Love Story Link Up!!!

Hey all! Today’s the day, my very first SOLO link up! I am super nervous, I hope it all goes smoothly and that I get at least one other person to link up!

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This is simple, just write about your love story! It doesn’t have to be about a spouse or boyfriend, you can write the love story about your pet, your grandparent, niece, nephew, who or what ever! Here’s mine:

 

I am married to my high school sweetheart. We started dating the last day of our sophmore year.  We were in the same biology class together that year and had a student teacher who taught us next to nothing, so we had a lot of down time to goof off, flirt and hang out.  We were also in band together (yes, we were geeks!) and Andy would wink at me to make me nervous and laugh.  So that's how it all began. This May 29th we will have been together 16 years, which means we'll have been together as long as we were apart.  Weird!  This May 18th we'll have been married 11 years! 

  

So, how did he ask me out?  We were at a party at his best friend's house, it was the last day of school so we were all celebrating.  When it was time for me to leave he walked me to my car.  He told me he heard I liked him (uh huh), and he liked me too (uh huh), so would I like to go out with him?  (Uh huh.)  I was so nervous and excited at the same time!  So we hugged, I hopped in my car and bombed out of there as fast as I could!  A week later he called me and we made plans for our first date.

Our Junior Prom picture, I hated my hair!!!  And can someone say pluck those eyebrows and wear eyeliner? Sheesh, I was so clueless! :)

He took me to a local restaurant for supper.  He had an old Ford Ranger that only had an AM radio in it.  He was so embarrassed but little did he know that I loved our local radio station that it picked up, so I was totally happy with it!  We both ordered chicken strips, then walked up to the video store and rented a movie.  I can't remember the name of it but it was definitely NOT a chick flick and I thought it sucked big time!  We watched the movie, hugged goodnight and home I went.  We didn't have our first kiss for 3 months!

 

Before we started 'going out' Andy had dated a girl off and on all through junior high and our sophmore year. I told him up front I wasn't interested in breaking up and getting back together a bunch of times, so if we ever broke up it was for good.  16 years and we never broke up once!
 

Our engagement picture

 

Fast forward to December 30, 2000.  Andy proposed!  He got down on one knee and asked me to marry him, and of course I said yes!  We knew we wanted a wedding in May but that May was too soon, so we waited 18 months to get married!  We were 21 when we said "I do." We were surrounded by our family and friends and it was the most beautiful day!  We had just bought our first house, had never lived together before, so everything was brand new to us.  It was so great to go home with Andy the night of our wedding, to our little 'love bungalow' in the park.  I made him scrambled eggs when we got home because we were both starving from dancing so much that night.  The next morning we woke up, opened gifts with our families, then took off for a week in Colorado. We were poor and couldn't afford a fancy honeymoon but we had so much fun together that week.  It was one of the best times of our life!

 

5 years later our first baby, a boy, was born!  2 1/2 years after that, Brennan came along!  And we've just been coasting along all these years!  He is truly my best friend, the one and only person I want to spend my spare time with.  I never get sick of him, never get tired of having him around.  He takes care of me in the best way possible, like no one else knows how to.  I have the most fun with him, he always makes me laugh, always makes me feel special and cherished.  He is the best husband in the world for me, I couldn't 'make' a better person for me to share my life with than him.  He's it!  He is the only man in the world I want to be with.  I might joke about another guy being 'yummy' or whatever, but they don't hold a candle to my husband.  I'm more in love today than I was yesterday, a year ago, the year we married, the year we met.  I am beyond lucky to have my love story with him. 

 

We have had ups and downs, hard times, sad times, scary times.  But during each of those times I have said to Andy "I am so glad I have you to go through this with me."  And I meant it every time!  He gives me strength when I don't have any.  He is always the light shining at the end of a dark tunnel. 

 

 

The man can make me laugh!  That is why I first fell in love with him, clear back in Biology class.  He always made me laugh!  Between him and his friend who sat with me and another girl at our table of four, they cracked me up every single day.  That is one thing that has never changed for us, the ability to make each other laugh.

