Going along with my weekly meal plan, tonight was designated for lemon garlic chicken, mashed potatoes, peas & a yummy dessert. Before tonight, I had never used this recipe or fried chicken in a frying pan, but I have overcome both obstacles! A little oregano, salt, pepper, & flour (Note to self: do not "plop" chicken breasts in flour. Will make mess everywhere.) to coat the chicken breasts, and fry them in olive oil. Take the chicken out when it is golden brown and chop up fresh garlic, squeeze lemons for juice. Add some white wine and chicken broth in the pan and simmer until reduced to half. Pour garlic, lemon, wine sauce over cooked chicken breasts and top with a slice of lemon. It's a tad frustrating because cooking new recipes always takes me twice as long as the suggested time, but I love the fact that I'm learning new recipes I can use for the rest of my life!
For dessert, Mr. Wonderful made what he calls "The Dirty Rabbit Cage". Sounds appetizing eh? In four of our smallest tupperware bowls, he made a graham crackers crust all along the sides of the containers, instant jello pudding- oreo cookie blast, some more graham cracker crumbs sprinkled on top and a few semi-sweet chocolate chips on the very top to make the bunny poop. He was very pleased with himself and it was delicious. We even have two more to enjoy after tomorrow's dinner.
I know that it might seem boring listening to my cooking quests, but in my past, cooking Kraft macaroni and cheese was a struggle. In cooking these meals, it feels great after we enjoy it and I'm less likely to avoid the leftovers. It's so rewarding to cook from scratch!

Baby on the Brain

In the past week, I have spent an abundant amount of time visiting family and friends. This is amazing because I love these people with all my heart, however it can be very dangerous to my sanity (in more ways than one). Let me explain. Last Saturday, Mr. Wonderful and I spent time with my brother David and sister-in-law Frances and their 5 month old little girl, Teresa.

Now, Mr. Wonderful and I have our own set of friends that we spend time with, but they are all single. We aren't friendly with any another married couples around our age that lives within 30 miles of us, except David and Frances, and we are so grateful to have them. Granted, my brother is 8 years older than me, we all get along so well and w have so much fun with them. Although they just bought a house even further away from us, Mr. Wonderful and I have decided to make it a point to see them more often, because there is a huge difference in hanging out with married couples versus hanging out with single friends. Both are fun, but in different ways. Sadly, our separate friendships is not my main obstacle these days, it's my raging hormones.

Did you know it is a proven fact that babies emit a smell that triggers hormones in women to desire to have children? This is my problem. My little niece is a beautiful girl with a great smile and expressive eyebrows (just like my brother) and I can't help but play with her and kiss her head. She's adorable! After spending time with family, I went to lunch with the other female Science teachers in my department this past Tuesday and one has a 10 month old girl named Teagan. Just as wonderful as my neice, I couldn't help but "talk" and play with Teagan, all the while, feeling the urge to bare offspring more by the minute. My hormones were so bad, that I actually teared up a bit while in Mr. Wonderful arms. I have always dreamed about having little ones, but we both know it's much smarter to wait one more year until he has a stable job and I have more experience in teaching. I also know that those wonderful little girls have their needy, cry-all-night, no sleep, want to crawl in a hole moments that I haven't seen. Children are a gift but I know in my heart I'm not ready to make the sacrifices needed to be a good mom. It still hurts to wait though. So I've been having this constant internal struggle of baby vs. no baby life, and in the meantime, I think I'm driving Mr. Wonderful crazy.
For most organisms, it is part of their genetic code to survive and reproduce. I once had a college professor tell us how he failed at evolution since he did not produce any offspring. Organisms are compelled to carry on their genes to the next generation, but for humans it can be so much more. I know Mr. Wonderful will be the most amazing dad, and I feel like I can't wait to have little miracles that we create together. I also want to believe that God will always provide, as has been shown for us before, but what do I do? We feel we're being stupid if we bring a child into a home right now that can't afford him or her (emotionally, physically, and financially). But we also feel stupid if we question God's will. Are we the only ones feeling the struggle? Let us know.

