va.

Tomorrow morning after an early morning workout, followed by eggs with my hubs, I'll be road trippin' it to the DC area of Virginia to visit two of my first real friends, Lauren aka 'L' and Nicole aka 'Nic'.

*Told you I've known them for awhile! When on Earth did I look like this?

I'm very excited for this trip, but a little worried about the 6 hours drive by my lonesome.

These 4 songs will defintely be on repeat because they make me quite happy.

See you back here next week with lots of photos from my adventure.

flowers.

Since starting our diet and workout last Thursday I'm happier and I feel so much more energetic.
When I arrived home from Asheville Sunday afternoon I loved my boys, prepped some chicken breasts for the week, went to the gym and lastly made a stop at The Fresh Market for some flowers.
They make me happy inside every time I look at them.



Notice my antique milk jar housing the sunflowers? love!

saturday.

My wonderful mother's birthday is on Friday.
To celebrate we are trying to make it a tradition to visit Asheville for the Bele Chere Festival which always falls around the last weekend of July.
This was our second year and it was better than last even though we only went for one day/night.


We left Charlotte, mama san left Norton, early enough for us to meet at Sunny Pointe Cafe for one of our favorite breakfasts.
I had the breakfast salad and it was not only genius, but delicious...maple vinagrette is where it's at (what does that even mean?)


Next we made our way to the Tobacco Barn Antique store that was housed in an old tobacco barn...shocker, right?
This place was huge, it was hot and it was filled with so many antiques you could spend all day there.
My only purchases were a milk bottle (I love these for fresh flowers) and an old metal 'E', 'D', and 'P' (I'll show you these @ a later date).

Next we headed downtown to visit Minx Boutique which is now a favorite of mine and a must-stop on any Asheville trip.
I picked up a cute black mini skirt for only $20 that I can't wait to wear once I've dropped a few L.B's.



After checking into our hotel and freshing up it was time to brave the crowded streets of the festival.



We filled our bellies at Early Girl Eatery with salads for sister and I and crab cakes for Mama San.
This restaurant, like so many in Asheville, had fresh, good quality ingredients that really made for an amazing meal.



Then we headed to Sazerac's rooftop bar stopping along the way to browse the street vendors goods.
We came across these amazing tshirts which will now be a favorite of my entire family.


After a few fancy pants cocktails it was time to make our way to Jack of the Wood's for some bluegrass music.


But not before running into Scott Teague!!! It really is a small world folks.


The bluegrass was amazing, the day was indescribably perfect and this is a trip that will stand out in my mind for the rest of my life.

Before heading home the next day we had breakfast at Moose Cafe. I can't accurately tell you how amazing this place is!
Just look at this breakfast!


Perfection on a plate.

Until next year Bele Chere... LOVE!

concerts.

One of my goals every summer is to attend as many concerts as possible, especially outdoor country music shows.

Last year I saw ZERO...epic fail.

This year we've so far managed to see the Brooks and Dunn Farewell Concert, Phoenix, Counting Crows and I still have Zac Brown Band and Brad Paisley to look forward to.


August, you are going to be a very, very good month. :)
Bring on the heat, the sweat, the cowboy boots and some good ol' honky tonk music!

*Don't you love how lemurish I look in this photo?

food.

As you probably know from a previous post, in just a few days hubby and I will embark on a fitness challenge with two other couples who also happen to be our best friends.
In the weeks leading up to this challenge we all figured it wouldn't hurt to pack on a few pounds before the challenge started so that we'd have more to lose and a higher percentage of body fat to burn.
Starting Thursday Mr. P and I will begin a very intense diet and workout regimen.
Therefore we took the last week or so as an opportunity to eat some of our very favorite foods that we normally wouldn't even think of consuming.

Here's what that looked like....








