Hi

Hi.

It's me.

Remember me?

I'm the one who writes this old blog.

It's been a while.

Sorry about that.

Life just seems to be throwing this old blog into the backseat.

But I'm trying to keep it up.

I'm trying to keep up with it all.

I've been saying to Mr. Hass a lot lately things like,

"Hey remember when the girls were babies and we thought life was so hard? And so busy? And we were so tired? And I couldn't wait until they were a little bit older so that they could do things like wipe their own butts, and use their words to tell me what they wanted, and things like that?  And now they are older, and they can do those things, but somehow life has become even busier and crazier."

Yup, funny how that works I guess.

Here's just a tidbit of what has been going on around here...

 The weather has been warming up, and we've been spending more and more time outside.
(I also have not picked up my big camera lately so once again, it's a post full of iphone pics.)
Sorry about that too.

 Both girls are enjoying soccer quite a bit.
I realized that I went to high school with Hannah's coach.
Small world isn't it.

 I saw The Duggar Family on Dr. Oz recently and they were sharing some of their financial secrets.  Of course they make quite a bit of their own foods and household goods like wet wipes.  I have been so sad to realize all the extra crap that is put into pickles recently, so I knew I wanted to try their pickle recipe.  It was so easy and they really are so good!! Way better than store bought pickles!! Just get over the fact that they do still look a bit more like cucumbers than the type of "pickles" that you might be used to.  But we all loved em.  Will be making those all summer for sure.  In fact we want to plant cucumbers in our garden this weekend and then all we have to do is pick em and pickle em!

 Here's a crappy screen shot of the Duggar Family recipe.  It says:
2 cups of vinegar
4 cups of water
4 cucumbers
salt and spices to taste
(I cut the recipe in half.  And used not quite 1 tsp of salt, and about 2 tsp of dried dill)
Let sit for three days.  Then eat!!!  (I also stuck mine in fridge on day three.)

 A favorite snack lately; sliced banana, almond butter, coconut, and some granola.  

 Mr. H watching the NCAA tournament while at soccer one night this last week.  Thank goodness for iphones right?  ;)

Cabernet Monday happened again.  ;)

I sat outside reading my new book while Mr. H grilled some mahi marinated in soyaki for us. 

It was so good.  With asparagus from the Farmer's Market, and this quinoa recipe that was delicious!

 Last Saturday in between the girls soccer games we ran to the market.
I love all the spring produce that we are starting to see.
After Hannah's game my mom and dad told me they were going out to Dana Point to see my Uncle David's new boat and did I want to go...
I was so happy for my Uncle and we said of course we want to go!

 This next pic is not a favorite, but I'm sharing it anyway.  Like my Dad always says "this is what we look like people"... :)

 It was a gorgeous day for a harbor cruise.

 Just gorgeous.

 My Dad and Uncle Dave.  

 The girls had to have their sperrys aka "boat shoes", on the boat!

 Mr. H had to work that day and missed the soccer games, but he got off a little early and met us at the beach.

 For dinner we wound up at Harpoon Henry's.
We realized after we were seated, that we were in the exact same booth, in the same restaurant that Mr. H and I had dinner in one night when we spent our babymoon in Dana Point, almost 7 years ago, right before Hannah Faith was born.
It was pretty crazy to realize that and be sitting in the same place with our now family of four.

It was a fun time.

That night Mr. H and I were supposed to be picking up a sitter to catch a movie date, but we had a feeling we'd be home late from the beach, so we rescheduled our movie date for the next night on Sunday.
We had intentions to go see Olympus Has Fallen,
but I was seriously so tired,
didn't even want to leave the house,
and then by 7pm I realized I was starving,
so we found ourselves at this neat little Gastropub by our house instead.

It was just what we needed.

And we loved it.

It's a husband and wife that own and operate, and their daughter works the bar.

He came over and chatted with us for a bit, and then he sent over a free slider for us to try.

It was so fun. 

I think this might be our new favorite date night spot.

Here's what we ate...

I had an organic extra pale ale, and Mr. H started with a flight of beers to sample.  We loooooved the Bootlegger's Knucklesandwhich IPA.  Sooooo good.  Then for food we had the olive medley, a roasted veggie salad with cous cous, pork belly tacos with a chipotle lime sauce, flatbread with goat cheese and grilled onion and basil, and flatbread with sliced pear, balsamic and gruyere.  We really wanted to try the "Sticky Pig" for dessert but they were out.  It is a maple bar with a bevarian cream filling and bacon!  Next time for sure.  Neat place.  Fun night.

