So I Married a Triathlete...

12 Goals for 2012

2012-01-29T18:36:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to write this post for, well, 29 days! Seeing as how January is nearly up, I better get this done and posted... :) This year, in honor of 12 months in the year 2012, I thought it made sense to have 12 goals:

Find a new job.
Learn to make marshmallows.
Make 6 quilts and sew myself a shirt.
Read 10 books.
Run a 5k.
Knit a blanket.
Frame and hang photos.
Finish laundry room and paint the kitchen back splash.
Consistently take pictures, organize all our digital photos, scan all the rest and make backups.
Go camping with Brian at least once.
Do Project Life album and keep up.
Blog once a week.

Those are my main twelve goals for this year. So far, I haven't started, but I'm going to post these so I see them every day and I'm hoping that will help. What are your goals for this year?

Scarlet & Clark Model Halloween Costumes!

2012-01-27T21:45:00.000-08:00

Lately, I've been distracted. Very distracted. I feel like this year is starting to slip by me. I've been wanting to write again and with no place better to start.... better late than never to post this, right?! :)

So one of Scarlet's favorite Halloween costumes... lobster of course!

What if I told you that Clark has the same costume as Scarlet?!

They look mad don't they?! Like "Why are we both lobsters on the front lawn, this is embarrassing!!" hee hee :)

We think they're pretty darn cute even if they weren't so happy with us on the front lawn!! :) So once they survived the lobster suits, we naturally had to put them in this year's Halloween costumes....

I look at this picture and all I see is her thinking "Why momma? This is embarrassing too!!" haha I snapped this photo really quick while Bri got Clark into his costume...

Arrrg... it's Cap'n Clark! :)

Yep, I think they are mortified that I've shared these photos in public! haha :)

I know I'm biased, but aren't they the cutest?! :)

I'm already thinking that we need to plan some matching costumes for them and take them out this year... any suggestions?!

If I Ever Visit Dallas...

2012-01-10T07:00:00.000-08:00

Over my vacation at Christmas, I had the chance to hang out with some great friends. We laughed. We ate. We caught up. But it was like those 10+ years from our days together in high school had never passed! So much fun. Anyway, Anna and I started talking food and travel... and she mentioned that she wasn't finding many things to do in their new town near the Dallas, Fort Worth area. So.... here's where I would go check out Anna if I were to come visit!! :)

First things first, I'd head for the cheese shop.

photo from here.

Scardello's Cheese to be exact! It has a ton of great reviews and I'm a sucker for tasty cheese. :) I would also hit up one of my favorite online stores that has a store front in Dallas - Penzey's Spices located at 12835 Preston Road, Dallas, TX 75230. YUM. You will love this place if you love to cook (which I know you do Anna!!).

photo from here.

Of course, I'd do the Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives tour too -- Twisted Root Burger Co. (I'd totally order the Bacon Bomb Burger, Fried Onion Strings, Sweet Potato Chips and a Peanut Butter Custard Shake... mmmm), and Avila's Mexican Restaurant (I'd order the Flour Nachos - I'm a sucker for flour tortilla chips! - and Brisket Tacos - they are known for them!).

photo from here.

My favorite place to search for places to check out is yelp.com and that's where I found Mozart Bakery, which sounds excellent (try a macaron, not to be confused with a macaroon!). Or try Highland Park Pharmacy -- it's a soda fountain that has been in business since 1912! One review says to try a grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwich to go with the milkshake.... mmmm..... I totally would!! Also found Bubba's Cooks Country (the pancakes or a biscuit sandwich? I love that kinda greasy diner breakfast every once in a great while!). And I found Bread Winners Bakery Bistro -- looks good for brunch and pastries!

photo from here.

Okay so if you make it through all the food... lol ;) I'd check out a few local places such as the Dallas Heritage Village, the Dallas Arboretum (they have a concert series!), and the Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge. And what's travel without real history? I would totally check out the Sixth Floor Museum, see the grassy knoll and the JFK Memorial.

photo from here.

I'd also check out this Fort Worth landmark, Billy Bob's Texas. BBQ, live music, real bull riding and free line dancing lessons? It is also a bar... but it sounds like a true Texas experience to me!! :) In Fort Worth, there is also the Modern Museum of Fort Worth which sounds (& looks) really interesting. They have a Friday night dinner and movie event that I would totally check out!!

photo from here.

Other things I'd check out:
Lonely Planet's Texas Barbeque: A User's Guide
Dallas Observer's Best of Dallas 2011
Things to Do in Fort Worth, Texas
Things to Do in Dallas, Texas
White Rock Lake (biking, walking trails)
Dallas Farmer's Market (7 days a week!)
Mesquite Pro Rodeo (live rodeos!)
Trinity River Audubon Center (more biking, walking trails)
Stockyards Station (horseback trail rides!)
National Cowgirl Museum & Hall of Fame (you are in Texas... I'd totally soak up some culture! ;))

That should keep you busy for a while Anna! You'll have to let me know what you try or do -- I'll have to travel Dallas vicariously through you!! :)

2012: A Month-by-Month Prediction

2012-01-08T12:00:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's already 2012!!

art found here.

Following yesterday's post, I thought I'd follow up with this today before it got too much further into 2012. So if you've never checked out this website, that I blogged about here, go check it out! It's okay, I'll wait :)

Today, I popped on over there and found this prompt:

Write a month-by-month prediction for this year. Start with "This month, I will..."

Well, don't have to ask me twice! :) So here goes:

This month, I will work a lot of hours, as usual!

In February, we will celebrate Valentine's Day and my birthday.

In March, we will celebrate Brian's 40th birthday!

In April, I will see my favorite girls for our annual cropulation in Denver.

In May, we will celebrate my nephew Creighton's 4th birthday and my Dad's birthday.

In June, we will camp. Just floating that out there to my husband ;) lol Go with my family to a SF Giants game - Creighton's first!

In July, I will do something outdoorsy with my husband.

In August, I will work on the house. At this point, I'm focusing on the upstairs - the loft and master bedroom/bath/closet.

In September, I will prepare for the holidays.

In October, we will celebrate 7 years of marriage and, hopefully, travel somewhere fun to celebrate!

In November, we will celebrate Thanksgiving. We will go see the last Twilight movie! ;)

In December, we will celebrate Abby's 2nd birthday and Christmas.

This is a really loose list, but that's what it's looking to be! I also want to fit in the following items:

A trip to see my brother for 4-5 days.
A mini vacation with Brian (camping? SF? Yosemite? Santa Barbara?).
A girl's weekend with my sister and Mom.
A weekend foodie tour of LA with Evelyn and Drea.
A couple visits to Placerville.
At least one 5k run, hopefully with Drea and/or Anna.
A live concert, musical or comedy show. Something fun and new to us!

It was fun to think about the year like this. What will you do this year?! :)

My One Little Word for 2012: Enjoy!

2012-01-01T09:08:00.000-08:00

photo from here.

My one word I want to live by this year is ENJOY.

Enjoy life.
Enjoy time with my husband.
Enjoy time with my family.
Enjoy time with my friends.
Enjoy time with our pets.
Enjoy our home.
Enjoy working.
Enjoy all of it.

I figure I'll tackle my goals in a manageable way over the next twelve months... month by month. More on that later though. My words in the past have been Live (2011), Love (2010), and Create (2009). What are your resolutions this year?

Goals for the Rest of 2011

2011-12-11T10:00:00.000-08:00

Image Source

Okay, so this whole no goals for 2011.... well.... It just isn't working for me! I like goals. And it's nice to feel like I accomplish things by going back to the statement of the goals. And really, I just like making lists. So I have about three months left this year and these are a few things I want to finish.... (and Brian, shh. Not a word! :) lol)

1. Finish Amy's Quilt
It just needs the rest of the binding fabric pieced together and stitched on. It's the small things. :)

2. Finish the Craft Room/Office
I need to iron & hem the curtains, then hang them. Apply the glass blocking stuff to the middle cabinet doors, paint the sign Brian made me and hang it up! I'd also like to repurpose and hang something to store the mists in a better location :)

3. Learn to Make Marshmallows
I need to face the reality that this has been on my list of things to try out for I don't know... like three years. I bought a book and the necessary items. Just never made them. Time to cross this one off the list!

4. Christmas Cards
I've been good about making them, I have not been good about distributing them. They will go in the mail by December 10th this year. If you didn't get one last year or the year before, it's because I didn't get them in the mail. Would it be bad to stuff the envelopes with three years worth of cards this year?! ;)

5. Finish Reorganizing Paperwork
For someone who's pretty well organized, my paperwork always seems to come last or next to never. I need to finish cleaning this out and I don't want to continue carrying this bad habit forward any further!

6. Finish & Hang Artwork in Laundryroom
Since the rest of that to-do list is really Brian's list.... I want to make sure I finish my part this year! :) I have it all planned out in my head... now just to do it!

Brian also wants me to finish this item, so I'm adding it to my list:

7. Clean Out Our Loft
It's become my junk room. Problem is it doesn't have a door.... :) I need to sell a few items on eBay or Craigslist, purge some stuff and generally clean it up. It's not a small endeavor, but now that the living room is clean, I know I can finish this! :)

Did you have any 2011 goals? How are you doing with them?

December To-Do List

2011-12-09T12:30:00.000-08:00

Source: parisdailyphoto.com via Amanda on Pinterest

Seesh... I better hurry up and post this before the month is half over! LOL :)

1. Watch favorite holiday movies: Home Alone, Home Alone 2, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Love Actually, Elf
2. Bake cookies.
3. Host a Cookie Exchange Party.
4. Send Christmas cards.
5. Decorate our house.
6. Finish knitting Gabriel's Santa hat.
7. Repair Abby's quilt.
8. Shop for, wrap and (in some cases) ship gifts.
9. Celebrate Abby's first birthday.
10. Spend time with my family.
11. Spend time with my friends.
12. Listen to holiday music.
13. Build a gingerbread house.
14. Make Christmas ornaments with Abby and Creighton.
15. Make some craft with my sister.
16. Celebrate Mom & Dad's 40th wedding anniversary.
17. Christmas Eve with my Mom's family.
18. Make Christmas morning breakfast.
19. Photo shoot with Creighton and Abby.
20. Control my urge to eat a Cranberry Bliss Bar every day at Starbucks (so far, I've only had one!)
21. Make at least 5 cards and 1 scrapbook layout with my new stuff.
22. Make a December Daily album and blog it.
23. Blog six times on this blog (2 down, 4 to go!).
24. Read one book on my Nook. :)
25. Spend quality time with Brian at least 4 times this month (not watching TV!) - one down, three to go!

A Plan for Our Loft

2011-12-04T17:57:00.000-08:00

So I got a little distracted today by cleaning out in the closet. Which led to planning the master closet which led me to the other problem child of storage in our house, the loft:

Sigh. It's a mess. And Brian wants me to clean it up. And trust me, so do I.

So I need a game plan. All we've got in there are three bookshelves, no blinds, nothing on the walls (including color) and a bunch of junk. Purpose of the room? Storage of books. Use of the sewing machine. And the rest is a blank slate.

So.... I figured it out. Defined it. A place to sew, read a book and play games. I think. :) Here's my sketch:

I prefer the old school method. 10 inches equals one side of the graph paper square. :)

I want this rug in red:

Source: overstock.com via Amanda on Pinterest

This sofa from Ikea in gray:

Source: ikea.com via Amanda on Pinterest

This desk from Ikea:

Source: ikea.com via Amanda on Pinterest

And this color scheme:

Source: creaturecomfortsblog.com via Amanda on Pinterest

I think once I get these pieces in place, I'll figure out the rest... the photos on the wall, the curtains, the pillows, the accessories.

Based on budget and time, I want to plan on doing this sometime next year. I'm not sure what color paint to put on the walls. What do you think?!

Week in the Life: Wednesday

2011-08-24T07:45:00.000-07:00

Note: This week I will be running journaling I wrote down each day during the week of July 25th + pics of stuff I took on those days.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

listening: to the tv
eating: tacos
drinking: 2% milk
wearing: jammies
feeling: exhausted
weather: gorgeous summer evening
wanting: to catch up on everything
needing: sleep
thinking: about this weekend
enjoying: having Brian home (instead of working in Felton!)
wondering: if I can get everything done

Woke up this morning to Phil Collins, Another Day in Paradise. Love that song. Scar with her head just outside of the covers snoring.

Breakfast: Odwalla Chocolate Protein Monster shake
Lunch: tuna sandwich on toasted whole wheat, goldfish crackers, raspberries, glass of 2% milk
Afternoon: cap'n crunch frapp from Starbucks
Dinner: tacos, glass of 2% milk

Just another day in the grind. Phone calls with friends, Mom and Dad. Text messages with friends and family. Tossing a tennis ball on the front lawn for Scarlet. Tuckin' Brian into bed early. This week is flying by!

Great quote today that hit my e-mail:

♥ it.

Week in the Life: Tuesday

2011-08-23T07:45:00.000-07:00

Note: This week I will be running journaling I wrote down each day during the week of July 25th + pics of stuff I took on those days.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Brian had a later start time this morning, which was nice. He left an hour before I got up instead of three. I usually wake up to my ipod going off at 6:30 am. I really like waking up to music better than a blaring beeping tone. Much better way to start the day! I also usually wake up to this one:

And a wagging tail, with lots of kisses!

Shower, dress, makeup, grab my stuff and go -- I'm not super fast the first few hours of the day. But I'm getting better at moving myself in the morning.

Another long day at work....

The lunch routine these days is nice. I come home, grab the mail, get greeted by the doggie, sort the mail, make lunch and either read my nook or watch something on the dvr. Today it was watch Design Star on my dvr. Love that show - even more now that David Bromstad is the mentor.

After a long day of purchase orders, budget corrections, paying invoices, answering questions, issuing park permits and getting more assignments from my retiring boss.

After work, I met up with a good friend, Leti, for dinner at Frankie's Grill.

My favorite at Frankie's Grill - the Grilled Romaine salad with blue cheese, bacon, grilled chicken and a balsamic dressing!

