Bargain-ista

If there is one thing I know how to do... it is shop! It is a gift that some have and some do not, I was blessed with this gift, although to my checking account it could be considered a curse. One of my favorite stores to browse in and pass the time is Tuesday Morning. If you remember I found my living room area rug there for super cheap! I went in there on this past Tuesday looking for a side table for my guest room but they didn't have anything that I liked. I did find these great buys... a set of 4 very charming wine glasses, a bamboo table runner, set of 3 kitchen towels, and a great silver platter.
The price tag lists the "regular" price and what their sale price is. As if their regular sale prices are not enough, all these items were on clearance and that day clearance was an extra 50% off! The original prices of these items totalled $137.00 and I paid $21 and change for all these things! That is nearly 85% off the original price. Not to shabby if I do say so myself. I am planning on going to the store in Topeka Thursday and see if I can find that side table. Wish me luck!

Another recipe - Cherry Bars

I may have blogged this a year ago but not sure. I made these the other day and brought them into work. Seemed to be a hit.


Cherry Bars

Ingredients:

3/4	cup butter or margarine
2	cups firmly packed brown sugar
2	cups all-purpose flour
2	cups old-fashioned or quick-cooking oats, uncooked
2	teaspoons baking soda
1	(21-ounce) can cherry pie filling, I prefer the cherries in water not the heavy syrup stuff, make sure to drain it.
2	tablespoons granulated sugar
1	tablespoon cornstarch
1/2	teaspoon almond extract

Directions:

Beat butter and brown sugar in medium bowl with electric mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Combine flour, oats and baking soda. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture; mix on low speed until crumbly.

Spread two-thirds of oat mixture into bottom of ungreased 13×9×2-inch baking pan. Press down to form crust.

Process cherry filling in food processor or blender until smooth. Pour into medium saucepan. Combine granulated sugar and cornstarch; stir into cherry filling. Cook, stirring constantly, over low heat until mixture is thick and bubbly. Stir in almond extract. Pour cherry mixture over oat layer; spread evenly. Top with remaining oat mixture.

Bake in preheated 325°F oven 45 minutes or until golden brown. Cool before cutting.

Baby it's cold outside

It certainly is cold outside everyday now... Boo. I like it warm but not too warm, about 75 degrees everyday would be perfect for me. But on cold days like today I love to warm up with a nice cup of soup. Here is the soup I made my family for Christmas eve. I served it with parsley & sauteed leeks :)
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LOADED BAKED POTATO SOUP

3 carrots, chopped
4-5 celery stalks, chopped
1 red onion, chopped
3 Tablespoons butter
4 cans cream of potato soup, plus 3-4 potatoes cubed (this is optional)
2 cans chicken broth
1 bag of real bacon bits
8 oz. sour cream
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
salt & pepper to taste

saute veggies and butter in saucepan over med. heat
put veggies, broth, salt & pepper, and soup in pot and simmer/cook for 2-6 hours, then stir in bacon, sour cream & cheese 30 min. before before serving.

Merry Christmas from the Heptigs!

Reason for the season

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Christmas Greetings!

Hello family & Friends!

Wow what a year it has been. For those of you who missed this memo, it has been a BIG year. The most notable highlight is I finally graduated on May 1, 2009 from Southern College of Optometry in Memphis, Tennessee. I am happy to finally be done with school, it has been a long journey and I am happy to say that you can officially call me Dr. Christina Heptig. It does seem surreal to be called Dr. Heptig on a daily basis. With that being said I was offered an amazing job with The EyeDoctors. I started officially as Dr. Heptig in July, after passing my Kansas boards, and I primarily work in their Junction City office but also their two Topeka offices. And to top all of that off I turned 30th in October!

I moved back to Manhattan, KS in June. It is hard to believe it has been six years since I lived here and boy has the city expanded and changed. I live in a 3 bedroom 2.5 bath townhome on the West side of town. Plenty of room for visitors, so please stop by and stay a while!

It is strange to think that I have free time, something that I have not had much of the past few years. I continue to love to bake & cook for anyone and everyone. At the end of September I started working out with a personal trainer, hard to believe that I like the pain and discomfort that comes with it but I feel stronger and healthier than ever. I try to go to the gym at least four times a week but ideally like to shoot for six. I obviously still love to cheer on the Kansas State Wildcats. I enjoy blogging, obviously! My most favorite past-time undoubtedly has to be be traveling. I am happy to say that I have been out to see my double cousin Tami & her husband Carl three times this year, I have been to Arkansas to visit friends a couple times, Atlanta for a conference and a few other places here and there in between. I would like to visit Europe in the near future.

My family also got a new addition, my brother and his wife welcomed another baby girl, Julia in November. I certainly have a lot to be grateful for this year. 2009 has been great and I am expecting 2010 to be just as wonderful. I hope you and your family have a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Happy New Year!

Much love, Christie

More gifts!

Today was my first day back in my Junction City office since a week ago today. I was pleasantly surprised not to find stacks of paperwork but stacks of gifts in my office when I got there! I love gifts :)

I was super excited to open this up. Nothing but good things come from Dean & Deluca :)
Yummy!

And then this! Are you freaking kidding me?? I will never develop pictures again. Oh wait, I nearly do that now :)

Gift for Grandma

I just finished my Grandma's Christmas gift. I can only imagine how I would get in trouble if I got her a material gift so a food gift is safe :) Who would turn down food? I am delivering it on my way home for Christmas on Thursday. Can't wait to see her! Hope she likes the roast beef, it is the dinner I always remember her making when we would go and visit.

Day 1 of Tangee & Jason's wedding

I have been traveling a lot in the past week. Lucky me, I have my normal day off in the week to catch up on all that I have been putting off :) First I wanted to share pictures of my extended weekend trip to Chattanooga, TN for my friends', Tangee & Jason, wedding.

