I've got the magic in me.

A couple weeks ago, I bought a bunch of fruit, cut it up and froze what was leftover. Today, whilst browsing the Farmer's Market, I saw MORE blueberries. Now, the ones that I froze had to be used in a pie, crisp, smoothie, etc. These new fresh ones I could eat right away. My mind started working and I decided to make a crisp out of the ones at home, and buy new fresh ones to eat by themselves. Smart, right?

So, frozen berries went into the sink to thaw a little. This is when I realized I didn't have as many blueberries as I originally thought. So...

I added some frozen blackberries! I had an abundance, what else could I do?

Then you add a little syrup, a little sugar, a little flour, a little cinnamon... and you have yourself the filling. Smelled as wonderful as it looks!

Then you make the actual 'crisp', a personal favorite. Oats, flour, brown and white sugar... pretty basic.

Bake it and voila! Blueberry/Blackberry crisp.
Doubles as an air freshener.

RECIPE:
Blueberry/Blackberry Crisp

Ingredients:
Filling-
8 cups [approx.] mixed blue and black berries
3 tablespoons maple syrup
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Crisp-
1 1/2 cups oats
3/4 cup flour
3/4 brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 stick cold butter, cubed

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter 9X13 glass baking pan.

Pour maple syrup over berries and gently mix. Combine flour, sugar and cinnamon in separate bowl. Gradually mix in with berries/syrup. Pour evenly into pan.

Combine crisp ingredients with a pastry cutter until well mixed. Pour over berries.

Bake for 45-50 minutes until berries are bubbling and crisp is golden brown.

Note: Its smart to bake on a cookie sheet in case the berries bubble over the edge of the pan. :)

July 31st.

Today is a special day. It is the anniversary of the birth of one of my very best friends, Katy.
I decided to post a bunch of random pictures of us from the past few years.
We have had so many life experiences together [traveling, dances, weddings, moving...] and I am so thankful to have her a friend!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATY!

Our very first trip to Auburn, AL. March 2006.

Well it has the date there for ya, Homecoming our senior year at OHS.

Aw Katy's tracker. We loved that car. And we both miss it. Driving us between Orting and Graham.

Valleydale church, Birmingham, AL. March 2006.

The backseat of Matthew's car, the House of Crosses, Prattville, AL August 2006.

Seaaattle. Sometime in 2008 after we went to the prayer room at 2am.

Yes it is also Harry Potter's birthday.

Hackberry, LA.

Hackberry, Louisiana. My home for a week this summer. Here are just a few of my favorite shots that I think give a picture into how our week went.

We met so many precious kids at VBS! This is Olivia, Gunner and Genee. They came by one day on their dirtbikes to show us some tricks. Gunner cracked us up by jumping over a table [not on his dirtbike] and by exclaiming, "I'm not five, I'm six. Kids are five!"

We ran into quite a few rain and thunder storms. We didn't mind though, it cooled us off!

One of the junior high boys we met, Clint, showed pigs in 4H. So he invited us over to meet all of the pigs! They were so cute!

Silly bands are a serious epidemic in Louisiana. And now us Puyallup kids are hooked as well. I'm not sure which kid this is, but it could have been any of them. They all had at least 20 or more! And now so do I!!

This is Gunner again. The VBS theme was western, and he was so cute! We loved him! He dressed up like this every night.

Trips to the south are not complete without Chick. Just sayin'.

Some of the high school boys caught us an alligator! Of course they returned it, but they first taped its mouth and brought it to the church late one night to show us! Gators smell. Bad.

Lastly my favorite picture from the week, Hope and Tyler. They were so sweet. I have abotu a million pictures of each of them posing, but this was the only one that was really close to candid. Hope also was my little photographer. She took my camera and took about a million pictures.

6 things you probably don't need to know.

I love lists. I always have, always will. And when someone posts a list, it makes me NEED to post a list as well.

1. I am trying, daily, to post pictures from my trip to Louisiana. For some reason my computer just refuses to get along with me.

2. I did get one image. I stole it from Parker's blog. My computer seems to only allow stolen pictures to be uploaded. Go figure. Anyway, this is a picture of us girls at Holly Beach on the Gulf of Mexico. It was so strange how warm the water was!!


3. I started sanding down the dresser today. I want to get it finished and painted and put in the house by the time Talicia gets here. Which is about a week and a half away.

4. I scratched my arm up last night on my door, and it looks like claw or teeth marks. So... naturally I am telling people it is from a gator. Go along with it.

