Guess Who's Back...Back Again...Jadey's Back...Tell a Friend! :)

Oh my goodness! I am just so embarrassed that it's been SOOOOOO long since I've written about anything!  I mean my last post was about Easter?!  Hello...Christmas is 24 days away!  (WHOO HOO!!!!  Sorry, I'm like a little kid when it comes to Christmas!)  Although in my defense, I have been insanely super busy and plus this year has just flown by.  I mean doesn't it honestly feel like it was just Easter???

So let's bring everybody up to speed...let's see what have I been up to?  Well, I don't know about ya'll but it seems like everyone I know is either getting married or having babies!  This year alone I have been to three baby showers and five weddings. 

Now don't get me wrong...I absolutely love weddings (Yay Love!), especially receptions...all our friends come into town and everyone gets to drink and let loose and DANCE!  That's my most favorite part!  There is no where to dance in Tyler (LAME!), and for those who know me, ya'll know I LOVE TO DANCE!  In college, me and my roommates would go out every Thursday night; we were always the first out on the dance floor and the last ones to leave!  These days wedding receptions are pretty much my only chance to shake what my momma gave me, so I take full advantage!  I don't care if it's The Cupid Shuffle or The Wobble (I just learned that one!)...if it's got a good beat, I'll be out on that floor! 

Me dancing at my own wedding!  How low can you go?!

And you know what else is awesome about weddings...BACHELORETTE PARTIES!!!  I was only able to go to one of the bachelorette parties for all of these weddings, but let me tell you it was sooooo  AWESOME!!!  I don't know if ya'll have heard of this new b-party trend, but the cool thing to do now is have all the girls wear brightly colored party wigs!  Imagine Katy Perry-esque colored hair.  We rocked them at this party and we were a hit everywhere we went!  People were seriously asking us to stop and take pictures with them, as if we were celebrities or something!  We had our very own "Papa-Paparazzi's" (like in Lady Gaga's song).  Oh my gosh, it was just so much fun!

Seriously, how awesome do we look?!

So first comes bachelorette parties, then comes marriage, then comes BABIES!!!  I guess I'm just at that age when everyone starts popping out kids.  But don't get me wrong, I am loving it!  And I can't wait till we have a little one of our own!!! :)  I went to a bunch of showers this year and even co-hosted one at my house!  I was super nervous about it, but I think we did a pretty darn good job...if I do say so myself! 

Super Cute, Super Delicious Table Decorations!

So if your can even believe it, I had one more super big thing going on these past few months.  Between the showers and the parties and the weddings and work, plus being married and spending time with the hubby and our adorable puppy Chino, I have also been preparing and studying my butt off for this super ridiculously hard engineering test!  It's called the PE Exam (Professional Engineering Exam), and I took the test at the end of October.  Yeah, turns out having two engineering degrees plus working for six years doesn't make you a real "engineer".  Anyways, I spent every free moment reviewing problems and equations and trying to re-learn subjects I haven't looked at in over six years...to sum it up, it was NOT FUN!  Then you have to take an eight-hour long exam...again REALLY NOT FUN!  It's like the SAT on crack!  I don't find out if I passed until around Christmas, so it's either going to be a really great Christmas present or it's going to be a bad one!  But I'm trying to be positive and hope for the best.

So anyways, hopefully that test is done and over with and now I can get back to just having fun.  Bring on more weddings and babies, oh and lots more blogging!!!!! :)

Easter Dinner = Success!!!!

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted anything!  Sorry about that; things have just been super busy!  I know it's been a few weeks since Easter, but I have got to tell ya'll about my cooking adventure and hey it's better late than never. :)  We had Justin's family over to our new house for Easter Sunday and I cooked for all of us!

I was super nervous.  This was by far the biggest meal I had ever prepared, and the first time I had ever cooked for Justin's family, and I'm a super huge perfectionist and worrier, so to say the least, it was a stressful day!  But everything turned out AMAZING!!!!  I almost even had everything timed perfectly so nothing got cold while something else was cooking.  I think that's the hardest part about cooking, trying to time everything so it's all ready at the same time. 