We had a good meal, a glass of wine and a great conversation. It also reminded me of what I do like of living in a small town -- you run into people you know and it's nice when they pull up a chair and join the conversation for a while. :)

I got home from dinner, Brian and Scarlet ate the leftovers within 10 minutes, we had a good conversation and Brian went to bed. I stayed up and watched Flipping Out. Then promptly fell asleep in the middle of the episode.... and woke up on the couch at 2:30 am! I was more tired than I thought!

Week in the Life: Monday

2011-08-22T07:45:00.000-07:00

Note: This week I will be running journaling that I wrote down each day during the week of July 25th + pics of stuff I took on those days.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Many are familiar with Ali Edward's projects, including A Week in the Life, which started again today. I participated last year, but only on my blog. This is an eventful week in my life, so I definitely wanted to play again this year. So here goes....

Blah. That's how today felt. I was not feeling it. It probably has to do with my bad sunburn I got yesterday washing the cars + weeding the front yard + forgetting sunblock. Ouch. The weekend was a lot of fun though. Friday night, Brian and I went to the movies to see this:

Yep, Harry Potter the very last one. It was so good, but at the same time, I'm sad to see it end again (it was a bummer when I finished the books and there were no more to read!) Such a great story. Uncharacteristic of us, we ate dinner at the movies... Brian had a hot dog, I had nachos and we shared a popcorn. As we were leaving, I unintentionally dunked my right hand in the leftover nacho cheese as I went to pick it up in the dark and, naturally, I wanted to wash that off ASAP. There was a family bathroom right across from our theater and I opened the door to find some guy in there who forgot to lock the door! Hilarious! I think he learned a lesson.... :)

Saturday, I got to hang out with Erin.

hehe - we laughed so hard at this ridiculously long candle!!

We don't get to see each other much and I really miss the days where we used to eat lunch together almost every day. We met up in Carmel and went to Tommy's Wok.... it was soooo GOOD!

Hot and Sour Soup - delicious!

Vegetable Potstickers - these were fresh, lightly fried and to.die.for!

My absolute fav, the crabmeat rangoon.

Erin got the honey walnut prawns which were super tasty!

I got the combo plate - fried rice, chow mein and broccoli cashew chicken. SOOOO good!

Isn't this place cute too?!

We wandered the streets of Carmel window shopping before heading over to Pacific Grove to check out this bakery:

And get some of these:

Seriously, I can't believe I went so many years without trying a French macaron - what was I thinking?! I'm addicted to these now - the best cookie ever. Light, a little crunchy and absolutely delicious. Worth hunting for a bakery that makes these!

We headed over to Monterey to wrap up the day with a little shopping. I'm sad that Borders is bankrupt and closing. We won't have any bookstores anywhere near us anymore. I'm glad I have my new nook color, but I really will miss wandering the little Borders at the mall in Monterey and the big Borders in Seaside. We also hit up Ann Taylor where I got a new shirt, cardigan and necklace, and Macy's where we killed our noses smelling perfume and cologne samples! I had a gift card to spend there (thanks to Annie!) and I restocked on one of my favorite perfumes, Ralph Lauren Romance.

I finished out Saturday catching up with Brian on our dvr recordings, laying around on the couch, staring at our new entertainment center!

Sunday was busy with cleaning... I did maintenance on our washing machine (including cleaning it), washed both my car and Brian's truck, pulled weeds from our front sidewalk and gutter, walked the doggie with Brian, and enjoyed our lazy Sunday. Well, enjoyed everything but the sunburn I got for forgetting sunblock! The Tour de France finished up and Brian was excited that his favorites, the Schleck brothers both finished on the podium and it was nice to see Cadel Evans win.

So back to Monday.... work is hectic right now because my boss is retiring in September, last fiscal year is closing this month and the new fiscal year has started. After a really long and frustrating day, I came home to relax with Brian. He's been working some early morning shifts lately, starting at 3 am and finishing at noon. Today was one of those days for him, so he was sleepy. Every night now, he's watering his seed packet flowers and the few berry bushes and tomato plants he has this year. They look great!

I spent a lot of time on the phone tonight, catching up with family and a friend. Talked to my mom, my Aunt Sherri about decor for Saturday's party in Placerville and Zarogina, my upline for Stampin' Up. We always have great conversations about our mutual love for crafting, so it's never a quick phone call! I'm excited about the classes and events I have coming up, so the day ended on a good note.

Scrapbook Layouts!

2011-08-21T17:30:00.000-07:00

Here are the ten layouts I finished in Michigan a few ~~weeks~~ months ago! I was a teensy bit obsessed with my new We R Memory Keepers Sew Easy tool. Just a smidge.... ;)

Hope you're ready for this onslaught of layouts....

Up first, this layout of my sister's family last Christmas:

I made two, the first one for Abby's album and this one for Creighton's album:

And a layout about our decision to say goodbye to Darby:

This is my niece Abby's first Christmas photo... :)

Of course, I couldn't do a batch of Christmas layouts without doing one about Brian and what he always wants for Christmas....

Still need to go back and add some journaling:

Another almost finished layout.... just need to add some journaling:

And another Scarlet layout for the books :)

Had to make sure all the furry inhabitants of our house got equal treatment of course!

A summary layout about last Christmas:

And a summary layout for Christmas 2009 too!

So that wraps up the layouts I did back in May.... it only took me until August to photograph them and upload them.... yikes! :)

Have you seen this?

2011-08-15T07:45:00.001-07:00

I revamped my crafty blog and I'm now blogging over there again:

Also, make sure you update your RSS reader if you used to follow it. I've noticed that the redirect to a new website may cause the old RSS feeds to be lost! Happy Monday! :)

30-Day Photo Challenge // Day Four: Favorite Color

2011-08-05T12:00:00.000-07:00

Image processed with ShakeIt for iPhone.

Today it's red. Tomorrow it might be something else :)

Info on the 30 Day Photo Challenge here.

30-Day Photo Challenge // Day Three: Clouds

2011-08-03T19:00:00.000-07:00

Last picture for today and I'm caught up on the 30 Day Photo Challenge...

Photo proceed with ShakeIt for iPhone.

Not a single cloud in the sky today!

30-Day Photo Challenge // Day Two: What I Wore

2011-08-03T17:15:00.000-07:00

Quick photo on lunchbreak for day two of the 30 Day Photo Challenge...

Photo processed with Instagram for iPhone.

Geez... my hair is messy, the house is messy... gotta get some cleaning done tonight!

One more picture later today and I'll be caught up!

30-Day Photo Challenge // Day One: Self Portrait

2011-08-03T12:30:00.000-07:00

I first saw this 30 Day Photo Challenge on Vee's blog and decided that I wanted to participate too! I haven't done a photography challenge for awhile, so here's the list:

I'm catching up today, so here's my first picture and I'll be posting two more later today!

Taken with ShakeIt App for iPhone.

Self portrait taken while walking the dog. I was hoping to catch her in the picture too, but no such luck. She's quick when she's sniffin for treasures! ;)
Are you participating? If so, let me know so I can see your pics and come leave you some love too!

Our Guest Bathroom

2011-07-17T16:30:00.000-07:00

I wrote this post two years ago and never added pictures... better late than never?! Here it is! :)

For months, I have been trying to figure out what paint color I want to pick. This process takes me forever! And Brian is usually quick to agree (no pink, red or purple and I get no complaint). Maybe that is why we have only painted two rooms in our entire house and the rest of it is white? Dunno. Probably part of the reason! (Note... since I wrote this, we've now got four painted rooms inside the house, not two, and the outside of the house!)

So I figured, one bathroom at a time right now. Someday we will most definitely replace the light fixtures in all three of our bathrooms as we hate them and (I hope) we might tile all of the bathroom floors (in lieu of the linoleum from the builder).... but for now, this will have to do. Hoping to get the paint on the walls of all three bathrooms and done with the painting by the end of this year. We'll see how that goes! :)

So for the Upstairs Hallway Bathroom (we refer to it as the Guest Bathroom), Brian had the decor picked when I met him. I can recall a trip to Target back in our dating days where we acquired a shower curtain, trash can and bath mat. Since then, we have slowly collected the bits and pieces of the bathroom.... and that is how we wound up with a starting point of rubber ducks in our all white bathroom. Not my first choice, but six years of living with the ducks, so to speak, the little guys have grown on me.... I have debated the color to paint the wall for the last year and have finally arrived at Swan Sea (Behr). First time I've picked a color out of the color deck and Brian hasn't said a word.... I hope that's not a bad thing! :)

So here it is before.....

This is the view looking down the hallway into the bathroom. See... lots of white! :)

I didn't take pics until Brian had already pulled down the mirror above the sink, but this works :) And I have to point out that I hate the light fixture. It's in every one of our 2.5 bathrooms! At least it's something Brian and I definitely agree on -- we need to get rid of them! :)

And this is the view from standing in the tub looking back to the doorway:

There is also normally a mirror above the sink, but I didn't take pictures until after we had taken it down... oops!

And getting ready to paint....

And here's the color I chose (and Brian agreed to!):

Side Note: For months I tried to pick a color. It took forever, but I finally found (of all things) a bath towel in Target that I loved the color of!

So I color matched it and it was "Swan Sea." And yes, I took the actual towel into Home Depot and put it on the little color scanner! :)

See, perfect match! :)

Continuing along... here is the bathroom mid-paint job....

Sorry the pic is blurry, it's the best one I have!

And finally... what it looks like today...

This entire bathroom was inspired by rubber duckies. Just for the record, this decor choice is compliments of my husband Brian, long before we met! :)

Our collection of rubber duckies!

Notice the "reading" material?! It's hilarious!

I think this is my favorite thing - the handmade candles from this etsy seller!

And now for the remaining items on the "punch list" for this room:

The sink faucet fixture....

This light fixture, which let's just say is not my favorite!

And the linoleum floor... not my favorite either!

Yep, I still want to replace the floors, the lighting fixture and the sink + shower fixtures, but those are little fixes that can be done someday down the road. :) What a difference a can of paint can make! I'm in love with the color and ready to continue working on different other projects in the house.

So if you come visit and stay in our house, this is the guest bathroom! What do you think? :)

Quote: Kindness

2011-06-12T16:00:00.000-07:00

Ran across this quote early last week - love it!

Baked Pasta (aka Mock Lasagna)

2011-06-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

This recipe is a loose adaptation of this one for Baked Ziti and is what I served Friday night to the girls!

Photo credit.

I improvised. I didn't want to grate provolone... Or use that much sour cream. Or cook the meat with onions. And there was not ONE box of Ziti in all of the grocery store. Oh and I was starving, with company, so I didn't get a picture of how yummy mine looked! So here's the recipe for my somewhat healthier version:

Ingredients:

2 boxes of penne regata pasta (about 1 pound of dry pasta, go for something round, big and with grooves so it will pick up the sauce!)
1 bunch green onions
1 pound lean ground beef (I used 97/3, only 3% fat!)
2 twenty-six ounce jars of spaghetti sauce
2 bags shredded cheese (I used a mozarella and provolone mix)
1/2 cup sour cream (approximate)

Preheat oven to 350F. Boil water and chop green onions, then set aside. When water boils, add pasta and cook according to instructions (mine had a cook time of 12 minutes). When pasta is added to water, start cooking ground beef. Once beef is browned, add spaghetti sauce and seasonings to taste to make the sauce mixture. I used Italian Seasoning -- no salt. In fact, we never really add salt to much of anything. I'm not a huge fan, but this is where you would add it if you want it! Heat the sauce mixture while pasta finishes cooking. I left the heat high so that the sauce would heat more quickly.

Get a pan ready -- I used the biggest pan I have available, at least a 13x17 will be needed. Butter it lightly to prevent the baked pasta from sticking to the edges. Drain the pasta, turn off the sauce mixture.

Put half the pasta in the pan and pour about half the sauce over the pasta. Stir it. Sprinkle a handful of cheese over it, along with half the chopped green onions. Now put the rest of the noodles in, add the rest of the sauce, spreading it over the noodles with the back of your spoon. Then sprinkle the rest of the green onions over the top.

Now, take the sour cream, and take two large spoonfuls (about one-third of a 16 oz container) and spread them over the top with the back of your spoon. Cover the top in cheese, lots of it! I used one full bag plus one handful of shredded cheese total on this recipe. You will have about a half a bag leftover.

Put in the oven for 15 minutes, or until cheese is melted. Change oven settings to broil and brown the cheese for about 3-5 minutes. Watch it carefully so you don't burn it!

It's delicious. Definitely the easy way to do a "lasagna" without all the hassle! Everyone loved it and went back for seconds and now Brian and I are enjoying eating the leftovers!

Today I am...

2011-06-11T15:03:00.000-07:00

....enjoying the weekend I've been dreaming of for months. Lazy. Quiet. Peaceful. And, most importantly, at home.

Brian is in the garage:

building us a new entertainment center for here:

I cannot wait for the first piece to be finished!

Speaking of finished... the laundry room is almost finished....

Just waiting on choosing a counter top, raising the center cabinet, finishing the trim for the shelf above the washer/dryer and hanging stuff back up on the walls!

Brian's wildflowers:

Are growing in now:

And I love them.

And I cannot wait for these to ripen...

I have a little mess to clean up from a fun little party last night:

We played bingo, ate a great new pasta dish I cooked up and had fun hanging out.

Now I get to go play with the crafty stuff all weekend....

Or maybe the fabric?

Or maybe I'll just take a nap with this one....

Or this one...

Or hope for more text message pics like these of my cute niece Abby and her big brother, my favorite nephew CT...

♥ & miss those cute kiddos! :)

Starbucks Hidden Menu Item: Cake Batter Frappucino

2011-05-26T07:30:00.000-07:00

So it's no secret I have a sister who works at Starbucks. :) She's been teaching me some interesting combos of items that taste like other things. This one tastes like cake batter. Perfect for someone like me who has a serious sweet tooth and loves the sugar-y sweet taste. I should add that Brian doesn't have nearly as sweet a tooth as I do and he wanted to drink the whole dang thing!

