My Man

Now that Hubby is done with school he is getting back in to mountain biking. Last week he sold his motorcycle and ordered a new Yeti. The bike shop had a loaner that he took out last weekend and had an awesome time! I came home to find him laying on the chair all banged and scraped up from a monumental crash but he had a HUGE smile on his face and said it was a blast!!!

PS he'd kill me if he knew I blogged this photo:)

19 Years

19 years ago today Hubby and I were married.just look at us - two young kids, barely 21.

We celebrated with a wonderful dinner Saturday night at Farm and Table - a local restaurant we'd been dying to try that specializes in local foods. Here's a peek at our meal:

Glazed duck breast for Hubby and Salmon for me

 

Almond Pound Cake with peach ice cream

Still handsome as ever - just a little less hair.

Mushroom and Kale Empanadas

Easiest Skirt in the World

So we realized at 8:30 on Wednesday night that Miss S only has two pairs of pants for school - both of which she had already worn. I didn't quite realize that nothing else fit her!! Bad Mom. I promised to take her shopping for pants this weekend. I narrowly avoided a complete fashion emergency by letting her pick out some fabric from my stash and whipped her up a little skirt in about 30 minutes. Seriously - the easiest skirt ever. I used 3/4 yard of material - sewed the raw edges together (so it was like a big tube), elastic waist at the top, tried it on her to fit the elastic and to mark the hem, hemmed it up, ironed it and it was good to go!! Crisis averted and she loved it so much she couldn't wait to tell her friends at school that her mom made it:) I want to make her some more cause they look so cute with the polo tops that she has to wear to school.

Easiest Skirt EVER!

Sixth Grade

Yesterday was Miss S's first day of middle school!! She was so excited and hopped right out of bed at 6:15 to get ready. She is so stinking cute. She is NOT happy about having to wear polls everyday but she is making the best of it. She's pretending to be a butterfly in that one pose - I told her to do whatever she wanted when I snapped the pic. My little butterfly - stretching her wings and soaring in to the unknown.

We celebrated with our traditional First Day of School dinner out - Miss S chose Five Guys for some yummy burgers.

Pin-spiration

My darling little Miss S is just about addicted to Pinterest as much as I am:) She has been begging to make this recipe that she found all week and I finally got her some Cream of Tarter at the store so that she could whip it up. I've linked to the actual recipe below but I also had to take a photo of her recipe that she wrote out and brought in to the kitchen with her while she mixed up her creation:) I love her little handwriting and her little misspelled words:)

For this batch she used Strawberry Banana jello, which was the only kind we had in the cupboard - and it turned out a beautiful shade of pink. She wants to use Lime jello for her next batch:)

Jello Play Dough recipe

31 July 2012

OK!! It's the end of July and time to report on my {Operation Reduce} for this month. My goal was to declutter 310 items from our house this month - I ended up decluttering 296 items!! And that only includes the items that I took to the thrift store - not the stuff that just got thrown away. When I factor in those items I'm sure I had well over 310!! WOOHOO!!!While I still have a LONG way to go - this has helped so much to motivate me.

30 July 2012

Is it Friday quitting time yet? This is gonna be a long week - I just want to be home watching the Olympics:) And I noticed I missed posting one day last week - that REALLY bums me out. Completely slipped my mind. GRR!!!! Oh well - only missing one day out of 31 isn't bad. And HAPPY BIRTHDAY today to my handsome Dad!! I love you Dad!

29 July 2012

Hubby is itching for a new mountain bike. We stopped by the bike shop yesterday for him to drool for a while. Miss S found a great way to amuse herself while we waited.

28 July 2012

Hubby has been waiting a whole year for this to come around again - the NM brewers guild IPA challenge. Miss S and I dropped him off at the brewery and did some shopping. Now we are back to pick up tipsy Hubby. :)

27 July 2012

It's official!!! Wednesday night this sexy man of mine finished his master's degree!!!!! Woohoo!!! I am so proud of him. He said he won't fully relax til he gets his grade but he was seriously all smiles when he walked in the door after his final.

25 July 2012

It's no secret that I have an old soul - I would feel most at home in the 40s, 50s or 60s....I imagine myself being Rosie the Riveter during the War, kissing my soldier as he returned from fighting, living a quiet country life and living it up during the folk movement during the 50s and 60s. Once of my favorite duos is Simon & Garfunkel - just look at Paul's bangs in this picture!! SO darling. Did you know they started making music together in 1957? I was listening to one of their albums on my way home from Santa Fe yesterday and fell in love again with the song My Little Town:

In my little town
I grew up believ--ing
God keeps his eye on us all
And he used to lean upon me
As I pledged allegiance to the wall
Lord I recall
My little town

Coming home after school
Flying my bike past the gates
Of the factories
My mom doing the laundry
Hanging our shirts
In the dirty breeze

And after it rains
There's a rainbow
And all of the colors are black
It's not that the colors aren't there
It's just imagin-ation they lack
Everything's the same
Back in my little town
Nothing but the dead and dying
Back in my little town
Nothing but the dead and dying
Back in my little town

In my little town
I never meant nothin'
I was just my fathers son
Saving my money
Dreaming of glory
Twitching like a finger
On the trigger of a gun
Leaving nothing but the dead and dying
Back in my little town

Nothing but the dead and dying
Back in my little town

24 July 2012

First of all Happy Pioneer Day to all my fellow Mormon folk :):)

I wanted to share one of my projects for my July reduce the crap goal. I completely cleaned out this shelf which previously held one big bin with all our medicines and extra toiletry type stuff. I was inspired by Pinterest (the photo marked Ask Anna) and culled and organized our remaining meds. The categories I have are Sun, Dogs, Misc, First Aid, Pain Relief, Cold/Flu/Allergy, Lotions and Body Wash. Doesn't it look so great and organized!

23 July 2012

Happy happy Monday everyone!! I got nothing more to say than that. Love ya!!!!

22 July 2012

One more pic from Scottsdale that I found on my phone.

21 July 2012

This is why I spend so much money at Target.

20 July 2012

Our neighbor has a gigantic sunflower growing in his yard. I noticed last night that it had finally bloomed and screams at Hubby to come look. The thing has to be at least 9 feet tall and the bloom is at least a foot across. I took the second shot to give a little perspective. Our fence is probably 5 1/2 feet tall and it just towers over it.

19 July 2012

I've been spending a lot of time lately thinking about this - striving to live and serve as a woman of God. Day by day, little by little, I work on improving my choices and strengthening my faith.

18 July 2012

I have a running joke with my co-worker - who doesn't know the difference between Star Trek and Star Wars and once thought George Harrison was George Takei:) Holy crap we had a good laugh over that one. I adore Star Wars, but deep in my heart I am a Trekkie. Love, love, love today's t-shirt on Teefury. What a great mash-up of the current (or perhaps never-ending) fascination with dinosaurs and Star Trek.

17 July 2012

I happened upon this funny scene on my lunch break today. Two fat little prairie dogs on the side of the freeway exit. They were making a feast of whatever was dumped on the side of the road.

16 July 2012

Look at this crazy little puppy of ours. She was under the couch and kept poking her head out. Time for another haircut for her. We swear Izzy is part kitty cat cause she acts just like a crazy cat sometimes. Mr. Fu is part coyote and Maxwell is part piglet and part tigger. What a rag tag little pack they make.