Birthday & Baby Shower

This month was my birthday. For my birthday David & I went out with friends to Texas Roadhouse. It was SO yummy! Of course, I had to be embarrassed!

Also, This week I went back to work at a new company. I am doing the same thing as I was before and I don't mind going to work at this location. I have multiple friends who had already made the change to this company. It was a good first week and I am far happier then I ever was at my last job.
Along with starting my new job this week, my best friend, T, and I put on a baby shower Friday evening for one of our husbands co-workers wife. We had planned it out all nicely and had picked up a key for the community center. It was going to be at a nice location. Well, we got a phone call from David at 4 asking if we could move the location of the baby shower to the toys for tots warehouse. (The husbands were invited to come) T and I made last minute changes while all the husbands called their wives to let them know we had changed the location. T and I made do in the ugly, nasty, warehouse (that is condemned!). We moved tables around and T went to Dollar Tree that week and had gotten table cloths and plates and everything we needed. T, was amazing and did tons for the baby shower! She made cupcakes, and these super yummy croissant things that had whip cream, cream cheese, and fruit in it. She also made these yummy sugar cookies with m&m's in the bag for the goodies bag.
I made a veggie platter and bought a meat platter and made another fondant cake. This time, I made the fondant from scratch! It was a few days process. Tuesday night, I made a red velvet cake. Wednesday night, I made the fondant with mini marshmallows, powder sugar, vanilla, and a little milk. The frosting recipe is really good. Thursday, I assembled the cake with my mom's frosting and the fondant. I then took some remaining fondant and tried to dye the color black with food coloring. For some reason, it turned more purplish, even though I was using the black food coloring. I then made the cake a zebra cake. I then put some little rubber animals on top. The cake wasn't perfect, but I thought it looked really good for my 2nd fondant cake, 1st one on my own!

Busy

So, it's been a long while sine I last posted. Let see what's happen.

1. My big brother got married!

2. I went to Denver and hung out with my sister.

3. I started a Premier Designs (jewelry) business and it is doing really good :)

4. I've done lots of Christmas shopping

5. Had lots of dinners with friends :)

6. Thanksgiving was a blast with my friends who is my family away from my family

7. I celebrated my 5th anniversary!

8. I received a job offer and is taking it as soon as my background check clears!

So, in other words, I have been busy. David worries all the time that I'm bored at home not working, but almost everyday is eventful and I love it!

Happy be-lated Thanksgiving everyone!

Shape Glowdeo

On Friday October 9, 2009, David and I went with our friends again to the night portion of the balloon festival. It's called the Shape Glowdeo. It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen! All the balloons stayed close to the ground and as the night became darker, you could see the flames in the balloons! Plus we went the night when all the balloons were special shapes. After the balloons we stayed for fireworks also. Fireworks are always good.



The Creamlands Cow



A super cute pig with sunglasses! (stating the obvious)



A strawberry patch that had cows and horses on it



A Shamrock



A Jack-O-Lantern (this was one of my favorites!)



Noah's Ark




An Elephant



A lot of balloons



A Green Frog



A blurry photo of the balloons

Mass Ascension

On November 4, 2009 - David and I met some friends for the morning mass ascension of the 2009 annual balloon festival. The mass ascension was not as good as last years for the day I went with my family. But it is still amazing. I love it and it's just so much fun.



David in front of the balloons in the mass ascension.



Look at all the balloons go!




David and Pikachu (my friends son - this is his blog name)



Nemo is going up!




So many balloons!

If Only I was Human

I have been super busy these past few weeks so I will have a few posts tonight as I am catching up.

A few weeks ago Stella was laying next to me and she propped herself up as if she was human! It was so funny, and on top of it she had a funny face the whole time!



I also remember when I was a kid and we had our dog Strider. Strider was very loved but I remember dressing Strider in my clothes, mainly t-shirts, but sometimes shorts also. Well, David has recently been putting his shirts on Moose. Thankfully not his shorts! Moose was super funny though because he really loved wearing the shirts. The funniest part was when Moose would try to go up the stairs. His back legs would get stuck in the shirt!

