Behind the Scenes

Happy Birthday Jessie!!!

Today Jessica Ferris turns another year older. Happy Birthday Jessie!!! My friend Julie's birthday was the 27th and another good friend Sandy has a birthday on November 5th. I received a wonderful early birthday gift from my good friend Karrie Baker! I had admired her Vera Bradley Purse back in the middle of the Summer. Little did I know she went right to work and ordered one in a beautiful red paisley print. I absolutely love it!!! Thanks again Karrie! Not only did she give me a purse she also gave me a matching wallet that you can use as a purse if you want. (extra strap included). Here are some pictures of my organized new purse.

In other news.......Mackenzie is competing in the Regional Swim meet on Friday.Tomorrow evening after practice one of her team mates is hosting a pasta/ shaving party. The boys are the ones shaving their legs and elsewhere I guess??? Then Friday morning at 6am she needs to be at the High School to ride the Bus to Chandler High School. She'll be swimming the 500 free, 200 free, 4 x 50 relay and one other  relay.....maybe the  medley relay.

Steven has still been hot to trot on his bike. Last night we went for a walk and Kelsey made me run nearly the entire way to keep up with Steven. She never gets tired:). Sure wish I had endurance like that!

We are looking forward to seeing Alyssa this weekend. She's finally coming home from NAU. Michael will be coming over to Trick or Treat with Steven for the second year in a row. The rest of us are going to hang out at the ranch, hand out candy and catch up.

The kids both carved pumpkins tonight. Here's a few of the highlights!

I know........it's been awhile.....

since I've blogged. Things just happen way too fast around here and I don't seem to have time to write it all down. So let me catch you up on what's been going on around this neck of the woods!

First of all last weekend the kids were off for 4 days. Thursday was sleep in/ clean up day for the kids. Not too much going on around here since I had to work and then Friday we headed off to the Olive Mill and Pork Shop with Piot and here kids. I believe I mentioned all this in my last post. Since John was pretty much laid up all last weekend with his back strain I decided I was going to cook with one of the recipes from the Olive Mill and here's what I made.
It's called Spicy Chicken with Roasted Red Pepper. Super easy and super yummy! Both kids approved........so now I have something new to throw in the rotation. Here's the recipe if anyone is interested:

After dinner on Saturday night it was pretty cold outside and we decided it was time to light up the fire pit and roast some marshmallows. I love sitting outside looking at the stars and talking to the kids. It's so nice to talk without distractions. We sure don't get enough of that time around here. Here's a somewhat cute picture of the kids. 

The rest of the weekend Steven and I spent planting all the flowers in the front yard, back pots, a couple of tomato plants, basil, parsley and a jalapeno plant. So far, everything is surviving!

This week Mackenzie had another swim meet and she improved her times on all 4 events. She's really taken a liking to swimming the 500 (20 laps for those of you who don't know what the 500 is). She improved her time by 15 seconds on this event. Anyway, after each meet one girl and one boy are selected to receive a t-shirt with swimmer of the meet written on the front and this week she was the girl selected for the award. This made her week!

Steven has a new routine now that it's cooled off he thinks we need to take the dog for a walk every night. This of course involves him riding his bike and me walking the dog! It's been beautiful out but I have to say.......it's not always on the top of my list after a long day.

Both kids did very well on their report cards this semester. John wasn't happy that Mackenzie didn't pull her straight "A"s like the last few years but I reminded him that she has two weighted classes and has high "B's" in those! I'm just so glad that Steven is having a great year and his teacher has been the most positive force! After last year we sure needed it.

Well, Mackenzie is off to a Birthday Party and Steven is spending the night at his cousin Michael's house.........in other words.........having a gaming extravaganza!!! John and I are off to have a Margarita and maybe an appetizer somewhere. I've been runnign all day and am looking forward to a little time to chill!