5. I am excited for Talicia to get here! I miss all my friends. As I told Katy the other day, Why do all my friends have to marry Marines and move away?? If Talicia marries a Marine, and moves to like, Maine or something... I'm blaming Katy. She started it.

6. It is way too hot to be sitting at my computer. People always think Washington is so rainy and cold. Try coming here in late July when its 90 million degrees out. After dinner, I'm going to Wal Mart or something. They have air conditioning.

Home sweet home!

Be expecting a rather large post about my wonderful trip to Hackberry, Louisiana last week.

Apple [my computer] does not get a lone with Raspberry [my camera] so I had to order a CD of all 350 of my pictures. :)

Trust me, you'll fall in love with Gunner, Hope, Mitchel, Tyler, Olivia, Genee and the rest of the bunch. I sure did.

Anyway, as I am doing laundry slash catching up on emails slash making lunch, I am also scanning slash reading this amazing magazine I had never heard of...

Taste of Home.

I am about to crack the cover, I'll let you know how it goes!

Sunshine and Bro-ito.

Say hello to Brody. He is my job. And I love him.

I especially love his age right now: one and a half.

He LOVES exploring. A little too much, almost. He also loves to be outdoors, as do I. So we have fun together.

:)

Excuse me, Miss Meagan? Its bright. Can I have your sunglasses?

(He can't quite talk yet, but I can read him pretty well.)

Thanks Meg. These are so much fun!

I'm really sorry I broke your sunglasses.

I'll just walk away now.

Okay that was boring. What else do ya have for me to break--err... play with?

Please?? I love you.

Typical conversation with the little man.

And I love it.

Kabobs.

There was a time in my life when I was super picky. Beyond any picky you've ever seen.

I've grown up a little, and I now allow my food to touch, therefor, I eat kabobs.

Chop up some bell peppers. All colors for prettier food.

Marinate chicken in my own homemade teriyaki sauce.

Pattern them on skewers with pineapple...

Grill them. Enjoy.

These were so quickly enjoyed that I didn't even get a chance to photograph the grilled and finished kabobs! Darn.

Lastly, a sneak preview of the dresser I am about to redo. I couldn't get a full shot because its in the garage, and I couldn't fit the whole thing in the picture. But this at least shows the wood color and handles. Oh just wait till its done. :)

'Tis the season...

For fruit!!! Pineapple, Tuscan Cantaloupe, Watermelon, Red Grapes, Blueberries, Blackberries, Fresh Strawberries picked THIS MORNING from the Farmer's Market...

It all started at the market actually. The strawberry stand was about to pack up. Sunday is their last day. And they had ONE flat of strawberries left. The lady picked them this morning.

You could smell them from our house. Its actually what drew us to the market.

Okay I'm kidding. But they looked amazing. So we bought them.

Then we went to Fred Meyer and went on a fresh fruit frenzy. Ahh alliterations.

Anyway, 7 billion dollars worth of fruit later [not really], we had this.

So I cut it all up.

And to note, this is not all of the fruit from the first picture. There are six various sized Tupperware containers in the freezer with blueberries, blackberries, grapes, and strawberries.

Perfect for smoothies. And strawberry shortcake. And strawberry lemonade. Which is where those random lemons come into play. But not until tomorrow.

Then layered it for my dinner party tomorrow. Ahh. I'm in love. I also made a smaller [but not much smaller] version of this for Jarvis and took it to him. And a mini version that I will take with me to work tomorrow. And there are a couple bowls of cantaloupe and watermelon in the fridge as well.

Is this making your mouth water?

Lastly, I have about 12 of these cute little fruit baskets and I don't know what to do with them. I wan to do something fun, but I don't know. Any ideas?

Paging summer...

Come in summer. Where are you?

Yes it is 62 degrees here in Washington.

Yes tomorrow is the 4th of July.

[My favorite holiday, bbq's, hot weather, friends, family, fireworks, late night... I am a night person. Its my favorite.]

And its 62 degrees. Where is the sun?

Where's the warmth?

I mean, yeah western Washington isn't known for extremely hot summers, but I know we usually break into the 70's. Especially in July. Right?

Anyway, I'm over it. Maybe we'll have a super nice August and September. :)

On a completely different note... I am about to start my first restoration project! Yay!

I have been searching for the perfect dresser. I have a picture of it in my mind, but its hard to explain. Anyway I have been searching craigslist, garage sales and thrift stores with no success. Until yesterday.

My brother moved into a house, and the previous owner left my dream dresser! It is perfect. The exact picture in my head. And you know what Jarvis said? Have it!

So not only did I find the perfect dresser, but its free. Score!

The process begins this week. I will definitely post pictures.

:)