Pork Chops with Tomato Rice

I’m almost done with the crockpot recipes. I promise. I have one more to share with you next week, and then I’m moving on. But for now… pork chops with tomato rice!



From this ahh-mazing cookbook from Gooseberry Patch – “Slow Cooking All Year ‘Round.”

Scamp & Scoundrel

This was by far my favorite find when we were in Las Vegas earlier this month. Scamp & Scoundrel… a fun new jewelry store!


Farmer Doc’s favorite part was the $3 blackjack tables at the Hooter’s casino. But I’m sure I spent less money at the jewelry store than he lost spent at the casino!

Crockpot Chicken Cordon Bleu

Seriously. Farmer Doc is starting to get tired of my crockpot cooking. But I love it! Especially on those days when I just don’t have the energy to stand in the kitchen to make dinner… that crockpot sure comes in handy!


Because I just can’t get enough… another recipe from “Slow Cooking All Year ‘Round” by Gooseberry Patch. You know you love it, too!

Vegas Vacation

Don’t get too many ideas… we were mostly out there on a business trip! I headed out to Las Vegas earlier this month for the American Farm Bureau Women’s Leadership Conference. And to prove that it was business, I even sat in on a panel on using social media! So there!

But it wasn’t all business… Farmer Doc came with me (although he skipped out on most of the conference) and we had plenty of time to do some gambling sight-seeing.

Okay. We gambled, too.

We stayed in the Paris hotel. It is beautiful! The inside is decorated to look like you’re outside in the streets of Paris… It was just stunning!

My Year 2 Change just got bigger!

I started off this year with a big Year 2 Change challenge from my friend Cris. She challenged everyone to think about what we really needed to change in our lives. For me, it was pretty simple to figure that out. My challenge was to become a morning person!


I started off pretty well, and was proud of myself at the one-month mark. I had gone down to one snooze hit in the mornings, and had made 10 days in a row and was feeling pretty good.

Then I realized I was absolutely exhausted in the afternoons! I mean seriously beat-down tired. I would head to the recliner, cozy up with a big blanket, and nap. For hours.

Seriously? What was the deal?

Mystic Aquarium

Last week, I had the opportunity to travel to Connecticut for a few days with Farmer Doc. It was mainly a work trip, as I was speaking at the Connecticut Veterinary Medical Association’s annual meeting about equine respiratory disease.

But we stayed for an extra day and made it a for-fun trip, too! One of the great things about heading back to the East Coast (my old stomping grounds) is that (if I can make the extra time to stay) I can always hook up with an old friend or two. This time, I got together with my best friend, Dani. We hadn’t seen each other in a year, and we hadn’t met each other’s husbands before! So it was a chance for the girls to catch up, to meet the boys, for the boys to meet, and for all of us to hang out with their adorable two-year-old.

So what did two young couples do with a two-year-old in tow in Connecticut? We went to the Mystic Aquarium!

The first thing you see is the outdoor enclosure with the beluga whales. (We taught little cutie-pie a new word, and I think “beluga” was her favorite word by the end of the day!)

Jail Break!

If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, you probably saw that we had an… incident… on Saturday.


These calves are supposed to be behind a fence in the pasture, not in my (sad) flower beds!