My Thoughts on Fall TV

First a little disclaimer...

THE PERSON WRITING THIS BLOG ADMITS SHE DOES NOT HAVE THE GREATEST TASTE IN TV.  SHE UNDERSTANDS THAT SHE OFTEN WATCHES SHOWS AIMED AT YOUNG ADULTS AND THEREFORE MOST PEOPLE DO NOT AGREE WITH HER TV SHOW SELECTION (INCLUDING AND ESPECIALLY HER HUSBAND)!

...well, with that out of the way, let the festivities begin!  For sure a few shows that I was a fan of ended last year (most of which people probably agree should have ended).  And there are a few tried and true shows that even Darrin will watch with me, Criminal Minds and NCIS being two of them.  I'm also a pretty big fan of NCIS: Los Angles.  Glee is a probably the best thing on TV if you ask me and I could not be happier with the way this season started.  And, if it's on the CW, I will probably watch it - that means Gossip Girl, America's Next Top Model, Vampire Diaries, OTH (when it comes back on), etc...

As far as new shows go, I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about The Playboy Club...mainly because I remember being in high school and everyone wearing the Playboy Logo and I hated it!  I'm mildly pleased with the show but I think that's because it's a period show and I like things like that.

I feel like I'm in 7th grade again!

Moving on, I am totally loving Ringer.  It could be that Buffy is back on TV or the fact that they are doing a really great job keeping you guessing and just throwing out a little tidbit or two here and there. 

I must admit thought that my two new favorites are Revenge and Pan Am...which happened to be the two most talked about shows their year!  The casts for both of those shows are amazing and the storylines seem pretty well done.  I'm really looking forward to how they both play out! 

Great cast and great story line

Makes me wish I was a flight attendant in the 60's!

On a side note, I must admit the thing I dislike most about new fall tv is that there is a really good chance that my Thanksgiving a handful of the shows I've started watching will no longer be on the air...or, as with The Event last year, end the season on a cliffhanger and not get picked up for season 2!

Well we're spending the weekend at the beach for Darrin's late Bachelor Party (darn you Hurricane Irene!) so I'm sure the next post will be a little more entertaining!

Are you watching any of the new fall TV shows?  What TV show were you most looking forward to? 

National Coffee Day and Another Crock Pot Success!

So today is National Coffee Day!  In my mind, this should probably be a holiday we celebrate like Christmas.  And most companies agree - today is (or rather was) the day to get a free "Cup of Joe" at your favorite coffee establishment!  So many local coffee houses participated around here today - I'm just sad I didn't get the chance to visit them all!

I can't wait for the Starbucks to bring back their winter cups!

Today was also another day of Crock Pot experimenting at the Overholt house.  Like I mentioned before, Wednesday nights Darrin has a church commitment.  He is a Small Group Leader for 7th grade boys at our Church and they have their Worship Night on Wednesday. 

Darrin at 14 (he's on the far right!)

So before Darrin goes and shapes the minds of today's youth, I have 45 minutes to feed him.  Tonight we tried "The Best Slow Cooker Chicken Ever," a recipe I found on www.thenest.com and thought sounded pretty good!

Here's the recipe:

1 lb ground chicken
1 onion, diced
1 can chick peas, drained and rinsed
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup sun dried tomato pesto
1 tbsp flour
1 can died tomato
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp sugar
2 red peppers, chopped
1 zucchini, diced

Brown the chicken in a skillet and add to your crock pot
Add onion, chick peas, and salt to the chicken
In a small bowl combine the flour and pesto and stir til combined
Add the vinegar, sugar, and diced tomatoes (plus a little more salt) to the pesto mixture
Pour over the chicken, onion, and chick peas

Cook on low for 8-10 hours or high for 4-6 hours
Stir in the peppers and zucchini and cook on high for another 45 minutes or so
Serve over brown rice

My thoughts...it was YUMMY!!  I just wish it had more sauce.  Next time I plan on doubling that part of the recipe...but this will totally be added to my arsenal of easy dinners...and I'm looking forward to the leftovers.

Can't wait til tomorrow!

Now since Darrin's gone I must go clean off the DVR - I record a LOT of shows and I'm loving some of the new ones this year.  Check back tomorrow for more in the fun and exciting life of Alissa...maybe I'll break down my thoughts on this fall's TV Line up! But first...

Did you 'celebrate' National Coffee Day?  Do you prefer to make your own coffee at home or stop somewhere and pick some up?

Not Sure About You, But I'm Inspired!

Occasionally Darrin will send me an article he finds on Yahoo that he thinks I'd like.  We actually both love our "Yahoo articles" and talk about them quite a bit.

He sent me this little tidbit today and I must say I found it super interesting and really inspiring.  For those of you who don't want to leave my riveting prose to read the article I'll give you the gist of it.  It's an article written by a husband and father of two who's family is living comfortable on only $40,000 a year.  His wife is a stay at home mom and he is a teacher.

