My Prize

Phil called me on his way home from errands this morning and said he was bring me home a prize...
I guess there was a garage sale between our house and the bank. Phil got some sweet boots for $12.


Hey Beka, I hope you have an entire table of things that are just $1 at your garage sale!

5:20am?!

I am NOT a morning person. I wish I was. I always thought once I "grew-up" I'd become a morning person. I wish I could be like Kayla and Jenn and wake up because I'm not tired. I could sleep at least until 10:30am and still be tired. Waking up is by far the hardest part of my day.

Today is a weird weird day. I woke up at 5:20am wide awake. Strange. Not just awake, but awake with energy?! I WENT RUNNING at 6:00am! Also weird, I cannot exercise in the morning, I'm always too tired. I hope my body does this again!

The Bad spent the night last night. We play every Thursday evening, we just thought it would be fun to have a slumber party this week. I like being awake before everyone else; doing my chores, working out, making breakfast. So sweet to have a sleeping husband and baby, its just like playing house or something?!

Today we are having strawberries from the garden for breakfast! They aren't as perfectly shaped or as big as store bought but its satisfying to pick my breakfast.
I'm from Lebanon, home of the Strawberry Festival and World's largest strawberry shortcake! I haven't been in 7YRS! This year is the 100th anniversary, I think I'll go to the parade and eat carnie food. Mmmm.

Beautiful Weekend On Its Way

I'm so excited for the weekend! www.weather.com told me its going to be in the mid to high 80s!!!! I wanna go to the lake for a picnic.

Phil Was Gone

"I'll tell you where. Someplace warm. A place where the beer flows like wine. Where beautiful women instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano. I'm talking about a little place called Aspen."

I sent Phil away for Memorial Day Weekend. He needed a good guys weekend before his busy work season starts. Jake Kettles picked him up in Denver, CO and together they drove to the Aspen area to stay with Dave Dorr and Ben Dorr. He had a great time. Unfortunately our camera died at the beginning of the trip. The went to see a Mini Kiss cover band, went out in Aspen, rafting down the North Fork Rv (Jake was the only one that fell in), disc golfing, betting, golfing, betting and just hung out. Hopefully Dave will post pics of rafting.


Thanks guys for taking care of my husband. He had a TON of fun, he's lucky to have you!



My Memorial Day Weekend
Friday: Bad Bad Allergies, to bed early. Made Sara spend the night because I'm too scared.
Saturday: Helped Sara move from Corvallis to Lebanon, spent the night at my parents
Sunday: Dox, Amanda's 30th Birthday, card night and slumber party at Abby's.
Monday: Phil missed his morning flight, went to Portland in the afternoon, then to bed early.

Uh-Oh

Do you ever read the failblog.org? So funny! Great way to pass the time. Sometimes you have to sift through inappropriate posts but there is more good than bad. I've never laughed harder than some of the things on that blog!

Lunch For The Week

Working from home I have no excuse to not eating a healthy lunch. So for this week I made a

Lunch Shelf & Snack Drawer
In my fridge.

I LOVE MY TUPAWARE

Lunch Shelf:
Ingredients for yummy combos: Taco Salad, Tacos, Bean bowl

-sliced limes
-chopped cilantro
-chopped scallion
-cherry tomatoes
-corn salsa
-avocado
-jalapeno
-fat free sour cream dressing (blended jalapeno, cilantro, garlic, cumin)
-homemade pinto beans
-ground venison (more for Phil than me, not the biggest fan of venison)
-organic lettuce mix
-hot sauce
-corn tortillas and tortilla chips used SPARINGLY


Snack Drawer:
homemade hummus and cut up veggies
citrus salad
tomato slices and cheese
celery and pb

Hey Tiff

Tiffany, Stephanie, Tuff-Tuff.

You inspired me to keep a list of my workouts to help me actually DO them. I won't be creating an entirely separate blog but I will keep a generalized weekly list. I promised not to lie when I'm lazy. I'll have to swallow my pride and type in "loser" or "quitter" on the days I suck... or just "SUCKED".

My Wogging

I did a body workout. Our gym membership is $100 a month and I have a issue with not going. I got my quartly energy to start working out again and its right on schedule. Every 3months or so I get this energy to work out and eat right. Maybe I'll stick with it this time?

