So, I'm totally stealing inspiration from my friend Hannah's blog...in light of the fantabulous summer we have had, I though I would share what's happening in our lives since our big move!
*Andrew started his Pathology residency at Wake Forest Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, NC. We have gotten all moved and settled into the first home that is truly ours.
*I have been hired as a fifth grade teacher at a beautiful, new school that is less than fifteen minutes drive from our home. The building is sparkling clean because it's so new and I will have access to some amazing technology that I have never been able to teach with before!
*We are finally able to begin paying back our loans from school!
*Our new house is within two hours driving distance from Asheville, one of our favorite places to visit and home to our good friends, Rick and Kristen.
I personally am enjoying the last part of my summer before going back to work and taking time to appreciate everything God has blessed us with this year.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
This and That
Ugh, I know. It's been a year since my pitiful little blog has been updated. I'm sorry...It's like whenever I used to get a new journal and would write in it faithfully every day for about a week and then...well you know.
Since so many people share recipes on their blogs, I thought I would share some too. Cooking is a hobby of mine (along with many other things), and I'm always looking for yummy, easy recipes that don't take a lot of time or ingredients to make. SO tonight was a new one: baked ziti. Quite yummy and paired with meatballs, so it wasn't a complete carbfest.
Ingredients:
1 box of ziti noodles
1 jar of marinara sauce
1 onion
a few cloves of garlic (the number is really up to your personal preference)
some fresh basil (again, as much or as little as you want)
1 package of Parmesan cheese (the good kind in the zip-lock bag, not the tube kind)
1 package of shredded mozzarella cheese
*Disclaimer: I never said it was lo-calorie
*Hence the walk we took the dog for this evening, and we both skipped dessert (thus far)
Cook the noodles according to the package.
Meanwhile, (in a saucepan) saute the onions about 5 minutes and then add the garlic and basil for another 2-3 minutes. Sort of watch the garlic to make sure it doesn't burn, because this makes it bitter.
Turn off the heat on the onions and throw in the whole jar of sauce. Mix this with the noodles and the Parmesan. Put everything in a 9x13" casserole and top it with the mozzarella. Bake it at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until the top is slightly brown and it's bubbling. The meatballs are easy too. Mix a pound of lean ground beef with a dash of garlic salt, some pepper, an egg and about 1/4 cup breadcrumbs. Shape it into balls and cook over medium high heat about 3 minutes on each side or until they aren't pink in the middle anymore.
For lack of anything better at the moment to put in my blog, I figured it couldn't hurt to put something useful up. The next recipe I want to try either tonight or tomorrow are Muffins That Taste Like Doughnuts from Tastykitchen.com. I plan on making them mini and then freezing half of them, since honestly I'll probably end up eating most of them myself, what with being home all day and hubby not being much of a sweets fella (more's the pity, but what can ya do?).
Since so many people share recipes on their blogs, I thought I would share some too. Cooking is a hobby of mine (along with many other things), and I'm always looking for yummy, easy recipes that don't take a lot of time or ingredients to make. SO tonight was a new one: baked ziti. Quite yummy and paired with meatballs, so it wasn't a complete carbfest.
Ingredients:1 box of ziti noodles
1 jar of marinara sauce
1 onion
a few cloves of garlic (the number is really up to your personal preference)
some fresh basil (again, as much or as little as you want)
1 package of Parmesan cheese (the good kind in the zip-lock bag, not the tube kind)
1 package of shredded mozzarella cheese
*Disclaimer: I never said it was lo-calorie
*Hence the walk we took the dog for this evening, and we both skipped dessert (thus far)
Cook the noodles according to the package.
Meanwhile, (in a saucepan) saute the onions about 5 minutes and then add the garlic and basil for another 2-3 minutes. Sort of watch the garlic to make sure it doesn't burn, because this makes it bitter.
Turn off the heat on the onions and throw in the whole jar of sauce. Mix this with the noodles and the Parmesan. Put everything in a 9x13" casserole and top it with the mozzarella. Bake it at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until the top is slightly brown and it's bubbling. The meatballs are easy too. Mix a pound of lean ground beef with a dash of garlic salt, some pepper, an egg and about 1/4 cup breadcrumbs. Shape it into balls and cook over medium high heat about 3 minutes on each side or until they aren't pink in the middle anymore.
For lack of anything better at the moment to put in my blog, I figured it couldn't hurt to put something useful up. The next recipe I want to try either tonight or tomorrow are Muffins That Taste Like Doughnuts from Tastykitchen.com. I plan on making them mini and then freezing half of them, since honestly I'll probably end up eating most of them myself, what with being home all day and hubby not being much of a sweets fella (more's the pity, but what can ya do?).
Monday, June 22, 2009
Summer Break?
Well, summer break is already in full swing, and while it's not been quite as crazy as last summer, it has definitely not been what you might call "laid-back". For those of you that don't already know, Andrew has been in Columbus (Georgia) for the past six weeks so I've been missing him like crazy. My sister in-law and her boyfriend have been keeping me entertained and kept me from being too lonely, but I'm still glad he'll be back in town come Wednesday evening.
