Rose Vox Box

Now that things have finally settled down I can catch up on some of the fun we have been having over here at The Bright Household. Most notably, the newest voxbox I got from Influenster.

Graduation and Great Things on The Horizon

Holy Moly it has been a crazy couple of weeks!  

So in case you are wondering, it is official... Hubby graduated!

Over a year of preparing, training, blood, sweat, burns, sleepless nights, crazy hours, and back braking hard work, he finally graduated and is officially a fire fighter. (Insert collective sigh of relief and a round of applause for getting back to my normal sleep schedule. Four a.m. wake ups are just ungodly.)

 Here he is during his pinning and badging. One of our dear friends, a retired firefighter himself, placed Adam's badge on while yours truly pinned him. Neither of us drew blood, so that's a plus. And I looked fabulous if I do say so myself (I agonized over picking a dress. I finally chose this dress from ModCloth and I cannot recommend it enough.)

Chicken and Waffles and Black Pepper Syrup OH MY!

I don't know that I have ever mentioned this, but my hubby is from the south. Not just the south, but the deep south. We are talking Alabama south. Where the accents are thick and the iced tea is sweet. Now being a girl from big city Baltimore this was a whole new world to me. I thought us moving to North Carolina was pretty southern but boy was I in for a surprise. Everything is different there but most of all the food.

I have spent a lot of time in our relationship expanding my palette to include more foods of the fried variety and he has spent more time trying to understand why we put Old Bay on everything up here. Some of these have been hits: BBQ pulled pork is freakin' amazing!  And I am in love with Dairy Queen (thought my thighs would beg to differ). Plus Adam really does love Maryland Crabs and Old Bay on popcorn has been pretty popular in our house. Some of them have been misses: I learned pretty quickly that I can't stand the taste of Okra and I do not for the life of me understand the South's love for Mayonnaise (White Sauce Alabama, really?). But either way we have been pretty open to trying each others regional faves. Except I dragged my feet on one: Chicken and Waffles.... boy was I missing out. 

Quick Update and Ice Cream Cupcakes!!!

Phew we have been busy here at the Bright household. Can you believe hubby only has three weeks in the academy left? It feels like just yesterday we were starting out on this completely unfamiliar path and now it is almost at its end. I guess time really does fly when you are having fun (err something like that.) We are both really excited and a little nervous about this next step but it has been a long time coming and it is such an exciting new journey.

At any rate, with the end in sight we have been busy prepping ourselves for the impending 24 hour shifts. Since we aren't going to be seeing each other as much we have been trying to squeeze in as much time together as we can until then. That means less cooking and crafting but some invaluable togetherness I wouldn't exchange for anything.

Though I did find some time to whip up some AMAZING cake batter ice cream cupcakes for my co-workers birthday on Friday. 

 

BBQ Pulled Pork Mac N' Cheese

If that title does not have you drooling you may want to check your pulse because you might be dead. Seriously, I am drooling just thinking about it. Cheesy delicious baked mac 'n cheese is a thing of beauty all on its own. So is smoky tangy bbq pulled pork. Put the two together? Well that's just magic. This recipe takes a little while (we usually start the pork Saturday night and make the rest for Sunday dinner) but it is well worth the effort. Marinate the pork overnight then slap it in the crockpot in the morning. By dinner time you will have comfort food to die for.