anyone else?

this is short and sweet. but has anyone ever noticed, that everytime you try and guess which bottle is shampoo and which is conditioner (if the bottles are similar) in the shower, that EVERYTIME you guess wrong???? it is true!! if i ever just reach for one really fast hoping it's the right one, it never is. k just wondering. back to packing...

packing, moving, and mexican chicken

phew. 5 DAYS til Greenville!!! buying a house has been so much harder than matt and i originally anticipated. you'd think we would have known a little better what was going to happen, since both of our mothers are real estate agents, but we definitely didn't know the roller coaster of emotions we were about to face. it's been one thing after another, after another, but we're finally closing, Friday July 31 (which also happens to be my 23rd birthday)! What a blessing it is and what a good birthday present. We are so lucky to be buying a house at the ages of 25 (soon to be 26) and 23 ... and have a happy marriage and 2 lovely dog "children."

Things I'm most excited about moving back to G-Vegas:
1. My friends and family being a stone's throw away
2. Taco Casa
3. Downtown Greenville
4. Knowing how to get around without my GPS
5. Clemson football games are easily accessable and our dogs will have their own house to stay at until we get back home... in the same night! Wasn't possible before :)
6. Tsunami
7. The Halloween Party we're throwing in October and all of the future parties and get togethers
8. Our Doctors and Dentists... that we've been going to and comfortable with our entire lives, and not having to go to some random person I find on google here in Raleigh.
9. Michael Cogdill and Carol Goldsmith ...even though i reallllllly dont like Carol, it will be good to see their familiar faces again every night :)
10. High school football games... im definitely going to some and im definitely making yall go with me :)

So there are a few SMALL reasons why I'm so glad to move back. Really I just cant wait for everything that comes with moving back. Mom was here (in Raleigh) yesterday helping me pack the kitchen and some other things. I have a few things left... like our closet which is totally organized and neat already I just have to decide if I want it in boxes or what. And a few nightstands, lamps, etc. Matt is going to pack up his office today.

In the midst of all this packing and moving stuff. I want to leave you with a recipe I made a few weeks ago. It is TO DIE FOR! So easy and so good. It's a modification of a Paula Deen recipe.. Mexican Chicken. When I looked it up and read comments and reviews I noticed most people had tweaked it to their own liking... so that's what I did and here's what I came up with ...

Mexican Chicken

• Vegetable oil cooking spray
• 1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cream of chicken soup
• 1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cheddar cheese soup
• 1/2 c. of sour cream
  
• 1 (10-ounce) can tomatoes
• 1 whole chicken, cooked, boned, and chopped or 4 cups leftover cooked chicken (i used a rotissere from the grocery store)
  
• 1 (11 1/2-ounce) package flour tortillas
• Small pack Taco Seasoning ... I used McCormick's Chicken Taco and I didn't use the entire package
  
• 2 cups shredded Cheddar (or Monterry Jack or whatever you like)
• shredded lettuce

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 13 by-9-inch pan with the cooking spray.

In a large bowl, stir together the soups, sour cream, and the tomatoes. Stir in the chicken. Add the seasoning mix. I didn't add the entire package bc I didnt want it to be TOO much but I added what I thought was enough :)

Layer the tortillas and the chicken mixture in the pan, beginning and ending with tortillas. Sprinkle the cheese over the casserole and bake for 30 minutes.

Serve with shredded lettuce and a dollop of sour cream on top. That really MAKES the dish. It is so good!

Easy as can be and SO delish! I also had some Tostitos Cheese Dip on hand and between the layers (when i put the shredded cheese) I also dotted that around. MMMmmm. I wish I could make it tonight but already packed away all my dishes. So try it out :) Let me know if you do!

Aren't you proud of me for blogging again so soon :) Next time I blog, we'll be in Greenville! Hoorayyyyy! See you there :)

-B

hello greenville!! :)

15 days til Greenville. We got everything finalized with our new house today. we are SO excited to move back to greenville and especially to be getting such an awesome house in an awesome neighborhood, i cant even contain myself!! this is our new house

the past couple of days, not only have we been packing, but also cleaning. ugh! our lovely (not) landlord called us Sunday to "let us know" she would be showing this house tonight (wednesday night) so. not only have i been packing boxes, wrapping wine glasses, organizing medicine cabinets, and on and on and on.... but ive had to have the house spotless for her to come show it. we have a whopping $2500 deposit on this place that we're GOING to get back and we didn't want to give her any reason to rethink that. so i have been cleaning NON STOP for 2 days. and now matt said he feels like he lives in a neat freaks house. i am happy its clean bc it's a little easier to pack when everything is already in it's place, but i am sad bc i have no visitors or friends here to come see what an awesome cleaning job ive done! (im not the cleanest person ever... im actually very messy) thats why i wish someone could see this in person! here are a few pictures of what it looks like ... if youre just seeing pics of our house for the first time... dont worry it's not always this bare. we've packed most of our "decor" already .































