Italian Wedding Soup

I needed an Italian Wedding Soup recipe for my sister's party this weekend. I had never tried to make it before but thought it would compliment my meal well. I just picked a random recipe that got good reviews. It's a good base recipe that allows you to add things to your liking. I made mine in a crockpot.

Rating: 7 of 10

Italian Wedding Soup

25 min 5 min prep
SERVES 8


1 lb lean ground beef
2 eggs, slightly beaten
4 tablespoons breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon onion powder
11 1/2 cups chicken broth
4 cups chopped escarole or chopped spinach
1 cup orzo pasta, uncooked
2/3 cup finely chopped carrot
grated parmesan cheese

In medium bowl combine, meat, egg,bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, basil& onion powder; shape into 3/4" balls.

In large sauce pan, heat broth to boiling; stir in spinach, orzo, carrot& meatballs.

Return to boil;reduce heat to medium.

Cook at slow boil for 10 minutes or until orzo is tender.

Stir frequently to avoid sticking.

Serve with additional Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.

Crockpot Mac and Cheese

This was really yummy! The left overs are good as well! Make sure you don't cook it too long though. I made mine for a party later in the day and of course my family was late so I had to serve dinner later than I had planned.

Rating: 10 of 10

Slow Cooker Mac and Cheese

3 cups pasta
3 Tbl. butter, unsalted
8 oz. Velveeta cheese, cubed
1 ¼ cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1 cup milk
½ cup heavy cream
1 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper

Cook the pasta in salted boiling water for 5 minutes or until it is just under al dente. Drain and place in the slow cooker. Add the remaining ingredients to the pasta and stir until well combined. Cook on high for 2 – 3 hours stirring about every 30 minutes. The pasta should still hold its shape and the cheese is completely creamy. This makes about 6 servings as a side dish.

Pizza Bubbles

This sounds like a childs dinner (probably because it is!) but they were actually pretty good! Justin and I have pretty simple taste and this was perfect for a quick dinner.





Pizza Bubbles
















Ingredients

1 can (7.5 oz) refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
1 cup pizza sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Heat over to 375 F. Spray 8-inch square pan with cooking spray. Separate dough into 15 biscuits. Cut each into quarters; place in medium bowl. Stir in 1-1/2 cup pizza sauce to coat.

Spoon biscuit mixture evenly into dish.Bake 15 minutes or until light golden brown and center biscuits are no longer doughy.(DON'T skip this step!)

Sprinkle with cheese; bake 5 more minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Cut into squares; serve warm with additional pizza sauce for dipping.This is really quick and perfect for a lunch.

Cheesy Spinach and Bacon Dip

I made this dip when we had people over for the Steelers game this weekend. It was really good and super easy to make!

Rating: 10 of 10

Cheesy Spinach and Bacon Dip

Prep Time:10 min
Total Time:15 min
Makes:4 cups or 32 servings, 2 Tbsp. each

What You Need
1 pkg. (10 oz.) frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained
1 lb. (16 oz.) VELVEETA Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
4 oz. (1/2 of 8-oz. pkg.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, cubed
1 can (10 oz.) RO*TEL Diced Tomatoes & Green Chilies
8 slices OSCAR MAYER Bacon, cooked, crumbled

MICROWAVE all ingredients in microwaveable bowl on HIGH 5 min. or until VELVEETA is completely melted and mixture is well blended, stirring after 3 min.

SERVE with tortilla chips and cut-up fresh vegetables.

Baked Potato Soup

My parents came over for the Pens game last night. I made this recipe for dinner. It was really good! I served it with grilled cheese sandwiches!

Rating: 10 of 10

Baked Potato Soup

INGREDIENTS:
3 bacon strips, diced
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon pepper
3 cups chicken broth
2 large baked potatoes, peeled (I used 3)
and cubed
1 cup half-and-half cream
1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
Shredded Cheddar cheese
Minced fresh parsley
DIRECTIONS:
In a large saucepan, cook bacon until crisp. Drain. Saute onion and garlic in the drippings until tender. Stir in flour, salt, basil and pepper; mix well. Gradually add broth. Bring to boil; boil and stir for 2 minutes. Add the potatoes, cream and hot pepper sauce; heat through but do not boil. Garnish with bacon, cheese and parsley.

