i have found the one my heart desires

Little Girl

2013-03-25T09:58:00.000-07:00

If you follow me on Instagram, then you've already seen this picture.

J and I would like to introduce you to the newest addition to our family!! She is currently 5 weeks old and we'll be picking her up the first weekend of April!!

It's crazy how things work out sometimes... J and I have been searching for a goldendoodle for a while now. We had just put it in our minds that we were going to have to get her from some strange breeder that will charge and arm and a leg and a foot (because they can be so darn expensive). And then make us sign a contract... No thank you!

So while talking to a breeder in Georgia, a friend from college had posted on twitter that they had goldendoodles for sale! They're closer to us than GA, they're cheaper, available sooner and won't make us sign a contract. And we know them!!! That was the best part to us.

So get ready y'all... In the next two weeks, I'm sure all social media outlets will be filled with pictures of our new little girl. You can check out our friend's page here.

Until next time,

Melissa

Color Oops.

2013-03-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

All of us have had a bad hair color job where it turned out way too bright or way too dark or just doesn't look good with our skin tone, especially if using a box! I have had a few myself as well. However this past time when I got my hair colored, I went from ombre to dark red. It looked really, really good!

Before & After

The only problem with it was instead of fading out, it gave me awful roots!! So instead of recoloring my hair the dark red again, I wanted to get back to my natural. I wasn't sure what to do or how to go about it without stripping it. While doing a little research online, J and I ran across "Color Oops."

Other than the smell, I would say it worked incredibly well!

The picture below on the left is after color oops. The picture of the right is natural hair - absolutely no color on it.

I'd say it's pretty close to my natural if not completely natural again! I'm so happy to not look in the mirror and see 2 inches of roots!! And I know my family is so happy to have my natural color back again!

After using this product, I applied a deep conditioner on it to make sure nothing was damaged in the process. The box states it's ammonia free/bleach free so that's a plus! It does state that it won't take bleach out ... It will only go from dark to lighter, not lighter to dark. Since i had some bleach on my hair from the ombre, you can still see a few blonde pieces but I wouldn't say my hair is ombre again.

Anyway, if you're struggling in the hair department with getting back to your natural, this is definitely the product for you!

Until next time,

Melissa

Spring and a Book Review.

2013-03-13T07:21:00.000-07:00

This girl is ready for sunshine and warm weather... maybe not quite ready for shorts yet, but definitely craving warm days and cool nights including bonfires with friends. Maybe you remember last year when a group of us got together and had a crawfish boil...I'm thinking that might become an annual outing!

So the husband and I have been reading "Jesus Calling" by Sarah Young. It's a great nightly devotion for us and if you haven't heard of it, please do yourself a favor and buy it. Its less than $10.00- so it definitely won't break the bank and the benefit is well worth the money spent. It's not your average devotion; Each day is written as if Jesus Himself is speaking to you.... which is pretty cool (spoken like the character that plays Miley Cyrus in the SNL skit...)

Anywayyy, here is a little glimpse into last night's reading.

“When I gave you My Spirit, I empowered you to live beyond your natural ability and strength. That’s why it is so wrong to measure your energy level against the challenges ahead of you. The issue is not your strength but Mine, which is limitless.” –Jesus Calling by Sarah Young.

2 Corinthians 5:7; Galatians 5:25

A new way of thinking, enlightening, and encouraging... therefore nothing to lose. : )

Until next time,

Melissa

New Little Toy.

2013-03-11T09:00:00.001-07:00

That's right... This girl is going to learn to sew. Be sure to check back for my progress!!

2013-03-08T07:49:00.001-08:00

I get to spend my weekend with these beauties!

...and I couldn't be more excited!

Until next time,

Melissa

Hellllooo There!

2013-03-07T06:22:00.001-08:00

Helllllooooo??

Hi!

Here again and so excited to be back! And let me tell you, so much has happened since the last time i blogged (back in October).... Maybe we'll go through everything a little later. But today I want to talk about the landscaping of our house, or the lack there of! Maybe you remember way back when, when I blogged about us moving? Maybe not... Check it out here.

Before living in this lovely home of our's, we lived in an apartment in town. It was a nice little place, but it was an apartment none the less. We had a family connected to the living room wall and an older lady who couldn't hear well connected to the other side. Evenings watching television became interesting as our volume competed with two others. However, both neighbors were really sweet and home at a reasonable time. They were mature and didn't have parties to the wee early mornings. And for that we were very, very thankful! If you've lived in an apartment then you can definitely relate! At the apartment, we had a tiny, tiny yard, and now we're so very thankful for some land!!

