Cooking with my crock pot

Since we've been spending most of our days at our office, I've been looking for creative ways to cook our meals without resorting to eating out or buying frozen dinners. My salvation for this dilemma came in the form of the crock pot that we received as a wedding present.

I'm not entirely new to the concept of using a crock pot. My mom would use one to make pot roast while I was growing up and I've seen my grandmother do the same. However, I never really thought of using it for much else until we ended up running this office, which has a kitchen but no stove. That's when I started doing some research and learned that there's literally a ton of recipes out there that you can make in your crock pot. As a matter of fact I'm currently trying to cook some rice in mine as I type this. I'll let you know how it comes out and maybe one day I'll actually get my things together to post pictures and maybe even a video.

Anyway, I mostly wanted to give anyone who is interested the links to these two recipes that I've recently cooked.

This first one is for a baked potato soup and it's incredibly easy and delicious! The only thing I would suggest is if you like your soup to have some chunks of potatoes, remove some of them and set them aside before you use your blender or immersion blender. I forgot to do that but the soup was still really tasty.

 Baked Potato Soup

This next recipe is also very, very good. I only wish I had doubled the recipe because it did not last long at all after I made it.

Slow Cooker Cream Cheese Chicken Chili

You can also follow me on Pinterest and check out my boards. I've got one specifically for crock pot recipes and I've also got a board that I try to keep updated with pins that I've actually done. My new goal is to try these different things out and share my experiences with you on this blog. So, hopefully the next time I post I'll have a little more detailed post about the next thing that I try to make. Oh, and the directions that I got for cooking rice in my slow cooker can be found here:

Crock Pot Rice

We've Moved

Yes, as the title says, we've moved. If you have been reading my posts then you'll know that in the last one I spoke of how we were considering the opportunity to run a branch of my grandparent's tax business. Obviously, we decided to do that and after several weeks of packing over the Christmas holidays we finally made the move. Mostly. We still have about half of our trailer to pack but it's all my home decor and whatnot. So not a very big deal. The biggest thing going on in our lives right now is finding a place to live. We've stayed at my parent's, we've stayed at his grandmother's, and we've stayed at the office. The last, I should mention, is an old house that was converted into an office. So we haven't been sleeping under a desk or anything, there's actually a room that wasn't being used in the back that we converted into our living area and it would be perfect except for the fact that living where you work doesn't appeal to either of us. So we've mainly been staying at either my parent's home or at his grandmother's where our RV is parked.

As for the business, it's going well. Things have slowed down a little bit and I know we'll have to get jobs after the end of tax season as the revenues from here will help us a little but we will need more as my student loans will be coming due soon. I'll have one or two classes left after this semester and I'm hoping to finish those in the summer and graduate in the fall.

I'm sure that I've missed something important that I was going to write about, but at the moment my mind is drawing a blank, which isn't surprising as I have a head cold and that makes my mind move slower than it normally does. So, if you have a question about me that I didn't answer in this post then ask it. Or e-mail it to me or message it. Or don't ask at all. I seriously doubt anyone will, I'm not that interesting.

Wow, this post took a depressing turn. I think it's probably because I'm tired and not feeling so well. You know what, just ignore these last two paragraphs. I feel like I'm rambling more than usual at this point than I usually do and it's starting to irritate me. So I'm finishing this post. Now. Seriously, right. Now.

I suck at this

Yes I saw that my last post was in August. August! Although, to be fair I was in the middle of planning my wedding and going to school.

What's that? Not a good enough excuse? Ah, you may be right. Whoever you are. I don't think there are many people reading this. But, it gives me yet another reason to not do laundry and so I continue to type.


