Loving The Landing

It's still hard to believe that we have been here in Eagle's Landing for over a year now. Time certainly flies when you're in Kansas! :)

Holiday Benders....FENDER-Benders

I cannot believe Thanksgiving is over and tomorrow is December. What in the world!?!

We are back home and things are even more hectic than our "normal" schedule usually allows. Neeley and I were involved in a bit of a fender-bender on our way back home from Arkansas.

Ok, it was more than a fender-bender.

Since I don't have pics of the actual scene, let me paint the picture for you.

Picture my Equinox on 40 W followed by a t-i-n-y Chevy Extreme pickup with a bed full of dead deer and hauling a 4-wheeler on a trailer.

Have that in your head?

Ok, now picture the entire front half of that tiny lil pickup crammed underneath my Equinox and my Equinox jacked up at a 45 degree angle.

Will spare you the whole story, but yep, it did happen, and we lived to tell about it. Neeley, Anna Banana, and I walked away with sore necks and backs but now we're in the process of scheduling the cosmetic surgery for Ellie the Equinox.

Thank you for your prayers!

Fundraising Fun

Whew! Is it already time for Thanksgiving? Wait...what? October is over? And August and September, too? I feel sooooooooooooo behind on everything now that I am back in school full time. Sound familiar? I felt that way when I worked full time too. :)

Neeley's schedule has been full of fundraising fun as she prepares for her upcoming conferences. We spent several hours at Purple Swirl on Friday evening.

And then enjoyed our time last night at Orange Leaf. We certainly love our froyo!!! :)

These fundraisers were her first actual on-site events but she is working with some other businesses to hopefully earn some more funding to register for the conferences. Anyone have any odd jobs for her to do? :)

Soooooooooooo proud of that girls' entrepreneurial efforts! She has scheduled all of the fundraiser fun all on her own, emailing and calling businesses, and mailing letters. Please keep your fingers crossed for this girly girl to attend them to further her interest in medicine and science.

Here's to more goofy fun. Or, probably we were a bit delirious by this time after 5 hours at Orange Leaf! :)

THANK YOU from us to you for your support!! :)

Neeley says THANK YOU to her supporters! :)

Neeley Takes On Medicine & Science

Neeley has been invited to attend the 2013 LeadAmerica Medicine & Science Conference as well as the National Young Leaders State Conference. In order to attend, Neeley needs to raise upwards of $5,000. Will you please consider a small donation to help with travel expenses?

Here is the link to donate: http://www.youcaring.com/fundraiser_details?fundraiser_id=12537&url=neeleybowdentakesonmedicineandscience

We thank you kindly!!

Life.....as we know it

I know, I know....you are all waiting for something profound to show up here. Well, you may be waiting for a while. Quite honestly, I just don't have it in me right now to blog. Life is just life for us....exciting to some, C-R-A-Z-Y to us. :) Here's how it's all going down for us....in a nutshell {or a numbered list in true "I lack creativity at the moment" style}.

1) I am a full time student again after ?? years. :) I have put my MBA on hold to pursue a graduate certificate in Secondary Business Education at Kansas State University here in Manhattan. I am happier than I have been in years! I absolutely love the program and everyone I work with. I will be in my very own classroom {hopefully! *fingers crossed*} in Fall 2014. I am also pursuing the MS in Curriculum & Instruction along with endorsements in Special Education: Gifted and ESL. I also plan to complete my MBA in the middle of it all. Please pray! LOL For my noneducator friends who always ask me "what the?...." I will be teaching business classes at the secondary 7th-12th grade level. My hopes are to bring a business program to the local middle schools. I'm already in talks with them so please keep your fingers crossed for me that it all works out and is a smooth transition.

2) Neeley is in the 7th grade at Eisenhower Middle School here in Manhattan and so far thinks it's a breeze. She's in Algebra as an 11 year old. Yikes! She loves all of her teachers and is having a great time! Soooo thankful this transition to Manhattan has been a breeze. She is also involved in Hip Hop dance, takes weekly horseback riding lessons, is pursuing tennis lessons starting next week, participates in the junior high youth group at our new church, and is joining the Photography Club and DanceFit Club at her school. Busy? Nah! :) I could go on and on and on and on...... well, you get the picture.