I'm officially on day 3. I went on a nice wogg yesterday. Its pretty awesome that Corvallis has so many bike/running trails. My route is 5.5miles and it takes me an hour because I'm too out of shape to run the whole time. Wanna go on a wogg with me?

We can also just walk it. So pretty! Farm fields, covered bridge and old houses. Just call me after 5pm and say hey Jenna lets go walk your route and I'll say "Cool!"

I also put in my mini wog that I can do on my lunch break anytime between 12 and 2.

Phil and I used to call this "club sexy body" this time I'm calling it "club smaller pants".

Biking/walking maps click here

Frrrrrrrrrrriday!

Fridays are the best! So much hope and excitement for the weekend! Last Friday immediately after work I worked up a good sweat weeding and mowing. Phil brought home rum for my favorite MOJITOS! We set up shop on the deck and enjoyed the weather.

Phil set up his new bbq(from my parents) and we had a nice little pork chop din din. Phil LOVES cooking meat. The bbq has a rotisserie. He's been talking about cooking meat for over a week!


We filled up on bread so I maybe only had one bite of my chop. I was experimenting with bread dips.

I LOVE my food processor! How did i live without it for 2 years?! Throw anything in it and make any dip!
Dip A)
White Port Roasted Red Pepper Puree

sate together then throw in the food processor
White Port
roasted red peppers
onion
garlic
BUTTER

Dip B)
Baked Jalepeno Romano Hummus

process all together until smooth
chickpeas
jalepeno
garlic
olive oil
lemon juice
pickled artichokes
romano cheese
bake until melty

Food Processors Are Fun!

I made some traditional hummus last night. One can of chickpeas is $1 it is waaay cheaper to make homemade hummus and tastier! I've got a lot. come over and eat some.

Also last night I got ingredients chopped up and ready for taco salads for lunch all week, including homemade pinto beans. I made some healthy yummy dressing in the food processor.

My dressing:
fat free sour cream
cumin
cilantro
garlic clove
jalepeno
pepper

just blend the heck out of on high

so flavorful and fresh and creamy.

THE END

Oh yeah, Phil gave himself a nice buzz cut on his own.

The Senior

My baby brother is all grown-up! When did this happen? He just finished his last season of high school sports. My parents are soon to be empty nesters! Lucky them! They finally get to breath and just hangout with each other, I wonder if that is weird? 28yrs they've had kids in their house!

Growing up all of us kids were really involved in sports and school activities. They always said that school was our 'job' and as long as we got good grades and were active they'd pay for everything but if we weren't involved in after-school activities we'd have to get a real part-time job, I wasn't interested in that, ick! My parents were super involved, not just as fans but as coaches and volunteers. My dad even went to our practices, he LOVES sports! Maybe back then it was slightly annoying but now I'm really able to appreciate it. But I think most teenagers think their parents are annoying and slightly embarrassing?

Anyway, Kenny Dee had a lot of fun polevaulting this year. Man, it is sooo hard! I don't even think I could run with that stick thing let alone fling myself up in the air. It's really fun to watch. I'll miss going to his sports but I guess its just a small break before Ruby's dance recitals, Betsy's soccer games, Baby D's cross country races, Emma's tennis matches and Ching's Mathlete Meets.

Wait! Since When?

I just spent my entire lunch break mowing the lawn...and I'm still not done. Im hot, sweaty and I smell like gasoline. I need a 'lawnbott"!!

What the Heck I'm 24?!

This is not a sensual photo of my lips.

This is my brand new adult chin/lip acne?!


Ok so I've never had a perfect complexion but I do not break out on my chin! Maybe I did in middle school but I'm 24!

All of a sudden 2days ago my chin broke out and all around my lips. Phil said its because of my recent addiction to carmex. Maybe my drooling in my sleep has recently increased.

Wow! Maybe its the dollar store laundry detergent Phil bought!!!!! Oh my, Im just thinking of this now. I washed all of our sheets with the new detergent, 2 days later my face breaks out. Interesting.

Shoot, I also recently switched moisturizers from MAC to the standard Oil of Olay. Maybe I need to convince Phil there really is a difference between specialty cosmetics and grocery store brands.

Everything is FINALLY in!

We have 8 beds and one large corner plot.


