Pioneer Woman and Six Sisters' Recipes to try

 

Today was not that day.... I have been a pinning monster.

 

Today I made pizza dough thanks to a simple recipe from none other than The Pioneer Woman, Ree. I followed what she said, I conquered the fear and it was delicious.

My husband planned out what other toppings I could do "for the next time".

We both love that thin, crunchy, smokey flavor of some of the fancier pizza joints.. and I recreated it at home. BOO YA!

 

This week I have also met and conquered the Ginger Steak Salad ALSO from PW. I have never worked with ginger before... it scared me a bit too. I mean, it looks so shriveled and old and just...gross. I like the powdered junk. BUT now... I am a ginger master. I did it.. I ate it.. it was good.

I tried out Six Sisters' Light Taco Casserole and it was pretty good. My son did not eat 3 helpings like theirs did, but my husband liked it and it was decent warmed up today for lunch.

Stalker tendencies

Brain  d u m p

You guys! I have "the worst" headache tonight. I realized I did not drink my standard of at least one cup of coffee today. Maddox and I were rushed this morning because he has been sleeping in, which in turn lets me sleep in (HOLLA!) so we were running around like chickens with our heads cut off to get to story time at the library.

Why doesn't little bear wear any clothes but all the grown up bears do? Why do Dora's parents let her a) dress like a hooch with her belly out and b) wander so far from home alone? Where the %^&* are Max and Ruby's parents? And grandma comes to visit-- so she isn't living there either.

I broke my no soda rule and sipped a small coke this evening after dinner when I realized what this headache was from. My body is rejecting it. It didn't even taste good! Sad news.

I am kind of stalking the cast of Duck Dynasty. I never thought that I would love that show but I do.

Also I am kind of stalking The Militant Baker after seeing a pin on pinterest about what no one tells a fat girl. She is much braver than I am. She struts around in her own skin and is proud. I am comfortable in what I am comfortable in but don't go outside my zone very often. This chick stands in the middle of the street in her nightie. Her whole point is that everyone has struggles and is beautiful and to basically just be who you are and ^&*% every one else and their opinions of it. Is good for all girls to read I think-- we all have our own self issues, and need reassurance that it is ok... WE ARE OK.

Also had a good read in The Fifty Two Shades of Shay--blogging edition. I am so guilty of this. I often worry and get frusterated that I dont have 100's or 1000's of readers like so many of the cool chicks I read on the daily. BUT at the end of the day, I like this. I like talking and keeping record of what my days were like, what my thoughts were like and how I felt, so I truck on. It was nice to read that I am not the only one and that I just have to keep being me.

This is likely what I will dream about.. Night ya'll.

Tish

Photo Dump-Life in pictures..with captions ;)

Everyone needs an iPhone photo dump every once in a while right? Right?

This little boy loves fruit. There is a fruit drawer in the bottom of the fridge and he pounds on the door and begs me to get fruit out. Is it sad that I have to sometimes hide fruit because he will take one bite of 3 things then wander away? I was shopping with a friend and Maddox went goo goo ga ga over bananas. Just "ape crazy". 30 seconds later, her son did the same thing--only over McDonald's. Was pretty funny. Here he is outside-- in his diaper-- REDNECK y'all--with an apple and a pear.

Maddox wants to be outside 24 hours a day. I mean really. He wakes up and the first thing he does is run to the door. He will randomly run to the door and ask to go out all throughout the day and especially at night. He takes a ball and puts it under his arm like he is 7 years old and just says "oh please".

 

 

My pinterest pillow project (alliteration anyone?!) has been completed. I ended up changing out 3 of the 4 fabrics I already had. Only kept the green pillow. This is our green and orange room.. or 60s/70s room... or Mexican inspired room. I kid. Sort of. There are two Peter Lik photos in this room. One is a bamboo forest and the other is gorgeous orange leaves in October. I had a red pillow and two beige pillows but felt it needed a little oomph. I brought the red in there because there is so much red throughout the house, but it really didn't fit. I was shocked that my hubby liked the loud print. He selected it out of a few choices. He said it reminded him of our honeymoon in Mexico (pause for awwww's). 

Maddox loves to be a helper. He just dies to swiffer when I bring it out... yet another thing that I have to sometimes hide from my kid. I gave it to him without the actual duster on it and little baby Einstein ran over to the cupboard and asked for it. Genius I tell you!

 

 

I tweeted this photo to Chobani. It is pretty great. We love our yogurt! Mommy does not like the Chobani BITE in the chocolate/coffee flavor though. YUCK. I let them know that too. You would think those combos would be ahhhmazing, but it tasted chalky. *shudder*

 

 

Friday night was a treat night. We went to DQ for some yummy ice cream. My husband wanted a banana split but they were out of bananas (really DQ?) so he got a chocolate shake.. which became the little boys as soon as we got home.



