Remarkable!!

I just finished cleaning up from dinner. We had Evan's cousin with us tonight and after we finished eating I was showered with praise. The following compliments were given to me:

• That was remarkable!
• Marvelous!
  
• I could die a happy man after that meal.
• That was everything I've ever hoped for, and more!

I know what you're thinking. Wow, this girl must be a wonderful chef.

The sad part? I made pigs in a blanket and french fries.

Good thing these guys aren't too picky.

Crazy Kitchen Cookers

Today, my sister-in-law, Logi, and I carried out a pre-semester tradition that we have - cooking like crazy people in preparation for another busy semester. Each year, we try to get together for a day to prepare a few freezable meals to stash away for the busy weeks. Today, after a FUN girls night/sleepover (which I will post about later) we made our lists, did our grocery shopping and got to work.

Phew! Am I tired! In the past hour we saw E & L off, finished cleaning up the kitchen, transported the goods to the freezer in the back room. I just pressed start on the last load of dishes in the dishwasher and now, at 10:58, I am calling it quits.

We started our adventure by taking a trip to the Great Canadian Superstore to get our groceries. While we were there, a little guy named Joe Fresh distracted us for a bit (who can ignore clearance racks?) so our shopping trip took a little longer than expected. (L came home with a cute tank for 2.98 and some pants for E for 4.98 and I found myself a pair of jeans that actually fit for $19, a tank for 2.98 and two pairs of pants for hubby for $5 each). We also stopped at the Harvest Barn on the way home to pick up some locally grown corn on the cob for dinner.

When we got home, we got to work. We began by cooking up 6 lbs of ground beef and chopping up a multitude of veggies. While Logi prepped the veggies by separating them into dishes according to which recipe they belonged to, I assembled the hamburger and potato casseroles. This is one of my all-time favourites and has been since I was a little girl. Not the healthiest trick
I have up my sleeve, but delicious nonetheless.


Once those casseroles were done, we began the soups. Both Logi and I LOVE LOVE LOVE homemade soup in the fall and winter months. I almost always have homemade soup on hand between September-April. It is a must have during school when I don't always have time to cook. Today we decided to try a few new recipes ... butternut squash soup and spring vegetable soup. Both seem to be yummy but we'll see if they pass the test when we pull them out of the freezer over the next few months. The squash soup seemed to be missing something so we got creative and added a few unique ingredients to spice it up a bit. Our little secret!! At the last minute, we decided to throw together all the extra vegetables we had on hand and whipped up an ol' classic - cabbage soup.



Lastly, we made a slew of lasagnas. I am not talking normal, plain, old lasagnas. I am talking about the mother of all lasagnas complete with hearty meat sauce, spinach, cottage cheese, mushrooms, green peppers, red peppers, zucchini, onions and lots of cheese! Yum, yum!


Even when we finished the meals for the freezer, we still weren't done. We had hungry husbands and friends to serve dinner to so we made a pesto penne vegetable bake and Evan BBQ'ed some corn on the cob. We ate outside to get some relief from the heat in the house ... this is the only time that our house is ever hotter than outside.

After dinner, we finished the night off by rewarding ourselves with a fantastic treat - rocky road rice pudding. I've made rice pudding many times but this recipe took it to a whole new level! Homemade rice pudding, topped with melted chocolate chunks, pecans and toasted marshmellows. Whoooie!! What a treat!


I feel productive after getting this food all made and in the freezer. Thanks to the garden veggies and finding ways to make a little go a long ways, we finished off with 15 meals each at an average of less than $4.00 per meal. That sounds alright to me!

Word to the Bigg Burd

Tonight, my fabulous dude and I had the pleasure of being treated to dinner by two of our best friends, Bigg Burd and C-Biscuit (for the record, they chose their own blog identities). What a wonderful evening! We enjoyed some tasty grub at a quaint English pub. Some of the tastiness included fully loaded garlic bread (with tomatoes, onions and cheese on it), fish and chips, a yorkie (a giant Yorkshire pudding filled with mashed potatoes, topped with roast beef and mushroom gravy), a hollandaise chicken sandwich and a chicken thai stir fry (seriously, C-Biscuit ... who orders Thai at an English pub?)

