Showing posts with label Holidays. Show all posts

Sunday, July 7, 2013

4th

You may (or may not) be wondering how we spent the 4th? Why, covered in red, white, and blue while frolicking amongst Lexington, dancing like crazy, gazing in delight at the majestic fireworks illuminating the sky, boozin' it up with friends galore, and grilling masterpieces designed for magazines, of course! UMMMM....NOT. No. Mother Nature is a huge biiiiiotch and quite literally pissed on our party. Like, totally. You know this. It's no secret that we've ALLLLLLL been incredibly displeased with the rain for the past week. Ugh, ugh, ugh! It's like I ranted in my Facebook post, "All rain and no pool makes Abby a dull girl." True dat because this tanaholic chicka was freaking out about losing her tan prior to our beach vacay in this next week! Yes, shamefully, I admit it, My name is Abby and I am a tan-a-holic. I DID get my sun on today, though! And will be for the entire next week at the beach...hollllllllllerrrrrrrrr! Also, if you're bored while I'm out and about, read my LAST POST for some inspiration...or my attempt at helping others. Whatever, I deserve a clap for attempting to be theoretical :) Bahahaha. Seriously though, check it out...it IS a good (and somewhat funny...okay, a lot funny...at least I think so) read! Boom.

Our beautiful babe!

Aaaaaanyway, we spent our day (despite the rain) loving time with each other. We cuddled, we snuggled, and we played and played and played and played some more. Hey, we have a toddler on our hands and he doesn't give a rat's patoot if it's raining or not, he's gonna get his play on...and that he did! Daddy deserved a day off so we had a nice day of relaxing. Jack had turned 15 months the day before and got some shots that knocked him on his booty so it was nice for him to get a day to recharge and refuel his batteries.

We didn't want the whole day to mean nothing, so we cooked an AMAZING dinner to say the least! We had grilled scallops, Mahi-Mahi, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, and this shrimp recipe I'll share below. It was delicious...and I am so, sooooo proud to say that the J-man tried (AND LOVED) every single bit of it! I'm so happy we have a boy who isn't afraid to try new things and then likes them!

EASY-PEASY SHRIMPY:

**Preheat oven to 350

**Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil

**Melt an entire stick of butter in oven on sheet

**Slice up fresh lemon

In the meantime:

Melt a stick of butter with 3 gloves of minced garlic in microwave (about 30-45 seconds). Once butter is melted, squeeze an entire fresh lemon into the mix

Back to baking sheet:

layer slices of lemon on top of melted butter
dip each fresh shrimp in garlic lemon butter mix and put on top of lemon slices and butter
Repeat until all shrimp is gone
Use Italian dressing seasoning packet and sprinkle atop shrimp on baking sheet
Bake 15 min.
Voila! Serve! DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELISCIOUS!!!!!! And if my 15 month old likes it, you have no excuse either.

Friday, July 5, 2013

'Murica

In case you hadn't noticed, the United States is a really weird place. Not that "weird" is always bad. I'm incredibly weird and I certainly don't think that THAT'S bad in way way shape or form! Sometimes "weird" can keep life interesting...well, VERY interesting, to say the least! But without a doubt, the United States is one of the most unique nations in the history of the world. Some of the weird facts about the United States listed below may be difficult for you to believe. Others are likely to completely shock you, just as they did me. Hopefully there is a little something for everyone in this article, and hopefully you will learn some new things from reading it. I know that I certainly learned some new things as I wrote it. I learned that in general, everything tends to be larger in America...but didn't we already know that? Go to your local Wal-Mart, plop yourself down on a bench and just people watch. You won't be disappointed...or, well, you may depending on the perspective in which you begin your watch. Truth be told and all in all, the people are larger, the cars are larger, the divorce rate is the highest on the planet and the U.S. government has piled up the largest debt in the history of the world. Whether America does something good or bad, it usually does it in a very "big" way. It's easy to love the United States, it the land of the free and the home of the brave...it's the freedom to pretty much do whatever the heck we want...or is it? Whichever direction you believe our country is heading, I am still proud to be an American and for that all I have to say is...

'Murica...

The following are 40 weird facts about the United States that are almost too crazy to believe... (but, hey... 'Murica, Jack!)

#1 The highest point in the state of Florida is only 345 feet (115 yards) above sea level.

#2 Today, 66 percent of all Americans are considered to be overweight.