Yesterday afternoon we drove to Estrella Mountain Lake and walked around. We looked at the ducks and little one kept repeating Quack Quack. It was a gorgeous day and a gorgeous way to spend an afternoon together.

 

Today we are going to take it easy, maybe get in the pool and just chill. We have some leftover peaches from the farm that we froze and a bottle of rum getting very cold in the freezer. Not very Cinco de Mayo of us is it? Well, we are going to a Mexican restaurant for an early dinner so ha :)

 

BTW: Saw this recipe for a lime margarita on pinterest and want to try!

 

1 cup crushed ice

1/2 can frozen lime concentrate

4 large scoops of lime sherbet

2-4 shots of tequila

Blend!

Looks delish right?

 

Be safe!

Tish

 

Kitchen remodel and pinterest inspiration

Most of the kitchen is complete. We have no water and I cant use the kitchen till tomorrow some time but the granite is in!

We loved the outcome. The colors were well suited for our home. I mean, seeing it outside the house or seeing a sample or a slab at a yard does not really tell you how it will look all put together, Can I get an amen? There are a few bits of sparkle sprinkled around, so that pleases me. :)

Here is a shot with our new dining table too. It is made from reconstructed wood out of India so it is supposed to look a little beat up ;) It is a 6 seater and we hope to love it for many many years.

Me and little boy had to leave half way through the installation because we were high as kites from all of the glue fumes. Wow. They should really warn you about that. Since it was 100 degrees out in the middle of the afternoon, I opted for a s little shopping trip to Joanne's. Why not?

I have recreated 4 of these pillows I found on pinterest. I love them and they have made a big impact on my front room couch! I love that I can change out the fabric when I want to or change it for different seasons. I have decided that I need to add a little something else. I have a green pillow, a red polka dot and two beige. I think that I want to have all different patterns... which led me to this for one of the options:

I didn't get it yet-- I got the goldish one you can barely see in the background, but I am really loving this fun print. What do you guys think? (Our home is all warm colors with accents of reds, greens, oranges ect)  I am super excited about making some more of these pillows. I already had the pillows and used a 50% off coupon so the fabric was only $5. That is reason alone for a makeover :)
My tip for these pillows, is to use a few safety pins to secure before tying your knot.

Off to pinterest I go. I am a junkie.

Tish

Oh Please: Giveaways I entered and Grown Up's

My little guy slept in till 8:15 this morning. I wish that was good news, but it just meant that he doesn't feel well. Teething. He is pretty calm about it all but his poor nose is a runny sniffly mess, he is tried, he runs low fevers and he is just generally a little more moody.

I wont lie though, it was kind of nice to be up before him and to sleep in.

After waking up, he ran to the backyard slider and said "mommy, mama, oh please".  How could I resist that? We went outside and blew bubbles and played blocks and he ran. I played candy crush. I started playing it yesterday. Big mistake. I like it. I don't have to wait for friends to spell words. I can just play solo. Hey! I have never played a game like that before. I was never sucked in, but I kept seeing all my grown up friends play, and I was a sheep. Bahhh.

Speaking of grown up friends.. do you have those few friends who always seem more grown up than you? Like you always feel like a kid around? Not in a bad way really, but they just seem like grown up's... what ever that means. I have some and it feels weird. Not good or bad. Just weird. Just me?

Wanted to throw out a few giveaways that I have recently entered: spread the love right?
I read Christin's blog over at The Southern Wife and she is giving away a pretty two tone Skagen watch. Then I popped over to The Blue Eyed Bride's page and she has the mother load of a Mother's Day giveaway happening. Woo whee. Too many things to even mention. I always stop by to see what Kelly and her sweet girls are doing at Kelly's Korner and she is having a Sherwin Williams giveaway too but I didn't enter that one because we aren't in the market right now. Go. Win. Good luck :)

Tish

The pill, PMS and baby names

I went off the pill last month or so. Maybe 6 weeks ago. I can't really recall the exact date. I am miserable right now. My poor body is in turmoil. Every other few days I have awful PMS. But my cycle hasn't started back up yet.  You know-- that awful feeling of it is about to happen but it doesn't? Every few days, y'all. It is terrible.

