Blessed.

We have returned from camp! Although I wanted to blog while I was there, it's way easier to do it on my computer...from home. Anyway, it was an amazing week of fun, fellowship and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit! I went as an adult camper and did serve on the worship team as well as with crafts. It was fun to hang out with my 5 year old daughter and her friends. They are so cute, I love being a mommy to a little girl! It's so much fun.

The past few months have been amazing. I've had an outpouring of God's blessing and grace in my life spiritually and it's been so cool because Philip has had the same thing too. Actually I should say my spiritual growth has been a result of his spiritual growth. For the first time in our marriage I truly feel that he is spiritual leader in our family. It's so exciting and I'm so glad I'm his wife. We're not perfect by any means but God is definitely growing us as a family and as individuals. Please pray for us! We need it so much.


He just started blogging today...and he's a great writer! Read his blog, especially the Long Version. Philip Sakanashi. I'm so blessed to be your wife. I love you! psakanashi.blogspot.com


Exciting things on the horizon for us!!

Ugh!

Going to camp is ruining my flat shoe ration!!!!

Birthday Gift Card Haul and Retail Therapy

As I was in desperate need of some alone time, retail therapy and not to mention I had a good amount left on my Nordys gift card, I went over to Nordstrom Rack tonight.  They recently got a shipment in, so I knew there might be at least one or two good things. I know the Nordy Anniversary sale is on weds but I wasn't too impressed with the early access that I got. . . so off to the rack.

I immediately found a great Michael Kors chiffon hoodie with short, drawstring sleeves in a tyedyeish blue. Very cute, summery and good enough to wear to work or on a casual day. Original price $110, got it for $24.

Then I went upstairs to the shoe dept on my quest for tall shoes (remember?) and found the most amazing Charles David espadrilles. Granted they are 4-1/2 inches but when i put them on, they have this elastic banding around the foot so you are able to walk in them very easily and they are SO comfortable, I had to buy them. Then the decision making came in. Nude or Black? UGH. I ended up getting them in black but am contemplating going back and also getting them in Nude since I have wanted a pair of nude shoes and the way the black ones are make them look very different. Original price: $109.95 - Rack price: $39.95. What do you think? Should I Get the nude ones too? OH MAN, they are so cute on me. LOL Here's a video of them I found online, with someone walking in them! http://video.heels.com/shoe-video/charles-by-charles-d-thrice-beige . Here they are in black:

Cute dressed up or down.

Anyway that was the last of my bday gift cards....

I hope to see what some of you get this week at the Anniversary Sale, since I KNOW you will be checking it out!

What's going on this week....Little K's speech therapy, big K's dentist appt (pray for her! cavity and possibly needs a root canal! UGH). Work, getting ready for camp!!! WOOHOO.

My new obsession.

Thanks to my mom, I was recently able to try gel nail polish. That was amazing. Two weeks of shiny, frenchly manicured nails! Amazing. Bummer is that I can't afford to get it done on a biweekly basis! To remedy my realization I wouldn't be doing that on a regular basis, I had my eye on those Sally Hansen Salon Effects nail thingys for almost a year. . . then I gave in and tried it. My life has been changed!!!

These things are amazing! They stay on for up to 10 days and come in all sorts of patterns, and there's NO dry time!!! NO peeling, No chipping, just gorgeous nails with these crazy sticker thingys that look amazing. They also come with a cuticle stick and nail file/buffer. The glitter polish ones look like I actually put the latest ones on yesterday morning, 30 mins before I left for work and I had gorgeous dressed up nails!!!

See my thumbnail in the corner of this pic?? Super cute!

I'm currently obsessed with trying to find them on sale...I found a jackpot at Target in San Dimas, so we are going to be doing them as a craft at our church camp next week! SO much fun!! If you've been wondering about trying them, just DO IT! They even have a trendy "ombre" one!

Here are the designs we found at Target...

Just a Tip if you are going to try them....you MUST do them according to the directions or they won't stay on as long as they say. Also, the funky patterns look better on short nails than long ones. 

Happy Manicuring!!

Meet Shellie and Tylar

OK so I decided a few weeks ago that I no longer want to be the mom who only wears flat shoes - don't get me wrong, they're comfy, easy to deal with and you don't really have to worry about tripping.  In the Pre-K2 era of my life, I lived in nothing but wedges and platforms and the occasional flat sandal. The Post-K2 has consisted of ballet like slippers with no support, flip flops and the evil of all shoes, converse. (My apologies to all you pro-cons...but they are HORRIBLE for your feet).

