Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Monday, June 27, 2011
21 Day Summer Challenge Day 19
Today's topic: Summer Reading
At one point in my life I used to be a reader, I was always getting awards in school for reading the most. But then I went to college where they killed my enthusiasm for reading, so I'm not really into it much any more. I guess I should clarify that I don't really read many books, I of course love to read blogs, I read news articles and I subscribe to Parents and Parenting: The Early Years. I also read a lot of kiddy books at the moment. Tonight we read Red Hat, Blue Hat and Goodnight Moon before bed.
At one point in my life I used to be a reader, I was always getting awards in school for reading the most. But then I went to college where they killed my enthusiasm for reading, so I'm not really into it much any more. I guess I should clarify that I don't really read many books, I of course love to read blogs, I read news articles and I subscribe to Parents and Parenting: The Early Years. I also read a lot of kiddy books at the moment. Tonight we read Red Hat, Blue Hat and Goodnight Moon before bed.
21 Day Summer Challenge Day 18 and 17
Day 18: Summer Fashion
I'm not much of a fashion oriented person. So long as my clothes are fashion neutral, I am ok. In the summer I love to wear shorts and short sleeve or tank tops. When I work in the field I always wear work jeans and boots though no matter how hot it gets, I don't like getting all scratched up.
Day 17: Summer Camp
I never really went to summer camp as a kid. I always wanted to go to Girl Scout Camp, but you had to sell a million and five boxes of cookies to do it, and I always just earned enough to go to the day camps a couple of times. It seems like one year I went ice skating and another year went to Chuck-E-Cheese. I know at least once my troop had an overnight camp at a cabin in the mountains.
The summer between my freshman and sophomore year of college I got a job as a camp counselor in New York. The camp was two months long and had two one-month sessions. The kids that we had were mostly wealthy Jewish kids from the city who got sent to camp while their parents vacationed. They hired staff from all over the world, so it was a pretty interesting experience to meet people from New Zealand, Canada, England, Spain, and Australia, as well as college students from all over the US. During both sessions I was bunked with 9-10 year olds. I taught arts and crafts during the day for all ages and my subjects were tie-dye and leather craft.
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They basically said "just show up" so when I asked my brother about how to get there, he made all the arrangements for me and met me in New York City for the weekend and then put me on a bus to get to the camp in the Catskill Mountains (really just hills compared to the Rocky Mountains that I grew up in).
It was mostly pretty typical, what you would expect from a month long sleep-away camp: arts and crafts, swimming, sports, group activities, day trips, etc. During both sessions they had a week long "color war" where they split the camp into two teams and all activities revolved around competition. When they "broke" color war they hired someone famous to come and announce it. The first session the celebrity was the New Jersey Net Basketball Cheerleaders/Dancers, and the second session was WWE wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin. In other years they have had real celebrities, Toby Maguire, Justin Timberlake, Shaq, so I must admit I was disappointed.
I'm not much of a fashion oriented person. So long as my clothes are fashion neutral, I am ok. In the summer I love to wear shorts and short sleeve or tank tops. When I work in the field I always wear work jeans and boots though no matter how hot it gets, I don't like getting all scratched up.
Day 17: Summer Camp
I never really went to summer camp as a kid. I always wanted to go to Girl Scout Camp, but you had to sell a million and five boxes of cookies to do it, and I always just earned enough to go to the day camps a couple of times. It seems like one year I went ice skating and another year went to Chuck-E-Cheese. I know at least once my troop had an overnight camp at a cabin in the mountains.
The summer between my freshman and sophomore year of college I got a job as a camp counselor in New York. The camp was two months long and had two one-month sessions. The kids that we had were mostly wealthy Jewish kids from the city who got sent to camp while their parents vacationed. They hired staff from all over the world, so it was a pretty interesting experience to meet people from New Zealand, Canada, England, Spain, and Australia, as well as college students from all over the US. During both sessions I was bunked with 9-10 year olds. I taught arts and crafts during the day for all ages and my subjects were tie-dye and leather craft.