Tortellini Primavera

I thought that this recipe was pretty good. I added more milk to make the sauce a little thinner and I think that next time I will only use half of the cream cheese the recipe called for. I also added red pepper flakes.


Tortellini Primavera

Ingredients:
1 cup mushrooms, chopped
½ cup chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tbsp. margarine
10 oz. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
8 oz. cream cheese (I will only use 4 oz. next time)
1 tomato, chopped
¼ cup milk (I added more milk to make the sauce a little thinner)
¼ cup parmesan cheese
1 t. Italian seasoning
salt and pepper, to taste
family size cheese-filled tortellini, cooked and drained (don't cook to tortellini too much or they will be mushy!)

Directions:
Heat margarine in a skillet. Add mushrooms, onion and garlic and sautee. Add all remaining ingredients except tortellini. Heat until all have melted together and are well blended. Cook until the mixture just begins to boil, stirring occasionally. Stir in tortellini.

Shelves

I have 3 large white shelves that are hung in our living room. I really want to do some sort of picture frame arrangement on them like this:

I plan on using engagement pics, honeymoon pics, pics of the doggies and many more. I'll be sure to post pics when I'm done!

Fall Decor

I don't have much fall/halloween decor but I would love to get some for this year. Here are some examples of things I really like!

Amazon Wish List

Christmas is quickly approaching! (Not really but seeing all the Christmas stuff out in stores makes me giddy!) My Mom always wants a list from me so this year I decided to start one on Amazon. It also has a button that you can add any item from any website you find. This is a great way for me to give her ideas with specific examples. Check it out!

http://www.amazon.com/

The most coveted thing on my list is this! It's a Clarisonic Skincare Brush. I have heard amazing things about this product and am really excited to try it.

Cheesy Nacho Bake

Cheesy Nacho Bake





1 package Velveeta Shells and Cheese Dinner

1 lb. ground beef (as always, I substitute this with soy crumles)

1 package Taco Seasoning Mix

3/4 cup Water

3/4 cup Sour Cream

3/4 cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese

3/4 cup Salsa



Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare the Velveeta Shells and Cheese as you usually would. When this is done and you are adding the cheese mix also add ALL of the sour cream.Brown meat (or soy) and drain fat if needed. Add water and taco seasoning mix. Simmer for 5 minutes.In an 8 inch square baking dish, add half of the Velveeta mixture. Top with meat, half of the shredded cheese, and the rest of the Velveeta mixture.Cover and bake for about 15 minutes. When it is done, top with salsa and the remain shredded cheese.

Baked Pierogie Casserole

Being from Pittsburgh, it's mandatory that you like pierogies! I highly recommend this dish!



Baked Pierogie Casserole

Ingredients
1 package frozen pierogies (12 per package)
1/2 onion, sliced
1 green onion, chopped
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp flour
1 c light cream or milk
Approximately 1 c shredded cheeses; I used Mozzarella and cheddar

Directions

Preheat oven to 375

Bring a pot of water to a boil; drop in pierogies and let cook for 3-4 minutes. Transfer 6 to a baking dish (so they cover the bottom), and keep the other 6 aside until you are ready to assemble the casserole.

Make the cheese sauce: Heat olive oil in a pot. Add all onions and red pepper flakes; saute 2 minutes. Add flour and stir. Add cream/milk and bring to a simmer. Add cheeses, and stir until creamy. Season with salt and pepper.

Pour some of the cheese sauce over the first layer of pierogies. Add the rest of the pierogies and top with more cheese sauce (*I had more cheese sauce than I needed; I didn't use it all - I didn't want a soupy casserole). Top with breadcrumbs.

Bake on 375 for about 15 minutes or until bubbly. Turn on the broiler for 3 minutes at the end.

Chocolate Cloud

I made this dessert last week when my brother and his girlfriend came over for dinner. She is allergic to eggs so I had to find something without them. The crust was probably my favorite part!

