Mmmmm Carrot Cake

I absolutely love love love carrot cake. I was at the bar a couple weeks ago with my husband (I haven't been to a bar since ....... I can't even remember! ) but anyways the bartender made this amazing drink for me. It tasted like carrot cake, and didn't burn when it went down my throat! Now thats my kind of drink!!

So last night was pizza night and I didn't want to drink beer, so I made one of my carrot cake drinks. I added 1 more ingredient just to make it perfect. Perfect dessert!!

Ok heres how to make it.

Baileys Irish Cream, Butterscotch Schnapps (i use buttershots), Cinnamon Schnapps (I use hot damn) & Milk.

In a tall glass add 2 shots of each, add some ice and top off with milk. I hardly drink at all, but this is super yummy! 

Calorie Per drink = 588 or so (so worth it!!)

(i used 1% milk so it could be more or less depending on the milk you use)

Give it a try! Let me know if you make it and what you think? Did you change anything.

Enjoy!

Menu Plan Monday [April 26 - May 2]

Over at orgjunkie.com they host a Menu Plan Monday every week and over 300 people link up so check it out!!

Welcome to my first week of meal planning. There are days where I can't figure out what I want to cook for the week and we end up eating out instead. I am going to try super hard each week to make a meal plan thats easy and nutricious.

Plus I really want to save money, and am inspired by this woman over at 30dollarweeklygrocerychallenge to only spend $30 a week on groceries, cleaning supplies and personal items!! WHAT..Seriously?!? I need to do this! But for this week because we already have all of this food in house I don't have to spend a penny! YAY.

Anywho....

Heres my menu this week. And I will also post a link to the recipes at the bottom.

Not all of them have a recipe.

• Turkey Pot Pie Recipe
• Spinach Quiche Recipe

Check out all the other wonderful menus and recipes this week [click here] and link up your menu!!

Enjoy!

Five Question Friday (on sunday!)

Since I have nothing better to do at 3am (which I really should be in bed because Wesley will be up in oh lets see...about 5 hours!! LOL)..I decided to participate in Five Question Friday (yes I know its now Sunday). Because I am bored. And want something to do.

And I could post photos but I'm too tired to do that.

1. What was the first car you owned?

Ahh the first car question. Well like many others I didn't have anything fancy or expensive. In fact I owned a brown, 1985 ford aerostar van. AWESOME.

2. What song are you embarrassed to know the lyrics to?

I was a teeny bopper, so I still remember all the backstreet boys, nsync and hanson songs. Mmmbop..(that has to be the most embarrassing)

3. Have you ever had stitches?

Yes I have. Twice. First time was after I had knee surgery in '08, and the 2nd was after my c-section in '09 (staples actually..but that still counts kinda).

4. What was your first job?

I can't remember if it was Subway or Phone Base Research (Yep I was an annoying survey caller. Whoo hoo) But I had both of these jobs my jr year in high school.

5. Who is your favorite Sesame Street character?

Snuffalufagus (sp?) is pretty awesome!

Its not too late to participate still!

Enjoy!

Swingin' to the sound Sunday - Jovi Rockwell

I have always loved music but never made time for it like I should. I was voting on a classmates song the other day and came across a really wonderful song. Upbeat, fun and just my kind of song.

I couldn't find a music video because this artist is not as well known as say Alicia Keys or anything like that but

The song is called "Wonderful Thing"

by Jovi Rockwell.

LISTEN NOW

She has myspace (this song isn't on there)

and twitter as well.

Enjoy!

Soda Stream Giveaway

Who loves soda?? (I do I do!!!) Well this is one amazing giveaway for all of you soda lovers out there who also want to help the environment by not having to worry about tons of cans and bottles!!

One of the coolest prizes I've seen around so far!! Head on over and ENTER NOW.

Laura over at The Ethertons is giving away a soda stream starter pack!!!

The review and giveaway details!!

As spring and summer are fast approaching and the weather has been getting warmer, I have been excited to spend more time outdoors. Of course I want to look my best and so I have been looking for ways to cut carbs. In our house we love soda or pop as we call it here in Michigan.

When I found Soda Stream I had to try it. Soda stream is an awesome little machine that you can make soda on from home without all the sugar of store bought soda (which means less calories and carbs). It requires no batteries or electricity to work.

Not only can you make Diet and Regular soda you can make sparkling water.

