Question?

Anybody out there live near Cincinnati, OH?

Particularly the Westchester area?

We have family friends that just moved there and I mentioned to them that hey, maybe M and I would pack up and move there too if I could find a job.

A completely joke type statement. And they said why not?

So now we are browsing in that area. I don't want to say looking because that would make this serious and I don't know if it's at that level yet.

Just something to pray about.

With August starting and still no word on a job anywhere, I can feel the worry forming in my heart. I want to keep relying on the Lord and not let that feeling overtake me.

So anybody out there in Ohio have any helpful information for me?

Penne Alfredo with Bacon and Broccoli

Here's another AMAZING recipe for you to add to your back pocket!

I'm talking serious yum!! And pretty simple! And it lasts for a very long time. As in I made this Tuesday and we are just now finishing the leftovers!! I love when meals(that are good) provide lots of leftovers!

I first found this on pinterest! What, you're surprised?

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Penne Alfredo with Bacon and Broccoli

•1 pound penne pasta

•2 cups chopped broccoli (about 2 head) 
•5 slices bacon, diced

•1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
•1 cup heavy cream

•1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan cheese (not the powdery kind!)

•1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

•salt and pepper, to taste

•grilled chicken (optional) *Totally marinated mine in Italian dressing before grilling..yum*

Bring a large stock pot of water to a rolling boil. Boil pasta according to package directions.

While the pasta is boiling, fry the diced bacon until crisp. Add in the broccoli florets and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes or until they are tender-crisp.

Meanwhile, in a small sauce pan, add the butter and heavy cream until heated through and butter is melted. Add in the Parmesan cheese, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Stir until the cheese is thoroughly melted and sauce is a smooth, creamy consistency.

Drain pasta when done and add to a large serving bowl. Pour in the bacon and broccoli and toss it in with the penne. Pour the Alfredo sauce over top of the penne and stir until well combined.

Serve topped with sliced grilled chicken, if desired.

Recipe straight from Buns in my Oven

*I only used 1 head and it was still enough to get some in every bite*

*I swear by my Cutco scissors, so much easier than trying to cut raw bacon*

 

Doesn't that just look so delicious?

A little steam from the pasta never hurt a camara!

Sheer perfection in my tummy!

*Totally marinated my chicken in Italian dressing before grilling..yum*

And again I realize my pictures don't compare to the fabulous Karly but when ya camera is broke and all you have is the iphone, you have to make do! It's like making lemonade out of lemons...(hint hint M--I need a fancy shmancy camera so that I can take pictures of food! Ok?)

You should already be clicking over to her blog to print this recipe and then put in on the menu for this week. It's that good. I actually want to make it again this week. But wait that's why I did this in the first place, so that we could try new things instead of the same ol boring things every week. Wait, why are you still here? I told you to GO!!!

*I promise my chevron art piece is coming. I haven't had time to sit down and type up a post and I definitely want to give you all a good tutorial so hang on!!

Quick change of space

See that mess there? That's what my entryway looks like. And see that white rolling cart? Well that is actually clean compared to what it was last week when I was busy making cards and throwing stuff on there!

I was having serious anxiety about this space because it was cluttered and basically becoming a junk collector. Case in point-my husbands weights that he huuughm never uses. I mean he uses them every day!

It was time to get organized. I had this white bookshelf from my classroom & since I don't have a classroom this fall to house it I thought I could make use of it in this tiny space.

Ahh much better! I even had room to make the top shelf my Thirty-One paperwork place. Since before all of that stuff was lining the wall in my dining room. Ok don't go judging me with these two confessions I just gave you. I tend to have grand plans of keeping things clean & organized and then life and the hubby happen and things end up just piling up in places they don't belong. I certainly won't put all of the blame on the mr. Well actually he doesn't read this blog so yea it's all his fault :) Yea I can do that.

I had some baskets left over from my classroom too that I used to corral all of my odds and ends. I love that the white cart fits perfectly next to it so that I don't have to find a place for it and I can still use it as a mobile craft unit!

And now 1 more time for effect!

Before:

After:

Yes I'm aware I'm a master horrible decent designer! No need to shower me with approval....ok actually if you want to you can. I love me some comments!


P.S. That chevron art piece will be having it's own blog post soon!

It's dinner time..

So yesterday for our stay-at-home anniversary dinner we had steak, roasted red potatoes, and baked asparagus!

For the steak, M just seasoned them with salt, pepper, & garlic salt. We are simplists here, no fancy marinade for us. (Or that could be because M refused to buy any seasoning at the grocery store because he thinks the prices are outrageous.)

The potatoes were so simple and so yummy!

I forgot to take step by step pictures. Sorry!

I used red potatoes and sliced up about 5 or 6 depending on the size of them. Then I threw them in a bowl and used about all of the seasonings in my cupboard.

Pour a teeny tiny bit of EVOliveOil.

Dash of salt

Dash of pepper

Dash of italian seasoning

Dash of garlic salt

Dash of crushed red peppers

Dash of basil

and because I was feeling spicy..

Dash of cajun seasoning

Shake the bowl. A lot.

