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Thursday, December 4, 2008

It's the most wonderful time of the year.....



Well, it's finally here again. My favorite season of the year. Christmas is literally right around the corner (only 21 days away!) and I am putting up the decorations today with little Mister. Usually, I have no sooner cleared the Thanksgiving dishes from the table and waved goodbye to our guests when you can find me enticing my family to break open the bins of decor and go to it!

I think maybe I hesitated only slightly this year because I know we aren't going to have a tree. There's no point if we are leaving on the 22nd for Colorado. I'm a little sad about it, but we can't afford the extra expense right now as everything is going toward funding the trip and I have so many other decorations that I will have no problem making this house look festive enough for a party (or two :D).

We are all getting excited about traveling for the holidays. I am so glad my kiddos are such good travelers. No car sickness at all. I've been busy gathering various car activities to help tick away the miles. This will be the longest trip we've taken as a family. I must confess...I'm a little concerned about traveling that long with our dog. She's a pretty good traveler too, but I am wondering how many stops we will have to make in that first REALLY long leg of the trip. ugh

Well, looks like this is going to be a short post today. Too much to do and I've already had several interruptions, so obviously now is not a good time for this. Ahhh, the life of a mom.

Love to you all-

Friday, November 21, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's hard to believe it's already that time of year again!

We have so much to be thankful for. We've been blessed with our own home, Adam's job is still going well despite this crazy economy, our children are healthy and happy, we successfully own a dog after many heartbreaking tries, we are loved, we love, and God shows us His mercy and kindness all the time. What more could we want?

I hope this finds you all well and thankful for God's mighty hand working on your behalf. Enjoy the company of friends and family. Invite someone new over for food and games, or to just hang out. You never know what a blessing you could be to a stranger.........or they to you.

Love to you all,
the Miller tribe

Zeb-ism for the day:

zeb: "Wow, Mama! Peanut is really fast at running............................she's like a speed monkey."

mama: "(bwahahahaha) And just what is a speed monkey?"

zeb: "It's a monkey with fire on it's butt. That makes it go really fast."

mama: "BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Of course it does, Zeb. You're funny!"

Monday, November 10, 2008

Grand Opening!

Well, I've finally done it! I've gone out there and put my crafty talents to good use by starting my very own online business. It's called lemonade sun productions. It is part of a larger community of crafters on Etsy.com which I found through one of the ladies in my MOPS group recently.

I am so excited about this new venture. I am hoping God will bless all my hard work (and that people will actually want to buy these things I make) and that this will be a very good thing.

I am counting on your help via word of mouth. Please check out my store and pass it along to your friends if you wish to. There is a selection of my listings in the side panel of this blog that will take you directly to the online store with just a click of your mouse. I am wide open for ideas or encouragement about all things business, so if you care to share some of your wisdom with this little newbie, I would be very grateful for it.

I have been busy studying anything I could find to read about Etsy and online businesses, so some of the categories in my store are empty, but I am working on products that will fill them with all my spare time. Hopefully before too long you will see more items listed.

I created a blog for the business too, but I am not sure if I will be able to maintain both. For now, it is on a trial run, but here's the link for lemonade sun production's blog

I'm sure some of you are thinking, "It's about time that girl did something with her talent!"
I know. It's been a LONG time coming, but I finally got it together.

Monday, October 13, 2008

A Yummy Tradition...

Every year Deterings Orchard has an autumn celebration called "Apple Daze". They make pans and pans of their famous apple pie recipe and invite the public to come share free cider and apple pie with ice cream. Every child gets a free small pumpkin, they do face painting and they set up a maze with hay bales for the kiddos to enjoy. We've gone the last couple years in a row and it's been a blast. This year we were missing Eli because he was at a friend's house, but we managed to enjoy ourselves anyway. Take a peek.....

Click to play Apple Daze 08
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Monday, September 29, 2008

I love creative people...

A friend sent this to me and I thought it was worth passing along (YAY God!):

A Productive Weekend...

We enjoyed a little old fashioned fun this past weekend when we made our own applesauce and apple butter as a family. Emily also made her first batch of blackberry jam! (It turned out a little thicker than usual because we cooked it a little too long, but it still tasted fantastic!)

