I can't believe it's been almost two months since my last entry. We haven't been all that busy, but I somehow haven't found the time to update everyone. Summer is almost over, but I'm quite positive that our very warm summer weather will be sticking around for awhile. We just can't seem to get out of the 90's and 100's. It is just awful miserable.

We started August off with a beautiful wedding. Aunt Tracy and Uncle Dustin were married on August 8th in their backyard and it was just beautiful. I still can't believe they got everyone back there but they did and it was comfortable. It was nice to have a mini family reunion, too. Aunt Tracy look so pretty in her wedding dress as did Aunt Teresa and Coley in their bridesmaid dresses. The food was absolutley delicious-kahlua pork, rice, salads, rolls, chicken skewers, and so much more that I can't even remember. They have four different cakes for thier wedding cake-chocolate chocolate, cheesecake, carrot cake and I think the other was lemon, I can't remember.

My gift and Jarom's as well as Tiff & Steve's gift to them is going to be a quilt when I get it finished. It is going to be pretty big-bigger than anything that I have ever made. I picked up some white 100% cotton fabric and cut them into squares. I cut 60 squares, so I'd have enough for everyone. I picked up some oil pastels and at the wedding went from table to table telling everyone what I was doing and asked them to help me out. Each person or couple, however they wanted to do it, designed a square to add to the quilt. I have 43 squares, all designed by wedding guests with messages, pictures whatever they felt inspired to do. Since it is an uneven number and some are only half the square, I'm going to pick a few pictures from the wedding that family took and print them on fabric to include in the quilt. I have quite a variety of fabric quarters in design and color that I am incorporating into the quilt along with some tropical/Hawaiian fabrics (the groom and groomsmen wor Hawaiian shirt with khakis). I'm really excited about it. I can't wait until it is done. I'm trying to remember to take pictures as I go too. Once all the squares are sewn together, I will go pick out a fabric for the packing. I think I'm sold on this pale yellow with little hearts on it, but we will see.

In case your wondering, to get the oil pastels to set without rubbing or washing out-you place a piece of regular white paper over the top of the fabric that is drawn on. Set your iron on the cotton setting, no steam and place it on top of the paper. Hold it there for about 10 seconds, pick up the iron and move to the next spot until you covered the entire drawn image. Be careful not to glide the iron over the paper, this can smudge the unset pastel image. Yes, after the wedding, we went back to our hotel room and ironed each square. I didn't want to risk them being smudged and ruined on the way home.

The week after the wedding I fixed a week's worth of meals for us and our neighbors. Leanne, had to have an emergency hysterectomy for possible cervical cancer and I really wanted to do something. Something that would help them out and take a little stress off them. She had the procedure Friday afternoon and was back to work on Monday, she was even doing a light workout at the gym, but despite all that I still wanted to help out. I did a Greek night complete with gyros, tahziki, karbohnahrah and pohtahtas; chicken rolls another night, citrus pork chops, mini Guam feast and oh, I can't remember the other one. I even did desserts-glazed tropical fruit salad, pineapple-cranberry minis, individual baked alaskas, chocolate malt shoppe ice cream pie and chocolate cherry cheesecake. I just love cooking and now that there is more than just me and Jarom, it doesn't go to waste and Wallace said that he would never refuse a meal.

Since then, we have been doing some cleaning and more cooking of course. I'm not afraid to try anything. Last week, I had a bit of a rough week. I was so tired and spent most of the week in bed. I don't know if it was allergies or a sinus infection trying to latch on but all the rest helped me kick its rear. :o) I did some research for Jarom as far as pricing items and whether or not it would be worth the money and time to run a snack shack on 9/26 for a conference being held at the high tech. It would be well worth it and they are expecting about 160 people, so we are doing coffee in the morning and a lunch plate in the afternoon. I said I would help and if Jenna doesn't have to work we are going to try to recruit her. We are going to BBQ hot dogs and hamburger and included with the plate will be chipc, cookies and a soda. It took some time to track down everything and them I had to list the price and quantity in everything and piece price everything and figure out what the plates would cost us to put together and discuss a price to charge. At $3 a plate they would make their money back plus another $1.50.

