Shabb-tabulous!

Queso (K so)...

All the way back in January I got this Fab blog award that I've been so lovingly ignoring. Well not ignoring, thats not the right word...

denying?



Actually I am just ALWAYS behind on my blogging but something is happening tomorrow that brings this blog award to the front line! Yes. I don't know how or why I got the fabulous blog award but I'd like to take a moment to do it wrong!

What I am supposed to do is...

1. Pass it on to 5 other fabulous blogs in a post.
2. List 5 of your fabulous addictions in the post.
3. Copy and paste the rules and the instructions below in the post.

But instead since this probably isn't even valid anymore I'm just going to give all my linky-love back to Megan!

Why you ask?

Well Megan is the lovely wife of a good friend from High school... though thats not why. She also is majorly awesome and she's starting her own business. The goal... a shabbulous blog for you!

Check out all Megan's tricks to make your blog super super cute starting tomorrow April 1st at 10 am!

5 reasons not to miss out on this...

1. I like Megans style.

2. You'll like Megan's style.

3. You should see how cute her kids are :)

4. Just do it.

5. You. Know. You. Want. To.

P.S.~ I thought she said she was having some cool freebies so be sure to check her out here, here or even here...

{those all go to the same place, hehe}

Color Me Tomato

Well hello there darling.



welcome to the abode :)

Such a pretty sitty.

Gosh... I've been feeling super busy. It's a good busy but also a nerve racking busy. You see my amazing friends, I have been hooked into a cake once again. Due to be delivered April 16th. It shall be quite lovely if it comes out anything how I imagine it. Dots and ribbons and pretty things...

BUT ~ my oh my how it stresses me out.

Also I would like to mention that I have found the most darling patterns! They are "Oliver + S" and I am really excited to get going on them!



And I am sorry to say that even though I would love more than anything to get a little sewing group together to make some easter dresses, alas I cannot.

Cake on the brain... if you know what I mean.

But feel free to acquire some of these cute patterns and perhaps we can get something going after the cake is delivered.

I got my patterns from beebee mod . They were great! I got free shipping AND a little surprise with my order... no guarantees but mine came with a bag of remnants.

Who doesn't like surprises!

The Forgotten Post

After that long post on Disneyland I decided that perhaps i should take a shower at some point in the day, and as I did I suddenly remembered all the things I really wanted to tell you.

I think best in the shower. Also I sing best in the shower. No wait... I sing best in the car. Thats right. Second best in the shower.

Anyhow, I think I got bored writing that last post (I'm thinking later in life when I'm like 45 I will like to go back and read about it and see all the fun pictures and say, oh Chad you look so young, what happened? And how come you don't even attempt a happy look in pictures? Come on... happiest place on earth?? Perk up boy!

But with all the technical documentation of the disney happening I forgot some of the best things that shall never be forgotten.

Speaking of forgotten here's a little list of things I forgot...

toothbrush... sweatshirt... eyelid medication (I have bad lids), drivers license, which actually I lost like a week ago, but still its like I forgot because i forgot where I put it? Knee socks, shoes with proper arch support, a hair brush (got the round brush though whew!)

So of course when i spot a Target in Indio i instruct Chad to exit... buns hurts anyway... need a break.

My main focus was getting a sweatshirt because I don't love to be cold. Or even like it. Chad mentions that we have to buy sweatshirts every single time we leave town... I analyse this and find that it is indeed true. Even our last trip to Lake powell.

After arriving at lake powell late at night and finding that we were not well equipped to deal with the freezing temps we headed straight to the local Wal-Mart to stock up on long-johns, sweatshirts, and sleeping bags.

And before that it was Catalina, and before that it was camping in Colorado... Apparently cold weather doesn't often cross our desert rat minds. But i don't take full blame because that would be being really hard on myself and I try not to do that and also Chad could remind me since he's obviously aware that this is a common occurrence, and also he forgot his sweatshirt too so... HA HA.

But even after our little pit stop I still forgot to get a brush... hair brush that is, not toothbrush I did remember to get that!

