Another thing to love...

I recently have discovered/come to love Symbaloo- a way to display your bookmarks. I have made both a work and school mix.

Check it out if you want to think of yet another way to be techie....

www.symbaloo.com


Lydia loves technology. She loves the swaying feel of a dryer to put her to sleep:)

Other things to love...

1) New fall shows coming on (so far, love Go On, The New Normal and the X Factor)
2) Wearing jeans
3) Bath and Body Works- and the endless coupons they send me:)
4) Symbaloo
5) Enjoying Starbucks thanks to my generous best friend- Monday mornings come easier with a Pumpkin Spice Latte

Heres to Lower Temps...

It's finally coming, lower temps! In honor of this, I did some fall decorating.. (pics to come soon-I want to first put together a Pinterest-inspired centerpiece), and brought out the crockpot for a new recipe.

I have been wanting to make pulled chicken/pork sandwiches forever, but haven't really found the recipe I wanted, until I found this one in Woman's Day Magazine.

And here it is:

BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwiches

Ingredients:
1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
3/4 c vinegar cider
1 small finely chopped onion
1/4 c brown sugar, plus 2 tbsp packed
3 tbsp molasses
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 1/2 lbs boneless chicken breasts
1 1/2 lbs boneless chicken thighs
1 tbsp cornstarch
Buns

1. Whisk tomato sauce, vinegar, onion, brown sugar, molasses, salt and pepper in slow cooker insert
2. Add chicken. Cover and cook for 6 hours (high) or 8 hours (low)
3. Remove chicken, shred with fork.
4. Pour sauce into medium pot
5. In small bowl, blend cornstarch and 1 tbsp water-stir into sauce
6. Bring sauce to boil for 1 min until thickened
7. Pour sauce onto chicken
8. Serve on buns

I hope everyone enjoys the cooler weather- fall is a-coming!!! BTW- the official first day of fall is September 22.

Counting down to a cool-down...

The first thought I have as I write this post is that it is the same temperature today (the 3rd of September) as it was when I wrote my last post (beginning of August). When is the heat done-ahhhh!

Well, things at the Showman household have been wonderful and busy. I have gone back to work, so thats makes things much more busy (and the house a lot more messy) haha. But, its been good going back to work and seeing all of the kids, and even though things are busy, it's good to get back into the routine of working full-time (and it keeps me out of Target and Michaels, which is a good thing, haha).

I also haven't blogged in a while because Shawn and I have been working hard on redoing our yard and planting some flowers, and I wanted to wait until we are done until we reveal our work. In addition, I plan on busting out the fall decor next weekend, so I want to wait until I get that all set up as well (I know I act like I am Martha Stewart or some famous designer...like I am getting ready to put out some five page layout in Better Homes and Garden magazine or something:)

But, until that post comes, here is a little post about something yummy I made for din-din tonite:

I saw this yummy recipe for Pizza Cupcakes (or Muffins-either or) on Pinterest and had the ingredients to try it out:

You need:

 

Pizza Dough

Cheese

Pizza Sauce

Hamburger/Pepperoni

 

Spray/grease a muffin tin pan.

Preheat oven according to temp on crust package. 

 Divide the pizza dough into equal sections- I did four equal sections

Spoon in some sauce and toppings.

Bake for about 15 minutes (or more-test out the dough on one of them after you bake them)



And there you have it-little pizzas.

 

I saw a quote today that I really loved:

 

"Love is that condition in which happiness of another person is essential to your own joy"

-Robert A Heinlein

 

 



This guy looks happy:) And his wife is happy because he put up with another "Take a pic for the blog" moment.

In other happy news, the baby shower for Jenn went great! I was busy hosting, so I didn't take any pics, but I can't wait to see the pics that Jenn's sister-in-law took. It was a great event, and, most importantly, Jenn enjoyed it (and got lots of good loot for baby H). Hosting her baby shower will honestly be one of the most special things I have been honored to do in my life:)

I hope everyone took some time to just "celebrate" this Labor Day weekend. I have celebrated lots of baby showers, anniversaries and birthdays lately-there is always something to celebrate in life:)

Have a good night, and short week (yeah!)

