Grandma's Spaghetti Sauce!

Grandma's Spaghetti Sauce!

 

So we are leaving for vacation this Sunday, and there is always lots of prepping and packing to do! However we had a new item to add to our agenda this year, and that was Grandma's Spaghetti Sauce!

My Grandma has been a bit under the weather the past few months so she was unable to make her cherished spaghetti sauce, however my dad decided that with her guidance we would attempt to make her sauce ourselves!

(My Grandmother is fabulous)

Now this post is NOT a recipe post.
Because it's a secret :)

But I'll give you some little glimpses into how we did!

 Now First and Foremost.
My Dad is NOT a Cook.
His idea of cooking is buttered egg noodles and a hot ham and cheese.
So this was HUGE.
And you know what....
He did wonderful!

Look at him prepping the garlic!

Thanks Dad!

 So after we added all the ingredients to the sauce

We let it simmer for a bit.

While that was bubbling, I worked on the meatballs.

And The Ribs.

And The Sausage.

and then we threw it all in the pot to cook for the next couple of hours

Naturally I Was Starving.
So I Started Snacking.

 And Taste Testing.....

At The End of The Day.
It Wasn't Grandma's.
It needed more oregano (I think this was because we used fresh instead of dried.)
But this was something easily fixed!
So with 4 tubs in the freezer and ready, I think we are all set to go to the beach!!



On a sidenote:
I hate spaghetti sauce!
So this just shows how much I love my family :)

Strokin...and not the sexy kind!

Okay. I Had A TIA.
Essentially a mini-stroke.
Weird. I know.

It was pretty scary though, I couldn't move the left side of my body and more importantly my face looked like a melted candle. Not Happy.
However, after a week in the hospital and a week recovering at home I regained ALL my strength and mobility back!
I'm a fighter.

Anyway, I'm going to make this post nice and sweet:

Randy was pretty much the best boyfriend ever, he got me picture books and even helped me work on them since my arm was all gimpy.

The Hospital Food...was well...Hospital Food.
I was on a thickened liquid diet, which basically means apple juice and milk that has the consistency of syrup.BARF.
When I was finally allowed to eat, I was given Tuna...now I love Tuna.
What I don't like is warm, old, soggy bread tuna.

Once I was discharged and comfy at my grandparents, I was able to start eating healthy again. My mom even got me out of the house one day and treated me to a Maryland Favorite: CRABCAKE:

It was amazing. Seriously.

I also made sure I had lots of yummy things close by so I could try my best to stay on the right track even while healing.

One of my absolute favorite things to eat is prosciutto, mozzarella, fresh tomato, basil, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar....I can't even handle the amount of goodness that was on this plate!

(On a sidenote...I really love my grandparents bowls, they were super nice to let me crash at their pad while I was a gimp)

Last but not least:

I was feeling well enough to go to an O's game with my love <3 It was a great day even though all the walking did exhaust me.
Now...I totally cheated at the game. I had beers and bbq.
BUT...life is for living and if 90% of what I put in my body is healthy, and 10% is crappy then I feel like I'm doing alright.

Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday

So I had a rough night with the Mister.
His cousin John returned home from the Middle East, and I understand they wanted to celebrate, but I had to work in the morning, and being kept up till 5:30AM with their ruckus...well it made me not a very happy person.

But then I remembered it's THANKFUL THURSDAY.
And lemme tell ya counting your blessings definitely changes your mood :)



I had Chick-Fil-A breakfast!
I don't care in the slightest that it was bad for me.
It was delicious.

Sushi Exist.
As you can tell from this picture, I'm a little obsessive about Sushi.
So I'm so very thankful that Sushi exist!

So I've been creating my own Iphone cases!
All I did was buy a clear iphone case off Amazon (.80 cents!!)
And then I made these super cute cases using digital scrapbook items!
Now I will never get bored of a case :)

So I'm thankful that God made me creative

So Randy's mother around Christmas saw a sign that had this same saying on it and she had really wanted it, however it was like $50 bucks and I couldn't swing it. I felt really bad, but that is life.
Then this week I was at Hobby Lobby (my favorite store) and I found it for $11 bucks!!
Life is Grand

Went out on the boat this weekend with friends.
So thankful I have an amazing network of friends.

This would be my Pop and my cousins little baby boy.
I am so thankful that my family is so close, and that we get to experience all these wonderful moments together.

Hawaii!

HAWAII!

Randy and I recently went to Hawaii with my family for TWO whole weeks! I know, rough life right?
The only problem with this vacation was that I am absolutely terrified of flying, like I am the worst flyer you can imagine. You know those Newscast where the passenger had to be subdued? Yea. That's Me.
But....My family did try and distract me:

I survived the first flight, where we landed in L.A. (my father was kind enough to break up the trips for me with multiple flights and "city stays")
Our first "City Stay" was in Santa Monica, I loved it! It was such a cute little town, and our hotel couldn't have been more charming :)
Venice Beach I could have done without, there were some serious characters there!
But my little sister and Randy got to dip their toes in the water (I was still recovering from the flight, needless to say I was too busy kissing the ground)

The next morning we embarked on our trip to Honolulu!
We arrived in the early afternoon with plans to go to Pearl Harbor, however we didn't know that tickets had to be purchased in advance and by the time we got there, they were all sold out *super sad face*
We got to swim a little, and we drank lots of fruity drinks at a local tiki bar, and when we said farewell in the morning, Honolulu gave us this beautiful Rainbow!

Next Stop: MAUI!
Maui was by far my favorite Island, it was the perfect mix of nightlife activities and daytime relaxation, we thoroughly enjoyed all the drinkydrinks and desserts :)

The craziest thing we did however was jump off Black Rock, it's this rock in Maui that was used by the Natives to prove their manhood (I guess that makes me worthy?)
It was really hard to swim out to because of the rough surf and then it was a very difficult climb, we had to pull ourselves up, and poor Randy was barefoot and lost a good chunk of his pinky toe, but it was totally worth it, it was about 25ft above the surf and you just leaped out from the ledge!

So Scary!

After our lovely stay in Maui we were off to meet my grandparents in Kauai, it was absolutely beautiful there but there wasn't a lot to do aside from relax.

Last Stop Was Vegas where we won $127.50 off .25 cents! We also saw Cirque De Soleil :)

And that was our lovely vacation
Hopefully we win the lottery and can return once more:

P.S. I hiked this flippin mountain, and lemme tell ya it was no walk in the park!

First Post!

Alright, this is going to be a little bit of a lackluster first post but I'm all for trial and error!

This is me:

 

These two boys are my life:

About Us:

We just moved into our house in March, and I absolutely love our little cottage! We are renting for now which is a pain in the butt when it comes to making it feel like my own. I wish I could paint, and add some built in shelving, but for now this blog will be my post on how I make this adorable little rental place feel like "OURS"

My little family currently resides in Annapolis, however who knows where the future will take us!

What My Blog Will Be About:

This little blog will be mostly about my day to day life, keeping our families updated about cool things we may be doing, or the random things that happen throughout my day! It will also be a place where I will post about crafts I may be working on, or redecorating projects! This weekend we are re-furbishing our IKEA dressers so that should make for a really great post!

Alright folks. I think I can wrap up the introductory post here and move on to my Hawaii post!