Ohio State BUCKEYES!

Anyone who lives in the state of Ohio (or Michigan *blech*) knows about the big rivalry coming up this weekend!

Ohio State -vs- Michigan

And of course, the Bucks are going to kick some Wolverine butt! If we were living in Ohio right now, everyone would be talking about "the game", asking who's going up to Columbus to tailgate, and who's having a party to watch on tv. There'd be people sporting Ohio State buckeye gear everywhere everyday, and if you could get anything you wanted with a Buckeye logo on it.. salt&pepper shakers, purses, lamps, and even checker sets.

Being here in Washington really puts a burden on our Buckeye Spirit every fall. Most people don't understand how we could enjoy watching a COLLEGE football team rather than a Pro team, let alone understand the crazyness that is Buckeye fans!

So this year, we decided to surround ourselves with at least a little OSU pride... we made Buckeyes! (For those that don't know, it is a chocolately peanut buttery ball of amazingness that looks like a buckeye)

Here's the recipe I used:

This recipe makes about 6 dozen! But you can cut it down if you want less, I just always make this many because they don't last long with my family/friends. lol.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups peanut butter
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 cups confectioners sugar
2-3 bags semisweet chocolate chips (I usually buy/melt 3 and use the extra to have chocolate covered strawberries!)

Directions:
1. Mix together the peanut butter, butter, vanilla and confectioners sugar.

The dough should be about the consistency of sugar cookie dough. Roll into 1 inch balls and place on a waxed paper-lined cookie sheet.

2. Put a toothpick in the top of each ball and chill in freezer until firm, usually takes about 30 minutes.

3. Melt chocolate chips in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water (You can also use a double boiler or crockpot). Stir frequently until smooth.

4. Dip the frozen peanut butter balls in chocolate holding onto the toothpick. Leave a small portion of peanut butter showing at the top to make them look like Buckeyes.

Put back on the cookie sheet and refrigerate or freeze until serving.

Make sure not to take the peanut butter balls out of the freezer until you are ready to dip them soon after, otherwise they will sweat and the chocolate won't stick!

These are really rich, but so good!

Friends make the world go round

After being sick for 2 weeks, this girl got JUST the news she needed. My best friend Erin is coming out to Washington to visit us! I'm sooooo excited about her trip. She lands December 9th around noon. And doesn't leave until 6 days later on the 15th. That's 6 whole days of Best Friend time!

Ah, I cant wait!

Since, it's Christmastime, we will make another one of these.. like we did last year:

And we will *attempt* these again (only less burnt of course):

Other things I have planned:

*A day in Seattle, consisting of meandering through Pike Place market, Seeing the Space Needle, maybe touring the super cool library that's there (I've never been there), and eating at a hole-in-the-wall classic PNW cafe :)

And..

Yeah I need help with ideas :)

Here's some info to help you out..

Erin and I love the following things:

*books

*music

*FOOD

*fun.

Pretty basic eh?

So let's here some suggestions..

So Sick

Had to take a trip to the ER last night.. I was having a really hard time breathing and my nebulizer albuterol treatments were not helping. And I was coughing so hard my abdomen was starting to cramp... so off i went.

My heart rate was 154. I just could not stop coughing, and I hadn't taken a breathing treatment since several hours before that so they were concerned about the heart rate being THAT high.

They did a chest X-Ray, an EKG, gave me fluids for dehydration, 3 highdose breathing treatments, steriods, antibiotics, a pap smear, a urine sample, did blood tests, an ultrasound, more steriods, more antibiotics, and more fluids. (All the while I'm still hacking).

They were afraid I was having an eptopic pregnancy (I'm not, baby is just fine and where he/she should be), and also afraid because they could not get my heart rate to come down.

Pneumonia and asthma do NOT mix. I was released 8 hours later with steriods and antibiotics. There's not really much they can do other than treat the symptoms.

I get exhausted just walking to the bathroom, My voice is pretty much gone because vocal cords have been traumatized from all the coughing. And the steriods are making me sick because I can't keep very much food down. It's just a mess. I need to get healthy. I'm only 5 1/2 weeks along and baby needs mama healthy so baby can be healthy.

I don't really know what I wanted from you guys when I posted this, I just need prayers and encouragement I guess, cause at this point I feel like my body is giving up on me. And maybe I'm giving up on it. Just want to be healthy and fast!

Starbucks Holiday Drinks, Buy One Get One FREE!

Starbucks is running a very sweet deal right now, literally! When you buy one holiday drink, you get another FREE! This deal is going to continue from today (November 18) until Sunday (November 21) and you must buy your drink between 2pm-5pm.

