Ring O' Goodness

So I've been in a baking mood most of December.  If you're coming to my mom's house for either of the Christmas's she's hosting - I'm sure you get to enjoy some of the products of my toils.  I've made regular and peanut butter fudge, caramels, English toffee, sugar cookies and made, what I refer to, as the ring of goodness. :)

These are the fastest and easiest goodies that I've ever made for the holidays.

First I line a 10x15 pan (I think that's the dimensions anyway - Mom refers to it as a jelly roll pan) with aluminum foil so I don't have to wash the pan afterwards.  Place ring pretzels in a single layer on the pan.

Next you place an unwrapped rolo in each pretzel circle.

Next, pop the pan in a 350 degree oven for about 5 minutes, or just enough to make the rolos glossy and soft.

Finally push a peanut M&M down on top of each rolo so that the chocolate fills up the pretzel.  Now let it cool and enjoy!  I stick my pan full of goodies outside to cool faster.

Seriously, simple and delish.

O' Christmas Tree...

I love Christmas.  Baking goodies, the lights, the songs, everybody's festive spirit, and the Christmas tree!
I came back to Sioux Falls after being at my parent's for Thanksgiving and the first thing I did when I got to town was call my friend Ash and had her come help me haul a Christmas tree to my house!  My tree got put up and started to warm up and hydrate and wait to get decorated.

Tuesday night I turned on the Christmas music and decorated my tree!  Here's a pic of the beautiful sight.

(Sorry the pics are not the greatest, I tried but my batteries were dying so I couldn't get them all any better)

On top of my tree sits an angel that my great aunt Dora Mae made me.

Probably one of my favorite parts of my Christmas tree is all the meaning behind my ornaments.  A tradition in my family is that every year my mom and dad get my brother and I an ornament to signify something important that happened to us that year.  It's kind of like looking through a scrapbook every year when I put up my ornaments.

Here are some of my favorites:

The first one was from 1998.  This was the year that I got my first dog, Belle. 

In 2009 I actually got 2 ornaments.  One was to signify getting Neko and the other was for getting my first house.

Another great one was from 1997.  This was during my last year at Big White, the one room country schoolhouse that I attended from K-7th grade.  This ornament was also really special because my mom actually painted the scene of the school on it.

In 2005 I worked at the local telephone company during the year.  My mom gave me a little telephone ornament, but more special that that was the ornament that my great aunt Dora Mae gave me.  My late great uncle Marlin worked for the same telephone company and one year they gave them Christmas ornaments and Aunt Dora Mae gave me that ornament in 2005.

I know everyone is wondering, so finally here's the first ornament I got.  I think my grandma actually got this one for me, but I could be wrong.

I hope everyone is starting to celebrate the seasons! 

FINALLY!!!

I finally finished a book I've been working on for quite a while.  I wanted to read In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson. 

This book is a non-fiction (which is not my usual) about the ambassador to Germany during the start of Hitler's reign.  If you're a history buff I think you would love this book!  I'm a want-to-be history buff.   I love the idea of being a history buff - but, sadly, I'm coming to realize it's just not my cup of tea.  This book had lots of big, German names in it that I couldn't keep straight and had to keep flipping back to figure out what that particular person's significance was. 

This book was just OK, although other's that have read it and were actual history people - loved it.  I will say, that I did learn quite a bit from this book.  I feel like most of what I knew about Germany was what happened once the war was in progress and specifically once America entered the war.  This gave more information about earlier times. 

So check this book out if you like non-fiction, if you're a history buff, or if you're a want-to-be history buff.  Just be prepared to keep notes on who's which person.

Wildflower Hill Review

This time change has been killing me!  By the time I get home, it's already dark and I'm ready to go to bed by the time I get back from working out. 

Yesterday, my home town high school football team played in the state championships.  The Wall Eagles lost big time, 66-6, to Canistota.  Monte came down to watch the game and is staying with me.  He came Thursday night and will be here until tomorrow.

Anyway, on to the main point of this post.  I've wanted to make a part of this blog a review of all the books I read too.  I just don't seem to have all that much time to read anymore though.

