Millie Has A Boyfriend

It appears that our new "kitten" has grown-up and gotten herself a boyfriend. I am sad about this for two reasons:

1) She's obviously no longer a baby
2) She is driving us crazy

A couple of days ago, she was yelling so loudly that Josh got up to see what was going on. That's when we found this:

Meet the boy cat that lives next door:

He has been coming onto the porch every single day, and then meowing until Millie hears him. She races through the house knocking over anything in her path, until she crawls into the blinds and stares lovingly into his eyes for as long as he'll stay. It is nauseating really. When he leaves, she cries like her heart has been completely broken.

Needless to say, after a quick call to the vet, Miss Millie will be getting spayed next Wednesday. No baby kitties for us!

Laundry Room Inspiration

Last week at the hotel in Evans, I was flipping through channels and came across a show on HGTV called Showhouse Showdown. Two designers have identical houses, and it's their job to design the entire house. There was this awkward front space, and I absolutely loved one of the designs. I loved it so much, that I think I may want to steal the paint idea for my laundry room.

I think it's time that I disclosed a secret. My name is Kristen, and I'm a stripe-a-holic (I would like to point out that on the first draft, I actually typed "strip-a-holic", which would have been a bold confession to make on the blog, don't you think?)

Anyhoo, earlier this year I painted my bedroom in stripes, but believe me when I tell you that it is super subtle. It's the same color, just alternating flat and glossy. That reminds me, I really need to take some pictures to post because it's beautiful! The issue is, that I can't find a lamp for my nightstand, and I haven't found curtains, and I haven't hung anything up, so it's still a bit unfinished. I'm hunting for stuff though, and as soon as I finish, I'll definitely show you the final product!

This post is totally not about my bedroom, but I've clearly gone there.

Back to the laundry room. Here's a picture of the entryway:

I love the bold stripes, the colors, all of it! My laundry room is small and narrow, and I loved how the stripes made the space feel so much more spacious! Even though he only did one wall, I think it would be interesting to stripe the entire room, yes? I don't know. Still throwing ideas around. I think Josh thinks it's "too much", but my theory is that I'm in there quite a bit more than he is  :-) 

I would definitely want a rug, maybe like this one from Target:

What do you guys think? Do you like the idea of the stripes?

What's For Dinner?

This week was a super busy week for me. So I wanted nothing more than some comfort food to relax with. Pasta and meatballs sounded AH-mazing, but that didn't seem like a good idea since I'm trying to watch what I eat. So I came up with an alternative, which is equally delicious and comforting!

Chicken Meatballs
2 lbs ground chicken
1/2 cup skim milk
2 eggs, beaten
1 t Oregano
1 t Italian Seasoning
1/2 c minced onion
3 cloves garlic
1/2 whole wheat bread crumbs
salt and pepper, to taste

First, preheat the over to 400.

Then, start by putting the chicken into a big bowl. Add all of the ingredients except the onion and garlic.

Finely chop the onion and garlic, and then dry sautee (no oil) them together for about 5 minutes. I wanted a stronger onion flavor, so I only did it long enough for the onions to begin to soften. If you don't want as strong of an onion flavor, you may want to cook them longer.

Add the onion and garlic right into the bowl, and then mix everything together with your hands.

Form meatballs that will fit into a mini muffin pan, and fill!

Cook the meatballs for approximately 20 minutes. I used a meat thermometer, and mine were perfectly done at 19 minutes.

This recipe made 30 meatballs, and a good serving size was 3 a piece. Which meant I had plenty to freeze and serve later!

I'm sure there are plenty of ways to serve these, but like I mentioned, I was going for comfort. I cooked up a very basic tomato sauce recipe and dropped the meatballs in for a minute, then served over some cooked quinoa. D-E-L-I-S-H! And super duper comforting - exactly what I needed.

Home Organization Notebook

Although I've been trying to reign in some of the chaos in my life, I'd never considered any type of organizer before. Then I saw Erin's post on her organizer, followed by Laura's. That was all the convincing that I needed to create something of my own.

