Chili Rellano Recipe

So unfortantely we all ate our chili rellanos before we even though to snap a picture of the final product... because they are THAT good. They definitely are not healthy for you but everything is okay in moderation, right? So what you'll need is the following...

Wonton Wrapper (found in the produce department)

Roasted Green Chilis

Mexican Melting Cheese (the brand I get is picture below)

Shredded Cheese 

Oil (any kind works, I used vegetable)

So your first step is to prep the chili's and cut up the Mexican melting cheese. If you are from Colorado you can get roasted chilis from any local farmers market or at one of those side of the road shops. You'll want to take the skin off and remove the seeds. If you are not in  Colorado or somewhere that sells roasted green chilis, you can roast them in your barbequer. 

Next you will stuff your wonton wrapper. Simple pile a chili in the middle with some Mexican melting cheese and shredded cheese. Honestly, the more cheese the better! Fold the sides in and roll it up. Seal the wrapper with a tiny bit of water. Once you have done that you are ready to fry them!

I pour enough oil in my pan to almost completely cover them. Heat the oil when you first begin making them so when your done wrapping you can just put them in the oil to fry. Fry until golden brown.

Top them with my Colorado Green Chili , some sour cream and more cheese! Its so good y'all! So so so good!

5. Decide on if we should expand our family or bot

So a little background. My husband and I got married in September 2011. We found out we were pregnant with our first daughter in January 2012. After we gave birth to her we decided that we wanted another close in age. So 16 months later came Sadie. My husband always said he wanted two kids. Since I was a little girl I have dreamt of having four. So when it came down to it we decided on three as our compromise. We got pregnant with Emmy super quickly and were so excited. At the 12 week scan we got an abnormal result so we had to do extensive genetic blood tests and an echocardiogram. Luckily, everything turned out just fine. But we were also able to determine gender at 13 weeks pregnant. It was girl. Three girls. I loved the idea and have fully embraced it. My girls are my entire life. But since we decide three was it for us we scheduled a vasectomy. It took place on January 30, 2016. One week later, Emmy had arrived. Honestly, every moment since then I have wondered if we did the right thing with the vasectomy. Fast forward to a few weeks ago and I stumbled upon a board on baby center called “TTC after a vasectomy reversal”. I knew from the get-go that a reversal was possible but extremely costly. So I just looked through the board and started doing some research. Apparently there are clinics that just do reversals and they are much more cost effective.

I have talked to Cam about getting a reversal and he is on board. The thing is, now that it’s a possibility, and now that my kids are past the infant stage I don’t know if I want to start over. But then I think about it some more and I know I’m not ready to completely say no. I’ve been praying about this and about whether to have another baby or not. So I guess only time will tell what exactly we end up doing. I’ve also have been trying to determine if it’s pregnancy that I miss and want or if it is another baby I am longing for. If it’s just pregnancy I would definitely consider surrogancy. So if you’d pray for guidance for me, I’d love that. This is such a hard choice.

4. Get the Title “CFO” at Work

Growing up I always thought I’d be a doctor, nurse, radiologist... something in the medical field. So right after high school I went to college. Let’s just say that that ended up not working out but I did realize that science was definitely not my thing.  I ended up dropping out and just working as a server  at numerous restaurants around town. Nothing super exciting, I’m talking Old Chicago and Perkins. I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life. After my tenure as a server I explored working at an animal clinic, being an orthodontic assistant, and a cheer coach. None of those really worked out and I didn’t exactly enjoy them. At this point, I was recently married and if I knew one thing about myself I KNEW I wanted to be a mom. So we did it. We got pregnant easily and it was decided that I was going to be a stay at home mom. That was until I got a call from a small medical practice wanting to interview me for a medical billing and coding position. I had zero experience and not much drive but I decided to go anyways. Long story short, I got the job. At 13 weeks pregnant I began the very beginning of my career. About two years into this position, I was offered a position there as an accounting clerk. I had never done accounting and had no clue what I was getting myself into but it was more money and more experience. Since I was now a mom of two kids under two, I took the position head on. From there I decided it was time to get my degree. I enrolled in school and started taking classes. As it turns out, I was pretty good at accounting too! Another two years passed and I landed another position as a staff accountant. At this position I was able to work closely with the CFO and learn so much valuable information. Fast forward to 2017, I was coming to the end of my degree plan and graduation was approaching. I was getting burnt out on the staff accountant gig so I very randomly began searching for a new position. When I came across most positions that were appealing to me I was under qualified; so I didn’t apply. Then one day I saw a posting for a Director of Finance position that I actually qualified for. So I applied, not thinking much. To my surprise I was called in for an interview and then again for the second round. When I was offered the position I was so excited!! This was my dream!

