Stuffed Crescent Rolls

This week, I picked four recipes off of Pinterest to give a try. As given away by the title, the first of which is stuffed crescent rolls.

I do not know the exact amount of chicken I used as we had extras, and I forgot to keep count. :/
I started out by cooking the chicken in the slow cooker long enough to shred easily. Once shredded, I added in a mixture of 1 package of cream cheese, oregano, and diced garlic. After you mix that all up, let it warm up in the slow cooker and prepare your crescent rolls. I unrolled them and laid them on parchment paper. Next, I placed a bit of the chicken mixture in the widest part of the dough. Then, I rolled them up and baked them.

They were a pretty big hit with my Prince. He devoured nearly all of them and took the rest to work. It makes me incredibly happy when he enjoys a creation. I have two more dinner recipes and a desert one to try next. My prince is in for a treat, before grocery shopping next week, he gets to pick the recipes we try. :D

~Belle

Homemade Butterfingers

So, I decided to tackle a pin I have had saved for well over a year. It just so happened to be a homemade version of one of Prince Charmings favorite candies. 

It started out easy enough. Emptied two 8 oz packages of candy corn into a microwavable bowl. Microwave it on high for thirty seconds then stir. Keep microwaving and stirring every thirty seconds till it is melted. Once it is melted, you stir in 16 oz of creamy peanut butter with the candy corn. When you have it all stirred together. Line a pan with parchment paper, then fill the pan with the mixture. Place the pan in the fridge and let the mixture cool. Next, melt a package of melting chocolate until it is just barely thicker then water. Finally pour the chocolate over the cut up peices of mixture. Once you let that cool and harden you have a load of little butterfinger peices. 

There were quite a few more peices before I got the photo. :) I think next time I will be cutting them into thick strips like the regular candy bars. But at least my Prince enjoyed them. I made them on Saturday and they are already gone. 

Since this was such a big success, I plan on tackling quite a few more recipes soon! 

I promise to write again soon

~Belle

And...We are a go!!

And the tickets are booked!!! We finally booked our tickets to see all my CA family!

After the blog post, Stress and Other Joyus Things, I was really able to take a step back and look at everything clearly. Since then, things really took off. I received the raise and title change I had been waiting on for about eight weeks. And with said raise, I also received a nice back pay check. Thus, making it possible for us to purchase the airline tickets to California! Then, after some much needed re-evaluation of our financials, I realized how totally okay we will be even through those unexpected issues! 

About two weeks after that financial peace, we were rocked again but of a completely different nature. The hours given to me were coming fewer and far between, so I took matters into my own hands. One my day off I went out in search of a higher paying and less stressful job, and boy did I find one. I started that day at a new job paying about $3 more and getting 42 hours with having three days off in a week. :) 

In this first week there I ended up being sent home early from an allergic reaction to something. And in this last week I got pneumonia and missed nearly three days. I am so eager to go back, sitting at home is not something I am good at.

I am so incredibly grateful for the insight brought on by blogging it out and praying it out. (Yes, I know more credit goes to praying rather than blogging!) :) 

Can you guess what I am headed to watch before bed?

Goodnight!

~Belle

Stress and other joyous things!

Hectic moments seem to follow me around these days. They form themselves into chaotic hours and mind boggling days!

As I sit here enjoying Disney movies on Netflix, I am swarmed with the spinning mind that rules my head. Too many thing to contemplate and finish, and not enough OCD in me to get it all done in the few hours I have left each day. So, I have decided to take this time to possibly clear up a few things and save what few braincells I haven't exhausted.

As most of you know, most of my family is in California. And this Christmas is one I would desperately like my hubby and I to spend with my family. Sadly, we already got turned down for having the week of Christmas off work. So, we changed out plans to the 12th through the 16th for our CA trip. Now, the hardship lies in the funds for said trip. It is going to cost close to $450 per person just to get out there. We only have about $500 on us to spend, and that is with $100 from my dad. Now, if we didn't have to supply the money until the trip, we would have it no problem. But the longer we wait to save the money, the more the tickets will cost ... And on top of it all, we have three unforeseen expenses coming up. One being this coming week, and the other two in the first week of November. I am at my wits end when it comes to this! I know there is the option of saving our money and taking the vacation when we can! But that is just it, I don't see it as an option at all!!! I feel like nothing will be ok if I don't get to see my family!

