calzone

It's finally the weekend-for me, anyways. I work 40 hours in 4 days and have a 3 day weekend. So the work week sucks, I'm exhausted the whole time; but when Friday comes around, I'm so thankful I have it off. Last night I made a calzone for dinner. I had found the inspiration from pinterest, but I only looked at their recipe and then made it my way. I use http://www.ourbestbites.com/2008/04/breadsticks-and-pizza-dough/ breadstick recipe for the pizza dough-it's AWESOME!

The only change i make to it is i melt some butter/garlic salt and pour it over the dough, just to add some more flavor. It's SO good!

It was good, but the sauce i used woke me up at 3am. Anyone have a certain marinara sauce they use and love? We've tried Emeril, Barilla..etc with nothing really standing out. I suppose I'll have to just keep looking. one thing I'm going to change next time I make this is to really make sure the dough is thin before it's cooked. Every mouthful was a bunch of dough.

Tonight's my work party at 7pm-7PM! That's normally when I start getting really tired and ready to relax on the couch! We'll see how it goes. It better be good, because apparently we're not getting bonuses this year. If they're thinking this party  is better than a bonus, then it better be REALLY good. It'll be fun dressing up a little though; and we always do secret santas, so hopefully i get what's on my list :)


p.s. I just signed up for birchbox. I'm SO excited to get my first box! I read www.thesmallthingsblog.com, and she was so excited when she got her first box. I think it'll just be AWESOME after a long day at work coming home to that in my mailbox :)

Sleighbell Parade

Last weekend we finally got our tree! It was $25 and definitely the perfect one. And yes, I'm awesome, because I put the WHOLE thing up myself; and it hasn't fallen ONCE! WOOHOO!

i love my little owl ornament-it's so "dumb" looking that when I saw it I HAD to buy it. i just love it. and i like that our initials are "e.t."


I live in a little town also known as the Victorian Port City. Every first Saturday in December, the whole weekend is filled with fun things to do: craft shows, shops having hot cocoa/cookies (Yum!), people dressed up like in the 1800s, chestnuts actually roasting on an open fire :D, sleigh rides...etc, and the weekend ends with the Sleighbell Parade. Now normally we have snow by now-this year, of all things, it RAINED. I was SO disappointed! I'm a Christmas fanatic, so raining on parade day was pretty depressing; however, my family and I still had a ton of fun. We've made it tradition, since Tim and I live literally like three blocks and a bridge away from the parade, my family comes over afterwards for fun, food, and games.

blurry eye...

i just love this picture.

my handsome brother

CHESTNUTS!!! Yummy AND they keep your hands warm :)

this picture is just pure awesome. yes, it's me.

home sweet home.

chocolate/peppermint bark covered pretzels...mmmmmmmmmmmm...

my brother dancing with the kinect

my crazy brother-in-law :)

nothing like having yummy hot cocoa after being outside in the cold

i just love my parents.

the end. it was a great weekend.

oh yeah. we had a "lord of the rings" marathon too-i fell asleep after being half way through the second one. i really do love the movies; but with my work schedule, there's no way possible i can stay up until 5am. even if it is on the weekend.

i went to a funeral of an old friend yesterday. She died of a massive heart attack and left behind a husband and two young kids. her son wanted to sit with me; and the entire time, he wouldn't let me go. Long story short, that old friend used to be my best friend. But due to some extremely unkind words said about my family and I, I sort of cut her off. I forgave her a long time ago for doing what she did, but the fact that she died before we could make it completely right is something I have to live with. And I feel horrible.

I hate the feeling you have after a funeral. I can't stop thinking about dying. It makes you really think about your life and if you're doing what you should be doing. Makes me want to do more in life. Be a better person.

Turkey time

Wow. It's hard keeping a blog. I haven't written in almost a month!

