I want to recap our trip to Southern Florida. Our main reason for the trip, other than a much needed vacation and the engagement to celebrate, was the Miami boat show. We went down the day prior and explored Fort Lauderdale and then on Thursday we were off to Miami. First we stopped at "THE ORIGINAL" Pancake House. Yum! Then it was off to the boat show. I am going to let the pictures do the talking here.

Wow-at the press of a button?

No boat show is complete without fancy cars.




This picture doesn't do this boat justice. It was beautiful-in the way a fine crafted machine can be beautiful. They got close to the dock, pressed a button and an automatic ladder/walkway came out the back to let one of the guys depart. It was very cool.

I LOVE the blue hull.

We came back to Fort Lauderdale and Scott discovered our hotel became quite the tourist attraction on Friday nights. The indoor pool is viewable from the bar-SCANDALOUS! They do a weekly live mermaid show. I don't know who was more excited-the raunchy old men, the children or ME!!!

The mermaid show at our hotel. I can't adequately describe it and I couldn't get a good picture either. It will be chalked up to one of those life experiences that you just "had to be there" to believe.

We were able to do the whole boat show in one day which gave us a FULL extra day to explore Fort Lauderdale. I wanted to play tourist and do the water taxi tour since I didn't know much about the town. I know these things are kinda weird...but I dig a city tour-be in by boat or bus!! here are some of the sites from the water:

One of a gazillion cruise ships we saw. These things are mammoth!

The world's largest iguana sunning himself. Literally 6 feet long.

A nice little place on the water. A 2 bedroom home on a corner lot,less than 1500 sq feet is currently for sale on the intercoastal for 4 m. Too bad I cant move my house down there to a nice water view lot;)

One of my favorite things on the trip. This dogs name is Murphy. He and his owner do this regularly, so often that they become party of the water taxi tour if they are out and about. I loved it-likely as much as that sweet dog does!!

Sunset in Fort Lauderdale.

Before we left for Key West I wanted to get some pictures of our hotel. Here is where we were lucky enough to stay!

View of beach from the hotel.

View of marina from hotel. We had the best of both worlds from a view perspective.


The pool at our hotel. We were so busy seeing the sites while we were down in Fort Lauderdale and Miami that I didn't even know this was there until the day we checked out. We were on the marina side of the hotel, not the pool side. Sad:(

The ocean!

Self portrait in front of the ocean. The only proof we have that we stepped on sand.

I will update on the Key West portion of the trip later.

The first 30 days & when all else fails....

Scott and I have been engaged for a little over 30 days. I think it has FLOWN by. We have the wedding set, the party set, the band booked, the food selected and the bachelor/bachelorette party conceptualized. We also spent a week in Florida celebrating said engagement. Oh-and did I mention that week before we got engaged I put my house on the market. I will get to most of the other things but right now lets concentrate on the house on the market issue. For some reason it's the most stressful to me of all the things going on right now:)

I knew putting the house on the market in the winter would be tough. Couple that with real estate sales being down 12% in January in Knoxville makes for FUN TIMES. But I have done OK so far...3 showings in the first few weeks and everyone that saw it loved it. But...didn't buy it for a variety of good reasons.

When all else fails...us Catholics turn to patron saints. The patron saint of real estate is St. Joesph. Yep-its true. From here on out I am calling him little Joe. I ordered him and he arrived (with complete instructions for burial) on this past Monday. if you are local you know that was the day of our epic flood. I am sure THAT was a coincidence.

little Joe in front of some flowers I got for myself. He really is little.

Close up of little Joe.

The whole real estate Joe kit.

You are supposed to bury the little statue (little Joe) in front of your house-upside down and facing the street. A small prayer is offered up and that's it. You hope for the best. Like I said the flood on Monday prevented him from being placed in the ground. Yesterday I kinda forgot about little Joe sitting on my kitchen table. Today I got TWO CALLS for showings on my house. This is unusual....I am crediting little Joe for this sudden interest. I came home and buried him.

little Joe's final resting place....

