Moon

In July on a particularly warm and calm night we decided to go as a family for a walk. We looked up in the sky and saw what a perfect moon we had straight out from our staircase. When we got back from our walk D went and grabbed our camera and long zoom. He and I went outside, played with our settings a bit and got these great shots of the moon. So peaceful. Hope you enjoy them!

Tree in front

The Yellow Knight was ROBBED!

Ok so this post is LOOOOONG overdue! I am so sorry! August was a super crazy month so I am attempting to catch up on my photo edits and blog posts. Especially before we head to MA and we take a billion photos there.

We did another check off our bucket list with our dear friends Mr. and Mrs. A in July for their birthdays. You see they are only 3 days apart and usually celebrate together, at least with their friends. We made the trek into Buena Park to go a see the Medieval Times show. Now D and I have each been to MT separately so it was fun to go together. We did all the touristy stuff (take the $20 photo with the "Princess" that of course we didn't buy) and we went to the bar and each got the giant glass of beer with the souvenir beer stein. Then we met up with the rest of the group and were seated in our section....YELLOW! We took our couples photo's while we were sitting, and waiting for the show to start.

Mine and D's chairs of course!

Mr. and Mrs. A (A)

Mr. and Mrs. A (B)

Beer!

Once the house lights went off and the show began the crowd went crazy. I mean the louder you were the more the knight responded! So of course we were banging our mugs and plates and people were waving their favors anytime our knight raised his flag. When the games started everything was so fun. Despite our server spilling food on me three times, we enjoyed watching the games, cheering on our knight and eating food with our hands! Once the knights finished the games it was jousting time. After the first two knights went it was timefor our yellow night to go. He fought valiantly against the red knight and despite being injured in battle. As soon as he was finished the blue knight decided to take advantage of our injured knight and challenged him to a joust. Knowing that he was injured we cheered him on hard. But alas, the blue knight was successful in his endeavour to overcome the yellow knight (this is all fake and acting to those who have never been.) The blue knight ended up winning the maiden and the tournament. We booed and hissed, but it was all in good fun. The black and white knight had a massive cheering section and it was a hard task to keep up with them. All in all it was a great night and we celebrated our friends birthday in style! Can't wait for the next one!

Desserts and Cleaning go together right? - Pinterest Review

So I tried a couple of things this past week that were all the rage on Pinterest within the past couple of months. I figured I would do a little review post instead of a separate post for each item.

Banana Ice Cream
D had a hankering for dessert but neither of us wanted to go out and get something. So I took to my dessert board and remembered this recipe from Use Real Butter. We already had frozen banana's, peanut butter, but we didn't have cocoa powder. I could have cheated and used Hot Chocolate mix, but I thought it was weird. So I substituted it with chocolate chips and some frozen strawberries. I don't have a food processor so it was a slow go dessert with the not so good blender. Once done it was a little runny so I popped it in the freezer to solidify it a bit.
Verdict: D liked it, I was kind of eh about it. I think it needed the cocoa powder cause there was just too much banana taste for my liking.

Source

Oreo and Peanut Butter Brownie Cakes
I made these for my father-in-laws birthday this past Sunday. Everyone is a brownie and Oreo fan (I am meh about Ores, but if I need a chocolate fix they work.) If you want to head on over to Instructables to find the recipe. These are fairly easy to make and bake. I bought 2 packs of Oreo's not realizing that there are more than 24 cookies in the package, and some extra peanut butter. (we can always use peanut butter in my house) I considered making the brownies low fat, but who are we kidding here. We are slathering Oreos (chocolate cookie with LARD) with peanut butter and baking them in more chocolate and lard (vegetable oil)! This calls for full force brownie.

Verdict: 3 ingredients, and 30 minutes. Super easy to make! Really all you need is a cupcake pan. I did use liners in my cupcake pan, but you don't have to. Taste....I was skeptical about them, because of the oreo, but they were really tasty. Maybe a little rich, but none-the-less yummy!