Here's me cooking up a storm in my new kitchen!

So want to know what all I made?!  I bought a 7-lb spiral ham (it was huge!) that came with its own brown sugar glaze packet.  I drenched it in pineapple juice, coated it with the glaze and then put sliced pineapples all over it and wrapped it in foil and stuck it in the oven for about 2.5 hours.  It was so tender and juicy!  Isn't this the prettiest ham you've ever seen (sorry, I'm probably a little biased!) ?!?!?!

I also made homemade macaroni and cheese (my momma's recipe!), those yummy wheat rolls that you set out all day and they rise and get real big and fluffy (my favorite!), and honey glazed carrots.  And for dessert...APPLE PIE!!!  Oh I'm getting hungry again just thinking about it! 

Here is me, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law posing with all our food.

Everything turned out great and it really helped boost my cooking confidence.  Next time I won't stress so much...well actually I probably will, but maybe the next time it will ease up some!  Haha!  Like they say, practice makes perfect!

I'm going to share the honey carrots recipe with ya'll.  I'm not really a big fan of cooked carrots, but this stuff was pretty darn good!  I got this recipe from http://www.honey.com/

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. carrots, pared, trimmed and cut into narrow 2- to 3- inch sticks
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/4 cup butter, cut into pats
• 1/4 cup dry sherry or apple juice
• 1 teaspoon rosemary, crushed
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Place carrots in 10-inch skillet with 2 cups water; cover and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 8 minutes or until carrots are tender. Drain water. Add honey, butter, sherry or apple juice, rosemary, thyme and salt to skillet. Cook, turning carrots in sauce until glazed and hot, about 6 minutes.  Makes 8 servings.

Easter...CHECK!  Bring it on Thanksgiving! ;)

Happy Happy Joy Joy!!!! Happy Happy Joy Joy!!!!!

Yes, I just did a Ren and Stimpy throwback!  That just happened!  Lately I've been hearing a lot of talk about being happy.  Yahoo did an article this week about happiness in the workplace (I know, apparently it exists!  Haha!).  They surveyed people all across the country to find out who were the happiest with their jobs.  I don't remember who was number one...probably people who work for Google!  We've all gotten those emails with the amazing pictures of Google workers taking naps during the day, getting massages at work, bringing their dogs to the office, playing pool and ping pong, etc.  DUUUUH!  Who wouldn't be happy going to a cool job like that everyday?!  Sorry, I didn't mean to make you even unhappier with your current job situation. :)  But don't feel bad; I do remember that engineer was not on the list for happiest employees! ;)

I've been trying something new this week to stay positive and just be all around happier, and it is actually working!  So for those of you who have jobs at Google or just truly love their job, you can stop reading now, this article is not for you.  But for those of us normal people with just regular jobs, I have some advice for you.  Get ready!  What  I'm about to say may totally knock your socks off!

1.  I know this may come as a big shock to you, but we all have to work.  There, I said it.  I know, I know, it's not fair!  But unless you are a trust fund baby, or a celebrity, or one of the seven people who get to split the $319 Mega Million jackpot (that's $45.6 million each!), then you have to work.  So first you need to realize that you're not alone, and you need to accept the fact that you need money to live, and the way to get that money is to work for it.  Once you have accepted this fact, the rest will come much easier!

2.  I don't care what Yahoo says, most people are not overly thrilled about waking up early and spending at least 8 hours a day away from home for a majority of the week.  In fact, I bet most people get to work at 8 AM on Monday and are already counting down the hours until 5:00 on Friday.  I <shaking my head in shame> used to be one of these people.  That is until my super smart, wonderful husband brought something to my attention...If you spend your life like this, you are wishing away 71% of your year!!!!  Let that sink in for a minute.  I don't know about you, but the days are seeming to fly by quicker and quicker already, and if you start wishing away a big chunk of your life...you're going to wake up one day and you'll be 70 years old and wonder where all this time went!