1. Krispy Kreme in Greensboro, NC. I hope hubby won't mind me sharing with you that he consumed 8 of our dozen in one day!
2. Potatoes, not too bad for your, right? When you fry them in butter and top with parmesan then I'm not sure? *Thanks for this recipe mama san! We popped these bad boys like candy!
3. Recipe courtesy of Paula Deen, 'nough said!
4. Lemon Raspberry Bars that normally would be a somewhat healthy dessert choice, but certainly not something I'll be consuming in the next 2 months.
5. When I think comfort food I usually think pasta! My sweet mama san sent back lots of herbs from her garden so I pounded some chicken breasts, stuffed them with proscuitto, fresh mozzerella and basil. I then used my favorite pasta, fettucini, to absorb my favorite bottled marinara and voila! A comfort meal fit for a king!
6. Hubby and I LOVE sheet cake, so when I laid eyes on these large individual sized piece at Target last night I knew it would be the perfect accompaniment for sitting on my bum and watching Bachelorette last night.
7. Last, BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST, Five Guys Burger and Fries. I L.O.V.E this place!!!!

I can honestly say that I've never felt this disgusting in my whole life.
Not only did we succeed in packing on a few pounds, but we are now even more motivated to start working this weight off.
Stayed tuned for weekly updates my dear blog friends and wish us luck.

saturday.

After a high-calorie breakfast on Saturday, husband and I packed our bag for an overnight trip to Greensboro, NC.
We headed back to his hometown to spend the evening with our dear friends, Heather, Allen & Wallace, their new 4-legged son.

We arrived around 4pm and despite the rainy weather the evening was absolutely perfect.
We chatted, we played games, we watched the dogs play tug-o-war, we had Brixx Pizza and we discovered why Apples to Apples is the top rated party game.







*Oakleys, thank you for having us.
We, Tucker especially, miss you all already. ;)
xo

What is for you will not pass you by.



I love the thought of this, it makes me smile.
I read it here.

That's all for today.

Actually that's not all, if you want to read something else amazing that may have a very positive impact on your relationship, go here.
I plan to read it many more times.

Happy Thursday.

TALES FROM THE STAIRS

Last Wednesday I rushed home from work to quickly let out my 4 legged son before spending the evening at my hubby's office (a story for another time).
On my way in the house I couldn't help but notice a large cobweb on the corner of our front steps.
Upon closer inspection I saw hundreds, this is no exaggeration, of tiny baby spiders crawling around on this web.
Throughout the remainder of the evening these creepy crawly critters kept creeping into my mind.
I told my hubby later, at his office, that when we went home he needed to bust out the spider spray and take care of business.
As soon as we arrived home we walked out to the front so I could point out these living nightmares.
He sprayed away and eased my fears of hundreds of spiders invading our home.

The next morning when leaving for work I noticed the huge mama spider in the web and apparently dead as well.
I actually felt really sad for the next 5 minutes of my drive to work.
She must have come back to check on her babies only to find they'd met their match and were no longer alive.
Sad!

Later after arriving home from work I inspected mama spider a little more closely.
Once hubby arrived home from work I informed him that mama spider wasn't looking so dead and jokingly said "I think it's a black widow."
He laughed and headed back outside with his spider spray.
Moments later he returned and exclaimed "I think IT IS a black widow".
A little research online confirmed this.

Scary, right?
This deadly spider who I was feeling sorry for only hours before could have bitten and killed my Tucker.

So that my dear friends, is my story for the day.
I hope you enjoyed.

Fitness Challenge

"Team Awesome" is the name a group of us modestly gave to ourselves a few years ago after running the Cooper Bridge Run year after year.
A few weeks ago one of our 'team members', if you will, sent out an email with a challenge and here's how it works...

Each couple will have their body fat checked using the Bod Pod on or before June 20th and again 8 weeks later.
The couple with the highest percentage of improvement wins their New Year's Eve trip to the mountains paid for.

Pretty sweet, right?

I can truthfully say that nothing motivates me more than a good ol' competition.
Anyone that knows me will tell you how sickly competitive I am.
Do I think P and I are going to win?
Heck yea' I do! ;)
And if not I'll take being in great shape as a heck of a consolation prize!

