...CREATING A PICTURE/MEMORY WALL.

I have good news AND bad news. The good news-the bedroom is nearly decorated!! Ryan has to hang up a shelf and a lantern for me and I have to wait for new candles to come in the mail and it will be complete!! Yay!! The bad news-I am embarking on a new interior design project. I am going to begin a picture/memory wall in my living room. I am OBSESSED with the different variety of these and have always wanted to create one..and so it begins.

The spot in my living room I am going to start this is literally dead space. There is nothing on this wall and it is such an awkward shape in the living room..perfect for this project.

I have started collecting things to frame and gathering pictures to include. So far, I have a perfect picture of Brody, Ryan and I, and the girls (kind of). Also, I have sentimental/memory type things from my grandparents as well as one set of Ryan's grandparents. Also, the family pictures we just got taken will be included. Some of them turned out really neat.

From my maternal grandparents,I have hand-written letters I am going to frame. They spent their winters in Texas and would write us
grandkids letters constantly. I eventually started to save these letters but never thought I would do anything with them. This is the perfect opportunity. They are so neat and perfectly written..they will be awesome in a frame and something neat to look at and remember.

As for my other Grandma, I have gotten a bookmark that is embroidered. She is THE QUEEN of reading but has become so hip she now reads off of a kindle so doesn't have the need for it. It is a bookmark she has always used and it says "grandma" on it. It is so neat. Because of its odd shape, I think I will have to use a piece of paper behind it or place it in a matted? frame. It is really neat and something I will definitely keep forever! So happy to have it.

Lastly, I will frame an envelope from Ryan's maternal grandparents. They are ALWAYS sending us cards for no real reason except to be nice and his grandma is so funny..she will write the strangest things on her envelopes. One time, she addressed the card to "Car" which stands for Curt, Ryan, Audrie. :) Isn't that cute? So when we receive a card in the mail, I always know it is from her...so framing one of the envelopes is perfect!

So, wish my luck on my new journey!! I will post a picture when the project is complete..it may be awhile!!

...FINALLY GIVING UP MY MONSTER COOKIE RECIPE :)

As most of you know, I love to bake cookies!! I DO make them from scratch and "monster cookies" are Ryan's absolute fav. They take a lot of time and effort and I don't even like them, but since everybody loves them so much, I enjoy making them.

Well, after promising a friend I would make them with her and instead making them with someone else spur of the moment (sorry :(), I felt guilty and decided I would post the recipe online..finally :) I have not shared this with ANYONE so my readers are the luckiest people on the planet haha. Enjoy!

Just as a warning..this recipe makes about 3 dozen cookies..I have never tried to cut it down as I've heard you're not supposed to attempt that. So, if you make them, be ready to share with friends!

Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 cup sugar
dash of salt
2 tsp baking soda
1tsp vanilla extract
1 stick of butter
12-16 oz peanut butter (depends on how pbuttery you like them)
4 1/2 cups oatmeal
1/2 cup m&ms
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
1/2 cup nuts (optional)
Parchment paper to line cookie sheet with

Preheat oven to 350 and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Make sure it doesn't hang off the edges because it will catch on fire!
Combine eggs and sugars in a large bowl until pasty. Add salt, vanilla, and peanut butter. Mix well. Add in butter. Then, add in the m&m's, raisins, and chocolate chips. Mix well and add baking soda. Once all of these ingredients are mixed together well, you should have a very thick, caramel looking paste. Then, a cup or two at a time, add oatmeal. It will become VERY hard to stir and it might seem like you're adding too much but its ok!
Add batter in ice cream scoop sizes to lined cookie sheet. Leave plenty of room for them to expand. Cook 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. After one batch comes out, I slide the parchment paper off the sheet, and add a new one. Then, once the cookies cool from the first batch, you can reuse the parchment paper again for the next and continue that cycle with only two pieces.

There you have it folks, my famous cookie recipe :)

...PROUD OF MYSELF :)

I am pretty proud of myself...I created my new blog header on my own!!! What do you all think?! Not bad, huh? I spent entirely too much time doing it and was ready to pull my hair out by the end, but when I finally added it to my page, I LOVED it!! Hope you all enjoy :)

...BLESSED TO HAVE SUCH A WONDERFUL FAMILY!!

This past Saturday we had family pictures. And by family pictures, I mean, FAMILY pictures...aaallll of the cousins! Crazy, huh? Over the winter we had talked about getting them done (all the cousins and Grams) but didn't want to set them up until late summer where it would be nicer out. Well, once summer rolled around, guess who was the lucky (very unlucky actually :)) one who got to be in charge? Yep, mwuah. Every.single.one. of my cousins are girls, so you can imagine trying to organize outfits, schedules, jewelery, a photographer to meet these crazy schedules, etc. Crazy!

