EASY apple cinnamon rolls

Apple Cinnamon Rolls

1 tube of crescent rolls (I recommend getting the Grand size rolls)

2 large apples, cored & cut into 8 wedges each

1tsp ground cinnamon

1/2c granulated sugar

2TBSP melted butter

1/4c water

Preheat oven to 400°. Combine cinnamon and sugar; set aside. Unroll crescent roll dough; separate into 8 triangles. Cut each triangle in half lengthwise to make 16 triangular strips. Place an apple wedge on the wide end of each strip; roll up. Arrange the rolls in a 9x13-inch baking pan. Drizzle with the melted butter then sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar mixture. Pour water into pan, but not over the rolls. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until golden brown and apple wedges are tender.

***see bottom for my suggested changes***

***simply follow the heat temp & bake time instructions on the crescent roll tube. Following the instructions on this recipe will burn your rolls!***

the weekend happenings...

Friday night: We took the boys to this awesome restaurant, T-Rex. I of course forgot my camera and the lighting wasn't good in there so my phone pictures turned out like poop.

Saturday: The hubs worked, Logan had a soccer game (3 goals!), ran errands..... Met the husband plus my family at the pumpkin patch. SO much fun! It was a little cold but still enjoyable. I brought our Boston Terriers in their Halloween shirts, obviously they were a hit! Riley was too funny, he just walked around everywhere clapping!

(Cosmo & Bella)

(soon to be Uncle Lonnie, Logan)

(grandma & Riley)

(Logan, Riley, & grandma)

Sunday: We loaded up early (me and the hubs) and headed off to Arrowhead Stadium. First beer was cracked open by 9am and the day just kept in that same pattern! There were footballs thrown, darts thrown, jell-o shots (yum!)... and then of course the crummy game. Chiefs lost 37-7, it rained, so we hung out by the beer. We didn't get home until about 5pm, I was exhausted and sooo hung over! I prefer drinking at night that way I can just sleep off the nasty feeling of coming off of my drunk.

(me & Sage)

(Arrowhead Stadium)

(my husband-in the gray- and our friend Jay-in the black- wishing they were still in HS!)

(me & some guy who just ran around the parking lot handing out bags of "potion")

(me and KC Wolf)

(me passed out with Riley and both little dogs... the red one is under Riley lol)

Wordless Wednesday

sorry friends!

It's been such a L-O-N-G week! Monday we got our precious little pup back, Tuesday I spent the day at home with the youngest kiddo & I studied away, Wednesdsay = study, Thursday I had school.... my first test.... and yes my friends, I got an 87% HELLZ YA!!!!! Friday I had both kids all day, my oldest one hasn't had school the last 2 days. I am sooo stinking tired! All I've done for 2 weeks is study, I just want time off but I've got another test in 2 weeks that I need to study for this entire time too.... ugh...

This weekend should be fun, though I won't be as devoted to my studies as I should be. Tomorrow we're taking the kids to the pumpkin patch and then having a "carving party" that night. And Sunday the hubs and I are going to a KC Chiefs game!!! Yeah yeah I know, it's the Chiefs who cares... but for my fellow KC followers, no matter how bad their season is we will always love them!

Hope everyone had a great week and enjoys their weekend! Pics should be following in the next few days!

oh happy day... oh happy day!!!!

Today my sister was driving and noticed a flier saying "found small dog, call ***. So, I called, and voila! It was Bella! We were able to pick her up this evening and she was sooo happy to see us! We all got lots of kisses!

Bella has been sleeping since she got home! And Cosmo is so glad to have her friend back!

(please note that I KNOW these pillow don't actually match my couch! I bought them today as I was in the festive mood... sort of a failure!)

Well today was the start of my 2nd week of school. Last week was SO stressful. I felt like I was crammed into a room with a bunch of 19 yr olds who were looking at me like I was the OLDEST person they had ever seen! Seriously?! Maybe it was just me! The weather lately has been so damn crummy, so when I got out of class and realized it was nearly 70 degrees out I figured school could wait and me and the kids were gonna go play in the leaves!

After raking and raking I thought... oh what a great photo op.... however Riley wanted NOTHING to do with it! He wouldn't quit crying until I took him off the leaves! lol

at least one kid would let me take advantage of the photo op!

look at all of those bags! I raked and raked and raked! It was pretty amazing, this tree lost all of it's leaves in just one day! Here's a sort of view of the new house... by the way have I mentioned how totally in love I am with the new place?

