Scrapbook What? Scrapbook Convention!!!!

I have been so excited for months now because Mom and I were going to the Scrapbook Convention in Pleasanton and my Aunt Stacy and cousin Jayleen were coming down from Reno to go with us!!! YAY!! Both Mom and I were very happy and anxious for this day to come!

We started our day out at 7 AM....or should I say my day started at 6 AM. And I was so excited that I ended up getting to Mom's house a half hour early! While the ladies finished getting dolled up Mom and I made some sandwiches and we were ready to go!!

Here is Mom, Aunt Stacy, and Jayleen before we headed off!

And here is a shot with Mom and Me and Jayleen! We were so ready to get on our way!

And of course being it was a Scrapbook Convention we had no problem getting a snapshot of the four of us in front of the entrance! Thanks to the kind security guard for being our own personal paparazzi! Me, Mom, Jayleen, and Aunt Stacy...ready to get our shopping on!

Here's Mom and I being goofy and showing off our admission bands!

We were able to hit up one booth before our class that started at 10:30 but that didn't matter cause it would mean we had the WHOLE afternoon to shop!! Jayleen, Mom and I took the Princess Puppy class offered by Boxer Scrapbooks (An AMAZINGLY cute Scrapbooking company...they have all your pet themed scrapbooking needs). Since I have a princess puppy at home I was super excited to get started with this class!

Here we are ready to create and learn!

The class was great. It moved pretty quickly and Mom and I totally blew it and didn't bring our paper trimmers. Thank goodness the Newbie (Jayleen) had brought a paper trimmer :-) What a smart cookie!! So while Jayleen and Mom listened to what the instructor said I cut the paper. It was fine with me because I am not really a class taker. The only two classes I've taken at these expos are ones put on by Boxer Scrapbook company! I love love love the projects! While I didn't finish my tin album there I will be finishing it at home and of course posting it here :-)

Here's a shot of Mom and I.....We must have a Kendall style picture. Chuck and I always take this style of picture because it's the two of us when we are doing something and we don't always have someone to ask to take a picture! Of course I had to make Mom take one with me!

I was dead set on only spending $100 at the Convention so I only brought $100 cash....but I did make sure to bring the debit cards!! You just never know! And I am so happy that I did! I only spent $130 dollars but if I didn't have my debit card I wouldn't have been able to get the second scrapbooking shirt I wanted...well not true because I know I could have just gone to Bank of Mom and took out a short term loan :-)

Here is a shot of all my loot from the day! It was a heavy heavy bag by the end of the day! But I was thrilled to sign up for a new scrapbook club...well new for me not for them! My Aunt and Jayleen were in this one booth and I was looking for my Mom so I stopped to see if they had seen her. And my Aunt explained to me the way this club worked! I thought I'd be a fool not to join so I did! I got 6 layout packs to start up and I can't wait to see what comes out next. If you are into Scrapbooking you should check it out: Storytellers Club. Now I don't usually buy layouts that are pre-determined, but with these you can follow their layout idea or just do your own thing. You get all the supplies and then you can decide what you want to do! I think it will be great!

The BEST, NUMBER 1, AMAZING PURCHASE OF THE DAY!!!!

Oh yes that says Scrapbook Hero! Now I'm not sure that many of you know this but I LOVE video games!! Chuck and I are OBSESSED with Guitar Hero! We have almost all the games and we will play for hours, ignoring everyone! We even had to get ourself Wireless guitars because the dogs would pull on the chord from the system! When I saw this shirt, in this AWESOME pink I knew I had to have it! A bonus it was 50% off...I scored this sweet T for only $12.oo WOO HOO!! I couldn't wait to show Chuck!

I had such a blast at this Convention and it was so much fun getting to spend time with my Aunt and Cousin! And of course I love doing this type of stuff with Mom! I walked away with lbs of new scrapbooking supplies and some new threads!

Then Sunday I took Roxy for our Weekend Walk and then Chuck and I spent the rest of the day relaxing!

