Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Day 10 - Swap (Recipe for Photo)

I am switching out Day 10 for "Recipe Day" because I am making it and it's out. Plus, Kate (pictured below) wants this recipe. And it smells mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm good. Yah, it's soup! It's delciious, makes a ton and I've made it several times. YUM YUM YUM!

Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup/Chili (Called soup but more like a chili)

Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 7 hrs
Ready In: 7 hrs 15 mins

Ingredients:

1 onion, chopped
1 (16 oz) can chili beans
1 (15 oz) can black beans
1 (15 oz) can whole kernel corn, drained
1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
1 (12 oz) can or bottle beer
2 (10oz) cans of tomatoes with green chilies, UNDRAINED
1 (1.25 oz) package taco seasoning
3 whole skinless,boneless chicken breasts (or, obviously 6 halves)
Shredded Cheddar Cheese (opt but recommended)
Sour Cream (opt but recommended)
Crushed Tortilla Chips (opt but yum)

Directions (so easy):
1. Place onion, chili beans, black beans,corn, tomato sauce, beer and diced tomatoes in slow cooker. Add taco seasoning and stir to blend. Lay chix breasts on top of mixture, pressing down slightly until just covered by the other ingredients. Set slow cooker for low heat, cover and cook for 5 hours. Your house will smell delicious ALL DAY!

2. After 5 hrs, remove chix breasts from the soup and allow to cool long enough to be handled. Shred the chicken (I use two forks. It's a pain, but worth it). Stire the chicken back into the soup, and continue cooking for 2 hours.

Serve in bowl topped with shredded cheese, dollop of sour cream and some crushed tortilla chips. I also throw chopped some green onions on the top for color (plus, I like them) but you don't have to.

Enjoy this muy, muy deliciouso soup!!!!!!! It's so good, it may inspire you to have soup holidays, serving this and other kinds of soups instead of turkey, ham, etc... :) :)

Love,
Ann

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Day 9 – a photo you took

Uhhh, I've taken like 10,000 photos this year. Such pressure!!!



So, I have two rockin' cameras (I mainly only use the one) but I shoot photos in RAW. So, editing them is an ordeal. I decided my kids ALSO need random snapshots of their life, so I use my G9 to take random house pics of them. One of the memory cards is in right now, so I scrolled through...

This is a pic of my friend Kate :) Taken when we picked out our friend Jeri's wedding dress back in Feb or Mar! OMG, that seems like YESTERDAY! Look how little Will was :) My baby!!

Kate will also make a cameo appearance in tomorrow's photo. Stay tuned. HAHA! It's a good one!!

Love,
Moi :)

PS - Kate and Will are super cute! But since I worked on the real photos all day, this picture itself looks like hell compared to those! God, so underexposed!! I used to love my G9, too!

Day 8 - Photo of Saddness!! :(



Fair 2009.

I've talked about my lovely, beloved, wonderful, amazing, awesome Grandma on the blogs before. She came to see Belle show a calf at the Fair last year. Two months later, we lost her. Yeah, this photo makes me so, so, so sad.

RIP!! Love you, Gram Grams!

Ann

PS - Sorry for the delay! I couldn't think of an angry/sad photo so I just went with a sad!

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Day 7 - Photo of Happiness

I have 22,000 photos of my rug rats :) Still in RAW format. I WILL get them into jpeg this winter...and get caught up (yeah right!)... No, seriously, they do make me happy BUT I have so, so, so many, I could never choose JUST ONE!?

In all seriousness, I am going to post a photo that makes me swoon with love. You may think it's lame, boring, etc...I don't know. I ADORE IT. I took it yesterday at an extremely lovely and wonderful wedding.

Why do I love thee??

I have always noticed, loved and appreciated the little details of weddings. And I have always TRIED to capture them to no avail with my sporty lil' G9 (lol). I'm soooooo, sooooooo, soooooooo HAPPY I have the training and equipment to do take photos EXACTLY. LIKE. THIS:




I am also happy I finally got the bride's rings to balance in there. Thank you, rings!

I spent lots of years at a desk, feeling like I should be somewhere else doing something much more fabulous than accounting...something kinda artsy-ish that people actually gave a damn about. Ahhhh...love....

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Day 6 – 20 of my favorite things

I am going to exclude the EXTREMELY obvious: people, pets and my orthodontic work.



1. My wedding ring.

2. My engagement ring.

3. My pearls the husb gave me on our wedding day.

4. My camera. And my lenses that go with it.

5. My L.A.M.B. bag. I've carried it the longest. Not sure why? I am still not even in the market for a new bag and it's been almost a year! Is it true love?

6. My Louis Vuitton bag. I haven't carried it since getting the L.A.M.B., but I shall!

7. My music collection (see Blog Challenge Original Post)

8. Any and all photos in my possession, printed or digital.

9. MY MAKEUP COLLECTION. See my makeup blog for additional information.

10. All of the vacations I've taken with the husb. He's hilarious. Too bad I quit my job and the vacas were the first to go. LOL.

11. My John Deere audit staff days, the amazing places it showed me and the wonderful, awesome, forever friends it made me.

12. Expensive denim. My new R&R jeans, specifically. Thank you, Josh, for verifying they are cool.

13. All of the littles notes and pictures Belle made me. I save them ALL.

14. Five Star Facials. And massages.

15. My house. We live in the middle of nowhere and it's the most calming, peaceful, wonderful place ever. And I get to see the farmboy drive tractors and combines and whatnot around on the weekends. It's awesome.

