Bacon Wrapped Chicken

So I decided that I would put my Bacon Wrapped Chicken Recipe online for all of my friends and family. I don't personally eat meat but Jonathan tells me that he absolutely loves when I make this for him and that it tastes like it can be from a restaurant.

Ok so you're going to need:
- Chicken Breast halves (obviously as many as you need)
- Bacon
- Phillipehias Onion and Chive Cream Cheese
- Salt

First preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Then spread the chicken out in between two sheets of parchment paper. You'll need to pound the chicken down until they're easier to roll. Once that is done, spread two teaspoons of the cream cheese on the chicken (the side facing up). Also, you can use as much cream cheese as you'd like but don't use too much because it will come out of the side on the chicken when you roll it. After you spread the cream cheese on all of the chicken halves add a pinch of salt. Then begin to roll the chicken (like...a fruit rollup).

Once this step is complete you're going to wrap the bacon around the chicken. Since Jonathan LOVES bacon I usually use three pieces but two definitely works. Keep the bacon into place with tooth picks, line your baking pan and place in the oven. You will bake the chicken approximately between 35 - 40 minutes. Then turn on the broiler and put the tray back into the oven for 5 minutes so that the bacon gets crispy.

Your chicken will be moist, your bacon will be crispy and you won't need to add anything for flavor afterwards!! =)

This meal is about $15 total to make 5 chicken breasts. It cost me around $9.50 for the breasts and $1.99 for the cream cheese. ( I bought 2 tubs of the cream cheese).

I usually serve this with cheesy mashed potatoes(recipe to come) and asparagus (or broccoli).

ENJOY!! =)

The Color Run

I would seriously suggest that everyone do the Color Run at some point. It was by far one of the best 5k's I have even done. We had such a great time and Naomi cannot wait to do another one. What happens is that once you get there and sign in they give you a white t-shirt, white head band, a number and a color packet. You have to hold onto your color packet until the end of the race. Throughout the race there are checkpoints where you just get completely covered in a color which is in a powder form. First was yellow, then blue, purple, orange, green and then pink. Naomi ran for the majority of the race, which personally I was extremely impressed and other runners were cheering her on throughout the entire race. You're having so much fun during the race that you don't even realize you're running a little over 3 miles. Half way through the race we lost Jonathan and I was convinced that he had cheated and cut through to the finish. We ended up seeing him at the finish line and he did say that he ran the entire race but he wasn't nearly as colorful as Naomi and I were...Hmmm =)

At the end of the race you go to a large stage and everyone stands together and gets out their color packet. Then they do a count down starting from 10 - 9 - 8 - 7...everyone rips open their color packets and throws the color in the air so when it comes back down you are completely covered from head to toe in multiple colors. It was such a great way to stat off our weekend and an amazing experience for Naomi and I to share. We have decided that this will be "our thing"...5k's/races. So we might sign up for the glow race, which is a night time race where you wear a bunch of glow sticks, but, we'll see.

Here are a couple pictures from the race =)

40 Days & 40 Nights

40 days of Insanity, 40 nights of an achy body!!! Although I will say that the exercises have seemed to get easier and I can definitely stretch a lot further. Jonathan and I are running our first 5k together on Friday for the Color Run. I am entirely too excited for it and I know half way through the race I will be very upset with myself for not training a bit for this event. If I do like this 5k though I WILL be signing up for as many of the other 5k's that I can, like the Dirty Girl run. I'm just ready for my body and strength to be back at what it was 3 years ago when I had first met Jonathan. ( By the way, I can't believe we've been together for that long!!) (Also! I can't believe we've been married for almost a year!!!) What an insanely fast year.

In other news, I have a doctor's appointment in about 2 weeks for more blood work and to see if my medication works or if I need a stronger dosage...Soooo hoping the medication works so I don't have to go back for blood tests every month. I seriously HATE them...Yuck =(  I hope everything goes well and everything gets back on track.

Also, I have a few things to look forward to coming up in the next couple of weeks. I'm taking a pottery class with my mom, I'm signing up for a cake decorating class AND Jonathan and I have a wedding to go to September 8th! So excited for Brandon and Jaime B-T-Dubbs! Back to the artsy classes, I'm super pumped because I'm actually a very artsy person and really enoy DIY projects so I'm really looking forward to these classes. Plus, then I'll have a nice bowl/vase or something and I'll know how to make professional looking cakes. Awesome! =)

Such a random post, but so much to look forward to =) Hurry up September!

