What Do You Think?

Um, I totally just scrapbooked my blog. What do you think? Is the paisley too big? I expected it to be smaller. Hmm. I may need to figure out how to tweak that...

Construction

If you couldn't tell, the blog is being changed. I hope to have the cuteness completed soon. I'm feeling a need for summer colors...

Change is Needed

I'm totally over this brown and green background. What should I do next? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Beuller?

Funny Story

First of all, Jordan gave me this awesome recipe (which I guess is Kristin's) for White Chili. She brought some over when I had foot surgery and we loved it, so I decided to make it on Monday. It has cayenne pepper in it, and mine had never been opened. So I screwed off the little cap and tried to pull the plastic sifter thing off, but it wasn't working and it felt like my fingernail was going to break. So I did something super smart. I grabbed the plastic thing with my teeth and pulled. Too bad for me I also grabbed the little paper cover and pulled. Both came off and cayenne pepper poofed up in my mouth and on my arm and shirt!
I quickly brushed off my arm in the sink and rinsed my mouth off/out. Then I brushed my shirt off. My mouth was totally burning! I had to wash it with soap twice before it was mostly gone. I would recommend not doing that. I would recommend the chili though, because it's awesome. Try it.

White Chili

1 lb chicken breast, cubed
1 med onion, chopped
2 15 oz cans of Great Northern White Beans, rinsed and drained
2 14 oz cans of chicken broth
1 4 oz can of chopped green chilis
1 t. salt
1/4 t. cayenne pepper
1/2 c. whipping cream
1 1/2 t. garlic powder
1 T. oil
1 t. cumin
1 t. oregano
1/2 t. pepper
1 c. sour cream

Saute chicken in oil, onion and garlic. Add beans, broth, chilis, and seasonings. Bring to a boil. Simmer uncovered for 30 mins. Stir in creams. Warm through. Enjoy.

Life According to Jane

Take the Quiz here!

The other time I took it I got Elinor Dashwood. Hmm. I guess I am multiple Jane Austen characters! Who are you?

A Pirate's life for Me?

Sorry guys. I'm sure you're sick of these, but I get a little kick out of them. It's kind of fun to see what they say! Thanks Jenene for the tip on this one!

Which Pirate are you most like? Your Result: You Are Most Like Elizabeth Swann!! You are daring and independent. You hate being restricted and are likely to get in some trouble for your freespirited acts. And yet you still have that civil, proper side of you. People look to you for a great idea.
You Are Most Like Barbossa!!
You Are Most Like Will Turner!!
You Are Most Like Jack Sparrow!!
Which Pirate are you most like?

Curious George

YAY!!!!! The search is over! I am finally the proud owner of the best animated movie I've seen in years! For anyone that hasn't seen Curious George with Will Ferrell, Drew Barrymore, and Dick Van Dyke, you're really missing out. Go get it! I love it! Oh, but beware - Walmart is out, but Best Buy has it for $10! YAY!!!! Georgie is my new favorite!

Cinco de Mayo

I know it's over, but I hadn't gotten around to posting until now. On Saturday we had a little Cinco de Mayo party at our house. This was our first time celebrating a Mexican holiday, and it was loads of fun! We even had a piñata. His name was Churro (because he was a burro filled with chocolate). He was very happy before the party. See how bold and pretty his colors are? Afterward he was less excited, probably because he got decapitated and had 1 leg whacked off (by yours truly).

We had a bunch of friends over and they all brought something to go with our taco/burrito bar. We had loads of food and fun (even though it was a tad chilly out!). We are so glad almost everyone could come. For those of you that couldn’t – we missed you!

When You're Not Looking...

Life lessons # 57 – If you’re toddler is having “one of those days” and you think you can leave him alone while you take a shower, expect him to do something while you’re away. :)

Explanation – Yesterday at work my cell phone rang and when I picked it up, I saw it was friend Jordan. I picked it up and said, “Hi!” I heard nothing for a minute, so I said, “Hello?” Then I heard a child’s voice. No specific words, just talking.
I said, “Gavin?”
“Yeah?”
“What are you doing?”
“Um…”
“What are you doing?!” (in the background - Jordan)
“I’m talking to someone.”
Click.

I was cracking up at this point, so I called Jordan back, and after it rang a few times, I heard the buttons being pushed on the phone.
“Gavin?”
“What?”
“Can you take the phone to your mom?”
Click.

