Saturday, September 12, 2009

Are you ready for some FOOTBALL????

August 22nd we went to a pre-season Cardinals vs. Chargers game! Jeremy was offered 4 (FREE) tickets in the club section (the second floor..there's 2 club sections, the other one is on the field) & 2 parking passes!! We invited our neighbor's across the street from us to go with us!! It was awesome!! I've never been to a football game PERIOD (well except for youth football) so it was different!! I've actually only been to 2 baseball games & a spring training baseball game! It was actually really ironic because Jeremy & I were talking about going to a football game or 2 because Chris "Beenie" Wells was signed this year to the Cards (which, for those of you who don't know...he was Ohio State's star running back...I think, I'm no football expert)!! So since we can't ever get to an OSU game I thought this would be close enough!! Well unfortunately Wells was unable to play because he had a sprain so we're hoping that we can score tickets again later in the season & maybe get to see him play!
The only real complaint about the game was that it was HOT in there!! It's a dome that has a roof that opens but with possible rain they of course didn't have it open...so you'd think they'd crank the A/C but nooooo...but maybe I'm just spoiled by the temps we keep it at here at home!
Well that's all for that...here's some pictures for you to enjoy!!


The west side entrance
Our seats are right down & to the left
The loft..the seats I WISH we has but can't argue with free
Our first game!!
Nuff said
Roof
Our nice padded seats!!
Our P.O.V.
Warm up
Getting ready to come out (that was video taped)
Coin toss
Now on with the game
Here's something for you men!!
Beenie Wells #26
Entrance into where we sat (the guy in the blue was our door man!!)
Time to go home =( Cards lost!!
First Play

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Wow...where do I start!?!????

