Pictures and updates

We have been so busy the last month or so working on our yard. Here are a few pictures of the progress.

This is the before garden....

And this is the after. We are doing square foot gardening instead of rows. Everything is FINALLY planted and the soaker hoses are in place. Radishes came up after only 4 days, and I just found a zucchini sprout today! It has been 1 week since the major planting.

These 2 photos are of our backyard before, a work in progress. The concrete has been replaced by slabs of rock.

And after! We have grass planted and it's just starting to sprout.

On Memorial weekend our church had a day at the zoo. Here are some pictures of the brethren from that day.

Lonnie and Merissa

Traci and Martha (mother and daughter)

Here's the star of the day, Zoe. She is 9 months old and was born 2 months premature. She is tiny, but very healthy and friendly. Oh, then there's her dad Jerod.

Ashley and Sharon. Everyone went their separate ways in the zoo and then met back to have lunch. We hung out with Sharon and Ashley most of the day. I love Sharon's hat and am thinking about one for myself :)

A few yummy recipes

Cranberry Walnut Bread

This is a new creation I got from Lanise. It was a huge hit at church dinner! Try it toasted and drizzled with honey. You'll be hooked!

You can use any basic white bread dough, instead of the one here, just add the craisins and nuts to it.

1 1/3 c warm water
1/4 c oil
3 T sugar
2 t salt
4 c flour
2 1/2t yeast
1 1/4 c craisins or raisins
1 c walnuts coarsely chopped


I mix all the ingredients in the above order into my bread maker or mixer and mix well. Let rise for 1 1/2 hours minimum. Knead. Place into 2 oiled bread pans. Let rise in warm place for 1-2 hours. Bake 350 for 25- 30 minutes. ***For high altitudes, use 1 1/4c warm water instead of 1 1/3. Don't be alarmed, this bread doesn't rise super well, but it's still very good.



Arroz con Pollo

1 onion
1 bell pepper (I leave this out)
3t garlic minced,fresh
2T oil
2t taco seasoning
1T chicken bouillon
1 can peas (frozen works too)
1 can mushrooms (or fresh)
1 can diced tomatoes
4 cooked chicken breasts
3c rice

Saute first 4 ingredients.
Add all but rice. Cook until veggies are done. Add rice and heat thoroughly. This is a fast and easy one pot meal. This made 4 very large servings. Dale and Andy had 3rds, I had 1sts, and there was over 1 cup of leftovers for dales lunch.

Happy Birthday Dale

We had a suprise party for Dale and chose his favorite cartoon character for theme.
SPONGE BOB!!

This is what Dale's first view of the party was. We have a beach ball over head, water wings decorate the table along with the napkins, cups, gifts, and angel food cake topped with berries, cool whip, and a stuffed sponge bob.




Dale when he first realized what was going on.




Opening the presents.




Dale and I enjoying the gift Andy got him.

Our guest were Brycen, Ashley, and sharon (who requested not to be photographed). Our little party was a huge hit all the way around. It started at 4 when Dale got home from work. After the festivities, Brycen stayed and had dinner with us, thia green curry at Dale's request. We then played boggle and sequence, two of my favorite games. Next I fixed mango crepes, also Dales request. Afterward we played poker until almost midnight! It was a blast!

Take a look at my new glasses!

Amazingly it has already been 2 years since I last got glasses, so it is time once again. Some of you know how painstaking it is for me to choose which ones I want. (or how painstaking it is for me to choose anything I want for that matter, but that's another post) They never have the "perfect" pair. I finally found some sunglasses, but I am still on the hunt for regular glasses. The sun here in Denver is much more intense than in the northwest, so I needed my new sunglasses to be bigger than my old ones and yet still feminine. When I first put these on after purchasing them, I freaked out. They are much larger than I'm used to and I felt that my entire head was a giant pair of sunglasses. In the last few days however they have grown on me and I don't regret buying them. I still have 27 days left to change my mind tho.

These are my old glasses and the sun here just comes in over the top of them and blinds me. Please ignore the messy house in the background:)

Updates and Ramblings

I finally finished hand quilting my Olympia border quilt! I need to finish the binding and a few applique's I'm adding to the top. I'll try to post a picture when it's all done.