Dinner Time

This past Sunday, I decided to get better about eating well balanced meals every night. I took a page from Heather's Recipes and made a weekly meal plan. I have some other friends who even plan meals by the month, but I figured baby steps were a better idea for me. Since Mr. Wonderful had dinner plans with a friend that day, I decided to start my plans for Monday and plan through Saturday for now. We had bought chicken in bulk and froze it a week or two ago, so I was trying to plan meals to use that up, but I also wanted to mix up the meals. Who wants to eat chicken every night?
So I planned, we went to the store for a few extra key items, and Mr. Wonderful started the plan off with Shredded BBQ Chicken made in the slow cooker on hamburger buns. It is a simple meal we both enjoy. I also added fresh cut veggies from a platter we had served for a board game party last week and I made semi-homemade strawberry shortcake. Basically, I made yellow Betty Crocker cake in a 13x9 in pan and for the sauce, I used my mom's simple recipe. You blend cut strawberries (almost mushy ones work best) in a blender until they are sauce like with a small chunks in them. Then you add water and powdered sugar until it's the consistency and sweetness that you desire, add a few more cut strawberries for bigger chunks and stick it in the fridge to cool. When you are ready to eat the shortcake, cut the cake into small squares and pour the strawberry sauce on top. For added fun, you can put a scoop of whip cream on top.
For tonight's meal I used two boneless chicken breasts that Mr. Wonderful cooked in the slow cooker yesterday (he took them out before he shredded them & added BBQ sauce) and made Chicken Tortilla Soup from scratch! I used a couple of recipes combined, using what ingredients I had and putting a few more of my Nola seasonings in. It took longer than I expected, although it was my first time making this meal, but it smelled fantastic. We threw shredded cheese and crushed tortilla chips on top of the soup in our bowls and gave it a try. Mr. Wonderful ended up eating 2 full bowls and not just because he was super hungry! We still have enough for leftovers, and I am excited to eat it again ( crazy, right?). For dessert I had made strawberry banana frozen fruit pops, but they weren't done by the time we were ready, so we ate more strawberry shortcake. This time we put strawberry ice cream on top of the cake, and then added the strawberry sauce for an even yummier dessert than last night. Tommorow is sloppy joes and sautéed apples, with those (hopefully) frozen fruit pops. I am so proud of myself, and with my confidence in cooking boosted, I can't wait to keep making more meals from scratch.

Sure, that sounds like a good idea!

Last week I stumbled upon an amazing blog called Want What You Have by a woman named Heather. In one week, reading her blog has changed my way of life. I have learned so many new organizational ideas, recipes, and frugal tips from her I don't know what to do with myself! In the past, I have been absolutely horrible about wasting food, products, and money in general. I dislike leftovers with a passion, my organizational plan was put it off until tomorrow, and I postponed checking my bank account until I was afraid my future purchases might not be covered. I would go to a restaurant, eat half a meal and bring the other half home, only to have it end up in the trash a two weeks later. You get the idea. My other half, Mr. Wonderful, is the exact opposite in everything except the financial situation. Our financial situations are one of things we actually have in common (sadly). Anyway, since I've begun reading all the great ideas from Heather, I've made a conscious effort to change my ways before I drive my new husband crazy. The eating leftovers thing might take me a while, especially left over Macaroni & Cheese (it's 2nd day texture makes me squirm), but I've already got myself a new HMG or Home Management Guide and a new filing system for mail and paperwork! I've still got a long way to go, but I think this is something I might actually complete & stick with. It's very exciting!
There's this thing called The Pantry Challenge which I am really excited to start on, but before I can do that I must take inventory of everything little thing we have. The basic rules are that you may purchase a limited number of staples, you may also purchase anything necessary for family members with special needs, or a medically-prescribed diet, everything else served must come from your pantry, freezer, or refrigerator, no dining out, and you must blog about your experience. You must stick with this challenge until you absolutely can't make a balanced meal with what's left in the cupboards and freezer. It's going to take a while to get the hang of it, but I'm excited. The basic idea is don't waste! So I haven't started the challenge yet, but last night I decided to keep that theme in mind when my stomach began to growl. I only just planned my meals for the week today, so when dinnertime came around yesterday, I asked my husband to trust me when given a bowl of the meal I had made. I decided to go through my pantry and use the ingredients we already had to make a balanced meal that we never had before. I looked at random ingredients and said to myself, sure, that sounds like a good idea! I grabbed some canned tuna we had yet to use, minced garlic, red wine from our wedding stash, a tomato I had thrown in a blender, the other half of a red onion I had used in a previous Quiche Lorraine, and lot of Tony Chachere's Seasoning Salts from back home in Nola. Then I cooked up some Penne and combined the sauce and the pasta for the dinner. I asked my husband to trust me because although it smelled good, it looked pretty bad. He took a bite and survived. Not only did he survive, but he liked it. I was very content with myself. This is just the first step to using what I have in the pantry, but so far, no deaths. I'd say that's a win. Talk to you soon!

