1 Year Down, Forever to Go

Happy anniversary to me! Actually, our anniversary was yesterday, but I've decided I'm just going to use the month of June to celebrate. Because I can.

It's been a year full of ups and down. Sadly, a lot of downs. But we made it through. We persevered and actually had a wonderful anniversary celebration. Because I was unable to get the weekend of our anniversary off, we officially celebrated the first weekend in June. I asked for the entire weekend off of work (which never happens) and waited patiently for Matt to make plans like he swore to me he would. Fast forward to the Wednesday before we're supposed to leave and.... nothing. In all honesty, this didn't surprise me. The man hasn't booked a trip the entire 4 years we've been together. I've planned every single trip we've gone on, including the ones for my birthday. So when people asked what we were doing this weekend, I responded with "Nothing. Probably just hanging around the house, maybe rent a few movies" because that's what I anticipated doing. I wasn't really upset because it was something that I anticipated. He tends to forget about things like that and not make them a priority. I pretty much talking myself into believing that I would be okay with a lazy weekend around the house. With our roommate around. And all of Matt's friends. And the animals.

Well, surprise surprise! The Thursday before we were supposed to leave he comes into the house after work and states simply that we were going to the bay for the weekend. After a few questions I determine that he had booked a hotel in the Santa Cruz area for Saturday night and wanted to take me to the boardwalk. I haven't been in almost 10 years so I was thrilled! A day at the beach, with rides and terrible food. I couldn't ask for more. Especially since I hadn't seen the ocean in nearly a year!

And it was awesome. We left late-morning on Saturday and headed down to our hotel. The ride was traffic packed so we ended up arriving a bit later than we anticipated, so rather than spend a watered down day at the boardwalk we spent Saturday shopping, having an awesome dinner and... bonding at the hotel. If you haven't been to Gilroy, CA I highly recommend it. The entire town smells like garlic. It's pretty much heaven. They also have a fantastic outlet mall. Tons of shops! After a bit of shopping we went stopped at a random BBQ place for dinner called Famous Dave's. It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. I've never had so much food in my entire life. We ordered the platter for 2 and it was enough food to feed both of us for at least 2 days. Ribs, BBQ chicken, pulled pork, corn on the cob, corn bread muffins, baked beans and coleslaw. Surprisingly, we made a HUGE dent in the plate. Then we had to go pass out at the hotel and watch terrible HBO movies because we were stuffed!

This is what Matt does while we're having a wonderful conversation over breakfast.

We slept in a bit the next day and then headed to the boardwalk. We got an awesome deal from Costco where for $55 we got entrance to the boardwalk, 2 unlimited ride wristbands and 5 tickets to either get arcade coupons or to have an "experience" (mini golf, laser tag, haunted house, etc). We spent the first part of our day riding all of the rides. We got to check out a couple roller coasters (a wooden one that killed my neck), bumper cars, a terrible haunted house and, my favorite, the log ride. Even though I got kind of soaked. And I was wearing jeans.

One of my favorite photos of the day.  =)

We checked out a couple of the shops, then decided to do some mini golf. I haven't mini golfed in years so, obviously, I was terrible. It was a pretty great set up though. They had wheels at some of the holes that you spun to determine what your handicap would be that game. At one point Matt had to hit his first shot with the wrong end of the club, and then he got to stand in the middle of the green when I shot. Totally unfair. It was definitely a nice way to spice up the game. Also, half of the holes were glow in the dark, with black light. Kept things interesting!

On our way out we still had a couple tickets left so we found a couple of kids to give them to. They were pretty excited to get to play more video games. Glad we could help.  =)  We stopped for gas about a half hour North and decided to grab something to eat at this little Japanese restaurant. Yes, I got BBQ and Japanese food in matter of 24 hours. It was fantastic. We didn't get home until almost 11pm which was much later than we anticipated, but it was definitely worth it. It was the first weekend we've spent together since our honeymoon and it couldn't have been more needed!

To top it off, yesterday on our actual anniversary he came home with roses and a card. This is the 4th time in 4 years that he's given me flowers! He scored some major points the last couple weeks!

Now, I need to head off and check on my pot roast. And make some mashed potatoes of course. I will be back soon with, hopefully, a more productive entry! =)

Rainy Weather = Soup Weather!

Yesterday, it was raining. I HATE when it rains. Not only is it cold and windy outside, but I'm stuck in the house with 2 restless dogs desperate to go to the park. They just sit there and look at me all sad like. It's just pathetic. So, rather than sit there and stare down my dogs, I decided it was a good day for soup! I've had a massive craving for potato soup lately so I decided to cave and go for it. My initial inclination was to use my crock pot but because mine is ridiculously small, I had to upgrade and use my stock pot on the stove. Oh well, I can adapt!

Without further ado, I give you loaded baked potato soup. This is definitely tied for first place for my favorite soup of all time. It is SO filling and pretty much terrible for you, so be aware. lol

Ingredients:

• 7 or 8 medium sized potatoes, cubed in 1/2 pieces  (Ish.)
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 5 cups of chicken broth   (I prefer the unsalted kind.)
• 4 Tbs. minced garlic
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter 
• 2 tsp. salt   (Add more to taste at the end of cooking.)
• 3 tsp. pepper 
• 1 1/ 2 cups of half & half
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 3 tablespoons chopped chives, or green onions if you're like me and every store you go to is out of chives   (REALLY!? I went to 3 stores!)
• 1 cup sour cream   (This is totally options, but totally recommended!)
• 8 slices cooked bacon, crumbled
• Cheese and bacon bits for a topping, if desired

How To: 

Mid-cooking.

In a large stock pot combine the potatoes, onion, garlic, butter, chicken broth, salt, and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil then continue cooking on medium-low for 45 minutes to an hour, or until potatoes are soft. Stir in the cream, cheese, bacon, and chives. Simmer on low until the mixture is thickened. Serve topped with sour cream and (if you're terribly unhealthy like me) extra bacon bits, chives and cheese. Makes 12-15 cups.

