New Year, Almost

Since this is my first post after Christmas, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Ours flew by pretty quick with Andrew working a lot of overtime.

 

I know it isn't quite the New Year yet, but I have to work tomorrow so today is my chance to post this. I'm not really a huge New Years Resolution person, mostly because I know I wont carry them out. I know, that is kind of a lame excuse, but I don't really enjoy setting myself up for failure if I can help it. While doing some reflection the past couple of weeks, I have come to a few conclusions about what I want to do in the new year. So, rather than making a bunch of small goals, I am going to use one rule of thumb for the year: does it make me happy (queue Sheryl Crow song here)? Now, before you all jump my case about that being a really selfish goal, let me explain.

 

I am a huge people pleaser, and I know I'm not the only one with this problem. Being a people pleaser isn't necessarily a bad thing, except when you are constantly compromising your own happiness for that of others. This is what I have learned after 15 plus year of therapy, and I don’t want to know how much money. I have gotten better at sticking up for myself over the years, and saying no when I would normally say yes because I didn't want to let someone down. But, I still struggle with a lot of the large decisions in life, and you would think those would be the easier ones.

 

One of my biggest motivators for this seemingly selfish goals is at some point in the next couple of years, we are likely going to look at starting a family (aside from the two children we already have, Buddy and Maya). Being a parent is the most selfless job in the world. So, while I can, I am going to take some final "me time".

 

In order to really start this hard look at the things in my life that do and don't make me happy, I decided to take inventory.

 

Things that make me happy:

 

My family: I love them all to death. This includes my immediate and extended family, my husband and my four legged children.

 

Coffee: yes, boys and girls, coffee is on this list because it makes me happy. When I can sit down with my coffee in a quiet room, that is Zen time for me.

 

Travel: I LOVE to travel, unfortunately money precludes me from doing it as often as I would like. Andrew and I both love to travel, so we try and make it a point of going on one big trip a year. The other day I announced to him that among the small things I want to do before we have a baby, I want to go to Paris.

 

Reading: Now, this is a hard one for me because it is something I haven't done in a long time. I was excited to graduate college so I could finally read what I wanted, but that didn't happen. In fact, I think I have now been on an almost three year reading hiatus. I can't tell you the last book I finished. Sad, I know.

 

*This is by no means an exhaustive list of things that make me happy, but it gives you a general idea.

 

Now for the tough stuff, and this made for some tough decisions.

 

As you have followed along with throughout the summer, Andrew and I have been on the go working on weddings across the state. It makes for some fun times, early mornings and late nights. It is really hard to explain everything that goes into these weddings, loading and unloading a trailer, leaving town at 5:00 AM to return home at 2:00 AM the following day, hauling furniture including sofas and hutches in and out of rooms, setting tables and chairs, etc. While it is rewarding to see the brides and grooms happy when they see everything come together, it makes for some really long days. Working full time, and being on the go all weekend took its toll on me. There were Monday's I had to take time off to simply sleep. Living of less than 10 hours of sleep in 72 hours doesn't cut it for me. At the start of this adventure, I was excited to work with flowers again. Flowers are one of my passions. However, it grew into so much more than just working with flowers. I literally felt like I gave up my whole summer. We were around most of July, but it was too hot to do much of anything. So while this decision is probably going to mean some hurt feelings, I think it is time for Andrew and I to step away from this adventure. In the end, the sacrifice outweighs the reward.

 

I need more time to be with family, work in the yard, work on the house, enjoy life! I want to take more walks with the dogs, take more day trips, and actually complete a few of the projects we want to. This next year, I want to actually finish a book, take a vacation with the dogs, get the house organized, get more work done in the yard, eat more ice cream, actually work out on a regular basis, have more picnics, and grill out more. What are your resolutions?

 

4 Days Til Christmas...

Christmas time in our house means baking up a storm and Andrew spending a lot of time at work.  "Peak Season" can sometimes be the phrase of death in our house.  Once Thanksgiving hits, I always joke with Andrew that I will see him again after Christmas.  It really isn't terrible, it just makes for a few long nights.  As you can imagine at UPS this time of year, things get a little bit crazy.  Christmas time means more boxes to ship, and thanks to the increase in online shopping things get a little crazier every year.  I think they saw a pretty big jump in volume this year from the Cyber Monday sales.  Although, this year it seemed like not only was there Cyber Monday, there were also a lot of Black Friday deals online.  Why not shop from the comfort of your home at 9:00 on Thanksgiving night rather than stand outside freezing your butt off with hundreds of other lunatics.  I use that word with the utmost affection as Andrew and I have been out there the past couple of years. 

Last year, we stood in the checkout line at Best Buy for over two hours just to buy the Harry Potter boxed Blue Ray set.  Yes, two hours, you read that right.  But, I love that set and it was worth every minute.  After we made our purchases at Best Buy, we headed over the Kohls to score a few deals there as well.  It took us ten minutes to find what we wanted and at least an hour of standing in line.  I remember being a Target and Best Buy the year before that, but for the life of me can't remember what was so important I had to get up at 3:00 AM for.  I think that might be a bad sign that it probably wasn't worth it. 

In case you have been living under a rock the last week, it snowed... A LOT.  I think we got 13 inches of snow in town.  We lost a few rather large branches in the yard, but we count ourselves lucky since a few of our neighbors lost half of their trees.  None of our branches landed on the house or caused any damage.  Although, the large branch that feel in front of the house landed where Andrew usually parks his car, so it was a good thing he parked in the driveway that night.  Someone was watching out for us on that one.  There were a lot of people that lost power, and we also consider ourselves lucky to only have lost power for a short time overnight on Wednesday night.

