Great Deal on Tortillas!

Hey Boise locals,

In case you haven't read about this yet, just wanted to pass on a great deal on Mission Tortillas at Albertson's. They have an in-ad store coupon that came out yesterday for Mission Tortillas 10 count soft taco size for $.79. If you stack that coupon with the $.75 off coupon at the link below, you can get them for $.04 per pack.

Remember, you can print the coupon twice from each computer.

http://print.coupons.com/Couponweb/Offers.aspx?pid=13223&nid=10&zid=he00

I was at Albertson's this morning and they had tons of these tortillas. The expiration date on mine was May 18, but they freeze really well. Great time to stock up if you like tortillas!

We Love Teriyaki

After experimenting and tweaking with a teriyaki recipe I found online, I have come up with something that we all like! Jeff loves good teriyaki chicken, but until now I've never been able to make it. This is so easy so I thought I would pass it on to any of you who might want to give it a try.

In a blender mix the following:

3-1/2 oz. soy sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 Tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon ginger

Pour over frozen chicken breasts and bake in a 250 degree oven for 1-1/2 to 2 hours. (I cook mine until the temp gets up to about 155-160, then take it out and cover with tin foil until ready to eat.) Garnish with sesame seeds (or not) and serve with rice.

Next time I make it I want to thaw the chicken first, cut up and marinate it for a while before cooking. I think that would be even more flavorful.

Keep in mind that I have tweaked this to suit us. If you think you might like it sweeter, add a little more sugar. Or less if you like it more savory. Plus, for a larger family, you may want to double or triple this recipe. This makes enough sauce for two large chicken breasts with plenty to spare to pour over rice.

Enjoy! :)

Weekend Fun

It was a fun weekend that included cleaning and organizing the garage (still not done, but made good progress); outings to Wal-Mart, Lowe's and Dairy Queen; a haircut for mom; and lots of fun playing at home. Jeff and I also had our date night on Thursday. We saw 'Date Night' and had dinner at Olive Garden. Yum!

Lizette had some fun digging around in our coat closet...

Spring in Boise...what to wear? Shorts and a t-shirt or ski jacket and hat?

Sunday morning...hanging out with Dad before church

Bananas Foster

When I was working for Weyerhaeuser, one of my favorite memories is going out to dinner in Seattle at El Gaucho, a Cuban steakhouse. I love steak and this place served the best. It was at this restaurant that I was introduced to the yummy deliciousness of Bananas Foster. If I had not been in public and dining with coworkers, I just may have licked my plate clean. It was soooo good.

Since then, I have experimented with a few home recipes to try to duplicate it. I think the best I have found is in the Better Homes and Gardens' New Cook Book. I leave out the rum and doing the whole flame thing. Here is my version if you're interested in trying it out:

4 medium ripe bananas
1/3 cup butter
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
Vanilla ice cream

Cut the bananas in half crosswise and lengthwise. (I like to cut mine into smaller pieces as shown below.) Melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the brown sugar. Add the bananas and cook for 3-4 minutes until cooked through. Pour over ice cream. I think this recipe is meant to serve 4 people, but Jeff and I usually end up eating the whole thing between the two of us.




Wa la! A very simple and fun dessert. (Lots of calories, but very good!)

My Funny Man

Jeff is probably the funniest person I have ever known. Some of my favorite moments with him are when he isn't trying to be funny, but says or does something that is hilarious. For example, look at this picture:

I think I posted this picture in a recent post, but wanted to comment more on it. Jeff is here about to change Lexi's poopy diaper. He's not trying to be funny or overly dramatic by wrapping an entire blanket around his head. He sincerely cannot stand the smell or sight of a poopy diaper to the degree that he feels he needs a full on shield around his head. This isn't just a one time thing or for a picture. This is what he does every time he changes a bad diaper. To him this is a very practical solution to what he sees as a BIG problem.

Another example:

Yesterday, Jeff had breakfast at McDonald's. He described what he ordered to me last night. He had the Big Breakfast which includes an order of pancakes, sausage, eggs and a biscuit. After describing it to me and telling me that he ate the whole thing, he said "It also comes with orange juice, but I think the orange juice made me sick."

I said, "Really? You ate like three pancakes with butter and syrup, sausage, eggs and a biscuit and you think it was the orange juice that made you sick?"

We both laughed until we cried. In the end, he sincerely felt it was the orange juice that made him sick because he's had the same breakfast before with water and felt just fine. Oh my goodness...where does he come up with this stuff? :)

Fun At the Zoo

Jeff took Friday afternoon off and we took the girls to the zoo. It is beautiful weather in Boise right now and it was a perfect day to go. The best part was that we were all feeling good and everyone was in good spirits that day! Yea! We had a lot of fun and caught some cute pics of the girls.

One side note: While at the zoo, I rediscovered my loathing for geese. I cannot stand these annoying, pesky, rude creatures. If I ever get arrested, it will probably be for an incident involving the harming of a goose. Seriously. Can't stand them.

