So today it hit me that I only have about 24 days left of my summer vacation. Wait, what? 24 days? After the wave of panic washed over me I immediately got into list mode. Here are some things that I hope to accomplish before the start of yet another crazy school year.

House Stuff

• Paint the kitchen a yet undetermined color.
• Paint the maroon kitchen tile border to white or black..still haven't decided.
• Touch up kitchen baseboards.
• Find some GD place mats for the dining room table. (I feel like I have looked everywhere!)
• Order this fantastic bedding from West Elm for the bedroom.

• Curtains..I want  need curtains. Opening and closing a bajillion blinds everyday is beyond annoying. Plus they're hideous.
• Get a hamper for the laundry room.
• Buy a BBQ grill and make a fabulous grilled dinner.

School Stuff

• Attend 3 days worth of curriculum revision
• Supply shopping - markers, colored pencils, desk calendar, air freshener, post-its, and pens.
• Frame this for behind my desk. 

• Create some other classroom decor...Martha pom-poms and new door hanger.

Me Stuff

• A haircut is in order. I have been rocking the ponytail with bangs pushed back in a headband for 8 solid weeks now, I doubt that would be considered professional dress... unless I was the gym teacher.
• New clothes. I have missed going to the mall and buying clothes for myself since purchasing the house. I have saved a little cash to put towards some new back to school gear to coincide with birthday shopping.
• Lose 5-10lbs. Did I mention I haven't bought new clothes because I currently can't fit into anything I own without an elastic waistband? It might sound backward to not buy bigger clothing but I pretty much refuse.
• Turn 26.

Other

• Read The Help and New Moon
• Finish up my two Master's classes
• Move all my Cricut stuff from parent's house.

I better get busy!

Chris and I hosted our first house party last night and it was a blast! I was so nervous about planning a party, worrying about the weather, the food, who would come, what the house looked like. annoying the neighbors...just about everything...but it went perfectly. We couldn't have asked for better weather, it was hot during the day but by the time everyone came over in the evening it didn't feel to bad sitting outside.

I took a few pics before everyone arrived. Chris and I worked hard on Saturday to get the house ready, he took care of the lawn outside (in the 100 degree heat, yikes) and me on the inside, dusting, vacuuming, and cooking.

Cookie Dough Cupcakes compliments of Natalie

The spread.

Strawberry Cake Balls

Pigs in a Blanket...these were delish, even at 1am!

The whole scene.

 We definitely had some fun once people started showing up. Chris and I gave house tours, passed out jello shots, and enjoyed the company in our new home. I think I spent the whole night smiling, it was just great to have all our friends over and just hang out. It was even better because we didn't have to go anywhere...just another perk of owning a house. The only casualty of the night was the picture frame I just put up the night before broke into three pieces. No worries though, it was cheap and can easily be replaced.

Congrats to the newly engaged!

Things died down around 2am and thankfully, my friend Natalie and I, cleaned up before going to bed. It was nice waking up and not having trash all over the place, definitely made for a more pleasant morning. Unfortunately, all the fun from the night before made us pretty pathetic today. We have been laying around all day, loading up on Jack in the Box and caffeine.

We definitely look forward to more good times in the new casa!

This past weekend was my BF Elyse's 27th birthday so to celebrate we packed up the car and went on a little road trip down to one of Missouri's best cities....Cape Girardeau. At least twice a year, I really get the urge to visit my old college town, there is just something about it that makes me want to take the short 1.5 hour drive and have way too much fun. I don't drink much anymore but Cape brings out the party girl in me...having cocktails at too early of an hour, bar hopping to all our fave places like Bel-Air, Ragsdales, and D'Ladium, taking God-awful shots (I'm sorry D'Ladium girls, but shots have never been your specialty...maybe that is why they are $2), and eating McDonald's with best friends at two in the morning.

Here are some shots of the gang at the start of our adventure. I didn't get to take too many other pics, my hands were full... with beverages.


Throughout the night, I kept yelling, "I love Cape Girardeau!" and it is true. Cape was and is home to  some really great times, unfortunately now as I get older, the day after a visit to the glorious city has me feeling like death. The car ride home from Cape G is always WAY longer than on the way down.

But it was definitely enough to satisfy my jones for my ol' college town...until about October.

With the new improvements made to the kitchen to this weekend, I wanted to get my cook on. It is such a rare occasion that I actually get to cook for more than myself due to Chris and I being on opposite work schedules, so with him off for the weekend my apron strings were tied :)

Pinterest has been a good source of food inspiration and when I came across this from The Village Cook, I knew it must get in my belly.
As far as a name goes for this breakfast bonaza, there isn't really one. Apparently it is a take on something called an 'Idaho Sunrise'.  I'm just gonna call it delicious. Breakfast is my absolute favorite meal and potatos are my favorite food so this is right up my alley. To make you just need frozen shredded hash browns, shredded cheddar, eggs, bacon bits, and parsley. The one pictured above has a cracked egg in the center, I am more of a scrambled egg kind of gal so I scrambled an egg with a little bit of milk before I added it to the center.

