Fantasy of Lights

We visited Evansville's Fantasy of Lights this past Saturday. It was a very cute display of lights (61 "scenes" to be exact) and definitely worth the donation to a great cause! Here are a few pictures of some of our favorite displays. (My camera didn't do very well at all on some of them.)

You can't really tell, but the dragon is actually in a pond. 

The Farm

Santa playing the piano....yea, the windshield needs to be washed. 

Santa throwing a baseball and a kid hitting it....so neat! 

Santa playing basketball.....the ball actually goes through the hoop

One of my favorites...Cinderella's castle. If you look closely there is another display where a guy is proposing with a large ring...so cute! 

The End! 

We head to KC this week for our marathon Christmas! We're pretty excited to go back and can't wait to see all our family. I'm sure we'll have tons of pictures from our 5...yes 5!, dinners.

While i'm off this week, I have to take the Praxis exam for my IN certification......and that's pretty much it! I'll be at the gym every day and will be getting everything together for our trip which includes laundry and finishing up wrapping our last few gifts. It really will be pretty relaxing....at least I hope I don't go crazy with not a whole lot to do!

Bo is a little under the weather, unfortunately. Last Thursday (on a snow day) I noticed that he wasn't up and moving around as much as normal, but I kinda figured that was because during any normal day, he pretty much lays around. But then this weekend, we noticed that it didn't go away--he continued to lay around, didn't want to play, isn't eating as much and really had trouble seeing where things were. Early this morning when he woke me up wincing in pain, I decided to make a call to the vet and they were able to get him in right away. Even they noticed that he wasn't being himself. The vet said that he has some pretty tight muscles in his shoulders and probably just strained them somehow. He gave us some medicine to give Bo and said that if it didn't help by Wednesday to come back in and we'll try something else. He said that if after about 10 days, nothing is working, it could mean that Bo has some arthritis. So, we're saying our prayers that the medicine works very quickly.

Poor guy.....getting some rest.

Happy Monday! 

Another great recipe!

I think that i've already mentioned that my mom and I started making Christmas candy when I was in junior high. It's become a yearly tradition that we really enjoy together. Last year, we added something new: Sugared Pecans, and they were a huge hit! I decided to make some yesterday on our day off of school and wanted to share. Last year we made 2 pounds, but this year I doubled it to 4 so that Johnny could have plenty of what he calls "heaven in a nut". :-)

The recipe is SUPER easy and pretty quick.....

Ingredients:
1 egg white
1lb pecans (4 cups)
1t salt
1t water
1c sugar
1t cinnamon

Directions:
1. Combine egg white and water. Beat until stiff.
2. Add pecans, coating them with the egg mixture.
3. Add sugar, salt, and cinnamon, coating well.
4. Place on cookie sheet and bake at 300 degrees for 25 min. (Stir after 15 min. & move cookie sheet to top rack.)
5. Let cool and enjoy!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!!

Here is a view of what we got in Evansville this past weekend. This caused us to have no school on Monday and a 2 hour late-start on Tuesday. I am not a fan of snow days since they get added on at the end of the year, but what can ya do?

Bo in the back yard

Our back yard

Looking out our front door

Last night and into this morning, we were lucky enough to get some freezing rain and sleet. This means that we were out of school again today which is really bad since finals are this week. And now, we have to make up the finals we missed today, in Jan....and students are VERY excited about this!

Biggest Loser Update: I am down another pound (which makes 2 total) and my blood pressure is consistent. I have started working out for an hour (as opposed to 30 min) as many days out of the week as I can (as opposed to only 3). And I feel great.....finally I am starting to feel results! :-) I'm not really eating many sweets still, though I do give way to the craving every now and then. But now when I have a sweet, it isn't everyday and it isn't 3 or 4 cookies, but 1. Having the "control" over what I eat again, is an awesome feeling.

Johnny's boss from Minneapolis is visiting him this week to check out a few of the projects that Southern Indiana is working on. This means a few late nights, but nothing that a relaxing weekend can't fix. At least, we're planning a relaxing weekend, but that somehow always seems to change!

We've added some new decorations to our home. I had gotten a piece of a Christmas Village from my Aunt Kay when I got my first apartment. I hadn't added to it until recently. Johnny and were at Kohl's and decided that since they were 50% off, we had to get more pieces. We'd like to find a better place to put the village, but this will do for now.