Did I ever tell you that I have some amazing grandparents? No. I don't think I did. Well a while back my grandma and grandpa moved to Temecula, CA and ever since I keep hearing him say it only takes 5 hours to get from here to CA, and vice versa... well not so for us. We were doing a little head calculation on the way there with the milage and all and chad was like NO WAY. Even if he was going 90 (this is where I chime in "he goes 100") mostly just to bug Chad, but hey I don't know, he may just do that! Very possible. Well he can't argue with that because if he went 100 mph it really would only take 5 hours :) And actually I think I heard him say 4.5 once... that was when he drove 110mph??

Anyway it took us, well lets see we left around 2:30pm and arrived around 10. So 7.5 hours! Well we did stop in Indio for some stuff.

Did you know that in CA they charge you extra for bottled beverages? We also got a case of h2o and one bottle of coke, because we don't like to pay $3 for water. But on the receipt there was a deposit charge or something for $1.20 for the water case and $0.05 for the coke! What is the deal with that? LAME.

{I would now like to take a moment to explain something}

the above part of the post was written shortly after the disneyland post however, I got interrupted with what,

... I can't even remember now and am just discovering this half written post.

So let me just make along story (not even sure about that)

short

by giving you the nitty gritty of what I think was to be said...

The sweatshirt I scored from target for $10 looked like something Rocky Balboa (from Rocky 1,2,3,and possibly 4) wore thus causing me to sing "Eye of the tiger" under my breath ALL day long. Which was horrible. not my best singing, because as you know my best is in the car. Or shower. Either way...

I still can't find my drivers license. I finally gave up and ordered one a few days ago. But it was rough being at disneyland without it because my debit card is really old and worn. Keep that baby in my back pocket san wallet of course. Signature is g-o-n-e! I am pretty much a wreck walking to any cash register knowing they're probably gonna ask for I.D. that I don't have... but I do have a costco card! Still i have to tell ya, its about 50/50 on who will take a costco card for identification purposes! Actually I'm amazed anyone was willing to take it.

Every store I walked in asked for my drivers license. And at everystore i replied with, "I don't have it with me *but* I do have this nifty costco card!"

Chad found this comical.

I like to drive. I drove the whole way home. we made it in a mere 5.99 hours! Because I am a fast driver... you know when your driving like 92 mph and a cop comes up behind you really fast with a crazy look on his face that you spy from you rear view mirror, that feeling of pure dread! And your blood gets all hot and runs fast through every vein in your body. And you pull into the right lane because of course you're not in the slow lane... and he passes you and pulls that other car over that passed you going 95 a minute ago!? and then your hubby say's from the other seat..."too bad he didn't pull you over, you could have showed him your costco card"

I love Chad.

And I'm sure there was more to this post but lucky for you my memory is not good. And also lucky for you, you will probably never even see this post :)

tootles.

A Day at Disney!

If you think this is going to be one of those "look at all the awesome stuff we did over spring break" post, guess again. We did absolutely NOTHING over spring break. Seriously not a singe thing!

No, this was actually the day after spring break.

We went to Disneyland, incase you couldn't tell. Upon browsing my millions of pictures... I found that I really enjoyed taking photos of the castle. Perhaps due to my fairytale daydreams, who knows.


Now this is the ball near Space Mountain... kids love this thing. It's like a ride but instead of waiting in an enormous line to ride it you just come up and shove some smelly kid out of your spot. It's pretty great.

Me and Lucy enjoying the front seat of the little rollercoaster in toon town.

I tried to put these in order... I really did.

Does anyone else find it taxing to load pictures up in reverse order?

So this is how were getting to the picture of the girls at the Blue Bayou already. Have you ever eaten there? It's the restaurant that is inside the pirates of the Caribbean ride. It's really cool. My dad used to always take us as kids so now when I think of Disneyland I start to crave the Blue Bayou... it's a very expensive craving. But FYI ~ you can make reservations there up to 60 days in advance, so even though it was the first thing on my DL agenda it was booked by the time i got there. They told me that they would only accept walk-ins if some of there reservations were no shows. It was only by a slim lucky chance that we even got in! I think they turned the people behind us away.


The kids got exactly two character autographs. It was kind of a bummer. This one we got of Minnie Mouse we had to wait in line for about a half hour to get!


It was fun for the kids to get to go through Minnies house though. It was quite cute.




The other kids were too fast to even get a picture of. Here's a primo example...

First you must know that while we were in line for Minnie, Chad was off on a quest for the perfect fast pass. So it was just me and the girls. And when we got out he wasn't back. So we waited in Minnie's backyard near the wishing well. Lucy of course loved Minnies house so she ran back in.