And here's your end result!

 If you'd like to do this recipe in the crock pot you can follow the same instructions but, rather than a stock pot, you can slow cook everything on high for 4 hours or on low for 7 prior to adding the cream, bacon, cheese and chives. It's just as amazing, I'm just impatient!

Hope y'all enjoy!

Who loves picture frames? I love picture frames!

Hello there ladies! And gentlemen? I'm not sure guys would actually read my blog, so I will stick with ladies for now. Unless someone gets offended, then let me know and I'll change!

It's been a little bit since I've posted, mainly because I've been in the midst of projects and celebrating my 1 year anniversary with my husband. Yahoo, we actually made it a year! But, now that I'm back, I have several different things to share. Depending on how I'm feeling I may bust them all out today, or maybe I'll try to spread them out throughout the week. We shall find out!

First and foremost, about a week and a half ago set out to create a gallery wall. Actually, planning for this wall has been going on for months. This pretty much consisted of me collecting frames and other items to put on the wall, and finding the best places to get photos printed up. For frames, my top 3 recommendations are:

1. The Dollar Store - Really any dollar store but in particular I used the Dollar Tree. I was able to get 8"x10", 5"x7" and 4"x6" frames for (GASP!) a dollar each. Granted they are not the greatest quality in the world but they look decent once you put them on the wall. 
2. Wal-Mart - As much as my husband hates Wal-Mart I still find ways to make my way there and take advantage of some good deals. They have 8"x10", 5"x7" and 4"x6" frames for $2-3 a piece. There were several different designs and they were a lot better quality than the ones at the dollar store. One tip though, double check the back of the frame and make sure they have a wall hanger! I got several 5"x7" that I'm going to have to modify to hang!
3. Michael's - I love Michael's for so many reason, but their frames are definitely in my top 3. I got some amazing 12"x18" frames for $8 a piece. By the way 12"x18" is a very hard size to find affordable frames for!

As for getting the actually prints, there are always options like Walgreens and Costco and such, but I found the BEST deals were through a site called ArtsCow.com. When you sign up as a new member you get a huge amount of free prints; 4"x6" on up to 12"x18". All you have to do is pay for shipping. I got 63 prints for about $20, and they were amazing quality prints. I'm a bit of a picture quality snob and I was even impressed. By the way, if you need a stretched canvas print, they are awesome for those too.

This is what I had to work with, after all was said and done. Don't mind my pretty boy Morgan posing there in the background. He's so photogenic.  =)

My next challenge was choosing the location of my gallery wall. My initial thought was to put it down the back hallway in between our bedrooms because well, it's really empty there. But after some thought and input from friends and family I decided against it. Not only was the lighting terrible there, but people rarely venture down that hall and if I'm going to put that much work into something, people need to see it! So, I chose a wall in our family/game room. There are 2 large windows and a french door nearby which let in a ton of nature light, and it's in a really high traffic area. BINGO! Because the room has a vaulted ceiling I had to decide whether I wanted to go all the way up, or make the gallery even with the top of the doorway. I decided that being even with the doorway was a better bet because it would allow people to actually see the photos that were going to be displayed.

This is the wall I chose to use. The one between the doorway and the kitchen cabinets.

Now, there are a couple ways you can go about mapping out your wall and putting your photos up. You can randomly start hammering nails and hope that your gut instincts are right on, or you can use templates. I chose to begin with templates, mainly because my gut instincts generally are wrong. Like, really wrong. For the couple weeks prior to beginning my wall I started saving junk mail, flyers, magazine and advertisements. Luckily we tend to receive a ton in the mail so it didn't take me long to collect everything I needed. Just make sure to collect several different paper sizes depending on your frames. You can tape 2 pieces together if needed, but it's more of a pain. On each template I wrote what the object was, the size of the frame and whether the image was black & white or color. I also made sure to note whether it was a horizontal or vertical image which made things so much easier once I got to the mapping stage.

Here is an example of one of my templates. Pretty basic right?

Next, using a measuring tape and pencil I marked an "x" on the template to indicate where the nail was going to need to go. I measured across the template in several spots so that I was able to create a vertical line down the middle, and then I measured down the line to where my "x" needed to go. This seemed to be very effective seeing as how only 1 of my frames had to be adjusted after the fact.

Not the prettiest picture, but you get the idea!

Now comes the fun part, actually sticking everything to the wall! Using scotch tape or painter's tape (something that is easily removable) you can start mapping everything out without having to worry about making unnecessary holes in the wall. The best recommendations I can give you is to invest in a laser level. Oh man, BEST.INVENTION.EVER! Not the mention I found one on clearance at Lowe's for $4.99. Granted if you can't find one on clearance you can find decent Black & Decker ones for $15-20 and they work perfect for this purpose. I began my mapping by using my level to create a line parallel to the doorway of the room. From there, I just started putting pictures up. Mostly randomly, but I made sure to try and spread out black and white images and different sizes. The awesome thing about using the tape is that you can move the images around as much as you want and not have to worry about damaging anything. I must have pulled everything off of the wall a hundred times before I was satisfied with the final product.

Wall-O-Templates!

My second best recommendation is to not be in a hurry to start hammering. I had newspaper taped to my wall for DAYS prior to actually hanging my frames. I slept on it, looked it over several times, got the opinion of friends and family... the works. It was worth the wait to know that I was going to be happy with the final product. After some slight tweaking, I was ready to get down to the hard labor. Actually, it wasn't hard at all. After all the prep work is done, actually putting everything on the wall is pretty simple. For my 4"x6" and 5"x7" frames I used simple small picture nails whereas for the larger frames and heavier objects I used drywall screws. Using my heaviest piece I tested the strength of the drywall to determine whether or not to use anchors. If you don't know, anchors are plastic cone-shaped objects that are inserted into the drywall via a pre-drilled hole. They are designed to relieve some of the stress placed on the drywall and to keep the screw from becoming lose in the wall. Luckily, I didn't need these but I highly recommend double checking to be sure. It can save you a lot of grief in the future!

