Sweet joys of home

I am sure that all of you have a soft spot for your home town no matter how quaint or industrial its appearance. The memories and people you grew up with are irreplaceable!

I grew up in Mount Vernon, Iowa, a small quaint bedroom community to Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. I have many fond memories of getting to the north side of town on my bike "Where ALL of my friends lived!" and working my first job at the uptown Ben Franklin store where everything was priced with a sticker.

My childhood home, the magnolia tree on the right is one of my favorite things!

A few weeks ago Jon and I went to visit my family as I previously posted HERE.

 On Saturday morning my folks were getting ready to leave on a visit to some friends in Florida, so we went out for brunch uptown before they left for the airport at a newer cafe called Skillet. It is great food, and a cute atmosphere.

These owners certainly had a big vision for the space, because while growing up in MV the cafe was always a dive bar called Randall's and it was not a family friendly place, so I am sure it took a lot of TLC to get it to its clean and vintage looking state.

My husband and dad!

My mom and I :)

YUM!! My mom and I split the Veggie omelet!!

There is a great coffee shop next door called Fuel, they also sell baked goods and have an array of vintage and local handmade goods for sale, which I love!

MV is also known by tourists for the Lincoln Cafe, which is a gourmet restaurant that serves lunch and dinner. A wonderful selection of seasonal foods and you can bring your own wine, for a cork fee.

They have really thought of everything, they own a Wine bar  just up the street so you can have appetizers there and bring your bottle of wine to the cafe when your table is ready.

If you're near eastern Iowa you should check Mount Vernon out lots of fun shops, boutiques, and great food!

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While home we also got in a few quick visits with Jon's brother Aaron and his wife Katie! We miss them and their crazy dogs! --Lily their big black lab is at my feet : )

And we had an adventure with our good friends Erik and Amy Triggs at a place that will remain nameless : ) It is just too fun!

Love spending time with my brother Grant and his wife Whitney and the Triggs', God's love is truly in their lives and for that I am grateful!

The Ladies: Amy, me, and Whitney (another sister-in-law!)

 

Amy and Erik!

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I am looking forward to this weekend though because a new friend who is become a great friend is turning 40!! Wahoo, Tricia Asche, Happy Birthday week!!

Paul and Tricia!
(Jon works with Paul at Bobcat)

I have to get working on her gift....

enjoy,

Liz

It's a Leap Year! Happy Birthday Dad!

So, today my dad becomes a teenager, 13 or 52 for those of you not familiar with Leap Year babies!!

He is an amazing man after God's heart and I am blessed to call him my Dad!

Yep, that's me :)

So for a number of birthdays I have told my dad I would make him some art...well my realism skills aren't that great, but I am putting myself out there for the enjoyment of my dad! 

Here is the start of my tri-panel landscape of the Grand Canyon for my Pops! 

The picture is from our family trip to the National Park when I was in middle school.

  

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!
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Recently my husband and I went to Iowa to visit our families. We had a great time and got to see our grandparents along the way!

 My Grandpa Horick who is turning 90 in May hadn't been doing well, so I am glad we got to spend some quality time with him and fortunately he has gotten better. 
He is wonderful!

This is my Grandma Horick, my Mom's mom, love her!

We were also able to visit Jon's Grandma and Grandpa Schaad after Grandma had surgery to remove some cancer.

She is doing well and we are praying for her recovery and Chemo treatment to go smoothly, God is faithful! (Photo from Christmas 2011)

We miss our family in Iowa and are thankful for every visit we have with them even when it takes 8 hours to see them! :)

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We brought back a project from Iowa!!

A dresser that was my grandparents...it will be my first furniture painting project! Wish me luck...and feel free to give any tips toward furniture painting success!!

Well, that's all for now...

enjoy.
Liz

A few quick thoughts

So I have been quite busy lately, and it isn't showing signs of stopping any time soon.

Life is good and God is great.

Here are a few pictures I took during Fargo's foggy season...
4 straight days of fog and frosted trees, GORGEOUS!

Weeping Willows are my favorite!!

I hope your week is going well too...maybe you're just as busy :)

It's times like these that I am thankful for the small things, and God's provision in my life.


enjoy.
Liz

Wednesday and waiting...

I have ordered my new pictures for the basement wall and upstairs, and now I am waiting for them to arrive...they have been shipped, so now their just trying my patience! :) SO EXCITED!

I used Mpix, as per recommendation from another blog that I follow, Whatever, love this blog, seriously have been following it almost daily for almost 3 years now!

Meg Duerksen and her good friends Kimberlee, and Ashley host a Craft Weekend and I REALLY want to go sometime in the near future. So, if you're interested let me know! It is kind of expensive, but you know what I say to that, my husband goes on fishing trips, hunting trips, and all kinds of manly outings...now here is my chance. Now if only I had a girl friend or two that loved crafting, chatting, antiquing, and all around girlie fun to go with...PLEASE help me out on this one! I would love to go, I am just not sure who else would love to go too?!

Don't get me wrong, I love my husband and am grateful that he pursues his passions, it's just that I am elated that now one of my passions has an outing! 

Ooh, I should also mention that I would love to go to Artfest in Port Townsend, Washington. This creative/art gathering I found through another blog I love following, artist Michelle Allen, check her out pretty wonderful things!

I bought this guy from Michelle two years ago

Anyhow, here is a sneak peek at the basement wall.

Hope to give you the full view soon!

enjoy.
Liz

Oh, so delicious

Recently I've looked for new and tasty ways to eat more vegetables.
And to my surprise one evening on Pinterest (which I am slowly becoming addicted to :D)
I came across my friend Ashley's post of a Green Monster, Spinach Smoothie.

