3 months down!

So, I realized my blog is titled "Me and Mr. C," yet I have not posted about my Mr. in a while. I think it is about time I write a post about him, since he is part of the title of this blog.

Paul and I just 'celebrated'  our 3 month anniversary! We did not really celebrate... On our way home from church I asked him, "Is today the 9th?" He said, "Yup, why?"  Then I said, "It's our anniversary then. Happy 3 months!"  And that was the end of it. Now, I know that you might be thinking, "# months. Big deal..." But let me tell you, the first few months of marriage can be rough! Once you're over the 'honeymoon' period, there can be a lot of adjusting going on.

Now, Paul and I were lucky enough to have known each other for 6 years before we got married.  This means that I knew a few of his quirks and habits already.  Things like how he doesn't always clean up after he makes food (I will admit, I'm guilty of this too sometimes...), the fact that he snores, or that he is a night owl and I am an early bird. Even though I knew a lot of his quirks and he knew a lot of mine, being married just changes things on some level. Your relationship with each other completely changes.

Marriage is really hard. It is probably one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life so far, but it has also been the best! Even though he does have some 'quirks' (like we all do) I love my husband just the way he is. He is truly my best friend and I cannot imagine doing life with anyone else! He is kind, supportive, thoughtful, generous, and hard working.

Our normal smile picture...

(These are pre-pixie cut days.)

Our silly face picture. Paul would make a great 'evil' person in a movie.  

He can move his eye brows really well. Haha.

(Paul doesn't like silly picture much, but I'm changing his ways.)

Recipe: Banana Bread

Overall, I would have to say I enjoy cooking.  I'm not a huge fan of cooking things that take more than 30 minutes or use tons of pots, pans, and dishes to make. I enjoy the kind of cooking where you can throw everything together quickly, pop them in the oven, crock pot, or leave them on the stove and kind of forget about them for a while.

I think this is why I truly enjoy baking.  Usually you can throw the ingredients into a bowl, mix it up, put them in the oven and take them out when the timer goes off.  One of my MOST favorite things to bake is banana bread.

I love banana bread and have fond memories of my mom making it when I was a child.  I loved that I got to have it for breakfast. It was the BEST! When I went off to college and was living in my very own, first apartment I had a hankering for some banana bread so I got on the internet and search for a recipe.

Bad plan.

Even though the recipe's title was "Delicious Banana Bread" (or something along those lines), it was not very good. It was not as moist or as flavorful as my mom's recipe is. So, what did I do next? Took pictures of my mom's recipe and saved them on my phone so I could make the BEST banana bread whenever I want.

My favorite thing about this recipe, is when you are searching for it in her cook book it is easily found because the page is extremely worn and stained from being used so much.  It shows how much my mom has made it throughout her lifetime.

So, I wanted to share this recipe with whomever reads this blog, because it is so good.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons salad oil
3/4 cup milk
1 egg
1 cup ripe mashed bananas (2-3 medium bananas)
Optional:
1 cup nuts

My mom also likes to add chocolate chips. However, I am not a huge chocolate fan so I omit those. But, I know many others love chocolate chips, so add those to your hearts desire!

* Tip: A tip from my mom. When you are adding the bananas keep them in the peel and mush them up before taking them out. Then you can just take an end off the banana and squeeze them out and they will be mashed already.

Instructions;
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a loaf pan (or mini loaf pans. I love my mini loaf pans!)

Measure all ingredients into a large mixing bowl; beat on medium for 1/2 minute (or by hand until everything is combined if your me and are too lazy to get out your hand mixer)
Make sure the sides and bottom get thoroughly combined.

Pour into pan(s).

Bake 55-5 minutes or until you can insert a toothpick into the middle and it comes out clean. (No sticky dough residue on the tooth pick.) This is an important step because I have under baked banana bread before.

Remove from the pan and enjoy!!

Baking ( A little over half done, I'd say.) See my mini loaf pans!? So great for sharing with neighbors, friends, or coworkers!

Mmmm! Done! It looks SO GOOD! Makes me want some now. 

(These pictures were from a few weeks ago.)

One crazy week!

So last week was a bit busy, to say the least.

Between classes and work I was one tired girl.

I had work training, practicum hours, a field trip at work, working the for Wednesday night at the church, and more work training.

Out of all of these things, the field trip to the pumpkin patch was the most exhausting, but fun. It is EXTREMELY stressful taking about 15 3-5 year olds on a field trip. Thank goodness everything went well and everyone had a great time!

This weekend was filled with time spent with good friends.

Friday, I spent a fun evening with my best buddy, Farren.  Then her and her hubs and me and my hubs went out for Halloween.  We did not dress up, but I kinda wished we had. It would have been fun and we would have fit in more.

Saturday was a lazy day filled with sleeping in, light cleaning, cookie making, and then a pizza and movie night with the Morris's. I am so grateful for wonderful friends!

We got to spend Sunday afternoon and evening with my parents, which was awesome. We haven't been down to see them in a long time and they will be travelling soon. It was good to see them since the next time we will be seeing them is Thanksgiving!

Paul and I both agree that we need a weekend with just us.  We have realized that being extroverted is exhausting and we have been doing a lot of that lately.

With hunting season coming up, I don't know when the next weekend we will be able to spend just the two of us (and our dog), but I can't wait until we do!

I'm grateful for my wonderful husband, great friends, and that this week is going to be much less busy than the last (knocks on wood).