The Week the Cookies Crumbled

 This week it was nuts with homework, and busy with class and kindergarten and wild with bumps in the road and also has a lot to do with cookies. Call me crazy, I know its the truth. Here shows how it all went down, in picture form.

I made these Girl Scout Cookie inspired bars, that tasted super close to the chocolate coconut Samoas. I will have to share the recipe later, cause you will need it!

Pay day and pick up your GS cookie day all in one day of the week?! Woahh, that is just dangerous. What's a girl to do with boxes of cookies and a nice chunk of change? 

You probably already can tell, but I have quite a memory attached to these GS cookies. I used to be one of the super selling goody two shoe wearing girl scouts around the age 8. I was the girl who won the t-shirt, the sleeping bag, and the light up singing jump rope. A.K.A I sold a TON of boxes, and no I don't mean like a hundred or two. It might have something to do with the fact that I can fundraise like nobody's business for my school.... not to brag, but I am pretty good at my job.

I am not really up and up on those fancy printing machines..something like a cricket..a ladybug..I don't know... but both of my best girls have one, and I got to play along this week too! We made these fun painted signs with cute little quotes on them. I am actually pretty impressed that it turned out good, however I think I am going to paint that khaki border white.

Again with the girl scout cookies. Actually this has more to do with what it says than what it is. I really really miss Mexico, everything about it. It was an experience I will definitely forget, and lately I have just been wanting to go back super bad...and take Justen with too! Heck that would be a crazy trip. It's nice to dream, huh?

As soon as March 1 hit, I yanked down that Valentines Day wreath and refashioned it into this nifty spring wreath.  I love Easter, it is so bright and cute, and kinda gives me hope to finish the spring semester up. Also, that little sparkly monogram egg was 97 cents at the Walmart and I thought it was perfect to represent these two Turleys- score for cheap crafty stuff! 

( I owe all my bow making skills to Lauren)

This was my Saturday. We had a fun date all day long. It started with an elementary science fair, and after walking into and out of 6 restaurants(literally, I am the most indecisive person), we settled on Chipotle because Justen was gonna murder me if I asked to go to Chick-Fil-A one more time. Turns out our meal stunk, and after we left, he was begging me to go to Chick-Fil-A. We shopped till we dropped, got some free stuff ( yay for gift card stock piles) and cheap stuff. Finally we made it home for dinner! 

(His serious face is a complete lie by the way.)

-Sara Jacqueline

An Instagram Valentine's Week

Lately all I have eaten for breakfast and dinner is cereal. I have gone through two boxes in two weeks...(that is super fast when you live alone)... I may have an addiction.

Another obsession: Cherry Coke Zero. I have even gone so far as to make a cooler for my backpack to carry around on days I have class from 8a.m. to 6 p.m.....ghetttto.

My sixty year old teacher wrote us out Elmo Valentine's. She is stinkin' cute, but why does she have to be such a boring teacher? Sheesh.... Can't. Wait. to Graduate.

The biggest surprise since I got engaged: Justen drove 2 hours to spend Valentines Day and all weekend with me. He hid in my apartment after I got off work and scared the heck out of me. I was SHOCKED. I was dying all week cause he kept telling me he wasn't going to be able to come, and that I would see him in a few weeks....coool....but instead, he was dressed all cute, filled my fridge with groceries, brought me candy and tulips too. This was our first Valentine's Day together, and I think he did pretty good!

I made these amazing Red Velvet Cheesecake cookies for heart week and they were stinkin delicious. Nuff said.

I tried herbal iced tea for the first time this week and it was surprisingly good. I think I have found my new summer drink. Yum :)

You need to get this game. We call it the train game, but its really called Ticket to Ride. It is addictive and serious business. It has caused arguments, smack downs, and it is also why there is a boxing ring at The Monnett House (our super awesome friends).

That has been my week just about. I hope your Valentines Day was a sweet as mine!

-Sara Jacqueline

Happy Valentine's Day!

In celebration of this love-ly holiday, I made some delicious Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookies. They were amazingly simple and really different, so I would definitely suggest you whip up a dozen giant cookies. Here is a recipe adapted from Twos Peas & Their Pod! Enjoy your Valentine, your hot date, your little box of candy, whatever it is, soak it up!



Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookies

Makes: About  10 giant cookies

Baking Time: 11-13 minutes

Ingredients:

1 box red velvet cake mix (I used Duncan Hines)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the cheesecake filling:
4 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the white chocolate drizzle:
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips, melted

In a large bowl combine cake mix and flour and mix until clumps disappear. Mix together cake mix, flour, eggs, oil and vanilla extract with a mixer until smooth. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 2 or 3 hours. The dough will be shiny, so don't worry.

To make the cheesecake filling, while you are waiting  combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract and mix until smooth with a mixer. Scoop out cheesecake filling and place on a plate in heaps. Continue scooping out cheesecake filling into teaspoon balls until you have 10 or 12. Place plate in the freezer and freeze for at least 2 or 3 hours.

Go take a nap, fold some laundry, run 6 miles, clean the kitchen...whatever makes you happy.

When you are ready,  preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat.

This is the tricky part....To assemble the cookies, take about 1/4 cup, or a heaping spoonful of the cookie dough and flatten in your hands. Place a teaspoon of cheesecake filling in the center and wrap the cookie dough around the filling. Gently roll into a ball , or attempt to seal the filling inside and place on prepared baking sheet. You want to work quickly so that your dough and filling doesn't heat up in your hands, it will make it more difficult. I greased my hands with some pam spray before this step.Only bake 3 cookies at a time on each sheet because they will become huge. Bake for 11-13 minutes or until the cookies begin to crackle and look solid around the edges. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, ten place on a cooling rack to cool.

If you would like, you can stop here because the cookies are JUST as yummy, but if you want to step it up a notch, make them guest worthy, and a little sweeter, keep going with the drizzle!

Melt the white chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl or over a double-boiler. Drizzle the white chocolate over the cooled cookies. Let the cookies set until the chocolate hardens. 

Ta-da!! A Valentine treat to drown out your sobs while watching The Notebook. 

A quick shout out to my husband. We have never been in the same city, or even country on Valentine's Day in over 5 years of dating, and including today when we are actually married..haha. I am so happy ecstatic to be married to a wonderful man like him. He really completes me and I love having him as my best friend, knowing he is always there by my side. I love him, so if he happens to read this (fat chance) I want him to know how much I care for him, every day not just Valentine's Day. :)

Eat some chocolates people! Loves ya

-Sara Jacqueline

A (Fake) Snow Day

This past weekend, Justen and I went all out and headed up to Perfect North Slopes to try out snowboarding before it got too warm. First of all the weather is crazy here, so I figured we better go now, because it would be my luck that every weekend after this one it would be 65 degrees. No kidding, it is sunshine and shorts one day, and parkas and blizzards the next here in Kentucky. 

Also, I have never been snowboarding or skiing in my twenty year or so long life, so Justen was pressuring me to try it out. My parents were always the type to take us to the beach, or on a boat. They are definitely not cold winter sports people. This is not at all like surfing in Mexico, or tubing down the Kentucky river. I was not prepared for the pain hangover.

The easy part was tubing. The lines were fairly long, however we were there on a Saturday, so I would not suggest that unless you have a lot of talking to do..hah. It was actually really fun, but we could just as easily go sledding in Morehead with enough snow (which we happened to do last weekend). Very fun, and super fast, but next time we will bring like 10 other people to go down the hill with, cause it really is for little kids mostly, or large groups. 

As you can tell this is how I felt about tubing only 3 times in 2 hours (long wait time)....

...And this is how Justen felt... Poor guy, he really likes a little bit more adventure, so lets talk about the snowboarding.

Let me just tell you that if you have never been before, then the easy hill is not so easy. I think that fake snow is 18 times more slippery than real snow. Seriously, I was sitting down at some points and going just as fast as a sled ride. Ridiculous. 

I have to admit, I fell a lot A LOT.... And it hurt even more. During one voyage down the hill, I fell a total of 11 times. However, the next time I only fell 8 times. HAH. Yes, I was keeping track to see if I was improving. I know Justen was having a blast laughing his butt off at me busting mine. Snowboarding is a lot of hard work, and no amount of watching the winter olympics prepared me for this. People who are as tall as me are not meant to balance on a popsicle stick and go down hill at a super fast speed.