Obviously it's been a REEEEEEAAAAALLLLLLLLLY long time since I've updated this!! There's been a lot going on! Hmmm...lets see here what's new since January?
*Well we had a very awesome Superbowl party which we had to buy a 52" TV for (which I'm not complaining about)! My dad came down for his birthday & him & his wife helped us prepare for the Superbowl (my dad's birthday is the 31st of Jan so they stayed long enough for the party)!! It was great! Our first ever party of that magnitude!! There was a lot of people here but I LOVED it!!
*Valentine's day was pretty good this year! Jeremy's been having a rough time making it super great after he got me Roxy! It's been very hard to top that one!! This year he got me an apple Itouch!! I love it!! I use it for just about anything I can use it for! I take it everywhere with me & almost always find a use for it!! This was also the month we got our taxes back!! We went ahead & got the $7500 tax credit for purchasing our home! We used that money to buy new furniture that was much needed in this house!! We got Taylor a loft bed (FINALLY), we got 2 recliners (his & hers) for the living room to get rid of the CRAPPY & broken Lazy Boy couch, & an entertainment center for the TV in the living room as well! We also bought a new kitchen table!! We got all of this at once at the room store! They were having a sale so we saved about $2000!!! We got Jeremy a new TV for the living room to put in the new entertainment center! So now we have 2 52" TVs!! It's pretty much a "his & hers" because Jeremy likes the "front room" & I like the "back room" (living room [front] & family room [back])!!
*March Taylor started cooking classes at the Young Chef's Academy!! She loves it! It's something else for her do to & interact with other kids! Being the only child at this moment in time has had it's ups & downs for her & I think it's just really hard for her because she has no one to really play or interact with so this is just one more thing! She's made a lot of great recipes over the past few months!! We also started painting the house again as of March!! We finished the kitchen/family room...as you may remember, right before the holidays we painted one half of the room a very dark red...almost burgundy color!! We decided that we were done painting until after the 1st of the year! So March was the month we decided to go ahead and start back up again!! Jeremy didn't want to start at all but it needed to get done! My ultimate goal is to have all of the painting that we'd originally planned on doing needs to be finished by November of this year!! It was a good thing we waited so long to get started again because we were going to paint the other half of the room a "complement" color on the swatch which was a magenta-ish color. Though the more we thought about it, the more we really didn't like it. So we went to the Home Depot & picked a lot of samples....taped them all to the burgundy wall & left them there for a few weeks!! As we looked at all of them, we started taking the ones we knew we didn't like down & were left with 3 out of like 7 or 10 different samples! We went back to the store with those samples & we showed the people at the paint counter what the color of the one wall was & the samples we were down to & what they thought would look good! They chose this color called Kola Bear. It looks green, like tan-green. It's very hard to describe but depending on the light it can look almost tan or more green! I will have to post pics & I don't even think that would give the best look but it may help! I also started taking cake decorating classes at JoAnn's this month! Course 1, it was fun but a lot of cakes!! We had to make 4 cakes for this class! I made 5 because I did a practice cake the weekend before my class. Sadly a lot of cake was thrown away due to the fact that it was hard to keep eating cake!!
*April...hmmm...I'm not sure what really happened it April except Easter. I went to my best friend's baby shower! I remember because it was the same weekend as Easter! It was a great shower...I totally surprised Hope by showing up! She figured since I live so far that I wouldn't come but I drove 3 hours to come & then left after it was over due to the fact that it was Easter. I didn't want to miss that with Taylor! I love hiding her basket & watching her find it! Poor Hope's feet were so very swollen tho! It looked like her feet were about to give birth too!! I bought her a pack of swaddling blankets & a fridge pack for the bottles. I had also made her a card with my new Cricut machine! That card was giving me all kinds of trouble but it was all worth it to see how much she loved it!! I also did cake class #2 this month!! This class only had 1 cake to make but don't let that fool you because there was a LOT of flower making going on here! We made tons of royal icing flowers this class! And the cake was a basket-weave then you placed the flowers made on the cake!
*May was pretty boring, Taylor got out of school in late May! My neighbor had a birthday which was fun!! Mother's day was terrible because Jeremy & Taylor spent the entire day working on Taylor's science project which I didn't mind so much but they kept fighting so it made for an awful day!! Also this month was course #3 for cakes!! It was tiered cakes & fondant! Fondant is not as easy as I thought it was!! Especially when we had to make the fondant roses!! That was a PAIN!! We were suppose to make a bunch at home for our final cake (we only made 2 cakes for this one...actually a total of 3 if you count the tiered cake at 2) but at home it was frustrating so I made a different tiered cake for the last class!! After that class I decided that I would not go back for the Fondant & Gum paste class (which you could take anytime after course 1)!! I was all caked out! I may go back later maybe October or something but I just can't right now...too much!
