25 Things

Since I turned 25 yesterday I thought it would be fun to share a list of 25 things.  These are 25 things I have learned throughout the years, things I love and a few things I am thankful for!  I hope you enjoy!

1. In 25 Years of living I have learned to never take 'No' as an answer.  At a young age (5 to be exact) I had no problem say what I was and wasn't going to do with my life.  My parents love to tell me the "College" story.  Touring the University of Minnesota at age 5 with my parents I declared I wanted to go to the U of M.  My dad stated he thought it was to big and would be happier if his little girl went to a smaller school.  I turned to him and declared that if I wanted to go to the U of M I would, and that no one could tell me what to do.  Im strong willed I guess. 

Oh Yea I didn't even apply to the U of M when the time came, and I did go to a much much smaller school!  Yea Butler!

2.  I have learned that people come in and out of your life.  But your family will always be there for you.  

What can I say we are a pretty goofy bunch!

3. I have learned that life is tough, and sometimes doesn't turn out the way you wanted it to.  However I am thankful for the path my life has taken, I have had many wonderful experiences in my 25 years.  

4. I am thankful for a very very strong support system.  I have a caring and loving family, a wonderful boyfriend and best friends who sometimes know exactly what I am thinking before I say them.  

5. I have learned that it is ok to cry.

6. I have learned that I have a passion for cooking, and enjoy making a ridiculous mess in the kitchen.  Somethings never change!  

7. In 25 years I have learned that sometimes there is no place like home.  And no matter how far you travel you can always go home.

8. I have found that putting your whole heart into something can end up hurting you.  But I fully believe in loving to the fullest, you can never be to passionate.

9. I have learned the hard way that computers can't swim! I am on my third lap top!

10. It is never to late to try something new, and completely fall in love with it!  Mark introduced me to wake boarding and I love it!  I absolutely love being on a lake!

11. I have learned that I love running!  (never thought that would happen)!

12. My parents have taught me the greatest lesson, always do the best you possibly can.  That was their motto for my sister and I growing up.

13. I have learned there is nothing wrong with a little me time.  Sometimes you just need a night to yourself, where you can do whatever you want!

14. I have learned it is ok to ask for help.  

15. I have learned that a good pee your pants laugh can be some of the best medication in the world.  I love sitting around reminiscing with old friends, especially when the night ends with belly aching laughs!

16.  It is never to late to reinvent yourself.

17. I have learned there is nothing like loving completely and getting that love back in return.

18. I have learned/or am learning that sometimes you just have to go with the flow

19.  I have learned it is ok to make a fool out of yourself, and you should never take yourself to seriously!

20.  I have learned that things don't usually happen right when we want them to happen.

21.  I believe and have learned that everything happens for a reason, and sometimes we don't know what that reason is for a long time.

22. I have learned that shopping or window shopping can be a great cure for a bad mood.  And when you get to tired to walk anymore just sit down and try on shoes!

23.  I am thankful for for another year, another year to live with more adventures to come!

24. I have learned that you have to believe in yourself, and sometimes take a leap of faith.

25. And last but certainly not least, in 25 years I have learned to be true to myself!

Hope you enjoyed this!  Have a fabulous rest of your day and remember to live Happily Ever Healthy!

A Birthday, and Ask5For5

Happy Monday Everyone!  I hope that you all have a wonderful start to your week.  I have a full day of Birthday celebrating to do today with Mark and my family!  Mark and I had a great weekend celebrating with his parents, and we fully plan on continuing the fun today!  25 is a big year! 

I have a wonderful and touching guest post for you today.  I bring you Sarah Lenssen from Ask 5 for 5.  I encourage you to check out the Ask 5 for 5 blog, and please continue reading.  I will be back later this afternoon with a lit of 25 things I have learned in the 25 years of life.  Enjoy and remember to live Happily Ever Healthy!

Guest Blogger: Sarah Lenssen from #Ask5for5

Family photos by Mike Fiechtner Photography

Thank you Happily Ever Healthy and nearly 150 other bloggers from around the world for allowing me to share a story with you today, during Social Media Week.

A hungry child in East Africa can't wait. Her hunger consumes her while we decide if we'll respond and save her life. In Somalia, children are stumbling along for days, even weeks, on dangerous roads and with empty stomachs in search of food and water. Their crops failed for the third year in a row. All their animals died. They lost everything. Thousands are dying along the road before they find help in refugee camps. 

At my house, when my three children are hungry, they wait minutes for food, maybe an hour if dinner is approaching. Children affected by the food crisis in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia aren't so lucky. Did you know that the worst drought in 60 years is ravaging whole countries right now, as you read this? Famine, a term not used lightly, has been declared in Somalia. This is the world's first famine in 20 years.12.4 million people are in need of emergency assistance and over 29,000 children have died in the last three months alone. A child is dying every 5 minutes. It it estimated that 750,000 people could die before this famine is over. Take a moment and let that settle in.

