This post is sort of random, but it's been a really random week...

 Even though it was hot outside, we decided on chili for dinner. I added a few extra veggies (zucchini, yellow squash, green peppers...), and it tasted more like a summer chili. Soo good. Tim's mom always used to make them chili bake growing up, and Tim loved it. I've found the corn bread covered in chili is soggy when you go to have leftovers the next day, so I cook it separate. Much better.

 Poor kitty. She can't even stay in her bed lol, she's so tired from killing her first animal. A fly. I felt so terrible watching it all go down. And the worst part? Cats kill things and then put them in front of you because they're proud of it. I had to "congratulate" the kitty on her first kill :( She was so proud. Now if she'd only go after the mouse haunting our kitchen.

 My week nights/weekend nights mainly consisted of watching "Ghost Whisperer" on Netflix. With us trying to save money, we're not getting new releases or anything, so I've been looking for series to watch on Netflix. I don't care what people say (Tim included lol), "Ghost Whisperer" is good. And Jennifer Love Hewitt is so pretty. I love seeing her outfits :) Sad thing is, I'm such a wuss, this show actually scares me sometimes :D. I absolutely HATE scary movies. Tim thinks it's funny. I drank this tea while watching the show. It came in my March Birchbox, which speaking of, I should do a post on soon. This kind is Honey yuzu. I don't normally like honey, but this is good. And bonus, it's supposed to be good in warding off the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles lol :)

 These are my new boots, which I LOVE. I got them from Peebles during their winter clearance sale for like $24 :)  

 Dress-Honestly? I think I got it from Walmart for like $15. It's nice, BUT I think it's a one size fits all or something, because the cup size is too big for me, so my upper area looks like of retarded. That's why you're not able to see it :)

Tank top and pants-Old Navy

Teal nail polish-Birchbox! You don't know HOW EXCITED I was when I opened my birchbox and found this nail polish. It's one of my favorite colors (although I'd never heard it called "Age of Aquarius" lol). 

Question-You can sort of tell from this picture, but this shirt is pretty see through, meaning you can see my jeans pretty much up to where my ring finger is (yes, these pants go up that high lol). Does that look normal, or how do I fix it?

Last night, Tim and I bought three Totino's Pizza. We were walking out of the store, and I noticed the box said something about Redbox on it. They're doing this thing right now where if you buy their pizza, you get a free rental! WE WERE SO EXCITED!!! THIS is why we didn't rent any movies earlier in the day! I love it when you're able to see things happen like this, especially when you're saving money!

Well, I'm off to finish making some bread. And our grocery list. Our date today is going to get groceries. We're romantic like that :) Hope everyone has a great day!

This weekend was SO beautiful. My sister and I decided to have a picnic at the bay on Friday:

 It's always hard taking a picture with a massive camera. I can't wait until Tim and I get our iPhones (20 days :D)!

 My sister made white chicken chili. It. was. AWESOME.

Saturday I went for a walk on a few of the beaches in our town. 

We are lucky enough to live right on Lake Michigan. 

It was GORGEOUS! 

I was surprised it was only me and two other people on the beach.

This duck was hilarious :D

I'm so thankful to live in such a beautiful area!

This past weekend was spent with my niece and nephew, whom I rarely see. My brother and his wife had a conference they wanted to attend and needed a babysitter, so they asked me. I LOVED IT! We had so much fun :)

 Cheers! Like her beard? She matches daddy! We had pizza for dinner if you were wondering :) 

 We did SO MANY CRAFTS!

and puzzles :)

 There goes spiderman...with his cape...

Strawberry pancakes for breakfast :)

This is my smiling too big, scrunched up nose smile...and sweet anna with food in her mouth :)

 SO proud of his sun catcher :)

 Anna asked me to get these blankets for her, and she grabbed the book. So sweet.

 Putting the United States back together.

 MMMMMMM....Fake ice cream is the best.

 Homemade mac and cheese, strawberries, and pink lemonade :)

 too. many. strawberries. :)

A picture he painted for me...

...that is now on my fridge :)

 Making a caboose.

 Finished product!

All the paintings John made.

We had such a good time.

