Tip of the day

Tip of the day: don't leave the bathroom door open.

Soup for dinner

Soup! This is pretty much the same as my previous soup I made last year. It has homemade turkey meatballs, and acini de pepe noodles. I added poblano and jalapeno peppers, bok choy, spinach, oregano, pepper, cumin, and smoked paprika. I will garnish with a ton of fresh cilantro!

More randoms

Matt and Whiskey cuddling on the couch

Matt playing the guitar.

too bright, but I thought I would show how crazy W gets when Matt plays the guitar

It is crazy windy today! The garbage cans are everywhere!

Random Picture Day

I have never had such a hard time with pictures and captions as I have had this morning!! Grr! Because of this, many of these do not have captions. The two near the bottom of Amanda and I are of us looking at my new signed Pioneer Woman Cookbook!! Amanda graciously got this for me for Christmas! The pictures in the book are sooo cute! 

The rest of the pictures are of Whiskey at home or Whiskey and Matt at Sno Pt. Park in Snoqualmie from over the weekend.  It has been very windy here almost every day! I lost the wreath from my front door a couple of days ago, only to find it returned to me the other night!! We also had one of the panels from our fence fall over because of the wind. Matt and his dad fortunately were able to get it back up and in place.  Luckily, our new trees seem to be holding for now.

Here is W bracing against the crazy wind

My cute boys at sunrise

Windy!

Sunrise

Beautiful sunrise

He loves his sticks!

More sunrise

2009

2009 Year in Review

January    *Matt and I went to Kuaui

February   * I started swimming to train for a Sprint Triathlon

                 * Had to take xrays of W's belly-he just ate too much

March      *Celebrated Matt and Bryan's birthdays with a Sounders game!

       * It snowed...a lot!

April   *Went to Neah Bay to celebrate Katie's birthday

           *Matt built our shed

May  *Had a BBQ or two

June   *Got some new trees in the front yard

          *Whiskey was cute

July    *Hiked near Mt. Rainier

        * Had some Southern visitors  (Matt's cousin) & toured Seattle

                * Visited Cle Elum

                * Bought a really expensive vacuum!

                * The Joner's came for a visit

                * Painted the family room

                * Started the retaining wall/firepit

                * Spent a LOT of time at Rattlesnake Lake

August     * Finished the firepit/retaining wall

              

                * Completed a Sprint Triathlon

                 *  Camping with the Camps

September   *  Camping with Bry and Amanda in Cle Elum

               *Whiskey got "cold tail" syndrome

               *Whiskey got hip xrays, then we found out he had a tick

               *Saw Wicked

               *Bryan and Amanda got engaged!

October     *Carved pumpkins

                  *Traveled to Italy!

November    *Made loads of pumpkin cream sandwiches

                    *Had family over for Thanksgiving dinner

                    *Ty and Elizabeth came for a visit!

December    *Enjoyed Christmas

                    *Had several dinner parties

                    *Watched fireworks for New Year's Eve just miles away from the Space Needle (I forgot to take pictures)

news

No news, really. There is nothing going on in this household  :)  We are trying to enjoy each other's company as much as possible and also enjoying family and friends during this season.
Here's a list:
*Matt and I are working on saving more and spending less, which has been hard. It makes me not really want to go anywhere because I know I will buy things, which really adds up.
*I recently found out that I didn't work enough hours to get the "bonus PTO" this year. I am only 60 hours short come the end of December and could have gotten an extra 80 hours. LAME. I was sooo upset and trying so hard to figure out a way to squeeze in an extra 60 hours of work during the holidays. Fortunately, Matt isn't as concerned and told me not to worry about it. If you know me, you know I was literally sick to my stomach about it...
*I love birds. Outside birds. The little ones. I just can't help it. They light up my day.
*I recently cleaned my toilets, but left the bleach stuff on a little too long...I now have orange stripes on the seat and lid. Anyone know how I can fix it??
*We just went to a baby shower for my cousin Ali and her husband Zach. We are beyond excited for them! I know of so many pregnant women now and I LOVE IT.
*I will leave you with some pictures of Whiskey. He always likes to steal these little brown pillows off of the couch.His favorite thing is to shove his nose in between the buttons and grab onto the pillow inside. He just likes to hold it I guess.

Thanksgiving

We had some of Matt's family over for the day and had SO MUCH FOOD! Everything was delicious! I was able to make the turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and a Pumpkin Gingerbread trifle. Amanda made sweet potatoes and a delicious salad, and Elizabeth made a spinach dip and green bean casserole. Jessie made some awesome bruschetta and DID ALL OF THE DISHES!!! Matt's Uncle Ron made pumpkin pies. MMM. Needless to say, Matt and I have been eating Thanksgiving dinner for lunch and dinner every day for the past week!

