My Awesome Craigs List Find

I was browsing Craig's List over the weekend to see what people were giving away for free and came across some dressers. Hubby and I went to pick them up on Saturday morning and yesterday I got to work on refinishing the first one.

I forgot to take a picture before I started, but here is a photo after I sanded the drawers and top. I have to finish sanding the drawers in a few spots by hand and the main part of the dresser, but hopefully it will be finished by mid June. I'd say sooner, but hey, I leave on Friday for a week and a half so mid-June would be awesome.

Do you do Craig's List? If so, what treasures have you found? Hubby was very excited that I am enjoying this project so much and he already has pointed out an old sofa he wants me to learn how to recover. Hopefully I can find many more Craig's List deals to furnish the house!


The best "Before" photo I got. The top was nasty, but sanded out really nicely.

The drawers all sanded for the most part.
My new best friend. This hand sander made the job go so fast and much more enjoyable than I thought it was going to be. You can also see evidence of some of the spray painting I did earlier in the day.

The dresser partially sanded. It's going to look awesome once it's distressed white with new hardware. Can't complain about FREE! I love the curve in the front.

A Great Memorial Day Weekend

Whew! It was a busy and wonderful weekend here. To kick start it all, I played domestic diva on Friday and scored some great deals at the grocery store and made a delicious meal that will definitely be a summer repeat.

I've been trying to spend around $200 a month on groceries, or about $50 a week. This covers the 2-3 meals I cook a week for hubby, me, the in-laws and a friend who works with us for one of our companies and lunches for me at work and breakfasts. This week was the biggest bill of them all, but I was pretty excited to score everything below for less than $50 (I forgot to include the shredded cheese and bean sprouts in the picture). The big ticket items were spare ribs, bacon and chicken. They took up a little over $25 themselves. I also bought some lighter fluid which took up another $5. I got the eggs and all the fruit and veggies (except the corn) for about $7! I love the farmers market (an actual year-round indoor store) where I score all my produce and I'm really going to miss it whenever we move away.

Here are the meals I'm planning on getting out of the above groceries: chips and guacamole (mother-in-law had avocados already), 2 pizzas for Sunday pizza night (already had some things for toppings), BBQ for Memorial Day (see recipes below), apple cake for someone at work, BLT (have lettuce and tomato in garden), roasted potatoes to accompany meal m.i.l makes, and chicken fajitas (already had tortillas).

Friday I was in the mood for a BBQ so I decided to make spinach salad (recipe courtesy of my dear friend Katie's mom), honey garlic pork spareribs, sweet corn on the cob, baked beans and rhubarb cobbler (to use up some fresh rhubarb someone gave us). It was delicious!


Saturday and Sunday I worked on things for my shop (which is opening in a few days!!!) and had dinner out at On the Border with hubby before church Saturday night. We also rented two movies which the four of us really liked: Valkyrie and Mall Cop.

Monday brought glorious weather and hubby and m.i.l worked on fixing a fence to keep the cows in a certain pasture while d.i.l worked on fixing his John Deere so we can hay the fields. I kept myself busy working on projects for my shop and starting to refinish a dresser I scored for free on Craigs List (pictures to follow in another post). A great day ended with a delicious hamburger cookout.

Here are the three recipes from the BBQ I did on Friday:

HONEY GARLIC PORK RIBS (modified recipe from Taste of Home for grill)

3.5 - 4 lbs. pork spareribs, thin skin removed off bone side, extra fat trimmed
1 cup honey
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground mustard

1. Tenderize ribs by placing serving size portions on a rack (bone side down) in a shallow baking pan. Cover tightly with foil and bake at 350 for 1 hour; drain.
2. Meanwhile combine the remaining ingredients in a large resealable plastic bag. Place cooled ribs in bag and marinate in fridge for several hours, turning bag occasionally.
3. Cook ribs on grill for about 30-35 minutes to reheat, occasionally brushing with marinade from bag until they get a nice sticky coating.
NOTE: Ribs can also be made in 350 degree oven for 30-45 minutes, or until meat is tender, brushing occasionally with pan juices.

SPINACH SALAD

1 lg bag spinach
1 cup bean sprouts
2 hard boiled eggs diced
3 slices bacon, crumbled

Dressing
3/4 cup veg oil
3 Tbl vinegar
1/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup sugar
3-5 green onions chopped

Mix dressing and refrigerate several hours or overnight. Pour over salad before serving.