This weekend, we don't have plans but I might help our Wallace and Leanne by watching Madison and Trenton for awhile. I'm excited to spend time with the kids. They are so cute!

Last weekend, Jarom and Jenna went to a double feature and the drive-in. They saw Funny People and Inglorious Bastards. I didn't want to see Funny People and it's a good thing. Jarom said it was pretty lame and he wasn't very impressed with Inglorious Bastards. Sunday evening, after dinner, the three of us had a game night with Scattergories and Cribbage. Last night, we got in some exercise with some bowling. At the end of October, we are going to go see Dane Cook live at Arco Arena. I'm really excited for that. I've been wanting to see him for a few years now.

It sure seems like we have been really busy and up to stuff, but we really haven't. The dogs are good and just thier fun selves. Hope and Minnie play a lot. Minnie has rediscovered one of her toys-the circle with the ball in the middle. She plays with it a little during the day and most of the evening if her and Hope aren't chasing each other.

I do hope everyone has had a great summer and Happy New School Year!

I was so excited to go to Watsonville for the weekend to celebrate Uncle Paylor's and Coley's birthdays, but I went alone. Jarom went camping; a trip he has had planned for months and Jenna had to work so she had to stay behind. Although I was alone, I had a great time as I always do.

I left at 3pm Friday afternoon and what should have taken no more than two and a half hours took me almost four to get where I was going. Once, I could get off 805, I headed through Gilroy to bypass all the traffic. Poor Uncle Paylor was starving by the time I got there after 6:30pm. I didn't mean for them to hold dinner for me, but they did and we had grilled chicken and green salad. We watched Ghost Whisperer and then Knowing, before we all turned in for the night.

All the festivities started around 3pm. We had chips and dips plus fruit and chocolate fondue as snackies before dinner. Fondue is definitely something I need to do sometime. We had dinner about 6pm and we had salad, veggie kebabs, teriyaki skirt steak and potato salad. Dessert was delicious...there were 3! Chocolate swirl cheesecake, carrot cake and chocolate chocolate cake were present and accounted for. So yummy!



We visited around our little bon fire until about 11pm before everyone started to head home. There was a lot of laughing and it was just an all around great time.







I left Sunday around 3pm to head back home and traffic was slow on 17 until I got to 205, so it was about 6pm before I got home. I was run off the road passing throuhg Stockton. The guy didn't signal or look, he just started coming over. I was lucky that there wasn't a lane or guard rail on my left side or I'd have been toast. It was really freaky.

I got home to a quiet house; both Jarom and Jenna were both sleeping, so i put my stuff away and came down stairs to catch up on the shows that I missed.

It was a nice weekend and I had fun.

Friday afternoon, Jenna and I drove up to Oregon for a quick weekend trip. Jenna had a wedding and since she didn't have to work wanted to attend. I made a promise to my mother-in-law that I would make sure she got up there safely. After dropping Jenna off in Prineville I continued on to Troutdale to my parents' home.

Saturday while Jenna attended her wedding in Prineville, I was helping and showing my mom how to use her Cricket machine. We had fun playing with the different settings and now I'm completely sold on having one, the one that will cut fabric so that I can applique items onto quilt and pillows, etc. I was able to see my Aunt Stephanie, who I haven't seen for about 4 or 5 years. It was just a quiet and relaxed weekend for me, until Sunday morning when I left to drive back over the Mt. Hood to Prineville to get Jenna. We left Prineville around noon and hit the border about 4pm where we learned that they just closed Hwy. 97, 5 miles south of Macdoel because of a fire. Jenna and I had been watching the fire grow as we got closer. We drove down to the where they were turning people around and told we could wait it out, but we decided to go back across the border to hit the Lake of the Woods Hwy which eventually leads to Hwy. 160. Hwy 160 connected us to Hwy. 62 into Medford and from there we were able to hit I-5. It added four hours to our drive and we didn't get in until 11:30pm, but it was beautiful and an adventure. We noticed as we drove back over the border that you could see the fire from I-5 and it was even bigger. We even saw the copter that was dumping water come back for a refill. He are a couple pictures I took just after we were turned around:





It turns out that, I was glad we didn't wait it out. Jarom came home from work Monday and told me that the highway still shut down.

