Yummy Stuffed Peppers

Ever notice a meal always tastes better when someone else makes it? I do! I also get a kick out of watching Josh in the kitchen. It's interesting to see our styles.. I'm more of a .... "sure, that looks like 1 tsp." and he's more into getting the spoon out, leveling it with a knife to make sure its exact. Ok, he's not that precise but he's much more structured about it than I! Last week he decided he wanted to try something from the Cooking Light cookbook we have. He made a stuffed peppers recipe. It wasn't as dry as the picture looks, at all!

Also, while it was baking in the oven, all of our peppers slid to their sides... but the flavor was there, it was delicious!

While we were waiting for the peppers to cook, it sparked the conversation, how exactly do you attack this once it's time to eat? Do you immediately break down the pepper and have a little with each bite? Or treat it as a bowl and only eat the insides? Well we did both. I dissected it (I love bell peppers) and Josh was happy to just scoop it out. Either way it's a definite do-over in our book!

Through Their Eyes

Last Friday, we were driving home from picking up the girls. We take PCH home... gonna sit in traffic, it may as well be a pretty view! We had the windows down, the iPod blaring... not too bad eh! I was singing along to some song, tapping my fingers on the steering wheel to the beat. We were at a stand still, so I began looking around. My eyes caught Kali in the rear view mirror. She was watching me, quite curiously. It was such a familiar gaze, it immediately sent me into my own world of memories.

I remember being Kali's age and watching my parents with that same curiosity. What is it like to be a grown up? It wasn't so much an "I can't wait to be older" feeling, but looking back, it's more the comfort I felt by it. I can close my eyes and picture Dad is his old Ford pick up, one arm over the back of the seats, one casually steering the car... and either a classic rock radio station playing quietly in the background, or classical music... I guess it depended on his mood. I've begged my Dad to quit smoking ever since I found out it was bad for you, but I will admit that the sweet smell of the old smoke that is forever stuck in the upholstery of his truck is a reassuring scent to me.

I could easily write a list of the mundane habits of day to day things my Dad has.. even now that I haven't lived at home in 6 years, I'd bet he still goes about his daily tasks the same way. There is a level of familiarity to it that creates that wonderful contentment of being "home". To this day, I always sleep better when I'm in the same house as my Dad... sure it's limited to family vacations now a days, but when I'm drifting off to sleep and can hear Dad shuffling his feet in his slippers, filling up the coffee pot for tomorrow, muttering to the dog, and the TV humming quietly in the background, it's a guarantee for a great night's sleep.

Snapping back into the flow of traffic on PCH, I began to wonder how this same dynamic played out between the girls, and Josh & I. Is Kali watching my fingers drum to the beat, and later in life thinking back on all the times we drove on PCH with the wind in our hair, singing our favorite songs? While they lay in bed at night, does hearing Josh laugh at TV shows, and mutter to Rufus as we go to bed give them the reassurance that all is well in the world? It's kind of neat and scary all at once.

Pine Needles and Shady Behavior

Oh the saga continues. You had to know when I first told you about Pony Tail Guy (PG)... my neighbor... that throwing palm tree leaves into my yard and having a loud mouth wife could not be the extent of why this man drives me bonkers. It's not. However, this does tie in to leaves falling. It's fall, it happens. Regular tree leaves, palm tree leaves, and pine needles. PG has a huge pine tree in his front yard, he used to have 2. They cut the bigger one down. I remember this day because the tree in question was near the property line between our homes. I was woken up on a Saturday to a chain saw outside my bedroom window, and a loud THUMP that made us jump out of bed. Their courteous tree trimmer was letting the giant pieces of tree fall onto our roof. Sure do wonder if that contributed to leaks the following winter. Anywho, the other tree remains, and it is amazing to me how pine needles get tracked into our home. But unlike PG, I take it in stride..the wind blows, needles will fall in our yard, life goes on.