Here are the pictures of Thanksgiving, but NONE of any people...food only. I guess I really am becoming my mother! Sorry, some of the pics are blurry!

Scallions

I just learned something new and I thought I should share. Take a bunch a green onions (scallions) and use the top half for whatever you deem necessary. Keep the other half with the whites still attached. Normally, I would just throw this back in the fridge, but NO. Instead, put the bunch in a cup of water so that the whites are submerged and they will REGROW in a couple of days. Awesome. I love new things.

Did anyone already know this? Just wondering.

Pumpkin Cream Sandwiches

UPDATE!!!  Here is the link to the recipe courtesy of Aunt Val:

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/pumpkin-cream-sandwiches-10000001681005/index.html



my favorite fall treat!!!

Pumpkins

Yesterday was Pumpkin Patch day. We trekked through the mud and the rain to find the perfect pumpkin and brought them back to the house to carve. I did an owl face, Matt did a bat, Bryan did a scary vampire, and Amanda attempted Edward from Twilight.

Of course, Matt's pumpkin is green. Last year was a watermelon. This year is an unripe pumpkin.

This is when Amanda found out her pumpkin was moldy. It had nasty stuff inside, so she decided not to actually carve the pumpkin. Instead, she was going to scrape the likeness of Edward. See below for picture....this thing is not letting me drag the picture up.

Brothers

And I forgot to add this picture in my Italy photo album. It is a wine stopper made of glass. So cute!!

Buongiorno

That means Good Morning if you don't speak Italian :)  Ahh the things I learned while in Italy. One of which was "No. Please give me my Euro. I need my 4 Euro back Per Favore." Ok, so not really in Italian, but partially. I had a fight with an Italian barista over how much change I should have gotten back. I wasn't budging and she wasn't either. She tried to look past me so that I would just leave, but I stuck my ground. She gave me 3.50 back. Ha. I guess that was a compromise??

We had a total of 8 days to travel to Italy and back. We visited Venice first for one night, Rome for 3 nights, and Venice again for another 3 nights. With the time change, it took over 24 hours to travel there. We left Sunday morning and arrived in Venice on their Monday morning. Our trip did not start off right. I was ready to cry before we ever got to SeaTac airport. I forgot the all-important birth control. So smart. Of course, we could handle that, but a change nonetheless. Once at the Venice airport, we realized they lost my bag. Thank goodness I had an extra pair of underwear in my carry-on as well as my makeup. I wanted to cry though. I had nothing else. AND we were in a place where we did not speak the language. Luckily, many people speak English there and the lost luggage lady did. We then had to buy a bus ticket to get to the main area of Venice...it took awhile, but we finally got er done.

Once in Venice, we thought we were heading toward our hotel, but we were going the wrong way. It took us about a half an hour walking in the muggy weather, but fortunately I didn't have to lug my bag around :) Just Matt. Once at the hotel, the room wasn't ready as expected, so we hit the bathroom before we went out to walk the streets. Problem this time was after I had sat on the toilet to pee, I discovered there was no toilet paper. Seriously? Seriously. I managed to hobble over to the next stall with a garbage bag between my legs. Hey, it worked.

So we walked the maze of Venice in my heels and ruined the crap out of them...down to the metal on each heel. I needed new shoes. Luckily, the next morning we met up with Matt's brother and his fiance, so I could borrow some much-needed tennis shoes. But before that, I took a long-awaited shower at the hotel and used their toiletries. Little did I know, I had used lotion instead of conditioner. By this time, anything that happened was just funny. I was tired, annoyed, and crabby, but at least I could laugh about it.

Meeting up with Bryan and Amanda (B&A) was awesome. It was so good to talk to someone else! They also had had their travel moments while in Rome, so they had already worked out the train/subway kinks. I was so ready for someone to just take care of us. :) We love them. Rome was great! Taking the subway was really fun and a great way to make your way across the city. We bought unlimited all-day passes and rode several times a day. We saw pretty much everything in Rome there is to see: The Colloseum, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, the Forum, the Vatican Museum, St. Peter's Basilica, and much much more.  Pictures at the end of my novel.

We stayed at a Bed and Breakfast in Rome that was a little north of the main part of Rome. This was PERFECT. It was reasonably priced, the owners spoke very little English and were very cute, it was safe, and it was easy to get to. We would absolutely stay there again if in Rome! Plus, B & A stayed there also, so it was like a slumber party with wine each night!

Every place to eat seemed spendy, especially with the value of the U.S. dollar so low right now. They do not "have" tap water, and you pay the same for bottled water as you do pop: about $5-6. We had cappuccinos and gelato almost every day, and took over 500 pictures. We had WAY too many carbs. We were craving some good protein, but you usually have to pay for that separately as it was already expensive. And or course, knowing me, you would know that we were not about to pay more. Besides, I needed money for my gelato and new Italian leather boots... One night, Matt and I went to Burger King for a late dinner. We were in heaven. I have never loved a burger more.