Monday was Jenna's 19th birthday and she had a couple friends over to swim in the pool and have some cake and ice cream cake. Yes, there were two cakes. I made her favorite rainbow chip cake with rainbow chip frosting, plus we picked up a chocolate fudge crunch ice cream cake from Baskin & Robbins. I didn't do a very good job, but I managed to write "Happy Birthday Jenna" on the ice cream cake.

Next month, we are going to treat her for her birthday, a little late, but just coming back from a trip to Oregon we needed to wait. Next month, we have it planned to go out to Roseville to Golfland Sunsplash for a round of evening miniature golf at 5pm and the enjoy a night slide that starts at 7pm.

Ice Cream Cake with Colored Flame candles and a Singing Candle








This weekend, I'm headed down to Watsonville to celebrate some more family July birthday while Jarom goes camping with some friends up at Meadow Lake. Jenna wanted to go to Watsonville with me but she has to work this weekend, so she has to stay home. She really want to go down the the Santa Cruz Boardwalk and the beach, so she is a little bummed, but I told her there will be plenty of time and opportunity to do that, so she gets the house all to her self.

Tuesday morning, Jarom called into 105.1 FM KNCI for to win dinner at Morton's Steakhouse with a live performance of new solo recording artist, Jessica Harp. The radio station was taking callers 9 and 10. He let the phone buzz and buzz with the busy signal, about to hang up when it started to ring and well, he WON!



Our prize was dinner for two, that night, at Morton's Steakhouse in downtown Sacramento. Jessica Harp is a new solo recording artist that already has a top 20 Billboards Hot Country Song song with "Boy Like Me". She used to be part of the singing duo with Michelle Branch that made up The Wreckers.

Neither Jarom or I have ever been to Morton's until Tuesday, so I looked it up. I remember hearing about it and thinking it was a more upscale fancy restaurant, to our standards, and I was right. From what little I could see for pricing it was expensive, too. I decided I would wear a nice summer light skirt, so I picked my white one with my teal green baby doll top and white tank top underneath. I didn't expect Jarom to wear a suit and tie, but I did expect Dockers and a button up shirt. He wore jeans and a button up shirt. When we walked in a 6:30pm, everyone was in suits and ties, but they ushered us to the patio outside in the 100 degree heat for our fare. It was actually nice outside, once the sun started to go down and there was a nice, refreshing breeze, too. It was a relief to see that we were dressed nicer than most of the other winners.

There were 10 other winners, each with a guest and we were the last to arrive, but we had a nice time. Our meal was several platters of "Bar Bites" from the bar that just kept on coming. Jarom and I were the only ones at our table and there was a lot of leftover food, but we couldn't eat it all. I wish I had taken several pictures of our food-it all looked so yummy and it was. I enjoyed all of it and I'm a picky eater, but I ate crab and blue cheese. I was able to find a few pictures on thier website, though, at www.mortons.com.

Immediately, we were each give a swag bag. In it was a t-shirt, pen (that lights up) and key chain that has a bottle opener and flashlight.




This is a list of all the food that they brought us:
-Miniature Crab Cakes with Mustard Mayonnaise
-Chicken Goujonettes with Mustard Mayonnaise, these are crispy fried little chicken bites.
-Prime Cheeseburgers with lettuce, tomato and purple onion

-Iceburg Wedge Bites with tomato, egg, bacon and blue cheese
-Jumbo Lump Crab, Spinach and Artichoke Dip with French Bread Croutons (So Yummy!)

-Blue Cheese French Fries with blue cheese, red pepper flakes and chive (Not my favorite, in fact this was the only dish I didn't really care for)
-Petite Filet Mignon Sandwiches with Mustard Mayonnaise


Jessica soon came out with her two bandmates and started to play her set. Her CD will be released in September. She played 3 or 4 songs from her album, and "Leave The Pieces" that she sang and produced with Michelle Branch as part of The Wreckers. When she played "Have You ever Seen the Rain" written and performed by John Fogerty (it was first performed by Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1970 on their album the Pendulum) everyone sang along. Jessica's music is great and she has a beautiufl voice.







