Ever wonder how my blog got its name?

So today began like any other day... 

Alarm clock went off at 6 just like any other day. 

I slowly inched out of bed. 

Began to get ready. 

Heard Hubby alarm go off 6 times (one alarm is NOT enough to wake him from his death like slumber but one light on the other side of the house will have him up in a second complaining)

Made Hubby's lunch while dancing to his various alarm tunes

Let puppy out and flip the light on in the bedroom so Hubby will ACTUALLY get up 

Kissed him goodbye and head off to work. 

Not actual student but eerily similar

If you don't know what I do Ill explain it for you...

I wake up super early to watch about 15 to 20 kids who are all hopped up on pop-tarts and COFFEE before school and yes I said coffee. This morning was rather rough it was like they ALL drank coffee before arriving, so after work I look forward to a nice run on the good Ol' Titusille Bridge ( its the cool place to run now) with a friend. I get all ready aka as scrubby as can be with my baggy shirt, ratty hair and leggings, I grab my pup and my purse ( I just know my keys are in there), lock the door and head for the car.... Only its just my keys aren't in there.

So madness ensues

10 minuets of trying to break in, which involves Ruca jumping at my feet while I climb over our AC Unit take the window screen off and almost fall, only to find out our window locks do indeed work.The failing multiple times at using the credit card trick ( it used to work when I locked my self out of my room), but apparently our condo is Fort Knox.

Hubby didn't answer the 3 times I called him, Ruca was running around terrorizing our neighbors and I looked slightly like a homeless person due to my clothes and unusually large purse.

So I break down and do what any girl would do call, call  my Mommy!!

She has the extra key but is stuck at work so I spend 20 minuets trying to find some one who is not working and awake to take me to her...  which for some reason was nearly impossible today. Finally after 4 calls to my sister, she groggily answers the phone and heads my way (she lives 20 minuets away though). Did I mention this is after I walk to my moms house thinking I could fit through the doggy door only to have her point out that the doggy door only works if the door is unlocked.... So I have turn around and trek another mile back to my house....

After all this Jon FINALLY calls me back and just happens to be driving by and lets me back inside an hour after the whole debacle began. And not to mention just in time to save my sister from a trip in to town.

And this is my life.... 

Insta dump

I know I have been pretty absent lately but 6 finals and life just took over. Here are a few pictures to keep you company until I start to post interesting things again. If you guys feel like you need more Sarah time you can follow me on Twitter I'm obsessed now (just a little behind on the trend) follow me at @criticallyblond

Pretty much my marriage summed up in a photo....
me dancing while Jon watches with a look of  "is she really doing this" on his face....
and then there is my Nephew.... 

Tree... and hanger... True art 

Home made Chicken Cordon Bleu... Felt like it needs to be on the web...

Reception times

First attempt at red lips...
reverted back to my high school picture taking days

How Hubby sleeps with puppy....
this is normal right?

 Work Christmas Party 

Just a normal Convo with the BFF

Spiderweb .... that is all

Linking up with Sami and Brooke

What? Sarah Cooked a Meal?!!!?

Lets face it I'm not a good cook it's not the first time I've talked about it. Well I have been taking a cooking class to try to fix this and it has helped a bit. Last night I tried my hand at a homemade soup and it actually turned out so good that I thought I would share the recipe.

Chicken Enchilada Soup

3 cups chicken stock

2 skinless, chicken breasts
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 tsp  chili powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
4-6 jalapeno peppers, minced
1 large onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 cups frozen corn
1/2 cup tomato paste
8 oz pepperjack cheese, divided
1 cup cilantro, chopped

Lime

Tortilla chips

In a large Dutch oven or stockpot, add chicken stock and heat over medium heat. Add chicken breasts, cumin, chili powder, and cayenne pepper. Simmer about 20-25 minutes until chicken is cooked through. Remove chicken and set aside. Add tomatoes, jalapenos, onion, and garlic to the pot. Simmer about 30 minutes, covered until tomatoes have begun to break down. Add black beans, corn, and tomato paste and stir to incorporate. Add  the pepperjack cheese and stir to melt. Return chicken to soup and cook about 20 more minutes until desired consistency. 

If soup isn't as thick as desired, you can add strips of flour tortillas. They will dissolve into the soup to thicken the broth. Add cilantro, reserving some to top individual bowls if desired. Ladle into serving bowls and top with crushed tortilla chips,squirt some lime juice and add reserved pepperjack cheese and cilantro if desired.

adapted from this amazing sites recipe.

