New videos

Just posted two new videos on my YouTube channel...

One Year

On Sunday (the 26th)  Brew & I celebrated our first anniversary!

 

 

It's crazy how fast time has gone.  It doesn't seem like it's been a whole year, but at the same time, it's almost hard for me to remember life without Brew!

I'm soooo blessed to be married to my best friend.  He's everything I could ever want or need, and I'm so glad I get to spend forever with him.

And actually, the year-old cake wasn't bad at all (the looks on our faces are BEFORE we tasted any lol)  My mom did a good job freezing it!



To celebrate our anniversary, and to take a vacation together, we went on a camping trip to Babcock State Park.  We left on Thursday evening (the 23rd) and came back on Sunday the 26th, our actual anniversary.

We had a lot of fun, we brought Duke along-- he's definitely a camping dog, that's for sure!  We visited the New River Gorge Bridge, and the Glade Creek Grist Mill, hiked a few trails, and just enjoyed getting away & being together!

Duke loved playing in the water

And the car rides!

Us at the base of the New River Gorge Bridge

And us at the Glade Creek Grist Mill (this is the mill featured in a LOT of pics of WV and Appalachia)

Duke and I during a hike

Sitting by the campfire

After conquering a difficult trail!

Duke LOVED the trail hikes too!

I'm working on getting a video up I'm making for Brew, a slideshow of pics for our first anniversary.  I also have yet to upload my May update to youtube.  It's finished I just haven't been on my desktop computer pretty much since I got this laptop LOL.  But I hope to have them up soon!

Father's Day Weekend

So we had a great weekend-- Saturday we (including Duke!) slept in till around 9, then we spent the day getting things ready for our upcoming camping trip (more on that later...) We are borrowing my inlaws' camper and my parents' truck.  So we bought a trailer brake controller for the truck, and Brew & my dad installed it, then we went out and got the camper to make sure that the truck would pull it with no problem (verdict is-- no problems!)  It ended up taking pretty much the whole day. 

Then Sunday was Father's Day!  We went to church as usual (we go to the same church as my family), and then went out to lunch with my parents and brother. (Brother #2 and wife were with her fam)  Dad's choice- Super China Buffet, which was really good considering I hadn't had Chinese in a long time!  Then we came home & hung out with Duke for a while, then back out in the evening to my inlaws.  It was also my sis-in-law Mandy's birthday so we celebrated that as well! 

I'm seriously super-blessed to have an awesome Dad.  :)  He's always been there for me no matter what I need/needed.  Love you, Dad!

Dad w/me when I was a baby :)

 And Dad & me at my wedding :)

I never thought that I looked much like either of my parents... but if you look at the pic of my Dad with baby me, and then look at the pic of me on my wedding day (we were the same age)-- I can definitely see the resemblance!


Not only am I blessed to have a wonderful dad, I also have a wonderful father-in-law, Randy.  He's seriously the best. :)  He's treated me like his own daughter from day one!  Love him!

Haha this is a goofy pic of him from my wedding-- he's wearing the flower girl headband ;)

The only not-so-great thing about this weekend is that last night my parents-in-law got flooded bad.  They live near a creek, and they get flash flooding.  Basically within 3 hours the water came out of the banks, had 4ft in their basement, and then back in the banks.  Thankfully they have flood insurance but boy it's a mess.  We're going out tonight to help and Brew is taking tomorrow off to help with cleanup as well.  Thankfully we had the camper out Saturday cause we parked it back in front of the house (out of the water) cause if not, it would've been  lost!

Oh and today is WV Day (aka- West Virginia's Birthday!)  So here's a pic of our beautiful hills, taken at Spruce Knob (WV's highest point) during our honeymoon!

Twitter, revisited

So I've had a twitter account for quite some time, but haven't used it very often.  Well now that's hopefully going to change :)  Since last fall/winter I've had a phone that has internet access so now I don't have a reason not to update a twitter.  I won't be simultaneously updating it and facebook (I think that's kinda annoying)  But hopefully my twitter will have shorter, more frequent updates than facebook.

Not to mention, I hope to keep my facebook account to the friends and aquaintences that I have in "real life" as well.  But my Twitter can be a way for those of you in the blogging world (or YouTube world) that follow me to keep up :)

So there's a "widget" on my sidebar now, under the about us section that has my recent "tweets".  My user name is mrsdean626, soooo...

Talk to you later folks! :)

Food Fave!

No pics this time... I know, I know...

