Trevor's 30th Birthday Wiffle Ball Game

This year for Trevor's birthday, he wanted to play Wiffle Ball. It seems random BUT, we have some friends that do this every year for their birthday. We were invited last year and had so much fun. (Thanks for the idea David and Amy!) Trevor came home that night and ordered a Wiffle Ball set and has been talking about it ever since. So, that's what we did!

Since we celebrated on Cinco de Mayo (we celebrated a little late due to being out of town and a hectic schedule) we decided to have a Mexican feast. We had tacos, taquitos, queso, chips, dip and dessert. I don't think anyone went hungry.

It was fun finally getting to have people over to our house and getting to entertain. We have missed that since selling our other house.

This is where we played Wiffle Ball. Thankfully it was not a muddy mess like we were expecting. It turned out perfect. 

These families are so special to me! Thank you for making us a priority and coming to celebrate!

By chance 6 years ago we moved in next to these people. Seriously, God had his hand in our lives before we even knew it.  We were so lucky to have them as neighbors for 4 years! We love you Randy and Cassie! And your sweet kiddos. 

You all are true friends! Thank you for coming out to celebrate Trevor! We loved staying up wayyyyy too late catching up with y'all! 

What a fun day! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TREVOR and congrats to your team on winning the Wiffle Ball game!

Trevor's actual birthday is April 27th. We did celebrate as a family that day too. I went up to Trevor's work so I could meet his new co-workers and see his new office. Then me and the boys took him to Cheddars.

Thank you Usborne Books and More for keeping my kiddo entertained through lunch! :)

That night we ate fried tacos and homemade Oreo Cheesecake with family!

Recipe Here

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABE!! I hope 30 is one to remember! :)

4-Ingredient Twice Baked Spaghetti Squash

I have been on a role with cooking lately, so I thought I would share the ones that were easy and delicious!

I'm a fan of things that are only 4 ingredients!!

So here it is:

Ingredients:
*1 Spaghetti Squash
*1/2-1 cup pasta sauce
*1/2-1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
*1 lb. Italian sausage
*Optional: Salt and Pepper
*Optional: Italian seasoning

Directions:
*Set oven to 375 degrees.
*With a sharp knife, cut spaghetti squash in half lengthwise. **This is hard! I had to have Trevor do it!
*Remove the seeds and discard.
*Place spaghetti squash cut side down on a greased baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes.
*Cook your Italian sausage.
*Remove spaghetti squash from oven and with a fork, loosen and separate spaghetti squash strands from shell. Reserve shells.
*Place strands in a bowl and mix with pasta sauce and cooked Italian sausage (and any seasoning you want). Adjust the amount of sauce based on your own preference. Spoon mixture back into the empty shells.
*Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.
*Bake for 7-9 minutes of until cheese in melted, bubbly and slightly browned. Spoon and serve directly in shell.

NOTE: Trevor and I made this two meals. We were going to each eat a shell full, but that was a ton of food. So, we split one for one meal and then saved the rest for the next day.

ANOTHER NOTE: I am NOT the best food photographer....so don't judge a book by it's cover! :)

I originally got the recipe here, I just added Italian sausage.

Mozzarella Tomato and Basil Chicken

I am all about easy yummy recipes, so when I come across one that is amazing, I have to share!

This is a recipe I found on pinterest awhile back and for some reason just recently decided to make and it is AMAZING!! It takes about 3 minutes to prep and then 30 minutes in the oven. I like anything that has a 3 minute prep!

INGREDIENTS:
-Boneless skinless chicken
-Basil Pesto
-Tomato
-Mozzarella cheese
-Salad (optional)

DIRECTIONS:
-Preheat oven to 370 degrees
-Chop a tomato in slices
-Spray the bottom of a dish with non-stick spray
-Lay out your chicken
-Top with Basil Pesto
-Top with slices of tomato
-Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top
-Bake for 30-35 minutes

We sliced ours up and put it on top of some lettuce to make a salad. I added a little Lemon Garlic salad dressing, but that wasn't really needed since you have the pesto and tomato juice. You could also serve it as a main dish with a couple side items. Seriously, it's so good!!!

