First grade TURDS!

My little girl is 6, she will be 7 in April.  Christmas has been magical since her being in my life circa 2007.  I love it and it's the best thing to see her eyes light up and just very happy about all the things Santa brought her.  The way we explain it here in our house is that momma and daddy pay Santa for the toys he brings to our house.  2008 brought us Jack Jack (our super cute spoil rotten dog), 2009 brought momma a blown out back and lots of fun games and toys, 2010 was a tight Christmas and 2011 is was shaping up to be awesome until my sweet adorable FIRST GRADE child tells me on Friday that Jayce and Jaquawn told her there is no Santa Clause.  When I asked her what she retorted back to them, she said that you have to believe in santa in order for him to be real and that they were dumb boys who didn't believe but Santa is alive and real and she knew it!




It broke my heart that one lame butt first grade repeat kid and another little follower had nerve to tell my child as well as all of their classmates that Santa Claus was not real.  I wanted to punch his face in but what is a nice mom like me to do?  The ring leader goes to religion class on Mondays where I teach,  so I did pull his mom aside and talk to her. She was mortified and said that he still believes, she has no clue why he told Alesi that but she was sorry.  I told her I covered it well, no worries.




Let me tell you how I did so!



I put up Christmas decor outside today because work has been crazy and I refuse to put the decor up in the freezing cold snap we had last week.  I had to go get stakes to put the rope lights up along the driveway.  While I was there, I passed a pink mini tree, complete with base and nearby were tiny purple bulbs to put on it.  I decided right then and there I was going to "write" a letter "from Santa" as a thank you for believing in him.  So the note read as follows:


Dear Alesi,


Sorry I used your notebook, but I left mine at the North Pole.  I just wanted to say thank you for believing in me. You have been such a good girl this year so the elves cleaned your room and made your bed. Please make sure to keep being a good girl for mom and dad.  I will make sure you get everything you asked for this year.

Santa Claus

PS-Rudolph asks that you leave extra carrots this year.


She came home and went to her room to pick something up and came out without noticing the note left.  She was like mom you cleaned my room, and I acted dumb and said of course I didnt!  She then asked where I got the tree from and I was all like "you are full of bologna" and she made me go see.  She read most of the note and was so excited.  Ya'll, her eyes were like glazed donuts she was so excited. 



Take that you little first grade assholes.

Take that, Banquet! *chicken pot pie recipe*

I buy a pair of whole chickens at Sam's usually once a month.  I can usually buy them for .79 a lb so it's a pretty decent deal.  My mother in law bought me an electric roaster a year or two ago and I use it for a bunch of different things.  I usually roast my chickens in that with my own simple recipe.  I rinse both chickens and pat them dry.  I sprinkle them with sea salt, season all, garlic powder and ground savory or sage.  I had to buy those seasonings for something one time so I use them when I roast chickens.  I also put half an onion on the inside of each chicken and a couple of garlic cloves if I have them on hand.  I like to season my food well, I don't like bland food at all. If you are watching your salt content, simply leave out the sea salt.  I roast the chickens overnight usually on 200-250 depending on when I put them in to when I wake up.  I get up at 6 so if I go to bed at midnight, they get put on 250 for 6 hours.  I also peel carrots (I buy a 5 lb bag of whole carrots at Sam's for usually $2) and put them whole in the bottom of the roaster, as that constitutes as my veggie side!  So that's how I roast my chicken.  Now for my chicken pot pie recipe, use whatever kind of chicken you want but I try to cook in abundance to use for more than one recipe.  For instance, with those two roasted chickens I've made roasted chicken, chicken pot pie, chicken salad, and chicken noodle soup today!



Ok back to the recipe at hand.  I like chicken pot pie.  In college, the banquet or swanson turkey and chicken pot pies were a favorite of mine b/c it was quick and easy. Now that I'm a momma and responsible for feeding my husband and half pint quality nutritious food, well I've had to adjust and I love it. I love to cook and try new things.  I can't ever ever remember my mom making chicken pot pie.  I'm from south Louisiana and we really don't eat that from scratch here.


I've tried a few recipes for chicken pot pie but the one I had last night really took the cake for me.  My only regret was that I used a bag of veggies that had green beans and corn in it and it threw the taste off for me but I loved the base of it. I'm long winded, sorry ya'll!  Here is what it looked like:

Here is my recipe:

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1.5 cup half and half
3 tablespoons cream cheese (cut into small cubes)
2 cups chicken stock
1 16 oz bag of frozen peas and carrots
1 cup cubed potatoes (preboiled to almost done)
2 cups shredded chicken (if you dont like as much meat, you can reduce this to the amount you   
    prefer)
1 can crescent rolls
Seasonings you prefer-garlic powder, sage, season all, sea salt, cracked pepper, Tony's, paprika, etc


In medium pot, melt butter. Once fully melted, add flour and cook down for 2-3 minutes.  Add cream cheese and melt it completely.  Add in the half and half, all while whisking.  It will get clumpy.  It's ok--the stock will thin it out but remember to continue to wisk.  Let it cook about 2-3 minutes.  Add stock and wisk in completely. Add seasonings according to your taste buds.  Let cook for approx 10 minutes.  Then add shredded chicken and veggies. Preheat the oven to 350 at this point. Cook for about 15 minutes. 

