In May we headed to Cozumel Mexico. By the time we left I think we all needed a vacation. It was hubby, Abug, my mom, my MIL, and me who were able to go this year along with some other people to round out our trip. It was a lot of fun and after the way my day started I’m ready for some more Vitamin D and Vitamin Sea until my attitude changes! 
My husband’s grandma is in the hospital. I don’t know what to ask for in the way of prayers. Unfortunately I’m not sure she’ll leave the hospital, although they talked like she might today sometime. She went in on Friday. After we got out of the hayfield we went to see her. She didn’t have a clue who we were or really even that we were there. I heard that they have her on morphine and that hospice (who has been at her house) had her on 3x the amount of a person in pain… I guess they’re trying to keep her comfortable?
We were there Saturday evening to check on her and they verified that she had a blood clot in her leg. She was more lucid while we were there and was hitting on the male nurse even. Then when my father-in-law came in and we were telling him she was hitting on the nurse, she blamed me. I took one for the team. Then at one point she said my husband was sitting on a picture. There was a picture on the wall and he was apparently sitting on it. We accused him of being the elf on the shelf. And finally she kept asking us why we didn’t bring our niece (not our daughter….). So she was more lucid, but still not totally with it. I guess she thought we were my sister in law and brother in law?
and the fire is so delightful… When there’s no place to go, let it snow let it snow let it snow!
So that is what my front yard looks like and I hear there’s more of this stuff/rain (and cold weather) in the forecast. Then I got a text from hubby yesterday that said he wasn’t feeling the best and baby girl has a snotty nose and ugh! So we made Homemade Chicken and Noodles for Dinner. Oh and Carrots. Those carrots, they’re to die for! Well maybe not die but they are pretty dang good!
Oh so you’re asking how I made this? I’m so glad you asked:
Cook the chicken:
I did 1 chicken breast per person. Place the Chicken breasts (2 breasts per measurement) in 4 cups of water. Season. I used hubby’s mix which who knows what’s in it but make sure you use salt and pepper. Then 1/2 onion, I grated mine in just so it was incorporated real well. Cook the chicken for about 30 minutes or until it is cooked through. Then pull it out and shred it.
While the chicken is cooking, make the Noodles:
1 egg whisked in with 1 tsp salt. Then add 1 cup flour. Mix well and add 1-3 tbsp (options: cream, milk, water, we used a combination of water & milk). Spread flour on the counter. Knead until it is smooth then roll out cardboard thin. Like as thin as you can. It comes out to around 14″ long and wide… mine was longer than wide. Now cover the noodle dough in flour. Then fold in half and then in quarters then roll up like you would a cinnamon roll. From there cut into 1/4″ strips. Now grandma says from here give 1/2 day to a full day to let them dry… just kidding. She said truthfully it would be better but you don’t need to.
Once the chicken is done and the noodles are done, then place the noodles in the water that you cooked the chicken in. I wound up adding about 1 1/2 cups water back in… maybe just 1 cup water so you don’t have to cook down as much.
So the noodles will be covered in flour, that’s okay, put the noodles/flour in the water and cook. You can add the chicken back in at this time as well, but make sure you’re around to continually stir it, otherwise it will go to the bottom and stick. If you aren’t going to be able to constantly monitor, wait until the last 5 minutes or so and then add the chicken back in. Cook the noodles for about 30 minutes on medium-low to medium heat.
The sauce will thicken up. If the sauce doesn’t taste “chickeny” enough for you, add chicken bouillon to the water and that will help. You can also cook all of this is Chicken Stock/broth in a box if you don’t want to use the water you cooked the chicken in or if you bought a rotisserie chicken from the store.
And as an added perk, make these carrots! YUM!
Ok so these were the baby carrots but you can use whole carrots. Put them in water with a couple tbsp of sugar. Cook 15 minutes at a rolling boil or until they are tender. Then put butter, salt and pepper in a skillet and saute the carrots the last 10 minutes. YUM!
You’re welcome!
Once we left BassPro hubby and I took off separately from our friends. Hubby wanted to see American Sniper in theaters. Very seldom does he have a movie he just WANTS to see in theater but this was one and we had an opportunity so we took it. OMG! That is one heck of a movie!
Then we went and wandered around the mall for a bit and finally headed to dinner.
Hubby was able to get us reservations at Houlihan’s. Our first time at eating at Houlihan’s was last year when we went on our “babymoon” to Kansas City.
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| this picture found here |
Because we ate at the one in KC, we kind of knew what we wanted already. We started with an appetizer of Classic Spinach Dip. with cheesy lavosh crackers. It was just as good as I remember. ah!
