Zucchini Bread, YUM!

I needed to clean out the freezer today, we just have a bunch of hodge-podge stuff in there, 1/2 bag of mini corn dogs, 1/2 bag of meatballs, frozen veggies, frozen strawberries, etc... So tonight we are having a 'clean the freezer dinner', just a mixture of all the items that need to be eaten. A few days ago my next door neighbor brought over zucchini from her garden along with yellow squash. I was so grateful because I had to leave my garden, in the prime of it's production I might add, to move here! So, instead of just weird dinner tonight from the freezer we'll be having zucchini bread with it!

The Best Zucchini Bread

3 cups of all purpose flour 3 eggs

1 tsp. salt 1 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp. baking soda 2 and 1/4 cups white sugar

1 tsp. baking powder 3 tsp. vanilla extract

3 tsps. cinnamon 2 cups grated zucchini

Preheat oven to 325. Sift dry ingredients together except sugar. Beat oil, eggs, vanilla and sugar together in large bowl. Add dry ingredients to wet and stir well. Stir in zucchini. Bake 2 loaves for 40-60 minutes until cake tester comes out clean. Cool for 20 minutes until your family enters kitchen and devours the entire loaf in one sitting, if you can get them to wait that long.

What I Miss

I miss cleaning my house and it staying clean for a week, or longer...

I miss getting in my car and there not being books, wrappers, toys and trash in it...

I miss my waistline. It's still there somewhere... On that note, I miss that things are no longer where they used to be, you know, higher...

I miss my camera... my Buglette threw a fit and threw the camera. Bye bye camera.

I miss my first job, working with all of my friends, making a few bucks for fun money...

I miss money being 'just for fun'...

I miss my high school girlfriends; we are all too busy with our lives to see each other regularly...

I miss that if I saw all my high school girlfriends it wouldn't be the same...

I miss kissing Hubby after a high school football or soccer game when he was all sweaty and he wasn't Hubby...

I miss staring at my engagement ring and getting goosebumps...

I miss my little brother... he's no longer little and lives far, far away...

I miss the smell of my baby's head...

I miss feeling the butterflies of life in my abdomen...

I miss the cute little two-door car I had for so long...

I miss the movie theater...

I miss trying to decide what to do on Friday and Saturday nights...

I miss my dear friend after she left the state...

I miss laughing with said friend till someone had to run to the restroom...

I miss carbohydrates, sugar and eating without counting points...

I miss quiet dinners when Hubby and I could actually talk to each other...

But I'm grateful that life is exactly where it is right now...

Thanks for listening.

Thirteen in Eighteen

Well. Yes. I am here. I think. No, no, I'm here. Yes. Here. I am right back where I started from. Literally, the same town I grew up in is now where we live, again. It's all very very good. I am happy to be home. We got to move right back into our same house, too. I have been forcing myself to come up with different places for things, you know, switch it up a bit. It's been going well. I knew we were moving back just one week before we actually pulled the three (yes, you read that right, 3, tres, three) moving trucks out of the driveway. But more on that later.

All of the moving had me recalling all of the moves we have made in our eighteen years of marriage. We counted thirteen total such events. Thirteen.

First, the week of our wedding I moved from my parent's home and my baby pink bedroom of many many years into my first home, ever. There wasn't much to move, a navy blue couch, a kitchen table and chairs, a few end tables, a bedroom set and various boxes and wedding gifts. It all went into a small little one bedroom house just outside Hubby's first duty station in the middle of the desert. We didn't live there (not even one night!) until we returned from our honeymoon.

The next most memorable move (there were 2 more in between the first and this one) was down to the beach town we would spend the next three years in. We lived on base. We loved it. I spent the first summer freezing in sweats and wondering where the heck the sun went. Then we adjusted, and fell in love with it. It's still a bit of a home away from home for us.

Another memorable move was to our first home we ever owned. We felt like we were royalty! We watched it be built. We wrote in drywall things like 'baby's room' and put our hands into wet cement. We lived there for three years but that will always be our house.

After leaving that house (yes, with baby in tow now) we were back in an apartment at the same small beach town as before, waiting for orders for Hubby to head off to war. As he prepared for war, we headed back to the town we are in now. We bought a house again, this time on a lake and once again felt like royalty. He returned from Iraq and sold that home on the water and bought the home we are in now. After three years here, we rented it out and moved to the last house we were in. Two years later, we are back and whew, I'm exhausted.

So, two months ago, we packed by just throwing things into boxes, loaded up a four bedroom plus loft home and, with help from my family and a few of our friends drove three large moving trucks of stuff and four vehicles following back to where we started from. Before moving this time I made Hubby promise that this was the last move. He agreed. You all are my witnesses.

Patience is a Virtue

Hey there. Are you there? Hello? Oh, hi. I guess you're there, it's me who's been MIA! Our family has undergone major change since August 3rd. We found out on July 26th that we needed to move because Hubby was getting active duty status with the Marine Corps. I had a week's notice about this move! The good thing is that Hubby will be stationed at a base near our hometown! And he's not going off to war this time! We got to move back to the small town I was raised in! We are here and in our 'old' house. We had a renter in it and he left just as we needed it! God is amazing! We are still getting settled; I hate moving and we calculated 13 moves in the 18 years we've been married. All I can say is, "whew", I'm exhausted. I am still unpacking many boxes and many to go. Patience needed. The funny thing is the real reason why I haven't been able to talk to you all. We live in an area considered 'rural' and thus we can't get internet service just yet. I am so frustrated but I must be patient. I head on over to mom and dad's to check email and this is first time I've blogged since the move. Patience needed. I have great pictures I have promised to post. Patience. Many adventures to fill you in on and all the craziness that is my family will be blogged soon. Patience. Stay with me. Have patience. I'm getting a lesson in that too.
'But the fruit of Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness and self-control' Galatians 6:22