Soda stream was kind enough to send me Genesis soda maker kit.

We have had so much fun this past week trying different flavors. It's really easy to make. You add water to the line labeled on the bottle. Then you attach the bottle to the machine, press the button till you hear 3 loud beeps, take the bottle off the machine and add the flavor of your choice SLOWLY (or you'll have an eruption). Cap and shake the bottle lightly and then serve.

It tastes just like store bought soda. There are lots of flavors to chose from. We liked the Pete's choice(Dr Pepper) and orange the best so far.

Thanks to SodaStream, one lucky reader will win a Fountain Jet Soda Lover's Start-Up Kit! ($100 value) It has everything you need to get started to make some yummy soda!

The Prize will include:

- Fountain Jet (winner chooses color)

- CO2 to make over 100 liters of soda

- 2 reusable carbonating bottles

- a sample pack of flavors

- 3 full-sized flavors of the winner's choice

Contest ends 4/30/10 at 11:59 PM EST. Winner will be chosen at random and will be contacted by email. Winner will have 48 hours to respond before a new winner is chosen. US only!

Head on over to her blog and

ENTER NOW!!

First ever friday follow!

I have never done a friday follow before, and figured, I would start! I'm such a nerd. I stay up until 2 or 3am every night finding new blogs to read, trying to catch up with blogs I'm currently reading and blogging myself. Phew. It takes a lot of work to blog.

If this is your first visit welcome! I do a lot of blogging about a million different things. Photography, life in Wyoming, marriage, school, crafts, my 1 year old son, recipes, etc.

I'm starting a few new things on my blog soon. Meal plan Monday, Show & Tell Tuesday, & Trash it Thursday

I also have other weekly themes over on my photography blog such as Mystery Monday, Toddler Tuesday, Wyoming Wednesday, Thankful Thursday, and Fix it Friday.

Be sure to check out my other 2 blogs as well!

Color My World Photography + Design

and

All about Wesley

AND when my fan count on facebook reaches 250 I have another giveaway planned.

Please fan me and I will be sure to fan you back!

If you are interested in participating head on over to One2try, Hearts make families, or midday escapades to join in on the fun!

I look forward to hearing from you!!

Managing time..work, school, play.

I've pretty much been a stay at home mom since Wesley was born. The summer after he was born I did work at the Help Desk on campus, but that only lasted a month or so. School started, and I was enrolled in 3 classes. I was still nursing, and I just couldn't manage my time and stay caught up on my homework. So I decided to stay enrolled in 1 class. I don't know how moms can do it. Work, school and take care of their kids without daycare. I sure can't do it. But now that Wesley is over 1 year, its gotten a bit easier. I only nurse before bedtime, which he is slowly starting to get over that. I'd give it another month and he will totally be weened. And because he is now going to be totally weened I'm ready to start working again. The photography business is going to take years to get clients, money to put into the business, and building my portfolio. So for now I need to work PT atleast.

Last week I had a job interview at the movie theatre. Tomorrow I have a job interview at the university police dept. If I had a choice between the 2 I would definitely take the police dept job. The perks are better pay. But the movie theatre perks are free movies, soda and popcorn. But I'd rather have the extra money to put towards our bills.

Wish me luck!! I hope I'm lucky enough and rock the interview so I get hired! But if not I hope I hear back from the theatre because having a job is definitely important!

I wish my husband made enough to where I could stay home all the time. But right now he doesn't. And I know he is trying to get into Wyotech for the Dec - Sept program and I would definitely have to work while he was in school. But I hate daycare. And I hope that I don't have to put Wesley in that. Atleast not for awhile.

Do any of you moms work, go to school or just stay home? How do you manage your time? I seem to dink around on the computer too much reading blogs, or blogging. If I limit myself to say 2 hrs a day, an hour in the morning, an hour at night, I just don't feel like its enough time.

Calf pain GO AWAY

My calf is killing me. Its keeping me awake. The muscle keeps tightening and staying that way. Its like a continuous Charlie Horse. I tried to massage it but it didn't help. I didn't do anything out of the ordinary today.

Stupid calf. GO AWAY PAIN.

Anyone else had this happen before? Going on 4 hours now.

UBP After Party!!!

This week was a blast looking through all of the blogs. I'm still not finished either. I have a list of all the ones I want to see and try to get to a few each day but its hard. There are soooooooooooo many!!!

Thank you so much everyone for stopping by my family blog, and my photography blog.

