Wow, is it already Monday?

This past week flew by...actually this whole month has flown past in the blink of an eye!

I can't believe it's almost November!

This past Thursday I found a new thrift store! "City Thrift"

I originally went in for stuffed animals for Scout. He chews up his toys so fast that I'm over buying him dog toys already. A cheap dog toy is $7-$8 and that's way too much for me to supply his "habit." haha I picked up 6 stuffed animals - a few even still had the tags on them - for 70 cents each! I feel kind of guilty sending them to a most assured dealth. I let him pick out one to keep, washed the rest, and put them away for Christmas. Then, I got pulled into the used clothes. They have some great things, but you really have to look to find the good stuff. Digging makes it that much more fun to me!

I found this "wrap" dress for $8! 

The other night I made a whole roast chicken. Needless to say we had a lot of leftover chicken, so I surfed the Internet and found a recipe for White Chicken Enchiladas. WOW was it good! Unfortunately I tend to forget that Evan and I are only two people...which means 3 days later of lunch and dinners of these bad boys and I think I'll hold off on making them again soon. But either way they were delicious!

I've worked the past two weekends so I can have the next two weekends off. Words cannot describe how excited I am. Let me tell you I have some freakin fabulous plans which involves:

LEXINGTON this weekend.

then

GRANDPARENTS next weekend.



The past couple of days have been a little...emotional. Normally I'm not an emotional person, especially when it comes to moments of sadness, despair, or self-pity. Actually I hate crying, it's horrifyingly embarrassing to me. There is nothing good about it...runny noses, puffy eyes, snot, obnoxious noises, etc. Looking like I've had a bucket of water poured over my head after being stung by bees in my eyeballs is a look I try to stay away from; even watching someone else cry makes me cringe. Crying means it has beat me, and admitting that...well I tend not too. Ask any of my best friends and most of them can tell you they have never seen me cry, almost all of them.

Usually my go-to emotion is anger. It's bad I know.

For example, one day my best friend Katie and I were sitting down in the cafeteria to have some lunch. Across the way from us a girl was sitting by herself bawling her eyes out. My sweet friend, bless her heart, had the correct reaction of hoping she was ok. I on the other hand became completely enraged by this girl. WHY in the world would you sit in the middle of the cafeteria for all of campus mankind to watch you sit there and blow snot everywhere?!?! What is wrong with you? Aren't you embarrassed? Go to your room! Go hide in your CPO box! Go anywhere but here!

See? I told you it was bad.

I guess you could say I've been a little more of a softie this week.

I've been thinking about going to Grad. School in a half serious half what-am-I-thinking way, and my dad sent me a simple text about it that said: "Go for it, life's too short."

...and I almost starting crying at work! But really life is so short...

This past week Uncle Don has been gone 6 months. Sometimes it still really don't feel like hes gone yet. I think about Thanksgiving coming up and I get excited to see all of my family, but then I remember he won't be there this year, and then it doesn't seem so great anymore.

I miss him so much.

We always had a lot of fun together, I think it's because we had the same sarcastic sense of humor. Plus we both love good food, cooking shows, milkshakes, and a good piece of jewelry or two...so many good conversations and laughs. He could always make me laugh so hard my sides hurt. While I was away at school we stayed in touch through facebook messages. I go back and read them all the time, and now I'm so glad I have them.

"Remember there will be rough times but the happy and fun ones I wish outweigh them tenfold..... Now said that ... did you watch Top Chef tonight ..??"

"You suck at German because for some reason my father thinks we are German .... when in reality we are French ........ that might be your problem........"

"We can even sneak in some liquor and have nightcaps before going to bed .... LOL,...... Oh I love you my darling ... hope this finds everything well with you."

"Happy Labor Day !!!!! Hope all is going well ... miss hanging out with you now that your gone...... I know your busy but keep in touch with your Uncle Don remember I have cancer....... :) love YOU !!!!!"

Even when he was so sick he still had his sense of humor:

"Meredith ... promise I wont bother you on here... this is for young people but give me a break..... love this love that ... love... love.... love ... WHATEVER!!!!!! I need to go puke........ love you!!!!"