Diagnosis

I know it's been a week or so since I last wrote on my blog, but I have been seriously busy with overtime hours at work and doctor's appointments. Within the last week I have been poked with a needle 7 times!! Ouch!! I've really only had blood work done twice but the nurse who took my blood the 1st time (which, by the way, was the first time I EVER had blood taken before) could not find a vein so she poked me twice in each arm. Then another nurse came in to see what was taking so long and decided to help out. She poked me in my left arm for the third time, popping one of my veins. Then she acted like it wasn't a big deal. Now I'm not a baby and I can handle pain pretty well, but man, I was NOT expecting that. Finally they were able to draw blood from my right arm with a butterfly needle, which I was told is what they use on babies, because they told me I had baby veins...

The next day I was so bruised on both arms I looked like a heroin addict!! But, I did get my results back in about a day and a half. They found out that I have hypothyroidism...Thanks Mom. Just kidding but I was told it runs in my family and after talking to my mom, found out that every woman on my mom's side of the family has hypothyroidism. My case isn't as severe as others so it really only causes me the have irregular periods, weight gain and to constantly be exhausted. So the whole weight gain issue after the wedding...not my fault, my thyroid is just a little messed up.

I went to an Endocrinologist, which is a doctor who specializes in thyroids and diabetes. He told me that I definitely have a more mild case of hypothyroidism and that i will only have to be on medication when Jonathan and I want to have kids. After that it's my choice whether or not I want to take a pill every day. The only reason he wants me on them now is to see which dosage works best for me. He did tell me that hypothyroidism does NOT cause infertility but I am more at risk for miscarriages. All that means is that when I do get pregnant I will have to make monthly visits to see him as well so he can monitor my hypothyriodism and up my medication so that I have a healthy pregnancy...no biggie. AND it's extremely common so women who want to have children/are pregnant go through it all of the time and have healthy babies. =)

So I'm not freaked out anymore and I feel pretty good about everything I've learned so far. Does it suck...yes, but pregnancy is possible and honestly, that's all that really matters....oh and of course my health DUH. Ok, back to the grind...someone has to run the asylum. =)

Complications

I think it's finally time to be open about some health issues of mine. This is a warning to any guys that read my posts, I'm going to be talking about feminine issues... For the past year I have had a severly irregular period. It started in June 2011, pretty much out of no where I started to only get my period once every 2 months. I obviously thought something was wrong with me but my doctor reassured me that everything was ok and that although it was 2 months apart, it was still somewhat regular so I had nothing to worry about. In January 2012 things started to change and I had gotten my period for 2 weeks straight. Again my doctor said that everything was normal and maybe I should be put on birth control to regulate my periods. I did not choose that path and started to do some research of my own the rest of that month on irregular periods and what the possibility of that happening could be. I can honestly say I took at least 5 pregnancy tests since January to see if that could be what was behind my problems. Unfortunately, I was not pregnant. In June 2012, about a month ago, I went to the doctor once more because since January I had started to get a regular period, once every month, but I would only get it for one day each month. Again, my doctor said that's perfectly normal but let's put you on birth control.

I'm definitely NOT interested in birth control. Jonathan and I have plans of our own and I'm not about to push them off so that my doctor is satisfied with me getting regualr periods. So I had enough nonsense from this doctor without receiving any feedback on what could be going on with my body. I decided to go somewhere else...somewhere I thought would probably be better because my friend has just had a baby at this other hospital and had nothing but good things to say about the staff. Plus she's a nurse herself and I feel like if an awesome nurse goes to a certain doctor then they must be a good doctor...right??

Anyways, I haven't gotten my period since May so I made an appointment with the new doctos. So, I'm there last night, sitting in the room by myself patiently waiting for the doctor after the nurse had asked me all the the history of my family information they need for my records. She comes in the door with a couple of pamplets, sits down across from me, and starts talking about infertility...umm, what!? It was such a cruve ball, I felt like someone had punched me right in my stomach. I honestly felt like I was in a daze while she was going over all of the information. I was extremely upset that Jonathan couldn't be there with me for support but we had no idea I would be having this conversation with the doctor. Now it's not a for sure thing, I have some testing I have to go through and it's not like Jonathan and I have been "trying" to get pregnant so I'm not too worried about it yet. But, now it's in the back of my mind and it kind of freaks me out.

Now, what happens is I am on medication which will force me to have my period. On day three of my period I have to do blood work to find out what the reason is...it could be one of four things: 1. A lack of PCOS which means I will be put on fertility medicine and have a higher chance of multiples. 2. Early Menopause. 3. Thyroid issues, she didn't give me a lot of information about this but it shouldn't be a big deal. Or 4. Some long medical term which means brain tumor BUT not a serious one!! Just one that gives off the hormone you use when breast feeding, which can be fixed by medicine as well. If it isn't any of those THEN I have to start worrying about infertility. After The blood work is done I will be having an ultrasound...

It's a bit overwhelming but hopefully it's nothing and I'm just freaking myself out. Here's to positive feedback!

