This one's for the boys... and girls.

When reading on Pinterest, you never actually know if some of the linked articles are going to be for a general audience, men, or women. I found this today and thought that after the day I've had, a little information about stress reducing food could do us all a little good. So what if it's from Men's Fitness?

This is 10 Foods to Beat Stress... of course, I'm going to tell you what to do with those foods to make them a little more tasty and family or even party friendly. I picked my favorite five from the list, you can consult the article for more. 

1. Asparagus-- apparently, asparagus is a super food. Now, good luck getting your family and friends to eat this without gagging, especially if it's coming straight from the can.. but if you buy it fresh and grill it in some tin foil and wrapped in bacon, seasoned with a little Tony's seasoning... you've got stress reducing gold at your next cookout. 

2. Avocado-- I LOVE avocado. Love it! But not everyone can just peel and eat it straight like I can. Of course you can always mash it up with some onion for an awesome guacomole, but what you should do is mash it until its spreadable and serve it as a spread for a turkey and tomato sandwich on toasted wheat bread. A healhty sandwich with feel good after effects. 

3. Almonds--these are a good stress buster.. but also a good, healthy, filling snack between meals and post-workout. Almonds are incredibly versatile, but for a healthy yet snazzy set up, grill some shrimp, slice some red onion, cherry tomatoes, pull some broccoli, and get some almond slivers over baby spinach with low-fat raspberry vinegarette dressing. BOOM! (sorry, BOOM! is my spin on BAM! by Emeril.)

4. Spinach-- as I mentioned with the almonds, this makes a great salad. Try baby spinach with shredded mozzarella cheese, bacon bits, fried onion, red onion, and oil and red wine vinegar as the dressing. Hubbers is extremely picky and hates salad, but thanks to a friend, this is the only salad he will eat!

5. Oranges-- my final pick from the list. The citrus smell is enough to send you to Florida via mental image, but the best for oranges goes beyond the carton. Mix up some honey and orange juice and a little orange zest, and rub that on a chicken breast just before grilling. Use what's left of your orange for a snack while you wait for the chicken! Also, orange juice can be added to any smoothie for a quick me up. 

Browse through the list and tell me what you would do to the ingredients! Leave a comment below. 

Keep calm and snack, 

Courtney 

Is this real life?

I recently found an app on Pinterest, and I have to give it a go. Apparently, you select the items you have currently in your kitchen, and it gives you a recipe. Well I found one for yellow cake.... in a mug. In. The. Mircowave. 

It's 9:30 at night. I have to try this!

Here's my story.

You'll Need:
2 tbsp. Flour 
1.5 tbsp. Sugar 
1/4 tsp. Baking powder 
1/8 tsp. Salt 
2 tbsp. Milk 
3/4 tbsp. Oil 
1/4 tsp. Vanilla

Mix all the ingredients and microwave for about a minute and a half.

Oh my gosh, it actually worked. And this is the only bite I had. Hubbers annihilated it. 

Dear Dorm Friends. YOU CAN HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO!

Thank you, Pinterest. Thank you. 

With Love As Always, 

Courtney 

Reflections

There it is. That's the first meal I cooked for Jeremy when he got his first apartment. We were 22 years old, engaged, and completely clueless. I still lived on campus, but I very frequently went over to cook supper. I figured that with him not getting off work until 7, I had plenty of time to burn supper and start over. And I did, a lot.

That meal up there? That's tacos, canned corn, and a .79 7 minute rice pack. In the glasses? That's the most epic mixture of both orange and cherry kool-aid that you will ever experience. When I see this picture, I see extremely humble beginnings, two clueless kids hopelessly in love and tackling the world together, and yet I can pinpoint this exact moment as the start of my love of being in the kitchen. I think that's why I took the picture.

I've come a long way in the kitchen. First of all, I will never buy that rice again. It's terrible. We've graduated from kool-aid to water and milk (for health, not choice) and I very rarely make tacos like this anymore. I don't use as much processed food in our meals because I want to keep my family healthy.

