Under my Umbrella

It's a rainy, dreary day here - the kind of day you wish you were snuggled up on the couch watching movies! But my morning got a little better when I got to pull out my adorable monogrammed umbrella!

My Mom gave it to me for Christmas and I've only used it a handful of times but isn't it precious! And such a great gift idea!

{Yes, I opened it inside to snap a pic with my iPhone -- and no, I'm not superstitious!}

Today is a busy one and then I'm off to Atlanta in the morning for some meetings! Hoping for some safe, easy travels. Enjoy your Tuesday!

Monday Already??

My Mom came to visit this past weekend and I had the best time! I always do hanging out with her and wished we got to do it more! I was sad that the weekend went by so fast! I didn't take many pics this weekend but I'll include the few I did take.

Of course, my Mom brought her 2 precious pups. This is Annie -- she loves some belly rubs! She a sweet little snuggler!

We were on a sewing rampage this weekend. My sister's shower for Henley is this Saturday so we were making lots of goodies for her!
Keith decided to try out my new bicycle - that he spent so much time fixing up. He looks good on it!

I made some homemade ice cream - it was my first attempt and I think it turned out pretty good. We had ice cream and brownies yesterday! yum!

I got the 2 recipes below from this blog! It is one of my all time favorite blogs! They were both really easy, quick and delicious! So visit her blog for the recipes - they are located on the side.

Ham and Spinach Strata (I also added some bacon)

Chicken with squash and zucchini on top covered with marinara sauce and cheese. So much goodness on top you can't even see the chicken!

It was a great weekend and this week is going to be a busy one. I have meetings in Atlanta, a concert to go to, and then off to Birmingham for a jam packed weekend!

On Demand

Do you guys have Comcast?

Well, we do. And I've been familiar with the "On Demand" option for a while - we rent movies this way quite often. But I've just recently discovered that you can get fitness on demand.

I'm sure everyone else already knew this but it's new to me and I'm pretty excited about it. I checked out a couple of the work out videos yesterday afternoon. I didn't actually do them {instead I was eating Cheese Nips on the couch} but I did see what they were about and I'm actually going to give some of them a try. Change up the work out routine a bit. A couple of the options include: Kim Kardashian's "Fit into your jeans by Friday", Jillian Michaels' "The Shred", Cardio Yoga, Fit Mama to Be -- really there are a ton of options!

You can also get a ton of shows "On Demand" - our cable is pretty pricey so I'm about to start taking advantage of all of this especially since nothing is on right now. I'm so ready for the fall when all the shows start back up...

Breakfast casserole recipe

I wanted to share a quick breakfast casserole recipe with you guys. I can't take credit for it -- the recipe came from my sister in law, Candy.

I got busy making it and didn't take any pictures. This is the only picture I got because we were too busy stuffing after faces after it came out of the oven!

You need:

6 slices of bread, buttered with the crust cut off

6 eggs, beaten

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 lb. sausage*, browned and drained

1 can of evaporated milk

splash of regular milk

salt & pepper

*You could really use any kind of meat/veggie you wanted - I went with sausage this time but I might try ham or bacon next time.

In a casserole dish, lay your pieces of bread buttered side down. Next pour on the cooked sausage and spread it around. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl and pour in the can of evaporated milk and a splash of regular milk. Salt and pepper them. Pour the egg mixture on top of the sausage and bread. Top with the 2 cups of cheese. Take a spatula and lightly press everything down.

Bake at 350 for about 40-50 minutes {just take it back before it gets too brown}. It will puff up some in the oven but don't worry it'll come back down once you take it out.

Easy, peasy! Enjoy!

Graceland

As promised but I'm warning you now, this is a looong one! But there was so much to see I had a hard time narrowing them down -- I promise there was another hundred or so I left out. Like I mentioned yesterday I was pleasantly surprised! I'm not some huge Elvis fan but it was really neat to see Graceland and I would totally recommend it if you are in Memphis!

Now here is a sneak peak!

Across the street from the actual house where you buy your tickets they have all sorts of attractions. Restaurants, ice cream parlor, tons of shops, car museum, etc.

Here is the only picture of the 3 of us I got. In front of this beauty - man, I would love to have a car like this! And it's just my color too!

