Happy Halloween!!

Halloween is so much fun. Ever sine I was little my mom made such a big deal out of Halloween. She would decorate the house like it was a haunted house! I loved it.

Now, Mitch and I are starting our own traditions! Last year I helped out at the church, but this year sine I had to work late, I am staying at home passing out candy! I love to see all the little kids all dressed up!

Speaking of dressing up.. I cant remember the last time I dressed up for Halloween. But this year we had a costume contest at work, so I had to dress up and it was a lot of fun!
I have always wanted to be a 20's girl/flapper so I thought this was the perfect opportunity!

We had a lot of fun in the office today and all of our patients dressed up too, so it was like one big party all day!

This is some of my co-workers and I all dressed up!
Even Bella was in the Halloween spirt today with her Halloween bows :)

We are going to finish passing out candy then go to Outback for dinner! Mitchs last day of work is tomorrow for like 9 days!!! I wish that was my schedule!

On another note..guess what came in today?? Yes... my iphone 4s!!!
I thought it would never come. I have had so much trouble in the past with going to the Apple store and getting the new product, and them being out, so you just have to chance it every time you go. So I thought I was being smart by pre-ordering the new phone, but no. Not this time. I ordered it Oct 7 and am just now getting it! There were places all over Tulsa that had them the day of and didn't run out.
So this Wednesday on my day off, we are going to have to go get it activated with my new number. I am not looking forward to that :(

I hope y'all have a happy halloween and a great rest of the week!

OSU Homecoming!

Happy Sunday! 


This weekend has actually felt long and I have enjoyed every bit of it! Mitch and I both had a pretty stressful week at work, but had a fun weekend!!


Thursday, after work we headed to Tulsa! It is always a late trip going thursday night, but its so nice to get up Friday and be there. Friday morning, Mitch and I had some errands to get done and then I went and hung out with Natalie for a while. Its so good to see my friends when I'm back home, but also hard to see everyone! I wish we could have stayed longer.


That afternoon, we headed to Stillwater for OSU homecoming! I have been going ever since before I can remember... literally! My mom and grandma were telling stories this weekend about how when I was just a baby they would dress me in osu stuff and take me to homecoming and the parade! I just love it and will def keep it a family tradition! We didn't get to go to the game this year, but hopefully we will go to some next year. We tried to find tickets a few months ago, but they are soooo expensive! So instead we are going to the AR game this weekend! I can't wait wait- I always love going to razorback games! 


We went and ate at Mexico Joes with my grandparents and it was so good! We had been doing paleo all week, so it was our first big meal. It was good, but we did both feel pretty sick afterwards.
Then we headed to the walkaround. All the sorority and frat houses make house decs and they have been working on the since the beginning of school and they are incredible! 

They make them out of chicken wire and tissue paper... crazy!

This was Mitch favorite!! ha Also, my fried told me Garth was there, so Mitch was on the lookout the whole night. We were one of the unlucky ones who didn't seem to spot him :(

That was my favorite... it was so detailed! Amazing!

We had a great time and to top it off they beat Baylor.. more liked killed them ha!! It was a great game!

Saturday, my mom and I got up and went shopping while Mitch and my dad stayed home and watched football and listened to the AR game. It was an ugly game, but they somehow pulled it off.

We headed back t bentonville saturday afternoon just so we could get some stuff done around the house and Mitch had to work Sunday. 

When we got home Saturday afternoon, I went and got my halloween costume! We are having a costume contest at work. I am really excited, I love to dress up! I will post pics tomorrow :)

Today, Mitch had to work, so I stayed home with Bella. It was so nice to have nothing planned and just relax! I went to Fayetteville to have lunch with Mitch, then took Bella to the groomer. She was there for about 2 hours, so I ran some errands and stocked up on candy for the trick-or-treaters tomorrow night!

When I picked up Bella, they had put big halloween bows in her hair and she looked so cute! I will try ad get some pics and post them tomorrow. 

