One-Pan Enchilada Pasta

There is no doubt that we enjoy food! If you follow Jonathan or I on social media, you will frequently see posts about food. One of our favorite things to do together is cook (and eat)! As much as we like different and fancy food items, sometimes you just need something quick and easy. I came across this recipe online at Number 2 Pencil and it turned out better than I expected. It was super easy and quick, budget friendly, and only left me with one pan to clean up after dinner!

I usually cook with ground turkey or chicken but Jonathan prefers beef  and I already had it in the freezer.

I had a red and yellow pepper hanging out in the fridge so I decided to toss them in to use them up and add some veggies to the meal. I just sauteed them with the garlic that the recipe called for.

I topped it with a bit of sour cream to make it just a little creamier and served it with guac and chips. Aiden even ate some - I call that a major win in our house!

Enjoy!

Blog Redesign

Because I need to add one more thing to our already hectic schedule, I'm going to try to get back into blogging. For a while now, I've struggled with what to write now that my cancer treatments are over. Our life is pretty routine now, I still suffer from the lasting effects of chemo and radiation but our weeks/months are no longer filled with doctor appts and scans. Our focus has shifted back to work, school, and the everyday hustle and bustle of life. Cancer changed our family, my journey will never be over but it feels good to ride with it in the backseat instead of shotgun!

My focus in life is different, I try not to take each day for granted and try to approach it with a positive attitude (this is a work in progress). I look for joy, even in the small things and want to share that with others. That's where I hope to shift the focus of this blog - things that bring me joy. Most days, I'm all over the place so I wouldn't be surprised if this blog followed the same format but I hope that in the mess of the things that bring me joy, you can find something that brings joy to you as well.

In my desire to clean up and redesign my blog, I somehow managed to delete the pictures attached to my previous posts. Unfortunately, I don't think I will ever be able to recover them and get them back on blog. The most important part to me is the writing. Aiden doesn't remember much of my treatment since he was so little, I want him to have this blog to look back on when he is older (of he wants to).

I hope you will join me on my quest to find the joy in everyday life!

The Start of Whole 30

If you follow me on Insta or we are FB friends, you may have noticed that Jonathan & I started the Whole 30 Challenge last week. If you are not familiar with Whole 30, you can check it out here. Basically it's a short-term nutritional reset; 30 days of no sugar, grains, dairy and legumes.

We started off a little slow .... we were scheduled to have a Hello Fresh box delivered on Monday and didn't want that food to go to waste. Side note, have you tried Hello Fresh yet? That's another post coming soon! Plus, with Mommy & Me Tea and Mother's Day brunch at Rock Springs, let's just say we are off to a much better start this week!

I know the plan sounds a bit intimidating, the hardest part for me is no cheese, but it hasn't been too bad so far. We'll see if I'm still signing the same tune later this week. Jonathan has struggled the most with lunch, which I can totally understand. He doesn't have time to eat since he's serving others lunch and he runs a Jersey Mike's; if I was surrounded by that delicious bread all day, I'd struggle too!

The other hard part is finding food that isn't full of sugar. I guess I never really paid much attention to all the ways companies add sugar to our foods, it's crazy! But, that's another benefit of the Whole 30, it forces you to really pay attention to what you are putting in your body and to how your body response to different foods.

Another plus, it's forcing us to try different meals. Both Jonathan and I love food and cooking but we have been so busy the last few months, we have gotten into a routine of the same meals. One of my favorite places to be is the kitchen and the Whole 30 has brought me back there!

Several of our Insta and FB friends have asked about the foods we have posted pictures of so I thought I'd put together a list of some of our favorites so far with links to the recipes. Even if you aren't looking at doing the Whole 30, these dishes are really good and simple!

Breakfast Pumpkin Custard

We had burgers twice during the week and both times we had Shoestring Sweet Potato Fries and roasted kale, since they were that good and well, burgers and fries just go together!

 The burger on the left is a Jalapeno Turkey Burger topped with a Quail egg and guac. The burger on the right is a Garlic Bacon Avocado Burger

I liked the garlic burger better and Jonathan preferred the jalapeno; both were FULL of flavor and we didn't even miss the bun!

We didn't have a recipe for this Breakfast Hash so it was kinda thrown together. We roasted sweet potato, peppers, and onions and topped it with a poached egg and bacon crumbles. It turned our amazing!

We have planned out our meals for this week and are looking forward to trying some new stuff. I'll be sure to pass it along if it turns out to be good!

2 Weeks Post Op

According to my plastic surgeon, I am healing remarkable well. It’d hate to know what it’s like not to recover well since the past two weeks have been ROUGH!  The first week was the hardest but the pain has subsided and I’m mostly dealing with lack of energy and skin sensitivity.

The surgery was anticipated to take between 4-5 hours but ended up taking 6; I left the surgicenter later that afternoon with 5 drains and a bag full of medication to head home for recovery.  I spent the better part of that first week in bed. I did manage to make it to Aiden’s two swim meets that week, but I learned very quickly that just sitting around watching him swim would drain way more energy than I had thought.  Thanks to my very awesome co-workers and friends we had dinner dropped off every night that week. This was a tremendous help for Jonathan who was juggling work, Aiden, and taking care of me.  My parents played taxi driver for Aiden and I until I was able to start driving again and our fabulous friends have taken Aiden for play dates and dinners.

I’m down to just one drain with hopes that it will be removed this week.  I’m still having a hard time lifting my arms above my head, which makes getting dressed a little difficult. I’ve always been a stomach sleeper so sleeping has been one of the hardest parts; I wake up a lot but can’t really toss and turn to get more comfortable. This gives me an excuse to take a nap during the day though!

