The Happiest Place on Earth
My favorite store in the whole world is the Co-Op. They have everything and anything you could ever want that is branded with UT logos. Every holiday, I try to get one of their holiday t-shirts. I have a friend that says I’m just GIVING them my money, but I think it’s money well spent. Yesterday, I rushed over to the Co-Op to get my St. Patrick’s Day t-shirts. I’ll be in Dallas over St. Patty’s day and I don’t know if the Dallas Co-Op would still have them if I waited. I got a blingy one for me and a normal one for Mike.
I can’t wait to wear my blingy UT shirt to the St. Patty’s day parade in Dallas next week!!
Mike had to have a St. Patty’s Day UT shirt too!
While I was at the Co-Op, I had to look around to see what else they had there. I’m for sure going to be replacing my UT luggage soon. I also need to start thinking about summer soon and what kind of swim suit I’m going to want. I saw this one there that might be perfect!
This one has UT and Leopard. I’m pretty sure my friend at Definitely Leopard is going to want this suit, too!
Although I have tons of UT clothing items, I really don’t have anything in my house that is UT. If you wanted to you could decorate your house in all UT stuff, but I really don’t need all that. However, if I had a kid, I’m pretty sure this is how I would decorate his/her bedroom!
Zucchini Bake
I’m not going to lie. I didn’t make this casserole myself. I had planned to do it alone, but I ended up having a late meeting and didn’t get home in time. Mike picked up the slack and cooked the casserole for me. Usually Mike does all the cooking anyway, so I don’t think he minded. In fact, he told me that he wants to go back to doing all the cooking especially the main dishes. Even though I’ve been having fun with this, I don’t really mind giving that up.
Makes 4-6 servings
Ingredients:
2 medium-sized zucchini, cut in slices or half-moon slices
2 medium-sized yellow squash, cut in slices or half-moon slices
Handful of sliced mushrooms
2-4 T chopped fresh basil
2 T thinly sliced green onion
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
3/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 cup + 1/2 cup pizza cheese
1/2 cup coarsely grated Parmesan
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a baking dish non-stick spray. Cut zucchini, squash, and mushrooms into slices. Chop basil into tiny pieces. Slice green onions.
Combine the sliced squash, zucchini, mushroom, chopped basil, sliced green onions, dried thyme, garlic powder, and both kinds of cheese and stir together until everything is mixed. Season with salt and fresh ground black pepper. Put the mixture in the baking dish and bake uncovered for about 25-30 minutes.
When the zucchini is nearly cooked through, take the casserole dish out of the oven and sprinkle over the remaining 1/2 cup of grated cheese. Put the dish back in the oven and bake for another 10-15 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and browned, (if you like cheese that way). Serve hot.
This was really good. I didn’t think it had enough salt, so I added more. Overall, this is a great side dish to any meal! Happy eating!!
Crock Pot Creamy Pork Chops
I saw this recipe on Pinterest yesterday and figured it was worth a try. With only three store bought ingredients, I felt sure I couldn’t mess it up. When I got home I added all the ingredients to the crock pot and then went on about my business. We took Cooper to his second puppy training class and when we got home it was ready! I usually don’t like to eat after 6:00, but I was dying to try how it tasted. Honestly, it was just ok. I think it needed more flavor. It was good, just not anything to write home about.
The three ingredients are:
Several pork chops
1 – 2 cans of cream of chicken
1 packet of ranch dry mix
1 can of water – we used chicken broth too,(so that really bumps us up to 4 store bought ingredients)
I think this would be a better recipe with 2 packets of ranch dry mix and maybe just use chicken broth instead of water.
First you mix up the cream of corn, ranch mix and water
Add the pork chops to the mix and cook on low for 4 – 6 hours.
Tonight we are going to try this with a zucchini/squash bake! Yum! Happy eating!!
