Pinterest = Obsessed

Once again, I have been failing miserably with keeping my blog updated. Boo! Yes, I have been busy this fall with trips and going to football games I have a new obsession I can blame....

Like so many of you, I spent an unthinkably large number of hours and minutes each day looking at the cyber world of Pinterest. I frequently "pin" items that I haven't gotten around to making/trying/etc, but when my sister was home over Thanksgiving weekend, we helped my parents decorate their tree and house for Christmas and while we did, we made several recipes I had found on Pinterest, so I wanted to share the results. I have seen a few friends sharing on their blogs some Pinterest successes. I wish there was a way to mark on Pinterest that you have completed something!

Here's my sis decorating the tree....

And here's the mantle...

Here's what we made that day....

1. Homemade Pretzel Bites

Verdict- We didn't loooooove them, but I would probably make them again; especially since I have more Rhodes Rolls in the freezer. We all liked the cinnamon and sugar ones better than the parmesan, but I expected it to be the other way around. The sweet sauce was okay but the cheese sauce was pretty gross. My overall score = 6.

2. Chicken Pastry Puffs

Verdict- These were better but again, not my favorite thing ever. Kind of bland....maybe would be better with green onions or some spice added? My overall score = 5.

3. Buffalo Chicken Bites

Verdict- My dad thought these looked good, so we made them and I got my first experience of using Panko, an Asian breadcrumb. I would make these again and they are relatively low-calorie, which is always a bonus. My overall score = 7.

Other recent Pinterest experiments.....

My mom hosted bunko in November so I made just a couple sweet things for her to have there. I had these at my bunko group in November, and acorns too, which were apparently a big hit. Fyi, the cookie gets soggy after a few days.

I made a wreath I found on Pinterest for a decoration this fall. It was fairly easy, just more time consuming than I realized it would be. And, it was cheap...yea! I bought a $3 wreath at Michaels and then used scraps of fabric that I had at home. I forgot to take a picture of it and apparently didn't pin it to my board, but it turned out pretty cute.

Last week, I made these Homemade Butterfingers to take to work and people liked them. I wasn't wild about them for how much labor was involved and I'm pretty sure I didn't get the candy corn melted enough. They had the flavor of butterfingers, but the texture of a Baby Ruth.

Another Pinterest find I recently brought to life was something my friend Sarah shared that she had found on Pinterest and made. It's roasted broccoli, which I have heard of doing before this, but never actually got around to doing. I left out the pine nuts and squeezed too much lemon juice on after, but I'll definitely make this again. Love how fresh it is!

Okay, that's all I can think of right now to share, but am loving trying some new things! Have anyone found anything on Pinterest that they are wild about?!

Well, hello...

It has been "awhile". I have been the worst blogger EVER! Some of you have dutifully posted about a variety of topics, including babies, recipes, vacations and all sorts of lovely bloggy topics. Um, so much has happened since my last post in July. So, in the name of efficiency, here's a brief run-down:

• In August, I went on a road trip by myself to see my sis in Dallas, stopping in Wichita on the way and Oklahoma City on the way back to see friends. I got to see my new sister's apartment, lounge at her pool, and eat some great food. It was fantastic. :)
• My mom retired a couple weeks ago. Hooray! We had cake and cheered her career. She is beginning her journey of no alarm clocks and wearing sweat pants all day long if she chooses. I'M JEALOUS!
• K-State football is back in action...the third game of the season is this weekend and I'm loving it!

Regarding my lack of posts, I have to confess I have a new LOVE....one that many of you have discovered as well and actually encouraged me to check out: Pinterest. Ah, I have to limit myself how much I'm on it because it's easy to get sucked in and hours to fly out! If I actually get it together and actually do any crafts or make any recipes from there, I'll be sure to share.

I'm really loving fall so far after a super toasty summer! Hope you all are too. Looking forward to taco soup, apple crisp and all things pumpkin!!

Things have to get better, right?

