Tuesday, March 30, 2010

in the kitchen...

Me?!! yeah, I made this tasty treat and thought i'd share it with you all. It was on Rachel Ray's 30 minute meals a loooonnngg time ago. Not only did i make it but i think matthew liked it too...or maybe he was just being nice {if that's the case thanks babe!} Thought i'd throw in the proof too! 


Hotdog & Mac and Cheese Casserole! ---hey no laughing...
Ingredients:
1 pound elbow macaroni
Salt
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 package beef or pork hot dogs, chopped into 1-inch pieces
1 tablespoon butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons all- purpose flour
1/2 cup beer, 1/3 of a bottle - whatever you have on hand, chicken broth can be substituted
2 cups milk
Pepper
1 rounded tablespoon spicy mustard
2 rounded tablespoons ketchup
3 cups yellow sharp Cheddar, shredded, divided (Buy preshredded cheese. You will need 1 1/2 sacks of 10-ounce packages.)

________________________________________________________
Directions:
Boil a large pot of water for macaroni. Salt water and under cook macaroni, cook about 7 minutes until just under al dente in doneness.
Preheat broiler and set rack 12 inches from heat.
While pasta works, heat a large deep nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1 turn of the pan, then add hot dogs and brown on both sides, 4 minutes total. Remove the dogs with a slotted spoon to a paper towel lined plate. Add another tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1 turn of the pan, and the butter. When butter melts, cook onions 4 to 5 minutes, then add flour and cook another minute. Add beer and cook off completely, 1 minute. Whisk in milk and bring to a bubble, then season the sauce with salt and pepper and stir in the mustard and ketchup. Lower heat and add 2 cups of the cheese. Stir to melt, 1 minute. Adjust mustard, ketchup, and salt and pepper, to your taste.
Drain pasta well. Combine pasta and hot dogs with sauce and coat evenly then pour into large casserole and top with remaining cheese. Melt and brown cheese under broiler, 2 minutes. Serve.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

to do...

1. find perfect house to live in for next 4 years

2. Sell house currently living in....holding our furniture hostage

3. make offer and purchase house mentioned in #1

better get a move on...

Thursday, March 25, 2010

if its from high school, i kept it....bin #7

I was wondering if we had a "whose got the most random thing in their purse contest" if you think i'd win. Becasue i've probably had most of these in a bag or purse at some point in time. which, quiet frankly is a little scary. You all have to let me know, seriously....what item on this list do you think is the craziest thing i've kept? What's the wierdest thing you have set aside, just because there's no possible way you could part with it?

a grinch key chain
a salt shaker
sweet 16 birthday cards
21st birthday cards
my US history notebook
2 golf balls, one from virginia, one from church camp circa '96
a "yield to the princess keychain"
2 forks


a smurf
a hurdy gurdy that plays "when you wish upon a star"
organic chemistry note cards
a wooden purse from Bali
"homies"
an autographed volleyball
one ballet slippers
some art work, one piece which i'd like to hang


some of those melted bead crafts....
you know put the beads on the pegs, cover with wax paper and melt with an iron
a Hollywood license plate that was purchased in Hollywood, CA









newpapers from the death of the pope, the capture of saddam hussein 


a porcelain cup from Holland
my assignment book from freshman year--the year matthew and i started dating


glow in the dark puffy paint
two gallon size plastic bags full of 'notes' from H.S.


an old "boyfriend" box
a gold sequined head band 
*what else would i do with this besides wear it around my house??
mini puzzle of a cat








love letters--did we even know what that was?? Its a good feeling though, a real, handwritten profession of love. man i miss that, maybe that's part of the spark of hs and first loves. i miss those days.

a box of teeth. thats right I.AM.A.FREAK....it's my baby teeth! 
*I have since finding these, solicited information from a very reliable source that this is in fact a normal thing to keep. My husband however disagrees, he thinks its crazy, like i'm a serial killer kind of crazy. Said reliable source also confirmed that had they not been in a jewelry box, which was stolen, a certain hubby would have his baby teeth set aside too!