I just recently finished "Wildflower Hill" by Kimberley Freeman. 

Here's the synopsis:  I was going to try to write something up, but this tells the storyline a lot better than I could. :)
"Emma, a prima ballerina in London, is at a crossroads after an injured knee ruins her career. Forced to rest and take stock of her life, she finds that she’s mistaken fame and achievement for love and fulfillment. Returning home to Australia, she learns of her grandmother Beattie’s death and a strange inheritance: a sheep station in isolated rural Australia. Certain she has been saddled with an irritating burden, Emma prepares to leave for Wildflower Hill to sell the estate.

Beattie also found herself at a crossroads as a young woman, but she was pregnant and unwed. She eventually found success—but only after following an unconventional path that was often dangerous and heartbreaking. Beattie knew the lessons she learned in life would be important to Emma one day, and she wanted to make sure Emma’s heart remained open to love, no matter what life brought. She knew the magic of the Australian wilderness would show Emma the way. "

I highly recommend this read!  Loved it!

Trick-or-Treat!

All of a sudden I realized it is the 1st of November!  Where does the time go?

Last night I had a fair showing of trick-or-treaters with about 50 kids showing up.  Numbers were down a little compared to previous years when 75-100 showed up.  Neko loved running to the door and seeing all the new people that were there.  By the end of the night she was quite tired.  I'll leave you with a pic of Neko at the end of the night.  So tuckered out!

Happy Halloween!!!

Here's wishing you a very happy and safe halloween!  Saturday night my friends and I dressed up and went out.  I had this great idea to be a mime.  Yep, except I forgot that mime's don't talk.  That lasted for a maybe 5 minutes.  Throughout the night I had various people reminding me that I wasn't suppose to talk.  Overall I had a great night!!!

Kitchen Makeover

Okay folks - It's been a busy couple of weeks, but I am going to try to start making this blog a priority and getting a few things accomplished before winter that I want to get done - and telling you all about it of course!

I was home last weekend (sorry I didn't make it over to see you Jeanie!  I promise I'll come see you over Thanksgiving!) and Mom was planning to start painting the house and we looked through lots of paint samples.  It got me in the mood to add some color to my house, other than beige.  Seriously, besides my bathroom (which use to be Peptobismal pink - seriously) the entire house is beige.  So I decided to start with the kitchen.  I knew I wanted a bright color in there, and I finally found the color I wanted - Granny Smith Green!

Here's a pic of my kitchen before I started (well actually I had already started prepping before I remembered I needed a before pic.)

I taped everything off, took off some cabinet doors that I wouldn't be able to paint around, pulled my stove out and moved it to the dining room, moved everything off the countertops and the refrigerator. 

Here's the crazy mess I lived in during the weekend.

So I finished prepping everything Friday afternoon, then I went to my kickboxing class.  I came home and primed the entire room.  Then Saturday morning I went to my upper body workout - both Saturday morning and Friday night we had the hardest coach leading classes - needless to say - I died each class!  Anyway, when I went to paint Saturday afternoon, my arms were SO TIRED!!  I could only paint for about 15-20 minutes at a time before I'd have to rest my arms and shoulders.  I painted the ceiling white first, then all the green and finally did the trim in a bright white.  I finished everything up Sunday afternoon and put everything back together!  Check out my new kitchen, which I absolutely LURVE (this means that I more than love it!)!!

I think the cabinets really pop with the color on the walls and I love the crisp white trim.  Next in my mini-kitchen makeover is to find some nice white curtains and paint the door to match my cabinets - I'll make sure to keep you all in the loop!

Jeepers Creepers!

E gats friends!  I came on today and realized I didn't post at all last week.  Unacceptable!  Actually a LOT of things happened in my life last night and I feel like I need to catch you up on everything!  Unfortunately, there probably won't be any pictures in this post since I'm not sure what they would be...we'll see as I write this...

1. Mice Infestation...
   
Weekend before last, I went downstairs to do some laundry and what do I find, but lots of little mice droppings covering the floor around my washer and dryer and even on my dryer.  Let me tell you now, I HATE MICE!!!  I'm afraid of mice, and I'm not afraid to say it.  So what did I do?  Well when I was getting groceries that day I took a turn down the home section and picked up 2 packages of 2 mice traps apiece.  Each package was $1, so $.50 a trap. 

