Scrabble Coasters

This is of course a Pinterest find and creation! I meant to post this just after Christmas, but forgot. I didn't post it before Christmas because I didn't want recipients of this gift to find out about it before they received it.

So if you don't know me all that well, I'm a huge fan of word games: Bananagrams, Boggle, Words with Friends, Blurt, and of course Scrabble. I fell in love with this crafty idea the minute I saw it and got to work getting my hands on some tiles. How does one find a gagillion Scrabble tiles not attached with the actual boardgame?! Ebay. I found a lot of 300+ random/old/rejected Scrabble tiles. Not too shabby! So I purchased those, went to Wally World to get some cork pieces for the bottom and used some craft glue I had at home.

Now the ones I've seen online mostly use the tiles in a 5x5 square... but this was a little large and I wanted to make my tiles go longer so I could make more and have more gifts. I decided to go with 4x4 and it really is the perfect size for a coaster. Some coasters I've seen have words spelled out in them and whatnot, but I didn't have that much freedom in letter choice and didn't want to end up with any accidental four letter profanities, so I randomized each one! With the amount of tiles I had, it ended up making 5 sets of 3 each with one left over. I was hoping to get enough out of it to have a set of 4.. like normal sets of coasters, but either way they still turned out beautifully and were a big hit!

This project was SUPER easy, fast and fun to do! Please steal this idea, you won't regret it!

Hope you enjoy it! :)

-D

Happy Birthday Momma!

Today is the day my momma was born!

Mom, I'm so grateful for everything you've done for me (and for Brad & I) through the years. Thank you for raising me and putting up with me! You are a wonderful, caring, loving person and I can't imagine having anyone better to call my mom.

Hope you have a fabulous day, we love you so much!!

Love,
Brad, Dani & Oscar

This is the Stuff

this is the stuff that drives me crazy

this is the stuff that's getting to me lately

in the middle of my little mess,

i forget how big i'm blessed

this is the stuff that gets under my skin

but i've gotta trust You know exactly what you're doing

might not be what i would choose

but this is the stuff You use

so break me of impatience

conquer my frustrations

i've got a new appreciation

it's not the end of the world

On my way to work this morning, Francesca Battistelli's hit came on the radio. I've heard it a thousand times and it's catchy, sure. Before this morning it hadn't sunk into my heart though.

With a big move coming up for hubs and I, we have been house hunting, looking at cars and job searching (teacher positions) every day now for the past two weeks. It is tiring and has been accompanied by disappointments. Several houses we've been interested in have recently been leased when we get in touch with the realtor. In looking for positions, I've run into roadblocks and paperwork that keeps adding up each day. It gets  frustrating after a while and some days it just gets to me.

Not to mention having to think about when we need to start packing, when we can pick up a rental truck to load up and when we will have to say our good-byes here in NC. UGH! I've tried and tried to not think about leaving my beloved Boone and these beautiful mountains, but it creeps closer every day. (We'll be leaving mid-March)

Anyway... Thank you, God, for the reminder I needed to rest in Your love and that I'm blessed beyond measure.


-D

Hey, Let's Go Tubing!

This past weekend, Brad and I had a couple of our friends, Cory & Amanda, come visit us in Boone. Brad went to school at NCSU with both of them and I went to high school with Cory.

Cory, Amanda, Me & Hubs 

On Saturday, we decided to go out to Hawksnest for some snow tubing! (I guess it was a good thing that we got a few inches of fresh snow the day before!) Brad and Amanda had both gone before, but Cory and I hadn't. Hard to believe I lived an hour away in Hickory all my life, went to school at App state and have lived in Boone after graduating and still have never been tubing! Of course I've done the skiing/snowboarding scene, though.

Pre-Tubing! 

Anyway, we went tubing and it was a BLAST! When we got to Hawksnest for the 2:00 session it was sold out, so we hung out in the lodge and played bones & golf until our session at 4:00. Check it out...

On the conveyor lift

Cory

Bradford

Me

Amanda

Brad & Cory racing

Amanda and I racing

pooped.

Thanks, Amanda for bringing your camera!

-D

Just Because

My wonderful hubby brought me these beautiful tulips today after running some errands around town. I love how he picks out the flowers with reddish, yellowish, and orangeish tones... the colors from our wedding!

Who wouldn't love beautiful flowers (in a nice southern mason jar) on a sunny, snowy Friday?!

-D

House Hunting

Brad and I have started this past week to search online for a home to rent. We are mostly looking in the Surprise area, which is close to Luke AFB and close to some schools I am in the process of applying to (ugh for having to job search again! ha!).