I ran after her...

the other two ran off...

When I came out like 2 seconds later Kassidy and Natalie were GONE! Chad was gone and Lucy was not agreeing to sit in the stroller.

A couple things went through my mind... First, the Oompa-loompa's are going to get us. ( I have this thing with Disneyland where I feel like it's sometime a little too happy... like almost creepy happy. Like if something bad were to happen those creepy little green oompa-loompa men would come out of the woodwork and take us "somewhere"...)

Second... oh my gosh my overprotective mother was right! I need a child locator device! Before we went my mom was saying how she was going to look on the internet for something that you put on you kids (like lowjack I'm guessing???) No no I begged. Please don't do that! I said to her, " I trust myself to watch my kids"

HA

Have you ever seen that show, I think it's called "what would you do?" And they have people walking on a busy street and then suddenly collapse... and no one helps them, they hardly even look at them. About a bazillion people pass before calling 9-1-1. And thats only after a fellow homeless person comes by and removes the beer can from their hand... have you??????

It was a little like that. I saw Chad from afar and yelled out. I LOST YOUR KIDS! and the people around didn't seem alarmed at all... I franticly tell the tale of how Lu ran in and I chased after her and when i came out the kids had disappeared... no reaction from the crowd... in fact I think the people we were standing nearest to were about to ask us to move out of there way. We were blocking their view of Minnie Mouse after all!

And so where where they you ask???


That's easy... the were in line to see Mickey Mouse of course! Where else?? Apparently even though they just waited in a huge line to see Minnie, they had no clue there would be a line to see Mickey.

This is the picture the DL photographer took of them with Mickey... They give you these photopasses. Yeah, not a bargain. They charge $14.95 to download it! What a rip so I took a picture of the picture on my computer screen...how does it look? pretty bad?


I got lots of pictures of the inside of the rides. Of course we had to scare the kids by taking them to the haunted mansion. I think if I was a kid I would be totally scared. A floating head in a jar that talks?



Oh and these are quite the fright! seriously... should kids be seeing stuff like that? Don't think I'm creepy or nothing k, but right after lucy was born I asked Chad if he thought if instead of painting rainbows and stuff on your infants wall you painted really scary pictures...if the baby would be scared of it's room or if he thought the baby would think it was perfectly fine and normal. He said... normal... I said NO WAY! I think you're born knowing some thing are just scary, like music. Some music is just scary.

no, I wasn't thinking of painting creepy images on Lu's wall. I said to please not think me creepy and or demented in any way.

Incase you really miss Pirate's...



Natalie kept saying... look at all the booty! I think she was talking about the jewels... but you never can tell with Natalie!


One thing Lucy was excited for was a ride on a train...

{by the look on her face it was everything she always dreamed it would be}

one of the only pictures of {most} of us. Because in Chad's words "Someone (meaning me) brought the stupid lens!"

I was going to bring the zoom lens but I couldn't find the lens cap so I just grabbed the 50mm. Apparently it's the "stupid lens".

Note to self: bring non-stupid lens next time :)


But seriously how else would i have gotten all these useless picture from inside the rides? There is no flash photography allowed in the rides. The stupid lens is awesome for low light situations!


Oh and lets not forget how awesome it is for taking photos of the magical castle all lit up! If you think this is the last of the castle pictures, think again!


Perhaps you're starting to see what I mean by these are out of order! Watch out everyone! Kassidy's at the wheel!


Oh nevermind! Shes so darn slow the poor lady behind her was scratching her head wondering what the problem was up ahead. I think the problem was that the pedal was really hard to put to the metal...pedal to the medal, get it? So not funny. I had to do the gas for Natalie, otherwise we weren't budging!


Hello Buzz.


Kass and Lu on the teacups while me and Natalie went on Space Mountain. We had to switch off for the "fun rides"


This is a classic Disney photospot, however when we got there it was way too busy so we skipped it. Walking past on our way out though I figured I atleast give it a shot! The important thing is that you can see mickey.... right?

And last but not least, the fireworks! Nobody does fireworks like Disney does them! They were grand. And I had fun taking pictures of them...




ALOT of fun. I actually have many many more pictures of the fireworks but I thought I was stretching my luck putting this many up :)



Isn't that amazing how it looks bright as day??

