Happy Anniversary, Lena Rae!

One year ago today, we adopted our sweet baby girl Lena Rae (yes that rhymes, no I did not intentionally do that). It took us a few days to decide on a name and, because I’m mostly lazy, we decided to keep her shelter name, which was Lena. We figured that it went along well with her sissy’s name, Lily! Lena is hilarious. She keeps us laughing most of the time!

I went on my facebook yesterday to look at Lena’s baby pics. Then I realized, they’d never been posted! I told my mom this & she said that’s how it works with the second-born haha. Whoops! I went and posted a bunch this morning because she was too cute not to share them.

Here are a few things about Miss Lena:

-She loves to play. Her new favorite toy is a sparkly pom-pom ball. She will carry it everywhere (when it’s not lost under something)! There were a few nights in a row a few weeks ago that she would start playing with it in the middle of the night on the bed (actually, I woke up one morning and she was batting my fingers and I realized she was trying to get the ball). I ended up having to take it and put it under my pillow until it was time to wake up. She’ll play with feathers on string toys too, but these sparkly balls are her fave! She likes to play with her sister too…well, her sister likes to play (ermmtorment) with her.

loves that ball 

earlier this week, I don’t even know where those paper towels came from!

-She loves to eat. Yup, after we switched them off kitten food and put them on adult (wahhhhhh) food, we took them off that only after about a month and switched them to science diet light. I don’t know what a kitten is supposed to weigh, but at 10 months she weighed almost 11 pounds I think. She was getting pretty chunky! Since we’ve switched the food, she’s definitely slimmed down (or at least grew more into her body). We give her wet food as a treat (or for meds) (Lil won’t eat it), but usually just give her the crunchies. She also loves treats. I taught her to sit by using treats 🙂

favorite way to sit, silly girl!

-She will snuggle when she wants. It’s not too often you can get her to calm down, but there will be times that she’ll snuggle up next to you. So sweet!!

-She still, um…., nurses herself. haha! Yes! It’s true. She’s been doing this since we adopted her and it’s so weird because her mom was still around her when we got her, so it’s not like she didn’t get the lovins that she needed from momma before we adopted her. But, when she’s getting ready to nap or go to sleep (not all the time, but still lots), she’ll get comfortable and, well, suckle her own nip. It’s actually super cute, but it makes the grossest sucking/squeaking noise. Then her whole mouth/belly is wet and it’s nasty. The vet says it doesn’t look like it’s harming her, so we’ve never tried to stop. When I picked her up from getting declawed, the nurse looked at me and said, “um, so at home, does she um…” and she didn’t even have to finish before I said, “…yup!”

annnd this

-She costs us lots o money in flea meds & antibiotics, but I still love her. We had fleas/worms last fall and treated them through the winter. Then earlier this spring I noticed she was holding her paw up and there was a little bump on it. I remembered that a few weeks earlier I’d thought she’d touched my hot, flat iron. When Lil had her one-year check-up, I took Le in with to have it looked at. Ended up having to put her on antibiotics for two weeks. (That was fun) and expensive. She still has a little bump, dr thinks it’s a scab. Sometimes she’ll still hold that paw up though, but doesn’t seem to bother her.

She’s my baby! I love her! and her sis too of course!

Mother’s Day, 2013

Happy 1st Anniversary, Le!

High Five for Friday: Lena Edition!

Today I’m linking up with Lauren  for High Five for Friday! Happy Friday! Yay!

I don’t know if this is allowed…but I’m changing my H54F from highlights of my week to my Top 5 pictures of my kitty Lena over the past year. Yes, one year ago today, we adopted this sweet little girl (anniversary post to follow!).

Let’s be real, it’s impossible to narrow it down to the top 5 pics, but these are definitely a few of my favorites!

1. THIS FACE! She was sitting on me, sniffing my leg & apparently did not like the smell. She was making the face of disgust (we call it “jungle mouth”) and somehow I captured this gem and can relive it over and over. This has got to be the most hilarious picture of her. Ever.

2. Yup, she is one of “those” cats who likes laying on her back. Every morning she’ll lay at the end of the bed and when I start to wake up, she’ll stretcccccch and roll on her back like this. She loves some belly rubs!