Grease up a cookie sheet and spread the potatoes in a single layer. Cook at 375 for about 25-30 minutes. Try flipping the potatoes every 10 minutes or so. Or at least move them around on the sheet.

I love the kind of potatoes that doesnt involve a huge pot, a masher, & my weak arm muscles.

For the baked asparagus..

Rinse in cold water and break of the ends. They will be somewhat brownish-red and oddly enough it will pretty much break at the perfect place every time!

Toss those babies in a ziploc bag and put in about 1 tsp of EVOliveOil.

Shake bag like crazy! I'm sensing a shaking theme for this dinner!

Lay them all out on a cookie sheet. (No need for greasing this one) Shake some salt and pepper on them. Bake at 375 for about 15-20 minutes. You want them to be tender but not flimsy. Make sense?

Don't these look delish?!?

And of course pour yourself some riesling to enjoy with your stay at home anniversary dinner! (The riesling that you send the hubby to get at the last minute when you realize all you have is water, milk, and chocolate wine that certainly won't taste good with steak & salt!)

Indulge in some chocolate lovers ice cream afterwards! And I'd call that a success!

Happy Anniversary

Today is my 2 year wedding anniversary with the mister!

We are sticking to our budget and staying in for some steaks and roasted potatoes, with crescent wrapped asparagus! YUM!

Thank you for all of the new blog name ideas! Keep them coming & I'll keep sending the math mania freebie!

Not much to write today...we lost power for a bit thanks to a long overdue thunderstorm! (Side note-it downpoured during my outdoor wedding! My dad was soaking wet! Now I can look back and smile, but then not so much!)

I'll leave you with some pictures...and by some I mean grab a cold beverage, you're gonna be here awhile!

My dad started me off & my step-dad met half way and they both walked me the rest of the isle.

Our mama's wore the same dress in different colors. OOPS!

*Note--this is my dad, soaking wet.

rain? rain? & a whole lot more rain?

Cleared up as soon as we kissed!

My grandparents that raised me!

My family

M's family

Loved our cake!

Yea, I went for it!

My family-Dad side

It's a running joke that my sis & I have a dance face. It's clear that the hubby will fit in just fine since he rocks the dance face too!

My grammy & best cousin. Seriously I think we provided a lot of the gray hair on my grammy's head!

My little sister who refused to take a happy pictures all day. Finally she gave in.

Of course we did the train!



Little Miss G wanted M to dance with only her. They are seriously best buddies.

A whole lotta random & a math freebie

My week of food kind of flopped after well, Tuesday? I'd love to say life just got busy. But that would be lying and I'm not a liar. That's pretty much what happens every week. I plan out our meals and by Wednesday I don't feel like cooking and just wing it. Which usually consists of my husband twisting my arm to order out. (doesn't take much twisting...see said I can't lie)

So two meals that were meant for last week are now planned for Monday & Tuesday of this week. Seeing as how my track record goes, I figured I could get them accomplished on the 2 days I actually feel like cooking.

Next topic. It's HOT here!!! I have no air conditioner and my house is old. Very old. So if it's 90 degrees outside, it's about 125 degrees inside. I'm not joking. I'm not lying either, remember I don't lie!) Thankfully M convinced his parents to loan us their unopened, unused ac unit for a bit. Yes you read that right. It's over 100 degrees and they have an ac just hanging out in their house, still in the box. I can't even find a floor display fan to purchase at Walmart! It's like the fanageddon!! No fans anywhere! The hubby slept in the basement because it's no joke 30-40 degrees cooler down there. I decided to fight the heat and stay in my comfy decent bed with 2 fans on full blast rather than sleep in the spider filled basement. Sorry honey, no convincing me otherwise on that one!!

I have some fun little crafts that I've been working on that I'm excited to share with you!

I've also been considering changing the name of my blog. Since I don't teach 1st grade, well any grade right now, I want to change it up. As of right now I won't be teaching in the fall so I'll probably be posting about topics that don't always focus on strictly teaching. Wait who am I kididng, I already do that! Sorry followers that I'm not faithful to just school things! When I started this blog I thought it would only be about school. Well now that I love it and am constantly finding inspiration, it seems I am venturing out and bloggin about other fun things too. Hope you don't mind!

Now I need your advice! What do you think I should rename my blog?? I want to keep it relatively school themed since I'm praying the Lord will provide a job but I don't want to be grade specific. Silly me for doing that in the first place! So here's how you can earn a math freebie! Since I know you are all like WHAT is this lady rambling on about?!!?

Thanks to those who are even still reading this! You're the best!

This is a sheet that I do throughout the school year. I just keep stapling the sheets together so that I can whip this out to show parents or special ed. teachers. It really helps my kiddos learn their basic addition facts and is a great motivator! They alllll want to get a higher score each time they do it. Sometimes I time them and other times I let them work until they are done.

If you would like this math mania activity, leave me a comment with a new blog name idea and your email address. Then I will send it out within 24 hours of your commenting! Seriously hold me to that! I won't hate ya for emailing me since perhaps, I've heard, that maybe I am one to easily lose track of time and don't send things out as soon as I say I will. No lying here remember!!

