more of Sarge

I recently moved Sarge (my horse) to a new barn

I'm fairly certain that he's much happier there....

he gets out to play in a grassy pasture daily, and he's with four other

geldings who are super nice to him

We moved him on a Friday morning, that Sunday morning I showed up to take him for a ride,

he was out in the pasture with his new friends and they were running across the field - SO cute!  

Before he would only be running if someone was chasing him, that day looked like it was just a bunch of horses enjoying the beautiful spring day

-Priceless-

Here's my guy a couple of days later

an exciting thing for me is that I can ride to my parents house! Very cool!  I rode to my parents place, played around a bit in their back pasture, and then rode back and it only took about an hour and a half.... not bad!  It was 3 miles, good work out for my guy!  Here's a picture my dad took of me, not sure why I'm doing the fake smile.... 

then about 3 days a later some horse friends of mine picked us up and hauled us up on the local military base to ride the trails... it was so much fun! Poor Sarge though, I imagine that he was pretty sore having 2 tough rides like that in a 3 day time period!  But he's such a good horse, I was pretty dang happy with him!

here's the 3 horses that were with us that day... Sarge, Borego, Cowboy, they were all 3 pretty worn out after our ride that day!

Tasty Tuesday

Garlic Fried Chicken

2 TBSP garlic powder

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp salt

1 tsp paprika

1/2 c seasoned bread crumbs

1 c flour

1/2 c milk

1 egg

4 chicken breasts (I used 6 thighs)

1 c oil for frying

1. In a shallow dish, mix together the garlic powder, pepper, salt, paprika, bread crumbs, and flour.  In separate dish, whisk together the milk & egg

2. Heat the oil in electric skillet (350).  Dip the chicken into the egg and milk, then dredge in dry ingredients until evenly coated

3. Fry chicken in the hot oil for about 5 minutes per side, or until chicken is cooked through

Mine probably got a little too crispy but it was still quite tasty.... the family really loved this one. 

I have no nutritional information about this meal but lets be honest, anything that we fry isn't gonna look good on a nutritional chart so it's probably best that we don't know!


The Review: much tastier than just traditional fried chicken.  Once again, kid and husband approved!!!

a night on the town

Sage and I rarely get out with our friends and with no kids..... A couple of weeks ago some of my childhood friends had their birthday celebration.... Happy Belated Birthday post to Jen and Court, my most favorite set of twins EVER! :-)  So we had a good time and we were even home at a decent hour.  But here was my least favorite part of the night...... prepare yourself for this because it's about to get ugly in here....

the ladies bathroom in the bar we were at.......

N.A.S.T.Y.

I'd rather pee outside, maybe even in a pile of poison ivy, then have to pee in this place....

(btw, like my new top? Love it!!!!)

After the night was ending Sage and I were making the hike back to where we parked... we felt as if maybe we should try and be picking up a working girl? I mean seriously, every girl that was standing around looked as if they were advertising themselves, so here was my attempt to fit in.

(hehe! and I'm completely sober btw, just a little dorky!)

Here are a couple of normal shots from the night of me and Jen, well, one normal and one of us acting completely normal! lol

the change

isn't happening!
I changed my domain address and was soooo happy with the change, however,
I lost everything from my original blog!
Unless someone smarter than me tells me how to do this then my blog's address won't change after all!

where have I been?

well, I've been working!!!!!!

Remember a couple of months ago when I said I had gotten a job?  Well I've been working for a month now, and all I can say is.... I. L.O.V.E. I.T.

I work with a fantastic preceptor, she's basically my mentor for the next year.  I'm amazed at myself every time that I work, sometimes I'm amazed that I actually learned things in nursing school, and other times I'm amazed at the vote of confidence I have in myself.

But one things for sure, I absolutely chose the right career for myself! 

here's my name for orientation when I had to sit in boring classes for a week..... I felt pretty cool

BUT, the day I got this bad boy.... oh yeah, DEFINITELY cool!!!!

super cheesy right? Whatever I don't care I was thrilled! :-)

Tasty Tuesday

Quick Chicken Divan

2 (10 ounce) packages frozen chopped broccoli

2 cooked boneless chicken breast halves, chopped (I did not cook it beforehand)

1 can condensed cream of chicken soup

1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup

1/2 c mayonnaise

1 tsp lemon juice

1 1/2 c shredded cheddar cheese

1 tsp garlic powder

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. Place broccoli in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish.  Top with the chicken.

3. in a small bowl, blend the cream of chicken, cream of mushroom, mayo, lemon juice, garlic powder.  Pour the mixture over the chicken. Top with cheddar cheese.

4. Bake 35-40 minutes in the preheated oven, until bubbly and lightly browned

Dietary Info

Makes 8 servings

Calories per serving: 323

Total fat: 24.4g

Cholesterol: 5lmg

Sodium: 743mg

Total Carbs: 9.4g

Dietary Fiber: 1.7g

Protein: 16.1g

The Review: 

Needed something else.  

Some of the recommendations were to add 1/2 tsp of cumin, I however was fresh out so I couldn't.  I did however, bake the dish for 30 minutes, then sprinkled breadcrumbs on top, baked again for an additional 15 minutes.  The dinner was good but it wasn't my favorite.  In my attempt to cut carbs I only served this with a salad.  It would have gone well with pasta or rice.  There is a lot of sauce in the dish and would have been great with some carbs! :)

One recommendation was to put rice in the dish first before the other ingredients, however I'm not sure there would have been enough liquid for the rice to be cooked correctly.

