Nicole

I thought I'd share this picture of Nicole from our trip to New York last year. I miss the city : (

FYI Frank, Mikey and myself went and saw When in Rome tonight. FUNNY! I guess I was getting a few stares because I was laughing so hard. It actually made my cry a few times I was laughing so hard. I highly recommend it. 

{I would like to thank Picnik for the creation ;)hehe}

It's a bird... It's a plane... It's Frank!

Yesterday before work Frank got a pretty good treat. His Division Officer was leaving so a handful of people got to fly {co-pilot} a SH-60 Helo! Lucky Frank this was actually his second time flying a helicopter. Each person that was there got to take the helo up for about 5 minutes or so. I wasn't there to take pictures, so Frank took the camera with him and had someone takes some pictures of him as he was flying. The pictures are from the ground so they're not that great. But it's still exciting!

{Don't mind the black marks on the pictures, our camera lens is dirty but I have no idea how to clean it since it's dirty on the inside.}

Frank said he really liked this picture cause of the 3 helo's in different heights.. and the random fourth in the back round on the right.

Getting ready to go out...

And there goes Frank!

I think he had a good day :)

Beans, Beans the magical fruit!?

The only beans I've ever made are from the can. Hard to make? I think not. But for some reason I've never ventured out and explored the world of beans the magical fruit. You know you all sang that song as a kid. Last night for dinner I made beans and cornbread from The Pioneer Women, and can I just say.. YUM! So simple, so easy. Why haven't I made these before?

{I was too lazy to take a picture of mine so I'm using Ree's}

The only thing I didn't really care for was the cornbread. This was the third cornbread I've made from scratch, and so for I haven't found one I like. I did love that hers was the easiest to make! Seriously any beginner could make both of these. I would have never thought to put the sour cream on the beans, but it added a nice flavor. I did add bacon in for Frank so they weren't completely healthy... but close enough.

For dessert Mikey came over with apple dumplings :) She had borrowed my Costco cookbooks a while ago to steal some recipes. The apple dumplings were from them and how I've never made them is beyond me, they are amazing. She said they were extremely easy to make, which means they are on my list of foods to make. She also made a fabulous strawberry bread awhile ago that everyone should try. You can go here to check them both out, she'd love the visitors.

A little change of topic, I love reading what everyone Believes in. Thank you Kim for starting that  (if you did?) I'm loving it.

Family

I believe in...

My family

I Believe In

I got this idea from Kim at NewlyWoodward so I thought I'd make a list of my own...

I Believe In....

• The calmness of a secluded beach
• A clean house
• Money in the bank!
• A home cooked meal every night
• Spell check
• The lasting image from a photograph
• VACATIONS
• Candles
• Animal rights
• MYSELF.. sometimes
• Love
• Forever friendships
• Friends entire season on DVD
• Lazy Sunday's
• My family :]

{{I had a picture to insert right here of Frank, me and the dogs but for some reason it's not working. Boo. I'll try to upload the photo tomorrow.}}

What do you believe in?

Sweet Potato Dog Treats

Is it weird that I have now made three homemade dog treats? I've had the sweet potato treats on my list of things to try for a few weeks now, tonight I finally got around to it. They were super easy to make which is nice considering the other two dog treats I've tried making were nothing close to being easy.

I haven't tried them yet, I'm not sure if I will at all.. they tend to be too bland for me. Molly and Ellie let me know they were perfectly fine. Go HERE if you'd like to check out the recipe or the many others on the site.

Decision Time

Well folks we've decided what we're going to do about Hawaii in September. I was the one holding out hope that we'd be able to go, it was going to be the honeymoon we never had. And the timing worked out since my cousin was getting married on the big island at the same time. We decided to go with the smart route and not go.

We've been doing so good with paying off our debt and working towards getting an SUV, so booking a trip that cost that much wasn't the best of idea's. I'm sad, but we still have summer 2011. Not sure what island we're going to since Frank's parent's are booking the trip, we're just tagging along.

In other decision making times I think I'm ready to start looking for a job! The cymbalta seems to be helping with the pain, as in I haven't had any since starting it. This weekend Frank and I are going to go to the gym, so I'm hoping it goes good. I guess if it doesn't then finding a job will have to wait a little longer. Think pain-free thoughts :)!

So at night before we go to bed we let the dogs lay on top of the covers since it's there favorite thing. I also like that they warm up my spot! Anyways, last night I went into the bedroom to grab something and see a normal sight around here...

They LOVE to cuddle together. They have the whole bed to lay on, but they snuggle up as close as possible. How can you not love this?!

Food catch up

I realize I haven't done a food post in a little while, but don't worry I've been a cookin' still. I have been bad at taking pictures of everything. We've been having big lunches before Frank goes to work then I just have leftovers for dinner or whatever I can find. Because of the change up of cooking I've been slacking on the pictures.  Anyways here are some things that have come out of the kitchen...

Marinated Flank Steak from The Pioneer Women. This was a two part post for some reason so you can go here and here to check it out. I marinated it overnight since there was no way I was getting up before the sun just to marinate meat that I wasn't even eating. Frank said it was really good and would definitely have it again, I just loved the smell of the soy sauce and ginger :)

I tried making the Macaroni and Cheese from The Pioneer Women as well, it didn't turn out that well but I think I know where it went wrong. I put in too much dry mustard, used egg white beaters since I was trying to use them up, and instead of the 2% she suggested I used low fat. Next time I think I'll get a little carton of whole milk to use and I'll make sure to use an egg. Whitney over at The glamorous life of a housewife tried this one as well with her P.W cooking challenge. Hers didn't turn out well either. What what Ree does to make hers turn out so amazing?

Since getting the second Costco cookbook from my cousin Danielle for Christmas I've only gotten around to making a handful of things out of it. Not having the computer to use for recipes for awhile gave me a reason to find all my meals out of it. The other night I made the asparagus barley risotto {here}, it was super easy to make if you don't burn the onions. It ended up making the whole thing taste off, and once it cooled off it hardened up.

Another one from the second Costco cookbook was Beer-lime grilled streak. You add whatever beer you want to the marinade, Frank liked it.. if I ate meat I'm sure I would have as well. I don't like beer but I love eating stuff that was cooked or marinated in it. Not sure why.

I can't remember if I posted about the lemon bread? If I did just skip over this one..
This would have been much better if I didn't put on the glaze, it was just too much! The rest of the bread was pretty tasty though. You can check out the recipe here.

I saved my favorite recipe from the Costco books till last, again I can't remember if I've posted about this already or not. I've been fighting a headache all day so forgive me if I've been repeating things...
Cold vegetarian sandwich! Mmm mmm good. I'm craving one now :)

I made the dogs another dressing from the cookbook my mom got me for Christmas {it's food both you and your pets can eat! All healthy of course.} This time I borrowed Mikey's food processor and made the Spinach-Avocado Dip. Now I'm sure some of you are thinking you can't give a dog avocado. I've heard that a few times before, but Molly and Ellie love them. The love this new dressing {I add it to there morning feeding} but I think it's stinking up my fridge :(

Now to change the subject... our neighbor got himself a motorcycle today, he's been talking to Frank a little about his since he's been looking. Anyways he just got it tonight. I put the cover on Frank's bike so he could park his next to the jeep. After he came back from taking his bike out with another friend Molly and Ellie got all excited... but wait why isn't daddy coming inside? They went running to the front door waited there, ran back to the backdoor standing there confused as to why daddy came home but didn't come instead. I got a good laugh out of it ha. Guess they have to get used to another motorcycle since they know the sound of Frank's.

Here's a picture I played around with last night on Picnik. My new obsession.