Another Family Reunion

We had a reunion this past weekend with Bryan's extended family up in Utah. I didn't take as many pictures as I should have, but I did get a few. Tate has been getting really annoyed with the camera lately, so it's been challenging to get any happy ones of him. I took mostly side shots...

We did quite a few fun activities. My favorite was probably the talent show that we had. I got pulled into singing "My Grandfather's Clock" with Bryan's family and that was really embarrassing yet fun. Bryan's Grandpa played the harmonica which was pretty cool and his cousins did a hilarious skit where the guys put makeup on their wives.

The kids all got a pair of freaky teeth of which Tate enjoyed. He had no problem smiling for that picture.

We went to Mammoth Caves which was also really fun. Tate ran off ahead of Bryan and I when we were in the cave-not even scared that he couldn't see a thing except for the glow stick he was holding.

We also hiked to see a natural waterfall. It was really gorgeous. All in all, we had a great time. I got a ton of reading in and I'm proud to say that I've now read Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse and I'm anxiously awaiting the newest book.

Yummy Fish Tacos

It feels like FOREVER since I've blogged last, and it's been a very long time since I've shared a recipe, so here is one of my favorite recipes, well I actually have a lot of favorites. But, this is really good I promise. Hopefully the recipe makes sense/it's way easier demonstrating than attempting to write it down, but here goes...

Ingredients:

Tilapia Fillets (or any boneless white fish meat)

Green Cabbage

Purple Onion

Limes

Cucumber

Mayonnaise

Flour

Egg

Mustard

Serrano Peppers (Optional)

Salt/Pepper

Vegetable Oil

Corn Tortillas (I like the mission-white tortillas)

Instructions:

Wash & dry fish, chop into thin long strips then set aside. (For our family of three, I use about 3 fillets). Prepare toppings by chopping cabbage, and by dicing red onion,cucumber and optional Serrano peppers into small pieces. ( I usually prepare approximately 1 cup cabbage, 3 rounds red onion, and 1/2 of pealed cucumber. I find that it's easier to place them in separate containers rather than mixing together). Add plenty of freshly squeezed lime to diced onion and season the onion with salt. (About 1 lime per 3 rounds of onion is what I use). In small bowl, prepare mayonnaise sauce by mixing a small amount of mayonnaise and lime together. (I use about 4 heaping Tbsp. of mayonnaise per lime). Set mayonnaise sauce aside. In yet another bowl, mix flour, egg yoke, mustard, salt,pepper and lime juice. (I use approximately 1 cup flour, 1 tsp. salt, sprinkle of pepper, 2 egg yokes, a few squirts of mustard, and 1/2 of lime juice. Add enough water until the batter looks like a pancake consistency. Cover fish strips in flour and then coat them in the mustard sauce. Next, you will need to deep fry the fish, so you have a deep frier than use that, if not heat some vegetable oil in a frying pan and cook the fish for about 3 minutes per side. (Don't put too many fish in at a time or they will turn out greasy). As you're cooking the fish, heat corn tortillas in another pan until they are harder, but not too hard. Cover them as they come out to keep them warm. (I usually set up an assembly line to make the rest of the tacos). Spread a small amount of mayonnaise sauce on warm corn tortilla. Next add fish, cabbage, cucumbers, red onion, and Serrano peppers. Add desired salt and squeezed lime. Roll taco up and serve immediately.

If you have any questions about this recipe, please feel free to email me onesmartchicken@gmail.com

I turned the comments off on my blog because I was feeling guilty for never commenting on anyone else's blogs. I know that I'm probably just paranoid.

Mr. Tate Catches Flies

Whenever there are flies in our house, I simply just send Tate on a hunt for them. He is the best fly catcher I know of, and he doesn't even use a fly swatter. He uses his bare hands! Last week, I think it was on Thursday, he caught 3 FLIES IN ONE MORNING. Maybe I should have him try chop sticks next time...

Artichoke Party

We started another tradition!!! Remember Sardine Parties? Well, because we LOVE gross food so much, we now have artichoke parties on a regular basis. When I say we, I mean Tate & I. Bryan is good enough to put up with these parties because he totally hates both sardines and artichokes. I think that I'm quite fortunate to have a son with my exact same taste buds. Our parties don't last longer than 10 minutes seriously. I've taken to buying 2 artichokes now, and we still totally fight over the heart. Tate's even learned how to clean out the choke all by himself to get to the heart.

About my sporadic postings lately... Life has been really busy for us! With our house up for sale, we've had a ton of people coming by to see the house, thus I've been cleaning it like crazy. Also, Tate's been waking up like 3 times at least during the night so I've been sleeping every chance I get. So... thanks for putting up with the non-consistency!

Before/After & Possible Craziness

After

Before

After

Before

I feel that I'm just now starting to figure this whole scrapbooking thing out (especially the drop shadow and making the pages look "done". So... I've redone several of the pages that I did when I first started. Here's the before and now the after. Just a little better, right? Or maybe I'm just going crazy like my dear husband has so kindly stated.

CONFESSIONS: The MOST embarrassing thing in my ENTIRE EXISTENCE...

As most of you already know... I get embarrassed extremely easily & so I always try my best to avoid any situations that could possibly cause embarrassment. Unfortunately I still find myself in them VERY OFTEN. For instance, take the time in High School when my brother Jonathan picked me up for lunch; the windows were rolled down, syco music playing, he was wearing some sort of balloon hat creation, bouncing up and down in the drivers seat & EVERYONE staring as I climbed in the truck. An even more embarrassing moment happened shortly after Bryan & I got married. We were over at his parents' house for FHE. Afterwards we were all standing around talking, I reached over and grabbed my brother-in-law Brandon's hand, thinking that he was Bryan. He held up our hands and said, "UH MARIA". Oh my goodness, I thought I was going to die... You think that's funny? Well, here's my latest story as of today, it totally tops every embarrassing moment in my whole life:

We went to my "PERFECT" sister-in-laws baby's blessing today. No offense when I say perfect I mean this in the best possible way, if I had my way I'd be just like her. Anyways, so I'm sitting there during the sacrament feeling completely awkward & trying to be on my best behavior so as not to make a spectacle of myself, when all of a sudden my cell phone rings. Yea, I know that cell phones ring all the time during sacrament meeting and it's really not that big of a deal, but my phone was on high volume playing the "luny tune theme song". I panicked, without even thinking I grabbed my phone and ran for dear life... out of the building; past Bryan who was sitting next to me, past all the family & everyone else. I seriously ran as the phone continued to play. Don't even ask me what I was thinking... I wanted out!!! After that whole ordeal, there was NO POSSIBLE way that I was even going back in. I managed to get to the car and then realized that I had left my keys in the chapel. So, I called my Mom to come and pick me up. She listened as I repeated the story over and over again to her. At first I was bawling, and now it's almost funny!