Things I’m thankful for right now…

1. There are only two of us in this household right now. Don’t get me wrong, we want kiddos. But I love only have two wardrobes that I’m in charge of washing, folding and putting away.

2. We have a beautiful brand new washer and dryer. Doing laundry has always been a chore I enjoyed (except the putting away part), until we loved to our apartment and I had to use the tiniest, slowest, least efficient washer and dryer on the planet. Thank you, in-laws, for this wonderful, wonderful gift.

3. I work from home. Yes, it was awful to go on a bunch of interviews for jobs I wasn’t really qualified for and yes, it was awful to not get them. And yes, I only work part time right now, but I am happy I am home to work on the house and do laundry and cook dinner, and I am happy that I am working, doing something I love, from a home that I love. How blessed am I?

4. Hubs and I are taking a break tonight. We worked all weekend on the house, and we got a lot done. Nothing major, but a lot of progress on small, time-consuming projects. So tonight after dinner, we’re doing nothing but chilling on the couch and planning future projects. No working, except whoever gets up to get the dessert.

5. The internet. I love having the world at my fingertips. How awesome is it that we grew up in the digital age. It makes me wonder what sort of awesomeness our kiddos will have at their fingertips.

6. Our own little dreams come true. Hubs and I are married, happy, healthy and living in a home we own. Wow. Talk about blessed!

For more of my thankfulness, check out my list of blessings and happy things here.

 

What’s in our garage right now

It wasn’t this messy by accident—it was garage sale time!

Yikes, right?

That’s only the half of it.

See? Yikes.

The good news is that we sold most of that stuff!

Just in time to make room for a new kind of mess:

 

Our garage is now a workshop. Furniture to come soon…I hope!

No more tears…

No this isn’t a commercial for some sort of extra gentle baby shampoo, but yes, I am talking about tears, the things that fall from our eyes when we are hurt or upset, not to be confused with tears, or rips in paper or clothing.

The English language is confusing.

Sheesh.

But I did spend my entire college career studying it…well, that and a bunch of other stuff considering I went to a private liberal arts college.

Anyway, back to my original topic…tears.

I’ve been crying a lot less than I did the first year of our marriage.

This is just a happy picture to show you I was really, in fact, happy during our first year of marriage, even though I did cry a lot. Think of the crying as small intermissions between all the happiness, ok?

Not that the first year of our marriage was sad or unhappy. Quite the contrary. I was super happy to be married to my best friend…but I also cried a lot.

Why?

Well, I’m not sure, but I’m willing to venture some guesses.

(Check out the links to see some earlier blog posts that help explain all these little ramblings!)

1. I didn’t have a job.

This was a big one for me. I’ve never really struggled with anything as much as I struggled to find a job. We didn’t need the money, but it would have been nice while trying to maintain a budget and save as much as possible for a down payment. And it certainly hurt my pride, confidence and general self-esteem to feel like a failure for so long. I went through so many stages of dealing with it: determination, hope, peace, anger, embarrassment, hope, frustration, peace, anxiety, hope, fear, anger,  disappointment…you get the idea. And though I learned a lot about gratitude and humility and trust, it was a struggle the entire time. And even though this self-employed freelance writing thing is still hard, I’m so thankful for the opportunity to do something I love and that will contribute to our finances, even just at a part-time level.

2. I was worried about finding and affording a house we loved.

We all know that worked out well for us, and that we now have the biggest project we’ve ever taken on together as a fabulous home, but for awhile, it was hard to imagine leaving our little apartment, hard to wrap my head around how much this all would cost, hard to decide where we wanted to put down real roots and raise our kiddos, hard to figure out just how much house we needed and how much project we could take on…but finding our home was a journey, that’s for sure.

3. I was hormonal.

Let’s face it, this is still true. But maybe being on the pill for over 1 1/2 years now has finally allowed my body to calm down and stop freaking out over every tiny little change in the hormone levels.

4. I was tired.

Remember our sleeping adventures, like Hubs’ sleep talking, and figuring out our sides of the bed, and our different sleep schedules? I didn’t sleep so well for the first few months of our marriage, or the first several months. I still have nights where it’s a struggle, like last night, when I was woken up by snores and then I laid there for fifteen minutes, half-asleep and nearly incoherent, before realizing it was coming from the sleeping Hubs beside me and yes, I could in fact, wake him up and tell him to roll over. After which he got a little grumpy because I was pretty persistent after not believing his half-asleep, “okay,” with no signs of movement. Anyway, when I’m tired, I get salty, and when I’m salty, I tend to cry easily. I’m sleeping better these days, for the most part, or maybe adjusting to living on less shut-eye.