I thought so! Till next time Mickey!

The house at the end of the cul-de sac.

This is a post that will interest a select few...


Above you'll see the dining room area, that has the new addition of french doors that you can barely see through the boxes of cupboard and whatnots.

It's really werid to see the house you grew up in all ripped up :)


As you can see the kitchen is getting a major overhaul!


Let's see what we can find upstairs...


Very interesting... I like-ski.


Some things that havent (and won't) change.


lori is quite the artist don't-cha think? Imagine waking up to that every morning! But my mom and dad can't quite bear to paint over her artwork...


This I put up special for Stacey because she wondered what M & D had planned for the other side of those french doors! Not that this is self explanitory or anything but try to imagine a lovely pathway amongst all the other lovely things that will be back there. Quite lovely don't you think lovely friends? Do I say lovely too much?


One thing I will for surely miss...

the pomegranate tree.

Hello Amazing Friends

I have to tell you what happened last night because, it's called sharing, and sharing is caring and I care. ALOT.

Last week I made plans to start exercising. It takes me at least a week to work up to these kinds of things.

I was going to go fast walking with my new BFF (don't be jealous your all my BFF's!)

As you know walking leads to talking, especially when your walking with a girl and also you happen to be a girl. Which I am.

So we say things like "doesn't it just suck to make dinner" you have to think of what to make then you have to have the stuff to make it, or worse, you have to go get the stuff to make it, and to top it off you have to pay money for all that stuff. And in my house there's always at least one person without fail, that has to whine about it! Such a chore!

So she says to me, "we should trade dinner ideas!" to which I promptly reply... " I don't have any good dinner ideas"

BUT ... (this is where it gets good)

rewind...

Earlier that day I decided that I should ought to have dinner ready for Chad when he got home from work so that I would be ready to go walk off those cookies I ate for breakfast... and lunch. ( I haven't kicked the holiday sugar habit yet and it's March...not cool) well, I did it... I had dinner {sweet teriyaki pork soft tacos} ready to eat before I had to go, though I did not eat because exercising with a full tummy is no good!

fast foward...

When I got home I was plenty ready for dinner. And guess what!! It was soooo good!! And I said to myself... I'm going to tell Mia that I have a dinner idea to share!! And then I thought... No wait, I will just put it on my blog for all my amazing friends to enjoy!

The problem is I didn't use a recipe... but your good at following along so here we go...

a quick list off all the ingredients I used... 2 pork tenderloins, half an onion, brown sugar, 2 6oz cans of pineapple juice, soy sauce, 3 cloves of garlic, pickled ginger, sambal oelek chili paste, and *tsk tsk* a splash of Jack Daniels!

Pork... I get this at costco, its really cheap. It specifically is "pork tenderloin" it comes in like a package of 2. This is confusing because I tried to explain this to my sister and she was not getting it but finally after a few phone calls I think we got it figured out. its in a package that has 2 sides, in each side there is 2 loins :) following so far?

Use one half of the package... so 2 loins.

Brown the pork in a hot saute pan with a bit of oil, then take the loins out and place in your crockpot. So what you do next is deglaze the pan with some pineapple juice... I am including a picture of some of the ingredients I think you may like to see to know what I speak of.



Deglazing is basically using an acid to get the brown bits and what-nots off the pan. (can be vinegar or lemon juice or something... we're using pineapple juice:)

So you just take one of those little 6oz cans, and pour just enough to where it sizzles and stuff, then pour that along with the rest of the can into the crockpot with your pork.

Take your onion half and slice it into strips... I don't think thats how I mean to say it but other than julienne I can't think of the proper word for it... so strips (or julienne for you fancy shmancy folks)

Saute your onion strips in a bit of oil and when they're well caramelized add alot of brown sugar! If I have to guess I'd say I added like 1/2 cup but it could have been more... this is not critical. and when it gets all bubbly add a splash of soy sauce. Then take that and dump it on top of your pork loins. Then lavishly cover the loins with a layer of brown sugar... like I said I have not kicked the sugar habit... I like candy for dinner too! Dash it with salt and lid it.

