krogering

Just saying-going through Kroger's website, loading coupons and making a grocery list on the website is a lot of fun. I can do it all and then send myself an email with a list of things on sale that I would like to buy. This time it's mostly produce, and my loadable coupons are not, but the coupons don't expire for a while. I have some for Starbucks coffee, so that's something I'm looking forward to! Also things like laundry detergent and check mix. Not necessities at this moment, but good to have on hand just in case. Also, I don't have to sift though the coupons-they just scan in with my kroger card :)
Here's the link: click here

Happy Family Comes Over To You

Today was our first "large" family get together at my house. All of my immediate family, my grandparents, my aunt and her two sons came over to celebrate my mom's birthday. And the birthday of my two cousins.

Alex and I spent the whole morning cleaning and getting the house ready for visitors. We work well together. He knows what will look presentable, and I like to clean and sweep. We ended up putting a considerable amount of stuff in the attic- up and out of the way. Still, we weren't using it, so that's as good a place as any.

It was the first time I'd seen my extended family since getting married. It was so much fun talking to them and showing off our house. My dad and Justin hadn't even seen the house yet.

My wonderful parents gave us their old grill! That's what we used to cook the hamburgers for lunch.

I was a little worried about the space-our house is more than spacious for the two of us, but I wasn't sure how 12 of us would work. However, we all ate in out little living room with enough space. It was cozy, and it made for conversation between everyone pretty easy. Passing the cake around meant no one had to move.

My grandma said she was so excited to see me that when my mom asked her to make a birthday cake she said, "Who's birthday is it?" This makes me feel special. Steven is staying until his choir retreat tomorrow, so that should make for a fun evening.

Family. Mine. His. Ours. I love it.

WoW

Yep, today was almost all World of Warcraft with my husband and his best friends, which are also my friends. Enjoyable :o)

netflix addiction

Today, after Alex went to work, I watched an innumerable number of episodes of 30 Rock. I finished Season 1. I am about to start Season 2, and then I'm getting the house in order before Alex gets off.

tasty treats

This morning, as part of our breakfast, Alex and I made strawberry banana smoothies. It was the first time we have used our blender, and it worked quite well :) I am excited to do this more often, as it was delicious!








We also had fajitas for lunch. I cooked the meat a bit too long, but it was tasty overall. It has been fun trying new foods. Tonight I did not cook at all for dinner. I sent sandwich stuff with Alex, and ate some leftovers for my own dinner.








Mom and Donny came to visit today. It was lovely :)

a cute wedding.

Yesterday I helped set up for a very pretty outdoor wedding. I enjoyed setting up chairs with in-laws and newly acquired friends.

mini making

Since our oven has decided to stop working, I have started to cook in smaller cookware that will fit in our toaster oven. I have to admit, it is nice that it heats up so fast. This time I made mini meat loaf-five little ones. enough for two meals :) I also broke out the food processor-and I will never hand chop a vegetable again. Never. It was so nice and fast and easy-and tasted great in the meat loaf.

Oh yes, I also made no-bake cookies=yum

everything happens at once

I know it's a cliche saying, but it's so true. The following things have happened over the past couple of days:
We got a puppy.

We came home with the puppy and I decided to make cornbread.

The oven was not working.

I decided to try our new toaster oven.
I didn't put the rack in, thus putting the glass container directly on the heaters. When I took it out, it exploded all over the kitchen.

Alex proved (yet again) to be a wonderful husband. He assured me of my ability to be a cook and be a good wife, and cleaned up the glass on the floor.

The remaining glass that was trying to hold the now burnt cornbread was still hot, so we left it overnight to cool before throwing it out.

Shortly after the cornbread met the trashcan, we discovered a plethora of ants in the kitchen.

This morning, our puppy discarded the worms from his body onto our living room floor. Wonderful husband to the rescue once again. Worms are gross.

That's the end of the seemingly fiasco happenings, although I did have a pretty ridiculously dirty house to clean this morning. That's a mixture of my lack of cleaning throughout the week, and a new puppy shedding and potty training.

But she's just so cute.

Just couldn't resist

I said I didn't want animals. They are messy and whiny and shed fur and can ruin furniture. However, the dog, who frequents the shop where Alex and I are working on his car, had puppies.

Alex gave our little Piper a bath as soon as we brought her home.

She got sleepy. We borrowed the kennel from Gina.

Bananas

This morning I got into an argument about bananas. Bananas. It's absolutely bananas to get into an argument about bananas.


That's all for today.

dough boy to the rescue!

Today I was going to make beef stew. I had saved some carrots to cut up and put in it, some different cans of veggies, and even mushrooms! I had the meat from this cute Foodland where they package it themselves, and I was eager to try the meat cubes. I had planned to make cornbread this evening-honey drizzled on top and everything. I put all of the ingredients in the crock pot, plugged it in, and left it for this evening.

Alex and I saw Toy Story 3 with some of his family. On our way home I got this sinking feeling-I couldn't remember if I had turned the crock pot to "low." When we arrived at the house I walked right over to....a cold crock pot.....

Alex wonderfully reassured me that sandwiches are just fine.