This past weekend has been awesome. Thursday (Thanksgiving) we didn't do too much. My family decided to celebrate Thanksgiving the day after so my older brother's family can come. Thanksgiving day dinner time came around, and Tim's like, "What should we have for dinner?"-we drove all throughout town, and the ONLY place open was Kmart! As much as that sucked for us, I think that's how it SHOULD be. People should be spending time with their families on holidays, not going shopping. There weren't even any bars open! I think we ended up having grilled cheese :)

That night, my sister came over, and we figured out what to get for Black Friday.

This is me last year-I don't think we took any pictures this year :( Like always, though, I bought a few things for myself :) We got home at 1:30am, took a nap until 5:30am, and then drove around again to a few more places. By 9:30am, we went to her home to get ready for Thanksgiving.

 

The whole day was great! I finally got to see my niece and nephew (and brother and sister-in-law :D)-they live 1 1/2 hours away, so we don't get to see them very often. The whole day was nice and relaxing, turkey-made by my brother-in-law Sam-was moist and perfect, pies were AWESOME like always (nobody makes a better apple pie than my mom), and it was just a nice day. 

 my sister Rebecca and niece Anna

 my brother Benjamin passed out

 my dad reading to my nephew John

 me and Anna

this is a first for Tim. He HATES getting his picture taken; but for some reason, whenever my mom takes the picture, he smiles. He NEVER smiles in my pictures...

 my older brother Daniel and Anna

 my younger brother Jacob and my nephew John dancing

i love my family.

Yesterday I went to Traverse City with a friend from work. I had been praying for I don't know how long for God to bring me an actual friend to work at the office I work at. Granted, her and I don't work in the same office, but we can instant message each other throughout the day :). We had SO much fun. I don't talk very much, so the fact that there was practically no silence the entire day means something. We're so much alike. We even bought "friendship jackets" at American Eagle. Dumb, yes, but SO much fun! I wish we had taken some pictures. Darn cell phone. I need one that'll actually let me post pictures.

Today was spent wrapping presents and decorating for Christmas! Tim had to work 10pm-7:30am last night, so we didn't get our tree today. Since Tim and I both work until Friday, we're going to get the tree then. We're also going to have a "Lord of the Rings" marathon since I got the blu-rays for super cheap at Target. Should be a pretty fun day. I'll be sure to take some pictures. Hope everyone has a fun-filled, stress-free work week. I sure hope I do! And pray for some snow please :)

p.s. We're looking to go on a relatively cheap trip for a few days this summer. Any ideas?

New jobs

Looking for a new job is tough. Tim and I had saved money all spring/summer to move to a different city. We planned a specific day we were going to take our applications to places. AND, we even got call backs and one-more-call-almost guaranteed jobs! But who would have thought that we wouldn't get those jobs because we can't find a home to rent??? That's right. We couldn't afford to live; rather, we could have but wouldn't have had any money to spend after paying for rent. So, we did the smart thing and didn't move.

I've been looking around where we currently live to find another job. I got an interview yesterday through our local hospital; however, when I left the interview, none of my important questions had been answered-you know, wages, vacation time, WHO I'm going to work for...I left the interview not even knowing who I would be working for (there's approx. 15 doctors affiliated with the hospital, and the interviewer didn't even know who I would be working for)! It's extremely frustrating hoping an interview will go well and it sort of flopping. I did great, minus sweating half to death. I'm the kind of person who gets EXTREMELY nervous before an interview-I even had a rash on my arms, which made me have to wear a sweater. Definitely didn't help my sweating :) They did say I'm the type of person they're looking for, and Friday I'm going to be job shadowing. That way I can see if I really want the job. After I job shadow for a few hours, I'm going to go back and talk to the woman who did my interview; and by then she'd better know who I'll be working for and how much I'll be getting paid. I mean, why would I leave my secure job for something I know nothing about?

Good news, Tim got a promotion-he applied for another job where he works-he'll be the PIC (person in charge), and he didn't even have to ask for a raise, they actually offered him more money than he was going to ask for. Best part? He's only going to be working part time but will be making the same amount of money he's making right now full time. He'll actually be able to go to school :) I'm so proud of him.