To All The Fans...I'm Sorry!!!

Slap a slacker sticker across my forehead already! Daang! My last post was weeks ago...ugh...I will try to keep up now...I promise!

In my defense...ahem...this summer has been out of stinkin' control busy. If I had to give this summer a name it would be The Work Your Pants Off Summer, because that is EXACTLY what we've been doing. On one hand, it stinks...who wants to work alllllll the time? Especially in the summer?? Not me! BUT, on the other hand, we are getting in a really comfortable place financially. Have any of you heard of the financial guru Dave Ramsey?? Well, I got ahold of his book Total Money Makeover (thanks Jess! ;o), and his plan roped me in immediately. I'm always on the lookout for some financial smarts books... because honestly, where else in the world am I going to learn how to make smart financial moves? It certainly wasn't taught in high school...or college... or in our home growing up. And let's face it... your entire life revolves around these little green bills. It does... and without it, you'd be living in a little brown box. Ha! But anyway, it's basically a common sense plan of paying cash for everything and getting rid of consumer debt like car loans, credit cards, and student loans as quickly as possible, and then making your hard earned money work for you by putting it in mutual funds, kids' college funds, retirement, and of course have extra to give away (one of my favorite parts of this plan... he's not preaching greed, and I think it's awesome that he includes giving to charities in his money makover plan.:). The idea is to never have debt to pay on...because with debt comes interest and you end up paying more for everything. Pretty common sense, huh? However...Dave Ramsey's plan says to basically take 18 months or so and use every extra penny you have to pay off consumer debt...which implies that you would spend no money on vacations...or christmas presents...or birthday gifts...etc. Yea right! We are altering his plan slightly to fit our lifestyle ;o)...plus Eric and I both decided that we still want quality of life! Not sure if this plan will get me to be a stay at home momma some day, and after realizing how much money really goes into my retirement account by my employer I'm not even sure if I should strive for staying home--ha! BUT...I am thankful to have a good paying job and a husband with a good paying job and side-work up to his eyeballs. In this economy...well, I don't even have to go there...we all know the economy stinks right now!

Speaking of spending money :) :)....We are having a heck of a time trying to decide where to go on vacation in mid September. We've been thinking about it for months....go to the beach? the mountains? stay-cation? Chicago? the lake? Ahhhhh!!!!  I think we're coming to a conclusion....pack up and hit the North Carolina shore! I think we'd like to head to the Outer Banks, rent a little beach cottage, and do nothing but sit our bums on the beach for the entire week. Cook breakfast & lunch and go out for dinner....make smoothies in the evenings and go for beach walks at sunset and breathe in that salty ocean air. Okay, yep...just made up my mind! Outer Banks it is!! ;~))

These last few weeks have kicked off harvest time at the gardens! If I'm not working, I'm at mom's. It's been awesome...I love hanging out with the whole family for harvesting, canning, freezing, and cooking. It rocks. My mom rocks. She knows it all! (shhh...do not tell her I just admitted that! ;) My sister and I are a hot mess without her around to guide us through the tedious steps of preserving. Take this instance for example...
Last weekend, we were getting together at moms to can peaches. Mom had a Dr. appointment that morning, so she left Tammy and I some directions to get things started while she was gone. So Tammy and I show up at moms house, walk in the kitchen where all the equipment, towels, and recipes were all set up waiting on us. The first instruction: "put peaches in hot water on stove for 30-60 seconds and place in ice water bath; peel skins off, cut peaches in half." Tammy and I were like, "Okay...easy enough, we've got this." So we begin the process...heat the peaches, dump them in the ice water, start slicing them...and possibly by the 3rd peach that Tammy picked up, she went to cut it in half and instead sliced through her pinky finger!!!!!!!!!! My mom's knives are the SHARPEST things ever! As a matter of fact she sharpened them that morning so they'd be ready for 4 bushels of peaches. :) Immediately, my sister.... a nurse... about had a heart attack... pale as a ghost. Granted, the cut was deep...fat was busting out of it and she was convinced she could feel nerve damage kicking in. "We have to go the the ER right now!! Come on lets go...right now!" Meanwhile... I'm trying to hold in my giggles because she was completely overreacting like most nurses would. She was spouting off things like, "I'm gonna have to get a wound vac on this thing!" and "I'm diabetic Liz! Now I'm going to lose my finger!" and "It better not get infected with MRSA!!" Bless her heart... she did go to the ER and came home with 5 stitches. Proof that we can't do anything without mom's guidance. :)

