I'm here...kinda!

Life is busy!

I am now doing a mini long term for 4th grade before I pick up the KDG long term for the rest of the year.  Its crazy as this class is crazy (more on that later) but its doable but now I'm exhausted at night and the last thing I do is get on the computer.

So anywho, I went from a week of posting daily to a week where you may get 2 posts.  It happens, oh well!

Keep swimming everyone!

Edison Entertainment Complex

Weekend before last, our friend Ryan threw a surprise birthday party for his fiancee Reina at Edison Entertainment Complex:

We had never been there but when we looked into it, its like a mixture of Dave & Busters plus Incredible Pizza.  Its not just geared for adults, nor is it just geared for kiddos.

We all met for dinner in their restaurant.  Their menu was quite expansive and the drinks started flowing.  Orders of soft pretzels, potato skins and whatnot started out our meals.  You can't beat $2 drafts and $5 buckets of Malibu - no joke:

From there we went over to their bowling alley which has 4 huge screens above the 8 lanes of bowling.  While it wasn't cheap to bowl, we all did for her birthday and had a blast.  However they quickly cut you off from your game once an hour is up.  That's not fun but we got through as much as we could.  The best part is, if you order a soda in the restaurant, it flows over to the bowling alley, etc for refills - score!  You get a waiter as well at the alley to get whatever else you might want.

If you have kiddos, there's the games area and they supposedly have laser tag but we didn't actually see it.

It was a fun night out ~ happy birthday Reina!

Four on Friday!

Thanks to Meg, I needed a Friday post (and I'm behind on book reviews) so this was perfect!

FOUR ON FRIDAY

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

FOUR OF MY NICKNAMES:

~ Jules

~ J

~ Shorty

~ Wifey

FOUR JOBS I'VE HAD:

~ teacher

~ hotel concierge

~ Pottery Barn Kids specialist

~ preschool teacher

FOUR MOVIES I'VE WATCHED MORE THAN ONCE:

~ Sweet Home Alabama

~ Top Gun

~ any Disney movies

~ the Hangover series

FOUR THINGS IN MY PURSE:

~ external battery

~ chap stick

~ pen

~ wallet

FOUR BOOKS I'D RECOMMEND:

~ anything by my friend Lyssa Layne

~ the Cedar Cove series by Debbie Macomber

~ anything by Jodi Piccoult

~ Inn Boonsboro trilogy by Nora Roberts

FOUR PLACES I'VE LIVED:

~ St. Louis, MO

~ Cape Girardeau, MO

~ St. Louis, MO

~ oh did I mention Missouri? ;)

FOUR PLACES I HAVE VISITED:

~ Disney World

~ Riviera Maya, Mexico

~ Colorado

~ Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

FOUR PLACES TO VISIT ON MY TRAVEL BUCKET LIST:

~ Bahamas

~ Napa, California

~ Hawaii

~ England & Italy

FOUR THINGS I DON'T EAT:

~ mustard

~ tuna

~ mayonnaise

~ hamburgers at restaurants (only when I make them at home)

FOUR SHOWS I WATCH:

~ Grey's Anatomy

~ Shark Tank

~ Real Housewives franchise

~ ABC Family shows (The Fosters, Switched at Birth, Chasing Life)

FOUR THINGS I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO IN 2015:

~traveling to a new state (Minnesota) to start our traveling bug again

~ hopefully reaching my dream of my own classroom again

~ maybe buying a house

~ making lots of memories with those that mean the most to me!

7th niece turns 1!

Last Sunday, admist all the snow that fell on St. Louis, we all got together to celebrate Keith's youngest niece Madysen's 1st birthday:

It was Minnie Mouse themed and my sister-in-law requested that everyone get their picture in the frame she created:

Clueless on what to get her (these 3 girls have EVERYTHING - no joke!) so we decided to get her clothes.  Most of her outfits are hand me downs from the other 2 girls so this would be her own thing.  Keith picked it out and looked like he had fun doing it.

