These Are a Few of My Favorite Things: Part 2

Sadly a lot of things I was looking forward to were food items or places to eat…  There are so many things that are in MN and not in FL!!!!  Don’t worry, the whole list isn’t food, a vast majority, but not all…

–Papa Murphy’s Pizza: There’s a Chicken Garlic pizza that is sooooo good, Matt and I love it!!!!  There was a Papa Murphy’s in FL but it was 45 min away…  as much as I love Papa Murphy’s I wasn’t going to drive 45 min. for a take-n-bake pizza.

–Noodles & Co.: When we were living in Mankato, MN there was a Noodles right by our apartment and across the street from campus, so I was there often.  I fell in love with Noodles!  I usually get the same thing every time, Mediterranean Salad with Shrimp… sometimes a roll, and a cookie (Snickerdoodle)!  Every once in a while I would mix things up and do the WI Mac ‘n’ Cheese with Shrimp…  The closest Noodles was in NC… 😦

–Helping my Dad with Photo Sessions: My dad has always been really into photography and a few years ago he decided to make it official and become a professional photographer.  He and my mom have a business called Kynn Schulz Photography (www.kynnschulzphotography.com).  Whenever I’ve been home and my parents have had a photo session or wedding shoot, I got to help.  It’s always super fun for me to help out and get a little creative 🙂  My dad has really evolved since he first started and he does some really great work (I’m a little biased cause he’s my dad, but seriously he does a great job)!!!!!  If you are in MN and need a photographer for Family/Senior/Baby/Maternity/Wedding pics, contact my dad!!!

**which leads me to my next thing…

–Have my Dad Take Our Christmas Card Pictures: I don’t know why but I love putting together a Christmas Card!! 🙂  We don’t have kids, just have our little Melvin so usually our Christmas Card consists of a bunch of pictures of just us 🙂  I didn’t realize we didn’t have a good picture for our Christmas Card until we decided to move home and realized Dad could take our picture for the card!  Last weekend we went out and did our pictures (it was super cold, Matt and Melvin were troopers!). Here’s a little preview (I don’t want to ruin the surprise for our friends and family since our card hasn’t gone out yet, I know everyone is just dying to see our card this year 😉 ):

A Month Without…

How would we find new ideas without PINTEREST???!!!??   Seriously though, even though I spend a ton of time on pinterest, I feel like it’s a time saver because all the ideas are in one place…

Anyway, I found a great idea for health and fitness while pinteresting (verb: to pinterest 🙂 ).

This is one of those things that can be changed to fit your lifestyle…

**I couldn’t find an actual link, I only found the picture itself so I don’t know what the ‘rules’ are for this…

Personally, I think it’s a great way to limit yourself each month and breaking yourself of unhealthy habits!  I don’t know if it’s a continuation into each month, for example cutting out alcohol in every month from November on or just November; like I said I didn’t find any rules to this.  You could really make it as you wish, to fit you!   If you didn’t want to do a whole month at a time, you could maybe do 2 weeks at a time.  Or maybe add things to your diet, like doing a month of adding vegetables or fruit to every meal if you have trouble eating those kinds of foods.  I think there are multiple possibilities 🙂

You might not even miss these things once they are out of your diet for a month and it could be a great way to get into healthy eating, without taking away all good things!

What would your months look like?  Is there a month you would have the hardest time doing?

I would probably stick to the schedule except for February… Maybe a low-carb month or no chips…  I might switch June to December, that would probably be best to start watch portions before taking away foods you enjoy.,. 🙂 I would  definitely have the hardest time with May and January!  I love my sweets! 🙂

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

When we decided to make the move back home I started thinking about all the things I missed from back home.  So I started a countdown…  but my countdown was cut short cause my move date moved up 🙂  I thought I’d share all of them (probably not all in one post, since there are a lot but throughout time I’ll let you know everything I was excited for)!

Besides the obvious things like being able to hang out with our family and friends, being around for holidays, getting to attend baby/wedding showers, and every day life at home; here are the not so obvious:

–Monster Cookies: every year at Christmas time our family makes Monster Cookies!  You may have heard of Monster Cookies before and maybe even had them, but these are the BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Peanut butter, oatmeal, chocolate chips & M&Ms!  We’ve made them every year for 25+ years 🙂  The batch makes 12 dozen cookies, and we usually make at least 5 batches.  All the cookies get sent around the US to our friends and family, and also given to co-workers and friends in town.

–Haircut at Radiance Salon (http://www.raydiancesalon.com/): I have been getting my haircut from the same girl for years!  It’s really hard to move and try to find someone who you like and trust with your hair.  It seems silly, since it’s just hair but every time I’ve had someone new cut my hair it just doesn’t look right.  Which is why I only let Jordann cut my hair!!  If you live in Mankato, MN it’s the only place to get your haircut!

