Vaca Day 1!

Unbelievable day.
John and I are on our first solo vacation together.  We were so excited!  So headed to Salina last night to drop Charlie off at Grammas.  I woke up bright and early at 7am to head to pick up John at his parents' house.  Turning on Crawford from Ohio (out of nowhere) comes a big truck that almost clipped me followed by 11 law enforcement officers.  After a chase that reached 100mph, the truck eventually turned.  The child in the truck was okay.  I don't know what was going on but I was glad I wasn't hurt.
Next we headed to Hays to see Bryan and Liv's baby for a few hours.  He had some issues at birth so we couldn't see him yet, but looked at him through a few rooms.  He is big and beautiful!  It was so rewarding.  John and I are SO happy for them!  Plus, we picked out some super, super cute outfits for Philip and I made a canvas that I was pretty excited with.
On the road again, we may have been slightly fudging the speed a little.  All of the sudden the radar detector beeps so John laid off the cruise control.  Then a K-Stater passed us and we were like, "Cool!" until a trooper pulled up right behind them and pulled them over.  Definitely could have been us, but glad it wasn't.
A little while later we went to watch the K-State game at a bar called Louie's Bar.  It was pretty neat, but I wasn't overall taken away.  Would have been better with a KSU win, but I am happy to have Big 12 Championship in Football, Big 12 Football Coach, Big 12 Season Championship in Basketball, and Big 12 Basketball Coach.  It is still a good day to be a Wildcat!
Next we went to meet a guy that John was going to buy some skis from.  They were really nice skis and John got a good deal so we were pumped.  We met outside of this liquor store, Applejacks, which is like the superstore for all alcohol.  Incredible.  We obviously went over-board in there, but got champagne to drink at the B&B :)
After that we went to Christy's Sports to get ski rentals and then John needed some boots.  This was the BEST customer service I have ever had.  They were the nicest people ever and really helped me understand everything.  I am unbelievably pleased, which is something that is hard to do!  Unfortunately, found out that John's skis wouldn't fit for his shoe size, but luckily the seller is taking them back.  John and I both got our stuff and left pretty happy :)
The Miner's Pick Bed and Breakfast in Idaho Springs, CO is INCREDIBLE.  I am so happy, it is like a dream!!!  John and I cracked open the champagne and are enjoying the beauty.

After getting out of a $50 parking ticket on Thursday and thinking Spring Break was going to be a bust, John and I are having the time of our life!

Guatemala!

So I started this to note all my cooking and whatnot (from Pinterest mostly) but am going to update it while I am on my amazing trip in Guatemala!  So disregard anything under this post :)
We leave in 14 hours and 50 minutes (who's counting?) and I am super stoked.  I don't think I will sleep much tonight, but we will see!

For those who don't know, one of my concentrations is ESL.  This doesn't mean I speak Spanish and am going to teach English solely.  It is more about bridging information from one's first language to English.  I don't need to know Spanish to help a student understand how the life cycle works or how to describe someone's outfit.  Making information relevant and meaningful to the student is something this curriculum really focuses on.  I could not be happier with this choice because I think it has really changed how I teach in a classroom.  I am teaching 21 6th graders in Guatemala City and I am actually teaching English.  While doing this, I am working on my practicum for this curriculum so then I will be done with all 5 of my ESL classes and will be ready to test for my endorsement.  Along with that test, I am taking my middle-level math endorsement test and my PLT (mostly psychology).

I don't know what to expect, so I am anxious, but very excited!  Already had to get another bag, I have so many teaching supplies and food.  Hopefully my sensitive palate will be forgiving, but I have a whole bottle of Pepto-Bismol!

I am communicating mostly on Skype, but I assume a little bit of Facebook too!  Skype: kirstin.keller
I have most of my family in with this technology business, but some still working on it!

Hopefully I can update with pictures and my stories about this wonderful experience!  When I get back, I will be able to transfer this all over to my website: www.kirstinkeller.com (I am not taking my Mac, so I can't update my actual website!)

We should be checked into a hotel the first night where I will do my next update!

Wish me luck!  As my 6-year-old brother told me, "don't let the plane crash!"  I told him I would do my personal best to let the plane fly its way!

Ciao!

Kirstin

Macaroni Muffins!

I got this pin off of:
Farm and Frying Pan and Food and Wine.
They are sort of different recipes but I combined them based on some of the ingredients I had.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup parmesan cheese (grated)

1/2 lb elbow pasta (I used large)

2 tbsp unsalted butter

1 1/2 tbsp flour

3/4 c. milk

3/4 cup cheddar or sharp cheddar cheese (grated)

1/4 tsp ground mustard

1/4 tsp Spanish paprika

pepper to taste

garlic powder to taste

Parmesan cheese to taste

For sauce: ketchup and barbeque sauce in equal quanities

Directions:

1. Spray Pam on a nonstick muffin pan (this makes about 10-15 cups, so just do the whole tray!).  Sprinkle Parmesan into each cup and tap out excess.

2. Cook pasta in boiling water for 5-8 minutes until al dente.  Drain, transfer into large bowl or back into pot.

3. In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium heat.  Add the flour and whisk for one minute.  Slowly whisk in milk and bring to a simmer.  Cook over the simmer for 2 minutes.  Remove from heat and add cheddar and some parmesan until melted.  Stir in paprika and ground mustard.  Pour over pasta and fold.  Season with pepper and more parmesan if desired.  Let sit for 10-15 minutes.

