Happy Easter!!

I hope the Easter bunny brought everyone lots of goodies and the little ones have fun hunting for Easter eggs!!

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Easter and have a wonderful day!!



Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here is yet another recipe I got off Pinterest and decided to try last weekend. :)

I thought homemade chocolate chip cookies would be a great treat on our 3rd snow storm! These turned out super yummy and I can't wait to make them again. I had to keep telling myself not to eat so many at once they were so good. LOL



Ingredients:



·         1 cup butter

·         1 cup sugar

·          1/2 cup brown sugar

·         2 eggs

·         2 tsp vanilla

·         2 1/4 cups flour

·         1 tsp baking soda

·         1/2 tsp salt

·         1 12 ounce bag semi-sweet chocolate chips. 

Directions:

1.        Preheat oven to 375

2.       Cream together butter and sugar, beat in eggs and vanilla.

3.       In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt, and baking soda.

4.      Gradually beat into butter/sugar mixture, add chocolate chips and stir in.

5.       Spoon onto ungreased cookie sheet.

6.       Bake 8-10 mins

Book: The Vampire Diaries: Dark Reunion

I haven't been very good lately about posting when I'm reading a book. I have had a lot going on and it just keeps slipping my mind. 

When I first started reading this series I was very unsure about it....I'm still unsure about it but I keep reading on because I need to know how all this ends in the books. I guess you could say I'm hooked but I'm not as hooked as I have been in other books. I can do days without reading and be fine, but I like the books that I can't stand not to be reading b/c I need to know what happens next. LOL, if that makes any sense. :) 

I just finished Dark Reunion last week and yes I have kept going in the series. 

Happy St. Patty's Day....

I know I know I'm a little late on wishing everyone a Happy St. Patty's Day. I have been side tracked with getting another project done for a friend. I'm making her son's Graduation Announcements/Party Invites. So that has been taking up most of my time when I'm home from work. 

I hope everyone had a fun and safe St. Patrick's Day. The day before Shane and I had a little get together with some friends. We hung out, played Rock Band and had some drinks. We had a good time hanging out and celebrating. 

These we the centerpieces in our Pub area. They were filled with Chex Mix and Popcorn. Both were a big hit! 

 I made green beer for the celebration. 

 I worked hard on making this homemade cookie cake. It turned out awesome! 

 My sis and I, aren't we cute. :) 

Jasper, AR - 2012

This is our book from when we took a weekend trip to a Cabin in Jasper, Arkansas. We took this trip shortly after we moved into our house. It was such a fun trip and nice to just get away for a few days after hard work of getting our house together. :) 

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2012 Memories

I got our book for 2012 all completed and order just a few weeks ago. I haven't gotten too behind on keeping up with our photo books. I have one vacation left to finish up from last year and 2012 will be complete and I can keep up to date with 2013. :) 

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Congrats To The New Sailor Nick!!

In January my sister's boyfriend went off to join the Navy. Shane and I were very proud of him for joining! I'm sure something like that is scary to do with leaving for so long not seeing your family, friends, girlfriend of whoever. I would be freaked out for sure! But Nick had the courage to take the step and join and for that we couldn't be more happy for him! We do miss him!! 

Last weekend he graduated from boot camp!! Shane and I wished we could have gone down to Chicago to watch him graduate but it just didn't work out for us. My sister did go down with Nick's dad so she got to see him after 3 month, so was so happy and couldn't wait! 

For his graduation gift I decided to make him a Navy frame. 

Congrats to the new Sailor Nick!! We are so proud of you and can't wait to see you when you get home!! 

Buffalo Wings

A few weeks ago I really wanted some wings but I didn't want to go out. So, I got online to try and find a good wing recipe that we could make at home, and I found a great one! We had everything for it expect the wings. This recipe turned out good the first time but the second time we added more sauce and it was awesome! 

The sauce

 Turned out good but Shane & I agreed they needed more sauce. 

