High Five for Friday!

Yippy!!  It's finally Friday!  This week seems to have lasted forever...  Here's my top five reasons that I am glad that it's Friday:

1- Derek is off this weekend, so we have plenty of family fun stuff planned!

2- I've been promising Olivia all week that we would get our eyebrows waxed, so we are headed to the salon at 5:00.  I think she is pretty excited about it too... hey it's the little things!

3- It's nice and chilly out, so I think we may spend the evening by the fire pit roasting marshmallows. I love cool fall nights- and no alarm clocks tomorrow, so we don't have to go to bed before the sunsets :)

4- Did I mention that I am super excited that there are no alarm clocks in the morning??  It made hitting the snooze button on my alarm this morning almost enjoyable!

5- Fridays at work are always nice and quiet, so I am way productive.  This is great, because when I leave on Friday, I know it won't look like this when I get back on Monday-

It will look more like this....

I hope all of my friends are having a fabulous Friday too.  What are you excited about today?

Halloween

Did everyone have a wonderful Halloween?  One thing that makes our neighborhood so great is that on Halloween there are TONS of trick or treaters!  There are little monsters, princesses, cowboys, ninjas and just about anything else you can imagine wondering the streets- and it's great.  As long as you don't need to leave our neighborhood for any reason, because you will have a really hard time getting out!  With that being said, we just picked up a couple of pizzas, dressed everyone up and had a great time hanging out with our neighbors and watching all of the little ones parade through in some of the cutest little costumes I have ever seen!  Of coarse, we had to add a little Halloween spirit to the cul-de-sac, too.  We couldn't just hang out in jeans and sweatshirts.  Hey- it's the one day a year that we can dress up and act like kids again!!

Comfort Food

Yesterday was a yucky kinda day around here.  When I got home from work, I wanted to curl up in fuzzy pajamas and have something warm and yummy for dinner.  And, by the looks of my family when I got home I wasn't the only one that felt that way.  Everyone was in sweat shirts and flannel pajama pants.  So, I decided the best thing for dinner would be homemade macaroni and cheese, only a little healthier.  And, here's how I make it...

1 box (13-16 oz) of whole wheat rotini pasta (or your noodle of choice)
2 cups of 1% or 2% colby jack shredded cheese blend
1 tablespoon of butter (I don't use margarine in my house- it's icky)
1/2 cup of skim milk
1 tablespoon paprika
salt and pepper to taste

First, boil the noodles with salt until soft with a little bite. (al dente) and drain. I usually leave the noodles in the colander until I have finished the cheese sauce.  That way, I can make the whole dish in one pot.

On medium high heat, using the same stock pot, I melt the butter and add the flour and paprika.  You will also want to season the mixture with salt and pepper liberally.  Mix everything together until it forms a smooth paste.  Stir the flour mixture continuously for a minute or so, until it is a nice golden brown color.  Whisk in the milk and stir until the mixture thickens.  At this point, I usually whisk in about a half cup of water to thin the sauce a little.  Once you have a nice smooth sauce with a gravy like consistency, add one and a half cups of the cheese.  Save about 1/2 of a cup of cheese to go on top.  Stir the mixture until it is nice and smooth without any lumps.  Add your noodles back into the sauce and mix well.  Pour mac and cheese into a greased casserole dish, and cover with remaining cheese. Bake at 350 for 15 to 20 minutes until the cheese is gold and bubbly.

From start to finish this dish takes less than an hour to make.  If you want to cut down the cooking time, you can add all of the cheese to the sauce and serve it without baking.  Either way is delicious.  And, the recipe can easily be doubled for large groups or to save as a freezer meal.  Last night I doubled the recipe and made enough for dinner and 2 freezer meals.  Just separate the pasta into disposable pans, cover with cheese and wrap with seran wrap and aluminum foil before freezing.  To reheat, just thaw and bake at 350 until warmed through.
 
We usually have this as a main dish with salad, and the kids LOVE it!  I have been thinking about experimenting with different kinds of cheese, something to spice it up a little.  But for now, you just can't beat this classic on a chilly fall night!  Enjoy.

It's a New Obsession

I have become completely obsessed with blogging.  Of coarse, my obsession has evolved from Pinterest- which is the most genius thing ever invented!!  Every great idea I pin or like usually has an awesome blog behind it.  I will click on the link and then I am lost in a new blog that I just have to follow.  As my list has grown, I have discovered that I have a lot of ideas of my own.  There are tons of decorating tips I have found, recipes that I have tried or created and lots of other stuff (from cooking tips to hairstyling tricks) that I have discovered along the way.  So, I have decided to start blogging more about these things and to do it more often!  Hopefully my friends will find some useful information here as well as in the world of Pinterest.

Happy reading :)

Toddlers, Tiaras and Honey Boo Boo, child...

