Good meal!

Okay, so I have to brag on the dinner I made last night. Of course I made it for myself since it has so many things in it that Will and Zoe won't eat. I am here to tell you, this dinner ROCKED. I may make it again tonight since I have everything to do that. It started with a recipe that Jennifer Aniston's chef makes and was in the Oprah magazine recently. Unfortunately, I cut out the picture of the TOSTADA's, but somehow neglected to cut out the recipe. So, I had to look at the picture, read the article and try and figure it out.

Anyway, we were at Central Market having lunch after church yesterday so I was really giddy with all my veggie choices for my tostadas. The biggest difference in these and the others I've made, in my opinion is that I fried my own tortillas. Bought a pack of white corn tortillas, stuck them each in some hot veggie oil, flipped them over and they're done in seconds. Crunchy, tasty, much better than store bought. I will never buy those Old El Paso ones again!

Right about now, my friend Kris is wondering why I called this a "healthy" meal.

So, here is what I did. I bought a can of fat free whole black beans and put them in a blender, water and all. They were a bit runny, though, so I added a scoop of regular refried beans and blended that in there just to thicken it up. My secret ingredient in refried beans is usually mayo (don't knock it till you try it), but these didn't even need the mayo. See? Healthy. I spread those on my crispy rounds. So, then I got a big bowl and put in:

4 leaves of Bibb/butter lettuce, chopped

1 tomato, chopped

1/2 of a big avocado, chopped

a bit of cilantro, chopped

a bit of red onion, chopped

juice from 1/2 of a lime

6 cooked shrimp (big), sliced up

about 2 ounces of Cotija cheese, shredded - salty and yummy!

mixed it all up and put it on the tostadas. OMG, they were GOOD! I had 3 of them and wanted more but they wouldn't fit in my belly. :)

You like?

Pumpkin Patch Pictures

The Sakson's and the Miller's visit the St. Luke's Pumpkin Patch last Saturday morning:

Charlie

Sorry for the lack of posting lately - just feeling like I haven't had much to say! Anyway, on this Sunday morning I was awake at 6am, so I've already watched the 2 hour Season Premiere of Ugly Betty, just made coffee and am settling into the computer just as I'm sure someone is about to wake up!

Charlie does some really funny things. He is really proving to be MY cat. He follows me around the house so much that I constantly trip on him. I zip upstairs to the bedroom to get something and he will awake out of a deep sleep to follow me up there, and we turn around and come right back down. EVERY SINGLE TIME we come down from the 3rd floor, he lays down on the rug at the bottom of the stairs and stretches out his belly and looks at me. He wants a belly scratch. If I don't come right over, he will meow and meow until I do. And I always do because now it's like our little game.

At night, I usually get into bed and watch TV for an hour or so. He likes to get in bed with me and put his paws and his head on my arm. Sometimes he just makes himself at home on my torso. And man, he is always asleep within 1 minute. Just like his daddy. Ha! I NEVER thought I would EVER, EVER, EVER let an animal into my bed (no dirty comments, please), but I just can't resist this sweet, loving little kitty.

Charlie weighed 6.5 pounds when we got him 2 months ago. My mom was over last week and commented that it seemed like he'd gotten fat. Well, she was right. I weighed him and he was 9 pounds! All the Sakson's in the house are now officially fat except for Zoe. :)

Zoe continues to torture Charlie. If Charlie and I are at home and we hear the garage door go up, he will perk up and listen with big ears. If it is just Will coming home, he will continue whatever he was doing. But, the minute he hears Zoe's little voice.... Zip, he runs up the stairs just as fast as he can to hide from her! I would say she is getting a little better with him, but just when I say that I turn around and she's laying on top of him or something.

I've spent the last 3.5 days working a shoe show, so I have not gotten to enjoy the beautiful weather at all. We are skipping church this morning to clean out the garage and do some laundry. We've been needing to clean out the garage for about 6 months but it's just been way too hot. Today is our day! It's 50 degrees outside right now!!!! Holy cow.

Just thankful to be alive!

