Details from my Wedding

First off is of course, my hair and my maid-of-honor's (sister Katie) hair. I was completely in love with my hair...even though it took me 3 shampoo's in one shower, then 2 shampoo's in the second shower to get all the hairspray out!

Katie didn't know what she wanted her hair to look like until just about 2 or so days before the wedding.  She doesn't like the whole bun thing...but liked the messy curly falling bun with French braids going into it thing.

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Second is the shoes! I wore crochet cream Toms...same as all my bridesmaids!  I didn't care for the whole, "I Do" on the bottom of the shoe.  I played around with a lot of different things to write on the bottom and this was the best thing I thought of...which I completely loved! 

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Third, the main thing I wore...my dress!

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Our wedding bands in the first two photos, then my engagement ring and his wedding band in the last photo.  I chose my wedding band, which matches the engagement ring.  

Sad thing is that his wedding band that was hand made by an amazing person on etsy.com has made Nick break out.  He is allergic :(  So we will buy him a cheap one(probably this cool batman one he wanted on etsy.com) then when we can pay for a really expensive one we will do that. 

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My garter was made by my mom.  My sister Katie chose the yellow ribbon thing.  It was part of the Disney Princess collection, specifically Bell (which was part of our cake topper and our first dance song, "Beauty and the Beast")  The ring was my great grandma's...my something old.  It was sewn on with blue thread (one of my something blue's)

The chocolate wrapper was designed by my Uncle...I love it!  They were sat at each person's place setting for their favor.

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The AMAZING cake!!  Rossmoor Bakery made this masterpiece using their California Sunset cake.  White cake with a lemon and raspberry filling..so good and such a perfect complement for a warm summer wedding.

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I got this inspiration from pinterest.com...even the saying.  I made it about 2 days before the wedding...oh yes I did wait till the last minute.

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My two nephews were ring bearers...one was 6 and the other 1.  The 1 year old couldn't walk so the 6 year old pushed him in this.  It was the cutest this ever!

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The flowers.  My bouquet and the bridesmaids.  Then the bottom photo is of our centerpieces.  The photo doesn't show it well but they were in 3 different sized mason jars with lemon slices inside.   

Side note...this was such a fun idea with me in the back seat taking a photo from the trunk...with the bouquets to top it off!

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Not really a detail..but a fun photo of me hanging in the back seat on my way.

Thanks for looking at the details.  Soon I will add the family photos...

Homemade Crockpot Chicken Noodle Soup - from scratch

Chicken Noodle Soup - from scratch...in the Crockpot!

Feeds 4-6 people.  Prep time 15 mins.  Cook time 6-8 hours.

3 long sticks of celery
5 non-pealed carrot sticks
1 garlic clove
1 medium yellow onion
3 skinless boneless chick breasts
32oz. chicken broth (4 cups)
8 1/2 cups water - divided
3 cups egg noodles


Slice the celery and carrots to the size you like them. (I make them smaller as it feels like there is more in my soup.)  Add to sauce pan.  Finely chop garlic clove and add to sauce pan.  Add 4 cups of water into sauce pan and turn heat on high, cover with lid.  Leave it untouched for about 8 minutes, then pour out the water and let it sit.

Finely chop the whole onion and add to the Crockpot.

Add the three pieces of chicken to the Crockpot, still frozen.  (I know this is crazy, but you don't need to thaw them at all)

Add the celery and carrot mixture to the Crockpot.

Add all the chicken broth to the Crockpot and 1/2 cup of water.

Put the lid on the Crockpot and turn on low for 6-8 hours. (Nick and I turned it on at 8 pm and turned it off when we woke up at 8:30 am the next day. I wouldn't recommend it as the chicken came out a little dry, but 8 hours worked last time.)

When the time is up take the chicken out and shred it with two forks, then add back to the Crockpot and mix soup. (If you like your chicken more squared, cut it that way.  I do recommend that you take it out of the Crockpot to cut or shed because it makes it much easier)

When you are ready to eat, cook 3 cups of egg noodles in 4 cups of boiling water and follow noodle package directions.  When the noodles are cooked, drain water and add to the Crockpot.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

This will be a very good soup that might be a little more like a stew.  It doesn't have a lot of juice, but its perfect this way for the Husband and I.  If you like more broth, add more broth or water to get the consistency that you desire.  

Nick and I have made this twice, the second time was wonderful tasting and I had to share the recipe.  I  made it up and added a little of what Nick did the first time...totally simple to make!  

Happy Cooking from The New Hust!