It was a jam packed filled weekend and so good to catch up with friends that I have not see since May. I left Thursday after work and met up with Erin & Jeff. We drove (or rather, Jeff drove) to St. Louis that night and left around 9:30 Friday morning for TN.

When we arrived in Chattanooga we quickly got ready for diner. We were invited to the rehearsal dinner at Easy Bistro. It was amazing. I am still thinking about that trigger fish & pot roast!
The decor was so cool! Loved the painted trees and the moldings were amazing.

Erin & me with the bride & groom, Tangee & Jason.

Me, Tangee (the beautiful bride) and Erin

Sara & Connie

Here is a picture of my new do, I decided to go dark and get rid of the blonde for a little bit. What do you think?

Erin & me Doctor, Doctor, Doctor, Doctor, Doctor :)

More pictures to come. Warning... We complied all of them and had over 500 from the weekend. We got smart for the actual wedding and only used 1 camera.

Happy Birthday Amber!

A very happy birthday wish to my friend Amber! It is her 30th birthday today. Wish I could be there to help celebrate today but I guess we will have to wait for January and our big trip to celebrate. Have an awesome day and make sure Mike spoils you.

It's Party time!

I am so freaking excited about today! After work I am headed to KC to meet up with my friends Erin & Jeff & then we are loading up in the car to drive to Chattanooga, TN!!! Our friends Tangee & Jason are getting married on Saturday. I wasn't sure if I was going to get to go earlier this year but since I had some extra vacation time, I didn't want to pass up the opportunity. I can't wait to see Tangee all dressed up in her bridal fare :) And men just look handsome in a tux and I am sure Jason will fit the part well.

It is also going to be the first time I have seen Tangee, Sara, Jill & Connie since graduation. Erin I see each other frequently but still looking forward to getting to spend time with her and Jeff :) I wish I were on my computer at home so I could post a picture of Tangee and Jason, but I am at work. I am sure I will have plenty of pictures to post of the weekend, so stay tuned! This day isn't going fast enough!

Bored

Amazingly I have already gotten bored with my background. It will probably change before Christmas again. Does anyone know of any great websites to get new backgrounds from?

The perks are starting...

So I guess all those years of studying and that whole graduating thing are reaping some rewards, besides the obvious, saving vision. Here is a Christmas gift basket that I received in the mail, well actually via UPS.

Treats for those who have been nice :)

As I promised, here are the pictures of my perishable presents :) I think it turned out pretty good. I found some great disposable small loaf pans at The Palace. The first set of good little boys and girls are getting banana bread. It took all my might not to eat any when I was baking it :)
I love that the look and sound good :)

How funny!

This is from an email I received today. No, I do not know the person that this pertains to but funny none-the-less :)
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"Good news is that I truly out did myself this year with my Christmas decorations. The bad news is that I had to take my fake man down after 2 days. I had more people come screaming up to my house than ever. Great stories. But two things made me take it down.

First, the cops advised me that it would cause traffic accidents as they almost wrecked when they drove by.

Second, a 55 year old lady grabbed the 75 pound ladder almost killed herself putting it against my house and didn't realize it was fake until she climbed to the top (she was not happy). By the way, she was only one of many people who attempted to do that. My yard couldn't take it either. I have more than a few tire tracks where people literally drove up my yard."

This year's wrapping

I love fun wrapping paper and finding new ways to wrap. Here is this year's wrapping. I am wrapping more gifts tonight and baking, which has a whole different packaging. I will share that later once it is done.

Christmas list

Newest item to make it on this year's Christmas list... Gloves for my new iPhone! What a great idea!! Size small please :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

We had a good first snow last night and it is still coming down. Not sure when it will end but luckily it happened to fall on my day off. Schools were closed today, except for K-State of course :)

This was my house at about 11:30 today. I cleaned my driveway and my neighbors, but I am sure by now you can't even tell. Boy I have a new respect for my dad, shoveling snow by hand. Days like today I really wish I had a husband... or a roommate that likes to shovel snow.

I have been a very bad blogger lately. Just so much going on and trying to keep up with my workout routine. I never thought I would crave the gym, which I don't know if I would say I crave it but I hate when I skip it.

A few weeks ago I started to put up my Christmas tree. It took about 2 weeks to finish b/c of life in general. I have finally put myself on a spending freeze. I could buy and buy shopping carts full of Christmas decor. I love it! Makes the house seems so warm and cozy.

I do not have a tall tree of my own and had never priced them out, boy are they expensive! Never have I had a real tree either, so I didn't want to mess with it b/c I wouldn't have a clue as to what I was doing. I was very excited as to when my friend Audra offered to let me borrow her tree that she was not using this year. It is prelit and a slim one, so it fit perfect in my entryway. Maybe she will forget she let me borrow it... :) I love the tree topper, it was the second one I bought, the first one shed glitter a little too much. But during that trial and tribulation I learned of another use for a lint roller.

Here is the view out of my bedroom window. So much snow!

And out my front door. The flakes coming down when I was outside were the biggest flakes I have seen in quite sometime. It is so pretty and I am so lucky to be home today and get to snuggle on my sofa and watch movies, instant message, and blog of course.

Love it!

About a year ago everyone was reading the Twilight books. I thought they were all crazy, it is a book for teenagers... Well then I gave it a whirl and was HOOKED! If you have not read them they only question I have is, WHY NOT?? I could not believe how much I enjoyed them. So obviously I was excited for the movies, disclaimer: they are corny and not the best acting but good b/c you can put faces with names and plainly you get sucked in! I am not one who would go stand in line overnight to see it but there are fanatics that do, I think they are crazy! I enjoy sleep and warmth more. This is a funny video about the fans. Check it out!