"Chinese" Food

While I might have dropped a buttload of money on culinary school, and am indeed a certified chef, I am also definitely a fan of quick and easy (not to mention cheap!) meals.  The following recipe fits that criteria and is courteous of my mom, aka. the queen of quick and easy meals.

It's simple enough and is pretty tasty!

(We found everything we needed from Walmart.)

And that's it!  The entire process took about 30 minutes.

Price Breakdown 

1 lb round steak                                           $7.00

2 bags of frozen stir fry vegetables                               $4.00                  

Bottle of Soy Sauce                                     $2.00

6 packages of Ramen (Oriental flavor)       $1.20

1 bag of fried chow mein noodles             ~$2.00

Total:  $16.20  / Feeds 6 people for about $2.80 per person

5 Things I'm Thankful For this Thanksgiving

In light of Thanksgiving and everything that has happened this past year, I have been thinking about the things in my life that I am thankful for.  While what I've got to say may not be life changing for anyone else, it means an awful lot to me.  Below are the five things in my life that I am thankful for.

1. My daughter

She's healthy, she is feed and clothed, she has a roof over her, she is generally a happy baby, and she is perfect.

2. My husband

Although we may fight and half the time I can't stand him, I love him with all my heart and there is no one else that I'd rather spend my life annoyed at than him.

3. My family

Half the time we are arguing, but these bunch of freaks mean more to me than they could ever know.

4. My faith

While I might not be the most devout person and it's been longer than I can remember since I went to church, I am comforted in my belief of God and I pray every night for all that I have and have been given.

5. My past & my future

Everything up until this point has led me to where I am now, good and bad, and I can see my future more clearly than ever before.


I'll end this short post with a quote I heard the other day.  I cannot remember it entirely nor do I remember who said it, but you'll get the gist:

"I don't know if I know the meaning of life yet, 

but there is something to be said about this last year."

Thanksgiving 2015

(Baby's First Thanksgiving!)

Well, we traveled to Nebraska to celebrate Sophia's first Thanksgiving with my brother and sister-in-law and despite the fact that we should have left yesterday, we are still here thanks to a crazy winter storm that is essentially directly along our route home!  Nevertheless, the weekend has been jam-packed with activities and I'd say that Sophia's first Thanksgiving was a success!

(someone was tired after being passed around all day..also notice the wardrobe change!)

Thanksgiving with my family is something I look forward to every year and I am beyond happy that we now have a little one to join in on the fun!  Despite the fact that we traveled 16 hours stuffed like sardines in my parents' suburban, we were lucky enough to spend the holiday together as a family (something that is hard to do when you have military service members as relatives!).  Like is my family's tradition, my mom and dad did all the cooking! (I try to help out, but my brother's kitchen is not conducive to hold too many cooks in the kitchen).

(mom & dad cooking away)

This year my aunt and her family drove down to have Thanksgiving dinner with us and meet our new addition.  After engorging ourselves with turkey, ham, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, stuffing, gravy, and just about anything else you can think of (oh, and pie!), we sat down to watch the Cowboys lose and then to play our annual Christmas Bingo & Christmas Trivia to kick off the Christmas season.

(the family just before the shouting started!)

Next up was a game of touch football with the cousins.  It did not last very long because it was freezing and night fell quickly!  Then it was nap time and some online Black Friday shopping! (I'll post my strategy for Black Friday shopping in another post!)  Usually we try and all go shopping together, just to have fun, but this year the roads were way too icy and all our plans were thwarted! (Darn you Mother Nature!)  So we came home, watched Netflix, played video games, shopped online, and stayed up too late!

All in all, Thanksgiving was a bundle of stress, excitement, arguing, food, shopping, and good old-fashioned holiday family fun! (So a typical gathering of family!)

(it was hard to get a good picture, but I like this one ok!)

Welcome to Motherhood

Hello there!  My name is Rhianna and I am a rookie mom.  My little one just turned two months old on Thursday and I honestly still cannot believe that I am a parent!  Don't get me wrong, my husband and I could not be happier that our butterball is here, I just still cannot believe that I am responsible for another human being, especially when I had barely started to get comfortable with the idea of keeping a cat fed and alive.  Up until my daughter was born, I had little to no experience with kids and/or babies.  I had only ever held five babies in my entire life!  Nevertheless, I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of this kid thing (ha!), and I thought I would impart some of my knowledge on anyone desperate enough to listen.  This blog is (hopefully) going to be a collection of thoughts about motherhood and kids, events in our life, and anything else I feel like writing about.

Photo of our new family (aren't we cute?!)