So far this season we've canned green beans, hot pepper mustard, peaches, spiced peaches, pasta sauce, blueberry lime jam, strawberry jam, blackberry peach freezer jam, peach freezer jam, and froze sweet corn. We also made some butter the last day I was up at moms. She used to make it when we were little from the cream from our goats' milk. Since there wasn't a goat in the backyard these days we used heavy whipping cream. Just stick it in the blender and turn it on low. Before long (couple minutes), the whipping cream turns into a big blob of sweet cream butter. Then you drain off the buttermilk and wash the butter itself with cold tap water and work it in a bowl until the water runs clear. Easy peasy lemon squeezie! :)

I will stop boring you with reasons why I haven't been updating as frequently and just cut to some pretty cute pictures! Enjoy...

My faithful lil cheeser... :o)

Peach snatcher! She must be saving that blueberry lime jam for later. ;o)

This is what whimsical 8 year olds do to entertain themselves while the rest of the family slaves over the stove.... make flower petal paths!!

Mmmm....JAMMM!!!

Canning is a labor of love... Lesson learned: moms knives are even sharper than we thought!!

Pepper butter in the making (or mustard..whatever you wanna call it! :)

Pepper peelin' Dale!

The girls discovered the mister on the hose!

8 was a fun age! ;o)

Loooong day at Granny's... time for bed Ava!

Playground near our house...

My girl.

Love these girls!

Sometimes you just gotta... 8o)

Backyard pool time!!

Ava's new table daddy picked up in Iowa.

Hope you're enjoying your summer!! As you can tell, we are eating ours up!!! Leave some love--I'd love to hear how everyone's summer is going! I know you've got some Outer Banks info up your sleeve, too...we've never been there so I need some pointers! ;o) xoxo

Random Shots...

Just because I have slacked lately, I will make up for it with a totally random post about nothing in particular... ;o)

Sweet shades, Ava! Or as Ava would say, "Cooool!"

Let's go for a ride, Mom! And by that I mean please push me in this car up and down the sidewalk 8000 times even though it's 94 degrees outside and we're dripping in humidity and sweat. ;o)

We call this outfit Ava's hoochie mama dress. It's a little "slim-fitting"...it's a night gown apparently, but it's really tight! And it's a size 2T! So we've dubbed it the hoochie mama dress...and what goes better with a hoochie mama dress than mommy's hoochie heels?? ;o)

Just an afternoon at the park with her buddy Eli and friends...

As soon as her eye caught a glimpse of this baby doll lying there with nobody around to claim it Ava ran over and snatched it up. She looks mighty possessive over this baby that doesn't belong to her...and Georgia (the baby's mommy) wasn't around to defend baby doll so her little brother was trying his darndest to protect it while sis played on the swings...

I'm learning that Ava can hold her own in many different situations. Isn't this picture hilarious? Look at those two disgruntled toddlers. Ha! Little Brother is disappointed he let her get away with baby and let Big Sis down...and Ava's just ticked that some boy with cooties would even try to take "her" babydoll from her...hmmpf.

Oooh this girl...will forever keep me on my tippiest of tippy toes...

Sad Face.

We miss daddy.

Gardening at Granny's

Ava and I headed to mom's today for some green bean harvesting and freezing. It was a fairly productive day. Aside from keeping little girls out from under our feet, we were able to pick, prep, blanch, french, and bag some 33 quarts of thick and juicy fresh green beans. I enjoy summertime most for days like these. :o) It was hotter than hades today, and we worked up a few beads of sweat, but I thoroughly enjoyed every second of it. Except I missed my sister & her family!!! All this gardening business never feels complete without them around! Darn busy lives...