Anyway, back to the new house!

But look at this picture. The trees in the background just make it so picture perfect. However, there is one thing that is truly missing... We need some trees y'all! Hopefully this spring all that will change. It's actually kind of nice since it's an open book! You know? We don't have to pull anything out that we don't like. We get to be the designers!

I've been working on my pinterest boards to get some pin-spiration. Here's what I've got so far.

Check back for more landscaping updates and a photo home tour!

Until then,

Melissa

National Bullying Month...

2012-10-03T08:06:00.004-07:00

This is a must watch... I was browsing facebook, and noticed a friend posted this to his wall. I then googled Jennifer Livingston and this video is what populated. However, in this video she presents an email she received from a one-time-viewer and she fights back to her bully on live tv.

Why I've been missing...

2012-10-02T06:08:00.000-07:00

We moved! Our new home.

Princess Molly

2012-09-14T06:56:00.003-07:00

One spring morning ten years ago, instead of getting dressed and ready for a school, my dad contacted my eighth grade teachers to explain I would be out for the day. Little did I know what he had planned for us. You see my dad and I always did "father, daughter" dates and they were my favorite, however we always planned them for a Friday night, not during the day. I knew something special was going to happen that day! We loaded up the truck: him, me, and a cardboard box. Still suspicious as we drove up to a house, roughly three hours later to hear puppies barking.

That's where we picked out our sweet Molly girl, a beautiful black lab. Driving home, I remember loving on her little self in that cardboard box. I remember giggling the whole way! I remember getting her home and thinking - what now - and dad saying we play, we train her, and we love her. That's exactly what we did! Dad says she was the easiest dog to ever train because she was eager to please. I agree, now that I have a dog of my own...

Just look at this sweet baby girl: Princess Molly.

Last night, our prayers were answered as Molly has been sick for the past couple weeks, may she rest in peace.

Easy Chicken Pot Pie.

2012-09-11T14:44:00.001-07:00

So, this week I decided I was going to create a meal plan for the week - I wanted to make things that were different than the norm. Last night I made "Chicken Pot Pie' that I found on Real Simple. I was super excited about this recipe for several different reasons - first off, I had never made Chicken Pot Pie nor did my family make it much growing up. And secondly, I was really looking forward to eating lots of veggies (I'm weird.)

So anyway, I get to working on the recipe only to look down at the bottom and see a ton of negative comments about it. So disappointed! But that wasn't going to stop me. I decided I would learn from their mistakes and hopefully make the best Chicken Pot Pie ever!!

I mean - look at these, wouldn't you be so discouraged too?!?

I push through despite these horrible comments...

And this was my creation.

Here is the recipe I followed, using the advice from previous cooks:

Chicken Pot Pie:

Ingredients

1 3 1/2- to 4-pound rotisserie chicken, meat shredded (I seasoned 2 chicken breast, shredded)
1 10-ounce package frozen mixed vegetables (I bought that mixed veggie you can cook in the microwave in 4 minutes)
1 10.75-ounce can condensed cream-of-mushroom soup (I used cream of chicken soup)
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 10-count tube refrigerated biscuits

Directions

Heat oven to 400° F. Combine the chicken, vegetables, soup, salt, pepper, and 3/4 cup water (I used less water- about 1/2 cup) in a large bowl.
Transfer the mixture to an oven-safe casserole, cover with foil, and bake for 15 minutes.
Remove the foil, cover the filling with the biscuits, and bake until the biscuits are golden brown and cooked through, about 15 minutes.

The biscuits were a little gooey and others had complained in that comment section before - so I split the biscuits with a spatula, trying to get the sides good and done. That's why it looks like my biscuits aren't connected. I thought maybe trying to cook them on a baking sheet next time and then placing them on the top later...

I hope this worked better for you than the others, because as of today at 12:45p.m. this was complete gone... I think that would be considered a successful meal. Wouldn't you say?

Crowned Accessories.

2012-09-06T07:09:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago, I had the privileged of meeting the beautiful, Stephanie, who is the owner of Crowned Accessories (with her grandmother!). There is something about Stephanie, and I can't figure out how to pinpoint the words to describe her... First off, she is beautiful on the inside and out. She will make you feel super comfortable in any situation, even just meeting her for the first time. She has a love and passion for live and what it's brought her. I could probably go on and on, but I'll stop there and get talking about her business.

