Big boy!

Hayden needed a haircut so bad! We let it get wild and out of control. I've had the hardest time styling it in the mornings because it has gotten so long.

I took him to Sport Clips this morning. While we were waiting his turn for a haircut he told me he was a big boy and I didn't need to stand beside him while he got his hair cut.

I agreed to let him sit there all alone. He looked so sweet sitting there. He looked so big and he acted so big too. He told the stylist we were moving. He told her his favorite football team was Baylor. He also talked to the man sitting next to him about the Ryder Cup. I was blown away! He acted 14, not 4.

Sniff Sniff!

My little boy is turning into a little man! I'm so proud!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Telemarketers, food and T.P.

Our house is still for sale.  You wanna buy it?  Do you?  Do you?  Huh huh?  

It is showing well, but we haven't had 'that' family enter these doors just yet.  I know it is coming.  I can feel it.   One family loved our house, but wanted a 3 car garage.  Another family liked our house but want a bigger lot.  I'm just happy that we are getting positive feedback from our showings.  I'm almost certain that even though our house hasn't sold yet we will be moving soon anyway.  It is time.  We are ready to call the moving truck and see what happens from there.

*****

I despise telemarketers.  I love to mess with them.  (Immature, much?)  I received a phone call earlier this morning.  It went like this. "Hello, Congratulations!!!  You and you family have been selected to receive a vacation package.  Please press 1...."   I hung up.  But yesterday I took a call from a man from Charter cable.  The kids were watching TV and I was playing around on pinterest, so I was mindlessly listening to him talk.  I told him we were paying way more for our cable than what we are.  He freaked out and told me how much money I could save.  He went through his whole script like a robot.  I felt bad for him, but I figured I'd listen and give him a few tips on how to sound more like a person and not like a robot.  He didn't appreciate my input.  He promptly hung up on me.  I seriously need to cancel my land line phone.  It is ridiculous.  And the political calls right now....ugh!   I'd like to voice my opinion to a few people when they call, but they are all recorded messages.  I find myself wanting to argue with their ridiculous ideas. 

*****

I hope I never come across as one of those people who knows everything about everything.  I know a person who thinks they know it all.  They even know things about me that I don't know yet.  Ummm really?  I know this is totally vague and silly, but I really want to understand people.  I like to have a discussions with people about what is going on in life. I like to talk about something that happened to me and then talk about something that happened to them.  I like to compare notes and learn how I might deal with a situation later.  In discussing life I feel like I learn from my friends and family. These discussions leave me feeling good, like I learned something.  I don't know about you, but when someone talks AT me I don't get that warm fuzzy feeling.  Often times I just don't want to talk to that person anymore.  

Are you totally and completely confused?  I hope someone gets this jumbled mess of blah!!

*****

I always have so many thoughts about things to blog about.  I have these wonderful ideas in my head and then I forget.  I have too much going on in by brain and stuff gets all jumbled.  Why am I so scatterbrained recently?  haha!  I  know it is more than recently, but I'm feeling extra jumbled lately.

*****

I love food. I love taking pictures of food.   I know it is totally random, but it's fun and I love it!

Instagram makes playing with pictures of food even more fun.  

I actually just made this collage while watching Toy Story with Hayden.  I thought he was done with the Toy Story phase, but he asked to watch it this morning.  After he started watching it he had to go get all the characters from his room and line them up in the playroom.  

I realized just how similar we are as I sat here and lined my food pics up and made a collage.  We are both in our happy place.  

*****

And that concludes one of the most random posts in 'Just Shy of a Y' history.  Although the post I asked you about toilet paper. That was a really random post.  Since I bought up the T.P. topic...

 What about you?  Do you put your T.P. on the roll over or under??

slow cooker apples & granola

Last Saturday when I picked up our Bountiful-Basket I realized we were drowning in apples.  The week before I bought a bag of apples at Kroger because Layla loves them.  Gosh, I ended up with more apples than I knew what to do with.

Last year when I had too many apples I made homemade apple sauce and the kids loved it.  It was a favorite topping for our oatmeal at breakfast.  This time I wanted to make a side dish for dinner similar to the apples you get from Chili's restaurant.  We ate at Chili's a few weeks ago and Layla chose them as a side with her cheeseburger and she LOVED them. 

I needed to make this happen for my little apple lover.

I peeled the apples with a potato peeler and then after I sliced them I cut them into cubes.  I tossed them into the slow cooker and topped them with brown sugar and cinnamon.  I really didn't measure anything, but I chopped about 7-8 apples and probably used about 1/4 cup of brown sugar and a few shakes of cinnamon.  After thinking about it for a minute I decided to mix in some room temperature butter. Everything is better with butter!! 

