Cheeseburger Salad

Ok, so many of you have asked for the recipe after I posted this pic last night. 

 

I would have taken a better pic had I know I would be blogging about this!

There are many of nights when I need to go to the grocery store but just don't feel like it. I really only go to the store once a week so making an extra trip for me is a total chore.   So what I do is play a little game of Iron Chef (remember that show??)  and try to make something super yummy out of what we already have.

So, I present to you last night's creation:

Cheeseburger Salad (2 servings)

1 bag Brussels Sprouts 

3 cups fresh Kale 

1 cup cherry tomatoes sliced

1 lb ground beef (seasoned with Tony Chachere's & garlic powder)

1 small container of crumbled blue cheese

for the dressing:

1 part olive oil

1 part dijon mustard

juice of 1/2 lemon

salt 

pepper

In cast iron skillet, brown ground beef.  I seasoned mine with Tony Chachere's seasoning and garlic powder. *Allow meat to cool a bit before adding to salad.

Chop up fresh brussels sprouts and kale and place in large mixing bowl.  Add in cherry tomatoes (I usually cut these in half) and blue cheese crumbles.  Add ground beef and then toss in dressing.  Simple, right?

I did not give specific dressing measurements for 2 reasons...

#1 I didn't measure them:) 

#2 I know that most people are particular about the amount of dressing on their salad so I figure you could figure that out on your own.

And because we are a spicy family, I also topped it off with my favorite Scholtzsky's Hot Sauce!!!  

I am sure more things can be added.....onion, cucumber, pickles, jalapenos, bacon.....oooh bacon!

Enjoy!

Kelli

Homestudy #1 complete

Well, we had our first Homestudy today and it went great! At least, I think it did. Our social worker is amazing and so sweet.  It is really great that we feel comfortable with her as some intense questions are asked.  Brett and I were joking this morning that we should have a Homestudy every week just so our house can look so good!  Ha.....although we were vacuuming about 5 minutes before she showed up!

Today she did a tour of our home and we sat down for interviews with both us and the grandparents.  A ton of questions were asked about us as a couple, all four of us as a family and some questions about our personalities.  It was really fun to sit back and think about Brax and Wyatt and be able to describe them to her.  I am actually reading a book right now called Parenting Plus for Parents.

It is a great book and I highly recommend it to all!  I learned about it in my mom's group (Mom Matters) at North Point Community Church.  It talks about the 4 temperaments that God has given your child and how you are to be a student to your child.  You are to parent them based on their God-given temperament rather than to how we, as parents, want to parent.  Also, if you are a family with multiple children you can do your children a favor and parent them differently.  You can also take the test for yourself to figure out what your temperament is and then it will give specifics on how certain parent temperaments should parent certain child temperaments.


Anyway....back to the Homestudy today......
It was pretty easy.....after the interviews she toured the home, closets and all....yikes!

I also have to post this picture of the boys' room.  I had told the boys this morning that we had a meeting about the adoption today so Brax (on his own) cleaned his room:

ummmmm....where did everything go???

oh!  there is it.....all shoved under Wyatt's bunk!  Ha!
And to my controlling surprise, I left it just like this....
figured it showed truth to how we are involved as a family in this process

We then went downstairs to meet Mom Mom and Pop Pop.  We toured their part of the house and then sat down for a brief interview.  When we started this process we had no idea that they were going to be as involved as they are.  They are troopers.  I certainly want to be sensitive to what they can handle at 88 & 89 but at the same time really want this process to run as smoothly for them so that they are not overwhelmed.

On a funny note, as we went through the interview with them today, Pop Pop was asked if he had ever been diagnosed with a psychological disorder or ever attempted suicide.  His answer was , "Not yet".....I wanted to nudge him and say "not appropriate."  I mean, we all know that he is joking but she has no idea as she had just met him 5 mins prior.  Well, Mom Mom very quickly shot some "serious eyes" from across the table and he quickly changed his answer to "No."  It was funny, especially if you know him but maybe not such great timing!

Our next Homestudy is our detailed interview and will take place in about 2 weeks.  We have about 5 pages of questions to answer that will basically write our autobiography from childhood until now.  We will discuss this in full detail individually with our SW.  So please be praying for us to get this all on paper in the next 2 weeks.

