Salsa

So I got ambitious and afraid of wasting tomatoes from my garden, I decided to make some salsa. I was excited for that refreshing taste of home made delicious salsa, the kind that mom makes. I looked up on the computer how to make and can salsa and choose one that sounded alright. I just knew it had to have cilantro in it(I love the smell of cilantro).




So I pulled out as many ripe tomatoes as I could and got several from Katie's garden. I also bought some from the store and picked a day to get the job done.




Friday was my day. I followed the directions on how to peel the skins of the tomatoes and then core and seed them followed by chopping them. It was a long process but I was doing it. All by my self, no help, just me.




There is a certain satisfaction in doing something new and with your own hands. I really felt that, I did not imagine that I'd be doing this at least by myself, but here I was, hurray for me, I'm learning something new. I feel that it gives me a little more confidence in continuing to try things that I normally would not.




So I got through the 22 tomatoes that I had and it didn't even come to half of what I needed. The recipe called for 7 quarts of tomatoes and I think I had almost three quarts down. So I packed everyone up and went back to the store. I picked up about 24 more tomatoes and started the process all over again. My back was hurting and I was getting tired, but I could not back down now and there was no time to sit back and relax. I finished cutting up the tomatoes and realized that I still did not have enough tomatoes. So I added two more cans of diced tomatoes and only ended up being a quart and a half short.




I continued with the rest of the ingredients finishing up with the five jalapenos. I cut them in half and dug out the seeds with a spoon. I used the electrical chopper to chop it up( thinking it would be safer that way). I mixed everything up again and washed my hands real fast. I was in a hurry to get to Joseph's birthday party.




I took the pot of salsa with us to boil it and process it at Katie's house while getting the kids in the car. On the way my thumb started burning on the side of my nail. My first reaction was to suck on it to try and make it feel better, but the second I took my thumb out of my mouth, my tongue started burning. "That was real smart ," I thought to myself. I got to Katie's house and rushed the kids in. I related to story to Brenda , Katie's mother-in-law and she told me that I should try to soak my finger in a mixture of baking soda and water. I tried it and the burn went away the second I put it in the water. The relief only lasted for about 5 min and the burning returned. I continued to put ice on it for the rest of the night. The burning sensation continued to all of my fingers right at the cuticle and under my nails.




Man, I learned my lesson. I will use gloves next time I cut up jalapenos or be very, very careful to not get it all over my hands. Lesson learned.

Zucchini Bread

I like this receipe for zucchini bread. I've tried like 4 others and none of them are as great as this one. Mom also really wanted me to post this one too, so here you go.

3 eggs
1 c oil
2 c sugar
2 c grated zucchini
1 tb vanilla
3 c flour
1 t soda
2 t cinnamon
1/4 t B.P
1 t salt

Beat eggs; add oil, sugar, zucchini and vanilla. Mix, add rest. Grease and flour loaf pans. Cook at 325 for 1 hour.

Dress finished

Yeah, I completed the dress. My real first dress that I made all by myself. I had to figure out the machines and learn how to put the pieces together but I did it. Mom did help with the colar and the ribbon by everything else I did. There are plenty of errors on it but if you don't look too close you won't see them. Now I've got to find something else to make.

I had to do the zipper by myself. It was a bit scary for me because I not very good at keeping a straight line on the stitch. As you can tell my worries were lagitamate. The stitch line is wavy and when I got to the ribbon it would push outward. I will try and make sure that next time I have a zipper, I need to stitch it with a zipper foot. I'm sure it would make it much easier.

Dogs

We dog sat 3 extra dogs over the weekend, a beagle and two dotsins. They were my in-laws dogs. They were going on a cabin trip with their parents and needed somewhere to house their dogs while they were gon. Molly brought them over Thusday and I was surprised that they were doing so well with Triger and Jessie. I think it was a bunch of fun for them.

