Pure Awesomeness

I have a great love for Girl Scout cookies. I'm sure it stems back from the days walking up and down the neighborhood with Erica trying to get some orders.

One of my all time favorite cookies is the samoa cookie. All the caramel and coconut goodness - yum! However, I don't buy them anymore. Why? Because you only get around 17 cookies in a box. That is ridiculous. I still support the Girl Scouts, but I'll buy some Thin Mints where you still get a good number (although less than you got when I was a kid).

Speaking of my cookie order, when is it due in?

However, today someone pointed me to pure awesomeness. A recipe for knock-off Girl Scout cookies. Because I'm feeling super generous, I'm going to point you in the right direction - http://bakingbites.com/ - she has a link over to the right on her blog on her DIY cookies. Awesome and I can't wait to try them now that I'm actually going to have a real kitchen to cook in.

House Pictures!

Now that we're 11 days out I feel safe enough to share some pictures with you all. The outside really isn't anything special, but the inside is gorgeous.

Our plan over the next few years is to add a nice big farmers porch to the front of the house. I really think that will help with the boring-ness of the outside.

The kitchen is easily my favorite room in the house. This picture doesn't even do it justice, it's gorgeous and I can't wait to cook in it!

There is a set of sliding glass doors right behind this table with a deck:

The living room with hardwood floors. The only carpet in the house is upstairs in the bedrooms.

This is the master bedroom. This yellow is not at all this bad in person. It's actually quite nice. There is also a walk-in closet.

This is one of the additional bedrooms. Perfect for a little boy!

Upstairs bathroom. I love this bathroom because it has a stand up shower, but it's not a small one like you'd imagine. It's as if a tub used to exist there and they took it out and put in a full sized stand up. There is a full tub in the first floor bathroom.

The backyard is nicely landscaped. There is a nice path down to the pond! (Mom easily thinks this is the best part about the house).

This is the front driveway. It wraps around and has some nice flower beds in the middle.

So there it is! It'll be ours in 11 more days and we're moving right in that weekend. It's listed as a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house with 1.92 acres and 180 feet frontage on the pond. There is also an extra room upstairs that we'll use for a nursery since it doesn't have a closet. Conveniently enough it's also the bedroom closest to the master bedroom so I think that will work out well.

19 Days and counting...

We're about 25% packed. Maybe less.

Last week we got the inspection report back and while structurally it's very sound, there is arsenic in the water. So, me being me, I had to do a bunch of research on what that really meant.

Arsenic is not filtered out by our bodies, so it accumulates over time. It can cause various types of cancer with continued consumption. Well, obviously that's not what we want, particularly when we're looking to have kids relatively soon.

Tomorrow our Realtor is going back to the house with the leading arsenic guy around to get a quote on what remediation would cost. We have to have everything ironed out with the owners from the inspection by Wednesday.

Hopefully the sellers will understand this is a health issue and if we back out they'll just have to fix it for the next buyers and disclose it as a known problem. It's in their best interest to work with us...I hope they do.

Slow cooker chicken taco soup

I have had this recipe starred in my Google reader for more than a year now because Pat and I love both chicken and mexican food. Yesterday we bought a bunch of chicken since they were having a super sale, so I needed to find something to make. Turns out I only had to run to the local marketplace for a couple of items (as if I'd have an onion on hand)!

It's currently in the slow cooker and it smelled pretty good putting it all together. I've never made anything with a beer base before, so I'm intrigued by that. I know a lot of people have had good luck with it.

Here's what it should look like when it's done. I have some tortilla chips to serve it with. Pat will be home around 8:30 if he gets out on time, so it will be a late dinner.