The Dressers

An Update of Sorts

2011-02-26T14:03:00.000-08:00

What's new with the Dressers? Well, not much. After buying our first house about a year ago, Michael and I have been busy keeping up with all the home-owners responsibility. You know... cleaning, gardening, maintaining, painting, decorating and all sorts of other things. Most of the time it's a lot of fun to be able to make choices about what color the kitchen walls should be or where we're going to build our little vegetable garden; but sometimes the reality of adulthood sets in. There's a little water coming in through a kitchen window, the master toilet makes funny noises, and ants show up in the weirdest locations. Once you solve one problem another one pops up. Through it all, however, we feel really lucky to be living where we do.

We also keep busy with our teaching jobs. I'm teaching fifth grade again this year and still enjoy this "pre-attitude" age group. In a couple weeks, we'll be going on the infamous Age of Sail overnight field trip again (scroll down to see what it was like last year--- eek). I also am always reading a new children's novel. My latest read? The Giver by Lois Lowery. I'm also totally excited for a new literature unit on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Michael is teaching high school geometry and just finished up coaching the JV basketball team. Though his team didn't have the wining record he planned on, he still enjoyed working with the boys. It was a big time commitment and wore him out, but he says he'll coach again next year. Basketball is, after all, his first true love.

Soon I'll post pictures of some of latest endeavors: a laundry room make-over, a garden bed installation, a snow trip to Lake Tahoe and finally a vacation to St. George to reunite with some roommates with a little Vegas time tossed in. Sorry for the lack of pictures in this post. There coming soon!

Bathroom Reno

2010-07-19T11:34:00.000-07:00

First of all, I apologize for the order of the photos below. After I waited for the pictures to load, I tried to re-order them, but it just wasn't working and I was losing patience. So, you'll have to scroll up and down to see all the steps I took while doing my little bathroom renovation.

I wish I had a before picture to show you, but I guess a quick description will have to do. The vanity was a typical, builder's grade orange-yellow oak. On top of the vanity, I had a single vase and some soap. Kind of sad looking. The mirror was frameless. You could see the brackets that hold the mirror in place. The walls were the same color, but totally blank. So, overall pretty bland bathroom.

I found this neato wire rack at Marshall's for only $30. I've added some accessories to it, but still haven't filled in all the available space. They make it look so easy on HGTV, but I really struggle with accessorizing.

I think the corners of the mirror turned out fairly clean. I used a handheld miter saw and box plus some caulk. I was worried that the corners would look very "first-time DIY-er", but I think they look pretty good.

I got a little brave and drilled holes into the vanity. I think it was well-worth the risk (Even if it was a small risk).

The bathroom is so small that I couldn't really get a good shot of everything. Notice the color of the vanity... painted black, not orangey oak.

Filling in the gaps with caulk.

After several hours of work and just a little bit of money, I think the bathroom is much improved. Humph!

Age of Sail

2010-02-27T14:54:00.000-08:00

Recently, I went on an overnight field trip with my lovely fifth grade class. After having finished a super-cool unit on world explorers, we made our way to the bay area to experience first hand what it was like to live on a boat. The program, called Age of Sail, is organized by the San Francisco Martime National Park.

Once on the boat, the captain, first and second mate, and cook/doctor took over. The adults were not allowed to interact with the kids at all... no talking, no non-verbal communication. The kids were split into crews. Each crew was trained to take responsiblity of a different part of the ship (yes, we were on a real ship, docked of course). Once given directions by the officers, the kids had to figure out how to accomplish their task without any help from adults. It was amazing to see the kids really step it up and meet the officers' very high expectations.

While the actual program was really neat, the overall field trip was "dampened" by one thing... the weather. Oh, the weather was the worst. Literally, it was the worst. The age of sail people told us that it was the worst weather they have ever had during a field trip.

It was rainy. It was windy. It was cold. Everyone was soaked to the bone. We changed our clothes a few times, only to be soaked through again within 15 minutes. I think the pictures below speak for themselves.

