It's Finished! Almost.

Last March, Matt and I finally pulled the trigger on re-doing our front room. The people who built this house made this area a dining room. Stupid use of this space. It's right when you walk in the door. The dining table is now in our kitchen and looks way better. We decided to have a lady at Ethan Allen help us pick out things we love. Sita was wonderful to work with. Finally, all our pieces are here after watching them slowly trickle in. We really love this room. I just need to decide on what to put on the hutch. It has to be just the right things, and that has always been my problem. When I see it, I'll buy it. I have to love it first. If I had my wish, I'd buy a large, beautiful bronze LDS inspired statue, but that would be in the thousands. What do you think?

I love that the blue ceiling is more noticeable now. These pictures don't adequately show that little bit of blue in the chairs, drapes, rug, and sofa pillow.

We love our surveyor's lamp!

We still need a floor lamp and small rectangular side table next to the sofa, but that will come later. Not necessary right now.

This is our newest painting. It's a night scene of Chimney Rock.

This is NOT just a room to look at as you pass by. We use it all the time. I love to read in here. We have family scripture reading here. We have FHE here. We love inviting home teachers and visiting teachers to sit here instead of walking through our kitchen to get to our family room. I love laying down on the couch to talk with Matt when he's at his desk. I'm so glad we finally made the change so that this space can get used.

What I've Been Up To

Matt brought this big ol' box of veggies home from work one day, along with a second box full of tomatoes (about 17 pounds of Roma tomatoes!). I didn't get a picture of the 'matoes before I processed them into stewed tomatoes. I didn't get a pic of my cute little jars of stewed tomatoes either. They are packed away into my pantry just waiting to be paired with some fresh basil and turned into a marinara sauce for my enjoyment. Thanks to the patient who was so thoughtful to bring us her surplus! We ate the corn on the cob, but unfortunately it was rather yucky tasting. I gave away a few zucchinis and yellow squash cause I knew we'd never eat it all. Then, because they were a huge and overgrown, I grated the remaining zucchini and froze it so that I can make yummy chocolate zucchini cake or brownies or bread later on in the year. The peppers and onions were used in my salsa.

I went in on an order of pears with my friend Kris. We each paid $19 for beautiful local Bartlett and Red pears. I had two large paper grocery bags full of them. I don't remember how many pounds it was. I loved working with the red ones the best. The peels came off much nicer after blanching.

I used my friend Gina's recipe for salsa. She has perfected her recipes of hot, medium, and mild salsas. So my first batch was medium and my second batch I did hotter. They were approved by both Matt and Josh, so I'd say my first salsa making experience was a success. I just don't want to blanch another pear or tomato for a long time.

It's Hammer Time

Our wonderful friends and neighbors, the Hammer family, invited us to go boating with them one night at the end of August. We went to Lucky Peak Reservoir.

They took us to one of their favorite docks. We ate dinner and then had some fun in the water. It was a nice, hot night, but the water was still too cold for me.

Josh really loves to wake board.

Oh my goodness. He is just too cute. He's looking so grown up.

Here's my buddy, Natalie. She's one hot water skier.

Me no likey dark and cold water. It freaks me out. But not wanting to be an old, almost 40 year old fuddy duddy, I decided I would get on the raft with Natalie and be pulled to my death.

Matt and Joel and the little girls were on the boat. They wanted to flip us pretty bad.

Emma was probably worried for her screaming mother. Not really. I was having a blast with Natalie.

Chloe got to drive the boat. Was she the one who finally flipped me over and skipped me across the water three times like a flat stone?

No, it was all my husband's doing. He told Joel to go ahead and flip us cause apparently he thought I needed to get out of my comfort zone. I guess he didn't know I was already there! I wasn't pulled to my death. I didn't die. Here I am all wet like a dog that just got thrown into the tub. But I have a smile on my face. All is good. Thanks Hammers!

Labor Day Fun Minus One

Yesterday, Matt and I decided to go biking on the Greenbelt with the kids. We allowed Josh to go boating with a friend instead, so we went without him. During our ride, we felt the missing piece in our family unit. We thought about family bike rides next year when Chelsea isn't going to be around. Sad thought.

We love, love, love the Boise Greenbelt. We love to run and bike there. For this ride, we started at the fairgrounds/ AA baseball field area. We parked, ate our Subway lunch, slapped a little sunscreen on, unloaded our bikes, and we were off. What an absolute gorgeous day it was. I think the temps were in the low to mid 80s. There were many people out and about on this Labor Day, but it wasn't hard to navigate past them along the way. There were other fellow bikers, runners, walkers, rafters, fishers, picnickers, golfers, park players, and people watchers.

We biked for 10 1/2 miles to Powell's Sweet Shoppe. I had never been there before. What a darling, little candy/gelato shop. I walked in and saw this:



Recognize what it is? An old library card catalog. I had to explain to Chelsea what a card catalog was! Anyway, these drawers had gum in them. Weird gum. Unusually named gum. Gum I've never heard of before. But so fun.

When we walked in, the store was playing the song "Truly Scrumptious". What movie does that go to? I couldn't place it. I don't think it's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Never mind. I just googled it. It is from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. What a delightful, happy song for a candy store.

Look how happy it made Matt to be in this delicious place!



After looking at the gum card catalog, I immediately spotted this wall of black licorice. I know... you either love black licorice or hate it. I love it! I was instantly in heaven and everything else just didn't capture my attention anymore. There were all kinds of black licorice. I wanted to try them all. But after finding out that all of the bulk candy in the store was $8.99 a pound, I decided I wouldn't get to try it all. I started to put little scoops into my plastic bag. The salted licorice was most intriguing. Sweet and salty is always a winner in my book. I also found some honey black licorice in the shape of a beehive. Australian licorice was another one I scooped. Licorice buttons and caramel black licorice were other goodies I put in my bag.



Unfortunately, on the 10 1/2 mile bike ride back to the car, I discovered that the salty black licorice was absolutely disgusting, and it had to be spit out and then dumped out of my bag. After looking at this picture that I took, I think I bought the double salted variety. I'm not sure I would have like the salted money licorice either. They were like little salt pills. I couldn't even wait for the licorice flavor to come through before spitting it out violently.



I think we spent about $18. in Powell's. Yikes. But we sure had some yummy treats. We shared this super sweet sarsparilla.



We love that we have a cool place to go biking here in Boise. There is so much to explore along the river. Our bums were a bit sore after riding 21 miles, but it was certainly worth it. Next time, we'll have our Josh with us so we can feel complete. And next time, I won't get the salted licorice.