 

So that is my love story.  It is what I've always dreamed of having and I know just how lucky I am.  Yes, there are times that I take him for granted, but even in those times I know I am lucky.  And I know I am loved.  Wow does he love me!  There is never a doubt or question about that, he just does and I know it!  He shows it, and not just in the privacy of our own home.  He's not afraid to show he loves me in public.  Seriously, this man is a dream and I hope I never wake up to find out that is all this was!  I love you, dear husband of mine (all mine!)!  Always, forever!

 

Ok, lets hear yours!

 

 

 

So What Wednesday

Wow, is it really Wednesday already?  Bring on the weekend!

School was delayed 2 hours this morning, luckily not cancelled.  We didn’t get that much snow, maybe a couple or three inches.  It was a wet snow and the roads were warmed up so it melted as it hit the pavement, then got cold and re-froze so it’s a bit of a pain to scoop. 

It’s been confirmed, I’m hitting the hair show in St Louis in May!!! Yahoo!!! I am SO dang excited to get down there and party party party!  Gaw, I can’t contain my excitement!  Yay yay yay yoo!!!  You can find me at Sundeckers Sunday night – I’ll be the one dancing my a$$ off!

Don’t forget about my first solo link up tomorrow!  Just write about one of your love stories, whether that is with a spouse, boyfriend, pet, whatever! 

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Today I am going to linkup for So What Wednesday over at Life After I ‘Dew’.

So what if…

• I have been drinking pop like it’s going out of style.Today I am reigning it in, promise!  I have a hair show to get in shape for, after all!
• I haven’t cleaned my bathroom for 2 weeks.  Yes, it’s gross.  Yes it’s disgusting.  I haven’t felt like doing any cleaning at all since the baby, at least I haven’t let it all go!
• I haven’t posted any pictures lately.  I’m being lazy, sorry.

I hope to see you all back here tomorrow for the link up!!!

Erin

First Things First

Hey there!  Sorry I was MIA yesterday and most of today, I’m being lazy for some reason.  Must be the winter blahs.

Today I’m going to link up with Pasta, Polka Dots and Penguins.  I found this link up when reading the sweet Kadi’s blog post today, I love this idea so thought I’d jump on the bandwagon.

(Ok, so yes I have 2 buttons on here.  The top one will actually link you back to the blog, the second one is their new button that you are supposed to use now.  Sorry to be so confusing, just wanted you to be able to get there if you wanted to join in on the fun!)

Todays topics are:

First beverage of choice

First breakfast of choice

First dessert of choice

Ok, Friends, lets dive right in!

First beverage of choice:

MT DEW!!!  Ugh, that shit is the devil and I lurve it!!!  Fill ‘er up!  I try to limit myself to 1 can a day so don’t be getting all kinds of crazy ideas that I fill up my Big Mug every day full of that yellow deliciousness, but I do drink it fully leaded, I will admit that.  Oh, and I have NEVER had a cavity, so don’t think I’m sitting up here in the sticks with no teeth in my face. Ha ha!!

First breakfast of choice:

I have 2 pieces of toast every morning, some days with jelly, some days with cinnamon and sugar.  Add a side of chocolate milk (1% with 2 T of Quik) and I’m set.  If it’s the weekend and I cook breakfast than my first choice is scrambled eggs.  No!  Pancakes.  No!  Scrambled eggs.  Oh hell, I’d love an Omelet Biscuit from Hardees every stinkin day of the week if I could!  Luckily the nearest Hardees is 50 minutes away so I never get one, but oh boy are those things AH-mazing! 

First dessert of choice:

This is a tough one to answer.  I like brownies, pie, and in the past year or so, cheesecake.  But I don’t get ‘dessert’ that often, those are reserved for holidays and birthdays.  And once in a while to spoil myself at a good restaurant, but by the time it’s the dessert portion of the meal I’m stuffed.  I guess what I’m saying is I don’t have a dessert of choice, but I do like the things I listed and will choose one of those for dessert.

