Pillows

Last night I had a less than wonderful night of sleep...boo hoo, waaah me, no but seriously I did. I must have woke up about 10 times having to re-adjust until I could fall back asleep. Now I have had many women tell me that towards the end of their pregnancy they had to sleep with multiple pillows, I didn't think much of it and figured every woman is different. For some reason I thought I was a lucky girl and could sleep soundly through the whole ten months. I have had a good ride for the past 7.5 months, I must say at times I don't even "feel pregnant". Now that my baby boy has become quite the mover at night I decided at 5AM to take their advice and this is what it has come to...

After I made myself a pillow cocoon I slept AMAZINGLY! (Don't mind my Christmas flannel sheets) I am so thankful for all the advice I have been given, whether I ever use it I know that in a given situation I might have a solution. I have been day dreaming about going back to sleep tonight because I know I will be nice and comfy. 

After seeing this picture I realize that I have left my husband barely any space, I hope that he isn't having the same sleep dilemma as me. Ok let me be honest if the pillow wasn't there I would be, I am sorta a bed hog :) 

Happy Sunday :)

Nursery Update

The beauty of being a teacher is having a two week break during Christmas to just rest or as I see it the perfect time to move forward in the nursery. Tonight we went to Ikea and bought the rest of the furniture. We set a budget for the nursery and as of now we are way under it, I have bargain shopped for every piece of furniture was able to get exactly what I wanted on sale for most things! Some items were nearly 50% off their suggested retail price. It feels so good to save money so that I can splurge on other items for the nursery. 

After we assemble the furniture, and when I say we I really mean my husband while I try to make sense of Ikea assembly instructions, all we need to do is decorate. It is time for this momma to bring to life some of my pins on Pinterest. I am going to find my inner crafty side :)

My cousin made us our very first piece of art for the nursery and I LOVE it!! 

Happy Friday Everyone :)

Christmas Wrap-Up

Christmas came and went WAY too fast! On Sunday our Associate Pastor ministered on the "Unwrapped Christmas Gift", too often times it is so easy to get wrapped up Christmas festivities that the true meaning of behind this amazing season is Jesus. The service was so perfect for Christmas, we are like an unwrapped gift, we have to let our light shine and share Jesus, the gift, with others. This is no time to be ashamed of living for God, it is time to start sharing with others and let your light shine!

I felt like Christmas Eve and Christmas day were on fast forward! On Christmas Eve we went to my in laws house and ate a delicious Puerto Rican meal and played games!! We spent Christmas morning at home, I made breakfast, we opened gifts and watched Four Christmases. We spent the rest of the day with my family, and extended family. I had a lot of fun this Christmas, next year it is going to be so different! My husband and I were talking about the pitter patter of tiny feet that will soon be running down the hall on Christmas morning to see what Santa brought. I am so excited for Christmas in the coming years....

I blogged about what I wanted most from my husband this year here and I am so thankful that we have been able to spend more time together. It has been nice to wake up at the same time and not have to rush off to work! Now I did get some pretty awesome stuff from my list such as a new mixer blade and a case for my new phone (Merry two days early Christmas). But I was so surprised with my most talked about gift of the season...Photoshop Elements 11!! I have seriously been talking about wanting this non-stop for the past two months.

I have used Photoshop before but it has been a little while since my digital photography class in college. Today I was so proud to have created my first project with the help of Google and YouTube....my new watermark for photos :) I can already see a new blog design in my future...even though I just made this one when I started my blog a month ago.

Today I am linking up with....

Show and Tell Monday: Christmas Talk

1. Tell us what your favorite thing about Christmas is: 
Ok so since Christmas is my favorite time of the year it was hard to narrow it down to my favorite thing about Christmas. I really love giving & sharing and I'm not just talking about gifts. I love sharing time with my friends and family, sharing stories and laughing a lot. I love giving gifts and watching the expression on that persons face when they open up their gift.

