Week of Firsts...

So in the last few days we have had some "firsts" so I thought I would share those with y'all...

Our first, first was this delicious pork roast. Now I am sure you are thinking, "But, I know you have had pork roast before" and you would be correct. Many, many times actually.


But this pork roast is Taylor's new favorite meal and was have purchased 3 of these 1.5 lb roasts in the last week because Taylor claims we will be having 1 every week! Haha :)


So, you could say that we had our first pork roast out of 52 for the year! I know it sounds crazy, but I think we really could eat this meal once a week and not get tired out it. I love that you can just put the roast in the crock pot in the morning with a little water and it's done when you get home!


Speaking out crock pot, our next first was Tortilla Soup, which was the first of 4 crock pot dinners I made this week! Ha. I have always love cooking in a crock pot but it wasn't until we got back from Walmart last Saturday that I realized I purchased items for 4 crock pot meals! But I'm not complaining, because dinner was ready for us every night when we got home, which is AWESOME! These are all the items you need to make the tortilla soup recipe I made and you just put it all in the crock pot then set it on low for 6-8 hours.We put the soup over tortilla chips and sprinkled it with a little cheese. Thank you Roxy for a wonderful recipe :)

1 can of corn (drained), 1 can of Rotel, Large can of chicken, Taco seasoning, 1 can of Kidney beans, Small can of diced green chiles, 1 can stewed tomatoes, 1 packet of ranch mix, 1 can of chicken broth

Our next first would not have happened if it was up to me, but Taylor is really stubborn and forced me to do it! Ha. Let me first state that the high in C-U today was in the low 30s and there is snow all over the place and you know what Taylor wanted to do? Go run OUTSIDE! We are currently training for a half marathon that we are running in April and Taylor is so tired of running on treadmills.


So we got all bundled up and headed outside. And I have to admit, though I will probably regret it, it was actually really nice to run outside. The cold didn't bother me at all and it was nice to run and not stare at a white wall the whole time!


And finally, we went to my first company party this evening. It ended up being better than we had anticipated and we won one of the centerpieces they had on the tables. We were hoping to win the iPad they were giving away, but sadly our name wasn't called :(


At the party, they announced the Employee of the Year award as well as the Publisher's Choice Award, which is where our CEO hand picks an employee he feels as contributed the most to the company. It was very encouraging to see our Executive's talk so highly and personally about employees and I was reminded of how lucky I am to work for such a great company. Sometimes I get really overwhelmed about my job and have a lot of doubts about whether I will ever be successful in my position. But it's nice to know that I work for company that really cares about its employees and have a boss that is so understanding.

Hope you have had a great weekend!

Mr. Fix-It

So, I just have a funny little story to share with you all today about a man named Mr. Fix-It...


This is Mr. Fix-It. He thinks he can fix anything and doesn't have to listen to his wife when she tells him that he could hurt himself. So the other day, Mr. Fix-It's kitchen light would not turn on. He decided that since he is Mr. Fix-It and can fix stuff, he would try to do it himself. His wife warned him that he was going to shock himself and should probably just put in a maintenance request.


But Mr. Fix-It responded that he just wanted to take a look at it and he would be fine... Then, 5 minutes later...


Mr. Fix-It came and sat by his wife on the couch and she asked "Well, did you fix it?" and he responded "No... I just shocked myself" :)

Maybe next time Mr. Fix-It will listen to his wife??... No, probably not :)

Back to School

Well it was back to school for Taylor today! But since he only has class on Tuesday and Thursday from 2-5, he still got to sleep in! Ha. I'm not sure how long I will be able to handle this. I may have to start making a bunch of noise in the morning so he will wake up with me :)

So since we stayed in C-U last weekend, we did not do much of anything! Ha. It was nice to relax and just spend time at home. We did go out to eat dinner on Friday night which Taylor always loves! We brought dessert back to the house and then watched a documentary called Ocean of Fear. It is about the USS Indianapolis that sank in the 40's and how the crew survived in the ocean for 5 days. It was really interesting!


On Saturday night, we had Andrew, Laine and Keith over for pancakes and games. It was a lot of of fun and Laine and I actually talked the boys into letting us watch the Miss America pageant. We were cheering on Miss Oklahoma and Miss Arkansas all night! Laine and Andrew actually knew Miss Arkansas because she went to their high school, so that was cool.


