Pretty pretty princess

My daughter is a lot like me, a tomboy. Most of my childhood was spent being raised by my dad. He likes dirt. Dirt bikes, quads, getting dirty, camping, etc. It was great that we exposed to that, would be the rough and tumble girls. We had a 4-wheeler quad at the age of 5, which my sister subsequently crashed the first day we got it. I have been flipped over, rolled on, thrown off, you name it I've been through it. I never have required stitches or a cast. I lucked out. Now while I grew up a tomboy, I managed to girly out in my later years. I wear my fair hare of pink and do my hair and makeup. I do long for the days of a good quad ride in the desert though. Dirt and all.

I had a daughter. I got a lot of pink and girly things at my shower and proceeded to buy girly things for her to play with. I got clearance dress up clothes after Halloween last year, made her tutus, the works. So, it came as a bit of a surprise when she started asking to watch Cars over and over again. Daddy would be playing his racing games and she would sit on his lap in awe. She evolved to picking the cars for him to race, picking the tracks and cheering him on. Her incentive to potty training was earning Hot Wheels cars. She has a whole case put them in, although currently they're residing in her purse.

Next up was Thomas the Train. I don't understand the appeal, but we literally watched Thomas the Train all weekend. She is enamored by him, wants to read books about him all the time, knows all the train names. She's obsessed.

So, I was part of a gift exchange with my fellow moms on CafeMom. I mentioned that Avery had said "Cinderelly" a couple times, hoping that the girly girl inside her would catch on. Oh man!

Cuteness overload!!

It also came with high heels which she wears and clink clink's all around. SO adorable! Her gift also came with a pair of jammies. 

They were 3T and falling off her, but she insisted on wearing them to bed. 

The hope of having a girly girl is still there! She did all the modeling herself. Now obviously I will love her no matter what. But it's nice to know I still have buying power for pink, bows and dresses. Shes got her sugar, spice and everything nice!

*isn't she cute?!*

Happy Tuesday! 

Happy Monday

Found on Facebook today via Steve Woods, a local radio personality:

There are only two things you can control today. Your attitude and your activity. You can't control what mood your boss is in, if people on the phone are rude, or if the dip in the next cube is pulling his weight. Have a good attitude and make sure your activity is on point. 

It was great words I needed for this Monday morning when my computer wasn't working.

New me!

Shortly after I wrote my last post (gasp! 4 months ago!!) I decided to start on a journey. Why I didn't start writing about it then, I don't know. Hindsight. The past couple years, since becoming a mom, I have had the privileged to be a part of a wonderful community of women, also mothers, on CafeMom. The particular group I'm in all have babies who were born the same month as Avery. As you can imagine, being a mother doesn't allow for a whole lot of free time to take care of ourselves. Yet, through this community we have shared hopes, frustrations, struggles and encourage each other in the day to day. Shortly after our babies were born, one woman decided to lose weight after her 3rd child was born. In the months proceeding it was amazing to see how her body was transforming. Now 2 years later, she is an athlete and has accomplished some amazing things with her body and her life. She is an inspiration to all of us.

In the summer she decided to take on a new workout routine to help accelerate her weight loss and tone up a little bit. It's called Insanity. She did this for the two months it recommends. She posted before, during and after pictures. I was impressed! I decided it was time to get my duff off the couch. At work I have had some downtime and with the exercises being about 40 minutes max, it seemed doable.

Heres my before

That first week was brutal. I was so sore. And of course it seemed like Avery wanted me to pick her up every second she was around. I knew it would be worth it, so I persisted. A couple weeks in, it was routine for me. I exercised 6 times a week and on my off days, I often felt lazy. I was feeling great! But my weight wasn't coming off. It was ok though because I could feel my body changing. 

September 17th

I could start to see my body changing. In my abs and legs the most. Not a huge difference, but noticeable. 

Then Month 2 started. All the soreness came back and it was like day 1. I was buff mama though so picking up Avery didn't bother me as much. It was more of a time commitment though. I tried to do the workout during my work day, but if I wasn't able to, then I would always make a point to do it right after Avery went to bed. Heck, I even exercised during our vacation in the hotel room!! Last year I got into an exercise routine, had a vacation and didn't exercise until this started. Yikes! The last 10 days were super hard. Because I was so close to the end, I could see the finish line but there was usually something that would get in the way of me being able to do my workout. Or an excuse I would find. One of my other CafeMom friends was in the same boat, so we decided to challenge each other to finish it out. 

Crossing off the last X on my calendar was the greatest feeling ever! It was beautiful. I knew I could complete something I put my mind to. 

October 22nd

I finished!! And I had obliques!! I've never had obliques before! It's really hard to not feel them all the time. I also noticed that my arms, shoulders and legs became more toned too. I was SO happy with the change and all my hard work. 

What next? 

