Today was...

Sunday, November 30, 2008

a great day!

The Redbox

Saturday, November 29, 2008



Have you seen these things inside of your grocery store? They are awesome! Basically it is a vending machine for DVD's and it is only $1 per night! Which is cool because you usually watch the movie the same night that you rent it, and they have new releases! I think its great and even better if you go to redbox.com and enter in your email address you will get a code for a free rental! Enjoy your free movie!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thursday, November 27, 2008

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner with Bill and Sandy. The food was great but the company was better! We are working on their pinochle! They will be really good at it soon! I did burn my wrist pretty bad on a pan though but other than that the meal went great. The sweet potato recipe was amazing and so was the "mystery rolls" though I think next year I will go with regular rolls, regular rolls are better at sopping up the green bean casserole :) (My fav. part of the meal!)

We have SO much to be thankful for this year.

First of all we are thankful to our LORD for sending His only Son to die on the cross so that we might be saved. We dont deserve to be saved and we are so thankful that we are.

We are also so thankful for the friends that God has blessed us with here. We have some amazing friends and I wouldn't trade them for anything! God has really blessed us with a great church and an amazing church family.

I am also very thankful for my little sister Kimberly, I have seen so much spiritual growth in her this year and I am so proud of her.

I am also of course so thankful for my amazing husband. He is such a blessing to me and I am so thankful that God has blessed me with such a great man to call my husband.

Really when we think about what we are thankful for there isn't really anything that we have not to be thankful for. God has blessed us so much this year and throughout our marriage and we are so thankful to Him.

Happy Thanksgiving! I love you all! And I am Thankful for all of you!

Thanksgiving Prep

Tuesday, November 25, 2008



Thankfully I have had the day off today so I have been able to get all of my Thanksgiving prep work done. We are having the Klingenstein's over for Thanksgiving and thankfully Sandy offered to make the turkey, stuffing, and gravy! I really lucked out because I get to make all of the yummy sides!

Mashed Potatoes.... Check

Green Bean Casserole..... Check

Sweet Potatoes..... Check

All I have left to do on Thanksgiving is to make the rolls and bake everything!

I still cant figure out how to put clickable links on here but here are the links to the food that I am making.

Green Bean Casserole:
http://tinyurl.com/6rludq

Mashed Potatoes:
http://tinyurl.com/6epzee

Sweet Potatoes:
http://tinyurl.com/6as9g6

Mystery Rolls:
http://tinyurl.com/539rs6

You will probably notice by going to those sites that I am in love with ThePioneerWoman. Its true. I go to her site several times a day. I even had a dream that I met her the other night. seriously. I have random dreams. I was holding out for her to post a pumpkin pie recipe but she hasn't yet so I caved and bought a frozen pie :). Maybe next year I will make a real one. I also got a Cinnabon Apple Pie because I like pie. :)

I really wanted to make the baked artichoke recipe from the November Martha Stewart Living but I couldn't ever find the frozen artichoke hearts. I went to 4 grocery stores. So if you know where to find frozen artichokes please fill me in!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Cheesy Breadsticks

Monday, November 24, 2008


Here is Brian modeling these awesome breadsticks that he was enjoying.

The other day while watching Robin Miller on The Food Network she made these amazing breaksticks. Basically all that you need is refridgerated breadstick dough and flavored spreadable cheese. I couldn't find the cheese that she used on the show so I used Philadelphia Cracker Spreads Parmesan with Garlic and Herbs, sometime I would love to try it with some herbed goat cheese. You just unroll the breadsticks and dip your finger in a little bit of water and make a little tunnel right down the center then fill the tunnel with a little bit of the cheese. Then twist as you normally would. Bake @ 350 degrees for about 10-12 minutes. These are really good! Brian would probably eat all of them if I didn't fight him for my share :)


The breadstick on the far right is what they should look like right before you twist them.

Ball photos are online!

Saturday, November 22, 2008

The pictures of us at the Marine Corps Ball are online now! go to this website:
http://tinyurl.com/5zn9qm
My favorite is of us kissing :)

Roof Update

We had a roofer come out today. Basically he said that when the previous owners removed the fireplace they must have never fully or properly sealed the chimney vent. He said he doesn't do ceilings or attics so we are going to try to get a general contracter to come out and look at fixing the ceiling. He also told us that we really need a new roof. yikes. But thankfully the price that he quoted us is less than we thought it would be and once we do that it will really help our resale value. So its not all bad. Gos is still good and He has blessed us so much more than we deserve.

It snowed today!!!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

It was totally unexpected! I was at the church with Ms. Billie (she is going to start discipling me) and when we went into one of the classrooms we looked outside and saw it snowing! It was so exciting! I didnt expect to see snow here! It snowed off and on throughout the day but none of it stuck. :( It was such a nice surprise to have today!

