Who do YOU think makes the better Santa?

Christmas is just around the corner, and Santa keeps showing up everywhere! :)

Merry Christmas!

It's fall downhill from here...

No. Not a typo. University Day is OVER. That means the rest of Fall is a breeze, for the most part, and we don't have to get stressed again until Spring Preview Day, which is in February.

We had 799 people show up. I'd rather it were 798. Ha! Missing 800 by 1 person is just silly.
But it went well. A couple of hiccups, but there are always things to learn from.

And THIS is how we feel about it.

Keren, the Eagle and I are leaping for joy.

LEAPING. (Or, as the Eagle calls it SOARING)

Michelle was delighted, too. She's just not in the picture. :)

Now it's relaxation time with Hubs. We're currently 1/2 a mile from the Grand Canyon, gonna venture into its depths tomorrow, and then start the trek towards Colorado Springs on Sunday to spend Thanksgiving with Jamie & Tiffany and the kiddos. DELIGHTED.

We have lots to be thankful for. :)

Home

I am delighted to announce that I am HOME.
For two whole weeks.
Geeked is probably a better term to use.

My parents are taking a trip to Israel with our church.
And they're taking my 87 year old Grandma Johnson with them.
But in order for Dad to leave anywhere, he's gotta get his chores covered.
Chores meaning, someone to clean kennels, feed, water, and of course play with our collection of Brittanys.
I think at this point we have somewhere around 15-20 adult dogs, and two litters of puppies, 5 days old and 4 weeks old. Throw in a mare and her colt, and four cute little ponies, and you've got yourself a...well...I don't know if I'd call it a farm, but something of the sort. There's a pigeon, too. And the girls, of course, a pit bull and shih-tzu that tolerate each other, but have wormed their way in to becoming part of the family.
So...a collection. And I'm taking care of them for the next two weeks.

I was a little nervous to ask for the time off, since it's quite a stint, but my job is decently flexible and I can do most of my work from a computer. So, I got the "ok" as long as I'm keeping up with my events via the world wide web. :)

So here I am. Gorgeous Virginia country, in the very beginnings of Fall, trees about to change over, and just loving being home. I haven't seen Fall since 2007, so I'm thrilled.

I thought maybe I would use the next couple of weeks to try and practice taking pictures. We'll see how that goes.

I also get to do some babysitting (sweet little nephew), so there's going to be lots of hugging and kissing those sweet little cheeks of my newest nephew.  Plus loads of Sister/Bro-in-Law time! And even some special stop by trips from the Mr.'s side of the family. Stoked! 

Here's to holdin' down the Homestead and enjoying the view!
(Wish you were here, G.) 

Dad with a 4 month old Brittany he calls Pup.

Do you see what I see? Dixie Dog head peering from the window?

Dixie Dog just can't stand being alone.

Bella Boo, on the other hand, is quite content lounging by the feet of sweet, gentle, reading a book Grandma J.

My two favorite ladies in the whole entire world.

Grandpa just can't get enough.

Kisses from Grandma.

If only you could HEAR this picture. :)

More pictures to come, I'm sure.
Lovely. It's just lovely to be home.

Mediterranean Omelet

I am a recent inductee (within the last year) to the world of artichokes. I was first introduced to them by our friends, Patrick and Gioia. Skeptical as I was, I couldn't get over the delicious flavor and salty taste. They are very convincing little buggers.

Gioia prepared hers as full artichokes, stuffed with deliciousness. You would break off a section and scrape off the stuffing with your teeth. So yummy.

Since then, I've been more apt to try out various meals with artichokes, something I never would have done before. Last year, on a weekend away with my Hubs, we discovered artichoke omelets and just about died. Delicious.

The trend I've seen is that if the omelet includes artichokes, it is usually referred to as a Mediterranean Omelet and usually also contains spinach.

Friends, we bought artichoke hearts ourselves at the store this week. Call that a milestone in the marriage if you want to. :)

So tonight, I made my own Mediterranean Omelet.
I included spinach, cherry tomatoes, artichoke hearts, and mozzarella cheese.

How's that for domesticated? :) 

Caprese Salad Deliciousness

While up yonder in Nor Cal land over Labor Day, the G and I went to the little town's Farmer's Market to sample some delicious eats.

We got tri-tip skewers, tomales, blueberry pie, and caprese salad.
I'd never heard of caprese salad before, but I'll tell ya what. It rocked my world.

It's a simple little combination of tomato, salt, mozzarella cheese, basil, and olive oil or balsamic.
So simple.
So good.
So fresh.

