Pasta Salad and Philip Wesley

My musical taste is quite like my blogging style, it goes from one extreme to the other. My favorite Pandora channels are : Christian contemporary, traditional country, 90's Pop, Glee cast, Puddle of Mudd and Faded(rap). Typically just listen to it for the music, especially during one of my cleaning fits lol. And I love cooking to the classical new age station. Which is what I'm doing now. Blogging in between dinner prep and listening to Philip Wesley. 

His music is so hauntingly beautiful. I cannot get enough. 

I'm making a prepare ahead dinner tonight, since my scheduled maintenance hasn't arrived and I don't want to wait all day and dinner not be ready. So, shrimp pasta salad it is. I love this meal. I add black olives and tomatoes to ours. =).

I also randomly decided I want Jell-O so we're trying the fruit punch tonight. Hopefully it's good =).

My Life in Pictures

This is my husband, William Michael. I adore him. We've been together for 5 years now ❤. He's a soldier in the US Army and one of the best things to ever happen to me. 

These three girls pictured are among my best friends. We're not as close as we once was, but I still love them with all of my heart. ❤

This is my Momma and Gamma. I adore them. They gave me anything I could've wanted or needed while teaching me valuable life lessons. ❤

Our fur baby LuLu. . She's a pampered pooch. 

Our nephew Hunter. He never fails to put a smile on my face.

My gorgeous rings.

Top 10 Tuesday

I haven't done a weekday themed post in a long time, so I sincerely apologize if someone else does this. If you do, let me know in a comment and I'll link up to you =)).


Products is my topic of choice for this Tuesday =). If you have any suggestions on things to try, let me know. I love trying new things =).

• Essie nail polish. My favorites right now are Watermelon, In the Cab-Ana and Mint Candy Apple. They're just perfect colors for summer =).
• Suave Kids Sun & Surf shampoo. If I could live in our pool, I would. When Will was on vacation, we spent four days straight in the water. We did a day at the pool, a day in the river/lake thing and two days at the water park nearby. And I'm still a kid at heart.
• Hawaiian Tropic's after sun moisturizer in the lime coolada fragrance. No matter how often I apply sunscreen I still manage to burn. This feels and smells amazing for those times.
• Olay's Fresh Effects powered contour cleansing system. It makes my face feel super soft and I don't have as many PMS inspired break outs as I use to.
• Maybelline's new cat eye mascara. And the tube is so cute too!
• Calvin Klein's One Summer perfume for her. It reminds me of home (the great Sunshine state)
• Smashbox's primer. I use the color correction since I was blessed with always flushed cheeks, but it helps tone down the redness.
• Pantene Pro-V hair masques. Summer always tends to be brutal to my hair.
• On a different note- Lysol's new hydrogen peroxide cleaner. It gets the job done without the harsh smell. And it works on everything.
• Downy Unstopables. I use the fresh for the mister's laundry and a mix of the spring and shimmer for mine. And the scent lasts. =)

❤-L

Typical Tuesday

Pretty proud of myself. It's just 1:30 and I've completed every task on my to do list. =D

• Meal plan -. Things like spaghetti, copycat Chipotle burrito bowls, shrimp pasta salad, Mexican lasagna and French bread pizza are my favorite meals to cook and eat lol.
• Grocery list- I can make a very detailed list including sales prices, if I have a coupon for that item, what aisle it's on (yes, I organize my list according to aisles lmao) and STILL forget something. Without fail. Not sure how but I do lol. Anyone else?
• Budget. This is always a fun one. Normally our bills are around the same every month, thankfully. I keep a pretty strict finance tracker, where every purchase ends in a 5 or 0. So at the end of the month, when we would otherwise have no money left in our bank account, we generally have about $30. Our insurance is like $115.68 but in my records I have it as $120. It helps since Will use to have a tendency to stop at the gas station after PT and buy a Gatorade or energy drink and forget to tell me. 
• Laundry. I use to do laundry once a week. However, I had this horrible habit of doing it and never putting it away. Epic fail Liz lol. So now I tend to do one or two loads a day and I fully accomplish it. Gold star for me =D. 
• I ran over to Game Stop on post and picked up Will's video we preordered back in February, his precious NCAA 14. I'm actually really excited since Will is a diehard FSU fan and I go for the Gators. So we always play the PS3 together, since he finally taught me how to play lol. And I have a pretty awesome pink controller 😁. I also put a deposit on the new Call of Duty. I'd rather put $5 a paycheck towards a game he wants a few months in advance so we don't have to drop $65 all at once. And I really love surprising him. =)
• I finally made the appointment for the bug guy to come. Where we live, it's included in our rent. But I always forget to schedule it, so instead of once a week, he generally comes every other week. I'm working on it though, mainly thanks to the Post It note I leave on my phone every Monday night lmao.

