Christmas Time

So it's been christmas lately.  I phrase it that way because with so much family close our christmas extended pretty much over the entire weekend.  Here are some highlights:

 Sarah got a backpack to carry all her camera equipment.  She was very excited about it!

 Dan's parents got him a patriots sweatshirt.  I'm fairly certain he hasn't taken it off since. except to sleep.

 Earlier this month i took a bunch of pictures of my brother, and chose the best one to make into this canvas for my mom.  She was showing him what it turned out like.

 One of my gifts was an adapter that allows me to fit an older pentax lens on my nikon.  With this lens, i can take pictures of the stars, such as this one of Orion.  I'm super excited about astrophotography!

 Our christmas tree.  Dan and I decorated it last week.  It's pretty and you can't have christmas without a tree, right?

Reindeer.  Need I say more?


How was your Christmas?

November

So last saturday Dan and i went to downtown annapolis with Beka, Joel, Corrie, and Meimei.  After eating, we opted to loiter around the naval academy.  Ok, not really.  I was taking pictures and they were humoring me.

Inside bancroft hall is a bathroom done entirely in marble.  For no apparent reason.  There was a HUGE mirror so i took the opportunity to get a picture of myself.


















We hid in bells. (this is not me).

Dan and I with a tree that looks kinda like a christmas tree.  I believe the plan is to put this one in our christmas letter.  So here's a sneak peak.


















And this is probably close to the only tree in Annapolis that still has leaves on it.  It was such a pretty golden color I couldn't resist taking a picture.





For the record, I CANNOT believe it's nearly Christmas already.  Today is December 1 (don't let the post title fool you.  I do know what month it is.)  I guess I need to get busy working on christmas gifts; I'm rapidly running out of time to get them finished and to finish my shopping.

Anniversary

Dan and I have been married for a year now; where has the time gone? Of course, that year has been really busy, what with moving twice halfway across the country and back again. We went out for dinner tonight at outback and ate yummy steak.

I got a job at Payless and i start there tomorrow! I'm excited except that I can't wear tennis shoes. So that could be interesting since at the moment tennis shoes are the only comfortable shoes i own. We shall see how i survive. But I am working over thirty hours there this week. I also have a second interview at old navy, to work with the shipping and receiving crew, so i'm optimistic about getting that job as well. I'm pretty sure i can work my schedule so that i can take both.

Dan has an in person interview some time in the next couple weeks with a church in South Carolina, and we are excited about that as well. He also has a Skype interview with a church in Kansas next week, which is also exciting.

Exploring Saint Joseph

So we have a lot of time on our hands these days; on account of packing up most of our stuff already and being unable to pack up everything else until the last minute (because you have to have dishes to cook)

So we went exploring saint joseph yesterday. Mostly because i wanted to take pictures before we moved.

This is a view of the River, looking toward downtown. This overlook would have been really nice if only the car next two us hadn't had a couple scary looking people in it...

This is right along the river. Dan's being goofy, and clinging to the support of a bridge. You know, like spiderman, or something.

Most of this path (riverwalk) was closed due to flooding. It's been over a month since the river receded from overflowing it's banks and there are still huge pools of standing water all over the place. and it smells BAD. stagnant water is kinda gross.

And the river itself. With a bunch of washed up trees. I'm guessing they were uprooted and washed downstream in the flood....

This lovely building is the nature center. I didn't even know saint joseph HAD a nature center. It was however, closed at the time, my guess is on account of flood damage or something. If you notice, the building is raised up off the ground, probably a good 8-10 feet. Definately taller than me, anyway. Not that it's hard to be taller than me. But anyway, it looked like the building might have flooded.

Look, I do clean!

Occasionally, anyway. This room seems so big and empty with the furniture moved around...and some of it gone...

On the other hand, it at least looks nice now!

moving is messy

This is the current state of my living room. Not exactly stellar as we've cleaned out three of the rooms in the house and closed them off so i don't have to clean them again. But hey, i'm moving. It's no big deal. I can live with a little mess.

Except the landlord called today and he wants to start showing the house on Thursday. Um...yeah. ok. Well, there are gonna be boxes all over the house. Nothing I can do about that.

But i guess i can try to keep the floor vacuumed and what not. In theory, anyway.

Moving...

Moving is no fun. Well, actually, i take that back. I think moving is lots of fun. You know, as long as it's once every 2-5 yrs or so. Moving twice in less than a year? Not so much.

But we are busy packing up for our move back to Maryland. And then wherever else God decides we need to live. If that turns out to be California or someplace like that...well...Our couch would, at that point, have something like almost 10,000 miles on it. Which, honestly, is pretty impressive for a couch. They don't usually travel that much. :)

Packing isnt so bad until you get to the kitchen, and you look at all your glass dishes and such, and go...um....yeah. ok. How am i gonna do this? Because, you know, for all that i've moved, like...in six major moves, I don' think i've ever done a kitchen. I always remember the movers coming in to pack up the dishes so that it would be their fault if they got broken. So i'm still working on figuring that one out. I bet i could find instructions on YouTube.

