Weekend Hike

This whole not having a camera situation is getting a little hard on me!

This weekend's project is to dig up Eric's very old camera to use for the next couple of months.
[ps. this one is on my christmas list!]

This weekend we decided to spend Saturday afternoon at Torrey Pines, which is a state park on the coast with really beautiful hiking trails.  Since I don't have any pictures from the day, I'll share with you some pictures of the last time we went to Torrey Pines...spring break 2008!
(although the foliage was much more brown and the fog was heavy this time around.)

house update

We wish we had more money and time to spend making our house look homey, but for now we have to work with what we have. I'd like to start going to thrift stores/flea markets etc to fill in the gaps...our walls are looking so lonely and with some cooler weather finally coming in, and us looking towards spending a little more time indoors, I'm scouring the internet for cheap decorating ideas.

Here are a couple of our latest couple of projects:

I found a photo in a design book from the library that I'd like to somewhat model this shelving area after (with some modifications to make it less beachy and cluttered)



Here are our living rooms built-in shelves, previously loaded with books: (you saw a little of what it looked like before in this post)



We've got a long ways to go but it's so nice with the books gone!  We're thinking of blowing up a honeymoon photo for over the fireplace--any other ideas?

And here's where all the books went. (Billy bookcase system by Ikea...missing the corner brace in this shot)



Eric's study

Farmer's market

Last weekend Eric's mom and I visited the local farmer's market. 
We got adventurous and tried a cactus quesadilla.  It wasn't bad...the cactus strips tasted like slimy green beans.  Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of it, but it looked something like this:

 photo source

I spent less than $10 and got peaches, peppers, radishes, cucumbers, & zucchini....enough veggies to last us a couple weeks!

Thankfully, this was a couple days before the tragic camera incident, so I have some photos to share:

Prickly pears (Jungle Book anyone?)



Bitter Melon. The lady at the booth said people cut it into strips and put it on salads.



I miss the family's garden mucho.


Crazy and yummy flavors of juices!  (plus horchata)


Peaches galore


and some lovely orchids



I wish I had a photo to share as well of the pretty autumn bouquet Eric's mom bought me...but our camera broke before I got one of it arranged in a vase.  It included sunflowers and dahlias in yellows and reds.

It finally cooled down this week (in the mid 60's) which was a welcome surprise. I'm craving pumpkin everything and hope to pick some up in the next week or two :-)

First thing on the menu: homemade pumpkin spice lattes.  Take that, Starbucks!

Life update

It seems like school started (a month ago already!) and our lives made a sudden turn onto busy street.  I'm hoping we're finally settling into a schedule that sticks.
Here are a couple of the highlights from the last month!

• Soon into the semester Eric and I realized that he was not going to be able to continue to work as well as fulfill the other responsibilities of class, internship, young peoples, etc...so he turned in his resignation to the travel agency he was working for.  This was a big relief for both of us, even though our wallets have tightened up a bit.  Eric is able to use that work time to accomplish other things and we're both feeling like we have a little more time for eachother.
  
  
• We're continuing to lead young peoples on Wednesday nights and are enjoying it.  Eric gives the talk about once a month and is going though the book of John.  We're also studying Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges and discussing them in small groups.  Myself and the wife of another seminary student have been leading the junior and senior girls and have enjoyed getting to know them.  (Eric has been leading the senior boys small group)
  
  
• This weekend was the first session of a bi-weekly Saturday morning women's Bible study led by Mrs. Godfrey (the wife of the president of the seminary).  We're also studying a Jerry Bridges book, Growing Your Faith.  There are about 20 attending, mostly moms of young children, and older women.  I"m looking forward to it (And actually enjoying the motivation to get up at 8am on a Saturday!)
  
  
• Eric and I are auditing the class "Theology of the Sacraments" at WSC and are learning a lot about the history of baptism (primarily) and the Lord's supper from the early church to present time.  It's been really interesting and enlightening so far, but we're both glad we don't have to write the 15-20 page paper at the end of the semester!  It's amazing how little I know about the sacraments after 21 years in the church.
  
