Overcomer

One of my new favorite songs on the radio is "Overcomer" by Mandisa. It's a great song with a wonderful message about how we can do anything with the help of God. It reminds us that he is always there with us to fight our struggles and challenges in life! We are not in this alone!

This bible verse reminds us that the Lord is ALWAYS there with us:

Deuteronomy 31:6 
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you."

My Weekend

Friday night was the most eventful part of my weekend, we...
1. Had friends over for supper. We grilled pork loin and had fresh garden veggies!
2. Along with our food came some delicious strawberry daiquiris, in which I highly recommend using Mango Malibu Rum.
3. After supper, we enjoyed some games, including Monopoly Deal. It was fun, even though I didn't win a single game.
4. We finished up the night with some Wii Bowling, where I lost again.

Saturday, I worked for most of the day and then we went to our friends' wedding back home, which was a good time! Although I have no pictures of myself, my husband, or the bride and groom, we did get to see all of our nieces and nephews, and they are picture worthy!

Sunday, I worked all day and then relaxed Sunday night when I got home. I'm loving this cooler weather we are having, so beautiful outside! Everyone have a great week!

Alfredo Made from Scratch

Last night, I tried a new recipe, homemade Alfredo sauce and it turned out pretty delicious! I got the recipe from this book I bought, which is an entire book of pasta recipes.

Here's the recipe:
12 oz pasta (cooked)
2/3 cup whipping cream
6 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 tsp salt
dash of pepper
dash of nutmeg
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tbsp chopped parsley (I didn't use)

Melt cream and butter in skillet until butter is melted. Add salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Remove from heat and add parmesan cheese. Return to heat, add cooked pasta, mix and enjoy! I also added some cut up sausage to mine, to add some meat to our meal.

And, for dessert, we shared one of the cupcakes I got from Mockingbird Cupcakes in Omaha. It was amazing! We shared the one with the chocolate chips on top, which was a cookie dough cupcake with cookie dough buttercream frosting! I can't wait to try the rest! I definitely recommend going to get some cupcakes from this shop!

Photo Shoot

A couple of weeks ago, Ryan and I got to have an anniversary photo shoot! A local photography studio out of Lincoln was looking for people to volunteer, as they are wanting to start doing photography for married couples! I jumped at the chance and volunteered us!

Logo copyright of Studio Elle Photography

We got to spend a fun evening taking pictures with the lovely photographers from Studio Elle Photography, who are a married couple doing photography together! Check out their website here!

I loved meeting them and we had such a wonderful time! It was so awesome because unlike other photo shoots, there was no specific poses and very little looking at the camera. We were pretty much on a date in the park and they were just along for the ride with their cameras! They have put up a couple sneak peeks on their Facebook page, you can got take a look here. I can't wait to see the rest of the pictures!

And if you have any need for engagement, wedding, or couples photography, I highly recommend them! They have done engagements and weddings for many of our friends and have taken amazing pictures!

Running Shenanigans...and the rest of my weekend

We went home for the weekend to see our families, and here's the recap:

1. Friday night was spent at my parents, watching my brother's annual fireworks show.

2. Saturday morning was the annual Downtown Runaround, in which many of my family on my dad's side participate. Here is my dad, brother and I before the race.

3. My running in action, thanks to the wonderful photography skills of my husband.

4. Here I am with my #1 supporter for the run.

5. Dad and I post race with our medals.

6. After the run, it was time to help out with some mowing. Heading to town in style in my grandpa's old pickup.

7. Saturday afternoon, Ryan and I took his nieces to the pool. We all had a fun time!

8. This picture isn't current, but since I failed to take one, Sunday we all had lunch as a family with my grandma since my sister was home for the weekend from Minnesota.

9. And the weekend couldn't be complete without seeing all of our nieces and nephews. We got to spend a little time with all of them!

Here's all of our family participants from the run!

Thanks for reading, hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

And the Winner is...Team Jack

Photo courtesy of Team Jack Facebook page

Anyone watch the ESPY awards last night? If you did, you might remember a cute little 7-year-old boy from Nebraska who won the ESPY for "Best Moment" when he ran for a 69 yard touchdown in the Nebraska spring game! Way to go Jack!

