Best Soup Ever

I randomly stumbled upon a cool new blog that just so happened to have the BEST soup recipe.  Made it tonight and it a) tasted fabulous, b) had comfort food appeal and c) made a ton so I won't have to cook tomorrow night.  

The blog is here http://www.momadvice.com/blog/

 And here's the recipe:

Pesto Chicken Tortellini Soup



2 tablespoons olive oil


2 garlic cloves, minced


2 cans petite diced tomatoes (14.5 ounces)


8 cups chicken broth


1 pound chicken herb tortellini or tortellini of your choice (I used the refrigerated kind, but you can also use the dried pasta)


9 ounces spinach, chopped roughly


1/4 cup basil pesto






In a large pot, saute the garlic in the olive oil. After a minute or so, add the diced tomatoes and chicken broth to the pot. Bring the broth to a rolling boil and then add in your tortellini. Cook tortellini as directed on package. In the last minute of cooking time, mix in your roughly chopped spinach and stir in the 1/4 cup of basil pesto. Ladle into bowls and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese on top. Side Note: When reheating, feel free to add some additional chicken broth to thin the soup, as the tortellini will absorb the liquid!

The Great Outdoors

Before this weekend, I definitely considered myself a beach only type of gal.  The mountains are cool every once in a while and I could be coerced into going to the lake if necessary.  However, I just got back from a 3 night-4 day camping trip at Kerr Lake and it was wonderful.  Peaceful and beautiful and just plain wonderful.  We went with the majority of our crew (one of our families couldn't come because of a sick little one) and we boated and played in the dirt and chased frogs and killed ants and admired the stars and made "shnores" and soaked up the sun.  It was a great weekend full of lots of memories.

We've got a short work week and then we head off to Hilton Head for a week.  I am extremely excited.  My favorite place on earth!

I'm an Auntie!!!

I'm pretty sure I've blogged about all of my parents and sisters and brothers on here before, so I'm going to skip right to the good news without the family tree lesson - I'M AN AUNTIE!!!  My oldest sister, Lexie, gave birth at 7:38pm to a 7 pound 13 ounce baby girl Reese-Anne Elizabeth Johnson!!  I'm so, so, so happy for Lexie and her husband, Brett.  I'll be heading down to Florida to meet the newest addition next Friday!  Yay for babies!!!

It's official

I have the coupon bug.  I was pretty excited after  my deals from last week's trips to CVS and Harris Teeter, but today I got my first freebies.  CVS has their Right Guard on sale buy one, get one free and I had a buy one, get one free coupon which meant that I got 2 Right Guard deodorants for James for FREE!!!  I was so excited I nearly skipped out the door.  I can't believe that I threw away coupons before now.  All it took was a little organization and a few faithful coupon friends (Melissa, Southern Savers) OO HOO!

In other (more serious) news, my sister Lexie (my Donnie dad and step-mom's oldest) is being induced tonight with her first baby.  Please pray for Lexie, her husband Brett and the baby, Reece-Ann, if you get a chance.  She's nervous (and rightly so) and excited and terrified and ready and not ready - all those things that you feel before you get ready to have a baby.  Thanks!!

First coupon trip

A few of my favorite blog friends have gotten my curiosity up about this whole couponing thing.  So I decided to give it a try.  I've got my binder all organized and I buy two papers every Sunday and have others giving me the coupons they don't want.  Yesterday I went for my first Harris Teeter Super Doubles and also hit up CVS for some deals that I couldn't pass up.  I spent about $20 for about $70 worth of stuff, so I think I did pretty well for my first time.  Considering the fact that I didn't even have a Harris Teeter VIC card until yesterday, I was fairly proud of myself.  And boy did that Warm Delights taste so much better since it was only 40 cent!

Gearing up for a full weekend.  My first camping trip since I was like 5 with the Cross Culture youth tomorrow night.  I'm excited and not excited at the same time.  I'm probably the least adventurous person on the face of the earth, so critters, extreme heat and campfires don't really do it for me.  But the company will be top notch and for that I'm excited!  Then Saturday night is my brother's birthday dinner at Fujisan - any chance to eat Japanese is fab to me.  Then Sunday is church and the Sheryl Crow concert with my sister.  I can safely say that 2010 has been the year of concerts for me.  Love it.

Two more Kendallisms

Two more things I don't want to forget when Kendall is all grown up:

- She calls her bathing suit "bathing soup".  Which always brings to mind the fact that she is obsessed with soup.  When I ask her what she wants for dinner, it's either soup or rice.  She loves hot and sour soup even though it burns the fire out of her mouth.  Crazy youngin.

- She calls boogers "Cookie Monsters".  This is because her Papa once told her that he saw Cookie Monster up her nose.  Last night at the pool, I apparently needed to blow my nose because right in the middle of a song, she said "Mommy - you got Cookie Monster in your nose."

Since when does she call me Mom?

I distinctly remember being around 6 or 7 and calling my Mama "Mom" while eating dinner over at a family friend's house (Mama - if you are reading this, it was at Milton and Janet's and I think we were eating fish...don't know why I remember this, but I do).  Anyway - she said "since when do you call me Mom".  Today - as Kendall has called me Mom for the 75th time, I'm wondering the same thing.  I actually refuse to answer to it - I'm Mommy or I'm nothing.

I thought now would be a good time to go over some other Kendall quirks so I'll have a record of them in 5 years when calling me Mom is the least of my worries:

- The child LOVES the grocery store.  Literally every day when we go past Kroger, she wants to stop.  If we run out of anything at home, she says "buy some at the grocery store".  There are 1 of 3 scenarios for grocery shopping.  #1 - She rides on the little bar in front of the cart and "helps" me push the cart.  (Yes I know this probably isn't the safest of options...call social services).  #2 - She insists that I push her in one of those space ship grocery carts that are insanely hard to turn.  #3 - She pushes her own little cart. 

- She is obsessed with Barney on Netflix.  It doesn't matter how many other options I present, she always chooses Barney.  Much to the dismay of everyone that I repeat this story to.

- She wants me to stay in the bathroom with her when she pottys if and only if it's a number 1.  For number 2's, she says "Mommy go way" and I have to step outside while she does her business.  Unfortunately she does not afford me the same luxury.

- The other day I asked her what she does at church.  She said "I want go!  I learn Bible".  I asked her what the Bible teaches us and she said "I love you, Jesus."  My heart melted.  I don't claim to go to a church that does everything right...no church does.  But dag on it - we've got the children's ministry covered.

- She loves to go to the pool.  Thank you to the puddle jumper floatie thing that makes this so much more enjoyable for the whole family.

- She asks at least once a week for a baby sister.

- She still says "koy" for "toy", "in in" for "in there", "fa on" for "come on".  I love it and will not be happy with you if you try to teach her the correct way to say these things.

- She thinks it's really funny when someone passes gas and always blames it on Daddy.  I taught her that and yes I know I'm immature.

I love being her Mommy.  Or Mom.  Whatever.