Miracle Laundry Whitening Solution
Ok the recipe for this is from One Good Thing by Jillee. There were a couple of oopsies that I did. I did not have any powder dish washing detergent. I only had the tabs. So I substituted with extra borax. Then I assumed (because every other washing machine that I have used does this) that leaving the lid open on my machine would turn it off so that the solution could soak into my comforter. Well, as I am cleaning my bathroom I hear it start to drain! Gah! So I close the lid and just let the cycle finish.
Verdict: It did a really good job cleaning it. I can only imagine how it would look it would have soaked! Next time I will try again and soak it!

There you go. Some good reviews and some iffy reviews. Have you tried anything on Pinterest

The World is an Anthill

The first thing that came to my mind when I made the post title is this Smashing Pumpkins song, replacing vampire with anthill. Anyways.....my world has turned into a GIANT anthill! I am going nutso over here! It all started the week before we went to the lake. Well let me back up.....it started about 5 years ago when I started to working with the company I work for. Every summer we get an ant raid. This means no food in the trash, no food in your desk, no food in the refrigerator. Seriously we had to clean out our fridge, microwave, and Arrowhead cooler every summer! It sucked and I felt itchy ALWAYS! The owner saw a trick....pour baby powder around the water cooler and the ants will stay away. We did that and we have been sans ants for 2 summers! YES! This year they are back, but just in the main bathroom! Buggers (no pun intended) just wont GO AWAY! They are looking for water I know!

So the week before we left for the lake, D left a bowl of food out on our balcony for our pup (Mon). Well she didn't get to eat it, cause those little bastards made their way up two flights and attacked the hell out of it. So my friend Mr. Raid came in. I love raid, however I hate that I have to clean the area after it, because its so toxic. So I used up the rest and sprayed ALL THE WAY down the trail. The next morning (Tue) there was a trail of ants around the coffee maker...so I tried to use up whatever was leftover in that raid container and made a note to get more bug spray on my way home. (Wed) I come home from work and start to pack for the lake. I get hungry and go to look for a snack. Damn things have SWARMED our pantry!!!!!!!!! So I have to pull apart the entire pantry....trash everything that they got into, including pups food (what they were really after) and scour it. Then put everything away and pack for our trip. Not something that was really very fun! Especially when the fumes of the "organic" bug spray that you bought from Target smells like Bengay and you have a gianormous headache!  The smell lasts all night and through the next morning.

We were gone Thur, Fri, Sat, Sun and we returned Mon around 10PM. We get home dump our stuff and go to get a drink. Open the refrigerator and they are in our fridge and FREEZER! I look defeated. I say to D "Your turn!" and go and unpack the suitcases. The good thing about the organic spray is that its non-toxic....bad thing IT DOESN'T LAST! Cause come Sunday morning those bastards were back in my freezer! I pulled out the fridge, pulled everything out of the cabinets and discovered that they are coming from above the cabinets, down inside them and making their little ant trail around the edge of the freezer door and inside. Once inside the freezer they die of course...freeze to death. I had enough! I called our leasing office to ask them what we can do. They sent an exterminator out to "spray" our apartment. This was last Wednesday. I bought ant traps and sprayed my organic spray again (have gone through the entire can in under 2 weeks!) No inkling of ants for 3 days. I am a happy camper. I wake on Sunday, go into the bathroom and boom....invasion from our sink overflow! >/ Looks like they didn't do a thorough job. Back out they will come! Save me from the ant invasion before I got nuts!!

Feeling a little Deja Vu

Here's the final part to our vacation at the lake.

After the adventurous previous day, I awoke lying in bed with my left knee completely throbbing and unable to bend or straighten it completely. I felt completely useless as I limped out to the backyard to ask JP if he had any Advil. He said that it was in the truck. So I went and got the keys, hobbled my way out to the truck and popped a couple of those bad boys. I went back inside and placed the keys right where I found them. (KEY POINT IN STORY) We proceeded with the morning and JP's uncle made the statement "You know how good a vacation it was by how in pain you are after!" Ain't that the truth! We packed up all our stuff to make way for another fun filled day on the water. Ricky (JP's other uncle) blew up the tube and D and I took the first ride. He wasn't going fast, but bouncing up and down while laying on my stomach and feeling like I was folded in half backwards, made me feel even older than I already did. After cruising around and a break for lunch JP decided that he wanted to wakeboard.  After a couple of runs and a hard fall it was D's turn to kneeboard. He had a good couple of runs and I got good shots of both of them. I did not want to kneeboard because my knee was STILL throbbing at that point.