I love comments. I get giddy when it pops up on my iphone! Like gotta stop what I'm doing and check those bad boys out! Then I smile all big and make the hubby aware that people actually read my stuff! He rolls his eyes and ignores me. Then I repeat the process the next time a comment comes in! Yea, I'm weird. It's ok..I'm aware of it.

 What a long post about a whole lot of nothing! Can't wait to hear what ya'll think I should rename this blog! No recommendation will be left out of consideration! Or if you just want to say hey, I'll probably send you the math mania sheet just for saying hey. I like comments that much. You don't even have to follow the rules and I'll give ya the freebie. But that doesn't mean you should break the rules!!!

Ok enough. I'll put a sock in it now!

I promise I'm not as crazy as this monster!

Loaded Chicken & Potato Skillet

Today I tried out a loaded chicken & potato skillet recipe.

Let me tell you what.....YUM! It was so delish!

I of course found this little tasty thang on pinterest.

And of course it was originally from my favorite foodie blog.

I failed to take pictures of the process, so I'll be directing you to Mrs. Carroll for that part.

But I will tell ya where I added and didn't.

I didn't put any onions in mine. ICCCCK. The hubs & I are not fans of onions. Even if my mother in law thinks I should add them for flavor and then pick around them. No ma'am!

I also did not put in a yellow pepper. This is just my mistake, I forgot to get one at the grocery store!

My chicken was not as grilled as Mrs. Carrolls. M was home and starving after a round of golf in 90 degree heat, so I called the chicken good and didn't wait for it to grill. Still good though.

I added colby/monterrey jack cheese instead of just monterrey. I couldn't find just plain monterrey cheese that fit into my budget and ya'll know how small my grocery budget is so I just picked up a bag of mixed cheese. And believe me....it didn't make one bit of difference! Not that I've ever had my favorite foodie blogs version, so don't have anything to compare it to. But I'm saying it was fine!

So without further ado, here is my finished piece...

And here is Mrs. Carroll's version...



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Notice her grilled chicken? Next time I'll have more patience and have mine looking like this. But for now mine will have to do and M says that this has to make its way to the dinner menu frequently!


On a side note...the homemade oreo cookies were a HUGE hit! M said never to make them again because he will have to purchase the next pant size up if I do. And the in-laws had these babies gone almost before dinner was served! I call that a success!

Homemade Oreo Cookies

Get ready for a week of food!

I have grand plans to attempt some fancy meals I've been finding on pinterest and one of my favorite foodie blogs. I even went so far as to actually buy all of the ingredients! Now that's planning! I just recently switched over to grocery shopping every week in an effort to eat healthier and fresher. This new goal is very difficult, oddly enough, to keep under our budget. (use to be $100 for every 2 weeks, now it's $50 for every week) Don't know why it's harder to hit that goal now that I go every week, maybe I just need to rethink my planning and get used to only getting what I need for 1 week instead of 2.

I digress...back to the topic here. I know I have you all waiting to see just how awesome decent these homemade oreo's are. Now in most cases, people would show you the insperation picture first. Well....I'm not that gal today. I can't have you all thinking what a complete failure mine are compared to the awesomness known as Mrs. Carroll over at that favorite foodie blog of mine.

Ok there is the amazing blog that I love. But seriously do not click over there until the end of this post so you don't go comparing me to her. Cuz I just won't make the cut!

This is the final product. Serious...YUM! Perhaps...not the most appealing to look at!

This is my batter after oh about 10 minutes of mixing. Yes you read that correctly. 10 MINUTES PEOPLE! This is some crazy thick batter because you do not put any water in it. Therefore you should plan on skipping the gym this day and just get all your arm excercises in while mixing this batter!

Make sure to stop every few minutes and fold the batter over with a spatula so you don't miss any of the mix! Can't have dry mix pieces in our ooooey--goooey cookies!

Plan on doing this step a lot. Holy moly does this make a lot of cookies. I rotated 2 cookie sheets and I think I did a total of 6 or 7 times in the oven.

The filling is delish!!! However, here is where I went oh so wrong. As you will see from the amazing Mrs. Carroll's picture, her filling and my filling look absolutely NOTHING alike! What did I do wrong? Not sure...I used some tub butter instead of a stick, since I didn't have a stick. Maybe that was my downfall. Either way hers look like whipped actual Orea yummy filling. Mine looks like the thicker, knockoff version of melted butter. Hmmm, Mrs. Carroll..if you're reading this, tell me what's a girl gotta do to get mine looking as yumtastic as yours?

And here they are next to my pretty orange flowers. I have an entire plate more of these. Remember, I said it makes a whole lot of cookies!! I'm taking these to my in-laws for a cookout today (if my hubby doesn't finish them all first) Hopefully they are not a complete flop!

Now are you ready to be much more awed and amazed?

Here are the pictures from when my favorite foodie blog made hers...

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Yea, let's not make any funny comments, ok? My new little, domestic heart can't take it :)

All joking aside...do not make these if you plan on dieting. I told ya I wanted to eat healthier & fresher, then I go and make these!! See what pinterest does to me?!