And this week is going to be another go go go week! I've got a book to finish, 12 new recipes I have scheduled to try, regular work, dinner with Chuck's soon to be ex brother in law, dinner with the Family, picking out paint colors, going to Home Depot to buy paint & painting supplies and I really want to catch up on all my DVRed shows...but we'll see if that happens....oh and did I mention I'd like to scrapbook!?!?!?!

Let's Get Serious Now...

One thing I'm usually hesitate to try is healthy dessert recipes. Let's get real and face facts....NOTHING is better than some Chocolate! I love chocolate...what am I saying I love sweets! But because of this love my weight suffers or maybe I should say it INCREASES!

Anywho I am determined to never give up food items that I love because I need to lose weight. I am way more open to modifying any and every recipe and just trying new healthy recipes....you might say DUH Kendall..you've been talking about healthy foods for a few posts now! So I'll just dive right into the next new Recipe! That's right 3 3 new recipes were made last night!

Double Trouble Chocolate Trifle

I mean just look at those ingredients! How could this go wrong?

Yum...Milk and Pudding Mix. I was ready to stop there and just eat the pudding....

A close up of the Vita-Tops...these are somewhat expensive considering you only get four in the package but maybe I'm just cheap. And at Safeway you can get a HUGE slice of cake for $2.99...Which is so bad for me but so cheap and extremely good!

All the main ingredients laid out ready to start building my trifle.....Fat Free, Sugar Free chocolate pudding, Vita Tops (after being killed by the food processor), and Chocolate Syrup and Fat Free Cool Whip!

I originally started out building these in little dessert bowls we had, but quickly found they were not going to work! And this recipe calls for four servings so I needed to make it correctly! Chuck suggested I use these awesome hot cocoa glass mugs we bought a couple years ago! They were PERFECT!

What made those glass mugs so perfect was that they were glass!! With the bowls you would not have seen any of the layers! These looked so good! I was prepared to dislike them because I was getting my hopes up since they looked so good!

These were CHOCOLATE HEAVEN!! Low fat, low carbs, whatever I don't care! You couldn't taste anything but pure Chocolate Ectasy! Even Chuck loved it when he is so PICKY and doesn't like to eat anything low fat....he prefers the "good" stuff! Lucky for him he doesn't pack on the pounds like some of us do!

I really can't do any word justice for these. They were so amazing and I will be making these a lot more. I can't thank Lisa Lillien enough for these little pieces of Chocolate Heaven!

Here is the MUST HAVE recipe!!

Ingredients:

4 Vita Tops (any chocolate flavor), THAWED! (You can find these in the frozen food aisle in the grocery store)

1 2/3 cups Cool Whip Free, thawed.

1 cup skim milk (I used 1%)

2 tablespoons sugar-free, fat-free chocolate instant pudding mix

1 1/2 tablespoons sugar free chocolate syrup!

Directions:

Combine milk with pudding mix in a bowl. Whisk until blended and thickened, about 2 minutes. Refrigerate for at least 5 minutes.

In a separate bowl, combine syrup with 1 cup cool whip. Mix gently until completely blended. Refrigerate for at least 5 minutes.

Break Vita Tops into pieces. Pulse in blender (I used food processor) until reduced to crumbs.

This is where I made it my own way and didn't put it into one bowl.

In the bottom of a medium serving bowl, layer one forth of the vita crumbs. Top with half the pudding.

Spread 2/3 cup Cool Whip over pudding layer. Sprinkle evenly with two-thirds of the remaining vita crumbs.

Layer remaining pudding over Vita crumbs.

Top with the chocolate-syrup Cool Whip Mixture. Sprinkle with remaining Vita crumbs!

I only used 1 cup of the Cool Whip and mixed it with the chocolate syrup and only used that for layering. I think had I used the 2/3 Cool Whip it would have been too much cool whip, but that's just me :-)

Everyone needs to run, not walk but RUN to the grocery store and pick up these ingredients to make these....

And the best part...we have 2 leftover for dessert this weekend :-)

Chicken Fajita Lettuce Cups!

