Thankful

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I thought I'd borrow a cute little activity I found here at the beans. Yes, I know, I'm a little late. Please forgive me.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1. Who do I appreciate?
My family, my friends, my co-workers, people who make the world a better place

my friend Sara's bachelors weekend at OCMD


2. How am I fortunate?
...very fortunate...for relationships, for health, for income, for freedom

mike overlooking the creek on a hiking trip


3. What material possessions am I thankful for?
my home, my computer, my car, my phone, my clothing, my decorations...things I do not need, but am very lucky to have

all the "stuff" filling my closet up, shortly after unloading the moving truck :/


4. What abilities do I have that I'm grateful for?
ability to work with little kiddos

i know, it's not my classroom...but privacy you know....so here's one of the niece and nephew from our family vacation


5. What about my surroundings (home/neighborhood/city/etc.) am I thankful for?
it's safe, its surrounded by people yet close to nature :)...i love the small town feel

the homestead


6. What experiences have I had that I am grateful for?
grateful to have been brought up not having everything given to me...so i can appreciate the things that i do have...i am truly wealthy with things to be thankful for!

mother's day 2 year's ago...my grandmother, sister, niece, & mother


7. What happened today/yesterday/this week/this month/this year that I am grateful for?
Today I woke up in my own, warm home.
Yesterday I was able to spend time with my family.
This week I was able to celebrate the season with my co-workers and I will be celebrating with friends!
This month we had a bunch of folks help us to move our big truck full of furniture/stuff into our new house!
This year I'm thankful for my hubby supporting me in my decisions/indecisiveness...everything I do!

hubs and myself at the Codorus Furnace the day we found our house :)


8. What opportunities do I have that I am thankful for?
to work, to worship my Lord and Savior openly

october snow view from our apartment balcony



9. What relationships am I thankful for?
Jesus, Michael, my parents, my siblings, my friends, my doggies :)

some major flooding this past September in PA, very thankful for our safety


10. What am I taking for granted that, if I stop to think about it, I am grateful for?
I know I might sound crazy, but I try to always remember to be thankful for my bills....they mean that I am able to have things like a home, a car, heat, electricity, new clothing, etc.

more flooding....taking in the greatness of mother nature

Throughout all the upcoming hustle and bustle of the holiday season, my goal is...like the sticker says...to remember to keep an attitude of gratitude and share that joy with others.

Home DeSIGNing

So once again it has been absolutely forever since I've posted...but I promise I've been very busy!

We've finally done it. After lots of looking we found something right for us, signed our little lives away and bought a house!!!

I have so many ideas! Paint colors, furniture arrangements, lighting...Agh!!! My brain is on overload!!!! I've been Pinteresting away and flipping non-stop through catelogs. And I'm so excited to have found an amazing site called Joss & Main! Have you heard of it? That have some really, really amazing deals!!! Believe me...I've been shopping around!!!

Click on their link below and check them out! I'm in love!!!

Vacationing

I've was blessed to have almost two full weeks of vacation with my family this year and though I had a wonderful time,it is nice to be back home again.

So before we left we did some exploring and look what we found!

Since the hubby is required to work weekends we started our vacay with some local touristing. This is somewhere around Lake Nockamixon, PA. We were able to watch the sunset, saw some eagles, and a few blue herons...pretty awesome for almost in our backyard.

Then we did our first trip to the Southern New Jersey coast. It was a nice, quiet get away with the hubby's parents and our own little girls(yes, I refer to my dogs as my girls). Most of our days were spent on the beach in Sea Isle, but we took the girls to visit a few other places as well since they are not aloud on the Sea Isle beach. The first stop was the back bay where everyone goes crabbing. Peek loved it and even voluntarily went for a swim. Unfortunately, I was overcome with excitement over this and forgot to take a picture! I do have an after the bay shot.

Climber was not thrilled at all. Too muddy for her.

Next, we brought them to Stone Harbor...they were both a bit nervous! Too noisy I think, but we did get a good amount of photos LOL!
At this point just curious...

Peek not excited in the least bit... afraid something might get her perhaps?

Climber so terrified she is hanging on to her daddy!!!

We also brought them to the Carson's Inlet in between Ocean City and Strathmere. The girls both loved exploring. It was clean enough for Climb but not too noisy! We didn't get any pictures the day we brought the girls but we stopped the day we left to take some pictures because the water was incredibly high from the rain the night before. I wish I had before pics to show. :( Sad face, very sad face.

I promise there was a beach here yesterday!!(You can see a very tiny bit of it at the end)

The hubs checking it all out...no beach here either.

The steps are even covered!

Sorry for the squinty eyes...it is the only pic I have of us together!