2. Tell us what your plans are for Chritsmas this year:
We always spend Christmas Eve with my husbands family and eat yummy Puerto Rican food :) His grandmother sends us pasteles (a masa mixed with meat wrapped in a banana leaf and boiled to perfections!!!). On Christmas day we are going to open our gifts at home and then go over to my parents house to spend it with my extended family.

3. Show us a picture of Christmas in the past or present:

Christmas 2009 before going to see Phantom of the Opera

4. Do you wrap all your presents all in one box, or do you wrap each gift separately?

I wrap each gift separately and it takes me forever, I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to wrapping but I wouldn't do it any other way, I am not even big on using gift bags!

5. Tell us about any special traditions you and your family like to do.

Since the first year we started dating 8 years ago we have been buying each other an ornament to go with our Christmas gifts to each other. So far we have 16 ornaments just from that and each one has a story behind it. It is a really fun tradition and I look forward to my ornament from my husband every year. My favorite ornament from him was a mini stand mixer and that year I got a Kitchenaid mixer :) His favorite is Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean, it one of his favorite movie series. Another tradition we have is the ornament draft. We take all the ornaments out of their box and take turns selecting where they go on the tree. We are not allowed to move them once they are placed! 

Delicious and Easy Christmas Treat

Last weekend I was going to make this delicious Christmas Crunch recipe that found on Pinterest however, I got really busy and didn't. So today I was determined to make it....and I succeeded!!

I made a few changes to the recipe. I am not big on things being overly sweetened by candy melt so I increased the amount of popcorn, substituted the M & M's for milk chocolate chips and used sourdough pretzels because they are really salty and wanted to make a noticeable salty/sweet contrast. It was a hit so I edited the recipe :)

Christmas Crunch

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup popping popcorn kernels, or 2 bags tender white popcorn

1 (12 oz) bag Vanilla Candy Melts (such as Wilton Candy Melts)

1 1/3 cups broken sour dough pretzel pieces 

1 cup milk chocolate chips

Red, green and white Sprinkles (I used Jingle Mix Nonpareils)

Directions:

1. Pop the popcorn using an air popper into a bowl (or in the microwave if using microwave popcorn)

2.Toss in broken pretzel pieces and chocolate chips.

3. Melt the candy melts in a microwave safe bowl on 50% power in 30 second intervals. Stir in between each interval until melted and smooth.  

4. Pour half of melted chips over the popcorn mixture and toss gently with your hands. (using a rubber spatula casued a big mess) 

5. Drizzle the remaining half of melted chips over popcorn, and toss again until evenly coated. Don't over mix or the sprinkles won't stick.  

6. Pour the mix onto a single layer of wax paper and coat evenly with as many sprinkles as you would like before vanilla chips set.  

7. Allow to cool and harden, then gently break into pieces and store in an airtight container. 

***I filled 10 treat bags 3/4 full 

Pollo Fricassee My Way

So I have mentioned before that I LOVE to cook, the only problem is that more often then not, I forget to plan ahead. Defrosting meat the night before would be the smart thing to do and actually glancing over the recipe I'm going to make would be brilliant so that I can pick up any missing ingredients. I am no chef,  (my husband may say otherwise) but, I have mastered how to make the ingredients I have on hand work!

Tonight I was craving Pollo Fricassee (my husband loves it when I crave/cook Puerto Rican food) and surprise surprise I was out of a couple of things. I have not made it to the grocery store this week since I have been really busy. Even though I was missing a few things I must say it came out delicious and satisfied my craving! 

FYI I am the worst about measuring things, I usually just eyeball it but I am going to make it a point to write down exact measurements from now on. 

12 boneless, skinless chicken thighs

1 tsp olive oil

3 tsp sofrito*

1/2 cup tomato sauce

2 cups chicken broth

2 bay leaves

1/2 tsp dried oregano

2 pkgs Sazon Goya Con Azafran

1 tbsp alcaparrado (green olives stuffed with Pimentos) 

salt/pepper to taste

*Sofrito- pureed cilantro, green bell pepper, onion, garlic and olive oil ( I make this ahead of time in a big batch and freeze it in ice cube trays. It is a staple in Puerto Rican cooking)

**I use Better Than Bouillon Chicken Base 

1. Rinse and pat dry chicken thighs and sprinkle with salt and pepper. 

2. Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium high heat. Brown the chicken for a few minutes or until all the pink is gone. Remove chicken from the pan.

