Welcome Home

After greeting my hubby at the airport (almost 3 weeks ago already!), I wanted to welcome him home with some surprises.

I bought flowers at Central Market, and I made my own floral arrangement. (Red, white, & blue flowers to be exact because I was trying to be patriotic.) I had wanted to get some star balloons too, but there is a helium shortage so I had to stick with just flowers.

I figured we would want to snack on some food before we ate a full meal so I prepared some tapas! I bought fresh mozzarella marinated in pesto, Boar's Head pepperoni, cheese & prosciutto stuffed cherry peppers, jalapeno stuffed olives, Columbus salami, and Colby jack cheese.

Of course we needed dessert too! I ordered an entire gluten free cake from Little Aussie. (We still have almost half of it saved in the freezer.) Our favorite is the tiramisu flavored sponge cake so that is what I bought.

My Life is Complete Again!

I've been meaning to update at some point in the last couple weeks, but have been completely occupied. This time my excuse for not blogging is a valid one. My hubby is finally home from Afghanistan! 

 Best hug ever!

Justin and me with the sign I made.

Love the volunteers at the airport too that welcomed home all the heroes. 

I feel such a sense of relief and truly feel like my life is complete once again. It was a difficult 6 months, but we made. This obstacle will only make us stronger. I would like to thank everyone once again for the prayers and support through out this journey.

It's almost been 3 weeks since my hubby has returned to the states. I feel like I've already done more in the last three weeks than I have in the last 3 months. We went to South Padre Island for a long weekend and to Michigan for another extended weekend. Both trips were amazing! I have so much to blog about; once we get back into a normal routine I should have more time.

I have one more amazing thing to update about. My diploma came in the mail yesterday. I officially have a master's degree!

Labor Day - Three Day Weekend

I love three day weekends, even if I spent most of my time cleaning and working on school stuff. It seems like in both said categories, despite how much you do and get done there is always more that could be done. You can clearly see what a good helper Iivana was too. I rolled up the rug to move it and she thought I created a nice bed for her.

Thankfully, I didn't spend my whole weekend working on my to do list. I enjoyed Spartan football Friday night and had the TV on college football all day Saturday. Yesterday, I went shopping for a little after getting my car cleaned and detailed! It looks brand new. I didn't feel like cooking so I decided to order take away at P.F. Chang's while I was out. I had received an email with a 20 percent off coupon code for the weekend, so I thought I'd give it another try. (I didn't like the Singapore Noodles last time.) This trip I ordered GF Chang's Spicy Chicken.

The verdict: I still wasn't impressed. No veggies, only chicken! It did come with some brown rice on the side. Plus, even with 20% it still cost 12.75! It wasn't bad tasting, in fact I liked the flavor but I just felt like it wasn't amazing. I wasn't blown away. But don't get me wrong, I love the effort that P.F. Chang's makes to accommodate gluten free diners. I know some people who absolutely love P.F. Chang's. When comparing P.F. Chang's and Pei Wei, I think I will always prefer Pei Wei.

Happy Labor Day! Short work weeks are fantastic too.

GF Lemon Cupcake Balls

A few weeks ago, I purchased some gluten free cake mix at Marshall's. Shortly after buying the lemon mix, I decided to to make some cupcakes. I figured I could practice some of my long lost decorating skills from last summer. I followed the box directions, which didn't require too many extra added ingredients.

I'm sure it was user error, but for what ever reason when I poured the batter, some of the cupcake holders started to buckle a little. They made a little indent that didn't look nice. I was hoping when the cupcakes baked, the little dent would pop back out.

 No luck though, they stayed looking deformed.

So I decided to try plan B. I crumbled all the cupcakes in a bowl and mixed them with lemon cream cheese frosting that I made from the recipe on the box as well. I would like to mention that I did try a cupcake before I destroyed the evidence. It was a good tasting gluten free cupcake: moist and lemony.

After that I rolled the mixture into balls. Then I put them in the freezer until the next day when I was ready to coat them in white chocolate. You need to put them in the freezer so the crumbs don't mix in with the chocolate when you coat them.

Then came my second failure. When I was in Michigan I saw a cute little Crockpot-like chocolate dipper at a store. I thought to myself, how perfect! I have a Crock-Pot little dipper at home that I can use. Clearly, I did no research because I poured white chocolate chips in the pot and turned it on. I didn't add any liquid. Oops. The chocolate burned and never got liquidy. Luckily the cake balls were in the freezer so there was no rush to get them coated. I probably should've used candy coating chocolates or added some oil or shortening. 

