Eye of the Tiger

 Either Sylvester Stallone has giant hands or I have miniature hands.  What do you think?
This picture was taken outside of Planet Hollywood on the strip back in October of 2009.  Many celebrities have taken time out of their busy schedules to leave their hand prints and signatures on a wall for us "regular" people to gawk at.

Apparently Sandra Bullock had a sense of humor before her husband, Jesse James, got caught red handed having an affair with a stripper.  Red Handed, get it?  

I'm Blue Daba Dee Dabba Di

I recently had my in-laws in town for a week long visit.  (Insert in-law joke here.) Just kidding.  I love them!  We had a wonderful time together.  One night we went to see the Blue Man Group.  This is a picture of my sister-in-law, Laura, with one of the Blue Men.  It's a very entertaining show that involves percussion, black lights, paint, strobe lights, toilet paper, marshmallows, and banana pudding.  I realize that description probably didn't help you understand the show any better.  Hopefully it has you intrigued so you will check out the show yourself.  I will say that we sat on the front row in the "poncho section," and ended up with banana pudding stuck in our hair.
Anybody here watch Arrested Development? Unfortunately Tobias was not in this BMG performance.  (If you don't get the joke, you aren't cool enough to know about Arrested Development. Check it out.)

I've decided that Nick and I will one day have kids for the sole purpose of sending them to the Blueman Group School.  How cool would that be? Our little blue babies thumping out amazing percussions and consuming marshmallows in mass quantity.  I'm not making this up.  Well, I am making up the part about us having babies anytime soon but the part about the Blueman Group School is totally legit.

Play Something Country

I can't say thank you enough to the USO for giving me a FREE ticket to the Brooks and Dunn Last Rodeo Tribute Concert in Las Vegas.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  It was amazing!  I have never seen so many stars in one place.  The picture above is Brooks and Dunn thanking their fans and all of the performers that appeared at their tribute.  Artists included: Rascall Flatts, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, Matthew McConaughey, Taylor Swift, and George Strait to name a few.  Each performer sang a Brooks and Dunn song as a Tribute to the dynamic duo who have been performing together for 20 years.  You can see the performance on ABC May 23rd.  Watch it! It was AMAZING! 


This last picture is all the artists of the night and Brooks and Dunn singing Play Something Country.

Free Willy!

We went to San Diego to celebrate our fourth Anniversary and to spend time together before the deployment.  San Diego is beautiful and it actually reminded us of living in the Azores.  Maybe we were just in shock to go from the desert to seeing real trees and green grass again.  We have lots of rocks and astro turf here in Vegas.  We went to the San Diego Zoo and Sea World.  Thankfully we saw Shamu  before she started eating her trainers.  It was a wonderful trip and I just wanted to share some pictures from our little vacation.  

   

Lions, Tigers, and Armadillos? Oh my!

Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area (whew!!!  That's a mouthful!) is about 17 miles from the Las Vegas strip.  It's absolutely breathtaking and you wouldn't believe that you are still in Las Vegas.  Red Rock Canyon has numerous hiking trails and if you don't want to get out of your car because it's 120 degrees outside, you don't have to!  You can drive the 13 mile loop that goes through the entire conservation area.  All of the trails are marked and rated by degree of difficulty so you don't get in over your head.  I've done some light hiking there and really enjoyed it.  Enjoy the pictures that I took a few days ago when I was there hiking and check out their website.  Definitely a MUST if you are in Las Vegas, especially if you have lost all of your money playing poker.

Viva Las Vegas, at night.

This is the new Aria Hotel and Casino.  It's about a block off of the strip.  I didn't have my nice camera with me so this is just a shot from a point and shoot but it turned out decent.  It's home to the new Cirque show, Viva Elvis.  An entire Cirque du Soleil show based on Elvis.  What will they come up with next?  Speaking of Elvis, I saw him driving a pink Cadillac last week.  Shame on me for not having my camera with me.  Nick and I did see Elvis down on Freemont street a few weeks ago.  Nick does a good Elvis impression, doesn't he???

Sticky Situation

It's an on going effort to decorate our house.  We have EXTREMELY high ceilings and even when we hang stuff on the walls it feels like they are still bare.  Our master bathroom is no exception.  I've recently discovered a genius way to decorate my walls.  Wall Adhesives.  They are unique and inexpensive.  I actually bought mine at Kohls for half off a few weeks ago.  I was nervous about putting them up because they are basically a giant sticker.  But last night I put them up and had no problems.  You can even move them around if you didn't get them in the exact spot you wanted.  I highly recommend them.  They really jazzed up our plain white bathroom.

 

Here's a great website that has a variety of wall adhesives.  

http://modernwallgraphics.com/

Grill Sergeant

I am feeling quite independent tonight.  I used the grill by myself for the very first time.  No it's not a self lighting grill either. Probably not a very big accomplishment but I'm just excited about it.  I grilled some chicken burgers that were quite delicious.  I wonder if I can qualify to become a Grill Sergeant now?  For those of you who haven't had the wonderful opportunity to watch AFN like we did living over seas, you need to check out the Grill Sergeants on the Pentagon Channel.  The Grill Sergeants are a group of Chefs in the military and they rotate hosting a cooking show that's filmed inside of the San Diego Naval Base.  They have corny catch phrases, great cooking tips, and yummy recipes.  I think they are trying to be a knockoff of Emeril Live because they even have a band with them in the commissary that plays music into the commercial breaks.  My FAVORITE part of the show is watching all the shoppers in the background.  It just cracks me up to see someone walk in front of the camera to get some cheese.  Check it out sometime. It's certainly good for some laughs.

http://www.pentagonchannel.mil/thegrillsergeants/index.shtml

I wanted to celebrate my big girl accomplishment tonight by making one of my favorite sides, broccoli salad.  I forgot to take a picture but it was quite delicious and I will eat the leftovers tomorrow for lunch.  It's a great light side for a cookout or a warm summer night.  Enjoy!

