My New Hair & Our Wedding Fiesta

YES --- I went out on a limb and did something crazy with my hair.  I have always been a blonde.  In the past I've put low lights in it or have done a dirty blonde color, but I've never gone this dark.  I guess you could say this was my experiment to find out if blondes really do have more fun!  ha.  

Friday night Amber and Dave, a couple from our church, put together a Marriage Celebration: Fiesta Style to celebrate Dean and I's marriage!  Some of our Creeker friends couldn't make it to our wedding so they put together this dinner party in our honor.  We had so much fun!  God has blessed us with some pretty awesome friends. Here are a few pictures from the evening.

The girls eating dinner at the BIG girl table!  

Alina and I felt honored to wear the famous aprons during clean up!

The Girl Picture

We all have done small group together and have grown close friends.  I love these ladies and treasure our experience of loving God and growing closer to him daily.  GOD ROCKS!

Dave and Amber

Dean and myself

Flex picture: take 1

Flex picture: take 2

Jonny and Alina

Jordan, Ashley and sweet Abby

Abby and Clara

LOVE making memories with this group of people!

The City Market

Dean & I made a trip to the Historic City Market on Sunday afternoon following Church.  I had never been and have always wanted to go.  I'm not sure what took me this long to go, but sure glad I made it now!  That place is a must see for Kansas cityans (I may have just made up that word) and out of towners (this word too... ha). 

Doesn't he look handsome carrying that watermelon? 

But I look pretty good carrying that bag.   -- right?  

Fresh Italian Bread we purchased at Bloom Baking Co.

Walnut Raisin Bread we also bought.

 The sandwich we made with our Italian Bread - Delicious!  I'm telling you delicious!

Ingredients:

• Turkey
• Turkey Bacon
• Fresh Avocado 
• Alfalfa Sprouts 
• Olive Oil Mayo
• And the obvious - Italian Bread

Monogram Wreath

I got this idea off Pinterest to make a wreath with my NEW last initial "S" - so I made it this weekend!  The picture below is the picture I found from Pinterest.

I figured since we currently don't own a home - we should use our initial instead of our apartment number.

Items you need:

• Wreath
• Your initial or house number
• Spray paint
• Flowers and or ribbon
• Hot Glue and Hot glue gun
• Wreath door hanger

 The finished product.

Royals Game

Dean, Garrett and I all went to the Royals vs. Red Sox game Saturday night.  It was good spending some quality time with my brother before he started back to school at KU.  The Royals winning the game with a 9-4 score was an added bonus!   The highlight was in the 6th inning with 8 runs.  What a great evening it was!

We ran into Jessie at the game!

Over 28,000 people attended the game.

Lemon Berry Sparkle

Yes, my friend Ann made up a great fabulous drink!  We call it Lemon Berry Sparkle!  So I thought I'd pass this special secret onto the rest of you.  Its 3 ingredients: Lemonade, Raspberry Crystal and Sprite.  Hope ya'll ENJOY!

Ashley, myself and Ann (the creater) gave it a whirl!

Directions

1/4 of your glass (or push the lever down for 7 seconds for a large glass- ha!) - Lemonade

2/4 of your glass - Raspberry Crystal Light

1/4 of your glass - Sprite

Long Distance

I feel so blessed to have Dean back in Lenexa with me.  Our relationship has mostly been long distance.  I graduated college a year sooner; so for one year he was still in Pittsburg America (as he would call it) while I started my job at Children's Mercy in Kansas City.  After Dean graduated we lived in the same community for a year and then he was sent to Creston, Iowa with this job.  There were mixed emotions running through both of us, what are we going to do now, does he search for another job? - But with the economy that may not be such a good idea, do I move and try and get a nursing job in Iowa, but I love my job at Mercy.  There were so many unanswered questions.  We both decided we had to put trust in the Lord.  God is the only one who knows the details of what's to come.  September rolled around and we got engaged!  So, the wedding planning began with 9 months until the big day!  We originally thought that we would continue to be long distance for the next several months after being married but God had a different plan for us.  Dean found out a week after being back to work that he was moving back to work in KC!  We get to be a "normal" newlywed couple (whatever normal is... ha) He has now been back for a little over a week and I feel like I'm on cloud 9!  Through this entire process our spiritual strength has grown with the Lord and we have grown closer together believing and trusting that his plan is 10 times better than our own. 