3.  So, stop wishing for it to be the weekend.  Every day (whether it's spent working or having fun) is a blessing!  I think it's a good idea to just focus on each day separately...try not to worry about tomorrow and don't dwell on what happened yesterday.  Live today and while you're going through the day try and focus on the good, little things in life that are happening all around you.  It may just be an email from a friend you haven't heard from in a while, a funny joke a coworker told you, the beautiful spring flowers blooming outside, finally getting blinds installed (sorry, that's what I'm excited about right now!), a good dance song on the radio...whatever it may be, if it makes you happy, then enjoy that it to the fullest.  Focus on those little things all day long, and before you know it, the work day is over and it's time to go home. 

Your job is just your job...everyone has one.  But while you're at work, life is happening all around you, and if you think about the good stuff, then the mundane work week will just kind of sail along.  And before you know it, as Rebecca Black so eloquently says "It’s Friday, Friday! Gotta get down on Friday!"

I'm going to leave ya'll with a quote I think sums up everything: "Some pursue happiness, others create it."  Create your own happiness today and see how far it takes you!

Everything Must Go!!!

Last weekend Justin and I had a garage sale with his family.  Now you're probably saying to yourself that there is no way a couple that has been married for less than two years already has enough stuff for a garage sale.  Well, you would be wrong!  I wish I would have taken a picture of our garage right after we moved in.  Let's put it this way...one of our builder's contractors asked if we had downsized houses?!?!?!  You've seen the show Hoarders?!  Well, that's pretty much how bad it was! 

Some things were very easy to get rid of...clothes that we never wore, cheap wall decorations that we had bought just to have something up on our walls, mismatched dishes and pots and pans that were accumulated over the years, etc.  But some things were really tough to part with.  And, it is really, really hard to put a price tag on something you own, that has been part of your life.  I was trying to think "What would I personally pay for this item?"  But even that was tough because obviously I bought it the first time and paid full price for it. 

I tried to stay focused on what selling all of our old items meant...#1. We would actually be able to use our garage to park our cars inside!  #2.  Money to go and buy new things for our house!  Parting with things and pricing eventually became a little easier once I had my goals in mind.

Garage sales are so weird to me.  We had some really nice stuff for sale, like a barely used vacuum cleaner, nice drinking glasses, brand new crock pot, etc. that no one bought and hardly even looked at.  And then the things that looked like junk were gone in the first hour!  I guess one man's trash is another man's treasure, or something like that!  And don't even get me started on the people that would haggle with you and try and nickel and dime you on every single item!  Hello!  It's a new wardrobe full of name-brand items for $10...try and go to those stores and buy one thing for $10!

But after the week of preparing for the sale, hours of pricing items and getting everything set up, and dealing with a bunch of crazy folks, it was worth it.  We made some pretty good cash and are going to use our earnings to finally buy blinds for our windows!  It's kind of weird walking around your house and knowing that all the neighbors could peep in the windows and see you!  And, we may even be able to park in our garage soon!  Now you can't put a price on that!!!  I've never had a garage, so I'm pretty excited about it!  It's the little things in life... :)

NO SWEETS FOR YOU!!!!

So today is Ash Wednesday which marks the beginning of Lent (the 40 days before Easter).  I almost always give up sweets for my Lenten sacrifice.  I never was a big sweets fan when I was a kid.  Maybe we just didn't have them in the house much, but I never really asked for candy or begged for the super duper chocolate cereal with marshmellows.  I think my sweet tooth developed when I went to college.  My roommates and I would do Cold Stone ice cream runs to celebrate finishing exams we had studied weeks for, we would get Blizzards while we talked about guy problems, we would buy cookie dough just because (and it usually didn't get baked, we just ate it raw).  And that's where it all began...my love for sweets!  So for the next 40 days there will be no cookies, candy, donuts, cake, brownies, and of course no ice cream (which is my favorite!). :(

