So sorry State!

Remember the last time I talked about me and Basketball? Well, I'm happy to announce that I've made some improvement.

I now know what the key is and that you might not be able to stand there for more than 3 seconds. I know that 3 point shots are cool, but inside shots win a game. I know it's not okay to hit someones arm while their shooting the ball. Bad, very bad!

I also know how to run a score board and time clock, how to hit the buzzer for a substitution, and that the UNC Tar-heals are officially the best college team in the nation for two years running.

All thank to my wonderful husband and his hobbies.

Made to Order?

This has been a week of food adventures. I've felt so rejected so many times by food establishments!

Wednesday night we went out to eat. I asked to go to Chili's hoping to have their chicken fried steak, which I think is wonderful. Unfortunately they were all out of that particular dish, so we had something else. I was so disappointed that I actually asked the waiter if he could ask the cooks to pound some hamburger together and fry them in batter. I finally came to my senses and got something else.

Thursday night was kind of funny too.

I love snow cones, and a few years ago I noticed that the fast food place Sonic has slushes in any flavor you can dream up that taste just like snow cones to me. I came home from work really wanting a slush with lime and coconut in it.

So Matt and I set off to Sonic which is just a few blocks from our home. When we got there I ordered a lime-coconut slush and a salad with honey mustard dressing. The "car hop" told us that they were out of coconut and honey mustard dressing. I looked at Matt and asked if we could try the Sonic on the other side of town. I really only wanted a lime-coconut slush.

So we said good bye to the car hop and drove a few blocks to the other Sonic. In the drive thru we asked for the same thing. They also were out of coconut and they had over stocked thousand island dressing so that's all they had. I gave up and ordered something without coconut or honey mustard dressing. But when we drove up to the window and Matt reached for his wallet we realized that we had left the house in such a hurry that we'd left it behind. We were so embarrassed. So we slunk back home and made peanut butter and jelly. No coconut for me.

I'll try next week and see if I can get a chicken fried steak and a line-coconut slush in this town.

Sale: 4 for $1

So I bought 4 dollars worth, and they sat in the fridge for a week while Matt wondered what his wife was up to. A week later I got out my nifty food processor that cuts veggies paper thin in seconds and I filled two bowls with saltwater, cucumbers, and onions.

"Soak for 3 hours," the recipe said. So, a week and a half later, I boiled some sugar, vinegar, and spices and made some pickles. I always forget how fast and easy this recipe is. I'm always so excited when I see new jars of bread and butter pickles on my kitchen counter. Yum!

Killing Frost

Fact: Idaho is a really cold, dry place.
Fact: Not many bugs survive Winter, or Spring, or Fall in Idaho.
Fact: I really like not having so many bugs around.
Maybe Fact: Little gnats have a special way of hiding in the dirt and making it though the hard Idaho Winters.
Fact: Little gnats are my least favorite bugs, but my most frequent house guests.

I love house plants. I have a lot of them. I have an Ivy from my roommate, an Aloe from my boss, a spider plant I swiped from somewhere public (just a clipping mind you), the basil, parsley, and chives I've been growing in my kitchen window for the past year, and a few others. I've noticed over the years that when my plants do well so do the gnats that live in them. So sad. So I got into the habit of putting them outside during these sunny winter days to try to freeze the bugs out. I'm pretty sure they dig deeper into the soil, because it never works.

Well, this past two weeks have been warm so I put the plants out while I cleaned the rest of the house. Then at night I brought them in again. Matt liked that idea a lot, so Saturday while I was working he put the plants out. They were sitting on the floor waiting for another sunny day like that one and he needed the room in front of the washer and drier for other "husbandly duties." (IE: doing my chores for me while I was at work.) I got home late and we stayed in to watch a movie.

Sunday morning we slept in then went straight to church. During our services, the Idaho Winter dealt us a cold blow and left the ground and roads covered in snow and ice. As we drove home slowly I looked up at our apartment like I always do and noticed something green on the patio. "Are those our plants?" I said. All Matt said was, "Oops." It was really cute and I just laughed. We got inside and made lunch then pulled the plants in out of the wind. The basil had icicles, the waxy plants were completely gone, and the chives and aloe looked a little shocked, but the ivy looked like it was just soaking it up.