RHUBARB COBBLER (modified a recipe of Emeril Lagasse)

2 lbs. diced fresh rhubarb (I'm sure you could also use frozen)
1 cup fresh sliced strawberries
1 pint raspberries
2-1/4 cup sugar
4 tablespoons + 4 teaspoons butter (plus extra to grease dish)
juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 tablespoon (yes, TABLEspoon) baking powder
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon (yes, TABLEspoon) vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk (or just add a little vinegar to your regular milk to sour it)

Preheat oven to 375. Grease 9x9 or 9x13 pan with 2 teaspoons butter. In saucepan, combine rhubarb, berries, 2 cups sugar, butter, and lemon juice. Stir and cook over high heat about 6-7 minutes. Remove from heat. Cream together 2 teaspoons butter and 1/4 cup sugar. Add egg. Slowly add remaining ingredients. Mil until resembles cake batter. Pour rhubarb mix into greased dish. Pour batter on top. Bake 30-35 minutes. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream on top.

One Week...

until I get to meet my newest nephew! I'm so excited to see these boys (and the rest of my family too)!!

Two Standby Recipes

Quick and easy meals are the name of the game at our house lately. With all four of us putting in LONG days, we have little time to make stuff to throw down the gullet eat like civilized people before getting back to work. Two of the standbys are Spinach Fettuccini with Chicken & Tomato Alfredo Sauce and Chicken and Pepper Fajitas.

SPINACH FETTUCCINI WITH CHICKEN & TOMATO ALFREDO SAUCE

1 package fresh (or dried) spinach fettuccini noodles (cook in about 3 minutes)
1 jar Classico Roasted Garlic Alfredo (this is by far the best brand)
2 roma tomatoes, seeded and diced (optional)
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast or 4 chicken tenders (optional)

Directions:
1. If using chicken, cook in a sauté pan over medium high to high heat with 1-2 tablespoons olive oil, salt and pepper. Only turn chicken once to get a golden crust.

2. Boil noodles according to package directions.

3. Meanwhile, in small saucepan, combine alfredo sauce, shredded chicken, and tomatoes and cook until heated through.

4. Drain noodles and serve with alfredo sauce combo on top.

Variations:
1. On nights when we're really tired, we forgo the chicken and/or tomatoes.
2. Last night my mother-in-law used asparagus and salami instead of chicken and tomatoes because that's what we had on hand. That was good too.

CHICKEN AND PEPPER FAJITAS

1 package 8" flour tortillas
3 bell peppers (I use 1 red, 1 orange, 1 green)
1 red onion
1 jalapeno, seeded (optional)
1-1.5 lbs chicken tenders
Miscellaneous: Cumin, Salt, Pepper, Olive Oil, Cheese, Sour Cream, Salsa

Directions:
1. Slice peppers and onions. In sauté pan over high heat place a little olive oil. Add sliced vegetables and season with salt, pepper and cumin. Cook about 15 minutes until translucent, stirring occasionally.

2. In another pan over medium high to high heat, place a little olive oil. Season chicken with salt, pepper and cumin. Place seasoned side down in hot pan. Cook without turning for about 5 minutes (until you see white about halfway up the sides of the chicken). Season other side of chicken and then flip chicken over to finish cooking. Cooking this way sears in the flavor and give the chicken a nice "crust". Once chicken finishes cooking, shred into smaller pieces.

3. To serve, place some shredded chicken down the center of each warmed tortilla, top with vegetables and cheese. Garnish with sour cream and/or salsa if desired. Fold up and enjoy. I usually serve this meal with a side of fat-free vegetarian refried beans and salad or Spanish rice.

Do you have any quick and easy, go to meals for hectic nights?

I didn't know we were responsible for your cow eating your plug

Life on a farm is never boring.

Thankfully, it wasn't one of OUR cows who ate a plug. Although the party appears to be officially over now that the cows came home this past Sunday.

Alright. That was bad. But, I had to get it in their somewhere!

