who am i kidding...

Trying to learn how to format a blog for me is a joke. I have never had any form of diagnosed ADD but when it comes to html and formatting my eyes wander to the bookmark bar and my alter ego clicks on Pinterest or Facebook and sprucing up this blog goes to the wayside. Maybe I will just pick a default theme and say forget it! 

Hank is sleeping on the couch and I am surfing the internet, trying to stay away until Brent comes home. I just had a tick crawling on my leg which Brent assures me is one of the "joys of living in the country" ... I'm not so sure that I agree. I grew up in the country and rarely had ticks on my leg hours after being outside and showering. It would be one thing if it was attached, but I have been sitting in the same place for at least an hour and it started crawling up my ankle. Clearly from the floor and definitely from Hank. (He picks up his head and wags his tail) 

Corn planting is over for this year, next up on the agenda is turkey season, planting peanuts, and cutting wheat. Basically that means we are busy until the middle of June. YAY! Then we might get a few weeks off until it's time to harvest the corn, cotton, peanuts, and soybeans. Whew. That's the farming life for ya! 

Since we are trying to live on a 'budget' I fished through the fridge and pantry to make supper tonight. The end result was something like a pizza casserole and Brent LOVED it! Apparently my cooking has gotten better over the years he says. In the pizza casserole went: italian sausage, pepperoni, a jar of pizza sauce, can of cream of mushroom, italian seasoning, rigatoni pasta, and a 6 cheese italian blend. I do have to say it was delish. My MIL has a real recipe for Pizza Casserole. I will get it tomorrow at work and post it. 

LOVE - xox

here i go again...

Late again! It seems I have been slack on all of my new years resolutions, including this blog! I had a friend ask if I had posted any new recipes and I have not... (sad face). It seems lately I have had time for Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, Etsy, and eBay, but not this! SO I am going to hone in my computer skills this week and try to re-do this thing. It has started to be a place for me to rant instead of share life happenings and recipes. 

I am NOT a computer wizard and I lack many necessary skills for web page design but I will see what I can come up with. Stay tuned! 

are you on the edge?

I know you've all been sitting on the edge of your seats waiting for me to post again! HA! Sorry it has been TWO WEEKS! I have been working and we have had company for the past few weekends so I have been busy!

As far as updates go... I've only lost two pounds. Seriously. I think the problem is that all the healthy, small portions I eat during the week have gone out the window during the weekend and I weigh in Monday morning so it's a losing battle. I am going to be good this weekend and see what happens. It was way easier to lose weight when I was single. I had more of a drive to look good no matter how miserable and hungry I was. Now when I am cranky and had a long day I don't want to eat grapefruit or cottage cheese. I want to drink a coke and eat some chocolate.

I had an email from a reader a few days ago asking about weight loss and goals and it got me thinking about the fact that most of my friends are always on a diet or saying they need to lose weight. We have such a fixation on being skinny instead of healthy. If being skinny was my goal I could achieve it quickly. Give me some SlimQuick, water, walnuts, and grapefruit and I could get the job done but I wouldn't be healthy. I am trying to put more focus on eating well balanced meals than eating 100 calorie packs throughout the day. I think people forget they need servings of fruits and vegetables and protein, etc... I just keep praying for the discipline to stay away from all the fabulous deserts I've been making at WenLilys, drink lots of water, and EXERCISE! Those of you that see my Facebook know that I am constantly cooking and baking. I watched Fat Chef last night on the Food Network and if that's not a reason to stop tasting everything you cook, I don't know what is! Y'all just try to hold me accountable!

On another note.. I am finding out that more people are reading this blog than I thought. And some of the people I don't even know! Hopefully I haven't stepped on anyone's toes or offended anyone with the sometimes crazy things I say.. especially pertaining to where I currently live. I started this as a way to vent and keep up with my family and friends. I guess I didn't really think anyone else would read it, but I am glad to know that people find it humorous.

That being said; the month of January is almost over. I feel like I was just writing about my new years resolutions and all of the exciting things to come this year and it's almost February! I don't know where the time is going. I have been helping my MIL during the week at her Cafe/Gift Shop in Summerton. As most of you know, it is called WenLily's, and we make "southern specialties." For example, pimento cheese, different kinds of chicken salads, cheese wafers, all kinds of home made cookies and bars, quiche, and casseroles. That's really not even the half of it. but you get the picture! This month I have introduced Chicken Tetrazzini, key lime bars, and bacon quiche; now I am working on some new recipes for a salad and new cookies. I swear one day I will get around to that cookbook and share our amazing recipes with the world. I wish we could make the pimento cheese and traditional chicken salad commercially. As much as I love Ruth's, we would put them out of business.

