2011 in review

On the last page of my scrapbooks for the last few years I have listed the highlights from that year.  I’ll do the same at the end of this year’s scrapbook but since I’m also blogging now I’m going to write that list here as well.  I think it’s fun to look back at a quick overview of the year.

• I started graduate school – masters in library media education (LME) through Western Kentucky University (WKU) online (January)
• I created the Date of the Month Club for Michael which we did every month until we moved and then it just completely fell by the wayside – we may go back and just randomly do the other dates I had planned (February – August)
• I turned 24 (February)
• We visited Michael’s friend Doc in Chattanooga (April)
• We went to Gatlinburg for our 2nd anniversary (May)
• I finished my second year of teaching: 3 Algebra 2 classes, 1 Algebra 1 class, and 1 Connections Algebra 1 class (June)
• I flew to Dallas with Anne to visit Liz for a few days (June)
• Michael applied for a job at TVA (April)
• Michael got called for an interview with TVA (June)
• My Granddaddy fell and broke his hip (June)
• I spent a week in Mayfield helping Mom and Mema take care of Granddaddy (July)
• Michael got word that he was their pick for the job but that they were waiting for paperwork and approval from HR (August)
• I started my 3rd year of teaching: 3 Geometry classes, 1 Advanced Geometry class, and 1 Connections Algebra 1 class (August)
• I started this blog (August)
• Michael got an official offer from TVA (September) (this was quite a long process!)
• Michael and I gave our 2 weeks notice at our current jobs (September)
• We put our house on the market (September)
• We moved to Bowling Green (September)
• Michael started his new job (September)
• Michael (and I) travelled to Chattanooga, Nashville, Chattanooga again, Knoxville, and Mayfield for various trainings and job assignments (October – December)
• Michael turned 26 (November)
• Michael took (and passed) a test to get his HAM radio license (December)
• Michael’s Aunt Janet passed away (December)
• I completed 30 of my 33 hours of graduate classes (2 classes in the spring semester, 1 during May-mester, 4 during summer, and 3 during the fall semester) (January – December)
• I got my first DSLR camera (December)

2011 was a very exciting year!

Christmas 2011

DIY headband holder

Here’s my DIY headband holder using a Goodwill pedestal and an oatmeal canister – it cost less than $3.00 and holds my headbands beautifully!
This was the disaster that was my headband and hair accessory storage – just tossed on a shelf any whichaway – yikes!

Thankfully, Pinterest to the rescue – I saw a headband organized made out of an oatmeal canister and I decided that I could totally do that! (see the post I used for inspiration here)

First I bought this ugly interesting pedestal thing at Goodwill ($1.50)

Silly me set the bag down a little too hard and it broke but my trusty glue gun fixed that right up

I spray painted the pedestal using the left over spray paint from my painted leaf bowl.  You can see where I glued it back together, but no one will be looking from that angle so it’s not that noticeable.

I also only did one coat of spray paint because I’m impatient and didn’t want to have to wait for another coat to dry before I finished the project so there are a few spots on the underside that didn’t get quite covered.  Again, not a place where anyone is going to see that.  Remember what The Nester says: “It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful”

While the pedestal was drying I took an oatmeal canister (again, I’m impatient and didn’t want to wait until I’d eaten all the oatmeal to make this so I just dumped the oatmeal into a ziploc baggie so I could go ahead and use the container…shh, don’t tell)

I taped scrapbook paper around the canister and glued it to the top of the pedestel

I also put matching paper on the lid

My headbands wrap around the canister and I store other hair accessories (stretchy headbands, hair clips) inside the container.