For the past few months, I have spent most nights watching the entire series of Desperate Housewives... my guilty little pleasure.  But then the worst thing happened on Wednesday night- I watched the last episode on Netflix!  But, before devastation set in, I flipped through the channels on TV and ran across possibly the most dreadful thing I have ever seen.  Toddlers and Tiaras.  Really?  Let me dress up my infant, who can not walk, in a stripper inspired outfit AND fake teeth- because of coarse, she doesn't have any of her own, and baby gums are not allowed.  After I'm finished, I will add 4 pounds of make up and glitter, you know, so she will stand out in the crowd.  Then, I'm going to slap the most ridiculous looking curled wig I can find on her poor little head and add another can of hairspray to keep it all together.  Finally, I'm going to parade her around looking like a miniature drag queen, while I am dressed like a homeless person (since I spent our family's money on pageants and dresses).  But, don't worry- I will support her head, because she sure can't hold it up any more!

Of course, this whole spectical is good for her, because she will learn to embrace her imperfections, by covering them up with fake tans and artificial nails and eyelashes.  She will also learn to deal with defeat, by kicking, crying and screaming when she doesn't get her way.  And, we will teach her how to finish what you start by screaming at her for wanting to quit and then jacking her up on pixi sticks and mountain dew mixed with red bull.  I'm sorry, I meant pageant crack and go go juice.

And when it's all over, and she's the mature age of 6, we will have ourselves a sweet little angel, worthy of having her own show on TLC- just like Honey Boo Boo, child.

Where can I sign up?

Which One of these is not like the other...

So, for the past few weeks I have noticed that my wrist has an interesting little bump on it- not too huge, but it's there. See the difference?

Then last week, it started to ache.  A little at first, and then a little more.  So, I googled it (PS- Google is my best friend!) It's a cyst... great!  The nickname is "Bible Bump".  So, I thought, that doesn't sound too terrible.  I mean, something you get from reading the Bible too much can't be a BAD thing!  Like God is going to punish me for using my Bible?? 

Boy, was I wrong... the nickname isn't based on how you get the cyst- it's how you get rid of it!  OH LORDY!!!  Before we were blessed with modern medicine, pain relievers, and microscopic tools to perform laser surgery, if you had a ganglion cyst, you would take the heaviest book you had at home (usually your family bible) and SMASH it down on the cyst so that it would rupture.  UMMM- I don't think so!  The only other alternative is to have it surgically removed which has a 40ish percent rate of returning, and a 100% chance of leaving a massive scar on my arm.  Of coarse, I can always choose to live with it and use it as a reminder that if I had been using my family Bible as literature or some sort of, oh I don't know, life how to manual instead of a book end- maybe just maybe I wouldn't be growing another thumb out of my left wrist....

Food for thought.

Our New Kitchen

It has been a little over 2 years since we bought our "dream home".  When we found this house, it was everything we had dreamed of!   It was in a great neighborhood, close to the kids' school and had plenty of room for our family.  However, it needed a little TLC.  We were so excited to buy a house and make it our own.  We had plans for every room, and we were eager to get started.  I'm not sure how many people do this, but boy were we surprised at how much time it really takes to remodel a house!  And we aren't even close to finished.  A few weeks into it, we decided to break it up into "phases".  Phase one was to just make it nice.  We painted every room, replaced a few light fixtures and put in new flooring in the main area.  Then we moved on to my favorite phase- the kitchen!  And, finally it is complete!! 

This was the original kitchen before we bought the house:

I loved the size and the layout, but it was so dark and filled with brass and hunter green.  I'm sure this was top of the line in the nineties, but it was definantly not our style.

As soon as we closed, we painted the cabinets and the walls (green of coarse!).  Then, over time we added new cabinet hardware and replaced the horrid green and brass ceiling fan and faux painted bronze light.

Notice, the green linoleum lives on...

After Christmas this year, we decided it was time for a mini overhaul.  We found a great kit at Home Depot to refurbish the counter tops.  Hallelujah, no more green marble print laminate!  With the kit, they are now black with silver and gray flecks- much much better!!

Then, we added a new back splash and a new faucet with the pull out sprayer, and a new soap dispenser... I am in kitchen heaven!

Finally my wonderful husband ripped up the green monster, and replaced it with quite possibly the most beautiful tile I have ever seen. (Yes, I am bias, but really- the green was horrible)  PS- the tile took a little longer than planned!  We lived in a construction zone for a few weeks, with our stove and refrigerator banished to the dining room.  Luckily, the refrigerator was still able to be plugged in and functional, however there were no 220 outlets for the stove.  I can't say that I was completely devastated, but I wasn't able to cook for 2 weeks.  We became very creative with the crock pot and the microwave!  You would think eating out everyday would be OK, but it got old pretty fast! Although, having no flooring to worry about gave me a chance to put a final coat of paint on the cabinets.

And this is what we have now, our dream kitchen:

Of coarse, it wouldn't be perfect without a little redecorating...

Just want to add a little thank you to the most wonderful husband in the world... no matter how neurotic I am, he still tries to make me happy!  And, always succeeds!