L-R: A Brewery, A Pizza Place and Movie Theater.....what more do you need in a village really?? 



I've also recently made sugar cookies! One of my best friend's (Jessica Herbel) mom make some of the best sugar cookies! She usually makes about 20 dozen or so, yes 20!, for the holiday season, from scratch. One weekend when Jess, Amiee and I were all home from college, we spent some time at Jess' house. And of course, while we were there, Toni (Jess' mom) was making some of her holiday treats. We tried to make it look like we were helping out of course, but in all reality we were only eating the cookies.

This gives you an idea of the amount of cookies that Toni makes. This bar/counter is covered in cookies....if you look far enough back, you can see some of the green ones. From this day forward Toni was nicknamed "The Machine". But oh my gosh, the cookies are so good!! She makes the icing too.

Jess is probably going to kill me for this, but this is our "staged attempt" at helping out. Jess is "making" cinnamon rolls, which are oh so good too! (Notice the flour on her face from "working" so hard) :-)

This year I thought I would try my hand at making Toni's famous sugar cookies. She gave me the recipe, pans and cookie cutters at my wedding shower, so I put them to use. Unfortunately the cutters are at my mom's, so I had to use a cup instead. The cookies didn't turn out half bad. The recipe for both the cookie and icing are incredibly easy and Johnny ate some of the cookies, so they can't be that bad. They are just never the same though. I think that Toni's cookies will only taste as good if she makes them and I'm eating them at her house while Jess and I watch Dumb and Dumber or some other stupid movie that makes our stomach hurt from laughing so hard.. Makes you really miss those days of lounging and doing nothing productive with a best friend. But, hopefully sometime soon i'll get to hang out at the Shrewsbury house again and eat all of Toni's food!

This is a mess I did actually make. It isn't staged whatsoever. :-) 

The final product!

And of course, I can't write about making something without sharing the recipe, so here you go....Toni, I hope you don't mind! :-)

Soft Sugar Cookies

4 c flour

1tsp baking soda

1tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

3/4 tsp nutmeg

1 c butter

2 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup cream (half and half or just milk)

Mix flour with the next 4 ingredients. In a separate bowl, cream butter with sugar. Stir in vanilla and beat in eggs. Add flour mixture alternately with cream to butter and sugar mixture. Roll out dough 1/4" thick (flour will help with the stickiness). Cut and put on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes. 

Icing: 1T or a little more of butter or margarine (melted). Add powdered sugar and stir. Then use milk to get it to a spreadable consistency. Use whatever food coloring you would like. 

The Magic Tree

One thing on our holiday checklist this year is to see Evansville's Fantasy of Lights. The Fantasy of Lights is a holiday light show that benefits area children and adults with disabilities. It is a drive through event that features a mile of lights with over 60 "fantasyland" scenes. You can drive through it in your car or take a carriage ride. We've seen it advertised on TV and are really excited to go. My students have even said it is excellent! And you know that if a high schooler says it is cool, it must really be cool. I'm sure I will have many pictures to post!

Thinking about lights, brings back a great holiday memory of going to see The Magic Tree in Columbia. I am posting this to reminisce as well as for my friend Selena who just moved to Columbia. (Selena, you must see this!)

The magic tree is an actual tree, where every single branch is wrapped in lights. This year there are 37, 500!! It is simply, amazing! Anyone who lives in or near Columbia, has to take time to see it. It is done by a single man, who starts wrapping the tree in the early fall. It used to be at his home (i'm pretty sure) but has recently moved the location to another tree because of the overwhelming crowds and insufficient parking/driving room. It doesn't cost anything to go, but donations are gladly accepted for the light bill. Here are a few pictures of my friend Sam and I when we went to visit the tree right before I moved away. (The pictures, just don't do it justice though and you can hardly see Sam and I, but you get the idea.) It was definitely magical, especially because it had just started snowing when we got there. And of course, we have to thank Chris, who so graciously took us! I'm sure that he's very glad I'm out of Columbia since he carted us girls pretty much everywhere we wanted to go. (Including shopping in 17 inches of snow-but that is a whole other post entirely!)

There is also a website for The Magic Tree where you can read about the history of it and view more pictures of much better quality.

http://www.magic-tree.org/ 

Here is a link to a video about the creator and the process of putting the lights on the tree. (Also found on the website listed above.)

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD2AbqzRuAI&feature=player_embedded

Hope you enjoy!

