Southwest Pasta Salad

Hey everyone! I hope you had a great Easter weekend. I felt like I was super busy, but it was a lot of fun.

I need to learn to take my camera with me more often so I can snap blog pics. I've got a really nice camera now, courtesy of my in-laws, and I'm scared that I'll break it if I take it anywhere! I would have loved to take some pictures of our Easter celebrations, but I didn't. Sorry! It didn't help that I'm fighting a cold right now and just didn't feel like doing anything on Easter Sunday. Luckily, I had a quick and easy recipe to bring to our dinners. This Southwest Pasta Salad has quickly become a favorite because it can be made a night ahead, or at least prepped a night (or more!) ahead of time.

I started by using this recipe from allrecipes.com, (I was strapped for something to bring to a potluck, and stumbled upon it before the days of Pinterest) and noted my changes/suggestions in bold print.

Not my picture - but this is about how mine looked. This is from the allrecipes site.

Ingredients

• 1/2 (16 ounce) package rotini pasta
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil - I use olive oil
• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice - I use about a half cup because I like tangy dressings
• 2 tablespoons chili powder, or to taste
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin - I love cumin so I tend to add a little more
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 1/2 cups whole kernel corn - I tend to use the low sodium canned corn when fresh isn't in season. Frozen would probably work nicely, too.
• 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 cup diced green bell pepper - Red, Orange, or Yellow (or all three) Bell Peppers can be used, too. They make it look so nice and bright!
• 1/2 cup diced red bell pepper - I add in red onion in addition to the peppers. I'm an onion girl!
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves - Green onions would be good, too, if you forego the red onion.
• 1 cup chopped roma (plum) tomatoes - Rotel diced tomatoes are a great addition, too. I like the heat from the juice.

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
2. In a large bowl combine oil, lime juice, chili powder, cumin, salt and garlic. Stir in pasta and set aside to cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally. - I've found that if you eyeball dressings (like I do) it's best to slowly drizzle the dressing over the pasta and taste it to make sure it's not overdressed.
3. Stir in corn, beans, green pepper, red pepper and 1/2 of the cilantro leaves. Spoon onto a platter and garnish with tomatoes and remaining cilantro. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Did you make any delicious dishes over the weekend? What's your go-to recipe when you want something easy yet impressive to make?

The Party Walks

Oh, yeah... remember how I got married in August? How about I recap some more of what happened. I got a little burned out from wedding stuff - I'm sure some of you brides can relate - so I stopped recapping. But, now that it's been a while since we walked down the aisle, it's kind of fun to look back and relive the day!

While my girls and Josh's guys walked in the processional, my cousins Karlee and Ali played Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls on their ukulele and flute, respectively. It was an awesome sounding song from what I could tell from my post in the back of the church!

My stepsister Heather and Josh's friend Josh

My sister-in-law (Josh's sister) Ashley (yes, we have the same first and last name now),  and Josh's friend Eric

My friend from throughout school, Ashley, and Josh's cousin, Tom

My friend from throughout school, Jenna, and Josh's friend from high school, Brandon.

My friend from throughout school (and wayyyy before that), Erin, and Josh's friend/co-worker, Gary 

My sister, Lindsey, and Josh's best man, Paul

The cutest flower girl and ring bearers ever - Quentin, Grace, and Carter. 

The boys are holding  plates that were custom made by Etsy seller LoveArtWorks. One is a peacock feather with our names and wedding date, and another is a custom painting of Diesel. I liked that there was a part of him with us on our day, too.  As I look at the picture, it cracks me up to see the ring bearers' boutonnaires. They were pretty mangled by the time we got to the end of the ceremony!

How did you (or will you) choose who stands beside you on your wedding day? Are you/will you be incorporating a part of someone/something who can't be with you?

Down on the Farm

It's Spring Break around these parts! And even though I'm working for a few days this week, my friend Ashley and her son Carter (one of the ring bearers in my wedding) have the whole week to themselves. Since I haven't seen them in such a long time, we decided to meet up yesterday at Josh's family's farm and spend some time with the cows.