The media plays a major role in disasters. They have the power to draw the attention of society to respond--or not. Unfortunately, this horrific disaster has become merely a footnote in most national media outlets. News of the U.S. national debt squabble and the latest celebrity's baby bump dominate headlines. That is why I am thrilled that nearly 150 bloggers from all over the world are joining together today to use the power of social media to make their own headlines; to share the urgent need of the almost forgotten with their blog readers. Humans have the capacity to care deeply for those who are suffering, but in a situation like this when the numbers are too huge to grasp and the people so far away, we often feel like the little we can do will be a drop in the ocean, and don't do anything at all.

When news of the famine first hit the news in late July, I selfishly avoided it. I didn't want to read about it or hear about it because I knew I would feel overwhelmed and uncomfortable. I wanted to protect myself. I knew I would need to do something if I knew what was really happening. You see, this food crisis is personal. I have a 4-year-old son and a 1 yr-old daughter who were adopted from Ethiopia and born in regions now affected by the drought. If my children still lived in their home villages, they would be two of the 12.4 million. My children: extremely hungry and malnourished? Gulp. I think any one of us would do anything we could for our hungry child. But would you do something for another mother's hungry child?

My friend and World Vision staffer, Jon Warren, was recently in Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya--the largest refugee camp in the world with over 400,000 people. He told me the story of Isnino Siyat, 22, a mother who walked for 10 days and nights with her husband, 1 yr-old-baby, Suleiman, and 4 yr.-old son Adan Hussein, fleeing the drought in Somalia. When she arrived at Dadaab, she built the family a shelter with borrowed materials while carrying her baby on her back. Even her dress is borrowed. As she sat in the shelter on her second night in camp she told Jon, "I left because of hunger. It is a very horrible drought which finished both our livestock and our farm." The family lost their 5 cows and 10 goats one by one over 3 months, as grazing lands dried up. "We don't have enough food now...our food is finished. I am really worried about the future of my children and myself if the situation continues."

Will you help a child like Baby Suleiman? Ask5for5 is a dream built upon the belief that you will.

That something I knew I would need to do became a campaign called #Ask5for5 to raise awareness and funds for famine and drought victims. The concept is simple, give $5 and ask five of your friends to give $5, and then they each ask five of their friends to give $5 and so on--in nine generations of 5x5x5...we could raise $2.4 Million! In one month, over 750 people have donated over $25,000! I set up a fundraiser at See Your Impact and 100% of the funds will go to World Vision, an organization that has been fighting hunger in the Horn of Africa for decades and will continue long after this famine has ended. Donations can multiply up to 5 times in impact by government grants to help provide emergency food, clean water, agricultural support, healthcare, and other vital assistance to children and families suffering in the Horn.

I need you to help me save lives. It's so so simple; here's what you need to do:

1. Donate $5 or more on this page (http://seeyourimpact.org/members/ask5for5)
2. Send an email to your friends and ask them to join us.
3. Share #Ask5for5 on Facebook and Twitter!

I'm looking for another 100 bloggers to share this post on their blogs throughout Social Media Week. Email me at ask5for5@gmail.com if you're interested in participating this week.

A hungry child doesn't wait. She doesn't wait for us to finish the other things on our to-do list, or get to it next month when we might have a little more money to give. She doesn't wait for us to decide if she's important enough to deserve a response. She will only wait as long as her weakened little body will hold on...please respond now and help save her life. Ask 5 for 5.

Thank you on behalf of all of those who will be helped--you are saving lives and changing history.

p.s. Please don't move on to the next website before you donate and email your friends right now. It only takes 5 minutes and just $5, and if you're life is busy like mine, you probably won't get back to it later. Let's not be a generation that ignores hundreds of thousands of starving people, instead let's leave a legacy of compassion. You have the opportunity to save a life today!

 

Spaghetti Pie

Hello Thursday.  

At this time tomorrow I will be heading up to the cities to catch a flight to Indy. I take off at 9:45 AM and Mark will be there to pick me up and take me back to Dayton!

I have a great recipe for you today, one that I thought would be a little tricky at first and came together way better then expected!  I should have made soup last night because oooh my gosh did Minnesota get cold!  I mean we are talking cold here people, I had on multiple layers!  Hooray for fall weather, now I just need to find my boots!  Ok, back to dinner... I made something along the lines of a spaghetti pie.  However dinner didn't start out in the direction of spaghetti pie.  I got started on sesame noodles only to find out mid recipe that I did not have all the ingredients!  Oops!  Note to self check cabinets before you start cooking!  However I think the lack of ingredients was really a blessing in disguise, because the spaghetti pie turned out to be more of a dish I was craving!

Pumpkin Bread Anyone

Happy Monday Everyone!  Did you all have a fabulous weekend?  Did you do anything fun?

I have a wonderful recipe to share with you today.  On Saturday I finally decided enough was enough, I had to make pumpkin bread (I had only been craving it for the past week), and boy am I glad I made it.  I was extremely happy with how the bread turned out, moist, a little sweet, melty chocolate and PUMPKIN!

Read on to get this wonderful recipe!

Pumpkin Oatmeal Pancakes

I know today I was supposed to share the wonderful salad I made a few days ago but I think my breakfast deserves the spotlight.  Especially since everyone seems to be all about these right now!

Fall is finally here!