Chocolate Cloud
Ingredients:
1c chopped pecans
1c flour
1 stick melted butter
8oz cream cheese (softened)
1c powdered sugar
8oz cool whip (partially thawed)
3oz instant chocolate pudding mix
3oz instant vanilla pudding mix
3c milk
Little reeces pieces cups (chopped)

Layer 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Blend together pecans, flour, and melted butter. Grease (or spray Pam) on the bottom of an 11 x 7 baking pan. Press pecan mixture into the bottom of the pan. Bake @ 350 degrees for 25 mins. Set aside to cool.

Layer 2: Mix cream cheese, powdered sugar, and 1 c cool whip. Blend together and spread over the 1st layer.

Layer 3: Mix chocolate and vanilla pudding mix with milk. Stir together and break up any lumps. Pour over layer 2.

Layer 4: Spread enough cool whip to cover layer 3. Sprinkle reeces cups on top or whatever chocolate pieces you like. Refrigerate. Best if chilled overnight.

Penne with creamy tomato sauce with italian sausage

This pasta was REALLY good! I am a pasta lover and could probably eat it every night so I love finding new sauce recipes. I would definitely make this again!

Penne with creamy tomato sauce with italian sausage
4 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil (I just used a little in the pan)1/2 cup vodka
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes 2 cups basic tomato sauce1/2 cup heavy cream1 pound pasta1 cup parm. cheese, grated, plus extra for on top1 package italian sausage

Directions
1. Cook pasta 1 minute less than according to pasta.
2. In large saute pan, brown sausage, then remove and keep warm.
3. Add oil to pan and cook onions until golden brown, about 6 minutes.
4. Add vodka and cook until liquid has reduced by half, about 5 minutes.
5. Add tomato sauce and cream and cook until sauce has reduced by a third, about 10 minutes.
6. Add sausage and drained pasta to pan and toss to coat. Stir in cheese and serve hot.

More Traveling!

Sunday afternoon, I left for my flight to Denver. I was visiting a customer in Golden, CO. What a beautiful city! The scenery was just unreal. Totally different than Pittsburgh, that's for sure! The customer visit went very well. I'm starting to get the hang of things.

I flew back on Wednesday night. I didn't get home until 1:30am. I ended up taking yesterday off since I had been traveling for the past 2 weeks. I slept until 11am the next morning. That felt good! It was great to finally be home and see Justin and the doggies!

Work Travel

So I finally got my passport in for me to be able to travel to Canada for work. I had to get my name changed on it. I had stupidly waiting almost 2 years before doing it. It would have been free if I had done it within 1 year of getting married. I had 4 flights in 3 days. Not fun!

I got back late on Friday night. The next morning, we woke up early to head to Cooks Forrest for the weekend. Every year around this time, my Mom's side of the family goes "camping". (It's not really camping because we stay in a cabin but for my family, this is their version of camping!)

This trip is in rememberance of my grandfather who passed away from Cancer. This was a very hard time in my life. He was the first person who was very close to me to die. Justin had also lost both of his grandparents at the same time. What made it even harder was that we were living in Virginia at the time. It was so hard to hear my Mom talk about my Pap over the phone. She would cry for hours. It was so hard knowing that I couldn't be there for her. I still remember the day that she called to say that he finally passed.

Every year, around the time of his death, we do things that he would have liked to do. We sit around a fire and tell stories about him and talk about all the crazy things he used to say. It's a great way to remember him.

Our Nephew Jacob!!!!!!!

Jay (Justin's Brother) and Julie (Jay's girlfriend) had their first baby on August 24th, 2008. It's our first nephew! He is so cute! Justin is a little weary of holding him still. We haven't been around too many newborns. I think he will come around once he gets a little bigger though! Here's some pictures I took while visiting them at the hospital.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

This is another dip that is pretty popular with our family. Again, it's very easy to make and very good!