They basically said "just show up" so when I asked my brother about how to get there, he made all the arrangements for me and met me in New York City for the weekend and then put me on a bus to get to the camp in the Catskill Mountains (really just hills compared to the Rocky Mountains that I grew up in).
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| Doug and I in NYC, recognize this view? Hint: You won't be able to see it today. |
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| Yes that picture was at the top of one of the World Trade Center Buildings, hence my fear of going into tall buildings today. |
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| Some of the counselors getting ready for the final night of Color War, we were on the Hawaii Red team. The other team was Alaska White. |
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| Stone Cold Steve Austin |
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| The final night of the second Color War, we were on the Storyland White team. The other team was Monster Red. |
Friday, June 24, 2011
21 Day Summer Challenge Day 16
Day 16: Road Trips
We just so happen to be prepping for our next summer road trip, in July we are driving to Colorado (the greatest state ever!) to go see my family and see Soundgarden at Red Rocks Amphitheater. I went to Red Rocks several times as a kid to attend Easter Sunrise Service, but have never been there for a concert, so I am way stoked!!!
Thinking back to past summer road trips I remember in February of 2003 I started dating a pretty incredible guy who happened to be from Iowa. When our spring semester ended that year my sister and I were thinking about road tripping to Iowa to visit our relatives, so we invited my incredible guy along and promised that we would drop him off at my future in-laws house on our way to our relatives. Who knew at the time that I would be meeting my future in-laws that trip!
See that was part of the revelation during our first real conversation that got this relationship going, my now husband told me the name of little town in Iowa that he was from and I actually knew where it was because it is on the little highway that we take to visit our relatives who are in the far south east corner of the state. In fact we had stopped there on a couple of our trips to eat at Hardees. Now if you have ever met someone from Iowa, you ask them where they are from and they say some little town that no one has ever heard of, and that is the norm because Iowa has about a billion little towns. So when someone actually knows the highway that bisects your little town, then they actually know something and are alright. Now here we are over 8 years later with our perfect little family living our happily ever after!
Of course I have to qualify that trip as it was not all fairy tale, if you ask my Mother-in-law about our first meeting, she will laugh and tell you about how on that trip I had my first experience with ticks. Oh yes, those little bugs of the devil! When we were visiting my relatives we went out morel mushroom hunting. Morel mushrooms are so incredibly, wonderfully flavored edible mushrooms that grow wild in the forests of the Midwest. We went out tromping through the trees and found some mushrooms, so it was quite the experience, until that is, we got back to my Aunt's house and I went to shower. I noticed a little black dot just in front of my right arm-pit, right in the bra line. I yelled through the two-story farm house for my sister. She came up and upon inspection we realized it was in fact a nasty tick. We looked around and found a couple more on my ankles. I must have stepped right through a nest of the little buggers. So I thought we got them all accounted for and went on with the rest of our visit. We left a couple days later and went to pick up Dustin and spent a night at his parents house. That evening we were visiting and somehow I realized there was a lump on my ankle, I look and sure enough another tick! I freaked out, come to find out I really hate ticks!!! Dustin helped pick off a couple more ticks on my ankles, now there is romance for you! They must have been too small to see when they latched on and after three days of gorging made their presence known. As if this whole story wasn't the highlight of my life, when we had my bridal shower a year and a half later my Mother-in-law traveled from Iowa to Colorado to attend it, and one of the activities was to share a memory of a special time spent with me. Does she share some sweet bonding memory, NO, she recounts how at our first meeting I was picking ticks in her living room!
We just so happen to be prepping for our next summer road trip, in July we are driving to Colorado (the greatest state ever!) to go see my family and see Soundgarden at Red Rocks Amphitheater. I went to Red Rocks several times as a kid to attend Easter Sunrise Service, but have never been there for a concert, so I am way stoked!!!