Sunday or Monday night I set all four traps and caught three mice that night.  Mom can vouch for me, at this point I was on the phone with her asking her how the heck I was going to get rid of these mice, because there was NO WAY I was getting close enough to those mice in order to get rid of them.  Well, after a lot of screaming and whining (I was off the phone by this time) I sucked it up and used my BBQ tongs to pick up the trap and toss it.  No, I did not reuse these trap.  Yes, I could have.  But that would have required actually figuring out a way to unsnap the traps and get rid of the actual mouse.  At this point that was not happening.

So, at this point I was down to one trap.  I moved it to a different area and headed back to work.  No mouse until I came home for lunch on Wednesday.  The trap was gone.  I mean literally, the entire trap.  Now, all I could imagine was that I had a mouse that was barely trapped, like maybe only with one leg, dragging this trap around my basement.  I search and couldn't find it anywhere.  So off to work I went and discussed it with coworkers and we figured it must be under my washer or dryer.  So I sucked it up and was as far as possible as my long stick would allow me to be.  The mouse ended up being dead and under my dryer and was found. 

Next I went and bought 6 more traps and set them around and caught one more mouse.  Then the mysterious happened.  My traps were set with peanut butter like usual, but when I came down to check the traps, the peanut butter was gone, but the traps weren't set off.  I re baited them about 3 times, but never caught a mouse. 

So Plan B began.  I went and got sticky traps and set them up yesterday.  Nothing until I came home for lunch today and on the traps I found 4 mice on 3 traps!  I surprised even myself and picked up the traps while the mice were still alive!  Anyway, I put them in a trash bag and smucked them with a log so they wouldn't just starve to death in my garbage can outside.  I figured that was the more humane thing to do anyway.  So, so far I've killed 9 mice and think I finally have them all.  I guess we'll see in the next couple days.  I'll keep you all updated.

2. 5 Week Results

On Saturday we had our mid way testing for Farrells and here are my results.  I lost around 5 pounds, but overall I lost 14 inches!  Super exciting!!!!!  Not only that, but I increased the number of pushups I can do in a minute from 28 to 47.  My situps in a minute increased from 6 (I know, super sad, but I HATE situps) to 12.  And finally my mile run went from 13 minutes to 12 minutes.  I'm excited to see what happens in the second half of the program becuase they say that most women actually see more results in the second half than in the first half of the program!

3. Neko's injury

Last winter Neko slipped on the ice and partially tore a ligament in her knee.  She recovered and we doing amazing and wasn't having any issues.  Until last Wednesday.  Wednesday after work Neko wanted to go outside, so out she went.  I got ready for my kickboxing class and when I let her back in before I left, she wasn't stepping on her back leg again.  So she's been layed up for the last fews days, locked out of the bedrooms during the days so she doesn't jump on the beds.  And it's working and she's almost back to normal now!  She's getting short runs outside and seems to be doing fine with them so soon she'll get longer outside, which will be great for her and me since she's driving me nuts being stuck inside!

4. New Job

Probably most exciting of the week is the fact that I am getting a new job!  I know, I just was promoted - but some things just end up happening!  I'm still going to be a financial analyst at Sanford, but now I'm going to be working solely with the World Clinics.  I'll be working with lots of different foreign currencies when setting up new clinics in different countries.  I'm transitioning over to my new department around the first of the new year and will be in a different building and everything.  I'm so excited for this new move!

Okay, super long post - but as you can see it was a super busy week.  I'll try to be better in the future! :)

Fall is in the Air!

Fall is in the air!  (or maybe not in this last week's case since temps have been in the 80's all week)

So it was high time that Fall decorations came out around my place!  These were the first decorations I bought for my house after I moved in.  I love them, but think I might need to pick some more up soon.

There's two that are my favorites...

First would be the swag that lies along the top of my mantle.

Here's a close up pic...