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Welp, another snowy day here in the Midwest.  School let out at 1 again today.  Was it necessary?  In my humble opinion, no.  But they don’t pay me the big bucks to make that call, unfortunately, so I will just go along with what they tell me. 

Miss Melly over at 4Kottez listed a bunch of smut books today to read.  If you’re a fan of Mr. Gray (you know, 50 Shades!) then go on over and check out her post so we can dish on more of the fabulousness that is smut books. Ha ha!!! Oh, and I just call her Miss Melly, she really goes by Mel.  I just love Gone With The Wind, thus the name ‘Miss Melly’. Glad I could clear that up. 

Wow, what a weird, random post.  It’s 5:10, my brain is fried, it’s what you get.

Ok, time to get supper going. And no, I don’t have any fabulous recipe I’m cooking up, it’ll be ‘shit salad’ tonight. I suck.

Talk soon!

Erin

Can I Get A Woot Woot For Friday?

Do you follow your horoscope or believe in that stuff?  I’m not a follower but once in awhile I read my horoscope – I’m a Pisces.  I found this on Pinterest and could not believe how perfectly it described me.

It doesn’t paint the prettiest picture, but every single one of those is ME.  Damn, and I thought being born in February was awesome!  Do you think what moon or sign you’re born under can affect who you are, how you feel and how you perceive yourself? 

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On a different note, we are going to start working on our closet project again this weekend.  It came to a stand still after we received our bad news, but now that we are moving along it is time to get going on that again.  I’m hoping we can make a big dent in things this weekend, in between all of our running around we are doing.  Seriously, we have a jam packed weekend and I don’t think we’re going to have any time to relax at all.

I missed out on doing my first solo link up for Valentine’s Day, but I think because it is all about Love Stories and not Valentine’s Day I will still host it. So next Thursday please link up for my first solo link up!  And tell all your blogging friends so they can come on over and join in too!  I love a good love story.  It doesn’t have to be about another person, it could be your love story with your pet!  It could be your love story with your kids.  Grandparents.  Anyone, any thing!  Please please PLEASE join in!  Yes, I’m reducing myself to begging. Womp womp.

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Since I whined about it a little bit yesterday I’d better let you know how we fared in the big mega storm.  The boys’ school let out at 2:00 yesterday afternoon, 2 1/2 hours before the first flake fell.  Oh well, better to be safe than sorry I guess.  But once it hit, it hit.  The snow accumulated pretty quickly and it wasn’t long before our brown lawn was white.  So in the end I think we ended up with about 6” of the white stuff.  It’s pretty fluffy so was easy to shovel this morning.  The boys and I went out about 9:00, they scooped while I ran the snow blower.  I actually got hot working out there!  The sun has ‘sneaked a peak’ a few times and it helped melt the snow remnants off the drive.  We decided to venture out to have lunch with Andy and the highways are dry!  You wouldn’t even know we had snow on them last night.  So the Mega Snow Storm was a big fat TURD and not the big deal they made it out to be.  At least not here in my neck of the woods.  But the media wouldn’t be doing their job if they didn’t create mass hysteria over a ‘storm’.  How did you fare?

Happy weekend, friends!

Erin

Odds and Ends Thursday

Good Thursday to you!  I’m sure you have heard of the snow storm hitting the Midwest yesterday, today and tomorrow.  If you haven’t you live under a rock. Ha! I tease.  But seriously, it’s all they are talking about and I am so tired of hearing it!!!  Yes it’s going to be a lot of snow.  Yes it’s going to cause travel headaches.  Yes it’s a bitch.  Move on!  This is the Midwest, we get snow here!  Now if this was hitting, say, Jamaica, now THAT would be news worthy!

