Touring Tuesday...

Has been post-poned this week, and I do apologize... but I've been pre-occupied with hours upon hours at the mall, along with what I refer to as the "Teenage Tornado", and pink, teal, and red hair dye. Details to follow shortly. Probably after the weekend. 

That's a BIG Guppy!!!!

Last week the stars finally aligned and I was available, along with my friend Jenn and her husband Damian, to join The Boy in some late night Tarpon fishing. 

Tarpon fishing is a pain in the butt. It has to be the right time of the year, the moon has to be right, the tides have to be right, the weather has to be right, and you have to be available when all of that happens. I was pretty excited that it finally all worked out and I was able to come. (The Boy has been MANY times without me) Jenn and Damian have been asking to go for a while too, but as this is usually a last minute deal, it's rare that they can drop what they are doing to join us. 

Jenn and I just waiting on the big one while I drove the boat

It was very late, and we were very tired, but the fish were biting everywhere and we were determined to hook up with a big one. And a big one we did hook.... well, Damian did.

 These fish put up the BIGGEST fight. You actually have to chase them with the boat to gain on them at all. As soon as Damian would think he was gaining on it, it would get a burst of energy and run off. He was exhausted, and had to ask Jenn for a drink, lol....

 Here is The Boy making it an "official catch" with a "leader touch". In competitions, if you can get the fish close enough to the boat to touch the leader on the line it's considered a catch.

 As The Boy would say - "That's a big guppy!"

A much deserved beer for a job well done! There was some serious teamwork that went into catching that fish! (yes, I cut Ed's head off...it was dark, gimme a break)

Touring Tuesday!

The vote was pretty unanimous that everyone wanted to see the transformation of my house into a home, and if you don't - who cares. This is MY blog, and I can blog about whatever I want! :-P

Let me start off by saying that purchasing this house was the biggest headache I've ever had to deal with in my life. So much so, that we almost walked away from it more than once. I'm so glad we didn't though, because I love it. Most of the time. We literally started the purchase process in November of 2007 and didn't close until May 2008. We knew it needed a LOT of work, but we were really in love with the backyard and figured it would all be worth it. Plus, that boy of mine is pretty handy, and really enjoys a challenge. He also can't leave anything "stock" so it's always assumed that anything we ever purchase will be "customized". 

And...here it is! Our first little house.

It's nothing fancy...just a typical South Florida single family home from the 70's.

I know most of you are probably saying "Wth, I thought you said the backyard was what sold you Amy?!?!?!" And,well, it is! In this area, that's actually a pretty large backyard. The major selling point for us was that gate, with the road behind it that you see beyond the pool. The picture of the enclosure is actually taken from that street. For us, that means that we can park our boat back there! Right where that shed is actually....because that shed isn't there anymore. But that's a story for another day.

(Interesting fact: the pic on the bottom left was actually taken and sent from my phone to the boy the day that our realtor called and told me to scope the house out. From then on, he was hooked.)

Once all the purchasing drama was over, it was time to get to work. 

First stop - The Kitchen!

Yes, those cabinets above the stove are indeed upside down. 

Come back next week to see "Operation: RIP EVERYTHING OUT!"

Fur Baby Friday!

I'm popping in on this FurBaby Friday to show you just how awesome my Fur Baby is. 

Can your Fur Baby do that????

(psst...hey...Mrs.Monologues....where's your link up this week???)

I've been thinking....

When I was doing my post about organizing and such... I got to thinking about how I've never showed ya'll how we made our house a home! Our house was a MESS when we bought it. We actually bought in May of 2008 and didn't even move in until September because we were doing some major re-vamping. I'm talking knocking walls down and everything. I was way too busy to blog back then, and then I had every intention of writing about it, but never got around to it. Soooo, I was thinking about doing a series called "Touring Tuesdays" and showing you one room at a time, the mission of turning our house a home. Would ya'll be interested in that?

I mean, really... we were dealing with PINK walls people.

Taking a break!

With as much work as we've been doing around the house on the weekends, we haven't had much time for fun stuff. On Sunday we took a break and headed on down to the Keys for the day to fish with my Godparents. The weather was beautiful, but the seas were quite bumpy. Much  more bumpy than the weather forecast called for. I get motion sickness and I held in there pretty good for most of the day, but it finally hit me and I decided I wasn't feeling too hot. I took my usual spot flat on the deck of the boat (trust me, you feel much less rocking) and missed out on most of the fish catching. Sad :-(  Fortunately, no chunks were blown and I felt fine as soon as we hit calmer water. We got to watch a beautiful sunset while the boys were cleaning fish....(no amazing catches to take pics of, just a few small Dolphin)

We stopped for a nice dinner, and then made our way home. It's so nice being 2 hours from paradise. It made for a very long day, and a sleepy Monday, but a break is a break, and it was nice to get away. Sickness and all. There is no such thing as a bad day in the Keys!

