February Update

a few things have been going on around here…

* Celebrated Valentines day with my goofball. Homemade shrimp scampi with red wine.

*Babysat this little stinker and her older siblings while mommy and daddy were in Vegas :) I brought her some chocolate for her birthday… can you tell?

* My main man turned 25 on Feb. 22nd. We celebrated with dinner at his parents house. I got him a set of combination wrenches, a tool box/holder thing, and a gift certificate to a shooting range (he wants me to know how to use a gun. Scary, huh?)

* I didn't make it into grad school for counseling. But I'm OK and I will probably apply again in September.

*In the meantime, I'm going to go through the Non Traditional Licensure Program to get my teaching license (since I have to have that to be a counselor anyway)

* A position became open at Creative School and I took it! I'm an office assistant type person. It isn't as good as being in a classroom with the kiddos - THAT is where the fun is - But it pays well and I get to work at the place I love with the people I love so I'm happy :)

*I've been dog-sitting these two things and their older sister bulldog, Ruby.


* I just got my first spray tan, like, an hour ago. It was almost as embarrassing as the annual gyno appointment, but I've got some pretty good looking tan legs right now. SHOUT OUT to cousin Kristin! Thank you!!

*I've been cooking more Pinterest Recipes, chicken pot pie, Quinoa burgers and avocado chicken salad (not all in one meal)


* Tuesday I take the first Praxis exam… which is supposedly the easiest, but I'm still studying! (Its so I can get into the NTL program)

Happy Sunday!

Pinterest Smoothies

Friends, I've been super healthy lately… At least for the first half of the day until happy hour rolls around at Sonic… After making this recipe I found on Pinterest, I got a little smoothie happy.

This morning, I took this recipe and made it my own. I was a little worried because the lady who came up with this, "green monster smoothie" swore that it didn't taste bad. She even said it didn't taste healthy. She was right- even with the changes I made, I think this smoothie is delish! Here is how I made it…

1 frozen banana (cut before freezing)
about a cup of ice
1 TBSP plus 1 TSP Honey
1 TBSP plus 1 TSP Peanut butter
1/2 Cup 2% Milk
1/2 Cup Plain greek yogurt
2 cups spinach (I think she calls for 4 cups. 2 was plenty for me)

Just throw it all in the blender

looks good and green, huh?

Now let me tell ya, you're gonna wanna blend this REALLY well or else you'll drink down some pieces of spinach and if you're a "texture person" like me, you're not gonna like it…

Drink up! I saved half of it and put it in the freezer. Hopefully that turns out well for me.

And really, it does taste good. Once you get past the greenness :)

Baking and Cooking Craze

Thanks to Pinterest, I've been baking and cooking up a storm! And I really love it, so I suppose some of my momma is rubbing off on me :) today though I made some 2 minute microwave brownies that needs to be UNpinned. It was gross.

Dylan had to work on Christmas day, but no worries! I sent a delish breakfast casserole with him that I made again this morning

Then I made some yummy homemade caramels. I wish I had a finished picture but we gobbled them up. I'm not a huge caramel fan, but Dylan loves it.

And what I'm proud of the most are these little beauties! I just looooove making Christmas cookies (however this is not from Pinterest, but a very yummy and precious recipe from my grandmother :)

December

How did it get here so fast?! Here is what I've been up to lately:

* 14th annual (maybe 15th?) family reunion with the Reagan's! This event is also named, "Reagan Fest" thanks to my mom's side of the family :) My dad has 12 brothers and sisters, so it does look kind of like a festival when we all get together. But its one of my very favorite things that happens during the year!

* I became addicted to Pinterest. I've had an account for a little while but have only caught onto it in the past week or so. One day I made a crock pot recipe AND made a holiday wreath from Pinterest. How about that?

* I've slowly but surely made my way out of the funk I've been in. I'm getting used to the idea of growing up :)

* I started my new tutoring job, which I'm loving. It is on Monday's and Friday's. I work with one other girl and we tutor 5 kids after school. I work on the "reading" part. Comprehension, fluency, and writing strategies are probably the top 3 things I've googled DAILY for the past few weeks. I LOVE IT.

