Blueberry Jumble

Last week, Harris Teeter (our grocery store for you Northerners) was having a sale on blueberries. Well, after eating plain blueberries for lunch and dinner and using them in salads, I had enough. I didn't want them to go to waste, so a couple nights ago I decided to make blueberry muffins! I used this recipe-"To Die For Blueberry Muffins" and they are delicious! I have been eating them in the morning for breakfast and also taking them to work for a snack.

Fresh out of the oven.

Ready to be devoured.

Speaking of work.... today was my LAST DAY! It was a very busy and hot last day. One of the teachers is leaving the teaching field and has literally given me ALL of her stuff [at least the stuff I wanted to take]. Today I finished off with clearing out her library. Thanks to her, my children's book library has gone from 20 books to like 70+ books! I acquired all this stuff at the perfect timing, right when we are moving ;)

And speaking of moving..... tomorrow we are heading out to Asheville for the day. We were having some trouble finding people who could help us drive our cars to to Asheville. So tomorrow, we are driving me car out, with a load of stuff, leaving it at Justin's parent's house and then heading back to Raleigh for our last 6 days. My sister, Jen, was planning on coming out to Raleigh for 6 days to help us pack and spend some last fun days here. She is meeting us in Asheville and then driving us back home. And... my parents are driving down to Asheville tomorrow, so we will be able to eat dinner with them and hang out with them for a bit before we had back to the Eastern side of the state. Lots of changes and busy days ahead!

New Song

"Surrender" by the Planetshakers

This is a new song that I have learned at the new church that Justin and I have been attending. We sang it this past Sunday, and I have been listening to it/ singing it since then.

We're MOVING!

Yikes! I haven't posted in a looooong time. There have been quite a few changes happening in our household, and allow me to update you on them. Justin and I are moving away from Raleigh to..... ASHEVILLE! We will still be North Carolina residents, just on the other side of the state.

Our lease is up on July 6th and we have been praying for sometime about whether we should stay here or move. Last week, our prayers were answered with the Lord telling us to move to Asheville. Last Saturday, we drove to Asheville to check out places to live. On Tuesday night, Justin drove back there to interview with his old company on Wednesday morning. He was officially offered his old job on Thursday. He is very excited to go back and working on the mobile crisis team. I still have not been offered a teaching job yet. Please pray that I will get a teaching job for this upcoming school year. That is one thing that has been weighing pretty heavily on me.

We are down to moving in 1 1/2 weeks and still don't have a place to live. We have been searching the internet everyday and as of this weekend, we think that we have found a place that will suit us for the time being. We have begun going through our belongings and getting rid and donating items.

We are excited to be closer to family and friends and see what the Lord will be doing in this next chapter of our lives. Justin's family lives in Asheville and my parents are moving down there this summer, so I am so excited to be near all of them. Although, it will be pretty sad to leave Raleigh. We have a lot of favorite places here. We also found a great church and were starting to meet and become good friends with some people here.

As we make this move, please pray for us to find a place to live that we can move into on July 6th. Please also pray for a teaching job for me and that the Lord will continue to provide for us and meet our needs. Justin's new job will be a pay cut to what he currently makes, and we have some added expenses coming up this next month with my student loans starting to take effect. We trust that the Lord will provide for us as he has faithfully done for us in the past.

Holly Grove Cake Pops

Since I work at a year-round school, this week was actually not the last week of school for me. I have three more weeks to go. However, for track one, Friday was their last day of school. At least until the new school year starts on July 11th. Since two of the teachers I work with would be leaving for the summer, I wanted to make them a little end-of-the-year/I-appreciate-you/thank-you-for-a-great-year gift. I decided to make them little cake pop bouquets, decorated with the school colors. Since cake pops make about 80 at a time, I decided to make them for all 6 teachers and give the other 4 teachers their present early.

Here is how you make cake pops!

Step 1:
Bake a store-bought box cake mix in a 13x9 pan. It can be any flavor you want. Allow the cake to cool and then cut the cake into fourths. Take each 1/4 piece and crumble it very finely into a large bowl. Continue doing this until the entire cake is crumbled in the bowl.

Step 2:
Add an entire tub of store-bought frosting. Again, it can be any flavor you would like. Using the back of a spoon, or even your hands thoroughly combine the cake and frosting together until you get a sticky/moist dough. This is a good time for you to take off your rings!


Step 3:
Line a cookie sheet with wax paper and begin rolling the cake into small 1- 1 1/2 inch balls.

Step 4:
Melt a few pieces of your melting chocolate in a small dish. Take your lollipop sticks and dip one end of the stick into the chocolate. Then place that same end about 1/2 inch into the cake ball. After all the cake balls have a sick, place them in the freezer for 15 minutes. You want the cake balls to be firm enough so that they won't fall of the stick, but if they are too hard, the chocolate coating will start 'sweating.' So 15 minutes is the perfect amount of time.

