Easter Weekend 2010

We had a wonderful 3-day Easter weekend.  Chris' mom, sisters, and nephew were able to come to our house for the weekend, which was really nice.  We had a full house, but it was fun.

After grilling some hamburgers for dinner, we made a visit to the Parker's house (long time friends of Chris' family that live really close to us).  There was cornhole and roasting marshmellows over a fire for smores.  It was a beautiful night to spend outside and catch up with the Parker's!

Saturday morning consisted of Chris running 13 miles, me running 12, and some yummy breakfast casserole (made by Chris).  Chris and I were both glad we were able to finish our runs before the rain came!  Then around noon we piled in the car to run some errands.  We found Chris some new work boots, found some pretty good deals at Old Navy, and picked up some last minute things for Easter lunch on Sunday.  Since it was a rainy day, we just spent the day inside.  Everyone besides me and Dominik played a game of Mexican train dominoes while I finished some things for church and watched.  (Max and Maggie took the opportunity to lay down.)  Then we ate lasagna while we watched the start of the Butler/Michigan St. final four game.  We watched basketball until it was time for bed!

Sunday brought a beautiful day to celebrate Easter!  It was kind of a crazy morning at church since both Chris and I had responsibilities that morning.  The worship was pretty awesome - all upbeat songs celebrating Jesus' resurrection!  We made it home to have Easter lunch.  We got to invite a couple from our small group (John and Stacie) since they don't have any family nearby.  So we got to have lunch with our family and friends!  Our lunch consisted of honey-glazed ham, green bean casserole, cheesy hashbrown casserole, and rolls.  It was also a good excuse to get out our china (since we've only used it once or twice before).  And I can't forget to mention the wonderful carrot cake that Stacie made.  It was so delicious!  I'm not sure I've ever been crazy about carrot cake, but she made me like it.  It had raisins inside and the icing was so good with nuts on the outside.  Even though she told us it was her first time making it, we knew it would still be good...and we were right :)

After lunch, it was time for the egg hunt!  This was really only for Dominik.  Kaitlyn did it with him, so he wasn't alone.  Chris and John hid the eggs in the backyard.  There weren't too many hiding places.  It was ironic that one of the last eggs to be found was hidden in some of our taller grass!  I think everyone had a good time both watching and participating.  'Grandma' even gave the dogs an Easter treat during the egg hunt :)

Thanks again to Chris' family for spending the weekend with us!  And thanks to John and Stacie for celebrating Easter with us too!  We hope you had a chance to celebrate Easter with your friends and family too.

A beautiful (almost) spring day

Today was such a beautiful day!  I enjoyed it and so did Maggie.  We got to play frisbee twice in the backyard today!  Here are several pics that I took today.

Maggie was panting after our first time playing outside :)

There she is with her beloved frisbee.  She loves that thing!  She's the one who grabbed it out of the laundry room (that's normally closed) today so she could play with it.

You probably won't ever guess what these ingredients are for...Well, we had sloppy joe's for dinner, so that's it.  Yes, it's really good and so simple!

A beautiful sunset for the end to a beautiful day!

03.15.10

I've decided to try and take a picture of our flowers each day so I can see how they grow.  So here's the first picture!

Scrapbook Sunday XIV

03.14.10

So I have two things to share today.  The first is the front of a b-day card I made yesterday.

Recently, I saw cards with rounded corners and I love the idea!  I think I'll start making more of my cards with the rounded corners.  It's so easy and it just adds that extra something.

And here's a layout for this week.  Nothing too exciting, but it's another page in my Disney/Florida trip album.  I wanted to use this bright green paper, but it is really bright.  I decided to tone it down by using the grey cardstock and the vellum.

03.13.10

I was glad I received my Mary Kay stuff in the mail today!

03.12.10

This is a picture of our bread from this week.  It may seem strange that I took a picture of our bread, but L'oven Fresh changed their packaging this week!

I'm just l'oven these new colors.  The teal reminds me of the fashion show because teal is one of our colors this year!

03.11.10

I just had to capture this colorful sky (through the kitchen window) during the sunrise this morning.  Isn't God awesome?