Anyway, that's that, it was good, but I liked it more than anyone else in the family... and honestly we've had a lot of broccoli lately so it's time to give it a break!

address change

hello my ever faithful readers!  In the next couple of days I'll be changing my www address to www.happilyeverafter.com   make sure to update your saved favorites so that you can continue to read my brilliant work! :-)

how are people liking my Tasty Tuesdays?  Has anyone tried any of the recipes?  I'd love to hear some feedback!

I have a lot to update everyone on, just finding the time is becoming an issue!  Remember I got a job?  Yeah, welcome back to reality for me on how busy it is being a full time mom, wife, and employee! Thankfully no longer a student though I'm sure that's still just around the corner!

stay tuned......

Tasty Tuesday

Ham Broccoli Braid

2 c cooked ham, chopped

1 c chopped fresh broccoli

1 small onion, chopped

1 TBSP dried parsley

3/4 TBSP yellow mustard

1/4 TBSP dijon mustard

4 oz sour cream

1 1/2 c shredded cheddar cheese

2 (8oz) cans refrigerated crescent roll dough

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. Sautee onion & broccoli 

(I would have steamed the broccoli instead of sautee, it was still a little crunchier than I prefer...but if you did it just like this it's still delicious!)

3. In a large bowl, combine ham, broccoli, onion, parsley, mustard, sour cream, and cheese. Stir well.

4. Unroll crescent roll dough, and arrange flat on a medium baking sheet.  Pinch together perforations to form a single sheet of dough.  Using a knife or scissors, cut 1 inch wide strips in towards the center, starting on the long sides.  There should be be a solid strip about 3 inches wide down the center, with the cut strips forming a fringe down each side.  Spread the filling along the center strip.  Fold the side strips over filling, alternating strips from each side.  Pinch or twist to seal.

5. Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, until deep golden brown

Servings: 9

Calories per serving: 348

Total fat: 21.3g

Cholesterol: 33mg

Sodium: 898mg

Total Carbs: 22.8g

Dietary fiber: 0.4g

Protein: 14.4g

The Review:

Sweet goodness!  This was a fantastic meal!  A little hard to figure out what to do with the dough but I made it work and just made two braids instead of one.  Plenty of leftovers so that's a plus!  My 7 year old LOVE this meal, my 2 year old, not so much.  BUT, it has green in it and he refuses to eat green.  Technically his opinion doesn't count! :)

The only thing I would change, maybe steam the broccoli instead of sautee it.  Oh, and once I had it ready to go in the oven I sprayed the top and sprinkled Season All on top.... perfect!


Oh, and regarding leftovers, the hubby enjoyed it, the kids enjoyed it, I however thought the bread was a little soggy for my taste!

Gender Reveal Party

Remember this post?  Well my sister and her husband found out the sex of their baby a week and a half ago and they did an awesome job of keeping it a secret from everyone!  We had a great gender reveal party on Friday night at mi casa..... my entire family was able to make it (well, minus my little brother) and my BIL's parents came.  Here's some pics of the big event, and also I need to give credit to Liz at Love and Marriage and Elizabeth at E Myself and I, I borrowed some ideas from you ladies!

To begin with one of my favorite ladies in blog land, Shannon at Living My Life on Purpose, designed these amazing invites for me.... aren't they fantastic?!  Thank you again Shannon!!!!! 

(the bottom looks funny cause I edited out my address!)

then I contacted a baker and explained what a gender reveal party was, emailed her a copy of the invite, and then gave my sister the cake lady's contact info.  Said sister then called the baker and told her what gender the baby was... and the frosting used in between the layers was then made to the appropriate color..... are you excited yet?

there was some fun had with the decorating and my sister made some fantastic appetizers for us

behind this sign is a bowl for people to put their ideas in for Nursery themes.... mine came from Kim at Newlywoodwards from her niece's precious room!

Pink & Blue ribbons incase someone forgot to wear their team color! :)

yummy candies, which yes we had to go through and pick out all of the pink and blues... and no, we did not eat any during that process (well maybe just a few!)

and please excuse the yellow line on my counter, it's a permanent ugliness that I can't make disappear!

Here are the mom and dad to be, cute shirts right?

team pink

team blue (clearly the winners!)

btw, I'm the one smack dab in the middle... hubs is in the striped shirt, Logan is in front of me, and Riley is on my other sister's hip

the cousins to future baby - guess we know what they want!

To keep the suspense going for a little longer we played a game using some Old Wives Tales to see what  the baby is "supposed" to be (boy won 8-7)

now for the big reveal.... should I drag this out into TWO posts????

nah, I'll go ahead and satisfy the hunger!

drumroll please....

it's a BOY!!!!!!!

the man of the night

(bad picture I know, I should have just scanned it!)

gifts for the grandmas (BIL's mom)

 my mom

 gifts for all of the guests

 my sister and I... can you tell that I'm THRILLED to be getting a nephew!!!!

 and because he's so cute I'm throwing this pic in.....

and this one...

BTW I have to add this in.... there was quite the combo of pink and blue baby stuff, socks, toys, onesie... so all of the boy stuff went home with my sister and here I am left with this girl stuff.... fate?  Yes, I think so!  I'm feeling positive that this is a sure sign that when it's my turn to have another baby that it will most definitely be a GIRL! :-)

CONGRATS again to my favorite little sister and my favorite BrotherInLaw

-and so that no one thinks I'm playing favorites, she's my only little sister and he's my only BIL!