Mother's Day Weekend!

Why do I even blog? Seriously. Half the time I'm too busy to keep up, and half the time I feel like my life is so boring that I have nothing to blog about. Ha. I'll try to see what I can muster up this summer so you can keep up to speed on my wild happenings! ;) Actually, tomorrow, I head out with L for Florida (OMG!!), so it'll be fun to share some fun stuff from our trip with you on here once we venture back. Until then, I figured I'd post a few fun things from Mother's Day (and Smith Bros. open house) weekend!

It worked out really well. I actually had a conference in Schofield on Friday, so I drove up to Colby on Thursday night and went to my conference from there on Friday morning. It was a great conference! I really enjoyed it and actually felt like it wasn't a waste of my time, ha. L didn't come with me for a couple reasons, namely because he had to speak at UW-La Crosse's graduation that Sunday, so that was a bummer. BUT......... I was talking to him on the phone on my drive home from the conference and asking him all sorts of questions about his weekend plans and such, and then when I pulled into my parent's driveway, I'm like, "Wait?!? Are you here?!?!" Here the little stinker surprised me and drove up separately! I don't get genuinely surprised that often, but I seriously almost cried. It was exactly what I needed after a rough couple weeks at work. He still had to leave at the crack of dawn on Sunday, but at least he got to enjoy the Open House with us and stuff.

Anyway, we kept it pretty lowkey on Friday and had a great seafood buffet dinner at Allison's Steakhouse. It's L's fave. :) Saturday morning, I had to get fitted for a bridesmaid dress for my friend Becca's wedding, and then I soaked in all the craziness of the Smith Bros. open house. It's basically a customer appreciation event hosted by Smith Bros. and Colby Chrysler, the car dealership next door. There's tons of free food, monster truck rides, etc. Always pure and utter insanity, and it usually tests my ability to handle rude people, but overall, it's a wonderful event every year! That night, L and I spent some time at the Colby VFW with some college friends who happened to be up in Spencer visiting one of their parents for the weekend. It was a lot of fun! L had to go to La Crosse on Sunday, and I stayed in Colby that day to celebrate Mother's Day. Then it was back to Madison on Monday. It's sure been nice to get home a few more times lately! I miss my fam. Below are some random pictures from the adventures of the weekend!

 This little man turned TWO!:)

 The kiddos got their faces painted at the customer appreciation event! Here's A. :)

 And Drew.

 No smiles from Nash. ;)

 Bear is Superwoman!:)

 Goofy girl, goofy face!:)

 Jake and Homer!

 Me and Nasher on the Monster Truck!

 

 L wanted to test drive his dream Jeep, so we did! I had fun with pictures too;).

I really crack myself up. ;)

 Peyton sneaking in a creepy face at the end of our ride!;)

 Friends at the VFW!

 <3

 Mama had to work on Mother's Day morning, so Dad and I coped by having bloody's. ;)

  Then I hung out with family and had a delicious wine cooler:).

Here's me and mama on Mother's Day! Love you! :)

While I wasn't there, here's a pic of L doing his speech at UW-L's graduation! Stud. ;)

Weekend Full of Family!

Two weeks ago, I got the amazing chance to go home and do nothing but visit with family. 99.9% of the time, I am going home for an event or something, so it's rare that my entire weekend is spent soaking up time with all the fam. This was such a fantastic change of pace, I can't even describe it. Unfortunately, L was out of town so he wasn't able to join, but hopefully we'll get back there soon. I came into town on Friday night and went straight to my brother and Court's house to celebrate some birthdays! My nephew Nash had just turned 5, and my nephew Peyton was turning 14. Ahhhhh! Court's sister's son also had a birthday, there was tons of family and children everywhere. Always a blast! Probably the most exciting thing was meeting my new niece Theo Daisy and my new nephew Will David. My sister-in-laws had their new babies just days apart from each other, so there is so much baby excitement going on these days. Spending that much time with them pretty much convinced me it's time to have a baby...NOW. ;) That was a crazy night just catching up and enjoying time with everyone. The next day, my niece Lia had a volleyball tournament, so my mom and I spent a good chunk watching three of the younger kiddos that day. McDonald's adventures and all! :) Dave and Court both had to leave for a bit at one point, so believe it or not, I was in charge of all EIGHT kiddos on my own for a period of time. Thankfully, the older ones are super helpful at keeping the younger ones occupied, and I was able to mostly just hold baby Will the whole time. I couldn't get enough! Just stayed in that night, and then I bummed around on Sunday with my mom a bit before heading to a school play of some of the kiddos. Ended the weekend by popping over to Wausau and seeing my best friend Erin (long overdue) and going back to Madison. It was seriously a perfect weekend. Loved every minute of it and can't wait until I can go back again! Enjoy some photos from my family adventures:).