Crowned Accessories specialize in headbands, scarves and aprons - and they are awesome! I bought a headband, and am super excited to purchase my next one soon. With every accessory purchased, Crowned Accessories gives back to Agape International Missions (AIM).

Stephanie and her grandmother recognized the importance of giving back to the community and to people in need. Crowned Accessories is built off the ideas of looking beautiful in everyday life. They give back to support the rescue and restoration of women who have been victims in sex trafficking. Crowned Accessories feel its important that everyone have the best chance of loving themselves and knowing who they are.

Take a look at their website, because there are some pretty great stuff there! Below is a sneak peak of what you'll see there...

They also have a Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest account.

Hope you enjoy!!

DIY Coaster

2012-09-04T06:30:00.001-07:00

So this weekend was full of do it yourself projects... My husband and I have what we like to call a "junk" room or a "catch all". Anybody with me? This "junk" room is also known as our second bedroom. It's a room that has become our storage room, or one that holds the things we don't want to look at after moving in over a year ago. It was pretty bad (notice keyword: was). J's cousin came in town Friday evening and we were determined to make it as cozy as possible. We worked for a good 3 hours cleaning that room. But i'm glad to say we came out with a good, cozy room and about 5 DIY projects. I'd call that success! If you're ever going to come to our house, you'd see a lot of these types of projects.

While in Indiana the week prior to last, my grandmother suggested using this blog to post about different projects that we've done in our apartment to make it ours. A huge struggle for us was not being able to paint the walls, so we wanted to try and add color in a way that cozied up the place without it looking childish or cheap - same goes for my office at work. The first project that I was so excited about was making this weekend was a coaster for my office.

I've had this coaster since Christmas and hadn't done anything with it. I sprayed it grey that was is. So this weekend I taped off different size sections and sprayed it white. Then added a touch of color and ended up with this:

I need to get better at showing the full project. Some of my husband and I's DIY projects won't have a full picture tutorial (like this one) just because I didn't think about it at the time (before the blog).

Anyway, be looking for more DIY... it's a favorite of ours for sure!

52 Reasons I love you.

2012-08-15T07:29:00.000-07:00

So I know I haven't updated in some time now, but life has been crazy! In my previous post, we were getting ready for our cruise which was so much fun! We celebrated our first year of marriage together. I can't believe it's already been a year! The time has FLOWN by. Anyway, for our celebration of our first year we wanted to keep our gifts traditional - So for the first year, it's paper. Ha! So funny to me. I got creative and used the help of pinterest and made this little happy for my sweet, sweet husband.

52 Reasons I love you!

First I found a deck of cards, and printed out reasons why I love my husband on labels.

Then I placed them in the middle of the card like so...

I then took this lovely hole punch and made some holes for the binder rings to go through... This was probably the most difficult part to be honest! I was so nervous the holes wouldn't line up and it would just look a mess, but it really turned out good. Maybe because I was SO paranoid.

Here's the back of the cards...

And tadaaaaa!!! He loved it!!! It was such a great gift and sooo personalized!!

Hope you enjoy!!

Poppy Seed Chicken

2012-07-20T13:49:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I realize I've done WAY too many recipe posts and this will maybe be the last one for a while. What can I say, I have found a love in cooking. I look forward to cooking - strange I know! I guess getting married and knowing I'm the one who provides the meals, is important to me. I love cooking for my husband! I get nervous cooking for other people, but I've not heard any bad comments yet, so that's a good thing.

This recipe is my mom's... I'm not sure where she found it, but it's a favorite! I remember wanting this for my birthday dinner growing up! Ha I bet she was stoked because its the most simple dinner possible!

Anyway, on with the recipe.

Poppy Seed Chicken.

I thought I'd be clever and take a picture of my ingredients only to realize I didn't include all the ingredients in my picture. Whoops!

You need all those above PLUS some!

Ingredients:

1 cup sour cream

2 cans cream of chicken

2 cans cream of celery (this time I only used 1 can and it tasted totally fine!)

Poppy seed (as many as you want to shake out)

5 chicken breast (boiled and shredded)

2 tubes of Ritz crackers

1/4 - 1/2 cup Butter

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. While your oven is preheating, boil your chicken until it's fully cooked. While your chicken is cooling, mix together your creams. Once the chicken is cooled, shred it and put in in the cream mixture. Add some poppy seeds and pour into a 13x9 pan. Crumble up your ritz crackers and shake them in a ziploc bag with butter. Spread the cracker mixture onto the top. Put in the oven to bake 30 minutes.

