Waiting for dinner

The kids are playing Crazy Eights.

Mushroom Kale Pasta

Tried this recipe this past weekend. I substitued real mushrooms for the dry so it required a little adjusting. One piece of advice, make sure your kale is very clean. Despite being washed, we had a little unexpected protein.

Vitamix blender

We replaced our Blendtec blender with a Vitamixer from Costco that we bought during black friday for $350. The problem with the Blendtec was that the jars kept leaking at the seal. We had one jar replaced by Blendtec but the replacement actually locked up. After googling the problem, I found a lot of other folks had the same complaints. I haven't seen the same complaints for vitamix so I thought I'd try that one out. As usual, Costco was great with returning the Blendtec no questions asked. The one problem with the vitamix though is that it doesn't fit under the cabinets. :)

Relaxing at the top

Made it to the top again. 3.6 miles round trip without too much complaining. I think the promise of frozen yogurt helped.

It's official - Lauren can ride a bike

Over the Christmas break, Lauren learned how to ride her bike. She has gotten close in the past but this time she can ride and ride and ride. Here you see her riding around the track at the middle school. Notice she's not riding her bike that she got from Santa. That bike still has yet to be ridden.


Here's Cole following close behind on his new bike. Notice he's trying not to smile for the camera.

Advice for the New Year

One piece of advice for the New Year. If you ever see these little poops anywhere in your house, you have a mouse. I had seen some of these a few weeks or even months earlier and thought they were from a cricket but there were other signs that I missed that should have led me to investigate more. It wasn't until I was searching for a bag in our garage cabinets that I found him or should I say her.


Here she is. I luckily was able to trap her in a box.


She had made a nest in our cabinets. She tore this orange ribbon off of our luggage and used it as part of her nest.


Oh and this is how I could tell he was a she. In case you were wondering we carried them far away from the house and let them go into the preserve.

Cole's turn

Cole made it to the top of telegraph pass. Total hike was 3.7 miles with an elevation gain of 625ft. He can't wait to go up again.

Shopping with....

Santa Delivers

Sick with a fever

Elves hard at work

Visited Walmart last night to scout out Xmas gifts and was a little disappointed with their standard bike display. That's when I discovered 3 elves working feverishly in the garden center.

Great Customer Service

I recently noticed a tear in my hydration pack. Since I didn't want to return it to Costco, I submitted a warranty claim with geigerrig.com. They emailed me back saying that they'd be sending me the latest pack version because they didn't have mine in stock anymore.


I was expecting just the pack and not the water bladder as well but they actually just sent me the entire backpack and system. I didn't need to show them any receipts or mail anything back. In addition to the great customer service, the water bladder is a great design. The bladder itself can be inverted and placed in the dishwasher. All the other camelbacks or hydration systems usually develop some kind of mold or require way too much care to keep clean and free of any buildup. I highly recommend the geigerrig system. I also recently emailed the customer service about my bike pump and how one of the pieces broke off. They also just sent me an entire new pump since the existing pump was no longer in production. Again, no receipts or returning the old one. So the moral of the story is remember to try customer service or a warranty claim for an item that you probably would have just purchased a new one of.

Home Depot Project

Stopped into the Home Depot this weekend to look for an item and instead Cole got to build his own tic tac toe board. Kids get their own smock and a pin after they complete a project. We might have to stop in for future projects.

First trip to the top

Lauren and I went for a hike up Telegraph pass.



A view from the top.


Lauren made it to the top for the first time.

School fund raiser

A first this year was the mini Ferris wheel. Cole enjoyed taking a ride.

Classroom Observations and teacher conferences

For our classroom observations and teacher conferences, the kids usually offer us a drink and a snack. Lauren's new classroom this year offered french press coffee and a biscotti. I'm glad to know they are learning good taste. :)

Cole's soccer team

Watching 4 yr olds play soccer is awesome; between the kids that are daydreaming on the field to the kids scoring in the wrong goal. Cole is really enjoying it.

Divine Design - Master Bedroom Retreat

When we had cable, we would watch Divine Design with Candice Olsen and always dream about having her design our bedroom. So for sabbatical last year, we decided to hire an interior designer to redo our bedroom. Overall the experience wasn't quite what we expected but we are pretty pleased with the transformation. Here are the before pictures.


Luckily I was able to sell all the furniture on Craig's list.


Since I redid our closet, we didn't have a need for the dressers anymore.


Here you can see the faded carpet from the previous owner as well as our redi shades covering the sliding doors. Those temporary shades were up for over 2 years.


We added 7 recessed cans, moved the ceiling fan, and added another pendent light.


Here I'm having the painter smooth out the stucco wall to make it ready for wallpaper. Yes, wallpaper. Never did I think we'd be putting up wallpaper.


Here's our new wood floors to replace the carpet. They are 7" maple. You can also see the new wall color.


Here's the wallpaper lady.


Here's the finished product. We had just finished getting professional photos taken so if you look closely, you can't see any alarm clocks or phone chargers. You can see the TV and the console table on the left which were things that we had picked out. The designers weren't too keen on a TV in the bedroom.


Here's our sitting area.


Another shot of the finished product.

Guess the game

Feed the animals. Cole tossed the whale right into the shark's mouth.

Freebie at the end of dinner

The kids would be in heaven.