Show and Tell: Baptism and Dresses

So this post is really, really old. I found it completely written but unpublished last week whilst editing the tags in my blog, one of the few tasks I could accomplish in my sickness.

I realized that I hadn't ever shown you guys the baptism dresses that I made for the naughty girls. It's almost been a year -now almost 2- (the more astute readers might wonder why they look way younger) but I'm quite proud of the dresses.

Not all churches baptize babies. But our church teaches that God actually does something in baptism. For us, an individual doesn't choose to have faith, it is truly and fully a gift from God. Most churches that don't baptize babies teach that baptism is just symbolic and a believer's acknowledgment of the choice that they have made so if you think of it, if you think it's about a choice it makes sense why they wouldn't baptize babies. I'm not sure why I feel the need to explain, probably because this was a belief/practice that I adopted later in my Christian life and of course I kind of miss teaching philosophy of religion. If you do want to read more about this perspective see here and here.

The dresses were made out of ivory Shantung (it looks like silk but it's polyester so it washes well). The ribbon was printed with light pink cherry blossoms. I loved the square neckline and the little pleats I put at the hem of the dresses (well of L's, T's ended up being too short since someone -me- accidentally cut them both L's length opps). And I covered buttons with both the Shantung and ribbon for extra cuteness.

Oh they were so cute and squishy back then.

p.s. I've been trying to sort through my vacay pics so hopefully I'll be able to share with you the fabulousness that is The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and all the fun cruise stuff soon!

What's for Dinner: Week 72

(taco mac and cheese)
For those of you are new  to my blog I write these weekly plans to help me spend less (I kinda of love grocery shopping, yea I know I'm weird), to save time and to try and help us eat in more often. Also I love knowing what other people eat so I thought it would be fun to share. For a while I'll be adding my plans for what greens. I'll be eating since one of my resolutions is to build a habit of introducing more green veggies into our diet. Maybe some day it'll be so normal for us that I won't have to mention them any more.

Well last week was lame. I ended up being a lot more sick than I thought. I thought that since I was awake I was a lot better. Oh no I would have traded in my violently coughing, with a crazy head ache and being congested so bad I could just lay on the couch all day for the being asleep in bed of the earlier stages of this disease. Any ways yesterday was the first day I didn't lay down most of the day (awake or asleep). Granted I sat most of the day and got tired fast if I tried to do stuff standing or walking but I hope this means the bug is going away. That said I didn't cook dinner last week so there are a lot of repeats.

Day	Main Meal	Goals (Veggies, Whole Grain, Fish)
Sunday	Taco Mac and Cheese	Grains and nuts: Sandwich, granola bars, ww pasta Veggies: zuccs, peas Fish: talapia
Monday	Mushroom Soup and jalapeno rolls
Tuesday	Chicken and Artichoke Alfredo
Wednesday	Pub Quiz
Thursday	Talapia Meuniere rice and peas
Friday	Soup or eating out
Saturday	Cowboy Hamburgers and zuccs

RaeGun Finds: Mustache Love

I'm posting over at the Modern Handmade Child Blog today. Check out my top picks for Etsy mustache finds there were so any fun ones not including my own mustache onesie or silly mustache dress hehe.

Fitness Journal: Week 24

Well we're back from the trip and weight-wise things are fabulous. I was 146.3 when we got back (and right around there -146.6- the day we left) so just about stayed the same if not lost a little over the trip. The food on the cruise part was good but not great and I was a little sick for part of it. I had a lot of soup for half the trip and then when the dish wasn't super greatI just didn't finish it (and since I was a little sick anyways it's not like I missed it). But we did have dessert, fried calamari, ice cream and crepes every day so it's not like I was holding back.

But I've been pretty sick since I've been home. I was like asleep sick all weekend and am still pretty week, head heavy and coughing up a storm (finally going to the dr. hopefully she gives me some relief) but that put me all the way down to 143.0 score huh. Yeah I'm not happy about being sick but hey if I'm going to be sick I better lose weight!
 
Weight:

2/3/2011 147.4
2/24/2011 143.0 
I'm 5'5 but have a small frame
(I think I'm going for 135 and we'll see from there)

Nutrition Breakdown:

I only logged about half of the trip until I got sick and I was hitting about a 1500-1600 cal average.


Exercise:
Walked all day around universal
45 minute walk about the boat
3 hour kayak, hike, snorkel outing
4 days of wandering towns for about 2 hours each

Linking up at

What's for Dinner: Week 71

(famous fish burrito from Lone Star Taqueria)
For those of you are new  to my blog I write these weekly plans to help me spend less (I kinda of love grocery shopping, yea I know I'm weird), to save time and to try and help us eat in more often. Also I love knowing what other people eat so I thought it would be fun to share. For a while I'll be adding my plans for what greens. I'll be eating since one of my resolutions is to build a habit of introducing more green veggies into our diet. Maybe some day it'll be so normal for us that I won't have to mention them any more.

We had a great time on vacation. Ate a lot of good things. I'll definitely be posting my Orlando eatery recommendations since we were really happy with all the places we tried. I've been super sick since we got back so this is post is pretty late and the last few days were kinda a combo of my mom dropping food off and canned chicken and starts that daniel heated up for me. Yesterday was the first day I haven't slept the entire day but I'm still coughing like a 80 year old smoker, really tired and laying down often. At least it seems to be coming to an end though right?

