A very special Happy Birthday

Today is the first day of autumn and my sweet momma's birthday! Of course I have to do a quick shout out to the most amazing momma and friend anyone could ever ask for. I always wondered what those quotes were talking about when they said "my mother, my friend" or "if I didn't have you for a mom, I"d pick you for a friend." But as I get older and start living my "grown up life" I know exactly what they mean. Next to my husband, she is absolutely my best friend, my biggest cheerleader, and she definitely has my back, every. single. day. I want to be able to give to her and bless her like she has given and blessed me. She has sacrificed so much for me and I understand now how difficult it is to give up the things you want and provide for someone else's dreams. Even if it's someone you love with all your heart.  I know that now because I have trouble sacrificing myself for Steven and I know for a fact that I am not completely ready to give up things for a child. But she did, and does every single day. Such love! She has showed how to be a great wife and a great momma. She has taught me how to look at the big picture and to understand that bad things are rarely ever final or permanent, and if they are then there's a way to look on the bright side. She is the one I complain to, the one I celebrate with, the one I want to call to just see what she's up to, the one I want to go thrifting and antiquing with, and the best mother I could ever ask for. Happy birthday momma! I love you with all my heart!

 

 

 

Also, on another happy note, this is the first official day of Autumn! I am celebrating by sitting on our back porch and ejoying the first of many cups of apple cider.

 

 

 

This is by far my favorite season and I am very excited for cooler weather, bon fires, and random date nights with my love. I am also hoping to get back on the blogging wagon and have some special monthly posts (because let's face it, weekly posts just are not realistic right now.) But I hope everyone has a wonderful fall weekend! We have plans to go to the fair on this beautiful day!



Well, hello there!

Oh man, I just realized I haven't posted in... well, quite some time. Things have been bat shee cray around here!

Update:
We are officially Home owners! This means that we bought a house renovated it in two weeks and had all of our stuff moved in and sleeping there by the time school started. This was just the beginning my friends...

I am also officially a High school and middle school art teacher (Go me!) at a charter school on OKC. With this being said it has literally taken all of my free time for the past two weeks.

So 2 weeks of buying a house/renovating + 4 weeks of in service and school officially starting (these are overlapping mind you) + husband still being in a boot/crutches = no personal time whatsoever. I thought I was busy me senior year of college... ha! Ha, I say! I've only had two small breakdowns since school has started so I think I'm doing good. (We won't talk about how many breakdowns have happened during the whole house-capades)

I absolutely LOVE our house though! I will definitely be posting pictures later (if anyone still reads this thing!) And I'm still trying to determine how I feel about teaching. I'm going to be honest, I"m not very good at it. But I am trying to plan a whole lot during the day so this may be the first weekend I don't have to bring work home! (this is also why I am able to FINALLY update this little guy) It has taken so much more out of me than I had thought it would. Waking up at 5:40, being at school at 7:00 and not getting home until 6:00 ish is getting old, fo sho. But hopefully I will get better and I will know what I am doing one day... I did get to come home before 5:00 today, so that was exciting!

I am definitely ready for some times with friends and to see my family more. Fall is my absolute favorite season and I"m really glad me and Steven get to spend it in our very own home. I can't believe this is the place where we will have our first child! Eee! 

Life has been so crazy these past few months, but I know it's all a part of God's plan. There hasn't been one morning drive to school that I don't tear up and feel like God is talking to me through
K-Love. I guess that's one good thing about a 35 minute drive to work.

But it feels so good to be back! I have really missed blogging and I'm hoping to update it at least twice a week, we shall see!

Happy almost weekend friends! I hope it's a grand one!

And I am definitely feeling like a super hero.

Strawberry Banana Muffins

I haven't done a Pinterest recipe in a while because honestly, I haven't cooked in a while. Lame house wife I know. But I did manage to whip these bad boys up a few weeks ago for Saturday morning breakfast. Let me just tell you, they are wonderful! I made them twice in one week! Granted I made the second batch without strawberries and with a whole lot more chocolate chips. (They're still healthier than a donut, right?)

Her recipe:

6 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup plain yogurt
2 large bananas, mashed
1/2 cup diced strawberries, plus 1 strawberry very thinly sliced
**Chocolate chips for a wonderful surprise!

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line or spray a muffin tin. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook until the butter browns and begins to smell nutty. Pour into a bowl and set aside to cool slightly.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

I tested out the chocolate chips on the bottom 4 muffins, just in case it wasn't good. What was I thinking, chocolate chips are ALWAYS good! This is why my second batch was mainly chocolate chips with some banana in there too.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, vanilla extract and yogurt. Whisk in the mashed bananas. Pour the butter in a very slow stream to temper the eggs and be sure they don’t curdle.

