May Fun ('13 Edition)

May! After a rocky start, you brought the spring and for that I am thankful. Here's what we've been up to this month.

I picked some tulips on the evening of April 30 to bring inside because I love them. They are the most beautiful flower God ever created.

Then, it snowed on the evening of May 1. SNOW IN MAY. It's just not right to wake up to this on May 2.

In anticipation of the snow mentioned above, I picked more tulips (while it was sleeting) and brought them inside. I would have been so sad if the snow knocked them out so I just picked them and enjoyed them inside. The snow didn't kill the tulips I left outside, but I didn't want to risk it.

We tried this delicious, dangerous concoction. It's a very good thing that it's so expensive otherwise none of our pants would fit. Try it for a special treat.

I found some new bathroom rugs and laid them flat after I pulled them out of the dryer. Kramer gave them her stamp of approval.

Kramer likes to sleep in her bed with the covers pulled over her. Unless there's activity going on, then she has to be able to see what's happening. This, I think, was her version of a compromise between the two.

Lilacs! They smell so great. If only they lasted longer once you picked them and brought them inside.

One of our nephews was excited to play with Super Uncle Drew.

And then the two of our nieces teamed up and got in the game.

We managed to get a pretty great picture of all of Drew's family! I love how colorful it is. And that all of the kids look absolutely thrilled to pose for a family picture. Also, you can see my pregnant nugget belly!

Year Two

Two years ago today I married my best friend. Oh what a fun adventure it's been! This picture of me pretending to fall out of the golf cart cracks the both of us up. Never a dull moment with the two of us kids! Happy Anniversary Drew!

Here's Year One.

Friends?

Obviously things are going to change when the nugget arrives. That's a given. One of the things we discuss regularly is how Kramer is going to react to this new addition. It was just her and me for a few years before Drew came along. She adjusted to Drew really well and they're buddies. It helps that he attacks squirrels with her, makes her meat treats, and dresses her in silly hats (yes hats, plural). But how is she going to deal with the addition of someone who gets constant attention, cries, and doesn't really play with her? We're just going to have to wait and see on that one, but Kramer seems to be getting along with my pregnant belly quite well.

Kramer just resting a paw on the nugget.

 She likes to hop up on the couch with me and sometimes she looks like she's petting the nugget.

The petting moves to full on resting on the nugget.

Other times, she hops up and just hangs out with the nugget. I keep waiting for a kick to happen while she's there and see her reaction, but the timing just hasn't worked out yet.

Let's Get Juiced!

Drew and I really enjoy watching documentaries on food. I should specify: documentaries on food, diet, and health. It started back when we were dating and I had a copy of Food Inc. that I hadn't watched yet so I suggested it for a movie night viewing. (Side note: obviously Drew was already somewhat smitten with me if he tolerated watching Food Inc. on a movie night with his girlfriend.) Since then, one or both of us have watched Fat Head, King Corn, and Fat Sick and Nearly Dead. I highly recommend all of them.

While we haven't jumped on the bandwagon of the message of any one of these movies, it has lead to some great discussions and diet modification. We don't eat as many carbs as we used to, I drink a diet soda maybe once a month, we don't consume as much sugar, we have tried to make more homemade things (like ketchup), and we juice.

All this combines to make a pretty tasty beverage.

Drew makes juice for us 3 - 4 times a week and it's delicious. We buy whatever fruits and veggies are on sale at the grocery store and mix them together in a yummy beverage. I'm consuming radishes, kale, red cabbage, broccoli stalks, ginger, and carrots like nobody's business.

Here come the carrots!

I realize you lose some of the benefits when you compare raw, whole veggies with their juiced counterparts, but we still eat our other veggies. So this is extra nutrients on top of what we already consume. And it's a great way to start the day!

Breakfast beverage of champions!

Almond Caramel Corn

A few weeks ago we stumbled on a package of almond crunch popcorn in the store. They happened to be giving out samples so we tried some. It was delicious. But, it was around $3.79 for a little 8 ounce bag. We bought one anyway, but I knew that this was not going to become a routine purchase for us. So I decided to try my hand at almond caramel corn.