Onto the pictures... Ava had lots of fun romping around granny's house with her step cousins! No pictures of our hard work today... hope you'll enjoy these instead!

Scoping out granny's garden... taking mental notes hopefully! She has the best gardens around!!

Ava and Abby...running around like real country girls do...with the grass between their toes! These two are only a couple weeks apart in age... completely opposite in personalities! Abby is sweet and quiet, just sits back and observes what her big sister and everyone else around her is doing. And Ava, well, she's boisterous...and dominating...and strong-willed. Very strong-willed.

Nothing beats little girls...Seriously. Love. 'Em.

Abby. So sweet.

Oh my...didn't I just mention something about this girl being boisterous?

Grandpa...taking the girls to let the chickens out of their coop. The smaller two are deathly afraid of the chickens. Hence, they are holding onto Grandpa with vice-like grips.

Running wild!

Peek-a-boo!!

Buckets of water keep little girls busy for hours. ;o)

New Bikes!

We've been looking into getting new bikes with infant seats, or at least buying a bike trailor, for a couple months now. While I was away in San Diego, Eric found a couple bargains on craigslist and surprised me with them when I got home! He's sneaky like that. :o) We love them! Ava wasn't sure at first, of course, but she has warmed up to both, the infant seat and the bike trailor! Oh, and the helmet...that was torture at first, but she puts it on herself now before we go for a ride.

Trying out the infant seat...

She loves this trailor!!

Yep--kid tested and approved!

Wait...you mean I have to leave this thing on my head the whole time? Not cool, Mom...not cool.

4th of July!! (a little late ;)

I know, I'm a little late on the July 4th post! We went to Red, White, & Boom in downtown Columbus for our July 4th celebration this year. To say the least...it was not worth it. Not that we didn't have fun just being with friends...and not that my daughter was feisty, she was actually a complete peach, even for the 2 hour drive to get downtown (aaand, my house is normally a 15-20 minute drive from downtown!)...but it just wasn't worth the hours of sitting in the car waiting to move a few inches. We were elbow-to-elbow with 18 million people and the lines to get food were UNBELIEVABLY long...which is not cool when a girl is hungry! Needless to say...we won't bother with this again...UNLESS (!) we plan to make an entire day of it...tailgate style...complete with cornhole. ;) On the upside, Ava LOVED the fireworks! She hung out with Kurtis through it all! Which is saying a lot...because she has turned into a fussy butt when it comes to men...she thinks they're smelly...and have cooties...and sometimes have weird hair growing on their faces.... ;o)

Look at that cutie pie...

Her unexpected buddy for the evening...she had him wrapped tightly around her little pinky. ;o)

Waiting patiently for some fireworks... :)

The girlies...

The dudes...I love this shot...they're so excited to run the camera! Can't you tell?!

So this is Katie. Ava and Katie have met about 3 times...on this night, at this particular moment, one would have thought they've been lifelong buddies. Ava practically jumped into Katie's arms when she bent down to say hello, and then she just snuggled right into Katie's hug. It was pretty sweet. :o) Ava must find Katie's body nice and snuggly!

See...still snuggling. :o)

Happy July 4th!!!

San Diego, CA!

One of my best friends, who was also my maid of honor in my wedding, suggested to me a couple months ago that we should take a vacation together. We rarely see each other because I'm here in Ohio and she lives in a tiny mountain town in Colorado...so a couple times per year is usually it. We always have tons of fun together despite our completly opposite lifestyles. She is single & childless and plans to stay that way for life...and I think we all know my position on marriage & children! She enjoys living up her youth and traveling across the states with nothing holding her back. She graduated college with a degree in interior design, but gags at the idea of having a 9-5 job in the "real world"...waitressing and bartending suit her just fine!  We have such similar interests outside of these differences though. Lord knows we would not be best friends if either one of us was afraid to live life...to get dirty and camp in a tent...or sleep in my old yellow bug on Panama City Beach (spring break '04)...or go a couple days without a shower...or rent bicycles on vacation and work up a sweat riding 30 miles round trip to La Jolla, Ca...or put on our hiking shoes and hike for miles (Grand Canyon trip already in the making for next year!)...or enjoy good quality food so much that we just cannot stop eating....or just kick back together with a beer (or wine!) in our hands and talk for hours about life, family, and relationships..and I mean good quality talking...the kind of conversations that leave you thinking for hours after you're finished. I love this girl....