Lunges
According to Wikipedia, The lunge is a strength training exercise that is used to strengthen the quadriceps muscles, gluteal muscles and the muscles comprising the “hamstrings“, the semitendinosus, the semimembranosus, and the biceps femoris. A long lunge emphasizes the gluteals whereas a short lunge emphasizes the quadriceps.
I have become obsessed with doing lunges. I started out doing 10 on each leg every mile I walked and then 20 on the last street up to my house. Now I’m up to doing 25 every mile and 35 on the last street. I’m doing 135 lunges three days a week! I hope this has helped get me ready for my ski weekend!
I found this picture on google images.
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Explore UT
Today was Explore UT. People from all over the state come check out all the great things about The University of Texas. Every year since i’ve been in Austin, I’ve had to miss it. This year, I finally got to go! We spent the entire day roaming from building to building, activity to activity. We started out at the Ransom Museum and saw the first book published, the Bible, and the first photograph ever taken. That got us off to a great start. We then went to see a rose shattered, ball shattered like glass, bananas turned in to hammers and lots of other cool experiments at the Chemical Engineering area. The kids enjoyed water balloons catapulted on them and a group of UT students as they caught themselves on fire. We went to Gregory Gym where the boys were “traumatized for life” when they walked into the sauna where there were some naked men. From there, we went and had Amy’s ice cream at the Law School and then to the top of the tower. As we walked to the Blanton Museum, we stopped to get our names written in a bunch of different languages. Overall it was a very fun day. The organizer of the group did a great job! Hook ‘Em Horns UT fans!!
Any time you are on UT campus, you can’t help but enjoy the view of the tower from this fountain!
Amy’s Oreo Ice Cream with m&m’s.
Close up of the tower! 75 years old!
View of downtown from the top of the tower
UT Football Stadium view from the tower
Clock from right underneath the observatory
The Happiest Place on Earth
View of the Erwin Center
Names written in many different languages
Have Pants, Ready to Ski!
I’m going skiing for the first time since about 2005. I went to check my closet to see how my ski clothes have held up and when I tried on my pants, I realized that they were too big and I need new ski pants. My “super athletic, good looking” friend and I went to REI to see if they had anything. They were having really good sales on ski clothes, but they only had the Northface stretch pants in XS and XL. I wear small. I tried the other kind, but they just aren’t as flattering, (and we know that’s more important than if they keep me warm). We called another REI and the Sun and Ski, but neither of them had my size either. Finally, we called St. Bernard Sports and found out they had them! Since it was getting late, we rushed over there and got them immediately. They were more expensive than the ones at REI, but Mike said that unless I got the ones I wanted, I wouldn’t be happy. He’s probably right. I’m pretty excited to have name brand ski pants!! 
While we were there, we talked to the guy about waxing my friend’s snowboard. “Sure, no problem!” they told us. Well turned out it was a problem, because when he brought his board there, they told him it couldn’t be ready by the time we go skiing. Is there really that many people getting their snowboards waxed in Austin at this time??? Well, luckily, we found Sun and Ski and they will be able to get it done in just a couple of days!! Thank you Sun and Ski! I wish you would have had my ski pants in my size. I would have bought from you instead!!
Moving day!
I’ve decided I want to continue blogging, but not with blogger. So, here I am! I’m a wordpress girl now! I hope this is as easy as blogger or my days will be numbered!!
Boo!
I don’t know if I’m going to keep blogging. I was having fun with it, but a big part of that was seeing what kind of ads I got on my page with each new post and if I had earned any money. Even though I never clicked on my own ads, they turned it off. It may not be as much fun without the ads. I may change to another blog site if I find another easy one. We’ll see.
The Hounds of Baskerville
Online shopping
I’m at a point that I want to do more online shopping. What are some of the sites that you all like to go to for… well, just about anything!? I want sites that aren’t ridiculously expensive. The only one I can think of right now is ideeli! I need some suggestions!
Fabulous after FIFTY 