Weekend Rewind

Happy Monday!

Today I'm at work, pretending to celebrate Piomingo Day (downside of not working for the Chickasaw Nation = no extra day off!). But this weekend? Let me tell you - it was great :)

On Friday, I made my first "Facebook deal." I'm part of a local "buy, sell, trade" group on Facebook and a lady posted that she had 2 quilt racks for $8 each - and they were so pretty! So, I messaged mom, basically seeking justification to buy one...in the end, she bought one and I bought one! I need to finish the wall behind my chair so I can put the quilt on the rack and get it set just where I want it. Right now it's a natural wood finish but I'm thinking I'll stain it dark to match the wood in our house. No pictures, because I forgot to take any, so follow me on Instagram and I'll eventually remember to post some. Probably.

After my gas-station money-quilt rack exchange, I went to my Aunt Kandi's to help her prepare food for "Justin's Birthday Party" (more on that coming later). AK makes everything from scratch, so I was quite certain I could pick up a few pointers. #CookingLessonsWithKandi, we'll call it. She doesn't measure, though, so I'm not sure exactly how much I picked up - other than the Puppy Chow recipe :)

One thing I definitely did learn was how to make salsa Suckerpunch Salsa.

What you can't see in those pictures are the mouth-burning jalapeño peppers that went into the salsa. It wasn't just a little kick, as my aunt said it would be. The salsa had great flavor, but I'm pretty sure my mouth caught fire when I tried it! 

As I said, all of the food was prepared for a "Surprise Birthday Party" that Magan was throwing for Justin. Little did she know that he was actually behind the whole thing and had a surprise planned for her!

(trying not to get sappy here - deletes whole paragraph because crying while writing it and it's not time for tears, duh) Mag & Justin, I'm so excited for you! Congratulations, "Feyoncés"!

#NewlywedLife: Learning to Cook

I'm no Pioneer Woman, but occasionally I make something amazing and I want to shout from the mountain tops - "I DID IT!!! I DIDN'T BURN A MEAL!!! IT'S EDIBLE!!!" The list goes on.

Tonight was one of those nights. Note: If I'm cooking something and it's turning out good, it's easy. I promise!

My beautiful MOH Magan collected recipes from my friends and family during my engagement, and gave all of them to me in a recipe box. One of those recipes came from my other MOH, Lori - Chicken and Dumplings Casserole. I love casseroles. So easy.

I deviated from her recipe a little (salt? oops, forgot it. Chicken granules? What the heck?), so I've shared my version below. And if you come to my house in the next week, you can try some - this recipe makes a bunch!

What you'll need:

• 2 chicken breasts, cooked & shredded (In case you're like me and you didn't know how to "cook" chicken until 2 weeks ago don't know how to "cook" chicken - boil it for 30 minutes)
• I use boneless, skinless chicken breast strips - they're smaller and easier for me to work with
• 2 c chicken broth
• 1/2 stick of butter
• 2 c Bisquik
• 2 c milk (I use 2%)
• 1 can of cream of chicken soup
• 1/2 t sage 
• 1 t black pepper

What to do:

1. Preheat your oven to 360 degrees
2. Melt the butter then spread in in the bottom of a 9x13 pan
3. Sprinkle chicken on top of the butter. Don't stir.
4. Sprinkle the pepper and sage on top of the chicken. Don't stir. 
5. Mix the milk and Bisquik together. Pour on top of the chicken/pepper/sage - again, don't stir!
6. Mix the cream of chicken soup and chicken broth. Pour on top of everything else. Guess what? DON'T STIR!
7. Bake for 45 minutes, or until the top is nice and toasty.
8. ENJOY!

It's not very pretty, but it's VERY delicious!

Let me know how it turns out if you try it!

Weekend Recap

The sun is shining in Oklahoma, ya'll!! I am so excited that my sunglasses are actually doing something than accessorizing my face while I drive down the road. I love winter, but I am welcoming this burst of warmth and sunshine with a party of glitter after the crazy cold we've had.

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Since Valentine's Day was Friday, I attempted to make some sweet treats for my sweetheart. Mom suggested I put a spin on my rice krispy treats - the ONE thing I am always good at making - and make them into the shape of Kisses.

It was such an epic fail that I didn't even take a picture. Let's just say, the shape of the funnel matters - my local Walmart only had one funnel shape available (in all of the home and auto sections). 