Day	Main Meal	Goals (Veggies, Whole Grain, Fish)
Sunday	Pork from my mom	Grains and nuts: Sandwich, granola bars, ww pasta Veggies: zuccs Fish: talapia
Monday	chicken soup w/stars
Tuesday	swedish meatballs from my mom
Wednesday	Chicken and Artichoke Alfredo
Thursday	Talapia Meuniere rice and peas
Friday	Soup or eating out
Saturday	Cowboy Hamburgers and zuccs

Sicko

I'm back! Goodness I was so good about getting posts up while I was gone I didn't imagine I'd be totally sick when I got back. But yeah. I've been asleep in bed the last two days straight, not reading, not watching tv -asleep. Yikes I don't ever remember being that sick before. Let's just say there were a lot of people coughing and sniffing on the plane back home and obviously my body just welcomed one of those bugs right in. I'm starting to get a little better, you know sitting up, checking the email and all but just wanted to pop in to say I've missed you all! The trip was great hopefully I'll have a legitimate post up soon.

Guest Post: Potato Casserole

I was such a happy little peach when Marissa contacted me about being a guest blogger for her, while she got to take a fabulous little get away with her hubby!

Being totally honest this is my very first guest post appearance and I debated on just what to share with you.

And then it hit me like a ton of potatoes… Death by Starch!

I can really eat this fabulous dish by the pan full’s!

Hope you enjoy it has much as I do! 

Stop by anytime and say howdy! I would love for you to visit The Gaines Gang!

I know that many of us have a good ole’ standby potato casserole recipe filed away, or stuffed, in our holders ready to go.

This Potato Casserole was passed onto me from my Mother-n-law. And now has become my go to potato recipe for the last few years.

It's a no brainer and requires just a hand full of ingredients.

20 oz. bag cubed hash browns
2 Cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
¼ cup milk
2 cups (16oz) French onion dip
Handful of onion flakes
1 can cream of chicken soup {undiluted}

Using a large bowl mix everything together except the potatoes and butter. Once everything is well blended stir in the frozen hash browns. Top with ½ stick butter sliced over the top. I like to mix mine up the night before and cover with foil and let set in refrigerator until the next day. Bake uncovered @ 350* for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

The result is ooey starchy goodness!

Guest Post: Little Monkey Onesie Dress

I'm so happy today to be featured on Marissa blog Rae gun I hope all your followers enjoy a little girl outfit, that is super easy and quick to make. Today i'll be showing you how I made my little monkey onesie dress, and I need to say sorry about the quality of the photos as my camera is in the shop at the moment, so I have my point and shoot camera :)

Here is the tutorial

cute huh I just love easy cute outfits (this fits Chloe and I paired it with jeans underneath and it looked super cute i'll have to get a picture of her in it like that)

Here is my 4 years old Chloe in it

Hope you enjoyed 

Peace Love and Cupcakes

Amanda

Thank you so much again Marissa, If you would like to see a bunch of other girly tutorials make sure you stop by my blog If life was like a Cupcake

Guest Post: Fried Cream Cheese Avocado Shrimp Wontons

I'm still on vacation but before I left I asked my sister Tanya if I could re-post her cream cheese avocado and shrimp wonton recipe that she made for my birthday party and posted on her private blog.They were SO good. Here she is.

My big sis - the infamous Marissa from Rae Gun - turned the big Three Oh today. Her hubster - the equally popular Fisch (Daniel) the Music Maker - Yai Yai, myself, and her two friends Kelli and Linda conspired to throw her a surprise party!  And of course I had to make my famously yummy Fried Cream Cheese Avocado Shrimp Wontons. Yes I know you're mouth is watering. They're so easy and ohh so amazing.

[note from marissa: So I kinda had a dream a while back of delicious fried food and they not only remembered it but made it come true! Awesome huh? It was a fried food theme party the day after every one set new year's resolutions bwahahaha. And yes those are pictures of fried food hanging from the ceiling.]




Just 4 ingredients and they're all in the name!

Let the cream cheese come to room temperature. Devein and peel the shrimp. Next throw the shrimp in a small saute pan with a little oil. Season with whatever you have on hand. I used garlic powder, salt, pepper, no-salt-organic-everything-seasoning-that-isn't-any-good-until-you-add-salt-to-it, and a dash of Italian seasoning.

Cook the shrimp all the way. It should be pink and not translucent - don't over do it or your shrimp will be rubbery. Yuck! While the shrimp is cooking mash up two ripe avocados. Add a block of the soften cream cheese and mix it up. You should end up with a beautiful light green.

Now you need to chop up the shrimp. Don't massacre it and turn it to mush, just chop it into tiny pieces. Then dump it into your avocado-cream cheese mixture and combine.

Mmmm I could eat this with a spoon.... Oops I forget the green onion. Chop up one sprig and throw it in. And while you're at it add 2-3 shakes of soy sauce. Mix it all up and set it aside

Now grab your wonton wrappers. *I* find it helps to pull them apart and re-stack them first before your fingers get all gross. Next throw some corn starch in a small bowl with warm water. Keep the spoon in there because the corn starch tends to settle and you'll need to keep mixing it up.

Now the fun part. Take a dollop of the mixture and place it into the center of the wonton wraper. Fold it into a half moon shape pinching it in the middle. You can just pinch it closed all the way around of do it the traditional way making little folds. I have no idea how to explain how to do this - here's the link to the video Marissa did. Just note that they stay closed better if you do it the fancy traditional way - this goes for any type of wonton.

After folding 54 of these little nuggets of goodness you can freeze them - HA like they'd survive for long, they're too good - or just go ahead and fry them up right away.

Enjoy! Sorry I don't have a picture of one fried for you, they got eaten ;)