Little Miss Suzy Homemaker: Recipe Exchange

I am always looking for new recipes. One of my favorite recipe sites is allrecipes.com. I'm not a huge fan of cookbooks because I am an extremely picky eater. I will go through a cookbook and maybe find one recipe that I like.

This is why I love recipe websites:

1. They are free!

2. They let you set up a recipe box to store all of your recipes.

3. Everyone leaves helpful hints and suggestions.

4. The recipes are ranked.

Here is my favorite pork chop recipe that my mom has been requesting:

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup worcestershire sauce

1 tsp. black pepper

2 tbsp. minced garlic (I buy the minced garlic on the spice aisle in the groc. store)

1 lb. pork chops

Mix everything together and marinate for an hour or so and grill. It is the easiest thing ever. I normally only cook 2-3 pork chops but with the same amounts of the ingredients above and they are fantastic! The original recipe said to marinate for 12 hours! I don't think there is anyway to mess this recipe up; just marinate for whatever your time frame allows.

I'm going to try to post a recipe weekly. Leave me a comment with one of your favorite recipes! I need to try something new!

You have to see WICKED!

I went to see Wicked tonight in Chicago at the Oriental Theatre. The theatre was absolutely gorgeous inside! You aren't allowed to take pictures inside but I found one online and included it below. The theatre was built in 1926 and is very ornate inside.

Wicked is the BEST musical ever! I'm not a huge fan of musicals and I have never been to a broadway production but this was amazing! The set was fantastic and the plot was very good with cutesy little lines coming from Glenda the Good Witch. She calls her mom and dad, momsy and popsicle. I thought that was so cute! If you ever get the chance to see it, do so. It is completely worth it!

Inside the Oriental Theatre. This picture does not even begin to show how beautiful it is inside.

The lobby.

The set. (No, I didn't sneak a picture. I found this on the world wide web.)

The ceiling in the lobby.

Inside the theatre. (Another picture taken from the world wide web.)

I HEART CHICAGO

I am in Chicago for a conference Thursday-Sunday with my boss. I am so excited to be here! I love Chicago! It is such a great city! Beautiful lake, great shopping, yummy food, amazing architecture--what more could you ask for!?!
I arrived at the hotel after a very long shuttle bus ride in rush hour traffic. We are smack dab in the middle of the Magnificent Mile. When I look out my hotel window I can see a huge GAP store and La Perla (a ridiculously expensive lingerie store!) At the corner of our hotel there is a ginormous Forever 21. And Chicago has an H&M! I can't wait to go there! Although, I think my husby said something about not spending money, blah, blah, blah. Just kidding, Ty! I hate med school budgets! Or any budget for that matter!
Dana and I wanted to eat pizza for dinner but after several attempts we gave up because the wait times were around an hour and a half. We found a cute little bakery instead. After dinner we headed to the Navy Pier. The pier is such a fun, family place. I took several pictures while I was there to share with you all!
BTW, Wicked is showing in Chicago and guess who got tickets!?! I have never seen a broadway production and can't wait to see it tomorrow night! The last time I was in Chicago it had just opened here and the tickets were sold out, but not this time. Although I will be sitting way, way, way up in the balcony in the nosebleed section.

The Tribune Bldg.

A huge cone shaped mound of flowers at the pier. So pretty!

A big pot full of gorgeous flowers. You gotta love city beautification projects!

The HUGE ferris wheel at the Navy Pier. I couldn't talk Dana into riding with me due to her vertigo and all!

View of the Chicago skyline from the pier. My poor little camera needs a bigger flash to capture night scenes better, but you get the idea.

