Some Days I'm Amazed

I know that I have a problem saying "no" to anyone. The result of this insanity of mine is that we have lives that are ridiculously busy. I don't know why I'm nuts, but I am. I could just blame my mother - that's what everyone does, right? And, truth be told, it's probably her fault. She can't say "no" either. But I kind of like my insanity. It's comforting in an odd and ridiculous way.

Today that insanity resulted in a completely nutty day. It started out with me in the ortho's office. Guess what? I don't have a boot on anymore. I have 2 feet. One foot that hurts quite a bit walking, but it's a foot nonetheless. I'm told the pain will fade. I have hope that the doctor knows what he's talking about and in a few days it will be less noticeable.

Next step? Lunch with the weeone. I knew that no one would be as excited as me about the boot being gone, but the weeone was a close second. I surprised her in the Oak Forest Elementary cafeteria with a kids meal from Whataburger and 2 feet. The reaction she gave me was priceless and fabulous and full of the joy that you only see from kids. It was awesome.

Tonight was a Cricket's softball game. They lost. It stunk, but hey - it's teeball and sometimes the kids just aren't in the mood to play. Tonight was one of those times. They all still got snow cones at the end of the game and smiles ear to ear. That makes the long day worth it. Know what I mean?

So, that's why it's 9:00pm and I'm just now eating dinner. It's leftovers of the Lemon Pepper Shrimp Scampi from the other night. It's good a couple of days later....really good. Or maybe I'm just crazy hungry and tired and don't care. Either way, I'm a happy diner right now.

Tomorrow will be another crazy, but fun, day. The weeone and I are both off and will spend some time updating the front flower beds with, well, flowers...and mulch. We're also having a "Hoppy Hour" tomorrow night complete with egg hunt. It should be fun.

So, I can't say "no". The result is sometimes exhaustion, but often it's just fun.

The Saga May Be Over...

My foot. My left foot. My nemesis. Today is a big day for this foot. In about 3 hours I will sort of walk into Dr. William Granberry's office to have my third post-operative appointment about my foot. And, there is hope....big hope....that he will close the door on this chapter of my life. This has been a LONG chapter....ten months. I could have had a baby by now. I think I'd rather have the broken foot though....hmmmmmm?!?!?! There is hope he will end the saga that is my left foot. Pray people....pray hard!

Life (and shrimp) happens. =)

The months of March, April and May in my house mean one thing - softball. This is the weeone's 3rd year as a Cricket and it's her last in this division. One final year of teeball...it makes me sad and it makes me happy all at the same time. Teeball is so much fun - they hit well by the second or third year, really start to understand the game, and really start playing ball instead of just playing with the chalk lines and grass. =) If you have a little one, you know what I mean! So, this year, the weeone's playing pitcher which sounds odd since no one actually pitches, but it's still a pivotal role on the field since most girls that age hit the ball straight to....you guessed it, the pitcher. This is her year to be the star!

So far she's playing well and having fun, although she doesn't understand why she has to bat 4th. She's downright angry about it despite it being a position that she should be proud of - she just doesn't "get" that yet. Nonetheless, she's cute in the uniform....don't you think?


The other thing that comes along with softball season is quick meals. There's not a lot of time for cooking big dinners with either practice or games 3 nights a week. Last night was a "travel day", so to speak. No practice. No game. Hallelujah.

There's been some talk on the Cooking Light food boards about a recipe from the March issue of the magazine - Lemon Pepper Shrimp Scampi. It's gotten good reviews and seemed like a pretty simple meal to put together, so last night that's what we had. The weeone and I are big shrimp fans so I figured this had a good chance of being a winner for both of us.

I altered the recipe a bit, in that I added some chopped zucchini to it to up the veggie factor and I used about 1/2 the amount of butter that it calls for in the recipe. They suggest sauteed asparagus as a side, but we opted for the broiled grape tomatoes topped with parmesan cheese that I've come to crave on a regular basis! This was a GREAT meal! This is a definite to-be-repeated in our house.

Here's the original recipe....

