Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies {Foodie Friday}

It's been a month of dinners so far, so how about dessert? It was my birthday on Monday, so chocolate is on the brain. I'm telling you whoever invented the idea of baking cheesecake on top of brownies is my hero. Seriously. These were beyond amazing. Do you have a 'love' related holiday coming up? These would be perfect. Our anniversary is in a couple of weeks, and these may be making an appearance. They are supposed to be swirled on top, but I didn't swirl enough. Regardless, they still tasted amazing. I will be making these frequently. VERY frequently. YUM!!

Rain, Rain Come our way

I don’t know if you have been living under a rock or not, but a large part of the Midwest is in a severe drought. Here is a local map that shows how extreme it is. We live where the yellow dot is. I think they are saying that the drought started around Memorial Day. It is no exaggeration when I say we have had NO rain. There have been pop up showers within the past month, but none have brought anything more than sprinkles to our house.

That is until last Thursday night. It finally rained. POURING RAIN. It’s the first time I haven’t had to water the flowers in over 2 months!! Forecasters are predicting that the drought will last through October. Not good news.

There are only a couple of good things about having no rain:

No cancelled plans due to the rain

No humidity—it’s just plain hot

No mowing the lawn!

I can’t really think of anything else, can you?

27 {Monday Me}

Today is my birthday. The big 2-7. I guess now I can say I’m pushing the big 3-0.

This past year wasn’t particularly exciting. It ended on a pretty high note though:

A new car

Strawberry Banana Muffins {Foodie Friday}

Last Friday night I went to bed at 7:30 PM. It was amazing. I woke up at 6 AM, but still consider that success. Needless to say, I had plenty of time to make breakfast before the rest of the house woke up.

Notecards

Here's a look back at my crafting adventures..

Parmesan Chicken with Bow Ties {Foodie Friday}

I am not a whiz in the kitchen by any means.

Don't Miss This!!

If you are involved in the crafting world at all, you know of the crafting craze that is baker’s twine.

Today Pick Your Plum has a great deal where you can get a 240 yard roll for only $4.95! There are six beautiful color options.

That’s a crazy amazing deal, folks!! Normally this amount of twine is about $14.95 a piece!!

I ordered one of each color. I think you should do the same =)

But you have to hurry!! This deal is only good today!

If you need some inspiration, click here!

Lemon Thyme Chicken {Foodie Friday}

Did you ever watch Everybody loves Raymond? I loved that show. A LOT. In fact I used to have the entire series on DVD. Raymond used to comment about how much he loved, his wife, Deb's, Lemon Chicken.

Update to 12 Goals for 2012 {Monday Me}

You can view the original post here.

It’s July 1^st, that means we are half way through the year already!! Time sure does fly, doesn’t it?!

How are you doing on your New Year’s Resolutions? Did you forget about them? I have to say when I revisited my goals in April I had forgotten about a couple that were on the list.

I thought that now would be a good time to provide an update of my progress and kick start me again for the second half of the year.

2012 Goals

1.           Scan all my photos.

This is not going so well. I sat down and worked on it for one night and haven’t done it since. It’s a very time consuming project. I would really like to complete some of my other projects listed below before coming back to try to tackle this one. This might turn into a 10 year plan.

2.           Along with this I need to reorganize all the pictures of our house.

I kind of forgot about this one, but it really needs to be done. Now that D is working on the rentals there is less work going on at our house. This is the perfect time to get ahead!

3.           Caroline’s second year photo book. Completed 5/17/2012

Whoo hoo! I actually got this done in May and it feels so good! This year I used Shuttefly instead of Snapfish, and I have to say I loved the usability of the Shutterfly application a lot more.

4.           Learn how to use my camera in manual mode.

I have certainly been working on this. I have photographed 2 weddings, lots of food for Foodie Friday and millions of pictures of Caroline too! I don’t feel like this is something that I can really cross off the list as I continue to learn and grow every time I shoot.

5.           Make photo movies of:

a.       Engagement trip to Gatlinburg (2005). Completed 1/11/2012

b.      Our Wedding (2006)—this will have to happen after I rescan all the photos of course.

c.       Mom and Dad’s 25^th Anniversary PowerPoint and party photos (from 2008)

d.      Trip to Europe (2005)

When I wrote this goal I was really excited about photo movies. I love the idea of putting the photos to music, but I don’t know that I need one for all these things. I still like the idea of making them for Caroline’s birthday every year, and will continue to make those. The others I will probably do as gifts or something as the need arises. Also I have heard that you can make these movies through Powerpoint and that might be a good idea for the Europe video. Adding text to the photos can take a long time without a real photo editing program. It might be easier to make that one in PowerPoint if I can figure out how to do it.

6.           Bake once a week.

Well this doesn’t happen every week, but I have been able to incorporate a lot more cooking and baking into my schedule than normal. I consider this to be success.

7.           Shop Target Clearance

I had intended to do posts on this based on my purchases, but I’m thinking that it really isn’t that exciting. Let’s just say I have gotten lots of deals and my earring collection has practically doubled this year. I’ve also been getting great deals at Macy’s and Plato’s Closet. Who knew?!

8.           Graduate with an MBA

Check. Check. It feels sooo good.

9.           Have a Baby

Well this just didn’t work out. Maybe next year? Or should we wait for 2014?

10.       Make this blog MORE

Can I get an A for effort? I really struggle with just finding the time to sit down upload photos and come up with something interesting to say. It’s also really difficult not having consistent, reliable access to internet. (Christmas gift idea, anyone?)

11.       Read a book a month.

So far so good. You can read my Book of the Month posts here.

12.       Finish Caroline’s First Year Scrapbook

At this rate I will be lucky to finish her scrapbook by the time she is 12. I really just need to buckle down for a couple of hours and it will be done. I don’t know why it is so hard to just sit down and do it!

I decided to add another:

After the Oscars I decided I wanted to watch all the movies that won or were nominated for Academy Awards (a.k.a. Oscars). Most of the movies have been available from our local library so I can get them for free and keep them for 2 weeks (love that). I will probably put this on my list every year going forward. It’s fun to watch the movies and to try to get them from the library when they are in high demand. A couple that I have seen so far include: Rio, The Help, Drive, Midnight in Paris, Hugo, The Muppets and ’If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front.

It’s your turn now! If you managed to make it to the end of this post, leave a comment and tell me how you are doing with your New Year’s Resolutions.