Crazy Promposal

My sister's boyfriend is a very talented musician. Last year, before he was her boyfriend, he planned and carried out a very sweet "promposal" to my sister for their junior prom. This year, for senior prom, it had to be bigger and better. He gathered a large group of his musical friends and had them fill out surveys to ensure they were truly committed to the project. From October to March, he held 25 practice sessions (at his house; his parents are saints). He had teachers and administrators involved to ensure that nothing was going to mess it up since he was doing it during a class. And here it is:

Recipe: Chicken Cordon Bleu...evolved

It's been awhile. I actually have two other drafts sitting here that I never finished/published. My bad.

I am not really big on cooking. Josh is a way better cook than I am, so I prefer that he do the cooking. However, he does it for a living, so he doesn't really want to come home and do it some more.

My favorite thing to make is Chicken Cordon Bleu. It is so, so simple to make and it is absolutely delicious. But I also like to change things up a bit. I have made all kinds of changes to my trusty Chicken Cordon  Bleu recipe, and here's the latest evolution.

Sorry for the crappy picture. I should have used my camera, not my phone. I am ashamed to say those mashed potatoes came from a box, also.

For each person/serving you will need:

1 Chicken Breast

2 Pieces of Turkey Bacon (you can use pork if you want)

2 Slices of Provolone Cheese (or Swiss, or whatever kind of cheese you prefer)

Salt

Pepper

2 Toothpicks

First you'll want to preheat your oven to 350F. Next, take each of your chicken breasts and pound them so they are an even thickness. The thinner the better. I usually shoot for about 1/4 inch. Salt and pepper both sides. Place two pieces of cheese on top of the chicken breast. You'll want to put them next to each other. They can be overlapping; you just don't want them perfectly on top of one another. Place a piece of bacon on top of the cheese. Now take the whole thing and roll it up like a sleeping bag. You'll probably have to hold the cheese and bacon in place while you roll. Stick one toothpick in to help hold it together while you wrap the other piece of bacon around the outside. Stick the other toothpick in through the bacon to hold it in place. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the chicken reaches 165F. You can also throw another slice of cheese on top for the last few minutes if you like it extra cheesy. :)

New hair for a new season?

I had a dream a couple of nights ago that I did something pretty drastic to my hair. Well, for me, it isn't drastic at all. When I was in high school, I had a mohawk. I had my hair half black and half white like Cruella de Vil. It was blue, green, purple and pink. I've had it blonde with a layer of blue and a layer of purple. At this point, it would be difficult for me to do anything drastic. But compared to my current, almost-natural state, it would be a big change.

It looked similar to this:

I didn't have dark roots, and the purple was much, much lighter. But this was the closest thing I could find. The cut is spot on to what I had in my dream, but I will not be cutting my hair again any time soon. The only real difference is the bangs. My "bangs" are actually the longest part of my hair right now and are chin-length.

As much as I would love to do a darker purple like this, for the sake of my job, I think I need to be a lot more subtle about it. More like this:

To the point where if you're not in the right light, you can't be sure you're seeing what you think you're seeing. To be honest, I'm not positive my boss would even appreciate something this subtle. but it would be super easy to get rid of if it was a problem.

We'll see. I want to give it a lot more thought than I gave the pixie cut because that did not make me a happy lady. Lol. I had told myself I wasn't going to dye my hair anymore for a couple of reasons. And this look would be super hard to keep up with. I have done platinum before, and let me tell you, I did not keep it long.

It's also semi-difficult to keep it actually platinum and not yellow. It wasn't quite platinum in this picture, but it's the only one I could find.

So, like I said...I'll be thinking about it. It's better for a spring/summer look anyway!

A South Carolina Ice Storm

Toward the end of last week and over the weekend, the weather reporters were telling us that we were going to get a nice snow storm. Then the report turned into "more snow than ice." Then it turned into just ice. And finally, it turned into rain.

Well, it wasn't rain. And it definitely wasn't snow. It was a nasty ice storm. In the 18 years I lived in PA, I don't think I've ever seen anything like this. Maybe it's one of those special things about the South. :X

It looks like snow, doesn't it? Well, it's not. It is ice. A bunch of little balls of ice fell from the sky and piled up everywhere. Then it did, in fact, turn to rain, which froze almost immediately upon hitting the ground. Solid ice. Everywhere. You should have seen my poor dog trying to go out to go potty!

The trees sure did look pretty the next day, though.

And I didn't have to go to work until 12:30, which is always nice!!

A New Home for Our Shoes...

