I Am So Random That I Got An Award For It

So, bloggy friends, it seems that my sweet friend, Lynette, has bestowed a great honor on me and my little blog.  She awarded little ole me the Versatile Blogger Award.  Wanna see it?

Isn't that sweet?  It's awarded to "versatile" blogs.  Versatile is "capable of turning easily from one thing to another".  I think "versatile" is a very sweet way of saying I'm a little scatterbrained.  YEP!  That's me! 

My friend, Lynette, has an awesome blog called Sweet Posy Dreams.  Y'all should totally check her out.  She has some yummy recipes, crafty stuff (she crochets! - I'm jealous!), great photos from her travels and she even has an etsy store.  I love all of her vintage glassware!  Y'all stop by and tell Lynette that I sent ya!

So, I am supposed to pass on this award to fifteen of my favorite bloggers.  And the winners are (sorry, I've watched too many award shows lately):

Michelle @ A-Tisket-A-Tasket
Rachel @ From Chasing Crowns to Chasing Chickens (she's on hiatus, but I still love her!)
Jennifer @ Home Matters
Staci @ Lizard & Ladybug
Amy @ Nine-Ninety-One
Carmella @ Southern Fried Dreams
April @ Straight From the Heart
Paula @ Sweet Pea
Ashley @ The A Team
Lisa @ The Pursuit of Happiness
Xazmin @ This Is The Year
Belinda @ B Lines and The Seam Rippers
Tracy @ Welcome To Our World
Debbie @ Words on Wheels

So, I am supposed to tell 7 random things about myself.  That should be pretty easy.  I'm kind of an all over the place kind of girl.

1.  I love chocolate, but I hate chocolate ice cream.  It's not rich enough for me.

2.  I'm a total slob, but I'm FREAKY about how my dishwasher is loaded.  All the spoons together, all the forks together, etc.  Yep.  I'm a weirdo.

3.  I don't wash my hair everyday.  I know it sounds gross, but I have REALLY dry skin and hair.

4.  I love John Hughes movies:  Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, but I also love movies from the 60's, especially the ones with Doris Day.  My favorite is The Thrill Of It All.

5.  I cry EVERY time my kids are on stage.  It doesn't matter if it's recital, doing announcements in front of the school or receiving an award for their art work, etc.  I always cry.  I'm such a big ole baby.

6.  I know Lady Gaga is a little.....odd, for lack of a better word, but I love her music.

7.  I am mildly obsessed with these:

In fact, I'm eating them right now.  They are sooooo yummmmy!

So, there you have it.  So, if you received this award, these are the rules:

1.  Thanks the peson that nominated you and give a shout out to them on your blog with a link to theirs.

2.  Share 7 random facts about yourself.

3.  Send this award to 15 other bloggers whose blogs you love and appreciate, and let them know they won the award.

Thanks y'all!

Getting To Know You Thursday.......I Am A Pajama Girl

So, the thing is, I am a pajama girl.  I love my jammies!  When I say I love my pajamas, I don't mean that I love them so much that I wear them out in public.  I have seen tons of young girls, and some not so young, that proudly wear their pajamas to Wal-Mart.

Photo Courtesy of www.peopleofwalmart.com

Oh my word!  Really?  I didn't even like to take my kids to Wal-Mart first thing in the morning in their jammies.  I'm sure not going to be guilty of doing it myself.  No way, Hosea!  Anyway, I am slightly addicted to my flannel jammies. 

No, not that kind!  More like this:

I also have plaid and polka dots and some with unicorns too.  I'm a little pajama obsessed.  I know some people who get up early, get ready, get dressed and stay that way until it's time to go to bed.  Some people even wear their shoes all day, in the house.  I put my shoes on about ten seconds before I leave the house and they come off right when I walk in the door.  I am definitely NOT a stay dressed all day kind of girl, at least not when I am at home.

My favorite Friday night thing to do is to get Mexican food (tacos, rice and beans and white cheese dip and salsa), get in my jammies and watch movies with my Hubby on the couch while eating my fabulous Mexican food.  What else do I love?  Sleepy, rainy days on the couch, in my jammies, with my Hubby, in my jammies and watching movies.  It seems like most of my favorite activities involve me in my pajamas. 

Even my television BFF, Tori Spelling, loves her pajamas.  Yes, she has a fabulous wardrobe, but if you watch her hour long show, you will see her and her Hubby piled up in bed with Tori in her jammies.  Tori and I have so much in common.  Hee Hee. 

So, what about you?  Do you come home and immediately change in to your jammies or are you a stay dressed in your clothes until bedtime kind of girl?  Yes, I am aware that this is a strange topic, but what can I say?  I am a nosy girl.  Okay, so maybe I just want to think that I'm not the only pajama obsessed girl in the world. 

