Stay Tuned . . .

I have recently made my first Chicken Noodle soup (with my new food processor!) and I am currently in the process of making a marinated porkloin, chocolate toffee trifle, taco pie cups, and taco dip. I will be blogging about them soon.

Christmas WHOO HOO part 4 (Scroll down to start on Part 1)

Okay, so finally on Christmas Day we went to my mom and dad's house for Christmas. We foolishly didn't take any pictures but we got a lot of wonderful gifts and my mom made a YUMMY meal. We had ham, scalloped potatoes, broccoli and cheese, rolls, and chocolate pie. Oh boy was it good! My grandma, Uncle Joe, his girlfriend Jamie, and my cousin Cristina came over to share dinner with us. We then watched Animusic which is a cool computer generated music DVD my dad loves. We had a nice time and it was really hard saying good bye to my mom and dad. Then later we went to my grandma's assisted living home and then back to Chad's grandma and grandpa's house.
Christmas night rolled around and our friends Megan, Evan, Chris, and Sarah came over along with Chad's brother and girlfriend to Chad's parents house and we all played on the Wii. It was lots of fun. So, overall we had a great holiday and although it was busy we wanted to see everyone! I hope you had a great holiday too!

Christmas WHOO HOO part 3

On Monday, Christmas Eve, we went to Chad's parents house I visited with his grandparents for a while and ran some errands with Chad's mom. Then it was time to get ready for mass. We picked up Chad's grandparents who have a hard time getting around while Chad's parents, brother, and sister-in-law (almost) saved us seats. Mass was nice it was good to sing all of Christmas songs and the homily was cool because the priest brought a bunch of kids up to help him with the sermon. Then we went back to Chad's parents house for a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner. Later that night we opened our gifts from Chad's parents and brother and girlfriend. It was lots of fun. Here are some pics . . .

Christmas WHOO HOO part 2

On Saturday we went to my Grandma's house for our family Christmas. We had lots and lots of fun and opened a million gifts. My mom has 8 brothers and sisters and all but 2 of them were at Grandma's along with their kids and grandkids. It was great to hang out with all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins. There were so many people and so much laughter. I am so happy that our family all gets along so well that we can have so much fun together! Our family is huge and I used to think it was weird but now I love it so much. The only sad thing was that my sis and my little cousin Sarah (who is like my sis) both weren't at Grandma's. Oh well, maybe they will come next year. I get to visit my sis in January anyway, thanks to Chad!
Here are some pics from the family party . . .

Christmas! WHOO HOO! Part 1

So we had a few Christmases this year (as always). Our first Christmas was at our house with just the two of us. We had lots of fun at our new house with our own tree and our gifts to each other. I have to say that overall, I cleaned up! Poor Chad hardly had anything to open. He got his Wii and PS3 in the last couple of weeks but he didn't have much to open during our Christmas. We are a couple of dorks, however, and took pictures of all of our stuff. So, if you can bear it, here is what we got each other . . .

I got two pyrex portables to bring delicious dishes other places.



My Western Michigan University flag. This is me saying GO BRONCOS!



Ornaments and a Taylor Swift CD. (I also got a snow globe, necklace, and Dance Dance Revolution dancing game for the Wii)



AND A brand new, chrome colored, 9 cup Kitchenaid Food Processor!

I think the best gift of all, however, was clearly the most thoughtful. Chad got me a trip to go down to South Carolina to visit my sister because she couldn't come home for Christmas. Chad knew how much I missed her and decided to surprise me with a plane ticket. What a nice hubby!

Poor Chad didn't get much

He got this sweater with red stripes and one with light blue stripes



Smartwool socks and gloves



And Chad's favorite gift . . . Guitar Hero for PS3!

We had a great Christmas together. The next morning we woke up and went to my Grandma's for our family Christmas!

Nintendo Wii

Alright, so we are twenty somethings with no kids. We are what people call DINKS. That stands for Dual Income - No Kids. It basically means we have more disposable income than most people. It is usually a temporary condition. We know for sure that it is temporary for us and I think Chad is feeling the pressure to spend money on himself when he can. SO, the day after Thanksgiving he got a Playstation 3. I thought, okay, he is trying to get fun stuff now when there are no diaper or daycare costs, that's cool.
Then we were at Best Buy on Friday we were looking at the Wii and it looked kinda fun. The guy at the store said they were getting 140 in on Sunday morning and the Wii is still so popular that people have to get in line early in the morning to get one. Crazy people, like my husband. So, those 8 inches of snow fell and the roads weren't plowed and my idiot husband drove to best buy at 5:30 to stand in line for a Wii. Well, I went back to sleep and he came home with a Wii, two games and two controllers.
At first I was a bit skeptical but that thing is AWESOME! With the Wii you move your body and the remotes to move the characters. We got a couple of sports games and I think my favorite is boxing. I totally kicked Chad's butt. It was so cool. We worked up quite a sweat. Awesome. So anyway, Chad is playing bowling and I am going to go beat him again (I'm a bit competitive can you tell?)
Now if only my shoulder would stop hurting from the non-stop Wii! :)