Growing up, both Big Daddy and I had our turns helping to put up various canned items with our families and I have been wanting to can some things for us for quite a few years now and never really got around to it. (Well, about 5 or 6 years ago, I made some blackberry jam and cranberry sauce with some extra fruit Grandma Sue had given us but I don't really count that as it was only about 10 jars worth in all.) Being the old fashioned country girl that I am, I have always had dreams of a having a big pantry filled with all sorts of homemade canned goods. (I am the first one to admit that I would really enjoy a "Little House" sort of lifestyle. )

There are so many benefits from canning your own goods. I love being able to know exactly what is in our food, being able to make what I know we use and package it in appropriately sized portions, putting away already prepared food that I can pull out when I am stumped for dinner ideas and helping to support the local farmers in our area.

Everyone took part in the happenings. Here are a few pics for you to browse:
















So in the end we put up 5 qts. and 2 pints of (no sugar added) applesauce, 7 pints and 2 half pint jars of apple butter and 5 half pints of blackberry jam. A good start anyway. Next week I think we are going to do some peaches and maybe plums as well as a few more applesauces and Princess B wants to try her hand at a different kind of jam. Meticulous Man thinks he would like to perfect a recipe for chili and try some pressure cooking with me for some soup varieties. I am admittedly a little nervous because pressure canners sort of scare me. Once, when my mom and aunt were canning tomatoes, something went awry and the top of the pressure cooker blew off and smashed a huge hole in my aunt's ceiling. It was pretty scary! Ever since, the idea is a little intimidating, but I am going to press on and try my hand at it anyway. Hopefully, one day there will be a post on here about my large pantry full of homemade things.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Our favorite little friends.....



We adore these little online guys, especially for their hilarious ecards. You can find them on their website at: www.hoopsandyoyo.com

We weren't exactly sure which was which for a long time until I googled it to find out for sure. Here is what we learned:
  • Hoops - The more emotional of the two, Hoops is a pink cat that has a tendency to scream as he talks. He hates Mondays as seen on the "It's Monday" e-card and based on others, it's possible that he's not very fond of his current career. He is also the first character to appear in the series originally with a slightly higher-pitched voice. His first e-card appearance was on "No Ordinary 'Hi!'". He states his weight as "depends on a finely-balanced equation of the time of day and the amount of cakes consumed." He stays in shape "by having dance offs with Yoyo" and likes "coffee, doughnuts, laughing, cakes, ice cream, pizza, Tuesdays (as it's treat day) ... TREATS!" He says his worst habit is "talking a LOT!" and he hates nearly everything to do with his job.
  • Yoyo - Unlike Hoops, the green bunny is slightly more playful and energetic with less of an over-sensitive personality. He also seems to actually enjoy his current job. He loves lollipops or "suckers" which Hoops often hides, then blaming the thievery on dingos. Yoyo's first e-card appearance was on "This Day...Your Birthday!" Yoyo wishes "that every day was treat day" and claims his occupation is "to captivate the nation with dazzling dance moves and beat Hoops in doughnut-eating competitions." His favorite pastime is singing, though he doubts Hoops is as good as him, and he stays in shape "by shakin' my groove thing, baby." He likes the same things as Hoops as well as marshmallows and doesn't like not getting the last slice of cake.
Here is our favorite ecard: One Doughnut a Day

Hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Ding....ding....ding......

Horray! Hooray! School started today and the excitement was palpable this morning as 3 children bustled about the house gathering new supplies and backpacks together and making lunches and counting the minutes until they were set free to walk (or most likely RUN) to their new schools. I am happily awaiting their breathless return to hear each recount the wonderful newness and details of the first day of school.

Whitewater ahead.......

Big Daddy and Meticulous Man got to go whitewater rafting down the McKenzie river with troop 260 a few Saturdays ago. If you are interested, you can check out the proofs at www.riverphoto.com and see how they did. They are the group in the blue raft. There are 8 pictures of them as they came down the river and though you can only really see them in a couple, they are all really good shots of their group. They really had a blast and the water was COLD!

Blue and Green......

(I found this draft of a post I had begun composing last year and never quite finished. I found the timing of the find interesting in that I came across it at nearly the same time this year as I was writing it last year......hmmm.....no doubt a God-thing. I decided to finish it and post it for you to read.)