One of the dotsins was an 8 week old puppy. She seemed so fragile and it kind of scared me. It scared me because I have a 3 year old that loves animals and could not keep her hands off that poor dog. Thursday night Lilly ended up throwing her pretty hard and she got hurt. She was limping really bad and it freaked me out. I felt her paw for a little bit and then decided to drive to doug's work to have him check it out. Doug felt that it was anything major and that it was probably just bruised, so I felt a little better after that. Dotcha is the puppies name and by the end of the day she was running all over the house.

The rest of the days I had to really watch out for Lilly and the puppy but things were alright. It was not easy at times with five dogs all around but the weekend is over and they are safe and sound with their parents.

Hope you had a great trip Jeremy and Molly.

Doug's birthday cake

This is the superman cake that I made for Doug. It is a superman cake because he is my "superman". What would I do with out him, or what would it do if he wasn't such a hard worker and provider for our family. I am so thankful for him, that he is willing to do so much to take care of our needs. It has definitely been a hard road for him and I want him to know that I am here to support him and love him.

I made fondant for this cake. I got a great receipe for it from my friend Amy in our ward. It is basically made with marshmellows, and powdered sugar. I attempted to roll it all out and design it after we finished fixing up the garage. I really should have done it all on friday but I just didn't prepare well enough. I was really rushed and felt stressed out by this time and the kids got the brunt of it. Sorry kids. I had to roll out the blue fondant like 5 times because I didn't put enough cresco down in order to lift up the fondant after rolling it out. Once i got that part done the rest took another hour probably but I was happy with the out come. It is not perfect but how cares. It was my first attempt with fondant and it care out alright. I will have to try it again some time.

I had the cake laying out on the table when Doug got home and he liked it. All he really does is smile and say that you but thats ok. Since Doug got home late we didn't have a whole lot of time for dinner. We had to rush to get out of there so we weren't able to share the cake with the kids on Saturday night. We went to Smokey Mountain Pizza and Pasta for dinner and our friends joined us. It was a great night.
We sung Happy birthday to Doug at Grandma H's house and ate the cake there. Cameron was really excited to eat the cake and it did taste alright. I only put three candles in trying not to destroy the look until we were ready to eat it. Miah enjoyed the cake too.

Doug's birthday surprise

I love birthday's, ecspecially my husbands. I like to do things that might surprise him and make him feel special. I usually start thinking about what I want to do for his birthday several months in advance. I had come up with a really good idea that I was so excited about. I wanted to plan a no kids trip to lagoon. We hadn't been there in so long and it would be so much fun to act liked teenagers again and race to all the rides and do what ever we wanted. I would have planned probably two nights there with one full day of lagoon and a great dinner some where special. I had even invited another couple who said that they would do it to. That would have been great but we just didn't have the funds for that kind of trip. We are going to have to do that some time though. It would be too much fun to pass up a trip like that. So who wants to join us?

Anyways, my atternative plan was to fix up the garage just for him. The garage was getting so full with junk and you had to squeeze passed everything to get through it. It probably was not much fun for Doug coming home to that every day and barely able to fit in the scooter. I also needed shelves for food storage so this one was for me too.

Katie, and my parents came to help me that morning and we got things done. My dad came specifically to build a work bench for Doug and Wow, it is beautiful. He always does a great job. I had bought the peg board and hooks and he put it all together for me. Katie and I had got most of the stuff out of the garage for him to get working by the time he got to the house. Mom and Katie put up the shelves, which were pretty much a pain in the neck. Once we got those two big jobs taken care of we organized the stuff and finished up with a spiderman poster as the icing on the cake. (Doug loves spiderman)

I had several things to do to get ready for doug to come home and luckily he was late and I was a ble to finish everything up inside the house too. He called me right as he was leaving the store so I was waiting for him, listening for the garage door to open. All of a sudden I heard it open and ran out to see his reaction. He just smiled and stared for a minute. He put his scooter up and all of a sudden looked to his left and saw the tool area. He laughed and said that he could not believe it and that he did not expect me to do this much. He was so happy for it looking so clean and organized, and that he was able to park his scooter in the garage with plenty of room around him. There was a nother smile as he walked to the door and saw the spiderman poster hanging there. "This was just for you hunny"

Before

After

Happy birthday Doug

Thank you so much Dad, Mom and Katie.

