Why am I a housewife at 25?

Well, let's start off with why I am a housewife.....I lost/quit my job. The company I worked for I devoted my life to, I worked 50+ hour weeks every week. Not a big deal to me but I should have been more important to them if you ask me. In my job, I hired people - actually 100 or so people but still, that goes unnoticed and unappreciated, actually I was STILL hiring people when I left. When I first started in my position I was a "god send" - HA that's laughable now. Pretty much, I put my heart & soul into the company, to be left with nothing.

I left the job (after speaking with my then fiance) a little less than a month before our wedding. Boy we were both glad I did! I had a TON to do before we got married: seating arrangements, decorating figured out, food choices, rehearsal dinner to plan, etc. When you work as much as I was, you don't really have the time to enjoy the planning process or to get things EXACTLY the way you wanted them, I failed to mention I also traveled a lot toward the end for work, working up to 17 hour days on those days, which leaves even less time. Anyway, I had a lot to do so it was nice. I lived with my parents and two siblings at the time too, so lots of company.

After our wedding we moved into our new home - approximately another month or so later. So I was super busy. With the help of my parents, we painted just about every room in the house. Kilz & usually 2 coats of paint. I live in a 2700 sq ft home.....LOTS of paint and LOTS of time spent. I was busy for I'd say about a month. No worries.

I was finished planning a wedding, and finished putting together a rather large house for only two people. The job hunt went into FULL time mode. Before I didn't spend hours on the computer, just time here and there when I had it. But now, time to find one. Let me tell you, the job market sucks. I am one of the hardest workers I know, I'll give a hand anytime and I'm intelligent enough to figure out stuff fast and on my own. So far, I've had numerous interviews, but no one wants me.

Therefore, I am a housewife at 25.

Let me tell you, it is NOT fun. I am lonely. I am a social person, I like people. Instead, I grocery shop & do dishes, clean, and workout daily. What else am I supposed to do? I feel like I have no purpose. I'm depressed. We don't want kids for at least 2-3 years until after we've been married (at least that's the plan), so I have no babies to tend to. I DO want to be a stay at home mom, but I have no kids right now, I don't want to stay at home. I have too much to give.

I do what I can - I've been doing crafts and researching recipes and decorating the house little by little. But there's only so much I can do. But I am bored MOST of the time. I've even considered going back to school. I already have a business degree but apparently that is either too much or not enough.

Greek Chicken

Pinterest is a wonderful website that I love very much. I find inspiration for EVERYTHING there. So, when I saw a grilled bruschetta recipe I was ecstatic! Only problem: I don't grill...BIG problem. So my search began. I wanted a recipe that would remind me of bruschetta - minus the grilling. Well, just about every recipe I found was always grilled. BUT - I don't know where I found this recipe, or what to really call it...going with greek from the olives & feta cheese :-) - but it's wonderful! Not bruschetta, but SO good I didn't care. My hubby can grill me the bruschetta one! In the pictures, obviously I made three chicken breasts instead of the 6 the recipe calls for.


Step 1: Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Step 2: In a large bowl, combine all salsa ingredients - cover - chill in refridgerator.

Step 3: Heat oil in large pan over medium-high heat. Season chicken with salt & pepper. Sear chicken 1-2 minutes on each side. Remove from heat (no it will not be cooked yet! haha)

Step 4: Place chicken in oven safe container (such as pyrex) big enough for ONE layer. Squeeze lemon wedges over chicken to coat. Place the squeezed lemon wedges around chicken.

Step 5: Roast chicken 25-30 minutes. Or until internal temperature is 160 degrees.

Step 6: Top with salsa from refridgerator and ENJOY! :-) Yumm-o!

Ingredients:

"Salsa"

• 4oz crumbled feta
• 1 cup halved grape or cherry tomatoes (you CAN use any tomatoes, these would be best)
• 1/4 cup pitted kalamata olives (if you can't find these, you can do it without, but it makes is SO MUCH better)
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/4 cup parsley (best fresh but can used dried - I've done both)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 tbsp oregano

Chicken:

• 6 chicken breasts
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• pepper & kosher salt, to taste
• 2 lemons cut into wedges

Spring Decor

As I have said before, I get a lot of inspiration through pinterest - some stuff is realistic, some stuff, is not. But one of the things I really liked was a decoration for spring for the front door. In the pin it was a watering can with fresh flowers. I decided to do my rendition of it with fake flowers so I could put it out every year for spring - the flowers will last a whole lot longer. So here is the final product:

And here are the steps I took:

Went to Michael's Craft Store and bought all these goodies including: watering can, hot glue gun, glue sticks, flowers of my choosing, wire cutters, needle nose pliers (I had a pair, but I wanted a pair for crafty stuff), a foam ball, and some florist pins.

