Copycat Starbucks Iced Green Tea

A new obsession of mine has been Starbucks' Iced Green Tea! But a venti is $3 and that is not something I can buy everyday and then I suck it all down within seconds! So, after doing some research and looking at some other copycat recipes, I made my own and OMG it takes exactly the same! So good!

Ingredients:

Tazo Zen Green Tea (found at any grocery store)
1 gallon jug

Directions:

1. Bring 2 quarts of water to a bowl. Use 5 tea bags and let them rest for 15 to 20 minutes.
2. Pour tea into the gallon jug and fill the rest of the way with cold water.
3. Fill a cup with ice, cover with green tea and sweeten if you so desire.
4. Refrigerate the leftovers. 

I'm not kidding, it tastes exactly the same and you get about 4 gallons for the same price as one venti from Starbucks!

Printable Version

Sweet Potato Scramble

Ingredients:
1 serving of baked sweet potato squares

4 egg whites

1 whole egg

1/3 cup fiesta blend cheese (great value brand)

Garlic salt and pepper

Directions:
1. Crack 4 egg whites and 1 whole egg into a mixing bowl and scramble.
2. Cook eggs and season with salt and pepper.
3. Layer eggs on top of baked sweet potato squares
4. Sprinkle cheese on top of eggs and enjoy!


Nutritional Information:
Calories: 381
Protein: 31.48g
Carbs: 18.8g
Fat: 21.4g


Printable Version

Baked Sweet Potato Squares

I have recently found a love for sweet potatoes! Healthy and yummy, can't really beat that! I have been experimenting with different ways to prepare them and baked is my current favorite!

Recipe

Ingredients:
1 medium sweet potato
1/2 tbs olive oil
Choice of seasoning

Step 1:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash and peel your sweet potato.

Step 2:
Cut the potato into squares. Beware, sweet potatoes are tough when they aren't cooked, so make sure you have a good knife. 

Step 3:
Mix olive oil, sweet potato squares and your choice of seasoning in a mixing bowl. 

Step 4:
Cover a baking sheet with foil and pour a single layer of sweet potatoes on the sheet. Make sure they aren't on top of each other or they won't cook evenly. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes. 

Enjoy!

Printable Version

Nutritional Information: (based on a 3oz sweet potato)
Calories: 133.1
Protein: 1.36g
Carbs: 17g
Fat: 7g

Happy 4th of July

This year for the fourth we did our normal thing. We went to my aunts for the annual parade and brunch and then we just hung out for a while.

Peyton, of course, got Bobby and Victoria to play with her for most of the morning. Soccer, horse shoes and checkers were her games of choice. 

After we left my aunts we went over to visit with Bobby's family for a while. They decided to have a redneck 4th of July and bought a tarp that they put out in their front yard, which is more like a pasture, and they made a soapy slip in slide thing. CJ definitely love it! Unfortunately (insert wink here), Bobby and I didn't participate as we didn't come prepared. 

After a little while of that, we decided to head back home early and just kind of chill for the rest of the day. 

These are some pictures that I took of Peyton, Bobby and Victoria playing. 

#SheReadsTruth

The past few months (well, if I'm being honest with my self, really since the end of March-ish) I just haven't been feeling very in-tune with God. I've been slacking on pretty much everything that comes with growing in Christ: reading my bible, praying regularly, etc. When I got my job at my church, which I do love, is when I started to notice it.

I am the Digital Media Producer, which requires me to produce our Sunday morning services. It is my job to make sure, sound, lighting
and lyrics go off without a hitch, which means I am concentrating on every little detail and not getting to worship or really listen to the sermon. I have definitely felt the distance from not being able to do those things. I love worshiping through music, so that really is the part I miss the most.

Anyways, I went searching for something to restart my quiet time with and man, I had some issues. There was just nothing that really stood out or spoke to me. There really isn't a lot that I found for my age and time of life. I may have been looking in the totally wrong spot, so if someone has a great resource for that let me know!

I finally found #SheReadsTruth, this website has been awesome. It is led by a group of Christian women, (pastors review all their devotionals so they are doctrinally sound) and the short devotionals are exactly what I was looking for. Each day they post their devotional for their current series, and they also have an email sign up so it can go straight to your email. It is perfect for me, because I always check my email within an hour or so of waking up and then I can't forget about it. They provide study packs for purchase if you want, but you don't have to have them to do the devotional. I don't use them, but some people love them.