Stay tuned until September 20th when the winner will be announced.
xo

my son

Almost 3 years ago Pepe and I were sittig on his couch.
I was bickering with him about what to watch on tv.
To keep me from insisting he turn what I don't remember, but am still certain, was a bad tv program, he suggested I visit my favorite online site "Pet Finder".
I happily obliged and almost right away I laid eyes on the pup who has since become my first son.
When Mr. P laid eyes on our then blue-eyed boy he knew as well that he was "the one".
That coming weekend we set out to visit "Buck" and his brothers and sisters at Petco in Concord, NC.
Since there are usually "waiting periods" before you can adopt a dog we simply thought we were setting out for a proper hello.
Little did we know they'd see in us the potential to be great parents and send us home with a bundle of joy that very day.
He curled up in the shopping cart as we stocked up on goodies at Petco.
Our little man slept and slept and slept, he was "tuckered out" as Pepe perfectly put it and this led to my sister suggesting we change his name to Tucker, middle name Putnam.

Tucker Putnam Diaz-Llaneza is the best first son a mother could ever hope for.
He spoons with me in bed every single night, he is overjoyed every SINGLE time we come home even if it's only been 5 minutes since we last left, he gives stinky fish kisses that I can't help but love, he eats anything we drop on the floor, he loves going for joy rides, he's a momma boy but LOVES to play with his daddy and I'm pretty certain he's going to live forever because he knows I can't survive without him.

So that my friends is the full story on how our four-legged son came to be.
Just in case you were wondering. :)

the 4th

Our holiday weekend began with breakfast at The Egg in Davidson with best buds, The Barzees, followed by a few hours at the pool, drinks and seafood at Vinnie's Raw Bar and Midtown Sundries, and lastly games and laughs at our best buddies home.
It was the perfect, fun filled day!

Then Sunday my sweet husband woke up with a case of pink eye.
We spent the day and night in the bedroom hiding from the light that irritated his eye even more so.
I left the house only to pick up medicine for my sweets and an $8 dinner consisting of cheese pizza and magnificent crazy bread/crazy sauce.
*side note: when we were young my sister and I used to LOVE going to Little Ceasar's. They used to have a memory game similar to the Simon and I was pretty freaking amazing at it.
Sometimes when my mother was a few stores down grabbing groceries or shopping at Goody's, she'd let my sister and I spend that time and every quarter we could find on this game.
We'd rack up soft drink after soft drink until we finally won crazy bread or every once in a blue moon, a WHOLE freakin' pizza.
Good times!

I didn't really see any fireworks this year. Well except for some lame-o ones the neighbors were letting off that I was able to catch by standing on one of the chairs on our back porch.
There's always next year, right? :)

Monday we were off work and I almost went stir crazy, but somehow still lacked the motivation to get off my rear end and do something productive.
Luckily I was saved by the trainwreck known as The Bachelorette and the very entertaining after show of Jake and Vienna.
Once again, good times!

Hope you all had happy Fourth of July!
xo

disappearance

Sorry about the long hiatus.
It's what happens when you are out of town for a week, part of it unexpected.
I have no pictures to show for the adventures either.
That's what happens when you have a wedding weekend and the clutch you carry barely fits your blackberry and another trip where cameras are banned for the good part of the trip.

So instead of procrastinating any longer allow me to sum up the past two weeks of my life in one quick post.

Charleston. Luna and Willy Jay's. William Aiken House. Dr. and Mrs. Norman. Kickin' Chicken. Yo! Burrito. LAX. Hollywood. Supporting best buds. Guy Fieri. Delta sucks! In and Out Burger. Taxi hunt for beer and the Hollywood sign. Really, Delta sucks! Phat Thursday. Pool. Cook out. Pool. Grown Ups aren't Funny. The Secret Comedy of Women. Yoga. Guacamole. 90 degree heat.

Yeah, that about sums it up.
I'll share more details in the near future (when I have photographic evidence).

I'm back and I don't plan on leaving again for quite sometime.
Are you still there? Hope so!