Simple Acts of Kindness

Last night Ty and I helped with the Wednesday night meal at our church. I had dreaded doing this since I was asked to help on Sunday.
I begrudgingly went to help. Everyone that was helping ate before the others arrived. While we were eating our preacher, Charlie was standing around talking to us all. He took my cup of lemonade and went into the kitchen to fill it up. I didn't even have time to protest that he didn't need to do that for me. When he came back with my drink he asked anyone else if they needed a refill and said, "I'm here to serve." That little act of kindness really touched me. He didn't have to refill my drink but he wanted to be of service to others. Later in our class we sang the song Lord, Make me a Servant. I hope that I can touch someones life by simply being a "servant." Just something to think about....

(Oh, and I enjoyed being at the dinner and helping once I got there.)

My name is Lindsey and I am addicted to online shopping!

When I was in college I used to shop online all the time. There weren't many choices of clothing stores in Stillwater. Now that I sit at a desk all day it has gotten even worse! Most of the time I am just dreaming--don't worry Ty! LOL!

I love shopping online at Banana, Piperlime, and J.Crew. I love looking at the jewelry on Dogeared. Anytime I order something online I always google promotion codes. It might take some digging but you can almost always find free shipping codes or some other sort of promotion. Or you can always go to Amazon.com to see if they sell the item cheaper. This is exactly what I did yesterday with these amazing plates. My coworker was raving about these dishes that she has--she is obsessed with dishes! :) I had actually seen them before when I was searching for plates to hang on the wall. I found them much cheaper at Amazon--30% cheaper in fact, with free shipping. So you should always search for better deals! You never know what you might find!

Ty and I have been going to Lowe's everyday for something else for the house--okay, not everyday but it seems that way! I found a great coupon when I googled lowes promotions.

Just click on the hyperlink above. The coupon expires July 30th and they will e-mail it to you.

These dishes are going on my wish list!

I don't even drink tea but everyone should have a teapot, right!?!

The 5 & Diner

The 5 & Diner is right by our house and is connected to the Harley Davidson Store. I have been wanting to eat there for weeks. Ty and I went Sunday after church with my parents. It was so FUN! Everyone is dressed in '50s clothes: poodle skirts and the standard waitress dress. They had a bar that you could sit at with cute red stools. The to go boxes were in the shapes of cars. They had a juke box at every table. I loved it! The food was great, too! If you get a chance you should definitely eat here! You will enjoy stepping back in time.

Hi Ho Hi Ho, its off to work I go!

Another Monday and another rainy day in T-town. My weekend was packed full of events. My parents came into town Friday night--late. This is very unusual for them since they go to bed so early but they came in around 11 pm--way past my bedtime. I am such a grandma!

My dad installed some great recessed lighting for us in our living room. He and Ty worked on it all Saturday morning. They also hooked up the water line to my fridge so now I have water and ice in the door. (probably the best invention ever!) They installed a new light switch in my bathroom and fixed my dryer. (Not the actual dryer b/c its brand new but the electrical outlet and wires were all messed up.) They worked all weekend long! I guess the attic is very narrow in height. I've never been up there and don't have any plans to go up there. Ty couldn't even stand on his knees. He had to crawl everywhere he went. His whole back is covered in scratches from nails that were sticking out everywhere. My dad jabbed his elbow into a nail. It sounded very painful and my mom has to call his doctor to see when his last tetanus shot was. I am very appreciative of all my dad did! And Ty too! I am so, so, so glad my dad is handy! We would have spent a fortune on all of those repairs, especially the dryer problem. My dad and I ran to Home Depot to pick up the wire. It was $75 for 50 ft. He said when they built their house 10 years ago it was probably half that price. I guess the price of copper has really gone up. (Along with everything else!)

Mom and I spent all day Saturday shopping. When I say all day, I mean all day--8 hours. We both got some great stuff! I bought a couple of things for the mantle on the fireplace. I love the new plate. You can see it in the background of this picture.

The fireplace is not complete yet. We are going to get rid of that brass cover thingy. I really know my house lingo! We also need to hang that picture and find a few more key items to put on the mantle.

Chesley came over Saturday night for dinner and a movie. I love our date nights. Ty, the Chesler, and I have so much fun together. (My parentals couldn't stay up for a movie. It was getting late.)

