Life's obstacles... and triumphs..

Wow, it has been a while since we have blogged, and for that I am sorry. Hopefully

we haven't lost your interest. 

I seems life has gone a little fast since March. Lets start off from March.

We shared our first year of Marriage on March 14th. We continued with a 

Kimler tradition by bringing your alter flowers for the alter at church on the Sunday closest

to your anniversary. It was wonderful. I surprised Austin by getting our wedding cake for our

anniversary and some special cupcakes for him!! 

We had breakfast with the whole Kimler family at the Lodge Hotel where our

reception was. It was great and we also got a beautiful book of our wedding pictures 

from Austin's Sister Valerie. 

Then came a really interesting surprise for us. Austin was called one day and asked to come in

for an interview at a local sign company in Bettendorf. He was learning so much

from working at Bankers and wasn't looking for a change. His luck and

obviously good looks charm landed him this new job. 

Austin switched quickly from selling insurance to being a full time Graphic Designer

and has been busy ever since. 

My job has has some serious learning experiences and for that i have learned and am 

grateful. Its not always easy, especially with some rude, disrespectful and lazy co workers.

Overall, I am really happy here and am glad to continue learning. 

Some other news, besides having birds in our wall, and now our basement/computer room/laundry room 

flooding and trying to get a hold of our landlords, it has been mostly a lot of doctor visits for me. 

I'm not going to get into too much detail, i guess for the sake of a emotional never ending rollercoaster long post. If you don't know, I have type-1 diabetes. As i have had this for sometime, it is never easy

nor fun to deal with. With that, i have also had some other complications with my liver. Sometimes i just don't know what to say to do. Nothing I CAN DO will change anything.

I know i have such a supportive husband and family (THANKS I LOVE YOU)

but it is still just so frustrating. Its just hard to handle life, when your

body has different agendas for you. 

Anyway, Sorry to be Debbie Downer. We have been staying pretty busy but trying to soak

up as much life as we can, because everyday is a new day

and we must be thankful for that. 

If you wouldn't mind sending some prayers this way for some 

reassurance and hope that whatever happens, i really

can make it through. 

Thanks again for following. We will try to update more frequently. 

Hugs and Kisses, 

C & K

Great Food...

Even though I have been workings TONS

here have been some of the foods i have made.

Notice, a few:)

 

Au Gratin Potatoes

I've never made this before, but i had too many potatoes to use. 

For this I used, (roughly)

8-10 russet potatoes( made two dishes)

1/2 lb of Velveeta Cheese, cut into small cubes

1/2-3/4 cup Sour Cream( 3 large spoon fulls)

2 tbsp butter for the topping

about 1/4 cup breadcrumbs

pepper and little salt

I pretty much just mixed all of the ingredients together, except the breadcrumbs and butter

so that every potato had cheese and sour cream on it.

I then put it into the dish and topped it with small tabs of butter 

with the breadcrumbs sprinkled on the top.

YUM, LOVED IT. I hate them because they have a odd cheese taste normally and are too watery 

for my liking, but this was perfect.

For Valentine's Day I made tri-colored

cupcakes for my clients at work. 

They really enjoyed them, and they were SUPER cute!

I made them using regular white cake mix, red food coloring, and strawberry flavoring oil.

All you do is pour 1/4 of the white cake batter in the muffin cups. (1 box made 24 cupcakes)

then you put a little red color in to make the remaining cake mix pink. Add strawberry oil (like 5-6 drops)

separate that in half and take one remaining half and color it a deeper red. 

 I used my PAMPERED CHEF Decorator Set

to squeeze the colors in the center. First the red then the pink.

(And the center has three different colors:)

For Austin and My 4th official year of dating, I made him

spicy burgers with fries and our favorite beers. 

I add veggies like green and red bell peppers, garlic, onion, chives and sometimes

roasted red peppers in my burgers to give Austin as many veggies as i can.

of course on whole wheat buns and

Austin's favorite... fries!!!

For those beer lovers, I had Fosters and he had Coors Light!

While craving peanut butter, i decided to amp up Austin's Grandmother's

DELICIOUS three ingredient PB Cookie. (She puts a chocolate star in the center,

however i didn't)

I made them 4 ingredient by adding Oatmeal(gotta get more fiber somewhere in these)

its just:

1 egg

1 cup sugar 

(i use half Brown Sugar and half White)

1 cup creamy Peanut Butter

and i added 1 cup Oatmeal

cook at 335 for about 8-10 minutes. 