3 new blogs I discovered this week are:

Bitsy Baby Photography

Please subscribe to my blog or follow me and I'll be sure to do the same for you too!! Just leave me a comment letting me know!
ALSO:I have BIG plans for this blog. Here are a few hi-lights. I hope you tune in. I'm even considering adding a MckLinky so others can link up to their craft projects, meal plans and any other household projects they are doing. It would be really fun.

• Weekend Spring Cleaning (to prepare for spring/summer I'm going to be cleaning out an area of my house each weekend and either freecycling, donating, trashing, selling or a combo of all of those.) And calling it Trash it Thursday for the theme. Then it would be easier to not have to link up on weekends. And then I can post my completed area I de-cluttered and see what everyone else is doing for spring cleaning. Or this might just be something I do myself because I have no idea how many people are spring cleaning.
• Weekend Craft projects (Wesley is getting older and able to do a lot more than he use to. And also our walls are bare and we have too much stuff. SO I plan to each weekend find a family friendly craft or make something useful for our house that is LOW COST.) If I did this weekly I was thinking Show & Tell Tuesday? So everyone can show their project. Or a previous project they might have done.
• Weekly Menu Plans (I really need to have a menu plan and STICK WITH IT. I would love to get the menu done on Friday, and shop on Saturday for the supplies. 2 weeks worth. This gives me an opportunity to get coupons and whatever else I may need to save some money. I would love to be more frugal! And if you have suggestions for meals or recipes I would love to hear them. I will also post my favorite recipes for the week as well. This will be a weekly theme). Meal Plan Monday.

What other things would you like to see on my blog??

Over at my photography blog I have weekly themes. I don't get around to them every week but I try.

• Mystery Monday
• Toddler Tuesday
• Wyoming Wednesday
• Thankful Thursday
• Fix it Friday

Please check it out!!!

I just love following blogs and keeping in touch with people. Who knows, maybe someday I'll get to meet a few fellow bloggers!! That would be super fun.

I am always looking for new local friends as well to get together with or have playdates with the kiddo. Tata for now!!

And because I cannot end this post without a photo here is Wesley playing. I really hope to get more photos outside now that the weather is warming up!

Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!!

New buttons!

I've been doing a lot of blogging over at my photography + design blog lately. Mainly because I have no idea what to blog about. I was having a blog block.

My giveaway just ended last night. It was for a free photo session with a $100 print credit, or for an 8x10 of one of my art prints. I ended up having 2 winners, one for the session and one for the art print. It was exciting to do this. My 1st ever giveaway. I've continued the "After Giveaway Sale" for those who didn't win or might be interested in my services or art prints!! Check it out. As soon as I get twice as many followers on either this blog or my photography blog I will hold another giveaway. Right now I have 13 on here. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE pass my blog around. Here are both of my buttons and I will put them up in my sidebar as well.

In other news........The last week we've been trying to get our yard cleaned up for the rain that hit yesterday. We had a tree (the only tree in our yard) that was tore down last summer because it was dead. Now I want to plant a new tree and bushes in the yard to make it more lively.

I was out getting all leaves, sticks, needles, and dead grass raked up AND cleaning dog poop. The joys of home ownership (well sort of). We live in a mobile home. And the yard it part of the lot and we have to pay "lot rent." I hope someday we can own a "REAL" home and not a poorly built mobile home. But for now this is where we live and thats ok. We have a huge yard, 2 sheds for our stuff and a very nice porch/mudroom addition to the house.

Because we live in Wyoming our planting season is really short. I really want to make a little garden in our yard, but its hard to right now when our weather changes drastically all the time!

And here is Wesley. 13mo old now. Messy face, and not happy that he couldn't get over that gate. Maybe soon he will learn how to climb those stairs, which are tile and they are a bit bigger than an average step.

For the rest of the day I'm going to going to work on

• dishes,
• laundry,
• putting some boxes in the shed of Wesleys clothes that don't fit,
• taking a nice long walk with my friend with the dog and Wesley,
• and making Taco Salads for dinner. Yum!
• OH and making a menu for the next 2 weeks.
• And if I get time take all the recycling to the bins. (We are not fortunate enough in Laramie to get curb side pick up)

And I need to get my camera out and take some new photos. Maybe on our walk today I'll find something different to take a photo of. There isn't really alot of green yet (the grass is starting to sprout though).