Little Man finally thinking the leaves might be fun!

peek-a-boo!!!! Can you see me?

The little man "posing" in the new toy room

First morning in our new house... look how grown up these boys are! Makes me sad! :(

our cat, Shay, helping me move! Guess she wanted to make sure she didn't get left behind!

Hope you enjoyed the pics.... I wrote this blog sorta backwards so hopefully it doesn't confuse anyone!

I'm supposed to be having a 12-hr clinical tomorrow but my instructor called tonight to tell me she tested positive for the H1N1 so clinical got cancelled! My first test is on Thursday so this gives me 2 full days to prepare!

Hope our great luck continues through this week! I'm gonna go cuddle up with my puppy!

my heart is aching

This sweet little girl is missing. Some of you might remember my post from when my kids and I drove for what seemed like forever to go adopt this baby girl. Miss Bella has completely fit into our lives, I feel like I've owned her forever. My son loves her to pieces, she sleeps with him every night. My other Boston loves playing "rough" with Bella, finally someone her own size! Today I am sad to report that Bella is missing. We haven't been in our new house for a week yet so she is not familiar with the neighborhood, nor would any of our neighbors recognize her. Today after school my nieces were here playing with Logan. They were picking apples out of the tree in our front yard and kept coming in and out to bring me more apples. At some point Bella squeezed through the door and was gone. No one even noticed that she had gotten out. I've put up fliers and drove around the area for hours.

I put an ad on craigslist on the lost & found.

We're just praying that she is found and brought back to us safely. Even if she isn't brought back to us, I pray that a nice person has found her and is keeping her warm and feeding her, and will love her forever.

I feel as if we've betrayed her. We rescued her nearly 3 months ago and it was our duty to keep her safe and loved for the rest of her days. I neglected to put her collar with her tags on it. Now there is no way to connect her with us.

Please keep Bella in your prayers that she is at least safe. I know it's praying for a dog but she is a part of our family, she's one of my daughters.

You'll be greatly missed Bella, we will pray for your safe return!

yay for me!!!

Trixie over at Swooning the City has given me this awesome award! Yay! I love awards and love that people actually enjoy (or at least pretend to enjoy!) what I write! I've gotten a few new followers recently, welcome friends!

So, here are the rules:

1) If you have a blog, post it on your blog with a link back to the site who gave it to you;

2) Leave them a comment on their site, email, etc. to let them know;

3) If you don't have a blog but have a website, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter or other type account, post there with a link back; and

4) Pass this on to 3-10 loyal fans.

And here is who I'm passing mine on to!

1. Jenny over at Lucky In Love

2. Taryn at The Colorado Desert

3. Emily at Mrs EyeCanSee

4. S. at a little bit delirious

it's my party and I'll cry if I want to!

Today was my special day, yup, it's my birthday. Can you believe that I'm 28? I definitely cannot, seems like yesterday I was turning 18! I was privileged enough to start classes again today as a birthday present, come on now who wouldn't want to do that?! So here's how the morning went: woke up 30 minutes late; had 2 kids to get ready to go; got the 5yr old to school on time (amazingly!); got the baby to his new sitter late; cried on the way to my school because I felt like a horrible mother for leaving the baby with someone we barely know; got to class and knew no one and of course no one knew me so I made no friends :( ; find out that my cpr expired so I have until next Tuesday to get it renewed; had to get a TB test; come home and grab baby (at least he came and hugged and kissed me!); grabbed the 5yr old; went to the closing for our old house only to find out the closing got delayed; dropped the 5yr old off with his dad; got treated to a lovely birthday dinner of drive-thru Wendys (please note the sarcasm); went back to the old house to finish hauling shit off to the dumpster; bickered with my husband cause it appears that the stress of moving is finally hitting us; put baby boy to bed; opened up a beer; husband went to bed; 5yr old came home; put him to bed; now it's just me, the laptop, beer, and the fireplace. Was that enough whining for everyone?

Here's what I want to know.... when did birthday parties go from this

parties and cakes....

to this

feeling lonely and not even having a damn beach to look at! :(

It used to be that birthdays were a day that the world stopped and revolved around me, at least for that day. What happened to those times? Okay I know that it was probably when I was younger than 10 but hey a girl can look back right?

