Blueberries!!!

For a long time I've told myself that I didn't like blueberries... Last Saturday we went with Danialle, Chadd, Jennifer & Grace to pick our own blueberries. Since I didn't think I liked them I decided I'd pick some for my stepmom. Well, while we were picking I popped a few in my mouth and they were pretty darn good and realized I was going to have to keep all that we picked. Picking them was pretty fun, too. This farm was very clean and non-buggy and only 5 minutes from our house! Grace was as cute as can be out there, too. She at first took fistfuls from the buckets that we were filling. Then she realized she could pick her own and eat them, so she did that. I tried to convince her to only pick the dark ones, but she didn't quite get it. Although she didn't mind when she got the tart ones either, so I guess it was ok.



After we left I made the call to Peg to tell her she was going to have to come up and pick her own.

Oh the bonus is that they are SUPER easy to freeze, too. You just rinse them off and let them dry completely. Once dry you throw them in a freezer bag and toss them in the freezer. Voila! This weekend I'm making homemade blueberry pancakes and maybe some blueberry muffins, too. YUMMY!

There's more than CORN in Indiana...

I've had this urge for a while to start freezing corn and finally decided to take a stab at it. I called my nanny up and got her recipe. I wasn't sure how much to start with, so we headed to the farmer's market and got 3 dozen ears. It took a while to DE-cob all of the corn, but once that was done it was a breeze. I call it the "3-2-1 Freeze!" recipe*. I called my nanny during the process and ended up adding too much sugar and salt to one batch, but it was easily fixable by just adding plain corn to it on the next round. I ended up with 8 pints of corn total, which was not too shabby. Here's the mess I created...



*In case anyone is interested, here is the recipe I used

3-2-1 Freeze...Corn

Cut corn off the cob with a sharp knife
Use the dull side of the knife and run it up and down cob to get juices

In a bowl
Mix 4 cups corn
1/3-1/2 cup water (depends on how good you are at de-cobbing)

Microwave for 3 minutes
Stir
Microwave for 2 minutes

Stir in
1/2 Stick Butter
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

Microwave 1 minute

Put bowl in a sink full of ice to chill, stirring occassionally.

Once chill put in container or freezer bag then freezer.

Card Night!!!

Recently a few ladies in my family & Eric (because he loves cards) started this weekly card night. The last few nights we've had it at my grams house and last night everyone came to my house. It was such a blast!! We played some mean Shanghai, which is similar to rummy, but a little different, and a few rounds of Mexican Train Dominoes. We feasted on some keish, chips & salsa, oreos, and sipped on my lovely tea.

Last week we learned some new words such as

Sneuter - sneu·ter (snū'tər, nyū'-) pronunciation
adj.

**A castrated animal neither masculine nor feminine in gender.**

You would sneuter a...

Hermaphrodog - Her·maph·ro·dog (hər-măf'rə-dī'dog) pronunciation
n.

**A dog who has both sets of sex organs.**

It was quite funny at the time let me just tell you. Last night the F*** word was thrown around a few too many times and grams thought she was going to have knock Sherrie out of her chair or drag her on the back of her car back home. Please believe me when I say my jaw hurts from laughing so hard last night.

Dog Biscuits - Take 1

I recently bought some "homemade" dog biscuits at the farmer's market. As soon as I got them home I checked the ingredients and new instantly that I could make them myself with very little effort. So off to google "dog treat recipes" I went. I found several. My first recipe I tried consisted of wheat flour, baking powder, milk & peanut butter. It was a cinch. I made probably around 50 biscuits, but they were much larger than I wanted for daily treats. So now I'm off to find some smaller cookie cutters. It was fun though and as soon as I find some different cutters I plan to make more and maybe even freeze some.

New Kitchen

So it took me forever to post that final part of our trip to Jamaica, I know. I've been quite busy the last few weeks and it was hard to make myself finish what I started. However, I vowed to myself that I couldn't post anything else until I finished it, so thus the lack of posts. Now I get to play catch up, so hopefully there will be lots of posts for a while. Enjoy!

