Five for Friday

Ahh, it's Friday! 

This has been a great week but so busy yet again. As if the weekend tummy virus wasn't enough sickness a wicked sinus infection has taken its place. So I'm hoping for a healthy weekend! 

Here are five things that I'm feeling, loving,  and enjoying this week:

/1// Even though I haven't felt great I have felt like cooking. The healthy turkey meatloaf was amazing and under that sauce is some amazing asparagus.  Loving some cooking! 

/2// Today I'm going on a field trip with my fifth graders. Loving a fun day with the kiddos! 

(And a chance to have less papers to grade since I'm always behind on grading)

/3// Really enjoying time with my husband. I mean I always do but this week I've really enjoyed our time together and the little things. Can't believe our first anniversary is around the corner. 

/4// Loved learning in small group this week about how we love others. What we pour from our heart needs to be love and why even in unfavorable situations we are called to handle life with our heart of a faithful servant. 

/5// Finally,  the kiddos had a project. 

They were to label a brown paper grocery bag with a picture, name, and dates of a specific president.  Inside the bag 4-7 items that represent the president and be able to explain why. Of course I encourage them to always be creative. 

Can you guess which president this item would represent? 

It is a water bottle with a toy gate on it...

A "Watergate" for Nixon. 

I got a kick out this, truly original! 

{Tasty Tuesday} Chicken Spaghetti

Okay, before I share the recipe for this you have to know why I swear by it--

This was the first thing I ever cooked for Drew and I.

So we always have to chuckle that this recipe is why he married me. 

Possibly that good?!

 As you can tell by this picture this is not your regular chicken spaghetti. It has a white sauce not red but it will not disappoint. 

You will need two large cans of the all white meat chicken, one can of cream of chicken, one can of cream of celery, chicken broth, two cups diced celery, two cups diced onions, spaghetti noodles of your choice, and I like the Italian cheese blend for the top or Parmesan, and one unhealthy stick of butter.  

First saute the celery and onion with the stick of butter. I have a battle with myself every time I cook this because I'm sure a half stick would be just as good but I commit to the original recipe and use the whole stick. #southernstyle

Once they are nice and tender add all of the cream of chicken, cream of celery, and broth. I usually cut up the "canned" chicken then combine it to the mixture. This is also a great time to add fresh ground pepper or salt if like or you can always kick it up a notch with a pinch of garlic. 

Now here is the odd/important part of this recipe. For the pasta you do not follow usual pasta boiling directions. Instead bring to a boil a large pot of water then add pasta, cover, and remove from heat (still covered) for 30 minutes. In the meantime allow the mixture to simmer. 

Once the pasta has sat in the water for 30 minutes, drain, and combine with sauce mixture.

Since it is so much pasta and sauce I usually do about half of it at a time.

I put half the pasta in the casserole dish and mix and then add the rest. 

When finished cover with cheese and dot with butter.

Bake at 350 for about half an hour or until the edges turn light brown.

You won't regret this!

Paired with bread and a salad this is the perfect date night dinner and the leftovers are even better the next day and it freezes perfectly.



For more awesome recipes by great bloggers go to http://www.martinisbikinisblog.com/ and http://peridotkutie.blogspot.com/! 

Good Bag Beauty Swap {all about nails}

I recently joined the lovely ladies over at Fabulously Faint and Boy, oh {mamas} boys! for a beauty bag goodie swap.

The theme this goodie bag was all things nails!

Painting my nails is something I love to do but feel like I don't do near enough.

With these new goodies I can't help but feel excited about new spring nails!

I was paired with the beautiful mamma Shadia.

If you haven't checked our her blog and the adorable pics of her sweet little boy you're missing out!

I love the goodies she sent me!

The most adorable GLITTER nail file. I love sparkle so this was just the file I needed!

A fine tip white pen so I can do fancy accent nails, so fun!

A great top coat, always needed.

And a beautiful all girlie Essie pink, "Mod Square"

This pink is the PERFECT bubble gum, girlie, spring time pink--
I love it!
Thank you so much Shadia for my cute and fun nail bag!

I know the ladies will be putting together a new goodie bag idea for March and I can't wait!

{Our Weekend} and homemade chicken soup

A little upset that Monday is a few hours away.