Pour chicken mixture into a square pyrex.  I used  a smaller 3 or 4 quart deep dish.  Remember you have to use just one can of crescent rolls for the topping so you have to have enough dough to fit the dish.    After you pour the mixture, lay each stretched out crescent roll on top of the mixture to cover it completely.

Bake at 350 for 26-30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Banana Pudding

I think I made the best banana pudding I've ever had in my life, ever.

You know the kind--vanilla wafers, banana's, some serious condensed milk.

Would you be interested in the recipe?

Halloween Ideas

I've begun decorating my front porch for Halloween. I love to decorate ya'll.  I wish I had more hours in the day to decorate every single little thing.  I mean for example right now, I have the fall leaf garlands draped over my curtains in the living and dining room.  I live to decorate, for everything.  You should see when Alesi's birthday comes around. Everything is themed!   I even have themed towels handing on the stove handle.  Yes, I'm that mom.


So when I saw this on pinterest, I fell in love.  I never ever ever thought of spray painting christmas garland. I have a metric ton of that stuff!

Let me show you the picture so you can stop wondering "what the heck is this chick blabbering about?"

Specifically I want to make this

I didn't want to spend a fortune however on the pumpkins.  So in a quick fix at target, I bought three halloween candy buckets and am going to glue them together.  I will make sure to throw something heavy in the bottom pumpkin so it doesn't tip over.  I might make some fun arrangement or something in the open top of the pumpkin.  We'll see how this project turns out!

Oh Thursday!

I've been up since 6:00 am.

So far, I've gotten half pint dressed, fed and on the bus.

I've consumed a cup of coffee.

I've taken a shower and put make up on.

My hair is wet.

I have a lunch date with a coworker at 12:30 or so.

I need to dry my hair.


I dont wannaaaaa do ittttttttttttt.



Private Practice's new season premiers tonight.

Benjamin Bratt doesn't look so hot anymore since he is super skinny.  I need him to eat some cheeseburgers and bulk up at the gym.


I have a long list of things I want to accomplish today and tomorrow and nothing has gotten done yet.


Did I mention I worked 6 days straight?


Did I mention there was a huge article on yahoo yesterday about an iPhone gathering Tuesday to discuss something.

Are you thinking there will be an iphone 5 launch?  That's what we've been thinking at work for the last two months.

If my vacation gets pushed back in Nov, I'm going to cry.


I can't believe stupidSTUPID apple will launch a new phone so close to Christmas.  Do they know what they're going to do to me?  My feet will die, my knees will be blown out and my legs will hurt like nobody's business!


I'm being selfish.  I know.



UGH!!!!

Coworker Birthdays

My coworker Becky is celebrating her 20th birthday this weekend. Since I start my vacation on her birthday and she has vacation this weekend, I am making her birthday treat to bring to work on Friday.  I semi started a tradition to make my coworkers a baked goodie on their birthday but I haven't followed thru with all of them because of their days off conflicting with my work days and not knowing when they come in.

My girl Becky loves her some cookies!  I think she'd kill me if I didn't make her some sort of cookie for her treat.  We work together in retail in a mall at a cell phone store so her normal go to cookie spot is The Great American Cookie Co.  Her favorite cookie is a double doozie and man are they a double doozie of a taste and price! Those stinkers are almost $4 a pop!  This is what it looks like:

If you do not have a GACC, shame on your town.  Or maybe you live in a itty bitty town, in which you should totally start a petition and make all of your neighbors sign it in order for your mayor to make GACC open a location near you.


There is an alternate way to achieve this cookie above and one of my friends came up with the recipe.  Hillary over at The Sassy One blog posted this recipe and I knew the minute she posted it, my coworker would enjoy them for her birthday!  So using this recipe, I set out to make the cookies. My first batch came out uneven and jagged edges so I just used a teaspoon full of cookie dough, rolled it into a ball and flattened them with my palm to bake them. I wanted to eat them straight out of the oven they were SO GOOD! From here on out, that will be my go to chocolate chip recipe!  I definitely used the mini chips and loved the flavor and amount of chocolate that came out in them.  After they cooled and I begged my husband to pick up heavy cream on his way home from police academy because I forgot to get some, I set out to make the cake batter cream.  Heaven--it's all I can say!



Hillary--You get 42 thumbs up from our store because my coworkers loved them!  Even the chick fil a employees across from us got to indulge in a few and they loved them too!


Today is my last day of work before I start a week long very well deserved vacation.  Since my girl is in school and hubby is in police academy, I'm going to enjoy a staycation.  I will be pulling down the fall bins from the attic to fall-ize my mantle and house!  I can't wait!  Thanks to Pinterest, I've found a ton of fall inspiration and I am transforming the entire house! I also found quite a few fall projects I will be indulging in for her class and teachers!  It's going to be AWESOME!!!!


