It Might Be A Little While...

...before you hear from me again that is.

This week I will be busy getting us totally moved out of our old condo and signing it over to the new owner.

We are supposedly closing on our new home the first week of March. Once we get moved in I will certainly be showing inside pictures of the home.

We have more snow and grey clouds in the forecast. Hopefully the next time we meet there will be an air (or at least some color) of spring in my life.

I will be looking forward to coming back with sunny and exciting news and no more winter blues!

In the mean time, I will be picking out paint colors.

The Jello House Post

What's a Jello House you ask? I have no idea. It's just my tricky way of getting you to read my totally random post about both a house and jello. I'm sure some of you are clicking that red x right about now....but wait...

I have great news! After the previous whiny post about how terrible the house search was going......we had success! After house searching the very next day, we decided to make an offer and it was accepted. The other great news is that they are wanting to move pretty fast as well so hopefully this will all work out wonderfully. Now we just have to get through all the other hoops (inspection, appraisal, loan approval) and then we will be good as gold!

And without further ado....here is a picture of our soon to be new home.

And now for the jello portion of this post...

Since I'm a total slacker and have not blogged at all this week I am combining two posts into one. In fact, I'm a total slacker at life right now to tell you the truth. I haven't been feeling like cooking one bit. Totally uninspired. So today for What's to Eat? Wednesday I'm going to be featuring a no cook treat! Jello Mousse.

I can only vouch for the caramel but let me tell you it's 60 calories of pure yumminess! You should definitely check it out. It's light and satisfies your sweet tooth without the guilt. Perfect for someone like me that always needs (or should I say wants) dessert. Let me know what you think!

The House Search

House searching this time around has not been so easy. There always seems to be a little something missing from each one we see....no bonus room, too far, rooms are too small, nothing is upgraded. We just haven't had that "Aha! This is it!" moment.

This time around, the home is so much more important because we will be staying there for longer than we've lived anywhere else. We plan to start our family there and we need a place that is able to grow with us unlike our condo which we outgrew in a year. This time around I don't want to have to do any immediate updates. I'd really like something move in ready!

I really want to take my time and find the perfect one, but I'm sooooo ready to have our own home again though. I'm growing more and more impatient by the day really. I miss being able to take care of our own house, being on our own couch, being in our own bed. I miss actually having time to talk to my husband without others being around.

This little time we have spent with our parents has really shown me the simple things I took for granted in our relationship in the past. No more I tell you! No more! I will appreciate every little moment that is just ours.

Oh, I can't wait!

We are moving all of our stuff out of our old condo in a week and a half and hopefully closing that same Friday if all goes well. I've got 4 great (or what appear to be great) houses lined up to see tomorrow and I'm really hoping one of them will be OUR new home!

What's to Eat? Wednesday: Chocolate Chip Cookies

Over the snowy weekend I decided to make some warm and gooey chocolate chip cookies. They were a big hit and super easy to make thanks to Alton Brown's recipe and my handy, dandy silpat.

Before I share the recipe let me tell you about this good friend of mine. It is a must have for baking cookies in my book. It guarantees you a no stick cookie. Actually, I use it on anything that tends to stick to a pan. I like it even better than parchment paper because it's reusable!

Get your own here!

The Chewy (Chocolate Chip Cookie)

Ingredients

2 sticks unsalted butter

2 1/4 cups bread flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup sugar

1 1/4 cups brown sugar

1 egg

1 egg yolk

2 tablespoons milk

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.

Pour the melted butter in the mixer's work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar. Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed. Add the egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Chill the dough, then scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets (or silicone mat), 6 cookies per sheet. Bake for 14 minutes (I baked mine for 12) or until golden brown, checking the cookies after 5 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet for even browning. Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

Enjoy!

Fundamental Points to Increase Happiness

For me to be able to increase my happiness and really succeed in my happiness project, I needed to pinpoint my weaknesses. Below is the list of my fundamental points that I need to work on to perfect my life.

Fundamental Points to Increase Happiness

1. Learn to truly forgive and forget.
2. Let go of the past, embrace the present, and plan for the future.
3. Have structure but be able to go with the flow.
4. Practice patience.
5. Find appropriate ways to express myself and my feelings.
6. Trust in God.
7. Have confidence in myself.
8. Be thankful.
9. Increase my awareness of other peoples needs.
10. Don't take things too personally.

I realize how simple these may sound at first glance. But sometimes I find myself reacting too quickly to the situation at hand that I just go with my natural instincts (which are sometimes so wrong!). I need to really put some thought into these and figure out just how I am going to make these my NEW natural instincts.

Whew...I've got a lot of work ahead of me!