We sold our dining room table and got rid of our extra fridge. We've packed up books, and DVDs, and knick knacks, and most of our clothes. I foresee a lot more laundry in my future as we are both only keeping out about five days worth of clothing. We've thrown away MORE stuff (seriously. Where does it all come from?) We've filled a bunch of bags of STUFF to take to goodwill. It's pretty much insane.

As a final note; people look at you REALLY funny when you go an start pulling newspaper OUT of the paper recycling bins. But we don't get the newspaper and it makes great packing material.

Epic Saga of Awesomeness (with pictures)

OK, not really. But it's still a pretty crazy story.

I'm talking, of course, about replacing the dead battery in the minivan. Sounds simple enough, right? Take off a couple screws, loosen a couple nuts, pull out the old one, put in the new one. easy peasy.

As. If.

First off, the battery was dead, which precipitated this entire process to begin with. Unfortunately, the battery died while the van was in the garage. If you've seen our teeny tiny one car garage, you'll realize how crazy this was. Sometimes it's amazing the van fits in the garage in the first place.

So then we (and by we i mean Dan because i tend to just stay out of the way) attempts to detach the cable from the battery. only to have one of the battery posts fall off said battery while still attached to the clamps. Aw

esome. No big deal, we'll just unscrew it and it'll fall out. Except apparently the bolt melted somehow and fused itself to the metal of the clamp. How is that even possible? It doesn't get that hot ANYWHERE the van has lived. As far as we know, anyway.

So i went to auto zone and bought new clamps. No big deal, except the new clamps don't look anything like the ones on the van. So...interesting. Wonder how that's gonna work? Meanwhile, we've managed to pop the van into neutral and push it out of the garage. Now at least we can see what we're doing.

Ok, after a lot of work on Dan's part it becomes totally apparent that there's no way the corroded battery post is coming out of the clamp. Time for plan B.

With the help of the hacksaw, the old clamp is removed. Now to figure out how to attach the new one. This should be easy, as long as the wires are all touching the clamp it will work! So says my dad, anyway. Which is true, except Dan had to go buy longer screws because this clamp came with little tiny screws that were totally useless.

Finally we get the new screws attached and the whole battery put back together in the car and the cables attached and HURRAY!!!! The van Runs! We have TWO cars Again! This is super exciting!

See? I told you it would be riveting.

Random Thoughts

1. I can't believe it's august already. Seriously, how did that happen? Wasn't it just all cold and wintery outside? This part of the country doesn't have a spring and a fall. we have summer, and we have winter. and one turns to the other in about a week. it's pretty crazy. I am looking forward to cooler weather, though.

2. The heat this last week has been INSANE. insane as in, it was so hot it killed my car battery. and dan's van has had a dead battery for a couple weeks. Nothing is more awesome than having two dead cars at the same time (insert sarcasm here). however, we did replace the battery in my car (because a) it has air conditioning and b)it was in the driveway and so replacing the battery of the van which is in the garage would have been silly) so now at least we have a car to get us around town. we'll fix dan's car as soon as we can.

3. I woke up the other day and realized that honestly, my house is boring. Just because i rent doesn't mean i can't put stuff on the walls. I can't put holes in the walls, but there's a company that makes these awesome velcro hangy things that come off without even ruining the paint. Which is awesome. I think i'm going to try this tutorial on putting photos onto canvas once i can get my hands on the supplies. And pick pictures I like. which could take a while.

4. How adorable is this guy? He's the biggest

Stuffed animal I've made so far and I'm very proud of him. He's a gift for a friend's little boy who's bday is coming up soon. Feel free to ignore the slightly messy coffee table in the background. Being creative tends to be kinda an explosion in stuff lol.

Sightseeing

Last week Dan's family was here. We took them to lots of different historical places near here:

Such as the Truman Presidential Library.

As well as several other historical sites in Independence: The Vaile Museum, and the stone church, and icicle building which is some kind of temple.

Tuesday Dan had to work so we did the historic sites in St. Joseph. This is the Patee House.

And the Jesse James House, where he was shot.

It was all very exciting.

cleaning and organizing and purging, oh my!

That's what we've done this week. Dan's on vacation so we've taken this opportunity to seriously clean and get rid of stuff and organize the stuff we have. And also to do laundry. Because I kid you not, i think the dirty clothes pile has achieved sentience and begun reproducing down in my laundry room. Because it's NEVER DONE.

Organizing came after the cleaning. I *might* finally have everything pretty much how i want it. Ask me again in a month or so, yeah? I contained all those bottles that live in our linen closet. you know, lotion, sunscreen, shampoo, etc. I've finally worked out a way to fold towels so they all fit on the shelves. I got rid of nail polish (i had three bottles of black nail polish. not including the black nail polish with the sparkles in it. that seemed a wee bit excessive to me.) We rearranged closets. We rearranged furniture. We even managed to get all the baking stuff back in the kitchen where it belongs instead of in the living room where it had been living ever since a horde of ants decided to invade. It was all very exciting.

And we got rid of a ton of stuff. Goodwill should love us on account of all the stuff we donated to them. And i'm seriously still finding stuff to put in the donate pile. We've been here less than a year, where does it all come from!