Thanks for visiting my blog.  I think this coming week's agenda will also consist of a tutorial on how to make cajun (read: not spicy like everyone thinks it is) jambalaya--Cajun Fleur Style!

First sign

I woke up this morning and the breeze was blowing. It's been hotter than I don't want to tell you what comes to mind, but it's been smoldering.  So when I went outside and I wasn't sweating, err I mean glowing, between my boobs--I knew fall was on the horizon!  I know I live in the deep south and I know it's supposed to be hot down here.  It doesn't mean I have to keep my heat fussing to a minimum!


So with the cool weather on the horizon and leftover shredded chicken in my fridge, I knew chicken sausage and okra gumbo were on the horizon!  I even took pics of almost all of the steps to show you how it looks because I know cooking cajun food can be interesting to say the least!

So we start out with some oil in a large pot.

 

 

 Chop one large onion into small pieces.  I don't like huge onions so I cut them fine. Put them in the pot on medium to high heat.  I put mine on 6-7 on a scale of 10.  I also added a chunk (read this as half) of a bell pepper.  When I get bell peppers on sale, I dice them up and freeze them. I take out what I need and presto.  I had red and yellow in the freezer, but you can use green if that's what you have.

 See how frozen it is?

 Well I put the lid on the pot for 3-4 minutes and when I remove it, it's all defrosted so I break it up!

 Then I add two stalks of celery after peeling it and get most of the strings out.  Onions, bell pepper and celery are considered the  trinity in cajun cooking ;) I also add some pressed garlic as well to my onion mixture!

 So you want to cook it down for a while, and at this point if you are cooking with gas, turn it to medium low. I also throw in some tony's I'm always talking about!

 So you want the trinity mixture to resemble about this, if not a little more cooked down.

 Then you want to add some fresh or frozen okra.  Frozen was cheaper so that's what I used.  However, I picked the tops out of it.  The top of the stalk, I threw those away.  You don't have to put okra in it but I like to sneak it in there.  If you don't use okra, skip the next few steps!

 Ok it's in the pot!  You will have to cook it down a ton to get rid of the slime.

 This is the beginning stages of cooking it down.  I like for mine to cook down to hardly anything but partial skins and seeds.  This isn't what it looks like that but I'm showing you the cooking stages I shot.

 I want mine cooked down more so I turn it to medium and cook it down some.

 I notice mine is starting to burn so I add in about an inch of water to the pot and throw in two chicken bouillon cubes.

 It's cooking down nicely and you see in the below picture it's starting to really break down.

 So I don't know how to make a roux so since I conquered frying chicken yesterday, I figured my super powers would carry over to making a roux. so here is the oil heating up.

 I added flour and started browning it down.  So far so good, right?

 Meanwhile, I throw in my sausage and shredded chicken to the other pot as well as about 6-8 cups of water and another 2 bouillon cubes.  You can eye ball it on the amount of chicken.  I used the meat from one whole chicken I cooked in the crock pot. You could definitely use a rotisserie chicken here and use that meat. I also use about 2 lbs and a half of sausage but this  makes a HUGE pot!

 Look at this goodness going on in the gumbo pot!

What's going on with my roux you ask?  Well I cooked it down until it started cooking down and getting darker.  I always have trouble when I add the roux to the gumbo pot that it coagulates and is clumpy and just not right.  So I tried to add some of the broth from the gumbo pot into the roux to see what happens.  This is what happens--it curdled and sucks and is awful!

 Thank HEAVEN for roux in a can/jar/shaker! I put in about a tablespoon in at a time and stir so it doesn't clump.

 This is what I call magic in a bag tho right here below.  I add this entire bag in my gumbo (before I add the chicken and sausage in) just a little at a time and stir well. I keep doing this until the entire bag is in. You have to do this slowly or you will have clumps!

From there, I let it cook down for a good hour and a half.  I also add file powder but that's a local thing here to use.  Serve over rice and you can't forget about the potato salad!!!

You know I like my Chicken fried

You know I like my chicken fried, cold beer on a friday night, pair of jeans that fit just right and the radio uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup!  Oh how I love you Zach Brown Band!

I am from the south--we fry everything.  Let me rephrase--I enjoy purchasing fried things but I don't know how to fry things.  Shocker?  For those of you who know me personally, you know I can cook anything. I can make creme brulee for crying out loud!  There are a few things I haven't managed to master in the kitchen--frying things being one of them.  I mean, it couldn't be that hard, right?  For my birthday in July, I asked my mom to buy me a fry daddy.  She bought me this one and I have to say--it's awesome! 

I looked everywhere for a plain recipe of how to bread and fry chicken wings.  I had two small packs in my freezer for a bit and took them out to thaw yesterday to ensure I would use them.  With it raining cats and dogs outside thanks for Tropical Storm Lee, I figured today would be the day that I conquer my fear of frying things.  Chicken wings I paid maybe $3 total for the two packs were the prime target.  If I ruined them, I could always make some mac and cheese and make grilled ham sammies to go with it, right? 

