Wordless Wednesday

Homemade Granola. 

Seriously? 

Yummy x2! 

Life Happens

This week..... I don't know if I can adequately express my feelings about this week in words. Sunday, a woman my family and I had adopted as our Tennessee grandma passed away. Though her death wasn't unexpected, as she'd been very ill for several months, it was still hard to know she's gone. To be honest, I don't think it has actually sunk in DEEPLY just yet. Despite being 77-years-old, she still looked as if she was in her 50's and wasn't sick a day in her life. (I'm sure she was, I just don't remember it in my life-time) Watching her get progressively worse over the last couple months have been hard, and I wanted so desperately for God to heal her and raise her back up, to her old vitality, but deep down, I knew that wasn't likely, given her age.

Throughout her sickness, women from our church family spent time 'round the clock with her, to make sure she was cared for during her last days. On church days, us in the younger set, took turns relieving to allow the others to attend church services.

I for one, am glad for the "mandatory" time I was made to spend with her, as normally I'm the first to run away screaming when people are sick etc.. Visit you in the hospital? Maybe if I can get a host of other people to come with me. So I got to be forced outside of my comfort zone, and I survived, and I'm eternally grateful I don't have to beat myself up, for not taking the time to visit with her, before she left us.

I don't have anything else to say at the moment, some other things happened this week that threw me for the proverbial "loop".

What else can I say but, sometimes life comes at you fast!

Erin

What I'm Eating...

I'm not a huge fan of the Italian style, meat, sauce, cheese and noodle dishes. While I'll eat them every blue moon, or I generally don't make it for myself; I hate wasting food, and these type dishes, inevitably get wasted at my house. When I came across the recipe for mini lasagna cups on Pinterest, I knew that I might have found a way to balance my dislike of leftovers with, my like of the lasagna taste.

I was right!

They came out perfectly, and I ate three of them before my stomach complained! I also brought them to work for lunch, and they warm up really well. The only thing I could complain about is, the crisp edges, but that's easily enough taken care of by breaking them off. 

It was very simple to make, and was done in less than an hour! Finding the wonton wrappers, called for in the recipe was the only difficult part. I went through three different stores, before I located them in the produce section at Wal-Mart. I've heard phyllo dough can be substituted for wonton wrappers, and was going to try that myself, but I, luckily, found the actual thing. :)

Want the recipe? Check it out here: http://www.kevinandamanda.com/recipes/dinner/mini-lasagna-cups.html

Happy Monday Everyone!

A Summation of the Week Thus Far..

This Week: I almost feel as if I have developed some sort of phobia when it comes to writing about my personal life. Every time I open the post editor, my mind goes blank, my heart rate speeds up and I can't think of a single intelligent thing to say.  This may be in part, due to the fact, that this week: Nothing Happened. To be honest, free time is fun when you've been slammed with work and school, as I had been a mere two weeks ago. Now... its boring. Its lonely, and a bit depressing. Yes it was a Holiday, and I got off work and all that, but I pretty much stayed at home, cleaned my house, play computer games and listened to a audio book.

Cleaning, Organizing and DIYing 

 A fifty six chapter audio book, I should mention, one in which the author dies before completing the final chapter of. The bad thing about it was that it was such a good story, and knowing the ending wasn't complete was a tragedy in and of its self, however it was nicely summed up by, some other dude. No he didn't go as far as too write the chapter himself, but he voiced what we hoped happened in the end. If you are a Jane Austen Fan you will adore Wives & Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell.

iPhone and Speaker playing Wives & Daughters

The remainder of the week will see me, working, carting my brothers & sisters around while my parents are on a "romantic getaway" and more baby-sitting. I know, don't be jealous.


In Other Blogs: Puppy Xander spent the night and helped me Baby-Sit and We were asked to give a review of Mr. Chewy on Texas's Blog. Be sure to check them out!

VLOG: Is There Life after college?

Taken with my iPhone. If I look like I'm about to fall over its because I was squatting in front of a chair. 

Christmas & New Years Recap

In a word? Bliss. 
Perfect happiness; great joy


Not a word that I use regularly but its perfect for this occasion. 


I loved finally having a moment to breathe, to sleep, to read a book for pete's sake. Saturday & Sunday were pretty busy, my family had our dinner on Saturday, and I spent at least five hours cooking, something that is quite unusual for me; its not that I don't mind cooking, its just super, boring to cook for yourself. As long as someone else is planning the menu, I don't mind whipping up food for 8+ people....as long as I don't have to bring it home with me.

