Morning Smoothie

Okay, I have been requested by some friends and family to post my "Mean & Green" morning smoothie recipe. I actually found a recipe on Pinterest that was eerily similar. I mean, super duper similar!! I think it's great that others have the same idea I have to stay healthy but not at the expense of flavor.

Mean & Green Morning Smoothie

Ingredients:

1/2 Banana
1/4 cup Orange Juice
Small handful of Baby Spinach Leaves
2 dollups of Greek Yogurt (I prefer the Vanilla & Honey flavored)
3 piece of frozen Peaches (sliced)
Small handful of frozen & diced Mangoes & Pineapples

Place into blender and blend like crazy. You can add some more OJ if you prefer it to be thinner but I like mine on the thick side. It's your choice. Also, I have added frozen strawberries and other fruits occasionally and it always turns out great. Get crazy with it but don't forget the Greek yogurt and spinach leaves. Those are essential in my opinion!

I'm also posting the picture I found on Pinterest if you want to save it.

It's very close to what I do. I have a smoothie every morning and one in the late afternoon on the weekends. It's yummy and it makes me feel good knowing I'm staying healthy.

Stay Awesome!!

Product review: Power Blender

I have to post about a product that I have been using for a while. No. I have recieved no money for this review so you know my love of this product is legit. The product I have on hand is this:

This is my Cooks 5 in 1 power blender from JC Penney. It was a Christmas gift from my awesome sister-in-law. It's incredible. I usually use it to make my morning "Mean & Green" smoothie (recipe posted later, PROMISE!!) but I have also used it to grate cheese, dice onions, and more! It's amazing and I am happy to report that despite being stuck in my hardcore kitchen, it is still going strong!!!

Stay Awesome!!
Carole

The $5.00 Bill Challenge

Please allow me to introduce you a friend of mine...
This is my good buddy President Lincoln.
2013 is the start of a new budgeting time for my family
and myself.

Recently I found this idea on Pinterest. It's called the $5.00 Bill Challenge. What this means is that for the entire year of 2013, my husband and I will save all the $5.00 bills that pass through our hands. We will put forth a valiant effort to not spend or break any $5.00 bill. Instead we will be putting it away for safe keeping.

I'm thinking we'll probably open a savings account in a different bank than the one we mainly use. This may keep us from dipping into the challenge. At the end of 2013, we're going to see how much money we have accumulated in the 12 months.

As of today, we have a total of $15.00 saved. I know that looks like a puny amount but that's the number of $5.00 bills that we've had in our wallets so far. I am looking forward to seeing that number grow.

What about you? Have you made any budgeting resolutions? Any new plans to save money or decrease debt? Let me know. I can always use new ideas to save a buck or two.

Stay Awesome!!
Carole

UPDATE: It has been a week since I last posted about my $5.00 bill challenge and I'm happy to report that in one week, we're up to $55.00. It's a nice little save in only a week's time. :)

Long time, No see!!

Wow it has been a whole year since I've posted anything on here. I have totally dropped the ball. Allow me to update quickly...
1. I finished student teaching and graduated with my Bachelor's in Elementary Education last May. Woot!
2. I got a fantastic job teaching 3rd Grade Reading. I have 3 classes of third graders and I couldn't be happier. My school is truly spectacular!!
3. I am now working on my Master's degree in Reading. When I graduate, I'll be a Reading Specialist!
4. My son, Peanut, has been taking growth hormone shots since April and has grown a whopping 6 inches since then. He's so proud of himself and we're ecstatic too!!
5. My daughter, Ballerina just turned 2 years old. Her nickname has changed to Tinkerbell since that is basically the only thing we're allowed to watch in her presence.

Well that's about it. I think. I am so sorry I haven't posted anything recently and honestly, I can't think of any cute craft things I've done lately to post about. I do have some pretty cool classroom stuff I've done so I'll try to get those pics up in a couple of days. Oh Yeah!!!

6. I finished my novel and I'm currently going through it with a fine tooth comb to make sure it's as close to perfect as I can get it. Then I'll be searching out literary agents and publishers.

So I'll close with a picture of me and my baby girl at my graduation. Hopefully I'll get back on the saddle this week with more interesting stuff.

As always, Stay Awesome!

Carole

How I've Miss You!!!

I realize that this post ends my 2 month hiatus. I've had a lot going on. We moved to a new house, received some disappointing news concerning Peanut, and been working on homework constantly!!

The Move: we moved across town so it wasn't too terribly bad however, right afterwards, the weather got bad. That figures right?! But we're in a better house (teensy bit smaller though), way better neighborhood, and we are now located 6 houses down from one of the best schools in town. Score!!!

