My love...

Jamie and I celebrated our first anniversary this past Sunday.

I love that man.

I've been struggling a lot lately.

There are days where I feel like my life is totally spiraling out of control, and it takes everything I have to get out of bed.

Between this appeal on my grade at school, a work transfer that I don't really want, and some serious body image issues, it's a very rough patch in my life. 

He helped me put all of that aside, for the whole weekend. 

While it was a crazy weekend, with 2 graduation open houses, a wedding, and a bridal shower, plus our anniversary, we were able to make time for us.

On sunday evening, we had reservations at Morton's steakhouse downtown. (we had a coupon, haha we are lame.)

We left early, and just walked around downtown for an hour. 

We walked. We talked. It was wonderful.

Just like old times.

And may I just say, the dinner was phenomenal.

As Jamie bit into his filet minon, he said "Wow. Every steak I've ever had to this point has been fake."

hahaha, he makes me laugh.

Morton's is so awesome, they personalized our menus.

I may be a total nerd, but I think this is so cool.

We walked around for a while afterward, and just spent the time together.

Then on the evening of Memorial day, after I worked a crazy 8-5 at work, I came home, and we hung out, and tried cedar plank salmon on the grill!

We haven't cooked together in a long time, and it was really fun. 

And even though it was dark, we started a fire in our pit, and ate outside.

And it turned out amazing.

And this is coming from someone who virtually never eats seafood.

This recipe was pretty complex, and needed a lot of ingredients i had to go buy, but it is a great one if you want to impress guests or something. Here is where I found it.

Then we just hung out and made smores over the fire. 

It was exactly what I needed.

I seriously don't know what I would do without him sometimes.

He is my best friend.

Who would have known 4 years ago, what this would turn into.

Just for laughs, here is a picture of us the day of our first date, May 26, 2007. (I'm not a freak, it was the day I graduated, haha)

And us at his Christmas party, this past December.

A lot has changed.

But we've gotten though it all.

I'm looking forward to many more years with him.

I'm so thankful.

♥

Minnie Mouse Update...

My crazy little girl...

Is back to normal.

We're just in the gross scabbing stage, as you can see by her little chin.

And as a funny side note, 

this is the first picture we took...

when she climbed on my shoulder and started licking my mouth like a lunatic.

hahaha, love her. 

♥

Life lately...

Jamie and I took another impromptu trip to Broadripple!

This time it was my idea.

We ate at "La petite chou" for the first time.

Amazing.

It was literally like being back in Paris. 

I love it, and can't wait to go back. 

I also loved spending the time with my handsome husband.

I needed it.

It's been an adjustment, being married again, as we call it.  

We lived like roomates for almost 6 months, only seeing each other coming and going, and it's taken some time to get re-adjusted to being husband and wife.

I'm so glad we have, though.

On another note, I developed this ridiculous rash on my arms the other day.

Itches. Like. Fire.

Not sure what it is yet.

I'm annoyed that this is coming along right as the eczema on my feet is clearing up.

So irritating.

And, I went out to look at the garden today, and

we have corn!!!

And green beans!!

I'm not going to lie, there was a small part of me that was afraid that we would do all this work, and then nothing would come up, and it would be an epic failure.

Which is why I'm so ecstatic that things are growing!

Off to have dinner with my friend Emily!

I love summer.

♥

Freaked out.

My 5 pound dog jumped out of the window of our moving vehicle today.

I will never forget seeing her hit the ground in the rearview mirror.

I screamed, and jumped out, and Jamie followed.

I got to her and scooped her up, and she was shaken, but we immediately checked her, and by the grace of God she could walk, and had no broken bones.

We got her in the car, and continued to look her over, and soon she and I were both covered with blood.

She has a few little scrapes on her front legs, and one great big giant scrape across her chin, that bled a lot.

We got her home, and as soon as we got in, she ran across the room and jumped up on the couch, reassuring us that there was no broken bones or internal damage.  

We called the vet, and she just said keep the scrape clean and put neosporin on it, and keep an eye on her. 