The drinks eligable include:

*Caramel Brulee Latte

*Peppermint Mocha

*Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha

*Peppermint Hot Chocolate

*Gingerbread Latte

*Egglog Latte

*Caramel Brulee Frappucino

*Peppermint Mocha Frappucino

YUM! Just what a pregnant girl needs!

I also *LOVE* their commerical for the promotion, so adorable!

Hope some of you are able to cash in on this deal this weekend! We're actually supposed to get snow in the lowlands here in the PNW this weekend. A SBux Holiday Drink would be a perfect compliment to curling up with blanket by the window and watching the snowflakes fall :)

Nifty Thrifty - Monogrammed Christmas Wreath

After reading about one of my best friend's latest craft adventure, I decided I must follow in her footsteps and make a monogrammed wreath of my own!

Click to see Kellee's wreath

Here's mine:

My wreath's total cost ended up being FIVE DOLLARS! That's 20-25% of what a typical 24in wreath costs. Yes, I'm pretty proud of that.

I used suction-cup hooks to hang it on the door. They were $2 for a 2pck.

This is my first "Nifty Thrifty" that I have put together using NOTHING from the thrift store. And still managed to save a lot.

The plain 24in. wreath is from Target, I bought a tube of mini-bulb ornaments there as well for $1. (They were in the front in the little dollar section of knick-knacks every Target store has). And the white ribbon I used to make the bow, I already had at home.

The monogram is made totally out of materials I already had at home. I used cardboard from a diaper box to make the actual "D". Oh, and duct tape.. CAMO duct tape at that. haha. (left over from Jeff's homecoming). After I had the shape I wanted, I covered it in Modpodge, then ripped up scrapbook paper scraps (black, white, and red), and then another coat of Modpodge. Originally I had planned for that to be it's finished look.. but my OCD kicked in and I couldn't stand that it didn't have some sort of pattern. So I wrapped silver ribbon all around it (The kind you tie to balloons). And then stuck some scrapbook stickers on it spelling "D-A-V-I-S".

 mini ornaments, the "D", and the bow are all hot-glued onto the wreath. And WAAAAA-LAA!

DONE!

ABC's of Me

A few people tagged me in their "ABCs of Me" on facebook, and since I honestly just don't want to think about (or blog about) our house troubles today... I decided I'll just WOW you with some details on the *oh-so-exciting* life of Katelyn.

A - Age: Twenty

B - Bed size: King, I love it!

C - Chore you hate: Laundry, BLECH!

D - Dog's name: Luna Ellen (her nicknames include: Lunagirl, Loonie Toonie, Lunatic, etc.)

E- Essential start your day item(s): toothbrush, water, bagel

F - Favorite color: Yellow

G- Gold or Silver: Silver

H - Height: 5'3"

I - Instruments you play: the piano, *sort of*

J - Job: none for now, just enjoying being at mom with my munchkin.

K - Kids: Jack (14mo.), and baby bean (still cookin')

L - Living Arrangements: Renting a house, and we have two of our friends sharing our extra room. 

M - Music you love: paramore, little big town, frank sinatra, etc.

N - Nicknames: Kate, Taterbee, Katie, etc.

O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: most recently, I stayed overnight for observation after a car accident in summer 2009.

P - Pet Peeve: cocky men.

Q - Quote from a movie: "How Yeeerrr Doin'!" - Respuchia from Norbit. Gosh, I love that movie. haha.

R - Right or left handed : Right.

S - Siblings: Maxwell Owen (14) and Avery Elizabeth (6).

T - Time you wake up: 7ish am.

U - Underwear: ?

V - Vegetable you dislike: peas. YUCK!

W - Workout Style: what is a "workout style"? When I go to the gym I usually do the elliptical and stretch a lot. So I'm laid back, I guess?

X - X-rays you've had: back, ankles, arm, mouth, foot, lungs.

Y - Yummy food you make: Apple/Snicker Salad. YUM!

Z - Zoo-the best place to visit: The otters :)

West Coast List

After reading my friend Kellee's "Colorado List" of things she and her hubby want to do while they are in Colorado, I decided to make us a "Washington List" (It'll really be a "West Coast List" because some stuff we wanna do is outside Washington)

We've already been here a while, and already done quite a few of the things we wanted to do while we're here. But I'm going to include those anyways and just mark them off already. (Mostly, because when all is said and done, I'll be making a scrapbook of this list w/ pictures)

So here we go! (I'm sure I'll add to this later).

West Coast List

Olympia:

1. Hands On Children's Museum (October 2010)

2. Nisqually Wildlife Refuge (April 2009, first time)

3. Arts Walk (October 2010)

4. Procession of the Species (April 2009)

5.