  
• We had a couple of Eric's friends from seminary over for dinner the week before last.  It wasn't a flawless dinner, but I think the guys appreciated a home-cooked meal, and it was fun having them over.  We're hoping to have a few seminary students and couples over for dinner this coming Sunday.  I love hostessing, but it still takes so much energy, and I'd really like our house to be in better shape before we make a habit of it.  Luckily, most of our friends are either poor sem. students or poor newlyweds, so they're not very judgmental :-)
  

Anyway, that's life for us right now!  I have a bunch of posts planned this week to catch up, than hopefully I can stay on top of it.

Also, this is a picture free post because last weekend, my camera fell off the desk in the kitchen and broke.  I can't get it to turn on at all.  I don't think it's worth fixing as it is almost 2.5 years old...unfortunately, our budget isn't allowing a replacement right now...and my picture-obsessed self is suffering (it broke not an hour before we had a grogeous double rainbow!)  Christmas idea....*hint hint*

Several weeks ago we hosted our church's young peoples at the house.  About 30 kids came over and 5 leaders (plus us) squeezed into rows of chairs around the bonfire.

Eric remembered the famous Gesch nacho dip (I was previously unfamiliar with it), so we took the opportunity to make it for this night.  4 ingredients + a few minutes in the microwave = some very happy kids (Eric included)

So here's the recipe:
half a block of velveeta cheese cut into cubes
1 package of cream cheese cut into cubes

place them in a 9 x 9 pan or casserole dish





pour 1 can of hormal chili with no beans over the cheese cubes
pour 3/4 bottle of picante over cheese and chili
(forgot to take a picture of this step)

Microwave for 3 minutes, stir, and microwave 2 more minutes, until all cheese is melted.



dip and enjoy :-)

Here's a blurry picture of some of the kids over sitting around our fire pit.



and standing over on the back patio by the food.


the end result of the dip?



yum, yum.

Hot and Homesick

We've been too busy to blog, which means we have lots to blog about.  I'm going to try to be better about that this week...I have a bunch of pictures waiting to be blogged!

I'm feeling a little lonely for home this week as I realize how much I'm missing this weekend.

1. The annual Convenant fall conference is always a favorite.  Eric took me to my first one with Dr. Hywel Jones (a WSC professor) on our second date.  We really miss our Covenant family and Pastor Wright's preaching.

2. The annual home varsity volleyball tournament.  I haven't missed one in 5 years...and it's the last year I'll have a sibling playing in it.  I'm sure my whole family will be too busy with it all weekend to even notice this post, but in case they do--I wish I was there!

3. The Elim Dutch Fest.  I've missed a few of these since they started, but there's something about the annual nod to my dutch heritage by pigging out on olie bollen, buying a year's worth of almond paste, and watching the klompenmakers, or whatever they're called.  Obviously I'm about a 6th generation dutch girl :-)  Maybe I can convince some of the dutchwomen around here (there are so much more of them than I realized) to teach me how to make stroopwafels. 

Lastly, fall is my favorite season--and it just doesn't feel a bit like fall.  There are no leaves changing color, and no reason to wear a sweater--September is actually the hottest month of the year. 
Check out this forecast (that temp is at current time--9pm!)

I know this may feel like gloating--but really it's not.  I promise to try to be more appreciative of the warmth, but I would love one day that would at least merit wearing pants! (please send one day of rain, midwest!)

In honor of hot-tember...I made myself a chai milshake (in lieu of a hot chai), and turned up the air conditioner.  I can almost feel fall...

Labor Day

We had a little shin-dig at our house on Monday (only 1/4 of the guests we had over this week!)

Just 10 friends over for a little barbeque. barbecue.  bbq. [whatever.]

I decided that I love entertaining...because it forces me to do a super clean of the house in a short period of time.  If only I was cleaning like that weekly!  Anyway, now I feel more motivated to do so.

Eric was in charge of grilling, and all the rest of the guys were in charge of supervising the grilling. 

We only lost one burger, and had to replace to propane tank. NO explosions, so we considered it a success.

(L to R: Bill, Tiddo (fixing the problem), Luke, Thomas and Eric)

Our part of the food was easy (meat, beer and margaritas!)--everyone else brought yummy dips, salads and desserts to share.  We ate and chatted around the bonfire, but the night ended early because it was a work/school night.

The ladies:

Dyan, Alieda, Adrienne, and Alicia

 Nice to have a day off of work, and a relaxing evening with friends (even though it was getting a little chilly.  70 degrees!) :-)