To order, it's a grande vanilla bean creme frappucino with 2 pumps of toffee nut syrup. You can order it light (non-fat) and it tastes yummy with the whipped cream. Why cheat yourself of the best part?! You'll definitely want to go for a run or go to the gym after consuming this!! But it's totally delicious and worth it. :)

Wordless Wednesday: Yep, she sleeps with the doggie toys in the doggie bed!

2011-05-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

Let's Talk About Toothpicks (Megan, this one's for you!!)

2011-05-17T23:40:00.000-07:00

So I'm working tonight and I had to laugh when they came on the news to talk about a toothpick replica of San Francisco at the Exploratorium in SF. It reminded me of 7th grade and our toothpick house! And by "our", I'm talking about Megan and I. What started as a math project of draw out your dream house on graph paper turned into "now, you're going to build it out of toothpicks". Occasionally, I still flashback when I use a toothpick. :) So this one's for you Megan! I'm still looking for our floor plan. I really hope it's still stashed away in my closet at my parent's house. :)

Life has been very busy in recent months, but I hope to be back to blogging soon. Really soon.

Our First Five Years

2011-04-14T23:42:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how time just flies right on by! Later this year, we will be hitting the ten year mark since we met! :) So today I'm sharing the first five.... rapid fire in mini album form! :)

all product info here.

I haven't been around here much cause I'm just running around like crazy trying to keep up with life! I have some posts I want to write, so maybe I should just quit thinking about it and get to writing them!! And, I'm super behind on reading my favorite blogs in my reader. I'm hoping to catch up in the next week or so. Hope you have a great weekend! :)

Wordless Wednesday: Loving Spring

2011-04-06T07:38:00.000-07:00

Wordless Wednesday: Sick... Rainy Day...

2011-03-23T21:49:00.000-07:00

wishing these were still alive and it was sunny... sigh.

Wordless Wednesday: Day at the Beach

2011-03-09T23:58:00.000-08:00

Can you find Scarlet in the picture?! (hint... bottom left-ish area next to the sticks!)

And this is Clark, Scarlet's boyfriend. :)

Turning 31....

2011-03-04T07:45:00.000-08:00

Was fun! Until I realized it's been a decade since my 21st birthday celebration.... yikes! :)

Image via here.

Ten years ago I was....
....living with Michelle in Davis.
....in my second quarter of my third year at UC Davis.
....about to embark on one of the coolest jobs I'd ever have in April working for the California State Assembly.
....studying lots. And by lots I mean literally studying for a midterm on my 21st bday with my friend Johann instead of partying!
....~~single~~ thinking about giving someone a third chance. Which ended up being the last chance!
....thinking about what I wanted in life.... where I wanted to live.... what I wanted to do.
....didn't know that I was going to meet the love of my life later that year.
....enjoying my friends who celebrated my bday in style with me at TGI Fridays after my midterm.
....laughing now remembering what a crazy fun night that was!

Looking back at all the birthdays in-between....
....Brian has been there for each one, outdoing himself every time.
....I've accomplished a lot in the last decade.
....I have a lot more I want to do and I know that where I want to go in ten years is probably no where near anything I can possibly imagine. And I love that about life.
....I have a great family who always calls, texts and/or mails cards on birthdays. And I wish I was better at remembering. I'm working on that.
....I'm lucky I have such great friends. I love that I look back and every year that family of friends keeps growing.
....that in such a short time (ten years is short in my book!), there have been all these new babies in our world to love and watch grow. Especially our nephew and niece, whom I adore (and so does their Uncle Brian!).

Looking forward at the next ten....
....I want the next ten years to be even better.
....love that I know I get to share them with Brian. Good and bad, we are in this together baby! :)
....I want to do big things. And I have no idea right now what they will be. I love that.
....I want to move back to the Sacramento area, but my life is here now. I know this will be an emotional decision if we finally do it.
....I want to travel somewhere exotic to us. France or England or Scotland or Australia or New Zealand.... take the Alaskan cruise we've been wanting. It may have to wait 14 years until the house is paid off, but we will do it.

I don't know....
....if we will ever have kids.
....how we will survive the day our beloved pets, Scarlet and Nala, are gone.
....when my brother and sis-in-law will be back from the east coast.
....what the future holds. It's scary and exhilirating all rolled into one.

All I can say is that this birthday I felt the love and I love my life. I love my husband. I love our home and our pets. I love my family. I love my friends. ♥ Life is good. ♥

Special thanks to my husband for the best birthday yet. Amazing date...amazing day off... the best birthday breakfast and dinner... most delicious cake yet. You truly are the best and I love you so, so much sweetie!

Wordless Wednesday: Best Friends!

2011-03-02T20:50:00.000-08:00

So sweet :)

Catching up with the Crafty Stuff!

2011-02-24T23:26:00.000-08:00

Wow, I haven't shared my scrapbook layouts on here since October - oops! Totally got behind! :) Let's catch up!

Playing with digi scrapping and favorite fonts!

Published on October 22, 2010 on Examiner.com.

Published on October 30, 2010 on Examiner.com.

Published on November 6, 2010 on Examiner.com.

Details here.

Published on November 21, 2010 on Examiner.com.

Published November 26, 2010 on Examiner.com.

Published on December 1, 2010 on Examiner.com.

Details here.

Published on December 17, 2010 on Examiner.com.

Published on December 24, 2010 on Examiner.com.

Published on December 29, 2010 on Examiner.com.

Published on January 2, 2011 on Examiner.com.

Published on January 15, 2011 on Examiner.com and more details here on my new crafty blog!

Published on January 21, 2011 on Examiner.com.

Published on January 26, 2011 on Examiner.com and blogged here.

Published on February 2, 2011 on Examiner.com.

Published on February 12, 2011 on Examiner.com and more details soon here!

Published on February 18, 2011 on Examiner.com and another one with details to follow here!

Details here.

Whew! I was behind!! Feels good to be caught up. :) Product details and more info about the layouts and cards can be found by clicking on the links beneath each photo.

Have a great weekend!! :)

Wordless Wednesday: Totally Addicted

2011-02-23T22:09:00.000-08:00

♥ Iced Unsweetened Passion Tea ♥

yum.

January was a blur!

2011-02-18T07:45:00.000-08:00

Between a back injury, working two jobs and, generally, running in circles..... I haven't had much time to write here. I want to, I just have no time left at the end of the day and, let's face it, I'm so not a morning person! I wanted to make sure I wrote something so I'd have something to look back at for this month... so here's some random tidbits from January!

Work sent me to Sacramento round-trip one-day for a grant application. I was happy to go cause it meant lunch with my parents and these three:

In case you don't know, that's my sister and her two kiddos, my most favorite nephew & niece!

My favorite little nephew who's growing up too fast:

Walking, talking, ABC's, numbers.... spoon balanced on his nose?! Sweet!! I'm so proud!! :D

And this cutie who I got to feed lunch:

Already growing too fast for me - thankfully, my sister sends me text message pics a couple times a week!

My kind of work day! :)
Countless layouts and cards... I'll share those soon.

Watched my amazing husband speed through a remodel of our laundry room which I will also be sharing soon -- he's almost done! I'm so proud of him. He's the best -- I'm such a lucky girl!! ♥ Then it's my turn to hang pictures and all that fun stuff. :)

Suffered a bad back injury -- inflammed illiopsoas muscles, inflammed left hamstring, irritated siatic nerve on my left side. No fun. Finally feeling better, but makes work a challenge. Contemplating one of those crazy chairs for work... no joke. Sitting = no good. Walking, standing, yoga = good. I want to start running again on a regular basis. SOON. I tried last week and my back immediately flared up. sigh. A little fearful of trying again and hurting that much again.

I miss my hubby. He's been such a trooper with my crazy schedule and when I'm home, I'm dead tired or working on the computer. I appreciate that he feeds me, loves our pets, loves our home and loves me. He's the best! :)

This year, I'm trying to just take everything as it comes at me -- no goals for the year, no word. Just living. this is a big change for me! :) This month I've just been hustling and trying to normalize my sleep schedule. So far, so good. I'm getting to bed around 10-11 every night and up between 6:45-8 depending on weekday/weekend. Next month, I'm hoping to settle into a better schedule. By that, I mean I'm hoping to get to bed a little earlier, get up at 6 to workout every weekday, with serious exercise in some form 4 days a week and plan an evening a week for my hubby -- no computer, no phone, just us. Hope he'll cooperate with that one! ;)

Wordless Wednesday: Lunchtime = Playtime!

2011-02-16T21:14:00.000-08:00

What can I say, this is my normal routine at lunch... check mail, come in, puppy kisses, then fetch with a tennis ball. :)

This was supposed to be wordless. I'll have to work on that. Just wanted to pop over here and say that I think about catching up here all the time. Life just got even busier on me. I'll be back soon. At least for now, I'll try these to force me back into something regular. :)

New Year... New Stuff....

2011-01-07T12:00:00.000-08:00

New Niece....

New laundryroom (I hope)....

We tested ten of these colors on the wall. No decision once the new washer & dryer got here. Back to Home Depot for some more colors.... :| The paint testing fun continues...

And new blog...

to go along with my new side gig... :)

So if you like making cards, stamping, scrapping... any of that crafty sort of stuff, please come be one of my first followers over there! I'm also booking workshops if you see anything on that blog that you want to make. :)

I've been having fits with the html coding on that blog. For now it's working in Internet Explorer, but no other platforms. Going to have to recode it in a different way this weekend. Wish me luck... I think I may need it!!

Hope you are enjoying the new year... I can't believe we are already a week into it. Yikes!

December got away from me...

2010-12-31T15:35:00.000-08:00

Heck, the whole of 2010 did! What a busy year! The past few weeks have been busy with getting ready to start a new adventure for 2011, hosting a cookie exchange party, attending a holiday party for work, a visit from my parents, our niece born on December 21st, time spent at the hospital with my sister + new niece, lots of time with friends and family, time spent playing with my nephew, last minute Christmas shopping, traveling to do 99% of that, renovation of the laundryroom is now in full swing and, on top of all that, I'm trying really hard not to go crazy!

More on all of that soon. Promise. :) As a random side note, I actually have over 65 posts in draft form. Most just waiting for pictures. Scary, but true. I think I'll be resolving to fix that problem in 2011!

In the meantime, here's our Christmas card for this year, which made it into the mail extremely late (sorry everyone... they will be there soon, promise!!)

Better late than never though, right?! Anyway, happy new year everyone!! :)

I...

2010-12-09T17:00:00.000-08:00

AM happy.
WANT to have more hours in the day.
HAVE the best husband!
WISH that I could have a more creative career.
HATE cat fur all over the couch this time of the year. I swear I find a new whole cat everday in shed fur!
FEAR the last day I can have an eggnog chai latte at Starbucks this month.
HEAR the dog and cat snoring.
SEARCH for missing socks too often.
WONDER where the heck do they vanish to?? Seriously.
REGRET nothing.
LOVE my life.
ACHE for my husband. Wait that sounds... well... I miss him. He's gone for work a lot now...
ALWAYS take on way more than I can handle and love it!
USUALLY do not have enough patience.
AM NOT perfect and I like it that way.
DANCE when no one is looking or everyone is drunk!
SING in the shower and the car.
NEVER imagined my life would take me to this point ten years ago.
RARELY get sick.
CRY when I get angry or frustrated.
AM NOT ALWAYS awake before 10 am... I'm not a morning person.
LOSE the cords and battery chargers to my camera far too often.
AM CONFUSED BY ummm.... not much. I don't let that state of mind persist for very long!
NEED to spend more time with my husband.
SHOULD workout more.
LAUGH every day.
DREAM that my life will continue to grow and flourish... I'm a lucky girl!

Saw this "quiz" on a scrapbook layout by Amy LeJeune in the new Scrapbooking Everyday Memories by CK. Love the concept!! Now just to make it into my own layout. Thanks for the inspiration Amy!!

This Busy Life....

2010-12-07T07:30:00.000-08:00

I could quote poetic.... "when it rains it pours"... but I won't do that! :)

Things were hectic in the last couple of weeks.   To say the least. So rather than talk about that right now.... I'm just going to pick up and move forward for the moment -- I'll come back to the rest of that later! Some random thoughts....

*I ♥ Eggnog Chai Lattes. This is a new ~~favorite~~ addiction this year! Between that and the Cranberry Bliss Bars....
*I want to run or go back to spin class.   Like yesterday. I'm just fighting my lengthy to-do list to make time for it. Well that and....
*Sleep. Which I love and need more of.

So, I took almost no photos of all the fun time I spent with my nephew over the Thanksgiving holiday week while we were in Sacramento. Which is kind of a bummer. But in my defense it's hard to remember to take photos when you are running in circles chasing a 2.5 yr old and playing.  But I did manage to take this one with my cell phone. Which I love. LOVE.

We were watching Mickey Mouse Playhouse. They were going to Mars and he was totally getting it. He's such a smarty pants. I'm also loving our newly discovered conversations about all things boy. Including his binoculars from Uncle Brian. Which, by the way, is the most hilarious word to hear him say! I will definitely be capturing that on video in a few weeks at Christmas. :)

So there's my random mind download for the moment... I'm back and I hope I will be posting more frequently. I hope! I have way too many draft posts waiting for photos!! :)

Oh and I'm way behind on reading the blogs I follow, but I'm catching up on that too!

Laundry Room Inspiration

2010-11-21T07:45:00.000-08:00

Been looking around..... and found some fabulous laundry rooms!!

1. Laundry room, 2. Laundry room, 3. Serena's Laundry Room, 4. Serena's Laundry Room, 5. Laundry Room, 6. dear laundry room....., 7. Laundry room, 8. Laundry room, 9. laundry room, 10. laundry room, 11. laundry room, 12. Laundry Day, 13. Handmade button photos, 14. laundry room, 15. Laundry Room Remodel: After, 16. Laundry room, 17. Laundry Day, 18. Parade 2007: Laundry Room, 19. laundry room, 20. Domino_Laundry_room_2 bright, 21. laundry_room_1, 22. laundry room DIY, 23. Laundry room, 24. laundry room.

Been looking a lot actually.... and it would seem that there are several things I keep returning to....