Ladies Retreat

Monday, November 17, 2008

This past weekend I went to The East Coast Ladies Retreat. It was so much fun! It was held in Goldsboro which is about an hour away. The speakers were Ginger Baines and John and Donna Bishop.

Ginger was great she was such a fireball. Her messages were full of energy and what she spoke on really hit home. I loved that her messages were so full of scripture references.

John and Donna Bishop were amazing and inspirational. 13 years ago John got meningitis and had complications that lead to him completly losing his memory. Im talking his entire memory he practically became a new baby. Donna had to teach him EVERYTHING, how to walk, how to talk, how to eat (she had to start him out on baby food), potty training, everything that mothers have to teach their children. To this day he still remembers nothing past 13 years ago. They joked at the conference that he was becoming a teenager now and was going to rebel soon. :) He didnt know who she was or what marriage even meant. Her devotion to him is so inspiring. I cant imagine how hard that must have been for her to have her husband, the man who provided her support, stability, and strength to not really be there for her anymore. Their story is amazing before the meningitis he was a pastor and he was able to become a pastor again and now his ministry is to help people who are hurting and encourage them. God was so evident in their lives. He became blind last year and that really helped his speech to become so much better.

The theme for the retreat was "Joy for the Journey". It was a great retreat and I am so glad that I went. I had so much fun getting to know some of the women in our church that I was not yet that close with and of course being roomies with Jenny and Melissa. I love them!

Our House....

Friday, November 14, 2008

I'm beginning think that our house doesn't like me and that it only puts up with me when Brian is here. I think this because Brian has been doing Sgt's course for three weeks each week something weird has happened that I dont really know how to fix or what to do about it.

In the first week we had problems with our plumbing. I didn't blog about it at first because it was gross, no water would drain from our house so when we would do a load of laundry all of the showers and toilets would fill up with water. Gross.

Week Two was the leaky roof that lead to water damage in our ceiling. The pictures are a few posts below if you missed them. There is no news about this yet but we do have a roofer coming out next week.

Well now its week three, I was sitting watching tv on wednesday night and all of a sudden half of the lights in our house were flickering and I could hear sparking coming from our electrical panel. After a little while of that I think it blew something because now those lights dont work at all. So we have no light in any of the bathrooms or the hallway or outside or at the light right when you come into our house.

I feel so bad when I have to tell Brian all of these things because he wants to come home and fix them. I want him to be able to focus on Marine Corps stuff rather than if his wife has power or a hole in the ceiling or running water. haha :)

Its actually becoming quite commical all of the stuff that we have broken or has happened to us this year. The list is long and includes 2 vacuums, the lawn mower, the A/C in our car (in August of course... We did get that fixed), my shower head (twice.. It was an infomercial purchase), and our glass stovetop.... The list actually goes on but I will spare you.

Have you ever wondered how to break your glass stovetop? Well let me teach you! :)
Brian and I were making dinner and we were steaming some carrots. Well we turned those on and then we both went off to doing our own seperate things totally not thinking about the carrots. When I finished folding the laundry I went over the stove to check on them and I noticed silver bubbles next to the pot. I thought that was weird. Luckily I didnt touch it. Then Brian and I figured out that we had melted our pot. We werent really sure what to do with the melted metal, Brian uses these things at work called "pig mats" they are supposed to absorb like anything so after Brian took the pot outside and set it on the concrete we tried soaking it up with the pig mat. It just ate the pig mat. So we turned off the stove and just let it cool so it could harden. While it was hardening we hear these little pops and realize that the metal is melting the glass on our stove top and cracking it as well. So yeah we are dumb, its funny to me now though. Here are some pictures of that wonderful night! :)



I am a sucker for infomercials!

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

We just got a tv again after not having one since June. When Brian hooked it up we found out that we get free cable! I guess that the cable company never disconnected the previous owners cable.

So I have so far seen two informercials that I think are super cool!

One is called Peticure its is a nail clipping thing for pets. The other is called Mighty Mend and the guy in the commercial was Billy Mays the oxyclean guy, he could sell anyone anything!

Good thing we do Financial Peace and only pay cash! So no infomercial purchases for me!

I'm Famous!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Kinda... Well actually not really at all...

But this is still really cool!

So as most people reading this know I work at a paint-your-own-pottery shop! Its really fun and sometimes during slow day I get to paint samples....

Well one day back in October when we were supposed to have that hurricane it was super slow. So I painted a sample of one of these ghost house cookie/candy jars. It took me a really long time to paint because I was super detailed and painted in shading and all that. It turned out really good! I actually loved it and Im not even really a halloween person!

Andyways the exciting/famous part is that Nicholas Sparks' wife bought the piece I painted!!!! So my artwork is now in the Sparks home!! How cool is that!

If you dont know who Nicholas Sparks is he is the author of many books based in North Carolina. He lives in the same city I work in. Three of his books have been turned into movies: A Walk to Remember, The Notebook, and Nights in Rodanthe

Pretty cool, huh?

