Dude, Where's My Grill?

Happy Monday folks!  Hope that everyone had a lovely weekend and that you remembered to change the time on your clocks.  Hopefully, nobody was late for work this morning.  So, speaking of the weekends, ours was pretty good until Sunday night.  What happened?

Well, after a few days of rainy and chilly weather, Sunday turned out to be a really beautiful day.  The temperature here got up to the low 70s and the Mr was off.  So, he decided since we hadn't been to the park in what seemed like ages, that it would be nice to go and enjoy some family time.  What could be better than some family time outside?

The kids were excited.  We loaded up and headed to the park.  We mention something about the weather starting to warm up.  And y'all know what warm weather means... grilling season!!!  Yes, we love to grill in this house. Spring, Summer, Winter or Fall, we are grilling out.  We haven't been able to really grill out much in the last couple of months because the Mr has been working like crazy and once again we had this insane rainy/storm season and then the snow storms.  Curse you, Polar Vortex! (Maybe, not really since I like snow.)

But anyways, Moo has taken to wanting to learn how to grill.  I already told you guys, she's going to be a chef when she grows up.  I'm sure of it because loves anything that has to do with food.  And I had started letting her be my assistant when I grill.  It's a great bonding time for the two of us and gives JJ and the Mr bonding time while they're in the house.  So, needless to say, I start mentioning how we can pull out the grill this week.

We stay at the park until it's black dark outside.  Like the street lights are on, the temperature has dropped and everything.   On the way back home, we stop and get something eat because after playing and chasing two really energetic kids around the playground neither of us wants to cook.  Everyone is happy.  The car is full of bubbly chatter as we pull into our parking space.

Then, the Mr asks, "Did somebody steal our grill?"  I'm all like, "No, it's on right there on the porch."  Of course, it's dark out and our porch has vertical spindles that are close together in between the railing.  So, at night you really have to be on the porch to see what's on it.  Plus, we didn't leave the light on because we weren't expecting to stay at the park until it got dark.

He gets out the car and goes on the porch to see if the grill is there.  "We have been got," he says when he comes back to the car to help with the kids.  I'm still in denial because the grill has been sitting on the porch since we moved here.  "Maybe, you moved it to the back porch," I say hopefully.  He goes to look.  Guess what?  No, grill.

We have been got folks.  Somebody has straight up walked up on our porch and stolen our grill. That grill wasn't even a year old.  I was too pissed (and I'm still kind of pissed) because here I am making plans to grill some turkey burgers, but I don't even have a dang grill to grill them on now!  The Mr is actually taking this missing grill situation better than I am, but I seriously wanted to call the cops and have them dust for prints and the whole nine.

I didn't though.  I know they have more important cases to attend to and chances are whoever took the grill didn't leave behind any prints.  The bright side of all this is that they just took grill.  We do have an alarm system and keep the sign the company gave us on the front lawn.  So, that probably discouraged them from trying to break-in and that I am grateful about.  I just wish that people would stop stealing and just doing bad stuff in general.

Of course, our grill being stolen has put Moo on edge because she knows stealing is bad and now she's a little apprehensive.  You know they make criminals and bad guys in kid movies so scary.  I kind of wish the Mr had just waited and said something about it in private.  And I wished I hadn't have gotten so upset about it in front of the kids because more than anything I think my emotions transferred to her a little bit.  I hate it that she doesn't feel completely safe.  She asked me if they were coming back to steal anything else and I told her no.  I think that calmed her down a little bit.

So, no grilling out this week y'all.  Another comfort in all of this is that we're getting ready to move and I have already started packing.  To say that I am going to be overjoyed when we are free of this apartment and neighborhood is an understatement!

Have you ever had anything stolen from your front porch or yard?

Wordless Wednesday: Grilling Season

I want this!!

Grilling With Charm

As the mom of an allergy baby (toddler) it's important when cooking to distinguish her food from the rest of the family's.  I must admit that can be hard to do when baking, grilling or frying meats.  I can't tell you how many times I've had to cut a bite off almost every piece of meat to figure out which piece was hers.  So, I was thrilled when I stumbled across Grill Charms.

So what are Grill Charms?  They're these cute little charms about the size of a dime, made completely out of stainless steel and have a serrated steem that prohibits the charm from falling out "while flipping, moving and grilling food like you normally do."  And Grill Charms come in various collections to suit just about all your different cooking purposes.

There's The Spicy Collection that will allow us  fellow Grill Masters to "offer mild, medium and spicy sauces and rubs without any confustion. So those guests who like it hot can have it HOT, and other guests that walk on the milder side know which is mild."

Grill Charms also offers The Charm Life and The Pink collections.  Both collections consists of six charms that allows you the ability to personalize your food as you cook.  We all know that when it comes to ingredients like garlic, dill and other strong flavors there is no one size fits all.  So, these two collections help you "to distinguish spices and flavors, avoid health or allergy concerns or any other reason you can dream up!"

You could even use these charms to allow guests to season their own meat before you put it on the grill.  All they have to do is remember what charm symbol is theirs.  And with The Pink Collection 10% of the proceeds is donated to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.  Leslie Haywood, Founder and President of Charmed Life Products LLC, developed The Pink Collection to give back to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation because both she and her mother were diagnosed with breast cancer in their thirties.  "And with two daughters of my own, I'm sure you can understand the sense of urgency I feel to find a cure," Haywood says.