And I just have to end on a sweet sweet note.....
Ahhh, my Brax....such a sweet boy.

This may just be a spoon....a cheapo plastic "throwaway spoon", but for us we will keep forever.

You see all along this process I have prayed for Brax & Wy about expanding our family.  Doubt has never crossed my mind about our adoption but my mind certainly got to thinking of how this would look for them and how they would receive it.  Well, as I told you in my last last post, they are ecstatic about having a sister and have been talking about it daily.  The question this morning was "How many minutes is it going to take us to go to China to get her?".....whoaaaaa, a lot, a lot a lot of minutes my dear:)

So Brax came home from school last Friday and was so excited to show this spoon to me that he wants to give his sister.  I am guessing he had some sort of snack at school and this came with it so he kept in and tucked it away in his backpack for her.  It was the sweetest thing ever....the sweetest thing to see my boy already wanting to give so much love to someone he has yet to meet!
God is amazing!
That.is.all.

Until next time.....
Kelli

The word of the week is Fingerprints!

Ahhhh...everyone warned me about the lovely fingerprinting step of the process.....the cost, the lines, the drive, the wait, did I mention the lines????......but what I failed to realize early on is that not only are Brett and I do the fingerprint process, but our grandparents have to as well since they live with us.

So let's start on Friday where is took almost 3  hours to get us fingerprinted for the FBI.  Alpharetta Police Department had a mix up where we sat for probably 45 mins and they didn't even have us in cue.  I wanted to cry b/c at that point it was 1:40 and I have to pick Brax up at 2:20.  Well I was late...like my child was the LAST one to be picked up from school late!!!.....enter MOMMY GUILT!  He was absolutely fine and did wonder where I was but was very well taken care of.  I have to constantly remind myself that I did not commit a sin therefore the guilt is false (Thank you Karen Stubbs for teaching this to me)

Ok, back to fingerprints.....I am not sure if you know this but as you age, your fingerprints slowly disappear.  We ended up having to get a notarized letter from APD stating that they did the best they could on Mom Mom and Pop Pop but that their fingerprints were not eligible.

Then today we headed to the GBI- which took 2 hours!  So a shout out to modern technology that allow me to keep working from wherever I am:)  The line was forever long......it was lunch time....OYE, I did not plan this well!  Not to mention that you were expected to work the machine yourself so that was causing a bit of a problem.   But slowly we made our way to the front and we started.  Again, fingerprints on Mom Mom and Pop Pop were not eligible so the machine was not going to allow us to move to the next step until we could get a print.  Luckily the store manager has a wonderful heart and sat with us as we did their prints and helped us bypass the system to submit what we could.  My Wy was with us today and was such a good boy!  Everyone complimented him on his master puzzle & alphabet skills while he played quietly on the IPad.

(and please no judgement for my child laying on the Pak Store floor without shoes one....sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do!)

We have rounded up our second set of paperwork, submitted for our background checks and made copies of all sorts of identification of all of us.....Brett, me, Mom Mom & Pop Pop- and God Bless them for being such troopers in going through this process with us at 88 & 89!  It was a bit of a surprise that they would need to be as involved in the process as they are since they live with us.

This week will be operation get house ready- not that there is much to do but just need to re-tidy up and get somethings off my to do list that have been on there for too long.  Our SW will be here on Monday to do our first house visit and also will interview Wyatt, Mom Mom and Pop Pop.

We also had a very special gift given to the boys this week and it allowed us to fully explain to the boys how we are expanding our family.

Thank you again to Mrs. Emily for making these adorable shirts for our boys!!

I am so mad at myself for not video taping it because the look on the boys face (especially Brax) was just too precious and brought tears to my eyes.  It was full of pure joy and excitement and I couldn't be more relieved that they are so happy to expand our family too! They have talked non-stop about their sister and have already stated that she will be sleeping in their room because she shouldn't sleep in the guest room alone....looking at me crazy saying "that's where you sleep when your sick"

So please say some prayers for the 17th for our first in-home Homestudy- just another step in this awesome journey!!

Kelli