Lemon Pepper Shrimp Scampi
from March 2009 Cooking Light Magazine



4 servings (serving size: 1/2 cup orzo mixture and about 7 shrimp)

• 1 cup uncooked orzo
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
• 7 teaspoons unsalted butter, divided
• 1 1/2 pounds peeled and deveined jumbo shrimp
• 2 teaspoons bottled minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1. Cook orzo according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain. Place orzo in a medium bowl. Stir in parsley and 1/4 teaspoon salt; cover and keep warm.

2. While orzo cooks, melt 1 tablespoon butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle shrimp with remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt. Add half of shrimp to pan; sauté 2 minutes or until almost done. Transfer shrimp to a plate. Melt 1 teaspoon butter in pan. Add remaining shrimp to pan; sauté 2 minutes or until almost done. Transfer to plate.

3. Melt remaining 1 tablespoon butter in pan. Add garlic to pan; cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Stir in shrimp, juice, and pepper; cook 1 minute or until shrimp are done.

Nutritional Information

Calories:403 Fat:10.4g (sat 4.8g,mono 2.2g,poly 1.4g) Protein:40.1g Carbohydrate:34.7g Fiber:1.7g Cholesterol:276mg Iron:4.3mg Sodium:549mg Calcium:97mg

Oh - I forgot to tell you...

...about Spring Break!

The week of the weeone's Spring Break was also the week I returned to work. We didn't let that stop us from having a bit of fun though! I had just gotten my cast off, so with the help of Nana and Pap, we were able to take a little side trip to San Antonio! The plan was a quaint little drive through the bluebonnets with a pit stop at Buccee's (my total fave road trip pit stop) with an evening arrival in S.A.

We loaded down the car with road food (aka junk), drinks and people and we were off! The ride itself was pretty great. The bluebonnets were beautiful and the weeone, fresh off a unit on Texas at school, was full of information for us all on the state insect (the monarch butterfly), the state flower (the bluebonnet), etc, etc. Pap wasn't listening to me in the backseat, so we missed Buccee's and I didn't let him forget it the rest of the trip. =) We arrived in San Antonio shortly before dinner and I was able to prop my swollen foot up in the room while Nana and Pap headed to the pool to let the weeone have a quick swim. After a dip, some dinner and kisses goodnight, we all settled in for some sleep before a rowdy next day.

Friday we headed off to Sea World! I love Sea World. I love the animals, the shows, the fun of it all!!! We discovered that arriving early had benefits as they opened the front of the park an hour early, so we got to spend time with the Anheiser-Busch Clydesdales and feed the dolphins without too much of a crowd.


Once the park opened at 10am, we set out to see shows, play, laugh and eat as much junkfood as we possibly could. Mission: accomplished! One of my favorite things about Sea World is how "little kid" friendly it is. You can take any age child there and have fun. See? =)


But one of the highlights of this trip was that the weeone officially became a "big kid" by riding her first regular sized roller coaster, the Steel Eel!!! It was so fun. We had a great couple sitting in front of us who made a big deal out of her being the littlest one lined up to ride this big coaster and high-fiveing her at the end when she was aglow with happiness at how much fun the ride was. She's been bitten by the bug and I will now be riding every roller coaster in sight with her!!!


No trip to Sea World could be complete without spending a little quality time with everybody's favorite killer whale, Shamu! As always, Shamu did not disappoint. It was the last show we saw of the day and it was a great way to end a great day at Sea World.





Once we got back to the hotel we had happy hour in the hot tub and pool, ordered pizza and CRASHED!



Saturday morning we checked out of our hotel and headed to the Riverwalk area of San Antonio to spend some time at the San Antonio Children's Museum. They have a great museum and we had a great time.


The weeone and Pap spent some time building things as he imparted his engineering skills on her young mind.


She and I also got to sit in on a magic show! The magician made her float!!!

After the floating and all, we were hungry! So off to the Riverwalk for some good Mexican food. We ate at the Original - it's a great place right in the heart of the Riverwalk and has never let me down....and their margaritas are tasty! =)



Once our bellies were full and the car loaded down with people and stuff...we hopped up onto I-10 headed East. This time, the weeone nor I would let Pap forget Buccees!!! So we stopped and loaded down with snacks again for the ride home.

