Jackson Weekend

Over MLK weekend we headed to Jackson. It was a low-key weekend. We had dinner with a lot of Kody’s family Saturday night when we got there and then Sunday had lunch with his immediate family minus Kaci & Luke.

Drew was wild and crazy, but cute as ever. We enjoyed spending time with him. He is big into Kody, so if Kody was in the room, Mal was nothing! Erica and I shopped and had dinner Sunday night at Olive Garden, while Kody, Teresa, and Drew went to McDonald’s. HA! Kyle & John had a sports dinner in St. Louis. We watched Date Night at Kyle & Erica’s after dinner and called it a night. Monday we all met for lunch and went around town snapping pictures of things for a project. We also bought a new camera bag. With my new lens my old bag is too small. It’s actually still brand new looking and only a few months old. If anyone is looking for a smaller DSLR bag, let me know!

Kody and Drew had a lot of fun playing in Drew’s new play room/basement living room.

Kyle, Erica, and Drew are visiting next weekend! We’re exciting to see them. The next time they come here they will have ANOTHER baby boy!

MSU-WP Homecoming Queen, Amber!

My cousin Amber was part of the Missouri State University-WP homecoming court. She won queen! It was exciting and very well deserving, she is the nicest person I know and very well liked! Her king was an older man, this college targets lots of non-traditional students along with the traditional type of students. So just FYI when you see him with her! She looked so pretty!!

My parents, us, grandparents, aunt, uncle, and my aunt Judy (Amber’s Mom) were all there. It was a fun night!

Congrats Amber!

Happy 4th Birthday, Jax!!

Laugh all you want, but until we have real kids of our own, our boys are our kids!

Jax! You are four years old today! You had a fun day at home with Bo in your kennel. At least I hope you had fun. Daddy got home and let you boys out and you played outside for about 2 hours. After dinner you got your birthday treats. We chose not to get new toys since you boys got so much for Christmas and the house is still full of your toys and new bones. Mommy bought iced cookies for you boys and you both got a treat bag from All Pet.

Lately you are really into your pet moose your MiMi and Poppa Joe got you. You and Bo started eating REAL dog food back in August. No more chicken! I am beyond thrilled and it was such an easy transition.

For the last year or so you’ve really not been one to play outside at night. Maybe you are scared of the dark? Bo could live outside (some days I’m not sure why we don’t let him….) but you play for a minute and then cry at the door. When Daddy is downstairs you are upstairs wherever I am. You are a momma’s boy!

Now, go ahead and laugh. Get it out of your system. I don’t care!!!

We love our boys!

Happy Birthday, Jax! I will never forget the day we drove to Tecumseh to get you from your crazy home. So glad you are ours!

Help out the Lancaster Family!

Many of you who read my blog probably read Ashley Lancaster's blog as well! Her family is in the process of adopting a baby from South Korea! I was lucky enough to meet Ashley and her sweet Evy one day for lunch. Let me tell you, this girl is amazing! First of all she told me that day the Lord had called her to adopt. After hearing her story in person and later reading it on her adoption blog you really get a feel at how she was truly called by the Lord to do this and how she already loves this baby (who may or may not even be born) SO MUCH!

Adoption can be expensive and she has set up an adoption store to help offset some of the costs. They are selling t-shirts and she personally designed 2 of them, one of which I had to have! Visit there store here and think/pray about helping this sweet family out. No matter what the cost is, this family is following a direct call from the Lord and many people, including their special baby will be blessed by this!

Ashley's main blog is Our Happily Ever Afters and is one of my favorites to read! Help do what you can for this family financially and spiritually!

Thank you!

Still here....

I apologize for the lack-of-blogging on my part here lately. It's not that I haven't had things to blog on, I guess I've just been in a rut and needed a blog break for a bit. I have enjoyed reading each blog on my dashboard every day and those are my favorite times of the time (other than dinner with KT).

I guess there's just a lot running through my mind right now. I really just feel like some things are entirely unfair and I am not patient! (I guess since this is my blog I can complain every once and awhile....) It's a blaw time of year and while the snow we had was pretty (like right after it fell), I get tired of it and it's depressing! One thing that has been great is Kody, we've had a good week of new cooking, watching our tv shows, and hanging out. I value our time together so much.