It was a great weekend! Thank you Dad for all your work on the house!!!!

The best job in the world

I have the BEST job in the world! I work with great people. We have so much fun and everything is really laid back. Let me tell you what I did today. Keep in mind that this is our slow time and that I do work really hard during the school year.
7:30 am: (summer hours 7:30-4) start up computer, start up my e-mail. Respond to a few e-mails and check voicemail.

8:00 am: Check out every blog on my list of blogs to check and then some.

10:00 am: order some new giveaways. I love ordering new giveaways. It is shopping but with someone else's money!

10:30 am: New computer screen arrives. I use a laptop because I travel so much. When I am in the office it has a docking station with a regular keyboard and mousepad. My computer screen is about 15 inches. Tiny. So tiny that my face is practically touching the screen so that I can see it. No worries, because yesterday I ordered a new BIG screen. It is huge. So big that I have to push it all the way to the end of my desk and sit back really far or it hurts my eyes. I love it!

11:00 am: Trip to Sam's and Hobby Lobby. A lady in our office is retiring and her party was today. So a coworker and I went to pick up the cake and some decorations. Sam's has a great selection of flowers. That was my duty: pick out flowers and arrange them.

1:30 pm: Arrange flowers

2:00 pm: eat cake and drink punch and gossip with the girls. The punch was great! I will be getting the recipe soon. Punch is my favorite part of parties!

3:00 pm: Check out all of the blogs that I check out along with facebook and anything else my little heart desires.

3:53 pm: Log off of here and go home!! Oh, but I decided to join the fitness center here so instead of going home I have to go work out because I thought it would be okay to eat 2 pieces of cake and drink 4 glasses of punch!!!

3:57 pm: My boss just walked in with a salary letter. I got a RAISE! Okay, so every salaried employee at OSU that did well in their evaluation got a raise but who cares! I got a RAISE! This is the best job ever!!!

Happy Friday! I hope you love your job as much as me! I am very blessed!

Domestic Diva

I have this long list of hobbies that I want to take up one day. My dream is to one day stay at home with my kids and become a Domestic Diva. This is part of my very conflicting personality: be a career woman or a stay at home mom. But that is a whole other issue.

I don't want to just be any stay at home mom, I will be a Domestic Diva. Meaning I will stay at home with my kids but they will have all these scheduled events so that I can take up lots of hobbies. Oh, and I will have a maid to clean my house! (I said this was my dream, not my reality!)

I want to take gourmet cooking lessons. I used this great pasta recipe from thepioneerwoman.com. She uses white wine in the recipe so I went and picked some up. I feel very grown-up and gourmet cooking with wine--silly, I know!

I want to take photography lessons. Not just any old photography lessons but a class that shows me how to use Adobe Photoshop. (Which I would love to own.)

Maybe take some tennis lessons. My friend, Laura, took a tennis/raquetball class in college and tried to teach me. She was very patient, but lets just say I am not very coordinated. We had a lot of fun, though!

Maybe some private ballet lessons. I wish I would have taken ballet as a little girl, maybe then I would have some coordination. In college I took this beginning ballet class that was offered at the Colvin (OSU's workout facility). I definitely need some one-on-one attention. It was a lot of fun and a great way to burn calories!

Sewing was on my list of potential hobbies to take up but I have already crossed that off of my list. I took a class a couple of months ago with a friend from work. We had soooo much fun! We took it thinking we were going to make these fabulous aprons. We both made a few aprons, but realized they just take way too long to make! (We are now obsessed with blogging!) I have made a few pillow cases and coaster since then but it has been a while since the old sewing machine has made it out. Maybe if I had a designated room for it I would use it more. When we were house hunting I told Ty that I needed a sewing room! One day....

These are all things I want to some day accomplish! Any fun things on your hobby list wish? Leave me a comment, I would love to know what they are!