While we don't have a strict "no shoes in the house" rule, we do try to take our shoes off when we come in the door. If it rains even a little, our whole yard turns into a giant mud puddle because we're at the bottom of the hill. So we just try to make a habit of it. Our guests typically see our shoes by the door and follow suit by kicking theirs off too. But we aren't going to yell at you if you don't, unlike some other people *cough* my mother-in-law.

Right now, we just have a little rug by the door. It is little, and you can only fit maybe three pairs of shoes on it. Josh and I both like to keep a pair of moccasins by the door for those times when you just want to run out to check the mail or get something out of your car. So there's really no room for the shoes we need to take off when we come in. Plus the rug always gets all bunched up, and it doesn't look nice.

I've been eyeing entryway benches like these:

What I do not love about them is their price tags!! It seems like all of the ones I really love are $200+, and I just can't justify that. The ones that are more reasonably priced ($50-$60) are all made of compressed wood, and I won't even bother with that for furniture that's likely going to get abused. I'll stick with my ugly little rug, thank you very much.

It seems like an easy enough thing to DIY, but I just cannot seem to find a plan that I really like! It should be simple enough to make my own plan, honestly, but I just really don't have those skills. I am determined to find one, though!

you're gonna grin and bear it, your new-found popularity

A No 'Poo Update

Day 6: I made it through the day. I don't think it really looked bad, but I was super self-conscious about it. I washed it when I got home from work and felt a whole lot better.

Day 7: I wanted to quit so bad. It's Friday. It's the weekend. I just wanted to take a nice relaxing shower and wash my hair with shampoo. I wasn't even supposed to wash my hair again until tomorrow morning, so instead of letting myself cheat with shampoo, I let myself cheat by washing my hair (with baking soda and vinegar) on what was supposed to be an off day. Once again, I let it dry naturally, and it was dried out and frizzy later.

Day 8: Didn't wash. I think I finally got the water:vinegar ratio right because it didn't feel at all greasy. Still very weird, but not weird/greasy. (I know; I'm super descriptive!)

Day 9: I could have made it to 48 hours but I had to leave to go to Wicked, so it was about 42 hours. It was just about at the point of needing to be washed, but not quite. I blow dried it. It was still a lot flatter than I'm used to, but again, not a problem for me. I think for the first time since I started the no 'poo, it looked shiny and...normal? (aside from the flatness)

Day 10: It probably would have been fine until the next morning, but I caved and washed it after a little more than 24 hours. I just can't get past this weird texture, and the only time it doesn't feel weird is the first few hours after I wash it.

Day 11: I washed it again. It looks weird. Not greasy, but not the way I'm used to it looking. It reminds me very much of straw in both looks and texture. Dry, but kind of soft. Shiny but not greasy. I was warned that this might happen. I was warned that it could take days or even weeks to complete the transition and be normal. At day 11, it doesn't seem to be any closer to normal, and I'm starting to wonder if it's worth it. While I'm all about a chemical-free lifestyle, the bigger appeal to me was having to wash my hair less frequently. I already mentioned how it's super thick. It takes forever to dry. That's a big part of the reason I got it cut so short, but that didn't even help that much. If I'm having to wash my hair just as much only now I'm super self-conscious between washes, is it worth it?

Day 12: I washed.....with shampoo.

A lot of people suggested wearing your hair pulled back for the first couple of weeks while you go through the transition. This way if your hair does get greasy, or if it doesn't look quite the way you're used to, no one will really notice. My hair is still very much in recovery from the pixie cut that I got in October. I've got a ways to go before I can even think about pulling my hair back. Maybe in six months I'll give it another go. Maybe I won't.

Josh wasn't on board to begin with, but after a few days he realized it wasn't so bad. When I got out of the shower, I told him what I'd done. At first he pretended to be disappointed with me, but then he said, "I'm kind of glad because your hair felt pretty disgusting this morning." I had washed it the night before at around 7, and it already felt disgusting by 6 the next morning. It wasn't just me. It really was disgusting. Nobody wants that.

don't ever forget all the sleepless nights where we stayed up late until the sun would rise

So, what's been going on in my life since November?!

Let's see...

We went to Clemson's Military Appreciation football game:

There was Thanksgiving and Black Friday:

I finally bought myself a stand mixer, and I am in love with it:

Josh and I visited the Biltmore Estate:

As well as the Grove Park Inn:

And there was Christmas:

My sister and I celebrated together 700 miles apart in our matching pajamas:

Ella pretty much lived under the tree:

And then it was New Years Eve, and we got to celebrate together:

I got this really awesome tattoo for Christmas. All I knew (and asked for) was that it was going to be Little Mermaid. Josh went and talked to the tattoo artist and I didn't see it until it was time to get tattooed! It is so perfect, and I love it.

And this past Sunday, I got to go see Wicked with my mom...the last of my Christmas presents.

Exciting stuff!