At one point while we were cruising around, we caught up to one of the other boats. The kids were on the buzz bomb. We saw the boat take a hard right turn and all of a sudden there was an explosion of feet, arms, and kids being tossed into the water. I wish I had that on film. It was a great shot, but it looked painful! We made our way back to the beach where they tied the three tubes to one boat and all the kids and most of the adults decided to go for a ride, including D. They were gone for a while having a blast jumping from tube to tube. I stayed behind to sunbathe and relax my poor old body. When everybody had a sufficient amount of water and sun we headed back up to the house for dinner. I went inside to help the ladies prepare and while inside JP comes walking past stating that he cannot find the truck keys. I told him that I put them back where I found them and he reassured me that he was the last one to have them. Apparently he had tucked the keys in his bathing suit as he was trekking back and forth through the dirt the 1/2 mile back and forth from the boat. D walked in moments later with a panicked look on his face telling me the news, that I already knew. I went in our room and tore it apart, then in came D and he tore it apart. JP came in and told us that he did the same thing. D and JP then proceeded to take the cart down and scour the trail looking for the keys. When they returned empty handed I asked them if they looked on the boat. The both replied no. So we ate dinner and made a plan to walk down again. Reed provided JP with a metal detector and we made the walk down scouring for the keys. The detector beeped only one time. We dug for a minute or two only to come up with more dirt. When we arrived at the boat I hopped on and went straight to the compartment where we were storing our stuff. I opened the seat and sitting right on top were the keys. I want to know why people don't listen to me! Crises averted!

The rest of the night was spent playing Catchphrase with D and I becoming the winners! We went almost the whole time with no points until someone pointed out that we didn't have any points! Then people decided to sabotage us! We still won though! Pat on back! We talked, and made many new memories.

JP Jumping!

D on the kneeboard

Whoops! Trying the 360

Carrie with the "Antlers"

Monday was a sad day because it was time to go home. We awoke early to clean our room, change our sheets and pack our stuff so that we could enjoy what was left of the lake for the day. Of course it was the last day for the buzz bomb and D wanted to ride it one last time. So he took off while JP and I waited for the rest of the clan. Once we all caught up with the other boat, D was just floating in the water. Enjoying life, but he wanted to kneeboard. The lake was like glass! It was perfect! Probably because everyone was heading home! He got a couple of runs in and then it was my turn to attempt to wakeboard. The boat had a tower which made it SO much easier to get pulled up and out instead of dragging you through the water. I got almost completely out of the water, but when I looked down to see the board completely submerged I panicked. I didn't want to face plant! So I just let go. I was SO CLOSE! Next time for sure I am getting up! D wanted to go again, so Ricky filled the engines on his Wakester and created this great wake for D to do tricks with. He didn't attempt a 360 because the day before he ate it (see photo above) but he did do some really good jumps from out of the wake. Of course I missed getting a photo of his good jump. Bad photographer! We had such a blast and just relaxed. Despite all the stressful things that happened we laughed a ton and met wonderful new people!

More Buzz bomb!

Up up and away!

The Menopause Movement

Here's part 2 of our epic lake vacation. Well not really epic, but highly entertaining. This is a long post, but there are some fun photos! The entire house awoke on Saturday morning buzzing with excitement for the weekend ahead. We were particularly excited because it was our five year anniversary, and we were excited to make memories. We packed up our stuff and made our way down to the boats, which were all beached. No need to launch everyday, it was so nice to just walk down and sunbathe while we waited for the rest of the clan. We ate lunch, told stories....talked about Pinterest!? and then we all piled in and took off. One boat had a GIANT pull tube called the buzz bomb. The kids jumped onto that and I clicked away from the other boat. Love our long zoom! We took a trip around the lake and then pulled into "The Cove." This essentially is where all the 'young-ins' come to tie off their boats, drink and dance in their itty bitty teeny bikini's. This time, due to the fact that the lake was so low, we were very limited on space. What was once a cove that you could drive through, was about 1/4 of the size. We anchored and tied off to our other 2 boats. We jumped in the water and just people watched and sunbathed for several hours.