Since we're on the topic of food...I finally cooked a real meal in my new kitchen!  I got this recipe for Chicken with Orange-Pecan Rice from the Pillsbury website.  It was really easy, and very good (even reheated as left-overs!).  Here it is:

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 package (6.2 oz) fast-cooking long-grain and wild rice mix
1 cup orange juice
1/4 cup chopped pecans
3 tablespoons sweetened dried cranberries
boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 3/4 lbs)
1/4 teaspoon paprika

DIRECTIONS:
1. Heat over to 350 deg. Spray 8-inch square pan with cooking spray.
2. In pan, mix 1/2 cup of the rice, 1/2 of the seasoning packet from rice mix, orange juice, pecans, and   cranberries.  Place chicken on rice mixture; sprinkle with paprika.
3. Cover with foil. Bake 30 to 35 minutes.  Remove foil, stir and bake an additional 5 minutes or until liquid is absorbed and juice of chicken is clean when center of thickest part is cut (165 deg.).
Note: Be sure to use the fast-cooking rice mix for this recipe.  The regular type will take too long to cook.

Here is the website link if you want to read reviews: http://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/chicken-with-orange-pecan-rice/a4626eb5-6636-4d71-8fd5-1ba41f00fbdf/

Now, I had a little over a pound of chicken, so I used the whole box of rice and seasoning packet (plus I really like rice!).  I thought this meant I should add a little more orange juice, but apparently you don't have to do that!  I let my chicken cook an additional 15-20 minutes, but the liquid just would not absorb.  So I served the dish with a slotted spoon and threw out all the extra liquid.  My chicken was a little dry since I cooked it extra long, but it was still prety tasty.  Even Justin liked it and said it was good enough to make again!  But next time I won't go so orange juice crazy!!! ;) So give this recipe a try some time.

Happy Ash Wednesday to you!  And, if you're giving up anything for Lent or focusing on trying to do something better in your life, I wish you lots of luck...stay strong!  I think on top of giving up sweets (oh it's just so hard to even say that!), I'm also going to try and work on being more positive.  I let things get to me too easily and bring me down, so I'm going to try and work on having a more positive outlook on every aspect of my life. 

~Jade

Oh, and go back and re-read the title to this post.  For those of you out there that love the show Seinfeld as much as I do, please know that the title is supposed to be said in the Soup Nazi's voice. Hehe!

A Little Girl In A Man's World

My parents got divorced when I was in middle school.  I was the first kid in my class whose parents were splitting up.  At that age, no one wants to be seen as being different or weird, so I kept our family problems to myself and didn't even tell my two best friends.  My little sister and I were raised by our mother, the most amazing woman in the world.  She worked so hard; she sacrificed and gave up so much so that my sister and I could go to private school, play club volleyball, go to school dances, so we could be normal kids. 

Although we didn't have a lot of money, we had so much love!  And even though she couldn't give me all the materialistic things teenage girls want, she gave me so much more.  She was my biggest supporter, my number one fan who always believed in me (even when I didn't believe in myself) and constantly told me to dream big.  She didn't finish college before she got married, so she always stressed the importance of going to school and getting a good education.  She wanted us to be able to provide for our families if we were ever in the same situation.

I worked hard in school to get good grades, and I graduated as salutatorian of my class.  I decided to go to college and pursue a degree engineering.  I applied to school's all over the U.S. and decided to go to the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, CO and study environmental engineering.  This was my first time leaving the only home I had ever known, leaving my mom and my little sister to go to a brand new school, new city, new state where I knew absolutely no one.  It was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my life. 

Before I left home, my mom gave me a magnet with a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson on it. "Do not follow where the path may lead - Go instead, where there is no path, and leave a trail."  As you can tell from this blog, that quote has a very special meaning to me.  I still have the magnet (almost 11 years later!); I carried it with me to every house I lived in while I was in college.  And now, I have it at my desk where I can see it everyday I come to work. 