In the article he talks about how it was all about long-term planning for his family.  He also says the best piece of advice he has is that if broke people are making fun of you, you're doing something right. 

In today's world where everything is judged on having something bigger and better than the person next to you I think what this family is doing is really inspirational.  They are living very comfortably and well within their means and still enjoying life.  They're not trying to keep up with the Joneses, but are making the decisions that are best for their family.  It makes me want to start trimming the fat and doing what is best for our family and not what will make us look good to others.  If a family of four can do it, I'm sure our little family of 2 (plus three four-legged creatures) can!

Does anyone else think they could trim a little bit off our their budget? Where would you start the cuts?

The Waffle Debacle!

I'm not much of a breakfast person.  I don't eat traditional breakfasts on a day to day basis and therefore I don't cook breakfast that often.  On top of that, Darrin HATES eggs.  He can't eat them at all.  It's actually a long running joke between us - well actually it's a joke that makes me laugh and makes him roll his eyes!

Now that we're married I like the idea of weekend breakfast together.  We had very generous wedding guests and decided that we would put some of that generosity into a waffle maker!  Darrin really likes waffles and it's a fairly easy Saturday morning breakfast so I was super excited about this purchase.  I did decided to get Belgium Waffle mix instead of making the mix from the recipe that came with the waffle maker - more in effort to save on ingredients than anything else.

I got up yesterday morning super excited to try out our new kitchen tool.  I started cooking up some bacon and mixed my batter.  I read the instructions for the waffle maker three times (my mom was a teacher so I'm very into following rules!).  I measured out the batter perfectly and started making my first waffle.  We got a nice waffle maker with a little light that tells you when your waffle is ready.  When the green light came on this is what I got...

Not how it's meant to look...

...then I realized I left the egg out of the batter!!  Who forgets to add a MAIN INGREDIENT when there are only four you have to worry about in the first place?  The real issue is that I kept trying to remind myself to add it because I somehow knew I would forget!  So I chalked up this disaster to the lack of egg.  I tossed out the first batch and made a second - this time with egg.

Again, I poured the perfectly measured amount into the waffle iron and waited for my little green light.  This is what I got...

Missing a little bit of waffle

...I was very perplexed.  I read the instructions again - it's non-stick so you're not supposed to use cooking spray but that was the only thing I could think of that may fix this issue...and what do you know, it worked!!

So much better

Darrin's yummy plate!

I felt a little wrong not following the instructions, but the waffles turned out perfectly golden brown and delicious!  After adding peanut butter and syrup, Darrin was satisfied with his creation - on the other hand, I'm more of a butter and syrup kinda gal!  It was a really yummy breakfast and I'm looking forward to trying more creative waffles in the future - banana and chocolate waffles anyone?

What's your favorite breakfast food?  If you could have any type of waffle, what would it be?

It's Just a Movie, Right?

So I have a problem.  It's not a huge, life altering problem.  Honestly, problem is probably too strong a word.  It's more like a quirk...yeah, that's better...I have a quirk!

I have a "quirk" watching movies that are based on true stories because I tend to obsess about learning everything about them after the fact.  Let me start by saying I love movies!  I love being able to get lost in something for an hour or two and live in the "life" of someone  else.  I get lost in a fantasy world for a few hours and when the lights come up I realize how great my life is and I move on.

That doesn't happen when I watch a movie based on a true story (I mean, when the lights come up I still realize I have a pretty kick butt life but I have a hard time "moving on").  When I watch a movie that's "based on a true story" I have to know everything about that story.  Movies get "The Hollywood Effect" and a true story may have a the undertones of truth but tend to be over-dramatized.  I want to know the truth...no I NEED to know the truth.

A few months ago I watched the Lifetime Movie "The Craigslist Killer" - yes I know it came out a year ago but it sat on my DVR List for about 5 months - remember I was planning a wedding and remodeling a house and had limited time.  If you don't remember that please refer to every previous blog I've written...

...anyway, I finally watched this movie and my heart broke for Philip.  I got "Hollywood-ed."  I let the drama get to me.  Those last scenes broke my heart and I forgot he had actually murdered women.  After the movie was over I spent a good few hours wikipedia-ing and googling him.  I didn't feel bad anymore.  I got the real story.  I mean, it breaks my heart how the story ended, but I'm happy he was found guilty and punished.

I'm digressing, however...when something "real" is featured in the plot of a movie I have to know more about it.  I did the same thing when there was a "Jack the Ripper"-esque episode on Criminal Minds.  I went to the library and got books on him and read them all in a few nights.