Dan's currently in the spare bedroom putting together a bookshelf for us (me) to store stuff on. i'm excited about that too. Now all i need to do is convince him to let me paint a couple of pieces of our furniture so they'll be better (less ugly).

I *heart* yogurt

But I really hate paying for yogurt. that stuff is EXPENSIVE, y'all. And most typical yogurt either has WAY too much sugar in it, which i'm trying to avoid because i discovered that too much sugar gives me migraines that are terrible, or it contains aspertame or some other kind of fake sweetener in it, which i'm trying to avoid.

So i was bumming around the internets today (i do this a lot) and found several recipes for home-made yogurt. except most of them are really complicated and require things like candy thermometers and coolers and sound super duper complex. I think that takes too much effort, and also equipment i don't own and don't wanna buy.

Then i found a recipe to make yogurt in the crockpot. It takes two ingredients and a crockpot. I have a crockpot. I also have one of the two ingredients needed to make the yogurt: milk. all i need to do is get my hands on some plain yogurt and i'll be good to go!

So that's gonna be my experiment next week. I'm really excited about it!

UFO's

No, not the alien kind. Although that would be cool too. I'm talking unfinished objects here, folks. The kind where i start a crochet or knitting project and then get distracted and move on to something different. This happens more often than i'd care to admit. I've got UFO's all over my living room:

A slouchy hat: This is for winter. I started it last winter. I haven't finished it yet.

An alpaca wool Scarf: Again, i started it last winter. then i ran out of yarn. Then hobby lobby ran out of the yarn i needed and didn't restock until spring. by then i didn't need the scarf anymore.

A sock: I really do plan on making two socks. I got halfway through the first one...and there it sits.

A 3-foot Dinosaur: He's camouflage. He's gonna be really cool when i finish him. But he's also 140 stitches around at the biggest point, which is where i am now, and it takes FOREVER to complete a round.

An olive green Platypus: Platypus' are cool.

Dan's Birthday gift: This one i am actually making progress on, since i only have a month to finish it, and i'm determined...but once again...not done yet.

A Striped prayer shawl: This was started as an attempt to practice a new technique. I have since employed said technique on Dan's birthday gift and have abandoned the shawl to UFO status. It's cool because the prayer shawl ministry doesn't meet again till September.

A lap blanket: also started as a prayer shawl ministry project. Also have until September to finish it.

Tom Baker's Scarf: I'm knitting this one, y'all. To be authentic. I'm about a foot into it and have something like fourteen feet to go. I've since cannibalized the yarn i bought for the scarf to make animals. I'm going to replace said yarn on a skein by skein basis as i need the colors. SOMEDAY, i will finish this stupid scarf so i can become one of the elite; a proud owner of a handmade DR. Who scarf.

And I've been commissioned to make a blue triceratops for a three year old's birthday. That isn't until the end of October though. So i haven't started it yet. I'm already contemplating yarn color choices, however.

On the plus side; I've got something like...25 granny squares to send to charity for Crochet a rainbow, I've made...18ish animals to send to Little Hands of Hope, and I do occasionally sell an animal here or there. Plus I've made a HUGE dent in my yarn stash, which, for the record, wasn't that ridiculous to begin with. However, all typed out...my list is kinda crazy. I need to get on that.

why are titles so hard to come up with, anyway?

Dan's gone this week; he left at the crack of dark for NM with the high schoolers for their missions trip. They're driving and it's going to be a long trip, although they split it up over two days. I think he's gonna be in for a bit of culture shock when he gets there. Plus a shock over the weather. I don't think he's ever experienced heat without humidity.

I'm here this week, keeping myself busy. I just learned a cool new crochet technique called Afghan stitch and i'm using it to make a prayer shawl for the ministry i'm involved in. I'm really excited about how it's going to turn out. I'm also working on a stuffed dinosaur that's going to supposedly be about 3 feet long when i finish him. That's gigantic. In fact, that's only two feet shorter than I am. I dunno what i'm going to do with him when i finish him though. I'll burn that bridge when I come to it, LOL.

The weather here has taken a turn for the strange, again; the last couple days it's only been in the mid 70's after about a week of 90+ weather. If it stays like this all summer it'll be totally fine. I think everyone here overreacts about how hot it gets. AND they don't have anything like the humidity in MD.

Last weekend my parents were here and we had a good visit. We all went to Independence, MO and saw where the Oregon Trail had started. We've been to the other end, in OR, so we figured we'd hit up this end. It was nice, there was a cute little museum dedicated to the start of the trail and the various places the trails went. Then we drove around a bit and saw some other things, like this funky building that is the world headquarters for some type of LDS church, and the house Harry S Truman lived in, and a woman driving a horse and buggy while talking on her cell phone. That was pretty funny.

I'm teaching the 4-6 year old class Sunday school this summer, so today i made playdoh. Green, if you're wondering. It took me all of forty-five seconds on my stove. That's probably the only thing my stove has ever done in a way that was better than the recipe called for.

And as a final thought, the spell checker in Google chrome just informed me that schoolers should in fact say schooners. Yeah, right.

