Life at the Loft: September 2015

Welcome back everyone! For those of you who have asked to receive updates, I hope it has worked for you! Matthew helped (or rather did it for me!) install something that is supposed to do that as well as give people the option to sign up. If anyone has questions about it, please email and ask me and I'll ask Matthew :)

Usually I am making dinner when Matthew gets home or start it soon after he arrives. But this day I decided have it all done.

I set a table up on the back deck and made it kinda fancy. I dressed up and had everything almost done when Matthew got home from work. It was a lot of fun, but I was surprised at how special he thought it was. Put that one in the memory bank. I don't do this kind of thing near often enough :(

Frisbee golfing, otherwise known as 'frolfing'. Austin has been getting a lot of the guys discs for their b-days and they had a lot of fun this day. Last Sunday the guys in the family took SB, Lucy, and me. It is quite challenging, but fun!

My first race!

I started out with a different group that goes slower, but caught up to these later. The one on the right soon sped up (she is usually in the first 4 or so of our group), but I crossed the finish line with the other two. They did very well and kept me going! So much fun to be part of their lives and participate in things like this together, especially as it was my first time, just like it was for them.

Samantha, the race coordinator, is on the right (not the pink hat) talking to run club. A lot of the kids pinned pieces of paper on their backs with the names of friends and family cancer survivors. It was pretty neat.

One Sunday, Tim and Linda had their annual corn feed! They make roasted garden salsa to go with chips, grilled sausages and corn and have tortillas, mustard, and ketchup. It is a pretty good combo! This year I got to pick a few ears, my first time to pick corn. Along with volleyball and singing, it was a fun evening.

Matthew had that Monday off, Labor Day I think. We were having major hiking withdraws, so we decided to head down to Montana de Oro. It is usually cooler there even though it is hot inland. We parked at the last parking lot before the PG&E gate. There is a trail out the back that leads off through a valley. We hiked through this valley, over bridges with tiny, tinkling streams running below, through shady trees with rustling leaves, and then into hillsides dotted with massive oaks, their branches reaching low to the ground. That was about 2.5 miles. Then we started to climb.I remember climbing Valencia Peak and wanting to explore the backcountry. Well, that's where we were! We climbed the peak behind Valencia, Oats Peak.This is what Valencia Peak looks like from the other side! We ate some lunch on top of Oats Peak and met a couple from San Diego area I think it was. Then we hiked towards the water, past Valencia (climbed it a little ways) and then took Rattlesnake Flats (which, thankfully was void of rattlesnakes!) back to our car. Altogether it was about 8 miles and we were very much over our hiking withdraws!We were a little dusty from the trail!My Friday cleaning job got switched to Thursday one week because she was having a party that evening and wanted the house fresh clean. I found out that she was stressing about what to serve for dinner and that she didn't have much time to prepare. Long story short, I made lasagna, french bread, and salad for their party of 12 and Eclair Pudding for dessert. She still is raving about it and I thought it was a blast, though a little stressful! Actually, a few weeks later she requested I make a few more lasagnas just for them!
One day the sky was really weird looking. We couldn't stop going out to check on it! Matthew took this picture at work.And I took this one at home. Someone said it had to do with the fires over in the valley. They were evacuating people from nearby towns over there just because of the poor air quality, not that the homes were in danger of fire!

I know, a boring food picture! I'm just hoping to inspire people to eat healthy! This took all of a few minutes to throw together and was absolutely delicious.This is a different story! At Family Day at Grizzly, people are constantly asking if you want something to eat. Usually we politely decline, but this sweet family wouldn't take 'no' for an answer! They made Matthew one of these and I insisted that I didn't want one (who knows what all is in this food that I can't eat!) but they made me one anyway. So down I sat to eat it! It tasted AMAZING! (And thankfully my reaction was minor.) In this family, the cadet's grandpa had driven three days from Mexico to surprise her that day!My favorite meal, whether it happens to be breakfast, lunch, or dinner! A breakfast burrito with sauteed bell peppers, green onions, garlic, and spinach. Scramble some eggs in there and melt some cheese on top. Layer it over a warmed Udi tortilla with two slices of bacon and eat immediately! But bummer, I ran out of Udi tortillas :( Hopefully the 99.99 cent store will have them again soon!

