Baseball and Ballet

Sister Crafts

2009-11-14T17:31:00.002-05:00

My sister Shelby and I are getting together for Thanksgiving and we want to do some cute craft projects together! We are going to be together for 4 days during Thanksgiving and we want to do 4 craft projects. The projects that we are going to make need to be small and light because I have to take them with me on the plane. We will have easy access to a Hobby Lobby and Michaels so getting craft supplies together should be pretty easy and fun!!

We are each going to think of 2 crafts to make. I am thinking of making tassels like the Nester makes and a swag garland like this. But I want to make one using Christmas colors!

I can't wait to see what crafts my sister picks out for us to do!!

TGIF!!!

2009-11-13T18:37:00.000-05:00

I am SO happy that it's Friday! This has been such a long week! Graig was out of town for two days and work was CRAZY busy! I am ready for a relaxing weekend. Tonight after work I got my hair cut, I LOVE the way she cut it, I get it cut every 8 weeks and my next appointment isn't until 2010!

Tomorrow was suppose to be Brock's first 7th grade basketball game but the team his school was playing is closed due to illness so he doesn't have a game tomorrow.

Ava has cheerleading and ballet. It's watch week so I get to watch her tomorrow during her ballet!

This weekend Ava has two birthday parties to go to and I have to make 8 dozen cookies for Ava's dance school! I also want to put away all of our fall stuff and start getting out our Christmas stuff!! So we should have a fun weekend!

Chicken and Rice Casserole

2009-11-10T21:36:00.000-05:00

I made this delicious Chicken and Rice casserole last night for dinner, it is great!! I got it from Paula Dean on the Food Network site. You can go here to get more great recipes from Food Network. I LOVE Paula Dean but her dishes can be so fattening, I did make a few changes to this recipe to keep the calories and fat content a little lower, but I think my version came out just as good!

photo from foodnetwork.com

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, peeled and diced (everyone in my family besides me HATES onion so I left this out)
3 cups diced, cooked chicken ( I used 3 chicken breasts that I cooked in the crock pot)
2 (14 1/2-ounce) cans green beans, drained and rinsed
1 (10 3/4-ounce) can condensed cream of celery soup (I used cream of chicken soup)
1 cup mayonnaise ( I used 1/2 cup of light mayo and it worked fine)
1 (6-ounce) box long-grain wild rice, cooked according to package directions
1 cup grated sharp Cheddar
Pinch salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Heat butter or oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add onion and saute until translucent, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer to a large bowl.
Add all remaining ingredients to bowl and mix together until thoroughly combined.
Pour into a greased 3-quart casserole dish. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until bubbly. Let stand for a few minutes before serving

This was so good and a very easy weeknight meal, I will make this recipe again!

Watch Week!

2009-11-09T20:21:00.000-05:00

This week is Watch Week at Ava's dance studio! I got to watch 3 of her classes tonight, it was a lot of fun! Her schedule for Mondays is Hip Hop, Tap and Lyrical. Poor thing she goes from one class to the next she doesn't get a break in between her classes. She is SO tired when she gets home on Monday nights!
I did take some pictures of her tonight but they didn't turned out really dark so here are some pictures that I took of her last year during dance.

Ava with her dance teacher Jill right after the Christmas dance show

Ava with her friend Gracie before the end of year show in June

Beautiful Ballerinas! Before the show last June

Ava with two friends at their dress rehersal in June!

I also get to watch her do Jazz on Friday night and Ballet on Saturday morning. This should be a fun week!!

Sunday sneak peak

2009-11-08T22:05:00.000-05:00

Today was a VERY productive day! I LOVE days like that. Brock was at a friends house, Ava spent the day with Grandma Jan and Graig was watching football at his friends house so I had the WHOLE house to myself! I spent the day cleaning and organizing, it was fabulous! I finally got to clean Ava's playroom in the attic, it has been a wreck for such a long time! I also organized my craft area in the basement and took 2 naps! I am still not 100% better from when I was sick and I get tired SO easily. I took a nap this afternoon and another little one earlier this evening. I am happy to finally be going back to work tomorrow!

Here's a sneak peak of a project that I started today, I hope to finish this project this week!

Happy Sunday!