Oh well, another year older, another year wiser....

did you miss me?

Yeah probably not..... I'm sure you were loving my guest bloggers! Thanks again Jenny over at Lucky in Love and to Emily at Mrs EyeCanSee!!!! If you haven't checked out their sites yet make sure you do!

So, we have moved!!!! It took us 3 full days but we did it! My hubs still has to head back to the old house to do some of the updates that our buyer asked for. That'll be done tonight and the papers will be signed tomorrow - woot woot!

Now on to the important stuff.... MY HOUSE!!!! What's my favorite part you ask? Um.... the fireplace, my master bathroom (jetted tub), the fact that I have a garage!, my new tv stand, the eat in kitchen, the DISHWASHER!!! So many things to pick from!

Among all of the stress with the weekend I still managed to pull off our first family function in the new place last night! My birthday is tomorrow so we had the family birthday party at my place last night. My mom was amazing and spoiled me with some awesome new dishes and some great decorations for the kitchen. And I got spoiled with some red velvet cupcakes with home made cream cheese frosting... oh so yummy!!!!!! Gotta love when people have a reason to spoil you! :)

Now on to the SCARY stuff. I go back to school tomorrow! I have a year left of school until I'll be an RN so tomorrow is the day to get back into the groove of things. Which also means tomorrow will be the first time my little one has to go to a sitter.... talk about scary! I don't know what scares me most, the sitter, or the school.... On a bright side I have my clinicals on Wednesday, 12 hr days.... long days but so worth it to only have to go one day a week instead of two. I love doing patient care so I'm excited to get back in with the patients.

Alright... I'm enjoying my last day of freedom... hanging out with my kids by the fireplace, watching a "scary" movie on the Disney channel!

Enjoy your Monday!

Mrs EyeCanSee vs Winter Coats

Hello out there in blog land! Today's post is brought to you by moi, Mrs EyeCanSee from The Juice is Worth the Squeeze. The lovely Kristen has asked me to do a guest spot for her, so here goes nothing!

Can you believe it's already October? I'm still in shock that when I take the dogs out in the morning I freeze my butt off, yet still refuse to grab a jacket. This is when the battle between me and coats begin. I'm not completely sure when my hate for coats, gloves, scarves and all things winter started. High school maybe?? I used to have this lightly lined fleece windbreaker type jacket and my pseudo high school boyfriend's mom used to balk at me every.time.I.saw.her that I needed something warmer. Pfffft. Whatever lady, what do YOU know anyways, your son turned to be a giant D-Bag who made out with my BFF and then asked HER to prom. Oh the high school drama...how I don't miss thee. I think I still have that coat though which is further proof of how great a coat it really was.

Anyways....moving on.

Don't get me wrong, I have some cute coats that I love. My charcoal grey Jcrew pea coat. Love. My American Eagle mustard yellow belted greatness. Swoon. The light pink North Face I've had for.ev.er. Adore. But they're all so bulky and when you're out and about there's never anywhere to put them. They keep the stores so piping hot that you immediately begin sweating upon entrance forcing you to shed your many layers and then carry your coat around with you. Not fun. And let's not even mention the dilemma when going out on the town. At least now that I'm a real grown up I go to bars with coat checks...but I'm still too cheap to use them, so the problem of where to put your winter wardrobe remains. Am I the only one who suffers from this stubborn problem?? It happens again to me in the Spring. We will have that one, nice, freakishly warm day where I get so excited I put away the coats for good. Then the next day reality that it's still March....in the Midwest sets in and it snows. Do I dig the coats back out of the closet?? Haha. Nope. I continue to freeze because now it's spring and the battle begins again.

So when you see that idiot on one of these questionably cold fall mornings, without even a hoodie, its probably me. Feel free to wave at me in your warmly gloved hand as I live in hopeless denial that winter is coming.

guest blog!

Jenny over at Lucky in Love is by one of my most favorite blogs to read! While I'm busy packing and moving she has agreed to be my first guest blogger! Enjoy her post and make sure to check her out!

