Mexican Fiesta - My 25th Birthday

Every year on our birthdays we can request whatever we want for dinner and my mom will make it for us. I love Mexican food so this year I told her that I wanted a Mexican Fiesta. When I told her that I figured she would just make some tacos for everyone and maybe have out some chips and salsa, but no she went BIGGER. She had everything that you could imagine. She could have opened up her own Mexican restaurant that night.

She made tacos, taquitos, burritos, enchiladas, chimichangas, and also had lots of sides such as chips, salsa, and queso. It was so delicious!

A few of my friends came to join my family and I for dinner. We had a fire going out back and everyone just relaxed and hung out. I loved it!

Thanks Mom!! :)

American Flag Craft

A few days ago I was with my friend Ciara and we went into this little thrift store in Brandon, FL. The store had a lot of little knick-knacks to look at. I saw a little frame and someone had made an American Flag. I liked it, but thought that they had it a little over priced. I knew that I could probably make my own.

This morning I took a trip to Joanns to get some red, white, and blue ribbon. I also got some little silver stars there. Then I went to a thrift store in Lakeland, FL to find a rustic looking frame. I found a frame that measured out perfectly to the ribbons so that they did not have to be cut width wise only length wise.

I used my hot glue gun to glue the ribbons onto the old picture. I had fun making it, now I just have to find somewhere to hang it!

The pictures above show you the before and after.

I personally think it is super cute!! :)

Chili Time ... Finally!

It's December and we are all still in shorts here in Florida. Yesterday we finally had a little cold snap come through so I decided that it would be a great time to make Chili, especially since it may be the only time this year that it is cold at all. Sometimes I love Florida, but sometimes I do not. I know that most Floridians hate the cold, but I love it! I love being snuggled up in warm clothes. The way I look at it is that we can always add more clothes when it is cold, but you can only undress so much when it's hot.

I do not have a famous chili recipe or anything, but I must say it was pretty good. All of the people who ate it agreed as well. I used Publix's recipe that they have on the back of their Mild Chili package and then just added some more seasoning. At the end we made it into a Chili Pie (That's what my mom always called it) by adding cheese and Fritos.

The recipe is very simple and you just adjust it to fit how many people you are feeding.
You need the following items:
1 Pound of Hamburger or Turkey Meat
1 Package of Publix Mild Chili Mix
2 - 8 oz cans of Tomato Sauce or Chunked Tomatoes
1 - 15.5 oz can of Kidney Beans
1 Bag of Shredded Cheese (We used Mexican to add some spice)
1 Bag of Fritos (Your choice on the Flavor)
Your choice of spices (I used Chili Powder, Garlic Salt, and Chopped Onions)
Directions:
1. Brown the Hamburger or Turkey Meat with your choice of Spices.
2. Add in the Package of Publix Mild Chili Mix to the meat and stir in.
3. Put the tomato sauce and kidney beans into the pan with the meat and stir everything together.
4. Bring chili to a simmer and then lower heat.
5. Keep chili on low and continue to stir periodically until ready to serve.
6. Put Fritos into bowl, then chili, and then cheese.
7. Mix, eat, and enjoy!!! :)

Tonight I cooked for myself, AJ, Dellrie, Bubba, and Mary. I basically tripled the recipe to feed all of us and there was still some left to enjoy tomorrow. It was so delicious!!

Quesadilla Maker

AJ and I got a George Foreman Quesadilla Maker for Christmas from some of our family (Dana and Craig). As soon as we opened it we were very excited because we had just looked at one at Wal-Mart and almost bought it for ourselves. I'm really glad that we decided to wait.

That night as we were driving home from Bradenton we were already talking about when we could have a quesadilla night. Two days after we got it we hit up the store for the supplies. We made chicken and cheese quesadillas with a hint of chipolte sauce. One top of them after they were cooked we added lettuce, sour cream, and taco sauce. They were very delicious.

When AJ opened the box it included a recipe on how to make pizza pockets with it. The possibilities for it seem endless. AJ has been coming up with all kinds of ideas. I definitely think that we are going to get good use out of it. Thank you Dana and Craig!