03.10.10

It's great to see our bulbs starting to come up and bloom.  Today was absolutely gorgeous!  I believe the temps got into the 70's!

I think I might try to take a picture of the same spot in the flower bed each day.  It would be cool to see the growth from day to day.  I better start soon though!

03.09.10

Since we didn't find Chris any running shoes in the store, he decided to order them from Road Runner.  They came so fast (like 3 days)!  Chris is currently wearing Asics Nimbus'.

Road Runner is great if you know what kind of running shoes you like (and what size).  They have a deal where you can signup to be a VIP member for a few dollars but then you get free shipping and 10% off.  It's kind of a no-brainer!

03.08.10

While I was out today I noticed that they are now doing construction on Cumberland Road in W. Laf.  This is definitely a good thing if you had ever been on that road.  I don't drive on it much, but it was pretty rough when I had before.

03.06.10

Chris and I went shopping today in search of new running shoes for both of us.  We were successful in finding me both new shoes and running shorts.  (Yes, these shoes are purple :) And they are Asics Gel-Kayano's.) Chris had no luck finding shoes in the store.

03.05.10

Chris and I decided to grill for the first time tonight.  We ate dinner at our normal time (7:30) so Chris had to grill with a flashlight.  But those hamburgers and potatoes were so good and I'm glad we got to share them with a friend who came over last night.  I'm looking forward to many more meals that we cook on the grill for the next several months.

03.04.10

It was so good to see the blue sky and sunshine today.

03.03.10

I made meatloaf, green bean casserole, and rice tonight.  It was good.  We hadn't made meatloaf in a while.

I love home-cooked meals...even if I'm the one making them.

03.02.10

It's so good to not have snow at the end of the driveway like we have for a while.

03.01.10

As we welcome March in today, the geese are back at the ponds.  This is one of the first days that I've seen them back since last year.  (This is a good sign that spring is coming soon!)  It was funny listen to them walk on the ice.  It sounded a little slushy since it's getting warmer.  I was just hoping one of them didn't fall through the ice!

Scrapbook Sunday XIII

02.28.10

Another page from our trip to Florida.  These pics are at Magic Kingdom on lots of different "rides".  I like the simplicity of it (and the fact that I was able to use some of my paper scraps).

02.27.10

So I checked out a new book from the library yesterday afternoon and I find myself not being able to put it down today.  Chris is out of the house at a dodgeball tourney so the house is quiet and the dog is sleeping on the couch.

I love these days that you can just spend a few hours doing something so simple.

02.26.10

(I decided to share 2 pictures today since I didn't have one for yesterday.)
My hubby started feeling bad last night.  (He's actually been struggling a bit the last couple weeks.)  So he decided to take a sick day today.  He needed it for his physical and mental health.  His body needed a break.  It was nice to have him home too.  Maggie definitely didn't mind having him home.  She got to nap with him on the couch.

Chris kept saying that he wanted chicken noodle soup for dinner when I asked him.  So I made a quick run to the store to get a few ingredients we didn't already have.  I found a quick recipe from Rachel Ray.  I thought I would share it.  It's so easy and was really good for such few ingredients.  It was also thicker than normal chicken noodle soup which is what I really appreciated about it.  This will be a keeper at our house.  Here's a link to the recipe and I've put the ingredients below that I used.

Rachel Ray's Quick Chick and Noodle Soup

Ingredients
2 tbsp. olive oil
3 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
dried bay leaves
salt and pepper
6 cups chicken broth
2 large cans of diced chicken
1/2 pound of wide pasta noodles
Parsley
Dill
(I would've normally added the chopped onion but omitted it per request of the sick one.)

02.24.10

I don't know about everyone else, but I'm officially getting tired of all the snow (and winter in general).  It's very pretty and is also one of my favorite parts of winter.  But I also have to run it and I don't like that.  So it can move on it's way and let warmer temperatures come in.  It is in fact almost March!

There is someone that I don't think will ever mind it (at least while she's being walked)!  And that would be this little lady.

02.23.10

This is a common sight around our house.

Yes, there's usually a stack of mail.  It's inevitable.

I think it is just in my genes to have a stack of mail sitting somewhere.  It was always the case when I was growing up (and hasn't stopped since I moved out of my parents' house).  Therefore, it's not my fault, right?