Here is the original place I found the recipe! She even posted a one minute video on what to do specifically!

One Pan Chicken Dinner

I saw this recipe and knew I had to give it a try. With a baby on the way, I know that Trevor and I will need some EASY meals to make with an EASY cleanup at the end, so I thought I would share this recipe. 

All you need:

3 chicken breasts (or however many you want to do)

4 medium sized potatoes (any potatoes you like)

green beans (you could also do broccoli or any other size item you like)

butter - however much your heart desires

italian dressing mix packet

What to do:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cut the check breasts in half

Cut the potatoes in small chunks

Spray the bottom of a pan - I used a 13x9 pan

Put the chicken in the middle and the potatoes and green beans on each side.

Top with the italian dressing - use as much as you want...I used the whole thing because we like seasonings and pour melted butter over the top

Cover with aluminum foil and then bake for an hour. 

Makes for great leftovers as well!!

OKRA

Seriously...one of my favorite foods!! 

Trevor's dad recently moved to Porter and bought a house on several acres of land. They planted a garden and they now have a plethora of okra...and they are so kind to give us bundles of it when we go and visit! I think the first thing that comes to mind is making fried okra, but obviously we don't want to fry food every night (1. Not the healthiest and 2. Frying makes your whole house smell for a couple days!). So we had to find another recipe and here it is! Super easy! 

Get your okra...

Chop both ends off and chop it into bite size pieces. 

Drizzle some olive oil over it, and choose some spices to sprinkle on it. We used a combination of pepper, garlic, seasoning salt, etc. 

bake for 25 min on 425 and voila! Deliciousness!!!

Happy cooking!

Yummy Healthy Smoothie

Trevor and I started making these smoothies when we did the Daniel Fast at the beginning of the year. They are super easy, they don't require a lot of ingredients and they are yummy! So I thought I'd share. 

Here are the ingredients:

1 banana

1 cup almond milk (I used unsweetened vanilla)

1 cup frozen blueberries (you can use any frozen fruit or a mix, I just prefer blueberry)

1 tbs flaxseed

3 ice cubes 

I put all of the ingredients in my Ninja, mix it up and done! 

I have even made a few at a time and just stored it in my refrigerator for the next few mornings. Delish!!

Bad Luck Comes in Threes

This weekend we were hit with a string of bad luck. It all started on Thursday when we were cooking dinner. Trevor and I were both standing at our stove cooking and all of a sudden we heard a crashing noise and we noticed that my EAT wooden letters had fallen. It was one of those things that you don't notice it until it's missing, but we soon realized that there was a piece of Granite under my letters and it had fallen and broke. 

This is what it is supposed to look like: 

And as you can see the granite behind the stove fell and broke, and down went my letters! We are still wondering how we are going to fix this one!

Then, on Saturday we were cleaning out our garage since we were going to have friends over for the game. Trevor moved our ping-pong table outside while he was sweeping the floor. A gust of wind came and our ping-pong table goes flying through the air, hits our outdoor light and goes crashing to the ground in the grass. Initially, I was thinking it was a goner, but, we got really lucky and only a few easily replaceable pieces broke in the fall; our light wasn't so lucky. 

Here is what the light looks like on the opposite side...

And now it's gone. 

Lastly, Trevor was sitting in one of our outdoor chairs watching the game and his phone fell out of his pocket. It wasn't a long fall, but it must have hit just right and his screen shattered!

It would probably be best to stay away from the Morris' this week! Who knows what else will go wrong! 😩

On a different note...isn't this a cute appetizer dish! So easy to make! Bell peppers, 2 different dips, broccoli, carrots and cucumber, or whatever veggies you like! Yum!

Great for a gameday tailgate!! 

Have a great week! Hopefully our luck is looking up!

Vintage O & The Superbowl

This weekend we had lots of fun things planned! On Friday we had our neighbors over and cooked a great meal and played some Uno - yeah, I feel old admitting that!