On Monday hubby had the pleasure of dealing with a customer of one of the businesses we run. It went something like this:

Customer: "Hi, I'm calling because my cow chewed through the cord and ate the plug to my [heat detection] system. Apparently my pasture wasn't appealing enough to her so she decided to try something with a little more zing to it's flavor. Oh, and silly me, instead of calling you and asking you to send me a new $10 converter plug, I decided to just plug the system directly into the wall and ended up frying the whole thing. I mean it's really not that important to convert the voltage to match the voltage output of the outlet, right? Anywhoodle, I know that this is completely your fault that my cow ate my plug so please send me a brand new system at no cost right away. After all, I can't afford to lose one penny of the $40,000+ I'm going to make when I flush these embryos after using this system."

Alright, so the parts in italics I completely added myself; but, they're a much more lighthearted version of a conversation that went more like this:

Customer: "Hi, I'm calling because my cow chewed through the cord and ate the plug to my [heat detection] system. I tried to fix this problem myself by just plugging the remaining cord directly into the outlet and my system started to smoke and now won't work. I need this system working right away because I'm in the middle of flushing all my embryos and can't afford to lose any of the money I'll make when I do that."

Hubby: "Well sir, I'm sorry that your cow ate the plug, but I wish you had called us over the weekend so we could send you a new plug. By plugging your system directly into the wall without using the converter plug, the board inside your system is now fried and beyond repair."

Customer: "Then send me a new system right away, please. I won't incur any cost, right?"

Hubby: "I'm sorry, sir. I can't do that because our warranty doesn't cover improper usage of the system or a cow eating the plug. I can though offer to sell you a new system at our cost."

Customer: "That's great. How much is that a few hundred dollars?"

Hubby: "Well, if we just needed to send you a new plug, it would have been about $10. But, because the board is fried beyond repair, the cost of that part is $1500."

Customer: "That's crazy! I'm beginning to see what my problem is. My problem was getting involved with your company in the first place!"

CLICK.

Apparently some ranchers do believe we are responsible for their cow eating the plug on their system, and their stupidity of trying to make 110volt AC and 12volt DC compatible without using a plug with a built in converter.

The customer did eventually call back later in the day and my father-in-law answered. The report is there was a remarkable change in attitude on the customer's end, so hopefully something can be worked out.

Life on a farm...it's shocking! (Alright...sorry for another bad pun.)

An Object Lesson

Many people don't know that my husband paid a large chunk of his way through college by shearing sheep. From the time he was in early high school up until as recently as this morning, he has been faithfully shearing sheep every spring.

Last night one of his customers needed him to shear their sheep and asked him to bring me along so we could all have dinner together afterwards. While I was waiting in the car for him to finish shearing, I was reminded of the passage found in Isaiah 53:7, "He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth."

The trueness of this verse rings even more true after witnessing my husband shear sheep. They make a lot of noise up until the point when he takes them in his arms, flips them on their back, and starts to shear their wool. Then they are silent. Not a noise is made until they are finished.

I learned some lessons from listening to the sheep.

First, they probably don't want to have their fleeces shorn even though it is in their best interest. They've gotten so used to the thick fluffy coat they wear that they may not even notice how dirty, tangled, and warm it has gotten. Their fleeces could be equated to our sin. How often are we satisfied to carry around the thick, mangy, and hot "fleeces" of sin instead of submitting to the Shearer who can free us of our burden? We like sheep make a lot of noise until we submit ourselves to be shorn.

Second, the sheep must allow themselves to be vulnerable in order to be shorn without harm. They are cradled on their backs between the shearers legs. One kick or move from them can result in a bad injury. They seem to know this because very rarely do they fight while the shearers are turned on. How about us? When the Lord is working on shearing us of our sin, do we submit quietly to what He's doing, or do we kick and scream and make a lot of noise which only causes us more pain in the long run?

Being on a farm and witnessing my husband interact with sheep and cattle and all that is required for caring for them has really brought me to a greater understanding of why the Lord compares us to sheep. Last night was just one more object lesson he shared with me.

Persistent Prayer

WARNING: A very LONG blog post ahead.

Hubby and I were talking a little bit ago after we were praying for direction in regards to how to deal with one of the businesses we own/run. I was disheartened because I was getting the sense that we were speaking the words, but did we really believe that God was going to hear and answer our prayers. I reminded him that all we need is faith as small as a mustard seed and was happy to see the lesson/talk taken to heart. But, I became discouraged again when I began noticing the same thing in the prayers of my in-laws about the same situation. You see, both of us (me & hubby and my in-laws) have practically ALL of our finances tied up in this one company. We've been dealt a lot of hard blows – embezzling employees, frivolous lawsuits from customers that they never should have won and did, employees who let the patent run out so that they could then sell the product under a different name once they were fired and the list could go on and on and on. Through it all, it has been difficult to see what God is trying to show us and difficult to trust that He really does have our best interests at heart.