Animals

I figured I should post some pictures of some of the things i've been crocheting lately. Well, maybe not should, but I'm going to anyway.

Elephant

Monkey

Pony

Lion

Walrus

I've got several more but blogger only lets me upload so many pictures....but they're all along the same basic lines.

randomness, because it's late.

You know, it never ceases to amuse me to hit account on this site and have it tell me I'm only managing one blog. I barely keep up with this one. I don't really think I could handle two or more blogs.

Anyway; onto my topic. Wait, I don't have a topic. Well, that might be problematic. Maybe I'll just ramble about my camera. I'm now the proud owner of a pretty Nikon DSLR. Which I use on auto. because, honestly, I have read the manual. and digital photography for dummies. and about a million tutorials online for switching the camera to manual, and adjusting the ISO, and the Aperture, and the....S....Shutter speed, maybe? I don't remember right now. But all those things you're supposed to be able to do to take gorgeously delicious pictures.

And then i close whatever I'm reading, and promptly forget all my newly obtained knowledge. Like which of those three things an f-stop relates to. and which way the numbers are supposed to go. Seriously, I've got the lingo down. I just don't know how to put them together to take a pretty picture. And, hey, the camera has an auto setting for a reason, right?

It's HOT here. Which, I know, was bound to happen sooner or later. Personally, I was rooting for later. Like, in July later. Two months of summer? perfect. I can probably deal with that. Five months of summer? Thanks, I'll pass. I'm definitely more of a cold weather kind of person.

I just put new music on my iPod. Seven whole songs worth. Five of which were from the free section of iTunes. I've found some of my favorite music that way. And a lot of music that wasn't worth the time it took to download. Also a couple of Mumford and Sons songs. Hopefully they live up to the hype. If not...well, they're English. at the very least they'll have awesome accents.

I've been crocheting. Like, a Lot. I'll have to take pictures of the adorable doll I made. Seriously, she's so cute you'll want to keep her forever. plus, she has a ridiculous amount of hair. I'm not even kidding. I got a normal ponytail holder around her hair twice. For reference, I can get a normal ponytail holder around my hair...like...five times. Granted, my hair isn't made out of yarn. I've also made several animals (I actually have people pay me to make them. Which is awesome, because I'm pretty much getting paid to do what i do anyway.) And I've made several shawls in the last month for the church's prayer shawl ministry. That will be on hiatus over the summer, which is awesome, because making something that resembles a blanket in July when it's 105 degrees outside and almost as hot in your house is not pleasant.

Right. I'm gonna stop spewing words out of my fingers now and go curl up with my book. Incarceron, if you're curious. It's kinda Victorian, kinda post-apocalypse, and completely exciting. Plus, I haven't read it before. So I don't know how it's going to end. Well, I do, but only because I read the back of the book first. But I don't know how it's going to get to it's conclusion. That makes it all the more exciting.

my table

Ok, this is that table i showed ya'll yesterday. After gleefully dismantling The Time Machine (ok, not really; it felt wrong to be tearing apart a book). I decoupaged the pages randomly to the table.

That's a closeup of the pages. The mod podge dried clear, and kinda shinyish.

Then I trimmed off all the excess. I still need to sand down the edges (because you can only cut so much with scissors), and seal it so i don't have to worry about it gettting wet. Ignore the mess around the table. I haven't cleaned up the extra pages yet. And yes, those are my feet. :)

See this table? I'm working on it to make it better. I'm hoping to cover up the hole in it and make it interesting before I bury it under all my kitchen appliances I don't have room for in my kitchen. I'll probably have it done tomorrowish so stay tuned!

Hair toys and other stuff.

I made myself a bunch of pretty headbands last week out of ribbon, and felt, and taffeta, and satin. here's what I learned:

Felt melts like nylon when you burn it. Probably because it's made out of about the same stuff.

Taffeta burns REALLY fast. If you're not careful, you will burn your fingers. I may or may not have learned this firsthand.

Satin burns much slower, and more controlled. It still turns out really pretty though.

Hot glue makes a good gripper thing if you put it on the bottom side of a headband.

Hobby Lobby is the coolest store ever. (it is. Really.)

I've moved on to new projects now. My sister in law sent me some pretty pictures for me to hang on my wall and i've been trying to come up with a creative way to do that without having to put holes in the wall.

I think i'm going to buy cheap wooden plaques from hobby lobby (i love them. I really do.) and paint them, then modge podge the photos to the plaques. I can use the magic velcro things dan discovered to hang the plaques on my wall and i don't have to use a nail. Plus, they'll be nice and durable and easy to move, and i won't have to worry about breaking the glass in a picture frame. And also, picture frames are expensive.

I inherited a bunch of furniture from Beka this weekend, including a second coffee table. It's got a hole in it (walmart's fault, not hers), so i think i'm gonna fill the hole with a piece of cardboard and buy an old book from a thrift store, and cover the top of the table with the pages from the book and again modge podge. I've found several similar tutorials for this on the internets and I really like the look. Plus, its a book. So when i get bored, i can read the table. :)

After that, I just might try my hand at stripping and refinishing furniture. Because I can, and it would be fun. I think. It's at least worth a try, right?