When she asked if I would go on vacation with her this summer, I will admit, I had some initial hesitation. I thought,"you mean...me & you? Just me & you? I'd have to leave my husband & baby at home & travel across the country without them?! Is that possible!!?? Yiikes!!!!" Not that I wouldn't love a trip and some quality time with my best friend...but I'd have to leave Ava! What if she forgets who I am!!? So...I talked it over with Eric, who bless his heart, encouraged me to get away for awhile and have fun on a girls trip. He said, "you should go hun, I take guy trips all the time, you need a getaway!" I thought, "wow, what a guy. Did my husband just tell me to go enjoy a vacation in California? Without him?....wait a minute...was he serious??" Turns out...he was...AND he handed me the cash from one of his sidejobs for my vacation. God, you have blessed me...I am not even sure I deserve such an awesome husband, family, and friends. Not only did my best friend return me a favor by paying for my plane ticket to get to San Diego, but another of my best friends volunteered to keep Ava overnight for 2 nights and my mom kept Ava over the weekend while Eric worked. I'm at a loss for words...

Enjoy these awesome pics! I want to go back already!!!

 

Hello California!!!

 

We rented bicycles as our only mode of transportation on our trip! They were perfect. Pretty fancy Schwinns, eh? So, I just have to add that this picture was taken by a 78 year old woman. I told Chantel that I would stop and ask the next person who walked by if they would take our picture...it happened to be 2 old ladies. Sweet as pie they were. The cute old lady said, "oh you girls have such pretty colors on!" Bless their hearts... :)

 

 

Riding down the boardwalk. We really felt like we needed to be on roller blades with our walkmans on like in the early 90's movies... we could've pulled it off. :)

 

Okay, this fella's name is Scott. Scott picked us up from the airport because we were staying in his condo rental. We didn't know Scott from Jim Bob, so I was sneaking pictures of him from the backseat in case anything happened to us and I happened to get away with my camera. Scott ended up being very nice and showed us around San Diego a little and where all the happening places were to eat (because food was our main concern...always is!). BUT, just in case he turned out to be some creep...I have a few pictures of him. ;) Hey, a young mom away from her family has to protect herself. I might've even memorized his license plate number...just sayin'!!

 

Our oceanview rental! Not bad...really it wasn't. San Diego hotels are not cheap...especially not beach front! For 100 bucks a night, there was absolutely no beating this place...Chantel found it on craigslist...which might've been another reason for my hypervigilance. ;o)

 

Oooooh, we ate so good in San Diego. Being 20 miles north of the Mexican border you can imagine that the mexican food was unbelievable. Just unbeatable...P.S. I ate this entire burrito and licked my fork clean! ....okay, Chantel had the last 2 bites... ;o)

Mmm...mmmm. Are you even surprised that I took pictures of the food? You shouldn't be. :) These are banana pancakes with orange infused maple syrup and cinnamon cream. We felt entitled to eat whatever we wanted because we got plenty of exercise on our bikes. Did I mention that it is extremely hilly in San Diego?

 

On our way to Temecula for our wine tasting tour. Temecula was about 50 minutes northeast of San Diego. The wine tour shuttle picked us up...there was absolutely no way we were riding our bikes there! 5 hours of wine tasting plus bike riding is a recipe for disaster! Anyway, this is a picture of California's avocado trees! Pretty cool. They grow on hills or flatland, so the land they're planted on is usually pretty affordable, but the trees require TONS of water and the harvesting of the avocadoes is extremely laborious, which is why avocadoes are 75 cents to $1.50 each. Workers basically have to climb the trees, pick the fruit, and toss it into a sack on their backs. I would not want that job.

