2/28/16 - the day leo finally got his oscar

I knew this was his year, and I am still ecstatic.

Much deserved.

Leia

leonardo dicaprio

Dear Leo,


I have a feeling this will finally be your year at The Academy Awards. I know, I know. We've all gone a little crazy over the years with accusing The Academy for robbing your of an award that was rightly yours. You have been nominated five times, the first being in 1993 for What's Eating Gilbert Grape and now this year for The Revenant.

While my love for you is undying and I believe that anytime you have been nominated you deserved

the win; this film, more than any before has really showcased your abilities. I am not an actor, and I am not a thespian, but I surely love to watch films.. your films. No, you weren't in your beautiful prime in The Revenant, but in your acting prime? I think yes. For a large portion of the film you were expected to convey emotions ranging from sadness, to anger, to pain without speaking.

Out of nineteen nominations for this film, you've won fourteen of them. Hopefully tonight will make for twenty nominations, and fifteen wins. You landed the Golden Globe and the SAG now my fingers are crossed for an Oscar and more shade to be thrown at Lady Gaga.

You've already arrived on the red carpet and the awards have already started, but I'm slaving away at work. You look dapper as usual (and I still don't see a ring on that finger so I'm hoping the engagement rumors from October are false).

I will be watching tonight hopefully when I get home. It will probably be spoiled for me by then either way, but oh well.

I love you,

Leia

living room "makeover"

While I've been off from school and work I had BIG plans for projects around the house.

• wood floors in the kitchen
• refinish the kitchen cabinets
• maybe paint the kitchen since I've always felt the color to be a little too 'juvenile'
• new white subway tile backsplash to finish off things being neutral in the gray perspective vs tan
• MAYBE check into new countertops but $$$$$$$$$$$
• new vanity for our bathroom
• paint our bathroom

What I ended up doing? Painting the living room and Brendon surprised me by painting our spare bathroom (something I also decided I wanted to do while I was off since all my other to-do's are staying to-do's for awhile).

BEFORE

This isn't even the full before. When we first moved in we put the TV on the back wall. I had never been a fan of this location since it drew so much attention to our fireplace being off center. I hate to call it wacky because I truly love our house.. but wacky af. I'm assuming it had to do with a building code blahdy blahdy blah. So the first thing we did was rotate our sectional and move the TV to it's new 'home'.

LEIA'S PAINTING NECESSITIES

These items will make your life much easier when it comes to painting a room, I guarantee it! In most cases you'll only need one coat of paint and you won't need to tape off ceiling edges or the trim.

1. Shur-Line paint edger

2. Shur-Line edger refill pack (depending on how many colors you're doing)

3. 3M ScotchBlue delicate surface tape (you don't need the bulk size but it's all Home Depot's website had - roughly $7-8 for a single roll)

4. Behr Premium Plus - All of Behr's paint is paint and primer in one now and they have different 'intensities'. Premium Plus works well for most light-medium tones but someone in the paint department will be able to advise you. I ALWAYS use satin finish. It is easily cleaned if you have a freak accident and it doesn't give off a bright glare. Eggshell finish still has the tendency to do this.

5. "Best" 3/8 in nap roller cover

6. 3 in mini roller, 3/8 in nap roller cover (make sure the nap is the same between the mini and regular roller)

7. Mini roller cover refill pack

Wahoo! Picking out paint colors! The most exciting yet daunting home improvement task. I picked Chicago Fog (hoping it'd be the perfect light taupe, but resulting in gray. Not mad about it) and Cloudy Sky (a lighter color off the same watch as our high school colored kitchen since I wanted to coordinate and come to terms that our kitchen would not be getting special treatment during my time off).

First you're going to want to prep your walls. Make sure holes are filled in properly and sanded (and then wiped down) and make sure intricate details are taped off (window ledges).

Once you start painting, you'll first want to pick a starting place and paintbrush the corner and begin cutting in with your paint edger. I recommend to run your edger along the bottom/top (depending ceiling/trim) edge of the paint to lessen the chance of there being a visible edge. In addition to this I recommend doing small sections and alternate between edging and rolling. This ensures you're always working with a wet edge.

If you've never used an edger before it takes a minute to get the feel for it. It's important not to load it down with paint; it will leak all around the edges and most likely get paint where you were hoping not to.