So I did what any normal girl would do, I found my old high school year books and looked up his picture. I had to remember what he looked like! Yup, check, he looks like what I remembered from way back when… oh wait, those were from way back when. Well you get the picture, right? 🙂
The day before “the big day” he was able to take a vacation day and come home a little earlier than normal. He got in around 7pm. We talked and texted the whole way (I sure hope he wasn’t texting while driving!!!). I didn’t realize he was going to be in so early so I went over to the J’s house to hang out and help Josh bake a cake. We were texting all through this. He was sending me pictures of shirts he had and pictures of him in a cowboy hat and all kinds of pictures. I think I sent him pictures of the cake I baked.
So the day came, July 25th. I woke up that morning and did the normal morning ritual of going to town with my mom. I’m not really sure we set out on a mission that day but we headed that direction non-the-less. While in town, of course I was watching the time. I had to get home, get my hair fixed, make-up on, and dressed before 4pm. That’s when we had to leave to go to dinner. I volunteered to drive because he left his convertible top down all night and wouldn’t you know, it rained.
While in town I looked at my mom and said, “We should go visit Dotti.” Dotti is the Elizabeth Arden make-up rep at Macy’s. She always loves giving me a make-over and I figured, hmmm… maybe we’d be lucky and she wouldn’t be busy. Dotti hooked me up! I had beautiful make-up! Then we ran home and my mom decided to fix my hair for me. I then got dressed and I was ready to go.
As I pulled out the driveway though, I began to have second thoughts. I was so nervous at one point I almost ran off the road. Bad Nicole, don’t drive on auto pilot. He gave me directions, drive all the way down Cedar. When the road comes to a T take a left. Go about 2 miles. When you start hitting the curves turn on the road to the left. You’ll see a triple wide on the corner, that’s my sisters. My mom’s driveway is the next one on the left. You’ll see the Big shop, make sure and turn there.
I was so nervous I was about to turn around and go home every chance I got. I so almost picked up the phone and canceled 4 times. I mean seriously, what if he didn’t like me. What if I wasn’t the girl he remembered. What if there was something wrong with me or I was too over dressed or I wasn’t dressed up enough or I think you get the picture. Once I came to the T in the road left took me closer to his house, right took me to the highway.
I sat at the stop sign for what seemed like a year and turned my left turn signal on. 2 more turns to go and I’m there. Then all the scary thoughts popped back into my head.
(on a side note, these memories are making my knees weak and shaky just like that day)
Saturday afternoon Earl and Deb threw a baby shower for the little Peanut at our house. When we were trying to decide where to hold the shower, we finally decided, why not our house, then we don’t have as far to go with the presents… lol :). And that makes me sound very materialistic and I’m not.
Deb, Earl and AL showed up around 12:30 or so and we started moving the food and everything in the house. AL made the cupcakes. Earl and Deb worked on the rest of the food.
Deb and hubby posing for the camera. I kept going in and outside and I run my dSLR in manual mode so they were like hurry up and I forgot that I had just come from inside the house so I blew out one photo. Woops! I got a great one though!! The girls helped decorate. Then Liss and Earl carried our glasses outside for people to use.
The theme was a cowgirl baby shower.
The drink station. We had Sweet Tea, unsweet tea, water and juice.
Earl had Tbug make a special shirt for the day. This was a surprise to hubby and me. I loved it!! btw, isn’t she cute??
I just about broke down and cried a couple times throughout the day… I just felt the love for this little girl who hasn’t even made her presence into the world yet.
Typically I’m the “paparazzi” so as in normal fashion I was walking around taking photos… they teased me and said someone should be following me around. I just wanted to make sure I had the photos.
Lunch was pork sliders (on Hawaiian rolls), Coleslaw and baked beans.
Hubby finally took the camera away from me and said, we want proof you were here too… lol 🙂
Once it came time to open gifts, we gave Earl the camera and she became the paparazzi.
So the story on these particular onesies. About a month ago, Liss sent me a picture of one similar to the bottom one that said Sorry Ladies, My daddy’s taken. Well when I found it on line it was $25 which seemed a bit pricy to me so my mom and I thought I could make my own. I dropped Tbug off with Earl Friday evening so she could work on the shirt with Earl and I made the comment I was doing that. Deb has a screen printing machine so Earl said, it’ll be faster than you using an iron so we did it. Well there were 5 onesies in the package so she obviously had to have an Extreme Sports Scuba one. We thought it would be cute for the dive flag on the butt. Then the creative juices ran wild :). We made these just for Hubby for Peanut.
We learned I can’t read apparently… lol. I kept reading things incorrectly or missing words while opening presents. It was hilarious. Like head to baby wash instead of head to toe baby wash.
We had a little over 35 people present on Saturday. Like I said, I felt the love for this baby who hasn’t even made it here yet. Even thinking back I’m ready to tear up :).
Michelle & Cassie. Cassie is due in November!!
