Author: Yajaira

I knew that around this time I was going to mope about having to go to bed to start a new week and I “didn’t get to rest,” but at least I got lots of pending things done around the house!

* I made breakfast (chorizo eggs and beans).
* Cleaned the bathroom.
* Cleaned the bedroom (lots and lots of vacumming was done.)
* Vacuumed the bathroom and organized a bit (not as much as I wanted, though).
* Made lunch (cauliflower/potato soup).

* Re-caulked the shower (and my love re-caulked the bathtub).
* Cleaned everything up.
* Began sanding/painting my frames and art while watching the Superbowl (mostly commercials and half-time. Lady Gaga, WOW!).
* Started my collage wall I’d been meaning to put up 2 years ago.

* Showered and voila!

Made this pizza last night, and oh my gosh, I’m still thinking about it!! The beauty of this pizza is you can change your veggie, meat and cheese options as you see fit!

You’ll Need:
1 bag cooked small or medium sized, peeled, deveined, tail-off shrimp (thawed and seasoned with fresh cracked pepper, sea salt, cayenne pepper and garlic salt)
Pam cooking spray
Large pizza pan
1/2 cup red onions, diced
1/2 cup red peppers, diced
1/2 cup chopped fresh spinach
1/2 cup fresh tomatoes, sliced
1/4 cup nacho-sliced jalapenos (optional)
A good handful of bacon pieces
1 store-bought thin pizza crust
About 1/2 cup of your favorite spaghetti sauce/marinara
About a cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
About 1/2 a cup of shredded Parmesan cheese
A handful of Feta cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, or what’s indicated on your pizza crust. I usually use HEB brand Thin & Crispy Pizza Crusts (made with EVOO).

Thaw your cooked shrimp. Heat pan on medium. Spray Pam and toss shrimp in along with a few dashes of cayenne pepper and garlic salt and a few turns of fresh cracked pepper and sea salt. Saute for 5 minutes and set aside.

Chop up all your veggies. I’m guestimating the amount of ingredients, but that’s the beauty of homemade pizzas: you can add or omit whichever you’d like. I would have added yellow peppers as well, had I found some at the store.

Once all your veggies are chopped up, you can begin prepping your pizza crust. Place your crust on your pizza pan and spread your favorite spaghetti sauce over the entire crust.

Next, sprinkle the mozzarella cheese generously over your sauce. Sprinkle the onions, peppers and spinach and top with the shredded Parmesan. Add the fresh tomato slices and jalapeno slices. Next come the meats. Sprinkle the bacon pieces on your pizza. I’m a HUGE fan of these:

So handy and I use them in tons of recipes. You can find them in the salad dressing/croutons section of your grocery store.

Lastly, sprinkle your seasoned shrimp and dust with a good layer of Feta cheese.

Bake for 6-8 minutes (or by the length of time on your pizza crust package).

Let your pizza stand 5 minutes before serving, and enjoy!

Ugh. I feel like death warmed over. I told myself I’m not doing anything today; the kids and I are just going to be bums while I get over this darn cold. I NEVER get sick, ever, and when I do, I feel like I’m seconds from dying. I’m dramatic, what can I say.

I’ll update on the last week, since it was essentially a good one all around.

We were kid-less last weekend and both Jorge and I were feeling like not being cooped up in the house for once, so once I went to the bank after work I got home and we got ready to go have dinner. It took us a while to find a place, because we’re both indecisive but we ended up at Kumori. 2 Kumori’s. The first had tons of people and we were sort of ignored, so we got up and went to the one at Uptown, where we ran into Jeremy, Jorge’s old co-worker and friend.

Then we came home and continued our Breaking Bad binge :).

