This is why I leave cooking to Hubby...

I found a recipe in one of my mom's cookbooks that I thought sounded good. Apple Pumpkin Soup. Most people I've talked to since thought it sounded gross, but at the time my mom and I thought it sounded good so it was created.

Apples were diced and sliced.

And sauteed with onions

Pumpkin was added

And I should have known it wasn't going to turn out too swell when I had to blend it to get rid of the chunks....

I thought it looked like baby food, but it smelled great!

The test came as supper. It was just Shelisa, Mom and I. Shelisa was the first to say that she thought it was gross. (My sister is not one to mince words.) Mom soon followed with the comments about how it didn't taste right and "wouldn't it be nice with out the onions." After half my bowl it started to wither with me too.... It just wasn't that great. There goes my daring with cooking. I'm sticking with what I know from now on...Hubby cooking. :)

Pumpkins, Pumkins everywhere...

Last night Shelisa and I went to get our pumpkins.

I fell in love with the lopsided one and Shelisa liked the big fat one.

Tonight we cleaned off the table, got out the knives, and prepared to carve the beauties.


Shelisa wanted to do one that would showcase her wonderful artistic abilities. She was working and working, it was looking wonderful. I could have sworn it was going to be the best pumpkin I had ever seen. Then...


It broke and she almost swore. And those of you who really know her, realize that it was pretty good that she just "almost swore." :)


Mine I would like to dedicate to my dear friend, A. It is Captain Gourd. My pirate jack-o-lantern. I am pretty proud of it. I think it's the best I've ever done!


Shelisa's is hard to see here, she did put it back together with toothpicks. :) It's a kid peaking out from between his hands.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

One of my favorite things...

I love books. I love reading. I love libraries. I remember my favorite gifts growing up were the books I received. When I was living in Castle Rock after college, I remember coming home from the library with 10 books a week, and reading them all before the end of the week. And today I got to go do one of my favorite things, I got my library card! AND I checked out 6 books! Not quite 10, but I've got to work my way back up to that number. :)

Yay for favorite things!!!

Springfield, CO

I was born in Springfield Colorado. It's an itty bitty town in the South Eastern corner of Colorado, population 1,302. I was born there and lived there for about 6 months. After that I went back just about every summer to stay with my grandma for a couple weeks. It was my second home growing up.

This weekend we went back to visit. Hubby had never been. He got to see my grandma's house, my cousins' houses where I spent all my time, the pool that we would hang out in when it got to be in 110s, the church we went to, and the drag we would drive every night. It was fun to see his reactions to the small town that I love. :)

On our way there I took pictures for my dad of some property. This is what the landscape is in Eastern Colorado; flat and dry. Thought the sun rises and sets are beautiful!

It's funny how when you've been gone for a while you forget how much you missed it.

Still alive...

Yes, we are still alive. Life has been a rollercoaster the last few months. And we still haven't come to a complete stop. But after receiving txt from friends lately regarding my lack of blogging, I decided an update was long over due. Maybe this will also make regular updates a little less daunting. :)

On September 5th I gave my two weeks notice at TCV. Hubby and I decided to trust God and jump...into the wide open state of Colorado. We both felt it was time to be close to some family and mine family was the final choice. With much complaining on my works part about losing me, they threw me a party on my last day, September 19th. I know I'm going to miss all those smiling faces and the friendships built there over the last two years.

We spent the weekend packing and saying goodbye to our church. There were many tears and well wishers. Z&A woke up at the crack of dawn Monday morning to send us on our way. Along with "The Excommunicated Seminary Wives Tale" - the story of our time together the last three years. That produced laughter and tears. :)

Moving was quite an adventure. Mike drove the moving truck with me following behind in my car. And yes, I took pictures while driving. :) And Mr. Peanut kept me company. :)

Hubby driving the Penske truck, towing lil' blue... There's lots of pictures of the back of Hubby, I just can't help checking out his rear. ;)

After 12 hours of driving we stayed the night in Ogden, Utah. Tuesday morning we started the last leg of our trip, which turned out to be only 8 hours long.

Do you see the mountains???? We're getting close (or so I thought...it was still like 5 hours).

I got a little slap happy being in a car by my self for 20 hours...I liked the back of this truck. :)

As we cross the boarder of Colorado this giant buffalo greeted us.

And of course, the Budweiser plant was sighted from the road and pictured for my beer loving friends. :)

Finally pulling into Denver with massive traffic, tall buildings and the home of the best football team ever. :)

We had a good nights rest and caught up with the family some just to hit the road the next day with my mom and nephew in tow as we checked out apartments. We soon discovered that with the decline in the economy comes a much tougher apartment search. At just about every apartment we stopped as we were informed that you needed to have a combined income of three times the rent...what???? That's right. So, with Hubby working about 30 hours a week and me unemployed, we were out of luck. Thus came the basement plan! Yup, we moved into the parents' basement. Which I should tell you is an unfinished basement that use to house mice. Luckily my dad helped clean and sanitize it and we somewhat got our bed down the narrow stairs with a bit of maneuvering and we were set. It does get somewhat cold now that the chilly Colorado weather has set in, but we have lots of blankets and our own personal space heaters in each other.

Hubby is enjoying his job at the bowling alley even though it can be slow and boring. And I'm doing some computer/research/photographic work for my dad while I continue searching for a job. I am also helping my mom out around the house, taking her to Dr. appointments, and helping with my cutie nephew. He's fun to take pictures of too. :)

Isn't he just a ball of joy??? :)

After living in Colorado for a total of two weeks I headed back to the dreary city of Portland for some spiritual refreshing in the form of some friends and Women of Faith. I stayed with Kimmy in Salem and we made the treck to Portland every day to enjoy speakers, worship, laughter and tears. I know I grew in those two days and God tried to teach me yet again about patience and trusting him in all things. I keep trying to say to him each morning, "Okay God, I don't know where You're going today but I'm going with you."

Thus is the update on our lives. We are taking pleasure in the company of family. We are enjoying the beauty of the mountains and the fall colors. The cool air brings a promise of snow. And the holiday season around the corner has me excited as it always does.

This weekend it's even off to Gram's we go. :) Time to introduce Hubby to the town I was born in and the place I enjoyed my growing up summers.