Its Our Anniversary!

Today is our wedding anniversary....its been 5 years! We have been through a LOT together....and with all that we have been through, our love just gets stronger and stronger. I, literally, love him more now than the day I married him. I used to wonder why people would say that and what it meant, but for me, a certain love and admiration grows when you learn and watch your spouse.
 We have grown so much as a couple and definitely as a family! Ha, ha. We NEVER would've thought we'd have 2 little boys (under the age of 2) after 5 years of marriage. Anyway, I love this man and my little boys dearly and am so blessed and grateful to have them. We have known each other since middle school, became best friends in high school, then boyfriend and girlfriend right after high school graduation....and the rest is history!

CHEERS TO LOVE!

Tasty Tuesday - Whipped Up Chocolate Ricotta Tiramisu

This is delicious, quick and very easy and I'm all about easy! Its called Whipped-Up Chocolate Ricotta Tiramisu. I saw it last year on one of my favorite Food Network shows, "Big Daddy's House." It took me maybe 10 mins to make. I made it right before dinner and let it refrigerate until we were done and ready to eat some dessert. I hope you try it!

Ingredients

{Keebler's} Sandie's Shortbread Cookies
1 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 cup mascarpone cheese
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon cognac, brandy or whiskey
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup strong coffee, cooled
Cocoa powder, for dusting

Directions

In a large bowl, using a hand-mixer, combine the ricotta, mascarpone, cream, cognac and sugar until light and creamy. Fold in the mini chocolate chips.

Pour the coffee into a shallow dish or bowl. Dip cookies (2) into the coffee and arrange them in a serving cup. Top with a couple spoonfuls of the whipped cream and cheese mixture. Repeat with another layer of 1-2 dipped cookies and whipped cream and cheese. Dust with cocoa powder.

 *The ingredients above make a lot, so I 'eyeballed' about half of each measurement and it lasted about 3 days for me and my hubby. Also, since we've made this before, my hubby decided to just pour coffee over his cookies, in his serving cup. 

Instead of being dipped, coffee was poured directly over.

Our modified version.

**This dessert is great when you are throwing a mini get-together at your place or going to someone else's. The only thing to be cautionary of is to dip the cookies into the coffee immediately before serving and eating. The coffee turns the cookies into mush if not ate within 5-10 mins. of being dipped in the coffee and topped with the whipped cream and cheese mixture.

Pictures from the Carolinas....or the few that came out good. :-/

I just LOVED our apartment suite hotel. It was so contemporary with a southern, country chic flare. 

Bedroom

The kitchenette.

View from the entrance.

Couch across from the kitchenette.

Our southern style balcony. :-)

Crab and mozzarella sandwich. The only food picture I remembered to take.

Last day at the beach.

My hair stayed in a ponytail puff by the end of the trip.

We kind of stayed out late and never really hung out in the room and when we did, we were always entertaining people so I never had time to do any braid-outs or twist-outs after jumping waves in the ocean. At least I changed my puff to be high and low every other day. 

 

Vacation Over...Back to Reality

For the past week, we {the hubs and kids and I} went to the Carolinas for a family vacation. I didn't have too much access to computers because our time was taken up by family, waves and sand.

I learned some things while on vacay and most importantly enjoyed some awesome seafood! So upset I forgot to take pictures of my delicious crab, rockefeller oysters and coconut-crusted grouper, but....eh well. It was delicious! Oh and I got to load up on Trader Joe's conditioners! Today, we decompress and tomorrow will be back to normal.

Have you had your summer vacation yet? If so, did eat some good food or do anything out of the ordinary?

Career Changes.....

Although 30 is around the corner, I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do with my life, ha ha. I love my boys to death, but staying at home is just not in the cards for me. I'm almost counting down the days until my 5.5 month old turns 18 months old. Okay, not really.......well maybe just a smidge. I'm just saying, going from a technical career like engineering to staying at home and having one-sided conversations has been one hell of a transition.