This was Maya's first snow, and she loved it!  She wasn't sure what to think at first, but before long she was running around like a crazy woman in it.  She was batting at chunks of snow and burying her nose it it.  Of course, she also enjoys eating the snow.  Buddy can't get in and out fast enough, we think the cold is probably a lot for his old man bones. 

Those branches don't normally touch the deck

 

Buddy and Maya armed for the cold! 

Being snowed in meant time for me to spend baking.  Really I was planning to bake anyway, the snow was just a good excuse to not go anywhere.  I knocked out two batches of sugar cookies, sour cream chocolate chip cookies, cookies and cream fudge, Oreo balls, and peppermint brownies.  Andrew had a potluck at work today, so he also made a White Chocolate torte.  Andrew and I both took some treats to work to share.  We certainly don't need them sitting around the house!   


Today, I learned a valuable lesson.  For every time I may grumble about having a car payment again, I love my Rogue and I love sitting higher off the ground and having all wheel drive.  If the city considers what they have done plowing, I'm a little concerned.  But, I had minimal issues getting around thanks to my new set of wheels! 

Finally, An Update

I know my updates lately have been limited, but I have been working on something that I couldn't share until now.  Yesterday, my mom graduated with her Masters in Public Administration.  I am so proud of her!  I have been working on a surprise party for her.  Obviously I couldn't share any of the planning details until now since it was a surprise.  We tried to keep it a total surprise, but by last week she knew something was going on.  I think she was still surprised when guests started to arrive.  Thank you to everyone that came out and helped us celebrate. 

 

Way to go Mom! 

 

Our spread of food. I realized while looking through these photos that this is the only one I took of the party which is a bummer because I had some awesome arrangements that I wanted to take photos of.  The arrangements have since be re-homed in my living room.  It smells amazing in here from all the Christmas greens I used.  Here are a few photos of the flowers now. 

 

 

We had some orchids from the wedding we did last weekend, so of course I used those.  These babies are normally about $2/stem so anytime I can get my hands on them I use them.  Have I mentioned my love of calla lilies?  We had the mini calla lilies at our wedding.  I love the large ones, they look so amazing.  The last arrangement is white roses and evergreen, which I also love.  Sometimes the fewer flowers the better. 

 

We kept the food pretty simple.  I made some cocktail meatballs in the crock pot, which disappeared pretty quickly.  They are super easy to make. 2/3 C. bbq sauce 12 oz. apricot preserves and we used two smaller bags of frozen meatballs.  Put everything in the crock pot and cook on low for 2-3 hours.  We also had some cheese and crackers.  I used Cracker Barrel cheese, which was pretty darn good.  We also had some hot appetizers from Trader Joe's.  I have to be honest, I have shopped in the store before, but I think the only things we have bought there are some wine and maybe some cheese.  The appetizers were pretty good and also disappeared pretty quickly. 

 

I made the same super easy punch I made a couple of weeks ago at the Jewel Kade party I hosted at the house. 

Cranberry Champagne Punch

 

2 bottles of champagne, chilled

(you don't have to go expensive on this because it all kind of blends together)

1 bottle white wine, chilled

1 ltr bottle club soda, chilled

1 can frozen pink lemonade

1 can frozen cranberry cocktail/cranberry blend

1 can frozen limeade (you start with about 1/2 of the can and add to taste)

 

Mix everything up in a punch bowl and you have a nice adult beverage!

 

UPDATE:

 

I almost forgot about the desserts, how could I they were the best part!  We had some yummy desserts, cheesecake bites, mini red velvet cupcakes and tiramisu all made by a family friend that does an amazing job.  He makes Andrew's birthday cheesecake each year and did an amazing one for Andrew's "grooms cake" at our wedding.   

 

 

I think things will calm down a little now.  Of course we have Christmas right around the corner and once UPS and Fedex come to my door, I will have all my shopping done.  I need to get some baking done, so I should probably get on that too.  Christmas has kind of creeped up on me this year.  Anyone else feel that way.  I had a lot of good intentions going into the Christmas season.  I was going to get a photo done of the Andrew and I with the pups in front of the house to send for our Christmas cards, but that hasn't happened.  That is the only thing I can think of right now, but I know there are other things I wanted to get done.  Maybe once Christmas is over I can get started on my winter project list.  Andrew has some projects he will be working on too.  He is going to make some steps for the dogs to get on the bed so they aren't jumping on and off.  Maya I don't worry about so much, but that is a lot of stress on Buddy's old joints.  We need to keep our puppies healthy and injury free. 

 

I will try to do a better job keeping up with things on here, I don't know where the last month has gone. 

 

 

 

Long Time No See

Once again, I'm slacking on the posting.  There for a while, I had a lot of stuff to post about.  When we were doing work outside this summer, it seemed like every week there was something new.  There was always wedding stuff to post about this summer.  We are coming up on our last wedding this weekend and then we are done until the spring.  Winter just seems to be the general slow time for wedding season.  Andrew wanted a winter wedding, but with the Midwest weather being so insane and unpredictable, I couldn't commit to that.  Of course, with the winter we had last year I think we would have been fine.  Oh well! 

Last week I hosted a jewelry party at my house, so I spent most of the week getting ready for that.  Thank you to all those that came, I enjoyed seeing you all!  After the party, I really had no motivation to do anything house related.  My lack of motivation seems to have carried into this week as well.  I get home at night from work and I am dead tired and all I want to do is sit on my rear and watch TV.  I know many of you can relate.  Just when I think I can do just that, sit down and do nothing, I remember there is dinner to cook and dogs to feed and laundry to do and bills to pay....