Everyone's crockpot is different but I set mine to low (these are some pretty speedy pork loins and I like them s-l-o-w cooked)

Wait like 3 hours...

then when it gets all shreddable you take a little sauce pan and pour one more 6 oz. can of pineapple juice, a long splash of soy sauce (1/8 cup maybe????) 3 cloves of chopped garlic, and a forks worth of pickled ginger... chopped, some chili paste (don't quote me... 1/2 teaspoon? this will make your teriyaki sauce spicy so you just be the determiner of how much goes in k!) ... boil it. turn it down and simmer it for a bit. At the very end add a splash of Jack Daniels (if this rubs you the wrong way... skip it :) again its not critical) but it is gooood :)

Thats really all there is to the pork... you can either toss the shredded pork in the sauce or if your like me and you want to make sure you get maximum sweetness on your pork you can drizzle it right over your pork after you put it on your tortilla!

I made soft tacos with it. I love those bake yourself tortillas from Costco. so it was...

tortilla
shredded pork
heavy sugar drizzle (sauce)
cheese
lettuce
YUM!

The only thing I can think of that would have made these a little extra excellent is some diced mango :)

Which I did not have.

By the way, the pickled ginger is awesome. I used to buy fresh ginger but it always seems to shrivel up and get moldy before I used it. The pickled ginger is always there ready to be used at any ginger whim... you find this at the grocery store in the asian isle.

Also, the Sambal Oelek chili paste can be found in the same area I do believe... however I got mine at Cost Plus. Lee Lee's is another great place to find it, if your in the neighborhood. This is the stuff P. F. Changs mixes in your lettuce wrap sauce. Its quite yummy and may very well be the secret ingredient. Though not very secret anymore. Unless you want the secret ingredient to be the Jack Daniels which I can totally see because you don't want your good mormon neighbors you just invited over for dinner to know that you doused their food in hard liquor!!

And of course those cute little cans of pineapple juice can be found in the juice isle sold as a 6 pack. Near the canned juice not the bottled juices. Typically on the bottom shelf :()

I promise this is easy and tasty and best of all CHEAP!

enjoy.

It's not just the gamma...

Did I ever mention how much I love my mac? I can't even tell you how beautifully it displays photographs. You won't understand unless you see it for yourself.


Theres this little phenomenon called gamma. I learned about this when I was playing around with CS4. Oh and when I say learned, I mean it was brought to my attention and yet I still do not know what to do about it. What I gather from my gamma reading is that my photographs, displayed so lovely on my mac monitor, are displaying dark on the rest of the worlds monitor.


Which makes me sad. So I used my little gamma slider to make these photo's a little brighter for all the world to see. Basically this is my feeble {at best} attempt at helping the world see this mac-a-liciously :)

NOTE: not gonna work...
(refer to title of post)

So if you're on a lovely wonderful awesome mac and these are too bright... I know! It sucks but what can I do? But hey look on the bright side *snicker snicker* (bright side, bright photos... you get it right?) At least you have the pleasure of owning a mac! (and even so... these still look better on a mac) Did I mention how much I love my mac??


I wasn't sure if I had done a proper photoshoot in this little dress. I used that same Tina Givens pattern "The Little Goddess Dress" . Seriously LOVE that pattern!


I am *considering* doing a giveaway next month, in which this dress may be up for grabs :)

Interested??


These are taken at my mom and dad's house, the very one I grew up in. I find it to be quite lovely. But an interesting thing is happening as we speak!


I'ts getting remodeled! Which is kinda exciting and also little sad at the same time. I think it's kinda like how I feel about my current house... I want to sell it, and yet I don't. Because it's pretty small, so it would be really nice to move up... have a bit more space... and in the very same thought I feel like I would miss it. It's our first house! So many wonderful memories here :) Same goes for my parent house. I'm glad they're just remodeling though because the thought of selling it makes me really sad. But all that sentimental stuff being said I think the result will be awesome! They are going all out!!


The economy thanks them for being so brave.


Isn't this so true to life?? Everybody wants a piece of whatever grandma's got!

I figured I would throw in some pictures of the construction (which is further along that this even though these were taken only a few days ago!) for those of you that can't just hop on over because you live somewhere like... oh i dunno, Utah or something!

This is Lucy in the pool!


This is my cute m&d in the pool.


Chad was there just this morning and said the tile is no more...


Perhaps one of my favorite new additions... the french doors :)



I will totally be posting pictures of the end result! So stay tuned...