Broiled Herb Butter Chicken

I have been trying to improve my cooking skills lately. So every week I am trying to cook one new dish. Reiggin was closing tonight at Walgreens and I decided to test run a new recipe. I get almost all my recipes off of allrecipes.com. I love this site it is so easy to find what you want. So tonight I tried out the Broiled Herb Butter Chicken. I did make some changes. First instead of using parsley I used oregano. Second instead of using thyme I used garlic salt. Third I added a dash of paprika. Last but not least I used a dash of salt and pepper. I cooked the chicken in 5 minute stages. Each time the 5 minutes were up I turned the chicken over. Man this dish was delicious. I even didn't need to use ranch as a dipping sauce. For all of you that know me that says a lot. The dish was quick to make too. I think I may have spent 20 or 3o minutes total. I also made instant mash potatoes as the side item. I would highly recommend everyone trying this dish.

Of course I will add a picture of the dish as soon as I find my camera cable to transfer the image. Again, I need to improve my organization of my house. What is a blog entry without a photo. So here are a few Christmas photos. I decided to go all out on decorating our porch. Virginia was just a little excited about the Christmas lights. For a nice end a photo of our Christmas tree.

I Am Not My Mother...

I am not my mother. This statement is becoming more and more clear. Now that I am married and have a young child, I am realizing that I am not my mother. I am amazed at how well my mom took care of the household and my sisters and I. I definitely fall short of keeping up with my household. I believe I just lack the motivation. I also find myself occupied with the laptop more then I should be. My mom worked full time and still managed to cook us breakfast and dinner. There was also never a day that our house was so messy that it would be embarrassing for someone to come over. Our house was spotless as far as I can remember. My house now does not come close to being clean every day. I am trying to develop a cleaning routine. I know that if I just do a little cleaning everyday that this will help me keep on top of the mess. My biggest problem is the dishes. Yes, we have no dishwasher. Don't ask me what I was thinking when I agreed to live in a house without a dishwasher. I hate washing dishes, especially the glasses. Here come my excuses. I know that they are lame, but they are mine. First, most days Virginia will not let me clean for hours without wanting to be picked up. Second, the last thing I want to do is clean when Virginia is napping. Third, I am just overwhelmed at how fast my house gets messy. Ok so I know my excuses are bad, but I am determined to become better at being the Great HouseMom. Hopefully one day I can say that I am my mother. To wrap things up here is a super cute video of Virginia taking some of her first steps. You heard right we have a walking baby now.

Yes I know

Yes I know I have not blogged in a long long time. I really have no excuses other then I am lazy. So just for Lisa Harland, I decided I would update my blog. The nice shout out she gave me on her blog has pushed me to write.

There has been a lot going on in my life. Virginia turned one years old September 22nd and we had a great party at my sister Lisa's house. It is hard to believe it has already been a year. Looking back on all of our photos it is crazy how much she has grown up. She is learning new things everyday. She is saying mama now. We are working on dada. She is getting closer to walking, but for right now she is happy with cruising. The most exciting news is that we went to RockHill with my parents and Susan and got her first pair of shoes. She was not a fan at all of the nice woman trying to measure her feet. She screamed the whole time until we got out of the store. We did end up walking out with some super cute white stride right shoes that have flowers on the sides. Maybe with new shoes she will take off running.

As far as Reiggin and I go we are attending a new church, Harbor Presbyterian Church in Mooresville. It has been nice getting back into the routine of going to church. Virginia is getting better about going to the nursery. She still cries as we are leaving, but the nice ladies say she is fine after about five minutes. Everyone has been super nice at the church. I really love the preacher and how friendly he is. I am hoping to find a good small group to start to attend.

Reiggin has moved to a new store in Mooresville on Brawley School road. I am glad he is back down in Mooresville and not up in Hickory. He seems to be liking the new store. He has been working extra hard lately, but that's just Walgreens during the holidays.

I am still loving our new house. It is so quiet and our land lord is perfect. I will be sad to have to leave whenever the day comes that Reiggin gets his own store.

Like Lisa I am glad to see Fall is here and the weather is slowly getting colder. I do enjoy wearing jeans and a long sleeve shirt. We will see how well we stay warm in our house. But so far the weather has made for some great blanket and movie time on the couch.

As far as entertainment in the future. I am excited to say we have tickets to The Avett Brother's new years eve show in Asheville. Now we just have to find someone to keep Virginia over night. We would love to be able to go to the show and stay the night in Asheville. I would probably not know what to do with myself if I actually had a night where I didn't have to get up every three hours. But first we have to get Virginia ready.