3) Ronnie is in training to soon head to a country that makes us not so happy. But we pray for safety, security, and peace of mind for the next several months. And hope that they are able to bring us closer to clarity in that far away place. He loves his job here {right, hon? correct me if not! :)} but duty calls whether we like it or not. We are so very thankful that his years, or rather OUR years, with the Army have really been good ones....even if we have to cuss it at times when it turns our world upside down. We miss and love you hon!!! ♥♥♥♥♥

4) I can't leave out Anna Banana! She will be 13 in December and rules the house. Need I say more? Taking care of her is like taking care of a baby. Bleckh!! Why do dogs become so needy as they age? :) But we love her anyway.

We are making life work here in Kansas. We are working on our house, refinishing furniture and coming upon some good finds here in the area. We are getting out and about and doing all of the fun touristy things there is to do here. We even take in a few KSU Wildcat games when we can. We are loving the area and all that it has to offer. Wish I had time to always share more with you here but unfortunately my time is very limited. Bedtime for me is midnight and my wake up call comes at 5 am pretty much seven days a week for me now.

I really am doing my best to keep this updated but if anyone wants to volunteer....have at it!! :)

We miss and love you all!!

If any of you have a question you would like for me to answer, have ideas for a post, would like to guest post, etc., please comment with that information. I'm always looking for writers and bloggy fodder. :)

Until next time................................................

Mojo, Mojo....Wherefore Art Thou, Mojo?

Anybody seen my blogging mojo? Yep, it's missing. Nowhere.to.be.found.





Stay tuned for something profound to come soon....... :)

Stream of Consciousness

Stream of consciousness.....literally as it comes to mind..............



1) We soooooooooo cannot wait until Mr. Bowden Brigade gets home. There's always no less than 4,297 things going on all at once and well...it's time!

2) What am I thinking when I have those feelings that I REALLY want to go back to school and want to teach? Wait...what?

3) It feels sooooooooooooooooooo good to have a gym membership again...and one that includes unlimited tanning. GTDG....Gym, Tan, Don't Judge!





4) Neeley made these Cranberry Gems tonight and they are scrumptious! #onlyhadoneipromise







5) Neeley has state assessments this week and this is HUGE for us since we don't have many assessments in this district since we arrived here late. Beddy-bye time in 20 minutes!







6) The weekends fly by too quickly. LOVING the Vitamin D we received at the City Park today! Neeley and I went and took advantage of the sunshine for some friendly games of volleyball and old school 4 square.








7) Excited that the Schwan's truck will be stopping at my house tomorrow evening with my prepaid order. Hello frozen fruit for my Tropical Shakeology! :)








8) It's almost March. Yikes!







9) I wish I had a good book to read and time to read it.








10) We're {fingers crossed} planning a trip to the beach and to Disney World for sometime this summer. #don'tevenknowwheretobegin







Time to go get some bedtime snuggles with that not-so-little girl of mine before bedtime. This is looking to be one CrAzY week for us. I owe so many a phone call, a note, an email, or a message . . . but for now it will have to wait.








Have a good one!

A Day In The Life Of A Girl

Neeley and I took a visit to our local City Park the other day. It was beautiful out but started getting a bit chilly towards the end.

Lil miss celebrated Valentine's Day in high style. :)

She's so fun these days! We have our good days and our rough crazy days, but she's such a good kid! :)

Can you believe she's almost as tall as I am?? What?? :)

Our weeks are full and our weekends are even better. :) Yesterday, Neeley began her day with the GROW program at K State-http://www.k-state.edu/grow/. They had a blast learning about engineering, math, science, and lots of other good stuff.

She had to leave the GROW program early to head over to her Junior Zookeeper training at our local Sunset Zoo. How fun!

She had a flute concert we were supposed to try to get to yesterday evening but it just didn't happen. We would have been "fashionably" late. :) It's all good, as we'll make the next one.

Have a great week! Hopefully we'll have more to post next time! :)

Happy Valentine's Day 2012

Happy Valentine's Day!

How are you spending this day? We're back to the ol' grind of back to work and school after spending the past several days at home with the Bowden version of the Bubonic Plague. :) You know...our usual sinus/cold/flu/allergy yucks. And we woke up Monday morning to about 3 inches of snow on the ground so yep...we stayed inside all day with warm mugs of tea and cider and bundled up under lots of blankies and vegged and watched movies all day. Sounds like a GREAT plan to me! :)

Today is also a very exciting day because this tall glass of yumminess is available for purchase as of today.



