Happy Thanksgiving!

My Great Day just got BETTER!!!

Seriously, this has been an amazingly wonderful day!
First, Kevin and I are leaving for our honeymoon tomorrow (or, in a few hour - however you want to look at it - lol!).
Second, when I was in class today, one of my friends mentioned that Omaha is getting a Trader Joe's! Which is an AWESOME inexpensive organic grocery store.
Then, my fantastic photographer sent me an email saying that she posted the wedding pics! Yay!! Woo Hoo!! Yippee!! Cassie is the BEST photographer EVER! She is truly blesses with an amazing gift!! She is an absolute doll and we have become good friends - if anyone is in the Omaha or Kansas City area, I HIGHLY recommend her!
Lastly, I went to get my haircut today. It's a L O N G story BUT, over the course of this semester I have decided to cut my hair and donate it to Locks of Love. Gina, my stylist, did a great job! I was kinda nervous but, I think it looks great! :) The pics are below.

The "Before" picture

Going....

Going....

Gone! The official "After" Picture

My first short hair picture with Kevin :)

Now, I'm offically done until after the honeymoon.

Happy Thanksgiving....again ;)

We're outta here....

.....Ok, well we aren't off quite yet. BUT, we are leaving bright and early tomorrow morning and will be in Jamaica by tomorrow afternoon! We are super excited!! It's funny that it's suppose to snow tomorrow morning - so, we will be leaving snow and arriving in the tropics. :)

Before I left I wanted to be sure to wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving!

Festive New Background

Since Christmas is just around the corner I thought I'd it would be festive to change my background. I cannot believe how fast November is going by!!!



I can't even believe how fast this week has gone by! It's been absolutely NUTS! In school, we have had sooo many papers & projects due it's been pretty crazy. Not to mention that Kevin and I are leaving for our (much overdue) honeymoon Saturday. Yippee!! Which reminds me....I should probably start packing....

Study Break

The other day, I was talking to my friend Jessica. Jessica and I have been friends since junior high and we have LOTS of great memories together. :) When I mentioned that I would be doing a lot of studying and paper writing this weekend she suggested I make some popcorn – just like we used to make when we studied together in high school. There were so many late nights we would stay awake studying for something and would eat a TON of popcorn and drink our weight in Dr. Pepper (from Sonic, of course). Lol!

She inspired me to make some popcorn. Then I remembered that Paula Deen has some AWESOME popcorn seasoning recipes in her holiday magazine. I have been waiting for an opportunity to make one of them so, what a better time than a study break!

Even though there were TONS of yummy popcorn seasoning recipes, I chose to make Paula’s ranch popcorn seasoning.

Here’s the recipe:
½ tablespoon dried chives
½ tablespoon dried dill weed½ tablespoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon garlic salt
¼ cup dry milk powder
In a spice grinder, combine chives, dill weed, parsley, onion powder, salt and garlic salt; pulse until mixture is ground into a fine powder. Stir in dry milk powder. Sprinkle over hot buttered popped popcorn.

Also….when I asked Jessica what she would be doing this weekend, she said she was going to Women of Faith. I can’t wait to hear back from her on how it went.

The Holiday Season has Offically Started......

....or, at least it has in our house. :)

Growing up we always made and decorated ginger bread houses for the Christmas season; it’s a tradition that I’ve tried to keep up. Last year, Kevin, John Paul and I made a ginger bread house and church – we had such a great time!

When I woke up on this cold Sunday morning, it really felt like the holiday season – especially when I turned on the morning news and saw snow in our forecast – yippee!! It gave me a HUGE craving for gingerbread cookies! Since I knew I would have a ton of things to accomplish today and would not have time to make cookies, I chose to look-up a recipe for gingerbread pancakes. It turns out that Williams Sonoma has a great one! I LOVE Williams Sonoma’s website for recipes. The pancakes were delicious!!!

Here's Williams Sonoma's recipe.

