Recipe Book

One of my closest friends, www.chelseamckinleyphotography.com , is moving to North Carolina on Tuesday, and I am so sad.  I will miss her terribly, and I wanted to give her something that she would be able to use all the time and also think of me when she uses it.  I came up with the idea of making a homemade recipe book with my favorite recipes in it for her.  I set out on my mission today to try and figure out the best way to do it.  I ended up purchasing a binder, pretty matching stationery, and plastic document protectors that I can slide the pages in to.  I started putting together a Word Document that would have a 1 recipe on it per page.  I started copy and pasting my recipes that I had written down, and I ended up for 45!!!  I couldn't believe that I had that many stashed in many different places.  After 2 1/2 hours, I finished that part of the project.  I am exhausted, and the printing and placing them in the binder will just have to wait until tomorrow!  I cannot wait to take a picture and show you the final product!  Chief thinks I should make an E-book out of it and try to market and sell it.  Hmmmm......something to think about!

"Honey Do" list

I have had Chief working on my LOOONNNNG "honey do" list that I started when we got home from vacation.  I want everything completed before he leaves in a few months.


1.  start a Topsy Turvy garden                         COMPLETED 3
2.  purchase a shed                                          COMPLETED
3.  redecorate living room                               COMPLETED
4.  hang curtains in all rooms                          COMPLETED
5.  purchase plants for lanai & front porch    COMPLETED
6. purchase pots for plants                              COMPLETED
7.  decorate lanai                                            ALMOST COMPLETED
8.  get lawn prettied up                                  WORK IN PROGRESS
9.  hang wall cross on house                          COMPLETED
10.  secure back gate                                      COMPLETED
11. re-pot plants from Chelsea                       COMPLETED
12. re-pot plants that we purchased               COMPLETED
13. clean out storage room                             COMPLETED YESTERDAY!
14.  purchase and put shed together                COMPLETED YESTERDAY!
15.  find bed frame for guest room                  COMPLETED YESTERDAY!
16.  decorate guest room                                  WORK IN PROGRESS
17.  purchase & install 2 small air conditioners WORK IN PROGRESS
18. Have gutters cleaned out and reattached      COMPLETED
19.  Have back fence painted                             COMPLETED
20.  Have closets treated for mold & repainted COMPLETED
21.  too much more to list                                   WORK IN PROGRESS


He has been a busy bee in the last couple of weeks, and we still have A LOT to do!!

Stream of Consciousness

Monkey Doodle started school this week, and I was really apprehensive about his teacher since it was her 2nd year teaching and the first impression wasn't very good.  On the 3rd day, she told me that he was advanced in his reading and will be starting on a 3rd grade reading level with him! She is going to cater to his advancement, so that makes me feel so much better!  He is loving school already, but he is not happy about getting up earlier.  He has told us almost everyday that he wanted to stay in bed and go to school later! LOL! I hope he has a wonderful and successful school year.

Miss Priss had her testing for Kindergarten this week, and she did well.  The teacher that tested her told me that she was definitely ready for Kindergarten. We really wanted one teacher that we had heard so many good things about, but it was a 1 in 9 chance of getting her.  Well, she got her!  We are so excited that she received such an amazing teacher, and I love her already.  Since Miss Priss will not be 5 until the end of September, she will be one of the youngest in her class.  The age cutoff for Hawaii in December 31st, so it is has a much wider window than most states,  She is so mature for her age, and we are not worried about her at all. She goes to school 3 days next week, and then starts full time the week after.

I have been sick with a cold all week and not sleeping well.  By the end of the week, I was done.  Chief came home at lunch on Friday, and he saw my pain.  He sent me to bed to take a nap, and he took Miss Priss to lunch and picked Monkey Doodle up from school.  I felt so much better after having an almost 2 hour nap!

We have pizza night almost every Friday night, and last night was a special one.  Our friends at, www.chelseamckinleyphotography.com , are part of our Hawaii Family and are moving off the island on Tuesday.  We are so sad to see them go!  We had their going away pizza night last night, and it was a blast as always.  Thank goodness that I already has my homemade sauce made, and I only had to make pizza dough and prep the toppings.  You can find the recipe for both right Here ! This is our 2nd duty station with them, and we hope our paths cross again really soon.

We bought a shed yesterday, so we can make our storage room in to a bedroom like it should be.  My dad is coming to visit in September, so we want to have an actual guestroom. I am hoping that I have a lot of people come to visit us while Jeremy is in Iraq.  It sure would help the time go by faster!

Keeping us on our toes!