Worries and woes

Sometimes I wish we had the perfect life. No worrying about whether or not we can afford to put gas in our car or food on the table, or pay our gas bill, electric, house payment, etc.

....

Sometimes I wish that school was easy and that I didn't have to study for a test, or spend week upon week writing a paper, or struggling with understanding what I'm learning.

....

Sometimes I wish marriage was easy and there wasn't any arguing, cursing, physical fights, food fights, breaking things, watching our 1 year old hear and see everything.

....

I wish life was stress free and that I didn't have to worry about any of these things. Sometimes I wish that God would make my life a little easier and help me figure out how to deal with these things. How to get my husband to stop using the F word constantly. And not just the F word but how to help him control his anger, especially his temper and lashing out physically.

My 1 year old son now says OW OW OW all the time. I wonder where he heard that from? Well...the truth...from ME. He would see and hear all the violence and anger from daddy...and mommy too. And all of these issues...money, school, work, debt....are all the cause of our frustrations. The pent up anger. We need to get it under control. And its hard....and this journey is not going to get easier. Its going to get HARDER.

So why can't my life be a little bit easier? Cut me some slack eh? Maybe something good will happen this week to ease some of this stress.

And you want to know something... We haven't had a family picture taken since Wesley was 3 months old. Not even with our camera. Its either me and wesley, or Kyle and Wesley or just Wesley. And I really want that.

Ok so to end this blog on a good note here is a picture.

An Apple a day keeps the doctor away

13 months old.

New post over on Wesley's blog.

Check it out HERE

I can't believe he is 13 months already!!! This time last year I was trying to sleep when he did, and plan my wedding at the same time AND getting ready to move out of our apartment.

13 months

Happy 13th months Wesley. (i know i know...i'm a day late.)
Mealtime has gotten a lot better. I've added a lot of different things to his plate and avoid the fruit until last so it gives him a chance to eat his meat n veggies.

Favorites this month

Food:

• Orange juice
• any fruits still
• animal crackers
• sweet pickles
• french fries!
• bagels with cream cheese he just devours.
• he will eat veggies but each day is different. corn, gb, peas are usually not thrown on the floor.
• same with meats. chicken nuggets seem to be a hit.
  

Toys/Activities:

• Rubber ducks are still a favorite.
• He pretty much plays with everything.
• Walks and the park.
• Throwing the ball.
• Swimming
  

In need of new crafts and activies. Maybe try coloring again.

Games/Songs:

• Old MacDonald
• Wheels on the bus
• Happy & you know it.
  

I really need to learn more songs that are interactive. Any ideas??

Books:

• Bubbles bubbles. (a new sesame street book.)
• Tazmanian Devil
  

But I try to read other books on his shelf as well.

A new thing is saying oww oww all the time. There arent any other words. Still signs all done, milk, please, more (occasionally).

Also his first molar came in on the top left which has made him pretty cranky during the day, and wakes up a bit more at night (but I let him put himself to sleep most of the time.)

Can't wait for the days to stay warmer longer and then go on bike rides again.

2010 UBP

So I have blogged about the party on my photography blog but I wanted to promote my family blog here as well! I hope thats ok!!

Kyle and I were married May 30th 2009. We had our 1st son Wesley in March 2009, so yep before we were even married. We met on myspace in 2008!! LOL. Neither of us were even looking for a relationship but hey it happened and here we are today.

We've had our ups and downs for sure but who doesn't??

Now Wesley....hes another story! He is so smart! I've made my own blog just for him because there is so much to tell that I wanted to be able to update on just him and what hes learning, photos, videos, etc. Check out his blog RIGHT HERE.

Lets see what else can I tell you about myself.

• I live in Laramie, Wyoming.
• I'm an aspiring photographer who hopefully in the next year or 2 will be running my photography business full time!
• Recently my husband lost his father to suicide. Its been extremely hard. Very unexpected and we didn't have any clue that he was depressed this much to do it.
• I also wish that I was closer to my sister. We both have the same father, and have never lived together. Just because she is my sister doesn't mean I know her as well as I would like. Now we live 2 hours away from each other, which is great because we used to live miles apart, but I still only see her a couple times a year.
• I have family all over the USA (arizona, california, illinois, iowa, colorado, nebraska, missouri, and so many other places I can't remember them all)
• And my husband has family all over as well (arizona, oklahoma, illinois, kansas, north carolina, ohio, tennessee, and so many more)
• I spend more time on the computer than I do watching television. Some of my favorite shows include: Parenthood, Biggest Loser, Top Model, Two and a half men, family guy, anything on food network, 19 kids & counting, lifetime movie network, law & order svu, csi, etc.
• I love to swim. I hope to teach wesley when he a little older and get him onto the swim team. And I hope to teach my husband because he never learned.