Buffalo Chicken Dip

INGREDIENTS:
2 (10 ounce) cans chunk chicken, drained
1 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup Ranch dressing
3/4 cup pepper sauce, such as Franks® Red Hot®
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

DIRECTIONS:
Combine chicken, cream cheese, ranch and hot sauce in a bowl. Mix well. Transfer to oven safe dish. Cover with cheese and bake until cheese is melted.

Chili Dip

This dip is a staple in our family. Everytime we have a get together, this dip is there! You just cant help but eat it. It's so simple, but oh so good!

1 can of Hormel chili (we use beanless)
1 package of cream cheese
tons of cheddar cheese

Spread cream cheese in the bottom on pan or dish. Dump chili on top. Cover with cheddar cheese. Bake in the oven until cheese is melted. Eat with tortilla chips.

It doesn't get any easier than this people!

Pizza Casserole

Pizza Casserole

Ingredients
1 lb ground beef
1/2 chopped onion
2 minced garlic cloves
1 jar tomato sauce
Package of Pepperoni
Pam Spray
10 oz can of refrigerated pizza dough
6 oz part skim mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven 425 degrees. In a nonstick skilled over med-high cook onion and garlic until softened. Add meat. Brown. Drain if necessary.

Add tomato sauce to meat and heat throughout. (you will want your meat mixture more on the dry side than the saucy side)

While the meat cooks, coat a 13 x 9 baking dish with PAM cooking Spray. Unroll pizza dough and press into the bottom and halfway up the sides of the baking dish. Pre-bake in oven for 5 minutes.

Remove crust from oven. Add a layer of cheese, then a layer of the meat mixture, then top with a layer of cheese and pepperoni. Bake- uncovered- at 425 for 12 minutes or until crust is browned and cheese melts. Cool for 5 minutes.

Chicken Stuffed Shells

Justin's brother, Jason, and his girlfriend, Julie, just had their first baby on August 24th (Welcome to the world Jacob!!!). I decided that I would make a few dishes for them that they could freeze and have a quick and easy meal when they needed it.

I made them Baked Ziti and Chicken Stuffed Shells (recipe below).


CHICKEN STUFFED SHELLS

1/2 to 1 box jumbo shells
2 Cans of shredded chicken
1 pkg. Stove top stuffing
1 c. mayonnaise
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup


Cook shells according to directions on box. Cook stuffing as directions call. Mix chicken, stuffing and mayonnaise. Stuff shells. Combine soups with 1/2 can water. Cover shells with soup in casserole dish with lid. Bake about 1 hour at 350 degrees.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love making Chocolate Chip Cookies. Mainly, it's because I like to eat the raw cookie dough and I love to see someone biting into one and saying "OMG this is really good!".

I have always used a stand by recipe that I got from my Home Ec. class when I was in middle school (Thanks Miss Webb, lol!). I am open to trying new ones though. I like my Chocolate Chip Cookies to be soft and chewy. I hate it when they are hard!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/4 Cups Flour
1 Tsp. Baking Soda
1 Tsp. Salt
1 Cup (2 sticks) unsalted Butter ( I only used 1 stick of butter and added 1/2 cup of Butter Flavored Crisco)
3/4 Cup Sugar
3/4 Cup Packed Dark Brown Sugar
1 Tsp. Vanilla
2 Eggs
1 12 oz. Package Chocolate Chips


Preheat oven to 375˚. Melt butter in microwave. Let cool completely (I like to just put the bowl of butter in the freezer for about 5 minutes). While butter is cooling, combine flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl (set aside). Beat (melted, cooled) butter, sugar, brown sugar & vanilla in a larger bowl. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well. Gradually add flour mixture in increments. Stir in chocolate chips. Add more flour until not tacky. You want to be able to roll the dough in your hands without it sticking much. Roll the dough in your hands and drop on an air bake cookie sheet. Bake at 375˚ for 9-11 minutes. Be careful not to overcook! These are not supposed to be a dark brown, but a light color when they come out of the oven. Enjoy!!

Our 2nd Anniversary!

Sept. 2nd was our 2nd Anniversary. It's crazy how fast time has passed. I guess it's all down hill from here! Justin and I decided to go away to Peak N Peek in New York for the weekend. We golfed and had a really nice dinner. We really enjoyed it.