So to sum it up... there has been so much going on lately. Cathleen's Wedding and festivities, Megan's wedding and festivities (both of which were absolutely beautiful) and packing and cleaning and getting our carpet professionaly cleaned, and trying to find a job, and getting boxes on craigslist and ashley getting engaged (yay! my cousin. im going to be the matron of honor and she sent me some really pretty flowers...the ones that are on the table in the picture above) and all the loan and house stuff and scheduling the movers. i have had so much to do! i am so lucky that matt has such a great career and i am able to not have a job right now and be able to do all this stuff. as soon as i get to greenville, im going to contribute to the cash flow again :) i love yall!

-britt

ready to give her away

i just came downstairs to find this...if you cant tell. that is a HOLE in the carpet that annie decided to dig up. and chew. through both the carpet and the padding, leaving the bare subflooring exposed. keep in mind, we live in a RENTAL house. the carpet is already pretty dingy, and it was when we moved in...so we are sure the landlord would probably update it or get laminate flooring when we move out in a month and a half anyway, but now she definitely will. and now, it will be at our expense. i am so angry. there had to have been some sort of scent or bug down under the carpet right there though bc annie typically doesnt dig. unless she finds a worm in the yard or something. i am almost ready to give her to my grandparents or something. good grief. she is SO BAD and so mischievious!!!!!!!! but she really is sweet in her heart of hearts. and she's the cutest thing youve ever seen. she just is so destructive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! gah!

ok. enough venting about that. we're going to greenville tomorrow. and she will get to be at matt's mom's house which has an awesome, huge, yard and her and cooper can stay outside all day and get their energy out. thank God. we have a wedding to go to saturday and we're going home a few days early to HOPEFULLY figure out our living situation. it's been so stressful. but i just keep telling myself. be so happy you're moving back to greenville. and i am. at this point i dont even care where we live, im just glad to be going home :)

please pray for annie to be a better *dog* (keyword) and get out of the freakin' puppy stage. otherwise im going to go insane. she is such a baby and i wish she would grow up to be an old lazy dog. major props to all you moms of human babies out there! i dont know how you do it!!!! you're amazing.

here's the culprit...in case you all forgot how innocent she looks...

i guess im a "once-a-month" blogger

though im on my computer quite a bit, i always forget to blog. well /i guess i dont forget to, because i always read everyone else's blog, but i just dont. i promise to start doing it more often.

ill start with the most recent happenings first.

i was just cooking dinner. where usually the dogs sit in the kitchen the entire time waiting for me to drop a morsel, and i realized they werent in there. i thought it was strange and came into the living room to find, cooper looking guilty as can be and put his tail between his legs. then annie COVERED in what looked like red mud, then seeing a HUGE MASS of this "red mud" like substance all over the quilt on the couch (thank goodness it wasnt on the couch itself). first i freaked out then realized there was no red mud outside right now. noticed annie was licking herself insanely. then saw a chewed open box of jello- chocolate pudding mix on the floor. i didnt know whether to laugh or cry. ended up being an easy mess to clean as i just threw the quilt in the washer and vaccummed some powder left on the couch. matts going to give annie a bath in a little bit, and cooper's already mananged to clean himself. and i looked up whether it woud hurt them or not and they're fine. the whole "dogs cant have chocolate" thing is NOT a rumor, however, it's mainly the rule for DARK CHOCOLATE. anyway. just another day in the life of a dog owner :)

second. weddings galore. one month from tomorrow is cathleen and chris's wedding. and megan and blake's is july 11. im so excited! i have decided im going to start packing stuff over the next couple weeks (we're hoping to move back, mid july) and i have to be back for 4 weekends in a row from june 13-july11 then moving so it's pretty much the only time i have to pack. i hate packing. ill just turn on some music and get a wad of newspaper, boxes, and tape from somewhere and get after it. if anyone has any moving tips, i'd love to hear them.

we're deciding this week whether we're going to rent for a year or buy a house in greenville. it has been a much more stressful situation than i had planned for. trying to take it day by day and see what happens. at this point, im just so glad to be moving back to greenville that i dont care if we have to live in a box. i mean. i do. but i am so happy to move back!!!