Now where did this all come from - I usually post about food or remodeling, right?  We just watched "The Social Network" and I'm not sure how I feel about Facebook after that.  Don't get me wrong, I'll still check it every 20 minutes on my phone when I get bored, but Wow!  During the movie I actually started looking things up online because I know there were so many kernels of truth in it (I was in college when it came it and Notre Dame got it pretty early - within the first few months for sure) .  The problem with that movie is that in reality everyone signed non-disclosure agreements so the "real truth" really isn't out there for the general public, or the crazy Alissa's of the world.  So that means I'm not sure if I should be in awe of the creators of Facebook or disgusted.  And I know I am going to spend the next few days trying to figure out everything I can about these people (I mean I've already stopped writing this three times to search the web for something else related to that movie!).

So for now I must run...the Zuckerberg's and Saverin's of the world are calling.  Before I go...

...does anyone else always need to know the "true story" behind the "based on a true story?" 

Indian Night at the Overholt's

So I'm not sure about you, but I definitely have my "go-to" dinners.  Now I'm Italian so most involve pasta and some type of red sauce but occasionally a Mexican-inspired dish sneaks in, or, now that I'm married to a 'meat and potatoes' kind of guy, steaks and burgers on the grill. 

As Darrin and I are settling into married life (today is our 19th day anniversary by the way!), life is starting to take over again.  On Tuesday nights we both have small group.  Thankfully his small group meets at a restaurant so I don't have to worry about feeding him on those nights.  Wednesday are a different story.  He has another church activity that starts at 6:30 and doesn't end til almost 9.  I get home after 5:30 so that's not a lot of time for me to get dinner ready and let him eat so he's not ready to eat his own foot when he gets home at 9!

I've decided this is the perfect opportunity for me to start using my crock pot more.  I pretty much make two things with my crock pot, but that's going to get really old REALLY fast! So I started searching for crock pot recipes.  I have a Betty Crocker Crock Pot recipe book that's pretty good and I've also been searching the web for some good ideas.  I'm a little obsessed with TheNest.com right now and there are a handful of great slow cooker recipes there and the Facebook Group I joined, CrockPot Girls,  has a lot of great ideas too. 

Tonight I decided it was time for me to "Go big or go home!" and break out an all new recipe for dinner.  I decided to stray from the tried and true cuisines and go Indian!  I made Slow Cooker Chicken Curry tonight and I we really liked it.  I'm a "tweeker" so I always change a recipe after my first try and this one is no different, but right out of the book I'd give it a solid 3.5 out of 5!

Ingredients:
3 TBSP flour
3 TBSP curry powder
1 1/2 TSP cumin
1 TSP salt
1 1/2 lbs chicken breast, cubed
2 medium potatoes, pealed and diced
1 onion, chopped
4 carrots, bias cut
1 jalapeneo, diced
2 gloves garlic, minced
1 can light coconut milk
Cooked rice

Mix the flour, curry, cumin and salt in a large food storage bag.
Add the chicken and shake to coat
Place the chicken, potato, onion, carrot, garlic and jalapeno into the crock pot
Cover with 1/2 cups water
Cook on low 6-8 hours (I did 8)
Add the coconut milk and turn heat to high
Cook for an additional 30 minutes
Serve over rice

A few modifications I would make: Season the veggies with salt and pepper before cooking.  I thought this dish lacked a little salt.  Also, the next time I make this I'm either adding another jalapeno or lots of red pepper flakes - there wasn't enough heat for me.


One word of warning - the prep is a little much for the morning.  There is a lot of pealing and chopping.  I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get all of my stuff done this morning. If you tend to cut it close in the AM (I couldn't push it any more if I tried in the morning) give yourself an extra 10 minutes or so, just to be safe.  I'd assume you could probably dice and coat the chicken the night before and just leave it in the refrigerator overnight, but I'm not sure I'd try that - 

 I'm a little afraid of chicken, as I'm sure you'll find out!

All things considered, this is actually a pretty healthy dish, yummy and easy dish.  I used brown rice for added fiber and of course light coconut milk instead of regular but I doubt anyone could tell the difference.  It also made a pretty decent amount so this is dinner tomorrow too - only two week into marriage and I'm already learning the beauty of leftovers!

Any good slow cooker recipes out there?  I'd love for you to share some of your favorites!

Houston We Have A Problem...

...or rather we HAD a problem! 

And that problem was taking on too much and therefore neglecting my very loyal readers (yes Mom and Gram I know that's really only you, but hey I've got to make myself look good, right?)

But now the wedding is over!!  I'm officially a married women and I'm loving it.  We've been home and back in our new normal routine for a week now.  The DVR is empty (or as empty as it can be the number of shows I record), we're back to home cooked meals (bye bye 8 pounds I gained on my honeymoon), and the house is presentable again (dust bunnies be gone!).

That means I have the free time to try this whole blog thing out again.  So here goes!

I'm currently undertaking the task of decorating the house.  And by that I mean hanging things on walls!  I've started with the hallway.  I found the best picture frame at TJ Maxx or Marshall's or Home Goods...it was one of those stores but they're really all the same to me.  Anyway, the frame was 7 frames all put together into one.  I got it not really thinking about how it would work and ended up loving it.  BUT that meant that I had to continue the theme through the entire hallway.  So I've spent days searching for very cool, but not expensive, frames to add to the wall.  I don't even have the pictures yet but I'm just buying and hanging the frames.  I'm up to 15 so far. 

