A great recipe and a tag...

Thanks to Rachael Ray's Magazine, I found this absolutely A-MAZING recipe! It is sooooo good.

Salt
1 lb. Spaghetti
3 T. vegetable oil (eyeball it)
3/4 lb. chicken cutlets, cut into thin strips
1 small head or 1/2 large head Napa cabbage, shredded (about 4 cups)
1 bunch scallions, chopped into 2-inch pieces
Shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and thinly sliced (a couple of generous handfuls)
6 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
One 2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 tsp. coarse black pepper
1/3 c. tamari (dark soy sauce)
2 T. sesame oil
2 T. toasted sesame seeds
1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, salt it, add the spaghetti and cook until al dente. Drain. While the pasta is working, in a large nonstick skillet, heat the oil over high heat until rippling. Add the chicken and stir-fry until golden, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the cabbage, scallions, mushrooms, garlic and ginger and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Season with a little salt and pepper and keep warm. In a large bowl, combine the tamari and sesame oil. Stir in the spaghetti and toss to coat. Sprinkle the sesame seeds on top. Using tongs, serve the pasta in bowls and top with the chicken stir-fry.

**NOTE: You can find pre-cooked stir fry noodles in the refrigerated part of the produce section (by the wonton wrappers), I used these instead of spaghetti to save time, and for a more authentic taste. If you do this, then add the stir-fry noodles after all the veggies and mushrooms and cook for 2 minutes or so, then pour the sauce over and toss with the sesame seeds.
Also, I would suggest using 1/4 of the amount of ginger that is suggested; it's very strong!
Lastly, To toast the sesame seeds, cook them over medium heat for 4-5 minutes, but watch closely, 'cause they burn easily. Let cool.
I know I added a lot of notes....I always do ;) But try it! All the ingredients are available at any grocery store! Yum-yum!
Now for the tag...my friend Debbie in Arizona tagged me....so here goes!
A- Attached or single: Attached
B- Best Friend: My sweet hubby, of course!
C-Cake or Pie: Cake!
D- Day of Choice: Friday, I love the anticipation of the weekend
E- Essential Items: My digital camera, ipod, photoshop, mega butter lotion from Bath and Body Works, lip gloss.
F- Favorite Color: blue
G- Gummi Bears or Worms: worms...and make them sour
H- Hometown: West Bountiful
I- Indulgence(s): my fav. show....FREINDS!
J- January or July: January, I HATE heat!
K-Kids: Drew (3 1/2) and Cameron (14 mo's)
L-Life is incomplete without: My family!
M- Marriage Date: March 28th, 2003
N- Number of Siblings: two-one younger sister, one younger brother
O- Oranges or Apples: Oranges
P- Phobias or Fears: a little of both...
Q- Quote(s): Bloom where you are planted (author unknown)
R- Reason To Smile: my boys
S- Season: Fall is my FAV
T- Tag Six: Jen Jenkins, Debbie Dee, Becki, Janelle, and Lindsay
U- Unknown Fact About Me: I sleep with four pillows...two of which are body pillows.
V- Veggies or Fruit: fruit!
W- Worst Habit: procrastinating
X- X-Rays or Ultrasounds: Ultrasounds...they can be used for relaxing muscles too!
Y- Your Favorite Food: This is too hard...let's just say....Italian.
Z: Zodiac: Gemini

Start Spreadin' the News....

