A Toast @ the Wedding

Happy 4 years to my wonderful husband!! Dillon Kenwood Orr (Senior, now haha) you are the light of my life! I love you!!!

I found a few handwritten pages torn out of a notebook shortly after my dad died.  It was his toast he had written out to say at our rehearsal dinner and it sums up his and Dillon's relationship to a "T".  I was laughing hysterically, I remember it like yesterday.  I am so lucky that I found someone just as special and important to me as my Dad was--no one else could have ever filled the shoes I had in my expectations!!!...I couldn't ask for anything more out of a husband or a father than what Dillon shows me on a daily basis.  Our God is good and he knew you were meant for me!

Dad's Toast -- Rehearsal Dinner February 1st, 2008

"At an early age, she learned how to capture a mans heart-beginning with me.  At age 2, when I was relocating to Phoenix, I called home one night and asked to speak to (my then baby) Cara.  When she got on the phone, she brought me to tears.  'Daddy, I cried for you'...I just melted.  I've never forgot that moment.  Little did I know Cara was going to bring another man to his knees!

Cara loves to hug people--she completely and utterly disarms you with that move.  I've watched it many times in slow motion.  It's quite amazing.

She's enjoyed lots of victories.  But her most humbling defeat: The PCN Pom Pon squad.  The effort was there, but she just could't crack the line up.  So, then she moved into the college rank, with Camber and Cord-Ashely, Christy, Meggie, Lisa, Brooke, Evan, Amy, and many others as her devoted trainers she was ready for the BIG TIME.

I've spoken with Dillon's management team, Don & Loma, and they are fully behind Dillon for this....his TOP pick.  All the training, the hard works, the victories and the defeats all come down to this.

Signing Day is just about here.  And Dillon has picked Cara as his #1 draft pick.  As her principal agent, I have peddled Cara to several franchises *she had a lot of looks through high school, she was highly recruited, *She was courted by SAEs, Fijis, and Betas.  You know her pedigree was probably most appreciated by Dillon and she aligned well to eventually become his top pick.  She was born on OU-TX weekend in October 1984 so the ground work had been laid by the Lord's Divine Providence from day one.

I've cleaned out your locker and I know you're ready.  So it is with heart felt love that I assign your contract over to the Orr team. I love you both"

Thank the GOOD Lord for CrockPots!

I like to use the excuse, "I'm too busy" or "On a diet" to avoid cooking meals for my family :)  Mainly due to the fact that I honestly, just don't ENJOY cooking! I think half of it is because I am a BAD cook and the other half is because I hate the clean up that is involved after most decent meals.  So, with that said its' been awhile since I've had the "time" to cook.  Well, thanks to Pinterest I have a new found love for Crock Pot Recipes!! Can I get a "Woot! Woot!"?!  Now, don't judge me because this is quite the feat, but today is my SECOND day in a row to cook a full meal :)  I know, right?! I have (again thanks to Pinterest) discovered Crock Pot liners which makes the 'other half' of my HATING to cook less of an excuse.  I love that I can be prepped and cleaned before noon with dinner on the timer to be nice and warm and appetizing right about the time Dillon gets home from work to eat!  They BEST part is that the kids always tend to get hungry a little earlier, so this way-they can get their dinner and settle down at the table in time for Dillon to get home....change clothes...go through the mail...and we can finally sit down as a family while dinner is still HOT and the kids are already happily chowing down :)

Last night I made my very first Pot Roast....it was quite possibly the BEST thing I've made to date.  My husband is a "meat and potatoes" kind of guy so it was up his alley too!  For probably the second time EVER since we've been married (4 years tomorrow) he got seconds on his meal! YAY FOR ME! I've included the Pot Roast recipe as long as the Orange Chicken recipe I just put in the Crock Pot for tonight! 

*Coming soon @ the O.Ink blog....RECIPE CARDS! YAY! Now you'll have plenty reason to get cookin'!

This easy, popular slow cooker pot roast is made with only 4 ingredients plus the water! Use a good lean beef chuck roast in this recipe, or look for a cut of beef with "pot roast" on the label.

Ingredients:

• one beef pot roast of your choice
• 1 box, (2 envelopes) Lipton Onion Soup Mix
• baby carrots
• new potatoes
• 2 cups water

Preparation:

Place beef pot roast in crockpot and sprinkle with Lipton onion soup mix. Add carrots and new potatoes. Pour water over pot roast. Cook on low 8 to 10 hrs or until tender.

Thicken the gravy with a little flour or cornstarch which has been mixed with cold water. If you are really on the ball, when you put the roast on, put a batch of bread in the bread maker and set the timer so they will be finished at the same time. When you get home, all you need to do is fix a salad and dinner is done.
Pot roast recipe shared by Diane

Tip: The juices tend to be watery by the end of the cooking time, so when the roast is done, keep it warm and pour juices into a medium saucepan. Bring the juices to a boil and simmer briskly until reduced and more flavorful, about 8 to 10 minutes.

ORANGE CHICKEN:

Ingredients:
• 3-4 boneless chicken breasts, chopped into small chunks
• 1/3 cup flour
• olive oil
• 1/2 T salt
• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• 3 T ketchup
• 6 oz. frozen orange juice concentrate (thaw or throw it in the microwave for 45 seconds)
• 4 T brown sugar

In a bowl, mix the orange juice, brown sugar, vinegar, salt, and ketchup.

Pour the flour in a small bowl.
Cover the chicken breast chunks in flour and shake off the excess.

Pour a small amount of olive oil in a skillet and brown the flour-covered chicken.

The chicken doesn't need to be fully cooked since it's going in the crock pot.

After the chicken is done cooking, pour the pieces into the crock pot.
Then cover the chicken with your sauce mixture and give the pot a stir.

Cook on low for 5-6 hours or on high for 2-3.