There are writing assignments for each series that you can link up and you get to fellowship with all these other Godly women from all over the world through writing your thought and feelings. It is pretty awesome!

I just finished the study of Ruth through them and I love it. I have a quiet time note book, that I write notes in as I read the passage and then their devotional, and then I like to write my prayers down as well.

I can't say enough good things about this ministry, but God truly provided in my time of need!

Love Is...

...Waiting in the Doctor's office for an hour, because he got himself into poison ivy and chiggers. 

On Sunday, Bobby went on a 12 mile bike ride with one of his friends, Jeff. We had been warned that the course they were going on wasn't easy and nearly everyone wiped out their first time. Bobby, being the macho man that he is knew he wouldn't be one of those that wiped out.

Anyways, they were gone pretty much all afternoon and he came in stinky and dirty and then proceeded to sit on our couch (that didn't last long). He informs me that he isn't as macho as he thought because he indeed did wipe out. Haha, I knew he would, even though I loved his confidence. Thankfully, he was smart and wore a helmet and there were no major injures, just a lot of soreness the next day, or so we thought...

He went to work Monday morning and came home thinking he had athlete's foot, which we then decided was actually poison ivy. We got poison ivy a few years ago and found this stuff called Tecnu, which worked pretty well. We had some left over that he used. He showered, I washed the bedding and we went on with our life. Everything was fine and dandy until a few hours later, Bobby gets hives all over the middle half of his body, and these aren't just little ones these are huge, which I guess is appropriate since he is a huge dude. 

First, we decide that it's a an allergic reaction to the new seasoning I used on dinner, but we have nothing to help with that, so oh well, his face isn't puffy and he can breath, he'll live. We go to bed and Bobby goes to get allergy type medicine in the morning and heads to work. We go about our day and arrive home to find our apartment filled with cigarette smoke, which we have been dealing with for a year, but that is a whole different story. 

Bobby showers and washes with some new Tecnue stuff because it obviously isn't hives because they are now topped with little white heads, they aren't itchy, but we still think its poison ivy. After the shower we decide to just go to the Doctor and get a steroid shot, it has just spread way to much for Bobby to keep it in control.  

We get to the Doctor, which this office is pretty nice, they play the same DVD in every room including the waiting room, which is a nice touch, especially for kids and lets face it sometimes our husbands are just big kids. I think Bobby's favorite part were the cool chairs in the waiting room. Anyways, we get called back and they do all the basic stuff. We are now waiting in the room, watching "The Game Plan" which also happens to be the movie we saw on our first date. We wait a decent while for the doctor to come in, she finally comes in and then informs us that he doesn't have poison ivy but chiggers. Hmmm. 

We are not totally sure that this is the case, she didn't look at the feet and back very closely. They looked different. Luckily, they both have the same type of treatment, a steroid shot. We still think that the feet were poison ivy and the back were chiggers. But, oh well.

The doctor then leaves and we what another long while for the nurse to come give the shot. At this point "The Game Plan" ends and another movie begins, the movie that just happens to be the bane of Bobby's existence "Frozen!" He is certain that we won't have to watch it, but we still wait for the nurse for a good bit of time. He then gets is shot and he has to lay in a certain position for 5 minutes. At this point Frozen is in full swing and he can't turn over, haha. He is also super uncomfortable because his 6'5 frame doesn't fit very well on the normal size person bed. I'm pretty sure he laid there longer than five minutes, but he definitely watched more of Frozen than I have every been able to get him to watch before.

We then got two prescriptions, a steroid cream and pills for him to take over the next 10 days. Bobby has gotten these shots on more than one occasion and has never had any prescriptions, so that was kind of surprising. The whole time we were at the doctor's office, which was over an hour, we saw an actual medical professional of some type a grand total of...wait for it...10 minutes. 10 minutes! And it took us over an hour to get in and out of that place!! Then we still had to go get prescriptions filled and wait on those. In the end I am of course glad we went, because now Bobby can get better and not have to worry about the bumps that are covering half of his body. I really hope our kids get the 'I'm not allergic to poison ivy gene' that I got from my grandfather, "Thanks Granddaddy!" 