Then I have the usual stuff, making sure Lu goes outside enough, breakfast dishes (I really hate a sink full of dirty dishes), vacuuming and dusting. Not sure how but there's always dust and dirt. If I don't do it everyday, it looks horrible.  And I generally try to have Will his ACU's and PT uniform ready to go. This really comes in handy on nights he has meetings/late night formations so I'm not fumbling around at 10 p.m. trying to match socks together.

What's your typical agenda for a day? =)

❤-L

Makes Me Think

My best friend is gone on vacation this week to visit family, so while she's gone, she's having guest bloggers. Today's guest was Halie from http://penguinspastapolkadots.blogspot.com/. She wrote about 5 things that make her happy and it made me realize, despite the fact I'm extremely blessed, I don't always appreciate it.  And I challenged myself to expand my horizons on this and not mention the typical : God, Will, Gamma, Momma, LuLu, friends and benefits (food, shelter, clothes, insurance). I'm grateful for all those but I want to learn to appreciate the things I easily forget about.



 * Books. I LOVE reading. So much. Learning new things always interests me. Nicholas Sparks and Sarah Dessen are tied for my favorite authors. I love the Harry Potter, Twilight and Hunger Games series. Danielle Steel is another good writer. My Gamma bought me a Nook 2 years ago for Christmas and I love it. My dream home has a library with all of the classics.


* Culinary skills. Not to come off as arrogant. I love trying new recipes from Pinterest. The Mexican lasagna I mentioned the other day is one of those. Cooking just relaxes me....until the fire alarm goes off. (Just kidding!!!) I generally make the recipe as suggested the first time, if we like it, I'll make it again with tweaks if necessary. I know Paula Deen is equivalent to a expletive right now due to a mistake, but I will be the first to admit I love her cookbook and her pots & pans set. My Momma got them for us for Christmas and I just...love lol. The magazine Cosmo always usually has recipes I like trying =).


* The ability to be a stay-at-home wife right now, especially in this economy. I have no issues working, I loved my job at Winn Dixie. But I love knowing when Will gets home, his uniform is clean and ready for him to go, there's a Gatorade for him for PT and dinner is hot and almost ready. He works extremely hard and I love knowing I can make his day somewhat easier. That being said, I'm still excited to start school for dental assistant soon. =D


* TV/movies. It seems trivial but I really am. I love cuddling up on the couch with Will and Lu and watching whatever comes on. We don't have cable or anything like that, just an antenna but it serves our needs. If there's a game Will wants to see and it's not on ABC, CBS, NBC or FOX, we go out to eat somewhere he can watch it. Plus we RedBox, Hulu Plus, Netflix and go to the theater. $5 tickets aren't too shabby. Plus we have a huge collection of movies and TV on DVD. Friends, Big Bang Theory, Boy Meets World, Full House, The Office, One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars and Grey's so far. Oh, and Army Wives, how typical of me =D.

* Traveling. I haven't done as much as I'd like, but hopefully that's gonna change. So far, I've been to:  Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida (obviously lol), Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas (still here, boo), Virginia and Washington, DC. Most of these were either due to World Changers or states near FL. SC, Texas and New Mexico were thanks to the Army =)). My parents are talking about a trip to New Jersey so my Gamma can see her parents graves and where she grew up again and I'm praying it happens and I can go with them. I think that'd be incredible. My only problem with traveling is I don't pack well, or light lol. I think I need everything with me, whoops.


Take care y'all!!


