FAITH Glass Block

Here is the glass block that I made this evening:


I bought the block at a local building material store ($7.50) but I have seen them at JoAnn's in Portland and I hear that Michael's carries them from time-to-time. I used my Cricut to cut out the vinyl ($9 for 2 rolls of 12x24") lettering and picture. The dot lights I found on clearance at Fred Meyers (around $3) after Valentine's Day. I had to buy a glass drill bit ($28) and my wonderfully awesome husband drilled the hole into the bottom for me!

My friend Sarah has asked about how the Cricut works so I took a few pictures tonight during my vinyl cutting. I didn't want to put all my vinyl onto the sticky mat so I cut a 2x12" strip (my letters were only going to be cut at 1 1/2") and attached it to the edge of the sticky mat.


You put the mat up to the edge of the Cricut and hit the "load paper" button and it pulls it in (like a printer):


Each cartridge comes with a keypad for you to select what picture/letter/shape you want the Cricut to cut and there are buttons to pick sizes and so I typed in all the letters I wanted and the pictures and hit the "cut" button:


It cuts out exactly what you want, in the order you want it then I peeled the vinyl off the sticky mat so I could better get ahold of the letters. I then peeled each letter off the backing so I could stick it to the glass block.


It's intimidating at first and I still don't have it all figured out but I'm still super impressed with the Cricut and LOVE having it for stuff like this! Sarah, I hope that gave you an idea. Here's a link to a video clip of the Cricut's awesomeness: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z74fevbqcC0

Magnets

I may be a little biased here but I personally think I have the best husband on the planet! LOL I got nailed with a horrible migraine yesterday that knocked me on my butt out of nowhere! Praise God that I have my grandmother close by that is all too eager to help me with the kids when I'm sick. I hate asking for help, it's one of those things that is REALLY hard for me to do but with having a migraine and a very loud toddler, they don't mix well together! I called for backup and grandma took the kids for 3 hours so I could try to rest. When hubby got home, he took care of dinner and took the kids out of the house for awhile and by the time he got back and the kids got put to bed, I was so sick of being in my bed or on the couch that I wanted to ignore the dull pain and light-headedness and do something! LOL Now I think Josh enjoys the Cricut almost as much as me but he won't admit it, wouldn't be manly! :O} Anyways, we've been wanting to spend some time together because life has been busy and with me working out in the evenings at the gym, we haven't seen much of each other so we busted the Cricut out, my new cartridges, a new blade and a roll of MAGNET!!! WAHOOOOO! We made 2 cards (see my scrapping blog Christina The Sassy Scrapper) but we also made the adorable magnets in the above picture! They turned out so cute and we all love them! What a great ending to a lousy day!! Now we're off to go on an adventure in the beautiful weather!

Spring has sprung, Taco Pie and *gulp* Weigh-In

I see signs of SPRING!!! WAHOO!


I took my little sweets to the park today to enjoy the FABULOUS sunshine and totally took the opportunity to get some cute shots in while we were there! Aren't they just precious?!





I also have a recipe that I got from the Pioneer Woman's Tasty Kitchen blog. It's for Taco Pie which may sound interesting but it was so yummy! My son's Cub Scout Pack had their Blue & Gold Banquet tonight so I needed a casserole dish to take for the potluck and this was perfect! Sorry I don't have a picture, it was one of those crazy busy evenings and I was too rushed to even think about stopping for a picture!

Ingredients:
•1 pound Hamburger Meat
•1/2 cup Onion
•1 package (1 Oz. Packet) Taco Seasoning
•2 cans (8 Oz. Can) Crescent Rolls
•1 bag (9 Oz. Bag) Fritos
•16 ounces Sour Cream
•8 ounces Cheddar Cheese

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cook meat. Drain, and add chopped onion and taco seasoning packet. Add the water the packet calls for, and simmer as instructed on the taco seasoning packet.
3. Cover the bottom and sides of 13×9 casserole dish with the crescent rolls. Press seams together to make one continuous crust (you may not need all of the second package).
4. Cover the crescent roll crust with a layer of crushed Fritos (I use the larger scoops; you can all use tortilla chips instead of Fritos). Add your meat mixture to the top of your crushed chip layer.
5. Spread sour cream over the meat mixture.
6. Sprinkle cheese over the sour cream.
7. Top with another layer of crushed Fritos.
8. Cook for 30 minutes.

So, now for the bad news...I gained 0.8 lbs this week! *sniffle* Really, I'm shocked it wasn't more because seriously, I've been eating so much garbage and not tracking my points! BAD BAD BAD! The upside is I did workout 3 days this last week so that's probably what saved me the most! This week my goal is to count my points and journal everyday and workout at least 4 days!

Alright, I have a crazy toddler type child running amuck in the house so I need to close this! Have a great weekend blogland friends!