#3 The state of Alaska is 429 times larger than the state of Rhode Island is. But Rhode Island has a significantly larger population than Alaska does.

#4 The average supermarket in the United States wastes about 3,000 pounds of food each year.

#5 Approximately 48 percent of all Americans are currently either considered to be "low income" or are living in poverty.

#6 Alaska has a longer coastline than all of the other 49 U.S. states put together.

#7 In the UK, an average of about $3,500 is spent on healthcare per person each year. In the United States, an average of about $8,500 is spent on healthcare per person each year.

#8 Montana has three times as many cows as it does people.

#9 The average U.S. citizen drinks the equivalent of more than 600 sodas each year.

#10 The only place in the United States where coffee is grown commercially is in Hawaii.

#11 The United States has 845 motor vehicles for every 1,000 people. Japan only has 593 for every 1,000 people and Germany only has 540 for every 1,000 people.

#12 The grizzly bear is the official state animal of California. But no grizzly bears have been seen there since 1922.

#13 For many years it was the other way around, but today a majorityof all Americans (including Pat Robertson) actually support the legalization of marijuana.

#14 Jimmy Carter was the first U.S. president to have been born in a hospital.

#15 In the middle of the last century, the United States was #1 in the world in GDP per capita. Today, the United States is #13 in GDP per capita.

#16 Today, approximately 25 million American adults are living with their parents.

#17 One survey found that 25 percent of all employees that have Internet access in the United States visit pornography websites while they are at work.

#18 In 2011, our trade deficit with China was more than 49,000 times larger than it was back in 1985.

#19 One out of every seven Americans has at least 10 credit cards.

#20 The city of Juneau, Alaska is about 3,000 square miles large. It is actually bigger than the entire state of Delaware.

#21 The United States puts a higher percentage of its population in prison than any other nation on earth does.

#22 There are more unemployed workers in the United States than there are people living in the entire nation of Greece.

#23 The original name of the city of Atlanta was "Terminus".

#24 Sadly, more than 52 percent of all children that live in Cleveland, Ohio are living in poverty.

#25 The median price of a home in the city of Detroit is now about $6000.

#26 Back in 1950, more than 80 percent of all men in the United States had jobs. Today, less than 65 percent of all men in the United States have jobs.

#27 According to author Paul Osterman, about 20 percent of all U.S. adults are currently working jobs that pay poverty-level wages.

#28 According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York,approximately 167,000 Americans have more than $200,000 of student loan debt.

#29 There are three towns in the United States that have the name "Santa Claus".

#30 There are 313 million people living in the United States. 46 million of them are on food stamps.

#31 In the United States as a whole, one out of every four childrenis on food stamps.

#32 In 1940, 68.0% of all women in the 20 to 34 year old age group in the United States were married. In 2010, only 39.2% of women in that age group were married.

#33 The United States has a teen pregnancy rate of 22 percent - the highest in the world. New Zealand is number two at 14 percent.

#34 According to the CDC, there are 19 million new cases of syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia in the United States every single year.

#35 The United States has the highest divorce rate on the globe by a wide margin. Puerto Rico is number two. Perhaps Puerto Rico really would fit in as the 51st state.

#36 More people have been diagnosed with mental disorders in the United States than in any other nation on earth.

#37 The United States has more government debt per capita than Greece, Portugal, Italy, Ireland or Spain.

#38 If Bill Gates gave every single penny of his fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for about 15 days.

#39 The U.S. national debt is now more than 22 times larger than it was when Jimmy Carter became president.

#40 It took from the founding of the nation until 1981 for the U.S. national debt to cross the one trillion dollar mark. Today, our national debt is well over 15 trillion dollars and we add more than a trillion dollars to our debt every single year.