Front loading appliances
White cabinets
A vintage laundry sign of some variety
Black & White photos and/or kitchsy laundry-esque art, including a fun clock like #1 above
A counter (totally on the dream list falling in the category of someday... way down the line! Would be amazing to have a counter like #14.... it's an ironing board counter!!)

And yesterday we went looking at tile for the floor. It wasn't too hard for us to agree that we both liked natural stone. I went in wanting a versallies pattern, but came out wanting a venetian pattern. Mostly because of the scale for the room. The versallies pattern's biggest tile is 16" x 24" and in a room that is roughly 8' x 7' with a 5' x 2' cutout area for cabinets, it would be too big for the room. sigh.

But the venetian pattern is perfect for that scale of room. Here's a photo of what the pattern looks like:

Image via here.

It's a 12" x 12" tile, the smaller sizes are the same tile cut in half or quarters. We really liked it in dusk travertine. It was tumbled. And gorgeous. Much like the photo above. And $14-20 a square foot. Now, if we lived in a custom house or in a different area and we were in our forever house? We would totally do that option. But we do not and we do not want to overbuild for our neighborhood or overspend for our unplanned laundry room renovation.

We loved the tumbled, hand polished look, but have decided not to go that route this time.... it makes it more expensive!

So instead we will be getting:

A natural stone...
Darker in color...
With natural veining and/or some interesting details.

We have settled on a choice... I think. :) I'll be back to share a peek at it soon. (And it doesn't cost $14.95 a square foot either!!)

I also really liked these blog posts I found as I searched for ideas.... go check them out too:

A happy vintage laundry room -- I must find some cool spray bottles like that!!
A gorgeous laundry room -- Seriously, I'm in love with the ironing board counter...
Organized cupboards -- Great inspiration for reorganizing the pantry portion of our laundry room! isn't the vinyl background fabulous?!

Got an inspiring laundry room you think I should see?! I'm still on the hunt... :)

I'm still alive...

2010-11-20T07:45:00.001-08:00

Picture I took at Pariaso Winery, Soledad, California, July 2010.

Just been crazy busy working! I'll be back here this week and get this place updated!!

In the meantime... just a quick poll. What's your favorite holiday Starbucks treat(s)?! Me? I'm partial this year to my grande Chai Eggnog Latte and my continuing addition, the Cranberry Bliss Bar. Both reasons to workout and/or run more. Lots more! :)

30 Day Blog Challenge | Days 21 to 30: Finishing up!

2010-11-12T07:45:00.001-08:00

What a crazy month so far! Just taking a break to finish up this challenge. So here goes....

Picture of Yourself
Here is a recent photo of my sister and I at her baby shower a few weeks ago:

I chopped off almost five inches mere hours after this picture was taken too!
Favorite City
I must say, though I've been to a lot of great cities, I'm partial to San Francisco. :)

Favorite Vacation
This is actually a really hard question - we've had so many great vacations! One of my favorites was our trip to Vermont:

Something You've Learned
hmmmmm..... I've learned lots of things in my life. Reminded yesterday of the day I learned that I believe in love at first sight nine years ago:

Put your iPod on Shuffle, first ten songs:
Currently, I have 1,875 songs that would take 5 days to play continuously. Yikes! Here it is on shuffle... not bad. A little old, a little new... some country, some pop, some rock. Pretty typical!
1.   If it Makes You Happy ~ Sheryl Crow
2.   Nearness of You ~ Chris Botti
3.   Jump Around ~ House of Pain
4.   Good Enough ~ Evanescence
5.   Dani California ~ Red Hot Chili Peppers
6.   Already Gone ~ Kelly Clarkson
7.   Are You Ready ~ Creed
8.   Cold Day in July ~ Dixie Chicks
9.   All the Right Moves ~ One Republic
10. Then ~ Brad Paisley

Picture of my family
Taken on my 30th birthday by my Dad earlier this year... breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen. :)

Pets
We have three of them... Scarlet, Darby and Nala. Up first, our puppy Scarlet!

And the kitties.... Darby the troublemaker:

Good thing she's pretty. :) And, of course, the gray one... Nala:

She's an old lady now, so she sleeps a lot. :)

Something that stresses me out
The usual suspects. Work and the house being torn apart! :)

Three wishes
Three in one... a long, happy life with my husband! Yep that's my three.... long life... happy life.... both with Brian. :)

And last but not least.....

A picture
I seem to take a lot of flower pictures. Here's one from Hershey Gardens I took back in May.

That's all I have for today! Hope you enjoy your weekend. :)

30 Day Blog Challenge | Days 11 to 20: Trying to catch up!

2010-11-03T07:45:00.001-07:00

I don't follow instructions well.... or have a lot of time apparently! ;) Continuing to catch back up on this.... one big piece at a time!!

Favorite TV Shows
My top 5 right this minute? In no particular order...
1. Grey's Anatomy
2. Glee
3. Survivor
4. Amazing Race
5. Real Housewives of __________.... ALL of them ;) lol!
What I believe
I believe everything happens for a reason. Even if you don't know what it is! I also believe that I am a lucky girl. :)

Goals
I've talked a lot about this.... still working on my 30 by 30 challenge. I'm in the home stretch.... I'll do a little update soon. I have two months left and I think I'm going to work!! :)

A Picture I Love
I found this one by accident looking for pictures of when we installed our hardwood floors. Cute Scarlet as a puppy!

You can't tell from the picture, but she was only 8 pounds and would fit entirely in the palm of your hand!! Love this picture!! :)
Bible Verse
I'm not one to talk religion much, publically or privately. I am pretty private about my beliefs and I believe in the freedom of people to choose whatever they want to believe in! That said, I'd have to choose this:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. ~ Corinthians 13:4-7

Dream House
Toothpicks... Lots and lots of toothpicks. I jest. I put that just for Megan. Cause when I think of a dream house, I think of house plans and I go right back to 7th grade and toothpick houses. It made a strong impression... and I hope Megan wasn't taking a drink of anything when she read that. I don't want her to choke on her coffee or anything! ;) And yes Megan, I still hope to uncover the plans for the casa de toothpicks. I have a good idea where it may be and a plan to recover it! I'll keep you posted! ;)

What was the question? Oh yes. Dream house. I love our house we live in now... my dream would be to pick it up and move it onto ten acres somewhere in the mountains outside Sacramento. :)

Something I'm looking forward to
My niece!! I'm really getting anxious about it.... will she wait until her due date or make an early appearance like her big brother? I cannot WAIT to meet this little one!! :)

Something I regret
I don't live my life with regrets, so I have to say I have no regrets!! :)

Something I miss
My husband! This whole working away from home thing stinks. I miss him LOTS when he has to work away from home, but I am grateful for the fact that he's still working. I look forward to the day that he's working ten minutes from home and he's gone when I get home from work cause he's training for his next bike race! :)

Nicknames
Last but not least for this marathon post..... I don't have many nicknames. I don't go by Mandy or anything! I do answer to "A" and sign e-mails that way many times... it's faster! The cute nephew calls me Amana. Those "d" sounds are still tough for him. ;) The husband calls me lots of things... hehe ;).... but most of the time it's Sweetie. My dad calls me Little Sprout. Other than that, I don't have any other nicknames that I know of!

Not lots of pics this time... so thanks for reading! ;)

First things first... Must. Have. Hot. Water.

2010-11-02T07:45:00.002-07:00

When we started undertaking this project last week... it was first an operation of stop the damage. Lots of space heaters, ripping stuff out and major inconvenience. (No one likes a cold shower!!) And 100% of the work fell on Brian's shoulders... the only plumbing I would do is calling a plumber!! ;)

To step back in time, here's what the room looked like many moons ago before we installed the hardwood with the original linoleum floor:

Not the best photo angle, but it's a square room. A small one that's hard to get a picture of with all that stuff in the way! :)

And this is what it looked like right after we installed our hardwood floors (over the existing linoleum):

To the left side is the pantry....

Look at those Costco stashes! Wouldn't be complete without Brian's ketchup!! :) And in the background? Construction of the hardwood floors in process.

And here's what the hallway looked like....

It was sad to lose the laundry room portion of the floor to water damage. Brian worked fast to pull out the floor in the laundry room and the damaged part of the adjoining hallway. Now it looks like this.

Fabulous right?! :)

There is still more linoleum to rip out in the laundry room, but it is going to wait until we are ready to replace the floor.

Last weekend, Brian worked hard to reinsulate the garage side of the wall, put in a new platform, new drain pan (no future water damage we hope!) and a new water heater.  Thanks to some help from our neighbor Felipe to lift the new one into place.

Originally, we were going to go with a tankless water heater, but after further research we discovered this...

Tankless = ENDLESS hot water.
Tank + recirculating pump = INSTANT hot water.
You just need to choose which way you want to go. Brian wanted instant. I preferred the tankless due to the energy efficiency. What can I say, I'm sorta turning into a tree hugger.  Not an extreme one, but if we can go green in anyway, I'm game.

Other issue?  I learned quickly about BTU's per hour. Our current used 31,000. The tankless? 135,000. Or something like that.  Bottom line is the demand when the tankless is operating for gas is so high that you actually would need to increase the gas line size coming into your house. Which requires a professional plumber and more time.

Ultimately, we passed on the tankless for the tank + recirculating pump in the interest of instant hot water for Brian. He didn't want to wait for hot water to reach the faucet. Even if it was only a 30 second wait...   I deferred on this one for the inconvenience that would have been having to install the tankless for a professional. It would have meant more time with no hot water. And a little bit more money. I did, however, convince Brian to get the energy star rated gas tank. A little higher BTU than the similar non-energy star version and about $100 more, but more efficient and environmentally friendly.

All told, Brian only encountered three problems. First was difficulty manuevering the new tank into the enclosure -- the pipes were too low & had to be replaced. Second was getting it to fit into the enclosure -- the existing gas valve stuck out too far hitting the tank and needed to be replaced. The second was the more annoying because it caused another trip to Home Depot (which was closed at time of discovery) and thus another day without hot water. The third was most annoying because it caused another day of delay for another trip to Home Depot -- the water pipes going into/out of the tank were the wrong size.

Here it is installed!

But now the new tank is in and working perfectly. Some sort of pipe issue for Brian to solve, but we have hot water, so I'm good. :) Onto clean up, drywall replacement, painting, tile, hallway floor replacement and new washer/dryer.... it's going to be a long process!

So have you ever had to replace a water heater? Did you go with the new tankless water heaters?

Abby's Baby Quilt: Finished!!

2010-10-30T07:45:00.001-07:00

I'm so happy with how this quilt came together and turned out. So simple and so cute!! :)
It started with this pile of fabric:

So first step was to pull it all out, including the easy to follow instructions that came with it, and start cutting the fabric.

My tools of choice? A self-healing mat, grid ruler, rotary cutter, iron + ironing board and my Brother sewing machine.

Iron first, measure twice & cut carefully is the motto I live by!

The scrap pile after cutting the squares out:

Scraps free to anyone who wants them... just leave a comment! ;)

I won't bore you with the exciting process of sewing together squares...... I'll just cut straight to the chase on this one!

After this, I added the lavendar chenille border......

And then I made a quilty sandwich consisting of the top, backing fabric (sage+cream flannel stripe) and two layers of cotton batting. Once stitched together and turned inside out, I stitched my small 6" long opening shut by hand and tied the blankie with lavendar yarn! And here it is....

And here's a semi-blurry pic of my sister unwrapping it at her baby shower last weekend!

Now I just need to make one for Abby's big brother Creighton...

He definitely needs a snuggly little blankie too! :) I have a plan.... and the fabric.... and this next one I'll show more how-to since it will be my pattern. Like the pattern I used for Abby's quilt? You can get your own kit at JoAnns!

30 Day Blog Challenge | Days 8, 9 & 10: Catching up!!

2010-10-29T12:31:00.000-07:00

Hmmmm.... so many things to catch up on now that last week and this week are over with!! Catching up with this, here's a place I have traveled to:

Road to Hana, Maui, Hawaii. Photo taken October 2003.

And hope to return to sooner rather than later!

In thinking about this, looking for a picture of my friends is hard!! There are so many friends I don't want to leave out.... :|

So rather than hurt anyone's feelings by my scattered thoughts leaving them out.... I'll put the obvious choice on here.... these two:

The ones I see the most frequently! :)

And finally, something I am afraid of.... hmmmm....
Top of the list is definitely spiders. I'm not so afraid that I can't kill them though!! :) I'll spare you any nightmarish photos of those creepy things!

Been working on catching up around the house this week. Brian got the hot water working Tuesday night (yay!) and this weekend is all about cleaning & purging stuff in the house. After all the upheaval of stuff in the house, I'm actually looking forward to the ~~spring~~ fall cleaning!!

And I'll be back tomorrow with the photos of Abby's finished baby quilt!! :)

30 Day Blog Challenge | Day 7: Favorite Movies & A Surprise Renovation...

2010-10-25T00:08:00.000-07:00

I have a good excuse for being MIA the last few days.... two of them actually! First, is a huge project at work that I was working on Sunday and Monday... all in preparation for going live to the public Monday evening. I'm pretty proud of how it turned out -- check it out: City of Soledad.

Brand new, top to bottom -- new design, new site map, new photos, new content. So proud of it and happy that I was able to have such a big role in the creation & launching of the new site! And no sooner did that get finished on Monday night... and I collapsed into bed early.... I woke up to the sounds of saws and hammers in my house at 4:30 am. Huh? What on earth is Brian doing now?! I thought he was just up early to go for a run??

Yep.... it was enough commotion that I actually got up (I am not a morning person!) to see what the fuss was only to find my husband ripping our floor out in the laundry room. This is not in plans for the house... this is a shocking surprise! Why???? Because overnight our water heater died. And started leaking water out of the bottom of the tank.

Now granted, the tank lives in the garage on a platform that sits next to the door in the laundry room, so the water should have only spilled into the garage. Unfortunately for us, it ran off the back of the platform, hit the drywall on the wall behind the tank and spilled down beneath the platform where it puddled. It then ran along the bottom of the wall beneath the backside of the platform which also happens to be the wall inside the laundry room.

