proof that i CAN cook...

This post is more just to prove that I can in fact cook...I give Jason all the props he deserves because he really does cook almost all the time and is very good at it. But once in a while I like to show my skills too! I enjoy baking because it involves mixing a bunch of stuff together, making it taste good, and letting it cook while I enjoy something else. Lasagna is the prefect thing for me to cook...because it is like baking. There is not too much timing involved as far as making sure all the separate things get done at the same time...unless there is a bread involved :)

I made this dinner for Jason yesterday since while he had to work an 8 hour shift, he still got up really early because I had to do a fasting blood draw at the hospital which required a 8am appointment...which meant getting up earlier than that! Also, have a 5 day weekend is leaving me energized, relaxed, and wanting to be in the kitchen!!!

The makings of my Alfredo Chicken and Spinach Lasagna

Pasta, layered.

Add Ricotta cheese.

Add the spinach/onion/garlic/mushroom/chicken mixture.

Add Mozzarella cheese.

Add Parmesan cheese.

Add Alfredo sauce.

Repeat until 3 or 4 layers high. Top with cheeses. Bake in oven at 375 for 40 minutes. ENJOY!

a day of thanks...

We spent Thanksgiving at my parents house. It was the 6 of us. My parents, myself and my husband (I still smile when I get to call him that) and Tony and his girl friend Kelly. We had a very yummy dinner followed by a fun activity for the girl (read on) and a not so fun activity for the boys (moving Tony's TV). I thought about taking more pictures but I get so much hell sometimes from my family that it just isn't worth it...so this is all I have.

The lovely table

Kelly and I making our project...

Paper funnel a la Annie. Came in very handy!

Our after Thanksgiving project...cookies in a jar to give as gifts :)

We had a little assembly station on the kitchen table and we all made 4 jars of cookie mixes to give away as Christmas gifts. My Mom found the reciepies online and bought everything we needed. It is such an easy and economical way to make presents! And in my opinion it is much better than lotion or candles!

making things to be thankful for...

We spent Thanksgiving at my parents house this year...we really wanted to have it at our house but were a little nervous about having not really used the oven too much...we didn't think that Thanksgiving was a good day to try out it's efficiency. I was, however, in charge of two items. Green bean casserole and lemon meringue pie!!! My two favorite things! Now, the first is easy to make...the second...it takes some time and energy.

My kitchen during pie making...

My DELICIOUS lemon meringue pie!!!

I also made these little treats for my Dad. Growing up him and I used to fight over the left-over pie dough. I liked (still do) to eat it raw and he liked to sprinkle it with cinnamon sugar and bake them. Since I was in charge of one pie and Kelly was in charge of another my Dad wasn't going to get any opportunities for pie cookies...so I made some for him :)

meet Christine Elizabeth Storey...

I was so excited to meet this little lady. Christine Elizabeth Storey is the daughter of one of my friends, who really I think of more in the family category of my life than the friend category. growing up her mom Stacy lived two houses down and while we were a handful of years apart, we were rarely apart. when we went skiing we'd tell people we were sisters which worked since we both we blond haired and blue/green eyed :)

Crissy's name is a very special name. Christine (Cris) was Stacy's mom who passed away years ago - sadly way too early in life - due to brain tumors. It was a no brainer for Stacy as to what she was going to name her baby girl. Elizabeth is her middle name and represents the amazing woman that is in Stacy's life and has been such a support to her. Crissy has a lot to live up to and I'm sure she'll do just fine :)

Sitting nice and tall...or...trying to escape. Not sure which!

Stacy and Crissy or Crizzlybear...notice she's in a tiny pink bear outfit. Stacy is going to hang onto this outfit for me in the event that we have a girl (someday).

our "laundry room"...

in our house we don't have a utility/laundry/dirty room. our garage goes right into our kitchen. this presented a problem with shoes and coats mainly. we were either leaving them all around the house, under the kitchen table, or wearing them (against the rules) inside...and coats were slung on the back of chairs for Loki to enjoy nibbling on.



This was our solution. We love the LEVSVIK brand from IKEA...which is what both of these pieces are. We also bought a LEVSVIK "buffet" that is in our hall that I keep forgetting to take a picture of...guess you'll just have to come over and see it for yourself! The top of the shelf is already decorated for Christmas and all the shoe cubbies and shelves are filled!

thinking about what i'm thankful for...

family & friends!

This picture now represents my immediate family. My husband, myself, my parents, and my brother. I love my family. Though my parents and I didn't always get a long (high school was a bad period) and my brother might not be my best friend in the whole wide world...my family has never let me down! I think it all begins with the generosity of my parents. Looking back, it is amazing. Especially seeing and hearing how my husband grew up (not that it was bad, just different). They have give me so much and I feel that now it is my job, not to re pay them, but to make the most out of what they have helped me achieve. And while I don't talk to Tony all the time, I know that when I need him he would be here for me, and he's proved that he will. Thank you family, for helping make me who I am today.

Oh my Jason. He really is the love of my life. He gets ALL my moods ;-) and just understands me. I think from the beginning we both knew we were right for each other, we just took a while to get around to making it legal. But I am glad we did everything the way we did. We've been through so much that even on the crummy days...I have SO many good ones to look back to and be thankful that he is mine! I cannot wait to see what life has in store for us!