Tonight I'm getting ready for my exciting weekend-tomorrow I'm going to visit my older brother and his family; my brother and his wife are going to some sort of marriage conference or something, and they need a babysitter!!! I'm THRILLED to see my niece and nephew-and the best part is that they don't know I'm coming :)


I was going to post my bread recipe today; however, while compiling everything for the post, I realized I'm missing quite a few photos to show the how to. Soooooooo...the post will have to wait until I make bread again. Sorry! Anyway, I figured I would post one of new meals I made this past month. I'm trying to keep up with my new years resolution of trying two new recipes a month. Here is one:

This is Chicken Enchilada Pasta. I found it on Pearls, Handcuffs, & Happy Hour. I just LOVE how this blogger writes. It makes me want to try everything she makes :) I'm too lazy to write out the recipe, so just go to her page if you want to make it :)

I ended up just buying a rotisserie chicken. WAY easier to cook with :)

Our house smelled SO good, and both Tim and I were expecting it to taste AMAZING; however, we were pretty disappointed. There wasn't enough flavor. All I could think of was how I put in 8oz of cheese, almost a whole rotisserie chicken, and a whole carton of sour cream! What a waste. THEN: the next day I had leftovers for dinner, and it tasted AWESOME. I think it just needed time for the flavors to incorporate more...

RESULT: A sort of win. I don't think I'll make it again though. Leftovers were great, but I want the actual dinner to taste good!

Starting the weekend right

Yesterday was pretty awesome. I woke up and decided I would stay in bed for the morning. So I made myself some breakfast, grabbed all my to-learn camera books, my "things to do/buy" notebook (I like to make lists), my computer, and I was good to go. Tim got home at 5:30am and ended up falling asleep on the couch, so I had the whole bed to myself.  I turned Pandora radio onto Katie Herzig's station, and I was good to go.

Yes, that is a water stain on my SUPER CHEAP nightstand. Also, that candle smells great. Also, the "sleep spray" from Bath & Body Works is heavenly, and I love it. Also, my phone is from the stone age. Our contract is up soon, and we're looking into getting iPhones. Does anyone have one? Let me know what you think about it. And yes, that CD under my camera book is "Oregon Trail." It's awesome.

I love doing that taste test thing on etsy or whatever it's called. You end up finding so many more things you wish you could buy! :)

Me looking SO LOVELY :) At least I was relaxed and happy lol :)

THEN.....Tim woke up and came to lay down in bed. Dang it! He said I could stay there, but he would like the music off so he could sleep...so I went to the couch :) and watched some reruns of "Grey's Anatomy." I've been looking to purchase a camera bag so I looked online for like five hours and have lowered the bags I'm looking at down to four bags lol.

We did absolutely NOTHING yesterday. It was pretty nice :) We got a MAJOR snow/rain storm last night, so me being the crazy person I am, decided I wanted to go down the block to the bridge and try to take some nice photos; Tim, being the nice person he is, came along. Result? Almost 3/4 of the pictures were AWFUL. I'm not very good with my new camera yet; and when it's snowing/raining, that doesn't help anybody take good pictures.

These are a couple I kinda like:

Yes, this is very dark; but I still like it.

This was taken without a flash because every time I used the flash, all you would see was the TONS of snow falling...

The lighting for both of these were just awful; obviously I still have a lot to learn. Nevertheless, we still had fun on our little adventure :) I still need to purchase Adobe Photoshop for editing, so all I used was what was on Tim's Mac. Anyone have an editing program other than Adobe Photoshop they can convince me to buy?

Today we're going to be idiots and drive through this terrible weather over an hour so Tim can get his hair cut. Haha, that's not the only reason; but it is the main reason :) Tim has a specific place he likes to go; we definitely need to invest in some clippers for me to cut his hair at home. We also have a gift certificate for a little bistro in the next town over, and it expires NEXT week (we've had it just sitting in our home for almost a year LOL!) so we'll be going out for lunch too :)

I've been making homemade bread to help save us money. Honestly, you're insane if you don't at least TRY making homemade bread. It truly saves money, tastes AWESOME, and the best part? You know ALL the ingredients in it. Last weekend I made homemade cinnamon bread french toast.

It was PURE AWESOME!!! And I promise I'll be posting the recipe soon because you know you want to try it's deliciousness.