Well, it's been a while since I wrote here last. Life slips by so quickly in the shining summer sun as each day is packed with visiting friends and sleepovers and camping trips and birthday parties. At the end of the day I sit still, possibly for the first time, and hear the crickets chirp in the backyard or smell the sweet smell of a summer rain storm coming. Now I can feel the days passing faster as school time approaches and I can almost feel the nip in the air that comes with the harvest.

Last night I was thinking about different aspects of how God designed the relationship between Big Daddy and me. One of these aspects made my consider something I hadn't realized before. His favorite color is blue and mine is green. It often makes my laugh when I ask his opinion about what color he thought something should be because I know the answer...blue. I usually consider all the various shades of green myself and we usually have the "blue vs. green discussion" in which each of us takes a turn playfully arguing the benefits of our particular bent toward our color of choice. After lots of smiles and grinning, we usually agree on some other completely neutral color choice. There have been times where either of us has conceded and allowed the other to enjoy their choice, though they are few and far between.

When pondering how we should celebrate our 11th anniversary on August 21st, the "blue vs. green" talk flitted through my brain and made me smile and wonder about God's sense of humor. He designed us to fit perfectly together. To compliment each other much like blue and green do. All over creation you see those two colors. Blue and green. The Creator God used these together when He made the sea, the mountains, some of the fish in the ocean, shades of them to color our eyes, the sky, water, variations of trees and plants, grasses......and on and on. They compliment each other well. They flow together. I've seen the two so blended together that you could not tell one apart from the other. In places, it was like they were one color. So melded with each other that to separate them would be impossible. I wonder if this is what God meant when He said in Genesis 2: 23-25,
"Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall become united
and cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh."
Big Daddy and I work hard at becoming one like that. Some days are really hard when we both want to fight for our "right" to be our chosen color and we have to ask for God's grace and help to understand how to fit together, but some days are easy and we occasionally become that one color that is both blue and green at the same time. Through our years together we have chosen to let God blend us together to that beautiful shade and I am looking forward to the day when we are completely and wholly one.

Chickybabe's last Vocal Recital

Chickybabe's last vocal recital for the year was Student's Choice and she went through quite a few songs before she finally settled on one because there were so many choices to choose from.

I wasn't able to attend this recital so Adam did the video. It is tricky and he didn't realize that I don't know how (yet) to turn the video the right way since he recorded it sideways ...so, these might be sideways and a little choppy, but here they are nontheless.
Here she is singing Color of the Wind from Pocahontas (there is a little of the group song "Another Opening" at the beginning of this video):



Here is a small group of the younger vocal students singing "The Fruit that is Rooted in You":



And here is a portion of the finale for the group. It's "Seasons of Love" from Rent:



Voice lessons began again last Wednesday and I am glad to be living in Harrisburg so the drive is substantially shorter. She has grown a lot and learned a ton so we are excited to see how she does this year. Soon it will be time for Brielle to join her. Oh Boy! We can't wait.

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Little Hummer...........aka the Peanut

We recently had the joy of Grandpa George's company. He was in town to do a wedding and got to hang out here with all of us for a few days. While he was here, he proudly presented us with a guitar he nicknamed "Little Hummer". (Originally, it was called the peanut, but since that is also the name of our dog he decided to change it)

Check it out:

Zeb's Joke...

A couple nights ago, as we were sitting around the dinner table talking after the meal, Little Mister decided to share a few jokes with us:

him: "Why did the cow cross the road?"
us: "I don't know. Why?"
him: "To get to the grass. That side has the grass. This side only has dirt and cows don't eat dirt!"


him: "Why did the sheep cross the road?"
us: "I don't know. Why?"
him: "To get to the pig-cub!" (he meant baby pig.......BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA)

We laughed so hard we nearly peed our pants and he was SO proud!
Pig-cub! He's so darn cute!

A Dozen Years....

Big Daddy and I celebrated our 12th anniversary on August 21st this year. Wow! A dozen years already. Sometimes it seems like we are still newlyweds.......and other times it seems like we have been together all our lives.

This year we kept it simple and went out to dinner right here in Harrisburg at Air Thai Cuisine. The food was FANTASTIC! We were both very impressed. The restaurant is owned by a local family who are actually from Thailand. We HIGHLY recommend the place to everyone we can.

Well, on with another year. We are planning a big excursion for our 20th anniversary......maybe a cruise or some over seas travel???? We'll see what comes of that. For now, we are content to keep on keeping on right beside each other.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Summer Fun...