She's a beaut!
We ate lunch at one of the diners - this was inside. Just noticed the Elvis look a like in the picture!
After waiting about an hour and a half it was our turn to take the shuttle across the street to the house.
It was a pretty house and I imagine back then it was really something!!! Elvis bought it about 30 years after it was built for $100,000. I think it was 13.2 acres total -- or 13.8, can't remember exactly.

On the front porch - I loved this light fixture.

This was right inside the front door on the right - the sitting room. There is a baby grand piano in the back little room. All of the furniture and everything are still the same from when Elvis lived here.

Upstairs - which is not included as part of the tour. No one is allowed up there. But I imagine some of the workers have taken a sneak peak!

Couldn't resist! =)

This was Elvis' grandmothers room. She must have loved purple - even the bathroom was purple.

The dining room - there were lots of pretty chandeliers!

Family photo

The kitchen! So 70's right - with the carpet on the floor and the dark paneling!

And there was carpet everywhere - including on some of the ceilings!

This was my favorite room. It was the TV room.

All navy and yellow with Elvis' signature lightening bolt on the wall.

I actually really like the couch and all the pillows!

This is the pool table room! Lots and lots of fabric - it covered the ceiling and every wall! And the couch was covered in the same fabric.

The famous jungle room!

Waterfall on the wall

Jungle themed furniture...

That is actually all of the rooms in the main house you get to tour.

Leaving the house and going out to the garage. Lisa Marie's swing set.

His office was in the garage.

So was a shooting room.

The landscaping was awesome!

Did I mention the weather was perfect! Look how beautiful the sky was - and it was only about 83 degrees.

This is the pasture -- it cost $15 extra to tour the stables so we opted not too. We figured the basic $30 tour would be good enough for us!

Our camera's were attached to our faces most of the tour. Along with our headsets that were part of our audio tour.

They've built some other rooms to display all of his awards, records, costumes, etc. It was pretty incredible!

Walls and walls of records/awards.

Priscilla's wedding dress and Elvis' tux!

More costumes - most were from movies he did. I don't think I realized how many movies he did! I remember Ash used to love Elvis movies - her and her grandmom! =) She used to watch them in college!

Had to get a picture of the one with the tiger! War Eagle!

side note* only like 45 days until football season!

Isn't this crazy?

Where Elvis is now buried. He wasn't originally buried here but a couple weeks after he was buried his dad had him and his mom dug up and moved here for security reasons.

Hope you all enjoyed the little mini tour. They are making a killing! The cheapest ticket was $30 and the place was crazy packed! But I'm glad I went - after all you can't live in Memphis and not go to Graceland at least once, right!!

A busy weekend

Whew! What a great weekend. We had lots of fun with Brian, Candy and Colton. And we packed in as much as we could!

Friday night we just cooked out at home and played around the house. We played pool and watched some cartoons! I didn't get any pictures from Friday - it was low key but we ate lots and visited lots.

We started Saturday morning pretty early. We had breakfast -- a delicious breakfast casserole {It's Candy's recipe and I'm going to post it later} and some breakfast potatoes. Then we all got ready. The guys headed to play golf and the girls and little man headed to Graceland! Keith refuses to go but I must say I was pleasantly surprised -- it's really neat.

This is a picture of the front of the house. I took about 436 billion pictures so I'm going to do a whole post tomorrow so I can share all the goodness with you! I know you all are dying to see inside of Elvis' house!

After Graceland we met up with Keith and Brian and headed downtown. We were running late so Keith and I dropped them off at The Peabody so they could run inside to watch the famous duck walk at 5pm while we parked the car. It's a big to-do. Every day at 5pm they put on this big presentation and walk the ducks from the fountain in the lobby {where they hang out all day} down a red carpet and into the elevator to go up to the roof where they spend the night. Then they bring them back down in the mornings and repeat the process everyday. It's really neat and I would suggest everyone see it at least once!

Then we just headed towards Beale St. We passed the baseball park on the way. It's a really nice ball park.
Spotted this cutie just hanging out!

They weren't playing so we were able to go in and take some pictures in front of the field.

Then we headed over eat dinner!

Then we went back up to the roof of The Peabody to take some pictures of the sunset.
The mighty Mississippi River.

Where the ducks hang out on the roof.

After that we headed home and we were beat! I don't have any pictures from Sunday but we didn't do much. We went by my work so we could send them home with lots of goodies and then we ate lunch and they hit the road. It was great weekend and we hope they'll be back very soon!

Graceland pics coming tomorrow -- be prepared for a lot of pictures!