Trying to survive on little money

    At this point Nick and I are working, but the money we make is being spent quickly...or maybe not spent but needed to pay bills.  I came into our marriage without debit, he didn't...but that's not his fault, we needed to pay for the venue to get married.  So now we are $50 short of our rent due in the next couple days, needing to pay our water bill, soon will have electric bill, then so on and so on.  We plan on having money, extra money by September but it feels like a long ways away to be able to pay for some extra food or anything else that is extra.  But as we wait and figure this money thing out, we will pray and rely on God for the support.
    On Sunday my parents had a get together with their small group and thank goodness because I was able to take food home.  That fed Nick lunch and dinner yesterday and me dinner.  We still have more and I am so thankful for that.
    Last night Nick made spaghetti sauce in the Crockpot (which we use ALL the time!) but it came out a little...bitter (okay, burnt too).  We will soon see if the extra little spices we just added will be enough to make it good.  I hope so since I'm hungry and it took money to pay to make that sauce.  If its good, I will add the recipe, if its bad I wont talk about it again.

  I do have to thank God for the food though, I know there are people all over the world that are starving and I am not one of them...I'm just hungry.  Thank God everyday for the food you have on your table, in your fridge, on your counter and in your body!

Big Yummy Chocolate Chip Cookies

After our hamburger dinner -which was delicious thanks to the husband- I decided to make some cookies!  I took photos because I know everyone likes to see what they will look like. So here is the recipe, tweak it if you like, but I wouldn't as they came out perfect!

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (or which ever kind you like - I prefer dark)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.


Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla and egg until light and creamy.

Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended.

Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon.

Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup (Yes that big! I actually used my new Martha Stewart measuring cup to scoop and drop the dough) at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets.(And of course I used my brand new Martha Stewart cookie sheet) Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.

 Bake for 17-20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted.

Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

This recipe made me 14 large cookies that smelt and tasted like the best cookies ever! I think I will be keeping this as my Go-To Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. It also didn't take me more than an hour to prepare and bake, woohoo!

Thank you to Grandma who bought Nick and I our fantastic Kitchen Aid Stand Up Mixer, first time using it and it made something delicious!!

I now bid you all a good night...

Our Vows

    Today I continued with my project of making our wedding album and our honeymoon album on Shutterfly.com.  So excited to see it all coming together (without photos, for now) but all the backgrounds and embellishments look so good together!

    As I was making the wedding album I decided that I would write our vows on the back so that it wasn't lost with the photos.  I love both of our vows because they came from the heart (well maybe not Nicks completely).  We decided that we were going to write our own vows without each others help so that it was more personal.  I wrote mine about 3, maybe 4 months before the wedding.  Nick on the other hand wrote his a week or less before the wedding.  That was okay because he forgot them at home anyway and said something off the top of his head...which made EVERYONE ball their eyes out.  All he said was "You are my best friend" and he broke down and cried his eyes out.  It was very memorable...but I wanted the real vows on my album.  So below you can read them :)

You are the one I want to spend the rest of my life with, my best friend.  Today, I take you as my Wife and I promise to love you, support you and be faithful no matter what happens.  I vow to honor you, cherish you, be worthy of your love, respect you and support you in every way I can, this day and for the years to come.

-Nicholas

My lover, my best friend, I promise to you from this day forward I will unconditionally respect and love you for who you are and not what I want you to be.  I want to take you as my Husband until my heart stops beating and until that day I will trust you and forgive you even when times are tough.  I hope that I can inspire you, but even if I cant I will support you, serve you and honor you at all times.  I will be patient and I will be faithful because you are the love of my life, the angel God sent to watch over me and my Husband from this day forward.

I love you, Amy

Married

    It has been 19 days since I got married to Nicholas Alton Hust Jr. and it doesn't feel different than dating.  We had been going out for 5 years and known each other for 6 1/2. I think we know each other so well, did all things with each other before marriage, that nothing really feels much different.  The things that are different are that; I have to clean (not too different from home), my mom doesn't make me dinner (I know how to cook, but Nick makes food for me anyway), I'm not sleeping alone (my little sister did sleep with me sometimes and so did my dog, so not too different) and we rely on each other for money instead of parents (he's already got that down, I mostly did).  So life isn't too different for me, which is good because I'm not good with change, but bad because a little more change would be more exciting. Crazy? I know!
    The thing that I did really struggle with was leaving home. I'm only 20 miles away, but I don't live with my family anymore, I don't see them everyday, I don't get to come home and veg out watching TV with my sister.  I was doing fine after the wedding -for about a day- until it all hit me and then came all the break downs. I felt bad for Nick when I would come in the room crying and saying I want to go home, especially when I did it on our honeymoon.  But that is me.  One of the times when on our honeymoon and crying on his shoulder I apologized for doing it and he said to me, "Well it is who you are and I did know you weren't going to change".  So true!
    So life, its different, its the same, its starting to get a little dull and I need something new to do with my time, so here I am...spilling my heart to anyone and everyone one day at a time.