Madysen's birthday is actually not until the end of the month but she is having her cleft palate repair surgery today (she has Pierre Robin Sequence, the same as her middle sister Skylar) and will not be able to do anything for weeks so they wanted to celebrate her before the surgery.

Good luck and Happy Birthday Madysen!

Stuff -n- things

• I'm trying hard to post more - maybe with both of my districts being on spring break respectively the next 2 weeks, it will happen!
• I have a friend who is getting married in July in Florida (I think I posted about him before, the one who wanted us to pay $600 to sleep on a sofa bed to go to the wedding).  Well they are having a BBQ back here later that month and he's already created a Facebook invite for it.  Dude I don't know what's going on next month let alone July!!
• Keith's birthday is Tuesday.  What I originally was going to get him, he decided to buy last weekend.  So now I have no clue what to give him.  I am taking him out for dinner on Tuesday, and we'll have some people join us as a surprise, then tomorrow night my step-mom would like to make dinner for him since she can't go Tuesday so that will be nice.
• I "think" our condo is ready for Realtor pictures.  It stinks because we are living in it but its as cleaned as its going to get.
• We do not have a house yet.  We have many prospects but we'd like to see what happens with the condo first.
• To each their own but I'm realizing a lot lately that people who say they don't have money then in turn buy something or do something that costs a lot, are making me want to scream.  I'm by no means rich but I know how to budget, how to spend and how to save and know that you sometimes have to spend money to have fun.
• Super excited to go Minneapolis in 2 weekends!
• Weather is supposed to get nice in MO this weekend.  I love snow but I'm kinda done with it.  I'll take my snow in the Rockies :)

Have a great Thursday!

Pull apart pizza bread recipe

A few months ago at a girls night, one of the ladies brought this amazing pull apart pizza bread to share and I told myself I would definitely make it in the future.

The future was last night - and it was a hit!

2 cans of biscuits (I got regular butter ones), cut into quarters

1 pkg pepperoni, cut into quarters

2 cups of your favorite shredded cheese

2 tablespoons Italian seasoning

1/2 cup of olive oil

1 cup parmesan cheese

~*~*~

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2) Cut the biscuits into quarters and put into large bowl.

3) Cut the pepperoni into quarters and add to the biscuit bowl

4) Add both cheeses, italian seasoning and olive oil and get your hands dirty mixing it all to ensure that the oil spreads out amongst the pieces.  You may need to add some more oil if you feel its too dry and not coated enough.

4) Grease a bundt pan with cooking spray then pour the mixture into the pan, evenly spreading it around the pan like the above.

5)  Cook for 30 minutes.  If dough is still mushy, cook an extra 5.

Serve with a side salad and marinara sauce to dip in...and watch it disappear!

Got snow?

St. Louis does!

The forecasters actually got this one right for a change.

Friday we had heard that there was a winter weather advisory for both Saturday and Sunday.  I made sure to get up early and get to the grocery store for what we needed (not eggs, milk and bread like the crazies) before the real crazies showed up.  It sucked big time that when I needed to go for real, that it as when we had this threat out but it is what it is.

By noon nothing was happening so Keith and I went to the STL Home Show as we were given free tickets and since we're house hunting, we knew it give us some ideas.  We were there for a few hours, got a lot of ideas and dreamed a lot (more on that this week).  As we were walking out of the convention center, the snow had started falling.  We wanted to grab a late lunch/early dinner before being caught at home the rest of the night.  After dinner it was like the sky was falling - snow everywhere!

On our 1.5 hour drive home (normally 30 min from where we were) Keith informs me that he forgot to get his niece a present for her bday party on Sunday.  So we had to stop at the mall and get that.  Once out, the snow was deep, as you can see in the above picture.  We finally made it home and watched the movie "Into the Storm" for the rest of the night.

Sunday came quickly, it was still snowing and our condo was not plowed, and my car was buried.  So I got to happily call the hotel and call in...then went back to bed for 4 more hours.  By the time we had the bday party, the roads were much more clear than they were at 5:30 in the morning.

What an interesting weekend.  How was yours?