So I've decided that during nap times and sometimes before bed, I'll just start researching careers that fit my new 'mommy' lifestyle, meaning hours that aren't strictly 8-6pm. I'd like to still spend some quality time with my boys and not just have dinner and then put them to bed everyday. As of right now, I'm still assessing all of my options, but I'm interested in sales of some sort or event planning for organizations. My sorority sister is an event planner with a non-profit organization and plans small to large events for select corporations. I plan to do more research into it, especially the necessary certifications, hours and the pay. Too bad I wasted all that time and money getting an engineering degree!

"The book's unique National Career Aptitude System enables you to identify not only your interests but also your innate talents and potential skills, and then to match your career strengths to dozens of the more than 1,100 jobs described in detail."

The hubs found this book for me and it has 5 timed assesment tests: Business, Logic, Mechanical, Numerical, Clerical and . I haven't taken all of the tests, but the book tells you to take your highest scores in 3 of the areas and dependent upon which areas are the highest is what will determine the careers best suited for you. We'll see if I like the assessment of my interests.

I'm Getting Antsy With My Hair Growth.....

I'm beginning to get a bit antsy with my natural hair growth.
I'm wanting to see more growth, bigger twistouts and less tangles and knots. I think its time I get a better routine. My current routine is to wash weekly (the longest I go is maybe a week and a half), deep condition weekly and moisturize every 2-3 days. I still get knots and tangles between the days that I moisturize. I guess that means I should moisturize more often to prevent these little jokers....which means I need to find a moisturizer that I like and can use regularly.

I bought Shikai Everyday Conditioner over the weekend and I think I will use this as my everyday or every other day moisturizer. I used this once when my hair was shorter after my big chop, but ended up giving it to a friend to use on her daughter's hair. From what I can remember my hair really reacted well to it. I'm currently moisturizing my hair with Shea Moisture Hair Smoothie and it leaves white residue in my hair all the time and I'm kinda over it now.

My new moisturizer.

Ingredients: Water (Purified), Cetearyl Alcohol, Ceteareth 20, Avacado (Persea Gratissima) Oil, Glycerin (Vegetable), Amodimethicone, Behentrimonium Chloride, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Panthenol, Neutral Henna Extract (non coloring), Guar Powder, Diazolidinyl Urea, Fragrance (Natural)

So my new routine will include: daily moisturizing and oiling my hair, taking a vitamin everyday (its so easy for me to slack off with this now), drinking lots of water and getting some sort of cardio in. Oh, and I will my chocolate to after dinner only. Also, I plan to get more creative with my styling with whatever my free time allows.

I've Been Slacking.....And Kicking It

I've totally been slacking on my posts.....purely by accident. I went to my sorority sister's 30th birthday party and have been recovering ever since. Not from the alcohol, but from my social life. :-) The party was actually in a different state and I hadn't planned on going, but last minute saw a good deal that American Airlines was offering, bought a ticket and skipped town! The hubs watched the boys all weekend, took them to a baseball game....lucky enough they were in a suite (office tickets) and the women held our youngest since he has the most adorable cheeks ever, and got a chance to have pure quality guy time.

I, on the other hand, finally got a chance to hang out with my friends that I see maybe once a year and had a ball.

I'm rocking a twistout in a safari-type romper.

Taking it to the flo'!

 These two pics were from the party when Beyonce's "Get Me Bodied" Remix/Extended Version. I don't know what woman can stay off the dance floor when that song is played!



My Awesome Find

 Since my postpartum workout has not been going as planned or at all for that matter, I still have my wrinkly stomach and extra flab. Most people are like, "you just had a baby 6 mos ago," but when you're as skinny as I am naturally, this extra flab doesn't know where to hide or what to hide under. :-) Sooooo, I really do start doing better with working out. I think I will just have to run...which is what I was dreading. The hubs and I will either go to 24 Hr Fitness or our local YMCA and exercise. We both used to be somewhat jocks in shape but have gradually lost motivation post-college. Not sure when this plan will began.....I'm just going to randomly say Augus 1st. Anywho, in the meantime I found the cutest one-piece swimsuit. I'll just have to suck in whenever I take my swim dress off.