Little Joe is in the ground. The house is immaculately clean, again. The first of the two showings is tomorrow morning. Here is hoping that this person will love my little place and want to make it his/her very own-QUICKLY.

Oh-and little Joe wont be left behind. I am not going to mess with God and his instructions.

Instructions that came with St. Joesph. Obviously it's VERY important to dig the little guy back up after the house sells. I will..no man left behind.

Shock and Awe

Last Friday night Scott PROPOSED!!! I didn't want to bury the lead;) Here is the story:



I called him on my way home from work on Friday and he said he was already at my house. We had 6:30 dinner reservations and it was around 5:15 so I didn't think much of it. On some level I thought that he has purchased this army truck he has had his eye on and I was fairly consciously preparing snarky comments about the purchase. Not because he had purchased a big truck-but because he purchased something that looked like it should be on MASH, literally. Anyway-that's what I thought he was doing there. My imagination even went so far as to think he might have bought me flowers to ease the blow:)



I walk into the kitchen and am greeted by Bailey....wait for it....in a tuxedo. I thought that was odd...i remember thinking-where did he get that followed by how damn cute is he??? So I was puzzled. Then I noticed he has a note on his back. Scott was in the kitchen doorway and told me to look at the note. This was my first inkling that something was up....

Bailey after we removed the hat. Nice view of his shirt and tails...



The note was a poem, from Baileys perspective on why we "Bailey, Molly and I collectively" should keep Scott and go so far as to marry him. I was floored. Then Scott got down on one knee with a spectacular vintage ring and asked me to spend my whole life with him. I said YES!!!!

Someone is not happy to be in a dog tuxedo with a hat!

I really thought we would get engaged this summer, so the timing totally threw me. I didn't see it coming AT ALL. I also am so extremely excited and happy with how he did it. Scott and I talk all the time about how Bailey taught me the patience and humor that is needed to deal with someone that is a bit grumpy sometimes. Bailey can be a total sour puss. Scott has his moments too. The fact that he included Bailey in such a very special moment reminds me how lucky I am to have him...and of course Bailey and Molly too.

And because everytime someone finds out I am engaged they feel compelled to ask-NO, i don't have a date yet;) I need to sell my house first then on to wedding planning...

Molly trying the hat....tiny hat...big head.

Save me from the SWEETS....and the Winter Blowout 2!

I heart the holidays. One of my favorite things to do is BAKE and the holidays offer the perfect excuse!!! I have plenty of opportunities to make sweet somethings, unfortunately I have plenty of opportunity to EAT them too! I can't get rid of them quick enough, but I am pretty proud of this years round-up. I made cupcakes, a chocolate cheesecake, peanut butter blossoms, gingerbread cookies, sugar cookies and chocolate suckers Here is a tiny sampling of this years treats:

Homemade sugar cookies-with SPRINKLES!!!

My homemade milk chocolate and dried pomegranate suckers. I tried this after watching Ina Garten do it on TV. She made it look really easy-and it WAS!! They are yummy-even though I only had one because I can't bring myself to unwrap another. Maybe I should put the cookies in cellophane bags with ties?

The little suckers all wrapped up-would you be impressed to receive these in a cookie tin?

Scott and I hosted the second annual Winter Blowout party at the garagement this past weekend. We had a great turn out and as always too much fun was had;) We upped the ante on decor this year adding a giant wrapped box as a backdrop for kicks.

The main attractions-a large wrapped box and our second annual Charlie Brown Christmas tree-jazzed up this year with the addition of the mop bucket and fake snow;)


Scott and I before the mayhem begins....

The party had many hijinks to I will devote a full post to it later this week. Suffice to say-adults can have more fun than children with a giant empty box. Who knew?

Holiday Trimmings and a Tipsy Holiday Party

It's one of my favorite times of year!! Every year the weekend before Thanksgiving Scott and his cronies go to Arkansas to hunt. They have a weekend that basically consists of this. Men in camo, beer, dead birds and general hilarity.