See the indentions on the side of the funnel? That meant it was not going to be perfectly symmetrical like a normal funnel would be. Even wrapped in foil, my rice krispy creation did not look ANYTHING like the giant oversized kisses linked above. #fail. Thankfully, the ugliness didn't affect the taste that I know of. Kaden and Kale (and dad...and mom...and me) happily finished one pan of them while I gave another to Matt. 

Now, my baking wasn't a complete failure. I did successfully make Chocolate Kiss Cookies! Not all of them were absolutely beautiful, but I have on good record that they are delicious. Not bad for stepping out of my rice krispy box and trying to make something new! This is proof that Matt will not, in fact, starve when we get married. He'll be full of treats. 

Matt surprised me by showing up at work - in the middle of a crazy busy morning - with beautiful flowers! I couldn't stop smiling. 

Since we are closing on our house tomorrow, Matt has something planned for Valentine's Day this week. He let me pick what else to do on Friday night, and since K had a game at Minco, I decided we needed to go to the game! Plus, it meant we could visit Tate & Lori :)

Saturday, we went to look at tuxedos for the wedding! We picked what we wanted, and they said if we'd visit them at the Bridal Show on Sunday, we could get half off two rentals. Deal.

Decisions being made, ya'll!! :) 

When did I give you permission to look so grown up, K?

After all that excitement, we ate lunch with my parents and looked at refrigerators. We also picked up a can of spray paint, and I'll be sure to post an update on that...project...soon :) We have a little fixing up to do! 

On Sunday, after Magan did my hair & makeup, Matt & I ran to the bridal show to get our discount. And ran is almost literal - I was in and out in about 5 minutes. We had important things to get to! We had the final walkthrough at the house at 1:00, and had to leave there by 1:30...

...because we were headed to Stillwater!! We had engagement pictures yesterday, and now I'm stalking our photographer's Facebook until the preview is posted (and I mean that in a totally non creeper way). She was SO wonderful to work with and had both of us cracking up. I can't wait to see our pictures!

No trip to Stillwater is complete without a Barn Coke.

When we got back to town, we celebrated the silliest 6 year old I know! Julie had a dream party - Barbie gifts, Barbie cake, and a family who loves her to pieces :) 

Tomorrow I have the Blog Baton on Instagram - be sure to follow along! 

Weekend...and Home Alone with Molly

Hi friends! Did you all have a fantastic weekend? I most certainly did! I'm going to back this up alll the way to last week though, because I didn't tell you much of anything that happened last week, for good reason - I was home alone, and I was not ABOUT to tip off any kidnappers (I'm kid-sized, I could get kidnapped) because I don't have the skillz of the Home Alone kid when it comes to warding off home invaders - instead I would have hide in my closet with Molly and cry on the phone (battery at 5%, of course) with my daddy while waiting for Granddad to show up and save the day (yes guys, that happened). Thankfully it was just some of our neighbors, but it was enough that Miss Molly and I didn't' sleep much for two nights and ended up spending Thursday night safely at my grandparents. However, the entire time my parents & brothers were at camp, I had an automatic trash can (it rolled itself to the road on trash day!), an automatic gate opener (locked every night and open before I left for work!), and an automatic cattle feeder. Oh wait, that was all Granddad - I was very well taken care of :)

Molly sleeps like a human.

Anyway, Monday night, Matt came over for dinner and it was "semi-homemade with Shae" - meaning I stopped by the grocery store and threw together something resembling a meal. I took one of their rotisserie chickens, shredded it, poured in Head Country BBQ sauce, microwaved to warm, and served on King's Hawaiian rolls, slider style. Delish! I also picked up some red potato salad and chips, just in case the chicken didn't turn out right. Of course, I made rice krispy treats to go along with dinner since they're the one thing I know I do correctly every single time.

Tuesday night was spent huddling in my closet with Molly. Oh, and she was having some MAJOR breathing issues last week so HAD anyone broken into our house they would have found us in 2.2 seconds since the locked closet door + Benadryl did nothing to mask her loud breathing.

