Recipes!

Please share some recipes to some of your favorite dishes!

Love, Heather

xo

His Voice Brings Comfort

Last night, I received my first phone call from my husband!! He's been in Iraq for two and half months now. It felt so good to hear his voice. We've skyped a lot since he's left despite how terrible his internet can be. Usually his roommate is still sleeping at 6am when we skype. Therefore, he puts on headphones and I talk to him while he types back. There's been a couple of times that his roommate was up or out doing something that he's gotten to talk too. Regardless, I felt like his voice was different. He even said the same to me. I guess skype, with a terrible internet connection, just isn't the same. It caught me off guard and made me a little sad that my own husband's voice seemed kind of foreign to me. But then it made me all the more thankful to be hearing it over the phone. It's amazing the things that I took for granted everyday that are now a cherished luxury.

Love, Heather

xo

Confessions

1. I frequently type "Iraq" into google and click the "news" tab.
2. My poor husband is exhausted from constant work and therefore, he oversleeps through our "skype time" sometimes. This immediately induces number 1.
3. I tear up when I see that every casualty is from Ft. Hood even though I know that they're all that's left in Iraq. And even if there is another unit not from Ft. Hood, they will be gone soon.
4. As we slowly pull out of Iraq, I get anxious about the amount of soldiers not backing up my husband.
5. I dread the thought that Iraq might ask the US to stay and keep me from my husband longer.
6. I'm heartbroken as they close down all of the things that my husband actually likes about Iraq such as the pool and, soon, the PX.
7. I broke down when I learned of the first casaulties from Zack's brigade.
8. I pray for my husband's safety, health, and happiness everyday.
9. When I have a bad day or things get hard, I wish Zack were here to give me a hug and tell me that everything is going to be okay.
10. I would wait 5 years for my husband to come home without a second thought.

Love, Heather

xo

Baby You're Never Alone

 [I have this framed in my office. It says "Not Alone"]

Never Alone - Lady Antebellum

May the angels protect you, trouble neglect you
And heaven accept you when it's time to go home
May you always have plenty, the glass never empty
And know in your belly, you're never alone

May your tears come from laughing, you find friends worth having
As every year passes, they mean more than gold
May you win and stay humble, smile more than grumble
And know when you stumble, you're never alone

Never alone, never alone
I'll be in every beat of your heart when you face the unknown
Wherever you fly this isn't goodbye
My love will follow you, stay with you, baby, you're never alone

Well, I have to be honest, as much as I wanted
I'm not gonna promise that cold winds won't blow
So when hard times have found you and your fears surround you
Wrap my love around you, you're never alone

Never alone, never alone
I'll be in every beat of your heart when you face the unknown
Wherever you fly this isn't goodbye
My love will follow you, stay with you, baby, you're never alone

May the angels protect you, trouble neglect you
And heaven accept you when it's time to go home
So when hard times have found you and your fears surround you
Wrap my love around you, you're never alone

Never alone, never alone
I'll be in every beat of your heart when you face the unknown
Wherever you fly, this isn't goodbye
My love will follow you, stay with you, baby, you're never alone
My love will follow you, stay with you, baby, you're never alone

Love, Heather

xo

Ingredients of a Wife

What are some of the qualities of a good wife? I may have only been married for 2 and a half months before my hubby deployed but I think of this year as a way to tweak some skills. One of those skills that needs a lot of tweaking is cooking! I love baking and I'm very capable of following instructions. My list of recipes is short. Therefore, I've made a goal to learn one new recipe a week while Zack is deployed. This Thursday will be 4 weeks so I'm still on track as of now.

Homemade Meatballs

 I love meatballs. I love spaghetti and meatballs...I love meatball sandwiches...I love meatballs by themselves! However, I got the idea to make them from an email from The Nest (sequel to The Knot). I learned to switch over to other sources. These weren't bad, but I've had some really great meatballs and these just didn't compare. I will definitely be trying a new recipe!

