8 months as a Floridian!

      Where has the time gone?!? I can't believe it has been 8 months since we moved to Orlando. It seems like there has been maybe enough time for 3 or 4 months but oh my goodness...8?!? We have grown to love this place so much. We still Memphis traffic....worse actually and the normal craziness, but I have grown to love the nighttime storms, the palm trees, even some days the heat. The summer down here is crazy hot and muggy. I am so thankful for a job inside. The sun down here is also much more intense. No amount of sunscreen keeps me from burning down here. Believe me, I have tried them all with plenty of witnesses. I love the fact that it is warm and sunny enough for that to happen though. I have finally acclimated myself to the water down here. Eric has loved working for Disney. It is such a joy for me to watch him love what he does and watch him excel and reach his dreams and goals. Recently, he made a lateral movement in the company to a different location within Disney which in the long run will be excellent for moving up the ladder at Disney. The enthusiasm, passion, and love he shows for his work makes me so happy and it is such an encouragement just to watch him work.
     I love my job as well. I have never worked somewhere where the office is my family and I know that God has me right where He wants me and I love all of my co-workers. They have become my friends down here and it is always nice to know that someone has your back. We laugh together and we cry together and that is just the way it should be.
    We are in the process of preparing to move. The actual move will not be until November but the search and decisions will take place towards the end of this month into September. This move should put us in one spot for a while. We want to live the apartment life for a little while.
     Life is great here is Sunny Orlando. I am in a place I am falling in love with and I am with my best friend and love of my life. What could I possibly complain about?!?! I was so nervous about this move back in January and while in the beginning I was having Memphis withdrawals they are gone now. I used to view this as Orlando and Memphis as home, however, now this is home for me and our family lives in Memphis. I miss my family and friends but I know that God has us right where He wants us.
   I guess the best way to close this is with a Walt Disney quote....
"Around here we don't look backwards for very long,  we keep moving forward opening up new doors and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity leads to new paths."
   Good ole Walt.

A Time For Decisions

      Well...I knew it was coming. I could feel the subtle changes my energy had been taking, especially following meals....diabetes is upon me. I am not there yet, but I am close. With a recent a1c of 6.1 (high risk for developing type 2) and extreme sleepiness following a meal, I knew my body was slowing down ever so slightly on the insulin production. After all, diabetes does run in the family and I have been careless with my weight.
     So, now it is time for me to decide; decide whether or not I am going to be more dedicated to working out daily and watching my sugar and carb intake or whether or not I am just going to continue to live the lifestyle I am now and just let myself slide into diabetes. I am not in any means trying to make it sound like I think diabetes is a death sentence. Some people live with it daily and do quite well. I am a carb lover though..pasta especially. I know this journey is not going to be easy, however, I have a supportive family ( one with diabetes who is thriving quite well) and a supportive husband. I know that if I put my mind to it, but most importantly ask God to give me the strength and discipline that I can accomplish this. I know this is a lifestyle change that I needed to make a long time ago and should have. However, I can't live in the past, I have to focus on the here and now and trust God to give me the strength to do this.
     So with that being said, this week we are purging our pantry and refrigerator. We are starting our e-meals up with the low carb plan to help us get an idea of what is what and who is who and I am going to do a lot of research to help me understand a good way to balance.
     Prayers are appreciated as I embark on this new stage of my life this week.

A. Hignight

A Day Off Together

   Like I said in my last post, it is not very often that the hubs and I get to spend the day together, but we do cherish the ones that we do get. Yesterday, we both had the day off together and we filled it up with time spent together.

   We got up bright and early at 6 am to head to a 5k we were running together. It was a blast. We got to explore a little more of Orlando while heading there and we had a blast meeting new people and getting some outside exercise together. :)

Up and ready to head out to the 5K.

      Yes, I know I am red in the after picture and yes that is what the sun does to me.


    After the 5k, we went home, cleaned up, and then got ready to head to Epcot.

Eric has been wanting to take me to Flower and Garden since it opened in March so we finally had time to go together. We had a blast :) We did the normal Epcot stuff, checked out the plants, and ate at some of the food booths in the World Showcase. Among my favorite was the "Frushi" from the Hanami stand. It was strawberry and pineapple, wrapped in coconut rice, with a raspberry sauce. It was delicious. 