Have a good one everyone :)

Fall Break

The kids are out on Fall Break so today we decided to go check out the Queen Creek Olive Mill.  Darryl and Mary had brought us a bottle of fresh olive oil from there at Christmas time last year and it was amazing! We met the Mudry's there and took a tour and got an olive education. Let me just say I never knew olives were so interesting. Did you know there are over 300 varieties of olives. We learned about ripening, picking, growing season, processing, different grades of olive oil etc. Then sampled flavored olives and oils. Let me just say everything was mighty tasty. I ended up getting another bottle of their famous seasoned oil for bread dipping and Steven begged me to get chili oil for cooking. Emeril look out! Bam! I also scored a few X-mas gifts for some hard to buy for people <grin>. Seriously, if you haven't been there it's a fun place to go. They even have wine tastings on Saturday's from 10-2pm. There is also a restaurant out there that serves yummy food with homemade herbs from their garden. This is a 100% organic place! Can you tell I enjoyed myself???

Here's a couple shots from the mill. The top photo is the machine that processes the oil. The bottom photo is the olive bar. Let me just say the feta/oregano and the wasabi olives were fantastic. They also have one stuffed with blue cheese that Martini drinkers are suppose to love!

After the excitement at the Olive Mill we went to the Pork Shop and we decided we were going to sample some of their stuff. I bought John some pork sticks, bacon and some of their brats. The boys refused to eat lunch their after looking in all the cases. The girls had no problem with their pork burritos.

The funny thing was the kids were all facinated by the man behind the counter of the pork shop. He had a handle bar mustache. Here's a picture.

Happy World Cardmaking Day.........a Day Late!

Seriously, I fully intended on posting my cards,I made Friday night, yesterday on World Card making Day and never had a chance. Saturday's are totally crazy with Mackenzie going from one swim practice to another. Then throw in Steven's sleepover and cleaning out my master closet, 4 loads of laundry, and doing dog duty in the back yard. Well, you can see where this is going. This was all in the morning prior to the early afternoon arrival of , Miss Sami . She was very excited about her sleepover. I secretly was just praying she would sleep. I believe this was her first true sleepover. My plan was t wear her out! We spent a good majority of the afternoon and early evening outside either on the trampoline or in the park with Kelsey. Oh, and Sami decided she also needed to swim in my rather cold pool instead of taking a nice warm bath. I was just hoping I wouldn't have to get more than my feet wet! I didn't! I was saved by the rain!!! Sami decided it was a bit more than a sprinkle and needed to get out.

Both of my kids were exhausted! Mackenzie said she was going to bed at 8 pm. Steven went to bed at 8:30pm and of course Sami and I were still up. We were laying in my bed watching a few cartoons with the lights out. Ssami decided she didn't like the one bedroom door open because she could see down my hallway. Well, after that problem was solved and I informed Sami and Ellie it was bedtime. Ellie hid under the covers a few times and then we went to bed. Mission accomplished!!! Of course at 6:30am when the dog insisted she be fed, Sami was bright eyed and ready to roll. I'm now back in the office trying to entertain her with crayons, markers and cut outs until one of the kids wakes up. I would bet Steven will be the first to crawl out of his cave.

Anyway, the native is getting restless and I'd better post my photos!  
I forgot to mention Karrie's little Cat's Pajama's stamp set she accidentally left at my house last weekend was needing some love! lol

More cards to share from last weekend

Sorry I haven't been good at posting everyday. Things just get a little crazy now and then and the blog posting is one of the first things to go.

Here are a few more cards from last weekend.

Not the best pictures but you get the idea:). I also sent a card to Rachel Mudry for her big 13th birthday but neglected to take a picture of it.

John left town today. He's headed to Las Vegas to play softball and gamble. I have to drive into work tomorrow <insert sad face here>. Today was one of those crazy days where I thought there was a full moon outside. Nothing major, just bizzare happenings. Hope tomorrow is better.

Steven and I are headed out to watch Mackenzie at her swim meet. They have a dual meet against Chandler and Desert Ridge. Here's hoping Mesa High swims well today!!