My week off

It's finally sinking in. School starts Monday. I took this week off (well mostly I worked one day). And now it's Saturday and I had the sudden panic that next week I have to go back. I'm excited, don't get me wrong, I love teaching and my kids. But this is the first true week I've taken off since well, before I started here 3 years ago, the summer we moved from St. George. It's been wonderful. We've gotten tons done around the house, even though Justen has still been working. We got the camp trailer cleaned out and winterized, the laundry room cleaned (no easy task it was a mess.) We got our litter of pups here safe and sound. Now though I'm realizing everything I still have to get done before school starts. So, I thought I'd show you one of the projects I just finished. School starting also means Garrison goes back to full time daycare instead of just our sitter around the corner. At daycare his color is Green. This helps keep all of his stuff straight. So I just finished 4 bibs and a blanket all embroidered with his name. Then because I loved the bibs so much I made a whole bunch more for us at home. They are great! They have a hidden waterproof layer inside so no junk leaks through to his clothes. They also have a little turned up pocket at the bottom so they catch all the crumbs as they fall. I'm pretty excited about them. Having something fun to work on is softening the blow that we go back in 2 days.





There are actually two more bibs missing from the picture because they are already in the dirty laundry. We were in desperate need of new bibs, all his old ones have fallen apart.

Yum, had to share what's for dinner.

We decided we wanted to eat a little more fish. Once a month would be "more" for us, so here's our first try for the month. Salmon is both of our favorite fish so we played it safe last night and had Salmon. Kent's Market puts it on sale for $2.99 lb all the time so it's even pretty good price wise. Hopefully they'll put some other kind of fish on sale soon so we can branch out. Last nights dinner was so good and SO easy I thought I'd share what we had. We had Salmon, green beans, and Parmesan/ramano rice pilaf. So for the salmon, we put a little lemon juice on it and then sprinkled it with Northwoods Spice from Penzeys Spices. Then wrapped it in foil and put it on the grill. I'm sure you could do it in a pan or the oven too, I just don't know how to use that thing in my kitchen during the summer. It was INCREDIBLE!!! My brother and Sister-in-Law sent us a mixed box of spices for Christmas and I would highly recommend all of the Penzeys blends, they are really good and fresh.
Next for the green beans. We got a whole bunch of fresh ones from our "garden". All we really have is about 5 bean plants up mixed in with my flower bed. So I threw them in the microwave to steam them first for about six min. with a little water in the bowl covered with saran wrap. Then I put a tiny bit of bacon in a skillet, but you could use a little olive oil instead. Then sauted the beans in the cooked bacon for about 6-8 min with a little onion powder and salt. Now I could have stopped there and they would have been great but I wanted something tangy. So I put a little splash of balsamic vinegar and cooked for another min. They were awesome. I'm hoping there are enough beans out there to have them again tonight.
Now the rice was awesome too. I'll tell you my secret to awesome Parmasan/Ramano cheese creamy rice pilaf. Rice-a-Roni Natures Way Mix in a box. I know it sounds terrible to top off such an awesome homeade meal with a box. But they are so good, and so easy.
So tonight's challenge for me will be to use up some of the tomatoes from my one little plant in a pot on the back porch. I have a whole bowl full of Romas from it and we're getting tired of BLTs so I need a new idea. If you have any ideas let me know, I'm thawing lamb chops so I need something to use tomatoes that will go with them.

Doberman's aren't Black and White?!?

Abby had puppies today! She was a week early so it caught us completely by surprise. We had taken today off to get the wash room ready for her and get her whelping crate ready. She whined to come in and was laying in her crate while I cleaned. I walked out of the room to get something, and when I came back in there was a cleaned off puppy in her crate! We were so surprised. We called my Oma to make sure we were doing everything right (she's whelped hundreds of puppies so she's pretty much as expert as they come). She told us everything we needed and told me to call her if we needed any more help and let her know how many we got. Well when all was said and done Abby had six puppies. We called Oma to tell her about them and she asked us what colors, Justen told her 4 black and 2 black and white. She got really upset and told him, "What is wrong with your puppies, Doberman's aren't black and white?!?" Apperently we never told her it was Abby not Tia having puppies.
So back to the puppies. We got 2 girls, marked similarly to abby white blaze on the face and part of a collar. 2 Girls that are black, one with grey paws the other with a white spot on her chest. Funny thing is we also got 2 boys with the same markings as the two mostly black girls. If I didn't know that they were Border Collies, I'd say we were raising black labs around here. Garrison is really a bit confused. He keeps pointing at Abby and saying "Abby, uh-oh, meow?" He seems pretty convinced that a litter of kittens has invaded his basement. We only let him have a peek today so Abby could rest, but he sure does want to get in there to Abby and the Meows. But he was pretty satisfied to have Tia's undivided attention today since she was also banished from the washroom for the day.

Upadates for the month...

Well, we've been super busy. Since a picture is worth a thousand word, here it goes.

We stopped at a restaurant in Nephi on our way back from St. George and Garrison was in LOVE with the train! The food was great too.


This is out at the Stone Rodeo



We got Garrison a little pool for the back deck, he really likes splashing in it. But some days he insists on having his hat with him while he swims.