Dinner. I know, right? I'm blogging about dinner?!

Ok, don't be disappointed, but I wasn't planning on blogging after dinner ABOUT dinner, so I didn't take any pics. I'll try to be better about that :)

I'm only blogging about it because it turned out AMAZINGLY and I don't want to forget it. I usually make up a good portion of most of my meals, so they're hard to recreate. I need to get it all down on paper....er....blogger....before I forget :)

Step 1: Put 3-4 inches of water onto boil (I used a big soup pot)

Step 2: Peel and dice potatoes, be sure to cut out any weird stuff (I had 5 smallish ones)

Step 3: Dump potatoes in water, boiling or not.

Step 4: Add a few shakes of seasoning salt and a tablespoon or so of an Italian herbs mix

Step 5: Add a packet of Lipton's Onion Soup mix.

Step 6: While all of that boils until the potatoes are tender, pour 3-4 tablespoons of apple juice in a skillet and turn on high.

Step 7: Cut up a dinner sausage into 1/2 inch rounds, then quarter them (Hillshire Farm Beef Polska Kielbasa...I only had half of one, quartering them makes them stretch farther...)

Step 8: Drop sausage pieces into apple juice, cook until apple juice boils down to a sticky sauce and sausage is crispy. Remove from heat

Step 9: In a blender, blend together 1-2 cups of the boiling potato soup and a brick of cream cheese. Pour back into the pot.

Step 10: Add sausage.

Step 11: Start adding potato flakes until it reaches a desired consistency (I like mine fairly thick, I think it took a little over a cup of flakes. Remember it will thicken as it cools, too)

Step 12: Dish up. Add a little grated Cheddar for garnish and taste, and VOILA!!! :D Dinner is served :)

Pool party with the sibs!

I called my dad last week to ask if they wanted to come play in the pool and see our new place. Ironically enough, they were wanting to come down to a close friend's mother's funeral in Alpine, about 40 min southeast. So I encouraged them to come stay the night on Wednesday and leave the kids with me on Thursday while they went to the funeral. They did just that, and we had a blast!!

I was really sad when my little bro Aaron didn't come because of some school event/trip. Can't blame him, but I was disappointed he didn't come. That kid is AWESOME!! He is so smart and funny, and just fun to be around :) He just turned 14, which kills me, because I still have vivid memories of mothering him as a baby, helping him learn to walk and toddle along... lol Not saying that I don't have those memories with all the other kiddos too....they are all really incredible little people and it's just plain WEIRD to see them growing up a little more every time we're together. Being able to spend time and give some love to Daniel (16 next month), Samuel (12) and Katherine (10 next week!) was uber fun though!!! We hung out til late morning and went to the pool for a good hour, came back and ate pizza, then went to the pool for a couple more hours :) Did I mention I'm addicted? lol

Back from the pool, it was funny to hear the doorbell ring and open it to, not only my parents, but my little sister Melissa's "significant other". lol We were expecting him, of course, but the timing was impeccable! It was a fun "meet the parents/siblings" evening, complete with "Apples to Apples" (the game), lasagna, and a great spinach salad creation (sauteed-then-cooled zucchini, yellow squash and purple onion, glazed with honey, and fresh red peppers, tossed with spinach and a poppyseed dressing. YUM!)

Dealt with the anticipated break-down after everyone left, when Delia bawled about her Uncle Daniel leaving. lol She loves him SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much. I know it might make her other 10 uncles sad that she is so vocal about Daniel holding that title (and he wears it proudly, believe me...lol) but what do you do? Delia is pretty sure the answer is that Daniel needs to live with us so she can play with him EVERY day. I tried talking him into it, buuuuuuut....he does kinda have a life where he's at now :) I did talk to my dad about having Katherine and Samuel come stay for a couple weeks this summer, and it seemed pretty likely! I would sure love to have them around, and could use some babysitting help too! Hopefully that works out. Well, I'll get some pics on here to top it off, then maybe later on I can tell the rest of the story....lol Curious?! Stay tuned!!!! ;)

First post from HERRIMAN!!!

Okay, first of all, I have to say how pleasantly surprised I am. I absolutely LOVE my apartment! I guess I had sort of resolved to just "deal with it", and knew I was going to be cramped and claustrophobic. We lost about 400 sq ft and a garage moving here. However, I really can't get over how quickly we settled in, found a place for everything, and how "at home" I feel. Loving it! The floor plan is nice and open, we have a patio so the girls can play "outside" without me having constant supervision(yes!), the hallway is really wide, main bath is HUGE, AND I have a master bath (HALLELUJAH!), the girls' walk-in-closet doubles as a "play room", and with them being in a bunk bed now, the rest of their room has plenty of play space! As far as my little kitchen goes...yes, my pantry is smaller, but it's not going to get cluttered with "stuff", just because there IS space there. My favorite thing though? It's never taken more than 10 min to clean, and that's including doing dishes. MAJOR PLUS. I felt like I was forever cleaning my kitchen at our old place! More space means more places to stack/pile randomness, which all the sudden becomes these big, overwhelming mountains. lol. So no more of that! Let me see if I can figure out some pics here.....although, if you've seen my facebook, most of these are on there :) OH!! And did I mention that I am completely ADDICTED to our pool?!! LOL I'd say it's the best feature of our entire new lifestyle :) Already not looking forward to winter because we spend SO much time there! We're all looking nice and tan :) got some funky lines going on, but whatever. It's worth it :D So that's it for this post :) Have lots more to write about, but it'll have to wait. Hubby went on an all-day hike with his bro, took some AMAZING photos....I'll have to see if I can get some up here tomorrow....anyway, he's exhausted, so I'd better call it a night, too. Still got dinner dishes to do. I'll try to write some more tomorrow....have our very first get-together with some new friends tomorrow! Excited to do that part of "settling in" :) That's all for now! Later!