Married Life!

A few random things since we've been married . . .

Marriage is amazing!!! Aaron and I are so happy together! I have so much fun with my wonderful husband. :) Whether we are singing at the top of our lungs together in the car, or just sitting around at home watching a movie, we are thankful for every moment we get to spend together. I am so blessed. 

Aaron and I are currently working on reading through the whole Bible together. We actually started this wayyy back in the summer of 2010 while he was in Florida for the summer. Although we were apart, we wanted to keep our focus on God together, so we decided to start reading together over the phone. It was great, and we finished Genesis, but eventually we got busy and quit for some reason or another. *Discouraging.* So after we got married and got settled into our home together, we decided to start back up again with Exodus. It's been great. *Encouraging. :)* This time I'm determined for us to finish!! 

I've recently transferred to a different department of the gym that I work for, and I'm so happy with my decision! I am now working in the child center. I absolutely love kids, so it is so much fun to get paid for watching them all day! Like I've told Aaron about a million times, I'm just so happy to finally have a job doing something I actually enjoy. I've never really had that before. It's wonderful. :)

I found this recipe for 100% HEALTHY cookies, and we love them! HERE is the link! Honestly, I had two bananas that were getting to the "too soft" point when I have no desire to eat them, so I looked for a healthy "sweet" recipe that called for two bananas. Ha! I actually didn't have quite enough oats, and had no wheat germ. So I ended up with a cup and a half of oats, and replaced the wheat germ with crushed mixed nuts and sunflower seeds! I used whole wheat flour, and I added dark chocolate chips instead of raisins, because I didn't have any. I got lucky and it still ended up tasting good. :)

It's really exciting to eat sweets, knowing the are good for you! :)

Lastly, our good friend Dean Bean had a birthday this week, so Aaron and I put on our best clothes and did a special Happy Birthday dance. :)

That's all for now! Have a blessed day!

In Loving Memory of Savannah

 Savannah Posey was an incredible girl. She was constantly making those around her feel loved. She was always making us laugh. She had such a sweet, loving spirit. Her smile could light up an entire room. I can't say enough about Savannah. I can't make a list of the amazing things about her, because it would never end. I am simply honored to have been one of her friends.  It's so hard to see that God has decided to take someone so young and wonderful away from us. I don't understand. I can't wrap my head around it. But I do know that God is in control and He will take care of us through this devastating time.

 

I know all of us are so thankful for every moment we had with Savannah. She was such a blessing. She always brought a smile to my face. 

One of my favorite memories with Savannah is flying down the stairway at her house on sleeping bags. We were having a class party at the time, (Even though Savannah was younger than us, she was always welcome at our class parties. We loved her so much!) and a few of us in the class told Savannah we should find sleeping bags and slide down the stairway on them. Almost every time, we would slam into the piano or the couch, but we had so much fun. I still can't believe we didn't break any bones or anything! 

I'll never forget you, Savannah Posey. You are such a role model to me. I want to love others as much as you did. I want to be an encouragement to others like you were. I want to make others laugh like you always did. I want to be loving, kind, and unselfish. You were put in my life for a reason, Savannah. I am so thankful. I cannot wait to see you again someday, sweet girl. 

After my senior banquet, our class went over to the Posey's. I had worn that flower in my hair for banquet. Savannah said she wanted to wear it so she plucked it off my head and put it in her hair! I let her keep it, of course. :) 

Wearing our necklaces that we made together.

These are some of my favorite pictures I have with Savannah. Thankful for each one of them!

Love you, Savannah!

From My Kitchen to Yours.

Today I decided I am at a point in my life in which I would like to blog. I really enjoy blogging, and often get into a good habit of doing so. But I eventually get too caught up in life to remember to continue doing it. Therefore, I'm not making any big commitment out of starting it up again. Just going to go with the flow. :)

I want to keep in low-key today, so I'll just share my dinner.

I've started writing out a day-by-day plan for what Aaron and I eat for dinner, in order to make grocery shopping easier. I made my list at the beginning of the week. I'm really a fan of doing this! I like to plan and I like to make lists, so it works. AND, grocery shopping with Aaron is much easier when we have a very specific list. When we don't, we tend to get distracted and buy a lot of random stuff that can't possibly be put into a good meal. This new way a little less fun, but much more organized and we get much better, healthy dinners out of it! Welcome to adulthood, I suppose. :)

So the plan was going GREAT. I made Poppyseed Chicken last night. (my mother's famous recipe!). Aaron LOVED it. One of my greatest joys in life is for others to enjoy my cooking! But I actually ended up eating a waffle. I know that sounds ridiculous but I was seriously craving a waffle. I'll be having the leftover poppyseed chicken for lunch tomorrow. :)

So, today. I was supposed to make a pizza casserole dish. But I wasn't feelin' it. (So much for my great weekly plan so far). I started scrolling through pinterest foods to find an idea. I finally decided on stuffed peppers. I had never made them before, and couldn't really find a recipe that I wanted to follow. So, I created my own! I'll include the recipe and pictures, just in case you'd like to try some yourself. :) I honestly didn't know how "thrown together" this meal was until I just typed all of it out . . .

I started out by chopping off the tops of the peppers. Cooked some rice, browned some beef, and sauteed some chopped peppers and onion. Threw it all together in a bowl and added about half a can of corn. I added some spices . . . I think I used paprika, oregano, a little bit of some fired red pepper, and then some salt and pepper. Next, I poured about half a bottle of taco sauce into the mixture. (That's all I had left in the jar. If you are trying this, I would recommend a 3/4 to a whole jar of it. I didn't end up with the amount of flavor I was hoping for.) I put the bell peppers into a dish and spooned the mixture into each one. Lastly, I sprinkled mozzarella cheese on top of each pepper. (A mexican blend or some cheddar would probably taste best, but mozzarella is all I had!) Set the oven to 400 degrees and left them in for 30 minutes! ***Another tip: When I cut the pepper tops off, I chopped up what I could of the top and included it in the beef mixture. That was probably not the best. It made the meal a little TOO pepper-y. In the future, I would just leave the extra pepper out and maybe add some black beans instead. I ended up with a lot of extra beef mixture after I filled the six peppers, so I dumped it in a freezer bag to fill up a few bell peppers for a future meal. Waste not!

For dessert, I followed a Pinterest recipe for Baked Apple Donuts, found HERE

They are deLICIOUS!!!

Follow the recipe, BUT I will warn you. Be sure to ONLY bake them until they are lightly golden. At first, I waited until they were almost brown. For the second pan, I only waited until they were lightly golden, and they turned out perfect. The darker ones still taste great, they are just a little crunchier. Depends on how you like your doughnuts, I suppose. In the picture, you can see the lighter compared to the darker.

Aaron and I both loved these. The stuffed peppers tasted great, but would have been much better with the extra taco sauce! Tomorrow, we'll be having homemade chicken-bacon pizza with a ranch-garlic sauce. Yay :)


Have a blessed day!

He answered: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"

Luke 10:27