AH HA!!

MORE proof that spelling isnt important.....lol.....(yes mom, I know spelling IS important!! I was kidding!!)

My Aunt Robin emailed this to me and I found if very interesting!! I could read it, can you??


Only great minds can read this. This is weird, but interesting!fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too.Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it.

boo hoo :(

I think I caught that nasty little bug that is going around!!
I woke up this morning w/ a sore throat...not good!!!
I tried to keep sev medicated and away from me...I even loaded up on my Vitamin C ("shes a C freak!!") but to no avail...I got the nasty sore throat bug. I turned to my grandams trusty ole' salt water throat rinse, I think it might have knocked the soreness down a bit, but not all the way. **sigh** So I hope this bug doesn't take me out of commission. I managed to cook chicken sausages last night for dinner...but tonight it looks like a frozen pizza. Darn it and I was on the ball with this cooking!!
Oh well, on a brighter note...I forgot to mention that I got the coolest charm for my Pandora bracelet last weekend....that's right, I got a CUPCAKE charm :) How sweet is that!! I was pretty excited and its really cute! It was kind of a v-day gift from my mom (she gave me a little v-day cash, thanks mom).
Well, that's about all the news from the Mullen household.
Happy Hump day!!! I love Wednesdays...something about being half way finished with a work week is exciting!!

The start of the end of February...

Its the last full week left for February 2009. I wonder how many resolutions are holding up ;)

We had a lovely weekend!! Even though I didn't get to see much of Sev...I had fun with my family and friends!!
Friday we drove on up the road to Inman and spent the evening w/ my dad. Then Saturday morning Sev and dad left to help my brother move and I headed on over to my cousins new house!! Unfortunately I didn't get to be of much help (sorry Steph) with the whole packing thing!! I did however get to see where little Perrins new home is!! I think its safe to say that his favorite part of his entire new house is....his closet! He is a mess. THEN ....I...even went BABY FURNITURE SHOPPING!!! It was weird and for a brief, fleeting, second...I almost had myself convinced that I might want a baby...in a few YEARSSS!!! but then....my cousin said she couldn't wait on me...so my second of baby fever faded. HA!
However, baby furniture is cute...I don't think I realized just how many options, choices and decisions it took to pick out a crib!
It was fun getting to spend some time w/ my aunt and cousins!
Then saturday night my mom returned from the beach (where she was at a work conference)and we ate dinner at my parents house. Sevy and my dad were exhausted from helping Chris move...so it was a relaxing evening.
Then Sunday mom and I went to visit NewSpring Church in Greenville, where Aud attends every Sunday and speaks VERY highly of. She was right, the Church was awesome and I really enjoyed our visit!! They are opening a Columbia Campus this year and I do see Sev and I visiting there often! After Chruch we went for lunch at PF Changs!! I got to see Alexa and she was being as cute as ever! She cracks me up b/c I can def. see her mother in her!
Then mom and I spent a couple of hours together just browsing the Greenville mall before she dropped me off at Sevs parents house. We had a wonderful dinner together and enjoyed the gorgeous view from their new house!!! (they just recently finished and moved into it).
The worst part of the weekend is that Sev is now SICK!!! He didn't make it to his morning classes and can barely talk, his throat is so raw!!! Bless his heart, it breaks my heart to see him feeling so yucky :( I think it will be soup and grilled cheese sandwiches tonight!!

Happy Monday!!

Past Post in Pictures

So...I took pics of the past couple of things I've posted about...and just now got around to uploading them for sharing :-)

Valentines day...it started with a kiss!!! A kiss on a cupcake ;-) plus a few heart shaped eggs and bacon....(but I didnt get a pic of the breakfast):
(The cupcake is devils food chocolate, homemade buttercream frosting and colored white chocolate heated in a double boiler and poured into lip molds)

Then our Valentines day to a trip up the road...and onto the Blue Ridge Parkway:

Me and Ali :-)

I dare somebody to tell me that is not the cutest face EVER!!! hehehe

My honeys watching the water flow by....