He loves it and I actually do too. While he is away I bust out the holidays, in full force, in the Pandora's Box. It is best if I do most of this while he is away for many reasons. He doesn't understand the level of effort, he doesn't enjoy when I leave the bins all over the house while it is in progress and most importantly if he were here I would try to recruit him to help. His being away is a win win for our relationship;)

My living room mantle and and the star of the show...the tree!! Note that fire...yeah I made that;)

I added garland going into my kitchen this year and I think it adds a great festive touch. I try to add only one thing or feature a year. This year I added two-but this is the only one I paid for, which I think is OK.

I realized I had planted holly bushes in my back yard this year even though i planted them like 4 years ago:) Better late then never to harvest my goodies. I cut holly and put it everywhere-nothing better than free decor! I love how it looks in my mercury glass.

When Scott got back to town i had a "small" list of projects I needed his help on. I am working to finish my office, more pics to come. I bought a great cork board and put it up with my existing memo board. This is totally what I wanted and I am so excited with how it turned out.

Scott, the super boyfriend, helped me hang my new cork board and re-position my memo board.

Scott was also called in to re-hang my crown molding shelves (have had them for years and needed a new home for them.) I added a mirror over the buffet in my office and I think its a great bar/buffet area. Notice the champagne chilling-that was for my first holiday dinner party.

I hosted my first, but definitely not my last, dinner party. I had always hesitated to do this because of the sheer size of the house. I worried I would be constrained on space so I have mostly stuck to afternoon, casual shindigs. I invited 10 girls, most of whom were able to come, and it was cozy and perfect. We huddled around the coffee table in the living room and had a ball! With the fire in the hearth and the yummy cocktails I think everyone left happy!!


Here is the crowd of ladies, minus Ali who had to pick up her son.

I love this picture for some reason. First I didn't mean to take it-its the background of another shot. Second it perfectly captures a girls party-cocktails, sparkly high heels and a mr happy back massager. It's random but a nice haul under the tree;)

My chocolate cheesecake. SO YUMMY!!! The ladies were impressed.

Food Network shows-anytime, anywhere, Bailey gets shorn, HHI, and Windrock is AWESOME!!!

Its been a bit busy around these parts. Because I care-and worked HARD on this I want to share that Food Network long form is now available on iTunes. Check it out. We have some great content available-and will soon be launching a Thanksgiving and Holiday special. You don't want to miss it!
http://iTunes.com/FoodNetwork



Senor Bailey got his autumnal hair do-but first he had to get a bath. I do that at home to keep the trauma to a minimum. After the bath he does on a bit of a frenzy-I think to try to get back at me. I took these pics as he calmed down.

HUMPH!!!!

I can't even LOOK at you!

What? You control my hair cut schedule-not ME?

Seriously-put the camera DOWN. This is not funny. I am tired of looking cute!

You are DEAD to me!

Then it was off to Hilton Head for family vacation. Our first whole family vacation in 17 years. Yes you read that right- since I was a sophomore in HS. We have taken family vacation but not with the WHOLE family. Scott got to join the first part of the week. The dogs got to go and are just now recovered from their adventures. Scott and I took a morning in Savannah too. It was his first trip and he was impressed. Fun times had by all;)

At dinner in HHI....

The iconic HHI lighthouse.

Scott and I at Harbourtown.

One of the gorgeous home in Savannah.

Statue along the riverfront in Savannah.

Last-Scott and I have been talking about taking the ranger up to Windrock mountain, near Oliver Springs, since we started dating. I had never done it and thought I would not enjoy it-but I was WAY WRONG. It is beautiful. We had perfect weather. I cant wait to try it again.

This was the view almost everywhere. It was so peaceful and pretty.

East Tennessee fall colors.

The windmills up close. You can actually see these from pellissippi, so its really amazing to think how far away they are and how BIG they are up close.

Scott and I in the ranger, on the edge of the bluff

View of the mountain below.