End of Spring Cleaning

Spring is almost over, and even though it feels like Summer down here in So Flo, we're not quite there.We ARE getting ready for it though! The past few weekends we have been cleaning things up around the house. Well, the boy has. I've been helping/supervising. 

We cut the lawn (I actually did this...), the boy trimmed the neighbors trees that have been intruding into our backyard, I helped pile it all up out front for bulk pickup, he cut up our non-functioning hot tub, I helped stack that up out front.... and then we successfully looked like white trash for 4 days until the truck came and picked it all up....

 

And then this past weekend, the boy pressure cleaned the patio, the sidewalk, and the windows. He's such a hard worker, even on his days off...

There was absolutely nothing I could do to help with this task except to keep his coozie full with a nice cold Budweiser. I finally decided that I needed to be productive too, so I took to organizing some stuff on the inside of the house!

I like to stay pretty organized, but every now and then even my most organized areas need a little sprucing. It seems to work best to just pull everything out and start over. So that's exactly what I did. 

The linen closet was the first victim. 

I emptied everything out... and then started putting it back in. 

 

 

I keep all my seasonal and extra scented oils, and travel items in these stackable bins.  I love these little bins. I got them at Target and they are all over my house. 

See? This is my guest bathroom cabinet.

I also use them in my deep freezer. 

So after I sorted through everything and put them in their respective bins, I put everything back in. 

 TA-DA!!!!! 

I know it looks like there is much more stuff in there now, and there is. I actually had a huge stack of towels on the table that I had been needing to put in, but I was putting it off because it was such a mess that I knew they wouldn't fit. I rolled up the beach towels, instead of folding (I think I can fit more this way) and I moved around the junk up top. I'm gonna get some more bins for the extra soaps and such on the right next time I hit Target. 

Next up, I decided to re-do the junk drawer in the kitchen using some bins I got at Staples - 3 for $1!

  

I emptied that whole mess out onto the counter. Set out my bins, and then started the sorting.

Some stuff had to find a new home. And that new home may or may not have been the garbage can. 

And then there was the talking beer opener. It definitely needed a new home. It went to live in the garage on the beer fridge, where I believe it should have always lived. I have no idea how it wound up in the junk drawer. Or why it's still in it's package....

 

So there it went to live. Still in it's package.

And I had a pretty organized junk drawer! 

Blackened Chicken with Cilantro Lime Quinoa

If you follow me on Pinterest, you may have seen me pin this last week.

Source: sarcasticcooking.com via Amy on Pinterest

Or maybe you follow me on Instagram - @amylynn0185 (if not, DO IT!)

and you saw me post this pic of my "version"

In which I said I was gonna blog about it, and then didn't... better late than never, right?

My plate definitely did not look as appealing, but it was yummy none the less. The recipe said you could pair it with some avocado cream sauce to compliment the spiciness of the chicken. I didn't have avocado, so I mixed some Green Goddess salad dressing with sour cream and drizzled it on top instead.

Yum-O! Love this stuff!

The boy and I thought it was pretty darn tasty, but the chicken wasn't spicy at all in our opinion. I think I would add more Cayenne next time. 

I also might have over cilantro'd and under lime'd my quinoa - whoops. 

Oh! And I pretty much have to have something green with every meal I make, so I made roasted green beans. Dude, can I just tell you how much I HATE green beans. Like, always have....they made me gag as a baby and all throughout childhood, as well as yesterday. Pretty much the only way you will ever see me eat them is smothered in butter inside a dinner roll (yes, I did that as a kid ), in a green bean casserole, smothered with bacon grease and made by my Aunt Lisa, or now - roasted. It's so good, and it's so easy! You HAVE to try it. You can pretty much add any seasonings you want (I used a lemon&herb and some salt and pepper this time, but I love Montreal Steak Seasoning on them) and then follow these directions. Easy peasy! In fact, this whole meal was pretty darn easy. The boy was very impressed about how few dishes I used. I usually have every cabinet emptied into the kitchen sink by the time I'm done with dinner.

Fur Baby Friday!

So I just found this new blog through  L.A.I.D who was doing a sponsor showcase.... and then through this new blog, I found this one. And I just had to follow both of them... because 1. I'm a sucker for things that are pink and nautical like First Comes Love's little logo, and 2. I love my fur baby and she linked up with Mrs. Monologue's Fur Baby Friday . Makes sense, right???

And now, I present you with my first Fur Baby Friday! 

This is my goofy girl... My sweet Zoey Monster. Yes, I just referred to her as sweet and a monster. Because, really, she is. But I love her to pieces. Even when she slobbers my face....and I really hate dog slobbers in the face.