What's for Dinner? - March

1. TH - Parmesan Chicken Paillards with Cherry Tomato Sauce (Cooking Light 3/07)
2. FR - Roasted Chicken (store bought)
3. SA - Chicken wings (prepared by Mike on our Weber Classic grill)
4. SU - Lemon-Rosemary Chicken, Spicy Steak and Italian Sausage (again, by Mike on the grill)
5. MO - Every Man For Himself (Monday nights involve soccer and karate with little time between for food)
6. TU - Chicken Tacos
7. WE - Crustless Quiche
8. TH - Salmon
9. FR - Crisp-Crusted Tilapia
10. SA - Heavy snacking early afternoon. We spent the evening with our friend, Di, at her Boulder City home.
11. SU - See last Sunday above. It was a delicious repeat.
12. MO - Little Caesar's Pizza for the kids, Smart Ones frozen dinner for Karen. For Mike, who knows. I leave as soon as he gets home.
13. TU - Sesame Ginger Pork Chops
14. WE - Turkey Burgers on whole wheat English muffins
15. TH - Chicken Dijon (the day from hell!)
16. FR - Fair Food - Sam had Chicken Fingers and Fries, Ana had fries and I had a Teriyaki Chicken Sweker at the St. Patrick's Day Festival in Downtown Henderson. Mike? Who knows. He didn't want to come. Then we went to the carnival.
17. SA - Ribs (grilled by Mike)
18. SU - Chicken (grilled by Mike) (Karen's family visiting from Phoenix)
19. MO - Leftovers
20. TU - Chicken Tacos (family here - this feeds a crowd)
21. WE - Pasta toss (clean out the fridge of cold cuts and cheese and throw it in pasta with Olive Oil)
22. TH - Potage Parmentier (fancy French name of Potato & Leek Soup with bacon, more family)
23. FR - 777 Brew Pub at Main Street Station for Happy Hour and the UNLV Rebels v. Oregon Ducks (family again - this was a good family week.)
24. SA - Papa John's Pizza. All the family here and Ana has a soccer game at 7:20pm
25. SU - New York Steak on the grill (Can you tell it's Mike's cooking again?)
26. MO - Little Caesar's for the kids (they paid) and Crustless Quiche for the grown ups (I'm starting to see a pattern)
27. TU - Cornflake Crispy Crusted Tilapia (I altered an earlier recipe. This one was better.)
28. WE - Turkey Burgers on whole wheat English muffins
29. TH - Parmesan Chicken Paillards with Cherry Tomato Sauce (Cooking Light 3/07)
30. FR - Salt and Pepper Salmon, seared on the grill pan and finished under the broiler
31. SA - Rainbow Trout on the outdoor grill. Who can guess whose night it is to cook?

Not Very Subtle

I very often tease Mike about trying to kill me by way of heart attack because he likes to grill things like ribs and chicken wings on the weekend. Because I am at higher risk of diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol and stroke (to name a few) I'm supposed to eat lean meats. I thought the electrical appliances in the bathtub were not very subtle.

If anyone wants to know WHY they are in the bathtub, you'll have to leave a comment!

The Boys

This is what the boys in our house do with a three day weekend. Mike has been spending time creating things with a 3-D animator. It recommened taking pictures of your puppy and uploading them to work with. He thought a Lego figure would stand still better than our chihuahua, Gizmo.

And, so, Sam got out the camera and began taking photos of his Bionicles.

people i like - in no particular order

Now that I've done things I like - it's time for people I like. Again, in no particular order. It's just how I manage to upload the photos.


My dearest - husband, Mike





My Oldest - daughter Ana, 13





My youngest - son Sam, 10



Debbie, freshly back from the Dominican Republic, where her hair was braided into corn rows. Before she left, while they were in, the girls taking them out and after.




Debbie with our friend Denise. I was so busy getting
pictures of Debbie's braids, I never got Denise alone!

My favorite blonde family: Di holding Audrey, the beautiful princess Audrey and Matt, looking every bit the pirate next to Grant and Sam in the chair.

Most of my favorite young people:
Brendon, Ana, Sam Grant, Dana, Sera and Ethan.

Merry Christmas 2006

The annual Christmas morning photo! We also took pictures
with the pets, but all three would not cooperate at the same
time so they didn't make the final cut.

Sam with his favorite toy: Bionicle!

Ana's still not too old to enjoy getting STUFF!

Happy Anniversary!

Is it possible these two "youngsters" have been married for 20 years? Not quite yet! However, our 20th wedding anniversay is on Wednesday, Sept 13, 2006. To celebrate, we went out to dinner. For reasons I'm not quite clear on, Mike wanted to take the children. We went to Carrabba's Italian Grill. The atmosphere was nice, the food was good and the children were mostly well behaved. Dessert was fantastic. It was a Sogno di Cioccloata or "Chocolate Dream". Here's looking forward to the next 20 years. Happy Anniversary.

Hero - an update

Someone asked who my heroes are. That was easy for me. My first hero is my husband, Mike, who fits every description on the list. He's always right here cheering me on in whatever I do. My second hero is my karate instructor (you know who you are). Were it not for his guidance there were many times I would have quit karate because it was just too hard to do on a regular basis, especially with my body falling apart like it is. Ultimately, I decided to keep going from green belt because I didn't want to disappoint any of my instructors who have worked so hard keeping me going over the last five years. Now that I'm really close to black belt I keep going for me with the encouragement of all of them.

