Friendsgiving

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving we were invited to a Friendsgiving celebration at the Kirk household. We were put in charge of bringing dessert and I got super ambitious and decided to make homemade pies from scratch. I had been seeing so many pie pins on Pinterest and not knowing what I was getting myself into I set out to make a pecan pie and an apple pie. I had intended to use Pioneer Woman's recipes, but when I was searching for a homemade crust I came across the blog Gimme Some Oven. The first line when I opened her pecan pie recipe was this:
"My Grandma Ebright was many things…She was the faithful wife of a Kansas wheat farmer for sixty years, proud mother of five, and involved grandmother of thirteen. [...] She was a firecracker. She was thoughtful. She was stubborn. She was giving. She was hilarious. She was creative. She was loyal. She was my grandma.And she was an expert baker of pecan pie."

While I really loved the entire section about her Grandma Ebright, what got me most was her mention of a Kansas wheat farmer. My mom's dad, fondly known as "Poppy", was a doctor in rural western Kansas. While he was a doctor by day [and night] he was also a farmer. He grew up on a farm and was very knowledgeable about crops and everything farm-related. He was actually one of those grandpas who knew a lot about a lot of different stuff. Smart man, my Poppy. When I was younger he had me well trained about the different kinds of crops that grew in Kansas. Whenever I was in the car with him he would point to a field and ask me what crop was growing there. I knew about 99% of the time. However, that skill did not carry over to my adulthood. Back to pie.

I started gathering my supplies for homemade pies and staging them into artsy photos.

I had all these thoughts in my head about how I would take step-by-step photos so people could see my process.

As you can see in the picture below I already have my dough started in my food processor. My food processor was basically the most important part of my operation. Saved me so much time and energy. Love that machine.

About 2 hours and one pie crust into my adventure I realized that for all the time and expense I had put into making these pies I would likely end up picking up a $5 Marie Calendar's frozen pie while en route to the party. Things were not looking good. I had to call in reinforcements.

After sending out an S.O.S. my sweet husband came home from work early to help me sort out my mess. 

Please note the bottle in the sink- for some reason I thought I could do this task while simultaneously watching my 3 month old niece.... She was not a fan of my project, ha.

Pecan pie

Apple pie

The actual baking part was probably our biggest failure. Next time I will definitely invest in a pie shield. The pecan pie was a smidge burnt and the apple pie was a bit undercooked, but overall I thought the pies tasted and looked pretty good.

Hope your week is off to a good start!

Bets

Holiday Recap [on THis THird THursday after THanksgiving]

We made it through our first married holiday. There were no tears. No stress about where to be. No FOMO (feelings of missing out). And that my friends, is something to be extremely thankful for!
We spent Wednesday night hanging out with my Tulsa cousins at my grandparents house in Wichita. Aunt Tierney provided flu shots. Kinda funny story- Matt didn't know that my Aunt Tierney was a nurse. He was a little sketched out when I told him it was his turn to get his shot in the kitchen. Later after we had gone back to our house I said something about the convenience of having an aunt who is a nurse and Matt was all "ohhhhhh, now that makes more sense..." I think he thought he was being initiated.

The next morning we did the Say Grace Thanksgiving Day 5k Race. Matt did really well, finished 167th overall [there were 1,700 runners]. I also did well- I finished my "walk" in less than an hour :) I think that will be a new tradition for us. Good cause, good fun, and it always feels nice to get a little exercise before a big Thanksgiving feast.

Matt's littlest bro, Jak, was in town for the Jaderston sibling spendy and decided to stay with us Wednesday night since Matt's folks were joining my family in Wichita for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday afternoon. It was SO nice to have both our families together for the holiday. I really hope we get lucky enough to do that again.

  Matt asleep in the den at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Wichita :)

  

 This "test shot" from when we were setting up the camera for the Jaderston family photo made me laugh.

 This one too! Cute Kels running to reset the timer :)

 Picture with the pups

Picture without the pups 

:)

The rest of the weekend was spent hanging out at home. Matt and I went on a dinner/ movie date. Delicious burgers at Fizz and then saw Catching Fire. 

Sunday we were off to Newton to see our sweet baby Jane be dedicated at church. So blessed by that little nugget. More about her and auntie day care later!

Bets

10 days and counting..

