Playing Hooky

Kyle and I were both off Saturday with "no plans."  Which is a rare event around here. Of course I had all kinds of ideas for us. I am dying to plant the last half of my garden. Finding a non-rainy day where my muscular husband can shovel and till my plot for me is challenging. I also have been trying to find a place/DIY plans to put a clothes line up in our yard. I am constantly washing towels and blankets. I can't wait to get one put up so I can give my dryer a break and get some fresh air breezing through my sheets.
Ahh.
So, I started out making a fruit salad and Spicy Ham & Egg Baskets for breakfast. My mother-in-law was in a muffin tin kick last week last weekend and made us these baskets and also spinach eggs bites.  They turned out delicious and super cute, so I had to try them first chance I got. Pinterest is full of great muffin tin recipes.  Here's the basic recipe by Healthy Recipe Ecstasy:

http://www.healthyrecipeecstasy.com/2012/09/26/spicy-eggs-in-ham-baskets/

I did a variation and scrambled the eggs and added green peppers and green onions. They were delicious. I didn't get a picture because we ate them right up. They were good heated in the microwave a few seconds the next morning also.

After breakfast, we headed to the zoo. I am trying to get more familiar with Kyle's Canon Rebel XS. I don't really know why, but I've been practicing. I tried using all kinds of settings and I still have no clue how to use the thing. I thought the zoo would be good practice. It was, but it's obvious I need a lot more! I did get a few of the giraffes as they were eating by us.

We decided just to play hooky the rest of the day and used our coupons at Smiling Moose and then went for ice cream at Cold Stone. I got the most amazing concoction that the nice Cold Stone lady recommended. It was cheesecake ice cream with peanut butter, chocolate syrup, and reese cups mixed in. Kyle got the same only chocolate ice cream.

This is Kyle's ice cream face. His thought process is going from "Oh yes, this is the best thing I've ever tasted in my life" to "Oh crap, this is the worst brain freeze I"ve had in my life." It happens every single time he eats ice cream. 

Ice cream makes me happy. So does a day doing nothing with my hubby!

We ended up going to watch Star Trek in 3D. It was awesome! You should go see it. Yes I like Star Trek, Star Wars, super hero movies, Harry Potter and on and on.  I never said I wasn't a nerd you know. 

We ended our night at a cook out with our friends and playing a ultra cool (nerdy) German board game called Settlers of Catan. 

Oh and I can't forget we got a special visit by my friend's Husky puppy, Murray. Oh my word, he is cute and so precious. I wish I had a picture to post. 

What a great Saturday! Of course when I got home I was feeling guilty that I ran around all day and didn't get anything done at the house. That darn to do list.  Oh well, someday when I'm productive I'll brag on it here in my blog. But don't hold your breath on that one. ;)

The Misfortunes of Our Fridge

I wonder how many times in the last week Kyle has opened our empty refrigerator out of habit? Lucky for that guy, we are back to business with our fridge. Let me rewind and fill you in on our latest roll with the punches event in the Campbell life.....

A week and a half ago, on the Wednesday before Mother's Day, I walked into our kitchen at about 8pm after getting off work a little later than normal. I fed the dogs and went to the sink (in my sock feet) to discover our entire floor covered in a pool of water. Of course I automatically thought my dogs must have gotten into something. I don't know why I would think that. They always look so innocent......

Cute little pals. But back to our story...

I found that the water was coming from our freezer. I opened the door and with water dripping everywhere, it was obvious that we had a situation on our hands.  I think those are the words I used when I called my mom. "Mom, we have a situation,  is Dad there?" My mom has heard this line before. In fact, this calls for a side story.

 * When I was in high school,  my friend Meredith and I were on our way home through the back roads in the dark after a rainy day. I couldn't really see how deep the water was across the road. Although I've drove these backwoods roads dozens of times, knowing they flood. I just didn't have time to turn around and make curfew so I drove right through. Bad idea. My car flooded and died. I then, intelligence shining, opened my door to see how deep we were. Deep enough for the water to rush in my floorboard. So I called my dad and said "Daddy, I've got a little bit of a water situation here" Dad, always my shining knight, comes in his truck, with the whole family shining flashlights and laughing as we sat barefoot on the hood of the car waiting for assistance. Meredith said "Oh you just never know what kind of fun adventures you get into with Jill,"  Kyle probably thinks the same.