I don't know why I feel like sharing this with you. I guess because I keep getting emails and comments about "I am impressed with your cooking!" and "I need to learn to cook!" Here's where I started! With a 15 minute taco recipe.

I do this blog for this reason. You can get there. Not just as a spouse or a homemaker, but in anything! In one year's time I've got from dorm-room microwave disaster to a wife, homemaker, and executive chef in the Ingle household. Small beginnings my friends, small beginnings.

Love, as always,
Courtney

Here's My Breakfast Pie!! (sang to the tune of Cherry Pie)

Hubbers loves this recipe, I love this recipe, friends love this recipe... and it's easy as pie!

I introduce you to Breakfast Pie! Breakfast Pie is a product of playing "cookbook roulette." (Cookbook Roulette is what happens when you throw all the cookbooks in the floor and randomly pick recipes because you don't really know what you want for supper.)

Here is this heavenly concoction. People, friends... fasten your seatbelts.

You'll need:

1 can of evaporated milk (NOT CONDENSED MILK)
5 eggs
3 cups of shredded hashbrowns (thawed if they were frozen)
1lb of sausage (I used Country Sage)
2 cups of cheddar cheese shredded
2 pie crusts, the rolled kind from the refrigerated section

*optional ingredients
1 half bell pepper, diced
1 half onioin, diced

Lay you out a pie crust in that awesome round pan. 

Brown up that sausage

If using the optional ingredients, dice up that onion and bell pepper

Get them hashbrowns. 

Now, for whatever reason, I don't have pictures. Oh, technology. But you'll want to beat those 5 eggs with the evaporated milk. Then, when the sausage is brown, layer that in the pie crust, then dice the onions, then layer the hash browns on that. Next, put on the cheese, pour the egg and milk concoction, and put that other pie crust on. Bake for 25 minutes at 400. 

Boom! Slice that girl open. 

Can. You. See. The. Goodness?

Hubbers gave this one a Thumbs Up. This is one of those great ratings that you don't just win at the Oscar's. Just saying. You may want to write this one down in the history books. 

Serve this up with some salsa for an extra kick. 

Guys, seriously, try this one. It's awesome!

Love as always, 

Courtney 

Stay Calm and Go Find A Hobby On Pinterest

My dearest friends...

I'm flippin' exhausted! I had a test tonight that I studied for, I got sick yesterday from that burger I told you about, and to make it all better, the Hubs and I ended up on a road trip for his job last night and we didn't get in until almost midnight.

Did I mention that Mardi massacred Winry's toys, ate the statement from my insurance and possibly peed in my shoe? For shame, Mardi!

I cannot punish her as she will be spayed tomorrow. Of course she has no idea what's about to happen to her, but I don't like the thought of my baby's insides not being, well... inside. 

Figured I'd add this too. Winry, as always, does not want to be left out of the limelight, so she casts her loving little shadow. This was the first picture we attempted to shame Mardi with. 

 On days like this, you need a hobby. Hobbies are therapy, they are a friend, they are a way for you to get alone, blow off steam, de-stress and just unwind. For me, I have two hobbies. Blogging and cooking. Tonight, you will see the best of both of those, because I'm going to hit you hard with some blogs as I need to unwind. 

But first, back to hobbies. Pinterest has a ton of hobby ideas, and I have found one particular board that I often use to see how other people make use of their hobbies. Go to that board for a little information and inspiration regarding hobbies. Do yourself a favor. Prevent gray hair and get a hobby! 

 A super student, a super spouse, a super homemaker will not be productive without some quality personal time. When you find a hobby, do it for you. This is the time for you to be blissfully selfish! And now, back to my hobby...

Love always, 

Courtney 

Oh Right... I'm Supposed To Study!

So I've posted about casseroles...

I've posted about crockpots..

About relationships, pets, and working out..

But I've never posted about the one thing that drove me to blogging.. I've never posted about being a student!

Students have to study right? I know, it sucks. I hate it. But I have found some awesome study tips and tricks along the way that I am going to share with you now.

