I am back, and it is about FOOD!

Hello, it has been a while.... I have been inspired today and it was from a bowl of pasta. I wanted to have Spold Mac from Le Bistro Montage in Portland. So I did a little research and found this recipe, and it looked about right (after all it does say it was submitted by Le Bistro Montage, Portland), so I decided to give it a shot knowing that Spold is half old mac and half spicy mac meant I just needed to find a way to make it cajun.

So with that I set out boiling my pasta and mixing together some Cajun seasoning (which I will put down what I used at bottom since I never follow a recipe so I can't just link a seasoning recipe ;) And of course, this being me, I didn't have all of the ingredients available so I had to do a substitute for the heavy cream (which was 3/4 cup milk and 1/3 cup butter warmed, which made for 1 cup of "heavy cream")

So I did the Old mac recipe:

• 4 ounces heavy cream (used my heavy cream substitute)
• 1 teaspoon garlic, minced
• 12 ounces cooked elbow macaroni
• Pinch salt
• Pinch white pepper (I only had black)
• 2 tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese (sadly I only had Kraft grated Parm, but it was still good)
• Pinch paprika (for color) (didn't put in cause my cajun seasoning had it in it)
• 1/4-1tps Cajun Seasoning depending on your spice level *see below for recipe

Directions

Ladle cream into heated saute pan and add garlic and Cajun Seasoning. Reduce cream about 1/3 and add pasta, salt and white pepper. Heat until hot. Put in bowl or plate, top with cheese (I put my cheese in in the pan since Kraft parm doesn't melt too well) and paprika. Enjoy!

So what I did to make it Spold I have inserted into the recipe in the green type, it was so simple. Here it is.... I will put more Parm in next time (cause the batch I made drake with no garlic, had extra parm and it was really good too). You may also notice I did put chicken in, it was just some left over baked chicken, you can put what you like in it. It is good with fried spam cubes, sausage, chicken, or your favorite meat

*CAJUN SEASONING

1/4 tsp Onion Powder

1/4tsp Garlic Powder

1/2tsp black pepper

1/2tsp Ground Cayenne Pepper

1/4tsp Salt (ish)

1/8tsp Oregano

1/8tsp Smoked Paprika (I may add more next time)

.

update

Hey so it sure has been a tough couple of months. But I have to say it sure its starting to look bright! It is great when your medication kicks in, and you have a new found love of life. We have been trying to have some simple, yet great adventures. We have been to the zoo a lot, a zoo pass was a ridiculously GREAT deal so we go often. Here are some cute pix from our zoo adventures and a couple others. Just click on the video to see it on my web album.

Exported Videos

New moto

So I have a new moto, thanks to Suze Orman (I am indifferent about her, just like what she said in this instance).

DO I WANT IT......OR.......DO I NEED IT??

We are in money saving mode, not having jobs can do that to you. So we are trying to make every penny matter. I am going to start asking myself my new question every time I am out and about. The funny thing is, I actually haven't been shopping in like a year, but it is always good to keep your head on straight. I will ask myself next time I am at the doughnuts it I need it or want it....right? (the 89cents that the delicious treat costs can be saved and used to buy something healthy)

Drake is a machine these days, just walking and talking (babbling) and being so adament about what he wants. He is the reason I have started reading the spirited child! It is great, btw!

I will get on my lappy in a bit and post some new pix!

ps if you have good tips for saving.....(or making a million dollars) let me know

first birthday

Well everyone, get ready for Drakes first birthday!!! The party is gonna happen on Saturday and it's gonna be a rager!! (hahahaha) I am just super excited, we took some cute pix of Drake the other day, we will remember how he was when he was almost one year old.









The hardest part about this time is loosing Rocco.......



sorry for sideways video

a horrible day (for me atleast)

Well as everyone knows, we moved, and are in a bit of a pickle, employment wise, and it just gets worse. Our landlord has now said he is loosing sleep because of Rocco (barking at noises, his nails on the hard wood, Rocco is scared of him too so he barks/growls at him) and we either get rid of the dog....or become homeless!!

So, reluctantly, I have to surrender my precious precious pupper wupper, back to the humane society. I am soooo torn up about this. He is one of my babies, I hate this. Why do all of my dogs get taken from me......? My first dog Annie, my dad shot, my next two dogs, I lost in my divorce (ex was mad I left him so he said he would go to court to make sure I never got them....seriously.....my dogs) and now Rocco! Am I not meant to be a doggie mama, I have so much love to give, why is this happening. I am a believer that everything happens for a reason, but I am not seeing any lining.

