A Little Piece of Wisdom

Southern Hospitality

Hi everyone! I apologize for my absence but I have been travelling all about over the past week and a half, hence my lack of posting. Last week I travelled up to San Antonio to spend the day with a good friend and then left from there to head back to Georgia for a little while. I was so happy to spend this past weekend up in Atlanta with my lovely friend Lauren, and it was so wonderful to catch up, veg out, and watch chick flicks ALL weekend! We also got to eat at a pretty awesome restaurant called Paces on 88th thanks to an awesome gift card Lauren had. This place was phenomenal! Other than that I have been hanging out here in Macon most of this past week visiting with old friends and new family members :) Dad and I went up to see my sister and her family yesterday. We had a great time visiting with them and spending time with the kids. I don't get to see them that often so it was really great to just be able to sit and chat and catch up with all of them! Tomorrow is of course the always traditional UGA vs. FL game, so we are planning on spending the day at a family friends house to celebrate and watch some good ole' southern football! GO DAWGS! Other than that there really isn't too much going on. Here are some photos from this past week...



Lauren took me to the oh so wonderful Trader
Joe's! It felt so good to be reunited ;) I LOVE
and miss this place dearly!




Fall in the south is always so gorgeous!
I miss the lovely weather and changing trees.
Is there any place more gorgeous that GA during
fall? I've yet to find another state as beautiful!

 Sorry I don't have more photos. The camera took up too much room in my carry on so I had to leave it behind sadly. For those of you who are wondering about Winston and Kitty, they are doing just fine. Winston has been staying with some friends while I have been out of town and other than being a little "mopey" he seems to be just fine. I am more than ready to get back to my sweet little guy soon though! Kitty is being looked in on occasionally as well and is doing great and is as fat as ever.

Last but not least Mitchell is still plugging away at IFS in Colorado. He has been so lucky and has only had one "bad" weather day since he has been there and for those of you that know about Colorado and it's awful and unpredictable weather that is a miracle! He is doing really well and is on track to be done by the end of next week as long as the weather stays good (woo hoo)! He double turned today (meaning he got two flights in one day) and has been flying almost every single day. Prayers and thoughts as he finishes up this coming week would be greatly appreciated! I am so ready for him to be home!

I know many people have asked and wondered how being home has been for me. To be honest it has been pretty hard. Being at home is the hardest part for me, being in my mother's home and knowing she should still be there. It brings back so many memories and thoughts of what could have been that it is almost overbearing at times. Being away from the house is a lot easier and I have found so much comfort in spending time at Mitchell's parents home and with my sweet sweet friend Elyssa who is also in Macon now. I don't know what I would have done without them here while I have been home. Their constant love and support has been unfaltering and so very comforting over the past week. As much as I have enjoyed getting to see those that I love while being here in Georgia, I am ready to get back to Texas to see my sweet little Winston and be away from the memories that surround our home here in Macon. I would like to thank those of you that have sent so many comforting texts and facebook messages while I have been here comforting me and praying for me. I am truly blessed to be surrounded by such amazing, Godly, and loving people and I love each and every one of you!

I promise I will blog again soon, and I will include the mason jar Halloween craft I did and how it turned out! Here is a teaser photo ;)

A Little Bit of Paint Sure Does Wonders

I decided yesterday was as good as any to get to painting the scuffed and rather oddly painted side vanity table we have in the hall! So, I went out to Home Depot and picked out a color, thanks to the lovely advice of my sweet friend Nichole, and also picked up some knobs for the drawers at the last minute while I was walking to the register. Mitchell had been complaining for ages about not being able to open the drawers properly so I figured it was a little splurge he would be happy about (luckily they were only $4.50 each). I am beyond happy with the way it turned out! You would not even believe that it's the same table and it looks SO much better than that nasty pink and white :) Here are some before and afters....

Before!
Eww...that's the only word I can now
think of to describe this table as it was.

After! I went with a light grey with a
blue tint to it! It's from the Martha
Stewart line of paint naturally ;)

Yay for new knobs! These are Martha as well!

Ta Da! 100X better than before!