Looking Glass Rock on the Blue Ridge Parkway...

Ice still on the parkway...

B-E-A utiful!!!

Hiking buddies :-)

ME and Ali!!




Just enjoying a fresh drink of water!!

YIKES!!! I look tired...but the waterfall sure does look pretty :-)

My sweeties...It was an awesome Valentines weekend!!!




SPINACH STUFFED PASTA:






Mixing the filling...(spinach, a bunch of random cheeses, eggs, salt and pepper)

TADA!!!



LOL...okay, so really...it looks pretty nasty...but it was tasty!!


GRILLED CHICKEN SALAD: (this is what we had tonight and it was y-u-m-m-y!! I took sevs chicken and rubbed hotwing sauce on it before I grilled them and then he added ranch dressing to his and left off the olives...)

Then I baked up a batch of Strawberry whipped Cream Pound Cake Cupcakes!!! Thats a mouth full....but a yummy one!! I made these for my cousins :-) I get to see them this weekend and thought I would try this new cupcake recipe out on them!!

Making the whipped cream...(heavy whipping cream, sugar and strawberries...a little milk):

Adding the strawberries:

TADA!!

I topped one w/ the cream, the rest will stay in the fridge until this weekend!!

So...I caught up on pictures **Sigh** finally!!!

Ali and I are crossing our fingers that our little cuz in NC is feeling much better, Dobby has been complaining of a hurt leg and Ali knows how that feels and we hope he feels better soon!!

and it was good...

The spinach stuffed manicotti baked pasta was GOOD!! I made a big batch and then separated it into two small dishes. I froze one and we baked one last night...and we LOVED it! YUM!!

Tonight we're having grilled chicken salads. Publix had chicken tenders on sale....so I grabbed up a pack and we'll grill those tonight. I went ahead and chopped the lettuce ( I HATE bagged lettuce) and veggies. All I have to do is grill the chicken tonight and throw it on top of the already made salad! I'm trying to get the hang of getting stuff done before hand so cooking doesn't take up my whole night and I'll be more inclined to cook more!!

Plus, my coworker just shared a yummy BBQ crock pot recipe...we'll be trying that soon!!

I'm on a ROLL.....watch me go :-)

Now if I could just cook as fancy as moo...I'd be doing all right, haha!

Yummmy

I've been trying REALLY hard to have a meal cooked for sevy every night.
I've done a great job of fixing our lunches everyday...but I don't have a lot of confidence in my cooking abilities so I don't fix very many dinners...it usually ends up being a sandwhich, soup, left overs that someone else cooked or cereal...usually cereal, lol.
However, I'm trying...I really am.

Last night I made fish tacos and they were actually REALLY good!! So once I cleaned up my mess from cooking the tacos, I started on another one.
I decided to attempt baked spinach stuffed manicotti pasta. So I went ahead and prepared the dish and we'll pop it in the oven tonight. I'll let you know how it turns out :-)
Hopefully, I can keep myself on this meal cooking path!!
I think I'll like having this meal planned, prepped and half way prepared. It's going to leave time for ME...to just relax...***sigh*** life is good. That'll be my new motto if I keep this up!! It matches the new sticker Sevy got me for my car. It's cute, its a "life is good" sticker w/ a little dog holding a stick and marshmellow over a fire!! Two of my favorite things...dogs and camping!

It's hump day!!! we're almost to the weekend!!

Here it goes...

I think I'm about to touch on a touchy subject and that's okay, its my blog, HA!
I don't know if this will create a debate or if those who read this will stay in hiding...much like I normally would.
I don't like to talk politics or get into the great red/blue debate. Why? well b/c I don't feel I have enough knowledge on the situation and therefore its best I keep my mouth shut. That and the fact that I have VERY strong opinioned people that I love dearly on the far left and far right....so I try to remain mutual by remaining mute on the subject ;)

However, to gain knowledge on a subject is to ask questions...so here is the question I would like to pose (and I understand if I get no comments ;-) ):

What do you think about this stimulus bill?