Not to mention....

Did you know they don't strap you in on those lift things? What?!! What if I was a baby child eight year old and decided to slip and slide off that thing? It was like 40 feet down...right? These are my teacher thoughts. Good thing I had somebody to hold me down.

Even though I was in pain a lot of the time, and for a whole day afterwards, it was a lot of fun, and I would consider going again. Maybe to a different place, and maybe with a pillow stuffed booty. Everyone who I have talked to since told me skiing is easier, so I have a feeling my sister Abby tricked me...hmmm..

-Sara Jacqueline

A Crisco Disaster.

Welp this week was quite entertaining......
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Justen( f.y.i...my supa sweet huband) holding his favorite friend Kayden; it is very true that she likes him more than she likes me. Maybe it is because he offers the best snuggles?

It really did snow like 6 or so inches, and we had a blast! Although my car got a little stuck in the driveway, we enjoyed sledding, baby tubing, and rough housing in the snow. Did I mention it was beautiful??

UGH! Warning: DO NOT buy the Crisco butter flavored and expect it to work the same as Crisco. It will make your cookies flat, ugly, nasty and seem like Paula Deen tore up your kitchen. I was so disappointed with the outcome, so I am never buying that kind again.

About 3 days after the crazy snow storm, we have 60 degree weather, blue skies, sunshine.... Check out that landscape. Cool huh? There are a few perks to living in the middle of noooowhere.

That face. She is so cute, and lovable, and I cannot come up with an excuse to not stop by and see her every time I have a free 15 minutes. We play, we throw stuff, we scream a little, and her Mommy makes fun of me. Its a pretty good time all in all. haha..

Woah..... I think there is something going on in the Walmart. Too many bears, not enough shelf, too many chocolates, not enough bear....I think the Valentine Hurricane has hit us.

-Sara Jacqueline

This Girl is Back in Action!!

It is about time that I rejoined the blog world. Seriously, what have I been doing?

So since you last heard from me, I had just returned from my awesome trip in Mexico as an English teacher. Let me fast forward through the past few months and give you a few details of all the crazy things that happened to me.

1. My missionary boyfriend returned home from Northern Mexico.
2. I got ENGAGED!
3. I had a fun summer job working at a 4-H camp in Kentucky.
4. I turned 21!
5. I started my senior year of college.
6. I got married and became a Turley!
7. I became an Aunt to a teeny little boy.
8. I started my last semester of undergrad schooling before I student teach-I am WAY excited as you can tell.

Obviously, this is what kept me from keeping up with all that blogging, but it is something I really enjoyed and want to continue doing, so you will be hearing much more from me!

I hope you understand why I have been M.I.A. for so long and find the time to read my blog this year... I plan on keeping it crafty, creative and....sweet! Get excited- there is some fun stuff to come!!!

-Sara Jacqueline

It's Mexican Monday!!!!

Basically it is the best day in the world, so you should celebrate Mexican Monday too. Eat some tacos, or pour a ton of lechera on your fruit, thats about as Mexican as you need to be.

Justen is doing super swell this week, and his email was nothing but smiley faces and exclamation marks, so thats good to hear. Here are some highlights:

• "I got my hair cut and the gay guy did a horrible job. Lucky you aren't here to impress."
• " My new companion is really cool, but pretty strict. I like him though, I think he is a good example. He is older than me, but looks pretty young."
• "We have been working really hard, but nothing is happening. It's the fourth quarter and I got no special plays."
• "I had a dream about you the other night. We were in high school, and I was watching you in a play and then we were attacked by spacemen with lightsabers. I know it's weird, but in the end I saved you and we lived happily ever after."

Yeah, he is still the same old goofy Justen. What a nut. Gotta love him.

Also, this past weekend I got an AWESOME package from my family. Woooohooo! It was full of girl scout cookies and reeses and Easter candy, all things that are not sold in Mexico. I have sufficiently stuffed my face with sugar.

Oh yeah! There was also a magazine in ENGLISH!! That was a blast. haha. I should buy one in spanish just to practice...we will see how that goes. Thank you for all the goodies! I am so sad I am missing Easter at home, but this made it a bit better!

-Sara Jacqueline