Waveland's Undecided About Shoreline's Rides

Mikey and I took Miss Waveland and Rochelle down to Shoreline Village to see the shops. Waveland was very excited to ride on the yellow horse she named "Star".

Put the quarters in, Mikey!

However....
Waveland was not prepared for how "fast" the horse moved and was completely scared to death of Star...

and was not pleased that we made her continue her ride

but it's a good thing we did because she ended up loving her ride

and loving Star.
Here you go, Star!

Waveland also enjoyed riding in a submarine with Uncle Mikey!

Hold on tight, Mikey!


And last but not least, Waveland took Mikey shopping in her little red car.

Boy! Did we have fun riding the rides at Shoreline Village!

when in rom..er, long beach...

While we have family in California, we want to make sure they are getting the full Californian experience. That includes the beach, In N Out, Yogurtland, the Queen Mary, Yogurtland, Long Beach's Japanese garden, possibly Rainbows, farmer's markets in February (what? what?!), Finding Nemo (thanks Jordan for telling Waveland that by coming to our house she would be "finding" nemo... she was super confused why Nemo was not at our house when she got there...), and of course divulging in a little frisbee action.
Mikey took his niece out for a little warm-up before the game got kicking!

Okay, the game never got kicking but it was still fun to take these blurry pictures while trying to capture the moment.

Here Waveland, hold it like this.

Duuuude, look at that form!

Yet, Waveland wasn't the only one to learn something new...

Mikey also got to participate in "sunday school" which is apparently a game where you get a name tag and a check-list including important information with whether or not you were potty trained.

Lucky for Mikey he was "deemed" potty trained... he was however, given quite a few requirements.
Finicky kid?!
Let's hope it's not in the genes!!

Stay tuned for more fun pictures as we continue to introduce Waveland to California culture!

feel

Do you ever not feel like yourself?
I'm not feeling like myself at the moment. I'm physically not feeling well because instead of eating fruit like I've been doing the past two or so weeks for dessert, I slipped up one night this weekend and ate about fourteen pounds of candy... ok, it wasn't that much!! But whether it was two ounces or twenty-two pounds, my body was totally mad at me for detoxing it only to intoxicate it with sugar later.
Blech I feel sick!
Buuuut I also mean the emotional/spiritual side where you don't feel quite like yourself.

I don't feel quite like myself in my walk with God and I don't feel like myself with my emotions. I'm kind of tired and I just want to sit in my pajamas and read all evening. Or just hide.

I don't feel like my quiet times are quiet enough. I feel like my walk has been one-sided and I know that God is with me. I just wish I could have that pillar of fire or the cloud by day and night that would signal when it's time to move on or when it's time to stay.

And then I feel sad that I wish I could have faith by sight... I know I'm being too hard on myself but I just have these days.

I hope I don't sound whiny. I'm merely trying to be honest that as cool as I want you all to think I am and how "all together" I want you to think I have it. I guess sooner or later it's bound to come out that I "have these days" and that I am not even close to having it together.

Do you ever have these kind of days?
*sigh*

a mistake worth making

Are you wondering what this is? This. Is. A mistake worth making!
I was attempting an apple dumpling recipe which calls for "chunks of apples" wrapped in egg roll wrappers. But being the frugalist that I am, I didn't want to buy egg roll wrappers knowing we had gyouza wrappers in the freezer. So I thawed those suckers out...
and tried to put in the apple chunks which did not work out well.
Hmph.
So I thought, what the heck, let's puree my apple concoction and just add the puree to the wrappers. A la' gyouza style except not pork and onion but apple and cinnamon. Mmm mmm mmm

and then I decided to bake the little gyouza apple dumplings in my mini muffin tins so they could keep their shape.

So the mix is: 4 small-medium apples; peeled and cut up into chunks, 2 T packed brown sugar, 1 tsp cornstarch, and 1 tsp vanilla extract.
I pureed that (you could also blend it if you didn't have a processor) and then took about a packed teaspoon of the mix to fit in the little gyouza wrappers.

Then I pinched the little guys shut...
put them in their respective muffin tins and sprayed them again with cooking spray so they'd crisp up!

And crisp up, they did! Sooo amazing and a little mouthful of yumminess!

Yum!
I ended up serving these little men alongside a scoop of ice cream to add a little more sweetness but you could serve them as is or even serve them sprinkled with powdered sugar. Just a thought.

Hmmm what to do with the saucy leftovers?
I think I'll save this and add it to my oatmeal tomorrow. Ooooo

Is This... Normal?

After several days of intense rain, Mikey and I woke up to radiant, beautiful sunshine...
and this.

Our patio fence

Is this normal?

Lost Pictures

While snapping some pictures of my latest baking project (Valentine's Week=Chocolate Week) I unloaded my pictures onto my computer and lo, and behold! There were pictures from September on the memory card. I had snapped some pictures leading up to my wedding when family started to gather but with moving, traveling, and wedding bliss I forgot all about these beauties.And I do mean beauty!

The pictures of my wedding present to my parents... some backyard decorating!

Some long lost photos of the two men that have fought and beaten cancer! My Uncle Bryan and my Poppy.

Sneaking in some candids...

