Getting To Know You Thursday....I Am A Big Ole Crybaby

So, when was the last time you had a good cry?  For me, it was yesterday.  You see, I am a very emotional kind of girl.  Remember this scene from Sleepless in Seattle?

Yep, that is pretty much me.  I'm a big ole crying mess.  I watched An Affair to Remember the other day and I cried like a baby.  Last night, I watched The Blind Side and boy were my eyes swelled up this morning from all the crying.  I literally cried through the entire movie.  Seriously, when Michael Oher said he'd never had a bed before, I LOST IT! 
Commercials also make me cry.  I've mentioned before my love of Hallmark commercials.  There are also several "regular" commercials that make me just break down.

I cannot watch this commercial without crying.  Maybe it's because mine is at the age to get her learner's permit and I still see her like this little girl.

This commercial makes me cry too.  It's just people being kind to eachother.  That's it.  Something so simple shouldn't necessarily bring tears to my eyes, but it does.  It reminds me that there are lots of good people with kind hearts in this word regardless of what the news tell us every single day.

At our school, every morning, all of our kids gather in the gym for "Rise and Shine" where we say the Pledge of Allegiance (including "one nation under God"), do announcements, etc.  Last week while I was subbing a third grade class, our principal recognized a 5th grade student for what she called a "good deed".  She went on to say that on his way home, he came across a lost Kindergarten student in his neighborhood.  He made the choice to sit on the curb with this Kindergarten student until the student's mother came to find him when he didn't show up at home.  Well, of course, I'm standing there with all the teachers and students and I'm just bawling and sniffling and carrying on.  Sometimes I wonder why I even bother to put on makeup. 

I, of course, am a proud mama.  I can't seem to make it through any of the kids' awards assemblies, band concerts or dance recitals without crying.  I cry when I look at old pictures of them and realze how fast they are growing up.  I cry when I hear E whisper to her big brother, "J, I love you". 

Ummmm, nice lipstick.

I don't really mind being emotional and a big crybaby most of the time.  I think it's okay to be in touch with your emotions, but there is one thing I HATE about being a crybaby.  I cry when I'm mad.  I'm not an argumentative kind of girl.  I hate conflict and I avoid it all costs.  I'm one of those people who just keeps it all bottled up inside and eventually explodes into a big puddle of tears and sobs.  Yep, even when I'm mad, I'm a big ole crybaby.  When my boss yelled at me and I didn't deserve it, I cried like a big ole baby, right in front of him.  It's so embarassing!

So, what about you?  Are you a big ole cry baby like me or are you able to control yourself? 

Well, My Husband Loves Me Again!

Okay, so he never actually stopped loving me, but let's just say that there was a source of contention in our marriage.  Any guesses?  Nope, not money.  We don't have any of that to fight over.  Not the kids, unless we happened to be fussing on whose turn it is to brush their teeth (I hate to brush teeth).  Nope, our fight always involved this:

Nice, huh?  Okay, so it wasn't really a fight, but more of a minor annoyance.  Hubby HATES it when I hang my plastic grocery bags on the pantry door.  It drives him NUTS!  So, HE decided to put them in the laundry room.

Ummmmmm, nope!  That's annoying to ME!  I can't even get to my dryer buttons and I have more bags piled on top of my dryer.  UGH!  Okay, so something HAD to be done.  I've been telling Hubby I'd get one of those grocery bag storage hanging thingees (yes, that is the official name), but I kept forgetting to look for one when I went to the store.  BUT, I knew I could make one anyway.  I just haven't had time to get to it, until today.

I kind of winged it with mine using scrap fabric from my stash, but I did find a great tutorial here if you want to make your own. 

So, I didn't really have a problem with hanging the bags on the pantry door, but I must admit that it is much easier to open and close the door now.  I'm just glad Hubby is happy.  You know what they say, "If Papa is happy, maybe he'll give mama a night off from brushing the kids teeth".  That's how the saying goes, right?  No?  Y'all don't say that?  Okay.  Maybe it's just me. 

Shrimp Quesadillas With Tomato Avocado Salsa

As I may have mentioned before, I need to lose a few pounds.  Yep.  I'm a Haus (again, Bonanza reference for you young 'uns).  Anyway, I was recently searching for some low-cal recipes that didn't sound like, well, baked cardboard.  When I came across this recipe at Skinny Taste, I knew it was right up my alley. 

Shrimp Quesadillas with Tomato Avocado Salsa

Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes
Servings:

4

• Serving Size:

1 quesadilla •

Old WW Points:

7 pts •

WW Points:

8 pts

Calories: 307.3 • Fat: 16.0 g • Protein: 29.6 g • Carb: 27.3 g • Fiber: 17.8 g


Tomato Avocado Salsa:

• 1 medium tomato, diced
• 1 hass avocado, diced
• 1 lime, juice of
  1 tbsp cilantro, chopped
• 1 tbsp red onion, finely minced
• 16 large shrimp, cleaned and deviened
• cumin
• garlic powder
• salt and fresh pepper
• cooking spray
• 4 scallions, chopped
• 6 oz Cabot's 75% Light Vermont Cheddar, shredded
• 8 (6") low carb whole wheat flour tortillas (I used La Tortilla Factory) 

In a medium bowl, combine tomatores, avocado, red onion, lime juice, cilantro, salt and pepper. 

