Shrimp And Red Pepper Pasta- YUMMY!

Okay... this is YUMMY! TJ and I wanted seconds and thirds! :) I hope you try it because it is SO easy and takes less than 30 minutes to make! This recipe is from my FAVORITE cookbook, Easy Weeknight Favorites, from Southern Living. ENJOY!

Sorry, this photo is from my cell phone...


3/4 cup Ranch (I used 1 cup- I like Ranch!)
1 (3-oz) package shredded parmesan cheese
8 oz. dried angel hair pasta, uncooked
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/2 pound sliced fresh mushrooms
1 pound peeled medium sized fresh shrimp (I used frozed cooked shrimp because it was easy and less work)1 (12 oz.) jar roasted red peppers, drained and cut into strips (I bought mine already cut up to make it easier)
1/2 cup sliced fresh basil
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Combine salad dressing and cheese; set aside. Cook pasta according to package directions; drain.

Meanwhile, melt butter in a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium high heat; add mushrooms. Cook, stirring constantly, 2 minutes. Add shrimp; cook 3-5 minutes or until shrimp turn pink.( I just cooked my mushrooms and shrimp together for about 3 min because my shrimp were already cooked). Drain excess liquid.

Combine hot cooked pasta, salad dressing mixture, shrimp mixture, red pepper strips, basil, and pepper in a large bowl; toss gently. Serve immediately. Yield 4 servings.

Open House- Open Shower

Today I went and helped with an open house. This is the shower... A beautiful walk in shower and COMPLETELY GLASS... Even to the outside world! Not sure I could be that "FREE"! I just had to share.


This amazing, beautiful house is $1.4 million and I showed the house next store that is $1.2 million. It was a lot of fun... my first official open house. I might have a potential client too... we'll see.

Our Crazy Week

The above two items have been very important to me this week! The first is important so that I at least LOOKED like I had had enough sleep and to hide the fact that I was COMPLETELY exhausted! The second is my least expensive form of marketing myself in Myrtle Beach. Work was good this week but I am still learning how to adjust to being a working mom.

Mom was here and this was more of a "work" trip than a visit. When I was not working we were running all around Myrtle Beach trying to find furniture, washer/ dryer, refrigerator, ceiling fans, etc. for their new house. It was honestly exhausting! You would never guess how many fans my mom bought for their house. She has OCD about ceiling fans! It's crazy. But with all this running around town I did wear company name tag and a lot of people were interested that I was in real estate. Very good marketing I think! Mom went home today and the next time she comes back she will have a moving truck with her! YEAH! We are so excited!

There are a few other posts below if you want to see them... I was going to do one big long post but decided to break them up...

Our attempt at a picture before I was leaving for work...

And a picture with Gammy before she left today. It was the only picture from the week!

Hair Cut Firsts

The other day TJ and I took the kids to Super Cuts... It was Anderson's first hair cut (his rat tail was beginning to get too long!) and the first time Karoline sat in the seat all by herself! About Super Cuts, Anderson's hair looked fine and Karoline's does too but there is no style to Karoline's hair... so I won't be taking Karoline to Super Cuts again.

For The Birds

I called my dad this morning and told him I had some news that was going to make him VERY excited. He asked me if I was pregnant!! NO, I am not but a blue bird might be soon!

See my dad built this bird house when he was hear for Christmas and almost every time we talk on the phone he asks me if we have any blue birds yet...

Mr. and Mrs. Blue have moved it and are in the process of building their nest. I have watched them this moring bringing back building materials. I wonder if they shop at Lowes or Home Depot.

Here are some pictures of our new neighbors...

Creating Margin

Last week I started my new career full time! It was a rough week but I know that I am where God wants me to be and I know, despite my desires to be home with my kids, I need to be working to help supplement our support AND to meet more people who need to hear about Jesus! Just this week alone I was able to share with 3 people who are not walking with God about our church and about the Christian life.

Real Estate is hard though because it is a lot of work with very little income to start, but I pray that this will be a career for me, not just a job. I will be working full time until needed but even when TJ is able to be on salary at Wellspring I plan to continue working. Why? Because we want to create margin.

We visited Sea Coast church in Charleston, SC soon after moving to Myrtle Beach. It was an amazing sermon from their series "How To Be Rich". I REALLY REALLY encourage you to watch or listen to the sermon! But ONLY if you are READY to be challenged! Try this link to listen or this link to watch. The sermon I am speaking of is How TO Be Rich, Part 4- Creating Margin.

If there is one thing I have learned though trying to raise support and being thankful for EVERY penny in our bank account, I have learned that our money is not OUR money! It's God's money! And we unless we have the attitude that it is HIS money we will not be able to bless others and we will miss out on His blessings. We have to create margin. If you don't know what I mean by create margin, you will after you listen to the sermon.

If we get a raise or a bonus and we choose to spend it right away on something for ourselves/family God cannot use us to bless others. Now there will be times when you will need the extra money for something specific, but we must make sure we are putting God first. There are hundreds and thousands of ministries out there that need support. God actually BLESSES us with the opportunity to GIVE.

So our desire is once we can live off of TJ's income alone that we will be able to GIVE GIVE GIVE to others with my income. I personally have a desire to help church plants. TJ and I have been very fortunate to have parents who have been perfect examples of creating margin. They both sacrifice, open their home to others and give even when it is hard! We have learned SO MUCH from their generosity and it has made us desire to do the same even more.