Where life doesn't go on.... is the mysterious manifestation that appears in the gutter in front of our houses. Theirs is clean, and neat. Free of pine needles. However, about 2 feet into the gutter in front of our house, is a suspicious pile of needles. Same goes for the side walk. Odd indeed. When trash day arrives, our yard is a curious vortex for trash, strangely at that 2 foot mark in the gutter between our property lines. Quite perplexing!! However! Where my conspiracy theory comes to play, is not in our trusty trash men, or even PG.... it's .. are you ready? The street sweeper. Every week he comes by, dutifully and on time. Every few weeks, he skips our house. No cars are parked in front of the house, no obstructions (other than the pile of needles) in the way... it makes no sense to me why he'd skip our house. You can literally see the tire marks from his vehicle swing wide by a 6 foot gap, purposely cleaning the middle of the street where no trash lies. The only rational reasoning that I can figure for this, is that street sweeper and PG are best friends. I would be willing to bet you $100, right now that next week if I camped out in the bushes, after SS comes by, he'll slow down to give PG a high five as he comes back around to polish their gutter for a 2nd time just to make sure it's spotless. I'm sure of this. Just you wait and see!!

Do you dream of punching hookers?

I do.

So last night, I had a dream that someone was trying to get into our home. Not like a guy in a ski mask kind of situation, but where I was physically trying to stop someone from crossing the threshold into our home. When I looked up, it was literally this 8 foot tall woman with a tight grey dress and a pound of make up. Her hair was done in a sloppy fresh twist. I remember her just towering over me in her hooker heels. I had something that she desperately wanted, and while her monkey arms tangled around mine, we were jabbing elbows, pushing, pulling and hitting each other, and I had this overwhelming urge to punch or slap her in the face. But I had that horrible dream sequence feeling of not being able to make the motion. My arms simply would not go above her waist to hit. The frustration was maddening.

I woke up with the same expression you are probably making right now... WTF?

I didn't think much of it until Scotty teased me endlessly on facebook about having nightmares that could have been avoided had I sipped a hot cup of Stevens Brand of delicious hot chocolate. So I googled "dreams about not being able to punch someone"... oddly enough, the answer I got makes some sense.

"It’s common to dream of throwing punches and not being able to connect with the person you’re throwing punches at. Or maybe you’re able to connect, but the punches have no power or strength behind them. Do you feel that you’re fighting against someone or something in your life but getting nowhere?"

So, while I never take dreams to seriously, this does put things in perspective. I have a confession, I hold grudges. To this day, I will purposely put my eggs last on the conveyor belt at the grocery store if I have the same stupid clueless bag boy who put them under 3 cans of beans 6 months ago. I refuse to park next to certain cars at work because one time they parked too close to me. I'll admit I've ignored friend requests on facebook from someone who was mean to me one day in high school. It's just who I am. Soooooo.... I gueessss that the consequence to that, is I might occasionally get myself wrapped up in silly things. I think if I can take away 2 lessons from this dream, I will be in good shape.

1) Learn to let some of the silly stuff go
2) Never trust an 8 foot tall hooker

My Thumbs Are Still Green!

Sunday morning Josh set out to do some yard work. Always excited to help, Kali & Mackenzie followed, sweeping up the sidewalk each pass he took with the lawnmower. So I figured I should probably get out there and contribute too. Still on my fairy garden kick, I decided to go check them out. Maybe it was time for a watering with Miracle Grow just to make sure our new flowers are flourishing.

I stood there between the two flower beds scratching my head. What the heck? Didn't we JUST replace these? Why in the world are the petunias .... dead? I wanted to hide them.. I wanted no one to see them... and I definitely didn't want to hear Josh teasing me about killing them again!

So as I left to run errands, I sent Pattie a text, admitting my failures, and how much I sucked. Her response? "LOL! No honey, it's your soil that sucks." ahhhaaa... I sure like this explanation a lot better than me killing flowers!! And by gosh, she's a certified master gardener, so her opinion is the obvious correct assumption. Her next text offered to help us fix the problem.

Our plan? Josh and I need to set to dig out the planter... I'll measure it tonight, but we are guesstimating its about 10x4 feet, and we need to go 18 inches deep. Good luck with that, Josh! haha, no no, we have 2 shovels.. it will be a joint effort. Once we get the dirt turned up, Pattie and Dad are going to help us with the rest... first up, getting some better soil in the ground. Once we do that, we are going to re-establish the fairy gardens, and switch from petunias to pansies. Pattie speculated that the petunias were not getting enough sun, and pansies are a more shade-friendly flower.

The newest addition to our garden area, is going to be euonymus (sounds like youwannamus!) plants. I'm really excited for this, I think it will add some more solidity and fill in the space quite nicely!

I'll snap some more pictures as our little mini-journey continues... we should have it completed by the end of next weekend, stay tuned!!