The Return of the Beard

This is the beard after one week. Looking scruffy and still too prickly to kiss!!! I'll give it a few more days to get soft.












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Happy 43rd Birthday Mike!

On Monday, August 14th, Mike will turn 43 years old. Due to our busy social schedule (read: karate) we won't be available to celebrate then. We chose Saturday night instead. Yesterday we went to lunch at the Salt Lick Bar B-Q at the new Red Rock Resort and Casino and picked up a slice of Chocolate MotherLode Cake from Claim Jumper. Can't wait for Ana's birthday in 2 weeks so we can do it all again!! Happy Birthday, Mike!

The Consequences of our Words

Before.......................After

This is what happens when I give Mike a hard time about all the gray in his beard and then leave the house for 3 hours. For anyone who doesn't know, the last time I saw Mike without a beard was October, 1984. Quick! Do the math! That's just short of 22 years.

Bodies

We went to Bodies - The Exhibition with the kids today. It was really kind of cool. Sam's favorite part was seeing the lungs of the smoker compared to the non-smoker. "It was black and ugly and nasty looking and I hated it!" said Sam. The "Fetal Development Room" was a little bit on the freak-show side but it was all fascinating. It was $82 for our family of four with our Nevada residents discount. Worth the money if you have any interest in anatomy or the inner workings of the human body. If it comes to your city, go see it.

Four

FOUR

Four things to do before I die
1. Get my black belt in karate
2. Learn to shoot a gun
3. Fly on the Concorde (not gonna happen - out of commission)
4. Stay at a seaside inn on the Mediterranean

Four things I can't do
1. Jump
2. Swim 50 laps
3. Sleep through the night
4. Figure out Sam's thinking process (WAY different from mine!)

Four things I love about my spouse
1. He works hard so I don't have to
2. Takes days off that hard work so I can pursue karate when I want to
3. He is THE barbecue master and cooks every weekend
4. Loves and accepts me in spite of myself

Four things I say often
1. "You're smoking crack!" as in...you've lost your mind
2. Cha ryut and kyung ye (Attention and bow in Korean for karate class)
3. Shush!!!
4. Get off the phone!

Four movies I could watch over and over again
1. Sense and Sensibility
2. A Knight's Tale
3. Toy Story 2
4. Okay - I don't spend a lot of time sitting around watching movies so I can't think of another one.

Four jobs I've had
1. Sandwich maker at Wendy's (a good lesson in how not to treat people)
2. Travel Agent (both leisure and business...business is better)
3. Accounts Payable Specialist for a grass seed company
4. Mom (the hardest one yet...working was a lot easier!)

Four places I've lived
1. Idaho (born there)
2. Montana (grew up there)
3. Oregon (got married and had kids there)
4. Nevada (want to retire here)

Four TV shows I like to watch
1. The Amazing Race (when it's on)
2. Survivor
3. Dog The Bounty Hunter
4. Anthony Bourdain - No Reservations

Four places I've been on holiday
I've been a travel agent so the list is long - I'll pick my favorites
1. Russia (1989 - right after the Berlin wall came down)
2. Bermuda - didn't see any triangles
3. France
4. Germany - to play soccer when I was in high school

Four favorite dishes
1. Brownies
2. Garlic mashed potatoes (but probably only because I can no longer eat them due to dietary restrictions)
3. Filet Mignon grilled over mesquite by my husband
4. French Onion Soup

Four places I'd rather be
1. On a massage table
2. On the mat doing karate
3. Almost anywhere my children are not fighting and someone is handing me a Margarita
4. With my husband (didn't mean to put you last, honey)

Fourth of July

Since the fireworks of my youth (you know, the ones where you get to blow stuff up!) are against the law here in Nevada, we did what we could. The kids did Poppers, SmokeBalls and Sparklers! Our neighbors who always do the really good fireworks moved last fall so this was all we had. Michael - we missed you!

Spring Break 2006

Spring Break 2006

We took a great family vacation to Walt Disney World and the Bahamas for Spring Break. Animal Kingdom has a new ride called Expedition Everest - it's a roller coaster that goes both forward and backward! Really fun!!


We also sailed aboard Carnival Cruise Lines FunShip Sensation from Port Canaveral to Naussau, The Bahamas. We arrived in the Bahamas on Good Friday which is a religious holiday so most of the shops were closed.

Christmas 2005

Merry Christmas 2005


Karen, Mike with Guinness, Ana with Magic and Sam with Gizmo.







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Disneyland

In September we met "the cousins" at Disneyland for what was supposed to be a fun-filled trip!! For the most part it was just that--full of fun. Now, being from Southern Nevada I love a good Monsoonal downpour as much as the next guy. However, when that downpour comes while visiting Disneyland it's not quite so enjoyable. For one thing it's about 30 degrees cooler in California than Nevada so being wet also means being COLD!!! In Nevada, we stay in the house until the storm passes. Not so at Disneyland. When in Disneyland one does the only sensible thing. You either pay $7 for a poncho that will be worn once (that day) or as Mike and Sam did, you pay $21 for a hat that will see more use. Here we are in all our "Disney Condom" (a term coined by my sister-in-law, Patty) glory!!!

Birthdays

Mike and Ana both had birthdays in August. Mike is getting older...Ana not so much!


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My First Blog

This is my first blog. I'm testing it out to see if it's something I want to do on a regular basis. I'll try uploading a picture, too, just to see if I can.

I guess I can!! This is the picture of Mike and me at my parent's Fiftieth Anniversary party in Oregon in August of 2004.