Only been 8 months!!

I knew it had been awhile since I took Carissa to get her haircut, but I had no idea it's been since January! I guess next time we'll wait a whole year and then be able to donate to locks for love. This time they cut off at least 6 inches! I just wish my hair would grow that fast! I've avoided taking her because the last 2 times I've taken her, she was horrible and wouldn't sit still! But this time, she was very cooperative! She chose to watch a Dora movie, and she was glued to it the whole time! And the highlight of it all, was that she finally chose to sit in the pink car!! Maybe there's hope for her being "girly" yet!! I originally thought that all the stylists were the same that work at Cookie Cutters, but I've had Melanie twice, and both times she was SO FAST, and she is so good with Carissa (which means she can handle ANY child!!). The other time, I won't even go into any detail, cause it was just a HORRIBLE experience! So if you decide to try out the Cookie Cutters in South Jordan, make sure you schedule with Melanie!!!

And this is the finished product! Isn't she adorable??

We've been gearing up for school to get started around here. Donavan has been working on getting his license. He's taking an on-line course, but still has to go and drive with an instructor. Hopefully he will be able to pass the course very soon, so we don't have to drive them to school for very long. But they will be in the new building which will be located just east of the District. Next week they get a sneak peek at the school, as they are helping to move furniture over and get everything set up. It's going to be fun to have a "real school" instead of office buildings converted to a school.

And here is the sum-up of the summer...."why does it have to end????" I'm really not ready for

the season's to change just yet! And she would be happy to just run around in a swim suit everyday!! And the thought of wearing socks again makes me cringe! Oh if I could wear flip flops all year 'round!

Yummy recipe

I've decided that I would start posting some of my most favorite recipes for you all to try.

This one is called:

Tomatillo Shrimp Fajitas

Ingredients:

cooking spray (olive or canola oil preferred)

1 1/2 cups red bell pepper strips

2 teaspoons minced garlic

1 small red onion, vertically sliced (I like to slice them in half too.)

1/2 cup green salsa (store bought, I like the La Victoria Salsa Verde medium )

1 teaspoon ground coriander

salt to taste

1 1/2 pounds large shrimp, peeled and deveined

8 (6inch) corn tortillas ( like to use wheat flour tortillas or even wheat pitas!)

2 Tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Instructions:

1. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add bell pepper, garlic, and onion; saute 4 minutes. Stir in salsa, coriander, salt, and shrimp; saute 2 minutes or until shrim are done.

2. Arrange about 1/2 cup shrimp mixture down the center of each tortilla, sprinkle each tortilla with cilantro to taste.

Sometimes I will put in some chicken, mostly cause Nikelle doesn't care that much for shrimp, but I LOVE it, so I have to have some in there. And you can tell by the picture that I added the green pepper this time. I know this looks like a hard thing to make, but I swear it only takes about 15 minutes of cooking time! REALLy fast!! The chopping is what takes a while, but I find that I can thaw the shrimp in some cold water while I'm chopping and then everything is ready to go about the same time. Then I sliced up a mango on the side and I felt like I was in the tropics!! Hey, whatever it takes to get a little "vacation"!

Let me know if you try this one! And I'll be sharing some more very soon, so stay tuned!!

Good Fun & Good Read!

Well it seems that nothing ever happens here, and then WHAM.....everything happens! We started the mnnth of August with a BANG! First off we had Andrew's brother and family and their mom in town. So we decided to head out to Lagoon, yes we knew it was going to be HOT, but it was for the kids, right? We got there right when the park opened and Carissa found her favorite spot on the carousel! Her favorite animal was the kitty, but unfortunately it was every girls "favorite" too! Then we ventured over to the "kiddieland" and she had a good time, not great. She didn't really enjoy the rides that went up and down in circles....which is pretty much AlL of them! She did like the boats and the little cars too!

Then when it was just too hot in the shade (thanks to whoever planted all the HUGE trees all over the park!) we went into the water park. I thought this was a funny sight......9 tubes for the crowd of 17 people! Carissa loved the lazy river, but I was a bit dissapointed to see that there really wasn't anyplace for the littlest kids to play. Yes they have the big shooting water fountain, but it's not in the water park area. So we made LOTS of laps around the lazy river while the big kids went down all the slides! I still prefer Disney Land or Universal Studios, but for a close place, it really is fun!

Check out all the people!!!!

Then the fun continued that night when NIkelle and I went to get our copy of Breaking Dawn, the fourth in the Twilight Series (and if I have to explain that....well....you've been living under a rock!). Barnes & Noble decided to distribute wrist bands for the books, even though months ago I pre-orded it. (which tell me why is that if I placed my book on order back in May did I get wristband #451????) Really angers me that it wasn't a "guaranteed copy", and they didn't tell you that back in May. Anyway.....back to the saga.......I get down to B&N along with about 1500 other people for the "party". About the time they started lining everyone up in their groups, my friend Teresa is on the phone talking to a friend who is in line over at Wal-mart (no wristband required) and she is only about 30 people back. We finally decide to head over to the good 'ol WM, joined them in line, and had the book in our hot little hands by 12:04!!! There was no way we would have been leaving B&N before 1:30am with that many people, so we all got to go home and start reading!!! (Dont'cha just love the pic of the stack of books.....so lovely....ahhh...sigh!) I know that there are only a handful of people that know nothing about this book series (my husband was one of them....but after seeing the line for the wristbands, he now understands I why I couldn't just "put it on hold at the library"!!) but this last one doesn't dissapoint at all! And it just makes me more anxious for the movie in December! I really can't wait for all the movies now! (hopefully they will do them)

Remember....I get to read it first Nikelle......"I know Mom"!