TOMS Blog

TOMS Blog

Chicken

I told Aaron to give me a topic for today and he chose: chicken. Such a man, of course he wants to talk about food! Well, I do have to say that I make some really good margarita grilled chicken...its from Chili’s! SO, here is my recipe for it. Its not the same as Chili’s, but it tastes great!

Margarita Mix(bottled, you can even get lite!)
Boneless Chicken Breasts

* Place chicken breasts in a glass dish, and pour margarita mix over them until covered. Let marinate in the fridge for 2 hours...and make sure you do the full 2 hours or a little longer!

For Rice mix:
White Rice
Your favorite salsa
1 can of drained corn

Pico:
2-3 Roma tomatoes (seeded)
1/2 red onion (to taste)
1 jalapeno pepper (or more to taste)
2 medium cloves garlic
juice of one lime
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper


Black Beans(as much as you want!)
Tortilla strips(really thin ones!)

Grill your chicken! Cook your rice! Mix your pico! Cook your beans!

Now to put it together! To make it pretty.....
Put one spoonful of beans on the plate, spread them out to where there is a hole in the center.
One handful of tortilla strips
One scoop of rice on top of the chips
your chicken breast
one spoonful of pico
topped with a lime wedge

And you have margarita grilled chicken!

 

Enjoy!

April Showers...

bring May showers? What? Since April 17th,  it seems we have been under a constant flash flood watch, tornado watch, and we just can't catch a break. Its crazy. We're so behind on our outdoor projects because we never know when we are going to get to work on them. But I am getting a slow start on the inside projects! 

 Project One:

Living Room Curtains. I've bought the curtains at Target,

and my next step is deciding the color to 

paint the stripes!

Project Two: 

Kitchen Door.

 

Valspar Lake Country, Chalkboard Paint.

Pictures to come!

Project Three:

Living Room Artwork

Inspiration from Young House Love.

Ours won't be identical, but the same idea with

lines and shape.

All three of these inside projects are totaled at....$52.

and that's fine with us!

Another thing we would like to do, its this...

Only with pictures from our Labor Day 2011

getaway to the beach. And trust, they won't all be pictures of us.

Mostly scenery. The center one will be us.

And we will eventually redo this with our family!

Have a blessed day!

nooz

My new prayer for today is that God will either take all my allergies away and not let anything bother me, or take me away from Arkansas.  I love my Arkansas, but this is killing me. I wasn't sick before the wedding(thank goodness!), went to Washington and came back, and BAM! I'm knocked out for 4 WEEKS!(&COUNTING!) I've now developed a nasty cough, and a nasty habit of puking when I cough...So, somethings gotta give.

Anyways, life is going pretty good in the Ray household. Aaron is becoming Mr. Handyman, he fixed out kitchen sink this weekend! And I'm getting good at this whole bargain shopping thing....all three HSM movie, extended editions, remixes, and dance party editions...for $15! :) I'm so confident, that i am actually starting my Christmas shopping come July!(I hate the feeling of blowing a bunch of money all at once right before Christmas.)

More prayers are needed. Aaron has applied for the position of Fine Arts Center Assistant Director at VBSD. He wants this job BAD. I mean BAD. So keep him in your prayers!!
**UPDATE 1:30 pm....THEY CALLED!!
Aaron HAS AN INTERVIEW next Tuesday at 2:30!!!!

Other than these few things, there's not much to update! :)

Have a wonderful day!

pinterest-for the house

 

guest bedroom?

 awesomeness.

 family pictures?

 From 17 Again. I love the lights, which I will one day have!

Such a cute door!

 Curtains for the living room             I want to do this to our piano.

 Absolutely love these.

 home office

 Must. Go. On.Sale. From. Urban Outfitters. ($70 now...)(for one panel.)

 so pretty.

 we all need more organization, right?

 party hit!

 beautiful tile.

 

matches the curtains, love it.

so cool and easy!

 Must do someday.

 so cute!!!!

 whaaat? That's awesome!

My kids will love this, one day. And so will I.

 This is neat.

 Awesome backsplash.

Must get ironing board off the door and do this!

I can't wait to do some of these to our house!

Update!

Blogging. Man this stuff is hard work! Our lives aren't interesting enough to blog every day! So I'll be brief today.This past weekend, our church had a tea party for the Mothers and Daughters...it was..fun, I guess. Friday night I baked and decorated 35 cupcakes. Which isn't a whole but, considering I hand decorated almost half of them to be flowers, it took 4 hours! Saturday was the Tea Party,then we had a movie night where we watched Time Changer. It was good. Sunday we had a couple good services at church, and started our "praise" band back up. We're in need of a name. Its 5 Rays and a Christian...hmmm.(those are our last names....Aaron, Shannon, Quinton, Rachel and Dylan Ray and Sara Christian. We're all Christians...just not in the surname department!) Anyway, for some reason I've been into this whole NBA playoff thing. I'm all for the OKC Thunder. I guess just because I've been to a game, I don't know. But anyway, last night's game against the Mavs...was terrible. Stinking Dirk Nowitski! Heaven forbid we play some defense on him. Kevin Durant, however, is THE man. Like, WHOA. He's awesome. SO, my picture for the day, is of none other than Durant himself from last night's game!