"I have faith in you ...... you keep you faith in me and I you and we will both be okay...."

 "I am not dealing with it as well as I would like and to be honest with you am very scared ..... It will be okay ... I too have been doing alot of praying and although the answers are not clear am sure they are being heard and will be answered in time.... One funny story about that is the other night I was having a pity me moment late at night and I asked GOD to send Grandma Irwin to see me because she always takes such good care of me (even though everyone thinks I am crazy) .... well I finally fell asleep and in my dream I went to a place that Grandma Irwin was working and when I went inside she handed me this lunchbox and told me to take it and go eat it because she was too busy at the time to eat lunch .... so I guess that was god saying she too is busy at the moment but will get with me eventually."

He was so brave through all the chemo, radiation, and surgeries.

I hate it that hes gone, but I know hes in heaven with Grandma Irwin and having the time of his life. Before all this I really never had the want to be in heaven with Jesus. I mean life here is pretty good and there are still a lot of things I wanted to do...but now I really am ready to go anytime God wants me too. I know there is someone waiting for me.

I have so many reasons now to live life in such a different way than I did before. I may only have tomorrow; I feel that and I understand that. I know I will be sure to take advantage of everyday that I have because I do. 

I came home to a crazy wild beast...also known as Scout.

He has been alone for way too long today.

Tonight it's just me and the beast. Evan is on duty so hes at work until tomorrow morning. Poor guy has to be up all night, I hate that. Normally I rejoice when I have the bed to myself since I hate being touched when I sleep, but tonight it's freezing in the house and I wouldn't mind a snuggle buddy for once. Who am I kidding. I LOVE SLEEPING ALONE! (Sorry Mr. Slee...I really do feel bad you have to be up all night though)

I've still been working on bringing the spookiness of Halloween to the house. I really need some of these for my front stoop:

 and these:

Secretly I hate to buy real pumpkins...you just have to buy more next year! Artificial pumpkins are SO expensive, and the artificial pumpkins I have my eye on are ginormously awesome. They also come with a ginormous price tag. I think this year I'm going to hold out, not buy anything, and hope I can get some after the holiday cheap(er).

This year Halloween is at my house via .99 cent bags of cobwebs, paper cut outs, and mom's hand-me-down Halloween decorations. Surprisingly for what I have, it looks fantastic if I do say so myself. I mean it's not on the Martha Stewart level, but for our first Halloween it will do. And to top it off - Scout has only ate one strand of fake leaves so far!

I did find organic Halloween candy that is just about the same cost as the mixed bags of snickers, milky-ways, etc. The only problem I have is how much to buy? Will our neighborhood be infested with children? Will no one show up? Will I eat it all before they come? We might never know.



First off I have to start by saying happy anniversary to my best friend.

7 years ago today I was sitting in the front seat of a Jeep wondering what the heck this guy this getting at...well long story short, I'm glad I said yes to his poor attempt at asking for a date. Happy 7 years strong!

Today was cleaning day, but before the cleaning could commence Scout and I received a package in the mail from Grandma Wendy. Can you see the excitement on his face? He is so adorable. AND look how cute the package was decorated, my mom is so crafty.

Inside...wahlah!

Inside there were so many goodies!

How awesome are these candy bar covers? Milky-Ways, Reese's peanut butter cups, Rollo's, and Gardner's Milk Chocolate bars were all wrapped up in bright fall paper, with little details of bows, ribbons, and flowers. I almost don't want to eat them...almost. Luckily the papers slip right off and can be reused with new candy bars! My trick-or-treaters are going to be in shock and awe!

Grammy Grace also send me some Chi Latte K-cups via Mom's Halloween package! They are delicious! There was also a cute pumpkin for decoration, and a handmade picture book to add pictures of our family over the years.

To top it all off all of these things were packed into a new puppy bag for Scout. My mom even attached his name along the top...she is seriously the best! I'm so lucky to have such an awesome mom who has so many creative talents!

And of course Scout had presents too! A bone, biscuits, beggin strips.....and drum roll please! A new toy! (Thanks grandma, all his old toys are shreds! literately)

Now for the most exciting part of the day...laundry! I'll be honest, cleaning didn't really commence until a lot later in the day...I'm not very motivated when it comes to cleaning sometimes. Try not to look for my underwear in the picture, rude.