I've spent this weekend sick with a stomach bug, yuck!

Friday I didn't feel well and thought it was because I was so tired from a pretty stressful week.

Then Friday evening we went to our favorite beer garden and in almost three hours I couldn't even force down one brew. Should have known I was getting sick!

 Although I didn't feel well we did have a good time.

We played life size Jenga till we couldn't reach anymore and lots of other dogs were out so Copper had lots of fur friends to play with. 

Saturday morning I woke up sick to my stomach and it finally "hit" around 2. It was an intense 8 hour bug but I'm grateful I got that and not some of the other stuff going around. I'm super grateful for my sweet hubby for taking such good care of me. 

Today I've taken yet another nap then wanted to make something simple for dinner. 

My principal had given us this recipe and all the ingredients for Chicken Soup as a staff Christmas gift. I've been saving it because I was so excited to have a "free" night of cooking. Finally decided that tonight was the night! Hard to beat good chicken soup when you're trying to get better.

All you need is:

1 can of cooked white meat chicken, 1 can of mixed veggies, 1 can of cream of chicken, 1T of rotisserie chicken seasoning, 2T minced onion, 2 cups of egg noodles, 1 chicken bouillon cube

Mix it all together with 6 cups of water and cook on medium for half an hour or so.

I let ours simmer for about an house and it was delicious!

Even though I'm feeling better than yesterday I'm still taking it easy today especially on my tummy. This soup was great and hit the spot. If it taste this good when I don't feel that well I can't wait to make it when I'm feeling better. 

Tomorrow I'm posting my "Beauty Bag" for the goodies swap!

Liebster Award

First I want to thank the beautiful and sweet mamma Ashley at Life On The Parsons Farm.

I've loved her blog for awhile now and enjoyed reading her "Liebster" answers and was so excited when she nominated Sugar, Spice, & Newlywed Life! If you haven't discovered her sweet blog about her family and precious little girl I would highly encourage it.
 This is an award for smaller blogs who have less than 200 followers.  And yep you guessed it I still have fewer than 200. 
Ultimately I would love to have more but I appreciate each and everyone of my readers whether you choose to follow or not! 

The Rules

Thank the person who nominated you and link them in your post. 

Tell 11 random facts about yourself.

Answer the 11 questions provided by the person who nominated you.

Choose  blogs you like and link them in your post. 

Write 11 questions for these bloggers, so they can answer them. 

Go to their page and let them know that you nominated them.

   

11 Random Facts about ME!

/1// Copper is my first dog I've ever had. Always had cats growing up. Although I loved them I was missing out. They really are mans gals best friend!

/2// In high school I could have cared less about my grades. Just kept them good enough to keep my parents happy. In college I learned quickly I would have to work MUCH harder. Proud to say I graduated with a 4.0
(shout out to all my tutors for the MANY hours of help #teamwork)

/3// Drew was the very first person I met on the first day of high school. We wouldn't date till the end of our sophomore year of college.

/4// I find scuba diving to be the most fun yet most scary thing I've ever done. I always remind Drew of the story of Jonah and the whale in  the Bible when we dive--he thinks I'm ridiculous. 

/5// I love to paint but I'm terrible at it.

/6// I could eat a piece of toast, 2 boiled eggs whites, and coffee for breakfast every day forever and be perfectly fine with that. It's the perfect combo!

/7// For years I've had a "purse fetish" but can't remember the last time I got a new one. I guess that means I'm getting old when I have a hard time spending the coin on a bag.

/8// I'm addicted to the little orange "cuties"--eat like 3 a day.

/9// I wore braces, head gear, etc. for YEARS!! To this very day I sleep in a retainer at least twice a week. (he thinks it's sexy cause he has them too ha)

/10// The only job I would do instead of teaching would be to stay home with our kiddos, breed Mini Aussies, and cook like the Pioneer Woman. 

/11// The longer I teach older kids the less I like younger kids. Makes me feel terrible saying that but seeing the kindergarten class cry and throw fits in the hall while they are sticky and screaming make me SO thankful my kids are self-sufficient.

1 Questions for YOU!!

  1. Who was your best friend in 2nd grade?
-In 2nd grade I got to be real close buddies to the boy next door that I grew up with. We would play all the time.

