Five Question Friday

I haven't participated in Five Question Friday in forever so I thought I would start up again.




1.  What's the last thing you bought for yourself?  Besides groceries, I guess the last thing I bought for myselft was a new purse while we were in Dallas last weekend.  I love Sam Moon's and couldn't pass up the chance to pick something up while we were there.  I'm so glad I did, too.  I do love it so!



2.  What is your favorite meal on a cold winter day?  I love anything that comes out of the crock pot on a cold winter day.  I know it will always be hot!  I love cooking in the crock pot on snow days because of the wonder smells all day.  I am becoming quite addicted to my crock pot.  It even has it's own board on Pinterest.

3.  Have you started looking at swimsuits this year, and do you typically buy a new one each year?  No to both of those questions.  Swimsuit shopping has to be about the worst experience ever.  I don't actually go to stores to shop.  I usually shop online and pray that it fits.  If not, I will return it.  I can't bring myself to actually go to a store and try on a swimsuit.  So if I finally find one that isn't too horrendous I will wear it until it fades or wears out.  My last three have come from Lands End.  They seem to be well made and modest enough I am not overly embarassed to wear them.  Since they are well made, they don't have to be replaced every year, which is a real bonus for me and cuts down on the swimsuit shopping experience.

4.  If you could be any candy what would you be and why?  I would be Dove chocolate.  First, everyone loves chocolate so therefore they would love me.  Second, that is some smooth chocolate.  I would love to be smooth.  I am awkward and clumsy and would never be called smooth.  A girl can dream can't she?

5.  What are you most passionate about?  My family and my faith.  I love my family more than anything.  I wish I could spend all day everyday with them.  Well, probably not because we wouldd drive each other crazy and I'm introverted so I do cherish my alone time.  While I treasure my job nothing beats time off when we get to travel and explore and see what the world has to offer. 

I am also working on my faith.  While I have always been a believe I am trying harder to live and be active in my faith.  I don't want to be a passive Christian.  When we have children, I want them know that mommy and daddy are passionate about living for Christ.  I never want them to question that.

Bonus Question: What is your favorite thing to "pin" on Pinterest?  Definitely recipes.  I have three separate boards for recipes.  One is for general recipes, one is for crock pot recipes, and one is for sweets and desserts.  I have even tried some and they have all turned out delicious.  Everything else I pin just kind of sits there because I'm not too crafty.  Maybe that will change one day.

Wishful Thinking Didn't Get Me Anywhere

I was hoping to wake up and find this view this morning.



Instead, I woke up to this.



Yeah, the Winter Weather Advisory turned out to be a big, fat nothing.  We didn't even get enough to really call it a dusting.  On the bright side, this is a day we won't have to make up in June.  So in order to stay positive, I will say yay to one more day of summer vacation.

What's For Dinner?

This is what I had for dinner last night.

Photo from Rita's Recipes

My favorite place for finding new recipes right now is Pinterest and this just looked to good to pass up.  It's called Crock Pot Cream Cheese Chicken Chili.  It was really good and super easy to make.  I found this along with 7 million other recipes I want to make.  I guess I'll never have to make the same thing twice.

I found this recipe on Pinterest, but it came from Rita's Recipes.

Here are the ingredients you will need:  (I was a slacker and didn't get any pictures)

2 chicken breasts, still frozen
1 can Rotel tomatoes
1 can corn kernels, do not drain
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 pkg. Ranch dressing mix
1 T cumin
1 t chili powder
1 t onion powder
1 8-oz pkg. cream cheese (I used the low fate variety)

Here are the super easy steps to make it:

Put the chicken in the crock pot.

Top with the tomatoes, corn, drained and rinsed beans,ranch dressing, cumin, onion and chili powders.

Stir to combine then top with the cream cheese.

Cook on low for 6-8 hours, stirring one or twice to blend in the cheese. (I didn't stir until it was done since I was gone all day.)

Shred the chicken into large pieces and serve over rice (or noodles, or chips).


This reheats well so enjoy the leftovers, if there are any.


By the way, today has been much better than yesterday.  I ended the day by having dinner with my friend, Elizabeth.  It was nice to have a chance to catch up.  The other news is that we are under a Winter Weather Advisory so there's not telling what I will wake up to in the morning.

Blah

That's pretty much how I'm feeling right now.  Have you ever had one of those off days at work?  Well, today was one of those days for me.  It's dark, gloomy, and rainy.  That is a bad combination for me.  Plus, I spent the morning giving small groups of students a reading test.  You may not know much about my job, but one of the things I responsible for as a special education teacher is providing students with disabilities accommodations of tests.  Normally, it's not too bad because I read the questions, make sure the students are on task and answering in the correct spot.  But, on reading tests I just watch them and keep them on task.  I can't read anything to them or provide any help or guidance and since they have some type of disability, they usually work pretty slowly.  This led to one long, boring morning.  Thank goodness for math tomorrow!

After my thoroughly thrilling morning, I was working with some students in a math group.  During the time the assistant prinicpal came in to observe.   Let's just say it wasn't horrible, but I definitely wasn't totally on my "A" game today.  We were working, but it wasn't an awesome lesson or anything.  I'm sure it's fine; I'll know for sure at some point in the next couple of days after I talk to her about the observation.  I really do want to do a good job and do the best that I possibly can for my students.  I'm sure I thought it was much worse than she did, but you can never tell.

The weather is definitely not helping my situation.  I was wanting to come home and go out for a walk/jog, but the rain had a different plan.  So instead I'm sitting on the couch and being lazy.  Oh well!  Tomorrow is another day and a new chance to be amazing!

Cotton Bowl Recap

We had a great time in Dallas this last weekend!  I am so glad we went, but now that we are home, I'm exhausted.  It was so worth the drive.  The Arkansas Razorbacks returned home Cotton Bowl Champions and I was there to witness it.



Cowboys Stadium is amazing.  It's huge, shiny, and new.  There also isn't a bad seat in the house thanks to the ultimate jumbotron there.



Thank goodness for the jumbotron or al we would have seen would be ants crawling around on the field.  To say we were in the nosebleed section is an understatement, but that did not ruin the mood or the atmosphere of being there and watching these young men tie the school record for most wins in a season.



The coach was so proud of the team, especially his first group of seniors.  This is the third bowl game I have been to, and it was by far the best!

The Band Perry did an amazing job with the national anthem.  The crowd went wild with patriotism afterwards.



We enjoyed the pre-game pep rally, which included appearances by former Razorbacks Jerry Jones (owner of the Cowboys) and Felix Jones (current Cowboy player).  We also got to see our live mascot, Tusk, who was more interested in napping than anything else.



We had a great time at the game, but that wasn't all we did in Dallas.



We went to Sam Moon's, which is an accessory superstore.  They have more purses, jewelry, hats, sunglasses, etc than any other place I have seen.  Their stuff is relatively inexpensive, too.  It is so fun just to look around.  It's hard to narrow down to a reasonable amount of stuff to buy.  My favorite things to get there are purses. I managed to only buy one on this trip.

We spent most of Saturday at the Dallas Zoo.  It is a really nice zoo and you should check it out if you are ever in the area.

We went to a really nice dinner Saturday night as our last thing before our trip home Sunday morning.  We went to Chamberlain's Steak and Chop House.  Let me just tell you, the food there is always amazing.  It was a nice celebratory dinner!

I'm so glad we went to the Cotton Bowl and had an extended weekend in Dallas!  I will always have these good memories about our time there.