Girls Night

Last night I hosted some girls at work at our house for a girls' night. It was so much fun! I cooked a vegetarian lasagna from Giada de Laurentiis' cookbook "Everyday Italian" and it turned out sooo tasty! I had two vegetarians coming to the party so I wanted to make something tasty that everyone could eat. I normally don't try a new recipe when I entertain, but I decided to make Giada's lasagna because it sounded so fantastic. It completely exceeded my expectations and everyone went back for seconds! You know it's good when a group of women go back for seconds. :-) When I was preparing it the night before I started getting nervous that it wasn't going to turn out to be tasty because it was full of ingredients that I wasn't used to having in a lasagna. There are even white beans in the recipe! The combination of the beans with all the veggies, cheese, noodles and sauce made the dish amazing. I would highly recommend it to anyone!
After dinner we had a hilarious time playing Dance Dance Revolution. It is highly entertaining to watch other people play, and it's great exercise too. We have two matts so it made it even more fun to have dueling players. All in all it was a perfect night!

Summer Update

Summer is flying by, isn't it? It seems like not too long ago that we were moving into our new house but now it feels like we've lived here for quite a while now. I've been finding it a little difficult to keep up with both of my blogs. I have been focusing more on my quilting blog and falling behind on this one. So this is my attempt on an update... on everything. :-)

At the end of June, Chad was closing up shop at Xump and we were getting ready to take a little trip to Mammoth. We thought he was going to be unemployed for a while, but the day after he finished up at Xump, he was hired on at Aaron Brothers/Michaels. What an answer to prayer! He found out he was starting the following Monday, so we cut our trip to Mammoth a little short but still spent a few days celebrating my Dad's birthday and the 4th of July which happen to coincide. :-) The above photo is from the 4th of July Parade in Mammoth. When we got back he went straight to work and has been doing that ever since. He spent one week in Dallas for training which was the longest we had ever been apart since we got married. I missed him so much! But we talked every night and I heard all about the fun stuff he was learning.

I participated in a placemat swap that a woman was hosting on Flickr where you are paired up with another quilter and you make them a gift and send it to them. My partner was a woman who lives nears Leeds in England and she made me a beautiful placemat. I made one for her little son and I've heard that he likes it a lot. It was fun to have a connection in England since I went to school there for a semester in college. She sent me a couple packages of digestives (yum) and I sent her some gourmet salsas and fabric with her placemat.

My mom and I went to the quilt show in Long Beach last weekend and had a very good time there. She stayed over for two nights which was really fun! We both have an affinity for shopping for fabric and we shopped till we almost dropped at the quilt show. We also had a wonderful time looking at all the amazing quilts.

Chad and I are currently looking to get a car to replace the Altima I've had since 2000. It's at that point that we're hoping nothing else breaks so we don't have to put more money into it. It would be great for Chad to have a more reliable car to drive to work. I am still really enjoying driving the highlander but it poses a little bit of a challenge because the other car can't be too big, or it won't fit in the garage. We are so happy to have a garage after living in an apartment, and we intend to take full advantage of it.

My brother is coming out for a visit in a couple weeks and we are so excited to be able to show him our new place. We are really enjoying it and look forward to entertaining more guests in the future. Hopefully some house guests... Shelly? Liesl? :-)

Affordable decorating

There is a fun and unique new decorating technique that won't break the bank but will easily beautify your space. Click on this link to my other blog where I've written a tutorial on how to make framed fabric art.   

Finally some pictures

Chad and I moved into our new townhouse last weekend and we are finally coming up for air! We've been in the midst of piles of boxes and lots of home renovations. One thing we have learned through this whole experience is that moving and renovating a home at the same time makes for some really busy days! But it's all worth it and we are thrilled to be in our new place. We don't have countertops in the kitchen yet so we haven't been able to unpack a lot of the kitchen things yet, and a lot of the house is filled with boxes. But I wanted to share some photos so you can see the progress and also some of where we started out. :-)

This has been a very familiar sight in our house the past few weeks- my dad has painted pretty much the entire house by himself. Thanks dad for helping us out and saving us so much money! I don't have any pics of my mom helping us pack the old place up but she deserves huge thanks as well. We couldn't have done it without her!

These are samples of the tile and the cabinet wood color that we picked for the kitchen and dining room.

Our countertops will be this color. We don't have them in yet but we can't wait to see them once they are in.

The view from the kitchen of the dining room and living room. The new tile is in at this point. These floors used to be old, messed up manufactured hard wood.


A before picture of the downstairs powder room.

The downstairs powder room with new tile, paint and pedestal sink.

A before picture of our kitchen

The kitchen in progress

The kitchen as it looks right now with a new window, new tile, new cabinets and fridge. Can't wait for the countertops to arrive!

Cabo San Lucas Trip

I am way behind in my blogging but wanted to share some pics from our trip to Cabo that we took a few weeks ago. My wonderfully generous boss took the whole staff for a weekend trip to celebrate her birthday. We were pampered and treated like royalty and kept pinching ourselves wondering if it was really happening. I've included a few photos of our fabulous room that we got to stay in. It was right on the beach!

Losing my aunt to cancer

This picture was taken over 2 years ago when my Aunt, Kieara, read scripture in our wedding. It was a wonderful day and it was so important to me that she be part of it. Little did we realize that day how precious those moments with her really were, and how quickly we would be saying goodbye to her.
We called her "Auntie Kie" and she was my mom's sister. Ever since I was little, I always enjoyed spending time with her. We had great conversations and lots of laughs together. I so looked forward to the times that we would visit her and her family or they would come to visit us. Her daughter, Laurien, and I also became great friends very quickly. Even with our 8 year age difference we have remained close over the years. Together with our moms we were a fun group that never stopped finding things to laugh hysterically about when we were together.
Last July, my aunt entered the hospital for what we thought was a routine hysterectomy. It turned out to be anything but routine and the doctors found cancer. The cancer they found was a rare uterine cancer called leiyomycosarcoma and she had stage 4. It had already spread to her lungs and her bladder. She started a harsh treatment combining radiation and several types of chemo at the same time. But nothing the doctors did could stop the cancer from spreading. It eventually spread to her spine, kidneys and liver and the cancer in her lungs completely overtook her lungs . From the day she was diagnosed, it was only 6 months before she passed away.
We are heading to Denver this weekend for the memorial to celebrate my Aunt's life and mourn her passing. But we are so thankful for the hope we have to see her again in Heaven someday. She had a very strong faith in Christ and because of God's grace we will be with her again someday. She went through so much pain and agony during those months of fighting the cancer, it is good to know she is no longer in pain. But that doesn't keep us from missing her so much right now.
I will miss her laugh, her wonderful smile, and all the love she showed to me and to my husband. In the months before she was diagnosed, we had started e-mailing each other daily. I kept those e-mails and am so thankful to have them now. In addition to the mourning my immediate family is going through, my heart hurts for my Uncle who now has to live without his loving bride, and for my cousins who lost a mom way too soon.
Among the many things I have learned from this experience, the one thing that stands out for me is that life is so precious and fragile. We have no idea how many days we have here on earth, and family is so important. I loved my aunt, and I am so thankful that we had so much fun together while she was here.