Okay, so some of you are already aware that I was 10 feet away from a crazy bank robber with a rifle today and didn't even know it. While at work, the bank next door to us was robbed. The robber parked his car right outside our back door by where I was working. From my window, I can see the front door of the bank, but I wasn't looking because I didn't see anything! Next thing we know, police cars screeching down the streets around us, 4 police cars, 5 ambulances and a news crew pull up to the bank. My coworker, Elizabeth, and I are just looking out the window with our eyes glued to everything that was going on. He ran right past our building, got into his car by our back door, and we didn't even know it! The FBI eventually showed up and a Houston Police officer and an FBI agent came over and questioned us and were wondering if we had video cameras on the building that may have caught something. Of course we didn't, but we may after today! I didn't notice until just now that behind the light post is the lady on the stretcher that they took to the hospital. It was the lead story on our local news tonight:

http://www.click2houston.com/news/21220420/detail.html

After all the excitement of the day, I took Zoe to our Neighborhood Night Out. Lots of fun with pony rides, face painting, local restaurants giving food samples (also known as "our dinner"). It was just soooo miserably hot that we didn't stay long. Here are some photos.... Okay, so my photos ended up at the top of this post somehow!

Happy Friday!

Wow, this week really flew! Will was in town all week which was FABULOUS. Not much to report, so here are a couple of pics. Last Friday was pet show and tell in Zoe's classroom, so I went up and brought Charlie. I'd intended to take him out of the carrier, HOWEVER, it took 3 of us to get him into the carrier to go to school. He kept slithering out before we could get it zipped up. So, I decided it was best to leave him in there for fear I'd never get him back in. Charlie continues to be a sweet, sweet kitty. He has really taken to me and follows me every where I go. He gets into bed with me when I watch TV and rests his head on my arm. We're still working on Zoe being gentle with him.

I really liked this pic of Zoe "scoring" a goal during soccer practice.

One funny story that happened this week. Zoe was talking about Kaylee in another Kinder class at school. I thought maybe I knew who she was, but I wasn't sure. So, I said "Is Kaylee Chinese?". Zoe said "No. She's English. Just like me."

Today's the Day!

My mom called this morning to wish me a happy 40th birthday. Shouldn't birthdays be all about the mom's? They are the ones who did all the work to get us here. Just a thought.

Anyway, hubby is in town this week and we're going out to dinner tonight with little Z. I drank 2 big cups of coffee this morning and read 3 days worth of newspaper. Oh, and the housekeeper is here, so my house will be clean. What more could I ask for? It's a great day!

Will and I had a fantastic weekend at our favorite B&B in the Hill Country called The Inn Above Onion Creek. If you haven't been, you must go. It's fabulous. You want for nothing while you're there! We actually pulled in Friday afternoon at 2:30 and didn't leave until we checked out Sunday at 11am. Lots of reading, movie watching, and just laying around relaxing! This was actually our anniversary trip that we had to postpone because Will couldn't get away from work. The Napa trip was my birthday present!

Here's hoping I can make it another 40 years! :)

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. Meg and Jana, ya'll are soooo on top of the birthday cards!

My Living Will

From my friend Meg. This is hilarious:

My Living Will Last night, my husband and I were sitting in the living room and I said to him, "I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and fluids from a bottle. If that ever happens, just pull the plug." He got up, unplugged the computer, and threw out my wine. He's such an ass.

The Sakson girls are on the road to recovery!

***disclaimer: no Charlie's were injured during the capturing of this image.

So, those of you who are on Facebook probably know that it has not been a healthy week for the Sakson girls. Zoe went to the doc on Monday, tested positive for "Influenza A" and got on Tamiflu. It wasn't until Monday afternoon, I decided I needed the same thing. So, I made another trip out, to the doc, to get Tamiflu, and then we came home and sat in the house for 4 days. Zoe ran a high temp of 106.9 on Tuesday night, but other than that has had mostly coughing. I've had a low grade fever all week and have just felt achy and no energy, plus the sneezing to boot.

We finally headed out of the house today, briefly, and I'm thinking we will all be better by tomorrow after both having finished our 5 days of Tamiflu today. Anyway, we are going to try to keep Will safe from infection after getting home from Austin tonight.

