Hot, Hot, Hot (and Tasty!)

I just heard that this summer is the hottest summer since 1980. No wonder I've been feeling a little more complainy about the heat (usually I enjoy the heat, to a point, especially after ICY winters). 


Well, Monday we woke up to get ready for work and I was pissed off at the air conditioner. I started thinking I'd somehow set the thermostat wrong (it's a smarter thermostat where I can program times and temperatures that I want it to change to) and had it set to be 80 while we slept. Oh well, I got ready for work and that was that. Then Brandon text messaged me when he got off early saying it was 84 degrees in the house at 1am! Holy crap, that is unacceptable! When we're not at home, it's set to never get above 80. Our a/c was busted! (by the way, that took less than 3 months of living here to have a major malfunction!)


Well, part of the home buying process is the sellers provided for us a year long home warranty. I couldn't remember where I put it, so Brandon couldn't find it to call and get them started on finding someone to fix it for us, thus we had to wait until I got home to take care of it. By then, Brandon had already loaded up 2 of the dogs (can't carry all four at once, that's insane!) and headed to my parent's house to escape the heat and sleep for work that night. I called, reported, and hung around for 2 hours for NO ONE to call me back!


Angry and now hot, I got on the phone to check the status, packed my crap for sleep for the day and work that night, and loaded up the remaining 2 dogs. Right when I got on the road, they answered. Oh, it seems because I didn't say it was a medical emergency (why didn't I say that again? Oh ya, I'm only pregnant, not about to DIE!) they just sent the request to some sort of purgatory in their system to await only God knows what. We changed it to an emergency, but the only company they'd been able to find so far could be here Wednesday, not same day. I could hold out and see if anyone could come Tuesday, or just get a guaranteed visit Wednesday. I agreed to that since we'd be an hour away sleeping, hopefully, and went about my business. 


I tell you, Wednesday when Brandon and I got to the house to wait out the "We'll be there between 9am and 1pm" electrician crap, it was hot. By 11:30am it was reading 90 degrees INSIDE! But then the a/c repair guy showed up, and about 20 minutes later was paid and gone with the a/c working. We decided to leave, go get the dogs, have lunch, and then come back to a hopefully cooler house. I tell ya, that was NO FUN. Even when we got back, it had decreased only to 84...but oscillating fans can be saviors, and our one and only most definitely was. It was a nice thing waking up because I was looking for the covers that had been previously removed...then waking up and turning the fan off.


That's been about the biggest load of crap we've dealt with lately.


Good stories are that I've been doing decent at a sort of weekly meal plan idea. I try to only go the the grocery store once a week and load up on fruit, veggies, and things for dinner for the week. We alternate weeks where I try to have 3 home cooked meals one week and 2 home cooked meals the next. (there are always leftovers, and Brandon and I do enjoy going out to eat on occasion, so I think it works out decently) This is week 3 of trying that plan, and, even with the hot house, we've done well! Our only set back this week is that the grocery store we went to didn't have a couple things we wanted, so we'll go and pick up those things tomorrow. 


I've also been trying recipes that sound really yummy and easy from Food Network.com and 2 out of the 3 have been amazing, one was meh. I forgot to cook the rice with it, so maybe that would have made a difference, but I think we needed to add some more spice to it. One recipe I've already posted on my recipe list, I need to post the other because it was sooo flavorful! (seriously, the chicken alone was amazing, mixed with the tomatillos and other parts, omg sooo good!) The meh one was sweet and sour pork. VERY easy to make, just needed some more kick. And all of it healthy! (I set a personal goal of at least one veggie or veggie medley per meal, except breakfast, and these have satisfied my request) 


The meal that was just superb this week was found in a Good Housekeeping that somehow found its way to our mailbox. It's called Spicy Chicken Corn Chowder. For me, it wasn't so spicy that I needed tons of fluids to cool the heat, but sort of like Hot and Sour soup, warm enough to make your nose run a tad, but still tasty. And it was very, very good! I'll post that one later, too. I believe it was easy to make (Brandon actually cooked this one). Only chopping the vegetables and such was the long part, really, as I find it is with any other recipe. I would definitely recommend getting some French bread to dip in the sauce. It came out perfect and hasn't broken at all for us. 


I didn't take any pictures of these, though, because I forgot. But trust me, YUMMY! And easy! I'm pretty lazy and they make enough for left overs (which means food to eat at home and take to work), don't take more than an hour from start to finish, and are mostly good for you. I slacked off a little this week because the remaining two meals we plan on cooking are steak, baked potatoes, and salad and then using the Kraft Tangy Spaghetti mix and making spaghetti with meat sauce. But that crap is good for a box! (although it seems Walmart and Target don't sell it, boo!)


