Week 17-22 (In no particular order)

Week 22- Matt's parents and grandparents came into town for a quick weekend visit. We took them to Famous Dave's for the giant trash can lid full of food. :) We always have a wonderful time when they come to visit and this was no exception!

Week 22 Bonus! We broke out the Mexican train dominoes while everyone was here visiting. Matt and I have been obsessed with the game since. We've played three games just the two of us. Unfortunately he's up 2 to 1. :(

Week 20- We went to North Carolina for a quick weekend. Matt was preaching at a church in his hometown. It was nice to get out of town even just for a day or so. One of my favorite things about going to NC this time of year is getting to see Joey and Patsy's garden! We ate fresh strawberries right out of the patch! I love just walking around and looking at all of the fruits and veggies they are growing.

Week 21- Matt turned 31 this week! Patsy made him his favorite cake and we had a wonderful celebration at home. We had homemade chicken tacos and Matt picked up chips and salsa from Chuy's, our favorite! It's was a great birthday party! :) Happy birthday Matthew!!!

Week 19- It's been a couple of weeks since the flood but relief efforts haven't slowed down a bit. This week we had a pallet of water and a truck load of food donated for our church to distribute to flood victims. Our garage quickly filled up with supplies and it was great to see it dwindle as we were able to pass it on to people in need.

Week 18- Matt and I were shopping at Trader Joe's and they had fresh pizza dough on sale for only a dollar! We bought one pack of the whole wheat to give a try. It was great because there was enough dough for us to both make our own pizza! They both turned out delicious and we can't wait to try it again!

Week 17- This weekend Nashville experienced one of the worst floods in it's history. Neighborhoods all over the city were totally devastated. Matt and I had to evacuate our house on Sunday night and when we were able to go back on Monday morning this is what we came home to. It was surreal to see our house surrounded by water. Thankfully the water only came into the garage and we did not sustain any damage. We feel so thankful and so blessed.

Don't forget to check out all of the other Project Life photos here!

Week 14-16

No more excuses about lost camera chargers or computers with nasty viruses. Here are my pictures from weeks 14-16 of Project 52!

I have been cooking more in the past few months than I ever have in my entire life and I love it! I love trying new recipes and fine-tuning them the second time around. This mac and cheese is one of my new favorites! I love the heat from the jalapenos and the crunch the panko bread crumbs give. But my absolute favorite part about this recipe is that I get to use my super cute individual casseroles!

We have tomatoes! I really enjoy checking in on my little miniature garden every day. I like watering my plants and looking to see what might be new. Imagine my surprise when I found these little guys! In just a few weeks we will have our first ripe tomatoes of the season. I think I see some salsa in our future.

Matt and I at Hank Williams Jr

This week was insane! I had dinner with a friend and Bible study on Monday night. Jessica and I went to the Bon Jovi concert on Wednesday night. Matt and I went to see Hank Williams Jr. on Friday night. And to finish it all off we ran the Country Music Half Marathon on Saturday. Whew. It was jam-packed but I loved every minute of it! So many wonderful memories made in such a short amount of time. Life the way I like it.

After the 1/2 marathon

To see my view of Bon Jovi and all of the other Project Life pictures hop on over to The Mom Creative!

Weeks 10-13

Clearly, I’m having issues.

My computer is still not healed.

My camera battery is dead and, of course, my charger is no where to be found.

However that hasn’t kept me from capturing some pictures for my Project 52! I’m just a little (okay, maybe a lot) behind. Here are the last 4 weeks!




Matt and I went to LA for my Spring Break. Ricky was gracious enough to let us stay with him and was such a wonderful host! We went to Yogurtland, which is a self-serve frozen yogurt place, several times. It was so great to just hang out, eat yogurt, and talk about life!




Hollywood! We snapped this while outside of the Griffith Observatory. It’s on a hill high above LA. The views were stunning! You could literally take in the whole city. We were also able to look through a couple of telescopes. We saw the polar cap on Mars and had an amazing view of the moon. It was very coo and, best of all, it was free!

Matt and I are training to run the ½ marathon on April 24th. We often go to group runs early on Saturday mornings. I love the group I run with! It’s especially helpful when we are running distances longer than I have ever run in my life. We ran 12 miles this week! I never thought I would be able to say that, and it’s a huge thanks to this group for helping make it a reality for me!

