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

Lesson learned #7- Once you find a good hair dresser, never let her go

I have had the same hair dresser for as long as I can remember. She did my hair for every prom, every military ball, almost every wedding I have been in, my wedding, etc. I trust her without a doubt.

Lesson learned... once you find a great hair dresser you trust, never stop going to her (even if you move). I do not care if you live 13 hours away from your hair dresser, book a flight home and make an appointment with her. If not, you will end up with a new haircut that makes you look like a 12 year old boy.

I have been growing my hair out for at least a year so that it would be nice and long for the wedding. Once my hair gets to a certain length, it starts getting heavy and droopy and blah. Take this blah-ness and combine it with the 100 + degree heat in Alabama, I was more than ready for a hair cut and decided that I would try a salon here in Enterprise. BIG MISTAKE!

Here is the picture I gave the hair dresser to show her what a wanted... I just wanted some length taken off then add some layers to give my hair a little body. Cute, right?

Well, too bad that is not what I got. I currently look like a 10 year old boy. So thank you crappy hair cut lady. Because of you, I will not be leaving the house for the next month.

xoxo

Lesson learned #6- Just call me Paula Dean yall

Hello friends! I cannot believe I am going to say this, but I have learned that I actually enjoy cooking! This was not something I expected as I never cooked or had any interest in cooking while growing up. You can also ask my college roommates. My idea of cooking dinner for myself was ramen noodles and a tuna fish sandwich or my own personal invention of mini-chicken parm.

However, now that I have a kitchen of my own and my own pots and pans (I am obsessed with my calphalon pots and pans) I actually enjoy cooking. I love browsing the internet and cookbooks we received for wedding gifts to find something new and exciting to cook for dinner. This might be a reason why I take so many trips to the grocery store (refer to lesson learned #5). Greg and I also love to watch the food network every morning. Our favorites are Giada, The Neelys', and of course Paula!

As a result of discovering my new fondness of cooking, I decided that I will start providing you all with a recipe of the week. These will be recipes that I have tried and have given my stamp of approval. So here is recipe of the week #1- Italian Baked Chicken (recipe compliments on Giada at foodnetwork.com).

FYI- I added more sauce than what was recommended because I do not like dry casseroles and it turned out perfectly. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 cup pastina pasta (or any small pasta)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup cubed chicken breast (1-inch cubes)
• 1/2 cup diced onion (about 1/2 a small onion)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
• 1 tablespoon butter, plus more for buttering the baking dish

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until just tender, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Drain pasta into a large mixing bowl.

Meanwhile, put the olive oil in a medium saute pan over medium heat. Add the chicken and cook for 3 minutes. Add the onions and garlic, stirring to combine, and cook until the onions are soft and the chicken is cooked through, about 5 minutes more. Put the chicken mixture into the bowl with the cooked pasta. Add the canned tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, parsley, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine. Place the mixture in a buttered 8 by 8 by 2-inch baking dish. In a small bowl mix together the bread crumbs and the Parmesan cheese. Sprinkle over the top of the pasta mixture. Dot the top with small bits of butter. Bake until the top is golden brown, about 30 minutes.

Our next big adventure in the kitchen...grilled lamb! Wish us luck :)

xoxo

Lesson learned #5- I have to go to the grocery store again?

Ok ladies, you have got to help me out on this one. Every time I turn around, I have to go to the grocery store again! What am I doing wrong? I mean, for those of you who know Greg and I, you know we like to eat :) But seriously...this is out of control.

Since I moved to Alabama with Greg we have made a weekly "major" shopping trip. These weekly trips consist of stocking up on fresh veggies, more frozen meats, milk, juice, etc. Each week this trip ends up costing about $100. What in the heck?! On top of that, I almost always end up making a couple runs to the store in the middle of the week because we ran out of coffee creamer, or eggs, or oops I forgot to buy spaghetti noodles.

Please! Help a lady out! How can I reduce the amount of trips to the grocery store and also reduce the amount of money spent?! Even shopping tax free at the commissary is going to make us broke at this point!

xoxo

Home Sweet Home

Lesson learned #5- I LOVE decorating

For those of you who know me, you know I love planning things. This might be why I love my job. Most of my "free" time outside of school is spent planning future lessons and activities for my students. I loved planning my wedding. I love planning mini-honeymoons for Greg and I.

My most recent planning obsession has been the decor of what will be our first home in Virginia Beach. Greg and I are very lucky to have a large 2 bedroom/2.5 bath townhouse here in Enterprise. However, we knew we would not live here long so we did not want to purchase all new furniture and have it moved to Alabama then a year later moved to Virginia. We were lucky enough to be able to borrow wonderful furniture from Greg's sister to use while we are here.

While we do love what we have now, we are excited to purchase our very own furniture that will complete the design we have in mind for our first home. We are very excited to move back home as we will be living at the beach. We will have a 2 bedroom/2 bath apartment 4 blocks from the oceanfront. We cannot wait to put some miles on our beach cruisers and cruise to dinner/happy hour/lunch/etc.

Obviously, living at the beach means we want a very relaxed environment in the apartment. Everyone knows how much I love my blues and greens and I really like the idea of painting accent walls in major rooms in the apartment. Unfortunately, I am not a professional and am not sure how all of the little ideas I have floating around in my head will fit together to create a relaxing home environment.

So here is what I am thinking. Please share your comments to let me know what you think!

Master bedroom-

Colors: light blue and light brown

Accent wall: some sort of light brown

And of course, the gorgeous Valencia II sleigh bed from pottery barn with rectangular bed side tables.