OK so I set out  looking for a recipe of how to bread them and it stick.  In my previous attempts of frying, the breading has fallen off.  I didn't understand why it fell off. Was the oil not hot enough? was it too hot?  Did I marinate them and shouldn't have?  Too much flour?  not enough batter?  I was at the end of my rope so I googled it.  I didn't find a whole lot of anything that gave me a clear idea of what I was doing wrong.  The directions they had online were what I had gone off of before and I failed then.  I wasn't failing today.

I share recipes with my coworkers often at work. One of my cw's is from New Jersey and I love her to pieces.  It was a rocky relationship in the beginning but I heart her and love working with her now.  She had asked me before for a baked wing recipe to do hot wings, and it came up in convo before she knew how to fry chicken.  So when I couldn't find what I was looking for, I went to the one person I knew would give me what I was looking for.  She is just learning how to cook more, but let me tell you--she knew what she was talking about.  She told me her mom taught her you dunk the seasoned chicken (just with salt, pepper, tony's, whatever else you were using) in ice cold water, flour them, dunk them back in the ice cold water and flour them all over again.  I was VERY hesitant at this technique b/c wouldn't the seasoning blend come off when I dunked it in water, and then the flour come off when I dunked it back in there?

I was nervous but I did one wing her way before I did all of them.  Holy schnikes--her momma knew her stuff!  It fried crispy and perfect--I was so excited. I immediately texted her and told her that her momma knew her stuff and to tell her I love her.  She laughed and said she would let her know and pump her head up for me.  If her momma lived down here, I'd have totally went to find her, hug her and tell her I'd mop her floors or do some chores around her house.  My frying fear had finally be conquered.  I won the battle.  Now my jeans won't like me this fall probably now but that's ok!  I was hoping they wouldn't fit this fall anyways!


No Fail Fried Chicken Wings




however many chicken wings you need for your family


4 cups of flour seasoned with season all, salt, pepper, whatever you prefer


seasoning you prefer for your chicken

3 cups ice cold water
Enough oil for the pot/fryer you are using to fry said chicken




Heat oil to 375 and ensure it's that hot.  Season chicken accordingly how you prefer it to be. 
Dunk seasoned chicken quickly in ice cold water, ensure it all gets coated.
Flour the chicken completely.
Dunk chicken back in ice cold water, drip off and put back in flour.
Flour chicken again really well.

Once oil is heated to the desired temp, then drop wings in small groups in the oil.  Your
 chicken should be completely submerged in the oil.  My chicken wings were fried 3 at a time in my fryer and it took 9 minutes to fry each batch.  It was tedious but it's only three of us and I only friend 12 wings! The time really flew by!

Shrimp and Corn Bisque--a la quick style!

I love living in south Louisiana a good bit more now than I did growing up.  I lived in my small town until I was 18 and moved to a larger city a bit north of my hometown to attend college. From there, I moved to NYC and finally realized the south is where I belong for a number of reasons.  Many of those reasons include local things such as shrimp, crawfish, crabs, oysters, gumbo, jambalaya, oh and my momma and daddy mainly!!  I couldn't live far away from my parents ever again, it's just not in my bones!


My husband went with a buddy of his on a fishing expedition to catch shrimp a few months back.  Most of you who follow this blog prior to this entry do not know much about shrimping/trawling but it's a way of life down here. It is also a job for many people that live here.  I can't tell you how often I see signs up or now posts on facebook that there are shrimp for sale at such and such place, so much for an ice chest.  I can't tell you how many "shrimp peeling gatherings" that have taken place underneath my parent's carport.  Growing up, I loathed hearing that my parents bought an ice chest of shrimp because it meant I had to help peel them and I knew my fingers would be sore and prune-y after all was said and done.  Either way, my husband went in May to catch shrimp so I have several bags of peeled uncooked shrimp in my freezer right now.  The other night, I wanted to try a recipe floating around in my head for shrimp bisque.  I know this is why you are reading this so let me get to the point--it was amazing.  My daughter said it was the best thing she's ever tasted, second only to my red beans but it was close!

Here's the recipe--sorry there isn't a picture to go with this post.  My husband and child scarfed it right up in no time!



Shrimp and Corn Bisque 

1 lb peeled shrimp, uncooked
 2 tablespoons of oil (olive or cooking, your choice)
1/4 cup green onions, diced finely
1/2 stick real butter
1 can cream of onion soup
3 cups milk (2% or whole)
2-3 tablespoons flour
3-4 small white potatoes (red can be substitued), peeled and chopped into small cubes
1 small bag of frozen corn
1  can of evaporated milk
2 tsps each of:  savory seasoning (isnt a must, in case you don't have this), oregano, red pepper,
       garlic powder, season salt (tony's is my choice being here in south LA), crushed rosemary
1 cup of shredded  cheese, your choice of monterrey, colby, or gruyer.  I just recommend a white
          cheese with some flavor to it!

