birthday boy...i mean man

Well, Wednesday was the other JK's birthday, he turned 24! We celebrated with pizza from Mineo's (our fave pizza place here), presents, homemade cheesecake and the new James Bond movie. It was all so much fun, the food was great and so was the movie. If you like Bond movies I suggest this one, its a good one...I'm sure you'll like it too. But for right now the birthday boy is out at a Bengals/Steelers game (in the snow). I know its always been a dream of his to see the Bengals play...but in the snow?! I'm perfectly happy here in our warm house bundled up, but I'm sure he's having the time of his life and not even thinking about the snow falling on his head. And please consider this his "thank you" for all of you who called, texted, facebook messaged, sent cards, sent gifts or posted a shout out on your blog. He really appreciated all of it, sanks! Love ya'll!

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Oh the weather outside is frightful...yup, you guessed it, it snowed here today! Yay! It was so beautiful! Although it snowed all day long it didn't stick until the sun went down so there's just a small, thin layer on the ground right now. However it's supposed to snow throughout this entire week, yay! I know I'm so excited right now and in January I'll be sick of it so don't feel like you have to rub it in my face then. But anyway its wonderful right now!!

So today I've been cooking away (surprise, surprise). I've been making an Italian pot roast (delish!), egg salad, and cookies. It was snowing so of course you have to make homemade chocolate chip cookies, right? Well, I had my fill of about 3 cookies so I plan on taking most of them to work tomorrow so that they're out of the house.

The other JK's birthday is coming up this Wednesday so I went and bought his gift yesterday along with all of my Christmas shopping for his side of the family (which I finished with one online purchase and only 2 stores!). Well its hard to hide a gift from someone when you live with them, especially if its large and especially if you can't keep a secret from them. Well after I kept asking him if he wanted one of his gifts (I bought him one big gift and a couple of little ones) and he kept responding "no, it doesn't matter"...I pushed a little harder and he finally said he would love to have one now. So I let him open his big gift and it was a toolbox! Yay, just want he wanted...except that I had bought the wrong one. When I bought it, I knew that it would probably be the wrong one so we took it back today and got the one he wanted. Well I might also add that he's been organizing our basement and he said he could organize a little more if he had his toolbox, that's when I offered the gift one last time. He loved it and now its time for me to go to bed, but I'll leave you with a couple of pictures we took in the snow.





And no, even though it looks like I gained 20 lbs., its just layered fleece. :)

here it is

Here is the link to just a taste of Emily and Tommy's wedding pictures. I've been granted permission to post them, so enjoy :)

http://www.sdpphotography.blogspot.com/

cooking extravaganza

There has been a lot of cooking going on at our house lately, and quite delicious might I add. I made pizza the other night (so delish) and went ahead and prepared some things for chili for the next night. I figured while I was in the kitch I would go ahead and make this Paula Deen recipe for maraschino cherry cookies and they were yummmmy! They didn't turn out looking as picture perfect as Paula's, but I think its all in the taste, as long as it looks edible and tastes good, well that's good enough for me. Anywho...my fave food item I've made this week thus far are cheddar garlic biscuits! Just like at Red Lobster, wahoo! I had a craving for them while I was at work today and then remembered that JK's grandma had given me a cookbook with a recipe for them in it. Here it is, so that you too can make incredible biscuits:

1/4 tsp. garlic powder
2/3 c. milk
3/4 c. shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
2 c. Bisquick

1/4 tsp. garlic powder
2 tbsp. butter

Stir all ingredients together until a soft dough forms. Drop by the tablespoonfuls onto an un-greased baking sheet. Bake at 450 for about 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Melt the butter with 1/4 tsp garlic powder. Brush over the warm biscuits. Enjoy!

dedicated to the Seabolts!