I must add that as I'm assessing the fridge, I am home alone of course. Kyle is on shift for another 3 hours. Ahh. Police Wife Life.  It still feels a lot like Army Wife Life. Since my parents are my "on call" backup, I tell them my woes and got to hear my mom's encouraging story of how she had three years in a row on Mother's Day a large appliance broke down and she had to purchase a new one, I was really hoping this wouldn't be my luck. We had had a storm the night before and it looked like the odds would be against us on this one. I could feel my vacation budget getting smaller.  The freezer had basically thawed out and everything in it was just barely icy. I called around and invited myself to use some friend's fridge and freezer space and packed up all my food. I came home and used my car headlights to shine as I searched everywhere for our cooler in Kyle's dark shop (really hoping we get electricity soon!). By the time I got inside to mop up the rest of the water, I was starving. I left out hot dogs and carrots to put in a cooler with ice. Which we lived out of for 2 days. We do like to camp, just not in our own home. So at 10pm I was mopping water and eating a less than exciting hot dog supper. 

My dad saved us on Friday and brought over 2 mini refrigerators until we could get ours looked at. It felt like dorm living. But I turned out to be very talented in packing large amounts of food into tiny spaces. You don't know how much you miss having ice until you don't have a freezer. 

Finally, after a week and a half, we were able to get someone to take a look. They were able to fix our fridge for a relatively minimal fee considering. So instead of buying a brand new refrigerator, we can start vacation planning again! I'm so thankful that it came out best case scenario. Thinking of the minimal damage there was to my flooded car, my phone that survived 3 toilet drops, and now our puddle of a fridge that came through for us, I'm beginning to think maybe I just have a knack for getting out of water mishaps. Or maybe getting into them....Hmm.  

Thrift Store Inspiration

I stayed up until nearly midnight last night helping a friend hem pants for our co-workers. I guess I must have missed my sewing machine. I pretended that I wasn't behind on laundry and dishes and drug out the little feller to do some refashioning today.

 refashion [riːˈfæʃən]

vb (tr)

to give a new form to (something)

I had a blue dress that I bought from a thrift store last fall to wear as a swim suit cover up in Jamaica. I loved the print and the varying shades of blue. I thought the ruffles might iron down flat, but they never did, It was a little big up top, and too short for my preference so I didn't end up taking it. It has sat in my closet, but I just haven't been able to give it away yet because I just love the ombre blue color. So today I decided to give it a  makeover. 

Here it is looking a little frumpy, and coming close to giving you a view of me that (until I am a celebrity) no one would care to see.  

I removed the ruffles and elastic from the front, folded back down the top hem and sewed the sides to fit my waist. It still has elastic in the back the front is smooth and flat, instead of the "bubbled" look it has now. 

Here is the after. Much better! This skirt will be perfect for summer. 

I mentioned that I bought this dress for my Jamaica trip. I highly recommend you buy thrift store dresses to wear on vacations, especially if you are traveling out of the country or flying to a beach destination. It's easy to find casual beach dresses any time of the year. Goodwill here usually has them for $4.00 and other thrift stores can be even cheaper. It doesn't even have to fit perfect, because you are wearing it over a swim suit. I even cut down on my packing by wearing one to dinner (dressing it up with jewelry and cute shoes).  Then I wear it again the next day at the beach as my cover up. It doesn't matter if it's a little wrinkly or gets sand or sunscreen on it and you get two uses out of it. When it comes to traveling home and you've bought too many souvenirs, you can just leave the dresses behind or have the hotel donate them without worrying about the money you spent on them. 

Here is a fantastic little dress I bought for $2.00 at a thrift store to take on our trip. It's too low cut to wear alone, but works perfect as a cover up. It even has cute pockets that worked great for my camera. I did bring all my dresses home from this trip and hopefully I"ll get to use them again soon!