....I'm back?!

I've not written in forever.... life has been crazy and being a working mom is HARD work, friends!!! Then I think of the SINGLE full time working moms out there, and my heart just bleeds for you. I just can't fathom how you do it. I have extreme mommy guilt sometimes and finding an appropriate family/work/housework balance is tough. I still have high hopes for this blog, I love writing and I think if I can ever reliably blog, it would be an awesome way to record memories for our family to look back on and enjoy one day.

Besides work and family, one thing new and exciting is we have been planning a Europe trip this May!! Super excited for this, Chris and I have had this in the works since pre-preggly with Greyson! Finally we are (God willing) going to make this trip finally happen in a few short months! We are going to Paris for a week, Santorini Greece for a week, and then London for a few days before we fly home. Best part?! We twisted my sister Emilee's arm into coming with us to help babysit (you know i'm too big of a weenie to leave G for this long!). Then my mom and dad decided they couldn't be left out of the fun, and then my sis Amanda and her hubby Jordon decided to carpe diem and come with as well! :) We are staying in apartments in all 3 places with kitchens and washer/dryer. Should be one fantastic trip. I have spent umpteen hours researching everything, where to stay, where to eat, what to do... trip advisor is my best freaking friend. Chris however, I know, is tired of seeing a laptop in front of my face. We finally have everything at least all booked so finalizing an itinerary of sorts is pretty much all I have left. I have been listening to Greek language CDs from the library every morning on my 40 min drive to work, so I'm excited to test out my skill :) (or lack there of, HA!) I've learned in my french speaking background that even after almost completing my major in French, once you get there and attempt to speak with native speakers it's a whole new world :)
Here is a view from where we are staying in Santorini:

So the famous question, Are we completely loco taking a toddler to Santorini Greece?? An island famous for cliffs, stairs, it's volcano caldera, and water? Well..... maybe. LOL, I anticipate that there will be some challenges, but everything in life worth anything comes with it's own set of challenges, right?! I swore up and down before we had G that I wouldn't let kids dictate my every life choice. Santorini is on my bucket list, and I figure pretty much every experience in life is what you make of it. If it's too rough, we can always take a boat and explore a new island for a day, or three;)

So besides our trip, another exciting happening is my sis Katie is pregnant with baby Mercer #3!!!! Due at the end of March, I can hardly wait, I will have another snuggly nephew SO SOON! I am throwing her a baby shower on the 10th and am pumped to celebrate the bebe with everyone!

 I LOVE throwing showers and parties because it always makes the best incentive to clean and work on the house! We hit the one year mark of being in our house 1/16. I can't believe a year has gone by since we moved in! We are slowly but surely still making our way through the house repainting, redecorating and making the home "ours". This fall we had our deck power washed and restained. It looks much better. We also repainted the banister, the entry, kitchen, dining and living, hallways of first floor, and finally furnished whole first floor! Next on the list I believe will be our bedroom. I would LOVE to redo our master bath too but that expensive project will have to wait until we hit the lottery or finish paying off our student loans! I will post pictures of all our updates soon!

Greyson update in my next post, I am getting carpal tunnel as I type and my computer is about to set a small brush fire on my bed! Peace out blog world!

Happy Mother's Day!!!

To all you mamas out there, Happy Mother's Day! In honor of one of the best moms I know, my own, I wanted to commemorate the day with a list of the top 10 most awesome (in no particular order) things my mom did for me & my siblings. This blog post is dedicated to Mrs. Sacha Sue!!!

