friday night at the ballpark

We went to the Rangers game with our ABF tonight. It was $10 tickets, $5 parking and fireworks night!! We had pretty good seats for $10!!

There were 8 couples that went with us!!

{The Craddock} & {The Janes}

{The Hammetts} & {The Stones}

{The Hares} & {The Kennedys}

{The Hutchisons} & {Me and Matt}

The last Rangers game I went to, I sat by this sweet little 6 year old boy that was eating tons of yummy snacks that his Daddy had packed for him. I was so jealous, because I didn't know that you could bring your own cooler into the ballpark. I don't like most ball park food and the prices of the ballpark food just make me cringe. So, I came prepared to this game.

I packed 2 waters, 2 Diet Dr. Pepper, sun flower seeds, pistachios, skittles, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and cheese-its for my dinner, and enough peanut butter treats for everyone!! All we had to buy at the ballpark was a hot dog for Matt.

Around the 5th inning the sky started looking pretty dark. We looked on our phones at a weather radar, and a huge storm was about to blow in.

It was already lightening, but the announcers hadn't told us to leave. Most of the guys stayed to watch the game but the some of us girls just didn't feel comfortable with the huge lightening. So stepped out and of course we had to take a girls pic!!

Even though it rained and we missed the fireworks we still had a great time hanging out with friends!!

i ❤ giveaways!!

I love giveaways!! I've never actually won one, but I still think they are fun to enter.

So here's your chance to join in on the fun, too!!

Go here to enter a giveaway to win one of my Mom's Tried and True Designs diaper bags.

And go here to enter a giveaway to win this adorable address stamp!!

Good Luck!!

before & after before the before & after

A while back I mention here, that I was teaching summer school and that my husband said we could get granite with the extra money. If you follow me on facebook or twitter, you have probably read that we are finally getting our granite countertops!! Yay!!

Before we get our new granite countertops put in, I thought I would show you what our kitchen looked like before we moved in and after we did a little bit of work. After we get our granite countertops put in, I'll show you the new before & after pictures!!!

Before:

After:

Since we've moved in, we've torn down the border, painted the walls a brighter red, added hardware to the cabinets and drawers, changed all the gold door knobs to brushed nickel, and bought a new stainless steel refrigerator and dishwasher. Hopefully in the near future we'll get a new stainless steel oven and microwave to have all matching appliances. But for now, we are doing granite countertops, so our matching appliances can wait!! Oh, and my parents gave Matt and I recessed lighting for our birthdays! You can't see it in the picture, but that is something else that we did. You know you are old when you get lights for your birthday!! Hah!

Check back next Wednesday to see the new before and after pictures of our kitchen!!

hot sauce & lemonade

I was in homemade cooking kind of mood today.

Today I made homemade hot sauce....

....and freshly squeezed lemonade.

Yummy!!

Want the recipes?? Here ya go....

Hot Sauce

1 carrot

1 can of tomato sauce

2 cans of Ro-Tel tomatoes

1/2 tsp. chili powder

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. salt

1 T. sugar

Lime juice

1/4 of bunch fresh cilantro (leaves only)

Peel and cut carrot into 1 inch slices. In a blender put hunks of carrot and tomato sauce. Blend until carrot is in tiny pieces. Add all other ingredients and blend until mixed, but not totally a liquid.

(Before Matt and I got married, he told me that our refrigerator would need to have a constant supply of this hot sauce. Tonight was the first time I have made it in a while, but you can almost always find jar of this is my refrigerator for my sweetie.)

Freshly Squeezed Lemonade

6-8 lemons

1 cup of sugar

5 cups of water

Squeeze all the lemons into big measuring cup. Dissolve the sugar with the squeezed lemon juice and 1 cup of water. Add the remaining 4 cups of water.

(Matt's Mom made this for us a few weeks ago, I just had to get the recipe. We both thought it tasted sooooo good. We even thought it tasted a little familiar. On our way home, it finally hit us that it tasted just like Chick-fil-A lemonade. It takes a little time to make, but it is definitely worth it.)

