A Month in Review . .

Let's see . . . what have we been doing? Hmm not much of anything of importance or fun.

Except . . .

This was before work. Jake snapped my picture. Really close!

and then far away. one extreme or the other, I guess.

When Sage sleeps her tongue hangs out. On this day it was really far!

In the early mornings we think it's funny to mess with the dogs. On this particular day we stuffed Sage in the WinCo bag. She didn't move or anything. It was like she really wanted to go with us shopping. Move over Paris Hilton's rat dog.

We have this amazing Pizza book and just so happened to have the ingredients for a true Chicago Deep Dish Pizza.

And here I am in action! I wish I could say I learned my skills from my days at Pizza Hut but they use frozen pre-sized crust.

So everyone thought his picture was pretty sad . . .

it only gets worse.

We save our weekends for Scrabble and Whitetailopoly.

And we are in a PRIME location for checking out the stars, moon, and planets. This is totally nerdy but we loved tracking Jupiter and it's moons. It was super cool. One night we saw 3 of Jupiter's moons. Jake thinks 4 but 3 for sure.

Drumsticks!

I would like to thank the Zinser's for this amazing idea.

Homemade drumsticks.

You will need:

12 ice cream cones

1 bottle of Magic Shell chocolate

1 tub of your favorite ice cream

1 handful of nuts (we used the honey roasted peanuts)

1 empty egg carton, some wax paper and tape

This is your cone holder. I put my finger all the way through to make the holes deep. Then I set the carton in the freezer and prepared the cones one at a time.

We used the Smores Magic Shell that is why it is clumpy. I squeezed some around the top of the cone and then used the handle end of a plastic spoon to smooth it all the way to the bottom. If you do all the cones at once and then put them in the freezer the chocolate will be more thick at the bottom. If you do one at a time they stay pretty even. So I would coat one and then stick it in the freezer.

Of coarse I skipped a bunch of steps in pictures but next I cut the wax paper into squares to roll around the cone. Then I took one out of the freezer at a time and filled it with ice cream (make sure you push the ice cream far enough down), taped the wax paper on top, and added another scoop of ice cream. You can put a straw down the middle and add caramel if you would like. We didn't on these and they still were scrumptious. At the end I took them all out and sprinkled the nuts on the top of each one.

The finished product.

We made 12 and they didn't last very long. And i didn't get a picture of us eating them either. They are a little time consuming but well worth the time!

Done with the drive.

I have become quite the weekend warrior away from home. These last couple of weeks I would commute from Pullman to the Tri-cities for work. My record time was 2 hours 10 minutes. I've lost count on how many times I drove this road. But I could tell you where the police sit, how many miles between turn offs, and where the right places are to pass (it's a two lane highway). I think this drive has finally ended. Well, we're hoping. I've been hired on with the City of Pullman Police Station and will be starting soon. These two pictures are while I was driving.

The farm land come right to the edge of the road.

This was a pretty cool sunset.

And when I'm home I have a crazy husband that thinks he owns a lamb. Jake kept himself pretty busy by studying and working while I was gone.

Our dogs will sit and look out the window all day.

So now we're back into the daily grind.

". . .I really love your peaches, wanna shake your tree . . ."

Dear Mr. Peach Tree,

We would like to thank you for a wonderful year of production. We have been blessed to enjoy the fruits of your labor in the following ways:

Peach Enchiladas:

Frozen Peaches:

Peach Bread:

Peach smoothies (every morning!):

Homemade Peach Ice Cream with Homemade Caramel! It was delish!:

We also enjoyed homemade Peach Salsa and just plain Peaches. We will miss you so much!

Until next year,

Jacob and Emily

it's us

we are still alive. just back into the old routine of school and work. the combination of the two can become very drag and mundane. i'm seriously considering going back to school. jake was making fun of me the other day because i was reading his text books. there is something about text books that i like. although i do have to admit, i have been reading "real" books lately too.

here's proof:

(don't mind the hair it was right before bed)

jake had to attach a picture to one of his first assignments. we had some good laughs of all the pictures we could choose from.

i was voting for this one because every time i say, "smile", this is what i get. a big fat cheesy grin.

we ended up using a different one.

so that's life for us right now.

FYI

This is a conversation between a girl in Juvie and I.

Me: "Use that phone."

Juvie girl: "It's broken."

Me: "Is it really? Are you sure?" (some times the kids just don't know how to use it)

Juvie girl: "Yeah! What do you think I'm a liar?"

Me: "Well, you are a Juvenile Delinquent and in Juvie (for falsifying information to the police I will add) and criminals tend to lie."

Juvie girl: "I'm not a criminal. I'm just a felon."

I ended the conversation there but still got a good laugh.

So just in case you were wondering, you can be a felon but not a criminal.

Toe-mate-oh?

Do you have tomatoes growing like crazy? We do. Regular and Cherry. We're not complaining, we're just running low on ideas to make and/or can. This morning Jake and I peeled 43 regular tomatoes and made homemade spaghetti sauce. We pulled a Stuffed Cherry Tomato recipe off line and tried two of those. They were delicious. We've done salsa and BLT's, now we need help. What else can you do with tomatoes? 

{pre-spaghetti sauce}

{and we have cucumbers and green beans too}

{stuffed blt cherry tomatoes and stuffed guacamole cherry tomatoes}

Send recipes soon. The growth is not slowing!!