 I let them cook for a couple of hours and my house smelled edible.  The smell of fresh apples cooking is better than any candle you can buy!

Once they were soft I topped them with granola.  We got fresh granola from our food co-op.  It is so delicious because it is full of pecans, pumpkin seeds and cherries.  I stirred in the granola and let it cook with the apples for another hour or so.

It isn't the prettiest dish I have made, but it was easy and the kids really enjoyed it.  I wanted to drizzle caramel sauce on the kids servings, but I forgot.  They would have loved that!  I did top theirs with whipped cream.  Mmmmm!  Such a great apple treat!

What have you been cooking with apples?

random randoms on Saturday

I was born a glass half full kinda gal.  I typically have good days, and I'm thankful for bad days because they remind me of how many good days I really have. {I heard this yesterday from my friend Becky. Thanks for those words lady, Love ya!}  

I let the stresses of moving to another state and selling our house get to me on Friday.  It was a day of me pouting and being sad.  By the evening I was better, but I was really grouchy about the whole mess of moving.

Hayden was adding to my frustration.  He has recently discovered changing outfits.  He changed clothes at least 12 times yesterday.  Each time he threw the clothes he wore [for 5 seconds] into the dirty clothes pile.  Um whaa??  Those are not dirty.  Stop making work for me BOY!  He is so funny.  He'd get all dressed up including wallet, watch and back pack. He would also try on a pair of shoes each time and guess who had to help him put them on.  Uh huh.  Me.  Each time he'd jump on his 4 wheeler out in the backyard.  I guess he needed to see how all his accessories felt in the real '4 wheeler' world.  Oh Lordy.  That boy makes me laugh, but he has a stinkin' temper.  If he can't get his shoe on in a timely fashion he f.auh.reaks OUT!

Layla decided yesterday over breakfast to tell me I don't play with her enough.  This was after she got a fun treat...she slept in my bed with me.  Let me just say...This NEVER happens.  I bet the kids have slept in my bed maybe 3 times in their entire lives.  I like my sleep...hahah!  Anyway, Layla thinks all I do all day long while she is at school is play with her brother non-stop.  She forgets about who washes her clothes and cleans the house so it is spotless for showings.  She forgets that I empty the dishwasher and put her clothes away. (which by the way she does if she is here)  Soooo...she kinda added to my bad mood yesterday.  I know she didn't mean to.  I am the only parent here 100% of the time, so I took her words to heart, when really I shouldn't have.  She also forgets that when she was 4 years old I "played" with her all the time,  just like I am doing with Hayden.  She had 3 long years of just mommy and daddy.

Ok, so look at this new product from Thirty-One.  I love it!  It is so amazing.  It is the new thermal zipper pouch.  I have LOVED this thing and it's only $15.  I always carry water in the Jeep with us because I'm not even joking, we get halfway out of the neighborhood and one of the kids decides they are dying of thirst.  Even though we just left home.  Anyway, I have been sliding this thermal zipper pouch into the fridge in the garage loaded with 4 bottles of water.  The water stays nice and cool in the pouch while we are out running errands.  When we get home I put it back into the fridge with fresh water.  Yep...so cool.  You need one of these!  

The September special is still going on.  You get 31 % off of most items in the fall catalog after you spend $31.  It's a great deal!  Let me know if you need something. I have a friend that needs a few more orders to complete her party.  I can add your order right on!

And now I am heading to the kitchen to warm up some cinnamon apples for these little people.  I got tons of apples last week from our co-op and I needed to use them.  I decided to make cinnamon apples in the slow cooker.  It was the highlights of my day yesterday.  The cinnamon apples turned out so delicious!  I'll have to write a recipe post for what I did.  I didn't really follow a recipe, I just threw a few things in the slow cooker and it turned out good.  

Have a great Saturday!

I love me some Layla

I am so proud of my 2nd grader.  Layla is doing a great job adjusting to 2nd grade.  In my opinion so far second grade is different than 1st.  It seems like the teachers expect more independence from the kids than last year.  I know each year kids should be more responsible for themselves.  I'm glad Layla is taking this in stride.

My sweet silly girl is exactly that...silly.  She always makes me laugh.  I love her giggle and her amazing smile.  I hope she knows every day how proud I am of her.  I tell her, but I know I didn't always listen to my parents.  I hope she listens to me and can feel my love!

Layla has the sweetest heart when it comes to animals.  She has never been a big fan of baby dolls  Instead, she loves stuffed animals and of course real animals!  Daisy is her best bud!