So I am sad, there you go.

bums and burgers

So we had the most WONDERFUL day yesterday! We went and got Adam's haircut and cheeseburgers from Red Mill. Drake was finally (almost)wearing his sunglasses for extended periods of time. He was realizing that they are there to help, not just bug him ;)


Drake really needed to get his YAYA's out, so we let him sit on the sidewalk in front of Rudy's. I needed to make him a sign that said "will shaka shaka" for money", cause he was sitting on the ground, shaking his toy shaker thing, and I put a bag in front of him. He was hilarious!!!






So it was just great, and I wanted to tell the world about it!
Adam was amazingly sweet, too!!! I love him!

hey lets have some fun!

Today, I would like to invite you to participate in the following:

Craft Tag!
The first 5 people to respond to this post will receive something made by me to you.

My choice. made especially for you.

Restrictions and limitations:

I make no guarantees that you will like what i make! (but I'll do my best)What i create will be just for you. (but who knows, if I like it too much, I may make one for me too, he he!)It will be done sometime this year. (that gives me 10 months still)
You have no clue what it will be... it may be a story. it may be poetry or an article on properly cleaning your face before a masque. i may draw or paint something. i may bake something and mail it to you. who knows? not you, that's for sure.I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? oh the catch is that you must re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on their blog. the first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did will win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me!!

where have I been

I have been in mama land, and moving land, and crazy land. We are doing good, Drake is doing lots of fun stuff. Yesterday I put out some of his stuffed animals out and would ask him to find one, (duck, dog, etc...) and he would grab the right one!!! It was adorable.

Moving is over, but unpacking and cleaning is not even close to being done. I am not having any fun with it.

We have had a rough week, Adam lost his job last Wednesday! His boss, and a few other hire up were there and were all in tears when they told him. (some other douche bag in Ohio or something did some similar stuff and since they fired him, they had to let go of adam too). UGH!! Its all stupid really. I just love Adam, he is so sad, he really loved his job, and I have faith that something even more perfect for him will be right around the corner!!

Well I will post again soon, Drake has been taking super longs naps now, so I actually have time to do fun, mama stuff!

what is this snow all about!

Seriously people, there is something crazy going on with this weather!! I hate living in the snow, not a fan... We have 8 inches in our back yard, AAHHHH

Rocco however is bouncing in and out of the snow like it is doggy heaven, he is so cute! I have not seen him this happy in about 8months ;)

Drake has been doin some cute stuff lately, but my brain is on shut in mode, so I can't remember. I don't think I have been able to leave my house in 4days. I am going to go nuts. It has, however given me some time to get more organized and try to rearrange my house. So that's good I guess.

I will post some pix soon....

PS Adam got a 10/10 on his super important "walk" last week (where his boss, and two other higher ups come for a visit). He entertained them in his store for like 2hours (normally they get in and leave as quick as possible) and he got the "gold coin" for the visit. It is usually for the best store, out of like 147 stores, but Adam received it personally!!

GO ADAM! YEAH!

Drake is a crawler!

He scoots and pulls more than he crawls, he does it all. He is a mover and a shaker....pix to come soon!

OMG Where have I been

You know what....? Its tough being a mom and trying to keep up on a blog! Drake is very mobile now and anytime I get my laptop out to type, he can get to me!! Even when I am on the other side of the living room (our living room is not giant :).

So Drake is movin around a lot! He is not officially crawling, but he can roll and pull himself places. He is amazing!

 

We have just been getting ready for winter around here. We put ghetto plastic over some of our windows to help insulate them, cause they are like 700 year old windows(What!!). Drake is ready for winter cause he LOVES the rain! Weird, I know, but he loves to have it sprinkle down on his face, he looks into the sky and smiles. It is adorable!!!! I can't wait to see what he will do when it snows, maybe he will love it as much as Rocco loves the snow.

 

Well Drake is up from his nao p b (as you can see he got the key board!) nap, talk to you soon!

more milestones

Drake is having the best month EVER!! In his first week of being 4 months old he rolled over (back to tummy)for the first time, he found his ears and penis, I mean the list goes on. He has been sitting up for longer periods of time, and today for the first time unassisted he rolled over tummy to back!!! It was thrilling you know. It's a much faster roll then the back to tummy roll, so it can be a bit scary. But Drake pulled though like a champ!

I just can't believe how time is going by so fast! I just love him so much, he is hilarious, he loves kisses and will reach out his hands and grab my face to kiss me. He also tells me when he wants to be picked up when his is laying down. There is nothing better then seeing his little hands raised in the air (saying pick me up, mama.....)

