Vegetable Chili

This hearty chili is full of flavor and low in calories! It is also a great recipe to have on hand in case some vegetarian friends drop by.  

Colorful Living Room Makeover

You know that feeling you get after you put in your two weeks notice at work?  When you still have to go to work every day but you have a really hard time finding the motivation to actually accomplish anything because you know you won't be there much longer.  All you can think about is how much you want to go to your exciting, new job instead.

That's kind of where I am at with the house right now.  Since we will be moving soon there are a lot of things that need to be finished around here so that we can sell the place.  It's really difficult to find motivation though because we aren't going to be around to enjoy it.  Not only that but everything is getting finished just to stage it instead of the way I would do it if we were staying.

I finished the living room before we decided to move so I'm pretty happy with it.  When it comes time to stage we are just going to remove a few pieces of furniture like the coffee table and bookcase.  For now, I am enjoying our fun and colorful living room:

Here is what it looked like a year ago:

Home Sweet Home?

I'm not conceited enough to think that anyone other than myself noticed but posts have been a bit sparse around here the last couple of weeks. That's because there have been some big changes going on in my life that I couldn't talk about yet. I hate when people talk about something big that *might* be happening but "I can't tell you yet"...so just shut up and let me know when you can talk about it, right? Anywho, things are official now so I can announce that:  we are moving back home!!!!

I kind of mentioned after the shooting that we had been wanting to move back for awhile and that bullet was the final straw but I honestly didn't think things would happen this soon. After talking about it a bunch we made the difficult decision to go to Shelby's bosses and request an early transfer back. They were already wanting us to move back but they expected it to be another year or two so this completely changed the plans that we all had. The company that he works for is awesome and they have been an incredibly supportive "family" since the very beginning. So we were reluctant to throw this at them and possibly make things more difficult for them.

However, we made it clear that we were willing to do whatever it takes to make this move beneficial to them too and we fully realize that the first year or two will be rough and it will mean more traveling. For us this will still be better than the stress of staying in a neighborhood where we don't feel safe and our closest family is 8 hours away. :( Once they realized that we were committed to making it work they were fully supportive and Shelby's boss even agreed to let us rent one of his houses!

So take a look at our new home sweet home:

Cheesy Chicken and Pasta

This recipe is addictive.  Creamy, cheesy and full of flavor.  I can never stop myself from having seconds.  :) I hope you like it too!

Chicken Enchiladas

My husband and I love Mexican food and I have several Enchilada recipes so we can mix things up.  This one is one of my favorites!

Safe To Eat Sugar Cookie Dough

I always loved eating cookie dough as a kid.  However, as I have gotten older my fear of food poisoning has curbed my desired to eat anything with raw eggs.  So I was thrilled when I found this recipe for safe cookie dough.  Now I can eat to my heart's content with my only fear being a sugar overdose!

Dinosaur Eggs

Before making egg salad the other day, Jer and I had some fun and turned them into Dinosaur Eggs!  He had such a great time we ended up making a second batch.  :)

Pasta and Pinto Bean Chili

This chili has some serious kick to it and is not for the faint of heart.  If you don't like a lot of heat you might want to substitute tomatoes without the chilies or cut out the salsa.  For those who enjoy spicy foods - this one is for you!

Jeremy's Superhero Room

The superhero bedroom is complete! Take a look inside...

Conversation Heart Cake

I'm not a big fan of Valentine's Day so this is probably the only post you will find here on the topic this year.  The one thing that I do like about it is the conversation hearts!  Not the sweettart kind though - it has to be the old school necco wafer kind.