New Ride and an Addiction

It's been said before that we were experiencing MAJOR headaches with our beloved car debbie. Let me be more specific, in the last two years we have replaced: transmission, timing belt, battery (twice), 4 tires, front and back break pads, turbo carbon intake and most recently the alternator, those are just the major replacements. When she basically died on us on the freeway I vowed through my nervous breakdown that I would NEVER drive her again. Recently, through many miracles we were able to acquire this little lovely:





We were so lucky to find it when we did and for such a good deal. Everything worked out perfectly and we are so grateful to have a safe and reliable car. The car is used, but the past owner took such good care of it and everything is in such good condition. We are hoping this car will last us for years and years. I do feel a little guilty giving up on our sweet little debbie but the time has come.

In other news, Im officially o.b.s.e.s.s.e.d. with quilting. It's literally taking over my life. I've had some self control this week, so far, but last week I started this second quilt, a more girly one. I love the bright springy colors. This quilt came together so fast, I cant wait to finish it.

in the mean time

Last weekend Mckay and Janson took a little trip down to St. George. They spent the weekend climbing and bouldering in the nice hot weather, and hanging out at the pool.

The boys had a blast! Hopefully us girls will get to go next time!

While Mckay was gone I got to do some girly stuff. I spent my weekend sewing lots and lots of these:

that eventually turned into this:

I started sewing my first quilt! With only a bedroom and an office there's not much to do in the decorating department, and since we don't have kids to craft for I haven't been doing much in the crafting department lately. I ambitiously decided to do a quilt for our bed. I realized pretty quick though, that I should start out with something a little easier, so I settled on a smaller quilt and I'm really liking how it's turning out! and I'm having tons of fun doing it! I figure once I get the hang of it I'll move on to a bigger quilt for us. I fell in love with quilting though and went back and bought a little too much fabric for some more projects.

and remember that Quiet Book I started all those months ago? I'm happy to say I'm finally on letter G. (I hadn't worked on it for awhile.) So the Garden page is almost done. I have high hopes for getting to Z by the time I'm 30, only time will tell.

All the climbing and crafting has been a wonderful vacation from the more stressful things going on lately and we welcomed the break :) we're definitely loving the free time that comes with the end of school.

lately

We've been doing lots of this lately with Janson and Tara and it's been loads of fun. We've become complete addicts and even bought our own gear. Climbing is a great sport for those of you like me who were never good at the whole hand eye coordination thing that so many sports require. And it's great to be building up some much desired arm muscle. I keep flexing my little biceps proudly haha.

While I'm posting I thought I should finish up on the events of April. Not much of an event really, but we did head down to Utah lake one Sunday with the camera.

and my family decided to go to the Jazz game last minute. We all got decked out in our jazz gear for what ended up being the final game in the series against the Nuggets.

It was such a fun game and the fans were once again crazy loud. Chris and JJ drove down for the game, it was so much fun!

oh mckay....that mustache, with that shirt.... I'm happy to report that the mustache was out once the Jazz lost to the Lakers, bittersweet, but now I have my husband back.

cinco de mayo.

we ate thai food to celebrate. not very festive i suppose, but family dinner at thai village was bliss. my belly is full of curry and pad thai, and a little bit of shrek twinkie with ogre green filling, which I'm now thinking was probably a mistake. our conversation at dinner ranged from how much we hate the lakers and wish Gasol was not so tall, to politics...., to adam complaining about taking humanities and having to go to a van gogh museum while he was in the netherlands and hating it, which kind of throws the oh....last 41/2-5 years of my college career down the toilet. but oh well. he thinks wax museums are art... so I guess I shouldn't take him too seriously.

anyways, being cinco de mayo and all, not really sure what it celebrates but its a wonderful excuse to celebrate mexican food. Lately I've been organizing my many many recipes and came across one that instantly became one of my favorites, i would have made it for cinco de mayo but the thai intervened. This recipe is super simple, and great if you want to use up a bunch of cans in your pantry. I'll be honest I originally tried this recipe because it has ranch in it, which intrigued me. everything is made better with ranch dressing and such was the case with this recipe. we feasted on this for about a week. so to celebrate cinco de mayo:

Taco Soup
from fortheloveofcooking-recipes.blogspot.com (an all time favorite food blog)

Taco Seasoning:
1 tsp each of cumin, oregano, chili powder, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, coriander
salt and pepper to taste ~ We didn't have onion powder and corainder and it still tasted great

Soup:
1 lb of lean ground beef
1/2 sweet yellow onion, diced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup of frozen corn
2 cans of diced tomatoes
1 4.5 oz can of diced green chilies
1/2 a packet of ranch salad dressing mix
~ our soup was a little thick so I added tomato sauce until it got the "soupiness" we wanted. I also added a litte more than half the ranch dressing packed, just cuz i had to.

Heat a dutch oven over medium heat then add the ground beef. add the taco seasonings and mix into the ground beef, making sure to break it up into crumbles. add the diced onion and garlic then mix thoroughly for 4-5 minutes.

add the beans, corn, tomatoes, green chilies and ranch dressing packet, mix well then cover and simmer on low for 2 hours, stirring occasionally. taste and re-season with salt and pepper if needed.

thats it! so easy and so yummy :) we also added things like grated cheese, diced avocado, baked tortilla strips, and sour cream on top.