Our first house

Well, I just got back from a weekend trip to Vegas. Dan was competing in a drag race out there so I went out to cheer him on and also visit some of my old friends. (We lived in Vegas for 6 years when we were newlyweds).

Wow has Vegas grown!!!! We moved away in 1998, but visited most recently in 2004. In 2004 we had noticed a lot of growth, but WOW, even MORE growth since then. I can't believe how far the city has stretched its boarders. The sad part is that right now(following the housing bubble burst-which did affect LV dramatically), there are lots of new, but empty commercial store fronts and office spaces, as well as unfinished construction on homes and businesses. When we were there in 2004 I had gone and visited our first house. We were the first owners and had built it. We sold it to a lady whom my neighbor told me had sold it again and then wound up having renters. The renters evidently trashed the place. In 2004 my neighbor let me peer over the backyard fence and I was saddened to see the pool was green with algae and the yard yucky. The front of the house was looking run down and shabby too, and it saddened me. You know how it is, when its your first house. That was where Dan and I started our life together (well after our apartment-but still).

Anyway, I had missed an exit while shopping, so I was heading in the direction of the house anyway, so I just continued all the way there, out of curiosity. I know I don't live there anymore and I know its not my current life, but you like to revisit the past sometimes and just "check on it". Well, the area had continued to grow since our last 2004 visit. Now there was a grocery store and lots of businesses (doctors,hair,services, etc) within 1 mile of the house. (When we lived there, it was barren land, except for our neighborhood.)Now there were businesses nearby as well as other neighborhoods. I did see that if I still lived there, I would weigh about 30 pounds more, because my favorite spot (Cold Stone Creamery) was also only a mile away! Ha ha.

So after driving past these new businesses and homes I turned into the neighborhood. The neighborhood is now about 15 years old and the first thing I noticed is that it looked like a older, established neighborhood. Not because it was rundown, but because the trees people had planted in their backyards had now grown and could be visible over the block fences/walls. As I was driving towards my house I was bracing myself for something really bad (since last time I was there it was already headed downhill). I was very pleasantly, and happily surprised to find that new owners had bought it. They had darkened the paint color and replaced the landscaping. Thus updating it and making it very cute. I talked with them and they told me when they bought the house the pool was black and they had to have the plaster re-done. They let me walk through the house to the backyard. I have to admit I missed all the grass we had planted. But I know Vegas is on a water monitoring system now so most people can't afford to have grass anymore. The house was very cute and back in loving hands and it made me really happy! I was also pleased to see that the rest of the neighborhood seemed to be weathering the economic downturn pretty well. (No for sale signs or foreclosures). It seemed like a very quaint, very nice, little neighborhood. I'm glad. :) I know houses aren't living beings, but I'm glad its being taken care of again and cherished, instead of abused and destroyed.

Spaghetti squash

Someone asked me how to make spaghetti squash. It is really yummy by itself or u can use it as a pasta substitute in spaghetti. This is what it looks like. To cook, its simple. Slice lengthwise in half. scrape out and throw away the seeds.

The sticker on the squash usually tells u the temp and time. But I do it this way... place open side down in half inch of water in casserole dish (usually 9x13) in oven and bake at 350-375 for 45-60 minutes. When it comes out, simply take a fork and run it down the squash thus pulling out the strands of "spaghetti".

When served as a side I like it simply with salt and pepper. Sometimes a little butter. W loves it with brown sugar (of course). When used to replace pasta, just put it on your plate and put the sauce on top-simple and yummy. and good for ya!

The outdoor lights are up!

Yes, I did it. I turned on the lights on November 19th! Aren't they pretty though? I didn't do any on the second floor (even though I think its prettier with the roof peaks) because it scares me to climb up there. But even so, I still like it :)

the "Law"

W has been asking me lately when she can stop riding in her carseat. I told her I would have to check the rules to see when she was big enough to move on to a different seat (I have a notebook of all the guidelines for each carseat and the weight/height requirements etc). So today , we are driving and she says to me, "mom, when are you gonna check to Law?"
"the what?!"
"The law mom! When are u gonna check the law so I can stop riding in my carseat"
LOL
cracks me up. My rules are now the 'Law'.
So anyway, I tell her to remind me when we get home and I'll check the rules.
The MOMENT we pull in our driveway (several hours later, mind you) she says "check the law, mom"
"ok, sweetie"


ps. she's got 4 more inches and 5 more pounds to go :)

