Happy Ash Wednesday!

.....which according to facebook is apparently also National Margarita Day. Seems like that would have been more appropriate on Mardi Gras. Anyway, I have been struggling with what to give up during Lent (no, I'm not Catholic, but I think it's a great practice). Two years ago I gave up Diet Coke. At the time, I thought I was going to die....but I didn't. Turns out, I am pretty much off of it as is, thanks to my New Years resolution this year. Last year, I gave up sweets, which was good for me. My friend Sharee and I (and whoever else) have decided that we're going to volunteer once a week at Harvesters (a local food pantry that gives backpacks of food to kids that need it for the weekend). I'm looking forward to it and it's something I've been wanting to do anyway. I also decided that I'm going to STOP BITING MY NAILS! Like, for real. I NEED to. It's SO gross and something that I really want to stop....so hopefully not doing it for 40 days will help me to quit the habit. Hopefully your Lent is a time of reflection and thanks....and less nail biting. ;)

Happy Hearts

I hope your Valentine's Day has been a good one. Mine was. I didn't think it would be, but it was.

My friend died in a car accident a year ago this date....what a day for a friend to die. I think about Tisharria frequently. Sometimes it makes me so sad and sometimes such good memories pop into my head and I'm glad to have them. It definitely seems surreal and I have spent a lot of the day thinking about T's husband and her family. Lots of prayers to my friend on this date. Miss you.

My day included some sweet cards from my Hetero-Life Partner, Linds, and from my parents too. My cousin baked up an AMAZING storm with the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Rice Krispie Treats and heart-shaped Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies (seriously SO good!). Thanks Jenn!!

So, how else did I spend my day? This is my Valentine for 2012:

My Mom. I wanted to take a picture of her in the cafeteria at the hospital but she nervously said, "No!!". :) So I caught her in the elevator!! This was her initial surprised face:

My mom brought me lunch to work. Goodcents. :) Thanks Mom! It was a really nice treat to see you and have some time together!

Mom,

I cannot tell you how glad I am to have you in my life today. I know that Valentine's is typically for the romance, but I think it's also for any love and I have so much for you. You taught us how to love, always told us you loved us and I don't think I realized that some people don't grow up hearing that. We never had to doubt that you and Dad had so much love for me and Meg. I am so glad the last year is over for you (us). I mean, I knew I loved ya' and that you were awesome before 2011, but I don't think I really knew how much or what it would mean to not have you around. You plowed through the last year with such strength and courage and humor. I don't know that I would be able to handle it as gracefully. I am thankful that we're not back at Valentine's 2011 with so much unknown and scary stuff ahead of us. It seems like forever ago and just yesterday, all at the same time.

I am SO happy for you that you can stay up as late as you want and sleep in (who would have ever guessed?!) as you begin your retired life with Dad. I'm jealous that you can wear sweatpants all day and not leave the house if the weather is crummy. I'm glad you two haven't killed each other (yet) and even seem pretty happy in your little world. I love living close by, getting to see you often and how welcoming you are to my friends. It's really nice. You are such a good host and always wanting to teach me something and help make me better. I don't think I say thank you enough. I think it's great that you get so excited about Pinterest and I love how when we're together, people always say, "That's your Mom, isn't it?" cause we look so much alike (even though you don't think so). There's something comforting with the world being able to tell who you belong to.

See, we even wore the same outfit today. :)

I look forward to many more holidays, celebrations, debates, laughs, discussions and most importantly, time, together. You are such a good Mom and worked so hard to give Meg and me everything. Hopefully some day we'll be able to return the favor and maybe even have kids we can teach all of those lessons to. We love you, and Bob too! :) Happy Valentine's Day!

Love,
Shell

Loving....

In this week of love and Valentine's week, I wanted to share some things I'm loving lately. Lots it seems like making me happy.

Including, a trip with my friend Sarah to visit our friend Amanda in Denver. We thought we weren't gonna make it because of a blizzard there, but we did and we we had the best time! This is a picture of Sarah when we got back to KC and it made me laugh because somehow she ended up with 3 purses.....from here we went to Mi Ranchito- Sarah's first time there! Love it!



This is a really crummy picture but I couldn't get a good one...it's of the bracelet Sarah gave me (she got a 3-pack from our friend at work, Jenny). You keep one in the pack and give two others away.....it's from www.positivity.org and it says positivity on it. A reminder to be positive and have a good attitude! Sometimes I need it....I wear it to work a lot!

This is the new canvas art I got last week for my bathroom on my main floor. It makes me happy. The woman who makes them is a KU grad that works in Boston, but I bought it at a local store here. If you can't read it, in the lower left it says, "We must take every opportunity to make the most of this very remarkable life." Love it.

My mom tried a new recipe from Pinterest last night- a taco casserole bake. The picture doesn't do it justice but it was really good.

Peanut Butter Cheerios. I am LOVING them! I am pretty much told everyone I know. If you haven't already tried them and you're a peanut butter fan, do it!

Rearranging my furniture! Not sure why I love this so much, but here are a few new little spots in my house. :)

Thanks to Pinterest, I did quite a bit of Valentines crafting this year...here is the wreath for my parents house.

This is the wreath on my front door....couldn't do red since the door is red!

Mini wreaths leaning up on my mantle....

And, tonight, we had family dinner with my parents, cousin and her boyfriend.....nothing fancy but tasty and entertaining.

How my dad arrived....he didn't know if the dress code was casual or dressy, so he did both....scarf and black sweats. Looks like he is carrying a purse. :)

The baked zuichinni chips and ravioli....so good!

Linds with the Trader Joe drink my cousin brought...

The heart shaped pizza (courtesy of Papa Murphy's)...

Linds trying to get in the trifle....

A really random game we invented after dinner.....see who can blow the candle out at the furthest distance. Things got pretty wild!

Happy Valentine's Week, friends! Hope you are having lots of things you're loving too. xo

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!

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. :)

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!!

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

Holiday Baking

Perhaps a bit late, but wanted to share a couple new things I tried in the world of baking over the holidays with my family....both are treats that I would recommend.

I have had my mom's breadmaker for quite awhile but have never used it. My friend Sarah has the same one and uses it a lot. She frequently makes cinnamon rolls for her kids and I thought it would be good to learn how to do it. So, she showed me and I replicated my lesson the day after Christmas for my family. I ended up using cream cheese in the frosting, which surprisingly, I didn't care for....but the rolls were pretty good!

Also, a few days before Christmas, my sis said she was really wanting some homemade bread pudding. I have never made it, but our grandma did frequently and we LOVED it! I know it's not a dessert that everyone would probably like (for those that don't like desserts without chocolate....ahem, Kylie), but it brings up lots of good memories of growing up and sneaking a bite of it from our grandma's stove. :) So, I found a recipe online and tried it out. We didn't put the sauce over it, but maybe would try that another time. We ate it Chrismas evening while we watched "The Holiday"....will definitely make it again sometime. But we won't have it anytime soon as my sis and I are having a Biggest Loser battle that started this week.....more on that soon....