Hello all! Yes, we're back...JK and I returned last night from NC. We were there for my cousin Emily's wedding! We were so lucky to be a part of it, sanks Em! I would go into great detail about everything that we did but I have had complaints that my posts are too long and I also have had complaints that I take too long to post. Geez people, I'm a workin woman, TV addict, bookworm, and food fanatic...I'll get to my blog when I can (just kidding). But Emily and Tommy's wedding (we'll call them ET from here on out) was gorgeous! Duh, would you expect anything less from a "Sistas' production" (that's what I'm naming us ladies...that means Cis, Mom, Abby, Katie, Emily and myself). We always seem to be the crazy fools that wake up early, stay up late, drink wine and beer throughout and make tons of flower arrangments. Everything...I'm talking boutineers, centerpieces, buckets, wreaths, and topiaries to boot. Ok, so I play a very minor role...its called cut the flowers and let the rest assemble the beauty. Em was gorgeous, T was handsome and that was just carried throughout the entire ceremony and reception. Oh and did I mention we had Thanksgiving dinner for the food at the reception!? Mmm mmm delicious! I will put a link up of their wedding pics once they get back from their honeymoon...you know I have to get permission for that kind of stuff. I will take credit for the decoration on the wedding cake (and yes, I'll give half of it to Abby as well...who happened to save me from an anxiety attack when I was given the task of decorating it). It looked great, of course! I just can't sing enough praises about this wedding! Oh and E was so calm, I was very impressed! But it really was great to see my family, they are so wonderful and seeing them just makes me miss all of them even more. Thank you to all of my family that I got to see, I'm not sure what I'm thanking you for but just thanks for being there so that I could talk to you, hug you and hang out with you...it meant a lot! I love you all! (I decided that as dramatic as it sounds, I really do have a Southern heart...that's where its meant to be...I literally teared up as we drove across the state line into NC) Again, love ya'll and can't wait to see you oh so soon!!!

voting day

Hi, I hope you all had a happy, hassle-free voting day. PA doesn't have early voting so I knew that I was going to get the brunt of that since I had to vote after work with the rest of working class Pittsburgh. I was driving home preparing myself for a long, long line. The traffic getting home was much worse than usual, you can imagine I was getting more anxious and not excited by the minute (I was semi-cursing my civic duty...no I'm not unpatriotic but I'm also not happy about 4 hour long lines). Anyway, I get home, change into comfy clothes (because you know I'm not standing in my work clothes for 4 more hours) and grabbed my purse and a book (duh, I mean I am a bookworm) just in case, and head out the door. Oh by the way, the place we were supposed to vote at is less than a block from our house. So I walk down the street, up to the church, and into the appropriate door (thank you to hubby's voicemail earlier in the day telling me that there are in fact 3 districts voting at the same church...he told me the correct door to walk to)...I see no line, wait...that's weird and walk in...no people waiting, just volunteers sitting at tables looking slightly disgruntled. Interesting. I'm a little bewildered. So I walk up to the first table and they look at me as if I've walked in with two heads attached to my body, once I make it clear that I'm there to vote (duh, this is the voting room) and I don't know what to do they finally muster enough energy to ask my name and then direct me to the next table because I am supposed to be at the other table...duh. Anywho...they directed me to the voting "booth"/touch screen where I voted and I was out. Five minutes tops. All of that anxiety and grumbling for nothing. Huh. Oddly enough I felt a huge sense of American pride after I voted (I can just hear one of my college professors saying "that's what they want you to feel" right now in the back of my head). Well, that's my voting story and I'm stickin to it.

By the way, blog fans, these JKs will be making our way on down to NC for my cousin Emily's wedding! Wahoo!! So there will be a lack of posts, but don't worry I'm sure I'll be able to make up for it when I get back with plenty of wonderful wedding tales and pics!! :) See ya soon!


PS-Oh, and I didn't get an "I Voted!" sticker today...maybe I'm a little bitter. I guess directing people to which touch screen to go to is just so exhausting that you can't hand out patriotic stickers to the loyal citizens who drug their butts to the polls. (Can anyone tell that I'm tired right now and its been a long day?...yeah didn't think so)

sanks sissypants!

I came home to a sweet surprise yesterday! When I walked in our back door a package was waiting for me on our kitchen counter. (see picture to the left) I was so happy! It was from my sweet sister and it was packed with Halloween candy, Panthers' cups (that we used to collect when we went to games together), my fave jelly from Cracker Barrel (blackberry!), a hilarious Halloween card, sample postcard of her senior pics, a Christmas t-shirt from Target (that we buy every year), and some sweet Halloween cookies. It was so sweet, I laughed and I almost cried...emphasis on the almost. I love getting sweet surprises like that. Thanks so much Katie, it realy meant a lot to me! I can't wait to see you oh so soon!