Using the "x's" that I drew, I started hammering/screwing in my hardware. After each nail/screw I temporarily hung the photo the make sure that it lined up with the template. It took maybe 10 minutes and I was ready to actually hang my photos. One-by-one I pulled the template off of the wall and hung up the corresponding photo; working from the top, down. Eventually I was left with this:

Don't mind the 3 pieces of newspaper still up. I'm working on figuring out a way to put up the frames I purchased that didn't have wall hangers. I've got to make a Home Depot run!

I'm very happy with the final product, and surprisingly so is my husband. I know he was weary about a wall of pictures at first but he's been complementing it since I finished. I'm still tweaking things here and there to make sure it's all level, but it's pretty much set. So there it is! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. This project was actually a lot of fun. I highly recommend it, especially if you're photo obsessed like I am!

Peer pressure.

Lately I have been doing great pretty good with my healthy eating kick. I stopped buying junk food while out grocery shopping. Traded in Doritos for raw almonds and chocolate for grapes and apples. By not having this stuff in the house I have been forced into either eating healthy, or not eating at all (which we all know is impossible). What I didn't think of at the time was that, although I wasn't purchasing junk food, I still had everything I needed to make my own!

I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but I spend a lot of time chatting with a group of ladies that I met through TheKnot.com while planning my wedding. We were all June 2011 brides and formed pretty strong bonds during the process. Although many think we are nuts for keeping in touch like we do, Juneville (as we have dubbed it) has been a great support for me and full of inspiration! Hell, the girls on there probably know more about my life than most of my real life friends! Anywho, today our little township was full of junk food talk. What are your favorite junk foods? Who wants me to send them amazing cookies? Which is better, Pepsi or Coke? FYI: The answer is Pepsi. So, I caved into the peer pressure, dug through my over-packed baking cabinet and got out all my supplies. COOKIE TIME!

So, without further ado, I give you the recipe for (what I think) are some of the most amazing cookies ever made. Ever.

Double Chocolate, Double Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks of unsalted butter: About 1 cup, a little colder than room temp works best.
• 1¼ cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• ¼ cup peanut butter: I chose chunky because that's what I had plus, I like the added texture.
• ½ cup dark cocoa powder: I used Ghirardelli, unsweetened.
• 2¼ cups all-purpose flour
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 6 ounces of peanut butter chips: I'm a snob and use the Reese's ones. About half a bag.
• 8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips: About ¾ of a bag.

How to:

First off, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease your cookie sheet(s).  Begin by cubing your butter and mixing it with the sugar until fluffy-ish (about a minute or two). Then, one at a time, add your eggs and once they are well blended add in the peanut butter. At this point the mixture will be kind of runny. Next, slowly add in the cocoa powder, followed by the flour, salt and baking powder. Mix at a medium speed for roughly 3 minutes to ensure that all the lumps and such are polished out. Lastly, add your chocolate and peanut butter chips. I definitely recommend mixing these in by hand because, while your mixer will do it, it also kind of destroys the chips as they are smashed up against the side of the bowl.

After you are all blended up, drop the batter by "heaping teaspoons" onto the cookie sheet. Generally my heaping teaspoon was a ½ inch-ish ball. Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes. When you remove the sheet from the oven, let it sit and cool for 2-3 minutes to let the cookies harden a bit. Otherwise when you try to move them to cooling rack they will just fall apart. Once they are cooled a bit, use a spatula to move the cookies to a cooling rack (Or in my case wax paper since I don't own a cooling rack. How does that happen?!) and you are done!

The recipe makes about 3 dozen very yummy cookies! Which is WAY too many so I recommend having friends come around quite regularly for the next few days because otherwise... That's a LOT of calories.

And, because I haven't mentioned it yet, cookies are NOT part of my zombie apocalypse survival plan. First off, the high calorie count will eventually cause you to gain weight which will inevitably make you run slower. This is a Z.A. no-no. While, in some scenarios, zombies are slow and clumsy (see the old school "Dawn of the Dead" or "Night of the Living Dead") in others they are quick and relatively smart (as in "The Walking Dead" and "28 Days Later"). In event of the latter situation, you definitely need to be quick on your feet and able to run for long distances to avoid having your brain eaten. Second, sugar is good to burn for a quick fuel source, but it doesn't last long. To keep up your energy you are going to need more protein and carbohydrates than a cookie can offer. Thus, I recommend beef jerky and peanut butter.

So, kids, invest in your dehydrators now!

Jumping on the freezer food bandwagon!

Normally, I'm a good wife. I try my beset to have dinner ready, on the table (or at least in the oven) by the time my husband comes home from work in the evening. The last few weeks has made it nearly impossible to do this, however. Juggling class projects, finals, work, job interviews and general life maintenance caused me to be out of the house a good 13-14 hours a day. This meant that I've been arriving home at the same time, or later, than both my husband and my roommate. This experience has taught me 2 very important facts:

1. The men in my house are useless in pretty much all things house related. 
2. If I don't cook, everyone will starve. Literally. They just don't eat. I mean, how hard is it to throw a couple hot dogs on!?

With a normal full time job on the horizon (YAY!) I decided that it would probably be a good idea to prep some easy, man proof meals. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that all men are useless in the kitchen. In fact, I know that's not true. I've known many guys that have much more skill than I do in this area. Hell, even my roommate claims to be some sort of master chef who enjoys spending time in the kitchen. This is proven by the fact that he has prepared dinner a total of 3 times since December; two of which involved him ordering pizza. With mushrooms which I'm allergic to and can't eat. WIN!