First Step: Cut the foam ball in half so it would sit flat.

Step 2: (I decided the half of the foam ball was too short for some of my flowers so I added a ribbon roll underneath of the foam piece) Glue the ribbon roll to the bottom of the watering can let sit for a minute or so, then glue to foam piece to the ribbon roll. Let sit for another minute or so...just to give the glue some time to cool and stick.

Step three: Cut flowers (with wire cutters if made with wire) off their stems.

Step four: Push flowers into green foam far enough so they don't fall over. If you need added length, use your hot glue gun and glue florist pins to the flowers (I had to do this with the tulips). I also suggest starting with the flowers with the biggest stems, like tulips. I didn't do this and it made it harder to put the tulips in, but I did manage it. Arrange flowers however you like.

It's that easy!

Now this project does take time and adjustments. But be patient and you'll love it in the end. You can manipulate the flowers however you like (usually there's wire in them). I only burnt myself twice! haha every tulip I used, I had to glue a pin to, but it was worth it - I love it and can't wait to get it up on our door! The arrangement should hang crooked off of your door...not sideways, just off kiltered. But I love this for a spring decoration!

 I just have to figure out how to hang it on my front door. I think I'm going to have my hubby drill a hole above the handle and put a ribbon through it to hang it by that...it SHOULD hand a little crooked.

Banana Dessert My Husband Makes Me - YUM!

As I mentioned in a previous post, my husband is the one who taught me to cook. Even though I'm a housewife, he sometimes still cooks - usually grilling or a "specialty" of his. One of his "specialties" is an awesome dessert that I sometimes crave. It's probably the main dessert I crave. In it is butter, walnuts, bananas, ice cream, whipped cream, chocolate syrup....or typically that's what we use to make it. You can obviously add and interchange to your liking. So here it goes:

Step 1: Use a skillet to melt some butter about 1-2 tbsp.

Step 2: Add some walnuts to heat them and mingle with the butter (approx: 1-3 minutes).

Step 3: Add brown sugar to your liking mixing with other ingredients until melted together (approx: 1-3 minutes).

Step 4: Take a banana and slice in half then cut the half, in half :-) Add to skillet, let cook for about 2-5 minutes. Stir around and "play" in the mix and put it over the bananas. (I like to "play" with my food while cooking).

Step 5: Get some ice cream in a bowl. Top with everything in the skillet.

Step 6: Add other toppings of choice....ours: lite cool whip & Hershey's syrup.

Step 7: ENJOY! :-) You're welcome!

Ornery Dog

This is my ornery dog and here is why:


Sometimes he CAN be good - here he is sitting under the computer desk

He's a chewer!! I do this most dogs will chew things, I mean, I've grown up with dogs all my life, I'm used to it! But any, literally ANY stinkin' thing he can get his mouth on - he chews. Luckily though, he hasn't chewed anything that isn't easily replaced. However, he doesn't care if it'll kill him or hurt him...he did eat a brand new bottle of Ibuprofen - that's a whole other story which we won't get into - but luckily and thankfully, he is still alive and okay! I love this little rascal! But here's the most recent stuff he's gotten his mouth on.

Like this,

Toothpaste - why he randomly decided to jump onto the sink top and grabbed the toothpaste, I'll never know, but he did - and he can do damage fast! And, I'm not worried about his germs so I told my husband not to throw it out that we'd still use it - FAIL! haha The toothpaste squirts out all of his teeth holes instead of out where it should.

Or how about this -

Cardboard (or now duct tape covered cardboard) - originally it was just a cardboard box that was big enough for all his toys. He started chewing more on the box than his toys! So I decided maybe duct tape would make him stop chewing the box - obviously I was wrong, still chews it. Now he does chew it less, but still chews away! I have a love for ThirtyOne products and would like to get him a toy box from there - but I'm afraid that he'll chew through the straps, which he has done to many of my bags I use. It's cheaper to just get him a new cardboard box until he hopefully gets out of this chewing stage.