Speaking of news, what do you think of this whole Oscar Pistorious deal?  I must be too soft hearted, I feel bad for the poor guy!  Am I an awful person or what? He shot his (gorgeous) girlfriend to death!  But do you think it was pre-meditated?  Or do you believe his story?  I don’t know what I honestly think, I just know he looks so nice and sweet and HOT that it’s hard for me to hate him and think he’s a monster.  Does anyone else suffer from this?  I do this all the time with big bad stories like this one. 

This weekend we are joining in on the JDRF Walk For A Cure diabetes walk.  Aiden’s best buddy, Evan, was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes this past fall and his parent’s put together a team called ‘Evan’s Eliminators’ for the walk.  Evan is in the other 1st grade class this year and his entire class was given shirts to wear tomorrow in support of Evan and the walk.  Welp, with the mega-storm bearing down they changed it up to today so the boys wore their shirts today also to show Evan they support him, too.  Aren’t they cute??  And don’t you think they look nothing alike?  I don’t see any resemblance. 

Do you balance your checkbook every month when your statement comes? I know, from working in a bank, that this practice is dying along with the rest of the depression era rituals.  But I still balance my check book every month!  But I got behind.  By, like, 3 months!  Nothing like digging yourself out a hole!  Luckily when I finally got around to doing it this morning every single month balanced on the first try!!!  Woot woot!  What a pain in the butt, though.  Oh, and my public service announcement for the day – BALANCE YOUR CHECKBOOK EVERY MONTH!!!  Your bank teller thanks you.

Hope you stay safe and warm during the snow storm!  And if you’re reading from somewhere outside of the 18 states being affected by this storm – you suck! Ha ha!  Love you anyway!

Erin

Undies, Chicken Parmesan & Crescent Cinn Rolls

Hey there!  Does anyone else have a hard time throwing away your kids’ old underwear and socks?  I mean, it’s not like they wear them out and get holes in them, they grow out of them too quickly, so right there I feel like I’m being wasteful.  And their first pairs of undies? Forget it, they are way too cute to just toss out, right?  But there is no way I’m saving Aiden’s old grown-out-of undies for when Brennan could fit in them, ew!  We just went underwear and sock shopping this weekend so I am tossing all of their old undies and socks and I feel so bad doing it!  I don’t really have an emotional attachment to Aiden’s, they’re bigger and ugly with Lego Star Wars characters on them, but Brennan’s are still small and cute with Toy Story characters on the buns.  I guess I’d better just close my eyes and toss them, how weird would that be in 20 years when I’m cleaning out the basement and run across their old, used undies?

Here are two quick and easy recipes for you.

Chicken Parmesan

2-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (my meat counter gives the full, complete chunky breast so I cut mine in half through the thickness to make 2 thinner breasts out of 1 thick one, you want to end up with 4 either way)

1 jar spaghetti or marinara sauce

1 c. mozzarella cheese, shredded

1 pkg Italian Shake-N-Bake (and I helped!) (this can be left off to save those calories and carbs)

Bake the boobies at 400 degrees for 20 minutes after coating them in the Shake-N-Bake.  Then pour the sauce over and sprinkle on the cheese, bake another 10-15 minutes, until cooked through.  Done!  You can serve over pasta if you like.  And of course I forgot an ‘after’ picture – sorry!

 

Crescent Cinnamon Rolls

I made these up one morning for breakfast.  They are probably a recipe somewhere but I just winged it and made it up as I went.

1 pkg. crescent rolls

butter

cinnamon and sugar mix

Okay, open the rolls and unroll them, but leave them together as a rectangle.  Spread butter over the dough, then sprinkle a good layer of cinn/sugar over them.  This is where you carefully separate the rolls into the triangles and roll them up into the crescents.  Bake as directed but add 5 minutes to the baking time.  Easy peasy!  And super yummy!  And quick!

 

Give these a try sometime, they are quick and easy! 

They are calling for 8” of snow in these parts tomorrow night.  And a lot of wind which will blow that stuff around and make a heck of a mess.  Great.  Why can’t we have an early spring again like last year?  I’m needing it!

