Cast of characters... half of an onion, jalapeno, salsa, white rice, oil, shredded cheddar cheese, corn tortillas, tomato bouillon, chicken bouillon (not pictured), enchilada sauce, a tomato and cilantro (optional and not pictured)...


Dice up the onion... you can use a whole medium onion if you like a lot of onions... If you have access to fresh jalapenos, just buy one or two (unless you want more spice, I never use more than one) and clean them and dice them up as well.

Next you will want to put two table spoons of oil into a deep skillet or a pot over medium heat. I use a skillet that is two inches deep, probably ten inches wide. Heat oil slightly, not to where it wants to explode when you throw something in there, just enough to where it moves around in the pan easily. Add one and a half cups of rice and stir occasionally to keep it from burning. Making Spanish rice is an art, I swear. Half the time I make it, it's fabulous and sometimes it flops, it's like the first pancake, except you don't get to make two :-) See how the rice is starting to turn white, that's what we want.

Now we are going to add the onions and jalapenos. You can add a diced fresh tomato here as well if you like, but we are going to add salsa later so you don't have to. You'll want to stir almost constantly because the onions and tomato will want to stick and you don't want to. Also, at this point, everything's gotten pretty hot so you want to keep it from burning. Your rice should start to brown a little, but not too much. Maybe two or three minutes of stirring before we add the bouillon.

You want one cube of chicken bouillon and one cube of tomato bouillon. Mush them up with your stirring spoon as quickly as possible and get them mixed in. As soon as you do, you may notice everything is wanting to stick at this point, add three cups of water, stir it all up and lower the heat to medium low.

Now I have a theory that you should only have the rice covered up about three fourths of the time that you are cooking it so that it doesn't end up mushy. I want it cooked all the way but not too much. So I usually uncover mine several times through out the process and check on it. When I think it's time, I leave the lid off so the rest of the liquid can escape, like I said, it's an art. In the bottom left photo, you can see what the consistency of the rice was when I uncovered it. I added 1/3 to 1/2 cup of salsa to it and stirred it up and lowered the heat to low to cook the remaining liquid out of it.

Now, while you were letting the rice cook, you needed to be starting the enchiladas. For this, you will want a 9x13 glass pan. It doesn't have to be glass, but it's better this way. Trust me. Poor a third of the can of enchilada sauce into the pan and make sure it is coating the bottom.
Wrap about fifteen tortillas into a few paper towels and microwave them for about two minutes. You want them to be hot enough to be pliable but not so hot that you make them hard. If you roll it, it shouldn't break. In each tortilla, put about two tablespoons of cheese and roll it up and set it in the pan. You can do two layers of enchiladas for a total of thirty. Drizzle remaining sauce over enchiladas and then sprinkle with cheese.

Bake in the oven at 350 for about twenty minutes or until the cheese on top is melted and you are confident that they are hot and then EAT! SOOOO good :-)

Labels: cooking, recipes, sisters, stuff I like

I had logged onto The Facebook to check out how all my peeps are doing and a little chat box popped up. I heard it since I was in the kitchen and skipped over to see who was trying to grab my attention. It was my sister, Blue's mom. It said simply, "Hi, this is Blue's mom... I was wondering when you might come and visit Blue. She really misses you."
Every heart string I have was severely tugged upon.
I can't begin to tell you how right it made me feel about my choice to move there.
Her mom and I had a short chat where she said that Blue talks about me all the time and is super proud of me and based on all of the things that she has said about me, her mom knows I can do anything I set my mind to including moving there in 2016. I told her about my plans to bring the girls up there for a few weeks over the summer of 2011 so we can poke around and I can check out the place I want to move to.
I have a hard time with patience.
When I know what I want to do, I try to start doing it so having a six year waiting period is rough but at the same time, those six years are all the time I have left where Amanda and Emilee will be home with me. So I need to enjoy them and make sure I experience them and know that my reward at the end of it all will be that I get to be near my sister for as long as I want.

Labels: Amanda, Beach Trip, Being Mommy, Emilee, my crazy life, sisters

Labels: sisters

It is a pretty small town as far as towns go...

When Jiffinner and I spoke on the phone last night and I told her I was really starting to plan moving in a few years, she said, "to a beach huh?"

While Rimouski is a beach town, I don't think that was what she was thinking...

It's no secret that my plan is to live near a body of water. I need water. It makes me feel whole.
But water in Canada? Where it is cold?

And they have this white stuff that falls from the sky?

But there are also trees. Many glorious trees.

And a beach. Not the kind of beach I will likely be swimming laps in but a beautiful, straight out of Anne of Green Gables beach.

And while all of the picturesque town near the beach stuff is lovely, the fact is that I miss my sister.

I want to be near her and my neices and the fact that they live in a beach town is just a plus.

A really, really big plus that almost completely makes up for the fact that I may freeze the death my first winter there...