The water seeped through the drywall then under, into and, in some places, on top of the engineered wood floors (aka pergo) all over the laundry room. The floor was making squishy noises when you walk on it. Bye, bye laundry room floors. Once engineered wood floors get wet with that amount of water there is no saving them. The wood warps and the floor buckles. :(

That wet spot? The concrete foundation. :(

So we've had to buy a new water heater, file a claim for water damage on the home owner's insurance for the floors/walls and we have a good month of weekend home improvement projects ahead of us to fix it. We were planning on a lawn in the backyard or recarpeting/painting the master bedroom next. Guess those are going to have to wait! I'm also looking inspiration for paint color options for our brand spankin new laundry room.... I have the tile somewhat picked out in my head, but I really want to make sure we get this right. Once it goes back together, I'm definitely not planning on touching it again!! I'll be back with updates of the remodeling process as we work through it the next couple of weeks.... so stay tuned on that one.

Finally, continuing with Katie's 30 Day Blog Challenge (that I'm falling behind on!), here are a few of my favorite movies...

All-time Favorite: Dances with Wolves
Chick Flick: Pretty Woman
Tearjearker: Notebook
Romantic Comedy: 50 First Dates
Action: Bourne Trilogy
Documentary: Super Size Me

So.... busy few days for me.... Got any laundry room ideas for me? What are your favorite movies? Looking forward to hearing what you have to say! :)

30 Day Blog Challenge | Days 5 & 6: Siblings & Happiness

2010-10-16T07:45:00.000-07:00

Back again with the next two days of the 30 day challenge... my siblings and a picture of something that makes me happy!

So I'm the oldest of three. The middle child? My brother Tom, aka Tommy and/or Tommy Boy.

Ah Tommy Boy.... he makes me laugh. My partner in most crime as a child. The breaker of my left arm the first time (it's a funny story actually!). I miss him now that he lives even farther away from us now... on the east coast far away. Pennsylvania. It's a long flight. :|

The youngest? The wild child? My sister Katie, aka Kate or CT's Momma.

What can I say? We are sisters. We fight, we love each other. As much as we have in common, we are total opposites. Oh how we used to argue when we were little.... I chalk it up to our five year age difference! She makes a killer mocha and is momma to my favorite nephew... and soon-to-be-here niece Abigail. Wish so much that we lived closer. Someday. :)

And picture that makes me happy? Easy choice:

This series of photos from my sister's wedding last year are among my most favorite pictures. We were taking a sibling photo and Creighton ran up to us with the biggest smile on his face, put his hand on Katie's dress, looked up to smile at all of us, then turned around to pose for the camera with us. Absolutely adorable. :)

I must say though that the close second to that photo is this one:

The hubby and the puppy. We were having breakfast outdoors in March near Big Sur (cold!)... Scar was not enjoying the chilly air at all!!

That's all I have for today. Hope you are out enjoying your weekend!!

When it all comes down to one day...

2010-10-15T07:45:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while, do you get that feeling.... everything is due today? Everything is happening today? Everything is due in the next week? I find it stressful when that happens sometimes... but not this time. It has been a crazy couple of months and it all comes down to today and the next week. Then I can take a day or two off to breathe again! So what's up today? Well actually, this week and next week? Are you ready?! :)

Today, I'm the featured artist on Ideas for Scrapbookers. Jump on over there to see my Kid Friendly Mini Album I made for my favorite little man... the nephew!

Today is the October Flamingo Five over on Flamingo Scraps. I love this new feature and it has been a lot of work to pull together behind the scenes, but I *love* how it's turning out! Go check out my Words of the Wise Mini Album and what everyone else did with the five items!

While you are there, make sure you enter in our Wednesday giveaways this month -- one lucky winner will get a Teresa Collins stamp machine one of the Wednesdays in October -- don't miss out. There are lots of other great prizes too, so make sure you are following that blog!!

Next week, one of my big projects at work is going live.... I'll be sure to share about that next week. I also have a baby shower for my sister next week on Saturday the 23rd that I'm getting ready for. Lots of stuff to get ready over the next week and Abby's quilt to finish! I'll be back with a progress report and the finished product next week.

And a few other things I haven't had the chance to share yet:

Published on examiner.com on October 5, 2010.

Published on examiner.com on October 13, 2010.

And this week, I was a featured artist on Webster's Pages!! I ♥ their products (especially bloomers!). Here are two of my layouts from my gallery on their site:

Product details over on Flamingo Scraps.

I think that will do it for today.... It's been a busy month, but super productive!!

30 Day Blog Challenge | Days 3 & 4: First Love & My Parents

2010-10-14T07:45:00.000-07:00

While I continue along in my creative, party planning, buried-in-work-week.... I'm continuing along with this challenge!

First love could have so many meanings... seriously! I'm going to go with the first answer that popped into my head. My parents! I have no doubt they were my first love. :)

What can I say? They are the best. I'm a lucky girl! :) My Dad is a construction inspector and my Mom is a retired Kindergarten teacher. Dad's a big movie, train & history buff who loves to joke around. My Mom? She loves her crossword & suduko puzzles. And is an excellent home chef. :) Dad taught me how to play softball, to color inside the lines with my crayons, the best ways to study and reminds me to relax, enjoy life & laugh most everytime I talk to him. Mom taught me how to bake, how to relate to people, to be creative and how to drive (Dad couldn't take the pressure!). All that and so much more. I love the relationship Brian has with them too -- they all hit it off instantly when they met for the first time at a UC Davis basketball game almost nine years ago. I'm definitely a lucky girl. :)

Today and tomorrow are going to be a little crazy!! I'll be back tomorrow to share several things I've been working on this week. Happy Thursday!!

Abby's Baby Quilt: Getting Started

2010-10-13T07:30:00.000-07:00

So I've made a few baby quilts over the last year or so. Four to be exact. Two contemporary blankies, two patchwork quilts. The patchwork quilts turned out super cute. I don't have pics of them... what was I thinking?! :)

My sister loved the ones the patchwork ones I made and asked me to make her one for Abby and, hopefully, one for Creighton. I was way ahead of her, because I already had all the fabric and a plan! So here is what it will be made out of:

Please ignore the wrinkly fabric... it's been sitting quite a while in the closet!

It was a kit I bought on sale at JoAnn's... mostly because it was irresistably ADORABLE. It's vintage, girly, lavendar. I love it! And I have exactly two weeks to finish it. Wish me luck!

30 Day Blog Challenge | Days 1 & 2: Introducing....

2010-10-12T18:00:00.000-07:00

So lately, I've been wanting to pay more attention to my blog. Serious attention. Seeing as how I am behind the scenes and writing for Flamingo Scraps daily, I just feel like I neglect over here. And I don't want to do that. I started this blog several years ago to help document our lives and document my thoughts on being married to an endurance athlete. Now I document to help my capture memories for pretty much the same reason and I find it helps me keep track of things that I've made, things I've done, places we've gone and generally records the memories I want to scrapbook later.

So when I ran across this challenge today over on Katie's Journey, I figured why not? I'll give it whirl. I love guided journaling. I think it reminds me of high school peer counseling and having to journal everyday. :)

So here goes nothing.... join in and play along if you'd like!

15 Facts...

I'm slightly addicted to reality tv. I have lots of gratitude for the inventor of DVR who allowed my reality tv addiction to thrive and flourish!
I am completely addicted to crafts. Walking into a yarn or fabric or scrapbooking shop is dangerous. Proof? The 6 balls of yarn I bought last weekend when I went into the yarn store... :)
I love to bake, love to cook, but don't. I think I hate all the dishes more than I love to pursue the baking and cooking.
I love chili, but can't eat it anymore. It's a byproduct of the aging process I think. The last two attempts at eating have resulted in illness. I wish I knew why. Best google answer? Chili allergy... specifically to cumin. Seriously. But then I can eat all the same spices in other things. Just something about that combo.... strange but true.
I'm a klutz.... I've broken my arm twice. Same arm. I've had numerous bumps and bruises over the years. Most recent was stream fishing. It was back in July and my knee is finally almost back to normal! You can still see the scar healing. Good times!
I ♥ making lists. It's the type-A part of me. I usually have a few going and a few more in my head on most days. The husband doesn't like all the planning ahead for the house. But it's all planned.... just waiting for his next surprise visit to Home Depot! ;)
I cry when I get really mad. It's involuntary and I really hate it. I think it's frustration boiling over. People mistake it for sadness or hurt (when it's neither), which then makes me more mad and I cry more.
I love my life. Seriously. Great jobs, amazing husband, comfy house, cutest doggie, lazy cats, my family, my friends, where we live (most days)... life is definitely good. I have bad days, but mostly good ones.
I want to get my masters degree. I'm much closer to this than I was two years ago. At least I have it narrowed down to two options. Now I just need to find some $$.... any one know how to grow a money tree?
I want to travel more. The only thing that stops me is work and money. If we won the lottery, I'd totally travel the world for a year.... maybe longer. :)
I used to hate fish. It's grown on me. As long as it's not too fishy, I actually eat it. I even order fish for dinner for the first time a few weeks ago. Salmon. It was tasty. :)
I have a love/hate relationship with tomatos. I'm not a huge ketchup fan, but have to have it on my fries. I hate meatloaf because of the ketchup. I love tomatos cooked (sauces, pizza, etc), but not on my salad or in my sandwich. I still have no answer why, but I do ponder that thought often.
I married a ketchup lover. I just think that's funny in comparison. He would drink ketchup if he wasn't busy drowning his food in it. :)
I'm a homebody. About all I can stand is two weekends in row where I'm not home. Which might present a problem with that whole travel around the world plan. :)
I want to be a better photographer. It's on the list for next year! Probably take a class or something.

Oh yeah... and while I'm thinking of photography..... a recent picture of me.... hmmmm.... Item no. 16: I hate my picture being taken. But here's one from today anyway:

And the blog name? When I first started this blog it was to learn how to blog so I could help Brian with his blog. I initially wanted to talk about the other side of what he does... the support crew to an endurance athlete. I never quite got there, but the title was something I just came up with on the fly when google asked me for a title. And "So I Married a Triathlete" it was. Been with me ever since. Maybe someday I'll change it but for now it stays. :)

So please tell me something I don't know about you... I'm curious!! :)

Weekend Getaway: San Francisco 2010

2010-10-06T06:30:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went to San Francisco to celebrate our 5th anniversary and we had a great time! I absolutely ♥ SF! I love visiting a few times a year, but it's really much more fun to stay for the weekend. Hold on... this is a long post today!

There was a lot going on this weekend in the City... Fleet Week, a Giants game, a Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate Park and the Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk (seriously, I did a double take when we came across the signs by accident!). All of these things resulted in super pricey hotel rooms in the City. So we stayed at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport in Burlingame Friday and Saturday nights -- $150 per night less than City hotels, gorgeous hotel and so close!!

Apparently, I was all about food pics on Saturday... so I apologize in advance! My goal is not to make you hungry. Promise. :)

We started off Saturday morning with breakfast at Stillwater Cafe, the Hyatt Regency's restaurant. It was so tasty... Brian had Salmon Benedict and I had Sticky Bun French Toast.

Yum. Might have to try and make my own sticky bun french toast. There's something novel about slicing a sticky bun in half and making french toast out of it! The first of three excellent meals today!

After breakfast we drove into the City and went to the de Young Museum to see Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne, and Beyond: Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay. I have to say my favorites were:

Henri Rousseau, The Snake Charmer

Paul Signac, Women at the Well

Vincent Van Gogh, Starry Night Over the Rhone

Once we were done there, Brian suggested visiting the California Academy of Sciences. But we couldn't leave without stopping for this photo op!

How could we resist?! Anyway... where was I... oh yes... to the Academy of Sciences.

Evolution exhibit... ginourmous!!

Cool display about dog breeds. Of course, had to take this picture for my Dad and brother. :)

We saw Claude the Albino Crocodile in the Swamp.

The first of many photo attempts throughout the day.... mostly trying to get Brian to smile and my eyes to be open. Good times. :)

An indoor living Rainforest, complete with trees, bugs, frogs, snakes (yuck) and lots of butterflies!

And of course, we ate lunch at the Academy Café. What did we eat? Let's see...

Brian got the Irish Beef Stew, Spring Rolls and Corn on the Cob.

I had the Turkey Sandwich, root beer and... Schaeffer Berger Chocolat Pot de Creme... which I shared with Brian. Like a good wife. Ha! As if I had a choice... or needed to eat it all.

All the food was organic and totally tasty. So far, two for two on meal choices for the day!

Before leaving we made sure to check out this:

The living roof. So cool!

When we finished at the museum, we headed over to Pier 39. Wandered in and out of the stores on Jefferson Street and watched some street performers. This group of break dancers was really entertaining and they were so talented!

This guy ended up doing a flip over these two guys - Brian caught it mid-air. So awesome!

Also learned something new about Brian after 9 years together. He used to perform break dancing when he was a kid at school How cute... totally wish there was a home movie or pics of that! :) Also wished we had a spare couple thousand to buy one of these. Seriously. I want one in our dining room!

We finished off the day in the City by going to dinner at Butterfly. All I have to say is wow. It was delicious!! More food.... are you ready?!

We started off dinner by sharing a bowl of Carmelized Maui Onion Soup.... which apparently I forgot to photograph... oops! ;) Let me just say... Yum. I wanted to lick the bowl. The restaurant was too nice for that!! ;)

For my main course I ordered the Macadamia & Blue Cheese Crusted Filet Mignon:

Sour Cream Whipped Potatoes, Shiimenji Mushroom Jus de Veau, Buttered Haricot Verts and Carrots, Port & Thyme Demi Glace.

Melt in your mouth!!

As if that wasn't good enough... I hate to admit it but Brian ordered something even better than my dinner... the Crab & Mascarpone Stuffed Crispy Chicken Breast:

Sweet Summer Corn and Shrimp Ragout, Arugula Salad, Aged Balsamic Vinegar, Lobster and Orange Reduction

Wow.. it was amazing! Little side story... In between the soup and our main courses, Brian was staring at other people's food. It's a common restaurant occurance actually! So he was particularly interested in this one woman's dish and stopped our waitress to ask what it was. Lucky him... it was what he had ordered!! ;) LOL

For dessert we had the Vanilla Crème Brulée. mmmmmmm..... so good. Loved it!!