Recipes

This one is for you Suzanne! I love to share recipes!

Green Chili Stew (by far so good)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 pounds cubed beef stew meat
1 onion, chopped
1 (10 ounce) can diced tomatoes with green chile peppers
1 1/2 cups beef broth
1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste
2 large potatoes, peeled and cubed

DIRECTIONS
In a large pot over medium heat, heat the oil and brown the stew meat and the onions until onions are translucent; about 5 minutes

Pour in the diced tomatoes with chiles, beef broth and chile peppers. Stir in the garlic salt and cumin. Salt and pepper to taste.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour. Add a little more beef broth or water if needed during simmering.

Stir in cubed potatoes to the mixture and simmer for an additional 30 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

For this, I also added in some other spices that I thought sounded good, such as Ms. Dash's Southwestern Spice. I also make yummy homemade bread to go with this but tortillas go great also. Oh, And I only had 1 cup of beef broth, so I also put chicken broth in it and is was still excellent.



This next recipe, the BBQ Chicken Calzones, was super yummy. We just tried it for the first time, but it is most definitely a keeper. Just click here for the recipe.

That is all for now, but I hope you enjoy the recipes.

What's for Dinner?

Since I am currently unemployed, I have been enjoying trying new and old recipes. It is so much fun to cook and not have to worry about anything else while cooking! I love cooking because I love food so much! This payday (because I shop by payday instead of weekly) we have had, stir fry (thanks Thaomee for the great stuff to use as the sauce!), green chili stew (thanks also Thaomee for that recipe!), bb-q chicken calzones (so good), chicken tacos. Tonight, we are having steak and eggs with hashbrowns. I can't wait for it all to be done! I do have to thank all recipes for all of their great ideas also. Anyway, dinner is great, but I need to go make some eggs now!

Autumn

It's the first day of fall and all I am thinking about is how beautiful it is this time of year in Indiana. I haven't been to Indiana in a few years, but I grew up with parents who made me really appreciate fall and spring. I grew up loving the the change of colors and the birth of new flowers and trees.



In Albuquerque, I don't feel as if it is the same...at all. It is much to brown for me. But, I am learning to appreciate different things. For one, we thankfully do not get nearly as much snow! Also, the balloon festival is huge and a wonderful time to be with others. Today is the first day of fall, and the high is 65 degrees. The windows are open (have been for a week and a half now) and I turned off all the fans today because it is so nice and cool. It isn't going to stay this way, but I am enjoying it.

Fondant

On Saturday, September 12, 2009, I got to play around with some fondant. I was super excited to have my friend teach me. We made 2 small 6 in cakes so we could both have one. I made a 4 layer cake and after it was really hard to frost my cake, my friend made a 2 layer cake. I didn't get pictures of my friends, but they both turned out so CUTE!




The piping on the frosting was a little crooked on purpose. The fondant did a little cracking and because our iron was at David's work, I couldn't steam the cracks out. So I did piping over the big cracks so you could see it. Also, the cake was super yummy!

CALIFORNIA!

This past week for Labor Day we went to California for Labor Day. We had a ton of fun! We did a lot of relaxing and catching up with David's family. It was nice to be away with David for a week with no job in the way! It was spur of the moment type of thing, and those are usually the best. We did a lot with David's family. We met David's dad for lunch one day, went out to dinner a couple of times. We went to the state fair with some of David's and mine friends. (I forgot my camera that day, so I'm waiting on getting them from my friend)
The next day David's family and us went to Country in the Park. That was a lot of FUN! We saw, Trailer Park, One Flew South (amazing band), Julianne Hough, Little Big Town, and then also Billy Ray Cyrus (we left when Billy came on). It was an amazing afternoon and we got lots of sun and saw some amazing people perform.



David & his dad



David and I

It was just a great and relaxing vacation!