Music

I work in radio. My life revolves around listening to the radio, listening to music or having background noise at all times. Needless to say, the silent study thing doesn't work for me, but neither does rocking out to Kelly Clarkson. Instrumentals help me a ton, and I've found that on 8tracks.com I can listen to premade playlists. Try the study+relax+instrumentals genre! Nothing is more soothing and yet gets you pumped as a piano rendition of Hall of Fame by The Script. Great, great study music.

Want new music and old school greats? Check out Southern Miss Radio and stream it live. Yes, this is completely biased because I work there, but it is also great to study to. I told you, I work in radio, and that's my place.

Study Techniques

There are tons of reading methods for you heavy-reading-burdened scholars. Personally, I've mastered the art of scanning the reading for graduate school, but that doesn't always work. I suggest the SQ3R method. It does take a lot of time, but it's worth it.

Flashcards work for more than just math. If you're having to study concepts (which I do, a lot) take the flashcard and write the name of the theory, concept, etc on one side and on the other side write everything you need to know about that subject. For example, if you're studying critical cultural theory (I have a test tonight :/ ), on one side of the card you'd write "hot medium." On the other side, you'd write "the medium is the message, Marshall MacLuhan. A hot medium is one that gives extensive data to the receiver without much interpretation or work from the receiver. Ex: television."
Run through those bad boys a few times, you'll be surprised how quickly you'll learn it.

Planning

Be organized. I can't even begin to tell you how important that is. Use different highlighters on your calendar for different classes, write everything down, and have different binder divisions or different notebooks for different subjects. Don't do like me and write things down on random loose sheets of paper.

Manage your time. Use a planner, schedule your breaks, and realize (for your own good) that you can't just spew forth a 20 page historical media research project with a proposal the day before it's due.
__________

Look, I'm a professional student. I've spent every single school year since I was five (I'm approaching 24) in school. I have learned that what once worked doesn't work anymore, that it continuously takes work, self-awareness, and organization to nail those grades. But if I could do it, you could. I know you could :) So get to the books, boo. You've got some studying to do.

Love as always,

Courtney :)

Super Spouses Must Super Take Care of Themselves! So Hit The Gym :(

When I got married, my body was in the best shape of my life. I had been working out almost every day, focusing mostly on the P90x Ab Ripper X. My dress fit beautifully,  draping where it should and clinging where it should.

Fast forward to now.

I just ate a Double Angus cheeseburger with curly fries and a large kool-aid from the campus choke-and-croak. As usual, I reminisce on the days of grabbing a salad after a rewarding workout, eating a banana between classes, and loving my body. Those days have been replaced by burgers, fries, and fleeting thoughts of joining the gym again and getting back to my long lost love.

Hubbers loves my body! He says I'm cute and curvy and he's proud of that... but I miss my abs. I don't really need to lose weight, just tone up. Siting here and bellyaching won't help my current situation, so this week, I'm joining the gym again.

I'm no beginner, but I feel like I should start from a beginner's level since it has been almost 9 months since I worked out. I decided to do a little research and see what I could find. Hoping to find realistic and manageable results, I found The Beginner Fitness Junkie. Angela does a great job of sharing her journey. Much like myself, she's a little reluctant to give up her favorite foods, but she's trying to make healthier choices that coincide with her workout routine.

I'm going to keep making the foods I make because I like them. I enjoy them, and Jeremy enjoys them. But I will also be on the lookout for some healthier snacks and smoothies which will also help with my workout. My Pinterest board "fitness" will keep you up to date on everything I'm pinning for consideration.

Until next time, my friends, all I can offer you is this piece of advice. If you don't like something, change it. YOU alone have the power to say "I'm not doing this anymore," and make the changes you need to your routine to get you back to where you want to be.

Love always,
Courtney

I Don't Do It Alone

Last night I had a moment of frustration. The laundry was done but we'd never actually gotten to the point of putting it away, the dog made a "mistake" in the carpet and the cat was having a great time terrorizing the dog. I had homework piled on top of my desk and halfway up the wall, and Jeremy and I were both just mentally and physically exhausted.