Jack-O-Lantern Cakes & Best Friends

If this is any testament to our friendship, I think its awesome that I can post a blog totally ragging on Gina and immediately follow it with another explaining why I love her. I got a package in the mail last night! There is truly nothing better than getting not just non-bill related mail, but a package!!! A parcel! A delivery! Ok, I'll calm down. I dropped my purse and coat on the couch and headed straight to the kitchen to cut it open. Gina had given me a heads up that something was coming, so I knew it was from her but I had no clue what to expect.. it is Gina after all.

I cut open the box, pulled away the packing and just started laughing. Josh was looking at me as though I'd lost my mind. What was in it? A jack-o-lantern cake pan!

Ok so before you join Josh on the "Megan is crazy" campaign, let me tell you a story.

Back when we all lived on Dorena Drive, and Gina and I were probably like what... 12ish? Gina and I got into this phase of baking ... a lot. Her mom was incredibly gracious about letting us use all of her flour, sugar and other said pantry items. We made cakes mostly now that I think about it... funnel cakes, cup cakes and most importantly, jack-o-lantern cakes! So, the baking part went off without a hitch, we've got Betty Crocker beat. Mix 2 pre-teen girls, a huge bowl of home made frosting and way too much food coloring together and here's what happens.

We made two cakes, naturally. One for her house, one for mine. We made a huge bowl of frosting (hey Gina, do you still have that recipe? I have never been able to make home made frosting that tastes quite as good as that did.) We successfully made orange, yellow and green frosting for the first pumpkin. It turned out soo cute! On to the next. Gina was in command, frosting, check, orange dye.... I went to hand it to her and it was just about empty. Hmm... well, being as brilliant as Gina and I are, we figured we'll just mix a couple other colors together, and make orange! Gosh, how we didn't strain our selves patting each other on the back is beyond me. So for whatever reason, if my memory serves me right, it became crucial to taste the frosting in order to see if it had successfully made it to the orange shade we were after. It didn't take long for us to be like mad scientists hiding in the corner mixing way too much dye into the frosting and laughing like lunatics on a sugar high. At this point, our beloved frosting had turned this disgusting color that can only be described as a mixture of pea soup and a turned avocado. It was in this fit of laughter that Gina fatefully dug her finger into the bowl and lifted a giant glob of goo to her face, and smeared it across her teeth. Her face transformed into a huge smile... my head went back I couldn't breath, tears streaming down my face from laughing so hard, and then BAM like ice water down my back, my eyes were glued in terror... on Gina's mom looming over us in the doorway. Gina tried mercifully to keep her mouth closed but it was pointless, green goop was all around her mouth, oozing from her lips, almost looking like a new string of a a rabies virus. We stared up at her in silence for a moment before jumping as we heard "GINA LOUISE MEEKS GO BRUSH YOUR TEETH RIGHT NOW". I sure wasn't gonna stand in the kitchen looking guilty so I ran into the bathroom with Gina where we continued to laugh while she scrubbed away. Oh but poor Gina. It would not end there. She continued to laugh as she spit and rinsed, only to look in the mirror to find her now clean teeth were stained green.

We were banned from ever making colored frosting again. My only regret is that we have no pictures of this!

So it was a fond memory that made me cackle out in amusement last night and I can't wait to make a cake with the girls this coming weekend! I think this time I'll make sure I have the right dye before we get started!

Tooshay, Gina

First, if you aren't Gina, read her response to my last blog here: barefootconservative

So, at first I thought ohh cool! She knows. But then as I was reading I was thinking. Well. Kinda rude! You know Gina. I was trying to be nice and just give you some insight so you'd know what I was talking about. Not rub assumptions that you aren't down with times or anything like that. I was merely trying to appreciate the fact that your plate is very full with school and was throwing you a bone.

Plus, any of us females between 12-137 would tell you the book is WAY better than the movie. Edward, and frankly, all other males in the book, vampire and werewolves included, are all way hotter in our heads than casted. That was probably the most common disappointment for us all... there was no way to cast anyone as beautiful as we've built them up to be! At least the first movie.. it was low budget. So.. pscchaa.. get your act together and read the stinkin' books. HOMIE!

Edward Weather

FINALLY!!! It's raining here. I do have to laugh over the local weathermen "STORM WATCH!" ... I barely needed an umbrella this morning. But hey, maybe it's still coming, from what I understand Northern CA is getting hit pretty good. Either way, I don't care, I'm just happy its cold and wet outside and warm and snuggly inside! Even if I am stuck at work.