This lifestyle has made my legs look short, stocky and at times I even look like I'm standing in a hole. With a long torso and short legs, my 5'2" stature on a good day was horrendously shorter by wearing said-flat shoes. My feet lacked style and flair and my lack of foot care gave me the ugliest feet on the planet. So it has become my goal to nurse my poor babies back to health and beauty with the help of you tube and a martial arts master, they are slowly becoming prettier. And yes, I said it, "a martial arts master." Dry, cracked heels are no fun and I know this is TMI but my secret sensei (secret because he doesn't know it) has given me the tools to rehabilitate my feet. I found this guy on the internet who does some sort of martial arts and apparently people who do it have horrible feet, so he's done this video on foot care. Here's what I learned and how i've applied it to my own feet:

Tools:

All cotton socks - athletic socks work amazing. Don't use any sock with polyester or acrylic, they will make your feet drier. I use thorlo socks - yah they are expensive but they work REALLY well.

During your shower, take a pumice sponge or foot file and use hair conditioner on it while you scrub your feet. Dry them well and smooth on neosporin on any cracks or areas that might start to look like they're getting bad.  Then on top of that, slather on a generous amount of regular Vaseline. Add socks. Yes, it might be hot at night time but trust me, it will help.  When you wake up in the morning, take your socks off and you'll see the healing begin. NO joke. It starts after one time.

That same morning: Take Nude color first aid or athletic tape (I've found this works great - it sticks to your skin for days and is waterproof. It even gives you a bit of cushion!) and tape it to your heels, balls of feet, sides of feet. Leave this tape on for at least 24 hrs up to 2 days.

REPEAT this for about a week. Seriously, in 1 week your feet will be completely healed.

That said....I did this, but then the second week, I stopped for 2 days and my feet began to get dry again. So, this is again, for me, an act of discipline I need to consistently do.

Fast forward to tonight! Mom and I decided to go to Nordstrom to use my birthday gift cards. With my new goal of working my way back to wearing wedges and my rehabilitated feet, we decided to go shoe shopping.

And, we really made the shoe guy WORK! It was fun, we tried on all kinds of shoes and tonight, my rehabilitated feet were gifted with two new friends.... Shellie and Tylar.

Shellie

 

Tylar

Happy Saturday!
Mama Kara <3

Souuuup!!!!

My 2-1/2 year old kai loves to say the word "soup" but he says it all loud "ssouuuup!" Basically anything that is liquid is now called soup. I love this age. I picked Mr. Soup up from preschool and we needed gas so I went to the nearest gas station - costco. I always seem to forget how much i love costco, and today was no different. I didn't go in the store, I just got gas, and a whole tank for ONLY $46! I remember when I was learning how to drive, gas was going between 86 cents and 99 cents! well, i guess that WAS 20 years ago! LOL....

In celebration of Costco, I decided to post my new favorite self-made recipe of Chicken Tortilla Soup. The first time I'd made it, I had gone to costco and purchased one of those yummy $4.99 rotisserie chickens. My co-worker "Keif" as my son calls him, told me how you can just take the chicken and make all kinds of soups. It was a life saving conversation we had, because I've been struggling with coming home after 6pm and not having food ready or having to buy or try and come up with a recipe....I'm not a night owl nor am I organized so I decided it was going to be my goal to become one of those moms who actually has food planned for the week. I had to, as my life and schedule was in chaos with my children eating dinner at 7:30 or 8pm at night. 

I had also purchased the best salsa ever, Jack's Cantina Salsa - and as I was making the soup I decided to put two huge scoops of the salsa in the soup and it made it INCREDIBLE! So here's the recipe, as I've made it every week for the past 4 weeks, and it's been a hit with my kids. Not to mention it gets the veggies in. 

Mama Kara's Chicken Tortilla Souuuuuup! 

Ingredients: cooked chicken  (rotisserie, baked, boiled, whatever) I think it tastes best with rotisserie.

2 T of Olive Oil

2 T minced garlic

1 large onion chopped

3 - 4 roma tomatoes chopped or canned stewed tomatoes when really in a hurry

1/2 bag of baby carrots chopped (or 4 whole carrots chopped)

Corn (as much or as little as you'd like)

2 Huge scoops (about 1-1/2 cups) of Jack's Cantina Salsa

3-4 big shakes of salt (open the big part and just shake it back and forth)

3-4 small shakes of pepper

(optional) 1 small can of diced green chilis

Instructions: 

 Turn pot on to medium heat, add 2T of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Let warm. Add onions and garlic. Cook until onions become translucent and brown on the edges. Add tomatoes. Cook until tomatoes are done, stirring every so often. The fragrance is amazing!

 Add Corn, Carrots, Chicken, 3-4 cans of chicken broth, 2 scoops of Jack's Cantina Salsa and 3 cups of water. Bring to a boil. Let simmer until carrots are cooked all the way through. 

Add soup to a bowl. If you're watching your diet, you can eat as-is. 

If not, then add....

Garnish with crushed tortilla chips or baked tortillas or even those amazing brown rice tortillas baked in the oven (to make it gluten free) as they also taste awesome with it.

Little bit of shredded cheese on top.

TGIF. Makes a great, hearty meal. Or even a side dish with mexican food. 

Love.

Mama Kara