Christmas Swap!!!

2009-11-07T18:03:00.000-05:00

Clemsongirl is hosting a Christmas swap!! I participated last year and it was SO much fun!! I am participating again this year and I can't wait to shop for presents for my swap partner!! You can go to her site to get all the details about the swap, the deadline to sign up is next weekend. Here are my gifts from last year's swap, I love all the sweet gifts I got!

Have a good weekend!!

Show us your life-Thanksgiving Traditions!!!

2009-11-06T13:06:00.000-05:00

Today Kelly's Korner is doing a "show us your life-thanksgiving traditions! So I thought I would share our traditions. I LOVE Thanksgiving! It seems like each year we do something a little different. Two years in a row we went to NYC to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, last year we spent Thanksgiving Day at home, and this year Brock and I are going to Illinois to visit my family and Ava and Grandma Jan are going to Colorado to see Uncle Garth while Graig stays home to work.

We will have Thanksgiving Dinner together as a family this year the weekend before we leave and these are two dishes that I am going to make

Rice, broccoli, cheese casserole ( I LOVE this!)
1 onion dices
3 tbsp. butter
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup milk
1 (10oz) pkg frozen broccoli
1/2 lb. velvetta cheese, cut up into squares
1 1/2 cups cooked rice
Saute onion in butter. Combine with remaining ingredients in a greased 1 1/2 quart casserole dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Makes 8 servings

Double layer pumpkin pie (my Dad's recipe) sooooo good!!
4 oz. cream cheese (softened)
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon cold milk
1 tablespoon sugar
1 8 oz. tub of cool whip
1 prepared graham cracker crust
1 can (16 oz.) pumpkin
2 pkg (4 serving size) instant vanilla pudding and pie mix
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp, ground ginger

In a large bowl mix cream cheese, 1 tablespoon milk, and sugar with wire whisk until smooth. Stir in 1 1/2 cups whipped topping spead on bottom of crust.
In a second bowl stir pumpkin, pudding mix and spices unto remaining milk, beat with wire whisk until well blended (mixture will be thick) spead over cream cheese layer
Refigerate 5 hours serve with remaining whipped topping.

I just found this thankfulness jar on etsy so I ordered it today, I think it will make a nice addition to our Thanksgiving table this year! I want us each to write down some things we are thankful for and then we can put them in the jar and talk about them during our Thanksgiving meal.

Some of Ava's turkey artwork from last year

Our Thanksgiving Table last year.

Have a good weekend!!

Here we go again...

2009-11-05T20:22:00.000-05:00

I am back to feeling bad again, YUCK!! Last night I kept coughing and coughing and I couldn't get to sleep. I think I got about 3 hours of sleep last night total, I am the kind of person that needs a solid 8 hours to function so that lack of sleep + lots of coughing = another day home from work. I called my doctor's office to get an appointment today because I think I have bronchitis but they were all booked up today so I made an appointment for tomorrow morning. I hope I can get medicine so I can get better for the weekend! I don't want to waste another weekend being sick!

To cheer myself up today I went up to the attic and got out our Thanksgiving decorations. We don't have too much stuff but I do like to add a little thanksgiving cheer!

Turkey hotpad in our kitchen! I love this little turkey!

Thanksgiving Platter I got last fall. I love the golden yellow color of this platter!

Give Thanks sign, this is my favorite Thanksgiving decoration, I got it SO many years ago but I still love getting it out every year. I put it in our living room.

Tonight I am watching my Thursday night shows and going through my work email...exciting I know!!

Today I am thankful for my supportive students and co-workers! Everyone has been SO nice during my sickness, I have gotten a ton of "get well soon" emails and they really make me feel SO good!

Uncle Garth!!

2009-11-04T20:13:00.003-05:00

Graig's brother Garth just got into town today! He lives in Colorado and is here visiting for a week! Brock and Ava are so excited because they haven't seen him since he came to visit last fall. Ava and Grandma Jan will be spending Thanksgiving in Colorado this year with Uncle Garth and Jill, while Brock and I are in Illinois visiting my family. So Ava gets to see Uncle Garth twice this month!

