pine mountain

I didn't take any pictures, but we went to Pine Mountain again.  As usual, it was delightful.

I love my family.

look-a-like

I love Mom a lot but I wasn't planning to write the obligatory Mother's Day blog post.  Then, Mom told me about a "Mother & Daughter Look-a-Like" contest that she just found about . . . and we missed the deadline!  So I wanted to post some pictures of Mom and I to prove that we would have won that contest!  

Happy Mother's Day!  :)

nothing exciting

Nothing really blog-worthy is going on in the Myers household, but I haven't blogged in 11 days (gasp!) so I thought I'd record a few of the things going on around here.

Work for me is going great!  Currently I am working in the dining room for the 3 hour dinner shift 3 days per week.  A 3 hour shift?  Yes, that's my kind of employment.  I'm glad I'm a woman and that my divine calling is to be a stay-at-home mom.  I know when that time comes it will be a lot of work, but it's not "employment" per se.  Then, on Saturdays I work for 4 hours in the afternoon running the activities.  It's a bummer to work on Saturday, but I don't have to get up early, and I get off with plenty of time left for a great evening with Ben.  And, I love doing the activities.  I am on-call for working at the front desk and covering the other activities assistants during the week as well.

Work for Ben is going great!  He is busy-busy-busy!  I'm not the one to explain all that he is doing and he won't want to blog, but I do know that he is getting a lot of really good feedback from his superior co-workers!  Surprised?  Not a bit.  He is doing great.  He's learning a lot and being courageous and getting out of his comfort zone.  As a stat, I think he is working about 50 hours each week with 2 hours of commuting each day.

The duck couple at our apartment complex had babies!!

Earlier this week a lady at work had a stroke during dinner time and the paramedics had to be called.  Three or four men came to take her to the hospital, but one of them was more interested in me than in the resident.  When they were leaving, he put his hand on my back and said into my ear: "Now, you have a wonderful evening."  Ha!  If only he knew I'm happily married!  I was shocked and flustered.

Ben and I have a few things that we do weekly.  Every Wednesday we watch Survivor and we are quite into it.  Excited for the conclusion this Sunday!  We go to Costco once a week for a cheap dinner - love us some pizza and a hot dog!  Then we walk around to try the samples, see what new books are popular, and test out the bikes.  We've recently discovered the magic of dessert at Costco as well . . . last night Ben got a churro to eat right then and an ice cream bar to bring home to the freezer.  I stick with the fro-yo.  We have also been frequenters of Baskin Robbins dollar night every Tuesday, but when we were there this week there was a new sign up and dollar night is no longer dollar night, but dollar-fifty night!  Lame.

spring event

Ben and I spent this past weekend at my parent's home.  Mom and I had a special Spring Event to attend themed Vintage Spring Sorbet.  You can view the information blog by clicking here.  I wasn't exactly sure what to expect, but oh my goodness, it was just the most perfect day!

There were cute little places to take fun pictures, delicious cookies to eat, fun and easy crafts to do, great vendors to shop from, a fabulous lunch to enjoy, and a delightful concert by Mindy Gledhill.  We loved her music and bought her two CDs afterwards; she is so happy and cute!  The day was so fun.  It was great to spend a whole day with Mom and bask in our femininity!

Here are a few pictures of the "scenery" of the event.

Here are Mom and I.  I love this picture!

One of our tasks was to punch out a butterfly, stick it to this chalkboard, and write a word next to it.  Mom and I are "joy" and "mother."

These are all of the women somehow connected to the Rowan family.  So fun.  This picture frame was one of the cute photo opps, but we decided (unfortunately, afterwards) that with so many of us it wasn't our best choice.

Lunch was so yummy, and Mindy Gledhill's concert was so happy!

I came home with a few goodies to beautify our apartment.  I love the flowers in the blue mason jars.  I am going to have to buy flowers each week to keep them full because it is just so beautiful and fresh!

