Trial 1-Parentals taste CrockPot Lasagna and Cookies

Yesterday the parentals came over for dinner! I jazzed the place up with some flowers and made a crock pot lasagna (from pinterest of course!) The recipe was SO easy! Check it out here!

I made a few adjustments: I had left over spaghetti sauce in the freezer so I pulled that out to save the making of the sauce step. I tried to cut the portions in half but kinda guessed on the cheeses. I gave it a good 4-5 layers? Gluten Free noodles for the win too just for my momma! Had trouble finding those at Walmart and Publix so I ended up at a local health food store in the area. Maybe I would have more success not on a Saturday (the seemingly most shopped grocery day of the week).

I even made a dessert: white chocolate chip macadmia nut cookies. Yes, it's macadamIA not macadmion like I thought. My parents had gotten me some Hawaiian macadamia nuts when they went to celebrate my mom's big birthday. My daddy fulfilled a childhood and life long dream of hers to visit the islands! This recipe I found was delicious! It was very easy and I love that both recipes didn't require a ton of ingredients. I had most of them already so didn't have to buy too much! I did leave out the nuts for the first batch just for the boyfriend (he doesn't like nuts so I eat them instead because I certainly LOVE them!!)

The boyfriend couldn't believe I made them, they were that delightful! Let's just say that I had trouble making brownies when he was around and we were first dating so now he doubts my skill!

The parentals said both recipes were pinterest successes and even wanted to come try my recipes every week!

Note: the bananas in the pic are to encourage me to keep making my smoothies! No pics of the lasagna...it looked a little crispy and like what you'd imagine. Not the most attractive dish in the world but certainly tasty, quick and easy!!!

Still gotta look for some doggie articles like maybe about how to train dogs to be quiet when they shouldn't be barking. I've tried the 'leave it' command and some other things but it's getting tricky!

Well what do you think, pinterest success or fail???

Welcome Back!

Welcome Back! My oh my as usual it has indeed been ages since I have posted!

If you are new here or haven't been in a while (my apologies for not updating) my name is Emily and I'm a 20something (yes, I've finally reached that point where it may not be cool to share my age anymore and besides it's the internet! I don't want scary people knowing my age!) teacher going into my 3rd year! They say the first is worst, second is best, and well 3rd? I don't remember the saying but I do know that most people say if you can make it to your 3rd year, you'll decide if teaching is really for you or not!

Well, there are no words to describe these last two year except that there were many times I considered throwing in the towel but by God's grace He sustained me! I made mistakes but He always helped me pick myself up (after the bucket loads of tears because let's face it, I'm a people pleaser and perfectionist!!)

So now I turn to a new age group....after teaching fourth grade for two years, I'm going to tackle those little bitties...dun dun dun.....K5 and I am SO excited! Also praying for God's help and continual guidance.

Now that you know a little bit about me, (oh ya I'm also a sister to my all time favorite Portlanders Josh and Alli, a daughter to the best parents ever, a mom to a bunch of kiddos and an adopted pup, and a girlfriend who loves to have fun with her man!)

Who's Lily? Lily is my almost-one-year old baby! She's a mutt, but the most friendly, silly, and crazy girl out there! She loves to run, walk, be outside, chase the birds and play with her toys (which mostly means pulling out all the stuffing, eating as much as possible, and destroying it until mommy throws it away). Lily likes bones too! She's my side kick and my blessing from the Lord!

*photo credit: daddy

Side note about the Portanders-Alli is an amazing florist and Josh is an amazing photographer! God gifted them in the arts and if you ever need either of those things you should check them out!

Ok now you know what we are up to but do you really?????

Why all the 'welcome back' shenanigans? Since I am a teacher on summer break, I've decided one of the things I'll add to my list of 'things-to-do-that-I-really-hope-get-done-this-summer' is work on improving and actually posting to my blog! After spending an hour on pinterest I figured out what I should do! This will be all about school, Lily (dogs), and food....which is pretty much my life right now. Well I also help out with the youth group and they may make an appearance on here, but for now we'll leave them in our hearts and minds. Back to the whole teacher on summer break thing. It's funny we so long for a break and after about a week, if we aren't working our second job, soaking up some sun at the beach, or sleeping....we kinda don't know what to do with ourselves. Relax? What's that? How do you do that? I need to be prepping for next year!!! Might I add one little thing, it's ok to rest. In fact it's encouraged by the greatest teacher of all (Matthew 11:28 and more!)!

Why am I changing you ask? Well I'm ready for fresh starts. I love fresh starts (praise the Lord I serve the King of all Kings who's all about fresh starts, 2 Corinthians 5:17!) Plus I just feel like Facebook is getting old. For that matter, blogs may be too but I still like it and hey, maybe you do too! Well I hope you do if you are still reading this! I kind of think I might attempt Twitter and Instagram and do away with facebook all together. I've been saying that for years now and yet I still keep it. I do love the connections to people far and wide but I spend WAY too much time on there. I mean it! So perhaps this will give me a goal and a new outlet! I'll keep you posted (no pun intended) on the other media worlds I enter.

So back to the real goal-post about K5 and teaching, food, and dogs. I might even attempt a pinterest food thing, meal, dessert, smoothie or something a week and I'll let you know how it goes! You can decide: success or fail? I'd love to hear your feedback! I'll try to post articles related to teaching and doggies too! I can use all the help I can get about training my sweet Lily! We need to go back to puppy training class, or rather, I need to go back ;)

Oh and did I add, I'm already off to a great start! I got an awesome blender for my 2- th birthday! (And you thought I'd give my age away!) I just love it and made a blueberry, strawberry, banana smoothie! It was a great summer treat! Check out the recipe here! It was from pinterest to boot!

I also must say I'm SO excited about World Cup-USA World Cup Fever Baby! Can't believe I missed the first game but I saw the first goal and listened to the first bit on the radio!

Now off to dinner and youth group I go!