Meal Planning

If you have a hard time planning meals, try using these. With only two of us eating most nights, I often loose enthusiasm for cooking. When I have a plan made up AND written down, meals almost seem to prepare themselves! Gone are the days of standing in front of the refrigerator while letting all the cold air out and I contemplate how we have no food. (Which is NOT the case at all... just nothing I am in the mood for.) Mind you, the planned meals are subject to change (if maybe my cute hubby decides to take me out for a night on the town) but having a plan just makes it so much easier to make dinner! Also, we tend to eat more healthy when I plan something besides pizza for dinner. So, if you feel so inclined, try writing out your menu and let me know how it goes!

Dream Backyard

No, this is not our backyard. We have made some amazing friends with an amazing backyard. Not only are they the most welcoming family, but they have an incredible talent for gardening! We dream of someday having a yard half this beautiful.




Someday, at our house in Kentucky, this could be our yard. {Okay I am TOTALLY dreaming right now.} I know it will be a lot of work, but worth it. I think one of the reasons we love it so much, is that our friends did all the work themselves. The pond alone took an entire summer (and then some). After we re-create this AMAZING yard, you can come visit any time you like.

Woody's Round Up

I love Halloween. Blood and gore aren't my thing, but I LOVE to be creative. This year, I decided that we would dress up like Woody and Jessie from Toy Story. We LOVE the movies and I thought that Lady would make a great Bullseye....

Trying to find a saddle for a dog was IMPOSSIBLE! I had to make something up totally out of thin air. It looks like a saddle doesn't it? I tried to make her a tail that looked like Bullseye the horse, but she quickly ripped it off and proceeded to eat it. Needless to say, she is now Bullseye the dog.

Our church did a Trunk or Treat this year and it was so much fun! Seeing all the kids dress up makes me excited to someday dress up our kids. I spent too much time working on our costumes and ran out of time to really decorate the car. We did have a poster that kind of looked like the wall paper in Andy's room and then we put little army men all around the trunk. I found the soundtrack for Woody's Roundup that we had playing. Next time I will plan better!

Even the adults got into the spirit of dressing up! I was able to make all three costumes for less than $20! Now I have to start thinking about what we will be next year... Any suggestions?

The Room Where Everything Goes To Die.

You know you have one. Maybe yours is a closet, but you know you have a place where you put stuff until you have time to put it away- and you never have time to put it away so it ends up looking like this:

This would be my craft room after returning from a long vacation. I swear things in this room reproduced while we were gone for 2 and a half weeks! (Not that I would mind more craft stuff, but I don't think the JoAnn fairies visited me.) How does stuff pile up so fast??

This is where you come in. I NEED HELP! How do I organize/de-junk this room? I don't know where to start. It is OVERWHELMING and it needs to be done. My mom is coming for a visit and I want to show her that despite my entire childhood, it IS possible for me to keep a room clean! I am on a VERY tight budget... (as in NO budget since my husband would have a COW if I spent any more money on this room.) Got any ideas? (other than getting rid of it all.)

Atlanta Aquarium

When we were in Georgia, one of the things I REALLY wanted to do was to visit the Atlanta Aquarium. It was AMAZING!!! Taking pictures was a challenge because you can't exactly get fish to pose for the camera, but I think I got a few good pictures.

These jellyfish were all tangled up together.

I wonder who is going to win....

Yes that is a SHARK in the tank. It's a whale shark and it's the size of a small bus!

Big fish. The divers said they are actually more afraid of these fish than all of the sharks in the tank. Apparently, they are very territorial. (Like they are the only girl in the family or something.)

This is the underside of a sting ray.. cool huh? I told him to say cheese, but I am not sure he could hear me through the 2 feet of glass.

You know I had to get fish and chips for lunch! Jonathan called me a murderer because we ate right in front of a fish tank.

I pet the shark! It was really slimy!

I was more nervous about touching the sting ray than the shark, but since little children were doing it, I thought I would take the chance.

If you are ever in Atlanta, I HIGHLY recommend going to the Atlanta Aquarium. It was breath taking! (and soon they will have dolphins too!) Be sure to go EARLY in the day because it gets PACKED!