My goal with Virginia is to get her sleeping though the night. Hopefully soon she will start to like the taste of milk. Virginia did have her first year check up and passed with flying colors. She is 20lbs and 29in. tall. It was pretty sad she ended up having to get 4 shots and blood work done that day. That was not a fun visit. Also Virginia is moving up to a front facing car seat. Oh yeah my baby girl is growing up.

Also a side note is that my mom is on Facebook. Yes Myra Ford has taken the jump and joined Facebook. With a little help from me mom decided to join so she can see all the awesome pictures that Susan and I post. I tend to put pictures up faster on Facebook then I do on my blog. Now we just have to get Lisa to join the band wagon and get on Facebook. It is much better then Twitter. There is all kinds of stuff to do on Facebook. I tend to spend all my time playing games. Yes I am very addicted to all the games on Facebook. I just can't say no to a good computer game. Lately I have been spending all my time playing Cafe World and another computer game called Evony.

Well I think that catches everyone up. I know this blog post has been all over the place. So maybe in the future I will try to post more regularly. Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the nice fall weather.

Cooking with Kathy

Today I decided to be adventurous and bake some banana bread. Virginia decided to be my little helper today in the kitchen also. That means while I baked she went and took all the bowls and tupperware out of the cabinets. Yes we very much so need to get the child proof cabinet locks.

First note about the banana bread recipe and really any recipe is to make sure you have all the ingredients that you need. Hold back the smart comments. So I had to substitute maple syrup for brown sugar. The end result was still great!

Oh also as part of Reiggin's Birthday gift I cooked dinner. Ok some of you may be thinking so is that a present or a punishment haha. I decided to make Garlic Cheese Chicken. The recipe is very similar to another chicken recipe of mine that Reiggin likes so I felt safe trying this one. Instead of bread crumbs I used fried onion sticks. I also switched up some of the spices but not to many. Everything came out great and tasted wonderful. You can never go wrong with cheese and chicken!

A Day in the LIfe of Virginia

Letting mom have a little fun with her!

Laying around after breakfast!

Helping mom take pictures of a few items to put up on ebay and craigslist.

Waiting patiently for her Lunch!

Mmmmm food!

Getting most of it in her mouth!

Get some juice after Lunch, best part of the day!

Do a little bit of lite reading!

Visit to see Grandma and Grandpa makes for a great Sunday!

Playing a sweet tune for Mommy!

Got to get in some playing time and see how many toys we can pull out at one time!

Goofing around and playing with her toes.

Enjoying some time with her new little ducky!

Taking a bath before heading out to church!

Happy Birthday Reiggin!

So today is a lovely day. The weather is nice, cool, and shady. I am enjoying this day completely. Virginia slept great last night and has been taking great naps. She even has been quite pleasant and playful. But to get to the most important part of today. Happy Birthday Reiggin!!! Yep Reiggin turned 30 today at 1:01pm. He may think he is falling apart, but I have to disagree. I told him that his life is just beginning. I mean he has a lovely wife and a beautiful little girl. Life is grande for both of us.

Reiggin got transferred to a new store in Mooresville. Today is the grand opening. Reiggin and the rest of the crew have been working like dogs this past week getting ready. Last night I got the grande tour. I must say the store was looking pretty good.

Virginia and I surprised him with a cookie cake and dinner at Sonics. Well surprise is not the right word since I couldn't wait til we got home so I went ahead and showed him the cake. Still we lit the candles and sung happy birthday to him and relaxed on the couch watching Big Brother the rest of the night.

I believe tonight I will surprise him and try to make garlic cheese chicken. Sounds good don't you think? Ok well gotta go catch you all later!

Harbor Presbyterian Church

Reiggin and I have been researching churches lately, trying to pick out a few to visit. Today, we visited Harbor Presbyterian Church in Mooresville. This was also Virginia's second time in a nursery.

Funny story is, that we went to the 11:00 service, but they don't do 11:00 service. So we ended up getting invited by the preacher and a few of the members of the church to go to the Explorers Sunday School class. Basically, it is a class to learn more about the church and for current people to decide if they want to become members. It was a small class of ten, but everyone was very friendly. I got a good feeling about the church and the people as a whole so far. I can't wait til next Sunday when hopefully we will be able to go to the 9:30 service and get a better idea of their worship service. Virginia did pretty well in the nursery. She got a little fussy towards the end, but overall she got a good report. A major plus about the church was that it seemed to have a good number of young children. One of my main focuses is to find a good children's program that Virginia can grow up in. I will keep you posted on our church search as it continues.