This was the latest fun find....

Our air pump for our aero bed. As I was getting ready for company (that was staying the night) for the Easter holiday, I was cleaning up the house and super busy - I didn't always have the time to watch the puppy for every minute and figured he'd be fine chewing on some plastic hangers I let him have....I was wrong. Instead he found the pump and chewed through the cord!! Luckily enough I have a handy father-in-law that put it back together!

He also LOVES his pop bottles (at least we let him have these!):

Even though he does all these crazy things - we still love him unconditionally. We recently went camping with him and my husband even said it was so nice because it was like we are a little family, in which - we are! haha :-)

Wall Art - Part 3

Yes, yes, I decorate with wall art - when does it get to be too much? I asked my husband if he thought we had too much, he said no - thankfully! haha I had bought one more. Here are photos of the wall art I have bought from WalMart....I actually have one more (also a WalMart one) - it's the first one I ever bought and put up - I'm saving it for later - it's very special to me and I'm not done with it yet! ;-)

Downstairs 1/2 Bath

This was my second purchase. I actually had it in the room I ended up putting the cherry blossom tree but it was on a big wall and looked out of place. This one is reusable, not all of them are. I love it here in our bathroom...looking down the hall I think it looks perfect and I love it. I wouldn't suggest moving these around too much...I have quite a few rips in these but if you use a credit card or your nail, you can get them to look just fine :-) It didn't have the best instructions to put it up but had the picture you could follow - how hard could it be?! It's actually harder than you think. My plants are NOT in the order it shows in the picture, I just did it how it looked best, making sure each side was even and no two colors were too close together. Spacing is the hardest thing to do on this kind.

I made both of these purchases at the same time. I wanted something in the bedroom that I had the wall art pictured above in...it's a large room and I just thought it needed some character and I LOVE cherry blossoms! So I thought - perfect! This one was numbered! Nice and easy to put up - kind of like those old paint-by-number pictures - this was put-on-the-wall-by-number wall art, which makes it a lot easier. The hardest part was getting the branches is the right spot. Again, mine isn't exactly like the picture, but it works for me and I like it (that's all that matters right?!).


One of the Bedrooms

This one was nice and easy as well. It came in one sheet like the Old Barn Rescue Company ones.  So the hardest part was picking where exactly to place it on the wall. It's in the center of the smallest wall in my dining room. I love what it says - now I just want some kind of decor around it - to me, it kind of looks out of place so you need to watch that with your own wall art especially if they are not reusable, which this one is not. There's a tree to the right of it but it needs more. I'm a little worried I didn't get it in a good spot - if I put it higher or lower on the wall then I could put a nice picture above or below. We will see what I end up choosing.



Dining Room - duhh!



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Rippling Reflections

Oh & it's my sister :-)

Decorating with wall art (update)

In my last post I talked about my "always kiss me goodnight" wall art I ordered - here is what it looks like...

yes, my bed or the wall art looks crooked - the bed is crooked for whatever reason, it's probably always been that way and we didn't notice - we haven't fixed it. It also came out blurry when I uploaded it to this site...ohhh well.

Decorating with Wall Art

I got so excited when the post man rolled up my driveway today and brought me an odd shaped box. When I saw who it was from I could hardly contain myself! I just received my wall decals I ordered from Old Barn Rescue Company via Etsy (http://www.etsy.com/shop/OldBarnRescueCompany)!! I met the post man at the door & ran upstairs to open the box....pulled out the decals & WOW! They were perfect! I loved them! I ordered an "Always Kiss Me Goodnight" decal that I'd been looking for the appropriate size since we moved into our new home (6 months almost) & "Cherry Branch w/ 3 birds". Both of those were in there - plus five extra birds & a tester, just the word "Breathe". I couldn't wait to put them up! So immediately I got everything out and proceeded to do so....I'm not one to read or follow directions - but I read them - figured I could do it on my own. It was definitely easier then I initially thought it would be (after reading the directions), especially since I decided to figure it out myself. I started out with "Breathe" on our bathroom mirror - just to test it out - it went fine, now I'm deciding whether to leave it there - it's kind of cute! Then I proceeded with the cherry branch (I'll wait till my husband gets home to decide exactly how we want to place the other...it's going in our bedroom). It's BIG - probably 5 x 3 or so...it was a little harder to manage but it worked & here's the final product.