Anyway, a friend of mine and I have a totally gooberific way to describe days like today... they are perfect Edward Weather Days. Normally at this point in my blog I'd tell you that if you don't know what I'm referring to, you must no longer speak to me. But given that Gina is one of my faithful readers and I know you are so busy with school you haven't had time to read the series yet, this is in reference to Edward Cullen ... (hello! I think we'd all love to be Bella right about there)



the sexy teenage (yet, hundreds of years old) vampire in the Twilight series. They come out during the day on cloudy days becuase they glitter in the sun. Back to me. I guess I'm in a gooberific mood because I'm re-reading Eclipse, the third installment of the series. I began with re-reading the 2nd one so that when the movie comes out next month (YAY!!!) I'd remember what happens in this portion of the saga. Once I finished the 2nd book I immediately wanted to refresh my memory on the 3rd. The way the author describes Forks, the town they live in just makes me want to move there. I'm sure its much like those who say they'd love to live in snow but the reality is that living in snow is a pain in the ass, I'd love to live where its cloudy and rainy and forresty. It would be so fun. And you might just see occasional muscle crazy teenage cute werewolf boys run by too. Enter... here.. (admittedly cuter in my head before they casted for the movie)



(again, go read Gina, I promise, you will LOVE IT!). Tease me all you want, these books rock and the new movie is going to be soooo much better than the 1st! I can't wait!

Cute Little Mini Cheesecakes

I love to cook. I love baking even more. It's so much more fun when its a sweet and yummy treat and not a dinner you had to make. So 2 years ago or so (geez, really?) Josh started going on and on about wanting me to try to make cheesecake. So, one weekend when he went with his Dad and Uncles to Laughlin I went out and bought a spring form pan. What an odd contraption. Next, I began the hunt for the perfect recipe. Personally, I love the "allrecipes.com" website. What I like is that people put their reviews on it, so you can know if it was good, or bad, what they changed, etc. Now I'm not going to give up all my secrets, but the recipe I found had over 1500 positive reviews. Works for me, and off to the grocery store I went. 8 hours later (there is a fool proof process not everyone knows) I sliced into pure heaven. How was I going to NOT eat this entire thing before Josh came home??? Oh my. I did not want to share it.

So there developed my famous cheesecake. We've made chocolate crusts, added white chocolate, raspberry toppings... made all sorts of sauces to drizzle on top.. its fool proof, seriously.

While sitting in bliss eating cheesecake one day, I told Josh about this place close by I used to buy the BEST mini cheesecakes from. (They made full size too.) I remembered reading that they started selling them at the local Farmers Market, and they got so popular they got a store and made it an official business. So we added this to one of our many ideas to "get rich and not have to work at a desk" dream jobs. Hey, it could happen!

My latest desire is to get cute little mini springform pans, and make little ones, so I can experiment with the flavors a bit more. I'd love to have some more variety! Plus the pans are so cute, see:

I'll have to keep you posted and let you know what recipes worked and which didn't... then you can kiss up to me in hopes I'll make ya one! ha!

Bats. Big Scary Bats.

K not really, but they are super cute!

As promised we've started our fall crafts. We started our quest to Joanns with 3 projects in mind. We only ended up completing one after we couldn't find everything we needed. Oh well, it's only Oct 5th so we've got time!

So, what was our project? Vampire Balloon Bats!

Ok, so usually we try to test out the waters before involving the girls so that we (I) don't implode our (my) frustration on them. Since we were dealing with balloons we (I) figured this was a good idea. Three balloons popped into my face later, VIOLA! Vampire bats!!!





We taped string to the back of their heads, and butts, so they hang just right on the patio... sooo spooooky!

Want to make your own? Here are the instructions: http://jas.familyfun.go.com/crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=12255

Tip? Buy extra balloons ;o)

Underwood Farm!!!

This weekend, Dad and Pattie treated us (THANK YOU!!!) to a visit to Underwood Farm. If you haven't gone, GO! Admittedly you have to sign away half your earnings for the month (again, thanks D&P!) but it really was a fun trip.

