A light and the end of the tunnel!!

Work has been SO busy lately, today I had one of my last big events of the semester and I am SO happy!!   Today was our Faculty Reception where each of our Greek organizations get to choose 2 faculty members to honor.  I have been doing this event for 10 years and this year's event was the best!  The students did a great job honoring their faculty members and the faculty members were so thankful and happy to be recognized. 
Here is a picture of all of the faculty that were honored today with the Greek Council scholarship chair that coordinated the event.

I got a special surprise when my 4 interns from this semester gave me an award!  That was so sweet of them!  I have had a great time with them this semester and they have all done SO much work in my office.  I am so grateful to have had them this semester!
Here is a picture of us at the reception

They also gave me these beautiful flowers today!  I think they are so pretty :)

Tonight I went with some friends to a wine tasting event that was held at a resturant in town.  We sampled 5 different wines and had 5 different dishes to go along with them.  I had never been to an event like this but it was really fun, I learned a lot about different types of wine.  This was a really fun event!
Here is a picture of my friends and I  at the Wine Tasting

Weekend update!!

This weekend went by soooo fast!!  I can't believe how fast weekends go.  I feel like all Graig and I do is drive Brock and Ava around to their activities, and try to run around and get stuff done that we don't get a chance to do during the week.

 Saturday Brock went to the Boys and Girls club all day to play basketball, he LOVES basketball!!  Saturday night he went to the skating rink and then he had 2 of his friends sleepover.  Ava went to a birthday party for her friend Maria.  I was able to do a little decorating for Christmas, I felt like it was a little early but since we are going away for Thanksgiving this year I wanted to get started working on it.  I still have a lot to do next weekend!

 I love these Christmas ornaments in our glass jars.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

Sunday-Ava had a birthday party for her friend Madelyn.  It was an American Girl theme and Ava said it was the BEST birthday party ever!  Sunday evening Ava went with me to work.  I was a judge for the Mr and Miss Oneonta pageant.  Ava LOVED all the attention that she got from the college students.  She had a great time and even took some pictures with the winners!

This picture was at the very end of the night and  Miss Oneonta had already changed out of her dress but she still took a picture with Ava, as you can tell Ava was thrilled!!

When we got home I had to make 8 dozen cookies for Ava's dance school.  Brock helped me because I was making his favorite cookies, no bakes!  I will post the recipe soon. It is so easy and the cookies are soooo good!!   He said for Christmas he wants me to make him a whole batch so he can eat them all by himself!

Have a good week!!

Sister Crafts

My sister Shelby and I are getting together for Thanksgiving and we want to do some cute craft projects together!  We are going to be together for 4 days during Thanksgiving and we want to do 4 craft projects.  The projects that we are going to make need to be small and light because I have to take them with me on the plane.  We will have easy access to a Hobby Lobby and Michaels so getting craft supplies together should be pretty easy and fun!!

We are each going to think of 2 crafts to make.  I am thinking of making tassels like the Nester makes and a swag garland like this.  But I want to make one using Christmas colors! 

I can't wait to see what crafts my sister picks out for us to do!!

TGIF!!!

I am SO happy that it's Friday!  This has been such a long week!  Graig was out of town for two days and work was CRAZY busy!  I am ready for a relaxing weekend.  Tonight after work I got my hair cut, I LOVE the way she cut it, I get it cut every 8 weeks and my next appointment isn't until 2010!

Tomorrow was suppose to be Brock's first 7th grade basketball game but the team his school was playing is closed due to illness so he doesn't have a game tomorrow.

 


Ava has cheerleading and ballet.  It's watch week so I get to watch her tomorrow during her ballet! 

This weekend Ava has two birthday parties to go to and I have to make 8 dozen cookies for Ava's dance school!  I also want to put away all of our fall stuff and start getting out our Christmas stuff!!  So we should have a fun weekend!

Chicken and Rice Casserole

I made this delicious Chicken and Rice casserole last night for dinner, it is great!!  I got it from Paula Dean on the Food Network site.  You can go here to get more great recipes from Food Network.  I LOVE Paula Dean but her dishes can be so fattening, I did make a few changes to this recipe to keep the calories and fat content a little lower, but I think my version came out just as good! 

photo from foodnetwork.com

Ingredients


2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, peeled and diced (everyone in my family besides me HATES onion so I left this out)
3 cups diced, cooked chicken ( I used 3 chicken breasts that I cooked in the crock pot)
2 (14 1/2-ounce) cans green beans, drained and rinsed
1 (10 3/4-ounce) can condensed cream of celery soup (I used cream of chicken soup)
1 cup mayonnaise ( I used 1/2 cup of light mayo and it worked fine)
1 (6-ounce) box long-grain wild rice, cooked according to package directions
1 cup grated sharp Cheddar
Pinch salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Heat butter or oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add onion and saute until translucent, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer to a large bowl.
Add all remaining ingredients to bowl and mix together until thoroughly combined.
Pour into a greased 3-quart casserole dish. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until bubbly. Let stand for a few minutes before serving

This was so good and a very easy weeknight meal, I will make this recipe again!

Watch Week!

This week is Watch Week at Ava's dance studio!  I got to watch 3 of her classes tonight, it was a lot of fun!  Her schedule for Mondays is Hip Hop, Tap and Lyrical.  Poor thing she goes from one class to the next she doesn't get a break in between her classes.  She is SO tired when she gets home on Monday nights! 
I did take some pictures of her tonight but they didn't turned out really dark so here are some pictures that I took of her last year during dance.

Ava with her dance teacher Jill right after the Christmas dance show

Ava with her friend Gracie before the end of year show in June

Beautiful Ballerinas!  Before the show last June

Ava with two friends at their dress rehersal in June!

I also get to watch her do Jazz on Friday night and Ballet on Saturday morning.  This should be a fun week!!

Sunday sneak peak

Today was a VERY productive day!  I LOVE days like that.  Brock was at a friends house, Ava spent the day with Grandma Jan and Graig was watching football at his friends house so I had the WHOLE house to myself!  I spent the day cleaning and organizing, it was fabulous!  I finally got to clean Ava's playroom in the attic, it has been a wreck for such a long time!  I also organized my craft area in the basement and took 2 naps!  I am still not 100% better from when I was sick and I get tired SO easily.  I took a nap this afternoon and another little one earlier this evening.  I am happy to finally be going back to work tomorrow!

Here's a sneak peak of a project that I started today, I hope to finish this project this week!

Happy Sunday!