Have a great Wednesday!

Erin

Back to ‘Normal’

Today everyone is back to their normal routine.  The boys are in school, Andy went back to work and I am watching Baby Aspen.  I’ve worked on cleaning the house, doing laundry, washed up dishes.  Its weird how after such a tragedy you can pick up the pieces and get back to ‘normal’, whatever that is. 

I wish I had something amazing to talk about today but I’m out of ideas.  So I guess I’ll talk about the weather – boring!  Yesterday when we ran to town for groceries it was 50 degrees.  We stopped at the park and let Brennie run for a while.  When we left town it was still 50 degrees.  20 minutes later when we got home it was 42 degrees!  It had dropped 8 degrees in 18 miles!  Today it is 14 degrees, sunny (a bonus) and super duper windy.  So the wind chill is at or below zero – brrrrrr!  Thursday they are calling for a huge winter storm to hit Iowa and the Midwest, although they are still not showing snow total estimates.  I’m hoping for less than 3” and no school closures!

I guess I should tell that, now that I’m not pregnant, I am climbing aboard the weight loss train again.  Ugh.  It doesn’t sound like any fun at all right now!  I am wearing my regular clothes, putting on maternity jeans with a big ol’ front panel sounds awful to me right now so I’m so glad my jeans would zip and button.  Problem is there’s an awful muffin top hanging over now.  I understand why, 20 weeks being pregnant still takes a toll on a body’s shape, hopefully it won’t take me too long to get myself whipped into shape and starting to lose some L B’s. 

I combed through my pins on my ‘Health’ board on Pinterest and pulled off some strength training work outs to get started.  I’m waiting a couple of weeks to hit up the cardio (jumping jacks scare me right now, my insides feel empty and don’t want to bounce that stuff around).  I’m also going to follow the Mad Abs March calendar starting next week.

And finally, found this on Pinterest.  Disgusting but such a great reminder!

Real quick I just want to say Thank You one more time for all of your support and prayers.  You have all been so awesome and amazing, thank you!

Erin

Quick Update

First of all I want to say THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for all of the well wishes, prayers and virtual hugs you have sent during this most difficult time in my life!  You have helped me through this more than you will ever know!  I had my phone attached to my left hand for three days just waiting for another comment, another prayer, another friend reaching out to me.  No one knows what to say in times like these but please know what you did say was just what I needed to hear and anything at all was so much better than nothing.  So again, THANK YOU!  I wish I had the appropriate words to say just how appreciative I am!

Now for the update.  We met with our OB yesterday just to get some questions answered.  We learned some new things about Anencephaly, such as 75% of the babies do not make it full term because their hearts stop beating.  We have our L2 ultrasound tomorrow morning first thing, then will meet with a specialist to go over the US and discuss all of our options in more depth.

Just because I want to get a few things off my chest I’m going to write about them now but please feel free to stop reading this now if you don’t want to be saddened by what I say.  I’m needing an outlet and unfortunately for you this is it.

First, I feel like a fraud when I take my pre-natal vitamin and when I get dressed in maternity clothes.  Something in me says “why are you doing this?  Does it really matter anymore?”  Thank goodness my yoga pants still fit/stretch enough to wear and my old t-shirts and sweatshirts are big enough to cover so when I have nowhere to go I wear those.

Next, I don’t blame God.  Some people going through difficult times blame God and ask why He would do this to them.  I don’t.  He wouldn’t!  This is nature taking its course and God has not ‘done’ this to us.  He is here to give us strength and help us through this, not put us through this.

I guess for now that is it.  Wasn’t that bad after all.  I somehow feel mostly at peace with this, maybe because I know there is no changing it and I have to heal and be strong for my family. 

One more time I will say THANK YOU for all of the support, prayers and hugs!  You are all so amazing to me!  There have been many times I’ve wondered why I am writing this blog, now I know it was because I would need your support during this most difficult time.  Love to you all!

