The Redneck Panini

A while back I was hanging out at my friend's house and she had a fancy Panini maker. I don't recall the brand/style, but here's a picture of what a Panini maker looks like.

Kind of reminiscent of the George Foreman Grill is it not? I got rid of my George Foreman grill ages ago. I never used it.
Anyway, back to the panini. There's something about a squished up hot sandwich that is so tasty. So, I began looking around Goodwill for a used George Foreman grill. Believe me, there's plenty to choose from, but I could never commit to actually purchasing one. Apparently, I'm not the only one who didn't buy into the fat-free "grill" that George peddled.

Fast forward to my redneck "aha" moment.

I wondered how I could replicate the panini at home with my current small household appliances and I came across my waffle maker. Yep. My heart-shaped waffle maker.

Okay, I'll admit, realistically, it's not the best design for a panini sandwich, but when you're desperate for a hot squished sandwich, it works like a charm.

So, here ya go.
The Redneck Panini

• Submarine sandwich bread (or ciabatta, etc.)
  
• 6-8 leaves fresh spinach
• 2 slices red bell pepper
• 1 slice of cheese
• 2-3 slices of deli meat
• 1 tbsp basil pesto
• (Optional Add-ons: black olives and red onion slices)
• Pam Olive Oil spray

Assemble sandwich, spray outside with Pam and squish in your waffle iron (or George Foreman Grill or Fancy Pants Panini Maker... whatever!)

Now, if anyone wants to unload their George Foreman grill, I'll gladly take it off your hands!

RED!

Ever wonder why don't see red jalapeños at the store? I can't figure out why, but I don't recall seeing red jalapeños at HEB. What's up with that?

I've been letting my jalapeños ripen on the vine until they turn red. It's been a nice change of pace!

New beginnings!

No, this isn't a sappy post about how my kids are starting a new chapter in their lives with school beginning tomorrow. Nope, it's about me. Getting my butt back into the gym. Full time. Starting tomorrow. No excuses anymore.

I have been slacking BIG TIME this summer and it's time to kick into high gear. So, if you see me at the gym and I'm a big sweaty mess, you'll know why...

So, I'm stepping away from the Carmel Kettle Crunch (at least in large quantities... ) and getting back on the step machine... and the heavy weights.

No pain, no gain!

And then I heard Angels singing "Hallelujah"

Elisan has a shoe problem.

Her foot is small and wide. Not a great combination when you want to wear "big girl" shoes such as cute flats, wedges, slip-on's, etc. because "they" (meaning shoe makers) don't usually carry wide shoe sizes in cute trendy shoes. And, especially not in her teeny-tiny foot size.

Don't believe me? Go try shoe shopping with my kid and you too will want to crawl into fetal position and weep nonstop.

So. Over the weekend, I made the mistake of taking Elisan shoe shopping on Saturday. I don't know how many styles she tried on, but I can assure you, that none of them fit properly. I told her that we'd hold off on shoe shopping for another month or two and that her sandals would work until it got cooler. She seemed okay with that...

Fast forward to today. We were sitting on the couch having our morning "mommy and me" time when the conversation took a turn for the worse. What started out as a conversation about feet, turned into a complete meltdown about her "fat, wide feet". Real tears people. Real tears. After she came to her senses, I told her we'd make one last attempt at shoe shopping before school began.

We went to six stores and she tried on countless pairs of shoes and nothing worked. Nothing.

Until we tried the Hush Puppies store at the outlet mall. (Lucky number seventh store!) The FIRST pair she tried on fit AND she loved them. They were by far the cutest pair of shoes she tried on all day and at a little less than $30.00 for the pair, not a bad price either. The look of relief on her face was priceless. Absolutely Priceless. I know I heard angels singing, I just know it!
And, the store carried this shoe in red/black and pink/silver, so I may go back and grab another pair just because.

I've got the evite blues

Technology has gotten the best of me and it makes me sad.