I also bought the cute little silver lantern at Ross yesterday which was a purchase I was rather proud of! It's also very nice to be able to open and use the drawers now. Note, I'm getting a better candle to go into the lantern, but I didn't have time to get to Wal-Mart to get one. All in all it only took me about 2 hours total to paint and cost only $24 including the knobs, even though I only really used 1/3 of the paint can and have plenty left over for other projects. 

Other than accomplishing this DIY project, which I'm very proud of myself for doing, I met up with an extended family member from Mitchell's side of the family! Mitchell's aunt has a niece that is engaged to another UPT student here at Laughlin and she was in town visiting for the weekend. They were so sweet and invited me to go to church with them in town and then we went out for lunch afterwards! It was so nice to meet some "new" family members and also get to try out a new church! I will be taking Mitchell back as soon as he gets home from IFS. Both of them were some of the sweetest people I've met and I truly wish them the best of luck as they head off to Charleston for their first assignment after UPT!

For those of you interested in his progress at IFS, he's currently still in the academic portion until tomorrow. He heads up in the air a little after 1 tomorrow afternoon, so any and all prayers are greatly appreciated :) He's not to stressed out at this point and just ready to get up in the plane and out of the classroom, which he's been holed up in since last week. Winston and I miss him tons but are already so very proud of the progress he's making. I'll be sure and give everyone an update as soon as his first week of flying is over!

That's all for now! I'm not done with the halloween lanterns I'm painting as I forgot to get some of the supplies, but I will post some photos once I'm done...promise :)

Do It Myself

Well I know I promised everyone earlier in the week a post on my DIY's I have planned while Mitchell is away, so here they are! Firstly, I went today and got some paint to make these lovely little Halloween decorations...

Yay for Pintrest! 

For those of you that know me well enough, you know that I have a slight obsession with Halloween! It is by far my most favorite holiday and there is nothing that makes me happier than an new "spooky" decoration to add to my home over this holiday :) Therefore, I couldn't resist trying to make these cute little things. I have a ton of extra mason jars and the paint was only $0.97 at Wal-Mart! I'm trying them tonight so I will let everyone know how they go soon!

Another project that I want to undertake is painting the little vanity/hall table that I've had for a while now! When my room was white and pink it fit perfectly, but obviously that color scheme does not go over well with the hubs or the other pieces in the living room. So, I'm planning on painting it at some point in the next few weeks! I haven't decided what color yet (I went and picked up some paint chips to compare today) but I'm thinking a pretty yellow, my favorite, or a nice antique blue now that a sweet friend recommend I use that color! Here's the table now so you can see what I mean by the fact that it needs some work...

Notice also that the movers scratched the paint
anyways...so it was bound to need
 to be repainted at some point!

Other than that I am planning on making one of those lovely yarn wreaths, and yes I know that I'm merely one of hundreds of people that are making them, but I simply don't care! I think that they are cute and gosh-darnet I'm making one, so there! Naturally, the entire city of Del Rio does not seem to find it necessary to sell a wreath form of any sort so I will have to wait until I head to San Antonio next week before I come home to get one. Here's the general idea of what it will look like but with different colors...

I'm thinking teal and yellow and white flowers!

Well there you go, these are the few little things that I am planning on doing over the next two weeks or so! I also made some home-made dog biscuits for Winston today and I will share a post about that this weekend :) I hope everyone has a lovely Friday and rest of their weekend! Thanks for reading!

S'mores Anyone?!

Well Mitchell left for IFS (Initial Flight Screening) this morning :( Yes, I'm bummed, but I'm trying to stay as positive and upbeat about it as possible! No sense in being down and depressed. Things could be far worse and he could be deployed for a long period of time in another country. Instead he's tucked safely away in Pueblo, CO and will be back in about 4 weeks! So while he's gone I have decided to clean the house from top to bottom, get some DIY projects done I've been dying to do for the past month or so, and get caught up on other little things I can get done while the hubs is away. I'll add a post later about the DIY's I'm planning on getting done as that will be a post all in itself!