This Friday (the 28th) will be five years of marriage for me and my sweetie. We've been talking about doing something special for quite a while, and in December, it was decided that TJ would take charge of this momentous occasion. He started planning right away! He teased me in early February, telling me that he already knew what we were going to do. He was very open about the fact that he was planning something, but would give me no clues! In fact one Saturday, about a month ago, TJ asked me to go upstairs and keep myself busy for two hours....two hours!!! What the heck! So, I did and he made all kinds of arrangements while I was giving myself a pedicure :). With all this hype and knowing how long I had to wait to find out, I was becoming quite anxious to find out! I soon found out that EVERYBODY I knew had already found out about the trip and would just grin and laugh at me whenever I would talk about it. Some pretended that they didn't know anything....(Janelle ;), others were perfectly happy to be in the know, and to leave me in the dark. I'm not the type a person who likes to find out about surprises before they are due...so I didn't try to pry with those who knew, and didn't look at TJ's email, even though he left it open on his computer ALL the time. As our anniversary got closer, TJ started to offer up little morsels of information. He told me one Sunday about three weeks ago, that a FedEx package was expected for tuesday, but I was not to look outside or answer the door. It happened to be on my teaching day, so I had to ask my student to pick it up and hide it! I coudn't believe all that my sweetie was going through to get this trip together (major brownie points earned for this by the way). Then, when coming home from a Jazz game a few weeks ago, TJ tells me that I need to go shopping for some clothes...but he was sooo vague! He told me that the climate was similar to Utah's...that's it! So at this point I knew that we were going on a trip, and that I needed some clothes, and that the climate was similar to Utah's. That's it! I didn't know how long we would be gone, when we were leaving, and girls, lets face it, how many of you would trust your husbands judgement about what you should wear....I was just supposed to 'trust' TJ about what to wear...I don't think so, sorry sweetie ;)!! A couple of weeks ago, I was on TJ's computer browsing the internet and found "New York Yankees tickets" in the browser as I was typing in another address...nooo, not New York....no way...that would be AWESOME, but he wouldn't...would he?! So I asked Tj a couple days later when baseball season started. He said not until May (a diversion). Then, a few days after that my sister was up to take my kids to my parents and I happened to walk in on them after they had just finished talking about the anniversary. They were both gushing about how fun it was going to be and that they could hardly wait for me to find out. Just then TJ starts singing-opera style- NEW YORK!!! At that point I was thinking, it HAD to be New York...so we all just stood their awkwardly, like that didn't just happen. I called my mom shortly after and told her about the New York Yankees Tickets, TJ's New York singing outburst and told her I thought we were going to New York for our anniversary. She just laughed and didn't give me any clues either way. My mom even told TJ that I had guessed and he called me on it. I felt kinda bad, because I wasn't searching for it, it kinda just fell in my lap. But he did a REALLY good job of throwing me off the trail. He had me convinced that this was NOT where we were going. TJ's original plan was to tell me the DAY OF, about our trip, so last week I started getting really nervous. I was doing laundry every day, so that I would be prepared, and was trying extra hard to keep the house clean so that I wouldn't be stressed while we were gone. So me sweetie had mercy on my cute little soul. So on Thursday at about 10:30 (during the jazz game), he came upstairs and told me to close my eyes. He went into our room and closed the door. I could hear muffled thumps, some kind of rattling noise, and heard him set up his ipod on my klipsch (ipod dock)...Now I was really nervous! He came to get me and all I could think about was if we were going to leave first thing in the morning consequently would I be up all night packing! This was on top of three months of anticipation! So I went into our room and this is what I saw:

When I saw this I wasn't sure if this was him telling me about the trip, or if he was just being cute with surprising me with an Easter Basket. It was the first one. He told me to open all of the eggs. As I opened the first one and found "York" candies, he turned on the Ipod to "New York, New York," by Frank Sinatra! This song not only let me know that we were for sure going to New York, this song is mine and TJ's song! YAHOOOOOO! NEW YORK!!!!!!!!!!!! I was SO excited! I immediately knew that the Lion in the basket was for the Broadway Show "The Lion King." I dug deeper into the basket and found tickets to the New York Phillharmonic...at this point I just started bawling...the NY Phil! This was huge. Then I found Yankees tickets...I guess baseball starts earlier than May...



Anyway, so we leave to go on this FANTASTIC trip this Week and I couldn't be more excited! I'm going to fill my luggage with as many 'knock-off' bags as I can!!!

A little quality time.....

This past Sunday, a friend of mine asked me, "How are you handling two kids?" I told her fine, things were harder in the beginning, but things were more normal (?) now. The question she asked me has been marinating in my head all week and I realize now that life with two kids can be a little difficult now and then, but mostly I have a hard time balancing quality time with each of my kids. Right now, Cam demands more attention because of his age, but I'm starting to realize that the time I had with Drew alone was priceless. I feel sad that I don't have that kind of experience with my little Cam. I find myself trying to distract Drew so that I can spend some one-on-one time with Cameron. I feel guilty though! Do any of you moms with multiple children feel like this? I imagine that I'm not the only one....Anyway, I'm trying harder now to take advantage of anytime I have with either of my children, in hopes that we can foster deep, trusting and loving relationships. I love my kids more and more everyday...I know that everybody says that, but it's TRUE isn't it!? I feel so lucky to have my little people in my life, even when things are hard. Here are some pic's I took of my boys this week....Enjoy!