So I challenge you as I am challenging my own family to find a way to create margin. But you have to TRY HARD to do this. It's not easy. Especially when times are tough like they are now.

Plan to create margin!!

P.S.- PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE watch this sermon. I think it is life changing.
P.S.S- Thanks to many of you for the calls, emails, and comments today! Yall encouraged me so much!!

I'm Sorry

I'll make this short...

It has come to my attention that a few readers believe I am using my blog to boast about my life. The truth is that life is REALLY REALLY hard right now. And I choose to mostly blog about the happy things in life, the blessing, and not all the crap going on in my life. My blog is my happy place. I use it more as a personal journal that I print off each year as my "scrapbook". That's why it's a private blog. If you don't want to read it then you don't have to do so.

God has showered our family with many blessings and I want to remember them all...

I hope that if you do read my blog that I in NO WAY mean to boast. There are plently of hard things going on right now. I just want to be positive!

If I ever come across as being boastful, Im sorry. It's only because of blessings that we are given. We are extra thankful for our families & some friends who have been able to provide for us during a time of trying to raise support & start a new church.

I am very sorry!

On a HAPPY note my mom comes tomorrow! She will be staying for a little over a week so we can get their house ready for them to move it. I am excited that I can be her assistant.

I am also excited to report that they have a contract on their house! I hope everything goes through as planned but we all know how buying/ selling a house can be in this market.

The Reason We Rushed To The Doctor...

On Sunday morning I was upstairs with Karoline, David, Anderson, and Jon and noticed that Anderson's hands were SO swollen! I was very scared and called the on call doctor and I took him right way... we missed church. His feet ended up swelling too and he started getting hives all over and a low fever. The doctor said it was a virus of some kind and Anderson has been on Steroids and Benedryl all week! Poor little man...

Anyway, that was the start of what has been a busy week! I have worked every day and I am SO tired. It's been great and I do love what I am doing but it's hard being away from my babies. I am SO thankful that TJ is the amazing father/ husband that he is... he's been so supportive and kept the house very clean!

And here are a few other things that's going on with our family... Mom comes on Monday for a visit until the 31st. THEN their moving date is April 6th so they should be here around the 8th...
Hope you enjoy the pictures...
Before church...





We spent some time outside... it was so beautiful!



Karoline snuggling with daddy...

Very serious about building with his blocks...

PopPop Joins The Fun

PopPop flew in on Thursday for his first trip to Myrtle Beach... it was a quick trip, but he is keeping GiGi company on the drive back to LA. We had a great time and the kids were very excited about being with PopPop and GiGi together.

We had a fun day... outlet shopping, lunch at Sea Captain's House on the beach, more outlet shopping, a little bit of laziness, grilled hamburgers, and then more laziness.

Karoline said tonight that they were not allowed to go back home :) How sweet. We really enjoyed their visit and hope they come back soon!

The Bug

Well, I am glad this week is O-V-E-R! We all got a "bug".

It all started Sunday (see Anderson's face in the first picture). Anderson was in a HORRIBLE mood all day. That night he threw up and was sick on Monday. Tuesday came and I got the bug... it was HORRIBLE! I could not move, except to go to the bathroom! Wednesday morning I felt great... TJ and Karoline, not so great. They both got the bug. They felt better just hours later. TJ left Wed. night for a conference on Thursday. Thursday morning, GiGi got the bug! I felt so bad that she got it.

The bad part was this "bug" came on VERY strong, but thankfully only lasted 24 hrs or less. I spent most of the day Thursday and Friday using Clorox wipes and Lysol and airing out the house with the windows open. So it was a week of us all taking care of each other... lots of laundry, making jello & chicken noodle soup!

So I didn't really take pictures this week but I have these from last weekend to post... Enjoy!




Our Princess!

A Perfect Princess Birthday

Karoline had a GREAT birthday! It started off with opening one of her many gifts in the morning which was a soccer goal. Then after our doctors visit we got to video chat with Emily, Avery, Kelly, and Sydney Kate from California and open her package from Avery.

After nap time we went to Kids Inc. to play! It's a wonderful place full of bouncy house things and slides. Our sweet friends Emma Claire, Evan, and Ms Becca came to play with us. The kids had so much fun! After we headed to 5 Guys, Barna's suggestion, for burgers and OH MY GOODNESS they were SO GOOD! My new favorite burger! Then we came home and ate the Martha Stewart (February cover) cupcakes Barna made that were very delicious. She is well known for making some amazing desserts! I guess you could say her theme was Princess... everything had Cinderella, Belle, and Sleeping Beauty on it and I got the largest balloon imaginable that even sings! I had no idea when it was in the package that it was going to be so big!

Karoline got lots of sweet gifts and cards! I think her favorites are her Princess light up shirt from Emma Claire and Evan and her Cinderella dress, shoes, and crown from GiGi.

We are so thankful for our little girl and it's just so hard to believe that she's 3!Here are a lot of pictures from today... sorry so many but I can't help myself!

One gift in the morning...

GiGi's Martha Stewart cupcake creation...


Playing at Kids Inc...





Dinner at 5 Guys...


Home for cupcakes... YUMMY!




Time for gifts...