And I have a small confession to make something I would have never thought possible!  I am getting a bit sick of my daily bowl of oatmeal, I know this is shocking!  But as I was flipping through recipes last night Pumpkin Pancakes caught my eye!  The only problem was that I was not finding a recipe that I absolutely fell in love with.  The recipes either had way way to many ingredients or had things I didn't have (like bisquick).  So I developed a plan or I guess an idea and prayed that today when I set out to make these pumpkin pancakes that my idea would work!

The end result?  FABULOUS!

Not only did I want pumpkin pancakes today, but I wanted those pumpkin pancakes to be oatmeal pancakes.  I know I know just a few small demands.  Well remember those Applesauce Oatmeal Pancakes I feel in love with?  The ones from this post?  Well my thought was why couldn't I sub in pumpkin puree for the applesauce?  They both have the same consistency, and would not change the nutritional stats of the pancakes at all!  And you know what that crazy idea worked!  This morning I was happily munching on delicious pumpkin pancakes with a pumpkin yogurt topping!

Here is the fabulous recipe, which was adapted from this Taste of Homes Recipe

Pumpkin Pancakes

Serves 5 - 2 Pancakes Each

Dry Ingredients 

1-Cup Quick Cooking Oats

1/4 Cup All Purpose Flour

1/4 Cup Whole Wheat Flour 

1 Tablespoon Baking Powder

Cinnamon, Nutmeg and a bit of sweetener-All as much as you want (not in original recipe)

Wet Ingredients 

1 Cup Milk (Calls for Skim I used Unsweetened Almond Milk)

2 Tablespoons Pumpkin Puree (Not Pumpkin Pie Filling)

4 Egg Whites 

A Splash of Vanilla

What you do:

Combine all Dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

Then combine all the wet ingredients in a separate bowl. 

Add your wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and start flipping pancakes!

Cook the pancakes as you would a normal buttermilk pancake, about 3-4 min per side.  Wait till you see tiny bubbles form and pop to flip your pancakes!

For the Pumpkin Yogurt Sauce!

1 Container Dannon Vanilla Greek Yogurt

1 Tablespoon Pumpkin Puree

Cinnamon, and Nutmeg

Combine all the ingredients together stir and enjoy!

I ate all the yogurt atop my pancakes with a bit of peanut butter!  I have to say there was jut the faintest hint of pumpkin to these pancakes, that is why I added a pumpkin dipping sauce! But still they were YUM!

I will leave you with this, enjoy your Thursday and remember to live Happily Ever Healthy!

This quote was emailed to me today and I laughed a bit to myself when I read it!

"Always behave like a duck-keep calm and unruffled on the surface but paddle like the devil underneath"

-Jacob Braude

How To Stay Warm in Minnesota... Eat Soup!

Minnesota is having the perfect weather right now.  The mornings are a bit chilly, the afternoons warm up nicely to a sunny70 degrees (no humidity) and the evenings cool off, which to me is the perfect soup eating weather!

 Well, when my mom and I began tossing dinner ideas around, there was no doubt in my mind that I wanted soup.

Now for me, the hard part is always figuring out which kind of soup I am actually hungry for.  The fact that I landed on wanting soup for dinner was a bit scary, usually I take forever to decide on dinner!  I am the type of person that will crave something one minute and the next minute I have changed my mind to something completely opposite!  Sometimes there is no pleasing me.  When there is this type of decision that needs to be made, I am the type of person that likes to turn to a good old cookbook.  And my mom has about a million cookbooks, and in no time I had a spread of her coobooks out, covering the kitchen island.  I mean we had Taste of Home

The Mayo Clinic and William Sonoma Cook Book 

and a trillion other William Sonoma ones.  

To be honest I have the hardest time looking through cookbooks, because of all the wonderful pictures.  I mean you can get hungry just flipping through a cookbook.  If only I could make my pictures look like a cook book!

Keep reading to find out what delicious soup I ended up preparing!

Just Like Old Times

Let me start by apologizing for the fact that I have been MIA in the blog world.  But I think a best friends wedding is a pretty good excuse for the blog to take the back burner for a few days.  I am sad that this weekend has come to an end.  Kady left yesterday ( I was sad to see her go) and Mark left early today.  However I cannot think of a better way to spend a long labor day weekend then with people you love, and celebrating the wedding of one of your best friends.  My whole weekend was centered around wonderful friends/family, and making memories!  We have countless pictures of the "high school bunch" from this weekend.  I felt like I was  back in high school (not that I am complaining), especially when my parents made brunch for all of us Sunday morning after the wedding.  Everyone gathered in my parents kitchen taking and laughing just felt like the good old days.  This post is going to be very picture heavy!  But there are so many wonderful pictures I want to share with you from the wedding!  I cried and laughed on Saturday.  Katie made the most beautiful Bride, and you could honestly tell how happy and in love Katie and Richard are.  The ceremony focused on how they had known each other for a life time, and talked of there love for one another, you could just see how excited the two of them were to start their lives together.   I am so glad I got to be apart of their wonderful day, and with that being said here are some fabulous pictures!

Beautiful!

The Flowers were gorgeous!