a rock collection
the one purple caboodle that i refuse to get rid of (come on the caboodle is a classic, and i only kept one. that's right. You all know you had tons of caboodles, even the off brand ones, the big ones, the little ones...full of valuable crap. ha!
a harmonica
a vintage frog pin *I LOVE THIS! I knew i kept it for a reason, but especially since im on a vintage jewelry kick....what a find!!
musical birthday card from 1993....that still plays "happy birthday to you" I played it a couple hundred times just to annoy the hubby and then tossed it. 










a bag of necklace charms
an Ernie from sesame street keychain
33 keychains overall, and 22 pins












 1 broken watch
2 plastic eggs, with tiny toys in them from the inside of German Chocolate easter eggs from Germany!
a beta card, a ptsa card, & an fbla card
I had to uhhh, ya know...have these on hand in case anyone ever wanted to check my credentials bahaha

every letter from every pen pal i've ever had...seriously...from florida, japan, china, africa, california, new york, alaska,  letters i got at church camp...

an excuse note that my dad wrote on a napkin, when i had to miss school for a funeral. this one was a little sad for me, but it made me smile too. It was from Lauren Gabbard's funeral. Dad and i went and it was so sad to see that family bury their little girl at only 12 years old. I remember spending the morning with dad, and then we went to gold star for lunch, just the two of us. It was nice. I'm sure we were in a hurry because dad had to work, and i was supposed to be at school but we were goofing around (nooo, not us...) and got on the subject of welcome back kotter and thus, the excuse note....


note cards with cheers on them. i thought i'd share some of my cheerleading expertise with ya'll sooo.... (say these in your best annoying, sing songy, high pitched voice)

"____ is my name and football is my game, 
i got boys on my mind and cheering all the time. 
i said check it out 1-2, check it out 1-2!"

"Steelers gonna set the pace gonna crack yo face
gonna pick ya up, twirl ya around, 
stomp that team right to the ground!"

"2x4 is half of 16...
all for the raiders stand up and lean.....
aaaahhhh lean lean lean 
aaahh lean lean aah lean WHOOOO!!"

Ok. if you were able to get through those 3 in an accurate manner, with appropriate whoo'ing, and a little attitude then you know that was seriously fun. Live performance of these can and will be done, upon request! hahahaha! Go ahead, for those of you that would like to try again....i'll wait. 

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Green with Envy

Sorry for the delay on these. I've been sick as a dog. I can't breathe, and I can't sleep. Ugh. I hate warm weather colds, and this is my first cold of the year?! Weird. Anyway.... on to the pics!

*Photo Credit: Tara M
(Above and Below)
{i wonder where these awesome pictures were taken?}

*Photo Credit: Leslie O
{ohhh puppy puppy....so soo cute!}

  *Photo Credit: emt
purty lil' flower from muir woods :)

This Week's Challenge...
Take it OUTDOORS!
due to emtphotography1@gmail.com
by Sunday night 3/28

wow! march is almost over already?
 how did that happen??!

Sunday, March 21, 2010

give me ya' green

Reminding you to send in your pictures for last week's photo challenge.....Green with Envy
Send your pics to emtphotography1@gmail.com 
I'll post the pictures tomorrow night along with this week's challenge which I am super pumped about!

ps. i realized during this post that the word Green is very odd.
It looks so strange when you write it over and over.
i had to google it to make sure i was spelling it right.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

happy 21st...baby sister!

Sooooo I'm a little, a smidge, a tiny bit, behind. But, it's ok. Better late than never?  Let's hope she feels the same way :) Back to the important stuff. My baby sister little well, my sister turned 21!! Can you believe that? So weird for me. She's 21 which officially makes me.....OLD! Over the past few years though it seems almost like we are getting closer in age. Maybe it's my immaturity? 
I had a good friend tell me that once you start to get married, have kids, its like you and your sister are the same age regardless of how many years there are between you. I think we're headed there. Right now there's mostly just driving distance between me and my sis. Which, it could be worse. It's only an hour, but you'd think its a lot farther. So here's my plug. For all you peeps with sisters....be it one, or two, or however many.... put in the effort.  Send a card, a text, call her, plan a trip, make some time.  
I love spending time together, it's so few and far between but we usually have wayyy too much fun. Giggling like 7 year olds until our stomachs hurt. Until our teeth jut out of our mouths like our mom's when she laughs. Until our eyes are squinty and watery. Bahahahaa. 
We. have. fun. 
I can't believe we wasted all those years throwing things at each other, and pulling each others hair, pinching, slapping, argueing, ok ok....we still do some of that it's just a lot less often! 
But... I {heart} her :)
 
Happy 21st Birthday Seester!!
....i'm only a few months late with this post but would it be me if it was on time?

