Dreaming of Summer (and a beach!)

Tomorrow my parents leave for Playa del Carmen and I'm pretty jealous! They usually go every year to Mexico or the Carribean. With the cold weather and another blizzard on the way probably, I really miss summer days. I especially miss running outside because the gym and treadmill are just way too boring! I thought this would be a good time to write about our honeymoon to Aruba and bring back some warm memories.

We spent 7 days in beautiful Aruba at the Divi Villiage Golf and Beach resort. While we were there we went jet skiing in the ocean, snorkeling and took a tour of the whole island on a landrover. We choose Aruba because my parents had been there and said it was a great place with beautiful sights!

Dinner with the In-Laws

{ This post is linked up @ Home Stories A to Z}
This past Sunday we had Alex's family over. I made my favorite dish which is stuffed shells. I will share the recipe below :) Alex loves this recipe and requests it a lot plus it is super easy. Except this time I had to make 2 large pans full. We also had garlic bread, salad and pie! When the boys Easton and Barrett got here they went crazy over seeing Kobe. However, Kobe was not as thrilled because he began to hide under the coffee table and growl as loud as I have ever heard him. We had to warn the kids that the kitty was dangerous and like a lion! A few minutes into the dinner Lauren asked if we had any special news to announce and I began to laugh. And soon Alex's brother, sister and dad all said they had the same question. Luckily I could tell them definitely not and that I should have known that having everyone over for dinner for no special occasion would throw some people for a loop. We began talking about summer vacation with the family and possible spots. I really would love to go to Okoboji and we will have to decide soon so spots to book up to fast. We played a little pool and watched bits and pieces of the Oscars. It was a fun night and I'm glad we were all able to get together. I also will post my new Easter decor and update you on my workout classes I took this week.

Making these shells are very easy and I have tailored the recipe from other recipes. You could also substitute ground beef/turkey instead of chicken and add cooked spinach to the mixture.

What you will need:

1 box Jumbo pasta shells

2 cooked and shredded chicken breasts

Half a container of the large low fat cottage cheese (sorry for the un-exact measurements)

Package of shredded part skim mozzarella cheese

1 Jar of Prego traditional marinara sauce

Steps:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cook the pasta shells according to the directions on the box, they only need to be cooked for 9 minutes or so because in order to fill them they need to be a little firm still. Combine the shredded chicken, cottage cheese, and half the bag of mozzarella cheese in a bowl and mix together. Then take one pasta shell and stuff a large spoonful into the shell. After you fill all the shells and put them in a 9x13 pan cover the shells with the remaining mozzarella cheese. Next pour sauce over. Cook in oven for 60 minutes.

I'm telling you, it is a great recipe and the cottage cheese makes it just so delicious!

Not Your Typical Friday Night

Well I should have known the night was going to be a little bizarre when I left the house and got in my car but the car wouldn't start! Hmmm, that's not convenient! Luckily Alex could sneak away from work and get me there with the help from his friend Joel. After I got to the Med Center I realized that I had a 1:1 patient (which is never a good sign). See a 1:1 patient can only mean one thing....Restraints. Which means documenting every 15 minutes and usually the patients have a very good reason for being in restraints. My patient happened to be detoxing from Meth. He was bi-polar, alcoholic, and very violent. Thank goodness his arms and legs were locked down but it sure was a sad sight to see. As he was spitting and yelling profanities at me I couldn't help but feel a little sorry for him. What a horrible drug and what a horrible life. Of course he did not believe anyone in the hospital was helping him at all and with every other word from his mouth being a not so nice 4 letter word, I took a big breath and go ready for the remainder of my shift. It was a night of many firsts. First time I witnessed a grown man throw his own feces at someone, first time I had to call on security several times and first time I was a little scared for my life at my job. But with only a little over an hour left in my shift I'm so glad it's almost over! He did say something unusual to me amongst the swearing and spitting. It was "You aren't a Christian!" which was a surprising choice of words for him. None the less I still took the opportunity to tell him that I was indeed a Christian and that I would be praying for him. Because what else was there to do. I showed him kindness and did my best to keep him calm throughout my shift and that is just the best I can do.

The Start of Something Beautiful

Hey everyone! Seems pretty silly that I would address “everyone” when I am making this blog at 2:30 in the morning, not knowing who “everyone” is going to be and greeting people that don’t even know this blog exists. I have kept a personal blog for a few years now and have always thought it would be nice to share some ideas, recipes, workouts or devotions online with my close friends and family so here it goes! I don’t know how often I will post something and don’t know if this blog will even amount to much but I suppose this is what you do when you are almost 25 years old and don’t have to study for exams, write papers or chase kids around this house! So hopefully in the long run (the Very long run) this blog can be an update on the “fun happenings of the Williams family” but for right now it will be a simple show and tell for whomever cares about the same stuff I care about.