I found this today

Jeebs really needs an office. He was on the phone in a meeting for 3 and half hours- trying to hear. If you can't tell, that is our closet. Nice. (Please buy our house) Soooooo then I wondered...
What am I going to make for dinner? I went to Harris Teeter and decided whilst I was there to make fajitas. As I drove home without the bell pepper I planned on getting- I wondered if I should go to Sonic and just get burgers. The would make the kids happy- I haven't had a Sonic burger in forever- I could get Jeebs a red velvet cheesecake blast that he's been talking about fo'evah. But, I held strong and decided just to endure the whining and groaning. I made beef fajitas, fresh pico, souped up some store bought guac, and fresh refried beans made from canned pintos. I got home at 6:30 and the food was all on the table ready to go at 6:50-sans help from husband- super Nessa moment.

I piled up my plate with all my Mexican goodness and made a much smaller version for buggy who was full of chocolate chips and free samples from Harris Teeter. It was a thing of beauty. I should have taken a pic, but I didn't, cuz I was hungry. How many people partook of this feast? One, me. Yep. Jeebs would usually eat, but he came out of the closet- hehe- after 7 pm- coming down with the flu. Hooray for my miraculous yummy dinner. I should just relive my college days and live on eggs and rice.

PS SUSAN!! you are the big winner of the super duper big fun awesome prize!! I have no idea what it is and Jeebs told me in a nice smart alec way that "even [he] could have gotten that one". Whatever- so be excited be very excited- it's coming...some day...some how :) Way to go Susan and quit losing your kid in the store!! hehehee

"...shine like the top of the Chrysler Building!"

What movie? I'll send you something if you guess it right and you're not my momma- who never reads my blog anyway so it doesn't really matter. No really, I'll send you something, like my super secret super duper pizza sauce. It's not really secret, I might just post it someday.

Okay- I'm getting off track. I made an amazing discovery and y'all probably all know about it already, but it's amazing to me. Do you have water spots all over your faucets that you can't wipe off? Probably not, but I do. Whenever we show our house I like everything to be clean and as shiny as possible. I clean my bathrooms and make it all nice, but my faucets always look dull even after cleaning them. I've tried baking soda, vinegar, windex, a combo of all three- bathroom cleaner- yada yada. Nothing made them super shiny. I bought some silver cream at walmart and tried it today, but it didn't do much either. I finally decided to try my glass top stove polish. I had tried it before when we were showing our house and it looked like it got rid of a bit of the spots, but I didn't have enough time to keep polishing and scrubbing. WELL, I did this morning! I rubbed that stuff on there and VOILA! a shiny beautiful faucet. It took a heck of a lot of elbow grease and polish (note to self: get more polish) but I can see myself in those suckers now. They look brand new and it makes me so happy. Homemakers of the world UNITE! Behold...

Before:
(as I loaded up this picture Ezra held his hand under it like he was going to catch some water drips)

and after:After making this discovery- I looked on the label and it says, "for glass and CHROME stove tops." So, I'm not really as amazing as I think, but I still had to share.

Umm

Made pozole, and Texas sheet cake- then as an afterthought- thinking I might not have enough food- I made my homemade salsa. It was the biggest hit of the night. I have to say my homemade salsa is pretty dang good. Men are so funny- they also took seconds of cake. I really wanted to try it, but I resisted. I love Texas sheet cake! My salsa is very easy- it's just canned diced tomatoes, cilantro, onion, garlic, lime juice, salt and pepper, and a little jalapeno for heat. Blend it all together in the blender and magic happens- yum. Try it and you'll love it and then you can take it to a meeting with a bunch of bishops and they'll love it too :) I'm so tired, why am I blogging? gotta go to bed..........

Yang's PoZole (thanks Page)

It seems only fitting that I be making my sister's pozole today on her birthday. I have to make a dinner for a meeting of all the bishops of the stake so I decided pozole would be easy and tasty. I have never met a man that doesn't like this stuff so I hope it's a hit. Here's a step by step:
Soak guajillo and ancho dried chiles over night.