Marine Corps Ball 2008

Saturday, November 8, 2008



Last night was the Marine Corps Ball and despite being in the Marine Dome (aka the Gym on Cherry Point) it actually turned out pretty nice! We really had a great time, I love seeing Brian in his dress blues and getting all dressed up is always fun! I didn't really get any good pictures so I am hoping that the professional ones turned out well! The Commandant's video birthday message was very motivating both for Marines and spouses, and I personally think that everyone should see it! So please watch this video below.



Flax Seed Crackers Recipe

Thursday, November 6, 2008



Sorry about the Halloween napkin, I totally meant to post this a while ago :)

I found a recipe for homemade Wheat Thins and I decided to modify it to make Flax Seed Crackers! They are really good, I prefer to roll them out super thin but you can roll them out to whatever thickness you prefer!



Flax Seed Crackers

1 3/4 cup Whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cup White flour
1/3 cup Oil
3/4 teas. Sea Salt
1 cup Water
1/3-1/2 cups ground Flax Seed

1. In large mixing bowl, combine the flours and flax seed and thoroughly mix.
2. In separate bowl blend the oil, salt, and water.
3. Add liquid mixture to dry, mixing well but as little as possible.
4. Roll as thin as possible on unoiled cookie sheet − not more than 1/8" thick. Mark with knife for size crackers desired, but do not cut through. Prick each cracker a few times with fork. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt.
5. Bake at 350F until crisp and light brown, about 30 minutes.
6. When cool, separate into individual crackers.

Update on the ceiling

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

The ceiling did not come crashing down last night which is a good thing! There is more water damage though. I called our homeowners insurance today and they basically just said to take lots of pictures and do whatever I need to do to ensure that no further damage is done. That is a really confusing statement because I am not sure if for insurance purposes I should leave it how it is so that they can see it when the claims adjuster comes out next week or if we should put a tarp on our roof so no rain can come in or if we should have roofers come out and fix this. Especially since we are expecting another big storm on Friday. This is a very frustrating whole process especially since Brian is away at Sgt's course and sick so he cant really do anything to help me with this whole mess.

Waiting for the ceiling to fall

Tuesday, November 4, 2008



Seriously :( This is what my ceiling looked like when I got home.

We have been having really hard rain yesterday and today. When I woke up this morning I noticed a water spot above our couch where there used to be a fireplace (the previous owners removed it). I didnt really think too much of it other than I took a picture to show Brian so that he could do something about it this weekend when he gets home.

When I got home from seeing Brian and having dinner with Kyle and Joy the water damage had greatly increased. The big spot it very wet and is dripping a very little bit. The rain is still pouring hard and I am really thinking that in the middle of the night I am going to hear a great big crash and have a very large hole in my ceiling. I moved all of the furniture and put a tarp down. Hopefully that will contain it if it does fall. Im praying that this rain will stop coming.

If the ceiling does fall that could equal very bad things like we would probably have to replace our roof and our flooring and have our ceiling completely redone. Hopefully our homeowners insurance will cover this.

Oh and I have had to deal with 5 roaches in the past two days... Before Brian went to Sgt's course I had maybe seen 1 every month or so. Im not having a very good night.

Thankful for Cherry Point!

Today I am posting from MCAS New River in Jacksonville, NC! MCAS = Marine Corps Air Station :) Anyways Brian is still @ Sgt's Course and needed my car for a vehicle inspection and then when that is over we are going to Kyle and Joy's to do Financial Peace and dinner. So I am here at the Station Library trying to kill some time. Being here really makes me thankful that we are stationed @ Cherry Point. Right outside of the main gate of New River there are honestly about ten "gentlemen's clubs" It makes me sick to my stomach that people go to these things, I mean I realize that Marines have the reputation for being kinda skeezy but still I hope in my mind that they have morals. Marine Corps bases have off-limits lists, the one for Cherry Point has like 2 places that Marines cannot go to but the one for here in Jacksonville has like 25 if not more. Its sad.

Im working on my top 5 favorite things about NC it will be posted as soon as I take pictures of all of my favorite things! That means Baker's Square here I come!!! That place could really have a whole post dedicated to it alone I love it so much!

I Voted... Sort of

Monday, November 3, 2008

I voted for president for the first time! Well kind of... Washington has an all absentee ballot system and all ballots have to be sent in by the 4th. I sent mine in today but I dont really see how it can be counted in time to actually affect who gets choosen for President. Tomorrow is Election Day. My vote went to John McCain. I honestly feel that the military will be better off in his hands. I was kind of stressing out about this election earlier today and then as I was doing some blog reading I came across a John Piper video on Girltalk. This one is the extended version of the video they posted. It definitly puts things in perspective and is a must see! The thing that stuck out what when he said he was praying for Obama to change his mind about abortion. That hit me so hard. Why have I not been praying for him? I need to be praying for him as well as John McCain and our other political leaders. So I encourage you to watch this video and then pray for both Presidential Candidates.

 
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