Christmas lights

Got my outdoor Christmas lights up and turned on. Yes, its early, but I don't care. I actually have about 4 more strands to put up, but they were symetrical enough to turn them on without waiting. Everyone gives me grief because I want to keep them up and on well into January. So I figure, if I'm going to turn them off after New Years, I might as well turn them on earlier to make up for it , right? :) I'll post a picture soon. Tomorrow I hope to finish my Thanksgiving cards, and start my Christmas cards. Then I need to wrap my mom's Christmas gifts since she will be visiting (and we will thus celebrate early), then wrap the kids' gifts, and HOPEFULLY maybe start pulling out the trees and indoor decorations. I usually like to put them up the day after Thanksgiving, but since I will be gone that weekend I guess it doesn't hurt to do it before I leave so when I come home I am not behind, and still in the swing of things and ready to CELEBRATE Jesus' Birthday! woohoo! I'll let u know if I succeed or not :) (that's a lot to tackle in just a few days). Oh, and by the way, for anyone who didn't see my facebook post, my "lovely" dog decided to dig a hole in my flower bed while I was putting up the outdoor lights, so I decided to finish planting the tulips and use the hole she dug! Guess if you get lemons, you've got to make lemonade, right? ;) see ya!

new blog

check out this other blog when you get a chance.

www.Guides4Life.blogspot.com

35 sports bras

Just threw my fourth workout outfit into the laundry basket from today. I'd say there's a reason I own 35 sports bras, and its a darn good thing I love doing laundry :)

out of the mouths of babes

The other day I was in Walmart grabbing a few quick groceries with my 4 year old daughter. She was in front pulling the cart and I was behind pushing the cart. As we turned down an aisle we came across a larger, older woman facing us who was leaning over her cart looking at her coupons. The lady was very chesty and because she was bending over, was exposing a VERY large cleavage issue. We pass her and aren't yet about 5 feet away when my daughter turns around to me and says in a VERY loud voice, "OH, MY WORD!!!!" I put my finger to my lips to say "shh" and she looks at me in shock and says "DID YOU SEE THAT?!" Fortunately, by then we are at the end of the aisle and about to turn so I don't think the lady heard any of this, but I am dying laughing on the inside at my daughter's pure shock and amazement at this "transgression". Oh, out of the mouths of babes, there seems to be no filters.

W's 4th birthday party

The weekend after her actual birthday we had hosted a bday party for W and her friends at our house. It was her first ever, "friend" bday party. So exciting! (Not just family and adult friends, but her own, REAL friends-wow!) Anyway, most of her buddies are from my gym (they play in the nursery while their moms and I work out. So it was almost a playdate event for all of us-ha ha. We had two big Jupiter Jumps in the backyard and the kids jumped and jumped and jumped. Their cute little faces were all red and sweaty it was so cute. The weather wound up being beautiful (high 70's) so I didn't have to worry about moving it inside due to rain (which was original concern in planning it so far in advance). Wound up being a perfect day. She had so much fun playing with all her friends, and she received several cute, fun toys. This first picture is her with one of her gifts (a blow-up portable bed) which she proceeded to sleep on that night at grandma's when she went there to spend the night :)

Her is T and W doing flips. Look at W mid-air with her feet flying-too funny.

This is T practicing some cheerleading jumps my friend Ashley was teaching her. Look how good she did it-amazing!

And finally W and her cake, princesses of course :) It was yummy too!!!!!

Really bad cooking fiasco

Let me start by giving you a history of my cooking skills...

When Dan and I married... I had none.

I made kraft mac n cheese, Prego spaghetti sauce w/spaghetti and a can of mushrooms thrown in to make it "fancy", and anything frozen or out of a box like Hamburger Helper or frozen lasagne. The other nights (about 3-4) we ate down the street at our favorite local restaurant "Thirstbusters" in Las Vegas, NV. We were newlyweds with no kids, and I couldn't cook that was for sure. Dan is actually a good cook, he doesn't use recipes he just throws it all together and it comes out great. He makes a really mean stir fry-yum! I have to use a recipe, and I follow it to the "T".

Well, when I became pregnant, I suddenly got maternal I guess you could call it, and I was determined that I would be cooking good healthy meals for our family and we would eat at the TABLE (up until this point we ate in front of the tv on the couch). So I put together a book (used a big photo album with sticky pages) to organize by category all the recipes I had been cutting out of magazines over the years that "looked" good, but I had never actually made them. The book is actually pretty cool. I even jot notes in it, like what day I made it and if its good or what changes I would make next time, or if a different/similar recipe is easy and better to make, etc.
So, I started cooking.