All this got me thinking about the connection between prayer and faith and the purpose of prayer. First I looked to see what the Bible says about these topics. The first passage that popped into my head was one I shared with my hubby when we first had our talk on the subject. That passage is James 1: 2-8, 12: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does….Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him."

This passage led me to reflect on the connection between belief (faith) and prayer. To start, I looked for a definition of faith and found one in Hebrews 11:1, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." The rest of Hebrews 11 talks about the great characters of faith that we read about in the Bible and mentions twice that many of these people "did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance" (vs. 13) or "these were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised." (vs. 39) Yet, though they did not receive what they were promised, they remained faithful in their belief because they knew that "God has planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect." (vs. 40)

The next passages that came to mind about faith where those that referenced the mustard seed: Matthew 17:20 and Luke 17: 5-6. These passages tell us "…if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." I looked up how small a mustard seed actually is and learned that it is only 2mm yet grows into a tree large enough to shelter birds and with its persistent and powerful growth, it is strong enough to crack cement.

Then I looked into how we are to pray and how frequently. In Romans 12:12 we are commanded to "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer." I Thessalonians 5:16-18 says to "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

Now I was beginning to see the role that persistence played in prayer.

Luke 18:1-8 is the Parable of the Persistent Widow:

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should ALWAYS pray and not give up. He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.' "For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!'" And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith [persistent prayers according to one version] on the earth?"

Philip Yancey has written a book titled The Payoff of Persistent Prayer. I want to read this book, but found a few excerpts online that were good. He uses the parable found in Luke 11 of the man who asked his neighbor to share some food with him for an unexpected guest, but the neighbor told him to go away because he was already tucked in for the night. The man was persistent and according to Jesus, "I tell you, though he [the neighbor] will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness [his persistence, his shamelessness] he will get up and give him as much as he needs….So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." Philip Yancey points out that his parable is positioned right after Jesus' teaching on the Lord's Prayer and gives new light to it in that we should "pray like a salesman with his foot wedged in the door opening" instead of a mumbled ritual.

Another example he shared was the persistence children show when they ask for something they want. Sometimes they only ask once and you know they really don't want the item. But, when they are persistent in asking for something it usually shows they are really serious about wanting that item. As humans we often get tired of hearing the same request from someone over and over and over. But, God is not like us. We see that he values persistence in the stories about Lazarus or the Cannanite woman who pestered Jesus about her daughter or the woman at the well in Samaria. God is interested in our persistence because he views it as a sign of "genuine desire for change, the one prerequisite for spiritual growth." When we are persistent in prayer, we are drawn together with God and learn what He wants to do on earth and our role in His plan.

Philip Yancey contrasted the difference between Christian prayer and pagan prayer by using a quote from Cicero, "We do not pray to Jupiter to make us good, but to give us material benefits." As a Christian, we may originally come to God asking for a material benefit but God is more concerned with our desires and plans coming in line with His and our spiritual growth. In other words, "we seek the gift, find instead the Giver, and [sometimes] eventually come away the gift we no longer seek."

This post is starting to become already too long. If any of you are still with me, let me summarize with a few more quotes I found while studying this topic.

George MacDonald: "A God that should fail to hear, receive, attend to one single prayer, the feeblest or worst, I cannot believe in; but a God that would grant every request of every man or every company of men, would be an evil God – that is no God, but a demon."

Augustine: A person prays "that he himself may be constructed, not that God may be instructed."

George Mueller: "The great fault of the children of God is, they do not continue in prayer; they do not go on praying; they do not persevere!"

What is the purpose behind the prayers of my hubby and myself and my in-laws? Are we more concerned with our company all of a sudden becoming profitable (like we know it could be) and being able to live a life of ease? Or, are we more concerned with growing in our knowledge of the Lord, trusting that He has and will continue to more than amply meet all of our needs? Sure, my in-laws would like to be able to go off and enjoy their retirement without having to work to make this company profitable again. And yes, my hubby and I would like to be free of having to constantly float this company money and having our finances tied up so we can't move to our own place. But, the more important thing we all need to be concerned about is being persistent in our prayers and coming to the realization that we may not receive material answers to our prayers, but we will molded and changed as a result of our prayers. After all, becoming more like Christ is a greater gift than any material thing we could ever receive.