BUT, I have good news for you all..we made it and it was a success!! In the end, everything worked out perfectly. Everybody made it on time, dressed in what they were supposed to be in, and the weather was perfect!! It was absolutely wonderful. There are 13 of us actual family members, not including husbands and boyfriends, so it was a miracle it worked out so well!! It was a success and I was VERY pleased and happy the hard work paid off.

After pictures, Grandma took everybody, extended family and all, out to dinner. We never ALL get together (even on holidays we arent all together in the same place, at the same time, usually) so it was fun and exciting!! Also, this day was not only family picture day, but also the 21st birthday of my cousin Kelli!!! With that, we decided to go to out for dinner since we would end up there anyway to celebrate her birthday...just seemed fitting. As we are all sitting there (taking up the entire place!) I told Grams I either needed a lot of alcohol or a nap after the stress of the pictures..she kind of laughed thinking I was kidding but I don't think she had any idea ;).

The second she walked out the door, we got our party on and celebrated Kelli's 21st birthday!! I'm not sure HERE was Kelli's idea for a good time on her birthday, but she was a good sport about it and what better way to spend your birthday than with your entire family?! All of us girls laughed, giggled, and enjoyed each others company throughout the night. We talked about old times/memories growing up, aunts, uncles, etc..so funny! By the end of the night though, it had dwindled down to only four of us!! Then, when the bar closed, we called it a wrap! We had done all the catching up, chatting, and celebrating necessary and had a good time doing it!

Kelli's birthday = success
family pictures = success
Grandma happy = success

Here are a few pictures from the evening...






















I just want to throw out there that that is NOT my voice you hear :) But this video makes me laugh because we were "toasting" to our "fallen" cousins..as in cousins that weren't with us later in the night! Funny.

I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful family full of cousins that I absolutely love to pieces and adore!! We all have such different personalities but are alike in so many ways. Getting together and having fun hasn't changed since we were little kids. I love every one of them!!



Next stop of the summer stress/planning...class reunion! Wish me luck :)

...STILL BLOGGING ABOUT THE GIRLS.

I actually forgot to include Dezi's trick in the last post about the girls, so I just made a new post. She is much smarter than Bella, in very different ways. She has more of a clue what is going on..at all times, where as Bella usually has no clue! But anyway, here is "music to my ears" as Curt calls her bark. They'll do anything for a little cheeeeeese!



ps-sorry about the image quality, not sure why it looks so yellow?

...SPENDING TIME WITH THE GIRLS.

The girls as in Bella and Dezi of course :)

Many of you already know that Bella knows several of her toys by name. She has LOTS of favorites but some are Patty, Hedgy, Lizzie, Stinky, Cupcake, and Ears. Often times, if I hide Patty, for instance, and keep asking her where Patty is, she will get so frustrated! She will walk through the house panting, almost in a frenzy looking for her toy! Other times, though, she will simply grab the closest toy in hopes I won't notice its not the toy I asked for.:) She doesn't know EVERY toy by name as they have so many but she sure does know quite a few! Such a smart little thing!

Here are a few videos of her picking out the toys I ask for.




I tried rearranging the toys to throw her off a little...


This is called "Well, what is next?!"
ps-I call her wooz (short for woozle) sometimes, so thats what you hear me say

This is called "I am tired of playing your games, mom!"

...FEEDING YOU ANOTHER COUNTRY SONG :)

In my own defense, I certainly do NOT listen to country all the time!! I know it probably seems that way since all my songs I've posted on here are country, but that is not the case. These just seem to "hit closer to home" per se.

Anyway, I've known the words to this song for awhile now but never really thought about it until I was bored and driving home. This poor guy, whom the song is about, has had it pretty rough and obviously my life, or probably none of yours, have been THIS hard but the idea is great. "This ain't nothing" is a phrase I should use more often! I get stressed out about absolutely everything and if I would learn to just -stop- for a second, I would realize most of the time "this aint nothing".