Sunday we did our gift exchange, between church services. My parents...er.. dad.. isn't big on the whole gift exchange thing, so they purchased the "family" (which doesn't include me as I don't live there. #FAIL!) a Ping Pong table, and we kids exchanged names and bought for one person. Being the youngest Autumn is alllll about opening gifts, and had us all running through some sort of crazy, gift exchange. It was a little ridiculous but we complied in order to get her to settle down. However once she got her present of an (overpriced) Webkins she was all done with the gift exchange. Leaving the at least three of us gift-less.

*rolls eyes*


Ah to be young and ... well.


The next couple of days, were spent doing absolutely nothing of worth, or productive. I didn't realize how badly I need that time, just to relax, I was able to finally complete a jig-saw puzzle I'd been working on forever, and rearrange my house a bit. 


By Wednesday, all my laziness had caught up with me, and I had to scramble to get ready for our annual New Year's Trip to Alabama. Despite getting a late start, getting stopped by the police, and getting lost in the wild hills of Alabama, we made it to the small town of Morgan City just in time for the first service. 


Not only was I challenged spiritually, but I got to meet new friends, talk with old, and realize some things about myself. All in all? A good trip. 

Nooow back to the real world. 

January: The Goal

♪♫...Another year over, and a new one just begun.. ♪♫

Hello Two Thousand Twelve. 


Like everyone else, in the world, quite possibly, the beginning of the year gives me the chance, to evaluate my previous year, what I liked, what I didn't like... and set some goals I would like to tackle in the coming year. Last years goals were good, but vague... looking back on them, I can't cross them off my list, simply due to the fact, I don't know exactly what I was hoping to accomplish with them. 


Over the past 24 hours, I've spent a lot of time, contemplating what I want to do this year, what's important, and attempting prioritize things. It wasn't easy, and by the time I finished, I wound up with 65 goals. 

Its a little excessive, I'll give you that, but if I put some effort into I can accomplish them. Out of that 65, there are 12 goals, that I have committed to working on once a month. A month or so ago, a blogger/twitter friend of mine, came up with the idea to work pick 12 goals to focus on in 2012. I, loving the idea of small steps, signed up as soon as I could. To be honest, coming up with one goal per month was a bit difficult, as 


This month, my goal is to drink at least one glass of water a day. Sounds simple right? For me...Not so much. Drinking is not only about wetting my thirst, but also sating my appetite. I'm not a morning person, so the thought of breakfast at 7:00am is nauseating to me, not too mention, I never have TIME for breakfast.  So juice winds up being a quite way to tide me over until lunch time. 


Drinking water does not sate your appetite. 


However, I need it. 


So, I downloaded an app called Waterlogged to help me keep track of my water drinking... (my co-worker/nutritionist major will be soo proud). Right now, success = 1 glass of water, but as the habit develops I hope to get up to the required 64 ounces a day. 


Good Lord. 


Other goals that I will be working on over the year include: 

• Learn to Eat Breakfast 
• Blog @ least five times a month (or once a week) 
• Work on Concentrating on One Task for longer periods of time .. 
• Creating a morning routine that is productive.. 
• Memorize a scripture a month.. 
• 3 D.I.Y Projects a Month 
• Read 4 Books a month 
• More specified training sessions with my pet dogs...

Just to name a few... 

I'm looking forward to updating you all on my progress.  

How about you? What goals are you hoping to tackle this year? I wanna know. 

#2011was ... Crazy

January 2011

• As with each year, I looked forward to 2011 being a year of improvement.. I 
• Once again started the year off with School Drama, while I had FA money (for once) there were other documents the school required, and through no small miracles, I was able to get that in and registered for classes.. four days late.
• Pompei went back to New York, to start his formal Training as a guide dog. 
• My Dad and Mom sold his car leaving me vehicle-less  

February 2011 

• Started getting settled into the school routine sans puppy.
• Was scared out of my wits with my Photojournalism class 
• Was getting depressed from all the drastic changes that had taken place in over the last few weeks. 
• Puppy #5 Arrived! 
• I realized how incredibly stupid it was too get a puppy during the MIDDLE of the semester. 
• My sister was inducted into Phi Theta Kappa (Show Off) 

March 2011 

• Dropped my Photojournalism Class - Too much pressure 
• Still looking for a car. No end in sight 
• Saw record rain fall in Knoxville that flooded several roads for months 

April 2011 

• A very random month according to my blog posts 
• School continued on. 
• The puppy continued to grow.. 
• A couple killed each other just two houses down from me.
• The Royal Wedding Happened
• Tornado's ripped through the south east. Scariest night of life. Hail damaged countless cars and buildings in the area. 

