Sunday's Meal

Ok, it's time to turn this blog back towards food. Now, I don't have a fancy camera, so forgive the pictures. But I'm pretty proud of the weekends meal (we technically had the same thing Saturday and Sunday because my pizza dough recipe makes 2 crusts). So, here we go.

The main portion of our meal is a homemade pizza. It consists of a whole wheat crust, almost homemade tomato sauce (the sauce part came from a can...but I added the seasonings), thinly sliced cheddar cheese, pepperoni (because we love it), and freshly sliced cremini mushrooms and roma tomatoes (courtesy of Bountiful Baskets). It was quite tasty if it do say so myself :)

(Everything you see next is also part of our Bountiful Basket. Seriously...can't say enough about how awesome this thing is!)

 

Next we have salad with more mushrooms, tomatoes, along with some cucumber. Forgive the tacky "salad bowl". It's in a tupperware container because 1-I knew I'd be putting the leftovers in the fridge, and 2- my real salad bowl is holding the rest of my fruit :). We also had some incredibly ripe and juicy pineapple. This was technically part of last weeks basket, but we still managed to consume it in about 24 hours. Yea, we have mad fruit eating skills!

So while it wasn't incredibly fancy, and would be considered by most an embarrassment to post online...it got a big resounding "Mom, you make the BEST food EVER!" from both of my kids, so it's a major win in my book!

Baby Showers

I'm hosting my best buddies Baby shower on Tuesday (For those of you in Moscow...come help celebrate the birth of Thatcher Myers and the awesomeness that is his Momma, Jordan!). It's my first to do all by myself, I helped out with her shower for the twins...but this one is ALL me, and I'm REALLY excited :) So I'm going to post my menu rough draft...and hopefully get a few ideas from y'all.

Fruit and Fruit Dip
Straw Cookies (you know, those chocolaty ones? I can't remember their name brand)
Mint chips
Mini-Cinis (miniature cinnamon rolls I make. They are technically more of a brunch food...so I'm on the fence)
Cream Puffs
Punch
Decaf Coffee (on the fence about that too)

So that's what I got for now. Any input or ideas would be most welcome.

Enjoy your weekend! If you're in Moscow and are going to the Renaissance fair, there is a good chance our bathroom is open (portapotties are gross! My kids won't go near them).

Pictures!

Ok, I know I just put all of these on facebook. But I have a set of Grandparents who don't have facebook, so this is how they get to see them. Enjoy!

Here we have the NEW dining room light! It replaced the worlds ugliest chandelier.

 In the dining room, this will be painted white.

 The kitchen

 My Island, I love it!

 The new floors! It's not a great picture though, because they are really darker than this.

 The washer and dryer!

 Sun Room..also known as "unpacked boxes and extra wood room".

 The back yard.

 The Guest/entertainment room. Also known as, "tools and random stuff without a permanent spot yet" room.

 The GIANT closet in the back room. seriously, this picture doesn't show how huge it is!

 When you walk in the front door, you'll see Tim's desk.

 Lovely couch, that get's some lovely sun! Great reading spot.

 Living Room.

 The view of the living room from the dining room.

 More living room.

The "Kat and Tim love each other" wall.

 Dining room, no chairs yet..they'll reenter the room this evening.

cooking again!

In honor of having my kitchen back (and the fact that we are having company) I'm cooking today! Ok...so I'm using the crockpot for the main part...but I still have to cook later. So here's what's on tap for this week.

1- French Dip Sandwiches, homemade potato wedges, salad, and pineapple.
2- Pork Tacos (because I anticipate a lot of leftover meat tonight)
3- Taco Soup (Yes...I know another "taco" dish. But when you have somewhere around 5 guys coming for supper, you need an easy, yet yummy, dish! Plus I can make it Gluten Free for my sister in law!)
4- Homemade Pizza (well, that's what my family gets. I got a girls night out planned)
5- Probably more homemade pizza (because I always have enough dough for 2 nights)

I'm also cooking for Easter for the Nadreau family this year. We're gonna do Pork Roast with an orange sauce (because I got some great ideas from friends that I'm dying to try out!), Asparagus, deviled eggs, mashed potatoes. Plus an "appetizer" tray full of cheese, olives, pickles, and meats. I am debating on attempting a King Cake for Dessert...but we'll just have to wait and see.

Well, I'm ever so close to having my house put back together and picture worthy. So I should get back to it. I did promise pictures.

Here's what's new

So it's been a while. I figured nobody REALLY wanted to hear about how we keep getting sick, or the lack of cooking I've been doing.

It's hard to believe we've been here for over a month already. I am so incredibly grateful for Tim, who's put so much time and effort into our home already. Our wood floors are officially done! We can't move the table back in until tomorrow, but they are so pretty. We might take on a "smaller" project sooner than anticipated, which is painting the kitchen cupboards and the shelf/drawers in the dining room. I want to do them white. I'm sure it is something that I could do myself. But first I have to get the rest of this place back in order.

