summer heat

lately it has been so hot here. up in the 90's, which is really rare! since our home doesnt have air conditioning, it gets in the 80's inside! jeremy and i have been sleeping downstairs on the couch since its much cooler than our bedroom, even though there are 2 fans in there, it just blows warm air around. i really dont like sleeping downstairs because i dont get as comfortable and the cats get on me and like to get right in my face. its very bothersome and i dont get good sleep that way. dang cats. haha

yesterday was a busy day for us! i got up pretty early(for my day off) and made some more of my homemade bread! i had to get up early before it started getting too hot in the house! when i was done with that, jeremy and jim came home for lunch and nikki and the kids came over so we all could eat together. that was nice. i love being home on wednesdays because i get to see jeremy during the day! when they left i took a shower and got ready to go to jeremy's re-enlistment!

on the way over jeremy told me that i am going to have to get up in front of everyone because they were going to give me something too. immediatly i could feel my face turning red and i was starting to get really nervous. i was even suggesting i just wait in the car! i absolutely HATE getting up in front of anyone or being put on the spot, so i was totally dreading this. when we got to his office, everyone was pretty much there except for the x/o and the re-enlistment officer. so we had to wait around for them. while we were waiting i was getting even more nervous and since it was super hot there i was sweating. i guess to make a long story short they finally showed up. jeremy got honorably discharged from the navy, then re-enlisted! after he swore in, the x/o started talking about military spouses and i immediatly felt the sweat build up even more and it suddenly got even hotter in the office. after that they gave me an award! hahaha, a certificate of appreciation!! i thought that was pretty nice of them! they gave jeremy 8 days special liberty and a coupon book for free stuff! they bought him a cake, and let him and the rest of the office off early! i am so proud of him. it was really cool to be a part of that, even if it was the hottest day of the year!

when we got home we got ready and went with the paino's to whistle lake in anacortes. that was an adventure! we turn onto a road to get there and there were cars lined on the sides and we were directed to park behind the last one. so we were kind of shocked it was so busy but was like, whatever. we started walking and it was a while before we got to the park entrance. we thought that we didnt have much further to go, until someone said that it was still a mile! we were all like "whhaaaatt??" because we werent anticipating a 2 mile hike to go swimming. but we kept on walking and finally made it to this little spot to swim. it was really cool. we werent bothered by a lot of people like we thought we would be. instead, people were spread around the entire lake. a lot of people were cliff jumping which scares the crap out of me! it was cool to watch from far away. the water was really nice . my favorite part of swimming is hitting the warm spots and then hitting the cold spots. it feels really cool! we swam for a while and then headed back to the car. funny thing is when you expect a walk it doesnt seem as long as when you didnt expect it. we sent the boys to go get the car for us and headed home!

when we got home we took a quick shower and then went to nikki and jims and had pizza and watched a movie. it was a very long day, but so much fun! =) i am looking forward to more days of swimming for the remaining month we are here!

so much for a good morning!

i always want monday mornings to be good mornings. i know the whole killer is going to work after having 2 days off, but when i have a day off in the middle of the week, it doesnt bother me so much. usually i have pretty good monday mornings. not this monday though. this monday morning turned out to be a crappy one.

i was on my 40 minute drive to work, just listening to music and enjoying how sunny it was, passing people, not going over 60 when the speed limit is 55 and i notice this motorcycle doing the same thing a couple cars back. i would pass, then he would pass. well, there was an intersection coming up and i noticed it turned red and there was a a car stopped in my lane so i put my blinker on and went over to the fast lane. by the time i got to the light i stopped for maybe 5 seconds and then it turned green. i started puttin' away again and by that time the motorcycle was behind me. i didnt know if he wanted to pass, so i put my blinker on, and got over into the slow lane. well, he stayed next to me and it always creeps me out when people do that so i didnt look over. until he put his sirens on. it was a freakin' cop! so i started getting over right before going over this huge bridge and he motioned me to wait until after the bridge, which didnt make any sense, but whatever, i kept driving. after i pulled over the cop came over and asked me if i knew why he pulled me over. i said "no" and he said that i cut someone off, changed lanes too close to an intersection, and was speeding. i told him that i didnt think i cut anyone off and he jumped down my throat like a snake to its hole! he said that if i was going to argue with him he was going to write me tickets for thousands of dollars! he then went on to ask if i was in the navy and i told him jeremy was and he said the he used to be in the navy and that the navy doesnt pay you well enough to pay these tickets for thousands of dollars. he said that he had been following me for a long time and told me the speed limit is 55 and i said i wasnt even going 60 and he said that he drives those roads every morning, that he is a cop and knows these situations. he told me the court isnt going to listen or care if i go and fight these thousands of dollars in tickets. he kept telling me he was going to write me tickets for thousands of dollars. it was sort of annoying. he told me to just sit there calm , and think about what i did, instead of arguing. and i wasnt even arguing. i dont think i said more than 2 sentences. i sat there, quiet, and let him just blow up. he finally let me go. i think he just wanted to be an jerk to someone because he didnt even ask me for my license, insurance, or registration. this was the weirdest stop ive ever had and i did not like it one bit. it put me in a crappy mood for a while this morning.

anyway, so that was my monday morning. hopefully THAT never happens again!

just some things!!