Here is my take on part of it...as I haven't done my research and don't know all the details. However, it appears to me that we're giving money to lazy people. Sure it "might" help the economy now (again might) but even then...what about the future? and next couple of generations? I consider myself young (25) and I know that MY generation is LAZY...we are. It's sad...but true. We have no concept of what actual work is. Oh...some of us do, but the majority do not. I call us the "now" generation...b/c we expect things "now" not later, not when we actually saved up the money for a desired item, not after we have put sweat into the dollar bills we hand over for the item, but NOW...we'll pull out that plastic or go to our parents b/c that's what gets us the quickest results. Now we're going to our government...and asking for money. We can't pay our mortgages because "well the bank APPROVED me for that much!!!" and we can't pay our credit card debts because "well the bank gave me that much credit!!" and therefore....we spent it and now we don't want to work for it. I really feel like this stimulus bill is only breeding more lazy people....you know, I saw where an article was actually written about SC Governor. He was against the stimulus, as we all know, and the article attacked his opinions and views by saying "well if you don't want the money, don't take it". You know...in all honesty, take my money...I don't want it....I didn't work for it, I didn't EARN that money. Sure I pay my taxes...to keep my country safe, the roads functioning properly, and for teachers to educate....not for the government to hand a portion back to me and bail other lazy people out of their debts. Yes our economy is in the dump....but until Americans stop being so lazy and taking the handouts we're given...it will remain in the dumps, as far as I can see. Some of the stimulus looks to be going to projects that will support state jobs...and that I can see being a positive...then again, like I said before, I'm not that knowledgeable on the subject as a whole. I just don't understand how we're going to bail people out of their homes going into foreclosure and give out MORE food stamps and welfare.....HELLO look at the people who are on welfare....need I say more? Sure, there are times when some of us make mistakes and really need a hand up and for that I can see why welfare is in place...but really, what do we learn from taking handouts? Nothing....nothing more than "oh, hey...if I screw up the government will bail me out...so lets PARRRRTAAAYYYYY!"

I'm sorry but I'm very sad for our Country, but I know I can't worry about it...because this is all part of Gods plan :-) Won't it be great when all of our struggles, worries and fears are put aside and God shows us what he is really all about?!

Remember to pray for our Country regardless of your beliefs!! We are blessed!!

Tuesdays Thoughts

I've been meaning to post a picture of the Valentine cupcakes I made for Sevy but have not gotten the chance. Hopefully I'll find the time to snap a photo before they are all gone!! I tried to take a picture of them on Saturday, but the lighting was no good and we were rushing to leave for our weekend get-away, so I'll try again tonight. I think they turned out nicely. I'm looking for a bigger icing tip to make the icing taller and fluffier!

So more and more of Sevs buddies are getting called back in for Active Duty :-( Two more are deploying in March. I will admit, we're now a bit concerned. The last two guys that were called up were not notified before they received their orders in the mail. With no warning they were not able to go reserve and therefore are now being forced to deploy. Sev nor I can decide if he should go ahead and join the reserves or wait and pray he doesn't get called back up. I'm not sure either of us could handle another deployment!! Calling the IRR back up is all part of the plan to "beef up" the troops in Afghanistan. I told Sev it is his choice, I do not want to talk him into one way or the other and then have him upset with me...as of right now, he's decided to keep waiting with fingers crossed. We have noticed that most of the guys that are getting called back up are guys that have only deployed once and that have been out for over 2 years. Sev has deployed twice and been out only 1 year, so we're really praying the government thinks Sev has served his time and will not call him back up. Sev just wants to finish his degree and move away from the city...if he gets called back up it will only prolong our plans and dreams :-( I know everything happens for a reason, God will not give us a load we cant carry and I have complete Faith in him. Please keep the men that are being called back up in your prayers.