Miss Priss has kept us on our toes lately!  Last week, she knocked 2 of her top front teeth loose after she hit the top of her brother's head while jumping on the trampoline.  Her gums were bleeding pretty bad, and we were really worried that she was going to lose those 2 teeth. Chief rushed her to the ER, and he said that she should hold on to them, THANK GOODNESS!  A couple of days ago, she was playing with Daddy and knocked herself in the mouth with her knee and loosened them again!  Back to eating soft foods again, for sure! 


Then today........she had a positive skin test for TB!!!  All kids starting school in Hawaii are required to have the skin TB test before entering school within 12 months of starting.  She had a test done 16 months ago that came back negative, so she has come in contact with someone that had active TB in the last 16 months.  She is not contagious and does NOT have active TB.  However, she will always test positive now and has to do a regiment of antibiotics for 9 months!  She will take 2 pills a day for the next 9 months.  Did I tell you that she has to do it for 9 months??????   CRAZY! She will also have to be seen by the Dr once a month for the next 9 months to monitor her liver and stomach since the antibiotics can has some bad side effects. The skin test measured 15mm, and she also had to have a chest X-Ray to rule out active TB.  She has something called LTBI, and that means that she does has the TB bacteria in her lungs or other parts in her body.  If she did not take the antibiotics, she would have a 10% chance of the TB bacteria becoming active and her having full blown Tuberculosis!  SCARY!  We will not take the chance and give her 9 months of pills.  They also want her to have a chest X-Ray every 2 years for the rest of her life to rule out Active TB.

We would appreciate prayers that you can spare!

Overdue Post~Pictures of our house DECORATED!

Even though we finished decorating the house less than a week after we moved in, I am just now getting pictures put up on here.  My terrific friend, Chelsea from www.chelseamckinleyphotography.com , took some quick pictures for us on 4th of July.  Just FYI, these are quick pictures, not edited.  I just wanted everyone to see what we have done with the house.  Since we THOUGHT we were staying less than a year in this house, we have not put up any curtains except for in our room.  It looks a little bare without them. I also have not done a lot of decorating in the kitchen either.  I am hoping to change all of that since we are staying for a couple of years!  I hope you enjoy!

Front Lanai

Dining Room

View from other side

Living Room

Hallway to bedrooms and full bathroom

Monkey Doodle's Room

Miss Priss's Room

Master Bedroom

Full Bath

Full Bath

Eat-in Kitchen/Craft Area

Kitchen

Laundry Room

Back Porch/Lanai

Front of House

Front Door

Where did the time go?

I can't believe it has been so long since I posted!  I am really slacking off on this blog thing, and I will try to be better.  A lot has gone on in the last few weeks, so I will try to catch everyone up.

We had a terrific vacation in Texas, and we were sad to go.  We THOUGHT we were moving there in November for a year while Chief is in Iraq, but the Army had different plans for us.  The kids and I will be staying in Hawaii while Chief is gone, and we are OK with that.  The kids will have stability for school, stay in their current home, and keep their current friends.  We will make it back to Texas for Christmas though!  This does make the year a little harder on us, but we have fantastic friends here that will make it easier on us.  I hope everyone will come and visit us to make the time go by quicker though! We should be here until June 2012, and then we will hopefully be moving to Wiesbaden, Germany for 3 years.  I am excited to be able to live in 1 house for the next 2 years, and then I am very excited to move to Germany!  What a great adventure for us and the kids!  The places we will see and the culture we will experience will be a once in a lifetime opportunity.  I dream of the day that I can tell Jeremy that I want to go to Paris for lunch, and off we go!

We had a terrific 4th of July that we spent with friends and had a huge BBQ at our house.  Schofield had a celebration right here on post, and it was fantastic!  We sat around and listen to the band, Smash Mouth (think of the theme song from Shrek, and that is what they sing),  chatted with lots of friends, danced, and watched the fireworks display. It was really really good!

We have been spending quite a bit of time at the beach since we got home, and we are loving it!  We went to Shark's Cove last week, and me and some friends snorkeled all the way from Shark's Cove to 3 Tables Beach and back.  It took us about 1.5 hours, and it was a beautiful trip!  Monkey Doodle has really taken off with snorkeling as well, and he goes out really far with us while not even holding on to us.  I hold his hand about 50% of the time, even though he doesn't need me to.  That is the helicopter parent in me, I guess.

Miss Priss had an accident on the trampoline a few days ago.  She hit her mouth on Monkey Doodle's head, and she has a fat lip, some bruised and cut gums, and 2 loose teeth!  Chief took her Urgent Care, and they said she should be fine and not lose the teeth. It has been a few days now, and they are definitely tightening up, PRAISE GOD!  I would have hated to see her lose one of her 2 front teeth along with the one next to it.

We also added a 12 week old kitten to our family!  Isabella Claire is a Blue Point/Snowshoe Siamese, and is absolutely beautiful!  She is exactly the kind of kitty we wanted, and is a great addition to the family.  She took to us right away and already sleeps with Chief and I.  Her and Lucy are already the best of friends, and Lucy treats her as her baby.

