Christmas Season is Here!

Talk about a catch-up day! This is my 3rd post today (trying to catch up for the past couple weeks), so be sure to scroll down and get caught-up along with me!



After our 10 hour drive yesterday, we promptly headed to town to pick out a tree. We didn't have the energy to decorate last night, but this morning we got it all done!


We try to get a new ornament for any new place we visit. So here's a look at the new ornaments we collected this year.

Orlando and Disney World in January

Another from Disney in January, this one representing the half marathon.

Washington DC in May
Branson in October.


Dothan, AL in November...The peanut capital!


This is an ornament that Ryan's mom gave me just a few days ago. I love it! My real mixer was my favorite Christmas present last year.


Here it is...all put together! A daytime picture doesn't do it justice, but you get the idea!



Did anyone else start decorating this weekend?

A Week in Review

I'm back!!

Ryan and I visited his family in Dothan, Alabama for the week of Thanksgiving. We had a great time, and I wanted to share a few points of interest for the week.

1. I am running again, slower than before, but I am running again! In the past few weeks, I've gradually started alternating walking with some jogging. At the end of the week prior to leaving for Alabama, I jogged 3 miles without any pain! While in Dothan, we went to the local park which had a 3.3 mile walking/jogging trail. The first day, I walked/jogged the trail. Day 2, I did more jogging and wanted to go a little further. By mile 4, I began to feel a slight ache in my hip, so we walked back to the car (about 5 miles total that day). Day 3, we went to the gym and had a great workout on the spinning bikes and gave my hip a break from any impact. Day 4, Thanksgiving day, we started from the house and walked/jogged to the park, jogged the 3.3 mile trail, then walked/jogged home...a total of about 5.5 miles with no hip pain! I earned my Turkey that day! Day 5, we went to the gym again and had a good workout on the bikes. Finally, yesterday, after a 10 hour drive, we walked 2 miles at the park to stretch our legs. Today is a day of rest! I am thrilled, and very thankful, to have made it through an active week with almost no trouble with my hip.

2. Auburn came from 24 points behind to beat Alabama!

3. The weather in Dothan was beautiful! Temperatures were in the upper 70's to lower 80's the whole time we were there. The only problem was my allergies went haywire with all the leaves still on the trees and flowers still blooming, it was like driving from winter to spring in one day. My sinuses still haven't fully recovered.

4. 2 hours or less of a car ride with the dogs is fun for them and easy for us. 4 hours is beginning to push it. 7 hours is a bit more difficult but still manageable (we used to do it all the time between Birmingham and Mountain Home). 10 hours is stressful, for them, for us. Let's just say we won't be doing it again anytime soon.

5. Black Friday is way more fun when you have more places to shop than Walmart. We aren't typically big Black Friday shoppers, but we did venture out around 10am (after making and eating homemade doughnuts) and found a couple good deals on things we needed.

Did you do anything fun over the holiday weekend?

Linguine with Olives and Feta

This is a dish I tried a couple weeks ago, and I felt it's definitely worth sharing.



You need:
1 (12 oz) pkg linguine (I always use 100% whole wheat)
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
1-2 tsp minced garlic
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast, chopped
4 medium-large tomatoes, chopped
2 Tbsp dried basil (feel free to use fresh if you have it)
Black pepper to taste (about 1/4 tsp)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sliced olives. You can use which ever variety you prefer. I had a "Greek Medley" which has ripe (black), green, and calamata olives.
3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese (if you don't like feta...ahem, Dad...you could use shredded Parmesan instead)

Cook your linguine according to package instructions. Drain, place in large bowl, and set aside.

In the meantime, saute 1 chopped onion and garlic in the olive oil. Add the chopped chicken. When the onions get transparent, and the chicken is fully cooked, add the chopped tomatoes, basil, pepper, and salt. Let this cook until the tomatoes just begin to soften (about 5 minutes).

Pour the chicken/tomato mixture over the noodles and toss. Sprinkle the top with olives and feta.

Beautiful!

This recipe will make about 6 servings. I only made a half batch for Ryan and me, and we had plenty.


Enjoy!

First Day of School

Last week was Duke and Aspen's first experience with doggy obedience school. They are sweet, loving dogs, but a little crazy in social situations. They love each other (most of the time) and love Ryan, me, and a few select others that come to visit, but they get very nervous around other dogs and people at the park. So, basically they need good socialization, and to learn to listen and do what they are told, and to find out that they are, indeed, dogs, not humans. But other than they're great!



We've been to two classes so far. How did it go?



Duke cried THE-WHOLE-TIME.


And I'm not talking about an occasional whimper. It was more like when you first bring a new puppy home...you know that first night you leave them alone in his kennel without his mom or siblings...you know that kind of unbearable cry?

Well, it was like that.

He did do everything I told him to do, mind you. He was just crying the whole time, while all the other, much younger dogs were completely calm and collected.

This week, I thought I would be proactive. I took the dogs on a 30 minute walk/jog to run off some energy prior to class. Did it work?

NO.

Duke continued to cry. But get this, about halfway through the class, Ryan was having some trouble with Aspen and asked if I wanted to switch and try it with him. I said, "Sure!" My inner dog whisperer wanted to show him that it wasn't the dog, it was the handler. ;) Well, with a little trial and error, I got Aspen to cooperate and class continued. I noticed it was suddenly much quieter since we switched dogs. Gasp! Duke stopped crying!

He-stopped-crying...the instant he got to be with Dad...that little runt.

We aren't speaking anymore.

Oh, who am I kidding...I told him he hurt my feelings and he looked at me with those puppy-dog eyes and floppy ears, and I forgave him.

And we lived happily ever after (as long as Duke gets to be with Ryan at obedience school).


Here was a quick photo op on their first day of school, and yes, that is Aspen's tongue inching very close to my teeth. Yikes!

Love Songs

You know how sometimes a song comes along that just belongs to you and your spouse. Well, it happens to us occasionally, but it's usually not your typical love song.

For a recent example: Last weekend, Ryan said you need to download this song by Sugarland...and before he was finished telling me the name, I was already bopping around, singing, "Stuck like glue. You and me, baby, we're stuck like glue. Wah oh, wah oh, stuck like glue..." Listening to the lyrics, you can see where it quickly has become our "love song" of the moment.

But then, somewhere along the line, I watched the video. It made me laugh...I thought, well too bad the video doesn't fit us at all.

Then, I watched it again...Well, maybe that's kinda like us after all. Ryan always tells me that I was put on this earth just to aggravate him. In the most endearing way possible, mind you.

I think I was too (hey, somebody's gotta teach a man how to snuggle and be all domestic).

Anyway, here's a link to the video. Perfect for falling in love ;).

Click here.

Soup it up!

It's that time of year when a bowl of soup just hits the spot. I was looking forward to using up a package of Bear Creek Cheddar Broccoli tonight, but Ryan (who rarely eats a meal without some kind of meat) was less than excited. I even offered up a grilled cheese...can you believe he STILL wasn't going for it?

He did say he could go for some soup in a bread bowl. So, instead of driving all the way to town to hunt down a bread bowl, I went to Google and found this recipe for bread bowls: Super Bowl Bread Bowl. It's a fairly simple recipe. Plus, I just happened to have all the ingredients and a bread machine.

For the soup I started out with this:

If you've never tried Bear Creek soups, you really need to look for them at the store. You "Just Add Water" but the soups are super flavorful and hearty. BUT you can make it even more hearty. Tonight, we used some of the suggestions on the back of the package and added corn and extra broccoli. We also added some onion and cauliflower. So we really got a good serving of veggies in every serving.

Here's the final product:

Yes, it did "hit the spot." AND Ryan is full and satisfied without even a bite of meat. ;)