Now my headbands are near my clothes and jewelry instead of in the linen closet in the hall.  I love how it looks and that my headbands are now organized!  And now I just need a cute headband from Gussy Sews to add to my collection…

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pretzel rolo turtles

I’m not exactly sure what to call these yummies but I’ve heard them called turtles so that’s what I’m going to go with.  These have been all over Pinterest and the blogosphere so you’ve probably seen them before, but I love how easy they are to make so I wanted to share them with you here – just in case you didn’t know about them.

lay your pretzels on a baking sheet

place a rolo on each pretzel and melt in the oven

place a pecan on top and press down

Recipe

Ingredients

• pretzels
• Rolos
• pecan halves

Instructions 

Preheat the oven for 250 degrees.  Place pretzels on a cookie sheet.  Unwrap Rolos and place one Rolo on each pretzel.  Heat in oven for 4-5 minutes (the chocolate will start to look shiny).  Remove from oven, place a pecan halve on each piece, and gently press down.  Let cool and serve or store in a airtight container.

Some notes: On the first round of turtles I made I ran out of pecan halves so I just put on Christmas m&m on top of the extras.  That was pretty, too.  Also, if you end up putting your turtles in the fridge to harden, make sure you let them return to room temperature before you try to eat them – I tried to eat one straight out of the fridge and nearly broke my mouth on the cold caramel.

Christmas 2011

Grab some hot chocolate and settle in for a recap of our Christmas weekend; complete with only a fraction of the 500 pictures I took with my new camera.

Unfortunately we were both a little sickly this Christmas.  I started getting sick right before we went to Knoxville to celebrate Christmas last Saturday and spent most of the week in bed with a runny nose, killer headache, some nausea, and fatigue.  I finally started feeling better Thursday night.  Then Friday Michael started feeling crummy with an extremely sore throat and runny nose that lasted through Christmas weekend.  However, we were still able to enjoy lots of time with our family and friends.

We kicked off the Christmas festivities on Christmas Eve morning when we did our little Christmas.  We slept late (well sort of, 8ish which is late for us) and then had strawberry muffins for breakfast (and then I had several Reeses trees…).  After breakfast we opened our presents and stockings from each other.

Michael woke up before me so he turned on the lights and set out our presents

getting the very last bag from the Christmas countdown

yep, t-shirt, capris, and fuzzy socks – these are the weird styling outfits I don’t show you on WIWW…at least my socks were Christmasy

That gift I was opening turned out to be…

a new camera!  Michael, my parents, and his parents went in together to buy it for me.

It came with a camera bag that is similar to the cool camera bag that Amanda has

After we opened our presents we got packed up and headed toward Springfield

Michael drove (as usual – what a champ)

and I played with my new toy…

When we got to Springfield Michael went to his dad’s shop to finish up a Christmas present and I went to hang out with Anne and Liz

we took a little walk and enjoyed the mild weather, scenery, and each other’s company

Christmas Eve night we always celebrate Christmas at Michael’s Grandmama’s (his dad’s mom) with his aunt, uncle, and cousins so we headed over there for dinner and presents.

Funny story: After we left Grandmama’s we stopped back by the shop to pick up the present Michael had been working on.  As we were leaving a police car pulled in and blocked us in.  Apparently we looked suspicious but after the officer found out who Michael was and checked his ID he let us go.  Of course the officer that stopped us was the same one who gave me a speeding ticket a few months ago.  I mean, does my old Camry just shout “troublemaker”??  I know, it’s actually really good that they are keeping an eye on things around town but I just get this feeling this guy is out to get me…

Christmas morning we got up early so we could do our presents before church – here are the boys waiting in the kitchen while Mom and Daddy finish breakfast

opening stockings – one of the things in my stocking (which I’m holding in this picture) is a pair of gloves with special tips on the thumb and pointer finger so I can wear gloves and still use my iPhone.  Sweet.

Like I’ve mentioned before, my family likes puzzles.  Brendan gave us a code that we had to solve that would lead us to our presents.  Riley solved it while I was distracted eating biscuits and gravy so I’m not exactly sure what the clue was…

Then Riley gave me a cool puzzle that used cookie cutters to tell a story that told me I was getting…

vouchers for tickets to see the Hunger Games movie in March!

(Brendan looks very interested, doesn’t he?)