Kentucky!

Jonathan and I don't LOVE Idaho. We have DREAMED of moving to Kentucky for some time now, and we thought that it might be a good idea to check out the state before we up and move there. Why Kentucky? A few years ago, Jonathan and I got got out a gardening map. We had a LONG winter in Idaho and were SICK AND TIRED of all the snow and NO gardening season. We knew that we didn't want to live in Idaho forever, but as far as where we moved next, the sky is the limit! While looking at the gardening map, we said that we should both pick a state we wanted to live in and then we would say them at the same time. Then we would try and find something in the middle of the two. We both said Kentucky. After laughing for a LONG time, we really started to think about it. After visiting, we KNOW that is where we want to be! Don't worry our Idaho friends... we have a while before Jonathan finishes school, but as soon as he does... we are out of here!

We thought it might be a good idea to check out some houses in KY. In reality, we REALLY like to dream! Jonathan found this one.. the location is perfect... but we just need to talk them down on the price... A LOT. The streets around it were lined with parks and it over looked the Ohio river. ::sigh:: I heart this house. I know it needs TONS of work, but I am a Randall now! (You can click on the house and see the listing... but if you buy this house before me, know that I am going to move in with you.)

Kentucky is horse country! We had to stop by Churchill Downs and check it out. I can't wait to go to a real race someday!

While driving around, we found this "house" in the middle of the road. Kind of random, but I guess you wouldn't have to worry about too many house guests!

While in Kentucky, I FORCED Jonathan to stop at some antique shops. (He would tell you we stopped at ALL of them, but you know better than that!) I LOVE looking at all the old stuff and thinking about the history behind it all. I found one store just off main street and told Jonathan I HAD to stretch my legs... and my evil plan worked! I found this AMAZING set of Noritake dishes for only $19! Service for 8!!! I had to talk my hubby into it, but I LOVE it! I can't wait to have a dinner party with it!


I had WAY too much fun shopping, and only got to bring back a few treasures, but I will always think about our trip when I use my Kentucky treasures!

It was a VERY long trip, but I loved almost every minute of it! Other than spending WAY too much time in the car, I loved visiting with our families, seeing so much of the country and spending quality time with my sweet hubby.

What I have been up to

I love to blogstalk. I don't know if that is a real word, but it's what I do. My husband blogstalks differently than I do. For example, he LOVES this blog. I however, like to blogstalk people who are crafty and give me tutorials about how to copy them. The sad part is that I spend WAY too much time stalking, and not enough time doing.

About a month ago, I found a blog post about making camera strap covers. While I had seen a few of these before, this one caught my attention. It might have been the ruffles, but I knew I wanted to make it. I even went as far as to buy the fabric. Everyday that fabric would look at me from the TO-DO pile. (I know it's against all the laws of nature, but that pile NEVER shrinks!) Ever since getting my camera (last THANKSGIVING) I have wanted to make a cover (or four). FINALLY, last night I did it. There are a million things I should have been doing instead. (If you come to my house, please IGNORE all the weeds.) But now, when I look at my TO-DO pile, the fabric is no longer staring back at me. (only the fabric I bought 2 months ago to make some throw pillows.)
It's hard to take a picture of your camera let alone your new camera strap. Smart Donna would have taken a picture before I put it on the camera, but then again for some reason, I never seem to listen to smart Donna.

I love the ruffle all down the middle. I like the colors too. (even though my camera is black and the fabric has a brown background.) Good luck getting to the bottom of your TO-DO pile!

Oh Lady.

Often times my sweet husband will say, "I want Lady's life." I am not sure if this moment was one of them, but for some reason I can picture my JoJo, sleeping with his head in a pizza box and also being totally content.

Simple Pleasures of Summer

The simple pleasures of Summer. While watering my flowers, this HUGE butterfly decided to join me. She stuck around for about 15 minutes; long enough for me to grab my camera and take a few pictures of her. This is the part of summer that I love. I LOVE my new camera. The only editing I did was some cropping. LOVE IT!