So, in order to possibly remedy this situation I've decided to join in the new freezer meal fad! I figured that worse case scenario, I can start my day by tossing a bag of whatever into the crock pot and be on my merry way. At least then I will get to eat legitimate food rather than Taco Bell, Dominoes or, my personal favorite, beer. I started out small by prepping 5 different meals, each of which will probably have a day or so of left overs. So, technically, my prepped meals should feed us dinner for at least a week. If this goes well (meaning if the guys are able to comprehend this advanced concept) then I'm considering shopping and planning 2 weeks at a time. A week at a time seems too time consuming and I don't think my freezer is big enough for a month. Also, you have to keep in mind that freezer meals will be somewhat useless during the zombie apocalypse. Once the power goes out all of your food will go bad so you don't want to prep too far in advance or you'll just ruin a bunch of food. We can't have that now can we?

Part of the aftermath to my Costco shopping spree.

Here is the cliff's note version: I created 5 main courses to put in the freezer and save for days when I am unable to be home to make dinner. The reason I only did main courses is that my crock pot is actually really small. Much smaller than I would like it to be. If this experiment goes well then I'm going to invest in a larger one. I found an AWESOME deal on a clearance one that I've been tempted to pick up every time I go into work. I also invested in some really good Ziploc brand bags, rather than the cheapy ones I usually pick up from the dollar store. I figured I'd better be safe than sorry. On each bag I used a Sharpie to write what the meal was, how long to put it in the oven/crock pot and at what temperature, and a recommended side. I highly doubt the boys will be able to handle making a side, but it doesn't hurt to try! In each bag I put all the vegetables, meat, spices and broth needed for the meal. The only thing they need to add is a bit of water if the pot starts getting low. Hopefully that won't be necessary but I had to add it on the bags just in case. You pretty much have to spell out every.single.step involved in the processes or something will blow up. And if they blow up my crock pot I'm going to be pissed.

The meals (Just a heads up, I used a lot of chicken. Mainly because it was on sale...):

Crock Pot BBQ Chicken:

 

Ingredients: 

•  I used 3 thighs and 3 drumsticks, but that will vary depending on how many people you're cooking for. 
• 2 cups of BBQ sauce, which ended up being about 1/2 a bottle. I used sweet and spicy.  =)
• 3 small white onions, diced. 
• 3 Tbs. minced garlic. There's a chance I may have added more than that. I LOVE garlic. 
• 2 small tomatoes, cut however the heck you like really. I just sliced them up. 
• 3 tsp. hot sauce, for a little bit of zest. 
• Salt and pepper to taste.     

How to:

Easy enough. Just pour the bag into the crock pot with 1/2 cup of water or chicken broth. Cook on high for 3-4 hours or on low for about 6. Ish. I recommend pairing this with mashed potatoes. That is probably because I'm obsessed with mashed potatoes...

Crock Pot Chicken Marinara:

 

Ingredients:

• Again, I used 3 thighs and 3 legs. Because I'm awesome like that. And I like symmetry.
• 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese. Or more... I'm unhealthy. 
• 1 jar of marinara sauce. I used the store-bought stuff but that meant I had to add more spices.
• 1 Tbs. oregano
• 1 Tbs. basil
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 3 diced tomatoes
• Salt and pepper to taste

How to:

Pretty much the same as above. Put the contents of the bag into the crock pot with 1/2 cup of water or chicken broth. Cook on high for 3-4 hours or on low for about 6. I bought a few loaves of garlic bread to put in the freezer and cook as needed. 

Crock Pot Lemon-Herb Chicken and Asparagus:

 

Ingredients:

• Once again, 3 chicken thighs and 3 legs.
• 1 bunch of asparagus, which is about 6-7 stalks. Can you measure asparagus in stalks?
• 3 small tomatoes
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 Tbs. basil
• 1 Tbs. oregano
• 1 Tbs. minced onion
• 2 Tbs. minced garlic
• 1/2 Tbs. celery seed (crushed, whole... doesn't really matter)
• Salt and pepper to taste. I like a decent amount of pepper with this recipe. 

How to:

Same old, same old. Pour the contents of the back into the crock pot with about 1/2 cup of water or chicken broth. Cook on high for 3-4 hours or on low for 6-ish. I'm a big fan of steamed rice with this meal. White or brown. 

Crock Pot Pot Roast:

 

Ingredients: 

• 3 to 3 1/2 pound beef pot roast
• 1 pkg brown gravy mix
• 2 small onions, chopped
• 2 cups sliced baby carrots
• 3 stalks of celery, chopped
• 1/2 cup diced green peppers
• 3 Tbs. minced garlic
• 1/2 can beef broth
• 2 bay leaves
• Salt and pepper to taste

How to:

Add bag contents to the crock pot and cook on high for 4-5 hours or on low for 6-7. Sauce should thicken as it cooks, but if it doesn't add 1-2 Tbs. of flour and let simmer for 5-10 minutes. I really like cooking this with diced, roasted potatoes with garlic olive oil and rosemary. 

And, lastly, Baked Italian Seasoned Chicken with Veggies:

 

Ingredients: 

• 6 thighs and 6 legs. Gotcha didn't I? My baking pans are bigger than my crock pot. lol
• 5 Tbs. Italian Seasoning (basil, oregano, marjoram, rosemary, sage and thyme)
• 3 Tbs. minced garlic
• 1 large green pepper
• 1 large red pepper
• 3 small tomatoes
• 1 medium onion
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• Salt and pepper to taste

How to: 

Put contents of the Ziploc into a 13"x9" baking dish and cook for about 45 minutes at 375 degrees. Really any kind of pasta is great with this. Then again... I love carbs. A lot. 

That was it for my first attempt. I'll let you know if it was a massive success or not. Or, even somewhat of a success. I'll take whatever I can get at this point in time. There are still a ton more non-chicken meals that I'm looking forward to trying, but the next crock pot meal will definitely be loaded baked potato soup. Oh man that sounds amazing!