We did go to Jackson last weekend and had a nice visit. Erica had been sick and Teresa got sick while we were there, but somehow we escaped that...with the exception of now I have a cold and Kody did feel nauseous for about 24 hours, but never got sick. We have dodged that stomach flu like bullets! Scary actually!

I had a council meeting Tuesday, a meeting at church Thursday, and we both have a meeting at church tomorrow night. We got to spend time with the Hambys Friday night, dinner at the hot dog house and then we bowled and later had DQ! We laughed a lot and believe it or not, Ashley won 1 game and I won the next!! :)

Last night we went to the Missouri State University-West Plains (MSU-WP) Grizzly Game. My cousin Amber was up for Homecoming Queen at their game against Three Rivers (Poplar Bluff/Biggest Rival). She WON and was beautiful. I have a TON of pictures and will hopefully get those up sometime tomorrow. After the game we went out to a friends house where he was having a little get-together. It was fun to watch everyone!

Today we had a lazy day, just what we both needed. The church sermon was over Weathering Life's Storms on Health Issues. It was really good, next week is on mixed families and I am sure it will be good too. We ate at the new Chinese restaurant and then headed home. We both got into comfy clothes and on the couch! I watched a Kendra DVD from Netflix, Confessions of a Shopaholic, 2 episodes on the Bachelor that I needed to catch up, and napped! Kody did the same downstairs, but instead watched the Outdoor channel....his new favorite thing!

Now I'm watching Sex & the City (the movie) on NBC....I'm confused why it's on here, oh well, not complaining!

I hope everyone (including myself) have a great week!

Show Us Your Life--Single Ladies!

Kelly's Korner is featuring SINGLES on her Show Us Your Life today! She did this back in the summer and believe it or not has connected 3 different couples, 2 of which are engaged already! NUTS! I featured my brother last time, but have a great idea for this time around!

My friend Jessica (Jess) Ladd is one of the prettiest girls I know, inside and out! We met in college as suitemates and for someone who was not cut out for the dorm (ME) she really helped me that first year. We connected and had classes together most semesters and she later worked with my at RPDC. She lives in St. Louis now and works for a pain treatment doctor so we only see each other a couple of times a year. We text and facebook a lot, I miss her so much!

A little about Jess....

She's 23 and will be 24 in April.

She is the oldest of 4, her brothers are Danny and Nick and she has a sister Amanda.

She is a HUGE family person and FRIEND lover! She's the happiest when she is surrounded by family and friends.

She was a Tri-Delta in college and quite a social bug. She never meets a stranger and always has a blast wherever she is.

Jess is extremely into fashion and always looks wonderful!

She has GREAT hair, I am SOOO jealous of her beautiful, big hair!!

She has a bachelors degree in Hospitality Management and hopes one day to work in event planning (At least that's what she last said!)

She loves Cardinal Baseball and attends quite a few games.

Jess is of the Catholic faith.She was a bridesmaid in our wedding and really didn't know many people there but made the best of the situation and had a blast. That's her, always wants to have fun! I want Jess to find someone who treats her soooo good because she deserves it! She would make someone a fabulous wife and some day mom!Jess is an incredible friend! You know Jackie Kennedy Onassis? Well, Jess is like her in my mind. Full of class and grace! Like I said earlier, she is a fashion icon and always is very classy! She is definitely the type of girl you would want to bring home to your MOM and SISTER (if you have a sister like I am! ;)).

Now that you see she is so beautiful and a really fun-loving, fabulous person EMAIL me at zizzer05@hotmail.com!

Love you Jess!

Fun night with friends!

Tonight we traveled to Mountain Home, Arkansas with 2 other couples for a new Japanese Steakhouse there! It was awesome, the food was SO GOOD!!

We went with Jay and Jennifer Skeeters and Jason and Tara Orr. The Skeeters have a little girl, Paige, who is 4, and twin boys—Luke & Drew, who will be a year old soon! Tara and Jason have a little girl, Ella, who is 2 and will be having their second baby ?? in June! Lots of kiddos, but it was just adults tonight and a lot of fun. They are a little older than us. I grew up next door to Jennifer and played with her younger brother Matthew ALL THE TIME. She used to babysit us, oh the memories!