Growing up, my family made and decorated ginger bread houses for the Christmas season; it’s a tradition that I’ve tried to keep up. Last year, Kevin, John Paul and I made a little ginger bread village – we had such a great time! The pancakes were a great reminder of how much I love ginger bread!

I hope everyone is having a super Sunday!!!

Good Morning Pumpkin

I have a mission to finish the semester really, really strong. So, I made a plan to study as much as possible and, to help me with my mission I thought I'd start the day with a sweet and hot cup of coffee with some awesome pumpkin spice soymilk. Since I was solo this morning (Kevin is out of town) I decieded to use our fantasitc french press that my good friends Heather & Meagan got Kevin and I for our wedding. It's the perfect size for 2 cups of coffee! I can't wait to try the pumpkin spice soymilk in some hot chocolate too! I am a big fan of hot chocolate!

I hope everyone is having a great Fall weekend!

The Great Pumpkin Post

It's no secret that I LOVE the Fall. The weather is perfect, football season starts, pumpkins are EVERYWHERE and... it's when my wedding anniversary will be :-)

I'm sure it's completely obvious that I'm totally in LOVE with pumpkins. I love to decorate with them and even more...I LOVE to eat them - lol! Since I've been super busy with school, work and wrapping up wedding stuff I thought I'd share some recipes I've made but haven't had a chance to post.

Here in Omaha, we are suppose to get our first snow tonight - yay!!! I think I'm going to start making another pot of the pumpkin chili - that will be the perfect "1st snow of the season" meal! :)

Martha Stewart's Pumpkin Ravioli with Sage Butter

I made these a while ago. They were a bit time consuming but so much fun! Definitely a good weekend project. Very tasty!

Whole Food's Turkey & Pumpkin Chili

Perfect Fall treat! So easy! I served this chili in bread bowl that I picked up from Panera.

Williams Sonoma's Pumpkin Cheesecake Filling

I heart Williams Sonoma! Their recipes are so wonderful! In this recipe there are instructions for a ginger snap crust and if I would have had more time I definitely would have made it....using the super neat spring form pan my Aunt got us as one of our wedding presents. :)

My Aunt's Fall Visit

My awesome photographer and friend, Cassie, and I thought it would be fun to do “Trash the Dress” pictures and after I intended to give my wedding dress to charity. Well, when I told my Mom and Aunt this news, they were less than thrilled about this decision. Apparently, trashing my wedding dress and giving it away would be something I would have regretted. Lol! :) My Mom and Aunt know best and…they make sure I know that fact. :) So, we all compromised on doing lots of fun after dress pictures. Since my Mom flew up from Florida to be with me for my Bridal Portraits my Aunt decided she would come up for these pictures.

We couldn’t have asked for better weather! It was gorgeous! We took so many fun pictures. We all had a blast together. It was so awesome to spend the day doing ultra girlie things with a group of fun women! :)

The next day, my Aunt and I went grocery shopping and began making a HUGE meal. In fact, while we were making dinner my Mother-in-law called and she asked what we were making, I began to rattle off everything and at the end of my list she aksed, “And, who is going to eat ALL of this food???” Lol! It was pretty funny. My Aunt and I love to cook when we get together and it’s always nice to have lots of leftovers to eat during the week.

For an appetizer we made muscles with a white wine sauce with French bread (perfect for the sopping up the white wine sauce – yum!) and, butternut squash fries – both were super tasty! :)

Then it was onto our main course, it was: Panko Breaded Chicken served with a pumpkin cranberry white wine risotto alongside sautéed squash and zucchini.

For dessert we had pumpkin bread pudding, made with challah bread. It was soooo yummy

While she was in town, we also visited the Durham Western Heritage Museum. It is housed in the Omaha’s historic Union Station. It’s such an awesome old building. I love museums! I’m such a dork like that though – lol! :)

Here’s one of the pictures I took, I was playing in the leaves – so much fun!