What a traumatic day!

We found floaty's in our Culligan water at work! Enough said...

Grey area

          

Brandon had to go out of town this past weekend so my mom & I decided to take a little trip too.  We went to a city about 90 miles away from where we live and haul our scrapbooking supplies with us to make some cards.  We have been wanting to get together and make cards for such a long time now but it just seems like our schedules have the most difficult time coordinating; needless to say the trip was the perfect opportunity to spend a bunch of time playing with our creativity.  We had to check out this great scrapbooking store by supervisor had told me about and when I say great I mean totally awesome!  We literally spent hours there!  And of all the weekends for us to show up in this cute little shop, it just so happened that that particular Sunday was National Scrapbooking Day!!  They were having special make & take projects, discounts & prizes every 30 minutes!!  We each won some wonderful paper packets & embellishments.  Wow!  What a great time.  It was also tons of fun because my aunt, uncle & cousins live there too!  My cousin is in dance and was in a big performance that weekend too that a friend of my aunt gave us free tickets to ($20 value)!!  I absolutely love watching ballet (well any dance really but ballet especially).  Any way, the performance was fantastic and on top of it all my aunt, cousin, mom and I all watched 27 Dresses together!  I haven't watched a chick flick in so long!  We all had such a wonderful time.  It was a very fun and eventful weekend, but as always it felt so nice and relieving to get home.  I missed my husband so much while we were apart those 4 long days.  I can't stand to be away from him.  He is such a wonderful husband and I love spending all my time with him.  Well my friends, I leave you with one last card.

BUDS!!!

Remember these?!

Yep! It's my strawberries! I was about to water them on Friday and noticed a teensy weensy bit of green there in all that brown dirt! I was so stinkin' excited! The first thing that went through my mind was that I need to hurry & take pictures so I can write about it on my blog. I was so worried that they weren't going to come up at all so this is very exciting for me! I got another plant too. This one is a house plant but I absolutely love it! I just got it last weekend with my friend Jessica. We had a fun time hanging out while our husbands were working.

Scrapbooker's delight

As promised, here are some of the cards I've made. The first ones aren't that great but they were some of my first. I am so excited because that party I was talking about that I just had last week, I ended up getting about $230 worth of products for only $75!!! How amazing is that?! Now it's just torture having to wait for the order to come in! I wish I could have it all immediately!! I'm only writing a short bit today because I plan to get straight to work making some more cards. I get so inspired after having these parties and learning new techniques.

Not too healthy

I am such a crappy blogger. I'm sure you have all figured that out by now, but I still felt the need to voice it. I enjoy reading everyone else's blogs & am on here nearly every day reading them but for some reason when it comes to writing in my own I just suck. I don't know why really. This week has really been a crazy week for me. I am normally not very busy. My typical day is this: wake up, make breakfast for Brandon, then pack his lunch, say goodbye then either go back to bed or go to the gym, get ready for work, go to work, come home from work, make dinner, lounge, bed time. But this entire week has been busy, busy, busy. I am not used to this and come Friday my body was totally feeling it. I was exhausted & had a headache all day long. We were both so tired that we went to bed at about 6:00. ON A FRIDAY NIGHT! Normally we stay up and watch a movie or do something entertaining but neither of us could stand to stay awake any longer. So we were up at about 6:30 this morning. And it feels like a normal Saturday. Whew! This week is looking like a typical week for us and boy am I happy about that! I'm enjoying today immensely! Anyway, with such a busy stressful week, I ate terribly! By the end of the week, I realized how much junk I had eaten & was feeling bad about it. I don't like that just throwing a few more things into my schedule can really throw me off in every aspect. Is this common or just me? I'm making sure this next week to get back on track eating nice & healthy. I took a majority of the junk food leftover from my scrapbooking party to work the next day so that I wouldn't have all of that to eat on my own. So yes, one of my busy days involved a scrapbook party at my house. I love scrapbooking and have a party every 6 months or so at my house. Someday hopefully soon I will post some of the cards I have made here on my blog. Let me know how many of you out there scrapbook or make cards. I'd love to hear from you! I use Close to My Heart products because to me they are the BEST! Well I know this isn't really much of a closing but I really need to go.

So sad...

Remember those adorable little strawberry plants I was telling you about almost a month ago?! Well...I sadly report they are still just little pots of dirt. I haven't seen any green exposed at all! I keep telling myself that I just need to have patience but the little voices in my head keep telling me I haven't watered them enough/too much. I haven't given up yet though! I will keep you posted!