A few weeks ago Danialle came up on a Saturday morning to help us paint our kitchen & dining room. We made a trip to the farmer's market first thing followed by a trip to Wal-Mart then got back home to begin our project. Eric & I had taped everything off the night before, so we waited for Eric to get everything ready to get started. Danialle broke out a peach from the farmers market before we got started. Well, Godiva through it was a treat (all that was left was the peach pit) and devoured it right out of her hand. She didn't even chew it because Danialle tried to get it back. We were a little concerned, but decided we'd just check and make sure it passed.

We got started on painting. It was a chore painting around all the cabinets and stuff. We painted the entire kitchen a pale yellow (pineapple fizz) and in the dining room we painted the yellow on top and a dark blue (planetarium) on bottom. Then we bought chair rail and cut and stained it and put it up between the colors. Here's how it turned out.

Dining Room...
Before


After


Kitchen...
Before


After


We are really pleased with how it turned out. It feels so warm and inviting now. The white drove me crazy. We finished around 7:00 that night, so it took all day.

To elaborate a bit more on Godiva by the time I got ready for bed she still had not passed it. Eric decided to google "dog eats peach pit" or something to that affect and we found out that peach pits are poisonous to dogs. Lovely. We called the emergency vet and they said she should be ok since she didn't actually chew into it, but they weren't positive, so we should call this poison hotline to make sure. So Eric called and they basically said the same thing. Apparently the inside of the pit is what is poisonous and normally they show signs of being poisoned after 6-8 hours. It had been over 12 by this point. They said to make sure we check her BMs and she should pass it within 48 hours. If not then we'd have to take her in because there would be cause for concern for a blockage. She was still doing #2 that day and even on Sunday, but no pit. Finally monday morning almost exactly 48 hour later she passed it. We nearly threw her a celebration party. Eric took a picture to send to Danialle for confirmation, but I won't share it with you all. Hopefully Danialle didn't even look at it. ha ha ha

Jamaica - Day 3, 4 & 5

So it's taken me long enough to post the rest of our vacation I know... Sorry

So on Friday we got up early, grabbed breakfast and departed for our trip to Mayfield Falls Riverwalk. We made several stops to pick up people at various stops. Finally we were on our way. The ride there was long, but very interesting. We saw so many things that you definately would not get just staying at the resort. You can see many of the things we saw in the photos. The drive to the falls was probably an hour to an hour and a half long, but again was super interesting. When we got to the falls you walk down this long set of man-made stairs. Then across this bamboo bridge which made me a little nervous. Then you get to an area they call the bar. We had to sign consent forms and made a restroom stop. Then they grouped us into 3 tiki huts. We ended up with 2 other young couples (one from New York, the other from Canada) and another couple that were probably a little older than us, but I can't remember where they were from. Finally they came around and got our lunch order. Our entire table ordered fried chicken. Then our guides came around and told us to leave everything there except what was absolutely necessary to talk. We were told to get in our bathing suits, but keep our shoes on. They had a waterproof bag that we could put valuables in. Finally we got to head to the river. It was cold going in, but so totally awesome once you were in. While we didn't see any ginormous falls. We did see a lot of small ones and one big one for the end. We took so many pics, plus there were two guys along with our guides that took pictures and video. We got to see so many gorgeous things. It was absolutely the best part of our trip without a doubt!! After the falls we walked on a path back to our tiki huts. We sat there and dried off for a bit and then they brought us our lunch and something to drink. The fried chicken was awesome and I'd never had red beans & rice, but it was very good, too. While we were eating we chatted with our table mates and the camera crew came around and gave us a preview of our pictures and video. We ended up getting all of the pictures. I think we ended up with about 20, so it wasn't a bad deal. Finally we walked down this long path back to the bus. Along the path we stopped at a little hut where a local woman was selling stuff. Our bus was down in this huge cliff it seemed and it was a little scary going back up. Thankfully I sat on the side closest to the hill and not overlooking the cliff. The ride back wasn't as long thankfully because we were absolutely exhausted. When we got back we relaxed for a while and then got ready for dinner.

