Seeds

The kids and I started some seeds last night. Lettuce, tomato, carrots, watermelon & corn. I found organic seeds for all of them (yay).  I need to decide which herbs I want to grow this year and start those next. They had fun planting them with the containers we made out of recycled newspaper.

Yesterday I was all excited for the warm weather coming up and looking forward to a great little garden this year...this morning I woke up to snow! Haha, welcome to Utah.

The Dairy

Winder Farm is a local Dairy here. They deliver farm fresh items right to your front door. My Mom has had their Milk delivered ever since I can remember. I knew they had a store where you could walk in and buy items. They sell ice cream in the summer and hot chocolate in the winter, and I've always wanted to stop in and check it out. I was a nice sunny day so I took the kids right to the farm to get ice cream from their little (and I mean little) Country Store.

The farm is down a narrow one way road. I didn't tell the kids where we were going and I swear they thought we were lost as I was driving us down this little road. The store at the farm is a little one room brick building and looks about a hundred years old. Theres a few coolers with milk, eggs, cheese, etc. and a few tables in the middle for enjoying some of their snacks.

I bought a gallon of milk and a few ice cream cones, which we ate outside in the warm sun. I'm sure we'll be back many times this summer since it's just down the street from us.... and super yummy! Ashleigh said it was the best vanilla ice cream she had ever had.

Ashleigh's 12 yr old Birthday Party

Ash's party was over the weekend. I surprised her with all these decorations after school on Friday. She got to invite two friends (since we were driving to the store later that night, I only had room for 2 more in my car) so she invited Ashley & Kylee.

First thing: Goodie Bags..

complete with Edward stickers, black nail polish, body glitter and Vampire fangs!

On the dinner menu: Roasted chicken, mashed potatoes & gravy, salad and garlic bread..

..and a pitcher of 'blood'.

After dinner: Presents!

and then games, which turned into a cotton ball fight! (and they later used to stuff their shirts...silly girls)

After singing "Happy Birthday" & blowing out the candles, they all decorated cupcakes

then decided to see who could eat one the fastest

finally time to start the movie...

at Midnight we all went to the store and bought New Moon and then watched that one too.

The next day they made flower hair clips..

Which they are modeling here!

Ashleigh said her party was awesome and had such a great time. It turned out super cute and all three girls had a wonderful time!

Spring is in the air

I'm excited to get my garden started this year. I think I'm going to get it started inside since I'm planting in pots like last year. I came across this picture and I thought it was super clever so I wanted to share.

It's made out of rain gutters! How perfect for those without much room. 

I want to install a window box on my bedroom window this year. I have great views of the mountains and I would love some aromatics planted there. I know for sure I'll plant lavender but I'm not sure what else. (it gets full sun)

I was happy to learn that blueberries and raspberries can be grown in containers! I will be adding them to my garden this year, even though I wont get fruit right away. 

I'm looking forward to fixing up the planter bed in the front of my house this year. There aren't may flowering shade perennials but I have found a few that I would like to plant.  There are so many projects I would like to get done around the house but my tax return is only going to stretch so far. I need to prioritize and just go down the list till it runs out. If I buy from seeds and start the plants inside, it will save me quite a bit from buying the plants later.

Oh, and I bought the most darling garden labels the other day. They look like these, just not as tall:

Here's a couple cute ideas I saw while looking for that picture:

Mary Mary quite contrary...

How does your garden grow?...

Well, mine will grow with the help of this little gem I found. Automatic Watering Timer. I've been looking at them for about a week and I found one with great reviews so I'm excited.

On a side note, here a website I found for a family with a great garden/small farm in the middle of the concrete jungle!

Drive

We drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon to scope out campsites at Spruces Campground. I knew there was still snow up there but didn't expect the 5ft tall snowbank once we got into the campground. Not a total loss though, it was a beautiful drive.

International Shopping

The kids have been wanting Mushroom stroganoff for about a week now. Jackson specifically asked if we could get Beach mushrooms to go in it so we went to the Asian market (which is the only place I've ever seen them). The kids always like going to look at all the different types of food. Especially the fish. After that we stopped at the Mexican market to get some fruits and veggies. We had driven past the Mexican market a hundred times but this was the fist time we had gone in. I do believe we were the only one's there that spoke English. In the back of the grocery store was a bakery with all sorts of goodies. Of course we couldn't read the signs and the lady behind the counter only spoke Spanish. The kids each got to pick out a treat. You can't really tell from the pictures but they were huge pastries! Ashleigh chose an ecliar type pastry and Jackson picked these two cookies with cream between, covered in chocolate and sprinkles on top! I know we'll go back again... especially to the bakery!

In the parking lot next to the Asian market is a Walmart, we had to laugh when we saw this scene so we drove around again to take a picture...

No Trucks

Snow Day

It's been snowing all day.

It's mid March.

I decided to embrace it.

I've spent the last few hours in the family room, curled up in front of the fireplace with my new book and a pot of tea.