Erin

Bad News

I know some of you are anxious to hear how our ultrasound went.  First, thank you for all of the well wishes and excitement, I have had so much fun sharing the joy of my pregnancy with you.  Now for the bad news.  The US determined that our baby has Anencephaly, a brain defect where the top part of the brain doesn’t develop.  It is fatal.  The baby will not survive.  We have a second US Wednesday to verify the findings, but there doesn’t seem to be any doubt that this is the case.

With this, the baby can develop normally until full term, be delivered but will only live for a few hours after being born.  Or it’s heart can stop beating at anytime and labor will be induced to deliver the stillborn baby.  Lastly, we have the option to terminate the pregnancy within the next few weeks.  We our weighing our options, have an appt. with our OB Monday. 

Our boys are devastated, as are we.  We have received unbelievable support from our family and close friends we have told.  They are all helping us work through this unimaginable nightmare.  As I type this I can feel the baby move.  Hard to believe it is strong and ‘healthy’ but will  never come home to the love we have for it. 

I will be taking some time off from blogging.  I don’t know for how long, maybe a day, maybe a week or more.  I have made some very good friends through blogging and I believe I will need you all over the following days, weeks and months.  I might post sad, depressing posts, I might post more normal posts like in the past.  Who knows how I will feel from day to day.  But Annie and Keyona, PLEASE do not stop sending me emails about your pregnancies.  I always thought if a miscarriage happened to me I would not want to know about other’s pregnancies or see other’s babies, but that is just not true.  It has not made me feel differently about my excitement for you girls and my friends with little babies. 

Please send prayers my way, and prayers for my husband and boys.  I will be in touch and will let you know when and if anything happens. 

Erin

Lame-o Wednesday

Hello one and all, and welcome to my new followers!  Thanks for stopping by!

Today I am pretty lame-o and don’t have whole lot to talk about.  I went out for supper with some friends last night, had a great time catching up with them and am already looking forward to the next time we get together.  I always feel so chipper and upbeat after getting together with my girl friends.  Does it do the same thing for you?  We were having such a great time I didn’t even think of taking pics to share!

Since I’m so lame today I thought I’d share a few cards I’ve recently made.  First my Valentine’s for my niece and nephew.

And this is a birthday card I sent to my good friend. 

These were all inspired by cards I found on Pinterest.  I also found this quote on Pinterest, it fits me and my type of crafting well I think.  I’m not perfect, don’t try to be and I am just fine with that.

Tomorrow is my big baby appointment – THE ULTRASOUND!!!  There will be no big reveal on here as to the sex of the baby, we won’t find out.  I am a little anxious to see how much I’ve gained this month.  The bump is out in full force and you know that brings with it weight gain.  I didn’t obsess with my weight gain as much with the boys, but with this one I think about it all the time.  I think it’s because I was trying to lose weight and get healthy before I got pregnant and now I can’t get that out of my mind.  Because it’s my ultrasound Andy will go with me and then we’ll grab lunch after.  There’s a chance I won’t post tomorrow so if you don’t hear from me tomorrow you’ll find out all the details on Friday.

Have a great day, Friends!

Erin

Say My Name, Say My Name

Hey all!  I guess I still have Beyoncé on my mind today – she killed it Sunday night! 

I’m linking up with Amanda over at My Very Own Modern Family today for her “What’s In A Name” Link Up.  I thought this was a fun link up idea, so thanks for hosting it Amanda!  And if you’re not a “Modern Family” reader head on over and check out Amanda’s blog. She has 5, count them FIVE, daughters!!!  And they all have such beautiful names!  I can’t wait to read how she came up with them all.

I’m going to start with my name.  I am named after 2 of my dad’s favorites from the 70’s.  My first name is after Erin Gray, an actress.  I love this picture of her, totally 70’s, totally what I would have tried to look like if I’d been around then.

And my middle names is Yvonne, after Yvonne Elliman. (Let me just help you out by letting you know Yvonne is pronounced ‘EEEE von’, not Ya von. ‘K, glad we cleared that up!)  She was a singer.  I’m a bit surprised my dad liked her so much, but whatever floats your boat.