On Saturday Trevor had to work in the morning til about 4 then we were headed to Vintage O-State Alumni Event! Trevor somehow got 4 tickets to go to the event so we asked some friends to join- thanks for coming Katie and Andrew! We might have been the youngest people there, but we had a great time! They had a few silent auctions that we thought about bidding on, but nothing stood out to us and then they had a real auction, but there were some high rollers there that we couldn't compete with!

I even got to cross something off my bucket list...getting a picture with Pistol Pete!!

 

And of course we had to take advantage of the photo booth!

No one was ready for the first one...

This one is my fav!

 

We literally were the last ones at the event - then we went and gambled lost all our money a little bit...We went back to Katie and Andrew's and hung out after the event and ended up staying up until 4 am! I can't tell you the last time I was awake that late!

The next morning we woke up to SNOW! I couldn't believe it! I heard there was a chance of snow, but I really didn't think we would get much. 

The dogs obviously LOVED it:

 

That afternoon we went to church and then to Reasor's to pick up the ingredients for our Superbowl festivities!

We decided to make Jalapeno Poppers and Stuffed Mushrooms...they both turned out fantastic!

 

My amazing husband helped me get things ready!...

Poppers before they went into the oven - I use the pioneer woman's recipe for these... and my favorite part is putting apricot jelly on them! Yum! ;) recipe **I add green onion and shredded cheese to the cream cheese!

Mushrooms!! Short Version - get 2 lbs of mushrooms and they are stuffed with 8 oz cream cheese, 1 lb sausage, 1/4 onion (chopped finely), 2 celery stalks (chopped finely), and 1/4 of a can of chopped black olives. Bake for 30 min on 350.
You won't be disappointed, they are delicious!! Thanks Vanessa for the recipe!

We decided to make Superbowl Squares and place our bets....Congratulations Samy and Brandon for winning them ALL!!! We decided they needed the money with baby Quinn coming soon! :)

Here is a picture of the amazing food!

 

We had a great time hanging out with our friends and watching the game. To be honest, the commercials didn't wow me, but I do have one favorite!! (I bet you can guess which one that was!)



That adorable puppy reminds me so much of Whiskey! :)

 

Now off to a week of more SNOW! I can't believe we have another snow day today - oh the life of being a teacher! We will be teaching until July at this rate...so I'm going to enjoy my day while I can!

HAPPY SNOWDAY!

Southern Pecan Coffee

There is a little place in Broken Arrow called Espress Oh! and Trevor and I just love it! They have really good doughnuts- that I try not to eat very often- that might have been a lie! ;) And there really is nothing special about their coffee but it is amazing!!! They don't make a bunch of specialty drinks like Rocket Brothers and Starbucks, but their coffee blends are just fantastic! They are so good that the last time Trevor and I were in there we decided to buy a case of their Southern Pecan blend and it just came in!!

Yayyyy!! I was so excited to make my yummy coffee this morning! 

If you are ever in BA, stop by this little place and grab some coffee! You won't be disappointed! Or come on by our house because we will be making some every morning! ;) ☕️

Duck Duck Goose

Well actually it's Duck, Goose, and Dove!!
Well hunting season is officially over....phew!! More often than not I don't mind hunting season, but with Trevor starting busy season at the beginning of January, working extremely long hours during the week and a few hours on Saturdays, the last thing I REALLY want is for Trevor to be out hunting during the few hours we have together during the weekend. I know Trevor loves hunting and it's only the first few weeks of busy, so I find ways to entertain myself! Plus he is usually gone so early that I don't even know he is gone half the time. Anyway...last weekend our neighbors Randy and Cassie decided we needed to fry up the duck, goose, and dove that they killed over the season. Although it was not a healthy evening by any means, we had fun frying up everything in the kitchen...

I know...it looks a little disgusting!

Battering them up...we did a few different variations of batter, but for the most part they all ended up tasting pretty similar. One was more flour based and then we used Bisquick in the others - of course we added several seasonings to all.

We fried up some potatoes and made some chips and then we did fish as well...it was delicious!!!!

Next up was the duck, goose and dove...

To be completely honest, the only thing that tasted good at all to me was the dove! The others liked the goose and duck as well, but I stuck with just the dove.

