's hard to not be able to experience her milestones but it makes it that much more exciting when we can see what she's done. It's hard for her also. Here are two people that she barely sees and knows just walking in on her routine and her time with her parents. The first day we were there was hard. She wasnt sure about us. It got easier though. Not to brag but she liked me the best. Out of me and Brian of course. From what we've been told, she doesn't like men. She has two Uncles: Brian and our brother in law's brother. She doesn't like either Uncle. They tried but she just cried.

Before I get to the fun stuff i wanted to mention one of our plane rides. It was when we were going down. We always go on Southwest, Brian likes them the best for some reason. Southwest of course has open seating. This means there's always a chance of getting separated. We've been lucky on every flight we've taken together and have been sitting together. And thankfully our boarding numbers are always together so we get on the plane at the same time. Anyway, for this flight our boarding numbers were good. We figured we'd just end up in the back few rows. We were in the "C" boarding group. Never where you want to be but it was fine. We got on the plane and realized that there were seats still open but there would be one seat here one seat there and so on. There was middle seats open for the most part. Most of the people in the rows didn't even know each other. Well, that didn't help any. It seemed that everyone refused to let the pairs sit together. Its not a huge deal but you'd think that a person could move one seat back so people that came together could sit together. Brian and I got separated. I wasn't too happy. I got stuck between a woman and older guy. The woman wasn't bad. She was next to the window. She read a book and slept most of the time. She was a little on the heavier side so while her arm didn't take up the whole arm rest I didn't want to move my arm because it felt like I'd be touching her. There went the left arm. The older guy, oh gosh. He seemed to think the whole row was his. He was a serious guy. His left arm took up all of his seat and half of mine. I couldn't even touch the arm rest. He got extremely mad when I simply turned around to ask Brian something. Needless to say, I stared at the seat in front of me for the two hour flight. I glanced out the window a few times but didn't want the lady to think I was staring. And I didn't dare look to my right. The old guy probably would of yelled at me for looking around.

As I said, we had the best time and of course I took a zillion pictures. I think I put 56 up on Facebook but I had ALOT more than that. I wont bore you with many of them but I thought I'd share some.

We spent most of our time watching kids shows. Elmo and Super Why were the favorites. Have any of you moms watched Super Why? Apparently my kids show skills have been lacking

 

Its hard to tell how small this kitten is. I've never seen one this tiny. It was a fast little one. Reminded me of a rat or something. It would go from 0 to 60 in the blink of an eye. 

Little girls in tutus are so cute!

This is my sister in law. Yes, she's 27 and only 4'11

 

 

Although I've been down there many times now, I have to re remind myself each time of things. Its so much different down south than here in New England. Here are three things that I always seem to never get the hang of no matter how many times I try:

• "Ma'am' Something I was told from the very beginning is important to say wherever you go. Now up here in New England you'd never catch someone using that term unless they are from the south. Its just something we've never been taught. I try to say it out of respect  but its so hard to know when I'm supposed to say it. The moment gets awkward but then it passes. 
• No matter how short the sleeves and legs are on my shorts and shirts, the heat always wins. It was SO hot down there this week. It was in the 90s here in New England but it seems that the heat and humidity are different in the South. Can any of you agree? If I could of worn my bathing suit the whole time I would of. 
• Even though the food is "plain" it always always has a taste of spice. We went to a restaurant on Sunday. I ordered chicken fingers. The were fried. It said nothing about spices or seasoning. Oh my gosh, my mouth was burning. I peeled of the skin and just ate the pure chicken. Luckily I had french fries which filled me up! Tuesday night we went to a place. They had Spinach dip. I asked the guy about spices and seasoning. He said they could hold the seasoning they put on the chips.  Yea right. My mouth was on fire! I sent it back and asked for fries. I'll stick with going to the grocery store and buying what I know!

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This weekend we have a bunch going on. I'm so excited!!!

Today is raining and crappy BUT it is free donut day at Dunkins so you know I'll be going there!!