* I finished my literacy class I was taking two nights a week. Made an A in both 8 week courses. :)

* Met with a career counselor at the U of A after a very frantic late night email a couple of weeks ago. I think it started off something like this, "Hi I'm Emily Reagan. My life plans were crushed after I didn't make it into grad school for speech path and my advisor advised me not to apply again and for months now I've been sick at my stomach trying to re-plan my life and figure out some kind of career I can go into that will be easy to make it into grad school, make me a lot of money, and allow me to have a family later in life and I'M TIRED OF IT! I give up! I can't do it by myself anymore! I need help figuring out my life!" … Ok, it probably wasn't one big run on sentence, but it wasn't pretty and it did sound something like what I wrote above. When I told my mom this, she was a little embarrassed. :)

* Went to that career counselor two weeks ago and walked out with a smile because it was probably the very FIRST time I had met with an advisor in the last two years that I didn't bust out in tears on. Seriously. Big accomplishment there.

* I was advised by that very nice man of a career counselor that my face lit up when he mentioned counseling as a profession for me. (We met for over an hour, btw.) And so guess what I did?

* Made an appointment with the director of the counseling department at the University of Arkansas where I took in lots of information that was music to my ears… so then guess what?

* I started filling out papers for GRADUATE SCHOOL!! That's right! I'm applying on January 15th. And I'm really excited because it is the first career I've thought of and explored that has actually felt "right." It feels good. And the graduate program sounds heavenly. So even though this is fresh information, I'm excited about it and I'm ready to move forward with it. I'll go into detail about it all on another day :) eeeeek!

* I've done some house sitting/dog sitting

* I've done a ton of christmas shopping, which I love. I literally freaked out when I found the christmas sprinkle aisle at Hobby Lobby. Oh! and the $1.00 Christmas sprinkles at Target that I use every year. I just LOOOOOVE the holidays. I'm always trying to talk Dylan into getting "in the spirit" so he totally makes fun of that phrase any chance he gets now. But doesn't it just feel good to be in that spirit?!

* Spending lot's of time with family, especially tonight- we had one of the biggest Sunday dinners EVER. Our house was packed full and everyone was eating and laughing and joking around. We had mexican food and then Aunt Karen brought a ton of stuff over to make banana splits! Including the cherries! I looked at Dylan while we were standing off together at one point, looking at all that was going on and I said "I just love this. Look at it all. I love it!" And I do. I don't ever want to forget these times or take them for granted.

* Most importantly, I've just been enjoying being back to my old self lately. Life is finally starting to feel good and normal, and I'm thankful for that.

A Foot in the Door and First Camping Trip

A foot in the door = I got a job! It is a small job, but like I said, It is a foot in the door! And that's exactly what I needed! I will find out more about my job during a training I'll go to on Tuesday afternoon, but I will be tutoring at one of the middle schools in Fayetteville after school. It is only a couple of days a week, but it is going to be a big job. It isn't just helping kids with their homework, I'll be making lesson plans for each individual child and hopefully helping them raise their grades. I'm really excited about this because I think it is a perfect way to ease into the job world and more importantly it'll help me decide if teaching is something I'd like to do long term. Oh, and it pays well :) So I had the interview on Thursday and she said she would let me know by Friday at the latest about the job. Well, Dylan and I had planned a camping trip for Friday and I was hoping I'd hear from her before we left but I never did, until Saturday when we got back and I checked my email. It felt SO good to read an email that started with "I'm pleased to offer you…" And there you have it, I'M EMPLOYED! I can't wait until Tuesday! On to my very first camping trip… We bought my sleeping bag on Thursday night at Academy and I love it! It is a beautiful light teal color and it was warm too. We packed up on Friday afternoon and headed out (not before spending 100 dollars at Wal Mart. Whew) to Steele Creek which is about 2 hours from Fayetteville and it is BEAUTIFUL.

Steele Creek is known for the giant Elk that roam out into this field at sunset. As we were driving toward the campsite, we noticed all of these cars pulled over on the side of the road, so we pulled over to try and see what the fuss was… there was an Elk I tried to take a picture of but I think it was too far away.

So we drove on and began to set up camp.

Aren't the bluffs beautiful? This is what Steele Creek is known for.

This was our dinner that we wrapped up and threw in the coals on the fire. I was a little worried about how it would turn out, but it was actually pretty good!

I was a fan of making s'mores with those AWESOME new flat marshmallows, have you seen those? They were great. I may or may not have had 2 for breakfast the next morning. ;)

We made sausage and eggs in the morning on a little coleman grill and they were pretty good.

Then we started to pack up good old campsite 14 :) When we left, we went on a little hike to look at some SUPER old houses

We pulled over here on the way home to eat a quick snack and listen to the end of the razorback game. It was a nice little stop!

Overall, my first camping experience was great! Its a lot of work, but its fun. Can't wait to do it again :)