Being a young, female engineer is hard.  I am the only female engineer at my work and there are days that I definitely struggle.  Today is one of those days.  I question my decision to become an engineer and wonder what life would be like if I had chosen a different career path.  I loved what I learned in school, but I guess I just imagined things would be different once I started my career.  I don't know...I guess everyone goes through little funks at their jobs too.  But on days like today, I repeat the Emerson quote in my head and it reminds me how I got to where I am.  I can hear my mother's encouraging words and I remember why I am here.  I did not spend all those sleepless nights studying for exams and finishing projects in college for nothing!  Although there is not an easy path laid out before me, I know it will all be worth it! 

P.S.  I know this isn't the kind of posts you were probably expecting from me.  We are so busy just trying to unpack and get things organized at the house that I haven't had any time to start a project and haven't even cooked a real meal yet...but they're coming soon, so please hang in there! :)  I just figured in the mean time, I could give a little background about me.  Plus I always feel better after expressing my feelings.  Have a wonderful day!

Welcome To The Neighborhood!!!

To blog or not to blog, that is the question!  I've thought about starting a blog for a while, and now just seems like the perfect time.  My wonderful husband Justin and I just bought our first home!  Whoo hooo!!!!  We've been married almost a year and a half, and have been living in an apartment and saving up so we could buy our beautiful new home!  And now it's time for the fun to begin...decorating, cooking, gardening, entertaining, babies?!?!?!  Well, no babies yet but maybe they're not too far away. :)  We do, however, have the cutest bulldog puppy in town!  His name is Chino and he's almost 7 months old.  He is a HANDFUL, but he is so much fun and so sweet!  So, for now, he is my little baby.

So I figured this would be a neat way to keep track of this journey we're beginning.  I want to get creative and crafty in our new house.  I have some great decorating projects already in mind and now I finally have the space to do it...hopefully I have the talent too!  I am also hoping to become a better cook!  My mom is the most amazing cook ever.  You know, one of those women who have been cooking for so long that now they don't even use recipes...she can just throw a little of this and a tad of that together and it tastes like it came from a professional chef's kitchen.  That's my goal!  I already really enjoy cooking and I love to bake, but I just need more practice and to try some new recipes.  I'm sure Justin is already getting tired of eating the five meals I'm good at making! Haha! :)  So, I will keep you posted on all my adventures I take (successful ones and the ones that don't go so great), and maybe together we'll both get better at something!

Ok, enough about all that, now I want to leave you with my first crazy story in the new house.  For those of you who know me, you know I'm always getting myself into crazy situations, so this probably will not surprise you at all, but it's still a great story! 

So this was our very first week in the house.  After work on Monday, I drove home to rescue our little Chino.  This was his first day of his whole life to be left in his kennel all day long, so I figured he was probably about to burst and was a little stir crazy.  So I rushed home, and took him out to the backyard to let him do his business.  It was such a nice day, so I decided to take him for a walk around the neighborhood to burn off some energy.  So we're walking down the street, enjoying the day, and what does Chino do?!  He walks onto one of our neighbors yards and takes a big #$%! right there by their mailbox!  Now he just did this in our backyard, but apparently he wasn't done!  So there I am, standing in the road, with no bags or anything to pick up the little present Chino left in their front yard.  Luckily, they weren't home yet, so I think "Maybe I can run back to the house real fast, get a plastic bag, and get back to clean it up before they get home."  With every car that passed me, I prayed for it not to pull into their driveway.  We were getting close to home, I could see the front door, we were going to make it...and then one of our new neighbors comes out and wants to meet me and have me meet his entire family.  By this point, I am seriously having a panic attack!  We finally make it home, grab a bag, and get back to the stinky pile before we were caught!  Whew!  What a first impression that would have been! :)