Well, it sure has been a smoking hot summer here for the last week or so at least. Upwards of 100 degrees most days. (Tomorrow is thankfully only supposed to get to about 89!)

I have been busy baking (yes, I had my oven on in 100+ weather....UUGGGHHHHHH!!!), frosting, and packaging ...individually... 300 "W" shaped sugar cookies for a wedding that's happening tomorrow evening, so needless to say I have been very busy this past week.

Our summer is flying by at a rapid pace and is about to come to an end with the beginning of school right around the corner. I love everything about summer, but to be honest, I am looking forward to the slower fall pace and the changing of the seasons.

When I take a second to look back at what we've been doing all summer it is staggering:

In the end of June we moved into our house. In the beginning of July we sent Mr. Meticulous off to Alaska to visit Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Christy and Uncle Joseph for 2 weeks. We hosted a big fat 4th of July party in our new house with 30 people. We flew Celeste up from Colorado Springs for a visit in mid July. While she was here, we went to the rock slide 3 or 4 times, had BBQs at Shotgun Creek with all our friends and drove up to Portland to go to Oaks Park Amusement Park. We sent Mr. Meticulous off to scout camp at Camp Hahobas in Washington for the last week in July and we sent Princess B off on her very first camp trip with the Kids Life group from church. We are on the worship team at church 4 times this month (which means we are at the church from 3:45p-9p on Saturday night and from 7:30a-12pm on Sunday morning), we are hosting life-group at our house at least once, celebrated Big Daddy's 35th b-day with a BBQ and are soon to celebrate our 12th anniversary. We've been back up to Oaks Park one more time with all our clan of friends. Monday there is a possible trip to the zoo in order and in a few days we get to see Grandpa George when he comes down for a visit. We will get to go to the State Fair right after that which the kids have been working really hard and saving up for for a long time. We have a belated 80's party in the works for the second weekend in September and school begins. WOW! No wonder I'm so tired! (This, of course, doesn't count all the misc. appts for doctors and vets and Big Daddy's leg infection and any other running around I may have done.)

I am planning on updating the blog as soon as I have a second to slow down to breathe a little. I finally found the video camera so I can upload Chicky-babe's recital and I will post some pictures as soon as I can.

For now, I am beat so I think I will turn in for the night. Love to you all.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

New Blog...

I added a link at the bottom of the page for a new blog I'm doing on our Foreign Food Fridays. I am gathering the recipes we used on the first couple nights and blogging about the food. I did it partly to satisfy those of you who are curious about our monthly endeavors and partly to keep a record for myself of which countries and recipes we've already done. There isn't much there right now, but I am working on it so keep checking back. I will try to incorporate pictures of the food as we go along too.

Monday, July 21, 2008

A Little Mystery Fun...

I recently came across this article and was captivated by the idea.............hmm...........
Check it out and let me know what you think.

Mystery on 5th Avenue

Friday, July 11, 2008

River fun on a hot day...

I had heard about a place near Triangle Lake where there was supposed to be a natural rock waterslide, but I had never known exactly where it was........until Wednesday that is!

The place is called Lake Creek Falls. I read about it here while looking for a river nearby to dunk my hot, sweaty kids into during the 90+ degree heat wave we are currently experiencing. We have friends in from Idaho visiting family in Junction City who have been there before and after being unable to join them for a dip the day they were going, I posted that I wanted to go to the slides on my Myspace profile and the next morning I got a call at 9:30am from my friend Jen asking if I had made plans to go to the slides with anyone that day. She had been wanting to go to water too, so right there on the spot we made a plan to throw everyone in the car and meet out there.

We had so much fun (despite the construction delays) and thanks to Jen's waterproof camera, we have some cool pictures to share! Enjoy!


Click to play
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Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Settling In...

Well, here we are in our new house. I am working steadily on making it a home little by little each day. It is very peaceful here despite the frequent trains passing. I enjoy it very much.

We have painted the downstairs completely and have half of the master bedroom finished (so we could set up the big bedframe and not have to move it again). Adam, Brielle and Zeb have been working on finishing the fence and we are about to start building some gates which we have never done before. We were generously blessed with gift card money which we used to buy the lumber for our fence and a few odds and ends for the house. That left us enough money to buy a pool! We have been working on setting it up. It's one of those Easy-Set kind with the blow up ring around the outside. We are all really excited to get it up and running as the temp climbs every day! Today it is 94 degrees at 5:10pm! We are roasting and everyone eagerly offered to help "smooth the wrinkles" from the bottom of the pool! :D

I'll write more in a few days. As soon as I find the box with the video camera, I will finish posting about Emily's last recital. Until then, blessings on your little head.

