Life, Penpalling, and other things. . .: May 2012

Monday, May 28, 2012

Yummy Guacamole!

So, today we went over to David's Step-Mom and Step-Sister's house for a great dinner made by our wonderful brother-in-law!

I always rack my brain on what I can take over to contribute, because I never go over empty-handed! So I found some corn on sale and also some avocados. So, I've always tried to make Guacamole myself and it never seems to taste just right. The other night I made some for our dinner and it was perfect. And what I ended up doing was combining a few things from a few recipes to make a recipe all my own.

The first thing you need to know about me, is that I never measure, unless I'm following a recipe for the first time, but when I create my own things, I just toss in stuff until it tastes right, so please bear with me and hopefully it won't confuse you!

My ingredients:
6 avocados
1 shallot (from the onion family, pretty small, one whole one is actually two separate parts) finely diced
2 roma tomatoes (or whatever you have on hand), seeded, pulp removed and chopped
1 lime
kosher sea salt, I used the fine, not coarse (you can use table salt, but I prefer sea salt, I'm a little weird that way)

Peel and mash the avocados, add in a good sized handful of the shallots and tomatoes until it looks/tastes good to you, I didn't use all of them, had a couple tablespoons of each left. Add the juice of the lime. And salt to taste. Mix together and taste, and add more of whatever you think it needs until it tastes right to you.

I made a smaller recipe for home, but that was the recipe I took today and it was practically wiped out. My mother-in-law isn't a fan of guacamole, she doesn't use much, and she kept going back for more, so I guess that's a good sign! :)

Anyway, just wanted to share with everyone!

<3

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Lots of Updates!!

Wow! Took me a good few hours to get everything updated on here! Sorry to post so much, but it all would have been way too big as just one entry!

Now that school is done (YAY!!!!) and bowling is done for the summer (Yay!!) I will have more time to keep updated on here. At least that is my goal anyway, we'll see how that goes. . .

Anyway, keep scrolling down, lots of pictures and updates about life and everything. I think I will wait until next week and post a little book review, been awhile since I have. Or maybe I'll have to try and watch a movie soon and do one of my movie reviews :)

Hope everyone has a wonderful long weekend. And remember to thank the men and women who have served and are currently serving for our country and providing the freedom that we all have. Happy Memorial Day everyone!

<3

USS San Diego!

On Thursday 5/17 David and I decided that we wanted to head down to the harbor and go on a free tour of the USS San Diego! Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that was well worth the 2 hours we had to wait to get onboard! The ship was commissioned that Saturday. Plus it was a nice little date day for me and David since he'd had the week off because of Grandma's funeral. Anyway, took some pictures and wanted to share!

The hubby.

There she is!

A really bad picture of me, lol.

They had street signs that you would see around San Diego all over the inside of the ship.

He is a little tall for this vehicle, I had to hold the camera up out of the top and hope that I got a decent picture, he's only 6'5'', lol.

The big kid had to sit in the big truck too!

Love it when you find a nice person who offers to take a picture of us together, lol.

Once again, big kid had to take a turn holding the big gun, lol.

Looking up from the flight deck.

If someone goes overboard, they have a crane that will lift this boat out of the ship and get it into the water in about 10 minutes. Also when the ship is docked in ports they use these boats to patrol.

All set up for the ceremony on Saturday, we were all the way at the top, the picture doesn't really give justice to how high up we were!

The bow of the boat.

Part of the San Diego skyline!

So cool to see it!!

All-in-all, it was an amazing day! Such a great opportunity to see and walk around this great ship and learn things from those that work on board!

Some odds & Ends

So, a few more miscellaneous pictures from the last few weeks.

An apron that our wedding photographer made. I bought it for my Mom for Mother's Day. My parents are always camping and I loved the fact that it had the Airstream trailers on it!

When I bought the apron, she gave me the little cherry bags shown here, they are filled with silica beads and dried lavender and are now at home in my bowling shoes. They help dry up the moisture and keep them smelling pretty, what a great idea, and hopefully next bowling season I'll be able to sell them for her!