Well, about 2 weeks into the program I asked myself, "Ok, this is 60 days, what are you going to do after that?" Every year in January there is a half-marathon along the beach. A half-marathon has always been a bucket list thing for me. Heck, why not run a half-marathon! So I am! I have this 2-mile loop that I run around my house and it has 3 pretty brutal hills. Before Insanity, the first hill I would make it about a quarter to half-way up before having to pause for a break. It was usually my negative self-talk that would make me stop. I always gave into it. When I finished Insanity I decided to test out that course and see if I if my endurance improved. Not only did I make it up the hill without stopping, but I kept going and going! I stopped briefly on the next brutal hill, maybe about 30 seconds because my heart rate was getting pretty high and I hadn't educated myself about what was in the safe-zone. After that I ran the rest of the way home! I was super impressed with my endurance and how much it has improved!

Now that I'm in full training mode, I'm still seeing my endurance improve. I'm not using any specific training program, but making sure I run at least 2 days a week around 3-5 miles and then do a longer run on the weekend. My longest run yet has been 6.75 miles which I did without stopping! Yesterday I just PR'd by doing a 9.16 mile average for a 3.76 mile run. I wasn't even in the mood to run but I PR'd!! I'm amazed to see how my body is continuing to change after finishing Insanity. My thighs are shrinking (which I thought I'd NEVER see happen!), my shoulders continue to tone, and I still have my obliques :). I have to say I'm quite proud of myself and can't wait to beat this half-marathon!! 

It's on January 27th by the way. 

Bakes chicken and spinach flautas

I've been on a pinterest recipe roll lately. I wish I was finding more recipes that don't require the oven. It's been blazing hot here and turning the oven to 450 degrees is only adding to the inferno. Last night I made the ever famous Crescent Pepperoni Rolls that have been raved about over on CafeMom. I was so amazed how easy and yummy they were! This definitely will be repeat, especially in the colder months. Tonight I decided to do some more baking. 85 degrees in the house yet I cranked up the oven to 450. Yes, I'm crazy I know. I love me some chicken flautas, but I hate how most of them are deep fried. Being on more of a health kick I wanted to find a recipe of my own. I just bought a bunch of chicken from Costco which I love because it comes divided into two chicken breasts in one packet and there are six to the whole set. I used chicken breast instead of thighs to make baked chicken and spinach flautas. I was impressed with these little things. They were tasty although I would do a few amendments. I think I would do 1/2 tsp of the spices instead of 1 tsp and probably omit the salt. It was all a bit much w/ the spices. The combination of the spinach and jalapenos was nice. I was glad to stumble across this blog because I've tried to make a quick shredded chicken and didn't think about simmering it in broth first.

My other suggestion is making 8 minutes per side instead of 10 minutes. They had a nice crunch to them but were harder than I'm used to. Some of them were a little smokey coming out of the oven too. Anyway, here is the recipe! Enjoy!

Baked Chicken and Spinach Flautas

Yields 10 flautas
Prep Time: 15 minutes; Total Time: 45 minutes

Baked flautas stuffed with seasoned, shredded chicken, spinach, and cheese are crispy, but don’t have the greasiness of fried versions. 

To shred poached chicken easily, put it into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on medium for 45 seconds. Store-bought rotisserie chicken can be substituted for the poached chicken to save time. 

You might also like Baked Buffalo Chicken Taquitos. 

Ingredients

• 1 pound boneless, skinless Chicken Thighs (about 4)
• 16 ounces Beer (or chicken broth)
• 2 cups Water
• 1 teaspoon Paprika
• 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
• 1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
• 1 teaspoon ground Cumin
• 1 teaspoon Chili Powder
• 1 Jalapeno Pepper, minced
• 3 cups Baby Spinach, chopped
• 5 burrito-size Flour Tortillas (9 inches)
• 6 ounces Queso Quesadilla or other melting cheese, shredded
• 1 tablespoon Olive Oil, or cooking spray
• Salsa, for serving

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 450*F.
2. Put the chicken thighs in a deep sided saute pan and cover with the beer and water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the chicken from the liquid and shred it. Mix together the chicken and seasonings.
3. Pour out all but 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid. Add the jalapeno and spinach and cook over low heat until for 2-3 minutes, or until the spinach is wilted.
4. Cut the tortillas in half. Spoon 1/10th of the chicken (about 1 tablespoon) along the long edge of a tortilla. Repeat with the spinach and cheese. Roll the tortilla up, starting with the straight edge. Place seam-side down on an oiled baking sheet. Repeat with remaining tortillas.
5. Brush the flautas with olive oil or spray with cooking spray. Bake for 10 minutes, then turn them over and bake for until 10 minutes, or until crispy. Serve with salsa.