Alaethia had a UIL meet the next morning so I met Mary and the girls at the school the meet was hosted at. We met up with John and Audrey and all moved on to the hall where their writing meet was being held. It was much less chaotic than the cafeteria, thank goodness. The whole thing took about 1 hour and the girls emerged from the classroom and we were off. I came home and cleaned my bedroom a bit (I NEED to stop being a paper hoarder! I get so lazy throwing out important papers I *might* need some day but probably never will and I feel guilty throwing out the girls’ school work/projects. Ugh.) I kept myself pretty busy and then Mom and I went to Walmart, then Target, where I unsuccessfully tried to find something to wear for Jorge’s Company Holiday Party. But I did find some awesome planner supplies in that darn Dollar Spot!

Gets me every time! I’ve been avoiding Target like the plague; didn’t even do much Christmas shopping there because then I want to buy things for myself and I had to FOCUS over the holidays. *pats self on head*

We finished running errands, Mom and I, then visited Gramma. It was dinner time for her so I fed her her entire tray and then we chit-chatted some more before we came home. I debated rushing to Ross (always my last resort) to find something to wear, but I knew I really wouldn’t have time and I didn’t want to make Jorge and I late, so I wore one of my roomy, dressy blouses and threw on some jeans and boots.

The Company dinner was at Pappadeaux! One of my faves. We said hi to everyone, as half the company was already there, all timely. Jorge’s bosses sat next to us and across from us were Cesar and his girlfriend. We had a good chat about various subjects and then we played a trivia game. It was fun. And then of course came dinner, which I didn’t get a photo of because I devoured it. Tilapia and spaghetti squash, yum. I did get a photo of us, and our dessert, though!

The next day we spent quite literally being lazy. Wait, I think we left the house for tacos at one point? Yes, I believe so. I kept stalling going grocery shopping and by the time we knew it, Briana and the kids arrived! They came down for the weekend to celebrate Nick’s birthday. We got ready and went to Incredibowl (formerly Valley Bowl). I’ve been to bowling alley’s before, but have never in my life played.

Jorge tried teaching me, but I was awful till about halfway through, and by then it was too late! I was afraid I was going to slip and fly with the ball like they do in the movies buahaha.

Still, we had fun with the kids and the food was good, too!

Definitely need to take all the kiddos!

We got home and I was not happy about having to go to the groceries so late, but I knew I’d hate it even more if I had to go after work the next day. So I sucked it up and went. Then I was exhausted when I got home and fell asleep during Breaking Bad. Blah!

It was an overall low-key week at work, compared to all the other weeks! We had to get ready for our very first music in the park-type event at the Food Truck Park, and we had no idea how that would go, we just hoped it would be successful. We had other tasks throughout the week, too, like Michelle and I taking our Grant winners shopping for their supplies, so that takes up a good amount of the day.

Alaethia got home from school with a trophy for 2nd place in Ready Writing UIL! So proud of her! She’s gotten 2 1st place trophies and now a 2nd place one!!

I started the week out perfectly, but I woke up feeling like mush on Tuesday. I had the beginnings of a sore throat and my ears were stuffy, so I started chugging down OJ and green tea, and remembered to take my vitamins everyday. I felt great by the end of the day, though, and suggested eating at the Food Park to Jorge. (I’d taken a payment from the owners earlier that day and they reminded me for the 2nd time that I still hadn’t tried out the food!) He agreed, and the girls of course were all for it.

We decided to try Bliss Street Food out, since we hadn’t tried it yet, and we weren’t disappointed. The owners even sent out some fajita nachos on the house!

The temp. was quickly dropping and I started to get chills right when we were standing in line. The girls had showered before Jorge and I got home and their hair was still damp, so we got our food to-go.

We were so hungry I didn’t even get pics, heh. I had the Mexican Gyro (OMG, so good!), Jorge had the Gringas (tacos), Alaethia had the pork tacos (she’s a firm believer in Taco Tuesday) and Emily had wings.

