Hoagie Dip

This dip is so good and quite frankly the first time I bit into it I thought it was so cool how much it tasted exactly like a hoagie in bite sized form. This has to be one of the easiest dips you'll make, since all you have to do is cut up some lunch meat and mix it with mayo and spices. 

What you need:

- 1/2 lb ham

- 1/2 lb capicola ham

- 1/2 lb salami

- 1/4 lb american cheese

- 1/4 lb provolone cheese

- 1 onion

- 1 tsp oregano

- salt/pepper to taste

- 1 tsp garlic powder

- 1/2 cup mayo

- french bread cut into bite sized pieces

*The seasoning/mayo is all to taste. If you feel like you need to add more to make it more "hoaglie-licious", go for it!*

What you do:

Cut up meats and cheeses, combine with mayo and spices. Serve cold on top of bread pieces.

There's Your Sign

The chef that works in the cafeteria in my office building is such a positive, optimistic person. We had a really great conversation a few weeks ago about how he chooses to find the good in everything after he spent several minutes looking for sausage patties that another chef who was filling in for him placed somewhere else than where they normally were. Any regular person in his situation would have been so angry and probably cursing the other chef, but when he did find them eventually, his only response was "oh he put them in this dish to save room, that is so nice of him".  I was amazed at his positivity. I've never met someone who wouldn't have been incredibly annoyed at not being able to locate something that someone else "misplaced". His response to me was that he was so much happier when he spent less time focusing on the negativity and found the good in everything. 

It's something I really try to strive for, but it's really easier said than done. I resolved to try and emulate this great behavior and was put to the test a few nights ago. A "friend", who I'm kind of stuck with due to their connections with family, was trying very hard to bring me down and be negative in the most passive aggressive way possible. My first reaction was to rage. I wanted to storm around the house, I wanted to unfriend and block her on Facebook and erase any existence that we ever were friends. It made me so angry that my stomach was in knots. 

Then the conversation I had with the chef came back to me and I realized that it was more important to me to focus on the people who cared about me than to allow the one person who was filled with so much negativity that she had to bring me down to pull herself up to get to me (holy run on sentence, Batman!). 

I had just gotten home from teen book club and though about about the teens, how much they cared about me, and the club, and how much I cared about them. 

I thought about my friend Sherrie who works at the library and the sheer joy on her face as we shared great news to each other from the past month.

I thought about Dave and how lucky I am. 

I thought about Nibbler and Squishee and how loved I am. 

I thought about my mom, my Aunt Steph, and Aunt Penny and how proud they are of me. 

Suddenly a parade of family and friends that loved me began to march through my mind, and that one "friend's" actions suddenly were insignificant and petty. 

As I sat there I thought to myself, "oh her actions just gave me a great blog post, how nice of her" and I smiled. 

Then my phone beeped this message (from the Tiny Buddha app):

In the words of Bill Engvall, "There's your sign". 

End of the Week Roundup

How has everyone's week been? All this talk about getting a new camera and I'm a little short on pictures this week, eep! Sorry! 

1. I mentioned Monday that I just bought a new camera. Dave got an email yesterday from Best Buy that this camera was now on sale with a tripod, extra lens and memory card for $75 more than what I originally paid for the camera (the extra lens alone is $200!). I was soooo mad, but Dave went back to the store and was able to upgrade so now I've got some extra goodies to play with! I'm so excited to see what I can do with this camera! 

2. Sunday was my graduation party. I talked a bit Wednesday about all the creative things my mom did to make the party a success, and of course I had to throw in a picture of my dad and I being goofballs again...since I didn't think you got enough of it last week!

3. This week, my neighbor and I started walking the neighborhood. Its nice to get some exercise in and being able to chat with her, I have no idea why we didn't start sooner!

4. Squish enjoying the sunlight and trying (and doing a great job of) to look cute for Momma.

5. Nibbler looking pensive...you know for a cat who hates having his picture taken he sure does take good ones.

Loving this song! Most definitely backing my azz up to this one!

Unique Graduation Party Ideas

This past Sunday, Dave and my mom threw a graduation party for me. My mom went all out with this party and came up with some really great ideas for the graduation theme that I wanted to share with you!

First, for dessert, my mom had a cake custom made that was made to look like books. The "subject" for each book was my major and minor. 

She also made cupcakes since she wasn't sure if the cake would be enough to feed everyone (it was and then some!). On top of each cupcake she decorated it with graduation themed toppers. 

She also had a candy table with bags that guests could fill up and take home as a goody bag. She made homemade chocolate hats in the shape of graduation caps in the colors of my school as well as regular chocolate. She used a mold very similar to this. She also placed most of the candy in empty boxes (similar) that are shaped to look like books, it was really cute! 

She also made chocolate covered pretzels in my school colors too!

She also had an assortment of candy in my school colors as well as "Nerds" and "Smarties"...get it? Ha ha!

For cards, my mom made (MADE!) a card box that was shaped to look like a graduation cap. She is so creative, it's insane. 

My mom also created little tags with keys attached to them, to act as the "guest book". Guests were instructed to write their own "keys to success" for me to read. I have to say this was probably one of my favorite things about the party, my friends and family's suggestions ranged from inspirational to hilarious. 

I hope this suggestions come in handy if you ever have to throw a graduation party!

Fun with the New Camera

On Friday I bought a new camera. It's a Canon Rebel T3, it's my very first DSLR camera and I'm so excited to be able to take better pictures on the blog (up until this point, I've used my iPhone camera exclusively). Over the weekend I was playing around with learning the camera and took some quick shots. 

Nibs trying to figure out what the heck I was doing 

My favorite picture!

Squish has cheekbones to die for!

Squish enjoying the breeze that's blowing through.