I would not have been able to finish it in time if it wasn't for you.

Dad it wouldn't have looked as great as it does if you wouldn't have been there to make things wonderful. And mom I probably would have gone crazy if you wouldn't have been there to help out with the cleaning, the dogs and the kids.

Thank you guys so much.

Viruses

I hate viruses. They stink. It was inevitable that we would get one on our computer though, because we don't have a specific program installed. Doug has just been using the free ones off of the internet. He would scan the computer with that like once a month and we were fine. But oh no, We had to get a horrible one that only a computer programer can fix. I was in big trouble because of it.

I was on the lap top on Friday and I'm not exactly sure if I got the virus from craigslist or an e-mail that my friend sent me, but it was aweful. The minute I opened up her e-mail the computer just started rebooting over and over again. I was afarid to upset Doug so I decided to wait to tell him. He was not in a very good mood that night and the next day was his birthday so I didn't want to ruin it.

So Cameron ended up telling Doug Sunday morning and the second he found out he rushed over to the computer and started working on it. Thankfully we had to get to church and he let go of some of his frustration about it until it was over. Church was great but right after we finished our luch he got back to the computer. He worked on it until 12:30 and was not able to fix the darn thing. All of my most recent pictures are gone and so are the documents. We can pay some one to restore it but Doug is not sure that we have the money for the right now. So the lap top is out of buisness for right now. No fun. I hate viruses and the messed up people that send them out.

Delicious Enchiladas

I made these Enchiladas on Monday and got Five meals out of it because I doubled the reciepe. Our family has really liked this meal, its one of our family favorites. It is full of calories but sometimes you need a meal to just hit the spot and this one is great for that. Try it out.

PREP TIME: 30 min (ready in 55 min)
*YEILD: 8 servings

2 tbls margarine or butter, melted
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 cup sliced ripe olives, drained
1 (10 3/4-oz.) can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 (8 oz.) container sour cream
1 (4.5 oz.) can chopped green chiles, drained
1 1/2 cups cubed cooked chicken
6 oz. (1 1/2 cups) shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 cup milk
10 corn tortillas, heated

1. Heat oven to 350 F. To make sause, melt margarine in medium saucepan over medium heat. Add onoin and garlic; cook and stir until onion is tender. Add 1/4 cup of the olives, soup, 1/2 cup of the sour cream and green chiles; mix well. Reserve 3/4 cup sauce; set aside. Stir chicken and 1/2 cup of the cheese into remaining sauce.

2. In small bowl, combine reserved 3/4 cup sauce with remaining sour cream and milk; blend well. Spread 1/2 cup sauce over bottom of ungreased 13x9 in. baking dish.

3. Place about 1/4 cup chicken mixture down center of each warm tortilla; roll up. Place, seam side down, over sauce in baking dish. Spoon remaining sauce over top of filled tortillas, covering completely.

4. Bake at 350 F for 20 to 25 min. or until thoroughly heated. To serve, sprinkle with remaining 1 cup cheese and 1/4 cup olives. Let stand 5 min. before serving.

A friend wanted me to send her the reciepe, so here it is. Enjoy.

Cute Quote

We had Sergant Randall over for dinner last night because Doug was going on another ride-a-long with him. During dinner Ser. Randall leaned over to Lilly and asked, "Where did you get such beautiful big eyes." Lilly's reply,"Jesus gave them to me."

Another dress

This is the dress that I am trying to make all on my own. Going off of the knowleged that I gained from my mom helping me out it is mostly done. I have finished the sleve and hemmed the bottom of the dress since this picture. At least I was able to make it that far all by myself.