I ordered our first Christmas card. I had good intentions of placing my order at the end of November so that I would have ample time to gather addresses and have the cards labeled, stamped, and in the mailboxes of our loved ones well before the holiday. Unsurprisingly, that did not happen. I placed my order a week ago with the guarantee that our cards would arrive no later than tomorrow. As it turned out, Minted didn't get my cards to FedEx until Friday meaning they wouldn't arrive at our house until Wednesday. Since we leave for Denver Tuesday that just doesn't work. Very disappointing. But that was the only disappointing part of my experience with Minted thus far! Picking a design and using their website was so fun! They had so many awesome templates to choose from. We (yes, we- Matt did help) narrowed it down to 2 designs. A postcard or a card with an envelope. Here is a little preview of the contenders- I will post the whole card we chose after we send ours out.

Also, I am really feeling the Christmas spirit after the cookie exchange party I went to with my sweet high school girls tonight. Love them and can't wait to post pics from our slumber party last month later this week!

Hope you all have been enjoying this holiday season! :)

Bets

Murphy

When Matt was in 6th grade his family welcomed a black lab mix named Murphy into their family. I remember hearing Murphy stories back in the summer of 2008 when Matt and I first met. I sometimes wondered if the stories Matt told were completely truthful, a few of them seemed a little far fetched [no pun intended].  Murph has been a fixture on the front porch at my in laws house always welcoming visitors and then subsequently running them off when he passed gas. We made the drive to Sterling tonight because tomorrow morning Murphy is being put down. Old age has made life more difficult for Murph and the decision has been made that it is his time to go. Makes me want to cry just typing those words. It is funny how dogs can work their way into your heart and instead of being just a pet they become more like family. I am thankful for the full, long life that Murphy had and for all the love and entertainment he gave to Matt and the rest of the fam. Murphy, you will be missed.

 

 

Fort Collins Foodies

I have sat down to write a recap of our Colorado trip several times and have actually started the post twice. Truth be told there is just a lot to tell and I am not really into long blog posts.  I end up losing steam halfway through. I think this may be a character flaw. In honor of it being Friday I thought it might be fun to participate in "5 on Friday". A lot of my favorite bloggers host/ link up and I thought it might help to break our trip up into a couple of posts. This first one will document what we ate on our mini-vacay. We take meal time seriously in our house which made this trip a perfect destination for us. According to our hosts Fort Collins has the most restaurants per capita than any other place in the world, or the U.S., or something like that. We definitely enjoy eating out (probably a little more than we should) and relished the opportunity to try out some new places that were unique to Colorado/ Fort Collins. So here goes my 5 favorite dining experiences from our trip.

1. The first night we were there our friends ordered us pizza from Pizza Casbah. Why is it that college towns are always home to the best pizza? So delish. Definitely a good way to kick off the vacation.

2. The next morning our hosts were off to work (boo!) and we were off to explore a bit. After shaking the Urban Spoon app on our phone a few times and running our findings by Zack we decided to head to Lucile's.  Lucile's was cajun and I didn't know that cajun existed in the realm of breakfast but me oh my it was very good. Delicious beingets, and tasty biscuits the size of our faces... I think I gained 5 lbs in one sitting. Matt had some strange special that came with fried oysters. Overall, it was a win.

 

3. Rodizio Grill- This was a fun dining experience. Rodizio's was a Brazilian steakhouse that brought the meat to your table still on the skewer it was cooked on. They gave you tongs so that when the waiter started cutting your piece off the stick you could grab hold. Dinner was a flat rate and you got a little wooden signal to have on your table with a green end and a red end. If you wanted them to continue bringing you meat you left it green-side up and if you wanted them to stop you put up red. When you finished your meal you set it sideways. Salad bar came with our meal and it was probably the most exotic salad bar I have ever experienced. I accidentally grabbed a quail egg thinking it was a piece of fresh mozzarella and when I sat down I noticed Matt had 4 quail eggs on his plate. Apparently he likes them. It led to an interesting discussion on the way home about birth and eggs. Matt wondered what it would be like if humans were born in eggs and decided that it would be "fun" and more people would probably decide to have babies. He said at one point "that is one of the amazing things of God's creation... eggs." He is a deep thinker. Overall Rodizio was a great experience. I think I consumed more meat in one sitting than I usually eat in an entire week.

4. The next day for lunch we went to a cute cidery downtown named Scrumpy's. I think this was my favorite meal. Our waiter accidentally brought us a bonus tray of flights so we had lots of yummy cider to try. We sat outside [it was unseasonably warm for this time of year] and brought the dogs along and tied them up. Miles made a lot of friends and Boo barked at every passerby. The cider was delish and the sandwiches were even more so! This is definitely a place I would want to visit again on our next trip to Fort Collins.