As some of you might know, I am one of 8 children. No twins or triplets, and yes all from the same two parents! And no not catholic! (inevitably, these questions always follow! lol!) I can not imagine what raising 8 kids is like. In my (almost) year spent raising my son, I can vouch that being a parent is NOT always easy! You are constantly questioning yourself: am I doing the right thing? Is this healthy? Will this benefit my child? Should I let them eat/try/watch/listen to/do this? And my own most commonly self-asked question, "what would my mom do?!" Luckily, I still have my mom around and I can call her up and ask her as much ;) I feel truly blessed that this is the case, my heart goes out to those of you who don't get to celebrate Mother's day with your mom. Growing up my mom did some special things for us/traditions that I can't wait to carry on with my kids. I thought some of you might enjoy trying some of these things too. These are the ones that comprise some of my most special childhood memories and in my humble opinion, make my mom the world's best ;)

1. Beach Bags- One of my most favorite childhood memories was the two weeks my family spent in Sanibel, Florida every summer growing up. We would all pile into our ginormous van and make the 24+ hours long haul drive down to Sanibel. My mom deserves sainthood for driving that far in any type of enclosed space with 8 crazy kids!!! Luckily, we always had a video player in our van and that, I'm sure, helped saved everyone's sanity. Our favorite movie was "tiny toons how I spent my summer vacation" and we ALL knew every word to that movie by heart, even my dad who drove the whole way! When we would get to Florida and all unpile into the condo, my mom at some point would call us out to the porch and give us our "beach bags". The bags were in some kind of fun tote and would contain all our beach necessities! Maybe a new pair of sunglasses, flip flops, water wings for the babies, water guns for the boys, rafts for the ocean, dive sticks for the pool, or shovels and backets for beach days! It was such a special treat that we all looked forward to and seeing what my mom picked out for each of us. It was stuff that you might just buy and pack (the necessities) but she did it in such a fun way that gave us something to look forward to the entire drive down!
2. Chore log- I was just remembering this the other day. My mom would keep a "chore log" a notebook laying out on her desk in the kitchen, and as you did something to help out around the house, unload the dishwasher, give the younger kids a bath, help set the table- you could record it in the chore log. At the end of the month she would tally it up and pay us in points, you could redeem for cash or for "treats" such as ice cream, a coke, or something along those lines. This was a fun way to get us to enjoy helping out around the house and help teach about working to earn what you want.
3. After school snacks- It didn't happen every day, but sometimes when we would get home from school there would be a special afternoon snack waiting when we got off the school bus! Ants on a log (celery with peanut butter and raisins on top) and the apple smile (two slices of apple, peanut butter on each side holding marshmallows between the apple) were two of my favorites! It was such a fun surprise to come home to food waiting on us!
4. Lunch bag surprises- My mom usually packed our lunches for school. She would write us a note on our napkin every day, and usually put a sticker on the note :) Once in a while, she would also wrap up a little present in our napkin, a special piece of jewelry we wanted,  some nail polish, a fun pencil. Her notes always made me feel loved and thought of during the school day and even into highschool I saved them all in a pile in my locker ;) 
5. Bike rides into town- I think most parents with more than one child have to make an effort to make sure to give individual attention to each of their children, my parents had EIGHT to divide their time and attention between. I remember during the summer my mom would come to my room and whisper "want to go for a bike ride?" she would take each of us one at a time on a bike ride, early in the morning into town for breakfast. There aren't words to describe how much I loved this! Special time, alone with my mom. I still remember her doing this when I was too small to ride my own bike, and I would ride in a little seat attached to her bike. (I guess before the days of bike trailers!) Carving time out for one-on-one time with your kids is so important no matter how many you have! 
6. Gardening- This is not something she so much did specifically for us, but growing up I was always SO impressed with how beautiful all the flowers my mom planted were! I think my mom is amazing because she was able to take care of 8 kids, keep a house running, and somehow found time to grow beautiful plants and flowers. And when we picked the flowers she labored over to plant to bring them as a gift to her, she only scolded us when we happened to pick the neighbors accidentally ;) 
7. Playing hooky- I can remember a very few times (and I hope she doesn't get mad at me for publicizing this! HA!) when I really just didn't want to go to school..... she would ask "well do you feel bad?" and an after a half hearted "uh-huh" she let me stay home and did something special with me. Such as going to the park,  or I remember one time her taking me to a book store and pick out a few new books. Now, I am not trying to condone delinquency, however, my mom (I'm assuming here) understood that in the grand scheme of things, a day out of school wasn't (obviously) going to keep us from achieving college degrees. Incidentally, she was building special moments of bonding that will last a lifetime. 
8. Encouragment- My mom always encouraged ALL of us to pursue the things that we were interested in. Whether that was driving us all over the state for gymnastic meets, driving to art classes, sitting in the stands at basketball or softball games, she was always there cheering us on. I don't recall her ever once discouraging any of us from trying something new. She believed in us, which leads to kids to likewise, believing in themselves.
9. Summer reading log- She encouraged my reading by letting me do a "book log" similar to the chore log, except that I would read an assigned book, and then write a summary of the book and she would pay me a dollar or two per book I read. Let's just say I was quite the book worm during the summer! Moral of that story, a little bribery goes a long way at times, and if it causes a positive outcome ( I still love reading ) - all the better!
10. Church- My parents always took us to church and read us Bible stories before bed at night. They taught us to memorize Bible verses and made fun competitions out of memorizing the verses. They taught us to hide God's word in our hearts. Though I haven't always been the "best" Christian, my parents gave me a firm foundation on which to build my faith and I am so thankful to them for this. "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it" -Proverbs 22:6