Tonight for dinner I made Bison Chili and I was kind of iffy about how it would taste, but we loved it. It turned out great. Here is the recipe...

Bison Chili

1 tbsp coconut oil
1/2 C chopped onions
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 C chopped celery
1 C chopped bell pepper
1 1/2 lb Elk, buffalo, or grass fed beef
2 tsp thyme leaves
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp sea salt
1 8 oz can tomatoes
1 12 oz jar of salsa
1 15 oz can of kidney beans

In a dutch oven or crockpot on medium high melt oil and saute onions, garlic, celery and pepper for about 5 minutes. Add ground meat and spices stirring frequently for 5-10 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for a minimum of 1hour.

Its so easy and so delicious! Highly recommend you make it :)


Thats it for tonight! Have a safe and happy halloween tomorrow!! 

Paleo Post

So I promised to do a paleo post so here it is. It may be a little lengthy, so sorry in advance, but I have had a few friends asking about it and its always nice to share recipes!

Ever since I started my job back in Feb. I have been around Paleo. I always thought it was crazy and that I could never do it. I mean I LOVE food! But over the past year, I have talked with my boss and she has given me a lot of tips to help get into it. Also, my sil, Michelle has been doing it for a while now, and loves it.

So over the past 2 months,  Mitch and I have slowly started to add it into our diet. The first tip that I was given was to not eliminate the things you love becasue the process will be so much harder. This is not suppose to be a diet, but more of a lifestlye. So it is a long process and to cut the things you love out first will be like any other diet and you will be miserable and give in.  It took my bosses over 8 years and they are still working with it. So thats what we have been doing and I have actually found that a lot of the paleo stuff has really stuck in our diet. We have never been very strict, but a lot more paleo foods are still in our diet today than I would of thought.

So last week, we decided to start a challenge and eat only paleo! This will be a little harder ha, but we both are pretty determind. We will start out having cheat days, just so we do not get burned out on it. I think one reason we are so excited and motivated is that we have seen it work in people we know, so it makes it easier to follow. We have stuck firm to it this whole week, but this wekend since we are going to Stillwater for OSU homecoming, we will start out with a cheat wekeend. That way we can reward ourselves for this past week.

This lifestlye could be super hard if you do not know how to eat paleo the right way. You have to have variety and you MUST plan out everything for the week! If you don't you will go to what is convientant and that usually isnt paleo. That is the hardest thing about this, its not the food you can or cannot have, becasue you can make some pretty awesome meals/snacks, but you must plan ahead and prepare, If you do not have a meal planned or snacks for work planned, you will grab whatevers easiest.  Paleo is very inconvienant, theres really no other way to put it! Also, some of the ingredients are very unfamilar, so you just have to be open and go find them.

If you are trying to lose weight, or just be healthy, I hightly recommend you try it. Just start out slow like we did and add it into your diet, but don't take anything you love out. You will soon notice a change in what you want to eat. Trust me, it took forever to convience me of this, but I promise if you start slow it changes you.

Meals are a little difficult to find and it does take some research. We planned out everything for the whole week, breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks so we do not have an excuse not to eat it. The weeks have been easy for us so far becasue we do have everything planned, but it is the weekends we travel that will be more difficult, which is why we are starting out with cheat days. And you also have to rememebr not to feel guilty about your cheat days. There are there for you to enjoy and reward yourself.  

Another big thing you MUST do it you want to be effective is clean out your panrty. That was the hardest part, so Mitch did it one day while I was at work ha :) Here are some before and after pics of our panrty...

All the non-paleo food to get rid of...

What was left....

Mitch sent me this last picture and said " who knew we had so much paleo stuff already" haha!

Pretty crazy, but it works. I know for a fact that if I was to see something I wasnt suppose to eat in the pantry it would make me want it is much more and I would prob just eat it. So not having it anywhere in your house is the best way! Then go stock up on healthy food! Our fridge is always packed now, becasue we buy everything fresh.. as you can see we are only using one ( not really even one) shelf in our pantry.