So that’s how I was given my names, based on my dad’s favorites at the time. 

My oldest son’s name is Aiden Kinnick.  One Saturday morning, while I was working at the salon, Andy was home watching ‘Rick Steve’s Europe’ on PBS.  Rick was in Ireland, traveling down some country road.  They come upon a flock of sheep and their herder.  Rick yells out “What’s your name?” and the herder yells back “Aiden Devereux!”  Andy called me right away and asked me what I thought of the name Aiden.  At the time I wasn’t even pregnant!  But I liked it enough to put it on my imaginary list and it stuck.  Kinnick, well, if you’re a Big 10 football fan you might know where Kinnick comes from.  When we were pregnant Andy was going to the University of Iowa (Go Hawks!), plus he’s a lifelong fan of the Hawkeyes.  I saw in some paper that a couple named their twin boys Kinnick and Carver.  I told Andy, kind of like “cute, right?”, but not thinking we’d ever name our child after one of Iowa’s greats.  Well, Andy took it to heart and never looked back.  Oh, and Kinnick is after Nile Kinnick, the only Heisman Trophy winner in Iowa Hawkeye history.  He’s also a WWII hero.  They play his Heisman acceptance speech at the beginning of every Hawkeye home football game, it gives me chills every time I hear it. 

Okee dokee, that was a long explanation.  More wordy than necessary.  Ha ha!

Now on to my Brenner Bug.  While I was pregnant with him I hated every single name we thought of for him.  EVERY.SINGLE.NAME.  And you might not believe me, but every name made me literally gag.  Weird.  So delivery day came and we still didn’t have a name picked out.  When I was pushing I told Andy not to call the baby Brennan if it was a boy, I wanted to see him first.  So out he came, I looked at him and just felt like Brennan was it.  Today I love his name.  We still didn’t have a middle name since we didn’t go in having a first name.  I was really hoping for a girl and was going to use my Grandma’s name for the middle name (Louise).  Well, it was a boy so now what?  Then my genius husband came up with the idea of using my Grandma’s Angel in Heaven’s name (Ricky Joseph was born 6 weeks early and didn’t survive).  I didn’t want to use Ricky, but Joseph seemed to fit perfectly.  So we were still able to honor Grandma after all. 

There it is, how we named the boys and where my name comes from.  I have no idea about Andy, I will have to ask his mom sometime.

And now to plug my own link up I’m hosting next Thursday, on Valentine’s Day.  I hope you’ll join me for sharing our Love Stories!

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Have a great one!

Erin

Closets and Ads

Good Monday to all!  I have to say, my Birthday Month is off to a great start!  I told Andy that I can feel the difference between January and February, something’s in the air!  I can almost see reds and pinks and hearts floating around! Ha ha, I’m bizarre!

So why is my month going so great already?  Well, Saturday we went to the big city and bought the supplies for our closet project and Sunday we hung the bead board and painted it. I have to say, I am in LOVE with bead board these days so I am so excited to finally get to hang some in our house!

I was going to give you a tease so you could see the beginning of the process but then I changed my mind and decided I wanted to do one big reveal when it’s all done.  I do have to say the green I picked out for the bead board is UH-mazing!  I’m in love.  I told Andy it makes my heart sing (I think that’s a direct quote from my idol, Ms. Pioneer Woman herself!).  It is one of the prettiest greens I’ve ever seen and I’m in love!  Love is in the air after all, Valentine’s Day is less than 2 weeks away!

Last night we watched the Super Bowl.  I have to tell you, things got pretty crazy here in our house!  Brennan and I watched the entire thing in our pj’s and I had 2 helpings of this amazing Oreo Dessert thing we bought at Hy-Vee on a whim.  Yea, Casa La Crazay here!  We go all out! 