Just so you know, once you start you can't stop!

Chicken Parmesan

I used what i had in the house and used the flat

lasagna no bake noodles and layered it with spaghetti sauce 

(about 3 layers)

then put slightly thawed chicken nuggets on the top together tightly

and put cheese and more sauce on top. 

Put in the oven at 350 for about 40 minutes, 20 covered and 20 not. 

Man, I surprised myself on this one!!!

Those are just a few I had the camera near me. 

Hope you enjoy!!!

Lately.... & Great Family

As February ended and March started there has been some changes

in this Kimler home..

For starters, If you didn't already know, Austin was offered a position

as a captive agent for Bankers Life and Causality Insurance here in Davenport.

As this is a new career move, for him, and for us

he has been working very very hard and reading lots and lots. 

He started off this journey with passing his State Licensing Exam here in Iowa.

The next step was traveling to Cedar Rapids all of last week for training. 

See..

His main office is here in Davenport, but his trainer and mentor you can say

works in the Cedar Rapids network. 

He stayed with friends Sam and Eric in Iowa City and drove each day. 

I guess its true what they say, about not knowing

how much you appreciate someone or something until it's gone. 

Boy was that me.

You really learn more about yourself when you are faced with simple tasks

that you take for granted when someone else does it. 

Such as, locking the doors at night, someone else doing the dishes when you are too tired,

having the heater turned on to heat the room while you brush your teeth,

having the humidifier filled and mostly the security you feel when someone else is just simply IN THE HOUSE. 

Man, I know I can take care of myself,

but it sure is nice to have someone around you

and that someone being the most special person ever..

your husband. 

 

(on our wedding day!)

This is my first REAL (open, no plans, no schedules, only one appointment, REST) 

weekend I have had in a W H I L E. 

Austin came home on Friday night, and since then he has been reading

and working, but enjoyment has been had. 

We really enjoy being reunited. 

As you might know, we try to take photos of ourselves each night and here are a few before Austin left:

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

and on the eve of his departure...

 (more photos were taken, with a sad face for me, however,

i didn't want to publicize to the world, how unfavorably

i look when frowning, which is why i try not to do it.)

He's back. And I Love IT, and HIM.

He heads back to CR again tomorrow morning, but only for the day. 

Also, for you all out there, a week from today we celebrate our 

1st Wedding Anniversary!!!

<3 C & A

Organization...

Have I mentioned enough that 

switching everything with my car from

Illinois to Iowa 

is not an easy or fun task. 

Lets just say this month i have to:

Renew My care insurance

Renew my Plate Sticker

Change my drivers license to Iowa

and

Get a new License Plate

REALLY, why in the world should ALL of this have to be done in the SAME MONTH. Why is this my luck.

AND we still have YET to file our taxes. 

Can you tell not only the stress is building but

I am so over worked and 

under rested.. ugghh

This is going to be a LONG

Expensive 

Month..

but we do have our anniversary in 15 days. 

Hard to be so excited when you have to pay out all this money

for your CAR.

Great Love...

Hard to believe, this past Valentine's Day

marked our 5th together and 

on the 18th of Feb was our

4th  Official

year of being together.!!!

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Spending the past four years together, we have learned so much not only

about ourselves, but about eachother and what we want

in life as well as obstacles we have had to overcome... TOGETHER. 

Looking back at photos of us like this one:

 

from Austin's first real GREEK experience, when we actually

allowed to HAVE FUN as Greeks and do what we want.

Along with this photo..

 

   

How sweet Love is when its only a few weeks old. 

Maybe you noticed that this was right after surgery!!

Through all of these years, not only have we gone from dating, to engaged, to married to living together, 

FINALLY, 

but also realizing we are eachothers rock. We are always there for eachother, no matter what.

Sometimes it gets hard,

hard to manage every day stressors,

change in schedules,

indeciciveness,

to even the simple disputs, as whose turn it is to do laundry or dishes. 

But at the end of the day, when we stand there and giggle or smile with eachother

its LOVE like this..

or this

and this....

that matter. 

Memories...

Tonight, more like today, we were able to FINALLY devote a WEEKEND to US. 