Peanut: my son Peanut has been diagnosed with ONH (Optic Nerve Hypoplasia). This means that he is completely blind in his left eye. We knew something was wrong but I honestly thought his eye just wandered badly. I had no idea he was blind in it. So now he wears glasses to protect his right eye because lets face it, if anything happens to it, he'll be completely blind. He has toughed through a MRI and goes to a endocrinologist on Monday. They checked his pituitary gland for abnormalities to try to explain his small stature. (He's in 1st grade but still wears 4 toddler clothes.) His MRI showed that his pituitary gland is normal but he has septum pellciudum which is the absense of the midline of the brain. Crazy, right?! Prayers and positive vibes are greatly appreciated.

School: This section is super short...I begin student teaching in January and just applied for graduation last Friday! Woot!!!

Thanks for the hiatus. Peanut just celebrated his 7th birthday so pictures of his party will be posted soon.

Stay Awesome!!

Worst Blogger Ever!!

That's me!!!

I am the worst blogger ever!! It has almost been a month since my last blog! I want to apologize for that. I've been swamped with school and now my house is being invaded by a very persistant sick bug.

I promise that I'll bounce back and I'll hopefully have some exciting projects when I do!

Hello My Name is Carole and I'm An Addict...

Yesterday I jumped out of a perfectly good airplane and now I'm addicted to skydiving!! That was simply AMAZING!! I highly suggest that everyone experience the wonderful feeling that skydiving give you at least once in their lifetime.

At the skydive center, J and I decided to jump tandem. Tandem jumping is when you are harnessed to a instructor or Jumpmaster and the parachute is attached to the both of you. Unfortunately, the professional skydive photographer got the flu and couldn't jump with us to take pics. I'm not upset though. This is just an excuse to jump again.

We got into this tiny Cessna plane. It fits two jumpers, two instructors, and a pilot. I decided to jump first. I didn't even think about what was going through J's mind when he watched me jump out of the plane before him.

Anyways, when we got to 10,000 feet they opened the door. I placed my foot out on the step, curled up, and we barrel-rolled out of that plane! What was cool was the whole "stomach in my throat" feeling that I get on rollercoaster only lasted like 2 seconds when I skydived. Then we were freefalling. It was incredible. It seemed like we were flying rather than falling.

Then the chute opened and we glided around for about 5 minutes. It was awesome!! I will definitely be doing that again and next time, I'll get some awesome pics to go with it!! I'm hoping the photographer won't be sick. :)

Drypointing

Have I mentioned lately how awesome my husband is?! Well trust me, he's incredible. Twice a week he gets to have some "J-time" and rehearse with his band. He's a drummer. Well usually I stay at home (always) and with the exception of the occasional girls lunch, I don't do much else. Well tonight he sent me to a local art workshop to learn how to Drypoint.

Drypointing is a form of printmaking. I've done printmaking many times back in my art school days but never drypointing. It involves using a needle-like utensil called a scribe and etching a drawing into plexiglass.

Then you smear ink over the top, scrape off any excess ink, and using a press or a marble rolling pin, you copy the etching onto paper.

I think that for my first time, it turned out pretty well. I'm happy with it and I think I found another favorite thing to do!! Thank you J!!

Wordless Wednesday - Laundry Sniper!

My Ballerina loves tutus!!

So I got the best package ever in the mail today!! Little Yellow Sew Shop sent me my goodies that I won from Lee La La's recent giveaway.

The package is called Tiny to Toddler Perfect Purple Package. It includes a purple and teal tutu, cute argyle leg warmers, a purple flower headband, a 24 month T-shirt, and three adorable onesies!!

The good news is that all of the goodies are too cute for words. Seriously adorable.

The bad news is that my little Ballerina Hippo is too big to fit in any of the onesies.

She's only 7 months old and she can't even wear the 6-9 month one! LOL! So I had to put her in the 24 month T-shirt for the pics but she looks fabulous in all of it!

Thank you Lee La La and Little Yellow Sew Shop!!

First Day of School!!

Teacher Welcome Gift

Well my kids start school on Friday. It's a bittersweet moment but to be honest, I'm glad. This summer in Oklahoma has been a hot 110-115 degrees every day!! So I was pretty much stuck inside with the entire brood all summer! I'm pretty excited to have some quiet time during the day.

That being said, my kids always want to give their teacher's a welcome gift on the first day of school. Back to school shopping has gotten pretty expensive so I wanted their gifts to be cheap and easy. I headed to Goodwill and picked up a pair of cute coffee mugs for $1.49. Yay! In addition to the coffee mugs, I added some cute little things. For example, chocolates, Carefree gum, a gluestick, a crayon, ear plugs, and a band-aid.

I found the following little insert for the card explaining the gifts on another blog and for the life of me, I can't find it to link to. I'm a bad blogger! Anyways here's the little poem:

                Welcome Teacher! Here is a first day kit just for you!