So let's catch up shall we? We made it through the wedding and everyone said they had a blast, as did we. So that all went well. And the honeymoon was awesome too, even if I did try to show Doug everything Disney World has in the form of rides and entertainment. I've learned to take it slower with him. He got a little overwhelmed with it all. On the way back from the honeymoon I came down with a lovely cold and then Doug did shortly thereafter. We managed to finally get over those and then it was time to go back down to Doug's hometown of Camden so that he could be in his brother's wedding. And then after we got over that wedding we went back down for Thanksgiving. We're currently getting ready to go down to my parent's this weekend for Doug's birthday, which is this Friday. Oh, and we also brought back with us Doug's blue tick beagle Fred. Fred likes to talk, a lot. My parents still have Taco, I've been meaning to bring him back with me every time we've been over there but we end up with a truck load of wedding presents or clothes or something that ends up taking up all the interior space of whatever we're driving. I'm convinced my mother does this so she can keep him longer. She gets sad every time I talk about taking him, but it's going to happen. lol

So we've been burning up the roads quite a bit and we've been wondering if we should just move back down there. Especially since I've only got one more semester before I FINALLY graduate. And then my grandparent's offered to let us take control of their office in Thomasville. So, as of right now, we're contemplating moving back down in the next couple of weeks to begin working there in January. Part of our trip down to see my family is to talk to my grandparents about this and see if it is something that would work for us. It most certainly would help reduce our fuel costs.

I'm sure I'll post about what happens with all that at some point. But right now I want to talk about something that has come into my life recently and has consumed me. I'm speaking of course, of Pinterest. If you've never heard of this magical place then I'll briefly tell you. It's basically a place where women share what they've found and you're then able to "pin" these ideas onto boards that you have made. For example, I have a board called My Style that I pin any pictures of outfits, hairstyles, nail polish, etc. that I see on there and that I like. I'm then able to browse through them at my leisure and click on the pictures for more information.  That website has given me more inspiration and ideas than all my web searching over the years. And I've even started making some of the things I've pinned. The first thing that I started was an ornament wreath and it was shortly thereafter stalled as I didn't have a hot glue gun and I kept forgetting to get my mother's when I visited. The second project was powdered laundry detergent and I'm eagerly awaiting the rest of the detergent that I'm using to run out so I can try it out. It smells fabulous and I'll post a link for it at the end of my ramblings. The other and currently latest thing that I have done is make one of the recipes that I found (cookies!) and I'll post a link to that too. The only suggestions I have for the cookies is to put some sort of spice in it to give it some flavor or otherwise it will taste like sugar and blah. I was disappointed when I ate one last night because they have buttermilk in the cookie and the frosting and I thought they would have this buttermilky flavor to it and they just tasted like sugar. Then Doug grabbed the cinnamon and suggested that we dust them with it and OH MY GOODNESS! We call them Cinnamon Roll Cookies. Right after he added the cinnamon I said that the icing tasted more like what you would put on a cinnamon roll and he agreed as we nibbled on them. So try it, you won't be disappointed. Here's the links!

Old Fashioned Buttermilk Cookies

Laundry Detergent

I'm sure I'll be back to post about more things that I've found and want to share. Until then!

Marital bliss is only 38 days away!

Wow I haven't done a very good job of keeping this blog updated. But at least I'm trying by posting today.

So let's see, what have I been up to?

Well the biggest thing in my life at the moment is my upcoming wedding on October 8th. Which, as you can see by the title of my blog, is only a mere 38 days away. I'm not really sure where the time has gone but most things have already fallen into place, thankfully. Needless to say, I will be thoroughly busy in September with showers, school, and finishing up all the little details for the big day as well as getting our RV ready to go for our honeymoon to Disney World. That's right, I talked Doug into it. Haha!

We had originally chosen Colorado and after adding things up, we realized that it wasn't going to happen thanks to gas prices and us wanting to have a week for the honeymoon. So we chose Ashville, North Carolina as our second option. And while it was shaping up to be an ok honeymoon, I wanted us to have a blast. And Doug had never been to Disney before. He's never even ridden a roller coaster. And then I saw a special that Disney was having for their campground and it actually was cheaper for us to stay down there with tickets, campsite, and food for a week than it was to stay in the other places that we had previously settled on.

So I didn't get to have my wedding there, but I still get to go there on our honeymoon and that's fine with me!

Interesting

I was browsing through random news articles this morning and found this: Restaurant says it has heard enough, bans kids

As I read through this article I was thinking, wow, there's going to be a lot of parents commenting about how horrible this is and whine and complain. Surprisingly though, that isn't the case. I just kept reading comment after comment about how people who have children need to *gasp* discipline their children and be a parent.