5. After a lot of discussion over some of our favorite Pinterest recipes we decided to spend the last night at Zack and Missy's house cooking. Matt made his famous [Chipotle recipe] guacamole, and Missy made the most delicious taco cups. We spent that evening playing cards and chatting. Really wish we lived closer to these friends so we could do that sort of thing more often.

So there you have it- a part of our trip is up on the blog and I feel somewhat accomplished :) Hoping I can crank out some more posts next week!

Hope you all have a fun-filled weekend!

Bets

I'm baaaaaack!

I have had good intentions of wanting to blog lately but have been lacking time and focus. Here are 5 things that have been going on in my life over the past couple weeks:

One- Matt and I have made this delicious Pinterest-inspired white chicken chili a few times... Adding the avocado totally makes it.

Two- I spent an afternoon/night with some of my fave high schools girls volunteering and slumber party-ing.

Three- My cute husband decided to grow out his thumbnails (#gross)... I think he may have been inspired by our sis-in-law's most recent blog series.

Four- I have been spending a lot of time with this cutie the past couple weeks. Auntie Day Care is pretty much the best thing ever.

Five- Matt and I celebrated our first married Thanksgiving! We have much to be thankful for this year and are beyond grateful for all of the ways we have been blessed in 2013.

Hoping to post a recap of our Colorado trip and more on the slumber party, auntie day care, and Thanksgiving next week!

Bets

We are moving to Colorado!!

... Just kidding! But seriously, isn't this beautiful?!

Road trippin'

Hello from Fort Collins!!

Matt and I are spending the weekend in Colorado. He had some vacation days at work and we needed some time away from Wichita and work and all the things that keep us going, going, going. It is going to be a short trip, but we are so looking forward to spending time with Matt's best friend, Zack and his sweet wife Missy, and their new fur baby, Miles.

So far the trip has gone smoothly. Our super dog was been such a good travel companion- she just laid in the back seat and would occasionally get up to nuzzle our necks before laying back down. The only issue we encountered on the way here was a bad case of the "alti-tooties" for Matty. If you are wondering what exactly the alti-tooties are then you probably aren't alone. I had never heard of them until Matt told me about them on our Dower family vacation to Aspen in June. Apparently going up in altitude can cause a person to have bad gas? Jury is still out on whether or not there is any scientific reasoning behind the altitooties. Regardless, I am just glad Matt was comfortable enough with my family (remember, this was his first Dower family vacay) to not be embarassed about his struggles. Of course having two younger brothers means that farts are a common form of entertainment around my parents' house. Boys, ha. I have some cute [and some funny] pictures from the weekend that I can't wait to post, but until then I will leave you with one of the few I have on my phone from "Old Town" last night.

Love all the Christmas lights!! Hope your weekend has been as fun as ours :)

Bets 

bar stool

This past year Matt has been teaching both the middle school and high school students at Eastminster. It has been fun but exhausting. We look forward to the blessing that the new associate director of student ministries will be to the students and to us! This morning I interviewed with the elder board as the final step in my membership process (YAY!) and when I came out from my interview I met up with Matt who had been teaching Sunday school. Usually he goes and picks up donuts or bagels for his Sunday school classes but this morning he left a box of graham crackers on the counter for the high school students and wrote a note on the whiteboard that said "I am teaching the middle school students. Will be back at 10:05. Enjoy a graham cracker. -Matt" When he came back from teaching the middle schoolers the students had changed the sign to read "I am teaching the middle school students. Will be back at 10:05. Enjoy a gram of crack. -Matt" Good thing no parents saw that message- they might have questioned his methods.

In other news, I thought I had ended the year-long hunt for bar stools when I got a great deal on 4 stools at Kirklands.

These babies were a mere $59.99, which, in the world of bar stools, I have learned that is quite the deal. However I continued my Sunday afternoon shopping journey back closer to home and ended up at World Market. I love that store. I have been eyeing some of their tables (because I am tired of windexing our glass table after every. single. meal. and while there I discovered some real beauties-

Now that is my kind of bar stool. When I showed the two pictures to Matt he laughed and said they looked the exact same. So not true. The ones I bought from Kirklands have a janky zipper on the back and do not feel as sturdy as the World Market chair. But then again you probably get what you pay for and these babies retail at $169.99... almost triple the cost of my Kirkland chairs. What is a girl to do? The good news is that World Market is running a 25% off all furniture sale through the end of November so that makes their bar stools slightly more realistic. Right now I am planning on returning my 4 chairs and buying two of the chairs I love... because quality over quantity- right? Basically I can sum the whole debacle up in one Pinterest quote:

Amen.