On another note...Sev and I will be in Inman this coming weekend :-) My brother and hopefully my cousin are moving and we're going to help!! I'm hoping to see Mer and her little baby bump too!!
The following weekend I'm very excited to go to a local farmers market here in Columbia. I just found out about it! They carry fresh produce, flowers, crafts and HONEY!! I've been searching high and low for some local honey (local to cola) to eat and hopefully help me with my allergies! I'm also excited to get some local, fresh veggies AND help out a local farmer :-)

And I'll leave you with this cool little gadget I found:
Kleen Seams!!
http://www.rangekleen.com/catalog1.php (scroll down the page until you see the kleen seams)
now THATS what I'm talking about!! I HATE trying to keep food from going between the cracks beside the stove and counters!! I havent ordered any, but if I do I'll let you all know how they work.

Its over :(

the weekend, that is.

I hate to see such a lovely weekend come to a close. Sev and I had the best time! It started Friday night, we went to wild wings (I wanted wings!!) located in the village at sandhills. After dinner we walked around the shops and Sev ended up taking me to pick out another charm for my Pandora Bracelet (it's sooo pretty :-) ). Then I took him into the Sunglass store to finally let him get the pair of Oakley's he has been wanting/needing. Then we stopped in at Marble Slab Creamery and enjoyed some ice cream!! We headed home and Sev had tulips and tickets to the circus on the kitchen table waiting for me :-) He didn't really care to go to the circus, I've never been and said I thought it would be cool, so he got tickets for us to go even though he wasn't really into the idea.
Saturday we woke up and I cooked breakfast, I took pics but will upload them later. I shaped his bacon, eggs and toast into heart shapes :) Corny but Cute!!!
Then we both packed an over night bag, grabbed Ali, loaded up the truck and headed out on the road with no real destination in mind. Sevs plan was to never hit the interstate. We ended up on the blue ridge parkway :) Not a interstate one!! We found a place to stay in Asheville and then went to see my brother for a few short minutes (he now works in Asheville). Then we headed out to find a place to eat. We had the BEST dinner at a little Greek place, province 620, off of Hwy. 25. The next morning we enjoyed breakfast together and set out to explore around Asheville and the Biltmore area. We then hopped back on the Blue Ridge Parkway and made our way over into Pisgah. We took the coolest little gravel roads and had the best time, hiking and playing in the creeks and letting Ali run wild. We ended up in Brevard where we stopped and ate BBQ. Then we ventured into a little outdoor store and I finally got a new BPA free water bottle, lol. We then headed on back down the road to Columbia. We really had the best time and I can't WAIT to go again. I hope everyone else had a Happy Valentines weekend!!

Its not just me!!!!!

http://www.kansas.com/news/story/697253.html




Thats right, I'm not the only one that can't spell!!! HA!!

It's almost that time...

for Hallmarks favorite holiday!!

I will admit...I like it too :)
It was 4 years ago on Saturday that Sevy returned from Iraq and we started our life as a "normal" married couple. So Valentines holds a special place in my heart!
I'm not exactly sure what SEVs plans are for Valentines...but I bet it'll be sweet, he usually is :)

I have been doing very well with my resolutions. I've been working diligently at my finance book...and although my dear father insists I've just created a more complex, paper version of Microsoft money and I could save alot of time by just using that product...I won't. I like my hand written notebook! We're trying to save, and by writing everything down, that we spend money on...it holds us accountable to our spending!!
I've also made our lunch every single day for the past...two...no three weeks!! I know thats saving us money and for me personally CALORIES!! YES two birds!!

So I have some bit of exciting news...for myself anyways....I have been contacted and asked to make a.......

Wedding Cupcake Cake!!!!!!!!

That's right! ME! I'm so excited. The couple are total strangers, so its taken me some time to find out what someone else likes and dislikes, but I think I've gotten a good grasp on what they want and I'll be making the finished product this spring :-)
Can I just say that I have searched high and low, far and wide, over and under, and forevvvveeerrrrrr for BLACK cupcake liners!!! MAN it was giving me a headache!!! I finally found some today in VA and they will be shipped here next week! SCORE!
I plan to take pics along the way :-) So I'll share my first wedding cupcake cake adventure along the way. The hardest part, I think, will be actually hand making the base that the cupcakes will sit on. Man those wood shop classes at winthrop and my OCD dad sure do come in hand at the most random times :-)

I purchased mascara the other day and quickly glanced at the back of the packaging as I tore into it and retrieved my tube. I got a chuckle out of the warnings and thought I would share (this is word for word what the packaging says):

"never apply this product in a moving vehicle. Do not attempt to dilute mascara with saliva...."

wow...LOL.

