Recipe of the Week

Ok so I know it has been forever since I wrote one of these, but this one is well worth the wait! I got this recipe from a friend of the family and it is always a must at any event...

Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Pita Chips

Ingredients:
2 granny smith apples
2 kiwi
1 pint strawberries
1 tbsp orange juice
1 tbsp grape or strawberry jelly
2 tbsp packed brown sugar
1 bag of cinnamon pita chips

Directions:

1. Wash and cut all fruit (using a food chopper) so that it is cut into tiny pieces.
2. Mix the orange juice, jelly, and brown sugar in a separate bowl from all the fruit.
3. Once all of the fruit it cut and mixed together in one bowl, pour the juice, jelly, and brown sugar over top.
4. Stir all together and serve chilled.

It is seriously that easy. So get to work and enjoy!!!

2 month recap...

And I'm back! Sorry it has been so long friends but I honestly did not have anything to write about. I found myself wondering why I was even writing a blog because who really cares what I do every day??? Thank you for those of you who stop by and keep up to date with my life. I love reading my friends blogs so that I can stay in touch so here I am again...for those of you who want to keep in touch!

So let's recap the past 2 months...

End of August:
I left Alabama and moved into a new classroom and new apartment. Spent a week and a half setting up the new classroom and new apartment then went back down to Alabama for Greg's graduation from flight school! Life was a little bit stressful but I could not have been more proud of Greg. That weekend was also insane with packing up Greg's townhouse in Alabama, visiting Panama City, graduation ceremony, and more all in 48 hours.

I then came back to Virginia two days before the school year started and wrote my lesson plans and prepared for the first week of school. Greg arrived the following day with his rental truck filled with all of our furniture and goodies (I was living in a skeleton of an apartment for a few weeks until Greg came home). With one day to spare before the beginning of the school year, we got the truck unpacked and started setting up our home!

September:
The school year began without any real issues. I am absolutely loving my new school and have been lucky enough (again) to not only have one, but two wonderful classes. I am now team teaching so I teach math, science, and social studies then switch classes with the teacher across the hall then repeat. My school is absolutely incredible with loads of parent volunteers and tons of opportunity to volunteer in the community. I have a FIVE MINUTE commute. Amazing!!! I rode my bike to work last week and loved it!

Greg and I have settled into apartment living. We love the location and having a place of our own. Every weekend we ride our bikes to dinner or out on the boardwalk. This weekend was Neptune Fest and we went and explored and even bought new art work for our living room!

Our weekends are filled with catching up with friends, hanging out with family, football, and relaxing. It is amazing how fast the weekends always fly by! We have a ton of exciting events coming up the next few weekends so hopefully there will be more posts to come... Ana and Nick's wedding, JMU homecoming, and hopefully a camping trip!!!

Hope you all are enjoying the beginning of fall :) I love lighting my spiced pumpkin yankee candle every day :)

xoxox

Mrs. Hicks' classroom


Greg on his cruiser :)


living room with new artwork!

Lesson learned #10- Holy laundry!

Oh... my... goodness! The laundry never ends!

Seriously, how can two people make so many things dirty?
Every time I turn around I have another load of laundry to do. I do a load of darks and feel quite accomplished. But as soon as I fold and put away the clean laundry my whites hamper is full. So then I do whites. Fold it, put it away, and breath a sigh of relief. Then Greg informs me his uniform needs washing. Of course that has to be a load all by itself because you cannot wash his uniform with a dryer sheet.

Ok uniform washed, darks and lights are done, I survived. Wrong! Now I am out of clean towels/hand towels/washcloths! You have got to be kidding me! As soon as I finish this load my darks have filled up again and the cycle starts all over again. The laundry NEVER ends!

Thank you mom for handling this never ending cycle for the past 23 years. I now realize how spoiled I have been all along. If laundry is this bad for two people I cannot imagine what it will be like when I have an infant who spits up 76 times a day and as a result wears multiple outfits a day. Ahhhhhh I am so not ready for that!