The whole process took us 2 hours, which I guess isn't that long but it definitely wasn't something we had planned and it made for a long night. The funny thing is, that Bobby was never itchy until he got his shot. After the shot he got super itchy, weird. 

So in a nutshell, 2 hours, 1 shot, 2 prescriptions we are finally home and done with this mess...oh wait, just kidding, we still have 10 days of this!

How Cute!

I am pretty excited about my blog re-design. Not only have I been learning a ton about HTML and CSS, I love that I get to design it exactly like I want it. I found these super cute digital scrapbook accents and can't wait to make them into some type of header! 

DIY Rainy Day Activities for Kids

The worship leader at our church has been battling thyroid cancer for the past several months. This past week she was in isolation for 5 days due to her iodine radiation treatment. Her Husband had to work some of the days she was radioactive so I volunteered to watch her kids this past Monday. She has 5 little ones, ranging from ages 4 to 13. Her husband works 10 hours shifts with a an hour commute so I was there a full 12 hours. Going from 0 kids to 5 kids is exhausting. We had a lot of fun, but if it taught me anything is that I have some weak back muscles. I woke up Tuesday morning and my back was so sore, I think it was from all the bending over to pick up marshmallows, but more to come on that later. 

I had been warned when I volunteered, that I needed to have activities planned, little did I know that I needed at least 20 of them, because we went through all of my activities in a couple of hours. At least they liked them enough to go back for some second, and even third time fun! I had originally planned to spend some time outside, but it was rainy and muddy outside all day, so it became an indoor activity day. 

I found most of these on Pinterest and wanted to share them with everyone. They were a huge hit for all of the ages of the kids!

Make Your Own Flubber - A little messy at the beginning but it will dry out. 

Marshmallow Shooters - I would do theses a little differently. Don't get Dixie paper cups, they aren't durable enough to last all day. Get the clearish small plastic drinking cups. Also, for the balloon, tie the end and then cut the opposite side (the curved side). That way they can use the tied end to shoot with. Here is an example.

Balloon Tennis - I used plastic spoons instead of the sticks and just taped them to the plates, because it's what I had on hand. They turned out great!

These were all a huge a hit. 

Let's Go Fly A Kite!

I got a weekend off! After 5 months of working every single weekend, I got a weekend off! Now, I'm not complaining about my job, I like my job, but at some point everyone needs a break. I probably should have taken a break earlier, to prevent the 'she-hulk' from emerging when I am at home, but it just wasn't an option so a very emotional 'she-hulk' emerged the past few weeks. Sorry babe. 

Anyways, since I had the weekend off Bobby and I decided to go down to the lake and see our families. It was so relaxing, we slept in, got to eat waffles shaped like Texas (come on, who doesn't like Texas shaped waffles) and Bobby, his mom and brother flew kites. 

My strawberry Texas waffle! Yum!

Jeri and Bobby 

Jeri's kite

Bobby's homemade kite

Bobby's kite also had a vendetta 

against all other kites in its area

It was a great weekend, which definitely prepared me for my 12 hour day of babysitting that I had the day after we got home (post to come). The 'she-hulk' has disappeared and hopefully won't reappear before my next min-vacation. 

I get another weekend off in July and I think we will do it all again!

Rachel's Graduation Tea

Every spring the church I grew up in throw all the senior girls a Senior Tea. Each girl has a sponsor who decorates a table and talks a little bit about the girl's past, present and future.

My aunt sponsored Rachel's table, which is so appropriate. Our aunt has always been like a second mom to us.

Her Table

Rachel with her table

Her table turned out so great, and she had so many people come to support her! I wish I had pictures of everybody!

Rachel and our Grandmother

Rachel and our Aunt

Sisters

Friends

Graduation 2014

On May 30th my little sister and my little sister-in-law graduated from high school. I am so proud of the women they have become, and I can't wait to watch them grow and accomplish their goals as they start college and then their careers. 

Kassie and Rachel
The Graduates

Also, today is Rachel's 18th birthday! Happy Birthday Little Sis!