5. I was homesick.

Again, I was thrilled to be married. And I loved it for that first year of newlywed-ness…but I also missed my family. And I felt a little alienated from them because there just wasn’t much opportunity for visiting (my mom doesn’t drive in the city…at all). Moving to our new house in this new neighborhood is perfect. We’re closer. Our parents can (and do!) visit more often. And the biggest part of this? This house is now HOME. Our apartment was home, too, but never in the way I feel about our house.

And that my friends is why the last few months have held far less salty, wet kisses as Hubs attempts to cheer me up, less red, swollen eyes, and much more giggles, laughs and smiles.

Not that I wasn’t giddy and happy during our first year of marriage, but settling into this married life sure feels good.

 

What about you? What was hard for you in your early married years? Do you cry a lot? Did you used to cry a lot? How did you get over it? How did your Hubs help with drying the tears? 

Work, work, work…house work.

I haven’t been posting as much as I did a few months ago because we’ve just been so busy around our new house. Things are finally starting to look better and I can’t wait to share them with you all!

I do have some semi-exciting news, my new blog is the works!

And it’s going to feature all sorts of fun posts about our house!

Excited?

Me too!

(If you said “no,” too bad.)

(Actually, if you said “no,” I’m sorry, because I want you to stick around and be excited with me. Please tell me what I should write about that would make you excited next time!)

Anyway, here’s a little preview of some of the things we’ve been working on around the house.

This is what the wall in my office looked like until yesterday. After pictures coming soon. Any guesses on which color I chose?

Yes, we had a purple bedroom. But it’s not purple anymore either…well, except for one wall…which is soon to be transformed, too. I hope. (We also have boxes and boxes on still-unpacked stuff.

This is the crazy pile of stuff to sort through and unpack and move in that’s in my office. Yikes.

 

And this, ladies and gentlemen (or mostly ladies…) is the mess of a bathroom we currently have in our hallway. Make you feel any better about the states of your bathrooms?

So there you have it, guys, a little sneak peak at what’s been keeping me so busy and not-blogging. I miss you all, but my house needs me more right now.

You understand, right?

And just think about all the awesome before and after shots I’ll be able to show you on my new blog soon!

Kinds of Kisses

Hey guys, how was everyone’s long weekend? Good?

Good.

Mine too.

Now that we have that nicety out of the way, let’s get down to what I really want to talk about: kissing.

(What? It’s a serious marriage issue!)

If you’re like us newlyweds, you probably spend a lot of time kissing.

First married kiss!

(insert moment to groan here)

But seriously, most people in a happy relationship do kiss. At least sometimes.

And you’ve probably spent at least a little time invested in thinking about different kinds of kisses you’ve received.

Sloppy versus neat.

Fast versus slow.

Good versus bad.

Open-mouthed versus closed mouth.

(Sorry, Grandma, if that just got awkward, but you guys know what I’m talking about, right?)

When I was a pre-teen, my friends and I would try to describe these various kinds of kisses using our hands and fingers to make the shapes and motions of lips and mouths.

I’ll try to show you.

Take you hands and spread them out so your palms are open and facing each other.

Now close your hands so your fingertips touch the tips of your thumbs.

It should look like a little like eyes. (Confusing since we’re talking about lips?)

Then move your hands in until the points touch each other.

Congratulations, you’ve just made a peck!

For open-mouthed kisses, don’t close your hands all the way so there’s about an inch or so between the tips of your fingers and the tips of your thumbs. You may twist your hands as you bring them together to create a better connection for the kiss, much in the same way a real kiss involves the head tilt.

You can imagine how the other types of kisses went so I won’t make you go through that with me.

But I digress.

Anyway, after that embarrassing memory I just shared with you, let’s get to the point, shall we?

I’ve found that I can tell so much about Wyatt’s mood by his kiss. He has several different methods or techniques, but here are some notable ones I’ve noticed.

1. The normal kiss: This is the neat, short, sweet and simple kiss I get each morning when he leaves for work and each afternoon when he returns. It’s a classic and gets the job done. It’s also the kiss typically reserved for public displays of affection.

2. The preoccupied kiss: This one is very similar to number 1, but with a slight modification. Hubs doesn’t always stop what he’s doing to administer this one. It’s often down half-heartedly, perhaps leaving his eyes focused on the computer screen, TV, or whatever else he’s looking at.

3. The peck: Lips are closed and it’s very, very fast. Perhaps the most common time for this kiss is in front of the guys, or relatives, or when Hubs is busy but not so annoyed by my request for a kiss that I get the preoccupied kiss. Or when one or both of us has morning breath.

