Chili

The other day we had a small low-key gathering of friends at Jason's house.

Tim, Jason's roommate, made diablos which are a jalapeno, cut in half and soaked in milk then stuffed with steak that has been marinated in bbq sauce and then to top it all off you wrap them in bacon and grill them. They are actually really good. I am not a jalapeno lover and not a fan of spicy foods, but these actually ended up being very sweet, the milk takes out almost all of the heat in the jalapenos. They have a sweet and smokey flavor.

Jason made chicken wings and they are awesome! It is currently one of his new favorite things to make so we have been eating them a lot. He fries them up in a deep fryer and then coats them in a sauce consisting of Louisiana hot sauce and butter. I like them when he mixes in a little bbq sauce in the the sauce mix, but mostly cause i am not a fan of really spicy things.

It took me a long time to figure out what to make, I wanted to do something tasty but easy. Chili had crossed my mind a couple times but i wasn't sure i wanted to make it. After a couple days of thinking about i just decided to make it since i couldn't come up with anything else. As soon as i mentioned it to Tim he was like you need to put bacon, steak and jalapenos in it. I told him he was crazy, there was no way i was putting bacon in chili, to me it just doesn't even sound good. When I find a recipe i always somehow manage to change and alter it into what i think it should be. A while back i found a chili recipe i thought was promising and tried it out, with my alterations it turned out pretty tasty. Here is my recipe as i made it:

1lb Ground beef

1/2 white onion, diced

3 stalks celery, diced

1 small green pepper, diced

1 Jalapeno, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 (10.7oz) cans crushed tomatoes

1 can diced tomatoes

2 (15oz) can kidney beans, with liquid

1 (15oz) can kidney beans, drained

Chili powder, as much as you feel necessary

Pepper, as much as you feel necessary

Couple dashes of hot sauce

In a skillet over medium high heat, cook ground beef until browned. Add in pepper, garlic, onion and let cook down for a couple minutes. Add everything into a pot and then season with however much seasoning you feel necessary, more of less whatever is your preference. Bring to a boil and then turn down and let simmer for at least 2 hours. Serve with sour cream and grated cheese on top.

* The first time i made this it called to cook it in the slow cooker for 8 hours. I did 6 and it started to burn to the sides of the cooker. It still tasted really good but i do not think it needs to cook for that long which is why i just cooked it in a pot on the stove this time. It was still just as good. Next time i think i might try to put steak in it instead of the ground beef.

She's a star

I know the quality of this picture is terrible, i took it with my phone this morning. Kendall is the "star" or the Good Morning too section of the newspaper today. I was dropping her off at daycare and her teacher told me and I was like ummmm i know nothing about it.

As soon as I saw it i knew the only person who would actually go to the newspaper and say you need to run this is Gabe her Great Grandpa.

He literally just called me saying her picture might be in the newspaper sometime soon and i got to be the lucky one to inform him that it indeed was in the paper today and then he had to rush of the phone real fast to go check it out at the library. I wonder how many copies he will buy.

So there we have it. My baby is sitting naked in a bowl of candy corn naked on the front page of our newspaper. Who doesn't love a naked baby?

****oh and for those of you who may be wondering her last name is not Strong-Murray it's just Strong, it is not hyphenated.

Gym Time!

Who can resist this face food and all???

I have started going back to the gym and I am really excited about it. Before I was pregnant with Kendall I went to the gym 5 days a week and got into great shape. Once I was pregnant I was seriously drained off all energy. I still went a few times, until i just couldnt do it anymore.

After taking the last year off due to being too "busy" with a baby I am focusing and getting back into the swing of things. I have been unhappy with how i looked lately because of how hard i worked. I did make excuses for a while because of Kendall and I know i didnt need to. Once I realized this i sprung into action.

This is not a New Years Resolution but I am utilizing the deal they have going on at the gym right now. I prepaid my membership for $175 for 5 months, there was no initiation fee and it comes out to around $28 a month, its regularly $31. They have got to be making a ton of money right now from people making resolutions.

Just from one day I am pretty sore, it hurts but it feels good and i know it will get better. Talk to me tomorrow after day 2 and i might tell you something else. I am really excited this worked out and I get to go. Starting next week after I pick Kendall up from daycare she will go to her dads or a sitter for an hour while i go to the gym. This week is a little trickier since I am still working until 4 but my sister is watching her after work for an extra hour.

Christmas Update

We survived Christmas!!! It was a little hectic (there were 8 people and 4 dogs here) at times but pretty low key the rest of the day. I don't have any pictures downloaded yet, i let my mom and sister take most of them so I could help Kendall unwrap presents. Here is a little timeline of our day:

~Things really started out for us on Christmas Eve. Kendall and I went down to Jason's and spent time with his family and exchanged gifts. Jason's mom, Marci, got Kendall a beautiful toy box and it fits all her old and new toys into it.

~When we got home (back to my house) my mother and I, with some help from my older sister, put together a couple of breakfast traditions for us. We ALWAYS make bubble bread, it is a yummy gooey roll that sits over night and you bake in the morning, it tastes good all day long. We also make a Sausage Strata, only a few of us like this so we don't always make it, but i really like it and found a new recipe we tried out and it was pretty good. They both have to rest overnight so its perfect Christmas breakfasts.

~Christmas morning, we all got up between 7 and 8 and got our breakfasts in the oven and got ready for church. Our church was one of a few having a church service Sunday morning it was after all Christmas morning and Jesus's birthday so the right and proper thing to do was go to church. We went at 10 and were home a few minutes after 11 and by then it was time for Kendall to nap.

~On Christmas eve when everyone was opening presents Kendall got a little overwhelmed, there was too much going on for her to focus on and she got a little scared. So while she was napping we opened all our presents and saved hers for when she woke up and Jason got there. She ended up taking a 3 hour nap so we all watched one of the movies we got.