SNOW DAY - sort of

Well this weekend we got about 8 inches of snow and the back roads were still pretty bad this morning. Most of the districts around us had the day off and even the charter school in our town was off of school for today. I woke up at 5:30 a.m. hoping for the most joyous phone call that there was no school but alas, no call. I drove into work. The highway was fine but most of the side streets were still pretty rough.
Then, during the kids recess my co-worker came in to tell me that we won't have school TOMORROW! What? I thought she was full of it. Then she told me that the water main outside of our school (which has been on life support for months) has finally gone and they are cancelling school tomorrow to fix it as we wouldn't have any water in our school at all, which means no toilet flushing, yuck!
So, now I will have time to go shopping for the schools giving tree and have lunch with my friends but most imporantly . . . SLEEP IN! WHOO HOO!

So much to do, so little time!

It seems as though there are SO many things to do around this time of year. We have been making SO many Christmas crafts in our classroom this week it is starting to get ridiculous! We have been reading LOTS of Christmas books. Yesterday I read my favorite Christmas book which (embarassingly) is How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I love that book and I love the movie. I am always sure to share both with my Kindergarteners each year. Today I read The Polar Express which is a wonderful book. Many people now know the movie but the book is really well written and beautifully illustrated. The kids all sat there listening to the story in complete silence. They were hanging on every word and hardly interrupting the story, which is a Christmas miracle in itself this time of year!
I think tomorrow I will read The Night Before Christmas. I have found that the old fashioned wording in that books makes it harder for my kids to attend to but they still enjoy it. This class has been really into The Twelve Days of Christmas book/song this year.
On Monday we are making gingerbread men (wish me luck) and at some point we have to make parent gifts! I hope everyone is enjoying their Christmas season and are making many happy memories. :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I am getting pretty excited about Christmas. We did more shopping this weekend and I did plenty of wrapping. We attended my work Christmas party and I made my Chocolate Mousse and I think people liked it. The party was at a coworker's house who happens to be a neighbor. We actually walked over in the snow carrying the big bowl of Mousse. It was a great party. I had a few cocktails and we enede up staying and visiting with the hostess and her husband until after 2 a.m. I got home and felt okay but right before I went to sleep I remembered that one of my many tummy meds said DO NOT TAKE WITH ALCOHOL. Oh well, I thought, no harm done I seem to be just fine. Well, it hit me the next day. The beauty is that we slept until 11and then we went to Charlotte to look for a dining room table and then came home and relaxed for a majority of the afternoon.
Anyway we did more shopping today and we are doing pretty well overall. We basically have one weekend left before we go home for Christmas so we have to get a move on to get our shopping done. Unfortunately, my sis won't be coming home for Christmas this year so I have to get her present asap so I can ship it to her before Christmas. Oh well, I have decided to embrace the season and not get stressed out! I hope everyone is having fun getting ready for Christmas. We are making many Christmas things at school this week so I am in the mood for sure!

WHOOO HOOOOO!!!!!!

YEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAA! I did it! I finished my big, fat, complicated action research project for my inquiry in teaching master's class. YEE HA! What a feeling! I finished my online class on Sunday. I have a presentation board to make for this big project but the major bulk of the work is DONE! I feel GREAT about it! It has been hard work teaching full time and taking two classes. I knew I could do it but I am looking forward to so many other things in the Winter semester. I have a list of books to read, decorating to do, and cleaning to catch up on. Hitting that submit button was fantastic!

Outdoor Christmas Decorations!

When I lived alone in my little one bedroom apartment before we were married I put some white Christmas lights on my little balcony. Other than those two years I have never had an outdoor space to decorate. This year, as our first Christmas in our house, I knew I had to decorate. We live in a house with a big, white, wrap around porch. It was just SCREAMING for garland and a big wreath on the door. My hubby took the pics outside (way too cold for me) so I am not sure if you will be able to see how beautiful everything looks, but we are quite proud of our work.
In addition to our garland and wreath, we put up two animated deer (well, the lights didn't exactly work so we put some extra lights on them) and we also put up 3 light up trees (which all blew over today despite being staked to the ground). We plan to put some lights on a few more trees but I thought I would share what we have accomplished thus far. Enjoy!

Christmas Decorations!

Well, this is our second Christmas as a married couple but the first in our house. We lived in a beautiful apartment last year but we still had a small Christmas tree and no outdoor area to decorate. So, with the help of my Aunt Pat and Unc we picked up a 7 1/2 foot pre-lit Christmas tree from Sam's Club and they donated many outdoor decorations to us as well!