Maybe, just maybe, I would enjoy the laundry process and get it done a little quicker if I had these wonderful pieces of machinery in my laundry room (cough*Greg*please*cough)
xoxo

Lesson learned #9- Spiders and lizards and bugs! Oh my!

This post come a few weeks late but it is never too late to learn a good lesson, right?

The past few weeks Greg has been on the night portion of flight school which means he reports to class around 4:00pm then flight line and gets home around 1:00am. Fun times, right? This also means that I am home alone during these hours with nothing but my brand new droid (love it!), the computer, and tv to keep me entertained.

In order to try to keep my sanity I try to do little things around the house during these long hours alone to keep me busy. Just call me Susy Homemaker. I cook, clean, do laundry, vacuum, dust, etc (Greg, no comments). It is during one of these simple cleaning tasks, that I learned my most recent lesson...I am most definitely NOT a fan of things that creep, crawl, scurry, etc.

A few weeks ago I was on the couch watching Criminal Minds (why I watch shows about murder and scary people while home alone in a strange place I really do not know) when I decided it was time to vacuum. I get off the couch and turn around to walk towards the closet for the vacuum and see something move out of the corner of my eye. I look to find my new friend...

Meet Mr. Lizard. He is multi-colored, skittish, and freaking fast. I nearly jump out of my skin and return to the couch. I quickly text Greg an urgent 911- come home quick! No response. Stupid helicopter.... no texting and flying. I then call my father and frantically ask for help. He informs me I should try to force it outside. At this point, Mr. Lizard is in the corner behind the DVD stand and I am hovering beside it on my tippy-toes with a pillow in my hand.

I get the lizard out of the corner and open the back door. The back door remains open for the next 15 minutes as the lizard and I have a stand off. He wins. He scurries across the floor in my direction and I freak and jump back on the couch.

Thank god we have friends across the street. I text our friends and request their assistance. They come to my rescue and after a few minutes they cup the lizard and get it outside. All the while I am sitting with my feet far off the ground very thankful that I do not have to deal with this thing. It is way too fast and skittish for me to handle.

Now thanks to the door being open for 15 minutes I have let every fly in lower Alabama into the living room, but those I can handle. Greg and I bought a fly swatter gun which is just as much fun as it sounds. I put it to good use and now consider myself a professional :)

Luckily, I have no had any further encounters with lizards but I have experienced multiple spiders and roaches. Greg has been home for these encounters thank god. I am trying to learn to deal on my own but it isn't going too well. I am just not a fan of things that creep and crawl and can bite.

So for any of you followers who live in the Virginia Beach area, I will be accepting applications for my personal pest control service while Greg is gone... please contact me if you are interested :)

xoxo

It is official!

Exciting news! We officially got the word from our apartment complex that we have an apartment reserved in our name and it is just what we wanted :)

We are on the 4th floor of a 4 floor building (if you know me you know this is oh so important since I am the lightest sleeper ever). We have our own balcony AND a fireplace! Greg has already planned out of first Christmas with our stockings hanging from the fireplace :)

So here is the floor plan. Lucky for me the apartment complex has an awesome feature on the website that lets me plan out where my furniture will go on a scaled model. I can select pre-made furniture pieces or create my own piece with my own measurements. Let the planning begin!

We are super pumped to move in. The big day is August 20th. And when I say big, I mean not so big because that is the day I paint. Once all the painting is finished then we will start moving things on in! Cannot wait to have friends and family over :)

The website for the complex is:

www.saltmeadowbay.com

Check it out and let us know when you are ready to visit!

xoxo

Recipe of the Week

Here is another yummy and Casey approved new recipe. As promised we tried the garlic grilled lamb chops (recipe from foodnetwork.com). Unfortunately the commissary at Fort Rucker does not carry lamp chops so we used the same recipe for the garlic rub but used pork chops instead. Let me know what you think :)

Ingredients

• 1 head garlic
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus about 1 tablespoon for roasting garlic
• Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley leaves
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped rosemary
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped thyme
• 3 (1 1/2-pound) lamb racks, frenched and trimmed

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Cut the top off the garlic head. Drizzle it with about 1 tablespoon olive oil, season with salt and pepper, to taste, and wrap in aluminum foil. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes, then remove and let cool.

