Lately...

• ...my dear ol' blog has been neglected.  I have had so much going on with wrapping up my job at the Chamber, to transitioning to my new job as a full-time mom, to adjusting to my part-time job, to enjoying my time with the little guy, to weekends with family, etc. etc. that my blog has honestly been the last thing on my mind.  
• ...we celebrated Halloween with the cutest puppy you've ever seen!

• ...we have been LOVING watching the Cats this season (I mean, we LOVE every season, but this season has been especially fun!).  While Mason and I have not ventured to Manhattan yet, Brandon has gone up a few times.  And of course, Mason is a true Wildcat fan!!

• ...the Fall colors around here have been amazing!  We have loved watching the trees in our yard change colors.  What we have not loved are the leaves that we Brandon have to pick up.

{This pic was taken through our window and our neighbor had just mowed up his leaves...}

• ...I have made a couple of tasty recipes!  These Oatmeal Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies were AMAZING and Brandon gave this Jalapeño Popper Dip two thumbs up!  Funny story about the dip.  I had made it for our Tuesday night Bible study group and put it in the oven to bake while we met and when I came upstairs to take it out of the oven I realized that I never turned the oven on.  So, we had M&Ms for a snack that night.  Oh well...at least our friends can laugh with me!
• ...we visited Megan and Kevin and their sweet boys in Oklahoma.  We had not been down there in a LONG time and we wanted to have have Megan take Mason's six month pictures and our family pictures.  Of course, the pictures turned out amazing (the picture of Brandon and Mason melts my heart!) and we had a wonderful time hanging out with our two little families :)   Here is a pic of our three boys (who would have ever thought we would have three boys between the two of us?!?).

Well, I think that is all for now.  I need to ease back into this blogging thing :)

Impromptu BBQ?

We had plans to go out to dinner with a couple of friends on Saturday night, but after some consideration decided to host these friends, plus a couple of others, for an impromptu bbq.  It was a nice evening and we felt like we could hang out a little easier at our house than if we went to a restaurant.  Plus, I love hosting people in our home!

Since I had not planned to make anything, I had to turn to my kitchen cabinets for a little inspiration.  I knew two things: we had the meat covered (our freezer is always stocked with meat) and I didn't want to actually "cook" anything because the oven heats up the house.  After a little bit of digging, I realized I had most of the ingredients for a cold spaghetti salad and corn dip, a famous bbq staple.  I also knew I wanted to make this sangria that I found on Pinterest, so I did have to go to the store for a couple of items.  And in full disclosure, I ended up leaving one of my grocery bags at the store...oops!  Thankfully, Brandon was sweet enough to go fetch it for me after I realized it didn't make it in the car.

One thing I try to keep in mind when hosting is to not fret about what to make.  In this situation I just fell back on tried and true recipes that didn't take a lot of time to prepare.  I think sometimes it is easy to stay away from hosting because of all the work that it can require, but it is important to keep in mind that you don't have to make a big fuss to host a fun and enjoyable party!  Oh yeah, I used paper plates and plastic utensils, as well.

Here are the two recipes that I whipped up:

Cold Spaghetti Salad

1 lb. whole wheat spaghetti
1 carton cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1 cucumber, diced
1 small can sliced black olives
1/2 red onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
Italian dressing (I used the dry dressing mix and made my own)
Grated Parmesan cheese

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Break spaghetti into thirds and cook according to package directions.  While spaghetti is cooking, chop your vegetables and mix up your dressing.  Drain the cooked spaghetti and rinse with cold water.  Combine all ingredients, except cheese, in a large bowl and toss to combine.  Cover and refrigerate until serving.  Just before serving, top with grated Parmesan cheese. 

Spicy Corn Dip

1/2 c. sour cream (I used reduced fat)
1/2 c. mayo (I used fat free)
1 11oz. can Mexicorn, drained
1 11 oz. can yellow corn, drained
1 can Rotel tomatoes, drained
4 oz. cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 tsp. garlic salt

Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir to combine.  Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.  Serve with Fritos or corn tortilla chips.

Hillbilly Salon

You know, we try to be relatively classy people.  We keep up our yard and house (unlike our lovely neighbors), we try not to over-do our Christmas lights (again, unlike our neighbors), and we don't have broken down cars in the street (yes, our neighbors do that, too).  But tonight, we just might have crossed the line.