Fast forward three months later, I am loving my new position. It’s challenging and rewarding. It gives me a sense of accomplishment and definitely fills my soul with all the right things. Because I’m such a goal setter and always trying to be better I now have my eye on another career milestone: getting the title CFO. Obviously this is a HUGE step but I’ve been speaking with the folks around me and my leadership team and it definitely seems feasible! So here’s to new goals, new milestones and hard work!

3. Continue Living a Healthy Lifestyle

When I had my first daughter I gained a whooping 55lbs. I was over 200lbs and my body completely changed. It took me about 6-7 months to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight of 145lbs. The day I hit 145 was the same day I found out I was pregnant with Sadie. No big deal. I was back at pre-pregnancy weight and I was adement that I wasn't going to gain as much and I didn't. I gained 23lbs. After her I decided that eating healthier wasn't going to get me where I wanted so I started going to the gym. It helped and I was able to get down to 135lbs. This was huge because I hadn't seen that by,bee since before I got married. I felt great and my confidence started to return. However, I knew I wanted more babies. So I got my IUD out and we got pregnant right away. This time I gained 35lbs. Once I had her I decided to start working out again - but this time with a personal trainer.  With him, I was able to get back down to about 138lbs and 24% body fat.  I felt great. My energy was up, I felt good in a swim suit (stretch marks, loose skin and all).  Since then I've been able to hold onto the lifestyle. Eating is huge for me. As long as I eat fairly healthy I am able to maintain and lose weight. I hover around 125-130lbs now. I try to work out a couple times a week but honestly that doesn't always happen. As a mom it is sometimes hard to take the time to workout because I'd rather be with my babies. But I can absolutely tell when I don't. I am sluggish, I eat like crap, I'm crabby, the whole 9 yards. So at the end of the day it's just best I get my butt the gym.

Before Kids

After Two Kids

After three kids

Now

2. Follow Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps

I found Dave Ramsey years ago and it really helped me get my shit together but honestly I fell off the bandwagon a time or two. This year my goal is to really follow his baby steps toward a better future for us. His baby steps are made up of the following.

1. Create a budget, cut up all the credit cards, and save your baby emergency fund of $1,000.
2. Pay off all debt using the debt snowball. The debt snowball means listing your debts from small to big. Pay only the minimums each month except for your smallest debt. Whatever money is not used in your budget is your snowball. You use this to start paying towards your smallest debt.
3. Save 3-6 months expenses for your emergency fund.
4. Save 15% of your household income to retirement.
5. Save for college
6. Pay off your house
7. Be wealthy and give generously.

Your can find more about the baby steps here.

We’re on baby step two and likely will be for the entire year. Our debts are made up of credit cards, a car loan, a camper, and student loans. Our debts total well over $100k. This means we will be here for quite awhile but once we pay off a lot of this stuff our snowball will be really good. Right now our snowball is about $800 per month with a household income of $6840 a month takehome. This amount is after insurance. We have three kids. Our budget looks like this...


BILLS $3155

DEBT $1963

MONTHLY SPENDING $605

SINKING FUNDS $300

SNOWBALL $817

I heard about Dave Ramsey on baby center's We Are Debt Free group years and years ago. The ladies these are so inspiring and helpful! They definitely serve as motivation to be better at finances and to help set and meet my goals. Dave Ramsey also has a podcast that I have been listening to. It is so interesting and helpful. You can find it on iTunes or the podcast app on your phone!