Hello readers! I was so excited when Kristen asked me to do a guest post for her! She is such a fabulous woman and I am so happy we have become friends! Kristen and I first connected during our route to becoming the thinner, healthier versions of ourselves so I thought I would share with her readers my own story of the ups and downs of weight loss and the struggles I've had with my body. I look back at pictures of myself when I was a kid and think, "Holy cow girl! You were skinny!" A skinny child I was, but for some reason, once I started school, that all went out the window. I was never what I would consider fat...but skinny I was not. I started doing Weight Watchers at an early age with my mother. She went to the meetings at her work and would bring home all of the materials and we'd go over them together. I had some success with it, but it is really hard to count points as a Junior High/High School student who has her meals prepared for her, who hangs out with friends 3 nights a week at Denny's, and who loves extra butter on her movie theater popcorn. But, I had a fall back. I was constantly exercising. I played volleyball, basketball, and ran track so although I was eating whatever I wanted, I was able to do this without gaining a significant amount of weight because of all of the running around I was doing. Enter college. My exercise went out the window and the freshman 15 came on...big time. I have no recollection of what I weighed in high school. I wish I did. But I hit the 200's in college. It was my sophomore year and my roommate and I decided to join Weight Watchers. I can still remember stepping on the scale for the first time and seeing the woman write down a 2 as the first number. It was awful. My heart was heavy but it was just a starting point for me. I knew I was there to make a change and I had my roommate with me! What could be better? Ha! Today that roommate and I are not on speaking terms (would you speak to someone who stole from you, turned off your power, and moved out during the summer without telling you...leaving you to pay for all of the utilities yourself?? I think not.) And we were not good influences on each other at all. I soon quit and went back to doing the program off and on by myself. I started working out a little more consistently on campus but I never fully got into a routine. I was at a standstill. My lowest point came during the summer after graduation. I moved home to live with my parents while attending graduate school and stepped on the scale for the first time in a very long time. I can't believe I am about to share this number since I don't think I have ever told anyone...but it read 234.5 lbs. I was literally shocked. I have never felt so bad about myself in my life. It was time. I had hit rock bottom and I needed to change now!

"My sister and me...this is hard to even look at now. I had no idea I was that big."

I had been dating my now husband for about 2 years then and knew that marriage was in our future. I didn't want to be heavy on my wedding day. So my mother and I joined forces and again started Weight Watchers. Seriously girls. This works if you work the program. I began walking on a regular basis, started Taebo, and began going to the gym for cardio and weights. I ate healthy and had someone cooking my dinners that was counting points as well which was extremely helpful. It was working! Matt and I got engaged that year in December and now I had tangible motivation. My wedding date was set! I had a year and a half to do it and I was determined. And do it I did. I lost 78 lbs. before my wedding. My lowest weight I ever read on the scale was 156 lbs. I was thrilled. Of course I still saw the flaws, but what woman doesn't. My hips, thighs, and butt were still bigger than I would've liked, but I was healthy and happy for my wedding day and it showed.

"My dad walking me down the aisle."

Since that time 2 years ago, I have put some weight back on. I'm about 20 lbs. heavier than I was at my lowest and I'd really like to be at about 150 lbs. How did that happen? Well, honestly, I stopped tracking my points and went back to my regular bad eating habits. Weight Watchers markets itself as being a lifestyle change not a diet, but I did not treat it as such. I followed the program but I never stopped wanting to eat badly. And really, I still haven't stopped. It's an ongoing issue. I'm now back to doing Weight Watchers on my own. I have my good days and bad days, but I have new motivation. My husband and I are looking at starting a family next year and I want to be as healthy as possible for our baby. Plus, losing the weight now I'm sure will be 10 times easier than waiting until after the baby is born. Plus, I made a vow to myself that I would never see a number starting with a 2 on the scale again...so I want to make sure that even when I am pregnant that doesn't happen. So what is your weight loss story? How did you do it...and what kept you motivated? Have you been able to keep off the weight? Do you have any tips to share? Everyone's story is different but I am confident we can learn from each other and help give support along the way. Thank y'all so much for giving me this safe place to share my story! And feel free to stop on over to Lucky in Love to keep up with my progress! I can use all of the encouragement I can get! Warmly, Jenny

11 months

Logan - 11 months

Riley - 11 months

surprise surprise!

As you know I've been pretty busy with packing and preparing to move..... so.... to give myself a little break and to also try something new, I'll be having a guest blogger!!!!!

Stay tuned.....

boxes boxes boxes!