So I get home last night and start showing everything to Darrin and he's starring at me like I have three heads - which is actually a pretty common reaction when I start showing him things I've bought!  I go through this 5 minute monologue about how excited I am to do this and how cool I hope it looks and how I can't wait to add old family pictures and our wedding photos.  After all of that I get..."But they don't match?" Now, at first I was really impressed that he even really noticed something like that - this is the kid that wore a shirt covered in dirt to run errands tonight - so I explained to him that it was meant to be unique and not match.  His response - "How many times do you think you're going to have to explain that one to people?"

Now all this makes me do is start second guessing myself.  I spent a good hour today searching sites like thenest.com and the HGTV website trying to figure out if people are going to think my hallway looks interesting and good or ugly and mis-matched.  I mean, there isn't much I can at this point - the holes are in the walls and there is NO WAY I am getting out the wall patch and paint!  So for now I'm going with it...but that brings up the question -

How much say does/did your spouse/significant other have in the decorating of your house?

I'm trying out a new crock pot recipe on Wednesday...See Previous Post...so check back then for either a recipe or a warning not to try it!

Almost a Landlord!

Woo hoo - I think we have a renter for my house!  They verbally committed today and want to move in at the end of the month.  I can't tell you how excited I am - mainly because this the first (and only) couple I showed the place too!

I'm going to miss my living room!

I must admit, however, I am super sad to move out.  This was the first place I owned - and all by myself.  Don't get me wrong, I can't wait to start my life with Darrin, but I liked the feeling of independence and success I felt for making it on my own. 

Anyway, I wrote up a Rental Application to send tonight and wow did I feel like an obsessed stalker.  I'm pretty sure I asked every personal question I could, but I just want to make sure there are no surprises.  She's a teacher though so I'm pretty sure everything will be fine but after a CRAZY rental issue that happened with some of our employees at work I'm trying to be overly cautious!

And as if that wasn't good enough news for the day, I talked to Margarita (yes that is her name and yes it is a different Margarita than my bf from college!) today and she told me Home Depot is going to get us new flooring for free!!  For those of you who don't remember - or don't feel like scrolling down a post or two (lazy lazy readers!) - we have a little...a lot...MORE than a lot of issues with our floor.  Hearing from Home Depot was the icing on an amazing day - made only better by the fact that Darrin sold his couch tonight and got WAY WAY more than it was worth (in my opinion at least). 

Now I'm watching So You Think You Can Dance and starting to look forward to our trip to Charlotte on Friday.  Also, anyone else think Mitchell and Caitlin are all kinds of Awesome!!  I can't decide if I like them or Melanie and Marko better! 

Have any of you ever rented your house?  Was it a good experience or did it leave your wishing you hadn't?

I Love Snacks and I'm Darn Proud of It!

A few days ago I was making myself an evening snack (pretty sure it was just an apple and peanut butter but I had to cut the apple so I'm going to go ahead and say I "made" something) and I started thinking about how surprised Darrin is going to be with how much I eat.  Not that I eat a lot - I've lost over 60 pounds in a year (take that crazy hormone issue that made me balloon up in 6 months time!!) - and I eat really healthy, but I do eat a fair amount.

So my apple and peanut butter (Jif Natural Peanut Butter, which is amazing!) made me realize there are still things that Darrin and I don't know about each other.  I tried to ask him what he thought I was going to be surprised by living with him but he never really answered me - guess that mean all of my faithful readers (aka my mom and grandmother) will get to learn all about Darrin with me. 

There are definitely some things he's going to be a little surprised to learn about me.  I mean, he knows I'm a huge reality tv junkie (Bachelorette SPOILER ALERT: My heart broke for Ryan tonight by the way and I adore JP) and he knows I can't resist the frozen yogurt bar in town but I don't think he realizes that I blast show tunes when I clean or that I have a very specific get-ready-for-bed routine.

Now I know that none of these are deal-breakers (or at least I hope not!) but I do think they'll lead to a few very funny evenings and probably an embarrassing moment or two.  I have to admit though I'm pretty excited for it.  In a way it's like starting a new relationship but with someone you already love and are going to spend the rest of your life with.  All the fun none of the stress!!

Speaking of late night snacks, I'll leave you with a picture of mine tonight - which was amazing and super healthy!

So Yummy!

Just some Laughing Cow Cheese (only 1 WW point for 2 wedges of the Herb) some tomatoes and water crackers, which are also really healthy.  Plus a glass of wine, which I more than needed after today!

Now time to watch Emily's interview on why she and Brad didn't last - which may have been the biggest shocker of the year (she said thick with sarcasm;) )!!

Easy-Peasy Dinner!