I'm feeling crafty...

No, not that kind of crafty. The kind of crafty that requires me to whip out my glue gun and some fabric and create something awesome.

Oh, wait. I don't own a glue gun. Or fabric, for that matter.

Hmmm...I should work on that. I found a tutorial online today for an absolutely adorable fabric flower headband thingy. I think it's cute. And i wants one.

On the other hand, I bought myself a couple scarves to dye and tie in my hair. that i am really excited about. I just need to get kool-aid.

spring cleaning

I'm in the process of spring cleaning; a much needed process in my house. Today, the living room. I vacuumed the WHOLE thing (dan came out and asked me why the couch was blocking the front door...i told him i was rearranging the furniture and i liked it that way). We are moving around our movie bookshelves so that i can FINALLY get the gerbils OFF the floor and up where they can see and i can see them. They're way fun to watch as they dig tunnels and try to escape their cages.

Next to tackle? the KITCHEN! (DUN DUN DUN)

Can you believe it's April already? I certainly can't. Although, in my defense, it did SNOW here last week. and it's been cold. That makes it kinda hard for anyone to believe it could almost be THE MIDDLE OF SPRING.

I'm still busy crocheting; someday i'll take pictures and post all my creations up here. Maybe.

I'm also still attempting to learn the art of menu planning so that i can know ahead of time what i'm making for dinner and make sure I have all the ingredients i need on hand. Also, I make bread now. Tasty, tasty bread. I might give up the store-bought stuff forever. I just need to work out making sandwich bread first. :) I think I'm gonna need to get loaf pans if i'm gonna do that....

Weather, be warm! Please?

Home Again

I'm busy getting into the groove of being home again and all that comes with that: cooking (remembering i need to make dinner before seven in the evening lol) cleaning (how the gerbils manage to kick the bedding out of an AQUARIUM i'll never know) doing laundry (blech), and all the other things that come with being at home. Not that I mind; it keeps me busy.

I'm still experimenting with different vegetables; my taste buds have changed slightly so i'm more willing to eat stuff i'd never have imagined. Like

bell peppers. Especially the orange and yellow ones. I made stuffed bell peppers last night for dinner; i filled them with Quinoa and apples and tomatoes and some spices and herbs and they were TASTY. totally a keeper recipe.

I've been busy

crocheting too. Making cute little stuffed animals. Because seriously, how can you resist something that looks like that? I think they're adorable. And in case you're wondering, it's a hippo. A stripped hippo with big bug eyes. :)

Home

It has been a LONG two weeks. I've been in annapolis since the 1 of march, being with Meimei and helping out the donaldsons while they spent as much time as they could with Grandmama. She went home to God on friday; the funeral was today, so i can be headed home tomorrow. I'm very ready to sleep in my own bed.

It'll take me three days to get home; meaning i'll get there on thursday afternoon which would be awesome but apparently thurs night is youth leaders meeting at my house so i'm gonna have to clean. And by clean i mean vacuum, and throw brownies in the oven. That's probably all i'll have energy for. Assuming i manage to get that much done.

Also, i'm very ready to see my husband. That'll be nice too.

so much to do, so little time...

I spent today making food for Dan so he'll survive the week I'm gone. I spent the rest of the day doing dishes in a kitchen sink where the cold water doesn't work. This was not my idea of fun. We called the landlord to come fix it (because the entire sink faucet thing has to be taken apart and i'm not gonna do it), but we haven't heard back from him yet.

I'm leaving Monday to pick up Beka and drive to Annapolis to hang out with Meimei. It's sad but i'm excited about going back to 'civilization' for a week. Plus i'm excited to see her. Not looking so much forward to the insanely long drive, though...

I'm having a good time crocheting a ton of stuff right now; my newest hobby is little stuffed animals. The only thing i've managed to finish is a baby cthulhu (not really an animal, more of a scifi alien, lol). But i do want to try my hand at real animals. Dunno what i'll do with them when they're done though; i should probably work that out before i start them.

I did make myself a hat and a couple pairs of fingerless glove that i'm really excited about because they keep me warm. Warm is good since it went and snowed AGAIN after a week of 70 plus weather. i'm hoping this is the last snow this year. It's almost march and it should be raining, not snowing. Plus, i'm looking forward to the day when it warms up enough that i can turn off the heat and watch the gas bill plummet. :)

We had a chili cookoff and dessert auction at church tonight; they both went really well. We had about a dozen desserts donated and we made money to help the teens going on the mission trip this summer. Plus, it was just plain a good time. Everyone involved had a lot of fun.

And thus the great veggie experiment continues...

I'm experimenting with food. Finding food I like. Finding food Dan likes. Finding food that's good for us and finding food that doesn't cost a zillion dollars (seriously, if it's organic, they didn't have to spend money on pesticides and crap, why is it so much more expensive?)

Vegetables are one source of my experiment. Now, fruit is easy. For the most part, as long as it's ripe it sweet, and everybody loves fruit! Mangoes are a current favorite here. So are pomegranates but unfortunately they're pretty much out of season now. But vegetables? those are hard. They're not sweet. Some of them taste kinda funky. I don't like most of them. Or, at least, i didn't. Then i discovered you can do more with them than just steam them.