The next day, I tried round two. I melted white chocolate chips in the microwave. I read the directions on the bag so that I wouldn't burn them in the microwave too. I decided to add a little oil, to make the chocolate a little smoother. I dipped the lemon cake balls into the chocolate with a spoon. It worked out okay; I feel like some had too much chocolate. Also, they don't look the prettiest but I'll take it for my first try. I have the Red Velvet Mix still and plan to attempt cake balls again. This time I will correct my mistakes. I also want to drizzle some chocolate or dip them in sprinkles to make them look a little cuter.

But I love the idea of cake balls or pops! They are smaller in size and I have been keeping mine in the freezer. Whenever a sweet tooth craving hits, I pull the container out for a minute and take one out. It is the perfect situation for me because then I don't feel like I have to devour 12 cupcakes in a week. Gluten free products are already more expensive, so keeping them in the freezer cuts out all the waste too.

Finishing First Week & Football Foods

A successful first week of school is finished! However, I am utterly exhausted. I always forget how much walking and talking I do that my body isn't used to (from being lazy all summer). The week was spent learning the rules and establishing classroom procedures. My students really enjoyed this Post-It note activity that I came across on Pinterest. 

The week ended with the start of college football for my MSU Spartans! Check out Iivana's fabulous new jersey.

Despite being tired from the work week (and looking that way too), Iivana and I were ecstatic about the game and Sparty's win. It wasn't the prettiest, but I'll take it.

This photo cracks me up! Iivana is crazy. I was trying to take a picture with her...but she wanted to show you her pearly whites.

I tried to continue the tradition that Justin and I started by making football appetizers for the game. (Check out some of the finger foods we made last year: here, here, and here.) I decided to make a pizza inspired appetizer. Remember I bought some pizza crust mix at Marshall's? My random mixture that didn't follow the box recipe, didn't turn out the way I had hoped. It was still edible, but not great.

My experimented creation wasn't worthy enough to share all the details. But these gluten free pizza puffs are a much better recipe to share. I've made them before and they are soft and delicious!

Crayon Wreath

Yesterday, I posted about the first day of school and showed a preview of a wreath I made for my classroom. For the base of the wreath, I used a craft ring like this. (I bought mine at Michael's, but this one is comparatively priced on Amazon.) I used the remaining crayons from my melting art project.

I started by laying the crayons on the base in a circle. I was having trouble keeping them even, and forming a perfect circle in the middle. After trying several household objects to fit in the center, one of my pots acted as a perfect base to work around.

After I had the crayons laid out in position, I put a strip of hot glue on the back of each crayon.

You'll notice I don't have ribbon to hang the wreath. I would suggest gluing some ribbon around the base right away so that you can hang it later. Then you can glue crayons over it an not even notice it underneath. I didn't do this until I was done, and unfortunately don't have a picture of mine with the ribbon. I meant to take a picture today of it hanging in my classroom, but I forgot. (I guess I was too busy teaching.) I ended up taking two crayons off, gluing some ribbon, and then re-gluing the crayons over. So either way it worked out.

I also bought this apple and star from Michael's. They are little wood pieces that were already decorated. All I did was use a paint Sharpie to write my name.

I will try to take a picture of it hanging and add it in later this week. Today (the second day of school), I successfully learned the names of all of my students. I had them time me and I did it in 40 seconds. Tomorrow I am going to beat my time!

UPDATED:

Here is the picture of the wreath hanging in my classroom.

First Day Jitters

Today was the first day of school with my new fourth graders. So far, I have 25 students with 15 of them being boys! My friend at work showed me a picture of her son today on the first day of his senior year. She was joking about taking a picture of him, and then I admitted that I still take a yearly photo on the first day. My mom always took pictures of us growing up and I've continued the tradition as a teacher. Here was last year's photo! This was the best I could do with my self-timer, since Justin is still deployed.

While I was pretty excited for my first day, Iivana on the other had was not. She knows when I'm off to work and she will be in her room. Just look at that face. She knows the way to her mommy's heart, and sometimes I wish I could still stay home with her! (Remember, I'm a crazy dog lady now.)

I was also going to tell you about this sweet wreath I made for my classroom, but I am exhausted! I talked more than I'm used to today and according to my pedometer I walked twice as much as what I have been lately. Hopefully tomorrow night I have a little more energy, so I can show you how I made this!