Raining Lemons... And When it rains it pours.

Over the past couple of days life has handed us some lemons.  Most specifically the spring on my garage door, and our water heater.

On Wednesday afternoon I heard a huge loud noise coming from somewhere in our house.  I was slightly freaked out (okay I freaked out a lot.)  Did a check of our house and found nothing amiss, so I just mentioned it to my husband when he got home.  The problem became apparent when my Father in Law came over to get something from my side of the garage, but he was able to fix it with out much of a problem.  I am thanking my lucky stars it did not break earlier in the day our I would not have been able to get my car out of the garage and I would have missed a meeting.

Then yesterday I ran down to the basement to do a load of laundry.  I noticed the floor was wet and when I looked back I saw a trail of my wet foot prints in the carpet.  YIKES!!!  I quick moved everything to the other side of the basement and then called my Father in Law.  The diagnosis?  Our 21 year old water heater is kaput...  Another one was bought and will be installed today, but until then, no hot water.  Meaning cold showers....

I told my husband this morning that cold showers are supposed to rev your metabolism.  He just grumbled at me.

As for me, I am not hopping into a cold anything, or my toes will turn purple (darn you Reynouds Syndrome!)  I will take a proper shower later when the new heater is installed.

Boy I could use a glass of lemonade right about now.  Or another slice of this Frozen Lemonade Pie, from Foodnetwork.com.  I made this recipe for the Fourth of July, and it was delicious and refreshing.  I did make a small change and used a store bought graham cracker crust.  It made a ton of filling , so I put what I couldn't fit in the pie crust into a glass bowl and froze that too.  The pie was a hit, and we just finished the extra filling last night, with some crumbled graham cracker on top.    Yum!!!

I only had a couple rasberries from our bush, but I made sure everyone who wanted one got one!  

Almost Stuffed Red Peppers

I LOVE stuffed peppers! I have only made them a couple of times because they are kind of a pain to make and they take FOREVER.  I saw this recipe on Allrecipes.com.  and thought, YUM!  It is essentially a deconstructed version of stuffed peppers!  (Why didn't I have think of that?)

Of course I am terrible at following directions, so here's my version of the recipe. (Husband and Baby approved!)

1 lb of lean ground beef, browned and drained.

2 Red Bell Peppers diced (Red peppers are my favorite, but you can use what ever pepper you have on hand!)

(I also chopped up a scallion, mainly to outline the heart, but I threw it in anyways.) 

As you are dicing the peppers, prepare 1 cup of uncooked long grain brown rice, as per package instructions. (This takes about 40 minutes...  I know, I know, instant is so quick and easy.  But I really like the texture of long grain so much better.)

Sautee the peppers in the meat until slightly tender.

Then I added a whole bunch of my homemade sauce. (it has the onions and the seasoning, and is slightly spicy.) I probably used the equivalent to a 32 oz jar of sauce, maybe more.  (My husband likes things saucy, I guess that's why he married me??)

Heat the sauce through, then add the prepared rice.

Mmmmm, stuffed red pepper skillet! 

I sprinkled mine with some shredded mozzarella cheese, and I tore a couple basil leaves over the top.

Delish!  

Red, White and Blue

Happy Fourth of July!

"Mommy it's wicked hot out here!" 

Wanted to quick show you the super cute top hat I made for Little Bear!  I crocheted it with Red Heart Super Saver.  It was already really hot out so our photo shoot didn't last too long and he did not want to keep it on his head.  

Top Hat!  And Mommy's matching head band! 

Our Dog Rocking the top hat! 

Coffee in the Garden?

For the past couple months I've been working on my little garden.  I've had a couple brilliant ideas for my garden (well, I think they are brilliant anyways...) I'll share one with you today.

I love the Keurig, but it seems wasteful to toss out the plastic k-cups.  I decided they would be perfect as seed starters.  They are the perfect size and they already have the little drainage holes.  Also they are plastic so when you are ready to transplant to a larger pot or the ground the plant comes out with out much of a struggle.

