New Jersey and New York

The last Office aired on Thursday night and we wanted to send it out right. The show takes place in Pennsylvania, but we already had eaten Pennsylvania and so that wouldn't work. When Michael leaves he moves to Colorado, but we already ate Denver so that wouldn't work. Then I remembered that corporate in the show is in Florida and New York and so we had to pick between Key Lime Pie and Buffalo Wings. The Wings had it!

Not related to the Office we also ate New Jersey which was a hoagie sandwich. On a particularly hot day I didn't want to cook so I looked at my remaining states and tried to find one that required minimal effort and no stove/oven/microwave. New Jersey was a perfect fit.

Mothers Day

Mother's Day was kinda weird for me this year. Ethan treated me very special and it was a beautiful Sunday filled with lots of family, but I just don't feel like a mother yet and so it didn't feel like the day was for me. It doesn't make sense, I know that, but Kelsey just doesn't seem like my daughter. She seems more like a cute little person that I get to hang out with all day. It was also different because I see Mother's day as a time to relax. Not do any dishes, not make dinner, not change diapers, read, nap, soak in the sun, sleep in... those kind of things, but news flash for myself: I have a baby! Some things just don't go on hold because I want them too. We got together with the Wings for mothers day which I was very excited to do, but because we were there, Diana was the mother not me, which just added to the weirdness that I was feeling. I know it is all so strange and will make no sense to anyone but myself.
Regardless, Ethan gave me some very thoughtful gifts and although Kelsey was a grump all Mothers day, this morning she laughed and played with me and it was the cutest thing in the whole world. I love being a mother and am so grateful for the responsibility that I have been blessed with. It is hard at times but those are just moments. I mostly just love it so very much and hope that there will be many more little ones in our future. Being a mom gives me so much satisfaction and joy. I hope I never have to work again because I love this way too much. It is easy for me to say that the things I am most proud of in this life is my marriage to Ethan and Kelsey. I love being a mom regardless of my weird emotional roller coaster.

 I love you Kelsey! You are my whole world!

Nevada

Don't laugh, but EVERY website, blog, and book labeled Nevada's state meal as a buffet!! What?! I know, but we had a lot of fun picking which buffet we wanted to go to. Ultimately my love for pizza won and we went to Pizza Pie Cafe which is no Nevada buffet, but it is seriousness like my favorite place to eat. We all left stuffed and satisfied, so we call this state a major success.

 Side note: Kelsey didn't like the pizza! She must not be mine!

Projects

I'm going to brag, so everyone either look out or stop reading!

For the past few weeks I have been working really hard on some projects and have finally finished them. I am really proud of some and cried over the others. Here is the list that I have been accomplishing

Caught up on all my scrap booking

Organized my 50 states project

Made a book just like Julies for finances

Made mothers day gifts

Tried a new cookie recipe

Cut old jeans to make shorts

Made a maxi skirt (and failed horribly resulting in me never wanting to sew again)

Fixed the said maxi skirt as well as I could

Paint 4th of July wood things

Work on a baby shower and a birthday party

Made a slip lace extender which I was going to give to my sister because she is super tall, but I was afraid           she wouldn't like it and I loved it so I kept it for myself

I have been able to do so much because Kels has recently understood the concept of nap time which frees up my afternoons. It has been glorious and so much fun to work on some of my hobbies. I am trying to love it up now because I have been told that my time just slowly starts to slip further and further away as Kelsey gets older and as more kids come. For now, bring on the nap times!

 so this is the slip and I love it!! The dress goes like mid thigh which is way too short, but now I can wear it comfortably

 Mother's day gift for Diana. thanks for the help Karolyn

Mothers day gift for mom. thanks for the help Shara

North Dakota Knophela

Before it got too warm, I wanted to make sure I made all the soups, stews, and chills so that we were not eating those in 100 degree weather. Good thing May is playing a trick on all of us and has given us plenty of chilly days to work with and so I finally have finished all the soups. North Dakota was the most recent state and I can easily say that it was the funnest to make. I made Knophela soup. It is a German dish apparently very popular in the Dakota area (Carolyn, correct me if I'm wrong)

Here is how I made it:
First you just do the basics that you would any other soup, cut, peel, boil, mash, pour, dice, add, etc, and then it was time for the fun part. Knophela is a type of bread/pasta. I mixed the ingredients to make a sticky dough. I rolled it out like a snake and then cut little pieces.

 Once the pieces were cut I let them boil in chicken stock, which in turn cooked the pieces of pasta/bread.

 Once they were double in size, puffy, and floating at the top, I added them to the soup!

It was so different and so much fun. The soup itself was delicious but very unhealthy. I don't know if I will make it again because we essentially drank a stick of butter and whipping cream, a habit that I don't want to get into.

West Virginia

I found in several places that West Virginia is a big fan of ramps (pictured below) and pepperoni rolls! 

Since I did not know where to get ramps and pizza is my favorite thing in the whole world AFTER pasta salad, I naturally made pepperoni rolls.

A pepperoni roll is a pizza rolled into a roll with no sauce because that is for dipping.

Gotta say though, that I didn't love this as much as I thought I would. I mean I just sound picky and ridiculous because whats not to love: its bread, cheese, and a pepperoni stick! There was just something about it that made me miss my flat pepperoni. Despite my picky weird food critic side, it was a state well done. 

Minnesota

There were two suggested meals for Minnesota. One was Hoddish aka tatter tot casserole and the other was a Jucy Lucy aka a cheese stuffed cheeseburger. Because neither of these were new to us, we decided to go with the Jucy Lucy. Hoddish sounded fun to make just because it was called something cool, but in the end I just didn't want to eat tatter tot casserole.

With Minnesota off the list, we only have 38 to go!