Since I suck and didn't do any pictures, I'll just show you some cute puppy dog pictures I have. 

Bella...she sleeps with us 90% of the time...she loves her cuddles!

Handsome Hunter. He loves to play!

Ribby...not so much a fan of the baby gate keeping him from us in the computer room.

JJ, practicing his dramatic look. Aww, he's finally getting a tad of white on his chinny-chin-chin.

Arbonne Reviews!

This post is a tad different than my usual posts.  It turns out my cousin, Robyn (of Run Flores Run and See-to-it-Fitness, and probably others I don't remember), sells Arbonne and sent me some samples to play with and asked me to review them (I think especially after that I love Mary Kay post in the past)!  So, I tried the products and am going to share with you what I thought about what I got!  


Once upon a time I might be resistant to change, but I'm trying to be open to new experiences, new products, etc. So, I took this Arbonne challenge to heart (especially since I remember how Mary Kay converted me once upon a time, why not see what Arbonne has to offer, too?).


The samples:

The gist of the Arbonne company, I believe, is natural and environment friendly. They make their products on botanical bases.  That is what I'm gleaning from browsing the website. Always something that is good to look for in products, I think. They even have a Green Commitment. All things that sound nice.

Let me start by saying...I haven't tried the baby stuff yet. I wanted to wait on actually having a baby to try it on, rather than trying it on myself or someone else lol. So...come November or December I'll probably have my little write up about it...but I'm super excited to try it!  Here is a link to the baby stuff on their website:  ABC Arbonne Baby Care

The first thing I tried was the shampoo and conditioner she sent.  Granted, I could have used more in the sample sizes.  What I got just didn't suds up for me, but my hair was probably pretty dirty! Oops lol. Here are links to the products:  FC5 Nourishing Daily Shampoo and http://www.arbonnefc5.com/hair/nourishing_daily_conditioner/.

The shampoo did smell good and my hair felt nice afterwards. I only had enough for one wash. I generally need a weeks worth of shampoo to really see how my hair handles it, as my hair gives me fits (especially since it is subtly changing right now). Generally, since it's long, the ends seem to dry out and my roots get oily pretty quickly. But for the day I used the FC5 shampoo and conditioner, it did seem pretty balanced and soft. The kiwi smell didn't stick with my hair, no scents really do anyways, but it did smell great in the shower. I like fresh scents like that. I would definitely try it again. It is more expensive than buying something like Herbal Essences at Walmart, and is listed as more expensive as the Paul Mitchell Tea Tree Special Brandon uses, but usually special items like this are that way. 

Brandon tried the bath salts.  I was really busy and so sleepy with work and other things that I didn't get to try them with him, but he weighed in. He said that it dissolved instantly and completely (more smoothly than other salts he's used), but had a very strong smell of salt to it. It felt really nice and relaxing, and definitely like it was working on him (it describes itself as purifying, nurturing, re-mineralizing). However, the website lists a 1.65oz package as $60. The sample pack was the 1.65oz package, and, upon asking my husband if he felt he had a $60 soak, he said no. That it was a great bath salt, but not for that price. (I believe comments like, "for $60 it should have unicorn tears in it" were mentioned...) Here is a link to the salts:  Sea Source Detox Spa Strengthen Purifying Sea Soak Maybe we're just too hick to understand it, but I do really appreciate my cousin letting us try this product. I feel bad that I wasn't able to try it, especially since it might have helped with my sleep and exhaustion, but I chose bed over bath. Bad me.

The other products I tried I was able to try for longer. They were from the RE9 Advanced line.

First up:  RE9 Soothing Facial Cleanser. I remember it smelling nice, oatmealy, and felt nice on my skin. It did leave my skin feeling supple and soft! (sounds kind of silly coming from me, I think, but it did feel very nice). 


I used it in conjunction with the RE9 Regenerating Toner, Intensive Renewal Serum, Restorative Day Creme with SPF 20, and Night Repair Creme. I, also, used the Corrective Eye Creme. All of them had similar scents, which were very pleasant and felt nice being applied. Never did I feel like I had oily or dry skin, never did my skin ever burn or tingle uncomfortable (with a couple Mary Kay products I have experienced this, whether it was the particular mix or what, I'm not sure). I cannot say that the night creme beat the Mary Kay night solution, but it was up there with it. 

