An Incredibly Happy Woman!!!

I just got a letter from GEORGE W. BUSH!!! Okay, so here is the back story. I was medically retired in 2008 from the USAF. They took 3 1/2 years to get me my certificates so when they sent them to me, the certificate of appreciation was signed by Obama. Well, first, I did not serve under him, second, I did not vote for him, third, I think he is ruining everything good about our nation in so many ways. So, needless to say, I wasn't exactly HAPPY he signed my letter!

I did a little research and wrote to the great man himself and explained the situation and that serving under him was one of the proudest things I have ever done, I would be more honored to put a napkin signed by him on the wall than anything signed by someone who apologizes for the greatness of our incredible nation. So...... I didn't think he would actually write back, but HE DID!!! He's WONDERFUL!!!! I love it!!!

Food Experiements!!!!

So, I have become a full blown Pinterest ADDICT!!! I get on there at work (don't tell my boss), at school (don't tell my teacher), on my phone, at home, I'm totally addicted. Anyway. I find things on there and try them or think, "Self, that looks good, but I think we can make it better!" So today that is what we did. I found a recipe that looked really good, it was for Spinach Artichoke Pasta or something like that. Well, if I tried to give my husband and kids a dinner with no meat of any type in it they would kick me out of the house! So, I made a few adjustments and here is what I came up with, Cheesy, Chicken, Spinach, Artichoke Bake. I have to make a ton of food b/c I have 6 kids so my recipes are large and I don't really measure a lot of stuff, I just go by taste and do what I think will have the best results.

The final product looks like this:

To make it I cut up several chicken breasts (about 4 pounds) into bite sized pieces and sauteed it in olive oil and Italian Seasonings. When it was almost done cooking I added a chopped onion and fresh minced garlic (4 cloves).



To make sure the kids got enough veggies I tried a new kind of pasta that had a serving of veggies included.



While everything was cooking, I chopped up two cans of artichoke hearts and squeezed out two boxes of frozen spinach. I mixed it in to a bowl with a package of cream cheese, 2 cups of sour cream, 2 cups Parmesan cheese, and a cup of mozzarella.



I reserved almost a full cup of the pasta water and drained the rest. Then mixed everything up in a greased 11x15 pan and covered it with another cup of Mozzarella cheese.



I baked it at 425 until it was brown and bubbly, let it cool a little bit and served it up! The family LOVED it and voted it into the "Make Again" files!



I will do a few things differently next time however. I will lower the temperature of the oven to about 400 to start with and will only use 1 1/2 boxes of pasta instead of 2. I think this will make it even creamer and tastier! I'll have to let you know how it works out!

Pretty panties

Just an undergarment? Psh! I think NOT! Think about the last time you wore your big old cotton granny panties all day. How did you feel all day? Blah right? Think about the last time you put on some silky draws! How did you feel all day? Beautiful right? Yeah, panties make or break your day. Today for instance, I have a crap meeting to go to for a crap reason because a crap person decided to be crappy. It had me in a blah mood all day yesterday. Today I got up and got ready for my shower and looked in the panty drawer. I could wear the cotton ones, but then thought about the meeting. Instead, I reached for the lipstick pink satin and lace. Now, I’m sitting here in my chair with a little smirk on my face. You might be craptastic, but I have on pretty panties!
My husband is another example. As long as we have known each other, he has always worn solid colored boxer briefs. They are all blue, gray or black and really boring (though over time bleach has turned most of them pink or orange). Well, we are going through a weight loss together and he had to buy new undies the other day. He grabbed some camouflaged (GASP) ones instead this time. I swear you would think he had bought his first pair of Spiderman Under-roos the way he was running around in them laughing and saying “you can’t see me, I have camo underwear!” LOL Men!
You can’t even say “I’m too big they don’t have any pretty panties in my size” anymore! Because Lane Bryant (shameless plug and if one day I ever become a famous blogger I fully expect a free pair of pretty panties for this) has some of the CUTEST and most comfortable SETS (yes plus sized women, there are sets that will fit you comfortably and you can still look cute and/or sexy) and they always have specials like 5/$25 or something like that. So stop using that excuse!
It’s just a theory, but the next time you have a meeting you don’t want to go to or you are just in a blah mood, grab some pretty panties and see if it doesn’t make your day a little better. Just sayin!

Spandex

Spandex is a privilege not a right people! Just because it comes in your size does NOT mean you need to wear it. And if your jeans are so tight they look like spandex, you need new ones. Just sayin!

The Copy and Paster

You all know exactly who I am talking about. They guy at work that can't do his own actual work and just copies and pastes everything. Have you ever heard of PLAGIARISM!!! Okay, so no, we aren't talking about pulitzer prize winning books here but you copy and paste EVERYTHING. Emails, memos, notes, excel sheets, what DON't you copy?

I bet even your wedding vows were like everyone elses! (Okay, bad example, but everyone gets my point right?)

Seriously, I get no less than 3 duplicate emails a day because I get the initial notification and "C & P" decides to resend it to everyone! Do I care if everyone in an office building 3 blocks away is having a 3 hour lunch? NO! and neither does anyone else in OUR building!

UGH!!! All you C &P's out there, CUT IT OUT! If you have a C & P at your place of work, feel free to send them a link to this blog as a HINT!

sushi..... YUM

So we ended the 3 month celebration of my daughters 14th birthday today! FINALLY! LOL She got an early birthday present in October and went to the Carrie Underwood concert, November was her actual birthday was the day after Thanksgiving while we were in TX with family and today we had a couple friends over and went bowling and had ice cream and cake. We had a great time and came home to watch a movie and make some sushi! Not the normal kind, some the kids actually ask for and LOVE! Here's how to make it:

- Make rice crispy treats (RCT) like normal. While the marshmallows are warming, unroll fruit roll ups but leave them on the plastic

- When the RCT are mixed up allow them to cool until you can work with them but they are not hot enough to melt the fruit roll ups.

- Spread the RCT out on the fruit roll ups and place two rows of gummy worms down the middle of the RCT

- Roll the whole thing up and slice into "sushi" pieces ENJOY!

Here are some pictures of our fun! :)

Wow, it's been a while huh?

Well, it's been almost a year since I got on here the last time. Not that I didn't think about it but seriously, I have 6 kids, so I got a little busy! Plus, I don't know if anyone reads it so I don't think it was missed! LOL It's been a busy year for us, all 6 kids playing sports, Art and I in school, me working, trips, new cars, BOY, I'm tired!

Tonight after I got home from work we went to the Middle School and saw Santa, listened to Mariah play the violin, ate some cookies, came home, made dinner, set up the Christmas tree (FINALLY but we will be decorating tomorrow) and worked on Kayla's quilting. She is sewing her brothers and sisters presents for Christmas this year and I don't know how who it's harder on, her, or me! LOL She's learning though, slowly but surely. It's when I try to teach her something that I truly start to understand why my dad would get so frustrated with me when I was younger! LOL She has now, like I did then, the attention span of a gnat! LOL

We are up waiting for Jonathan to get home from cosmic bowling with his friends and looking forward to a good day tomorrow! Have to bake a cake, Decorate the tree, have cake and ice cream with Ariana and her friends, take them bowling, work on Kayla's presents, and deal with Ariana's sleep over, get Jasmine to her sleep over, Kayla and Teg to Grandma's house for their sleep over! Going to be a long but FUN day! I can't wait!

I am going to try to get on here a little more often, but, I make no promises! :) Night all!