Bathroom Update

I have more house pictures to share! Ty has been so bored this week because it has been raining here. He wants to be able to work out in the yard. I don't know if it is his medical school mentality or just a guy thing but he does not understand the concept of being bored. I could spend all day watching t.v. and surfing the web, but he always has to have a project. So even though he has come to hate painting he painted the bathroom for me while I was slaving away at work. Okay, so maybe I don't have to slave away at work but I was stuck here. :)

I have been having decorating issues. I cannot decide on a decorating style. I will come home with a painting that I love but then 2 weeks later decide I need to return it. I also have very conflicting tastes. I want to be all grown-up and have a grown-up house but I LOVE pink and bright colors. This all stems from living in a sorority house for so long. I only had one room to decorate and it was bright pink. Now I finally have my own place I can't decide what to do with it. But my bathroom came out just right! I chose a light, cool blue. (And of course I added some pink!) These pictures don't quite do it justice. I spent probably 20 minutes going through every option on my camera to find the right one to make the color look similar to how it looks in person. We still have a few finishing touches but it is basically done. I need to buy some rugs and maybe some new hand towels. I am trying to decide if I want to keep it all white or add the tan color that is in this picture. What do you think? Leave me a comment and let me know!

This picture shows off the blue color the best.

Landscaping, finally!

My weekend was packed with events. Ty and I both worked at the school Saturday morning for an Admitted Student Day, which went great! One of my sorority sisters, Megan, got married Saturday night. Her wedding was at the Dresser Mansion. It was a very unique place built in 1919. She looked gorgeous and her wedding ceremony was very sweet.

Pictures of the Mansion

I loved this fireplace!

On Sunday I took Nuts to the dog park for a playdate with one of my coworkers, Rebecca and her dog Tatum. They had a great time and were completely worn out by the end of it. We met lots of people while we were there. People here are pretty friendly! Tatum and Nuts were quite the duo. They kept trying to hang out with the big dogs, but couldn't quite keep up! Tatum looks big in this picture but don't be fooled by all of his fur! He is half the size of Nuts (in lbs.)

Nuts would not stay out of Tatum's face!

Late Sunday afternoon Ty and I finally put some plants in front of our house. Ty dug out a flower bed earlier in the week. We went and picked out all the plants Friday night. We still want to add flowers in front of the plants.

Before Picture: plain jane!

After Pictures:

Hopefully everything will grow quickly and fill in!

TGIF

Thank Goodness It's Friday.....except I have to work tomorrow morning. We are having an Admitted Student Day. I don't really mind working tomorrow. I love planning events. Plus all the students are sooo excited about coming to medical school. Their energy is contagious. They all work so hard just to get in to medical school and it is only beginning.

I have been trying out new recipes all week. Last night I made pork chops, mac and cheese, and brownies all from scratch. Ty worked out in our backyard all day so I wanted him to have a good meal. Nuts stayed out in the backyard with him while he worked. Our neighbors behind us have two little dogs. There is a crack where the two fences meet that is big enough for them to stick their heads through. It drives Nuts crazy. He whines and whines because he wants to go play with them so badly. Have a great weekend!!!

Nut's new friends.

He is so sad he can't get in their back yard.

Ty working hard in a corner of our back yard. It was covered with bamboo. He is working on killing it all and digging up the roots. This bamboo is the thickest stuff ever!

My cute gardening gloves. Ty: "Why don't you put your gloves on?"

Me: "I don't want to get them dirty!"

This picture is for my dad: Aren't you proud of me? I did this all by myself! I never used to roll things up like this at home.

GO POKES, GO POKES, GO POKES GO!

I spent yesterday in my home away from home, Stillwater. I love that place! During the school year I get to go once a week with my job and I love it!

Derek has decided to go to OSU and I am super excited! Yesterday was his Freshman Orientation and I went as his "parent". I remember how scary it was trying to decide what classes to take and what major to choose. When I enrolled my mom got to come in with me during the advising session. That has all changed. Now the student has to go by themselves. I wanted to go in with Derek. I am a helicopter parent already and I don't even have kids! Help!