So remember when I said I needed to find some Simple Dinners- I found another one!  I helped a friend move yesterday and knew I wouldn't have much time to cook dinner so this seemed like a perfect nice to experiment.

 Easy Chicken Burritos
Ingredients:
Chicken tenders
1 C uncooked white rice (you could use brown too, but burritos just seemed better with white)
1 can of Ro-tel
1 can of black beans - rinsed
Lots of cheese
Fresh jalapeno, chopped

First, I seasoned the chicken tenders with a little salt and pepper plus a lot of garlic and onion powders.  A friend suggested to use lime and cilantro too.
I baked the chicken for about 40 minutes (I struggled with over-cooking chicken b/c I'm afraid of under-cooking it)
While the chicken is cooked make the rice (which takes about 25 minutes for white and 40 for brown).
When the rice is cooked transfer it to an 8x8 baking dish
Add the Ro-tel and beans and stir all together
Add some cheese (as much as you'd like) and mix together again
Finally, sprinkle some cheese on top and add the jalapenos
Take the chicken out of the and put the rice and bean mixture in - just to melt the cheese.
Shred the chicken while you wait.
Finally, assemble your burritos. with a scoop of the rice and bean mixture and some chicken
We added some sour cream and salsa but you could put anything in them (lettuce, tomatoes, etc)

It was a really simple dish with limited prep time and it was really yummy! Maybe I'm getting the hand of this easy dinner thing after all!

Kryptonic Floor

So I've realized two things in the last few days:
1. This blog is slowly morphing from a blog about being a new wife to a blog about remodeling a house.  I'm hoping that in two weeks that changes dramatically.  I'm not exactly a "This Old House" kinda gal!
2. I kinda stink at posting on a regular basis.  Also something I hope changes in the next few weeks.

Now on the floors.  For those of you who don't know, the kitchen floor has been the thorn in my side throughout this entire home remodel.  We got no glue vinyl flooring over Memorial Day weekend when my wonderful family was down helping us work on the house.

My wonderful uncle and grandparents!

Now none of us had ever laid this type of flooring but we were up for the adventure.  We removed all of the appliances and the quarter round from the walls (which was actually kind of fun).

The old floor

 Rolling out the floor was pretty easy and even cutting it to size was okay.  We made a few minor errors, but nothing that couldn't be fixed.  We nailed the quarter round back in and installed the two new pantry-sized cabinets - everything was smooth sailing up to this point.

The new floor

Then disaster struck!  

While putting the range back into place a VERY large tear was put into my brand new floor.  Now let me tell you, I did not handle it very well.  I even ran out of the house and up the street at one point.  After I calmed down - and apologized to my family for acting like I was 12 - I spent an hour laying on the floor trying to cut out the perfect patch.  I got very, VERY familiar with a utility knife.  The patch looked - okay?  But thankfully it was in an area that could be covered with a throw rug!

Flash forward about two weeks.  We needed to move a shelf in our new refrigerator.  I was so scared about moving it out because of the floor.  Darrin said it would be fine and did it one Tuesday while I was at Small Group.  He said everything was fine...but I came to find out that wasn't the case that FRIDAY when he finally told me the floor had pulled up and bubbled.  According to Darrin my reaction was much better then he expected (could have had something to do with the fact that we were out to dinner and I was on my second glass of wine and knew something chocolate was in my future?).  He had a friend fix it that weekend and our wonderful flooring guy said he'd work on it when he installed our carpet.  

Now by this point I'm afraid to even walk on this floor.  Which isn't good because the kitchen is a pretty important room in the house - I mean, we have to eat, right?  Honestly, I'm pretty sure everyone who's had a 2 minute conversation with me knows about this floor.  I figured that it was okay though and it would last us a year or so.  

Well this past Friday Darrin was out with a friend and went over to the house to build our drawers that match our (new) desk!  I took a quick peak in the kitchen to see if I needed to do some cleaning, and that's when I saw it...it was huge, and right there in my new floor.  ANOTHER TEAR!  Now I'm not even sure HOW this happened.  It was right under the freezer  - but there it was, starring me in the face, mocking me for my new-found serenity over this floor.  This time, I kind of lost it.  This floor (which is less than SIX WEEKS OLD) is advertised as being No-Tear.  The first tear I could get over, the stove was big and not exactly normal wear-and-tear, but this second tear?  No clue how it happened.  Nothing was dropped or moved or anything. All I could think was, "God, I know there is a reason this $150 floor is giving me this much aggravation, PLEASE let me learn it before I lose my mind."  

I was able to call Home Depot that night and explain the situation.  The manager was very nice and told me to come in the next day.  I went and saw him and am hoping that we can get a new floor for no cost.  I also called our flooring guy and he's going to install a new (hopefully better) floor for us next weekend when we're in Charlotte (he's also charging us about 40% less then normal since we've been using him a lot - there really is something to be said about forming relationships with people).  

So after about six weeks of stress and borderline total obsession I'm finally getting a new, NEW floor in my kitchen.  