*June...hmmm we didn't do a whole lot in June either. We didn't do anything for Father's day because, well after Mother's day (Jeremy pretty much told me since I'm not his mother he didn't feel the need to really do anything special & he really hates holidays) I pretty much decided that we didn't need to make a big deal of it! We went to the AZ Science Center this month. I wanted to do something over the summer!! I've actually been wanting to check it out for almost a year now!! It was fun while we were there but the trip there & back was hell!! We rode the Light Rail (which wasn't the bad part...that was actually fun)! Though the walk to the Light Rail station was the very sucky part!! Jeremy said that it was a block from where he worked so I was like "ok instead of paying for parking, we can just walk to the station & ride the Rail! No prob!!" Well it was a VERY long block and it was noon!! June is not bad for the heat...but it was still hot & if I'd known we were going to be in the sun at that time for as long as we were, I would have put on sunblock! The UV index at that time is pretty high!! So we get to the station & wait for the Rail (which thank God it wasn't a long wait) & get on...the ride is not very long. Maybe 10 minutes. Then we have to walk (AGAIN) to the center!! This walk was not as long tho. It was still about a block away but now we're in downtown PHX so the blocks seem shorter! Tho we were still very hot from the last walk so by the time we got to the center we were sweaty & very thirsty!! On the way back my feet were killing me! I think next time we'll just use their parking. It wasn't that expensive anyway...we just didn't know that because the website didn't disclose that information! All & all though it was fun! Not something we'd do a lot but it was fun! I'd LOVE to go back when we have a toddler because I think it'll make it a bit more fun! There just wasn't much for children Taylor's age!!
*July!!! Here's where it's been HOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTT!!! I LOVE July for the 4th but can't stand the heat!! We're still in July but so far, we've been very busy!! Taylor & I went to see Wicked on the 2nd! My mom bought us ticket in the orchestra section!! We were only 14 seats away!! FOURTEEN!!!!! The only thing that sucked was that we couldn't park at the center! We had to park 2 block away! We got there 2 hours early & planned on riding the Orbit bus which took you around the ASU campus (which is where the show was playing which is why we couldn't park at the center, it was a day show & there are students there for summer session)!! I've never been in this side of town nor have I ridden a public bus (the schedule is hard to read)! It seemed simple enough tho because the schedule I printed out said it took us right to the center & it was only a 2 min ride!! Well Taylor & I got on the wrong bus apparently! But all was good after I talked to the bus woman because we'd be on the bus for another 20 minutes (we were already on for a while) & she told us which bus we needed to take! It was waiting for us when we got there!! It was good that we were there 2hrs early but if we'd gotten on the right bus it would not have been so great! The Gammage center wasn't letting anyone in until EXACTLY 1 hour before the show started!! We only had to wait about 5 minutes!! The show was amazing & worth all the hassle!! We had a BBQ for the 4th which wasn't bad (things did NOT go according to planned so we had waaaay more food!) it was very humid & 106 degrees so it was very uncomfortable outside!! Before the 4th (in preparation for guests) we (FINALLY) painted the (what Jeremy likes to refer to as the "front room") living room!! We've had this paint for 2 months!! Jeremy just REALLY hates painting so he's been dreading it plus a lot of things have been keeping us busy each weekend! It was suppose to be a gray-ish blue...more gray than blue but it was more blue than gray! Jeremy hates it!! I (& everyone who's seen it so far) LOVE IT!!! It's a great color & it goes great with the dark wood that we have & I think it'll go great once we get the fish tank!! The weekend after the 4th (the 11th which was this last weekend) we had a house full of guests!! Jeremy's mom came to visit & so did my dad & my brother Aaron!! I had no idea (or should I say...I forgot) when my dad said he wanted to come on the 11th that Jeremy's mom was coming on that same day!! CRAZY!! I'm not sure if the both like the idea of being here at the same time or not but once they were here it seemed to go great!! They (well to my knowledge) had a great time!! I thought it was good because to me, I think if some of our family has the opportunity to meet each other than they should!! I had a great time with my brother!! Though it was short lived because they got here Saturday around 8-ish & left Monday at about 5!! Jeremy's mom made us a centerpiece for our new table! It came out great!! I left it all up to her because I wouldn't have known what to do with all that stuff! Plus since she did it Jeremy was happy with it! If I'd had that idea I don't think it would have been well received by him! She also was nice enough to buy Taylor this chair we were looking at getting at Bed Bath & Beyond!! Taylor loves that chair & has not sit on any other furniture since she got it!! This weekend (the 18th) my ex-Mother-in-law will be coming here to pick Taylor up! They're staying the night & will leave on Sunday! Her other grandparents wanted to visit with her & so they decided to come here to get her & they will be bringing her back on the 24th (which is a Friday)!!

I will post pics of all the happening since Jan. that I have at a later time. This took me over an hour & a half to write & I just want to step away from the computer!! Plus reading this should keep you busy enough!!

Monday, January 26, 2009

Recipes!!

I've been working on making a cookbook (& getting recipes outta the notebook & not have to hand write them anymore) & thought that I'd share the recipes I find & the ones I've made with you!! I have a link off to the right "Willey Family Cookbook"!! Go check it out!!

I'm going to update it frequently (well for now) because I have tons of recipes right at the moment!!

HAPPY COOKING!!

=)