Jessica played and sang 7 or 8 songs and then for anyone who wished to have them, she autographed photos and our KNCI t-shirts and took photos with us. I got an autographed picture and had her autograph my shirt, too, and then Jarom took a couple photos of the two of us. She was very nice and I really hope that she rockets to the top and that we see a lot more of her.





Jessica autographing my photo


Jessica Harp and Me




We left the restaurant around 8pm and walked back to Macy's to the parking garage where we parked the car. We weren't exactly sure where it was and my navigation system said we arrived at our location, when in actuality we still had to go another street down, so we parked a bit of a ways away. It was a nice walk except for the heat and my feet being swollen so my sandal heels were hurting my feet. I even have a little blister on the side of my left big toe. Had we known exactly where it was we would have seen that they had valet parking for $5. Oh well. Besides parking, all we had to pay for was our drinks. Jarom had a coke and I tried the Veuve Clicquot, Rose, Brut champagne. It was okay, but not as sweet as I like. I was hoping they would serve us dessert, because their Hot Chocolate cake and cheesecake looked fantastic! Oh well.

I had a sweet tooth on the way home, so we stopped at Baskin & Robbins down the street from the house before going home. It was $1 Tuesday Scoop Night, too, but only Jarom's was $1. He got a sugar cone with vanilla soft serve ice cream. I, on the other hand, decided I wanted a 'blizzard" which is called a "31 Below" at B&R with butterfinger. YUMMY!

It was a really nice evening. We both really enjoyed ourselves. Jarom and I haven't been doing well when it comes to going on a date together, for some time now, so this was a very nice date with my wonderful husband.

Thank you, Baby, for a really great night! I love you!

Just real quick...I just added a button to both blogs. They are for wonderful baby blankets made by my friend, Natalie. I can assure you they are of the highest quality and you WILL want to have one not just for your babies but all the babies in your life.

Just click on the button and it will take you right to her page to choose the pattern/fabric combination you want and order your blankies today. And yes, that cutie on the page is her youngest, Madison.

Just one more quick post today.

I started a second blog. I quit doing my other helpful hints blog becuase I had a hard time keeping up with it. Well, here I am with a second blog again. Anyway, this is a lbog dedicated to the recipes of the foods I make for my family and friends. I have several that come from recipe books that I will cite accordingly and several from family. As often as possible, I will include pictures of the foods. That will be the tricky part, because I don't really make a habit of taking pictures of my food.

With that siad, you can find this new blog at: http://deathbygoodfood.blogspot.com/.

As of early this morning, when I couldn't sleep, I posted the welcome message and four recipes that I made this weekend. Enjoy!

I can't believe the holiday has come and gone already. It was a far better one than last year, when Jarom and I were on seperate coasts and our street was very quiet. This year, a much livelier picture was painted for us. Most of the day, it was quiet, just hanging around the house. I made my Aunt Michelle's chicken rolls and black bottom cupcakes-a cream cheese filled chocolate cupcake.

Around 7pm, half of our cul-de-sac came together to share in the fireworks show. I broght out some cupcakes to share as the kids twirled sparklers until it was dar enough to watch the big show. Jarom brought out chimanea out to the driveway from the back and some chairs. The Subletts to our left (looking at the house) had a houseful that all came out and the new neighbors across the street came out with thier 4 children, too. The neighbors to our right set off thiers on the side of the house, which we has to watch closely so as they didn't set our house on fire.

We didn't buy any fireworks but there was plenty betweent he neighbors to wathc quite a show. We had our very own fire thrower, or in this case fireworks thrower. I know, it is dangerous, but it was quite a show and he was very cautious. After all the fireworks were done, we made s'mores and passed them around to everyone who wanted one. It was all over by 10:30 and we were in bed by 11pm.

Fathers & Daughters with Sparklers


Fireworks on the Ironing Board


Girlfriends Smile for the Camera-Destiny, Shannon & Madison


Fireworks Thrower


Jarom & Jenna


LeeAnn & Wallace


LeeAnn with her Mom & Aunt


S'Mores Time