Feel free to let me know if you have any questions! You are welcome to comment here for follow me on Instagram and message me there! I'd love some accountability partners. I also plan to update everyone on our debt free journey as we go. I will paste the budget template I use below. It is more detailed than the above as I wanted to just give y'all a high level look at our finances.

BILLS

mortgage/rent

garbage

cable/Netflix

phone

internet

cell phone

electric

gas

water

alarm

life insurance

car insurance

home insurance

daycare/preschool

DEBT

(list smallest to largest by total due, include monthly minimum)

car

student loan

medical bills

(add anything else you have here - credit cards, rent to own, whatever)

MONTHLY SPENDING

auto: fuel

charity

groceries/toiletries

eating out

blow money

entertainment

college savings

retirement savings

newspaper/magazine/online subscription

SINKING FUNDS

(Take the amount you expect to spend in a year, divide by 12 and set aside this amount each month in savings.)

clothing & shoes

haircuts

pet care

gifts, parties

school expenses

household/garden

Christmas/birthdays

home maintenance (1% of house value per year)

car maintenance/tags ($75/car recommended)

medical (rx, copays, contacts, dental)

kids classes/activities

adult classes/activities

tuition

property taxes (if not included in mortgage)

adult classes

travel

AAA, etc.

new car fund

1. Go Back to Church

Number one on my goal list for 2018 is to go back to church. I grew up Catholic and my husband grew up Lutheran. Both of us are believers but neither of us really practice a specific faith. But when our five year old said to us “I want to learn about Jesus”; we couldn’t deny her. Every night we pray and every so often I will talk about Jesus and how good he is. But they don’t really know much more than that. So when we set out to join a church I was looking for somewhere accepting, somewhere close, somewhere we could be ourselves and wasn’t the typical Old School mass. Last Sunday, we visited Red Rocks Church and honestly it was everything I was looking for. The girls went into it with open minds and came out of it so fulfilled. They did the Kids Rock program and had a blast. Well everyone except my youngest. She isn’t quite two and has never been out of the care of ourselves or my parents. So when we left her in the room where all the kiddos were, it was rough. They ended up texting us about 10 minutes later saying she just wasn’t having it. However, she loved the music and atmosphere in the big group with us! I feel so lucky to be on this journey of following our lord and spending more time with him this year. Also, meeting more people. It has been rough finding people our age, in the same phase of life as we are and with the same morals.

New Year, New Goals

Everyone makes resolutions year after year. And year after year those resolutions are usually not kept. I actually love to make new goals each year. It gives me something to work toward and is a form of measured success to me. This time last year we had just purchased our home, I was consistently exercising and eating well, I was insistent that I would get a boob job over the next year, and I dreamt of finishing my degree. For the most part life was good and my goals were obtainable. I did continue eating well and excercising. I am the smallest I have been since before I got married. I did not get a boob job... yet. I finished my bachelors degree, which was tougher than it sounds. I ended up taking 5-6 courses all three semesters. I was exhausted but I did it and am now working towards a masters degree. I landed my dream job as a Director of Finance for a small company. I’d be lying though if I said it isn’t kicking my ass, but I do love it. It’s amazing how a year can change so much! My whole world has essentially changed. I can definitely say, though, that I’m incredibly happy with the changes. I’m hoping the goals I have for 2018 bring just as much happiness and success. So my goals are...

1. Get back to Church

2. Follow Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps

3. Continue living a healthy lifestyle

4. Get the title “CFO” at work

5. Decide on whether our family is complete or not

These goals may seem pretty simple but each of them have its own struggle tied to it. So follow me along my journey through 2018 and figuring out life!

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Carinthians 12:9 

This verse was read at church this morning and it’s really stuck with me since. I’ve struggled in life with certain people in my life and their inability to accept things as they are and also the inability to accept the successes in the lives of others. I firmly believe in accepting my weaknesses and embracing them.