If you've been around long enough, you know I love to create my own photo cards and invitations. I've been doing the girls' birthday invitations, photo Christmas & Valentine's cards for years. It's a great creative outlet for me and the girl's love having something created especially for them by their mom.

A few months ago I offered to make birthday invitations for the daughter of a friend of mine who was having a party. She politely declined telling me that although she loved my work, she was going to use evite for the birthday party invitations because it was easier, cheaper and people were more likely to RSVP. She also said she liked the fact that you could track when people "opened" the evite so you know everyone received it. Of course it made sense to me, but since I'm a traditionalist, I prefer the actual invitation instead.

However, I'm not so sure anymore... For Elisan's party, I created a really cute Luau themed birthday invitation, mailed them out 2 weeks prior to the event and only received 6 RSVP's in a timely manner - meaning within 3-5 days of the party. The other RSVP's occurred within 1-2 days of the party and a few people didn't bother to RSVP at all. This pains me to admit, but had I sent out an evite, I probably wouldn't have had this problem. (sigh...)

I know you can customize your evite to tailor it to your event, but it's just not the same... Sigh... Maybe I just need to embrace the evite and get over myself.

Anyone feel the same way as I do? Do you LOVE evite or LOATHE evite?

Kicking off the school year right!

A friend of mine recently mentioned that she puts together a small gift package for her kids' teachers each year of consumable items like post it notes, Sharpies, paper clips, etc. Not anything extravagant, but a little something to put a smile on their face and to let them know they are appreciated.

This year, I decided to do the same thing! Along with the consumable items, I created some postcards for the teachers to use if they need to communicate with a parent. I created one postcard and formatted four 4.5 x 5 postcards per 8.5 x 11 page. I printed the cards on cardstock and cut them out.

To finish off this simple project, I created matching circle sticker labels to tag the gift. (I made the circle stickers generic so I could use them for other gifts, etc.)


I created the circle label in Photoshop Elements using a downloaded freebie doodle brush for the birdie and conversation bubble. I added the text and selected a cute font. I saved the file as a .png file (which saves the file with a transparent background.)

Since I still haven't figured out how to format a page of stickers in Photoshop, I opted to use Scrapbook Factory Deluxe for layout and formatting. It's a bit time consuming using two different software, but it works well enough for me.

I printed the labels on a full size sheet of sticker paper. I found this sticker paper at Walmart and it was about $5.00 for 10 full size 8.5 x 11 sticker sheets.

Using my circle punch, I punch out the stickers as needed. Very cute and personalized! Who doesn't love personalized stuff? I know I do!

Finding the full size sticker paper has opened a whole new world of ideas for me! I'm thinking... cutesy address labels, birthday present labels, Christmas gift labels, etc.

Cheap and Clueless

It's another installment of my complaining/whining about clothes.

Y'all, I used to love to shop for clothes. My favorite past-time used to be shopping for clothes. But, now? I hate it. I loathe it.

Why? Because I'm too darn thrifty (or cheap?!) and I have a hard time letting go of cash for new clothes. Oh sure, I see shirts/tops that I really like, but seriously, I will not pay $50.00 for a shirt. It's not going to happen.

How much does the average person pay for a shirt? Pants? Shoes?

Where does a woman who is closing in on 38 shop for clothes? Is it time I began shopping at better stores and spending more money on my wardrobe, rather than at the trendy-ish clothing stores? I can't afford Anthropology, Boden, SAKS... heck, I can't even afford the GAP. So, really... what's a gal to do? I want to look nice, stylish, hip, but not cheap and clueless.

And finally, what's up with all of the bling-y shirts/tops? Because there is a lot of bling-y stuff out there right now. Does everything have to have bling on it? And how much bling is too much bling? Just asking...

Second Chances

Yesterday afternoon, Elisan decided she wanted a bowl of cereal for her afternoon snack. I poured up the cereal and milk and like every other day, she brought the bowl from the countertop to the table. However, yesterday, the bowl did not make it to the table. In fact, the bowl, along with the contents of cereal and milk crashed to the floor in shattered bits.

