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Thursday, June 30, 2011

Come see this car in the Melba 4th of July Parade


Nick restored this go-kart that belonged to my dad.  Daddy bought it in the 1960s and drove it in the Idaho Centennial parade in 1963. 

After that, it sat in a shed for over 40 years.  Needless to say, it was not very pretty when we brought it home...


But Nick took the seat apart and recovered it with new fabric, painted the body and wheels, and cleaned up the engine. 

The only thing he could not salvage was the gas tank because it was full of rust.  Now it is beautiful again, and I am so excited that he will be driving it in the Melba 4th of July parade...I just wish Daddy was here to see it!

Popovers...Yummy!!

I tried a new recipe today.  While looking at the blog How Mom Did It  I found this recipe for popovers (I have heard of them but have never had one in my entire life.)  They looked very simple, so I decided to give it a try.   Wow! They are really good (especially with homemade strawberry freezer jam).

Wanna make some for yourself?  Here's the recipe...

But first, you need to know the secret to making popovers...

1. Get the muffin tin cold...stick it in the refrigerator.
2. Do NOT (do not , do not, do not) pre-heat your oven! I am serious. You are going to put a cold pan into your cold oven once you are ready to bake them. There is something about doing it this way that makes the popovers puff up so nicely...


Now for the recipe...


3 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup flour

Whisk the eggs and milk together then add salt and flour, and mix those ingredients together until well blended.  (I didn't take a picture of this, but I think you can figure it out.)

Spray the cold muffin pan with cooking spray.  Fill the muffin cups 1/2 full with batter.
(Yes, my muffin pan is broken in 3 pieces, but it is Pampered Chef, and I love it, and it still works just fine!)

Put the pan in the COLD oven and turn on to 450 degrees.  Set the timer for 25 minutes and then wait...DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN!

When the timer goes off, remove from the oven.

Stick a toothpick in the popovers to release the steam...

Now you will have perfect little popover cups to fill with yummy homemade strawberry freezer jam and enjoy!
Make sure you bake plenty because it is easy to eat a few of these...or do like I did and eat as many as you want before you wake the kids up...I guarantee they will be gone in a flash when the kids discover them!

Next time I make these, I will put whip cream on top too! (that was Greg's suggestion, and it sounds delicious!)

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Update to "It's HOT Outside!"

Is that all I need to do to get a rainstorm...blog about how hot it is?  Tuesday night about 10:30 we got a fabulous thunderstorm with thunder, lightning, and TONS of rain...HUGE drops were falling (I know...I was outside in it driving to the store).  It was absolutely crazy and wonderful!  It only lasted about 20 minutes, but it sure cooled everything down, and then it rained again about 1:00 in the morning and a little more later in the morning.  It was cool and wet outside, so I took the kids out and pulled the weeds along our road.  Rain is wonderful for making those weeds pull right out of the ground.  I even had fun pulling weeds...don't think I can say that about the kids, but at least they helped!

Anyway...I just wanted to say...I LOVE THE RAIN AND I AM GRATEFUL TO HEAVENLY FATHER FOR SENDING IT TODAY!

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

It's HOT outside!!!

Well, so much for our rainy cool weather...I think summer is finally here to stay!  It has been in the 90s for the past few days.  I have decided I was really enjoying the cooler wet weather (even though I complained about it a bit back then).  Now we have to crank up the AC inside and try to keep the grass green outside.

Mandi and Porter went whitewater rafting to beat the heat today.  The Boise Police Activities League does a free Raft-Along on the Payette River every year, so the kids rode the bus to cascade, rafted down the Payette, and then had lunch before they came home.  It is a lot of fun for them (even though Porter said it was "boring.")  Lately to him, anything that doesn't involve video games is boring...we definiltely need to keep that boy active!  Mandi loved rafting and even met some new friends.  She said their river guide made them all jump out of the raft and get wet.  I am glad they were able to participate in this today!

Saturday, June 25, 2011

My Goal...

Helaman 5:30 "And it came to pass when they heard this voice, and beheld that it was not a voice of thunder, neither was it a voice of a great tumultuous noise, but behold, it was a still voice of perfect mildness, as if it had been a whisper, and it did pierce even to the very soul."

Ah...if I could just use a still voice of perfect mildness, maybe my kids would actually listen! I default to the voice of thunder way more than I should. So that's my goal this month... I'm really going to work on that one...

.

Bountiful Baskets

We bought our first Bountiful Basket today. For only $15 we got about $30 worth of produce including bananas, apples, plums, nectarines, strawberries, mangoes, limes, carrots, cabbage, celery, grape tomatoes, green onions, and swiss chard (not sure what to do with that stuff yet!) All I had to do was take a basket to the site and transfer the fruits and vegies from their baskets to mine, and I was on my way... The kids were excited to have some fresh fruit to eat (including new things to try like mangoes), and I came home and started a pot of Easy Sausage Supper (one of my favorite easy recipes). Just boil some water with chicken or beef boullion and layer in potatoes, carrots, onions, cabbage, and smoked sausage then simmer until it's all done...It smells and tastes delicious!

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Happy Birthday, Greg!

We celebrated Greg's 44th birthday on June 15th.  We made him a Funfetti cake and some cupcakes and invited his parents over for cake and ice cream.  His friend, Bill Holstein, came over too.  He got cash from his mom and dad, and Bill brought him a long-sleeve Harley T-shirt.  We gave him a green Swiss Army knife that he found on ebay.


Happy Birthday, Dad...WE LOVE YOU!


Mom took Dad out for dinner at Fuddrucker's so he could use his Birthday Club coupon.  (We are signed up for the birthday club at Red Robin, Coldstone Creamery, Tucano's, and Taco Del Mar too, so we all get lots of birthday goodies!) 

Anyway...back to Fudds...we split a 1-pound burger and their delicious fries with cheese sauce!



Then they brought him this incredible birthday sundae...



And we ate every last bit of it!

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Free Fishing Day

Today was Idaho Free Fishing Day, so we packed up the poles, bought some worms, and went to Wilson Ponds to try our luck.  Mandi's friend, Emmery, came with us too.



Aubrie caught the first fish of the evening (as usual),



then Porter caught one too (that's his fish laying in the dirt)... 


It started getting a little chilly and breezy, and we thought about going home, but then mom hooked a fish too.  Unfortunately, as soon as I got it close to shore, it wiggled off the hook and swam away.  I was determined I was not going home empty handed, so I baited the hook again and cast out the line...another bite!  Reeled him in to the shore, and...yep, you guessed it...he got away!  Now I was really getting mad, so I decided to try just one more time.  Finally!  I hooked one and he did not get away...so we came home with 3 rainbow trout, which mom cleaned (because no one else wanted to help...eww gross!), then I broiled them with some lemon pepper, and we had a little snack...YUMMY!


We can't wait to go fishing again!

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Jump Creek

Greg and I took Nick, Mandi, and Porter on a hike to Jump Creek today (Aubrie and Krystal had to work, so we will have to take them another time).  It is a little recreation area out past Marsing.  It was kind of hard to find because of the "No Trespassing" signs, which caused us to take a wrong turn for a bit, but we finally figured out the way to go, and it was beautiful! 


Just had to watch out for rattlesnakes and poison ivy along the trail...YIKES!  (At least Greg was "packin' heat"...he brought his 357 just in case!)



There was about a 1/4-mile hike back into the canyon that opened up into a beautiful waterfall. 



We had to wade through a little water to get back to the falls, and poor Nick dropped his cell phone in the creek, but we had a lot of fun nonetheless and got some good exercise too!  Nick even climbed up on top of the cliff way above us.