Here is how mine turned out

We plan on making them again but instead of bacon, we're going to use sausage. Also, we added a little maple syrup to ours too, it was the perfect touch.

I'm also making dinner tonight, Swiss Chicken with rice and green beans. I'll let you know how it goes, back with more!

Get the recipe from The Village Cook.

Slowly but surely is the motto around here for house projects, mostly due to making sure there is enough funds to run the house and complete the project. We are getting ready to start on replacing the sidewalk from the back of the house all the way to the front to take care of some leaking issues we have in the basement, which is going to run us about $1800, which doesn't leave us a whole lot to do anything else major for the summer.

Enter the $30 cabinet facelift. An inexpensive fix to quickly update our kitchen without breaking the bank or spending a ton of time on it. Below is what our kitchen looked like before the update, we had ugly shiny gold knobs and worn out gold handles. Plus, all the cabinets were super dirty because I am pretty sure the previous owners never cleaned anything... ever. On one of the drawers it looked like soda had spilled all over and then dried. EW! And the dust...don't even get me started.

Don't be fooled, this is gold!

 After removing all the gold knobs and handles, I thoroughly wiped everything down. It always feels so good to make something really clean and especially to get rid of other people's grime. I'm ok with my own dirt but not someone else's. Then I got to work installing some lovely brushed nickel egg-shaped knobs and sleek drawer pulls.





Ta-da! For about 30 bucks and 30 minutes of work, I have clean and updated cabinets in my kitchen. It looks so good it makes me want to spend more time in there, which I did and I will be back with more about that later. I have a paper to finish for class that I have gotta get to, boo Sunday academics.

Chris and I celebrated our 5 year dating anniversary last Friday night. 5 years. Half a decade. One-Fifth of my existence. In a word, wow. Now, we are not ones to make super big deals out of our dating existence but we like to do a little something special.

I got him a little something something to commemorate the day. I wasn't coming to the table empty handed after my Easter basket surprise. So I racked my brain for something that would be meaningful, useful, and fun to give. Cut to Chris cooking in the kitchen (which has happened about 4 times since we moved into the new house) every time he cooks at the stove, he mentions that we need a spoon rest. I think to myself, "Just put your spoon on the counter and we'll clean it up later." But alas, the man wants a spoon rest. And it just so happens that the modern anniversary gift for 5 years is silverware, so a spoon rest seemed to fit the bill perfectly.

Stick with me and a spoon rest shall be yours!

I wasn't in the picture taking mood til we took showers before going out to dinner so you can't see the look of excitement on Chris' face when he opened the most awesome spoon rest ever but he actually got a pretty good kick out of it. We're all about the humor over here!


We actually had the same idea of where to go for dinner (same brain!), we went to where we had our first date, Zia's on the Hill. We did have to wait a little while but I got to enjoy a nice glass of wine.  When they were seating us, they almost took us to the exact same spot we sat in 5 years ago, which I only remember because it was in the corner right by the kitchen...we felt like we were at the kids' table because of how close it was to other tables and kind of tucked into the corner. The people who were sat right before us got that table, we got a lovely 4 top...no kids' table for us!

We branched out a little bit and ordered the seafood ravioli, which was freakin' amazeballs. We we're a little hesitant since we love regular toasted ravioli so much but this stuff was goooood. It was stuffed with crab and shrimp and served with a lemon butter sauce. I kept with tradition and ordered fettuccine and Chris got the steak...we are nothing but predictable when it comes to food choices. Overall, good eats for a relatively low cost - $50 for an appetizer, two entrees, two glasses of wine, and a soda.

All in all, a nice little day spent with the man I love and now share a home with. Everyday is a new adventure and I am so glad to have him by my side. Ok, enough mushiness and here's to another 5 years and many more!

Ah...gotta love summer. Lazy days to relax by the pool, sipping cold drin - er, wait, this doesn't sound like my summer yet. My first week of summer school is in the books and lets just say I am glad that is over, only three more to go!

I have gotten to enjoy a little bit of relaxation in the evenings since our DirecTV service decides when it wants to work...so frustrating. Hopefully a service call scheduled for Tuesday will take care of our issues but until then I am watching tv intermittently.

Summer is usually the only time I find myself reading for pleasure and it is no different this year. My co-teacher and I are making the kids read for twenty minutes a day during summer school so in order to set a good example I picked up a book as well. I finally jumped on the bandwagon and started to read....Twilight.

 Nothing like waiting 6 years to see what all the hub-bub is about. I had seen the movie which I thought was alright but I still don't find Kristen Stewart or Robert Pattison to be all that mesmerizing. However, the book was SO much better than the movie and I usually don't think that often. The characters were so well developed and that was completely lost in the movie. I had no idea how swept up Bella was by Edward almost to the point of not being able to breathe in his presence. Kristen Stewart was just uber-awkward. Overall, a very good read. Hopefully I can get my hands on Eclipse, New Moon, and Breaking Dawn over the summer...I think I will be well entertained.

Also, on my reading list is pretty much every book that has been made in to a movie this summer, The Help, Something Borrowed, and Water for Elephants just to name a few. Are you reading anything good this summer?