Are you kidding me?

I ran out of time last night and today to compose my post on Persistant Prayer. I'm hoping to work on it tomorrow on the plane and have it posted sometime by Monday evening.

In the meanwhile, I'm off to be a beautician for the weekend and deliver my hubby's photo id to him.

The poor guy got food poisoning last night and was stuck in the house with no running water due to a leaky pipe connected to the water meter. We have to have the city come shut the water off at the main valve before we can do the mandatory government ordered replacing of the water meter, but the city workers weren't able to find the shut off valve when they came last week and just left it up to us.

You're kidding me, right? You're the city. You know, the one who installed the shut off valve. Shouldn't you have a record of where you installed it?

Hopefully hubs can get the situation remedied so we have running water before we "move" the end of this month and so he can flush the toilets that have filled as a result of his food poisoning.

Preparing for National Day of Prayer

**REVISED 2:41pm 5/6/09...SEE BELOW**

Tomorrow is the National Day of Prayer. This tradition was established by our government in the early 1950s, but history shows similar instances were occuring all the way back to the time of our Founding Fathers. I had completely forgotten that tomorrow was the National Day of Prayer and I found it very ironic when I heard that this morning because just yesterday God laid it on my heart to do a topic study on persistent prayer and faith and I was planning on sharing that tomorrow anyways.

On my radio this morning, I heard that for the first time in 9 years the National Day of Prayer was not going to be publicly celebrated in the White House beyond a simple proclamation. No attendance at a prayer meeting or meeting with religious leaders. I did a little research on this and found this article from the Chicago Tribune.

After reading it, here are my thoughts:

It's sad to me how much people misconstrue the meaning of "separation of church and state" as originally intended by our forefathers. Their vision was not that religion would play no role in government, but rather that government would not dictate the religion to which people had to adhere.

Personally, Obama riding the fence on this issue like he does on so many others - trying to please both conservative Christians and liberals - gets him nowhere. I'd rather have a president who at least has a backbone and takes a strong stand for something even if I highly disagree with it. How does that verse go about being lukewarm?

Now more than ever our nation needs to be a nation committed to God and prayer. I wish that President Obama, who claims to be a believer, would have taken a stand that's not only in-line with his claimed beliefs, but that honors the tradition dating back to the late 1700s.

**REVISION: After typing this, I did some more research and was even more disheartened, because Obama had no problem having an event posted on his campaign website declaring a National Day of Prayer that voters would choose to vote for change. Check that out here.

Glad to hear security is so tight...

This morning my hubby left on a plane to go work on our house.

First he couldn't find my set of house keys that I loaned him last time after he misplaced his original set. But, while looking for them, he did find his original set.

Then I get a call from the plane saying he barely made it and guess what he forgot. I never got a chance to guess because I could hear the flight attendant saying in the background over the speakers that "all portable electronic devices must be shut off" followed by a quick "bye, love you" from my hubby.

Did he forget the house keys he was so frantically looking for this morning? Or maybe he forgot the keys to the car we left parked in the garage there. Don't know where those are...must be with my set of keys he misplaced.

Well, hubby just called to say that it was his license that he forgot. That's right his photo id. Did. not. have. one. And no, he did not call me from the airport he was dropped of at.

Excuse me? How did you get through security and convince them you were actually who you say you are? Guess all it took was some sweet talking and showing them a credit card and a health insurance card. Don't really see how that convinces anyone because he could have just stolen someone's wallet. While I'm very thankful hubby somehow made it to his destination, I'm also very disturbed that he was able to talk his way onto a plane with absolutely no photo id!

Thank goodness I fly out on Friday to work on my cousin's hair for her wedding and can bring him a photo id.

And, the verdict is still out on whether he remembered to bring car keys or not. Hopefully he did because I'm not looking forward to going on a wild goose chase looking for keys!

I keep telling myself I need to have his id and keys permanently attached to his body. Maybe now is finally the time!

Note: I don't recommend trying to board an airplane without photo id. Chances are they will not let you on. No matter how much you sweet talk them or show them a credit card and health insurance card.