Step 5:
Take your cookie sheet out of the freezer and get ready to dip! You can get any color chocolate candy coating pieces at Michael's or JoAnn Fabrics. I used orange and purple since these are our school colors. Generally for a whole batch of cake pops you will need 2 bags of candy coating. Melt your candy coating in 30 second intervals in the microwave, stirring after each time until they are all melted. If the mixture is still pretty thick, you can add shortening to thin it out. You want it to be thin enough so that when you dip a spoon it, some chocolate should flow off the spoon.

Dip each cake pop into the melted chocolate. Cover the entire cake ball. Tap your wrist to allow excess chocolate to drip off into the bowl. Place the cake pop into Styrofoam to allow it to dry. If you are decorating your cake pops with sprinkles or other candies that need to be attached, sprinkle them on while the chocolate coating is still wet, then place it in the Styrofoam.

Step 6:
Finish up your cake pops by decorating them any way you please. For these cake pops, I put the extra chocolate coating into a zip lock bag, snipped off a tiny corner and drizzled the chocolate onto the cake pops. I also took that same bag and made "3" on the wax paper. I placed them into the freezer to harden. I then attached them to the cake pops using a dot of the chocolate. Be creative and have fun!

Step 7:
Display them in a fun way! While I was at Michael's buying all the supplies, I ran across these 50% off ceramic containers. I bought all orange ones (again school colors). Once the cake pops were dry and hardened, I cut Oasis [flower arranging foam] to fit the size of my container. I then arranged the cake pops into the oasis in a fun way.

The real challenge was figuring out how to transport these delicate delectables 20 minutes to work the next day. I placed them in a shoe box, put the shoe box the the floor of the drivers seat, with a blanket around the box so that it would not move around. The hardest part was driving slow and taking my turns slow [which if you know me, is not any easy task ;) ]. Thankfully, I made it to work without breaking a single one or having the 3's break!

The teachers loved them! The kids were also every intrigued by them and kept asking what they were and wanting to touch them. I would have made some for the kids, but the county has a rule that students can only eat store-bought, individually packaged goods, which means, no homemade baked goods from me :(

*My cake pop recipes and instructions come from Bakerella. You can find more in-depth and creative ideas from her blog:
bakerella.com or from her book Cake Pops [which I own!]

BIRTHDAY HELP!

My birthday is less than a month away and Justin keeps asking me [almost] everyday what I want to do for my birthday. This is how our conversation usually goes:

J: "What do you want to do for your birthday?"
R: "I don't know. Whatever."
J: "Is there something special you want to do?"
R: "Yeah, but I don't know what. Can you just plan it for me?"

Basically, we just go around in circles and I don't have ANY ideas as to what I should do for my birthday. Last year, we went to the zoo for the day, I had class [for the first time EVER on my birthday!] and then Justin surprised me with a really romantic dinner at this beautiful, historical house in downtown Raleigh. Growing up, birthday usually consisted of my mom making any meal I wanted (which was ALWAYS delicious!), cake and presents.

So this is where I need everyone's help- WHAT SHOULD I DO FOR MY BIRTHDAY? Anyone have a fun, unique ideas that they would like to share? One major thing you should know is that we might possibly be moving the day before my birthday, so I have to be able to do this in any state/city (not just specific to Raleigh/NC).

Thanks for your help! I look forward to hearing all your ideas!!

Too Tired

I was going to blog tonight about these....


But I am WAY too tired. They took me about 4 1/2 hours to make and I don't feel like putting in the energy to the blog post I want to create about these beauties.

Why am I so tired?
This has been a pretty rough week for me. I had to proctor my 2nd round of EOG's. EOG's are the End of Grade tests that all 3-8th graders have to take. They test for three days straight, and each test can run from 2-4 hours. I have had to proctor this test twice now (total of 6 days + make up and re-take days... so it's more like a total of 10 days). I walk around, can't sit, can't eat, can't drink and can't talk for these hours. Today I think I just about lost my mind during the math test. So I am exhausted from that.

My job search has also been very exhausting and getting to me this week. The school year is coming to a close (or over for regular schools) and the new school year is fast approaching. I have applied to probably 40+ jobs now and not a single nibble. This is also a popular topic of conversation with my co-workers because they know I have my Master's and am looking for a job. I have earnestly seeking the Lord for his direction and praying that the right job will open up for me soon.

Tomorrow... I shall post about my end of the year cake pops!
Good night :)

Oatmeal Cream Pies

A few months ago it used to be that Sunday was my baking day. With the nice weather that we have been having, and not to mention all the traveling, I really haven't been baking too much. Today, while Justin and Paul were at a movie, I decided to stay at home and do a little baking. I have been craving these Oatmeal Cream pies that I made a while ago, so I decided to make them again. They are super easy to make, and so delicious! So much better than the store-bought ones :)

This recipe is from Martha Stewart's, Everyday Food Magazine. My sister-in-law, Tessa, recommended that I try this magazine and I am glad that I did :) This recipe originally calls for a cream cheese frosting in the middle. Since real oatmeal cream pies don't have a cream cheese frosting I decided to use a regular vanilla buttercream frosting for my own pies, but it is your choice!