Monday, June 9, 2008

A New Addition......

Well, the long awaited day finally came yesterday. We got a puppy! Her name is Peanut and she's adorable. She is 1/2 Welsh Corgi, 1/4 Golden Retriever, 1/4 St. Bernard. What an interesting mix. She has the short little legs like a Corgi (which we love) and the markings of a St. Bernard which make her so cute.

Her is a little smilebox slideshow I made of some pictures:

Click to play Anybody want a Peanut?..
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Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Long Awaited Vegas Pics

Well, I know it's been nearly a month since I went and I haven't put up any pictures yet so thanks for bearing with me. These are just the ones I had on my camera. I haven't gotten the rest from everyone else yet so I can make a BIG slide show. That will come in time. (I tried to make a smilebox slideshow of them, but something is wrong with my program because it won't let me make any new ones, so I used slide.com instead.)

It was so nice to be able to get away somewhere where no one calls us Mom all the time and we didn't have any responsibilities. We were able to just relax and not even have a schedule. So refreshing. Not that I don't enjoy being a mom and wife and all the other hats I wear, but sometimes I like to drop all the other hats in the air and put on the one that says I'm just Melody. I like what I like and can enjoy it in peace and quiet or share it with my sister-friends without interruption. We all need that once in a while.

I really enjoyed going to Vegas and seeing all the magnificent hotels and things like the Bellagio's fountain show and the Tournament of Kings show at Excalibur, but I was glad to come home again to my family. It was a great get-away and we all had a marvelous blast together.
(The song I picked is for Tab. It seemed to fit best out of all the choices.)
Enjoy!

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Buying a house...


Well, the time has finally come. (Honestly, in my anxiousness, I wondered if it ever would)
We are buying a house. It's a fabulous deal for what we get:
a 5 bedroom, 2.1 bath house in Harrisburg, Oregon with 2,045 square feet. It has a large yard and a finished garage. The driveway is stamped concrete which is very cool.
Here are some pictures of the inside I took a few days ago while showing my sister the house.
This is standing in the living room looking at the front door. Just on the other side of the closet you can barely see the stairs to the upper level where all the bedrooms are.

This is looking the opposite way from the front door to the rest of the living room

This is looking from the front room into the kitchen

Here is a better look at the kitchen. That is a small island in the center with storage underneath and it has an outlet on the side...very handy.

We asked them to put in a dishwasher, but I'm wondering if this is where they will put it. If so, how will we open it with the stove in the way?

This is what a ".1" bath looks like (it means it only has a potty and a sink).

...it is also where our laundry will be.

This is from the top of the stairs. If you click on the picture it will magnify and you can hopefully read my notes.

Let's work our way around on the right. This is a pic of the "short hall" before Zeb's room. The whole hall is the length of this closet (about 7 feet). Oh, I took this picture from the doorway to the upstairs bathroom. I didn't bother taking any of it because it is kinda small and, well, it's just a bathroom.

Then we have Zeb's room which looks smaller in the picture than it really is. It's just right for him and he's decided he wants a camping themed room so I will be painting pine trees and a campfire on the wall. I want to find him a bed-tent too.

Then we go to Eli's room which is long but not too narrow...he wants a star wars theme...

Emily has the biggest of the kid rooms as is fitting and she thinks she might want an Indian theme with lots of bright colors. Maybe I can find some sari fabric for her curtains...

Then there is Brielle's room. She is going for pink and black and I think we are doing a french boutique look. We found a really cool idea for a window covering that I will leave a surprise for now...it will be fun. She has the best view of the neighbor's chickens and turkeys and of the surrounding hills.

Then there is the master bedroom. It is big enough that it won't fit in one picture, so this is from the doorway looking left to Adam's closet.

...here is the walk-in closet on the opposite side of the room that I get to turn into a craft room :D ...

This is a look at our vanity in the master bath...for some reason the old owners took all the mirrors...


...and here is the tub...(all of the pipes have been weatherized and the toilets taped shut)...