❤-L

Fantastic Four Day Weekend

Coming from a military family, any patriotic holiday has always had a pretty big meaning to me. But ever since last year, it's meant more. You see, July 6th 2012 is when God graciously returned Will to me, safe and sound. I'm already tearing up as I write this. This year, Will was stateside so we went all out.  ❤

          Wednesday we started leave with a few drinks and games with a new friend who just moved here. Thursday, we slept in. It was amazing lol. We had ribs for lunch and we played the PS3 and watched movies. Basically, the perfect lazy day.  That night we watched a gorgeous firework display courtesy of the El Paso Diablos.  Friday....was summer cleaning. We vacuumed, washed the walls, shampooed the carpets, steam mopped the floors, cleaned the bathroom, laundry, dishes, you name it. Tons of manual labor but our apartment looks amazing. And with my new Scentsy fragrance, Tingelo, it smells amazing too. Saturday, we were suppose to have company but plans change. It turned out amazing because we ended up going out to eat at Applebee's and watching White House Down. We love Applebee's dinner for $20. We actually both ordered the same meal, usually doesn't happen that way lol. Both we both got the steak, medium rare (I like if its still mooing ;) ) with their yummy potatoes and mixed veggies. We got a later movie time so we could walk through the nearby stores, Babies R Us, Bed Bath & Beyond and Kohl's. I spend too much time and money in all three. Even though Will & I are taking a break from expanding our family, I still love looking and planning. (And that's why Pinterest exists) We actually fell in love with some bedding sets, and (gasp) we agreed on them! Normally we reach a compromise on things, but we both fell in love with the same ones. When we went to B,B & B we realized we saved a bunch on our joint anniversary gifts ( the afore mentioned steam mop and carpet shampooer.) This makes me incredibly happy since I love saving money. We realized we were running out of time so we rushed through Kohl's, which our bank account was pleased with =P. And then, after purchasing the mandatory small popcorn and Icee, came Mr.Channing. It was such a good movie, I almost cried like 10 times because I'm a tad bit of a crybaby, but I loved it. And of course Will loved the guns and explosions. You would think he'd get sick of it but nope. Not yet. Sunday was another lazy day. We started the National Geography documentary series Lockdown on Netflix. Again, Will is obsessed with this kind of stuff and it can be interesting. And he grilled out again, made some chicken & ribs and baked beans with sweet tea. Yummy yummy. Our $20 grill from WalMart has gotten so much use in the 3 years we've owned it. When we move and get a house, I hope to upgrade for him. =)


Speaking of upgrades, I think I FINALLY decided on a career choice. I'm still researching but I'm fairly confident dental assistant is gonna be a good fit for me. I'm pretty excited about it. My Momma made me a deal and said if I do well, she'll buy my first uniforms. Idk about y'all, but since she was a nurse, I've always loved scrubs so I'm happy. My Momma, Gamma, Will and close friends are always my biggest cheerleaders and I'm so blessed to have the support system I do.


Hope this post finds everyone well!!!


❤-L

Mixing Things Up a Bit

I'm gonna try to include some new recipes, cleaning tips learned from trial and error and some product reviews (from household items to feminine things =D) every now and again. I don't want it to seem my life is only about my marriage, my family,the military and TTC...though those are the most important things. But I do fun things too! Promise. And I'm all about being girly and trying fun new things.




First up: Mexican lasagna. Made this dish for my husband last night and he inhaled it. This is one of my quick meals, so I used a few shortcuts.


Ingredients:

Chicken (I used Tyson grilled strips just due to the time) - You can also do ground beef
1 package of taco rice
1 cup salsa
1 cup sour cream
2 cups shredded cheese
Tortillas


1) Prepare your meat, cooking it with a package of taco seasoning
2) Cook rice as according to package
3) Mix salsa and sour cream together
4) Preheat oven to 350
5) Combined meat and rice mixture

Layer tortilla, then the meat and rice mixture followed by the salsa/sour cream and topped with some shredded cheese until all of the ingredients are gone.


Bake for 15 minutes.

Enjoy!!!


Quick notes: I used the Old El Paso soft taco bake kit and mixed the package of cheese sauce in with the salsa and sour cream for an extra kick.

-You can also mix black beans in as well, however I'm still getting Will to like them so I kept them out...this time =D.



Hope you guys enjoy it if you try it!!!