My 30th Birthday party! :)

Ok, only 2 photos to share. I got hollared at by friends for "working" (taking pix) at my own party.


Since I only have 1 married friend with no kids and who isn't preggo, we decided to have a family friendly event. Bring your kids. And boy, were there kids! We had no cake, but an ice cream sundae bar. It was fabulous :)

It was amusing to watch Theodore interact.


Pretty cute! :)

Native plants

I have no idea what kind of butterfly this guy is, but he's awfully pretty!!!! He hug out for a couple of days.

On a side note, when our nephew was over, I learned that there is a "hard page" version of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." Who knew?

I'd like to plant more 'butterfly" attracting plants ... but am not sure what direction to go.


Also spending a lot of quality time with the cone flowers is local bees.

Somewhere I was reading that planting "native" plants to your region is good because it encourages local and natural/native insect activity. It's not really "sexy" to think about the insects, but if things get too out of whack, I guess it's not a good thing.

We've yet to make any BIG planting decisions in our yard ... partly because I would like to use as many native plants as possible (the up side to this is they tend to be more able to handle the heat/minimal water). I just don't know where to start! If anyone has words of wisdom, I'd take them!


There are 2 bees here!

***NOTE: These photos were taken with my little dinky camera ... using teh MACRO (or flower picture) setting. Just a little tip for you our there who want to take close up photos of your flowers or whatnot. I also used the same thing in photographing my eggplants + peppers. They're tiny little guys.

Bailey and "her" kids

As I mentioned earlier, we adopted Bailey from a family. With 3 kids.

Sometimes I suspect she's bored with us old, married people.

We know her family and keep in touch, and Bailey was invited out for a playdate. It was a BIG hit with all parties involved. :)

She LOVES to swim, so she had a heck of a good time in the pond. I'm hoping at "bark in the park" time (last day of swimming, bring your dog) that Bailey will be able to go and not have a meltdown from the excitement of seeing dozens of other dogs. We'll see.


I honestly think she would have stayed in the pond ALL afternoon if we'd have let her.

Theodore + Bailey II

Theodore is a BIG fan of Bailey, if you can't tell from this photo!


Bailey also happens to be a big fan of kids in general. Sometimes she has a hard time controlling her excitement (impulse control issues), but she does fairly well.

When Theodore was eating dinner, a portion of it ended up on the floor. "We're going to have to get out the vacuum," Robin said. "Nope," I responded, "we've got a dog."

Bailey was sitting by my seat, but she saw morsels start to fall from the table like manna from heaven. And she started to whine and squeal. You would have thought I had a T-bone dangled in front of her nose, not some peas and pork chop bits across the room on the floor. Geez.


This is from Dinner #2. Just Theodore and I. You'll notice how interested Bailey is in what Theo's doing.

Sock drawer makeover :)

There's no "before" picture. Trust me. It was a tangled mess.


I proudly showed Erik: "Look, it's organized."

No it's not, he said.

Yes IT IS. I assured.

Nope, he affirmed.

We've agreed to disagree on the organizational level of my sock drawer. ;) Here it is from my point of view: all of the "summer" socks with no ankle are in the big thing, the seasonal are in the back and the ones that cover the ankle are on the left. See how organized it is? And the socks to keep my feet extra warm are in the next drawer. Total organization diva here.

Bailey + Popcorn = 4 Ever

We don't allow Bailey much table food. But we eat a lot of popcorn around here, and it's a special treat for her.

Recently, Erik taught her to catch it in her mouth.

She's gotten pretty good at it. We visited "her" kids (the family who we adopted her from) and they were impressed at her ability. GOOD trick to show kids. After awhile I had to tell them she was full ... because they would have fed her popcorn all afternoon. At most, she gets 4-6 pieces once or twice a week.

Garden, 2011, part 3

Will you look at what came up? Even though I didn't plant any basil this summer, some found a way up.

Unfortunately, eating it makes me sick, sick, sick ... so I'll have to give it/pesto to someone else.


We gave eggplant a try this year. We've got 4 baby veggies on the plants. We'll see what happens! :) Also looking awesome is the peppers.

Even though I loathe turning on the tap, it's been so awfully hot, I've been watering morning and night, to keep things going.

We also have some tomato varities that are not red, but nothing is turning .... so we're waiting to see what happens with those.

Swim time! :) pt. 2

OOOOK. As Robin wrote on her blog, we had company over the weekend. Good times were had by all.

I have some photos + videos to share. Actually, I'll break them into 2 posts. Sound good?

First the videos, because they're super cute :)




I think at the point we have kids, I'll want a video camera or something with video that has a higher quality than my little camera has. But for now this is OK (love you, Theo! Not a reflection on my affection, I promise!)


He's got a toofer coming in .... so of course he liked gnawing on the noodle. Pssst, kid, that isn't ours!