Source: theeconomiccollapseblog.com

NOW with that said, here are some very FUN facts... (source: www.factmonster.com)

Fifty States and Fifty Fun Facts

State	Home of
Alabama	George Washington Carver, who discovered more than 300 uses for peanuts
Alaska	The longest coastline in the U.S., 6,640 miles, greater than that of all other states combined
Arizona	The most telescopes in the world, in Tucson
Arkansas	The only active diamond mine in the U.S.
California	“General Sherman,” a 3,500-year-old tree, and a stand of bristlecone pines 4,000 years old are the world's oldest living things
Colorado	The world's largest silver nugget (1,840 pounds) found in 1894 near Aspen
Connecticut	The first American cookbook, published in Hartford in 1796: American Cookery by Amelia Simmons
Delaware	The first log cabins in North America, built in 1683 by Swedish immigrants
Florida	U.S. spacecraft launchings from Cape Canaveral, formerly Cape Kennedy
Georgia	The Girl Scouts, founded in Savannah by Juliette Gordon Low in 1912
Hawaii	The only royal palace in the U.S. (Iolani)
Idaho	The longest main street in America, 33 miles, in Island Park
Illinois	The tallest building in the U.S., Sears Tower, in Chicago
Indiana	The famous car race: the Indy 500
Iowa	The shortest and steepest railroad in the U.S., Dubuque: 60° incline, 296 feet
Kansas	Helium discovered in 1905 at the University of Kansas
Kentucky	The largest underground cave in the world: 300 miles long, the Mammoth-Flint Cave system
Louisiana	The most crayfish: 98% of the world's crayfish
Maine	The most easterly point in the U.S., West Quoddy Head¹
Maryland	The first umbrella factory in the U.S., 1928, Baltimore
Massachusetts	The first World Series, 1903: the Boston “Americans” (became the Red Sox in 1908) vs. the Pittsburg Pirates (Pittsburgh had no “h” between 1890–1911)
Michigan	The Cereal Bowl of America, Battle Creek, produces most cereal in the U.S.
Minnesota	The oldest rock in the world, 3.8 billion years old, found in Minnesota River valley
Mississippi	Coca-Cola, first bottled in 1894 in Vicksburg
Missouri	Mark Twain and some of his characters, such as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn
Montana	Grasshopper Glacier, named for the grasshoppers that can still be seen frozen in ice
Nebraska	The only roller skating museum in the world, in Lincoln
Nevada	Rare fish such as the Devils Hole pup, found only in Devils Hole, and other rare fish from prehistoric lakes; also the driest state
New Hampshire	Artificial rain, first used near Concord in 1947 to fight a forest fire
New Jersey	The world's first drive-in movie theater, built in 1933 near Camden
New Mexico	“Smokey Bear,” a cub orphaned by fire in 1950, buried in Smokey Bear Historical State Park in 1976
New York	The first presidential inauguration: George Washington took the oath of office in New York City on April 30, 1789.
North Carolina	Virginia Dare, the first English child born in America, on Roanoake Island in 1587
North Dakota	The geographic center of North America, in Pierce County, near Balta
Ohio	The first electric traffic lights, invented and installed in Cleveland in 1914
Oklahoma	The first parking meter, installed in Oklahoma City in 1935
Oregon	The world's smallest park, totaling 452 inches, created in Portland on St. Patrick's Day for leprechauns and snail races
Pennsylvania	The first magazine in America: the American Magazine, published in Philadelphia for 3 months in 1741
Rhode Island	Rhode Island Red chickens, first bred in 1854; the start of poultry as a major American industry
South Carolina	The first tea farm in the U.S., created in 1890 near Summerville
South Dakota	The world's largest natural, indoor warmwater pool, Evans' Plunge in Hot Springs
Tennessee	Graceland, the estate and gravesite of Elvis Presley
Texas	NASA, in Houston, headquarters for all piloted U.S. space projects
Utah	Rainbow Bridge, the largest natural stone bridge in the world, 290 feet high, 275 feet across
Vermont	The largest production of maple syrup in the U.S.
Virginia	The only full-length statue of George Washington, placed in capitol in 1796
Washington	Lunar Rover, the vehicle used by astronauts on the moon; Boeing, in Seattle, makes aircraft and spacecraft
West Virginia	Marbles; most of the country's glass marbles made around Parkersburg
Wisconsin	The typewriter, invented in Milwaukee in 1867
Wyoming	The “Register of the Desert,” a huge granite boulder covering 27 acres with 5,000 early pioneer names carved on it

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Daddy Braddy's Day...

(...and BigBob and Papaw's too)

Unless you have been living under a rock or on a hiatus from life, you are aware that this past Sunday (June 16th) was Father's Day 2013. What you may not be aware of (but should be...in my humble opinion) is that the Toots man hit the jackpot in this department; he sure has some amazing male figures in his life to look up to, each with amazing qualities and characteristics of his own. We're all about growth and life's experiences up here in the land of terrific Thomases, so I must conjure up a little flashback of a first father's day for the two youngest Thomas males (B and our child...duh) for your viewing pleasure...