The next day was Jorge’s 33rd birthday! I couldn’t get the morning off, but I got to get the afternoon off after lunch. Michelle and I took some of our Grant winners shopping and then we got back to the office where I got some things squared away for the event on Friday and then I left work. I stopped for some cheesecake for my love and some snacks to go along with his iTunes cards I got him for his birthday. He kept insisting we not get him anything, but I know he’ll always use iTunes cards so I got him those :).

He’d gotten 3 days off during the week to just relax, which I’m glad for. He finished getting ready when I got home and then I took him out to lunch to Kumori (his choice!).

Even though I could hardly swallow my food, I gave it my all! Everything in that photo is my absolute favorite!

We ran some errands, got some Starbucks and then we had a quick break at home before picking up Alaethia from Chess practice. Mario had dropped Emily off already with Mom. So we picked up Alaethia and then we hung around at home. Alaethia asked, “So! Where are we going for Daddy’s birthday?!” Jorge and I look at each other and I say, “Well, I took Daddy out on a date for lunch sort of late. Where did you want to go?” She said, “That fancy restaurant we always go to.” Pappadeaux! It’s usually where we go for his birthday, but since we’d just gone on Saturday with his co-workers and bosses we decided to do something different. After much debate, we decided on IHOP, heh.

I could hardly stand my throat by then. But we had a great time :).

Thursday afternoon was going to be a hectic one. I get out of work earlier than usual on Thursdays since Alaethia has UIL practice. So I picked her up, and then we went home and changed since Audrey, Maddie and my girls were going to try and Zumba Kids class with their classmates. I’d been wanting to put the girls in SOME kind of class, but everything is either to expensive, or it conflicts with my work schedule. This would work out, if they decided to join. Emily had been excited about it and then decided that day that she’d rather not participate; she’d just watch.

We get there and they’re the first ones. Sofia, Brianna, Audrey and Maddie get there with their moms and they instantly get into it. Even Emily, who was in jeans and sandals, decides to join. They had a great time and Jenny and I signed the girls up straight away :).

I’M even considering starting the Zumba class! It’s not my forte, seeing as how I’m extremely uncoordinated, but it looked like a great workout!

The girls finished up and we drove the 30 minutes it takes to pick up the boys. Picked up pizza on the way home, got them all ready for bed and Jorge and I continued our Breaking Bad streak–until I passed out on the couch, like always. He’s such a patient man :D!

Friday was finally here, I felt so much better, despite the occassional coughing fit every now and then. We spent the morning making sure we had everything ready for the Food Park that evening.

Once that was done my love and I had lunch at Zoe’s to celebrate some good news I’d gotten that morning, while I caught up with the Breaking Bad episodes I’d missed ^_^.

Michelle and I once again had some Grant shopping to do with the ladies, so that made the afternoon go by quickly. Who’da thought I’d get to do/shop for crafty things in my job??

We went to the Park to check things out and once the guys moved some stuff around we went back up to our offices where I did some last-minute social media stuff and then left to pick up the kids. I had to time it all correctly especially since there’s always that 5 o’clock traffic jam in Penitas!

We got back to my office just in time and I took the kids in to pee before going back to the park. I had them find a good seat on the bleachers while I went around taking photos and talking to a few of the Food Truck owners.

Our singer that night looks and sounds like Taylor Swift, so the girls (and boys) were immediately smitten.

Jorge stopped by for The Teenager (Eenan) who wasn’t interested in the event but posed for a photo for Mama like a good sport and we switched for Justin, heh.

The kids had a great time, the weather was awesome, the food was tasty and the music was great. I was glad to see we had a good turnout! Excited for the next one!

I got home with all the kiddos, dropped them off and then John and I went to get groceries. Then we got home and stayed up watching Breaking Bad. We have one episode to go!!

I don’t know if it was because it was chilly again by the time the event was over, or that I stayed up late or WHAT, but I woke up feeling awful today. Probably worse than what I felt Tuesday. I can’t believe I forgot to buy OJ!!

Ok, Emily keeps popping in to check when I’m going to be “done,” so I guess I am! Going to think of what to make for dinner for everyone.