Mom, I love you!!! I thank you for everything you taught me about how to be a mother. 

I hope you have a wonderful mother's day!!!

Delicious Mahi Mahi Fish Tacos with Cilantro White Lime Sauce

I have been a huge fan of fish tacos ever since my mom talked me into trying a bite of hers at the Cheesecake Factory one afternoon many many years ago- back when my palate was much less sophisticated ;) and fish tacos just sounded... gross. Now they are top on my list of faves. However they can be very very good, or very very bad. I've had both with not much in between. I began googling and pinning some enticing recipes but couldn't find one that encapsulated all I was looking for in a fish taco and so I have combined some elements of different recipes I found, to come up with something that fits my personal taste and caters to my attention deficit disorder requirements for not spending all day on one dinner. The result, I must say, was nothing less than magical. I hope you all enjoy this recipe as much as my husband and I did! And so with no further adieu.....

           !Mahi Mahi Tacos with Cilantro White Lime Sauce!

First I started this recipe by preparing some cilantro white lime rice in the crockpot.

• Rub the bottom of the crockpot with some oil. I like to use coconut oil because it's healthier- and let's face it, I'm obsessed with coconut. I love a coconut flavor to my rice. You could use vegetable or olive oil as well.
• One cup rice, two cups water go in the pot. I added a dash of Trader Joes limeade (delicious by the way) for extra lime flavor
• However much fresh squeezed lime juice you'd like, I used a couple teaspoons probably
• However much cilantro you'd like. I tore up about a handful of cilantro and threw it in at the end, or when you're about to remove rice from pot. My husband and I are both currently completely enanomered so we like quite a bit in there. 
• Dash or two of sea salt for flavor.
• Turn the crock pot on low and let simmer for about 4ish hours.

Next you can make the cilantro white lime sauce, I highly suggest playing with ingredients, sampling often during the process- and adjusting to taste. The sauce is what makes the taco so play with it until you love it!

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup sour cream (I don't use low fat anything when I cook, but you def could sub for this)
• 1 clove minced garlic
• dash of zatarans creole seasoning (just what I happened to have, could also use paprika or anything you like with a kick) I also used a dash of some fajita seasoning I had that has a nice kick to it
• crushed red pepper- I add this to literally EVERYTHING- yes everything, that I cook.
• juice from one lime squeezed, hint- roll it around on the counter first, makes it easier to peel and squeeze- 
• lime zest- grate some lime rind into the sauce for an extra burst of lime flavor
• dill, I used about 1 teaspoon probably- I quite like dill
• dash of both oregano and cumin
• dash of sea salt
• dash of fresh cracked pepper
• finally, throw in some fresh cilantro as desired- set sauce aside

Now for the tacos! Gather up your ingredients- I shop almost exclusively at Trader Joes, because their food is delicious, fresh, healthy, non-GMO foods. No, they're not paying me to to say this, I have just been thrilled with both their quality and customer service and I think everyone should shop there! Anyway, with that said, all my stuff pretty much comes from there. 

