One Blessed Child of God

I have been having the best week. On Sunday, we met my parents and my sister's family to celebrate my birthday. My parents gave me new tires for my car. They are so awesome. On Monday, Jason had to take my car to the shop to get new brakes. While it was a huge, unprepared for expense, it is okay. We will be able to pay for them in no time thanks to Jason's great job. Jason also got us season tickets to the Cobb Symphony yesterday. (mentioned below) We went to an awesome small group last night with people who are similar to us. It was wonderful. Today, I finished testing early and went to pick up some supplies at one of the other schools and was able to leave about 30 minutes early. When I got home I had a letter from the Georgia Student Finance Commission. I had applied for a scholarship in the fall and did not receive it. This new letter awarded me the scholarship for last semester and this semester. It basically pays for most of my tuition. While this has already been paid, I shouldn't have to take out any more student loans to finish my masters. My book for my class tomorrow also arrived this afternoon, so I was able to do my homework. All in all a decent week and..... I have tomorrow off! I am celebrating my birthday with a day off work.

Now to find something to feed my belly for dinner.

Job Perks

Today, Jason closed a deal with the Cobb Symphony Orchestra. The Georgia Flyer donated advertising to the symphony. In exchange, Jason got us season tickets to the symphony. I am so excited. Anyway, I am in need of a dress and with that, some suggestions on where to look and what to look for. I really don't have anything nice to wear. I don't really dress up for work or church, so this is one of the first opportunities I have had in a long time to get all dressed up. We are planning on going for Valentines Day, so I have to start my search now. Yea!

*edit*

I may have totally jumped the gun, but I found a dress! I looked at J. Crew, because I always like their stuff, but just can't afford it. Well, they are having a pretty good sale. All of their sale stuff is 30% off the sale price with the code EXTRA30. I have no idea when this will be over, because their site is having issues. Anyway, I found a dress. Regularly, the dress was $165. I have never had a dress that cost that much, except for my wedding dress. On sale it was $50, but I got it for around $47 including shipping and tax. Needless to say, I am so excited.

Here is the dress. Let me know what you think.
It is J Crew's silk chiffon Sophia dress. I love the words silk and chiffon. I think it will be so pretty. I wanted a more subdued color, but my sale choices were this or a bright yellow color. I have a feeling yellow would not look so good and we will be going for Valentines Day, so the color is fitting.

I have to go get ready for small group now. I am just way too excited about all of this.

Happy Birthday Jason!

In honor of Jason's 26th birthday, I thought I would post the recipe for his favorite cake. Jason doesn't really like a lot of sweet stuff, so this cake is right up his ally. It doesn't have frosting. It uses Cool Whip instead. Now, this is a family recipe, so my directions are not going to be all nice and put together, but I will make it better than how it is written on my recipe card.

So, in honor of Jason's birthday and the two people who gave me the recipe (Jenny and Granny June) here is:

Strawberry Cake

1 box strawberry cake mix (make as directed on box)
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups water
3 Tbs. corn starch
3 oz. box strawberry Jello
1 box sliced frozen strawberries (defosted)
1 container Cool Whip (I usually get the bigger one, because it is better to have too much than too little)

1. make strawberry cake as directed in box. Bake in 13x9 sheet pan.
2. once cake is out of the oven, let it cool while mixing the sugar, water, cornstarch, and Jello in a pan over medium-high heat. Boil this until thick. (all I can say is that you will notice a difference. It becomes kind of like a syrup)
3. poke holes all over cake. Don't worry about being neat. The more holes the better, and any crumbs will be covered over with Cool Whip. I tear mine up pretty good.
4. pour the Jello mixture over the cake
5. cool cake in refrigerator
6. once cake is cool, pour strawberries over the cake and top with Cool Whip
7. If this is your birthday cake, put the appropriate number of candles on the top
8. serve and enjoy

This is a very yummy cake that would be very refreshing in the spring or summer. I can't say I have ever had it at that time though since my wonderful husband was born in January.

Now I have to get ready for his party. Chinese food and strawberry cake. Together at last!

Check out my Brother-in-Law on CNN!

Darren is a tour guide for Dialog in the Dark. Here is the video.

Miles Today

Today has been a beautiful day. It started out cold, but it is in the 60s or so now. Even though it was so nice today, I didn't even think about going to ride my bike. When I got home today, all I wanted was a snack (apples and peanut butter) and to play Tetris. Jason got me a Tetris game for Christmas and it is a lot of fun to play. Well, while I was eating my snack, Jason called me and told me that I should go ride my bike. I did and I rode about 6 miles. It might be closer to 5, but, regardless, that is still a lot. I am a little wary about riding on the SCT by myself, because a few years ago a lady was killed on the trail in my county, but I figured there would be enough people out today that I should be fine. The only weird thing was that a guy in the parking lot told me that I should be careful riding by myself and that I should get mace. Maybe I will look into that. There just isn't much place to put stuff like that in my ridiculous bike pants. :)

Last night was Jason's first night of class, so I was on my own. I decided that I wanted to make something good and different for dinner. I went to Kroger and wandered around looking for something yummy for supper. As I was passing the organic aisle, I noticed that they have a ton of soups in boxes. This led me to find a package of Pad Thai ingredients. I love Pad Thai and my middle of nowhere Kroger doesn't carry the brand I used to buy (not organic), so I haven't made it in forever. They also haven't carried my bean sprouts either. Anyway, I grabbed that and from there tried to figure out what I wanted to put in it. Usually I put chicken, but since it was just me, the world was open to me. Also, I didn't want to buy a package of chicken. Underneath the Pad Thai was some tofu. Again, since I was just making it for me I put that in my basket. Then I went in search of bean sprouts. Low and behold, they had my sprouts (mung bean sprouts for those that don't know). I got those and some peanuts and made my way to checkout and then home. All in all, my foray into organic/all natural cooking and tofu was a success. I really enjoyed my Pad Thai and Jason even ate some, tofu and all. Now I have to figure out what to do with the other half of my tofu.