Baked Cream Cheese Spaghetti

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By Lockerz

So, the diet is going pretty well.  Now, by well I don't mean that I've lost tons of weight.  What I mean is that it's been over three weeks and I'm actually sticking to my diet with the exception of an occasional cheat weekend meal.  I've been able to stick to it by searching out some pretty decent low calorie meals that my whole family will eat. 

One of my favorite meals growing up was spaghetti.  My mom made spaghetti ALL THE TIME growing up and I always loved it....until recently.  It's one of the few meals that my kids will all eat without fussing so we were eating spaghetti A LOT, like once a week a lot.  I got so sick of eating it that I would make it for the kids and I would eat a ham sandwich.  But, then I found this recipe and once again, I love me some spaghetti.  Funny how just a little tweak makes everything old new again.  I know if I had a little tweak, I would feel new again.  But that's another post for another day.  Back to the spaghetti.   

I got this recipe from Recipe Diaries.  Jenna has tons of awesome recipes on her sight with calorie counts and Weight Watcher points.  Jenna got this recipe from Plain Chicken, another favorite recipe blog of mine (I know you've seen her Cheddar Bacon Ranch Pull Apart Bread/Crack stuff on Pinterest).  Check them both out.  You will not be disappointed! 

Baked Cream Cheese Spaghetti

12 oz. spaghetti (I used wheat spaghetti)
1 (28 oz) jars prepared spaghetti sauce
      1 lb lean ground beef lean ground turkey
      1 tsp Italian seasoning
      1 clove garlic, minced
      8 oz. fat free cream cheese
      1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.
In a skillet, brown the ground beef until cooked through; drain fat and stir in spaghetti sauce. Set aside.
Cook spaghetti according to directions on packet. Drain and place cooked spaghetti in bowl. Add cream cheese, Italian Seasoning and minced garlic. Stir until cream cheese is melted and the spaghetti is thoroughly coated.
Lightly grease a 9×13″ pan. Spread a small amount of meat sauce in the bottom of the dish. Put spaghetti on top of sauce and top with remaining meat sauce. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top.
Bake for 30 minutes, until bubbly.

Calories 405 | Fat 13.12g | Carbohydrate 44.07g | Fiber 2.7g | Protein 27.89g
Servings 8
Points Plus 10

Doesn't that look yummy?  The best part is that one serving is 1/8th of a 9x13 pan.  Isn't that exciting?  That means you won't be starving again in 20 minutes.  That's quite a big helping of spaghetti.  Like I've said before, I could out eat my Hubby any day of the week.  I am all about some decent size portions.  WOO HOO!  I can almost feel my butt shrinking when I eat this.  Your welcome.

Mod Peasant

Now that Christmas is over, E is clothes poor.  She had a few things to wear that were Halloween themed, then came the turkey shirt and the Christmas outfits.  She was in desperate need of a few things with long sleeves and no holiday theme.  So, I got out all of my hoarded fabric and let her pick what she wanted.  This is the fabric she picked:

Oh, how I love me some Jennifer Paganelli!  The color is fabulous!  She wanted a dress and a skirt, but I talked her into just a dress.

I hate that goofy smile where she turns her lip under.  ugh!

That's a little better.  I just love that dress with those boots.  It's kind of mod, isn't it? 

Okay, so one outfit down, several to go. 

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

So, I told y'all I've been trying to count calories and eat better, right?  I am back on Livestrong counting my calories so I'm always looking for tasty low fat recipes.  I was searching for something quick for breakfasst that I could just grab and eat on the way to school.  Well, I have a new favorite!  I found this recipe on Pinterest.  It's from the Recipe Girl blog, which I love.  Here's the recipe:

Banana- Chocolate Chip Muffins

Yield: 12 regular-sized muffins

Prep Time: 15 min

Cook Time: 25 min

Ingredients:

3 medium very-ripe bananas
1 large egg
1/3 cup low fat buttermilk or nonfat milk
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons mini chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly coat regular-sized muffin tin with cooking spray.

2. In a large bowl, mash bananas with fork. Whisk in egg, milk, and sugars.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. Slowly add to wet mixture and mix until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

4. Spoon equal amounts of batter into 12 muffin cups. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Tips:

*Why is it important to use the miniature chocolate chips? They spread out more... giving more chocolate flavor to more parts of the muffin. I always find that using regular-sized chocolate chips in a muffin is just a little too much.