Dinner that night was at the main dining area. The resort had a huge gala with all the food from all the restaurants at the resort and life music and dancing. It was really nice. We were so exhausted that after dinner we headed back and lounged around the pool with another couple for a while. Then we headed to bed.

Saturday we got to sleep in thank goodness. We got up and had breakfast then lounged around the beach for a while. It was nice just to relax for a while. We grabbed our regular lunch and then headed back to our room to get ready for the Rhino Safari Tour. Another couple who had heard it was awesome actually joined us. We left in the early afternoon and headed down the road. It wasn't long before we arrived at our destination. I had a bad feeling when we got there, but it seemed reasonably ok. We waited around until a group came in then we went over some things and got on our pieces of shit floatation devices, I mean boats. It was the worst experience of my life. It's really hard to explain, but you have to basically hang off the front of this thing at full throttle until you get the nose down, then you can sit down. However we couldn't get it very well and the other couple were taking in water and couldn't get the nose down either. Once you get the nose down you have to go at full throttle and our seat ended up falling off. All this in 20 minutes and we finally said screw it and told them to take us back because we were done.

When we got back to the hotel the guys went to the office and got a full refund thank goodness. That stupid "excursion" was not cheap by any means. Then we headed back to our rooms to get cleaned up and ready to meet up with everyone else to go to Rick's Cafe. This was absolutely worth every penny, too!! We watched several people jump off. Then Eric and another guy from our group decided to go. Ironically I wasn't nervous for him at all. I guess I knew he would be fine and of course he was! We watched some more and Eric jumped one more time. Then we sat down and ordered an appetizer and listened to the band. Two other guys from our group jumped a little later, then it was off to the other side of the restaurant to watch the sunset. The sunset started out gorgeous, but some clouds rolled in and we didn't actually get to see it duck below the horizon. You can see in this picture how I feel about it. Finally we made our way back to the resort. We had only eeaten the appetizer at Rick's so we joined a few others and had some italian, which wasn't too bad. Then we headed off to bed for our last night in Jamaica.

Sunday morning we got up early and packed everything up and grabbed breakfast. We walked around the resort one more time and took several more pictures. Made a last stop at the gift shop and met everyone in the lobby to head for the airport. The ride home was pretty uneventful as well. Our connection flight in North Carolina was delayed for about an hour because of a storm that was rolling through Indiana. As soon as we arrived it started downpouring again. We had to run to our car and were drenched, but we made good time on our way home and was glad to be home with the puppies again. I think they were pretty happy to see us again, too. We would go back again anytime. It was a great trip and we vowed to do more excursions on our next trips like we did in Jamaica. You just get so much more out of your trip. :D

View our entire photo album from Jamaica!

One Year Ago Today...

I lost my brother. My only baby brother. Life has not been the same since. I have so many great memories with him and for that I am thankful. Not a day goes by that I don't think of him. Because I am remembering the good times today I'll leave you with some of my favorite pics of he & I.













If you want to see more pictures of him, check out Matt's Photo Album

Jamaica - Day 2

Thursday morning we got up pretty early. Eric swam in the ocean while I relaxed and got ready. Then we headed down for breakfast. After breakfast we schedule two excursions, the Mayfield Falls River Walk for Friday and the Rhino Safari Cruise for Saturday. We had known before we even got down there that we wanted to go to Mayfield. Someone in our group had heard that the safari was "awesome" so we thought we'd try it out, too. We also checked out the gift shop and scoped out our purchases. I ended up getting a gorgeous tanzanite ring for an awesome deal. After that we lathered up in sunscreen and hit the pool. Around lunch time we headed back to get changed and then head down for lunch.