As a teenager I went through things that really tested me. I was in an unhealthy relationship that I couldn’t seem to escape, I was pregnant at 17 and suffering an ectopic pregnancy, I had a trouble relationship with my mother, I struggled in school, I drank and smoked and did anything to fit back in. It was tough and I honestly do not know how I made it through it all. Somehow though I learned to let go of my weaknesses and give it all to Christ. I truly wish I could pinpoint that point in my life and although I can’t, I’m incredibly thankful I was able to give it all to Christ. My motto since has been “If you can’t change it, don’t stress about it. Work to be the best you that you can be.”  Today’s serman really resonated with that.

Because I want to be completely transparent with you all and myself, I think it is important to say that I am not a person who consistently goes to Church or worships our lord. In fact, today was the first day that we have gone to church in YEARS. But, when my five year old told me "Mommy I want to learn about Jesus" I couldn't deny her that because I rely so much on him myself.

2018 is here!

I know I keep saying it... but I really do want to start keeping up on here.

Needless to say, A LOT has happened since I last updated y'all. From moving, to going to Disneyland, Mexico and Niagara Falls, to graduating with my bachelors and getting my dream job! I can't wait to update everyone! Also, we have some pretty awesome plans for the year that I cannot wait to share. So lets start from where we left off...

Shortly after we sold our house, we began looking at homes to purchase. Nothing that we were shown was really what we were looking for. The homes were nice, but they really weren't much different than what we just sold. Basically, they were all in the same neighborhood, with the same layout and same style just with an added basement. Don't get me wrong, they were gorgeous homes that were recently remodeled but they just weren't what we were looking for. About two weeks into our search our realtor (my cousin) sent us updated listings and I fell in love. I knew just from the photos that that was the house that I wanted. So just like previous weekends, we set out that weekend to look at a number of homes. We saw 2-4 houses that day before we went to the house I fell in love with. When we arrived we looked around and it was everything we could've asked for. We knew the house was going to have an open house that afternoon and people were in and out of it while we were there. We had one other house to look at that day. On the drive over my husband and I couldn't stop talking about the house we had just saw. We both knew that it was the house we wanted but we had a bit of a dilemma. We hadn't yet had our financing in order. We had the money from the sale of our house and all our debt paid off but we hadn't started the process with the lender, nor had a lender letter. Here in Colorado, you have to have a lender letter for anyone to even consider your offer. When we spoke to our realtor about it she said if we really wanted the home we had to be aggressive and we had to call our lender immediately for a letter. We knew we wanted to move forward but it was a Sunday, offers were due that evening, and we had no lender letter. We were so upset at this point because we knew this was the house for us. So we went to lunch and started thinking through how to make this work. We KNEW we were qualified to purchase even though we didn't have any sort of proof. We ended up going back to the home after lunch since it was open. We spoke with the selling agents and they gave us great advise on the offer that they think we should make toward the home. This was the best move we could've made because the selling agents really helped us. We ended up offering over $15,000 over asking, with an escalation clause up to $25,000 over asking. We also waived inspection and allowed sellers to stay in the home until they closed on their home. We told the selling agent that we would have a lender letter to them first thing Monday morning. This caused so much anxiety for me. We had to wait and wait and wait to hear back from them, and I had to find a lender, get them to pre-approve us and have them send over a lender letter in a matter of hours. Luckily, our lender ROCKED and was able to do that for us. We had previously used him for a refinance and so he knew us and our history and was able to help us so quickly. So then we had to wait for the offer to be accepted or denied. We knew we were up against EIGHT other offers, so it was so nerve racking. Luckily, we got the home!!! We had to wait two weeks after closing to move in BUT it was so worth it. We have lived here for over a year now and we still love it. The house is in good shape, the yard is beautiful, the neighborhood is amazing. We love everything. It doesn't look like anything special in the photo below, but it absolutely is to us!

More updating to be continued...