Craig Morgan
"This Ain't Nothing"

He was standing in the rubble of an old farmhouse outside Birmingham
When some on the scene reporter stuck a camera in the face of that old man
He said "tell the folks please mister, what are you gonna do
now that this twister has taken all that's dear to you"
The old man just smiled and said "boy let me tell you something, this ain't nothing"

He said I lost my daddy, when I was eight years old,
That cave-in at the Kincaid mine left a big old hole,
And I lost my baby brother, my best friend and my left hand
In a no win situation in a place called Vietnam
And last year I watched my loving wife, of fifty years waste away and die
And I held her hand til her heart of gold stopped pumping,
So this ain't nothin'

He said I learned at an early age,
There's things that matter and there's things that don't
So if you're waiting here for me to cry,
I hate to disappoint you boy, but I won't
Then he reached down in the rubble and picked up a photograph
Wiped the dirt off of it with the hand that he still had
He put it to his lips and said man she was something
But this ain't nothin'

He said I lost my daddy, when I was eight years old,
That cave-in at the Kincaid mine left a big old hole,
And I lost my baby brother, my best friend and my left hand
In a no win situation in a place called Vietnam
And last year I watched my loving wife, of fifty years waste away and die
We were holding hands when her heart of gold stopped pumping
So this ain't nothin'

This ain't nothin' time won't erase
And this ain't nothin' money can't replace
He said you sit and watch your loving wife fifty years fighting for her life
Then you hold her hand til her heart of gold stops pumping
Well Yeah boy that's something,
So this ain't nothin'
Yeah this ain't nothin'

...FORGETFUL.

I TOTALLY forgot that I had promised you all my opinion on the book "Not Without Hope" by Nick Schuyler. I happen to see he was on Oprah the other day and thought oh my gosh, I forgot to tell you all what I thought about it!

So, as you may recall, this book is about 4 football players who set out to sea one morning to go deep sea fishing and ended up in a tragic, deadly, accident. The weather started getting bad, one thing led to another, the boat overturned, and the four players soon found themselves in the middle of the ocean, fighting for their lives. After many hours--which turned to days, out at sea, 3 of the players died while one survived, Nick Schuyler.

So here goes...

The book, in general, is poorly written. It is very obvious that Nick Schuyler (possibly without an editor :S) wrote this himself. The sentences are choppy, words are spelled incorrectly, and thoughts seem random. Bouncing back and forth, it is sometimes hard to keep track of where he is going with the story. Also, there are MANY cuss words, a couple on each page.

The story though, is absolutely captivating. The fun times early on, to the tragic ending had my hooked. Perhaps though, it would be better as a Dateline special or something as opposed to a book? Either way, it was interesting.

After hearing/reading so much criticism and skepticism from others, I was a little unsure going into this book about what to expect. I can honestly say now, it is truly a miracle Nick Schuyler lived. Though his arrogance shines through each page and in all interviews, I have no doubt in my mind this was nothing but a tragic accident. Also something he will be haunted by his entire life, which is sad and leaves me feeling bad that I fed into the skeptics before reading the book.

All in all, I would never read this book again nor would I recommend it to a friend. The story is captivating but the book is not worth reading.


As always, a few memorable quotes:

"I am no hero. Maybe if I had brought my friends back with me. At least one of them . . . or all of them. But I didn't. I tried; I gave it everything I had, but I couldn't. I'm only a survivor"

"I think about that day, those horrible hours, all the time. The littlest thing puts me back out there: a stray thought, a glimpse of open water, a look from a stranger that says, "Aren't you that guy?" The accident trails me like the wake of Marquis's boat, churning, foaming, pushing toward the horizon of every day. Why me? Why did I make it when they did not"

...SUZY HOMEMAKER :)

Ryan's favorite food:

Spicy sausage and mushroom pizza

Ingredients:
1 roll/package of uncooked, spicy italian sausage
1 package of sliced portobello mushrooms
1 jar of pizza sauce
1 package of Jiffy Pizza Crust
4 cups of mozzarella cheese
garlic powder
oregano

1. First, prepare the pizza crust according to directions. This includes letting it sit for a few minutes, and then placing it on the pizza pan and baking it for a few minutes to ensure it cooks thoroughly.
2. Next, cook sausage...it is cooked just like ground hamburger. Ryan often adds red peppers to this for a little more kick--not my choice!
3. Once the first two steps are complete, spread your sauce onto the crust evenly.
4.After adding the sauce, sprinkle some garlic powder and oregano on top of it for even more flavor.
5.Then, add the sausage, uncooked portobello mushrooms, and top off with cheese.
6. Stick it in the oven on a low heat (usually around 350) until cheese is golden brown...voila!

There it is..Ryan's favorite food!

...BACK FROM OMAHA.