Anyway, I'm writing to vent about our first disappointment in searching for a home. We both found one we absolutely LOVED and was within our price range. Tonight we got a call back from the realtor that's renting it, and someone signed a lease for it last week. Of course.

If anyone has any friends/relatives/acquaintances in the Surprise, AZ area and can recommend anything, give us a shout.

In the meantime, we will continue our searching... and leave you with the house that was almost ours to rent.

-D

Corn Dog Muffins

So, I've seen these before on Pinterest (?) and while searching new recipes on the web. I finally decided to try out a recipe for them, which I found on tasteofhome.com.

Corn Dog Muffins

Ingredients:

• 2 packages (8.5 oz each) corn muffin mix
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 can (11 oz) whole kernel corn, drained
• 5 hot dogs, chopped

Directions:

• Combine corn muffin mix and brown sugar in large bowl.
• Combine eggs and milk; stir into dry ingredients until moistened.

 

• Stir in corn and hot dogs (the batter will be thin).

• Fill paper-lined muffin cups 3/4 full.

• Bake at 400 degrees for 14-18 minutes or until golden brown.

• ENJOY!

Hubs and I completed ours with tator tots! Yum!

Approval!



The recipe says it makes about 18 of these little guys, but I was able to squeeze 20 out of it. To be honest, you could even get 2 dozen out of it if you pour a pinch less in each cup. But its just how far you want to make it go!

The next time I make them, I think I'll cut the hotdogs up a little smaller, and probably bake them a little longer. I didn't bake them for the whole 18 minutes this first time though. Aside from that we loved this recipe. It's the perfect way to get a corn dog without it being frozen from the store or fried at the fair!

I hope you enjoy them as much as we did! It's quick, super easy and a great kid's meal (in my opinon!)


-D

Lookin' back now...

Two Thousand Eleven

It was a year of firsts and a year of changes! Here we go at a brief-ish (?) glimpse:

• I finished out my first year of teaching (1st grade) out in the small town of Kinston, North Carolina

• Bradford graduated from NC State AND was commissioned into the Air Force as a 2Lt the weekend of May 14th.

• Brad and I got MARRIED (!!!) on May 21, 2011

• We traveled... a lot.
• Enjoyed our honeymoon in the Bahamas!

• Greenville became a memory as we moved all of our belongings up to Boone to live with Brad's Grandmother.

• Went with our Church to Port Henry, NY on a mission trip. (met some super people!)

• Brad met my Dad's side of the family in Ohio at the Martin Family Reunion in August.

• Oscar came to live with us.

• The Air Force moved Brad's dates from October to April then back to March.
• A friend of mine and I went to Autumn at Oz out at Beech Mountain! (a first for me)
• Brad left Boone for 2 months to go work on Hurricane clean up out at the coast. (So we had many a Skype dates!)

• I got a job substituting in Watauga (not steady, but it was better than my many failed attempts at finding a place of work).
• I got a J-O-B tutoring K-5 students at a small school in Watauga.
• My niece turned 2 years old.

• My sister is having another baby! (this time a boy, due in May!)
• A wonderful trip to our nation's capitol.

• Sarah got ENGAGED!

• Celebrating our first birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas & New Years as a MARRIED COUPLE!
• McKenna called Brad "Uncle Brad" for the first time when she needed help putting her swing together. Brad was very excited!

Was everyone else's year as eventful?! :)
-D

Congratulations Sarah & Jeff!!

This is a bit belated, but toward the end of December, a few days before the celebration of the birth of our Savior, my beautiful sister-in-law got engaged to the love of her life!

Brad and I are so excited to be gaining a brother-in-law this year in September! It will probably be our first time back in NC after moving out to Arizona (which is only a couple months away!). Anyway, congratulations Sarah & Jeff! We are so very happy for you and will be praying for you as you begin your lives together!

This post wouldn't be complete
without a nice shot of the bling!

We Love You!

-Brad & Dani

Puppy Popcorn

One of the Christmas presents Oscar got from Nana and Papaw Martin was a pack of microwave popcorn flavored like roast beef. WHAT?! Brad and I had never seen anything like this before!

So after a little shopping today, we popped up the bag for Oscar and let him go at it!

Microwaving

Finished!

Om nom nom

Yep... convinced hubs to try it.
(He had a Coke on hand just in case!)

I was obligated to take part as well...

Being a roast beef flavored treat, it tasted predominately like normal popcorn... with a funky aftertaste. I don't think hubs and I will venture to sample any more of it.

Just to be curious, has anyone else seen or heard of any other unusual dog treats like this?!

-D