the kitty & the garden

On any given day, I will find Ryker holding our kitty that we brought home 7 weeks ago from Wyoming. He loves the kitty. Maybe a little too much. He constantly wants to hold him and carry him around.

It's not allowed in the house, but Ryker sneaks it in sometimes anyway, and hides it in a blanket. Snowflake (the kids named him), will get bigger and bigger, and soon probably won't let Ryker carry him around anymore. He already runs away when Ryker gets near. But if Ryker gets a hold of him, he's pretty good to just put up with whatever Ryker does to him. I'm surprised he puts up with it.

Anyway, here are some pics of Ryker & his buddy, Snowflake, taken August 2010. I think it's pretty sweet that he loves him so much.

And a couple of pics taken Sept. 2010 (below).

I've been really pleased with this kitten. He's very sweet & lovable. He sticks around our house for the most part, and has even caught a mouse at the neighbors house.

I've found myself liking cats again. I went through a phase where I hated them, and vowed never to get one. But they are so low maintenance, he stays outside so he's not shedding or trashing the house, and he is just so CUTE! I've even seen Kevin pet him.

On to the next subject: the Garden. Every year I get SO tired of weeding the dang garden! So last year Kevin built these grow boxes for me. I bought the "Square Foot Gardening" book, and have been practicing some of those concepts and I like them.

But as you can see, weeds are still a BIG problem.

Well, we didn't get around to finishing the garden last year. We just got a couple of grow boxes in and that was it. So this year, I begged and begged Kevin to help me get it done. We dug some trenches and ran water lines to each of the boxes. Then for my birthday, Kevin had a truckload of gravel delivered.

My awesome neighbors came over and helped haul it all over to the garden. We put some plastic down first to keep the weeds down.

And here's the finished product! We left the corner for compost. We'll eventually fill in that extra space with more grow boxes. But doesn't it look SO much better?

This is the section on the side of the house that used to be a dog run. This is a pic from the springtime. Who in their right mind would want to keep up on that weeding?? Not me.

We dug all the weeds out, got rid of the garbage, recycled all the metal we were storing back there, then did the plastic & gravel thing. Kevin is now in the process of building a playhouse for the kiddos! They are beyond excited.

Here's to no more weeds!!

Mt. Olympus

On my 33rd birthday, I wanted to go hiking with Kevin. I hike quite a bit, but not a lot with Kevin. I chose Mt. Olympus, since I'd never hiked it before. My birthday fell on a Saturday this year, so it was the perfect day to go. We got babysitters for the kids, and went with some friends.
Here's a view of Mt. Olympus from I-215....


It was a pretty tough, very steep hike. The elevation gain is 4,060 feet over about 3.5 miles one way.










Here's the view from the saddle, a few hundred feet below the summit. It's the first spot you get to see views of the mountains around you, not just views of the valley. It was gorgeous up there!






Kev taking a breather....




At the summit. 9,026 feet.












Twin Peaks on the left, Lone Peak on the right.



We went out to eat at Texas Roadhouse that night. It was a great birthday!

Kitchen Makeover

This post has been a long time in the making. We actually started our "makeover" on Christmas 2009.

First of all, here's a shot of our kitchen before we made any changes....

Kevin surprised me on Christmas with a new stainless steel dishwasher. The dishwasher we had worked great, except for the heating element that dries the dishes. That had been broken for years. So after the dishes were washed, I'd have to prop open the door and let the dishes air dry. I didn't even ask for this gift, so it was a nice surprise! I wasn't expecting it. We decided that we'd eventually replace all the appliances, (one at a time, of course) to match the stainless dishwasher.

Well, a few days after Christmas, our microwave went out. It just stopped heating food! So we went to RC Willey. And guess what happened? We ended up purchasing the rest of the appliances to match. We don't have enough will power or patience to do one-at-a-time I guess. Here are the girls "helping" Kevin install the new range/oven.

If I had my way, I would have changed out the countertops first. I was SO tired of this faux-granite green formica. I actually picked it out in the year 2000 when we were building this house. How times have changed. I hated it. So we found a company that we liked, that was willing to let us pay off the new granite countertops in 6 months. So we did!

Here's the last pics of the old countertops before we took them out forever. And all those wires by the undercabinet TV will soon be hidden, thanks to Kevin...

Notice how the end of the counter doesn't "hang over" like the rest of it. That always bothered me, because to sit there, your knees would hit, and you'd have to lean way over. So we had the new countertop extended out so it hangs over like the rest. And we had them extend it out a couple of inches on the long side as well. I love all the extra counterspace!

We got the new countertops in February 2010. They are already paid off! The color we picked was called Venetian Gold. Here's a shot of it, and the new under-cabinet lighting that Kevin installed. Notice the wiring behind the TV is now out of sight! Yippee!

Starting the tile..... (March-April 2010)

A shot of the tile, the new faucet, shelf, & undermount sink....

And grouting....

And here's the finished product........Ta Daaaa! I love my kitchen. :)

Chicken Zucchini Casserole

Sometimes I have way too much zucchini, and I don't have any idea what to do with it all. I stumbled across this recipe & thought I'd share. It's really yummy!

Chicken Zucchini Casserole

6 C. chopped zucchini/summer squash
1 chopped onion
1 C. chopped carrots
1 16oz. container sour cream
1 can Cream of Chicken soup
1 C. Shredded cheddar cheese
4 C. cooked chicken cubes (3-4 chicken breasts, or I just buy a whole rotisserie chicken & shred it.)
1 6oz. pkg Stuffing
1/2 C. melted butter
salt & pepper

Put zucchini, carrots, and onions in a large pot. Cover with water and add 1 tsp. salt. Bring to a boil and boil for 5 min. Drain. Put vegetables back into pot. Add sour cream, soup, cheese and chicken and stir until combined. In a separate bowl, stir together the stuffing & butter. In a 9 x 13 pan spread 1/2 the stuffing mixture. Pour on the zucchini mixture. Top with the other 1/2 of the stuffing mix. Sprinkle w/ salt & pepper. Cover with foil and bake at 325 for 1 hour. (Take foil off for the last 15 minutes.)

Behind on blogging...

I've gotten into a terrible habit of blogging once or twice a month. This isn't working for me! I now have the whole month of August to catch up on, and it will probably take me hours to post it all. But I have to do it, because this blog is pretty much my "journal", and I print each year out in a book.

So I really have to get it done. I've just been so busy!

And I think I take way too many pictures.

If I can just catch up, and then try to post once a week, maybe that will work? But I guess it's just like laundry. I'll never REALLY be caught up.

Many, many August posts to come. Soon hopefully, including:

A couple of hikes

Some reunions

First day of school

Birthdays

Some home improvements

The stabbing

and the cute kitty