Tonight Graig got Brooks takeout and we ate and caught up with Garth. After dinner they watched the Yankee game!! I really really hope the Yankees win the World Series tonight! Brock and Graig would be SO happy!!

Here is a picture of Brock, Ava and Uncle Garth from last year. I love this picture of them, it's on our fridge!

Ava wasn't feeling well today so I stayed home AGAIN! She slept for 5 hours this afternoon, poor thing! She is going back to school tonorrow and I am going back to work! I bet I have aboout 100 emails and phone messages, it will be crazy but I HAPPY to be feeling better finally!!

Today I am thankful for our siblings-Graig has two brothers, Gary and Garth, and I have one sister, Shelby.!!

Happy Wednesday!

Thankfulness

2009-11-03T18:55:00.002-05:00

Well I have been sick since Friday. I still feel awful! The doctor said I have an acute viral infection which means antibiotics don't work and I just have to rest and drink lots of water to recover. I am SO over sleeping and watching TV so today I looked a a few new blogs. I feel like I never have enough time to visit all the great blogs out there and it was nice to spend some time looking through them. I found one post that I LOVED and I that I am going to try to do this month. Katie said that her pastor's wife posted on her facebook page to write about one thing you are thankful for every day for the rest of the month.
Isn't this a GREAT idea?? I don't think I'll post it on facebook but I do want to post it on my blog. I have SO much to be thankful for and SO much of the time I focus on what I don't have or what I hope to have someday that I forget all of the things I have now to be thankful for. I have many, many blessings in my life.
This past summer, one of my former students posted this as her status on facebook. I liked the quote so much that I printed it out and put it in our kitchen so I can always see it. I love Oprah and I think this is such a great quote, it's so true!
It says
"Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have you will never, ever have enough."-Oprah

I put it in my kitchen for two reasons 1) We are ALWAYS in there and 2) my kitchen is my LEAST favorite room in my whole house so this reminds me to concentrate on all the things in my life I am thankful for, like the fact that we own a home and I have a kitchen to hate-ha ha!
So I am going to do this challenge until Thanksgiving! I am going to try to put this on the side of my blog so I can look back at all the things I am thankful for.

The biggest blessings and the two people that I am MOST thankful for are Brock and Ava. Being their Mom and watching them grow up has been the BIGGEST blessing of my life. I am so thankful they are happy and healthy. They are amazing and I am so happy that Graig and I are their parents!! The time goes by SO fast I can't believe they are already 12 and 7, I keep reminding myself to SLOW down and take everything in because in just few years Brock will be going off to College!

Have a great (and thankful!) Tuesday!

Paper Boy!

2009-11-02T19:15:00.000-05:00

For the past few months Graig and I have been talking about Brock getting his first job. I know he's only 12 but Graig thinks it's important and I think it's a good idea too. Graig grew up on a Dairy Farm and he got up early every morning to help with chores in the barns before school. Since we don't live on a farm Graig wanted Brock to have an opportunity to earn money, and feel a sense of accomplishment from his work. Graig is the HARDEST worker that I have ever met he LOVES working and has such a great work ethic that I agreed that it would be good for Brock to learn those skills now. Today was his first day as a Paper Boy! His route isn't in our neigborhood so Graig is going to drive him to the houses that he delivers to. They dropped the papers off really early this morning. Graig and Brock got up at 5:30 to wrap the papers and get ready for their first day. I am still sick as a dog but I got up to take a few pictures because I wanted to document this important day, the pictures aren't the best I hope to get some better ones when I am feeling better and Brock and Graig aren't so crabby-ha ha!

Of course Ava wanted to get up early too! She actually went with them this morning, she loves her sleep so I don't think she will want to go evey morning. Poor thing she hardly looks awake in this picture. See the pictures in the background? She helped fold them up.

Graig and Brock on the move! They put the papers in the green bin and away they went!

Halloween Weekend

2009-11-01T20:03:00.000-05:00

I had big plans for a fun and productive weekend. I took Friday off because Brock and Ava had a day off of school. I started feeling sick right before lunch on Friday and I just kept feeling worse and worse. By the time Graig got home at 4 I felt miserable. I slept all night Friday night and ALL day Saturday. I didn't even go trick or treating with Brock and Ava last night :( Thank God for Grandma Jan she came over and helped Ava get ready and took her trick or treating last night. After Trick or Treating Brock and Ava went to her house to spend the night. This afternoon I finally went to the doctor, he said it was just a bad viral infection and he said that I should feel better in a few days. I HATE being sick, this has not been a good weekend!