I have been in class intermittently since May 25th, so I've been trying to keep up with homework and housework and keeping the garden from going to pot while Andrew is at the other end of the state. I've been doing the wedding and baby shower circuit and loving every minute of it...it's always fun to get together with the people you love to celebrate new seasons in life. In all of this, I've been tagging along house-hunting with my parents, gone to Disney (WOO-HOO), and will be going to Asheville, NC and Florida back-to back.
Even though the summer stays incredibly busy, it's still great to have a mental break from teaching...unless you are a teacher, it's hard to understand how much concentration it takes to plan lessons and make them fun and keep the kids from being crazy all at once. Much as I love it, I also love the built-in vacation time in order to regroup and prepare for the next group of little darlings. One day I'll sit down and write a bunch of stories that all come from teaching elementary school.
With all that said, hopefully this summer I will learn how to keep my blog up to date (sorry, Lindsay for being so delinquent...)! I guess it's like when you buy a brand new diary and fill up ten pages before putting it on the shelf and letting it gather dust.
I have been in class intermittently since May 25th, so I've been trying to keep up with homework and housework and keeping the garden from going to pot while Andrew is at the other end of the state. I've been doing the wedding and baby shower circuit and loving every minute of it...it's always fun to get together with the people you love to celebrate new seasons in life. In all of this, I've been tagging along house-hunting with my parents, gone to Disney (WOO-HOO), and will be going to Asheville, NC and Florida back-to back.
Even though the summer stays incredibly busy, it's still great to have a mental break from teaching...unless you are a teacher, it's hard to understand how much concentration it takes to plan lessons and make them fun and keep the kids from being crazy all at once. Much as I love it, I also love the built-in vacation time in order to regroup and prepare for the next group of little darlings. One day I'll sit down and write a bunch of stories that all come from teaching elementary school.
With all that said, hopefully this summer I will learn how to keep my blog up to date (sorry, Lindsay for being so delinquent...)! I guess it's like when you buy a brand new diary and fill up ten pages before putting it on the shelf and letting it gather dust.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Finally Time to Update
See, this is the problem with starting a blog...you have to update it once in a while! I am thoroughly enjoying my Spring Break and the beautiful weather, although feeling somewhat lonely since Andrew is off camping with his Dad. It's hard to believe that this time next year we will know where he'll do his residency! It is still a little weird to think about being married to a doctor, but I am so happy to be partners with someone who will have the chance to be a positive influence on so many lives. Being a doctor is a little like being a teacher I guess, although you can't exactly say that teachers deal with life or death situations on a daily basis; I guess pathologists don't either (which is what Andrew intends to do). Still, it's nice to know the chance to do some good is right there in front of you, if you'll just grab at it.
Read an amazing book, "The Secret Life of Bees" over the break (finished it about an hour ago). Very well written and once I sat down and got into the meat of the book, I couldn't put it down. I think when I retire and when the children are all grown, I want to do nothing more than read and scrapbook every day. There is something about reading and forming your own images of what is happening in your book that will never be replaced by watching film adaptations of books. I almost never like a movie that is based on a book if I read the book first, it is always best to watch the movie first, and then read the book.
OK, enough rambling...off to find the next book to devour before my break is over!
Read an amazing book, "The Secret Life of Bees" over the break (finished it about an hour ago). Very well written and once I sat down and got into the meat of the book, I couldn't put it down. I think when I retire and when the children are all grown, I want to do nothing more than read and scrapbook every day. There is something about reading and forming your own images of what is happening in your book that will never be replaced by watching film adaptations of books. I almost never like a movie that is based on a book if I read the book first, it is always best to watch the movie first, and then read the book.
OK, enough rambling...off to find the next book to devour before my break is over!
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Clean House = Peace
It has taken me a long time to realize what a neat freak I can really be. Growing up, I was anything but neat as anyone who lived with me would tell you. Even for most of my college career, it was the norm to walk into my room and not be able to see the floor. But something happened my senior year (I have no idea what) that turned me into the kind of person that is really bothered by little things that clutter up floors and counter spaces. This morning, while putting away the groceries I had just bought, I was suddenly very bothered by the state of chaos in my tupperware cabinet. Therefore, I had to stop everything just so I could purge and organize everything in the cabinet...and the feeling of peace that I felt after it was done...well it actually is kind of freaky to me that such a little thing could make me feel so happy...especially when I have a paper due Thursday that I haven't started. But, those of you who know me also know one of the other things that makes me happy...procrastinating.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Yes, I'm a Blog Virgin
OK, here's my first official blog post for my brand spanking new blog. I figure writing in a blog is kind of like writing in a journal...I never know what to write in a journal and those of you who know me know I can be a little random. And if you didn't know that about me, you do now, so don't complain that I'm too random when I write. I'm sitting in class right now learning all about the Foundations of Education (after finishing the only midterm I've ever had in my graduate school career), and am so bored that I decided now was as good a time as any to start a blog. (Also I've decided this is the best time to update Facebook). Hopefully this new hobby won't take too much time away from this high quality lecture I'm listening to about how poverty affects education. Sorry that there's nothing more exciting to talk about, but I'm just excited to get on the bandwagon!
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