i have been browsing pretty much my favorite site, for birthday presents and baby gifts! esty.com! i love this website and have made many purchases on there. our nephew eli is going to be a little over three months when we get to meet him and so i am getting together a bunch of goodies for him! i love babies and love to spoil them! so naturally im getting him some super cool stuff! i havent purchased much for him, but here are my first two finds; cute little applique onesies from verykiki.etsy.com

i thought the guitar one was perfect since josh plays guitar! the whale one is just too cute! kristen was very nice and she actually didnt have a 3-6 month guitar onesie posted but immediatly posted one for me to buy!

my next two etsy finds are all organic cotton crocheted rings(which i love) from locomomomma.etsy.com for his car seat. the picture below shows what they look like hanging, the ones i purchased are various shades of green and brown. i was looking for a rattle but ended up purchasing these. i know how much my little sisters loved having things hang from the carseat to play with, and thought he would enjoy these! along with the rings i purchased the clutchie to attached it to the carseat. i thought that was pretty clever and easy! that way they can take it anywhere and attach it to anything they want. =)

so those are my baby finds! i have a little less than a month until he gets here so i am going to continue to browse and find cute little things here and there.

now, my next find is a birthday present. emily's birthday is on the 20th of august and her and adam are going to be here on the 21st so i have to get a move on on her present. i cant post what it is on here because she could possibly look and see what it is, but it is really beautiful. once i get it and give it to her i will post a picture of it. =) i am really excited for them to come up! we havent seem them in like 5 months so it will be awesome!!

afton texted me today and might be coming up next weekend!! so that means that i am going to see her 2 times before we move, which would be amazing! i am so excited and hopefully she does come up then, if not, she will probably come up the weekend before we leave! yay!

anyway, i am about to head out to nikki and jims to have dinner and watch "coraline"!! im excited to see this movie. i wanted to see it in theaters but never made it. it came out yesterday and i bought it today to watch it.

homemade bread recipe!

i have been wanting to make homemade bread for the longest time, the process, the smell of it baking, the taste afterwards, ahh, its just a great experience, but couldnt find the right recipe i wanted. yesterday, after searching for a while i found a very simple recipe online, it was actually a womans grandmothers that wouldnt share her recipe for the longest time, and before she passed away gave it to her granddaughter. =) i thought that was kind of neat. after i got off work i went and bought the ingredients i didnt have or that i was out of. most of them are either all natural or organic. i wanted to try and make it the best bread!
i was all ready to go this morning when starting to make the dough. the first part was pretty simple, mix all the ingredients (3 c. warm water, 3 Tblspn active dry yeast, 3 tspsn salt, 4 Tblspn veg oil, 1/2 c. white sugar, and 8 c. flour), except, only half the flour. then let it sit to rise to double its size. here are a few pictures after it had risen, and when it started getting out of control(haha):
after it doubled in size, then you slowly knead in the rest of the flour (4 cups). that was kind of hard because your hands get tired. jeremy helped me with that part. =) when the kneading is done, put it in a large greased bowl, turning it a couple of times to get it coated, cover it with a damp cloth and then let it sit to double its size. that didnt take very long, maybe a half hour:
ok, so when it is done rising you are supposed to punch it down and let it rest for a couple of minutes. i didnt take a picture of what it looked like before because i was too anxious to punch it, that i forgot, but you can totally tell it grew bigger. hahaha:
after you let it rest for a couple of minutes, you then split it into 3 equal parts and mold them into loaf shapes and put them in greased bread pans. i made one of them smaller than the other, but it still turned out fine. the pictures are before and after letting it rise to almost double its size in the pans:

now, they are ready to bake. put them in the oven on 350 degrees for 35 minutes and you are good to go! when they are done make sure you let them rest for a bit before trying to handle them. =) here is the end result:

arent they just gorgeous? they are really delicious and im very pleased with this recipe!! i hope, if you try this one out, you will be pleased too!!

here goes nuttin'

soooo ok, ive tried to do this many times and i cant seem to keep up on it! this is a new site for me but seems very promising. =) i must keep up on it, for this is my last attempt. i think for starters i will write every week. every week is a good start. annyywaayyyyy....
right now i am working. my days here at coach corral are winding down and i am getting kind of antsy. you know like seniors do their last month of school, yeah i have that. we are finally starting to coordinate our move. you know what? it is going to take 51 days for our stuff to arrive in germany!? that is crazy! i am not liking that. and, we dont even know if we are going to be able to take our car. the california dmv messed things up for us and so if we dont get our title in time then im not sure what we are going to do with our car. its lame. we still have a lot to do. we need to find a home for lyra and figure out how winrey is going to get over there and once we do get over there we need to find a place to live!!! i am getting pretty nervous about how things are going to pan out, but im sure it will all work out fine.
today nikki booked our hotel for 'whaling days' next weekend. i am pretty excited about that. nikki said when she used to live there she would always look forward to this festival! im sure its going to be fun!
next month is going to be busy. we are going to visit afton in california for 4 days, then the day after we get back josh, alyson, and baby eli are going to visit us for 3 days, then 2 days after they leave adam and emily are going to come visit us. it is going to be exhausting, but well worth it. it will be the last time for a long time that we will get to visit with them. for most of them it will be about 3 or 4 years until we see them again!!! sad. im getting really excited for all of the visiting! plus, this will be the first time we get to meet baby eli! =)
i only have an hour left of work right now so i am going to start packing up and getting things done so im not swamped for thursday! =)