Amber Waves of Grain

This post marks my 200th BLOG POST !!! Can you believe it?! For my faithful readers, you should know that you have wasted approximately 10 hours of your life reading all my posts (about 3 min per post). I thought about making this post a list of 200 things you could be doing besides reading my blog. But, instead.... I decided to make it a little more juicy . That's right, I'm telling SECRETS. These are never-been-told-before SECRETS about me. What a better way to treat my readers, right? AMBER'S TOP 10 SECRETS (sorry, I couldn't think of 200) 1. For some reason, I can never remember what 7 + 5 equals. I was a straight A student all through school, but can't do this basic math problem. I often will use my fingers under the table for this one. So, if you ask me quickly, don't expect a quick answer. 2. You have already heard that I like to draw. The secret part of this is that that nobody has ever actually seen my work (maybe Nathan). ...

I came across a website ( LINK ) that allows you to upload two photos and then it will morph them together to show you what your baby will look like. I tried it with pictures of Nathan and me. Meet our next baby! (I know, she's a little creepy looking....)

We are quickly approaching my 200th blog post!!! With this in mind, feel free to send me your ideas of what you'd like to see for this very special anniversary edition blog! (also, this will give you some time to be thinking of gift ideas to send me...). :) This is #198......... 2 to go!

We are officially the new owners of about 11 acres of property in the southern part of our state. We went yesterday, along with Nathan's brother and our realtor (who is also a friend), to sign the papers and close the deal. The property consists of a creek (which we only own half of....), a big field, and some forest. The forest has a neat rock formation with a cliff in it. If you climb to the top of the property, you are up high and also have a view of the national forest. It is secluded to say the least. We learned a few things about the southern part of our state. 1) Everyone keeps tick spray in their cars and if you don't wear it you're just plain dumb 2) Did I say cars? I meant trucks. Everyone drives a truck. 2) People have fun southern nicknames like my new BFF , "Twit" 3) Everyone knows everyone else 4) Street names are more like "hollers" or "bends"... like "go around that bend and go 20 paces beyond that ho...

Yesterday was Jennifer's birthday. So, for our official Birthday Club celebration, the girls and I headed to Symphony on the Prairie to hear the music of Billy Joel performed. The weather was great. The food was great. The company was great. The music was great. We had a great time! For the show, you basically sit in a big throng of people and take picnics. It's fun to look around and see what everyone else brings to eat. I thought we had the best picnic food in case there was a competition. :) Then at night the stage is all lit up... Here's the birthday girl (Jennifer) with Mindy & Lisa.. Here's the whole gang (Lisa, Mel, Jennifer, Mindy): Here's Mel and me (pic courtesy of Mel).... check out that man's big ole' bag of kettle corn behind us. They sold it there and it smelled delicious. Mindy made Jennifer a delicious homemade keylime pie... with a piece missing from her husband!.. We packed some great picnic food. I made Sweet and Spicy P...

Kennedy turned 7 months old today! She is so sweet and easy-going. She is eating some table foods now and she likes strips of toast the best. She has no teeth yet. But, she'll put any food in her mouth and has tasted pickles, tator tots, green beans, various fruits, crackers, baked chicken, and more. She likes to roll a lot and will roll across the room in no time at all. She can also army crawl. She just sort of moves her arms and then pulls the rest of her body along with her arms. I'm sure she'll be crawling soon! She's getting much harder to catch with my camera. The minute I lay her down she starts rolling! But, here are a few snapshots at 7 months! Happy 7 months, Kennedy!!!

Every summer, my grandpa grows zucchini for me in his garden. The trade-off? I have to make him zucchini bread. Now, if you know anything about growing zucchini... you can't just grow one. You have to grow millions. I received my first 3 zucchini (or is the plural zucchinis?) this week from Grandpa's garden. I should mention that he lets them grow until they are ginormous . Here are 2 of the 3 (I already grated the other one). After grating just one of these, I had probably 6+ cups of grated zucchini. That's a lot. I used the food processor to grate them, with Keegan's help. Here's what it looks like grated: I've had a lot of people ask me for my bread recipe, so here it is for the world. ZUCCHINI BREAD Step one: Mix together in a big bowl: 3 eggs, 2 c shredded zucchini (w/ peel on), 2 c sugar, 1 c oil, 1 tsp vanilla. Step two: Mix together in a separate bowl: 3 c flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp baking powder, 3 tsp cinnamon St...

Nathan & I had the opportunity to go on a real, actual date on Saturday night. We don't go out very often without the kids so this was a pretty big deal. Nathan's brother, Jason, and his wife, Margaret, babysat. They survived quite well! We decided to go downtown and have dinner and walk around or something. We got there and it soon got more and more crowded and the traffic became worse and worse. Then we realized that we were starting to really stand out in the crowd. Then it hit us.... it's Black Expo . We decided just to eat dinner and then get out of the throng of people and traffic asap. We ate at Palamino which is a favorite of ours. We had an appetizer of pizza crisps that we topped with fresh roasted garlic, cambozola cheese, tomato chutney, and marinated olives. A bit more fancy than our usual fair food. Then Nathan got the prime rib ("Prime rib of beef, slowly roasted under a mountain of rock salt that forms a cast resulting in tender,...

One more donut, one more donut, one more donut . Those were the words we chanted as we journeyed back to the county fair one last time before they closed last night. This time we took our in-laws too. We started off in the 4-H building where Nathan had a coney dog . I got corn at the nearby Lion's Club booth. Yum. Then we ate free popcorn (Keegan's favorite). Then we had donuts . Keegan even ate some donut which was a big deal that he was willing to eat some fair food. I really wanted a sassparilla float too but they make their own ice cream and it wasn't ready yet. So, we opted for the chocolate shakes in the dairy barn instead. I should mention that we had on shorts and t-shirts and I about froze. I have never been to a fair in the midwest... in July.... where it was COLD. It was windy and in the 60's when we left, plus I was drinking a cold milkshake. :) I won't complain but next time I know to dress warmer. Here are some photos. Kennedy enjoying t...

You all know that one of my weaknesses is 'limited edition' foods. My other weakness is Pop Tarts, especially new flavors. Well, today I saw BLUEBERRY MUFFIN flavored Pop Tarts. You know I had to have them. Keegan really liked them, and it's a good way to lead him up to eating actual blueberry muffins someday. I was surprised that they really did taste like muffins; I'm not sure how they got that muffin flavor into the Pop-Tart. They are a lot like regular blueberry Pop Tarts but not as sweet which I appreciated. Anyway, I'd buy them again! So, try them out if you are also a Pop Tart lover!

Awhile back I bought Kennedy a tutu . Now, I'm not the kind of mom that does the whole ballerina/princess tutu bit . I'm not that girly myself so I prefer a more edgy look. So, here she is today.... rocker chick style. Born to be wild!!! I managed to get Keegan to hold still just barely long enough for a few shots of him too. He's getting hard to catch these days. Here he is, bright white socks and all. Enjoy!