When in doubt, smile.

This weekend our town hosted their annual seafood festival. Apparently its the longest running seafood festival in the South East. We’ve had it on our calendars since we moved here, and the whole family came up to check it out. Saturday we left the house just after 11 am, the time that the festival started .. there was a line of traffic about 7 cars deep on Grant road before the turn to go down to the parking lot (which was at least 30 cars deep). I think it took 20 min. just to park! Sean, Dad and I actually walked next to the car rather then sitting in traffic. The place was packed! Their huge parking lot was totally filled. There were lines everywhere. The girls decided to find a place to make a home base and the guys went to get food tickets. They have a bunch of permanent tables set up .. so we found one of those and the guys came back with tickets and beer. We were in the sun the entire time (except for Ella, who’s stroller luckily fit right in the shade of our table), but the weather was perfect. What we realized is that people get there around 9 or 10 .. bring their own shade tents/chairs/picnic gear, and then just basically tailgate the whole day. There was a band that played rock and roll cover songs, and there was TONS of food .. seafood and burgers and hot dogs too. We each took turns going to get something bring back for the whole group to try. There were lines for the food, but actually they all moved pretty quickly, they had a good system working .. but after fried clams, conch fritters, steamed clams, and fried shrimp (and beer) we were all stuffed! .. We had only been there a little more then an hour when we decided to check out the craft section on our way back to the car. I was surprised to see how many craft vendors they had there. Mom found a neat oil lamp made from a geode slice and a chunk of quartz .. hard to describe but pretty neat.

We were on our way home by 2 pm .. the line to the festival on Grant road that was 7 cars deep was now a mile long .. almost all the way back to our street! We were all exhausted when we got home, and we were only out for 3 hours total. I was dumb and put sunblock on the baby and totally forgot to put some on myself .. so my face is pretty red Overall it was a pretty good time .. Nothing I ate was spectacular, but it wasn’t terrible either. Next year I think it would be worth getting there a little earlier to set up a shade tent and chairs, rather then standing in the sun, we’d probably stick around a little longer and try some more stuff.

Other then that, it was great having the whole family here, it might sound funny but Saturday night was the first time I had my whole family to eat a home cooked meal at my dining room table .. I never even had them over at the condo .. now I really need to get a table that can fit everybody

Since Sean was 12 hours late coming home .. I decided to try this soup recipe I found online (rather then the fancy filet mignon dinner I had planned). I LOVED IT .. very good stuff, and I still have a container of it in the freezer. It was super quick to make, and held up the extra 4 hours it took Sean to find his way home

Chicken Tortilla Soup

• 1 onion chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 (28oz) can crushed tomatoes
• 1.5 - 2 boxes of chicken broth
• 1 bag (16oz I think) of frozen corn (thawed)
• 1 (4oz) can of chopped green chile peppers
• 1 (15oz) can of black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 Mojo rotisserie chicken from Publix, shredded (or 2 cooked chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces or shredded)
• Crushed tortilla chips
• Shredded mexican cheese blend

1. In a medium stock pot, heat oil over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic in oil until soft. Stir in chili powder, cumin, tomatoes and at least 1 box of chicken broth. Add in more broth to make sure everything is covered. Simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.

2. Stir in corn, chiles, beans and chicken. This is a chunky soup, but you can add in more broth if you want some more liquid. Simmer for 10 minutes.

3. Ladle soup into individual serving bowls and top with crushed tortilla chips and cheese. (Avocado slices, chopped green onion and cilantro would also make good toppers, if you like those sort of things)

Enjoy!

Today I went out to check on my garden after a week of rain and big wind .. and noticed one of my heads of lettuce has been eaten! After further investigation, I realized 4 other lettuce plants have been tasted as well as one of my strawberries and one of my pepper plants is missing all its leaves (it was a small plant) .. time for Sean to finally build my fence!Here are some pics

This has been in the works for like a month (seems so much longer) took me 3 pints to finally decide on the final color (Behr’s Waterscape), and after a long two days of painting, cleaning and construction, I think it came out perfect! Still have so much to move in and organize, and there’s still lots of stuff to hang on the walls, but I just cant wait to share my setup :)Here is a shot while hanging the LCDs on my wall so you can see what the arm looks like.Here’s the desk in place, with the screens and laptop. Soon I’m going to put 2 white floating shelves over the desk area. The printer is going to go on top of the file cabinet, and I’ll probably hang a marker board over that.This empty corner is where a futon/pull out sofa/day bed will eventually go. It’ll probably be black like all the rest of the furniture. Over that I’ll probably hang my diploma, and maybe another white shelf.This filing cabinet is gone as soon as I can move everything into the new cabinet. Hopefully we’re going to get a closet organizer with lots of shelves so I have more places to put all my junk. On the right I’m going to get a black TV stand. On that big blank wall on the left I was thinking that it would be really cool to find a handyman and hang track lighting and make that wall into a gallery. But that’s way down on the priority list I love how it all came out, and hopefully I’ll stay inspired to complete more rooms in our house (this is the only non-beige room in our house .. ha!)