4. The angry kiss: Similar to the peck, but Hubs keeps his lips super-duper small and tight and I get a kiss that’s more like a soft punch by his lips than a sweet peck. When this happens, I almost always mention it and try to get a re-do. The re-do is not always better.

5. The slow kiss: This one is long and slow and nice. We’ll not get into too many details here, though. After all, my grandma is reading, remember?

6. The laughing kiss: Smiling plus a kiss. You get the idea.

7. The “I’m trying to bite you” kiss: Hubs does this to be silly. He goes in like a regular kiss and then opens up really wide and shows his teeth as he tries to bite my nose. Have I mentioned how mature my loving husband is?

Just kidding, I love his silliness, except the nostril flairs. Those I will honestly be annoyed about if he teaches our kiddos.

So there you have it, a sample of some of the kisses we share in this household. What kinds of kisses do you share?

Leftover Magic

Well guys, if you’ve noticed that I’ve been posting more recipes after taking a break from doing that, it’s because I have a new-found love for my kitchen.

Maybe because it’s huge compared to my last kitchen.

Maybe because we have a brand new refrigerator that I love to fill up with delicious things. And a new oven that is begging to be used. Every night.

Or maybe it’s because we went a long time while we were moving and packing and getting ready to move when we were eating pretty much only frozen pizza, hamburger helper, and other not so blog-worthy meals.

Well, last night was going to be one of those meals as well.

See, we brought home some leftover cooked meat from the fair. Things like steak that had been sitting too long to served but still tasted fine, burgers and hot dogs that were leftover at the end of the night…you get the idea.

Leftovers…getting old. Taunting me every time I open the fridge.

Well, last night, we were going to use some of those up.

And I have a half-gallon of milk that’s going to go bad in a few days I wanted to use.

And we haven’t had zucchini in awhile.

So I planned out dinner to be pretty easy. I would heat up the steak to make steak sandwiches, make Kraft mac’n'cheese with the milk, and then something more creative zucchini.

Afterall, I cook with zucchini all the time so it’s really not a big deal to whip something up that makes the leftovers and plain, easy macaroni feel more special.

But then I added extra milk to the macaroni because I knew Hubs wouldn’t be home for awhile yet and it would start to tighten up and get too sticky if I didn’t put extra moisture in there early on.

And the milk made it extra extra creamy tasting.

So I added some fresh ground pepper, and some chives, and some parsley. And more milk.

And, oh my goodness, so creamy and delicious.

My mouth is actually watering just thinking about eating the leftovers for lunch.

And then I started to work on the zucchini. I had planned to make some sort of zucchini fries, like I did here. But then I saw this post from The Pioneer Woman (Do you read her blogs? You totally should.) and I wanted to add some lemon to the party.

So this is what I ended up doing.

Lemon-Crumb-Coated-Zucchini-Fries.

(Yes, that’s what I’m calling them.)

1 1/2 cups bread crumbs.

2-3 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 packet of ranch seasoning

2 tsp lemon pepper seasoning

1 egg

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp lemon juice

1 average-sized zucchini, sliced into thin strips

Combine all the dry ingredients. I did this in my blender since I used it to make the bread crumbs anyway.

All in there, ready for mixing.

Combine all wet ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add in zucchini pieces and toss to coat. 

I didn’t do a great job of cutting our fries in equal sizes…

Add in dry ingredients. Toss again to coat.

Spread the zucchini pieces out on a baking sheet. 

See how many crumbs? Crumbs=yum. In this case.

Then, since I had plenty of leftover “crumbs,” I didn’t want to waste them so I sprinkled them all over the top of the cookie sheet I would recommend you do this, too.

Then bake for 12 minutes at 350 degrees. Turn them, and bake for 12 more minutes.

By this time, some of your extra crumbs will be brown enough to taste. Do that. Yum. 

Turn again and bake/broil until your desired level of “brown-ness.” (We like things a little extra crispy in this house.)

See what I mean about the yummy crumbies?
(I think of Monica from FRIENDS when I say “crumbies”)

Then you’ll serve them ranch dressing, or just plain, because I didn’t think they needed anything else, but Hubs loves his condiments.

They tasted so fresh and yet creamy at the same because of the lemon and the cheese and the bread crumbs and the egg. Sooooo good. I’m telling you.

In the meantime, Hubs came home from work and asked what we were having. He’d forgotten that we had decided the night before to eat the leftover steak. And that no longer seemed very exciting to him. So he said, “Ok, but I want cheese on mine.”

Then we talked for a little bit about how if we added onions it would be a cheesesteak sandwich.

So we did that.

First, we sauteed the onions in butter.