3. She loves water and playing in the tub. This picture is the first time I turned on the tub faucet for her. Now she’ll jump in the tub when I’m getting ready to shower and will sit and bat at the water as the tub starts to fill up. I always have to wait for her to get out of the way before turning on the shower head. Stinker!

4. THIS FACE. She just looks very perplexed. and it’s hilarious (prob up there as the 2nd funniest face)

5. In this one, she just looks so sweet. She was snuggling with her dada one morning. I need to go home an hug her right meow!

Other contenders:

Of course I couldn’t pick just five. These are a few other faves!

She laid on me like this for like more than an hour one evening! Those toes!!

She has always been very un-ladylike. Her favorite way to lay is with her hind legs sticking out behind her (saw a pic of her real sister on fb recently and she was laying with her hind legs straight behind, they’re def related!)

Sorry for breaking the rules, but you’re over it because these pics are all good ones!

Quick Magnets

For some reason I don’t really have many magnets. I always end up sticking a ton of stuff under one & obvs it doesn’t hold very well. My mom bought me these super cute puffy kitty stickers at the party store. I couldn’t figure out what to do with them until I realized I could easily turn them into magnets!

Cute kitty stickers!

You can easily just cut out paper for the backs, or stick them onto paper and cut around them. Since my Cricut is still new and exciting, I had to cut out one-inch circles.

Cutting circles

Then you just stick the stickers onto the paper. I have a roll of magnet that is sticky on one side, so I just cut it into pieces and stuck it to the backs of the paper.

magnet on back

And actually, a few of the stickers have fallen off. You could easily add some extra glue or little scrapbook adhesive squares to give it some extra stick.

What’s That? Wednesday: George

Do you own a George Foreman? Do you love it?

We hadn’t busted ours out for a while, I almost forgot we had one! On Monday, M had a game, so I decided to marinate myself some chicken and grill it on George (I’m to chicken to grill it on a real grill…). I ended up going to the game that night, so I thawed a piece for M too and cooked it up last night.

Grilled chicken, pineapple & provolone on sourdough

The whole sandwich was made on George. I grilled the chicken, grilled the pineapple, then built the sandwiches and threw the whole thing on there. Delish! and so easy. I gotta remember to use this machine more often.

Before we get to the What’s That? Wednesday poll…I gotta share some pics of these cuties.

This is Lily, my sweetie

This is Lena, our…special…kinten

bahahaha that picture cracks me up every time. She was “jungle-mouthing”…which is totes a Plevka term (could write a whole book on plevka kitty terminology). Basically, it’s the face they make when they smell something funny. She’d been sniffing my leg and I somehow caught this gem.

Back to our normal programming. Today’s question is a pretty easy one. Do you own a George Foreman grill? We love it for chicken & burgers. Do you have anything in particular you like to cook on it? Share with me in the comments!

 

The Secret To: The Perfect Smoothie

Here is the very first “secret” post! Hooray!

I think I’ve discovered the secret to the perfect smoothie. You know how when you make a smoothie with ice, not all of the ice crushes like you want it to and eventually the ice melts leaving your smoothie watery? Yes? Yes you do? Well! I’ve found the solution!

Frozen Fruit

[I do recognize that I am most likely not the first person ever to discover this, just throwin’ that out there…but maybe!]

Using frozen fruit gives a smoothie such a nice texture, it all blends together nicely and there are no random ice chunks.

I’m prob no expert on freezing fruit, but it’s not that hard. I sliced up some strawberries and bananas and put them on a cookie sheet, making sure they weren’t touching (for the most part, we all know I’m no perfectionist) and popped them into the freezer. Once frozen, you can make a smoothie right there, or throw them into a zip-lock baggie for future use. Super easy. Super delish. Now, here’s my recipe (do we really need a smoothie recipe?) for my perfect smoothie:

I have the Kohl’s brand of a Magic Bullet. I love it. I’m sure a blender would work just fine, these are just so much easier for single servings.

Throw in the frozen fruit

Add a container of yogurt (I use Yoplait, you can really use any flavor)

Pour some juice on top. I usually use Dole Orange Strawberry Banana, I’ve also used pineapple juice. You could probs use milk too.