Thinking back to past summer road trips I remember in February of 2003 I started dating a pretty incredible guy who happened to be from Iowa. When our spring semester ended that year my sister and I were thinking about road tripping to Iowa to visit our relatives, so we invited my incredible guy along and promised that we would drop him off at my future in-laws house on our way to our relatives. Who knew at the time that I would be meeting my future in-laws that trip!
See that was part of the revelation during our first real conversation that got this relationship going, my now husband told me the name of little town in Iowa that he was from and I actually knew where it was because it is on the little highway that we take to visit our relatives who are in the far south east corner of the state. In fact we had stopped there on a couple of our trips to eat at Hardees. Now if you have ever met someone from Iowa, you ask them where they are from and they say some little town that no one has ever heard of, and that is the norm because Iowa has about a billion little towns. So when someone actually knows the highway that bisects your little town, then they actually know something and are alright. Now here we are over 8 years later with our perfect little family living our happily ever after!
Of course I have to qualify that trip as it was not all fairy tale, if you ask my Mother-in-law about our first meeting, she will laugh and tell you about how on that trip I had my first experience with ticks. Oh yes, those little bugs of the devil! When we were visiting my relatives we went out morel mushroom hunting. Morel mushrooms are so incredibly, wonderfully flavored edible mushrooms that grow wild in the forests of the Midwest. We went out tromping through the trees and found some mushrooms, so it was quite the experience, until that is, we got back to my Aunt's house and I went to shower. I noticed a little black dot just in front of my right arm-pit, right in the bra line. I yelled through the two-story farm house for my sister. She came up and upon inspection we realized it was in fact a nasty tick. We looked around and found a couple more on my ankles. I must have stepped right through a nest of the little buggers. So I thought we got them all accounted for and went on with the rest of our visit. We left a couple days later and went to pick up Dustin and spent a night at his parents house. That evening we were visiting and somehow I realized there was a lump on my ankle, I look and sure enough another tick! I freaked out, come to find out I really hate ticks!!! Dustin helped pick off a couple more ticks on my ankles, now there is romance for you! They must have been too small to see when they latched on and after three days of gorging made their presence known. As if this whole story wasn't the highlight of my life, when we had my bridal shower a year and a half later my Mother-in-law traveled from Iowa to Colorado to attend it, and one of the activities was to share a memory of a special time spent with me. Does she share some sweet bonding memory, NO, she recounts how at our first meeting I was picking ticks in her living room!
Thursday, June 23, 2011
21 Day Summer Challenge Day 15
Today's topic: Summer Blockbuster
Well actually, we hardly ever go to movies in a theater anymore, I think I have been to 3 since Austin was born. BUT, we have a family date scheduled this weekend to go to the big city to watch:
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Well actually, we hardly ever go to movies in a theater anymore, I think I have been to 3 since Austin was born. BUT, we have a family date scheduled this weekend to go to the big city to watch:
I am so excited and can hardly wait. I really hope Austin is able to sit through most of it. We attempted to go to Yogi Bear last December, and he did well considering, but we had to leave with about 15 minutes left in the movie. Hopefully now that he is six months older he will be more into it.
21 Day Summer Challenge Day 14
Today's topic: Summer Recipe
I haven't made chicken kabobs yet this year, but I'm thinking this weekend we are due!
Sesame-Soy Marinade
3/4 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup rice wine vinegar
3 TBSP packed light brown sugar
1 TBSP Sesame Oil
2 green onions, chopped
1.5 tsp dried red pepper flakes, crushed
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and use as a marinade for poultry or fish.
I use this marinade recipe and put kabob sized pieces of chicken breast into a ziplock and let it marinade, the longer the better. Then when I am ready to grill I just have to skewer the pieces. I always cook meat seperate from veggies for the germ factor, but you can skewer it however you like. I have not tried it with fish yet, but I bet it would be delish!
I haven't made chicken kabobs yet this year, but I'm thinking this weekend we are due!
Sesame-Soy Marinade
3/4 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup rice wine vinegar
3 TBSP packed light brown sugar
1 TBSP Sesame Oil
2 green onions, chopped
1.5 tsp dried red pepper flakes, crushed
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and use as a marinade for poultry or fish.