So...easy to make myself! :)

Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever.....ever....will I claim to be a chef.

So when I can find something easy to make, by golly, I make it.

Ready for this recipe?

Get some tomatoes. I got red ones. But the yellow ones are so sweet and scrumptious. Next time.
Get some salt.
Get some mozzarella. Preferably the big block.
Get some basil. I prefer to chop it up. Makes it easier to eat.
Get some olive oil.

Slice the tomatoes. Put on plate. Sprinkle with some salt. Slice the mozzarella. Put on top of tomatoes. Chop the basil. Put on top of mozzarella. Drizzle with olive oil or balsamic.

Here's another fun option. Eat chilled, or eat heated! Yowza's!

Tonight I tossed mine into our little toaster oven for a couple of minutes, let the cheese melt a little, then pulled 'em out and sunk my fork into those puppies.

Scrumptious.

I dare ya to try it. :)

Nationball: Dodgeball on Steroids

In my last post, I shared a little bit of the stresses of my job. Those overwhelming 80's themed trips to the local roller skate rink just stress me out! (dripping...dripping with sarcasm)

So what is it that keeps G from sleeping at night? If you thought 80's roller skating was bad, this is almost unbearable. :)

Every year, near the middle of September, when students are still getting settled into their dorms and familiar with their new class schedules, there is an event that makes all else jump one number down on the priority list. All inhibitions are thrown out the window. All worry of making a good impression? Tossed. Costumes are mandatory, throwing arms a must, and music is blaring as students line up, dorm against dorm, in the biggest dodgeball tournament most have ever seen.

It's crazy.

Stewart (our dorm) is in the red. 

Yes, we consider each one of those red-wearing t-shirts one of our kids. 

We don't start at the infant stage. 

We start at the 18 year old, what's your name again?, really loud college stage. 

They're pretty cool. 

This is Stewart (red) taking on Horton (black). 

There is really hardly any room left to play dodgeball. 

There's a lot of dancing, costume strutting, goofing going on. :) 

One rule that they hold to that I've never seen before is that once you get knocked out, you can still actually play. You can run to the back of the other team, get your team to throw the balls over their heads, and then get them out from the other side. So near the end of the game, 

you've got dodge balls flying at you from all angles. 

A good shot of most of the colors. 

Here are more pictures, with lots of the costumes highlighted. 

Nationball Album 1

Nationball Album 2

And finally, here's a video made by one of the students: 

http://vimeo.com/29180877

It highlights Horton, but shows a lot of the crazy that goes on. 

You'll notice some "rescuing" near the middle of the film. 

The green team is Emerson, a smaller dorm that usually doesn't have a chance at winning so they make it theatrical. This year they were dressed as doctors and nurses and were putting band-aids on the fallen and doing shock treatment on the "mortally wounded". Clever. :) 

There's always something going on around campus. 

Keeps us young, I guess. :) 

We love it. 

The 80's & Overly Edited Photos

Sometimes...sooooometimes...I get a little convicted about only posting really polished pictures or writing blogs about successful projects. Why? Because only about 1.8% of my life feels polished, or super successful.

It feels chaotic.

Here's to the 98.2% of my life that makes up the ridiculous, not acting like a 28 year old portion of which I wouldn't change a thing. (Except in those moments where I wish I had a successfully run etsy shop, a thriving photography business, and a morning routine that included a small town cafe where the waitress knew my name and never had to ask what I wanted to eat...an omelet, a cup of coffee and some toast with blueberry jam, thank you!)

A weekend of Student Ambassador Training.

Lots of crazy kids.

An 80's themed trip to the local skating rink.

A salvaged thrift store dress.

A couple of very dramatic side pony tails.

Dance-skating.

Epic.

Thanks, Biola kids students, for letting me hang out with you and not making me your late 20's supervisors feel like the old fogies. :) Even though only one or two of you were ACTUALLY alive in the 80's...and it was like (like) 1989 and a half.

Labor Day Tradition

As far as holiday tradition goes, Garrett and I don't have much that we do the same each year. We've spent a Christmas in Colorado with friends, a Christmas by ourselves in Utah, and a Christmas back home with family. I feel like every year we're asking ourselves what we're going to do, 'cause it's never been the same. 

But there's one holiday that we automatically know what we're gonna do. No question about it. 

Labor Day. 