Kenzie immediately wanted to check out the animals, so that was where we headed first. They had everything from cute little piggies (running in a race!), chickens with fluffy feathers, donkeys, llamas, and the biggest cow I've ever seen. Each area had feeding tubes (and food - you had to buy) so the animals were extremely friendly. If you even so much as looked into their general direction they'd mosey on over to the feeding tube area and bat their eyes at you. One donkey even sang to Kenzie a bit and nudged the tube at her! Here are some pics:

Next we headed over to the corn maze. I should have just let Josh and the girls head in on their own. I walk out of a store in the mall and I get turned around!! But in we went, and immediately I saw Josh and Kali's competitive sides come out! They paired off and purposely took a turn away from Kenzie and I. Fine with me! Kenzie and I began taking pictures, laughing at every dead end we hit... until we hit the 5th, then the 6th one. When you reach the end of the maze there is a giant hay stack you can climb up to claim your victory. Kenzie and I became determined when we saw Josh and Kali at the top pointing at us and doing a victory dance. We began to walk with a purpose!!! And yet? More dead ends. It felt like we were in there for an eternity, and Mackenzie was officially over it. Thats when Ceasar, our high school hero walked by, eyeing us suspiciously. When we hit another dead end and came across his path again, he reached for his walkie talkie and said "I think I got her" .. "Hi are you Megan?" oh good grief. Apparently Kali decided that we were actually lost and got worried and told an employee!! HA!! So we hung our heads in shame as Josh got the last laugh.. this time!! It was fun though!

I just love that last picture, that was at the top of the hay stack! Next we headed over to the tractor ride, which is always fun... it was neat to see all the different crops the farm had. Lastly we checked out the pumpkins. The girls got on this kick about wanting baby pumpkins... so thats what we got! We figured we can get big pumpkins to carve closer to Halloween anyway.

All in all, we had a BLAST!!! Mackenzie said she wants her birthday there, LOL! This was a great way to start off the month of October!!

Santa Anas and Annoying Neighbors

So the one thing I really don't like about Fall is the Santa Ana winds. Don't get me wrong, breezy days are signature for fall.. but these aren't "breezy days". These are immediate bad hair/dry cracked skin, horrible sinus pain days... and.. the most dreaded part is it brings back the heat!! nooooooo!!

Hopefully it will only last a few days. A thought that popped into my head while I was getting Rufus set up outside this morning, was oh gawd... I wonder how soon my annoying neighbor will complain. Allow me to shed a little light on this portion of our lives:

To the right of our home, resides "Ponytail Guy." I think his name is Scott... but.. for all intensive purposes, we've always called him PG. He thinks hes Fabio. He's tall, some muscle, leather skin tan, and one long blond pony tail that I would seek great victory in chopping off in his sleep. I sound mean right? Well if you know me, its probably because something pushed me to this point... and boy did they ever!

I think PG and his nasally wife (she makes Fran Drescher sound quiet) should count their lucky stars. I moved into my house when I was 18. I have NEVER had a loud party at my house. Do they realize the rarity in that? However, guess who does have loud annoying parties with their drunk wife yelling goodbye to everyone at 2am. Ya, PG. We've even gotten as far as speculating that they are swingers because they have gross old people parties in their hot tub that sounds sooo gross (hey, its on the side of the fence closest to our bedroom window, we can't help but over hear it!)

Of the nit picky things he's come by to gripe about over the years, the most ridiculous has been the palm tree branches. We have one of those prehistoric giant palm trees in our backyard, that is pretty close to the fence that separates our yards. My Dad has it trimmed every few years.. it's not "growing wild" or anything like that. However, when the wind blows, much like today with the Santa Anas, the giant leaves or branches fall (what a concept, right?) At any given time I can peek into the backyard during these days and see a tan leathery hand throwing branches over the fence into our yard. It's not tons... maybe like 5 for the whole year. Fine, whatever, if you seriously can't fit one branch into your yard waste bin, whatever, fling it over.

What pissed me off was the day he came by to tell me it was becoming an issue and I'd need to talk to my Dad about it. I wanted so bad to suggest something that might work a little better ... maybe a little prayer to the Wind Gods... "Dear Wind God, please make the wind blow to the East instead of the West because apparently my A-hole neighbor is the ONLY human being on the face of the Earth who has to deal with neighbors leaves". GIMME A BREAK!!!

LOL anyways.... if this is the only downer to Fall I will gladly take it. I'm more than happy to spend my time ignoring PG and his branches and enjoying all the perks Fall has!!