optional:
leftover crawfish tails from a crawfish boil you had at your house a month or two ago and needed to
           use before they went bad from freezer burn
crab meat from the above mentioned boil

1. Heat oil in medium size pot.  Add onions and green onions to the pot and sautee until cooked down to be soft and clear
2  Add chopped potatoes.  Cook down until potatoes are soft and starting to come apart easily with a spoon. Add butter
3. Add in shrimp/any other seafood you are adding to the bisque as well as the frozen corn to the pot.  Cook down until shrimp and corn are cooked thoroughly.
4. Add can of soup, can of evaporated milk, and seasonings to the pot and stir in completely. You want to make sure your soup isn't lumpy. Mix regular milk and flour in a separate cup thoroughly ensuring there are no lumps of flour in the milk mixture.
5.  Add the milk mixture and cheese to the pot and let cook on low/simmer for about 20-30 minutes.  You want to stir it often so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the bottom.  If the soup gets too thick, you can add in whole or 2% milk in 1/2 cup increments, but make sure you cook it down to ensure it all blends in.


Enjoy!!

Cookies first, pasta second

I shamelessly told ya'll that you should stop what you are doing to make those cookies from last blog post. Did you do it?  If not, you SHOULD! Hello, they are amazing.

This post is now to tell you to make this for supper tomorrow night.  I made it tonight for us and my daughter cleaned her plate!  The only change is that I added some mushrooms in the mix that I had leftover from another dish prep this week so I threw those in too.


OMG is it wrong that I'm wanting to eat it for breakfast tomorrow?

My hubby is working nights tonight so his opinion hasn't been established yet. I'll let you know tomorrow how he enjoys it :)

Hope everyone has a great week!

Unequivocally

I work with a bunch of greedy hungry people at work.  I fit right in because I'm always trying to feed everyone so it's been a semi match made in heaven :) I say the greedy hungry with the upmost fun and giggle when I say it. I have fabulous coworkers who not only work well all together but they are genuine and truly love one another outside of work too.

So I have quite a few cookie monsters at work so I set out yesterday to find a good chewy cookie recipe.  We have a cookie company in our mall but man they are almost $2 each per cookie! I mean it's highway robbery.  So when I found this recipe, I was skeptical but I had all the ingredients so I said what the heck. I could make one batch to test them out, then if I didn't like them, we could enjoy cookie dough ice cream or something.

Very rarely do I find a cookie recipe that says they are chewy and soft batch-like and live up to that title.  But man do these cookies right here really live up to it! I mean they are phenomenally delicious. I think you should stop what you are doing, put two sticks of butter on the counter and wait until it's room temp so you can make these cookies. I think it's key that the butter is seriously room temp and soft! I left mine out all day while I was at work yesterday so don't judge.

However, do not blame me if you gain any weight after you make 254254 batches of this cookie, ok?


I hope to update later on tonight more about our family and what's been going on in the Fanguy house.  I might also share my shrimp and potato soup recipe that I have floating in my head and will cook tonight.  I have a feeling it's going to be uh-maaaay-zing!


Just sayin'!


Because I'm a first grader, whatssuuuup!

Trying to find time

I'm dedicating myself to writing more in this blog. I've had another blog home for so long but the place isn't the same.  I only stop in there to check on my usuals and those are people I have every day contact with via FB, text or email/calls.  Is it sad I rely so heavily on electronic communication instead of good ol' fashioned phone calls?  It's  just so hard because I know my lovelies are busy during the day before I head to work and by the time I get off at 9:30 or so, they are well on their way to sleep or enjoying the peace and quiet of their precious children sleeping after asking them an insane amount of questions all day long.

Do your kids do that?  I love my child but every day its question after question. She's at the age where she wants to defend her point of view too.  I need to remember to not be my mom and just say "Because I said so" every time she asks why.  That used to bother the heck out of me, but you know you can't avoid it some times.


So today is Tuesday.  I tried last week to make this last week but I put it in my small crock pot which doesn't have an auto shut off. I left detailed instructions to my husband to turn it off before he left at 5 pm to head to work.  Imagine my utter surprise (notice the sarcasm) that he didn't turn it off and it burned my crock pot up!  So I tried it again in my large crockpot, doubled the recipe sort of, and it has a digital timer on it to turn it to warm when I say so.  If only I could marry a digital crockpot, right?  Just kidding, err sort of.

Today's menu consists of leftovers for my lunch bag for work with a salad and some green beans.  Whatever is left over tonight after half pint and my mom eat, I plan on making some chicken and dumplins' with.  I mean the basis for the crock recipe is the base for my chicken and dumplins sort of anyways.  I'll let you know how that turns out. Heck, I might try to even make it in my crock pot and post a recipe for ya'll!


I was supposed to make muffins for our family last night and I was just too dog tired to do so.  I was off yesterday but enjoyed the peace and quiet all day because HP was at school and my lovely husband is on nights so he slept until at least 2.  I can't do much while he is sleeping so I just fiddled around on the internet, book marked some recipes I'd like to try this week. I really want to try to do an advanced menu planning system.  Work will hopefully be slow today so maybe I can make a weekly calendar of menus to try to keep my brain from churning at all times of what I will be making for supper.  It's a beast to cook at 7 AM and then head to work after.  If only I had a regular 8-5 job, right?