I'll be honest here... I didn't handle this situation very well. It was late afternoon and was I now faced with the task of cleaning up a ceramic shard, sticky, milky mess that would include sweeping, mopping, etc. I was tired and setting out on this hour long task was not how I wanted to spend my afternoon.

So, I yelled. I yelled and she cried. She ran upstairs crying and shortly after, I snapped out of my frenzy and met her upstairs with profuse apology. We hugged, loved and finally laughed and we both walked away feeling better.

My floor needed to be cleaned anyway.

So, this morning, Kyla Mae is eating cereal and she is fiddling with the television remote (yes... I let them watch TV while they eat breakfast...sue me!) and what do you know? She dumped her cereal on the table and in her lap/chair.

Oh c'mon... Seriously?

Even given a second chance to react in a more calm way, I didn't. Although, I didn't yell, I still reacted poorly. I was given a second chance and I failed. Once I figured out that I had a second chance, I swiftly corrected my awful behavior and set to make things right with Kyla.

This reminded me that I serve a God of second chances. When I fail or sin, He's not looking down on me with disdain and unforgiveness. Oh sure, when we sin, it does grieve Him, but He never withholds forgiveness and is readily waiting for us with open arms.

And just like my Heavenly Father, my children were quick to forgive me for my poor reaction. They love me and show grace to me when I fail. When they make a mistake, I am grieved, but I forgive them, hug them, love them and (hopefully) learn how to better handle the next time they fail or make a mistake.

Parenting is such a shining example of God's love for us. It's all about forgiveness, grace and love. And, second chances.

Thank God for second chances.

Virtue en Vogue 2010

Last night, the girls and I attended Virtue en Vogue hosted at Grace Covenant Church in Austin. The event was geared toward moms and girls (ages 6-16). There was live music from the band "The Reliques", a back-to-school fashion show, a message by Christian author Vicky Courtney and yummy desserts! It was fun and we had a nice time!

My friend Rachel and her daughter rode with us to the event and we all sat with my friend Tanja and her two daughters at the event. It's nice to visit with other moms who share the same values in how we raise our girls!

During the intermission, I bid on a silent auction item and won! It was two books by Beth Moore. "So Long Security" and "John: 90 Days with the Beloved Disciple"

Check this out! Sweet!

After the event, Elisan stood in line and had Vicky Courtney autograph her book.

Blog Brain Dump

Eight more days until school begins. I'm sad and happy, all rolled into one. This summer has been extremely busy, but I've enjoyed having my little chicks roosting in the nest so I could tend to their every want and need. It comforts me to no end having them at home with me. Granted, 90% of the time, they are upstairs playing with each other and not interacting with me, but I can hear their little voices and footsteps nonetheless and know they are safe and sound. Yet, in 8 days, I'll be sending them off to school again and my heart breaks a bit.

Oh well, I know I'll get over it soon enough. That first trip to the grocery store without kids will be joyful, I can assure you. And, I'll be able to go to Goodwill without complaints (from them) or promises (from me) to buy them a toy or a book.

We signed Elisan up for some "real" soccer this year. The league that we play in is offering a specialized league for kids who want "all soccer, all the time". Practices are 2x a week and weekend games will be all over the Austin area. So far, she's enjoyed the practices and I think it will be good for her.

So, last night we were at practice. Practices were delayed because a storm was passing over producing a lot of lighting so all of the parents and kids gathered up and waited for the storm to pass (without rain, I might add!) Anyway, while we were waiting there, I noticed a group of 10 year old girls huddled together making a lot of noise - squealing, hollering, laughing, etc. So, my attention was drawn to them and I noticed this one girl in particular. She was a very pretty girl and apparently the ring leader of the group. I began to watch her and honestly, her behavior was abhorrent. She was rude and mean and a few times I noticed she hit the other girls. After about 10 minutes of watching her humiliate the other girls, I noticed that she began filling her mouth with large amounts of water and was spitting it out at the other girls! Seriously people. I AM NOT KIDDING!