Trick or Treat!

2009-10-29T21:39:00.000-04:00

Tonight I took Brock and Ava to the Halloween carnival and trick or treating on campus. Ava had the best time! She loves halloween, especially the candy. We met our neighbors and they went with us. They were M and M's and they were SO cute!! We only had time to go to 2 residence halls, which was enough. Ava got a TON of candy!

Ava playing pumpkin bowling at the carnival.

Trick or Treat!! Ava wore her vest the whole time we were trick or treating she was so chilly!

I love this picture of all of them, they look SO cute and they are SO happy!

Halloween Fun!

2009-10-28T21:29:00.000-04:00

Tonight I took Brock and Ava to a Halloween party at the Boys and Girls Club in our town. Ava dressed up like an 80's girl and Brock (and all of his friends-ha ha) were too cool to dress up so he didn't dress up.

The party was a lot of fun they had a costume contest, haunted house, gross anatomy room, games and lots of food. It was a lot of fun!! They got SO much candy!

Ava with her friend Olivia

We came home and got ready for bed and now we are watching the Yankees! Brock is the biggest Yankees fan and he is SO excited they are in the World Series!

Tomorrow night we are going to a halloween carnival and to trick or treating on campus, it should be fun! Friday Brock and Ava don't have school so we are going to stay home and relax! I can't wait!

Outside fall decorations

2009-10-26T18:14:00.001-04:00

I meant to post this on Friday when Kelly did her tour but I didn't get it up in time. Anyway, I LOVE decorating the outside of our house for fall. I didn't buy anything new this year because I think I have enough fall stuff, I didn't even put all of it up this year. And I didn't e buy any Mums this fall because I didn't have the time. We still have to buy pumpkins to carve for Halloween.

I really like this cute scarecrow, I got it at a craft fair a couple of years ago

Welcome to our Pumpkin Patch!!

This wreath is on our side door, I made it with my friends a couple of years ago. I love it! I always put my best wreath on this door because this is the door that everyone uses all the time to come into our house.

I made this last year at our craft club. The old fence is from my friends yard. They took out this fence and put in a new one.

Our halloween flag

The wreath on our front door, I got this from ebay

These last two are Brock and Ava's favorite decorations. I am not a fan of these but they love them so I put them up every halloween just for them :)

Happy Fall!!

Weekend wrap up!!

2009-10-25T21:14:00.000-04:00

This weekend was kind of a girls weekend for Ava and I because Graig is still in his busy travel season for work (he gets home Friday thank goodness!!) and Brock went on his first ever middle school retreat with our church.

Brock with his friend before the retreat

Friday night after we dropped Brock off for his retreat Ava and I came home and I made Pasta wih chicken, tomato and feta. It's a Martha Stewart recipe and I never make it when the boys are home because they would NEVER eat it. They are meat, and potato kind of guys, they would never eat anything with feta or basil, ha ha! Ava LOVES it!

Here is the recipe it's soooo good!!

12 ounces ziti (or other small tubular pasta)
2 tablespoons of olive oil
3 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice (I just used the juice from one lemon)
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
1 pound plum tomatoes cut into chunks (I used 5 tomatoes)
3 cups shredded chicken (Martha used a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store, I used leftover grilled chicken)
1 cup torn fresh basil leaves
In a large pot cook pasta until al dente, according to package directions, drain; rinse well under cold water. Transfer to a large bowl; toss with olive oil, lemon juice, feta, tomatoes, chicken and basil; season generously with salt and pepper. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Saturday Ava had a friend over and I spent the day cleaning and organizing our house. It's a NEVER ending job!! I cleaned out so many closets and drawers, when I was done I had 6 bags to donate!! Unfortunately, I still have more to do!

The leaders of Brock's retreat called me Saturday afternoon and said Brock had a fever. Poor thing he was so sick last night when he got home. We didn't do too much today I think Brock and Ava are both a little under the weather so we just stayed close to home today and didn't do much of anything except relax and hang out and get ready for the busy week ahead.