I definitely plan to order from "Old Barn Rescue Company" again in the future! Especially when it's time to decorate for nurseries - they have the cutest stuff!!

Pets, Love, & Training

How is it that you can have the worst day ever and yet you come home to your pet and they make everything okay? Could it get any better than that. Every time I leave my house I look forward to coming home to my 5 month old pup! He is always so excited to see his Momma! My pets have always been so special to me and I always cherish their existence. I don't know what I'd do without a pet to love me unconditionally - even when they're bad and get in trouble - they still love you more than anything.

I'm thinking of taking this little stinker to obedience classes. Right now, he is a bit stand off-ish from strangers - but is pretty happy to bark at them and warn them. He loves to play with other dogs - especially this little stinker that keeps getting loose and makes my dog try to run away with him. This is more of my reasoning to take our dog. He comes when called EVERY time unless this other dog comes around. It's so frustrating and scary! What if I don't notice and my dog runs away! So I'm hoping that being around other dogs for the training - he'll learn he has to listen even when there's other dogs around. We'll see....otherwise though - how do you break this from happening? We don't have another dog to test it with - so how do you get them to listen even at their most focused times?

Sandwiches

I had an oops!

What makes a good sandwich? All your own personal favorite items right? But to me what makes one even better - someone else making it! My husband must be in heaven then because I make sandwiches for his lunch just about every day - unless he wants to take leftovers instead. I actually LOVE making him sandwiches because of how much he appreciates it (I have a great man). If or when I finally do get a job - I will still make his sandwiches because I love to. The key to a man's heart is through his stomach right?! haha Ingredients to our favorite sandwiches:


Ingredients

Whole wheat bread or bagel, two kinds of lunch meat - 4 slices total (ours are always from Sam's Club), cheese - 1 slice (Sargento is his favorite - but I like to mix it up), spinach, lite mayo, & one of two other toppings (pictured below). Simple but - YUM!

Egg Muffins...

In my time here unemployed at my house I found pinterest. Yes, I love it and it gives me all kinds of ideas and a lot of stuff to try to cook - or decide not to try again. I now kind of enjoy cooking, mostly because my husband loves it - and I love to eat. There's pretty much not a thing I won't eat - other than things with heads (sardines, anchovies - no, thanks). But I found a recipe for egg muffins (http://pinterest.com/pin/98023729359482256/) - sounded AWESOME and convenient - heck I could make it to go camping or for my husband to eat in the morning for breakfast before work. So I tried it.....this is what it looked like when I finished...

Uh - Yum? No, not so much...I didn't put sausage in, just Nature's Seasoning, red onions, green peppers and some cheese. Maybe they cooked too long but I cooked them for the minimum of 30 minutes....but it's a FAIL!

I'd try it again though - see what my hubby thinks. But they'll probably end up a nice treat for our pup!

A little background on my cooking skills...or lack thereof

Well, we'll start with food. I'll give you a little background. I grew up with a housewife for a mother. Her work was cleaning, cooking, and taking care of three kids. I lived a cushioned life having no chores to do other than cleaning my room, my parents took care of everything else for me. When I went to college, I commuted - so again, parents took care of everything. At one point I decided I needed to know how to cook - my dad's response was "you just do it"....yeah - thanks dad. My mom - she just really didn't have the time.
It wasn't until I met my now husband in 2009 (at 22 years old) that I actually learned to cook anything other than eggs & Bisquick pancakes. Now, he's been cooking (and out of his parent's home) since 2001-ish, and sometimes it's hard for someone to teach a straight-up beginner (I mean, come on, in high school I messed up instant mac & cheese in home ec). So slowly, I learned some "signature dishes" if you want to call them that. Mostly pastas because they're easy - you just stick the pasta in boiling water until it's done to your taste. Other than that my boyfriend (at the time) did most all of the main cooking, I did easy side dishes or made sure he watched me while I helped.


My Kitchen..the stove anyway

Now, I'm 25, married, with a German Shepherd pup, in a new (to me anyways) house, jobless. Glad I learned to cook from my husband! Because I'm the one usually cooking now (unless it's grilling, I won't touch the grill unless it's for hot dogs!) or dinner would take up too much of our time together, and we have a house to put together (but that's a different subject all together).