When we got bored with the antics of the other boats we decided that it was time to leave and try some water sports. D wanted to use his kneeboard. He got set to go and I glanced over at the other boat. All the ladies decided to go onto the buzz bomb. I had the camera out to take photo's of D and while we were looking for the flag, I hear "Diane what are you chicken? Get on that tube with them!" I look up and I am being flagged over. I said that I would go, handed the flag over to JP, put away the camera and jumped into the water to join the ladies. I get onto the tube and get situated on the front of the tube. I had to sit on my feet and I felt like this was going to be a bad idea. The lake was a little rough as we started to get pulled. Sharon grabbed me and said "you know that your on 'The Menopause Movement' right now. Bailey coined it as that" I turned and said..."well I don't really fit into that category." I didn't mind though. These are great ladies and I like being with them. I heard many interesting statements from behind me and all of a sudden, in a turn, we lost Marilyn. She fell off the back and somehow we lost Sharon too. I was focused on my throbbing knees that I missed the entire event. We turned back to get them and did a seating shift. We all laughed and had a great time. Once we got started again, I think the driver was trying to toss us off because it got rougher the longer we rode....at least for my poor knees. We eventually lost Kory and Sharon again! They laughed so hard and my knees had enough. I decided time to exit the tube and sit on the boat for the remainder of the ride back.

Once back on solid ground we all trekked back to the house to get cleaned up. We were going to have some dinner, and then make our way over to the Lumberyard for some beer and live music. Meanwhile, we were waiting for dinner to be done JP decided that it would be a good time to go shoot some rounds into the hillside. The three of us piled into the cart and drove to find the perfect spot to set up our targets....empty soda cans. JP took the first round and decided that we needed hearing protection. While he went off to get some headphones I took some photos around the area. Once back D got off a clip, when he was finished and it was my turn we heard a neighbor shouting down to us to stop because we will start a fire. The likelihood of starting a fire with a bullet was very slim, but we didn't want people to yell at us so we decided to pack it up and go back to the house. I told the boys that they were lucky that I didn't have an opportunity to shoot, because I would have shown them up. Haha. I used to be a really good shot, and neither of them hit a can. Just a little practice is all that's needed.

Once we ate, we all packed into the trucks to head to the Lumberyard. It was pretty full with people listening to the band and drinking their wine or pitchers of beer. We found some hay bales to park our group and then moseyed inside to get some drinks. Sharon and Dean bought pitchers for the whole group and one for us for our anniversary. It was really nice of them to acknowledge us that way! D and I drank our beer and danced with the crowd to the music. The band wasn't the greatest, but it was still really a fun time. I did find out the distaste one of our group members had for the song "We Are Family," but that didn't deter me from dancing with the love of my life to it. We had such a great day and a wonderful anniversary!

Adventures of DDJ otherwise known as "This is an Insane Asylum!"

We are back from our relaxing yet eventful trip to the lake. So eventful that I am going to have to post this in parts.

Day 0 - Otherwise known as the adventures of DDJ, started out with D taking the pup over to my in-laws while I finished packing. J was to pick us up at 1030 to get the rental. Once he arrived we headed over to Enterprise and of course had to wait! In the heat and humidity we stood, chatting about what we plan to do and all the fun things in store. While waiting their I discovered that I will not be using a specific car repair shop in our valley due to the high attitude that he expressed to us in the short 20 minutes we were their. None-the-less....we got the rental and headed to finish our errands. Stocking our food for the weekend....what should have only take 20 minutes turned into over an hour because of Walmart.....or the other hell on earth. Why? We stood in line.....at 1pm on a Thursday for over 30 minutes! Redic! We head back to load up, say our goodbyes and hit the road. The drive up was relatively short and uneventful. Once we arrived, with full bladders, to the Lumberyard (a local weekend spot with "World Famous Burgers") we decided to make a pit stop and have dinner. Best freaking burger of my life and it was a big as ye head! We relaxed a bit, got a flyer for the weekend events and then headed up to the house.