It was a fast, furious, and fun trip! We topped it off by having dinner with friends when we arrived to celebrate their oldest son's birthday....Happy Birthday R!


So, goodbye Spring Break - hope to see you next year!

Create Hope Challenge

It's not the easiest time economically in this country. And in case you forget that, the newspeople are doing their best to remind us constantly!!! I think it's time to change the tone. I think it's time to make happy things happen.

Do you know someone who needs a pick-me-up?

Read the Create Hope Challenge Blog and do something about it! And don't forget to pass it on. Let's blow out their goal of 2000 letters of hope covering 50 states!!!


So now go to the blog and read about how to encourage and, well, create hope!

Texas Traditions I'll Never Give Up...

There are a lot of things in Texas that can be considered traditions. High School football is almost a religion in Texas, huge mums at homecoming, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is a way of life in February, summers spent in Galveston lying on the beach and the annual event that can be seen on most Texas highways in the Spring - photos in the bluebonnets.

I've been taking the weeone's pictures in the bluebonnets since birth really. She is a March baby, so her first bluebonnet photos were of a completely asleep baby laying in flowers at 3 or 4 weeks old. Ever since, we've captured how much bigger she's gotten in comparison to those little blue beauties that grace us with their presence for just a few weeks each year.

Here are a few of my favorite shots from this year's Sunday in the bluebonnets....

Macaroni and Four Cheeses....yum!

I love macaroni and cheese. I really when it's baked in the oven and the tops and edges are crispy and toasted. The weeone, on the other hand, loves Kraft macaroni and cheese. Somewhere I went wrong with that kid! =) So, when I came across Ellie Krieger's Macaroni and Four Cheeses recipe I thought it would be a good mix of what we like. It's creamy on the inside and crunchy on the outside and is full of the nurtitional goodness that we like to get into our kids!

Ellie's recipe includes pureed winter squash. It's the squash that gives it the orange color that the weeone likes, but it's the combination of the cheeses and the breadcrumb topping that gives it the crunch I love so much. It's a quick and easy meal to put together and it makes a lot! I ended up splitting it into two pans and sending one pan home with my mom for her and my father to eat. I'm told they really liked it.

This was definitely not the weeone's favorite mac and cheese, but I think I'll probably make it again and decrease the amount of squash and increase the amount of cheese and try again.

Macaroni and Four Cheeses Ellie Krieger's The Food You Crave

• cooking spray
• 16 ounce(s) pasta, elbow macaroni, (1 box)
• 20 ounce(s) squash, winter, frozen pureed (2 packages)
• 2 cup(s) milk, lowfat (1%)
• 1 1/3 cup(s) cheese, cheddar, grated, extra-sharp (4 oz.)
• 2/3 cup(s) cheese, Monterey Jack, grated (2 oz.)
• 1/2 cup(s) cheese, ricotta, low-fat
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon mustard, dry
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper, cayenne
• 2 tablespoon bread crumbs, fine, dry
• 2 tablespoon cheese, Parmesan, freshly grated
• 1 teaspoon oil, olive

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Coat a 9 x 13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.

Cook the macaroni according the package directions. Drain and transfer to the prepared baking dish.

Meanwhile, place the frozen squash and milk in a large saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally and breaking up the squash with a spoon until it is defrosted. Turn the heat up to medium and cook until the mixture is almost simmering, stirring occasionally. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the cheddar, jack cheese, ricotta, salt, mustard, and cayenne. Pour this mixture over the macaroni and stir to combine.

Combine the breadcrumbs, Parmesan, and oil in a small bowl. Sprinkle over the top of the macaroni and cheese. Bake until the cheeses are bubbling around the edges, about 20 minutes, then broil for 3 minutes so the top is crisp and nicely browned.

Serving size: 2 cups

Number of servings: 8

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 390

Total Fat: 11 g

Sat Fat: 6 g

Cholesterol: 35 mg

Sodium: 547 mg

Total Carbohydrate: 56 g

Fiber: 3.5 g

Protein: 18 g