Knowing Ashley I thought it would be a healthy drink, she's an avid runner, and currently getting her Masters to be a Nurse Practitioner, smart chica! I was very opptimistic that it would taste pretty good when I saw it had peanut butter in it, and if you know me you know I LOVE peanut butter!

Ash and I, it's been too long since I've seen this great friend!

Well it turns out that the smoothie is De-licious, and doesn't have any spinach flavor, the spinach takes on the flavor of the banana and peanut butter you combine with it!

Next week I am going to try some different frozen fruit and see how it tastes...


So here it goes, you should give it a try, I have had one for breakfast, 3 different days this week!

Ingredients: Frozen sliced Banana, Peanut butter, Milk (low calorie almond milk),
Vanilla Greek Yogurt, & Spinach.

1 Frozen Banana (slice before freezing), 1 Tablespoon of peanut butter

NEXT: Add 1/2 Cup of Vanilla Greek Yogurt, and 1 Cup of Milk (Vanilla Almond Milk)

Add 4 cups of spinach on top

And blend: I set mine to the Puree setting
Sometimes pulsing it to get all the spinach to combined,
or mixing it to really stir the liquid.

Blend until it is a darker green color and most of the spinach bits are gone.

Pour into a 16-20 oz. glass

I use a straw to drink it, that way I can stir it occasionally. The smoothie tastes like a peanut butter and banana shake, only it is an awesome green color. :)

Ahhhhh, healthy yet tastes good! If you want to check out any of Iowagirleats other reciepes, HERE is a link.

Green Monster, Spinach Smoothie
Serves 1
Ingredients:
1 frozen sliced banana
1 Tablespoon peanut butter
1/2 cup 0% Vanilla Greek yogurt (Chobani)
1 cup Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze (or other kind of milk)
4 cups baby spinach (or more, or less)

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.

Nutritional stats:
350 calories, 10g fiber, 21g protein

** My husband and I attended Central College in Pella, Iowa. There was my shout out GO DUTCH!

enjoy.

Liz

Bundled up inside

The cold has set in and this Iowa girl is fairing well, although, I do try to stay inside as MUCH as possible. :)

Piper, Wilson, and Chloe in the yard...so obedient! :)

On our last few days of warmer weather Jon was shoveling while I snapped some pics of our dogs in the yard. If you don't have dogs, or aren't partial to them that is ok. However we LOVE our dogs and think they're pretty fun, and sometimes make us laugh at unexpected times…

Wilson, the young guy of the gang

As the wind chill picked up during the middle of this week the dogs couldn't stay outside for every long, so they get pretty antsy when we come home.

 Well one evening I came home, let them in the yard, fed them, and went inside. Jon then came home about 20 minutes later and let them into the yard again, well they loved this and he began to shovel some snow in the harsh Fargo wind chill (-35)...crazy, meticulous guy!

A few minutes passed and as I looked on from inside the house, and Jon from the drive way we could see the dogs had slowed down and weren't enjoying the weather AT ALL!

Wilson's paws seemed to bother him as he walked out of sync, at times holding a single paw up in disgust at the frozen feeling I am sure he was experiencing. I looked to see if the girls, Piper & Chloe, were experiencing the same thing and I was over come with tears of laughter!

They too were slowing down their play and reacting to the freezing temperatures. Piper with great discomfort shown on her face and a paw raised; and Chloe slowly holding up one front paw, half way sitting down, began raising her other front paw, now trying to balance and keep off of the ground, oh what a sight!

Jon, quickly let them inside to their heated garage, where they went straight to their dog houses, I am sure to lick their frozen paws. No worries, they are fine, but have provided Jon and I with several random bouts of laughter these past couple of days!

Our setters are the best of friends!

Here's the old beauty of the bunch, Chloe, our French Brittany.

Things inside are progressing, but not quite ready for a reveal, as I have felt under the weather recently. I’m feeling more like myself today though, hoping this cold goes away!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! And will someone in Iowa please go sledding for me!

enjoy.
Liz

And so it goes

Life has really picked up around here; things have been fun and the good kind of busy, so I am not complaining!

Jon surprised me on Friday and purchased Miranda Lambert tickets for Saturday evening...I might have pushed him a little bit by saying it could be for our anniversary. Which by the way was in November, celebrating our 5TH YEAR of blissful marriage. I love my husband!! God has truly blessed me with a wonderful, strong man after His heart! Don't get me wrong we do have our down falls, I mean we listen to Country music, right! :)

We were blessed to have some friends from Iowa come and visit during our Anniversary, so the delay in celebration has paid off! We went for dinner at Granite City and then off to the concert, I know many of you are probably gagging at the fact that we went to a country music concert, but don't judge! I was a blast; she sure is a sassy lady with a strong voice. Jerrod Neimann and Chris Young were both performing as well; Jon really enjoyed Chris and his talented band.

Jerrod Neimann

Miranda Lambert & her pink guitar!

Chris Young

We did hang up some frames over the weekend in the basement...now to print some pictures, I am kind of a processor when it comes to decorating, so hang in there the end result will be worth your wait. :)

For now, I am off again; I start a new part-time job tomorrow at Scheel's Home and Hardware, in the home accent area here in Fargo (it was the original sports store!). I am excited for the opportunity and the discount that will follow (so is Jon). They have some fabulous furniture and decor...hunting items at the sports stores for Jonny!

enjoy.
Liz