For those that don't know, Andrew and I work split shifts.  Sometimes I find it difficult to deal with him not being home at night, but it does have its perks.  For example, if I leave a load of laundry or two out, he will do them for me.  If I had a crock pot recipe I want to get going, he will start it for me.  He takes care of the dogs and keeps them company.  Today, he cleaned up the kitchen for me.  Don't you wish you could come home and find the laundry fairy came to visit? 

A few of you have asked me how Maya is doing and how Maya and Buddy are getting along.  As of yesterday, Maya is six months old!  You can totally tell she is still a puppy too.  She and Buddy are getting along quite well.  They love to chase each other around the house and around the yard.  Buddy can keep up with Maya when he wants to, but most times he is content to outsmart her and run the opposite direction to meet her.  Last month, Maya was spayed.  She was such a good girl and didn't like at her stitches, so we didn't have to put the lovely e collar on her.  No cone days for Maya!  The same day, she also had one of her last baby teeth removed to make room for her adult teeth to come in, and she was micro chipped.  She did great with the surgery and has made a full recovery, with the exception of the hair they had to shave.  She still looks a little odd with some of the hair on her belly shaved off. 

The ongoing issue we have had with Maya are her ears.  When we first got her and had her checked out, she had a pretty bad yeast infection in both ears.  We have since been able to get rid of the infection in her left ear, but she still has a mild case in the right year.  For Beagles, ear care is a pretty big deal.  Their adorable floppy ears are prone to infections.  Our first course of action was a medicated drop/spray a couple of times per day.  Maya got pretty good at sitting still and letting us put it in her ears.  When that didn't clear things up in the right ear, we added a medicated rinse.  We were doing the rinse a couple of times per day and the other drop once per day.  It was quite the routine.  I think we finally have things cleared up now; she doesn't seem to be scratching like she used to.  She does really well when we mess with her ears and just goes on about her business when we are done.  Buddy, on the other hand, hates when we go anywhere near his ears.  We try to clean his out with a general rinse every couple of weeks.  When we do that, it is followed by a couple hours of him going back and forth across the living room rubbing his ear on the floor.  You would think we were torturing him, poor duder.  We can't help but laugh when he does it because it is just so insane and Maya just stands there and looks at him like "what is your problem, dude".  

Our doggies keep us on our toes, but we wouldn't trade them for the world.  When Andrew calls me at night to let me know he is headed home from work, they are waiting by the door for him when he comes home.  Maya loves to share her kisses with him and Buddy will take all the tummy rubs he can get.  They are pretty amazing.  Sometimes, they make me want to pull my hair out though.  There was the night I came home and found poop on the living room floor (courtesy of Buddy) and Maya's food container tipped over with food pouring out.  No telling how much of Maya's food Buddy actually ate, but he was a little messed up in the tummy for a few days.  I think he learned his lesson, because he has left her food alone since.  There was the morning that I was drying my hair and came out to find a piece of aluminum foil shredded to bits all over my freshly vacuumed floor, that was courtesy of Maya.  There are of course the million toys they have destroyed.  There is the fact that I can't eat a meal without them staring at me like I am their last meal, or the fact that they are right at my feet when I'm in the kitchen.  Our lives have certainly changed with two dogs in them.  So, for those of you wondering when we are going to get  arond to having kids, as you have read we already have two. Until Maya is a little older, I don't think I could handle adding two more feet to the eight I already have chasing me around at night. 

What would we do without our pets! 

Projects Galore

I told you I wouldn't post last week, and as you can tell, I didn't.  But, that doesn't mean I wasn't busy.  I was thinking of projects to do this week.  A friend and I are hosting a jewelry party at the house next week, so I have kicked it in high gear with getting some projects done that I have wanted to get done for a while. 

I don’t even know where to start with the projects, so here goes...

Remember the wine bottle chandelier thing I created a while ago?  Here is the initial post. Yeah, I was sick of it.  It didn't turn out the way I pictured it in my mind, so I moved on to a new idea.  This one is a lamp shade from Target that I had to cut the center ring out of so it would fit over the hanging light we already have.   All the instructions I found for this project involved putting the light together at the same time, so I had to improvise a little bit.  Right now, this thing is a little jerry-rigged, but you can't tell, can you? 

This cute thing I had my eye on at the craft show last weekend.  I didn't want to spend the money to get him, but I thought he was awfully adorable and would look great on our front porch for the winter.  Then, thanks to my wonderful parents, he appeared on our front porch last Sunday!  I was pretty excited for our early Christmas present.  If you come to our house he will be waiting to say hello and cheer on the Packers!

Don’t mind Maya's rear end there in the photo.  It was time for a season change for the urn on the front porch.  I'm still loving this urn as much as I did the day I found it on the clearance shelf at Michaels.  Speaking of Michaels, this past Sunday they emailed me a coupon for I think it was 20% of my entire purchase.  I saw in the ad that they had pretty much the whole store on sale, so I made a trip and came home $50 poorer.  But, I got a bunch of things for projects this week. 

This is also a project that came out of my Michaels run last weekend.  I saw the idea for the bulbs in the container on Pinterest.  What you can't see if the spot in the center where I am going to put some florals when they come out of storage this weekend.  I tore through the whole house trying to find said florals only to realize I put them in the same box as the Christmas tree, which in storage.  I know my parents will enjoy having the last of our stuff out of their storage space, and I will enjoy having everything at the house so I can make some sense of it all.  I did the ring around the bottom because I thought just the vase alone looked a little plain jane. 

We interrupt this program to show you.... FOOD!  That's right kiddos, it's Thanksgiving which in my family means it is time to bake.  Here we have grandma's rolls working their magic before going in the oven. 

and... more food.  I also made sugar cookies this week to distribute to some of the family.  I had to make Andrew is own goodie box with sugar cookies so he didn't feel left out.  I made a goodie container for myself so I actually get to eat some of the cookies I made.  