While I've always used 3/8 in nap because of the amount of paint that can be applied with one roll depending on the smoothness of your walls you'll want to use something smaller, like 1/4 in nap. This is something someone in the paint department could advise you on. Regardless of which size roller you're using one of the most important things is to never 'stretch' your paint. Don't press harder and harder in an attempt to get every last drop out of your roller before refilling. 

AFTER: PHASE 1

Ooooh yes, I'm liking where this is going!

AFTER: PHASE 2

There are still homey things that need to be done with this space. I have a multitude of photos that will be creating a gallery wall above the fireplace and we have our eye on a gorgeous new entertainment center. The sectional doesn't work in this space but we haven't narrowed down it's replacement yet.

Also, if you know me you know that this is one of the most simple paint jobs I've done in this house and one that any one of you could pull off with ease. If you need help, I'm here for ya!

Good, Better, Behr.

Leia

mid-week meal share: chicken enchilada casserole

It's Wednesday guys and the lovely 55º weather we had over the weekend has turned into snow and school closings (our district has already closed for tomorrow). It's not even the fun type of snow; it's the wet, slushy, heavy shit and it's going to cause major issues with the temperatures dropping below freezing tonight.

But whether the winter weather is troubling you, you want a quick easy dinner, or you are hosting a fiesta themed party here is an easy recipe for you. I present to you chicken enchilada casserole! This could obviously be made with a different filling so I implore you to expand your mind.

Cost effective: ¡SI, 345 pesos! (Spanish punctuation is accurate? I think?)

Easy to concoct: ¡SEGURO!

Head to the store and grab these items:

1½ pounds / 2 cups diced or shredded chicken (I used the Crock-Pot again)

3 cups shredded cheese

1 can of green chiles (4.5 oz, undrained)

flour or corn tortillas

1 16 oz can of refried beans

1 19 oz can of enchilada sauce (we used red)

*½ cup chopped medium green onion
*we also used white rice

1. Preheat your oven to 350ºF. Or if you're going to used shredded chicken from your Crock-Pot, you'll want to cook and shred it first!

2. Mix together your chicken, 1½ cups of cheese, and chiles in a bowl.

3. In your baking dish, add a thin layer of enchilada sauce.

4. Add in two tortillas to cover the bottom and the sides of the dish.
5. Here I substituted a layer of beans for a layer of white rice. Do whichever your hangry little heart desires.

6. Now you shall add a layer of your chicken mixture. I used half the mixture since I didn't think my dish could accommodate three complete layers.

7. The original recipe called to use half the enchilada sauce, but I just spooned an amount that I felt to be appropriate.

8. And time to repeat the process. For the second time around I did tortillas, refried beans, chicken mixture, enchilada sauce.

9. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.

10. Cover in foil.. which I did not do because the video recipe didn't show it.. and bake for 45 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly.
11. Enjoy the chicken-y, cheese-y, enchilada-y goodness!

Seriously loved this. I half expected it to turn out too soggy to be enjoyable but it was great. I would totes love to spice it up more but with the little one's that's not always feasible. Le sigh. One thing that was not great about this recipe?

The bottom layer was completely baked on to the bottom. I'm assuming if you sprayed a little non-stick spray or used some butter the problem would be solved. Maybe next time I'll try this.



La cucaracha, la cucaracha, enchilada, blah blah blah.
Leia

piper will be the death of me

As I'm preparing to head upstairs to go to bed for my second super late night in a row (yay for sociology discussions and essay exams!) I truly hope Piper is going to behave better tonight.

Yah, she still isn't sleeping through the night, and the past three nights have been hell. 'Co-sleeping half the night because she cries when you try lowering her into her crib' hell. Co-sleeping is one of those things that I have never been a fan of. She's almost 18 months and while she's sleeping peacefully and 99.9% likely to not get tangled up in our blankets it absolutely stresses me out. I think I sleep in five minute intervals jolting awake each time with that horrible "I'm late!!!!!" feeling. Heart racing, just the whole nine yards.

LAST NIGHT

So, Piper wakes up just before 1a. It's an easy fix this time around. I was awake writing an ethics paper for my weird online intro to nursing class so I just went into her room, popped her paci back in, and continued on my way. Thirty minutes later, she starts crying again. Since I am wide awake I decide to let her cry it out. I noted that I would go in once Brendon started fidgeting (HAHAHAHAA) or when 10 minutes had lapsed.