Our Dogs are Democrats

Ok so I am not going to say anything about the election other than this....

Yesterday I rushed home from school to go vote and realized I forgot my sample ballot... which is important casue I carefully read over all the amendments for once and marked them oh so nicely so I didn't forget. So I get home run in to get it and find a crumpled pile of shredded paper where my sample ballot once was. Frustrated with my pup, I decided that it was no big deal and ran to go get my moms sample ballot casue we pretty much voted the same and when I arrive what do I find?   Oh you know just another pile of SHREDDED sample ballot...   

Her dog also shredded hers (but she did a much better job of putting the pieces back together than I did See above picture). Apparently our democratic dogs realized that we were leaning to the conservative side and did what any liberal doggy would do and tried to eat our votes!They may seem all cute and innocent but I knew exactly what they were up too! But it didn't work those dang democratic pups may have slowed the process down but I prevailed!! My vote counted ( maybe it didn't get the president I wanted but it still counted)!!

Reminiscing.....

  I am babysitting and bored... so very bored.... so I am going through my old pictures and it is just making me oh so happy so I thought I would share some of my favs...

Best Vacation ever  

Ugly Sweater Party 

$11 blow up pool... First day it was warm we bought it and by the time it got blown up  it was too cold to swim....

New Years 2008? 2009? I may not remember the year but the night will go down in  history
  ( I think I was the only sober person with in a 100 mile radius )

Wheel of Fortune... I have probably been on TV more than you have.... 

First Flowers from a boy... aka now Hubby

Last single birthday and last week before moving to Utah to be with said Hubby 

One of MANY pictures that seem to appear any time I would leave my camera ANY where

Hoedown number 3 :)

No explanation 

Pre mustache crazy We were the true hipsters...

All of these girls in one place... epic 

Scaring the crap out of Roommates.... every one needs a monkey suit right?

:) Baking with the boys

These kids... Pretty much the best days of my single life 

The guys who convinced me they played for Buckcherry

First condoms I ever bought :)

Vivian's trip to the club 

The Day the Zombies Ruined My Surprise

Story time:

Picture this, I turn on my computer open my email and see this...

http://spacecoastdaily.com/2012/09/zombies-to-invade-palm-bay-in-zombie-apocalypse/

Zombie Paintball WHAT!!!??? What is this madness? And it is half off? Thank you  I begin to picture Jon running through fields of Zombies living his video game dreams. So I decided I NEEDED to get this to surprise the ol' hubby. So fast forward two days and it is the last day of the half of deal I put some money in my old bank account to be sly. He is always checking our account so I knew He would catch me if I didn't do something tricky. Well I get all ready, put my information in and push purchase... WELL instead of giving me an option to put my card information in it just said thank you for your purchase. WHAT???  Did I just get  this for free? I know that's probably not true so I look a little deeper and find that it charged our joint card. They already had my card from something I bought earlier.... They should really put that in bold letters or something right?

Alright... think... how to fix this...

So I call Groupon... No answer... Send an email... No answer... Start to get nervous... 

So I decide to transfer the money to cover it up... My old bank is a tiny credit union so I have to run across town to take the money out, put it in our joint account. I get home ready to relax and pick up the computer and there is an email... Not just any email but an email form Groupon telling me they have switched the purchase to my OTHER account. SOOO now I have charges on both accounts and I have to go and switch the money all over again so another trip across town and of course half way I have to text Jon and tell him not to use the card cause everything is all messed up.

WELL

I get it all taken care of but know Jon has questions about what I was trying to do when I accidentally messed up the accounts. I tell him it is a surprise and he will find out soon enough. But  of course he keeps asking questions and then he lets it slip... 

"when are we going to play ZOMBIE pa...." 

He knows he has messed up!

 I caught him snooping.

 Turns out he investigated my email when he saw Groupon on the bank info he opened my email and saw it. He is seriously such a little BRAT!!!

But I guess I suck a lot at keeping secrets so it will be easier to get him to the haunted house on time this way .

But seriously stupid zombies give me a break!! I just wanted to surprise my husband.

Weekend Review: The Most Boring Weekend...

The weekend was seriously a bore... It was kind of nice though. My allergies have been acting up... WAY UP like cant sleep well, bloody noses, headaches and a million sneezes acting up. It's the worse cause I can not take most allergy medicines. ANYWAYS this post wont be full of complaints. I PROMISE you that's it. Friday I was spoiled. My visiting teachers came over and gave me lots of treats (my house was clean this time thank you!), then at work I was given even more treats.

