rain rain go away

come again another day..

..when I can stay home and not have laundry to do

..when I don't have a house to clean

..or a grocery list to make

..and somewhere to be in an hour

at least our hibiscus is soaking up the rain.

Cribs - Woods Style

Like I promised...


Our home

family room

family room

guest room

dining room

kitchen

kitchen



built in hutch in the kitchen/breakfast area

laundry room/closet

So there you have it. Our new home.

PS: I realize I left out pictures of our bedroom. maybe another time.

sara

John's sister, Sara is in town this weekend.

It is always so fun having her around because, well, she's hilarious.

Lots of laughing, talking and more laughing.

no more excuses

A couple weeks ago John and I finally got a gym membership. We looked at the gyms when we moved here 3 months ago and decided which one to join but it took us a while to actually get there and do it.

I am a morning workout person. I prefer morning workouts for several reasons. They wake me up more than any amount of coffee ever will. I only have to shower once. (Evening workouts require 2 showers in 1 day and I'm all about conserving water.)

However, when you are a working woman such as myself, working out in the morning must be done at the butt crack of dawn. But I am willing to do it.

This week was full of excuses as to why I didn't get up though. Monday and Tuesday I just flat did not want to wake up. And yesterday, well let's just say it was that evil time that each woman experiences once a month.

But today, when my alarm when off at 4:55 am I had every intent on sleeping in again. But after hitting snooze I was SO FREAKIN AWAKE! It was a little annoying actually.

It was my "wake up call." no pun intended.

Needless to say, I was at the gym this morning.

No more excuses.

Buttermilk Ranch Dressing

Tangy Buttermilk Ranch dressing. So much better than the prepared stuff or the powdered stuff.

This is great as a dip for fresh cut veggies or obviously tossed with some lettuce and tomatoes. My favorite way to eat this is with butter lettuce, halved grape tomatoes and a drizzle of dressing.

This would also be great if you added some mashed avocado to make an avocado ranch. Also take the recipe and add salsa and you have a fabulous salsa ranch. The possibilites are endless!

Buttermilk Ranch Dressing

1 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/2 cup reduced fat mayonnaise
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon mustard powder
1 small clove minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon chopped fresh chives
1 teaspoon chopped fresh dill

In a large bowl whisk together buttermilk, mayo and lemon juice. Add remaining ingredients. Keeps in an air-tight container in the fridge for about a week.

red cup reminder

I'm thankful to Starbucks for the reminder that it is in fact, fall.

Thankful because the high today is 81. 81 in November just doesn't seem like fall. I need red cups in my life to remind me of what season we are in.

Now don't get me wrong. It is the most gorgeous day and I love it, but it could still be beautiful and 60.

This red cup also reminds me that Thanksgiving is 3 weeks away. Which means in a little more than 3 weeks we will be decorating for Christmas.

How is it already time for Thanksgiving and Christmas?

So did you realize that Christmas is a little more than 7 weeks away?

It kind of makes me excited and a little stressed at the same time!

I bet you didn't think a red cup could tell you all that.

Me neither.

Blogging 101

This weekend at my church there is a Women's "stay-cation" Retreat. There will be breakout sessions with all kinds of fun things like Scrapbooking, Digital Photography, Power Cooking (or something like that) and many other things. All lead by women who are incredible at these things.

One of the breakout sessions is "How to Create a Blog."

And guess who is leading it? Yep, yours truly. <insert feelings if inadequacy here>

I'm going to be doing basic stuff about how to start a blog, how to post, how to insert pictures, etc.

But if you could be so kind as to help me out with one thing.

I blog because I love having a journal/story of our lives. We live about 6 hours from my family and a few hours from John's family and are very far from many friends as well. I love to have a way to show them what we are up to and I love going back and looking at what we've done.

I also HATE scrapbooking with a passion. I am so bad at it. It takes way too long and I am never satisfied with what I have done. So this is my way of documenting our lives with journaling and photographs.

I want to be able to share with the women why people blog. So what better way than to ask my readers.

So please share...

why do you blog?