Memorial Day Weekend

We started off our long weekend with beergaritas and enchiladas.  Does it get much better than that?  I've posted my enchilada recipe here before. 

Mix together the following:
4 oz. Tequila
1 bottle Corona Light
6 oz. Diet Cherry 7 Up
1 can thawed limeade concentrate
Serve over ice
(double or triple recipe depending on how many you plan to consume:)

On Saturday, we went to our friend's house and ate too much good food, played cards, bocce ball, and sat around a bonfire eating s'mores (and drinking beer)



Patriotic apparel with Bren (and no we did not call and coordinate beforehand:))

 

We wrapped up the weekend with some golf.  We do live in MN but golfing at the end of May with a blanket is believe it or not, not typical.

                                    

 

 

Although we had a great long weekend we never forgot the reason behind it.  Kyle served many years in the military and went on two deployments, he has lost friends and his very own brother who all paid the ultimate sacrifice while protecting US.  I will be forever grateful for the men and women who are braver than I will ever be.  The Zach Brown Band says it best...

 



I hope you all had a safe and fun weekend!


Someone help me!

For the love of G, someone please give me tips on sleeping through the night. Sounds like an easy task right? Wrong, try telling my body that when it wants to wake up at 2am and thinks it's time to eat/blog/shop/watch reruns of Boy Meets World. Once I wake up in the middle of the night I'm sometimes up for 2+ hours! I love sleep, why does my mind/body try to boycott it? You stop that right now. I've tried everything from Sleepytime tea, sleep aid pills, staying up later in hopes that I won't wake up until my alarm goes off, etc. The thing is, I have no problem with falling asleep it's just STAYING asleep. I feel like it's a cause for celebration when I wake up and realize the sun is rising and that it's not 2am, hallefreakinlujah! I think Kyle would also appreciate not waking up from the glow of my phone, oh HI! Did I wake you?! Wanna talk? Wanna play I Spy? There's a Boy Meets World marathon on...

That could be it...

 

4 hours...could be worse!

1 sheep, 2 sheeps, 3 sheeps...

Chicken & Dumplings

Tonight's dinner was a spontaneous one based on the day's events:

-K came home sick from work plus it's a rainy day here again=comfort food needed
-I didn't want to go out in the rain so I had to get creative with what we already had in our cupboards.
-We made a pact to only eat out once during the week. I'm going to go ahead and make the rule that my Friday morning Starbucks breakfast of my beloved chai tea latte and pumpkin bread doesn't count. (wish us luck!)

So here you have it, my Crock Pot Chicken & Dumplings...

Ingredients (3-4 servings):

-2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
-3 cups of veggies-I used broccoli, carrots, and green beans
-1 can cream of chicken soup
-2 cups of water
-1/2 of a ranch seasoning mix packet (ranch is good with everything, amiright?)
-1 can refrigerated croissants (this is all I had on hand but refrigerated buttermilk biscuits would work just as well)
-salt and pepper


Directions:
-Mix all of the ingredients together in your crock pot except for the croissants
-Heat on low for 4 hours
-Use a fork to shred chicken breasts
-Cut uncooked croissants into 1 inch pieces, add to crock pot and continue to cook for one more hour

 

Enjoy!

goodbye weekend...

We had another busy weekend, now we are fully enjoying the rainy weather outside and a movie day inside to wrap up the weekend.

A local radio station here puts on a concert called Star Party every year. The only way to get tickets is to win them.  There are usually 6-8 bands there every year and as soon as we found out Nelly would be performing this year my sister went in to crazy fan mode and finally ended up winning tickets by being caller number 10 when the DJ made the announcement to call in to win!  Nelly did not disappoint and we had a great time. We even got to try some new drinks. It was so loud in there that the bartender couldn't hear us when we ordered our drinks so we got the wrong drinks twice. Hey, we aren't picky;)

On Saturday, my mom and a few of her friends stopped by for mimosas and to see our place. As soon as they left we had to hustle around because our friends were heading over soon.  We grabbed a quick bite to eat and came back home to wait for them. We had a beer when they got here and headed to our next adventure of the day. A boat cruise down the river! Thankfully the weather cleared up from the morning and we had a great time.  For dinner, we originally had reservations at a restaurant without a patio but just couldn't justify sitting inside on such a beautiful night so we went to a new restaurant nearby that has a great rooftop patio.  It's called Louis and is connected to Cossettas.  If you're ever in the St. Paul area I highly recommend trying them both. SO GOOD!

 

And now for dinner...Trader Joe's Orange Chicken with some onions, carrots, and broccoli thrown in for good measure:)

 

 

I hope you all have a great week!

Mother's Day Weekend

We had SUCH a busy but good weekend.  I didn't realize how exhausted I was until I passed out in between having K's family over for brunch and going to my parent's house for the Mother's Day celebration with them.  THEN I didn't wake up at all last night, I think that was the best I've slept in YEARS.  Lordy, I'm getting old ;) 

Photo dump time...

My nephew Nolan was SUPPOSED to be watching Cailou on my phone, instead he was looking at himself and about 2 seconds away from posting a status on Facebook.

Living across the street from the Farmer's Market has really come in handy. "Kyle, do you want to go grab a hanging basket for your mom's Mother's Day present?" Ah! I love it!
 

My nephew Brady painting a flower pot at the Farmer's Market for his mommy.
 



Preparing for brunch-Monkey bread, fruit, donuts, toast, and 2 egg bakes, one of them had to go in the crock pot so I prepared it at 1 am when we got back from celebrating our friend's birthday at the bar.  Surprisingly it turned out and I didn't accidentally dump my after bar beer in it, that I can recall!

The napkins, plates, and bowls pictured above are part of the Evergreen Splatter Dinnerware Collection at Target.  They have tons of different pieces to match!

Nolan going for a spin on Uncle Kyle's motorcycle

 

 

My mom with the Coach purse my sisters and I got her.

 

 

Love my sisters.

 

 

These two have such a funny bond, it could stem from the fact that Nolan is the easiest target for table scraps and he hands them over willingly but it's sweet nonetheless and Nolan looooves her.  Her snoring/farting and all.

 

 

My boss had a garage sale, boy was I glad when I found out these were for sale:)  She had these bar stools at her kitchen island and I have many memories of Duke sitting in these chairs while I make cookies and he grills me on my favorite superhero of the week and kindly explains to me that Super Nanny is NOT a superhero. #sheisinmybook

 

I hope you all had a great Mother's Day and Happy Monday!

Mason Jar Soap Dispenser

My sister and I recently went to the Junk Bonanza sale and she really fell in love with the Mason jar soap dispenser look.  The ones they had for sale there were $18+ which I just thought was silly considering I knew I could make her one completely customized for less than that.  I promised to make her one and we went on our way.  Below is the finished product. 

 I'm going to get an Etsy store going eventually but if you want one now just reach out to me and we will talk about the details.  I can do different colored pumps i.e. bronze, silver, or any other color to match the colors in your home and also with or without ribbon/raffia.  Whatever your heart desires!

$10.00 or $14.00 if it needs to be shipped (within the U.S)