Crayon: to ensure that your day bright & cheerful

Rubber Band: to remind you to be flexible

Gluestick: to hold it all together

Ear Plugs: when you just can't take the noise anymore

Carefree Gum: to help your class stick together and remind you to stay care free

Bandaid: to help fix any hurt feelings

Chocolate: to enjoy all the sweet moments

Coffee mug: to keep your liquid motivation flowing

Cute right?! I'm loving it!!

Look Who's A Giveaway Winner!!

So I completely hit the jackpot and won an awesome giveaway at

Lee la la!

This is the fantastic prize that I have the privilege of putting on my little Ballerina!

Oh my gosh!! I cannot put into words how excited I am about this!! Check out Lindsay's blog. She's fabulous and so is her blog!!

Italian Sausage and Peppers

I love cooking a quick meal for the family! I love not spending a huge amount of time on dinner and still have it turn out fabulous!! This recipe is one that fits the above description beautifully! Italian sausage with bell peppers!

I got this recipe from my sister-in-law who is married to an Italian man and has 4 hungry teenagers to feed. It is by far the simplest and yummiest meal!

Ingredients:

Bell Peppers (I used 1 red, 1 yellow, and 2 orange), 1 yellow onion (I only used half), 2 packages of spicy Italian sausage links, 2 tablespoons of minced garlic, and a pinch of kosher salt.

Directions:

Slice sausage links into cylindrical coins, place in bowl with diced onion, and toss with the minced garlic. Set aside.

Remove seeds from peppers and slice into thin strips. Set to the side also.

In a large pan, cook the sausage/onion mixture over Med-High heat until the sausages are slightly browned and their juices have coated the bottom of the pan. Remove the sausage/onion mixture from pan and add the peppers. This cooks the peppers in the sausage sauce. This is usually where I add the kosher salt. Cook until peppers are slightly limp. Add the sausage/onion mixture and cover. Allow all of this to cook together, stirring occasionally for about 10-15 minutes depending on your stove top.

Finally remove from heat and drain. Place in serving bowl and enjoy! We usually add fresh grated Parmesan cheese before diving in but we're a cheese-loving family!

Today I added this recipe as our bread, Parmesan Knots from Chef in Training. They were a huge hit and if you haven't checked out her blog, you must. It's awesome!!

Back to School ideas

I found and listed some really cool "Back to School" ideas on my teacher blog,

Mrs. Morris' Classroom Chalk Talk.

Stop by and let me know if you've run across any great ideas!!

Our Anniversary!

Yesterday was our anniversary!! It was so awesome!! And my love gave me the greatest gift ever...an Edible Arrangements bouquet! It was super yummy and so beautiful!!

Pearl & Ribbon Necklace

Tomorrow is my anniversary! I'm excited and I bought the most adorable outfit to wear to dinner with my husband. I'll post it tomorrow! But anyways, I couldn't find the perfect necklace. I seriously have like 30 necklaces and none of them were right for the outfit so I decided to make one.

I used crochet twine, brown organza ribbon, and ivory pearls to make my necklace.

It was surprisingly easy to make, I just threaded the twine onto a needle and alternately threaded the pearls and the ribbon (folding the ribbon along the way).

I'm really excited about the way it turned out!

My New Teaching Blog!!

So starting next week, I begin my final year as a college student. I am graduating May of 2012 with a BS in Elementary Education!! I am so stinking excited that I can hardly handle it!! I've been going crazy researching classroom decor, ways to keep my future classroom clutter-free, bookmarking future lesson plans for ever grade possible, and basically driving my husband crazy!!

So with all of that in mind, I started a second blog, Mrs. Morris' Classroom Chalk Talk. I have zero followers but that doesn't matter. I'll be posting all the adorable and genius ideas that I run across in fellow educators blogs.

I do ask for a small favor, if you happen to know of any awesome teacher blogs, please point me in their direction.

Thanks a million!!

Back to School Cupcakes

"Back to School" Apple Cupcakes

I decided to make special "Back to School" cupcakes for my little loves. They turned out good. The Apple Cuppy-cakes!

I took my red silicone baking cups and baked some plain white cupcakes. After baking, I added some icing and a chocolate doughnut to the top then put them in the freezer for one hour.

While the cupcakes were chilling, I took tootsie rolls and cut them in half to be the apple stems. I also took green Jolly Rancher fruit chews, rolled them flat and cut them into leaf shapes.

I took one can of white frosting and added red food coloring until it got to the color that I liked. Then I microwaved the icing to make it smooth. This made icing the cupcakes much easier because all I needed to do is dip the cupcakes into the icing and spooning additional icing into the hard to reach places. Finally I added the stem and leaf to each cupcake.

It's A Blog Hop!!

Loving the idea of a Blog Hop!! It's so great to see everyone else's wonderful blogs!!