Dog Beach

This video captures a majority of our time spent last weekend.  If it were up to Jordan I think we would have spent the entire weekend at the beach playing fetch.  Unfortunately for her we had to take breaks to eat and visit my dad.  But aside from that most of our time over the weekend was spent throwing the ball for Jordan.  It must be the cold water and cooler weather that allow her to keep going and going.

 

I'm glad we were able to bring Jordan with us on this vacation.  We usually have to leave that poor puppy behind when we travel somewhere but this was a treat for us and her to be able to go on a trip together.  Plus it was a break for Kim who usually has to watch Jordan when we are out of town. 

Overseeding Part 3

Here we are, just two weeks after putting down the seed and the lawn is back to green.  We didn't even do fertilizer or a topper and the grass still came in nicely.  All you have to do is make sure you give them enough water and those little seeds just want to grow.  I do think the seed spreader was a good investment this year.  Last year it came in a little patchy at first due to the hand spreading.  In a few days it should be long enough to give it the first mow and then Pamela and Jordan will have a nice green lawn to play in all winter long.

Let's Be Amish Friends

About a month ago, my good friend Brittany gave me a starter bag of and a recipe for something called Amish Friendship Bread. The legend behind the bread is that only the Amish know what to put in the starter, and then the bags must continue rotating around like a chain letter. You break it, no more bread. However, a quick Google search reveals that you can, in fact, make yourself a starter. Hooray technology! But, boy, do they make you work for this stuff! I was skeptical when I saw that it takes 10 days of fermenting, mashing the bag and adding ingredients before you could bake the bread. But Britt assured me that it was well worth the effort so I gave it a try.

It was pretty fun to watch the bag bubble and expand as the ingredients fermented on the counter. Some days we had to let the air out multiple times - it was out of control! On the 6th day, you add some flour, sugar and milk. Then on the 10th day, it's bake time! You add more ingredients, separate out starter bags for some friends, and make 2 loaves for yourself. And it did not disappoint! It actually tastes more like a cake than a bread - and we all know how I feel about cake :) We devoured one of the loaves - breakfast, snacks and dessert - and gave the other to a friend. I would have kept one of the starter bags for ourselves, but the next day we left for our Cabo trip. I'm debating starting up a new one - so let me know if you are interested in some delicious Amish goodness!

Overseeding Part 2

It's been 8 days since I put the seed down in the yard and finally the new grass is starting to sprout.  Pamela makes fun of me during this first week of the overseeding because I get so impatient.  I just want immediate results from my hard work.  In a perfect world the grass would start growing the day after I put it down.

Even though I'm done waiting to see if the seeds sprout I still have about another week of waiting ahead of me to see if it grows in evenly.  Last year it came in a little patchy at first, but we're hoping to do better this year since we bought and used an actual seed spreader instead of doing it by hand.

Crazy Spinning Dog

Jordan has recently decided to do this out of control spinning in which she balls up all of the sheets and pillows on the bed in her fit of excitement. Kills me every time...

Overseeding Part 1

The weather in Phoenix is finally starting to cool off a little bit which means it is time to overseed the lawn with winter grass.  Pamela and Jordan liked having the grass last year so much that we decided to do it again this year.  So that was my project for this weekend.  It's a good amount of work to get the area prepared for the seed, especially if you don't have all the right power mowers and dethatchers.  Since our yard is fairly small it's still possible to get it all done with a line trimmer and a rake, it just takes a little longer.  And now our yard looks like this... covered with about a half inch of dying bermuda grass. 

It's alright though, because in a week or so our lush new rye grass lawn will be coming in.  I'll post some more pictures later to show how the grass turned out.  I hope it comes in alright, to make it worth all the trouble.  Here's an action shot of me spreading the seed:

Chicken Fried Rice

Mmm... Tasty recipe time! To go along with our P90X workouts, Matt and I are also trying to eat a little healthier, which means cooking more meals at home. And this little gem takes only minutes to prepare and is quite good!


Chicken Fried Rice:



2 Chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 Cup Cooked Rice
1 Cup Carrots
1 Medium Onion
1 Cup Celery
2 Eggs
Spices
1 Tbsp EVOO


So the secret is to use day-old rice that has been refrigerated instead of cooking it fresh. One of my Asian girlfriends at work told us this and it makes a HUGE difference in the taste of the meal.

We usually start by cooking the chicken up in a skillet - to save on calories, we don't use any oil or butter for this part (although I'm sure it would taste darn good if you did!)

While Matt mans the stove, I will prep the veggies by cutting them all into small, manageable pieces that can fit into the food processor. It only takes a couple of seconds in the processor to get essentially veggie shavings, so don't over blend those guys and accidentally puree them.

Once the chicken is fully cooked, we add the rice, veggies and 1 Tbsp. of EVOO to saute all together.

At this point, we also add spices to our liking: usually salt, pepper and garlic powder. Don't have an actual amount here, we just add until it starts smelling and looking good.

Once all of that is sauteed together, we push the mixture to the outside of the pan so that a bare circle remains in the middle. Then you can crack the eggs into the center and let them bubble for a bit. Once the eggs start to cook, you can mix them in with the rest of the rice mixture.

Then you're ready to eat!

Only about a 20 minute time commitment to make this, so it is really fast and easy. Yum!

P.S. How envious are you of my pink countertops? Oh yeah...

P90X

So I just started doing P90X for real this week.  Pamela and I tried it out for 2 weeks leading up to our anniversary vacation in Cabo and I really liked it.  I was already starting to see results after those two weeks.  Plus, as a bonus my migraine headaches seemed be improving with the intense regular exercise.  So now that we are back from our vacation I am going to try the full 90 day regimen.  It will be quite a commitment to stick with it as the exercise routines range from 60-90 minutes a day and they are very strenuous.  These first few days have left me pretty sore and tired, but it'll all be worth it when I'm super ripped and my head doesn't hurt.  I took all the before pictures that they suggest but I'm not going to post them until the end.  They are not the most flattering pictures, especially after spending a week eating, drinking, and laying by the pool in Cabo.  Maybe that will help me show even more improvement after the end of the 3 months.  Wish me luck!