I thought this picture was really funny because this is very symbolic of the Zoe/Charlie relationship. She chases him and yells "Chaaaaalie Boooyyyyy" with a deep drawl, then lands on top of him to give him a giant hug. Then she'll say "Charlie Boy, you are my pet and I love you.". Anyway, I don't think Charlie knows that he's getting love. He probably thinks he's just getting squished and scared. He probably thinks "Why does this tall lady who give me my food and scratches my belly so nicely not give me much attention?" And I'm sure he thinks "Why is this short person ALL OVER ME ALL THE TIME?". Hey, sounds to me like Will could be thinking the exact same things! Men.

S'more bars

Will made these today from a recipe I'd cut out of Family Circle last month. Holy Moly, these are AMAZING!

s'more bars

Makes: 24 bars Bake: 33 minutes
Cook: 2 minutes
Prep: 25 minutes

Ingredients

• Crust:
• 14 whole graham cracker boards, crushed (2-1/4 cups crumbs)
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter, melted
• Brownie:
• 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter
• 3 eggs
• 1-1/4 cups sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• Topping:
• 1 jar (7.5 ounces) marshmallow cream (about 1-1/2 cups)
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 cup mini chocolate kisses
• 3 whole graham cracker boards, broken up

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350° F.

2. Crust: Combine the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, salt and melted butter in a small bowl until the dry ingredients are evenly moistened. Transfer the crumb mixture to a 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan; press crumb mixture evenly over the bottom of the pan, pressing the crumbs evenly into the corners and along the sides of the pan. Refrigerate the crust until chilled and set.

3. Brownie: Combine the bittersweet chocolate and butter in a microwave-safe glass bowl or glass measuring cup. Heat chocolate mixture in a microwave oven on high until the chocolate and butter are melted, about 1 minute. Stir the chocolate mixture until smooth.

4. With a hand-held electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat together the eggs and sugar in a large bowl until well blended. Reduce the speed to medium. While continuing to beat, gradually add the melted chocolate-butter mixture to the egg mixture; beat until the mixture is smooth, scraping down the side of the bowl occasionally.

5. Stir the flour and salt into the egg mixture. Then stir in the vanilla until smooth. Scrape the brownie mixture into the crust-lined baking pan; smooth the top level with a rubber spatula.

6. Bake in 350° F oven for 30 minutes or until the top is smooth and the center is set when gently pressed with fingertip.

7. Topping: While the brownie layer is baking, whisk together the marshmallow cream and the milk in a small bowl until the mixture is well blended and smooth.

8. Pour the marshmallow topping mixture over the brownie layer in the pan. Spread or tilt the pan to level the topping and cover the brownie layer completely.

9. Sprinkle the mini chocolate kisses evenly over the marshmallow topping. Then scatter the crumbled graham crackers all over the top.

10. Bake in 350° F oven for 3 minutes or until the chocolate kisses are glossy and the marshmallow topping is set. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack. Cut into bars.

Too much fun!

Thursday night was absolutely so much fun. My friend Courtney invited me to this society event at a local high end jeweler, Valobra. No purchase was required, just stand around and try on jewelry and drink good (not the stuff I buy for the house) champagne. I put on my highest heels - which proved to be a mistake - and headed out to try on some jewelry. Courtney and Mark were busy visiting with people they needed to (she is one of the chairs for this upcoming fundraising event for March of Dimes), but Mark's assistant was in from out of town and she and I had a blast trying on jewelry we know we can't afford.

These bracelets were $30,000 each. What's a girl to do?!?

This necklace was my favorite and proved to be a steal at $18,500. Will???
This diamond ring was $480,000. Yes, half a mil.
Or, you could buy this red ruby for a cool $1 million. The pricetag was written "1 Mil.". Wow. I tried to photograph the pricetag, too, but you can see it didn't turn out clear. Trust me, that's what it said!
And yes, I wish I'd have worked on my fingernails more before I went. Funny how everything is relative. By the end of the night, I was full of champagne and thinking that $18,500 seemed like a great deal. :)