Rewind - Fast Forward!

I feel so bad for how long it has been since I posted - over a year!  And so much has happened, so lets rewind and then fast forward for what's coming up!

February 2013 - I get rear-ended on the freeway!  I'm on my way to my clinical when an F350 barrels into my little Celica.  I have some major whiplash, the Celica is totaled and my whole course of clinicals are changed because the doctor puts limitations on lifting.  I end up in a hand therapy clinical instead of a skilled nursing facility.



Poor Cece the Celica!  All smashed in!

 June 2013 - I graduated!  I now have a degree as an Occupational Therapy Assistant and accepted a position in hand therapy after finishing my second clinical.  It's not a field that many COTAs get to practice in so I am loving everything that I am learning!

Graduated with honors!

 

September 2013(Labor Day Weekend) - We bought a house!  Big B and I started looking seriously in May/June and were excited when we found a house that met our joint criteria and was so easy to close on.  It is completely remodeled on the inside so our money can go to more crafts for me!

So excited about our first house!
(Note that we fixed Cece because she is such an awesome car!  30 MPG how do you beat that?)

September 2013 (10 days after we moved) - Big B gets hit on his motorcycle!  This was probably the scariest moment in our marriage so far but luckily he escaped with minor cuts and bruises.  The real damage was to the bike and sadly this means that there will be no motorcycle rides anytime soon *tear*.

The bike was totaled but my honey escaped with cuts and bruises!

October 2013 - We buy a new car!  With the money Big B received from his accident we decide to finally get me a new car.  I convince Brian that we should invest in a good family car and we find my 4Runner in the dark blue that I love!

Our reliable family car!

October 2013 (2 weeks later) - We're pregnant!  Total surprise as we wanted to wait a few more months but we are overjoyed to find out that there is a bun in the oven!  We announce to all of our family and friends at Thanksgiving that our bundle of joy is expected July 2, 2014

This was obviously recent and not when we found out but I just love this photo!

Between October and now there really hasn't been much excitement as I've been too tired to do much of anything.  I've crafted here and there and once I've completely finished the nursery I promise I'll post photos!  I made bumpers (yes I know they're not recommended but they won't be used when she's in there), I've painted furniture, I've decorated and recently I made a car seat canopy.  With the nesting instinct happening as we speak I've decided to pick this back up and am committed to blogging more often!  So let's fast forward a bit now!

Ready to POP! - I promise I'll finish the blog about Harriet's baby shower in the next week and share that with you.  It turned out so cute and I'm quite sad that I haven't posted all the pictures and what not!

Sneak Peek!

Car Seat Canopy - I'm starting a second canopy and will be documenting so that I can post a tutorial on here for you!  Here's a sneak peek of how the first one turned out!



Isn't it cute?!?!

Baby A - When Baby A finally arrives I will be sharing some helpful tips as I go along and other projects I do while I'm on my 12 weeks of maternity leave!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  A little late I know, but life has been crazy busy around here, as usual!

Our first Christmas as a married couple was as amazing as I ever imagined!  Big B spoiled me like crazy and surprised me by getting me the boots that I had been lusting after since Thanksgiving!  I was especially surprised because everytime I talked about them (which was a lot!) he would remind me that we had a budget to stick to and that they were outside of that budget.  Turns out he had gotten them pretty close to when I had first seen them but found out at his company Christmas party that I wanted the matte black, not the glossy black that he had gotten.  Of course when he found that out he went back to Nordy's only to be told that they only came in glossy black but he knows that I do my homework and insisted that they double check.  As it turns out, they only came in matte black on the east coast.  They ordered them for him, they came the week before Christmas but they were the wrong size!  Nordstrom is pretty awesome though and got the correct color and size to him on Christmas Eve!

We spent New Year's Eve at our local spot and celebrated knowing each other for 3 years and that we had our first kiss that fateful night too!  Big B was a little star struck when we ran into the traffic guy from the news station that he watches every morning and it made his night a little more fun!  We did not make "resolutions" but we did talk about our dreams for this coming year and we're really excited about where it seems the Lord is leading us this year!

December 31, 2009
Looking at this photo, I think I wore the same dress this year!

December 31, 2012

I have started my clinicals for school and it is keeping me quite busy.  I was given the choice of doing four 10hr days or five 8hr days and decided to do the four 10's so that I could have an extra day to do some studying and actually have time on the weekends to be a wife.  Big B has been so supportive by helping out with laundry, doing dishes, making dinners and giving me the all important foot rubs!  I feel so blessed to have him as my partner in life!