I could not believe my eyes. Where were the coaches? Where was this girl's parent? Where were the parents of the other girls? And whats more... the other girls just sat there and let her spit on them. Oh, sure, they were squealing and telling her to stop, etc., but none of them got up and walked away. They sat there laughing until it was their turn to be spit on. It was truly disgusting and I had a good mind to walk over to that girl and tell her how terribly inappropriate she was acting. BUT... I didn't. Why not? Well, because this girl is in Elisan's soccer group. She's not on Elisan's team, but she's apart of the 8-10 year olds that practice together. I didn't want this girl to retaliate against Elisan for something I did.

It grieves me to no end to see this kind of behavior. It grieves me to see other girls taking the abuse that this "mean" girl was dishing out. It grieves me to see the other girls still wanting to be her friend because she was pretty and popular. It grieves me that no one bothered to step in and stop her... including me.

What would you have done? I mean, seriously? I think now, looking back, I would approach this girl's coach and have him handle it. She's more likely to respond to a person in authority rather than some random mom (who's sole intent would really be about) embarrassing her in front of her peers.

It's apparent to me that vigilant prayer is in my future. Oh, who am I kidding... vigilant prayer is needed now!

Birthday Fun!

Birthday week has finally come to a close! Whew... I survived another round of birthday festivities for Elisan. She's my high maintenance birthday child. Probably because her "love language" is Gifts, as in receiving gifts. Of course, I can't fault her for that, because my love language is also Gifts. (Here's the link if you are interested in discovering the love language of your child. If you are curious about your love language, here's the adult love language test version.)

Anyway, as you may recall last year, we had a slumber party for Elisan's 8th birthday. Um, that party about did me in for ever wanting to prepare and plan for another birthday party in my entire life. So, this year, I decided we'd have a more laid back party and just kind of go with the flow.

The party started off at the neighborhood pool and the girls swam for about 1.5 hours. I love August birthdays because it will almost certainly include chlorinated water. Especially nice with temps in the 100's. And since it doesn't rain in Central Texas in August, there's never a reason to worry about rainouts. It's a beautifully executed plan, don't ya think?

After swimming, we loaded them up and brought them back to the house for lunch. Nothing fancy here... just sandwiches, chips, pickles and fruit kabobs. I did however, make a super yummy punch to serve in their Hurricane tumblers, with their fru-fru straws and fancy paper umbrellas.
Once lunch was complete, we served up my birthday party specialty, which is ice cream cake. I'm so glad Elisan loves my ice cream cake because it's super easy and very yummy! Plus, everyone eats it. There's no wasted cupcakes licked clean of the icing and nothing more.

And finally, we opened presents, which is always a lot of fun. We're the kind of family that allows our children to open their presents at the party, and not after everyone goes home. We feel kids like to see the birthday friend open their present and "oooooo" and "ahhhhhh" over the present. Kinda makes everyone feel good! I've never understood the concept of opening presents after the party... And, I've heard all of the reasoning behind it too.

So, that's about it. We're good for another whole year. I'm thinking at 10, we'll just have a small gathering of a few close friends and take them to a restaurant and movie. Yep. Sounds like a winner to me.



Vanilla Fruit Punch
2 2-liters Hawaiian Fruit Punch
1 2-liter Ginger Ale
2 46-oz cans of Pineapple juice
1/2 gallon of vanilla ice cream

Mix & Serve.

Ice Cream Cake
I have a step-by-step photo tutorial for this recipe here.

Painfully Shy

Lately, Elisan and I have been talking about the merits of making friends. She's the type of person who makes 1 or 2 really good friend(s) and is perfectly content.

However, this year, her closest friend from school will be home-schooled, so they will no longer be together. Needless to say, she is very sad and has mentioned on occasion that she won't have any real "close" friends at school anymore.

Of course, I dive right into the "you have to be a good friend to make good friends" mantra and although she gets what I'm saying, she has been falling back on the "But, I'm shy" safety net, which really, is no safety net at all.