I'm tired of boxes!!!!! I spent the day going through closets, bagging up Good Will stuff, and boxing up everything else. I don't really feel like I got anything accomplished today! :(

Here is what my living room looks like now. Behind the flat boxes is about 10 filled boxes. See that blue duffel bag thing on the top of the boxes? Here's the ugly truth. There are actually 3 bags like that (they are good sized), they are completely FILLED with.... shoes! How ridiculous is that? Between me, the hubs, and a 5 yr old we can fill up 3 bags! And the uglier truth.... one of those bags is only my shoes.... plus more of my shoes in the other bags! I'm ashamed.... Seriously I thought I was one of those girls who had maybe 3 pair of shoes... oh how wrong I was! ha!

Here are my packing helpers.... they look like a lot of help don't they!

yikes!

I move in 5 days!!!!! The hubs and I spent a good part of today in Nebraska Furniture Mart looking for a new bedroom set, dining room table, and a tv stand. It was a little hard to come up with even just 2 choices! Prices are just so ridiculously high and honestly the selections weren't great. We aren't real modern people but we aren't rustic either. Apparently there isn't much "in between"? We did narrow it down to 1 dining table but we had no luck with the rest. No biggie... we'll figure it out. Heck we've got 5 days what's the rush!!! :)

I have to do it

Jon Gosselin

Do you ladies have any thoughts on this man?

I have many but I will keep them to myself (or at least most of them).

So on the 29th TLC announced that Jon would no longer be on the show (see here) because they could not continue to portray him as a doting father. nice slap in the face

Then today we hear that Jon has thrown a temper tantrum (clearly he's been hanging around the kids too long) and has put a stop to TLC's filming (see here)

My favorite part is in a separate article (see here) he talks about how he is trying to reconcile with Kate, also stating that she was the one who ended their relationship.

So, here is where I get a little irritated. For months Kate had to trust that the rumors about Jon having an affair were simply that, rumors. But then Jon decided that he wasn't happy anymore and that he needed a separation in order to "find himself" or some crap like that. Yes Kate did file for divorce, but reports say that the reason she did it was due to Jon's actions that weekend. Not a week after the paperwork is filed, this is what we see....

yes that's right, Jon Gosselin with a 22 year old girl. Not only that, the daughter of a family friend! How twisted is that? Rewind a few months back to when Jon was photographed with Haley Glassman and her mom at a bar, and his story was that they were just friends. How many of us actually believe that he wasn't being a little bit more than "just friends" with Haley at that time?

Then this comment was reported from him, "I feel like I love her more than I did Kate". (see here) Wow, what a blow to Kate. I can't even imagine how much that hurt.

Does anyone have thoughts on this? Anyone side with Jon? I know that Kate has been very rude (yes I know that's putting it nicely) to Jon on past episodes, however, I'm still gonna understand her being like that. Imagine being with 8 kids. It's not even that the 8 kids are the issue, it's that they have 8 kids from only 2 pregnancies, that's a hell of a lot of stress! Terrible 2's x 6?! No thanks!

Ever since Jon & Kate have started shooting episodes separately I haven't been as faithful of a viewer. I liked seeing them together. I even find myself watching re-runs on a regular basis and getting a kick out of the two of them. Even though their filming portions of the show could be pretty argumentive, when they were sitting on the couch together for their interview you could see that they were in love!

Now here is where I am torn. When Jon says that he wants to reconcile with Kate, he has even post-poned the divorce. Do I want to see them back together? Should Kate allow him to come crawling back to her? I'm not sure how she would be able to. He has gone on GMA and stated that he despises Kate. Stated that he can't sit on the same couch with someone that he despises. Says that she stole his wedding band. The man has basically blamed Kate for their marriage falling apart. Never mind him having too many female friends or needing to go out and find himself.

Sadly I find myself sort of hoping that they can reconcile. I mean that it the tiniest, slightest, smallest, teeniest, way. I think Jon is scum. For the sake of their 8 children I think it would be great for them to be back together again. (however, what does that say to them about having respect for yourself?)

I guess in fairy tale land it would be nice for them to be together again. In reality I think he has screwed himself and that he won't convince his wife to allow him back. And in time his children will be old enough to google him and they'll read the nasty things he has said about their mother. And they'll see the pictures of him with other women. He has definitely made his own bed.