what we've been up to...

so it has been an incredibly long time since i have posted on this here blog... it has been with good reason, i promise! we were unexpectedly busy with lots of things and the blog took to the curb! hopefully that will change this go round. let's try for a month by month re-cap...

march:

in march i unexpectedly got a long-term sub position for a first grade teacher, hence why i was so busy. there was already a sub scheduled for when the teacher thought she would be leaving, so i only had the class for this month. the kids were so much fun to be with and i loved the school i was in. it was a great experience for me to be the only teacher and be able to do what i wanted with the students and move around our schedule during the day as i saw fit. we even went on a fun field trip and got to eat lunch in death valley! 

april:

during this month i started a new long-term position at another school in first grade. this was an easier transition for the kids because they knew their teacher would be leaving for the month of may. i had a good experience in this classroom and enjoyed getting to meet another set of kids! this month i also went to a wedding for one of my college friends, anna beth! i loved her wedding and it was so fun to see friends. 

may:

the month of may was very busy for us! i finished my long-term position at school #2 in the middle of the month and the rest of the month was nearly a blur. i started selling thirty one and had a kick-off party at our apartment. we had weddings back to back weekends (one of which i was in). i loved getting to celebrate with sweet friends! we also celebrated our one year anniversary with dinner and dessert downtown and then exchanged gifts at home. 

{thirty-one party}

{bethani and jimmy's wedding}

{anniversary}

{rachel and matt's wedding}

june:

the month of june was fun, too! some of our friends from cp group had a beautiful baby girl, we went to another wedding (third weekend in a row!), travelled to louisiana for the southern baptist convention, and went to myrtle beach for a seminary class with GLINK. 

{welcome to the world, hannah marie}

{SBC convention}

i'll just post one picture from that trip, i'll do another post (hopefully) this week about that trip and our GLINK seminary class week.

this is officially the longest post i've ever done. so many pictures! 

just a thought. 

toffee crunch cheesecake

i love making anything that includes cream cheese.... i am probably an addict. i had originally planned to make a toffee cheesecake for sean's birthday but we had some left over birthday cake from his surprise (success!) party that we decided to hold off on the cheesecake for a bit. we had a few friends over for chicken tortilla soup so i made some cheesecake for dessert. i cheated with this one and used a pre-made pie shell... worth it when you don't have a ton of time. 

toffe crunch cheesecake

ingredients:

2 packages of cream cheese, softened (total 16 ounces)

1/2 cup light brown sugar firmly packed

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup chopped Heath bar (can substitute for Heath bits)

2 eggs

1 graham pie shell (6 ounces)

1. preheat oven to 350.

2. combine sugar, cream cheese, and vanilla. beat on medium speed until all combined.

3. add eggs one at a time and scrape bowl in between.

4. stir in 3/4 cup of chopped Heath bars and pour into pie shell.

5. sprinkle remaining bits on top and put in the oven for 35 to 40 minutes. cool in refrigerator for 3 hours or overnight. keep leftover cheesecake in fridge after serving.

i hope you enjoy!

just a thought.

crock pot chicken tortilla soup

we recently had friends over for supper and i made a variation of this recipe and it was delicious!

what you need: 

2 cans mild rotel

2 cups chicken broth

1 can mexicorn (regular corn would work just fine)

1 package mild taco seasoning (or chicken taco seasoning)

2 chicken breasts

1 can kidney beans

1 can black beans 

tortilla chips

sour cream

shredded cheese

1. trim fat pieces off of chicken breast, rinse chicken, and place in crock pot.

2. add 2 cans rotel, chicken broth, beans and mexicorn to your crock pot.

3. turn crock pot on high for ~6 hours or on low for ~8 hours. before serving take chicken breasts out of crock pot and pull them using two forks. by this time your chicken should be very tender and easy to pull; if you are having trouble pulling the chicken it is because it is not cooked enough and needs to be returned to the crock pot. i always use my meat thermometer to make sure my meat is fully cooked through- chicken should be 180 degrees.

4. set crock pot to warm or low depending on when you are serving. to serve crunch up a few tortilla chips in the bowl before adding your soup. top with sour cream and cheese and enjoy!

there are definitely ways to change this up, but i just used what i had!

just a thought.