Currently, I'm experimenting with roasting veggies. So far i've done asparagus (to die for), carrots (good unless you REALLY burn them), and Broccoli (better than popcorn). I've got butternut squash in the oven now. Butternut squash is a bit of a nightmare to cut up. If you're gonna try, microwave it for about three mins before attempting to peel it. Your fingers will thank you when you manage to not cut them off because you've softened the skin. My butternut squash is a lovely orange color and it smells good so i'm very excited about it.

There are about a zillion other vegetables in my fridge right now, awaiting their turn to be peeled, chopped, and roasted in the oven.

My other experiment right now is bread. I just started this today and i'm super excited to see how it turns out. I bought a book called Artisan Breads in Five Minutes a Day and mixed up a batch this afternoon. I'm refridgerating the dough now to bake this evening. I LOVE fresh homemade bread. I DON'T love the idea of having to knead, and knead, and rise, and knead, and knead, and whatever else goes into bread. If i can really do this in five minutes a day (ish, i do have a lot of time on my hands) then rock on. If it proves to be a ridiculous amount of work, then i might still do it, just not as often.

And, eventually, i'm totally going to learn to make entire meals in my rice cooker. I have a cookbook for that too. Didn't know you could do more with a rice cooker than cook rice? Yeah, me either. I'm totally thinking it's worth a try though...

Just another day?

It's Valentine's Day...A day that I haven't really payed much attention to in the past. This year, however, i'm married and it's a big deal to Dan so here i am. I think we're going to dinner and a movie. I'm not sure, though.

I've been busy crocheting; i made myself the most adorable hat; dan has a beanie, and i have two pairs of fingerless gloves. I have a scarf for dan to finish as soon as hobby lobby stocks the yarn i need. Plus i have another hat i want to make myself.

Red

Red is a happy color. At least, to me it is. And since it's the MIDDLE of THE WORST WINTER i've ever had the misfortune to endure (they tell me this is normal! I REALLY don't want this to be normal.) I've taken to painting my fingers and toes a happy red color. It makes me smile every time I look at them. I think i'm turning into a girl.

I bought kitchen gadgets today, which i'm REALLY excited about. I bought a lemon zester, which will let me make lemon poppyseed scones. I bought canisters to store pasta, beans and rice in so my pantry (which is actually a closet in my living room; i'm a little strapped for space lol) will be more organized and less full of ziploc bags. New stuff for my kitchen makes me happy.

I also bought a spagetti squash today. I have no idea how to cook a spagetti squash. So i'm off to find recipes or ideas!

Yarn

I bought yarn today! I'm in the process of making myself a blanket out of cotton yarn (probably not the best choice but it's what I had on hand so here i am.) I can whip out one square of the blanket per episode of the gilmore girls, lol.

And dan picked out some awesome varigated yarn in camo colors so when i finish my blanket i'll make his; i'm really excited about it! I think he'll enjoy it too.

It's been COLD here; this morning when i woke up it was -2 degrees. We had this KILLER storm come through on tuesday but first everything iced up and got all slippery. Getting my mail is a risky business lol. And Dan can't get the van all the way up the driveway. Supposedly this will be the last big snow of the winter, and i for one am very glad for that, assuming it's true. If not, i might be very sad since i've only left that house ONCE this week and that was to go to the bank. Because we still have to eat, you know.

Tea and Scones?

Tea is one of my loves. I know, I've rambled about it before; but i'm gonna do so again. Because I can. I've started blending teas to create unique flavors and...well, some are better than others. But I keep trying!

And I have several recipes for Scones that I really want to try out. They sound truely yummy and I think that they'd make a great snack with my tea. Not every time I drink tea or I'd be eating scones six times a day, but occasionally.

It's snowing here; we're supposed to get anywhere from 3-12 inches depending on who you ask. I think it won't top six, but we'll see. The worst part is yesterday the WHOLE WORLD iced over so now we've got snow on top of ice. Which wouldn't be so bad except this entire city is built on rolling hills, so the car has to go up, and down, and up, and down.

A day in the life...

So it's friday, more than two weeks after I went in for the interview at the bank, and i'm pretty much positive they gave the job to someone else. No big deal. I wasn't that attached to it anyway. I'm busy figuring out how to be a housewife still...

Right now I'm focused on cutting our food budget down and figuring out how to get more food for less money. I'm NOT going to turn into one of those crazy extreme coupon people. Because I think they devote their entire life to it and end up with 300 toothbrushes they'll never need. (true story, apparently, based on some tv show TLC did on extreme couponing.)

Don't get me wrong; i do stockpile certain items that we use all the time, such as laundry soap, dish soap, etc. If i can get them SUPER on sale, that works for me, because then I don't have to buy them for a LONG time, and save a little money that way. And it's not like it's going to go bad...

So i'm working on meal planning; because i feel that if I go to the grocery store with an actual plan in mind instead of just a haphazard 'oh that looks good' i'll spend less money. And waste less food. Food is expensive, which is dumb because we kinda have to have it in order to survive as a species.