What were your favorite commercials last night?  My top two were the Taco Bell Elderly Gone Wild/Joy Ride commercial (totally LOL’d) and the Farmer Dodge Ram commercial (tears!!).  I HAVE to have that poem!  We might not be farmers right now, but we both grew up living on farms (Andy until age 6, me until I got married at 21).  We come from a long line of farmers and I love and adore them!  That commercial moved me.  So did the choir from Sandy Hook Elementary.  I think in total I cried 5 times during the Super Bowl, from the Sandy Hook singers to the commercials.  And I almost cried when I thought the Niners were going to win.  Whew, squeaked that win out, didn’t you Ravens?  Honestly, how do you blow a 22pt lead like that?  Darn power outage, anyway!  What do you think, was the outage a conspiracy?? Either by the Niners or by the ad execs wanting to get more money for the Bowl by playing more commercials?  Will we ever know?  Probably not. Ha ha!

Have a great week!

Erin

What’s On The Menu And What’s The Baby’s Name?

It’s Friday!!!! Woo hoo!  This has been a fast week but boy am I ready for the weekend!

It’s been awhile since I’ve shared a recipe with you so I thought I’d share a nice, hearty, hot dish to make on a cold winter night.  If you’re trying to lose weight just skip ahead past this recipe to the end, you’ll thank me later.

Scalloped Potatoes with Ham

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

5-6 potatoes, peeled, cubed, cooked, and drained (*note- I have found that it’s best to cube them fairly small and to cook them until about 1 1/2 minutes before they are done, they’ll continue to cook in the oven and you don’t want super mushy potatoes.)  If you have a Dutch Oven use it for boiling the potatoes, that way you can combine the potatoes, ham and sauce together in this one pot and throw it in the oven when ready to bake it.

1-2 C. diced ham (again, smaller chunks.  I’m not a fan of Pig’s Butt so the smaller the pieces the better for me.)

While the potatoes are cooking make the following sauce in a medium saucepan:

6 T butter, melted.  Add to that 6 T flour to make a rue.  Let cook on medium heat for about 2 minutes, stirring often so as not to burn it. 

Next, add 2 C. milk.  Cook, stirring often, until the rue thickens the milk, a few minutes.  While this is cooking dice up 1 C. Velveeta cheese into 1” pieces.  Add salt and pepper to taste (not a ton of salt, the ham is salty enough).  Stir in 1/2 tsp. of Worcestershire Sauce.  Last, add the cubed up Velveeta. Stir constantly until the cheese is all melted.

If you have cooked your potatoes in a Dutch Oven add the ham and sauce to that and gently stir together.  Otherwise throw it together in a 2 qt. baking dish. 

Throw it in the oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, uncovered. 

For a little extra pizazz you can top the dish with shredded cheddar for the last 2 minutes of baking or cover the top with French Fried Onions for the last 5 minutes of baking.  Mmm!  Let me know if you try it and like it.  I like to have corn for a side, seems to go well with this. 

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I have a favor to ask of you all.  Can you please leave me some baby name suggestions in the comments?  We are at a complete loss for names, especially boy names.  So let me know your favorite boy and girl names, or what you would have named your kids if you had anymore.  Or even what your kids’ names are.  I think I am leaning towards a more traditional name but any suggestions are welcome.  You never know when something will jump out at me.  Thanks!

Any plans for the weekend?  We are heading to the big city to get supplies for our closet project.  Hopefully the weather doesn’t make us change our plans.   Wednesday we got 3 or more inches of snow.  It’s hard to tell how much because the wind blew and blew and we have drifts like crazy. Today the roads still aren’t in great condition and schools in the area are still delaying 2 hours.  We are not delayed but the buses are running on hard surfaces roads only.  Doesn’t affect us here in town, we can get around no matter what.

And for your (and my) viewing pleasure, a nice way to end the week.  Love me some Matthew!  And Lance, you ain’t so bad yurself.  Yum!

I hope you give the recipe a try and don’t forget to leave me some name suggestions!  Have a great weekend, see you back here next week!

Erin