After lunch they separate the kids from the parents and the parents have their own session, which I skipped. I figured they weren't going to tell me anything I didn't already know. I had to go pick up some shirts from Dupree's for work. They are super cute Dr. Pete shirts! I then proceeded to hit up my favorite places in Stilly: The Wooden Nickel and Wall's!! I have been eyeing Dogeared jewelry for a long time and I finally broke down and bought a necklace. (I say that like they are super expensive...there not.) It is soooo cute! On my way home I was digging in my sack to pull out the little card the necklace comes on and there was another necklace in my sack! I was already on my way back home so there was no turning around. What would you do? Would you keep it, mail it back, or wait until the next time you are in Stilly and return it??? Post a comment and let me know. I should tell you that I am wearing it today! But that doesn't mean I still couldn't return it.

One of my Wall's purchases was bones for Nuts. That little stinker got on top of his cage and took the whole sack into the living room where he proceeded to chew threw the package and start eating on two. I caught him or he probably would have gotten them all out of the sack. He knows he is in trouble because his ears are back and droopy!

Ty and I are officially T-townians....we have become obsessed with Quik Trip! Ty because they have .49 cents 32 oz. drinks, me because I love coke icee's. QT has everything!

It was a long weekend....

This past weekend was LeAnn's wedding. Ty and I went to Elgin Thursday night and returned Sunday evening. I am soooo glad the wedding is over. It was a lot of work but it turned out great! I can't wait to see the pictures. I was too busy to take any pictures but I gave Ty my camera to snap a few.

Dad singing to LeAnn, "I Loved Her First"

Ty and I have lots of house projects to complete this week: landscaping, hanging shutters, hanging blinds, painting the bathroom. Okay, so maybe Ty and I don't have a lot of projects maybe just Ty has projects! Its not my fault that he banned me from painting. And I tried to use the drill to hang blinds but I couldn't keep it on the screw. At least I made the attempt to help. So Nuts and I watch Ty do all of the house projects. Now before you start to feel sorry for Ty remember that I had to pack up the whole apartment by myself because he left me for 3 weeks for his internship! I'm lucky to have such a wonderful husband! I think he secretly enjoys all these projects.

There are so many things we want to do to this house. We bought curtains last night for our living room. What a difference curtains make! Our dryer vent is leaking water so we can't do laundry and it is adding up. So, we will be making a trip to the laundry mat sometime this week. Thank goodness my dad is coming up in a couple of weeks to fix some things for us! I will post house pictures soon...

Surprise!

Today is Ty's 24 Birthday! Since we are leaving to go to our hometown today for LeAnn's wedding I threw him a surprise party Tuesday night. He love, love, loves video games and has been wanting to go to Incredible Pizza. I invited all of his friends. I made him wear a blind fold in the car so he wouldn't know where we were going. I had to make up some pretty elaborate stories....
I finally told him that we were going to a Driller's game because I knew he was thinking we were going to Incredible Pizza. He was worried about finding sunscreen and didn't want to shower after working out in the yard because he was just going to get all hot and sweaty at the game. I finally convinced him to shower! Then I told him that my parents had ordered him a present online but it was backordered and that a store here in t-town had it in stock. I told him we had to go pick it up before the game and that he had to wear a blindfold because my parents wanted to see him open it this weekend. Oh, and when I told him we were going to the Driller's game he wanted to call and invite his friends. I had to tell him no that I wanted to just go with him! Well, we got to Incredible Pizza and he was so excited! He and his friends played video games and bowled a million games. They also took lots of pizza breaks. At the end of the night they decided to ride the go-carts. They ended up getting kicked out because they wanted to play bumper cars with the go-carts. We were there 30 minutes past closing time....10:30.....way past my bedtime! haha! Here is a little video of the fun!