Season

shrimp with salt, pepper, cumin, and garlic powder. Lightly spray hot skillet on medium heat with cooking spray.  Add shrimp and scallions.  Cook 2-3 minutes on each side until shrimp is cooked through.   Removed from heat and cut shrimp in half lengthwise and set aside.

skillet on medium heat and lightly spray with oil.  Heat skillet on medium heat and lightly spray with oil  Add tortilla, stop with 1.5 oz. cheese, 8 shrimp halves and tomato avocado salsa. 

When the cheese is melted and the bottom of the tortilla is golden brown, place the other tortilla on top.    Put a plate on top of the quesadilla to flip in over onto the plate.  Then slide the other side onto the skillet.  Cook another minute and remove with a spatula.  Cute into wedges and serve immediately.

Okay, so this is usually the part of my post where I apologize profusely for how horrible my photos turned out.  BUT, the above photo turned out pretty well if I do say so myself and I didn't steal it or anything.  Okay, so I won't be a food photographer anytime soon, but it's better than usual, right? 

So, I highly recomment this recipe y'all.  It was crazy good!!!  Check out Skinny Taste for more of Gina's recipes.  She always included calories, Weight Watchers Points, etc.  Gina rocks!

Barbie and Her Big 'Ole Forehead

As you know, silhouettes are popping up everywhere lately.  I've seen art, pillows, cards and many other fabulous things adorned with silhouettes.  Because I needed to add a few things with sleeves to E's school wardrobe, I thought I'd do a t-shirt with a silhouette appliqued on.  Then I thought, how about a Barbie silhouette?  So, I searched google.com for a Barbie silhouette and found this:

Isn't that cute and vintage looking?  I thought she was adorable so I bought a pink t-shirt and went to work.  I got it all finished.  Wanna see?

Ummmmm, does that look funny to anyone else?  It looks like Barbie ran into a door.  Look at that forehead!  My gracious!  She must've been so exausted from her busy day as a veterinarian, nurse and firefighter and moonlighting as an astronaut and dance teacher, that she simply fell over her own feet after changing into her ballgown for a fancy date with Ken, when she turned suddenly after painting on her three eyelashes and ran into the bathroom door.  Yep.  I'm pretty sure that's what happened.  Poor Barbie. 

Okay, so maybe what actually happened is that I forgot to cut out her bangs.  Oops!  Oh well.  Barbie is such a perfectionist.  I guess I don't really feel that bad about knocking her down a peg or two. 

By the way, I did not make E wear the Barbie with a big ole forehead shirt.  I made another one.  It's a few bucks wasted, but at least she won't look like a dork. 

Ah, that's better, right?

First Day of School (Photo heavy)

It seems like just yesterday I was dropping off my teenager at the Kindergarten building.  Yesterday, I dropped off my youngest.  To tell the truth, I've had mixed feeling about school starting.  I was ready for my oldest three to get back in their school routine, especially L (an autistic kid out of his routine is NOT a good thing), but I wasn't quite ready to let go of my last baby.  It seems like just yesterday she looked like this:

Today, she looked like this:

She was pretty excited.  This is the dress she WANTED to wear for the first day, but she had PE Monday which meant she had to wear tennis shoes.  So, we had to change clothes for the next pictures.

She seems pretty happy, right?  I wish that were true for the rest of my little ones.

Getting back in his routine!  WOO HOO!

He's sooooo NOT excited about school!

She just did not have time for all this picture nonsense! 

I'm happy to report that I did not cry (in front of E).  I did cry Sunday night.....a lot.  You can probably tell from the above photo.  Swollen eyes make for a lovely picture.  HA!  Also, E had a GREAT day and loves school, which makes it a whole lot easier on me.  It also helps that my SIL works at their elementary school and kept me updated all day.  E did cry a little this morning when I dropped her off, but was fine before I left the school.  AND, Hubby has the morning off.  WOO HOO!  A few hours of alone time sounds GREAT to me!

Have a great Tuesday!!

First Haircut and I Didn't Cry

So, as I mentioned, school starts Monday.  This was the week to get everything done.  I've been meaning to cut E's hair all summer.  She's never had a haircut before.  She was NOT excited.  I was not excited. But considering she's got just enough natural curl to tangle easily combined with the fact that she rolls around on the floor with the dog and the boys, I knew it HAD to be done.  If not, I would've had to spend 30 minutes a night combing out this child's hair after a sweaty day on the playground at school.  No thanks!  It was time.

See?  Not happy. 

After

It's a little shorter than I had in mind, but we had to do it quickly before she made a run for it.  It makes her look so much older.  Now that it's over, I want to cry a little.  So long pretty little curls.  Hello big girl.  Next stop, kindergarten.  I love C's shorter hair though.  Are y'all's girls sporting the feathers too?

Have a great weekend!

CRAZY WEEK!

Well, it's the week before school, which means it is crazy up in this house.  I've been so busy that this is the first time I've had to even pick up the computer in a few days.  I've spent some of my time shopping and sorting through this:

This is for the youngest three.  My oldest already got most of hers sorted.

Also, our school updated their dress code.  I totally forgot that E, who is starting Kindergarten, can't go sleeveless.  SO, I'm having to start over in the wardrobe department for her.  I bought a few things and I've added appliqued tees to her collection of capris that I had paired with halter tops.  UGH! 

Last night was open house at school.  E, who has been begging for over a year to go to school, got really nervous when we got to the school.  She was NOT excited to be there.

So, I'll be spending as much time as possible with my little ones this week.  I only have five days left with my babies before school starts.  So, I may not be around much.  I've got lots of important things to do, like playing games, getting haircuts and painting toenails.

ALSO, I want to wish my mom a very Happy Birthday!  I'm so blessed God chose you to be my mom!!!  Hope you have a great day!!!  Love you Mom!!!