I'm headed to a friends house after work to make Valentine Cupcakes for my cutie :-) I'll take pics!!

Happy Thursday.

Pecan Ice

Thats right, you read correctly...I will now give you the recipe for a new little ditty we call "Pecan Ice":


Items needed:
1 Ice machine maker
1 1/2 bag of shelled pecans (hand shelled by 1 loving father).

1 Husband that insists on helping put away the groceries.

First allow said husband to put the frozen groceries into the freezer, DO NOT help or supervise!! At this point I am not exactly sure where the instructions go, I will assume that said husband does not close the ziplock bag full of pecans then stuffs them into the ice box because he ran out of room in any other part of the freezer (again an assumption).

Second, have a house full of guests over for dinner.

Thirdly, allow guests to have free access to the ice and water dispenser.

Fourthly, listen to the "uhmmm...what tha..." as your ice dispenser distributes nicely frozen pecan ice into your guests glass!!

WAnna take a wild guess at who the creator of this new recipe is???

Man do I love him!!! It was a good laugh :) Although, we have yet to get all of the pecans out of the ice box.

We were soooo lazy this weekend...it was GREAT!!! I stayed in my pjs ALL day Saturday!!! Got a little house cleaning done and gazed out at the amazing weather but never stepped foot outside...I LOVE lazy days!!!

awww Man!

I ran to walmart today on my lunch break. I had to grab sevy some school supplies :-)
I also grabbed a box of our current favorite cereal, kashi GoLean Crunch Honey,Almond and Flax seed. I took my items to the cashier and she goes to ring my cereal up and says "oh I'm sorry, I can't let you buy this!" me: "excuse me?" cashier: "yeah, they have a recall on it, we're pulling them from the shelves now! That and a cranberry granola Kashi bar!" Me: "what, really whats wrong w/ them?" Cashier: "don't know...just got the letter to pull em' "
Just great, not only do I love that cereal...I've gotten into this little habit of pouring it in my morning yogurt for breakfast....but NOW its been recalled and who knows when or if they will bring it back!! :-( NOT to mention, I JUST polished off the rest of our last box this morning! YIKES!!!
It's crazy the way we are now having to worry about the foods we eat! I guess we're going to have to go back to when everybody raises their own meats and grows their own veggies!! Whats next the recall of peanut butter?? oh wait.....

Really??

Severyn came home last night with some very interesting...disturbing news.