After dinner, we meandered over to Wal-Mart to kill some time before hubby's ball game. There, C-Biscuit and I quickly downed a Smarties McFlurry from the in store McD's. We checked out all areas of the store ... including the PJ section. Seeing my fabulous dude decked out in woman's pajama's was quite the sight. While I was mortified, C-Biscuit thought it was hilarious. She did admit, though, that it wouldn't be quite so funny if it was "hers" in the PJ's!!

Getting to spend time with Bigg Burd and C-Biscuit doesn't happen all to often because of the geographical distance between us so we soak up the love whenever they are in town and when we get to visit them. Having friendships like the one we share with these two doesn't happen too often and it is something to be appreciated to the fullest. God has blessed us with such wonderful people to surround ourselves with.

Thanks for dinner guys. Word to the Bigg Burd!!

My Not So Green Thumb

I really like gardening. Let me re-phrase that, I would really like to really like gardening. The idea of having lovely landscaping and garden fresh produce really appeals to me but I cannot keep a plant alive to save my life. No matter how much I will it to, my thumb just will not turn green.

This year as a graduation gift, Evan bought two really cute planters and went to our favourite nursery (Elizabeth's) to find the appropriate plants and flowers to fill them. (We don't have much space to plant an actual flowerbed so planters have to do). I love these planters, they are so beautiful. Well, at least, they were so beautiful until I got my hands on them. Everyday on my way in or out of the house, I see them and think, "They really need water" or "I should pull those weeds out" or "I should snap off the dead flowers". And everyday, I just keep walking. I don't think I have watered them yet this year. Oops!

And to make things worse, this year we decided to plant a vegetable garden. You can imagine how much better I am with tending to this garden considering it is behind the barn and not even in my line of sight when I leave the house. This being the case, the thoughts I have concerning my flowers don't even enter my mind. I guess this way I don't have to feel guilty ignoring the needs of my garden since I never even think about them. You know what they say... Out of sight, out of mind!!

Thankfully, my fabulous dude is a much more horticulturally inclined than I. The only reason the planters and vegetable garden have lived to see today is because he takes great care of them (Well, the veggie garden at least - the poor planters are suffering). He has spent hours tilling, hoeing, planting, weeding, thinning and harvesting our veggies. Thanks to him, tonight we will be enjoying a completely home grown salad with our dinner. Yum, Yum!

The other day I went out to "help" him in the garden and took my camera, of course. Here are some shots of him tending to the veggies.


I did manage to convince him to take a picture of me in the garden. He was very reluctant to do so, claiming that having a photo of me in the garden would be "misrepresentation"! Ha!


Maybe now that I have written this I will have some inspiration to go work with the planters to see if I can spruce them up a bit. No, who am I kidding, there's no way I'm going to do that.

Why won't my thumb turn green?

Welcome Home!!

Today we welcomed home our dear friends who had spent a week directing a session at Camp Omagh. Even though I knew they would be exhausted and up to their ears in laundry, I had to stop in and say "Hi" because it had been a month since I've seen them. I decided that is just too long. Welcome home M's, we've missed you!

Too Cute Not to Share

All in all, our dog is "Evan's dog"... at least in her opinion she is. Since she was a tiny puppy she has pledged her allegiance completely and entirely to him. She obeys him more than she obeys me, she requests his attention more than she does mine, she gets more distressed when he leaves than when I do, and she basically just prefers to be around him more than me. In fact, many times, she acts jealous when Evan is giving his attention to me.

However, there are times when she caves in and shows some affection towards me. The photo below shows one of those times. On a rainy Saturday afternoon when Evan wasn't around, I guess she had no choice but to snuggle up with me. I just thought this picture was really cute and had to share it.

my favourite thing.

