May This Be My Prayer

Healthy Food, Healthy Life

Chris and I have had two pretty uneventful weeks. We have managed to relax and just spend time together recently, which is fine by me!

I am always striving to cook us healthier meals, especially ones that will help keep my crohns under control. I recently made Greek kabobs and they were a hit! They tasted amazing, however, since we don't have a grill I had to cook them inside. Unfortunately they were smokey and our whole apartment filled up with smoke. At least the fire detector never went off cause we opened all the windows and turned on all the fans. So it looks like it will be a while before we get to enjoy this dish again.

I'm getting ready to head off to Knoxville for the weekend to see the musical version of Mary Poppins with my parents and good friend Kristen. I am really excited, even though I HATE leaving Chris. Even just for one night(makes me so incredibly appreciative for military families)! Hope you have a great weekend!

An Oscar Winning Performance

We had such a fantastic weekend! Saturday evening we went downtown to celebrate our friend Kasey's birthday. We had a good time, minus trying to find parking which was a nightmare!

 

  

On Sunday, we got to use part of my birthday present. You might remember that Chris had gotten me a super cool present where we were going to get to have a private cooking and wine class. Unfortunately, the place never called me back to schedule, so Groupon refunded the money and I got tickets to go rock climbing and a few other things I'm looking forward to doing. So we decided to go rock climbing!

 

 

I'm not going to lie, I thought I would be way better at this than Chris. Too bad I couldn't have been more wrong. It was a little rough for me, but my hubby rocked it out (no pun intended).

 

We took a quick class on belaying so we could make sure the other didn't fall. It was a great trust activity. Then we started climbing! I did really well on the easy walls and made it to the top on one more difficult one. Chris made it to the top of a bunch and then tried this super hard one and did really well!

 

It was so much fun and a great workout, but holy cow...my arms are so sore today!

 

Last night, we went to an Oscar's party at the Corks. We had fantastic food, fun, and the ladies got dressed up so that was nice too! All of the food was great, but I thought these were adorable!

 

I made guacamole bruschetta which was a huge hit! 

 

We had these super cute cookies.

 

 

And yummy strawberry shortcake kabobs.

 

We played Oscar BINGO...in case you were wondering, I won first place and my hubby won second. The Oscar ballot was fun too...my mom won by a landslide!

 

Watching the red carpet, trying to see Michelle in the grand stands.



 

The ladies all dressed up so pretty!

 

Love him!

 

This was one of the most eventful weekends we have had in a while, but it was so much fun! Love my husband, family, and good friends!

Homemade Happiness

We had a pretty uneventful week here at the Gardner house. Our schedules at work kept us pretty busy. I am finally starting to feel better and the weather is warming up...which means it is time for me to start running again. Not so excited about that, but I paid the money for the half marathon so gosh darn it, I am training to run it.

 

Chris and I did have fun making some good dinners this week. We made homemade pretzels which is no easy feat. Well, actually, it is pretty easy, just time consuming and it makes a ton of dishes. Good thing my husband is such a good dish doer!

 

 

After Chris spent a long time mixing and kneading the dough, I remembered we could have used my amazing KitchenAid Mixer...oops! Make the dough, roll it out, dip it in an egg wash, and fold it like a pretzel.

 

15 minutes in the oven and yummy, yummy, yummy!

 

The looked amazing and tasted great as well. We will definitely be making these again, just with the assistance of the mixer.

 

Tonight I made Summer Corn Cakes and Avocado Salsa. It is pretty healthy and tastes fantastic.

 

We have some exciting things coming up in the next few weeks and I can't wait to share soon!

Sweet Sweet Surprise

When I got home from work on Monday, exhausted and ready to just relax, I saw these beautiful flowers on the table. The card was from my sweet inlaws! They sent me get well flowers. What

 a sweet surprise, and it made me smile!

 

 

It was also an awesome reason for me to use my new camera I got for Christmas and my birthday!

 

So pretty! 

 



 

I am starting to finally feel better, although I still feel weak and my stomach is still bothering me. I have a follow up with my GI doctor on Thursday so hopefully he will have some answers for me. So thankful that I am overall okay and I thank God that my husband and Mrs. Pamela took such great care of me while I was sick!

Our Week - Not For the Weak

This past week was one of the craziest weeks we have had since we have been married. The first part of the week started out great, except that I had a cold that kept getting worse. On Thursday, I got really sick and ended up in the emergency room. I was admitted to the hospital and was kept there for two days. Chris was amazing and so helpful and Mrs. Pamela came to visit me which was awesome because she is so good at making you feel better! The doctors still aren't exactly sure what happened, but the conclusion is that it was a symptom of crohn's and I will be doing follow up tests with my GI doctor for a few weeks. While I am still feeling pretty crappy, I am extremely happy to be home and on the mend.

Needless to say, we didn't really do anything fun or take any pictures this week. However, I wanted to share this cute collage of Zeppelin...who is currently cuddling with me while Chris is at work.

 

I am so thankful for my husband who held my hand and was there for me during this whole process. It was scary and exhausting, but he never let me see his worry. He is so strong and I thank God daily for him!

 

Here's to feeling better and new adventures soon!

Winter Fun

It has been a crazy few weeks. Not because anything too out of the ordinary has happened, but mostly because I have really been struggling the past two weeks with crohns. I have a doctor's appointment on Thursday, so hopefully my doctor can figure out what has been going on with my body. It has taken a very unfortunate toll on my running so I am really hoping I can bounce back strong this week...my half marathon is in less than 12 weeks - YIKES!!!

 

Work has been great. I am absolutely loving what I do, although the pay cut I took to get it can be scary at times. However, we are choosing to trust in the fact that God has this all under control. One of the awesome things about my job is that we are the bank of the Predators, Nashville's NHL team. I won two tickets in a contest at work for some great seats for the 2nd game of the season.

 

Chris has never been a big sports person, so it was interesting to take him and he had a good time. It was very cold in the arena, so I was so glad I had my awesome new scarf I got from my best friend for Christmas...it is so warm!

 

 

Our seats were great! We were only about 16 rows from the ice. Not too shabby for free seats!

 

 

Tennessee weather is seriously so crazy. We had some really bad storms with tornados on Tuesday night (which Chris and I slept through). It was in the high 60's on Wednesday and Thursday, but rainy, and then on Saturday morning, we woke up to snow. And today, one day later, I ran outside. Crazy weather I tell ya - I think that's why I'm starting the feel the start of a cold coming on.

 

I love snow. It really paints such a great picture of God's love and forgiveness for us because it makes everything look so fresh and clean.

 

I am excited about this week and I'm hoping the weather will stay warm so I can keep running outside. It is much nicer than running on a treadmill!