Parmesean Garlic Whole Wheat Penne with Chicken & Broccoli


You need:
1 Jar of Ragu brand Roasted Garlic & Parmesan sauce
1 Box of whole wheat penne pasta
1 large chicken breast (or two- however much you want :))
1/2 bag of frozen broccoli
1 tbsp olive oil

Step 1:  Pour olive oil into bottom of small skillet, and cook chicken breast throughoughly


Step 2:  Prepare penne pasta according to package directions.


Step 3:  Cut chicken breast into bite size pieces


Step 4:  Steam broccoli (I do this in the microwave)

Step 5:  Put it all together!  After draining pasta, add the jar of sauce, the chicken pieces, and broccoli.  Mix well, garnish with extra parmesan cheese (if desired) and serve!


I love cooking pasta dishes because 1- I'm a carb-o-holic, 2- they are super easy & quick, and 3-they reheat well to make yummy leftovers!

Granted the sauce isn't the healthiest, BUT I did use whole wheat/grain pasta and to be honest it is just as good as regular pasta but BETTER for you!  :)  First time I used whole wheat pasta, my hubby didn't even notice!  (And he has a sixth sense for sniffing out anything potentially related to a health food lol)

And I suppose if you wanted, you could make your own sauce-- but if you can do that then I'm doubting you'll want any of my recipes!  I cook because I have to, I don't really enjoy it, and it's NOT my hobby.  So anything that's quick, easy, and healthy is something I'd be interested in trying.

Proud Puppy Mom

Yep that's me!  So Duke went to his first obedience class yesterday evening.  As you could probably tell from my previous post, I was nervous. 

But I had little to worry about!  First of all Duke was NOT the worst-behaved dog there (like I was afraid of).  There was another dog, that was an adult dog that was pretty bull-headed and the trainer had to be really tough on him/her.  But Mr. Duke did great! 

I admit I was a bit nervous about the choke collar that's used.  It kind of seemed cruel to me at first.  But the trainer showed us all to use it properly.  And guess what- it worked!  I was afraid it wouldn't with Duke because usually that sort of thing doesn't much.  As far as worrying about it hurting him, I honestly don't think it does.  It gets his attention for sure, but he NEVER yelped or anything that would make me believe it hurt him.


They learned how to "heel" first.  At first he was pulling me around like he does without his no-pull harness.  The trainer stepped in and showed me what to do, I did it, and BAM.  My dog knows how to walk beside me without pulling!  It's amazing.



Anyway, it went great, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the classes.  I think this is really going to help.  Not just with him learning basic things but also help him to respect me more and to listen better.

Right now he's begging for a walk so we're going to go practice :)

Wee Bit Wednesdays

  {one} how many times have you been a bridesmaid/maid of honor?Just once as of now, in my brother's wedding for my friend/now sis in law.
I'm in my friend Abby's wedding this Fall too! :)
Funny fact though, I was a bride before I was ever a bridesmaid!

{two} what’s the last thing your do before you fall asleep at night?Talk/sometimes cuddle with my hubby.  There are days he works so late, that's the only time I get to actually talk to him.

{three} you just won your dream vacation, all expenses paid. where are you going?Hmm... I'd have to say somewhere tropical, like the Carribbean.  Or possibly back to Europe- this time in the summer! ;)

{four} what is your favorite outdoor activity?I have several.  Four wheeler riding with my hubby, bike riding, and back before gas was a billion dollars, we used to go on backroads drives together with all the windows down :)

{five} as a child, what did you want to “be when you grew up”? did you end up there?Most of my childhood I wanted to be a teacher, and yes, that's what I am now!  I considered a few other jobs but I always went back to teaching.  It's what I'm meant to do!

{six} what are 3 things your dream home would have that you don’t currently have?Heh-heh, where to start?  More than one bathroom, bigger bedroom closets, a linen closet, a bathroom vanity with a bigger counter space and storage, an upstairs (or main floor) laundry room, a garage, and a dishwasher!

{seven} what’s for dinner tonight?Baurentopf.  It's this German seasoning packet (from my cousin, Stefani) that you fix with red pepper, potatoes, and ground beef.  It's yummy.

{eight} if someone stopped by your house unannounced on a typical Saturday night, what would they find you doing?Probably watching a movie or something with hubby.

{nine} what’s your average monthly water bill?Between 60-70 usually.  And that's just water, not electric.  It's pretty pricey around here.

{ten} what do you do to relax?Read, watch TV, go for a walk.