All of the crazy old buildings and statues in Rome are incredible! Pictures do not even do it justice. the magnitude of each is incredible. It was really fun to walk through each with the guide book and learn about the history. Mostly B would read the book and we would follow along listening. My own personal tour guide!

We finally booked our last hotel in Venice while we were in Rome and naturally, there was slim pickings. We ended up with a "4 star" hotel that looked more like a 1 star. I started to think I was just picky when Matt reminded me how crappy the hotel really was...and how much we paid for it...more than my life is worth I think! Beyond that, we did like Venice and it was a beautiful unique place. The city is built on water. Canals run through most of the city, with bridges everywhere. There are no cars, mopeds or anything. They bring their produce, supplies, etc in and out by boat. They have water taxis, buses and gondolas.

This is a map of Venice. The Grand Canal runs through the city, and there are 3 main bridges where you can cross it. Otherwise, you can take the water bus or taxi to get around. All of the white lines are walkable streets and the little blue lines are small waterways. We stayed up North near the train station so we didn't have to use the bus.

Ok, I'm tired of typing, so here are the pictures!

VENICE

ROME

Banana Deliciousness

I had some over ripe bananas that I needed to use up (we never seem to finish them all), and I wasn't in the mood for banana bread. So, I searched the internet for some deliciousness and boy, did I find it! I found this blog with the following recipe for Banana Bars. I guess the original recipe is from My Kitchen Cafe at Allrecipes.com. GO MAKE THESE. NOW.


Bars -
Ingredients:
½ cup butter, softened
1 ½ cups white sugar
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream   [I used cream cheese instead because that's what I had]
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
three ripe bananas (about 1 cup)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a 10 x 15 inch jellyroll pan or one 9X13 pan and an additional 8X8 pan. [I used two 8x8 pans instead]  In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the sour cream and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl; stir into the batter. Finally, mix in the mashed banana. Spread evenly into the prepared pan(s). Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow bars to cool completely before frosting.

Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting  [I didn't use frosting...but it sounds amazing!!!]
Ingredients:
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1 cup white sugar (you can use either granulated sugar or confectioners’ sugar – the confectioners’ sugar tends to dissolve better and not be as grainy but either one works fine) (I used confectioners)
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream

Directions:
In a large bowl combine cream cheese, sugar, salt and vanilla. Beat until light and fluffy. Set aside. In another medium bowl, beat whipped cream until stiff peaks form (it helps to use a chilled bowl and chilled beaters). Fold whipped cream into cream cheese mixture.

I ended up calling this Banana Cake because of its soft, moist consistency. It had the perfect amount of banana flavor and well, was simply perfect all around. Bryan and Amanda came over and devoured it for a snack! You know it's good when I use the word devour.

This picture courtesy of the blog:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
P.S. For my South Beach diet friends: you cannot have this. Sorry.

Doggy portraits

Matt had some fun taking pictures of Whiskey on a walk today. He is SO handsome!!

camping

Camping was awesome! We went to a place just off of Lake Cle Elum. I believe this area is actually under water when the water level is high. We had tons of room, and we were right at the water's edge. The water was FREEZING though, so no swimming for us. However, the weather was absolutely perfect for hanging out. We got to try out our new tent, which worked perfectly, and I wasn't even too cold at night. Also, I mastered the art of peeing outside-something I have never been very good at.

Also, Whiskey had something ELSE happen to him... :) All of a sudden, he started walking around with his tail straight down, but he seemed to be acting normal. Today, same thing-acting normal, running, swimming etc, but had his tail down. I thought maybe he broke his tail (only MY dog, of course), but Matt remembered reading something about "Cold Tail Syndrome". I guess sometimes "working dogs" can get this when they go into really cold water and for other random reasons. Well of course Whiskey was having the TIME OF HIS LIFE when we got to the camping site, he swam in the water like 48 times in the first 10 minutes. The water was FREAKING COLD, but that never seems to affect him. It wasn't until later that he started with the tail tuck. So weird. Thank God Matt thought of it as being a possibility or I would be getting more xrays again!

See how straight down his tail is?? He looks so sad, but seemed to still have fun!

On an unrelated note: This random man came over to us while we were hanging out with his Potato Gun and a growler of beer. He wanted to show us his gun in case we heard it from afar. It was soooo weird! He gave us all a turn with the gun and also let us have some of his beer.

Chris/ty: Matt got a pipe and enjoyed it while sitting at the campfire-we thought of you!

Amanda and Bryan. Can you tell we got a little sun??