After cleaning up the mess I made from making the Guacamole I started on another new recipe to try (and yes it was quite a mess!!!) I usually try and clean as I go but I was very anxious to get the guac into the fridge to get cold!!! Anywho after I cleaned.....

I started in on my Chicken Fajita Lettuce Cups!!! And of course from the Amazing Hungry Girl Cookbook!

I gathered my ingredients....I'll include the recipe at the end of the post :-)

Don't those peppers look AMAZING???

After chopping up the peppers and slicing the chicken breast you mix it all into a bowl! I just love how colorful it is!!

Then you add the fajita mix and water! Let it marinate for about 5 minutes! I added a little extra fajita seasoning mix to mine..I love things spicy!

Next you just pour the mix into a pan that is warmed up and let it cook away!

This is when my mouth started watering it smelled so good!!

While the chicken was cooking away I prepared my lettuce cups! Mind you, these look nothing like the picture in the book, but the picture is really not helpful when putting these together. So I winged it and in the end they ended up like lettuce burritoes and not like cups!

I took out the yummy toppings! Have I mentioned how much I love Mexican food??!?!?!? I don't think I have, well I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!! My favorite part is that almost any Mexican dish can be topped with gaucamole and sour cream!

Look at how colorful these little lettuce burritoes are!! Its definitely a summer dish and with the weather we've been having here it was perfect! They were so DELISH!! I only ate two of them but this recipe is a keeper for sure!

Here is the recipe! I highly recommend this for anyone!!

Ingredients:

3 leaves romaine, butter, or green leaf lettuce. (I chose romaine)

3 ounces raw boneless, skinless, lean chicken breast, sliced (I don't think my chicken was lean but I'm not sure)

1/2 cup sliced red and green bell peppers

1/2 cup sliced onions (I used onion powder)

2 tablespoons Holy Moly Guacamole

1 tablespoon Salsa

1 tablespoon fat free sour cream (I had to use light sour cream because they had NO fat free at the store)

1 1/2 teaspoons dry fajita seasoning mix

Directions:

Place chicken, peppers, and onions in a medium bowl. In a separate dish, blend fajita seasoning mix with 3 tablespoons water.

Pour seasoning mixture over chicken and veggies. Stir until chicken and veggies are thoroughly coated. Let marinate for 5 minutes.

Spray a medium pan with nonstick spray and bring to medium-high heat. Pour chicken-veggie mixture - including any excess marinade - into the pan.

Stirring occasionaly, saute until chicken is cooked through and veggies are slightly browned, about 6 minutes. Transfer mixture to bowl (I skipped the bowl step)

Enjoy fajita-style by loading up each lettuce "cup" (in my case burrito) with one third of the chicken-veggie mixture and topping with the guacamole, salsa, and sour cream!

BTW I didn't measure out my toppings, just added a little to each one. Trust me these babies have enough flavor that you don't need much for toppings!

Makes 1 serving

Per serving (3 lettuce cups): 190 calories, 2.5 g fat, 562 mg sodium, 18g carbs, 4g fiber, 7 g sugars, 23g protein.

And only 3 WW Points per serving! Amazing RIGHT?????? Oh and btw I love love love Hungry Girl!

Holy Moly Guacamole!!

Tonight was an extremely successful cooking night! After work I went by the grocery to pick up a "few" items! Walked out $120 later, but at least it was spent on healthy food and not crap food!!

Anywho I really wanted to try out a new recipe from the Hungry Girl and as promised I am feeling better, therefor I knew I was trying a new recipe!

The first item I made was the Holy Moly Guacamole! I'll post the actual recipe tomorrow and will include it at the bottom!!

It was so easy though and while that looks like a lot of ingredients for one dip, you could taste everything....the food was having a celebration in my mouth!! HAHA :)


First things first, you must mash the peas! After going at it for 5 minutes with a spatula a little light bulb popped up and TA DA!! Mashing peas in a plastic baggie....