Blend it up!

You may need to add some more fruit and a little more juice once most of it is blended to make just a little more

umm…yum

Throw it in a cup & you’re good to go. These cup actually have a gel that you can freeze to keep drinks colder for longer.

I’m not daredevil enough to try throwing spinach or oats or anything weird into my smoothies. The most daring I am was using a light yoplait yogurt instead of a regular last week 🙂 I’m pretty picky when it comes to fruit, so tend to not stray far from this (sometimes I use vanilla yogurt instead of strawberry…yup). Smoothies are so easy and perfect, especially for these hot summer days. Do you have any favorite smoothie recipes? Share them with me!

Hannah’s Smorgasbord Burrito Enchiladas

I’m not one to throw my own recipes together. The most adventurous I get when cooking is leaving salt out of the recipe. Last week I wanted some Mexican, but couldn’t figure out what to make until I saw this recipe from Betty Crocker. I already had chicken in the crock pot at home, so after a quick trip to the store, I was ready to put this together.

Burrito Enchiladas

You really don’t need much to make these.

General Ingredients

The Betty recipe called for Hamburger Helper Asian Chicken Fried Rice. That’s weird (some of the reviews on the site said it was good, some said it was too Asiany). I used a Knorr’s Spanish Rice. It only takes like 7 minutes to cook, so that’s awesome. Once the rice was cooked, I threw the corn, half a can of beans, some salsa and the shredded chicken right into the rice. Next time I might season the chicken as it was cooking, but it was fine without.

Stir it all together

Then take some tortillas and fill them burrito style! I had a pack of 8, so still had some filling leftover, but you could always put in more than I did.

Filling on tortilla

Burrito style

And this is where your burrito turns into an enchilada. Pour enchilada sauce on and sprinkle with cheese!

Burrito –> Enchilada

Bake until cheese is melted

Eat!

My mouth is watering just thinking about these again. It made great leftover for the next few days. Seriously, this is the easiest dinner, it took less than 30 minutes.

Linking up with YOLOMonday . TheGirlCreative . Sew Chatty . MouthwateringMondays

VoxBox: Osis Dust It

I think I’ve mentioned how excited I was to receive each product, but this one for real was what I was most excited about. I spend basically zero dollars on hair products. When I do buy something I always buy suave. I think I have suave hairspray, volumizing mousse, regular mousse (is there a different between the two?? probably not) and a heat protector spray and really I hardly use any of them. So when I received this Osis Dust It I was excited because a. it was a real brand b. it is something I would not normally buy c. it was something I have been wanting to try.

What this is is a volumizing powder. Thankfully Kate has a tutorial on her blog about using a powder texturizer. Basically all you do is sprinkle a bit throughout your hair (and I do mean a bit- a little goes a long way here!) and then kind of rub it in (I flip my head upside down when I do this).

Osis Dust It

Dust It Volumizing Powder

I don’t know how this works, but it does! Kind of gives you the volume of a tease tease without having to backcomb your hair. The texture of the powder is kind of weird. It was sticky? I guess? in my hair. Kind of felt like a lot of hairspray. This didn’t bother me though.

The one thing I didn’t like about it was how it made my hair feel the day after. It was kind of nice on day two because, even after shampooing & conditioning, it still gave me some extra volume. However, for a few days after, my hair felt funny. The only word I can think to describe it was squeaky. I couldn’t get my straightener to run smoothly through my hair for a few days. I do think that maybe the first few times I used it, I prob used too much. I used it again last Thursday & didn’t seem to have as much as the same issues this time.

You can see in the after pictures how the powder gave my hair some extra fluffiness without adding too much volume. It holds pretty well throughout the day. I didn’t add any extra product.

Before (good hair day, hooray!

After (better hair day, hooray!)

After

I will use this product occasionally, but definitely every day because of the weird texture it leaves my hair. I’ll save it for good hair days for work and special occasions. Not sure if I’ll buy this again (I did get a coupon in my VoxBox, I’m not sure how much the original price is though). If I do decide to buy more I may buy one of the other brands. I feel like this will probably last me a while though (let’s be real, probably forever) since, again, a little of it does go a long way.