Along with giving my parents some backyard decorations that although the plants have passed on to better places since the fall/winter... the ceramic pots and lighting will continue to warm hearts throughout the warmer seasons, I hope... I also treated my parents to a fancy and fun-filled dinner where we sat and ate the three of us, just enjoying life as it was and anticipating the fun we would have (and have found out we are having)...

And then the family started to arrive and I threw a "Flower Girls and Ring Bearer Picnic Celebration" at the park for the cutest kids in the world.

Waveland Eliza

The many faces of Adelia True

Edwin David

the young bride (and Rochelle carrying my nephew which we didn't know about at the time!)

Getting Grampa! The favorite pasttime of Schupbach grandkids

how could I have ever lost these pictures? So precious and such a fun find today!


And just in case you were wondering what I was baking...

Valentine's Week=Chocolate Week

Mondays; to like or not to like?

How is it Monday already? The weekends seem to escape me. Well, this weekend, I know what I was doing. I was laying in bed trying to get over this nasty cold and when I wasn't in bed I was wishing I was.
Boo to colds!
And boo to Mondays arriving before they should. Don't they always seem like the quickest day of the week? Before you know it, it's Monday again? How do Mondays do that? I'm slowly enjoying Sunday and BLAM-O!! it's Monday again.
Sheesh Mondays, have some respect for Sunday!
It's Monday and although Mondays are notoriously not my favorite days... this semester Mondays are turning out. to. be. not. so. bad. I say this hesitantly because Mondays are also notorious for being unpredictable!
Mondays this semester are slow days where I get to pretend I'm productive which in turn helps me practice being productive. All of my "have to's" all occur at night. So during the day I get to wake up, greet Monday with my usual (non)enthusiasm aka a strong cup of coffee and then... do things I want to do. This semester, Mondays are shaping up to be quite nice.
Don't misunderstand me. I still have to get things done on Mondays. It's just that I can do more "homey" things on Monday mornings.
Today I'm diligently crossing things off my list and adding things to my list just to cross them off.
Do you ever do that? Be honest. I do it all the time. Take this post... writing it, finishing it and publishing it was not on my list of things to do today... but now I shall add writing this and then promptly cross it off. I do this because it encourages my productivity. I look at my list of things to do and think, "wow! I got a lot done today." even though half of the items were merely added for the sake of crossing them off.
I warned you I was weird, didn't I?
Well, anyway, whether we like Mondays or not, here they come... every week, without fail, without asking us.
Mondays.

January 2010

I got this idea this morning from Passionate Homemaking blog and am thrilled with the idea of a "recap". She writes about the month; reviewing her goals and the new happenings in her home. I'm really wanting to do this because I think it will help me remember where I've come from and direct me towards where I want to go. So here I go... a moment to remember January.

January started with Mikey and I still in Illinois. When we came home we took a long weekend and went to Tahoe to snowboard with two friends, Vic and Dave. Both of whom are amazing men, very interesting and very funny guys and both of whom are *ahem* single! Just sayin' After the trip, Mikey and I had about two weeks of "whatever-we-want-to-do-preparing-for-the-new-semester" time. It was WONDERFUL! I loved the extended time with my husband and we managed to get a lot done. We put up pictures on our walls, I unpacked a box from my September moving days and we genuinely had fun and enjoyed each other. It was great.

In January, I read two books; The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club and Clouds of Witness both by Dorothy L. Sayers. Now I'm reading a collection of Sayers' short stories and The Master's Plan of Evangelism by Robert E. Coleman. My goal for 2010 is trying to read at least 10 books and it's been fun to try and divide my time between fiction and non-fiction. I definitely get through the fiction faster but it's because I'm often stopped by the words in the non-fiction that point me to Jesus and a deeper relationship with Him.

This month, I decided to take crocheting more seriously. I have a couple of projects that I am trying to finish this spring/summer before I start any other hobbies or projects. Pray for me~ I'm notoriously a "more starts than finishes" kind of girl. :)

This month I have had some cooking disasters. I made "molded bread" which is bread you don't put in a pan, you let it rise and bake on it's own ability to form itself.... mine ended up looking like a large mouth bass. I also had the infamous egg bake moment. Where I was trying to balance a heavy and slippery (cause of the towels keeping my hands from burning) pyrex dish FULL of yummy egg bake and saw it slip from my hands onto the concrete of my alleyway. If you don't know what happened next, I'll tell you... I cried and cried and cried. This story which I told my mother, father and grandparents ten minutes after it happened, crying the whole time, spurred my grandparents on to sending me a check to purchase a new dish (Grandmother's instructions are to get a new one with a basket with handles) to replace the broken one which laid then in our dumpster.

I've also had a baking success with a new chicken recipe. It's fast, it's amazing and it is healthy. Balsamic Chicken! Maybe I'll post on that later!

I've also seen how perfect my husband and I are matched. He is so steady in his emotions while... I... well, I mean come on! I was crying over egg bake! But he is so good to me and even if he doesn't understand why I'm crying he still is quick to give me a hug and hold me.

This month has been good. I'm looking forward to February though, to be honest. There are so many recipes to blunder, stories to have happen and laughter to be had that I am glad for this new day. I'm also extremely excited that my brother Jordan, his wife Rochelle, their daughter Waveland and unborn baby Doug will be staying for 5 days at the end of February! I couldn't be more excited!