Layla was giving Daisy a full medical physical.  Daisy wasn't too happy about it.  She decided to show her sharp teeth!  Ha!  These two girls make me laugh.  They are two peas in a pod.

I love this little peach to the moon and back.  She is smart and funny and I am so glad she is my little princess!  

rough & tough 4 wheeling dude

It is no secret Hayden loves all things with wheels.  He loves his battery powered 4 wheeler and he drives super fast laps around our backyard anytime he is outside.  I remember last year at this time he loved all things Toy Story.  That's the thing about kids...their phases and loves change so often.

Gary recently gave him a pair of motorcycle riding glasses with flames on them.  They match his 'flames' helmet.  Hayden is one happy matchy matchy boy!

I am thankful for that helmet.  As you can see we have a little dare devil on our hands!

our weekend

We had a fun weekend.  I participated in our fruit and vegetable co-op.  I got lots of goodies and I think the granola is my favorite thing.  It has cherries, pumpkin seeds & pecans.  The kids ate most of the pecans already.  They are little stinkers!

We had friends over for an impromptu fajita dinner.  We celebrated our anniversary of 12 years and their anniversary of 13 years.  We had such a fun time.  This family just meshes so well with our family.  I know I will miss them so much when we move to Ohio.  They are great people!

Gary found these clear motorcycle glasses for Hayden.  They make me laugh.  Hayden loves them and even wears his flame gloves too while riding his 4 wheeler in the back yard.  He thinks he is a real racer.  Heck...he is YO!

Hayden couldn't get enough of his daddy this weekend.  They are best buds!

Sunday evening we saw this amazing rainbow and a beautiful sunset.  God is so good.  He reminds us how awesome he is when we least expect it!  

I made several batches of homemade salsa this weekend.  Ever so often I get a craving for salsa.  It  was really good.  Here is the salsa recipe I use the most!  

The kids and I love to take 'selfies' every once in awhile.  

Here is a fun one we took this weekend!

We are hoping for a fun week ahead!!  Happy Monday!

a jumbled mess of emotions

This is one of those times where your fingers dance on the keyboard solely for emotional benefit. I am so conflicted tonight.  We had a wonderful weekend as a family.  We ate and drank and played and had the best time.  I loved every precious second.....BUT all the fun doesn't change our current situation.  Our situation is.... tough.

The kids and I are going from seeing Gary every single day, 24-7 to seeing him whenever we can.  He is back n forth between here and Ohio.  I know our situation could be much worse, but this is quite the adjustment for our little family.  Gary and I are best friends and Gary is a very active father.  He is an amazing dad and is always helping me with chores and parenting these babes of ours.  Going from him working from home to being gone is a shock.  The kids hadn't seen their dad in 3 weeks.  3 long weeks y'all.

Our house is on the market.  It has been listed on MLS for about 46 days.  We have had about 5 showings.  There are several other houses on our street for sale.  Not a lot is going on in the home selling department around here in my opinion.  So, do we wait it out?  I don't think I can.  I want to be with Gary.  The kids want to be with Gary.  It is so sad to see the kids faces when they see him leave again.  It breaks my heart.  I know this is temporary and I keep trying justify my feelings.  I'm weird like that.  But dang, my feelings are my feelings and right now I can't change how I feel.

My feelings say forget this.  We live in a house.  It is just a house.  My thoughts are flowing like gasoline into an overflowing tank.  One minute I want to change realtors.  Maybe get someone with a little more fire....someone who wants to sell this house.  My next thought is to drop the price.  My next thought is to rent this bad boy.  What is the world?  I know that going through life's challenges makes you stronger, but right now I'm just grasping for clarity.  What in the world do we do??  And I'm not expecting you guys to answer these questions.  You just get to see the mess that my emotional fingers are typing.

I'm not one for usually putting all this out there.  It's not that I mind having my feelings all over the WWW, but I do.  I clearly just needed to vent and type and hope that soon I will have a clearer mind.  I have prayed for a sign from God.  I don't have a clear sign yet.   I know all this is happening for a reason.  He isn't done with me yet and I have to deal with the not knowing what to do, or feel or blah blah confused blah.

So there is that.

I'm a hot mess covered in confusion and emotional vomit and know you all know about it.

chicken & rice in the slow cooker

I have been searching for a chicken and rice recipe for some time now.  I wanted a comforting recipe but not too bland.  In my opinion chicken and rice screams boring.  

When I saw this recipe on pinterest I knew I had to try it.  

                                                                             Source: southernplate.com via Angie on Pinterest

I didn't follow the recipe exactly as posted because I wanted to use ingredients I had on hand.  So THIS is my version.

