Wow! Time flies!

I just realized that I had not posted in a long time.  But what I did not realize was that it had been since September of last year!  Wow, time sure does fly! 

Let's see what has happened so far in 2014...

1.  I have been actively involved in helping out in my daughter's second grade class.  I volunteer every day and have a blast! This past week, we went on a field trip to The McCallum Theatre and saw the children's production of Snow White and the Evil Queen! 

2. My daughter participated in Math Field Day with her school.  For 2 months, she had an after school class on Tuesday and then in April, they went to a neighboring high school and participated with about 15 other schools from our area.  She had a blast! 

3.  I registered my son for school!  Yes, for school! ACK!!!!!  My baby will be starting Kindergarten in the fall!!!!  Can time just slow down a bit, please?   He is super excited about starting school! Just praying that we get the right teacher and we get mornings! (since his sissy will already be going to school at that time) ;)

4. In October of last year, I got a call from Shianne's school saying that she had fallen off the monkey bars and split open the back of her head. She had a 3 inch gash and ended up getting 6 staples put in! Man, she was a trooper and I have to admit, braver than me! The ER doctor said that she was her best patient of the day!  That was my first time to the ER with either of my kids and I want it to be the last! 

 sweet note from her the day she stayed home

5.  Shianne's birthday was this past Monday and our baby girl turned 8!  Again, time flies! How is that even possible?

6.  I participate in Picture a Day.  I follow a blogger, Fat Mum Slim, and every month she puts out a list of prompts for daily pictures for the month.  It has been a lot of fun and I have met some great people!!!!!  I now have friends all the way around the world!  Hello my Aussie friends! 

As you can see, life has been busy!  Hopefully I can start writing in this again! (if anyone cares lol) 

Nail stickers

I found these nail stickers at the 99 Cent Only Store. I have purchased several of the Sally Hansen nail strips, but have never used them (yet).   I figured, how could I go wrong? I love black (one of my favorite colors) and they were only $0.99!  

So on August 28th, I put the stickers on. Now, they give you several different sizes, so you can figure out which ones fit your fingernails.  The gold triangle end is actually meant for your toenails, as it is shaped a little bit differently, more square vs. the other end being more round, but I wanted that end on the bottom. By a little trial and error, I figured out which ones fit which nails and proceeded to put them on. By like the 7th finger, I learned that if you trim the sides just a smidge, they fit better on my nail.

All done! 

Here's what they looked like in the sun! 

I loved them! I just peeled them off tonight and I am already missing them! I got several compliments on them! It was a fun, frilly and girly thing to do!   I think that I will be putting some more on soon! 

And I don't know, but I was telling my friend this morning that there was something about black nails that made me feel like, I am woman, hear me roar! So sexy and fun! LOL!

2nd Grade!

Good gosh, where has the time gone? Seriously, it just seems like yesterday that Eric and I found out we were pregnant.... Now, advance 7 years, and our little girl, Shianne, is starting 2nd grade! 

She has her first male teacher this year! She is loving being back in school, homework and all! I am so proud of our girl and how much she has grown! Looking forward to what the new school year will bring!

Cheese tortellini and sausage

I found this recipe on Pinterest the other day. Both the hubby and I thought it looked yummy, so I decided to try it! It was so simple to make and it had great flavor. My kids liked it too, so that was a plus!

Ingredients

1 (19 ounce) bag frozen cheese tortellini 

1 pound sausage (Italian)  I used chicken sausage

1 bag of fresh spinach (I didn't use the whole bag, but wished that I had, because it was yummy in the dish)

2 cans Italian style diced tomatoes

2 cans low-fat chicken broth

1 (8 ounce) cream cheese block, cut into cubes

 

Directions 

1. Brown the sausage in a skillet until cooked and crumbled. Drain.

2. Add the sausage and remaining ingredients to a crock pot. Stir to combine.

3.Cook, on LOW for 5 hours, stirring twice during cooking.

 

 I squeezed the sausage out of their casings and browned it in the skillet

I added everything to the crock pot and mixed it around. 

My daughter added the spinach in.

This is what it looked like after about 4 and a half hours or so.

This was super yummy! I really liked this recipe and how simple and tasty it is!

Pizza in a crock pot

This is by far, one of our family's favorite crock pot recipes! I am so glad that I stumbled across Budget Savvy Diva on Pinterest and found this! Yummy!

Here is the link for the actual recipe
http://www.budgetsavvydiva.com/2012/02/pizza-crock-pot/

Ingredients

1 Pound of Ground Beef. 

I have always used ground turkey, since we don't eat much beef.

1 Green Pepper Chopped

1 Onion Chopped

1 teaspoon Onion Powder

1 teaspoon of Garlic Powder

1 Clove of Garlic Minced

1 Teaspoon of Pepper

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

24 Ounces of Sauce ( pizza or pasta sauce)

2 Tablespoon Tomato Paste. I use the whole can of tomato paste

3 Cups of Cooked Pasta

6 ounce of Pepperoni. I use turkey pepperoni

3 Cups of Mozzarella

1 Tablespoon of Olive Oil

Instructions

1. In a pan heat oil then add onions and pepper and cook ( 10 min) add garlic and cook for one minute. Add ground beef and cook till browned – make sure to drain.

2. Stir in sauce, tomato past, salt, pepper, garlic powder; onion powder. 

3. In your crock pot place cooked pasta on the bottom.

4. Then add beef mixture.

5. Then Pepperoni 

6. Then add 2 cups of cheese

7. Set the crock pot to low and cook for 3 hours. Mix then add last cup of cheese and cook for 30 more minutes.

8. Enjoy

I chopped up the bell pepper and the onion (I used half a red and half a white onion).

Added the onions and bell pepper to the ground turkey and browned it.

All ready to add all the other ingredients

Everything else added and ready to mix it up

After coking the noodles, I added them to the crock pot

Added the meat mixture on top of the noodles, then I chopped up the turkey pepperoni and added that on the top of everything.

Then I added the cheese... you can never have too much cheese!  

Set the crock pot on low for 3 hours and let it cook.

When the 3 hours was up, I added some more cheese and let it get warm.  It was ready to eat.

Yummy!!!!

Guacamole!

A #FabFriday must

I was taught a really easy recipe for guacamole from my friend! 

I bought these beauts at Sam's Club and they were a bit hard. I put them in a brown paper bag for a few days and voila, they were perfectly soft! That trick really works! 

Recipe: 5 large or 10 small avocados, salt, pepper, some lemon juice, half a seeded Serrano pepper, half a red onion and Frank's Red Hot sauce! 

Serrano and red onion

Cut your avocados up, add the onion, Serrano pepper, some salt and pepper, lemon juice and a few dashes of RedHot sauce, to your liking.  Mash it all up... I use a potato masher and it works perfectly!

And there you go, delish guac!!!

Now I want some! ;)

Coffeeeeee!!!!!!!

I have been on a coffee kick for a while now. I make a fresh pot of coffee and then make iced coffee from that. I am not a huge hot coffee drinker, but I love iced coffee!  I haven't had made any in a while.  Today, while I was digging through my deep freeze looking for something else, I came across this and thought I would try it. It is pretty hot today, and I figured it would be nice and refreshing. I had bought this at Vons on clearance a while ago and forgot about it, because it was buried in my deep freeze! LOL!

This was so easy to make!

Open the package and put the frozen bits in the blender... add 1 cup of milk and blend away! 

And out comes this yumminess in a glass! 

So delish and totally refreshing! 

I am going to have to see if the grocery store still carries this! ;)