Moroccan Carrots

This recipe was also from The Nest. It involves a lemon-based sauce over the carrots with hints of honey and cumin. I dipped the carrots in the sauce first and I had to try 5 pieces before I decided to nix the sauce and just eat cooked carrots. I love the taste of carrots and lemony carrots was kind of a weird flavor. However, I'm so used to eating raw carrots that it was a nice reminder that I should add cooked carrots into my meals too.

Baked Ziti

 Thanks to Kate for commenting on my last post and directing me towards some of her favorite recipes on her blog! This baked ziti is amazing! This is another one of my favs so when I saw it on her blog (today), I decided to go to the store to get the ingredients. I made it with all fat free cheeses, wheat pasta (Barilla plus), and the recipe already calls for Italian turkey sausage. Zack and I enjoyed the baked ziti at an Italian restaurant in Copperas Cove and this is a less sinful way to indulge in some delicious pasta.

 Madison

 In an unrelated topic, this is my adorable dog bumming out at my parent's house over the weekend.

Decor

A wife is also in charge of beautifying the house. I love this excuse because I love shopping for decor. These are my new candles. One of my end tables needed a little something extra. Over the next year, I'd like to replace some of my decor on a budget. I'll be a regular at Hobby Lobby (and I refuse to buy anything for less than 50% off!).

Love, Heather

xo

Consider Me a Regular

[March 12, 2011]

Zack deployed almost 2 weeks ago. I've been posting various pictures on facebook to show Zack what all is going on.  Well I realize that a lot of my friends may not necessarily care about things such as the frog that Madison likes to play with/torment got squished today. I figured posting all of that here would be more appropriate and less annoying to my facebook friends.

For starters, I got a new haircut yesterday. Everyone who has ever worked on my hair tells me I have twice as much hair as the average person.  Having really long hair in the summer is almost unbearable unless I wear it up everyday.  I realized also that I hadn't gotten my haircut since Christmas time. I had been planning on getting it cut for the past...ohh...3 months now? The best part is that I went to a new place and it was only $30! I feel like I have been getting ripped off for the better portion of my life by hairstylists.

I told myself that when Zack deployed, I would start trying lots of new recipes so I can pretty much be Betty Crocker when he comes home.  I found a couple of recipes on one website and I think I might have to venture to a new one. On Sunday, I made some meatballs cooked in tomato sauce. The only thing I changed up was that I excluded the veal because my grocery store doesn't sell it. Well they came out kind of bland. They weren't bad, but they weren't exactly show-stopping either. Fast forward to tonight and I decided to try some Moroccan Carrots. I boiled the carrots and mixed the sauce but after I strained the carrots, I decided to dip one in the sauce and try it before pouring it over all of them. I probably tried 5 or 6 of them before I decided that it probably wasn't for me. It had a very lemony taste. I could see it served in a restaurant somewhere but once again, it wasn't for me. So now I'm eating a big bowl of carrots for dinner lol. I think I'm just going to start surfing the Food Network website from now on. The reviews and ratings are really helpful on that site.

Well that's about all for today. Lots to do before bed. If you have any wonderful dinner, lunch, or breakfast recipes, feel free to share!

Love, Heather

xo

The "D Word"

This is one of my favorites from the wedding - that "trying not to laugh" face is a classic :)

I promised I would be updating more soon and the time has come.  I took my last final of the semester today.  I will be graduating from nursing school in exactly one year.  Zack and I are still doing the long-distance thing since we got married.  He is deploying very soon so since my nursing school is 2 hours away from Ft. Hood, it was not logical to move in together with a deployment starting only a couple of months after we got married.