In the end, if money wasn't so tight with me right now (sooo many things going on), I would switch to Arbonne. The environment goals along with the push for the botanical products, plus the just pure nice quality of the items, are all amazing, but they are more expensive. I really enjoyed getting to try the products and wish I could afford to use them more frequently (though purely on the price for the amount received for the salts, I might skip out on that one). Often times, green does mean more expensive (have you checked with your electric company lately? If you want more wind powered than the traditional way, it's more per kilowatt hour...). However, if you really want to try something that was very nice to experience, felt good on my skin, made my skin feel and look good, and seems to have a very healthy basis and goal, let me know and I can hook you up with my cousin, or find your own local Arbonne seller. You might be surprised!

Fourth of July and Stuff

Ok, I have pictures now to go along with my blogs! Yay!


First, I already told you we hung our curtains in our bedroom. I'll show you pictures, but, I'm certain I already warned you it won't be pretty as we have them pinned together and to the wall to decrease the amount of light that would come into the room. So, imagine these curtains, for normal people, being able to be pushed open to the side or tied to the side with a matching sash, but they're not and probably never will be.


Here is the curtain rod end:

The big window, with curtains pinned in the middle.

One of the little windows. You an see the extra light-blocking white layer behind it a little.

It sounds dumb, but they really have been a life saver. I looked at the pictures posted of the house by the previous owners and they didn't do curtains at all in the bedroom...but they got to sleep during the day, too, so I bet that made the difference for them.

The Fourth of July was a little over a week ago. I was on-call for work but managed to not have to go in! Woohoo! Brandon and I went to my parent's house for the most awesome ever ribs, smoked by my Daddy, and the absolute best sides and dessert made by my Momma. She made corn on the cob, which was crunchy, juicy, and sweet, potato salad done to perfection, and an amazing banana split cake. It has, I think, a graham cracker crust with a banana pudding custard or something, then a layer of strawberries, topped with whip cream and some nuts. It is so yummy!

Afterwards, we went outside to shoot fireworks. Daddy has a camera similar to the one he got me (mine is newer), so he and I decided to play with our cameras on the fireworks. Lets just say we both managed to freeze the software on our cameras, both managed to capture photos that were either too long in exposure or too much light sensitivity, and I managed to never really have a nicely centered photo lol. Oh well. Here are some pictures. 

Brandon playing "baseball" with the snap-popper firework thingies.

The package set of fireworks we bought.

Fireworks!

Ok, the picture below really sucks...but I had to include it. See Chewy on the right? Ya, he went RIGHT for the fireworks like he wanted to them and run. After this event, he bought himself some indoor time.

The one below should be landscape instead of portrait...but I really don't feel like fighting with the blogger photo loader to make it work right. I don't know why it changes it on it's own. A little dumb, I think.

Some last bits of updates...

I got an email that I was recommended for admission to the nursing graduate program at UTA! I applied for the Acute Nurse Practitioner program. All I have to do is accept my acceptance...but of course I applied before I got pregnant, and we're still talking over what the right decision is for us, but I'll let you know! I'm really excited about it...and nervous...but mostly about money lol. I'm sure I can handle anything it throws at me! So, we'll see!

Chewy is spending some time with us this week. Momma went to a nursing conference in St. Louis (well, she only went because it was in St. Louis and would get to see Jarod a little, otherwise she wouldn't have gone that far) and Daddy went with her. I hope they're having a great time, but the dogs all get a little excited when Chewy is around. The first night has gone ok. JJ got super hyper and we had to take a 2:30am walk with all of the dogs (2 at a time...we might have not walked Chewy, but that was because he got a super awesome car ride, complete with take out pizza that the others didn't get). That walked pooped them all out, thankfully, and they've been resting since. We have one more night with him while we're home, and he'll be here Friday night, as well, but we'll be at work. Momma and Daddy will fly in Saturday afternoon and pick him up on their way home. I hope he has a good time...as well as the other doggies. 

I've been a little more proactive at work about trying to obtain Clinical Ladder. Supposedly, clinical ladder is a way to further yourself in nursing, blah blah blah. I'm sure it's good, I'm not really trying to demean it, but some of the things on the list are a little dumb and some of them are really huge endeavors (getting published?! and it only counts for one point?! what?!lol). 