A throwback...

Hey all! I'm sure you know that I LOVE Idol, and last night the show was great! There were three performances that I just loved, but mostly I was so excited to her Beatles music! My fave performance of the night was Brooke White's "Let it Be." She ROCKED!!!!
I really enjoyed Jason Castro's performance, mostly because it brought back memories of growing up! My Dad used to always have great music constantly playing while we were growing up! I hadn't heard "If I fall" forEVER, but was so happy to hear it again. I searched on Itunes for the Beatles version...I'm really a sucker for the original...but they have NOTHING from the Beatles. What is up with that? So, I found the original BLACK & WHITE music video on YouTube....check it out (but turn down the music on my blog music player first :)

I love this song! The harmonies are gorgeous and it's such a simple but sweet melody.
In other Stevens fam news....
Cameron has had a croupe-like cough since Sunday! We go to the doctor today, hopefully he is alright....:( The silver lining to his being sick, now don't judge me, is that he is more cuddly!! For any of you who don't know, Cameron is usually 100% of the time ANTI-cuddly! So I have just been eating it up.
Drew has been serving up extra servings of cute lately. Last night he woke up crying at about 11pm because his leg was hurting. TJ and I were watching Idol, so we brought him downstairs and after a while he said.."Mommy, my leg doesn't hurt any more, it's all better now." So I said, "Does it feel better because you got to come down and be with Mommy and Daddy?" Drew: "Yeeeahhh." So funny! Then I gave him some tylenol and massaged his leg thinking it was just sore from jumping around ALL day long, and he said ..."Mommy, you take good care of me....you are like a Doctor Lady.....I love you." I just love that little boy!
Now I almost don't want to write this because I'm worried I'll jinx ourselves...but it seems to be that we found someone who wants to rent our house in Vegas. Not just rent, but Lease to Own! I know that with Lease to Own option, they have to pay more per month....we'll see. Right now, every little bit helps...so we're happy with whatever we can get! And it is official! The owners of our current home are putting in a fence!!!! Installation starts sometime next week!!!!! I'm so excited I can barely stand it. Wa hooo!! My fence will only serve as a child containment device, unlike the Longnecker's and the Jenkin's fence which will serve as not only a child containment device but a horse repellent device! :)
Hope you all have a great day!

A small pat on the back :)

I woke up this morning and checked my email first thing. Usually there is nothing too exciting in there. But today, I recieved an email from my fav scrapbooking site W&W...asking if they could spotlight my pages in this weeks spotlight!!!!!!!! I am seriously so flattered. There are sooooo many other talented ladies out there! WOW! Anywho, if you want to check it out, just click HERE.

Creative Juices!

My creative juices have really been flowing lately (scrapbookily-I know that's not a word-speaking). I LLLLURVE IT! Here is the product of those juices ;) For credits, click on the link below each image.

So in Love

Drew + Savanna

Cam's Sweet Scowl

Funny Faces
So, I don't know if any of you have heard the song "The Way I Are" by Timbaland, (Such a fun song!) but if you have, you probably want to groove anytime that you hear like Drew, Cam and I do. Drew just LOVES this song. He calls it his favorite song and dances to it whenever I turn it on. Well, he noticed the words a few days ago. At the end it goes like this: "Baby girl....(some other words I don't know) baby girl...etc. It does this a few times. So, for the past few days, Drew has been walking around the house singing..."Baby Girl..." Hmmmm....I know, I know: Mother of the year.
Some good news: We found out yesterday that the people who own our house (yes, we're renting 'til our house in Vegas sells) are going to put in a concrete slab (perfect to hold our Grill, and a fence up in the next couple of months. TJ and I are soooo excited! I am especially excited, because I am dying to cook on the grill again (in Vegas I could grill year round) and it will be so nice to let the kids play outside without worrying that they will wander! Wooo hoo!