La La Lasagna!

Last night Shawn and I made our first homemade lasagna.

Usually making lasagna for me means popping a Stouffers box in the oven, but Shawn convinced me to make it from scratch, and it was yummy!

Ingredients:
- Lasagna noodles
-Ground beef (however, we used ground turkey-it's an easy way to stay healthy, and really tastes the same when included in sauce and cheese)
-Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
-Cottage cheese (you can use ricotta cheese, but we used cottage)
-1 Egg
-Italian seasoning
- Spaghetti sauce

Steps:
1. Heat oven to 350
2. Cook noodles according to box
3. Brown and drain beef
4. In a small bowl, combine egg, cottage cheese,shredded cheese and some Italian seasoning (you can also use parsley)
4. In another bowl, mix beef and spaghetti sauce (leave some over to top the lasagna with)
5. In a 13 X 9 pan, spoon some beef/sauce onto the bottom.
6. Sprinkle some cheese on top, leaving some for another layer.
7. Lay noodles on top.
8. Continue to layer beef, cheese and noodles
9. Top the lasagna with your remaining plain sauce

You can't fool the vet

Today I took Lyida to the vet for her yearly check-up.

Or rather, I aroused my precious, fluffy, content little kitten from her usual 4 hour afternoon nap, only to put her into the car and take her to the vet, where she proceeded to have to be poked, proded and squeezed in all the wrong places.

The poor nurse, who kept saying how cute she was, tried to give her treats. Did Lyida accept them?

Oh no.

Not until the nurse left. She sure wasn't going to let her know she wanted them.

When the doctor came in, he took one look at Lydia (who by now was laying on his desk, near his computer, in a flopped position like she owned the joint) and said, "Miss, you have a beautiful cat." Followed by after one minute of looking at Lydia, "But she is a queen bee though huh?"

Who, my little girl?

No, not her. She has no personality whatsoever.

:)

5 things to love:
1) Lydia- well duh?:)
2) Having a smoothie everyday
3) Having time to put in a solid workout everyday,and still clean my house
4) Pinterest (I know I am still a newbie-just let have my moment:)
5) Getting to watch Ellen

5 things I could do without
1) HEAT- sooooo hot
2) Women at the gym who complain about sweating- really? You may not know this but YOU ARE AT A GYM
3) My poor plants-RIP
4) Construction in the summer- I guess it helps me discover the backroads:)

Developing good habits

We are proud parents. We have taught Miss Lydia how to brush her teeth.

Watch:

Don't worry-we dont use that brush-its hers:)

Digital scrapbook made with Smilebox

Rocky Mountain High

We have just returned from our vacation to Colorado. It was wonderful to spend some time in the mountains and time as a family. We stayed in Carbondale and spent some time in Glenwood Springs. There was beautiful weather, scenery, good shopping and eating, and best of all, quality time spent together.

Here are some highlights:) Enjoy!

 The mountains in Silverthorne

 Couple shot

 Shawn down by the river at Silverthorne

 Shawn and Marilyn

 Couple Shot at the Mall

 Mountain shot at the mall

 Seeing the river for the first time

 Shawn at the river

 It's cold!

 A few from our hotel

 Beaver Lake

 Crossing the stream in the car-made me nervous!

 Relaxing at the camp

 Shawn fishing

 There were stacks of rocks everywhere-I did some research-they supposedly don't mean anything-maybe some people just passing time by the river

 Caught one!

 A gorgeous rainbow by our hotel-the biggest rainbow I have ever seen

 On our hike (one of many)

 This was before I fell into the stream

 The end of our hike

 We made it!

 Caught another one. My husband is a fisherman!

 Pictures in Glenwood Springs

 Getting read to hike up to Crater Lake

 The trail is tough:)

 We made it!

Shopping in Aspen 

Feeding our friends:)

The mountains really are one of the best places to escape to. I am so glad I got to see some of the places that Shawn and Marilyn have been to and spent time at. I have no doubt we will be back soon!