3. Turn the heat down to medium and add sofrito and tomato sauce to the pan, let it cook for about a minute. Then add chicken broth, bay leaves, oregano, sazon and olives. Let simmer for about 5 minutes.

4. Add the chicken back to the pan and cook over medium for about 30 minutes. 

5. Serve with white rice

Linking up with:

Preschool Moments

Working with preschoolers is seriously the most fun job I have ever had! These kids make me laugh hysterically nearly everyday. I told the kids in September that I was pregnant but many of them didn't get it. Now that they can see my growing belly they love to talk about it and try to see if they can feel him moving. They all want to get kicked by him. 

Here are just a few things they have said so far in regards to my pregnancy.....

• How is that baby going to get out of there?
• How does your baby eat in your belly?
• One student walked up to my belly and said "boo", he then wanted to know if the baby got scared
• "When my mom went to the hospital to have my baby brother her ankles were swallowed"- he meant swollen

Today I got sad because I will be going on a 2 year (maybe longer if we decide to extend our family within that time) maternity leave in February. I am really going to miss these kids a lot. I am going miss seeing their smiling faces, listening to their awesome sense of humor and their genuine love for their teachers.

Yes I Love to Bake

Today I am linking up with Morgan for Saturday Morning Coffee.

One of my favorite things to do is bake. For a while I was completely obsessed everything cupcakes. I even entered a few cupcake competitions and won! I usually forget to take pictures of what I what I bake, I seemed to remember this time...

I bake at least every other week, sometimes it is one of my favorites, a random one from a recipe book or even one that I have found on Pinterest. On the agenda for this Saturday I will be making one that I found on Pinterest, goodness I love that site!!! I have made my shopping list and will be starting in the afternoon :)

Photo Credit & Recipe

Christmas Crunch

Ingredients:

1/2 cup popping popcorn kernels, or 2 bags tender white popcorn

1 (12 oz) bag Vanilla Candy Melts (such as Wilton Candy Melts)

1 1/3 cups broken pretzel pieces

1 (12 oz) bag green and red Milk Chocolate or Mint M&Ms

Red, green and white Sprinkles (I used Jingle Mix Nonpareils)

Directions:

Pop popcorn in a popcorn popper into a large bowl (or alternately in the microwave if using microwave bags of popcorn) according to manufactures directions.  Remove any unpopped popcorn kernels.  Toss in broken pretzel pieces and M&Ms.  

Melt Vanilla Candy Melts in a microwave safe bowl on 50% power in 30 second intervals, stirring after each interval until melted and smooth.  Drizzle half of melted chips over popcorn mixture, then stir, tossing gently a few times with a rubber spatula.  Then drizzle remaining half of melted chips over popcorn, and gently stir mixture until evenly coated (don't over stir though or your sprinkles wont stick if the white chips begin to set and harden).  Pour mixture into a single layer onto wax paper.  Sprinkle entire mixture evenly with sprinkles (as many as you'd like) before vanilla chips set.  Allow to cool and harden, then gently break into pieces and store in an airtight container. 

Finally Friday

This week was very busy in my house...My amazing husband spent all 3 of his days off working on the nursery and I am so excited to say that he finished with the walls and assembled the crib :)

This was no easy task. My cousin installed new baseboards, door casings, a chair rail and started to smooth out the bottom half of the wall for us. So my husband had to putty all the nail holes, finish smoothing out the walls, sand and paint.

Ocean was not happy that he could not be included in all the fun!

And it begins...........

The only before picture I have. Forgot to take one before the chair rail

Waiting for the spackle to dry...turns white when its dry

Monday I came home to a huge sandy mess but I didn't even care. We ate dinner and I cleaned up the room, have I mentioned I am a neat freak? It took me a while but it was so worth me being a little more tired on Tuesday.