The other would be a cornucopia that I got and filled it with fall flowers and it sits on my dining room table.

Other decorations are placed around my house...

These go well with all the leaves in my backyard that need raked...anybody volunteering??

Dump Cake

Okay folks, last week was a little crazy.  I was in my friend Amanda's wedding in Crofton, NE Friday through Sunday and the week was crazy getting ready for the weekend.  So sorry for the fact that there weren't any blogs last week!  I did think of several ideas for my next few blogs - so be prepared!

Every year for my birthday, my mom would make my FAVORITE cake - dump cake!!  It doesn't sound appetizing, but let me tell you - it's absolutely delish!  So when it was my turn to bring treats for my coworkers birthday and since she LOVES chocolate as much as I do, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to make dump cake.

Here's how to make my best ever birthday cake. :)

First, bake two 8" or 9" chocolate cakes.  Cut each cake in half so that you have 4 layers of cake.

Next, put one layer on a plate and put a layer of cherry pie filling (I use light) on the first layer of cake.  Now, I usually use an entire can of pie filling for each cherry layer, but you can use less - Mom usually uses 1/2 a can for each layer.  If you're going to use an entire can for each layer, try to get as little juice as possible - otherwise it will just ooze out and mix with frosting.

Here's my picture of my cake at this point...

Now place another layer of cake on the cherry filling...

Now comes the first layer of frosting!  I use cream cheese frosting because it's my favorite.  If you're good at frosting you can probably get by with one can of frosting.  I haven't frosted a cake for quite a while, so it took me about 1 1/2 cans of frosting.  I also find that it's easier to frost the sides at this point instead of waiting until the end too.

Another layer of cake goes down next...

Another layer of cherries...

Place the final layer of cake on top and frost the whole shebang one last time!  Here's what you end up with.

Even though mine didn't turn out the looking the best I promise it tastes AMAZING!!  Just put sprinkles on it and enjoy! :) 

Backyard Mini Makeover

So I've been meaning to finish a backyard project, but now it's not looking good that I'll finish it until next spring.  So I'm going to show you all what I've done so far, and if I get it finished - I'll show you that!

Okay, here we go.  When I moved into my house, the backyard was gorgeous and big...except for one empty area under a tree in the backyard.  It was just an area of dirt that ferns grew in.  Well as tree limbs fell down during the last two years or once we cut down a few lilac bushes from the backyard - I would pile these up on the dirt area.  So in other words, this became my dumping area for all my odd and end limbs and compost in the backyard. 

Then this year the weeds took over the area and it looked like this...

Or a closer look would be this...

So the first thing I did was to work my way through this pile.  I pulled up all the weeds.  I sawed up the larger pieces to use for firewood later and burned all the smaller pieces in my fire pit.

Afterwards this is what the area looked like.  (I know...that retaining wall needs replaced...that might be a next year project that you'll see a blog about!)

Now it was looking better, but still needed more work.  Next I raked the entire area and gathered all the little sticks and piled them into an old swimming pool of Neko's that had to be retired due to a hole in it from last year.

When I was done I have quite the pile for my fire pit this fall.

And the area looked pretty good!

Next I went out and purchased landscaping fabric to cover the area.  I used wire to make half-circle shaped thingys to secure the fabric into the ground.  My thumb was so sore after this step from pushing the wire into the ground.  It was not fun.  But it looks so good when it was done!

Now I just need to put the edging in (see those black circles by the bottom of the tree?) and I hope to get that done next week when it warms up since the edging needs to warm up in the sun supposedly.  And then I've been working on hauling rock over from my neighbor, Shirley's, yard.  She has rocks that she wants gone and said I could have them if I help her dig them up.  I think I've hauled about a half a dozen over so far and got the area about 1/3 covered maybe?  That's why I'm saying that I'm not sure this project will get done until next spring. :)

Here are a few more pictures of the area cleaned up...

And guess what got added!!!

That's right...I moved my bench to this area to see if I like it there...the verdict is still out, but I love looking out to this nice cleaned up area instead of the weed mess!

The last week's happenings...