Brendan’s present was the coolest one this year.  A while ago he came up with an idea for a new board game (don’t know the specifics, sorry).  He created a practice board on a piece of poster board and the guys played it at Thanksgiving.  At some point he created a design on the computer of what he wanted it to look like (I think, again I’m not sure of the specifics) but anyway, somehow Daddy got a hold of the design and sent it to a friend of his who made it into a real game board.  Daddy then bought some little army men that matched the roles of the figures in the game.  Michael painted the the pieces and Riley made a box with foam in it to store them.  Brendan was really surprised.  Sorry for the really stinky explanation of the game – the short of it was that we (mostly Daddy) turned Brendan’s game idea into the real thing.  Very neat.

Looks so professional

After breakfast and presents we headed to church

I love this picture

Christmas 2011 – Brendan (22), Michael (26), Caitlin (24), Riley (19)

After a yummy lunch of vegetable soup, Riley taught Michael and me how to play Buzzwords so we played for a while with him and Mom

Then Michael read on his Kindle

while Mom, Riley, and I played Rummikub

After that we took a nice, restful nap

Christmas night we went to Michael’s uncle’s house to celebrate with his dad’s extended family

we visited, ate, and played with another one of the funny dancing monkeys from Walgreens – I love these things!

Uncle Kenneth showed off his UT Snuggie and Aunt Squaty’s new scarf

Monday morning (the day after Christmas) we did Christmas with Michael’s parents and brother (and I acted goofy for the camera while we waited for breakfast to finish cooking)

We ate a yummy breakfast and then did presents

The rest of the day was spent laying around, watching tv, reading, blogging, etc.

Finally Monday evening we packed up and headed back to Bowling Green.  Other than being a little sickly we had a fantastic Christmas!

pecan pie brownies

My dad loves pecan pie so for Christmas I made him some pecan pie brownies from a recipe I found here.  He loved them and said they were addicting (you have now been warned) but delicious.

Let me just go ahead and say that when you start making these you are probably going to think that you ruined them – I thought so but they turned out fine.  Just keep going even when you think you messed up (plus I’m going to tell you what happened to me so hopefully you won’t panic).  Because of being panicky that everything was ruined I failed to take very many pictures – oops.

for the brownies you need flour, sugar, butter, eggs, cocoa, salt, and vanilla

The recipe says to melt the butter and cocoa in a saucepan over low heat so I dumped both things in the saucepan.  This was my first boo boo.  Because the cocoa powder was in the pan with the butter it was difficult to get it to melt since the powder sort of prevented the butter from touching the bottom of the pan and melting.  I was really afraid the cocoa would burn but it ended up being fine – it just stressed me out.  If I make these again I will either melt the butter first, then add the cocoa powder or just skip the saucepan altogether and melt the butter in the microwave then add everything.  I don’t think it will make a difference.

The next step is to add the sugar.  This part also made me quite nervous.  When I added the sugar it looked so gritty and dry; neither of us (Michael or me) thought that it was right but we checked the recipe and it seemed as though we did it correctly.  I knew I still had flour to add so I was just sure that something was wrong – no way would I be able to add flour to this mixture and get anything edible!  But I continued with the recipe and added the eggs and vanilla – lo and behold the eggs provided enough moisture and it looked fine!

The batter was still very thick but at least it looked like batter.  I added the flour and salt as directed, stirred it up, and put it in the pan.  However, when I licked the spoon I thought the batter tasted terrible – not at all like the brownie batter from boxed brownie mixes.  That made me even more nervous so I poured a little bit of it in a mini muffin tin so I would be able to taste it once it was finished baking (I didn’t want to cut into the brownies) and I had Michael on standby ready to to buy a box of brownie mix in case these tasted terrible.

I tried my little mini muffin brownie and had Michael tried it as well – we both thought it tasted great!  Michael thought it tasted like fudge pie.  So if you’re feeling nervous about your batter, stick with it and it will probably turn out great.

for the topping: eggs, butter, pecans, corn syrup, vanilla, and brown sugar

Thankfully this part was much easier – just dump all the ingredients in a bowl and mix together

pour over the top of the brownies and bake

Recipe (from here):

Ingredients

for the brownies:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup cocoa
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 tsp salt

for the topping:

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup corn syrup
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups pecans, chopped

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325F. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter with the cocoa over medium heat (Caitlin’s note: may want to melt the butter first before adding in the cocoa), stirring and removing from the heat as soon as the butter melts. Stir until smooth, then stir in the sugar. Stir in the eggs and vanilla until smooth, then add the flour and salt and stir just until combined.