Nothing fancy, mind you. Everything was simple and with as few ingredients as possible. In fact one of the ladies I worked with was selling a cookbook that her bowling league had made as a fundraiser. I bought one and have made MANY things out of it. Its super easy and lots of cans/boxes/brand names are included so I don't have to make anything from true "scratch".
I did pretty good at this for several years. I would plan out my menus sometimes 1-3 weeks at a time, buy all my ingredients, jot down what meal I was making each night on my calendar and away I'd go on my dinner extravaganza. I was pretty excited about cooking during this time because that "maternal nature" I guess hadn't worn off yet from my pregnancy and I wanted to make good food. Problem was, I was so excited, I THOUGHT it was good food. But in reality, it wasn't all that great. After several years of this, Dan began to get tired of it and finally started to tell me his true feelings about the meals. Which of course didn't make me happy "what?! you don't like it?! I 've served that for years and you always say its good!" (guess he was just being nice. Problem is, if you say its good, I'll make it again! ha ha)

Well, about a year or so ago, I got real tired of cooking because the truth is I'm not that great of a cook , and it gets pretty discouraging when the stuff you are making doesn't taste good and no one likes it. So we eat out a lot-every chance I get.

However, yesterday, I had planned to make what I thought would be one of our "old favorites". Chicken, rice, and cambell's soup (crm of broccoli) sauce. Problem was, I didn't have enough chicken breasts for the whole family. I saw the chicken thighs in the freezer Dan had told me to buy this summer because he said he preferred them to breasts (AFTER dinner he explained that he only likes thighs and legs on the grill, not cooked any other way--lesson learned.)
So anyway, I put in two of those too, figuring that will be enough meat for everyone. I assumed he would want the thighs but when they got set on the table I could tell he really didn't want them and he only ate them because I didn't cook enough of the white meat to go around.
Well, here is where the bad part happened. But first let me tell you, I baked the thighs first, then put them in the skillet to finish them up. They appeared to be done and I thought this was going to be a really good meal. WRONG!

Dan puts a thigh on his plate,sticks his fork in it, and the darkest, reddest, thickest blood you have ever seen shoots out all over his hand, table, and his rice! UGH! This is not good. I can't believe they are not cooked! Needless to say they got thrown out and I was very bummed that I didn't provide a good dinner for my husband. I wanted him to eat all the breasts and I was just going to eat the sides (truth is eating no meat does not bother me at all, I would rather everyone else get enough food than for me to eat meat). But of course, he doesn't want me to not eat meat, so he won't eat it all either, making me eat the last piece. We are both a bit stubborn so we have a tense bummed out dinner that was supposed to be really good.

This however does explain why normally it is a well-known fact in my house (even T dreads it) that I always OVER cook meat because I don't want anything raw! ("mom, don't make chicken its too dry!") However, lately I've been getting a little better about not overcooking things so we've actually had nice moist chicken about , oh, 5 times in our life. Well, anyway, in my attempt to make that chicken not over-cooked, I totally UNDER cooked it and totally ruined it. By the way that was REALLY gross seeing that blood. No one was happy. Yuck. So there you have it, another failed dinner attempt by Rene'. Someday when I am super rich I want a personal chef to cook in our house and make us yummy healthly meals everyday. Wouldn't that be awesome?!

basketball

Last night we went to the "evaluation" and sign-ups for Upward Basketball for T. They had her do a few drills like dribbling, shooting, and sideways runs. It was cute. You could tell she was nervous at first but once she got in her groove and started making the shots you could tell she was starting to feel pretty good. She loves shooting at the hoop at grandma and grandpa's house, so we picked one up (from a neighbor's trash--funny story, but I did ASK if we could have it and he said certainly! ) so she has been shooting at our house some too. She really enjoys it and this summer she did a 2 week camp and liked it. We are hoping she really likes it and continues to play because it is a sport our whole family has a history with and can therefore really enjoy watching and can also offer support and coaching at home since we played it ourselves. Plus her aunt still even holds the record for 3-point shots in her college division (I forget what division that is). Her uncle played college ball too, and of course daddy played in h.s. I also played but only for the 7th and 8th grades, at which point I changed and became a cheerleader. But even though I didn't play as long as everyone else I still know the rules and stuff so its more fun to watch when u know how the game is supposed to be played.
Anyway, we are really proud of her, she did really good tonight. She made ALL her shots from the left side, and all but about 2 of her free throws. She didn't make any on her right side, but we think that is because she is left-handed and we noticed she's shooting with both hands, so from the right side, she probably did not have good form. Dan will have to work on that with her. Anyway, pretty exciting and looking forward to watching her play. Some of her classmates are going to be playing too so that will be fun for her as well.