Project Life Tuesday - Week 5

Welcome to Project Life Tuesday 2011! If you are new to my blog, welcome! I hope you will stay awhile. I'm Jessica and I am participating in Project Life, a different way to record our lives by taking one photo a day. This was inspired by the fabulous Becky Higgins who has put together a wonderful kit to make this challenge easier.




Don't worry, I'm not leaving traditional scrapbooking behind. This just gives me the opportunity to focus my scrapbooking on trips and things that are important to me right now and not get all bogged down with every birthday, dinner, and holiday that comes along.


Each Tuesday, I will post my pictures/journaling from the previous week. Project Life Tuesday was created by Jessica Turner over at The Mom Creative and she hosts a linky for readers to link up their pictures. So if you want to join in or want to see others POTW, just click the Project Lift button at the top of this post.


And finally, my POTW:

Saturday - My friend, Shannon, did not have time to get her Christmas cards finished this year, so instead she sent out New Years cards! What a great idea and an amazing card!  She embossed the plastic and added beads to the bow.  I received ours today along with a super awesome card kit for Valentine's Day.  I, unfortunately, had food poisoning today and did a whole lot of nothing.

Sunday - I was still feeling miserable today, although my fever did break.  I spent most of the day on the couch surfing blogs. I was super excited to find that my Viansa Winery layout was featured on Let's Scrap.  How cool is that?  It made my day!

Monday - Still hangout out in bed today, but I was excited to receive a box full of scrapping goodies.  I was the winner a couple of weeks ago for the weekly sketch at Let's Scrap.  The sponser of the week was Angie Hartledge over at Loonie 4 Scrapbooking based in Canada.  Check out all the yummies I received!!!!!  THANKS so much Angie!!!!!!!!!  I can't wait to use it up.

Tuesday - Dallas received a deep freeze last night.  Freezing sleet for hours.  We awoke to a solid white sheet of ice.  I did not even attempt to make it to work with the terrible roads and crazy Texas drivers!

Wednesday - Today the roads were still a mess and there was a state wide crisis on electrical power, so there were continuous rolling blackouts throughout the city all day.  I could tell from my blackberry that we had no power at the office and I still wasn't feeling too well, so I spent the day indoors.  I did manage to make dinner tonight, a new recipe that Angie shared with me - Vegtable Fried Rice with Bacon from Food Network  - LOL that is what it is called.  It was pretty yummy and I will definitely make it again.

Ingredients1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/4 pound thick-cut bacon, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
3/4 teaspoon sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons soy sauce
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 2-inch piece ginger, peeled and minced
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 head broccoli, florets and stalks cut into 1/4-inch pieces
5 cups cooked long-grain white rice
1/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
4 large eggs
1 bunch watercress, stems removed
Spicy mustard or chili sauce, for serving (optional)


Directions
Place a wok or large skillet over high heat. Add the vegetable oil and bacon and stir-fry until golden and crisp, about 2 minutes. Sprinkle the sugar over the bacon and toss. Add 1/4 teaspoon soy sauce (watch out-the oil will bubble up) and continue to stir-fry until the bacon is glazed, about 30 seconds. Transfer the bacon to a bowl with a slotted spoon. Add the garlic, ginger and red pepper flakes to the drippings in the pan and stir-fry until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the broccoli and cook until crisp, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the rice, the remaining 2 teaspoons soy sauce, the broth and glazed bacon. Toss to heat through.


Push the fried rice to one side of the pan, crack the eggs into the other side and scramble until set, about 1 minute. Mix the eggs into the rice and stir in the watercress. Divide among bowls and serve with mustard or chili sauce, if desired.

Thursday - Apparently food poisoning/flu was not the reason I've been sick all week!  It is VERY early so I am not getting too excited; but apparently I am pregnant.  For those who are new to my blog, we have been trying to get pregnant for over 2 years with all the tracking, testing, and meds possible.  After the second miscarriage last Nov. I pretty much had a complete emotional breakdown and took a leave of abscence from work.  I started seeing a counselor, stopped all hormone medications, went back to church and used the next two month to get my life priorities back into balance.  I returned to work in mid-January and felt my life was finally in balance and I was also finally ok with not having a baby.  Ironic huh?  I like to think it is the Lord telling me that he has his own plan for my life and I need to trust in him and not try to force my own path. I definitely feel the holy spirit working in my life right now.  As I mentioned before, it is VERY early and with my history, there is still a fairly significant chance that I will miscarry again; but I am in a different place now and I am cautiously optimistic and happily excited.  I also feel I am emotionally ready for which ever way this new possibility turns out.

Friday - We awoke this morning to another blanket of white.  This time is was 5" of snow!  It continued to snow most of the day.  Our dogs have been going stir crazy trapped in our little house, so we decided to walk them over to our new community Dog Park.  They had a BLAST!  They just ran and ran and jumped constantly for almost an hour.  It was hilarious and the Dog Park was fantastic.  We will definitely be taking them back soon.  These photos of Dallas and Mia crack me up so I'm going to have to use them all for today's photo.

I hope you managed to stay warm this week and didn't go stir crazy! See you next week and thanks for visiting!!!