Whiskey in his happy place on his bed

Another straight tail picture

When we were getting ready to get into the tents at night, we kept hearing something huge in the water which was right next to our tent. I was really freaked out and thought that maybe they were large fish jumping. Then we thought that maybe the Potato Gun Man was shooting his potatoes a little too close to us. This morning we figured that maybe they were large frogs that we must've spooked. I get spooked easily too!

PW

I look at this blog often: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/ and I LOVE it!

I have cooked many of her recipes and have loved every single one! I made this Shrimp Quesadilla last night and it was delicious!! http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/09/quesadillas-de-camarones/  I used a bag of frozen pre-cooked and pre-shelled shrimp, and just heated them in a skillet with taco sauce. I needed no other spices to make this good!

I also plan on making the Tres Leche cake tomorrow. For what?! No reason. Just to make a cake. Because I can. And I have the ingredients. Yay!

On another note, Matt's brother Bry got engaged last weekend to Amanda-yay!! We all went out to dinner after their scavenger hunt!

Happenings

We were fortunate enough to go see the Broadway play Wicked this afternoon! It was just as good as everyone said it would be! The actors were impressive, to say the least. They were all incredible performers and singers, and the storyline was awesome. If you don't know, it's like a side story to the original Wizard of Oz, featuring the witches as opposed to Dorothy. GO SEE IT!

Yesterday we went tailgating at the Husky game, then went to the Knarr Bar on the Ave to watch it. We were going to try to get tickets but we decided against it because we had at least 5 people to get tickets for, and we would have probably been separated-boo. We did have a good time at the Knarr though...it's always an interesting experience :) Despite the loss, the Husky game was awesome and did not disappoint. We are very excited for this season as they seem to be looking good!

It is raining SO hard right now and my dog is desperate for some exercise and attention. So Matt has been trying to chase him around the house since we've been home. I can hear them upstairs right now playing fetch.

Thank the Lord for low census at work! I would have normally had to work this whole weekend, but I put my name on the list and got lucky! Yay for not having to go to work when you're supposed to!

camping

Camping this weekend was awesome to say the least! I never once took out my camera, but am reliving many great moments in my head. Case was the life of the party and was oh so tough out on that beach! He actually growled at some crabs. See? Tough. And Whiskey became ultimate protector of the campers, and he loved every second of it! He and Case became the best of buds-especially because Case is right at Whiskey's stealing level. He got more food by stealing it right out of Case's hands this weekend! I have a feeling we'll be doing this again!

Sorry no pictures today :)

Patio

I came home from work yesterday and saw that Matt and his Dad had finished the firepit patio!! We used random Pennsylvania Bluestone (the main patio area is Dimensional or rectangle bluestone). It's still a bit dirty, but I think it looks soooo good! We are looking for a large concrete bowl for the actual firepit....

TRI

WOOHOO!!! I did the Sprint Triathlon!! The whole race was set up at Genessee Park in Seattle right at the Stan Sayers pits. I had to swim 0.5 mile, which is 18 laps at a pool, or 36 lengths. It took me about 21 minutes. I then had to run out of the water to my transition area where my bike was. I took about 6 minutes to run there, take off my wetsuit, dry off and put my running shoes on. I also got some water and some energy stuff while I was there. I then ran out with my bike to Lake Washington Blvd where I biked 12 miles across the I-90 express lanes. This took me about 43 minutes. Once I got back, I got a quick drink and off I ran. I was EXHAUSTED! My legs felt like rubber and were soo heavy! I think the first mile took me forever! I had to stop like 3 times for some water and to rest my legs a little on the first one alone. Once the second mile hit, I felt like I got in a groove. The problem was, I had to pee the entire time I was running and that really slowed me down! I crossed the finish line and kept on running to the portapotties. The run took me 30 minutes, so about 10min/mile.


Matt was great and tried his best to catch me at each interval. There were over 5000 competitors and each had people there to see them, so he was in a crowd all day! He missed me get back from the swim, but he made it to all of the others! It was so hard to find him at the end of the race.





Here I am preparing my transition site at 6am.




Putting on my wetsuit at double o early





wetsuit again



NERVOUS picture





Running out of the swim.



Putting my bike back, getting ready to run




You can barely see me in the distance on my run...this whole portion counts as my "transition" between events, so I tried to be quick.



Sprinting the finish

close up of me at the finish

All done and taking everything back to the car


The Ultimate Supporter


A couple of the girls from work who did it with me...we're on the first place block. I cannot see because the sun is my eyes (good excuse for a bad pic)

yard

Matt worked all weekend by himself on the yard. He used this crazy contraption that he rented to dig holes in our clay-like soil, and carry loads of dirt.


He planted all of these plants (finally!!) with the use of that crazy drill! Thank goodness, because it would have taken much more time by hand!


The wall is all filled in behind now and we will hopefully get some plants in there soon!


Random rocks in the dirt will have a better place once we have more plants.


wide view

I am SO proud of how much he got done this weekend!