Against that chunk of stressful goodness happens to be something that stalks me everyday, my body. I am not one to play the victim because I know for a fact that I have the power (somewhere) to fix it and I am the one that caused it. I hear daily that I need to be proud of the way I look, but that doesn't just magically make me love what I see in the mirror. All it would take is daily workouts and good eating. Then why is that I can't seem to do any of it for more then two days at a time?
Well, enough with the self pity and confusing decisions that need to be made. On to one of the few
things that doesn't seem to stress me out these days, unpacking!

Moved and Improved

And the move is completed!

Our big horrendous move is finally over with! I know it was only across town, but it was big enough for us. We traded our tiny income housing apartment for a nice two story town home. With all the new space to decorate and fill we have come into quite a few expenditures that we were not planning. I even got a blue door to put my newly home made wreath. Now, to move on to the unpacking stage! I promise to post more when available!

Moving Makes This Pauper Pull Her Hair Out

First, I would like to say ... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

And now that is over with, onto the real stuff! Yesterday (Friday the 13th!) my husband and I got our naivety shoved in our faces. But in order for you to understand the depth of yesterday I must first backtrack!

** Imagine a little flashback scene in your favorite t.v. show, just in blog form. **

~ Weeks before Prince Charming and I married, we decided to rent a two bedroom, two bath trailer just down the road from his place of employment. His parents helped us fix up the place (more like do the work the renter didn't feel like doing in a timely manner) instead of the deposit and first month's rent. The flooring in the kitchen and both bathrooms was ripped out and replaced, new paint in every room and ceiling, new shower head, and repaired numerous holes in the walls. It wasn't an easy, cheap, or time sparing job. But, it got done. And afterward, it was a nice place on the inside.
Now fast forward to two months after the wedding. I was out of a job, and my Prince was working through the night every night. Not only was the rent (paired with other bills) too much for us at the time, but it was a bad neighborhood to be staying in alone at night. And in flash, we had moved.
Yet again, fast forward. This time to our two year anniversary! It is time for us to find a new home, and we see that our old landlord has the trailer next to our old one for rent. We get in touch with him and he lets us see the place. At that point in time, the home needs a lot of work. He assures us that it can be fixed within a week. When we do not hear from him in about a week and a half, we give him a call. He says he just has to put in a new stove and it is done. Now at this point in time we are about to leave for a five day vacation, so he says to contact him when we get back to get the key. After our wonderful five days are up, he hears from us and tell us to come to his home to drop off the check for the first month and pick up the key.
At this point our excitement was through the roof and so was our trust in this man. A week later my Prince's father (Bob The Builder) wants to come take a look at the place as we drop off a couple boxes. To our surprise, the inside of the trailer is not even remotely livable. There is mold everywhere, the front door is barely on it's hinges, the so called new flooring is held down with rusty tacks, there are holes in the walls in nearly every room, the stove is sitting in the middle of the living room, there is paint and drywall mud all over the floors, the hot water heater is not in working order, and there is a random gas hook up coming up from the floor in the living room. That is just what I can remember off the top of my head.
Needless to say, I am a mess at this moment. Not only are we now out of nearly all our savings, but we now have no home to move into when we have to be out of our current one by October 4th. I had a very hard time not crying until I called Merida. She was able to calm me down into fixing the problem not just worrying about it. ~

So, now you know how and why I feel so stupid. Luckily, we were able to get all but one week's rent back from the landlord. But, it is still not enough to put a deposit and first months rent on anything else in such short notice. After looking at everything I could last night, P.C. and I have made a list of places to call come Monday and one of them happens to be a realty office. If we could end up buying a home instead, that would be amazing. I will keep you all updated on the search for a place to call home.

~ Belle

White Water Rafting

White Water Rafting in Gatlinburg was A-Mazing!

I was honestly very scared to try it when it was in the planning stages. After the payment was made I knew there was no turning back. But, that didn't make it any easier on the nerves.

We got there with plenty of time to spare, so we enjoyed taking in the sights. A pair of wooden rockers located on a store front had our name all over them. And afterward, so did the bench overlooking the river!

When they called our launch time, I nearly slipped right off the bench. Our group gathered in front of a pretty hilarious river guide and he dispatched us to our smaller raft groups. Our guide just so happened to catch onto my nervousness and made it known. He wasn't mean about it or anything, but it was still a bit shocking. 