We spent Tarduh's 21st in the burg...Gatlinburg that is. Downtown. That's right wild and crazy kids!

T's cake, my mom took every precaution to keep this on ice so it could make the long drive. Family motto: everyone deserves a cake on their birthday.

 blow out 'cha candles baby, let's get this party started!
look at all that smoke...
Dinner and drinks at TGIFridays. My cotton candy martini (on the right) was sooo tasty. yum. I think the bahama mama was the only drink T had.

pretending she's had too much...

paparazzi! every time i tried to take a picture, mom beat me to it.

So this is what i get. Which really, we liked this picture even with the wonky light.

We rode a scary scary tram up to Ober Gatlinburg and walked around for awhile. Watched some skiers, and all these people ice skating. I didn't get a picture of her but there was one little girl there who was really good. She kept zooming around everyone and then would stop on the side to say hi to her mom and dad. Too cute. We had fun watching all these people bite it here and there :)

We were told there was this HUGE ball drop, and fireworks at midnight.... followed by a 2-3 hour ride in the car as you creep back to the condo?! No thanks! We headed back to our condo to watch the festivities on tv. Huge ball drop huh? Can you guys see that tiny thing that looks like a ball of tangled up lights that someone found in their garage? haha!

  The birthday girl made it....home. Ha! Everyone fell asleep, all tuckered out from our drives and busy day. this was taken at 11:08. I have pics of everyone asleep but figured i'd only torture the b-day girl. Me and J-money were the only ones that made it to midnight. No worries, we woke everyone up! :)

T-hope you had a great birthday! Love you!


Monday, March 15, 2010

seriously? again?


If this is your first time reading about, the dream then i apologize. if this is your umpteenth time reading about it, again...sorry. eta: i just realized that i've also blogged about the dream here. thats four total.you guys know, it happens every time i have something stressful coming up in my life.  Last night, definitely stressful. Today at noon on the dot, i was to find out if I had a residency spot for the next four years. Just like every other fourth year medical student in the country. If you don't "match" to a program then you go into a scramble for 2 days to try to find an open spot anywhere in the country. eeeeeekkk.

Last night i'm drifting off to sleep....i stayed up late just so i could sleep in as close to noon as possible... and i'd had a LOT of chocolate and diet coke, so i thought sleep was literally the impossible dream. But, like i said, i was drifting and soon found myself on something the equivalent to a field trip? I dunno. I was in a dark room and i remember my camera feeling really light, which worried me that it was broke. I saw a picture that i supposedly took, but then i realized i was in the picture with two other people. I dont know who they were. I began searching for missing pieces and moved to a lighter room. I saw all these little girls changing, i think they were changing into costumes like for a dance recital. i know this is strange right?

{Pause} right now, those of you who know about "the dream" are probably a little confused. You're thinking, wait this isn't how it usually goes. I KNOW RIGHT?!! don't worry i'm getting there tho...

i moved into a bathroom, away from everything and everyone. It wasn't bright, and it wasn't pretty, but it wasn't an ugly room either. It was there in the bathroom [which now that i think about it, it usually ends up there huh?] ....i began losing tiny pieces [again with the tiny pieces] of a small tooth in the bottom left of my mouth. no molars this time? nope, just a little one. I began spitting them out as usual, lots and lots of pieces, more than one tooth should consist of. I didn't catch any of them this time, i didn't have an urgency to save them. I was just trying to wash my mouth out. Why not save them this time? I wasn't worried. I saw a new adult tooth poking out around the broken tooth and i knew that I didn't need those pieces anymore, that i could lose them and I had a new tooth coming in and it was solid. In fact i remember trying to get more of the loose pieces out so I could be rid of them.

That was it. I woke up, some what mad, somewhat comforted. Mostly, i just wanted to remember the dream to share it with you guys. It was good. I'm okay with it. Isn't it strange how this dream changes and means something different every time? fyi: looked it up one more time, dreams about losing your teeth are associated with anxiety and are common. really?

