WE ARE COMING BACK!!!

March 24, 2013 by Leave a Comment

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Wanted to let you in on some exciting news! We are coming back in May! :) We are getting super excited about sharing some new things that are going on in our lives along with all the wonderful things we are continuing to learn about marriage!

The next 8 weeks I am focusing on getting through the rest of the school year(which is why I gave up the blog in November). However, excitement is building to get back on here with all you lovely followers. Just know our blog and community will be back at it in about 6 to 8 weeks!

Until then leave a comment telling us what has been/is your biggest fear or frustration in your marriage. This will help us write and give valuable resources!

A truly happy wife,

~Cassie

Filed Under: Featured

When His Dream, Becomes Our Dream

November 7, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Four days into knowing Ryan we were sitting there talking about our future plans and dreams. Ryan’s dream was to become a professional triathlete and inspirational speaker, along with having a wife that would fully support that dream and be the primary care taker of their many children. I shared that my dream was to be an awesome teacher that tucked all her school children under her wing as her own.

Ryan’s dream of becoming a professional triathlete and speaker was amazing to hear. It sounded like a huge goal to me as I had no idea what it would take to do either, but also I did not know Ryan that well either. Does this guy have the heart, determination, and skill to be able to do these things? Either way it would be a lot of hard work and a journey ahead.

With each passing day as we spent time together and I got to know him I became more confident in his dream. I started to see how far he had come and what he was doing to improve. Then, at some point it was no longer “his dream” that I was referring to it was “our dream”.

Last night as we were chatting with someone it hit me how important it is to have “our dream” in our marriages. Sometimes I think people go into marriage with each of their dreams and the other spouse is supportive, but it is their spouses dream. When it is our spouses dream we are only there to give our spouse support and encouragement. However, when the dream becomes “our dream” it becomes a whole new playing field. Not only are you their for support and encouragement, but important decisions will be made to support the dream, and both parties will put all efforts towards the dream.

For something to be “our dream” both parties truly have to want it, truly have to be okay with it, and truly have to own it. If you can not do those three things serious conversations need to take place or else major issues that will hold you/your spouse back from the dream will take place. Which will likely cause marriage strains if your spouse is sincere about the dream.

When we talk about our dream it makes me so excited! It makes me day dream about how it will be. It makes me want to work harder to take steps to get there faster! I can only imagine when we will have conversations about us currently doing our dream instead of conversations of when we do our dream!

What is the “our dream” in your marriage?

Filed Under: Newlywed Advice Tagged With: ,

Newlywed Recipe: Pumpkin Seeds

November 5, 2012 by Leave a Comment
We decided to carve some pumpkins this year! Last year we were so busy with the wedding we decided not to. But this year we were all over it! It took us 10-15 minutes to find our pumpkin. And then we schemed for about three days on what we were going to carve.
You can check out all the details about our Halloween evening here. We ended up with pumpkins that looked like this.
We of course had to make some pumpkin seeds! Here are some recipes we found that sounded good. We found them here.
  1. Savory: 4 tablespoons melted butter, 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt and 2 teaspoons Worchestershire sauce
  2. Lemony:  4 tablespoons melted butter, 1 teaspoon ‘Mrs. Dash” or lemon pepper
  3. Halloweeny:  4 tablespoons melted butter, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/2 teaspoon salt,  and 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice.
  4. Spicy: 4 tablespoons melted butter, 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 1/2 teaspoon thyme, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper
  5. Natural: 1 teaspoon sea salt or other salt, 4 tablespoons melted butter
Sort seeds from pulp.
Lay seeds out flat to dry over night.
Put seeds on baking sheet in an even layer. Preheat oven 250 degrees. Cook 20-30 minutes. Rotating/stirring every 5 minutes.
Enjoy!
Filed Under: Newlywed Recipes Tagged With: ,

Our First Halloween in Our First House

November 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Halloween 2012- Our first Halloween in our house! We dressed up like runners (which we spent tons of money on!). Ok, not really. Just headed to our dressers. I mean come on we had to be dressed up when we answered the door!

 

We had bought “jumbo” pumpkins. We spent maybe 15-20 minutes picking them out at Walmart. My goal was to find the biggest and most round pumpkin. And I did!

 

Ryan wanted to hold them both. I am not going to lie I was afraid we were going to have some split open pumpkins on the floor. Those things were heavy! Can’t you tell by his face! haha

 

This was my design I was planning on creating! Thought I chose one that was easy enough…being the “expert pumpkin carver” between the two of us.