It's yummy, I promise!

Next post may be a DIY!! Get excited : )

Whoopie Pie Filling.

2012-07-18T16:07:00.001-07:00

So I'm a huge slacker on this post because I didn't get a picture to show how awesome these whoopie pies looked in the end. I decided to go with the chocolate chip cookie dough (no eggs) rather than a butter cream filling or even a marshmallow cream only because I was craving some chocolate. Anyway, super easy to make and super yummy to eat!

Here's how to make the cookie dough filling:

When filling the whoopie pies, my handy-dandy zip lock bag busted on me so not only did I have a mess, I had to figure out how to spread the dough on the pie without it looking too thin. I figured it out and they were eaten up before I could even take a picture.

Ingredients

1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp milk
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 cup mini chocolate chips

How to Make

In a mixer, cream together butter and both sugars.
Add in vanilla and milk. Stir until combined.
Slowly add in flour and turn mixer up to medium until mixed well.
Fold in chocolate chips.
Fill ziplock or piping bag with cookie dough and pipe onto whoopie pies.

Whoopie Pies.

2012-07-14T08:32:00.000-07:00

I'm obviously in some type of cooking/baking mood this morning and it's only 10a.m. So far, I have made pancakes for the hubs, before he left for work and now I'm currently working on Whoopie Pies! Like most of the recipes on here, I've never tried anything like this. We're going on a little road trip this afternoon and I wanted to take something special for the trip. So this past week I ran across the recipe Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Whoopie Pies and if you follow me on Pinterest you saw I had pinned the recipe from Cookies and Cups. I've been dying to make it since I pinned. If it's not any good, then I'll delete the pin and move on with my life. I know, sounds weird but I've been known to do it in the past...

Anyway, on with the recipe.... I haven't made the filling yet, but the actual pie is to die for! So yummy. A little richer than I expected but none the less, delicious.

For the Whoopie Pie:

I made my recipe a little different than the original.

Ingredients

1 2/3 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tsp salt
5 Tbsp butter – room temp
3 Tbsp vegetable shortening
1 cup light brown sugar (I used dark brown sugar because that's all I had)
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup whole milk

How to Make

Preheat oven to 375°
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a bowl sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt
In a mixer, cream together butter, shortening and brown sugar until combined well.
Add egg and vanilla and beat for 2 minutes.
Turn mixer to low and add half of the flour/cocoa mixture, then half the milk, repeating until all the ingredients are mixed in.
Drop by rounded tablespoon, 2 inches apart onto prepared baking sheets.
Bake for 8-10 minutes until centers are set.
Cool on pan for 5 minutes and then transfer to wire rack to finish cooling.
Fill with your prepared filling.

It's Official.

2012-07-05T09:57:00.001-07:00

WE'VE BOOKED IT AND WE'RE LEAVING IN 18 DAYS!!!!!!

The Monster.

2012-07-02T18:15:00.000-07:00

Many of you know already, husband and I have a precious 4 legged child... TERK!

He has the biggest personality I've ever seen in a dog. I thought it would be fun to do a special blog on the monster himself.

(kind of like how moms do about their newborns...)

Here are a few of Terk's favorite things right now:

He loves potatoes! Potatoes of any kind - well just people food in general

Sleeping

Barking
Being cute
Being really cute

Laying out in the sun

Whining

Playing fetch

Going on walks

Did I mention whining?

Wrestling

Playing lazy ball - he lays on the floor and nudges the ball with his nose towards either Jordan or I and we pass it back to his nose... he never moves his body. He's ridiculous!

Peanut butter

Speaking of peanut butter... I found this dog treat on pinterest and can't wait to try it for the little man.

Peanut Butter Dog Biscuits

1 cup of flour

1/4 cup of oats

1/4 cup of unsweetened shredded coconut

1/2 T of baking powder

1/2 cup of creamy organic peanut butter

1/2 milk

1 T of olive oil

1 T of apple sauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl. Add wet ingredients until well combined. Knead into a ball, like when baking bread. Put onto a sheet of wax paper and roll dough out to about 1/2 inch thick. Cut using cookie cutters and place on cookie sheet. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Hope you pup enjoys!