On another note I made S'more goodies this weeked. Haha get it?! Anyways, I found another yummy baked goods recipe on Pinterest and went to work in the kitchen with my sweet husband before he left. Heres' the yummy recipe:

Photo and Recipe Credit:
Lovin' From the Oven

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 king-sized milk chocolate bars (e.g. Hershey’s)
• 1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme/fluff (not melted marshmallows)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg and vanilla. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture and mix at a low speed until combined.
3. Divide dough in half and press half of dough into an even layer on the bottom of the prepared pan. Place chocolate bars over dough. 2 king-sized Hershey’s bars should fit perfectly side by side, but break the chocolate (if necessary) to get it to fit in a single layer no more than 1/4 inch thick. Spread chocolate with marshmallow creme or fluff. Place remaining dough in a single layer on top of the fluff (most easily achieved by flattening the dough into small shingles and laying them together).
4. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool completely before cutting into bars.

Makes 16 cookie bars.

This recipe turned out delicious! Here are some helpful tips though....when you make the bottom and top layer use your hands (I know some people might think this is unsanitary), its much too hard to use a spoon or spatula! Again, I only cooked mine for about 22 minutes and they came out perfectly, but I have a fast and uneven cooking oven. They are best served hot duh and are more than delicious! Here are some photos we took while baking:

Most of the ingredients!
 It took about 1.5 jars of Jet Puff 

Baking in action!

What it looks like after the second to last
layer (Jet-Puff)

After it's done!

Don't you love the mess baking entails?

YUMM!!!!

Here are some photos from our past week and this morning when Mitchell left....

He FINALLY got his flight suits :)

Packed and ready to go :(

Poor little Winston was so sad when his
daddy left and kept waiting
for him to come back :(

Nothing New

After trying to come up with a witty post of this past weekend this was the best I could come up with...sorry! It does reflect our lives this past week though, nothing new is happening here in good ole Del Rio. Why am I updating then? Mainly because I'm bored and feel obligated to post something everyone once in a while ;) Anyways, this past weekend was rather eventful and uneventful at the same time, if that makes sense. Friday night I filled in for one of the other spouses here on base and took care of a sweet little 1 year old boy and his brother who was 3. They were a pretty easy pair, although my arm did get a good workout from holding the hefty little tike for a few hours! At this point I realized I'm so not ready for the sleepless nights and mounds of laundry and work a child encompasses at this point in our lives. I'm very content with having my "me-time" as selfish as that sounds. Not that I'm not looking forward to having kids at some point, but I'm very happy just having Mitchell and Winston to take care of at this point!

Other than babysitting on Friday, we went out on the lake on Saturday (shocker, I know) and then just came home and enjoyed a nice night at home. This is something we haven't been able to do in the past few weeks as we've been traveling around so much! Yesterday we celebrated our two year anniversary of being engaged, and yes we do still celebrate that one. My husband is so cute and still likes to celebrate all of our "little" anniversaries throughout the year like the one we celebrated yesterday, the day we started dating, when we had our first kiss, and so on. I think it's really sweet and gives us lots of little things to celebrate throughout the year :) We made one of our favorite dishes we haven't had in a while due to our healthy diet, which was Chicken and Rice Casserole (YUMMM) and chocolate fondue for desert (even more YUMM)!

That's pretty much all the exciting news from our weekend. On another note, Mitchell heads off for IFS this coming week. He starts on October 12th and it is located in Pueblo, Colorado which is about 30-45 minutes south of the Academy in Colorado Springs. IFS is Initial Flight Screening where they basically teach the pilots-to-be how to fly and such. It's a very intense 3-4 week program with a decent failure rate. I'm not too worried about Mitchell since he seems to thrive in these type of environments but any and all prayers for his success would be greatly appreciated! On a happier note, here are some photos from this weekend...

Oh the joys of babysitting...it really wasn't that bad at all ;)
I love having an excuse to read children's books!

The sweet lady that I babysat for had made this
for her home! I thought it was adorable
and such a great idea!

My oh so handsome husband :)

The boys tubing...not really my thing

Chocolate fondue! 

Our "spread" for dipping (Angel food cake squares,
strawberries, pretzels, and marshmallows) :)

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend as well!!