The homework thing had really gotten to me. At times I feel as if all the chaos in my house would not be there if I had not gone to graduate school. I needed to vent so before collapsing from exhaustion in my bed as Jeremy set up the weather radio, this is the conversation that happened with a friend that's out of town:

Me: I can't wait to see something other than this pavement jungle. I gotta get outta here. 

BFF: Yea no doubt lol

Me: I just need a break

BFF: I know it, you've been kicking all kinds of butt lately. 

Me: Well it comes with a price, a hard one. I'm tired. I feel like I having been showing much attention to my loved ones lately, the housework is lacking, my thoughts are scattered and Jeremy's bored. 

BFF: It's all going to be worth it, you know that, right? 

Me: I know... but nothing is really more important to me than a happy home and a happy husband. 

BFF: I know.. and what I also know is you being as successful as  you are and can be and will be makes him happy. He's proud of you.. we both are. 

Me: I know.. but I have equal pride in you guys and I fail to show it. 

BFF: Fail? Who said you do that? 

Me: I just don't feel like I show you guys how much I appreciate you. It's the little things, ya know? It means the world to me that Jeremy reminds me to eat breakfast (mornings are hectic, I often forget causing my hypoglycemia to kick into overdrive) and buys me Cadbury Cream eggs to surprise me. It warmed my heart when I fell asleep today and you reminded me to take my glasses off so they wouldn't break.  I love it when I cook and you and Hubbers fight over what's left. This is my own little family, you see? And I'd do anything I can for it. 

BFF: I know you would.. and we would do the same. You may not think you show appreciation but he sees it, I see it. You cook dinner after work, help him clean house after 10+ hours at school. It adds up. You're a great student, amazing wife, and the best friend/sister I could ask for. 

Me: Thank you ;) but I couldn't do it without help. 

BFF: Sure you could, you just don't have to :)

Do you see why I bust my butt so hard? My husband, my family, my friends.. they all support me like this. They. Are. Amazing. But I feel like I need to clear up a little detail.

I'm not a maid, nor am I treated like one. I clean house and cook for my husband because I want to. If I didn't, he'd do it, and he has when I failed. But I feel like my purpose as HIS wife, not just a wife, but HIS wife, is to do what I can everyday to show him how much I appreciate his hard work and how insanely in love I am with him. I'm not held with chains to the stove everyday. Jeremy and I actually split the chores.

Gallup did an interesting article on how spouses share the workload. You should check it out! You may find that it's not as black and white as most would think. It would make you see that the old fashioned wife and husband scenario is still the same.... and completely different at the same time.

If I cook, he washes dishes. If I sweep, he vacuums. If I walk the dog, he cleans the litter box. I clean the tubs, he does the counters. WE. SPLIT. EVERYTHING.

I couldn't be a super spouse without my super spouse! We meet in the middle and it makes us a team of Super Spouses.

Now I've given you a very deep look into my home life. What do you think? How do you share the chores? Do you ever get asked about how you feel regarding being the homemaker? Leave a comment below and we'll discuss it.

Be powerful, be precious, be patient.

Love as always,
Courtney

Chicken Fried Rice... Minus the Chinese Take Out.

Hubbers LOVES this recipe. Adores it. I try to make plenty for leftovers and that usually doesn't happen because he and my "brother in law" (Jeremy's best friend/brother, best man at our wedding) destroy it before the plates even hit the table.

You'll need:
1 can of carrots
1 can of peas
1 cup of rice
3 chicken breast
1 bottle of soy sauce
*eggs, scrambled
*green onion, diced
*zest of two oranges
*juice of two oranges

(**Means optional ingredients)

First things first, boil your rice. That's one cup rice, two cups water. Pour the rice and water in together, and bring it to a hard boil. Once it's boiling, cut the heat off, stir it, then put a lid on it. Let the steam work from there. This takes about 20 minutes. 