Cinnamon Sugar Pull Apart Bread

2012-06-26T17:24:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I got on a homemade bread kick... I was bound and determined to make a delicious, sweet, desert-type bread. My first recipe was Cinnamon Sweet Bread - it was eh. My sweet husband said it was good and ate most of it along with his brother, who complained that it continued to rise in his mouth! I obviously didn't let it rise long enough...

Then I came across another recipe called Cinnamon and Sugar Pull Apart Bread, also known as Elephant Ear Bread. It was awesome!!! And it only took me two recipes for the bread to turn out right!! (I was slightly proud of myself!)

Anyway, here's the recipe for the pull apart bread...

per http://www.foodsnots.com/2012/03/cinnamon-and-sugar-pull-apart-bread.html

Cinnamon and Sugar Pull-Apart Bread

Dough
2 3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast (1 packet)
1/2 tsp. salt
4 Tbsp. butter
1/3 cup whole milk
1/4 cup water
2 eggs (at room temperature)
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Filling
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
4 Tbsp. butter, melted

In a large mixing bowl, mix 2 cups of flour, sugar, yeast and salt. Set aside.

In a small sauce pan, melt the butter and milk. Once the butter is completely melted take off the burner and add the water and vanilla. Let the mixture cool for 5 minutes.

Pour the milk mixture into the large bowl with the dry ingredients and mix well. Whisk together the eggs and add to the batter. Keep mixing. Add 3/4 cup of flour and mix well. The mixture will be very sticky which means it's perfect. Place the dough in a medium greased bowl. Cover with wrap and let it sit in a warm place to rise for about 30-45 minutes. Once the dough has doubled its size, knead in 2 tablespoons of flour. Cover the dough again for 5-10 minutes.

Meanwhile, start on the filling. In a medium bowl, mix together the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a small bowl. Set aside.

Once the dough is ready, roll it out on a floured surface. Brush the melted butter on the dough and add the sugar mixture. Make sure everything is covered. Using a shape knife or pizza cutter, cut the dough into equal sized strips (about 2 to 2 1/2 inches wide). Then cut the strips into equal sized squares. Stack the squares on top of each other to make 3 to 4 piles and place them in a bread pan. Take any sugar that fell off squares and sprinkle over the top and around the sides of dough. Cover the dough for another 10-15 minutes to rise.

While dough is rising, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Place a cookie sheet under bread pan and bake for 30-35 minutes until outside of bread is golden brown.

This wouldn't complete (according to the hubs) without icing to dip the bread into. So here's that recipe as well...

Cream Cheese Icing

8 oz cream cheese

4 Tbsp. butter

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

Mix all ingredients together in a mixer - super easy!

Hope you enjoy!!

Trip 1: Gulf Shores.

2012-05-31T10:15:00.000-07:00

We went to Gulf Shores last weekend and got FRIED! It was a blast though. We drove down Saturday night after a wedding Jordan sang in. Which was so beautiful and J did such a great job! I wanted so badly to nudge the girl next to me and say, "hey... pssst... that's MY husband!" But I didn't.

According to the Jeep GPS, we were supposed to get there at 11:30p.m and beat it by an hour! It's only about 3 hours to get there for if you want to visit us, we go to the beach one day or for a weekend!

Here are some pics from our weekend trip. There will be more later to show our exciting adventure!!

Be looking for it!

Meet the in-laws... they're wonderful!

You can't really tell in this picture, but my chest was about as red as Noah's (J's little bro) red t-shirt and so was J's. Thank you Photoshop.

Family Reunion.

2012-05-24T13:42:00.001-07:00

Last weekend, my husband, his brother, parents and I drove to Butler, AL for a family reunion. It was so fun to meet new family, see old family, eat some good food and relax on an old farm.We kept thinking it would be a perfect get away for all of our college friends to come and hang!

There were three cabins: a girls, a boys and a main lounging area. The girl's lodge was decked out with AC, 4 bedrooms and a mini kitchen. The boy's lodge didn't have the AC, however it had several bunk beds throughout the cabin. And by several, I mean around 10! They were just so cozy! The main lounging area had a kitchen, living space and a bedroom. The walls were covered in old pictures of the family. It was really neat to hear the family talking about their heritage and laughing over their old memories.