What you need:

1. White corn tortillas- I really like the corn flavor with the fish and the fact that the corn tortillas are gluten free but you could certainly sub for flour or spinach or whatever you like!
2. Lime- also used in the rice and white sauce, plus add a little fresh squeezed when you're done pan frying your fish!
3. Mahi mahi- I prefer mahi, but you could also use tilapia or whatever mild white fish you like or find on sale! I made about a pound worth of fish and it was plenty for the two of us plus we had some left overs.
4. Olive or coconut oil- to cook fish in- fill bottom of pan
5. Trader jose beer, I added a dash to pan I fried fish in for extra flavor
6. Queso fresco- grate a bowl full and set aside
7. Healthy 8 chopped veggie mix from Trader Joes- most fish tacos call for some version of chopped red cabbage and onions, when I found this pre-made I thought it would be perfect for the tacos. It was!! It added a nice crunch and was a delicious topping! I highly recommend! You could also saute this in your oil mix if desired but we ate it raw and it was great. You could also dice your own red cabbage, carrot, onion, whatever you like for an additional topping if so desired.
8. Whatever else you want on your tacos- we added black beans. Could also do salsa, other veggies you like!

Making your fish-

• I pan fried my fish, you could also bake or grill! Just cover the bottom of your pan with oil, like I said I added a little beer to my oil. I also added some sea salt and fresh cilantro. Cut your mahi into one inch strips or as desired to fit in your taco. Cook fish on medium high in oil until flaky. Place fish on paper towel covered plate to cool
• In another pan if desired- you can fry your tortillas as well. This is certainly not necessary, but just how I like them. Add a dash of oil, place tortilla in there med-low heat, add queso fresco to top of tortilla. Place tortilla on paper towel.
• You can do an assembly line of tortillas, fish, veggie toppings, black beans, queso fresco, rice, fresh cilantro, lime wedges and white sauce and let people go through and make their own- what a FUN party food!!! I just loaded up our tacos since it was just my husband and I eating, however I think I will be making this for our next get together. Such a yummy and fun summer food!

Final Product!

This was seriously probably the best thing I have ever made. It was delicious- and definitely restaurant quality. Don't let the length of this recipe intimidate you- it was really quite easy! I hope you and your family/friends enjoy it as much as we did!! Please make sure to comment and let me know any fun changes/substitutions/improvements you come up with :) Enjoy!

Kitchen- CHECK!

One room down-- many more to go!

I always pick one room and hammer away at it until it's just right. Adjusting paint, lighting fixtures, hardware, flooring, finally decor. When we moved into our new home, I was anxious to get the kitchen squared away. I love cooking, and love spending time around food- and our new kitchen has a fabulous view that I wanted to be able to enjoy without my OCD decorator inner self freaking out when I looked around. We've tweaked this and that, and I'm excited to share the progress! We are done for now... we may change the flooring up here in the years to come, but not anytime soon! It feels so good to have a room in the house that feels like "us" now!! Up next: dining room! We are actually almost done, hanging white wainscoting then I will update with pictures of it.

Kitchen Before:

To be honest, the yellow just wasn't doing anything for me. We picked out a gray paint because of the grayish tile accent above the cabinets, plus, I just love the color gray.

