Yellow shoes and the bounty of my harvest

I just HAD to show you these adorable shoes I picked up for 50 percent off at a small shop in downtown Coeur D'Alene:

Aren't they just the cutest???! I can wear them with so many of my skirts and dresses, and they're perfect for dressing up my jeans.

Okay, here's the real subject of my post. Even though we've struggled with our garden this year, we were still able to get a few things out of it. Other than the many, many baby tomatoes we've eaten, and the lovely raspberries (of which the season is, sadly, over), and the lettuce and other random herbs, we also picked this big guy:

and these -

Kidding, kidding. We don't have a lemon tree. Can those even grow in this climate?

And this, growing on what we thought was a zucchini plant:

Any idea what it is? It's the color of an acorn squash, but not really the right shape. It has a harder shell, so definitely not anything close to a zucchini. A prize - or maybe just kudos - to whoever figures it out first!

I'm beginning again

Yes, for a second there, about a month ago, I felt on top of my game. I was blogging, I was exercising, I was meal planning, I was scoping out vacations, I was getting work done, and bam! Just like that, I fell off the wagon. I quit meal planning and eating right, I stopped exercising, and I basically just went on perma-vacation. Blogging? Too much work. Working? Too much effort.
So, this past week I've come up with some healthy meals, I went for a run tonight, and I'm making a blog entry. It's not very exciting, but it is what it is. To celebrate, here's a picture of me in my running gear cooking dinner (brown sugar glazed grilled pork chops - and I KNOW this picture is just SO flattering):

And, for your entertainment, a picture of my living room where I finally became inspired enough to hang THREE pictures up after three months of debating about what looks best. They look pretty inspired, don't they? I mean, this picture is practically oozing with inspiration...

I told y'all I needed help; this is what happens when you leave me alone to my own decorating devices. I fail. Miserably. And can hope only to have someone eventually rescue me from myself. Consider yourself forewarned; you could be THAT person.

The end.

Dinner time!

I love cooking and baking, which I know hasn't really shined through all that much on this blog. In fact, the hubby and I cook dinner together almost every night during the week, and use new recipes pretty often. Tonight I'm excited to say we'll be having Spinach stuffed shells!! We've been wanting to make them for awhile, but for some reason were having a hard time finding jumbo shells! Is that weird?? We'll be adapting from Macaroni and Cheesecake's recipe: http://macaroniandcheesecake.blogspot.com/2009/04/spinach-stuffed-shells.html

I'm thinking I'll saute up some chicken sausage and stir it in. Honestly, no recipe ever remains intact when I use it - I'm such a rebel!! But for some reason I have a serious addiction to refusing to follow a recipe TO THE LETTER. It's turned into a great habit, because for the most part I've found it improves whatever I'm making!! Becky, this excludes your recipe, of course. I'm hoping to follow dinner up - if I have the energy - with some of these; I've been wanting to make them for FOREVER!!

They're also taken from Mac and Cheese's website: http://macaroniandcheesecake.blogspot.com/2008/10/cinnamon-sugar-donut-muffins.html. I think they'd be perfect to welcome my sister, her husband, and my adorable niece (see below) when they get in to stay for a WEEK tomorrow!! Say hello to the cutest baby ever!!!

What are you making for dinner tonight and what are your plans for this weekend?

Into the Wilderness...

My brother in law and his wife were in town for this past week, so we - hubby's parents, BIL, SIL, hubby, and I - decided to go camping over Memorial Day weekend at the St Joe River, aka the "Shadowy" St Joe. It runs through an Idaho canyon (hence the "shadowy" portion of the name - I have no idea who Saint Joe was and whether he was really a saint) and empties out into Lake Coeur D'Alene. We were there Saturday and Sunday and came back Monday afternoon. Since my camera died THREE PICTURES into our mini vacay (I know, how rude!), SIL was nice enough to share her pictures (by the way, she was FASCINATED with all the water and trees, what with being from Phoenix, AZ and all).

This is SIL (below); That point MIL and I are standing on is actually pretty high and I forced her to stand that far out with me. She was FREAKED out!



















See the lime green trees?? (above) It was the coolest thing to drive past miles and miles of them.

This was our little blue friend that joined us while we were reading on the bridge; I think he's beeyooteeful.

We're both bookworms, yet neither of our husbands likes to read. Weird, huh?

We just baaarely fit.... :)

Waterfalls in the woods.

We had a LOT of fun getting out and about and away from camp!

Canyon Shot

All in all, it was a great time (other than the lack of air in the air mattress). And it wasn't as wild as it could've been, since we had a camper and pretty much everything under the sun, so even though we were surrounded by wilderness we had all the luxuries of home.

When will you go camping, and where will you go?

The 30 Day shred is the longest 30 days ever!!

This is Jillian Michaels:

This is the 30 Day Shred Workout:

This is Jillian Michaels on crack:

Wait! you say; that's still the 30 Day Shred! Yes, which means JILLIAN IS ON CRACK IN THE 30 DAY SHRED. Seriously, I wake up every morning dreading the 25-30 minutes I will be spending with her. It's when you hated the popular girl in school. You wanted to be her so bad that you would have punched her in the face if ever given the opportunity. That's how I feel when Jillian says things like "this is replacing hours of phoning it in at the gym!" or "that is fear leaving the body" or "if she (my supermodel workout queen helper) can do it, you can too!"