I received this product complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes.

VoxBox: Tastykakes

Also in my VoxBox I received a Tastykake. I’d never heard of this brand before and it looks delicious. Unfortunately for me, I put off eating it and then earlier this week decided to watch my sweets again (when I had brownies for breakfast on Saturday I realized, “mmmm no. Can’t do that again). For the sake of the blog, I gave in (well, didn’t really give in, but I normally would have said no) and ate a bite (mmmortwo) of this cake bar thing.

I received the S’mores bar. M was super excited when he saw I’d received this product and asked if he could be around to help me try it out. He was at work last night when I ate my bite, so I saved the rest for him and gave it to him for lunch today. His comments: “S’more cake was great. It tasted a lot like a Little Debbie cake roll.”

It was pretty tasty (hence the name tastykake?) and something like I’d never had before. In the middle was two layers of cake with a cream filling between the two. Then it was coated in chocolate and had like graham cracker crumbs on top. This bar comes in two other flavors, peppermint (not sure how that would taste) and peanut butter (that would probably be good). I’m glad I got to try the S’more one though.

I don’t know if I’ll buy these again, I don’t think I’ve ever seen them in the store? With M’s good review, I’m sure it’s something he would pick up if he ran into it.

Ugh. Now I’m craving one!

Tastykake S’mores

My bite

I received this product complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes

 

VoxBox: NYC Applelicious Lip Balm

When I think of the NYC brand, I usually think of 16 years olds. This really isn’t a brand that I buy these days, but I was excited to try this lip balm.

NYC Applelicious Lip Balm

A few months ago, I decided that it was time for me to grow up and start wearing some lipstick. I bought a Maybelline Color Whisperers in a very light pink. I was excited that the NYC Applelicious had some tint in it!

Really, I’m a chapstick girl. I’ve gotta have my chapstick with me 24/7 (aka legit addicted, I always have to have it on my lips). The NYC balm had a similar feel to when I have chapstick on, so I liked that a lot. It wasn’t sticky like some lipsticks. However, it doesn’t last very long. It did not pass my 30-minute-drive-to-work test. When I got to work I felt like I already needed to put some more on (but, that may just be me always having to have something on my lips!). I haven’t noticed how long the tint stays on. I’ve never brought the balm with me, I just put some on before I leave and then switch to my chapstick for the rest of the day.

I liked the color that I received, which I believe was Big Apple Red. I would never buy red lipstick, but this color is nice because it’s definitely not a red red. I don’t think the color lasts too long, but if you reapply during the day for color, you’ll be fine.

And now: here are the two most awkwardess pictures I’ll ever post on my  blog.

nothing on my lips (well besides some leftover chapstick, obvs)

NYC Applelicious Big Apple Red

Can you even see a difference? I think you can see in the bottom that it’s a little glossy with just a little tint.

I don’t know if I’ll buy this product again. For a cheap balm, I like it. And, I’m a cheap person, so I take that back, I may buy it again sometime. I’d probably choose a pink tone instead of the red though. I do like that I got to try something that I wouldn’t normally buy!

I received this product complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes

And this is why…

I don’t work out. Ugh. Tonight since it was so lovely out, I decided to take a runwhatyoucan/walktherest. Everything was going pretty good. And then as I was running (yup!) a bug flew into my mouth (yup!). I’m pretty sure I swallowed him (he deserves it). Somehow I managed to keep running through this ordeal (for like 6 more seconds). I strangely got over that pretty fast. Even though it’s disgusting there was nothing I could do. Fast forward like 10 minutes and I’m walking home. I turn the corner to get onto my street and wiiiiipe out. And I fell hard. All the way down, not a catch-yourself-halfway down, it was all the way…in front of a guy at a stop sign on a motorcycle. Mmmyup so I had to just get up fast and carry on. I know have a decent bump and bruise on my knee, hoping it turns into a good bruise as I haven’t had one of those in a while. If it is a good bruise no doubt I’ll post a pic! Just felt this story was too good not to tell. Happy Tuesday night I guess!