I'm adding a recipe to my recipe list. I took it from Food Network.com's website, but it was SO yummy! It's called Pepper-jack chicken with succotash. Oh, it was good. The melted pepper jack cheese (which, when I made it, was freshly grated) mixed with the grilled flavor and Cajun spices on the chicken was DIVINE! I might leave out the tomatoes on the succotash next time and replace them with something like green or red peppers. I think it was the tomatoes that added a sort of strange sweet flavor. I know red peppers are sweet, too, but I think it would be a different flavor of sweet. Just a side note on this dish...either for real grill it (I used a grill pan on my stove) or have super awesome ventilation going! It tasted amazing on the grill pan...but the SMOKE that was distributed from the spices on the outside almost killed me! Even the dogs started sneezing! We had to send them outside and open the doors and windows to air out the house! However...WORTH IT!

Pictures:

The stuffing. I used Romaine lettuce instead of arugula because I couldn't find the arugula. Spinach would probably do well, too!

Chicken just placed on the stove.

Lima beans, squash, corn, tomatoes, and lime.

If you look closely, you can see some smoke! The chicken was pretty thick, so we did end up putting it in the oven on the grill pan for a little bit at 350 to help it cook through. 

Cooking the succotash. Once again, I choose not to fight with the picture loader. Why it turns some of my pictures, I'll never understand.

The chicken is thick and large, so it is meant to be cut in half and be four servings. It really is filling.

The succotash. It made so much!

The last update I think I'll bore you with is we tried our first church since we moved here! We went to an 8:30 service (choices were 8:30 and 11:00 for traditional service and 9:45 for the "jazz" service). It was nice. The hymns we sung, for me at least, seemed REALLY old. Such as, they don't even really rhyme or have that great of a cadence to them, but I'm sure there are some folks older than I that appreciate those hymns. The congregation seemed on the older side, like parents of college kids and older. There were a few dabblings of not that old, but it wasn't much. We're thinking of trying the jazz service not this week but next (Brandon works both Saturday and Sunday night...not sure if missing sleep would be a good idea to try this Sunday).  We may also just stay up and try the 11am service sometime, too, where we think a greater number of people will be.  What was hilarious, though, was there was a youth choir from Northern Ireland as guests. They sang very well, but there was one gentleman in the back with a curious t shirt...a Jim Beam t shirt...in church! lol Brandon was the one who noticed it, of course. We did giggle about that. 

Ok, I think that is all for now. I really should shut up. I'll leave you with a cute picture of Bella and Hunter playing. You almost can't tell they'd been playing, but if you look at Hunter's stance...he is so doing the playful "bow." And his tail is wagging too fast for the exposure time the camera was on!  And check in with my baby updates if you feel like it! Along Comes a Minion

Settling in...

I haven't had much to talk about because we've been settling into our home and getting our schedule back in line. For the longest time I could NOT sleep during the day (a huge problem for a night shifter, yes?) and was sooooo sleepy at night. I'm still working on that, but we're making headway!

I can't remember if I blogged about it, but my Daddy and Momma got me and Brandon a super sweet new camera! I've played with it a little...and, my, the vast amount of dog pictures we have (especially when we learned how to take more rapid fire shots...). Point is, no pictures this post. I'll have some later.

We just hung some curtains in the bedroom. It was needed more than we realized. They're not very fancy, and, if I do take pictures of them, will look super lame because we've tried to make a cave out of our room. They're simple chocolate brown curtains bought from Anna's Linens (without the valance) on nice rods from Lowes. Nothing expensive. They advertise as thermal panels and energy efficient. We'll see.  We also bought an extra liner that we pinned to the curtains. It was cheap but advertised as a black out liner. It doesn't black out...but it helps, that is for sure. On top of that...we push pinned the edges of the curtains to the walls and, on the two big windows we just used one rod on, pinned the curtains together. This all minimizes the light coming in. If we get really pissed...we'll just line the windows on our side of the blinds with foil. Energy efficient, cheap, tacky, but gets the job done. (must be on your side of the blinds and not the window side or it'll upgrade it to trashy instead of tacky...but that's my opinion...)

My cousin's church had a sort of garage sale and she had a table that didn't sell. It looked nice and was a good color (even though it was round and we really wanted a square or rectangle table). Either way, we decided to take it home, as it was being given to us for free since there were no chairs to go with it. Fast forward a few weeks, there was a sort of estate sale on my parent's street and a table and chairs for sale there. Mom went ahead and bought them for us because she swore the colors were right. Well, the chairs match the old table AND the new! We probably will keep the old table (since it has an insert that makes it more rectangle with rounded ends) with the chairs and either get rid of the new table or find something fun to do with it (corner decorative table? it's not that big of a table...but it's not small either).