The weather over Easter weekend was beautiful! Joey and Patsy came in to visit and were gracious enough to help us start an herb garden. I had a better time than I thought I would digging in the dirt and filling up pots with my new plants. I can’t wait to cook with my new herbs!

So there is a snippet of our last 4 weeks! Don’t forget to check out The Mom Creative to see all the other Project Life posts!

Week 8 and 9

In case you didn't notice, I'm a little behind on my Project 52.

My computer has been struck down with a nasty virus. Luckily, it seems to only flare up when I’m connected to the internet so all of my pictures, etc. are not in jeopardy. However, it does mean that Matt and I are now a one-computer-family. And since technically it’s HIS computer, well, you all know what that means. :) Actually, Matt has been very good at sharing. He’s also been blogging a lot more, so to try to encourage that I don’t ask to get on the computer too much.

All of that to say, here are our pictures from weeks eight and nine:


Matt went on a little guy’s trip to St. Louis. He had a great time! It was good for him to get out of town for a couple of days. (I’ll have him write on the journal card for this week.)


My desk area at work! Right now it looks like a total mess but I feel like it’s organized. Everything has a place and those that don’t will soon be in a folder, labeled, and filed away. Added to my desk area this year were a new laser jet printer and an ELMO document camera. Notice all the post-its? Clearly I love making lists… :)


Make sure you hope over to The Mom Creative to check out all of the other Project Life posts!

Week 7

One of Matt's and my favorite thing to do is eat, especially with friends. Last week, we met our friends Courtney and Jamey at Eastland Cafe for an early dinner. We hadn't seen them in a while and it was so great to catch up! At Eastland we love to get their margherita pizza, fish tacos, and chicken pot-stickers. The best thing about it? Each item is only $5! Good food, cheap prices, and great friends. Does it get any better than that?

Check out all the other Week 7 posts at The Mom Creative.

40 Days of Water

Several of my friends were posting on twitter and facebook the various things they were thinking about giving up for lent. I had been toying around with the idea myself, trying to decide exactly what I could give up for 40 days. I kept shooting down my own ideas because everything I thought of was too big of a sacrifice. There was just no way I could give up TV or chocolate. I finally convinced myself that I didn’t really need to participate in lent anyway.

Then I clicked on this link and it rocked my world.

Shame on me. Shame on me to think I couldn’t give up chocolate or TV for 40 days. (I mean, I would miss the Bachelor finale if I did that?!)

Blood:Water Mission reminded me with their 40 Days of Water challenge that there are people who would be happy to have something to sacrifice. It reminded me that there are people who make sacrifices every day just to get clean water to drink.

So that’s what I’m hoping to remember every day of this 40 day challenge. As I drink only water, clean water that I get with no effort, I pray that this tiny sacrifice will help me become innately aware of how blessed I truly am.

I convinced Matt to take on this challenge with me. You can read his take on it here. We started today. (Hence the water you see above:)) I will be calculating our saved expenses by choosing only tap water for the next 40 days and then make a donation to Blood:Water Mission. We would love your support and encouragement.

Are you participating in lent this year?

Week 6--Recipe Share

Week 6 of Project Life Tuesdays hosted by The Mom Creative

I have been cooking more in the last few weeks than I have in my entire life. One of the things Matt and I committed to this year was to eat out less, eat home more, and save a ton of money in the process. My crock pot gets a major workout every week.

My picture this week is of a few of the cookbooks I have been using recently. I'm trying to cook meals more on the healthy side. I've made mac and cheese and an Alfredo that were both low fat and delicious! Our other new favorite is crock pot chicken tacos. Yum!

As March quickly approaches we will be mapping out our menu for the month. I would love any quick or easy recipes you would like to share! Almost every recipe I try has come by recommendation from a friend and they are always SO good! So let's share. :)

I'll go first.

Crock Pot Chicken Tacos

4-6 frozen chicken breasts

1 can of Rotel

1 package Taco seasoning

• Put the frozen chicken in the bottom of your crock pot. Mix the rotel and taco seasoning in a small bowl and pour over the chicken. Cook on low about 6 hours.
• When chicken is done remove from the crock pot and shred using two forks. Mix in some of the rotel left in the crock pot.
• Fill your hard or soft taco shells with the chicken mixture and add your favorite toppings!
• Enjoy!

So easy, right?

Now it's your turn! :)