I think onions and butter may smell a little like heaven.

And he chopped up the steak.

Cold steak looks awfully dry and boring.

And then we added the steak to the onions and butter.

Yup. This is way better than what I’d planned to do for dinner.

And then we melted cheese on top.

Yes, I put some of the leftover crumbies on my macaroni and cheese. No, I did not regret it.

(I went without the top bun because I just didn’t want it. I wold actually recommend some kind of hoagie roll for this, but since we were working with leftovers here, crumbly-sorta-old-hamburger-buns were all we had.)

Anyway, it ended up being a pretty spectacular meal.

And I was reminded once again, why I love spending time with the man I married. Because he’s fun. He’s creative. He’s spontaneous. He’s open to try new things. He will experiment with me. Play with me. Laugh with me. Eat ridiculously better than anticipated leftovers with me.

And then he’ll do the dishes.

Reason #47 husband roommates are the best.

Mini Meatloaves

As you guys may know by now, Hubs loves meatloaf.

I think it’s his favorite thing. Ever.

(We made it to celebrate being home from a long weekend trip to Chicago with a bunch of rowdy Sporting KC fans in this post.)

And last night, because I wanted to bless him in a small way for how hard we’ve been working lately on our house at night, and because I like it too and it sounded good, I made meatloaf.

But this time, I wanted to try out a new way of making said meatloaf.

See, I have this cool meatloaf pan that I got for Christmas that cooks the meatloaf and lets some of the fat drain out underneath as it cooks. And it lets you lift the meatloaf neatly out of the pan for nice, easy slicing. It’s pretty nifty.

But in that pan, or any large pan, meatloaf takes more than an hour to bake.

And sometimes, when I don’t start dinner until Hubs gets ready to leave from work, that’s just too long to wait.

So I had an idea to try it in my mini loaf pan.

Like this.

Yes, I didn’t have quite enough for all of them…Ah well.

And it worked so well!

It came out like this.

Yum, that’s what was supposed to happen.

And then, of course because we can’t eat just one, we had…well..more than one.

This was my plate. I won’t tell you how many Hubs ate. We also had twice baked potatoes. YUM.

Anyway, I would totally make these once we have kids because not only does it help with portion control (if we only eat one…wasn’t that one of our newlywed resolutions…hmmm…) but it’s just so much faster.

They cooked it only about 35 minutes!

That’s totally doable on a weeknight with 2 or 3 kids running around. And just think about serving it when they have friends over! I can see the Friday night slumber parties now where we don’t have to order pizza every time!

(Sorry, getting ahead of myself. Must be that baby fever…)

 

What’s that smell?

So last, night, as I was sitting on the floor in the doorway of our bedroom doing this:

Yup, painting trim is an almost daily task in our house. The carpet makes it especially fun.

I happened to keep getting some pretty unpleasant whiffs of something particularly smelly.

I say that nicely.

What I wanted to say was that, oh my goodness, something somewhere near me smelled absolutely positively disgusting. Flat out: it reeked.

There I said it.

I feel better now.

And I looked all around and decided I didn’t know what it was so it was best not to say anything.

After all, maybe Hubs had, ahem, eaten something that didn’t agree with him and he was now having some…er… smelly after effects. Or maybe I needed a shower really REALLY bad.

Heck, it could have also been all in my head.

Except that it wasn’t all in my head because I just. kept. smelling. it.

Ick.

And now it sorta started to develop into an actual smell.

It smelled sour.

Wet.

Sweaty.

Dirty.

Smelly.

So I investigated further.

And lo and behold, I found this.

OH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS, THIS MIGHT BE WHAT WILL BECOME OUR SECOND BIGGEST FIGHT EVER.

Yup, that’s right. It’s a bag. More specifically, Hubs’ bag.

Hubs’ bag from last Wednesday.

Hubs’ bag from LAST WEDNESDAY that he took TO THE LAKE AND FILLED WITH WET CLOTHES and LEFT ON THE FLOOR OF OUR BEDROOM. FOR 6 DAYS.

Wet, smelly, lake-water clothes that have been in an ENCLOSED BAG FOR 6 DAYS?!?!

Did I say OH MY HOLY MOLY GOODNESS GRACIOUS yet?

Yea.

It was bad.

I thought I was going to scream.

I bet you guys thought I was going to scream, too.

But I didn’t.

I did say lots of things in a rather firm voice.

But I did not yell.

Ask Hubs.

He’ll tell you I was pretty calm. Sorta.

All things considering.

He laughed.

I laughed.

And then, to his credit, Hubs got up and and took the bag to the washer. And he did the load of laundry that needed to be done. And we moved on with our night. And our lives.