I finished putting my starts in last night

My garden:
red potatoes
yukon gold potatoes
blue potatoes
corn
pumpkin
zucchini
summer squash
cantaloupe
cucumber
acorn squash
collard greens
spinach
red leaf lettuce
swiss chard
cabbage
carrots
snap peas
peas
beets
radishes
green beans
yellow beans
oregon giant beans
cherry tomatoes
better boy tomatoes
beef steak tomatoes
basil
cilantro
green onion
red onion
walla walla onion
strawberries
lavender
sage
mint
dill
oregano
rosemary

sadly this morning when I went outside to water I saw 2 casualties. Jericho trampled through my herb garden destroying a lavender and a dill. stupid dog.

I might have planted our "vine" plants too close but there is some extra room in our biggest corner plot so Phil and I get to each pick out some starts from the farmers market tomorrow. I'm hoping to find some weird stuff, Phil is hoping to find the worlds hottest pepper.

We probably spent... $30 on seeds to make our own starts which has saved a ton of dinero and probably will become vegetarians late summer early fall. This creates new goals. Maybe I'll lose weight and get to buy those Paige Jeans with our savings from groceries. Yeah right!


Our First Strawberries! Cant wait to have virgin strawberry mojhitos with Jenny and baby Terry fetus!

"Where's Emma I can't find her!"
"She escaped out the sliding glass door again and she's in the strawberries!"
"Oh Emma, you're so bad!"

25er

Happy Birthday Sara Girl, you make me happy!

Saturday night I went to the Tin Shed in Portland for Sara-lady's birthday. Yummy little place. Awesome happy hour menu!
I ordered: berry garcia quesadilla
Roasted red pepper, jalapeno, black bean, Tillamook cheddar & berry jam, topped
with jalapeno-cilantro creme fraiche. 4-

So interesting and Yummy and cheap!

And why don't we have one decent photo of the three of us? I know its hard to take pictures of one-yr-olds...

I Can Read!

Yesterday I felt so passionate about not cleaning during work that I over cleaned last night. 4 loads of laundry, swept, vacuumed, mopped, mowed the lawn, scrubbed the kitchen, roasted chicken and veggies for dinner and sat on my couch at 9:00pm with nothing to do?!

What do people do when they have free time? My recent craft is an outdoor craft, my house is clean, its past my baby friends' bedtime and we don't have very much play money during Phil's school season. Maybe I should read? I never read!

I found this book on sale at borders in January (the last time I had a reading spurt) and its been sitting on my shelf. I admit to only buying the book because I love Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson and how fun is it to watch the movie after you finish the book, right?

Anyway I started it last night and couldn't put it down. When I finish or if I finish it ( i have a habbit of only reading half of books then getting distracted) I'll rent the movie and have a girls night? Any one up for a cheesy girl night? I'll make yummy food and we can giggle or something.


Have you seen this movie? Did you like it? Is it lame? I don't remember the movie trailers but the cover has intriguing facial expressions and Natalie's dress is pretty, ha ha ha!

Slugs can go to h#%*...

So something ate my collard greens?!!! So I was warned about slugs. But I thought slugs just maybe eat little holes in my leaves but they can actually eat a whole plant??!!! I didn't know it.
I found this online. My new goals:

Creating an ecosystem

However small your garden or vegetable plot, it should have a self-regulating ecosystem in place to control pests and keep your plants healthy. The simplest way to create this ecosystem is to plant a range of plants which attract natural predators that feed on pests. Ideally, these plants should provide food (in the form of nectar, fruit and pollen) and shelter for predators and sacrificial crops to maintain pest colonies. A sacrificial crop could be a clump of nettles. This will harbor aphids which will feed predators such as ladybugs and lacewings. If any aphids then attack your crops, the ladybugs and lacewings will be on standby to clear them up.

If you have room, a pond (even a very small pond) is useful for keeping pest numbers down. It will encourage frogs (which eat slugs) and bats (which eat mosquitoes and other flying insects).

The following common predators keep pest numbers in check:

• Birds eat slugs, snails, grubs, wireworms, caterpillars and insects
• Frogs eat slugs and snails, beetles and insects
• Ladybugs and lacewings eat aphids such as blackfly and whitefly

You can attract various predators to your plot with a few simple planting techniques. A few bird feeders will encourage more birds on to your plot. A pond will encourage frogs. Lacewings and ladybugs can be encouraged to visit by planting candytuft, sunflowers and marigolds.