Initially, I thought I would make an organizer. After all, creating my own would allow me to put exactly what I needed for my particular home, and would allow me to eliminate those things I didn't need since I'm a total control freak I know what I want. I went to work finding lists and links all over, and bought a binder, and some other staples for my notebook. I've been working on it for a couple of weeks, but I needed some dividers, so off to Target I went. While I was searching for dividers, I came across their planners section, and started flipping through for ideas. That's when I realized that most of them had everything that I needed, but packaged more nicely than my homemade notebook. Unfortunately, there were still a few things I wanted, and I also wanted a pretty one, because I'm a girl and I like pretty things  :-)

Enter Erin Condren. After some researching, I've decided that I'm investing in this rather than making my own as originally planned. Although it's not as specific as my original, I can definitely make it work. There are a few things that I LOVE. I love the special dates page. It will allow me to keep track of birthdays (which is a huge opportunity of mine). There is also a Morning, Day, and Night breakdown that will allow me to not only track meals, but also track chores and blogging. The monthly overview will be used for appointments and other important reminders. The notes section in the back can be used for a few different things, but I'm definitely going to be using it to track Christmas cards and gifts received, which will be super helpful during holiday season!!!! It also comes with stickers, and let's face it, stickers rock!

I haven't ordered it yet (since it's such a recent discovery), but I can't wait to fill it up! Once I get it in, I definitely intend on showing you how it's helping me stay organized!

Super Embarrassing...

You know those SUPER embarrassing moments that you feel like you could, literally, just die. Well, I had one of those today. Actually, about an hour ago.

I should first admit that I have a little confession. I sing and dance around my house almost daily. And by singing and dancing I mean wail at the top of my lungs while incorporating a sad, sad combination of old school dance moves with some occasional twirling. That alone, would be mortifying for anyone to witness. Today was a step beyond though.

So, I got home, took off my work clothes, and then just didn't get dressed. I was kindof hot, so I thought I would just walk around in my undies for awhile. I wanted to take some pictures of my home organization notebook to blog about, and I knew the best place to lay everything out would be the dining room table. Of course I go to the side that's right next to the window, because that's where the best light is. So I'm in the middle of my rendition of "It's Your Life" when I realize that there is a woman watching me.

Oh.Dear.

My neighbors are 80 years old, and they never, ever come outside, EVER. I've also never seen anyone visiting them. Lo and behold, they had a visitor today, who must've spotted me when she got out of her car. My dining room has a bay window, which faces the neighbor's driveway perfectly.

See, it's the window to the right, which, as you can see by the turned out chair, is exactly where I was shaking my booty.

There was really nothing to do at this point. Our eyes met, so there was no doubt she saw my performance. She quickly walked inside (probably to rinse her eyes out with bleach...)

I wasn't even in cute panties! Haha. You know the VS cotton ones that you've had for 3 years that are faded? Yep, that's what I'm sporting today.

I guess I can just be thankful that it was a middle aged woman, and not some hunky mail delivery boy   ;-)

Of course, I didn't go anywhere near that window again, so I didn't get pics of the notebook, but I will take them as soon as I get home from work tomorrow (fully dressed).

Some Things I'm Loving

I love fresh tomatoes from the garden.

I love fresh peaches from my peach tree (which I ate before I could get a picture)

I love our newest addition.

I love that fall is right around the corner! It's my favorite season, which leads right into my favorite holiday (CHRISTMAS!!!!)

I love that my trip to Bowling Green, KY this week should be my last trip of the year for work.

I love sushi night at home with the hubby!

I love my new Home Organization Notebook! I'll be telling you all about that this week!

I love that we got some great pictures from my nephew's second birthday. This little guy melts Aunt Kristen's heart.

What are you loving right now?!

Crazy Weather!

We had some bad storms come through Tennessee yesterday! I spent the day in Atlanta for work, so we drove up yesterday morning, and then came back home yesterday evening. On our way home, it started lightening. I'm not sure if those of you up North experience this or not, but it looked like "heat lightening" (and no, that isn't the technical term...).

It was absolutely beautiful for about half an hour, and we ooohed and ahhed, but then the sky opened up. We hit a wall of water, and stayed in it for a good 20 minutes! Everyone had their hazards on, there were cars pulled over on the side of the highway, and you really couldn't see anything at all. Of course it didn't help that by this time it was dark. Fortunately, I was with 2 of my co-workers, so I didn't have to drive in it.

By the time I got home, it had calmed down a little, but apparently came through again. I was exhausted from 8 hours in the car and 5 hours of working in the middle, so I passed out. But this morning I found out that this was happening only 10 minutes away from me.

This is my cousin's house (hi Jenn!). That's her bedroom underneath the tree. Everyone is okay, but there was plenty of damage. Lots of water poured in after the tree fell, so late last night, they were up trying to clear things out of the rain coming inside. I can imagine that's not very fun at all.

We didn't have any damage at my house, but I know it was windy because our trash cans were in the middle of the back yard this morning. Thank goodness that was the extent of it!