I'm still not sure what lesson I should be learning from this?  To let the professionals do it?  That there is still good in people (mainly the nice guy at Home Depot who is working to get this fixed for me)?  That it's just a floor and I'm lucky I have one to stress out about? Or maybe that everything will work out in the end.

Well, now I'm off to work on the dining room floor - don't worry, it's real hardwood so I'm just going to polish it and lay an amazing area rug down!

Just curious - have any of you ever remodeled your house?  Did you have any hiccups like this?  Leave a comment below! 

The Great Desk-capdes!

A desk might be the easiest piece of furniture to buy.  Or at least it should be.  A flat surface to write on, a few drawers to store things in, maybe a shelf or two if you're really feeling adventurous. 

At least that's what I thought until we went out to find a desk.  I wanted white to match the bed going in the "office"/spare, spare bedroom.  We couldn't find a white desk that wasn't $400 or made for a 10 year old girl.  Neither was acceptable, especially to Darrin.  So I decided to cave and go with black.  We're doing a mix of black and white furniture in our bedroom so I figured it wouldn't look too bad extending to another room of the house.  We looked a several desks and I realized that each of us had very different views on what we were looking for.  After a day (and about 10 stores) we had narrowed it down to two choices, one I liked and one he liked.  In the end, his pick ended up winning.  He did tell me I could pick out the chair though.  I want an accent chair NOT a desk chair so I want something unique looking - which is kind of hard to find. 

Anyway, we buy the desk and carry all 300 pounds of it into the garage.  We were going to wait until the carpet was laid to assemble it.

On Monday after the carpet was down we decided to build our first piece of new furniture.  Terry, our wonderful handyman, was over painting and doing some other work around the house and warned me that this was going to be a very long project.  I figured he was nuts and that I could have this baby knocked out in under two hours (cue very VERY loud laughter!).  Two days would have been a more realistic goal.

The issues began before the desk was even out of the box.  Darrin had laid the box down upside down.  I had already started to open it before I realized this.  I felt like I was digging for buried treasure as I searched for the instructions and hardware package.  Plus I wasted a good 15 minutes!!

I put the first three pieces together in a very fast 30 minutes, only to realize that they seemed a bit uneven.  I took them apart and did it again.  Same results.  At this point I decided that maybe they would be this way until more of the pieces were added (Note to self: Like multiple choice tests, it's best to go with your first instinct when building something - if something is crooked and it shouldn't be it WILL NOT fix itself the more pieces you add to it).  So anyways, I kept building.  After a few more steps (did I mention there are 29 steps to assembling this desk?) the instructions told me that I had to measure 1 1/4 inches to nail in a peg.  I've built a lot of things in my 28 years and never once have I needed a tape measure.  That's why I buy the furniture instead of building it from scratch. 

After a tape measure and hammer got involved (and another 45 minutes passed) it was time to start putting the tops (yes tops, multiple) on.  That was a two-person job to say the least.  We're over two hours in at this point and still have about 10 steps left.  I was starting to get frustrated.  All that was left at this point was the drawers and the door.  We moved the desk into place and I stepped back to admire my work.  That crooked piece from before was STILL crooked.  In fact, it looked worse.  So much for my genius idea that it would fix itself.  Although for the life of me I still can't figure out what I did wrong.

I needed a break (and I was super excited to try KP's chicken recipe - see previous post - which was beyond amazing by the way) so I decided to call it a day.  I thought maybe once the door was on and drawer in it would be fine.

I went back today and got the door on - crooked spot not fixed.  Then I started on the drawers.  After 5 minutes of comparing numbers on screws to the number on the instructions I realized that I was missing screws.  Second Note to Self: NEVER throw away a box until whatever you building is finished.  Being the great guy that Darrin is, he dug through the trash, but we still couldn't find the right part.

I was so nervous about the fact that the desk looked crooked I just wanted to get the drawer built and see if that fixed anything.  Cue our latest trip to Lowes.  And cue the fact that they don't sell #10 1/2 inch screws at Lowes.  I finally threw up my hands and asked Darrin if we could please return this cursed piece of furniture and pick out something else.

I called Office Max and they told me I could return it - just to disassemble as much as I could and bring it back.  I didn't even need the box!  Pretty sure that's my favorite thing about the desk - the fact that it can go back!!!  So now we're back to square one.  Tomorrow I plan on taking it apart and returning it and hopefully having a beautiful, straight desk by this weekend. 

At least I'm pretty much an expert on putting things together - which is good because all six pieces of the bedroom suite we're getting in two weeks needs to be assembled!!!  If those of you another part of the country here very loud screams next Sunday you'll know it's me trying to get an wardrobe or two built!

Chicken Be My Muse!

We spent a LOT of time working on the house last night so I'm taking a morning off.  Honestly, I'd be at Church right now but Darrin started volunteering in the middle school ministry so I'd have to go to the early service alone or he'd have to go to two back-to-back services - I'm not a fan of either option, so until we figure something out I'm watching the service online.  But I digress...