Pour the dry ingredients over the wet and incorporate with a spatula.

Fold in the strawberries until just combined.

Using an ice cream scoop, portion the batter evenly into 12 muffin tins and place a sliced strawberry on top. (I did not slice a strawberry on top)

Bake for 18-20 minutes.

Makes 12 muffins

 And BAM! Yummy deliciousness for a great breakfast or lunch or after dinner snack. I 'm a little obsessed to say the least. And this is a great way to use up those mushy bananas!

House Love

Ever since we officially signed our second contract for a house my mind has been in design overdrive. This house will be a bit smaller than the first one we tried to buy, so decorating will be a little more challenging, but I'm so up for it! Here are some ideas I've been swooning over. ( Thanks Pinterest for helping me design my dream home right from the comfort of my parents' couch.)

We will have a half bath in our master bedroom and we have decided to make Steven a little pub/man inspired bathroom.

Things it will for sure include: navy paint, funky light, wire baskets, bronze accessories.

 After much discussion we have decided to paint our kitchen a light, happy yellow ( I think). I am absolutely in love with the mix of industrial/warehouse and eclectic chic...I don't even know if that's a thing, but I am obsessed! Do you see that cart? And those pendant lights? Heaven!

If someone could tell me where to get one of those bad boys for my TV stand, I would love you forever. I am a sucker for almost anything mid century modern! Also, I have been oogling over that doorknob curtain holder for probably a year now. I have not figured out how to make them, so I will most likely break down and buy them. Thanks urbanoutfitters for being awesome!

 

I am so excited to have a guest bedroom in our house. I am dreaming about the perfect combination of the two pictures above. Maybe with a few other colors besides yellow. I just love the clean, 

breezy-ness of them both! 

Oh, the great outdoors... I am going to need all the help I can get with this! Contrary to popular belief I am not good at everything. I suck at plants and landscaping. If it's not yelling at me to feed and water it, it tends to get forgotten (oops). I am going to try so much harder though! ( Luckily fall is right around the corner and I can put off planting until the spring. I don't want to embarrass myself right from the beginning!)

This definently isn't all of my ideas, I didn't want to overload you! I am counting down the days until I can give you a sneak peak of our new little home.

Happy Wednesday friends!

Hello, stranger

I just realized I have not blogged in almost a month.... What!? Where has the time gone? Seriously, if anyone knows of something strange that has happened and has made time go by two times faster please let me know. I find it even crazier that I'm off for the summer and am still having trouble fitting everything in. What am I going to do when I go back to work? Sheesh!

I guess I'll fill you in on what's been going on around here since my last post:

Thrifting with my mama! She has Friday's off and we like to try to spend some time together doing things we never get to do.

Working on school plans and trying to decide what I want my classroom to feel like. It's actually really hard to plan a space you've only been in once... who knew! Also, this is my "office" set up in my parents living room with all the essentials. Hopefully we won't be there much longer!

River birthday trip with some of my loves! (Double birthday celebration at its finest) We were out there for 8 hours and we didn't even get burnt! I'd like to take a minute to thank that silly hat and our spf 70. No skin cancer for us! Also, super glad I left my real wedding bling at home and took those super blingy rings instead! No worries about loosing the real deal!

Family birthday Day-O-Fun! I am really into birthdays so I try to make mine last as long as possible. I even got a "birthday" hair cut! haha. But this day we went to church, ate brunch at Ingrids. ( They have a killer buffet on Sundays!), drove around looking at old houses (one of my all time favorites!), Watched a movie with my parents and Steven, took a nap, and had a small gathering that night for snacks and cookie cake!

23 was pretty awesome, but I know 24 will be even better!!

Fourth of July celebration with smores, family and great friends.

Injured husband and sadness. Steven decided he was going to train for the NBA and ended up chipping off a bone and severely dislocating his ankle... Needless to say our routine looks a little bit different now than usual. Poor guy. I have kind of loved being the caregiver, though. That is, when he's not being an awful patient. Luckily, that doesn't happen too often! He's had lots of doctor appointments which means he's also had a few days off. This has been a great excuse for me to do absolutely nothing and watch movies and read all day with him. I guess it could be worse!

Another thrifting birthday adventure with my best friend! She's the only one who loves old rusty, dusty junk as much as I do. Give us a pile of wire baskets, old glass bottles, and some tarnished jewelry and we're like two kids in a candy store! I really love and cherish our adventures!



And now we are just waiting to close on our cute little house, do some updating/personalizing, and move on in right in time for me to report to school! With that being said, these next few weeks and into August are going to be a circus around here. I am going to keep blogging regularly but most likely not everyday until things settle down. I do have a fabulous muffin recipe to share with you sometime this week!