And as soon as my bananas are ripe, I'll be making some banana bread!!

30 Day Shred

I love "The Biggest Loser." It's such a good reality TV show. (It's season premier is on September 15th, I can't wait!!) It's so motivating and it's so neat to see people change their lives for the better.

Not only do I love the show, but I love Bob and Jillian. They are amazing trainers. I would love to have one of them to myself. But I can't, so I got the 30 Day Shred DVD instead. I actually got it through our Netflix. So if I like the work-out(which I'm pretty sure I do), I'm going to have to buy it, because I don't think Matt wants me to keep a DVD for 30 days.

I did my first work-out yesterday and when I weighed this morning I already lost a pound. I'm not trying to lose 20 pounds in 30 days like the DVD advertises, but I sure wouldn't mind losing those pesky 5 pounds that have come around since the wedding. I am going to try to stay faithful to this work-out for the rest of the summer. And then I would really like to wake up 3 days a week and do it before school. It's only 20 minutes long. Surely I can wake up 20 minutes earlier than I normally do. We'll see how it goes!!!

I would love to hear if any of you have ever done the 30 Day Shred? Did you like it? Did you lose any weight or just tone up?

meal planning monday

Since Matt and I have been married, I spend almost every Sunday afternoon cutting coupons, making a weekly menu and grocery list.

I have seen lots of blog where they post their menu for the week, so I thought I would give it a try. This will help me stick to my menu for the week and hopefully it will give you some ideas of things to cook for your family. Feel free to leave a comment with what you are planning on making this week.

Here is what we will be having this week....

Monday: Chicken Spaghetti

Tuesday: Tacos

Wednesday: BLT's

Thursday: Chicken Breast Supreme from Kelly's Korner

Friday: Ranger's Game

Saturday Lunch: Ham Rolls & Chips

Saturday Dinner: Wedding in Fort Worth

Sunday Lunch: BBQ lunch fellowship @ church

Sunday Dinner: Leftovers

If you are interested in any of the recipes that I use, just leave me a comment and I will post it!

summer giveaway week @ fabulous k

My blog designer, Kelly, at Fabulous K Creative is hosting a Summer Giveaway Week. You can click here to get to her blog. It's going to be so much fun!!! She will have 2 giveaways each day all week. All the items that she will be giving away will come from different Etsy shops she has selected. One of the giveaways happens to be from my Mom's shop Tried and True Designs!!

So be sure to check it out Thursday because that is when she will giveaway one of my Mom's personalized diaper bags.

Good luck!!

These are the giveaways she has posted so far....

The Vintage Pearl

Seven Cupcakes

Sonicstef Designs

Custom Designs by Mimi

Small Words

Joy's Hope

Doodle Bugs Paper

Tried and True Designs

Two Five Cloth

Back 40 Life

blog makeover: before & after

Before:

After:

Much better huh??

there's a target in town

There is a new Target in town. That's crazy!! There is a Target in my small not so small hometown. My Mom and I went and checked it out today. They had some really great Grand Opening sales, and when combined with the Target coupons they mailed out and manufacture coupons, I got some great deals. Yay, Target!!

welcome

Don't you think a wreath makes a house look so inviting?

My Mom and I made this wreath the other day for super cheap. I bought the grapevine wreath at Hobby Lobby for $1.99. It was 50% off. And all the flowers are leftover from all of these things that Mom made me for Christmas. She got all the flowers at Hobby Lobby on a 90% clearance shelf. So the wreath probably cost about $5. I love cheap decor!!

gecko in the house

The other day I was letting Izzie back in the house and little gecko came in with her. Matt calmly got a little rake and got him out of the house.

I, on the other hand, was freaking out!! I don't really care for creepy, crawly creatures.

doggie sprinkles

Izzie has been on an antibiotic because she has a little infection on her toe nail. The vet gave me capsule antibiotics. I tried putting them in her food, wrapping them in treats, and even wrapping them in people food.

Izzie would have nothing to do with them.