~Finally when we all got rounded back up into the living room once she was awake, she had a lot of presents. At first she wasn't so sure about the wrapping paper, usually she loves shredding paper up. As soon as a toy was open she would get so distracted she didn't want to open anything else up. She got so many clothes (yay more laundry) and whole bunch of new toys. She has got to the point where the little baby toys are too boring but the older ones are a little to challenging, either way she still likes to play with them all but the new ones will challenge her mind a little more.

~We had planned on having an early dinner around 4 but it didn't end up being until around 6. By the time we had dinner Kendall was extremely over stimulated and tired and was cranky, when i tried to give her a nap she got herself worked up to the point of being hysterical, so i just got her up. She had a little bit of dinner and after a bath was pretty happy until she went to bed.

Over all we had a very good day and Kendall got lots of practice opening presents. I am glad we separated her presents and opened them after her nap, as it was she was already really overwhelmed and it helped that it was just her opening instead of 8 of us at 1 time. I will get the pictures from my mom and sister in the next couple days and will be posting them up to show everyone. Hope you all had a Merry Christmas.

Maybe the BEST gift ever!

Yesterday, Grandpa Gabe (Jason's Grandpa) called me and said he had a gift for Jason and I and we needed to stop by and pick it up. I didn't have a chance to stop by after work as i had other plans so we made arrangements to meet up this morning after I dropped Kendall off at daycare (its just a few blocks from his house) so it worked out for me to stop by.

I had no clue what this "gift" could be that he got us, he had said on the phone we both would be able to use it, so it got me thinking. When I got there this morning, he was waiting at the door for me. We talked for a few minutes and he showed me a couple things Jason had given him as a kid and then he handed me the gift. It was not wrapped but just in the box it came in and it was none other then a.....

I am not even kidding a little bit, I was standing there trying not to laugh as he was telling me it came with its own instructional DVD. He also wrote a little note on the box saying "Now you both can get ripped!"

We all know what they are and have seen the slightly inappropriate commercials for them, Jason has poked a little fun at them from time to time when he sees it on the TV. It has to be one of the funniest gifts I have ever received. It does not surprise me one bit cause Gabe is so random and he is a really one of the nicest guys and very funny. He is very generous, he gave Kendall her present last week and its a little Fisher Price buggy she can walk with and she loves it. He is a very proud Great Grandpa.

Maybe the Shake-Weight works....stay tuned for results.

Santa is coming :)

Words cannot describe how excited I am for Kendalls first Christmas. I already know she likes her presents, the other day she found there hiding place and was playing with them in the boxes. They are now wrapped but she keeps going back to were she found them to look for them. on Christmas day she will probably be more distracted by the wrapping paper then the actual presents.

On a more disappointing note.... Jason and I took her to get Santa pictures taken. She looked so adorable in her little dress. They were supposed to be done by the following Wednesday, which was the day I stayed home with her during her illness. I asked my mom to stop in and pick them up and when she got there the lady couldn't find them and said she would call her as soon as she did. Well a few days went by and we didn't hear anything. We had to go to town Saturday and we near the store so we stopped in and this is the story I got: " We are really sorry but somehow your pictures got deleted. There was a malfunction with the camera, yours and about 50 other pictures got deleted." Now Kendall has no Santa picture from her first Christmas. One would think they would get Santa back to fix their "malfunction" but they didn't. I cant really complain too much because they were doing this for free which a lot of people really appreciated. But 50 peoples pictures got deleted. The only opportunity I have left for her to get one is if I drive an hour to the mall. I am still undecided if we will be doing this or not.

On another happy note, my sister Prairie Princess and her Hubs are going to be here Friday night to spend the weekend with us. It will be a short visit thanks to people not passing drug tests making Pat have to work extra hard and not getting to take an extra day off. But we will enjoy the time they are here!

Sick baby :(

Kendall is sick again. This time i think its a flu bug. She did have a flu shot, i don't think it had enough time to work into her system before she got exposed to the virus. On Tuesday I had to pick up from daycare 2 hours early cause they called and said her temp was 102! I took her home and she napped good and was just fussy, she managed to eat a little but i wasn't going to force her to eat it is impossible. After she went to bed it went downhill. She slept good for a few hours and then woke up and was throwing up, which happened to be all over me. She slept better then i was thinking she would probably cause we spent the night in the rocking chair, and she managed to keep down a small bottle in the middle of the night but in the morning she threw up again. I had to stay home from work obviously i wasn't going to send her to daycare sick and they also have a rule that a child has to be kept out of school 24 hours AFTER the fever goes away.

We spent the day at home and it was pretty uneventful. She took a 3 hour nap in the morning and Jason came over to visit us in the afternoon and she just sat there in a daze and then went back to sleep after about an hour. It was nice getting to stay home in an empty house. I was able to get most of my Christmas stuff done (I still have to get something for my brother and I dont know what), I had to move back into my room (the one i share with Kendall) cause my brother will be home and needs a room to sleep in. I got all my laundry done although it is still sitting on the couch folded cause Kendall was sleeping and i couldn't get in there to put it away without her waking up. I have been living out of 2 bedrooms for the past couple of weeks so i had quite the pile of clean and dirty clothes. Last night she was feeling much better after her fever went away and she slept better. However, her fever is back this morning at about 100. I had to come into work so Jason is watching her for a few hours, I will stop in on my lunch break to see how things are going and then my sister will pick her up when she is done working at 2.

I called the Dr yesterday and they said if she wasn't better by this afternoon to call again and they will see her. Hopefully it goes away cause this bug is making her miserable and taking a toll on her little body.