Catching Up

It's been a while since I've posted so I'm playing catch up tonight. It's been an eventful couple of weeks with many ups and downs.

The ups included a nice Easter, a fun visit from Hilary and kids, and some fun moments with my family. The downs included me getting sick and Lexi getting croup (major bummer).

I've decided to post about these events individually. You can read about the events that interest you and pass on the ones that don't! That's the great thing about reading someone's blog...you don't even have to pretend that you are interested because I'll never know! :)

Enjoy...

Easter

We had a really nice Easter. Spencer and Jamie had the family over to their house on Saturday night for dinner and an Easter egg hunt. It was so fun and Lizette thoroughly enjoyed herself. Here she is pictured below with her Widman cousins hunting for eggs. I think they found them all within about three minutes! It was so sweet...When her older cousins saw that she didn't have as many eggs as them, they helped her find more for her basket. That made my heart smile.



Easter morning was exciting. Lizette was thrilled to see so much candy in one basket...all for her! And Lexi could not have been happier with her new baby chick.

I have to say that I sort of have an issue with the idea of the Easter Bunny. I think because it commercializes such a spiritual holiday and there is really no story that goes with it. I don't feel the same about Santa because he is real and I know the story behind him. So, this is our story of the Easter Bunny:

"One day, a bunny rabbit was hopping around town and stopped at a church. He peeked in and there were lots of nice people inside learning about Jesus. This little bunny thought that Jesus sounded really, really nice. The bunny wanted to be just like Him. The following Sunday was Easter and the bunny decided the best way to celebrate would be to do something nice for others that day. So, he decided to take some candy to some little kids and leave it as a surprise on their doorstep. He hid behind a tree to watch these little kids find their candy. When he saw how thrilled they were, he decided that he was going to do this every year from then on. Every year, he would take candy to more and more kids. Now, he takes candy and treats to kids all over the world. He hopes that it will remind these kids that we should all do nice things for each other, just like Jesus would want."

A fun visit with the Bushmans!

Jeff's sister Hilary and her kids, Madelyn, Marcus and Brian came to town last week. They stayed with us for a few days and it was so fun! Lizette loves her cousins and she had so much fun having them here. She idolizes Madelyn, being the cool "big girl" that she is. Lizette was so excited that Madelyn could read her a book too!



These kids are so cute and so much fun to be around. Jeff and I are the uptight ones in the family so I think everyone wonders if we really enjoy having company. :) I don't blame them, but we really do enjoy it! It is so fun to see family and get the cousins together to play. Please come back!

Confession

You may remember a while back that I posted about saying Goodbye to Fox News because we got rid of cable.

Well, it didn't last.

We now have Dish.

We couldn't do it. I'm sorry. I wish we were more disciplined people that didn't have to have TV in our lives, but we're not! Jeff has to have Fox News. I have to have Food Network. That's just the way it is right now. Maybe someday we will grow and mature and become people who read all the time or do whatever it is that wise and well rounded people do, but we're not there yet.

Okay, I feel better now that this is off my chest.

Pity Party

I have never really considered myself as someone who feels sorry for themselves much. I realize that my life has been extremely blessed and I have no reason to complain.

Having said that, this last while has thrown me into a bit of a "rut". I thought that those first few months after Lexi was born could be categorized as postpartum depression. It made sense. I'm sure my hormones were out of whack. And she was a pretty fussy newborn. It was probably normal to be a little down. But by now I should be all better, right?

Hmmm....not quite. It seems as soon as Lexi got through her fussy stage, we started getting sick around our house. First Lizette, then Lexi, then me, then Lexi with croup this week. Just when I think we are all healthy and we have a good week, someone else gets sick. It's actually sort of been depressing.

(The bad thing is, I'm turning to Diet Coke to get me through this. In fact, I told Jeff that for my birthday I want a Diet Coke fountain for our house so that we can have it on tap! I really have a problem.)

I know that I should be getting out, doing things that are uplifting and actually helpful to my cause, but I just can't find the motivation.

Maybe some nicer weather will bring better health and some motivation for me to get out of this rut! In the mean time, I am sitting here having my own little pity party.

First Tooth!

Lexi has her first tooth coming in! Is that crazy or what? She's not even 6 months old yet. Lizette didn't get her first tooth until she was 14 months.

See:

Only 12 months here at her 1st b-day, but it was the gummiest picture I could find.

This is just one more example of how my girls are proving to be different in just about every way!

Lizette: Tiny baby
Lexi: Big baby

Lizette: Perfectly calm from the beginning
Lexi: Fussy, fussy, fussy! (at least, until lately) :)

Lizette: Picky from the beginning
Lexi: Will eat anything I give her so far

Lizette: Introverted
Lexi: Noticing everyone who looks at her and wanting to interact

Who knows what they will turn out like in 5 or 10 years, but it's fun to watch their differences.