So recently Taylor has become obsessed with researching for places for us to live in July when our rent expires. So if you notice, in the above picture, he was so excited about some of the places he found that he is even showing Laine now! Ha. Also, the other day in the office one of our sales reps dropped these tickets on my desk!


I was so excited when I realized what they were because Taylor really likes going to the movies and now we can go for free! He was really excited when I called and told him because there a lot of movies out right now that we want to see.

Well have a good rest of the week! We are almost half way to the weekend!

Snow Day

So when we arrived back in C-U on Sunday we were surprised to find there was no snow on the ground at all! It was nice to unload the car and not have to worry about getting the floors all dirty and wet for once. But we knew it could only last so long, because this is what we woke up to this morning...


I also woke up to a sore throat that swollen so much I could barely talk. So, I had my first sick from work and have been laying on the couch all day reading and napping. I sent my boss an e-mail letting him know that I would not be in today because I could barely talk. He responded, joking I am sure, that Taylor might apprectiate me not talking as much! Ha. Well, Taylor didn't have to worry much about me talking today because he was gone most of the afternoon playing basketball with Andrew! I know what you're thinking, "He left when you were sick?" Ha. I really didn't mind though since all I did was lay on the couch, I probably would not have been the best company :)


But he did bring me home a drink and picked up some new books at the library for me which was very sweet of him!

Well, I hope your Tuesday was better than mine!

The King

Well, our 5 weeks of traveling has finally come to an end. It was wonderful to spend time with family and see so many of our friends get married, but we are both really looking forward to staying in Illinois this weekend! Ha.


Yes, I know this is not a good picture but I feel it captures how tired we have become of being on the road! Ha. But I know that in a month or so we will want to be around all of our friends again so I am not going to complain. Plus, I have developed a LOVE for listening to books on tape! Just ask Taylor :)

Last weekend we headed to Little Rock to see Taylor's cousin Kathryn get married, but little did we know we would also meet The King. Have you met The King? We have.

Did you know that Saturday was The King's birthday? And do you know where he spent it?... The Summit Church in North Little Rock! Ha.

Believe me, I will now provide you proof...


Yep, Elvis was in the building! Okay, so maybe not the REAL Elvis but Taylor's cousin Daniel did a very good job emceeing as Elvis. The wedding was absolutely beautiful and afterward we stayed to help clean up because there was a lot to do. We loaded everything up in multiple cars and went to Taylor's aunt and uncle's house to unload and hang out for a little while.

Sunday morning we got up and ate breakfast before heading back to home. We actually made really good time and were home around 6:30. Taylor, who has been doing a lot of the "house work duties" by himself since he has been off school, convinced me to go to Walmart after we got home so he "wouldn't be lonely". Haha! I must admit that I'm not sure if I am ready for him to go back next week, because then I will have to start cooking again.

Thanks for letting us invade your homes over the past month or so! We love y'all :)

Perfect Pancakes

Ok, so maybe they don't look perfect and I still need to learn how to photograph food.. but they were delicious!


I feel like we end up cooking breakfast for dinner a lot of Sunday evenings. I think because we still haven't gone to Walmart for the week and always have the stuff to make breakfast! Ha. But that's fine with me because I love breakfast foods. So normally when we make pancakes I just use the Bisquick mix because it's really easy, but this time I thought I would "mix it up" a little. I was reading through The Pioneer Woman's recipes the other day and came across her recipe for "Perfect Pancakes".

**Sidenote: If you do not know who the Pioneer Woman is, I highly suggest you follow the link above! But I will warn you that you may find yourself looking through all her delicious recipes and reading about her funny happenings on a farm in Oklahoma for hours! Ha. But seriously, look at her recipes and make them. They are wonderful!

Now back to our pancakes... They turned out so delicious! I'm not going to say that there was anything super special/amazing/mind-blowing about these pancakes, but they were much better than the Bisquick we normally make and require basically the same ingredients. So click here and make yourself some delicious pancakes tonight!

And oh yeah.. HAPPY NEW YEAR! Sorry I haven't posted since last year, we've been busy :) Haha.