First off, I want to say that I'm positive that I've found my dream profession.  We had a couple of people drop out this semester because they felt like nursing school consumed their entire lives and it might not be what they want to do.  It's true that nursing school consumes your life.  Sometimes it's stressful to pack up and go see Zack (which I always do, regardless of the stress).  These past few months have involved traveling most weekends to see Zack, putting together an entire wedding by myself in March, surviving nursing school, learning how to be married, and preparing for a deployment. I figure that once Zack is deployed, I'll appreciate that nursing school consumes all of my time.  I even got elected for vice president of my class (because, you know, I don't have enough going on).  I'm really excited about all the activities involved with being an officer and I am so thankful for all of my wonderful classmates, who I consider to be good friends.

So now back to Zack.  I mentioned he would be deploying very soon.  The down side is that we still only have a 6 day span as to the exact day that he will deploy.  The up side is that since I'm done with finals, I can spend every possible moment with him until he deploys.  Preparing for a deployment has definitely been a roller coaster.  First, I let the wedding consume all of my concerns and purposely pushed the deployment out of my head.  After the wedding, I focused on the fact that I needed to finish strong for this semester in nursing school.  Unfortunately this method has resulted in random bursts of bawling with little warning.  Now, however, I'm just so happy to be with him that I'm feeling better.  I know this deployment will be rough.  A year away from my husband is completely incomprehensible to me.  Honestly, I can't imagine a man more worth it though.  And on the bright side, we have so many amazing things to look forward to when he comes home!  The game plan is as follows: I graduate from nursing school and become an RN during the same month he comes home, we will finally get to move in together :), we're going to Vegas again because we absolutely loved it, and we're going to get a new puppy.  I'm so glad that I have an amazing husband and so much to look forward to!

Love, Heather

xo

Honeymoon in Paris (Sort Of)

I've always wanted to go to Paris and Zack studied abroad in Europe one summer so he's always wanted to go back.  Since we first discussed getting married, we always said we would go to Paris for our honeymoon.  Well, our flight and hotel was budgeted with the wedding so we decided to stay stateside.  We debated on a few ideas but I'm not the kind of girl that likes to just lay on a beach.  We decided to go to Las Vegas and stay at the Paris hotel.  Brilliant, right?  Zack had never been to Vegas and I hadn't been since I was 16 so my previous visits didn't count.

We stayed in the Red Room at Paris which was really cute!

We gambled for the first time (Zack likes Star Wars)

I actually won a little money on video poker

We went to the coke store and tried 16 different Coke products from around the world!

I won a good amount of money playing War. Yes, the card game War!  I play with Zack all the time so you can imagine my excitement when I realized they had War tables in the casinos!

Getting a picture with a Michael Jackson impersonater was a trip goal for me and I managed to find two

We found out lions are like giant puppies (MGM)

We drank giant drinks (hey, it's Vegas)

We went up the Eiffel Tower in true Paris fashion

It was a total blast!  We also saw the Amazing Johnathan, Criss Angel, and David Copperfield.  Criss Angel is surprisingly charismatic and not creepy like he is in his TV show.  His show was really high energy and we both really liked it.  Our last night we went to see David Copperfield.  Where do I begin?  Well let's start with how he appeared on the stage.  There was a box with a white film that they lit from behind so you could see through it.  They then turned it 360 degrees.  In the blink of an eye, a silhouette appears and it's David Copperfield on a motorcycle.  He put audience members along the back of the stage and 2 audience members on their hands and knees holding metal poles in place.  He put a sheet over them and pulled it off 5 seconds later to reveal a car. A car.  I think I sat in my seat with my jaw hanging open the entire show.  I highly recommend it!  Anyways, we did tons in Vegas so I'll wrap it up with those shows.

Love, Heather

xo

I'm a married woman! :)

So happy :)

Love, Heather
xo

Remember me?

 

I haven't updated in forever! Nursing school sort of took over my life. However, I will be blogging again because my handsome Zachary will be deploying pretty soon so I want to keep him updated as much as possible! This will be a short post but I wanted to include the MOST important news...

I'M GETTING MARRIED NEXT SATURDAY!!  :)

Love, Heather

xo