I love my job, I do but man the hours stink.  Christmas will be a nightmare this year.


And on a final note, I am trying to snag some tickets to a no name opponent game vs LSU this year.  I will be reaching out secretly to a few friends to try to snag some LSU tickets for me and my hubby as an anniversary gift.  I just have to keep the purchase on the DL so it can remain a surprise! I also need to figure out his work schedule to make damn sure he can actually go.  He is going thru police academy and it is probably going to be the death of me!


Ok ta ta for now ladies and germs!

First day*

I'm anxiously awaiting half pint coming home from her first day of first grade!  Last night, she was really bummed about going back to school.  She loves school but she was overwhelmed with emotion because she said she'd miss me and daddy too much.  She tugged at my heart with that one ya'll.  I love my child, for real.  She is an amazing kid and she always knows what to say to her momma to make her heart melt.

So instead of moping around or putting my foot down about it in a mean way, I told her she would finally not be in the baby portables at school and would have a big kid class finally!  She said "I'm a first grader, what's up!" and I started rapping to it.  Yes I am a white girl.  Yes I dance like a white girl most days.  But this white girl rapped.  I know ya'll want to hear it right? Let me share!

The above convo I discussed happened while she was in the tub bathing.  When she got out and dressed, we packed her school bag and she immediately started carrying it around with all the millions of school supplies she had to bring on her first day.  The video above was taken in her room.  I love my child. You have to watch it.  I dare you not to bust out laughing!!

So it was only fitting this morning, I woke her up singing her rap song.  She got up happy and we got on our way to getting dressed, eating breakfast, giving daddy some sleepy sugahs, and then waiting outside for the bus.  Of course I took pics and of COURSE I'm making you see them :)

 the absolute sweetest face in the world that I couldnt say no to if I tried today!!

 DIVA!

 Her first pair of big girl expensive tennis shoes!

I'll fill you in tomorrow on how today went. She also said she hoped her kindgarten boyfriends are in her class. Shoot. ME.NOW!

Thursday Chatter

Today is one of my glorious two days off of work this week. I had Monday off but spent a huge part of it getting things done around the house.

Today, I didn't do much at all since Alesi is in Biloxi and comes back tomorrow.  I slept until 11:28. I know, pick up your jaws.  I never ever EVER sleep past 9:30 at the latest on a good day.  I am very fortunate to have a very sweet child who loves her sleep and this summer has slept most mornings until about 9:30.   Being that I work most nights until 9:30 pm and my child waits up for me most days to see me because she can, we enjoy sleeping in a bit in the AM.  That changes Monday obviously with the return of school.  She is going back to school-I want to cry but I also am excited. Sleeping until 11:30 today is going to be my last treat of sleeping in for a very long time.


Wait, I did do stuff today.  I cleared out our front garden/flowerbed that was completely overgrown and horrid.  I also sprayed for the ridiculous amount of ants we have in our yard lately due to all the stinkin' rain.  I won't complain about the rain because it has kept us very cool this summer.  Today was awful in the heat dept but I know plenty of blogger friends out there are going thru even more sweltering temperatures.  It's been a hum dinger of a summer and I'm hoping that we don't get a hurricane this year.  Speaking of, I need to add water and spaghetti O's to the grocery list for tomorrow.  Don't judge!  If you don't have electricity, spaghetti o's come in handy :)

I'm going to step back to a few pictures of Alesi since she started school two  years ago.  I can't believe how big she has gotten!

Pre-k circa 2009

I love this sweet face!

She didn't want to leave her daddy that day!

First day of Kindergarten 2010

I just can't wait my toota-bug is starting first grade on Monday. She is growing up TOO FAST!!!

Police Academy

My husband starts police academy at 8 AM tomorrow morning.  This is going to be a long 16 weeks, God help  me!  I know this sounds ridiculous to some of you and you will raise your eye brows at me, but I think it'll give me a small taste of what single parents feel like at times doing everything on their own.

It's just been an interesting ride so far.  I'm so over working wild hours and really hope and pray for a M-F job to land in my lap with my company but there isnt a chance in hell for that to happen.

I need to blog more here but I'm torn in what direction I want to take this.  I am suffering from insomnia right now so I do apologize for the ramblings.

My husband's big 3-0 day!

Tomorrow my sweet, loving, stinky, stubborn and amazing husband turns 30!  There will be no large party or anything as it falls on a week day and well--I never ever get weekends off.  I am off today and tomorrow and he said he wanted to stay close to home to celebrate his bday.  We may or may not indulge in a night out tomorrow at a decent restaurant to consume some serious steak!  We'll see tho :)



I think I will make him this dessert and I am definitely making this at some point this week because he loves it!  I've made it a couple times and he and our daughter can't chew it fast enough to take another bite!  If you can--definitely try it. I've made it with and without the spinach and they like it either way.  It's ridiculously delicious :)


Other than that, I'm laying on the couch watching Despicable Me with my sweet little family instead of cleaning the living room, or bathrooms or dusting.  The dust bunnies are about to kick us out of our bedroom tho. I need to get on that tonight!