(This was taken right after we got off the bus. Within 30 minutes, all the students were covered in bright yellow rain slickers. We had some time to burn while waiting for our program to start. We walked up to Ghiradelli Square in a line. It looked like a row a little duckies walking around San Francisco.) (Our ship, the Balclutha. Once used to ship goods around Cape Horn to San Francisco. It's since been restored in order to be used for the Age of Sail program.)

(My little duckies.)

Valentine's Weekend

2010-02-16T09:18:00.000-08:00

Michael surprised me this past weekend by whisking me away to Lake Tahoe. On Saturday, Michael took me to a very nice resturant. We heard that it had a view, but it was so dark that we couldn't see the view. Maybe Michael will just have to take me back some other day.

The food was delicous! But even though it was a fancier resturant, Michael ordered his favorite cheeseburger and fries meal. He's so easy to please. We ended the meal with the famous Hula Pie. Micheal and I first ate Hula Pie together on our honeymoon in Hawaii. We were totally stuffed by the end of the night. The next morning we took a walk down to the lake shore. We found a spot of beach where dogs are allowed off leash. Cooper didn't interact with too many dogs (they're just too big for him), but he had a great time sniffing around and playing fetch.

We wandered our way up the road the dog park we usually visit in the summer. There weren't any other dogs around, but there was a lot of deep snow. Cooper had to practically leap in order walk around the snow.

That afternoon we set out to find a good sledding spot. The first place we stopped at was so crowded. Michael took a couple rides down, but it was a little scary. I was a nervous wreck. There were so many people that you had to dodge people and stop quickly. We saw a few people get taken out by sledders. After just a few minutes at this spot, we left to find a less crowded sledding spot.

We stopped along the highway that wraps around Lake Tahoe and found this more secluded spot. We had to work for a few minutes to get the sledding trail just right. Afterwards, it was a great ride. Everytime I went down the hill, Cooper would chase after me. You can see him trailing after me in this photo.

Cooper was quick to fall asleep on the way home. Two days later and I think he's still recovering from the day. He's asleep as I type this right now.

It was such a fun weekend!

The New House

2010-01-18T14:07:00.000-08:00

Michael and I became homeowners at the beginning of December. We got the keys to the house in mid-December and got right to work. After a few days of work, we were off to Olympia, Washington to visit my family for the Christmas break. Then with only four days left of our break, we returned to the house got right back to work. We've spent the last few weeks putting the last few touches on the house. Now we're finally ready to unveil it.

There are a few problems with the pictures below. First, I took them. That's probably the biggest problem. I tried my best to take pictures from the best angle, but I'm afraid they still didn't turn out that great. Many of them are much darker than the room was when I took the picture. Something's up with my camera settings. The second problem is that they are in backwards order. When I loaded the pictures up on blogger, they went in the wrong order. Hopefully, you can still get an idea of what our new abode is like. We love it!

The exterior (taken on a much sunnier day). Our backyard.

Michael's sports/office room. Decorated by Michael himself.

The guest room.

The upstairs hallway.

The hallway bathroom.

The family room (contains our DVDs, video games, and other such media things).

Master bathroom.

The master bedroom.

The other side of the upstairs hallway.

The stairway.

View of the living room from upstairs.

Frame grouping on the stairway landing.

Living room, dining room, and kitchen. (Sorry it's so dark!)

Garage.

Laundry room and fort (that's what we call the storage room under the stairs)

The dining room.

Thisis the view when you walk through the front door.

The living room.

Looking into the kitchen.

Eat-in area of kitchen.

Kitchen.

The white dishwasher will be replaced once the countertops are changed... the dishwasher is stuck. Even though we have the new dishwasher ready to go, we cannot have it installed since we can't get the old one out.

These pictures don't do the house justice. I think it's a pretty cute house, so I guess you'll just have to come and visit to see for yourself. :)

Summer's End

2009-08-20T22:47:00.000-07:00

The summer is over and school has already started. Here are a few photos from our last big hurrah before school started. Michael and I drove a few hours away to Monterey.

