Changes coming soon!

We've been in our house for 11 years!  It's hard to believe it's been that long already.  When we signed the escrow papers, we could hardly stand to be inside this house without a breather on!  The smell.... oh how horrendous!  You could actually smell the cat urine across the street when our garage door was open.

Both Jason and I have put so much of our blood, sweat, tears and heart into making this house our home. We've tackled some pretty big remodel projects... a complete overhaul of the garage, guest bathroom, and the front 2 bedrooms.  We've painted, decorated, and laid tile/bamboo/hardwood.  We've changed out appliances as the older ones have died.  We've put in drip lines, sprinkler lines, trees and countless plants/flowers/shrubs.  I'm happy with all that we've been able to do over the years.

Still, we've never tackled a few bigger projects.  Projects like the mater bath, the kitchen and new flooring. These have always felt out of reach.. until now.

We've decided to start a little bit at a time.  We were lucky enough to have a friend give us some incredibly beautiful tile, which will be perfect for our bathroom.  We're pretty confident that we will be able to upgrade the vanity, mirror and lighting very cost effectively!  Doing the work ourselves helps to keep our cost down. It will be so exciting to have a vanity and not a pedestal sink!  Really.... I wonder what the previous owner was thinking!

I am so excited to finally get started!  The biggest drawback to the project... we'll have all 4 of us sharing 1 bathroom during the remodel!  Jason and I haven't shared a bathroom since we got engaged!  This will certainly be interesting!

(This is not our  bathroom... but it's not far off (imagine sea foam green walls and floor!)

Catching up with a Parmentier

Time passes by... new opportunities present themselves... new challenges faced, new struggles overcome... and a new life welcomed into our family.

Since I last wrote, I've started a new job with a great company.  Hubby broke his back and had spinal surgery to fuse three of his vertebrae together.  We've excitedly welcomed an amazing little boy into our family... he's smart as can be and is a spitting image of hubby!  Keira has continued to amaze us with all that she does.

Hubby and I have shared more than our share of trials and tribulations.  We've survived more tests than I thought we would be faced with during our first nine years of marriage.  We're stronger together now than we were just a few short years ago.  Our little family is incredible... still I want more for us.  I want more happiness, I want more togetherness, I want more laughter and more quality time as a family.

All that's happened.... and  I've reached a place in my life where I'm excited about the future.  I often wonder what the right decision is.  When faced with a life changing decision, will we make the right choice?  What is the right choice for our family?  Will this be better for the kids or not?  Will we be happier?  How will we know what is right?  For years now, I think it's been easier to not make any big changes, but I think the reasons for not doing so have been fear based.  I've realized that being afraid of change/failure is no way to live... at least not the kind of life I want for myself and my kids!

So that leaves the unknown... and I'm welcoming it!  The only thing scarier than the unknown... is staying the same.

Green Smoothie???

I've been having a hard time getting through all of our veggies, mostly all the leafy green stuff. I've been trying to figure out a way to get more veggies into my diet and use up all the CSA stuff each week. Well, I think I've figured it out. I had been wanting a juicer for a while now, but they are so pricey... I just can't justify spending the money right now. I decided to try using my blender and see what would happen if I ran some spinach... or kale through it with some other fruit and veggies. Yesterday I made my first "green smoothie" and it wasn't so bad! I used 4 cups of spinach, 2 cups of water, a nectarine and 10 strawberries. It was a little thicker like a shake and I could taste the spinach... but it wasn't gross. I decided to try making another one....

This morning I had the following: 1 bunch of kale, 2 celery stalks, 10 strawberries, 1 apple, 2 cups of water, 1 cup unfiltered apple juice and 1 tbsp minced ginger. I really enjoyed it and I think I've got close to or all of my f/v servings in for the day! Plus.... I feel great... virtuous! I just don't think that I'll be able to convince anyone else that it tastes good... since it looks like green sludge!

It's here!!

Back in April of this year, Jason and I teamed up with some friends (Chris and Amy) and Grandma Dub and placed an order for a 1/4 of a grass fed cow from Clark Summit Farms. I thought our beef would be ready in July or August, but got a call this weekend that it was ready to pick up this week. On Tuesday, I met up with a new friend of mine (who had also placed an order) and we headed off to the butcher in Penngrove. The drive was nice.. though we hit some traffic getting through San Francisco. Once we got there, the guys loaded up the van.... not only with my "tiny" little order (100+ pounds of beef) but with Danielle's order as well.... over $5000 worth of grass fed beef, pastured pork and lamb!

