Looks like I'm Running in Mouse Ears!

 Princess Minnie and Princess Kristin at 2012 Princess Half Marathon :)

 

As crazy as it sounds..I've NEVER ran a RunDisney Race wearing Mouse Ears before! I have a small confession that I've always been secretly jealous of those who do and really have wanted to do it for some time now. So this week on the Disney Parks Blog, I have been reading all about the #LimitedTimeMagic that Walt Disney World has planned for its guests this year and YES, Limited Edition Mouse Ears are on the list! Oh My! And are they cute or what???? There are a ton to choose from and they will be released throughout the year. Luckily for me, I will be making my way down to Walt Disney World and Hopefully Disneyland to run a few races this year so I will be able to get my hands on some of these new collectors items.

Here are just a few of the cute Limited Edition Mouse Ears to be released starting in January. The Biggest Question for me is "Which Ears to Choose and for Which Race/Races Do I Want to Wear Them?" Soooo many choices, Soooo many Races!!

 

Be sure to check out all of the latest and greatest news about Walt Disney World, DisneyLand, Disney Cruise Line, RunDisney and much more on Disney Parks Blog and RunDisney.com.

Happy MouseEars and Happy Running to you! :)

 

It's a Waffle House Christmas!

 From our "HOUSE to Yours"...Merry Christmas!!

Through the years I've decided that I'm becoming less and less of a fan of the whole "commercialism" of Christmas. The decorations come out way too early, the parties are overrated and the shopping grates on my nerves! So I needed a tradition (besides going to church and celebrating the real meaning of Christmas) that I could share with my kiddos and they would actually enjoy. For years, besides the usual making cookies, reindeer food, visit to Santa, NOTHING. No traditions seemed to stick and none did my children seem to care about.

 It's a Waffle House Tradition!

  Until.... One Christmas Eve my folks had been on vacation and were flying home and called to inform me that they were stranded in the Houston airport. We go to my Moms every Christmas Day afternoon for lunch. Not this year. She would be home later in the day but would not have time to cook the Christmas Dinner and I had nothing at home to prepare for Christmas Day breakfast, lunch, OR dinner!!! Yikes! So early Christmas morning, we had some drop-in guests that said they had just came from Waffle House and it was packed! What?!? Are you kidding me?!?


 Hey. Lightbulb. Genius!!! The hubby and I talked it over, told the kids we could go every year, no matter where we are, how old they are, whether or not they still lived at home or were off at college, there is a Waffle House everywhere! So just like that, our favorite family Christmas tradition was born! It is absolutely my kids favorite thing on Christmas Day. Forget the presents, we're going to Waffle House!!!! My ONLY stipulation is that we go just how we look when we wake up. No makeup, no fixing your hair and you MUST wear your Christmas pajamas!!

Merry Christmas to you and your family...I hope you find a tradition that you love as much as we love ours! :)

 

 Even the lights had festive garland hanging from them!



My kiddos bellied up to the Waffle House bar...Lol!

 My personal fave...Hashbrowns Smothered and Covered, I think. Or maybe it's Capped, Diced or Scattered. Can't remember the topping for onions...Probably should learn that tidbit of info! :)

Don't forget to check out Waffle House to read about their story and  for all of their latest news and updates.

Pumpkin Bread, A Christmas Story and a fun win!

Well...the Holidays are upon us and as I am sitting here drinking my coffee out of my all-time favorite coffee mug ever, I have been waiting for my last batch of Pumpkin Bread to come out of the oven! I am feeling so "Suzy Homemaker-like" today. Very rare for me. I'm usually running 90 to nothing but it's nice every now and then to chill out and do nothing. I have made each of my neighbors, yes all 13 of them a loaf of delicious Pillsbury Pumpkin bread. Hope they like it..it has made my house smell delicious!

Pumpkin Bread for my neighbors..I even sprinkled sugar on top! Fancy!

 Pillsbury is my fave...who can resist that cute little doughboy??

So as I am baking and tweeting, I get a notification from SparklySoul that I have just won the unreleased thin SparklySoul Headband! Oh my gosh, how excited am I to win this?!?! I have heard nothing but great things so I'm really eager to try it out!! I'm in love that I won the rainbow one..It will match with everything that I own!!! I'll be sure to take a few pics of me and my new supercool headband at my next race which is coming up soon!

And oh yeah, I guess I forgot to mention that it is 11:44pm and I'm up drinking coffee?!?!? Whaaaattt?? #LateNightBaker

 

**Be sure to follow Sparkly Soul on Twitter and Pinterest

My Lindy is cooking now!