We want to try later this summer or early fall to have another baby. Yay! I am terrified and excited.
I mean, how will I handle another baby? One baby right now is a handful at several points in the day. He is such a curious and active little fella. He wants to run and be outside. He says maybe 10 or so words, but cant communicate with us beyond that, so at some point or points during the day, there is an epic meltdown over what he wants and what we can never get right. A constant battle is tomatoes are not apples. He forgets every time he sees a tomato therefore he wants that tomato/apple and when he cant have it or when I give it to him and he takes a bite-epic meltdown. That is a little example.

Tonight he bucked his head back and knocked the %^&* out of my temple. I sobbed. He didn't know what was wrong. It all started because he brought me cars and wanted on my lap, I let him up. The rest is a mystery. He just bucked that little head back and I saw stars.

He is a sweet boy, but whew he has a little temper at times.

I also worry about being pregnant again. I loved it and hated it. I loved that I could feel him and that I didn't worry that my belly was big. I worried constantly because I was high risk, and they told me that 99% I would be again. Towards the end, I was at the Dr. 3xs every week. I had to quit work the beginning of month 8. It was all just too much.

I am excited because I did love the parts I loved about being pregnant. I am excited for Maddox to be a big brother and for our little family to grow. I have ideas on Pinterest for the next little baby. I am so excited to just hold it in my arms. I miss those days. Can you ever get enough snuggling a new baby? I don't think so.

I have so many names picked out. We have a little girls first name. Olivia. We both love it.
The middle name is up in the air. We know we want to keep the Lee that runs in both of our families, and is both my and my husbands middle name, but that is the only part we are sure of.
We have come up with few ideas since I wanted something other than just Lee for a little girl.

Oliva Analee

Olivia Ashlee

Olivia Emalee or Olivia Emilee

(I also like Aubree and Emerson for girls too, but Olivia is our #1)

 

For little boys, we are all over the map. I mean ALL over that map.

A few things we have thrown out:

Landry Joel -Middle name after my dad

Sawyer

Cooper

Carsen

Avery

Emery

Emerson (although I like Emerson for a girl too)



Nothing is in stone for a baby boy. My husband is just set on him having a little girl next.

Do you have names picked out if you have a baby or another baby? Do you think about it? Are you the kind of person that would keep the name a secret? I know some folks who have kept their name a secret, and when all is said and done, it was because their baby name was... ahem... odd. My name is odd, so I feel I can get away with saying that. :)

My husband is not a secret keeper. He called both our families THE DAY I took the 9 test! We had names picked out boy or girl- before we even knew what we were having. We found out March 28 that I was pregnant and by May, we had names. We don't doddle LOL.

--Tish

Kitchen do-over

This week was filled with "things". Every day, some not every day, things.
We are doing a remodel on our kitchen. Let's preface by saying that there isn't anything wrong with our current kitchen, we just want an update. (You know, because we have lived here sooo long ha!)

When we looked at houses in Goodyear, I was 8 months pregnant. My Dr told me that I was getting ready to have the no fly restriction put on me and that I definitely should not drive the 5 hours here because I was "high risk". OK... so we had to find a house ASAP... and hopefully y sweet husbands MONTHS of Internet work with a realtor would pay off. We looked at 8 houses. Bought one. Weeee. I chose the house that said sweet husband liked, but didn't think that I would like too. Turns out, we were both so smart :)

Our house was mostly perfect. We loved the tile and the carpet. We loved the backyard and the pool. We loved the 3 garages (well I wish our main garage was wider) and we even loved the paint color throughout. Score right? What we didn't love was the kitchen materials used. We have upgraded cabinets, but not counters. So, we called and had several estimates and voila, granite installed this week. Our stove and oven was silly. It was separate yet right underneath of each other. Plus our oven was ridiculously hot. If I was cooking at say 450 and opened it. the fire alarms would scream.
So-- we had those cut out and got a fancy schmancy convection all in one stove/oven combo.
We have to do the back splash after this is all done. I like the stone. My hub is wavering between the tiles and stone. We will see. I might change my tune.

While we were on the buying spree we decided we hated our pub height table, so we bought a gorgeous round table. The wood is "supposedly' reconstructed wood out of India. It matches the style of our coffee table. I love that old look. It was delivered Saturday. Yay!

My husband is such the fix it up-- well- generally the hire someone to fix it guy--- so he decided that we needed a door in our main garage that led to the outside too, so we had a guy in here doing that as well. Lots of sawdust and dust and debris all week.  My house is never going to be clean again. HA.

A few photos of the journey so far:

The granite color we chose:

 

I will post more after all is said and done :)

 

Tish

 

 

Garnier Oil Free BB Cream & got2be POWDER'ful

I've been trying new products via bzzagent. It's pretty cool and I must say that I love getting the mail when I know that I have a box coming. Basically, you complete several surveys, and agree to give honest reviews in return for free products or coupons for products.