Once we got back to town, I helped unload the van before heading home to split up the order with Amy. I am so excited about all the wonderful dishes we're going to enjoy this fall! OH... the stews... the roasts... the chili! OH MY!! We're so excited that we thawed out 2 different steaks to enjoy this week! Tomorrow night we're having Fillet Mignon!

Summer Projects

Since I've had some time off this summer I've been trying to find different things to keep me busy. I spend time daily looking through the CareerBuilder/Monster/Craigslist job postings... and applying to everything that looks like a potential match. But a girl has to have something else to keep her mind off being unemployed or she'll go nuts! (At least I will!) So here are some of the things I've been doing this summer to keep myself occupied!

Kitchen Projects:

Painting - The first thing I did this summer was paint my kitchen! I absolutely loved the previous color (Wet Cement - a deep purple/grey color) but my kitchen was starting to feel too dark and gloomy. I decided to brighten things up a ton and settled on a cheerful yellow! Originally I planned to do a more muted color, but I've never been "muted" in my color choices for the house, so why settle now! I love it! It's very cheerful and bright and doesn't feel cave-like anymore!

Baking - I've been baking up a storm! From Bread to Bagels to cakes, muffins, cookies, flatbreads... I've been trying it all!

Canning - Before this year I would have never thought of canning my own foods. I didn't think I'd be very good at it. I didn't know if I'd enjoy it. I didn't know anything about it. Well... inspired by my sister in law, Lindsay, I decided to give it a shot. Mom and I have become experts in homemade jams! We've made strawberry jam, triple berry jam, peach jam, and pepper jam. I also made a few different kinds of plum jam with my friend Nikki.

A couple weeks ago Mom, Andrea, Keira and I went to a Peach "u-pick" set on bringing back about 20 pounds of peaches. Little did we know that the peaches would be the size of softballs.... and would be the best looking/smelling/tasting peaches we have ever seen! We also didn't realize that there would be hundreds of them tempting our little taste-buds and beckoning us to pick them! We ended up leaving the farm with over 75 pounds of peaches! Now... what on earth do you do with 75 pounds of peaches you ask...... you make some of the best peach recipes you can find! 3 batches of Fresh Peach Cobbler, Peach Pie, Peach Ice Cream, Peach Sorbet, and Peach Salsa! And you'd think after all of that you'd be out of peaches? Well you'd be wrong! We have sliced frozen peaches and some fresh peaches left.

Once I was able to come up for air after the peaches were taken care of, my neighbor gave me about 15 pounds of tomatoes. I decided to try my hand at canning some tomato sauce. I found a few different recipes and decided I could "wing it" based on what I had on hand at home. Here's what I did:

Blanch all the tomatoes (30 seconds in boiling water, followed by an ice water bath), remove skins.

Chop 2 onions, 3 carrots, 2 green bell peppers and put in a saucepan with 1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp olive oil. Cooked until onions were transparent.

Chop up tomatoes and added to saucepan.

Add 1/2 cup red wine and 3 tbsp tomato paste

Add 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil, 2 bay leaves, and 2 tbsp Italian Seasoning and 4 minced cloves of garlic.

Add 3 celery stalks (quartered... leave bigger pieces as they are removed later)

Bring to a boil, then simmer for 2 hours.

At this point, I took my immersion blender and gave it a couple quick whirls in the sauce. I then ran the sauce through my kitchen strainer. I pulled out the celery, carrots and bay leaves. Once all the sauce had been strained, I took some of the onions, peppers, and all the tomato pieces and pureed them with the immersion blender with a little bit of the sauce. Once the mixture was pureed, I ran it through the strainer again and discarded any of the pieces that didn't go through the strainer (mostly tomato seeds). At this point, I stirred the sauce and added a touch of salt and pepper and then canned it.

I am very excited to try some of the sauce in a recipe. I'll be using some tonight in my "Sloppy Bombay Joes" that I'm going to make! I'm also going to be making the Massaged Kale Salad! I'm so excited for dinner tonight!! I love new recipes!

Something else that I've been doing to keep busy....

Dusted off my bike! I've been wanting a new bike for a couple years now.... and I keep complaining to Jason that my bike isn't "for me." I received it as a hand me down and because it isn't exactly what I want in a bike... I haven't been riding much. I have been wanting more of a road bike / commuter bike and not a mountain bike. Well, for as long as I have been whining.... Jason has been saying.... Show me you are interested in riding and then we'll revisit getting you a bike.

Well... I was being lame for a long time about it. I didn't want to ride the mountain bike because it's not made for the road. Well... that's just lame. Bikes are made for riding... and not collecting dust and taking up space in the garage/shed. So... I've been riding.