After it was all clean! 

Tuesday I came home and the walls/baseboards had the first coat of paint on them. Wednesday I came home and the walls were done.

Thursday I came home and the walls were done and to see this LOVELY surprise :)

The crib is up!!!

Now it is time to decorate! I cannot wait for this part, my mom is in the process of making the bedding :)

 Stay tuned for the final reveal later....

The Liebster Award

So this morning I was reading a comment from my post 5 Random Things and was totally surprised when Tiffany @ The Momma Bear Diaries  nominated me for this award. I am a new blogger so I had never heard of it. Thank you so much it made my day :) If you are like me are new to the Liebster, it is awarded to new and upcoming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. The award is passed on to other bloggers in the same category to help spread their names around and support one another!

If you receive this award these simple rules must be followed...

• The nominated blogger has to post 11 random facts about themselves
• Answer the 11 questions the person who nominated them asked
• Create 11 new questions for the those the blogger is nominated to answer
• Choose 11 bloggers with less than 200 followers to nominate and link them on their blog post
• No tag backs!

11 Random Facts about me:

1. I really love food a lot...it is usually one of my main topics in conversation, my husband jokes that I plan my dinner before I have even eaten breakfast. 
2. My favorite season is Fall. I love everything about it, the colors, the weather and PUMPKIN!
3. Christmas is my favorite holiday. I love decorating, eating all the delicious foods associated with Christmas, spending time with family and reminding other of the true reason for the season, Jesus' birth! Sometimes I wish it was Christmas all year long.
4. My kitchen is always spotless before I go to sleep which leads me to number 5....
5. I am sort of a neat freak. At first it drove my husband crazy but he has accepted it :)
6. I have an adorable 80 pound blue nose pit bull named Ocean. Last year when my husband and I decided to get a dog we agreed on getting a 20-30 poundish non shedding inside dog....then we saw Ocean and fell in love. My husband has always wanted a pit bull and I am so glad we got him, we love him so much! 
7. My food cannot touch! Mainly just sauces running and hot/cold items mixing. Sounds weird but it really freaks me out. My family laughs about it and as a joke a few Christmases ago my mom bought me a cafeteria tray which I used a couple of times :)
8. It takes me FOREVER to make an online purchase. I'm not sure why, if I'm in my favorite store TARGET I swipe away but, there is something about the freedom of research online that delays the process. 
9. My favorite colors are Tiffany blue, dark purple and orange. 
10. I crave Mexican food 24-7! I have always loved Mexican food, now that I am pregnant it has become a staple in my diet. 
11. Chipped nail polish irritates me! My mom used to do nails and I spent a lot of time (by choice, practically begging) watching her during her appointments. I have the BEST picture of myself painting my nails in my high chair with non-toxic polish. Needless to say my nails are usually in excellent condition. 

Ok here are are the questions Tiffany asked...

1. Why did you start blogging?

I have always enjoyed reading others blogs and I debated making one for a while and decided it was not for me, mainly because I didn't know what to write about. Then I decided to just go for it last week and I realized that there is so much to write about and so many great people to connect with!

2. What is your one thing that you do in life that is just for you?

Every week I set aside time to give myself a manicure, I pretty much always have my nails painted. I know that I could go somewhere to do it but as said in my random facts I did watch my mom for years and think that I do a pretty awesome job. Actually most people ask where I get my nails done. 

3. What is your all time favorite color?

Tiffany Blue!

4. How many kids do you want?

Two, maybe 3. We are still deciding.

5. If you have children, how did you come up with their names? If you don't have any but want some, do you have names in mind?

I don't have any children yet, but in March I will have a little boy :) We do have his name picked out but I am not ready to reveal it yet. I have something in mind so stay tuned....

6. What would you say is the one meal you have perfected over the years?

Enchiladas. They are quite time consuming but well worth it.

7. How did you meet your husband?

We met when we were kids and grew up down the street from one another. Our parents got together a lot, but we didn't get along very well. He is 4 years older than me and I annoyed him always interrupting what he was doing. It came as a surprise to our families when we started dating. We have been happily married for three years.

8. What is your favorite night time tv show?

Hmm this is a hard one because I have DVR and watch all my shows recorded. If I had to pick one I would say Sweet Genius on the Food Network. I love that show and how creative they are forced to be with some crazy ingredients.

9. How did you come up with your blog name?

It took me a little while to decided. I wanted my blog name to sum up what I would be writing about in 3 words, and since I don't have a main topic it is all Simply Inspired Me.

10. Where is your all time favorite place to shop?

I am going to give you one word, TARGET! It is my favorite store and I can literally spend hours in there. 

11. What is your favorite food?

Right now Mexican, but I don't discriminate, I love food!

And for my nominees.... 

Marie @ Diamonds, Louboutins and Baby

Kayla @ My Kind of Yellow

Ashley @ Ashlea With An A

Angela @ Learn Live Hope

Sarah @ Momentary Memories in the Lives of S and K

Jamie @ The Duchess of Domestic

Amy @ Dreaming Wishing Doing

Kristin @ The Simple Things

Amanda @ The Mayor's Wife

Jennifer @ All Because Two People Fell in Love

Cindi @ Hello Cindi

My questions for you ladies:

1. Why did you start blogging?
2. What do you most enjoy about blogging?
3. What did you want to be when you were a kid?
4. What is your favorite day of the week?
5. What is your dream vacation?
6. Think back to high school....is this what you imagined your life would be like?
7. What is your favorite movie?
8. Who is the biggest inspiration in your life?
9. What is your favorite candy?
10. What is your guilty pleasure?
11. What is your love story?

I look forward to reading your answers!!!

5 Random Things

Today I discovered 5 Random Things from a blog I follow and I decided to join in the fun!

1. My food cannot touch! Mainly just sauces running and hot/cold items mixing. Sounds weird but it really freaks me out. My family laughs about it and as a joke a few Christmases ago my mom bought me a cafeteria tray which I used a couple of times :)
2. It takes me FOREVER to make an online purchase. I'm not sure why, if I'm in my favorite store TARGET I swipe away but, there is something about the freedom of research online that delays the process. 
3. I crave Mexican food 24-7! I have always loved Mexican food, now that I am pregnant it has become a staple in my diet. 
4. Chipped nail polish irritates me! My mom used to do nails and I spent a lot of time (by choice, practically begging) watching her during her appointments. I have the BEST picture of myself painting my nails in my high chair with non-toxic polish. Needless to say my nails are usually in excellent condition. 
5. Christmas is my favorite holiday. I love decorating, eating all the delicious foods associated with Christmas, spending time with family and reminding other of the true reason for the season, Jesus' birth! Sometimes I wish it was Christmas all year long!

My Christmas List

Creating a Christmas list this year was really hard! I usually have a list of thing lingering in my head that I would LOVE to have however, my mind has been so focused on planning for my son that I have not taken the time to sit down and think about me.

So after much thought this is my list for this year...

My list is not very extravagant but I would LOVE all or some of the above :) Photoshop Elements 11 is at the top of my list ( I was so tempted to buy it a couple of weeks ago because it was on sale. Then I remembered CHRISTMAS is coming!!). I would like a clutch to go in the diaper bag, a new mixer blade for my Kitchenaid, new phone case and lastly but certainly not least a prenatal massage. Last year my husband spoiled me with a spa day...I think this year is perfect for a repeat :)

Nursery Plans

Construction is underway for the day in the nursery. The baseboards are almost done being installed, next the chair rail goes in and lastly painting time! I cannot be of any help at the moment so it's time to do I love to do best...PLAN :) 

After much contemplation this is what we (well lets be honest mostly me) have decided on....

The room is actually already this color so we just need to do touch ups, paint the lower half of the walls and the baseboards. I am hoping that all the painting can be done this weekend and we can finally start putting together the furniture.