This was one of the crafts.  I put a magnet on it when I got home and put it on our fridge.

I have to admit I was exhausted when we got back to Merced, but Mom and I weren't done with our day until we made some strawberry jam.  Mmmmm.

'Here's to a delightful weekend!  :)

Roasted Corn Salsa

Several years ago, some good family friends, the Fifes, brought over some delicious salsa.

I made it myself for the first time today and I cannot wait to have it with our dinner tonight!

Here is the recipe:

Roasted Corn Salsa

1 16 oz. bag frozen corn

2 large tomatoes, diced

1 small red onion

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

3 green onions, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 avocado, diced

juice of 3 limes

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1/4 cup olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

Put the corn on a cookie sheet under broiler

Mix everything together and allow it to sit for several hours

Serve with tortilla chips

fails

A couple of funny fails around here lately . . .

Last Saturday, Ben told me that he wanted to make Easter a little more special than just any other Sunday, and he wanted to do so by (me) making and (us) decorating sugar cookies. He knows this is one of my favorite activities. So we needed Easter cookie cutters. This happens every holiday . . the search for holiday-specific cookie cutters . . it's like no one uses them anymore! We tried Target first because we had to pick up a few other things there. And then we drove away before we even looked for cookie cutters! Forgetful. And too prideful to turn around! So then we tried the Dollar Store . . and then Marshall's just because it was next door. No luck. By now Ben is a little frustrated! It was cute. He just wanted to make Easter more special by doing something fun for me, is that too much to ask? We should have just turned around when we were so close to Target. It was getting late and we were tired. We were about to drive all the way back across town to Target, but I thought of the Michael's Arts & Crafts that we were already close to. And we found cookie cutters!

I can only still call it a fail because we had to pay $15 for the 101 piece kit, much to Ben's chagrin.

But I told him that it's the cookie cutter set I've always dreamed of and now we will never go on another holiday-specific cookie cutter search all over town! It's a win for me!

This next fail doesn't end so happily, so don't get your hopes up.

Monday night after dinner Ben was looking to help me during a busy evening. He assigned himself the chore of finishing the laundry. (And I did remind him to switch the load from the washer into the dryer!) Well, the clothes in the dryer weren't quite done yet so he gave them some more time and we went on with our evening. A little later Ben folded the clothes that were in the dryer and we, again, went on with our evening.

We both had to wake up at 5:30 the next morning so we got ready for bed and then I sat down on the living room floor and started stretching. Ben said, "Are you ready for bed?" I said, "Yep, just waiting for the bedding to dry and then we can make the bed and go to sleep!" And Ben said, "Ohgharhgh. I didn't switch the load from the washer to the dryer. When the first load wasn't dry yet, it slipped my mind. Even if I switch it now it won't be dry for at least an hour."

We were both sooooo tired and we had to get up much earlier than we're used to the next morning, so we just had to make do. See our solution below.

We used our Ernst & Young complimentary blanket as a fitted sheet, a quilt and our comforter for blankets, and two of Ben's big t-shirts for pillowcases. I took a picture because I knew we would think it was funny at some point, but that point was not then. Then we tried to sleep.

Two hours later, Ben woke up (I don't think I had fallen asleep yet), got our damp sheets out of the dryer, and made the bed. I'll just say that we did not sleep well and 5:30 came very early.

Fail!

Funny things in the Myers household. :)

reasons #2, #3, #4

2.

A gentleman needs help buttoning the second-to-top bottom on his button-up shirt. I lean in to help him and he says "Ooh, you're almost kissable!"

3.

A lady wants me to give her two candies even though she didn't win the round of BINGO.

Me: "I can't! You didn't win BINGO. Let's keep playing!"

Her: "Poop-head."

4.

I come home and talk to Ben in a really loud voice.

Even though I'm an "activities person," I'm being trained for 3 different jobs/responsibilities in my Company. Today was my first day doing Activities and it was just so great! I love what I do! Hallelujah!