Cooking Is Therapy II

I have tried a few more pinterest creations in the last couple of weeks and they were a success!!! I am loving not being in such a dinner rut! Winters are so much harder when it is cold and you can't grill, etc... So, thankfully pinterest has put some pep in my step and I am excited to be in the kitchen again! Here are some of the new recipes we tried!

Greek Pasta Salad - *This was Delicious! I don't do olives but the rest of the salad was a huge hit! Great as left overs too!

1 1/2 tablespoons salt
12 ounces bite-size pasta, your choice
2 cups medium diced seedless cucumber, lightly sprinkled with salt
2 cups halved cherry tomatoes, lightly sprinkled with salt
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives, chopped coarse
1/2 medium red onion, sliced thin
1 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Ground black pepper
Bring 3 quarts of water to boil in a large pot. Add salt and pasta to the boiling water. Using back-of-the-box times as a guide, cook pasta until just tender.  Drain pasta (do not rinse), pour into a shallow baking pan, and cool to room temperature.
When ready to serve, place pasta, cucumber, tomatoes, feta, olives, onion, and oregano in a large bowl, Add oil; toss to coat. Add vinegar and pepper to taste; toss to coat. Adjust seasonings and serve.

Slow Cooker Italian Beef Sandwiches - *This is SUCH A HIT at our house now! We have made them twice already and both times they were amazing! The meat is even better the next day! Of course I have to add cheese and it is delicious! Ingredients

2-3 lb bottom round beef roast
1 Cup Beef Stock
1 packet Italian Salad Dressing Mix ( I used Good Seasons)
1 jar pepperoncini rings
1 loaf crusty french bread
Giardiniera (Optional)

Chess Squares - *HOLY COW! These have to be made just on a special occasion because I found myself hoping Chandler woke up for a bottle in the middle of the night so I could sneak bites of them! Delicious and Easy!!!!

1 box yellow cake mix
3 eggs
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
4 cups (1 lb) powdered sugar
Preheat oven to 300 and spray a 9×13 dish with cooking spray. Mix cake mix, melted butter and one egg to a soft dough. Press into the bottom of the pan. Mix powdered sugar, softened cream cheese and remaining two eggs until smooth, about 1-2 mins. Pour on top of crust. Bake at 300 for 40-50 minutes until top is golden brown.

Till the next time, I have a list of recipes I am going to try this week and I can't wait!

Finding a New Style...

So, I decided to steer away from "kid" talk today and make it all about ME! Haha I have really been having fun lately finding my own "style". I am not even sure you would define what I have as a certain style but I guess just becoming more stylish! I think it is hard after you become a mom and are in your 30's to really figure out how to dress cute, age appropriate but not frumpy, stylish but keeping on a budget, etc..

Let me start by saying that since I have been trying harder on my new style I am definitely NOT a fashionista in the slightest BUT I have come a LONG way from over sized  sweatshirts, all black wardrobe and no accessories!

I think a lot of it has to do with being comfortable in my skin and how I feel about myself. Also about looking at myself differently than I did in my early 20's . I know that the stretch marks on my stomach came from 3 wonderful miracles, that the wrinkles starting to show here and there on my face have come from living life and a lot of laughter and that my slowly sagging chest would not provide hours of entertainment for my 6 month old baby! ha! There was a long time when I wasn't happy when I looked in the mirror, I wasn't happy with my weight, I wasn't happy with me, period and it showed. Here is a prime example of how "stylish" I was and this was taken BEFORE kids!

My sister and I probably around 2005

This is even embarrassing for me to post. This was at Thanksgiving Dinner of all places and I have on a men's XL sweat!!!

So fast forward.... Thru the years since this picture I have taken it up a notch here and there in the wardrobe department but my "go to" outfit never failed. Jeans and a black turtle neck and black boots! My poor mom and mother in law dress SO cute and ALWAYS wear bright colors, I know they have secretly prayed for the day that I might step out of my drab wardrobe and get with the new trends! :)

Well, my mom took my sister and I shopping to the LOFT before Christmas. Her friends were there and they were telling me about straight leg pants, layering tops, what size I REALLY should be wearing and I had a BLAST!!! I bought clothes that fit, I bought clothes with color and I finally had a little "style". From there it has been a mission! I definitely keep it on the safer side! I wish I was a person that knew how to piece together different patterns and styles but I am SO not. The best I get, is seeing it on Pinterest and trying to imitate it! Here is a look at the beginning of my new style :)

I wear COLORS, straight leg pants and flats! Ooooh I also layer necklaces! This is all so new for me. See how that kid behind me could care less about my new style! haha

 I wear animal prints! CRAZY! :)

I wear two different colors and NO black! This outfit was bought for me by my mother in law, when I opened it she looked at me and said "Now, you wear these TOGETHER" Get out! I would have never tried that, I would have paired each piece with something black :) She is in heaven that I love shopping now!

I wear RED velvet pants and scarfs! :)

 I wear colors that I had no idea you could even wear together (thanks to the mannequin that had on the same outfit in the store! ha!)

