Kansas Weather

After typing that blog title, I had to remind myself that I am not a 65 year old woman only concerned with the weather. Wow. Hopefully this post isn't too boring!

We are having some crazy weather in Kansas this past week. On Monday it got up to 75 degrees and I ate lunch on a patio. Tuesday we had thunderstorms and tornado warnings, and today it is freezing and snowing. Needless to say I am ready for spring!!

Tom and I are counting down the days til our Costa Rica trip. We can't wait for warm weather and sandy beaches. If you have been to Costa Rica and are reading this blog, I want to hear your recommendations of things to see and places to stay. There is so much to do that Tom and I are having a hard time deciding.

Other updates include...

We painted our mailbox and numbers on our house. Although, not as exciting as some of our home improvement projects it really is nice to freshen these up, and we notice a big difference!

Tom and I have been working out and going to the gym a lot. I am really loving the gym we joined by our house, and I think the facility and convenience make me want to go more. We have went to several spin classes, and really enjoy those. Let's hope I can keep it up for a long time!! My dad and grandma have always instilled the importance of exercising to me. I love playing sports, and being active. I am a very competitive person, so I have just had to find a way to be competitive with myself while working out. Does that make any sense? :)

The guys are still working on our house and making progress. It's crazy to see how fast things go with them working on it. We are hoping they will be done by this weekend so we can finish up the tile and lighting and have our kitchen back. All of our kitchen furniture is living in our bedroom right now - so I am very ready for things to go back to normal. It's been hard to find meals to cook that don't involve using much of the plastic/dust covered counter.

We are heading to our friends Ben and Scott's house to watch the Superbowl this Sunday. We aren't cheering for anyone in particular. (I think I like the 49ers better though, because that Ray Lewis guy gives me the creeps)

Welp, that's all I got. Enjoy some pictures of the snow!

My view from work. 

Our home covered in snow. This photo inspired me to want to take a photo of our home every season, and have it in our house somewhere! 

Our street! 

We Started a New Project...

Tom and I started a new home project. After finishing the intense upstairs bathroom project we took a long break from doing any remodeling through December and the holidays. Last weekend we had ants in our pants and decided to start another remodel project on our home. The kitchen was our next victim.

We are keeping all of our cabinets, counter tops  furniture and sink in the kitchen - so we had to make sure to protect all of this before we began. Our kitchen is in the middle of our home so we had to tape off with plastic the entries to the front door, bathroom, living room, bedroom and basement. You can imagine the frustration and mess that came along with not being able to get to any of these rooms.

Our kitchen project includes:

1. removal of popcorn ceiling
2. smoothing out ceiling and any dings in walls
3. new light fixtures
4. under cabinet lighting
5. new stove top 
6. painting 
7. new backsplash 
8. built in shelving for wine and speakers by the table

This actually seemed like a relatively easy project compared to some of our other remodels. (Mistaken!) We put plastic around all the cabinets and counter tops to protect everything. About halfway through our popcorn removal (which involves a lot of water and a huge mess) the plastic started to fall down from the moisture in the room. WHAT.A.DISASTER. We were really concerned that the cabinets would get scratched and dinged and the rest of the house would be covered in dust if we didn't reevaluate our plan.

We had someone come in and quote the kitchen for the sheetrock and painting. To our disbelief it wasn't ridiculously expensive and they were willing to cut us a deal on the great room, (living room to the left of the kitchen) hallway to the bathroom, and stairwell if we did it all at once. We went for it, and thought it would be nice to have all the mess made at once!


At first I felt a little guilty about hiring it out to have someone to help us, since we are capable of doing this on our own. Then... I saw and realized how much work it really was and how long it would take us to do this. It is a BIG project and if we did it we wouldn't have been able to cook for about 2 months. I think it was a smart decision for sanity reasons. We also have PLENTY more remodeling to do, so I can't feel too guilty about hiring this one project out.

They are about 50% of the way done after 3 days of working. Can't wait to see the end results and share them with you! More photos to come!

Homemade Granola

Last weekend we had a lot of random fruit leftover from a cleanse that we did. (Totally awful, don't try it). I decided that it would be fun to try and make homemade granola and dehydrate the fruit to use in it.

I think it turned out fairly well for my first try. I didn't know there was more to dehydrating fruit besides stinking them on the dehydrator for a day and walking away. That is the case with bananas, just not blueberries and cranberries.

For the fruit... You have to boil water then pour the hot water into another bowl and add the fruit to the hot water. This causes the skin on the fruit to break and let the water out. Then you can put them on the dehydrator after they have cooled. I left the fruit on the racks for almost 36 hours before adding it to the granola. Better directions than mine here.

Recipe for the Granola came from Alton Brown on the Food Network.


Ingredients

• 3 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup slivered almonds
• 1 cup cashews
• 3/4 cup shredded sweet coconut
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 
  
• Directions

• Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.
• In a large bowl, combine the oats, nuts, coconut, and brown sugar.
• In a separate bowl, combine maple syrup, oil, and salt. Combine both mixtures and pour onto 2 sheet pans. Cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes to achieve an even color.
• Remove from oven and transfer into a large bowl. Add raisins and mix until evenly distributed.

Recipe. 

Our Trip to Nashville

I haven't blogged in so long. I know that I have so many faithful followers, like hundreds that cry themselves to sleep every night when they don't see a new blog post from me. How could I let hundreds of millions of people down like that?

kidding.

Tom and I went to Nashville over the holidays to spend time with our family and explore this amazing city. We had so. much. fun. Too much fun, probably. Nashville is an amazing city, and we will definitely be going back soon.

We got to do and see so much stuff - and we owe a HUGE THANK YOU to my Aunt Nicki for planning such a fun vacation for us. We are so blessed to take this trip every year and spend time with our cousins, aunts, uncles, siblings and my sweet grandma. There was 20 of us on the trip this year.

These are just a few things that we got to do and would recommend:

Jack Daniels tour - so interesting and educational. It is a dry county so we didn't get to try any whiskey on the tour, but drank plenty on the trip.

Miss Mary BoBos - Amazing southern style dining experience, and delicious food. We bought the Jack Daniels cookbook and I am going to attempt Chess Pie! (details to come!)

NashTrash Tour Bus - These ladies were hilarious, raunchy, and entertaining. Poor Peter was assaulted the whole trip. They do a song/skit around Nashville and poke fun at everyone on the bus the whole tour.

Broadway Street - bar, after bar, after bar. There is live music from 9am - 3am with no covers at the bar. We had so much fun just hanging out and listening to good music.

The Grand Ol' Opry at the Ryman - I feel so lucky to have seen a show here. How cool and what a special venue!

Wild Horse Saloon - We country line danced until our thighs were burning.

Overall this trip to Nashville was top-notch. We rang in the New Year listening to The Fray with Molly and Preston on Broadway Street in the pouring rain. We had such a fun time with our family - and feel so lucky to have them. I loved having Tom there with me on this trip, and am so glad he is a part of our family now. We didn't come back with any cowboy boots or guitars, but we have some amazing memories and stories!

Lots of bloody mary's were in order.

Rick and Jessie! 

Boots for miles! 

Our view from our room in the hotel. 

Grand Ol Opry at the Ryman. 

Great entertainment and so cool to see this venue!

You can see that all of the seats are church pews.

The Nash Trash Tour!!! So raunchy and fun. 

Peter made a new friend. 

We line danced all night at the Wildhorse Saloon. Even my grandma got out there. 

Tom and I at Miss Mary BoBos 

All of the cousins at Miss Mary BoBos. 

We took the tour at Jack Daniels. So interesting! 

Amazing southern pecan pie.