This place will be officially put back together by Wednesday, and when that happens I'll have pictures for you! The girls have officially accepted this place as their home, and are no longer asking to go back to "the 4 home" (our apartment number).

I'm anxiously awaiting a normal routine. I don't think it will be hard to get into. Cleaning has become such a normal thing for me, that it doesn't seem to take as much mental effort...which was always the hardest part for me to overcome.

Tim will also be graduating in May! Getting his Masters has been a long process, and I am so proud of him for doing so well. He'll be graduating with a 4.0, and his Thesis is on a topic that has rarely been done. Don't ask me to explain, while I've read his thesis to him multiple times, I still don't quite get it.


God is good, I am blessed.

Still moving

Well, we're mostly moved it. It won't really be complete until the floors are put down, and I can use my table on a regular basis :) So once that's all done, I'll post some pictures. I pretty much failed on the "before" pictures...but only because things went it a little crazy when Tim came down with a nasty sinus infection and pink eye in both eyes just a few days before our scheduled move. Leaving me to run back and forth, buy extra paint, and take care of the kiddos. I'm pretty sure I won the "super mom" award this past week an a half...not to brag or anything :)

Since it is a splendid day, I may take the kiddos outside for a while and perhaps paint the trim or the windows. That needs to get done. Not much else we can do today since, once again, Pink eye has plagued our house. Poor Riley finally got it. Though at the moment, thanks to a living room covered in Kilz, she's pretty distracted by coloring on the floor :)

Tim is off in Spokane picking up our wood flooring. Here's a tidbit...NEVER buy wood flooring online! The description might say "Brazilian cherry"...but what that really means is pink. Thankfully we were able to return the stuff, and get all of our money back (no restocking fee!)! So instead our dining room and kitchen will have oak flooring, which we have decided to keep it's natural color. If you do need wood flooring, and are ok with finishing your own Lumber Liquidators has some nice unfinished stuff for REALLY cheap. I'm talking around the $2.00 a sq. ft. range. They are in Spokane, which is why Tim is there.

We also discovered that out of the 6 (or is it 8?) phone jacks we have....only 2 are working right now. And that's only because my Father in law was able to put up some temporary wiring. We'll have to rewire the entire house for phones. But God is good, and my Father in law works for Frontier, and has access to perfectly good supplies that the company tosses for whatever reason. So he will fix it for us :)

I got my new Washer and Dryer. They are big, and beautiful, and front load. But my dryer vent is so incredibly clogged up, I can't use them right now because it might cause a fire. So I'm still a laundromat person for a little longer.

That's pretty much it for the house stuff right now, and that's pretty much our life at the moment. I'm excited to get back into a groove, to take my kids to the park (it is only 1/2 a block away), and to have many social events here. God is good, and has provided us with the perfect home, despite it's minor imperfections at the moment :) We have great plans for the place, and, God willing, many years to put them into action!

The Tortoise wins the race right?

I feel like this week I should have fun stuff to say. We're moving! A house! Yay!! However, I've been inflicted with Pink eye in both eyes, and what I'm hoping isn't Strep throat. So, I seem to be moving slowly. I am unable to go out and run the errands I need to finish getting this place packed up. I am however glad I took initiative and called Avista and Frontier yesterday, because today I can barely talk due to pain. I am also thankful for the internet, I was able to go ahead and give our new address to Macy's, Old Navy,  our bank Credit Card, and I think our bank statements, though I'll probably go into the bank and make sure it stuck.

A few unexpected twists have also occurred. We were told that since both bedrooms had hardwood floors, and taking in account the year of the house (which I don't know) that the living and dining room should have hardwood floors under the carpet. Not the case, which is really ok. We are ripping up the current carpet because the original owner (and the renter) had cats. So it's shredded in places, and kinda stinky. It looks like we'll do hardwood in the dining room area (yay!!), and new carpet in the living room. I'm very intrigued by Corn husk carpet. Apparently it's very stain repellent. Always good when you have kids right?

We will paint on Friday, because that's when Sherwin Williams is having a sale. We've picked the colors, and will only be doing the Living and Dining room area. Also high on the list, rerouting the Dryer vent. For some reason it's all twisy and turny, and held together with duct tape.

We also get to look at Washers and Dryers. It seems the ones that come with the house aren't in good condition, the renter even bought new ones...that's how bad they were. I know the ones I want...but I'll be happy with anything that has good reviews, and doesn't need quarters to run. :)

I'm most excited about our office/guest/entertainment room!! Mostly because...well...it's a guest room :).

Future projects include remodeling the bathroom and kitchen. Tearing down the wall separating the dining area from the sun/play room (if it's even possible), and putting up a nice new fence around the front yard. The bathroom is first on the list. I'm not sure when it will get done, one thing is for sure...we have to get a vent in there soon!

Thing's are getting done as quickly as we would like due to illness, massive snow, and the renter being stuck in Deary for a few days...but I know it will eventually get done.

We'll definitely be taking before/after pictures. We will, God willing, be in this house for many, many years!