The 16 Year Old Me

On the radio on my way into work Wednesday, they were discussing what they would tell their 16 year old selves if given the chance to talk to them today and it got me thinking.

Then I saw this pin on Pinterest:

 

And it dawned on me that I would definitely tell the 16 year old me exactly that and to not be in such a hurry to grow up.

When I was 16, I swore I would never be one of those adults that wished I was 16 again because, lets face it, being 16 was hard... but now that I am an adult, man what I wouldn't do to be 16 again. I was care free, no bills, no responsibilities. It was fantastic.

Sadly, when you are 16 you think you know everything and no matter who says it, you wont believe how great those teenage years are.

Even though I am positive my 16 year old self wouldn't listen to my 33 year old self, here are some things I would tell her:

1. Don't be in such a hurry to grow up and enjoy these years. As difficult as they may seem now, these are valuable lessons you are learning.
2. Listen to the adults. They know what they are talking about and are just trying to prepare you for life ahead. 
3. Learn discipline at a young age... It will help later in life with more things than you know. 
4. Go to college right away. Don't take "time off" after high school because it makes it harder to go back.
5. Love and respect your parents. They just want what's best for you and one day, you will look back and realize that they were right.

For the most part, I don't live my life with regrets and I don't regret my youth. It has made me who I am today. I do think that if I had it to do over again, knowing what I know now, I probably would do some things a little different. Maybe that's the same thing as regret, but for me, I associate regret with resentment or a negative feeling. I don't resent my past decisions... I am at peace with them. That's why I believe I don't live with regret.

It's too bad my 16 year old self was such a know it all. Perhaps if she wasn't, things today would come a little easier.

What would you say to your 16 year old self?

Mexican Casserole

Or Mexican Schlopp. At least that's what it looks like. Or White Person's Mexican Surprise. (You'll understand why in the ingredients.)*

I have also heard it called something like Enchilada Pie (which would probably be the more politically correct name.)

Whatever you want to call it, it is one of my most favorite meals. I don't cook it very often because it's too much for just two people and I am not good about freezing and eating later, so a lot of it tends to go to waste.

Anyway, here's a sneak peak and the recipe:

 

Ingredients

Ground Meat of some sort (I have used ground beef or turkey)

Taco Seasoning (I actually found some Jennie-O already seasoned ground turkey - fancy!)

8-10 Corn Tortillas 

1 can Chili

1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup*

1 can Cream of Chicken Soup*

1 small can of Sliced Olives (optional)

1 can of Corn (optional)

1 jar (12 oz.) La Victoria Green Taco Sauce

Desired amount of the shredded cheese of your choice

Sour Cream

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. 

Brown meat and add taco seasoning according to package.

Cut tortillas into bite size pieces and throw in large mixing bowl. Pour all other ingredients except the cheese and sour cream into the mixing bowl. Stir together.

Put the taco meat on the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking pan and pour the mixture over the meat, spreading evenly.

Sprinkle desired amount of cheese on top.

Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and golden to your liking. 

Serve hot... garnish with sour cream and/or hot sauce if you so desire.

Like I said, this is one of my favorite meals. It's not the healthiest of meals, but it sure is tasty. I have spiced it up quite a bit and have considered adding rice to it, but I'm not sure if it would dry it out too much. I have even made this a vegetarian dish. So far, I haven't served it to anyone that didn't like it. 

* I don't know any true Mexican that cooks an authentic Mexican dish with cream of any kind of soup.

Bon Appetite

Farkle in a Can

As usual, I saw this cute can project on Pinterest:

I immediately knew I wanted to do it. 

I introduced a couple of our friends to the game Farkle this year and they were instant fans so I thought what a perfect way to give them Farkle! I'll make it! :o)

Here's the end result:

The front

The back

The bottom

Outside: Open the can from the bottom, empty out the contents, and clean the insides. Decorate the outside as you see fit. Put the contents inside the can, and hot glue the bottom shut. When I sealed the bottom shut, it looked really messy, so I just cut out some card stock and glued it to the bottom of the can to give it a cleaner look.

Inside: 6 dice and some cheat sheet scoring cards which is the same as the instructions on the back. After it was too late, I thought I should have made a little note pad for them to use to keep score and a couple of those little pencils folks use at the golf courses.

The only thing I couldn't (or didn't want to) figure out was how to provide a seal/cover once the can is open so they can continue to use it to store the game and not have to worry about losing it's contents. The lid to a Pringles can almost fits. It's a hair too big, but like I said, if I wanted to take the time to work with it, I am sure I could have figured out a way to make it fit. Maybe some string on the top of the can to make it thicker... or a thin ring of hot-glue on the inside of the lid to give it some grip. K suggested dog food/cat food lids. I will suggest that to our friends, but I felt weird giving the gift to them with that type of lid. Merry Christmas - here's some dog food. Just didn't quite seem right. :o)

I'll definitely be doing this project again.

Budget Wreath

Earlier this month, K and I stopped at a Christmas "tree farm" - by tree farm, I mean the one set up in the parking lot of the local shopping center - to get a wreath. We do a fake tree every year, but we both love the smell of the fresh tree so we thought maybe a wreath might be enough to give us that fresh tree smell.

When I saw that the wreaths were $16 for a small one - that wasn't even decorated of fancy, mind you - I was reluctant to get it. $16 for a smell that will probably be gone in a week and then we're just going to throw it away? $16 may not seem like much, and it isn't, but for a couple on a budget, I just couldnt wrap my head around spending $16 on something that we were going to throw out. We might as well just put the money in a trash can and skip the wreath all together.

I convinced K that we should go to Michaels and see if there's one there that I can make. Sure enough, they had plain fake wreaths with nothing but a bow on it. So we kept browsing and they had an entire section for wreath making... Ornaments specially designed for wreaths. Who knew?! I certainly didn't. We loaded up our basket with goods that totaled close to $16, but it was a wreath that I made so it had sentiment, and we can use it year after year after year.

Nothing fancy, but cute enough!

Bad lighting, but you get the idea~

The wreath wasn't even the best part. When we were at Michaels, we found nifty things that TOTALLY smelled like a fresh tree. (I am positive we didn't pay $6.99 for them though.) We just put two on each tree and vwalla! It smelled like a fresh cut tree in our house. Granted, I don't think they smell anymore, but they worked for a few days anyway. It might have worked better to just use one and keep replacing it. Now we know for ext year. :o)

Dry Erase Board

Earlier this year, my sister Denise sent me this blog showing me how to make a personalized dry erase board.

At the time, I decided that was what everyone was going to get for Christmas this year. That didn't happen, but I had made two of them earlier this year as trials and kept them around the house waiting for the perfect person to give them to.

Then on Pinterest I kept seeing cute sentimental dry erase boards made to put daily messages for the ones you love. Like these:

I really liked the concept of these, so I thought I would do something like that for the ones I had already made. K and I have two sweet nieces that love home made gifts and are absolutely adored by their parents (and Aunties) so I thought, what better way to tell them every day how much they are loved than with these:

Our hope is that their parents will put a message up for them at least once a week. And every once in a while, we can send a text to their Mom or Dad and ask them to put a message up for them from their Aunties.

These really are great gifts. I am not sure why I didn't make them for everyone as Christmas gifts since they can really be personalized and fine tuned for the people you're giving them to... maybe next year. Or as Birthday gifts!

Disclaimer: I am well aware the picture quality of these photos suck and do them no justice. I am working on improving my product staging. :o)