I tryed working on it on Saturday and could not figure out how to thread the sewing machine. Lilly had also messed up the knobs on the surger and I had no idea what they were suposed to be set at. I realized that I did not pay close enough attention when mom was here and I was feeling the regret now. I looked up some videos online and kept working with it until I looked somewhat close to the stitch on the other dress.

All I have to do now is hem the collar and put in the brown and pink poke dot ribbon and the zipper. I have some to a place that I can go no further so I will have to give up my pride (being able to say that I did it all on my own) and go to mom for help. I will show the end result later. Lilly is excited though and so am I. I already feel like going to check out more patterns to find some more cute dress ideas.

what is this

So over the weekend we drove to Idaho Falls for Dougs sister's baby blessing. This little baby girl is so cute. I wish I got a picture of her, but tough luck, I forgot to bring my camera.

We left for Idaho Falls at like 8:00pm (officially getting on the road) and we got there around 12:30am. Thanks to grandma Pingel for giving up her bed for us in the master bedroom to accomodate us. We had a bed to sleep in but we forgot to bring our pillows and ended up using blankets for the pillows. Also Miah cried a good amount of the drive there and even when we got settled in she did not get to sleep until 4:00am. I would say it was a really bad night.

The kids decided to wake up the following morning at 7:30am and I did not understand what was up because they didn't get to sleep until late. I just could not get them to let me sleep any longer so I got up with them and chased them around for the next several hours. The morning was alright and we got ready and made it to the church on time.

The service was great, the blessing was good, and I actually got up and bore my testimony. It is funny and I'm not gloating, I just always think about what I said after and I cringe a little because I didn't make everything make sense to the people that are listening. What I do know is that Heavenly Father answers our prayers and He loves us and knows us and our needs.

We had a great meal afterward and got on the road again 5:30, making it back to our house around 10:30. I was so happy to be home. I love my bed. I love my pillows.

Anyways the reason I have these pictures up is because Grandma Pingel was trying to get rid of some of her stuff and had us pick out some things to take. I picked out a couple of things including this. I don't know what it is for or how you us it. I was hoping that someone else would know and be again to enlighten me. Or you could just guess and pretend you know what to do with it. I don't mind either way.

New dog

Yeah, I wish it were ours. This is Jeremy( Doug's brother) and Molly's new dog. It is their third dog and what a cutie. He is a dotsin aka: weiner dog. They have another boy dotsin that is the reason to which they bought dotcha, their new dotsin. They plan on breeding her.

Their dogs just happen to be their children for now until they get their own. They have a nice little dog family now. I hope every thing goes well with her and good luck with the training.

New dress

So, I went to Walmart (of course) to find some material and a pattern to learn how to sew. I was thinking that I really needed a hobby and I really like learning knew things, (got that from my mom) so I decided I would do something about it. Too often do I say I am going to do something and just never do it. This time I was not going to procrastinate. I wanted to do.

I bought a $1 something pattern and $1 a yard fabic and wanted to get started. To bad when I decided I go ahead and do it myself, I just looked at the pattern pieces and tryed reading the pattern guide and was completely confused. I did not understand any of the sewing jargon. So I went to my mom (always there to help). We got together one night and put he thing together pretty fast. Actually it was mostly mom doing it because I was trying to get dinner ready and she wanted to get throught things( Dad doesn't like her staying out too late I think). I was fun but really I did not learn a whole lot. It was something though.
We didn't get to finish it the first night so we got together again and she finished it up for me. Thanks mom. It looks cute. Even better when it is on Lilly.
Not the greatest picture. Pretty blurry but I tell you what if Lilly could wear this dress every day she would be as happy as a school girl. It would be true for any dress for that matter. She would have loved being born in the pioneer time when all the girls wore dresses all the time. Well it did turn out well and Lilly was happy, I was happy and mom was happy. Its all good.

Wow, I can't believe it has been so long for me to do anything with my blog. I was consistently keeping up on it at least once a week and then I don't know what the deal was with me. I just didn't feel like it.