On Wednesday evening, I headed out to Omaha. My summer classes had ended the Friday before and with nothing to do and Ryan at work, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to spend some time with Brody!!

Wednesday evening we didn't do much. I got there around 6 and it was EXTREMELY hot that day and night so we decided staying home was the best plan. Travis had games we were going to go watch that evening originally but the heat index was still well above 100 even late in the evening! Luckily we didn't go anywhere because about an hour after I arrived, it started storming something terrible!! It got very windy, the satellite started coming in and out, and finally the power went out. After that excitement ended, we watched tv for a little bit and just hung out. Brody kept taking pictures with my cell phone of the cat (named Caesar) and saying "I cheese Ces" which I thought was so funny. Shortly after, we all decided to head to bed...we had a big day planned for Thursday!!

Thursday morning, Travis headed off to work and Sarah, Brody, and I all got ready for the day and took off. The first stop...the Children's Museum. Located in downtown Omaha, the Children's Museum is basically an exploratory/play zone for kids. It was so neat!! On the main level they have ball, water, art, and shopping zones. Upstairs, which they change frequently, was a Clifford The Big Red Dog zone. You have to pay a little extra to go upstairs but it was so worth it, Brody enjoyed this part the most! Also, the day we were there, happened to be a meet and greet which meant Clifford showed up to meet the kids..so neat.

After staying at the museum all morning, we met Travis for lunch. He works at Union Pacific which is very close to where we were, so it worked out perfectly. We all enjoyed lunch in the air conditioning! Then, Travis headed back to work, and Sarah, Brody, and I headed to the Old Market. I had heard a lot about this place from a friend but had never actually been. Basically, it is a bunch of little shops and speciality stores (along with restaurants) all located on brick roads. It is so neat!! We walked around there for awhile (Brody fell asleep in the stroller in no time) and bought a few random things and then headed back to the car.

Once we got home, we were all exhausted. It was a long, hot, day but so so much fun!! I loved seeing how much Brody grows and changes in such a short time..he is such a cute/smart little thing! I will definitely have to make more trips out there as time allows. Enjoy the pictures and videos!!

...THROWING IDEAS OUT THERE.

Moving from Iowa City (collge) back home definitely has its advantages and disadvantages. I could go on and on with the differences between the two, but one is definitely the more "liberal" way of living/ideas in a bigger city compared to a small town. For instance, in Iowa City, everybody and everything is "going green". Here, not so much. So, while I lived in Iowa City, I decided to jump on the bandwagon and buy the recycled bags..you know, the ones you take with you and have them put your groceries into instead of the typical "paper or plastic" type bag?

I will say, after 3+ years of using them....EVERYBODY should do this!! They are THE greatest thing, for several reasons.

1. First and most importantly, they are recycled material, being used for recycling. Doesn't get much better than that. The normal plastic bags we use can take up to 1000 years to "decompose" and even then, they are not actually biodegradable. So, just think of how many THOUSANDS of years worth of work you are making for the environment from one grocery trip.

2. I am not kidding you, they hold so so so much more than a typical plastic sack does. You know the cashier that puts your two vitamin waters in one sack and opens a new one to put a folder into, and then opens a new one to put deodorant into? Yeah, forget that! These things hold so much more and are so strong they can actually support it..without ripping and tearing and having cans fall everywhere as all your neighbors are watching :)

3. Third, and another great reason why I love them so much, is that you can use them for other things, not just groceries. When I used to travel back and forth from college to home I would pack my bathroom supplies into one of these, and the girls supplies into another. They are so versatile.

4. They fold up so easy (the bottoms of mine actually come up) and become so compact you don't even notice them in the backseat of your car or wherever you may keep them. At Kohl's I think it was, I saw some that folded up into a little square about the size of wallet.

5. They are cheap!! I bought mine in 2007 for 2 for $3. Now, I see them for a dollar or less..and in pink even!!

6. Lastly, if you keep them in your car, they work wonderfully as a way to tote in everything from your backseat that has piled up over the week :)

Here is a picture of mine. The color is not the greatest, I know this, but don't see any point in buying new ones when these have worked so wonderfully for so long.



So, next time you go to the store, just think about investing in some..for several reasons. I promise you, if you get used to using them, you will be happy with them!Plus, I think we pollute the environment enough driving our gas-guzzling vehicles on the way to the store :)

And just as a helpful reminder: when I cut coupons out, I keep them in our "going green" bags. That way, when I am ready to head to the store, I have my coupons AND my bags so neither are forgotten. Also, taking them right back out to the car as soon as you unload groceries is a great way to not forget them as well.