And this is after Jon got into them if you notice half the cake is gone and
quite a few cookies and rolls are gone too.... ( I may have helped a bit)

We went to Applebee's for my favorite queso dip and it just so happens that my sister was working that night. Her and her Fiance both work there as servers and were on duty which explains why they were not answering our plees of friendship. When they got off we went to their house to watch a movie. Super fun but bad choice for my sneezing nose. They have 3 dogs who love attention and apparently I am quite allergic to them. One roll of toilet paper later the movie, 30 Minuets or Less was over and actually pretty good.
Saturday was spent lounging around. We have started watching DR. Who on Netflix and it pretty much consumes our free time now... For those of you who don't know what DR. Who is... Look it up British T.V. show and it is quite entertaining. We did decide to venture out into the real world and take advantage of the nice weather... AKA not 100 Degrees outside. We took Ruca to the Dog park finally and it was worth it... LOOK at this Sunset...

Sunday Was spent at church teaching my little ones, well little one. This week I only had one little nugget, and let me tell you it was NOT easy. This little man is ALL boy he loves to talk, hates to listen and can't sit still for the life of him. I use pictures a lot in my lessons and he kept saying "put that away, DON'T use those, I hate those" Seriously! So after going through everything I had we still had 45 minuets left... UHHHH So we went on a walk and I made a game up thinking that should take a big chunk of the time up... NOPE  When we got back there was still 30 minuets left. So I did what any good teacher does and I called for my Hubby. Jon is so adorable with little ones, especially crazy boys. That crazy little nugg just sat there staring at Jon until he finally walked over grabbed the chocolate I had been bribing  giving him and handed it to Jon. That was it, it was love.

I just have to share one quote from this silly little boys ramblings.... While talking about something COMPLETELY  unrelated he interrupts...

"When I grow up I'll be a HUMAN!" He was seriously so excited about this I just had to let him know that he is in fact a human right now, in which his reply was " Not a real Human. I'm just a small human But Ill be a BIG Human when I grow up"

So there you have it my oh so boring weekend that I some how managed to write a giant post about... Congrats if you made it through :)

Linking up with Sami, Molly and Brooke

The Day I Thought My House was Haunted

The day began like any other. I rolled over to snooze the alarm clock and realized I was sweating. Something was not right in our little condo. It is NEVER hot. I sat up slowly and began to look around, a tingle shot through my spine. I just knew something was not right. The house was oddly quiet. Ruca sat at attention ears moving every which way.....  I couldn't send the hubby to investigate as he had left hours earlier for work. Slowly I inched out of bed. It turns out the fan had stopped working and upon further investigation our tv, fan in the living room, oven and AC had all ceased to work. How random I thought... But this should be an easy fix right? 

Off to the breaker box I headed on the way there my nose starts to bleed... even with really bad allergies I never get nose bleeds... weird... I start shutting off breakers... in fact I shut them all off over and over again... no good half the house is still dead. As time ticks on I decide I have to ignore the lack of cool air and press on... School was going to start soon. The rest of the morning go as planed. Until it is time to get dressed. I go to turn on my closet light and nothing. 

"Oh well" I think, I guess at least one of the lights had to be broken... As I go to get a flash light I hear a clicking noise. The light springs on and dims to an eerie orange glow and begins to flicker. Another click... Its gone.

I swear my house looked like this... but with an orange tint...

via

 Now just a little bit scared I make a call to Hubby... and what does hubby have to say you ask? What words of comfort or advice? Oh you know just that our house is probably being haunted!

Now you see normally I wouldn't scare so easy but just last month we had two neighbors die. They were in their late 90's so it wasn't  a horrible shock or anything. It was sad but not unexpected. But this couple was not our biggest fans... No, we were the new young mixed marriage couple with the annoying dog. The husband would yell when we took Ruca to the bathroom and the wife would stare out the window with the lights off as we came home....

  So anyways his joke creeped me out. Especially as he said it the fan in the living room kicked back on and then began to flicker off slowly. The clicking and flickering began to happen more and more. So I packed my school stuff and Ruca up and left RAN... 

I couldn't let my sweet puppy get eaten by ghost could I??? 

 NO, I couldn't. I dropped Ruca off at my moms house and headed to school.

The rest of the day was actually pretty good. I even got to make cupcakes in my cooking class....

All though I dreaded heading back home to our haunted condo all day. When I pulled up to our humble abode....this little beauty was in our front yard ...

Turns out it wasn't our grumpy old neighbors just the power company.  

A VERY Mushy Kind of Thankful Thursday

Sometimes in life we forget to be thankful for how great we have it. 