Get Excited!

Floral Filing

So I had been seeing these amazing filing cabinet transformations around Pinterest lately and have been dying to create one of my own. Now that I have a classroom to prepare my parents have been on the look out for cheap office furniture and since I'm basically starting from the ground up in my classroom they snagged this beauty for me at a church sale!

Oh, the ideas were flowing, my mind was racing! Of, course I had to pick out my classroom colors first and then design around those. (I'll save that story for another day. Just picture me sitting on the bed with paint swatches all around me discussing with my husband which pink he thought looked best... he's such a trooper!)

But after I finalized my thoughts, off to the craft store I went! Primer? Check! Spray paint? Check! just the right paper? Check! (little did I know these cabinet fronts were a wonky shape so I had to get crafty with my paper)

First I used what was left of my primer from my lamp. I knew I should've gotten another can because I ran out. But ideally you'll only be able to see a little bit of left side of it in my classroom, so I just primered the important parts. Let dry..... now the fun part! I settled for watermelon because I wanted it to be a darker, more sophisticated, hot pink. Right? Luckily, I bought two cans of this and had just enough to cover all the areas that would be showing. ( a.k.a. not the back)

Let me tell you. Spray painting large surfaces is not for weak hands! After I let my fingers and thumb rest for a good while and I had control over those muscles again It was back to work. Since my paper wasn't big enough to cover the surface in one piece ( and I couldn't figure out how to get the hardware off the front.) I decided the best way would be to cut it into 3 inch, 2 inch, and 1.5 inch strips and Mod Podge it around everything. Thank the Lord for Mod Podge! The first one took the longest because after I had all my notches figured out and cut I could then make the templates for the other drawers.

At this point it was about 1:00 in the afternoon and I was stinking hot! I decided to move my operation inside. After I did that, got everything set up and the wind wasn't threatening to take my dainty little templates away, it was smooth sailing.

Ta Da!! I apologize for the picture quality, there's only so much I can do with hallway lights. I'm glad we moved it inside though, because it is raining like crazy now! But I still think it's beautiful! I get too excited everytime I look at it.

Gosh, I am chomping at the bit to get her into my classroom and jazz things up a little! I hope you have a lovely day filled with floral productivity!

Little Lasagna Love

(pinterest picture)(source)

Ok, I made these little lovelies a couple of weeks back for my family and I have been dying to share them with you! They are so much fun and pretty easy to make. The best part? You don't feel like you have to take a heaping spoonful out and the leftovers are super easy to save and reheat! No messy scooping and plopping. (I bet you didn't know normal lasagna was that messy, huh?)

Note: My pictures are not nearly as pretty as hers, but you'll get the point!

Ingredients
12 oz raw ground turkey
¼ tsp salt, divided ( I used garlic salt)
¼ tsp pepper
1 cup chopped onion
½ cup chopped mushrooms
14.5 oz can crushed tomatoes, or tomato sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tsp dried oregano, divided ( I used Italian seasoning instead of oregano and basil)
½ tsp dried basil
1 ½ cups part skim ricotta cheese
24 small square won ton wrappers (the kind near the tofu in the refrigerated section of the produce dept)
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

I must confess that I did not follow the measurements exactly. I used more turkey, tomato sauce, mozzarella and ricotta cheese. I also just seasoned to my hearts content. I omitted the onion and mushrooms because I despise mushrooms, but I'm sure if you like them then they would taste wonderful!

Preheat oven to 375ºF.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the turkey, onions, mushrooms, salt, and pepper. Crumble the meat and saute the mixture for about 10 minutes, or until the turkey is cooked through. Add the garlic and stir constantly for 30 seconds.

Add the crushed tomatoes and 2 tsp of oregano. Bring the pan to a gentle boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the ricotta, a pinch of salt and pepper, the remaining teaspoon of oregano, and the basil. Stir to mix well. Set aside.

Coat a 12-cup muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. (I just used Crisco to coat the insides of my pan. If you do this make sure to put some around the edge of the opening so your won ton doesn't stick to it. If you're using a spray just make sure and spray the top as well)

Place 1 won ton wrapper into each of the 12 cups, pressing firmly in the bottom of the cup and up the sides.

Using half of the ricotta mixture, divide it among the 12 muffin cups. Next, using half of the turkey tomato sauce, spoon it evenly over each of the ricotta filled cups. Sprinkle with 2 tsp of mozzarella.

Gently press another won ton wrapper on top of the mozzarella layer.

