Amazing Inspiration

I dont know if you guys have seen this yet, but a friend of mine posted it on her facebook. Its about Stephanie Nielson.
She is an amazing person and is so strong. What an example.

Meet Freddie

Some of you might remember my mom's cookie jar. Sounds weird, but my mom had a cookie jar with custom, homemade cookie jar lids. She had, I'd say, atleast 20. So this last year I decided that would be a cool thing to start in our little family. so when I went to Tennessee for Christmas I asked my mom if she would help me paint one. There wasnt really time over the break but she decided to be clever with a present. She gave me package envelopes as a gift. ha! she had 11 of them. One for every month. (she did give me a lid for christmas) She let me pick out which lid I wanted to represent each month and told me she would paint it and send it to me! Super cool right! Her and my dad kind of tag team the preject. My dad cuts out the wood and my mom paints it. Here are the ones I've gotten so far.

December:

January:

February:
March:
April:
May:Meet Freddie the Frog^^

Isnt Deb just too crafty!! Be jealous! My mom is cooler than yours! ;)
I'll keep you up to date with the lids in the upcoming months.

Homemade Strawberry Jam

So for those of you who know my mom, you've definitely have had her amazing strawberry jam! Well lately me and drew have been pretty trunky for it. So after finding the Superstition Ranch Market and the awesome deals on strawberries, I decided I would attempt making the jam.
All you need is strawberries, lots of sugar, and sure jell (you can get it at most grocery stores)

I used sure jell premium fruit pectin. They have other brands of versions of this sure jell, I got the one with the no sugar or less sugar recipes inside. I didnt use those recipes because I love me some sugar. haha. the fold out had all the recipes on it. I used the easy freezer one.

this is my bowl of rinsed strawberries. as you can see I took the tops of too.

then you have to mash them up one cup at a time. I only did one batch to start with so thats 4 cups of strawberries. I just used a potato masher. Next you just follow the recipe on the fold out paper and put it into containers to set up

These are just little reuseable containers I got at the dollar tree for, of course, a dollar! And a good thing about this jam is that you can freeze it up to a year and it tastes so darn good! I did end up making another batch today because we just have so many strawberries left. I'll probably make more to be honest, might as well with strawberries being so cheap right now.
I hope you'll try to make it sometime. It's really good, easy to make, and ends up being way cheaper than buying jam (that is if you find good priced strawberries)
Enjoy!

Solomon Latest

So a couple of weeks ago I finally worked on a project I've been talking about to Drew for months! We had this dresser of Drews from before the marriage, it wasnt in the best condition, you know how boys are. I wish I would have thought to take a before picture.. but I didnt. Before it was a lighter brown wood but covered with this fake wood stuff,I dont know what its called, and goldish colored handles. But... after some primer and a couple coats of black pant and some silver spray pant, this is the finished product!

luckily the picture is small enough you cant see the "character" this dresser still has. But its a HUGE!! improvement from before. Just take my word for it, okay?

Another thing that has been going on is we finally got a bed upgrade!! Before we were on a full, which I had since I was 16ish and living at home. Refer to this post It was very cosy to put it nicely. haha, it just wasnt working for me anymore. So after hearing a sleep america ad while I was at work one day, I mentioned it to drew so we went down to look. Well, we walked away with a very very very!! comfortable queen sized bed! Love it! I sleep sooo good!

Karabi really likes it. It looks pretty plain right now yes, but still a work in progress. As you can see no head board. We have a couple ideas for cool head boards. Either out of soda cans or books. Just trust me, it'll look good. So.. pictures to come once we get it done.

other than that, Drew is still a slave to ASU and Express Scripts but...This semester is almost done!! Then only one semester left for Drew! YAY!! Then... only 7 more years of school.

Upcoming Events:
May-Drew finishes this semester
June- Drew takes the DAT (hopefully get pregnant this month)
July- Drews 24th bday, Clint gets home from mission, probably visit my parents, apply to dental school
August-Drew starts his last semester of ASU!
September- My 23rd birthday, hopefully some interviews for Dental School
October-hopefully Dental school interviews
November- hopefully Dental school interviews
December- hopefully being accepted to Dental school, my parents and sister come to Arizona for reunion!

So as you can see... things are about to get real exciting!! yay for life gettin' to gettin'. yes, I know that sounds totally country. ;)

Attention East Valley

Everyone in Mesa and surround areas there is a place you need to check out if you havent already... Superstition Ranch Market. It is AWESOME!! My cousin's husband told us about it. and since I had some friends coming in to town, I thought maybe muffins and fruits for breakfast. Well my lovely husband drew reminded me of this place so I hit it up. Beware though, tons! of Snowbirds! But super sweet deals.

Deal of the day for me: 2 for $1 strawberries!!!

and everything is Delicious!! I got bananas, apples, grapes, oranges, strawberries, lettuce, cilantro and tons of each for $17. it would have been tons cheaper but I got some more expensive apples and alot of grapes! either way... good stuff!! and it all tastes sooo good!!

so let me tell ya how to get there... its about half a mile east of Greenfield on the southside of Main St. Look for big neon colored posters. I dont know it there actually was a sign with their name on it but look for bright signs with current sales!!

dude I'm so hyped about this place!! Go check it out friends!

I think I'll name her Lucy

I got a new bike!! Isnt she SOO cute!! I've been talking about getting a bike for awhile with drew for fun and for exercise. Everything I try to do for exercise ends up hurting my knee or I hurt it doing other things and the exercise of choice just increases the pain. So we chose to try a bike! Its low impact and now drew doesnt have to slow his pace for me when he goes running. Plus, its cheaper than paying for a gym membership.

So this baby is a Huffy Cranbrook Cruiser. She's was only $84. Cant beat that!

I went to pick her up from Walmart today.. in my car. I didnt think itd be a problem because my back seats fold down. Well, she wasnt fitting. So the next thing I know, this latin guy comes walking over and offers to help. He tried putting her in a couple different ways. Yeah, it wasnt working. The handle bars just didnt want to be contained. So they stayed outside of the trunk. But he got some rope from his creepy van and made sure it was tied down nice and good. I wish I would have taken a picture of.. the secure job, the latin, and his creepy van. Either way, we got her in and home where she is hanging on our back patio.

Oh I cant wait to take her for a ride!!

In memory of..

Carl K. Rasmussen

My grandpa rejoined my grandma January 29, 2010. My whole family flew up to idaho this last week for the funeral. It went really good. I kept saying it looked like my grandpa lost 30 years and he just needed to dye his hair to look my my dad's twin. ha! oh grandpa! At the funeral itself my dad spoke along with a few others. I actually learned alot about my grandpa this week that I didnt know. For instance, he held my grandma over a cliff and said he'd drop her if she didnt say yes to his proposal. hahaha. At the cemetry he was honored with a 21 gun salute for his service in the military.

As we started to go through thing at my grandpa's house I came across this super awesome sweater. It was his high school lettering sweater. We found three different ones. Mine was the simplest looking (it was his high school one). Zane is sporting his college lettering sweater below.


Even though it was FREEZING! In idaho, it was still really good to see my family. I know I saw my parents and siblings in december but most of my cousins I havent seen in like 12 years. Well that visit willjust have to hold me over until next christmas when my family comes to arizona.

what a surprise, I still dont look like my sisters.

my family with my grandpa Harris and Geneva