Labels: being a Home Owner, sisters

We go to school EARLY in the country.
This was taken at 6:45 as Amanda and Emilee were leaving to go get on the bus that takes them to middle school.
Trin is still in elementary and her school is two blocks away so we walk.
Amanda started seventh grade this year and was accompanied, much to her dismay, by Emilee who started sixth. Nothing is more painful than having your little sister on the bus :) Trin started second and so far (two days in), this has been the most calm she's been about a major change in her schedule. So far, so good :)

Labels: Amanda, Being Mommy, Emilee, sisters, Triniti

Recently I went to the home of an older woman who was the foster parent of a little boy who is in Triniti's class. The state of this home was atrocious. The elderly woman claimed she had been very ill lately and everything had gotten away from here and whether that is true or not, all I could think about was this poor little boy. I wanted to put him in my car and take him home and put him to bed in a clean and safe home. A home without roaches or that smell of too many animals who aren't house broken.
It killed me.
And in doing so it made me realize that there are an insane amount of kids just like that little boy. There are thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of kids out there who dream about a clean and safe home. And, dear reader, I have one.
So I have applied to become a foster parent.
My brother will be moving out at the end of the school year and when he does, I intend to take in another child. Someone who is between five and ten years old and who needs me and who needs my girls.
I cannot think of a single reason why not to. I have a home which is plenty big enough, I have the financial capabilities of taking on another person but more importantly - most importantly I have the room in my heart to love someone else and there is with out a doubt someone out there who needs to be loved by me and my family.

Labels: adoption, Being Mommy, family drama, my crazy life, Noah, sisters

During an argument in the car in which I may have been favoring Trin just a little, Amanda sat back in her seat miffed about losing and said, "You know Mom? You think she's all sweet and innocent but she isn't. Under those pigtails, she has horns!"

Labels: Amanda, Being Mommy, sisters, Triniti

As most of you know this Saturday will be the 26th of January. Three years ago on January 26th I lost my best friend, my soul sister. There was a tragic accident that stole her life so very prematurely and really and truly broke my heart for the very first time.
Most of the time, I can deal with this.
I can look at her beautiful pictures and remember fondly the times we spent together and ward off the anger and sadness and resentfulness that she was taken from me before I was ready. I can take it as it is and just miss her.
God how I miss her.
But today is the day that I close on my new house. Today is one of the biggest days ever for me. And not just because buying a house is "the single most important purchase you will make in your lifetime" or whatever but because of what this step actually means to me.
One thousand, six hundred and twenty nine days ago I was alone. I had no money, no job, three kids and no fucking idea what I was going to do. I was lucky that I was offered a job within days and that Tempest leant me $600 bucks otherwise I honestly don't know what I would have done. And the whole time I had Veronique by my side. She helped me pack my house and move all of my stuff into my new house. She helped me put it all away and then was consistantly there for me until she was gone. I mean the girl drove all the way down from Dallas so she wouldn't miss my daughters' first day of school. And then The Universe just took her away.
And now, whenever I accomplish something or something huge happens in my life I get so mad that i can't have her here to not only see it but also to experience it with me. I resent it so much and there isn't anyone to resent. I want her to be on the other side of one thousand, six hundred and twenty nine days with me.
Today I am going to buy my first house and I am so happy about it but if I could just have her here with me it would feel complete.

Labels: Being a Chic, Being Mommy, community, death, dreams, my crazy life, sisters, soul sisters, The Universe, Veronique

Labels: Amanda, Being Mommy, Christmas, Emilee, my crazy life, Noah, sisters, Triniti

"MOM! Emilee is driving me CRAZY! Make her leave me alone!"

"Amanda, it takes two people to argue."

"She is LIKE two people mom!"


Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Labels: Amanda, Being Mommy, Emilee, mobile blogging, my crazy life, sisters

Today you turn eleven years old.
This is your first year as a "tween".
You become one year closer to being a teenager.
And most of the time this scares the hell out of me.
It scares me because I know that you are starting to separate from me and find out who you are.
You still come up and hug me for no reason and just this morning you ran back out to the car to give me a hug and kiss because you forgot, so I know that the sweet kid I love is still in there. But in the last few months I've been afraid that you and I are starting to drift apart and while I know it will happen, it sucks nonetheless.
But last week, all of my fears that I was going to lose you to this little pre-pubescent hellion were washed away.
Last week we had a mix up with the bus when you were in UIL so you had no idea about it. And even though your little sister was scared when she was (incorrectly) dropped off at home alone, she really handled the whole thing very well.
But when I got home, you ran over to me and hugged me and just sobbed. You were so upset that you hadn't been there, that you hadn't been able to protect her and take care of her and prevent this from ever happening. You were so upset that you offered to drop UIL.
On that day I was reminded that while you will have your snotty little moments where you will be trying to figure out who it is that you want to be, you will always be the sweet girl that is brought to tears when you can't protect those you love.
That is the little girl I raised and the little girl I am exceedingly proud of every single day.
Happy Birthday Amanda!

Love,
Mom

Labels: Amanda, Being Mommy, birthday, sisters

My little sister turns 21 today! I absolutely cannot believe it. It seems only yesterday that she was this annoying little six-year-old that begged to go with me every time I left the house :P
Actually, Ruthie and I were always kinda close growing up. It wasn't until I got pregnant with Amanda and left that she and I sort of drifted apart.
I'd like to think that we've finally gotten back to that cool sister place.
She is a wonderful sister and I am so glad that she and I got to hang out so much over the last few years. I know I am going to miss her terribly now that she is moving to Austin.
Watch out world, she's 21 now!

Labels: birthday, Ruthie, sisters