In the meantime, cook that chicken in the skillet. (I only used a few strips of chicken for a smaller amount. I like less chicken, you may add more.)

Next, combine all of your ingredients together. The peas should be drained as should the carrots. The chicken, once done, should be diced. Stir it all together so it looks like it does in the picture above. *If using optional ingredients, now is when you'd add the green onion, scrambled egg, and orange zest.*

Go ahead and heat up that skillet, wok, pan, what have you. I have an electric skillet that works wonders for this. 

Use max heat if using an electric skillet. 

It's not fried if there's no butter ya'll! Use about 2 tablespoons of butter to drop in that skillet. Paula Deen would use more, but we're not trying to lube up our arteries here. 

Throw that beautiful mess into the skillet once the butter has melted and sizzled. At this point we'll add the soy sauce, as much as you like (you won't use the whole bottle, hopefully. Taste it along the way. I like mine a little salty.) **If you're using the optional ingredients, add the orange juice here.

It's done when the excess juice and sauce have cooked into the rice. Enjoy this bit, kids, cause everyone is digging it!

Love as always, 

Courtney 

A Dessert For My Soul....Tastes Like A Million Bucks!

Before I can tell you about this pie, let me tell you why it is so near and dear to my heart.

The oldest lady in that picture? That's my MawMaw Berry. In this picture we were celebrating her 90th birthday. Due to Alzheimer's, she barely knew who most of us were unless we "introduced" ourselves. It was hard to see her like this as she was always the one to cook for the family, talk, laugh with everyone, fret to the extreme over Y2K and dote like crazy on her grandbabies. This woman was blessed with these beautiful, old, wrinkly hands that cooked us the best food in the whole world. This picture was taken February 2012.

In June 2012, just three short weeks before Jeremy and I got married, MawMaw Berry was reunited with her husband Woodrow Berry in Heaven. She lived a long and blessed life and she blessed many others. At her funeral, my mother, stepfathers, aunt, uncle, MawMaw, PawPaw, brother, sister, and cousins did our best to eat the food provided by the church, but all it did was stir up memories of when MawMaw Berry could still stand to cook.

We remembered dumplins and fried chicken and fresh butterbeans and boiled shrimp and cornbread muffins and greens and gravy... but we mostly remembered her Millionaire Pie. She didn't write down the recipe, she didn't tell anyone exactly how it was made. We had already lost our grandmother, great grandmother, mother... and now losing her recipes just added to the heartache.

Being the cookly wife that I am and using my MawMaw Berry as inspiration, I made a bold statement at that funeral dinner. "I'm gonna make that Millionaire Pie. It may not be as good, but I'm gonna make it."

This month, MawMaw Berry would have been 91 years old. Therefore, I celebrated her memory by making her pie. It's incredible how simple it was. I found this recipe off Pinterest, but it is incredibly similar to what I had from MawMaw Berry.

You'll need:
1 carton (8oz) of cool whip from the freezer section
1 (10oz) can of crushed pineapple
1 can (14oz) of Eagle Brand condensed milk
3 Tbs. of lemon juice
3/4 cup of crushed pecans (or as many pecans as you like.)
2 Graham Cracker pie crusts.

Combine cool whip, condensed milk, crushed pineapple, lemon juice, and crushed pecans in the mixer (or bowl) and mix well. It should look like the picture above. 

Pour the pie mixture into the two pie crusts..

 And refrigerate for two hours. 

When you finally cut into this heavenly piece of Millionaire Pie, it'll look like this. The longer it sits, the firmer it gets but you really cannot wait longer than two hours to taste this!

It holds together nicely, so long as you keep it refrigerated. 

It was an honor and a blessing to be able to make this pie for you. I feel like I got to spend a little time with my MawMaw Berry today. I can only hope that I'll be half the wife, homemaker, and mother that she was. Enjoy this pie my friends.

Oh, and take a moment to read up on Alzheimer's. Be aware of the dangers, the symptoms, the signs, and the treatments for Alzheimer's. I lost someone to it, but I pray you don't have to. 