I used 1/2 cup of popcorn and popped it up in my whirley pop. Then, I combined 1/2 cup honey, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 3 Tbsp. butter and 2 Tbsp. Amaretto. I heated that mixture on the stove until it was completely dissolved.

Melted sweetness.

Then, I added it to the popcorn and mixed it well.

Note to self: REMOVE the old maids before you mix in caramel. No one likes to have a clump of popcorn with a piece that could break their teeth.

I poured the coated popcorn into a 9x13 pan and baked for 15 minutes at 300. I stirred it and baked it for another 10 minutes before dumping it on a coated piece of aluminum foil to cool.

It smelled so good here. And I am not afraid to say that I did eat some pieces right out of the oven. It was worth it.

It was pretty tasty, but incredibly sweet. And sticky. I think I'll continue to experiment with this one, but it sure looked pretty!

Good stuff, just too sweet for us.

April Fun ('13 Edition)

April blew by exceptionally fast for us. Here are some highlights!

So this was the view on the morning of April 11. Snow, on my tulips. In April. Ug, go away Winter! You'll get your chance to come back around, but let's let Spring have her moment, OK?

We made dog treats for Kramer. We had some meat that was pretty tough due to a learning experience with a roasting pan. We didn't want it to go to waste, but it really wasn't tasty. So we mixed it with spinach, applesauce, and bananas and put it in the dehydrator.

Kramer thought the homemade dog treats were fantastic. She didn't take her eyes of Drew while he was moving them from the dehydrating racks to the storage containers.

Somehow, someway, Kramer managed to fling her bone under the refrigerator. We think she was trying to come downstairs to be with us and traveling at a high rate of speed when the bone was ejected from her mouth. It still doesn't make any sense. Drew got on the floor and tried to find it and Kramer wanted to help, but we ended up pulling the fridge out and getting the bone that way. Pay no attention to the dust bunny that Drew was able to find...

We made some homemade ketchup. Or catsup. I think I'll go with ketchup. Regardless, this was quite tasty. It's still not perfected, but it was a great start. Plus, no high fructose corn syrup!

We had a great deal on some beefsteak tomatoes and popped some in the dehydrator for snacking. Again, still not perfect, but they were quite tasty.

More Wall Hangings in the Basement

After the push of getting the basement finished and painting my own wall art, things really died down on that front and we haven't done a single thing. Well, that's not true. We hosted friends to watch Husker games in our new basement, we had two of our nieces come for a sleepover in our new basement, and we just spent time enjoying our new basement. We just didn't do any additional decorating or arranging down there. Until now.

Every once in a while I get an email offer for 2 free 8 x 10 prints from one of the online photo sites and I always take advantage. We have some great pictures from our honeymoon and our trip to Europe and I've been selecting some of them for these larger prints. Once I pay shipping, it's usually a little over $1 for each print and I've been keeping them until I get enough to actually do something with. That day has come!

I found some incredibly cheap frames online at the dollar store. They are plastic and the case came with 24 frames, 6 of which are a silvery color I have no use for at the moment. Once shipping was added, they were about $1.50 each and I really couldn't beat that deal. So I framed the pictures and I decided to hang them on one of the walls in the basement.

This was the general orientation I came up with, laid out on the table.

Some people have a super involved process of measuring things and getting the placement just right and then tracing on a piece of paper and transferring it to the wall. Me, I just laid them out in the general orientation I wanted and then moved them to the wall. It worked for me.


Pictures on the wall! And, unless you get right up to them, you can't tell that the frames are plastic.

And the best part, I can change out pictures as needed and there's still room to add a few more framed shots on the wall if I decide to, provided I get some more coupon codes!

Photo Locations: Top row, left to right: A bicycle in the lake as a swan swims by in Lucerne, Switzerland; The Eiffel Tower in Paris, France; Yellowstone National Park. Middle row, left to right: Yellowstone National Park; The Palace of Versailles in Versailles, France, A flower at the botanical gardens in Montreal, Canada. Bottom row: The back view of the home from The Sound Of Music in Salzburg, Austria.