While the kids played together with legos for hours on end.

I am quite content.

What a great day.

Salad Dressing

I got this recipe from a friend at work, and she got it from her daughter. It is amazing. If it was possible for a person to be in love with a salad dressing... this would be it. I could eat it by itself it's so yummy. I wanted to share it.

Cilantro-Lime Ranch

1 package of ranch dressing mix

1  cup sour cream

1 cup mayo

juice from 1 lime

1 bunch of cilantro 

2 Tbs. chopped red onion

Mix it all together in a blender or food processor. I, of course, used low fat sour cream and mayo. I also added a little low fat milk since it was pretty thick. I had it on salad last night but sadly I'm out of lettuce now. It would make a great dip for veggies or even to spread on a sandwich or baked potato. YUMMY!!

Books

I really like to read the book before I see the movie. There's a couple of movies coming out soon that look really good, so I know the book will be even better. Being the bargain hunter that I am, I went online to find a couple good deals for books. I got both, The Time Traveler's Wife and, Dear John for less than $8.00 and that's including shipping (as I pat myself on the back).

I can't wait for them to get here either. I check the mail box everyday and am disappointed when there are no books in the box. I guess my true 'nerdyness' is coming out when the most exciting thing I'm looking forward to right now is starting a new book. I am truly my mother's daughter!

Jr. High

My baby girl signed up for Jr. High this afternoon. Someone from the Jr. High came in and talked to all the sixth grade classes. They talked about the dress code and how you're not allowed to be late to class more than once without a consequence. (The kids can't wear colored shoe laces, only white or black but they can have colored streaks in their hair... I don't understand that one)

She was so cute tonight. After we said prayers and I was tucking her in she told me how nervous she was. She had so many questions such as....

What if I go to the wrong class?
What if I grab the wrong book for my class?
How do I know when lunch is over?
What if I get a crappy locker?
Can anyone else get into my locker?
Can I put stuff (decorate) on my locker?
What do I do when school is over?

Ah, I remember those first day jitters. By the way, she signed up for Drama, Keyboarding, Art, PE and Pre- Algebra instead of regular math (in addition to the required classes).

8

8 Glasses of water. I don't know about you but I have never been able to drink 8 glasses of water every day. I've had 3 today and I think that's the most I've had in a single day for months.... if not longer. Granted I'll have a cup of coffee or tea in the morning and then another cup or two of tea in the evening but multiple glasses of water is a whole other story. I did work out about an hour ago and I'm still thirsty so I'll probably end up drinking one more, but that's still only half of what I "should" be drinking.

I'm going to try and drink at least 4 glasses of water for the rest of the week. Maybe I'll reward myself with a pretty new water bottle. haha

HGTV Dream Home 2010

I've been entering a contest to win a free house... that's right a free house. HGTV gives away a Dream Home every year. I've been entering for the last 3 or 4 years. They will be announcing the winner for this year's contest this week. The prize package is worth over $2 Million dollars. It's a beautiful house, a new car and $500. in cash. It's fun to dream about it.

Just call me Shamu

About a year and a half ago I bought Wii Fit. (for those of you that don't know, it's a 'game' for our video game console. You follow along with exercise routines, yoga and balance activities. It also tracks your weight in a graph so you can see your progress) I love it. I lost 20 lbs last summer before I went on vacation. But while on vacation I indulged in whatever I wanted... the problem was, I never got back into my healthy routine once I got back home.

The balance board (which is what you use to interact with the game and it has sensors that weigh you) broke a couple months ago. I had fallen off the weight loss wagon anyway but lately I've been wanting to jump back on. I've been eating super healthy and really watching my calorie intake over the last couple weeks.

I used my brother's scale this morning to see how much I weigh. I haven't had access to a scale for months with my wii fit not working.

I was not impressed.

In fact, I was downright upset and a bit depressed. I'm worse off than I was this time last year. So, here I am... 3 months till summer vacation again and I'm feeling like a baby beached whale.

I really wanted to get a new Wii Fit but it would put me back $100 and I was having a very hard time justifying it. In the end I decided to get it. I figured, I would use it everyday. It costs less than a gym membership. Also, with all the money we are saving this month by not eating out I probably wouldn't be out that much more money that I normally would. That just got me thinking...

How much were we spending on fast food or just eating out in general? (Please hold while I access my online bank info...) I looked at my last couple months bank statements.

In January we spent $172.10! I am shocked. $50 of that was just spent at my work alone for breakfast, lunch, snacks, coffee or soda through out the month. Wait, it gets worse... for February we spent $212.02 and $80 of that was spent at work!! I'm disgusted. No wonder I've gained weight... I've been eating more of the food that isn't great for me to be eating in the first place! "Yes, I'd like to order a number 7 with a side of  'add three inches to my waist' and a large 'make my thighs as huge as possible' please".

I went to two different stores earlier today and both were out of the Wii Fit that I want. Maybe tomorrow I can find it. I'm off to ride my exercise bike...