Mandarin Salad

It is dang near impossible for me to make a yummy salad without following a recipe. Honestly, what can be that hard about making a salad? I don't understand how I can fail miserably every time that I don't use a recipe! I found the most delicious recipe for a salad in my Gooseberry Patch Blue Plate Specials cookbook. Best I have come across yet! I love all the colors in it; makes it beautiful looking! Has anyone ever had kiwi in a salad before? This was my first and let me tell you it was GOOD, although everything it was mixed with contributed to the wonderful flavor. I do think that some grated parmesan or even some crumbled feta would have been great on this too and next time I make this I will definitely try it. I have been so excited to tell you about this salad, but enough gushing here is the recipe!

Mandarin Salad

1 kiwi, sliced

1/2 head iceberg lettuce, torn

1/4 bunch Romaine lettuce, torn

1 c. celery, chopped

2 T. green onions, chopped

1/4 c. oil

2 T. vinegar (I used red wine vinegar)

3 T. plus 1 t. sugar, divided

1/2 t. salt

1/8 t. pepper

1 T. fresh parsley, chopped (I used dry because I did not have fresh parsley on hand and it still turned out delicious)

1/4 c. slivered almonds (I used sliced almonds)

11 oz. can mandarin oranges, drained

Mix together kiwi, lettuces, celery & green onion; store in large bag in refridgerator. Combine oil, vinegar, 2 tablespoons sugar, salt, pepper & parsley in an airtight jar; refridgerate. Saute almonds & remaining sugar in a skillet over medium heat until well coated; cool & break apart. To serve, place lettuce in serving bowl & top with almonds & oranges. Shake dressing well; pour over the top.

Makes 6 servings.

Isn't this book hilarious?! I found it at Dillards when I was visiting my Aunt & Uncle! It's a book about Yellowstone National Park, but I don't think they could have given it a funnier title. And I found it in the children's clothing section too! I couldn't help but snap a picture! It may not be the best quality because it was taken with my cell phone. This makes me laugh every time I look at it!

Who Pooped in the Park?

Isn't this book hilarious?! I found it at Dillards when I was visiting my Aunt & Uncle! It's a book about Yellowstone National Park, but I don't think they could have given it a funnier title. And I found it in the children's clothing section too! I couldn't help but snap a picture! It may not be the best quality because it was taken with my cell phone. This makes me laugh every time I look at it!

"Cheating" or not?

I don't know if I can explain this very well without it coming across differently than I feel but I am going to try. I normally make all things from scratch otherwise I feel like I am "cheating." It's a silly little quirk I have that honestly can drive me insane sometimes. Seriously, I can't just make a cake from a box mix without adding something or at least making homemade frosting, or spaghetti from a jar without digging through my spice rack adding things as I go, or they even have these great freezer "meals" that comes in a bag with everything needed, all a person has to do is put it in a pan and let it heat for about 15-20 minutes. My sister loves to get them. When Brandon was in Iraq I had many meals at my sister's house enjoying these delicious "freezer" meals. Heidi loves simple meals that can be made easily but taste great and she is good at finding new ideas to fit this criteria. It's a quality I am jealous of. Don't get me wrong, I love to cook & bake but sometimes I just don't really feel like doing it after a long day of work and I wish I could just prepare one of these easy yet delicious meals that don't create a workload of dishes either, but no, I can't bring myself to do it! The simplest route I can go is pretty much tacos, BLT, and these yummy enchiladas I am about to tell you about, which are from a simple mix that I actually follow without changing it up (very amazing for a girl like me). These enchiladas actually do consume quite a bit of time so I don't know if it necessarily falls into the whole category that I am talking about but I'm going with it anyway! Here is a picture of the packaging:




The only thing "special" that I really do is double or triple the sauce while keeping the filling (meat & cheese) amount the same. Anyway, here is a picture of the finished product.



As the days at work end a big portion of my thoughts is about going home to eat these as leftovers! Jennifer, a co-worker and friend, keeps harassing me about my "obsession" with these enchiladas, but she was very interested in getting the "recipe" and excited to find out how easy they really are. I hope she likes them as much as I do, otherwise it might be a little embarrassing how much I have gone on & on about them!

Instead of baking them in a 9x13 pan I decided to make them in two separate square pans so I can freeze one for later (they freeze very well). So much for that! We have already dug into the second pan! Goes to show how absolutely delicious they really are!