Carter had a blast looking at the cows and riding around on the Ranger with Diesel. Diesel loved it, too. He ran around like he was a little kid with a new playmate. Of course, the very first thing we saw when we drove into the barn, was a bull and a cow participating in mating season rituals. Ugh. I've been to the farm dozens of times over the last few years, but never had I seen that before. It figures that the first time I drive up with a 5 year old it would be the first thing he sees! Oh well - it's a part of life, right?

We told him that the cows were just playing and having fun, so for the rest of the time he kept saying, "Which cow is different?" Then he would point to the big bull and say, "That one! Because he likes to have fun!" It was pretty comical!

He danced in the aisles and attempted to feed the cows, who just backed away in fear. I don't think they're used to  small humans running around with them :)

Diesel and Carter rode around in the Ranger together. Diesel was in 7th heaven.  Ranger rides are his favorite thing!

I tried to get him to pose for a picture with the cows, but there was so much going on that it was hard to get him to look at the camera!

We also took a trip to the sand pit. The farm has a giant hill of sand which they haul into the barns for the cows to sleep on. The sand pit is a source of fun for just about everyone, dogs included!

Diesel and Carter rand up and down the sides of the hill. Diesel was thoroughly enjoying himself, and I think Carter was, too.

Carter would climb to the very top and exclaim, "I'm the king of the castle!" Then he would look up into the sky to see how close he was to touching it. It was pretty cute :)

King of the Castle!

 We had a great time hanging out around the farm. We also took a trip to my aunt's house to see her chickens, goats, bunny, and duck. Carter was having a blast until he backed up into the duck's water bucket, spilling it all over and plopping down onto the wet cement. It was hilarious for us, but not so much for him. After a change of pants, Carter and Ashley headed home for the day.

Are you on Spring Break? What plans have you made so far? Do you have any exciting farm stories from your past?

New Blog Design

I don't know why, but I felt like my blog needed a facelift. I really liked my old design, but I didn't feel like it really was "me."

About $3.00 and a few hours later, my new blog design was born! And can I just say, Blogger has become SO much easier for editing and personalizing blogs! I'm glad they've listened to people who want to break out of the boring basic templates.

Peacock feathers are sort of a trend now (or maybe a trend that's passed?), but I love the colors and graphic elements of them. I incorporated them into my wedding, so it seemed natural that they be incorporated into a blog about my married life. I picked up a this pack of digital scrapbook paper from VN Digital Art on Etsy for a well-worth-it $3.00. (She's got other great design, too, so go check 'em out!)

How fab are these designs! Love them!

Then, I just messed around in Photoshop to create a background and header I liked. I wanted to incorporate pictures of our wedding and our life, so if you take a look, you'll see: (clockwise from the bottom left) one of my favorite ring pictures from the wedding, grapes from a vineyard in Traverse City, MI where Josh and I spent some time after our wedding, wedding shoes!, our baby Diesel, my fabulous wedding bouquet, and a picture of Josh and me. I love it :)

How did you come up with your blog design? Are you a tried and true template person, or did you incorporate a little bit of yourself? Or both?

Let's Play Catch Up

Wow... so Blogger tells me I still have 21 followers. How faithful you are to still follow this boring, non-informative blog.

I let my blog go by the wayside for a while (obviously). I'm not really sure why, but it just wasn't a fun thing for me anymore. It seemed pointless to continue with something that felt like a chore, so I just stopped for awhile.

However, I kept reading and discovering new blogs and new people to follow. Inevitably, the itch to write came back. And I've got so many things to share! A lot is happening with us right now, and I feel the need to document it. Hopefully when we're old and gray (and the kids laugh at people who used to blog), we'll have something to look back at and reminisce. At least that's the hope.

So, what's been going on around here?

