An Easy, Fancy New Trick

During the holiday season Mike and I have had a lot of friends and family over to eat. I wanted to make my usual cupcakes look a little more festive.

Waa-Laa...

It was really easy to make the snowflakes. First, I found pictures of snowflakes on the internet that were simple enough to trace. I formatted them to be the size I wanted and printed out a sheet. Then, I layed a peice of wax paper over my snowflake print out. In the microwave, I melted some white chocolate chips in a baggie. I snipped a little corner off the baggie and piped out the melted white chocolate. All I did was follow the design of the snowflake print out. After the white chocolate cooled, I gently lifted them off the wax paper. I placed the snowflakes on the cupcakes while the frosting was still wet, so that the snowflakes would stick. I also added some white sugar sprinkles for some sparkle (You can't see that in the photo).

It really is so easy and literally only took 15 minutes. Snazzy!

Christmas 2008

Michael and I spent this Christmas with the Dresser family. On Christmas Eve, we went to Jena and Mike's house for food and games. We also took a tour on our town's street of lights. We finished the night with mint chocolate chip brownies. Yum.

On Christmas morning, Michael, Cooper and I packed up our presents and drove over to Mama Lana's house. After a nice breakfast (that seemed to last forever!), we opened presents. Michael and I had both picked out each of our presents on a shopping trip together. However, we did wrap each other's gifts. So, the surprise wasn't what we receieved, but what was actually in the package. My mom said this was very practical, but I think it's just smart. We both got exactly what we wanted for Christmas. My big Christmas gift was an ottoman (no, this was not wrapped). I love my ottoman! It's perfect for our living room and I love having the storage inside for blankets. This is a photo of a similar ottoman.

Later on in the day, more family came over to eat Christmas dinner. During the evening we played several games, but Mikey and I hosted the Right Family game. Everyone enjoyed the game, though there were some tears shed when a nephew discovered that he didn't win the hidden $5. Maybe next year, right? (get it?)

We had a Merry Christmas!

This is a photo of Cooper and Lila. Lila is Jon and Lana's new puppy. Cooper and Lila played constantly on Christmas day.

Even though Lila only packs 2 pounds, she never gave up her toy in a game of tug of war. Maybe her growling scared Cooper off alittle.

San Francisco

Michael and I had a grand ‘ol time visiting San Francisco with Jay, Michael’s brother, and Jay’s “special friend” Bethany. We started the day-cation by driving across the Golden Gate bridge. We took time to take some pictures featuring the bridge itself and the city on the bay.

After that stop, we searched for some cheap parking up close to Union Square. Since that does not exist, we parked in a parking garage a black away from all the awesome shopping. ($30--- ouch!) We then rode the trolley down to see the usual tourist spots: Ghirardelli Square, Fisherman’s Warf, and Pier 39. We snapped this shot of Jay and Bethany joking around while watching the seals.

Next we headed up to the shopping. We did a couple hours of shopping and believe it or not I didn’t buy a thing. What self-control! We ended our San Francisco trip by eating at the Cheesecake Factory. That was delicious just as the Cheesecake Factory always is.

Finally, on the way home we took a little detour to see the lights on the Oakland temple. It was beautiful. There were lights everywhere. As I was looking around and I thought to myself, “I wonder if they followed the ‘“only three strands to a line’?” Then after a little investigation, I discovered that they did! It’s amazing. They has hundreds and hundreds of strands of lights and they had some how only consecutively connected three at a time. Amazing. You can't see the lights very well in the picture, but believe me, there were lights everywhere!

All in all, it was a very enjoyable trip.

Happy Halloween!

Michael and I had a quiet Halloween night. We were ready for a crowd of kids with a super large bag of candy, but not too many kids came by. We have plenty of candy left over. We did have fun dressing Cooper up. I know, we're silly, but it's still a lot of fun.

When Cooper's in his pirate outfit, he holds still a lot more. It's like he's not sure if he can move all the way. It's funny.

Here's Cooper with his pirate hat on. He was pretty good about wearing the hat, surprisingly.

What a mean looking sword!Megan and Cooper on the front porch.

Michael and Cooper on the front porch. Megan with Cooper, Mocha (Jon and Lana's puppy, in his army fatigues), and Jeffery (Mike's nephew). We visited Mocha to have a small, joint birthday party for the puppies. Yes, Cooper is almost one year old (Nov. 17).

Everyone's Favorite... Pictures!

Here are a bunch of photos of things that have been going on. The first few are from a little day trip Michael and I took to San Francisco right before school started.

This was taken at the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield on our way to the bay area.


Here I am at Fisherman's Warf. Those seals were stinky!


Mikey and I tooko a cruise around the bay. It was very windy! Can't you tell?


We took the trolley to get from Union Square down to Ghiradelli Square.