Here's where things get a little harried. We pull up to the house....dark with only the full moon and our mag-light to help us find the keys. J is looking everywhere for these keys. He comes back to the truck and says...."Ok, we have a problem. I can't find the keys." He calls his uncle (which is a task in itself trying to find the one area on the whole property that gets cell service) and asks that we stay in his trailer that night because the home owners weren't going to be arriving until late the next day. His uncle, who is already on his way says to him, "Well that's gonna be a problem cause the keys to the trailer are in the house." His uncle says that he's going to give the home owner a call and we sit on baited breath to hear back. J looks at us and says, "Well we might be sleeping on the lawn chairs tonight."

Now I am fine with the sleeping outside thing, but I have never been a good outside bathroom user. I can't even hover. I suck as a girl I know....but I had this feeling that something wasn't right with me and I really needed to have a toilet. BAD! J's uncle calls back to let us know where the key was and finally we were let into the house and I bee-lined it to the potty. My suspicions were confirmed.....U.T.I. Day freaking 0 of our vacation....45 miles from civilization, hardly and cell reception and I have a goddamn U.T.I. I am praying that it's just dehydration so I pound a bottle of water and start on a second while we open up the house, pull out cushions and make sure everything is good with the trailer. 2 hours later, I know that it's not dehydration....full blown U.T.I. symptoms and I am in serious pain. I pop a pain pill and prop up my phone to the window to call my mom to help locate a pharmacy. Hopefully my doc will just fax over a script and I can be on my merry way. We find a Costco and get the numbers and we hit the hay....not before I take another pain pill (those lovely ones that turn things.....yellow) because the first one wasn't cutting it.

I awake the next morning, and immediately call my docs office. I explain my situation and ask if my doc could fax over an antibiotic to the Costco. The receptionist proceeds to tell me that my doc is on vacation.....YAY!!... and that she will leave a message with the on call doctor to see if she will fill the script. I wait an hour on a call back, so I call to see what's going on, because if I have to find an urgent care I wanted to go early. Well she goes to ask the doc if she will fill the script, and because the doc has never seen me before she denies it. Ok, so in the car we go to the most entertaining trip to Urgent Care ever. Once we hit cell service, D looks up the nearest one. We arrive and its a hospital E.R. Um.....I really didn't want to pay E.R. premiums to pee in a cup, so I asked where the closest U.C. was. I was given directions and a hop, skip and a jump block over to the U.C. While I am filling out my paper work, we are listening to a very entertaining woman. She is going on and on with the staff about them needing to hurry up and "what's taking so long?" Apparently she was needing a prescription re-fill. When they asked for her doctors information so that they could verify that the prescription is valid, because nobody ever forges a prescription! HA! She proceeds to become even more irate when they tell her the information. The whole waiting room was silent. Waiting for the explosion...."You people are crazy! I don't know why you need all of my information! THIS IS AN INSANE ASYLUM!" and then proceeds to storm out of the office. As she does a woman sitting next to me exclaims, "I think you need to be in one!" J, who was outside and missed everything inside, comes in and proceeds to tell us how she jumped into a cab screaming "They won't help me here!!!!" Apparently the poor cab driver looked less than pleased and drove away while rolling up his windows. After all is said and done, I get my pills and was on my way to feeling better.

The rest of the day was slightly uneventful...which was good because we had enough events in a 12 hour span. We had dinner at the Lumberyard, went for a sunset cruise (ahem booze cruise!) and then watched the blue moon. I got some photos of the blue moon, but they weren't "blue." Please enjoy the photo's from Day 1, and stay tuned for the other parts! :-)

Sunset Cruise

D relaxing!

Cutie James

J waiting to drive

Not so Blue Moon....but still a cool shot (IMO!)