Holy hell. The kid was still going strong at minute 8, so I went in. She was laying down flat on her mattress not even attempting to look or feel around for her paci. So infuriating. Just.. why! WHY! When she realized I was fumbling around looking around for the paci - doing her job - she started to get up at which point I picked her up because regardless of how upset I was she had a completely wet tear face and I thought I would cuddle her. Hahahaha, what an amateur move. Of course she wouldn't want me to but her back in her crib after that.

I swear I was rocking her for 4 hours. In all actuality I don't know how much time had passed since I didn't check the time for fear of "you have approximately 4 good hours of sleep left". After the 7 hours of rocking she was still wide awake and threatened wailing screams each time I walked near her crib so I threw in the towel and brought her back to bed with me. I guess I'd rather keep waking up thanks to mini-heart attacks than getting up out of bed to walk across the hall to her room.

But then they do things like this just before you send them off to bed:

So, I don't know how to make the video work. Help?

They're lucky they're cute.

Leia

spring-y makeover

A huge thanks to Lauryn over at Adoration Studios for helping this novice blogger by creating and installing a new look for my little corner of the internet. The words and only some minor changes are mine. The rest of the praise goes to her. She was probably laughing hysterically at my questions. Whatevs.

And I think I finally fell asleep around 4:30a "last night", but one can never be too sure. Looking at the time during those fretful hours really stresses me out. Luckily Brendon let me gain some extra hours this morning.

Now time for that "oh you thought you were going on break?" homework.

Leia

things I know at 3:36a

I can't sleep. 

I scrolled through photos and found this one. Piper is a rough snuggler. 

Piper woke up I don't know, maybe an hour and a half ago. 

Once I got back into bed an Amber alert went off for a little girl in Detroit. 

I hate that getting Amber alerts at 3a makes me wish I didn't get them at all. 

This makes me feel evil and heartless. 

I hope she is returned/found with no harm done. 

I took the TEAS exam today and passed each of the four sections. 

We had pizza for dinner. 

I started a new book: 11/22/63 by Stephen King. 

This book wasn't on my radar until the mini series debuted on Hulu starring the one and only James Franco. 

Regardless of my undying love for James, the reader in me wouldn't stand for watching the series first. 

Yesterday was day 1 of 9 days off. 

Wahoo Spring Break! I think it's Spring Break at least?

No school, no work. 

Initially I wanted to take a vacation to get away from the buzz of things (sorry Ken and Pipes, this includes you). 

It didn't work out that way but we might do some 'spur of the moment' projects around the house. 

All 5 of my classes have at least one assignment due over break. 

This pisses me off. 

I'm sort of hungry. 

Too lazy to go downstairs to get something. 

It's probably for the better. 

Tomorrow morning is gonna come early. 

Leia

mid-week meal share: sausage & sauerkraut with Piper

Michigan has been doing this wacky thing with weather where one day it wants to snow and the next day it wants to tease us with a 52°F day. Oh, and then rain.

Needless to say at one point or another one of us has been completely congested or been left feeling defeated by a drippy, disgusting nose that just won't quit (Piper is going on week two of booger face). So cute. 

What does feeling crummy call for? A meal that mom would make. I don't care how old you get there is nothing that compares to a bit of good ol' momma lovin' when you're sick.

A few weeks ago my eighteen year old sister woke our mom up in the middle of the night to inform her that she threw up. Awww, you really shouldn't haaaaveeeee.

So this week I bring to you one of the usual dinner rotations from my childhood. Sausage and sauerkraut noodles.

Cost effective: yes, $6 for a large skillet full.

Easy to concoct: yes. 

Here's what you'll need (and even though you're 26 and have been eating this all your life, you might still need to text your mom to confirm which kind of sausage to buy)

 1 tube of Bob Evan's ground pork sausage (thanks, mom!)

1 jar of sauerkraut

1 package of egg noodles (I always use wide)

salt and pepper to taste

*call/text for Piper

1. First things first: boil up them noodles.

2. Simultaneously start browning up the sausage. Why on Earth is this the hardest thing to break apart?

3. Solemnly shake your head when you turn around to see this:

4. Once your sausage is browned up, add in your sauerkraut. I have a medium/large sized skillet but proportionally I do almost equal parts sauerkraut and sausage.

 5. Oh, look. She's trying to make it up by being cute!

 6. Once you've drained your noodles, add them to the skillet.

7. Now she's a cute speed bump.

8. Mix everything together and cook until heated through.

9. Enjoy!

 Obviously this meal would not have been possible without the help of the littlest hands in the house!

Down on the farm!

Leia