 What?!?!! Lindy is cooking??? Oh my!!!
 

Well the time has finally come when I am going to teach my kids how to cook. I am debating on the best way to do this. I guess it's dive in and hope for the best! My oldest is taking Home-ec in school and is dying to learn how to cook, so she decided to try out a recipe at home that she learned at school. Let's just say we tweaked it a bit, added some cheese and cooked it differently in the skillet (yes, I use iron skillets) and pizza quesadillas were born! She did a great job, learned alot and we are now going to start branching out and letting her cook a couple of nights a week. I'm a little scared about this but hey, she's gotta start somewhere.

Pizza quessadillas in action!
 

 Justin ate enough and then decided to get a bowl of cereal. LOL.

Lindy with the finished product! I'd say she did pretty good! :)

Some of the quesadillas were a huge flop but for the most part, I think she did a fabulous job!  Now if I can only teach her how to clean up all of the messes. :)

 My baby is cooking!!

 Some need a little more help than others....work in progress. :)

Pizza Quesadilla recipe:

Ingredients:

Flour tortilla spread with butter on outside edges

Mozzarella or Mexican cheese

Hormel Perpperoni

Pizza sauce (for dipping)

 

Directions:

Heat the skillet (medium heat)

Spread the butter on outside edges of tortilla, place in pan and add cheese and pepperoni). Cook for a minute or two. Fold the edge over and cook for maybe 30 seconds. Flip and cook the other side for 30 seconds to a minute. Take out of pan, eat, dip in the pizza sauce and enjoy! :)



Thankful for Pinterest!

I've been saying for quite some time that I *will* make the food on my  Pinterest boards. I will. I will. I will! Well.... I finally did! AND.. I broke it out for Thanksgiving weekend.I thought I would cook enough and be done with it. Not the case! The next day we opted out of shopping and decided to stay home and cook more! No Black Friday?!?! I never thought I would see the day! Pinterest has taken over!!!!

Of course on Thanksgiving Day we have the traditional Turkey, ham, all of the fixins and more desserts than we could ever need. For Breakfast, we had a big ol southern breakfast... Quiche, sausage, apple turnovers and a Pillsbury Cream Cheese Crescent Roll Danish straight from Pinterest!

Crescent Roll Cream Cheese Danish. Want the Recipe? Check it out on my Pinterest board! 

Big 'ol Southern Style Breakfast!
Blueberry Muffins, Sausage Balls, Hasbrowns, Bacon, Cheese and Onion Quiche, Homemade Apple Turnovers, Pigs in a Blanket, Donuts and Crescent Roll Cream Cheese Danish.

 This is one of my favorite dishes...my sister-in-laws' Brussel Sprouts. She sautee's them in a tiny bit of butter, brown sugar, onion and bacon. OMG. Delicious. I could literally eat the whole pan!

 For lunch, we made some football watching food... chicken wings, turkey salad, croissant rolls and Pinterest Pizza Dip! Pizza Dip was the hit of weekend. The kids loved it but we decided that the next time we make it we will add mushrooms and the smaller pepperonis. As always in my house, we give all thanks to GOD first and are thankful for our family, health and friends! This year we celebrated the day with  Good Food, Big Family and Great Memories!!

The Pizza Dip was the hit of the weekend! My kiddos and family LOVED it! Get the recipe here.



Pinterest

The Weekend of the BIG Head!

How excited was I to go to the Season Opener of the Alabama Basketball game and spot this guy??  It was like seeing a MAJOR Celeb!! He is quickly becoming the "Face" of Bama Basketball!!

Well that was Friday night. Let's move on to Saturday. Time for the Alabama vs. Texas A&M game. Huge game? Yes. Big Game? Yes.

So OMG. How excited was I to be standing outside of Bryant-Denney Stadium and see a LARGER than life Nick Saban Head coming right towards me???? OMG.  The weekend of spotting the BIG HEADS...Yeah!!!!

 

I love this Pic of me and my friend Meredith actually holding our pal Big Saban Head. I mean, would he just die if he ever saw this?? I would think he'd actually be happy and probably laugh. lol.

Saban...if you read my blog, leave a comment and Roll Tide Roll! :)

 

 

Run With It!

I happened to stumble upon the greatest little Running Store the other day when I was in Fort Walton Beach Florida. "Run With It"" is the name and it is fabulous! The folks were extremely helpful, extremely nice and gave me great insight as to what's going on in the Fort Walton running community! They even invited me to join in on their Tuesday night runs. Awesome! 

