Weekend Project

This weekend, Shane and our friend Cliff tacked our biggest new-homeowner project to-date…the backyard.  Dun Dun Dun…

For a little background information, our house sits on .4 acres,   two thirds of which, is the backyard.  The previous owners of our house didn’t do much with it.  Read:  NOTHING.  When we moved in, the backyard was a bit of cleared grass and then a full-on section of wilderness.  The trees were all covered with vines and overgrowth..and let’s not even talk about what has been found underneath all that overgrowth.

This weekend, Shane and Cliff spent most of the day Saturday, and then again Sunday clearing out the backyard.  They filled up a trailer with all of the stuff, and have two huge piles waiting for to go to the dump as well.  I will comment on some of the ‘nice’ things found out there (and by nice, I mean the stuff I no longer have to spend money at Home Depot to get)—a wheelbarrow, and an ax—nice, right? 

Anyway, here are pictures to show all that the boys accomplished: 

Our backyard before

 

Our backyard now:  Note how you can see the bottoms of the trees and the fence at the back of the property.  (Shane obviously needs to take a couple loads out to the dump)

Happy Birthday Uncle Chris!

My little brother turned eighteen last week on the 13th (I was at work for most of the day so did not get his post up).  Happy Birthday  Uncle Chris!  We love you!

Quick Update

So I know I have been a little m.i.a. since after the first of the year—we have been really busy!

I went back to work on January 3rd and have been busy busy busy ever since.  On January 10th Shane and I both started back at school so in the evenings,after we get Trevor to sleep, instead of sitting down to blog, we are working on homework (right now, I am avoiding writing a paper that is due by midnight—old habits die hard, right?)

Trevor is doing wonderful!  We finally had a break from the cold and the weather got up into the 40s and 50s!  It is so sad that we got excited about those kind of temperatures, but we were finally able to get out of the house several days in a row and work in the backyard and take Trevor out in his wagon.  He has been keeping us busy too, crawling all over the place and exploring every spot in the house he can possibly get to.  Thank God for baby gates! 

I do have pictures to put up of Trevor, but that paper is starting to call my name and I know that naptime only lasts for so long……maybe tonight after that paper gets turned in…..

So I have this friend…

and she is awesome.  Her name is Heather.  Her husband, Ben (who is kind of awesome too), used to be on the same ship as Shaner before he got out of the Navy.  When they still lived here, Heather and I would stay the nights together when the ship was out to sea so that no one would have to be in either of our houses alone.  I have so many wonderful memories of when she lived here (randomly driving to NC one Saturday to buy Shelby and her dragging Shane out of our old apartment so that he wouldn’t be late for our wedding to name a few) and I miss her terribly!  Another memory of when Heather used to live here is the lazy days we had when the ship was out to sea that we spent watching Rachael Ray and then trying to cook some of the stuff from her show (some successes, some failures….you know)…..

anyway….since Heather knows how I love to cook and we can’t be together to cook anymore, she has started to send me a subscription to the Taste of Home magazine.  Last night I made a delicious recipe from it, so delicious that I had to share with everyone, and make sure that Heather gets credit for the recipe falling into my hands. 

mexican pizza (from Taste of Home Magazine)

8 oz. extra-lean ground beef

1/3 cup minced onion

1 tsp. minced garlic

1/2 cup diced grape tomatoes

1/4 cup each grated carrot and diced green bell pepper

1/2 cup frozen or canned corn

1/4 cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed

1 T. fresh cilantro

1 t. chili poweder

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp each salt and freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup. pizza sauce

thin pizza crust (i used the Pillsbury un-baked kind and pre-baked for 10 minutes)

1 cup sharp cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 425.  In a large skillet, mix beef, onion and garlic. Cook and stir over medium high heat until beef is brown.  Add tomatoes, carrot, green pepper, corn and beans.  Cook for 2 minutes.  Add remaining ingredients and cook for 1 more minute.  Remove entire mixture from heat. 

Prebake crust for 10 minutes.  Add pizza sauce, half of the cheese, and then meat mixture.  Top with remaining cheese.  Place in oven until cheese is melted through.

Here is a picture of our delicious dinner:  Thanks Heather! 

Oh, the best part of this pizza is—one slice is 186 calories.  Compare that to one slice of pizza hut pizza with no toppings that comes to 260 calories.  :)

Now that it is time to take it all down…

I finally managed to take a picture of our house all lit up in the evening with its Christmas decorations. 

Of course, today being Epiphany means that the Christmas season is over and it is time for me to take everything down.  Better late than never to get those pictures though, right?

Wagon Rides

Trevor got a wagon for Christmas and his favorite thing to do now is to go for rides around our neighborhood in it.  It has been unusually cold here the past week, so we have not been able to get out as much as we would like, but it should be in the 40’s soon, so hopefully we can get out more then. 

Trevor’s First Christmas

My last post must have paid off because Santa was very good to Trevor (and all of us) this Christmas. 

Thursday night, my mom, brother, Shane, Trevor and I went to mass at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.  It was nice service, and nice to be back to visit the church I grew up in.  On Christmas morning, everyone woke up around 8am—except for Trevor.  We all hung out and waited for him to wake up. 

Once Trevor had woken up, we fed him and then began to show him all of the things that were waiting for him under the tree.  He did good unwrapping his presents and of course was more interested in the paper and bows than anything else.  He was a very lucky boy and got tons of clothes and books, a rocking horse, wagon, Sillytown and a bunch of different toys (block sets, piano, a baby laptop and stuffed animals to go with some of the books he had gotten.)  Now that we have returned home with everything our house is 100% overrun with toys and I have yet to walk through the living room without tripping.   Shane and I must have been good this year too…I got the Dan Brown book that I had wanted and a necklace and matching pair of earrings from Shane.  Shane got some new clothes he had been wanting, a new watch and Wii Sports Resort. My parents also got us some new things for the house that they thought we would enjoy. 

After we opened presents we spent the day playing with Trevor and his toys and reading him his new books and that evening we had a delicious dinner that my mom cooked.

It was a quiet, calm Christmas, but we were together with our family and our little boy was happy—which is the best gift all on its own.