I don't know what else to tell ya but thanks for stopping by.

Check out the rest of my party post RIGHT HERE!!!

I'm also giving away an AWESOME PRIZE so check it out!!!!!!!

I can't wait to meet other bloggers!

Our date to a show

Last night was an official date night for Kyle and I! Since we got married May 30th 2009 we have been on only a couple dates.

1) Baseball game to see the cardinals play in denver,

2) A movie a few weeks ago to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D

and that is it!!

So I knew it was time to go on a date. I got tickets for what I originally thought was a poetry reading by shel silverstein. Well I was wrong because after finding out shel siverstein died in 1999, I did a bit of research and found that this was in fact a theatre production entitled "An adult evening with Shel Silverstein." See how I might have gotten that confused? We got all dressed up (and no I didn't get a picture I'm sorry), and went to the show. It was great!! Just our style of adult humor. We didn't really eat beforehand and ordered some appetizers and a couple drinks to tide us over. This little venue has tables and a server which I thought was great!!

I drank an oreo cookie martini. I'm not a big drinker but it sounded delicious, but it was a bit too strong for my taste. If it didn't have the vodka it would have been so much better. I should have opted out of that option! Oh well.

It didn't get over until after 10:15pm. The show itself was about an hour total so we spent more time waiting before the show, and then intermission than the actual show itself. But it was a lot of fun and I would definitely do it again!!

Here is the website if you are interested! Albanycountytheatre

After the show we were going to have dessert but just went to the bar for a couple drinks instead. I don't really like the bar but the bartender was really nice and gave us free shots! I tried this new shot called carrot cake. It had butter shots, baileys and hot damn and it was really good! So I can remember for next time!

And the we went home and I ate some dinner and went to bed.

Its April...so spring must be close!

I get so involved with my photography blog I neglect the household updates. We didn't really do anything for easter this year. We didn't even dye the eggs. *tear* They were all boiled and ready to go. I ended up sleeping in, so we didn't make it to church and I really wanted to go even though I don't know anyone at the church besides the pastor. I do plan on this week going to church. I need to. I have all of these adorable church outfits that are just collecting dust in the closet. Or maybe I'll find a new church to go to. Anyways I cooked a turkey with mashed potatoes, gravy and green bean casserole. No ham this year. I needed to use the turkey that had been in our freezer since before thanksgiving.

On another note..

We just have too much stuff in our house. And because spring in approaching soon I hope, I would really love to do some spring cleaning.

Each weekend I'm going to pick an area of the house to clean out and then freecycle the stuff, trash it, donate it or sell it.

"Salvage-it saturday + sunday. Sounds good 2 me. I need things to do. I was also thinking it would be awesome each weekend to find an awesome craft to make. I've already started my craft list so I can turn some of the crap I have into creativeness. I'm sure Wesley would have fun too if it involved something simple. That sounds like an awesome name for a blog. Ooo I should see if thats been taken and then start ANOTHER blog. LOL. I can barely keep up with 3 blogs plus the hundreds I'm subscribed to. If I'm lucky I get maybe 10-15 blog posts read per day. So no wonder I'm up until the wee hours of the night and then completely exhausted in the morning and don't get moving until after 10a.

So I better get the rest of this blog finished up. Tomorrow I want to try and get to the career fair at the union. I've been looking for a good part time job to help pay some of the bills that is still reasonable so we don't have to get daycare. I'm very opposed to that right now but if it came down to it I would find a nice small home daycare for wesley. Anywho the city of laramie is hosting and there are a bunch of jobs through the city, like at the rec center front desk, which would be a great job, plus that would give me incentive to exercise since I would already be there. Well I won't get my hopes up completely but I will apply and hope for the best!

Time to get some rest. Lots to do this week. Grandpa is coming up to visit. Kyle and I are going on a date. A possible playdate friday and maybe the park if its nice!

Don't have a photo today. They are still sitting on the memory card. Next time. But do check out www.colormyworldphoto.com for the new ones!

Happy Birthday Mom!

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