Once cool, squeeze the roasted garlic cloves from the skin into a small bowl. Add the 3 tablespoons of olive oil, the red pepper flakes, and fresh herbs. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper, if necessary. Mix well to make a paste.

Season the lamb racks with salt and pepper, then rub the garlic-herb mixture evenly into the meat.

Preheat a grill to medium-high heat. (Chef's Note: Test by holding your hand 5 inches above the grates. If your hand cannot stand the heat after 3 to 4 seconds, the grill is ready.)

Grill the lamb racks, meat side down, for about 3 minutes on the first side. Turn, then let the second side grill for 5 minutes total, for medium-rare doneness. Cook slightly longer for medium. (Cook's Note: Let the lamb reach 125 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer, for medium-rare doneness or 130 degrees F for medium.)

Transfer the lamb from the grill to a platter and tent the racks with foil. Let them rest for 10 minutes before slicing between each rib to separate the chops.

Lesson learned #8- ALWAYS make an appointment!

Ladies, listen up! Here is everything you need to know about changing your name after you get married. It is quite a long process so get your paper and pencil ready :)

First, in order to change your name with any organization (DMV, military ID, bank, etc) you MUST have a signed and certified copy of your marriage license. The license is signed by the person performing the service the day of the wedding. You then have to send the signed license back to the city in which you got it and they will then sign it and notarize it as an official marriage license. Now that you have the official paperwork, things can get started.

The first thing I did was to go on base and get my military ID. This is a simple process (assuming you have the necessary paperwork and your spouse with you). Then, to the bank. Again, very easy as long as you have the paperwork. Now comes the hard part. Getting a new social security card.

As a young, healthy, and I dare say somewhat normal woman I have never had a reason to go to the social security office, so this trip was my first and hopefully my last! Just imagine, the DMV during lunch hour the day of a big deadline for vehicle registrations and trip that. Welcome to the social security office.

Greg and I had been married two weeks before I decided it was time to make this trip. I researched online and found the nearest social security office was 25 minutes away in Dothan, Alabama. Silly me assumed it would be no big deal. Fill out the necessary paperwork (which is provided online so you can complete the paperwork in advance) and show up, sign my name, and leave. WRONG!

I walk into the office and directly in front of me is a computer for me to enter the reason for my visit and it prints me a ticket with a number. I walk around the corner with my ticket in hand to find a completely packed waiting room. Multiple families were waiting and lucky for me every family brought along all 8, poorly behaved children.

I find a single empty seat crammed in between two families. I wait for about 30 minutes before I decide, hey, now would be a good time to call and catch up with my mom. After a lovely 15 minute conversation with my mother the lovely social security rent-a-cop officer walked around the corner and stared me right in the eyes and hissed, "Exxxxcuse me miss, but in case you cannot read, there is NO cell phone use in the waiting area. Turn the phone off NOW!"

Well, if I didn't already stand out enough, I sure as hell did now. Embarrassed and annoyed I hang up and begin to listen to the conversation taking place at the one (that's right, ONE) window that is open to assist the entire waiting room. In case you are wondering, if you are a 70 year old father and want to go to the social security office to try to get social security for your son who is in prison and has been in prison for 20 years but it wasn't his fault. It wasn't his fault for any of the 3 crimes he was found guilty of. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time...blah blah blah. Please do not waste your time or mine. No matter how many supervisors you speak with, your son is not eligible for social security. Sorry, next number please!

So, to recap: the lesson learned here is whenever you find you have to go to your local social security office, look up the phone number in advance and make an appointment. I am SO happy that I found out that was an option AFTER I sat in the waiting area for 2 hours and got kicked and sneezed on by lovely 2 year olds.

xoxo