This was another craft show find.  Last week, I had the grand idea that I was going to make something like this for this spot next to the slider onto the deck.  But, as I was going on 15 minutes of standing in the booth at the craft show staring at this thing, I realized that I wasn't going to have the time to do it, so I bought it.  It was very reasonable, and I love the shelf on the top.  As you can see, the Christmas decorations have started to migrate out of the basement. 

I may not have had time for the project above, but I did have time for this project.  I found a post on Pinterest a while ago (what did I ever do without Pinterest) about making no sew curtains.  I have been trying to find a red valance for our kitchen windows for a while now with no luck.  Ok, I lied, I did have luck I just wasn't wiling to spend $50 a piece for them.  On Sunday while I was at Michaels with my coupon, I took my coupon for Jo Ann's a few doors down and found some fabric to make these bad boys.  The first one didn't turn out too bad, but I need to do some touchup work on it.  You make these with iron on tape essentially, and some of the tape didn't get ironed on all the way, so I need to go back through and fix that.  I like how they turned out and two yards of fabric, which will be more than enough, was less than $10. 

And for my final project of the night, we have our new stocking hanger.  When we lived in the apartment, we had a fireplace to put our stockings on, but we don’t have a fireplace at the house.  No fireplace means no mantle to hang the stockings on.  Plus, this year we have two extra stockings for Buddy and Maya.  I actually thought of this idea on my own and while I was on Pinterest realized I wasn't the first person to come up with this idea... major bummer.  For this project, I hit up the Habitat for Humanity Restore and got this cabinet door for $4.  While I was there, I bought a small can of black paint for $1.  I got the knobs in a clearance bin at Home Depot last weekend and paid $1.50 per knob.  I'm not quite finished with this project, I want to write our names above each stocking, but I wanted to share this one with you because I am pretty excited about it.

So there you have it; I haven't been sitting around twiddling my thumbs.  We are headed into peak season for Andrew at work (keep that in mind when you are ordering things on Cyber Monday, Andrew is probably dealing with your stuff), which means less time he will be home and more project time for me.  While he was off last week I didn't get a ton done.  I couldn't want to have some project time this week when he went back to work.  I love him to death, but sometimes working split shifts works quite well for us.  When I come home from work, I generally need to blow of some steam and finding a creative outlet is the best way for me to do that.  Stay tuned later this week and next week, there are more projects coming!

A Responsible Weekend

After out last couple of oh so glamorous weekends and weekends on the run, this past weekend was pretty boring.  Saturday was so stinking nice outside we had to do something outside.  Rather than the millions of fun things I could come up with, we did yard work.  It needed to get done though, so that is one more thing to check off the list.  About a month ago I bought some bulbs I wanted to plant, so I was able to get those in the ground while I still could dip up the dirt.  Now, I had tulips, hyacinth and crocus to look forward to in the spring.  I plan to add to the collection each year, but we will see how these do first. 

We were also able to get some of the plants cut back and get them ready for winter.  I hope everything survives the winter.  We finished raking up the leaves, which we started a few weeks ago.  We had a couple of piles going in the yard a couple of weeks ago, but the kids, I mean dogs, played in them and managed to spread them back across the yard.  We got those put on our winter compost pile. 

We have been meaning to check out the gutters and see how bad they were.  We don’t have a ladder tall enough to get up on the roof, so we had to resort to our only other option...

 

 

That's right, Andrew squeezed through the window and out onto the roof to investigate.  Before you even ask, yes I was worried about him falling off.  I'm really glad he got up there though because the gutters were totally clogged in the corners and needed cleaned out.  Hopefully we can eliminate some potential problems now in the spring.  While he was up there, Andrew took down several wasps nests, so maybe we can also eliminate some of our wasp problems next year.  I'll have to keep you posted on the progress in that department. 

If you don't hear from me a lot this week it is because Andrew is on vacation.  Thursday we take Maya to get spayed, so she will be wearing her lovely cone this weekend. 

One other note, with two dogs now sleeping in the bed, I really think we need a bigger bed.  I'm going to have to find a way to make this work, because I need to spread out when I sleep.  These dogs are cramping my style, literally.  So, if anyone has $25k they would like to donate to the cause of adding dormers on the house, feel free to send it our way.  In the mean time, it may be close quarters.

Sometimes I Think I Live In A Circus

Wedding season is drawing to a close, and I have to say I am breathing a sigh of relief.  It has been a crazy year, but a fun one.  We have been able to be a part of a lot of special days, and each one reminds me how happy I am to be married to my best friend and also to not have the wedding insanity any more.

Now we head in for some holiday craziness.  I do have to admit I'm looking forward to decorating and baking.  I finally tracked down a pastry frame, which changed my life forever!  If you don't know what I'm talking about, here you go:

This thing is AMAZING!  My mom has one, and I always remember her using it for sugar cookies growing up.  When I started baking on my own, I wanted one.  I haven't had one for a couple of years, and has not been good.  I bought another pastry cloth, but they are not all equal in my book.  You really need the frame to hold it tight and keep it from bunching up on you.  I made sugar cookies for Halloween, which was my first time using it, and it was awesome.  It changed my life forever!  Anyway, now you should all go out and buy one. 

Last weekend I made a bus trip to Rockford, IL for a floral conference.  I enjoyed seeing reps from all the growers and flower farms.  We learned some amazing things about flowers.  One of the farms we talked to said they cut over a million roses in one week.  Holy cow, that is a lot of flowers.  I want to go to these farms, most of which are located in Ecuador.  I just want to see all those roses, miles and miles of roses.