Until next time folks!

Dog park drama.

Lately, my evenings have been ending with the dog park. As much as I'd rather it not. My goal on most days is to arrive at the park before 3pm and get the heck out of there before 4:30. "Why" you ask? Because (as my title alludes) the dog park is drama. More drama than you would anticipate from a place where puppies go to play, but the last month or so that's pretty much all it has been. One of my dog park buddies and I have decided we're going to submit the show idea to that TrueTV channel. They have reality shows on pretty much everything anyway! So, I figured I would give you folks a sneak peak at our first episode of "Bradshaw Brawls." Or "Dog Wars." Or... something better.

We open the show with Lucy, a tiny silkie terrier. Her owner Angela brings her to the park everyday, but little do they know that today they will find themselves in the middle of a Bradshaw brawl. Dun dun duuunnnnn.... (I'm pretty much awesome at the intros).

Lucy found a playmate in a snobby little poodle. By playmate I mean she followed him around the park in circles because that's what the little dogs do. Suddenly, poodle dog snaps and a flurry of fur ensues! For like a second and a half. The two dogs separate and poodle boys owner is hysterical claiming that her dog was bitten. Granted no one knows for sure since she refused to let anyone check the pup out (suspicious much?).
So, what is the most logical way to handle this totally common situation? Well obviously poodle boy's mom should threaten to pepper spray Angela because, you know, that's how we roll out here in Sacramento. But wait! She does better than threaten, she sprays! She eliminated the threat of the 50 year old women with the 5 pound dog.
Police arrived on scene and thus ended this portion of BRADSHAW BRAWLS!!!!!

I'm making this episode short and sweet, mainly because I have to head out to class to take a final. But I think you get the idea. Basically, people are freaking NUTS! I have a ton of other stories but, sadly, you will have to wait until the next episode.

However, if you have any name suggestions for this segment they would be greatly appreciated! I will give you creative credit when our shows airs on TrueTV and becomes wildly successful prompting T-shirt and DVD sales. I imagine the shirts will look something like this:

So, until next time!

Garden. Take 3.

As I may have mentioned (I think), Matt and I purchased our first "real" home back in December. I say "real" because we also own a condo that we've decided doesn't count because it was...lame. So now, we have a yard! And, in celebration of said yard, I decided it would be an awesome idea to start a garden. Not only would we save a few bucks on groceries every month, but we would also have less food crammed in our fridge going bad since the boys only eat veggies if I hide them in the food. Also, gardens are fantastic to have for the zombie apocalypse. You have to have a certain level of self sufficiency in order to survive.

Back to the garden. Our backyard was a mess. A HUGE mess. It looked as if no one had even been in it in years. There were probably a good 7-8 different types of large bushes/trees, not to mention an about 2 foot thick layer of decaying leaves. I really wish we had taken more "before" photos because the afters would look SO much more impressive. There were two sets of raised flower beds: A large one that ran along the back fence, and 2 smaller  ones that ran along the sides of the yard and across the front of the large bed. That seemed a bit redundant to me so, we cut them down a bit and use part of the back bed for the garden.
This is what we had to work with.

Imagine the mess to the right of the screen only covering the entire back and side of the yard. 

The most logical plan of action was to just rip everything out. So, that's what we did. Or I guess I should say that's what I did because, contrary to popular belief, the men were terrible at all things yard related. It took pretty much forever but eventually we I cleared all but 3 trees and removed the small flower bed than ran across the front of the larger one (you can kind of see it, the wavy brick line, to the right of the picture). In Because we have two large dogs it was decided that low maintenance was the way to go so, instead of flowers in the flower beds, we put mulch. Lots and lots of mulch. FINALLY, it was time to deal with the whole garden thing. I called dibs on my corner and laid down some legit Lowe's soil. First to go in were our fruit trees; a lemon and an orange. Then we played the waiting game. Matt purchased one of those garden starter kits that you plant and sprout inside. We thought it was a fantastic idea!

It really wasn't. The seeds actually did really well. Within in couple weeks we had some pretty impressive little plants. So impressive, in fact, that our cat Whitey decided he need to make sure they were safe for human kitty consumption. He ate the tops off of pretty much everything. They were now sad, sad little plants. But, we persevered! We took those sad, sad little plants and transferred them to my new fenced little garden and, surprisingly, a lot of them actually continued to grow. I was pretty thrilled, mainly because I generally kill everything, always. I inherited my mom's black thumb. Funny side story: My mom killed a fake plastic tree.

It wasn't much but it was something and I was proud of myself!  =p

It was a happy little garden until, one fateful and stormy night.... This happened...

Really? REALLY!?! Stupid tree.

At this point, I had given up. I mean, it's pretty obvious that I am not supposed to have a garden. If this means I have to raise cattle and chickens in my backyard in order to survive the zombies then so be it! I mean, technically there is some sort of rule in our neighborhood that forbids having barnyard animals in your back yard, but I figure that once they all turn to zombies the enforcers of said rules probably won't care as much. I mean, you would assume that, being undead and all, zombie would be a bit more lenient in regards to the rules of local home owner's associations. 

Sorry, sidetracked again. Anyways, I thought I had given up gardening. I mean, obviously the fruit and vegetable gods were opposed to my success so why bother trying again? Well, after my near death experience with kidney stones this weekend I came to the decision that I needed to be productive, so I tried again. I attempted to fix what remained of my smashed little white fence and transplanted my lemon tree to the other side of the plot. Then, I went all in. I used all of the seeds we had left and, being the creative genius that I am, made little markers out of a few of the million of rocks we have lying around the property. So, with any luck, in a few short weeks we will start to see the growth of some pretty little (eventually edible) plants! I will let you know if it's possible to turn a black thumb green. I know you will be impatiently awaiting an update!