So yes - this man is officially back in Lenexa!

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  Proverbs 3:5

Weekend Fun

Dean and I had a busy weekend.  We had a wine night - everyone brought a bottle of wine over to the house.  The rules were to spend less than $10 a bottle and we had taste testing!  Now I have a new favorite! 

My favorite wine that night!  

Then Saturday my Mama and Sister came up to visit Mr. Shackley and myself!  We went to dinner and came back watched TV and made popcorn with my new love!  Orville Redenbacher Hot Air Popper.   Treat yourself to a low-fat and low-calorie scrumptious snack.  It requires no oil = a healthier choice than microwave popcorn.  Sunday G-man (my bro) met up with us.  It was a nice time and much needed.  I love my family!

Now that looks good - even Molly wants some!  :)

Meat-Lover's Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce

I found this recipe HERE, tried it earlier in the week and fell in love.  I'm a total fan of homemade spaghetti sauce recipes for 2 reasons: taste is 100 times better and secondly it's super easy if started early.

Prep time: 20 Min

Cook time: 8 Hrs & 20Min

Ready in: 8 Hrs & 40 Min

Servings: 8

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Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 small onions, chopped
• 1/4 pound bulk Italian sausage
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 teaspoon dried Italian herb seasoning
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1 (29 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can Italian-style diced tomatoes
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can Italian-style stewed tomatoes
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
• 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder

Directions

1. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat; cook and stir onions and Italian sausage until the sausage is browned, about 10 minutes. Transfer the sausage and onions to a slow cooker. In the same skillet, cook and stir the ground beef, Italian seasoning, 1 teaspoon of garlic powder, and marjoram, breaking the meat up as it cooks, until the meat is browned, about 10 minutes. Transfer the ground beef into the slow cooker.

2. Stir in the tomato sauce, tomato paste, diced tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, thyme, basil, oregano, and 2 teaspoons of garlic powder. Set the cooker on Low, and cook the sauce for 8 hours. Serve hot.


Nutritional Information
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 264
Total Fat: 14.8g
Cholesterol: 48mg

RA Sushi and Captain America

Saturday night was date night for Mr. & Mrs. Shackley.  Dean and I decided we needed a date night for multiple reasons: one being he moved back on Friday and we needed to celebrate!  Dean got to pick the restaurant and his movie of choice.  He picked RA Sushi and Captain America.  If anyone loves sushi (as we do) RA has amazing happy hour prices.  Monday thru Saturday from 3pm-7pm they offer 1/2 price on selected sushi.  See their happy hour menu HERE.  

It has a fun atmosphere 

Viva Las Vegas Roll - one of our favorites 

After dinner we saw Captain America.  We don't make it to the theaters much since the prices keep rising so you could say this was a treat for us.  Plus, we had an AMC theater gift card (we love getting these) so we decided to splurge and see it in 3D.  The movie costs us a total of $3 = happiness.  Since this wasn't a comedy or "chick flick" - I was surprised to say it was a great movie; a definite TO SEE.  If you don't make it to the theaters, rent it.  See the trailer HERE. 

Isn't he cute?!

 We were excited to get back to our Molly dog and she was ready to play!

 Don't mind the lawn chairs in our living room - we have waited forever to receive our couch.  But Saturday is the big day when it gets delivered!!!  However, I will say those lawn chairs are reclining = paradise!  We are very excited to use them at a camp site (when it cools down).

Wedding Card Holder

Dean and I wanted to be creative with some of our DYI projects for our wedding.  We came up with the idea of re-making a standard mailbox so our guests could "mail" us there cards.  It just required a few tools: mailbox, spray paint, saw, wood letters, hot glue gun, and some flowers for pretties.  

 Steps we took to make the transition:

1. Take the flag and all parts off the mailbox 

2. Pick the color of spray paint - we picked a natural stone (see below)

3.  Spray paint the mailbox

4.  Use and electric saw to cut the size you need for cards to fit thru

5.  Spray paint the flag and letters (we picked a flat black)

6.  Hot glue the letters and flag on the mailbox

7.  Lastly we hot glued the flowers on and hot glued the mailbox door shut

The finished product (minus the flag) we lost it after the wedding

We were happy with how it turned out.  So instead of buying a $40-$60 bird cage, we have a $12 mailbox that we now use as decoration in our home.