Wordless Wednesday

I love the idea of Wordless Wednesdays.  It'll just never work for me though...not consistently anyway.  Not taking enough photos is just one of the hundreds of reasons.  So, today will be Crazy Simple Crockpot Recipe Wednesday.  Has a ring to it, huh?!?

I come across tons of recipes on Pinterest that I want to try.  However, most of them just have too dang many ingredients.  This one, not so much.  Get ready for the list of what you'll need...

Boneless skinless chicken breasts (3 works for our family)

One jar of salsa (the cheap stuff is fine)

One package of taco seasoning (again, we like Kroger brand best)

Now comes the hard part...

Toss the chicken into the slow cooker

Mix the salsa and seasoning

Pour mixture over chicken

Cook on low for 4ish hours

That's all I've got.  Nothing else to do.  When it's ready, shred it and make some tacos or burritos or nachos or something with it.  I like the nachos best.  Kidlet just wants a pile of meat on his plate.  Hubs likes to make a burrito out of it.  I have a picture below.  It's not a pretty one, but it tastes oh so good, it's oh so easy, and makes the whole house smell oh so yummy.

So there you have it.  Something simple that can be made into a ton of different meals.  And, it's cheap.

It's been a bit.  Oh well, times flies when you are having fun.  And, that is what we fully intend to do during the summer months.  We kicked off the summer with a camping trip and have been to the lake every weekend since.  With temps in the low 100's and no rain for weeks at a time...it's the only place to be!

We don't get many family photos, but this one turned out pretty good.  This is how we spend every weekend...and love every second of it.



During our week long stay at Dam Site Park, we headed out to catch a couple of sunsets.  They are just too beautiful on the lake. 

Home sweet home. 

Oh so very typical for us. 

Dan and Michael doing a little treasure hunting in the lake.  Tons of sunglasses and anchors are there for the taking.

It's back to school already for our little 3rd grader.  He went back July 16th.  It looks like he's going to have to work a little harder this year.  Hoping all goes well and we can have another year of all A's!

Michael's first Tri

I just can't explain how excited, nervous and anxious we were for Michael on the morning of his triathlon.  We had worked with him on swimming, biking, running, and the transitions between the sports.  He had all of the information he needed, now it was up to him to try his best. 

We arrived in Bryant about 6:20am - on a Saturday no less!  I'll never understand why all swim, bike, run, and multi-sport events have to be at the butt crack of dawn.

Getting ready, Dan pinned Michael's bib (519) to his spandex.  How many 8 year olds do you know that will willingly wear spandex?

 Once his bib was in place, we headed over to the body marking station.  It's been 4 days and he refuses to wash the number off. 

 Next, we headed inside to get his timing chip.  He liked this part, too.  Luckily, we had to give this back or I'm pretty sure he'd still be wearing it.

 All ready and an hour or more to wait. 

 Getting closer to time.

 Pre-race instructions...notice which kid is NOT paying attention?!?!

 Headed to the queue line for the swim start. 

 Just a few seconds until he starts his journey.

 His swim went great.  He was the 4th kid out of the pool (out of 16).

 He flew through T1 and had the fastest time in his age group.  He's headed out for his 2 mile bike ride...on a road...without a parent.  Pretty sure I was way more nervous than he was.  There were a ton of volunteers and he was right behind the pace bike (and adult luckily) so there was no need for mother hen to be quite so nervous.

 Returning from his bike ride, he seemed to be in good spirits and not too worn out.

 T2 was flawless.  He ditched the bike and helmet and was out the back of transition and starting his run in less than one minute.

 Off to run his 1/2 mile.

 Almost there, buddy...just a few more steps and you're a triathlete!!  Forever!!

 Done.  17 minutes flat. 

 Dan picked that child up and hugged him and spun around like the most proud papa on the face of the planet.  Wait, he was! 

Dan telling Michael how proud he was of him.  We both were.  He ran a great race. 

Overall, he took 6th place out of his age group.  They gave awards 5 deep, so he wasn't far off of getting a medal on his first race.  That would have been awesome, but it may be best that he didn't.  He now has something to work toward.

He definitely has the bug.  There are 2 other races near by this year and he wants to sign up for both.  We're excited that he's found something he loves to do.  