Also exciting is that my Packers seem to be on a roll kids!  They are rockin it out even with all the injuries.  Small shout out there.  After all, I am a shareholder so I have to show a little love for the team. 

Lately, I feel like Andrew and I should start a show called "Things Our Dogs Have Destroyed".  Man, have we gone through a lot of toys.  Even before Maya came around, Buddy was the king of destruction with toys.  Actually, Maya just destroyed her first toy last night.  Now, for a memorial of toys they have killed.  

The first toy Buddy killed was a lamb kind of like this one.  We had stuffing all over the place.

I honestly can't remember the order from here on out,

Sorry Target, but Buddy destroyed his frog in about 2 minutes

Buddy didn't seem to like this plush bone from Petco either, it at least lasted about a day

Monkey actually lasted pretty long, we bought him several months ago and had to throw him away this week

First, the string came off this and then Maya chewed it apart. 

Not pictured are the numerous tennis balls and plush balls Buddy destroyed as well as the purple bear he destroyed last week.  Along with toys, we have also lost a harness for Maya that Buddy chewed one of the snaps off of and a foam bed/pad we had in Buddy's kennel for a while.  Buddy tries to "fluff" his bed and in the process ripped through the bed we had for him, at which point he got blankets in his kennel.  

At the moment the only toys that have survived are the Petstages butterfly, a purple monkey with a rattle in it, and a Kong. 

My beef with all this is that my dogs are Beagles.  Yes, they like to chew, but their jaws aren't as big as say a German Shepherd.  I really don't think they should be able to destroy toys within minutes of getting them.  So, pet toy makers, STOP making crap toys.  And what lesson have I learned from all this, cheap toys are not to be trusted and anything with a squeezer in it better be sewn twenty times or Buddy will rip it in half.

Winter Projects

Since the summer project season is coming to a close, I thought it would be appropriate to make a list of the things I hope to accomplish this winter around the house.  When it is nice outside, I don't want to do things in the house, so now is my time to get some of those things I have been putting off completed. 

1. Organize my flower tags- I have been saving the tags from all the plants we bought for the yard and want to put them together in some kind of binder or something so I know what is planted out there. 

2. Deep clean the house- I need to do some deep cleaning that probably hasn't been done since we moved in.  A couple of weeks ago, we got to take some things to our clean up days and it was so nice to get those things out of the house.  We had the random toilet we pulled out when we put the sump pump in, the carpet that had been wet many times before in the basement, the ugly carpet in the front entry, and some random things from the yard. 

3. Finish the window in the bathroom- yeah that's right, it still isn't done.  Dont judge.  We need to decide if we are going to finish taking the pain off and finish it or if we are going to replace the wood all together. 

4. Decorating for Christmas- I am totally looking forward to this now that we have the house to decorate!  I can't wait to put up some outdoor lights and put the Christmas tree up.  I can't wait to celebrate this year with our puppies!  

5. Tax preparation-  I need to hunt down all the stuff from this year.  I think our tax lady is going to be in shock with all the fun tax things we are going to throw at her this year.  We have the house now, my new car, and the business expenses from doing flowers. 

6. Organize the basement- we have acquired some stuff in the basement and I am trying to label it and keep it together by season.  I know after Christmas this year more stuff is coming to our house from my parents, so I need to make room for that too. 

7. Make a game plan for the summer- we need to come up with our plan for next year in the yard.  Of course, a lot of that is going to depend on how generous our tax return is this year. 

And now I will leave you with an adorable picture of the puppies getting along so well!

Tick Tock, Tick Tock

What is that the sound of?  Time ticking away.  I think it is true what they say about having a biological clock ticking.  I feel like everyone is constantly pushing to the next big thing in life.  Ok, you are married, when are you having kids, when are you buying a house, when are you having baby number two.  There is always something more people want you to be doing.  I know it sounds silly to be pressured into something so huge as having kids or buying a home, but the pressure is on. 

I love all my friends and their kids to death; they are all adorable, but dang people, you're really putting the pressure on.  I feel like Andrew and I are behind in the race of life.  Now that we have been married for a year, the questions are really picking up about when we are going to have kids.  We will have kids when we are ready, and we aren't ready.  We are trying to enjoy being married.  We have gone through a few trials in the first year of our marriage, and I feel like each thing we overcome makes us a stronger couple, which will only make us better parents.  We bought a house, which brings with it different financial worries.  We have now adopted two dogs, one of which we are still housebreaking.  Housetraining a dog has brought out some frustrations and stress.  Housetraining Maya has been all about keeping a schedule.  With weddings and working different schedules, keeping things the same for Maya has been a little rough. 

Sometimes I think we just can't go too long without having something new and "exciting" in life.  We are going to take it easy for a while now.  Our family is complete for now.  Our puppies are our kids, and we love them to death.  I think we are also going to tone it down on the house projects for now.  We have a few smaller things we want to do, but we will be back at it this spring out in the yard.  We have our battle plan for the spring, now let's hope we have the funds to attack our master plan.

Recipe Wednesday!

Do you ever get sick of eating the same old thing over and over again?  I know I have, so last weekend while making the grocery list I set out to come up with two new recipes to try this week.  I generally only make one to two meals per week and they last the whole week.  I tell myself this leaves time for other things, like baking, but that never happens.  Although, in my defense I did just finish making sugar cookie dough to make some delicious cookies tomorrow night. 

So far this week, I have only made one of the two recipes I picked out, so I am going to share that one with your guys.  This was super easy to make and really delicious.  I will definitely be making this one again!  I don't know how I ever planned a meal without Pinterest because it seems that most of our meals are coming from there lately.  Although, I find it funny when there are things on there that my family has been making for years.   