Seattle:

1. Space Needle (June 2008, first time)

2. Pike Place Market (June 2008, first time)

3. Ride the Ducks Tour

4. Underground Tour

Tacoma:

1. Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium July 2010

2. Museum Of Glass

3. LeMay Museum at Marymount

4. Children's Museum of Tacoma (November 5, 2010)

5. Tacoma Dome

Oregon:

1. Multnomah Falls (February 2009, first time)

2. OMSI Portland (February 2009)

3.

Other:

1. Mount Rainier

2. Skamania Lodge (February 2009, first time)

3. Leavenworth, WA

4. Northwest Trek (June 2008, first time)

5. Stick my toes in the Pacific Ocean

6. Solo Point, Fort Lewis (April 2009, first time)

7. Redwood Forest

(first time) -indicates we've been there once or more times since then

Thing 1 and Thing 2

In case you haven't heard, I soon will have good reason to buy these:

Because we are...

EXPECTING MUNCHKIN NUMBER TWO!

We think I'm about 5-6 weeks along, making the due date around July 15, 2011. 

WonderWoman Wednesday 11-10-10

I met today's featurette through the bloggy world. Readers, give a warm welcome to Mrs. Monkey from A Monkey in the Navy! I think her life is crazy interesting (you will too!), and she's even more so. Mrs. Monkey is a Navy wife and she and her hubby (known as Monkey.. what else?!) are the cutest thing! See?

She's also got a super sense of humor, and mad graphic design/drawing skills. Here's a illustration of "where Monkey goes" when he's underway. (She got sick of people not being satisfied with her OPSEC safe answer "the ocean")

One of the coolest things about this girl, in my opinion... is that she's a dancer! Like, part of a dance company, dancer. (I don't really know the correct terminology). She posts often about the dance outings of herself and (when he's not passing by Adventure Island, Monkey). And I have great news! She has most recently been spending her days doing this..

But no need to daydream anymore!

  Because her Monkey is HOME as of last week! Yaaaaay!

Congratulations Mrs. Monkey!

I think it's time we hear from her, don't you?

1. What is the name of your blog and how did you come up with it? The name of my blog is "A Monkey in the Navy". For most of our relationship I've called hubs "Monkey". Even when I was talking about him, not just to him. After a while it kind of caught on and people would call him Monkey when they were talking to me about him. Like "How's your Monkey?" "When do you get to see your Monkey again?" I tried to insist that only I get to call him Monkey, but it didn't work. haha. Which ties into the second question.

2. Mrs. Monkey, what made you want to start a blog? Originally I started this blog for his family right after we got married, to keep them updated on all the new Navy stuff. He didn't really keep in touch with his family as much as he should. :) But in his defense, whenever he wasn't busy he was trying to get time with his new wife. ;) I became the conduit to keep his mom and the rest of his and my family updated. I decided that it would just be much easier if I could put it all in one place so all our family and his friends could go and check in to find out what's going on with Monkey and the Navy.

3. What is your blog about? Originally, it was just about him and the Navy and updates like when he would be back on the West Coast. How his school was going. His accomplishments. Things like that. We both post, actually. I would get a text from him with some news and I would post about it right away, then later that night he would follow up with more details. Then when he was gone more it became a place to post my feelings and frustrations and celebrations relating to Navy life. When he gets back from being underway he'll post some sea stories. I purposely leave out some stories in his "Monkey Mail" so he can talk about them.
After I had been blogging for a few months my google reader started suggesting these other blogs to me. This is how I found out that there was the whole network of MilSpouse bloggers! It was really great, every one was so supportive and reading there stories really helped me keep it together and gain perspective and learn from their experiences. I wanted to be a part of that so I updated my blog.a little bit and started to post more about my feelings, and myself so other milspouses could get to know me. I still post all about Monkey and everything Monkey related, but now I also put in more about myself and my life as well. The funny thing is that most of this has happened recently while he's been underway so he hasn't even seen all the changes. :) He'll have a lot of catching up to do when he gets back!

4. How often do you post? I post a few times a week. When he's on shore he'll post a few times a month too. He's typically super busy and it's hard for him to do it very regularly, but whenever something really cool or funny happens, I have him write about it because I love how his personality comes out in his posts and I know our friends and family like to read his stories. When he's actually home...meaning, down here in Oregon - lucky just inside his liberty radius, it slows down a little, obviously. :)