Good Times

I have to say, this weekend was once again pretty spectacular. Parker came over this weekend and we had such an amazing time. Breakfast with Parker was a riot! He was high fiving everyone who passed by our table...well he wasn't just giving high fives. Unfortunately he was trying to grab people while they walked by and of course he is at that perfect height on the high chair where he happened to be grabbing people in their "special" areas. The best by far was when he slapped a granny on the boooooooty. Although it was higly inappropriate, I could not stop laughing. Best time out to eat EVER! Other than that great adventure we went to the park and swimming twice AND we introduced him to kiwi which was also hilarious because it must've tasted sour to him. He is by far the cutest little boy in the world, so incredibly smart and also so polite and at only 1 year and 10 months old!!!  Craziness. I love this kid to death. <3

In other news, I'm going to be starting my 60 day work out program today. I know I should have started this morning but I just could not wake up...I should have really pushed myself to get up because this afternoon will be killer in this heat. Oh well, I'll just have to push through it. Now I should have been working out all along but the reason I decided that I HAVE to start today is because one of my best friends, Kristi Jopek, who is also Parker's mom, has recently gotten engaged and has asked me to stand up in her wedding. I am very excited for her and Tyler's camo themed wedding but I definitely am not going to stand up there looking blimpy!! Hopefully after these 60 days I'll be back at my ideal weight, but I have a lot of work to do...and no more pop =( I'm hoping things go well with this work out plan because I can't wait to wear tight clothes again! =P

So there's one thing that I am abit worried about that is coming up here but I don't want to make too big of a deal out of it. I'm going to the doctor on thursday because my body just SUCKS. For the past year things just haven't felt...right and the doctor I had been seeing kept saying everything was normal. Trust me, with my situation it is NOT normal. I did enough research online to figure that out. So I have recently changed doctors and am hoping for good news and good results. I will keep everyone posted but that's all I am going to say on this issue right now.

Fatherly Figures

I heard this song on the radio that went something like this:

Sometimes I think about you, wonder if you're out there somewhere thinking about me. And would you even recognize the woman that your little girl has grown up to be. Because I look in the mirror and all I see are your blue eyes looking back at me. They're the only thing you ever gave to me at all. Did you think I didn't need you here, to hold my hand, to dry my tears, did you even miss me through the years at all.

Although it was written about the singer's mother I can't help but relate the lyrics to my own feelings for my dad. The months leading up to the wedding were so hard for me because I knew that my father wouldn't be walking me down the aisle. Growing up I could never understand why I wasn't treated like "daddy's little princess," like all girls should be treated. I used to get so jealous of all of my friends who have amazing relationships with their fathers. I'm not one to hold a grudge. I feel that life is short and you should live it to the fullest surrounding yourself with the ones you love most and positive people. I just can't bring myself to forgive him.

I wish he were different because then I would've been able to introduce him to Jonathan, my in-laws and all of my amazing new friends in wisconsin, but, I guess it is what it is. You can't change someone into who you want them to be and I never want Jonathan or our children going through a glimpse of what I did as a child and the hurt I felt.

I'm just very thankful to have Mark and Greg in my life. Mark has been so much more of a father to me than my own has and it's so cool to be able to have the father-daughter relationship I've always wanted. Greg has always been seriously amazing!! I guess I had to wait 23 years to have a father-like person in my life and now I've been blessed to have two. Things definitely happen for a reason. It's just sad that my own father couldn't figure out how to be dad and will be missing out on getting to know the daugher/sister/friend/WIFE that I have become.

 

Insanity!!

I ordered the Insanity workout program so that I could get back into the shape I was in almost 3 years ago when I met Jonathan. It finally came in the mail the other day and I am so excited to start. The only problem is that I can't wake up at 5:00 in the morning to start the workouts and there is absolutely no way I will be working out after work in this oven of a house. Although it might help me lose weight faster because I would most likely be sweating twice as much as usual... Jonathan and I have so many plans and everything has to be so secretive. Sometimes it honestly drives me insane. I wish I could just be open about our future plans with friends and family but everyone is so opinionated and extremely negative that it's proven to have a happier outcome when we just do things on our own and surprise everyone. For example, the house. No one knew we had gone and looked at a house let alone made an offer on one. We didn't even "spill the beans" until the first day we lived here. What I don't understand is why everyone feels their opinion matters most and that we should choose the path/advice that is given to us. Why can't we just live our lives doing what makes us happy and having 150% support from all of out loved ones. It's a bit frustrating and discouraging to want approval from certain people and to always be shot down. Ok :) enough with the seriousness!! Today Jonathan took me on a "day date" to go see Snow White and the Huntsman. I will admit that I would rather have seen Magic Mike but I did actually enjoy this movie. I'm pretty sure it was over 2 hours long, which was amazing considering out "no air" problem at home. After that Jonathan went fishing while I got to have some quality alone time to catch up on The Glee Project!! Lame, maybe...but I absolutely love singing shows!! I have to say, this heat is really getting to me. I couldn't eat the movie popcorn today and actually couldn't even finish my Jimmy johns sub, which is rare for me because everyone knows how much I LOVE food and that I am ALWAYS hungry!! It's just way too hot out to function! Well, I should probably end this post and get back up into our window fan covered room to finish the movie Warior with my awesome husband. Until tomorrow, stay classy San Diego!! <- whaaaaaat!? G'night <3

