Admitting My Weakness

Apparently it means you are mature if you can admit your weakness, so my weakness?

Donuts!

Donuts are to me what kryptonite is to Superman...they make me weak.

And I'm not too biased. I like donuts of all flavors, brands, shapes and sizes.

This became pretty obvious while I was pregnant. The following pictures were taken throughout my pregnancy...

Cinnamon Sugar Cake Donut


Assorted Donuts from Daylight Donuts


Your basic Chocolate Glazed Donut (again from Daylight)


Making my own Donut Holes




Chocolate Glazed Donut with Sprinkles from Dunkin Donuts


Assorted Donuts from Dunkin Donuts


And these are just the ones I took pictures of! As my pregnancy progressed, the photo of the donut became an afterthought while getting the sweet, sugary goodness in my mouth became much more important.

Welcome Sweet P

You may remember this post a while back when I was working on Sweet P's announcements. I realized I didn't post the actual announcement!

So, here it is! My wonderful sister supplied me with the photos. Thanks again Ashley!

Shrimp Etouffe'/Gumbo

I tried another recipe from Tasty Kitchen and it was awesome!! I started off making the "Shrimp Etouffe' Easy and Delicious" recipe and then started adding leftovers.

I had shrimp in the freezer and searched the easy recipes (by rating) on TK. The 10 minute cook time and 15 minute prep really caught my eye. I didn't like that there wasn't a picture, but I went out on a limb and tried it. It seemed easy enough and with a 6 week old baby girl, I need easy and fast.

I steamed some brown rice in our rice cooker. I LOVE our rice cooker.

Anyway, I started the rice and began preparing the recipe.


 

I realized I still had frozen okra from the garden in the freezer - so I added a bag of it and cooked it for about 8-10 minutes.

After adding the shrimp, I remembered we had an ear of grilled cajun corn leftover - so I quickly cut off the kernels and added those.

Then it was time to add the sauces.

Stir it all up, serve on rice, and voila, it's ready to eat!

What I Did This Weekend

I hope you all had a great weekend! Mine was mixed with a lot of fun, a lot of work and a ton of baby time!!

The husband and I took Sweet P on her first fishing trip. It was a long car ride and not a lot of fishing.




We thought it would be cool enough outside with a ice breeze on the lake...we were wrong. About 5 minutes into fishing Sweet P started getting too hot and hungry. So I took her to the car to feed her and about 30 minutes later we left the lake. It was nice to get out of the house anyway!

On the way out we saw a bunch of deer!





I should also mention we took along our little dog, Duncan. He's a great fishing buddy and just loves being outside.


So, when he saw the deer out the window he started going crazy! After I snapped a few photos of the deer we opened the car door to see what he would do with the deer.



Why are the deer running? Because of the little blur!




They all ran behind the fence and stopped when they realized what he was. A small little dog that can't do much to them.

He was proud anyway.


We drove on and saw even more deer in front of someone's house! I think it's pretty cool that you can just drive down a road in Oklahoma and see stuff like this.


Did you notice the baby fawn!? Too cute.

And on to the work part. We are going to be selling our house soon so we have a few things to do before we can put the house up, including the kitchen. When we moved in the kitchen had hideous wood parquet floors. And one day the dishwasher started leaking and all the wood got sogged. So we pulled up the wood and found speckled laminate tiles.

We decided to put in ceramic tile...with my dad's help!

I think it's going to look great! We still have a lot of work left in the kitchen...but we have progress!!

Thanks dad!

Hope you all had a great weekend! And here's to a wonderful week!

The Day Job

This morning marked the start of Tulsa Area United Way's 2010 Campaign to raise $24,067,551 for the Tulsa Area. The kickoff was held downtown at ONEOK Field and we had great weather and an awesome turnout. Hundreds of volunteers got together to celebrate the start of the annual campaign before going out into the community and working on volunteer projects at TAUW's 61 partner agencies.

As part of the program, the 2010 Trailblazer companies (local companies that run early United Way campaigns) announced their total of $3,416,278!



The 2010 campaign video was shown and you can check it out below:




And a side note, for those of you who don't know, I work at the United Way as the Senior Designer. I designed the logo for this year's event and got to see it on the big scoreboard at ONEOK Field.

Zoomed in


And zoomed out. You can also see the logo on all the t-shirts!


And this year's t-shirts!