Rash Decisions

About a month ago, I was with my bridesmaids in the adorable "Main Street" area of the city. I was holding my bridal luncheon at a Jewelry store so the girls could make their own jewelry for the wedding, as my gift to them. Afterward we enjoyed lunch at this fantastic Tea Shop/Restaurant across the street and went shopping in the nearby stores. In that area was one of my favorite places to visit, a kitten adoption place with huge windows in the front where they let many kittens roam and play for passersby. At the time, I already had one cat that I shared responsibility for with my (at the time) fiance. August was named for the month she was born in, since her birthday was two days before Mr. Wonderful & I started dating.

We loved our 2-yr old all black cat, but since I'm gone most of the day at school and Mr. Wonderful will be in the hospital (once he gets a job) 12 hours at a time, we've been wanting a playmate for August for a while. With the impending wedding and the massive amounts of money we'd be dishing out, we had decided to wait until after the wedding to adopt anything. This is what was rolling around in my head as we stepped into the Kitten Palace ( I gave it a fake name for their privacy).

All of my bridesmaids (for the luncheon I also invited my mother and his mother to be friendly) and the mothers were oohing and ahhhing at all of the adorable and constantly meowing kittens, when I spotted the cutest kitten on the planet. The owners of the store called him Griswald for no particular reason, but I found out the teeny, long haired, orange marmalade kitten was only about 6-7 weeks old and was not ready to be adopted yet. His mother was run over by a car, but all of his brothers and sisters survived and were brought there. I was so taken with this kitten that had the "just electrified" look about his fur, I couldn't help but start asking questions about their adoption policy. Mr. Wonderful and I adopted August through a PetSmart and it cost about $110, but that included the spay, the vaccinations, etc. and August was in perfect health. The owner informed me it would only be $100 for the kitten and that would include his future neutering and his vaccinations. I was getting too excited. Of course, I knew that $100 wouldn't be all we'd spend on a new kitten, there was the second set of food supplies, medical visits, toys, cleaning products, especially brushes & shampoos for a long hair cat, but he was just so darn adorable.

I took a quick photo of the kitten with my phone, sent it to Mr. Wonderful, and made a call to him to get his opinion. He, of course, felt the same way I did. We finally decided that however much we wanted this cutie pie as soon as possible, with only two weeks until the wedding and the week-long honeymoon we'd be going on, getting a kitten that day would be a bad decision. Makes sense, right? Instead we'd put down a deposit for the kitten and wait to pick him up when we can back for the honeymoon; it seemed like a great plan! The Kitten Palace would take care of the kitten until we were able to bring him home and we would have the guarantee that he would be adopted by someone else. I filled out the paperwork that day, and was so excited for our new addition to the family. I went home with my receipt and the hope for that day when he'd really be ours.