Recently I tried two things:
I tried Garnier's Oil Free BB Cream. Can I tell you how stinkin excited that I was to get chosen for this campaign? I have wanted to try a BB Cream since last year when they became the new rage. I said rage. That was weird. Anyway... I wanted to try but being the loyal Bare Minerals fan that I am, and the "new mom who doesn't feel like she should potentially waste money on something that she may not like", I didn't treat myself to it. I was over the moon to be chosen. I anxiously awaited my bee box and tried it on right away.

The first picture, I did a half face. The right side of the photo is bare and the left is with the Garnier BB Cream. The second photo, I did full face, added a little lipstick, blush and mascara. The light is weird, sorry about that.

All in all, I am pleased with the Garnier BB Cream, but it will not replace my beloved Bare Minerals. I think that it is a great alternative to use during park playdates and running errands, but for a full face finish, I like a little more coverage.

The second product I tried was got2be POWDER'ful. It is a volumizing powder that you can either sprinkle in your hands or directly on your scalp. I wanted to love this. I was excited. I have fine hair. My hair isn't lush and gorgeous like BOTH of my brothers. I had high hopes and I was let down.
My hair felt goopy even though the package says it wouldn't. It didn't move, it was weather girl hair. if I forgot that I had it in, and flipped my hair or what not, it looked like major bedhead.

For me, this will stay under the sink and maybe get to come out when I have a big event that I am doing an updo for or for themed parties. Otherwise, I will keep my Bumble and Bumble root foam and my trusty backcomb.


Have you tried anything wonderful recently?

Fine print: I did receive both products free from bzzagent.

Tish

A tv show...in real life: Watertown & Boston

I feel like I am watching a Criminal Minds marathon episode... but it is every news channel in the country. I know that I am broken record saying that I cannot believe this is real. I cannot believe that someone would be so evil and hateful. I cannot believe that seemingly normal men would have the capacity and desire to go on such a horrific rampage. I feel so saddened for the country right now. This, like many others, will have, and has had, copycats. People who want their glory day in the press. As much as I want to be informed and know what is going on with this manhunt, is it helping or hurting us as a whole? Will someone else see the coverage and want their time in the "spotlight" too?

I live in a quiet little community. So did the people in Watertown. I have neighbors of different cultural backgrounds. So did the people in Watertown. Nothing is different, and nothing is the same. I do not believe that this is a culture thing, a religion thing, a race thing.  This is a human being thing and it is just sickening and devastating.

I am living my life as a normal person. I took my son to the park today to meet one of our friends and play. I drank my Starbucks as if it were any other day. My husband was home with a contractor who is putting in a new stove and a door in our garage. He is outside now laying the flagstone he just bought.

Tonight I am meeting several moms from my moms group for dinner and we will drink and laugh and have yummy Mexican food. My husband will watch sports, and put our son safely to bed. We all will be alive and well.

My heart is still heavy for this nation. My mind is still racing with wonder and doubt. I was scared when I saw a man enter the bathroom at the park today. I was on high alert. I was scared when a man was at the park running and a woman was stretching near by. I hate that I have to be. I hate that my son will grow up in a world that we cannot let him play alone outside or walk to school. I hate that.

...Tish

I hope

I struggle to keep up with this blog. I honestly lose  motivation because I feel sometimes that I write to myself, but then when I really think about it... that is what I am doing. This is my journal of sorts. My public journal, but mine just the same.

My husband came in and told me about the bombs at the Boston race today during lunch. So senseless, painful and horrific. He was talking to me at dinner about it as we watched the news coverage. I often think about tragedy. I don't know if that is normal, but ever since having my son, I cannot help but try to think of bad things and how I would be able to protect my child.

I wonder if I am going to be at the park and something happen. I try to keep an eye out for bags or backpacks. I try to memorize people and stare people I don't know in the eyes. I read once that you should make certain that "they" know you saw them- That you could likely identify them and that makes you a less desirable target. Does it work? Who knows. But I will do anything that I can think of to keep my baby safe.

My guy is 16 months old. He is such a ham. He sticks his tongue out all the time when he laughs and giggles. He loves iced tea. He wants real cups with crushed ice. He is a climber. A couch racer and a runner at heart. There is an all purpose field by us and we take him there and boy does he run. He can run one end to the other. It's like a hunting dog that you just let loose. As the Robertson's would say, "He gone".

I hope that this case is solved quickly and the cowards are brought to justice. I hope that the next park I go to is safe. I hope that I am OK after the grocery store and the bank.

I wish that I didn't have to hope for safety.... Be safe my friends.