Keep in mind I’m rolling around by this time, still at work. :)
A few minutes later Jordan called me back saying, “Did you just have a conversation with my 3 year old?!” Honestly it was the highlight of my day. Cracked me up. Aaron put it best when I relayed this story to him: “That kid’s too smart for his own good.”

Jordan, I love you. And Gavin. Thanks for the laugh!

Fun Quizzes

Couldn't resist. These are too fun. Thanks for pointing me to them Janey!

What Greek God or Goddess Are You Your Result: Hera Hera - The Greek goddess Hera was a powerful queen long before her marriage to Zeus, the mighty king of the Olympian gods. She ruled over the heavens and the earth and was responsible for every aspect of the environment, including the seasons and the weather.
Tara
Zeus
Athena
Dionysus
Aphrodite
Ares
Hades
What Greek God or Goddess Are You Take More Quizzes

We Love Our IT folk...

Where do they get their vast amounts of knowledge?

A Good Day

Ok so Aaron has been on a business trip, and although yesterday wasn't my favorite day ever, it definitely set the scene for a great day today!

I got my hair cut yesterday, and Annie did a great job (anyone in the Denver area that needs a hairstylist, she’s great! It’s bouncy and light and I love it today. Pics will follow, I promise. ;) I also got to watch the new Curious George movie – it was darling! I’m a huge Curious George fan anyway, but it was so cute! Seriously, who wouldn’t want a monkey like this?

Today I drove into work around 10:00 am, so I didn’t have to deal with hardly any traffic and it was almost 70°! I had the windows down, the radio on, etc. I was so excited! I also was wearing cute green capris and a white t-shirt because it was so beautiful! What’s not to be happy about today?

Wait, I can answer that. My little sister informed me she got in a car accident last night (she’s ok) when she hit a 5 ½ ft long pig last night on her way home. Messy. She’s shaken up and bruised, but otherwise ok.

So all in all, a good day right? The only sad thing about my capris is that they are too big (I bought them last summer when I was about 20 lbs heavier.). So it’s sad they don’t fit, but I guess I get to go buy new ones now! My it’s a good day. :)

We be Gardners

We are excited because we are finally getting a chance to GARDEN!!!! We've never had one (since we've never had dirt that we owned) and we are excited to plant all sorts of yummy-ness. We are planting corn, zucchini, cucumbers, peas, carrots, onions, broccoli, spinach, lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, and possibly even beans. It's a lot for our little space, but we're excited to have fresh picked veggies soon! I weeded the garden this weekend, we made rows and everything last night, and tonight we are planting. Loads to do, but fun stuff!

Magnolias

YAY!!!! People my Magnolias are still in the store! We are going to get 2 Saucer Magnolias (the only 2 in any Home Depot in Denver apparently) and we are going to plant them! I LOVE magnolias! They remind me of Mount Vernon! Hooray! Aren't they beautiful?

Working the System

I found a coupon on Spoofee that let you buy one shrub, get one free at Home Depot. That was pretty exciting since we need shrubs and trees in our backyard, so I printed off a couple and decided to see what we could do. A few weeks ago we discovered that Lowes and Home Depot coupons can be used interchangeably (how is it we didn't know this already?) so we decided to work the system and see how many free shrubs we could get.

First we went to Lowes and got 4 Purple Leaf Sand Cherry (on the left) bushes. We are unsure as to how big these get, since the tag says 4 ft, but Home Depot says 8 ft, and http://www.arborday.org/ says 7 ft. I guess we'll see. We paid for 2 of the 4 and went across the street to Home Depot. Here we found 2 Golden Privets (on the right). We paid for 1, used a 10% off Lowes coupon Aaron found online, and got a free bottle of round up (Another coupon we found with the free shrub one).

Then we took our plunder home, lined them up in the garage, and went to the Home Depot near our house. We found that they have a crappy garden center, so we got another free bottle of round up, some root stimulator, and a patio set (with another 10% off Lowes coupon)! All in all, we used 7 coupons (I think that might be a record!).

Today we are going to grab 2 more shrubs if they are still there, so we will use some more coupons and have a great backyard! Plus, I just realized that today is ARBOR DAY and we are going to plant! So go plant a tree everyone! I am and I'm soooo excited!

Blogging Scattergories

Thanks Janey for the great idea!