We looked everywhere for a Christmas tree. I love the pre-lit kind but many didn't have enough lights. 800 lights over 7 1/2 feet sounds like a lot, but it isn't. Our Sam's Club tree has 1500 lights! It is BEAUTIFUL and HUGE! I have lots of ornaments (too many for last years 4 1/2 foot tree) and they look great on the big moehusker in our living room this year.







My hutch, that my generous mother bought for me at an auction, has become a display area for all of my snowglobes (at the top) and our stockings.


My mom made my stocking (on the right) for me before I was born (do you think they were hoping for a boy or what?). She made them for us because her mom made them for all of her siblings when they were children. I carried on the tradition by making one for Chad and I will make one for each of our children. I love my blue stocking with turtles, frogs, and of course an orange. I made Chad's to reflect his love for sports and the University of Michigan.



I also put up our Nativity Scene that we bought from Bronner's CHRISTmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth. If you haven't been to the world's largest Christmas store, you are really missing out. There were 5 aisles of Nativity Scenes to choose from and I found the perfect one as well as a handmade creshe. Check it out:


I hope you enjoyed our indoor decorations. We have some wreaths, an advent calendar, bathroom decor, and welcome mats as well but I will spare you the details. If you want to see more you will have to stop by sometime!

Thanksgiving!

Well, I know it is December but I have been busy with working full time, taking two master's classes, and decorating for Christmas. But, I wanted to share some pics etc. from Thanksgiving.
First, Chad and I split our time between both of our families during Thanksgiving. Our parents live about 25 minutes from one another which is both a blessing and a curse. We seem to run ourselves ragged going back and forth several times in a couple of days. I think, however, that we are lucky in the fact that we get to see both families instead of having to choose one.
We started at my Grandma's house for Thanksgiving. There are always a MILLION pies (and my mousse in the back left corner) and PLENTY to eat. There are also a million people there. I can't imagine a Thanksgiving with less than 20 people. Here are some pics:
Here are all of the pies and desserts


Dad and Sis


Chad and Unc


Then we went to Chad's mom and dad's house. We had another Thanksgiving meal just a few hours later. Chad's brother's girlfriend made a huge dinner for us. It was really good!
Chad's Mom and I


Lots of food!


We had a great time at both Thanksgivings. We are so blessed to have such great families to celebrate with!

Grandma's Famous Chocolate Mousse

My Grandma is 89 years old and one of the best cooks I have ever had the pleasure to meet. She always had some home cooked goodness (minus the smokey links that I pretended to like). You could always count on grandma to have some pudding or cookies or pie hiding in the house somewhere! She currently lives in an assisted living home and recently gave my sister, Mary, and I her recipes to split between the two of us. I am really looking forward to the prospect of looking through the box of edible memories. I think what I love about Grandma, besides her sense of humor, is that her cooking is totally down home. She doesn't mess around with fancy shmancy gourmet stuff, she cooks with meat, potatoes, and other "all american" ingredients.
Every year for Easter and other holidays at my parents' house Grandma would bring her famous Chocolate Mousse. More importantly she would always bring it in a beautiful glass bowl shaped like a strawberry. I LOVED that bowl, I would admire it and fawn over it. When Grandma moved to the assisted living home she gave away many of her possessions and she was sure to give me the mousse bowl.
This Thanksgiving I carried on the tradition of the Chocolate Mousse. It is rich, creamy, and frankly too easy to believe. Deb cover your eyes, you will be appalled at this recipe:

Grandma's Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients:
14 oz. sweetened condensed milk
4 oz package chocolate instant pudding POWDER ONLY(the fat free/sugar free is like 1.3 oz, it is basically the smaller box or 4 serving package)
1 cup cold water
1 large cool whip container (one size up from the small one)

Directions:
Combined condensed milk, pudding mix, and water. Beat until well blended. Chill 5 minutes.
Fold in cool whip and chill.

I know it sounds like it would be kinda gross but it tastes very good and it seems like it would have taken a lot of work. I had several people ask for the recipe at Thanksgiving, so here it is! Sorry it took so long!

I know!

I know that I haven't blogged in forever and that I promised a few people a few things here in the blog but I have been VERY busy, like I'm sure the rest of you have been. We put up the Christmas Tree and all of the outdoor things (our first Christmas in a house!) and I can't wait to share all of that with you guys (all 2 or 3 of you) but right now I am so exhausted that I don't have time. I will also put some pics/recipes from Thanksgiving (seems like months ago). Sorry I am so behind but I promise to catch up soon (after that 15 page paper is written tomorrow maybe?) I hope that December has found everyone well. I am hoping for more snow and a snow day on Monday *wishful thinking*