 

We also hit up the Smokehouse stand and I finally got some delicious bbq. Oh how I have missed BBQ. Keep in mind these are small portions meant to snack on so don't think we just ate 4 meals or anything. Anywho, there was a brisket with greens and jalapeno cornbread and then a bbq pork slider. They were both awesome. The brisket was definitely my favorite!

While at the smokehouse stand (near the America pavillion) there were some street performers from the older times. It was pretty cool to watch them perform.

All around the park, there were Disney characters made out of bushes and greenery. They were so beautiful to look at, I did snap some pictures of a few.

All in all, it was  a great day spent with my man. It could have been anywhere and I would have been fine with that, ( we love mini golf), but I am glad I got to see Flower and Garden :)

Now onto continuing cleaning and organizing and getting ready for the upcoming week. As an added bonus, I think I hear a storm rolling in. I am loving the small little pop up thunderstorms we get here in Florida. The thunder is so relaxing.

Keep it real guys!

The Hignights

We have wifi!

It made me very happy to learn that apparently if we have our computers in the bedroom we are able to pick up on wifi....should i feel bad that I don't know which neighbor it is? Maybe I should be wary of using this mysterious wifi..it has been here since we moved in though, we could just never access it from the living room where our computers are most of the time.

Anywho, knowing that there is wifi access now, I am excited to start blogging again and will have to get some recent pictures rounded up for a more in depth update. We have been loving life down here. I am not excited about the heat that is starting to really kicked up...maybe south was not the way for me to move but I know that I will get used to it eventually.

Work for both of us Hignights has been going well. I am loving my job and getting trained to do more every day and love learning new things. I am officially past my 90 days and off probation....or as my manager said..."this just means I have to pay you unemployment for x amount of days if I fire you." Haha.
Eric is loving his work. He has really been working hard to get where he wants to be and I see many things coming up in his future as long as he stays focused, which I have no doubt he will.

Since our schedules don't allow us to be off together much at all we enjoy our time we have together. Normally he has only been home for a few hours when I am up getting ready for work, and I am dead asleep when he gets home. This gives me many evenings home alone and this house really should be cleaner considering that. I am working on it. One domestic house wife skill at a time. Haha. We really do enjoy our time off together though. Tomorrow, we are running a 5k together in benefit of the Edgewood Children's Ranch. It supports a good cause and we get to run a 5k. We love doing these and this will be our time marker for our upcoming Disney races. We are doing 2 Disney 5ks this fall ( with random ones interspersed across our summer) and in January 2014 I am doing my first 10k and Eric is doing his first marathon! How exciting. We are going to use this 5k tomorrow to gauge where we are so we can set goals. Then we will be off to Epcot for the end of Flower and Garden festival. Exciting! I have always wanted to go and really see Flower and Garden.

I know a few are wandering have you gotten used to Florida water yet...the answer is no and I am not sure if I ever will. My stomach now can tolerate it, now I am just the stubborn one who doesn't like the taste. I do drink water from our Brita picture and I stocked up on the large smart waters when Publix had a 10 for 10 sale but if it is straight from the tap forget it. In the long run I do feel bad because I know the water isn't toxic like in other countries don't get me wrong, its not that I am not thankful, I'm just throwing that out there.

Well that is pretty much our life in a quick nutshell right now. Once I get some pictures organized there will be more interesting and more frequent blogs since we now have wi-fi.

 The Hignights. :)

MIA

   Several of my friends have brought it to my attention that I have been MIA from the blog world...and I have for quite a bit. I have missed it but we are living without wifi in the house and between both of our work schedules we pretty much work, eat, sleep, and workout ( or try to religiously.)

Well, this weekend we are taking a weekend for us (and to celebrate our 6 month wedding anniversary/making it in Orlando)
We are staying at The Contemporary (which has wi-fi yay!)

So towards the end of this weekend I will be doing a catch up blog post :) Exciting I know!

Well until then,

The Hignights

Crock Pot Potato Soup :)

 

I have been wanting to try a crock pot potato soup for a while. I finally found the will to want to peel all of those potatoes for the task. Haha. Peeling potatoes has been one of my least favorite things for as long as I can remember. However, this recipe was totally worth it. 

