SO much work...

Hope you all are doing well. It has been awhile since I have posted.
My husband and I have been working on the landscaping of our house and I wanted to share some pictures with you.

Landscaping Project (click here)

The first picture you will see is of our house 3 years ago before the front door was painted, before the storm door, and before anything was planted. We had to use a picture from 3 years ago as the start picture because we forgot to take a before picture just before we started the "rock wall" project.

We jumped into this project because we needed to add some good top soil to our flowerbeds, we had hard clay in there and no amount of compost, sand or stirring in new top soil was helping. A nursery suggested we either raise our flowerbed or dig our beds out 12-18" deep and then refill with good top soil. Both options were a huge task! We chose to raise the beds and it looks great!

We look forward to planting some colorful flowers this spring. Some of our shrubs will be yellow come the end of Spring and Summer, just so you know that everything planted will not always been the same shade of green.

One last note - doesn't my husband do an AWESOME job keeping our yard green?! I think it looks fantastic!

Try This!

New Favortie Recipe! My hubby and I LOVE this new meal!

Basil Chicken Over Angel Hair Pasta

I scaled this down for 2 people. It is perfect with a salad and a piece of bread or any side veggie. Healthy and de-lish!
the recipe is on All Recipies.com if you want to make it for 4 or more people.

Basil Chicken and pasta for 2....

4 oz. angel hair pasta
1tsp. olive oil
1/4c chopped onion
1/2 clove garlic, chopped
1c cooked & cubed chicken breast halves
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
2Tb. Fresh Basil chopped (or 1-2 tsp. dried basil)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp of hot pepper sauce
Parmesan cheese to garnish.

In a large pot of salted boiling water, cook pasta until it is al dente, about 8-10 min. Drain and set aside.

In a large skillet heat oil over medium-high heat. Saute onions and garlic. Stir in tomatoes, cooked chicken, basil, salt and hot pepper sauce. Reduce heat to med. and cover skillet.
Simmer 5 min., stirring frequently until mixture is hot and tomatoes are soft.

Toss Sauce with hot cooked pasta to coat. Serve with Parmesan cheese and crushed red pepper to taste.

***Here's a great idea! I made my pasta ahead, only boiling it for about 5-6 min and then stored it in a zip lock bag in the fridge. Then I cooked up my chicken mixture and stored it in another zip lock bag.
Then later in the week I but the chicken mixture and the pasta in a large skillet and heated them through and then served them up (this will also finish cooking your pasta that you didn't cook for the full time before). You can have dinner in literally minutes with little clean up!

***I have enjoyed taking my raw chicken and seasoning it with a little salt and pepper and then cooking it on the grill, when cooked through let the meat "rest" for a least 5 min (so it will hold it's juice and remain tender) then cut into bite size pieces. Adds a yummy grilled flavor to the chicken.

A NEW fave...

Piztros! (click here)

You've got to eat here. It is fun and funky and not like the typical places to eat around here.

The food is GREAT!

Also the dessert is very tasty.

The ambiance is really cool.

My favorite dessert....

Pana Cotta, a creamy vanilla custard chilled in a chocolate cup with caramlized sugar on top...it is really big and we usually share it.

A Good Night's Sleep...

We just got an AMAZING new bed!!!!!
We were sleeping on a very old, very firm bed. I litterally felt as though I had been hit with a bat on my shoulders and hips every morning when I woke up. My bones and joint would crack and pop for hours.
Finally we both agreed that we were not getting the sleep or rest our bodies need to be healthy so we began to look for a new bed.

We are now the proud sleepers on a Denver Mattress called the Durango.
We LOVE it. I feel about 5 years younger when I wake up, ready to do anything. I can't feel my husband get out of bed in the morning because the bed has individual springs instead of springs that are connected to one another. The top of the mattress is quilted but not a pillow top.
Best of all, we got a King size bed - Oh my goodness, there's a TON of room!

We are sleeping like never before and couldn't be happier.

I'm Back...

This married life and working really keeps ya busy.
Just to update you all on a few things, I am still working for Victoria's Secret, I actually got a promotion and am now on the management team. I still get to work part time (which is usally about 25-30 hours a week) and I am really enjoying the ladies I work with. It has been a great opportunity to meet some new people and to get out of the house and have something, other than cleaning and going to Target, that I can be doing while my husband is at work.
Also we did find a church here. We are going to Eastside Community Church and we Love it. We are going to be in a young couples small group that starts on Thursday night. There are four couples in our small group counting us and the crazy thing it that I know two of the couples through my former job and we just all ended up at the same church within the last few months. The fourth couple in our group are really great too, I can't wait to know them all better and spend some time learning God's Word and heart with these couples.