Broccoli Salad Recipe: (I adapted this recipe from an episode of Down home with The Neely's on Foodnetwork.)

   2 broccoli heads or 8 cups

   1/2 red onion, sliced

   2/3 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated

   1/3 cup heart smart mayonnaise (or regular mayo if you prefer)

   1/3 cup sour cream (I always use heart-smart)

   1/3 cup Craisins

   1/2 teaspoon celery salt

   1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

   

Directions:

  Chop the broccoli into florets.  Blanch in lightly salted boiling water until turn a bright green color, about 20 seconds.  Immediately remove them and place them in a bowl full of ice water to prevent them from cooking further.  Drain and reserve.

Combine the remaining ingredients and mix well.  Fold in broccoli until combined.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  (sometimes I throw in a little Italian seasoning too)

Cleaning out the Pantry

Somehow we always seem to end up with three bags of tortilla chips filled with crumbs.  I don't know how it happens but I hate to just throw them away when I could put them to use.  Solution: Chicken Tortilla Soup.  Make the soup and sprinkle the pieces of tortilla chips on top of the soup. Delicious!
Chicken Tortilla Soup:
1 pound uncooked chicken breasts

• 1 (15 ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, mashed
• 1 (10 ounce) can enchilada sauce
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups water
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen corn
• 3 tablespoon chopped cilantro

Directions: Place chicken, tomatoes, enchilada sauce, onion, green chiles, and garlic into a slow cooker. Pour in water and chicken broth, and season with cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, and bay leaf. Stir in corn and cilantro. Cover, and cook on Low setting for 6 to 8 hours or on High setting for 3 to 4 hours.  Shred chicken with a fork before serving.  Top with tortilla chips, sour cream, avocado slices and cheese. 

Little Bo-Peep Lost her Sheep

I went out to water the plants when I saw Bristol's Sheep belly up in the pool.  Poor guy didn't stand a chance.  

 Luckily Bristol has his Red Cross CPR certification up to date.  After 4 minutes of giving CPR, he was able to save the sheep.  Little Bo Peep (Ella) was relieved.

Cookie Monster

So I have a confession to make.  I have no self control when it comes to baking at home.  By that I mean that I will devour an entire tray of brownies if they are left in the house.  YIKES!  My mother-in-law is a fantastic cook and baker.  While hubby was deployed last year she sent him all kinds of yummy treats in the mail.  One time I volunteered to mail the cookies that she had baked for him in a package that I had already started to put together. Ok, so here comes confession number two.  It is possible that I might have eaten a few of the cookies that she made for my hubby...Ok, so maybe I ate the entire bag of soft molasses cookies. See, this blog thing really makes me honest.   This was over a year ago but I've decided that it's time to bake hubby some soft molasses cookies to make up for the ones I ate during his last deployment.  So this post is dedicated to my insatiable sweet tooth.  Probably should forewarn you that molasses is pretty stinky :)  In an attempt to pre-burn calories that I knew I would eat, I walked to the grocery store to buy my supplies. Maybe I helped save the earth too.

Betty Crocker's Soft Molasses Cookie Recipe:
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup molasses
1 large egg
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In large bowl, beat sugar, sour cream, butter, shortening, molasses and egg with electric mixer on medium speed, or mix with spoon.  Stir in remaining ingredients.
3. On ungreased cookie sheet, drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart.
4. Bake 9 to 11 minutes or until almost no indentation remains when touched in center.  Cool 1 to 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.  Sprinkle with additional sugar while warm.

No I didn't fall asleep on my book. I'm studying by Osmosis.

In the 6th grade I did a science project on the process of Osmosis. Alright, who am I kidding. When I was in the 6th grade my mom did my science project on the process of Osmosis. Gotta keep the facts straight.  Osmosis is the transfer of water through a semi-permeable membrane.  She proved this by putting a stick of celery in a cup full of blue water.  Within a few the celery would turn blue because it was absorbing the water via osmosis.  This is the basic idea of the experiment.  What I want to know now is can I learn the information for my political science exam via osmosis?  Theoretically, I should be able to sleep on my text books and absorb the information overnight.  It seems that some people have tried to attempt this in the past during exams.  There is even a group on Facebook dedicated to people who are "Firm Believers in Studying through Osmosis."  I wonder what their average GPA is?

One Day Without Shoes

Welcome to my Blog!

So, I have no idea what I'm doing on here but I'm still excited to start my own blog. I should actually be studying for an exam but instead I have decided it is more important to make sure my friends know what books I'm currently reading. (Yes Mom and Dad, I am currently reading a Political Science text book for class that I didn't include on my list. Have no fear!)
I'm going to keep this short for the sake of my grades but worry not, I will return soon to make this page more interesting!