My mangled little fence and dying lemon tree.

And, I still am completely unaware of how to make these pictures stay right side up.  =(

My rant of the day.

This is going to be my first ever "Rant of the Day." And possibly the best because it will be written while I'm under the influence of Percocet. For those of you who aren't away Percocet is a combination of acetaminophen and oxycodone. In other words a pretty strong pain killer. Especially for someone like me who is 5'2" and 110 pounds. One tablet knocks me out pretty good. You may be wondering why I am on this particular medication. Well I've got two words for you: Kidney stones. To explain in a few more words: Worst.Pain.Ever.

Let's take a trip back, shall we? I had my first experience with kidney stones on June 8th, 2011. You might be wondering why in the world I remember the exact date. Well, it was 3 days before Matt and I got married. Can you say worse timing ever? I was knee deep in bubble favors, ribbon, flowers and tulle when I started having terrible lower back pain. This isn't unusual as I was in a car accident many years ago so I popped a couple Advil and went along my merry way. Next thing I knew I was buckled over on the bathroom floor, covered in sweat and writhing in pain. The pain was so unbearable that I became sick to my stomach (I will spare you from the ugly details). Morgan, my then 14 week old puppy, was positive that licking my face and sitting on me would help, but he was wrong. When my husband arrived home I asked him to take me to the hospital and he, thinking that I was overreacting, hesitated but eventually agreed.

At this point I was pretty positive my back wasn't the problem so, when the emergency room staff asked what was wrong I told them that I was pretty positive something was wrong with my kidney. Being the ghetto ultra-efficient facility that they were I was sent to the waiting room where... I waited. And waited. And waited some more. I wasn't given any pain medication, or even anything for my nausea. Finally, after almost 2 hours I was able to see a doctor! Color me THRILLED! They set me up in my room and took all of my vitals. My heart rate was up, as well as my blood pressure. I had a fever of almost 104 and I was majorly dehydrated. Pretty much felt like I was dying. They loaded me up with pain killers, and hooked me up to an IV and told me that they were going to send me in for a CAT scan to check out my kidneys because (possible a too much information fact, but impressive nonetheless) my urine analysis came back as 10% blood. That's bad for those of you who don't know.

Then, I waited. And waited. And waited some more! It really was a thrilling night. Turns out they forgot about me. The tech that was supposed to come in and run my tests had gone to lunch, or gotten lost, or something. I really don't know, I was pretty drugged up by this time. Needless to say, the long awaited CAT scan finally happen at about 2am (3 hours before I had to be at work!) and they found a few pretty nice sized stones. Large enough that I had to have an ultrasound to break them up because they wouldn't take care of themselves. After all of this, and 4 IV bags, I was finally sent home with a few prescriptions and a list of awesome stuff that I wasn't allowed to eat or drink anymore.

If you have never had a kidney stone, or don't know someone that has, let me tell you I would not wish it on my worst enemy. I've dealt with a lot of pain in my life. Broken bones, torn ligaments, concussions, dislocations... you name it. Nothing even comes close to the pain of a kidney stone. I have been told by many that it is worth than child birth and at this point, I believe it.

So here I sit, drugged up and still in pain. Trying to get my mind off of it by watching Maury and one of his many paternity test episodes. The boys are not thrilled that they don't get to go to the dog park. In fact Morgan has been sitting here looking at me like this for nearly a half hour...

So, I will leave you here. Mainly because I'm about to pass out. If you're lucky you will never have to experience this affliction. In short, it sucks. But if  you do or have, I hope that this makes you feel a little less alone in the world.   =)


Here's a photo of me on drugs. Peace out.

Mmmm.... soup.

It's going to be a long week. Like, a really long week. I'm looking at 15+ hour days once you combine school, work and homework/projects. I'm definitely not looking forward to it, and I'm also not looking forward to trusting the boys to cook. And I am NOT willing to order pizza and eat hot dogs every night. I'm so very much over my poor college student days. You see, I live with pretty much all men. My husband, of course, a male roommate, 2 male dogs and a male cat. It's them against me and my pretty girl cat. Needless to say we're outnumbered. Granted the pets don't really have a say in what we eat for dinner...

I am not a food snob. I prefer real food that has to be, you know, cooked. Prepared. Not necessarily ridiculously healthy, but it has to have substance. A hot dog on a bun with ketchup does not count as a meat, a starch, and a vegetable in my book. Besides, tomatoes are a fruit.

So, tonight being my early evening, I decided to prep one of my go-to, last me most of the week, pretty much delicious meals. For those of you who have been to Olive Garden, you've probably tried their Zuppa Toscana. And, if you haven't, you're a terrible person. It's amazing. A few years back I found a basic recipe online for this soup and (like with everything I cook) I tweaked it to my liking. It is delicious, hearty and impossible to get bored of. Pair this with some breadsticks and you've got yourself a mouth watering meal!

So here's the recipe. I apologize for the lack of photos. I have 3 cameras (with multiple batteries) and it turns out all of them were pretty dead. It was very disappointing. I guess I'll just have to paint a picture with my words!   ;)

Not from the most recent batch, but soup nonetheless.

  Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Cook time: 45-50 minutes 

What you'll need:

• 1 1/2 lb ground Italian sausage
• 6 slices of bacon
• 1½ tsp crushed red peppers
• ¼ of a bunch of kale
• 1 large sized diced white onion
• 1 1/2 lb sliced potatoes,  about 4-5 large potatoes
• 1 tbs garlic puree
• 4 cups water
• 6 cups of chicken broth
• 1 cup heavy cream

 A little explanation:



Now, the original recipe called for less Italian sausage (1lb) and bacon (4 tbs, how is that enough???) but I'm a bit of a carnivore so I always add more. It also called for 10 cups of water and 5 chicken bouillon cubs. I figured that one sort of dumb so I just add straight chicken broth. Actually, if you want to mix it up a little you can add 1/2 chicken broth and 1/2 beef broth. It gives it a bit of a different flavor. Also, because I'm unhealthy like that, I add an extra potato or two. What can I say, I like hearty soups with a lot of stuff in them. I guess it's more like a stew in this case... Whatever. 

