3 Cheese Pork Tenderloin Spaghetti - Surprise! I Can Cook

I can cook. I never usually post different things that I cook here only because I don't find the time to take pictures while I'm speeding through cooking. I always wait til the last minute to cook, and by then, my family is starving! The kids love it when I cook because they know we can sit at the table and enjoy each other's company. Yes, my children love it! :)

The other night I decided to make my 3 Cheese Pork Tenderloin Spaghetti. I love making pork tenderloins because not only is it in-expensive, but we pair it with all sort of things from pasta, vegetables, mashed potatoes, and more!

First you mix 3 eggs to use for the breadcrumb mixture

Then you get a package of pork tenderloins. I like to get the thin slices ones because not only is it more effective, but the kids only eat so much, it's perfect for them.

Only $2.68!

The mixture I do for this particler dinner is:

Plain Breadcrumbs

Pepper

Seasoned Salt (just a dash)

Paprika

Then we add the cheese

Yum!!!

And mix it all up!

Next you dip the tenderloins in the eggs...

Dip it in the breadcrumb mixture, and I always dip it back in the eggs to double coat it

And double coat it!

With the oil we use vegetable oil or canola oil. Slide them and start cooking!

And voila! You house smells delicious!

At this point I started sampling each tenderloin and by the time we all sat down at the table, we ate everything and realized I didn't get to take anymore pictures!!!!

What finished this dish is I just boiled some spaghetti noodles, threw in some pasta sauce, and placed these little brown babies right on top and ate away!!!

See Mom, there's proof! I do cook!!! :)

Puppies Suck Your Creative Time

I love my daughter's dog. I really do. Or at least I'm trying to convince myself I really do. Truth is, she is a lot of work. Princess is an adorable malti-poo puppy Truly got as an early birthday present, and since we already have a lab Matthew, we though "Eh, no big deal, it won't be that hard."

Little did I knew this little "Princess" was about to disrupt my whole life. Training our lab was pretty easy, he takes direction well, and has been very easy to love and work with. Princess on the other end is like a puppy that can't be tamed. I have never seen a dog poop or pee on itself so much in my entire life.

With her small bladder, we have been taking her outside to do her business more frequently than Matthew, timing when she eats and drinks, and limiting her food and water to certain times to make sure she has plenty of time to make her business outside.

Re-arranging my schedule for the "Princess."

But does that help? Nope. We have had different crates, puppy pads, we've used everything. If you turn around for one second, this little girl has completely doused herself in her urine and fecal matter.

Sounds gross? It is. Very very gross.

Especially this morning when I got up early to try and get some writing done for a novel and products I'm working on. I turned the corner and the smell of poop hit me. I was shaking in my PJ's scared to see the horrific site that was Princess' cage, and sure enough, there she was, the little shit girl, covered from head to toe in poo. After yelling on the phone with my husband who swears up and down he took her outside where she did her business before he left to work, I attempted to look for the gloves.

An hour as passed before I've got her clean and her cage cleaned. Another hour has passed as I finally clean the place her cage was in the house, the poopy footprints she left behind, and mopped the floor where we walked by. One more hour goes to cleaning her cage again after she peed on herself.

3 hours gone.

Writing time gone.

And all I've got left to show for it is the lovely blog post and a grumbling stomach as breakfast has come and gone.

But darn it is she cute or what.... :-/

Beating Allergies & Looking Fab #ClearBeauty

I've always suffered from seasonal allergies. Whenever my family wants to go out (which is all day long) during the spring season, I am usually a sneezy, teary-eyed mess. I remember one time I went running without taking any allergy medicine, and by the time I got home, my eyes were literally swelling our of my eye sockets! Plus, with allergies, it is nearly impossible to wear make up, and look my usually perfect self, when I can't stop sneezing!

We are having a Garage Sale soon and being outside all day long is going to be hell for my allergies! Thank goodness this Allegra opportunity came around to try out what the fuss about this amazing allergy medication.

So not only was I on a mission to stop my allergies in their tracks, but needed to get some new beauty products to be garage selling machine!

I gathered up the kids in the car (all of us still in our jammies, when you work at home, this is the kind of privileges you get!) and off we went to CVS.

And of course, in the 10 minute car drive, little Addy knocked out asleep :-/

Lucky us there was barely any people at CVS to see us in our PJ's and without any make up

So after grabbing some of my must-haves like Great Lash Mascara....

and some NYC Purple lipstick at the request of Truly.....

...We finally located the Allegra Allergy Medication! Lucky for me (and you) you can also get Allegra for only $17.99 for the month of May with your CVS card. Cha-Ching!

So we finally paid, narrowly avoiding this area.....

Our total came out to about $30 because well I gave in and let Truly (and myself) get some ice cream! Looking beautiful also starts in the taste buds you know!

And look who decided to wake up the second she was back in her carseat!

All in all it was a very successful trip!

You can check out the rest of my trip by going to my Google+ photo album.