His buddy that deployed with him on his first deployment had given him a call. This guy got out of the Army not long after they returned from their deployment, actually he got out right after Sev deployed for his second tour. It seems he has been called back to Active Duty and was given notice that his orders were in the process of being drawn up for deployment. Technically, this is all very possible and unfortunately something the Army is allowed to do. You see....when you sign your enlistment papers, you are signing up for 8 years of service. Now you may only be signing for 4 years of Active duty...but once those 4 years are up, you are put into a category known as IRR (Inactive Ready Reserve). So you will have served 4 years Active duty and then be known as IRR for another 4. During this time you are a civilian and you have no contact w/ the Army as far as training, drills or deployments are concerned. You are just eligible to be called back up if the President deems necessary...ie. if they don't have enough soldiers to deploy. B (Sevs buddy) has 14 months left as IRR. The moment he got notice of his up coming orders he sought advice from a recruiter. He determined that if he joined the reserves and changed his MOS (job) from Infantry to Construction Supervisor...he would be non deployable. HOWEVER he had to do so asap in order to join the reserves before his new Active Duty orders were drawn up. Luckily, he was able to join the reserves in time and will not be deploying or have to serve Active Duty. Funny enough...because he only had 14months left in the IRR, they will not make him go back for any type of training. He just has to serve those 14 months as a Army Reserve Construction Supervisor...and get this, he WAS Infantry, his civilian job is Accountant....he knows NOTHING about construction, but the Army made him a supervisor. Am I the only one that finds humor in this??? Well, I do and so does B and all of his buddies.
Then he goes on to say that another one of their buddies....deployed w/ sev on his first deployment and got out after....was also called back up for Active Duty. Unfortunately he did not know about the signing up for the reserves in time...and has been called to Active Duty and reports to GA in March, from there he will deploy. Soooo what about us pulling out, what was that all about Obama?? Come to find out Obama is calling back the IRR to "beef up" the military BEFORE pulling out?? riiiggghhhhht. I won't hold my breath.
And what about Sev?? Well, we arent sure what the future holds for him. We have yet to receive any orders in the mail. We have all of our fingers crossed and I think I've sent up a few dozen prayers that he doesn't get called back up. There a few reasons we believe he may not be...but when he called around he found out that Yes he actually was still able to be called back to Active Duty but he has a case that he can fight against being deployed...so we're grasping for hope here. IF he gets called back we've decided he will go into the Reserves....yeah he might have to train one weekend a month and two weeks out of the year...but thats a heck of a lot better than moving us across country to be Active Duty once more!! Huh...I wonder what MOS he may have to have....doctor sev?? HAHAHAHAHA.

Keep us in your prayers :-) As with everything Army, expect the unexpected and wait ;-)

Whyyyyy **edited***

Can't I spell???



I've struggled w/ spelling...well, all of my life. I made great grades in college (graduated w/ honors!!). Yet, I can't spell to save my life. I can't decide if I can blame my teachers or blame myself :(

Mom pointed out some of my ...lets call it "creative" ways of spelling in a few of my past posts and it was rather frustrating. I come up w/ my own way of spelling!! The weird thing is...sometimes I will spell a word correctly and in the next sentence I'll butcher it!! I sure wish I knew how our brains worked!!



Actually, brains are pretty amazing things. They are even more powerful than we can imagine....**enter tune to pinky and the brain**. I've decided there are two kinds of people (maybe the same as right brain left brain). However, I look at it as...those that have all the common sense in the world and those that have all the book smarts in the world. If you are 50/50 in both of those categories, then you're average! I would like to think that I have some of both sides...but I have to face the facts....I have way more common sense than I do book smarts. **sigh**. Sev and I were talking about this the other evening and I said "you know, if you asked me ONE thing about what I learned in college about Economics...I couldn't tell you...yet I made straight A's in those courses." I was able to retain the information I needed to pass the tests and ace the course....but that was it!! My brain was not capable of retaining the information any further than the length of the course. Yet I studied my tail off in order to pass the classes...why? because my common sense side said "hey! dingy! You're going to want a degree...you're pretty high maintenance and will require alot of money one day...and money means good job and good job means DEGREE!!" So I studied and stayed the course. Common Sense.

It's also amazing how are brains work over all. How our memory works. The lengths our brain goes in order to remember something, or do something, or even protect us. You know the saying "if you set your mind to it"...it's eerie how true that is. If you reallllllllllllllly realllllllllllllly want something it's 100% possible to obtain, if you use your brain. I think most humans don't even use 20% of our actual brain capabilities. So how do we? I think if I could (and here again I'm not all that "book smart side brain") I would find it interesting to study the brain....what makes it tick and how it actually works. Isn't God amazing?! I have complete faith that he knew exactly what he was doing when he "hard wired" each and every one of our brains....no engineer, architect, artist, doctor, professor, psychologist or man with any amount of high IQ....could replicate the brain. So how could anyone believe in anything other than God...a higher power! It makes you think doesn't it!

okay........I'm done "thinking" for the day.

oh and in conclusion to where I was originally headed w/ this post....I don't know WHY I can't spell!!! Luckily, I have surrounded myself with people that understand and love me :-) and can say "Hey!! Dingy...you spelled that wrong!!" LoL.