I'm going to enjoy the peace, quiet and kicking AC right now! 

Hope ya'll had a great 4th!

Never ending cycle

I am so exhausted most nights.  My husband works 7 days on (6a to 6p) then off 7 days and then 7 days of nights (6p to 6a) then 7 days off. Me?  I work all kinds of hours.  I work for a cellular company in a mall so I work some days 930a-9p, or 11-9, or on Sundays I work 11-6.  I'm all different hours, every single week.

When I come home most nights at 9 or 930, I am exhausted but there is a ton to do.  The week my husband is on nights is my most productive night.  I come home and usually dunk my little girl in the tub.  While she is bathing, I clean up the kitchen and do laundry in between picking up things around the house.  I get her out the tub and snuggle her while I read her a bedtime story.  We talk about the day she had and I then put her to bed.  I finally get some time to sit and relax in peace and quiet.  Once she is asleep, which doesn't take long--then I'm in overdrive.  Swapping laundry batches, folding, hanging the clothes as they come out the dryer.  Did she pick up her stuff in the bathroom when she was done bathing? Did she remember to pick up her supper dishes (She usually does pick up behind herself but I have to check)  Are my husband work undershirts clean?  Should I vacumn now or later?  Dust now or later?  What's for supper tomorrow?  So many questions run thru my head.

Here I am at 11:15 at night and my child is at her nanny's for the weekend and my husband is asleep but I can't seem to find the motivation to lift the leg rest on my chair much less pick up the laundry littering the coffee table, all folded and hung ready to be put away.  The kitchen is clean but man clean pots/pans/towels litter the counter begging to be picked up.  I don't even have the energy.

How can I have so much energy when I'm home alone and have to do it all alone, yet when my child isn't here and my husband is asleep--I can't do jack crud!

I am trying to blog more.  I miss it. It is so therapeutic to write out how you feel and what you hope to improve on.  I just wish I had another set of untired legs to use when I come home at night after working 10 hours on your feet all day.


Good night all! Hope I still have some readers out there!

More than anything in the world

I asked my husband this week for a baby for my birthday gift.  Sounds dumb, right?

There isn't anything (other than a color Nook) that I want right now--so I asked for a baby.


We have our beautiful daughter Alesi but she isn't my biological child so I didn't get to have her from day one.  I met her when she was 2 and I've been her mom from that day on.  I love her and nothing could ever ever change the amount of love I have for her.  I love her like I'd love my own flesh and blood I would carry for 9 months.

I just want a child.  I've been bummed lately that it hasn't happened but I know I have to wait for when God feels the need to give me one.  I want the 9 months of extra weight, and heart burn, and hiccups, and acrobatic routines in my stomach! I just want it all and I want it NOW!

It just sucks.  Especially since I read that Nadya Suleman (You know, Octo-mom) has gone and said she hates her babies and they disgust her.


Really?   I'd like to smack her--that's for sure.


I just keep on praying and you know, enjoying my husband until we get knocked up ;)



Have a great weekend ya'll!

The one where my OCD finally overcame my busy life

I love to organize things. I was that kid who had their school bag packed at least a full week before school started.  There was an episode of the Cosby Show where Rudy had even packed her lunch a full week before school started, a delightful lunch of tuna salad on wheat bread.  I was that kind of kid! 

I've lived a few different places since graduating high school.  I always accumulate too much stuff.  My husband and I bought our house 3 years ago and trust me when I tell you we moved from a shoebox to a mansion. Our rent house (shoebox, 2 bedroom at that!) was TINY and only 500 square feet at best maybe, and that's stretching it.  When we moved everything out of the rent house into our house 3 years ago, I had no clue how we ever fit everything we did into that rent house.  We had things everywhere at our house when we moved in, and it was even hard finding spots for it in our 1650 square foot home.

Our house now is 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom and one large walk in closet which was dubbed an office.  It was a good size and it was the selling point for us at the time of purchasing since I worked from home at the time.  Four bedrooms were out of our price range and I didn't want to take the entire 3rd bedroom as my office.  So we bought the house and the "office" has always been the home for my desktop CPU but it's always housed everything else.  Our kitchen has minimal storage and being the foodie I am, it just doesn't have enough space for all the gadgets I have.  I mean I have a creme brulee torch, a mortar and pestle, a pan for every baking scenario, and a wok for crying out loud.  I have everything else known to man, so it's housed all of my kitchen overflow (read as everything stored in there but our dishes and toaster!)

