Celebrating!

So let me start off by saying how excited I was all weekend after hearing my dad's good news.  So I decided to have the family over for Sunday dinner.  Please note the following foods are NOT Weight Watcher's material but I dont think celebration dinner's should be. :)

Also I suck and didn't take any pictures of the family OR my food so I had to steal the pictures from the foodie's blog or I would have gone 4 posts with no pictures.   Unacceptable.

On to the food...

I decided to make two recipes off the The Pioneer Woman's blog.   She makes some killer food, but unlike Gina's Recipe site I use that counts calories and shows you healthy substitutes,  the Pioneer Woman doesn't do any of that.  She loves butter.   But man it was good!  And easy! 

The first recipe I made was this  Peach-BBQ Whiskey Chicken minus the whiskey of course.  I looked up a non-alcoholic substitute for whiskey and couldn't find anything so I thought using cream soda would be good,  and it WAS!   I love chicken thighs because they are cheap and still meaty.   This had great flavor and out of the 12 thighs I made with 5 people there were only 2 left,  and everyone took home the extra sauce to re-use this week.

Here is a picture of her version,  and mine looked pretty similar (minus the fancy plate)

This is when it really started smelling good.

I decided to make these Restaurant Style Mashed Potatoes to go along with it,  since #1 that's what she had made and #2 I didn't think it would be good with rice.  I am not really a mashed potato fan but I must say I thought these were really good.

I followed this recipe to the T,  except for I had a bag of bacon bits and didn't feel like dirtying another pan so I just used those.   They were delicious!!

The best part....THESE bad boys!

So even though we keep celebrating in our hearts,  the calorie busting celebration meal's have come to a end...it's back to Gina's Skinny Recipe's for us...

Until next time...



At just the right time...

This last month has been not the easiest for me,   I have been struggling with accepting that things don't always happen when YOU want them to happen.  This is so hard for me,  I am THE ultimate planner.  I plan my life, Ryan's life,  even my families lives to a point.  I like things done a certain way and on time.  So when I put my mind do doing something and want it bad and it doesn't happen the way I want and when I want,  it is very frustrating to me.  

I have felt angry, sad, guilty and frustrated the last few months, and even though I know eventually everything will turn out fine it's the getting there that might kill me.   :)

So when I received the call from my mom today after the Dr's that my dad is still doing good,  that his transplant's did their job and even though we haven't hit the touchdown mark yet we are on the 1 yard line.   It was just what I needed to hear! To know that Heavenly Father does listen to me and does answer my prays,  he just does it in his time and not mine.

So I am determined I am not going to be angry, sad or frustrated this month,  I am going to be happy and just keep praying and have faith!!!

October Conference

I don't know about anyone else but sometimes Conference speaks to me louder than other times.   I always enjoy listening to the messages and always feel the spirit but sometimes the topics and the words jump out at me more than others...This happened to be one of those sessions.

 Ryan and I joined a Couples FHE,  because let's face it when you don't have any kids and it's just you and your husband you are not always so good at FHE,  We see each other and have family time all the time :)    (P.S. FHE stands Family Home Evening for those non-LDS friends who read my blog and is a night dedicated to spending with your family and having a spiritual family lesson).  Anyways,  we were asked to give the lesson this time and asked to talk about a favorite talk from Conference. Men and women have different views sometimes,  so Ryan and I decided he would talk about a favorite moment or two, and I would do the same.  On my lunch hour today I re-watched or re-read some of the talks I particularly loved and felt the spirit all over,   thank goodness my door was closed I am not going to lie I shed a tear or 10 :)

One of the messages that kept coming up was PRAYER and how important it is to have that communication with our Heavenly Father daily,  to thank him for our blessings and to talk to him and ask for his guidance during our trials.   Elder Robert D. Hales said "We often pray for patience, but we want it right now"  Isn't that the truth?  I know I am guilty of this I have been praying for certain things in my life to happen and I want them to  happen soon, and it just doesn't works like that,  Elder Cornish said " It takes faith to remember that prayer's are answered in the Lord's own time and in His own way".   I definitely needed to hear this and need to be better about this.

I also loved when President Uchtdorf said disciples of Christ know a person's worth and value is not related to the things the world values and that no amount of currency in the world would allow them to buy a "load of bread in the economy of heaven"  Are we working as hard on our spiritual value as we are on our worldly value?  This is not saying you are not allowed to have nice things,  if circumstances allow you the opportunity to be able to live a comfortable life there is nothing wrong with that.  Their is also nothing wrong with having goals in life, but they shouldn't all be about something material or physical. 

 The subject and talk that hit me hard the most was families,  the decision to have children and guidance on how to feed them spiritually.  As Ryan and I move into the next stage of our marriage and contemplate having a family the talk given by Sis. Dalton was amazing.  "Father's, by definition, you are the guardians of your homes, your wives and your children...You must be the guardian of virtue"  I once again am so blessed and humbled to not only have married a man who is worthy and virtuous and whom I have no doubt will be an amazing father to our children,  but I am also blessed to have been raised by a man of the same caliber.  

When Sis. Dalton was asking the question of  "How to raise a daughter?"  and the answer was "To love her Mother"  I LOVED this answer, I am shown this every day of my life in my own marriage,  and I know it's because I have seen that my entire existence in my parent's marriage and it led me to choose a partner who would treat me the way I knew I should be treated,  with love and respect.  I have never had any doubt's about how my parents feel about each other,  and how important their marriage is to them.  I think I was in junior high and all my friend's parents were getting divorced and I was jealous because they were getting double the allowance and double the gifts and I would tell my parent's I wanted them to divorce so I could get the same,  looking back how stupid was I?  I got the better deal,  I got a father who loves my mother and was never afraid to let us see that, even when they would kiss right in front of my face (with tongue mind you!) just because it grossed me out...a father who never fought with my mother in front of us, who respected her and us enough that they did it privately (or maybe never fought at all lol ... I know your smiling Mom)

Yeah,  I definitely got the better deal :)

I hope everyone was able to listen and enjoy the messages from this Conference session, and that it spoke to you or touched your heart in some way...