 

Ryan carved this one out pretty fast and easily for being maybe is 2nd ever pumpkin carved! I think he is a natural!

 

My spider and witch hat turned out looking like this! Can you see the spider on the left side of his mouth? Well come to find out getting the largest pumpkin ever is not always the best idea! The wall of the pumpkin was so thick my knife would not fit though and I ended up breaking off my spider legs! So then I went for plan B: Jack-o-lantern.

 

Our trick-or-treaters complemented on our pumpkins. They liked them.

 

An eight year old said he made one just like mine. But then he added his didn’t have teeth. “Phew” I thought. I can’t be producing 8 year old work! ha! ;)

 

We even lit them up until we smelt something like pumpkin burning.

 

We gave out raisins and pistachios for our treats! If you can’t tell by the picture I was pretty excited about it! None of the kids asked what it was so that is good, but you could tell some of them had no idea. They were trying to decide if they wanted to take it or not. Our first trick-or-treater came to the door did the splits as she said “trick or treat?” I decided she deserved the treat!

Our first Halloween was a great one! Enjoyed dressing up, carving pumpkins and handing out one healthy treat at a time!

What did you do for Halloween?

Filed Under: Things We Do Tagged With: ,

We Had Our Cake and Ate it too!

October 31, 2012 by Leave a Comment

For starters: HAPPY HALLOWEEN! May it be a spook-tacular day! This is our first year to be in our house for Halloween! Tonight we plan on carving pumpkins while handing out treats! Check back later to see what exciting treats we are giving out!

With Monday being our one year anniversary we pulled the cake out of the freezer. We had our cake and ate it too! It’s crazy to think that two years ago we met, Ryan proposed in Switzerland and 7 weeks later we had a running themed wedding all one year after we met!

On our anniversary I had to squeeze in two more parent/teacher conferences before I could come home. Had the first one, but the second one canceled so I headed home early. I found Ryan cooking us a yummy dinner!

Steak, mashed sweet potatoes and steamed asparagus. Oh, and garlic knots!

Then we had some cake! We had several flavors at our wedding so we didn’t know what flavor it was going to be. We cut into it (strawberry!) and had a bite then decided we needed to shed most of the icing off of it!

After peeling all but the top of the icing off we ate every bit of the cake. The middle bite was the best! So keep in mind when planning the wedding: double the size of the cake you want a year later, then just eat the middle! ha.

I gave Ryan a gift called I Love You with All 5 of my Senses. Ryan is still working on my gift. He asked if I wanted to know what it was or wait until it was done. I told him I would wait to find out. So waiting I am. :)

So we want to know what did you do to celebrate your first anniversary?

Filed Under: Things We Do Tagged With: ,

Our One Year Anniversary!

October 29, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Two years ago Ryan and I met at the 2010 Tulsa Run. The next year we ran the same race and got married later that afternoon with a running themed wedding. Here we are now celebrating our one year anniversary!

The year has been amazing! It really has! We have got to do so many things, learned so much, moved forward toward our dream and have grown closer. It is crazy to think what this next year will hold for us!

It is always a bit of a challenge to come up with what to get Ryan for gifts. However, I came across the gift idea called the five senses on The Dating Divas website. I liked the idea and was ready to roll with it for his anniversary present! On their site it even has printables for the gift, but I decided to make my own.

I actually used a box that our wedding invitations came in! Oh and the left over paper from his homemade birthday card! haha.

Sound: Ironman DVD- so he can listen to it at work

Sight: lingerie-for him to see ofcourse

Touch: Certificate for a massage

Smell: Certificate for a homemade loaf of bread- he likes the smell of it (and taste!)

Taste: Hot Tamales- one of his favorite sweets

 

Here is a close up so you can see the “template” that I used.

We have our cake in the fridge thawing out to have some later today also! Should be interesting!

What did you and your spouse do on your one year anniversary to celebrate?

Filed Under: Things We Do Tagged With: ,

I DID WHAT?!?

October 24, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Ryan is such a sweetheart! When we are talking to others, that may or may not know us that well, about our athletic adventures Ryan often brings this up. He says, “Considering experience, age and gender my wife may be a better athlete than me.” I always tend to laugh in my head because Ryan is a stud at what he does!

Ryan goes on to explain how I have only been racing for two years and he has ran since he was 5. He tells about our different experiences and such.

Now I know Ryan has always had a hard time with marathons (several years back when he tried them). I also remember Ryan saying I might beat his personal record (PR) during my first marathon. His PR is a 3 hour 56 minute marathon. On my first marathon I completed a 3:58. Close but did not beat his PR. On my second marathon which was back in April I finished 6 minutes faster than my first year. I completed a 3:52! Which I was super excited about.

