First Day of School

The girls woke up so early the first day, so we were ready with plenty of time to take pictures. They wanted to wear matching outfits that I had picked up for a photoshoot that never happened this summer... so...

A very boring post

Sorry, I know you all are waiting breathlessly for a travelogue of our mediterranean cruise, but this is not that post!

Since I got home, I have been on a rampage to get my house cleaned and organized the way I have always wanted it. I have completed the living room (well, except for the rock that needs to be put up around the fireplace and a couple pieces of furniture I want to pick up). Today, I finished the visible parts of the kitchen (the invisible parts, ie. inside the cupboards, will wait). Earlier this week, I made significant progress on the girls' rooms.

We are still awaiting the installation of carpet in our master bedroom, my office, the stairs, and all of the downstairs. But the wood floor is finished. Other than the fact that I now have a very visible reminder of exactly how much dirt and hair must have been laid down in my carpets (ick!) I love the new floors. The dogs drive me crazy, but haven't scratched them up too badly yet. And I'm getting the hang of cleaning them (much more often than I ever vacuumed my carpets... again ick!).

My biggest projects remaining are now the pantry, several shelves of which I have tackled, but they seem to have reverted already; the back hallway, which actually shouldn't be too hard now that the puppy doesn't chew everything he can find (only half the things); my office; and my long-desired and never obtained craft room.

One of the things I loved about this house when we bought it was the craft room, but it has always been the repository for unpacked boxes, tubs of outgrown clothes, and other flotsam and jetsam that I never seem to get to.

It seems that the girls will be going to full-time school this year starting now instead of in January as we had planned, so I am hopeful that all that extra time (50+ hours a month) will be utilized for fitness, cleaning/maintenance, work, and digging out some of these big projects like the craft room.

Anyway, like I said, a very boring post. But it is exciting for me. As I near 40 years of age and dig out from under life with three little kids, it is exhilirating to me to see my living room free of kid stuff and other detritus... to see my master bedroom a tidy place of calm and serenity... to enjoy my master bathroom instead of dreading the sight of it. Amazing what a difference in my quality of life when I have time to get things cleared away and organized and clean.

P.S. We did take a few pictures on our cruise, though not very many, and I will get them organized and put into a post soon. They are uploaded and on the external HD so there is hope!

Karen's Chicken Crock Pot Vindaloo

I'm trying a new recipe today. My friend Karen posted this recipe on her Facebook page a while back, and it sounded so good I just had to try it.

It's 9:30 a.m. and I have it all in the crock pot... I just love knowing what's for dinner tonight!

Recipe: Crock Pot Chicken Vindaloo

Ingredients:
3 T vinegar
3 garlic cloves, minced (I add more)
1 1/2 T fresh ginger (I sometimes use powdered)
3/4 T curry powder
1 T ground cumin
1/4 t ground cardamom
1/4 t ground cloves
1/4 t ground hot pepper (optional, I don't use it)
1 T whole mustard seeds
1-2 T olive oil
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 cinnamon stick (break it in half for best flavor)
1 small onion, chopped
1 med. zucchini, sliced
salt to taste
3 boneless chicken breast halves, quartered
2 T fresh parsley, chopped

Directions:
1. Puree first 10 ingredients in a blender and pour into crock pot.
2. Add tomato sauce, cinnamon stick, onion, zucchini and salt and mix well.
3. Add chicken and turn to cover.
4. Cook on low for 5 hours.
5. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve with rice.

Serves: 3

A new mountain bike ride.

Truth be told, I have gotten just a tiny titch bored of some of the "old familiar" rides around here. So when Daddy-J suggested that I take some time this morning to go on a ride, I was a little "eh." But I called up my friend Kerry and we decided to go try the trails at The Canyons (also Daddy-J's suggestion).

We rode the Flight of the Canyons gondola up to Red Pine Lodge, then took the Mid-Mountain trail from Red Pine out to Ambush. Then we headed down Ambush, cut across to Holly's and finished up a nice two-hour ride back at the Grand Summit.

It was a stunningly beautiful day for a ride... felt like fall at only 60-some degrees. The wildflowers were still out and beautiful and everything was so green. There were enough challenges in the trail to make it interesting without it being killer.

What a nice way to spend a Sunday morning. Thank you Daddy-J!

Real Salt Lake: 1. Seattle Sounders: 0.

We took Miss D, Aunt Nina, Uncle David, and Cousin Austin to the Real Salt Lake game tonight (thank you KUTV). We had mid-field seats about 10 rows up -- awesome! I have never watched a Major League Soccer game (or any real professional soccer game, for that matter) even on TV. So this was quite a treat!



The game was fun to watch. The crowd was really into it. The refs were terrible -- no really, they were bad. The weather, which I was afraid would be cold (it didn't even reach 60 today in Park City) was actually pretty nice.

I would say everyone in our group had a really nice evening. Sadly, the Smiths are now heading back to Texas and we won't see them again until Christmas. Miss D and her cousin McKinley had a very good time together. And the little girls really enjoyed their cousins too!

16 people at my house!

We had such a fun Friday night/Saturday morning at Casa Llamedos! My sister and her family (6 people in all) and our friends from Steamboat (5 more people) plus my family (5 people) makes 16 for dinner Friday night and breakfast Saturday morning!

