Friday morning sky!

I took this picture from my bedroom window about 5:45 am Friday morning.

I love the colors of pink in the sky!

Happy day!

Casts & Use What You Have Tuesday

Today Simon became cast free! Here he is getting his cast removed. See that happy smile??
When we got home, I made dinner from the freezer. First...I got out the mandolin.
sliced up brats that were cooked awhile ago and put in the freezer. Usually the package has 5 brats but we only eat 3 and I have two left over. The 4 leftover brats became dinner tonight.
Add spaghetti sauce and pasta....makes a great dinner from stuff already in the freezer!

More Flower Photos

I took Michelle's advice and took my flowers outside in natural light this morning.
I am definitely going to get a few printed for my bedroom walls.
I am low on art and these would be great!

Saturday

I have been meaning to trim back my yard for quite awhile but had not been able to motivate to do it.
This morning I gathered my tools. The neighbor loaned me the trimmer so it would not take quite as long.

After.....I pulled out one of the orange flowers (lantana) and trimmed the rest back to the ground because it was really "woody" underneath in the front. The ones to the right weren't so bad so they got a trim.
Who knew my front yard was so big? If the lantana doesn't grow back (I am sure it will), I will plant something else that doesn't spread as much. I always thought there were too many plants in my front yard and this huge trim confirms to me that less is more.

It only took 3-4 hours and one trip to Home Depot for a rake & leaf bags. Then, a long nap for me because I was tired!!

TGIF

I love Friday's. Today, on my way home from work I stopped at the local grocery store and picked up a few things, including these gorgeous gladiola. I love them!!! I got lucky earlier this week because I was able to pick up that pretty vase for 75% off. I had gladiola in mind when I bought it!
Based on my Dad's recommendation, I tried out the close up function on my new camera to photograph the flowers. Love the photo. So much I am tempted to try again and then print it for my bedroom!
Have I mentioned I love my new neighborhood??? Well, we are having a girls night in dinner tonight and I was told to bring something yummy to drink. In the spirit of using what I have....too much inexpensive Chardonnay, I found a recipe for white sangria.
Phew, lucky one of my other neighbors brought back my "sangria" pitcher so I could make some for tonight. The recipe can be found here.

Life....

This morning, after I dropped the kids off, there was a lot of racket from the passenger side rear tire area. When I stopped to investigate, I found a very flat tire.

I have changed quite a few tires in my life so, it wasn't too bad. I was able to get the donut on the car with no problems in 18 minutes start to finish.
I was surprised that NO ONE stopped to help or ask if I was ok. I had pulled off into a side street but there were probably 8 people that passed me as they pulled into work.

Maybe it was the mechanix gloves I wore when I was swapping out the tires. Gloves are a must if you live in the desert because my tires always seem to blow out when the weather is HOT and the tire hotter.

I do remember a time about 10 years ago when I was driving my convertible and I had a blow out. Hmmm...I had 3 males helpers on me like white on rice. Sigh....ah, I guess I am officially past the ingenue stage of my life. (Duh, already knew that!)

Good thing I wore comfortable shoes and pants today instead of the heels and skirt I wore yesterday so I was able to use brute kicking strength to loosen the lug nuts.

Go girl power!!! ;))

P.S. Garage now has the "new rubber" smell.

Saturday Birthdays!

The kids were invited to a great birthday party at Cracker Jax.
There was air hockey....
race cars...bumper boats...Simon tried the big video screen with shaking chairs....
Hannah trying to earn tickets with Skee Ball. Notice she got REALLY wet on the bumper boats.
And a round of miniature golf. Let me say, playing miniature golf with the two of them involves way too much snarking at each other.
After a quick trip home to put on dry clothes we headed out to Grandpa & Grandma Linda's house to celebrate his birthday. He got a GPS but will still take the road less travelled. Hannah was watching but Simon was....
stuck on the laptop.
There was singing and "candle" blowing....
and a yummy ice cream cake!

Phoenix Monsoon Sky

Margene always shows me these amazing Saturday Skies of hers...

All I got is my Monsoon Sky. Looks like dirt being thrown around in the sky so it is all dirty and overcast.
I just wished there had been some rain with all the dust!

Another Week, Another Cast

The day after Simon got his cast last week, it seemed REALLY loose. At the follow up appointment yesterday, he got a new and improve (read much sturdier and tighter) RED cast.
Only 2 more weeks with his cast.

More adventures on cooking...