I'm also trying to figure out freezer cooking; which, in the extreme case, is spending one day making all your meals for the month. I'm not about to do that. I think it's INSANE. But I do routinely cook up enough for two or three meals at a time and stick the extra portions in the freezer. Because, especially on Wednesday and Sundays; I don't always remember we have to leave early to be at the church for youth group. So I can just pull something out and microwave it, which is awesome.

What are your favorite meals? I'm always open to ideas.

Contest at Earth and Skye Photography

So there's this artist i've been looking at for quite a while now; Tina Steinberg. She makes personalized silver jewelry with, among other things, a fingerprint pendant of the fingerprint you send her (a child, spouse, other loved one) And I thought that would be a great idea for when i have Kids! Or if i can get one with Dan's fingerprint; because that would be cool too.

Anyway, http://www.earthandskye.com/archives/1292 is doing a contest to give away one of her jewelry pieces! I'm excited about it, anyway. So check it out; there are a bunch of ways to enter to win!

Life, as we know it

Not a lot going on these days; Dan and I cleaned up our front bedroom today for the first time since we moved into the house three months ago; you could actually fit a blow up mattress on the floor now so it's pretty much ready for guests except for the part where we keep it sealed off to save money on heating rooms we don't use so it's REALLY cold in there...so if you wanna come see me before spring warn me so i have time to warm up the room so you won't freeze to death when you sleep.

Last friday was my birthday; it was a quiet day. I'm not big into making birthdays into a big deal but they're a HUGE deal in Dan's family so we compromised. About the only thing we did was go out to dinner at applebee's...i had STEAK! any birthday involving steak is a good birthday, in my opinion. Dan gave me a pretty necklace and I'm saving up to buy myself a DSLR camera. You know, someday.

We are currently watching through Farscape; i'd kinda forgotten how bizarre this show is. I love it but they totally ignore such fundamental things as...oh, i dunno...the laws of physics! But it's fun. And the aliens come in pretty colors.

Chalkboard

I bought supplies to make myself a chalkboard today; i'm very excited about it! I plan on working on it tomorrow so hopefully by thursday or so i'll have it done. I also asked Dan sister to send me some of her landscape pictures so i can frame them and hang them on the walls. I'm excited about making my house look like a home.

I've had an ear infection for like...a week, and i don't have health insurance yet so...i take lots of ibuprofen. lol.

Beka is coming this weekend! I'm really excited about it. Dan will be out all day on Saturday so it'll be nice to have someone to hang out with. plus i haven't seen her since the wedding. and i miss my beka.

home

We've been in this house for three months now. Three months, exactly, today. Now, granted, we've only had furniture for two and a half of those months. But after three months, it's all I can do to keep the clutter controlled. I haven't bothered to go out and find any awesome decorations. Now, i'm thinking I need to. Because, honestly, my house is boring.

Yes, I know it's a rental. I know I can't do as much to it as I want to since i'm not gonna live here forever and since the house doesn't actually belong to me.

But, surely, there's something I can do. So I scour the internets (you can learn anything from them, I am telling you). So once there's less snow and I can get out, i'm hitting up Hobby Lobby. Because it's my new favorite store. I love to go in there and wander, and wander, and wander. They carry all kinds of awesome craft stuff, and all kinds of BEAUTIFUL home decorating...stuff.

I want a chalkboard. Not a big one, just a fun one that i can hang on the wall and write fun stuff on. And the coolest thing is, you can make your own, thanks to the existence of chalkboard paint. That, and a picture frame, and i'll be set. Oh, I guess i should get chalk, too.

And i want some kind of ornate, wrought-iron decorative thing that has a mirror in the middle.

Because I think they're pretty. I also realize that this thing is WAY too heavy to hang on my wall without nails, and we aren't allowed to put holes in the wall. But, that's not the point. The point is, I want one.

And Meimei is gonna send me a bunch of her art, so I can frame the ones I like and hang them on the walls. I'm really excited about this.

And I'm learning how to use my camera. Because I want to be able to take yummy pictures of everything and everyone I encounter. Not that I have any kind of artistic ability, whatsoever. But I can pretend, right?

Stream of Consciousness

Yeah, i realize nearly all my posts are stream of consciousness but hey, i might as well admit it, right?

I made brownies tonight; for once i think i managed to cook them just the right amount of time. My oven is about a MILLION years old and it doesn't like to cook food at an even temperature, which for meat and whatnot is fine but it's a real pain for baking. I have yet to have a batch of chocolate chip cookies turn out decent; they're either hard as a brick or ubersquishy and flat as a pancake. Don't ask me why; i do the same thing every time.

Once a month Dan has the youth staff over to the house for a meeting; hence the brownies. I don't mind so much as it forces me to get up occasionally and actually clean the house. or at least, the part of the house people can see. So, Living room, Bathroom and (kinda) the kitchen.