We woke up early one day to go check out the tide pools. We crawl up and down rocks trying to fund some cool creatures. Sadly, all we found we some little crabs and some funny looking sea plants.

We stopped by the Pebble Beach golf course. We couldn't see too much of the club since most of it is gated, but we were able to stroll through some of the stores and check out one of he putting green. Michael couldn't resist. He had to "air putt."

The Lone Cypress is the symbol of the Pebble Beach Golf Club. It's a cool sight: a single tree standing on the top of the end of a little pennisula.

The shore around Monterey is gorgeous. The water is bright blue and you can't see straight to the ocean floor. There are also a lot of big rocks that are fun to climb on.

The sand on this beach that border another famous golf course (Spanish Oaks, maybe???) was super soft. I love it! It's offically my favorite beach in California.

Here we are climbing on rocks again, but this time we're exploring underneath the pier.

What a handsome guy!

Monterey has a great aquarium. We spent a few hours checking out the local wildlife.

After spening a day and half in Monterey, we started making our way home. Along the drive we stopped at a few places. One of these places was the Santa Cruz boardwalk. It's a fun place, but definately geared more towards kids. We strolled up and down, played a few arcade games, then headed out.

Here's my first day of school picture, sippy cup and all.

Quick Update

2009-06-13T20:11:00.000-07:00

I don't have any fabulous new pictures to share, so here is a quick update on what's going on at the Dresser's house.

Both Michael and I are officially starting our summer vacations this weekend. Mike and I haven't made any definite plans for the summer. We do plan on spending time relaxing, though we both have many school related goals set for ourselves in order to get ready for the next school year. (Michael will be teaching Algebra I and Geometry next year. I will be teaching fifth grade.)

Next week, I will be going to Girls Camp with the young women from our ward. Our stake's girls camp is held in the Sierras. So it shouldn't be too hot during the day, but I'm told it's pretty darn cold at night. I'm taking 2 extra blankets! Hopefully, the bears will leave us alone. (Seriously, there are bears in the Sierra Mountains!)

In a couple weeks, Michael will be coaching at a week long overnight basketball camp. This is a camp that he attended when he was little. Now his nephew is attending. Ahhh...

In July, Michael's brother will be getting married. I keep pushing Michael to find out what the wedding colors are so I can start searching for the right dress, but he always seems to forget to ask. Boys. We're excited for Jay!!!!

Other than these few things, we haven't planned anything else just yet. We have a few ideas popping around in our head. Any suggestions???

Daddy's Visit to Cali

2009-04-10T11:13:00.001-07:00

Daddy Bruce came to California for a few days just to visit. We had a great time together. One of the first things that we did was go to a local Par 3 course and play a round of nine. This was my first times on a golf course, so Dad was sure to coach me in a few things. Although I scored an average of 8 strokes on every hole, we all had a good time together.

During the rest of Daddy's visit, we did a little shopping (Katie told me I should do that), saw a movie, went for a run, did a little more golfing, watched NCAA basketball, played with Cooper, and ate out a lot.

The night before Dad left, we drove to San Francisco for the Giant's first night game. It was an uneventful game (as many baseball games seem to be), but the weather was pretty good and our seats were nice.

It wasn't especially cold, but it was windy.

After the game with Mike, Daddy Dresser, and Daddy Bruce.

It was fun to have Dad all to ourselves for a few days. Now, who is going to come for the next visit?

Mr. GQ

2009-04-10T10:40:00.000-07:00

At Michael's school, the student council puts on an annual Mr. GQ contest as a fundraiser. Michael was selected to participate. This year's theme was Las Vegas. In the show, male teachers make two appearances on stage. First, they come out to a song of their choice and work the stage Vegas style. Then, they come out a second time in formal wear (to show all the young wannabe gangsters how to dress for prom) and answer a question suibmitted by the other contestants.