Anyways just wanted to share some cuteness!

How come no one reads my blog

Just pullin a Tyler here, wondering if anyone is out there, reading my thoughtful thoughts that I thoughtfully put down on paper (screen) for you all to read?!?!?!?!

Excited

So I am so excited right now, my cleaning bug has been revived! My (aunt) Shalyn and her husband (uncle) Chistopher and their babies (three big black doggies) are coming into town for her brothers (not my uncles ;)wedding! So I have been in cleaning mode, and I can honestly tell you that my house has never been cleaner. And not the type of clean where you just hide everything, but the real clean....I can't believe it either!

That being said, its such a good thing that I am doing all of this, cause now we have to move, again. Adam just got a general manager position with Staples....yeah!!!! But our landlord in the assistant manager there and so we have to move. I am looking at it like a sunny day with a light cloud cover, (you know, instead of gloom and despair) cause now we will move to a smaller, cheaper place where we can actually start saving some money, and that's a wonderful thing!

So to recap; congrats Adam....Whose up for a moving party (in the next 3 months), and yeah for cleaning and family!

Babies are here!!

I think all the babies from our birth class have been born. I like thinking back to our talks in class, about the way our births would be. Someone once told me that as a mom, you have to eat your words a lot, and that it is very humbling being a parent. I know that I sure have had to. I believe a few of the births were pretty close to "as planned" and a few were way crazier than planned, but I know that all of us are in love with our babies and are just grateful to have them here. So here's to our next generation!

Xavi - Drake - Cooper - Liberty - Kai - Gabriel - Mia

 

 

 

I'm sorry I can't find a picture of Cooper! When I do I will add it to this post!

 

 

 

 

Looking for work....still

I am still looking to do something with all this free time I have. I am thinking of being a nanny, anyone have any info about that or know anyone who needs a part time nanny? I am pretty excited about it, it will be nice to have Drake with me, and I think it will be good for him to have the socialization too.

On a lighter note, Adam is doing so good at work right now, he started the other position that he needs to become a g.m. a few weeks ago (its the sales manager position) and his sales numbers went up to number one in his area!! GO ADAM!! Mama's so proud.... he he

Here is a cute pix of Drake to look at (and one of Rocco to (he got to go swimming the other day, he was so happy), cause he is super cute too!!

 

 

Who wants to help me

I have a bit of a dilemma! I don't want to go back to waiting tables and bartending anymore, so that means I need a new job that I can do at home. I am not sure what is out there and maybe one of you know of something that I could do, with drake along for the ride. Let me know if you come up with anything.

We are all doing good other than that. Just trying to get stuff organized for returning to school in the fall, its a huge thing because I had to drop out last fall cause of the stupid broken hand!! Adam has been working lots, there is life in a nut shell. Maybe we will do something fun this week, and I will be able to tell you all about it!

I'm back!

I know its been a long time, haven't really had a lot of that (time)!! A 7 1/2 week old baby takes time away from blogging.

Just a quick update, Drake is doing good, Rocco is getting much happier, and Adam and I are doing ok, the lack of sleep is hard.

The life of a mom, got to go, will update soon!!

How are you?

Baby-moon

We went to Portland yesterday, just for the day, and had a bit of a baby moon. Adam wanted to make sure to get in a good meal from Montage before the baby came. Well he got his delicious spold (its a mix of spicy mac and old mac with spam)! We also went to VooDoo donuts, and let me tell you, THEY ARE THE BEST DONUTS I HAVE EVER HAD!!! You must, try them at least once before you die! OMG

Rocco came with us, it was nice just hanging out as a family!! We also got to hang with Tyler and Ally, that was really nice. We hadn't seen them in sooooooooooo long. (Good thing is they will hopefully come for a visit in a week or two after No Name arrives.)

But anyways, my head is not in the game right now, It's been a crazy day! Next post may be after the baby arrives!!

Guess who is coming earlier than planned

My date for "project: save the baby" (or the induction as others like to call it) has been moved up. The induction will happen sometime during the week of the 14th - 18th. I just got two steroid shots (they are given to help mature the babies lungs) and then will have an amniocentesis the day before the "scheduled" induction to make sure the babies lungs are mature enough for delivery, if so project save the baby is put into action, if not, then we wait a couple more days or whatev!!

So I will keep everyone updated, let me know if you have any questions! And remember send all your energy to my cervix to soften and dilate on its own (I know that is asking a lot of you, but its reeeaallll important!!)