i am so excited for american idol tonight and the new "preview" of Glee. i think it's going to remind me a lot of chorus in high school (glee, that is). it looks really good. i miss high school. i think i am one of the only ones. a lot of people say they wouldnt go back if they were paid to. i mean, i dont want to go back for the whole time, but a couple months or so would be nice. didnt realize how easy we had it back then did we?? gah! wish i could just up and go to the beach for a week and spend my parents money and then come back and hit up payson's house and do something crazy. i loved chorus and i loved cheerleading (ha) and i loved my friends. just hated waking up that early. that is something i DO NOT do. (megan, admire you x1,000,000 for the time that you wake up every day. gah) .

ok. this is just turning into a journal entry, rather than telling you anything productive, but i figured i owe you all a blog. :) talk sooner than later, i swear.

britt

coming up on 6 months...

can you believe it? matt and i will have been married for half a year, this saturday. it seems not that long ago, but at the same time it does. there's been so much going on lately.

work is super annoying. i still love what i actually DO, just some people are very negative and it seems like i can never do anything right in their eyes. also i end up driving an hour (there and back) everytime i work. then dont get paid that much. ANYWAY, i really do love love love working with the brides and helping them pick out their dress, i guess i just wish i owned my own wedding boutique with designer quality dresses, and a happy environment :) wishful thinking. maybe one day.

right now i am sitting waiting on my chicken spaghetti to be ready. ive still been cooking a lot lately. this recipe is from the pioneer woman (LOVE her blog!) check it out.. http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/06/chicken_spaghet/
ive made a couple of her recipes and they are always fantastic. ill let you know how this one turns out.

i finally got a new camera battery for my canon "nice camera." i cant wait to start taking pictures again. matt and i are not able to go home for easter this year, so we're going to celebrate here with the littles. (dogs). maybe ill hide some eggs for them. cooper probably wouldnt know whats going on, but annie can SMELL ANYTHING. i could just put some peanut butter or something in the eggs and she would definitely sniff it out. then i could get some good pictures. yeah! i might do that!

there are so many exciting things coming up! i know its going to fly by. im going home next weekend for megan wells' shower. i am so happy. i love going home and i love that shower's are starting bc that means the weddings are just getting closer!! i am going to be home an awful lot in june and july then we're moving back in august. yes! how awesome!

matt just took on a *side* job contracting for this really guy. he is going to pay him pretty well and we are hoping to save most of the money he makes from it, but also put away a little "vacation" pot and hopefully go back to the most amazing place on earth for our anniversary. le blanc resort spa (in cancun) was the absolute best hotel ive ever ever stayed in and i wouldnt choose anywhere else to go. (that's where we went on our honeymoon). i hope it works out!

we are going to start looking at houses in greenville towards the end of may. i will keep yall posted on what we find. i know i havent been the greatest at updating my blog, but i will get better, you'll see :) hope everyone is doing as great as we are!

b

recent happenings

where to begin. so much to tell. i guess first and foremost, we are moving back to greenville in june or july!! we are so excited about it :) let me explain how this is possible.

we first moved to raleigh bc matt's company (about 30 people) were going to try to get a raleigh office (they are in wilson, nc right now, about 45 minutes from raleigh) and consolidate people who live in GA, St. Louis, Arizona, California, etc. They were probably going to move to Raleigh as well. Then when the economy got so bad, they decided everyone was doing fine working from home and they didnt really have the money to get a new raleigh office (the wilson office is already really nice anyway). SO technically matt can work from anywhere. he's only been to the office about 5 times since we've lived here. but the MAIN reason we are moving back is because I am going to finish at Clemson. :) last time i was home the opportunity presented itself to us and it is just something we couldn't pass up.

Incase you dont know why i didnt already finish at clemson... i took statistics 4 times and couldnt get through it. tutors, acad. support center, etc etc etc. there really is a lot more to the story but i tried meeting with advising counselors and others to figure out if there was another major i could switch to that didnt require statistics and ran into MULTIPLE road blocks along the way. now i have an awesome opportunity to meet with the head provost of the university and she is going to help me find a way around all the roadblocks. dont bother with the "why dont you just..." we literally tried everything we could. but now im going back :) hooray!

on a much sadder note, matt's nana passed away earlier this afternoon after battling cancer for over 2 years. we are headed to bishopville, probably friday, for the services on saturday. she was one of the sweetest people i knew. so glad i got the opportunity to meet her and spend some time with her since matt and i got married.

after that i dont really want to talk much about anything else. just going to remember Nana today and be thankful for this wonderful life God has given us. despite this harsh, horrible economy, and the struggle to make it (economically) as newlyweds lately. this has really turned my attitude around and made me thankful for the life that we have. :)

-B