Today I got to see an old friend. It was so nice to see her. 

She is such an amazing lady who has done such great things in her life
and loves God while doing them.I want to be like her one day.

She told me a story about one of her friends who is seriously struggling in her marriage. She is married to a man that is not kind in words, thoughts or actions. As I listen to the sad words I tired to imagine what this must be like. To not have the support and love that is needed by the one person you picked to do so.  It hurts me that she is hurting, and I wish there was something... anything I could do to help. I have spent my life watching marriages, friendships and relationships crumble. People leave, sometimes the come back most times they don't. Marriages fail, friendship dies and people do not change.  I just thought this was how the world was.

 Before Jon anyways. 

When I first met Jon I knew something was different. I felt instantly attracted to him... not the way he looked or acted or dressed... It was nothing physical although those things were pretty great... It was something else. Now obviously our love story isn't one of those quick 3 month romances. It was filled with lots of ups and downs and twist and turns but I can tell you one thing. In the 4 years we knew each other before we got married there was ALWAYS something about this man that drew me to him. EVERY guy I met was compared to this one man that lived a thousand miles away. I could never get him completely out of my mind. No one could make me forget those feelings.

 He is such a good soul. The kind of good that you can feel when he is near.

 And now all these years later he is mine 

and still when I look at him I feel those first feelings of happiness and 

comfort that only come from being with a good man.

 I am so thankful for this amazing man that was made for me and only me.

 He has taught me to love deeper and to trust. 

I am thankful for our marriage that is anything but perfect yet is filled with 

happiness, respect and a LOT of laughter.

Anyways enough with the mussy gushy yuck. thanks if you made it all the way through! I will leave you with a song...

Can I Touch Your Butt?

Loving lately...

So my oh so sweet husband has found a new app on his phone... I think or a website or some other place that provides him with a wide variety of pictures that remind him of me I am not sure where they are coming from.  The past two days I have been finding these little "love" notes through out the day... I use the term love loosely... Ill let you be the judge... 

Here is the first one I found... It my new computer background file saved as Sarah's Life...

This one is my new phone background

This one I just found while trying to upload the last one...

Now when we were dating every now and then I would get a sweet picture like this or this

 so when I get a new picture message from him I was thinking it would be some sweet little quote ( he sent me this when we were dating)....

Not even close....

Oh but don't worry today it gets better...

  

 I was having a bad day and called him crying cause I couldn't find a parking space before class (one thing after another you know) and ever time I would see some one leaving some one who just pulled in to the school parking lot would get it which lead to me being late for class even though I was at the school 15 minuets early... (why don't college campuses EVER have enough parking???) 

Anyways... that has nothing to do with anything except I am still annoyed...

But I calm down and got to class and get this picture.... Of course with the a little message from him saying I love you...

An this one ... It was just for fun I guess...

True love right?

Weekend Review

Hey Everyone! I am linking up here. I didn't take to many pictures of my self... aka none... But I had a fabulous weekend. My cousins little boy turned one this week so we spent a lot of our time with him. He is seriously the cutest little thing. My Sister and her Fiance make amazing cakes and they made Little Kody's first cake. Isn't it the cutest thing?

 Kody was not afraid to dig right in but right after was not very happy with the results... 

So maybe I took one picture I had just come from work and school all day so I'm a little gross...

Don't judge me :)

 Saturday we spent the day with some of our good friends from out of town. We had a BBQ and we were tasked with bringing the desert (my friends know that I a horrible cook so this is our permanent assignment around these parts). Jon wanted to do something different so we combined our baking powers and came up with this amazing cake...

Better Than Sex Cake

It is seriosuly so easy and incredibly delicious we found the recipe here... I don't know if it really was better than sex BUT it was pretty darn close....

INGREDIENTS

• 1 box Devil’s Food Cake
• 1 8-oz tub cool whip
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 bottle caramel ice cream topping
• 1 package Heath bar pieces (found in the baking aisle by the chocolate chips)

DIRECTIONS

1. Cook Devil’s food cake in a 9 x 13 inch pan, according to package directions and let it cool.
2. In a large bowl, combine caramel and sweetened condensed milk.
3. Using the end of a wooden spoon, poke holes in the cake every couple of inches. Alternatively, you can use a fork to poke holes.
4. Pour the caramel/sweetened condensed milk over the top of the cake so that it fills all of the holes.
5. Spread Cool Whip over the top of the cake.
6. Sprinkle Heath bar pieces on top.
7. Enjoy! PS: Store leftovers in the refrigerator.