It lasted a matter of minutes... and we restrained ourselves from licking this dish clean too!

It was a great end to the day!

On Sunday we grabbed a quick breakfast and hit the road home... stopping at Ikea on the way! Always a fun time. :) We left with a few small things for the house and.... Scarlet.

Yep, she got a Krocodil. hahaha!! She's in love with it. :)

We had so much fun!! I love it when we have the chance to getaway for the weekend!! Thanks for reading to the very end. I appreciate it. :)

Do you have any favorites in San Francisco?

At this moment...

2010-10-01T17:00:00.000-07:00

Right now, five years ago from today was one of the best days of my life. We laughed, we smiled so much it hurt, we enjoyed the company & love of our family and friends... and I married the love of my life. Today and this weekend we are celebrating!!

Amazing how fast the last five years just flew by us. I am definitely one lucky girl. I love you Brian -- you are a loving husband, my partner in crime and you mean the world to me. And I still love you even if you make me watch one more episode of LAO Criminal Intent.... as long as it has Bobby in it. :)

Happy anniversary baby!! I ♥ you!!

Have you seen this?!

2010-09-21T19:28:00.000-07:00

This just makes me laugh. I saw it in a magazine this weekend and tore it out to put on the fridge to make Brian laugh.

Image credit: Fresh Step.

It's still there and I laugh everytime I see it. Isn't it hilarious?! ;)

That's all I have today... Just had to share!

Amish Country

2010-09-19T21:39:00.000-07:00

Finally getting around to finishing up these posts about my trip to Pennsylvania back in May/June! So come join me on a quick tour around Amish Country!

Many of these pics were taken from our car as we were driving five miles an hour behind one of these:

They are everywhere!! In fact, on the first day when we got back to my brother's house from Philadelphia, we turned onto main street in Akron (where my brother and sister-in-law were living at the time) and there was a buggy right in front of us. :)

It's so strange to see them everywhere... literally....

Alongside you....

Behind you....

And then you see these.... This one is a "tourist" attraction. Can't blame them for wanting to make money from tourists I suppose, right?!

And my personal favorite. The one with the car seat. Safety first! We even pulled over to get this picture. Classy right?! ;)

And then, they have to park them somewhere right?

Welcome to Wal-Mart. Yes. Wal-Mart. There's a barn. For the Amish. How does that work? Really.... I mean don't the Amish people denounce all things modern like electricity? But they'll go to Wal-Mart?! Love it.

So aside from seeing Lancaster County countryside everyday... an interesting mix of Amish and modern... we went to the Amish farms. Basically, you drive up to their house and they each sell different things. Mostly jams, jellies, pies, whoopie pies.... some sell plants from their greenhouses.... others quilts from their basements. I felt *slightly* guilty about taking their photos (it is against their beliefs), so I don't have many.

Here is one of the roadside stands:

Isn't it quaint? They had some yummy whoopie pies too!

And then there is the Amish Village...

I love this picture of my brother -- too funny!! It's a gas powered washing machine. No electricity, so they will use it. The Amish also use a gas powered iron. It just looks dangerous!

There were even buggies to climb in for pictures. Great touristy trap!

I had a great time seeing Amish Country... it was picturesque. All about the crafty stuff. And the people were really nice! I most enjoyed the quilt shop that I didn't get pictures of. All the quilts are handmade. Some are machine pieced now, but all are quilted by hand. I can't wait to go back there and choose one for myself!

In the meantime, here is one last picture of the countryside...

Hope you enjoyed this little peek at the Amish County in Lancaster County Pennsylvania!

My New Hobby...

2010-09-14T07:00:00.000-07:00

I must admit, I'm hooked. On making jam and canning food. It's so much fun!! I wanted to try using Brian's canning equipment ever since he started making jams, jellies and salsa. Now it's my turn!! So I started with Strawberry Jam:

Published on examiner.com on September 12, 2010.

The verdict? Super easy! I have made two batches so far.

Up next? I'm not sure, but here are a few recipes on the list:

Apricot-Pineapple Preserves
Pizza Sauce
Salsa
Vanilla-Pecan Sauce
Mixed Berry Jam

And I'm searching for something apple to make... any suggestions? Any favorite canning recipes I should add to the list? Kim... you're the canning expert in my book... what do you think I am missing on my list?! Well... aside from pickles. I'm not a pickles kind of girl. ;)

And before I forget to share... two of my layouts that I did for Flamingo Scraps were featured on Ideas for Scrapbookers last Saturday... go check it out!!

2010-09-12T21:57:00.000-07:00

I took this photo in Bennington, Vermont in October 2004 when we went to New England for a week!

I'm so happy that it is September. My favorite season is finally here! Beautiful leaves, halloween, the return of pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks, cooler weather... it's definitely the best time of the year in my book. I recently discovered a new fall favorite... pumpkin spice Hershey Kisses! Just like pumpkin pie. Yum!

Been busy working, but I love what I'm doing so I totally welcome it! Aside from that, I've been falling in and out of working out.... not good. I've been averaging less than two times per week. I'm recommitting this week.... my goal is one thing everyday. Even if it's just a walk. I love doing it, but I have a hard time getting up to get out there. And I've gone back and forth over the last year with working out in the morning vs. the evening. I like both... can't say I'd pick one over the other right now. If you work out... what works for you? What are you doing? Right now, I'm just running and walking. I think I need some motivation to try something different.... suggestions?

The story of my life...

2010-09-06T19:00:00.000-07:00

I'm always running. Literally and figuratively!! It was about time I acknowledged it in the form of a scrapbook page. Particularly given this hilarious photo captured by the photographer at my sister Katie's wedding (who was also our wedding photographer... and my brother's wedding photographer!!).

Published on examiner.com on September 5, 2010.

As my good friend Heather said to me last week... I'll soon be seeing myself coming and going!! Oh so true, but I must say I love my life, so it's totally worth it!! :)

Turning 30

2010-09-01T21:40:00.000-07:00

So bear with me, this is going to be a little all over the place tonight!! It's been a crazy week!! :)

So I did this layout I did for last week's Sketchy Thursday challenge:

Product info here: Flamingo Scraps blog

And here's a close-up so you can see all the dimension:

Close to the sketch, but I ended up changing it quite a bit! I was inspired by Jennifer's take on it -- totally wanted to something with one of our Disney trip pics from February. Love how it turned out!

And here's the zucchini recipe I've been hinting about....

Photo Credit: Amanda Bottoms

The day this recipe for Zucchini & Bacon Three Cheese Lasagna showed up in my Google Reader from Amanda's blog, I've been dying to make it... and I was not disappointed. If you don't have zucchini on hand, go get some. And some Fontina. And some bacon. It is DELICIOUS!! And I have not used those little discs of mozzarella before, but I will totally use them again... yummy stuff!!

That's all for now I suppose. Off to bed so I can get up early and run... I'm excited for the course we have mapped out and I hope I feel the same way when the alarm goes off at 5:45!! :)

I've been busy....

2010-08-29T22:44:00.000-07:00

Working... scrapping... playing... and (generally speaking) enjoying this summer!

Last weekend was packed with fun stuff. On Saturday, I took a class from super sweet Sarah. How could I say no to her invite and miss the chance to (a) meet in person, (b) check out a new to me scrapbooking store and (c) use two of my favorite things... Basic Grey Origins patterned papers and a Sketchy Thursdays sketch?! I had a great time chatting with Sarah and the other cute lady taking the class. And I got these two layouts done by the end of the weekend (once I printed pics on Sunday)!

Pictures from our stream fishing hike a few weeks ago. See all the trout in the middle picture?! It was so much fun... nothing better than being alone in the woods with my husband, not a soul in sight!! :)

And these pics are of our dog Scarlet playing with her new boy toy Clark Kent the next day on Sunday!!

And before I go and share more pics of Scarlet and her new man, I have to share one more layout I made as a result of this class... I couldn't resist buying a few extra sheets of patterned paper from that line and making this:

Another photo from our day of stream fishing. I couldn't believe how cool this photo turned out given that I was using our point-and-shoot waterproof camera!! Definitely proves the theory that you don't always have to have a fancy camera to get an amazing photo!! :)

And I also made this card, using last week's Sketchy Thursday card sketch:

Bad lighting for this photo... the color is kinda off, but I love how it turned out!! Used up some scraps from the class.

For supplies, you can see all three layouts and the cardin my gallery here.

So that was Saturday and on Sunday, we went to meet up with Brianne and her little man Clark Kent:

Not to be confused with our little lady Scarlet:

Not that I am biased or anything... but it's so adorable!!

That's our Scarlet on the left and Mr. Clark Kent on the right! Don't they make the cutest couple?! :) lol

Today, Bri and Clark Kent came to visit us here at the house and play. I didn't get any pictures, but they are definitely more used to each other and were having so much fun playing together. :)

Be back tomorrow with a quick layout to share for this week's Sketchy Thursday challenge and later this week with the yummy recipe for zucchini (that I think I mentioned last week...). What did you do this weekend?!

Lesson: Gravity

2010-08-23T23:30:00.000-07:00

So I admittedly do not get to spend as much time with my family as I would like. Which definitely includes my nephew... whom I know I talk about often around here! But we do get to talk on the phone pretty regularly, as well as text messages, so I get to keep up with everything that I'm missing out on. My sister often tells me random stories about my nephew and this one was just too funny not to capture for posterity in that cute kid's scrapbook:

Published on examiner.com on August 23, 2010.

As soon as she told me the story, I laughed and remembered his goofy poses, smacking his head last summer! I absolutely love how it turned out. It's definitely something he will look back at one day and laugh at!! :)

Last weekend was busy and a TON of fun!! I'm sleepy and have a 5:45 wakeup call for a workout with the girls, so I'll be back later this week with some pictures from our weekend. But I will show you this.... Scarlet had a playdate with her new boyfriend Mr. Clark Kent!! hee hee!!

Our cute little Scarlet is on the left and that's Clark on the right. Cute right?! Be back soon to share some more and a super yummy recipe I made for dinner tonight!!

Neglected....

2010-08-17T21:27:00.000-07:00

That's how my poor blog feels I think!! :) I have a whole bunch of posts in the works of things I want to commit to paper (so to speak)... I just have not had the time. So this month has been busy, great, challenging, exhausting, but overall just good.

Last weekend we made like the pets and did nothing. It was perfect!! We watched a lot of Whale Wars.

I'll admit, I'm obsessed with watching this now. Brian doesn't mind and watches it with me. I love the Sea Shepards. I totally cheer them on for preventing the unnecessary slaughter of whales. If I ever won the lottery, I'd definitely be sending them some money. Have you seen this show?

Speaking of animals.... we have this one lounging around the house 24/7:

Published on examiner.com on August 17, 2010.

The other two have nothing on Nala. She is always curled up on the couch or on a chair in our bedroom.

So there's my random post for the night. I'm hoping to get more time to write on here in the upcoming weeks... post more regularly... we will see how that goes! Hope you are enjoying your summer, I know I am! :)

Scarlet at the Beach

2010-08-11T07:00:00.000-07:00

It's a rough life ya know.... being a dog.

Especially when your servants... I mean owners.... take you to the beach to play with your frisbee on the weekend!! :)

Yep, she's shaking it mid-run. It's an effective strategy for killing the frisbee!!

See... effective. ;)

Love this action picture of Brian jumping. I'm not sure why he's jumping.... but it's still a cool picture!!

As much as I like the last action shot, this was my favorite. One happy dog! ;)

Yep, definitely one happy doggie!!

This is my 8th summer living in Monterey County and I don't think I'll ever be used to foggy, 60 degree afternoons at the beach like this!! At least it isn't crowded so Scarlet can run around and play.

And I have to say, I was inspired by Amanda to improve my photos of Scarlet. She has two boston terriers like Scarlet and has some great tips on taking action shots of the doggies. If you get a chance, go check out Howie and Miley.... they are so cute!!

Hope you are having a good week!

Country Boy

2010-08-08T22:00:00.000-07:00

We grew up in the country. On twenty acres to be exact! I loved it and I miss that kind of peace and quiet now that I'm a city dweller. Granted, not a big city, but I still live on an acre and hear my neighbors 24/7! So it makes me happy to see my nephew growing up where we grew up, in the country. And he loves the great outdoors too! He recently got his first fishing pole, likes to fish and went on his first camping trip last weekend. Love it!

Published on examiner.com on August 8, 2010.

Aside from that layout, I also added this layout to his scrapbook in the last week:

More details here on Flamingo Scraps.

Hoping that we get to visit soon. I need my nephew fix!! :)

I'll be back this week to share some pictures from our trip to the beach Saturday and some of the yummy things I've made in the past couple of days! Have a great week!! :)

Warning... cuteness in this post...

2010-07-30T22:30:00.000-07:00

My favorite pic of my nephew from my sister's wedding:

Published on examiner.com on July 30, 2010.
Probably soon to be printed and hung on my sister's wall as soon as she sees it!

Of course, I had to pair the cuteness with one of my favorites quotes of all time. I ♥ Dr. Suess!

And then there's this that greets me on my cell phone from time to time:

Oh how I miss that face!!

This face is the second face that greets me every morning when I wake up (Brian's is usually first!):

(and yes, promptly falls back asleep under the covers with her head on my pillow!)

And every day when I get home from work:

And don't even get me started on all the other cute things I see everyday... like the husband... I'll spare y'all that pic + sappy stuff... and keep it for myself! ;) What faces do you love to see everyday?!

Hope you have a great weekend!!

Recipe #14: Snickerdoodle Blondies

2010-07-25T21:15:00.001-07:00

They are every bit as tasty as they sound. Not a replacement for my favorite cookie ever, but a good quick substitute when I want the snickerdoodle fix without all the waiting and work!

Image Credit: Baking Bites

You can find the delicious recipe right here. Yum.

Brian's Last 24 Hour Race?

