To Steam or Not to Steam...

I am debating on whether or not to rent the steam cleaner for this weekend and steam clean the carpets. They aren't in dire need of it, but it is spring cleaning time and I finally have the kitchen re-organized. Plus we want the house to be as spiffy looking as possible because we are leaning towards asking our landlord if we can go head and get another dog, and we figure he is probably going to want to come inspect the place to make sure we haven't let our little munchkin tear anything up, which of course we haven't.

Yes Mr. President, we will wait until Saturday to get a new car!

Well, President Obama spoke in Quincy today. It was a HUGE deal. So huge of a deal, we did not make it to test drive the car we have our eye on. OH, we tried, but we were cut off at every street we tried due to the COMPLETE blockade of almost ALL of the south end of town's streets. We tried a few different routes to make it to Broadway with no luck. Every street we tried we ended up having to turn around. We ended up on a road that neither Allen nor I was familiar with. We figured that if we kept following the road, eventually we would come to the highway. What we did not realize was that the road we were on led us straight to the airport that the president was going to be leaving from. LOL! We spent an HOUR on the road to try to get to the car dealership and ended up just going home. We did get to see the cargo plane that the presidents motorcade vehicles flew in on, and the tail end of Air Force One, which I have to admit...was kind of cool. The picture above is a poor cell phone pic of the cargo plane. So...we are hoping the car will still be on the lot on Saturday. We put in an offer online, but the response we got back was a very generic response. Dr's appointment went fine. I had a cyst on my right ovary, but apparantly it's a VERY common thing for women my age, so common in fact, my gyne spent literally TWO minutes with me and made me feel silly for even showing up at her office. I don't like that...at all. Oh well, all is well that ends well!

Off of work today

I'm off of work today for a doctor's appointment to see my gynecologist and then Allen and I are going to Poage's to try and negotiate for a car. We found a nice used one at a decent price, that will give us a reliable car without a giant loan to pay off. We really wanted to buy a brand spanking new car, but decided we'd better not. The next giant loan we take out will not be for a car...but for a HOUSE! We will let you know how it goes.

As promised...

Here is the picture of some of the mushrooms we found! YAY!

and a picture of one of the most amazing burgers I have EVER cooked in my life! I made them for Allen a few weeks ago. It was a recipe from the new Pillsbury bake-off cook book I have. I'm trying to come up with my own great recipe idea. The winners of the contest win pretty big bucks, but before I make up my own recipe I'm going to try out some of the recipes that have been winners in the past to try and figure out what they are looking for.

Mmmm mmmm Morels!

Today we were able to eat fried morel mushrooms for the first time in more than 10 years for both of us! Niether one of us could remember the last time we ate morels, but with the help of Caleb and three hours of mushroom hunting in the windy cold weather today we came home with enough to cook up! We also came home with soaked jeans , shoes, and socks, but it was definately worth it!!!!!! I have a picture of some of the ones we found , but right now my phone is not working to get the picture sent to our email so I will have to post it later.

ARHGH!

EVERYTHING IS COATED IN POLLEN!!!! MY EYES HURT, MY NOSE ITCHES, AND I CAN'T BREATHE!

I really hope that this doesn't last all spring and all summer, or I'm going to have to find something stronger than the OTC Claritin.

Made it to Wednesday...

Two more days to go! I think I can, I think I can...

On Saturday, Penny is going to run in the Dachshund Derby ! THE WIENER DOG RACES! YAY! :)

On a Saturday ?!?

7:30 a.m. and I've already had my shower. Look out beautiful day! Here I come!

Sunshine brings so many possiblities!

It's Friday morning, 8:15 a.m. I have already taken Penny for a walk, am dressed for work, have eaten my Special K breakfast, and am currently working on my second cup of coffee, AND I don't have to leave for work for another 45 minutes! Can you believe it?!? OH, and my wonderful hubby is mowing the lawn! It's a beautiful day, and it's going to be a LONG one at work because I know that as gorgeous as it is today, tomorrow is forecasted to be even nicer with warmer temperatures. We have ruled out mushroom hunting for tomorrow. Josh said he and some friends went yesterday for two hours without finding anything. I'm going to clean house tonight while Allen is at work , so that I can spend tomorrow morning doing something else. One thing I'm for sure going to do it take a scrub brush to the siding on the front of the house next to the front door and mop the porch. Wish I had access to a power washer, would make the whole siding thing a lot easier...oh well. It really does need to be done. I'm not exactly sure how dirt gathers in the specific spots that it has accumulated...but it's there. Lowes has gallon perennial plants 3 for $10 , and annuals in 4in pots for $1.48 so I think I'm going to pick up a few flowers to add some "pretty" to the area around the porches. Not going to go to any extremes of course, since it is a rental, but a few potted outdoor plants would be nice. Well, happy Friday to everyone! Love you all!

Why soooo expensive?

So....the weather for Saturday is forecasted to be A+ beautiful. We were making plans for mushroom hunting, as mentioned yesterday, but I think what we are going to do first, and possibly even instead, (since I still really think it might be too early...and if we wait until next weekend we will probably have just as much luck) is go on a picnic. Allen of course will need to sleep for part of the day, but when he gets up I think I will have a picnic ready to go and we will take ourselves and Penny to the park to enjoy the beautiful weather. I was thinking to myself this evening, a picnic basket would be a neat thing to have. So I visited Amazon.com and GEEZ! I could not believe the price of them! I don't know why I thought they would be fairly cheap, but I was definately wrong. We're talking from $50 to well over $100! I'm going to keep my eye out for end of the season sales after this summer is over. Maybe I can get one on clearance or something. If anyone finds a great deal of a picnic basket let me know! Tomorrow is Friday!!! YAY! :) Oh....but...Allen does have to work on Sunday night. YAY for more money...boo for missing my hubby more! :(

Love you all!

Hey Jess... I'M A BANANA!

Well, I've still been on this kick of trying to like banana's, since they're just a super fuit. I still only kind of like the ones that are still green, but I have made a banana break through today. I put a banana in the fridge with the rest of my lunch today so it was nice a cold when I ate it, and I really liked it! Not kind of liked it, but really liked it. I'm not sure what difference the coldness made...I'm thinking it improved the texture. I don't know, but it makes me want to eat all of my bananas out of the fridge!

It's looking like Allen has to work on Sunday night...:( but even if he does we're not gonna let Saturday waste away. There have been reports of morel mushroom findings at work and we're going! Last year we waited too long to go. This year we may be a little early, but the weather has been a little strange, hot and wet early, so hopefully the mushrooms will be plentiful. Last year was nothing but pitiful! A girl at work swears she has several that have already popped up IN HER YARD! Wish us luck! :)

Overdue update

Charlotte's baby shower was on Saturday. I think it went really well. Made me think even more about how much I miss getting to see my little sis. It's very difficult to realize how much all of my family has grown up. Charlotte is going to be a mom in less than a month. That makes me an aunt in less than a month! My little brother will be getting his permit in less than 6 months. Where does time go? I'm only 25. Everyone says the older you get the faster time goes by. That's a very scary statement when I reflect on how very quickly it seems to be passing right now. I blinked and a whole third of a year has already passed by. Two years ago Matt and Nicole were married! If you are reading this, we didn't forget about you guys. We love you both and are very happy for you. Your love is beautiful. Congratulations!

We missed getting to see everyone this Easter in Sturgeon. We love you all so much and can't wait to come spend more time with you. We are always thinking of you! We will have to take pictures on Mother's Day! :)

Allen's probation at work ends soon, and before we know it he will be able to bid into a different room and shift. We have been talking about it and as much as we both HATE sleeping apart from eachother, the third shift shell room position is probably going to be the best. It's going to allow us more time together and much more of a weekend so that trips to Sturgeon will be easier to plan. Well, really making all weekend plans will be easier. See, the third shift Allen is on now, means he has to leave the house at 8:30p.m. and has to work Friday night overnight, which means he has to sleep on Saturday or be tired all weekend, which both suck. If he were to get on third shift shells, he wouldn't have to leave until 9:30 and would be done at 7 a.m. on Friday morning. He will be able to sleep while I'm at work on Friday and then our weekend will start as soon as I get home. We would be able to leave for Sturgeon on Friday evening and maximize our weekends down there. Also, Allen won't be as tired on the weekends. Right now, our weekends are pretty much shot. So, I'm actually looking forward to him getting to switch. Some of you maybe wondering why not go back to 2nd shift? Well, on second shift he didn't get home until about 11:30 pm, sometimes later, and then we would stay up until 1 or 2 am, which is still just a couple hours, and it was EXHAUSTING for me to get up and go to work. On my 8-4:30 weeks, we will be able to spend close to 5 hours together each night, AND we will both be getting the sleep we need to function. It will be an all around better thing.

Ooooh, and one more thing... Allen got to hold a real live baby for this first time he says, EVER in his 28 years! We were blessed to meet my little cousin Ellie who is only four months old this weekend. She's beautiful! You should've seen Allen! He's a natural. It was so cute to see him with someone so tiny in his arms.

UGH! I know we are still going to wait a little while longer before we start trying, but every part of my 25 year old female body is SCREAMING at me, "MAKE BABIES, MAKE BABIES, LOTS AND LOTS OF BABIES!" Don't get me wrong, we are still holding out because no matter how much my mommy clock is ticking, mentally we are both still definately willing to wait. Hopefully when little Kristen Jayde comes into the world, Charlotte will bring her over to visit Auntie Amber!! Charlotte, if you're reading this...I MEAN IT! :)

Happy Monday! Hope everyone has a great Tuesday too!