Our Valentine's Dinner

We decided to stay in and make a nice dinner instead of trying to go out Saturday night. After opening a bottle of J. Lohr Cabernet Savignon that Jason picked up for me, we made Mamie's Stuffed Flank Steak, which was delicious with a rice stuffing. For dessert I made Chocolate Pear Pudding Cake (by Nigella Lawson) with Ghirardelli Chocolate Sauce. I substituted half of the sugar in the cake with agave syrup to reduce the amount of refined sugar. It still tastes great and is far from good for us but a little less bad with the agave! The best part is that we have leftovers! It's only just after 10am, but I think I'm going to have some now... Is that bad?

Zihuatanejo

We had a great trip to Zihua in December and hope to return sometime soon!

SNOW SNOW SNOW

What is with the major snowstorm before Christmas? Jason and I tackled our driveway with shovels and we're happy to say we completed the task in 5 1/2 hours and did not break our backs! I'm sure we'll be a little sore tomorrow, but it feels good to have that done. Hopefully we'll get our plow up and running this weekend so we'll be more prepared to move big snow like this. More to come on our trip to Zihuatanejo!

Thankful

Little Miss Brooke Austin in her pretty pink bow and denim overalls... I'm thankful for my nieces and nephew this year!

Oktoberfest

The party was a great success! Just thought I'd share a few pictures from the evening. Next year, 2nd Annual t-shirts?

Race Day

I completed my second half marathon on 10/12 in Spokane! It was such a great time and I was proud to beat my time from the Cd'A Half by 10 minutes! The day was beautiful with the leaves turning. We had to take on the infamous Doomsday Hill plus a few other smaller hills.

Pictured are Amanda, Christy, Jen, Brian and me. See my missing hub cap? Amanda told me about it the week before when she was following me to work and thought it might come off and hit her car (she told me later). Rather than fixing it right away, I thought I'd check it when I got home. I guess I wasn't concerned about it coming off! Well... I forgot to check and now it is along the road somewhere. Lesson learned.

Apples and Pears from Rose Lake

Every Fall we get invited to pick apples and pears on the Rose Lake property. We're in the process of dehydrating a bunch. Thanks Charmaine and Jack!

H & J