Three weeks went by really fast with the wedding & the honeymoon (that story is for another day). We came back from Disney World on a Saturday and decided to pick up the kitten on the following Monday. With that time to think, we decided to change his name from Griswald to Julius aka Jules or Joules. Julius for the month we really got to take him home & since we already had August, it just seemed appropriate. I had also made a vet appointment for 30 minutes after we were to pick him up, I wanted to make sure Jules was healthy before we took him home to meet his older sister so we didn't infect August with anything bad. Thankfully (or so I thought) Jules checked out with only diarrhea but clean fecal matter & everything else so we went home to introduce the two cats. That didn't go as planned since August turns out to be a bit of a scared princess. There was a lot of hissing and batting, but over the week, August had learned to tolerate Jules. Julius was the absolute cutest kitten ever and we were a new happy family. We had even bought the outlined Disney Family stickers for the back of our cars, a man, a woman, and two cats with Mickey ears on all.

Sadly, by Friday of that same week, Jules was still producing soft serve feces and we were concerned, so Mr. Wonderful took him to the vet to get checked. A different doctor than our original one decided the diarrhea was caused by stress in changing environments & foods and gave us medicine to calm his digestive tract. The different vet also discovered a horrible infestation of ear mites and gave us meds for both cats since we had already let them meet each other, August was most likely infected too. Oh yes, and there was a scratch on his head. I was not happy at all! First, with Kitten Palace for not informing us of the ear mites or scratch and second, with the vet doctor for not discovering this infestation in the first visit. More money out the wallet for medical visits and meds, but we wanted to get the little one healthy and happy so we paid the bills and took him home.

The following week, I decided to give Jules his first bath. This is something I'd never done before with August since she is a short hair cat and can easily groom herself, but I was up for the challenge with a 2 lb kitten. He hated the water of course, something about the sound. (During our first vet visit, the doc couldn't get his heartbeat because he purred too much, so they showed him rushing water to make his purring stop.) But this is when I first noticed strange areas on his skin that were flaky/crusty. I would brush his fur daily and come up with some dandruff, but I figured this was normal. However, these patches were anything but normal. I decided to just try and brush better and keep an eye on how it progressed. By Sunday of that week, the scratch on his head was not healing, but getting bigger, he had lost hair on his back toe and the flaky areas were even bigger. I had also discovered that what I thought was a mosquito bite on my leg was getting larger without me touching it, and it was starting to resemble a ring. I began Googling his symptoms on the internet and what I found made me furious and anxious for my baby kitten. I made ANOTHER appointment for Monday morning with a different Vet doctor to figure out what the heck was going on with this poor kitten. Two minutes into explaining what I had noticed with the scratch and other patches on his skin, the doc told me she was pretty sure it was ringworm. Then I showed her the new red ring on my lower leg and that confirmed it. She didn't even plan on taking a culture from Jules, because I was her proof. The doctor then proceeded to explain the process to rid Jules and our apartment of the ringworm fungus. Because it is not actually a worm, but a fungus, it thrives in warm moist areas and can live for a long time in hiding, waiting to reinfect. This is why Jules must live in isolation in a kennel for two months while receiving treatment. They had to shave his beautiful long fur very close to his body because ever hair that touched the many spots of ringworm on his body (large spot on his bottom left side, medium spot on his head, medium on back of his neck, and spots behind both his ears), had the potential to reinfect him with ringworm. He will receive oral medication every day for the next few months, even after isolation (more money) and he and August will need sulfur & lime baths 2x a week during that same time. We don't believe August is not infected yet, but the bath is to prevent spread of the infection. This poor, incredibly active kitten is now confined to a 2ft x 3ft kennel in our bedroom for the next 2 months, meanwhile we must torture him with sulfur baths and meds?! I was livid and horrified at the same time. I couldn't believe I hadn't researched that adoption center more, or taken the time to figure out illness that could be common to newly adopted kittens to prepare for them. I learned my lesson. I also cried for a good hour before going shopping for our supplies to quarantine our baby. I just felt so bad for Julius. He'd been with us a mere two weeks when we found out we had to lock him up for 2 or more months.

