Too many secrets

For the past few months I have had too many secrets to keep. If you know me, I really don't like keeping them. I'm much more of a shout to the world my goods news. But I did. First I had to keep the surprise birthday party of my best friend quiet. That was hard enough and then my sister gives me an even bigger secret! But says I can't tell anyone. 2 big things at once is just way too much for this girl. Finally, the day has come where I can shout and scream at the top of my lungs...

I'M GOING TO BE AN AUNTIE!!!!

Yep that's right, my dear sis is prego and having a baby in February. I really can't be any more excited! Woo Hooo! Congrats to Cari & Greg. Can't wait to see you throughout your pregnancy and meet the little stinker growing inside ya.

Jungle Cube

The plant next to me is slowly growing into my cube. I think that it's almost in full takeover. If I was just a tiny bit taller I'd be hitting my head on it. Think they'll trim it soon?

A little bright spot in my day

Saw this rainbow as I was driving to work this morning. The picture does it no justice. It was a beautiful double rainbow where if I turned around in my car (don't worry I didn't) I could've seen both sides. Great way to start the Monday morning after a long weekend. It's going to be a busy week!

Cheesiness

I was talking with 2 of my neighbors the other day about cheese. One of them was saying how cheap it is at Target. I piped up that it's even cheaper at Sam's Club. There's a pause and then one of them asks. Do you freeze the extra cheese? I replied that we didn't because we eat it all. After a few stares of astonishment [note: we = Justin and I vs both of them have a family of 4] I decided against telling them how last week we had to buy 2 packages of it because we go through it so quick. I think I can officially say Justin and I are pretty cheesy! :)

The big 3-0

Happy Birthday to Cran!! She turns 30 today signaling the start of all us '98 grads hitting that milestone. Gonna be a big year! Can't wait to celebrate at Outback tonight. Mmmm steak...

HP Review

I had to post my thoughts on Harry Potter since I was sooo excited to see it. If anyone wants to talk specifics on it I will gladly do that. Don't want to ruin the surprise for anyone who hasn't seen it yet. Overall, I have a mixed review. It was good but I felt like they left out so many details and changed a lot of things up. I guess that was to be expected since they can only do so much in 2.5 hours. I think reading the book so close to the movie hurt me though because I knew the details way too well. Good to know for when the next one comes out! We saw it on the big screen in Burnsville. Pretty fricking sweet on that. And I just love Bellatrix's character. She's so evil and crazy yet so seductive that she sucks you in.





It was a great way to kickoff our weekend. To hear all about our cabin trip read Cran's blog post. She had the only camera since I forgot mine. Not that there was a lot to take pics of...

Things you should not see at work

There's a conference room at my work that is right next to my department. We have a tendency to use all the whiteboards in there and then leave what's on them for many months at a time. I know it drives other people nuts. It looks like someone got a little fed up with one of our lists on the board. Check out this pic and see if you can spot the line that doesn't belong.

We got her good

A few months ago Brent sent an email out to me and Cran's sister Kate saying he wanted to throw Cran a surprise 30th birthday party. Kate and I gladly agreed to help in anyway possible. Emails were sent back and forth with the venue, date, and cover story changing every time. It was finally settled to have the party at Brent's parents house with the excuse that she'll be coming over to celebrate her birthday with his family. As the date got closer the secret was harder to keep. All I can say is thankfully Cran and I do a lot of our talking over IM so the big grin plastered across my face could not be see as I told my lies.

Saturday morning Cran and Mallory came over with some breakfast treats. Brent was "golfing with his friend" and they wanted to get out of the house for a bit. (Really he was setting everything up at his parents) We chatted about her plants for the day and she told us all about the dinner she was having at his parents that night. This time I was able to keep my face straight while my insides were jumping. I knew that she had NO idea about any of it.

And the party went off without a hitch. All the guests arrived. We hide in the garage with the doors shut. As Brent and Cran pulled into the drive and got out of the car we opened the garage doors and giggled as she peered in looking confused.