May 2011 

• Finished Semester #7
• Re-started the car hunt in earnest. With all the hail damage good prices were going to be easy to find
• Found a car!
• Tried to get bank to fax paperwork to car dealership but hit a brick wall.  
• After three weeks of waiting, I finally was able to drive MY car home.
• Congrats to Patrick, Devin & Willie for graduating this year! 
• First Whitewater rafting trip of the year 

June 2011

• Summmmmmer Time! 
• Started a second job. 
• Busyness and insanity ensued.
• Added: "Knows how to insert IV in dog" to my skills
• Also: Can set off house alarms with finesse 
• Meet new GDF friends Julie & Ben

July 2011 

• Wedding Month! - Roomy super busy trying to get things done with that.
• Still attempting to juggle, two jobs, three dogs + life. 
• Another fun trip to Arkansas 
• The Wedding happened. It was beautiful. The End. 

August 2011 

• Time to get ready for Fall 2011! 
• Signed up for three classes instead of four. 
• Received a certificate in basic photography
• Family moved away from me.
• Took my internet connection too. <cue depression> 
• School Starts. Right away I now I can't continue raising the puppy I have with the schedule I have. <cue sadness>
• Found I would be working Football through the whole semester. <cue tears. Good bye weekends>

September 2011 

• Turned 22! 
• Football season begins
• School continues
• Re-Homed Rob. :( 
• Acquired Trump 

Bye Robsters!

Added Trump - Rob's litter mate

October 2011 

• Regretted acquiring Trump 
• Football continues. Moral plummets 
• Found an iPhone 4. Life improved.
• School continues. 
• The dogs acquire fleas. The house acquires fleas. Insert an Un-Happy & Stressed me.
• Found out FA wasn't going to pay my tuition this year. REALLYY.!?

November 2011 

• Fleas are gone! 
• Trump is taken out of the Guide Dog program
• Trump is re-homed. 
• Much to my relief.
• I bask in the freedom to....work on Finals 
• The rest of the month? FINALS, FINALS oh and Finals. 

December 2011 

• Survived Finals
• Adjusting to life with two dogs 
• Committed to another Guide Puppy in February 
• Looked forward to a New Year :D

How was your year?

What I'm Reading

The Guardian Dukeis award-winning novelist Jamie Carie's most exciting story yet, a uniquely arranged Regency-era romantic adventure where hero and heroine know each other through written letters but have yet to meet.

Gabriel,the Duke of St. Easton, is ordered by the King to take guardianship over Lady Alexandria Featherstone whose parents are presumed dead after failing to return from a high profile treasure hunt. But Alexandria ignores this royal reassignment, believing her parents are still alive and duly following clues that may lead to their whereabouts. Gabriel, pressured by what are actually the King's ulterior motives, pursues her across windswept England and the rolling green hills of Ireland but is always one step behind.

When they do meet, the search for earthly treasure will pale in comparison to what God has planned for both of them.

---
Once again I was disappointed by a Jamie Carie novel, I forced myself to read through too the end, only to wind up left hanging. So we have a young girl, whose parents are mysteriously missing and who has just found out she is under the care of a duke, she assumes is old and decrepit. She begins corresponding with said Duke, demanding money for the care of her estate..or so she says. Instead she decides to find her parents on her own, and embarks on a seemingly grand adventure all the while lying to the Duke about her goings on. Little does she know he is tailing her across the  continent. The story continues to build with them finally arrive in the same city, and unknowingly attending the same party. They meet... and... you are made to wait for the next book. I didn't really feel as if the characters or the story line was developed well, you just seemed to flit from point to point, without an intent. For instance we never find out why the Duke is suffering from this mysterious illness, or what relevance it has to the story line...all in all, I was just annoyed by the time I reached the end.

I received my review copy from NetGalley to read on my iPhone. 

Behind The Lens: Wedding Weekend

I took very few photos this weekend, one look at the environment lighting, I knew it was going to be difficult to get  great photos, with what I'm working with. Not too mention, sitting in the seats as a guests, makes it very difficult to get great photos. But the one's I did get I loved. :)  

Congrats Mr. & Mrs. Sims!