Ashley!! I Know Her!!

Not sure how many of you are Ellen Degeneres fans, but I'm a huge fan of her show! It's always hilarious and she's also amazing at giving to others. Well, recently, my best friend got to be on the show and her show aired yesterday! It was so awesome to see her on TV next to Ellen. I was super excited for her (and a little jealous)! She submitted a photo a few months ago for Ellen's "Bad Paid for Photos" segment, and she got picked to come to the show. She got to bring her sister and mom with her and they got to spend a few days in LA. It was pretty cool to see a girl from my small town of 600 people on national TV. Way to go Ash!!

Here is the video clip from her segment on the show (her photo is the first one shown):

I can now say my best friend is a celebrity! Ellen even posted her picture on instagram!

Weekend Recap

This weekend was pretty busy, but very fun! 

1. Friday night and Saturday was spent at the State Wrestling tournament cheering on the 3 wrestlers from our hometown and our brother-in-law, their head coach. All 3 came home with medals, so that was great! I also got to hang out with my sister-in-law and friend (both of the coaches' wives), we had a good time, as always!
2. Saturday morning, 2 other girls from work and I ran the "Trek Up the Tower" race in downtown Omaha. We raced up 40 flights of stairs, 870 steps total! It is super exhausting and challenging, but I felt good when I got done.  My uncle also did it, so I got to see him there!
3. Here is a picture before the finals started on Saturday. The wrestlers come in to the arena to the song, "We Are the Champions" and it gives me goosebumps every year. It's so cool!
4. Saturday night, we hung out with some friends and celebrated National Margarita Day. My margaritas were delicious! We also played some Catch Phrase, and unfortunately, the boys beat us girls.
On Sunday, Ryan and I went shopping for paint for our house and we also looked at washers and dryers. We picked out the paint, but are still deciding on the washer/dryer. Things are slowly coming along, and I'm excited and nervous!

That was our weekend! We are closing on our house on Thursday, it's coming so fast! I also have one prayer request, my baby cousin Adrian, who is almost 6 months old, is having heart surgery today. Please keep him and his parents in your prayers that the surgery goes well!

Advice

Ok...readers and fellow bloggers, I need some help and advice. Ryan and I need to buy a washer/dryer for our new house, and I'm not sure what is the best kind. I've heard pros and cons about top loaders vs. front loaders and I want to hear your opinions!! And if you recommend any certain brand or model, that would be great too!

Thanks!

Casting

Last week, we got Google Chromecast, and so far, we really like it! I'm sure most of you are familiar with it, but for those of you who aren't, it's a device that lets you stream pictures or videos from your computer or phone onto your TV so you can see things on a bigger screen. This is great for pictures, YouTube videos, and shows you may watch online. 

It's really easy to setup and very easy to use! 

Does anyone else have Chromecast? What's your favorite thing to use it for?

Baking Day

Yesterday, on my day off, I did some baking! There were a couple recipes I have been wanting to try, and I finally had time to do it.

Here's what I made...

Red Velvet Puppy Chow from Your Cup of Cake

Ingredients: 

1 cup Red Velvet Cake Mix

5 cups Rice Chex

1/2 cup Chocolate Chips

3/4 cup White Baking Chips

2 oz. Cream Cheese

1 1/2 Tbsp. Milk

1/2 cup Powdered Sugar

To get the full recipe, click the link above!

Valentine's Day Sugar Cookies

I just used the bag mix of sugar cookie dough for these.

Creamy Peanut Butter Dip from Fit Sugar

Ingredients:

6 oz Nonfat Vanilla Greek Yogurt

1 Tbsp. Peanut Butter (I used regular, not natural as the recipe stated)

 1/2 Tbsp. Maple Syrup

1/8 tsp. Cinnamon

News

My husband and I have some news to share...we bought a house! We've been looking for about a month, and found the one we really liked, so we put in an offer, it got accepted, and now we're going through the closing process! If everything goes as planned, we will close on March 3rd and it will officially be ours!

Now, comes all the fun, yet sort of difficult decisions like paint colors, furniture ideas, and decorating! I'm excited to finally have our own place to do with what we want! 

Here's a few things I've learned so far in the house hunting and house purchasing process:

1. Houses are expensive! (ok, I already knew this but it really hits you when you see the actual numbers, including all the closing costs)

2. Seeing a house you really like and then finding out it got sold is really disappointing. We had a couple of these in our search, but I learned you have to stay positive, the right one is out there somewhere.

3. Banks require a lot of paperwork. I didn't realize how much they had to verify as far as your employment, income, etc. I've used a fax machine more times these past couple weeks than in my whole life, constantly sending our lender information.

4. Having a good realtor can make a world of difference in your search. We started with one that wasn't the best, but when we switched to our current one, she was great! She was always sending us new listings, would respond to our questions quickly and has been a huge help in our buying process.

5. Buying a house is a big step in life and we had many doubts about whether we were doing the right thing and choosing the right budget, but lots of prayers and guidance from our parents really helped us in our decision.

If anyone has any tips or advice for us as we get ready to move, please let me know, I would love to hear them! And I will keep you updated with more inside pics as we get settled. I would also ask for prayers that our loan and paperwork go through smoothly so we can close in a couple weeks!

Sochi Sights

Who has been watching the Winter Olympics? I've been recording quite a bit on my DVR so far, and I've been happy with the performances! My favorite events so far have been the slope style snowboarding, figure skating, moguls, and speed skating. It amazes me what some of these athletes can do on snow and ice! What are your favorite events?

Here's the medal count as of last night (around 9pm, when I wrote this post), go Team USA!

Eventful Weekend Recap

Ryan and I had a busy weekend with lots of fun things going on! Here's the recap...

1. Friday night, we stayed home, watched the Creighton basketball game and enjoyed some homemade chocolate shakes.

2. Saturday, I had a baby shower for my best friend from college. I got to see her little girl again and catch up with good friends too. Here I am holding the little cutie.

3. Us 3 Clarkson College girls that were there, including the amazing mom in the middle.

4. Saturday night, Ryan and I treated ourselves to dinner at HuHot, yum!

5. After supper, we met up with some friends at The Dubliner for a couple drinks.

6. The main event at The Dubliner was surprising one of my friends after she got engaged! She was so surprised to see her friends and family waiting to celebrate with her, it was awesome!

7. Sunday, we had our niece's 3rd birthday party!

8. We also got to spend time with all of our nieces and nephews, who are growing up so fast.

9. Sunday night when we got home, we watched some Winter Olympics, including Jamie Anderson winning gold in slope style snowboarding!

I'm excited for a week of my husband being home, warmer temperatures coming soon, and more Olympics! I will hopefully do better about posting this week,  last week I was a big slacker!

Weekend Recap

1. Friday night was spent at home with my husband, watching some TV and relaxing on the couch!

2. Saturday morning, I came home to some delicious French toast after my fitness class, thanks to Ryan. The rest of Saturday was pretty low key. We did meet Ryan's family for lunch in Omaha and got to see our nieces.

3. Saturday night, we played some cards and hit up the local bar with some friends. We took a few shots, including some Rum Chata.

4. On Sunday, we went over to our neighbor's for the Super Bowl. Although the game wasn't that great, the food was yummy!

Happy February to everyone!