To-Do List

Sometimes I put too much pressure on myself to have my house in perfect order. like PERFECT ORDER. I can't relax unless everything is organized, everything. Bed made, every piece of laundry needs to folded, every weed outside needs to be pulled, every dish needs to be washed and put away, all my condiments in my fridge need to be organized and not a crumb on my counter? While I'm at work my desk has to be perfect or I can't concentrate on my job. So when my house isn't perfect all I can think about is what needs to be done and that leads to lots of stress and anxiety. I didn't used to be this way. Matter of fact, I used to be a really messy person. I wonder why I didn't care back then? When did I become so anal?

I think its my jobs fault. Its weird that I work from home and just because I work from home doesn't mean I have a lot of time. Hello I have a full time job, Mon-Fri 8am-5pm. I'm busy! So because I'm at home I put this pressure on myself to have a perfect house but I'm pretty sure if I had a traditional office job I wouldn't. Yes I'm at home but I'm not "AT" home.

So I'm doing an experiment. Im not going to clean on my "breaks" or "lunch break" during the work week anymore. What messes are left before bed time will be left until the next evening. My lunch breaks are now MY lunch breaks. I'm going to get out of the house even if it just means sitting in my backyard for an hour.

I need to create habbits of taking better care of myself especially before baby chings come into the picture. I can't expect my house to always be clean when I have kids so I need to break myself now.

I dont know if this will last. The load of laundry in the dryer is burning a hole in my skull and I didn't do my sunday bleaching routine yesterday?! Man and I can't stand the pile of shoes in the entry way or the wood dust on the harth... Maybe I shouldn't work in my living room.

A Fun Night!

SO last night Phil and I took the scooter out. It hasn't been fired-up since Lewis left. We cashed in our $20 scratchit winnings and headed for Carmike to see if anything good was playing and what-do-ya-know Casey and Lauren were in line for Star Trek! The logical Vulcan thing to do was to join them.....and drum roll... I loved it! Turns out Im a sci-fi fan now! Casey and Lauren suprised us and picked up our ticket, thanks guys, that was really romantic.

So along with Katie, I suggest others go see it. Seriously I'm like a super girly Sex and the City fan so I think my opinion on whether or not you should go see Star Trek counts.

Project Update

So I bought these ugly chairs with intentions of making them my own. I haven't worked on them since I redid the fabric back in Feb. Sun inspires Phil and I to do stuff so we finally started the sanding process:

Im a farmer!

My first harvest, RADISHES


I guess these babies grow fast? So do I plant more now or something? I don't know its my first time!

God Bless You Jim

Yesterday Phil went to Jim's send off. So so many Oregonian men that Im thankful for.
Govenor Kulinoscopy gave a riveting send-off speech about hand sanitizer. What a dumby. Phil said its tradition for the govenor to shake each person's hand but not this time, due to recent events involving the swine flu this year he gave everyone hand sanitizer, "I can't save you from combat injury but I can save you from getting the flu"??? Seriously?? Why doesn't he just shake everyone's hand and then use up all that lame hand santizer if its suppose to save lives? I'm sure lots of you like Kulinoscopy, I'm really NOT into politics, but what he did yesterday in my opinion was insulting.


Hero and Mrs. Hero.
Two REALLY hot guys!
Love you Himmy.

Once Again, Cool Party Beka.

At Beka's awesome raffle-fundraiser-birthday party extravaganza Phil won an airplane ride from Frank. Phil said it was AWESOME! Lots of aerobatics, Frank can do some craaaaaaaaazy stuff.


Thanks Frank!

Weekly Play Date with Bem

Bem came with us to pickup Apple. She loooooveed sitting next to Apple. Apple is doing well. She is recovering fast and is pretty much back to her old self.
Lewis I know you said only Phil can ride your scooter, but what about a one-yr-old?


Emma likes to play this game that I shove her into the bushes and she dramatically falls. I don't get the game but it is so funny. She plays it every time we walk past the bushes.
You know the standard cute photo of little babies blowing dandilions? Well I tried to give one to Emma and she gave me this face. "Like seriously Nu-Nu what am I supposed to do with this?"

Then she wanted Nu-Nu to do it.
So we did it together.

Now she gets it, but she just cant blow hard enough.