Hope you all had a happy Sunday!

Christmas is coming!

I am a firm believer in starting Christmas celebrations November 1st. That means as I pack up my Halloween decorations I simultaneously am pulling out Christmas decorations. I have been helping a decorator friend of mine do a few homes for Christmas which has me feeling a little underwhelmed with my own decor. However I found some cute letters while I was out and about yesterday and did a little garland project. So here is a [very] little sneak peek of Christmas at the Jaderstons.

For a craft that only cost me $1 and 20 minutes I am pretty pleased! More to come later :)

Bets

Highs and Lows, part 2

Annnnnnd we are home. Again. So thankful for this past weekend and the time we got to spend with the students and so thankful to be home. I am in the market for a new camera and my sweet sis let me borrow one of her nice photographer cameras so I could see if I liked using that particular model. You may notice that some photos are dark, out of focus, etc. and you will just have to bear with me as I am learning how to use a camera that requires more than just pointing and shooting. It is a whole new ballgame, and I am excited to be learning! To continue my camp tradition I will go through the highs and lows of this past weekend after I give you some of the results of my [very] amateur photography.

 silhouette of my sweet husband as we were heading west on 400... I would love to say that it was intentional, but alas, I don't know why it ended up so dark- but I like it.

 

 and here we go, you can actually see his face... love that face.

 this is what I have dubbed "retreat hair"

 we had the jeep packed to the brim and poor Boo dog wasn't left with a whole lot of space

selfies are not near as easy with "real" cameras

 love these sweet sophomores

 :)  

 my small group... some of who got cut out of the shot on the left side, my bad.

the speaker, Jon Brubaker, was a friend of Matt's from high school they hadn't seen each other in 4 years! I think one of my favorite parts of the weekend was hearing them reminisce on the good ol' days on our way to drop him and his wife Alexis at the airport... Jon was laughing so hard he was in tears in the backseat!

Joey's small group had a singing dance party in the kitchen during their KP duty... I wish I had learned how aperture worked before this happened.

 what. a. babe.

 love this group!

the freshmen dance party in the chapel during free time- these kids LOVE to dance... there was also a swing dance party after the bon fire on Saturday night. I think there may be some kind of swing dance event in the works for the summer retreat now..

 little Pepper was cracking me up... her moves, her expressions- hilarious

 Tuesday night D group! :)

 peace

 beautiful girls

 more prettiness

 Katherine and the sophomores... and photobomber in the back

Betsy-Katherine-Lauren-Caroline-Kalynn

the girl leaders (minus Joey and Rachel)... it was such a fun group of leaders this past weekend!!

so here we go-
Low: I have been fighting through a sinus infection since last Thursday. It is no fun being somewhere so fun when you don't feel great. Aside from that I would have to say the only real low from the weekend was when Matt brought Boo up to the lodge from having been down at the bonfire [being there was likely her weekend high] and she had s'mores in her fur. Whenever he takes her to activities she usually comes back either covered in stickers, wet, or with a nice layer of lily pond scum on her face- but to come back covered with marshmellow (which then was coated with dirt) was a new predicament. I ended up having to cut the sticky mess out of her fur and she has these spots on her legs and the side of her stomach that just look mangy. After two consecutive weekends of being at the woods we had planned on taking her in to be groomed this week and now that her fur is all patchy I feel like I should wait until it grows out until we take her in. It is like when I was little and my mom always made us clean the house before the cleaning lady would come... seems kind of redundant. I know the groomer has probably seen worse, or at least that is the idea that I preach to myself every time I go in for a pedicure.
High: There were a lot of highs this past weekend, but I think worship in the chapel was probably the best part. Katherine did a phenomenal job leading. I loved when they sang the song "Oceans"... that chapel holds a lot of great memories from a different time in me and Matt's relationship and it is fun reflecting on that as we build new memories together in this newlywed stage of life. Being there constantly reminds me of God's goodness and how much I have to be grateful for!!

Looking forward to an exciting [and busy] week ahead! Starting with my favorite person's birthday tomorrow :)

Betsy