The WTF look.








Lots more pics if you want to see them. Great job planning Brent!

Garden News

We have our first veggies!!! Hopefully this is a sign that our garden is going to be producing soon. Most of the plants have flowers so I think we're off to a good start. I was so excited to go down today and see our first pea pods. 3 of them to be exact.


Zucchini was the first plant to have a veggie on it. It's been rapidly growing and here's how big it is tonight. I heard these things grow like crazy overnight so I'm curious to see when we actually harvest it. Time to read up on the next phase of gardening.


The jalapeno plant also has mini peppers on it. This plant I did buy from the nursery where the others all came from seeds so I'm not surprised that it's already producing. Aren't they cute?!


To follow all the garden updates go here.

Great Choreography

I don't think much needs to be said about this video expect AWESOME!! Tabitha and Napoleon rock. Don't need to watch all 9 mins of it just the first 2 are the dance.

Giddy

In one week and one day, and about 3.5 hours I will be in a movie theatre and I CAN NOT WAIT! There's not too many movies that I get this excited about. Harry Potter, anything related to Sex and the City, and maybe the Twilight series are the exceptions. I just reread the book so I'm all caught up and it's fresh in my head. Although I'm not sure that was the best idea because now I will notice everything they change and every detail they left out. Hopefully it will live up to my high expectations. I watched the trailer and got goose bumps. Always a good sign!

Especially can't wait to see this part

Jamming and Baking

This is my rhubarb plant. And this is a picture after we have already used it 3 times! As in took almost all of the stalks out each time. It just keeps growing back. I thought their season was in June and then it was done. I can't claim to be an expert in this area by any means so maybe this is what it's supposed to do. I am starting to run out of rhubarb recipes though. First I made rhubarb cake and a rhubarb sauce. Then I moved onto a rhubarb, pineapple, strawberry jam.



Finally I tried a strawberry rhubarb muffin recipe I got from a food blog I follow. It was a great use of the fresh pick strawberries too. I made them gluten free though just by substituting my gluten free flour mix. I don't even like rhubarb that much but these were great!!



I also made a fruit pizza the other weekend for a bbq I was going to. I thought they turned out really pretty so I had to show. This recipe is from my mom. I think it's the best fruit pizza I've had. The cream cheese has an hint of orange flavoring and the pizza is topped with an apricot glaze. All the flavors meld well together. The crust is a shortbread. I wasn't sure how it would taste gluten free, so I made 2 pizzas: one regular and one gluten free. I didn't want everyone at the party to be my guinea pigs. :) Turns out they were both great, the gluten free one was just a little different texture.

Regular pizza


Gluten free

Fireworks

Justin and I decided to have a low key 4th this year since we've had such a busy summer. Most of the day was spent working on house projects. For a little celebration we met up with the Eids for ice cream and a fireworks viewing on their deck. The Moehrings were also able to make the long walk down. (that's a joke for those who don't get it - they only live a few houses apart) John even brought some sparklers with as a surprise. Mallory and Ellie both enjoyed their first year of fireworks. Although I think Ellie did sleep through most of it. :)

Here's a few pics. For more pics, see our website.

Mallory loving the sparklers. I think she enjoyed these more than the actual firework display.


Justin and Baby Ellie.


More sparklers


We found this sweet mode on our camera called "Fireworks." You can see John writing out his name with the sparkler.

Berry Overload

Such a fabulous weekend! I love it when they are long. One of things we really wanted to do was go strawberry picking. After our bust last year we decided to try a new place. I heard great reviews from multiple people about Afton Apples, so we headed all the way to the other side of the cities. Thank God, we had much better luck and the drive was worth it. There were rows and rows of plants filled with strawberries to pick from. 25 lbs later we went home... I really don't know what we are going to do with all the berries. We froze most of them in hopes that they will last us through the winter. We will see! If anyone has any advice or recipes I would gladly take them!

Pickin in the fields


Our loads


Justin's dream job?


Just one of the berries