Love always, 

Courtney

Easy Garlic Bread From Scratch

I promised you two recipes, here's the first.

This is the easiest garlic bread short of buying it from the freezer section. We've all tasted it, we know the freezer box garlic bread is good, but who doesn't want to just absolutely WOW friends at the dinner party? Besides, this is super easy and completely worth it. I got this from Food.com AND they have a feature that allows you to adjust the portion depending on how much you want to make. I only made one loaf of the artisan bread and that required no refrigeration, but you can use that website to go about it however you like.

Here's What I Did:

3/4 cup lukewarm water
3/8 tablespoon granulated yeast (2 packets)
3/8 tablespoon kosher salt or 3/8 tablespoon other coarse salt
1 5/8 cups flour, unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose (not strong)


I combined it all in my mixer with the dough hook attachment. If you don't have a KitchenAid stand mixer, my heart aches for you. But you can still do this by hand. My instructions include the mixer.

Add the yeast, warm water (straight from the sink worked for me), and salt. Let that sit for about 10 minutes which allows the yeast to work its magic, then add the flour. All at once, then set that mixer to 2 until the dough pulls from the side. 

When you get the dough off the hook, it should look like this. **PRO TIP coat your hands in flour, it keeps the dough from sticking to your fingers.** 

Next, roll that dough into a little ball. You'll want to cover the bowl for about two hours and let it set on the counter to rise. Go check the mail, run errands, handle business, let the dough be. 

Once the dough has risen in size, coat it in flour. I let that sit for a minute as I greased up the pan. The recipe didn't call for it, but it seemed like a good idea. 

Grease up that pan all nice and oily like...

Then manipulate that little ball into a long loaf. It looks tiny now but never fear, my dear, it shall rise. 

Now, this seems silly, but it works. Put that oven to 425 and add a broiler pan (or cake pan) full of water. Trust me, the steam keeps that bread nice and moist. 

As the oven heats, let that dough rise a little more. Coat it in olive oil and cut some slits in it. Mine weren't deep enough, but it made for a crispier crust. Then throw that baby in the oven! The recipe called for 30mins, but my oven only needed 25 and it got a little too brown.

Voila! Artisan bread.

Let it rest, my darling. Now, you could stop here and make a killer BLT... but I'm trying to impress dinner party friends with an Italian menu sooo...

I cut that hunky loaf into baguettes, or bites, or whatever you choose to call them. I covered them in butter and garlic salt, toasted them, then this is what happened...

For the love of all things joyful and true, this was some tasty garlic bread! BOOM!

And there you have it folks, tasty, easy, quick garlic bread. Or just sandwich bread. But my Lawd it was delicious!

Meal Planning, Time Saving

King Hubs of the Ingle Castle has been asking me to blog again about my meal planning system. We've recently started a one week instead of two week menu. As you remember, we were eating a different meal every night for two weeks, rinse and repeat. Well now we have a repeating menu every week. Bland as it may be, we're trying to save up to buy a home, so every Monday night pizza night and Tuesday night casserole is worth it.

Now for the meal planning part. Make your menu first. Mine looks like this: 

Monday--Pizza night (also board game night with brother in law and friends)

Tuesday --Poppyseed chicken (which can be made in advance and refrigerated or frozen until you're ready       to cook.This is my night class special)

Wednesday--Taco Roll (easy enough for the hubs to make since I have classes late.)

Thursday--Chicken, rice, peas. 

Friday--Meatloaf (in the crockpot. Cooks while I do my research, writing and errands and is amazing. Served with any of the veggies that Hubs's grandparents send us fresh from their garden.)

Saturday--Sandwiches or out for lunch. (Common time for the hubby and I to share a romantic lunch.) Supper is hamburgers (unless we have a dinner party or plans.)

Sunday--Lasagna for lunch. (Stouffers. Don't judge me, its better than any lasagna I'll ever make. And cheap. For 2.65 it feeds me and the Hubbers.) Chicken fried rice made at home for supper. 