Ingredients

3 frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts thawed

1 medium onion roughly chopped

1 can of cream of chicken soup

1 box of rice a roni (any flavor you like) prepared

1 can of corn ( I used white and golden corn)

1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese

I also added a 1/2 can of chopped green chilies because I had them in the fridge.

I sprayed my slow cooker with Pam cooking spray and threw in the chicken breasts, topped them with the raw chopped onion and then added the can of cream of chicken soup.

I cooked this mixture in the slow cooker for about 4 hours on low depending on your slow cooker.  My cooker cooks really fast!

After the chicken is no longer pink then it's time to add the cheese, rice, corn and chilies.  That is what I did.  I added each additional ingredient and stirred after each addition.  The constant stirring actually shredded the chicken, so there were some small chunks and some larger pieces.

I am so happy with the way this recipe turned out.  I would say this was a great pin!

I served the chicken and rice with Ranch Style beans and cucumber salad.

My quick version of cucumber salad turned out pretty tasty.

1 cucumber peeled & chopped

1/2 cup chopped red onion

1 tablespoon finely chopped dill

lots a salt

2 tablespoons Ken's ranch dressing

I mixed it all up and let it get nice and chilly in the fridge.

  I am obsessed with dill right now.  I put it in my salads and it gives them great flavor.  I love this cucumber salad especially because I put dill in it!  I ate the entire cucumber salad in 2 days soooooo I am planning to make up another batch soon!

I am linking this post to my amazing friend Sarah's blog.  

Have you tried anything you've pinned lately?  If so, snap a few pics and link up with us too!

12 years ago today

we said "I do" at sunrise on the beach.  I think I love my husband more today than I did then!

Gary,

Thank you so much for being an amazing husband, father and provider for our family.  I am so thankful to be blessed with your friendship.  You truly are my best friend.  I pray every day that our kids are blessed with spouses that love them unconditionally the way we love one another.

Happy 12 years daddy and here's to many many many more!

showing his personality

Hayden is a typical laid back guy in my opinion.  Yes, he has a temper and throws fits, but he has a dry personality.  When he says something it's usually funny and interesting.  Up until recently he didn't really have much to say.  I think Layla talks for him so much and since she has been in school the past three weeks I have had a lot of one on one time with my little guy.

While I was styling his hair this morning  he told me he wanted a lemonade stand at his 5th birthday party.  I laughed and said, "ok that sounds good." wondering to myself where he got that idea.  We were still in his classroom before I took him home for the day and he told me in front of his teachers about his lemonade stand idea.  He had already been discussing it with them before I arrived.  I wonder if he'll remember this in July when he turns five?!  I thought maybe he heard about a lemonade stand from a TV show, so I asked him and he said, "No momma I thought it up in my brain."

He says the funniest things and remembers them.  He still calls seagulls {that we saw on vacation in early June} 'eagle ducks.'  Bar-b-que chips are 'charcoal' chips.

On Friday we were running errands, just he and I.  He began telling me about how he had boogers. He said he pushed a breath out of his nose and he felt a bubble.  Then he popped it.  Seriously.  Gag me.  Sorry for the TMI, but this is a great example of his randomness.

Gary has been traveling so much lately.  He brings each kid a prize if they are good when he is gone.  The kids always anticipate what the prize might be.  Hayden told Layla and I he wants a steak dinner for his prize.  Haha!  That boy loves steak.  He decided he'd skip getting a toy if he could just have a steak.


Today we were leaving school, which BTW he LOVES ...  He is obsessed with school so far. Anyway, we were driving to Layla's school and he was telling me he had a new girlfriend.  I gasped out loud!  I asked him her name but he couldn't remember.  Then he said, "Mom, she is a girl and she is my friend, NOT a girl I am dating."  I think maybe he has been watching too much Austin & Aly!!  He said dating...oh my!

Hayden's love for his sister is amazing.  They are great friends and I'm so thankful.  They do have their moments and scrappy fights, but mostly they play great together.  He will be a wonderful husband someday because he is constantly getting bossed around by his big sister.

Hayden loves having his hair styled, but loves wearing a cap.  Every morning when we style he hair he asks us for Monster truck hair, motorcycle rider hair, or whatever he's obsessed with that day.  He wants his hair to feel that way!  Motorcycle and monster truck hair is really spiky you know?!

Hayden is loving the Wii.  He is finally at the age where he is getting really good at it.  He gets frustrated and cries if he loses, but I have to talk him off the ledge and he plays again!  heehee!  DRAMA!

He loves his friends and doesn't mind telling them he loves them.  It truly is the cutest thing.  

 I just LOVE his little heart and I'm so proud to be his Momma!