Please take a moment to enter the diary of this thug-life, house-wife.

DUSTIN'

SWEEPIN'

CLEAN'IN

YO YO YO

Here's my homedawg Scoutizzle

I'm cleanin out my closet...

Really I became a thug today because my hair was crazy. Hence the hod.

Ok I'm done being ridiculous now.

Try #2

100% Whole Wheat Bread

Isn't it a beautiful artisan loaf? It really turned out perfect this time!

Too bad I didn't make it.

That's right you're looking at him.

I live with the male version of Betty Crocker.

It's slightly annoying having a husband who can cook and bake better than me. Actually it's more than slightly annoying for me, and of course he knows this and has to rub it in. The funny thing is not a lot of people could guess this unknown (now known) fact about my man. Not only can he kill wild animals (with his bare hands...duh), shoot guns, shave, drive a manly car, but by golly he can BAKE! My loaf of bread tasted good but not great. Evan's turned out rich, soft, and perfectly sweet. On top of that you saw that mine was ugly and deflated, this one looks like it's from a gourmet bakery! One of these days...I'll beat him in his culinary quest at something...when I do I'll let you know.

Really my brain won't stop thinking about this: zzzzzzzzzzzzz

Sweet dreams!



I knew this weekend was going to be good from the get-go.
 Grammy Grace sent me a package in the mail! Magazines!
Evan has a 4 day weekend.
I have a 3 day weekend.
Scout is being extra cute.

Friday:

Consisted of lots of sleeping in...especially from the male parties in the house.

Breakfast:

Organic eggs, organic homemade wheat toast, --not organic, totally unhealthy canned corn beef hash.

After our awesome breakfast we took Scouter for a morning walk, and then came home and watched SUV (typical). Overall Friday was pretty lazy, low-key, with lots of cups of tea and coffee.

 Saturday:

We decided to get outside since it was so beautiful out. We found a place for canoe rentals which was kind of at a sketchy campground but it worked. I was really excited since I've never really canoed for more than 20 minutes...well lets just say this picture (below) was taken at the very start of the trip, hence why I look like I'm having fun.

I soon found out canoeing is a lot of work, and after about 45 minutes I was ready to be done...too bad it was a 4 hour canoeing experience.

Evan and I also learned we are bad communicators, and still need to work on our communication skills from time to time. There were many moments where our canoe was going sideways, getting stuck on rocks, and running into the shore. For part of the trip there was a lot of yelling from both ends of the canoe. Sometimes we fight, oops.

At least it was pretty outside! ...and don't worry we made up.

By the end our tushies were very sore...I guess I'm just more of a pontoon boat kind of girl.

For dinner I made lentil tacos. Evan supposedly has high cholesterol...says his doctor, (he is so skinny, I'm not really sure how this is possible) so I've been trying to cut out meat completely at least once a week. Evan isn't exactly crazy about beans in the first place (actually saying he hates them is an understatement) But he was a good sport and tried them anyway. They weren't bad at all, but I'll say I'm a bigger fan of meat myself.

 

Sunday:

Sleep

Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Bass Pro Shop

Finding a Swamp People T-shirt with Troy quote on it "CHOOT EM!"

Spending too much $ at Bass Pro Shop

Hobby Lobby

Hobby Lobby Fail

TJ Max instead

Finding something super cute for Krysti Leonard

Spontaneous dinner at Freedom Deli

Evan - Car Washing

Meredith - Weeding and porch sweeping

Scout - Digging and eating disgusting unknown objects

Leftovers

Top Shot and SUV

Today I worked from 6-10. The morning started out a little rough...the coffee pot broke. Now I know to most people this doesn't seem like a huge deal, but for me it mean the difference between a normal morning and a riot of old people running at me with their scooters, canes, and walkers demanding the liquid gold! Not to sound dramatic, but it could have been bad...they love their coffee. Luckily for them I'm also a part-time mechanic and I managed to find the piece that had fallen off and fixed it just in time.