–Trader Joe’s: I LOVE TRADER JOE’S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  They have a ton of really unique food items (I think at least).  I really like the Artichoke Antipasta (there’s a ton of a meals I make that use it), Cat Cookie for People (the chocolate ones are really good), and they have these caramel sandwich cookies that remind me of ones I had in Belgium.  Plus they have cheap wine 🙂

–Spring Musical Trip: Every Spring my sister, mom, and I all go up to the Twin Cities to visit a family friend and see a musical!  We’ve done it every year for about 3 or 4 years, and of course I missed it last year 😦  Our family friend finds a great restaurant for us to try after the musical and then usually visit the Shout House…  which leads me to the next thing…

–The Shout House: The Shout House is soooooooooo much fun!  It’s a Dueling Piano bar and it’s always packed and always a great time!  I can’t believe how talented those Piano players are!  If you’ve never seen Dueling Pianos, you really should!  It’s a BLAST!!!! 🙂

–Movies with Friends and Family: I love going to the movies.  Unfortunately, while we were living in FL I didn’t make too many friends so I didn’t have many people to go to the movies with if Matt didn’t want to see a movie I wanted to see (for example: Hotel Transylvania, Twilight, Magic Mike, & Pitch Perfect).  I went to a few movies by myself just so I could see my movies (which is something I told myself I would never do, cause I think it’s a little sad… but not as sad as dinner by yourself).  Anyways, I’m really excited to go to movies with people again!

–Hy-Vee: If you don’t know what Hy-Vee is… it’s a grocery store located in the Midwest.  I think it’s mainly in MN (southern) & IA.  Anyway, it’s a great grocery store, they have everything!  If you can’t find it at Target or Walmart, you can at Hy-Vee.  They also have really good Chinese & Pizza (including breakfast pizza, which I don’t think the South has ever heard of cause I mentioned it once and ppl looked at me funny).  Hy-Vee also has OREO FLUFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I have no idea what’s in it, I think it’s basically crushed Oreo’s and whipped cream but it’s fabulous and I love it!! 🙂  The weekend after I moved back to MN, Matt and I went to Hy-Vee and grabbed dinner of pizza and Oreo Fluff 😉

–Fall/Winter Goodies: As much as I loved FL weather (I love hot, I’m not a cold person…), I didn’t like that it was ALWAYS warm, and there weren’t really seasons.  It was really hard for me to make fall or winter meals when it’s 75* out.  I didn’t like making or even eating soup or casseroles in FL cause it just didn’t seem right.  In MN, I’m loving trying new meals and goodies to go with the weather and seasons 🙂  (don’t worry I’ll share things I’m making!)

No Place Like Home: Part 3

Only 8 hours of driving left til I made it to my Grandparents in IA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  (jazz hands excited 😉 ).

By this point I was getting really sick of my mixed CDs… I was on the hunt for a B&N yet again.  There had to be a B&N in St. Louis, MO, and there were plenty I just seemed to not be able to find them.  Seriously why don’t they have signs that say ‘Barnes & Noble this exit’?  I passed 4 malls because there were no signs indicating any type of shopping center!!  I gave up…  I just wanted to get to my grandparents’ house for some pie!!!

A little side note: My Grandma is a really good cook.  She makes everything with lard and real cream.  She has a giant array of foods for every meal… Breakfast; you have the option of Hot Cakes, donuts, homemade cinnamon rolls (with homemade frosting), bacon, eggs, sausage, cereal.  For lunch and dinner; there’s always some kind of meat (fried chicken, chicken fried steak, pork chops, steak), cheesy potatoes, pasta salad, macaroni salad, rolls.  And for dessert she makes at least 3 pies, plus brownies and cookies.  Usually I like to try a little piece of everything… I tend to ask for a little sliver so all the little slivers will add up to 1 slice of pie.  Grandma doesn’t know the word sliver or little slice when it comes to pie…  if you ask for a little of everything, you get almost a full slice of each 🙂 Gotta love her!!! 🙂  She has a little book with all of our names in it and she writes down our favorite foods and also our dislikes, so when we come to visit she makes sure we all have something we like!  It’s pretty easy to gain a good 10lbs in a weekend 😉

So you can understand why at this point B&N had no value to me… I was ready for some quality time with my Grandparents and some home cooked meals!!!

Finally made it to IA at 4ish.  Hung out with the grandparents for a while, ate some really good food (fried chicken, cheesy potatoes, macaroni salad, rolls, chocolate pie with reall whipped cream, & cinnamons rolls for breakfast) before leaving the next morning for home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I only had about 4ish hours of driving til I was in Rochester, I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited to see the sign ‘You are now entering MN’!!!!

The drive was long and uneventful…  Listened to way too much Pink, Kelly Clarkson, Glee, Carly Rae Jepsen, Dixie Chicks and other girly artists to last me a few weeks 🙂  Saw gorgeous fall colors across the country! Drove through FL, GA, AL, TN, KY, IL, MO, IA & MN… I was happy to be home!

Matt and I are living with the parentals for a while.  I got a job with the Autism Center in Rochester, I’m loving my job and the people I work with.  Matt is working a couple hours away in WI and is home on the weekends; I make him freezer meals on the weekend for the week (which I’ll share recipes soon).

Life is good!!

No Place Like Home: Part 2

So after the ridiculous day of cleaning and packing, things could only get better, Right? 🙂

I was off to Tallahassee to have breakfast with my Godmother before my long journey began.   2ish hours & 2 mixed CDs later I was at my Godmothers!  We had a quick breakfast, chatted, and figured out a good route to take before I headed back on the road again.