I opened the fridge to start salvaging my housewife dignity. I found some pillsbury crescent rolls I bought the other day with a coupon (which was doubled!) and some breakfast sausages I intended to use to make pigs in a blanket.

Dinner improv.

Alex loved it. Pigs in a blanket are one of my favorite things to eat. Baby carrots and ranch dressing completed out meal.

The rest of the evening was spent turning just over six pounds of ground beef into various burger flavors-Italian, Mexican, Dijon mustard, and a seasoning Jeremiah recommended to Alex. They were double bagged, labeled, and put in the freezer for future use.

Top it off with lemon poppy seed muffins with some chopped strawberries tossed in, and I feel I have regained a decent position as a home maker.

now faith is being sure of what we hope for

Today David and Alex have been playing WoW all day. This is the delicious coffee Alex made, and the wacky cake Lacey helped make yesterday. We ate the cake today in celebration of David being born. This is my second piece. The pretty mug is from my grandma who likes to give me things that have "faith" on it :)

if at first you don't succeed....

I decided that I didn't like my "finished" look-so I decided to cut more around my face. I got a lot of the old color out! Almost gone! No straightening, just blow dried.

cutting my own hair

Alex has left for work, and I was left to look at the mirror. I saw boring hair:








So I decided to look for videos online-how to cut layers into your own hair. I am still trying to grow it out, but add a little creativity to it. I found this interesting post with a girl who used kitchen scissors-I used craft scissors from Hobby Lobby.

So I decided to attempt this feat myself.


I brought my laptop into the bathroom, wet my hair, and followed the girl's instructions.











This is how much hair I cut off.



I then used a razor on part of my hair-yes, the kind I shave my legs with. The girl did it in the video, so I thought I would try it.





Then I blow dried it.














I finally straightened it. The front really doesn't look that different-I mostly just trimmed it and added back layers. It was fun to try. The sides still look a little messy, but I think it's all right for my first attempt at cutting my hair. I've trimmed my bangs before, but not much else. It was fun, and I will definitely be trying this again.

PS-disclaimer: I do have a mother-in-law who can cut hair. Therefore, I knew that if I ruined my hair, I could ask for help.

little delights

The more I cook, the more I enjoy cooking. Cooking, baking, mixing, chopping up and letting cool. It's just so exciting to mix a number of ingredients together, put the mixture in the oven, and out comes something delicious! Or grating up carrots, adding some lemon juice, pineapple, raisins and refrigerating-yummy carrot raisin salad.

This morning I watched a video from allrecipes.com about making chicken and broccoli alfredo. I found it browsing. Here's the link. I plan on attempting this tomorrow. It's pretty simple, which is good for me.

Today's fun recipe was chocolate chip banana muffins! Here's the recipe.

British rebellion day

Alex made this comment about 3p.m. "You've spent most of your time in the kitchen." This is because I attempted to make chicken wings (Alex's meal tomorrow night), then made a double batch of oatmeal raisin cookies and a double batch of carrot raisin salad. Why? Well, because we were going to a 4th of July get together at my sister-in-law's house. I used her recipe for the cookies, and they were delicious! I made a total of four dozen, and two never made it out of the house.


I always enjoy time with Lacey and the Jandreaus. I found out today how much they enjoy blowing thing up-including a stuffed Elmo, poor thing. It was hilarious and impressive.

Alex and I joined David to meet his family at First Family for fireworks. We showed up about ten minutes before they started. Wow, this church can really put on a display of fire explosions! They were beautiful, and it was fun to sit back in the grass with people I enjoy.

Dishes were waiting for me at home, and it felt good to finish them before sleep. That's where I'm headed after finishing this. Good day to celebrate the declaration of independence.

weekend again

I have on my agenda for today: cleaning and planting flowers with Lacey. It's been a while since planting flowers, but it will be fun to hang with my sister-in-law. She's great.

Before starting this, however, I just want to take maybe 30 minutes to chill. I am then gonna hit the house with cleaning frenzy-bathroom, kitchen, and floors. Oh, and laundry, I forgot about that. I like to get things done early, but when I get back from Alex leaving, I just want a brief transition time. Thus the reason for this post.

Alex's meals today were left over bbp roast beef for sandwiches, chips and dip, carrots, ranch dressing, apples and pb, and buffalo strips. Two meals. Leftovers or super-easy. I like getting things that are already made, because it makes packing meals much easier. Maybe sometime I will switch to making most everything myself, but this works well for now.

Off to wash some dishes! I didn't wash any yesterday, so we have quite the pile!

comfort

It's amazing what a blow dryer and a little mascara can do for my self esteem. I showered and breakfasted like normal, but I felt like I could hardly move. I hadn't actually put on makeup or fixed my hair for a few days, and I think I was feeling drab.

I then just decided to put on makeup, and blow dry my hair. Since I've been letting it grow out, I have been less motivated to spend the extra time. However, I felt put together and pretty. I also felt more awake and ready to conquer the day.

Although we have nothing specifically planned for today, I thought I would attempt chicken enchiladas again. It isn't super hard, but it does require some extra time. Brownies or cookies seem an appropriate addition to this meal, although I will have to practice self control. I don't want to blow up like a balloon just because I know I will be loved and accepted no matter what. That is not taking care of the temple God has given me.