Dallas Cowboys Vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers (12-17-11)

I have been a Dallas Cowboys fan my whole life. People ask me how I can be from Florida and not be a Buccaneers, Jaguars, or Dolphins fan. The answer is easy! The Cowboys are awesome and they are not! LOL! My dad and all my uncles and cousins are also cowboys fans. Since I was young we have been watching cowboys games and cheering them on. My very first jersey was a Cowboys Emmit Smith jersey. I love that jersey and I still have it. Instead of looking like a jersey it now looks like a small t-shirt on me. My dad's girl friend, Dellrie, is small and usually wears the jersey when we go to games. My current jersey that I wear is a Tony Romo jersey.

The ideal situation would be to be with someone who is a fan of the same team as you are, but I fell in love with a Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan! I know the Bucs suck, but that is his only flaw so I try not to hold it against him. Every time the Cowboys and Buccaneers play it is obviously a big deal. This year my dad and Dellrie got us really nice tickets to sit close to the field on the Cowboys side. AJ would have rather sat on the Bucs side, but too bad for him they are Cowboys fans like me!

My dad wanted to do a big tailgating event since we had quite a few people going. Attending the tailgate included me, AJ, dad, Dellrie, Taylor (AJ's brother), Uncle Richie, my cousin Mike, Mr. Dickerson (my high school soccer coach and teacher), and Ally (my friend and Mr. Dickerson's daughter. We got a lot of food and drinks and tailgated for about 5 hours. Mr. Dickerson and Ally were late to the tailgate, but still got to eat.

Once the game started I was in heaven. Not only did the Cowboys STOMP the Buccaneers, but our seats were amazing!! Also, it was the first time I got to use my brand new Rebel T3i camera that AJ got me for my birthday. Some of the pictures look like we were on the field with them.

I had so much fun and I cannot wait to go again. And you better believe that I will not let AJ forget who won!

Shout Out to Momma BA

As I post new blogs I always wonder if anyone ever reads them or cares anything about what I blog about. I was happy to find out that some people do. Yesterday I went over to Meg and Johanna's parents house to visit with everyone. When I was there their mom, who I call Momma BA (because she is Bad Ass!!), told me that she loves when I post blogs and told me that she always reads them. That made me very happy. Some people ask why do I waste my time blogging? Well, the answer is that I like to so I do. People do not have to read it if they do not wish to!

Anyways, thanks to Momma BA and all the others who read my blog! :)

My First Photo Shoot

Everyone who knows me knows that I enjoy taking photos. I have been wanting a nice camera for a long time now. For my birthday my awesome boyfriend, AJ, got me the Canon Rebel T3i. It is super nice. He also got me an additional lens so that I can add more zoom.

My best friend, Ciara, is pregnant right now so she allowed me to do a Maternity Photo Shoot with her today. I had a lot of fun. I think she did too, but now she is super tired. Our friend, Meg, came with us as our assitant. She did a fabulous job making sure Ciara was in place.

We went out to a local park by her house called Alderman Ford Park. We took alot of pictures probably about 200. Out of those 200 I probably got like 20 really good ones. I am new to actually doing photo shoots, but I want to do more and I know that I will get alot better.

Rebel T3i

OMG I have been wanting a nice camera for so long and never could bring myself to pay the money for it. I have seriously been talking about it for several years. Anyone who knows me can tell you that I love taking pictures. My amazing boyfriend, AJ, got me this nice Canon Rebel T3i camera plus an add on zoom for my birthday!! He kind of gave it away early, but when I guessed it he said no. I was right though!! It is so awesome. He is probably going to regret getting me this camera once he sees how many more pictures I am going to be taking. I am going to be a professional photographer! Now that I have a super nice camera I am considering taking a photography class somewhere. I think that it would be fun and I could learn about lighting and all of that stuff. He gave me my camera yesterday, which is a day early, but for a good reason. We went to the Cowboys Vs Buccaneers game (which the Cowboys dominated!!!) and he wanted me to be able to get some good pictures. My pictures turned out amazing. I will share those later! :)

Reindeer in Pajamas

Have you ever seen reindeer in pajamas?

My team and I at school decided that we were all going to be the reindeer today for our last day before the holiday break. There are 9 of us on the first grade team so it worked out great! We bought antlers and made name tags with all of the reindeer names on them. We included Rudolph since their are 9 of us.