Pep Rally!!!

2009-10-23T19:44:00.001-04:00

Last night we had a pep rally at the College where I work to get ready for Homecoming which is this weekend! I took Brock and Ava and we met a few of my co-workers and their kids there. All of the sports teams were introduced and the dance team, cheerleaders and kickline performed (Ava LOVED watching the cheerleaders and dancers that was the best part of the night for her!) It was a great way to start homecoming weekend.

Doesn't Brock looked thrilled! Ha Ha

Ava (with ALL her polka dots) with her friend Marty. They gave out Rally towels at the Pep Rally and Ava got about 10 of them, she cheered really loud and the athletes threw her a lot of them throughout the night.

My interns went too, they loved the rally towels

Night under the stars!

2009-10-21T22:14:00.000-04:00

Tonight my friend Chris and I took our kids out for pizza and then we went to the Planetarium on campus to see a show on astronomy. It was a fun night. I'm glad we decided to go together, both of our husbands are traveling for work this week so it was nice to do something fun and different together!

Here is a picture of Jake and Ava before the planetarium show. They are SO cute together. I love Jake's glasses! Ava and Jake have been friends since the day they were born! Chris and I work together on campus and they were born a month apart. They went to the same daycare and preschool. Tonight Jake said he wanted to grow up to be a college soccer coach (so cute because Chris is the swimming and diving coach at our College) and Ava said she wanted to be a dance teacher and she wants to work at Dairy Queen (umm maybe we go there too much! ha ha)

Brock getting ready for the show to start.

After the show we looked at some animals they have on display. Brock and Ava LOVED this bobcat.

After the show I decided to take some pictures of Brock and Ava for our Christmas card. For once, I want to try to order our Christmas cards early. Anyway, I took about 50 pictures of them and I think I will have to take about 50 more to get a good one! ha ha (I know their clothes don't match each other, I am going to print the picture in black and white or sephia so it doesn't matter)

Winter Storm Watch!

2009-10-15T21:29:00.000-04:00

Tonight-Saturday night our area is under a winter storm watch! It is SO cold here, it has snowed a little bit all day long. It isn't sticking thank goodness, I just can't believe that it is ALREADY snowing, it's not even Halloween yet! Graig was talking to some of the other baseball coaches tonight on the phone and they were talking about cancelling the baseball games scheduled for Satuday because of SNOW! If that happens that will be a first for Brock!

When I came home for lunch today I had a TON of magazines in my mailbox, this month they all came at once. I can't wait to read all of these over the weekend, especially if it is snowy and yucky out I will just want to stay home and relax. I wanted a picture of all of the magazines so Ava put them all out and displayed them and took a picture of them with my iphone.

Speaking of Ava she had a field trip today. They visited a farm so she had to dress really warm, I love this outfit she picked out, she is such a cutie pie!

I am so glad tomorrow is Friday, we are looking forward to the weekend!!

My favorite fall scents

2009-10-13T17:01:00.001-04:00

For the past few weeks Bath and Body Works has had their big candles on sale for 2 for $20 which is great because usually they are $20 each! These candles make your WHOLE house smell good! My two favorites are:

Spiced Cider A warm, magnetic scent that mulls three varieties of fresh apples spiced with nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves.

Pumpkin Patch-The perfect blend of fresh pumpkin, ground cinnamon, brown sugar and vanilla cream.

If you have a Bath and Body works get over there and get these candles, they will make your whole house smell like fall! They are the perfect fall candle :)

Brrrrr

2009-10-12T17:44:00.002-04:00

It has turned SO cold here, I can't believe how chilly it is. I got out all of our winter clothes this weekend and I am thinking about some fall/winter recipes that I want to make for our family. I love when the weather turns cold and I can make hot, filling dinners like pot roast, vegetable soup and chili.

Here is my recipe for chili (actually it's my Dad's recipe, he passed it down to me and hopefully one day I will pass it down to Brock and Ava, right now they STILL don't like it but I know eventually they will LOVE it like I do!) I make this a few times a month in the fall and winter. It freezes really well and it is really easy to make.