And Kitchen After:

The gray really makes the white trim pop! I'm very happy with how it turned out. The chandelier is a Pottery Barn knock off from Overstock.com ... Hanging up, I don't think you can tell much of a difference between the two. In person, quality is certainly less than the PB version, but I couldn't stomach paying $400 for it! Overstock's price? $175... minus the $20 groupon deal I bought! 

And a different angle...

Our Pier 1 table and chairs! So happy with them! We got them during triple points and wound up getting: 4 white chairs, the table, two decorative chairs, the place settings, several other decorative items not pictured, a large 9x12 rug for the living room, two barstools for <$1700! Then we got $220 of Pier1 bucks in the mail! I think that's a pretty stellar deal myself...!

Curtains are from Pottery Barn, I am so happy with them! I think they add that "light airy" feel and make the kitchen seem a little more homey or something. Also, the length draws attention to the awesome window height! I love how much light our kitchen gets in the morning, very cheery even with the gray paint color. 

Decorative accent plates are from Anthropologie- they are French, and they incorporate our color scheme nicely!

Still searching for piece de resistance.... a rug to go beneath the table. Not found anything that has jumped out at me yet! The search continues! Anyway, that's about it for now. I will update with cabinet pictures when I can get my countertops cleaned off! I had just cooked some dinner when I took these pictures ;) 

White wood floors?!

     So I have been contemplating how to redo our floors. Our new-to-us home was built in 99' and the carpet in the dining and living room (and bedrooms, really) are looking a little rough around the edges (literally) and really need to be replaced. I've never been a huge carpet fan in general due to my asthma/allergies-- plus I just like the way hard wood or tile looks better.
     Here's my dilemma, there is ivory tile throughout our entry, kitchen, and hallways- so whatever flooring I pick really needs to flow with the color of the tile or it will "chop" up our open concept layout. If you're following. Maybe a picture will help illustrate:

Above you can see the dining room carpeting and the tile in the entry as well as hallway. I plan on painting this dining room navy blue paired with white wainscoting. Our dining room set is a very dark wood and looking for the perfect sparkly yet "not your grandmas" chandelier to hang in here. I think a white wood floor would help the navy to not get too dark and shrink the room.

Think something like:

I love it!

This picture gives a good view into the living room. I plan on painting this room a light gray/silver color. I love all the light from the large windows and I think light floors will help keep the room light and airy. Also on the agenda, figuring out what I want to do with the banister... paint white? Stain? TBD...

Furniture wise (it's completely empty now!) I want a pop of color, think sofa that looks like:

Paired with a fun print on an oversized chair, & some type of armoire for our TV.

     Does that help? Anyway, I just can't see a darker wood looking fantastic transitioning from the ivory tile since our rooms are so open and you will be able to see the transition from several rooms. So I had been looking for an alternative to my preferred very dark wood and have come to the opposite extreme and fallen in love with... white wood. After looking through some pictures, I think I'm in love.

     I think I'm also a bit masochistic when it comes to the cleaning. Our dark wood floors in our condo were such a pain in the butt to keep clean and I'm sure white wood won't be easy either, but I have a hard time imagining they could be much worse than the very dark we had, which showed every speck of everything. 

Anyway, here's the fun part. Some of my inspiration! 

LOVE the fun print on the area rug in this one. I will be looking for something similar for our living room... I already have a rug for the dining room area. 

This one above is way too sterile for me, though it's definitely airy!

Love, love, love this. The rich looking curtains puddling on the floors makes me re-think my plan for sheer window coverings...

A little mod for my taste, but I love the fun use of color here!

Ending on this picture- though this floor doesn't appear to be in the greatest shape, it actually shows color on the wall! Most of the pics above you'll note show white walls. While I can appreciate the monochromatic theme and clean crisp and airy look of the white walls/white floor; it's a bit sterile for my taste. I need a color on the wall. Though I will likely do a long sheer white panel tied to the side in the living room area.

I just love how colors/furniture really POP against the white floor. It makes them so much richer.
     White floors.... you dig em'? Next question... painted white... or white pre-fab. Oh decisions, decisions!!! ;) Tell me your thoughts!

