Happy 40th Anniversary Mom & Dad!

Last Sunday my parents celebrated being married 40 years. Denver and I went with them to the Flying Fish in Bentonville to celebrate and have dinner. Mom was funny counting down the minutes until 6:30pm. I am really thankful that Denver and I both have parents and grandparents that have been married for so long. It is a great example of what hard work in a marriage will bless you with in the years to come! 

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad! 

Thanks to Always {and a giveaway!}

Did you know Always has been protecting women for 30 years? When you think about all the things women have accomplished in the past thirty years, it is mind boggling. In fact, I am almost thirty years old.

I have decided to share some fun facts about women in the past thirty years.

1983

Sally Ride becomes America's first female astronaut when she spends six days in space. Today, about 25 percent of NASA's astronauts are women.

2002-2005

Young women make their mark in the music industry. Singer, songwriter and piano whiz Alicia Keys took home five Grammy Awards in 2002, and four more in 2005. Piano-playing singer and songwriter Norah Jones and her album Come Away with Me snagged eight Grammys in 2003. Jones won three more of music's biggest awards in 2005.

2005

Hillary Clinton becomes the first First Lady to be elected to public office. She joins Congress as a U.S. Senator from New York.

2009

Hillary Clinton becomes Secretary of State on January 21, 2009. As the President's top advisor on foreign policy, Clinton is the most powerful woman in President Barack Obama's Cabinet. She is the third woman in U.S. history to hold the important position. After four years on the job, she stepped down at the start of 2013. {Whether you are a democrat or a republican, anytime a woman is nominated in office, you have to feel a little bit of pride for them.}

2012

Taylor Swift releases her fourth album, Red. In just one week, the album sold 1.2 million copies. Her previous album, Speak Now, also sold more than one million copies in the first week. Swift becomes the first female artist in musical history to have two opening weeks with more than one million album sales.

This information was found via Time. 

Isn't it crazy to think that all this has happened in just the past thirty years?

I shared my Always post with the gals at Always and they were so sweet and wanted me to celebrate Always providing women protection with a #Always30 Giveaway!

In order to win this gift that every gal needs (literally), you must do both of the following:

• Comment and tell me about your favorite woman you admire most or has inspired you to do good in the world!
• Share this on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest and tag Ramblings of a Little Wife
• Be a resident of the United States

Giveaway ends on June 15th at midnight CST. Good luck!

House Plans

I am not ready to build my next house, but I have began the process of finding ideas and getting it all together so that way when we are ready, we have a plan. I love to look at houses and house plans. Last weekend we went into several houses that were just finished being built. It is good to go through and point out things you like or don't like. A few weeks ago we went to Barnes and Noble and searched and searched for house plans. Where do you find your favorite house plans? I have also been searching online and need to organize my Pinterest boards better. Is that even possible?!?! Denver brought me home my list I made a few years ago. It pretty much is still the same.

Our current home is a good floor plan and serves us well. We really just want a tad bit bigger house with an extra bedroom and bathroom. We tend to have lots of company and one day will have a family hopefully. I also want an outdoor living area. That is a big one for us. My sister has an outdoor kitchen and it is one of our favorite spots. Denver's family has a big outdoor porch that we spend a lot of time outside enjoying it when we go to visit. I guess I just really want it to flow and the space be well used. I really like the open floor plans all the new houses have but definitely don't want a separate dining room. 

What is on your list for your next house? Where do you find the ideas? We built the house we currently live in and plan to do our next house too. So the options are endless, well endless as long as we can afford it! ;) 

Summer Pasta Salad with Tyson Pepperoni

 One of my favorite summertime dishes to make is a Pasta Salad. It is light and full of veggies and screams cookout to me. I like to experiment with different ones and was excited to find out one of my favorite brands, #Tyson, is making Sliced Pepperoni among other favorite toppings. 

I went to my local Walmart and found the product in with the other sliced pepperoni, Canadian bacon, and other sliced toppings. My husband was voting that we should just make pizza dip with the pepperoni. Have you ever had that? It is so easy to make and is a favorite with our friends. I wanted to make this for our Memorial Day weekend cookout. 