Today was also pajama day for first grade so we were reindeer in pajamas. We all looked very cute and the students really loved it.

The students loved wearing their pajamas and we they also made their own antlers. Their antlers were made by them tracing their hands on brown paper and then cutting them out. I measured their heads with a sentence strip and then wrote their names on it. They glued their hands to the sentence strip and then had an antler hat. Most of them decorated them with markers as well.

It was a great day, but I am glad it is over. Now I have a 2 week break to relax and SLEEP!

Here is a picture of me from today:

Here is a picture of my whole team:

2 Years Together

AJ and I went to Disney to celebrate two years together. We had so much fun. We got a park hopper pass from my friend Danyelle that I work with and then we used her discount to stay at the All Star Sports Resort. It was a long day, but it sure was fun! I can not wait to go again, but the crowd is too much for AJ so I'm sure it will be a while before we go again.

Tying the Holidays into Curriculum

In math right now the kids are learning about doubles. Some of my fellow team mates came up with a really cute idea as to how to tie in the holiday season to our lesson. They decided to have the students make Christmas tress with the doubles.

The star on the top of the Christmas tree says doubles and then the students cut out ornaments of their color choice and wrote a doubles fact on them. The stem of the tree was used for the students to answer the lesson essential question. The question was "How can I use doubles facts to help me add faster?"

Below is a picture of my example for the students to use.

I am very thankful to Kasie and Jenna for sharing their idea because my students really enjoyed it. They love Christmas and had a cute way to show their doubles facts.

Below are the two best ones from my class that I chose to hang up on my LFS board.

I know that they are kind of hard to read on here, but they did a really nice job!

Since all the students worked very hard and the Christmas trees match the holiday season I decided to hang the rest of the pictures on the windows so that everyone outside can see their nice work. I am so glad that all of my students celebrate Christmas and I can do fun activities!

Digital Story on "The Night Sky"

In my Master's class this semester we had to create a digital story. I decided to make one that I could use in my classroom and many of the teacher's off of my first grade team used it as well. I made the video with Photo Story 3 for Windows. A digital story is when you take still photos and then add voice and movement to them to make it look like a video. When I made the video my first graders were learning about the Night Sky so that it what I made my video on.

The video is posted here below. Feel free to use it if you are a teacher!



The students in my class absolutely loved it because it had my voice on it. They wanted to watch it like 5 times. If you are a teacher I recommend using photo story because it is easy to make and the students love it. You could even have them write a story, pick pictures, and make their own video!

Roxie Was Filthy

Roxie girl loves to go outside and run around all day long. She was so filthy today that her daddy decided to give her a bath. She loves water to swim, but no so much to take a bath. She will probably just go back outside tomorrow and get dirty again, but at least my puppy is clean tonight!! :)

Will we ever get to go on our cruise?

So I have been really excited because AJ and I booked a cruise to go to the Bahamas. My dad and Dellrie are also going. The problem now is that we do not even know if we are going to get to go. We are both in the Army so our drill dates and such always change (even if they are not supposed to). We booked the cruise originally in March so that I could go on my Spring Break from both my teaching job and USF where I am taking Master's classes. We had paid in full and then all of a sudden AJ got orders for the month on March. I was very bummed thinking that we would not be able to go, but then my orders from AT got changed from June to August. I then called the cruise line and changed our cruise to June. After changing the cruise to June we got word that AJs orders were now for April and May. I was like WTF?!? I could have kept the cruise the same time, but since I had already changed it I just rolled with it. This past weekend I had drill and they informed us that now our AT is changed back to June and now it interferes with our cruise again!

I feel like I am going to scream! Now I am going to have to call Royal Carribean back again and hope that they can still change it back to the March trip. If they cannot then I guess only one of us are going. I will be very upset if that happens! I have been looking forward to going on this cruise for quite sometime now. AJ has never been on a cruise before so I know that he is going to have a blast!

I will let you know how it turns out later!

Why I am Blogging

I wanted to start a blog so that I can have a place to record my daily life and vent when I need to. I do not really need followers, but would be happy to have some. I like to just write and this is a way to do so.

My life is not all that interesting, but it is very busy. Currently, I am a first grade teacher, I am taking Master's courses, and I am an Army officer. What a life right?!?