It seems like the last week and a half has been nothing but bad news around my work. One of the doctors I work with died in a kayaking accident, one of my coworkers lost her dad, a coworker had a friend get shot and killed, another coworker found out her daughter with MS has breast cancer, a coworker's dog died this weekend and another coworker's son has a brain tumor and needs chemo. Seriously?! It has just been one thing after another and really awful to see people go through so much sadness. It has also made me (and all of us) appreciative for all the good we have in our lives. I keep thinking things are going to turn around, because they have to....history has shown that they do. I'm hoping someone wins the lottery. :) Fingers crossed for some good luck heading for my friends and coworkers.

Happy 4th!

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend! Besides working Saturday and on the holiday, I can't complain. And honestly, I can't complain at all. I took a long lunch yesterday to go to my neighborhood's parade, which I love. This is the third year I have went and really think it's super sweet. Gotta love long-standing traditions and this parade has been around a lot longer than I have. Also, when I went into the hospital yesterday, one of my patients, who had a stroke yesterday morning, said, "Thank you so much for coming to work to help me on the holiday. Who has a stroke on the 4th of July? I am supposed to be at a bbq." She was super sweet and full of life. She is an 88-year-old that drives 30 miles 3 times a week for yoga, so clearly a motivated spirit.

Anyway, my sis is here from Texas and we've had lots of family time! And LOTS of good food! My cousin made some homemade vanilla ice cream, which was awesome and seems so appropriate for summer. Here are a few pictures. I'm off today and going to the pool with my sister when she's done running errands....wish the weekend could go on forever!

A homemade American pie and the United States flag on my house....what's more American than that?

This is me with my mom, sister and cousin at the parade. The other picture is one of my good friend's kids who walked in the parade. They were pretty excited about it!

Makeover Time!

Somehow I luckily ended up with my friend Sarah's old family rocking chair that her family wasn't ready to part with, (it's been around a long time) but they didn't really have a good place to keep it. So, for now, it was at my house to use until the time came when Sarah wanted it back....problem was that it needed to be recushioned and recovered. As of tonight, problem solved! A couple months ago, I bought some fabric to recover the chair, but I was lacking the skills on how to do it. I have another rocking chair that's going to be recovered with the same fabric. It's fun how a little change can give a room a whole different feel. Here are a few before and after pictures:

Before-

After-

N'awlins!

As I mentioned in my last post, my parents and I met up with my favorite (and only) sister in New Orleans for Memorial Day weekend. We had a really great time together. I'm glad we made the trip but it's definitely not somewhere that I'm dying to see again. Bourbon Street is an experience (lots of interesting sights and smells!!), but we had a great hotel and good location. We took some time to do a bit of sightseeing. Let me tell you one thing though....it is so HAWT down there!!! Hot and humid. We practically melted! Here are a few pictures and a little recap of our trip.

One of our adventures was a swamp tour where we went out onto the river and back into the swamp. We got to see a few alligators and other wildlife creatures up close and personal! Kinda fun!! A little scary but we left with all of our limbs intact. :)

One of my favorite stops was to the following cafe....it's open 24 hours a day and it served french donuts called beignets. They are amazing!! It's like a really, really awesome funnel cake and there is always about 100 people in line to get 'em. Worth the wait.




We had some tasty drinks, as you can imagine, in New Orleans....including some test tube shots and Hurricanes!


We had some great food in New Orleans, including lots of seafood and this is one of the THREE bread puddings we tried while we were there...pretty tasty. The crawfish below were my dad's. Ugh. He seemed pretty happy about it though.

We toured the warehouse where quite a few of the Mardi Gras floa ts are stored. I saw a few familiar faces in these guys....

Besides the trip, summer is in full effect here. I've spent some time at some friend's pools and also made a trip to Wichita last weekend to see friends. Looking forward to a trip to KC this weekend for my 5-year reunion for my grad school class at KU. I'm really excited to catch up with some friends I haven't seen for quite awhile!

Leaving, on a jet plane....

I'm minutes away from vacation time....very excited to be going to New Orleans for the first time! My parents and I are meeting up with my sis there and should have a few days of fun. It's been a busy week and it will be nice to get away. One big announcement is that my friend Lindsay and I decided that since Kim Kardashian met her guy and got engaged 6 months later, we're probably gonna both be engaged by Christmas! Very exciting, I know. This isn't the formal announcement, but just saying, if Kim did it then it seems like a good plan! Hope everyone has a very happy long weekend and take time to remember why we have it. Later!