With all my "free time" this morning I'm trying to get my grocery list together and get my shopping done.  We have a nice little routine in the Lemmon/Overholt households - after Church on Sunday we go to lunch and then knock out our grocery shopping.  I try to only go to the store once a week - it saves me a ton of money because I don't pick up things I really don't need throughout the week!

I make my list by planning out our menu for the week, so I know exactly what I'll need to pick up.  This works really well for me and my need to be obsessively organized.  I love to cook and try and come up with fairly creative dinners for the nights Darrin comes over.  Right now I'm making us dinner 3, or maybe 4, nights a week.  In three weeks though, that's going to jump to SEVEN NIGHTS A WEEK!  Now I'm pretty creative and I can search recipe sites like a champ, but I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to come up with great dinners EVERY night of the week. 

My friend Kristen recently started a blog as well (http://notsodomesticated.com/) and posted a super simple, but really great looking idea for dinner, http://notsodomesticated.com/2011/07/01/slow-movin-bbq-chicken/, and I realized that her 6+ months have marriage have already made her an expert on the whole cooking for the hubby thing and that chicken dish became my inspiration!  I've always thought simple wasn't fun when it came to food (I'll post what I'm cooking for dinner below, which I think it's middle of the road creative/complicated-wise as for as what I usually make for dinner) but that slow cooker chicken looks yummy!  So yummy, in fact, that's going to be our 4th of July dinner (Thanks KP).  I think I'm going to try and make corn bread with bacon and jalapenos to go along with it (who doesn't love bacon and jalapenos, right?) and maybe sweet potato fries or roasted squash "fries."  Stay tuned to see how it turns out!

But that's tomorrow.  For dinner tonight I'm doing a stuffed chicken breast over whole wheat spaghetti.  I've made it once before and it turned out really well!  Darrin is the least picky eater ever - as long as he can't taste the egg!

Ingredients:
Chicken Breast
Package of frozen spinach (defrosted)
1 C. Ricotta cheese
LOTS of Mozzarella cheese (yes, LOTS is a cooking term in my mind)
1 egg white 
Bread crumbs
1 egg (beaten)
Sauce (I used homemade last time, but this time I'm using "jar sauce" which I liken to me spitting on my grandmother, but I just don't have the time to make sauce today)
Whole wheat spaghetti

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
Pound out the chicken breast until they're about 1-inch thick (this is still the hardest part for me)
Mix the spinach (I only needed about 3/4 of the package), the ricotta, the mozzarella, and the egg white in a bowl.  Season with salt and pepper.
Spoon a fair amount of the mixture into the center of each chicken breast and roll up each piece.  (I had to use toothpicks to hold them together last time!)
Dip each piece of chicken in the beaten egg and then in the bread crumbs
Place seam down and bake, covered, for 25 minutes
Remove from oven and pour sauce over the chicken.  Return to oven, uncovered, and bake for another 20 minutes.
Start boiling the water for the pasta and then cook according to the package (just remember whole wheat pasta take longer!)
When the chicken is cooked, sprinkle with additional cheese and heat until melted.

Serve the chicken over the cooked pasta - add extra sauce if you want!

See, it's a tad too complicated to cook like that every night.  Anyone have any easy, but yummy, recipes to share?  Suggestions are always welcome...although maybe I should just start instituting "Leftover Night" - I'm sure that would save me a day or two of cooking!

How to Train Your...Husband?!?

**Disclaimer: I have two very loving and sweet dogs.  Neither are exceptionally well trained.  I'm not sure why I think "training" a husband would go well for me. 

We're in the middle of a home remodel and it's all going fairly well.  If the painters had actually painted the trim it would be going wonderfully, but alas they didn't and need to be scheduled to come back BEFORE the furniture is bought in two and a half weeks...but AFTER the carpet is laid this weekend (which seems a little backwards to me).  That's a topic for another blog however...

...So, seeing as how we're remodeling a house most of the furniture has been moved, sold, donated, or tossed out.   Darrin (the hubs-to-be for those of you who don't know) is living out of boxes and what's left in his garage.  Through this process I noticed two things.  First, Darrin has a LOT of papers and we may want to invest in a shredder or a BIG filing cabinet.  Second, the carpet that we're replacing used to be a wonderful cream color.  How did I discover this?  Well, when we moved his furniture out of the way beautiful squares, rectangles, and circles of cream carpet were revealed.  I had honestly thought his carpet was more of a dull brown.  So what does this lead me to realize?  That while he is a wonderful and loving man, his cleaning skills leave a lot to be desired.

At first I thought, "Oh well, at least I like to clean!" But then a little saying popped into my head: "Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day.  Teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime."  I used a little creative license and revised it to go a little like this: "Clean up after your hubby and have a day of happiness.  Teach your hubby how to clean and have a lifetime of martial bliss."  Okay, so most of you may not value a clean house as much as I do.  And that lifetime of marital bliss will happen even if the house isn't spotless - but hey, shiny floor couldn't hurt, right?!?