Last year, we decided that we would not buy each other presents but buy a present together. Something that we would have for a really long time and be able to say "Oh yeah, we bought that for our 1st Anniversary". We ended up buying a painting (since 1st Anniverary is paper). It's a Pittburgh Steelers painting that has 3 little lab puppies on it. It's really cute. It's hanging in our office.

This year, since the 2nd Anniversary is cotton, we decided to buy a new chair for our family room. Justin has always wanted a comfy oversized chair.

Baked Ziti

I made this recipe for our housewarming party this past weekend. It was really good! It reheats well too.

Baked Ziti

INGREDIENTS
1 pound dry ziti pasta
1 onion, chopped
1 pound lean ground beef
2 (26 ounce) jars spaghetti sauce
6 ounces provolone cheese, sliced
1 1/2 cups sour cream
6 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add ziti pasta, and cook until al dente, about 8 minutes; drain.
In a large skillet, brown onion and ground beef over medium heat. Add spaghetti sauce, and simmer 15 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter a 9x13 inch baking dish. Layer as follows: 1/2 of the ziti, Provolone cheese, sour cream, 1/2 sauce mixture, remaining ziti, mozzarella cheese and remaining sauce mixture. Top with grated Parmesan cheese.
Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until cheeses are melted.

New House!!!!

We love the new house! I am enjoying figuring out how to decorate and even though I am no where close to being done, it is getting there. We had a picnic last weekend with some of our friends and family. There were over 40 people there! Everyone had fun and it was a great time!

Follow this link to see more pictures of the house:

http://community.thenest.com/cs/ks/user/page.aspx?username=BeckysinLuv

Cheesy Rice

I made this as a side dish to the Chicken Crescent Pockets. The flavors were very tasty.

Cheesy Rice

Prep Time:10 min
Total Time:25 min
Makes:2 servings, about 1 cup each

1 Tbsp. KRAFT Zesty Italian Dressing
2 Tbsp. chopped onions
1 cup instant white rice, uncooked
1-1/4 cups fat-free reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 plum tomato, chopped
1 oz. (1/8 of 8-oz. pkg.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese
2 Tbsp. KRAFT Shredded Parmesan Cheese
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley

HEAT dressing in small saucepan on medium heat. Add onions; cook and stir 3 min. or until tender.

STIR in rice, broth and tomatoes. Bring to boil. Add remaining ingredients. Reduce heat to low; simmer 3 min.

Chicken Crescent Pockets

My parents stopped over for dinner tonight so I decided to try a new recipe. I had this saved in my "recipes to try" list for a long time. I had intended to make it last week. I bought the Crescents at Giant Eagle but I stupidly put them on the refridgerator door and they exploded! Haha!

Rating: 10 of 10

Chicken Crescent Pockets

3 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 tbsp butter, melted

2 cups chicken

2 tbsp milk

salt & pepper to taste

1 (8 oz) can reduced-fat Pillsbury Refrigerated Crescent Dinner Rolls

3/4 cup seasoned croutons, crushed



Heat oven to 350°F. Cook chicken in skillet.

In medium bowl, combine cream cheese and 1 tablespoon softened butter; stir until smooth. Add salt, pepper, and milk. Mix well. Add this mixture into the skillet with chicken.

Separate dough into 4 rectangles (combine two crescents). Firmly press perforations to seal. Spoon 1/2 cup chicken mixture onto center of each rectangle. Pull 4 corners of dough to center of chicken mixture; twist firmly. Pinch edges to seal. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Gently spray tops of chicken pockets with olive oil; sprinkle with crushed croutons. Bake at 350°F for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.

The last days in Johnstown

Justin and I have to go up to Johnstown on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this week. The movers will be packing and loading the truck and then we close on Friday morning. I'm really happy that Justin's company offered to pay for a moving company but I have a feeling I'm going to go nuts before this is all over.