Repeat the process by distributing the remaining ricotta, then the remaining tomato sauce, and finally the rest of the shredded mozzarella.

Bake for 10 minutes, or until the cheese has melted.



Let the cups cool, remove them from the pan, and serve!





Mine definitely did not turn out as pretty as hers, but they were super delicious! I was a little nervous about the won tons and the ricotta cheese but they tasted exactly like little lasagnas! And they packed up nicely to be put in the refrigerator for lunch. Just wonderful!

Conversation piece

Operation "Decorate Classroom" is officially underway! I went yesterday and found an old lamp that I thought would look marvelous spray painted.I also got the materials to have a file cabinet overhaul. Hopefully I will get to that tomorrow!

But for now, feast your eyes on project numero uno! ( I started out small just to get myself going. Don't judge!)

Poor little thing just wasn't very attractive. I didn't even realize it was supposed to look like a cactus until the cashier said something about my "cactus lamp." I instantly felt like an old lady with an addiction to southwestern decor. I quickly let him know that I would be spray painting it.

Little did I know that I would fall in love with the "Olive Bright" spray paint at Michael's... womp, womp. Maybe it looks even more like a cactus now. A very bright, festive cactus though! I honestly just thought it was a funky, cool lamp that I could buy for $3. I can hear the students now, "Have you met the new art teacher? The one with that kooky cactus lamp on her desk?" Hopefully they'll trow in there how awesome I am and how art is their all time favorite class. ( I can hope, right?!)

Project list so far:

Scrap paper holder

Desk

Lamp

Cork Boards- 4

Chalkboard-2

Bunting



 

What a week last week was! It was filled to the max! I'm sad and glad it's over at the same time. Luckily we'll be having another art camp in July. I can't wait to see what that week has in store. We really did have a blast. There weren't very many kids, but since this was the very first time we had put this on, that was perfectly OK! The kids were so creative and not scared at all to just jump right in!

I also got a chance to go see the classroom I will be working in next year! It's pretty plain right now, but I honestly don't mind working from the ground up. At least I don't have to scrape funkyness off of everything, right?

I get to paint and decorate to my little hearts content! You can imagine as soon as I left the school my head was swirling with ideas, I even made a pit stop by Michael's on the way home! I can not wait to do a before an after reveal soon. Now I just have to get started...



For Father's day I told my dad that we could do absolutely anything he wanted. He decided we needed a road trip to Okmulgee to eat at Ike's!

If you're ever in the Okmulgee area I definitely suggest you stop in! It's the cutest (or manliest) pub right downtown. I wish I would've gotten pictures of the inside but it was quite dark in there and I didn't want to embarrass my family. I did manage to snap some pictures of our wonderful lunch!

If this doesn't say Father's day, I don't know what would!

We had a great weekend filled with family and food. What better way to end a super hectic week!

Party People in the House Tonight

First off, thank the Lord that the NBA Finals are on regular television. We don't have cable at my parents house so anytime we wanted to watch the game we had to go out. Let me tell you people, it wasn't cheap! Playoffs have definitely helped us keep our checking account practically empty. (Not really, but it sure did feel like it!) So, in celebration of our Thunder going to the finals and the games being on ABC my mom wanted to have a gathering. Now, I love a good gathering so I was definitely for it! Even thought it was mainly with my family and just a couple of friends, it was still a lot of fun! I haven't gotten to entertain in a really long time since we don't have a house, so I wanted things to be a little more festive than just snacks.

Just a little decor, prep, and Thunder love! We were so excited for the first game. Steven was super nervous, but after they pulled it out in the 4th quarter he was much happier! Here's to game two!

I could live off of snack food. (Especially cheese, crackers, and pepperonis.) Fun, Fun!

 I am teaching a short little clay class to some boys at the Bethany Children Center this evening, so we will be watching game two at home again tonight.  But honestly, nothing beats being curled up on the couch under a cozy blanket screaming at the television. Too excited!


And..... drum roll please........ Here are my new coral capris!

Ok, ok, I know they aren't the absolute most exciting pair of pants in the world, but all my pants are denim, some form of brown/khaki, and black, so this is a huge step for me! I absolutely love them! Thank you thrift store shopping!



Well, I'm off to another super busy day filled with trying to exercising off all the snacks I've eaten this week, art camp, teaching, and thunder watching! So thankful it's almost the weekend!

This & That

Happy Tuesday lovelies!

Things have been randomly busy around here so I might not get to post as often as I want this week. The high school art teacher (my mentor teacher) started an art camp for elementary students on Monday! I am so excited to be helping her out this week. I will take all the  extra teaching practice I can get!