I almost forgot... There was also a man there, I'm not sure of the relation, but he had a HUGE wad of chewing tobacco in his right cheek/lower lip. A MESS! I had no idea you could talk with that much chew hanging out of your lip. But he talked the loudest and the proudest! He's the one that actually greeted us when we first arrived! Great first impression indeed!! : )

Here are a few pics from my iphone documenting our visit.

I know it looks like no one was there except Jordan and I, but I promise, there was like 70 people! :)

Btw, we're going to the beach this weekend!

We're stoked!

LOVE and MISS everyone!

Weekend in Indiana.

2012-05-15T09:17:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, Husband and I were able to travel to Indiana for our dear friends Kelsy and Jonathon's wedding! We spent a total of 3.5 days with our family and friends from college! It was a perfect weekend to get away, relax and reunite with some very special people. My heart is so full of love and happiness.

Husband I hadn't seen some of our friends since last October and my family since Christmas. It was a long time coming but the reunion was so sweet!

Here are a few pictures from the weekend (pictures taken by me, husband and other friends).

Enjoy!

Husband and I

Kort and I

Keen, me, T, and Kort

Jay,Jay, Husband, and me

Baby Walrus

The happy couple

To see more pics, check out my dear friend Kortni's blog: http://kortnimarie-photo.blogspot.com/2012/05/blessed-weekend.html

Summer Flowers

2012-04-30T07:06:00.001-07:00

This past weekend, Husband and I had a car wash with his work to support Relay for Life! We set everything up in a Hardee's parking lot, washed about 5 cars and made over $200! I'd say that was a success! When that was all through, we went to a local flower shop and bought new summer flowers for our yard! It was the perfect Saturday, other than getting a little burnt.

Have I told you lately, I absolutely love spending life with Husband, he is my best friend and I wouldn't chose anyone else than him to spend my days with! He is perfect.

(I mean he pulled the weeds for me and mulched the rose bed)

Here are some pics from my iphone to sum up our day of gardening! : )

After a long days of work, we enjoyed some milk and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies!

What was your highlight from this past weekend??

Wild Rice Chicken Bake

2012-04-20T11:26:00.001-07:00

All day yesterday I was craving wild rice... weird I know... but I decided I would make a wild rice-chicken bake. It was so simple and so yummy! Husband loved it. It was a first time to make this recipe (it was one my mom made when I was younger). I didn't have all the original ingredients so I altered it a little bit. So I get to claim it as my own, right?

Wild Rice Chicken Bake:

Ingredients:

2-4 chicken breasts

1 box of Uncle Ben's Wild Rice

1 can of cream of celery

1 3/4 cups of water

1 tablespoon of butter

Salt/Pepper to taste

Mix ingredients together in a pan with a lid, place thawed, uncooked chicken breast on top of the rice and bake at 350 degrees for roughly an hour. And you will get this:

There's a chicken breast in there somewhere... promise!

Husband and I always have to have bread to go along with a meal - it's mandatory! So for this meal, Pillsbury Crescent Rolls

What's your favorite quick meal?

Summer Trips

2012-04-13T14:27:00.001-07:00

Summer is fastly approaching and I've quickly learned my summers are much different now, than summer in school. But none the less, I'm still very excited! Since husband and I live in the south, which I love, we're really close to some great cities! So this summer, we're planning a week and a few weekend trips that I'm so stoked about!!

Here are some of our tentative plans:

Trip #1: (this is definite) Since we weren't able to take a honeymoon (stupid work) we're taking a cruise during our anniversary week!! I've never been on a cruise before so I'm slightly nervous, but the excitement over-passes that fear times a billion.

We will be boarding a HUGE boat on July 23 (our anni) and come back to our humble abode that following Saturday. During our cruise we will spend 5 days exploring the Western Caribbean.

(photo by: http://www.carnival.com/)

Maybe husband will want to swim with the dolphins??? I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Trip #2: Atlanta, GA! We just talked about this last night and I'm so excited about it, I just had to put it on here. We love hot-lanta! I've only been to visit once, driven through a million times, and fell in love! I'm slightly obsessed with sea creatures and animals in general, so we're going to make it that type of trip! We talked of going to the zoo, the aquarium and seeing an IMAX movie. I'm slightly excited!!

(photo by: http://www.roundaboutatlanta.com/Services.html)

Anyone know of some fun places to visit in Atlanta aside from the 3 listed?

Trip #3: We will be traveling to my home state, Indiana, for some very special weddings. And probably stopping in the beautiful state of Tennessee to see some dear friends!!

What are your summer plans??