So, thanks to all the volunteers that went out today to work on volunteer projects in the Tulsa community!

Dad-Inspired Grilled Sandwiches

All credit goes to my dad for these. He made these for us at his house and they were amazing. He takes ciabatta bread and cuts it into thirds and makes a club sandwich out of it and then panini grills it on his Hasty-Bake.

We had left over roast from a pot roast so Eric wanted to try out a roast beef version.

Sliced ciabatta bread and avocados.

Frying the bacon.

Bottom layer topped with roast beef.

Then onions and cheddar cheese.

Then another layer of bread and then topped with avocado.

Followed by bacon, mozzarella and dressing.

Then you smoosh it and grill it.

Then you slice it and eat it. MMM.

Sweet P's Sweet Quilts - Part 2

Part 2 of Sweet P's Quilts are made by her Granny Sandy.

I love the pinks and greens in this first one. All the material is flannel and is SO soft.

Her face cracks me up in this one!




Her other quilt is really colorful and I love it too! It actually has little paisley patterns in the peacock feathers. (Didn't notice this when we picked out the material and Sweet P didn't have a name yet!)

Not a great shot of Sweet P, but you can really see the quilt.


I LOVE this face!


And a little smile from my 6 week old girl!


Thank you so much Granny Sandy for the beautiful quilts!

If You Really Knew Me

I've seen this going around on a few blogs and thought I jump on the band wagon. So here goes...

"If you really knew me, you'd know..."

- I LOVE being a mom. I think it's my favorite thing I've ever done. When I was little I wanted a ton of kids but didn't want to be married or work (I was little, didn't like boys and didn't understand how kids were even made!) That changed. I went to college moved to a new city on my own and started my career. Then I married my high school sweetheart (who I continued dating throughout college) and after 4 years of marriage, decided to start our family. I'm in love with being a mom and can't imagine anything better.

photo by Ashley Ann photography

 -  Until today, I had never been stung by a wasp, bee, scorpion...anything that stings really. Stupid wasp, my arm is still sore.

- I'm a closet Jersey Shore watcher. Yes, I admit it. We recently canceled our cable and now watch it online after we've put Paisley to bed. It's trash, I know, but it's crazy entertaining.

- I hate math. I used to be really good at it in high school and college but not so much anymore. It really is one of those things that if you don't use it, you lose it.

- My favorite food is chips & salsa & queso. I could have it every day for every meal and still want it tomorrow.

- I want to live on a beach somewhere but my family keeps me in Oklahoma. I am very close to my family and want my kids to be close to their aunts, uncles, grandparents and great-grandparents so it's either we all move together or we all stay. I will live near water one day, even if it's by the lake when my kids are off to college.

Jamaica - I miss you.

- My taste in movies has changed DRAMATICALLY since I was pregnant and now a mom. I used to enjoy a good scary movie from time to time, now I find myself only wanting to watch comedies, sappy girlie movies or animated pics. Geez. Oh, and sappy commercials make me cry now. Hormones.

- I really enjoy cooking. If I had to start my career all over (at 18 and back in college, not now) I think I would have enjoyed being a chef.

- Along that note, I love good food. Eric and I plan our vacations around food. I really want Bobby Flay to stop by my house and cook me up a treat. MMM. Dream come true.

- I wear socks like they are shoes. It used to drive my mom nuts growing up because I would wear them outside and destroy my white socks. Well, mom, that hasn't changed.

- I want to be the best at everything I do. It's sad really because I end up quitting a lot of things I try when I realize I'm not any good at it. For example: gymnastics, volleyball, track...I could go on and on (and not just about sports:) ) This is something I'd like to change about myself.

- I have shot a turkey. I don't have much to add to that.

- I like working puzzles. The 1000+ piece kind. I can work on a puzzle for hours and just get lost in it. I'm a nerd.

- Gummy bears are my favorite candy. And not just any gummy bear, but Haribo Gold Bears. I ate a 3 lb. bag that Eric got me.

- I have the most talented family EVER. My dad is a grill-master extraordinaire, my mom decorates and sews, my sister is a photog-blogger-decorator, my brother-in-law sings and plays guitar, my aunt quilts, my uncle is also a grill master, my grandma quilts and my grandpa is a woodworker.

- I want to be a better wife, friend, sister, daughter, etc. and find my relationships are better when my relationship with Jesus is better.

So, if I really knew you, what would I know?