Now, I never make comments on any article that I read online. I don't do this because there are people that are going to argue with you just because they like to argue. Especially if it's something that gets me irritated. I personally believe if I post something in an angry fashion then all I'm doing is sinking to the level of the people that are arguing and fighting already.

But that's a whole other topic for a whole other post. My point for posting a link to this article is that it got me to thinking that I wasn't nearly alone as I thought in the viewpoint that some people feel like they have the right to let their children be disruptive when they're in a public place. And I mean anywhere, not just restaurants. I've been told, and I also remember that growing up, that I was quite a handful. However, I mostly behaved when we were taken out into public and that's because my parent's taught me that I was either going to behave or I was going to be punished appropriately. And I could go into a whole rant about how people need to discipline their children more, but I think it's pretty obvious already. I would like to think that the people who do nothing and/or encourage the bad behavior in their children would read all the comments and think, well they may have a point. Instead most people automatically get offended. I think what I'm trying to say here is, all of you people that have such children should try being open to criticism and suggestion. Someone might tell you something that could make your life a little easier and help you control your kids.

And I'll go ahead and say that I don't have children, as anyone that knows me is well aware of. However, if for some reason you're reading this and don't know me, no, I don't have children. But I did work at a daycare for awhile and I've babysat several times as well. And while some may say that's not very much experience, I will say that I've taken care of good children and bad children and the bad children that I had to give time outs to and get on to the most were the ones that got upset the most when I finally had to leave and move to Tuscaloosa.

The point of that little story was to say that, while I don't have children, I've had some experience with them and you get a whole lot more respect from them if you keep them in line rather than letting them do as they please. Because I could have let them run wild. I was the only one supervising my room at the daycare and of course I was the only one babysitting, so I could have cared less and let them be crazy. But to save myself some grief and maybe teach the children some manners, I disciplined them if they did something wrong. It wasn't fun, but the more you do it the easier it is and while the child may be mad at you at the moment, they will respect you eventually and that's very important in my book. I also know that it will be different when I have my own that need to be disciplined. I'm sure it will be much harder for me to do that to my own, but I'm going to do it. For my children's own good, for mine and Doug's own good, and for the good of everyone else. My parent's didn't put up with my crap and I'm thankful everyday for it because I believe that I have more respect for others because of it.

Ok, I'm finished ranting now. Take what you will from this, it's merely my thoughts on the matter and nothing more. Feel free to comment if you'd like.

The first

Is it sad that immediately after creating this account, the first thing I do is start fiddling with the customization options instead of posting? Nah.

So, first post of many. I hope. I had thought about starting up a blog again, since several moons ago I did so on LiveJournal. I even thought about resurrecting my old account there, however, after reviewing it just several hours ago I've decided to just start from scratch. I was 18 when I started that blog and it mostly consisted of surveys and other random and silly things. And then my friend Caleb told me yesterday that he had started blogging on this website and that I should start up one as well. So here I am, starting this one and hopefully chronicling some of the more interesting parts of my life thus far.

So what to talk about? Well I suppose I could talk about the biggest thing that's going to be happening to me in just a short 89 days. And that would be the day that I marry my best friend. If you've known me awhile then you know that this is one of the biggest things in my life that I've wanted and waited for. I can't put into words how amazingly happy I am to have found the man that I was meant to spend the rest of my life with. And I found him when I wasn't even looking for him, which was when I always said that I would probably find him. haha!

I always thought that finding my future husband was going to be the hard part and that planning the wedding was going to be easy. And oh my sweet goodness did I ever get that wrong! It turns out that I had it backwards. Sure, finding him took a couple of years, but trying to figure out what will go where, invitations, bridesmaid dresses, MY dress, the cake, the food, tablecloths, how many tables, the lighting, the planting (we're sprucing up my parent's yard, which is where we're getting married), building the arbor, and other random things are enough to drive me crazy. I think it's all the options that are thrown at you, at least that's my case. It took me FOREVER to make my mind up about what to pick out.Thankfully we have just about everything booked now and I even have a dress ordered. So a lot of stress has been taken care of and I'm enjoying having a little break right now. I'm not out of the woods yet though, there's still plenty to be done. Which is why I'll be ending this post now. I've got to look up recipes for the rehearsal dinner.

Until next time dear readers!