Michael dressed for his first appearance as a high roller. He came out in a white tux jacket with vest and hat. He very smoothly tossed some money around the stage and did all the latest dance moves (His students taught him those). Out of all the teachers, he received the biggest crowd reaction.

Here's a close up of his outfit (from the night before). And yes, that big ring on his finger does light up.

Looking fly.

Working the stage.

The interveiw portion of the contest. His question: "What is the air speed velocity of a swallow?" His reply: "An African or European swallow?" None of the students got the joke. Only the adults. In the end, Michael got first runner up. According the crowd reaction, he was the winner, but apparently the front-office judges thought otherwise. Check out the cool sash he got.

After the show--- Michael with some of his students.

Some Good Reads...

2009-02-25T22:11:00.000-08:00

Lately, I have been reading some really great books. It just so happens that all the books I've read lately are children's books (all in the line of duty, right?). But if you are looking for a fun, quick and wholesome read, you might want to consider one of these....

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

This is one of my all time favorite books. I remember reading this book in fourth grade and since then I've probably reread it atleast 4 times. I love it everytime espeically the chapters where Nicodemus is telling Mrs. Frisby about what happened in the laboratory.

Frindle

Andrew Clements writes such cute, clever books that everyone can enjoy. I giggled through this book. The ending to the book is an ending that just kind of makes you sigh with satisfaction. Love it!

Matilda

This is one of the books that I am reading right now. It's so quirky and fun. Roald Dahl always does a great job of making fun of adults and exaggerating their flaws. I also love the British terms that are used throughout the book like telly and ducky. It's another book that makes me giggle all the way through. Plus it has a happy ending and I only like books that have a happy ending.

The Hatchet

This is a book that I seem to read every couple years. I read it again this summer. It's always so interesting to find out how Brian survives in the wilderness. I catch myself wondering how I would handle the situation that Brian finds himself in.

How I Became a Pirate

Who doesn't love a good picture book? David Shannon's books are my favorite picture books. While he didn't write this one, he did illustrate it. This book is just cute and that's all I can say about.

Now I just want to make sure that you all know that I do read adult books occasionally. But I think I will always love children's books the most.

A Request From a Friend

2009-01-27T18:24:00.000-08:00

A friend from work, Kathy, asked me to write the story of how Mike and I met. We didn't have time at work to exchange stories, so this was the solution. Here I go....

My freshman year at BYU a group of friends and I were huge BYU basketball fans. We went to every game. We even showed up way early to get the best seats available in the student section (first come first serve). We had a lot of fun together, espeically since the team was great that year. The BYU basketball players were like celebrities to our sad little group.

So, in December when I new guy showed up on the court during the pre-game shoot around, I was perplexed. I didn't recognize the guy at all. I was even more perplexed that I didn't recognize him, because he was so cute. Right then and there, my crush on "Dresser" started. During the rest of the season, my eyes were glued on Dresser as he shot around during warm-ups (he didn't get much playing time, but hey I didn't care).

The game before Valentine's Day a buddy of mine dared me to get Dresser's attention some how. That's why I brought a big sign with me to that game. When my friends and I walked into the stadium, the shoot around hadn't started. A few minutes later, Mike walked out with the best player (he always did that so that he felt like the people who cheered during the entrance were cheering for him). I was too embarrassed and didn't want to hold up the sign, but I gave into peer pressure and held the sign up high for Dresser to see.

The sign read, "Dresser, Will you be my Valentine?" He saw the sign and acknowledged my presence. I was done there. I was happy just to have him smile at me. But a few minutes later, Dresser was at the bottom of the stands talking to a friend. Again I gave into peer pressure and went to the bottom of the stands and had him autograph my sign.

Another few minutes later, the trainer for the basketball team convinced Mike to write his number down and send it up the stands to me. When I got his number, I was so excited. Luckily, I held it together and wrote my number down and sent it back down the stands. By this time, the team had gone back into the locker room, so the trainer delivered my number to Mike (I later found out that the trainer had taped it to Mike's locker and used lipstick to write "Call me" on the locker mirror.)

