we are fam-i-ly...

...I got all my sisters and me. Or at least my one and only sister. She was here. My sister. All the way from Seattle, WA (Gig Harbor, actually). And she came with her husband, Josh, and daughter, Gabriella (aka: Gabby, Gabs, little princess).

Their visit was different this time in a few ways: Josh had an Ultimate Frisbee Tournament while he was here; their visit was almost 2 weeks, a rarity; they mostly stayed at our mom's house (Kita's was an easier home base, but the best part for them is that Gabby had her OWN room to sleep in!!); and the biggest difference about this trip was that they did not have to "schedulize" every minute of every day of their visit...you know how that is... that need to see everyone and do everything in a week or less (fun, but very stressful at times). I'm not sure if this visit was more relaxing or not...I don't think I asked, but I think more play time was involved this time around.


We still did our normal things: getting Capuano's pizza (YUM!), as well as the customary shopping trip to Eddie Bauer's Warehouse store...where they get to Eddie's so early, they have to wait in line...and she picks things out for me and I show up later just in time to try things on, pay and leave (I know I'm weird, but I don't really like shopping). I really, really value her input when picking out and trying on clothes with her...we only want the most flattering and fabulous finds for each other!! I wish we could do all of our clothes shopping together!


My mom, aka: Kita, hosted a fabulous BBQ so that all of our extended family can gather and visit with Keni, Josh and Gabby. It was a great Sunday afternoon!

Keni, Momma Kita, and myself.



Fab cousin Mallory and Keni with me.

Cousin Tyler (the new grad), Aunt Suzi Z., Blare and Mallory.


That's my brother-in-law Josh strikin' a pose for me. Funny guy!

Mallory and her fiance Blare - they are too cute...aaahh young love!



Gabby twirling and chasing some bubbles. The rest of the pics I have are of her chasing and trying to EAT the bubbles. Silly girl!

We (K, J, G as well as Gary, Michael and I) had another cookout with our Uncle Rick, Aunt Suzi R. and cousin Brannon at their house...where Gabby saw her first firefly/lightning bug.

I thought it was strange, but they don't have fireflies in Seattle. Michael enjoyed playing with the rocks in their driveway and watching golf on tv...surprise, surprise - NOT!

We also did an exciting visiting to Suzi's office at the Columbus Zoo where we got to pet baby zoo animals. Although, Michael was much more excited to see Grandma Kita than the animals. Hee, hee! Us adults got to go inside a caged area to play with 7 month old cheetahs and 7 month old dogs that were raised with the cheetahs (I forget what kind of dog, I wanna say it starts with an A??). Anyway, it was very, very cool. Remember the baby cheetahs that Carole, Michael and I held back in November?? These are the same cheetahs and my, have they grown!

We took turns going in the cage because the kids weren't allowed in...they said that the kids are starting to look like SNACKS to the cheetahs!

Keni, Josh and Kita are petting one of the cheetahs, while two of Suzi's staff educate us and keep an eye out for the other cheetah because they like to pounce (the guy walked in front of Kita as I was taking the pic - boo).

The dogs wanted in on the attention I had been giving to the cheetah. Then the cheetahs really started to get playful....

After the tour (and the love bite Keni got on her bum from one of the cheetahs), we met Suzi on zoo grounds where she was doing a live news feed for 10tv. Suzi made sure Gabby and Michael were in the background (next to Patrick Starfish, from Sponge Bob) while the tv crew was filming and Gabby had on her sparkly pink Dora sunglasses (so cute!).

After the news was over, Suzi gave us all passes to Zoombezi Bay, the cool new water park at the zoo. Brannon went with us too...which Gabby really liked. We loved having Brannon show us around and hanging with us too. :) Michael liked floating around the creek until we went under a waterfall of ice cold water and then he was all done. We also did the wave pool which he enjoyed as well. I think we could've stayed longer (in fact, Gabby "pretty pleased" Kita into just the two of them staying longer!), but that had been a long day for Michael and we were all getting tired.

On K, J and G's last day, Michael and I drove to Kita's for a quickie lunch of White Castle's (mmmm, Whitey's...they don't have those in Seattle either) and to visit with them one last time while they packed for the trip home.

G-ma Kita with her favorite grandchildren....Michael and Gabby.

Michael and HIS G-ma Kita...I think he might have been getting a little jealous...maybe???

Sigh. Good times. We miss them already.

PS: Hey Gabby, I'm going on a picnic and I'm going to bring some bananas....what are you going to bring?!?! Are you still bringing the FROGS?!?!

overwhelmed with projects

Lately I've been feeling overwhelmed with the amount of projects going on here. Most, if not all, of the projects were self-created because of this need I have to be "working" while I am not working. But I'm not good with having this disheveled look all around me. I'm kind of anal about being organized and things having a proper home, although you wouldn't be able tell this by taking a peek into our house right now. This chaos makes me want to purge...The. Entire. House. To make it feel light and airy and clean and relaxing. Which in turn makes ME feel lighter and less stressed (I'm already "airy"- hahaha!!). Having less stuff and being organized allows me to accomplish so much more.


But purging itself is a project that I'll have to add to the bottom of our list of things that we are working on: the 2nd bathroom remodel (which is like 3 projects in one), landscaping (another 2 or 3 parter), jobhunting, Michael's summer therapies, and then the normal day-to-day stuff like housecleaning (bleck!). Shoot, I find myself busier now than when I was working...I think it's because I want to have all of these projects done before going back to work.


So in order to make a dent in these projects, I better get crack-a-lackin' and get back to it!!