I use this marinade recipe and put kabob sized pieces of chicken breast into a ziplock and let it marinade, the longer the better. Then when I am ready to grill I just have to skewer the pieces. I always cook meat seperate from veggies for the germ factor, but you can skewer it however you like. I have not tried it with fish yet, but I bet it would be delish!
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
21 Day Summer Challenge, Day 13
Wow, it is finally summer here, is it ever hot today! I can't complain though, this is my seventh summer here and in every other summer here it has already been over 100 for a while by now. Today the high is supposed to be 95, so it's hot, but not too bad relatively. I had to run out and do some field work this morning and enjoyed watching all the lizards out and about scurrying across the hot desert sand.
Today's Topic: Summer Craft
This is one of the topics I don't have much to talk about. I don't have any summer craft traditions, or anything I look forward to in that category every summer. I am usually so busy keeping up with my garden and yard work that I don't have time to craft, for me it's more in the winter. I am of course working on my son's quilt and if you want to see more about that you can click on the label "quilt" on my sidebar and it will take you to all the posts where I talk about quilting.
Today's Topic: Summer Craft
This is one of the topics I don't have much to talk about. I don't have any summer craft traditions, or anything I look forward to in that category every summer. I am usually so busy keeping up with my garden and yard work that I don't have time to craft, for me it's more in the winter. I am of course working on my son's quilt and if you want to see more about that you can click on the label "quilt" on my sidebar and it will take you to all the posts where I talk about quilting.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
21 Day Summer Challenge Day 10, 11, and 12
Well here is my BIG 200th post!!!
And oops, the weekend got away from me and I missed a couple more days of the challenge, but the good news is the last three topics work well together in one post:
The first wonderful thing that qualifies in all 3 categories:
And oops, the weekend got away from me and I missed a couple more days of the challenge, but the good news is the last three topics work well together in one post:
June 19-Day 10: Summer MUST Haves
June 20-Day 11: Refreshing Beverage
June 21-Day 12: How do you BEAT the HEAT?
The first wonderful thing that qualifies in all 3 categories:
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| I <3 Fat Tire!!! I went to college in Fort Collins, CO and it was so fabulous that all the restaurants and bars had fresh Fat Tire on tap that was brewed within days. I can't get it so fresh here, but I love a good ice cold bottle on a hot summer day! One summer there was a crew of CSU students working on a project for the forest my husband works for and they brought a fresh keg from Fort Collins as they came out for a summer gathering and it was oh-so-delicious! |
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| From the summer "must haves" fresh tomatoes in the garden. Can you believe I already have a tomato this big (insert shouts of joy)!!! I started two tomato plants in April in Burpee Aqua Shields, and soon I will be feasting on this baby! |
| Another "must have" is pretty flowers. When we bought our house there was a nasty old rose bush in front and the first year it had about 4 ugly sick little pink flowers, and then never bloomed after that. Finally after many years of trying everything to get it to bloom I had Dustin dig it out and replaced it with this climbing rose called "4th of July." |
Half way there!
I finished piece 6 of 12. I have one more piece already ironed that I am embroidering, and then I need to cut the pieces for the other 5. I am still debating on what to include, so far I have a barn, cow, pig, apple trees, sun, combine, and tractor. I am thinking about an ear of corn, a pumpkin, a horse, a chicken, and maybe a farmer. Do you have any other good ideas for a farm theme?
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Saturday, June 18, 2011
21 Day Summer Challenge Day 9
Today's topic: Childhood Swimming Memory
I meant to take the camera today when we went to the pool and I forgot, darn it!!!
I know we usually had some type of kiddie pool in my yard every summer. I think one summer when I was a bit older my Dad put a stock tank in the yard and filled it for me so it would be deeper than a kiddie pool. In my home town there was an indoor pool, so you could swim there year round. I did take swim lessons during the summer though when school was out. I was really a pretty good swimmer since I started lessons so young. I remember once as a kid we went to my Dad's side family reunion and I was about 7. My Aunt made me wear those goofy water wing arm blow up things and it made me SO MAD because I was already a proficient swimmer, but my cousins could not swim so she made me wear them like everyone else.
