Where has the time gone?!

We've been in New York for 9 months? REALLY?

Where has the time gone?  Seriously.  It definitely doesn't feel like it's been that long.  Maybe 4 months at most.  But we've survived our first fall and winter in the North Country, H hit his one-year mark in the Army, and I've been teaching my preschoolers for eight months.  Okay, I guess it has been that long.  Wow that went by fast!

I know it seems crazy, but it feels like in the past 9 months there really haven't been that many interesting things going on to talk about.  To be honest, it's almost felt a little stagnant.  Not a bad stagnant, but definitely non-moving.  Like I'm treading water.

As much as I've loved teaching at the preschool, it's not where my heart truly is.  It's been almost 2 years since I've been in a high school classroom as a lead teacher, and I can feel myself losing a grip on the idea that I'll ever be back in one, especially here in New York.  Up here, it's almost a requirement to have your Master's degree to be a teacher, which has put a damper on my ability to get back into a classroom.  Thankfully, though, it looks like I'll be starting my Master's degree (back at good old BGSU!) program in August which will definitely help with the treading water feeling - almost like I'm finally starting to swim towards the far shore instead of just stay in place while I watch it like a dream.

I've also had to deal with homesickness more often than I anticipated.  It's not terrible, but it's enough that every couple months I just feel like I'm missing out on everything back home.  I've had to miss one very important wedding already this year, and there are at least 2 more that I can't attend.  As the weather gets warmer, I keep feeling like "oh this is a perfect day to go grill and hang out with Krista and Abbie"; but of course, they're 600+ miles away.  I'll find myself bored on a weeknight where H is in the field and all I want is to hang out with my sister and watch a movie.  It usually only lasts a few days, and I do have some good friends who are up here that have been wonderful, but nothing beats being back home with my family once in a while.

Okay, enough with the Debbie Downerness of this post.  While I've been dealing with the whole "treading water" and homesickness stuff, some amazing things have been happening!  Both of our close friend couples up here have had babies in the past couple months! It's so wonderful to watch our friends' families expand and grow, and it's been an encouragement for us to try to start our own family.  We are trusting God's hand in all of this and know that His timing is perfect timing, but we're hoping that sometime this summer we'll get some good news about our family doing some of it's own growing and expanding!

Sharlot and I on Valentine's Day - one of my best friends up here!

H passed the one-year mark for being in the Army back in March, and it's been a very interesting year for him.  The unit that he originally got placed in has deployed, although he did not go with them.  His particular company was kept behind on Rear Detachment (rear-d), and he's been temporarily moved from his original unit/company (an all-infantry unit) to a new unit/troop (a cavalry unit).  While at first he wasn't excited about moving around like this, it's actually been a HUGE blessing in disguise.  He's been able to move to a unit that is much better in terms of professionalism and training, and it's opened a lot of doors for him in terms of taking on leadership roles, going to training schools, and being taken seriously as a career soldier.  He'll have the opportunity to go to the Soldier of the Month Board in a few weeks, which means he can (hopefully!) rank up sooner than anticipated.  He's been able to prove himself a lot to his temporary commanding officers, even so much as to have them telling him that when his original unit returns from deployment, they want him to fill out paperwork to be permanently moved to their cavalry unit.  He's really excited about that prospect, because in the cavalry unit he's got the ability to actually progress his career and get to where he wants to be a lot sooner.  Praise God!

We also got to go to our first Military ball this spring, which was fantastic!  

At the ball in March 2013

I've been able to start advertising and selling my cupcakes to friends up here, which has been amazing.  It's like a pipe dream of mine is finally starting to come through, thanks to the support of H and his love of seeing my dreams come to fruition.  It hasn't been anything crazy and big, but it's been enough to make me feel like I'm more than just a girl baking in her kitchen for free.  (Yes, I'm about to shamelessly plug by business...but it's my blog, so I can do what I want! haha) Check out Lovebites Cupcakes :)

Riley kitten has grown a lot, and is officially the queen of our house.  She's been so wonderful to have in our family, and it seems strange to think about our family before she was in it. 

Baby Riley Kitten - not so little anymore!

Okay, so I guess more has happened over the past 9 months than I'd realized.  God has truly been blessing us up here.  We've found a great church family where H gets to usher occasionally and I help with Sunday School. It finally feels like H's career is on-track and he'll have the chance to see some of his dreams come true.  I'm able to attend grad school (finally!) and will hopefully be in my own classroom within the next year and a half.  We've made great friends, gotten ourselves established and settled in up here, and are starting to work on growing our family.  God's got His hand on us and we are truly blessed!

My goal is to actually update more than just every few months from now on.  I know I've said it before, but with all the amazing things that are coming our way soon, I want to keep things updated more often.  In theory, we'll use the blog to track the progress of trying to conceive and our pregnancy so there will be lots of updates from that! :)  Hooray for blessings and change!

-M

12 Projects of Christmas: Guinness Cupcakes

This was definitely not a project I was planning to make, but it falls under the gift category so I decided to post it.  Plus, it had rave reviews from JP, so I thought it would be great to share!

My "brother" JP is proudly Irish, and LOVES anything to do with his heritage, especially the beers.  His favorite beer?  Guinness.  Now personally, I think Guinness is awful---it's thick and dry and the flavor is terrible.  But JP loves it so much, so as soon as I saw this recipe I knew I had to make these for him.  I tweaked the recipe a little to make it work for his taste, and I have to say these did turn out really good!  Even for not liking Guinness, the flavor that it adds to the chocolate cupcake is wonderful!

So here we go:

Grab your ingredients!

1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup Guinness stout
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon table salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream  
1/2 cup unsalted butter
4 cups powdered sugar
1 pinch table salt
3 tablespoons Bailey's (we used the coffee flavor)
1 tablespoon milk

In a saucepan over medium heat, warm the butter, Guinness, cocoa powder, and brown sugar until the butter has melted and it's all smooth.  Make sure to whisk often because you don't want it to boil or burn.  The bubbles you see in the picture is actually the foam from the beer--the foam will cook down, don't worry.  Once it's all smooth, let it cool until it's room temp or a little warmer.

Now, in a bowl, sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together.

Add the Guinness mix to the bowl and mix until well combined.  Add the eggs and sour cream, and mix again.

Pour into your cupcake pan (make sure to use liners or grease the tin very well!) Bake at 325 degrees for 24 minutes, then let cool completely before frosting!

Here's the frosting recipe (ingredients are listed above)

Make sure you start with butter that's softened to room temp or else this will be very hard!  Cream the butter with a hand/stand mixer, then add the powdered sugar about 1/4 cup at a time (maybe even a little less than that--you be the judge) until you've added 2 cups total.  Add the milk and Bailey's, mix, and then continue to add the powdered sugar until the frosting is the consistency you want.  If you add too much powdered sugar, go ahead and add a little more milk.  Be careful adding too much Bailey's, because the frosting is very sweet so too much Bailey's can make it a little overpowering. 

So I gotta say, even though I don't like Guinness, these cupcakes are addictive and delicious!  I sprinkled with a little sanding sugar for decoration (not that JP actually cares about how they look, just how they taste! lol)

These would make a great gift for a guy in the family, or as a fun twist on Holiday treats at the family gathering ;)

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xoxo, Melissa