No work for me (first in a WHILE), No lists, no requirements as to what has to get done,

just plan ole kimler kid fun. 

{for those who actually read this and don't know, we call eachother kid, why, i don't know. He thinks 

we got it from watching SATC (Sex and the City) with Big and Carrie. Who knows but 

that's us!!}

We slept in, lounged, ate lunch together, Austin's pick and i didn't mind, pulled pork. Then

while i START a fresh batch of Grandma's cookies, (at 3:07pm) he then pulls up on his phone the

movie times for Shutter Island, which i'm DYING to see. 

this is how it went:

A: okay so the movie times are, 3:05, 4:00 or 7:10. Kid, we gotta get ready

C:okay, I'm going to finish these cookies

C: wait do you have to take a shower

A: Yes, DO YOU

C: Yes

C: okay, i'll finish this, you jump in so i can then get in and YOU take the cookies out(3:12pm)

in between then, and 3:52pm

we

both took showers, got dressed, (hardly), took cookies out of oven put on counter, 

blow dried partial head of head, gathered our belongings, started the car,

drove across town, got tickets and seated. 

PHEW. 

That's Love!!!!

Sorry if that was TMI, but darn, what a good, yet completely unproductive day. However, it ended with Whitey's ice-cream so its FINE by me!!:)

<3 us

Great Love....

Told you i'd have a lot of posts coming..

So.. one of our "testing" resolutions is to try and take one photo of US every night. 

Now, for how busy, or tired we are, we have gotten more than we thought. Howveer

we now take them anywhere we remember. Some placed nicely, perhaps on the couch, 

or in the kitchen. Some while on our computers, or when we happen to remember to actually take them,

our bedroom. 

Lucky for you, I'm not that private. Just no judging!! hehe

Here are some of our daily photos.. at least ones Austin allowed!!

Here's the exciting life of 80K & CK

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

like when i fall asleep before taking a picture.. this is the result..:)

 

  

  

yes, Austin wears the same few sweaters which are his favorite. They are washed

all of them, just loved.. a lot..:)

Hope you enjoyed seeing our many faces throughout this past month.

We are heading off to visit my Family in Plainfield and hopefully will add more pictures next week!!

Along with my cute cute chocolate peanut butter sandwiches..:)

-C&A

 

LONG overdue...

All of my avid readers, all of you few out there, I'm sorry. I haven't stopped thinking about you, its just.. well... hard when your hours are so crazy, you find time for yourself, then you work on what you want to blog about, take pictures on the nights you don't fall asleep early.. to then forget to blog. ... 

Phew.. okay so.. heres a few things we have been up to.....

My new years resolutions have a lot to do with what I have been busy doing. 

New years Resolution:

1. Organization

2. Wine

3. Great Food

4. Great Family

5. Good times

6. Great Love

I will try to use this as my labels of my posts...

Okay so these few pictures are of our new place.. some.. just mostly the downstairs 

and our basement...not cleaned during photo taking

family room, with Jacob and Racquel in it!!!

view from the kitchen side

Kitchen preparing for new years!!!

 

our basement/computer room. Yes that IS a Sex and the City poster..

be jealous!!!

Next is Food I have been cooking/baking. Not all, but few i allowed time to picture taking to happen.

  

Homemade twice baked potatoes... OMG delicious..

Best EVER!!

 

Stuffed hamburgers!! YUM! As you can see there aren't too many on the plate

they were that good. 

Roasted Red Pepper and Cream cheese stuffed Burgers!!!

 

Have we mentioned Austin's LOVE for burgers.. well

he does!.. Love them..

 

Our Racine Wisconsin Favorite. 

No i did not bake it,

instead bought for $3.99 from Fareway!!!

Delicious none-the-less

 

Homemade Beer/Italian bread..

Goodness it was tasty! With pastas, soups, salads.. YUM

 

One of my quick dishes. 

Balsamic veggie pasta!!! with Beer bread and cranberry/diet 7-up!!! hehe

and lastly.... for now at least...

somewhat of our typical dinner, quick and easy. 

Green beans, Potato, and a meat. This happens to be Pork. lol

There's plenty of other meals I have tried, including many different rice, enchilada, roll  up/ sandwiches that 

I have concocted. I really loved trying new recipes

and making my husband say over and over...

"kid..top chef" or "kimler approved" 

I love him for his sweet sweet encouragement!!!