• We didn't get the house mentioned in this post. But - we're waiting to hear back about an offer on another house. Actually, this is our second time offering on said house, and hopefully will be our second time receiving an affirmative answer. It's a long story, but it basically boils down to Bank of America wasting our time for 4 months, and forcing us to burn through 4 extensions on the purchase agreement. The only way to close  the loan was to rescind our offer, let the house go back on the market, put in another offer, and go with a different bank. Seriously, the last 4 months have been a nightmare on the house front.
• We've been living (almost all the time) in  married bliss for the last 7+ months. Time flies! I can't believe we'll be celebrating a year in such a short amount of time.
• My sister-in-law (Josh's sister) is getting married! Two days before our first anniversary, we'll be celebrating another wedding. I'm really excited about the plum-champagne-ivory affair, especially because there will be an ice cream sundae bar in lieu of cake. This make my frozen treat loving self very happy.
• My step-sister is getting married! She and her fiance got engaged a few weeks ago, so we'll be planning another wedding for June! I'm in the process of compiling lists of advice, websites, and people for her to check out after she's done with this semester of college. I just love helping people plan weddings!
• I started a job (the main reason I couldn't blog anymore - it was a complete timesuck), quit said job,  interviewed for and didn't get a job, and continued to look for a job. I'm still plugging along with my one-on-one teaching job with kids who are out of school (homebound) for medical reasons. It's a pretty sweet gig, but I'm starting to crave my own classroom.
• I'm attempting my own blog redesign with a little help from some awesome Etsy scrapbook paper and some of my own (lacking) design skills ... we'll see how that goes. 

I'm looking forward to blogging. I can't wait to get back in the blogopshere!

FInally - the PWC! (Almost)

After over 2 months, I finally said goodbye to my long locks and had my hair chopped off - The Post Wedding Chop, if you will. I fully planned on taking pictures to show all of you, however, the electrical system in my house had other ideas.

I was flat ironing my hair, and when I was about halfway through, sparks flew out of my flat iron and the room went dark. GREAT. There I stood, half dressed in a dark room with not so much as a glimmer of light from the window. I flipped the light in the bedroom. Nothing. Same in the living room. Of course, those are the only other 2 rooms with mirrors, so naturally, they'd be on the same fuse/circuit/electrical-jargon-I-don't-understand as the bathroom. Thankfully, the lights in my kitchen were still working and sort of lit up the living room, so in the half-light I was able to attempt to put my make up on and throw my hair up in some semblance of a half-updo. It's a sad look today, folks.

BUT - As soon as Josh gets it fixed, I'll have PWC pics to show. I was a little nervous, but... oh well. I think it looks OK, and it'll grow fast.

OH- and we're not getting the house I posted about (and pinned about) here. It's a bank-owned property, and they just kept countering at a price that we felt the house wasn't worth. Oh well - the search continues!

Have a great weekend :) Hopefully I'll get a few wedding recaps done, too.

Wanna Play The Price is Right?

It's no secret that I've always been a HUGE bargain shopper - and that urge for finding good deals has gotten even stronger now that I no longer have a cushy bank job from which to collect a paycheck. I'm always shopping on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and... whatever they call the day after Christmas, so I can find a good deal. This year I added 'day after Halloween' to my list of days to go shopping.


I didn't decorate for Halloween this year, which kind of bugged me. I've never been one to decorate a ton for a holiday, but lately I'm finding myself drawn toward elaborate vignettes, charming DIY displays, and cute little decorations for all of the different holidays. Maybe it's the teacher in me? Who knows. What I DO know is that I scored some major loot yesterday at Meijer (a regional grocery/department store, kind of like Wal-Mart), and I'm looking forward to putting it up in our house next year.

Check out what I got, and see if you can guess what I spent (without going over, of course!):

Glass and metal yard stand that actually works through Thanksgiving (disregard the unkempt flower bed behind it...)

Metal pumpkin trick or treat sign

A metal sign (glittery!) and metal pumpkin wreath (also glittery!)

Crow, Owl, skeleton, two candle holders, a Yankee  Candle tumbler (in Candy Corn!) and 12 Yankee Candle tealights

2 pumpkins, and two signs (they're still in the boxes here)

I adore these pumpkins!!

And a cute little ghost cookie plate

I also got some spider web stuff and glow sticks, but I figured you all know what those look like :)

So, did you guess how much I spent?



If you guessed $40.71, you would be correct!! I was floored at the 75% off sale, and ended up saving a whopping $115.50 had I bought them at full price. Now they're all packed away in a little tote in the basement, waiting 363 days until they can be used again :)

Do you do a lot of decorating for holidays? Where are the best places to find deals?