Shrimp Pasta a la Kim

I went over to Kim's for dinner a few weeks ago to help her prepare for a baby shower (see all the deets here) and she made a fabulous easy shrimp pasta dish. I was amazed at how good it was and she whipped it up in only about ten minutes! So I must share!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of Italian dressing (just eyeball it to your liking)
1 can artichoke hearts (drained and rinsed)
1 package of mushrooms
1/2 bag of frozen uncooked shrimp
angel hair pasta, fetuccine noodles, or your favorite pasta

On the stove top put the italian dressing in the pan and stir in your artichoke hearts, mushrooms, and shrimp and cook until shrimp are pink and the mushrooms are soft. In a separate pot, boil your noodles. Drain noodles, poor shrimp sauce on top, and ENJOY! :)

This dish is super easy and it can easily be altered to your favorite ingredients! Who knew Italian dressing would make such an awesome sauce over pasta?!

Latest Music Obsession

New beau (more on that later;)) was kind enough to let me copy his new Jason Aldean "My Kind of Party" CD and I'm OBSESSED! I love Jason Aldean and I didn't think his last CD could be topped but this one is just as good. I love CDs that you can listen to the entire thing instead of just skipping to the two songs that are actually good.

Loveeeee his new song "Country Boy's World". Check it out on youtube. You won't be sorry ;)

Book Review



Mama gave me the book "Heaven is for Real" and I cannot put it down, for real. It is soooo good!! I cannot wait to get home tonight to finish it. Yes, I'm that much of a nerd. Seriously though, I started reading it on Saturday afternoon at the pool, read a little Sunday night and last night and will be finishing it today. It's a super easy read and it's one of those books that you just can't put down. Now if you know me, I tend to be a bit pessimistic/skeptical of things but if this little boy really went to heaven and heaven is really like he describes it then oh boy do we have a reason to live the best life on earth so we can all get there!! :)

Easy Homemade PB Cookies

Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:
1 jar Peter Pan creamy peanut butter
1 and 1/2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
half of a bag of Reese's peanut butter chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix peanut butter, brown sugar, and baking soda for on medium for about 1 minute. Add eggs and vanilla and mix for 30 seconds. Stir in peanut butter chips. Roll into 1 inch balls and place on a cookie sheet. Bake for 7-9 minutes.

These cookies are my absolute favorite and I love to eat them over vanilla ice cream! The perfect dessert!  :)

Royal Wedding

I LOVED Princess Diana and I was obsessed with the news stories that surrounded her death. I'm pretty excited for the Royal Wedding and I have DVR'd the wedding and the Barbara Walter's special tomorrow night! This has been a very stressful week at work and I am soooo looking forward to a watching William and Kate's wedding footage and relaxing all weekend! I'm reallyyyy hoping I can lay out by the pool--I heard it might be open :)

Amanda & Matt's Wedding

To Have and To Hold From This Day Forward...

Amanda got married this past weekend. Friday night we had the rehearsal at the church. The church was in Midlothian and it was really pretty. After the rehearsal we had the rehearsal dinner at Mi Hacienda. It was a really nice Mexican restaurant, the food was delicious, and I like that it was laid back and relaxed. On Saturday, I did my own hair and makeup so I didn't have to be at the church until 2pm. Amanda was feeling a little under the weather so we didn't end up taking pictures before the wedding but the wedding went off without a hitch and we took lots of pics afterwards. The reception was absolutely beautiful with an open bar and delicious italian food for dinner. My two faves--Mexican and Italian--clearly we're related :) Amanda and her mom were beautiful and her two brothers have turned in to the sweetest men! Who knew those little boys would grow up to be so awesome?? And Cheston just found out that he got into VIRGINIA TECH!! Yeah, I kinda might have screamed a little when he told me! :) Sooo excited for him. Here are a few pics from the wedding:

 Amanda and her brother, Blaine: 

 Mr. & Mrs. Waller:

Amanda & her mom:

A Few Favorite Finds

So here a few things I have discovered lately—

1. First of all, WHY have I never bought blonde bobby pins?? Surely, I knew there was such a thing? So why didn’t I own any? Dumb blonde moment, clearly. Well anyways, Amanda’s wedding was this past weekend and I decided I would do my own hair. No offense to the hairdressers that were offered but I never seem to like my hair or make up when someone else does it. Plus, $50 vs. diy?? I had to choose diy on this one. Who couldn’t stand to save a few bucks these days? I know I can! I went to Target Saturday morning because I realized my curling iron barrel is too small for my newly shorter hair. So in my search for the right size curling iron I also came across blonde bobby pins! Perfect! I also found the cutest little flower bobby pins to add a little flair to my ‘do. Thankfully, the hair ‘do came out just fine! Totally worth saving $50 and I’ll have to admit I was flattered that people kept asking me where I got my hair done ;) Mom has pics of my hair on her camera so I’ll try to steal them from her soon.  

www.goody.com

2. I am LOVING this new hair product I discovered. Rockaholic Dirty Secret Dry Shampoo. I am a wash my hair every single day faithfully kind of girl. But, it’s really not good for your hair to wash it every day so I’ve been trying to give my hair a break 2 days a week…usually once during the work week and on Saturdays (mainly b/c I’m a bum on Saturdays J) I used to use just plain on baby powder and it helps but this product really does the trick. I read about it on a blog that’s all about hair and after reading the reviews of the product I had to splurge a little and purchase it. It runs about $18 and I got my from Ulta with a 20% off coupon. If you live near an Ulta they are often send coupons so you could easily get it a little cheaper. It is Ahhhhmazing! Check it out!

www.tigihaircare.com

3. I used to be a TJ Maxx girl but lately I’m loving Ross. I can find great dresses in there at reasonable prices, cute tops, and they always have cute name brand sandles for cheap!!

www.rossstores.com

4. I’m also loving ARMY WIVES! I’ve never watched until this season but the show is addictive even after one episode. Beware—lots of the episodes can be tear jerkers!

Happy 25th to Me

25. Really? Already??

Wow! When I was little 25 was like a real grown up...OLD! haha! I had a FANTASTIC birthday yesterday and I hope that was an indication that this year is going to be great! I worked a half day and then I took the afternoon off for myself. And I’m so proud of the fact that I probably only checked my work email 3 times and I didn’t respond to a single one until I returned to work this morning. That’s progress :) I came home at lunchtime and poor Pebbles was sick so I got her all cleaned up and went on a couple errands before getting my hair done. Loving my new shorter ‘do! 

I had dinner with my Mom, Richard and two of my favorite girls—Kim and Paige. We went to Hot Tamale and I had a celebratory margarita which was yummy and I ate way too much guacamole! We had so much fun just talking and laughing. My parents had never met Paige and neither had Kim but everyone definitely hit it off. I got some great gifts, lots of phone calls, texts, and messages from fb friends. The day wasn’t perfect but it was pretty darn close! I feel so incredibly blessed to have lived 25 amazing years and to have found such amazing people to share my life with. I’m especially grateful that time and circumstances have weeded out some of the negative people in my life and I’m thankful to be surrounded by those who truly love me for who I am. What a great day! I’m not so sure I’m deserving of any of it but I thank God for my very blessed life. It’s not always sunshine but I guess you can’t appreciate the sunshine without a little rain, huh?

Thanks to my amazing family and friends for an amazing day!

LOVE LOVE LOVE

Catch Up Post

3.26.11 was my cousin Amanda's bachelorette party! It's always fun to get a big group of girls together that don't know each other and to meet some new people. We had a great time getting to know each other around a few drinks and we had a yummy dinner at Firebirds before hitting the bar in the hotel. I didn't take many pictures (surprise, surprise) but here's one of the bachelorette:

This past weekend Mama and I spent all day Saturday at the outlets in Williamsburg. When Mama and I shop it usually turns into a 12 hour day and this one definitely did. We had such a good time and I love those moments with her when we laugh until we're almost in tears. I picked out one of my birthday presents--a fabulous Coach bag. I'm in looooove!!