When we got the storage unit to stage the house, I packed up a ton of stuff. I thought I was just being nice because then the movers wouldn't have as much stuff to pack. Oh no, we found out that we had to unpack ALL the boxes. If we leave the boxes packed, then they will not be insured. If they aren't insured, then if they magically disappear, we won't be compensated. It costs extra money to have them unpack all the boxes so tomorrow night will be spent unpacking all my hard work!

I am also nervous about them moving our stuff in general. I have heard some horror stories about moving companies. I am just going to try to be as organized as possible and hopefully everything will be fine.

Paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaartay!

We have decided to have a party on August 23rd. It will only be about 2 weeks afer we move into the house but we thought it would be a good way to get family and friends together to show off our new house. We'll also make good use of the new pool!

4th of July - Lake Canadohta

For the 4th of July, we went up to Lake Canadohta. Justin's friend Billy has a cottage there. Bill is in the Army and just got back from Afghanistan. He was over there or 1.5 years. He is now at Fort Bragg finishing up his contract with the army. He took 4 weeks off to visit family and friends. This weekend was the last of his leave.

We left on Thursday night and go there around 9pm. Of course we had to put up the tent in the dark. We had Bailey and Cooper with us, hence the tent! Cooper loved the tent and thought it was his private play den.

Friday, my parents came up for the day. We took the dogs out on the boat and taught them how to jump off the dock. This was the first time Cooper was in water deep enough to swim. He didn't really get it at first and was trying to swim upright. It was a very funny sight! He finally got the hang of it though. My parents took the dogs home with them that night. I was thankful because that meant we got to sleep inside instead of the cold tent!

Saturday, Jason and Jess came up for the day. We played some Baggo and went out on the boat. Bill accidentally jumped into the water with his glasses on and they are now at the bottom of the lake. Bill knew a guy that had a water trampoline so we played on that until Bill broke a glass beer bottle on it! Glass and jumping don't really mix but when you are drunk, apparently it's a good idea! After dinner, we went back out on the boat to watch the fireworks on the lake.

Sunday we got up at 7am to leave since Bill had to drive back to North Carolina. Overall the weekend was really fun. It was a nice way to end Bill's month of leave. He will be back for Thanksgiving and then will officially be out of the Amry in December.

Music Tastes

I think that I have a very wide range of music that I listen to. I like Pop, Country, Alternative, Oldies, Classic Rock....

There is a new website that I found that caters to my crazy musics tastes. It's called Pandora (www.pandora.com). You can enter a song that you like and it will create a whole radio station around it. Then, when they play songs you can rate them thumbs up or thumbs down and that will affect the next song they play.

You can create a number of different stations and then there is a station that is a QuickMix that will play random songs from every station that you create.

It's a really cool site. Check it out!

T-33 Days until we close!

Woo hoo! 33 days until we close on the new house. There is so much that we need to do. Our inspection is scheduled for next Tuesday. We are shopping around for mortgage lenders. We have to pick new paint colors. We need to buy a number of things since we are moving into a bigger house. Geez!

On another note, we close on our house in Johnstown next Friday (hopefully). We have to go up there on Wednesday and Thursday while the movers are packing our stuff.

Presenting our NEW HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YAY!!!!!!! We got confirmation this morning that the sellers accepted our offer. Holy cow! I cannot believe it. I am so relieved/happy/overwhelmed right now! Here's some pictures!

This is is perfect for us! It's has 4 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. It's big enough for us to raise a family in and we intend to stay here for a long time. The dogs will love it too because it has a huge backyard and a pool!!!!!

Moving the Hot Tub was a Success!

The people who bought our house decided that they didn't want our hot tub. We never used it since Justin never got it fixed while we lived there so we decided to be nice and give it to my brother Jason. (Aren't I a good sister?!) Especially since as we were moving it out onto the trailer in the front yard, someone drove by and offered to buy it from us. Oh Johnstown! Haha!

So this past Saturday was the ONLY day that we had free before our closing. We gathered up a bunch of people to help with the move. We also had to disassemble the enclosed porch in order to get it out. Now I had bad visions of this going horribly wrong but to my surprise, it went off without any issues. It's not sitting in my brother's backyard on his deck. Hopefully he gets some good use out of it.