2010-07-23T07:30:00.000-07:00

So I thought I married a triathlete.....and it has turned out he is an endurance athlete. :) We've been in a little training/racing break around here for the past year and half, give or take. Brian's work assignments changed up and he was feeling a little burned out which led him to take a break from serious racing. The occasional race here and there, but nothing as major as a 24-Hour Solo mountain bike race or an Ironman.

So this weekend, we went to Cobb, California for the Boggs 24. Yep, he jumped right in a raced a 24-Hour Solo mountain bike race with very little training. Well, the training I'm used to seeing him put in anyway. If you know Brian, you're with me shrugging your shoulders and saying "typical." :)

So here's Brian right before the race started. It was 11 am and already in the 90's outside! HOT!

Heading out on first lap:

The dog had fun:

Until the heat got to her!

Then all she wanted to do was snooze in the shade. :)
Here is out pit this time around.... we pack a lot lighter than in races past. And yes, that's Scarlet's chair! :)

And a crash at 9:00ish ended Brian's race. I didn't find out about said crash until the next morning when I noticed him limping around the campsite. Typical! He never tells me the stuff I can tease him about until he can't hide any more. Didn't help him that his friend Mike called him out on the crash to me as he rode by our pit area! ;) Love it (and thanks Mike!)

It was a good race and I'm glad that he is able to do what he loves from time-to-time. I'm still not convinced that his age has anything to do with it... as he is claiming right now. He's still just as tough as he's always been. And ten years is a LONG time to race and train competitively! Eventually your body needs a break right?! And yes, he finally uttered words I thought I would never hear.... "I think this is my last 24 Hour Race." I don't know what to think about that! I'm writing it down, just in case he changes his mind. I can show this to him to remind him! ;)

All-in-all it was fun. My parents visited all day Saturday which was great. I'm happy to feel like we've finally hit a good groove with the whole racing thing. I know what he needs, we work well as a team and it's easier than it used to be. Of course, now he's ready to move onto something else now that we have this figured out!! TYPICAL!!

Oh and did I mention Scarlet met her new boyfriend? Mr. Clark Kent. And he's a local. Isn't he handsome?! They make such a cute couple! :) haha

Scarlet is wearing purple and has her back to the camera. ;)

Wish we had gotten some better pics but it was 10 pm at night and they were getting loud and rowdy. Scar was playing coy, shy and hard to get... she had Clark barking!! (You show him girlfriend!!) ;)

All-in-all a fun weekend that I'm still trying to recover from. Already looking forward to the next weekend. I ♥ summer!!

My Daily Routines

2010-07-16T15:00:00.000-07:00

So in case you didn't see my Facebook update, chat with me in the last week or see the Flamingo Scraps blog post (thanks girls!!)... I'm now on the Creative Team for Gone Scrapbooking and we are published weekly in the Examiner Scrapbooking column!! I am still so excited!!

So my first layout was published today... yay!!

Journaling: It all starts with a morning protein shake and this view from the driveway heading out to work. Google... g-mail, reader, blogger, news... Everyday. Furry cuteness waiting for playtime. And I usually get to end the day seeing this face I love so much! I am definitely a lucky girl!

Full product list here.

I was inspired by a website I see everytime time I open an internet browser everyday... google of course! :) I got some great feedback from my friend Heather that helped me finish this one. Thanks Heather!! If you are interested there is a weekly publication call posted every Monday, one for paper layouts and one for digital layouts. This week's call is for birthday layouts and last week was for 4th of July.

I'm having fun getting to know the other eight girls. If you want to be inspired... just click on their names below. You definitely won't be disappointed!!

Jackie Anderson
Karen Garbicek
Ashley Hamm
Tanisha Long
Beth Moore
Kathleen Summers
Keandra Perkins-Willis
Pat Yahner

Rest of the summer is starting to fill up with fun stuff.... just hoping we can pack it all in on the weekends.... :)

Hershey

2010-07-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

Day two of my trip to Pennsylvania took me to a place where I swear I gained 5 pounds just entering town! :) Mmmmm.... Hershey. I can't wait to go back!!! I'm glad my brother and sister-in-law have now moved here. What's not to love about a town that has these for light fixtures?

And roads named Cocoa and Chocolate?! We started our day in Hershey with a visit to Hershey Gardens.

In a word? Gorgeous! And of course, I took a ton of pictures. Here are just few of my favorites I took at the gardens....

See full size photos in my album here.

And my favorite flower picture:

I loved the perfect spiral in the middle. Isn't it cool?!

After wandering around Hershey Gardens, we ate lunch and headed over to the Hershey Story. We took a class at the Chocolate Labs....

Aren't the hats awesome?! lol

Where we learned how to taste chocolate and made our own candy bars:

My brother couldn't control himself and ate his upon walking out of the chocolate lab when he knew we were going to do this next....

Chocolate tasting. He got his own tray. Amy and I shared one. And to quote my brother "he was going to earn his stomach ache!" It was soooooo tasty. I could seriously live on nothing but the Java region chocolate in liquid form. Like drinking caramel vanilla chocolate. Heavenly. I know exactly where I will be heading after arriving at my brother's house next time I go visit!! :)

The rest of the Hershey Story is a big museum about how Hershey's chocolate came to be. Really nice museum:

The picture is really blurry, but you can see some of the cool displays like the 12 foot crystal lamp!

After Hershey Story, we headed over to Chocolate World... the "sweetest place on Earth." There was a LOT of chocolate there!! We taunted my poor husband with pics like this:

This is just one small corner of the store!!! yikes!!!! :)

And then I bought some yummy stuff to send home to him.

I look definitely look forward to going back to Hershey and seeing some of the stuff I missed including Hershey Park and ZooAmerica. Up next in my trip recap will be the Battlefield Tour -- Gettysburg, Valley Forge and Brandywine!

If you missed my first day, you can read about it here.

Thanks for hanging in for all the pics!! :)

Recipe #13: Reese's Peanut Butter Brownies

2010-07-11T22:38:00.000-07:00

Photo credit and recipe here: FabBites.

You must make these. ASAP. They are sooooo YUMMY!! I got no pictures of the ones I made... we ate them too fast!!! Instead of a brownie mix, I just used a basic cocoa brownie mix from my favorite old school cookbook:

Go get this cookbook you don't have it. It's awesome. You'll thank me for this one too. :)

Just make sure you have some milk. And that you have time to put in an extra hour at the gym too!

Compiling my pictures from Hershey... hoping to post them this week! Thanks for all the love and feedback on my first day in Philadelphia. Have a great week everyone!! :)

I ♥ Philly!

2010-07-09T07:00:00.000-07:00

First I have to say it feels like it took me forever to get this posted!! Okay, now that I've got that out of my system....

I've been home from my long vacation in Pennsylvania visiting my brother Tom and sister-in-law Amy for a couple of weeks now (okay, more like a month... but it seems like yesterday!). As I expected, I had a great time!!! Because I was gone for so long and took over a 1,000 pictures, I thought it would be better to break up my travels a little bit by posting one little bit at a time over the next week or two. So here goes nothing...

I arrived in Philadelphia at 7 am after a redeye flight from California. Three hours of sleep on a plane is not a great thing! Kinda random story about the flight there. I woke up about an hour from landing to see panicking flight attendants giving oxygen to a passenger three rows in front of me. She started throwing up. It didn't look too good. I wasn't surprised that they asked everyone to stay seated once we landed to get the paramedics to her. The paramedics got delayed so they ended up getting everyone off the plane. I felt bad for her and hope she's okay!

Once I finally got off the plane and headed out of the airport, my brother picked me up and we headed into Philly for breakfast and all the touristy stuff in the historic part of town. I couldn't wait!!

We ate breakfast at Sabrina's Cafe, thanks to a recommendation from Tom & Amy's friend Jason. So good! (Thanks Jason!!)

Tom's Sawyer "Lon Con" Cakes (don't ask, I have no clue why the name?!). Pumpkin pancakes with lemon cake topping, white chocolate chips, strawberry-mint butter, strawberries, blueberries and strawberry-orange syrup. Random combo, but extremely tasty!

I opted for Caramelized Challah French Toast with maple syrup and a side of bacon. So tasty!!

After the fantastic food (not a crumb left on either plate!), we headed over to Independence Hall and the surrounding area. I could go on and on about how amazing it was to be here! So I'll spare you all the words and show you the pictures of all that we saw that day....

Independence Hall. The Liberty Bell is in the building to the right.

The US Mint doesn't allow photos inside, so this was the outside. The security guard standing just off camera to the left was hilarious and had us laughing! :)

The grave of Ben Franklin. We couldn't figure out why people toss coins on it?? Anyone??

The cemetary that has Ben Franklin's grave. It's across the street from Independence Hall. All the gravestones were seriously decaying but it is a beautiful park. (I should mention this is not the first time I have visited and photographed a cemetary while on vacation. On the east coast... odd habit? Anyone else a cemetary tourist like me?!)

The Liberty Bell! The museum is so beautiful with all the natural daylight. Best part of the display of the Bell is that you are about 2 feet away from it and the only thing behind it is a two story plexiglass wall overlooking Independence Hall.

Cheesesteak for lunch.... more on the food in a separate post soon. It was YUMMY and had Cheez Whiz. Yes, I broke down and ate the stuff.... I paid for it later too! :)

We walked to get our lunch and saw these beautiful streets on our way back and forth to Independence Hall.

Washington Square.... would you believe that this park is actually a mass grave from the Revolutionary War?

The memorial for the park -- the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers.

National Portrait Gallery at Philadelphia.

Inside of the Gallery... hundreds of original portraits by Charles Peale. He painted all the men he saw as important political figures in the Revolution. He was actually the first artist to paint George Washington.

Our touristy trip ended with a tour of Independence Hall. The Tour Guide was sarcastic and ruled over the noisy fieldtrip kids with an iron fist. No joke! It was awesome.... We had a good laugh at his "if you don't zip it, I'll end this tour right now" speech!

Meeting room of the Continental Congress (original furniture and layout!). I got chills... it's really amazing to stand in that room.

Directly opposite the meeting room is this room - the original Supreme Court!

And finally, my first scrapbook layout for the trip album:

More info on the Flamingo Scraps blog.

This was just my first day in Philadelphia, we came back to see the landmarks in downtown. Rocky... the stairs... the Love sculpture and City Hall!

Thanks for hanging in for this long post. I'll try to make the next ones shorter! I'll be back soon with posts about Hershey, DC and all the places in-between. :)

Enjoying Summer

2010-07-07T00:19:00.000-07:00

How can you not enjoy the summer with blue skies like this in the middle of the day? Cool ocean breezes..... Okay, they are really daily gale force winds, but I like to convince myself they are breezes! :) So far I've been enjoying a lazy summer with Brian on the weekends and everything else has been hectic and frantic during the week!

So far we haven't gotten outdoors as much as we'd like, but we've managed to see this:

Me encanta Buzz Lightyear en español!!

We also managed to make it back to the theater the next weekend to see this:

Of course, I ♥ed the books more, but the movies have been excellent!

We've enjoyed going to the Farmer's Market here in town. The nectarines and plums have been delicious!

I even managed to make my first ever batch of strawberry jam from those strawberries and successfully can it! :)

And here are a few things I've made so far this summer:

A button tree I plan to display at Christmas.

And a digi layout for the nephew's album.

What's in store for the rest of our summer? LOTS of exciting stuff!! Back soon to share some really exciting stuff and I'm almost ready to post a few things about my trip to Pennsylvania. Hope you are enjoying your summer so far! :)

Happy 4th of July... and 7 things....

2010-07-04T18:38:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July! I celebrated by hanging out at home with Brian, making my first ever batch of jam (strawberry - yum!) and we're probably going to go by the neighbors house in a little while to say hi. Hope you are enjoying your holiday weekend!

So last week, Heather tagged me on her blog. Heather and I have been friends for years thanks to our scrappin' addictions -- both digi and paper. We're part of a small crowd Heather and I... most people seem to do one or another! Go check out her blog if you get a chance - I enjoy reading about her adventures in raising her kids and seeing her beautiful work. :)

“This award is to recognize good design, writing, photos, etc.; to network amongst other bloggers; inspire content ideas, etc.

Conditions of the award stipulate that I need to share seven things about myself and then pass on this award to other wonderful bloggers.”

So here are my seven things:

1. I'm a Pieces who hates water. Odd right? I don't like being in water, near water or really even drinking water. I drink water because I have to. And I'm a terrible swimmer. That said, I do love taking showers and I usually take two a day. One before leaving to go to work, one before bed.

2. If I won the lottery, I'd pay off the mortgage, finish our house and travel the world. Not necessarily in that order.

3. I'm a homebody. Nothing better than no plans and a weekend at home! But that rarely happens. Usually there is something planned. Even if we are at home!

4. I want to move back to the Sacramento area, but I wish we could pick up our entire house and move it with us. And our neighbors. And our jobs. Not possible. sigh.

5. I have a major sweet tooth and I struggle some days to control it! In my life, I best had it under control in college.... go figure. When your eating habits are supposed to be at their worst.

6. I've done most crafts you can think of. Only a few remain that I have not.... candle making and soap making are actually the only ones that come to mind.

7. As much as I love to travel, I still have not travelled internationally. I don't even have my passport! Brian and I need to rectify this situation soon I think! :)

Those are my 7 things! Now I’m tagging:

1. Anna
2. Megan
3. Nancy (I think this means you're double tagged now!)
4. Kiersten
5. Julie ;)
6. Nati
And really, anyone who is reading this.... please consider yourself tagged! I'd love to read a few random things about everyone!

30 by 30: June Progress Report

2010-06-29T21:05:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe the year is already halfway gone. Still working away at this and making lots of progress in some areas, not so much in others!

Lots of progress made on this item thanks to two trips back and forth to the east coast!

1. Something Borrowed by Emily Griffin
2. Something Blue by Emily Griffin
3. Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton
4. The Last Song by Nicolas Sparks -- great story, know the movie won't live up to it (even though it was written first!)
5. Hero at Large by Janet Evanovich -- cute, fun story that I grabbed at the airport on the way home
6. The Choice by Nicolas Sparks -- total tearjerker, what a beautiful love story
7. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger -- dying to see the movie now, but absolutely no way it will be as good as the book. Which you should read if you haven't!
8. Baby Proof by Emily Griffin -- fun, quick read. Not as good as her first two books.