The best part of a pasta salad is it can be made with whatever veggies you have in your fridge or just got from your garden outside. I had a lot of things already and bought the rest I needed at the store. 

Boil your noodles and rinse with cold water. Refrigerate while you chop all your veggies and your pepperoni. Make your Italian dressing or use it from the bottle. I used approximately 1/3 cup of dressing in this salad. Stir everything together in your mixing bowl until lightly coated with dressing. The best thing about this pepperoni is that it was full of flavor and didn't taste processed like other ones I have used. 

When salad dressing has been mixed in well, place in your favorite serving dish. Add freshly grated Parmesan cheese and bring to your next cookout. 

If plan to serve it the next day, you might want to add your dressing that day as the noodles will absorb the dressing over time. Enjoy!

Be sure to follow Tyson Foods on Twitter to find other great recipes!

Mother's Day Weekend

I know this is a late post, but I forgot to post about our Mother's Day. We had a good day and spent the afternoon with my family. We will see Denver's family this weekend. We have a lot of great activities planned with them. Next week my mom and I are going to see the "Listen to Your Mother" show and I am excited. We also got her a ticket to see the Norman Rockwell exhibit at Crystal Bridges. She really liked it.

My sweet Granny got Tom's from my aunt and uncle. Doesn't every Granny need a pair of Tom's?

We took her some roses. She loved them and called me often throughout the week to tell me how beautiful they were! 

We had fun building a fire because it turned cold. We finally got one going about halfway through the evening. My sister has an outdoor fireplace that is beautiful.

Look at how pretty her flowers are in her flowerbed. She had peonies getting ready to bloom I am going to have to steal.

Yes, the kids were swimming because the pool was about 90 degrees and they love the pool.

This is my beautiful mom in front of the fire where she stayed most of the night. 

My grandmother brought her famous strawberry pies. They were amazing! 

 I brought corn dip and guacamole. I have posted the recipes on my site for you! 

We had a ton of food as you can see and this was the first cookout of the season. I love family cookouts and was glad we got to celebrate my mom and granny! 

Trip to Memphis

A month ago I decided I was going to attend this work conference I went to last year in Memphis. This year I was able to talk Denver into driving down with me. It was just for a few days but we had so much fun. It is a great conference and they give you a top notch experience for a conference.

This greeted us the day we arrived. The ducks were in the fountain going for a swim. We saw the duck march the last day.

On Monday night they treated us to a private dinner at Rendezvous. If you haven't been there, it is AMAZING! I felt guilty because everyone back home was hunkered in their bathrooms waiting the storms out and I posted this picture on Instagram. Earlier that night we had learned about Moore, OK and all the children that were missing.

Our room was newly remodeled and was painted a very relaxing lavender color. I really enjoyed it, and I think Denver was liking it before we left. Ha!

They had the neatest night lights that were built in the bed and then this night light would come on the floor when you got out of bed. It was activated by motion. Definitely going to have to check into that when we build our next house.

We had a great time hanging out with friends both nights and Denver took care of work while I was in class during the day. I am really thankful he came with me because it poured most of the way home.

Hope everyone was safe during the storms.

What I am Reading and News...

I got this book at Blissdom and just now having the chance to read it. It is really great and motivating. Have you ever read anything by Jon Acuff? 

On other randomness, I put Shellac on my nails before our trip. Aren't they pretty? I love this stuff!

I took Denver to a new restaurant on Friday night. It is called Tavola Trattoria and it is AMAZING. I had a lemon caper butter chicken dish.

 Denver had lasagna and a Caesar salad. We will definitely be going back. It was similarly priced to a lot of italian restaurants in our area. I had been there with my friend, Crystal, a week ago and I had crab ravioli and it was fabulous too!

On other news, Lenora, my little sister is moving home! I am so excited. Now I don't have to think of events that are coming up, and wonder if she will be in town yet for it?!?! She should be home by mid June and everyone is really excited. We are a close family so it will be great to have her and her family home. I am considering one more CA trip. I loved my trips in 2010 and 2012. I think the ocean, Orange County, best seafood, shopping, and Disneyland is calling my name. What do you think?