And since a post isn't a post without a picture:



That's Michael "petting" Cally. She's such a great cat...she seems to understand Michael and tolerates a lot. He used to chase her around the house to try to sit on her.

teacher thank you gifts

Michael's last day of school was 2 weeks ago. Wow, summer break is really flying by!! Anyway, I wanted to do something special to thank his teacher and other important people in his school life. But because there are so many people that need to be thanked (it DOES take a village!!) I needed to be conscious of not breaking the bank at the same time. After talking with neighbors and friends to brainstorm ideas, I decided to give them a variety of homemade greeting cards. I put together 8 sets of 9 or so cards each and Michael gave them out on the last day of school. I think they turned out cute, and they were really fun to put together.We also snuck in a gc to Starbuck's for Michael's primary teacher (love her!). I would love to hear about your gift ideas...tell me all about it in the comments! :)

playing catch up

I have so, so much to blog about: our trip to Florida; Michael's bday; baseball; a trip to Cleveland (without the boy!!); more do-it-yourself home projects; Arty's surgery; my sister, brother-in-law and niece's visit; and a bunch of other stuff. We've just been so busy living and enjoying life, that there has been no time to write it all down. Sometimes I'm exhausted by it all, in a good way...because... "it's all good".

Hopefully, things will slow down a bit for me to catch up on all the projects and give me time to share it all with you. I know you can't live without these updates...have no fear, I had my camera with me for most of the events. Or maybe you should have fear because the camera's memory card is FULL - that's over 800 pictures (obviously, I don't shoot RAW)!! There will be lots of editing/deleting going on to whittle those down.

In the meantime, I'll be working on this:
Have I mentioned that I really don't enjoy folding and putting away laundry? Seriously embarrassing, but I'm just keepin' it real!

chicken spaghetti casserole

Want an easy and tasty meal for dinner? One that you can make ahead of time and/or freeze, if you want? Casseroles are great for just that and this one is pretty darn yummy (you might even be asked for a second helping!).

[ CHICKEN SPAGHETTI ]

INGREDIENTS

2 cups cooked chicken (I used 2-3 chicken breasts)

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can cream of chicken soup

3 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese

1/8 cup finely diced green pepper

1/3 cup finely diced onion

1-4 oz jar diced pimentos, drained (I used maybe 1-2 oz, not big on pimentos here)

3 cups dry spaghetti, broken into two inch pieces
2 cups reserved chicken broth from pot you cooked chicken in

1 teaspoon seasoned salt (I used Tastefully Simple’s seasoned salt)

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

salt and pepper to taste (I only peppered since we seasoned it earlier)

1 add’l cup of grated sharp cheddar cheese

DIRECTIONS

Cook chicken in pot of water; when done, shred chicken. Cook spaghetti using the leftover chicken broth until al dente. Do not overcook (it’ll be cooked again and you don’t want it to get too mushy). When the spaghetti is cooked (save that broth), combine with all of the ingredients, except the additional 1 cup of sharp cheddar cheese. If the mixture seems too thick, add some of the leftover broth to the mix (I ended up adding around 1 to 1-1/2 cups of the broth).

Place mixture in casserole pan (9x13 and lightly sprayed w/Pam) and top with remaining sharp cheddar. Cover and freeze up to six months, cover and refrigerate up to two days, or bake immediately: 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes until bubbly (if the cheese on top starts to get too cooked, cover with foil).

This recipe is from pioneerwoman.com, but adapted for my family's tastes. :)

diggin' you diggin' me

The boy loves rocks.

He had been enjoying the neighbor's gravel pit so much that last weekend, on Mother's Day, we made Michael a gravel pit under part of his swingset.

Twelve bags of pea gravel and 2 bags of river rocks later....and we're done!

He could spend hours playing with his rocks. I foresee a lot of summer days in this pit. In addition to the sand and water...and probably lots of going back and forth between the three faves.

Michael was trying to pull Gary into the pit with him, but G is too tall. It was hard enough for G to sit under the slide...the boy likes us all to be close (loves to make us hug and kiss--funny!).

I'm sure he'll nominate us for parents of the year after this....at least until the next time he needs a 'time out', then all nominations will be null and void. But for right now, we're SUPERSTARS!!

cinco de mayo smothered enchiladas

Taking a look at all the past recipes I've posted on here, I noticed that we eat a lot of Mexican food. We're really big on flavors and seasonings here!

Need something quick, yet different? Why not try this very easy and filling meal? It's what we had tonight for Cinco de Mayo (just missing a little Sol).

[ SMOTHERED ENCHILADAS ]

2 lbs. ground beef
1 (1 ¼ oz) pkg mild taco seasoning
1 (4.5 oz) can chopped green chiles
2 (10 ¾ oz) can cream of chicken soup
1 (16 oz) sour cream
8 (8”) flour tortillas
2 cups (8 oz) shredded cheddar cheese

GARNISHES
salsa
sour crean
green onion
chopped cilantro (I don’t use this because I don’t like it)

Brown ground beef in large skillet, stirring until it crumbles and is no longer pink; drain. Stir in taco seasoning and half of green chiles, set aside.

Stir together remaining green chiles, soup and sour cream. Pour half of mixture into a lightly grease 13 x 9 baking dish. Spoon beef mixture even down centers of tortillas; sprinkle some cheese and roll up. Place seam side down over soup mixture in dish; top with remaining soup mixture and cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Serves 8...or 4 really hungry adults!


This was a yummy recipe from our neighbor (thanks Denise!). :)