Happy Anniversary!

On December 5th we celebrated our 14th Anniversary!!! I cant believe its already been 14 years since we said "I DO". WOW, where does the time go?

I will never forget the first time I laid eyes on my husband. I was in Nashville TN for some job training and he came walking into the class and that was it for me! We talked during breaks and he followed me to a resturant that I went to for lunch (what a stalker! LOL). Then that night we went to downtown Nashville together and well thats all she wrote really! We spent the entire week together and started long distance dating after that. 4 months later he asked me to marry him and 11 months after meeting we were married!!! One advantage of marrying young is I feel like we have grown together and raised each other..LOL Its not always been an easy road or all fun and games but I wouldnt trade it for anything in the world. This man owns my heart and I love him so much. Heres to another 14 years of loving each other and spending everyday with my best friend!!


This has been one of my favorite quotes since I first read it...always makes me think of my husband!

14 years ago....wow we were just young kids with no clue what we were doing! I was 20 and he was 21!

14 years later......more in love than ever and I'd like to think a little wiser!

Its Beginning to Look Alot Like....well you know! LOL

Merry Christmas! I can't believe its already December! WOW, where did the year go? Well I have been busy decorating the house and making yummy treats this past week. My first project was to make something to hang on my front door and forgo the wreath which is what I have always had and I was kind of tired of it. I wanted something different and cute and I found this Holiday Frame on Pinterest.

I went to Hobby Lobby and purchased an open frame (they were half off this week), ribbon, and ornaments and this is what I ended up with. I love it so much! I can also just snip the ornaments off of it and change it for each holiday or season. Very simple and fun to do!!

I also got a yummy treat recipe from my friend and I call them Holiday Pretzels..not sure what they are really called...LOL

You just take square pretzels and melt a Hershey's kiss hug on top of it (or any flavor Kiss)in the oven until soft, about 4 or 5 mins on 200 degrees then top with M&M's. DONT walk away, keep a close eye on them.
So good and very easy to make. These are not diet friendly so I hope my family eats them all soon so I cant eat them!

Our Christmas Tree!

Annual trip to The Fantasy of Trees...we love this event!

Peacock Tree....this year I put up a new tree in the dining room and decorated it with peacock items. I love it, its so cute!

Baked Potato Soup

I recently came across a recipe for Baked Potato Soup on Pinterest. The link took me to Cook.com so thats where this recipe came from. It is the BEST potato soup ever!

I'll post the recipe then some things I did a little different and what I plan to do different next time.

Easy Crock Pot Baked Potato Soup

5lbs of potatoes (Diced and Unpeeled)
1 medium onion chopped small
5 teaspoons of minced garlic (I used the king in the jar)(I only used 4tsp..I felt 5 was ALOT of garlic)
64 oz Chicken Broth
16 oz Cream Cheese
1 Tablespoon seasoned salt

Optional toppings: Shredded Cheese, Bacon bits, and green onions

Add potatoes, onion, garlic, chicken broth, and season salt into Crock Pot.
Cook on High for 6 hrs or Low for 10 hrs (I cooked mine for 10 hrs)

After 10 hrs Add Cream Cheese and mix well into soup. I used a potato masher to mix it into the soup.

Stir well until all the cream cheese is melted and mixed in, the broth will turn white.


After I put the soup into the bowls to eat I added shredded cheese and bacon bits on top and it was just like eating a loaded baked potato!!! So Yummy!! and SOOO EASY!

Tips:
I started mine at night and let it cook all night.
I left the crock pot on Warm all day and let the soup just sit there until dinner time.

What I will change next time:
I will leave my potatoes larger. I diced them into very small pieces and I think larger chunks would taste better.
I will use a little less chicken broth....64 oz makes it very soupy.
Like I said before, I used 4 tsp of garlic instead of 5. 4 tsp of garlic seemed to be perfect.

I served mine with biscuits but cornbread would be good too. Maybe even some Mexican cornbread!!

I hope you enjoy, I know I will definately be making this again!!!

My Cabinet Redo!

Well, Im at it again! I spent the entire day repainting my 70+ year old Hoosier Cabinet. When I got it a previous owner thought it should be trimmed in a funky green...not my style and it didnt match my kitchen either!

I decided to paint it back all white. I used a Satin finish Bistro White to repaint it. I also felt it needed a "pop" of color so I spent a week going back and forth on what color I should use. I didnt want to trim the entire cabinet like it was before so I opted to paint the back panel and the inside back panel Yellow.

My only issue was apparently the paint that was used before I got it was some really harsh stuff...it wouldnt sand off, I used steel wool and it still wounldnt budge, so I just decided to start painting. It took 4 coats to cover that funky green and brighten the white..the dirt that wouldnt wash off was sooo hard to paint over, it just kept coming to the surface...but I finally got it!!!!

Yes what I thought would be a quick easy spruce up turned into an entire day of painting Hell!!! LOL But I am glad I tackled it today and now it looks so pretty!