Oh you guys probably want to know if i got a job right? well yes. I MATCHED!!!!! YESSS!!! Now we just have to wait for thursday to find out where matthew and i will be living for the next four years. Cross your fingers it's where we are hoping for!

Sunday, March 14, 2010

It's all in the Details...{photo challenge: week7}

wow. vacation....and spring forward...my frame of reference is so thrown off right now I'm not sure which way is up. 
Welcome back. I've missed you :)

Now on to business the fun! We've got some great shots this week 
(like always--you guys are awesome what can i say??)

 *Photo Credit (above & below): Tara M
{Talk about details! That rotunda is absolutely stunning!}

{Spoons? huh, cool...whodathunkit?}


*Photo Credit: Patti M
{Spring!! Come on Spring, we've missed your color! I love that you can see each speck of color on these flowers.}


*Photo Credit: Hope R
"No matter how hard I tried to focus at work, these raindrops on the branches kept calling out my name...just begging to be captured!"
{I agree, i'd be distracted by these little buggars too :)}

*Photo Credit: Sarah S
{i love it, too cute. just like the big girls do!}


*Photo Credit: Stacey Mae
"so much going on in this shot...so many details to look at, but I like that the focus is on the bracelets because with so much going on in the shot it seems an odd choice to have it as the focal point...I'm odd...I like it!"
{not only are the details of the bracelet amazing, but the fence too, and the details of her face stand out too even though they aren't in focus. this is great.}

*Photo Credit: e.m.t.
{taken at the california capital building in Sacramento. i loved the ornate detail of the lights, the scales and wings are incredible}

What were your favorite details?

Your next assignment should you choose to accept it is....
Green with Envy
due to emtphotography1@gmail.com by Sunday the 21st

...our first color challenge in honor of St. Patrick's Day! :) 

Thursday, March 11, 2010

details matter...


Reminding you to send your photos for 
this week's photo challenge to emtphotography1@gmail.com!

i figured since my week got all funky since i've been on vacation, 
i'd give everyone a few days to catch up. 

Don't forget this week's challenge is It's all in the Details
Get your pics sent in by saturday night. 
I'll announce the next challenge once i post the detail images. -e

Friday, March 5, 2010

sweet SK....i can't stop! :)

Can you believe this gal is 7 months old already? 
It seems like just yesterday i was doing her newborn session, and now bam! Big girl.


Ok! I tried to narrow down the images of this little one and let me tell you it was HARD! She's so adorable. I had to regulate how many images i worked on because i seriously had sooooo many good ones. Cutenessss.....

  
  
those cheeks! those eyes!
  


 

eeeeee!!! I LOVE this one!!!



mom, i know im gorgeous....but im so. so. tired. :)

I don't know how we managed this but man they both listen great!





Eat your heart out boys. Dad, she's gonna be a heart breaker!
beautiful.





G&C thanks for letting me capture your 
precious bean as she grows into a big girl :) Love you guys.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

nature's beauty. nature's fury....{photo challenge: week 6}

These pictures are gorgeous girls, great work! 
Remember this week's challenge was Nature's Beauty or Nature's Fury
Your next challenge....
WEEK 7: It's all in the details
due by wednesday night march 10th
to emtphotography1@gmail.com
Good Luck :) 

  *Photo Credit:Tara M
"This is sort of a typical picture but I really liked it and thought it went well with this weeks theme because when I put these in the vase they were pretty much about to die, falling over and puny.. came into work the next day and they were gorgeous!! Just needed some TLC :)"
{I love love love the bright bold color in this picture, and the specks of pollen that you caught!}


 *Photo Credit: Hope R
{unbelievable. great shot, butterflys are so hard to catch and to avoid the blur. Such a work of art!}

 
*Photo Credit: e.m.t.
I decided to go for the nature's fury since they went for beauty :)


*I'd love to keep the photo challenges going so please let me know if you all have any ideas for challenges. It seems like we are losing people so invite your friends to join, and let me know if you'd like to continue to see these posts.  Don't forget....there are no rules...and you can shoot with whatever, camera, cell phone, pc...get creative!


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