Then make your grocery list to correspond. Be on the lookout for meat deals like the Pick 5 for 19.99 deal at some grocery stores. I save a ton of money doing that. 

I highly recommend planning your meals around your schedule. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays I do something easy that the hubs can make or a casserole that I can prepare in advance and bake when I get home. For crockpot recipes, check out these ladies. I use a lot of their recipes to get inspiration for new things or just to wow people when I have company ;)

With love as always, 

Courtney 

Good Morning! Get Up, Seriously...

It's an early morning in the Ingle house. Mardi was whining to be taken out, Winry was meowing because Mardi was whining, and of course the hubs was fast asleep. On today's agenda, I have to go to the library for my research, go purchase a weather radio, make a trip to the Wally World AND prepare garlic bread and a dessert for our dinner party tonight with friends.

See, my social life has not ended because of marriage or because of graduate school. If you don't find the time for friends, forgive me, but you're doing it wrong. My husband and I need each other.. but we also need the comfort and warm embrace of fun times with great friends and family.

Later today I'll be bringing you two separate recipes. One for the garlic bread I'm making(hopefully, if it works. I'm terrible with bread) and one for a dessert that is near and dear to my heart.

I wanted to share with you something I saw on Pinterest this morning: 31 Things To Freeze and Save Money is a great read by a very talented blogger/homemaker. Jill has all kinds of tricks up her sleeve, so check her out!

Also, if you ever want to just peer into my brain, my Pinterest boards are the best way to do so. There's everything from my humor to what I want to try on there, so give it a look.

I better get back to my day. Stick around folks, I'll have that garlic bread and that dessert for ya soon.


Love always,
Courtney

Catching Up Part 3--Rebuilding and Moving Forward

After the February 10th tornado, Southern Miss did not lay down and accept defeat. We stood up, we buckled up, and we tightened down.

On Southern Miss Cleanup Day, February 12, 2013 over 940 students plus 300 volunteers from either the alumni, community, or other schools came together and gathered over 2000 bags of debris. Thanks to them, we went back to work and school on February 14th, 2013.

That was how Southern moved on, and the Ingle house has moved on as well. We've added a new baby to our house! Folks, meet Mardi!

Mardi is our precioius, 4 pound Chiweenie. She was a shelter puppy. When we got her she was dehydrated, eat up with a worm infection, and almost to the point of malnutrition. But we loved her, so we took her home, cleaned her up, fattened her up, and she'll be spayed next week. Having her in our lives made us focus on something so pure, so innocent, and so time consuming that we quickly recovered from the emotional trauma of the destruction from the tornado. Plus, our cat Winry adores her. And yes, that is a picture of a cat grooming a puppy as if she were a kitten. There is so much cute in my house that you'd think My Little Pony threw up Dora The Explorer.

**Mardi Update***


As I was typing, I heard a knock at the door. I look up to find Mardi scratching the door furiously to be let out. I grab the leash but she gives me a "Mama we ain't got time for that" look, so I just open the door. Out she goes to the grass, handles business, and comes back in.

Praise be to God, my apartment is one poop/pee session closer to smelling like fresh linen again!


Don't worry, I'll be posting a recipe later. Actually, two, so stay tuned ;)


Love as always,
Courtney

Catching Up Part 2

As I told you all yesterday, there has been nothing regular about these last few weeks. In fact, complete and total chaos is starting to feel like the new norm! Today alone I have conducted massive research for a paper, finished a paper, started another paper, cleaned house, started supper, fixed lunch, walked the dog, and fought traffic on Hardy Street in Hattiesburg, MS. All of this took place before 2pm this lovely Friday... and Fridays are supposed to be my day off.

But now it's time to catch up on the other thing that has thrown us off lately.

February 10th, 2013.

Jeremy (also known as the hubs, my husband) and I were en route back home to Hattiesburg from his grandparents' house when I got a phone call from my Mama.

"Where are you?"
"About an hour from home, why?"
"Just pull over. There's a tornado where you live and I don't want you guys driving into it."

Now I knew the weather was bad, but I didn't think it was that bad. We had a friend at our place washing his clothes, so I called him.