Fourth Of July Invitations

I LOVE to celebrate the 4th of July! The first summer we lived in our house, we tried to have a 4th of July Party and well after much planning and LOTS of food.... nobody came. I am sure it is because most people around here have LOTS of family around. For some crazy reason, I thought that this year would be different. So far, not so good. I have handed out some invitations, but so far, nobody has RSVP'ed. Sad day. Oh well. At least I had fun making the invitations! Here is a tutorial if you would like to make some for your next 4th of July Party.

For each invitation, you will need 7 Popsicle sticks. I kind of like the "not-so-perfect" ones. (They add character.) For each flag, you will need to paint 4 red sticks and 3 white ones.

Divide your sticks up so that you can paint all of the red ones at the same time and all of the white ones at the same time. (I didn't worry about painting the sides. I like the rustic look... or maybe I am just lazy.)

Once your sticks are dry, arrange them in groups of 7 with 4 red and 3 white in each group. Be sure to alternate the colors. Then separate the top 4 sticks and using a foam brush, paint the left hand side of 4 of the sticks with blue paint. It helps to keep them together and paint them all at once to keep a strait line.

Make "flags" with all of your sticks. Remember that they don't have to be perfect. That's part of the fun!

Using a silver paint pen, draw some stars on each flag. I liked to alternate 3 stars on one line and 4 on the other, but there really isn't room for all 50!

Print the information for your party on the sticks.

Bundle each flag up and tie with some fun star garland or ribbon. These invitations have to be HAND delivered! I hope you have fun making these!

I hope that this year I am not making NY hotdogs just for 2! Please stop by on Saturday and celebrate the 4th with us!

Fiesta Chicken Chowder

We LOVE this soup! It is one of our new favorite! (My hubby, who could care less about soup, asked if we could make it again!)

Just so you know, it is SUPER YUMMY with black bean chips!

If you want the recipe, check it out here:

http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Fiesta-Chicken-Chowder

I dare you to make it!

Potting Station I Have Missed You!

I LOVE SPRING! I also love to plant in containers. As a young adult, I worked at a gardening center in NY. While it was hard work sometimes, I learned SO MUCH and loved almost every minute of my job. I miss those days, but now I get to play in a yard of my own. A few years ago, Jonathan built me a potting station for Christmas. Maybe he was sick of me planting containers on his table saw...Anyways, I LOVE my potting station and all the things I have created on it.

I also love cooking. What fun it is to create a dish with fresh herbs picked right from the kitchen! Someday, in my next house with a BIG kitchen, I will have a plant shelf in the kitchen window with herbs on it all year round. {Not that I have been planning out my next kitchen or anything. Did I mention the double wall ovens and the 6 burner stove?}

Did you ever have a plant read your mind? No, I'm not crazy, but I am pretty sure that this moss growing between the pavers on my patio knew that I wanted him there. Jonathan and I even talked about planting some, but we thought that was a bit over the top... and now look who has crept into our garden! I might start thinking really hard about Peonies in the front yard...

Easter in Vegas

So by now I am sure you have figured out that my nephews are a big part of my life. I love them to pieces and treasure watching them learn and grow. Sometimes I just want them to stop growing up so fast. This is the first year we could spend with the boys, and it was so much fun! The Easter Bunny brought the boys some new jammies and sunglasses and of course LOTS of candy! Peeps for breakfast never killed anyone!

One of Rebecca's neighbors organized a neighborhood Egg Hunt in the park. It was a fabulous idea! Parents donated a dozen filled eggs for each of their kids and the dad's went to the park early in the morning and hid them. After all the eggs had been hidden, the mom's and kids came to the park to find all the treasures. When all the eggs were found, everyone enjoyed a potluck breakfast! I can totally see doing this in Idaho, but we might have to put snow pants on the kids first.

I just love these boys! These hug moments are far and few in between, but they are sweet.

One thing that I love about being a kid is how easy it is to have fun. I watch my nephews play on the same playground with new found eyes every time. They don't worry about tomorrow or even yesterday. They can find joy in such simple things. I guess when the Savior told us to be like a child, there are many ways that could be.