The Amazing Race

WARNING: Spoiler ahead! If you haven't watched the Amazing Race yet from yesterday, then stop reading now!!

Can I just say how glad I am that Keisha and Jen FINALLY went HOME!!! I never really liked them (thought they were kinda mean), but I especially didn't like them after they got into the tiff with Margie and Luke...a very cool mom and son (and they're from my home town!!).

Oh, and Jamie. I LOVE her! I think she and I would be very good friends because we have very similar personalities and get frustrated at the same things. This is also the reason why my hubby says he will NEVER run the race with me no matter how much I beg him.

Don't really know who I want to win at this point. I'll be happy with any of the teams in the final three, but would prefer Margie and Luke or Jamie and Cara.

Are any of you Amazing Race fans?

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

In honor of Cinco De Mayo (a few days early) and mainly just because I LOVE Mexican food, here is the recipe I'm making tonight. If I've posted this one before, my apologies...I just love it that much (and it's super easy)!

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas (recipe courtesy of Kraft Foods)
Makes: 6 servings, 2 enchiladas each

2½ cups chopped cooked chicken (see note below)
1 can (10¾ oz.) condensed cream of chicken soup (I use the reduced fat kind)
1 cup sour cream
8 oz. shredded Colby & Monterey Jack cheese (I use the light version)
¼ cup chopped cilantro (optional)
12 flour tortillas (8 inch)
1½ cups salsa
1 small can chopped green chilies (my addition…optional)

PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Mix chicken, soup, ½ cup of the sour cream, 1 cup of the cheese, green chilies and 3 Tbsp. of the cilantro until well blended.

SPOON about ¼ cup of the chicken mixture down center of each tortilla; roll up. Place, seam sides down, in greased 13x9-inch baking dish. Top with the salsa and remaining cheese.

BAKE 25 min. Sprinkle with remaining 1 Tbsp. cilantro; top with the remaining 1/2 cup sour cream.

NOTE: To cook the chicken, I drizzle a little olive oil in the bottom of a sauté pan over medium to medium high heat. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, and place seasoned side down in the pan. Season the other side of the chicken with salt and pepper. Cover with aluminum foil and place a heavy pot (I use a cast iron one) or brick on top of foil to weigh chicken down. Cook about 5-7 minutes and then flip chicken until all the way cooked. Cut or shred chicken into pieces. Cooking this way gives the chicken a nice brown and slightly crisp “crust” without the skin.

Italy Photos

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip. They're posted in reverse order just because I don't feel like taking the time to correct them here. This is just a small sampling of the 120+ I took. If you care to see more and are my friend on Facebook, they're posted on there.

A mermaid sculpture.

The peonies were just one of the amazing flowers in the garden we visited.

I love fiddle head ferns but have only seen them in bouquets. I was very excited to see them growing "wild"

The azaleas in the garden were amazing. The mountains on the right are part of the Italian Alps.

The villa and its private museum in the garden we visited along Lake Como.

This was from the wedding. Don't know how it got posted here instead of by the rest of the wedding photos. My hubby is a lot more handsome than the swirly face suggests!

The ceiling of the chapel in the garden we visited. The frescos and plaster detail work was amazing.

A sculpture in the garden we visited.

Another sculpture in the garden we visited.

Some beautiful Japanese maples in the garden we visited in the town of Bellaggio along Lake Como.

The bride and groom. The bride is a friend of mine from highschool/college. The groom's Scottish...thus the kilt.

The city of Manarola along the Cinque Terre. Hubby and I hiked between three of the five towns. It was fun and picture perfect.

A statue I found in a kids park and it has the colorful city of Manarola as its backdrop.

A photo I took in Corniglia...one of the towns in La Cinque Terre. You may see this showing up in some form in my shop.

Our sleeping quarters at the monastery. Thankfully the couple who was supposed to share the room with us didn't show up...that would have been a little awkward!

The view from the guest house we stayed in on the monastery for the first three days.

The Cutest Artist I've Ever Seen

This picture just makes me grin from cheek to cheek every time I see it. Someone found the crayons during his nap one day while daddy was watching him! He was so proud of his work!

My brother-in-law is getting "deployed" to Las Vegas this summer so my sister and nephews are going to come hang out with me for awhile and I'm so excited!!

Three? Really?