Only later did I remember that we have a food processor and I could have easily used that...oh well you live you learn. Here it is in all it's green glory!!! I opted to leave the tomatoes out, mainly because I forgot to chop them up by the time I got everything else added in. But that just means I have tomatoes to eat in some other way....maybe bruschetta???

Chip anyone??? I gotta be honest this guacamole turned out AMAZING!! I was a little worried when it had me add in yogurt but I thought it looks pretty good....could it be? Why yes it can, it tasted like regular old fattening guacamole...hold the fat!

What made it even better was that my Seester came up to visit for the evening and she dug right in! I am so happy to have found a recipe that is healthy but one of those food item that I crave!!!

I'll post the recipe tomorrow...off to bed I go!! Already a half hour behind schedule!!

UPDATE: Here is the recipe...

Ingredients:

1 15 ounce can early (young) peas drained.

1/2 cup mashed avocado (about 1 med-small avocado)

1/3 cup chopped cherry tomatoes (I left these out)

1/4 cup finely chopped onion (I used onion powder)

1/4 cup plain fat free greek yogurt (I just used Fat Free yogurt since I couldn't find greek yogurt)

4 teaspoons lime juice

1/2 teaspoon chopped garlic

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

1/8 teaspoon ground cumin

1/8 teaspoon chili powder

Additional Salt and Black Pepper, to taste

Directions:

Place peas in a medium bowl and mash thoroughly with a potato masher or fork.

Add avocado, yogurt, lime juice, garlic, and seasonings. Continue to mash until well blended.

Stir in tomatoes and onion.

Makes 6 servings

Per serving (1/3 cup): 78 calories, 3g fat, 320 mg sodium, 10.5g carbs, 3.5g fiber, 4g sugars, 3.5g protein.

Only 1 WW Point per serving YAY!!

Final Piece of the Puzzle

Our Emergency Car Kits and my Pepper Spray came!! Now we are ready for any sort of Emergency to happen....not that I want one to happen, I would prefer if my world kept spinning as it is right now, but just in case we both now have car kits and our home and pet kits!!

The pepper spray was so that I felt safer. Going to the gym early in the morning I get somewhat paranoid! I guess I watch too many murder shows and too much Law & Order: SVU, but a girl's gotta feel safe these days!! What is so great about this pepper spray? It's in a PINK case!! I was very happy to get it....now just to test it out to make sure it works!!!

Happy it Was A Library Book

I belong to a book club on goodreads.com and this month we are reading one off my list...SCORE!! Granted this book was not on the original list but the two that come after it were! Of course it had to be added! It's Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin.

Source

Well Ms Giffin I was not impressed with your book until the very end!! I won't give away any spoilers but I HATED all the characters in the book until the end. Even still I'm not sure I like them, it's more of a Okay it works for me! I am so happy I didn't buy it like I had originally planned!

Overall it's an okay book, nothing spectacular like I've heard from people, but I am determined to read the next two books! I am hoping they will be better than this...but we shall see!

And now I'm on to my next book: "Girls Poker Night: A Novel of High Stakes" by Jill Davis. I know I said I was reading A Hopeless Romantics Handbook, but I never got it started and then my book club chose Something Borrowed...And Girls Poker Night is due back at the library next week so I need to crack it open :-)

And I think I might need to add another book to my list! I know I know, I said I wouldn't add anymore until I got through my list of books, but I've heard that Julie Powell wrote another book called Cleaving. While I've heard it changes your opinion of her A LOT...I am intrigued. There is a long wait at the Library so I've added my name to the list...but I am sure I won't get it for months!

Anyone reading anything good right now? Or read anything good recently?

Home Sick :-(

Not that anyone likes being home sick, but I hate it! I would much rather have a mental health day than a sick day. I hate just sitting around feeling like crap and I get so tired of TV. But I find myself feeling like crap today. It all started yesterday with a killer headache....I woke up this morning, dragged myself to the gym and barely did a work out. I felt like I had a fever and my stomach felt horrible. I got home, took a shower and snuggled back into bed, thinking I would just go into work later than usual.

But it just didn't happen. I am still feeling like crap and I worked all morning from home :-( Now I am just blogging to share something that's made my day a little better!!