Each flauta has approx. 180 calories, 9 grams fat, 6 grams carbs, 1 gram fiber, 18 grams protein

Table Project

It seems like it's taken me a long time to finish this project. Maybe because I've had about 5 side projects going at the same time and I can only work on this in daylight. Pinterest has kept me quite busy. With Avery's upcoming birthday I've been getting too many ideas, been doing too much shopping and am way over my head with birthday. We'll see what happens. With the impending birthday and summer, I knew we were going to be spending a lot of time outside. We have been blessed with a pretty nice backyard, plenty of sun and shade. Unfortunately there's not a whole lot of landscaping that I can play with. It's mostly palm trees and bark on the ground. When we moved there was this hideous table in the back. I'm still not sure what they actually used it for. It was warped beyond belief! It was an ugly eye sore and I didn't really have a place to hide it. So, I decided to do something with it. I don't think the owners would be upset :).

I had a couple different ideas floating around. First I just wanted to make it a normal table, like buffet style type of table. I figure I would sand it down, replace the top and voila! Table. Then I remembered how at my first apartment I had a mini herb garden on the rails leading to my apartment. It was so nice to go out and grab some fresh herbs to throw into food. Now that I'm cooking a lot more and don't always have the fresh ingredients to use. The spices I do have are the ones that came with the set at our wedding! We're headed to year 5. I know, gross. We decided to go the herb garden route. So, off I go... I started with removing the towel bar and the incredibly warped top. Then I sanded the whole thing down which I thought would take a lot longer because of all the nooks and crannies. Then I did measurements to see how I wanted to go about putting a box in there for the herbs. We ran into some problems then. The opening of the table was 12.5" and everything I was finding was only 12". I searched so many places but no dice. Everything was either 7" or 12". Also the length was 39". So there was 12x40 boxes. Ugh. So frustrating!! We took a trip to Lowe's and got a couple Hefty storage containers that were 12x16" I got two of them and sprayed them down. I also bought a piece of wood that was 1x2x8". I got those cut into two 42' pieces, sprayed them black in the garage, and drilled them to the top to add the extra 1/2 inch I needed. I also sprayed the boxes down. I chose a dark red color. I was going to antique it a bit and sand a bit after the red color, but at this point I opted not to. The second I opened the drop cloth I got this nasty papercut from the cardstock paper in it. It actually spread to both fingers. Hurts like a mother! And still does! My battlewound:

I had a few hiccups during the whole process, but it's DONE! I got herbs today. Basil, parsley, oregano, and rosemary for the first box. The second box I got green peppers and strawberries. I ended up getting a second planter box to put in some tomatoes. I wanted to get roma and a bigger type of tomato, but I ended up buying two romas :(. Now after I planted everything today, I realized that I didn't drill holes in the bottom of the box for drainage. Also I have figure out the bottom for when it does drain. Heres the finished product!!

I also got a hanging flower pot and added these.

All in all I'm SO excited that this worked out! I hope that we see fruits of our labor :).

Crock pot night

Over the past few months I have become more and more addicted to Pinterest. Whenever I tell my husband I'm cooking he always asks me if it's a new pinterest recipe. I've found some pretty yummy things. I'm always so bad about remembering recipes in order to repeat them later, so I thought I would start reviewing them on my blog so I can go back and see whats good and not. Tonight I decided to try a chicken recipe. I found this one on Chef in Training. I have to say that I am one who tends to forget to put things in the crockpot until too late. I also have a busy 2 year old who makes cooking SO difficult. I did manage to thaw the chicken early. I got caught in a meeting and work drama so I didn't get to throw in everything until 3pm. It only took about 5 minutes to prepare everything to throw in the crock. The directions said the cooking time said either high at 1.5 hours or low at 3-4 hours. The lowest setting on my crockpot is 4 hours at high. I ended up cooking it almost 3 hours and it turned out perfect. I served it over rice and made some corn on the cob. I only chose the corn because it was on its way out the door. It was a great combination. The chicken itself had a little kick to it because of the pepper flakes. I also halved the recipe. Unfortunately my hubby was sick and my daughter wasn't in the mood to eat chicken tonight, so it was mainly just me eating. It was definitely something to repeat, maybe when hubby is feeling better.

No, thank you!

I have to admit, I pride myself on the fact that Avery is so polite. She does awesome with her please and thank you's. Lately we've been trying "No, thank you". It's so sweet to hear her say this...except with the following: Me: Avery, lets go change your stinky diaper. Her: No, thank you!! Me: You want to sit in your poops? Her: Yes, please :) LOL. Now she's playing just saying "poo poo". Just as long as she doesn't stick her hand down her pants.

"10" on 10

This post is supposed to have 10 pictures where you take one every consecutive hour of the day. I had good intentions, but it kinda got forgotten after 4. So it's really 4 on 10. I figured I would share my pictures anyway :) The morning destruction. Not as bad as usual.

Naptime, which means I got to put my feet up for a bit.

I went to my nephews soccer game. It was his last one. He was SO cute!!

Post naptime. She's been such a ham for the camera!

Picture post

I haven't taken many pictures this month. After all the holidays and family gatherings we really haven't had any excuses. Jason won a football pool and wanted to get a new lens. I love it. I don't know the fancy gadget name of it, but it's been great! Ever since we got it, whenever we do anything we ask each other, "Did you take pictures of it?" Granted we can't get every shot, but we sure are practicing! Here's a few.