Photo courtesy of Team Jack Foundation website

If you haven't heard of Jack or the Team Jack Foundation, here's a little background information. Jack is a 7-year-old boy who has brain cancer and Team Jack is his foundation to raise national awareness for Pediatric Brain Cancer. Because of the support of Rex Burkhead (former Nebraska player), and the rest of the Husker coaches and players, Jack and his foundation have gained alot of fans and support across the nation.

I take personal pride in this story because Jack is from my hometown state of Nebraska and my favorite team, the Huskers! In Nebraska, we all love Team Jack and support him in any way we can with his brave fight against brain cancer. At age 7, he has been through a lot already in his life.

If you want to learn more about Jack and his foundation, you can either check out the Team Jack Facebook page or the Team Jack Foundation website!

I have always been proud to be a Husker, but today I am especially proud of Husker nation for all of their support for Jack and for helping him win an ESPY award!

Forgetful + Giveaway

How many of you have ever forgotten leftovers at a restaurant? And I don't mean forgot them on your plate, I mean forgot them on the table in the takeout box??

Because I have, and I've done it twice recently and I'm really upset with myself for doing it! First of all, forgetting it means I can say goodbye to another good lunch or supper the next day. And second of all, the waitress/waiter from my table probably thinks I'm an idiot for leaving it there, or they probably wonder why I asked for a box if I wasn't going to take the food home.

Last night was the best of all... I went out with a couple friends after work and I had a Pinpoint coupon for buy one, get one free entree, so I decided to get a personal pizza to take home for leftovers since it would be free anyways! Low and behold, don't worry, I forgot the ENTIRE pizza box sitting at our table.

Luckily, I remembered while I was still close enough to go back. Thanks to my friend, she quick called them to have them save it for me while I drove back to the restaurant, and my whole pizza didn't go to waste!

I'm really hoping the next time I go out to eat I remember the takeout box!

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Thanks for reading! Don't forget to go enter our $100 giveaway for a gift card of your choice by clicking here!

Who Loves a Good Discount??

Many of you are probably already familiar with these two websites I'm going to talk about, but just in case you aren't, you're in for a great opportunity to save some money!!

Who uses these to get great deals? If you haven't heard of these sites, go sign up today! You can find awesome discounts on all sorts of things including food, clothes, fitness, activities, beauty, spa, things for the home, things for your car, and many others! I have used these for so many things because most deals are 50% or more off the original price! 

The sites are great because you can not only get discounted items, but also discounted services! So you can buy things cheaper and do things cheaper! I've used them multiple times for date night ideas for my husband and I too!

They are both easy to sign up for and then you get emails sent to you daily (or less often if you want) on deals in your area!

So go check it out!! I love these sites and they have both saved me lots of money!

I did not get asked by either site to write this post, I just wanted to share this awesome information with you fellow bloggers!

Shenanigans of My Weekend + Giveaway

Linking up with Sami to share my wonderful weekend! After you're done reading my post, be sure to go check out her blog and the weekend linkup to find some other wonderful bloggers!

And...be sure to go to my previous post to enter a giveaway for a $100 giftcard of your choice! Check out the Favorite Things Giveaway here.

I had a pretty AWESOME weekend, so here's the recap!

 

Thursday night, we celebrated my brother's birthday! He turned 21 on Friday. We went out to eat at Red Robin and then went to the movie White House Down. The movie was really good!

Friday night and Saturday were spent in Prague, NE for the Beat Breast Cancer Mud Volleyball Tournament, an awesome fundraiser for Breast Cancer Awareness. 256 teams participate in the tournament! If you want to learn more, or join in the fun next year, check out their website here:

Beat Breast Cancer Mud Volleyball

1. Hanging out on Friday night at the street dance.

2. Our awesome team (minus a couple people), the Mammary Monstars!

3. Nothing better than a beer to start the day at 8:00 am.

4. My hubby and I ready to play.

5. Each of the recipients got $10,000 this year to help their fight towards breast cancer!!

6. A view of the playing area, consisting of 8 mud/water pits.

7. Free mustache rides, yeah!

8. Life size foosball.

9. Large size beerpong and ladder ball.

10. Had to grab a pic with the models!

11. Large size Jenga.

12. Ryan and I ran into one of his sister's friends.

1. On Sunday, we went to the Omaha Storm Chasers baseball game with Ryan's parents.

2. Hanging out at the game.

3. Even though the Storm Chasers lost, one of the coaches did get ejected for arguing with the ump, crazy!

4. We came back to our place and had a delicious supper of grilled steak and cheesy potatoes.

Now on to the week, I suppose. Next weekend, please get here soon!

Favorite Things Giveaway

For this months Favorite Things Giveaway we are giving away $100 to your choice of Nordstrom, Home Depot, Amazon, Target, Sephora, or Lululemon! Which means there is pretty much an option for everyone, whether you want to freshen up your style, just bought a new house, live in yoga pants...or all of the above!

 

Lauren / Beth / Laura

Amie / Allison / Samantha

Tracey / Jaime / Lindsey

This giveaway is open to residents of the U.S. and Canada, 18 years or older. Winner will be verified.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Motive

Now that we are well into the summer season, I thought I would see what all of you are watching on the tube lately. Anyone have any good summer shows they are loving?

Image from tvrage.com

I recently started watching "Motive" on ABC and I'm really liking it. I'm a sucker for anything with crimes or mystery, so it falls right into my favorite category. If you haven't seen it, it's a murder mystery show, but has a bit of a twist.

Right at the beginning of each episode, they tell you who the killer and victim are, but then the rest of the episode is spent figuring out how and why the person was killed. It's pretty interesting because most of the killers are people you wouldn't suspect in the episode.

If this sounds good, check it out on ABC, Thursdays at 9/8 central.

And, if anyone has any other good suggestions, let me know! I'm always interested to try a new show out!

Best Things About Summer...Brought to You by Samantha

Hey Everyone! My lovely friend Samantha from 3 Oh 1 Grace St is guest posting for me today! I was a little busy last night as I went to meet my new twin nieces, who were born yesterday morning!

Aren't they adorable??!!

Check out Samantha's post about her favorite summer things, and go check out her new blog design in her space here!

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Hello all of you Eat. Pray. Love. Runners.... before I introduce myself, how many of you actually run?!?! 

I know Amie does but I'm not very faithful. I definitely eat, even pray, and love but the running is far and in between. 

Okay, now that is out of the way let me introduce myself. I am Samantha from 3-Oh-1 Grace St. 

You may remember me from when Amie publicly professed her love for me. 

Today I am going to share my Top 5 things I LOVE about summer time. In no particular order.

1. Summer Nights- when I was in high school my BFF's and I would sit outside with tiki torches lit and just shoot the breeze. Although it was more like gossiping then. And now sometimes I go and just sit outside and watch the world and it's big sky!

This doesn't have much to do with anything but it's Amie and I at the Keith Urban concert! Happy to be front row! :) 

2. The 4th of July- on my blog I talked about how it's my second favorite holiday ..so you can go visit that! 

3. The smells of summer: BBQ, sunscreen, bug spray, fires, fireworks, freshly mowed grass, chlorine, you name it...

4. No responsibilities. Although this is sort of changing overall when schools in session there are many more responsibilities.

5. Daylight till 9:30! I love how it stays light for so long! So much that when the time changes I want to start counting down till it changes back .

So that's why I love summer .... if you want to see more of what I love or don't love (cough cough Tswift) go visit my blog :) 

Thought for the Day

Picture courtesy of KGBI Facebook page

This showed up on my newsfeed this morning from our local Christian radio station, and it was just what I needed. I feel like I've been worrying about a lot of things lately in my life, and I really need to remember to give my worries to God in prayer!

If you're reading this, go check out Toby's Tails Blog for an awesome giveaway and give her some congrats on her new job!!

Also, my blog and real life good friend Samantha over at 3 Oh 1 Grace St got a new blog design, and it's pretty awesome, go take a look!