A package arrived and at first I thought it might be the rest of our emergency kits, but nope it was this:

Source

I was so happy to have something to read while I'm laying here on the couch this afternoon. Then after flipping through the first few pages and not seeing one recipe I disliked I thought how fun it might be to do a Julie/Julia style project with my Hungry Girl Book. I own the first one but it's really nothing compared to this book.

I am now laying out a game plan/meal plan and I am determined to cook/bake every single recipe out of this book. Even the ones that I just am not sure about....for example any recipe using fish! I am not a fish fan but I am trying my hardest to be less picky and give everything a good try.

My first meal (once I'm feeling better) will be:

Dinner: Chicken Fajita Lettuce Cups (which includes the Holy Moly Gaucamole recipe) and little taco salad in a shell.

Dessert: Double Trouble Chocolate Trifle!

Bring it on Lisa Lillien! I look forward to finding healthy alternatives to go with my healthier lifestyle.

Now I'm off to take a nap....

What a Beautiful Morning!

Today was such a beautiful day! I got to sleep in and was awoken by my Honey! He brought me up breakfast in bed, some pancakes and bacon! But he hadn't made his breakfast yet so I brought my plate downstairs and ate with him :-) Then we read the paper and I finally got my butt in the shower!

I knew I wanted to take Roxy for an hour long walk because I didn't get to yesterday, so after I got out of the shower I put on my baseball cap, grabbed my ipod and headed out! It was so BEAUTIFUL outside!!

I think she was enjoying it too!!!

After we got home from our walk Roxy pooped out!! And then later we took Buster to Camp Bow Wow for about 3 hours! And now he and Roxy are sleeping next to me!! I love when my dogs are happy!!

Scrap-A-Thon!!!

This past Saturday my Mom and I attended a 12-Hour Crop Fundraiser for a school!! It was the 4th Annual one they've had!! And it's always so much fun! This year my Mom's two friends Marie and Salley come with us as well!

When we got to our table we found these amazing goodie bags with some paper and stamps and other scrapbooking items! The ladies who organized the crop are so cute and crafty and did a custom made label on the bottled water!

And a custom made label for a candy bar! It was adorable, it had custom made ingredients list tht was just so cute!

The table space for my Mom and I and her two friends! Notice the cushion on the chair...I forgot to pack one when I left the house so I went to Wal-Mart and picked one up and I am so HAPPY that I did!

A shot of just my Mom and I's workspace! It was so much ROOM!! And I was able to use three milk crates they had lying over there as mini tables to have even more room! It made it so much easier to access things without having to hunt around!

Here is the raffle prize table! We bought some raffle tickets and entered a few. And Mom WON!! She wins every year but she got herself a nice basket that Beverly's had donated with some scrapbooking goodies!!!

We had a BLAST as usual at this crop and we both got quite a bit done. I made a decent size start into the dogs Scrapbook albums. I did a few spreads for them and then started a spread with the cats! My Mom did a couple great Disneyland pages and a cool one of my Paps with his quad!! We both had a great time!! I just wish there were more crops like this around. I wouldn't even care if there was no goodie bag or raffle. I just love coming and scrapbooking all day with other scrapbookers and spending time with my Mom!

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Last week on Monday Chuck and I went to his doctor's appointment and then we decided to go out to dinner. On our way to the restaurant the weather started acting funky. It was freezing, but the sign was shining very brightly, and then it started to POUR and the sun was still shining brightly!! Then it started to hail and continued to pour rain! It was so odd and as we were going over the overpass I look in the side mirror and see an AMAZING rainbow!

This wasn't just any ordinary rainbow that I've seen, it was a FULL rainbow!! I have never in my life seen a rainbow that was so full! I've seen plenty of half rainbows but never a FULL rainbow! And being the scrapbooker that I am I of course had my camera with me!

One side of the rainbow!

The middle! Yes it's all there!

And the other side!

It was gorgeous and so amazing to see it! I can't even describe how excited I was!!!

