Turtle Trails Crisis, and some good eats.

I went grocery shopping today.

And... for the second week in a row...

THERE WAS NO TURTLE TRAILS ICE CREAM!!!

But...

not only was there not any there, and a big empty hole, like last week...

There was no hole!!

I am just going to tell myself that some poor, ignorant stock boy mistakenly filled the space where Turtle trails goes, with some other, lesser ice cream, and that it will be there next week. 

Because if I couldn't have this glorious, amazing, delicious, fantastic ice cream anymore....

I would die. Really. I think so.

On another, non-related note, I made a new stew for us tonight. 

I make something really large, that will last us a few days, on Sunday nights when I'm off, so we have something to eat throughout the week.

Well, Misty, I think I may have found a soup/stew substance that even your anti-soup husband can enjoy. For real.

Hearty Italian Lentil Soup

• 1 cup lentils
• 1 1/3 quarts water, divided
• 2/3 cup uncooked long grain white rice
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
• 3 tablespoons Italian bread crumbs
• salt, to taste
• ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 quart tomato sauce
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese for topping
• 
  
• Place lentils in a pot with 3 cups water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and cook 20 minutes or until tender. Drain and set aside.
• Bring rice and 1 1/3 cup water to boil in a pot. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. 
• In a bowl, combine the ground beef, beaten egg, garlic, 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese, parsley, bread crumbs, salt, and pepper. Form ground beef mixture into 1 inch balls. Place meatballs in skillet and cook 5 minutes or until evenly brown.
• In a large pot, bring the tomato sauce and 4 cups water to a boil. Transfer the browned meatballs to the pot. Mix in cooked lentils and rice. Return to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese to serve.

Ta-da!

It was a bit hectic at first, because I put the lentils, rice, sauce/water on, and started the meatballs all at once, because it would have taken forever otherwise. 

It was also my first experience with meatballs, and other than being a little large, they turned out awesome. 

We ate it with Italian bread and butter, and some white Zinfindel (that was already open in our fridge).

It was delicious.

My one tweak for next time would be to use a garlic flavored tomato sauce, and add some parsley or something, because the sauce was a bit bland.

Other than that, it was fantastic.

Definitely looking forward to eating this all week.

See Misty, how could Tim not like a thick soup with meatballs?

♥

I'll be there....

Listening to "I'll be there" by the Jackson 5.

Oh little Michael, what happened to you?

Love this song.

Got up and made Jamie and I pancakes this morning. 

It was so nice, we never get to do stuff like that anymore. 

Then we did homework.

I am really proud of myself, I got a lot done.

Then when he got back from class, I made us lunch.  

Lemon Chicken, 1/2 a baked potato, italian bread, and a spinach and strawberry salad.

It was great.

Oh, here's my dilemma of the day.
How do you tell your mother-in-law that she has the wrong date for your birthday?
I got a happy birthday phone call this morning, and a message saying she had a present for me.
My birthday isn't for another 5 days.
So, how do I tell her that without sounding totally ungrateful? Because I really do appreciate the thought, and that she took the time to call me and everything.
I am considering taking the cowards way out and letting her think that today is my birthday for the rest of my life.

Now that Jamie is at work, I am finishing off my meal with the best dessert in the whole wide world!

Turtle Trails Dairy-free ice cream.

It is unbelievably delicious.

And has a ridiculously small amount of calories compared to regular ice cream.

Yum.

I had a really horrible day at school yesterday.

To make a long story short,

Our classroom teacher vetoed our lesson plan on forensic footprint/shoeprint analysis that I spent 3 hours and $20 creating 10 minutes before we were supposed to teach it, because she typed "footprint analysis" into Google, and it brought up stuff that could possibly lead to evolution.

Seriously.

So, my group and my instructor stood up for me, and said that they thought that was ridiculous, it had nothing to do with that, and I got so frustrated and upset that I started crying.

It really, really sucked.

So, Emily, Amanda and I went out to the Japanese steakhouse in Avon to make ourselves feel better, and then came back to my house and drank wine. 

It was a really great ending to a really horrible day.

So blessed to have those girls in my life.

Have a busy day tomorrow! 

Working 9-3, and then to Matt and Emily's wedding at 4:30!

Super excited that they are getting married tomorrow, I love those two.

They are going to do great things for God together.

Then, Jamie and I are going to The Melting Pot that night, to celebrate my birthday!!

So super excited about that.

The Melting Pot is my absolute favorite.

Well, have to go get ready for work soon, I work 4-11, and then have a meeting at midnight (yuck.)

But, I wanted to mention one more thing:

Today would have been my dad's 50th birthday.

I've been kind of bummed about it all week, but I'm really doing okay today.

Been thinking about all of the good times.

And listening to a lot of Beach Boys. They always make me think about him and smile.

Happy birthday, daddy.

Daddy holding me in my strawberry bikini when I was 1. One of my favorite pictures.

Wish you were here so we could celebrate it.

Miss you.

I love you.

♥

Much needed date day with my awesome husband!

Slept until 10 AM.

Then cuddled for an hour.

Haven't done that in since our honeymoon.

Amazing.

Jamie showed me the surprise he got for us!

I'm super excited about using it.

Then we went to the winery and spent our huge honking gift card.

It was awesome, we have a great wine collection now.

Some amazing stuff, we got to try them in a tasting.

Stopped by metropolis.

Got Jamie a new sweater (which I love)

and me some new bras (that I won't be modeling.)

Stopped by Panera for lunch, and had an amazing meal.

Black bean soup and a caesar salad.

Yum.

Then we took a walk around the neighborhood,

and enjoyed the beautiful colors of the trees.

We also collected some fall foliage 

(which left a nasty dirt residue in my pocket)

And made an awesome fall table centerpiece.

Then off to dinner at Outback Steakhouse (Jamie's pick)

and had a free dessert coupon.

This is the result of that wonderful thing:

Woah.

And here we are now.

I love him so much.

This day has been exactly what we needed. 

We have just been smiling, laughing, hugging, kissing, holding hands, and having an absolute blast

all day.

I love married life.

And I love him.

I refuse to think about going back to the craziness tomorrow.

I'm just going to enjoy being his wife.

♥