Make sure to keep up to date on all of their happenings on their Facebook Page and on Twitter! And stop in to see them the next time you hit the sunny beaches of Fort Walton Beach Florida

 No trip to the running store would be complete without a new fun gadget to bring home. I feel an entire blogpost coming on about this bad boy. Stay tuned for that!
 

 The Back Door is always open! :)

 Of course I was only passing through the area but will definitely stop back on on my next trip!

And this use to be a Pizza Hut?!?!

One of my favorite Starbucks is the Starbucks at the Silver Sands Outlet in Destin, Fl. The cutest beachiest Starbucks there is! At one time it was a Pizza Hut. I'm so happy for the change! It's 85 degrees here today in Sunny Destin... Crazy to drink a fall drink right now. But oh well. Gotta have it. And taking it straight to the beach! Happy Fall y'all!

 Fresh Paint, a little remodeling, add some palm trees...and VOILA! Goodbye Pizza Hut, Hello Starbucks!

 Gorgeous White Sandy Beaches of Destin, Florida!

 Starbucks, Destin Beaches and my Banana. Life is good!

Happy Monday... Sprinkles and all!

Most Mondays are just so blah. But not even blah... Just trying to recoup from the busy weekends. I just couldn't handle it today. I needed something happy. Something cheerful. So a homemade cake it is! Well sort of... Homemade from the box.

 Although I've pretty much kicked the dessert habit, my hubby and kiddos can gobble it up. And it's pretty to look at. ;)

Race for The Cure

Race for the Cure is always one of my favorite races of the year! So inspiring to see the Survivors, family members and everyone fighting this battle to all come together for a great cause! I don't have anyone in my family who has Breast Cancer but I hear that 1 in every 8 women will get it. Terrible news. So I'll keep on running for these great women and hope we can beat this!!

A few of my good friends showed up to run with!!

This was one of the Team Tshirts that I thought was extrememly funny!!! Really?? Angry Boobs?!?! HILARIOUS!!!!

I ran for my friend Paula. She battled Breast Cancer and her scans have come back "Cancer-Free"!! Yay Paula!! I thought about her and all of the other folks at the finish line and turned it on for a strong finish...that's what they are doing, FINISHING STRONG!!!

And Oh yeah, of course we found Eric Church's tourbus along the way!! We are honky tonkers...yeah!!

The Survivor Parade makes it all worth it! Rock on Ladies!!!! See more photos from the Birmingham Race for the Cure here

Rev up your engines!!!

So Sunday was not just your ordinary race, it was 13.1 miles around the Talladega SuperSpeedway in Talladega, Alabama. YAY for NASCAR!

I have ran this race a couple of times and it's really one of my all-time faves. For starters, we start on the track. Yep that's right. On the track! We run a couple of miles around and then we are taken out towards the parking lots where we run approximately 6 miles and then led into the grandstands!

Running through the grandstands where all of the spectators sit and watch the races gives it a whole new perspective. Supercool!

From the grandstands we are led around the track and then back onto pit row for the FINISH! We finish where the NASCAR drivers come in for pit stops! I love this race! I even spotted Olympian, Bill Rogers!

The post race party is always excellent and just what you would expect from a Bama race, live music, lots of beer and great BBQ.

As always, I had lots of friends and family to run with which makes my hobby so much more fun!
Already putting Talladega Half on my calendar for next year... It's Dega Baby!!!

The Color Run comes to town!

Me in Color!

#thosealabamgirls Atlanta

How excited was I after running The Color Run in Atlanta to find out that it was coming to my hometown! #thosealabamagirls could not wait!!!

 My kiddos all in white

At the beginning of this race they ask you to wear all white and then throughout the run they COVER you with color! It was really fun than I could handle! And so I registered for the Birmingham Color Run the day the registration opened!

 My Alyssa. :)

 Fun with each of my kids

 Me, B and Diane colored!

My kiddos ran this one too which fun watching them become an absolute mess! Again, we started out "white" but it was flooding that day and we quickly became a soaking soppy disaster... Soooo fun! #thosealabamagirls all showed up (most of us with our kids) and of course took lots of pics! ;)

More gal pals before the run

This is a race where there is no time clock, no chip times, no mile markers..only fun! The vibe is fantastic, loud and colorful, rain or shine! We will definitely put The Color Run on our list of "Must Do" local 5ks every year!

Now it's time to go and get cleaned up. Maybe... :)