Nutritional Information per serving:
Serving size: 1 muffin
Calories per serving: 167
Fat per serving: 1.25g
Saturated Fat per serving: .53g
Sugar per serving: 21.15g
Fiber per serving: 1.29g
Protein per serving: 2.76g
Cholesterol per serving: 17.9mg
Carbohydrates per serving: 37.38g

WW POINTS per serving:
Points Plus Program: 5 Old Points Program: 3

Golden Globes 2012

Can you believe it's award season already?  I love award season!  My favorite award show is The Golden Globes.  Why?  Well, because it combines to of my great loves, movies AND television.  Love that!  Also, it's a more relaxed atmostphere.  My one complaint about the Golden Globes is the stands they set up for crazed fans.  While I was sitting desperately trying to hear the Red Carpet Correspondents talk to the stars and find out about their dresses, all I could hear were a bunch of loud mouth fans screaming the names of the stars.  UGH!  They desperately needed to turn up their microphones.  Oh well!  Let's talk dresses, shall we? 

There were so many beautiful dresses this year!  Are you ready?

First, we have the gorgeous Claire Danes in J. Mendel.  I love the simple design and black and white is always classic.  The black beaded meshy stuff on the sleeve that wrap around to the back just MADE this dress.  Gorgeous!  Second, Evan Rachel Wood in Gucci.  this gown is very unusual.  The bottom is adorned in real feathers and the top is sequined and beaded, but the design is simple.  I adore this dress!  Zooey Deschanel in Prada.  I love the green and black together.  The design is simple, but stunning and the green looks fabulous with her dark hair and fair complexion.  Sadly Zooey is on many people's worst dressed list for this dress, but I love it!  Also, many people could take lessons from her on color choice, but we'll talk more about that later.  Next, we have Viola Davis, whom I adored in The Help.  Love her!  Her dress is a gretian style Prada number and I love that it's not the usual white.  It's a lovely shade with her skin tone and I love her hair and makeup too.  Just beautiful!

Jessica Alba in Gucci.  The lavender color looks so pretty with her skintone.  It's a very flattering but simple cut and I love the beaded lace.  Mary J. Blige in Michael Kors.  While I don't LOVE the color, I do love the cut of the top.  It's very flattering and shows off her pretty arms and shoulders. 

Oh my gracious!  Stacy Kiebler looked GORGEOUS in this Valentino gown.  The cut and color of this gown were perfect for her tall skinny self.  So pretty!  And, she was with her beau, George Clooney, so I'm not sure which of them would be considered the arm candy. 

Ok.  Now that we are done with the beautiful gowns, I think it's only fair to cover the ones that were not my favorites. 

Let's talk color people.  Remember back in the 80's when everyone went to Mary-Kay and BeautiControl parties and got color coded?  I was an autumn.  I learned that army green is a great color for me, however, fuschia makes me look like I'm a corpse.  So, maybe some of the stuff from the 80's is a little outdated (I'm still waiting for the Madonna look from Borderline to come back in), but maybe we should pay attention to which colors are flattering for our skintone and hair, ya know?

Example number one, Tilda Swinton.  She is always drawn to very asymmetrical gowns, which I personally don't like, but even worse is her color selection.  Or, maybe I should say LACK of color selection.  Lesson number one in color, if you are pasty white, don't wear white, especially if your hair is such a light color.  I will admit that this is more color than the white number she wore last year so at least it's a step in the right direction.  Maybe next year she'll get really bold and wear lavender, but I won't hold my breath.  The second example, different dress, same story.  I can't tell where she stops and the dress starts.  It's almost the same color as she is.  Not good!  Not even to mention that the cut is not very flattering.  It kind of reminds me of an outfite my mamaw (grandmother) wore when I was about ten, but it was double knit polyester.  Yikes!  But in her defense, it was the fabric of the 70's. 

Jessica Biel's dress had a bit too much lace for me.  It looked too much like a wedding gown.  Hmmmm, I wonder if she's trying out gowns for her rumored wedding to Justin Timberlake?  Elle McPherson's dress would be okay, but it looks as if it has little wings coming off of the top of the bodice.  What is that all about?  Weird!  Sarah Michelle Gellar, why?  Why would you wear a tie-dye dress to a formal event?  She told E! that she let her two year old daughter pick her dress.  REALLY?  My five year old wore all of her Mardi Gras beads to school with her fleece hoodie and pants the other day.  I would NEVER let her pick my dress for an event.  I think she could should give Rachel Zoe a call next time. 

One more thing...

Jenna Dewan

Jeannie Mai

These dresses are very pretty and I love the color on both.  The cut is lovely, but I think I'll close this post with a prayer.