The new Tropical Shakeology is VEGAN and very yummy and you better know I have several cases of it on its' way to my place. :) I am soooooooo excited to share this healthy goodness with all of you as well. If you would like to try a few sample packs, just let me know and I'll give you the special hook-up. :)



Shakeology also comes in the Chocolate and Greenberry flavors which are equally as good for you. Even Neeley begs for it! :)

Other than that, we're just trying to brave the freezing temps and focusing on staying healthy.

Enjoy your day!

As Exciting As A Camera Dump....

Yes, it's been one of THOSE weeks! I had high hopes after such a productive weekend last week that this week would really be one where we were finally caught up here at home, but welp...that's just not the case. Cuh-razy times, folks!

Want a lil peep in to our week?

1) Some days it's all we can do to get our clothes on, look presentable, and get out the door.


2) Yep, we're a bit early in celebrating, but it sure did make the girl smile!


3) But we're not too early in celebrating this one, and this is the one we're most excited about.


4) That and this stuff make our days complete.


5) If I hear one more word about wanting something that looks like this, I think I'm going to scream!


And................that's all you get for this week because we're eye-high in spelling words and preparing for the County Spelling Bee next weekend.

Stay tuned!!

Kicking Rocks

Another week has passed and I can't even tell you what we have accomplished. :) It was just one of THOSE weeks after such a crazy weekend we had last. Ever have one of those?



Now we have another week that is proving to be even hairier but I think we're ready for this one. Neeley is really in to her activities here so our weeks are beginning to pick up a bit. She won her school spelling bee this past week and now competes soon in our county spelling bee. Yikes! And she starts her flute lessons this week. So exciting! She's also starting a baking class through our local non-credit college course program through K State. And here in a couple of days she will be auditioning for a spot in our local production of Cinderella. Thankfully it's only a weeklong production, but that means long rehearsals every.single.night.of.the.week so I know we'll head in to February exhausted but it'll be worth it. :)

We've been making progress here at home this weekend but we did get out earlier to take advantage of the sunshine and went for a very brisk walk. We had the best kicking around our new pet rock, appropriately named Rocky.

{Yes, that's a painted rock and not a piece of raw meat like it looks! :) }

Neeley came home and painted him so that we can keep him and always take him out with us when we go. Too cute!

Y'all enjoy your weekend! We're out of here to head downtown to take advantage of the last day of FREE ice skating! Whee...........................................

Dinner Yummies...And This And That

Happy Sunday y'all! Hope you have all had a GREAT weekend. Neeley had a WEEKEND-LONG sleepover and we are now playing catch-up on all of the chores we missed out on so it may make for a longer feeling week but it was nice to hear girly giggles this weekend. :)

Neeley and I are trying another new recipe tonight for dinner. And I'm making lots of extra chicken to have with salads for lunches this week.



I know it's not the best picture in the world but I wanted y'all to see how yummy it looks. And my finished product looks JUST like that. So proud! :) You should try it too!

Kathy Smith's Crispy Oven-Baked Chicken

8 6-8 oz. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 cups plain bread crumbs (I always freeze the hills and extra pieces of bread once they are past the fresh stage and just make my own bread crumbs)
1-2 Tbsp. vegetable oil (I always use olive oil)
3 Tbsp. hot pepper sauce
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
1 tsp. salt

In a large bowl, whisk together the hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, pepper, and salt. Add the chicken and marinate in the refrigerator for 2-12 hours. I didn't have mine in the marinade quite that long but it was still dee-lish!

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Remove the chicken from the marinade, add bread crumbs to the marinade, and mix well. Coat chicken thoroughly with the mixture.

Spread oil over the bottom of a shallow 9" x 13" baking dish. Arrange chicken in the dish and bake for 15-20 minutes. Turn chicken over; reduce heat to 325 degrees, and cook for an additional 15 to 20 minutes or until juices run clear when pierced with a fork.

Have you tried any new recipes lately?

Happy New Year!!

Our weather was cold, windy and rainy for New Years so we did venture out for a bit, but ultimately ended up back at home in our comfy clothes watching the tube. And with the three of us together, we wouldn't have had it any other way! :)