So I started looking online for "tips" on how to "train" your husband.  Let me tell you, there are a few very comical sites out there!  Some sites were just hookie and I think some were actually trying to teach you how to train your husband, which I found a little disturbing, because who wants to be trained by their spouse?!  Find me anyone, male or female, who is okay with being trained like a pet and I'll send you a cookie!

Here is what this little scavenger hunt did teach me though:

1. We're different people - and thank God for that!  We both have a different way of doing things and that's a good thing.  Those differences compliment each other and will make us a stronger couple.

2. Communication is key.  I can't expect Darrin to know how I want the bathroom to look if I didn't tell him.  I can't understand why he really doesn't care how the towels should be folded if I don't listen.  So talk and listen...I think I can handle that!

3. Rewards are good!  Now I'm not saying that I should (or ever would) treat him like my dogs who get a bone out of the treat jar when they sit or stay.  But I know Darrin and I know he's going to make an effort around the house (especially if we're successful at Step 2) and he needs to know it doesn't go unnoticed and it is appreciated.  I mean, who doesn't need positive affirmation?  Even as a marriage novice something tells me little things like that will go a long way.

So there they are...my 3 steps to train your hubby.  You've been told how successful (or rather unsuccessful) my dog training was so take them with a grain of salt!  But for me the question becomes...can I remember those three little things when I find my first pair of dirty socks on the floor???

Am I Crazy...Nope, Just an Overachiever!

t-minus 66 days to go!

Yes, that's right, in 66 days I go from Miss to Mrs.!   And as of right now I'm knee-deep in wedding planning.  You'd think it be easy, right?  That it would go a little something like this...

Girl meets Boy.  Girl likes Boy.  Girl falls in love with Boy.  Girl wonders (and at times nags) about when Boy will propose.  Boy proposes to Girl.  They get married and live happily every after.

Yeah, not so much...at least not after the part where Boy asks Girl to marry him!  Since that moment it's been dresses, and cakes, and flowers...oh my!  I mean, come on, does it really matter if it's a three-tiered all vanilla cake or a four-tiered chocolate and vanilla cake with raspberry filling?  Will anyone even KEEP the favors I've been obsessing over for weeks?  So we've gone from "Boy proposes to Girl" straight to "Girl starts planning a wedding to rival all weddings and drives herself crazy in the process."

Don't get me wrong, I'm loving every minute of it.  I know when the "I do's" have been said and the cake has been cut and my wonderful wedding coordinator has packed up her "Day-of Emergency Kit" I'll miss the excitement of planning for it.  But sometimes I wonder how much is too much?

So up until this point you're probably thinking, "Oh honey, you're not crazy.  You're just caught up in the excitement of it all."  And you'd be right, by the way.  The 'crazy' part comes in when you learn that in t-25 days I'm moving into "his" house.  And that for the past month we've been completely renovating that house.  And not just simple modifications like a new coat of paint...new floors, new cabinets, painting existing cabinets, new appliances, counter tops, electrical work...the list goes on and on!  We've done a lot of it ourselves (when you're also planning a wedding saving money becomes super important) but at some point threw our hands up and decided to hire a few professionals...I believe the key word there is "OUTSOURCING!"  But now we're trying to manage the handful of vendors coming in and out of the house and making sure that the cost stays manageable and the work is done in time.

So not only do I dream of icing, and favors, and tulle...I do it on a pile of sawdust and covered in paint.  Oh the joys of a modern, home renovating bride!

The more I think about it, the more I realize I'm doing all of this so that I can be...wait for it, wait for it..."The Perfect Wife." 

Think about it for a second.  What is the perfect wife?  Does she exist?  What does she look like?  How does she act?  What does she do?  How twisted is the media's version of what she should be?  And the biggest question of them all - How long until I'm her?

Before you all jump at me at once, I get it.  There is no such thing as "the perfect wife."  I will never be perfect.  My life will never be like the movies (the good ones I mean).  At some point I will burn dinner, or turn the laundry pink, or go an extra day without cleaning the bathrooms.  And there MUST be a learning curve built in, right?  I'm not sure how to go from an independent, self-sufficient, makes all decisions by herself kind of girl with a Northern, fast-paced attitude to part of a joint decision making team where the other half is a man with a Southern, laid-back take on life.  All I know that is I'm sure it doesn't happen the moment we're pronounced man and wife.  That journey has all the makings of a great roller coaster ride, chalk full of twists, turns, ups, down, and lots of upside down moments.

So the big question, "Can I do it?"  Well I sure hope so...I'm that crazy overachiever, remember!  So starting today I'm tackling my "next big thing" because in less than 10 weeks my life changes forever!  Look out world cause Here Comes the Bride, the Crazy, Overachieving Bride!