On Wednesday, I went shopping to reward myself for surviving Tuesday night. I'd been wanting a pair of colored shorts to brighten up my life and Old Navy had the perfect pair. So perfect, in fact, that my Caylee and I both ended up wearing them on Saturday (hundreds of miles apart). #LikeBigLikeLittle #Perfect #Besties (Yes, that deserved 3 tags. #Duh). They're perfect and comfortable and I LOVE the color so much. I'm definitely going to be buying them in every color the first chance I get.

get them here

Molly and I had a slumber party at my grandparents on Thursday night, and Friday night, I went to Falls Creek! Mom & Dad had been cooking all week and the boys were campers. Kaden was leaving Saturday for a mission trip, so he wanted to sleep in his own bed for a night - Super Sis to the rescue! We drove home Friday night and I dropped him off with mom to go back to Falls Creek for training Saturday.

With Kale at Falls Creek - baby brother has officially passed me in height .

After dropping Kaden off on Saturday, I tanned (it's Jessica's wedding week!) & headed home. Matt came over and we watched movies with Dad & Kale (while mom slept) then picked up steak from Ken's. Matt took me out on a super fun date - putt-putt and the drive in! The drive in that's in Chickasha has a putt-putt course in front of the screen, so we played a game before the movies started. He beat me, but I let him win fair and square :( We saw Monsters University - LOVED IT - and stuck around for about half of Now You See Me - it was too late for us old folks.

At least we tied the first 9!

My shirt has sparkles. Love.

Sunday after church, it was time for lunch with mom, dad & Kale, hours of swimming with Kale & Kiera, then the Falls Creek service at church.

I ended the night snuggling with Molly and praying for my brother & his team to have a GREAT week on their mission trip! Please join me in praying for him, his team, their leaders and the people they'll be working with over the next week. If you'd like to follow along, FBC Tuttle will be posting daily updates of specific things to pray for on Facebook while Kaden's away. 

Don't forget - Google Reader is gone, so follow with Bloglovin' or by email (look to your left for an email box!)

Linking up with Sami.

#High5Friday

If you yardbirds listen to the Sports Animal, you know what voice I'm saying this in:

"High five!"

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Anyway, tonight I'll be running with the fastest girl(s) in town under that Oklahoma sky. Don't worry, we'll be safe and not make any stops at the baggage claim to pick up nobody's fool.

Anyone catching on yet? 

Brenna, Lori Jo Twin & I are headed to the Miranda Lambert concert tonight! It's going to be a night of fun with two of my favorite girls.We bought these tickets the day they went on sale, so needless to say we've been counting down for a while. Side note, I think we need to make a trip to the Pink Pistol in the near future, ladies.

What else deserves a high five this week? 

Well, Tuesday night I cooked. Shut the front door. That's right, I cooked and everyone is still alive!

Matt requested Pizza Quesadillas, so after a stop at the local grocery store for ingredients, I was ready for the challenge. I also made chocolate chip cookies - from scratch. I'm practically becoming a mini Pioneer Woman. Anyway, my family wasn't so sure about the Pizza Quesadillas at first, but once they saw me making the first one, they quickly warmed up to the idea (even the pickiest eater Kale!). 

No pictures, but they're super easy. Lay out two flour tortillas. Spread some pizza sauce (which apparently is also spaghetti sauce? I have no idea) on each one of them - about a spoonful per tortilla. Throw the first one into a pan, sauce side up, add cheese & pepperoni, then put the second tortilla on top, sauce side down. Then just cook them like a normal quesadilla. Matt told me I should definitely add these to my growing cooking resume :) 

Another thing that deserves a high five (I feel like I'm talking a lot about food today):

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Add some salsa for dipping (I used this kind on Tuesday) and you have a delicious snack. So tasty.

Calving season is in full swing!

This little sweetheart made her way into the world earlier this week. I've been told all that hair is a good thing, and I must say, I love a fluffy little calf! And her pink nose is just too cute.

Last night, the adventures of moving Matt continued, when I rode in the back of his parents' van with his TV. Apparently it was a picture-worthy moment - and I'm not including the one he got of me looking for the "cute little puppy" as I awkwardly tried to hold up the TV and turn to look...at a nonexistent animal. Regardless, it was fun, and the moving will continue Saturday! And the Thunder won, so that is a double win for Thursday!

Other awesomeness this week?

#C25K (aka, running) & tanning at the gym, being sore from Kaden's ab workout challenge & a new blog design & name! Sprinkles & Glitter are totally the it things, in my book at least.

Happy weekend!