A clean house is my favourite thing.

Wait, scratch that. A clean house is my SECOND favourite thing. My FIRST FAVOURITE thing is a clean house that I didn't have to clean.

Tonight I got home from being away for three weeks to a completely spotless, spic and span house. Fabulous dude, isn't he?

two years!

Today marks two years since Evan and I were married. In honour of this occasion, I have borrowed the idea from Em to highlight the more memorable moments that we have shared over the past two years. (Thanks, Em! I hope you don't mind).

On August 12th, 2006 we were joined by our family and friends in a celebration of our love at Cranberry Creek Farms in Lyndoch, Ontario. The day was everything we'd hoped for, and more!


From August 13th-16th we honeymooned in Sauble Beach at my Grandma and Grandpa's cottage (and no, don't worry, my grandparents were not there with us!). We ate great food, spent time at the beach (when it wasn't raining - boo hoo), and I got my nose pierced.


August 16th we returned to our home in Beamsville and spent the last 3 days of our honeymoon painting, cleaning, shopping, unpacking and organizing our first apartment.

September long weekend 2006 we traveled to Temagami to go camping with the Kirklands.


September 2006 I returned to Brock to begin the third year of my undergraduate degree. I also began my job as assistant JK/SK teacher at Great Lakes Christian Preschool.

November 3rd, 2006 our third niece, Onnolee Grace Shortt, was born to Evan's sister Be and her husband AJ. Evan also shot his second deer a few days after her birth.


December 1st 2006, a nasty rain storm in Beamsville resulted in a terrible flood in our basement apartment. We evacuated and moved in to M & L's basement for temporary accommodations.


December 6th 2006, the Lord blessed us with a new apartment that was cheaper, nicer and in a much better location than our first. We moved in on 8th-9th, just in time for Christmas holidays. I was thankful to have a home to celebrate in and put up our first Christmas tree. (Tree compliments of M & L who put it up in their basement for me during one of my exams then let me drag it to my new apartment so I could celebrate the holidays properly). We celebrated our first Christmas as a married couple with my family and then traveled to be with his family on Boxing Day.




New Years 2006 - We ate at the Outback and went to the outdoor concert in Niagara Falls with my parents. Rain and wind made for an uncomfy evening, but we still managed to have a good time.


February 2007 - We brought our first puppy, Nika, home. She is a black lab and border collie cross and transformed me from dog hater to dog lover.


April 2007 - We went on our "second honeymoon" to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic to the Melia Caribe resort. This trip was with my parents and was wonderful. We left for the airport straight from my last exam. What a way to celebrate being done another year!


August 12th, 2007 - We celebrated our first anniversary while camping with Evan's entire family at the Pinery in Grand Bend. When we returned home we went to Cafe Amore for a lovely dinner and fantastic dessert.


September 2007 - Back to school again for one last year (or so we thought).

December 2007 - We celebrated Christmas with Evan's family and traveled to be with my family for the end of the holidays.


June 2008 - I graduated from Brock U with an honours BA in Child and Youth Studies (hooray, we finally did it!)


July 18th, 2008- Our first nephew, Hunter Jonathan Dimmick was born to my sister and her husband.

August 12th, 2008 - Today we are celebrating our second anniversary by traveling for seven hours home from K & D's house with E & L. I'm sure we'll have the joy of stopping at Bass Pro Shop on the way for some good times.

Who could ask for anything more than spending life with their very best friend? Evan is one awesome dude for supporting me and encouraging me through four years of university and for willingly and patiently accepting two more. These have been the best two years of my life and I can't wait for what the rest of our life together brings!!! Love 2 U, Ev.

50 years...

Yesterday, my Grandma and Grandpa celebrated their 50th anniversary. This is quite an accomplishment considering we live in a day and age where marriage is often viewed as something disposable.

I celebrate their love, honour and commitment to each other and their service to Christ over the years.

50 years ... wow!