Lots of papercrafting and traveling the first half of the year... time to catch up.
Completed:

1. Bookmarks
2. Knit hat for Brian
3. Christmas Cards
4. Scarf for my sister's Christmas gift
5. Reorganize Master Closet
6. Reorganize Guest Bedroom closet (including reorganizing all wrapping paper + wrapping supplies)
7. Decorate (and undecorate) house for Christmas
8. Reclaimed Window Mirror (joint project with Brian)
9. January 2010 Project 365
10. February 2010 Project 365
11. Office/Craft Room closet -- gut and remodel (helped Brian with building it out)
12. Reorganize Office/Craft Room closet (once remodel was complete!)
13. Scarf for Nancy
14. Amy's quilt
15. Painting of exterior of house (mostly Brian's project, but I spent a weekend painting out some trim on the front and painting our door into the garage from the backyard)
16. Rearrange living room furniture (doesn't sound like much, but this an evening of hard work with Brian!)
17. 48 Scrapbooking pages and 14 cards completed in 6 months. (Still a little bit to go to hit my goals of 150 pages and 25 cards!)

Still in progress:
18. Christmas Elf Hat for my new 2nd cousin Gabriel
19. Mini recipe books for Christmas Cookie Exchange party (need to get this done now that it's been six months!)
20. Reclaimed Window Frame (just need to choose pictures)
21. 365 project every month (painfully behind now on this by almost 3 months...)

18/30 More than halfway now. Brian and I are back on the movie watching train. Heck, we've even been to the theater twice so far this year!

16/30 Only one in the last three months that I can remember. Cooked a few times. Not as often as Brian would like though! Definitely need to work on this a little more.... Have a few more recipes to share too.

Technically speaking, completed the 5k. Gotta get to work on training for another before the year is up. Aiming for breaking that 30 minute mark.... this time I will conquer it!! :)

Are any of you keeping track of goals for the year? How are you doing as we hit the halfway mark for the year?

Recipe #12: Baked Cheesesteak Spring Rolls

2010-06-24T18:00:00.000-07:00

Still working on doing 30 new recipes this year..... 12 down, 18 to go! These were inspired by something we ate my last night in Pennsylvania at the American Bar & Grill in Lancaster. We ate nothing but appetizers and wings for dinner... yum! (I did end up paying for my fall off the food wagon though... I hate to say it but it was totally worth it!)

One of the appetizers we ordered was Cheesesteak Spring Rolls and I could have eaten nothing but that the whole night. YUM. So of course, I wanted to recreate them in a slightly healthier version for Brian. This was the tasty result!

Cheesesteak Spring Rolls recipe is here. I changed it up by slow cooking the beef in the crockpot all afternoon, then baking the springrolls instead of frying them. I actually bake eggrolls and chimichangas all the time. To bake, I preheated the oven to 350, spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. I put all the springrolls on the pan and sprayed them lightly with cooking spray. Bake about 12-15 minutes or until browned. We dipped them in ketchup (didn't want the hassle of making a separate sauce, though this one sounds tasty). YUM! Give them a try, I bet you'll like them too!

Our Home... Repainted and Ready for Summer!

2010-06-22T17:08:00.000-07:00

The big project of repainting the house! Brian did all the hard work and painted the majority of the house while I was gone... in just three days! He totally rocked it. All I had to do when I got home was paint one piece of trim above the garage door blue and the back door of the garage. What a big impact it made. So I won't keep you in suspense... here's the before:

All the before discussion is here if you missed it!

And the after...

All bright and happy for the summer now! And from a different angle:

So glad it is done! Up next? The front porch....

I'm either going to paint or stain the porch floor the same color as the garage door. Add some furniture, maybe a hanging plant? It will be a few months until I get the money and time, but for now, I'm happy with the house being done! What do you think of our new happy yellow house?

Just Workin....

2010-06-14T22:53:00.000-07:00

Hard at work leaves little time to play. I feel like I'm constantly having to choose what to neglect.... my craft room, my house, my husband, my family, my friends. There's always just so many things going on and I have no time to choose right now! So I'm just going with it. I'll be back around here soon to blog about my fun trip to the east coast, our newly painted house and all the little things in-between. In the meantime, here are a few random thoughts....

Can't believe he's two!! And that he's going to be a big brother this year!! :)

Details are over on Flamingo Scraps.

While I was here....

....visiting my brother, sister-in-law and these three cute furballs....

Otis (bottom left), Belle (top) and Pepper (bottom right).

....I kept getting sneak peeks at the house like this from my husband....

....who did an amazing job painting our house over Memorial Day Weekend all by himself! Apparently, the ladybugs ♥ it as much as I do!! (Just waiting for the right time of day and a clear street in front of my house to get the "after" photo!!)

And until I get a chance to update here.... check this blog out! There are some fabulous crafty projects on there!!

On the hunt...

2010-05-19T20:47:00.000-07:00

Busy as usual around here. Looking forward to my nephew's 2nd birthday tomorrow:

More details here.

And, of course, the SpongeBob party this weekend to celebrate! Still watching this:

More details here.

And kinda bummed that they just aired the season finales for SVU and regular Law & Order.... that means nothing but reruns! sigh. At least my guilty summer pleasure of Big Brother (shhhh!!) is coming back soon. Had fun making this layout last week for the Scrapthatlon challenge on Scrapbook.com:

Amazed that not one, but two people recognize my high school and know someone who went there while I was there! And last but not least, looking forward to summer walks with the doggie. Gotta love a dog that will put up with this:

More details here.

Yep, we have a wardrobe for her. AND she wags her tail when the doggie clothes come out! (And yes, Brian is shaking his head in embarrassment for her as he reads this in his e-mail!! lol!!) The funny thing was the only reason why she posed for these pictures is the tennis balls I was luring her with. If you look closely, you can see it in one of the pictures!

One last thing... on the search for great recipes. I got a great comment from abbeyviolet to check out this recipe for waffles (thank you!!), which got me thinking (again) that I'd love to find some new great dinner options that are quick, easy and healthy. Feeling that stuck-in-a-dinner-rut sensation. Lots of veggie stir-fry around here. Suggestions?

Five Random Things

2010-05-12T23:41:00.000-07:00

So last week I posted five moments, tonight? Five random things internet sorta things that I'm loving:

1. Wordle. Not new, but still fun to play with every once in a while. I ran my blog feed through Wordle and it gave me this:

Guess I shouldn't be surprised that the most common word is time?! Ha! Go and play. It's fun!

2. Ever since I saw this, I can't not think about it. These must be made asap. All varieties.

Photo credit: Smitten Kitchen

3. Will it waffle? I laugh, but I can't stop looking back at it. I'm almost intrigued enough to pull out the waffle maker and try something. Almost.....

Photo Credit: Waffleizer

4. Can we do this to our garage.... uh, I mean bike shop honey?

Photo Credit: dwell

5. Pictaculous. Love this for picking a color palette from pictures. So quick and easy!

Things that keep me awake at night! Well, not really.... but still fun! ;)

I love discovering new things online. Have you found any interesting quirky things around the internet recently?

Five Moments

2010-05-06T21:15:00.000-07:00

My favorite new discovery is this website. If you haven't checked it out, you should! So I'm going to answer one question I found today:

Name five moments in your life so far that you believe that you will remember happily in your old age.

#1: The first dance Brian and I shared at our wedding. I remember every second from that moment in time. Really everything from that day, but that moment of love will always stand out in my mind.

#2: On the day I graduated from high school I remember posing for pictures in our house with Michelle. A day filled with friends and family. So happy despite the fact we were rained out and stuck indoors at the fairgrounds. So happy I was able to share that moment with Michelle. Who knew we would end up living together in college?!

#3: Graduating from college - that moment of receiving my degree and hearing my name called. All that hard work rewarded. That feeling of accomplishment. Shared with Michelle again which made it even more special.

#4: Holding Creighton for the first time. Such a joy in our lives. So look forward to watching my favorite little man grow up and being a part of his life.

#5: Walking across the finish line after having walked 60 miles in 3 days. The triumph of mind over body. The pain. The accomplishment. Making a difference and giving back. I will never have the words to describe that moment in my life, but I will always look upon it with happiness and gratitude for the support I received.

This will definitely be making it's way into the scrapbook sometime soon! What are your answers? I'd love to know. :)

Back from the Beach!

2010-05-04T22:30:00.000-07:00

And just trying to get back into the swing of things. Today has been a long day adjusting back to working, missing my husband and dealing with kitty issues among other things.

I haven't downloaded my camera yet, but Sandy took this beautiful picture of the beach!

While traveling back and forth to Florida, I managed to read two books cover to cover! The Last Song by Nicolas Sparks (total heartbreaker) and Hero at Large by Janet Evanovich (good fun romance and if you haven't read the Stephanie Plum series, you're missing out!). Bringing my total to 5 out of 30 since I started my 30 by 30 project. Not as many as I'd like, so I'm working on that. I'll be back soon with some pictures of the beach and results of my dedicated crafty time.

Thank you a million times over to Tabby and Heather for the blog love! I wish I had the energy and time to pick only 12 blogs to give the sunshine award to, so to everyone reading this, I love reading your blogs! You girls made me smile with the love ya left me. So thank you! :)

A Week in our Life: Sunday

2010-04-26T06:30:00.000-07:00

Second day in a row I slept in until 10 am. This time I woke up to breakfast in bed. Bacon, fried egg, sourdough french toast with maple syrup and orange juice. I ♥ my husband! Up, shower, a little computer time... out the door to finish running errands. Back on the phone. Headset dead, sitting at a red signal, CHP pulls up right next to me. Sees me on cell phone. Ticket. My lucky day! I swear, Brian could be on the cell, driving 80 in a 55 and still not get a ticket. I'm at a red light, NOT MOVING, headset is dead and I get a ticket. At least it doesn't give me a point and increase my insurance. Finally get to Target... the last few little things for Florida!

Over to Home Depot.... paint selecting time! Now that we finally agree on a color scheme, I stopped by to pick up a few shades to test.

Also got the two shades of paint we are considering for our master bedroom. Head over to Costco.... photo order to pick up, the usual purchase of tortillas, bread, chicken and balsamic vinegar. A cute outfit for my nephew's birthday gift in a few weeks and an awesome veggie gardening book. And finally quick stop at Office Depot before heading home for a replacement ruler (mine went missing on my trip to Anaheim in January and I've been missing it terribly!).

Tested the new paint colors with Brian, easy decision:

We chose the yellow on the left, Honey Bear, as the main color for the house. The dark blue, Mood Indigo, as the shutter/door color/porch railing color. The dark brown, Centaur, as the garage door color. And finally, there are two whites on top of the yellow if you look closely. The right-hand side, Linen White is almost the same shade as our existing paint! And the left-hand side is Polar Bear and we chose that as the trim color. Original idea came from here:

And yes, we've been drooling over all the house plans! It's always fun to look at house plans (not to build them out of toothpicks though, right Megan?! lol)

And here:

Photo from here. Where the inspiration came from for the garage door color.

So here's what the house will look like when it's done according to home depot:

And according to photoshop skills (in a hurry):

A little time chatting with our neighbors about home improvement projects. ♥ our neighbors! Kicking back on the couch, snuggling with the puppy and hanging out. Getting ready to head to bed after a dinner of Brian's stew.

Forgot to add to yesterday night the drama with the dog! The cats peed on her stuffed toys and she reeked of it. Poor baby. Three baths later, she still smelled like it. Finally put a 50/50 mixture of white vinegar and water on her face to neutralize the smell. It kinda worked.... figured I would have to let it sit to really get the smell out. She was traumatized and I sent her to bed with Brian. She did wake up this morning with no smell.... both the kitty and vinegar smell were gone. whew. Dang cats!

Going to watch Amazing Race and call it a night! A short work week this week, then vacation! Looking forward to taking a break. So glad I made it through the entire project of week in the life. Now it's time to condense into a mini album... if I get my act together, maybe I'll be able to pull it together in the next week!

A Week in our Life: Saturday

2010-04-25T20:39:00.000-07:00

Oh how quickly the weekends fly by.... never long enough. And literally, every single weekend from now until mid-June is already planned. How did that happen?! Slept in this morning. So needed it and loved waking up at 10 am with a puppy licking my ear and my husband just coming in from a workout. Phone rings within a minute... can't escape it! Exciting news from someone we know.... more phone calls..... friends, family.... unexpected call from my cousin Jen. Fun talking photos and computer equipment. Brian left to run errands and work on Kathleen's yard. Shower. Back on the phone.... with Nancy this time. Heading to San Jose to the mall to get a few last minute things for trip to Florida. Quick stop for gas, drive through Starbucks. Grande iced nonfat decaf caramel macchiato and a strawberry-blueberry yougurt parfait. yum.

On the road finally! More phone calls.... Still can't seem to escape the phone. Loved catching up with my brother, sister, parents today. Lots of discussion about my upcoming trip to Pennsylvania in May to see Tom and Amy. My nephew. My Dad's health.... and apparently today that included a massive spider bite that required a trip to urgent care. yuck! Stopped by Nancy's house to hang out since she couldn't come out shopping with me. Head over to Oak Ridge Mall and stop by Bare Escentuals, See's Candy, Ann Taylor Loft and Sephora. More phone calls! Head home.

mmmmm..... homemade pizza. Time with Brian. All in all a great day. And not one picture. Oh well! :)

A Week in our Life: Friday

2010-04-24T07:00:00.000-07:00

It was a relatively calm day today. The weather was cold but pretty. Work was quiet with the boss off for the day. Took the opportunity to clean out and reorganize. Packed and shipped a box of stuff to Florida at lunch. Claudia came by after work to check out my scraproom and check out the paint colors we used in the parts of the house we have painted. Burned a pot of brown rice because I forgot about it. Folded and put away three loads of laundry... washing two more. Made this card:

Looking forward to the weekend!