Odds and Ends pasta

Food waste has become one of my pet peeves of late.  I think it's because I'm working less and trying to be more thrifty.  It's how I should've been all along.

Anyways, today I made a fantastic pasta out of odds and ends in my fridge!  I so love to cook and create.

I took equal parts butter and olive oil and sauteed 1/4 red onion.  I added a diced yellow bell pepper and VERY thinly sliced carrot.  When this mix was tender I added a large handful of spinach leaves.  When the spinach wilted I added some left over whole wheat pasta and another tablespoon of olive oil.  To finish it I added a handful of grape tomatoes and some left over black olives, some greek seasoning, sea salt, and black pepper.

After I plated this beautifully colorful pasta, I topped it off with parmesan cheese!  I'd post a picture, but I devoured it :)  It was so good I had to share!

Love food!

Growing Family

My Baby Girl turned 3mths old last week.  She grows and changes so fast! She's so alert, so talkative, so expressive; she amazes me every day.  I'm in love with the child :)  We had her pictures made for her 3mth milestone. I can't wait to get them back! Not only was it her 3mth mark, but we also had them made with Big Sister!  Big Sister is beautiful and funny; she's a bundle of energy.  We had their pictures made in beautiful spring colors with pink, blue, and yellow attire.

I never would've known how all this foster to adopt stuff would've made me really truly feel.  There are many moments where I'm afraid still because it's not final.  It is all still very much leading in the path for Baby Girl to be with us forever, but even expedited it is a long path.  Outside the fear though is this new awareness, new feelings, about family. My thoughts are on what makes a family and the beauty of how it grows and changes.  

I never would've thought I'd get two beautiful girls in my life, but I have.  My relationship with Big Sister is still forming, but it IS forming and it's growing every time we meet.  I've begun to love her too.  I think about her so many times every day now.  I've also begun to really appreciate the rest of their family which I'm still meeting one person at a time.  Big Sister is blessed with people in her life that want to the best for her and are going lengths to make sure she's making this contact that she needs.  It's a beautiful thing. I am so excited about our growing family. 

Our family is growing in other ways too.  I've been told before you can't pick your family, but I don't think I agree entirely.  Yes, we're all born into this world and there are blood ties, but obviously Hubby and I aren't that concerned with blood.  Blood doesn't make a family; love, support, and desire make a family.  Hubby and I are blessed with amazing people in our lives who show up and call every week and every day.  We have people that give of their time to us consistently without fail.  We have people we can count on.  We are blessed with people who want to make life easier.  These are the things I think of when I think "family". I love the "Aunts" and "Uncles" that have shown up to be part of Baby Girl's life.  I don't know what I'd do without their love and support of Hubby and I on this journey.  These people are our family.

I LOVE our family. Every aspect of every way that it's growing and changing.  It's amazing how this one child can bring together so many.  She is a blessing every day in more ways than I can count. She is our family; she is my daughter.  

First Day of Spring

Today was the first day of spring!  While I'm hating all the pollen, I am LOVING this beautiful weather!  My boys are out on spring break so we've had a little extra time together the last couple of days!  It's been awesome to have all three kids around!  Here are a few pics of todays fun in the park with friends and lots of kiddos :)

Publix

For the love of Publix!
Yesterday I made my rounds of errands and needed to get the month's supply of formula for Baby Girl.  The first two stops didn't have all the quantity needed.  I went to my Homewood Publix and they were 1 can short.  At the customer service desk the sales associated told me they could go to the Vestavia store to pick up the one can I was short and get back to me in the afternoon. Two hours later a sunshiny voice called to say all 10 cans were ready for pickup at the customer service counter.  Baby Girl and I had a very busy afternoon with court and picking up the boys and we didn't get back to Publix for about 3-4 hours.  There was no formula. There was no formula waiting for me and there was no formula on the shelf.  Talk about a frustrated Mommy. Our sales associate was just returning from lunch when this was discovered and her temporary fill-in told us he'd given the formula to another customer. It seems there's another customer that buys the same quantity of the same formula each month and she assumed it was set aside for her and nobody questioned it. The sales associated was as upset as I was! She immediately went to get a manager.  The store manager GAVE me 2 cans of formula for the inconvenience and error and our 10 cans will be ordered for delivery Friday. They even offered to deliver it to our home.  Now I'm a price shopper and I know Publix is a little higher on some items, but really where else can you get service like that. Yes, there was an error but they went above and beyond to repair it.  
I LOVE Publix; they really do go the extra mile.

Lovin' Life and always busy

The rest of February went by in a blur.  We celebrated Chris' birthday on Monday 13th, celebrated Valentine's day on the 14th, and our anniversary on Sunday the 19th.

I have some GREAT pictures of Baby Girl on Valentine's that I would love to share, alas we cannot... It suffices to say she had a very festive outfit of pink with white hearts that had a tiny tag which read "Daddy's Valentine."  Daddy presented her with a pink teddy bear and the duo made the cutest pictures.

I made a stepped up steak and eggs for brunch for my Love and I on Valentine's day as well.

 We had a visit with Big Sister on our anniversary and some how in all the crazy busy afternoon we forgot to take a picture of ourselves.  We celebrated 3 years as a married couple.  He's still my best friend and I love him completely.

We had a fun afternoon in the park with one of my besties and some friends playing soccer and having a picnic!  I can't wait until the weather stays warm enough to do this regularly!

We also celebrated my nephew's 3rd birthday in February!  He was born 1 week exactly after Chris and I wed; I will never forget his birthday!  haha  I came late to the party having had to work and Hubby was in charge of the picture taking... Here's the best of what was taken.

3yr old wish!

Destiny and Baby Girl