This week the girls are on Spring Break.

And man have I needed it!!!

Since they are off school, and Mr. H is off work on Wednesdays, 

I took yesterday off work and we had a fun day adventuring at the beach. 

It was just what we all needed.
A little sun, surf, and sand sure does do the body good.

Tonight we are having family over for dinner to celebrate my Mom's birthday which is actually tomorrow.
I better go prepare!

Peace Out...

ear infections, pink eye?, and just some other stuff.

Howdy.
How are ya?
I'm good.
But I'm tired.
And I miss Mr. Hass.
He's in Phoenix this weekend with some friends from Boise.
They're golfing, and going to a baseball game, and thoroughly enjoying themselves I'm sure.
I'm glad he got to go.  He doesn't get to see these friends very often. 

The girls and I have been staying busy.
Yesterday the girls completed their first week of vbs. 
They enjoyed it but I think it really wiped them out too.
On Monday Hannah started to cry as soon as I picked her up, saying that her ear hurt.  Sure enough, mild ear infection, so we got her started on antibiotics that day. 
Claire has had a mild cold and yesterday after school her eyes did not look good to me.  They were weepy and red and bloodshot and just didn't look right. 
I debated taking her to the dr, but I promised the girls we'd go see Brave.
So we went and met my Mom and Noah there too. 
Cute movie. 
When we got home, I thought Claire's eyes looked worse, and I was worried it might be pink eye.  And of course now it is nearly 8pm at night and the girls (and I) are exhausted and the very last thing I want to go do is sit inside Urgent Care waiting for who knows how long.  Plus I'm a total germaphobe and I am always certain that we are going to catch every awful germ floating around places like that.  Mr. Hass handles that stuff much better than I do. 
Since he wasn't around, I called my Mom and asked her to help me decide what to do.  She said she thought I should let her sleep and see how it looks in the morning.  So that's what I did.

 It looked better this morning, but still kinda weepy and gross.  I thought about taking her to Urgent Care again, but decided not to.
I guess if it's still not better by Monday I will take her to her pediatrician.

 Hannah's cold and ear infection seems to be much better.

 Before Mr. H left for Phoenix he gave me these pretty daisies. 

 And since he's been gone, and I've been left to my own devices...
I was perusing through the handy dandy Nordstrom app on my new iphone and decided I would buy myself this sporty Sprout watch that I've been eyeing.

 Mr. H sent me a text this afternoon that said, "Just finished our round.  Shot good for me.  I will call you when we get back to the hotel."

So then I sent him a picture of that watch, with a text that read "I might have bought this using the discover card today. Mkay. Love you. Bye."

I'm sure he just rolled his eyes and laughed. 
Because he loves me. ;)

After a trip to my parents house this morning to have my Mom look at Claire's eyes again and tell me what she thinks, she convinced me that her cold has just settled into her eyes and she is ok.  So I left the girls at their house and ran down to the farmers market real quick.

 It was the most crowded I've ever seen it this morning. 
I bought red cabbage. 
I don't even know what I am going to do with it yet but it was so pretty I had to have it.
I also got to go home with lots of good looking produce from my parents grove and their garden too.

 That picture in the top right... see those tiny cherry tomatoes? 
From my Mom's garden... the. best. tomatoes. i. have. ever. eaten.  ever!!!!!!

While I was making dinner for the girls Claire walked up to me looking like this...

Don't worry, it was just red marker.  But I text the picture to Jake and said "marker or pink eye? It's hard to tell." 

He said please tell me that is marker.

So I said it's actually a combination of marker, snot, and dirt.

I went back to fixing their dinner, and five seconds later Claire walked up to me like this...

So I text Mr. Hass and told him it was blood.

Not funny I know.

But sometimes you have to find the humor in things right.

So far that darn marker isn't coming off so well.

I'm off to put the crazies to bed.

And then workout.

And then maybe drink wine.

Ha.

Goodnight!

My first Farm Fresh Delivery!!!! & More Stuff...

After much anticipation, Friday we received our first produce delivery box from Farm Fresh!

 The girls and I were so excited to rip it open and discover what we got.