Brandon has been trying to get me to cut his hair for a long time, but I've been hesitant because the only hair I've ever cut with a razor was the hair around our horses' hooves.  I finally convinced him to go to the girl who cuts my hair and he has actually been pretty happy with the way she cut his hair, so I thought I was in the clear....until Brandon found a set of clippers on sale at Target.  Suddenly, I became the new stylist at the hillbilly salon in our garage!!

Thankfully, my friend Christy occasionally cuts her husband's hair so she came over tonight to give me a few pointers.

Pretty nice digs we have at our salon, huh?  After she made the initial "cuts", she handed over the clippers to me.

{I posted this last night without looking at the photos in detail, but this photo desperately needs a disclaimer...it was taken after a long day of work.  My hair looks awful and greasy and my face doesn't look much better.  My apologies for hurting your eyes!!}

I couldn't tell if Brandon was nervous or not, but he sure did complain more about my skills than he did about Christy's skills.  What's up with that?

After we finished with the #4 on the top (I've got to learn the proper terminology), we went down to a #2 to do the bottom and then it was time for blending.  I gave the clippers back to Christy so she could show me how to do it because this is where I was afraid I would really mess up!

The lighting in my salon isn't so good, but I think we did a pretty good job despite that fact.  I only made a little mistake on the blending part but Christy was able to fix it and we were able to make him look pretty darn good!  Christy only threatened to scalp him once (and he was totally oblivious)!

Next time, I will probably have to cut his hair all by myself so take a good look because this may be the best hair cut he gets in a while!

Game Day

During the fall, we spend a majority of our Saturdays in Manhattan cheering on the Wildcats!  My family has had season tickets since I was a little girl and K-State was really bad - that is dedication!  The KSU traditions run deep in my family; seven of the eight of my dad's brothers and sisters went to K-State, my mom went to K-State (which is where my parents met), both of my siblings went to K-State, my brother's wife went to K-State and obviously Brandon and I went there, too.  Needless to say, we bleed purple!

This weekend, we tailgated with some friends prior to the game.  One of the tailgate traditions with this group is to play a game called "Stump."  Basically, everyone gets a nail and puts it in the stump.  Then, each player takes turns trying to hammer in the opponents' nails.  The winner is the player who's nail didn't get hammered all the way into the stump.  Of course, there are consequences if you try to hit the nail and miss or if someone hits your nail (hint: the consequences include taking a "drink"...)  Clear as mud?  Here is a pic of some of the boys playing.

As you can see, this stump has seen a few rounds of the game!

And, while the boys played Stump, us girls were doing important things like getting our picture taken with Willie!

{Me, Willie, Ali and Christy}

Here are a few other pictures from the day.  Most of the other people at the tailgate didn't have tickets into the game, so we had to leave the party a little early to get to our seats.

{Christy and Corey}

{Me and Christy inside the game. This was taken pretty early before the game started so the stadium did fill up!}

K-State won by a pretty good margin so I'd say we had a pretty successful day, at least until I dropped the brownies on our way back to the car!  Thank goodness Christy has good reflexes because she saved them from going into the grass!

We got home pretty late last night since we had a 6:00 p.m. game, but it was worth it!  And no, we didn't hit any coyotes this time.

Reconnecting

I will be the first to admit that I am sometimes guilty of losing touch with old friends.  When distance separates us or our lives take off in different directions, it has been easy for me to get pre-occupied with the here and now and lose track of people.  But, thank goodness for Facebook, or I would probably really be out of the loop. 

In the past week, I have reconnected, via Facebook, with two friends I haven't seen in person in years; one from my childhood and one from college.  A silly status update has prompted each lunch date and I couldn't be happier to have gotten to spend an hour with each one of these girls.  It is amazing how we were able to instantly reconnect because we still have so much in common. 

It was really fun to have lunch with my childhood friend because we were able to laugh about things from elementary school and high school, but we were also able to share about our families (my sister dated her brother at one time), find out what other people in our class are doing these days and really just have fun and be real with each other.  I could have spent half a day visiting with her.

Catching up with my college friend was also fun.  It is crazy to see how life can bring you back together.  Neither of us ever thought we would be living in our town, let alone at the same time.  We both took very different paths to get here, but couldn't be happier with where we are. 

I know I have definitely learned a valuable lesson this past week and that is to not be afraid to take an initiative to reconnect with someone, no matter how many days/weeks/years have passed by.  Because in the end, it really isn't that akward and I will walk away feeling refreshed and happy to have spent the time together.