Big B has been busy with work and after taking close to a month of soccer he is back to playing once a week!  I'm enjoying the time that he's home since once spring gets here he'll be off not only to soccer but also his softball and championship kickball team. 

I haven't done many projects lately but I am throwing a "Ready to Pop!" baby shower at the end of the month and will be sharing the details in early February.  I'm so excited for what I've got planned for the shower, little gifts and games that I've never played at any other baby shower!

No Sew Burlap Tree Skirt

This will be mine and Big B's third Christmas together but our first one as a married couple and to say that I'm excited would be a total understatement!  Our first Christmas together I made Big B get his a Christmas tree and since it was his first one he also had to buy ornaments, lights and a tree skirt.

He let me pick out the ornaments and gave me my pick of tree skirts from Home Depot.  I wasn't in love with any of them so I picked out the best of what was available...

Tree Skirt from Home Depot


In all honesty, it isn't that bad but I really wanted something a little more versatile.  In the last year I've seen a bunch of the ruffled tree skirts on some of the blogs I read and even more now that I'm on Pinterest and have in turn fallen in love with them!  My two main inspirations were:

My Crazy Life - No Sew Ruffled Tree Skirt

Done Over Decor - Ruffle Tree Skirt

 

I took Big B to Joann Fabrics with me and gave him the choice of either cotton or burlap and he liked the look of the burlap better so we went with it.  I'm sure the fact that it was cheaper had nothing to do with it!  *yeah right*

What You Need:

- 4 1/2 yards of burlap or fabric of your choice

- Hot glue gun and glue sticks

- Scissors

- Tree skirt

Back side of our existing tree skirt

 



 Cut your burlap into 2" strips.  I had never used burlap before so I watched how the woman at Joann's cut it for me and followed her lead.  I tried to take some pictures but they didn't show up very well so I would suggest checking out the following blogs for tutorials:

Craftaholics Anonymous - How to Cute Burlap Straight



Clumsy Crafter - How to Cut Burlap in a Straight Line

 

 

Start at the bottom of your tree skirt and work your way up.  Begin with gluing the top right corner of your strip of burlap to your existing tree skirt.  (Sorry I didn't take a picture of that step!)

Next, leave a space and then make a fold in your burlap:

Take your glue gun and place a small dot of glue on the burlap where your fold would overlap if lying flat like so:

Press down the fold and hold for a few seconds and voila! you have a ruffle!

My tree skirt took me about 4 hours to do but I was also watching football and a movie as well as talking to my hubby while I was working.  If I had no distractions I'm sure it would have taken me half that much time!  I loved how mine turned out and now I'm more excited than ever to get our tree and really decorate for Christmas!

I'm still trying to decide whether or not if I want to put ribbon on the ends instead of using the velcro to close it but I'm loving the simplicity!  What do you guys think?



Wash Before You Cut

Big B and I currently live in a condo that is owned by his "boss" and friend.  Big B moved in about 4 years ago and his friend was nice enough to leave him the curtains that were hanging in the windows and the sliding door.  When I first met Big B I noticed that the curtains were extremely long but the only thing that bothered me was my fear of the ones in the window catching on fire!  We have baseboard heating and the curtains just sit on the window ledge so I was scared that they might fall in front of the heater and then the whole place would go up in flames.  It never happened but now that we're married and I live here I feel like I'm constantly wrestling with the curtains when I'm cleaning or trying to go on our patio!

This past Saturday I decided it was finally time to do something about it!  I will apologize now that I did not take any before pictures.  You see, I wasn't planning on blogging about this.  It was a matter of simply cutting off the bottoms and doing a quick hem to give it a finished look.  Let me just say, they looked great when I hung them up! 

They looked so great but they had a little bit of a yellow tinge, nothing a washing machine couldn't take out and so in they went.  As they washed I cut off the massive amount of extra fabric on the ones for the window.  I was so excited to finally be getting this project done!

After cutting the window curtains I went off to do some schoolwork and figured that I would finish the window ones later that evening.

I finish my schoolwork and Big B pulls the curtains out of the dryer.  I trim the little strings and we get to work hanging them up.  We get them up, I look at my handiwork and I can't help but laugh.

THEY SHRUNK 6 INCHES!!!

Before we washed them they touched the ground but afterwards they didn't!  I was so surprised and a little sad but to be honest, it was one of the funniest moments of our married life!  I think we laughed for about 5 minutes.  Needless to say, I learned a valuable lesson, wash before you cut.

As funny as it is I'm really bummed and wondering if there's anything I can do to make them longer without sewing more material on!  Any suggestions?