When we got home, I was already feeling a little teary eyed, but knew I had to get out and start the day. I was super excited to try out the new make up I got from the store, as well as being able to enjoy wearing make up throughout the door without rubbing it off due to watery eyes.

Allegra has been part of my beauty regimen and have to admit, I love it. Not only is my make up still on my face, and not in tissues, but I'm free to run like a mad woman with my children. Check out the Allegra Make Over Game and see how you can turn yourself from Drab to Fab!

Want to see my #ClearBeauty transformation with the products I got?

My Drab.....

To Fab!!!

My Drab...

To Fab!! :)

You can find Allegra on Twitter and like their page on Facebook. Don't forget to also get your Allegra at CVS with your CVS card for only $17.99 for the month of May!

If you're looking for me, I'll be outside enjoying the warm weather, and NOT sneezing my purple lipstick off!!

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• I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™. #CBias #SocialFabric

My 5 Year Old Is My Photographer

I'll give you more information later, but I am working on a new blog/website to combine all of my websites together. For this new website, I am working on branding myself. This means, Photoshoot! And who better to take pictures of me, than Truly!

Here are a couple of photos she took!

Of course I had to take some of her as well, In return :)

Keep an eye out for more! And don't worry, when I do combine all of my blogs, this one will just be re-routed. No need to re-subscribe, and yada yada.

So Time Magazine Got Me Thinking......

Everyone in the blogging world knows about the Time Magazine cover that is sparking a little bit of controversy right now. 1) Because, WOO HOO, a mommy blogger got on the cover of Time, and 2) Because her toddler son is suckling on her boob.

I just want to note that If I looked as hot as this mom, I would have done this too!

I mean, cmon!

Seriously though, there are many thoughts of did this go too far, or is it about time?

I breastfed Truly when she was a baby, because it was the right thing to do. Even though I was in college, I wasn't too busy, and from everything I had learned, breastfeeding was the way to feed your children. I was honestly very brazen about it. If my daughter was crying, I simply popped open my boob, placed a napkin or my hand over any areas that were exposed, and fed my daughter.

I never really thought about who was around me, I honestly didn't care. I wasn't trying to shove it into anyone's face, or tell the world "Hey look at me!" I was simply feeding my daughter and that was what my focus was on.

When Truly was 2 years old, she was still breastfeeding. I didn't really think about her age, it's just something we did. She was still my baby. This is when I became pregnant with our second daughter. I've heard that when you are pregnant your hormones in the milk change and sometimes kids stop breastfeeding. That's what happened. I was 3 months pregnant I believe, and poof, Truly was done.

If she wanted to continue, I probably would have let her. I think what would have happened though, is that she would have lost interest before 3.  She was busy doing too many things, and only nursed occasionally at night when she would sleep with me. The times she would nurse, she would want to play, draw, or try new foods.

I think breastfeeding into the toddler years is a great thing, although personally for me, I would grow so tired of being pulled at and having my boob stretched beyond capacity.

I also wanted to add that Addy was formula fed. I was 50/50 on this decision. I wasn't sure if I wanted to, but I remembered the hours of non-stop pulling on me. Although, I still felt it was the right thing to do. I felt that if I didn't breastfeed, also that I wouldn't be as close to my second child. My husband though, felt very left out during some of the most important bonding times. While he never said anything to me before, he wanted to have that time with our child, and wanted to help me.

I was also very surprised with Similac. It didn't smell bad, and claimed to be "Closer Than Ever To Breast milk." I'm not stupid though :)

Reluctantly, I gave in. I'm also glad I did. Addy and I are no different than Truly and I. Our bond is just as close as it is with the child I breastfed. And is she sickly? No. In fact, Truly went to the doctor more times than Addy has. Has Addy had ear infections? Yes, 1 minor ones, that was easily adjusted just by watching carefully how we fed her.

Would I breastfeed again? Sure. Would I formula feed again? Why not.

The fact that Time is bringing to our attention breastfeeding and the lifestyle is a great way to get people thinking and talking about it.

Don't we all love a lil' chatt-ah!

Raising Children To Be Entrepreneurs #LemonadeDay

For today's blog post I am doing a vlog about an easy way to teach children how to be Entrepreneurs by starting a lemonade stand as part of Lemonade Day. Visit http://www.LemonadeDay.org to see if it's going on in your city!

Truly is super excited!

Business Owners Can't Own Homes

My husband and I are in a sticky situation when it comes to home ownership. Currently we are renting a house, but our lease it up in September, and from what we understand, the owners are wanting to move back in. So that leaves us, well out. In a couple of months.

We could obviously go find another home to rent, but that means having to wait until about July/August to look and lease another house or apartment. With school starting again in late August, we need to make sure we are settled before then.

Something we rarely think about is the thought of owning our own home. Well I suppose we think about it often, but never bring it up due to the fear of it never happening. There are a couple of roadblocks that come in our way.

1) We are both self employed

My husband owns his own business and I own mine working online. This can be tricky for any mortgage company to authorize us risky business owners any type of loan over $40. Especially when they want years worth of records.