Hi, my name is Michelle and I used to write on my blog.

Geeze, where did the last month go?! Last week, I was thinking, I haven't written on my blog in a long time. Then, I didn't write anything. The same thing happened a few days ago and I still didn't write anything. Finally, my sister said to me today, "You need to write on your blog!" So, here I am. It's not that I haven't been doing anything and don't have anything to write about....actually, quite the opposite. It seems like it's been non-stop lately. Basic recap:

The middle of April I went to KC for my friend Nichole's bachelorette party. We stayed in a hotel on the plaza, went to Kona Grill for some awesome sushi and then to a piano bar in Westport. So much fun!

My baby sister came home for Easter (yea!) and I got to eat sweets again after a very loooooong Lent of no sugar! We had a good time hanging out together.

Some of my best buds in Wichita came to visit and we had a blast. We made our way through some shops on Mass in Lawrence, ate at Freestate Brewery and had a low-key evening of hammock-ing, Coldstone and a movie. You can't go wrong! It was really nice to see them.

Last weekend, I went West to Hays for my friend Nichole's wedding. We went to K-State together for a year and then we were both at KU Med for a year while I got my masters and she got her nursing degree. It was great to see her and spend time with her wonderful family. She is currently honeymooning in Cancun. Ah, sounds lovely!

I'm going to KC this weekend to do the Crawl for Cancer with my friend Kelly. Looking forward to seeing some friends I haven't seen for awhile! Hopefully will have more blog updates sooner than later. :)

My BIG Surprise.....and B2B recap!

As I mentioned Friday, I have had a secret/surprise I've been keeping since the end of February. My friends that I work with and me were preparing and planning to run in the Brew to Brew, which we did last year as well. That wasn't the surprise though. The surprise was that one of my good friends that worked at the hospital with us before moving to Colorado last May, came back for the race. She agreed to join us and we decided to keep it a secret from the rest of the team. Such an awesome surprise for everyone and we were all SO pumped to spend time with Amanda. The surprise:

We had a pasta dinner at my house Saturday night to carb-load before the race Sunday. We left Topeka about 5:40 Sunday morning for KC. It was a great day with friends, minus the 20+ mph wind we ran directly into. Not a nice time. I ran 4.8 miles in about an hour....I'll take it considering it was the farthest I've ever ran and it was more hills and wind than I'm used to. We had a good day enjoying hanging out and having snacks and just relaxing. I was done running by noon so had several hours to just cheer for my teammates. We are already excited to do it all again next year! After the race was completed, we went to The Salty Iguana, a mexian restaurant in Lawrence and had LOADS of water and some mexican food. We got back to Topeka a bit before 7:00 and were all SO exhausted! Thankful for a fun day with my friends!

The team before we ran:

Me before I ran:

The team after the race:

Things that make me happy....

Tulips blooming in my breakfast nook on a Friday after work...

Shhh!

I have a HUGE surprise/secret that I've been keeping for over a month! It's going to be revealed this weekend and I couldn't be more excited!!! Also, this weekend is my second time participating in the Brew to Brew, a relay race from KC to Lawrence I am doing with a group of friends. I'm pumped to spend the day with friends in what is supposed to be BEAUTIFUL weather...also excited to get my 4.8 mile leg behind me! Will fill you all in soon on the big surprise! Oh, and happy April Fools Day! Any good pranks?!

Neat idea...

My mom saw an article in The KC Star about a group of folks in Kansas City that have a group who go to different restaurants and rate the food. They blog all about it here. First, they went to different pizza places and are now trying out different burger places. One of my bffs Lindsay started a breakfast club in Wichita a year or two ago (I can't remember how long it's been going) but one Saturday a month they go to different restuarants and try out the breakfast menu. Love the ideas and inspired to do something similar here in my city! Nothing like enjoying a meal with friends and trying new places.

Internet intervention...

There was a time when I was a productive human.....that was before I recently discovered Jersey Shore. I'm embarrassed to admit how addicting it is. The last couple nights I have watched several episodes on Netflix, but tonight, the website is messing up and won't connect. Since other websites are working and it's not just my internet, I think God is hosting an intervention and telling me to resume my regularly schedule life programming....like doing laundry and washing the dishes, perhaps brushing my teeth....tasks that have clearly become imposing since I have become addicted to the ridiculousness that is JS. I can't even believe the things that the cast says or does and I seriously cannot believe how much I love to watch it! Hopefully I see all of the episodes soon so I can get it out of my system. :) If you can't get ahold of me, you now know why.