On another note, I hope you all had a great weekend! Even though it went be entirely too fast, we had a really great couple of days. ( That is, when I wasn't moping around crying and being depressed about our lack of house and not knowing what kind of house we'll end up in or when... Have I told you guys that I can be completely too emotional and over dramatic sometimes? Oops.)

But it was a good weekend all in all.

Friday I woke up and as I was getting ready, looked in my closet and decided that I had absolutely nothing that I wanted to wear. I felt like everything was so boring and old. (I keep my clothes for a really long time. I have shirts and jeans from high school... over 5 years ago!) So, still wanting to save money and stay on budget I packed up my mom and we went to lunch and then to my favorite thrift store for buying clothes. I never really get a chance to look through everything, because I usually went on my lunch breaks. But after 2 hours of digging and trying on I left with a nice addition of shirts, skirts, and even a pair of coral capris! I usually try to stay away from buying pants or capris from second hand stores because I have a tiny inseam (29") and I never find anything that fits... except for these! I will definitely be posting a picture of them tomorrow.



I know my closet may not look too boring, but believe me, I am too practical when it comes to shopping sometimes. I love solids and neutrals. But it was time to take a baby step into the print world!

Sunday while we were out visiting my brother-in-law I caught a baby rabbit! Now, I'm a sucker for anything little and cute and furry, and I was so sad to think I was just going to let it go, back into the wilderness full of snakes and hawks and things that would eat it. I just couldn't bring myself to send it to it's certain death. So, instead, I put it in my tote, with a towel and decided to bring it home! I had all intentions of keeping it when I got sad that it would spend it's whole life in a cage. That is not a life to live, people! So after getting home Steven and I decided to let it go in the pasture under a field full of clovers. I think little Stella will be very happy.



Now I'm off to a day filled with working out, art camp, house hunting, snack making, and Thunder watching! Yay for being in the Finals! Hope everyone has a lovely Tuesday!

Friday Funday

Even though I'm not working this summer and rarely know what day it is, I always seem to know when it's Friday. Maybe it's just that the world has a completely different buzz to it. Whatever it is, I love it! My favorite part about the weekend is getting two whole days to spend with Steven. During the week the evenings just seem to fly by and by Thursday I find myself thinking, "Have we even talked this week?" Of course we have, but it's in the midst of family dinners, thunder games, nights with friends, or nights where we just want to lay around and read.

I'm hoping for sunshine, easy breezy fun, good friends, and my love. So, here's to the weekend! Hooray!

(source)

Pinteresting Life

Since moving in with my parents and realizing we were going to be here longer than we thought, I decided I would cook on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This way I still have some of the same responsibilities I had when it was just us and I don't get out of the habit of cooking, haha. I plan during the week what I'll cook for dinner and go shopping on Friday for the next week.  This has seemed to work well so far! I've also decided that I'm going to put my (almost) 24/7 pinteresting to work. Every week I want to cook something delicious I've pinned since most of the time I only dream of incorporating my pins into everyday life. I am really excited about this! My first challenge was the Crockpot Italian Chicken from the-girl-who-ate-everything. Here's what her's looked like:

Delicious, right??

I thought so. So I gave it a go! Here's mine ( a much smaller portion) and the recipe. I used different noodles, but I think it turned out wonderfully!

• chicken breasts (Her's called for 4, but I put in like 7. I wanted there to be chicken in every bite!)
• 1 packet dry Zesty Italian dressing
• 1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened (I did not soften mine because I forgot, oops. But It didn't take very long for it to break down on the stove.)
• 1-2 cans cream of chicken soup (depending how cream cheesy you want it. Of course I wanted mine super creamy, so two it was!)

 

Place the chicken in a crockpot and sprinkle Italian dressing over it.

 

Combine cream cheese and cream of chicken soup in a small pot over low heat and pour over chicken.

 

Cook on low in the crockpot for at least 4 hours. (I would cook on low if you plan on leaving it in there all day. I only had about 4 hours and after the first two and my chicken not cooking as fast as I wanted, I cranked it up to high. And yes, that is the crock pot we use in this house, isn't it great?!)

 

Once chicken is done you can leave the chicken breasts whole, cube it, or even shred it. (I ended up cutting mine into small cubes, that way I could just pour it over the noodles instead of having whole breasts to serve)

 

Once you have cut up the chicken, throw it back in the crockpot and stir into the sauce.

 

If you feel the sauce is too thick you can thin it to your preferred consistency with a little milk. (I thought it was just right! But I do love my sauces thick and creamy!)

 

Serve over pasta or rice.

 

I also added a good dose of pepper and some garlic salt. I thought it needed a liitle something else. I would definitely be up to experimenting with more packages of that italian seasoning.