Now it's Tuesday and we've made some observations.

Fact: You can't kill an ivy, you can only make it stronger.
Fact: You can't kill gnats, you can only make them stronger.
Fact: You can't kill love, even if you kill most of the house plants.

600>25

Hum! I was just doing some math and I noticed that we've had about 600 hits and up to this point only 25 comments. Let me count again. Maybe I missed some. Okay, a few email comments brings us to about 30. Good that make the math really easy. It seems as if 5% of you are doing 95% of the talking.

Alright you Blurkers, unless you have some kind of excuse, like talking to me in person or over the phone or sending me a real letter in the last month, you'd better speak up. =)

I'll post more often and try to give you a chance.

3 months

I don't know if Matt has caught on yet, but every month I try to plan something special to do for our "anniversary." It's never a really big deal, and he might not notice because he does so much every other week of the month for date night, but I try. In March I decided to go on a little adventure. See that water tower in the back of our blog pic? Yah, that one. Matt and I love it, for no real reason except just that it's cool. We can see it from our apartment and we always had a silly idea when we were dating that we would climb it.

So, We were off:


We have never even been close to this water tower, so this was a real adventure. We pulled into the right parking lot at least, but we were greeted by this sign.


Let me read it for you. "RESTRICTED AREA Tailrace fishing permitted during daylight hours only. visitors/fishermen check in with dispatcher." Well, the gate was open, so we figured it was still daylight. We weren't exactly fishermen anyway, unless you count fishing for adventure!!!


You know, if they didn't make those 8 legs so conveniently easy to climb, I think less people would try.





We were very lucky to have a nice dispatch officer come out and remind us that just because the fence was open doesn't mean we can actually climb the tower. We said sorry and went to dinner.

I felt like a fish sandwich, so we went to a place that just got one on the menu.


But after waiting for about 10 minutes while we watched the employees shuffle back and forth and look at us funny, we decided to inquire elsewhere.



After dinner we went to see a movie to end our evening. The whole night was very satisfying.

Other news for us on this three month mark:

I have a calling as the Relief Society bulletin coordinator. Matt and I have made lots of new friends in our new ward, and little young couples and families keep moving into our 8 unit complex. Matt is still playing basketball every Thursday with the ward team and most Tuesdays with friends. And we are beginning to plan our garden, even though it snows about once a week.

Life is very good.

Setting Sail

About at month ago Matt and I went to our local history museum to see a very cool exhibit about the Titanic. The evening was great. (It was actually the opening benefit for museum sponsors, and we were invited because some of our friends are just that.) As we walked in, each guest was handed a Boarding Pass and told to enjoy the cruise.



We went through the benefit part of the exhibit. They had a third class meal set up in a very cold cement floor room with benches. The meal consisted of chili, soda bread, and what I thought was ice cream. (I later realized it was butter scooped with an ice cream scoop. I don't make it to many of these things. I didn't know.)

Down the hall was a lovely warm room with tables and chairs, a band and delicious looking banquet foods. We filled our plates and had a good time admiring the punch bowl which was made completely of ice. This room was supposed to represent the first class meal.

The whole exhibit was wonderful, I'm sad I couldn't take pictures for you. There were parts of the ship and people dressed up to tell you about who they were and what their reaction to the sinking was. My favorite parts were the comparison of the 3rd class and 1st class price and room set up, (I'm pretty sure the last time I went cruising I paid the 1st class price for a 3rd class space.) and the giant iceberg in the foyer you could hold your hand on to see how long you might stand clinging to one while waiting for a rescue boat.

At the end of the exhibit you could check the survivor and non-survivor posters to see if the person belonging to your boarding pass was one of the lucky few.
Here's the name on mine:


Matt kept telling me I survived, he knew for sure. I thought he was just being nice, but then we passed a poster about Molly Brown. Yah. Not only did I survive. They made a movie about it.

Matt did not fair so well.