It JUST occurred to me last Thursday that I beat Ryan’s PR for a marathon! HA! I’m not laughing at the fact that I beat his PR, but I am laughing at the fact here it is 6 months later and I just now realized it!

I must say when Ryan had his stints in marathons he was not in nearly as good shape as he is in now. I think he could do some awesome stuff now at a marathon! I mean in Switzerland he did the same pace for his 18 mile run as he did for his PR just on the marathon and that was after he already had ran and biked for over 6 hours!

Oh the great, funny times in marriage! Share below a story in your marriage that made you laugh!

Filed Under: Featured, Things We Do Tagged With: ,

Newlywed Recipes: Dehydrated Onions

October 22, 2012 by Leave a Comment

While in the fridge today I noticed there were 3 containers of half used onion. I look over at our menu and see no recipe calling for onion any time soon. So I search for what to do with my onions so that they do not go to waste. Dehydrating them was the answer that I found.

Seeing how it is a cool Fall day (and the fact that I don’t have a dehydrator) sound like a good reason to have the oven on to take care of my onion problem! So I set out to chop the onions. After they made me cry a bit they were all cut up.

I combined the purple and white onion together and spread them on a cookie sheet. Heat oven at 125 degree or as low as it will go. If it is higher than 125 you may need to prop oven door open during cooking.

Cook for 4 hours or until dry. Stir/rotate onions once during the cooking process.

Let dehydrated onions cool then store in an air tight container or bag.

Use 1/3 cup dried onion in place of 1 cup fresh cut onion in soups and stews. Grind dried onions to make onion powder. Or let 1/3 cup dried onion sit in water for 10-15 and use as fresh onions.

Filed Under: Newlywed Recipes Tagged With: ,

We Have a Failure to Communicate!

October 19, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Ryan and I had a meeting yesterday which has been scheduled for about a week and a half. He came home from work early to pick me up and we headed that way. As we got off the highway I started to wonder where we were at. I assumed Ryan was just taking a different way. It is pretty common for me to know only one way to places where Ryan knows multiple ways. We soon arrive at the conclusion we went to the wrong place.

Through out our conversations I told Ryan in was in the town over by the movie theater. Ryan recalled me pointing the place out while coming home from a race so he said he knew where it was. Since Ryan said he knew where it was I thought I had told him. We both thought we were headed to the right place until I realized we were NOT in the right place. With it only being 5 minutes from the start of our appointment I had to call and let them know we were running late.

So here is how it happened. The place we went and the place we were suppose to go to both were off a major highway that we drive on to go to races. And both of them has a movie theater off the highway. Both towns are also one town over starting with the same letter. HA! OOPS! We ended up being 10 minutes to our appointment, but it all worked out ok.

A little reminder to make sure we have clearly communicated. When it comes to directions I should always just send him a link to directions on Google Maps! I don’t always know exactly how to explain where we are going!

What is your funny story about failure to communicate? Share it below!

Filed Under: Newlywed Advice Tagged With: ,

Newlywed Recipe- Pumpkin Spice Muffins

October 16, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I found this recipe on One Hundred Dollars a Month. Sounds like a lovely October recipe to enjoy! Typical recipe with flour, sugar, butter and oil. But I am thinking it could be done with the Banana Oatmeal Muffin base!

Original Recipe

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. cloves
1 cup raisins {optional}

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

In a large bowl {or bowl of an electric mixer} combine the sugar, pumpkin puree, melted butter, oil, eggs, and water and beat until smooth.

Slowly add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices, and mix well until there are no lumps. Fold in raisins if you are using them.

Because I totally have OCD I like to use my 3 tablespoon cookie scoop* so my muffin cups all have the same amount of batter in them.  I’m a total sicko, what can I say.

Bake for 18 minutes. Brush muffin tops with melted butter as soon as they come out of the oven, cool slightly and then serve warm. This recipe makes 12 pumpkin spice muffins}.

Proposed Recipe

1/2 Cup 1% Milk

2 1/2 Cup Oats

6 oz Greek Yogurt

2 Eggs

1/3 Cups Brown Sugar

1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

2 Ripe Bananas

1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree

1/2 cup water

3/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. cloves

1 cup raisins {optional}

Put all ingredients into blender and blend well.

Spray muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Cook in oven for 20-25 minutes at 400 degrees.

Filed Under: Newlywed Recipes Tagged With: , ,
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