doubleJK update

Here are a few updates from our busy home:

1. Yes, we are still alive.
2. John is busy, busy, busy with school...we're hoping that it will slow down and he can sleep again (no seriously) sometime around mid-November (prayers for his sanity...and mine...please)
3. I have a job interview on Monday...I would love some prayers for this since I have decided that HR is not my career path of choice, and yes, for all of you worriers out there, my current employer knows that I'm job searching.
4. Volunteering at WCN is amazing! I've already met some incredible women of God and I'm building great friendships with them. More importantly I'm going through the training process (it'll be over in 2 weeks) so that I will be able to counsel women in need, yahoo!
5. We went to a FABULOUS wedding this past weekend in the FABULOUS city of Nashville, TN!! Definitely one of my favorite weddings of all time (more on that later) and one of my fave cities of all time!
6. Still no heat in the house. Luckily it was almost 70 degrees today (thank you Lord) so we don't have frostbite yet.
7. We woke up to 7 mini piles of poop on our living/dining room floor this morning. And by "we" I mean John...Dixie started barking early this morning and I asked him to check it out...well he stepped in a mini pile of poop (yikes!) and found 6 (or even more) little piles. It was a great way to start off a day (insert sarcasm here). Poor little Dixie (and John). We assume that the poop parade was due to her eating some kind of ham bone last night (dog chew toy...not literally a bone from a ham...I think?).
8. I went to see Couples Retreat last night with my best movie bud (Anna Banana) and it was great! I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars, soooo hilarious!
9. I am slowly but surely making my way through the Twilight saga, I'm about 130ish pages into Breaking Dawn (the last in the series). Anna Banana and I shamelessly bought our New Moon tickets last night (it premieres November 20, Mom you should be so proud that I'm planning ahead!)

That's it for now folks, more later, I swear :)

have i told ya'll that i love my sister?

Well I do! Today J and I arrived at home after a loooooong coooold day and there was a sweet little package waiting for us! This is what the next 3 minutes looked like: J was the responsible adult and took the overly excited dog out to pee and I skipped over to our cutlery block, picked a knife that looked good and carefully (stabbed/pricked my finger twice in the process) opened the package. I ripped through it like a 4 year old at Christmas! It was filled with a Christmas ornament for each of us, candy, 2 homemade CDs, weird family paraphanolia and a shirt that my mom bought for Katie (while she was in the burgh) with a receipt (still not sure if I'm supposed to return it or keep it...it didn't fit her). Well let me tell you, after a pretty crappy week this pretty much brightened up my life! Right now I'm listening to one of the CDs that she made me and I'm loving life! Thank you so much Katie, little things like this remind me why we're sisters/best friends/soulmates/perfect pals for each other!!

(pictures circa Thanksgiving 2006)

this old house 101

Last time I checked it was 41 degrees outside. I know you're thinking oh that's not bad, well....our furnace is broken. Broken furnace=no heat. Sweet. Oh the perks of owning a senior citizen house. But no worries, hubby has resolved the problem (thank God because I wouldn't know where to start) and it won't cost us our first born. Just wanted to update everyone. (I'm wearing tights, sweatpants, long sleeve tee, sweatshirt, socks and bedroom boots)

Loves and warm wishes :)

hearty potato soup

This stuff is yummmmmy (and super healthy...207 calories and 0.3g of fat per serving)!!

Ingredients

• 6 potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes (2 1/2 pounds)
• 2 medium onions, diced
• 2 carrots, thinly sliced
• 2 celery ribs, thinly sliced
• 2 (14 1/2-ounce) cans low-sodium fat-free chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups fat-free half-and-half

Preparation

Combine first 8 ingredients in a 4 1/2-quart slow cooker.

Cook, covered, at HIGH 3 hours or until vegetables are tender.

Stir together flour and half-and-half; stir into soup. Cover and cook 30 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Serve in Italian Bread Bowls, and garnish, if desired.

*I cooked one batch of this as directed (for someone at work) and then I cooked one for myself for 8 hours on low then followed the rest...I liked the consistency of the second recipe better.

(photo and recipe courtesy of cookinglight.com)

chocolate chip pumpkin bread

Can ya dig it?

Ingredients

• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup fat-free vanilla pudding
• 4 large egg whites
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• Cooking spray

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.

Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture, stirring just until moist. Stir in chocolate chips.

Spoon batter into 2 (8 x 4-inch) loaf pans coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pans on a wire rack, and remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack.

(recipe courtesy of cookinglight.com)

cookin up a storm

Today I've made:

• grits
• garlic cheddar biscuits
• homemade (healthy) potato soup x2
  
• pound cake
• meatball sandwich (for John)
• chocolate chip pumpkin bread x2
• guacamole
• microwave popcorn (my dinner)

I just had to let ya'll know how busy I've been. By the way, these are all yummy dishes so if you want any of the recipes just holla and I'll post them.

(chocolate chip pumpkin bread, recipe and photo courtesy of cookinglight.com)

ohhh niagara!

Last weekend Mom, Cis, Abby and Emily came up to visit me! They came up Thursday night, we ate dinner, chatted and went off to bed. When I rose to go to work they got up to go explore Pittsburgh (i.e. went shopping and ate). Then John and I took them to our fave Irish pub (The Claddagh) Friday night for a yummy dinner. We woke up early on Saturday and set out to go to Niagara Falls! None of us had ever been there so it was quite an experience! We arrived at Niagara, took some pics, went to a lovely dinner (some 700 ft. in the air....yes my stomach was a little queasy on the way up to the dining room), took more nighttime pics, went to a bar/restaurant for a drink, Starbucks for another type of drink and then back to the hotel room. What a fun filled day! You can check out pictures from the trip here on my cousin Emmy's blog...yes I am too lazy to copy and paste pics, sorry you knew what you were getting into. We headed back to the burgh on Sunday, however we stopped at a wonderful little winery that serves chocolate wine...you read that correctly, chocolate wine (!) and it is soooo gooood then we stopped at some outlets (around an hour away from my house) that I didn't know existed...now I have a new place to shop wahoo! All in all it was a fab trip, thanks so much ladies for making the hike up to see me, I love ya'll!!!