Chief's niece is here visiting along with her girlfriend, and we are having a great time!  We will get to enjoy them until July 22nd!  Then, BOTH kids start back to school on August 2nd!  I cannot believe the summer is more than half over!  I already bought a lot of the kids' school supplies, and it was bittersweet.  I cannot believe we will have both kids in school!  What in the world will I do with my free time?  Gym, running, beach, yoga, cooking??  The possibilities are endless, at least until 2:00 PM everyday!

I will work on getting up another post on our Texas trip along with pictures soon.  I also need to post pictures of our house all finished and decorated!  That post is a few months late, but my friend at www.chelseamckinleyphotography.com took some pictures for me on 4th of July, so I hope to post them soon.

Buffalo Chicken Salads

Another staple in our house is Buffalo Chicken Salads.  It is low carb and VERY yummy!  Right now, I have this at least 3 times a week for lunch.  I hope you like it as much as we do!

Ingredients

• Shredded Cheddar cheese
• Ranch-style salad dressing
• 4 large skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into 1 inch cubes
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 bottle Franks Red Hot Buffalo Sauce
•  2 large carrots peeled and chopped
• 4 celery stalks chopped
• 2 heads romaine lettuce, chopped

Directions

1. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat and melt butter.
2. Add the chicken and cook to brown evenly, about 3 minutes. Reduce heat to medium, and add buffalo sauce. Simmer until chicken is cooked through and sauce is boiled off and sticking very well to the chicken, appx, 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Toss together the lettuce, celery, and carrot in bowl. Add dressing and cheese to your desired taste and top salad with chicken, and serve.

Graduation Day

I cannot believe our Mookie is a high school graduate!  She did such an amazing job on her opening remarks speech, and we were brought to tears listening to her.  It is such a bitter sweet moment to see this stage in her life, and we cannot wait to see what adventures are in store for her in the future at college.  She has received 8 scholarships already, and she is waiting to hear about a few more by mid July.  In the graduation program, she had received the 2nd most out of the entire graduating class ! Just to give you an idea on how big this is, her graduation class had 587 people in it.  She was recognized for being a Texas Scholar, National Honors Society, Vice President of her class, Leadership Academy, and she was voted by her class to give the opening remarks at Graduation.  Mookie finished 24th in her class even after all her extra curricular activities that included 4 years of Cheerleading and Co-Captain on the squad, Church,  Leadership Academy, National Honor Society, Student Council, and I know I am forgetting more. She has been accepted to Tarleton State University, and will start college in August.  We are SO proud

Here are a few pictures from graduation.

Tasty Treats & Eats

I was turned on to this recipe by my neighbor friend, and I have made it so many times in the past month.  It was quickly a hit in my family and with friends, so I figured it was time to share the yummy goodness!

So without further adieu, I give you

BLACK BEAN CORN SALSA

Ingredients

• 1 small bag of frozen sweet yellow corn (non buttered)
• 1 small bag of frozen sweet white corn
• 2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, drained and rinsed very well
• 2 to 3 chopped Roma tomatoes, seeded
• 1 bunch finely chopped cilantro
• 1 small sweet yellow onion, finely chopped
• 1 to 2 jalapenos finely chopped, depending on how much heat you want
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons sugar 
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• salt and pepper to taste
• juice of 4 to 5 limes, possibly more depending on your taste
• 1 to 2 avocados - peeled, pitted, and diced

Directions

1. Stir the yellow and white frozen corn, black beans, tomatoes, cilantro, onion, jalapeno pepper, sugar, cumin, salt and pepper and garlic in a large bowl. Gently mix in the lime juice and avocado. Serve with tortilla chips.

Peach Enchiladas

Thanks to my friend, Shawn, I make this recipe all the time for dessert. It is sooo good and really easy.  It definitely is not low fat or low cal, but it is ok to splurge once in a while.



Ingredients:
2 packages (8-ounce size) refrigerated crescent rolls
1 cup butter
4 firm ripe peaches, peeled and quartered, or 1 bag of frozen unsweetened peaches, thawed
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 can (12-ounce size) Mountain Dew or Sprite

 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Melt butter and add sugar and cinnamon. Mix together and set aside.

Unroll crescent roll dough and separate on the perforations. Place a peach quarter in each triangle. Roll from large end to small. (If desired, after rolling, encase peach with dough by gently stretching and pinching dough together.)

Place rolled dough in a 12x10x2-inch baking pan. Pour or spoon butter mixture over all. Pour Mountain Dew (or Sprite) on top. Bake, uncovered, for 45 minutes. Serve as is or with ice cream. (This recipe can be easily halved.)

Hope you enjoy!