Sorry I only got one blog entry off last week because I was trying to recover from my first week of Extreme Body Shaping. (which as a side note I think is working - even after only week my double chin is down to only about 1 1/2 chin! and my spare tire is going flat!)  I made it through the whole week and couldn't believe the improvement from Monday to Friday.  Monday I could hardly make it through the 45 minute kickboxing workout and by Friday I was slightly surprised by how fast the 45 minutes went.  And I really like the resistance band classes - they go by really fast, but are still really hard.  It was so relieving to finish my Saturday class and have the day off!

So Saturday I ended up having my "cheat day" from my nutrition.  It's amazing how quickly my body adapted to the healthy eating and how bad I felt when I was able to eat whatever I wanted again. 

So after suffering through Saturday, I decided to have a fun Sunday and went to visit my best friend in Windom!  My friend Bri and her husband Matt recently moved to Windom from Minneapolis - along with Neko's best friend Lola (Bri and Matt's yellow lab who's six months older than Neko) and their 3 month old baby Graham!  It was an amazing day full of fun and laughter and I absolutely LOVE having them so close!

This was Bri and I at her wedding last July - so much fun!

I forgot my camera on Sunday, but Bri and Mary (Matt's mom) took lots of pictures, and are going to send them this way - so as soon as I get those, I'll do a whole entry about my little godson Graham! So look forward to that! :)

well I didn't die

So today was my first day of Farrell's Extreme Body Shaping classes.  This is a 45 min, 6 day a week, 10 week program.  Three days a week we do kickboxing and 3 days a week we do resistance band training (weight lifting with bands instead of weights).  My class is at 6:30 pm, so my social life will be basically zilch during the next 10 weeks.  We also are encouraged to closely monitor our nutrition intake during the program and drink LOTS of water.

So today I feel like all I did was eat, drink, and go to the bathroom.

Seriously, we're suppose to eat 6 small meals throughout the day with protein and carbs in each meal.  So today I ate at 7AM, 9:30 AM, 12 PM, 2:30 PM, 5 PM, and 8 PM.

I hope I survive this!  And I can't wait to see the results. :)

Deal of the Day

So about a month ago my parents came down and spent the weekend.  This always means we check out the garage sales on Saturday morning...without fail.  And we usually score something good since my parents wake up at the crack of dawn - even on a Saturday.  This time it happened to be my turn to score big!  Check out what I found for $5:

That's right!  An awesome old bench with original wood and cast iron like sides.  The only problems we saw was that one of the edges leaned because of a broken brace and that it needed painted. 

So, on Sunday, Mom and I decided to tackle the project!

First we flipped it over and had Dad work on the brace.

It needed to have a washer added to hold it together and to straighten the brace.

Next, I hauled out my heavy duty drill.  Funny story, when I bought it, the sales man told the young man he was training to never get between a girl and her power tools - I chuckle every time I use my drill. :)
Anyway, I added some missing screws to the bottom of the bench and tightened other ones. 

*Note, if I as going to tackle this project again, this is what I would do.  I would remove each wood slat, sand it down, re-stain it, spray paint the sides and then reassemble the entire thing.  Unfortunately, Mom and I didn't think of that until it was almost done.

Okay, back to the hard way that Mom and I took...

Next, we scrubbed it all down and then used some latex paint remover that Mom found in my basement to remove as much paint as possible.

A pic after all the paint was removed.

Next we scrubbed it all down again and left for lunch at Perkins since it was Dad's birthday and he got to pick when and where we ate that day.

After everything dried pretty well, it was time to start the fun!  I hauled out some lawn bag to protect the wood slats while I spray painted the sides. 

The awesome sides:

Love it!!!

Anyway, next we stained all the wood slats once and let it dry.  Then we did a few other odd and end projects while the bench dried.  One move coat of stain and see what I ended up with!

Alright, since I'm a numbers person, let's break down the numbers for the project:

Bench: $5 (plus free delivery to my house from the lady who was running the yard sale - score!!!)
Sand paper and sander: $8
Quart of nutmeg stain from Ace: $10
Black spray paint: already owned

Total: $23!  I checked some up online and they were over $100.  Awesome savings! :)