I bought a rice cooker this week which is AWESOME because i can finally cook rice that turns out edible! My stove, being attached to the aforementioned oven, is also a MILLION years old and has one setting; ON. Makes things like rice very difficult to cook, and i either end up with rice that's burnt to the pan (which is a pain to clean, and I only own the one pot) or rice that's undercooked and crunchy in the middle, which is gross. But; No More! I now have a cute little rice cooker courtesy of Walmart that makes perfect rice every time! And i know, because i've made rice three times in it since monday, lol. (only the first time wasn't perfect, and i'm pretty sure that's due to operator error.)

I'm considering henna'ing my hair again, only with real henna this time instead of the cheap stuff i usually get at whole foods. A) because the nearest whole foods is an hr away, and they don't carry it, and B) because apparently you get a better color with real henna. Who knew? Actually, i probably did but opted to ignore it because the stuff i was using was cheap, and fairly simple to use.

On the other hand, I might grow my hair out and see what kind of fascinating color it turns out to be in it's virgin state. It's been...um...four years since i've seen that? Maybe longer? No, it can't be longer because i still had natural colored hair when i went to London. So shortly after that, i went red, then brown, then red....then henna which NEVER washes out but it does fade a little if you use the cheap stuff. And if you use the REALLY cheap stuff, it apparently turns your hair green. I was fortunate to avoid that experience. Because my boss probably would have fired me if i'd accidently dyed my hair green.

I had an interview yesterday. I got all dressed up and looked like a real grown up for the first time in...well, ever. I even bought grown up nylons. I think from now on i'll be sticking to my tights because nylons don't do anything to keep your legs warm. I did not, however, wear makeup. Take THAT, socially acceptable standards! Mwahaha.

I've been reading Mercedes Lackey books lately. Because no other book on the face of the planet captures my imagination like hers. I love the story, i love the characters (some, especially) and I love how she weaves them all together.

Yes, that is the real way my brain works. In type. Have fun!

hair

I've been attempting to grow my hair out for...quite a while. Unfortunately, when Dan was in school i'd get bored and scissor happy at least once a semester and chop my hair back to shoulder length...etc.

So i'm at almost midback length now; and i'm looking to hit waist length by the end of the year. And maybe go back to my natural color? Not that i have any idea what that is...lol.

Dan and i have been watching Leverage lately; it's an awesome show. Con artist's as good guys? Sure, it's been done before, but usually it's not this funny.

Dodgeball!

We had a dodgeball tournament tonight at church; the turnout was AWESOME! The best part was that most of the students who came weren't from our church; which was AWESOME! They all had a great time, it seemed like.

I keep finding uses for my amazing lotion bars...i found i can use them on my face to deal with the fact that winter seems determined to suck ALL the moisture from my skin. and it hasn't made be breakout which is even better.

It's been COLD here, and i turned the heat down in hopes that our gas bill would be lower this month. the bill hasn't come yet so i don't know how that's going. but it's always BLANKET time in my house lol.

Lotion

I made lotion bars yesterday, and i'm using them they make my skin so happy! I'm super excited about them; once i added peppermint oil they smell super yummy.

I got new books yesterday too so i'm busy making my way through those. I don't spend a TON of time reading but I do enjoy it.

I'm hoping my new phone comes today; i've only been waiting a week longer than i should have had to, due to the fact that they sent it to my parent's house, which didn't help me at all...

I have a job interview next week! I'm really excited about it because sitting at home all day is BORING. I have got to do something...

Goodbye Christmas

Taking down my tree today; once Dan gets home it'll come down all the way, which is exciting to me. I don't mind the christmas stuff but i want my living room back the way it's supposed to be. Plus it'll give me better access to my gerbils. :)

I took a break on knitting my tom baker scarf so i could make dishclothes because i really have a serious need for them; i'm tired of buying sponges that i mutilate in a week. And making them gives me something to do and a sense of completion because they get done so much faster, lol.

On a totally unrelated note: I've decided to give up (mostly) processed foods. I want to start cooking more and making healthier food for Dan and I. Not that we eat out a lot, or even eat a lot of processed food to begin with (it's expensive. Seriously, that box of toaster strudels? it's not worth the money. Eat cardboard. it has the same nutritional value. ok i feel better.) But i'm going to start incorporating more fruits and veggies into our diet, and less bread products. I'm hoping cutting back on wheat will help us both in the long run; neither of us has a wheat allergy but still...Potatoes and rice are just as tasty. and better for us.

I also totally avoid 'sugar substitutes' like aspertame, etc. Even splenda. Mostly because i think splenda is nasty tasting. But the others i avoid because they make me feel really yucky. ALL THE TIME. So i don't eat them anymore.

2011

First day of 2011: How did you spend new year's eve? Dan and I watched our favorite Doctor Who episodes and attempted to watch the ball drop but apparently you have to do that here at eleven instead of midnight, which is dumb.

Dan also took me to whole foods yesterday; i got shampoo! Which is most exciting for me because I like beauty products lol and all natural, or at least SLS free shampoos make me happy.

So for Christmas I got a Zumba game for the wii; i have SO much fun playing it! Amazing, they finally invented an exercise (besides swimming) that I like! Which is great as I can fulfill my 'lose weight and get in shape' resolution. Even though it's so cold outside i might freeze to the road if I go walking.