What else...Mom bought couch covers for the dogs. They're like blankets for them to sleep on PLUS protect the couches! They're really nice. The only downside to them is there no way to affix them to the couches. They just sort of slide off, so could really use a sort of elastic band to go around the top corners, at least. Well, when mom brought them to the house to give them to us, she showed us what she thought about them, how you could just fold it and use it as a sort of bed on the ground. After giving them to us, we all went out to eat and came home to a destroyed cover! I've sort of kept it in play, but JJ keeps getting bored and ripping more stuffing out. That dog loves to de-stuff things!

I still need to brain storm something cute to go in this nook near the ceiling in our bathroom. We have brown mats to match the faucets and mirror paint. I don't know what to put up there and don't want to spend a lot of money, so I'm dragging my butt on doing anything at all. But every time I see it, I think, "I need to put something up there." Any ideas?

That's all for now!

House Decoration and Celebration

So, as we still have plenty of stuff at my parent's house to get moved, we're officially living, successfully, I think, in our new house. We had a little celebration this weekend and, even though we weren't expecting gifts, we received a few really cute things.


Pictures:

This was given to us by my friend since kindergarten! Love it! We decided it should be hung above the pantry!

A super awesome gift card, non-alcoholic beverage for me, and wine for Brandon!

Scotch for Brandon and a non-alcoholic option for me!

Isn't this clock pretty?! I can't wait to hang it!

Our welcoming buddy from my mom!

We actually got 2 more gift cards, one to Lowe's from a work friend of Brandon's and one to Home Depot from Anne...but the Home Depot one is highlighted on my baby blog with another type of gift.

This is a little lawn windmill ornament my mom got for us. Brandon picked the perfect place for it!

Here are the pictures of the house with stuff in it, looking a tad less bare:

What will be our dining room, but was our "sitting room" for the party. That is my Mawmaw's card table and chairs we borrowed. It was a popular place, lol.

The kitchen (after clean up, actually). The red vases with small roses and white flowers at the base were decorations at my wedding and the large vase with an arrangement was a decoration used at my nursing school pinning ceremony. I think it looks nice until we feel like spending more money on decorations more specific to our rooms.

Our new couches! They all recline and are super comfortable! We're thinking we want a decorative mirror above the fireplace, but, since I scored an awesome deal via MamaPedia or GroupOn  (I don't remember which) for a canvas photo, I just placed our wedding canvas picture there until we hang it elsewhere. My nursing figurine and Brandon's police figurine are there, too, with empty glass photo frames we'll fill in the future.

Also, the little candle sticks and candles around the fireplace was given to us by my Grandmommy. They're a nice little touch to the living room.

This is the view of our office from the hallway. We had to add the fan because it gets so warm in this room.

This is the office from the corner. That is my shelf all set up. Brandon is still working on his. 

This is our front porch. We got some simple, but cute, lawn chairs and table, complete with citronella candle. It is summer in Texas! 

Still very bare, but our spare bedroom. The bed is ready for visitors! Only I forgot to grab a mattress pad for it. I, personally, hate sleeping on beds without mattress pads...but maybe that is only my problem. Who knows.

The spare bathroom. We wanted a cute, simple shower curtain that would go with the paint already there, but be both adult and kid friendly at the same time. I think we did alright!

I can't remember if I showed off our new laundry room. Aren't they pretty?!

Our bedroom. I swear it looks bigger with our crap in it than with the previous owner's stuff. We don't have a headboard set for the bed yet, but, with some purchases from Ikea, we at least have places to put our things.

Our new bed. Sorry, I did not make the bed for the picture, but I don't care. Hope you don't. We just need a bed skirt for it, really. And some bedside lamps in the future. But our bedroom light fades to the dimness we like and is within reach of our bed...so we're good for now.

This was what happens when you leave the dogs for too long and DVDs within dog reach. Obviously, before our new couches were delivered.

And what happens if you don't get the bedroom door shut in time. They look so comfy, though.

That's all for today! My brother's graduation photos came in, too, and he's handsome in them. But they're just posed things. The pictures I managed to take sucked (too far away with a camera that just isn't capable of a zoom like that) so I won't have any to post.

Oh, and my cousin who sells Arbonne just sent me some things to try out! I'm super excited to play with some of it (and some will have to wait since it's for baby, and, well, that will be October or November!). But I'll let ya' know how it goes!