We are getting all certified organic, grassfeed meat from a guy in MO. He supplies all the meat at Ozark Natural Foods (for a very high price), but also my bosses get all thier meat from him as well. So every couple of weeks he delivers all the meat here to our office at a very resonable price! Also, in the summers, he is at the Bentonville Famers Market selling it.

This is such a great lifestlye to have and it is not something either Mitch and I always want to be super strict on, but this challenge will be fun and hopefully when its over we will willingly want to keep about a 80% paleo lifestlye. We want to enjoy what we love, but just overall eat whats good for you. If you have never heard of paleo and want to know more about what its all about ... look it up. There is a lot of stuff out there on it and it is basically eating what the hunters and gathers ate. If you really reasearch it, they had no health problems, no obesity and were so healthy. Well all they ate was what they could kill or grow. So thats what paleo is. Its really pretty interesting!

Well now that I have been rambling about paleo and our challenge we are doing, I have some recipes we made this week. The first week is always hard. We had some trial and error recipes, but for the most part we like it all. 

These are some of the good ones we tried out this week..

Sweet potato hash

Eggs with avocado and salsa

Almond Crusted Salmon

Pork Loin

Coconut Chicken

This weekend we are going to make bison chili and garlic crock pot chicken. I got both of these recipes from my boss and if they turn out good I will post the recipes soon! Also, my boss has a blog of all her recipes, so Click Here to check it out! You can find some really good recipes! 

We made a smoothie the other night from her blog, and it was okay :) I think we are just so use to the sweet sweet smoothies and this will take some time to get use to. But I was surprised we both liked it.

Orange Peach Smoothie

2 peaches

1 peeled orange

almond milk

ice

handful of spinach

*blend it all together and enjoy! 

I was thrown off by the spinach at first, I hate spinach, but you really can't taste it at all. 

I guess we didn't mind the taste too much...

I hope you enjoyed this. I know it was probably really boring, but I challenge you to give it a try. Its hard to get going, but once you get into a routine, it gets easier! My sil had been doing it for several months and has done 2 of the paleo challenges and it has changed her eating habits tremendesly. Its always nice to have someone that you know that has been doing it, or is doing it with you for support!

On a complete different note... we are headed to Tulsa today and then Stillwater tomorrow! I love OSU homecoming and it has been a family tradition ever since I can remember. We always spend the weekend down there with my grandparents and it is so much fun! Go Pokes!

Fun Weekend

Monday is over... well almost! I don't know what it is about Monday's, but I just can't ever prepare myself for them. I am always glad when Monday's are over... my week seems to go by a little but faster.

This past weekend was fun, but took it out of me. I have been busy the past three weekends so I haven't been able to sleep in any and getting up at 5:30 every day during the week was catching up to me. It was one of those weekends where I had so much fun, but when I look back it is like a blur. It feels like we have so much going on, and I don't think it helps to know that for the next several weekends we are super busy. I just looked at my calendar today and we do not have a free weekend where we aren't traveling or having guests over until January! It wears me out just thinking about it ha :)

But a little more about our fun weekend...
Friday Mitch and I both had to work. I usually don't work on Fridays, I can go in if I want, but these past few Fridays I have been so busy! That evening for dinner, we went out with Mitch's parents and grandma to Bone Fish, which is always good.
Michelle and Will got in town Friday night, so we all stayed up late visiting. Saturday morning, Will got up and went and rode while Mitch, Michelle and I headed to crossfit. We had a crazy hard workout, but were able to work in teams, and Michelle and I killed it! I am still suffering today, but it was a lot of fun.

We got home about 11 and had one hour to get everything ready.. it was Peanut's 2nd Birthday Party! Yes.. we had a birthday for Peanut. She is a part of the family and well it gave us a reason to celebrate! We had the AR game on, Mitch cooked out burgers, and we had more snacks and dips than we could eat!
And yes, of course we had to have snacks for the dogs too...

Michelle and I made goodie bags with all kinds of treat and I found the cutest idea online for dog bone treats...