After the 10 minute bus ride up the river I was adding psyched to my rapidly growing list of emotions. Once the rafts were off the boat everyone filed out and we located our guide. Prince Charming (my husband) sat in the front row with the husband from the other couple and diagonal from me. Once we took off in the water, the excitement over took whatever sketchiness I was still feeling. When our first rapid finally arrived, well that was a completely different story. The coldness of the water paired with my growing feeling of instability made it that much more of a thrill. We seemed to zip right through that rapid with such speed that the end brought prayers that it wasn't over yet. Yes! That is correct, it was so terrifyingly fun there was no way it could be over so quickly. And lucky for me, it wasn't even close to over.

We hit plenty of rapids on the way back down the river. One such rapid actually caught me by surprise. After a particularly large set of rapids, our guide lined us up behind the already forming group of other rafters. Once every raft was through the set, we all turned around and headed back for the very rapid we had just exited. Our turn arrived more quickly then I had thought it would. As our group dove right into the oncoming splash, the front row was flooded and we headed into a nose dive. That nose dive sent me airborne and straight into Prince Charming's back. I quickly regained my positioning and attempted ride to waves and other commotion headed right at us. And again, I was launched right out of my seat and into the lap of the woman next to me. She quickly attempted to " place me back in my seat " better know as shoving me the way I came. I almost thought she was trying to push me overboard. 

Needless to say, I ended keeping my seat without leaving the raft again. But sadly, I seemed to have lost my footing once the boat was parked. I just so happened to butt plant right  into the water as we started to carry the raft up to the starting point. 

As the first outing of our anniversary trip came to a close, we realized there was no way we could only do this once. Though we do not have any photos of the event (as it was very wet), it was probably the most memorable part of our vacation. 

First Night With Keys

   Tonight I have never felt more stupid. Tonight was also the first night I was on my own at work.....
     I have been fully trained to do my job. I know completely how to do everything I need to do during my shift. I also know when to do exactly what needs to be done.
     With all that being said, why is it that when the last hour of work showed up I completely froze, second guessed myself, freaked out, and forgot a crucial element of the end of day process?
     I completely dropped the ball tonight!
     The only comment that comes to my rescue tonight is the hard truth that I did the 9 am to 1 pm shift, a 3 pm to 4 pm interview with the district manager, and the 4 pm to 10:30 pm shift all on nearly two hours of sleep.
     I do not take comfort in that rescue!
     It is just so hard for me to wrap my head around tanking so hard like that.

     And now it is time for this pauper to get some sleep! :)

~Belle

Pauper Not Princess

Hello, welcome to my blog! I am so new to this that my blog name took hours to discover and a wonderful friend (Merida) to test it out on. Why do blog names have to be so difficult? Any who... I have decided to start this blog out of reverence for a friend's blog, which I pretty much read religiously.

This week, my little brother (who's nickname shall be decided at a later date) turned 16! I suppose he isn't that little anymore, but he will forever hold that connotation with me! I did not foresee it being so hard for him to get older. Maybe it wasn't so much him getting older as the fact he was doing it without me. I know, I know, I am being selfish. I would just kill for him and I to be together every step of our lives.

A little back story to this. March 30th 2010, I hopped on my first plane ride and moved across the country from my entire family to start over and be with a boy (who is now my husband). When I left my home, my little brother was my world. He was the love of my life and the pain in my ass, but I wouldn't have it any other way! When I moved away, I diluted myself into thinking he and I would remain just as close. I mean, we tackled a 6 year age gap, what could a few thousand miles do, right? Wrong. He grew up, and so did I. He started high school, I got married and the calls became fewer and far between.

Now, 3 years later, and he is a sophomore in high school, and I miss him terribly. There is nothing I can do about him getting older, sadly. And with every phone call I am reminded of what a completely wonderful person he is, and what I am missing out on. Maybe one day, we will live our lives close to the other again. And until then, I will just have to call him way too often. And there I have it! I believe I have decided my little brother's nickname..... Stitch! We used to watch Lilo & Stitch all the time!

I will have to wait till next time to tell you more about Merida and the other princesses. :D

~Belle (Yes, the Belle from Beauty and the Beast!)