A view of the other side.

Oh P.S. Did I mention we had to bring the Element(our regular travel vehicle) to the shop? So we drove our good ol' Mercury Sable. For 175,000 miles she's not doing too bad!

After safely arriving home, hubby getting some work in, switching vehicles, doing laundry, and bringing our girls to the in-laws we headed off to OCMD to hang with my side of the fam. The place I have gone every year since I was a babe myself. I didn't take any pics this year but here is one of the typical happenings at OCMD.

ahhhh.....I love that place. <3 <3 <3

my thrifty apartment porch garden

I did mention a little bit ago that I'd post my little garden I've been working on this summer. Though it is nothing spectacular, I'm pretty proud of how it has turned out. The hubs and I both love the outdoors and were a little sad when we moved into a 3rd floor apartment and gave up our yard. One of the requirements of our apartment search was a place with a porch. Well we have one, but let me warn you, it is very, very tiny. Anyhow, we still really wanted to create an enjoyable outdoor space but we are under a tight budget so the less mulah spent the better!
So I started small. Very small with these.

I wasn't as successful with the seeds as I had hoped, but I did get a few things to grow! Check it out!

As I'm sure you can tell, it was a gradual process. I had already collected a few things before we put it all together.

So finally the hubs and I decided to finish our little porch. We wanted to have a spot for each of us to sit and relax, have a cup of coffee, read a book, etc. So we checked out craigslist....nothing worth the money or the gas, so then we decided to check out our local thrift store. This is what we found.

Not exactly what I envisioned myself, but the hubs really loved the table and I figured the flower tray went pretty well with the whole garden theme. Plus, for a total of $15 for both, that's not too bad.

So since we still needed some chairs we decided to check out Target. Unfortunately we struck out, but finally hit a homer when we went to Lowes. Each chair was $20 a pop. I'm sure if I had waited I could've found something cheaper and maybe even a little more interesting, but we were ready for our porch to be done yesterday so it worked!

A little miss matched perhaps, but we have a comfy outdoor spot now! We also got some planters and a few veggies. Take a peak at our thrifty garden!

We also have watermelon, zucchini squash, dill, and mint. These are mostly from Lowes.

You definitely can't beat Produce Junction's flower prices!

What I Wore and Trying to Make a Picasa Collage

I tried looking pretty a few times this week...here are 2 of the times.

obviously not so successful with the collage. oh well.

What I Wore-Just Being Real

I love when Wednesday comes around and I can see everyone's What I Wore. I don't really know why, but I guess I figure if I check out how everyone else dresses, maybe some of their fashion sense will rub off on me.

:/ Highly unlikely. But I occasionally try.

Like this past Saturday for the graduation party we went to I wore this:

But to be honest, most days its more like this:

Yep that's right. I'm standing on my toilet. Wearing nothing fancy and no accessories...Just coverings. At least it is better than some of my days!
Just being real people. While you all post your pretty outfits, I have many days like the above photo.

Shrimp and Spinach Pasta

MMMMMMM.... This past week I made this quick and easy dinner for the hubs and myself. This is a meal I make quite often, especially on days when I don't have a lot of time. The best thing of all..it is CHEAP!!!

All you need is some oil and spices, a box of PastaRoni, a few handfuls of fresh spinach, a few cloves of garlic, and some shrimp. I use any olive oil, with italian seasoning(Right now I have Filippo Berio Estra Light and McCormic Italian Seasoning and Mrs. Dash Tomato, Basil, Garlic) or if you are feeling really lazy like I was when I made this, Tastefully Simple makes an All Naturall Balsamic & Basil Dipping Oil that works just as great! PastaRoni for those of you who have never tried it, is like a whopping $1 a box and so darn good!! I buy large bags of frozen, pre-pealed(minus the tales which I pull off)shrimp. The bags last me about 3 meals. I snagged the last bag for like $6 on sale. :)

So my spices/oil I usually use:

First, I start cooking the pasta according to the package directions (minus the butter...I never ever add the butter to these pastas. They are plenty good and rich without)So counting making the pasta you will also need some milk. Next, while that is cooking, I throw in the frozen shrimp with a little bit of water.

As soon as the shrimp begin to dethaw, I start pulling their tales off. (You do not have to do this but the hubby hates pulling them off while he is trying to eat)

Next, I add in a few handfuls of spinach and either my oil with dry italian spices or just dribble some of the Tastefully Simple Dipping Oil all over.

While this is sauteing I slice a few cloves of garlic and toss in. As soon as pasta is done I throw it all into the pan and simmer for a minute or two.

Wahlah!! You're finished!!! Plate and Enjoy!!!

MMMMMMM.....So whats on your menu this Monday?