Las Vegas Natural History Museum

Grant and I visited the Las Vegas Natural History Museum on Saturday. We had a great time! We really liked these "stuffed" animals that you see Grant with and we got to watch the staff feed some small sharks and sting rays.

Under the Sea

My techie tutor Sarah is here and she just taught me to put a slideshow on my blog. So here are some pictures of Grant at the Las Vegas Natural History Museum. Please to enjoy.....

Brunch w/ the girls

This morning I hosted brunch at my house with my three, dear, friends Gina, Babette, and Sarah. Grant took our picture and he did a great job! We were oh so grown up discussing the economy, politics.....and recipes(we are girls after all). When they were leaving one of them said "I think she has one of the prettiest yards in Las Vegas" later in the day I was thinking about that comment and how very generous it was. "Wow" I thought "I did such a good job picking my friends, they are such sweet women!". Then I thought some more and decided no, I didn't pick these friends. God sent them to me and they are a wonderful blessing!

James 1:17a "Every good and perfect gift is from above, and comes from the Father."

recycling

Grant's school talks to the kids a lot about recycling. So last year Grant kept asking Tom and me "why don't we recycle?" We tried to avoid answering him because the reason was.... we're to lazy. So Tom finally called the garbage company and had them give us some bins. Our recycling truck only comes every other week, so it turns out that the hardest part of recycling is remembering which week to put your bins out. We're starting to get the hang of it though. I must say I always feel good when I put those bins out full of stuff. I decided in the beginning that I didn't want a bunch of empty cans sitting on my kitchen counter all the time, so after I rinse them out and take the label off, I put them by my purse so that I remember to take them out to the garage every time I go to my car. Thank-you Grant for helping mommy and daddy do our part to help the environment!!
p.s. I was planning to blog about The Office season premiere tonight, but it was kind of boring, does anyone agree w/ me?

I Am Interesting!

You think I'm interesting; you really,really, think I'm interesting!
(remember Sally Fields Oscar acceptance speech?)
In my original email telling people I had a blog, I mentioned that Tom and I were laughing that my life is not interesting enough to justify having one. Several very kind people have emailed me telling me that they think I am interesting. It is so sweet and caring of you to worry about my self esteem. What I had meant was not that I am not interesting (because goodness knows I am!). I was referring to the fact that as a stay-at-home Mom there are some days where I literally do laundry all day long, which is hardly a fascinating subject, except maybe if you're Martha Stewart (should the maid spritz my linens w/ lavender or rose water today?). So thank- you to my wonderful friends for your concern, you are the best! And tune into my blog later this week to read about my sandwich-I'm serious.

Heroes

Heroes is back !!

Two whole hours of Heroes! I'm so glad it's back on. I was getting tired of watching Disney channel and Nickelodeon all summer, finally Mommy's shows are coming back on the air. When Claire asked Syler if he was going to eat her brain and he said "Claire that's gross" I loved it, that was classic Heroes.

Through the years...

I stole this idea from a really cute blog http://www.amiedanny.blogspot.com/ Tom, Grant and I were roaring with laughter as we looked at "potential" hairstyles. I actually looked like this when Tom met me, I told you I like big hair!!

I like this one! I call it "the Cher"

1966..You have got to go to this website and do this!

Maybe I should get some horn rimmed glasses, they are soooo attractive on me!!!
This is the scariest and funniest photo of myself that I have ever seen.

I look a little bit like my Grandma Ellenberger in this one.

could my hair be any bigger?

My hair turned out especially big and poofy today, but I decided to just go with it. Why? Because I love big hair. I want the style of smooth, sleek hair to be "out" and I want the big Dynasty/80's hair to be "in" again. Did anyone see the season finale of Big Brother? (not that I watch such trash, lol) Julie Chen's hair was soo big and poofy, she looked like she was ready to step into a soap opera....and I LOVED IT! Maybe some day I'll get to live in the land of gloriously, big hair.....Texas. Then my hairspray and I will live happily ever after. :)

Garlic Chives

This is a picture of my garlic chives in bloom in my herb garden. (bragging moment: I built this raised bed, are you impressed much?!) Garlic chives bring back such happy memories for me because they were in bloom when we took Grant home from the hospital. He had to stay in the hospital one extra day because he had jaundice, but with my hormones being all out of whack from giving birth it felt like he would be in the hospital forever. Tom and I were just walking on air, so happy to take him home. Tom took some pictures of me holding Grant as soon as we got home and the garlic chives are blooming in the background. sigh..... happy memories!

Thanks Sarah :)

Thank-You Sarah!!!!!!

I am so grateful to my smart, beautiful, kind friend Sarah who helped me set up this blog. There is nooooooo way I could have done it without her.

Sarah is shown w/ her adorable daughters Ava and Lily(baby). They were so good while we were busy on the computer.

There is a reason they are standing next to my crockpot.There is a blog I love where a woman is making something new in the crockpot everyday for a year www.crockpot365.blogspot.com. One day she turned her crockpot into a smoker and smoked a brisket. She said the brisket turned out really smoky and deliscous and wanted to try the method cooking salmon.That sounded good to me to and I decided to try it and Sarah was willing to be my guinia pig. You soak hickory wood chips in water for half an hour then you drain and wrap them in parchment, then poke many holes in parchment. I then used a brown sugar and spice rub on the salmon and seared it quickly in a frying pan ,then plopped it in the slow cooker on high for about 2 hours. We both agreed that the salmon was yummy, but it didn't have any smoky flavor. So that was disapointing. I was hoping it would taste like I cooked it on a cedar plank, because I love salmon that way. Anyhoo, thanks again Sarah for the lovely morning!

Mt. Charleston

The last week of summer vacation Grant and I tried to fit as many fun things in as we could. One day we went up to Mt. Charlseton. Mt. Charleston is about 25 min. away. It's a wonderful place to go during a Las Vegas summer because it's about 30 degrees cooler there. It's fun in the car to watch the thermostat go down, down, down and on the way home watch it go up, up, up. I love taking Grant there because he can really be a boy and get all dirty. I love that it is a totally different landscape than the desert, it's covered with pine trees. At Christmas time we went up to Mt. Charleston and it was covered with snow and Grant got to go sledding.

First day of school

Here is a picture of Grant on the first day of school. I can't believe that he is already in the fourth grade. So far he really likes his teacher and school. Doesn't he look handsome!