"What's the weather doing?"
"Sirens are going off. We're (the friend and our cat. Very thoughtful of him to save the cat) in the bathroom, the weather is terrible."

I immediately began to panic. I told the hubs "stop for now, but get us home." We pulled over very briefly, but once the rain subsided we bolted for the Burg, the loving name for Hattiesburg.

As Jeremy is driving, both of our cell phones are being blown up. My mom, my stepdad, my dad, all on my phone. His dad, his grandparents, his sister, his co-workers, all on his phone. I turned by car into a mobile BellSouth station and answered all the calls with "yes, we're fine, what's happening there?"

My parents kept calling me, sending me text messages, and sending me links on Facebook to what we would not be able to imagine until we saw it ourselves. An EF-4 Tornado tore through the neighborhoods surrounding us, our apartment complex, then jumped over the highway and completely devastated Hattiesburg and Petal. News reports of complete devastation on the Southern Miss campus were churning in my stomach since I couldn't see it for myself. As we approached 49 South in Hattiesburg, we were redirected though non-affected residential areas to get to our apartment.

First pulling into our apartment complex, I had no idea what to expect. Entire roofs from neighboring buildings were gone. Pieces of billboard from the highway mixed in with the debris of annihilated houses, roofs, cars, trees, power lines and more. Thankfully, our building was untouched, with the exception of a tree branch on our neighbor's car. We were fine, but we had no power.

Long story short, we camped out to candlelight and an ice chest full of meat from our freezer. We waited for the news reports to roll in, we called family, and I mourned at the devastation bestowed to my beloved Southern Miss Campus.
Here are some videos and pictures of the devastation. Though it has been almost two weeks since this devastating tornado blasted its way through Hattiesburg and Petal, prayers are still welcome.


What happened next was a beautiful thing, but I'll tell you that later.

Elam Arms. USM former residence hall, roof gone, windows blown out, part of the building destroyed.

My apartment complex, this building took the most damage. Not livable, front of roof gone, side of the building gone, on the verge of collapse. All residents were relocated. 

Southern Miss from Elam Arms. Windows blown out, 75 trees along the front of campus, gone. What was once shrouded in beautiful trees is now completely open and can be seen straight over to the 49 south Highway.

An apartment building in my complex. Now condemned and beyond repair. No roof, water damage, massage structural damage, on the verge of collapse. 

Debris from a billboard and the debris from an apartment roof.

A Lot Has Happened... Catching up Part 1

For the most part, I'll make this short.

After my fourth post, I suffered from a ruptured ovarian cyst. It was painful, it was sucky, and I was off my feet for a little while.

One week to the day later, I went to the doctor thinking I had the flu. It wasn't the flu--it was sinusitis, bronchitis, and an ear infection in each ear. While still hurting from the cyst. Again, that knocked me off my feet.

**Author note. If you take Sudafed at 9pm, don't think you're going to sleep. I didn't. Instead, I watched two seasons of Community within 24 hours and then went comatose for about 12 hours.

After dealing with all that, catching up on school and work and financially recovering from not having my insurance yet (the cyst ruptured the day my insurance was supposed to activate), I fell away from the social media sphere for a while.

But I'm back...BOO-YAH!

I've learned in all this that blogging takes work, it takes time, it takes dedication--but it can't take you! Honestly, in order to remain at my Super-Student, Super-Spouse status, I've had to back away from the computer and focus on myself. Granted, this wasn't a very convenient thing, but when is everything convenient. Don't worry, I'll wait.

When I decided it was time to get back to the blogging sphere, I used {never}homemaker blog for inspiration. The post that's dedicated to bloggers keeps me going, and I look at it frequently, as should you.

I'm going to spend the next couple of blogs catching up on all that's been missing. I have a couple of new recipes I tried, I've danced (sorta), I've cried (you'll see why) and we adopted a puppy. So much has happened in our lives that I can't get it all in here. So stick around for the other parts of Catching Up.

As always,
Courtney