I start the expansion process this week. If all goes well, I’ll get filled once a week. I’ve been told this process isn’t too bad, I should be back to normal within a day or so, it’s more pressure than pain. I’ll let you know if everyone was right! Thanks for all the calls, texts, cards, support, and prayers!

6 Month Follow-Up & Surgery

I’m still visiting my breast surgeon and oncologist every 6 month for follow up appointments, along with yearly mammograms. I’m happy to report that my mammogram was clear! During my appointment with the oncologist, I mentioned that I was having some back pain. Last year I was diagnosed with Degenerative Disc Disease so back pain isn’t something new but it usually comes and goes; this time it has been hanging around for a few weeks and got to be pretty bad. My oncologist, always erring on the side of caution, sent me for an MRI. Praise the Lord, it was clear! In fact, it showed no progression in my DDD since last year so that’s a plus! We still don’t know what has aggravated my back, causing the pain but it’s tolerable and I can live with it.

When I diagnosed 3 years ago, my desire was to have a double mastectomy. We went into treatment taking the most aggressive approach possible. However, since I needed radiation, I wouldn’t be able to have reconstruction for 1-2 years after the surgery.  I wasn’t emotionally strong enough to wait for reconstruction so I opted to go ahead with a lumpectomy. Fast forward 3 years … My skin is healed from radiation and I am scheduled for a double mastectomy tomorrow morning. Research still supports a lumpectomy with radiation as being just as effective as a mastectomy for my subtype of breast cancer.  Even though I understand the research, there are many reasons why I am opting to have this surgery. I'll save those for another post, I'm not ready to get that deep tonight. I have complete trust in my surgeons but I’m very nervous and scared for the recovery process. Please say a quick prayer all goes smoothly tomorrow. I will keep everyone updated on the recovery!

Aiden's Beach Bash Birthday

We celebrated Aiden’s 6^th Birthday with a Beach Bash at ECU’s North Rec Complex this weekend. There was a short rain shower in the middle of the party – perfect time for cake pops and snacks – but the bad weather held off until RIGHT after the party ended!

The kids and some adults too, enjoyed an afternoon of kayaking and paddling boarding. I was a little nervous, since you can’t swim in the lake, that it was going to be hard to keep a bunch of youngins out of the water but A has some awesome, well-mannered friends that played on the beach and splashed until it was their turn to kayak! An extra special thank you to the older kids and adults that helped us out and took kids out onto the lake, we appreciate the help.

We really just wanted his friends to come, hang out and have fun! So instead of gifts, Aiden asked his friends to bring a food item to be donated to Backpack Pals and everyone was so generous!

I did catch some slack on the no gift request but don’t worry, Aiden received plenty of gifts! He is a very blessed little boy with lots of people that love and spoil him. We strive to teach him about giving back to others; we talked about organizations and ways he could help and he chose Backpack Pals! He is excited to drop off the items later this week.

Some days it feels like I blinked and here I am with a 6 year old, other days I’m counting down the minutes to bedtime, but this boy changed my life and has my heart! He is full of energy and spunk, can have a smart mouth (that’s the Jersey in him), always on the go, only has one volume – loud, and can’t sit in a chair to save his life. He also has the biggest, kindest heart, loves to learn & explore, is funny, and has the best white-boy moves in Greenville. I’m so glad God picked me to be his mommy!

6 Year Old Favorites 

What your favorite color? Orange

What’s your favorite toy? Legos 

What’s your favorite food? Pizza

What’s your favorite TV show? Casey Undercover

What’s your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Jersey Mike’s

What’s your favorite outfit? Superhero shirts

What’s your favorite game? Candyland

What’s your favorite snack? Goldfish

What’s your favorite song? All About That Bass by Megan Trainor

What’s your favorite book? Any book about snakes

Favorite restaurant?  Basils

Who’s your best friend? Marley

What’s your favorite thing to do outside? Play basketball and ride my bike

What’s your favorite drink? Sprite

What’s your favorite holiday? Halloween

What do you like to take to bed with you at night? My stuffed animals

What’s your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Pancakes

What’s your best memory? Washington DC and Spy Museum

What do you want to be when you grow up? Paramedic

Sweet Summertime

Summer arrived in our house a few weeks ago when Aiden finished kindergarten! We are so proud of all his hard work over the last year and he is looking forward to starting 1^st grade in August. 

Even though it’s summer, we are still on the go! I just finished teaching 2 summer classes, Aiden went from soccer to baseball and in now doing swim team, business has been great at Jersey Mike’s and is keep Jonathan busy!

Our nephew Mason came to visit and those boys wore me out! 

I was able to squeeze in a few minutes with Jackie; I took a quick trip up to NJ for a memorial service for my best friends father.

We participated in Pitt County's Relay for Life and celebrated 3 years of survivorship and walked the PurpleStride in Raleigh in memory of my father-in-law, Dan!

It’s been a busy few months but I have loved every minute of it with my boys!  We are looking forward to vacation at Holden Beach soon so we can relax and spend some time together!

I recently had my 6 month mammogram and follow-up with the breast surgeon; I am happy to report that the mamo was clear and everything looks great! I see the oncologist in a few weeks and we are expecting the same report from her. In April I had genetic testing done at Duke and even though those results came back negative, I have decided to go ahead with a double mastectomy with reconstruction.  The doctor will place tissue expander in during surgery and those will slowly be filled to stretch the tissue and replaced with implants hopefully within a few months.  I’ve got a bunch of trashy TV saved up on the DVR to keep me busy during recovery, hopefully I can catch up on some other blog posts I’ve been wanting to share as well!