 I got it from Old Navy. It was originally priced at $35, but I got it for $14! I'd say that was an awesome find. There was only one that happened to be in my size. It has underwire and ruffles on top! Totally cute. I was wanting to find a cheap vintage style and had been checking online, but I could never find one cheap enough. I'm so glad I found this because its cute and vintage-like enough.

4th of July Weekend Roundup & Casey Anthony Verdict

I've been a bit busy with family and holiday stuff......especially trying all of those great ideas I got from everyone on how to entertain my toddler! I LOOOOOVVVVVEEEEDDDDD the ideas! I am so lucky to have you all as my new mommy support system. :-D

Anywho, I was thinking about the recipe that I posted regarding my Jello Pudding Pie and I probably should have clarified the directions a little more. When mixing the jello, do not let it harden. I usually do mine using the "Speed-Set Method" on the back.

Thickened jello on bottom and cool whip on top.

After refrigeration and ready to serve.....but I like more topping!

Playing with my festive side. :-)

The end result! It was yummy!

Well, I actually had a little bit left over and I ended up making mini jello pie cupcakes for my oldest Bambino. No topping, just jello. Its such a light and airy dessert. It goes well with the busy mom and with toddlers! :-)

I'm totally doing this at all of his functions and parties from now on. I'm one of those parents that doesn't let him eat anything too sugary (besides plain chocolate or vanilla ice cream), nor french fries. My husband lets him eats our Lightly Salted Lay's potato chips and I *side-eye* that. My thing is this, he's 18 months and we're almost 30...I think he'll learn what cakes, pies, french fries and greasy fast food is between now and then, so why rush any of that stuff? Hey...he'll probably be wanting it by the age of 3! Yikes....

Fun at the neighborhood pool...

 

My Swim Hair

I had my hair in a side ponytail. I put lots of conditioner on it before heading to the pool, just in case I decided to actually swim. The conditioner was meant to help ease the detangling process that I would have had to do. Turns out I just head my little tot in the pool and when the hubs and I switched duty, my oldest one wanted to be "chased" around instead of continue swimming. Now I have to figure out how I will be wearing my hair during our family vacation to Myrtle Beach next weekend.

God, bless little Caylee. 

All I can do is say "Wow!" to our justice system. If Casey Anthony didn't do this, then who did?!? Has anything been learned since the OJ Simpson trial? What happened to intuition? The mistreatment of that poor little girl and her mother not being brought to justice literally brought tears to my eyes yesterday. Well, now Caylee is a beautiful angel...kinda like in the book The Shack. And if her mother did play a role in this, only she has to live with those memories and guilt and shame.

Top 5 - 4th of July Must Do's....

I got this from my fellow bloggy friend, Young Suburban Mom. Check her out!

Top 5 Things I will be doing this 4th of July:

5) Making a quick and festive dessert....Jello Pudding Pie (see recipe below)

4) Possibly helping my grill king prepare and season the burgers and steak

3) Hanging at the pool with the fam

2) Purchasing a one-piece swimsuit, so that I can actually get IN the pool....yeah my "Project Flab to Abs" has not been in any kind of effect but that's another post.

1) Eating

Jello Pudding Pie (No Bake)
1 ready-made Graham cracker pie crust
1 box of Jello instant pudding, flavor of your choice
2 tubs of Cool Whip
Strawberries and blueberries for garnishment (optional)

Directions:
Spray pie crust with butter (optional) and put pie crust in oven for 5-7 minutes to harden, prevents crust from crumbling when cut into.
Make jello by following directions on back of the box.
Once the jello has thickened, mix in 1 tub of Cool Whip...no lumps.
Fold mixture into the pie crust and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. If it looks as though the top has hardened before 1 hour then proceed to next step.
Spread a thin layer (like icing on a cake thin) of  Cool Whip on top.
Put strawberries and blueberries on top to garnish
Serve.