5. Share a favorite post of yours. Why is it your favorite? Well, it's actually two posts. They were kind of born at the same time. I had this week right before he left this last time where I was really getting mopey. The pre-deployment anxiety. I was trying to make myself feel better so I wrote this blog entry,"So lets break this down", where I broke down how much time he has left in the Navy (assuming he doesn't re-enlist) into smaller pieces so it was easier to manage. This was as much for me as it was for his family. Especially his mom. I know she really misses him. After I wrote it, being the graphic designer that I am, I decided it would be funny to go one step further and make an infographic to illustrate this breakdown of time. Again, in order to make myself feel better I purposely made it disproportional to try and make the time left look smaller that it really is. I'm not sure if I accomplished that, but, it was a pretty cute graphic. 
The second is the post right before that.I had this idea in my head for a long time. "Where do they go?" I constantly get people who ask me "Where does he go". Of course, even if I did know, I couldn't tell them. All I can say is "The ocean", to which people usually reply "No really... where in the ocean?" or "Which ocean?" Which is countered with "The big one." Most people get frustrated with me at this point. So, I decided to illustrate a very detailed map of exactly where they go when they are underway. Or, at least, where I pretend they go.

6. What blog do you visit the most (besides your own)? I don't think I have one that I read more than others. I have all my blogs, Milspouse and otherwise, all in my google reader so i just read them as they come in. I subscribe to all kinds of blogs so i couldn't even give you an example. I will always jump to Post Secret and Photoshop disasters first though. :) The Milspouse blogs that I enjoy the most though, are the ones that I can relate to the most. The posts about dealing with deployment and the milspouses that have similar sitiations to me. Such as being in the Navy, newly married, no kids or not getting to live with hubs. I read all kinds though. Everybody's story is unique, I enjoy following everyone's personal journeys, and I learn a lot from the more 'seasoned' wives, while I feel comforted that I'm not the only one going crazy after he's been gone for only a couple of weeks. I have few of my favorites on my blogs page, but honestly I've been really bad about keeping that updated. But, to every one out there, if you grab my button and let me know, I will most definitely return the favor!

7. Describe your blog in one word? Wow, that's hard. It's so many things. But I guess it's all about the... Adventure. :)

8. Anything else you want to share? Just a little tip to help keep things straight. :) Usually, my posts are in green and his are in blue. Sometimes either of us will forget to color the post. Special post I'll leave grey because I think it's prettier. I'm working on getting the auto signature at the bottom of the posts too, bit I think it helps to get in the right voice in your head if you know who wrote the post before you start reading.

I TOLD you she was interesting! If you haven't already head on over to Mrs. Monkey's blog A Monkey in the Navy and check her out. Say hi and make sure to tell her you found her because she was featured as a WonderWoman on Livin' Our Love Song!

If you want Your blog to be featured on WonderWoman Wednesday, or would like to reccommend a blog to be featured, email katelynedavis@yahoo.com. I would love to hear from you and about you!



Ohio Photos

Here's my "the best of" photos from my Ohio trip last week. 

The Chillicothe sign on Main Street (edited using Picnik)

My beloved Bob Evans, going in my kitchen/dining area

My mama's house, LOVE it. Notice Titan, relaxing in front of the firewood.

Miss Aye and Jack on the slide at the City Park

Back to Basics

My life is too hectic to keep up with everything right now, especially if I'm going to re-enroll next quarter. So from now on:

-I won't worry about posting here everyday

-"The Rainshine Boutique" will run on a "if I have time" basis

-"WonderWoman Wednesday" won't be EVERY Wednesday

-I will only turn on the TV after doing my chores for the day

-facebook will NOT take up hours each day any longer

This will continue until human cloning is easily possible. Thank you.

Home again, home again

Got back yesterday afternoon!

After a WONDERFUL night's sleep in my own bed, Jack and I woke up and he ran wild in the house. He was just so happy to be home! We went to the grocery this morning and I've been a cleaning machine since I returned. And NOT because the boys didn't keep it nice while I was gone, but because I just felt so weird the past week not cleaning every day. So our kitchen is *perfecto*! 

Well... not perfecto, because the floor in the kitchen and living room STILL isn't repaired! it's been about 2 1/2 weeks and my patience is thinning very quickly. Jeff and I got sick of everything out of place and put the fridge, stove/oven, and cabinet back where they belong. We've also decided that if we get to a month (since the leak) and have heard nothing about when it will be fixed, we are sitting down and having a serious talk with our landlord. Until then we are just praying that it doesn't come to that.

Changing the subject to something cheerier, I'm pretty excited about some of the pictures I took in Ohio. I wanted photos that would remind us of home when we looked at them. So... corn fields, Corcorans' farm (which won't be Corcoran's much longer), Mama's house, Bob evans, etc. Most will be scattered in frames throughout our house. But I'll post them here for you to see too :)

Tootleloo! Gotta print off some coupons so when Jack wakes up we can run to the store, come back, and fix dinner before the boys get home and start asking what we're having.