 Me and Theo! (Above and below.)

 So many kiddos!

 Me with 9 out of 10 of my nieces and nephews. Eeeee! (Theo was eating;).

 

 Me and Will!

 Me and Drew!

 I can't quite tell if Meg likes cake or not... ;)

 Me and Lia!

 Me and Nash!

 Me and T (and his big wad of gum;).

 Me and P! Can't believe he just turned 14!

 Cracks me up every time! Theo and Will sporting birthday hats:).

 Me and crazy Meg!

 Me and Austyn!

 Me and Homer! So sad it's blurry. :(

 More accurate representation of what it's like to try and get normal photos;).

 Day two with Rowdy (Drew)!

 Add Nasher into the mix!

 So serious;).

 That hat!

 Nasher seemed to enjoy the finger puppets I got him!:)

 Couldn't get enough of holding baby Will. Such a doll!

 

 

 Homer rockin' a sweet sweatshirt!:)

 The kids in their school play! 

Simple Sesame Noodles

Hi all. It's been awhile; I've missed you. In case you didn't know, I've been sick for over a week and haven't quite shaken it yet. When I sick, I don't mean just a little bug. I literally missed almost all last week at work, and I'm out today too. I have experienced just about everything you can imagine, from flu symptoms to weird shooting pains in my side and stomach, to the worst cough I've ever had. It has been utterly miserable. That, coupled with the fact that L had to move out of his apartment by this weekend, has taken a lot out of me. I "think" I might be on the mend now, at least from the throws of the nasty cough (bronchitis), and L is now all moved out (kinda weird to see his apartment empty again), so I figured this might be a good time to at least share a fun little recipe with you. Not exactly the most exciting thing to post about on my 'first day back,' but it's about all I've got for you at this point! Stay tuned, because in a couple weeks, I'll be able to post about my beautiful new niece Theo Daisy (meet her here), and my new niece or nephew from the other Smith clan. Can't wait!! I love welcoming new babies into the family! Anyway, the recipe I'll share with you is called Simple Sesame Noodles, and it's from none other than the Pioneer Woman herself. She's amazing. Check her out if you haven't already! The original recipe can be found here, but I followed it pretty much exactly, with the exception of one thing I didn't have, so you can just get it here too!

 All the ingredients!

Mince up a little garlic. You'll use that in a minute!

 Now you're going to start mixing most of the ingredients in a bowl. Start with soy sauce.

 Now add in some sugar.

 And some garlic.

 Now's a good time to throw your noodles into some boiling water.

 Add in the rice vinegar.

 And sesame oil.

 This is where you'd add in hot chili oil. I couldn't find any at the store, so I improvised and used a little olive oil and some hot sauce ('Da Bomb'), but you could probably omit this and it'd still be fine.

 

 Look at those noodles boil!

 Now add the canola oil.

 And whisk it all together.

 Drain those noodles.

 And toss 'em in a bowl.

Now dump the liquid mixture over top of the noodles.

 Mix it all up. The noodles should be well coated.

 Cut up some green onion for garnish.

 

 Top the noodles with the green onions and serve. Voila!

INGREDIENTS

• 12 ounces thin noodles, cooked and drained (I used spaghetti noodles; Asian style noodles would be best)
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp. rice vinegar
• 3 Tbsp. sesame oil
• 1/2 teaspoon hot chili oil (I didn't have this, so see how I improvised above; could do without this entirely)
• 4 Tbsp. canola oil
• 4 whole green onions, sliced thin

DIRECTIONS

• Cook noodles according to package instructions. 
• Whisk all ingredients (except noodles and green onions) together in a bowl. Taste and adjust ingredients as needed.
• Pour sauce over warm noodles and toss to coat.
• Sprinkle with green onions and toss.
• Serve in a bowl with chopsticks. Yummy!