I'm watching the Foot Network and looking for new china patterns, naturally, and I am thinking I want to have a tea party. Any takers?! I'll do all the cooking, just show up with a big hat. No seriously. I don't have any dining room chairs so maybe I should wait until the weather is warm and we can sit on the porch. Or go buy some chairs. Hmmm. I also want to go camping and kayaking. Any takers on that one or suggestions for good places to go? I'm still pretty new to SC and that is something I want to do before it gets warm! To avoid snakes, mosquitoes, and gators! Oh my!

Let me know if you are interested! xx

welcome 2012

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years! Last year was full of many events, both good and bad. Our family lost some treasured women, my brother lost his home in a flood, Brent and I built a house and got married, many of our friends also got married and some had children.. I can only imagine what this year will hold for us! I already know of a few weddings and babies!

As for New Year's resolutions, as usual, lose weight, save money, etc etc. Brent's Mom and I have started trying to lose weight together. Our goal is 20 pounds in 13 weeks. We are weighing in every Monday and holding each other accountable. I can already feel the pounds melting away. (I wish!) I have been eating less and exercising more for a few weeks already and lost about 4 pounds so with the added 20+, I would like to lose a total of 25. That would put me back to my weight when I was 19! Sounds good right? I'll track my progress on here with you guys!

Life on the farm is very quiet right now, thankfully. Brent is away at a marketing conference in Litchfield for the week so I am holding down the homefront. I think tomorrow I am finally going to the Social Security office to change my name and then go get my SC driver's license! I wonder if they can fit my whole name on my license? If not I will just put 'Carson Clark Cogdill' and leave out the Amanda.

This weekend I am heading to Raleigh for a get together with my college girlfriends. It is hard for all of us to plan a time to get together so these don't come around very often! Unfortunately I have obligations at home so I can only participate in half of the activities but will still get to spend some time and catch up with everyone. Hopefully I can stick to my healthy eating while I am away. Brent has already asked me to bring home Smithfields when I come through Lumberton on Saturday. I will just have to resist eating all of the hushpuppies and drinking a massive sweet tea....

it's christmas time, in the..... country

Back so soon you say? Well yes, I am trying to keep up with this for a little while. Hopefully I'll have a longer run than last time. I just finished making Aunt Jo's cream cheese braids, well actually they are Nancy Hollingsworth's but since I don't know who she is I call them 'Aunt Jo's' .. It's a two day process of mixing and dishes and flour all over the kitchen and it is so totally worth it.

Every year at Christmas our neighbors, the 'other Clarks', bring us a cream cheese braid and it was technically supposed to be saved for our Christmas Day Brunch, but in recent years I have been eating part of the middle out and sliding it back together so you can't tell I've been secretly devouring it at night while everyone sleeps. My mother probably thought they were just getting smaller every year. HaHa! So finally last year I begged my mother to ask 'Aunt Jo' for the recipe. I will post it under the recipe tag. :)

We had a Christmas oyster roast here on Saturday night and I discussed my ideas for a book club, etc. I had one taker on the book club, then someone's husband mentioned that people around here don't really read, and he meant that they can't, so I didn't feel so bad about my previous post. Then my sweet friend Katherine said that she was recently invited to a Pinterest party and everyone made a craft. Maybe I should really follow through with that idea. (Windsor: I'll let you skype in!)

I thought that Brent and I were really missing out on the social scene around these parts but I was informed that one doesn't exist, unless you are in the crowd that goes to places like Goast Island or the strip mall bar in Sumter, but we are most certainly not. And then I discovered that not only is there no social scene, but people don't even really entertain. I guess I will have to start the trend. I did hear that there is a supper club that we are not a part of, so I am determined that even though we don't live in Manning that I will find my way into that supper club. Or just steal the people I like away from that one and start my own. When else will I be able to use all of my fine china and my 16 foot dining room table?

I could keep rambling on, but it is lunch time and I will have to eat some more cream cheese braid and do laundry. Then start wrapping Christmas presents and pack to go home tomorrow. There seriously isn't enough time in the day...

[[cream cheese roll is NOT low fat... as my stomach hangs over my jeans. yay me. i feel like the truvia commercial of the woman eating doughnuts as they sing "jiggle bell"..]]

seriously, it's been three months?