I try to ride Keira to school at least 2 times a week. We have both a trailer and a trail-a-bike and she loves them both! It's a nice little 3 mile loop taking her to school... and if I take her and pick her up, that's 6 miles a day!

I've also been going on a weekly ride with my mom. Sometimes we set out to just do a little ride along the trail (going to Lexington Dam and back from her house) and sometimes we decide to ride to lunch somewhere or on an errand and we make a decent ride of it. No matter what we set out to do, we end up going anywhere between 20 - 25 miles.

Mom caught the "Bike bug" pretty bad mid June! Chandra convinced her to do the San Jose Bike Party ride in June. She hadn't ridden her bike in years and the 25+ miles was a tough one for her. Well, since then she went an bought herself a new commuter bike and started riding her bike to and from work. She's also gotten active with the Bike Party Volunteers and does the Trial/Planning Rides.

Well, Mom's new found appreciation and enjoyment of riding is rubbing off on me. I've now gone on one of the Trial Rides and took part in my first official Bike Party ride this weekend.... a little 30 mile ride... "Hot August Lights."

I've been keeping track of my mileage and the different rides that I've been on and so far in just over a month I've ridden 165 miles. I have signed up for a couple different personal challenges....

300 miles in 30 days

1000 miles in 100 days

100 miles in 2010

500 miles by Labor Day

So far, I'm doing pretty good towards my goals.... but I do need to get a move on if I'm going to meet the Labor Day goal!

Blogging Break.....

Wow, I can't believe how much time has gone by since I posted last! I'm sorry I've been neglecting my blog. After returning from an incredibly fun 4th of July Clear Lake trip, I lost my job. I don't know how to put into words the roller coaster of emotions I've been feeling for the last 6 weeks, but I'll try.

Frustration! - Finally, after years of struggling as a single income family, we got back up on our feet and both Jason and I were working. We had a plan.... we were going to finally be able to pay down the debt we've incurred over the last few years. Just as soon as we all got accustomed to our new schedule... we get kicked back down!

Relief! - I hadn't been very happy with my job for months. I didn't feel like there was any growth opportunities and didn't really enjoy what I was doing. I wasn't happy going to work every day and didn't feel like any of what I did made a difference.

Depression! - I don't know how many times a girl can get laid off before she starts doubting herself/abilities/skills/knowledge/etc. I've been laid off more times than anyone I know! Since 2001 my positions have been relocated, outsourced, downsized, and eliminated 5 times! I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever find the right match for me.

Excited! - I'm excited for the potential opportunities that lay ahead. The unknown... the possibilities... the fresh start! It's all scary and new, but it's intriguing!

Tired! - Every time I start a new job.... I'm starting from scratch. I'm starting at the bottom... I'm coming in at the ground floor.... sometimes "entry level" because it's all I can do to bring money in to help support the family. I'm so tired of not advancing in my career. I'm tired of starting over. I'm tired of being the low man on the totem pole. I'm tired of not having any seniority. I'm tired of not being valued and appreciated. I'm tired of being overlooked because I don't have my degree.

Frightened! - It's been 6 weeks now.... and I've gotten no where with my job search. I'm starting to freak out a little that I won't find anything! I've submitted my resume to dozens of places and have only heard from 2 of them... both "Thanks but no thanks!" I'm scared that I'm not going to find anything... or that I'll have to settle for less money than I know I'm worth!

There are many more feelings and thoughts that come to mind, but mostly I'm just scared!

Garden Markers and Sister in Law....

My super crafty, very talented Sister In Law has started making these incredible Vintage Spoon Herb and Garden Markers. Another blog that we both follow (8 Muddy Boots) is going to be giving away 5 of Lindsay's beautiful little creations! Wouldn't you love to win some of these lovely creations!

When I grow up, I want to be as talented as she is! No, seriously.... she has an amazing vegetable garden that produce so much that her family can eat from it nightly! Yes, that's impressive... but to some it's normal. Well here's the kicker! They live in the desert! In the Las Vegas heat, she grows this amazing garden! Lindsay is also an incredible little quilt maker, seamstress, and all around crafty girl.... and she loves sharing her beautiful treasures with others! I am still incredibly shocked, honored and tickled pink that the very first quilt Lindsay ever made was given to Jason and I as a wedding gift! It's beautiful and the colors compliment our bedroom beautifully! Soon after she made a precious little quilt for my baby girl!

When I was a little girl growing up... I had 2 brothers... and then 3.... and all I wanted was a sister! Finally when I was 12, my mom gave me a sister.... and then at 14 she gave me 2 more. I love my sisters dearly... they are so much fun and such good people. When I was 29, my brother Wyatt gave me another sister and a friend when he married Lindsay.... and I love her so much!