Pour into an 8×8-inch baking dish that has been buttered or sprayed with nonstick spray; smooth the top. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, then let cool completely.

To make the topping, stir together the brown sugar, syrup, butter, eggs and vanilla until smooth. Stir in the pecans and pour over the base. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until golden and set.

Let cool completely, then refrigerate for at least two hours before serving.

What I Wore Wednesday

Thursday – dinner with Chris and Erin as they passed by Bowling Green on their way to Mississippi

flower shirt/Gabriel Bros; long sleeved shirt/Limited; skirt/NY&Co; boots/Target

Saturday (Christmas Eve) – Christmas with Michael’s dad’s side of the family

hat and scarf/gift from my grandparents; pink top/Old Navy; sweater/NY&Co; jeans/Gap; shoes/Rugged Wearhouse (Gabriel Bros)

Sunday (Christmas) morning – Christmas with my parents and church

long sleeved top/Limited; pink top/Banana Republic outlet; skirt/Loft outlet; tights/Vera Wang via Kohls; shoes/Caprizi via Shoe Carnival

This was definitely my favorite outfit this week.  Possibly one of my favorites since I’ve started WIWW.  I’ve actually had this outfit picked out for weeks, maybe months, but it just hasn’t been cold enough to wear it (those tights are thick!) so I was really excited to get to wear it this week.  Also, you can’t tell in the picture but the skirt is striped so I did a little pattern mixing, too.

Sunday (Christmas) night – Christmas with Michael’s dad’s extended family

cardi/Limited; black top/Loft via Rugged Wearhouse (Gabriel Bros); skirt/NY&Co; tights/Gabriel Bros; boots/Madden Girl via Marshalls

Monday – Christmas with Michael’s parents

blazer/Goodwill; green shirt/Banana Republic outlet; skirt/NY&Co; tights/Vera Wang via Kohls; shoes/Rugged Wearhouse (Gabriel Bros)

Tuesday – running errands (bought the cutest shoes ever – I can’t wait to show you!) and meeting my brother in Franklin to pick up the bag full of all my toiletries, shower stuff, makeup, and hair stuff that I had left at my parents house the previous day (hence the lack of makeup and crazy hair in this picture)

dress/Target; pink tank/Old Navy; striped sweater/Target; tights/Surplus City; shoes/Rugged Wearhouse (Gabriel Bros); headband/Rugged Wearhouse (Gabriel Bros)

Linking up to What I Wore Wednesday at The Pleated Poppy

let’s talk tights {Works for Me Wednesday}

Tights are hot right now.  Hot as in fashionable, not hot as in temperature – although that is sometimes true, too.  Anyway, tights are in.  And I like how they look.  However, memories of the uncomfortable hose that I’ve worn in the past have kept me from wearing tights/hose/leggings for any long periods of time (i.e. longer than just to church and back on a Sunday morning).  Squeezing into them is no fun, they’re super tight, the top of them binds my middle and creates a yucky roll, you know the drill – you’ve probably dealt with it, too.  But this year I decided to try something and guess what…IT WORKED!  And now I’m sharing my tip with you.

Ready?

Here’s my trick:

Buy your tights in a size larger than what the back of the package says (you know, where the height and weight chart is).  They’re still stretchy enough that they stay up but they aren’t nearly as tight around my middle and are SO much more comfortable to wear for extended periods of time.  Buying up a size works for me!

Left: black patterned tights from Gabriel Bros; Middle: thick brown tights from Kohls (Vera Wang); Right: solid black tights – no idea where from

(Question: what do you call the ones that have all the cut outs?  Like the black diamond ones above or the gray ones below?  I don’t think they’re tights since they aren’t solid but I can’t think of a better name for them.  They don’t seem like hose either.  Someone clue me in if you have a better idea.)

