Happy Father's Day

My heart aches today...well, it does everyday actually, but this picture makes me smile. Thanks, Laura, for taking it.

"As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear Him." Psalm 103:13

Chicken Rotel

Here's one of my favorite recipes. It's easy, delicious and will feed Cory & me for days. My 8th graders make this recipe and it's one of their favorites too. If you've never had chicken rotel it's a like chicken spaghetti minus some ingredients. It also doesn't take near as long to cook the rotel.

Now, the recipe my students use calls for 2 cans of chicken but I always like to grill the chicken when I make it. If you Shoals' people ever ate the chicken rotel at the Renaissance Tower that's how they cooked theirs.

Here's what you need:

EITHER 2 cans of chicken OR a package of skinless, boneless chicken marinated in some yummy Dale's sauce.
1 package of wide egg noodles

8 oz sour cream

1 can Rotel

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 lb Velveeta (half of a big pkg)

**You can also top the Chicken Rotel with corn flakes or Italian bread crumbs, but I don't.

First, if you chose to go the grilled chicken route, go ahead and grill it up (or have your sweet husband do it)

Then cook the noodles according to directions.
While your noodles are cooking chop the cheese into small cubes. The smaller you chop them, the quicker they melt.
When your noodles are done, drain them and pour them into a 13x9 casserole dish.
Next pour the cream of chicken, sour cream, Rotel, cheese, and chicken (if it's ready) and stir slightly.

Put in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10-15 minutes, or until cheese melts.

Stir ingredients better until they are combined.
The chicken took a little longer to grill, so I put mine in after I pulled it out of the oven. It may not look that great but it sure tastes that way.

Oh yeah, if you would like, you can pour some cornflakes on top of the casserole with one stick of melted butter and bake it until bubbly OR you can just pour about 1/3 cup of Italian bread crumbs over the top too. In my opinion, though, you don't need the topping unless you like that crunchy texture.

I can't believe June is flying by so quickly. I hope everyone has a great weekend. I have a feeling it may be rather sad for us though...

Yogurt Mountain in My Kitchen

Last night Cory & I celebrated our friend, Amy's birthday. We had a great night on the town with Amy and her husband, Shaw. We had a yummy dinner at a nice Thai restaurant in town and thought about going for ice cream afterwards. As we were driving to Yogurt Mountain (remember how great it is?) we began talking about how pricey it can get (if you're like me and get carried away with the toppings) and how that I had a lot of the good toppings at my house anyway. Since we spent a little more on dinner than usual we decided to go to the store and get some cheap-o vanilla ice cream, a few candy bars, and of course, cherries and have our own "Yogurt Mountain" experience at our place for a smaller price.

Amy & I got really excited picking out candy and getting our toppings ready. Here we are getting ready for our treat! And, no, Amy did not wear a crown all night. I made her put this on. :)

Here's a close up of our toppings. I'm covering up our Oreos & cherries. We had Butterfinger, Snickers, Reese Cups, M & M's, sprinkles, of course, caramel, and chocolate syrup. Later I realized I had some pecans....oh well, it was delicious anyways.

Now, don't get me wrong on this post. I'm not banning Yogurt Mountain or any other ice cream place. So if you ever want to go, I'll be more than happy to join you. This was just a fun thing to do on a low budget and it was fun to get to pick out candy at the store. I know this is not a novel idea but I just wanted to throw it out there if you love ice cream and are having people over and don't want to have worry about baking a treat.

Our Anniversary

Cory & I celebrated our 3 year anniversary yesterday. When we got married I thought it would be fun to stick to the "traditional" anniversary gifts. The first year was paper, the second was cotton, and this year was leather. Last year Cory & I said we should save up for a leather sofa for this year's anniversary, but that didn't happen.

My first thoughts were to get Cory a belt or a new wallet but he's got plenty of belts and the wallet I gave him a few years ago is still in good condition. So then I thought about getting Cory some leather flip flops/sandals but then I couldn't find any that were his size or any that he would like. Then I thought about getting him a leather desk organizer thing for when he starts working this fall but struck out again because I couldn't find one (it seems like I always see those things though). Next, I thought about a leather daily planner(he had one a few years ago and really liked it) but the ones I found were really girly looking. I was out of ideas so I bought him a video game that he wanted and went on.

Well the other day when I was browsing around Hobby Lobby, I came across this little item.

Yes, that is a leather wolf coin bag! It was a craft project for kids that wasn't expensive and fit in the leather category so I had to get it to go along with the game. Cory loves wolf items (not in a for real way, but in a joking manner...if you know him, you understand).

When Cory got his gift he was excited about the wolf bag. He actually started putting it together before he broke out the video game. We had a good time laughing at him wearing it on his belt loop...we're so weird!

Oh yeah, I was also really excited to give Cory the perfect card. We're pretty predictable in the cards we choose for each other. I usually always get Cory a funny card and then write a sweet message inside and he usually gets me a card with an adorable animal on it (smart guy). This year though, I picked up a "mushy" card because I liked the colors and as I started reading it, the message sounded exactly like what I would say. It wasn't your typical "mushy" card with a cheesy poem that you just skim over but it had meaning and was still a bit silly....I can't explain it that well, but when Cory started reading it he turned it over to the back and said, "Did you have this card made?". haha. He thought I had gone online and had a card specially made for him. I'm telling you, this card was on the mark! The first thing I wrote on it was, "This card explains exactly how I feel". Sorry, but I was really impressed with this card.

I'm basically just posting this because I think the wolf coin bag is so goofy. As I was straightening things up this morning I kept seeing it and giggling to myself. Maybe it will make you smile a little too.

Cuteness Overload!

Yesterday I had a very unsettling day. I was stressed beyond measure and my stomach is still trying to untangle itself from all of the knots. I will fill you in later about my trying time, but for now I would very much appreciate your prayers for me and the situation I am going through. Cory was such a great support for me yesterday. He made sure I had plenty of sweet tea and hugs. He also reminded me of a great website that I use to enjoy when we were dating. I can't believe I had even forgot about it. It's www.cuteoverload.com and as you can imagine it has tons of cute photos.

You better have some milk ready because these pictures are just too SWEET!

That last picture slays me. I love it when dogs have short legs. I also really like dogs in bandannas for some reason. They look like little cowboys that in my mind would say, "Howdy, partner."

I just posted a few pictures to give you a taste of this wonderful website. You should definitely check it out, especially if you're having a bad day. I must warn you though, the people who run the site sometimes have a lapse of cute judgement. They have posted anteaters, bats, and opossums...yes, ugly opossums.

I guess they make up for it by posting this really close to it though. :)

I hope you have a great weekend and hopefully I'll have some happy news next week.