And, I go outside the box and try on things that I would HAVE NEVER tried on years ago and guess what, most of them I like! This is a recent pic of my mother in law and I and yes, we do buy a lot of the same clothes!

It may not seem a lot for most people but it has been a great experience for me! It has kept me motivated to keep the weight off so that I can keep wearing the stylish clothes, it makes me feel better about myself and it is just plain fun!

Thanks mom for releasing my inner fashion plate :) My closet is starting to look like a rainbow exploded in it instead of a black hole! ha!

Girls Night Out!

I knew I would LOVE having a daughter (now I am blessed with 2!) but as Ann Mason grows up it seems like it just gets more fun! Granted I will probably retract this statement  somewhere around age 12 and won't be feeling this way until about 23! haha (joking, kind of, not really)

Friday night we had a big night out! We took Ann Mason and my niece Katelyn to Olive Garden and to get their nails done. Believe me I think the adults were more excited! Chandler even went because Ann Mason is adamant about the fact that she IS a girl, which means she MUST go to girls night!

We ate too much, laughed too much and shopped too much! I wish I had a picture of Chandler camped out on the dressing room floor playing with all of her toys! We may or may not have planned the shopping part :)

I know not every Friday night can be a big girls night out but I want my children to feel special and loved all of the time! I read on another blog about how we don't always have to make grand gestures that a picnic is just food with a blanket on the floor, spa day can be in your bathroom with some sliced cucumbers, movie night can become something more special with sleeping bags, popcorn and drinks on the living room floor! I loved that!

(side note: I have not forgotten about the sweetest boy in the world, my Palmer! He had "guys" night with his dadddy and I always try and do special things with him too! Ok, just had to clear that up so my "mom guilt" didn't go into overdrive!)

So here's to forts built out of sheets and chairs, camping in your bedrooms with flashlights, pizza and movie nights, spa nights with bubble baths and fake face masks, this list is infinite!

OLIVE GARDEN/NAIL NIGHT/SHOPPING
March 2013

How was your day?

Being in my 30's now I definitely think I feel a lot more comfortable in my skin (for the most part) even the sagging skin on my belly! haha I think I have learned to laugh at myself and appreciate myself even on the days where I get it ALL wrong! Yesterday was a day where I got it ALL wrong :) There are certain things in life I have accepted like my children NEVER have matching socks on, I mean never! Even Chandler who cant wear shoes to hide the fact that she has mis-matched socks on goes to school with one pink sock, one yellow sock today. I'm ok with that. I know that my laundry will never fully get done, EVER! It sits clean and unfolded on a couch and there are days we make headway and days where I have to re-wash the same clothes 3 times because they sat in the washer for too long. That's my life.... I have learned that this stuff comes with the territory of being a working mom to 3 kids and at the end of the day if mis-matched socks and piles of laundry are my biggest problems I have had a SUCCESSFUL day!

So back to yesterday (side note we have all been passing around the stomach bug since Friday, just keep that in mind)

I love to document these days because they are the "real" days, in my "real" like.

Got woken up at 6 am (didn't have to be up till 7:30)

Was puked and pooped on by 6:45 and in the bath with my baby who likes to smack my less than perky boobs the WHOLE time she is taking a bath! I think she likes to watch them shake! HA!!!

7:30 Running around getting people clothes because Oh, Tex has the stomach bug and we ALL know how Tex is with the stomach bug....

9:00 took both kids to the dentist (need I say more)

10:30 Decided to be "fun" mom and take the kids thru McDonalds and go to Palmer's school to eat lunch with him Ann Mason and his buddies. Apparently, I didn't receive the memo that told me that parents weren't allowed to bring McDonald's!!! So, the teachers assistant hurried up to me and whispered "You brought McDonalds?" Um, yeah! Teachers Assistant "You aren't allowed to do that!" So, I took the walk of shame with both kids down to Palmer's room to eat alone in quarantine! (Mom Fail!)

So, I finally got to work and had to explain why I had this on my face.....

(see the sore on the upper right hand side) upper lip waxing gone wrong!!! I like to blame it on my neighbor Sarah! haha But really I did the waxing myself, I just used her stuff. I am assuming it is a chemical burn but I am hoping it gets a lot better and SOON!

As if the mysterious and questionable looking mark above my lip wasn't enough I realized that all of my knuckles were dry and bleeding probably from washing my hands 105 times a day to keep the germs away! I had to resort to putting lotion on my hands while wearing moisture locking gloves at work! Here I am! SO glad I didn't have hardly any appointments or clients come in yesterday! I looked like a freak show!

My day didn't end until late getting home from work at 8 and picking up pedialyte, diapers and phenegran for the sickies at home~! To say yesterday was long and tiring was an understatement oh and I ended this glorious day with getting the stomach bug myself last night! (luckily it was a light case)

I just have to laugh. I never claim to have it all together, far from that actually but yesterday takes the cake in mom fails and beauty fails!

So far today has gone better but it is only 11 am, we shall see!