16. Barn Dances. I really want to have an anniversary party.

17. This blog challenge. It's seriously pretty fun. Thanks, Laura!

18. The fact I'm not working right now. Being a stay at home mom is ****ing AWESOME. ;)

19. DIET COKE. DIET PEPSI. DIET MOUNTAIN DEW. DIET DR. PEPPER. DIET CHERRY PEPSI.

20. My bed. It's like a cloud.



Just to mix it up a little, and because my posts from the past couple days have been short...I shall say 20 things I hate, as well :)



1. The Progressive Car Insurance lady. I would feel really bad if she knew I said this, because I don't know her, but I still hate her.

2. How The Gap, The Limited, Old Navy, etc all ask if I want a credit card. As much as I shop, it's seriously the most annoying thing ever. I stopped going to the Limited Southpark because I can't stand those girls. Hello, I had all the credit cards I wanted by age 22. Then, I had to spend time getting rid of them so my wallet didn't continue to weigh 42 lbs. No, I do not want any more cards...business, credit, punch, etc.

3. Glade air freshener, especially plug-ins and those fake gel candles. This just made me realize I should have included "Scentsy" in the 20 Favorites. My house is filled with the sweet smells of Scentsy right now.

4. The fact I haven't gone to yoga. I'm starting to really get pissed at myself for this. I love yoga. Tapas Yoga Shala and Indigo should totally be in the top 20 with Scentsy!!

5. (Most) Italian Food. Marinara-ish stuff is not my favorite. I am more of a super-spicy Thai person.

6. Shots. UGH. Cannot stand hard alcohol. Except the tequila hiding in my margaritas.

7. Red wine. I think it tastes like bacon...which I also hate. My friend Kates makes fun of me all the time. She works at a wine store and I bought some Cranberry wine from her the other day. I told her I couldn't believe I bought red wine. Then, she informed me, I bought white wine that happens to be red. lol. Oops.

8. The song "Celebrity" by Brad Paisley. No offense to Brad, as I love many of his other songs. F. Now I have that song in my head!

9. That Belle will be a Lancer. No offense to the Lancers...I am just a die-hard Falcon. GO WEST.

10. June bugs. Ew. And centipedes. Eeew! I don't mind spiders, though.

11. Getting my tattoos lasered off. Oh yeah, it hurts. Fortunately, I don't have to do it anymore. Ahhh...getting Betty Boop tattooed on my ankle at age 17 was so much fun! ;)

12. Politics. I know it's important. Sorry, but it's true: I hate politics.

13. Skinny jeans. Love them on others; cannot stand the thought of wearing them around my ankles. And no, not because I'm trying to show off the remnants of Betty Boop.

14. Running. Dear Running, I want to like you but I hate you. Love, Moi

15. The fact I type a million words per minutes and never spell-check or proof-read before I post.

16. RJ Boars.

17. The lobster tank at Red Lobster. I mean, is this necessary?

18. Haunted Houses. I am just not a fan. Scary!! I don't like anything scary - horror movies, etc.

19. Rides that spin: Silly Silo, Gravatron, those chairs that swing around in a huge circle, The Sizzler, etc, etc, etc. Ugh.

20. Putting laundry away. I don't mind doing it but putting away IS HORRIBLE!!!!!!!

Love,
Ann :)

Friday, October 1, 2010

Day 5 - Favorite Quote

Huge quote person. Lovvvve them.

My faves =

"Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you're a thousand miles from the cornfield." -Dwight D. Eisenhower

"If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons." -James Thurber

"The more you photograph, the more you realize what can and what can't be photographed. You just have to keep doing it." -Eliot Porter

Day 4 - Post #2 - Randomness

OMG, I know.

I had seriously just deleted my blog information from my Facebook last week because I was like - I never write, so I assume no one ever reads, so I shall delete. I may need to make a grand re-entrance.

I just wanted to point out how much I love not working. It's soooo freaking great. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO FREAKING GREAT. I was a working accountant mom for almost ten years (omg) so I will NEVER, EVER take this relaxed life for granted. I would NEVER want to go back to the rushing around in the a.m.'s and tired brain-frazzled evenings! Love love love my husband for agreeing to this situation :)

I also wanted to point out how annoying The Today Show is. Seriously, they go over the same things over and over and over. I love how they constantly have "Health Advice" givers on and they say the same things: "Drink lots of water!" (with a photo of a glass of water in the background)..."Exercise 3 times per week!" (photo of person walking through a park in the background)...."Eat fruits and veggies (photo of banana and carrot in background). I mean seriously...everyone watching right now knows this. Give me some new tips I can really use. How can I make Diet Coke be considered "healthy" or how will facials prolong my life??

I noticed all of my grandparents or Kurt's mom or whoever stays home just parks the show on Channel 6. I always thought, omg I want to watch The Today Show, too. Ya know, just have it on while I'm doing miscellaneous "what nots" around the house with no plans or needs to go anywhere except the grocery store. And have the smell of coffee yummying up the air, like they always did. The only problem is that I hate coffee but I may take up drinking it just to have the full effect.

I have no idea how this post went down that road. LOL.

HAPPPPPPY FRIIIIIDAY!

Love,
Ann :)