A very long story short (sorry!) We've spent the past 2 days bleaching all of our bedding, towels, floors, clothes, etc. and cleanin our furniture to try and rid ourselves of spores. We don't recieve the meds until tomorrow (they had to be specially made for him since he's so young and small), but we've tried to make the best of a bad situation for the little one. We decided the bedroom was the best room option (2 bedroom apartment doesn't leave many choices) since it has hardwood floors and would be easiest for daily cleaning of spores, etc. and that's where his small kennel sits. There's just enough room in there for a small litter box (he used to share the large automatic LitterMaid with August), his combined water/food bowl and a small but comfy pet bed. We hung his favorite chirping mouse toy on a string from the top of the cage and decided AMA to give him an hour of playtime each day in the bedroom. We have to cover our bed in old sheets, wear old scrubs to cover our body/clothes, wear gloves in order to touch Jules, and we'll have to steam mop the floors daily, but we've gotten into a routine. Jules cried the most the first day. I cried too. I know he's just a cat but I fell in love the first day I saw him. I know he doesn't understand why he's being confined by himself, or why he can't play with August anymore, or why we can't hold him anymore. Mr. Wonderful held me and giggled a bit, saying "you'll be such a great mom". But I think it's getting better. He gets 30 min of playtime in the morning and 30 min at night. Mr. Wonderful is going to the store tomorrow to get supplies to make a 2nd story in that kennel so he'll have more to play with and more space to utilize, but as I write this, his cries of attention affect me more than I want to admit. No animal should have to go through something like this and we know for a fact it came from the darn Kitten Palace. Ringworm takes 2 weeks to fully show up and since August isn't infected, and his infection is so bad, it had to come from them.

I'm sure you're wondering if I gave the place a piece of my mind. Well, no. When we found out the problem, I made a conscious decision to wait to call them until I calmed down. Nothing will be accomplished with angry words. I gave them a call later on that night and didn't receive a call until halfway through this post. I again, decided not to pick up and talk to them since I had reignited my frustrations. But after listening to the honestly, sweet and extremely apologetic owner of Kitten Palace, I calmed down and realized we didn't want to cause trouble but we would appreciate help in the medical bills since it occurred while he was in their care. I figured that wouldn't be too much to ask? I will call back tomorrow with my requests and I guess we will talk, but hopefully I can keep my composure. I hate this situation we were put in, and the emotional and financial stress it is putting on Julius and our family, but even though I learned my lesson on rash decisions (again) I wouldn't give him up for a million dollars. Maybe a billion . . . just kidding! I'll try and keep you updated on his progress over the next two months, and hopefully it'll be filled with good news. Keep our little family in your thoughts.

Learn Something New Every Day

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain." - Anonymous

Hello World, my name is Katy.

I am 22 years old, I have been married three weeks, and I am about to embark on my second year of being a High School Biology Teacher.
At this point in our lives, there is an abundant amount of individuals blogging each day to provide guidance, tips for living a better life, or even just to rant about how awful their life truly is. I can almost guarantee that there is at least one person already filling the blogging niche I hope to satisfy. However, I can tell you that there is absolutely no person on this planet that has had the same exact background, education, and life experiences I have had, and this is what I plan to share with you.
By now you are probably thinking, "What kind of life experiences has a 22 yr old had?".
You would be surprised.

I can't promise you that this blog will provide you with daily tips on how to become a better person, an expert teacher, or a more amazing spouse, but I can promise to always tell the truth (except in regards to protecting my privacy) and I promise to keep entertaining.
Those are the only two things I'm really good at.
As the reader, you will endure the tales of my life as a teacher & my life as a student, learning the many ways of the world. Enjoy.