Christmas Shopping Damage

To all Barrett Christmas present recipients:
Don't worry, you can't make out what you are getting. All presents are nicely hidden..... :-)

Presents wrapped and ready to be delivered. 

Needless to say, the car was pretty packed and Johnny was speechless. To us that is a successful shopping trip! :-)

Samantha Comes to Visit!

One of my best friends, Samanta, came to visit us this past weekend. And man, did we have so much fun! She got in around 6 on Friday; we had dinner shortly after then stayed up until about 1am catching up. We also bought tickets to see Kenny Chesney, Billy Currington, Uncle Kracker and Zac Brown Band at Arrowhead Stadium next July--can't wait!!!

Saturday morning we got up bright and early and headed to the crowded shops to shop for Christmas gifts. And when I mean crowded---I mean CROWDED....you couldn't walk through the mall without dodging someone and the parking lots/roads were a zoo. But it was definitely worth it. We got some great deals, practiced a lot of self control (or at least tried) and really enjoyed just hanging out with each other.

While we were out shopping Johnny bought Black Ops and had dinner ready for us when we got home around 7. After dinner Sam and I proceeded upstairs (to give Johnny the big TV to play black ops on) and wrapped presents while watching Christmas movies: Four Christmases & The Family Stone. We also tried out a new ice cream (Breyers Black Velvet-or something like that--but it was awesome!). I know I have a no sweets rule, but it wouldn't have been a visit from Sam without ice cream. Her and I are both dessert freaks, and it just wouldn't have been "right". lol.....plus rules are made to be broken right?! It was another late night, but very successful. Our Christmas shopping is now complete, minus 2 small items. We're just waiting for online orders to arrive at our front step.

 One of the items I bought was a stocking for Bo. Yep, we are one of those families...lol.....and it was just too cute to not post a picture. To put in his stocking I bought him another duck (just much larger than his current one) and 2 bags of jumbo marsmallows (the only treat he can have because of his allergies). The marshmallows couldn't fit in the stocking and we didn't want them in there anyway because of the fireplace--what a mess it would be!

Sam had to leave early on Sunday after breakfast and we were pretty sad to see her go. It was such a fun time and we hadn't gotten to hang out like that since we were roommates in college probably. I hope we get to do it again shortly!

 Bo missing his buddy Sam! He watched her drive away and then just kept staring into space...it was so cute!

Sunday was a very relaxing day as Johnny and I were able to hang out on the couch all day and get caught up on work. I was also able to finish our Christmas cards which had been lingering over my head for days. It was really nice to be fully refreshed for work on Monday.

I've had some success with cutting out sweets! Since the biggest loser competition at school started, i've gotten even better at not wanting sweets/dessert. At our second weigh in, I dropped a pound (not much but at least I didn't gain) and had gone way down in blood pressure (I think it was messed up the first time because I am never high on my blood pressure). My goal is to go down 2 more pounds at this week's weigh in. I've "up-ed" my cardio to an hour versus 30 min....and man, i'm feeling it! Hopefully the weight will just start falling off now! :-)

Johnny's been extremely busy at work due to some complications at one of the plants. But he thinks it is resolved so hopefully he'll be getting home a little earlier. He is also very busy getting his documents in order for his Egypt trip in January. We're both getting very excited for that trip-it's such a great opportunity! He will have such an amazing time.

We are headed to KC this weekend to do a couple of things. Johnny will be helping my brother install laminate wood flooring at my mom's house and I will be making Christmas candy. There will be lots of pictures for sure!

(More pictures to come of the shopping "damage" and wrapped gifts under the tree!)

Tis the Season!

Pictures of our home all ready for Christmas! (Only a day later than I said I would have them up.)

Fireplace (obviously....lol) 

Bonus room upstairs

My Santa from when I was a baby. :-)

Kitchen counter

Snowmen....the snowman on the right is actually two light globes put together....so neat! It was given to us at our Christmas wedding shower last December.

Dining room table....another centerpiece given to us at our Christmas shower.

Our tree. This thing is massive, but we love it!! And I made the bow myself. The bow needs some work, but it will do for now.

Putting away the ornament boxes.

We still have a lot more that we can do as far as decorating, but we're taking it pretty easy this year. Johnny wants to put up outside lights still, but i've decided to wait a year before buying more decorations for the inside.

Happy Holidays Everyone!!!