Best Chicken Tacos

I am taking 21 credits this quarter and Big B works full time so dinner for us is really hard.  Big B has never been big on cooking and I don't get home from class until 8pm on some nights.  To compensate for this I've been searching Pinterest for crock-pot recipes (amongst other things!).  I kept seeing a chicken taco crockpot recipe and decided to give it a try.

I'm super picky so I changed the recipe a little but you can find the original here.

Ingredients:
- chicken breast (we only used 1 of the 2 that I put in the crockpot)
- chicken broth
- taco seasoning packet

Directions:
- put chicken breast in the crock pot
- pour chicken broth until it almost covers the chicken
- add taco seasoning and mix into the broth
- cook on low for 7 to 8 hours

When it's done, take it out of the crock pot and shred.  Top it with whatever you like in your favorite taco!

The prep was literally about 5 minutes and it was so delicious. Big B has said that we should always have chicken tacos because these were the best he's ever had!

Another win for me and my cooking trials!!  Now it's time to study again!

Easy Crock Pot French Dip

Before we got married I made sure to tell Big B that I can cook but that I am a much better baker.  In other words, I hate to cook.  The reality is that my statement wasn't a lie, I can cook and I'm not horrible at it either but I rarely ever do it and I don't have many recipes to refer to either.  My mom and my dad both cook but neither one of them really uses recipes, they do a dash of this here and a splash of that there.  I am a super picky eater and so it's hard for me to cook like that because I don't eat half of what is being made.  As a result, I'm in the process of finding recipes and Big B is going to be trying a bunch of foods (and hoping that they are good)!

I was discussing my dilemma with my friend KT and she started telling me about an easy French Dip recipe.  I LOVE French Dip so I got pretty excited when she said easy French Dip.  I proceeded to ask her how easy and then she said the most magical words to a newly married woman who is a full time student.  Crock Pot.  I had to try it and let me tell you, it was easy and it was delicious!

Crock Pot French Dip

1 12oz can of beer (Big B drinks Bud Light so that's what I used)
1 can of Condensed Onion Soup
1 can of Beef Broth
4lb Rump Roast (we used close to 3lbs and had so much meat left over)

Put all of the ingredients in your crock pot for 7 hours on low

 

And that's it!!!  Use the broth/juice for your au jus and you've got a delicious meal that took you all of maybe 10 minutes to prep! 

Big B is excited because he has leftovers which means he can sleep in an extra 5 minutes and I'm excited because I can refute his statement that I never cook!

Back in Our Pod

Big B and I are finally back in our little pod!  I say finally because we had a horrible time getting back.  Our day went as follows:

Tuesday
11:00am - leave resort for the hour and a half drive to the airport
12:30pm - as we check-in they tell us that our flight is about an hour delayed and that we will more than likely miss our connecting flight to Seattle
7:45pm - land and unload plane
7:50pm - RUN through terminal to get to "Passport Control"
7:58pm - get in line at "Passport Control"
8:04pm - RUN to baggage claim
8:14pm - get to baggage re-check area and are told that we will not make it to our 8:45pm flight and that we must re-book for a flight the next day.  get in line to do so.
9:09pm - reach the re-book desk, find out our flight ended up not leaving until 9pm and that we need to be back at the airport the next morning at 4:30am for our 6:20am flight to Dallas
Wednesday
3:30am - wake up!! (people back home were posting about the Mariner's game still going on)
4:00am - catch shuttle back to airport (10 minute ride)
4:25am - customer service rep tells me to have some patience after no one helps four of us standing in line and I ask a question
4:40am - finally get checked in
6:25am - pilot comes on to tell us that we have to wait for maintenance because they unhooked the tow bar wrong
7:00am - finally cleared for take-off
9:15am - land in Dallas
10:40am - first time all trip that we haven't had a delay on a flight and we take off close to our scheduled time
12:45pm - HOME!!!!!!!

Now I know that when we first got to the airport that they told us that we probably wouldn't make it but there was no effort by the staff in Miami to get us on the plane.  Even when the plane was delayed by 15 minutes no one asked if there was anyone in line who was supposed to be on the plane!  When we got to the re-booking desk the agent never apologized, in fact no one except for the pilot who had to tell us that the tow bar unhooking was done wrong ever said sorry for the delays.  The airline did pay for us to stay overnight in a hotel and gave us dinner and breakfast vouchers but they could have saved themselves some money by just putting us on the dang plane!

The good news is that we did get home and we're finally settling back into daily life.  Big B went back to work on Thursday and I start classes on Monday!