On to the cooking!:

1. In a large stock pot cook up the Italian sausage and the red pepper until all the pinkish color is gone from the sausage. Pretty much like browning hamburger meat. Strain out all of the fat and place the mixture aside while you prep the rest of the soup. It's going to be a little bit until you add the sausage so I recommend just tossing it in the fridge.
2. Now, using the same stock pot, cook up with bacon with the onions and garlic on a medium heat. Once the onions are soft and beginning to look translucent you should be good to go. This usually takes 10-15 minutes.
3. Leave the previous mixture in the stock pot and add the chicken broth and and water. Bring this to a boil.
4. Then add the potatoes and cook, almost boiling, until they are soft. Like you would making mashed potatoes if you happen to be familiar. Generally this step will take 30 minutes of so.
5. Once the potatoes are soft add the heavy cream and heat the soup back to boiling.
6. Lastly, toss in your sausage mixture and the kale and heat until everything is at the desired temperature. It usually takes me about 10 minutes to get it back up to where I like it, granted I like my food HOT.
7. Eat your soup! Easy enough, right? If you want to be fancy you can grate some parmesan on top.  =)

 And, because I don't have a legitimate picture of the soup, I leave you with a picture of something equally impressive... My puppies all pretty and clean after their baths!

On a serious note.

And believe me when I say that my serious moments are few and far between. Especially the ones that are shown in public. But today I was thrown in the middle of a situation that I am all to familiar with. It hit really close to home and I felt compelled to put this out there in the hopes that it might help someone, somewhere.

When I was a freshman in high school I started dating this guy (let's refer to him as Jerkoff) that was a few years older than me, a senior, and literally the sweetest guy ever. He had that innocent, shy kind of personality that most 18 year old guys have long outgrown. We went to church together, met each others' families, talked for hours on the phone; you know, all of that puppy love stuff. I was in "love". Looking back, I realize that I had no idea what love was. I was an awkward 14 year old who was thrilled to be pursued by an older guy. Deep down I think I realized that something was wrong but I was too naive to accept it.

After a few months it was like a switch was flipped in him. I was a football player and a wrestler so, obviously, I hung out with a lot of guys. Initially this wasn't an issue bu eventually he started getting insanely jealous. He became controlling and possessive. I was told that I wasn't allowed to hang out with any of my male friends. I had to call him each night so he could be sure that I had "gotten home safe". He forbid me from wearing what he considered revealing clothing.  He said he did it because he loved me, was afraid of losing me, and wanted to keep me safe. And I believed him.

Then one night I was supposed to meet him at his house. He wasn't home yet, so I decided to watch some TV with his brother while I was waiting.  When Jerkoff arrived home his brother and I were sitting on opposite sides of the couch. Jerkoff lost it. He started yelling. We argued. I left the house to go home and he followed me. We argued some more, and before I knew it I was pinned up against a fence with his hand around my neck. Literally all the way around; I was 4'11" and he was 6'2". His brother saw what was happening and came out and pulled him off of me and I ran. I went home and went straight to bed, shaking and sobbing. 

I didn't say anything to anybody. I pretty much acted as if nothing had happened. I hid the bruises and avoided my friends and family. The next day he called me. He apologized, told me he loved me and that it would never happen again. He was just scared that I was going to leave him and he didn't know how to deal with that. And, again, I believed him. 

 Well, guess what; It did happen again.  It happened a lot, and got worse and worse each and every time.  And every time he was sorry. He apologized. He cried. He begged me to forgive him. And I did.

Then, one night I headed to his house after catching a movie with some male teammates. He asked me where I had been and I was honest (How dare I!?). He threw me down. I got up. He back handed me, multiple times, and I finally had had enough. So I hit him back. I punched him in the face as hard as I could, adrenaline pumping like crazy. I broke his nose, told him I never wanted to see him again and ran home. In all honesty, my bruises didn't even hurt. Hitting him felt so good that it overpowered every pain, every emotion that I had been battling.  

It was a terrible situation and the general reaction to my story is, "I'm so sorry that you went through that." But, you know what, I'm not sorry at all.  I can't deny it was awful. It scarred me for a long time and, to this day, I still flinch from time to time when a hand is raised around me. But overall it make me a stronger woman. It made me realize how much I'm really worth and that I deserve more than someone like Jerkoff. Controlling a person does not equal love. Apologies are worth nothing unless they go beyond words and show themselves in the person's actions. 

I was embarrassed to tell my family and my friends. To this day, there are some of them that have no idea what happened. But I wish I would have told them. I wish I would have had someone there to tell me that this wasn't my fault. I wasn't the one doing something wrong and I didn't deserve it. So I guess the moral of this story is if you, or someone you know is in an abusive relationship, don't just sit around and wait for the worst. Tell someone. Call the police. Do something, because you never know when the abuser will take it one step further. 

Sorry for the mood killer, but it had to be said. I promise most of my posts will be much happier than this. I leave you with some handy dandy websites:

http://www.thehotline.org/

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/domestic-violence/WO00044

http://www.domesticabuseproject.com/

Rest in peace Toshiba. Or pieces. Whatever.

Two years ago I decided it was time to treat myself. I had been living off of the computers on campus for ages and was getting pretty fed up with it. I hated waiting in line for an hour behind people who only wanted the computer to update their Facebook statuses. I hated being squished in between two people who continuously glanced over my shoulder to see what I was writing. And, most of all, I hated being stuck on campus until all hours of the night. 

That's a lot of hate. I know. 


