5 Things - Week 2 (The "Lots of Big Changes" Edition)

If you're confused what this is all about, read the first entry here! 

I have to admit, I'm liking this "5 Things" blog idea because it gives me a chance to put things that, ordinarily, I would have made into separate, short, blog entries all in one spot. 

 1: We're buying a house! Custom building a home is a very long, stressful, drawn out process. Originally we were planning on renting a home while it was being built. However, with some new opportunities coming up for my husband at work which require us to be quite a distance away from where our rental house was originally planned for, we have just decided to buy then probably resell in a couple of years when our home is done being built. Needless to say, we're excited. We found the perfect neighborhood (with like the worlds coolest pool..our son is going to absolutely love it) so now it's just a matter of finding a house. We have it narrowed down to 4 that we love, so we're going this week to hopefully pick out the final one and start the ever so fun homebuying process (that I hate). Wish us luck! 

2: We have BIG changes coming soon! After a whole lot of thinking, planning, and more, we have decided to launch our own website. The site concept is still in the works, somewhat, but here's the general idea: both my husbands blog, and mine, will be housed in one spot (two separate tabs). Also on our new site will be the network, personals site, bookstore (that will feature our new books, that we're in the process of writing, videos, and more), DD forums by area (to meet people local, or in the general section of the country/world as you), and a lot more, all in a more easier to read and navigate format. Needless to say, we are extremely excited about it. It's a lot of work, and money, but we're extremely anxious to get this up in rolling in the late fall of 2012. Stay tuned, everyone! For now, we just have a basic landing page up, but you can go ahead and bookmark the site now, if you want. The URL is http://www.learningdd.com 

3: Implements Guide Part 2 will be up early next week. Sorry for the brief delay between the 2 entries- those guides take a lot of time to write. In case you missed part 1, you can check it out here. 

4: "Interview with Bonnie" - Bonnie writes the blog Bottom Smarts which has long been known as sort of a "spanking intersection" for people. It's got tons of links to every type of blog relating to spanking imaginable and is worth checking out. Recently, this blogger interviewed Bonnie, and it was pretty interesting- you should check it out!

5: Mozzarella Stuffed Homemade Meatballs. Unfortunately, I don't have a link, but I posted the recipe below. Trust me folks, these things are amazing. I'm making them today, actually. :-) 

Mozzarella Stuffed Homemade Meatballs

• 1 lb of lean ground beef (as lean as you can get- preferably like 95/5 or 97/3)  
• 1/2 cup of bread crumbs (either Italian or Panko)
• 1 tablespoon of worcestershire sauce 
• 1 teaspoon of salt 
• 1 teaspoon of ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon of minced garlic
• 1/3 cup diced white onion
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1/4 cup of milk
• 1/2 teaspoon of garlic salt
• 1 tablespoon of Italian seasoning
• 1/2 cup of fresh Romano cheese (grated) (you can also use parmesan) 
• 10 mozzarella balls (you have to use fresh mozzarella, in order for this to be out of this world good. You can find it at places like Whole Foods)

1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a baking dish with olive oil

2: Combine all ingredients (except mozzarella balls, and olive oil) into a large bowl and stir to combine. (This step is basically just mixing everything together for the meatballs)

3: Time to form the mixture into meatballs! You want to take about 1/4 of a cup of ground beef at a time and roll it into a ball using your thumb to make an indent in the beef. Then, take a mozzarella ball and place it it in the middle, and cover with the remainder of the meat (you want to completely enclose the cheese)

4: Repeat until all of the meatballs have been made, then bake at 350 degrees for about 35-40 minutes. 

5: Serve with pasta and homemade sauce (seriously, if you haven't made homemade pasta sauce you need to start- it's incredible).

I'll take a picture after I make them today, and edit this entry, probably.

Also: Happy 1st Wedding Anniversary to Cate and Nate! And, congratulations on the birth of your beautiful baby girl. :-) We are SO happy for you both! 

Happy Birthday to one of my best friends, Mia. Mia and I met in college, went through grad school together, and pretty much spent every weekend together in our "college days". Mia, I love you like a sister. Happy Birthday! I can't wait to celebrate with you on our next Texas trip!   

If you have emailed me lately, I am about 4-6 weeks behind on emails. Yeah, that's fantastic huh? Sorry everyone. I promise I'm getting to them! 

Finally, Pooky did an awesome "spin off" of my 5 things post this week. Go check it out! It's really creative. You can read it here.

Have an AWESOME rest of your weekend, everyone! 

-Chelsea