Eeeesh.

I have been awful. horrible. terrible. at keeping up this blog. oops. No December posts at all and here we are approaching the mid-way mark of January :-/ I have started and not finished about 3 different posts though all regarding medical topics but I'm so OCD about being all-inclusive they all turn into a never-ending book so I'm going to try my best to get them sorted out and posted here in the near future for anyone out there in blog land who might care ;-)

Lots of people have been asking about our house so for an update, as of right now, we are set (again- fingers crossed!) to close on this coming Thursday. We are packing maniacs around here and fingers and toes crossed the unpacking will be taking place in our new home and not here in the condo ;-) Our whole home buying ordeal is a long post for another day but suffice to say Chris and I have both had a crash course in real estate and lending and we now know more than we ever cared to! So if you are the praying type, please say a few extra for us that God's will for us will be done as we approach the finish line of this home buying process and that we'll end up exactly where we're meant to be- be it there, here, or elsewhere!

It's CYBER MONDAY Y'ALL!

Cyber Monday.... Now this, is my kind of shopping. No fighting crowds or getting up at the buttcrack of dawn. No pushy annoying fellow shoppers to deal with, no stress of things "selling out". Black Friday is just overall too stressful for me to even deal with. I will stick to shopping in my pj's from the comfort of my own home, thanks :). So are the cyber monday deals really that great? Yeah... a lot of them are! Especially when you put Ebates to work. Since posting on FB quite a bit (probably annoyingly so, sorry, can't help it I'm OBSESSED!) I've had tons of people ask me what it is, does it work, etc. So I am going to set the record straight today. Ebates TOTALLY works even though it definitely goes against the old "if it's too good to be true" saying. The principle is very simple. Join the website and you can get a $10 Target giftcard right off the bat! (it took like 3 weeks to get it in the mail) After that, every time you want to online shop, Ebates pays you a percentage back of what you spend- all you have to do is go through Ebates first and use their link to the store you want to shop at. 

Ok, time for a few examples. So today, on Ebates Old Navy is 7% cash back, they are also having a 30% off cyber Monday deal, plus they always have free shipping. So say I want to spend $100 at Old Navy on Christmas presents for my family, this is how it breaks down. 

$100 with the 30% off Cyber Monday deal means I really spend $70.

Free shipping if you spend $50 or more.

Ebates cuts me a check in a few weeks for $4.90 based upon my $70 purchase.

So, in all, I saved a total of $34.90!! Not bad!

The same deal holds true for all of ON's "sister companies"- Gap, Banana Republic, Piperlime, and Athleta. Hurry on over though because stuff is selling out in almost all sizes!

Another great deal, one of my personal favorite stores, Crate & Barrel has an amazing (and rare!) deal right now of 15% off PLUS free shipping. Then on top of that you can get 6% cash back from Ebates! If you have been eyeballing any C&B furniture, now is the time! ;) 

For all the mama's out there, hit up Babies R Us Cyber Monday deal of 30% off everything, plus Ebates gives you 2% cash back. A good deal for BRU!

Ebates is doing double cash back on many sites so run over and check out if your favorite store is having any amazing cyber Monday deals. Ebates is great because it also lists all coupon (promotional) codes that a store has going on so it saves you from running to retailmenot every five minutes to find them.

Finally, people always want to know how long before Ebates shows me the money, below is their scheduled payments.

Purchases Posted Between	Big Fat Check Sent
Jan 1-Mar 31	May 15
Apr 1-June 30	Aug 15
July 1-Sept 30	Nov 15
Oct 1-Dec 31	Feb 15

Any other questions? Check out Ebates frequent questions page to get them all answered! Ebates definitely works! I hope this helps those of you who have been skeptical yet curious. ;) Enjoy Cyber Monday and let me know what great deals you find!

Proof it works! My last check for $50.23!