I don't even know where these past two weeks have gone. Life is flying by at an unbelievably fast pace and I'm just trying to catch up. My bedroom, bathroom, and craft room are feeling the neglect and are desperately in need of cleaning.

Hubby and I had a good time in Italy. The weather was ho hum and the first few days we had limited transportation while at the monastery for the wedding, but made the most of it. We even got to sleep in bunk beds...hubby on top and me on bottom for the first three days. Oh, and hubby got to take a shower while the bride's great aunt used the toilet directly across from him and tried to carry on a conversation...interesting times! The last day in Italy we rented a smart car (I was the driver seeing how hubby forgot his license) and drove to the town of Bellaggio along Lake Como. It was GORGEOUS! Hubby read about this garden in the travel guide so we visited there and got some great ideas for our backyard. I'll post photos in their own post.

In addition to that suitcase that is still needing to be unpacked, I also have a suitcase to unpack from the road trip hubby and I took last weekend to install patches on cow's butts. All part of life here on the farm! We drove to Indiana for our first stop and then back tracked, stopping in Ohio at another farm on the way home. While hubby was installing the systems and patches, I sat in the car and looked through 15 magazines, tearing out the items I want to keep and recycling the rest. It was great just to spend time with my hubby and getting to stop at our favorite burger joint on the way home.

Oh, and let's not forget the original suitcase that is still needing to be unpacked from Easter weekend when we made a trip out to do some more demo on our kitchen and visit my grandma and cousin to deliver her wedding invitations. Thankfully the bride was very pleased with them! Pictures of both will follow in their own post.

Besides these three trips and suitcases waiting to be unpacked, I've been busy working on items for my store's "grand opening." I know I announced here that I'm shooting for the 30th, but that's two days from now and some of the items I need before I can open have yet to make an appearance, so I'm going to have to delay that for a little bit. But, SOON, it's coming!!

Hubby is gone again today and tomorrow at a farm in Idaho installing yet another system. I figured while he's gone it'd be a good time to clean our bedroom, bathroom and my craft room, not to mention unpacking the three suitcases.

After all, I'm going to need to pack one of them again in a week to head back out to visit my cousin again to practice her hairstyle for the big day in June!

Pesto & Gelato Are Calling My Name

I said I was going to go two weeks without eating sweets so I could enjoy all the gelato and pesto Italy has to offer, and I'm proud to report I made it a week and a half before succumbing to an ice cream sundae at my grandma's house on Good Friday, one of hubby's grandma's homemade Eclairs on Easter and a lemon poppy seed cake I made for a birthday at work yesterday. Not too bad compared to the amount of sweets I used to consume.

Tomorrow hubby and I are off to Italy for my friend's wedding. We are so excited! We'll be spending a few days near La Spezia and Cinque Terre for the wedding and then a day and a half in the Milan and Lake Como areas before heading back home. I already informed hubby we'll have to return someday because I really want to see Rome, Florence, and Venice. But for now, I'll take any part of Italy I can get and I'm so excited to see my dear friend, "Josh", who I haven't seen in over 7 years or so.

I'll be back to post here sometime the week of the 20th with photos of our trip and more demo work we did on the kitchen over Easter weekend.

Getting closer

I'm so excited to post this today because it means that I'm one step closer to opening my shop! I've finally finished the wedding invitations I was working on and will be delivering those to my "client" this weekend (at the end of the 9 hour roadtrip hubby and I embark on tonight at 7pm) and now I can devote all my time to making jewelry and note cards and home decor items. I'm so excited!

I've received great reviews so far on the items I have done and need to complete a few more projects to make sure my shop is well stocked. Once I finish that and designing my website, the doors will be open. I'm shooting for April 30th as my "Grand Opening".

For now, here is my button that will be used on my packaging, business card, and advertisements.

Worth the drive??

Hubby was supposed to leave last Wednesday to go finish demo on the kitchen so we can get a good jump when we are there this summer. Just before we got ready to leave, the airline called to tell him that his flight had been cancelled and they'd have to rebook him. He chose to leave Saturday late afternoon instead.

Saturday morning hubby tries to check-in online and print his boarding pass, but the computer kept saying it couldn't assign a seat number. Finally we track down a number for the airline and call them only to have them say their computers are down and they wouldn't be able to tell him if he as a seat until he checks in at the airport. So, we start out on our way for the journey to LaGuardia in NYC. Of course we hit traffic for both the Yankees and Mets last pre-season home games and finally get to the airport. I wait the five minutes to see if he gets a seat and once I get the call that all is good, I pull away from the curb and start the drive back home through Manhattan (it's the cheapest route so I'll fight the traffic).