I was so scared.

My heart was pounding and I was near tears the whole way home.

It is a miracle that we were on a small side street, and not already on 267. 

There were no other cars, and we weren't going really fast.

It is a miracle that her tiny little legs didn't break on the landing.

We are SO thankful.

So for now we are just giving her lots of TLC.

She's moving a little slower, but other than that she seems to be back to her normal self.

Her chin is pretty swollen, and I know it is hurting her, because she lays her head down so it doesn't touch anything.

Now i just have to keep her from licking the Neosporin off. 

Definitely don't ever want to feel that helpless again.

Thank God she is okay.

It's a miracle.

♥

Baked Chicken Eggrolls

First new recipe post of the summer!

I am in love with this little asia restaurant here in town, and especially their eggrolls.

So, I decided to make my own.

Jamie was really worried they would turn out like the homemade ravioli. 

Lame.

I found a great baked recipe on allrecipes.com, which makes them much healthier.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

• 2 cups grated carrots
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can bean sprouts, drained
• 1/2 cup chopped water chestnuts
• 1/4 cup chopped green pepper
• 1/4 cup chopped green onions
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 cups finely diced cooked chicken
• 4 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper
• 16 egg roll wrappers*

Directions

1. Coat a large skillet with nonstick cooking spray; add the first six ingredients. Cook and stir over medium heat until vegetable are crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Add chicken; heat through.
2. In a small bowl, combine cornstarch, water, soy sauce, oil, brown sugar and cayenne until smooth; stir into chicken mixture. Bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes; remove from the heat. Spoon 1/4 cup of chicken mixture on the bottom third of one egg roll wrapper; fold sides toward center and roll tightly. Place seam side down on a baking sheet coated with nonstick cooking spray. Repeat with remaining wrappers and filling. Spray tops of egg rolls with nonstick cooking spray. Bake at 425 degrees F for 10-15 minutes or until lightly browned.

Here are my ingredients.

There were a lot.

The first thing I had to do was make the chicken.

 I went back and forth on how to cook it, but in the end I just decided to throw it in a skillet.

While that cooked, I put the rest of the filling together. 

I decided to half the recipe, which I never do when I make a recipe for the first time.

But, I didn't know what the heck we were going to do with 16 eggrolls.

And i was still freaked out, because the above picture is 1/2 of the recipe.

Yeah. It was a lot.

After I added the chicken, I started the sauce. 

The first ingredient was cornstarch.

Can I just take a moment to say that I hate cornstarch?

Every time I cook with it, it messes up.

Every time.

So, I was nervous about using it again.

But, somehow, miraculously, it worked out, and blended fine.

Once I added this to my filling,

 It was time to start the rolling.

I had to use the back of the eggroll package to figure out how to do it right, but once i got it, it was really easy.

And here they are on the pan!

I'm SO happy I only made half.

I ended up having 12 eggrolls. 

I would have had way too many if I had made the whole batch.

They looked great after I baked them!

I took them to Jamie at work, and we had a dinner date.

hahaha, he loved them. He ate 3!

It was really nice to get to have dinner with him.

But, I had an ugly little surprise waiting for me when I got home.

My dog decided to get into the trash, and spread it all over the floor.

I was not happy. At all.

But, how can you stay mad at this face?

hahaha, love her.

So, while they were a lot of work, the eggrolls were a huge success, which is nice to have in my life right now. 

♥

Keeping myself busy...

I have been working really hard around the house these past couple of weeks. I have gotten a crazy amount of things done, and much more to do.

This past Sunday, we went to Jamie's mom's house, and took a ton of starts from her garden.  We then came back and planted them (making for a busy mothers day for us). 

Im excited, they all seem to be doing really well, which I was worried about since they were transplants.

We got Lilly of the Valley, antique Irises, and some ferns for the hill in our backyard.

I also got some mint and lemon mint, which you can dry and steep to add to tea flavoring.

Pretty excited about that.

We were also given some palm tree sprouts from their trip to Florida.  