Now I didn't intend to call Dresser at all. That would just be too embarrassing and make me look like some lame groupie. But I did make sure to tell all my friends about what had happened. I was so proud that I had gotten Dresser's number.

Two nights later, I walk into my dorm room just in time to answer the phone. When the voice on the other side said, "This is Mike Dresser," I didn't beleive it was really him. I was convinced that it was a friend trying to pull a prank on me. It took a good five minutes for me to finally beleive that it really was Dresser on the other side. That night we talked for about 10 minutes, then Mike asked me to go out on a date with him. Of course I said yesa dn instantly began planning what I was going to wear!

The next night we went out for ice cream and movie and as they say the rest is history.

Here is picture of me the day after I got Dresser's number. Don't I look excited!

This is a picture from one of our first dates-- a movie night at a cabin in Park City.

This is a picture from about a month after our first date. It was taken right before one of Mike's game. That's why we're both decked in our BYU basketball gear!

An Easy, Fancy New Trick

2008-12-31T09:38:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-30T22:37:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-30T22:00:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-11-03T17:46:00.001-08:00

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!

2008-10-19T12:20:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-10-14T18:54:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-14T11:59:00.001-07:00

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

2008-07-31T21:57:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-21T16:30:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-12T16:00:00.001-07:00

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

2008-06-27T15:04:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-06-14T13:48:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-06-09T16:38:00.001-07:00

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

2008-06-04T21:06:00.000-07:00

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.

Our EAST Coast Trip

2008-04-26T18:04:00.001-07:00

Michael and I know that a day will come when traveling will not be so easy. So we started taking advantage of not having kids by taking our first big vacation. We started planning this trip back in January. Michael planned just about everything including the 8 ball games we went to. That's 6 baseball games and 2 basketball games. But since the vacation was almost two weeks long, that's not the only thing we did. We started out in New York visiting the major sites: Times Square, Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, 5th Avenue, Central Park, and lots of other places. Then we road a train to Massachusetts to visit the Basketball Hall of Fame and Boston. Another train ride later, we were in Baltimore for an Orioles game. Next was Philadelphia where we ate as many cheesesteaks as we could... yum, yum. For fun, we hopped over to Hershey, PA to visit the Chocolate Factory. Finally, we cruised around D.C. We did so much and had so much fun... too much to tell!

Here are only a few of the hundreds of pictures we took.

Central Park

On the field at Yankee Stadium

Where everybody knows your name, Cheers in Boston

Liberty Bell

Rocky Statue, where we got hustled into taking these pictures. One dollar well worth the laughs.

The Mall in D.C. taken from the Lincoln Memorial

D.C. Temple

Surprise! We Added a Puppy to our Family!

2008-04-26T17:51:00.000-07:00

Surprise! It was a surprise to even us, we got a cute little new puppy. After a few comments like "Wouldn't it be fun to have a puppy?" and "If we had a puppy, we could do this...." Michael and I started looking at the newspaper posts on line. At first it was just for fun to look at the cute puppy pictures. Then we saw a picture the cutest puppy and Michael made the call so we could just meet the puppy. After the "meeting" we went home with puppy.

Cooper is a spunky little guy. He's always surprising us either by how quickly he learns new tricks or by escaping from his playpens. Most of the time, Cooper is happy just chewing and playing with his toys around your feet. But when he gets tired he loves to curl up in your lap and go to sleep. When we're sitting in bed, he'll use his nose to push the sheets out of the way to sleep under the comforter.

He is almost potty trained. He knows how to tap a little bell at the door when he needs to go outside. But he still has accidents every once in awhile which frustrates Mike SO much. Shortly, Cooper will be enrolled in Puppy School. Thank Goodness!

We love our puppy!

Finally Starting My Own Blog

2008-04-26T17:15:00.000-07:00

So many of my friends and family have adorable blogs. I love reading about what's going on in their lives and especially seeing the pictures of the latest family events. So, I'm going to join the club.