I meant to take the camera today when we went to the pool and I forgot, darn it!!!
I know we usually had some type of kiddie pool in my yard every summer. I think one summer when I was a bit older my Dad put a stock tank in the yard and filled it for me so it would be deeper than a kiddie pool. In my home town there was an indoor pool, so you could swim there year round. I did take swim lessons during the summer though when school was out. I was really a pretty good swimmer since I started lessons so young. I remember once as a kid we went to my Dad's side family reunion and I was about 7. My Aunt made me wear those goofy water wing arm blow up things and it made me SO MAD because I was already a proficient swimmer, but my cousins could not swim so she made me wear them like everyone else.
21 Day Summer Challenge Day 7
Here it, the much anticipated Day 7 post...drumroll please, LOL!
I had a really hard time coming up with what my #1 favorite memory of summer is. I guess most of the major life events for me have happened in the other seasons. And thinking back to my childhood I have a lot of great memories of going to the mountains and camping and fishing, visiting family, helping in the garden, riding my bike, and all those typical type memories, but one particular time did not stand out.
I also thought about how every summer when I was in high school I was able to go live in another state for about a month. The summer before freshman year I went to Florida with my brother to see all the Orlando attractions and ended up staying with my Aunt and Uncle until my cousins came for a visit to Cocoa Beach. The next summer I went to New Jersey where I stayed with my brother. Each weekend we did something adventurous, the first weekend we went to New York City and did a bunch of site-seeing and saw Cats on Broadway, the next weekend we drove to Washington DC and saw the sights with some of his friends, the third weekend we drove to Maine and camped out, then the final weekend we went back to the City and saw Grease on Broadway. The last summer I went somewhere I stayed with my cousin's in Iowa, which was full of Iowa summer experiences, fishing, demo-derbies and a corn festival. All three of those summers were memorable, but how do I pick the "favorite" one?
But, then I realized that one major fun event did happen in summer, in August of 2005 my sister, who was my Maid-of-honor, hosted my bachelorette party in Las Vegas. I live about three hours from Vegas, and I knew it would be relatively inexpensive for people to travel there, so I requested it. Only I asked that we not do the typical bachelorette stuff like male reviews or strip clubs because it is just not my scene. So my sister invited all the ladies in my family and 7 of my cousin's also attended, three from Iowa, one from Georgia, one from Florida and two locally.
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So they all flew in on a Thursday night and I was able to pick everyone up and take them to their hotels. My sister got us a suite at The New Frontier Hotel/Casino. We all gathered at the Frontier and went to the bar there and had some drinks. It was the first time to Vegas for three of the cousins, and we were all a bit shocked by the bikini bull-riding Vegas style, WOW!
Friday we went and toured Hoover Dam, then that night we went to a big dinner then to the Comedy Club at Riviera. It was such a fun night, my sister got us all pink boas to wear so we would stand out as a group. The maitre de at the Riviera put us in a group spot right next to the stage, I mean I could literally put my elbow on stage. All three of the comedians had been on Seinfeld before and I don't remember the names of the openers, but the main guy was Dom Irrera. All three comedians saw the pink boas and incorporated us into their stand up, it was way fun!!! For the show my two cousin's who live in Vegas also brought their husbands, and the middle comedian came over and said to one of them "so what are you doing in the middle of a bachelorette party?" then he walked over closer to us and looked an saw that Nick (pictured below) had a boa in his lap and the commedian goes "and even more importantly what are you doing with a pink boa?" And I won't mention exactly what Dom said I could come backstage after the show and do to him since I was the bride-to-be. (oh and BTW, Nick actually kept and wrapped the boa around this rear-view mirror in his truck)
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Saturday they had the gift shower for me in our suite. Afterwards we went to the Fashion Mall and had facials and make-up consultations at Macy's so I could buy my makeup for the wedding. That night we decided to do more night sight-seeing on the strip for those cousins who had never been there before. That is when we had the glow in the dark necklaces in the picture above. We made the big-fat-mistake of trying to walk and were SO TIRED!!!