Jamie's super excited about them (I'm not holding out much hope for their life in Indiana, though.)

But, we did get a patio mandarin tree from a local greenhouse that I am pretty pumped about.  It is bred to  be fairly small, but still yield mandarins.  You just have to bring it inside during the winter.

I'm pretty happy with it, although it will be a few years before we will have fruit. 

I also did the semi-annual great Goodwill purge.  

It was nuts.

I try to go through all of my clothes twice a year, once at the beginning of summer, and once at the beginning of winter, and get rid of anything I haven't worn in a year.

I pulled everything out of my drawers and closet, and created piles based on the type of clothes (winter/summer) and whether I was keeping them or not.  Then I reorganize them when I put them back.

This is my closet afterwards,

And this is the bag I'm giving to Goodwill.  Woah.

Now back to the yard.  

I finally have my garden!!

Jamie tilled it yesterday while I was at work, and I came home and planted it.

Tada!

It is so awesome.

There is Sweet Corn, Asparagus, Strawberries, Green Beans, Lettuce, Basil, Oregano, and Parsley.

I also left room for one tomato plant, one onion plant, and one pepper plant, so Jamie can make salsa, so I should be adding those soon.

There will also eventually be a fence, we can't seem to agree on what kind we want.

I love that I finally have my garden, and am looking forward to fresh veggies.

I'm also planning something big. Composting. 

Instead of writing it out, check out these articles

Here

and

Here

if you want to know more about it. 

This is my plan for building my composting bin, which there are about a million of.

Pretty basic, just some chicken wire to hold it together, and I'm going to put stakes in it to make it more stable, and a lid to keep critters out. 

We already have a huge amount of yard waste to use, and we've been keeping the bag in the area where we are going to build the bin.

I've also started collecting kitchen waste, which I have quickly realized we go through much faster than I thought.  

Once I get the bin built, It will be relatively easy to maintain.

I'm really excited about this. 

It makes me feel good to know that I'm doing something to keep my garden organic, and reduce waste.

So this has essentially consumed my life lately.

I've been working really hard on it, and still have a lot to do.

But, I feel very accomplished.

I need this right now,

as it's a problem in other areas of my life.

Like school.

I'll get to that another day, though, the wounds are still a bit to fresh.

For now, I just want the rain to stop, so I can work on my yard again!

♥

Today...

Today is going to be a good day.

I can feel it.

And after yesterday, I need it.

I have spring fever like crazy. 

I will post some house improvements and projects soon.

I've gone house crazy.

You will be amazed.

♥

Just cleaning and waiting.

That's it. 

My last paper is turned in.

Now the butterflies/sick feeling in my stomach until I get my grades.

I talked with some of my friends today. 2 out of the 3 of them weren't sure if they were going to pass either. 

Don't know if I should feel better or worse about this.  

But at this point, it's out of my hands. 

I just have to hope for the best. 

I was so busy suffering through that paper yesterday, that I didn't get to wrap up my spring cleaning streak that I seem to be in.

Well, when I went to finish the carpet, our vacuum quit.  

I can say that I am shocked, 

as it is a 20 year old hand-me-down from my stepdad.

So, we got a new one. 

It's amazing.

Like, seriously, amazing. 

It's bag-less, has a HEPA filter, 

and I'm in love with it.

I'm pretty sure our carpets are cleaner than they have ever been.

Ever.

And as for the office (here's the before if you didn't see it)

TA-DA!

I love this room, it's my favorite in this house. 

I have a ton of stuff to do this week, and I'm looking forward to it all.

Tomorrow I get to go meet my mentor teacher, and see the classroom where I will be solo student teaching kindergarten next semester! (if everything goes as planned.)

I'm really excited about that. 

And Thursday I'm off to visit Misty! It's going to be so great!

So I'm determined that it's going to be a good week, despite the school stuff.

♥

Last paper of the semester.

I'd rather stick scissors in my eyes than be doing this paper right now.

Pure. Torture. 

But, it's the last one.

Then 3 WHOLE months off. 

♥