In Case of Emergency

With all the Earthquakes occurring recently in Haiti, Taiwan and Chile we decided to get ourselves prepared. Living in California we could easily be the next to experience a massive Earthquake and needless to say we don't want to be caught without a game plan! We ordered our emergency supplies from the amazing website http:///www.iprepare.com.

We got the first part of our order on Thursday and it was our 2 Person Essentials Kit.

Nice Huh??

This kit comes with everything you could imagine you would need!

We both feel more prepared now and a little relieved. Along with this we also have a tub of supplies for the pets and everything is in the closet by the door and now we just need to get our emergency cash.

I hope we don't experience an Earthquake but if we do I feel at ease that Chuck and I are prepared and we have laid out a game plan! Are you prepared for a Natural Disaster?

To Rug or Not to Rug?

Another steal of deal? YES!!! I am so proud of the fact that I am CHEAP!! Yup I won't try and make it better than it is, I'm not frugal I am CHEAP! And you would be too if you were able to find some of the deals I've been able to find since we've moved into this condo.

Sunday is usually the day where we stay home all day, hang out in sweats, and just relax. But with Chuck's new work schedule Sundays have turned into our days of running errands and getting things done around the house. Honestly it doesn't bother me I am trying to be more active and I am okay with doing a few things, as long as I can spend the early evening and night doing our usual big Sunday Dinner and Movie night :)

This Sunday we went to K-Mart, originally just to pick up another matching dresser but we stumbled upon the pillow aisle. I'll admit it wasn't an accident, I've been dying to get new pillows since we picked the color scheme. While they didn't have the red or orange I wanted, we did find these nice cream colored pillows that I thought would be perfect to tone down the brightness of the pillows I just knew I would find.

$12.99 for two pillows :-)
And as we turned the corner to head to the furniture section we found ourselves staring right at some clearance room sized area rugs! While I was still unsure about wanting an area rug I knew Chuck had his heart set on one. And I was more than willing to compromise as he let me put up girlie flowers and candles :-) We found this HUGE area rug for only $35 and it matches the pillows above :-) Could this get any better!

A close up of the rug. It's simple which I really like. I just wasn't sold on the idea of getting a really patterned or bright rug. I want people to notice the decor on the TV Stand and the pictures on the wall rather than our floor.

Here is a shot of our living room with the rug in place. I'll be happy when those little bumps work themselves out and flatten to the floor. Right now they bug me a little but I know they will soon flatten. Not too bad right? Something just wasn't right with me. I hated that we had the brown pillows out still. It just didn't look right with my flowers and I really wanted our living room to have more life to it.

Chuck was such a great sport and he agreed to come with me to Big Lots as my last attempt to find pillows for the day! I grabbed a few leftover flowers to have a color match with us and we hopped in the car!

It was worth the trip! We found AMAZING pillows that not only bring in the red from the flowers but also the two shades of yellow. While at the store I was a little unsure. They weren't our normal safety solids, but I refuse to be safe anymore. I want to expand my decorating and take a chance! Aren't these so fun?

The new pillows are really amazing. They go great with the cream colored rug and pillows and they really bring out the flowers more!!!

Here is a shot of the love seat and TV stand area!

The couch! The sun was shining to brightly but the multicolored pillow is sitting on the right.

And another shot of the pillows to see how they look with the color of the couches.

And here is a shot of the whole room. Looking at pictures of our living room reminds me of how small it is, but who says small spaces can't have some fun bright colors?

We both are so happy with all the updates done on Sunday. I know Chuck loves to rug and I'm not going to lie, as much as I was against it, it does feel better on the feet than walking on the laminate flooring. Plus now the dogs and the cats sprawl out on the rug rather than on the couch hanging all over us!

Now I cannot wait to build the mantel so I can bring more red, orange and yellow into the room!! And other than the mantel we need to get our nice picture reframed and then hung above the fireplace, move the mirror to above the love seat, and paint the fireplace wall an accent color. I cannot wait for the living room to be finished....Slowly but surely we are getting there :-)

I hope everyone had a productive and GREAT weekend!