In addition, Haywood has designed The Steak Collection to help other grillers to stop doing like me and having to cut into all our beautifully prepared meats to see which ones are well done, rare, medium rare, etc.  Grill Charms is a really great buy and will help to take some of the stress out of cooking and add a little fun and charm.  Plus you can give Grill Charms as a gift to all the Grill Masters in your life for Father's Day, Mother's Day (women grill too), Christmas and any other holiday or event that comes up.

With my summer wedding coming up next year, I will be purchasing a few of these to serve as gifts for the groomsmen as well as for my grilling groom and me.  And the best part is that Leslie even does custom box sets to match your needs. 

You can't beat this or pass this opportunity up. So be sure to slide on by Grill Charms and see what Leslie has to offer.  And while you're there use coupon code YUMM to receive $5.00 off your box Grill Charms.

Happy Grilling!!!

My Weekend WrapUp

Let me just start off by saying that Tax Free Weekend has nothing to do with giving parents a discount on school supplies.  In fact, I'm convinced that Tax Free Weekend is just a ploy to get people to spend more money than they usually would on any given weekend, with the exception of Thanksgiving and Christmas time. After a week of being cooped up in the house with a very busy Moo who had a wide range of tantrums each day, I was dying for some time out on the Queen City.  So, we decided to head out to one of the local malls.

I should have known what craziness lay ahead when Jay almost rammed us into the back of this white car in front of us at the light.  He swore that he had the situation under control and that he saw the car there.  And of course, my question to him was if you saw the car in front us why would you speed up and then slam on breaks like it came out of thin air.  I think that at times his mind gets distracted from his driving.  Thankfully, we made it to the mall parking lot in one piece.

However, we did not find a close parking spot to any of the main entrances.  That was to be expected though. So, I wasn't too disappointed.  Although, I was keeping my fingers crossed that we would find something a little bit close and we did.  Lugging a baby in almost 97 degree weather is no joke.  The sun was beaming very bright making it feel like it was almost twice as hot as it really was.  I broke a sweat just loading Moo into her Jeep stroller.

Once inside the mall, I was in utter shock at the wall to wall people.  And I'm not talking about kids or teenagers.  I'm talking about grown people shopping for themselves.  It was like a circus.  I've worked in two of the malls here in the Queen City-three years at SouthPark and almost one year at Carolina Place- and never has seen it get that bad during Tax Free Weekend.  I mean I could barely push Moo's stroller without almost running over somebody or their foot or the back of their heels.

So, after a quick stop at the Sprint booth to check the new Sprint Evo, Jay and I decided to call it a wrap and jump ship.  It wasn't worth the headache of trying to move around and navigate the heavy crowds.  Instead we decided to hunt down the closest WalMart, buy some grilling supplies and head back home to grill out.  Well, the first WalMart we came to was in The Aboretum.  Of course, I remembered that they have this awesome upscale pet shop called PetLand and decided I wanted to make a stop and see it.

After all I had fallen in love with my first Yorkshire Terrior there.  And since we're only planning to camp out in this duplex for six months or until we find our dream home, I decided to check out their puppy selection.  Now Moo isn't really a fan of dogs.  Therefore, I wasn't really expecting her to enjoy the visit, but to my surprise she had a blast.  She and Jay became quite taken with the parakets.  He wants one for Christmas or whenever we move out of this place.

I think they kind of grew on me too because I agreed to get it when we move.  Maybe it'll be an anniversary present or something.  Plus don't get bigger than a cell phone (Palm Treo).  What Moo wasn't too keen on at the pet shop were the snakes and lizards.  She wasn't even remotely interested in looking at them.  I was relieved because I don't have to worry about being one of those kids who wants the crazy pet snake.

About 45 minutes later we finally made it the WalMart and were disappointed to find that they didn't have the grill that we wanted or a meat section. Off we headed back into the heat to Food Lion down the street.  So, stocked up with steaks, hamburger meat for the Ranch burgers, cole slaw and buns as well as lighter fluid and matches, I agreed to head back to the house and prep the food while Jay headed to the other WalMart and got a grill.

Well, clearly a year of no grilling has made Jay's normally good grilling skills a little bit rusty because he could not get the grill to get hot enough to cook the burgers.  Luckily, I'm a true grilling master and was able to get the fire blazing.  However, in the process I almost burned myself.  Thank goodness for quick hands.  We had a delicious feast that night and I fell into lovely food induced slumber.

Sunday was a lazy day for us.  We sleep in a little bit-me, Jay and Moo- all squeezed inside Jay's twin sized bed.  (Moo and I are used to sleeping in a king sized bed, but it was too big for the master bedroom here.)  Yes, Moo and I co-sleep still.  However, she does have her own beautiful cherry oak sleigh crib that she refuses to sleep in.  Jay tried to get her to sleep in it Saturday night and she had a major melt down and he took her out.  Neither of us are pro letting kids cry it out when it comes to things like that.  Now if she has a tantrum that's another matter.

It's not really crying it out but allowing to calm down.  We've learned that screaming tantrums with Moo only get worst if you try to calm her down.  She usually stops crying after a minute or two if we let her be for a while.  Personally, I think she's embarking on her terrible twos at the ripe age of one and a half.  Therefore, when she turns two she should be half way done with the mood swings and crying fits.

Overall, we had a great weekend being fully moved into our new place now.  She's adjusted to the fact that she doesn't get to see Grandma on a daily basis.  And I'm excited to make more connections and get more involved in some mommy and me activities with other youngs moms.  Plus, being around other toddlers will help Moo to continue to build her social skills.  Hope that you all had a great weekend.

Don't forget to check out my Yo Gabba Gabba! Prize Pack Giveaway.  It ends this Friday.