Goodbye 2009

Fairwell 2009!

You were loved.

I always love the beginning of a new year. I love the fresh start, new adventures, and "resolutions".

I was reading a newsletter from our health insurance the other day and it stated "having resolutions can be stressful"! I thought that was pretty funny because sometimes it's true! They suggested that instead of having a resolution and cutting your bad habbit cold turkey, only to relaps a week later, you should have "switcheroos". This means change bad habbits slowly. For example, if someone cuts you off while driving you would traditionally give them the old finger (or fist). Instead, grit your teeth together and smile at them! Slowly but surely your jaw will losen and your future responses will be a friendly smile. That is what the experts say.

I will have to think of some reasonable "switcheroos".

I always start the traditional New Year's Resolution list:
Work out more
Eat healthier
Save more
Spend less

But those get boring. So I'm going to try and spice things up! Here we go:

I'm going to take adavantage of my cook books. I would like to try a new recipe weekly but realisticly I'll aim for monthly.

I would love to finish this blanket I'm making and start a new one.

I plan to print all of my pictures and put them at least in a photo album ~ just in case my computer crashes. I would also love to update my scrapbook.

Travel more for less money. High end trips are nice but camp outs are a blast! We are in a prime location for so many places to adventure to.

Read more often. I'm just catching on the the reading craze ~ slowly.

Journal more then twice a month. I've had the same journal now for two years and an empty one on the shelf waiting.

So . . . that's my start. Who knows how far I'll get.

Gladly welcoming 2010!

Chilly Willy

It's cold.

It's 11 degrees outside right now but they say it feels like -4.

I'm not complaining but snow would make it feel a little more wonderful.

Thankful

We're Thankful For . . . (in no particular order)

Working vehicles

Adoption

Winco's cheap good food

Wheat Warmers

Sleep

Pumpkin pie

Family games (especially when I beat Jake!)

Visiting Teaching

Families can be together forever

The dog park

Morning scripture studies

Uncle Bob

Coupons (now we just need to learn to use them!)

Modern technology (internet, cell phones, digital cameras)

Winter clothes

Buster, Belle, and Sage

My professors

Road trips

Fun

My mom teaching me how to crochet

All my birthday wishes and gifts

Modern medicine

Monopoly

Snow

Family and Friends

Being alive

Good books

Education (spiritual and temporal)

Indoor plumbing (especially on cold windy days)

Prayer

Dyson vacuums

A clean house

Heavenly Father

Wholesome family movies by Pixar and Disney

The restoration of the gospel

The Holy Ghost

Family Home Evenings

Weather

Being PHAT

Jacob and his willingness to do the Thankful Tree

Living prophets and apostles and their counsel

A well paying job in Pullman, Washington

Emily

and

The Gospel

SNOW!

We love snow. It's just a white blanket of goodness! We've been blessed with it twice this year and we can't wait until it stays for the season. The last time I measured 5.5 inches in our yard. Yipee!

On a side note: Remember when Sage thought she was a cat? We thought that passed.

Until we found her on the window sill.

Birthday #28

My birthday was pretty low key this year but it didn't get unnoticed. I can't believe I'm 28! That seems so old! I've been asked if I felt 28. The truth is I don't. I've worked or have been surrounded by youth since High School. I feel like I'm still part of the young crowd. Hopefully I feel that way when I'm in my 30's!

So here goes the pictures. Here I am with my cake:

Jake and I have this thing with giving gifts. Maybe I explained it before. We'll get a gift for each other that is from the dogs. The catch is it's really something the other person wanted. Buster was watching me open my gift (from him).

It was WSU pajamas. Jake has been trying to get me to get a WSU shirt since we got here. I keep refusing, I'm a Rebel not a Cougar. Thanks Buster.

Lately on Sunday we play board games. Okay we only play Monopoly. My sister had bought us an American Edition one year. This year it was the Monopoly Champion Edition. It came with a trophy. We're so competitive we needed a trophy! We got a good laugh. This was from the dogs too! Haha we're lame.

I'm very grateful for all my gifts. I received some pretty neat stuff like books (real books and sewing books), my dad's journals, an awesome tea cup, money, candy, crafty stuff, and movies. I received a ton of birthday wishes and appreciated them all. Here's to another year!

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!! 

River Rats

The Columbia River is a happening place in the summer. It's the best way to cool down, relax, and totally enjoy the summer. We've been lucky enough to live 5 minutes away. We toss the dogs in the back of the truck and away we go. 

~Belle is our water dog. She would swim away if we let her. We keep her on the leash so she isn't whisked down stream!

~ Buster is learning how to grab his ball in the water. It was pretty funny because as the tide would go out he would go for the ball. Right when he would grab it a wave would splash him in his mouth and he would drop it! 

~Most of the time he sat and watched the ball come in and go out.

~You can't tell here but he finally got his ball. 

~Sage was a bit timid at first. Jake had to help her. 

Good thing summer just started here.

~Salsa~

Because everything is a friendly competition here . . . 

Two salsas. One fancy homemade (or painted rather) chip dip bowl. One Winner.

Emily's Homemade Dip:

Jacob's Homemade Dip:

One Fancy Homemade (or painted rather) Chip Dip Bowl for the winner's salsa:

And the winner is:

EMILY!

I have a confession. Mine was WAY too hot. Well for me too enjoy. So Jakes truly won the rights to the winner's bowl!

I've talked to a couple of my friends about people who blog about how much they LOVE something or someone. Some times you wonder if they are trying to convince themselves that they have made a good decision or make it a point to tell others they really are happy. But then sometimes that someone is you. And you really do LOVE what ever it is. That's how I feel about Washington. I know it's not my final resting spot in life, but it's definitely a place I truly enjoy, or LOVE.

This last weeks weather:

I'm not sure I'd have to explain why I like it here. It's July and the high is only 95! The kicker - there is always a breeze so it never really feels like 95!

NOTE TO SELF:

When your husband goes out of town and your not sure if you really want to go . . . GO! Even if he's on a tight schedule and you're not sure how much exploring there is to do . . . GO!

Jake's been out of town and that leaves me at home. The house is clean. The dogs are fed. What more is there to do. I wasted two hours of my life watching the Real Housewives of New Jersey. LAME. What a waste. So I turned off the t.v. and went outside. 

The Potatoes:

If you weren't sure what plant the potatoes really were, you weren't alone. So I sat and weeded the garden. I found a slug. It was pretty gross. There were some worms too but they didn't bother me. A bunch of ants too. The slug was gross.

My favorite part of Spring/Summer is the fruit. Every morning before work I would go out and pick a bowl of raspberries, boysenberries, and cherries. Delicious.

These berries are for my smoothie. 

The boysenberries were pretty big. I was impressed. This was a fat one!

These cherries are delightful!

The birds wouldn't settle for the ones on top, they intruded the bottom layer too. So I climbed the latter to save the ones in the middle!

The strawberries became a home for a quail family.

We've now watched the babies grow into little quail. Jake would like to shoot them. 

The tomatoes are out of control. Salsa here we come!

And of corse the peas! They were good while they lasted!

Belle is doing the clean up!

There are so many other things that's going on. The river, the parks, our running course, house sitting (and we're getting good at watering plants!), and much more! Our adventures are just starting to begin up here.

Life is good.