Annie Boo: Age 4!

I truly can't believe my Annie girl is 4! I have to admit 3 wasn't our best year. I think it was hard for her. Three is a hard year (or so it has been in our house) and then on top of a challenging year, she had to find out where she fit in as the middle child and not the only girl. It is so hard to learn how to parent, let alone, how to parent each child differently because each child is SO different. Once I realized that Ann Mason did things WAY differently than Palmer and that she was much more intense in everything she did I realized I had to find a way to not "Dull her Sparkle". I don't want to take away these amazing characteristics that she has like independence, strong will, intelligence, wit, determination, etc... I want to find a way to nurture them but not let them run the house. I don't know if this makes any sense at all! haha I want Ann Mason to be all of these things and more, but I want her to find a constructive way to be all of these things that doesn't include ruling the household and taking all of our energy!

I have always LOVED the book Five Languages of Love (THIS website gives a perfect summary!) It talks about what your love language is and Ann Mason's is quality time and words of affirmation. Once I realized this and started spending one on one time with her and only really focusing on the positive things with her rather than always saying "Stop, don't do that and No!" our relationship has dramatically changed! In the last month alone I would say we have done a 180!

I love this girl more than words. Her energy is astounding I just look at her in awe! She is also 4 going on 15. She LOVES clothes, fashion, dressing up, matching accessories, shoes, etc... She is too smart for her own good and she is beautiful inside and out. She knows what she wants but she is still gracious when going after it. She is thoughtful at the little things like she will notice when I did something to her room and say thank you or sometimes just tell me I am a good mommy. She loves to be social, she LOVES it! We are in serious trouble! This girl is on "fire"!

Ann Mason Age 4

Favorite Colors: Pink and Purple

Friends: KK, EE and Addy Bradshaw from school

What do you want to be when you grow up: A teacher and a mommy

Favorite Song: Alicia Keys This Girl is on Fire!

Favorite thing to wear: Adorable Dresses

Favorite Person: My baby Chan Chan

Favorite Foods: Turkey, Apples, Cheetos, Sour patch Kids (good balance, huh? :)

Weight: 42 pounds

Height: (not sure yet)

Size Clothes: 5/6 in most stores!!!

Favorite Hairstyle: Side or High Pony

Ann Mason you are the sparkle in our family! We love you to pieces and can't wait to see what you have in store for this world because it will be something GREAT! Happy 4th Birthday!

Randomess in a Post

I am discouraged with how infrequently my posts are becoming. It seems I never carrying my camera anymore and I have to start back doing both! I miss it and poor Chandler needs her first year documented better :) Speaking of Chandler she is sick yet again with a double ear infection. She still continues to be the sweetest and move loving baby in the world. She really rarely even cries, I could just squeeze her cheeks all day long~

This past weekend was crazy in a good way. My parents were in from Florida and we had Annie's 4th Birthday Party! We ran like crazy but we had a blast! Here are some of our random moments!

Chandler sporting UK in her bathing suit. I am pretty sure this is her first time in a bathing suit and she looked super cute!!! (Thanks Belle for letting us borrow it!)

This is TOTALLY random but for those who know me personally know that I get an idea and go full force. Our friends were selling their leather couches and I wanted them SO bad but needed to sell some couches in our house first. Luckily our town has a facebook page for barter and trade. Well, let me tell ya I went a little crazy and basically sold half my house. It was AWESOME! So, here are our new couches and rug. We have pillows, lamps, etc.... coming any day. I am loving it! More pics of the transformation to come. It is SO fun to go shopping with money you made from stuff that has been in your garage for years!! WOOHOO!

Love this pic! Chandler is grabbing Mamaw Kathy's face and giving her kisses. It doesn't get any sweeter than this girl!

Oh my! More to come on this diva's 4 year old birthday but she had a blast. This is the outfit I got for her birthday party! She is SO sweet and has really started to act more grown up and has been SUCH a good girl! She just appreciates everything, she gets so excited and loved her party, presents and all of her family and friends being there!  

Here she is after the party in a bathing suit, sparkly shoes and princess gear, this girl beats to her own drum!

One of Annie's very FAV gifts ever was her awesome UK Cheerleading Outfit and pom poms!

She looks adorable and loves practicing her cheerleading moves!

Life is fast paced, crazy, stressful but mostly wonderful!!! I am ready for spring weather, playing outside, longer days and flip flops!!! I am going to take lots of pics this weekend!

Sprinkle

I am completely blessed to have a best friend that had known me for 18 years (omg that sound crazy even to me!)we haven't lived in the same city for 14 years but no matter the distance or time in between visits it's always the same! She is the friend that has seen me at my best and seen me at my worst! She knows what I was like at 15 and what I am like at 32 and has always loved me the same. She knows the real me, the good and the bad and I love her so much! There is nothing in this world greater than a best friend and I have been blessed to have Kelly in my life.I was honored to sprinkle her and baby Allie this weekend! She already has one precious girl named Caroline and I can't wait for her to be a big sis! Thank you Kel for being you!! I love you!