So, if I'm not "shredded" in 30 days, I'm going to hunt her down, and....wipe that smirk off her muscular face. All while I stare enviously at her beautifully toned abs.

I'm on day 10. Pray for me.

My mom's thoughts on Mother's Day

Mother's day in our house was never a big hurrah. Yeah, we'd make mom breakfast in bed (I'm sure she loved the soggy pancakes, burnt toast, and overcooked eggs - LOVED them!) and a homemade card with lots of hearts and glitter, but really, there were no big presents or feelings that we had to remain focused on Mom the ENTIRE DAY. This was because my mom refused to be the center of attention for that long.

My mom is a very unique personality, but everyone adores her for so many reasons. Here are a few:
- She will always, always feed whoever walks into her house at whatever time of day. You're stranded on the highway? Here, use the phone while I whip up some spaghetti and garlic bread. You're just stopping in around dinner time? Sit down, there's plenty for everyone; I'll just grab a few more plates.
- She's mom to the entire community. Never fail, you would walk into a basketball, wrestling, volleyball tournament there will be crockpots and ice chests with kids lined up to grab a homemade burrito. Or into a nursing home where she brings kids caroling, all decked out in Nativity themed costumes (read: her children suffered from public ridicule in order to bring Christmas cheer to old people).
- She's amazingly fun to be around. Any given moment my mom will have 18 plans and ideas about what everyone can do together that day; hiking, clam digging, pick up game of soccer, a bbq, etc. etc. And she makes it happen while she brings along the requisite crockpots, food boxes, and ice chests.
- She's an endless ball of energy. When I was growing up my mom was the first to get up and the last to go to bed. I remember not being able to sleep and waking up to go find my mom downstairs in her robe at four in the morning whipping up cinnamon rolls for thirty people to take to the beach for fishing that day.

There are so many others, but really, they all come down to one thing: my mom is a selfless servant. The real reason my mom is the best mom is because on Mother's Day, instead of expecting anything from us, she wrote an email to one of my brothers and I. Here's an excerpt:

"Happy Mother's Day to you both. I just wanted to tell you guys that Mother's Day to me is not the gifts but the fact that I get to reflect on having happy children that keep swinging the pick into the ice, inching upward, and never feeling quite at the top -- Except once in a while--a paycheck, a diploma, passing the bar, taking the gold, a clean house, etc....Have a beautiful day! Sleep, eat, enjoy the sun, clean up a little bit. Do something nice for someone!

Love, Mom"

So, take her advice. Enjoy your lives, enjoy the days, and go out and do something nice for others. You won't regret taking advice from her; I never have.

Quick tidbits

First, all of my posts are way too long. I need to start keeping them short and succint (sweet? efficient? Am I even using the word "succint" right?).

Second, we moved into the house. We're still not unpacked completely, but it's been interesting trying to figure out where everything goes ("Let's see, if we put all our dishes in the built in china cabinet, put all our pantry items in the kitchen cupboards, and hang our pans, we should be able to avoid putting anything ugly on the open pantry shelves...."). Really, I'm just so excited about the nearby lake and downtown that I'm about to burst with excitement for summer to come. So every morning I wake up, look out the window, and scream silently in my head: WHERE IS THE SUN AND WHY IS IT NOT HERE YET!!! Nobody knows that I do this - I mean, knew - because I try to avoid screaming craziness, but it's still there. And every morning I step outside, all bundled up, and look longingly at the whitecapped waves. Eventually it will be warm and I will live in my bikini. But until then I will be pale and cold and continue to blast my heater under my desk at work. *sigh* I carry around some very heavy burdens. :)

Third, I'm currently obsessed with baked goods, and the not-quite-unpacked state of my kitchen is KILLING me. I mean, I want to make my favorite pumpkin bread http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Downeast-Maine-Pumpkin-Bread/Detail.aspx which everyone loves but no one else seems able to master; or I want to make more of that chocolate cake/cupcakes I found not long ago and posted about below; Macaroni and Cheesecake posted about these fabulous-looking Donut Muffins; PW has been talking about pretzels and cinnamon rolls and marmalade rolls; and I've just had cobbler on the brain. Frankly, I have the same reaction after long abstentions from baking as dieters who have tried to cut out too many luxuries: I binge. So for everyone closest me - especially those who happen to be on a diet - my soon-to-occur overindulgence will be a very bad (but yummy) thing.

Finally, work is picking up so I've been stressed and frustrated to the point that I'm drinking copious amounts of wine. It's to the point where I wonder during my weekly grocery shopping whether the six pack of wine will be enough to get me through the week....

So, the next time someone finds me, I will likely be surrounded by half-baked goods with a half bottle of wine and half-unpacked boxes of kitchen items. I'm a halfway type of girl. It's a curse, and I'm happy to live with it, so don't complain when you have to split a brownie with me. :)

And apparently the only place this halfway stuff doesn't kick in is in my blogging habits....I promise the next one will be only half as long.