Well, there you have it. We are scheduled to close on June 6th. I am more than excited. Of course, I've been perusing paint samples for days and planning projects like crazy. I will post pictures of all the finished projects as they are completed.

Arrow of Light and Crossing over Ceremony



Last night was Mr. Meticulous' Crossover ceremony from Cub scouts to Boy scouts. It was really cool. He joined pack 260 at the beginning of the school year and has worked extremely hard to earn his Arrow of Light award (not all boys work hard enough to earn this one and the other 2 who did have been working on it for 2 years), which is the only award from cub scouts he is allowed to wear on his new boyscout uniform. We are so very proud of him.


The ceremony itself was a neat experience. As he crossed over the bridge from cub scouts to boy scouts he paused halfway and turned to salute his cub scout den leaders farewell, then he turned to salute the boy scouts and Scoutmaster Scott as they saluted him for his hard work and achievements.


Scoutmaster Scott congratulated him on his hard work and diligence


and one of the Eagle scouts from the boyscout troop helped replace the old neckerchief with the new troop one as a welcome gift.


Then they asked him to join them in saying the Scout Promise which is:
On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law: to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.
This weekend, Mr. Meticulous is going to Camporee as his first outing as an actual boyscout. Typically, the camporee involves competitions, with events such as fire building, knot tying, first aid, emergency preparedness, pioneering or orienteering. He will be judged on his uniform, how well he packs, how well he sets up his camp and other things. It will be fun.

The first weekend in June Big Daddy will join Mr. Meticulous for a backpacking trip where they will also be responsible for cooking their own food and other fun stuff. It's wonderful that they get to spend time alone like that. It's really good for both of them.

After Mr. Meticulous' long awaited trip to Ketchikan in July he will be off to Camp Hahobas in Washington for a whole week of boy scouting fun. I am so excited that he is involved in this particular troop because they are Christ centered in all that they do. The troop's personal motto is Scouting for Christ which they have on their own hats. It's nice to know what we work at teaching him is being reinforced by his troop and it's good to see the older boys take the younger ones in and encourage them. Yay God.

If you would like to see some pictures of the troop's fun you can go to their website and check out activities. Big Daddy and Mr. Meticulous went to the Buford Recreational Area and learned about forestry and geology. (If you click on the pictures they will zoom so you can actually see what's going on.)

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Science Olympics

Back in April, Chicky-babe had the opportunity to compete in the Science Olympics on behalf of her middle school. Science Olympics is a series of problem solving events that are fun to do and require students to apply their knowledge of science in creative ways. Students work in teams rather than individually. A talented team of middle schoolers practiced after school a couple days a week and competed with other teams from each of the area middle schools.
There were events like the catapult, mouse trap cars (which must be solely propelled by the force of a mouse trap), life science relays (where questions must be answered in a relay format), and metric estimation among many others.

Chicky-babe and her partner were handling the metric estimation portion for their team. There were about 12 random items lined up on a table and they had to go down the row estimating weights, lengths, thicknesses, areas, volumes and distances, etc., on those items. There were things like a golf ball, an eraser, a pencil, an empty bucket, a glass jar, a magnet, a section of the gym floor...you get the idea.
Here she is hard at work:


Everyone did an outstanding job helping Hamlin take an overall 2nd place in the competition!


Chicky-babe's skill was apparent despite her nerves and she took home a second place ribbon in her team event. Way to go!

Monday, April 28, 2008

Another Fantastic Foreign-Food-Friday!

We had the opportunity to share our foreign food night tradition with our world-traveling family last Friday. The cuisine of the evening was Turkish food. AMAZING! Not spicy like Thai food but full of lots of different spices and flavors, it was so delicious. Here is what we ate:

Appetizers were hummus with Pide (pita) bread, olives, goat cheese and Turkish Cacik which is a yogurt/garlic/cucumber/mint type dip that was a huge hit with everyone.

The main meal was Turkish chicken (which was marinated in a minty-yogurty-spice laden marinade), Pilav (which is a simple white and brown rice pilaf) and a Turkish salad full of tomato, bell pepper, cucumber and fresh parsley.

For dessert I made 2 different recipes of the famous Turkish Delight which were such a hit that they were nearly instantly devoured. There were only a few lingering ones left for the next day.
Here we are enjoying all of it:


The food was fantastic and we happily ate all the leftovers the rest of the weekend!