After my morning cup of coffee (and it cooled!) I took the k-cup and a knife and removed the foil, dumped out the coffee and removed the filter.

Mmmm - Caramel drizzle, one of my favorites

I rinsed these, but I did some other ones outside that I didn't rinse.
(I had heard that coffee is a good fertilizer!)

Later, when I had a whole bunch, I filled them with a little moistened potting soil, planted a seed and placed them in a sunny spot!

Watch them grow!

Best of all I will save these and be able to use these again next year!  

Anybody else have some really great gardening ideas?

The Worst Part

So tonight I needed a break, (my husband is on a vacation from school so our nap schedule is off, and when the nap schedule is off, Mommy gets slightly cranky.) Little Bear went to spend the evening with Grandma, Grandpa and his Aunty.  And I sat and crocheted. Honestly. And I was pretty darn content doing so.  Ok, so we did eat a quick dinner and watched a movie.  Though I never really watch movies, unless I am at a theater, (I find they don't generally keep it bright enough for me to crochet...)  My husband will stop and rewind when there is a part he thinks I should watch, otherwise I just look up from my work every once and a while.

Anyways, I have come to my least favorite part of any project.  Weaving in the ends... it is so frustrating and time consuming!  Most of the time my projects only require a couple ends to be woven in, like my hats or scarves.  But I chose this beautiful pattern from Lion Brand yarn for my Grandmother's birthday present.  I chose it because the motif looks like a dogwood blossom and those flowers always remind me of my Grandfather who passed away in 2007.

Of course I used a different type of yarn and two different colors (such a rule breaker...)

Ugh!  Got to get going, time doesn't slow down for anyone, especially cross eyed crafters...

Cake Dreams

I keep having this weird recurring dream/nightmare.  It starts out happy, we are celebrating my littlest sisters birthday, all my family is there, and my Mom has made her a beautiful cake.

(Note: My Mom's cake are the absolute best in the world.  They are always so beautiful.  They are so moist and delicious and always have the perfect ration of iceing/cake.  Her cakes are what I use to judge all other cakes, and most of those cakes don't stack up. Yes, I am a cake snob.)

In my dream we all gather around the cake and since it's her birthday my sister gets to cut the cake.  She sticks the knife in and the top layer of the cake flings off on to her shirt and slides off on to the floor.  The cake is ruined! In my dream I always get so sad and angry and then I wake up.  Then I wish I had a piece of my Mom's cake.

As far as dreams go it's not terribly weird, what is weird is hat I keep having it (and it's not even that close to her birthday!)

I'll have to wait till Sunday to get my piece of cake though, we are celebrating my Grandmother's 80th Birthday!!

Been a long time...

Oh my, it's been a long time!  But I haven't forgotten about you!  May was an extremely busy month and it turns out June was too!  I am finally feeling like I can breath again!

We've been enjoying some beautiful weather around here lately!  We've been trying to get some time in the pool every night!  And yesterday we visited Letchworth State Park for a picnic and some walking.  It is absolutely gorgeous there!

Me at Inspiration Point - Letchworth State Park. I bring my crocheting everywhere!  

I used to try to write at night or during little Bears nap (like now!  Thank you Jesus!) but lately I have been having a wicked time getting him to sleep.  We've got a routine (diaper change, jammies, songs or a book or two, teeth get brushed, nurse and then I rock him to sleep.) but now he screams and kicks while I try rocking him and he ends up eventually wearing himself out so that when I nurse him again he falls asleep.   I am trying to slowly wean him and I don't really want to keep letting him nurse to sleep.  

My husband thinks I should let him cry it out in his crib, he figures he would be crying either way...  But I honestly can't bring myself to leave him screaming in his crib, believe me I've tried.

If anyone has any suggestions please let me know, I am completely exhausted!