So I caved. I purchased a new laptop! Of course, I had to splurge and buy an awesome Toshiba one. Oh man I was in love! I was able to do update Facebook do homework anywhere. On campus. At work. In bed while watching Family Guy reruns. You name it. 


A month passes and I decide it's time to become awesomer (it's a word, don't worry about it) and get a wireless mouse because those touch pad ones are absolutely terrible. So I take my USB adapter and.... wait.... there are no USB ports. Oh, there were holes for USB ports, but the ports themselves had somehow managed to get pushed back into the computer. I took it to my wonderful Geek Squad friends at work and even they couldn't fix it. Let alone actually open the computer up. Apparently Toshiba REALLY frowns on that.


It was all downhill from there. 


The USB ports were gone. Then my SD card reader went. Then the disc drive stopped working. Then it started making ridiculously loud clicky noises. Then the battery became pathetic. And then, this morning, the plug for the power has decided not to work.


Talk about disappointment. My nearly $1000 computer lasted me about 2 years. And now I'm forced back into the heart wrenching world of on-campus desktop computers. So, once I figure out how the heck to get all of my pictures and such off of it, I've decided I'm going to give it the death of a hero by, you know, throwing it off the roof or shooting it with my rifle or something. I'll let you know how that goes.


Talk about a first world problem....

And so it begins....

Initially I planned on writing some sort of introductory post. You know, something to let you know why I chose to start a blog, and what to expect from me. But, rather than bore you with all of that nonsense, I figure I'll leave you this evening with a "how to" on one of my favorite (so far) projects. In December my husband and I purchased a house, and being our first real home (we don't count the condo because it was terrible!) I figured that I should do the wifely thing and decorate. Mind you, I am NOT generally a girly person. I can't match my clothing to save my life. I know more about fixing cars than I do about applying makeup. But, budget wedding planning brought out the craftiness in me so I decided to try my hand at a split canvas wall display using the lyrics to our first dance song, "Amazed" by Lonestar (It was involved in our proposal. Maybe someday I'll embarrass my husband by posting the story.). 

Sadly, because of the terrible lighting in our living room, this is the best picture I could get.

I am done boring you with the details and leave you with my first "how to." I hope it is helpful!


What you need: 

Canvases - Preferably the wrapped ones rather than the flat. More expensive but they look better. I bought a pack of 10- 8"x10" canvases at Michael's, although I wanted to use 8"x8". The 8"x10" just ended up being cheaper because the pack was on sale for $14.95 rather than spending almost 3 times that for the 8x8 canvases. I ended up using 9 for my display but you can tweak that however you want. 

Modge Podge - I used the glossy kind, although the matte might look kind of nice as well...

Paint and paint brushes (at least2) - I used acrylic and it covered and stays on really well. You paint the edge of the canvas, or I guess you CAN paint it if you'd like. I used black, mainly because it's a very common color in my living room but it would look awesome with brighter colors too.

Card stock - Any color you want really. I used white because I'm boring like that but any (probably lighter) color will do.

Computer stuff - A computer, printer, ink, a photo editing program of some sort.

Um.... I think that's it. We'll find out. 

Step by Step:

I used photo shop to create at 30"x24" project because I was using my 8x10" canvases sides ways. So a 3 by 3 display would be 30 inches on top and 24 on the sides. Then I created a text box that covered the entire project. I found the lyrics online and double checked them for accuracy, then copy/pasted them into the text box. Next came the annoying part of figuring out what fonts I wanted to use. I ended up with 4 that I liked together (a scripty one, a block letter one, a hand writing style one and... something else) and alternated them line by line. I tried to make it so that the last line of the chorus was always the same font. It looked prettier that way. I also added a bit of extra spacing in between the letters to make the cropping easier. Then I just adjusted the font size until it filled the entire canvas.

Once all of the writing was in place I had to figure out how to breat my 30x24" into 9 8x10" projects. I'm somewhat Photoshop illiterate so I did this using my Microsoft photo editing program, the hard way. I used the ruler tool to determine where 8x10" was and then cropped the full image at that point. Then I saved it as it's own file. Then I figured out 16"x10, cropped it. Saved it. Etc. You get the point (if not, ask me!). I'm sure there is a MUCH easier way to do this, but I'm terrible, so yeah.

For some reason this auto-rotates when I insert it into the blog. So... lame. I hate computers.

Once everything was cropped and pretty. I printed it out on standard size cardstock, then cut it down to size. I found that using box cutter worked better than scissors. The easier thing I found was to use one of the canvases and trace to give you a cutting edge.

Then I (although maybe I should have done this first) painted the edges of all the of canvases I was going to use black. You don't really have to be careful because the front will be covered. I do recommend painting a 1/2 inch or so onto the front which will hide any cutting discrepancies. I ended up doing 2 coats of paint.

Once everything is dry you apply a layer of Modge Podge to the back of the card stock. For me, applying it to the back of the cardstock rather than directly to the canvas dried with less bubbles. It will NEVER be perfect. Mine aren't. I ripped the old cardstock off and redid it SO MANY TIMES and it was never without some bubbles. But once you get everything together you don't really notice.

After the layer between the canvas and cardstock dries then you brush on a layer of Modge Podge on the surface of the card stock. It let that dry and then did a second coat, but this is totally optional.

Once everything this dry, then display! Ta da!!! 

This is the final project. I ordered the wrapped canvas on either side of the display from EasyCanvasPrints.com (I highly recommend them.). They are 18"x24" and the quality was absolutely AMAZING. I had the sides colored black to match my small lyric canvases.

So there ya go! I promise it's not nearly as hard as it sounds. The most time consuming part (other than waiting for things to dry) was creating the lyric templates and that was mainly because I had no idea what I was doing. All in all the entire project took me maybe 3 hours, spread out over 2 nights. I wish you all good luck, and hopefully I'll be more diligent with this blog and return soon!

  I'll come up with a creative sign off later.

*~Miss D~*