You buy the large milk bones and dip one half in plain yogurt and then cover them in sprinkles and tie a ribbon around them.

Didn't they turn out so cute?? We had to clear out my whole freezer to make them ha :)

And here is the birthday girl and all the guests getting ready to enjoy their bones!

It was a lot of fun and I think the dogs liked it too :) Overall we had 14 people and 7 dogs over that day. Crazy!
Saturday after the game, Michelle and I went shopping, and of course stuff for Christmas!! I can't wait to start decorating the house!

Sunday was a very special day, Mitch's grandma got baptized! Mitch had to work and was really sad about missing it, but we have lots of pics! We are all so happy for her!

Sunday afternoon, Will and Michelle headed back home, and then I was out! I was so worn out I took a 2 hour nap and could of slept a lot longer.

Tonight we are relaxing and watching the world series. I usually like baseball, but for some reason I just didn't get into it this season. But I am still cheering on the Cards. I have been raised a cardinals fan... my dad and brother love the cardinals and go up to st louis once a year for some games. We are hoping they pull it out tonight!

Since Mitch and I have started crossfit, we have also picked up the paleo diet. I was first introduced to it when I started my job last Feb. My bosses live by it and then several months ago when Michelle started crossfit, she went on it and now she loves it. Mitch and I have slowly incorporated paleo ideas in our meals over the past few months, but never were that strict to where thats the only thing we ate. Well we are going all out this time and are really excited about it. I will do a post more about what it is soon and share some really yummy recipes we have already made! It can be super hard if you dont plan and find good meals with variety. You have to get creative, because you are not allowed to eat so many things. A post about that to come!

Have a terrific Tuesday!

Birthdays and Craft fairs!!

I hope y'all had a wonderful weekend. We have had a busy, but good week! It seems like this time if year there is always so much going on, but its all fun stuff!!

Last week, Mitch and I both worked more than usual, so it seemed like a really long week. Monday night we celebrated Mitch's mom birthday.... and of course that involved a Rick's cake :)

It was so cute, and Mitch picked it out all by himself! It had pumpkins all over it :)
Michelle also had a birthday last week! Happy Birthday!

This weekend was one of my favorite weekends in nwa! Craft Fairs!!! I looked forward to it all week, and I think thats why my week went by so slow.
Friday I had to work and event in the morning, then my mom got in town that afternoon. We just spent the day relaxing and then when Mitch got off work, we took her too our favorite sushi place!

Saturday, Mitch left early for work, I know he didnt want to work, but I think he would gladly work instead of going to craft fairs. ha He calls then the crap fairs. I find it really funny until he wants me to bring him back all the yummy snacks :)
My mom and I went with Michelle, her sister and her mom and started at 8:00! We went to the Embassy one first and it was so good! I could have spent a lot of money! They had some really cute stuff and some yummy food!

That afternoon, we went out to the bella vista one and it was not so good. I did get some of the BEST sweet tea I have ever had!! We enjoyed all the food out there and it is always such a fun atmosphere, but they had, as Mitch would say, a  lot of "crap" ha!
I did come back with some fun stuff...

A cute red headband/ear warmers! It will be perfect when we go to the razorback game in a few weeks!

This is the best potpourri! And it looks cute..It is all little pumpkins! I love having this in the house and I needed a refill bad, so it worked out perfect. You could smell it all over the hotel!

This was the yummy food I got. The first one is Hog Wild Dip mix and it is so good. We sampled it and I just had to buy some! I wasn't thinking and I should of bought more!! The second is Cheesy Enchilada Soup. There are a couple of guys from Louisiana that make it and we sampled it last year and I fell in love. I didn't get any last year, and really regretted it, so this year, I was for sure to get some! I am making it wednesday, because the high is only 50! And last but not least, kettle corn. You cannot go to the craft fairs and not get kettle corn. Its the best!

It was a long day, but well worth it. My mom headed back saturday night and Bell and I watched to OSU game and then played outside all evening!