Jack with his Daddy Braddy and Papaw

Jack sure looks different! The other 2? Well, they haven't changed much.

NOW, let's flash forward back here to the present. As you may have read in my most recent post prior to this, Father's Day weekend is always the time when we get together for Redneck weekend. It also happens to be Dan's (Papaw's birthday), so to celebrate with Papaw, we do so in conjunction with Redneck weekend and his birthday. As I mentioned that post, we got him Whiskey Stones for Father's Day that came in a wooden box engraved, "Only the COOLEST dads get promoted to Papaws", along with his initials. Whiskey Stones are non-porous cube-cut stones that when placed in the freezer, can keep drinks cool for hours without absorbing any liquid or diluting drinks with water. They're REALLLLLY cool...hence the crafty saying I had put on there :)

Since we spent Friday and Saturday with the Thomas side of the family, we headed over to my parents' house on Sunday for lunch and celebrating Jack's Poppy a.k.a. "BigBob" (my Dad) and B as well. We had yummy ribs, corn on the cob, Mom's homemade baked beans (A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. to say the least!), pasta salad, and apple pie and swam as we love to do! Family pool days just happen to be a Banker tradition and favorite activity and we do it as much as possible. Sundays are pretty much non-negotiable in that arena and Beth and Kody have even joined in on those each week! Anyway, I digress. Since I knew that we'd be focused on Redneck weekend and Dan's birthday on Friday and Saturday and my Dad on Sunday, Jack and I gave Daddy Braddy his stuff on Thursday night so we could have a private celebration, focused solely on him. We got him 2 pairs of seersucker shorts, a brand new pair of Ralph Lauren swim trunks, a tie with the official UK plaid on it, a chrome UK license plate frame (B's been talking about getting one since he got his new truck), a UK grilling spatula, and a Canvas of Jack in his Colts football getup from his 6 month pics to go with the sports theme B has going in his new office.

B's loot - Father's Day 2013

this is the pic we had put on a canvas for Daddy to hang in his office. He has autographed and framed UK pics, posters, and memorabilia as well as Colts and Cubs stuff hanging in there too.

B says he had a GREAT day and was happy to have an early celebration with just us 3 on Thursday. Like I said, on Sunday, we had a nice time at the pool and eating lunch, but we also had a blast shooting B's new BB gun...yes, my husband is 12. He now has a BB gun, of which he brought for some target practice on Sunday. I have to admit, it looks exactly like a real gun and it is incredibly fun shooting it...we practiced on Thursday when he bought it. Brad would hate for me to publicly admit this, but I don't doubt that he'd confirm that I'm also one HELL of a shot. Him? Not so much. Seriously. I literally kick his bootay in this department. And yes, toot-toooooooot goes my horn! Dad and Cathryn even got in on the action and Cathryn is also much better than Brad. We all took turns shooting at one of Mom's metal flamingos she has in her garden near the pool. I hit it 3 out of 3 attempts, Cathryn 2 out of 3, and Bob 1 out of 3. Brad? 1 out of 6. HA!

Oh you may be wondering what did we get Bob/ Poppy? My dad is getting a bit [ahem] "up there" in the years, but he won't admit it and most definitely does not dress like the average bear of his age. While his number may sound old to him, I assure you he is not by any definition or sense of the term. While we may tease him about his age, we know you are only as old as you feel and he certainly does not act it, look it, or dress it and I like to keep it that way. I got him a funky fedora from my favorite vintage store...he looks so hip and retro in it, and these funky, green, alligator skin looking Sperrys. They. are. AWESOME. And right up his alley! I love giving gifts and I especially love giving gifts that represent the style and personality of the person of which you're gifting. We also love playing games together as a family so we gave him a new set of "Phase 10" cards and the game "Fibber". If you haven't heard of it, look it up...SO FUN!

That night, our little fam of 3 ventured home and continued celebrating OUR patriarch. He picked to grill out fish that evening and we did just that while playing with the Toots man. It was a perfect day and a perfect weekend. Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there and an extra special wish to the men in my life, especially, my lovey man, Mr. Braddy Beawr :)

Now, here's a salute to the father's in my life. You men are sensational role models for my son and I'm so thankful for your role in my life, but most importantly his. He certainly has AMAZING examples set before him and for that, I am most grateful.