BEFORE:

AFTER:

Back panels in yellow...I thought it gave it a good "pop" and kept the vintage look.

When I got it, we found that someone had written a recipe on the inside of the door. After looking it up and talking with my mom we have decided its a recipe for Chocolate Gravy!!! So I DID NOT paint over it. and at the top of the door is a phone number someone had written down. I dont think I will call it but I opted to keep it as well!!! So cute...I guess they didnt have paper and used the cabinet for note taking..hahaha!!

Wanna Be Interior Designer...

I like to pretend I was an interior designer in another life. Although, maybe not a great one...but anyway...LOL....I found these plates at a local store and a friend of mine had told me about these awesome plate hangers that just stick to the back of the plate and you can hang them on the wall sooooooooooo....this is what I ended up with. I like it!

Also, I have been searching for an antique Hoosier cabinet for a long time. My aunt has one that my grandfather bought my grandmother when they first married. Of course, she will not part with it so I started looking for my own. These babys are NOT cheap and everyone I found was super expensive or had the old timey flour bin and sifter missing. I refused to buy one that had the sifter missing! So I basically gave up...it was a lost cause, I was never going to find one....well I got a call last night from my Dad and he said he had found me something at an auction and he would be bringing it to me this morning...hmmmmmm....OMG...its a Hoosier Cabinet!! That has the flour bin and sifter still intact!!! Yes, she needs a new coat of paint and some TLC but its the best one I have seen! I love it and cant wait to freshen it up, but I couldnt just leave it in the garage, I had to put it in the kitchen!!!!

Flour Sifter....its the original!

Door still has the original wire inside it!

Photo Shoot...LOL

Ok as you all have already read----I am dieting!! LOL So far to date I have lost 65 pounds!!! Yay me!! I would still like to lose about 20 more! My husband decided to play "photographer" a few weeks ago and he took some pretty good pictures of me. I have spent the past 10 years hiding from the camera so this was "huge" for me to put myself out there like this. I saw a segment on one of the morning shows about how moms are realizing they are not in photographs with their children because they dont like the way they look. I was guilty of that as well, but I did often get in photos, I just felt horrible when I saw them! HA! Although, I used to kid around with my mom that I had the opposite of anorexia....no matter how bad I looked in photos and the mirror I was always like "dang I look good today!" LOL

So here's my husbands handy work as "Mr. Photographer" for the day!

The Diet

After seeing this photo of myself on New Years Eve I came to realize that I was slowly losing control of everything about me. Especially my health.

So January 23, 2012 I started my diet. Some people may be embarrassed to post their weight or pant size but the way I see it if it helps someone who is struggling then there is nothing to be embarrassed about right?

On the morning of Jan. 23rd I stepped on the scale (which I purchased the night before at Target because I didnt own a scale)to see a number I was not happy with. I weighed 202 pounds and I was wearing a size 18 in pants and most of my tops were XXL.

I decided that day to count calories and start exercising. I used an online calorie counter to see what I needed to eat to lose weight. It said I should eat 1650 calories a day to lose 1-2 pounds a week, so I dropped my calories to 1400 per day. I started walking on the treadmill that night. I was only able to do about a mile at no incline.

After Day 1 I pretty much felt defeated. That feeling did not go away for a long time.

It seemed the harder I worked the slower my progress was. After the first week I weighed in and had lost 1 pound...OMG...I wanted to crawl in the closet and never come out. I thought I would never lose the weight I needed to lose.

I didnt really set a huge goal. I started out saying "when I lose 10 pounds I will set another goal". It took me about a month to lose that 10 pounds and the emotional stuff you deal with is far worse than the food and exercise.

I cant count the emotional breakdowns I had those first few months. I was ultra sensative to anything anyone said, I felt like we had food and I was denied eating it, I felt alone and defeated on a daily basis.

On top of all of this I had two kids to raise and take care of! What was I thinking taking on such a task with all the other stuff I had to do??

Our life consisted of daily trips to McDonalds, Sonic, pizza joints, etc...who has time to cook with kids, extra activities, and life in general???

Having to learn to cook was extremely hard...meal planning, what will the kids eat, what will my husband eat, what CAN I eat..it was torture!

But somehow I managed to defeat my emotions, lack of cooking skills, limited time for exercise, and negative attitude and 6 months later I am weighing in at 148 pounds and now a size 8!!!!

OMG a size 8!!!! Who would have ever thought that 6 months ago. Im not going to elaborate on how I did it or what all it took because I am in the process of making an entire blog dedicated to telling busy women and moms that you CAN take care of yourself and your family all at the same time. So stay tuned for my new blog but I just wanted to tell everyone what I have been up to lately.

Oh and in the process of all this.. we ended a school year, my daughter was in a play, my son was in the hospital and ended up having surgery to remove tonsils and adnoids...so you can say we have been extremely busy this summer!


6 months later and ALOT of hard work!