 The best thing about getting off at 10:00 is that you have the rest of the day ahead of you, which is such a great feeling! I was going to take Scout for a walk, but he was too exhausted from his previous endeavor of shredding the cardboard box I had all my "give-away" clothes in. Thanks buddy. So while Scout napped I decided to make some whole wheat bread.

I feel like nobody makes bread anymore, at least not for your everyday eating. Homemade bread makes people ooh and ahh like it's a rare delicacy, when in reality it is one of the simplest things you can make. I've made lots of white bread (really REALLY easy), but I've been a little nervous to try a whole wheat recipe. Don't ask me why, it just seems scarier using things with names like flax seed, wheat germ, and vital wheat gluten in them. Bread was the thing that made me realize that I really wanted to go all organic in our kitchen. Evan and I went home to Pennsylvania on a month leave after he got home from deployment. I accidently left a loaf of bread in the cuboard. When we got home I pulled it out, and I was horrified to find that it looked exactly the same as the day I bought it! ---we were gone an entire month people! That really can't be healthy! Homemade bread stales so quickly that Evan and I have a hard time eating a whole loaf before we have to resort to using for toast and grilled cheese only. I started buying Rudi's Organic Bread at the grocery store, it is delcious and more nutritious for a store brand, but there are 3 things I'm not crazy about. 1. The slices are "heafty" which some people might love, but for us it's just too much bread. 2. These heafty slices come with a heafty price of around $4.95 a loaf. 3. You don't get as many slices as a normal loaf of bread, which means you end up paying more, but getting less (amount) that you would normally. Now I understand that everything organic is more expensive, but really I just want to be able to controll what we are eating. No more preservitives, chemicals, hormones, etc. just simple, good food. If I make my own bread I know exactly what is going into it, and I can make it just the way we like it.

I made my way to the organic departement in Kroger and found that Bob's Red Mill flour was the only kind they carried. So, with all the options I tried Bob's Red Mill whole wheat flour and I also picked up a package of vital wheat gluten (scary). I got the whole wheat recipe here. It was simple to follow, and turned out ok...but the top of my loaf deflated in the oven.

 See the sad, deflated top?

Grammy Grace and Pap's homemade Applebutter makes it AWESOME.

It still tastes great and is still fluffy and soft, which I wasn't expecting for a "whole wheat" loaf. I still might subsitute 1/3 white flour 2/3 whole wheat flour just to make it more wheat bread instead of WHEAT bread, if you know what I mean. I also want to add some wheat germ and flax seed, which both are supossedly extremely nutritious. For 1/4 of the price per organic loaf in the supermarket, it wasn't half bad! It definetly wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, but I'll have to perfect it a little more.

“All sorrows are less with bread.”
Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish author. (1547-1616) 



Oh hey there Gene Kelly. Don't mind me.

Seriously girls, you can take Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling, and Matt Damon...or whatever your fancy, I'll stick with Mr. Kelly. Maybe it's because he is from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, maybe it's because he can dance, act, and sing, or maybe it's because hes adorable, but I love Gene Kelly. One of my favorite movies of all time is Singing in the Rain---but seriously all googly eyes aside he was extremely talented.

I'm not crazy about this song, but the man is dancing on roller skates...I'm speechless.

 

I mean I can't leave out Singing in the Rain!

I get a huge stupid grin on my face every time I watch him dance. He makes it look so easy!

He told Debbie Reynolds that she was a horrible dancer leaving her in tears and forcing her to practice up to19 hour long days. After filming the "Good Morning" scene from Singing in the Rain, Reynolds had to be carried off set because she broke so many blood vessels in her feet. The only thing Gene said was that someone needed to dub her tap sounds, so he immediately went to the dubbing room and began dubbing the sound of her feet as well as his own. Donald O'Connor even said he didn't enjoy working with Kelly because Kelly would scream at him if he didn't get the steps right. He was an extreme perfectionist, but his dancing routines were so natural. I know this makes him sound crazy, but how many people put this much detail and pride into their work? --Not many-- I guess I see it more of a respectful quality that I admire.

Ok ok I'll stop swooning now, I need to go grocery shopping and clean my house.