It was a fun group! Daddy-J grilled burgers for dinner and they were G.O.N.E! Then Tony made french toast for breakfast, and we killed 2 whole loaves of bread. And that's not including the yogurt, melon, blueberries, and bananas we ate as well.

But the real fun was just having all of us together. Melissa, the oldest girl, was quite the mother hen with the little girls. All the kids had fun with the Wii, and the pool table and ping pong table got quite a workout.

We weren't able to do the outdoor movie because a very wet and windy cold front moved through yesterday. But the big boys did watch something out in the garage until the wee hours of the morning.

Sadly, it's just a short visit for everyone, as they're all packing to leave as I type this.

Thanks everyone for a fun visit!

Saltimbanco -- Cirque du Soleil

Daddy-J and I went to see Saltimbanco -- Cirque du Soleil last night. What a fabulous show! We were invited to come early and have a really yummy tapas-style dinner in the Centennial Room at the E Center beforehand. Then we had seats in one of the suites. It was a really fun evening and the show was amazing. I highly recommend it!

Wood Floors, Day 2.

Day 2 began with a very cheery installer agreeing that the one mistakenly installed piece of sample wood floor definitely had to come out because it didn't quite match the rest of the box. Daddy-J and I worried about that one a bit last night, but decided it definitely had to come out, and the installer instantly agreed when we pointed it out to him.

Great progress was made today, with the room being about half done, and all of the tricky bits being done. There should be no problem finishing up tomorrow.

I finally found the charger for my camera battery, so I can get some "after" photos tomorrow! Trust me, though, it looks great.

Wood Floors, Day 1.

The wood floor installers arrived today to begin the installation of a beautiful 5" hand-scraped hickory wood floor in our great room. I am uber excited to see the green berber carpet go bye bye!

It should be finished by Friday (should be!). It is the first really major cosmetic step of our "flood" remodel.

Carpet is ordered and should be installed by end of August (hopefully?!).

It's looking like it will be nice! I know, I know, pictures. I'm working on it.

Upcoming travel.

Daddy-J and I are going on a fancy-schmancy cruise. And when I say fancy-schmancy, I mean REALLY fancy-schmancy... SIX star (who knew there was such a thing?). The cruise line is called Silversea. You can check it out here.

We're headed off on an 8-day western mediterranean cruise, leaving Monte Carlo and arriving in Barcelona, with stops in Sardinia, southern France, and Majorca/Minorca. I cannot even tell you how much I am looking forward to this!

In true Casa Llamedos style, of course, I have done a little shopping for the trip. Daddy-J needed some non-schlubby-American clothes. I refuse to go on this trip and have him wear tatty shorts and yucky t-shirts. So I got him some lovely plaid bermuda shorts and nice collared shirts to go with. He pretty much hates them, but he looks SOOOOOOO good! Ask my sister... she saw him when we went out to dinner the other night, and he was looking awesome!

There are also two formal nights on the cruise. Daddy-J does not own any formal wear. So we discussed the options (he wanted to hide in the room!) and decided that he would like to have a sharp, white dinner jacket. So that's what I got him. I hope it fits... I ordered online, as usual. Got a white dinner jacket, tux shirt, and black bow tie (and no, I didn't get the kind you have to tie yourself... neither of us could manage that!). I even bought him a little present of black onyx studs, square ones, set in silver, so he wouldn't look like he rented the usual tux and had those awful plastic studs!

I can't wait for it all to arrive so he can try it on. Aside from what I know will be the miserable look on his face, he is going to look so sharp!

It's like playing dressup with a real-live boy doll! I love my boy doll! LOL! I promise I will post pictures when the time comes.

Is this thing on? *tap* *tap*

I'm sure anyone who's out there (is there anyone out there?) has noticed I haven't blogged much lately. Hello? Two posts in July. What's up with that?

Well, it has been a great summer. Busy, but not so busy that I couldn't have posted. I just kinda got writer's block, I guess.

The kids and I have enjoyed a very unscheduled summer, with no set activities, just kinda going with the flow. I have had the summer off work for the most part, which has been nice.

We are in the midst of slowly putting the house back together after our flood in April. And I have made some progress on my decluttering, though never as much as I'd like!

My quest for the latter half of the year is to get this house in order and set up my version of "routines" so that I don't wind up feeling so darned overwhelmed all the time at all there is to do to upkeep this household. Mainly I am paring down our "stuff" that seems to be everywhere. A room at a time, a closet at a time, a space at a time, a corner at a time, a shelf at a time. Less stuff means more peace for me. More peace for me means more time to spend just doing stuff with my kids, which, I have learned this summer, is what I want to be doing.

I have always been intimidated by the idea of homeschooling, and I don't think I want to be a full-time homeschooler, at least not for my kids' whole school careers. But this summer has shown me that we can, in fact, live life together for the most part and not drive me insane! We are doing more and more to work together to run the household, which believe it or not is helping! And we manage to find something every day to look up on the 'net or in a book because we don't know what it is or how it works. We have the most interesting discussions. This, to me, is what learning is all about, and I'm loving it.

I have always wanted to take a year or two and travel around with the kids, maybe in an RV, maybe overseas, and the schooling aspect and the 24/7 togetherness of it has always been a little scary to me. But I have learned this summer that it would be ok if we were all together pretty much all the time. And that's a good thing for me to learn.