I had soup that I made yesterday ready for dinner tonight. Quick prep. I had to stay late at work so I didn't want to wait for the oven to heat up and I did not want to heat up my house. Plan B: I saw an infomercial about this thing that was a lot like the sandwich maker below that this woman was using to cook anything. Hmmm...should work for biscuits.
And it did! Took 1/2 the time and I didn't need to heat up the house.

Knitting!!!

I met up with Kelli & Heather today, who I originally met through the Stitch n Bitch group in Chandler. I tried out my new camera with the timer but the auto flash did not think we needed a flash so none of the photos were worth "printing". There was a good amount of laughing about me and my timer but, I am ok with the laughing!!!

Gosh darn it do I miss our Tuesday night get together....sigh. However, we had a great girl chat and I did try to knit but pretty much knit and "tinked" the same row 4 times and eventually just gave up and called it close enough.

Each of them got a parting gift of grape jelly and Kelli got chicken veggie soup and sweet potato soup. Sometimes it pays to be single cuz you get free food! Kidding Kelli, kidding! ;)

Road Trip!!!

I went to Jerome, AZ with some friends and all the photos I took were....

of the yarn shop....
Oooohhh...pretty yarn! She even had Habu Textiles!!! I really would love to go to New York City to visit their warehouse but alas, I haven't yet. I was good and did not buy anything. Sigh, next time.
It is an absolutely gorgeous drive to and from Jerome. On the way in there are windy forest roads and on the way out (the only other photo), the red rocks of Sedona.

Adventures in Cooking

I grew up in a family with lots of kids and not always so much money so there is a part of me that tries to use everything we have so I don't have to throw it away.

Well, last week the kids & I got a 3 lb container of grapes from Sam's. I washed them, spun them in the salad spinner and stored them in the refrigerator. Since we didn't eat that many and the kids are at their Dad's this weekend, I knew they were going to go bad before we would get through all of them.

So, I decide to see if there was a recipe for freezer jam on the internet and there was!

I started to crush the grapes with my potato masher but that was going to leave really big chunks and pieces of skin.

Time to pull out the food mill (got at a 2nd hand store in Moorhead, MN many years ago. My Mom has one just like it only hers is a wee bit older.) and try to force the fruit through the strainer. Well, that wasn't working either. Time for plan C. Get out the food processor and send all the grapes through the food processor and then through the food mill.

That worked much better and you can see the skins leftover in the food mill. I did put some in the jam for interest and color but most of the skin pieces went into the trash.
Pour in the sugar and let stand for 10 minutes.
Cook the pectin, mix into the sugary fruit mixture and put into containers.
Let stand at room temp overnight and then place in the freezer for up to 1 year.
Here's the sad part of this equation, I had everything at my house in the pantry to make the jam including jars and pectin.

The New Camera is HERE!

I tried to take a picture of the new camera with the old camera but that did not work so I downloaded a photo from Amazon.

Oooohhh...pretty green color!

I finally downloaded some songs to an mp3 player for Simon. He was so excited yesterday morning that he got up early to try it out.
This picture was taken with the timer on my new camera and I also used the gorillapod twisted around the counter stool. Turned out pretty good.
The timer on my camera makes me smile because, many years ago, when I lived in Norway as an exchange student, I had a timer on my old school 45mm film camera. Many, many photos were taken around Norway with my timer. I look forward to getting used to the new camera.

Tuesday!!

Simon got his new cast today! I opted to pay an extra $20 to get the water cast. Just seemed like a good idea since keeping Simon totally dry is not always possible.
One step closer to my new camera. I got this Gorilla Pod for free with purchase and although it shipped on the same day, the pod must have come from a closer part of the US.
I am hoping my little camera holds on until the new one arrives!!!

Weekend Projects (Part II)

On Friday night & Saturday morning I made this sling for Simon. He wore it for about 2 hours on Saturday and no more....he doesn't mind his cast. Still looks cool, right?
Spare room/former office (aka junk room) before.
Half the room after. I still need to clean up the really messy side but that is for another weekend.
I have been meaning to put a hand held shower in the kids bathroom since we moved in last year.

With the splint/cast situation for Simon, I finally really did it. However, not without putting the hose on backwards and spraying the whole bathroom with water. It does work well now. ;)Former home of the day bed & trundle (in the loft).New computer desk that I put together and put in the place of the "junk" in the loft. Hopefully the kids will find this location a better place to use the computer.
Ok, I am tired...need to clean up downstairs and get ready for the short week.

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend.