Pizza and Movie Night!

I've discovered some websites that help with menu/recipe ideas when you are getting help from the Bishop's Storehouse. This is one I got for Saturday night: Tortilla Pizza! Using flour tortillas, you spread spaghetti sauce on a tortilla, put grated cheese, diced ham, pineapple bits, diced onion, cooked ground beef (we seasoned ours with garlic and Italian seasoning) and any other toppings you want.

We had the bowls of toppings and the spaghetti sauce out and we each made our own pizza just the way we wanted it. Kevin said it was like taco night, only with pizzas!

Bake them up at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes and it's yumm-a-palooza!

Got a Redbox coupon for a free movie rental for the boys, and Stan picked us up "Touch of Evil" at the library for us to watch. Let Pizza and Movie Night begin!!



Pizza and Pumpkins

Halloween Eve, and tonight we ate pizza and carved pumpkins into Jack O'Lanterns. It was a fun evening. We played spooky music to accompany the carving, and had fun figuring out the best designs for our pumpkins. Fun!

Here are some pictures of our Pizza and Pumpkin night!

 Stan and AJ get the night started and make the first cuts in their pumpkins

 While Stan puts the finishing touches on his pumpkin,

Kevin and Kate get down to business with theirs!

 AJ shows of fhis finished Jack O'Lantern

He went with a traditional look, opting not to be scarey

 Stan with his pumpkin

He went with a more creative approach

 Kate went creative as well

Hers is a Hello Kitty Zombie, with brains coming out

of it's mouth and skull

Kevin's pumpkin has a Halo symbol on it

(I don't know ... don't ask me!)

And there you go! A fun time was had by all! Now we're ready for tomorrow night and the trick or treaters!



Here We Go!

Things are starting to happen as we begin the process of getting ready to move. Stan started his new job on Monday, and we have been interviewing companies to get some of the work done on the house as well as having insurance adjusters making their way througout our home.

This afternoon AJ and I went out and got some moving supplies and not only did it barely fit into the Jeep, but it made a mountain in our garage!

We're trying to get the outside taken care of as the temps begin to drop. We have a landscaper xeriscaping our front yard, and we're replacing the roof as well. And we're also painting the exterior, I just need to decide what color to paint it. Help!

While that's being taken care of we're getting started packing and cleaning the inside and moving out as much furniture as possible before we tackle the inside, which we're painting as well, and replacing the kitching/dining room floor.

I tell you, I'm tired just thinking about it all!

On a fun note, Kevin became a blond today. His girlfriend Kate is in beauty school and colored his hair for him. He looks adorable! AJ keeps teasing him that now he's going to "have more fun." Maybe so...

39 Again?!!

Another year, and another birthday. This one was super nice. Stan made waffles in the morning for breakfast, AJ fixed sausage and we had some amazing apple cider that made the whole thing feel like fall. Kevin gave me a pumpkin candle and a "writer's mug."

As always, Stan addresses his envelopes in a fun way! Chocolates from my sweetheart along with a poem and a promise for a date of my choice. Love it! AJ gave me a pair of beautiful earrings too ....

Normally Stan barbecues hamburgers for my birthday dinner, but this year he had to work. So that evening Kevin took us, along with his girlfriend Kate, to Freddie's where we had hamburgers, drinks and fries. It was a blast! Phone calls from Beth and my folks, chocolate and a ton o' messages from friends, and it was the perfect birthday!

Growing older isn't so bad after all .....

 The Freddie's Burger ... Yummmmm!

 Fry Sauce!!!

Need we say more?

 AJ, who celebrates his own birthday on the 5th!

 Kate and Kevin

Ready for another year

and some amazing new adventures as we look forward

to leaving Colorado Springs and starting a new chapter

in Denver in 2013 ....

One of Stan's Favorites

Stan had to work Father's Day, so we had his special dinner tonight. One of his favorite desserts is the Mixed Berry Pavlova. If you don't know, a Pavlova (named after the famed ballerina) is a large baked meringue. It is covered with homemade whipped cream, then topped with a mixture of fresh blueberries, raspberries and strawberries in a homemade raspberry sauce. It is to die for.

Since he requested it I made it for him. Actually, twice. The first one didn't turn out. The second one came out perfectly, but then the heat made it start to crack. As a result, I couldn't take it off the parchament on the cookie sheet; it was too fragile. But it looked pretty good, and tasted even better!

Graduation Pictures

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Rachael Sherwood took some graduation pictures of AJ. I got them today, and I just LOVE them! My son looks so handsome and sweet and sooooo grownup. Obviously, he is grownup, but sometimes I look at him and still see that little baby I had in what seems like just a few months ago. I'm so proud of him and his accomplishments. He earned an Associates of Science, Physics and graduated cum laude. He'll be transferring to the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs this fall. Can't wait to see what he'll do next!

Bruschetta

Tuesday we had lunch at a sandwich place where they were giving away loaves of their bread. We grabbed a couple and brought them home, wondering what we could do with them. For dinner tonight we're having barbecue pork chops and salad, and we decided to use the bread to make toasts and serve it with bruschetta with our meal.