I'm still looking for another job, so keep me in your prayers. And keep Aaron in your prayers as he applies for a job he got turned down for 2 years ago, and has recently opened. He is so excited that he can reapply and he REALLY wants this job. Its the Assistant to the Sound Director position at the Van Buren Fine Arts Center. HE is PUMPED. :)

I'll update again later this week!

Crisis.

Okay, so I've been working where I am for..a year and a half. It was great at first. I have alot of freedom. But my boss is a pushover who doesn't charge clients like he should. He is in debt over his head. And he is annoying beyond all belief. The other attorney in our office is retiring.They've shared an office for 10 years. Well, my boss can't afford this place on his, plus pay me, and keep a business going...guess who isn't absolutely needed? Yep, you guessed it..Me. Not that I absolutely love my job, because I actually despise it. I dread going to work each day.I've been looking for another job alot, but its hard. I hope to get a call from a dental office in Fort Smith or the Van Buren school district soon. Keep me in your prayers. If I lose my job, its going to be extremely hard on me and Aaron. Doable, but VERY difficult. So please keep us in your prayers as we find out what happens this week job-wise.

wedding pictures!

Wedding pictures are located at the VERYVERyVEryVeryverybottom of this page.

[insert creative title here]

Well, I have recently become addicted to this website, www.pinterest.com... And it has inspired me. Made me jealous. Fooled me. Made me laugh out loud. It has ahold of me. Well, anyways, I am now inspired to be crafty. I have ask for a sewing machine for my birthday, which is T minus 28 days by the way, so I can make our living room curtains, a couple wreaths for people, and well, lots of other stuff that I am so excited about. The front bedroom is going to become our... creation/imagination space! We have the nook for reading, the piano, guitars, and flute for jamming, the craft table to sewing,etc. This is DEFINITELY my favorite room in the house. The front room isn't the only room getting creativity going...the kitchen is too! I bought this book this weekend...What's up Cupcake? and I will become the QUEEN of Cupcakes. I am perfect for it. I don't eat them, but everyone loves my cupcakes. So, my children(one day.far away.VERY, far away.) and my nieces/nephews will be super spoiled to awesomeness.The laundry room/ workout room however is NOT my favorite room at all. Our garage converted into an oversized laundry room is getting more action now than just the washer and dryer. We are getting a treadmill put in tomorrow, thanks to Mom, and we have a total gym in there. I think we are going to be moving our oversized tv in there for workout videos too. Once we get a flatscreen. (I'm dreaming here, so let me be.) I'm currently trying to convince Aaron that that room is now manspace, so that includes all laundry. Its a work in progress. So for some inspiring ideas and laughs check out pinterest, and get yourself ready for some blogging awesomeness to come when I get that sewing machine.

Onto some more serious, life-changing decisions...please keep me in your prayers as I make the decision to go back to school. We are looking at our finances and plans for the house, children, bills, etc. and seeing when I can go back. Things are looking pretty good. It's looking like spring 2012, I will be going back to school for an Associates Degree in Journalism, with an emphasis in Photography. God planning-willing. We still have alot of research to do about it, some more decisions to make, and see if John Brown will even take me. My goal is to: get accepted to John Brown, get grants, scholarships wherever possible, and graduate in 2 1/2 with an Associates in Journalism with an emphasis in Photography. :) 

We'll see.

And even more serious that me deciding to return to school, Aaron&I being the newlyweds that we are..had a little scare this week in the "child" department. Which got us really paying attention to finances, by the way. Anyways, after 4 whole days and a test later, we're in the clear. No kiddos coming this month! This is probably TMI for some people, but for those who we don't really get to talk to...it isn't. BUT, we did come to terms with it, I think...more him than me, that if God did decide to give us a kid now, it'll be alright. We spent some time picking out names and getting some ideas just in case the time came, or comes in the next 3 to 4 years, we'd be ready. This little scare has really made me and Aaron want to start doing things and quickly...like rock climbing this Saturday, we're planning a float trip in June, vacation next May with our best friends, building the deck, tiling the floor, etc. More than anything, OBVIOUSLY, we're not ready to give up our time without kids yet! Shoot, we've been married 3 weeks! haha.

As promised here are some wedding pictures! It will be in slideshow format...so give me a little time to work it out!

love!

Promises?

I promise that one day I will post wedding and honeymoon pictures. Its only been 3 weeks! Sheesh! Life's been busy, I guess. I thought things would come to a standstill as soon as I wasn't planning every second of my life around one day. But as it turns out, I quickly got bored. So, I have been figuring out some issues with the house and yard, working on keeping the house clean, Aaron&the dogs fed, plus maintain some sort of workout. So much for standstill! Recently, I shared with you our plans for the house and yard...well, Memorial Day weekend....those plans are going to start!! We're not sure if we're going to tile the kitchen first or put the new fence up around the deck. It's not set in stone yet, but we have a feeling we will have to buy a new stove in the near future :( I don't like the one we have, but it wasn't an expense we wanted first. Oh well, if we have to get the new stove first, then we will tile the kitchen with it I'm sure.(just because we will already have the stove out of the kitchen ya know?)

So all in all, life has started. And we're lovin' it.