I kept switching back and forth from the "automatic" setting on the camera (the 2 above), which used a flash, to the "manual" setting w/o a flash (below). With a flash, kids are more prone to know you're taking their picture. Sans flash, you're more likely to capture them "just being kids" .... but in a low light situation, it's not always a pretty end photo. Sigh, what to do?


Unfortunately, the lifeguards at the Y here in town won't let us go down the big slide together :( but we'll just have to go back to the big city for that!

We "bobbed" and went under water. He did fairly well with that. And even better this time at floating on his back with some assistance (side note: my first job was as a lifeguard, teaching swim lessons. Probably one of my most favorite jobs. Ever.)


I've never seen such wrinkled feet after the pool. (TIP: used macro feature on camera to get this).


After bath time.


:)

Beans + Rice

Last night, I had an array of odds and ends in the fridge, with no idea what to do for dinner.

Hmm. A local restaurant makes these rice bowls with beans, so I decided to give it a go.


I took leftover brown rice (about 1 c. cooked) and added in some leftover black beans (probably 3/4 c. cooked). Just mixed them together.

Then added about 1/2 tsp. cumin and a little salt to taste. Oh, and a sprinkle of dried parsley for color.

I added a bit of shredded cheese and melted it in the microwave ... done.

Sounds a bit odd, but it was actually pretty tasty.

Now I'm thinking of what other sorts of variations I could do on this. I already use brown rice, but I could switch things up with Jasmine Rice.

Also, I'm wondering how diced cooked sweet potatoes with chicken would be.

Erik said he'd like to see an option with corn.

I think the nice thing about this is I'll be able to make a huge amount of rice in the rice cooker, have a big amount of beans, so just re-heat those items, then only cook the items I'll add extra onto this.

So we'll see where this takes us ... how about you .... any ideas?

Swim time! :)

A few weeks ago, I took my No. 1 nephew swimming in the big pool for the first time! :) Theodore has fun with his wading pool at home, but this was his first foray into the big leagues. :)


I thought this Y was zero-depth entry, but I was wrong. Oh well, good times were still had.


The lifeguard turned on the big slide and told me I could take him down. Mommy Robin agreed, and we hit the action.

Here's a video from the event.


This was his FIRST time down, and I used the sides to slow us down. I didn't know if he'd freak out or anything. Also, at the top, we put our fingers in the moving water to let him experience it. The next few times, we went down more quickly. :)


And here is the water feature. Later on I stood up and we went under it. I think that was smarter. The water is really choppy at the bottom, and is more smooth and "together' up high.



All done! (his "deer in the headlights" look highly amuses me).

Harry Potter 7.2!!!!

OK, so I may or may not spend all day on YouTube watching clips in preparation for the midnight opening of HP 7.2. That's right, the conclusion of the Harry Potter movie series.

I know I have a lot of very conservative friends who visit me here. If you're not into the whole Harry series, I respect that. Just don't hate on me for my excitement (please?).

Over the last few months, I've kept my eye on the trailers, and the "final" one .... is by far the best.


I'm pretty sure Erik will be glad this all ends tonight, because when I see one of these, I literally stand on my seat and emit an obscenely high pitched squeal. The dog's attention is rapt every time. ;)

Things I'm looking forward to in this movie:

1) Escape from Gringott's. I've seen a few previews and clips, and I think it's gonna stinkin' rock.
2) Battle between Bellatrix + Mrs. Weasley. It was one of my favorite parts of the book ... and I'm ready.
3) The conclusion with Snape. For anyone who hasn't read these, I won't spoil.

I have one tiny concern, however ... there's a clip in many of the previews where Harry and the Big V jump over a big cliff together ... I'm hoping that's part of a dream/nightmare sequence, because I might be disappointed if it's not. We'll see.

Erik and I were talking .... and I think starting at #5 I started attending midnight showings. I've been to 2 here in Salina and I'm ready for tonight's! :) Due to lack of time/mental energy, I probably won't be decking out in costume ... I'm usually in the land of Nod at the witching hour, so I'll likely go to bed early, then drag my bag of bones out of bed about 10:30 to go get in line.

See you on the other side! :)

Crossover — Fr. Jeremy's Ordination + 1st Mass

I started posting about a month ago ... with this:


Let me continue a bit more!








How I've been hearing about 'I need to find a chalice' for the last year. :)


HERE is the ordination post on the Heartland Blog. The First Mass post will be up on Monday.

In the meantime, you can CLICK HERE to see my slideshow from the day ... I have to confess, I cried when I saw it in its totality .... so you've been warned.

#113 — Take a spring/summer trip to the Drive-In. Have an old fashioned good time. :)

HOLLLLLLA!!!!!!


One week ago, this is what we were doing. :)


And this.


And this.

Ahhh, it'd been 12 years since I've been to any Drive In. Much longer for Erik.

The Kanopolis Drive In is about 45 minutes from our house, but worth the trip! :)


Someone getting in the way of the old-school commercials.


Last one.