4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Fill the muffin cups with the macaroni and cheese and pack lightly and gently.  I topped mine with some parsley, paprika, pepper, and garlic powder to be a little exciting.   I cooked mine for 20 minutes but I have a funny oven, so it may need a few more minutes tacked on.

5. While the muffins are baking, in a small bowl mix ketchup and barbeque sauce of your desire in equal quantities.  I use a lot because I think it is delicious, but some people like to have food with their sauce, not sauce with their food.  I drizzle it on top to make it look pretty.
*This sauce was once served to me at Old Chicago (YUM!) on fried mac and cheese and my friend who worked there told me it was basically ketchup and bbq sauce.  I cannot say this is completely true, but it is dang close!!*

6. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 10 minutes so they can keep their shape.

7. Loosen the sides of the muffins, serve, and enjoy!
* I also noticed that one of the websites I listed topped their muffins with scallions.  You can pretty much use your creativity to your own discretion! 

It looks delicious!

Ready to go in the oven... extra cheese on top of course!

Just pulled them out!  They smell AMAZING! 

Do they look as amazing as I think?

I know, fancy plating.

Here is my secret Old Chicago sauce! I could literally eat this with a spoon

Finally, a successful pin that didn't burn!!!  I am so glad we have almost fixed our oven!
 Making these, I was less stressed out from my school work and I got food...does it get any better?   ENJOY!

Spaghetti Hot Dogs

SO much entertainment for kids! AND it is safe!

 Found this on Pinterest and pinned it only to find out it is one of those stupid ones that are just a picture!!

Either way, me and my little brothers had fun with this one!  We just broke spaghetti in half and had fun mutilating pieces of hot dog!

My Grandma helping Tysen stab his hotdogs.  This entertained him for a whole 15 minutes!

Trever was making space aliens out of his or something...lol

Some of the "space aliens" and whatever else we called them

As they come out of the boiling water!

Trever loved them!  We couldn't decide if ketchup or spaghetti sauce would be best, but ketchup tasted pretty yummy!!

Thought we could trick Tysen into eating meat (he declared himself a vegetarian at age 1) but he just pulled the spaghetti out and then got bored :)

Letter Magnets

Everyday Art

I saw a post for letter magnets and new they would be a perfect small and quirky gift for my friends and family.
Shopping List:

• Clear Dragon Tears (various sizes)*
• Glass Glue
• Scrapbook Paper (I got 10 or so sheets)
• Magnets (I tried a bunch of different types.  I had the best results with the adhesive puffy large circles I got from Walmart)
  *Dragon tears are those clear things my mom used to put in vases and stuff.  Why they are called dragon tears, I have no idea.  I would rather call them 'clear things that go in a vase.'  Also, I had better results with the large dragon tears due to the options I had for magnets

**Sorry for the poor quality of picture! I am working on finding my camera's charger!!**

Small Dragon Tears

Large Dragon Tears

Magnetic tape roll (Walmart).  Some of my magnets with
these have stayed on but I haven't had the best results

Scrapbooking Paper

Various glass glue.  They all gave me the same results

Adhesive Magnetic Stick-ons (Walmart).
These worked the best for me.

Start out by picking out a few dragon tears that are clear and chip-less.  Each dragon tear has a unique shape, so each needs to be traced individually onto the scrapbook paper.  Cut out each of the pieces.
(I wrote on some of the scrapbook paper circles with letter and shapes with permanent marker.  If you choose to do this, wait about an hour before going onto the next step or the letters will be blurry from the grease in the glue)
Once this is done, place the dragon tear onto the piece of paper and make sure it "fits" (cut off any corners that hang over).  Then put a small, small drop of glass glue onto the scrapbook paper and push down the dragon tear.  Push for at least 30 seconds.  Try not to get too messy if it oozes out of the side!  Warning: Sometimes, it may appear that the paper gets greasy.  I think this is from something in the glue.  I experienced this when I used white paper, but not with the other colors.
Let these magnets sit for a few hours.  I let mine sit overnight because I started really late.
Once the glue has set, add the magnets.  It is important to hold them together for about a minute.
When I used the large dragon tears, the circle stick-ons fit perfectly.  When I used the small dragon tears, I cut the adhesive magnets in thirds.  This also worked but was hard to cut with crafting scissors.
The magnetic tape roll also works, but seems to "unstick" when it is cold.  It can't quite hold the weight of the dragon tear but I have a lot that have, too.
I waited about another hour before I hung these on my fridge.  I know this seems like a lengthy process but I made about 100 so it actually worked out pretty perfectly time-wise.

Here are some of my creations!  I like putting the letters of my dogs name inside the paw of the dog prints too :)

This idea I had was originally pinned from Everyday Art.  They have better pictures and have the link to the eHow page!

PA: Pinners Anonymous

My name is Kirstin and I have an addiction to Pinterest.  I made a New Years Resolution that I would make/craft a pin at least every other day for the entire year.  That is going to be about 200 by the time I am done!  Pinterest is relaxing for me.  When I am cooking or doing a DIY craft, I am not thinking about all the stress I have from school, work, etc.  I am very driven so when I have something on my mind, I can focus on that and not the other unnecessary stress.  I also love making things for others so it makes me feel better about myself in the longrun.
Mostly, I make foods (which I am really not good at but have to try some of the delicious ideas) but some are crafts, restorations and such.  This is sort of to help me keep track of everything and maybe even take some pictures! :)  Since I have already done a lot of pins, I am hoping to go through and talk about them or maybe even redo them on top of the other pin-commitment I have made!!
Again, I know I have a problem.  I can admit: my name is Kirstin and I am a pin-aholic!

Kirstin