On Sunday, I had to go to work for the open house of the new skilled unit at work. We've added 30 new skilled beds, a new state of the art gym, dining room, offices, indoor pool that's twice the size of our current one, cardio room, weight room, rooms for excerise classes including Zumba etc. 35,000 square feet and my office happens to be on the complete opposite end of the already enormous building. Sooooo I'm going to have to retire the heels and invest in some tennis shoes with little wheels that pop out....I kid, I kid. But maybe I'll lose a pound or two from all the extra walking!? The opening of the new unit has been something that's been talked about for at least a year and the anticipation of how this week would go has been worrying everyone. Other than being overwhelmed with the big change and added work and responsibility, it's going to be a fabulous thing. Something that I know cannot compete with a single facility in Richmond and others in the state probably don't come close. And this is why when people ask me WHY ON EARTH would you want to work in FARMVILLE? I know that where I am is the best. Don't get me wrong, I get extremely frustrated at times and fed up with everything but that's going to occur in any job anywhere. We all have those moments. But today I had one of those "I'm SO PROUD of how amazing this place is and how much it's grown in the 2 years and 4 months that I've been here" days. I wish I had some pictures to share...the nurses station has granite counter tops, the art is beautiful and modern, the furniture is gorgeous but comfy, the rooms are huge and the patients feel like they're in a 5 star hotel instead of a "nursing home". Now tell me you'd rather go to a rehab facility and share a tiny room with another patient that probably hasn't been updated in 20 years?? Probably not. LOVE IT! LOVE how impressed and happy the patients are! LOVE MY JOB! :)

Amanda's Bridal Shower

I wanted to share some pictures from Amanda's bridal shower. Amanda's mom LOVES to decorate and insisted on doing the decorations for the shower and I must say they were over the top beautiful!

The chocolate fountain was DELISH!!

These pictures were taken before all of the yummy food was put out!

I ended up doing several games. The first one was the "Clothes Pin Game". As guests arrived they were each given a clothes pin and they were not allowed to say the fiance's name or cross their legs. If they were caught by another person doing either of these things, their clothes pin was taken away by that person. At the end of the shower, the person with the most clothes pins was given a prize! The next thing I had set up was the "Guess How Many Game". The guest who came the closest to the actual number of jelly beans received a prize. 

I also did a "Question Game". I had 8 questions about the bride and groom pertaining to their relationship (where did they meet, what is their favorite restaurant, when did he propose, etc.) I called out the questions and the guest with the most correct answers won a prize. The last game we did was the traditional "Wedding Dress Game". I decided to have two teams of 4 with one person as the bride and the other three guests had to make a dress for the bride out of toilet paper. The girls had SOOO much fun doing this. They were given 8 minutes and in the end we just couldn't decide on a winner because both teams were so creative and good sports :)

I think all in all the day was a great success and I hope Amanda had a wonderful time! :)

10 Purchases You Will Regret Article

This is a great article that really makes you think about your purchases. If you're like me and have a dog who is also your "child" don't read number 10. But, all of the other ideas are great! :)

http://money.bundle.com/article/ten-purchases-that-you-will-regret/1

HAPPY SPRING!!

Just a Few Reasons I Love Spring:


-SUNSHINE

-Sandals, flip flops, wedges!

-suntanned skin

-blooming flowers

-everything is alive and green

-it’s light outside when I get home from work

-perfect running weather

-thunderstorms!!

-brightly colored clothes

-SUNSHINE

-birds singing in the mornings

-dew on the grass

-skirts without tights

-Robin’s hibernation ends!

-did I say SUNSHINE??

WOOOHOOOOOOO Springtime is HERE!!! I’m a happy girl!