New Year, New Changes

There are a few new changes happening in our little family this year. It has kind of been an interesting start to a year. I'll start with the smallest one, but one I'm not sure I was really ready for.

Change number 1: Last week, Jason canceled our satellite tv. We currently have so much hooked up to our tv that we do not lack for entertainment. We were basically keeping the satellite because I wouldn't call an cancel. Well, they told Jason that we were paid up until the 25th of this month. That gave me a little time to adjust to not having the tv. When I came home for lunch today, I sat down with my Lean Cuisine to watch a recoded episode of J&L plus 8. For some reason, the satellite would not connect. Oh, no!! They have already disconnected our service! I didn't realize yesterday when I was cooking I was watching my last Gilmore Girls re-run on regular tv. Now I have to do some sort of computer voodoo to make it work. Things are oddly silent right now. I am going to have to make sure there is something I want to watch on our Netflixs queue or I will be out of luck.

Change number 2: Jason registered for art classes at North Metro today. He will be taking a Photoshop class two nights a week starting Thursday. I am really proud of him, but it means that 3 nights a week we will be spending in classes. I guess I need to start buying packable food and snacks, because it looks like we won't be eating dinner at home for awhile.

Change number 3: I'm going to call it my two degree shift (this is reference to the sermon at West Ridge on Sunday). Jason gave me a bike rack for my Xterra for Christmas. I realize that I live only a few feet from the Silver Comet Trail, but a big barrier to me riding Jason's old bike was all that it took to get to the trail. By the time I rode my bike through the neighborhood and off-roaded to the trail, I didn't want to ride. Anyway, Saturday was our first chance to ride on the trail after getting the bike rack. We rode 6 miles. The two degree shift I want to make is to ride at least twice a week. I would have ridden yesterday or today, but Jason and I have had some miscommunications about which car to drive and I have not had the car with the bike rack until it was too dark to ride. Tomorrow though, I am riding my bike!

Other updates: I am beginning my second to last semester of my Master's next week. By golly, I am so ready to be finished. Last semester almost did me in. Between work, my practicum students, and my own schoolwork, I was exhausted and overwhelmed. I am hoping that won't happen again this semester. We will see. Luckily we have more breaks this semester than we did in the fall. That will help.

I think that is all of the changes that are going on in our lives right now. I'm sure there will be more. This is only the sixth day of January (Happy Birthday Beth!!!)

New Year's Yumminess

Jason and I had quite a Christmas week. It started Christmas Eve and didn't really end until New Year's Eve. Needless to say, we both did not want to go out for New Year's Eve. I did want to have some fun though. I made a bunch of appetizers and set them up on the table for us to much on.

Here is the menu:
chicken wings
fruit with fruit dip
carrots with ranch dressing
hot artichoke dip
cheese and crackers

Here are the recipes for the fruit dip and the artichoke dip. I got them from my absolute favorite cookbook, Betty Crocker's Bridal Edition Cookbook. My mother-in-law got it for me when we got married.

I will include the changes I made to the recipes as well (I can't leave well enough alone).

Creamy Yorgut Fruit Dip
8 oz cream cheese, softened (I didn't let mine soften, so I beat it in the mixer a little longer)
1 container orange yogurt (I couldn't find orange yogurt, so I used vanilla)
1/2 cup orange marmalade
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg (I don't have an 1/8 tsp measurer, so I just put a couple dashes in)
2 Tbs coarsely chopped pecans [optional] (I actually really liked the nuts in this dip)
Cut up fruit (I had apples, grapes, and pineapple)

1. beat cream cheese in medium bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until creamy. Beat in yogurt, marmalade, and nutmeg until smooth. Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
2. spoon mixture into serving bowl. Top with chopped pecans. Serve with fruit.

I left mine beating in the mixer on medium for a while. It made it fluffy. I did this mainly because I didn't soften the cream cheese, but I really liked the texture after it had mixed awhile.

Hot Artichoke Dip
1/2 cup mayo (you can probably use Miracle Whip/grossness too, but I don't like it, so I didn't)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (I used shredded)
4 medium green onions, shopped (I don't really like onions, so I just used some onion flakes)
14 oz can artichoke hearts, chopped
crackers or bread

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees
2. Mix mayonaise and cheese in small bowl. Stir in onions and artichoke hearts. Spoon in 1 qt. casserole.
3. Cover and bake 20 to 25 minutes. Serve warm.

I mixed everything in the corningware dish that I cooked it in. It saves me from having to watch a bunch of dishes. After I mixed the dip together I thought it looked a little bland (maybe this would have been helped by the green onions) so, I sprinkled bread crumbs on top of the casserole. It didn't affect the taste, but I thought it made it look pretty.