Here's a typical sight in our house. Megan working at the dining room table with Cooper in his bed next to her. Even now as I type this at the dining room table, Cooper is in his bed keeping watch.


Every Saturday we do the same things: clean the house, yard work, clean Dr. Dresser's office (part of our rental agreeement), go grocery shopping, mow the lawn at the Dresser's (another part of our rental agreement), and hang out at home catching up on school work.
Here's Michael doing the usual Saturday thing: mowing the lawn in flip flops. That's probably dangerous, but our little yard takes literally 2 minutes to mow.


Cooper usually helps with yard work. His job: fertilization. He's a pro.


This picture didn't turn out well. But another part of our Saturday is eating breakfast at the counter looking out the window at all the neighbors moving about.


Cooper gets worn out easily. Here he is collapsed (asleep) on our bed.

What's going on...

I don't have any fun pictures to post, but I can update you on what's going over here in CA. I've been teaching third grade and loving it. I've got some darling students and enjoy hearing their stories and connections to their learning.
Mikey is also teaching now. SURPRISE! He started teaching algebra and business at Rosemont high school. At the same time, he is completing a teacher credentialing course. He is crazy busy and is tired often. He's hanging in there. He works in a more ghetto area of Sacramento and so he deals with students who act like thugs (though I don't think they really are... wannabes). A lot of his students have failed algebra once or twice so they've pretty much checked out of the class. It's a hard position, but he's dealing with it well.
Cooper gets to have a lot of alone time since Mikey and I are working long hours. He's still a fun puppy and has started to settle down and cuddle with us more. There's hope to finally have a real lap dog, not just a play at your feet dog.
That's what's going on with Mikey and I.

So Sorry... Here's why I've Taken so long to Post Again

School started on August 19th. So, a month before school started my teacher partner, Heidi, and I started getting together to plan and prepare for the year. Now the year is into full swing. We've got a great class and have lots of fun with the kids.

We have 30 students, but with two full time teachers in the classroom, it's totally manageable. Heidi and I take turns leading lessons or sometimes we teach side by side. Here are a few funny moments from the year so far:

One day the kids were taking a little test. The students are not allowed to stand up during the test unless there is an emergency. Well, one of our darling little boys had had a super runny nose that day. Knowing that he was not supposed to look at anyone else's test, he stood up covering his eyes just enough so that he could see where he was walking. He kept his eyes shielded as he walked all the way across the room to get a tissue. Then after blowing his nose (facing the wall, not the students' desks), he covered his eyes again and walked back to his desk. It was so cute to watch, that neither Heidi or I stopped him to remind him to just raise his hand for our help. What an honest kid!

Another little mormon incident occured while I was meeting with five students to talk about our reading group book. In the book, there are two brothers that have a crush on the same woman. In our class, we've been teaching the kids to make connections to their reading so that the text has more meaning to them. One of our cute little girls very excitedly shared her connection: "Our prophet had like 200 wives! But now he's dead and you can't have more than one husband or wife. That's what my primary teacher told me!" I can only assume she was talking about Brigham Young. But the looks that the other kids (non-mormons) gave her was classic, like "what the heck is she talking about?" She was just so excited to share this connection.

Here are a couple pictures one of our parents took on the first day of school:

The BEST Website for Recipes

I love cooking. I love trying new recipes. I've come across the BEST website for new recipes ever.

allrecipes.com

On this site, cooks can submit their recipes. Other cooks who have tried the recipe give it a grade and make comments. The comments they make are helpful, sometimes suggesting to add more of an ingredient or reducing the cooking time. But every "5 Star" recipe I've tried has been delicous! Here are a few of my favorites:

Chocolate Zucchini Bread
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chocolate-Wave-Zucchini-Bread/Detail.aspx

Sticky Cinnimon Buns
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Ooey-Gooey-Cinnamon-Buns/Detail.aspx

Soft Sugar Cookies
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Easy-Sugar-Cookies/Detail.aspx

This website is just fabulous!

Cooper Lately

Okay, so I guess I probably treat Cooper a little bit too much like a baby. Don't worry I still know he is a dog and I definately have boundaries. He's just so much fun. Cooper keeps Michael and I entertained constantly. He's always doing something funny. FOR EXAMPLE...

I was clearing out some unnecessary boxes from our kitchen cupboards. When I stuck this box in the trash Cooper started barking at it like it was an intruder. After he calmed down a little, he kept trying to sniff and chew on the box. Because he was standing up aganist the trashcan, he pushed out into the middle of the kitchen (that scared him too). It was funny.

Cooper likes, no LOVES to lick. He will lick anyone, but he especially loves to lick Mikey. I don't let Cooper lick me... that's one of my boundaries. It grosses me out. (Michael is laughing in the picture, he is not in pain)

Cooper also loves to play fetch. It's fun to watch him leap down this step. He gets some hang time.
Cooper will get his ball no matter what is in his way. Here he is crawling military style in order to get underneath our dresser. Every once in awhile we'll look over and just see his fluffy tail sticky out from underneath the dresser.