No sooner do I enter the Midtown Tunnel when hubby calls to say that the flight has been oversold and that they're offering a free roundtrip ticket to anyone who's willing to give up their seat. He says he really needs to go in order to get the new water meter installed, but that if nobody else offers he will. So, as I'm exiting the tunnel, he calls to say that they sweetened the pot and offered two roundtrip tickets to anywhere they fly and he jumped at the opportunity. So, looks like we'll be making a trip to the Caymen Islands or some other warm place next winter! And, he only paid $40 bucks for his original ticket!

Yeah, it took two hours to get to the airport and another four to get home thanks to having to turn around and head back to the airport and then back through Manhattan only to have the police constantly close entrances to the Lincoln Tunnel just as we got within 3 car lengths, but I think it was well worth it for the two free tickets and four extra days with my hubby before he leaves!

Plus, we needed some cheering up after we lost a suit against one of hubby's company's on Friday to the tune of $14,000. More to come on that later.

Holy Week

Last year I posted this too late for anybody to really be able to participate, including myself, but this time I'm only a day and a half late!

Hope you all had a wonderful Palm Sunday yesterday. The weather here was lovely and we had such an awesome church service. Last night I watched the Discovery Channel's 3 hour special on "Who Was Jesus?". It was sad that they had a Baptist minister and two other Biblical scholars, yet not one of them seemed to be a true believer. They basically just presented Jesus as a historical man instead of God himself. And, they gave about 2 minutes out of the the three hours to his resurrection.

I'm anxious to read through these Scripture passages this week as we remember the last week of our Savior's life on earth.

**NOTE: The below was originally from an insert in the bulletin of my parents' church.

The final week of Christ's life leading up to His crucifixion and resurrection has been known as "Holy Week" throughout the liturgical history of the church. This week provides a powerful opportunity for each of us to retrace Christ's steps that week...and journey with Him...and reflect on who He is and what He did...and worship.

Sunday: THE TRIUMPHAL ENTRY
Mark 11:1-9 (Matthew 21:1-9, Luke 19:28-44, John 12:12-19)

Monday: JESUS CLEANSES THE TEMPLE
Mark 11:12-19 (Matthew 21:12-17, Luke 19:45-48)

Tuesday: CHRIST'S TEACHING
Mark 11:20-13:37

Wednesday: JESUS IS ANOINTED AT BETHANY
Mark 14:1-11 (Matthew 26:6-16)

Thursday: THE UPPER ROOM SUPPER, BETRAYAL AND ARREST
Mark 14:12-72 (Matthew 27:1-61, Luke 22:66-23:56, John 18:28-42)

Friday: THE CRUCIFIXION
Mark 15:1-47 (Matthew 27:1-61, Luke 22:66-23:56, John 18:28-42)

Saturday: SECURING THE TOMB
Matthew 27:62-66 (Hebrews 10:11-25, I Corinthians 15:1-4, Romans 5:8-11)

Sunday: THE RESURRECTION!
Mark 16:1-11 (Matthew 28:1-8, Luke 24:1-10, John 20:1-31)

It's only 2 weeks, right?

I've had a little bit of a blogger block in case you haven't noticed.

Not much to report on here besides the fact that I'm still covered in blue glitter (I think my in-laws' living room will have a nice blue sparkle to it for awhile too), we got a new dishwasher (woohoo clean dishes again finally!), and my pants are starting to get a little tight. Guess that's what happens when one eats a lot of sweets and hasn't taken the time to workout in about two months.

So, realizing that hubby and I leave for ITALY two weeks from yesterday, and knowing that I'm definitely going to want to indulge in some gelato and pasta while there, I decided that between now and April 14th I'm going to forgo the cookies, brownies, ice cream, candy, cakes, etc. that have made their way into my diet over the past couple months. This is going to be HARD for a sugar addict like me! But, hopefully ya'll will help keep me accountable and two weeks from now as I'm on a plane to Italy, my scale will be back down to where it should be, my pants won't be fitting a little snug, and my tastebuds will be ready for some of the best gelato known to mankind!

Lord, please give me a LOT of willpower!