Nintendo Wii

Justin somehow talked me into getting him the Wii, not like he doesn't have 15 other gaming systems already. This one is a little different though and tons of fun to play. I think I secretly like it because I kick Justin's butt in all the Wii Sports games like bowling, baseball, golf, etc.

We also have Guitar Hero and Mariokart which are super fun too!

More scrapblog pages...

Ok I'm getting a little ridiculous now but go to the site and try it! You will become obssessed with it too!

Bailey's Scrapblog Page

Still Homeless.....

So we finally made a decision and chose a house to offer on only to find out that the seller was having medical issues and was back in the hospital and they took their house off the market indefinatey. Boo hoo! Back to more house hunting I guess! I'm hoping that we can find one soon because we have about until the end of next week to get an offer accepted. Cross your fingers!

Awesome Website - Scrapblog

I found this cool new site the other day. It's called scrapblog (scrapblog.com). It kinda like creating your own scrapbook page but digtally. Then you can save them as a picture and do whatever you want with it.... Here's one I made fo Cooper!

Idea Board for Dining Room

I would like to purchase new dining room furniture since we will be putting our current furniture in the eat in kitchen. This is what I have come up with so far. The table and china cabinet is from JC Penny. My Mom and Dad actually just bought this for their dining room too. I would like to put a large wooden mirror on one of the walls. I would also like to purchase cream silk curtains for the window treatments. The walls will be a blue/gray color.

We Made An Offer

Woo hoo! We decided on a house and finally made an offer. We are still waiting to hear whether the sellers accepted the offer or are going to counter offer. Let's hope everything works out for the best! Here's a picture of the front!

Picking Our New House

Ok I am really starting to freak myself out! We have to buy a house within about 2 weeks or so. There are 2 that we have found that we like and are thinking of putting in an offer. The 2 houses are completely different and both have their pros and cons. I am being so indecisive about this! Justin has decided which house he wants to offer on but I just can't wrap my head around it. I just keep changing my mind and thinking of all the cons.... It's making me nuts and stressing me out!!!!

I know that the reason is because we are getting ready to spend a large amount of money and the fact that we intend to stay in this house for a really long time. Why does it have to be this stressful though! This is supposed to be happy times!!!!!

Tim and Jocelyn's Wedding

Tim and Jocelyn, our friends from college, got married this weekend. We traveled up to Buffalo on Friday after work and the wedding was on Saturday afternoon. The wedding was a blast and Jocelyn looked beatiful! It was really great to see the girls from my pledge class and sorority. We also got to see some of the guys that Justin played hockey with. It has been TOO long since we've seen them. When we see each other though, it's always like no time has even passed. Now that we have moved back to Pittsburgh, I am really looking forward to hanging out with them!

Guest Room Idea Board

So here it is! My idea board for the guest room. I aready have the duvet cover. It's actually from Walmart. Can you believe it??? You have to order it from their website. It had tons of rave reviews, which is what made me purchase it because I was a little wary about buying online from Walmart. I really do love it though. The fabric is really nice and soft. I love the black and white damask pattern. I plan to paint the walls a buttery yellow.

What do I want to be when I grow up...

"What do you what to be when you grow up?" I fondly remember being asked this question and my answer was always a pediatrician. I went to college and decided on pre-med with a concentration in Biology as a major. About half way through my junior year, I decided that being a doctor was just not for me. I can't really pin point the reason why but after observing multiple surgeries, office hours and hospital rounds, I just knew that wasn't what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

After college and being kicked out into the real world, I had NO clue what I wanted to do. I had a degree in Biology (what the heck can I do with that?). I researched a few jobs that had this degree as a requirement and found out none of them were for me. I then decided on sales. My Dad and brother were both in sales so why not.

During college, I worked in my Mom's ENT office during summer break and had a lot of contact with Pharmaceutical Reps. I thought to myself "wow, I would be great at that". So my first job out of college was a Sales job, in order to get some sales experience under my belt.