I keep the door closed and am mortified at how dirty it is, but no one ever sees it.  I didn't have any other place to put my desktop but I rarely used my desktop since I hated going in and seeing the clutter.  It made me sick but I didn't know how to combat it.  Well this past week I purchased a laptop and came to the conclusion I just needed to turn my "office" into a butler's pantry of sort.   My dad scored us a free upright freezer about 2 or 3 months ago and it's been sitting under his carport waiting for us to find a space for it in our home.  I would like to stock up cooked food since my husband works crazy hours and it's super hard to cook for just my daughter and I all week being that I work until 9 at night.  So I decided today was the day I cleaned that office out and made it into the pantry I've dreamed of since forever.

I'm currently sitting on the sofa smiling because  after over 3 years of living in this house--it's DONE! I have to wait until tomorrow to get the freezer and put the big bookcase back in to house our pictures, yearbooks, and mementos on. When my cell phone cooperates, I will post before and after pictures.  For now, I rest assured knowing I organized it :)

The time comes...

...where you run thru a hallway to get to the arena to watch your 6 year old tap her heart out to the Disney version of Mambo #5 and you find yourself crying.  You have tears in your eyes while she taps her llittle heart out and you know she isn't doing the steps like a skilled tap dancer would, but you are crying none the less.

Let's back up to this prior weekend.  My sweet, adorable, drama-queen, talking back expert, awesome little girl had her second dance recital.  Being that I'm that mom, I volunteered to be the class mom since I had the day off and I hadn't gotten many chances to volunteer for other things since I work all of the dang time. So we set off Saturday to first grab McDonald's for lunch then head over to recital practice.  I know better than to not feed my dramatic child before we do anything. She will act like she hasn't eaten in months if I didn't.  So we had an early lunch and then headed over to the rehearsal.

It was a madhouse there.  The civic center they were having it at had guaranteed the dance company's owner they could get it at 10 AM.  It was 12:30 before they let them in, the time the mom's were told to have the children there for recital practice.  We muddled thru it and it went as quickly as it could go.  We finally got out of there and headed home.

Sunday (recital day) I got up and hand curled my child's stubborn hair because she was destraught the day before thatn Cailey, Kaley, and Kallee's hair were all curled and hers wasn't.  My child's hair is bone straight, as if I flat ironed it every hour on the hour and it never ever got wet and it wasn't humid as the dickens down here in South Louisiana.    I get her make up done as well, because that was something else she groaned about the day before at rehearsal.  Ok check check, and CHECK!

We finally set out to the recital two hours+ before it was due to start.  That's the time we were told to be there, so we were.  Almost all of the class showed up on time, minus one child.  I won't get into how that mom thought it was OK to show up with her child 20 minutes before the recital started.  Whatever!   Ok so one of my jobs as class mom was to line the girls up in line as they were to perform.  I had to stay with the girls in a hall way in the back to ensure they remained quiet and in order while others were dancing on stage. So when it came time to get on stage, I had to put those little jerks princesses on stage. I was so ver their fighting and my child's jealousy at that time.  I would compliment one of the other 23 girls in her class and she immediately wanted to hold my hand or hug me or give me a kiss.  I proceeded to tell my husband that night we had to have another child and STAT!  The jealousy thing has to go like 1999!

So I get the jerks on stage and run (and I mean shoes off so I don't slip, fat girl run) down the hall to get to the arena to see my child dance. I paid all that money after all, by golly I want to see her butt dance!  I find a spot to sit at and proceed to wait for the curtain to be pulled back.  There she is, smiling huge and her eyes searching for me.  She won't see me but she knows her daddy and I are out there somewhere watching her.  She is in her stance and the music starts.  Her hips start shaking and she starts her dance, the dance we have practiced every day for the last 2 weeks to ensure she knows what she is doing.  She is dancing her heart out and smiling away.  She never once looked to the side curtains to see what steps she should be doing.

I felt something wet on my hands in my lap.  I realize that I am crying at this point, because I am so proud of her. She is up there just radiating everything I know to be true about her--her sweet demeanor that gives me a foot rub if I say I had a long day, the times she saves her red starbursts for me because she knows I love them, or how she runs up to me and screams my name when I come home after not seeing her for a day or two due to my work schedule.

Every frustrated bedtime, every time she gets a tiny scratch and needs a band aid, every time she swears she isn't hungry and won't eat but devours whatever I'm trying to eat (that is usually the last bit of it and I've been salivating over it all day)---it's all worth it at that point.

I  have to treasure every second with her.  You know why--because one day she will morph into an obnoxious little brat that is 14 and wants to move out and hates me--all because I won't let her have the newest iphone or date some boy who I think belongs on American Most Wanted.


So I sit and cry at her dancing to Mambo #5 in a Mickey costume with a bright smile because I'll never ever get that moment back in life.

Playing catch up

I totally stink.

I even forgot this existed in the cyberworld.


My vow this month is to update this blog often.  I can do it.  Right?

Tomorrow I will start with who I am--where I'm from--and what makes me MOI!


2 hours left of work on day 6 of 7 days straight of work. I am READY for a break.

Did I say I'm ready?


Thank heavens for crock pots these days. I sure make a mean roasted chicken in a crock pot :)