Happy St. Patty's Day weekend!...Minus that whole KSU loss thing...

I had a great St. Patty's Day weekend and hope everyone else did too! On the actual day of, I had to work. Boo. But afterwards, I met up with friends for a couple green beers and later got to see K-State win their first round game in the NCAA tourney. St. Patty's is also my friend Kristen's birthday, so it was fun to help her celebrate. Happy b-day KFan!

With two of my buds since high school. Glad Lacey and Andrea could both come join the fun!

The fun continued.....and the Kristen birthday celebration.....on Saturday night. We celebrated her 30th birthday but SADLY K-State lost their second round game....BUMMER! Kristen is a KU fan but everyone was being fairly civil about the loss and following sadness.

With Sharee and Megan and our K-State stickers!

Last night, I celebrated St. Patty's with my parents in our tradition style (minus Meg)....with mom's homemade reubens. They.are.awesome.!!!! Massive sandwich and tater tots.....only do it once a year but oh so worth it.

Aren't the napkins SO festive?!

Yep, Dad's got a tot in his necklace...

Mom and me....don't be mad I posted this. :) It was a casual evening....as in I had just got out of the shower after the gym! Btw, what's going on with my hand in this picture??

Oh yeah, and welcome spring! So ready for some great weather!!

God loves us and therefore created The Rotisserie Chicken

Monday night I picked up a rotisserie chicken on the way home from work and some salad stuff and it has totally rocked my face off all week! Can't beat it for a $5 purchase. I bought carrots, tomatoes, onions, an avacado and a hard-boiled egg, and made some great salads the last couple days with added protein from the previously mentioned bird. Tonight I made some chicken quesadillas (is there anything easier?!). I love how many things you can do with them and they're still pretty healthy. Cheers for easy, quick and healthy dinners as we welcome in some nicer weather and don't want to spend evenings cooking in the kitchen! :)

I can't believe.....

We're barely into Lent and as I mentioned before, I gave up "desserts" for these LONG 40 days. My friend Sharee gave them up with me and we went ahead and defined desserts as "cookies, brownies, cake, candy and ice cream, plus cinnamon rolls, etc". I've been doing pretty good with it; I definitely love some sweets but can go periods of time without them. However, 40 days without any is tough! You know you're desperate when sugar-free jello is sounding kinda awesome.

So, today at work there were some glorious looking donuts and THEY LOOKED SO GOOD! Ugh! Funny thing is when I was growing up I didn't really like donuts and especially not icing. My have times changed! It got me to thinking about all of the other foods that I didn't like when I was younger and now can't imagine not liking them!

-hummus (I could literally eat my body weight in it!)
-guacamole (um, hello?!)
-grilled cheese
-tomatoes
-sushi (yum-o!)
-squash

I still can't get into crunchy peanut butter or coconut though! Any foods your taste buds have changed their minds about over the years?

If I were...

If I were a month, I’d be October.
If I were a day of the week, I’d be Sunday.
If I were a time of day, I’d be the moment I wake up.
If I were a sea animal, I'd be a seal.
If I were a direction, I’d be East.
If I were a piece of furniture, I’d be a china cabinet.
If I were a liquid, I’d be Diet Coke.
If I were a gemstone, I’d be a pearl.
If I were a tree, I’d be an oak.
If I were a tool, I’d be a saw.
If I were a flower, I’d be a lilac.
If I were a kind of weather, I’d be a spring shower.
If I were a musical instrument, I’d be a set of drums.
If I were a color, I’d be green.
If I were an emotion, I’d be excited.
If I were a fruit, I’d be a banana.
If I were an element, I’d be fire.
If I were a car, I'd be an SUV.
If I were a food, I’d be anything Mexican!
If I were a place, I’d be a Kansas wheat field.
If I were a material, I’d be cotton.
If I were a scent, I’d be fresh flowers.
If I were an animal, I'd be a giraffe.
If I were a facial expression, I’d be a blush.
If I were a pair of shoes, I’d be comfy slippers.