Well, Hello!

Welcome to my Blog!!! I’ve never created a blog before but after reading some of my husband’s awesome cousins’ sites I decided to try it out myself, who knows where this could go and it would be great to look back a few years from now and see what was important and what my thoughts were on certain topics at that time.

So I guess I’ll start this off by discussing this past year, one word comes to mind…INSANITY!! Well, I guess a few other words as well, BEST YEAR EVER!!! This year I have been blessed with an overwhelming amount of Ups with rarely any Downs. I got married to the love of my life, landed an amazing job and we bought our dream home! Seriously, what can be better than this!? Kids I guess… but that will come with time =P

Our Wedding

I have to say looking back I am extremely happy with all of the decisions that Jonathan and I had made for our “special day.” Although we had different opinions on almost EVERYTHING I was able to come up with a theme and style that fit both of our personalities. What’s awesome is all of the compliments we received from friends and family who said it was the best wedding they had ever been too…maybe people say that at every wedding they go to?? Who knows?? But anyways, I’d say I did a pretty good job considering our wedding was the first wedding I had ever been to in my life. I’m so thankful to my amazing mother in-law for all of her help throughout the whole planning process as well as putting together my Bridal Shower. Her idea with the cards where all of our guests wrote advice for us for before and after the wedding was seriously amazing! If it wasn’t for one of the cards that said something along the lines of “Remember to stop and look around at all of the people who had come there who love and support you, don’t feel rushed, make sure you eat and dance your little ass off” I probably wouldn’t have eaten or made sure to talk to everyone. Actually, that’s a lie…I DEFINITELY would have eaten either way! I am also glad that I had kiddie cocktails that night because now I will always remember all of the fun that I had. Thank you to everyone who made mine and Jonathan’s wedding day more amazing than I could have ever imagined.

Side note: the Honeymoon was FANTASTIC! We had so much fun and I cannot wait to go back! I would definitely recommend Negril, Jamaica to everyone!

The Job

When the hubster and I got married I was working as a Recruiter for Spherion, which is a staffing agency. It was a full time position but Spherion was about to be bought out by Randstad and it was made clear that there were limited positions and it wasn’t a guarantee that anyone would have a secure position. So I put my resume out there and not even a full 24 hours later received an email requesting an interview with SPI. Within a week I was offered the position and am currently here today. When I first started at SPI I came on as an HR Generalist/Recruiter, seriously one of the most stressful jobs EVER! BUT, I have to say being a recruiter is definitely my thing. You meet a lot of…dinks but having a good interview, making a candidate an employment offer and hearing their excitement on the other end of the phone is one of the best feelings ever! I’ve been here with SPI for a little over 5 months now and have moved on in a sense from just recruiting to being the scheduling manager as well…I LOVE multitasking and having so many different hats to wear. I couldn’t have asked for a better job and it came at the perfect time as well.

Our Dream House

In April, the hubster and I made an offer on the most amazing house I have ever seen…that was in our price range of course. I was so excited about this house that if we didn’t end up getting it I would have been devastated. How we ended up buying a house in April was due to the fact that our lease was up May 1^st and Jonathan thought it would be a good idea to sign another 6 month lease. Save some money and go from there is what we had agreed on. I don’t know why but I just wanted to check the real estate websites and see what was out there. That’s when I came upon this gem and I convinced the hubster that it was way too good to pass up. I said, “It can’t hurt to just look and dream a little.” I was actually surprised to find out that this was in fact Jonathan’s dream house as well. We made the offer, got the house, and have been living in this mansion for almost 3 months… the only complaint I have is that we thought living without air conditioning for the summer would be super easy. Too bad we have like record breaking heat waves going on here in Wisconsin!!! Yuck, so hot I can’t breathe, or eat, or sleep…but still it’s the best house ever! Love, love, love and cannot wait to raise our unborn children in that house =) !!

So I’m pretty sure that with this somewhat quick overview I have summed up the most insane, successful, stressful, romantic year I have ever had in my entire life. I’m so excited to see what’s next!