Improving the Poolside View.....

My love has a wonderful pool in his backyard.  The yard needed some love!I saw this on Pinterest months ago and was saving it knowing this would definitely be my first project to making his backyard a little more picturesque.

 

 This was the beginning.  I used 15 cinder blocks that we bought at Lowes for $1.34 each.  I used 11 plants which I purchased at various places.  We used a sheet of pavers (rubber) and Steve cut them to fit in the blocks for a bottom.

 I tried to use a variety of colors plus I planted some basil, cilantro, and mint because I love fresh herbs!  This is the top blocks.

The final product after watering!  I was so happy with the outcome.  There is a small flower bed to the right of this that I added 2 rose bushes to the elephant ears that are randomly blooming and some monkey grass along the edges.  I added some river rocks to form a border.  Also added some other touches of love around the yard.  There is still quite a bit to do but we have made a good start! :)

Serving Up Idioms.....

Idioms can be difficult for my students.  It was funny to hear their discussions over all the sayings and thoughts as to what they meant.  It amazed me how many idioms the kids had never heard before.  Once we started studying them - they were on a scavenger hunt and during lessons they would say, "That was an idiom" or when they were reading a book, they would bring me an idiom that was in their book.  I love to see them excited over learning and finding what they are learning in their real every day worlds.

This was one of our assignments.  I think they did great!

I got the idea from another "Pinterest" user.  Students had the idiom on the back of the plate and wrote what it meant.  Then on the front of the plate, they drew their version of the literal meaning.  They  used the "napkin" to write a scenario using the idiom in context so that anyone reading it could use the clues to come up with the correct meaning.  On the front of the folded 1/2 sheet of paper was an image of a fork and knife as you can see in the first picture!

Lightening Up....

Well, Steve says that my cooking is so good that he has gained too much weight.  I don't cook totally high calorie but he says it's the portion control he has issue with! LOL  I personally would like to lose this last 10 pounds so we are making some simple changes first.  I am cutting out my sweet tea (my vice) and he is cutting back on sodas (which he drinks WAY too much of) and replacing with water.  We also started "Meatless Mondays" for dinner. Tonight I made a simple vege stir fry with brown rice.  I bought frozen stir fry but only with veges - no other ingredients.  I did use a bottled teriyaki sauce instead of making my own because I didn't have all of the ingredients to make it tonight but that will be something I make up for future use.  I am also using my "Lose It" app on my phone to track my calorie intake.  I was a little over budget today but I thought I needed to get rid of the remainder of the Girl Scout cookies in the box that was already open! hehe.....

Next week I  am going to make cheese & onion enchiladas.  I had to do a lot of searching on Pinterest trying to come up with great "meatless" recipes.  I'll keep you posted on the progress of our small changes.  We may have to step it up.  I am trying to get back into my running and prepare for a 10K!!  Steve is in the middle of a show right now and is having a hard time getting to the gym so we shall see if the food intake makes a difference.  I am also trying to cook my other week-day meals a lot lighter and then I plan to make a favorite dish on the week-end.  My "Lose It" app says I am to lose 2 lbs per week and have a goal of May 20th to have this accomplished.  It's a goal..... it's now written down for anyone to see...... so now I feel really accountable to get it done!  I will keep the posting on the progress! :)

Cheeseburger Casserole - TASTES JUST LIKE MCDONALD'S CHEESEBURGERS!

As you may know I love to try new recipes.  For the most part I have been successful.  Very few I have just put in the trash!  Typically I can tell by the ingredients of a recipe if it would be my cup of tea or not.  When I saw this post on Pinterest fromhttp://asimplelifeinspired.blogspot.com/ I was curious and wondered if this recipe REALLY was like a McD's cheeseburger and it SO was and super easy too!  This is what it looked like piping hot out of the oven.

Here's the Recipe:

Cheeseburger Casserole:

1 lb lean ground beef
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped dill pickles
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup ketchup
1 - 1.5 tablespoon yellow mustard
1/8 teaspoon pepper
3/4 cups Cheddar cheese, sliced or grated (more if you want)
1 can 8 oz can Crescent Roll
1 Tbsp Milk
1 - 2  tablespoon sesame seeds

Brown beef with onion.  I always drain my meat - then add chopped dill pickles.  I added a little salt and pepper too.  Then add water, ketchup, mustard.  Mix together well and then put mixture in a 9x9 casserole dish. Make a single layer of cheese over the meat mixture.  Then unroll the tube of crescent rolls and pinch seams together and form over cheese or you can use a rolling pin and roll it out.  I left a little opening on the side for steam to escape or you can make a few slices across the top.  Brush milk on top of crescent roll and sprinkle sesame seeds on top.  Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes or until top is golden brown.  I let mine sit for just a few minutes out of the oven.

It was a total hit with the boyfriend and his son - who hates McDonald's food by the way - said this dish was "seriously good"!  Of course I just told him it was a cheeseburger casserole and didn't mention that it tasted just like McD's or maybe he wouldn't have even tried it! LOL

 

Can You Paint With All the Colors of the Wind.....

Yesterday (4/6/13) my sister, Donna and I met up with some of her co-workers to participate in the COLOR RUN at Fair Park, Dallas.  It started out to be a bit chilly but was perfect once the run started.  We decided to park downtown where my sister works - free parking after all! Then we would catch the train and ride to Fair Park.  Well, this was my first adventure on the train and apparently a few other people had our brilliant idea too because the train was packed and so were the stations along the way.

The official start time for the race was 8 a.m. but there were so many people (and we were close to the front) that we didn't even get started until close to 8:30 and there were people behind us as far as we could see.
We had to take some before shots while waiting for the train to arive:

There was a homeless man that was entertaining everyone by giving a play by play of the group of girls that were standing beside us and what they were doing while waiting for the train.  It was pretty funny.

The run was great.  It was hard to tell exactly what my time was because when you got to the mile and 1/2 mile markers is where you would get "colored".  There was a lot of congestion at these stops but everyone was having the best time - you didn't even care how long it was taking (and really not long at all - just a matter of walking instead of running at those points)

So we all met up at the finish line to look like this:

We were all given a packet of "paint" to throw at the finish line but I saved mine until Donna got there and the wind kind of carried it away but it was fun. 

As I was running, I was so overwhelmed that I was actually doing this.  I had said for about 3 years, I was going to run and never stuck with it.  It's so amazing to accomplish a goal!  Now, I will be training for a 10K and working toward that.  I told Donna that I can't imagine running for an hour at a time, but there was a time not so long ago that I couldn't imagine running 30 minutes at a time and I'm DOING IT!!!  I want to always keep challenging myself - just as I teach my 4th graders.  It's not enough JUST to reach a goal - no matter how sweet - it's about "WOW- what can I do next?"