It was definitely an experience for me...however, I don't see myself cooking much goose or duck in the up and coming months! If you do choose to cook duck or goose, I don't think I would recommend frying it. I know that those meats are supposed to be cooked really rare and the fryer just cooks it too fast that it ends up being a little over done. Trevor sent quite a bit of duck and goose away for someone to make sausage and jerky...so I'll let you know how all that turns out when we get the results!
Well this was officially the most un-girly post I have ever written!
I'm kind of behind on posts, so I will try and catch up in the next week or so! HAPPY MONDAY!

The Weekend

This weekend was the first weekend that we literally did not have anything planned...I feel like those weekends sometimes end up being the busiest, but this one was alright! On Friday when I got home from work, this is what I came home to:

They have started clearing the land behind our house...it will eventually be another neighborhood, but we were hoping we would be in our home a little longer before they started all this. Hopefully no one will want to build right behind us for awhile or we will have to redo our fence!

When Trevor got home he had a little surprise in the mail:

It's official!! He is a Certified Public Account!!! YAY!

On Friday night Trevor went and hung out with some friends and I hung out with our neighbor...it was nice just having a relaxing evening! On Saturday morning Trevor's mom, grandma, Trevor and myself all went to Darnaby's craft show

It was basically a mini Affair of the Heart, but we got some great Christmas presents, so it was worth going! I'm really starting to like these arts and crafts shows!

We had to go through the craft show rather quickly because the OSU game started at 11 and for the second week in a row I do not want to say anything about the game!
About half way through the game our neighbor, Cassie asked if I wanted to go to the Circus with her and her mom because her husband, Randy wanted to stay and watch the game. I don't think I have ever been to a circus so I was excited to go! My favorite part was the Elephants!!



Isn't this the funniest picture!! ;)

That evening since I was in the "circus" mood Trevor and I watched Water for Elephants! I've never read the book but I have heard the book is better (when is it the other way around). But since I haven't read the book, I really liked the movie.

I have actually been really busy today! Between cleaning the house and grading this stack of papers,

Trevor and I did make a fantastic dinner! (Keep reading for details!)

Before we started on dinner Trevor, our neighbor, and his dad put up an electric fence around our yard so Whiskey will learn not to dig. Well this somewhat backfired, because after they got everything put up, they wanted the dogs (including Winston) to get near the fence so they will learn that it will shock them. Well it scared Winston half to death, and he ended up having a seizure! Needless to say, I was extremely mad after this because Winston has gone exactly 2 months since his last seizure, which is the longest time between seizure he has gone! I have set the ground rule that the electric fence is no longer allowed to be on if Winston is going to be outside!!
After that whole fiasco, we went out to Trevor's family's land and let Whiskey get used to being in the water and swimming. We also went and shot guns.

Whiskey and Trevor

 

 

 

Our neighbors, Randy and Cassie's dog, Mox.

Whiskey and Mox

Regan, our cousin, shooting

My first time ever to shoot a gun.

Overall it was a fun afternoon other than Winston's seizure.

Now time for our dinner:
As you know, Trevor went to North Dakota and killed a lot of ducks which has left us with a LOT of duck meat. So Trevor decided he was going to try out a recipe with duck. It was actually delicious, so I decided to share! Here it is:


Ingredients: 1 cup sugar, 1.5 tablespoon flour, 1 onion, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup teriyaki marinade, 1 and 1/2 cups canola oil, pineapple chunks, sunflower seeds, and 12 duck breasts

Directions:

• Mix everything except the pineapple and duck meat in a blender. Blend the other ingredients. Put aside about a cup and a half of the marinade for dressing later. Let the duck meat marinade in the mix over night.
• Wrap in foil with pineapple chunks and grill for about 12 minutes.
• When you serve it, pour a little of the dressing on the top.

We then made twice baked potatoes, cowboy corn, and Cassie made cheesy biscuits!
(The recipe for the twice baked potatoes and corn came from the Pioneer Woman Cookbook!)

Another great weekend!! I'm getting so excited for Christmas! I love having our home all decorated for Christmas and of course listening to Christmas music!! Happy December!!