Life of Unemployment

Life has been good for that past week and a half. Last Tuesday was my last day at my job, and my life has become so much nicer and easier to handle! Wednesday, the first day off, I went swimming...in the middle of the day! I don't remember seeing sunshine for so long! I've been shopping during the day, going out to eat (once) and sleeping in until 8! My life is great and I'm loving the time off. I haven't started looking for a new job, but I'm not super concerned. I'm still trying to figure out what my new adventure will be. I will not be a paralegal assistant for a foreclosing law firm and I will not be a travel agent for the government. Now that I have that out of the way, my options are wide open!

A Family Thing

Today, David comes home! YAY! So, I have been trying to waste time as the day seems to drag when he comes in at 9:05, oh wait, it is delayed...only 15 minutes but still! So, I went to work today, the morning went a lot faster than I thought it would. Then I decided I didn't want to sit in the kitchen for an hour on my lunch so i would go to target. That's my favorite place to go to on lunch if I don't have a date with any of my girlfriends or I don't want to sit in the lunch room.

So, I'm at Target walking around and I decided to update my facebook. I wrote on it

Krissie is walking around Target on my lunch.

Not to long after that, my oldest and 3rd oldest sister are both writing, so am I!

Now, if that isn't a family thing to go waste lunch at Target, because I know more of you do, then I don't know what is!

Stella

My dog Stella, is a little interesting. She has funny habits, such as, she use to go outside and immediately she turns around real fast to make sure you close the door behind her. She howls at you as you walk up the stairs and she really misses David while he is gone.

Well this weekend, she has started a new habit. As soon as she goes outside and you close the door, she scratches it because she doesn't want you to close it. So I let her in, and she does it inside also. She just wants the door open so she can come in and out as she pleases. Well, I'm not letting her do that as it would run up the air conditioning bill with it being in the high 90's outside everyday.

SHE'S DRIVING ME CRAZY!!!!

Ticket

Just wanted to let everyone know I bought my plane ticket for Denver for the family reunion! Can't wait to see everyone and have a long long weekend of relaxing!

Jack in the Box

Well, it's been a long time. I have been so busy working and keeping up with everything around the house. I have been to Vegas and Denver and back. Nothing really exciting has been happening. We are getting ready for David to leave for 6 weeks to go back to J-ville. I'm a little jealous that he gets to catch up with our old friends and some friends even from here. David has been extremely busy doing funerals and tonight he is at a wedding rehearsal. I'm glad it's not another funeral!

Here in town Jack in the Box has opened today, but yesterday they had free food for military. It was pretty cool, we went in and ordered 2 meals, got them for free, and then went back and got milkshakes for free. It was a lot of fun to do something like that and it was really nice inside.

anyway, as I said. I'm not really up to anything!

Stanley Flat

Stanley Flat has made it to New Mexico.

Man did he have a great day yesterday. First, I taught him something very essential...how to use the ATM!



Then Stanley helped me check out at the Commissary.



Then while I made some yummy food for girls night, Stanley hung out with Moose.



Then we were all ready for girls night...and was feeling good!



And what a fun night we had at girls night, catching up, eating GREAT food and playing some poker!



Stanley was so tired, but I know he can't wait to go to work with me on Monday!

Kids doing the cute things

On Tuesday night David and I went out on a date for dinner. We were going to go putt putting, but we were to tired to go. We went to California Pizza Kitchen. It was such beautiful weather that we ate outside. Right next to the outside eating patio area is what I call, the Albuquerque Bellagio. It's nothing like the real thing, but it's about 15 sprinkler things shooting up. All of these children were running through it laughing and getting soaked. David and I couldn't take our eyes off of all them as they were having so much fun. It was so contagious to laugh with them. It was really cute.

Something else that was really cute was we were sitting in sacrament meeting having the bread passed around. Two children right behind us were looking at a picture book that I think mom made for them. They were being extremely quiet (something they hadn't done up until then) and all of sudden we hear "Baby Jesus" said in unison together. It was just so cute and then they continued to softly talk about the pictures and then they said "Adult Jesus". It was just really cute because they got this little voice and sounded so excited.

