Purple is my favorite color

I got my hair colored and cut on Tuesday night and made my husband take a picture of my new do yesterday. He suggested going outside and standing in front of the Jacaranda tree (see the purple tree in the background). Although you can't see it in the picture, my hair has some chunks of dark red (almost purple) lowlights along with the blonde. A little funkier then I have had for a long time but I needed a change and the cut is perfect right now - easy to do/low maintenance- so having fun with the color was the only option.

Shrimp Enchiladas

Bruce and I have found all sorts of fun new food at Costco lately. This last week we bought these shrimp enchiladas. They are really good - not fishy, the shrimp are firm (not mushy like frozen shrimp can be), and the best part is so easy to heat up and very little dishes.

This is just a random pictures of our hibiscus. We watched this bloom. I love all the flowers that are around this time of year.

A is for Fantastic Job

I found out my grade for my stats class last night - I got an A! What make this great is that I don't have to take the final so I am officially done with my first semester of college and I have three weeks with no homework.

To celebrate being done a group of us from class went to a mexican restaurant across the street. The food was not great but we had great fun chatting and learning more about each other. Most of us have either a class in summer or fall together so we will be seeing each other again. ( I should mention here that I am a mexican snob so I am not mentioning restaurant names in case you like it - I just like a lot of cilantro and there was none to be seen!)

Update on School

I just got my last grade from the Saturday Prerequisite courses and I got a 90% which means I passed every class and I don't have to retake any of them. That also means that I no longer will have Saturday classes because all the other classes are during the week. I am very happy. Getting up early and going to school on Saturday was killing me! Now I have two mornings a week to ease into my days instead of just one.

I find out my grade for Stats on Wednesday. I really want an A but would be find with a B. Anything lower and I have to take the final so that means more studying.

Blue cheese coleslaw

I saw a recipe for blue cheese coleslaw on one of the blogs I follow and finally tried it out last week. Bruce and I love coleslaw and blue cheese. I served it on the side of a nice big juicy ribeye steak. It was the perfect compliment and so satisfying!

This is the recipe that I found but I made it semi homemade so check out below for that version:

In the bowl:
-2C chopped green cabbage
-2T bleu cheese crumbles
-1T mayo (I am live in NC— therefore it is a state law that I use Duke’s Mayo )
-Spices— pinch of sea salt + crushed red pepper flakes + freshly ground black pepper

My recipe for blue cheese coleslaw:

1 bag of coleslaw

1/2 cup of blue cheese crumbles (yes we love our blue cheese)

4 tbsp light mayo (next time I am going to try less of the mayo and more vinegar for calorie savings)

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

I had started out with 2 tablespoons of mayo but it was still so dry so I added two more to get the coleslaw creamy. I think I could have just added more vinegar to give it a little more fluid instead off the extra fat. We will see next time what I do with it.

Enjoy!

Dad and Susan's Visit - Anna Maria Island

On Saturday, I decided to take Dad, Susan and Bruce to go explore Anna Maria Island. It is about a 45 minute drive south. We went on a scenic way so that Dad and Susan could see an orange grove. The trees were full of oranges so we did good. By the time we made it to Anna Maria Island we were hungry so we went to eat lunch at the Sandbar Restaurant.

Our view from our table. It was beautiful.

Check out that cheesy grin! I guess I was happy to be out of the house?

Dad and Susan ready to eat some good seafood.

After lunch we walked out on the beach to enjoy the great weather. There was a sand castle on the beach that had a "mother in law" suite (bottom left corner of picture).

On our way back to the car we saw this awesome hibiscus flower. It was bigger then my hand.

And we couldn't forget this shot for Sparky. Too bad we had left him at home!

Dad and Susan's Visit - St. Pete/Clearwater

I have had quite the busy but fun month. Dad and Susan came for a visit April 6th for the week. The first night we went to dinner together at Bonefish Grill at Indian Rocks Beach. We ordered the fried oysters, coconut shrimp and crab cakes for appetizers because they all looked so good. For dinner, I decided to keep it small and ordered the bang bang shrimp tacos because I knew I wanted the strawberry shortcake. It is so yummy! Very different then using a twinkie to make strawberry shortcake (Sorry Mom!).

On Tuesday, Bruce had some teeth cleaning so he wanted something soft so I decided to host them for dinner (unplanned but it turned out good). I cooked up some spinach manicotti, salad, and brocolli. Healthy to balance out the over indulgance the night before.

On Wednesday since I had class Dad and Susan were on their own for fun.

Thursday we ended up going to Carrabbas. Susan had never been there and it isn't Bruce's favorite so I took the opportunity. Plus I have been craving lasagna which got totally satisfied.

Friday was Good Friday and I didn't have work that day so I got to hang with Dad and Susan after I finished some homework. Susan and I had a nice talk on the patio while enjoying the sun and warmth. Then we decided to go for a drive so Bruce could do some work. I ended up taking them down to downtown St. Petersburg. Our first stop was the Lucky Dill Deli for some sandwiches. Then I took them to my school.

Here is a great picture of Dad and Susan standing in front of the college of business building. The building is right on Tampa Bay so we walked around and looked at the water and all the boats in the marina that is on the other side.

After giving them a tour of St. Petersburg, we headed home, picked up Bruce and headed to Clearwater's Pier 60. We enjoyed some shopping and then walked all the way out to the end of the Pier to watch the sunset.

A great picture of Susan and Bruce on our walk out to watch the sunset.
Bruce, Susan, and Dad at the end of the Pier - the sun just set.

One of the fun things about the Pier is watching the fisherman. This guy got called "fish killer" because the poor fish he caught didn't survive. But a hungry pelican sure did enjoy it for dinner.

A picture of Bruce and I so that everyone knows I was there!

Happy Easter!

Courtesy of Sparky and my mom - a video of our chill cat.



Thanks Mom for the Easter Card. I promise to get back to blogging next Thursday when my dad and Susan have left and I am done with my big project and test for school.

National root canal day

Do you think having a National Root Canal Day is going a bit too far? I am online researching data for a huge project that is due the 15th and I came across this list. There are way too many National days of something or other, right? This world is crazy!