Left: gray tights from Forever 21; Right: ribbed black leggings – no idea where from

And while we’re on this subject, one more thing.  Ladies, leggings and tights are NOT pants!  Please do not wear them as such.  They are hardly flattering on anyone and are quite inappropriate.  Wear something long enough over your tights that it covers your buns and preferably most of your thighs.

Thank you.

Just had to get that out there.

Linking up to Works for Me Wednesday at We are THAT Family.

my new camera

I am so so very excited about my Christmas present!  Michael, my parents, and my in-laws went in together and bought me a Canon EOS Rebel T3i for Christmas.  I am incredibly thrilled!  Michael gave it to me to open when we did our Christmas (Christmas Eve morning) and I’ve hardly put it down since.  I’m having a blast playing with it and learning all the cool things it can do.  Fortunately there are tons of tutorials and helpful posts found all over the blogosphere and Pinterest that are helping me learn a lot.

From the time I got my camera Saturday morning to the time we got home Monday night I took almost 500 pictures.  Many of those were the same shot over and over again as I played around with the aperture, shutter speed, ISO, manual focus, and white balance.  Therefore, many of those pictures were bad, but I had fun playing and I did get some that I really liked.  I’ll spare you the 500 but I wanted to record a few of my favorites.  I hope that someday I look back at these and laugh at how amateur they seem…but for now I’m pretty proud of myself.  (Just in case anyone cares…the lens I have is the stock lens that comes with the T3i: 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.5 IS)

not a particularly impressive picture, but it’s the very first one taken with my camera so it’s special

decorative balls at my parents

Mom’s quilt – made by my Mema – on our bed in the guest room

my beautiful hometown

first time trying out the manual focus feature on my lens

messing around with the shutter speed – totally did not know that was going to happen but thought it was really cool (that’s my parent’s Christmas tree)

then Daddy took this by using a slow shutter speed and zooming in and out while taking the picture – super fun

I was a little bummed when I found out that the stock lens that came with my camera didn’t have a low enough aperture to make bokeh, but then I discovered that I could get some by using the manual focus on my lens so I was really happy (my parent’s Christmas tree again)

playing Buzzwords

playing Rummikub

this is not at all a spectacular picture, but I was so excited that I was able to take a picture through glass without it looking all wonky

pecan pie brownies (recipe here)

Michael’s parent’s Christmas tree

love that you can even see the engraving inside Michael’s wedding band (5-23-09 Matt. 5:16)

I am just so stinkin’ excited about my camera.  Get ready for a bajillion and twelve pictures!

blessings

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. – Proverbs 3:5-6

[source]

Presents have been opened, family has been visited, and tummies are full.  This Christmas has been fantastic and I’ll be sharing details and tons of pictures (from my new camera – yippee!!) soon.  Right now I’m sitting in front of the fire reflecting on this past year and marveling over how blessed we are.

This time last year we were living in Lexington.  I was teaching (well, not this exact time since it was winter break, but you get the idea…) and I was getting ready to start my very first semester of graduate school.  I basically resigned myself to one full year of no free time since I would be teaching and trying to finish as many grad school hours as possible but I just kept telling myself “one year and I’ll be almost finished!”.  Other than me starting grad school we didn’t really anticipate many life changes.  Boy were we in for a surprise.

I’ll spare you a full recap of 2011 (I have that post planned for closer to New Year’s Eve…) but for the newer readers who may not know the whole story, here’s a quick recap.  January – August were pretty uneventful: I finished up the school year teaching, took 2 grad school classes in the spring, one during May, and 4 during the summer.  Michael worked, we did lots of things with our church, and travelled a little.  Although I had lots of graduate school work, it ended up not being nearly as time consuming or stressful as I thought and so I was able to actually have a life outside of teaching school and going to school.  In August I started back another school year.  September brought about the big changes: Michael got a new job so I left the school I was teaching at, we put our house on the market, and we moved to Bowling Green.

First of all, the fact that we were able to move to Bowling Green was such a wonderful blessing.  Although we loved our friends and church in Lexington, we (especially me) really wanted to move closer to home.  Bowling Green was the perfect place at just an hour away from our families.  These past few months we have seen our families so much more than usual because it no longer has to be a huge, weekend-long ordeal to go home and visit. It’s also much smaller than Lexington, which we prefer.