Happy Birthday Little Man

It is so hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that my little 9 lb 4 oz baby boy is 8 year old and 65 lbs today.  Where did those 8 years go???

He had a fun little b-day party at The Dive Shop with his cousin Owen and buddy Hudson.  They swam, had pizza, opened a few gifts and then a slice of pie to finish off the evening.

"You'll shoot your eye out, kid!"

  Michael and Hudson

 Remote control helicopter...we are all totally addicted!

  Kick and Go scooter.  Just like the ones Honda made in the 70's.

Happy Birthday Michael !!!

We had an awesome view of the eclipse the other night from our driveway.  I was super excited to show Michael how you can look through a potato chip bag and see the eclipse without hurting your eyes.  When we invited Daddy to come check it out, he suggested his weling helmet for better viewing.  Oh well.  At least he is equipped with a new littel tid bit of knowledge.  And for the record, a potato chip bag is much more readily available than a welder's helmet.  Just sayin'.  Tried to get a good pic, but the sun was too bright without the helmet and too dark with it.  I think the folks on the West coast got the best view.

Michael's next adventure is a triathlon.  We are all so excited.  It's at Bishop Park in Bryant.  He will swim 50 yards, bike 2 miles, and then run .5 miles.  We went to a transition clinic last weekend and he did great.  We've worked on transitioning from swimming to biking and biking to running, so he should do great.  We are oh so very excited for him. 

Spring is a busy busy time of year for us.  I am finished with teaching lifeguard classes for this year and Michael is almost finished with baseball.  This weekend kind of kicks off our summer.  We are headed to Jacks on the White River to enjoy some fishing, food, and fun. 

Blessed is the only way to describe all of this.



Wordless Wednesday

My super awesome computer lost the will to connect to all things Google there for awhile.  It seems to be back.  Whoot Whoot.  Hopefully I can get my act together and post more than once every 5-6 months. 

Michael is having a wonderful baseball season.  He has really gotten the hitting part down to an art.  I think he's had a hit at each at-bat this season.  We still have a lot of work to do with his defensive skills, but there is promise.  School is going well for him as well.  Little man has done really well at eStem and for the first 3 quarters has maintained all As.  Proud Momma right here boy and girls!  He participated in the Little Rockers Kids' Marathon in March.  He spent many months running many miles and completed his last 1.2 miles along the Marathon route along with thousands of other kids.  He did great.  I am super excited about the Triathlon that he is signed up for in June.  I hope he gets hooked and wants to do many many more. Can't believe he will be 8 in a few weeks either.  Time is going way way way too fast!

Dan's latest project is a set of SeaDoos.  We're hoping to get those fixed up, play with them a couple of times and sell them at the beginning of the Summer.  Here's to hoping that goes as planned. 

Spring is super busy.  Still teaching lifeguarding every other weekend.  That takes up tons of our playtime, but funds the fun.  So, it has to be done.  The healthy changes have stuck.  BP is normal, cholesterol is back to normal and sugars are cooperative as well.  The best part is the 27.5 lbs I've lost so far.  I have about 17 lbs left to get to my goal, so I'm well on my way.  I've always heard the last 10 lbs is the hardest.  We'll see.

Porsche is 11 this year and holding her own.  She has liver cancer, so likely won't be with us much longer.  For now, she is the same 'ol turtle hunting dog that she's always been...just much skinnier.

I don't even know where to begin with this dog.  He really keeps us on our toes.  He ran away at the beginning of February.  It was Super Bowl weekend to be exact.  He went on his walk-a-bout sometime Friday and we found him on Sunday just before kickoff.  For his next trick, he ate Michael's 1 lb chocolate Easter Bunny.  As seen below, definitely guilty.  His last bit of drama was a snake bite to the face.  Dan says it was a copper head.  His face and neck was oh so swollen.  We felt so bad for him, but he was just protecting his family.  That was last week and he seems to be back to 100%. 

Our first trip to the lake was super early this year.  I believe it was sometime in mid April.  We had a very mild winter which will give us a long lake season this year.  Very excited about that!

The Jimmy Buffett concert was simply amazing.  The tailgating is like no other and the concert was just as awesome as the other 2 I've been to.  I so so hope he comes back to Little Rock! 

I'm going to try to keep up a little better with the pics.  Hoping to hop on the Wordless Wednesday bandwagon.