But you better believe this is a memory I’ll remind him of when we have a son who leaves his sports equipment on the stairs causing Hubs to trip and fall and bruise his tuchus.

I’ll say, “He’s your son. Remember when you left that bag of disgusting lake clothes out for a week and it almost gagged me because it smelled so bad when I found it? Yup, he gets this trait from you.”

And then, of course, he’ll remind me of the time I left the pile of laundry out for 4 days that was almost as high as our bed and that I got so annoyed by that I started talking to it?

What a pair, huh?

And then I’ll help him up and go get an ice pack.

But for now, while Hubs is doing the laundry, I’m going to get an ice cream. And wait for our next crazy-wonderful adventure in this married life to begin.

Baby Fever…or not

Well guys, it’s that time.

No, not time for chocolate cake in the middle of the day.

Though I wish it was that time.

And no, not time to start my Christmas shopping.

It’s also not the time to tell you about my secret pet peeve of people spelling “gray” as “grey.”

It’s the time that all my friends and family who got married about the same time as Wyatt and I start having babies.

Woohoo!

It’s like we all have baby fever.

Except that I don’t.

I mean, I’m super excited for all of their babies to come.

But I’m not ready yet.

Although, I guess, who’s ever really ready, huh?

Anyway, I’m just happy with Hubs right now. We have enough trouble trying to keep on track to work on stuff around our house, figure out how to avoid having the same fights all the time, learn how to balance a budget and visit all the friends and family that we wish we could see more often.

Throw a baby in there and all that stuff that seemed hard before now seems nearly impossible.

I mean, I want a baby. I really am excited for that time in our lives. And I know that every time I see a baby or hold a baby or buy a present for a friend’s baby, I tell Hubs how much I really and truly do want a baby. But then, he looks at me with that look that says, we’ve been through this, and I just give up, because I know he’s right.

It’s like I just sway back and forth between really really wanting a baby and really really freaking out at how weird/hard/scary/expensive it would be to have one.

And like the great man he is, Hubs just calmly stays quiet, gently pulling me away when I stop to swoon over a pair of teeny tiny baby shoes or plan what color I want the nursery.

Did your uterus just skip a beat? Mine did.

Don’t you want to have a baby just to have this in your house?

And this?

But he’s gentle and firm as he says, “not yet,” to me every time I get ahead of myself.

What a good man he is!

(But I knew that already.)

What about you? Are you baby-crazy, too?

 

BBQ Chicken-Bacon-Ranch Twice Baked Potatoes

It’s been awhile since I posted a new recipe for you guys.

Partly because we were out of town and moving and remodeling and stuff so I haven’t been cooking as much…

And partly because I was too lazy (or too hungry?) to stop and take photos while I was cooking and eating.

Either way, when we got home from working at the fair for 2 weeks at a restaurant that only serves beef (called the Beef House, no doubt), Hubs and I were ready for some variety in our diets.

But…we’d brought home a few leftovers from the restaurant to use up.

So I decided to take 2 left-over baked potatoes and put them in the oven to make twice baked potatoes. (Did you know that already baked potatoes work super well for that? Well, you do now.)

And then I went a little crazy and decided to make BBQ Chicken-Bacon-Ranch Twice Baked Potatoes.

Then I went REALLY crazy and ate the whole thing all by myself and didn’t share any with Hubs.

Just kidding.

That would make me a not-so-nice wife, huh?

I shared with him, I promise.

Anyway, here’s how I did it.

First, I heated up the potatoes in the oven for a few minutes. While I was doing this, I boiled the chicken and fried up some bacon. I didn’t take pictures of any of that because I was pretty sure it was all self explanatory.

Plus, who wants to see a photo of boiling chicken?

After the chicken was done, I chopped it up in small pieces and added BBQ sauce.

We used Zarda BBQ sauce, as it’s Hubs’ favorite, which is exciting because we now live so close to one!

Then, I scooped out the middles of the potatoes and added butter, ranch seasoning, and some french onion dip to the inside part and mashed it all up in my mixer.

Pretty simple.

Then I put that part back in the scooped out skins.

If you didn’t need photos of this, I don’t care, it was fun to document.

And then, I patted it all down flat.

Again, how simple.

Then, it’s time to add the chicken.

Starting to look yummier.

And then I added cheese.

All we had was American cheese, but it still worked out ok.

And then I put them back into the oven.

Yum. (And I LOVE my new oven.) Look at how beautiful those potatoes look in there!

And then I put the bacon on top.

Yup. Definitely delicious.

 

Make it. Enjoy. Let me know what you think!