Creamy Chicken Casserole

I got this delicious recipe from a friend, Cheri, at a recipe swap. I finally made it last night and we enjoyed it a lot! It is a little rich, but still very yummy. So here's the recipe and how I made it.

6 chicken breast

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 8oz package cream cheese

1 Tbls poppy seeds (optional, I didn't have any so I didn't add those)

1 1/2 cups crushed round buttery crackers (I used Ritz Crackers)

1/4 cup melted butter.

First, I defrosted the chicken, cut it in to bite size pieces and then cooked it in a pan over the stovetop. While the chicken was cooking, I melted the cream cheese and mixed it with the cream of chicken soup (here is where you would add the poppy seeds). After the chicken was done, I added it to the cream cheese/cream of chicken soup mixture and mixed it all up. Next I spooned it into a lightly greased 9x13 pan. I then crumbled up about half a bag of Ritz Crackers into a measuring cup, added the melted butter, mixed it all up and then sprinkled it up over chicken. I baked it at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. It came out all bubbly and smelling delicious! And here's how it looked when it was done!

Valentine's Day

Eli gave me these beautiful roses for Valentine's Day!
These are called Blush Roses and are absolutely gorgeous!
After working all week, it was wonderful to come home and find these flowers, a box of chocolates and rose petals all over awaiting me. My husband is so romantic! We then went to dinner with some friends and had a wonderful time. A nice relaxing ending to a hard week. :)

P.S. I am drying the rose petals and am going to make potpourri out of them. I'll post the recipe if it turns out well.

Dried Flower Wreaths

Here are some wreaths I made at work. After funerals we offer to dry flowers from the arrangements and then put them into wreaths for the desceased's family. We had a big funeral a few months back and we just finally finished them up and here's how two of them came out!

First Wreath: Blue Hydrangea, White Roses, Purple Carnations, White Carnations, Purple Limonium (sp), White Japanese Asters, White Status, Purple Status and Silvery/Black ribbon on a Natural Wood Wreath.

Second Wreath: Blue Hydrangea, White Roses, Purple Status,

and Purple Ageratum on a Natural Wood Wreath

Worry...

Worry is something I have always struggled with. Amazingly, every time God helps me deal with it. I tend to go back and forth with trust. One day I'm good, everything is going to work out and the next I am a complete worry wort.

About 2 weeks ago Eli was snowboarding and and crashed into a snow wall (more like ice wall) and hurt his leg. He stayed off of it for a day, hoping that would help the pain go away. Well, it didn't. His leg was all swollen and very painful to walk on. After about a week of this, he went to the doctor and got it X-rayed. No fracture, no nothing pretty much. So we were told to go get an MRI because it could be a torn ACL . A week later we finally got an MRI, only to find out that we wouldn't find out the results till Monday. I was pretty frustrated at that point, because I had to worry for 2 more days! Finally Monday comes around, Eli calls me at work and his leg is fractured. But hopefully no surgery. And now today. He went to an orthopedist who told him his leg was fractured in 2 places and that there was a sliver of bone that had broken off and could possibly get into his kneecap and mess it all up. So now, he is probably going to have surgery to remove it. And of course all of this costs money, which is a huge thing I worry about.

Throughout all of this, I have been like a teeter-totter. Eli deals with this stuff much better than me. I know God will help us through this, but the worry is still there and distracts me from thanking God that it's not a torn ACL which would be much worse. I pray for God to remove my doubts and worries, but it's so hard to just let go.

I Finally Did It.

Hello everyone!

Creating a blog is something I have been thinking about for awhile now. Mostly because I enjoy reading my cousin's blogs who live in TX and I never get to see them, but I am able to keep myself updated on them through blogs. Also, because it would be nice to have somewhere to write all my thoughts and ideas down and I can get opinions from friends and family. Now, for all I know, nobody might ever read this. But I like to think that someone will and think I am an awesome person! :)

I hope to post pictures on here of my life, show ideas for decorating (and hopefully get some ideas), share some recipes and just in general talk about my life and what my husband (Eli) and I are up to.

Thanks to everyone who read this and comments. I know you're out there somewhere and I appreciate you taking the time to make me feel good about my blog!

Courtney