I honestly don't know where the time has gone. I can't believe that it has been three months since I have last written. Trust me, I have gotten plenty of grief about it but it hasn't hit me yet that it has been so long. So much has happened since September 16th.. WOW! Let's see, I've gotten married, gone on a honeymoon, quit my job, buried both of my grandmothers, celebrated Halloween, Thanksgiving, and now getting ready for Christmas. One of my best friends had a baby, one graduated from college (finally after 8 years..), three friends have gotten engaged and another is now pregnant. Time sure flies by! As I write this, Birdie is attempting to climb in my lap, she is completely unaware that she is no longer the tiny baby puppy that used to sleep in my lap while I worked at the computer, she now weighs almost 70 pounds and is barely 9 months old!

You would think now that I am a stay at home wife that I would have more time for stuff like this but I seem to always be busy and on the go. I have turned 'staying at home' into my full time job. I have a whiteboard in my office that I have turned into a schedule of sorts. It lists all of my household duties that must be done Monday through Friday. (I get the weekends off* haha, I wish!) For example on Wednesdays I vacuum and mop all the floors in the house and do laundry. Since these tasks don't take all day I have time to pay bills, unpack boxes, organize, take care of and keep up with our three sweet adolescent dogs, go to the grocery store, bake, cook supper, run errands for Brent, blow the leaves out of the yard, wrap Christmas presents, do dishes... you get the drift. It's not as glamorous as you may think. Sometimes I wish I did still get up and go to an office every morning instead of cleaning up dog poop, picking up socks and dirty washcloths, and playing maid all day, but like they say, the grass is always greener on the other side.

I think for the start of 2012 I will incorporate going to the gym and getting my nails done into my weekly schedule. Maybe one day this place will have a book club or garden club, although I'm not even sure the women down here my age read, much less tend flowers or a garden. I am by no means insinuating that they cannot read, just that skimming magazines or gossip columns probably seem more fitting. At least we have Pinterest now so everyone has suddenly gone Martha Stewart and people are cooking and making crafts. Maybe I should start a Pinterest club! We can all get together and make t-shirt scarves. :)

I jest, I jest. I am still getting used to the idea that I am going to live here forever. Before Brent and I got married there was always still the option to take off, but now I'm here to stay! I do love living on the farm. I love that our front yard right now is a giant wheat field and our back yard is a pond. The dogs are free to run and play and we have no neighbors or traffic going by, well, unless people are coon hunting. Then we might have someone in our back yard, but for the most part it is a life of solitude. The only thing I wish is that we had Harris Teeter and Target close by and somewhere I can dress up to go. I look sadly at the shoes in my closet and I know that they are totally jealous of my crocs and they want to go out and be seen. I could always start incorporating some of my fancier things into my church outfit, but then again.. I live in a super teeny tiny small town and people love to talk. I can hear it now "Did you see that girl Brent married in church on Sunday, who does she think she is?"

So for now I will just continue to wear my fancy shoes around the house and drink champagne in my pajamas. I have a secretly fabulous life. xx

taking a deep breath

It's been almost a month since I last posted. *slap on the wrist* The meatloaf turned out great. And by great I mean, Brent LOVED it... I however still can't bring myself to love it, it's hard enough to like it. Maybe if it was covered in cheese it would be different! :)

SO.. the past few weeks have been crazy. I feel like this is the first time I have actually been able to sit down and take a breath. On the other side of the screen is my to-do list and the massive list of gifts that I need to write thank you notes for. I have moved all of my stuff from the office at the farm to my office here at the house. That way I am here to meet all the people that keep showing up to fix various things and when I'm not super busy I can run downstairs and change out the loads of laundry.

The wedding is in two weeks. Yes, TWO WEEKS! I've got a million things going on with cakes and dresses and hair appointments. In the mean time I am constantly unpacking boxes, trying to organize and clean out all of our stuff that keeps piling up at the house, and clean up after all the people that have been over at the house and shop. I probably do an average of 4 loads of laundry a day, vacuum the living room at least twice, and then clean up after the dogs.... sheesh!

I think everything will calm down once the wedding is over and people get used to us living out here and realize that this is our home and not the fun place to come hang out all the time.

I am using the computer Brent gave me for my birthday so I have no pictures on here, but I will upload some at some point and start posting some good stuff again! I hope everyone is doing great.

:* xox