My Dad finally got a hummingbird feeder set up on the porch! This little guy feeding in the pic is a beautiful bird, we have named him Larry the Redneck Hummingbird because he has a beautiful deep red throat. Unfortunately he's become very territorial and chases off other hummingbirds if he sees them and even tries to chase off our dog! Yeah, our 35 pound dog is scared of this little hummingbird, it's pretty funny.

As most of you know, David's Grandma passed away the very end of April. Last week we had her funeral and my inlaws were in town for two nights. So Wednesday 5/16, after the funeral, we spent the afternoon with them. One of the spots we went was to Imperial Beach so their friends could put their feet in the (very cold at this time of year) ocean and we went for a walk on the pier as well. It was a nice afternoon after a very sad and emotional morning.

Me and David on the pier, we were lucky, it was a beautiful day by the ocean!

David and his Mama, she is such a wonderful lady, I really lucked out in the inlaw department!

And one last photo to share. . .

Those that are football fans will have heard about this, we lost a great man in the Chargers organization in April. Junior Seau was a pillar of our community. He was involved with several charities and he was a great player on the football field. It rocked the city when we learned of his death and he will be missed. I found this picture on facebook, posted by my brother-in-law and I had to save it. It's an amazing tribute to an amazing man!

Hope you enjoyed my little bit of randomness!

It's fun being an Auntie!!

One of my absolute greatest joys in life is being an Auntie! I have three handsome nephews and a beautiful niece from my brother. And also 4 nieces and a nephew on my husband's side (unfortunately I don't get to see them all much).

Here are some pics from the last month of some fun with my brother's kids (who are over here several times a week)! Pictured in most of them are my 10 year old nephew Wyatt and my 5 year old nephew Joey. I think there's only one of my 3 year old niece Jillian. Anyway, onto the pics!

Joey and I after we gave him his "favorite birthday present ever" (his quote), an army man jacket :)

Joey loves to help me cook, he was amazed by the automatic can opener, and it was perfect for him to be able to use it, all you do is push the button.

Stiring up the sauce he made.

Wyatt begged my Mom to make her homemade donuts. She used to make them when us kids were little. Wyatt's job was to cut the hole in the donuts :)

The finished product! They were so yummy! All they are is refridgerator biscuits, with the hole cut in the middle, you fry them in a little oil until golden and then toss in powdered sugar. They are so bad for you, hence why we never make them anymore, but they were good as a treat!

I took him to the grocery store with me and he had to be goofy!

Joe found Papa's old sunglasses, lol.

So, we got a new washer awhile back with a glass lid, so they discovered they can watch the clothes being washed, lol.

The Hulk and Captain America!

And a smaller Hulk (Joey) and a smaller Capt. America (Jillian).

I love these kids! Not pictured is my nephew Reese, but he doesn't come over as much as the others, mainly because it's during the week while Mom is at work and he's a Grandma boy! :)

<3

Incoming from April

Yeah, I know, I'm a month late. . . almost 2 months late, I've really been lagging, lol.

First up a letter from Shannah

All the stickers on the envelope look like Spring! :)

I loved the great baseball stamps!

And the tree sticker on the back of the envelope!

Her pretty notecard! And thank for you the pieces of note paper, can't wait to use them!

And next a first letter from Abbye, my first penpal from Ireland! :)

I loved her letterset design! So cute!

Great envelope seal! So sweet!

I loved the postcard she included with her letter!

The little girl and dog on her stationery reminded me of Rusty and I, it's so cute!!

And now that things have settled down a little bit, I will have time to get my replies done, things have been hectic!

Packages!!

I did some online stationery shopping the last couple months and have been lagging with posting pics of what I got, so here ya go!

My first shopping was from the Current Catalogue, their online site, they were having a sale and I couldn't resist! Especially when I signed up for their email list and received a coupon code for an additional 10% off.