Living room:

Greg and I know we want a large wrap around couch of some sort. I would love one with an L shape or one that is curved like the one pictured below. We have not found one we are in love with yet, so if you know of any good ones please let me know!

Accent wall: sea foam green

All of the frames and shelves in the living area will be dark mahagony
Dining Room-

Accent wall:???

Greg and I want a table that is small enough that we will not be at opposite ends of the room eating when it is just the two of us, but something that can also turn into something larger for when family/friends come to visit. I just found this table that seems to fit that and also has a lazy susan built into the center of the table which I find incredibly fascinating.
So what do you think? We are moving back home the end of August and cannot wait. I hope to get everything painted before we start moving things in. I expect lots of visitors once we are all settled in :)

xoxo

Lesson learned #4

Lesson learned #4- I LOVE coffee

Ok boys and girls...get excited! I have to thank one of my girlfriends for my recent obsession because I did not discover the best coffee maker ever until I visited her in Boston.

Anyways, when it came time for Greg and I to register for wedding gifts I knew without a doubt what coffee maker I wanted. It took some convincing on Greg's part... he did not see what was so great about a coffee maker that only made one cup of a coffee at a time. I think he has come around though and enjoys the awesomeness that is our coffee maker :)

I gave up coffee before the wedding because I felt like I was consuming pointless calories. However, now that I do nothing all day long I find that I need caffeine in my system. Some how doing nothing makes me more tired???

So let me walk you through my simple morning routine:

- Wake up

-Come downstairs and kiss my husband good morning :)

-Walk into the kitchen and take my little carousel for a spin and select my coffee of choice for the morning

-Place the "k cup" in the top of the coffee maker

-Place my "Army Wife" coffee mug below the dispenser

-Push the button for the medium cup of coffee

-Enjoy :)

How simple and awesome is that?

I LOVE it :)

xoxo

Lessons learned thus far...

Ok friends...I will share with you my lessons learned thus far. While many of you may find the following events common sense, I unfortunately did not have the prior knowledge necessary. Oh well, you live and learn right?

Lesson #1

When going to the local pool, make sure you not only take the key to get into the pool but also the key to your house! I spend my days here in Alabama doing absolutely nothing while Greg is off learning how to save the world. As a result, I have decided that this summer I will reach my goal of becoming tan by turning into one giant freckle.

So off I go to the pool (which is walking distance from the house). After a few hours I decide I am way too hot and way too hungry so I head back to the house. I get all the way back to the house before I realize I have no way of getting in the house. I have no where else to go but back to the pool, so back again I walk and text Greg to let him know the situation I have gotten myself into.

Luckily, Greg says he will be off work soon and can come pick me up (after laughing at me for being an idiot of course). So I sit and wait for Greg to come get me, all the while watching a very large and dark thunderstorm cloud come a rolling in. Luckily, Greg picked me up just in time and all was right again.

Lesson #2

When cooking tacos for your husband, make sure you do not leave grease in a pan on high on the stove for an extended period of time. IF you do, you will most likely cause a grease fire, or in my case, fill the entire downstairs of your house with smoke so much so that you cannot sit inside without your eyes stinging and tears dripping down your face.

For any of you who have ever eaten at my house, you know that the all time favorite dish at the Culpepper house is Momma's Tacos. So I decide to be the best wife ever and cook these tacos for Greg. My mom makes soft shells and "hard" shells by taking corn tortillas and cooking them in oil. I call my mom to ask her how to make these "hard" shells and am ready to go. She told me to make sure that I do not cook the shell until the oil is bubbling.

In my mind this meant put the oil in the pan, turn the burner on, and wait for the oil to bubble (with nothing in the pan). Eeeeekkkkk! WRONG! For those of you taking notes, make sure you put a corn tortilla in the oil before it begins bubbling. If not, the smoke filled room/potential grease fire will occur.

Lesson #3

When you fill your entire house with smoke, the Japanese Steak House makes a lovely alternative for dinner.

For anyone who is learning along with me, please feel free to comment to reassure me that I am not the worst cook/wife ever.

xoxox

Let's give this another try...

Ok friends, I know I have been here before and promised more blogs and I obviously failed with that promise. This past year was crazy between first year teaching and planning a wedding. It is amazing how much time these things take up. At the end of the day, if I did have free time, all I wanted to do was relax.

I am happy to say though, that I survived both big events in my life. I survived my first year teaching and loved every minute of it. Some days were more challenging than others, but at the end of the day I went home with a sense of accomplishment knowing that I gave my students the best I had.

I also survived wedding planning and the big day! I believe the wedding was a huge success and am sad it is already over. It was truly amazing to sit back and watch all of our friends and family come together and celebrate such an important day with Greg and I. I wish we could do it all over again every weekend, although I seriously doubt I (or anyone really) could afford that.

Anyways, as my brief introduction says, I have quickly realized that I am at a loss here in the world of newlyweds. Everyone always talks about the big day and then the joy of having children. Have you ever heard anyone talk about the time period between these two major events??? I certainly have not and as a result have found myself learning a little here and there as Greg and I venture out on our own.

I am officially an Army Wife while Greg completes flight school here in Alabama. I am sure many of you are laughing to yourself thinking, how hard can it be? Well, honestly, it isn't hard, just a lot of uncertainty. I will be the first to admit my mother spoiled me rotten while I lived at home with everything she did to clean, cook, do laundry, work, etc. As a result, I have a lot to learn out on my own....so here it goes.

Please join me for my journey into my own little happily ever after :)