Taco Pizza



• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 envelope taco seasoning mix
• 2 (8 oz.) cans Pillsbury crescent rolls
• 1 (16 oz.) can refried beans (I used the jalapeño kind)
• 2-3 cups shredded cheddar cheese or Mexican blend
• 1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
• 1/4 cup sliced black olives
• 4 green onions, chopped

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Brown ground beef and drain. Add taco seasoning to the ground beef according to the package directions.
3. Unroll crescent rolls into rectangles. Place in ungreased 11 1/2 inch x 16 1/2 inch jelly roll pan or cookie sheet. Press dough over the bottom and 1/2 inch up sides to form crust.  Bake at 375 oven for 11 to 13 minutes or just until golden brown.
4. Microwave beans in a microwave safe bowl for 1 minute.  Carefully spread beans over warm crust creating a thin layer.
5. Top with cooked beef mixture, sprinkle with cheese followed by tomatoes, black olives and green onion.  Return to oven for 3-6 more minutes until cheese is melted.  Serve immediately.  Makes 12 main dish servings or 48 appetizers

Like I mentioned at the start of this post, tomorrow night I am going to be making some yummy sugar cookies, just like I remember growing up!  Ahh the memories of sneaking dough out of the fridge while it was chilling and my mom was in the other room.  I used to try and fluff the dough up when I was done sticking my finger in it so my mom couldn't tell I had been eating it.  I'm pretty sure she caught on. 

A Puppy Update!

Holy cow, it has been longer than I thought since I blogged.  Sorry about that, things have been a little crazy.  I know it's a sorry excuse, but it is mine. 

This past weekend, we actually had the weekend off from wedding world.  We have one last big wedding this weekend and then we are off until the first weekend in December when we have one wedding left for the season.  The wedding this weekend was supposed to be in outside wedding, but I don't think that is going to happen seeing as winter is going to rear its ugly head before the weekend. 

Some of you are probably wondering how Maya is doing, and Buddy too!  Maya is doing well.  She had her first round of puppy shots last week, and that went well.  She had some yeast in her ears that we are giving her some ear drops for.  She isn't a fan of the ear drops at all, and when Buddy sees them come out he runs and hides.  Maya is doing well with potty training.  We have a few accidents here and there and we still have some excited tinkle, but we are working on it.  We also found out that she does have some mild roundworm issues going on, so we also had to put her on medication for that.  Andrew went to pick up her meds last week and discovered that two pills cost $15, he wasn't thrilled about that.  We still need to get her spayed, which we will be doing before the end of the year.  Right now, she seems really expensive, but most of that is just the start up costs, we had the same things with Buddy.  As for Maya and Buddy, they seem to be getting along pretty well.  We had a few skirmishes to start with, but I think that is improving with time.  They are both establishing their boundaries within the house.  Right now, I feel like I am washing blankets a lot because of the occasional leak from Maya.  Is potty training this frustrating?  It feels like it will never end, but I know it will.  Good practice for kids, right?  

Battle of the Bulge

I know I can't be the only one out there that fights with their weight.  I lost about 25-30 lbs for the wedding last year and now it is back.  Admittedly because I don’t have a purpose for keeping the weight off, I don't try too hard.  I hate working out.  I get bored easily.  I was doing a Zumba class on Friday mornings at work, but then a meeting was scheduled at work every Friday morning for six months, and Zumba went out the window.  I tried working out with a friend from work and then we kind of got off track with that.  My hip started hurting and then my shoulder started hurting.  I was a hot mess.  Needless to say, I haven't been working out and the weight has been finding its way back to me. 

I have cycled through about 3 different clothing sizes and have about four pairs of pants right now that fit.  My jeans are just frustrating.  I don’t think any of them look good.  They squeeze me in places I don’t want to be squeezed or make me look like a stuffed sausage.  While we were on vacation last month, we stopped into a jeans outlet.  What a joke that was, Andrew saw my true shopping colors come out.  I was annoyed from the get go because this store was advertising that they had a new re-designed line that was supposed to fit women better... lies.  Better fit by rear.  First of all, since when do size 0 women have any curves?  Why were the only "very curvy" jeans in sizes 0-8?  No one with those sizes should be wearing anything called "very curvy".  Sorry for those of you reading this that fall into these categories.  I don't mean to offend you, I'm simply expressing my frustrations. 

Prime example here  A friend of mine recently went to buy  a pair of Spanx to wear under a dress for a wedding.  Now, the whole premise of Spanx is to contain things that need to be contained.  The women that are wearing them obviously already think they have something to contain.  The problem I have with Spanx is the sizing on them.  At first, my friend purchased a pair that was for a person about twice her weight... they were too tight.  She ended up with a pair meant for someone three times her size.  How does this help a woman who already thinks she needs Spanx with their body image now really?  It doesn't.  It makes it worse.  What is wrong with these people making these things?

Now for my additional frustrations.  I have an interview on Friday and nothing to wear.  I have a suit that I wore when I interviewed at Principal and now it doesn't fit, sadness.  I think that means I am going to have to go out tomorrow night and buy something to wear.  That makes me mad because it means my lack of working out is going to cost me money to buy some new clothes, but if it means a new job I will do it!    

And Then There Were 4...

Did I fool you, did you think I was talking about a baby?  Sorry to disappoint kids, no bun in the oven in this casa.  As you know from my previous posts, Andrew and I have been looking for a Buddy for Buddy!  This past week I happened upon a litter of oops lemon beagles.  This woman lives on a farm and has a lemon male beagle and a female tri colored beagle.  She was set to have the female fixed this spring but when spring hit early, she went into heat and she couldn’t get her fixed and she got pregnant.  Very much an oops litter, the mom is now set to be spayed shortly.  Normally, I support adoption from a shelter and I do not support breeder puppies, but this was not a breeder situation.  This woman also has a couple of old horses she is taking care of that she can’t ride, but doesn’t have the heart to put down. I could tell from speaking with her she just has a total love of animals, and that I could get on board with.   She wasn’t selling this litter of puppies to make money.  So, on Sunday afternoon, Buddy got a new friend! 