Sis Trista has been coming over for more than a week now to quilt on her quilt. We have had some very good and uplifting visits. It has also created a deeper friendship. I have enjoyed her.

We had a baptizing and ordinance supper on Sunday. It was so refreshing. It had been about 10 years since we had sat in an ordinance supper here.

A blizzard is supposed to be here now, but the 40 degree temps have kept it at bay. It has been raining steady for almost 24 hours. That is very unusual weather for Denver.

My fridge went out yesterday. Bro Justin N. is coming to fix it this afternoon. The colder temps have been nice for keeping the food cold outside in a covered laundry basket. Animals didn't bother it all night and today until I started writing this post and a chipmunk got into our corn tortillas.

Dale has been working some overtime. It's nice sometimes to have the money, but I wish he didn't have to work Saturdays. He had to start work at 5 am this morning!

I am looking forward to reading Laurie's blog. I needed our talk today. Thanks for the advice. Sorry I stole time on Skye's last day there.

Less than 2 months till we go to Oregon. Yippee!!

4 new posts with pictures

I am having issues with these pictures, so I'm just crossing my fingers that you guys will be able to see them.

This is our back porch that is covered and somewhat sheltered. The deepest snow back in the corner is 10 inches.

This is the view out my kitchen window of our backyard and the houses behind it. You can clearly see the big 2 story house and the brick one next to it, but just to the right of the 2 story is a little white house. It almost looks connected to the big one, in any case, at the worst yesterday we couldn't see the little one or anything beyond the 2 story. Our "blizzard", as the radio and news called it, was windy, snowy, and cold. In fact, Dale's job shut down yesterday, and the school has taken 2 snow days. The first ones of the school year. This is totally typical spring weather for Denver and another big storm is expected Monday. I thought it was odd that Andy's last day of school is May 20th and yet spring break is the first week of April. They will only have 6 weeks left when they return from spring break. But, now I understand, they try to plan spring break when snow storms are likely so that they won't have to miss to many extra days.

I reeeeaaaally hope these picures turn out!!

A few new posts

I tried to post pictures and if I was successful, they are in the 3 posts preceeding this one.

We just had a huge storm. The worst one this winter. Dale shovelled the walk 3 times and each time it would get covered up again and you couldn't even tell it had been shovelled. We had a lot of wind and so the snow isn't the same depth everywhere, but I think we averaged about 14 inches in 24 hours! I will try to post a few pictures, but we all know my track record with that.





I finally got my new furniture! Yippee! I love it even more than I thought I would. The couch and loveseat are "taupe" and the throw pillows are sage, navy and wine.

Getting back into the swing of things

I finally feel like my life is getting normal again. I am getting back into my old routines from before the move. I guess it takes me a while to get adjusted. This is the first month I have gotten back to menu planning and I thought I would share some of my meal ideas. I do not make an actual menu with what we are having on a certain day, I just make a list of about 25 meals. We also eat leftovers and go out a few times a month. With my menu in hand, I make my monthly list and purchase the groceries I need to make each meal. I try to stick to meals that call for my staple ingredients so that I'm not buying a lot of extra stuff.

Here's this months list. I made it on the 13th, so it has fewer meals than normal.

MAIN DISHES
red enchiladas
cheesy potato soup
lemon thyme chicken
*gyros- little greek sandwiches with chicken and a yogurt dressing- one of our favorites!
sloppy joes
pizza
mediterranean chicken- chicken, rice and veggies- a lot like arroz con pollo. Yummy.
tacos
fajitas
*curry chicken- a taste from India and our other favorite meal.
burritos
hamburgers
fish and chips
vidella onion chicken
orange chicken
satay chicken-oriental peanut chicken
ham
minestrone


SIDES
home made bread
cornbread
salad
green beans
corn
cabbage
carrots
rice
spanish rice
beans
cottage cheese
potatoes- fried, baked and mashed

Hopefully this list of meals ideas was helpful. I have also been working on quilting my Olympia border quilt and I feel like I'm finally getting things together. It feels great!