This is one of AJ's favorite treats and he made the toasts. Thinly slice the bread (or baquette), brush with olive oil, season with salt, pepper and granualted garlic, then bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. We bought the bruschetta this time, which is a sort of Italian "salsa" made with tomatoes, garlic and basil. YUMMO!

AJ wanted me to post this picture, he's so pleased with how it looks, so here you go! Now we're off to enjoy our BBQ. Hope you are having a great night too!

Summertime Series

Every summer the boys and I pick out an older television series to watch over the summer. We have a lot of fun with this and have discovered that it's more interesting than watching reruns or the summer shows that usually don't interest us. We've had a variety over the years, and as I was preparing to write this post I saw that we seem to have a lot of westerns and mystery shows.

One summer we watched Gunsmoke, and Kevin (who was about 10 at the time) fell in love with the character of Festus. In fact, he went dressed as Festus for Halloween!

We've watched The Avengers, Have Gun Will Travel, The Wild Wild West, Cagney and Lacey, Midsomer Murders and Foyle's War.

I have to admit that I look forward to our selection when school ends. In the evenings when we're relaxing and watching these "new" shows we have fun talking about the characters and what we like about the plotlines and settings.

This year we've chosen two British mysteries. The first one is Murder in Suburbia, a sort of Cagney and Lacey from England. The show is about two female homicide detectives Kate “Ash” Ashland and Emma “Scribbs” Scribbins and their hunky boss, whom they spend a fair amount of time oggling.

The second show we've selected is Johathan Creek, which is a little different. It's mostly a show you have to think about. Not really a detective show, more a "how was it done?" show. Jonathan Creek works as a creative consultant to a magician while also solving seemingly supernatural mysteries through his talent for logical deduction and knowledge of illusionism. He has a female side-kick who adds a little flirtatious interest to the show. It's also really quite funny in spots and so not only are we trying to see how the murders are done, we're also laughing out loud.

I think we're going to have a fun summer!

Spring Break Mini-Vacation

Now that my boys are both in college, we only get one week for spring break. And this year, Stan only got one day off. So we decided to take a day and spend it in Denver, get a couple of hotel rooms and make it a mini-vacation. We brought along Kevin's friend T.J. too. We all crammed into our Chevy and headed up. Our first stop was to a place so many of my friends have been talking about--Cafe Rio. Great food, fun place, and a perfect place to stop and relax after driving up there.

We checked into the hotel, the boys in one room and Stan and I in another. Our initial plan was to go and see a movie, but there was really nothing out that I wanted to see, so we just stayed for a couple of hours at the hote. The boys got drinks and watched TV and played video games, and declared it a blast. It seems to me it's what they would have done at home, but it made it more fun doing it in a hotel room.

Stan and I, being the party animals that we are, took naps. Yes, we did! Right in the middle of the afternoon!! It was heavenly.

Then we headed over to Dave and Buster's for the rest of the night. Dinner, games, and tons o' fun!

 My sweet husband!

While the boys took off playing games and spending tickets,

we sat and talked and talked and talked.

It was great! When we're at home we get interrupted.

Here it was like a date .... with three boys with us!

 AJ in his Magnum PI shirt!

He got a burger called "The Heart Pounder!"

It was a good thing he worked some of that off playing games!

 When we were finishing up dinner, Stan and I decided to get a fun dessert

to take with usover to the pool tables while the four guys played a few games.

Chocolate and white donut holes

with chocolate and raspberry dipping sauces.

YUMMMM!!!

The next morning we continued our quest to follow Adam Richman from Man Vs. Food.

Kevin and TJ are excited to try the same thing Adam did!

We had breakfast at Jack & Grills in Denver, where Adam was unsuccessful in

the 7 Pound Breakfast Burrito Challenge.

 Okay, we didn't do the challenge.

Instead five of us tackled it just for fun.

Here it is before we dug in!

But, in the eternal challenge of Man versus Food,

FOOD WON!!!

But as you can see, we put a dent in it!

We had so much fun, but it went by in the blink of an eye. Sometimes you just need to get away, if only for a day, and let your hair down. I'm glad we did, and look forward to our next "mini" vacation!



So Long and Thanks for All the Sprinkles!

I finally baked my first batch of Christmas cookies this afternoon! Yay! AJ and I made gingerbread cookies, and he snapped a few pics as we did so. One of the cookie cutters we used was an old one he found from when he was little. It was a dolphin I used to make for their lunches when they were in elementary school, and now we have gingerbread dolphins!

Our gingerbread dolphins!



Cut them out and get them ready for the oven!

Sprinkles!  LOTS of sprinkles!

Now on to the next batch!

Christmas Tree Day!

Since Stan and I have been married, the Saturday after Thanksgiving is the day we get our tree. When we lived in California, we would drive into the Santa Cruz mountains and go to a Christmas tree farm where we would cut our own. We've tried, unsuccessfully, to recreate this experience here in Colorado, and now we just treat ourselves to breakfast and get a tree at the store.

Stan is working a 12 hour shift this Saturday, so we moved Christmas Tree Day to today. We went to Einstein's for bagels and hot chocolate, and as a special bonus, Captain Cool accompanied us!