It was not your typical Vegas bachelorette party, but I wouldn't have had it any other way!
I had a really hard time coming up with what my #1 favorite memory of summer is. I guess most of the major life events for me have happened in the other seasons. And thinking back to my childhood I have a lot of great memories of going to the mountains and camping and fishing, visiting family, helping in the garden, riding my bike, and all those typical type memories, but one particular time did not stand out.
I also thought about how every summer when I was in high school I was able to go live in another state for about a month. The summer before freshman year I went to Florida with my brother to see all the Orlando attractions and ended up staying with my Aunt and Uncle until my cousins came for a visit to Cocoa Beach. The next summer I went to New Jersey where I stayed with my brother. Each weekend we did something adventurous, the first weekend we went to New York City and did a bunch of site-seeing and saw Cats on Broadway, the next weekend we drove to Washington DC and saw the sights with some of his friends, the third weekend we drove to Maine and camped out, then the final weekend we went back to the City and saw Grease on Broadway. The last summer I went somewhere I stayed with my cousin's in Iowa, which was full of Iowa summer experiences, fishing, demo-derbies and a corn festival. All three of those summers were memorable, but how do I pick the "favorite" one?
But, then I realized that one major fun event did happen in summer, in August of 2005 my sister, who was my Maid-of-honor, hosted my bachelorette party in Las Vegas. I live about three hours from Vegas, and I knew it would be relatively inexpensive for people to travel there, so I requested it. Only I asked that we not do the typical bachelorette stuff like male reviews or strip clubs because it is just not my scene. So my sister invited all the ladies in my family and 7 of my cousin's also attended, three from Iowa, one from Georgia, one from Florida and two locally.
So they all flew in on a Thursday night and I was able to pick everyone up and take them to their hotels. My sister got us a suite at The New Frontier Hotel/Casino. We all gathered at the Frontier and went to the bar there and had some drinks. It was the first time to Vegas for three of the cousins, and we were all a bit shocked by the bikini bull-riding Vegas style, WOW!
Friday we went and toured Hoover Dam, then that night we went to a big dinner then to the Comedy Club at Riviera. It was such a fun night, my sister got us all pink boas to wear so we would stand out as a group. The maitre de at the Riviera put us in a group spot right next to the stage, I mean I could literally put my elbow on stage. All three of the comedians had been on Seinfeld before and I don't remember the names of the openers, but the main guy was Dom Irrera. All three comedians saw the pink boas and incorporated us into their stand up, it was way fun!!! For the show my two cousin's who live in Vegas also brought their husbands, and the middle comedian came over and said to one of them "so what are you doing in the middle of a bachelorette party?" then he walked over closer to us and looked an saw that Nick (pictured below) had a boa in his lap and the commedian goes "and even more importantly what are you doing with a pink boa?" And I won't mention exactly what Dom said I could come backstage after the show and do to him since I was the bride-to-be. (oh and BTW, Nick actually kept and wrapped the boa around this rear-view mirror in his truck)
Saturday they had the gift shower for me in our suite. Afterwards we went to the Fashion Mall and had facials and make-up consultations at Macy's so I could buy my makeup for the wedding. That night we decided to do more night sight-seeing on the strip for those cousins who had never been there before. That is when we had the glow in the dark necklaces in the picture above. We made the big-fat-mistake of trying to walk and were SO TIRED!!!
It was not your typical Vegas bachelorette party, but I wouldn't have had it any other way!
Butterfly quilt
I pulled out my old cd's that I backed up folders on to try and find the photos I want to include in my 21 Days of Summer Challenge for day 7. In the mean time I am finding a bunch of fun old photos. Here is one of the other quilts I did for my niece.
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