 

 

Introducing Maya!  Maya is an 18 week old lemon beagle (just like Buddy).  Maya and Buddy run around in the yard together and it is just so stinking cute.  Maya is still a little wiggle worm because she is a puppy, so there are times Buddy doesn’t know what to think of her.  He is adapting to sharing his toys, sometimes his bed, and his humans.  Maya is doing pretty well with housetraining.  So far we have only had one potty accident in the house and that was the first day home.  Maya can be a little skittish.  Everything is new to her, but Buddy is doing a good job of showing her the ropes.  Our home is complete now for a while until we decide to add another human to the mix, but that is going to be a while.  Buddy and Maya are our kids for now. 

 

On another note, while I was at Target last night getting a couple of things for the kiddos, I came across this…

 

 

 

Does anyone else have a problem with the Christmas cards and Santa being next to the Halloween signs.  There were skeletons and angels next to each other and I wasn’t having it.  What about Thanksgiving?  Are we just totally skipping over that now?  We are going straight from Halloween to Christmas?  I’m disgusted, can you tell?  

TGIF

Have you ever had a week at work where every day you just wanted to get up and walk out but you forced yourself to stay because you know if you can't you can't pay the bills?  Yeah, that has been my week.  Anything that could go wrong did go wrong at work this week, at least that is what it felt like.  I feel like there are some "characters" at work and I have a feeling there are others that have the same type of "characters".  From speaking with people in other jobs, I think there are the same problem children everywhere.  We have the one who can't seem to show up to work to save their life yet haven't been fired yet.  Of course the response from management is always the same, "perhaps you should address your concerns with this person" or, "we don’t have specifics".  Then there are the people that are at work but aren't really "present".  I love these people just about as much as the ones that just don’t show up because they get just about as much done.  My favorite management response when these slackers are brought up is "it will be reflected in their end of the year review."  Yeah, ok you do that, you address it with them.  I'm sure I will still see them the next day doing the same thing.  Yeah, they may not get a pay increase, or they may get one that is more of a slap in the face than anything else, but the point is that they continue the behavior so the "discussion" they had with management didn't really address the problem. 

Then, you have the butt kissers, and they just drive me insane.  Alright, some might think that I seem to play this role at work, but I like to think of myself more as a pot stirrer.  If there is a problem, I'm not just going to let it go.  Problems don't get solved when they aren't addressed.  I'm sure sometimes people just wish I would keep quiet, but I just don’t feel like I can do that on some issues. 

And what is with the rude workplace behaviors.  Some days I feel like I am in a three ring circus.  We have the person that is notorious for making personal calls at their desk. I am ok if this is a once in a while thing, but I'm talking every day here folks, like I can set my watch by it consistent.  I think that seems a little excessive.  I don't need to hear about the loads of laundry you did last night or what you had for dinner.  I don't need to know about your cousins, boyfriends drinking problem.  I don’t need to know about your plans for Christmas or that you think your brother is worthless.  Also in earshot of my desk at work is the guy that just sounds like a jerk from the minute he gets on the phone.  I'm sorry but if you are just going to be rude all the time and answer the phone like someone in always interrupting world peace negotiations, a customer service job may not be the job for you.  And how no one has said anything to this person is beyond me.  I have lost track of how many times I have heard calls put to our supervisors because of his attitude.  A few spots up from my desk we have captain loudmouth.  He really needs to just go be some kind of sports announcer or be on the radio, but seriously he is loud.  There are times when all of the above mentioned people are on the phone at the same time and I just have to stop and wait for them to stop talking so I can actually think or hear the person I am talking to on the phone.  Oh and then we have my other personal favorite, the manager, yes I said manager, who sits at their desk making hair appointments and nail appointments.  I also get to overhear people’s discussions with said manager and possible disciplinary actions.  None of this seems appropriate to me, does it to you?   

All this in combination with a few sorted pain in the butt people that no matter how many times you tell them something they don’t want to hear, they aren't going to listen, created a pretty terrible week.

Now, tomorrow, we have a wedding.  Said wedding is in the middle of a field.  If anyone in this lovely state has been paying attention to the forecast this week, you know that we are due for some pretty strong storms tomorrow.  Oh what fun this could be.  Me, in a barn, in the middle of a field, with a tornado.  I know what you all are thinking now; this is going to make for an interesting story next week.  Why yes it will, if everything goes like the forecast says it will, but we all know how accurate those can be.  So, for tonight I will leave you with a picture of Buddy who got some new winter gear this week!

Did You Think I Disappeared?

I thought I disappeared.  I'm not quite sure where the last week or so went.  I don't even know the last time I posted on here.  A week ago, I went to a lecture on business ethics with my mom.  I learned a lot, but it also made me question a lot about the ethical practices of big business. 

Last week/end was a bit insane.  I was on the go with wedding stuff all weekend.  Friday night I worked for a few hours after work getting flowers ready for our wedding in Dubuque on Saturday.  Saturday morning we were on the road at 5AM.  We worked about 12 hours straight setting up the wedding reception and ceremony and then we were back on the road to Des Moines while some of the crew stayed in Dubuque to finish out the night and do tear down.  At 11 PM we had some rentals to take down and I had to finish my florals for the bridal show in Ames.  With the rental pick up, I didn't get to bed until about 2AM, and was up again about 2 1/2 hours later.  We had a bridal show in Ames on Sunday.  I was pretty pumped to talk to some brides who had so new ideas.  No offense if you are reading this and you are planning a wedding and you colors fall into the following categories, but there are some things with weddings I just getting burned out on. 