I Promise to Take Pictures

The babies are still asleep! It's summer, so I let them stay up late and they tear around this house doing Lord-knows-what whooping for joy that their mama has no control over them. It's quiet in my house right now; the kind of quiet that makes me want to sit and enjoy my cup of coffee, writin' to all of you. But I can't. I'm supposed to be getting ready to head south today. We are heading to San Diego for one night and 2 days. Hubby has to do some Marine Corps reserve thing down there and the girls and I are tagging along for a change of scenery. We'll go to the beach to run from waves, build sandcastles and get sand in unmentionable places. We are looking forward to it. We (the girls and I) are also going to the opening of a new shop in Escondido called Urban Barn. I am super-duper excited about this because I will be meeting Aunt Ruthie of Sugarpie Farmhouse, her famous blog! I am bringing my camera, I will be stalking her like some crazed fan. Oh wait, I am some crazed fan. My mom and I love love love her blog. She is a native Californian who moved to Branson, MO and now channels the farm wives that lived in that area a few decades ago. She blogs about the Lord too and decorates so cute and takes beautiful pictures. I will be trying to stand near her hoping by osmosis I can make my blog half as wonderful as hers!

I will takes photos. I will post them. I promise. Stay cool. Not figuratively, but literally. It's hot hot hot here.

Cows and Mamas are a lot Alike

So my mom and dad asked if Hubby and I wanted to get away on a trip for awhile. Seriously? YES!!! Oh wait, that means my girls can't come. That means they will stay home with their Nana and Papa. They will eat without me, play without me and sleep without me, ok, I guess they do that anyways but still...

Hubby wants to go on a five-day cruise. That sounds nice. Five days and four nights of eating in peace and quiet, sleeping in peace and quiet, reading when I want to, taking a walk when I want to and just plain being with Hubby again as Hubby, not Daddy. But what if one of my babies needs me? What if someone gets hurt playing outside? Or they just miss me and can't get to me?? Or heaven forbid, someone gets sick? I will be hundreds of miles away on a ship for goodness sakes! It's not like there are cell phone towers in the middle of the ocean.

This all reminds me of the Pioneer Woman blog. http://thepioneer woman.com If you are not a reader well, you must become one. You just must. Ree is a red-headed, freckled mama of four married to the Marlboro man (her version of Hubby) and they live on and run a cattle ranch. She is originally from the city. Seriously. Her blog is a hoot and a holler and when I'm not cooking, cleaning or writing this or, okay, I admit, coloring or playing ball with one of my own babies I check out what Ree and the cowboy family is up to.

One of her posts talks about what happens when new calves are born. Marlboro man and the other cowboys must separate mama from baby so they can give the babies shots, brand them and check on their overall health. The mamas and the babies (no, not the Mamas and the Papas, the mamas and the babies...) are separated by one wood rail fence. The mamas stay at the fence trying to find their babies. The babies are lost without their mamas. Once that fence gate opens its' cow confusion. Mamas mooing for their babies and babies crying for their mamas. Looking at Ree's photos I really sympathize with her cows. " Excuse me, has anyone seen my calf? She's about yea tall, beautiful brown hair and eyes and is just the cutest ever... I'll be screaming over here for her if you find her."

It's sort of how I feel thinking about this cruise. I know Hubby and I need time together and I look forward to that aspect. But I know that by day three I will be done, starring at Hubby thinking, "Who's he and where are my babies?"

Independence Day

It's Fourth of July weekend. I love Fourth of July, I always have. My parents did a great job of creating memories for us, especially on holidays. The 4th was no exception.

It began when we (my little brother and I) were small and we lived on a cul-de-sac in a new neighborhood with other young families. We created lifelong friends on that block. All the neighbors would join in the middle of the block for a big July 4th party. All the dads would bring out their grills, us kids would decorate our bikes and scooters for a parade, music would play, and when it was dark we did fireworks. Yep, you heard that right, fireworks right out in front of our homes. Those were the days before safety was not the most important thing and parents still allowed their kids to play out front. I even have pictures of about 10 of us kids piled into the back of a pickup truck for a ride! My girls have no concept of what a sparkler even is now and the back of our truck is strictly for objects.

After moving to the small town I grew up in, 4th of July became huge parties at the park overlooking the lake. We swam till dark, played games, ate, swam more and then everyone would scatter to find the best spot to see all the fireworks shoot over the lake. As I became a teen the 4th of July became even more fun... partying at the lake with my friends, watching the fireworks and staying out afterwards. My parents were a little naive...

After getting married, Hubby and I created our own memories. He was in the Marine Corps so we would gather with friends and celebrate. Once we moved to Camp Pendleton the celebrating took place on the beach. Camp Pendleton would throw huge parties with sponsors, fireworks, food vendors and the like. Sometimes they were a little crazy. I just remember sitting in traffic for about an hour to get home even though we lived about a half-mile from the beach. We didn't have our girls yet so we could stay and have fun and not have to rush home. Ahh, those were the days...

Now, as a family, we have block parties (that's me trying recreate my childhood) and then sit on our balcony overlooking the valley and watch fireworks go off at all the different venues. Bethany goes to bed long before they pop. Of course, all the neighbors are over and the kids (I should say, 'girls', there's not a single boy in the bunch!) are so silly with candy and no rules and playing outside in the dark.

This weekend, take time to remember our freedom is not free and some are working in a dry, hot desert, thousands of miles away to protect what we so take for granted. Happy 4th of July!!!