Well, after moving down to Virginia with Justin, moving up to Johnstown and moving back to Pittsburgh, I now have a grand total of 5 professional jobs since graduating. Can you say Job Hopper! Not all of them were my fault though, I have relocated 3 times! I should just be a professional interviewer because God knows that I have been on a million!

Unfortunately, I have never been able to attain a job as a Pharmaceutical Rep. I have had a number of interviews, where at the end the interviewer always says how well I presented myself and thinks I would be awesome in the position, blah, blah, blah but then I never get the job. Talk about a false sense of hope!

So now I am doing Sales in the telecommunications industry.... my dream job, no but I guess I am pretty good at it! As far as if I'll do this forever, who knows. I am still second guessing myself as a Sales Rep and am not sure if it's the right career for me. I think there are many things that I would rather be doing but unfortunately Sales is the only thing I have experience in and I am not really willing to take a pay cut to get an entry level job doing something else.

I guess I will just keep plugging away until I get a different opportunity!

Cooking.... More to Come

So I never in my life thought I would even say this but..... I actually miss cooking (Shhhhhhhhhhhhh don't tell!)! As many of you know, Justin and I have been living with his Mom and Gram until we buy our new house and Gram graciously makes us dinner every night (she does our laundry too, don't be jealous! we don't ask her to do it but for some reason she feels obligated to do so). I keep finding all these yummy recipes that I want to try out! I'm exciting to start cooking/baking in my new kitchen. Once we move, I will make sure to post the new recipes I try out!

Now only if I could talk Justin into cooking every once in awhile.....

Fashion

I have always had an interest in Fashion, even though I never had the money to spend on it. When I was in middle school, I had a calendar of what I wore everyday just to make sure that I didn't repeat an outfit too soon. Hahah!

I'm not gonna lie, I'm a pretty frugal person so spending money on things that aren't necessities is a pretty big deal for me. I do love finding a deal though! I like to think that I put myself together well for the amount of money I spend on my clothes. Some of my favorite stores include Banana Republic, J Crew, The Limited, etc.

Lately, I have felt like I've been in a little bit of a rut in the fashion department. Purchasing clothes has not been a priority recently due to all the other things going on. And living with Justin's Mom and Gram temporarily is not helping either because I have no where to put these new clothes!

Now living in Pittsburgh, I feel like being a fashionable person has been pretty hard. We are obviously NOT the fashion capital here! I have often felt like I am out of place when wearing some of my more dressier outfits. Plus, it's way to easy to walk out of the house wearing a pair of jeans and a hoodie! It's hard to force yourself to wear nice clothes when everyone else around you seems like they could care less what they look like!

Once we get into the new house and all settled, I'm looking forward to being able to buy some new things and get back to looking good everyday!

House Hunting

So Justin and I sold our house in Johnstown (YAY!) and we are closing on July 11th. Justin's company has graciously offered to pay to relocate us. The movers will be coming on July 9th to pack up all of our stuff. Now they will only keep our things in a storage unit for free for 30 days. This may become a problem because we have not found a new house yet and they charge an obscene amount to store our stuff after that!

We have looked at soooo many houses. We are looking in a lot of different areas because of where our jobs are located. Justin is now working in Cranberry Township and I am in Monroeville. We have been looking at houses in Cranberry Township, Hampton, Mars, McCandless, Pine-Richland..... GOSH! We plan on staying in this house for a long time so we want one that we really like and that will work for us when we have children in the future (yes Mom, I said in the future, as I have always said, if you would like to supplement my salary, I would gladly quit my job right now and start having babies).

Since we have a deadline of when we need to finalize an offer and have a closing date, we really need to find a house fast! Like within the next 2 weeks. We recently saw one in Hampton that we liked but not loved. I, of course, made a list of pros and cons for the house and thankfully, there are far more pros than cons but we're still not sure if it's "the one". We will be looking at 4 more houses this Sunday before deciding whether we want to put in an offer or not.

My first blog post!

Well here it is! My first blog post! I had thought about creating a blog a number of times but then figured "who exactly would want to read a blog about my life!". But now there are just so many things going on in my life, I just needed somewhere to write down my thoughts so........ ta da!