My only option was to open it up and sprinkle it over her dog food,

but I was afraid it would taste bad and she wouldn't eat at all.

But she ate her food right up. I don't think in slowed her down any.

I think she actually liked her doggie sprinkles!!

ritz university

I went to my first photography class today!!

When you buy a camera at Wolf Camera, you get 6 free photography classes through their program called Ritz University. I don't know how great they will be, but they are FREE, so I'm not going to pass them up. I'm excited to learn more about using my Canon. After I finish these classes, I hope to find some more classes to take. I am really excited to be jumping into the world of photography.

I have always thought it would be cool to be a photographer. Maybe someday.....

and the winner is.....

Thank you so much for taking time to enter my first giveaway. I had so much fun hosting it!! I plan on doing more giveaways in the future, so become a follow of my blog under the sidebar "Our Visitors" and you will be the first to know when I host another one.

And the winner is......

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

38 

Timestamp: 2009-07-18 13:36:33 UTC

The Mosiers said...

Entering again today!

Erin

10:53 AM

Erin, e-mail me at katymlink@gmail.com com and I will get you hooked up with a sweet diaper bag for your little man!!

For the rest of you who entered.........

You can get $5 off a diaper bag if you order on Etsy by Saturday July 25th. You must choose design from my Mom's Flickr website under one of the sets titled "Unfinished Bags for Girls" or "Unfinished Bags for Girls ". The $5 off coupon is only good for the $32 bags. You must become a member of Etsy before you can order. When ordering, you will add any $32 dollar bag to your cart. In the final stages of checking out, you will leave a message to the seller telling my Mom the correct spelling of the name on the bag and what design you want. If you have any trouble ordering off of Etsy, you can contact my mom at triedandtruedesigns@yahoo.com and she can help you!! You can also contact me at katymlink@gmail.com if you have any questions!!

look who's 1

Happy Birthday Carson!!

I can't believe that you are already one. You are such a big boy!!

Carson did a really good job digging into his birthday cake.

He was so dirty that his Mommy had to give him a quick

bath before he came back to his party!!

After he was cleaned up he was ready to play with his

abundance of new toys!!

Happy Birthday sweet boy!! Uncle Matt and Aunt Katy love you!!

our family trip to lake greeson

My whole family packed up our stuff for the weekend and headed to the teeny tiny city of Daisy, Arkansas.

The only thing to do in Daisy, Arkansas is to spend time on Lake Greeson. My Dad brought his boat and we spend a long weekend on Lake Greeson.

Here are the top ten highlights of our trip.

{in no particular order}

**The last 5 will get their own post, so be sure to click on the link to get to whole story.

10. Watching Carson drive the boat.

He was only happy if he was sitting in the driver's lap.

9. Chilling in the hot tub after wakeboarding each day.

We got so sore from wakeboarding, so this felt so good on our muscles.

8. Kicking the guy's butts in Rummy
They said that I cheated, but I know in my heart that I didn't. They were just jealous at how good I was.

7. Having to tow the boat on the last day because it wouldn't start.

Luckily this happened on the last day, so we didn't really miss any time on the lake.

6. Taking TONS pictures with my new DSLR camera and lots of videos with Mom's video camera.

I took 345 pictures, to be exact. As soon as I get the videos loaded onto my computer I will work on editing a video of some really great crashes we had on the lake!! I'll be sure to post it!!

5. Watching the guys jump off a cliff.

You can go here to see the pictures of all of the guys take a leap of faith.

4. Spending time with my whole family.

You can go here to see lots of pictures of our family from the trip.

3. Wakeboarding

This is what we went to Arkansas for. The water on Lake Greeson is amazing because there are mountains surrounding the lake. It is so beautiful!! You can go here to see the good and the bad side of wakeboarding.

2. Pulling up a surprise with our anchor.

We anchored the boat down to swim for a while, and when we tried to pull it up we pulled up a surprise. You can read all about it here.

1. Having a drunk stranger spend the night in our cabin.

I'm not even going to try to give a short explanation to this story. You'll have to go here to read all about our uninvited visitor.