House

The downstairs portion of our house


The front room


Our 18 step stairway...so long according to my nieces and nephew


The kitchen


The dining room


The laundry room


The pantry

This is our downstairs!

Moving

So, This past month David & I have been extremely busy packing up our house to move onto base. In that time, so many funny things have happened, but I just didn't have time to write about them. So I am going to do a small sample of them tonight...as I am exhausted but just don't want to go to bed.

The week we were getting ready to move I am at work and David calls me. I couldn't pick up the phone because I was on my work phone speaking to a Defendant. When I get off my phone I see that David has left me a voicemail. I listen to the voicemail and start cracking up instantly. It said... "Krissie, I tripped and fell down the stairs and made a hole in the wall (pause) but I'm ok. I need to go to home depot so I can patch it up" I kinda start freaking out. He hasn't told me what body part made the hole. Did he go feet first, was it an elbow, or a head? I call David back but he didn't take his phone with him to home depot so I go to two of my co-workers desk and tell them the story. We were all laughing so hard we were crying. Just so you know, David hit his head against the wall, but he had it patched up before I even got home from work. And I was super happy he was ok. It wouldn't have been funny if he had been hurt.

Another story that comes to mind happened this week. We are living on base housing now, and well, all the houses look the same. I'm driving down my street, and the duplex next to us almost has the exact SUV our neighbors in our duplex has. They are just different colors. I pull into my driveway thinking, I just drove by David's work and didn't see the truck. I wonder where he is. I hit the garage door opener so I don't have to go through the front door, and nothing happens. I continue clicking it and think, man, now I need to reset the garage door opener. I get out of the car not really thinking and start walking up to the door. I look at the floor infront of the door and go, oh, that's not my welcome mat. (I just bought us a new one this week) It all of a sudden clicks in my head that I'm at the wrong hosue. I hurry into my car and realize I am one duplex to early! I'm just glad I didn't try to use my key in the door.

Moving has been good and I do enjoy our new house and the gym on base and the drive is much easier for David and I. David now only works 2 miles away and I'm just a jump on the freeway to work. But, it's going to take us some time to unpack.

Tent Rock

This weekend we went to Tent Rock. It was so much fun. We went with 3 of my co-workers and just had a good time. We went hiking, had a lot of laughs, a couple falls and a yummy lunch at Applebees. I'm thinking we will go again and take the dogs. The would love it!

Bad Mom

Last night, David didn't get home from work until 9pm. We watched TV for an hour and then we went to bed...I was exhausted after a day of doing nothing except a couple loads of laundry, cleaning the kitchen, and making an awesome strawberry-blueberry cobbler. Well, Stella for the last couple of days has been licking one of her paws. We figures she might of cut her paw on a bush outside with thorns. No big deal. That heals. David and I, with Moose and Stella, crawl into bed and I quickly fall asleep within 15 minutes. I wake up around 12:30 hearing David go, "baby girl? you ok?" I'm thinking, of course I'm ok. I was asleep. But he was talking to Stella. Somehow, in the middle of the night Stella did something to her paw and she won't use it. David started calling her tripod...which for some family members might remind you of the little dog on Dauphine Island, and I giggled a little. But, apparently, I'm a bad dog mom because I said she is fine. She most likely sprained it and jumping out of bed and landed on it wrong. That was not what David wanted to hear and he most likely wanted me to get out of bed and try to look at her paw and be all lovely dovey....which at 12:30 in the morning was not happening. I jumped out of bed and picked Stella up and put her back in bed...since her paw was hurting...and said, honey, if your paw is still hurting tomorrow, I'll put an ace bandage on it. At this point David was pissed at me because I was not taking this serious. But all in al, Stella, is still limping, I'm not putting an ace bandage on her, and I'm going to have another relaxing day while David is at work.

Photos

I was given a challenge yesterday to take pictures everyday and post my favorite picture. I thought it was a great idea. My second blog for my favorite photo of the day is at
http://kdunnphoto.blogspot.com/
Now I may not get to it everyday...but I hope I do.

Enjoy!