Today, we went to church, crossfit and took a nap. We had  HARD workout today and were both so worn out. We were suppose to go see Footloose this afternoon, but a nap just sounded so much better. I have been dying to see it, so we will have to go one night this week.
This evening we took Bella to the dog park and it was packed!! There were well over 30 dogs and she had a blast. There were 3 huge great danes there that kept her entertained :)

We were there for over an hour and now she is out and I'm sure will sleep great tonight!
She got so dirty being out there so we had to giver her a bath tonight..that is always a process :)

This next week, we have a lot going on. We have our last warm day tomorrow, then we drop in the the 50's and 60's for good. I am excited for the cooler weather, but def not ready for cold. We are going to try and play golf Wednesday and also we are going to the pumpkin patch!

I have some yummy recipes to share, bbut those will just have to wait. I will do a post on them soon.
Have a great week!

Our time in Tulsa

I hope y'all have had a good weekend! We made a little trip to Tulsa and it was so nice to be back. I had not been home since August and I was ready :)

It was a great week for college football!! The cowboys killed kansas and the razorbacks beat auburn!! We were excited, so I thought I would mention it :)

Last Thursday after I got off work, I went to the crossfit workout thinking I would be home a little before Mitch, then we could head to Tulsa that night. I ended up getting out of crossfit late, so we weren't even ready to leave until about 8:45 that night. So not only did we get a late start, but we got through Springdale ad I realized I forgot my contacts, of course it was the one thing I couldn't buy, so we had to go back and get them. So we ended up getting into Tulsa about midnight and went straight to sleep. Mitch and I both had a rough week at work, so we were exhausted!

Friday we got up and went and had lunch with my friend, Natalie at Genghis Grill. It is fairly new to Tulsa and every time we got back I want to try it but we never do. After that we went and did a little shopping. I got a new osu shirt and natalie got me a new osu sticker for my car!!

That night we went out with my parents to a new mexican restaurant and just hung out. Saturday Mitch and I got up early and went and played golf. We played a course called Bailey Ranch and it was a lot of fun!!

After golf, we headed to the fair!! I just love the fair and have to go at least once when its in town. Mitch and I always get way to much.. but hey it only comes once a year and we have to enjoy it :)
That evening was the Jenks homecoming dance, we went and watched my brother take pictures.
This is a horrible picture of me, you can tell I had been out outside playing golf and at the fair all day... but they looked good :)

Later that night, we ended up having dinner with Peter and Libby and hanging out with them for a while. This morning we got up and headed home. And we spent the rest of the day at the AT&T store... literally! I was wanting to pre-order the new iphone but we also are trying to start our own plan. So our first stop was the at&t store in Tulsa, then we went twice in Bentonville, and were there for almost 2 hours. It was the biggest ordeal just to get started on our own plan. And to make things worse, we walked out of there with nothing changed. I have to wait until I get my new phone, then we can transfer over to our own plan. They also told me I have to get a new number :( That is always a pain changing your phone number, but it was either Mitch or I and since we are living and working in AR, we thought it was best for me to change mine to a 479 number. So in a few weeks, I will have to memorize a new number :(

Tonight we are relaxing and watching Green Bay play! They haven't lost yet, but this game isn't going so great right now! Go Packers!

I have a few yummy recipes to leave you with...
The first is Taco Salad, but not your typical taco salad. My friend at work gave me the recipe and it was really good!!

2lbs hamburger meat ( I used 1lb and a can of refried beans)
1 family size can cream of mushroom soup
2 cans rotel
Cheddar Cheese
Lettuce & Tomatoes
1 or 2 cans black olives
Tortilla Chips

Fry up hamburger meat and salt and pepper to taste. Drain meat. Stir in cream of mushroom soup, rotel and olives and continue to heat. You can add milk if you need to thin it out a bit.
Put chips in a 9x13 dish and pour mixture over chips. Cover with cheddar cheese and bake 15 min at 350 degrees. Take out and cover with lettuce and tomatoes.