Normally I get carsick, but I was good! Tomorrow after Kody gets off work we’re heading to see Kody’s family. I can’t wait to see Drew. He called ‘Ko-Ko’ tonight to see if he would like to go eat doughnuts in the morning. Unfortunately, he’s gotta work! Hopefully soon he will have Saturdays off!

Here we are tonight….

Above, Kody is catching egg in his mouth. He did and so did I! Jason is watching thinking he’s got some skills…

Jennifer & Jay….

And a bonus….the sky tonight….

Hump Day!

It was a good day today despite being VERY cold! On my way into town it was 5 degrees. Warmed up to a hot 8 degrees by early morning. Thank goodness for a warm office and my trusty space heater! I was pretty busy today but really didn't accomplish anything. What does that mean? Tomorrow I will run around like a crazy lady. We got a new copy machine at work and it's awesome! We spent an hour today getting trained on it. It does the neatest things!

Kody made dinner tonight while I spent over an hour on the phone with Centurylink/Dish Network. I'm not going to go in to details because it doesn't matter, but I hate being on HOLD!!!! Anyways, he made an exceptional dinner. I took pictures but am on the netbook and I have decided not to boggle it down with the thousands of pictures I take. Trust me, it was great! We had the baked potato pizza that I posted on Monday. It was such a nice change to one of our all-time favorite meals. Kody said it was pretty easy and some of it could be prepared before to make it even easier. We had a big salad and called it good!

I don't know if I have mentioned it or not, but last week my right elbow got this serious, big rash on it. I knew it was dry skin because for the past 4 years it's been in that one spot between December and January when my skin is really dry. This time the spot was twice as big and itched like mad. Well eventually it went behind my knees and now is on my legs. Just spots though, almost like razor burn. I went and bought some of the oatmeal bath stuff and some thick Aveeno lotion and used that tonight. We'll see how that goes. My legs are itching right now, but my arm has been better today. It looked pretty bad. Tomorrow is the Chamber banquet and I had to change dress ideas because I didn't want to show off my lovely rash!!! HAHA!

Well, I'm off to bed! I was pleasantly surprised tonight when I went to iron Kody's shirt to go with his suit to see it was a 'no iron' shirt and really only needed a few spots hit! Jackpot!! I HATE ironing!!!

Ya'll have a good night! Stay warm!

Dinner is Served!

I was too tired to post last night after a long day at work and a meeting at church until almost 7…but dinner was wonderful!

We had the slow-cooker brisket sandwiches and I am drooling thinking about them! Kody prepared it all, so I only have pictures of the final product. It cooked all day in the crockpot and he was home to be tortured by the smell! Kody cut up potatoes really thin and sprinkled with some of our new favorite seasoning, Paula Deen’s Silly Salt. We had salads and called it good! Kody even staged this picture, and wouldn’t come eat until he was satisfied how it looked! He won’t admit it, but he gets into the blogging world…

Tonight we had Pepper Jack Chicken and Succotash! I have had succotash before at Ruby Tuesdays, so I knew I would like it. It was soooo good! The recipe called for you to grill the chicken, but since it was 20 degrees out with a VERY low wind chill, I did it in a skillet.

I changed a few things with this recipe. It called for Baby Arugula and I couldn’t find that at the store. I really wasn’t sure what it was, so I googled it. I saw that it was green, so I substituted it for cilantro….it was great. I also use lime juice instead of limes and added a little Kosher salt to the finished succotash. For my Cajun seasoning on the chicken I used a Pampered Chef Chipotle seasoning and it was a little warm, but really good! I also had a brain fart and didn’t buy large chicken breasts. I had the thin sliced ones already, so I made use of those. I cut a inch and a half slit in each one, stuffed it with the cheese and cilantro and folded it over. It worked great, even in the skillet.

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I will definitely be making both of these recipes again soon, they were really good!!

We got a little snow last night. Literally, a little. School was out of course, it seems as if they call school off every time a cloud goes by. When I was in school my friend’s grandpa was the superintendent. I remember she would call and beg him to call it off. Nope, not unless there was something to show for! I drove to work and was fine. It is really cold with crazy wind, but tomorrow the temperature is going to be VERY low with wind chills –8 or more! Lovely!

Thursday night Kody and I are going to the Chamber Banquet. We have to get all dressed up, I’m not really looking forward to it, but we’re going. Tomorrow work will get really busy, at least the day will go by fast!

Hope you all are having a great week!