Matthew has been wanting a plant for our house. If we have it shut up all day with the AC going, it feels like you can hardly breath when you come in. I went to Kmart and found this, and only this, houseplant. I bought it, not realizing it was over $11! :0 But oh well, we have a house plant and it is shockingly still alive! Only one leaf has fallen off so far:) Maybe, possibly, my green thumb is returning.Hailey taking selfies!One Thursday evening a bunch of guys showed up to mom and dad's to help take off the old shingles. They got a lot removed and I went the next day to help mom pick up trash off the ground and throw in the dumpster. We made quite the interesting looking couple out there in our work clothes!Pretty flower, picture by Matthew
Pool at one of my cleaning jobs. After scrubbing and sweating for three or four hours, I LONG to jump in here! I haven't been swimming this summer at all :(Before staining our new deck, we needed to wash it. We tackled this one Saturday morning. Look closely, the broom is balanced and not leaning against anything! We keep it in the garage, I wonder if there is a witch that borrows it at night?! JK:)Since we are finally actually doing some work around our place, we had to get a ladder! It was here for a few days, then taken to Dad's and it still hasn't come home!We painted the trim around the garage door. Need to wash the door now! Looks super dirty next to the clean, new paint.This is how far we got one Sunday morning before meeting on staining our deck. We worked at it hard that day and through the week. I think we finished by the next weekend. Except for that fact that we have to do a second coat.... Maybe we'll just do the floor and the top of the railing, though.

I enjoyed hiking with Vanessa and Lauren one morning. It was my first time up Black Hill between Morro Bay and Montana de Oro kind of.Looking towards San Luis, kind ofMorro Bay.One day when I went to Addie's she had me try some fermented carrots. They were pretty good and I did some research and found out how good they are for you. Soooo, of course I tried it! Andddd, failed! But maybe I'll try again.Something I like to do, is buy a bunch of bell peppers, slice some and dice some, putting them in separate baggies in the freezer. For omelets and things, I use diced and for fajitas and such I use the sliced. I also keep green onions this way. It takes a lot of prep out of throwing together a nutritious breakfast!Some of my little furry friends at Woods!Scooby has got to be one of the cutest, scruffiest little mutts!If I stopped petting this one, he would...Do this, or lick my face until I started petting him again!This, my friends, is Angelica. I told Addie that she is almost as cute as Shea! Actually cuter except that her tail doesn't curl and she doesn't prance quite as much as Shea (Addie's dog) does. She is super sweet, always excited to see you, but calms down in a few minutes and just chills until you are ready to play again. I really think Shea needs a sister, Addie... :) Why not? Cassidy's getting a sibling!So the ladder was at mom and dad's as well as Matthew, helping with the roofing this Saturday morning when I was finishing the deck staining. Yes, I stood on top of this to try to reach the last bit!

They got SO much done! It was amazing.Lunch time! Some went back up after lunch, but it quickly got too hot and they had to quit.We enjoyed standing out on our back deck for a few minutes this evening watching the sky painting! This picture doesn't do justice to the vibrant pink and bright blues!
Anyone need to dry their whole house at one time?! These are the dryers at Woods. It takes awhile to fold everything from one of them.... and there are three!As you can see, it is taller than me!When Matthew accuses me of sleeping in the middle of the bed, I remind him that that is the only way to have any covers! No, it is really my fault because I start out giving them all to him, and then in the middle of the night when I need more, well, they are on the other side of the bed!
Photo credits to Rose Ellen for this one! She spent the day with Linda, the boys, and Evelyn and kindly sent me some pictures from their time. Thanks again, Rose!I couldn't resist buying some blueberry tea when I found it last week! So much fun to have it again.I love this recipe for barbacoa! It is so easy and versatile. With this batch I made tacos, put it on some salads, and finished it off in YUMMY enchiladas! I freeze the broth for the next time I make it.