The next day boil a couple of these- or one of these and some pork- with 1/2 chopped onion, salt and pepper. Doesn't that look tasty? After it's done, debone the chicken and add it back to the cooking broth.

In your blender (note: I got a new blender, what up??) puree 1/2 onion, 4 cloves garlic, 1 tsp salt and your chiles. Remove the stems and some of the seeds before you stick them in your blender. Add some of the chile water too. Note: do not squirt the chile water on your favorite maternity sweater (I could hear my sister "stupid gee!")Remove your chile mixture and puree a 28 oz can of peeled whole tomatoes. Then add your chile mixture a little bit at a time back in until you get your desired level o' heat.Dump that out and saute it with 1/2 chopped onion until the shine goes away. I don't really know what the heck that means- cuz I think the shine always stays, but that's what yang's recipe says so there ya go. Oh- then add 1 to 1 1/2 tsp of mexican oregano. Add all that back into the chicken and chicken broth.
Bring all that up to a boil and add a #10 can of hominy (drained). Then let it simmer for an hour.This is what you get- a red hot pot o' steaming pozole. It's a lot better the longer it sits- you eat it with tortilla chips. The best part is the fresh lime wedges you squeeze over it. Lime is yummy and makes everything better! There ya go- it's cheap, easy and it's Jeebs' absolutely most favorite thing to eat. Yang saves the day again! I hope I have enough for 18 men- yikes.

And this is the scarf my momma made me- don't look at that dirty mirror- I have no idea what the kids did in there.
Don't hate because I'm so freakin' hot- and my mirror is so freakin' nasty. What in the heck do they do in there!?!

The thing about peace

After I found out my sister had cancer I prayed and fasted like I had not prayed and fasted before. I remember after breaking my fast feeling one of the most peaceful feelings in my life and I knew everything was going to be okay. While I was pregnant with Ezra I had many blessings and prayed for peace and comfort- although anxious I knew things would turn out okay. In my mind things didn't turn out okay- my sister passed away 9 months after her diagnosis, Ezra was not able to be born at home and after he was born my blood pressure stayed extremely high and I was in the hospital for a week. After Jeebs lost his job 2 years ago- I felt peaceful again. Jeebs had an offer on the table and I thought all was taken care of. Jeebs, on the other hand, did not feel good about taking the job. I couldn't believe it- you have no job, you have a job offer, you take the job, right? I trusted Jeebs and we were blessed beyond measure. He was able to do plenty of contract work to make ends meet and then some. After he waited it out- did some contract work for this same company- the job offer increased enough to cover the expense of our health insurance. That, in my mind, was a good outcome. But after thinking about all of my life experiences I have come to realize the peace comes from knowing that Heavenly Father is in control and is aware of you. His outcomes are the right outcomes. I just have to keep repeating it and repeating it in my mind. Courage. Courage. The gospel is great, isn't it?


PS Happy Birthday tomorrow Gert! I'll be thinking of you all day

FRUCTOSE! was the word of the day

If you want to know why- read this. It happened again today. ARGGHHH and FRUCTOSE!!

Ezra's artwork

I have to post this because I'm impressed with this little guy's dexterity. At 18 months or so he was holding pens, pencils and crayons correctly. I don't think I've had a kid yet that was entertained with just a plain piece of white paper and a box of crayons. I just realized there were no crayons left out of the box when he was done. I gave him a plain piece of white paper and a big box of crayons. He got up to the table, colored for a bit, returned his crayons to the box and then got down. Later, after Taylor got home he was freaking out wanting something out of her backpack. He found a small pencil she said he could have and I ripped out a piece of notebook paper for him to scribble on. Here are his creations...
He also freaked out a little today because he thought I got rid of his piece of ham. When I showed him I hadn't- he stuffed as many pieces in his mouth that he could before I stopped him. What a boy.