Gray and yellow is something we have done a couple times this year.  I like it, but I have never been in love with it.  The problem with yellow and gray is that is limits my floral options.  Black and white or black and red.  I have just really had enough of those combos as this point.  I would like to do an all red wedding, any takers?  The other one, and this pains me to say this, is pink and specifically pale pink.  Use some vibrant colors here people.  Now the final color that I just feel like we have seen a TON of this year is purple, every shade of purple.  After the first couple I had seen enough purple for quite a while.  Luckily, I think we might actually be winding down on the purples.  Alright, so who has any new ideas?  I talked to a couple of brides on Sunday that are using turquoise. I was pumped to hear that! 

So, in an attempt to get people on board with something "new" and "different" I made a crazy arrangement for Sunday's bridal show.  I have been looking at these feathers in our design space all year and I wanted to do something with them.  I used some leftover white roses and some white orchids we brought back from Saturday's wedding. 

After much discussion about wedding colors and design concepts, I think I have come to a conclusion about people and their approach to their weddings.  Why are so many people afraid to take a risk, do something different with their wedding?  While there is something to be said about "tradition", I think you can also combine tradition with something a little different maybe even something edgy.  A wedding should show the style of the couple, it should be something that is custom for the couple, not a cookie cutter wedding.  Too many times, people have pictures and want something exactly like the picture.  While that is fine, and it is great to know what you want, there should also be some leeway for designer interpretation, please. 

I know you can't really see in the photo, but I did a couple of boutonnieres with buttons.  They were super fun and way different than anything we have done this year.  I hope someone wants one this next year.  That is it for my schpeal for now. 

Here are a couple more photos from the bridal show.

If you know someone getting married, pass my information along.  I would love to do their flowers. 

What Will Save My Back

About a month ago, a friend at work was talking to me about a device she ordered called the Backjoy.  I thought she might have lost her mind, but when she got and brought it to work she said it really helped her back.  Here are a couple of pictures for you to check out so you know what I am talking about.

Looks a little weird, right?  Last Friday my friend was gone for the day at work so I swiped her Backjoy and took it for a test run.  My back was hurting, so I thought what do I have to lose?  As soon as I sat down on this bad boy I could tell a difference in how my back felt.  Going into this experiment my back and my hip were really hurting.  The last time I had a massage, my massage therapist told me that my hip was slightly elevated.  After a full day of using the Backjoy, my back felt AMAZING. 

The Backjoy claims to relieve neck pain, low back pain and tail bone pain.  It also says it will increase blood flow and circulation, engage your core muscles and help you breathe better.  At this point, I can only attest to the decreased back pain and hip pain, but I will keep you posted if I notice other differences. 

This bad boy runs $40 on Amazon.  If you are an Amazon Prime member, you also get free shipping.  I was able to score it online this past weekend for 20% off!  Today I ran into another coworker who said she also purchased a Backjoy.  I really think they should purchase these for all of us at work because the chairs at work kind of stink.  When you sit on your butt most of the day, wouldn't it make sense to have a chair that doesn't kill your back?  Would this not eliminate some issues with medical claims and lost time at work for back pain?  Admittedly, I have terrible posture both at work and at home.  I doubt I am alone in that, and I'm sure that doesn't help my back pain.  But, I hope my Backjoy can correct all that.  I will keep you posted.  

I’m off to watch the presidential debates.  Lets see how this goes.  Does anyone get the sense that this could get ugly?  

Favorite Fall Foods

As I mentioned before in my post about all the things I love about fall, tonight I get to post about a couple of those.  Last weekend Andrew and I took a trip down to the farmers market and picked up a couple of things.  I bought some zucchini to make another round of chocolate zucchini bread.  I also enjoyed my first honeycrisp apple of the season, which I discovered Buddy enjoyed as well.

Tonight, I made myself some butternut squash.  The first of many more to come this season.  It is so easy to make and I love sitting down with half of it for dinner.  Andrew hates almost all squash, but his loss in my gain!  Buddy and I enjoyed our first taste of squash. 

Here is how I fix my squash:

Cut the squash in half, in the cavity put a dollop of butter and a hand full of marshmallows.  Place both halves in a 9x13 pan, place an inch or two of water in the bottom of the pan, cover with foil and bake at 350 for an hour.  Remove and enjoy!

Tomorrow night I am headed out to a craft show, so I will have to share my purchases with you later.  I am pretty excited to pick up some new decorations for the house and possibly some other fun things!  

Recipe Wednesday

Today I'm going to post another recipe from our family recipe book.  I grew up on this recipe, it is my favorite.  Come to find out when searching online tonight, my mom isn't the only one that makes it.  That was kind of a bummer, but I will go on thinking it was my mom's exclusive recipe!

Cheesy Hashbrown Casserole

Click on the title and it will take you to another blog I found this recipe on, but I will post it here too for ease. 

2 lb bag of hashbrown potatoes, thawed

2 Cups of Sour Cream (large container)

1 stick of Butter, melted

1 can Cream of Chicken soup

2 Cups shredded Cheddar Cheese

1/4 tsp. Pepper

2 T. minced Onion

1 tsp. salt

For the topping

1 stick Butter, melted

2 Cups crushed cornflakes

Mix all ingredients for the casserole except for ingredients listed for the topping in a large mixing bowl.  Place in a greased 9x13 pan

Mix crushed cornflakes and butter in a small bowl and spread across the top of the casserole.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

ENJOY!!!