Dear Lord, thank so much for the invention of double stick tape.  Now, women are able to wear gowns that barely cover them and are now safe from side boob spillage and wardrobe malfunctions.  In Jesus name, Amen.

Happy Monday!

Playing Catch Up and Hoping to Lose It!

So, it's barely 2012 and I feel as if I am already behind.  The kids FINALLY went back to school yesterday (Happy dance!).  I spent all day yesterday and today (so far) catching up on the stuff I cannot do when the kids are home.  You see, taking four kids to the grocery store is my version of being waterboarded!  It is sheer torture.  It's bad enough with the two big kids fighting over which side of the cart they are going to be on and the little one whining and throwing stuff in the cart (that kid has the longest arms!), but throw in the 7 year old autistic kid who screams and squeals the entire time we're in the store, and it is just unbearable!  When we were in Wal-Mart before Christmas, L's computer lab teacher came up to me and said, "I was on the other side of the store and I heard a familiar squeal and I knew it was L".  UGH! 

In other FFB news, I am fat.  There!  I said it.  I'm a fatty.  How do I know I am a fatty?  Well, I've seen myself naked (Yikes!  Who is that fat chick living in my bathroom mirror?) and I've seen pictures of myself.  I mean seriously people, I knew I was chunky, but when I saw me sitting in our Christmas picture, it looked like someone else was in my jeans WITH me.  Gaawlee!  So, as if that wasn't enough, see the chart below. 

Height Weight Chart for Women

Height Feet/Inches	Small Frame	Medium Frame	Large Frame
4' 10"	102-111	109-121	118-131
4' 11"	103-113	111-123	120-134
5' 0"	104-115	113-126	122-137
5' 1"	106-118	115-129	125-140
5' 2"	108-121	118-132	128-143
5' 3"	111-124	121-135	131-147
5' 4"	114-127	124-138	134-151
5' 5"	117-130	127-141	137-155
5' 6"	120-133	130-144	140-159
5' 7"	123-136	133-147	143-163
5' 8"	126-139	136-150	146-167
5' 9"	129-142	139-153	149-170
5' 10"	132-145	142-156	152-173
5' 11"	135-148	145-159	155-176
6' 0"	138-151	148-162	158-179
Weights are for women at ages 25-59 based on lowest mortality. Weight in pounds according to frame (in indoor clothing weighing 3 lbs.; shoes with 1" heels)

 

Okay, I hate this chart.  I am 5'4"  (okay, I am 5'3 and 3/4" if you want to get technical) but then it comes down to frame size.  How do you know if you are small, medium or large frame?  Well, I am a HAUS (Bonanza reference) so I pretty much figured that I was a large frame.  I always heard to go by your wrist size.  I can wrap my middle finger and thumb around my sister's wrist and have room.  I can't even get my finger and thumb around my wrist.  They don't even touch.  But, I figured that wasn't technical enough so I found another chart.

Female Wrist Measurements
	Height less than 5' 2" (Less than 155cms)	Height 5' 2" - 5' 5" (155cms - 163cms)	Height more than 5' 5" (More than 163cms)
Small	Less than 5.5" (140mm)	Less than 6.0" (152mm)	Less than 6.25" (159mm)
Medium	5.5" - 5.75" (140 - 146mm)	6" - 6.25" (152 - 159mms)	6.25" - 6.5" (159 - 165mm)
Large	More than 5.75" (146mm)	More than 6.25" (159mm)	More than 6.5" (165mm)

Again, I am 5'4" (almost) and my wrist measurement is 6.75".  See!  I told you I was a Haus!  So, I'm back on Livestrong and so far so good.  I'm not having too much trouble sticking to my diet YET.  As I mentioned a few weeks ago, my gym sold out and was closed for remodeling so I haven't been in MONTHS!  So, Hubby and I are going in less than an hour.  They reopened in December, but I was working and they don't have a nursery so no kids.  This is the first opportunity I have had to go and I am so excited!  I'm ready to get back at it.  But, I do have one complaint already.  They don't have Zumba anymore.  I loved my Zumba class.  I've thought about buying it for Wii.  Has anybody tried it? 

So, as usual my ultimate goal is not to look like this

BUT, I'd love to look like this again:

Us, eleven years and three kids ago (and with hair for Hubby).

BUT, as much as I would love to be this thin again, I was still barely in my range according to the chart.  I'm much older and less willing to starve myself now.  BUT, I don't have to be a fatty.  I'm off to the gym y'all!  Have a great day!

One more thing...why is it that on the days I am going to the gym, I have really good hair days?  Is that ironic or what?  My hair hasn't looked this good in months  and now I have to put it in a ponytail and go get sweaty and frizzy.  Hate that!  Oh well!