4th of July Shenanigans

It was a great long, 4th of July weekend spent with friends and family! Here's the recap!

1. My drive home from work Thursday morning, reminding me of the reason we celebrate 4th of July. Thank you to all of our current and former men and women in the armed services!

2. On the 4th, we hungout with a couple friends, laid out at their pool and played some cards later in the night.

3. Celebrated with some vodka gummy bears while watching fireworks off of their deck.

4. Our delicious supper, grilled burgers with cheesy potatoes.

5. The neat display of flags honoring the veterans who have passed away.

6. Tried a couple new mixers this weekend...UV Salty Watermelon and Mango Malibu, both delicious!

7. Saturday, we spent the day at the lake with Ryan's family enjoying the water and the sun.

8. Can't have 4th of July without fireworks, love watching them!

9. Sunday, we went to mass, relaxed at home, I played volleyball, and then made some stir fry for supper!

Thanks for reading, hope you had a great Independence Day weekend!

New Vocabulary

After celebrating 4th of July with a couple friends, one of them who is from Colorado, I learned a couple of new vocabulary words...

My friend was telling me what she got for her graduation, and she said she got slippers that would go great with a "mu-mu" (also spelled moo-moo, muumuu), which I had absolutely no clue what that was. Turns out, it's a nightgown that ladies sometimes wear.

I can't say it will be on my list to buy anytime soon, but at least I now know what it is the next time it comes up in common conversation.

I can't remember how the next word came up in our discussion, but pretty soon she was talking about a "karabiner", which I again did not know about. This is a type of hook/clip used for climbing, or in my case, used in a smaller version on my keychain.  Since we don't have many mountains to climb in Nebraska, I felt that I had a good excuse for not knowing what this was.

Now I know what this is, and I have to admit, it's a really fun word to say, so I may start using it more often!

Did any of you not know what these were either or I am alone with my limited vocabulary??

Baking Attempt

So...yesterday I had the day off from work, and I decided to do some baking for the lovely 4th of July weekend coming up! We aren't sure of our plans yet, but this way, I am prepared. I was looking on Pinterest for some cute ideas, and found this lovely 'Merica cake pops in the shape of a flag!

Patriotic Pops from Bee in Our Bonnet

But...

Those seemed a little too advanced for my cake popping skills. Since I've never made them before, I decided to go for something a bit more simple, and I found these.

4th of July cake pops from Rumbly in My Tumbly

So I decided to give it a try. They are pretty easy to make, and I used this wonderful tutorial from Beach Bum & Baby.

I didn't have a styrofoam block to set them up in, so I just let them dry upside down. Here's how mine turned out!

Overall, they turned out pretty good!

I did have some trouble with them starting to fall off of the stick while I was dipping them in the white chocolate, so I only dipped about half of each one. 

Anyone have any tips on how they will stay on the stick better?

I also need some practice on my "sprinkling" as you can see I didn't spread them out very evenly!

My fun patriotic sprinkles I got.

The final product! I added some ribbon to fancy them up!

If you have any other tips or secrets, please share! I would love to try these again for another holiday and do better the next time!

Weekend Shenanigans

1. We went home for the weekend, and spent Friday night out at the farm.

2. Saturday morning, I took our family dog for a walk.

3. After walking the dog, I enjoyed a relaxing run in the country. I also got to go on a walk with my sister-in-law and my niece.

4. Saturday afternoon was wedding time, where we celebrated the wedding of one of our high school friends. Here is my man and I ready to have some fun!

5. The girls and I, it was so wonderful to catch up with these ladies, it's been too long since all of us have been together! If you didn't catch it, Samantha from 3 Oh 1 Grace St. is looking good in the green dress in this picture!

6. My bestie and me! She was a bridesmaid and this picture was taken by my husband, he was proud of his bubble effects.

7. Our hometown tradition of the wedding party dancing on the bar, pretty awesome!

8. More high school classmates that I got to see!

9. Sunday, we went out to Ryan's aunt and uncle's lake house. We spent the day laying out, boating, and playing sand volleyball. It was a good end to a great weekend.

Thanks for reading about my weekend, hope yours was fantastic!