Squeezing out.

He's a funny little guy, huh?

A Few Days in Tahoe

Michael's parent own a nice, little condo right off of beautiful Lake Tahoe. So, Michael and I try to drive up the hill the Tahoe as often as we can. We went there last week for some of the Fourth of July festivities and then we went up again this past Wednesday to hang out with Jeff's family (Michael's brother).

On the way up to Tahoe, we were lucky enough to get a flat tire (second one in a year!!!). We pulled over, called AAA and were able to drive back home on our donut tire. All was not lost though, Jeff was able to pick us up on their way up to the condo. Thank you, Jeff and Jennifer!

Although our trip had a rough start, we had a great time. Michael went out with the boys to the Lake Tahoe Celebrity Golf Tournament. He, his brother, and his nephews got authographs from people like Tony Romo, Jason Kidd, Kevin from the Office, Trent Green, and other celebrities. Meanwhile, at the condo, the girls went out for a walk looking at all the ridiculously huge houses around the lake. We also gave ourselves pedicures and enjoyed hours of girl talk. The next day we went to the beach, went out for dinner, and played a fun video game, Buzz. We always have a great time at the Lake.

Michael and Jeffery taking a photo with Kevin from the Office.

Jeffery with Tony Romo. Michael posed to take a picture with Tony, but Jeff took too long to take the picture and Tony walked away.

A fun day at the beach and, yes, I built that sand castle. (Look how smokey the background is... it's terrible in Northern California right now! It was even a little clearer on beach day)

A birthday dinner at a favorite Tahoe Mexican Resturant. Yummy, fried ice cream!

Seeking some Help

Michael and I have slowly been trying to decorate our little house. I've run out of budget friendly ideas for decorating our living room. Here's our color scheme: brick red, earthy sage green, taupe, and burnt orange.

Problem 1: There are too many red tones in the living room. I want to add more green some how.
Problem 2: The couch floats in the middle of the room, so I can't add any lamps because the cords would be exposed.

Problem 3: our fireplace is ginormous! The mantle is really skinny, so you can't set much on it. But mostly, it's just HUGE!

Question: How do I add color to that wall of the room with such a huge brick fireplace?

Question: What can I put behind the TV stand so that it doesn't look so awkward?

This picture (below) didn't turn out.. too much light coming through those windows. But that reminds me of a problem...

Problem 4: Our ceilings are pretty high and they are paneled with a reddish, orangish wood. Sometimes the room seems heavy.

Question: How can I lighten up the room and make it look like a young family lives here?

Let me know if you have any brilliant ideas. In a couple weeks, Momma Bruce is coming to visit and we will be shopping like crazy. That's my chance to really search for problem solving items.

Thanks in advance for your advice!!!

Our New Patio Furniture, ahh...

When we moved into our house, we knew that eventually we would NEED to get a comfortable set of patio furniture. We've got a great veiw and now we can take advantage of it. We got the set at Home Depot a few days ago and put it together ourselves. I love it!

Since the cushions are a light color, I made sure that they were thoroughly ScotchGuarded before hitting the elements (even though they are on our covered deck.)

This is a picture of part of our veiw. On clear days, you can see all the way to downtown Sacramento. It's pretty cool, I think.

A Nice Surprise... not!

Michael and I were out late this past Friday. When we got home, I rushed inside to let Cooper out so he could go potty outside. When I opened the door to the bathroom, this is what I found:

This picture does not give the mess justice... little cotton balls were everywhere!

When we're gone for more than 3 hours we leave a potty pad out for Cooper (which he uses quite nicely, and keeps our bathroom floor clean). Apparently he got bored and shredded the potty pad to peices... "Thanks, pal!"

This picture was taken later that night... an angel right? He knows how to work it.

I'm Getting There

It's been a slow start for me and this blog. I'll try to do better. Here's an update on what's happening at the Dressers.

Michael just finished another season of coaching his nephew's basketball team. He just started a city-league team with some buddies he plays with at the gym. They won their first game tonight. This picture of him is from the Basketball Hall of Fame playing on a peach basket.

I've been working at Rocklin Academy since March in 2nd grade. It's been really fun, but even more fun because I'll be teaching some of these 2nd graders next year in the Third Grade at Rocklin Academy. It's like a sneak peak for next year. Cool!

Cooper's started his puppy school at PetSmart (Michael and I needed some training ourselves). He's picking it up quickly. He's a happy puppy. Doesn't he look like he's smiling in the last picture?

Cooper's first swim.

He wanted out of that water! He seemed pretty scared, but a good, fast little swimmer.