 

Farmer's Market in Temecula! This was a pretty neat tourist-y city. Lots of shops and boutiques. Anything and everything that could have a shop did....candy & sweets shop....cheese shop...rock shop...coffee shop...clothing shops...etc. We sample lots of popcorn at this farmer's market...and right across the popcorn tent was a clothing tent where Chantel bought a really cute long dress. One stop shopping right there! :)

 

The first winery we stopped at. Breath taking views. It was incredible. I wished time would just freeze when we got here. Warm sunshine, sweet air, cool breeze...just amazing. Look at those rolling hills....ahhh, I wanna go back! This was a cutesy little winery where we sampled 5 wines and then they fed us lunch. And Franny the mut was by our side the whole time. Should've gotten a picture of Franny...she was a cutie.

The second winery. Way more commercialized, but just as cool as the little winery we just came from. I think they were setting up for a wedding reception when we got here. Can you imagine your wedding reception being held here? Here at Wilson Creek they made the famous Almond Chamgagne. It was tasty. They also had dessert wines that tasted like chocolate...which I found to be pretty gross...but I'm sure in the right atmosphere they might taste better...or not. Anyway, I was a big fan of the dry white wines...those with undertones of peach and pineapple were my favorite. Not too sweet...just right. The red wines weren't bad either. Normally, I'm a white wine girl...but the reds at this winery were pretty darn good.

 

I just wanted a picture of the breath-taking blue sky...

 

This picture was taken by a nice gentleman who sat back and watched us struggle with trying to create a makeshift tripod so that we could take a picture of ourselves...he gave us about 3 minutes and a few good chuckles before offering to take our picture.

 

This is real...there are scenes like this in the world...it was nice to somewhat capture this view...and I say somewhat because sometimes pictures just do not even compare to being there...those are grape vines at the winery...in case you can't tell.

 

Wine tasting in the barrel room at the winery...gave it an authentic feel. ;o)

 

Riding our bikes to La Jolla (pronounced Lah-HOYA)...what we thought would be a 30 minute bike ride really ended up being a 50-60 minute bike ride. But, it was worth it! So much fun!

 

The seal cove in La Jolla. We ventured out on the pier to get a better view.

The waves were crashing away on the pier...occasionally splashing cold pacific ocean water all over us. :o)

 

Some dude swimming with the seals that wandered up to shore...they must be friends. :)

 

Our parking spot every night. Had to lock those fancy Schwinns up so nobody would steal them!

 

Entertainers on the beach. This was our entertainment one night while we waited 45 minutes for our table at the World Famous restaurant.

 

They were pretty talented!

 

Getting ready to watch the sunset! We met a family on the beach who invited us over for a cookout and to watch the sunset from the best location on the beach...their balcony. Let me tell ya...San Diegan cookouts are nothing like Ohio cookouts! We had BBQ chicken and potato salad...which was very good...but cooking out on a balcony is nothing like grilling out on the back deck! :) Anyway, they were a very nice family and did have something Ohio can't offer...the most amazing sunset I've ever watched.

 

They even had sunset watching binoculars... I would too if I lived in their condo!

Aahhhhh.......

Our last day on the beach...and it was gorgeous out! Apparently, San Diego experiences "June gloom" which means that the mornings are very cloudy and gray until about 11am when the clouds clear and the sun comes out. Pretty weird. I had never heard of this kind of thing until we got out there! But the weather was still beautiful everyday. Not quite as warm as I was expecting...but still perfect!

Our last night in San Diego...might've stayed out a little too late...it was very difficult to wake up for our flights at 9 am and even more difficult to remember where we put things...like our ID's and money... which were pretty important since we needed BOTH to board our planes home. And for some reason we had these massive headaches. At least by the end of the trip I was able to drink more than 1 beverage before feeling completely hammered...Chantel was traveling with a super-lightweight...one that was not even going to attempt to keep up with her!! :)

I had an amazing time in San Diego! It was fun to feel young and responsibility-less...no work...no child...no grocery shopping!..haha....but I am soooo glad to be home! I feel so refreshed & ready to start thinking about planning baby #2! Ha!