Ingredients needed

5-6 Russet Potatoes, cubed

1/2 onion, chopped

5 cloves of garlic, minced ( i just used 2 larger ones and crushed them)

4 cups chicken broth

8 oz cream cheese, softened

salt, pepper

2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley ( optional )

3/4 tsp celery seed 

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme ( its important to use half a tsp and not tbsp like i did...unless you like thyme)

Finally - garnishes such as bacon bits, shredded cheese, and green onion. 

 An emulsion blender. ( I don't have one of these so I used a regular blender ) 

A crock pot that is at least 4 qts. 

This recipe was so easy. 

1. Wash, peel, and cut potatoes and then dice into 1/3 or 1/2 inch cubes ( or smaller if you desire) and throw in crock pot.

2. Dice onion and throw in crock pot.

3. Mince or crush garlic and throw in crock pot. 

4. Add all spices and chicken stock to crock pot. 

5. Let everything sit in crock pot on high for 6 hours. 

6. I hope you have been letting the cream cheese soften. Now add some of the chicken broth from the crock pot ( at least half of it) with the cream cheese into a blender and blend and then add back to the crock pot.  This will mix the two together and make it a thick soup like consistency.

NOTE: I did mine bit by bit with the liquid and sections of the cream cheese to get a thicker consistency throughout instead of a partial watery consistency, I was also using a mini blender. ) So this is the part that takes some playing around with.  

After this, you just serve and garnish. Eric sure was a fan of the soup. I hope these directions made sense. Haha. I am blogging today while I am preparing for interviews and finishing up some web interviews. 

If you should happen to think about it I would appreciate prayers. I have an interview tomorrow at 2 pm and then I set up a Disney Interview tomorrow afternoon. 

Well that is all for now. 

The Hignights

Chicken Casserole: Grammy Style

My grandma has been making this for as long as I can remember. It is customizable to everyone's needs in a way. I think it is delicious..and the man really likes it, so it is a staple in our household.


It takes about 30 minutes of prep ( if your chicken is already thawed once you start.) I am trying to mass cook my chicken at the beginning of the week and then refrigerate it for the meals of the week, so that would actually just cut the cook prep down to the cooking of the rice.

The only real prep that is required is cooked chicken and cooked rice. You can season your chicken however you want.

So here is what you need. ( P.S. Grammy if these measurements are off from yours sorry. ) Love you.

2-3 chicken breast whole ( or 4-6 halves)
1 can of cream of chicken
1 can of cream of celery
1 can of golden corn
1 can of french style green beans ( you can also use regular cut or fresh)
1 cup cooked rice
spoonful of mayonnaise (optional)
Texas toast seasoned croutons ( or any other bread topping you prefer)
Sharp cheddar shredded cheese ( or whatever kind you prefer)
Any other veggies you may want...ive really never found a preference other than these for my own taste.

Once you have your chicken cooked and your rice cooked, you can cut the chicken into 1/4 inch pieces or you can shred it.

Now.
Preheat your over to 350.
1. Mix all ingredients in a mixing bowl and pour into any casserole dish you want. It needs to be at least a 12x9 unless your casserole dish is deeper then it can be a smaller size. Sometimes I use our 12x9 pyrex or our smaller deeper corningware. (This dish does not need to be greased)

2. Take about 2 handfuls of croutons ( more or less to preference ) and put in a ziploc bag and crush. Then take this and sprinkle it over the top of the mixture in the casserole dish. ( PLEASE NOTE IN THE PICTURE I WAS OUT OF CROUTONS SO I DIDN'T CRUSH THEM UP AS WELL)

3. Lastly, sprinkle the shredded cheese over the top ( once again to your preference. ) I think we use about a cup or so to cover the top.....in retrospect that a bit of cheese.

4. Now all you have to do is pop it in the oven for about 35 minutes or until center is hot and bubbly.

5. Serve and enjoy.

If you are a pre planner like I am starting to strive to be than this is simple. It does require some prep, however, I love that this encompasses all aspects of the meal in one dish and doesn't require standing over the stove for the entirety of the cooking.

So there you have it. Chicken Casserole Grammy style. It's a hit in our house and hopefully you will try it one day and find that you like it.

Again, the nice thing about this casserole is that you can play with it and experiment. You can add ingredients, subtract ingredients, and just do whatever you want.

Well that is it for that.

Love,
The Hignights