2) I change my mind, like that (snaps fingers)

Ever since I was 16, I've had a new car every year. That's just how it's always been with my uncle being the manager of a car dealership. Instead of fixing a car, getting new tires, blah blah, my mom would be like, "Let's trade it in." Same thing with our living arrangements. I love not being tied down to one thing because I love to change my mind. Plus, the thought of owning a home and having to take the full responsibility for things breaking, termites, etc, that's extremely scary to me.

Most importantly though, we would be first time home buyers, who are self-employed, so getting on the right track is something we need to do if we want to make it happen, but we need help from the right people.

I've heard lots of good things from working with realtors that are recommended by Dave Ramsey on his site, so I ended up filling out a form and getting in touch with a few of them. One particular was extremely understanding of our situation, gave us a number to a mortgage lender, and would love to help us.

Our next plan of action is figuring out what we can get approved for, or figuring out what steps we need to take to make home ownership a realty.

Wish us luck!!

The Birthday Party Dreams Are Made Of

We always had the best birthdays growing up. I'll also tell you that we weren't rich either. Just a mom and dad who worked hard and liked to live life with their kids. We had moon bounces, clowns, magicians, face paintings, ponies, petting zoos, etc. Our house was the one going crazy with it's own little circus come birthday party time.

Last weekend, my darling first born child, Truly turned 5. One of those bittersweet moments of proudness/sadness. I remember when she was born. Or, I kind of do. I was so drugged up all I remember was them telling me to push, I obliged, and poof there she was.

She's my princess, her name derived from Truly Scrumptious of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It's her song, she knows it of course.

So being 5 is a huge deal right?! Of course it is! So planning this monumental party, well, I kind of put it off. 1) Because I've been extremely busy with all my work from The Art of Social Media and 2) Well I figured putting it off would mean she didn't have to grow up as fast.

It could have also possibly been 3) I've just been waaay too lazy. Maybe.

A week before her party, I realized that I had nothing planned and set yet!

The weekend before the party, the #UBP12 started. While registering, I came across the first prize package from TimeDog and I thought, "Hmm, how neat!" So I went on over, signed up for a free trail and asked a couple of questions.

TimeDog is this awesome service that acts as your personal assistant. They will make reservations for you, look up interent searches, make appointments, help explain to your mom why the Internet is down, whatever! Well maybe not whatever, but you can go to their website at http://www.TimeDog.com and see everything they offer.

You can call, text, or email a request and they will help you, right away! I prefer email because, ugh, I hate talking on phones! So I'm glad they offer the email/live chat option.

So a week before Truly's birthday, I sent them quick email on my phone: "Do you know of any clowns that are available on Saturday?"

Within a couple of hours, I received a lovely email back with links, prices, and more for clowns that they confirmed were available and a brief description of what they offer. @TimeDogAliea also sent me a link to save 20% off at PartyCity! What a score! I hadn't even thought of that.

I simply called the number for my favorite clown in the email and booked the clown.

I used TimeDog to look up Truly's birthday present and compare prices, book ponies and check on availability and pricing, and even check for coupons for ingredients to make the birthday cake!
@TimeDogAliea and @TimeDogEmily were tremendous!

Do you even understand how much time AND stress that saved me!?

Did I also mention that their service for unlimited requests is only $35/month! How could you possibly beat that? I mean Siri is okay, but she can not get down to specifics, call and confirm availability for me?! Sorry Siri.

After all was said and done, and the hectic of getting through one major birthday, and looking towards more parties in May, and realizing how I do not want to do several of these parties a year, I then used TimeDog to check on Vasectomy's in my city :) Which they did. Being their awesome selves. Appointment made. Don't tell my husband I put that on my blog.

Check out pictures of the party below!!!!

Truly and Grandma with the clown/balloon artist/amazing face painter!!

Yee Haw!!!

"I can't believe there's a pony in my house!!"

My 5 year old with feathers in her hair and skulls in her bows

The cake I made. Ran out of frosting but was way too pooped to go out and get more

Sprinkles for a Princess

Of course I didn't get to take too many pictures because I was running around all day, but it was definitely worth every penny. If more pictures pop up on Facebook I'll be sure to add them in. Everyone had a blast and so did we! But thanks to TimeDog for making it the smoothest planning process I've ever been in!!

I was not asked by TimeDog to write any review for them. I simply wrote a blog post about my daughter's birthday and was super impressed by the TimeDog team who goes beyond their service requests. I am truly grateful I didn't have to plan this by myself :)

Moving Truck Birthday Cake

Today is my husbands birthday, the day right before our daughter's, and this year I decided that I was going to make everyone's birthday cake. This is kind of a big deal, because even though I make little dinky cakes here and there, I've never made like a real birthday cake. I've always gone out to the grocery store, bought some cake that I think tastes gross anyway, and ta da, $50 down the drain.

So for Hubby's birthday, I made him this cake...