Oooh. Oooh. I have won my first ever blogging "award" from my friend Caitlin over at Hello Hines Family! As Caitlin explains on her blogs, these "awards" are not real, but just one way for one blogger to acknowledge and compliment another blogger. Whatevs. I'll take it. Thanks Caitlin! Caitlin is actually one of my real life friends who got me interested in studying mom blogs as I have watched her blog evolve so much over the past year as she prepared for and brought her adorable son, Denver, into this world! Okay, so here is my award... It seems somewhat silly, but I think my digital literacies classmates are going to LOVE this blogging achievement. In addition to my "award," I have also started getting some feedback from bloggers I don't actually know in real life. That's huge! While I appreciate all my friends and family who read my blog, I am excited to make blog-only friends! And here are the rules of the receiving the title of "Stylish Blogger." I feel like it's a mommy blog chain letter... 1. thank and link back to the person who awarded you2. share 7 things about yourself3. pass award on to bloggers you think are fantastic4. contact those bloggers and tell them about the award So, seven things about myself...Both my brother and sister have red hair. I do not, but I am considering adding red highlights in the very near future, so my sister and I can get asked if we are twins even more often than we already do. What do you think? Yay or Nay on the red...really more of strawberry blonde highlights? Yes, my sister and I sure did dress like twins and wear fake glasses for teacher pictures... we are professionals. The red-headed broski and me last summer... I am thinking highlights closer to his shade... I was homeschooled for one year of my life. My mother decided she didn't like the public school systerm, so she forced me to be homeschooled in 8th grade. I always have and always will love all things school... homework, papers, competing for grades, hanging out with friends, learning from teachers, listening to lectures, taking notes, school sports. So, basically, I hated being homeschooled. I resented my mom and I didn't do any school work all year, except read my history book, because I thought it was interesting. Basically, I skipped 8th grade. But then my mom let me go back to school in 9th grade and our relationship was repaired :) And in retrospect, I went to an awful middle school and not being there when I was 14 years old might have actually been a good thing for me. Ahhh, retrospect. I love coffee! But I am very picky about how it is made, and I typically only drink one cup a day unless I am seriously sleep deprived. I used to buy my coffee everyday (Starbucks when I lived in Texas because it was my only option and then at various espresso stands in Seattle), but now I have my own espresso maker at my house and I make a white chocolate mocha every single morning. I don't know of any place in AZ that sells Ghiriadelli White Chocolate (the ONLY white chocolate if you ask me), so I order it off Amazon and have a 10 lb.box shipped to my house every four months. My friend, Allison, and I just calculated my coffee expenses and it turns out my delish white chocolate mochas are only costing me $1.00 a day!!! Hands down my favorite kitchen appliance! Micah and I don't have a TV. I have lived in many houses in the past without cable (in fact, I haven't had cable in my home since 2005), but we don't even have a television on which to watch movies. I do have a DVD player, but it just sits in our guest closet. If we are really desperate to watch a sports game, we go across the street to this little sports bar called The Max (we like to think it's the setting of Saved By The Bell - The Adult Years). Sometimes we will watch movies on my really crappy Dell laptop from 2005 (sorry little guy... I feel like I have to apologize to him or he might crash on me as I type this). And sometimes we will invite ourselves over to other people's houses to watch sports games or movies. Someday we will actually buy a TV and invite all those people over who have let us borrown their TVs over the past six months. Until then... thank you friends!!! My dear friend, Kristin, and I borrowing my cousin's TV to watch a Horned Frog Rose Bowl victory. One of the best days of my life! I think one of the best dinners in the world, especially when you don't feel good or are too tired or busy to cook, is Kraft macaroni and cheese with sliced hot dogs in it. In the Russum household, this is our comfort food. Just like my babysitter used to make it for me when I was five years old. Micah and I are starting to look for a house to buy in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area. And I LOVE looking at houses, so I am very excited. Micah said that my job this summer (instead of trying to find some extra filler job to fill the months of June and July when I am out of school) might be to find the right house for us. I am pretty excited about this. Best job ever! I love our new church in Scottsdale. It's called Old Town Bible Church and it is amazing. Our pastor is a great teacher with a subtle sense of humor. The teaching is theologically sound and deep. Our missional community on Wednesday nights has become one of my favorite events each week, and it is so fun watching our community in the church slowly expand as we make new friends. Tonight I have the privilege of speaking on "joy" at our women's event and I am so excited to share God's word with the ladies of our church body. Sweet Anne debuting her new Hell's Angels jacket at our Missional Community's White Elephant gift exchange.... Alla and her new hookah pipe... I think it made her a little nervous. Adam and Shalyn model their White Elephant makeover... Okay, I am going to pass this award on to my friend Ashley, over at One in the SAHM. Ashley is my other real-life friend who got me intrigued about mom blogs. She also had her first child this past year, an adorable son named Brecken, and has since decided to become a stay-at-home mom and blog about her adventures in motherhood. She is a hilarious writer and has great craft ideas. Enjoy! ... Read more
Shepherd’s Pie Pockets
This is one of Micah's new favorite meals. I improvised from a Shepherd's Pie recipe I found online and the results were amazing... These are basically little crescent roll pockets filled with meat and potatoes (and some veggies) and they are sooooo good. What you need: 1 pound ground beef *(I use half beef/half ground turkey. I would use all turkey but Micah doesn't like it.) 2 carrots, cut into thin slices 1 large onion, cut into 1/4-inch pieces *(and as usual, I only use half an onion and freeze the rest for my next recipe) 2 stalks celery, cut into 1/4-inch pieces 1 large clove garlic, finely chopped 2 large baking potatoes, cut into 1/4-inch cubes (you can peel them, but I never do) 1/2 cup dark beer 8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded Salt and pepper 2 packages crescent rolls What you do: Preheat the oven to 375°. In a skillet, add the beef, carrots, onion, celery, garlic and potato and cook, breaking up the meat, over medium-high heat until the beef is cooked through and some liquid has evaporated, about 15 minutes. (If your meat is not all the way thawed, I would cook it alone for about five minutes before adding the veggies.) Lower the heat to medium, add the beer and cook for 10 minutes. Add the cheese, 2 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Let cool. Open the cans of crescent roll dough and unroll. Each section should consist of two triangles that are facing each other to create a rectangular shape (scalene triangles...I had to look it up... geometry was never my strongest subject...). Break the dough apart as rectangles keeping the pairs of triangles attached. Lay one rectangle on the baking sheet and scoop a big spoonful of the meat mixture on top of it, trying to keep the meat to one side of the dough. Then fold other side of the dough square over the meat, creating a little pocket with the filling in the middle. Crescent roll dough is flimsy, so do this carefully, but don't worry if it splits apart a little as you stretch it over the meat. Just mold the pocket together a little bit, pick up any meat that spills out of the sides, and move on to the next pocket. When you bake it, it will be delicious. Do this with both cans of dough, which should create 8 pockets total. Bake for 8-10 minutes and viola! I forgot to take a picture of the pockets themselves, which would have been the helpful picture... but here is a picture of the delish filling cooking! *8 pockets easily serves 4 people with leftovers. You really only need one pocket for dinner, but they are so good you might be tempted to eat two. If you are only feeding two, I would half the recipe and just use one can of dough. Enjoy! ... Read more
About Us
Although the deadline I gave myself of March 1st has come and gone, I FINALLY have an "About Us" page posted. Check it out! Now I don't utterly fail at participating in my blogging culture.... ... Read more
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