2. Did you ever go to Summer Camp?
-Cheer camp where I had my bra frozen in middle school. The embarrassing part of that wasn't that it was frozen but that I was the only girl with a training bra ha.

3. What is your favorite color?
-red!...but I also love pink...and I like wearing yellow and brown--okay I like lots of colors

6. Would you rather bake a pie or a cake?
-I absolutely hate pie! (my brother-in-law says that makes me un-American) But I love cupcakes especially sprinkles!

7. What is your dream car?
-My dream "every day" car would be a all blacked out Range Rover and my "toy" being a Mach 1 Mustang, also all blacked out.

8. What was the name of your first pet?
-A sweet kitty named Precious 

9. Do you consider yourself to be an expert in anything?
-Not an expert but I'm good at cooking and I really enjoy it

10. What is your favorite part of the Winter Olympics?
-I love the snowboarding! The half pipe and slope style blow my mind--how do they do that?!?

11. Did you like taking PE in high school?
-Yes and Ioved it! I took it in the Spring with all my best buds and we could run outside.

Now I get to nominate some of my favorites for the Liebster:

Kel over at Big Apple, Little Bites
Kayla over at Boy, oh {mammas} boys!
Shadia over at Baby Button Brown
Brittany over at Fabulously Faint
Linzi over at Little Gem
Jenna over at The Three Little Birdies
Megan over at Willow Way

<<My questions for you>>

-Spring or Fall?
-What if your favorite blog post you have written (link it) and why is it your favorite?
-If you won the lottery what would be the first three things you do?
-If you could live anywhere else, where?
- Favorite websites you seem to always go to?
- How do you picture your retired life?
-Cat or dogs?
- What's a sport you wish you were a pro at?
- Favorite "girlie" thing to do?
-Best dish you cook?
-Something you are looking forward to in 2014?

In-Between Seasons

Today was an absolutely beautiful day!
We hit a sunny high of 65 and it was hard to remember the almost foot of snow we had
nearly a week ago.Crazy weather!

I'll take this sunshine anyday. Lately I can't get enough of running with my sweet dog Copper.
When the sun is out and it is above freezing we are hitting the pavement, these yoga pants are perfect to keep me warm and cool at the same time.

In the morning it is still cool so a fleece jacket is all I need instead of all the layers.
Reguradless of the season I love wearing dresses, with a cute pair of leggings (preferably fleece lined) they make going from winter to spring just right.

Today was the first day back after a long six day snow break
So nice to be back in the swing of things.
Hope you had a great Tuesday and got to enjoy a break in snow too!

Why being in your late twenties rocks...

This was all inspired by a cool girlie list I read on Cosmo about being late twenties.

^^^^16 years old, pre-prom

I remember being 16 and thinking that was the perfect age.

I could drive.

I loved going places with friends without my parents.

Started wearing make-up.

Life revolved around the Friday night ball game and who was going to host the Friday night sleepover with my group of girlfriends that I was attached to the hip with.

Late twenties seemed so far away.

So not interesting.

And then came the early twenties in a blink of an eye.

College was an amazing blur.

Started dating Drew right before my 22nd birthday and knew my "dating" days were complete, I found the one. We did the long distance business for a year and half then both graduated a semester apart and started our careers both back in our hometown.

Yes, early twenties seemed to be a great place to be.

Late twenties and dare I say thirty were so far away why even think about it.

Then the surprise of my life happened when Drew popped the special question on the beach at sunset on a random long weekend beach trip. Definitely the best moment of my life. I still get butterflies when I think about it. This then led to engagement life bliss, buying our first home, wedding, and married life.

Now here I am 26, will be 27 in mid July.

Married.

Wrapping up my third year of teaching.

Loving staying home more than going out.

Learned to cook without the smoke alarms regularly going off.

Learning that marriage may not be perfect but little things can make it better and stronger each day.

And now I realize that this is a great age.

Yes, 16 was fun and carefree. Yes, college was fun and learned just as much about teaching as I did life. Yes, being engaged was exciting.

But...

Nothing compares to saying those wedding vows.

Nothing compares to hearing those wedding vows.

Nothing yet compares to being 26.

Now that the big 3-0 is closer that I ever thought it would be I'm okay with that.

I wouldn't trade where we are now for anything but finally, getting older doesn't seem that scary after all.