I found this random tid bit over at www.ohcaptain.com; it's a great blog I ran across and makes me desperately want to spend more time on our East coast! Until then, Happy Monday and hope everyone enjoyed springing foward, although I'm not sure Mother Nature got the memo. It snowed today!

Chicken and White Bean Stuffed Peppers

I tried another recipe last week off of http://www.skinnytaste.com/; which is where I found the recipes for both the Chicken Parmesan and Zucchini Sticks that we loved. This was a recipe for Chicken and White Bean Stuffed Peppers and is basically a twist on beef and rice stuffed peppers. We thought these we maybe a little bland but not bad. I would probably add some sort of spice if I made them again. They were definitely really filling and pretty low calorie, which is a plus. If green peppers are your thing, then you would probably like them!

Something new....verdict = Tasty

I've been wanting to try some new recipes lately and ran across this recipe for Chicken Georgia on another blog. If you like mushrooms and onions, you might like it. :) I cooked it for my dad when my mom was at her monthly bunko group, as he is on Team Mushroom with me and my mom wants nothing to do with them. Pretty tasty.

Resuming....

It seems like life (at least in blogging world, and kind of outside of it too) has been on hold for me lately. A lot has been going on in my world, namely someone that is one of the closest people to my heart has been diagnosed and begun a battle with cancer, as well one of my best friends since high school was killed in a car accident on Valentine's Day. I was Tisharria's maid of honor at her wedding in January and her sudden death has seemed so very surreal. Her husband was in the car with her and is recovering slowly back at his home. We've been in contact through phone/text; T couldn't have picked a better guy and his positive attitude is helping him through this awful time. Right before Tisharria walked down the aisle, she and I were alone in the dressing room in the church and I told her what an awesome guy she was marrying and how he the two of them set the bar for the kind of relationship I want in my life. It gives me comfort knowing that when she died, she was so truly happy and with the love of her life. I really want everyone to know that while it's definitely been a rough month, I have genuinely appreciated all my friends' support and loved my family even harder than usual. Times like these shock us into evaluating our lives and look at what we're doing and not doing....and most of all, remind us what's important.

So, I haven't felt like blogging but feel like it's a good way for me to vent/remember/document/process everything that has been going on. I also didn't feel like I could resume writing without at least briefly acknowledging what's really been going on in my life. It would seem fake/disrespectful to start posting about the usual....which honestly is a bunch of stuff that doesn't matter, without being truthful. I don't plan on my blog being a place to focus on my family member's cancer fight, as I want to respect their privacy or to focus on Tisharria, but I would like to start up again and see what inspires me. If anyone had ever met "T", they know that she was SO MUCH FUN and one of the happiest people I know. I want to honor her and our friendship by trying to include a little bit of her spirit in my life. To do that, it means finding/continuing what makes me happy and doing it with a huge smile on my face, just like she did every single day!

WW Chicken Parmesan, Baked Zucchini Sticks and Diet Coke Cake

Tonight I had my parents and cousin over for a Valentine's Day Eve dinner. I have been pretty into trying some new recipes lately and had stumbled across a few Weight Watcher ones on Skinny Taste and based off of tonight, I'll be trying more from it!

I made Baked Zucchini Sticks and they were AWESOME! I like zucchini but get sick of fixing it the same way and this was a really nice change of pace. My sister has had them before and had said they were tasty- turns out, she was right. I would definitely recommend them!

For the main course, I fixed Baked Chicken Parmesan and LOVED it. It is by far the best WW recipe I have ever tried. We had a hard time believing that it was low calorie, but I guess the whole not frying it thing helped. I'll definitely be making this again. I served it with a bit of spaghetti but definitely didn't even need that.

For dessert I made Diet Coke Cupcakes. I wanted to make chocolate ones but didn't have a chocolate cake mix on hand, so I did yellow cake and used leftover chocolate frosting from the last cupcakes I made. This is not my favorite low-fat dessert but the cake was really soft and the frosting helped. I'll be taking the rest to work tomorrow for Valentine's Day!

Hope everyone has a great Valentine's Day!!! xoxo