02.22.10

Maggie and I went for a walk tonight around one of the ponds.  I was rather stupid and soaked my shoes pretty much all the way through.  There was a part of the path around the pond that was essentially underwater.  Except it wasn't just any water.  It was snowy, slushy, ice cold water.  And I think I walked through the deepest part.  Maggie was just wondering why I was having such a cow walking through it and then she decided she needed to start jumping.  Luckily she didn't get me too dirty.  Ahh...such is life.

Scrapbook Sunday XII

02.21.10

Here's the layout I completed this week (again from my trip to Florida with my family).  These pictures are from the "Share a Dream Come True" Parade.

I actually printed the journaling block off of Creating Keepsakes magazine's website.  They have a fair number of free downloads for various scrapbooking things.

02.20.10

Chris and I had a great time in Indianapolis today.  He ran in the 2010 Polar Bear 5-mile Race.  He did good - he placed 3rd in his age group and 8th overall!  It was easy to spot him since he was wearing his orange shirt.

We also got to watch Kaitlyn compete in the Circle of Stars gymnastics competition in the afternoon.  She was able to compete in all of her events even though she had broken her thumb 5 weeks earlier and had only been released for a week!  It was fun watching her since we don't get to do it much.

02.19.10

Necessities in life are not always pretty.

02.18.10

I love the fact that I can take a break from my work in the late morning to throw some roast, potatoes, and carrots in the crock pot, all while being in my pj's.

02.17.10

Today I was so tired of the nasty state of the outside of my car.  It was time for all of that salt and winter yuckiness to be gone (at least temporarily).  So I took it by the manual car wash.  Haven't used one of those in a while.  (Normally we wash cars at home.)  Looks much better now.  Now I don't have to cringe every time I look at it.

02.16.10

My new pj's that I got for Christmas.

02.15.10

There was a little more snow that fell today.  I decided to capture Maggie's footprints next to mine.

Scrapbook Sunday XI

02.14.10

A simple page from my family's trip to Disney World.  (I just slapped the 4x6 pics onto a page from a scrapbooking kit I bought while we were there.)  Even though I was 19 at the time, it was so much fun meeting the Disney characters!

02.13.10

The trees were frosty again this morning because it was so cold (0 degrees)!  I'm glad I decided to take an upclose picture of the branches today because they look like that "rock candy" you can get on a stick.

Yes, I still went on my long run this morning.  It was cold.  I'm just glad there wasn't much wind.  I set out to run 9 miles, but found out that I ran more like 9.5 or closer to 10!  I can't believe I'm already up at this mileage again.  It seems like my training time is going faster this year.

02.12.10

This was the view out our kitchen window this morning.  The trees were kind of frosty because of the cold air (and some freezing fog, I think).

02.11.10

Maggie loves playing with the squeaky beaver her aunt Katie got her for Christmas.

No, I did not put her beaver in front of her (this time).

02.10.10

We had some more snow fall yesterday and last night.  The winds were also blowin the snow everywhere.  This is how the snow formed on the east side of our house.

02.09.10

Today I made some BBQ beef for dinner tonight.

It's really very simple to make.

Ingredients
Really any kind of beef roast (today we used a rump roast)
Onion
Seasoning salt
Water
BBQ sauce of your choice

Sprinkle the roast with seasoning salt and put in a crock pot with about half an onion and about 2 cups of water (depending on the size of meat).  Cook on low for 5-6 hours.  Take meat out of the crock pot, remove fat and bone, and shred.  Remove all of the liquid and onion from the crock pot, but reserve a few cups of the juice.  Put shredded meat back in the crock pot.  Mix a small amount of juice with a larger amount of BBQ sauce.  Pour on top of meat and mix together.  Repeat if necessary until the meat is covered with desired amount of sauce.  Cook on low for another 30 minutes to an hour or until warm.  Enjoy!

02.08.10

We are still claiming the Colts after last night's loss in the Super Bowl.  It was a good game to watch, but the Colts were definintely out-played by the Saints.  We just wish it would've been a little closer.  Nevertheless, it was fun to hang out with our friends and watch our first football game on the new tv.