TB and Tbug… ornery kids! :). Like father like daughter. Deb and Moo
Dill Pickle, TB, CL & Mini Me (or Lee’s mini me really!). Just a few of the kiddos who were there Saturday!
And I can’t explain this picture… Maybe classic Lee?
The bear quilt from my Aunt Dorothy, Quilt from Cynthia, a burp cloth AC got us and the quilt from my grandma. One quilt missing was from Auntie Ellen.
Tbug was helping daddy with his “hat”
Aunt Liss got Tbug a shirt too.
The top photo are the 3 expectant mommas at the party. April is due in August, of course I’m due in June and Cassie is due in November. The bottom photo shows friends since high school.
I can’t say thank you enough to Deb and Earl for throwing this fabulous shower for the little Peanut. I can’t say thank you enough to all who showed up. This momma’s heart is so full of joy and love that if I’m not careful I’ll break down and cry again :). I swear, I think I can do without these hormonal emotions! But I am soooooooooo happy for this baby girl who hasn’t even come into the world yet. She’s one loved little girl already!
So Bonnie introduced this blog topic yesterday and I thought, I should do this… Why We Work. Like every couple, my husband and I have a strange and weird past that included each other as friends for a while, we went our separate ways and made our place in the world and then we came back to each other. I guess what they say is true,
We compliment each other.
We both have our strengths and our weaknesses but we never see them, instead we work with each other to help complete that circle.
We aren’t each others missing half.
Say what? Well think about it, I am a complete person without him. I can function by myself with or without him. He’s the same way, but having each other in our lives just makes life that much more fun and interesting.
We are sooooooo weird, together.
I’m not kidding, we are both weird. We just look at each others weirdness and laugh. We accept each other for everything that we are and everything we aren’t.
We fight.
Come on, every couple fights. We try to fight fair, but not always. Some days we both fall into childish behavior but at the end of the day there is no one else I’d rather fight with.
He is my best friend.
I can’t wait to tell him about my day. Sometimes I have to call him during the day to tell him how frustrated I am or how happy I am. We laugh together, cry together and console each other. That’s what best friends are there for, to help you get through the good times and the bad.
We share everything.
Especially colds but I’m really thinking we could do without sharing colds…. I’m just saying :). We might even be accused of oversharing with each other sometimes but whatever it is what keeps things interesting!
We work really on so many levels that it is hard to single them all out, just know we’re there for each other no matter what. That’s what you need in a spouse (significant other) anyway! Someone you can’t wait to run home and tell everything about your day. Someone you’re willing to be goofy with. Someone who compliments you. I found that in him!
Linking up with: Life of Bon The Daily Tay
Okay so I should come clean about something… I have my moments where I’m sappy! I know fairy-tails don’t exist but that doesn’t keep a girl from still loving the sweet sappy stories. Yep, sometimes it gets me in trouble but whatever, I deal :). So one thing that I’ve always liked was for a guy to be nervous when he proposes. Does that mean I had to have that, no but I soooooo thought it would be awesome if he was :). I also said I didn’t want to know the proposal was coming.
I think what started my obsession (good word) for this whole being nervous was Kenny Chesney. I know there are other artists out there who refer to this, but he has 2 different songs, one refers to dropping the ring in the spaghetti plate and the other talks about being down on one knee on her momma’s front porch.
My husband exceeded all my expectations when it came to proposing to me from throwing me off the night before saying he still hadn’t asked my dad to actually showing up at my work and proposing. It was my fairy-tail.
Now one thing I’ve probably addressed before with our proposal was he bought me flowers even though I’d told him not to. I had to go to the front of my office building to get them which was quite a distance from my desk and that gave my mom time to get him into my cubical to set up. I called him while still up at the front of the building to “grumble” at him for the flowers (not really but we’ll pretend).
He had the ringer turned on on his phone and when it went off he threw the ring while trying to get the ringer turned off on his phone. The ringer was set specifically for me so it would have given him away.
With that knowledge, I realized that he was nervous! I got the nervous part of my fairy-tail. Now if only they would have caught that on film :). How awesome is that though? He was nervous and dropped the ring :).
At our house, our Christmas tree is kind of like a living Christmas tree. I don’t mean we have a real tree because we don’t. And D the Man told me that fake tree fake presents, but we have a fake tree, and real presents. Just saying.
No what I mean is we collect ornaments every year that actually represent our lives/family every year. Trips, big monument things, etc. Sadly I think our tree is 6′ and we almost have it full. There are a few ornaments from when I was younger that I could take off if I needed to, but I don’t want to… so for now they stay :). Maybe one year we’ll have to have 2 trees but I’m not sure where we’ll put them.
Now in my kitchen up toward the ceiling I have these rack things. They were there when we moved in, I just repainted them, but still, when we buy ornaments I actually place them up on these hooks so that come Christmas I remember what I did with them. That’s what works for us. Sometimes we misplace things otherwise :(.