The next one isn't really a recipe, it is just a box mix, but they actually turned out really good!!! I love pumpkin stuff and have been wanting to make pumpkin bread for weeks now. I was at the store a few weeks ago and saw just a box mix for pumpkin bread, so I thought it would be easy.
When I started making them, I realized I didn't have the right sized bread pan. So I decided to make muffins out if them since I already had the mixture together.

Thy turned out so good! I think I ate the majority of them myself. They went perfect with my pumpkin spice latte I have every morning ha! So if you need a quick and easy pumpkin recipe.. it is just a Pillsbury mix from walmart.

Have a great week!!

D-now, crossfit and crafts!!

Tomorrow is Wednesday! I hope y'all have had a good start to your week. This past weekend was so nice since Mitch and I were both off, I did not want Monday to come. 

We had a nice long weekend filled with football and d-now! Saturday after the game, which was amazing!! I cold not belive we won!! We watched the whole thing and we were so glad it got better, or  that was going to be a long, painful game to watch!  Anyway, after the game, we headed back up to the church to help out with d-now. We stayed for the evening service and I am so glad we did. They had the same speaker, Ed Newton, as last year and I really liked him, so we got to hear him again! 

Sunday, of course, he spoke again and it was amazing. We also baptized over 20 students!! That service was such a blessing to be a part of. Every dnow they always show a video of the weekend and guess who made the video... yes, Bella ha!! Here is the video, I am sure you can pick her out :)

Sunday after church, we had our last crossfit on-ramp training class! I was so excited to finish, but also a little nervous to start the real classes. Mitch works Mon-Thurs this week, so I have to go to all of them by myself this first week and all I have to say is it is one of the most intimidating things I have ever done! 

I went monday to the first one and it was tough, but not horrible. Now todays workout was another story. I honestly don't know how I am even typing this right now ha! 

Crossfit was started by ex-marines and service men, and the owner and most of the trianers at the nwa crossfit are retired police, firemen, etc. So needles to say they are pretty intense. Well, crossfit is all about people who fought in the service. They had army, marines, etc stuff everywhere! One thing that I love is they have a wall of heros and it has pictures of tons of heros that lost their life serving for our country, and every so often they do what is called a "Hero Workout". They have named workouts after these men and they take down the picture and before the workout we read about him ad then pray for his family. Then we do the workout that is named after him. Now since these are "hero workouts" they are 10x harder than a normal workout and take 10x as long! Well I got lucky, and on my second day they decided to do one. It is so motivating and makes you want to work so hard for them, but it kick my butt!!! This is a picture of inside our gym..

Because the workout was so hard, they are having a rest day tomorrow and closing the gym, and I have never been happier! I can barley move now, so I can only imagine what tomorrow is going to be like! Here is the link if ya'll are in the nwa area and want to check it out.. I highly recommend it. Best workout and experience.. I am so glad I get to be a part of it. Crossfit NWA

On a different note, look at this cute craft I made this weekend...

I saw one of my friends, Sam, had made one and I thought it was so cute and really easy. I also now have all my fall decor out! I love it! 

Have a wonderful rest of the week!!!

October is here!!!

Well I know I just blogged last night about what we have been up too, but I just thought I would say....

October is my favorite month and I am so excited for all the fun things we have planned this October!
Next weekend we are headed to Tulsa for the fair, the following weekend Michelle is coming in town for the craft fairs and then later in the month we are going to Stillwater for OSU homecoming! Also, Mitch surprised me and told me to pick a weekend and he wants to take be to Branson for shopping and golf! So we are trying to find a weekend we have free :)

I have always loved summertime and still do, but as I have gotten older, I have really come to love the fall!
One of my favorite times during school to come back and visit Bentonville with Mitch was in the fall. The weather is perfect, the trees are so pretty and I can't forget the craft fairs!

October is a month of football, starbucks, craft fairs, running, pumpkins, halloween, candy corns and I could probably go on forever... but who doesn't love these things!

We are getting ready to grill out steaks and are counting down until kick-off! Go Razorbacks!

Have a wonderful Saturday and Happy October!