Here's the deal... as a kid I was painfully shy. I mean... I was the kid that wanted to say "don't look at me", "don't talk to me", "don't sit by me because I just can't handle it." Oh, sure, I had friends and when I felt comfortable enough with them, I'd cut loose and be myself. A funny, silly, giddy girl! But, getting to that place was not easy.

So, hearing Elisan say that she is shy stirs up a well of emotions for me and I just don't want to see my girl face the same challenges I did growing up shy.

Yesterday, during one of our "shy" conversations I described a childhood (and adulthood) friend named Amy who was never shy...who had more friends what I could ever count...and who was loved (and still is loved) by many, many people. Simply put, people are drawn to her. I was telling Elisan about Amy and how much nicer it is to be nice to people, than to be shy and avoid them. I told her that most little girls her age want to be friends with other little girls and that she should try a little harder to reach out to those kids (on her volleyball team, soccer team, new kids in her class, etc.)

The problem with this advice is that I don't practice what I preach. I'm still shy (to some extent) and I know what it feels like to be insecure. I see the same behavior in my child and it makes me sad because I want better for her.

The truth of the matter is, shyness is not of God. 2 Timothy 1:7 tells us that God did not make us timid (shy) but instead gave us power, love and a sound mind. We are to enjoy other people. We are to develop relationships with them. We are to love them.

So, today, I stand in the gap for my daughter who is feeling shy and insecure.

Dear Lord, help my child to know that she is a daughter of the most high God and loved by you. That you, Lord are her strength and you have equipped her in advance with your power, love and sound mind. I pray Lord that she not be hindered by a spirit of shyness, but that she be empowered by your boldness. Amen.

Happy Birthday Elisan!

MY HEART

I look at you and my heart is filled with so many
emotions that I cannot even explain.

I love you dearly and completely
And my heart literally aches because of you.

You are so much like me, and yet you are not like me at all.
My heart worries over you because you are so complex.

You make me laugh, you make me smile,
You challenge me and you make me lose my temper, a lot!
My heart is crazy about you.

But, most of all you make me a better person,
Because you made me a mom.

Elisan, you are my heart.

Elisan's card

I wanted to share the birthday card Elisan received from our good friend, Charlotte in Denmark! Elisan's having a LUAU birthday party on Saturday and Charlotte matched Elisan's party theme perfectly, don'tcha think?

Thank you Charlotte for making such a sweet and special card for Elisan.

Graffiti Update

Sunday a.m., I sent an email to the city tip-line regarding the graffiti and Monday a.m., I got a return email stating the case was assigned to a local detective.

Tuesday, the detective contacted me and thanked me for reporting the crime and if I had any leads to let him know. Tuesday afternoon, the police were out in our neighborhood taking photos of the graffiti. Apparently several areas in our neighborhood were also vandalized. {Joy}

Today, when I arrived home after morning activities, the graffiti was gone. Thank goodness!

I'm just hoping it is nothing to be overly concerned about. I'm sure it's just a few kids getting their kicks with a can of spray paint. Let's hope anyway, because Randy ain't all that interested in relocating.

If the vandalism and potential for more serious crimes continues, I told him I was going to launch a full-scale campaign to move. He was nervous. He knows how relentless I can be.

The countdown is on...

Oh my. We're t-minus 9 days from Elisan's 9th birthday. Let me say to all of you moms of young(er) children something you have heard time and time again.

It. Goes. By. So. Fast.

Fiercely take hold of your children and cherish THIS day. My heart aches because nine years have passed by so quickly.

More to say... but, time is a wastin'. I'm taking the girls to Fiesta Texas today and I need to get a move on.

The 'Hood

This is the view from my front door.

I mean, I knew we lived in a neighborhood, but I wasn't aware we lived in The 'Hood.

Nice.

Maybe the HOA will use are dues to remove this offense? Ha, likely story.

Anyone know a realtor? (Ha again. Another likely story.)