Your Name: Devony

1. Famous Singer/Band: Diamond Rio (this is totally the only one I could think of)
2. 4 letter word: Darn
3. Street: Davis St.
4. Color: Dark (there are dark/cool colors and warm/bright colors)
5. Gifts/Presents: Diamonds
6. Vehicle: Diablo (Lamborghini)
7. Things in a Souvenir Shop:
8. Boy Name: Donovan
9. Girl Name: Daisy
10. Movie Title: D-Day
11. Drink: Daiquiri (Only virgin please!)
12. Occupation: Database Administrator (oh gosh you can so tell I work in IT)
13. Flower: Daffodil
14. Celebrity: David Duchovny (Double points!)
15. Magazine: Discover
16. U.S. City: Denver
17. Pro Sports Teams: Dolphins
18. Fruit: Dates
19. Reason for Being Late for Work: Driving Conditions
20. Something You Throw Away: Dirty Diapers (I think that's double points too!)
21. Things You Shout: Drat!
22. Cartoon Character: Daffy Duck (double points again!)

Here are the rules: Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following...They MUST be real places, names, things...NOTHING made up! If you can't think of anything, skip it. You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question... Now Go! Anyone who wants a fun creative blog topic is tagged on this Scattergories!

Welcome Spring?

We've been enjoying some nice weather lately, and last night it started raining a lot. I was excited because I love the sound of rain on windows and feeling all cozy inside. It stopped around 11:00 pm or so, but when we woke up it was at it again. There was a river of muddy water running down the rock strips between our house and our neighbors (courtesy of the empty lots behind us) and things were looking wet. A few hours later it turned to snow when the temperature dropped. After a while I looked out and noticed all our cute straight tulips were lying on the ground, so I donned a rain jacket and Aaron's tennis shoes (I still only wear flip flops on my hurt foot, so this was an interesting development) and ran outside to save them. I grabbed a mattress bag and stole some good sized rocks from the neighbors (thanks Hannah & Steve!) to cover and save the flowers after shaking them all off. The snow was seriously heavy and wet and was bringing everything to the ground. After saving the flowers, I ran around shaking off the trees that were drooping (mostly those with flowers or lots of leaves) so they wouldn't break. I've repeated this two additional times so far, and it's getting a little old. After coming in each time, I find that all parts of me not covered by the rain jacket are soaked to the skin. Also, I just read that this is supposed to continue throughout the night. Hmm. Welcome Spring?

Our Lovely Daffodils and Tulips this morning as the rain turned to snow.

The land of the tulips (now covered with plastic and snow)

Interestingly enough, Aaron told me that there was no snow, only a bit of rain at the office which is about 20 miles away. How is it that they get a little rain while we get a blizzard?

Holland...Who Knew?

The other night we were chatting with some friends and somehow, we started talking about Holland. For some reason though, no one believed me that Holland is not a country! I literally had to pull up Wikipedia to prove that Holland is not a country, merely a part of the Netherlands (or the Kingdom of the Netherlands). Am I the only one that knew this? It hasn't been a country since Napoleon reigned in 1810! What gives guys?

P.S. The pic is of the first tulip we had bloom. Interestingly enough, the bulbs came from Holland according the the package!

Gotta love Scholastic

Do you guys remember Scholastic Book Orders? Remember getting them in class and being sssooooooo excited to take them home to your mom and beg to get the books? Then remember the great day when your teacher would finally bring the books to class and send them home with you? Ahh, it was like, the best day ever. :)

Seriously, who doesn't love them? I still love getting them and picking out my books. I love circling all of the ones I want, and tallying it up to discover I have over $100 in books that I want. I don't love crossing ones off, but I do love sending in the order, waiting impatiently, and finally getting the books. Then I get to give them to all the other people that order through me. It's so great. Especially when I get to see them give the books to their kids. The kids go crazy! And I think, "Huh. I still do that. I'm totally addicted to books!"

For anyone in the area, you can order through me if you want (I don't get paid or anything, I just do this for the sheer joy of spreading the love of books to all mankind. :) If you still don't know what I'm talking about, check the link below and click on the May fliers on the right. It'll come back to you...

http://www.scholastic.com/cool

Yum

They have strawberries on sale at Albertsons - 4 lbs for $3.99. Oh my gosh they are so good. I think we may have eaten 2 lbs this weekend. We got 16 so we can make jam. I cleaned them all this weekend and put 2/3 of them in the freezer (for the jam). I think we need another case.