Can I just say, thank goodness for smartphones!!?!?  I got a little lost but good thing I had my phone cause it made sure I got to the right roads! 🙂

In a couple hours time I had driven through FL, GA (where I saw quite a few cotton fields, really wish I would have stopped to take pictures), & started in AL… and I had listened to all of my mixed CDs twice, apparently 3 mixed CDs aren’t enough for a 21ish hour car trip!  I had thought about getting a few books on tape (I know they are audio books but I can’t get away from saying books on tape 🙂 ), but I figured a few mixed CDs would be good enough.  There’s nothing better than a road trip and a concert in your car (and might I add, I some really good auditions for American Idol during my road trip).  Anyway, I decided to keep a lookout for a Barnes & Noble, there had to be one somewhere!

Alabama was the place… or so I thought.  I was so excited when I saw the sign, it’s probably how people feel when they see Heaven’s Gates 😉  I drove up to Barnes and Noble checked to see what time they opened, checked the clock on my car and they matched so I prepared myself to go inside… Until I looked at my phone… I guess somewhere between FL and AL time changes and I lost an hour, Barnes & Noble wasn’t open after all. A few tears were shed, and then I saw Target!  Target had everything, they had to have books on tape… No, no they don’t.

Well, enough time had been wasted on my quest for a book on tape, I decided to keep driving and just keep a look out for another B&N.

On my drive, I couldn’t believe how pretty everything was!  The fall colors were so vibrant, I was a little in awe of the hills, colors, trees and beauty of it all.  The Dept of Transportation should really add turn offs to highways and roads so you can stop and take pictures of everything!

I figured Birmingham, AL was a great place to find a B&N, so I called my mom and asked her to get directions for the nearest B&N from where I was…  she texted me…  not very helpful considering I was driving and I don’t text and drive!  Well, I figured I could just keep my eye out for a mall…  Why does no place except Rochester, MN have Attractions: Malls on the coming exit signs.  Every place I drove through only told me about food, gas and lodging!!!!!

I pretty much gave up on trying to find a B&N for the rest of the day and just kept driving.  I went through AL, TN & into IL; I was very tempted to stop at a few museums on the way…  National Quilting Museum, Guns of the 1920s (I believe there were quite a few others, but can’t seem to remember them…)

A part of me really wanted to keep driving, I honestly wasn’t tired but figured to keep driving on only a few hours of sleep wasn’t smart, so I stopped in IL for the night… hoping no one would steal anything from my car (seeing as how it was completely filled to the brim 😉 ).

No Place Like Home: Part 1

I have to apologize (to my 20 followers 😉 ) for not posting anything in a while, it’s been a pretty crazy couple of months.

If you read my last post, you know that Matt lost his job in FL at the end of September and we decided to move to MN.  We had been thinking about moving home to MN after the FL job was finished because even though we were loving life with just the two of us, life wasn’t fully complete without our family and friends back home.  I realized how much we were missing out on, a lot of it was little things, like movies/dinner/game nights/baby or wedding showers/cabin weekends with family or friends.

So in a few days time, Matt packed up all our stuff in a U-haul (leaving me a bed & clothes) and drove back home.  I stayed in FL to finish out a few weeks of work before heading back to MN.  I started a list of things I was looking forward to once I was back home to count down the days til I was home (which I’ll share with you in another post).

Life was looking up when Matt received a job offer and I had a job prospect waiting for me back home.  Late in October, it was time for me to go home!

When Matt left I thought he took pretty much everything, and I just had a few things to pack into my car….  Boy was I wrong!!!!!  My goal was to pack up the car quick in the morning, clean the apartment and then drive to my Godmothers house for the night before heading to MN.  Ugh, I packed and repacked my car countless times trying to fit everything into my Toyota Corolla.  It took me 4 hours to realize everything wasn’t going to fit…  What does a girl do when she doesn’t know what to do?  She calls her mom 🙂

My mom decided it was best if I just shipped a few things home.  1 trip to Target, 2 trips to the post office & 4 boxes of stuff was the magic number to get everything to fit in my car! 🙂  After I was able to get everything packed (& 8 hours behind schedule) it was time to deep clean the apartment…  I was finally done cleaning the apartment at 9:30pm, I was so tired!! 😦  My whole body hurt from walking up and down our apartment stairs carrying boxes, loading and unloading my car numerous times, carrying 4 boxes into the post office (might I add that no one asked if I need help carrying them), and cleaning for 5 hours.  I was so ready for bed, until I realized I had to blow-up my bed (again, I deflated it that morning since I hadn’t planned on staying another night)…  It was an air mattress that you had to blow-up by hand… I cried a little 😦

After my bed was ready, I finally got into bed at 10:30ish (after making myself a few mixed CDs)… but of course I couldn’t sleep, you know those nights when you continually look at the clock every hour, yeah it was one of those kind of nights.  So finally at 2:30am I gave up sleeping and tried showering without a shower curtain 🙂  I packed up my remaining belongings and headed to my Godmothers.