Dad's chili

1 small onion diced

2 lbs ground round (browned and drained)

1 large can of tomato juice

3 cans of hot chili beans (do not drain add the beans and juice)

1 large can + 1 small can diced tomatos (do not drain add the tomatos and juice)

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon chili powder (you can add more or less depending on how you like it)

1 teaspoon hot chili powder (you can add more or less depending on how you like it)

simmer on stove for 1 hour

serves 8 people

I love my chili with LOTS of crackers and shredded cheddar cheese. Cornbread is also delicious with chili. I hope you love this recipe as much as I do!

Happy Monday!!

Leaving on a jet plane

2009-10-11T10:17:00.000-04:00

Today I got our plane tickets for our Thanksgiving trip to visit my family!! I am so excited to see them I can't wait to see them all!! Only Brock and I are going this time. Ava is going to Colorado with Grandma Jan to visit Uncle Garth and Aunt Jill. Garth works on a ranch and they just finished building a new house. Grandma Jan likes to take Brock and Ava on special trips alone each year so they get to spend time together. I think they will have a great time!! Graig is going to stay home to work, we are going to miss him but we will have have fun seeing everyone from my family! We love to go out to eat and go shopping, my two favorite things so we will have fun!!

Here are some people we will visit:

Papa Bob (this is Brock, Ava, and PaPa in front of his house in Wyoming last summer)

Grandma Rose and Aunt Shelby

Aunt Shelby and Uncle Ryan

While Brock and I are in Illinois Ava and Grandma Jan will be visiting Uncle Garth in Colorado. Here is Brock and Ava with Uncle Garth last year.

weekend projects!

2009-10-08T19:44:00.000-04:00

I really want to work on a few fall projects this weekend, I hope I have time to get to all the things I want to do, here are some things I want to try.

I LOVE this idea from Angie at the Happy Homebody. It is so simple and easy and it looks so cute! I got this picture from her blog and the directions are here. I can't wait to work on this project!

Last year I made this pumpkin topirary and I loved it. It was on our entertainment center and I kept it up until Thanksgiving, I saved the berries and little pot so this should be another easy weekend project.

I also have a silver tray that I want to paint with chalkboard paint and some shutters that I want to paint. So I have a weekend full of projects ahead!

Happy Friday!

Monogram mania!!

2009-10-06T23:09:00.000-04:00

Lately I have been obsessed with monograms and all things personalized. I am constantly on the lookout for E's and I love looking on Etsy for cute personalized things that I can buy. My last two etsy purchases have been for monogrammed items. Here's a peek at what I bought.

I bought two name signs from Susie Harris. I LOVE them!! I found her blog a while ago and I LOVE reading it, she has such great style. Her signs are perfect!

I also LOVE the rub on vinyl monograms. They are such an easy way to spruce up things that you already have in your home. I painted all three of these things with paint from the Distressed for Success kit from Caromal Colours. I loved that kit so much, I painted so many things in our house with that kit-ha ha! Anyway, I got the monograms from decal monograms on etsy. Ava loves helping me put these on, they are so easy and I did all three of these in less than 10 minutes! I love those kinds of easy projects.

Weekend update!!

2009-10-05T07:52:00.000-04:00

This weekend was BEAUTIFUL!!! We had perfect weather. I will give you a quick update on what we did.

Friday-Brock and I went to the blessing of the animals at our church. They had ALL kinds of animals there from goldfish to horses!! We brought our dogs Daisy and Cotton. It was raining so they had the blessing inside the church, it was so funny to see all those animals inside our chuch. The horses did stay outside-ha ha!

Brock with Cotton

Saturday-The usual, cheerleading, ballet, and baseball. I took Ava to a sale at her dance studio and she got 5 cute dance outfits, that she can play dress up in for $20!! Saturday afternoon she had some friends over and they dressed up in the costumes, they had SO much fun!

Sunday-In the morning we all walked in the annual Pit Run and in the afternoon we went shopping with Grandma Jan in Binghamton. Ava really needed some new fall clothes so she got a few new outfits. We also went to Homegoods which was fun, because it was Grandma Jan's first trip there, she LOVED it!
Ava modeling her new vest, gloves and hat.

Have a good week!