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. chicken wings (about 12 wings)
• 3 Tbsp. butter, melted
• 4 Tbsp. bottled hot pepper sauce (like Crystal or Frank's Original)
• 1 Tbsp. paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Directions:

1. Cut off wing tips (discard or reserve for other use such as making stock). Cut wings at the joint. Put chicken wing pieces in a plastic bag. Set aside. Food safety note: when cutting raw chicken it is best to use a cutting board reserved just for cutting raw chicken. Wash thoroughly when finished. Do not let raw chicken juices come in contact with other food.
2. Create a marinade by stirring together the melted butter, hot pepper sauce, paprika, salt, cayenne pepper and black pepper. Pour all but 2 tablespoons of the marinade over the chicken pieces in the plastic bag. (Reserve those 2 Tbsp. of marinade for coating after the pieces come out of the oven.) Seal bag and let marinate at room temperature for half an hour. When marinating is finished, drain marinade and discard bag.
3. Place wing pieces on the rack of a broiler pan. Broil 4 to 5 inches from the heat for about 10 minutes on each side, until chicken is tender and no longer pink. Remove from oven and baste with the 2 Tbsp. of reserved marinade (not the marinade that was in contact with the raw chicken).

Live, Laugh, Love Frame

On Friday Feb 21st was a co-worker of mines last day. She was with our company for 15 years! I have worked with her for many years now and she has been wonderful. I became close with her and she was always there for me on my days and I needed someone to vent to. I will really miss working with her but wish her the best of luck in the future! 

Another co-worker of mine came up to me a couple days before her last day and I asked if I would make her a frame that said "Live Laugh Love" as a goodbye gift. So of course I wasn't going to say no. I got a frame and sit down one night and made a cute little frame for her. I was so pleased how this frame came out that I wanted to keep to for myself, but I didn't! LOL. I didn't decide that I want to make some for our house to put in the hallway with all the pictures I want to hang in there. I can't wait! 

The girl we gave this too really liked it! I'm sure it's going to look great in her house! 

Round 2 of the Snow

I just posted not even a week ago about our snowstorm. We got hit with about 10 inches of snow the first round on Thurs Feb 21st and then they started calling for another storm starting Monday night the 25th. They said this storm could be worse then the first one! Really worse we didn't need more snow, we hadn't even got rid of the snow from the prior week. They kept changing the time of when the storm was going to start, when I went to bed Monday night it still wasn't snowing. I kept an opened mind with this storm b/c with the first one I thought they were making a bigger deal then what was coming but I was wrong on that front.

I woke up Tuesday morning to more SNOW! I woke Shane up and told him it was his call if he wanted to chance going to work or just working from home that day. We walked downstairs and opened the front door and he said "Ummm No we aren't going to work today". So, we both worked from home Tuesday and decided to stay in which was good b/c we couldn't even get on our road b/c of all the snow on it. We couldn't even see our street when we looked out the front door. It was just a white mess out there. So, we got about another 10 inches of snow with the 2nd storm as well. It just crazy looking outside or driving and just seeing so much snow. I don't even remember when the last time we had this much snow was. 

This is how much snow was on the arm of rocking chair outside. 

 The snow is very pretty don't get me wrong and I love taking pictures of it. But, when I have to dig my way out of the driveway and go out in it then I would prefer for it to go away. LOL 

This is our tree in the backyard.

Up close of the snow on the branches.

 The tree in the front yard. Right behind the tree is a half cul-de-sac but obviously you can't see it! 

 See told you no seeing a road or driveway. Crazy!

 This was our mountain of snow after shoveling half the driveway. This was from the first storm and this one. It's never going to melt! LOL 

They didn't come clear our road till about 8:00 pm that night, it's a good thing they did our we could have got stuck again on the road going to work the next day. 

We got our snow this winter now I'm ready for it to melt and bring on Spring!! 

Book: The Vampire Diaries: The Fury

I just realized that I'm almost done with book 3 and I never posted that I was reading it. Oops..Well here is the post now. I started reading this book in the middle of February and I just have a few pages left to go.

I'm slowing starting to enjoy these books but it's still hard for since I watch the show and these don't follow it, that makes it's hard but I'm getting there. Hopefully by today or tomorrow I will start on book 4.

The Fury