These lovely ladies are amazing and beautiful and 6 of the best people and friends I could ever ask for. They've all known me between the length of 13 and 25 years. That is a LONG time to know someone. They've been there through the high high's and the low low's. Most even more than my husband :-) I will forever be grateful for the friendships, love, support, and guidance. I think it is rare to have one or two friends who you know are there for you whenever/where ever...but I GET to have 6!!! Our wedding was the first time I ever had all 6 of these ladies in one room and I am outwardly (not secretly) hoping that there will be another time in my life that I should be so lucky!!!

I guess I just started feeling nostalgic this evening. We are happy, healthy, working, home owners and going into our first holiday season as The Eeds'!!! Life really is good and everything is falling into place.

t-minus 3 weeks...

...until the new special education teacher starts. i cannot wait. she seems awesome and my workload and caseload will automatically be cut in half! sweet!!! here a few of my favorite things in my classroom...just for fun.

giant Mr Potato Head!!!

My Louse and Common Cold Germ. Robyn gave them to me, she's a microbiologist!

teddy bear feelings poster :-)

bring on the rain...

it is officially the rainy season here in washington state! we are somewhat excited about this prospect because we're hoping the 8+ months of rain will help our yard grow! come spring we will be doing a lot of yard work to say the least. we need to kill the blackberries, fill in holes, and do general and heavy duty landscaping. we're hoping to use some of our government refund money to build an awning or a deck! we'll see what we end up doing! though we'll definitely be doing something to cover up this UGLY shed thing our neighbor has...

happy (belated) halloween...

Halloween was our first "official" holiday in our new house, though it was a one woman show that night handing out popcorn balls, as Jason had to work.


Our friends Amy and Ian invited us over to carve pumpkins that Amy had grown. This was the first year in a long time that we didn't go to the pumpkin patch, well, I take that back. I'm not we'd been since I lived in Spokane which was about 4 years ago...hum...


Amy really wanted to carve a Squid into her pumpkin so she used my handydandy iPhone to look up pictures....




And then had her husband Ian do the carving...

Jason and I with our pumpkins :-)

All a'glow in front of our house letting the trick-or-treaters know they are welcome!

My happy-go-lucky-jack-o-lantern

Jason's goofy-smoofy-jack-o-lantern!

All in all it was a good holiday. I layed on the couch, drank a beer, caught up on some t.v. and handed out popcorn balls!

handy husband makes a shelf...

We had this awkward space between the pantry and the garage door that really wasn't too usable besides to store brooms. And since so many of you that are probably reading this bought us such nice wedding presents, we need more storage! In came the idea (who's, we don't know) to build a cabinet space there!

One Sunday I went off to a baby shower and handy husband took on this project by himself which was good because the 15 minutes I was home at the start, he was just getting frustrated with me and my ideas and lack of commitment to be the 'helper'. Jason now knows there is a dang good reason I wanted an up-gradable house instead of a fix-er-upper!

So Jason built and filled these shelves getting rid of about 15 boxes that had been over taking parts of our kitchen.

The curtain below will soon have button or snaps so that during normal days the litter box can be open for Loki but will then come back down to the ground when we have company over no one has to look at it while eating dinner. Good planning on my part :) Good sewing on my Mom's!

One of the ladies I worked with gave me these curtains from Pottery Barn and they look SO good with our colors. She's also the lady who the bedding in the Andes Mint Room came from! She's like my personal decorator and she's never been in the house!

red, red wall...

On moving day Penny (Jason's Dad's girl friend) asked me infront of my Dad if I'd taken before and after pictures. My Dad basically grunted, rolled his eyes, and said "what do you think" all at the same time. Here is one of the first (of many) before/during/after shots! They will all come over time and patients level! Take notice of the carpet....

the purple MUST go!!!

May was SUCH a great helper. She helped paint this wall and clean our kitchen cabinets! She deserves an award to say the least!

Any my hubby did a pretty good job handeling both the house and my attitude during this time!

Red Wall :) Pre the new carpet!

Red Wall - post new carpet!

Red Wall with new couch! I love the colors in our house :-) Very homey :-)

neighborly cookies...

Our next door neighbor (her name is escaping me right now...it starts with a L) brought us over a plate of cookies on one of our first few nights here. We have a few families and a lot of retired people that live on our street. I think we're going to like it here!

'twas the night before we moved...

Our scheduled and subsequent move happened on October 24th. On Friday, October 23rd at about 10pm after a WHOLE day (like 14 hours) of working on our house...this is what we came home to in our Town House. A GIGANTIC hole in the roof of our 2nd bedroom.


This was the husband of the manager at our place that night.



Really, it worked out okay. We were moving the next day, we didn't have anything get ruined, and since their workers had tracked mud in and out we didn't have to vacuum and when we went to check out of the apartment they didn't even do a walk through. Hello full deposit!

The funniest part of this is that I had stayed downstairs to start packing up the kitchen and Jason had gone upstairs to pack his clothes. A while later I went to join him and imagine my head spinning as I see this MESS and wonder how in the world Jason missed it! All I could do was one of those inward gasps and point. Jason yelled "is there a spider?" to which I said a few choice words asking him how he missed the huge hole in the ceiling to which he laughed at me for being crazy. So I asked him to join my in the hall. Our carpet was soaking wet so there was no way it had happened since we'd been in the house...it had to have been that day.

We'll still don't know how Jason missed this and probably never will. But, it all worked out okay. Loki needed a little wipe down since it was obvious he'd been playing in the mess of insulation and ceiling parts.