 4 apples, 3 oranges (I will have to adjust this because with our unlimited supply from my parents house we don't really need oranges), strawberries, fingerling potatoes, asparagus, carrots, celery, romaine and some green chard.

 When we got home from our errands and saw the box on our porch it was lunch time.  I asked the girls what they wanted me to make and Hannah looked at all our new produce and said, "Um, just give me an apple, some carrots, and some of those strawberries." :)

 I think I am really going to like having farm fresh organic produce delivered to my doorstep.
In case you missed my last post about it, I ordered from www.farmfreshtoyou.com and you can check out their blog here.
If you are interested in ordering let me know and I can give you a coupon code for $10 off your first box.

Let me see, what else is new around here...
This week has been busy for us. 
I worked three days (I normally work two) and one of them was a 12 hour day.  I think I am still recovering.

The girls want to let their hair grow out.  We bought some new headbands and it sure is a quick way to do their hair.  These two girlies are some of my pickiest clients.

The other morning I was combing Claire's hair and it was very tangly and unruly (as it always is in the morning), and she refused to lift her head up so I kept pulling it up to do her hair and she looked right at me and said "Thanks for the bad mood Mom."  Only in Claire speak it came out sounding like (Anks or the ad ood om.)  Hannah actually had to translate and tell me, "Moooom, Claire just said thanks for the bad mood to you."   Ha.  

I got a new candle from Bath & Body.  It smells so good.  I'm pretending I'm on an island when it's lit.

Do you like chewing gum?  Me too.  Well, that is I used to.  Until I discovered what is in it.  I was reading her blog this morning, and came across the post about why she doesn't chew gum.  I was completely shocked by some of the ingredients such as aspartame, carcinogenic sugars (that is what it says on the package- carcinogenic sugars!!! BHT which is used in jet fuel, high fructose corn syrup, and loads of other nasty things.  So I collected my gum stash...

 and I trashed it.
Now I am on the search for an all natural peppermint gum called spry.  Anybody know where to find it?

I sat outside in my running shorts and bikini top today.
Trying to get rid of my winter whiteness.

 I just finished making the broccoli salad to bring to my Mom's for Easter tomorrow.
What are you doing for Easter?

Whether you stay home and eat pretzel crisps, or decide you just feel like laying on your coffee table...

I hope you have a Happy Easter!

Enjoy the day.

Love,

Genn

ten on ten

Happy Saturday.
How are ya?

Thanks to Jenny's friendly reminder, I am linking up with Rebekah tonight for ten on ten.
Sharing ten pictures, over the course of ten hours throughout the day.
Finding beauty in the ordinary through my lens.
And just so ya know, I cheated, and I am sharing more than ten pictures.
Because sometimes,
rules were made to be broken.

So here we go...
7am ish- My Hannah Banana, all smiles all the time.

 And because I couldn't leave little Clairey out, also at 7am'ish-

8'ish- breakfast.

 All three of us had this for b-fast this morning (Mr. H was working, sad face).  I made steel cut oats using this recipe from pinterest.  I froze the shapes and this morning just reheated them like oatmeal and topped with slivered almonds, golden raisins, bananas, and cinnamon.  Oh and some nutella.  Ymmmmmmm.

9:30am- checking out the prices at the farmers market.  The berries were high, but I bought them anyway and man are they good.

9:45'ish- the girls were pretty taken with this huge horse dog.  And I guess his owner must have missed the sign at the market that says NO DOGS. 

10am'ish- leaving the market with all of our loot.

11am- I took the girls to the movies to see The Adventures of Ariety.

12:30'ish- After the movie we went for a walk around Dos Lagos.

3ish- Squeezed in a few minutes to read.  I'm reading this.

4pm- dinner prep.  on the menu: cauliflower pizza and strawberries from the market (picked this morning btw)

5pm ish- man and his best friend.

 5:30'ish- toes in the sand.

6pm- Dinner.  I used this recipe for the cauliflower crusts.

That's it for today.
Who is excited about daylight savings tonight/tomorrow?
I love the lighter longer days, I just hate that we have daylight savings in the first place.  We should have lighter longer days 365 days a year.  Who's with me?!
That's it.  It's happening.  I'm putting my foot down.  This will be the last daylight savings time ever.  It will be epic.  Tell your friends.
;)

Stop by Rebekah's and check out the other fun ten on ten entries.
Good night!