Taco Soup Warms the Soul

This is my favorite recipe for Taco Soup! Granted, this is the only recipe I've ever tried for Taco Soup but why mess with a good thing? LOL

Ingredients:
2 lbs fresh, lean ground beef
1 onion, coarsely chopped
4 oz. can diced green chilies
taco seasoning packet
Ranch dressing/dip packet
2 cans corn, undrained
4 cans stewed tomatoes, undrained
1 can pinto beans, undrained
1 can kidney beans, undrained
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
grated Monterey Jack and/or cheddar cheese

Directions:
Chop onions. Brown meat and onions in 8qt stockpot. Add all the other ingredients (except cheese), stir and let cook over medium heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Top each bowl with cheese and enjoy! This makes enough for our family to have for at least 3 dinners. I can usually have enough leftover to fill 2 gallon size freezer bags about 3/4 full. To reheat all you have to do is let it thaw out and put it back on the stove til heated through. SOOOO YUMMY!

Happy Valentine's Day

Yesterday I started loading the dishwasher and got sidetracked for a little bit and when I came back, this is what I found:

A little someone must've thought her shoes needed a good cleaning! LOL Now I know to check it before I start it!

Yesterday I hosted a Craft Night at a local party room. It's just a fun thing we do to get us moms out of the house and we all hang out, working on our various craft projects. We order pizza and bring goodies to share and spend 5pm-midnight chatting and getting some stuff done that we might not be able to get done at home. Last night we didn't have a whole lot of ladies come, just 4 of us total but we had fun! I was able to get 3 tu-tu's made, one with red & white tulle:

One with hot pink & green tulle:



And the third had baby blue and yellow tulle:


I also got Valentine cards made for my hubby & kids:



I made a big rice krispy heart to take to Craft night and it was oh so yummy! The perfect amount of gooeyness!


I also made the Peach Crumb Cake that I found on Bakerella.com (my favorite go-to site when I want to whip up a super fun and yummy dessert!


Hubby and I agreed that the new gun and Kitchen Aid qualified as our Valentine's Day gifts to each other so we weren't going to get each other anything else. I already had a box of chocolates and cookies for him along with a card from the kids that when it got opened it made sounds like someone was farting (gotta love farting jokes, huh). I didn't expect him to get me anything else but he surprised me with this cute little guy!

It's a Love Turtle!!! How cute is that?! I really am a lucky lady!!!

Happy Valentine's Day Blogland!!!
1 Corinthians 13:1-8a, 13
The Excellence of Love
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails;

But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

*~* One happy lady right here! *~*

Yes, I've always had bigger than normal feet for a girl. I remember being in 3rd grade and wearing like a size 6 in women, maybe bigger. I guess I've just gotten used to my ski length feet but boy howdy, seeing Bitty in my shoes really makes me realize just how big my clodhoppers are! LOL As an adult, I can fluctuate between a 10-11, depending on the shoe brand and style but man, it's like half the length of my daughter! :)

My hubby has a huge love of guns but always feels bad spending the money on them so tonight he said he wanted to talk to me about a compromise he had in mind! He asked if I'd be ok if he got a gun, if he bought me the red Kitchen Aide I've been drooling over for a VERY long time. Hello?! Do you think it took me more than 2 seconds to respond with "OF COURSE!"? I bet it was half of a second for me to answer! I'm sure as heck not gonna pass up that plan! LOL You should have seen how quickly he jumped up, grabbed his phone and called the gun store to try to work out a deal (gotta love the salesman in him, LOL) and flew out the door at 5:30 so he could buy the gun before they closed at 6pm. On his way home he got this *insert angelic rejoicing song*:



Hubby said I seemed more excited about the mixer than I did when he brought home the Cricut for my Christmas present....I don't know, I think it's about the same excitement! :) Let me just say that I love my husband!!!!!! He hasn't been the best about gift giving (definitely not his love language) but the last couple of years (we've been together for 10.5 years) he's really been steppin up and getting me some whopper of gifts! THANKS BABE-A-LICIOUS, YOU'RE THE BEST! <3>

I can't wait to whip up batches of goodies with that little miss as she's growing up and of course with my son too!

Isn't it so pretty??? Now all I need is a bigger kitchen so I have more room to whip up my yummy-ness!!!

Weigh-In and Valentines

Thursday night was my WW weigh-in from week 1 and I lost 3.8 lbs! Honestly I was hoping for at least 5lbs but sadly, I was a very bad eater on Tues & Wed so it was my own fault! This week I'm going to try very hard to do better and I'm on a mission to workout at least 5 times this week. I was going to go to a ZUMBA instructional class at my gym this evening but was wiped out and not feeling up to it. I am however going there tonight to workout with my friend Alisha. I LOVE ZUMBA!! :O)

Also, it was Valentine Party Day at co-op today so Keegan and I whipped up some Valentines for his classmates. I got the idea from Amy at The Idea Room (could've guessed that probably, if you've read any of my posts lately!) I adore her crafts! Honestly, it was a lot of trial and error and I don't know how many ended up being cooked too long, causing them to turn to pure liquid and although they looked really cool, they wouldn't work for our project so I put them in a ziplock bag to use for baking projects.



Here's Keegan's Valentine box he made last night! In case you wondered...it's an alien! :)


Well, I better close this, my CRAZY daughter is tearing the house apart! Don't you just love the terrible twos stage?!?! LOL