After lunch we found out that our new room on the "CO" side was ready so we got everything ready back in our room and headed over to the new room. The room was exactly the same except for a couple of things. First we actually had a view!! It was also on the ground floor as opposed to the second level, so we could open our door and walk right out to the beach. It was awesome! We spent a while unpacking all of our bags and getting settled into our new room. Then we went out to the pool and Eric played some volleyball. I sat in a chair and sunbathed and watched. Later I was still a little tired so I decided to take a little nap and Eric had to go to this "blending seminar" (so they could make it a business trip). I ended up not sleeping very well, so I ordered a tortilla & vegetable chip basket w/ salsa, sour cream and guac from room service and ate the whole thing just before Eric got back. :D After he got back we got ready and walked around for a while before heading to dinner.

Dinner was at the Japanese place at the resort. I thought it was good, but Eric wasn't as fond of it. I guess we are spoiled from our local japanese place. Our chefs were great. They were singing and telling us jokes/riddles. I actually tried some spicy tuna sushi rolls and loved them. I was pretty proud of myself for the things I was eating and trying. After dinner we headed back over to the "CO" side and lounged around the pool.



Again I added more pics to flickr from Day 2. Only a couple more days before it's finished.

Jamaica - Day 1

Jamaica was absolutely wonderful! We enjoyed it and it is now our destination of choice. We would go back in a heartbeat.

Tuesday evening we dropped the dogs off at the kennel. We ran some last minute errands and grabbed dinner before heading home. It was so odd going home that night with the doggies not around. We packed and just tried to relax for the rest of the evening.

Wednesday morning we got up at 4:00 AM, showered and headed to the airport. We were excited about getting there, so getting up early didn't bother us too much. We were one of the first couples to get there an check-in. We grabbed some Star*buck's and did some people watching while the other's arrived. Our flights were pretty uneventful. We caught the second leg of our flight in North Carolina. It wasn't much of a layover, so we grabbed some snacks to eat on the plane. We talked with a couple on the plane who were goingt down to get married on Saturday. They were pretty cute. Once we landed in Jamaica we had to go through immigration. I swear we walked 5 miles to get there and then waited in line for about an hour w/ only a fan blowing on a small area of the line, so we only got it on occassion. As soon as we got through immigration we went to this room especially for the grand lido guests. They took our luggage and we filled out these cards for the resort and waited for everyone to arrive. They did give us a complimentary small bottle of water. Finally we were off to the resort. It was about an hour drive. We stopped once at this little place and I got my first taste jerk chicken, which was yummy. I hated how they just took a butcher knife to it and chopped up the bones along with the meat, but that just made it finger food.

Finally we arrive at our resort. As soon as we got off the bus someone greated us with very cold washclothes which were heavenly by this point. Then ladies came around with classes of mimosas and rum punch. We were then sent to this waiting area. Finally someone came & called our names and walked us to our rooms. Our room was very nice, but the view sucked. We pretty much had a view of a damn tree w/ a tiny bit of ocean on either side. Eric went back down and complained and they said they didn't have a room for that night, but they'd move us the next day. It was around 5 pm and we were meeting for dinner at 6:30, so we just walked around the resort and took it all in. We took some pictures, etc. There is this huge tree (you can see in the pictures) that we are standing in front of and the look on my face means "there is a huge bee hive behind me, so please take the picture fast!!" After checking out the area, we decided that we actually wanted to be moved to the "clothing optional" side and ended up getting that settled for our move the next day. The reasoning was b/c it was further in and not right up next to the road like the clothing side was. Also it was just more quite & peaceful over there.

Dinner that evening was with everyone. We chose a table with a "cock" as the centerpiece, although someone eventually took it away from our table. Dinner was decent. After dinner we went for a swim on the "CO" side and just hung out with another couple for a while. Then we headed back to our room and ordered room service. before falling asleep.



See more pictures from the first day here