For the past four years, we've driven the long road North to Brad & Sharon's in Calistoga. (Brad is one of Garrett's older brothers) They have two girls that we adore, and they live in a small town where the pace is slower. All the locals know each other, and they know who the tourists are, so we usually get asked where we're from. The weekend is always so relaxing, a nice break from the much more crowded Southern California. It's a place riding bikes to the store, or to a bakery in the morning for fresh coffee and quiche is the norm. On our way in to town this year, as we rode behind Brad, Sharon and the girls on their bikes, Garrett and I looked at each other and said, "We've got to live in a small town." We love it. It feels so very right. 

In the summer months, May through October, there is a local farmer's market in town where townies bring their delicious foods, crafts, flowers, fresh fruits and vegetables (the list goes on) to a parking lot where they set up canopies and sell these delights to the crowds that gather. There's usually music playing in the background, and it's so fun to walk around with our four year old niece, who takes her money to the tamale tent and orders up her regular. She knows so many people in town, and they all smile at her and say "Good morning, Monica!" as she makes her way around the temporary thoroughfare. We enjoyed some tri-tip kabobs, a tomato/mozzarella/basil/oil salad, and blackberry pie. 

Brad, who owns the town's bike shop, usually stays pretty busy while we're there, as Labor Day is a great weekend for business. He does sneak away as much as he can to join us for whatever little adventure we're doing. This year we spent a couple of afternoons at the pool, where Monica has become quite the little swimmer. She's jumping off the diving board now, with no floaties, swimming to the edge of the pool, climbing out and doing it all over again. 

We also always come knowing that we're going to eat some very good food. This year we had all kinds of stuff, from tuna steaks and delicious salads, to gourmet burgers and sweet potato fries, broccoli salad, grilled pizzas, guacamole, corn on the cob, and many more mouth watering treats. For dessert, Brad whipped up a delicious strawberry/blackberry topping for vanilla ice cream that I just couldn't get enough of. So good. 

The drive is long at 7-10 hours (depending on traffic), but it's so very worth it. The company is great, we always get lots of good time outside, biking or hiking, running or walking around town. And it's just nice to be with family, even if it's a quick trip. 

Here are some pictures from the weekend. So fun. 

Vineyards in Napa Valley. It's beautiful this time of year. The grapes are almost ready to go! 

A castle at one of the vineyards! 

Uncle G throwing Mo in to the air! :)

Makin' silly faces with Myka and Monica

Sweet girls. 

Mykie was a little wary of Uncle G at first, but when she discovered that he was the only one who could teach her how to shell peanuts (we all pretended we didn't know), she eventually warmed up to him and ended up sitting on his lap the last day we were there! Win! We think the beard throws her off.

Already lookin' forward to our next trip up! :)

Do it Yourself: Framed Fabric

For the three years we've lived in our little apartment, I've had 3 plates hanging on the wall in the kitchen. I love the idea of plates hanging on a wall. I ripped out a page from a magazine several years ago with plates that had various shades of green and gold hung on the wall. But in that case, as in most, there are several plates involved. For example:

Awesome, right?

But, I don't have that many plates right now. It's something you've got to work at over time. (grin)
Hand picking just the right combination of plates from various estate sales and thrift stores till your collection just can't keep itself off of your walls!

You can see my measley attempt at a wall hang in the corner of this picture. 

And again in this picture...

Ok, let's be honest. I just wanted to show you my sweet husband in a pretty apron. :)

One more time...

Haha. Well played, baby. Well played.

ANYWAYS...I have three plates. 

They aren't pretty, hand-picked estate sale plates, and I need the big one to serve deliciousness in from time to time.  

So they had to come down.

I needed something else. Something that would go in the plate holders that I'd already screwed into the wall. (Sorry, facilities!) Something, cheap, quick and round...

Embroidery hoops + Pretty fabric = cheap, quick and round!

I can't recall where I originally saw this idea, but I've wanted to try it for a while.

Here's the quick how to:

#1 Pick out some pretty fabrics. I just grabbed a couple of the small fabric quarters at Joanne's. 

I think they were something like .99 a piece. 

Then I picked up some embroidery hoops at a thrift store, ranging from 50 cents to a dollar a piece.

I laid each hoop on the selected fabric, and then cut a generous square out. 

Then I placed the fabric in the hoop, stretched it taut, and tightened the hoop down. 

I then flipped the hoop over, and cut the excess fabric off with a sharp pair of fabric scissors. 

Flip it over. 

Done! 

I feel silly even making a tutorial. Ha! 

Aaaaaaand, put it on your wall! 

Ding!

This whole process took...abooooout...15 minutes. Tops. 

Cheap. Quick. Effective. 

For more ideas on what you can do with embroidery hoops and 

fabric (like use it as a pinboard!), check out some of these creative crafts on Etsy!

:)