Here is the recipe:

Oatmeal Cream Pies
Martha Stewart
Makes 12-13 pies

Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 c. packed dark-brown sugar
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1 Tbsp. unsulfured molasses
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 1/2 c. rolled oats (not quick-cooking)
1/2 c. golden raisins (optional) *I did not use

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, with racks in the upper and lower thirds. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. In another large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter, brown and granulated sugars, and molasses on high, scraping the bowl, until light and fluffy, 4 mins. Add vanilla, beat until combined. Beat in eggs, one at a time, scraping the bowl after each addition.

2. With mixer on low, add flour mixture and beat until combined. With a rubber spatula, stir in oats and raisins. Drop dough in tablespoonful mounds 2 inches apart, onto two baking sheets. Bake until cookies are just set at edges and slightly soft in the middle, about 11 minutes, rotating the baking sheets halfway through. Let cookies cool on sheets, 5 minutes. Transfer to wire racks and let cool completely.

3. In a medium bowl, using mixer, beat frosting. (Cream cheese frosting is 8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature + 6 Tbsp. confectioner's sugar). Spread filling on flat side of half the cookies. Sandwich with remaining cookies.

The best thing is that these can also be eaten for breakfast! I mean, oatmeal is a breakfast food, right?!? I'm sure I'll be grabbing one on my way out the door for work tomorrow morning ;)

Cape Hatteras

Justin and I made a spontaneous trip to the Outer Banks today! My sister, Jen, invited me to a girls' outing to the beach in Florida, but seeing how I would have to drive 12+ hours and I only had the weekend off, I wasn't able to make it :( Justin has been wanting to check out Cape Hatteras National Seashore in the Outer Banks for some time. Apparently it was ranked #5 on Dr. Beaches' best beaches in the U.S. (or something like that...)

We left around 7:30 this morning and were able to spend the whole day at the beach. Since it is a National park, it is a very secluded beach. There are no beach houses around, no cheesy beach stores, no hotel, just the waves, sand and the dunes. We were one of about 5 groups within our seeing distance. It was so nice to practically have the entire beach to yourself. It was also perfect beach weather. We have been getting crushed with heat here. It has been in the high 90's and very humid every day. Today, the weather at the beach was low-mid 80's with the light beachy breeze. It was warm, but not scorching hot.

Honestly, today was one of the best days that I have had in a while. Not that I have been having bad days, but I was truly happy and full of joy today. I loved just being able to be outside, enjoy the sun, have the sand in my toes and be with my husband. We had fun reading, taking our strolls along the beach, playing frisbee in the surf, looking for shells and other wildlife. We saw lots of little sand crabs and a jelly.

It was a perfect summer day :)

Cape Hatteras- OBX

Chillin' on the dune

Looking for purple shells

Great day together :)

Our friend!

Couch to 5K

I know you are all probably expecting some more reasons as to why NC is so awesome, but honestly I am getting a little burned out and wanted to blog about something else. Don't worry, I haven't run out of reasons and I will continue that series periodically.

Yesterday was June 1st, which not only meant that it was my lil' bro's birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY JONTO!) but that it was time for me and Justin to get started on our running plan. A couple weeks ago, Justin and I were on one of our evening strolls. I had a crazy thought that we should train for a 5K together. We have both been trying to get more 'in shape' by taking the occasional visit to the gym or by going on walks. I thought that if we trained for a 5K together, it would help us get into shape, be more active, enjoy the outdoors and still have time to bond with one another. I ran cross country for 2 years in middle school and all 4 years in high school. I was actually on the varsity team and made it to the State Meet with the team. It is funny how I haven't run since my senior year. We decided to pick the date, June 1st, to start our new plan. We chose June because we both needed new running shoes (mine were 4 years old).

On Saturday night, we decided to be spontaneous and go out and buy our shoes. Sure enough, we were successful and came back home with two new pairs of running shoes. We decided to do a 'test jog' that night. At 9:30 pm, nice and cool in the dark, we jogged down the street (0.7 miles) and walked back home. This was fairly easy since it is all down hill and we conveniently walked the uphill ;) Monday morning, our neighbor, Derek, invited us to go on another run. This time it was a 2 mile loop around a nice lake in Apex. I managed to run through 1 mile, and then walked the rest. The entire time I was running my mile I kept thinking, "Why am I doing this? This is so painful! I hate running! This is torture! Running is not meant for females with mature bodies! This is the worst idea I ever had..." Get the point?

So yesterday was the first day of June and we decided to stick to our plan and go for a run. We laced up our shoes and discovered a new lake near our house. The lake is a 1.2 mile loop. We ran about 1 mile of it and then walked the rest. Unfortunately, it has been in the upper 90's down here, not to mention the extreme humidity. So it looks like we started our running during ideal running conditions... not! Our plan is to run every-other-day. We are just taking it as it goes and hopefully going to build up our mileage. We do not have an actual 5K race scheduled to run, but maybe in the fall one will come up. I found this workout plan called Couch-to-5K online, and we were planning on using it for our training.

Although it has been a little bit of a bumpy start, we have been dedicated this entire week and have actually ran every-other-day. As much as I hate running while I am doing it, I do feel pretty good afterward (like an hour after). It is nice to be active and be consistent with it. Who knows, maybe next we will train for a marathon.... NOT!!