When we found out about the move I started looking for teaching jobs in or near Bowling Green.  There wasn’t anything available that close to the beginning of the year so then I started looking for other jobs: tutoring, nannying, banking, etc.  Nothing was panning out…but as usual God knew much better than me what was best.

As I got further into this semester of graduate school I realized that the 3 classes I was taking (9 hours – considered full time for a graduate student) were turning out to be much harder and time consuming than I anticipated.  Had I found a job right away, I would have been under extreme stress trying to start a new job (especially if it had been one where I came in to a classroom a month or two after the start of the school year) as well as keep up with all my graduate school work.  Once we realized how time consuming these classes were we decided that I would take this semester just to concentrate on those classes.

“The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” – Proverbs 16:9

The lack of job and the fact that my classes are all online allowed me to travel with Michael on all his work trips (and there were many!).  We went to Chattanooga, to Nashville, back to Chattanooga, to Knoxville, and to Mayfield.  Some of these trips I spent most of the time in the hotel working on school stuff, but at least we were able to be together – something that wouldn’t have been possible if I had been working.  Since  my dad’s side of the family lives in Knoxville and my mom’s side of the family lives in Mayfield we were able to spend time visiting with extended family that ordinarily we only see a very few times per year.

These past few months have truly been some of my favorite times since we got married and the memories we’ve made are so precious.  The way it worked out so that I was in a position to travel with Michael was better than anything I could have planned myself.

Another big blessing came in the form of a job offered to me by one of my professors.  Background: I have one graduate school class left, which I will be taking in the spring.  After we moved and after we decided that I should not try to work until I finished this difficult semester we anticipated that I would try to find a job that started after the start of the year.  However, we soon realized that might be problematic because my final grad school class consists of a practicum where I have to complete quite a few (120?) field experience hours.  Most jobs probably wouldn’t look kindly on me having to take a bunch of time off right off the bat.  So we decided that I would just try to substitute teach for the spring semester so I could be flexible with what days I worked.

Then one of my professors emailed me (another amazing twist: my graduate school classes are through Western Kentucky University…which happens to be in Bowling Green…I had no idea when I chose that program that we would be living there!) and asked me if I would be interested in a graduate assistantship during the spring semester.  The GA position is part time so I will be able to work some and still have days off to complete those field experience hours.  The pay isn’t great but it will at least cover my tuition costs.  So as long as all works out with my paperwork I will be working at WKU part time during the spring semester as I finish up my masters program.

God is amazing.  We are so blessed.

“‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord.” - Isaiah 55:8

pizza grilled cheese

Recently while looking on Pinterest I saw where someone had pinned a picture of a pizza grilled cheese sandwich.  I didn’t click on it to look at the recipe but I thought “Hey, that sounds good and I can do that!” – so here’s what I came up with:

You’ll need bread, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, butter, and pizza seasonings (basil and thyme)

p.s. we’ve started making grilled cheese in the oven rather than a skillet the way I always used to because its easier and they are crispier, which we like

spread butter on the bread and sprinkle with seasonings (the butter part will be on the insides of your sandwich – if you turn the butter sides out your sandwich will be soggy)

sprinkle with mozzarella cheese

then add pepperoni (to one or both sides of the bread – depending on how much you want)

bake until cheese is melted

then put the two halves together and stick back in the oven

yum yummy yum yum

Recipe

Ingredients

• bread
• butter (or margarine, Smart Balance, etc.)
• cheese (I used mozzarella)
• pepperoni (I used turkey pepperoni)
• seasoning (I used basil and thyme – any Italian seasonings will do)

Instructions

Lightly butter one side of each piece of bread, then sprinkle on your seasonings.  Top each butter side with cheese, pepperoni, and any other toppings you might choose.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 8 minutes, then put the sandwich halves together and bake for another 2 minutes.

Serve with pizza sauce for dipping or maybe some tomato soup.

This would be a South Beach Phase 2 meal.